Know Your Cake

This is my 20 page guide to cakes from around the world. The countries these cakes, pastries, pies and desserts come from include France of course, and Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Japan and America.  With it you’ll be able to name your cake and eat it too. With the guide they’ll be no more not knowing the name of the cake you just ate or wondering how you are ever going to order it again.  

Sample of one of the pages

The PDF was actually made for another of my blogs, but since it is related to food I thought it would fit right in here. Don’t expect anything too fancy or detailed; a lot of it is just cut and paste from here and there on the internet, but  it’s put together everything in one place and does the job.

Download PDF of  Kobi’s Cake Guide version 2.3

 

Roasted Spatchcock a.k.a. Butterflied Chicken

(serves 4, or more depending on size of bird)
Spatchcock is a fancy word for butterflying the whole chicken. It sounds hard, but its quite the opposite. There are many advantages to spatchcocking. First and foremost a flattened chicken roasts more evenly, resolving a major issue with roasting chickens for those without a rotisserie; the thighs take longer to cook than the breast, but ironically when you roast a whole bird it is the breast that is more exposed to heat. Spatchcocking exposes the legs more and brings the breast down, saving the day. In addition, a spatchcocked chicken cooks in half the time and is in a more convenient shape for fitting on a fridge shelf.      

Ingredients

1. Chicken, whole (1)
2. Onion (1)
3. Potatoes (2)
4. Yam (1)
5. Carrot (1)
6. Salt
7. Brown Sugar
8. Butter
9. Rosemary
10. Fennel Seeds

Preparation Part I

1. You have to begin preparation the night before.
2. Starting on either side of the bishop’s nose, cut towards the corresponding side of the chicken’s neck (as per the picture below). This is best accomplished using a pair of kitchen shears. You will need to cut through the ribs, but not to worry, these are pretty flimsy in a chicken.
3. From the inside of the chicken, snip an incision along the cartilage of the breast bone (it is white) top to bottom to weaken it. Be careful not to pierce the skin on the other side.
4. Flip the bird over and press down on the breast with both hands to flatten it. You should end up with the iconic cartoon heart shape chicken breast.
5. Prepare a brining solution using 1T salt, 1t brown sugar for every two cups of water. Make enough brine to ensure the entire chicken is submerged. Brine the chicken for 8 hours. If the weather is warm, either add a some ice every once in a while or leave the brining bird in the fridge.

Preparation Part II

1. When the brining is done (presumably the next day), place the bird on a wire tray to dry (as shown below). This will take several hours and again is best done in the fridge. Alternatively you can use a portable fan.
2. You must dry the bird properly for it is the key prerequisite to a properly roasted chicken. The chicken is considered sufficiently dry when you put a piece of kitchen towel on it and the paper remains dry but sticks to the skin like a second skin.
3. In a small pan, heat 1 heaped t of dried rosemary, 1 heaped t of fennel seeds in 4T of oil until you can smell a strong aroma. Turn off the heat before the herbs get burnt. Leave the pan on the stove while the chicken is drying; more herb flavour will be infused into the oil.

Preparation Part III

1. Cut the potatoes and the yam into chunks. Depending on the variety you may want to peel them first. The yams should be double the size of the potatoes as they cook faster.
2. Cut the carrot into discs and the onion into small wedges. Place all the vegetables on a baking tray.
3. Preheat the oven to 205^oC (400^oF).
4. Reheat the infused oil. When the oil becomes less viscous, strain the oil into a container. Add a large knob of butter to the oil. Next dissolve half a t of salt in the butter-oil mixture. Drizzle half of this mixture over the vegetables using a spoon.
5. Position the chicken over the vegetables on the tray. Make sure all the vegetables end up under the chicken as any piece left exposed will become burnt beyond recognition.
6. Paint the remainder of the oil-butter mixture on the chicken with a brush.
7. Place the chicken in the oven for 45 minutes, 50 minutes if it is a bigger bird.
8. When the chicken is golden brown, remove the pan from the oven without turning it off. Place the chicken on a large serving plate to rest after giving it a light dusting of pepper.
9. Roll the vegetables about in the tray to cover them with drippings, space them evenly and place the tray back in the oven for around 10 minutes. When the vegetables have caramelized sufficiently, arrange them around the chicken on the plate. Pour any remaining drippings over the chicken and serve.

Notes

• As you can see from the pictures, the legs were open at an angle while drying but became parallel to each other after cooking as the meat contracted. Purists will secure the chicken with 2 long metal skewers in an X pattern, from the left thigh through to the right breast and vice versa to keep the chicken completely flat. This also helps all the skin brown more evenly. I think its a bit of an overkill, but skewers are definitely a good idea when BBQing.
• My brining mixture is a relatively weak one as we are brining the whole chicken and not just the breast. If you like your roast chicken on the salty side, you can double the salt in the butter-oil mixture to a full teaspoon.  
• The back and spine that is cut out is good for boiling stock. If you don’t need it concurrently, you can wrap it in cling film and freeze if for later.

 

Chicken A La King

(serves 3)
Chicken A La King is simple conceptually, but it is one of the most difficult dishes to perfect. My mom taught me how to make this the standard way when I was young and over the decades I’ve developed my own improved method of preparing Chicken A La King, one that has superior flavour and at the same time avoids all your typical A La King problems (see notes). I have yet to taste a better version in any restaurants I’ve tried – something I can’t say about any of my other recipes. 

Ingredients

1. Chicken Legs with Thigh (2)
2. Capsicum a.k.a. Bell Pepper (1)
3. Brown Mushrooms (150g)
4. Leek (1)
5. Milk (1 cup)
6. Butter (100g)
7. Flour (3T)
8. Anchovy in Oil (10g)
9. Chicken Stock Cube (1/2)
10. Cream Cheese (1T)
11. Worcestershire Sauce
12. Sherry
13. Coriander Seed Powder
14. Cooked Rice (4 cups)

Preparation 

1. Pour 1 cup of milk in a cup and spoon 1T of cream cheese into a bowl, to let them warm up.
2. Fry 2 slivers of anchovy in its oil in a pot until you can mash the anchovy into a fine suspension. Add 3 cups of water and half a chicken cube and bring to a low simmer.
3. Cut the leek in two and put the top (green) part into the stock pot. Slice the bottom portion lengthwise into half, then cut into 1/8 inch thick half rings. Cut the mushroom into 1/4 inch thick slices. Cut the capsicum into 1/2 inch squares; making sure you discard all the seeds and white pulp.
4. Debone the chicken legs and add the bones to the stock pot. Cut the meat into bite sized chunks – its more important that the pieces of chicken are of the same thickness than of the same volume. Place any excess flaps of skin into the stock pot.
5. Mix 1T of oil, 1T Worcestershire sauce, 1t coriander seed powder, 0.5t salt in a large bowl. Put the chicken chunks into the bowl and mix well.
6. Stir fry the leek pieces in a large pan with some oil on low heat until they begin to go limp. Turn up the fire and push the leek to one side of the pan.
7. Add the chicken when the pan is really hot and stir fry until no visible part of the chicken is raw. Then combine with the leek and continue to stir fry until the chicken is cooked (i.e. shrunk a bit like the first photo). Move the chicken to a temp container.
8. Melt 70g (1/3 of a standard block) of butter in the same pan on low heat. Spoon in 3T of flour and stir fry until the flour begins to darken. Very slowly add the cup of milk a bit at a time while stirring continuously with a flat spatula to combine all three ingredients. When all the milk is used up, continue the process by adding the hot chicken stock instead. Finally, stir the cream cheese into the sauce. When you are done you should have a smooth velvety white sauce.
9. Add the diced capsicum to the sauce and continue to simmer, until the capsicum is no longer rigid. This will take a while, perhaps 10 minutes, add hot water as needed. Next add the mushrooms and 1T of sherry. When the mushrooms begin to shrink, add the chicken and simmer for 1 more minute. Sprinkle on black pepper and taste the sauce to see if salt is required.
10. Serve with steamed white rice, topped with a knob of butter.

Notes

• Capsicums comes in 4 different colours which have different tastes. Red is sweet and easiest on the taste buds, Green is an acquired taste as it is less ripe and bitter. Orange and yellow capsicums are in between the two. A mixture of two types would be visually pleasing if you are cooking a double portion.
• If you are using chicken breasts instead of legs, you should brine them first. There will be no need to marinate the brined chicken pieces as they are already salty.
• Chicken A La King is supposed to be served with steamed white rice. If you don’t have rice, the other permissible option for Chicken A La King is puff pastry cups (a.k.a. vol au vent). I am against serving it with bread or pasta as some websites show. 
• How is my recipe different from the commonly used ones?
  • 1. Cooking the chicken separately under a high heat will remove any freezer taste.
  • 2. Using chicken stock enhanced with anchovy brings out the flavour of chicken in the white sauce.
  • 3. The extended cooking time for the sauce removes any residual taste of flour and fully infuses the sauce with the taste of the capsicum.

 

Duck Confit and Sherry Pot Pie

(serves 6)
This Duck and Sherry Pie is a great festive dish for the winter season. It is quick and convenient as the Duck Confit (Cuisse de Canard Confit) will provide all the flavor that you’ll need. And the meat in Duck Confit already comes tender, so you don’t need to stew any duck for hours either. Furthermore the recipe resolves the issue of confit being overly salty by cooking the pie filling with sherry and sweet potatoes.      

Ingredients

1. Duck Leg Confit (2)
2. Carrot (1 large)
3. Onion (1)
4. Sweet Potato (2)
5. Mushrooms (100g)
6. Peas (1/2 cup)
7. Milk (1 cup)
8. Sherry
9. Mustard
10. Flour
11. Potato (2) – for the crust

Preparation 

1. Peel sweet potatoes and carrot. Cut the sweet potatoes and the mushrooms into 1 inch pieces. Dice the carrot and onion into 1/2 inch cubes or pieces.
2. Debone the duck confit. This should be an easy task as the meat is practically falling off the bone anyway. Break up the duck meat into large chunks with two forks. Gently heat the duck confit in a pot, just enough to liquefy the lard the confit comes in.
3. Spoon 6T of the duck oil into a pan and decant the rest into a bowl or jar for storage.
4. Place the pan on a low fire and fry the onion and carrot bits until the onion softens.
5. Sprinkle on 2T of flour and continue to stir fry for a minute. Slowly stir in 2/3 cup of milk, followed by 1/2 cup of sherry. Next add sufficient hot water to result in thin sauce. Add the sweet potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Next add the mushroom, peas and duck to the pan. Sprinkle on 1t sugar, 1t mustard and 1t of black pepper. After simmering for a further 5 minutes your filling will be ready.
7. For the crust, boil 2 large potatoes for 15 minutes, peel and then mash them with 1/3 cup milk and 2T of duck oil.
8. Pour your pie filling into either a large baking dish or spoon into individual ramekins or gratin dishes. Cover with a layer of the mash. Bake in the oven at 180^oC until the crests of the mash get brown.

Notes

• For a traditional pastry type pie, skip step 7 & 8 and follow the procedure as described in my Savoury Pies Page.
• You’ll notice that we didn’t need to use any salt, stock cubes or herbs. This is because confit is pre-marinated with herbs, garlic and a hefty amount of salt and then cooked in its own rendered lard as you will see from my Duck Confit Page, If we had used butter and flour to make the sauce instead, you’d need to add all kinds of other ingredients to get the taste right.
• As you are not baking the duck confit directly to get a crispy skin, there is no need to buy ‘fresh’ duck confit from the grocer. Those that come in a can are perfectly fine for this recipe.
• Some of my friends prefer to eat my duck filling with bread instead of inside a pie, as pictured at the top of the page. This is even more convenient.
• If you would like a creamier pie, add 2T of sour cream in step 6.

 

High Tea Sandwich Rolls

(serves 6)
The sandwich roll is simple yet elegant way of making canapés. There are several advantages to the sandwich roll.  Sandwich rolls are easier to make than fancy tower canapés. They don’t dirty your hands eating them. However you hold them you don’t have to worry about bits falling off. They are bite-sized. Less bread is exposed to air, reducing the amount of bread that dries as your sandwiches sit there waiting to be eaten. And you know what? Sandwich rolls just look nice.         

Ingredients

1. Eggs (3)
2. Smoked Salmon (100g)
3. Anchovy in Oil (Small Tin)
4. White Bread (12 Slices)
5. Red Onion (1)
6. Cucumber (1)
7. Cream Cheese (200g)
8. Guacamole (150g)
9. Dill Weed.
10. Nori Sheet (1, optional)
11. Maple Syrup
12. Cumin
13. Mayonnaise

 

The Basics

1. Use white sandwich bread or yellow bread. Brown bread is harder and less malleable, not meant for rolling.
2. As you can’t roll bread with crust, its best to use bread that is perfectly square or rectangular.
3. Use bread that is fresh, that you just bought from the supermarket, not bread you have kept in the fridge for a week. Dry bread will be too brittle to bend without cracking.
4. After you have cut the crusts off, flatten each piece of bread individually. This is the secret to the rolled sandwich, squashing it with a rolling pin. You can also press down sequentially using the cheek of the blade of a large knife to achieve the same effect.
5. Whatever you choose to put inside your sandwich must include a creamy spread like mayonnaise, Heinz sandwich spread, tahini, cream cheese, peanut butter, jam etc. as the binding agent. This will hold the roll in place.
6. The simplest version consists of just a simple spread which you cover the entire piece of bread with – like the Curried Egg Salad Rolls below.
7. For variety you can add slender sticks of cucumber or cheese for texture – like the Anchovy Infused Cream Cheese Rolls below.
8. You cannot use whole sheets of meat or cheese and this will completely nullify the effect of the binding spread, unless you rolled them up and have them as the core. This method is shown in the Smoked Salmon Avocado Rolls at the bottom.
9. The 3 varieties explained here are savoury, but you can make sweet sandwich rolls too. Dried apricot or fresh bananas can be used as the core for example.

Curried Egg Salad Rolls 

1. Boil 3 eggs for 15 minutes. Begin with cold water so the eggs don’t crack and begin counting the time only after the water starts boiling. Peel after the eggs have cooled.
2. Dice half a red onion and fry on low heat with a little oil till the onion is limp.
3. Cut each egg in half and spoon the yolk into a bowl. Mash the yolk with 3T of mayonnaise.
4. Add 0.5t cumin, 0.5t pepper and 2 pinches of salt.
5. Dice the egg white and mix it into the bowl with the onion bits.
6. Cut the crust off and then flatten 4 slices of bread.
7. Spread the egg salad onto the bread as shown. You’ll need to leave one end empty as the whites make the egg salad a bit lumpy.
8. Spread some plain mayonnaise onto the empty part to seal the roll.
9. Roll the bread tightly (from the right in this picture).
10. Slice each roll into 3. Use a gentle sawing motion and don’t press down on the knife.
11. Rest the rolls on a plate with the edge at the bottom for a while before standing them up.

Anchovy Infused Cream Cheese Rolls

1. Allow 200g of cream cheese to warm to room temperature. You can also use a short burst in the microwave oven.
2. Dice the remaining 1/2 red onion into fine bits. The bits should be smaller than for the egg salad rolls, since you’ll be eating them raw. Reserve half of this for the smoked salmon rolls.
3. Peel and cut a cucumber into thin strips as long as your bread. Try to avoid the seedy core as it is less crunchy. Slice more strips than you need as you’ll be using some for the smoked salmon rolls as well.
4. Mash 2t of anchovy in the oil they came in.
5. Mix the anchovy emulsion, 2t maple syrup and half of the onion bits into the soft cream cheese.
6. Cut the crust off and then flatten 4 slices of bread.
7. Spread the anchovy cheese mixture onto the bread. Add a few cucumber strips as shown. Be sure to leave one end empty.
8. Roll the bread tightly (from the left in this picture). Slice each roll, following the instructions as per above.

Smoked Salmon Avocado Rolls

1. Cut the smoked salmon into long strips and marinate with a little bit of oil, some black pepper and dill weed.
2. Mix the remaining diced raw onion with 150g of guacamole or avocado dip. Avocado is soft even when cold so there is no need to let it warm up.
3. Cut the crust off and then flatten 4 slices of bread.
4. Spread the guacamole evenly onto your bread.
5. Arrange pieces of smoked salmon with a few cucumber strips on one end as shown.
6. Roll the bread tightly using the salmon as the core.
7. Slice each roll, following the instructions as per before.

 

 

The Professional Look 

1. Even the best made sandwich rolls following all the rules of sandwich rolling might unroll a bit at the loose end.
2. One way to prevent this is to apply a few bands of Nori (Japanese dried processed seaweed) before you cut your rolls as shown below. All you need to stick the ends of the Nori strips to each other is a dab of water. You can see the final result of banding in the photo right at the top.
3. You can also cover the entire roll with Nori to create sandwich sushi, as shown on the right.
4. All the your rolls will look alike if you cut them the same way. Slicing the rolls diagonally will give some variation to your sandwich rolls. This will help your guests distinguish between the different varieties that you made.
5. Yellow bread is another option for differentiation.
6. You can also give some colour to your sandwiches by dusting (the outside surface, and do this before you apply the spread) them with some fine coloured spices. Paprika for example will result in a light orangey coat.

 

 

Chestnut and Garlic Soup

(serves 6-8)
There is nothing like some hot Chestnut Soup to warm you up when its chilly outside. The one problematic thing with chestnut soup is the sweetness of chestnuts. When it comes to this particular genre of soups, its very easy to cross the line from soup to dessert. Thats where the garlic and pancetta in my recipe come in.  All said, this is a simple recipe, with only a few ingredients, but the result is a whole bowl of yummy goodness.  

Ingredients

1. Peeled Chestnuts (600g)
2. Pancetta (150g)
3. Garlic (8 cloves = 0.5 bulb)
4. Chicken Stock Cubes (2)
5. Bourbon
6. Nutmeg
7. Oregano
8. Sage

Preparation 

1. Seal the peeled chestnuts in a gallon zip-loc bag with most of the air squeezed out. Bash the chestnuts with a meat mallet or rolling pin till the chestnut is reduced to little bits.
2. In a pot with 4 cups of boiling water, dissolve 2 chicken stock cubes.
3. Add the chestnuts to the pot and simmer for ninety minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. In the meanwhile peel half a bulb of garlic and put the cloves through the garlic press for mincing. 
5. Next, fry 150g of cubed pancetta on low heat in a pan until the fat has pretty much melted and the pancetta begins to crisp. Add the garlic and continue to fry til the garlic starts to brown nicely. Immediately turn off the heat and add a cup of water to stop the garlic from getting burnt.
6. When the ninety minutes is up, your chestnut bits should have soften nicely. Blend the chestnut pieces into a watery puree using an immersion blender. Chestnuts are pretty tough so you’ll need to stir the blender around the pot on high power for about 30 seconds to whip the soup into a nice creamy texture.
7. Add the contents of the pan into the pot and bring to a simmer again. Add 2t sage, 1t nutmeg and 1t oregano, 2T of bourbon. Maintain the simmer for fifteen minutes so the crispy pancetta can soak in some moisture.
8. Towards the end, add water to bring your soup to the consistency you like. Sprinkle with black pepper, taste and add salt til the soup tastes just right. Garnish with a bit of chopped parsley.

Notes

• Nowadays you can just buy peeled chestnuts but if you are starting off with raw chestnuts, cut a cross on the shell (so they don’t explode) and roast them in an oven for 20 minutes at about 200^oC before peeling them.   
• Chestnuts are naturally sweet so you’ll want to use the smoked or affumicata type of pancetta. Pancetta is seasoned with lots of herbs so they release a really nice complex taste into the soup. Don’t be tempted to drain off the oil that melts into the pan, that’s where the flavour lies. There is more than enough starch from the chestnuts to emulsify the oil so your soup won’t be oily.
• Tip: add a teaspoon of miso in place of salt for that extra dimension of flavour.

 

Mini Chicken Wellington

(serves 4)
This is the chicken version of Beef Wellington. Chicken needs to be fully cooked, so chicken wellington is flat and not cylindrical, and since fully cooked chicken will tend to be drier than medium rare beef, some chopped spinach is used instead of onion to boost moistness. Besides those 2 changes, this Chicken Wellington is pretty much the same as its beef cousin – meat covered with a generous amount of foie gras and mushrooms, baked inside a pastry shell.

Ingredients

1. Chicken Fillet (500g)
2. Mushrooms (150g)
3. Spinach Leaves (100g = 1 box)
4. Foie Gras Mousse (125g = 3/4 inch slab)
5. Puff Pastry Sheets (2)
6. Mascarpone (60g)
7. Butter
8. Basil
9. Coriander Seed Powder
10. Sherry

Preparation 

1. Your chicken breast meat should preferably be of good quality(read as tender) and fresh. If not, and especially if you are using frozen chicken, you will need to brine the chicken first.
2. In a bowl mix with 3T of olive oil, mix 1T sherry, 1t finely chopped basil, 1/2t coriander seed powder, 1/2t salt and 1/2t black pepper. If you brined your chicken, skip the salt. Cut the chicken breast into pieces that will fit the pastry shape of your choice and then marinate them in the oil.
3. Stack the spinach and julienne the into short slices. Cut the mushrooms into small bits. With a knob of butter, fry the spinach and mushroom in a pan till the mushrooms have shrunk. Add the foie gras mousse, including the layer of fat that comes with it. Stir fry until the mousse melts.
4. Pour the contents of the pan into a bowl and mix in 60g of mascarpone while it is still piping hot. Put the bowl in the fridge to cool. I will refer to this as the foie gras duxelles (althought this term is not 100% correct). 
5. When the foie gras duxelles has cooled enough to solidify, take 2 frozen puff pastry sheets out of the freezer. Grease your baking tray with butter and preheat the oven to 180^oC (350^oF).
6. When the puff pastry begins to soften, it is time to build your mini chicken wellingtons. If you know your way around puff pastry the triagular parcel method is preferred, you can make 4 individual parcels this way – one for each person. If not, the rectangular strudel style method is easier for beginners.
7. Spoon a bed of foie gras duxelles onto the centre of the pastry, arrange the chicken pieces over this, and then cover the chicken with a second layer of the foie gras duxelles. Seal up the pastries and place them on the baking tray.
8. For details and tips on using, folding and cooking puff pastry, refer to my savoury pies page. 
9. Bake for about half an hour or until the pastry has puffed up nicely and is golden brown. After turning off the oven, allow your mini chicken wellingtons to cool for a bit in the oven with the oven door left open.

Notes

• Because of the high temperatures used in this recipe, there is no point in using the more expensive types of foie gras, foie gras (50%) mousse is good enough. In fact, if you are feeling frugal, you can even use the canned pork liver pate from plumrose instead.
• Using marscapone instead of cream helps makes your filling stiffer at room temperature, a very useful feature when working with pastry without a pie tray.
• If you like this, you’ll probably appreciate my chiken pie recipe as well. 

 

Roast Chicken Soup

(serves 6)
This is a wholesome soup that I invented after much experimenting to capture the meaty goodness of roast chicken. It’s got chunks of roasted chicken and pancetta, croutons of baked carrots and mushrooms. Trust me, you won’t be able to think of anything else but roast chicken while the soup is swirling around in your mouth. Kobi’s hearty roast chicken soup is a meal in itself, perfect for those winter months.   

Ingredients (Roast Chicken)

1. Chicken Legs with Thigh (4)
2. Diced Pancetta (80g)
3. Rosemary 
4. Thyme

Ingredients (Soup)

1. Onion (2)
2. Carrot (1)
3. Brown Mushrooms (100g)
4. Butter (50g)
5. Milk (1 cup)
6. Flour
7. Chicken Stock Cube (1)
8. Brandy

Preparation 

1. You have to first roast four chicken legs according to this recipe.
2. While the chicken is in the oven, dice your onions into 1/2 inch pieces and then stir fry them in 50g of butter under very low heat until they caramelize. It should take about 25 minutes. Turn the heat off when the onions are, a deep shade of brown and leave the pan on the stove.
3. When the chicken is cooked, place 3 legs into a pot with 4 cups of boiling water. Set to simmer and add a dissolved chicken stock cube. Set aside the fourth leg, you’ll be using it later. Pour the drippings (including the pancetta) into the frying pan with the onions.
4. Degalze the baking tray with some of the boiling chicken stock, and after some light scraping, pour the mixture back into the chiken stock.  
5. Dice your carrot into small cubes and then cut the mushrooms into pieces which are about 3x larger than the carrots (because they will shrink). Put the carrots and mushrooms into the baking tray and stir well with 2T olive oil. Bake this for 25 minutes in the oven at 175^oC (350^oF) .
6. After the chiken has simmered for at least an hour, take the chicken legs out. Mash the meat of one leg with your hands till you get loose fibres of meat and put this back in the stock. Discard the other 2 boiled legs.
7. Set the heat to medium for the frying pan with the onions. When the pan is hot, sprinkle in 2T of plain flour and reduce the heat to low. Stir fry for two minutes or so to cook the flour and then pour in 1 cup of milk 1/5 cup at a time, stirring all the time to prevent lumping. You should end up with a thick brown soup base.
8. Stir in 2 ladles of the chick stock to the pan slowly to thin down the soup base even more. Pour the resulting mixture back into the soup pot. Boil for another 5 minutes.
9. When its time to serve the soup, add 2T of brandy and a sprinkle of black pepper, and reboil. Shred the meat of the last chicken leg (the one that wasn’t boiled). Add the chicken meat only after you turn the heat off. Taste to see if you wish to add salt. Ladle the soup into serving dishes and sprinkle on the roasted carrots and mushrooms.  

Notes

• For those of you interested in french cuisine terminology, flour fried in butter is called roux. If you add milk to roux, it becomes béchamel sauce. If you had added the chicken stock without the milk, it would have become a velouté sauce instead. Since we added both milk and chicken stock, I have no idea what that is called…cream soup I guess.
• You can use leftover chicken, so make a double batch of roast chicken, that way you can eat your chicken and drink it too (at a later meal).

 

Herb Roasted Chicken Legs

(serves 2 for meal, 4 for snack)
This is a simple way of roasting really delicious chicken legs. If there is one meat you need to roast well, its chicken. Roast chicken is the intermediate ingredient for many other wonders of the kitchen, like chicken sandwiches and chicken salads. Some herbs in the marinate and pancetta, a type of Italian bacon, is all you really need to bring out the best flavours in your roast chicken. Best of all, this recipe is easy, good for those times you can’t afford to expend too much effort preparing food.   

Ingredients

1. Chicken Legs with Thigh (4)
2. Diced Pancetta (80g)
3. Rosemary 
4. Thyme

Preparation 

1. Trim off the loose flaps of skin on the chicken if any and pad with paper towels to dry them. If you have time, leave the chicken in the fridge uncovered for a few hours to dry it out, but this is an optional step you can skip if you don’t have time.
2. Dissolve 1t of salt in 3T of olive oil and then add 1.5t rosemary, 1.5t thyme and 0.5t pepper. Mix well.
3. Marinate the chicken and then leave the legs in a baking pan for an hour for the flavor to set in. The herbs like to stick to the parts of the chicken with no skin, so make sure the herbs cover the chicken evenly.
4. Sprinkle the diced pancetta on and around the chicken (see the photo below).
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes in the oven preheated to 175^oC (350^oF) depending on the size of the legs. Increase the temperature to 200^oC for the last 10 minutes if you like your chicken browned to a bronze shade.
6. That’s basically it, but there are a few options you can pick from for the chicken drippings (including the pancetta bits).
1. Meal – Boil two potatoes ahead of time and roughly mash the potatoes in the drippings and 1/4 cup milk.
2. Snack – Mix 1 t dijon mustard into the drippings to make a nice mustard gravy.
3. Sandwich – If you are going to make roast chicken sandwiches, just shred the chicken meat and then drench the meat with the drippings (plus 2T mayonnaise if you want it creamy).

Notes

• Pancetta can be bought pre-diced at the right supermarket/deli. There are usually two flavours, savoury and sweet. Make sure you don’t buy the sweet type (labled dolce) by accident.
• In case you were wondering. Pancetta is salt cured, seasoned with spices like nutmeg and fennel, and matured over a period of at least 3 months. It may look similar to but its not the same as bacon.
• Can you use chicken breasts instead? Yes. But you should brine them first, and the recipe won’t be simple anymore. Also, its crucial to get the cooking time exact for breasts. When you breasts begin to shrink a bit, that’s when they are ready.

 

Bread and Butter Pudding

(serves 10)
One of my absolute favourites, buttered bread soaked and then baked in custard. In a contest between Bread and Butter Pudding and French Toast, we see one of the rare instances where British cuisine triumphs. A great dessert made from simple ingredients, that can be made before hand, that can be made in large quantities with little effort, that can be eaten hot or cold; What more could anyone ask for?      

Ingredients

1. Milk (800ml)
2. Eggs (6)
3. Butter (80g)
4. Bread (1 loaf)
5. Raisins (1/2 cup)
6. Sugar (1/2 cup)
7. Nutmeg
8. Cinnamon
9. Rum

Pre-preparation 

1. A day before, slice your loaf into 3/4 inch slices. You can’t use pre-sliced bread as the slices are too thin.
2. Next we do the ‘test fit’. Pick a shallow pyrex dish than can hold at least 10 cups. Arrange the slices once in the bakeware so you know exactly how many slices you’ll be needing. Overlap the slices like a stack of fallen dominoes and use a left right arrangement, as shown in the photo below.
3. Leave the bread in the fridge to dry out the bread, with or without the dish.
4. Soak 1/2 cup of raisins in 3T of rum.

Preparation

1. Its now one day later; spread butter on one side of each slice of bread. Use salted butter as a bit savoury taste is essential. Sprinkle nutmeg and cinnamon on the buttered side of the bread. Be generous with the butter, nutmeg and cinnamon as they are what gives flavour to the pudding.
2. Arrange the buttered bread in the pyrex, the same way as before. Scatter 3/4 of the raisins between the slices of bread.
3. Lightly beat 4 eggs and 2 egg yolks with half a cup of sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in 800ml of milk and any of the rum not soaked up by the raisins. Put the whole mixture through a fine strainer to remove strands of albumin.
4. Pour the strained mixture into the pyrex. The bread will float even when its wet (ever feed swans in a pond?) but their arrangement will make sure only a small amount of each piece sticks out. If you ignored me and arranged them like a brick wall, some pieces will be completely free floating now. If you ignored me and used a deep baking dish, all the bread will gather at the top now.
5. Let the bread soak for half an hour. You will need to gently push the bread (with your palm) down once in a while so they become totally submerged. Even though they float, the idea is to make sure the portions above the custard are soaked as well. If you ignored me and used thin pre-sliced bread, the bread will begin to fall apart now.
6. Preheat your oven to 150^oC (300^oF).
7. After the soaking is done, sprinkle the remaining raisins and 1T of sugar on the surface. Place uncovered into the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.
8. The bread will eventually be seen to puff up and this is a sign the pudding is close to being done. Wait a while more and the bread should begin to brown nicely, that is when the pudding can come out. Allow the pudding to stand for a few hours before serving.

Notes

• Glazing the pudding is a nice extra touch and a chance to add an extra layer of flavour. When the bread puffs, this is the signal for you to brush on a layer of golden syrup, mapel syrup, marmalade etc. Place back into the oven after brushing on the glazing of course.
• The best bread to use is supposedly brioche, i.e. a bread with a high egg and milk content. If you are unsure, this just means any bread that is yellow. Any bread that is tough or is made from whole grain will not work.
• If you wish to serve the pudding warm, you still need to allow it to cool before you reheat it. I would normally serve warm B&B pudding with a vanilla custard sauce (made easily from custard powder). 
• Some people swear that panettone, left over from christmas, is the best bread to use but i have never tried this. It helps of course that panettone conveniently has soaked raisins embedded in it to start with.