Mr U-t-B's Special Soup

Brrrr!  It's chilly out there!  Even my poor little tete-a-tetes are bending their heads against the wind and dreaming of warmer days. And as for the poor shrivelled up primroses and crocuses...

So it's the perfect day for some of Mr U-t-B's fantastic bacon and lentil soup.

It's absolutely heavenly!

First he cuts up an onion or two (depending on size).

He fries some lardons in a drop of oil. 

(We get the ones from Lidl which are reasonably priced and nice and meaty - lumps of fat may add flavour but they make me go gahhh!) 

Then he adds the onion and cooks till translucent.

A couple of largish potatoes are chopped up small and added to the pan.

Along with a couple of carrots.

Then some stock is added (chicken, vegetable, beef - you can vary it for a slightly different experience!)

Probably about 2 pints, though this is a bit of a throw-it-in-and-see soup.

Bubble away for about ten minutes...

Then add a can of lentils...

Give it a brief whizz with a blender stick to give it a bit of thickness, but not so as to make it completely smooth.

The perfect winter warmer, with a nice chunk of fresh granary bread!

Reasons to be glad it's still winter

Snow and ice are returning this weekend, so the forecasters say.

Well, never mind!  Here's just the thing to make you pleased with this turn of events - a recipe for 

The Ultimate Sticky Toffee Pudding,

the perfect winter warmer

(also ideal in spring, autumn, and -  why the heck not? - summer?)

I'm always suspicious of recipes that claim to be 'ultimate' but this one did not disappoint.  I had never actually eaten a sticky toffee pudding before making this for the first time a few weeks back, thinking that I would find them too sweet and heavy, but Mr U-t-B has had them before, and Miss U-t-B is almost a professional taster-of-sticky-toffee-puddings, so she really knows what they're about!  

They both professed these to be the best pudding I've ever made, topping even Dum's Pudding which Mr U-t-B says is the reason he married me!  And what's more I found them neither too sweet nor remotely heavy - in fact, as I spooned it slowly into my mouth, I thought I had died and gone to heaven...

The Ultimate Sticky Toffee Pudding

Makes 7 little puddings (I made 9)
Prep about an hour
Cook 20-25 mins (can be made 1-2 days ahead and left to soak up the sauce - see recipe)
EASY and freezable (if you don't want to eat the puddings all at once (???!) freeze a few in an ovenproof dish with some of the sauce.  Thaw for a few hours and reheat as in step 5)

1.  Stone and chop 225g of whole (preferably Medjool) dates quite small.  

( I actually used the same amount of ready stoned ones.)  Put them in a bowl then pour over 175ml of boiling water. 

Leave to soak for 30 minutes until cool and well-soaked, then mash a bit with a fork.  Stir in 1 tsp vanilla extract.  

Butter and flour 7 (metal) mini-pudding tins (each about 200ml) and sit them on a baking tray.  

Heat oven to 180 degrees/160 Fan oven/Gas 4.

2.  Towards the end of the date soaking time, make the pudding mixture.  Beat together 85g butter and 140g of demerara sugar in a large bowl for a few minutes until slightly creamy. 

(It will still be grainy because of the sugar).  Sift together 175g self-raising flour and 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, placing it in a bowl for later. 

Beat two eggs and add to the mixture a bit at a time, beating well between additions.

  
Next beat in 2 tbsp of black treacle...

Then, using a large metal spoon gently, fold in one-third of the flour, then 50ml of milk.  Don't overbeat!  

Follow with another third of flour, and another 50ml of milk, then the final third of flour.  Stir in the soaked dates.  

The mix may look a little curdled at this point and will be a soft, thick batter.  

Spoon it evenly between the tins (I actually used 9 tins as we have that number for lunch tomorrow, and they came out the perfect size) and bake for 20-25 mins until risen and firm to the touch.

3.  Meanwhile, put 175g light muscovado sugar, 50g butter and 115ml double cream into a saucepan.  

Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring all the time to ensure the sugar dissolves properly.  Stir in 1 tbsp black treacle, then turn up the heat slightly and let the mixture bubble away for 2-3 mins until it is a rich toffee colour, stirring occasionally to ensure it does not catch. 

Take the pan off the heat and stir in a further 110ml of double cream.

4. Remove the puddings from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes before loosening with a small palette knife.  Turn the puddings out, coat with sauce and serve OR, to make them even stickier, pour half the sauce into an ovenproof dish, turn the puddings into the sauce the pour the rest of the sauce over.  

Squeeeeze in!

Cover with a loose tent of foil and leave - no need to chill.

5. When ready to serve, heat oven to 180 degrees/160 Fan oven/Gas 4.  Warm the puddings through, still covered in the foil, for 15-20 mins or until the sauce is bubbling.  Serve on their own or with cream or custard.

Served with cream - might as well be killed for a sheep as a lamb, eh?

Recipe from Good Food magazine, developed by Angela Nilsen

Adventures in marmalade making

When my friend Val gave me a pot of her orange and apricot marmalade last year, I decided after one tiny  morsel that I would have to make a batch myself.  Sadly, I had missed all the 2012 Seville oranges by the time I got round to thinking about getting my preserving pan out, so I was determined not to miss out this year.

So when Val told me that these  were in our local Tesco...

...I had to ask very nicely for the recipe and get on with the job!

The day before you wish to make your marmalade, wash and juice 675g of Seville oranges (or thereabouts) and 1 lemon

Put the juice in a large bowl

Use a teaspoon to scoop out the remaining pulp and pips, putting them into a smaller bowl with a pint of water.  ( I scraped out some of the thicker bits of pith too.)

Cut the fruit skins into thin slivers and put into the bowl with the juice, then add 4 and a half pints of water

Cover and leave the two bowls to sit for a day.

The next day, take 450g dried apricots and chop up quite small

Place a sieve lined with a good-sized square of muslin over the large bowl with the rind and juice in, and pour the pith, pip and pulp  bowl into it.  Tie the muslin securely with string.

Pour the juice and rind into a preserving pan or other large pan, and add the muslin bag containing the pith, pips and pulp.  Val recommends giving the pan a light buttering to ensure nothing catches, but I forgot to do this!

Cook this mixture for 45 minutes till the rind is tender and the liquid reduced by about a third.

Take the muslin bag out and add the chopped apricots and 6lb of ordinary granulated sugar.

 Bring up to the boil fairly slowly, to ensure the sugar dissolves fully.

Then boil rapidly for 20 minutes by which time it should have reached setting point.

I did not actually TEST that setting point had been reached - though I did put my sugar thermometer in and the required temperature of 220 degrees had been reached - and I really should have done, because when I picked up one of the jars this morning, it clearly had not set!  

Looking back, when I poured the marmalade into the twelve sterilised jars I had prepared, the rind was mostly sitting quite low in the jar, and this was probably a clue that this stuff was going to have the consistency of runny honey when cool!

Bad marmalade

So I tipped all the jars back into the preserving pan, and brought it back up to boil, again boiling it rapidly for about ten minutes.  

I had prepared a chilled plate this time and TESTED the concoction regularly for its set - a small amount placed on the chilled plate, then left for a minute and then pushed to see if a wrinkly skin has developed.

When I was satisfied that setting point really HAD been reached I poured it into re-sterilised jars.  The rind is now evenly distributed, which I take as a good sign, and there's no sloshing!

Good marmalade!

Cold toast for breakfast tomorrow I think, and marmalade sandwiches for tea, followed by a slice of Marmalade Loaf, I suspect!

Hot Toddy Cake

In an completely out-of-character moment, I got ahead of myself last weekend and made a start on a Christmas cake.  I would like to have done this on Sunday 25th, which is Stir-Up Sunday, but with a certain young lady's birthday celebrations being held that day, thought I would be unlikely to squeeze it in on the right day!  I am sharing this recipe here as I used it last year and it really was delicious - moist and fruity and moreish.

Last year's effort

I began by soaking the fruit 'overnight'.

700g mixed dried fruit, 100g glace cherries and 100g mixed peel soaked in 200ml hot, strong, black tea, 3 tablespoons whisky and 3 tablespoons marmalade

 Then I creamed together 225g butter and 225g golden caster.

4 eggs were lightly beaten and then gradually added to the mix, beating well after each addition.

225g plain flour, 1 tsp mixed spice and 1 tsp cinnamon were sifted together then folded into the mix...

Then the soaked fruit, and the grated rind of a lemon were folded through...

The mixture was then spooned into a 20cm round, double lined cake tin, levelled and baked at 160 degrees/ 140 Fan Oven/ Gas Mark 3 for 1 1/2 hours, then turned down to 140 degrees/ 120 Fan Oven/ Gas Mark 1 and baked for a further 1 1/2 hours till a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.  

Cool on a wire rack in the tin.  (Sorry - had given up with the camera by this time.  Try to hide your disappointment!)  Whilst still warm, use a skewer to pepper the cake with holes, then feed the cake with 50ml hot, strong black tea into which has been stirred 2 tsp sugar  and 1 tbsp whisky (or orange juice).

If you're making the cake ahead of time, you can feed it with a fresh swig of hot toddy each week, but take care not to make the cake soggy!  

The cake can be kept for a month, well-wrapped in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.  If short of time you can make and decorate the cake the same day.