Roast lamb: perfectly family Easter Sunday lunch

This is hands down my favourite roast dinner. I have so many fond memories: the house filled with the smell of slow roasting meat and garlic, hours of asking "how much longer?" before sitting down as a family to devour it, spilling half of it down my front (inevitable), maybe being allowed a drop of red wine...

A leg of lamb is a great choice for family gatherings on lazy Sundays: it takes only a few minutes to prepare, then you have hours to spend together while it roasts before you need to do the trimmings while it rests - or delegate to some little helpers. My first attempt at cooking this version was in Saundersfoot on the Welsh coast with a bunch of friends; we'd bought a large leg of lamb from the local butchers and I phoned my Mum to get instructions. We played Monopoly while the joint roasted. The blackened bits of paste worried them a little but once they'd tried it they were fighting over the sweet crunchy pieces and it was huge success. 

I highly recommend getting your joint from a butchers where you can discuss exactly what you want and can be assured of the quality of the meat. I'm embarrassed to say that although we live 3 minutes walk from Smithfield's market, I didn't get up early enough to buy direct (and save myself a small fortune) but instead walked 30 minutes further to Quality Chop House on Farringdon Road. On the plus side, QCH also sell my favourite peanut butter, but it did mean walking home with a 2.5 kg leg of lamb on the hottest day of the year so far (it's April so it wasn't that hot, but you get the picture).

Ingredients 

(Serves 6 with leftovers)

1 leg of lamb: 2-2.5kg, bone in, at room temperature 

3 sprigs of rosemary,  leaves picked

3 fat garlic cloves

5 tbsp tomato purée

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Roast dinner "trimmings" to serve

Method

1. Score the skin and fat on the lamb with a sharp knife

2. Crush the rosemary leaves with the garlic in a pestle and mortar, then add the tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce to make a paste

3. Rub the paste all over the joint, squidging into the holes made with the knife

4. Roast at 180C for about 3 hours for a pink-in-the-middle joint (to calculate timings for your joint allow 25mins per 450g plus 25 mins). The paste will go black in places; if it starts smelling burnt cover with foil for the rest of the roasting time.

5. Rest under foil and a tea towel for at least 30 minutes before carving. Scrape the juices from the bottom of the roasting pan to add to the gravy.

Serve with your favourite roast dinner trimmings; for us that's garlic & rosemary roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding(s), obligatory vegetables and red wine gravy. Don't forget to share out the black bits.

Happy Easter!

Chocolate creme eggs: homemade to appropriate size

The Cadbury's brothers first produced filled eggs in 1923, but the Creme Egg in its current form wasn't produced until 1963 and it's only been called a Cadbury's Creme Egg since 1971 - perfect timing for this blog (and credit to chief research assistant Julie Hill for googling that!). And as we all suspected, they are getting smaller: in 1977 a Cadbury's Creme Egg weighed 39 grams; last year they weighed only 34 grams each. So it's not just my hands getting bigger then...

My homemade versions weigh in at a whopping 93 grams and will probably send most children super-hyper on sugar. The other advantage (?) is that you can use really good chocolate; another naughty change by manufacturers was swapping the Cadbury's milk chocolate shell to some cheaper chocolate a couple of years ago. Milk chocolate shells taste most like the original version, although dark chocolate shells are a delicious balance for the sweet fondant filling.

I used a silicon egg mould to make the shells, and I would really recommend this option rather than trying to roll chilled fondant into egg shapes by hand and dipping in molten chocolate.  I got pretty messy using the mould so I can only imagine the carnage without it. This version was £4.99 from Lakeland (oh, if only I was getting product endorsement deals!). They also have mini versions that should work in the same way but might be a bit fiddly. 

For the fondant filling, there are a couple of recipes on the net using corn syrup aimed at US cooks; some suggest replacing that with golden syrup for UK cooks but this results in an off-white filling, not the pure egg white we need. Instead, I tried simply using icing sugar and water, which makes the right texture and consistency but needs jazzing up with added flavours. The closest flavour to an original Creme Egg is vanilla extract, but I've made a few other suggestions at the end of the recipe.

Ingredients

(Makes 3 eggs using the Lakeland mould)

300g good quality chocolate (milk or dark, or a mixture)

200g icing sugar

A few drops of vanilla essence

A few drops of yellow food colouring (I find the gel types work best)

Method

1. Melt the chocolate, either in the microwave for a few seconds or over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool slightly, then spoon into the egg shell moulds, making sure to coat the sides. Chill in the fridge for an hour until set, then repeat to make a thick crunchy shell.

2. Make the filling by mixing the sieved icing sugar with a trickle of cold water to make a thick white paste. Add a few drops of vanilla essence.

3. Pinch off a third of the fondant and add a few drops of yellow food colouring. Mix well and chill in the fridge until the chocolate shells are ready.

4. When they're completely set, pop the chocolate shells out of the moulds. Add white fondant to a pair of halves until about almost full. Roll a small lump of yellow fondant into a ball and push into the middle of one half egg.

5. Brush the edges of one half shell with molten chocolate, add the other half and squidge together to fuse the two halves into a complete egg. Chill until ready to eat.

Enjoy as you would a normal Cadbury's Creme Egg, i.e. whenever you feel like it between now and Easter Sunday. You might need to phone a friend to help get through whole one...

As promised, here are a few variations for flavourings and fillings: 

- Add 2 drops of rose water to the white fondant instead of vanilla

- Add orange essence or finely grated orange zest to the yellow fondant for a chocolate orange vibe

- Add a mini egg to the middle of the yolk for an extra surprise

- Fill the whole egg with mini eggs or other bite sized sweets (they're big enough!) for anyone that finds the fondant a bit too sickly sweet.

Happy Easter!

Chocolate orange hot cross buns

The first reference to hot cross buns in the Oxford English dictionary dates back to 1733, but they've been around in various forms for much longer.  Carbonised buns with crosses were found by archeologists in the Roman city of Herculaneum, and the Saxons slashed crosses in buns to honour Eostre, their goddess of spring and fertility.  In any case, I think we can all agree that hot cross buns were being baked up and down the country for Easter in the 1970s...

However, this is not a recipe for purists. As much as I enjoy a traditional spicy hot cross bun, the Bearded Argentinian is averse to dried fruit in any form, and there's only so many baked goods I can get through on my own. These creations, adapted from Paul Hollywood's brioche loaf recipe in Bread, are really hot cross buns in disguise with satsuma zest for the candied peel and chunks of chocolate masquerading as raisins.

The final buns *look* like the real deal but taste even better! The rich brioche dough is delicious with the sweetness of the satsumas and the bitterness of the chocolate. Enjoy warm with a pot of tea and a little butter for an afternoon treat. They also make a great breakfast option, not unlike a pain au chocolat.

Ingredients

(Makes 8 buns)

250g strong white bread flour

3g salt

30g caster sugar

1 tsp fast action dried yeast

80ml full fat milk

2 eggs

2 satsumas

130g unsalted butter 

100g dark chocolate

Bring all the ingredients to room temperature before you start.

For the crosses and glaze:

30g shortcrust pastry

1 egg

 

Method

1. Mix together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. Add the eggs and milk, the zest of the satsumas and squeeze in the juice of one. Mix gently to combine.

2. If you have a mixer with a dough hook, mix on medium speed for 5 minutes, otherwise knead by hand for a little longer. Then add the butter bit by bit until the dough becomes elastic and shiny.

3. Chop the chocolate into chips and mix gently into the dough.

4. Place the dough in an oiled bowl; cover and chill in the fridge overnight.

5. The following day, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, roll into a sausage, cut into 8 equal sized pieces and shape into balls.

6. Arrange on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to prove at room temperature for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

7. Heat the oven to 200C. Prepare the crosses by rolling out the pastry to 3mm thick and cutting into thin strips (about 5mm wide). Carefully place the pastry strips on the buns without knocking the air out, then glaze the buns with beaten egg.

8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until dark golden brown.

Happy Easter!
And if it's not Easter, squidge the buns into a loaf tin before proving and bake a brioche tear 'n' share loaf :)

Everyday Kiev: a healthier take on the Russian classic

Chicken Kiev is one of those dishes that is so delicious, I have specific memories of occasions when I've enjoyed a really good one. Top of the list is the giant kiev I had at the Lion Inn on the highest point of the North York Moors when I took the Bearded Argentinian on a tour of my favourite places a few years ago. At the opposite end of the spectrum, in so many ways, are the mini kievs we had growing up: a frozen pack of ping pong-sized balls of reformed chicken and mildly garlicky butter and a very high proportion of disappointingly hollow ones.

Chicken Kiev is undoubtedly a classic of the 1970s - for a properly researched history of the Kiev, I strongly recommend Felicity Cloake's Perfect Chicken Kiev article - but recipes for it are scarce in my current collection of cookbooks (must need more books!). The only reference I could find is in the Russian chapter in Woman's Own Cook Book from 1964. Their recipe for "Chicken Kieff" (clever disguise) uses butter with mushrooms instead of garlic, which seems to defeat the object altogether.

These days we are lucky enough to live within sniffing distance of 70s-themed diner Coin Laundry on Exmouth Market, who do a very fine version complete with mini paper chef's hat and branded chewing gum, so I can get my fix as often as I please. But classic kievs are not known for their health stats, so with a little help from Jamie, I've made this version more suitable for everyday, using cream cheese instead of butter and oven baking instead of deep fat frying. The added advantage of the cream cheese is that it doesn't melt as much as butter so there is less leakage during cooking.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

50g cream cheese

2 cloves garlic, crushed 

30g parmesan
Handful fresh parsley
1 lemon (zest and a small squeeze of juice)

2 large chicken breasts
50g plain flour
1 large egg, beaten
1 slice bread (about 50g), blitzed to breadcrumbs
1 tbsp olive oil

NB No need to home bake an entire sourdough loaf just for one slice of breadcrumbs...

Method

1. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, garlic, 5g of the parmesan, parsley and the lemon zest and juice to make the filling. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Use a sharp knife to cut a pocket in the fattest part of the chicken breast; move the knife around to get as deep as possible. 

3. Add half the filling to each chicken breast and seal the join by pressing the edges firmly together.

4. Put the flour, egg and breadcrumbs in separate shallow bowls, and add the olive oil and remaining parmesan to the breadcrumbs. Coat each breast in flour, followed by egg and then breadcrumbs, shaking off any excess between coats and making sure they are completely and evenly covered.

4. Place on a baking tray and cook in a preheated oven at 200C for 30 minutes until golden brown and the chicken is cooked through.

Enjoy piping hot from the oven with chips or wedges and green vegetables. I'll admit they don't have the squirting garlic butter fear factor, but they are generously filled and the lighter stuffing should be garlicky enough to ward off any vampires.

Swedish lamb with coffee sauce

Apparently it's spring, although as usual the weather has failed to notice. As I write, the rain falls persistently, and as much as I love gazing at the Barbican in the rain, I'm really looking forward to some sunshine. This delicious and slightly unusual stew is perfect for days like these: light enough for post-winter fare but comforting when the weather is refusing to play ball.

This week's recipe is extra special as it's not only from a 1973 cookbook, but was cooked right here in the Barbican for a dinner with friends in November 1984. The recipe is from Robert Carrier's Cooking for You, owned and treasured by a long term Brendon Mews resident and prolific cook.

For more stories about my hunt for vintage recipe books, see my column in this month's Barbican Life magazine (available here soon: http://www.barbicanlifeonline.com/barbican-life-magazine/magazine-issues/, updates via the Facebook page: http://bit.ly/2k0ICuL)

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1kg lamb shoulder or neck

2 tbsp butter/olive oil

1 onion finely chopped

2 large carrots, thickly sliced

1 tsp sugar

150ml freshly brewed coffee

250ml beef stock

6 tbsp double cream

Method

1. Chop the lamb in 4cm chunks, removing any fat or gristle.

2. In a large casserole, fry the onion in the butter or olive oil until soft; remove from the pan and set aside.

3. Fry the lamb in the same fat until golden brown all over.

4. Return the onions to the pan and add the carrots. Season, sprinkle with sugar and caramelise over a moderate heat for 5 minutes.

5. Stir in the coffee, stock and cream; cover and simmer on a low heat for 1 1/2 hours, stirring regularly.

6. Remove the lamb and carrots from the casserole with a slotted spoon; turn the heat up and reduce the sauce by half.

7. Pour the sauce over the meat and carrots and serve with creamed potatoes, green vegetables and a punchy red wine. 

The lamb ends up really tender, the sweetness of the carrots perfectly balanced by the smoky coffee. We certainly won't be waiting another 33 years to cook this dish again!

The original macaroon: craggy, lumpy and coconutty

When the trend for french patisserie-style macaroons appeared a few years ago, I was very confused. These delicate little biscuits bear absolutely no resemblance to the macaroons I remembered from childhood: craggy lumps of super sweet goo covered in desiccated coconut, with a drizzle of chocolate and a glacé cherry. And 1970s macaroons are incredibly easy to make, which judging by all the classes on how to make the new-fangled version, makes them the polar opposite of each other.

I used a recipe from my 1977 St Michael All Colour Cookbook, which describes coconut macaroons as "soft and sugary, and children adore them". Kids also love making them. The internet offered some alternatives using condensed milk instead of eggs and sugar, but I can't be trusted near an open can of condensed milk (it's so more-ish!) so I went with the egg version. 

Ingredients 

(Makes 8)

1 egg

50g caster sugar

175g desiccated coconut

Melted chocolate and glacé cherries to serve

Method

1. Beat the egg and sugar together with a fork, then stir in the coconut.

2. With wet hands, squidge a golf ball sized lump of mix into a tight ball and place on a greased baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the mixture, then add half a glacé cherry to each.

3. Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden.

4. When cooled, drizzle each macaroon with a little melted chocolate.

Enjoy with a cup of tea while you book your next dental check up...