Easter 2014

 Hello again. 

Spring is finally here, the daffodils are nearly over, the tulips are out and the flower bed in my vegetable garden is bursting with Spring flowers. 

Dicentra commonly known as Bleeding Heart, one of my favourite Spring flowers

After three and a half weeks of school holidays with a constant stream of friends and relatives visiting (26 in total), I’m finally able to blog again. 

I'm a bit foreign....

I’m Belgian (born in Brussels with a Belgian father and passport) but because I grew up in the UK, I think of it as my home and myself as English really. However there’s no doubt my motherland has had an influence, this is apparent in how we celebrate Easter so I thought I'd blog about my family's continental style celebrations.

Childhood Easters in Belgium.

A basket of eggs about to be hidden. 

When I was a child we quite often had Easter at my the farmhouse of my Walloon grandparents. 

They had 18 grandchildren and it wasn’t uncommon for us all to be there on Easter day.

Easter was a really big deal, at least as big as Christmas - possibly even more celebrated and la table de Paqûes (the Easter table), was one of the highlights of our year. This is because being a bunch of Belgians A LOT of chocolate was involved.

We’d go to church in our best clothes (this always seemed to involve a very itchy jumper) and when we got back there would be a massive egg hunt in the garden.

The Egg Hunt

At this point there was no chocolate, instead we would hunt hard boiled, dyed hen’s eggs. It was perfectly normal for my grandmother to dye and hide over 100 eggs. My cousins, siblings and I would run around wildly, lobbing eggs into our little baskets. At the end they'd all be gathered in and carried off to the breakfast table.

Hiding dyed hens' eggs not chocolate ones  is a tradition I have continued with my children.

Tulips Tony and I planted last Autumn ( see the Back to Black blog).

My Goddaughter Josephine and youngest daughter Dorothy looking for eggs among the tulips.

I had dyed 60 eggs  - they were in and around the vegetable garden.

Dorothy looking in some herb beds.

A quince tree just beyond the vegetable garden.

More eggs at the base of the Quince tree. We never find them all there are always a few left behind...

My teenage daughter Mary  joins in,  heading towards the Spring border.

The border in the vegetable garden where lots of eggs were hidden

La Table de Paqûes

  

This was always decorated and arranged in the utmost secrecy by the adults. 

The table always looked absolutely beautiful with flowers and pretty crockery and baskets of the collected coloured hen’s eggs.

At each child’s place there would be a relatively modest chocolate egg or bunny, but the rest of the table was covered in little clusters of chocolate eggs and dishes of Easter sweets were dotted about. It was a sight to make a child weep with joy and then send them into a sugar induced coma (if left unsupervised).

View of this year's  table laid for Easter breakfast.

A close up of the cut and decorated branches

Just like when I was a child everyone gets their own fairly modest egg or bunny too.

Traditions passed down

All these customs were faithfully copied throughout my childhood by my South African mother for the Easters when we weren’t in Belgium. 

I in turn have recreated them for my children for the last 19 years and I have no doubt my children, if or when they have children of their own will also recreate Bonne Maman's Easters. 

Just like Bonne Maman, I decorate the table with chocolates and sweets. 

The collected hardboiled hen's eggs

  

     

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A Valentine’s Dinner from Paris 1987

(Pepper, Salt & Lemon)

Pepper 

 This is actually an old fashioned hand coffee grinder, now used for
crushing large quantities of peppercorns - perfect for Steak au Poivre 

Living in Paris 

In my twenties fresh out of College I lived and worked in Paris as a fashion designer. My then boyfriend (now husband) was a pizza waiter/would be cartoonist and would come and visit whenever he could scrape together the coach fare - it was all glamour in those days…

My first flat was in the Rue St Martin it was typically Parisian, charming and utterly freezing in winter. Even back then, when I wasn’t working my two favourite things were cooking and going to all the marché aux puces dotted around Paris, so nothing much has changed there.

The kitchen in my ‘appartement’ was minuscule with only a two ring hob and no oven. Given my very limited budget and utensils as well as the restrictions of the kitchen I had to be very enterprising but bit by bit I built a very rudimentary ‘batterie de cuisine’ much of it from my beloved marché aux puces. 

Even now more than 25 years later I still have many of the utensils and pieces of equipment I bought as well vivid memories of some notable culinary disasters.

Salt

My enamelled tin salt box was my very first Parisian flea market buy.

Things that went wrong

The‘Coq au Vin’ I made for a dinner party using an actual coq not a chicken. After about 1000 hours of simmering and then some desperate boiling, it was still like trying to cut an old boot. We just gnawed at the bones in the end. 

The ‘Charlotte Mousse au Chocolat’ that I carefully and proudly released from it’s spring form tin and then dropped into a sink full of dirty washing up. 

The time I ruined a whole weekend for guests visiting from England by poisoning them with dodgy oysters - Happys days…

But I did learn how to make Steak au Poivre and this was something I would make for a very special occasions like Valentine’s day.

Lemon

My vintage lemon squeezer from Clignancourt

Valentine's day 1987 to Valentine's day 2014

So as a Valentine’s celebration, this February 14th I’m going to recreate a meal from Valentine’s day 1987 using my beloved kitchen equipment bought in Paris at flea markets all those years ago. Only this time I have an ice-cream maker instead of a plastic tub and a fork and three of my four children will be there for our romantic meals - ah well...

The Menu

Steak au Poivre with lemony green beans and roasted baby new potatoes

1987 revisited. Steak, cognac, cream and butter - not for the faint-hearted

Steak au poivre

There are endless different versions of this recipe some with wine, some without, ditto the cream, some even have shallots in the sauce. What they all  have in common is steak, cognac, butter and peppercorns - so whatever version you decide on you really can't go that wrong.

Ingredients for 2

I am usually more of an Onglet/Rib-eye fan, but in this instance fillet is the classic choice, but any cut works, just ensure it's thick cut.

2 x Fillet steaks (thickly cut) weighing approx 160g each 

5-6 tbls Peppercorns, very roughly crushed - a pestle and mortar works well.

2 tbls Olive Oil

2oz /55g Butter

2oz /55g Cognac or brandy

2oz very reduced home-made stock - veal is the classic but chicken is fine. 

2 tbls double cream.

Method

Start with room temperature steak, rub them all over with a drizzle of olive oil and press the peppercorns on each side.

Using a heavy based frying pan heat the oil and then add half the butter, the pan should be hot.

Sear the steaks all over, then continue to cook until a dark crust forms but take care not to overheat the pan and burn the peppercorns. 

Once the crust has formed transfer the steaks to a warm plate to rest, turn off the flame and add the cognac, it will bubble and reduce as you de-glaze the pan by scraping up the crusty bits.

Turn the heat under the pan back on and add the reduced stock.

Whisk in the butter and finally the 2 tablespoons of cream.

Pour the sauce over the warm steak.

N.B If you want your steak medium rare transfer to a preheated oven 220c for 7-10 mins to continue cooking while you make the sauce.

If you don't have reduced stock use Knorr stock pot

Lemony Green Beans

Easy, pretty, delicious. Lemon added to the cooked red onion turns them a beautiful magenta. This is probably too much for 2 people but it works just as well cold as a salad the next day

Ingredients for 2

250g Green beans (very fine)

Juice of a lemon

1 small diced red onion

5 tbsp olive oil

Salt

Method

Steam the green beans 

While they are cooking soften the red onion in the olive oil over a low heat with a couple of pinches of salt till it is soft and translucent.

Add the lemon juice and a few twist of pepper.

Leave for a few minutes and watch the onion turn magenta.

Add the onion/lemon mix to the green beans and serve.

If you want to prepare this ahead put the green beans in an ice bath once they're ready to stop them continuing to cook and fix the colour, this also brings the natural sugars to the surface and improves flavour. Once they've cooled down drain thoroughly and when you're ready to serve re heat the beans gently and only add the lemon/onion mix just before serving.

Roasted Baby New Potatoes

Back in 1987 I pan roasted these as I didn't have an oven but it's easier to roast them in the oven.

Method & Ingredients for 2

Boil 200g baby new potatoes for 5 minutes

Drain

Toss in a pan with a couple of glugs of olive oil, salt and pepper.

Place in a pre-heated oven 220 for 20 mins (or until they look like the picture).  

Give them an occasional shake so they cook evenly.

Salted Caramel Ice cream

This is not an original recipe, it is a classic with no twists but as my husband said when he tried it again - that is the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. 

Serve with two spoons from the (customised) tub 

Ingredients for 4

6floz/170g caster sugar

8floz/225ml double cream

5floz/150ml  milk

4 egg yolks

½ tsp Maldon sea salt

Melt 5floz/140g of the caster sugar in a hot pan until it 

becomes an amber / caramel colour, stir with a wooden spoon 

to ensure it caramelises evenly and doesn't burn.

Add the double cream and bring back to the boil.

Stir in the milk and take off the heat

In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks and remaining caster 

sugar until pale and foamy (this is called a sabayon).

Pour the hot caramel on to the sabayon and whisk well, then 

sieve and chill it. When it’s cold add the salt to the 

chilled mixture and churn in an ice cream machine.

Or if you don't have an ice cream machine, pour the mix into a 

plastic box and freeze removing it from the freezer every 

hour or so to work the frozen edges back into the middle. The 

texture won’t be as good but it’ll still be the best flavoured ice cream EVER.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

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Roast Pumpkin and Kale Salad.

Roasted Kale, maple roasted pumpkin, balsamic roasted red onion, pumpkin seeds & Berkswell.

A Super Seasonal Salad.

An easy, substantial winter salad. You can feel pleased with yourself about how seasonal it is and smug about how healthy it is AND most unusually for recipes that make you feel virtuous it's delicious too.

The idea for this came from a variety of sources; a radicchio and rocket salad I had at The Pig and Butcher in N1 featuring chunks of pumpkin and a generous sprinkling of grated Berkswell, a recipe from the fabulous Big Flavours & Rough Edges where roast pumpkin is paired with balsamic vinegar,red wine and thyme roasted onions and finally from my deep and abiding love of kale.

Pumpkins from my garden

Just picked Turk's Turbans. The stalks should dry out before harvesting. 

I used Turk's Turban in this recipe, which we grew this year. Turk's turban is lovely to look at and has a good flavour and stores well. Butternut squash or kabocha or ironbark pumpkin would also work well here.

Kale

Hurrah! Kale that comes ready washed and chopped.

Kale is the new wonder food. Apparently it will save your life or something like that. This is good news for me and my family because we all love it. The trick with kale is to cook it carefully (no boiling) to avoid it tasting like cattle food. This winter I grew Cavolo Nero (which is posh Italian kale). It's fantastic but given my family's brassica 'habit' we didn't grow nearly enough so it's all gone and I've started buying curly kale instead. 

However, every cloud has a silver lining, as now I'm buying kale I get it in big bags, ready washed and chopped, whereas before (with my own home-grown kale), the kitchen, my face and apron would be covered with minute little fluttering white insects. I have no idea what they were but they were a pain to get rid of, we definitely ate more than I rinsed/scrubbed away.

Berkswell

Berkswell the 'it' cheese of the moment

A hard rinded ewe's milk cheese. This cheese is ridiculously in vogue - incredible but true there are even fashions in cheese. I've seen it on practically every gastropub menu in the last 4 months. However it deserves it's success, it's REALLY good.

If you can't get Berkswell an aged Manchego or even a Pecorino or Parmesan would also work.

Red Onions

Before the addition of the wine and balsamic vinegar.

In this salad they are roasted till they caramelised with red wine, balsamic vinegar and thyme which intensifies the colour and flavour.

Pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seeds from the Turk's Turban ready to roast.

I used a combination of raw, green, hulled seeds from the supermarket and whole unhulled ones from the pumpkin which I roasted along with everything else.

Ingredients:

700g pumpkin or Butternut Squash peeled and cubed
600g kale washed chopped
4 red onions
60g Berkswell or similar
2 tablespoons Pumpkin seeds
Plus pumpkin seeds from your pumpkin
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
100ml red wine
3 tblsp maple syrup
a few sprigs of thyme
About 260ml olive oil (this may seem like a lot but a fair bit is left behind in the pan)

Serves 6 as a main course

Method

Set your oven to 200c on fan setting.
Everything in the recipe is roasted at that temperature.

First deal with the red onions:
Peel and cut each into 8 wedges being careful to retain a piece of the root so they don't fall apart.
Pour 3 tblsps of olive oil into a small roasting pan that will hold the onion segments in a single layer.
Place over a high heat and add the onion stirring them about to distribute the oil taking care not to break them. After a few moments add the wine and balsamic vinegar, season and sprinkle over the thyme. Remove from the heat, cover with foil and transfer to the oven. After 25 mins remove the foil and roast for a further 8-10 minutes.

              What they'll look like once they're roasted

Next peel and cube your pumpkin.
I found about 1.5kg of pumpkin once peeled, deseeded with stringy flesh removed yielded about 750g. If you are using butternut squash you'll get a better yield. You can buy butternut squash ready prepared at some supermarkets.
Mix together 3 tblsps Maple syrup with 4 tblsps olive oil.

Toss the cubed pumpkin in this, season well and roast until the edges are slightly charred and it's soft to the point of a knife - about 20 mins.

From this...

to this..

To maple roasted pumpkin chunks. The sweetness complements the kale.

Once the pumpkin is roasting, rinse any saved seeds and remove any strings of pumpkin flesh, pat dry, toss in a little seasoned olive oil and roast till crunchy.

Very nutty indeed. Roasted pumpkin seeds.

Wash, dry and chop up your kale. I used bags that come ready washed and chopped.
Toss all the kale in 150ml of olive oil to thoroughly coat it. This is approximately 3 tblsps / 200g bag. Spread out in a single layer on a roasting tin, season it and roast for 7-10 mins. Halfway through turn it over, scooping the outside bits into the middle so it cooks evenly.
You may have to do it in batches.
You will end up with some very crunchy kale (not unlike crispy seaweed) and some just slightly crunchy.

Crunchy roast kale 

Finally with a potato peeler, shave 60g of the cheese onto a plate.
Once everything has cooled to room temperature you can assemble it.

Make a bed of Kale, dot half the pumpkin and roast onions about and scatter over half the cheese. Do exactly the same again with another layer of kale making sure you've retained Berkswell shavings for the top, as well as the raw hulled pumpkin seeds and roast, whole ones.

Pretty and healthy

The End (literally)

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Back to Black (or nearly black)

Big and Black

Blackboard paint. 

I’m slightly obsessed with blackboard paint it’s pretty mainstream nowadays but when I first started using it about 10 years ago (I’m still in love with it 10 years later) I used to buy it in France in tiny pots. I have used it on entire walls in children’s bedrooms as well as on lots of bits of furniture big and small. 

As I remove or add things  I alter my 'In The Freezer'  list. 

In every house I’ve lived in in the last 10 or so years I’ve always had at least one wall painted with blackboard paint to serve as a notice board, a place to make lists etc..etc.. It not only looks great, it’s genuinely really useful. (See the Jars and Organising blog for photos of my last London kitchen).

In my current utility room I have a boxed in freezer and the side is painted with blackboard paint (see above) so I can list what’s in the freezer, the idea being I can see at a glance what I have without having to rummage through all the drawers.

On drawers like these where the contents don't change use a wet chalk marker

I have applied the same idea of listing the contents on cupboard doors where I keep all my scraps and sewing paraphernalia and I've painted drawers and wooden file holders which house stationery supplies. As the contents change just rub out and change the list.

  

Small and Black

Black Soap.

I always buy black soap when I see it. I hoard it. It looks very stylish and this particular brand smells lovely but best of all, unlike pale coloured bars of soap, it never looks dirty. 

Instead of traditional soap dishes I use either black slate tiles or flea market finds like this little (once silver) dish.

All Black

Nearly Black walls

I absolutely love really strong dark colours in interiors. When faced with a small room the usual solution is to paint it white to make it seem bigger. 

In my opinion this fools nobody and painting it a dark colour makes it more interesting. Furthermore a really dark wall colour is a fantastic way of uniting disparate decorative elements and making your pictures, photos, plates - whatever you have on your wall really stand out and if your walls are less than perfect it’s much less noticeable with strong dark colours. 

Start really small, the first room I painted a very, very dark grey was a loo. But by the time we left our old Blackheath house in Southeast London I’d moved onto much bigger stuff - the dining room.

It was off black with monochrome prints, pictures, photos, bugs in cases etc...

I created a ‘side board’ underneath (just seen) by placing four IKEA ‘Malm’ chests of drawers side by side painting them all the same colour as the walls and installing a single long counter top 

                                     

    In order to have some light reflection, I added a picture rail and brought the off white  ceiling colour down to meet it.

                                               

                                                                             

Outdoors and Black

                                           

Nearly black, our very own leaf mould. Two years in the making.

Leafmould 

You know you’re middle aged when you are excited by leafmould. Nearly three years after moving to our Suffolk house we have our own leafmould, it’s free and it’s beautiful. 

Pile up deciduous leaves, leave them for a couple of years and voila ! The easiest recipe you’ll ever find. 

Leafmould covers bare winter soil, reduces the need to water, enriches the soil and remains nearly black even when dry and in the same way dark walls are a foil for pictures prints etc..leafmould is a beautiful foil for acid green spring shoots.

Tony and I planting the last of the tulips mid November.

Tony and I (mainly Tony) planted nearly 1000 bulbs last month. Two thirds were tulips the nearly black ‘Queen of the Night’ as well as ‘Sorbet’ and ‘Barcelona’ and one third alliums, a mix of Purple Sensation and Azureum. In the time it took me to plant 20 bulbs Tony had planted 100 which is why in the picture he’s up my end as he had done his lot and was helping me finish mine.

                  

Nearly black 'Queen of the Night'  tulip bulbs about to be covered in soil then leafmould.

After the addition of leafmould

Black (nearly) in the Vegetable Garden.

Beans

This year we grew Blauhilde a very dark purple (about as close you’ll get to black) climbing french bean. Not only did it look wonderful in the vegetable garden the beans were as prolific as they were delicious with a really nice texture and no string. I can’t recommend it highly enough. The only thing to note is they turn an olive green when cooked.

Last month.Beans left to form seeds 

These pods were left as an experiment to produce seeds for replanting next year. However they have to be dried very carefully to be successful. We'll buy seeds too.

Radicchio

This year we grew ‘Rosa de Treviso’ even now it’s still sitting in the vegetable garden quite happily and I’ll use the last of it this week in my favourite Ina Garten recipe;

Conchiglie al Forno with Mushrooms and Radicchio

Next year I’m planning to grow Chioggia Radicchio which looks like a mini cabbage as my favourite way to eat radicchio is griddled and this type lends itself better to griddling.

Rosa de Treviso radicchio

Black and on me

Bogs

Black boots that will never go out of style - Bogs. I love my Bogs, at the weekend when I’m outdoors I live in them. You're supposed to wear them on the big side to allow warm air to circulate round your feet so you only need normal socks and they’re very easy to pull on and off. They keep your feet warm and dry whatever the weather. Worth every penny.

                                       

My trusty Bogs

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Crab Apples - Flowers, Foliage and Fruit

They look like winter cherries

Crab apples to decorate 

I absolutely love crab apple trees, so pretty and so productive, from their lovely blossom in spring right through to bright little fruit in the autumn which stay happily on the tree right into winter. Just when the garden is looking particularly stark, they provide vibrant splashes of colour and as well as being ornamental, crab apples are a food supply for birds and with a minimal amount of effort food for us too. 

If you have a few trees and can afford to, cut some branches and you’ll have an arrangement that lasts weeks and weeks.

Crab apple branches with their leaves about 3 weeks ago

Once all the leaves have come off you’ll be left with just the brightly coloured fruit and twiggy branches - very architectural, very elegant and very easy to do.

I almost prefer them leafless and the crab apples don’t drop, in fact the opposite is true, when you’re picking them for jelly you have to fight them off the tree.

Three weeks later, no leaves but still looking lovely, remove the leaves as they die.

Crab apples to eat

I had never made crab apple jelly before or any kind of jelly come to that but with the right equipment it was really, really easy.

I think the only crucial piece of equipment, that you may not already own, is a jam straining kit. My jam straining kit (by Tala) cost less then £5 and consisted of a chrome wire stand and a washable, reusable nylon straining bag. 

The bag looked small but once the fruit was cooked and a bit collapsed it held a suprising amount. 

Everything else like measuring jugs, wooden spoons, large saucepan etc...you probably already have.

I did buy a maslin pan partly too, because I’m a sucker for kitchen equipment but also because I’m planning to bombard everyone with membrillo, medlar and crabapple jelly for Christmas and forever more, but if you don’t overfill a regular large saucepan I don’t think it’s that necessary.

In the maslin pan stalks and all. About 1/3 were bigger so I cut them up.

Crab apple jelly recipe

2 kg crab apples

500g caster sugar ( approximately but use the 7/10 ratio rule)

1/2  lemon, juiced

Wash the apples, removing any obviously rotten bits it’s fine to leave stalks but not twigs! Put in a saucepan, fill with water to just cover the apples. I used some small sour apples too, so cut them up to the size of the crab apples

Bring to the boil and simmer until the fruit is soft (about 30 minutes).

Pour the pulp into a jelly bag or several layers of muslin and let drip into a pan. Do NOT squeeze the bag or it will make the juice cloudy. Lots of recipes specify overnight but my bag seemed to stop dripping after a few hours.

Measure the juice, and add sugar in the ratio of 10 parts juice to 7 of sugar. Add some lemon juice, then bring to the boil, if necessary stir to dissolve the sugar.

Keep at a rolling boil for 40 minutes, skimming off the froth. To test the set, chill a dessertspoon in the refrigerator.

When the jelly is at setting point, it will solidify on the back of the spoon. 

Pour into warm, sterilised preserving jars ( smaller ones are better) and tightly seal while still slightly warm. Store in a cool dark place.

I read that smaller jars are better because if you repeatedly put spoons etc into the jar it can cause it to liquefy.

The Finished jelly. These pretty jars came from Heals and they're the perfect size.

Crab apples in the garden

I now have five crab apple trees in my garden.

Two were there when we bought the house (no idea what varieties) and I planted three more (two John Downie and a Red Sentinel) this year. 

I’ve been so delighted with them I’ll plant more when I can think of a suitable place. 

Equally ornamental without their leaves

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