Sweet Party Nibbles: Choc & Cherry Palmiers

Most party guests are happy to dive into a savoury buffet, but watch their eyes when the desserts come out! These small palmiers are easy to make, look good, and taste excellent. I invented them when invited to pre-lunch drinks with neighbours, since usually I'd take either chocolates or savoury nibbles such as cheese crisps, and wanted a change.

Dried cranberries could replace the cherries, halved if large - or even cranberry sauce - but good cherries are, for me, the food of the gods.

A cherry stoner (usually combined with garlic press - nice combination ...) saves time and is a little less messy. The palmiers should take about 40mins from start to ready, not including time to thaw the pastry (overnight in the fridge or 2-3hours at room temp). Equipment needed, apart from cherry stoner, is just a baking sheet lined with parchment, a rolling pin (or even a straight-sided bottle!) and a sharp knife.

The recipe makes about 36 nibble-sized palmiers, and the oven should be at 175C.

50p piece indicates size

Chocolate & Cherry Palmiers

Ingredients

Half sheet of frozen ready-rolled puff pastry (or 180g) (see Method 1)

40g fresh cherries, stoned

120g chocolate or choc/hazelnut spread

A little beaten egg

1 tbsp gran sugar

Method

1  With the rolled pastry sheet still frozen, cut it in half crossways and leave it to thaw.

         The other half can return to the freezer.

2  Chop the cherries quite finely.

3  Unroll the thawed pastry on a floured board, and roll it just a little more thinly 

         widthways. Don't worry if the longer edges are not straight.

4  Spread the chocolate evenly over the pastry - if it's too thick and threatens to tear

         the pastry, it could be microwaved for 10secs first.

5  Scatter the cherry pieces in two lines lengthwise a little in from the edges like so:

The red silicon pastry mat doesn't do
any favours here, but bear with me

6  Roll up each long edge tightly towards the middle. Just before they 'meet', brush the

         facing edges with egg to help seal them, then press together and turn the whole

         thing over so the join is on the underside.

7  With a very sharp knife, slice into 10-12mm pieces. Place them flat on the baking

         sheet, a little apart, and brush them all over with egg. Sprinkle the sugar over.

8  Bake for 10-12mins or until the pastry is golden brown. 

These were very well received at the drinks do, I'm glad to say, and the recipe has been transferred to the fat but hallowed 'recipes that work' file. As opposed to the 'recipes to try sometime' collection. However, it seems clear that I need to enrol on a course on food photography!

An Idea for the Grand Christmas Lunch

Lemon-stuffed Squash, Blue Cheese and Cranberry en Croute

Is it an en croute or a Wellington? Who can tell? Either way, this festive lunch centrepiece has really impressed the family, including the meat-eaters. The main things to know before deciding whether to make it are:

   1  It needs quite a time from start to serving.

   2  It can be a little fiddly and 'hands-on'.

   3  None of the steps is difficult.

   4  Much of the preparation can be done a day or two before baking if helpful.

   5  The finished dish looks (I think) lovely and very inviting.

   6  Any leftovers will be good served cold, perhaps with chutney - and it's easier to carve  

          when cold.

As so often, I forgot to take the picture before carving. However, there are two to give an idea. I decorated mine with small pastry feet walking all over it from side to side. 

One more quick point - the geometry of the pastry means that the recipe cannot simply be halved. For a half quantity, either about two-thirds of the sheet of pastry would be safest (rather than half), or the quantities for the filling should be a little less than half. 

The idea came from a recipe in BBC Good Food magazine, but I have significantly adapted it here.

Here's how interesting the layers look!

Lemon-stuffed squash, blue cheese and cranberry en croute 

Prep 75 mins approx, cook 45m, serves 5-6

Ingredients

            350g piece of butternut squash, peeled cut into sticks 2x2x6 cm max

            250g very small onions peeled, and halved if larger than a cherry tomato

            2 tbsp olive oil

            40g pecans halved

            60g vegetarian dry stuffing mix, e.g. sage & onion

            juice of 1 lemon and half the grated zest

            2 tbsp maple syrup

            2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

            1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry

            plain flour, for dusting

            25g dried cranberries

            110g vegetarian Stilton, crumbled

            a little beaten egg to glaze

The oven should be at 150C (fan) to start, shelf in the middle. A large baking sheet/tray is needed, lined with baking parchment.

Method

1  Put the squash, onions and oil in a roasting tin and toss around with a little salt and pepper. Roast for 15 mins. Add the pecans, stir around, and cook for 10 mins more.

2  Meanwhile, put the stuffing into a bowl and add the lemon juice and zest with 130ml boiling water or enough to make a damp mixture. Mix well and leave to cool and absorb.

3  Put the cooked squash on a plate to cool, and transfer the nuts and onions into a medium non-stick pan. Add the maple syrup, vinegar and a little seasoning, and heat gently until the onions start to caramelise – roughly 10 mins - stirring often. Leave to cool for a few mins.

4  Meanwhile, place the pastry sheet on a floured surface; roll out gently to make it a little larger and thinner. If you’ll want to put trimmings on top, cut off 2cm from one of the short edges and set aside. Transfer the pastry to the baking tray. Place the stuffing down the middle lengthways and mould into a compact sausage shape reaching nearly to each end of the pastry. At around this time, turn the oven up to 180C (fan).

5  Push in the cranberries all around the stuffing; do the same with the squash pieces lengthwise. Scatter the Stilton over, then top with the onions and pecans. Lightly press the filling together to compact it.

4  Brush round the pastry edges with the egg, then draw the 2 long edges up to meet, and pinch together to seal. Pinch together the pastry at both ends to seal, then brush all over with egg. To decorate, cut shapes from the pastry trimmings and use to decorate the top. Glaze again and make several small air holes with the point of a knife.

5  If time, chill for 30 mins before cooking. Cover with foil and bake for 20mins, then remove the foil and cook a further 25 mins. Rest for 5 mins or so to make it easier to carve. Use a very sharp knife to slice it.

Shucks. Half already served before I remembered.

Options: Flaked almonds or halved cooked chestnuts could replace pecans, and freshly-squeezed orange juice used in place of lemon. Cranberries go really well here, but roughly chopped dried apricots could be used.

To prepare a day or two ahead, keep separate in the fridge the cooked squash, the caramelised pecans + onions, the cooled stuffing and the defrosting pastry. The whole thing can be made up the night before, and brushed with egg just before putting in the oven.

TIBITS Vegetarian Restaurant in London - a Review

After much anticipation, we ate lunch as a family of 4 adults and 2 children at Tibits vegetarian restaurant on a recent Saturday. Here's what I thought - and the review is totally independent without any input from the restaurant.

First Impressions

The restaurant looked small, until we saw there is seating downstairs as well. Centre of attention is their 'food boat', and we were immediately greeted by a chap asking if we'd been before and explaining the system. Starting to get busy at 12.30 but we sorted a table for six; by about 1pm there were very few available tables.

The System

You can buy drinks at the counter initially, but most people prefer to choose their food first and pay for it together with drinks. First, find a table, then take a plate and cruise (food boat ...) around the buffet taking what you fancy - hot food on upper shelf, cold below. Then take the filled plate to the counter where it is weighed and charged acccordingly. Same system for desserts - serve then weigh and pay. We set up a tab at the start, gave some ID, and just settled at the end.

Ah, the Food!

A large range of cold dishes had something for everyone. Lots of interesting and sometimes unusual salads and other cold dishes variously containing lentils, beans, aubergines, squash and other vegetables for example. Plenty of sauces, dressings, and fresh nuts to sprinkle. Hot food included deep fried breaded cheese-stuffed jalapenos, breaded onion rings, quiche, potato wedges, a squash stew and plenty more. We all agreed about the range being so tempting it was difficult to stop. (See prices below!) All very good whether you fancy a light lunch or a more substantial meal. Oh, and the delightful bread rolls are complimentary - you lift them off your plate while it's being weighed!

I felt that the limited range of desserts was less exciting though I didn't try the cheesecake. Sticky toffee pudding (vegan) was OK but not special, while the fruit crumble was nice.

Prices - Food

The publicity shows a sample decent plate of food for (if I recall) £7.50. Our six main courses varied from (fairly modest but enough) at £5.40 up to £15 for a large plateful which included heavies such as quiche and potatoes (hugely enjoyed). Four of us had desserts,  which cost from £1.60 to £3.70. Given that we could each see and choose everything we ate, the cost was reasonable for a central London venue and a  very pleasant experience.

Drinks
One of our young ones chose water, the other an interesting ginger lemonade (£2.40 for a glass). Tap water is freely available to self serve, while mineral water is £1.90 for a half litre. Wine seemed expensive; cheapest was Merlot (very drinkable) or Sauvignon Blanc at £16.20. Lager £4.20 a pint, 330ml bottled beers around £3.90.

Minimal Downsides
I have a thing about hot food at buffets - that thing is, you rarely get them. Here the hot food was not much more than lukewarm and the quiche had run out when I reached the plate. What was offered was still very tasty, however. We went to the counter to settle the tab at a busy time, and there was a free-for-all during which several people managed to reach in front of us to put their food on the scales for weighing and were immediately served. The wait to pay was therefore quite long. Some kind of queueing system would prevent this irritation.

Overall ...
There are three Tibits restaurants in Switzerland, and it would be surprising if more did not soon open here. This one was already a favourite with the London-based part of the family. The staff are friendly and helpful, the food is interesting, unusual and very enjoyable and self-service of course makes it quick providing it's not a busy time. The location is accessible, too - Heddon Street, off Regent Street. We used often to meet to eat at Italian chain restaurants, but we can do that at home while for similar money and in central London too, Tibits is safely vegetarian and (at present) unique. We'll be back!

Contact
http://www.tibits.co.uk
0207-758-4110
12-14 Heddon Street, London, W1B 4DA

Mushroom, Pea & Blue Cheese Risotto in the Slow Cooker

There once was a large slow cooker in our kitchen, but I broke the lid and didn't replace the cooker. Recently, though, I thought it would be good to go back to the slow method, and bought a very fine (though small - 1.5 litres) slow cooker by Lloydtron. Here it is:

It's only 120watts, and the inner ceramic liner lifts out and is more or less wipe-clean. I am in love with it.

But to business. I believe this recipe to be my best risotto yet. It's not quite 'throw everything in and leave it', as I prefer to add the vegetables and cheese once the rice is on its way to being cooked. For anyone who uses this and has a differently powered/sized slow cooker, timings may be a bit different. 

The recipe would work perfectly well cooked on the hob, and would be faster, but would need a lot more attention - although I have never held with the 'keep the stock hot and add one ladle at a time' plan. The quantity makes 2 generous portions, and using my cooker it took about 1h45m from start to serving. I couldn't offer a picture of the finished dish - had to be served up in a hurry in time for The Archers, and forgot about photo.

Mushroom, Pea and Blue Cheese Risotto

Ingredients

Knob of butter (size of a walnut shell)

1 medium onion, peeled and fairly finely chopped

120g risotto rice 

330ml hot vegetarian stock

80 frozen peas, left to defrost

75g mushrooms, thinly sliced

40g blue cheese (e.g. Danish, Stilton), crumbled

Ground black pepper - about a level tsp

Method

1  Switch the slow cooker to High, and put in the butter.

2  Once the butter is melting, add the onion and rice, and stir to coat it all with butter.

         Leave for 5 mins.

3  Add the stock, stir, and leave for 45 mins, stirring once or twice meanwhile.

4  Add the defrosted peas, the mushrooms, cheese and pepper and mix well.

5  Leave for about 40m, stirring very occasionally, until the stock is absorbed.

And that's it. Plenty of time while it's cooking to play LinkLines, prep a side salad, and have an aperitif.

Other Options

Sweetcorn or broad beans could replace the peas; snipped herbs such as basil, thyme or parsley added towards the end would go well - though perhaps not rosemary unless it's added at the start and so would have plenty of time to soften. Mixed dried mushrooms could be used instead of fresh, in which case they should be covered in boiling water in a bowl, left for 10 minutes, and drained well before adding. Grated vegan hard cheese could replace the blue. Vegetarian white wine could be substituted for part of the stock, although I prefer it as nature intended.

Apple and Pear Chutney - nearing the end of the crop

Last of the fruit-themed posts for a bit, as supplies from the garden dwindle in the rack.

I've made several chutneys recently, and have realised that I don't like large chunks of anything in them. So for this recipe the fruit is cut in to pieces a little smaller than a peanut, and that seems ideal.

If only one of the two fruits is available, that's fine - but if it's only pears, a little less cooking time is needed as they soften more quickly than do apples.

The method is easy and should take about 30 minutes including prepping the fruit. This quantity fills just about two standard jam jars. The picture looks a bit odd, as it's a very small jar - all other jars are full of the wretched strawberry-grape jelly as I try to get it to set for a third time. The rest of my chutney had to go into another container until Mr P finishes the marmalade and the jar becomes available.

Exactly what it says on the jar ....

Apple and Pear Chutney
Ingredients
(The fruit amounts are as-they-come unpeeled weight)

500g apples (approx 4 medium)
250g pears   (about 2)
1 tbsp oil
1 heaped tsp coriander seeds
1 heaped tsp mustard seeds
80ml vinegar - cider or white wine type
60g sultanas
60g soft dark brown sugar

Method
1  Quarter, peel and core the fruit, then chop into pieces a little smaller than a peanut.
2  Heat the oil in a medium pan.
3  Add the coriander and mustard seeds, cover the pan, and fry the seeds. Soon they
         will start popping, so then fry them gently for 2 mins, stirring occasionally.
4  Add the fruit, vinegar, sultanas and sugar and mix gently.
5  Bring up to a simmer, and cook until the fruit is soft - 10-15 mins - stirring from 
         time to time.
6 Pour into the clean jars - using a funnel makes this easier, otherwise pour the
         chutney into a jug and use that.

This turned out really well, I thought. Goes nicely with crackers and cheese, cheese on toast, on a vegburger or with vegetarian sausages. And I'm thinking these fruits might be substituted with small chunks of mango, though a little less vinegar and a shorter simmering time might be needed. Must try that.

Apple and Cinnamon Traybake - it's a piece of cake

Unintentionally, the photo bears more than a passing resemblance to the previous post pic for pear muffins. But hey. The squares look rather large, but the apple is actually quite small!

This is another fairly quick and very easy recipe, I think, and the result is a traybake of very nice, moist and not too crumbly squares (or you could do triangles) with a mildly crunchy topping. Prepping the apples takes a bit of time, so I do this first and turn on the oven after that. Lining the baking tin with parchment is worth the trouble.

Although there are 10 steps in the 'method', the preparation steps (1-8) wouldn't take much more than 20 minutes.

I use a 24x18cm baking tin to get just the right height of the finished cake. (My calculator says that's roughly the same as 21cm square.) The mixture doesn't look that much and spreads quite thinly in the tin, but it should all rise nicely. This quantity makes 24-30 squares.

Apple and Cinnamon Traybake

The oven will need to be at 150C, middle shelf. 24x18cm baking tin, lined with baking parchment.

Ingredients

4 medium apples 

170g butter 

240 caster sugar

3 (medium) eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract (or 3 if using essence)

265g self-raising flour

2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon

60g demerara sugar (otherwise soft brown)

Method

  1  Quarter, peel & core the apples. Chop to hazelnut-sized pieces.

  2  Soften the butter in a large bowl, e.g. 10sec in microwave or sit 

         for a minute over a pan of very hot water.

  3  Add the caster, eggs and vanilla and beat together until smooth.

  4  Stir in the flour and cinnamon until none is visible.

  5  Pile half the mixture into the tin and spread over the base.

  6  Scatter half of the apple pieces evenly over it.

  7  Add the remaining mixture, smooth over and top with the rest of 

         the apple.

  8  Sprinkle the demerara sugar evenly over this.

  9  Bake for 30-35 mins until top is browned and a skewer inserted 

         into the centre comes out clean.

10  Leave in the tin for about 10mins, then cut cleanly into squares.

This recipe also works well if apples are replaced by 3 mashed over-ripe bananas, mixed in with the flour instead of layering. In either case the cinnamon could also be left out & some chopped nuts (pecan/walnut/hazelnut) added. All of these can be frozen, or kept in a tin in the fridge for a few days.

Pear Muffins, Wheat-Free

Yes, I know I've recently done gooseberry muffins, but these are a different kettle of fish. Ran out of plain wheat-free flour so used self-raising. If plain flour is used, an extra teaspoon of baking powder should balance things out.

As can be seen in the picture, they look more like rock cakes although the texture is softer than that. Should have smoothed the dough before baking. Taste great, though, and it's hard to believe they've no wheat content.

This recipe makes about 16 muffins. I used my 12 silicone cases and 4 paper variety. When they came out of the oven, the silicone ones just floated out, while the paper had to be peeled off carefully to avoid crumbling.

Pear Muffins, Wheat-Free

These need the middle shelf of the oven, at 170C, and muffin cases set out on a baking tray.

Ingredients

270g wheat-free self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp xanthan gum

Half teaspoon salt

80g granulated sugar

350g ripe pears (about 3 medium), cored, peeled and chopped fairly finely

1 egg

100ml milk

50g melted butter

1 tbsp caster sugar (optional)

Method

1  In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and sugar.

2  Add the chopped pears and mix them in to coat with flour.

3  In a smaller bowl, beat the egg, milk and melted butter lightly together, then stir into

         the flour mixture to form a soft dough with no dry flour visible.

4  Fill each muffin case to half or three-quarter level, making sure each has some pear

         pieces, and smooth over!

5  Bake in the oven for 16-18 minutes or until a skewer poked through comes out clean.

6  Sprinkle with the caster sugar if used, and leave on a rack to cool.

I'm thinking that, as xanthan gum isn't in everyone's kitchen, it would probably be OK to leave it out. However, it's trailed as helpful to make a decent spongy texture so I use it in all my wheat-free baking, just in case.

These muffins freeze well. Otherwise, if they've been around for a while, they'd be good crumbled as the base for a trifle, with vegetarian jelly poured over to set, topped with sliced ripe pears, then a thin layer of custard and finally whipped cream. For decoration I fancy honeycomb pieces or finely chopped gorgeous stem ginger.