Tartiflette

On Sunday our friends Hayley and Keiran came over for lunch. As they are probably our most classy of friends we wanted to make them something really nice. They are a tough crowd for us as Hayley is quite the dab hand in the kitchen herself. We knew we had to steer clear of Italian as Keiran's nan is Italian and famously makes the best Italian food ever. Eventually we decided we would go with the old classic - French!

The menu we decided on was Tartiflette for starter, Coq au Vin for main and Tarte Tatin for dessert. Quite simple but nice and pretty difficult to mess up. 

We were actually dead pleased with how everything turned out. There were a few things not quite right, such as the Tarte Tatin ending up as the most sticky thing in the world (but still tasty) and also looking quite messy, also the sauce on the Coq au Vin was a bit watery (but still tasty)... but in general it was a yummy lunch even if we say so ourselves. 

Our favourite thing was the starter of Tartiflette. It was really different to the Tartiflettes we've had before - it was kind of a healthy version of Tartiflette because we didn't use any cream in it and substituted this for a bit of white wine and natural yogurt. This was pretty good though because the last time we made Tartiflette for my parents we used loads of cream and the result was a mega heavy, calorie laden dish that made us all feel really bloated and apparently stopped Roy Morris from falling asleep (actually unheard of).

Despite the lack of cream, it was still rather authentic as we did manage to get our hands on a petit Reblechon cheese from Saino's in Fallowfield.

The wee cheese, although not as intensely pongy as the Reblechon we brought back from Paris (on the Eurostar. In the month of August), was actually the perfect size to go in our little oven dishes ready to be baked in the oven.

We were really happy that Hayley and Keiran were both very complimentary about the Tartiflette and kept saying how nice it was and both ate it all up! Score!

In fact I would say the French meal got us one of our best compliments yet: "best home cooked meal we've ever had". Yeah. Boy. 

Tartiflette Recipe:

1.2 kg potatoes

1 onion

200g streaky bacon

About 5 good-sized sprigs of fresh thyme

3 garlic cloves

100ml white wine

4 tbsp natural yogurt

1 petit Reblechon cheese

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Peel the potatoes and slice into circles of around half a centimetre. Boil the potatoes for around 15 minutes in a pan of salted water, before draining and leaving to cool a little.

Meanwhile, peel and chop the onion, cut the bacon into small lardons and finely chop the garlic. Heat up a frying pan and add the onion, garlic and lardons to the pan, along with the leaves from the thyme stalks and fry until softened. Add the white wine to the frying pan and allow to cook over a low heat for a few more minutes. Season to taste.

Meawhile, take the potatoes and arrange half of them in individual oven dishes or one big one, keeping the rest to one side.

Take the frying pan off the heat and stir in the natural yogurt. Pour half of the sauce over the potatoes. Layer on the rest of the potatoes before pouring the remaining sauce over the Tartiflettes. Season again to taste if necessary.

Cut the Reblechon into quarters - but horizontally.

Top the Tartiflettes with the Reblechon cheese. These can be made in advance and placed into the hot oven around 30-40 minutes before serving. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbly on top. Delicious served with salad and fresh French baguette.

Clandestine Cake Club at Cheshire Cookery School

This month's Clandestine Cake Club was a cakey meet-up with a difference. Rather than the usual location of a wee independent café, we were instructed to make our way over to The Cheshire Cookery School in Altrincham!

And make our way over we did, along with a Champagne Truffle Cake.

A rather exciting venue for a CCC, not only was there loads of surfaces for us all to put our lovingly baked cakes onto, but the kitchen showrooms provided some entertainment for mere mortals like me, Bailey, Jeni and Steve who can only afford normal kitchens that don't have sinks in barrels. 

The other advantage of this location was that we got the pleasure of an exclusive cake-making demonstration by The Pastry King, Brett Pistorius.

We all watched, open-mouthed as Brett whipped up the most spectacular Chocolate Hazelnut Cake topped with a passion fruit-laced French buttercream and covered in amazing decorations made from tempered chocolate. 

Not only did his cake look and taste incredible, he was kind enough to give us all a copy of the recipe (and I'm sure I will be able to recreate an exact replica - ha!) and while we watched him bake he told us all sorts of amazing tips that are going to help me in all walks of cooking life. Great stuff.

After the demo was the moment we had all been waiting for... the opportunity to gorge on cake! And what a selection there was - some absolute beauties!

Bailey and I went back to our tactic from last time at Red House Farm of taking small slices of each cake and sharing a plate. 

As usual all the cakes were delicious - Manchester is lucky to have such an array of talented bakers, but I have to say the ones we particularly loved were Sophie's Caramel Chocolate Cake (more detail on Sophie's excellent blog), Jeni's Sticky Stem Ginger Cake (I'm seriously not just saying those two because they are my friends - they were amazing and I went back for seconds of both!), Andrea's mega moist Chocolate Guinness Cake and Avril's Chocolate and Dark Rum Cake. Amazing cakes!

Just like at the last meeting I left feeling very sick, full of sugar and a little bit jittery so I obviously didn't learn not to overdo it. In fact I definitely didn't because I did the exact same thing the next day with the tupperware box of cake we brought home with us!

Still, we all had a fantastic time and I'm really looking forward to next month's event already. Thanks again to Gwyn for playing a blinder and organising yet another super fun Clandestine Cake Club.

Champagne Truffle Cake

This was the cake Bailey and I came up with (mostly Bailey's idea actually) for our second Clandestine Cake Club meeting. The theme was "All you need is Love (and cake)", so we decided to make a chocolate and champagne truffle torte-cum-cake topped with actual Champagne Truffles. Who said romance was dead?

As it was my Department Review week I was mega busy so Bailey stepped in and made the sponge as well as doing all the assembling on the night of the Cake Club. What a lovely boyfriend he is. He did actually beg me not to tell anyone at the club that he had helped ("I don't want any fuss"), but good old Jeni dobbed him in!

I think Bailey did an excellent job with the presentation and it looked very dainty. It was very tasty and rich and EXTREMELY chocolatey, in fact Steven Doyle took one bite of one of the truffles and his eyes went funny and he had to immediately go off to find a cup of tea.

Recipe:

For the Champagne Truffles
200g dark chocolate
200g milk chocolate
100ml double cream
65g butter
100ml champagne
2 desertspoons port
100g white chocolate

For the Chocolate Sponge
115g dark chocolate
85g butter
180g soft brown sugar
2 egg yolks
180g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
250ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the Champagne Truffle Filling
250g dark chocolate
200g milk chocolate
2 tbsp golden syrup
500ml double cream
70ml champagne
Cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Then, start off by making the Champagne Truffles. Break the dark and milk chocolate up in a large bowl. Place the cream and butter in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Pour this over the chocolate and stir well so that the chocolate melts to make a lovely glossy ganache. You can give this a bit of a helping hand in the microwave if necessary.

Add the champagne to the chocolate ganache mix - this will make a nice fizzy chocolatey mix. Stir well before adding the port.

Place the bowl of ganache in the cool to fridge. When set, take teaspoons of the truffle mix out and roll into little balls. Refrigerate.

Now make the chocolate sponge. Melt the chocolate. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until smooth.

Add the egg yolks and mix well, before adding the melted chocolate.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a separate bowl. In a jug, mix the milk and vanilla extract. Add one third of the flour mix to the first bowl, then a third of the milk mix, stirring well each time. Repeat until all the flour and milk has been added.

Spoon the mixture into a greased cake tin and bake in the oven for around 35-40 minutes.

While the sponge is cooling, begin to make the Champagne Truffle Filling. Take a saucepan and fill it with water and bring to the boil. Break the chocolate up and place in a large bowl, with one third of the cream and the golden syrup. Heat the bowl of chocolate, cream and syrup over the pan of water until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Meanwhile, whisk together the rest of the cream and the champagne in a bowl until you have a nice thick, frothy mixture.

Mix the chocolate mix and the creamy champagne mix together until completely combined.

By now your sponge will have cooled. Take it out of the cake tin and cut in half horizontally to make two disks.

Line the cake tin and put one of the sponge disks into the cake tin. Cover with half of the Champagne Truffle Filling, before putting the other disk of sponge on top and pressing down to get a nice even top.

Cover with the rest of the Champagne Truffle filling and place the whole cake into the fridge until ready to serve.

When you're about ready to serve the cake, decorate the cake by sprinkling with cocoa powder, icing sugar, white chocolate, whatever you want, but whatever you use, roll the truffles in this too. Arrange the truffles onto the top of the cake and serve. Warning - extremely chocolatey!

Tiramisu

On Saturday we were very excited to have the fabulous Hannah Ward visiting us from Sheffvegas for the night. We decided to make a three-course Italian meal - a bit boring but we figured, hey, you can't go wrong with a bit of Italian. For the desert we wanted to do a Tiramisu but with a twist.

Well, the twist was supposed  to be that we were going to make a Black Cherry Tiramisu and had a dead good Simon Rimmer recipe all lined up... but disaster struck when our local Asda failed us - there were absolutely no cherries in syrup on sale whatsover! Boo! 

So, I decided I would just revisit the good old Jamie Oliver recipe for 'Quick Tiramisu' from the excellent Jamie's Italy book which I love. I've made Jamie's Tiramisu so many times I could probably do it in my sleep, but there are a few tweaks I decided to / had to do this time.

Firstly, Bailey requested that I soak the boudoir fingers at the bottom of the Tiramisu in less coffee than Jamie suggests as in the past it has been a bit too sloppy for Bailey's liking. Probably not the most authentic but I always want to please my diners! Secondly, I put less grated dark chocolate on the top of the Tiramisu than the recipe suggested as it was getting a bit ridiculous. Thirdly, we had already bought a nice bottle of port for our Black Cherry Tiramisu so I had to substitute that for the sherry in Jamie's recipe.

The Tiramisu turned out quite good even with all the tweaks and I was very happy when the lovely Miss Ward told me Tiramisu is one of her favourite deserts! Presentation-wise it was a bit jokes given that I underestimated the size of the new trifle dish my mum bought us and it looked a bit silly all bunched up at the bottom of such a massive dish!

Still, we all enjoyed it and I have to confess I went in there for the leftovers with a spoon the following morning! Yikes!

Recipe:
15 boudoir fingers
200ml strong coffee
4 tablespoons caster sugar
500g mascarpone
1 tsp vanilla extract
140ml port
50g dark chocolate

Arrange the boudoir fingers in the bottom of a dish on top of eachother.

Sweeten the coffee with two tablespoons of the sugar, before pouring over the sponge fingers.

Put the mascarpone in a bowl and whip it up with the remaining sugar. Add the vanilla extract and the port to the mascarpone and mix well.

Spread the mascarpone mix over the boudoir fingers and grate the dark chocolate all over the top of the desert for presentation and chocolatey yumminess. Leave in the fridge to cool until it's time to serve! Italianissimo.

Sushi Class at Samsi

As part of my Christmas present, lovely Bailey bought me a sushi making class at Samsi Spinningfields. What a great gift!

Some of you may know from our previous Sushi Adventures that I'm no sushi novice, but I was really excited to see how it's done properly and get some feedback from the experts. I was a little nervous on my way to the restaurant but was put at ease immediately when I was presented with a delicious bowl of hot Miso Soup on arrival. Then I met my, shall we say, 'sushi mentor' who was so nice and a massive joker. 

The sushi class was really useful and I learned how to make Maki - with the nori on the inside as well as on the out, and Nigiri. The chef gave me some really useful tips, including why you should always use special sushi vinegar and Japanese mayonnaise - he got me to taste them both on their own and both these things really do have a unique flavour! 

Turns out Bailey and I weren't doing so badly with the old sushi before, but I did also learn that when making Maki we were using our sheets of nori at double the size we should have been and therefore double the amount of rice, hence the reason they were so big! I much preferred the dainty wee things I made at Samsi anyway.

After preparing the sushi, I was told to take my enormous plate to a table (or my "din-din" as the chef kept referring to it as!) and go and eat it all. Woah! I tried my best to pop it all in but had to admit defeat and asked for some tupperware. Probably for the best as I don't think Bailey would have been impressed if I'd come home empty handed.

Anyway I can honestly say that the sushi class at Samsi was absolutely loads of fun and I really felt good after the class, like I had done something really great. I am really grateful to Bailey for thinking of such a fun Christmas pressie for me. I would wholeheartedly recommend a Samsi sushi class to anyone, and at £25 they're a bargain really, particularly when you think how much nosh you get at the end! Lovely stuff!

Barbakan Delicatessen

Following a disastrous and unnecessary trip to the City Link depot in Trafford Park yesterday morning, Bailey and I decided we deserved a treat. Seeing as we were passing through Chorlton ANYWAY, we thought, what better way to fill our hungry tums than with a trip to the amazing Barbakan Delicatessen.

We've shopped at the Barbakan many a time for bread, picnic ingredients and fancy deli nosh to take away before, but we've never stopped in. Every time we go there, Bailey looks wistfully at the outside barbecue, filled with a variety of succulent and delicious-smelling sausages, burgers, potatoes and onions... finally his chance to eat something for once!

As per usual, despite it being pretty early, the place was absolutely packed out with people. The Barbakan is always packed. I have never been there when it is not packed, even on random weekdays. But don't let that put you off. The owners of the deli haven't scrimped on staff - yesterday there must have been about 15 very efficient people working away like friendly busy bees, and the ticket system they use works really well so you don't have to wait long for your tasty treats.

I decided to order a Veggie Sausage and Egg Sandwich (with ketchup) on Ciabatta from behind the counter inside the deli while Bailey was outside ordering from the Barbecue. My sarnie was ready by the time Bailey had been outside and gotten his sausage and we pulled up a pew at the deli's big inside table which meant we were right in the thick of all the hustle and bustle - a perfect spot for nosying and people watching.

 

My sandwich, although at the end of the day just some veggie sausages and egg in a ciabatta still managed to blow my mind. It was amazing - just shows you what you can do with a few good ingredients! The veggie sausages (which I later found out are made by Tivall and can be purchased at the Barbakan) were delicious - really tasty and almost smoky, also really soft and light in texture. The egg was perfectly cooked and the ciabatta was the star of the dish. It was lovely bread, which of course you expect from the Barbakan as that's what they're mostly famous for, but it had also been really nicely toasted, I think in a paninni press, so was lovely and crispy on the outside. An outstanding breakfast sanger!

Bailey decided to go for a Lamb Sausage in a large white hot dog bun with a side of herby barbecued potatoes and nice blobs of corriander and sweet tomato chutnies. He said that, as expected, the doughy, fresh Barbakan bread was the best bit about his breakfast but the sausage was also amazing - really meaty, good quality and tasty. The mustard on the hot dog packed a mega punch and Bailey commented that it had done a good job of clearing out his sinuses! The potatoes were soft and nicely oily with lots of onions and herbs giving them a nice flavour. I think they could have done with a touch more seasoning but otherwise brill. A can of Vimto was the perfect Manchester-themed accompaniment to this tasty brunch.

We had an ace time at the Barbakan and left in high spirits with full tums, a loaf of bread and a packet of Orecchiette pasta and our wallet only a tenner lighter! Bargain. The excellent food, great service and wonderful bustling atmosphere will have us returning there time and time again and giving us yet another reason to keep wishing we lived in Chorlton. Great stuff.