Individual-portion brioche bread and butter puddings

Serves 7 - need dariole moulds

100g raisins
zest + juice of 1 orange

1/2 vanilla pod
300ml milk
Pinch salt
200ml dbl cream
100g unsalted butter

3 eggs
125g caster sugar

200g brioche bread slices, ex-crust, in 1cm cubes - they now sell such loaves in a petrol station I know

Soak the raisins in the orange juice with the zest overnight.

Warm and infuse the second batch of ingredients together for 1hr min.

Whisk the eggs with the sugar just until well combined and smooth, then combine with the cooled milk etc.

Then combine all ingredients together in a large bowl and mix gently but well.

Brush the dariole moulds inside with oil, then line with cling film.  Fill with the brioche mixture and fold the cling film over.

Place in a deep tray, place tray in oven, pour in boiling water to around 1/2 the height of the moulds, then bake at 160C for around 30 mins.

Allow to cool slightly before turning out onto small plates.  Serve with cold double cream poured over and a few toasted almonds, icing sugar and potentially cinnamon as well.

Milk chocolate tart

Serves ~6, uses 20cm tart ring

For the pastry:

117g plain flour
27g cocoa
54g icing sugar
94g butter (+ pinch salt if unsalted)
1 yolk
1-2 tbsp iced water (if needed)

For the filling:

200ml double cream
150ml milk
75g dark chocolate (Green and Blacks 70% was very good)
1.5tbsp icing sugar
1 egg, plus 2 yolks
Pinch salt

Make the pastry in the normal way.  For advice on this I recommend Delia Smith's How to Cook - Volume 1.  Line and blind-bake the tart ring.

Place the milk, chocolate and pinch of salt in a saucepan.  Heat without boiling and stir to melt the chocolate.  Add the cream.  Whisk the icing sugar and eggs together.  Then whisk all the filling together and pass through a fine sieve.

Bake the tart at around 150C for 45 minutes or until just set.

Chill and serve cold with cream.

Confession: It's the pastry from Tom Kerridge's chocolate tart and the filling is a lighter version of Simon Hopkinson's petit pot au chocolat!

Chicken pasta soup stew

Vague recipe, sorry.

Roast a chicken.  Allow to cool whole.  Observe how nice it looks after having rested for an hour!

Saute onion, celery, carrot, adding dried oregano and garlic towards end.

Add boiling water and a chicken stock cube (or chicken stock).  Simmer 15 mins.  Blend (pulse a few times) half of it .  Return all to pan.  Add cream and lemon juice.  Add pasta.  Simmer 5 mins.  Add frozen peas or other green vegetables.  Simmer another 5 mins.  Add cut up chicken.  Simmer together another few minutes.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

Fillet of brill and two wines to match

Escoffier's books are full of recipes like this.

Fillet of brill with cream and mushrooms

1 brill

Fish stock ingredients (see Dec 2011 fish gratin recipe)

Finely chopped shallot

1 glass white wine

Double cream

Lemon juice and a lemon

Ordinary mushrooms

Salt and white pepper

Have the fishmonger fillet and skin the brill, or do it yourself.  There will be plenty of instructional videos on YouTube.  Each fish will produce four fillets - two from the top, two from underneath.

Brill bones make a lovely gelatinous stock, so see the December 2011 gratin recipe for fish stock cooking instructions as well as ingredients.  Do make the effort to cut out the gills with some firm scissors and the eyes with a small knife before making the stock.  Details like this really add up.

To make the sauce, reduce the fish stock by three quarters then add a generous amount of double cream.  Reduce again.  Add the chopped mushrooms having been lightly sauteed until their liquid is re-absorbed and reduce further. The sauce can be kept warm with buttered greaseproof paper placed over it to prevent a skin forming.

Place each fillet in turn between two sheets of tin foil and flatten with a rolling pin.  Season each one on both sides and fold to produce a nice square portion.  Butter a spacious baking tray generously, scatter with some finely chopped shallot (or onion), and arrange the fillets on top.  Pour in the glass of dry white wine and place a lemon slice on top of each fillet.  Cover the whole tray well with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes at 200C.  Allow to rest for 5 minutes outside of the oven before removing the foil.

Discard the lemon slices and serve up each fillet, sitting on a pile of wilted spinach perhaps, and pour the tray juices into the sauce, which will then need to be reduced further and tasted for acidity and adjusted with lemon juice.  You may not want to add too much lemon juice for the sake of contrast with your chosen wine.  Gently pour the sauce and mushrooms over each serving using a large spoon and serve rice separately.

In one sense this is quite a simple dish, so would be a good accompaniment for some serious wine.  Here are two wine recommendations courtesy of the Planet of the Grapes Online Sommelier Service:

"White Burgundy would be a classic choice, but I would also add the following:

Wien 2 2010 from Austria which is a blend of Grunr Veltliner, Pinot Blanc and Rielsing - crisp acidity and minerality with richness form the pinot blanc £14

or perhaps:

Blanc de Fume from Redde 2006, Loire, which is an oak aged sauvignon with really honeyed, nutty characters and complexity yet clean acidity on the finish £26."

Potato Dauphinoise

I think one of the best varieties for dauphinoise might be just plain or 'versatile' white potatoes, whatever variety that is.  Floury varieties like Desiree or Maris Piper can work fine but if baked too long they will go fluffy.  This is particularly a hazard if you are going for a more rustic, thick sliced option, which I would commend.  I have actually challenged the British Potato Council to find the perfect potato for dauphinoise however in the meantime...

The trick in this recipe is heating everything through in a saucepan before baking.  It just works better that way.  You have to get the hang of adding the right amount of potato to the liquid in the saucepan so they will be just covered when packed down into a gratin dish that is a different shape.

Potato dauphinoise

250ml double cream
250ml milk
1 garlic clove, grated
salt
white pepper
butter
Potatoes, peeled and sliced very thinly across the widest part of the potato.  Cut off a flat surface to stabilise against a board before slicing at right angles to that.  Washing or blanching them is not neccessary.

Add the first five ingredients to a roomy saucepan.  Simmer gently for 5 minutes.  Add the potatoes, mix well so all surfaces are coated, warm through, then tip into a buttered gratin dish.  Make a nice surface with some larger slices and pack everything down.  Dot with butter and bake for 30minutes in a hot oven, say 210C.

Let me know what you think of the blog, comments welcome!

Chicken sauté with mushrooms and cream

This is the sort of thing everyone should know how to cook.  I have left the quantities to you, but be generous with the mushrooms and cream, and smell the garlic you have to see how strong it is.

jointed chicken pieces (your preference as to which)

mushrooms

garlic

lemon juice

white wine

double cream

freshly chopped parsley

Season the chicken pieces.  If you are using breast as well as leg and thigh, you will need to remove the breast from the pan once it is cooked through, adding it back at the end, so it stays juicy.

In a heavy based sauté pan, melt some butter and vegetable oil until the butter stops foaming, then sauté the chicken pieces over a moderate to high heat, so they are well browned on all sides.  Do it batches and you should only need to turn the pieces once or twice.

In a separate very large pan or casserole, salt and sauté the sliced mushrooms over a moderate heat, driving off the moisture and giving them a little colour.

Remove the excess fat from the chicken pan, then add the mushrooms to that pan on the heat.  Add your finely chopped garlic and stir around.  Before the garlic burns, pour in a glass of dry white and scrape the pan while it bubbles.  Add the lemon juice and cream, and some water if you need more liquid.  Cover and simmer for 45 minutes (remove the breast after 5, adding back at the end, if using).

Finish with the parsley and black pepper, taste and adjust for salt, lemon and pepper.  Serve with steamed basmati rice and greens.