My pumkin and apple crumble recipe in the Guardian

The Guardian's new food magazine - issue 3

Recently I heard about a "Readers' recipe swap" in the Guardian's new magazine about food and drink called "Cook". Every week, food writer Felicity Cloake chooses a theme and invites recipe suggestions. The best tried-and-tested recipes will appear in the following Cook issue. I think it's a great idea! When I heard about it, the current theme was crumble. Vaguely remembering a sweet, spicy, warming and comforting crumble that I cooked a year ago on a cold winter day, I decided to send it to the Guardian. And two weeks later, I was told it would be published as the winning dish! I was very very pleased. You can see the article and a photograph of the dish taken by the Guardian's photographer here.

The recipe is a sweet pumpkin and apple crumble. I added some apples for extra freshness and replaced half the butter with rapeseed oil, which gives it a nice nutty taste and adds some omega-3 fatty acids. The Guardian called it an innovative take on pumpkin pie and wrote further: "The combination of sweetly spiced squash, tart apple and a nutty, treacly topping is inspired"! 

Here is the recipe to serve 6:

•    400g pumpkin
•     2 star anise
•    2 British apples, such as Cox
•   10 Medjool dates
•   50ml British runny flower honey
•   30g walnut pieces
•   75g  plain white flour
•    75g fine oatmeal
•   50g unsalted butter
•    50g rapeseed oil
•   100g dark muscovado sugar
•   1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Peel and cut the pumpkin into small chunks and place into a buttered ovenproof dish. Break the star anise into little pieces and mix with the pumpkin. Drizzle with 25ml of the honey and bake for 10 minutes. 
2.  Meanwhile, peel the apples and cut them into cubes. Remove the stones from the dates and cut them into thin slices. When the pumpkin has softened a bit, add the apples, dates, remaining honey and walnuts to the dish and toss well.
3.  Prepare the crumble: In a food processor or with your fingertips, combine the flour, oatmeal, butter, oil, sugar and cinnamon to crumbs and sprinkle on top of the pumpkin / apple mix. Bake for 30-35 minutes until bubbly and golden brown. I would serve it with home-made custard or simply a dollop of crème fraîche.

Competition prize: Tasting menu at Restaurant Martin Wishart

A tasting menu with matching wines at Martin Wishart's Michelin star restaurant in Edinburgh without having to pay: This is what I had been looking forward since I won the runner-up prize at his cooking challenge for amateur chefs. On December 21st, I redeemed this prize and my partner and me indulged in one, if not the best, meals we've ever had.  

I felt that taking pictures of the dishes would disturb our and other guests' experiences, but I will describe in words the wonderful meal we've had.

We were greeted with a beetroot macaroon filled with horseradish cream, which was the first of many surprises to come:

Amuse-bouches:
 -Cauliflower cream with caper relish and golden raisin

 -Breaded salsify with peanuts and pickled cauliflower mayonnaise

 -Queenie Scallop with pork jowl and crispy pork skin

And here the menu and wine list, which I was kindly emailed by the Restaurant Manager: 

CINDERELLA PUMPKIN SOUP

Apple curd and lobster boudin

{{{

CEVICHE OF GIGHA HALIBUT

Mango & passion fruit

Or

LOCH RYAN NATIVE OYSTERS

Green apple, sauerkraut, caviar d’aquitaine

{{{

GRILLED & TARTAR OF WILD SEA-BASS

Apple, pickled yellow radish, citrus and ginger broth

{{{

FREGULA SARDA

Veal sweetbreads roasted in buckwheat, winter chanterelle

{{{

ONGLET OF BEEF

Swiss chard, smoked marrow, caramelised onion, fresh wasabi,

knotroot, confit shallot red wine sauce

{{{

PASSION FRUIT & AROMATIC ORANGE

White chocolate mousse

Or

VALRHONA MANJARI CHOCOLATE CREMEUX

Exotic fruit sorbet, chocolate sable

There was an extra luxurious dish of "Truffle Risotto with Scallop" that I had instead of the sea-bass. I'm not sure whether that was a clever swap, but we wanted to taste as many different dishes as possible and the risotto was decadent and delicious! My partner also had an extra cheese course with a selection of 5 cheeses that I all got to try :-)

Now here are the accompanying wines:

2011 DOC Soave, Campo le Calle, Latium Morini, Italy

{{{

2010 Muscat sec, Les Fruits Defendus, Domaine de Provenquiere, France

Or

2011 Riesling, Eden Road Wines, Canberra,  Australia

{{{

2009 Dry River Gewurtztraminer, Martinborough, New Zealand

{{{

2010 The FMC Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, South Africa

{{{

2010 Corbiere, cuvee classique, Chateau Ollieux Romanis, France

{{{

2006  Montbazillac, Chateau Tirecul La Graviere France          

Or

2009  Reciotto della Valpolicella, Tommasi, Italy    

It was amazing how well the wines complemented each dish. Being very un-experienced and unknowledgable in wines (something I desperately need to change!), I was amazed to taste for example a creamy wine with my creamy risotto. It was the first time that we had so carefully matched food and wine and it was a great experience - one definitely to be repeated!

After having been treated to so much delicious food and wine, it was time for an espresso, which was served with chocolates flavoured either with raspberry, passionfruit and mango, salted caramel, praline or fresh mint; perfect to round up an excellent meal!

What a great evening! I couldn't stop smiling afterwards and will remember this meal for a long time. I'd like to thank Martin Wishart again for this great experience and for organising the competition in the first place. It was great fun and - from my point of view - well worth taking part!

Sweet Mincemeat

Having lived in the UK for over 5 years now and being someone that likes Christmas traditions, I thought it was at the time to turn my attention to sweet mincemeat. I absolutely love everything with dried fruits, so the discovery of British mincepies, Christmas pudding,  etc was a delight! 
To give my mincemeat maximum chance to develop all the lovely flavours of booze and sweet fruits, I managed to remind myself to prepare it in November. After seeing lots and lots of different recipes, I reverted to my all-time favourite and  indispensable book the "Larousse Gastronomique". I slightly modified the recipe by reducing the amount of sugar and suet and increasing the proportion of fresh fruits for a ligther and fresher result. Though the beauty of making your own mincemeat is of course to adapt it yourself according to your taste.

Mincemeat iongredients to make 4-5 jars:

• 150g dark muscovado sugar
• 200g currants
• 200g sultanas
• 100g chopped dried apricots
• 100g dried cranberries
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 100g shredded suet
• 50g mixed peel
• juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 50ml brandy
• 4-5 whole cloves
• 1/2 tsp of each cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

Combine all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Sterilise your jars: My way is to make sure my jars are absolutely clean and don't have any detectable smell. Then I just pour boiling hot water into them for three times. Pack the mincemeat tightly into your jars and keep in a dark and cook place. They'll be ready and delicious in time for Christmas!

4 weeks later: Mincepies

Of course I had to make mince pies shortly before Christmas and I had them tested by my British in-laws and colleagues! I think they liked them although I never quite know how to interprete British politeness as a German. In any case, all the pies were eaten which I take as a good sign. I decided to make two different varieties after I had seen a tempting recipe in delicious for a macaroon topping - that's my French side coming out once again!

Ingredients for about 20 mince pies:

• 150g plain flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 100g unsalted butter 
• pinch of salt 
• 30g icing sugar 
• 1 orange
• 1 egg yolk 
• about 500g mincemeat
• 1 egg white
• pinch of salt
• 25g caster sugar
• 40g ground almonds

Pastry: Rub the flour, almonds, salt, sugar, orange zest and butter together with your fingertips. Add the egg yolk and about 1 tbsp of water. Mix everything together quickly and chill for at least 1 hour. For convenience, I often make my pastry the day before and  leave it to rest in the fridge overnight.
Pies: Roll out the pastry and cut out disks of desired size using a fluted pastry cutter.  Use them to line your buttered pastry tins and prick the pastry with a fork. Add 2 tbsp of orange juice to the mincemeat and spoon as much as you can fit into the pastry cases. Cut small stars out of the remaining pastry and place them on top of half of the mincepies. Bake the pies in a hot oven at 200°C for 15 minutes. 
Macaroon topping: Whisk together the egg white and a tiny pinch of salt until stiff. Fold in the  sugar and the almonds using a spatula. Spoon the mixture onto the other half of the pies and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown at 180°C. Sprinkle with some caster sugar. 

And now for a complete mix of cultures: British mincepies with a French macaroon topping presented within a German "Adventskranz". A traditional wreath holding four candles, that are each lit on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas.

Adventskranz

Competition Final

After 4 weeks of practise and chestnut and heather tartlet overload (my partner got completely fed up with it!), it was finally the big day of the Martin Wishart Cook School Challenge. Martin welcomed all finalists with his big smile and a trophy up for grab! The pressure was on ...

Martin and Kevin tasting the winning grouse dish, which looked amazing.
They pretty much polished off my plate (middle)!

Martin and Kevin seemed to take forever with judging. Finally, the verdict: I was given the 2nd prize: Two tasting menus with matching wines in his restaurant! So delighted!

the 2nd prize

More details and pictures about the cool school challenge can be found here. And a small article with a great picture of all finalists was published in the local newspaper!
I've booked us in to redeem my prize on the 21st December. I can't wait! 

Two crabs - Two dishes for Two

The Edinburgh Farmer's market is always a great place to find new produce and get inspired. One Saturday morning, we saw some velvet crabs sold by the incredibly comical fish monger from Creelers. The crabs are - as their name suggests - really velvety on their back, and with 80p per crab a bargain!

fresh velvet crabs from the Farmer's market

I cooked them for 5 minutes in salted boiling water and served them with homemade mayonnaise flavoured with capers and herbs.

Mayonnaise with rapeseed oil, capers and herbs

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 100ml rapeseed oil
• splash of lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp capers
• 1tbsp of parsley (or whatever herb you prefer)

 Add the egg yolk and mustard to a bowl and mix (I use an electric mixer) and slowly pour the oil until thick and creamy. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Finely chop capers and herbs or whatever you fancy (I would have loved some cornichons if I had had some in my cupboard!) and add to your mayonnaise.
It's so easy to make your own mayonnaise and so good! I like the nutty taste of rapeseed oil and it's really good for you, but of course you can substitute it with any oil you like.

Velvet crabs are tiny, so getting the meat our of the crab shell was actually quite challenging and messy!  The next time I'd probably follow the fish monger's wife's advice and make soup with it. However, we really enjoyed digging into the crabs and trying to get out every last bit of meat, which was really tasty.

Crab massacre

  

Though messy, the shells were far too precious to be thrown straight into the bin. I made a stock by boiling them in water for about 30 minutes with a few parsley stalks that I've always got lying in my fridge. I strained the liqueur and reduced it down to about 100ml. My idea was to use the concentrated stock instead of milk in a béchamel sauce for a soufflé.

Ingredients for four small ramequin:

• 20g butter
• 20g plain flour
• 100ml of crab stock
• 2 eggs, separated 
• Seasoning (salt, pepper, nutmeg)
• Parsley chopped

Start by preparing your moulds to ensure an even rise: Butter the ramequins well and cover the entire inner surface with flour. Shake off any excess flour. Make a béchamel sauce using the butter, flour and stock and season to taste. Incorporate first the egg yolks to the béchamel and then fold in the egg whites whisked to stiff peaks. Pour the the mixture into the prepared moulds and bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 200°C until well risen. Whatch them for the last few minutes but don't open the oven unless they're ready!

The soufflés rose nicely, but I have to say that nothing beats a traditional cheese soufflé with a proper béchamel sauce made with milk!