Brown bread ice cream

　　Brown bread ice cream might sound weird but it’s actually one of the best flavours ever invented. Fact. Crumbs are caramelised in the oven with brown sugar and butter until gooey malt; the edges crisp and the centre remains soft so the final effect is like Ben and Jerry’s cookies n cream with chewy, dough-like pieces flecked throughout.

I got thinking along the lines of toast and jam; lots of nutty caramel from the crumbs and a ripple of sweet (high-fruit) raspberry jam running through. This is about as old English as it gets: a Victorian recipe with a ripple in it. Gawjuss.
Brown bread ice cream with a raspberry jam ripple (I used Keiko’s recipe as a starting point)
4 medium egg yolks
45g caster sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla paste (I used Nielsen-Massey vanilla paste from a jar but you can use half a vanilla pod or a little vanilla extract)
80g crust-less wholemeal bread (make sure it doesn’t have any seeds)
1 teaspoon cornflour
250ml semi-skimmed milk (use whole if you want to but I don’t think it necessary for this recipe)
40g butter
50g light brown sugar
250ml double cream
High-fruit raspberry jam (not too much sugar basically), for rippling
Preheat the oven to 180C
Whiz up the bread to make crumbs. Melt the butter then mix it with the crumbs and light brown sugar. Spread this mixture out on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, until the crumbs are crisp. They may remain a bit soft and chewy in the middle but this is a good thing. Allow them to cool completely then break them up into crumbs again; make sure to leave some big bits.
Pour the milk into a heavy-based saucepan, add the vanilla paste and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave for 15 minutes to infuse.
In an electric mixer or in a large bowl with a hand whisk, beat the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until thick and pale. Pour over the hot milk very slowly, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook it over a very gentle heat, stirring all the time. After a while the custard will begin to thicken slightly; when it coats the back of a spoon it is ready. Cover with a cartouche of greaseproof paper and leave to cool.
Stir the cream into the custard, tip into an ice cream machine and churn until thick. Stir the crumbs into the mixture, churn for 5-10 minutes until ready to serve. If you let your ice cream get too thick before you’ve added the crumbs, just stir them in by hand. Tip your ice cream into a freezer proof tub. If your ice cream is rather soft at this point, stick it in the freezer for an hour before adding your ripple. To add the ripple, take a tablespoonful or so of the jam and put in a bowl, mix it very well with a spoon to loosen it up. Put dollops of the jam on top of the ice cream and use a skewer to create a ripple effect.

Bircher Muesli

　　I never thought I’d find myself writing about muesli. The word brings to mind bowls of dusty old oats that either catch in your throat or have you chewing each mouthful for an eternity; the bland food of Health Freaks and Nutrition Nuts, more punishment than breakfast.

Bircher (let’s not call it ‘muesli’) is different because the oats are soaked overnight in apple juice (use cloudy juice for the best flavour) and by morning they have plumped and sweetened. I then add creamy natural yoghurt (full fat, please), grated apple and mix it all together before topping with whatever I around; this morning it was pomegranate seeds and pistachios. Yesterday it was sliced bananas, toasted coconut, sunflower seeds and a good drizzle of runny honey.
This is the only breakfast that has ever been able to keep me going right through until lunch and that’s saying something because even after a full English I’ll be ready for snacking at 11am.
Bircher Muesli
About 50g rolled oats
Enough apple juice to cover the oats
A couple of tablespoons of thick, natural yoghurt
Half an apple
Whatever toppings you fancy. Banana, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds, seasonal berries, whatever.
A drizzle of honey.
Combine the oats and apple juice and leave to combine for at least an hour but preferably overnight. Grate in the apple, add the yoghurt and stir to combine.

Crab Cakes with Fennel Remoulade

Every so often I decide that my stack of food magazines is getting out of control and I sit down (snacks on hand) to flick through them, tearing out any interesting recipes as I go. The scraps are then pasted into a sketchbook for future reference. As a general rule, I will only tear out something that strikes me as innovative or inspirational in some way, but this recipe, although nothing new, just grabbed me as a perfect starter for Wednesday night’s 3-course dinner.
I am always a bit reluctant to eat crab any other way than with thin brown toast and a little good mayonnaise and salad but I gave these cakes a whirl as the recipe is so simple that the flavour of the crab seemed sure to sing through – and it did, as did the texture. So here is the recipe, along with the remoulade, which is adapted from Olive magazine.
Crab cakes with Fennel Remoulade
250g cooked white crabmeat
1.5 tablespoons good mayonnaise
1.5 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped finely
1 egg, beaten
3 spring onions, chopped finely
Fresh breadcrumbs
A good knob of butter
For the remoulade
One bulb of fennel, finely sliced
1 small onion or 2 shallots, finely sliced
A small handful chopped flat-leaf parsley
4 tablespoons good mayonnaise
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
1 dessert spoon caper berries, chopped
1 tablespoon cornichons, chopped
Juice of 1/2 large lemon
- Mix together the crab meat, mayonnaise, spring onion and parsley.
- Form into 6 cakes and dip into the egg followed by the crumbs. Allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up.
- Mix all the remoulade ingredients together and set aside.
- Fry the crab cakes in butter for around 2 minutes each side until golden brown.

Watermelon and Vodka Sorbet

This recipe was inspired by my student days; vodka watermelons were very popular around that time and we spent days force funnelling the things until they were suitably saturated with the cheapest liquor we could find. A supermarket ‘basics’ brand or Glen’s being our budget poison of choice.
My tastes are a little more sophisticated nowadays (I said a little) and I’d like to tell you nothing but the finest went into this recipe but the truth is that the end of a bottle of Smirnoff was languishing so I used that. The vodka flavour wasn’t exactly pronounced though so my advice is as follows: get yourself a decent bottle then add a wee slosh on top of the sorbet in the bowl. Total refreshment, with a punch. Phwoar.
Watermelon and Vodka Sorbet
1.2 kg watermelon (that’s how much mine weighed after I’d removed skin and seeds)
3 tablespoons lime juice
200g caster sugar
3 tablespoons vodka, plus extra to serve
A few slivers of mint leaf, to serve (optional)
Cut the watermelon into wedges and remove the flesh from the skin with a knife. Chop into large slices and do your best to remove the seeds (the mixture will be passed through a sieve later so don’t worry about a few stragglers).
Put the watermelon chunks in a blender with the sugar and lime juice and blend to a liquid. Now pass it through the sieve into a bowl. Try to push as much of the melon pulp through as possible, not just the liquid. Churn the mixture in an ice cream machine until sorbet-like. Mine took about 20 minutes but my watermelon was well chilled, it could take half an hour.
To serve, let it rest out of the freezer for a good 10 to 15 minutes, otherwise it will just break up like a granita when you try and scoop it. Dribble a little vodka into the bowl and scatter on the mint, if using.

Piri Piri Chicken

The grilling season is upon us. I’m excited. The summer stretches out in front of me like one long BBQ sizzling with stuffed squid, beer-can duck, tikka, grilled pineapple salsa, sardines, smoky baba and of course, plenty of jerk (top tips for great jerk here).
Portuguese piri piri chicken is something I’ve been meaning to experiment with for a while. We’ve survived the winter by ordering from Na Pura in Nunhead. The chicken there has a good flavour and is cooked well but I do wish they’d use better quality birds. They also take forever to cook them. After a batch of wings and a chicken or two I’ve hammered down my own recipe and the time has come to say that I’m sorry, Na Pura, but your services are no longer required.
My piri piri sauce is a combination of shed-loads of fierce little chillies, oregano, paprika, garlic, vinegar, oil and sugar; the sweet/sharp balance makes it perfect for the BBQ and BBQ’d it must be because char is very important for this recipe. The skin should be blackened in places. The vinegar in the marinade tenderises the meat keeping it juicy and moist inside. The other important thing to remember is to keep a pot of marinade and a brush to hand when grilling; brush the bird liberally and often. When she’s done, give her a final coat before serving with wedges of lemon and a big salad. And a beer.
It’s nice to serve a pot of the sauce at the table with a little brush, like Restaurante Bonjardim in Lisbon.
Piri Piri Chicken (makes enough for 2 chickens)
30 piri piri or other small red chillies (obviously you may need to adjust the amount according to the chillies you have available)
3 teaspoons dried oregano (fresh would be lovely but it’s quite hard to find around here)
2 level tablespoons paprika
150ml red wine vinegar
200ml olive oil
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
Salt
Chicken (see instructions on spatchcocking at the end)
Whack everything in a blender until smooth. Pour half of the marinade over your meat, cover and refrigerate overnight. Turn the bird around in the marinade every now and then. When it comes to grilling your bird/s, get the coals white hot then move them to the edges of the BBQ and put your chicken in the middle. Brush regularly with the marinade. Cook until the skin is blackened in places and the bird is cooked through (about 15-20 mins per side for a spatchcocked chicken).
Brush again with the marinade before serving.
If you’re cooking a whole bird on the BBQ, spatchcock (butterfly) it to ensure it cooks fast and evenly. To do this, place the bird breast-side down on a board, with the tail towards you. Using scissors, cut along each side of the backbone to remove it (this requires a little welly as you’re cutting through the ribs but it’s not that difficult). Turn the bird over and use the heel of your hand to push down on the breastbone so that it’s all one thickness. Use skewers to secure the legs and keep the shape of the chicken by pushing them through the thigh and then diagonally through the breast. A bird will take 15-20 minutes per side. If you want to see someone doing it there are some good vids on youtube.