rabbit and dumplings

tender as you like rabbit stew with the best dumplings ever

recipe here

Did you know.. . and this is as true as death and taxes. .. that if you are lost in the wilderness and can manage to snare yourself a few hares to eat (and nothing else- not including water- not that you can snare that) . . you will still die of starvation if you don't eat the entire critter? Bones, eyes, brain, guts, (not hair) are all require for human survival. Rabbits have such little muscle fat that you can starve eating nothing but rabbit flesh.

moving on. . .
I got the newish Cook with Jamie, Jamie Oliver book, my first J.O. book. It's a nice book. He is cute and social conscious, pretty photos. . . and the recipes are solid.

Rabbit with dumplings was my first shot.

Now, finding a butchered rabbit in West L.A. is not only hard, but very expensive. Whole Foods won't carry them because they are all antibioticed up. I paid $30 at Gelson's (boo), which is the same I would have paid for a sweet angora LIVE dwarf rabbit at the local pet emporium. Totally ridiculous.

Still, the meal was fantastic. You could sub in chicken parts for the rabbit and sub in plain old flour with a teaspoon of baking soda per half cup where the recipe calls for self-rising flour.

Oxtail

meh. .
I used to have this fantastic oxtail stew from some Puerto Rican amazing greasy spoon in alphabet city. . .. those were the days. . .

This, not so awesome. But I made some crucial mistakes.
1. most of the oxtail I got was from the very end of the tail. Ask for the biggest ones you see. i.e. not from the very end of the tail. Don't let the butcher sneak in the small ones. If they come pre-packed, ask the butcher for them and don't take pre-packed for an answer.
2. I let them sit in my freezer for a long long time. Maybe a month. Not nice to meat.

here is the recipe.
Folks on epicurious.com love it

Mushroom rarebit

225g Stilton cheese, crumbled
110g cheddar cheese, grated
50ml milk
25g breadcrumbs
25g flour
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1egg yolk
½ tsp English mustard powder
salt and white pepper
6 large field mushrooms, stalks removed
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 slices ciabatta bread, toasted

Preheat the oven to 200c
Place the cheese and milk in a saucepan, and heat until the cheese is melted, stirring occasionally to keep the cheese from catching
Add the breadcrumbs and flour and cook for 2-3 min, stirring all the time
Allow to cool before adding the Worcestershire sauce, egg, egg yolk, and mustard.
Mix thoroughly and season with salt and white pepper
Place the mushrooms on a baking tray, spoon the mixture into the cavities and sprinkle with olive oil.

Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 min until the mushrooms are soft and the cheese is bubbling and brown.
Serve on toasted slices of ciabatta bread, with some of the juices poured over and a spoonful of chutney.

This recipe is from The Saturday Kitchen Cookbook. It also had an apple and tomato chutney part of the recipe, but I used Ruth’s Mom’s Chutney, because I had some already. I think that any good chutney would do as an accompaniment, just don’t skip it all together, because it really rounds out the dish and makes it good.

I’ve not ever made Rarebit before, and I like this version of it because I’m a big fan of stuffed mushrooms in all shapes and sizes. Interestingly, the stilton taste wasn’t nearly as strong as you would expect. Stilton has such an overpowering taste on it’s own, I always expect it to dominate anything I cook it with, but actually it works and plays very nicely with others.

This wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever had, but for a simple quick and nice dinner, this did the job nicely.

Peppermint creams

250g Icing sugar, and some extra
Free-range egg white
Peppermint essence
A few drops of cooking oil
Green food coloring (optional)

Sift 2/3 of the sugar into a mixing bowl.
Lightly whisk the egg white. It should be well mixed and lightly frothy, but not really moussey.
Pour the egg white and a few drops of peppermint essence into the sugar, and start mixing with a fork.
As it begins to stiffen, scrape it off the fork, and start using your hands to work it into a paste. It will probably be very sticky, and you’ll have to keep adding a shake or two of icing sugar. Taste it and add more peppermint if necessary. Keep kneading the mixture and adding sifted icing sugar until you have a smooth paste you can mould like play dough. Keep your hands dusted with sugar at all times.
Prepare a sheet of greasproof paper by rubbing it lightly all over with a few drops of cooking oil.
You can shape in various ways, either roll with a rolling pin on a sugar dusted surface, and then cut up into shapes, or use cookie cutters, or just roll little balls and then flatten them.
Put the finished peppermint creams onto the lightly oiled sheet of paper, and leave them uncovered in the kitchen to dry out for a few hours. Keep them in a Tupperware box.

This was from River Cottage Family Cookbook. I skipped the food coloring, because I didn’t see any need for it, and I used the last method of shaping (roll into a ball then squish).

This was fun. You forget that icing sugar can become a dough with the right amount of liquid. It’s powdery, then it’s sticky, and sticky, and sticky, then suddenly, you have dough.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from these, they are a popular British candy, but we don’t have it in the states. Turns out, Peppermint creams, are just like York Peppermint Patties, but without the chocolate coating. I’m going to make another batch, and coat them in chocolate.

These are super unbelievably easy, and really tasty too. I recommend trying them, if you feel like making any candy.

Spiced Pumpkin Tart with Stem Ginger Cream

For the pumpkin tart:
1 pack dessert pastry, rolled to 5mm thick
500g pumpkin, cut into large chunks
2 eggs
100g caster sugar
50g ground almonds
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
200ml single cream

For the stem ginger
200ml double cream
3Tbsp stem ginger syrup
25g stem ginger, finely chopped

Preheat to 190c
Line a 9inch tart tin with the pastry, line with cling film and baking beans or rice
Place on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 15 min.
Remove the cling film and baking beans, and return to the oven for a further 10 min to crisp the base of the case.
Meanwhile steam the pumpkin for 15-20 min till tender
Remove from the steamer and cool.
Place the cool pumpkin in a food processor, and blend to a puree.
Place the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Add the ground almonds, spices, and cream, and whisk until smooth
Add the pureed pumpkin, and mix once more
Pour into the pastry case, and place in the oven for 40-45 min, until set
Remove from the oven and cool for at least an hour.
To make the stem ginger cream, place the cream, syrup, and ginger in a bowl and whisk until soft peaks are formed
To serve, cut a slice of tart and place on a plate with a spoonful of the cream, a dusting of icing sugar, and a sprig of mint.

This is from The Saturday Kitchen Cookbook. This is the second recipe that I’ve tried from this one, and It’s the second one that I have liked. This looks to be a fun book.

I made this on Thanksgiving, so as not to let the day go by without anything special. I made my own crust, because I like to, but store bought pastry is fine. Also, I used butternut squash, because I couldn’t find any pumpkins. It works just as well. Tastes just like pumpkin once it’s all prepared.

The boys helped me make the pie too. They had a great time helping with the mixing and the measuring and the pouring. They get very excited about pie.

It came out great. It tasted perfectly pumpkin pie-y. My youngest was totally and completely enthralled by it. Butternut squash is one of his all time favorite foods, so a dessert squash pie, well, let’s just say he had many pieces. I loved the pie, and the cream too. The cream was amazing. I want to eat that ginger cream on all my desserts, I want that cream for dessert, I could just eat it with a spoon. If you make this pie, make the cream too!!!!

Braised Chicken with lemon, honey and Shepard’s salad with feta

1Tbsp olive oil
1.6kg chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 red onion, sliced
12 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole
1 lemon, cut into chunks
175ml chicken stock
125g honey
1 small handful of fresh oregano leaves

For the Salad
400g tinned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
150g feta cheese, crumbled
1 small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
2 small cucumbers, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
50g black olives, halved and pitted
3tbsp olive oil
1Tbsp lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large frying pan over high heat, add the oil and chicken, and cook for 5 min till golden
Remove and set aside
Reduce the heat to medium high, add the onion, and cook for 1 min. Return the chicken to the pan, with the lemon, chicken stock, and honey, reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for 20 min, or until the chicken is cooked through.
Lift out the chicken and put on a baking tray.
Increase the heat under the sauce and simmer, uncovered, for another 15 min to thicken
Place the chicken under a hot grill for 5 min until crisp.
Arrange the chicken on a platter, drizzle with the sauce and sprinkle with oregano.
To make the salad, gently mix together the chickpeas, feta, parsley, cucumber, green pepper and olives in a large bowl.
Whisk the olive oil and lemon juice together and season with salt and pepper.
Toss the salad with the dressing

This was very tasty, but I have one word of warning. Be careful while you are reducing the sauce. Mine took far less then the 15 min in the recipe, and I burned it just a tiny bit after only about 5 min because I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have been.

Still, it was a really good dish. Not too difficult, the sauce went really well with the chicken, and I loved, loved, loved the salad.

This is from The Saturday Kitchen Cookbook. It’s interesting. It’s based on a tv cooking show, so it has a wide variety of recipes, because it tailors it’s self to all the guests on the show, as opposed to any one style. I liked this recipe, and I will definitely try more.

Apple crumble

There are a million recipes for crumble, but I just wanted to find a simple combination that worked. Here’s what I came up with, as my crumble. Amounts can be changed to suit however many people.

Peel the apples, and slice or cut into chunks. I did both for some variety of texture. Mix them with sugar, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, and pour them into a buttered oven dish.

For the topping, equal weights of butter, flour, and brown sugar, plus a couple of handfuls of oats.

Rub the butter into the flour like you’re making a pie crust. Mix in the sugar, and the oats, and pour it all over the top of the apples. Bake at 190c for 30-40 min.

The apples cook and form a nice syrupy sauce that gets all bubbly as you cook it, and the crumble comes out perfectly lovely and crumbly.

So easy to do, and totally satisfying.

Jeweled Pumpkin Rice

500g peeled and seeded butternut squash (the flesh of a 750g squash), cut into 1cm dice
1tsp fine sea salt
2tbsp olive oil
a big pinch of saffron (about 50 strands)
100g unsalted butter
6cm piece of cinnamon stick
4 allspice berries, crushed
1 large or 2 medium onions, thinly sliced across the grain
15g dried barberries (or currants)
50g shelled, unsalted pistachios
1/2tsp cardamom
300g basmati rice, soaked in tepid salted water for 1 hour
450ml vegetable stock

Preheat the oven to 230c
Toss the diced butternut squash with half of the salt and the olive oil. Spread it in a single layer in a baking tray and roast for 30 min, or until tender. Mix the saffron with 3tbsp of boiling water, and ad 25g of the butter, which should melt, set aside.
Heat the remaining butter in a saucepan with the cinnamon and allspice till it foams, then add the onion, and the remaining ½ tsp salt. Fry over medium heat for 10 or 15 min, stirring occasionally until the onion is soft and starting to color. Add the barberries, pistachios and cardamom, and cook for 10 min more, until the onion is golden and sweet. Now drain the rice and add to the pan, stirring for a min or two to coat, then pour in the stock. Taste for seasoning then scatter with the roast squash. Cover with a circle of greaseproof paper, and a tight fitting lid, and cook over a high heat for 5 min. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for a final 5 min. Remove the lid and the greaseproof paper, and drizzle with the buttery saffron water. Replace the lid and leave to rest, off the heat, for 5-10 min. Serve with a scattering of crispy onions if you like.

This was a bit time consuming to make, but absolutely and totally worth it. It came out so beautifully. It’s another one from Moro East, which is fast becoming one of my favorite books.

I loved that way of adding the saffron, just pouring it over at the end all mixed with the butter. That, and the cardamom and pistachios really make this a special dish.

Stilton squash risotto

1 tbsp vegetable oil
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
15g butter
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp freshly chopped sage
400g arborio risotto rice
1 litre vegetable stock, boiling
225g winter squash, deseeded, peeled and roughly chopped
75g Blue Stilton cheese
4 sprigs fresh sage for garnish
Instructions
1 Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan, add half of the chopped walnuts and allow to brown. Spoon the nuts onto a plate and set aside.
2 Add the butter, onions and chopped sage to the pan and soften for 6-8 minutes.
3 Stir in the rice to absorb the cooking juices. Add the stock and the chopped squash, then simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
4 Switch off the heat, crumble in the Stilton, add the remaining chopped walnuts, cover and allow to finish cooking in its own heat for 5 minutes.
Serve each portion garnished with a sprig of fresh sage.

I got a coupon for a free block of stilton, so I set about finding something interesting to do with it. It turns out that stilton cheese has an official website, it’s http://www.stiltoncheese.com/.

An official web site for a cheese, fabulous. I found this recipe on it. It calls it’s self a risotto, though I know that any risotto maker worth their salt would scoff at adding all the stock at once like that. Still, if you just think of it as a rice dish, then it won’t offend anyone’s sensibilities. Also it made it super easy and quick to make, and it was very tasty. The combination of the walnuts, squash and strong blue cheese, was really surprising, and good.

Beautiful chicken

This isn’t really a recipe, more of a tip, but it’s worth mentioning.
To prep this chicken, I laid strips of bacon across the breast, covering the whole thing completely. The idea is that the bacon fat will slowly baste the breast to keep it moist. Still, I wanted it to be well browned, so I took the bacon off for the last half hour of cooking. It was enough time to get it nicely brown, and it was still really moist and lovely.

Good stuff.