Category Archives: North American food

August 29, 2012

Doune the Rabbit Hole 2012

By Rock Salt

Well, I took Rock Salt on the road again, but I have to say that Doune the Rabbit Hole was much less about food and much more about booze, mud and general hilarity. I had the greatest time. I loved camping in a big group (there were nine of us in the main camp, with a camper van annexe housing two more). I drank a lot of cider. I bought a t-shirt. I fell in a ditch. Twice. I spoke in a hokey Noo Yoik accent until my throat was sore. I joined in with innumerable renditions of We Built This City and Roxanne, rewritten to amuse ourselves and, no doubt, bemuse others. I talked to a magical speaking tent, and laughed myself weak at other people doing the same thing. I won a game of Scabby Queen. I ska danced in my wellies. It was an extraordinary weekend, which is still making me grin like a fool and occasionally laugh like an idiot, and for that I thank the residents of Funsville, Tent City.

Even among all these activities, and more, we did eat plenty. Sadly, the variety on sale wasn’t the same as the Kelburn Garden Party, which had so many places to eat that it required a part one and a part two. Doune had two main contenders, one of which was Wild Rover Food. Those guys hit the mark once more, providing a concentrated menu of good, Scottish food to keep us all warm and full. I was too shy to re-introduce myself but I did get snaps of about half the menu, and here they are.

Scrambled Smokies onna roll

The Wild Rover were the only serious contenders for breakfast foods on Saturday – I could have had doughnuts or porridge, but by Jove I needed something heavier to make a dent in the Appalling Hangover of Doom that I had after we overshot the mark on Friday night and ended up hosting an unofficial open mic stage in heart of the campsite. The above photo shows a big roll and scrambled smokies – scrambled eggs with Arbroath smokies and fresh parsley. Arbroath smokies are a smoked haddock from the North East of Scotland, a real delicacy that you should try if you get the chance. This generously buttered and filled roll went a long way towards sorting me out, alongside a glass of orange juice and a walk in the unexpected sunshine.

Cullen Skink

Doune the Rabbit Stew

Cullen Skink is another traditional Scottish food. It’s our equivalent of a chowder, and the key ingredients are smoked haddock (again), potatoes and milk. This version also had onions, leeks, wholegrain mustard and fresh parsley on top. Whatever else was in there I’m not sure but it was buttery, savoury and, as advertised, warmed the cockles of my heart. The rabbit stew was a cheeky addition to the menu for a festival called ‘Doune the Rabbit Hole’; I enjoyed a chuckle when I saw the menu board. This was the first time I’d had rabbit that I hadn’t cooked myself (see my rabbit stew here) and, again, I enjoyed every spoonful. It was somewhere between a soup and a stew, and it did begin with a similar base to the Cullen Skink but with added bay leaves, meat (or chicken?) stock instead of milk and, of course, the bunny. It’s great to see local, fresh ingredients being showcased at festivals instead of processed burgers and soggy chips. Not that there weren’t times when I didn’t want a box of chips or, indeed, Twirly Tatties. We missed those a lot.
A bit of a revelation for me was finding the stall for Smoak, who are a Glasgow company specialising in, as you would imagine, smoked meats, fish and cheeses. At Doune, they were serving up pulled pork or pulled Aberdeen Angus brisket, on a brioche roll with FIXINS. The fixins included gherkins, jalapenos, coleslaw and pickled cabbage. Both meats were delicious, but I have to confess that I preferred the pork just a little; it was just packed full of flavour and spice, incredibly moist but still meaty and, overall, enormously messy. I tried to get some photos but it was hard to get the good side of these rolls – a festival isn’t the finest place to get good food photography, what with the background of mud and the polystyrene containers. And, OK, the cider does take a certain something away from my pictorial skills.

Pulled Pork Brioche

Aberdeen Angus Brioche

 

These guys were so passionate about their food, so friendly to all of us tipsy and hungry festivallers and, to top it off, they went and bought a load of bacon so they could do us bacon rolls on Sunday morning. You can’t knock them, absolute top marks for effort and execution.

The final mention I want to give is for the bar staff at Doune. There were more than two of them, but these guys were the volunteers to have their photo taken, and represent a far bigger crowd of hard-working lovelies. Again, they were so friendly and, you know, gave us booze for three days. Top folks. I salute them.

 

14 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in British food, North American food, Scottish food, Snacks

August 24, 2012

S’mores Cupcakes (or, Biscuity Chocolatey Marshmallowy Cupcakes)

By Rock Salt

When I decided to make S’mores Cupcakes, I thought people would be pretty up for it. After the third or fourth explanation, I realised that I spend too much time on the internet and that people in the UK who do not spend too much time on the internet have no clue what S’mores are. Colour me surprised.

If you are among the uninitiated, S’mores are a sandwich of graham crackers, chocolate and melted marshmallow. Graham crackers – which appear to be pronounced gram, though I don’t know if that’s an accent thing or an actual silent letter thing – are kind of like digestives. You can buy them in the UK if you don’t mind spending over the odds. You can make your own by following this great recipe on The Cupcake Project. Or, you can use digestives, like I did.

The first step was making marshmallows – I made an extra tray of them when I was making my Tunnock’s Teacake cake, so they were prepared ahead of time. If you missed the last couple of times I made marshmallows, a) where were you? and b) you can make them at home by following this recipe on Smitten Kitchen.

I based my cupcake recipe on this S’mores cake. I loved the idea of using biscuit crumbs instead if flour, to give that graham cracker/digestive flavour. I made the cakes wheat free, but of course you can forego this and use ‘normal’ biscuits and flour – you may need less liquid, so watch out for that.

This recipe makes 24 small cupcakes, but you’ll be putting a marshmallow on top so they don’t have to be big cakes.

Biscuit Cake:

  • 200g wheat-free digestive biscuits
  • 200g light brown sugar
  • 200g margarine
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup wheat-free plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder

I mixed up this batch using the all in one method – throw it in a bowl, mix with a hand held mixer until combined.

For the chocolate cake, I made a half batch of my favourite Devils Food Cake from Cake in the Country. I cannot recommend it enough, though I am certainly trying… I followed the recipe for this cake, which is a little more complicated than throwing everything in a bowl and mixing but works out beautifully, so it’s worth the effort.

Originally I wanted to create layered cakes, but I realised that, with both cake batters being liquid, this was going to be tricky. Still, I gave it a go and filled each cake case to about one third full with the biscuit mix, and baked for ten minutes. If I’d have given them a little longer it might have still worked, but unfortunately at ten minutes the biscuit ‘layer’ was still not really set, so when I poured on the chocolate layer the two mixed and left a kind of tie-dyed effect – much like my first attempt at rainbow cake. It wasn’t a real problem, it just didn’t work out as I’d planned. As in baking, so in life, right?

Finally, I made chocolate ganache by melting together 300g dark chocolate and 100ml single cream. This worked as icing and as glue to hold the marshmallows on the cakes. Ganache is so easy to make that it barely qualifies as a recipe. This is a point in its favour. You can also make it thicker or thinner by adjusting how much cream you,use – for a ganache that is dry and firm to touch, less cream, but for a squidgy cake or chocolate filling, use equal amounts cream and chocolate. You can also flavour it with extracts and liqueurs. It’s pretty much a modern day miracle.
So, once I had the cakes, ganache and marshmallows ready, I assembled the cakes, which was simple enough. A teaspoon of ganache on each cupcake, followed by a big, fluffy marshmallow square.

The final, and most fun, step was caramelising the top of the marshmallows. I got a chef’s blowtorch for my birthday in May but this was its first outing. I gotta tell you, it will be back before long. All my nascent pyromania came rushing to the surface. I did set the cake cases on fire a little bit. Not sure how one would avoid that except by perhaps being more careful than I had presence of mind to be. Next time I’ll work on my technique, if I’m not too consumed by the elegance of the flame…

If I could have served them there and then, that would have been amazing – the marshmallow is soft and sticky from the heat, just like a campfire treat. However, I served them the next day, when the marshmallows were set again but still soft and with an edge of bitterness from the caramelised top.

They went down an absolute storm, I was delighted with the finished result. It wasn’t exactly as I’d imagined them but, I can’t argue, they tasted great. Someone told me they’d never tasted anything like them before. I choose to believe that was a good thing.

Miss R enjoying her cake in the usual way.

17 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Cake, Gluten free, North American food, Original recipes, Other people's recipes, Snacks

April 13, 2012

Pickle Fries!

By Rock Salt

Or, in British, fried cornichons! These are a recipe from Joy the Baker, and you can get to them through the link.

I set up my three bowls: one with egg, beaten with Louisiana hot sauce and chipotle mustard; one with flour, salt, chili flakes and pepper; the last one with breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.

They looked cute in those little bowls, but I soon found out that the breadcrumbs had to go in a bigger one or there was going to be a great deal more mess than was necessary.

I was using fresh breadcrumbs, and I found that the first couple of cornichons were really difficult to coat, and I was ending up with breaded fingers more than anything ese. Not the plan, and I certainly wasn’t going to fry those. The problem was that the breadcrumbs, despite having come from toasted bread, were too moist to break into really small crumbs in the food processor, and they were clumping when met with the egg and floured pickles. A solution presented itself to me – I put the breadcrumbs back in the food processor with a spoonful of flour and whizzed – immediately, the flour coated the breadcrumbs, meaning that the blade could cut them a bit finer and also that they were miles easier to work with. They no longer clung desperately to my hands, and consented to act as a coating without falling off in great chunks. Once I had the breadcrumbs sorted, the process was much easier and less messy, though there was still a certain amount of hand washing and surface wiping to be done afterwards, as you might expect.

Breaded cornichons, ready for frying

I very rarely deep fry any food, partly because I have the Fear about setting the house on fire, and partly because I hate to use so much oil at once; while I know it’s necessary to get the crispy finish that some foods need, it always seems like a waste to use half a pot full of oil at one time. For these, I heated a layer of oil in a frying pan, maybe about a quarter of an inch deep. Still a lot of oil but not nearly as much as I’d need to deep fry – though I know you can get those special machines now that only use a tablespoon of oil, which sounds much better and much less of a fire risk. I suppose ‘less of a fire risk’ should really come under the general heading of ‘better’ but I thought I’d point it out.

Using less oil meant that I had to turn the cornichons over after a couple of minutes of frying, to crisp all sides evenly, but this wasn’t a big deal. Once they were browned all over, I scooped them out of the oil and sat on some kitchen paper to drain for another minute before putting them on the side of my plate and scoffing them. A great accompaniment for a burger, instead of chips, or a great snack in their own right. Good with beers on a hot day, I’m willing to bet.

There is a burger under all that cheese… In fact it was a steak and mushroom burger, but let’s just say I’m still working on that particular recipe.

17 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Dairy free, North American food, Other people's recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian

March 28, 2012

Cheat’s Pizza

By Rock Salt

I wanted a really quick meal recently, and when I want a quick meal I instantly turn to my new favourite recipe book, Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals. I do not get paid to promote this book. I do it for love. I would also accept payment, for the record, in the form of money or more Jamie Oliver books…

The page that caught my eye was for Cheat’s Pizza – I had some nice veg in the fridge that needed used up, and a little cheese, and a few more bits and pieces that made this exactly the right recipe to try out. I will say up front that it wasn’t as good as the real deal, and I’m looking forward to trying a sourdough risen pizza base soon, but for the amount of effort I put in, I got a good dinner for two nights, and the G man got a good lunch, too. An extremely good trade for a little less than perfect pizza, I’d say.

I started by preparing my pizza dough – you’ll have to get the book if you want the recipe, but it’s a simple one with no yeast. At first it didn’t look like it wanted to be dough at all, but it came together really easily and was easy to roll out thinly, too.

 

I used some wholemeal flour as well as plain, as you can see from the colour. I thought it would add more flavour and texture, though it probably contributed to the base being quite heavy, even when rolled out thinly.

I put the rolled dough into a nine inch frying pan over a high heat while I made the sauce and toppings. For the sauce, I pureed 200g of tinned chopped tomatoes with a handful of basil, a couple of garlic cloves, a few anchovy fillets, a pinch of sugar, a squeeze of tomato paste and salt and pepper. I just threw everything in to the food processor and blitzed until combined. I did tell you this was a quick pizza – though it does generate a certain amount of the dreaded washing up. I set the sauce aside for now and moved on the the veg. I put another frying pan on to heat and thickly sliced a few chestnut mushrooms, halved some asparagus spears lengthways and halved a few cherry tomatoes, for good measure. I also grated some red Leicester and some parmesan cheese, sliced some left over chicken into chunks and tore up some basil leaves. I cooked the mushrooms and asparagus for a couple of minutes, then added a handful of frozen sweetcorn.

 

 

 

Once the mushrooms and asparagus were almost cooked through, another couple of minutes, I set them aside and turned back to the pizza. I added the tomato sauce to the base, followed by the veg from the frying pan, the chicken and then the cheese.

 

I put the pizza under the grill until the cheese had started to melt, and then added the tomatoes and basil before returning to the grill for another few minutes, enough time for the cheese to brown and bubble.

 

 

 

I served this with just a side salad, and I was very full after three slices (I cut it into eight). The crust wasn’t great – quite hard and doughy compared to the ideal crust, which for me would either be crisp and coated right to the edge with cheese, or thick and billowy for dipping into garlic mayo. Still, for less than half an hour’s work, I was delighted with my last minute dinner.

Pre-cooking the asparagus means that it’s easy to enjoy as part of a pizza, without a whole spear sliding right off the slice and hitting you on the chin when you try to take a bite. Not a good look. Be careful not to over-cook it though, or you’ll end up with stringy mush, and even if dinner’s going to be quick and easy I will not accept stringy mush.

 

26 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in North American food, Original recipes, Other people's recipes

March 14, 2012

Pi Day – Vote for Me!

By Rock Salt

In a change from our usual posts, I have written an Instructable all about how to make… wait for it… the soon-to-be-famous Whoopie Pi! It’s Pi Day today, and I’ve entered Instructables’ competition to create a worthy snack. In the time it would take you to read one of my posts, hop over to Instructables, check out my Whoopie Pi recipe, marvel at how I avoided using the plural the WHOLE TIME and then, if you please, vote for me.

Here is the link to my Instructable. Here is the link to the voting page.

If none of this appeals to you and you just want to see my wondrous creation, the Whoopie Pi, I can’t blame you. Here it is:

It’s spiced rum flavoured (real spices and real rum, not your actual spiced rum) with lemon and sesame buttercream filling. Yup.

VOTE!

13 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Cake, North American food, Original recipes

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