Smoky Chocolate Crackers

Smoky Chocolate Crackers

find them here

It sounds bonkers. Chocolate savory crackers. Yet as soon as I read the recipe I knew I was going to make them and love them. Dark chocolate and smoked paprika embedded in a butter dough with almonds for texture? M was going to hate these-they were going to be all mine.

Everything I hoped for in these was realized. I chomped them down with glasses of milk thoroughly enjoying myself. M took one bite and immediately told me the chocolate flavor was too intense. Oh and chocolate is not meant to be savory. Victory! Whole batch to myself! (I do have to say, milk chocolate is not meant to be savory, dark chocolate works splendidly with strong spicy flavors.)

you need: flour, cocoa powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper, powdered/icing sugar, granulated sugar, 2 whites, chopped almonds, butter

-Beat the butter and sugars together to creamy consistency.
-Add in the whites.
-Add in the dry ingredients to a rather thick but smooth dough.
-Stir in the almonds.
-Divide the dough in half, roll them out and pop them in the freezer for something like a half hour.
-Preheat that oven to 350F/175C.
-Cut out the crackers, one disc at a time. (You can reuse the dough.)
-Bake for 6-8 minutes or until it looks more dried out.

Corn Johnnycakes

Corn Johnnycakes

find it here

I'm on an American kick lately I guess. Egg creams, pudding, and johnnycakes are things that are fairly difficult to explain to other countries. Corn or maize as the British say is more typically eaten boiled/steamed or from cans. Fresh fritters? Hmmmm, M said. I worried then about cornmeal, an ingredient I've failed to find here. Semolina would have to do and it did wonderfully!

The great thing about johnnycakes is that you can make up a big batch, put it in the fridge, and fry them up real quickly for meals on the go. Also, the original recipe is downright vegan (I used dairy milk so these are only vegetarian).

you need: corn, milk, semolina (cornmeal if you have it), baking powder, baking soda, maple syrup, canola oil, lemon juice

-In a food processor, pulse the corn and milk together to chop up the corn.
-Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until combined into a wet paste.
-Let this batter rest for about 10 minutes.
-Fry up in a nonstick (corn sticks) dropping the batter in.
-Flip when browned.

Egg Cream

Chocolate Egg Cream

Find a recipe here

Occasionally I get the craving for American treats I perhaps have had only once before. Lately I've been craving egg creams which have no egg and no cream. I grab the full fat jersey milk off the shelf (tastes more than the proper milk I miss), the failed homemade vanilla extract (the whiskey overwhelmed the overused vanilla pods), the chocolate syrup (I use something like this), and pour just enough for that bubble and then I settle back for my strange American milkshake.

I say strange because it's hard to describe the effect of the seltzer/sparkling water on the milk and all my British friends don't know exactly what to make of it. The more traditional version has a lot more sparkle than milk but I prefer mine milky!

you need: really cold milk (short sojourn in the freezer cold), chocolate syrup, vanilla extract, cold sparkling water
you may like: some bourbon/whiskey?, using good chocolate milk sounds absolutely delicious.

-Start with the chocolate syrup.
-Mix in the cold milk, vanilla extract, and any booze.
-Whisk in the sparkling water.

Triple Chocolate Molasses Cookies

Triple Chocolate Molasses Cookies

see it at Averie Cooks

Once again back to the US? Apparently so. Molasses as a syrup is not really an ingredient you can find in the UK and I simply don't enjoy the taste of black treacle as much. I was in one of the mega supermarkets when I spotted molasses sugar. I didn't really think about it and just grabbed it.

Turns out it's more like an intense brown sugar so a purist type of molasses cookie was probably out of my reach. But then I remembered this recipe for doctored molasses cookies, so I reduced the amount of brown sugar these cookies asked for and mixed my molasses sugar with a bit of mild agave syrup to increase the liquid proportion. I wasn't sure it was quite going to work but to my surprise it did. Mine didn't turn out to be terribly molassesy but there was just enough of a hint for my palette to pick up and identify. My test subject enjoyed them as subtly different brown sugar cookies mainly because to describe molasses is an impossibility.

you need: butter, an egg, brown sugar, granulated sugar, molasses (see my note above), canola oil, vanilla extract, some cocoa powder, ground ginger, ground cloves, flour, baking soda, chocolate (I used milk and white chocolate chunks)

-Melt the butter.
-When slightly cooled, add in the egg.
-Beat in the sugars and molasses.
-Add in all the other ingredients and beat to a thick but tacky dough.
-Fold in your chocolate chunks.
-Freeze for about an hour. If you have more time refrigerate it for a few hours. You want this well chilled.
-Bake at 175C/350F for 8-9 minutes.

Shashouska

Shashouska

see it here

As a pescatarian/vegetarian you get served all sorts of things separate from the rest of the table. The cook is already doing you a favor so you don't really ask too many questions. They've already asked if you like spicy food, carrots, etc and when they serve me something delicious, I'm too busy enthusing about how great it was to actually remember the name of what they fed me.

I think shashouska was one of those dishes. All I recalled was this deep strongly spiced tomato sauce which "poached the egg." That's it. Then Heather posted her recipe for shashouka and I thought to myself-that's probably it! Delicious even if you make it not spicy, the depth of the sauce makes it a great base for a soft poached egg

you need: tomatoes, a can of tomatoes, olive oil, onion, garlic, bell pepper, smoked paprika, cumin, ground coriander, tumeric, egg

-Fry the onion, garlic, and pepper until soft.
-Add in the spices and toast them, stirring until fragrant.
-Add the tomatoes and simmer for as long as you can. (Makes it all nice and soft) If it seems like it might burn, add water. No seriously, add water at the slightest suspicion.
-Crack in the eggs and let poach until set.

Cullen Skink

Cullen Skink

find a recipe here

So part of living somewhere else and eating sustainably is to eat the local food. Unfortunately a lot of British staples are meat. Roasted meat. Every Sunday is a Sunday roast (I look forward to the Yorkshire Pudding, stuffing, roast potatoes...mmmm, starch) and most other things are fried (fish&chips-so delicious! so unhealthy for you! brb, gonna eat it.) So when I got told that this soup with a funny name was actually a fishy soup, I knew I was going to have to make it. Funny name, fish, and local...ish? Okay, I'm game.

This is a creamy soup that's basically made of the liquid used to poach the fish. If you're like me you struggle over what to do with the poaching liquid. It's yummy! but goodness, it's too...watery, there're scales in there, I'm always in this moral quandary over this tasty tasty stuff. Cullen Skink saves you this moral quandary by using this liquid and thickening it with mashed potato. It's ingenious really.

Except my potatoes rotted so I didn't have enough. Luckily I had leftover wild rice/rice to help.

you need: milk/single cream, some fresh herbs, bay leaf, smoked haddock (or any other firm smoked fish), butter, onions, buttered mashed potato

-Put enough milk/cream in a pan so that your fish is covered.
-Add in the bay leaf, some herbs, pepper and the fish.
-Bring to boil and simmer for about five minutes.
-Take off the heat and let rest five minutes.
-Saute the onion in the butter.
-Strain the poaching liquid and flake the fish.
-Stir in the poaching liquid to the onion and add the mashed potatoes.
-himmer it to another few minutes to make sure it's thickened.

Ricotta Tart

Ricotta Tart

see it by David Lebovitz

This may be the worst month for the lactose intolerant perusing this blog. First, weeks of pudding (basically milk and cornstarch) and now another tart, this one completely based upon ricotta. So you are going to want to get the best ricotta. I'm not yet at the point where I'll make ricotta but if you do, I bet it'd be great in this.

for the pastry
you need: flour cut with cornstarch, salt, butter, 1 egg

-Cut the butter into the drys until crumbly.
-Add in the egg until it forms a dough. You may need to do a bit of kneading to make a proper dough.
-Roll it out to thinness. If you're worried about it sticking, it helps to roll it out between parchment paper. I have a silicone rolling mat so I only need one sheet.
-Drape it into a lightly greased pan.
-Chill it for 30 minutes.

for the filling
you need: sliced spring onions, butter, chopped fresh herbs, ricotta, an egg, creme fraiche, milk

-Cook the spring onion in the butter and salt and pepper until tender.
-Mix in the herbs and then let it cool.
-Preheat at 200C/400F.
-Mix the ricotta, egg, creme, milk, and onions together.
-Pour into the tart shell.
-Bake 20-30 minutes or until just set and slightly browned.