Christmas cut-out biscuits

Edible presents are the best - suitably frugal for the purposes of this blog, and the pocket.  These bikkies are lovely and spicy.  If you want to make them into hanging tree decorations, cut a hole for a ribbon with a piping bag nozzle from the soft cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.  Once cool, ice them with a not too runny icing made from icing sugar and boiling water, and decorate with edible glitter.  But personally I like them just as they are...

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground ginger (use a good one, like Barts Spices)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 75g unsalted butter
• 75g golden caster sugar
• 3 generous tablespoons golden syrup

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.  Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
  
• Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan over gentle heat and melt together.
• Whilst they melt, sieve the flour, baking powder, and spices into a mixing bowl.  Grind in the pepper.
• When the butter and sugar mix is runny add to the flour and beat in thoroughly.  You may need to add a little milk to make the dough sticky enough, but it is a crumbly mix.
• Gently kneed the dough together, it may keep falling apart in an annoying way, stay with it.
• Once all the biscuit dough is together, start to roll it out on a lightly floured surface.  Don't try and move it around, it won't stick to the surface.
• When you have it rolled to 1/2cm thickness (no less), dip the cutters in flour and cut your biscuits.  The dough will take a lot of squidging together and re-rolling, don't be timid.  Use a pallet knife to move the cookies to the tray so they don't collapse.
• Bake the biscuits for 6 minutes until golden round the edges.  Don't overcook, they will harden on the tray.  Leave to cool and snaffle..
• 

Joy to the world...

Oh I have that Christmas feeling for sure now. All the twinkling lights, my new 'Home for the Holidays' Yankee candle, the ice cold air... I am full of seasonal cheer - my little heart is jumping at the joy of it all. Yes, Christmas truly is my FAVORITE time of year!

And how better to celebrate the daily advance of 25/12 than by filling the kitchen full of the heady scent of cloves and orange, and baking up a storm of little star-topped cranberry mince pies? And please note the nod to Channukah, starting tomorrow night, in the choice of a star of David. Well these will be going to my in-laws on Monday after all...

This cranberry mincemeat recipe is from Nigella Christmas (London GB, 2008) p. 189. It is lighter and sprightlier than traditional apple and suet mincemeat. I thoroughly recommend it, as I suspect many mince pie haters could be won over by these...

Ingredients

• 60ml ruby port
• 75g soft dark brown sugar
• 300g cranberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 75g currents
• 75g raisins
• 30g dried cranberries
• Finely grated zest and juice of 1 clementine or satsuma
• 25ml brandy
• few drops almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 x 15ml tablespoons honey

Method

• In a large saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the ruby port over a gentle heat.
• Add the cranberries to the saucepan and give them a good stir, then add the spices, dried fruit, and zest and juice of the clem.
• Simmer the fruit for about 20 minutes over a moderate heat, until everything looks pulpy and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Squash any rebellious cranberries with the back of your wooden spoon (note - this doesn't work with red silicon spatulas, however festively appropriate they may be!).
• Take off the heat, and once it has cooled a little beat in the brandy, extracts and honey.
• The mincemeat can be stored in sterilised jars for a month, or be frozen for 3 months. I made mine on Monday and kept the saucepan in the fridge, removing it to make a batch a day until it was all used up.

The Pastry

• This is not the exact pastry Nigella Lawson recommends (on page 187 of the same book) but it is how I like to make it. You will need two batches of this to use up all the mincemeat, making 48 cupcake sized mince pies.
• Measure out 480g plain flour. Cut 240g unsalted butter into small cubes and stir through the flour. Freeze the whole lot for about 20 minutes.
• Remove the flour and butter from the freezer and pour into a food processor fitted with a double blade. Zest in 2 clementines and pulse the whole lot until it resembles dry sand.
• Squeeze the juice from the 2 clems and add to the flour. Pulse again.
• Add teaspoons of ice cold water down the funnel, pulsing cautiously, until damp course sand forms.
• Empty the whole lot onto a cold surface and kneed firmly to bring it together - don't over-knead!
• Divide the pastry into 2 disks, wrap them in cling and let them rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling and cutting.
  

Autumn fruit cupcakes

My my, where does the time go? 2nd December already...and I have that Christmas feeling! Yesterday morning there was a white frost on everything, outlining every tiny leaf and pine needle, and snow on the Hillfoots. I bought 3 bags of cranberries from the local deli to cook up Nigella Lawson's cranberry mincepies, and lit a cinnamon scented candle.

But today is back to the soggy, muddy, 'this is Scotland and don't you forget it' form of winter weather, so baking these little cupcakes has created a pleasantly spicy fug for me to hide myself away in. A last taste of autumn before the Christmas excesses really begin.

The cupcakes will keep for 2 days in an airtight tin - after that they become a little sticky.

Ingredients

• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 115g golden caster sugar
• 115g self-raising flour
• 2 large eggs
• 115g stewed apple (about 1 large desert apple, peeled and cored and cooked down)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 125g ripe pear, peeled and cubed

Method

• Preheat the oven to 175C/350F. Line a 12-bun muffin tray with cupcake papers.
• Cream the butter, sugar, flour and eggs together with an electric beater until very smooth.
• Beat in the apple sauce.
• Carefully fold the pear cubes through the batter with a metal spoon.
• Spoon the batter into the cases - about 2 desertspoons for each cupcake.
• Bake for 25 minutes until golden and cooked. They will be very soft initially so let them stand in the tin for 5 minutes before carefully moving them to a wire rack to cool.

For the icing -

• Sieve 1/2 cup icing sugar to remove any lumps.
• Add 2 teaspoons maple syrup, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and a dribble of recently boiled water. Beat well until a thick, smooth icing forms - add a little more water if it is too thick to drizzle, or more sugar if it is too runny to sit on the cake and set.
• Using a teaspoon, drizzle the icing over each cupcake, and allow to set.
  

A proper beef stew

I cannot think of anything more comforting on a cold Saturday night, at the end of a long week of work, than a delicious, bubbling, fragrant casserole of beef and red wine. This one uses a whole half bottle - don't be stingy, sometimes it's just not worth it! Yum...



Ingredients

• 4 fat garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 sticks of celery, sliced
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
• Rosemary needles, a scant dessertspoon-full, very finely chopped
• 2 braising steaks, trimmed of fat and cubed
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• Good pinch smoked paprika
• 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
• Tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• Half bottle of good red wine

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 160C/320F.
• In a cast-iron casserole on the hob, heat a tablespoon of olive oil.
• Add the garlic, onion and rosemary and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant. Add the celery and carrots and cook for another few minutes until the vegetables begin to soften.
• Remove the vegetables to a bowl and return the casserole to the hob, adding a little more oil if you think it needs it.
• In a shallow dish, mix the plain flour with the paprika and a good seasoning of salt and pepper. Stir the beef through the flour. Shake off the excess.
  
• Add the beef to the hot oil and sear on all sides.
• Return the vegetables to the pan, along with the kidney beans and tomatoes. Pour over half the bottle of wine and stir well. Bring to a bubble, cover and put in the oven.
• Cook the casserole for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. After the first hour give the stew a good stir. After the second add the rest of the wine. The stew is cooked once the sauce is thick and winey, and the meat is very tender. You may like to turn the heat down after the second hour if your oven is very fierce.

Feeds 2 with greens.

Warm chicken liver salad

Chicken liver is the epitome of frugal food - barely £2 for 400g, and so versatile.  I love making pate or chopped liver at the weekend, or a delicious chicken liver sauce with linguine for a tv dinner.  This is a wonderful salad for the mid-week munchies.

Ingredients

• 400g chicken livers, washed and patted dry.  (To kosher the livers, sprinkle with salt and grill over a rack for 2 minutes a side to draw out the blood).
• 2 garlic cloves, 1 finely chopped and 1 peeled and squashed
• 1 small brown onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons Marsala wine
• 2 handfuls very small salad potatoes
• 1/2 bag washed baby spinach leaves
• 2 handfuls cherry tomatoes, halved
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Method

• Put the potatoes in a saucepan of water, bring to the boil, then simmer until just soft to the point of a knife.
• Meanwhile, heat a good knob of butter with a little olive oil (or just oil) in a broad based pan.   Add the chopped garlic and onion with a pinch of salt, and saute gently until soft and translucent.
• Turn up the heat a little and add the dry chicken livers.  Cook the livers, turning often, until they have lost all their rawness and are cooked through.
  
• Add the Marsala and let it bubble away until reduced to a thin syrup.  Set the pan to one side.
• Arrange the salad and tomatoes on two plates.
• In a frying pan, heat a slosh of olive oil with the squashed garlic clove.  Drain the potatoes well and add them to the hot oil.  Stir and turn them for about 5 minutes until the sides begin to brown and crisp.
• Quickly remove the potatoes from the oil onto the salad.  Share out the livers and onion mush between the plates.  Finally, squeeze over a generous amount of lemon juice and eat.

Pumpkin and goats cheese lasagne

We have builders in at the moment, restoring our bathroom after a deluge from a faulty shower in the 'Willy Wallace Backpackers' above us.  Thankfully it is all being paid by the insurance, which is quite a blessing!  However, I'm good with neither disorder nor dust, so this week is a real opportunity to develop some patience and good humour through a bit of 'stretching'...

I think this supper may help to restore my emotional equilibrium though: it is a bit of a crib from Nigella Lawson's Christmas book, released last year.  Her recipe consists of three sauces - a smooth tomato passata, pumpkin cooked in tomato, and a goats cheese and ricotta topping.  It also feeds about 20 people!  My version is greatly scaled down, it feeds 2 generously, and is rather more abstemious in the ingredients.  However, don't be put off!  It is perfect for a frosty autumn night.

A note on the pasta - I used dried lasagne sheets and was disappointed by the resulting clagginess.  Nigella uses fresh sheets in her recipe and I would recommend you do the same, as I will next time - they don't have to be hand made, check the chiller cabinet at the supermarket.

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage leaves, or a few fresh
  
• 1 onion, finely chopped
  
• 2 plump cloves of garlic, squashed
• 400g pumpkin (peeled and deseeded weight), chopped into 1 inch squares
  
• Tin good quality chopped tomatoes
  
• Pinch sugar
  
• 1/2 bag prepared spinach
• 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
  
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
  
• 400ml full fat milk
  
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
  
• Fresh nutmeg
• Sheets fresh lasagne ( how many you will use will depend on the dimensions of your dish)
• 1 goats cheese (I used a fairly soft rindless one from Somerset)

Method

• Heat a little olive oil with the sage leaves in a large saucepan.  Once the heat and scent rise up, add the garlic and onion with a pinch of salt, and cook gently for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent and soft.
• Add the cubed pumpkin and stir to coat with oil, then throw in the chopped tomatoes.  
• Season the tomatoes with a little sugar, and some salt and pepper.  Depending on the brand of tomatoes you may want to add about 1/4 cup water.
• Bring the pumpkin to a hearty simmer, and allow to cook for about 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft to the point of a knife but not collapsing, and the tomatoes have reduced a little to form a thickish sauce.  Once it is ready, add the spinach leaves, gently stirring and tamping them down with your spoon until they wilt into the sauce.
• Meanwhile, heat the milk gently to body temperature.
• Melt the butter in a small saucepan.  Stir in the flour until a smooth paste forms, then cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes until the colour darkens slightly.
• Start to add the milk, stirring well after each addition so that no lumps form, until all the milk has been incorporated.
• Keep the heat steady and stir continuously for around 10 minutes until a thick bechamel has formed.  The white sauce will form a coat on the back of a wooden spoon when it is ready.
• Remove the sauce from the heat and quickly beat in all the parmesan, with nutmeg and salt to taste.
• Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F.
• In your favorite lasagne dish (we all have one) start to layer the pasta - start with a good slosh of the pumpkin, top with pasta sheets, then smooth on some bechamel and crumbled goats cheese, top with some more pumpkin and lasagne.  Keep layering - how many layers you make will depend on whether your baking dish is wide and shallow or narrow and tall.  Finish with a good covering of the last of the pumkin.
• Finally, break up the remaining goats cheese all over the surface and pop into the oven.
• Cook for 20 minutes or until the tomato and bechamel sauces are bubbling up the sides and the goats cheese is brown.

Orange and cranberry chocolate brownies

First off the bat, please let me apologise for my unscheduled absence of 2 weeks and counting.  I never meant to let my posts lapse to this extent, but starting some part-time voluntary work has rather knocked me for six over the last couple of weeks, and my cooking has likewise suffered*.  I had a baked potato and cheese for supper tonight...

However, I fully intend with the enthusiasm of fresh resolve never to leave so long between culinary experiments again.  And here is my (re)starting offer - a chocolate brownie to 

begin the gentle count-down to Christmas.

Now, yes I know that Christmas is still 50 days away.  And more importantly as far as

 this blog is concerned, chocolate brownies are not cheap to produce!  However, in answer to the first criticism I would argue that good things should never be constrained by dates on the calender - such as the sublime combination of orange, almond, cranberry, nuts and chocolate.  And to the second I would say that although, yes, the initial financial outlay for the ingredients is not cheap, these brownies are so rich, and keep so well, that you should be able to make several gifts for deserving friends out of them, thus keeping to the frugal ideal of my blog.

*Gosh, quite a cricket-metaphor heavy opening paragraph - Dr K will approve!

Ingredients

• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g very dark chocolate, broken into squares
• 3 large eggs + 1 extra yoke, lightly beaten
• 60g ground almonds
• 40g very good cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Zest of 1 orange (unwaxed or well scrubbed)
• 50g dried cranberries
• 50g hazelnuts, brazil nuts, or macadamia nuts (or a mixture), roughly chopped

Method

• Line the base of a square brownie tin.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.
• Beat the butter and sugars together very well until really soft and fluffy.
• Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over (but not touching) some lightly simmering water.  Make sure no steam mixes with the chocolate (which could cause it to seize) by covering the bowl with a saucepan lid.
• Once the butter and sugar is well creamed, gradually beat in the egg in increments.
• Fold in the melted chocolate with a large metal spoon, and then the ground almonds, cocoa, and baking powder, with a pinch of salt.
• Lastly fold through the dried cranberries and chopped nuts and pour the brownie mixture into the tin.
• Smooth the surface, and bake the brownies for 40 minutes, though start testing after 30 if you have a very hot oven.  When they are ready the brownies should have lost their wobble, but a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should still come out a little sticky.
• Cool in the tin.  Once cool cut into 20 little squares.

(Please note, this recipe is adapted from Nigel Slater's 'My very good chocolate brownie recipe' in 'The Kitchen Diaries', published by Fourth Estate in London in 2005, p.325-6.  All recognition for the original recipe should go to the author.)