Sausages Part Two: Sausage and Mash Anew

This is like a big hug on a plate. It's so straightforward to do, and pretty much does all the work for you. Though it is such a simple dish, there are some good strong flavours to help lift it out of the mundane. You can really use any veg mash you like but as celeriac is my favourite and carrot compliments the sweetness in the sauce, and it's good to have an earthier vegetable like swede to balance it out. I've taken a picture of some of the ingredients because photographing cooked sausages is no easy feat. I challenge all photographers to make this and then create an appetising picture. It is feasible, but I had a hot dinner to worry about. Well, here you go:

Serves 4

A pack of sausages (I like Cumberland for this one)

2 tbsp of wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp of Dijon mustard

3 tbsp runny honey

One celeriac (small)

5 small-medium carrots

One swede (small)

2 tbsp of fresh thyme, picked from the woody stalk

Large knob of salted butter (if mash seems very dry, then add more I say)

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Chop up the veg into inch cubes so they don't take forever to cook. Cook in salted boiling water for about 20 minutes - check that they are tender before emptying the water. When you put the veg into the water put the sausages into the oven. Cook the sausages for twenty minutes and make sure you have your honey, and mustards mixed together. When the sausages are nicely browned pour the honey mustard mixture over the sausages, coat evenly and return to the oven for a further five minutes. In the last few minutes of the sausages cooking, drain the veg, add the butter and thyme and let it steam for a minute or two. Get your masher out and work quickly to combine the veg.

Give a generous scoop to each person and top with two sausages per person.

Sausages Part One: Toad in the Hole

This is something that is quintessentially British. And goodness knows why it remains so because it is such a delicious speciment that I struggle greatly without it. It's amazing becuase you can increase the ratio to serve several at a dinner party of you can scale it down for two to have as a mega treat. This goes with some wonderful standards like honey glazed parnsips, tyhme roasted carrots, cabbage and best of all, onion sauce/chutney/gravy/reduction. This is mostly Yorkshire Pudding, accented with some succulent sausages (becuase sausages always have to be succulent don't they). You can try and make this fancy, but as someone who is half Yorkshire I can tell you there aren't too many fancy things that come out of this part of the land - apart from maybe Taylors of Harrogate and Bettys Cafe Tea Room - but the exports they have been kind enough to bestow on the rest of us are incredible. Rhubarb. There's another one.

Anyway, on with the show:

I work on a ratio of two sausages per person, however, you know what to do if you have a hungry crowd. To make the above you will need:

1/4 pint milk

60g plain flour

pinch of salt

two eggs

sausages

sprigs of fresh rosemary

duck/goose fat

The size and shape of your tin will affect the batter greatly, if you have a large loaf tin then great (I don't, can I have yours?) otherwise find something that everything will fit into, that is narrow but not confining.

Preheat the oven on its highest setting. Mix all the batter ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Start with the flour and salt, beat the eggs into it one by one then pour the milk in slowly and gradually, continually whisking to avoid lumps. Set to one side to let it rest.

You will need about two table spoons of the fat in your baking dish. Put it in the tin to heat up in a pre-heated oven. When the fat is at full heat add your sausages to colour slightly. When they are no longer looking anemic (very carefully) take the tin out of the oven and pour your batter over the sausages and scatter the rosemary springs about. Put back in the oven and do not open it for at least 20 minutes. The Yorkshires will need the heat to help them rise and should be cooked at this point. If it's looking a little brown then turn the over down and keep them cooking.

This is truly a dish that gets better every time you make it, so get started and watch them become better and better each time you make it.

Skinny Dipper: Papaya and Pineapple Salsa

Health Alert: Elana and I attempted to swim laps yesterday and virtually sunk to the bottom. At the tender age of 24 this should not be happening. The problem is that we diverted so far off the healthy eating path by the way of fried Asian delicacies. Today this ends. We are attempting to bring healthy eating back into our lives and become those slender tan ex-pats we know we can be. Hooray!

I do have a plan of action. It comes in the form of fruit.. yum! The variety and affordability of fruit here blows my mind. It is dirt cheap and actually tastes like it is supposed to (not like the sour unripe mess we eat at home). One thing I have been missing is Mexican food: chips, dips... you know the drill. I thought an exotic salsa would fill the void and give me something healthy to lather on my celery sticks and boiled chicken. Make Will Noel's skinny guacamole (see side bar) and you have yourself a real fiesta. Never thought Mexican night would become my healthy one.. Arrriiiibbbaaaaaaaaaa

Papaya and Pineapple Salsa

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (coriander)
• 1 cup small cubed papaya
• 1 small jalapeno, deseeded and chopped
• 1/4 chopped onion
  
• 2 Tbsp lime juice.. I used the little Thai limes. Aren't they cute?
  
• 1/2 cup small chopped avocado
• 1/2 cup small chopped pineapple

Directions:

• Mix all together, cover, and refrigerate for an hour
• Serve on chips, veggies, chicken, or fish.
• Watch yourself become thin before your very eyes.
• Once thin, engage in saucy behavior.

You say tomato, I say tomato

What we have here is a roasted tray of delishiousness that once it meets a blender will give you a great soup that can give you some vitamin C whilst the clouds remain gray. For this you will need the following:

500g cherry tomatoes (kept whole)

2 large red peppers (roughly chopped up)

Large red onion (in quarters)

4 cloves of garlic (bruised and kept in the case)

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp water

Half a tin of chopped tomatoes

400ml vegetable stock

Two tbsp of freshly chopped green herbs (I used flat leaf parsley and tarragon but basil etc would be perfect)

Salt and pepper

Put all of the vegetables in an ovenproof dish with the balsamic vinegar and water and season. Cook for about forty five minutes. Stir them every so often so they don't burn, browning is great, but we don't want anything too charred.

When the veg comes out of the oven add the stock, tinned tomatoes and fresh herbs and blitz in a blender.

It will be pretty thick so if you want you can add more stock. Put everything into a saucepan and cook it through so it is hot enough to serve.

How To...Courtesy of Mich Turner, founder of Little Venice Cake Company

I for one am an advocate of self-teaching. I think there is nothing that we are not capable of, if only we try. This ethos may have led to a small kitchen fire and a collapsed cake or two, but I now know what to do by learning what NOT to do. However, if someone comes along offering you help and instruction, just because they want to share their knowledge, you should whole-heartedly accept.

Mich Turner is the founder of Little Venice Cake Company in Marylebone, London and her clientele list alone will show you that you she knows a thing or two about making cakes. Have a look at what she has done so far at: http://www.lvcc.co.uk/

And here she is letting you in on a few trade secrets from her new book Mich Turner's Cake Masterclass. First up we have sugar paste rose:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fczCtymCSc

Secondly, is Mich's perfect fruitcake. The ultimate base to a great celebration cake, worlds away from those dry things you were tricked into eating as a child at relatives' weddings and anniversaries:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O6WZy1hLR8

Sorry it's not the originals, the videos I had were way too big.

Now a Singaporean!

I have arrived in Singapore in one piece with one piece of luggage. As there are no clothes on this island that will fit me (think Shrek trying on baby clothes), I will spend my time embracing my size and eating my way through the zillions of Chinese, Malay, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, and Western options until I am large enough to float home. Let the games begin!

Goal: Explore every tasty treat this island has to offer and learn the basics of Asian cooking! I am no expert!

Target Consumption: I will attempt to try something I have never had at least once a day... ok.. once every other day. I attempted frog congee (Chinese frog porridge)... didn't get too far I'm afraid before my love for Kermit intervened. Shame. I shall; however, forge on...

The first night we got here our hosts took us out to enjoy the traditional dish of Singapore, Chili Crab. These crabs are HUGE; they make our Chesapeake variety look like midgets. This spicy stew is absolutely divine and is to be enjoyed with steamed rolls (which you use to soak up the sauce). I am attempting to make this dish myself this weekend and from a traditional Malaysian web-site. Looks easy, will report back!

SINGAPORE CHILI CRAB!

Ingredients

• 1 Dungeness Crab (about 2 lb size) OR 3 little crabs of any variety
• 1 sprig of cilantro for garnish.
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp tamarind juice (try Asian markets)
• Salt to taste
• 2 Tbsp peanut oil
• 1/4 cup of water.

for the spice paste:

• 8 dried red chilies (soaked in hot water and deseeded)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 inch of fresh ginger
• Tamarind juice.. until the thickness is acheived.

DIRECTIONS:

• Clean the crab and chop it into pieces. Save the green and juicy stuff inside the shell and set aside.
• Pound the spice paste with a mortar and pestle or grind them using a food processor.
• Heat up your wok and add cooking oil.
• Stir fry the spice paste until fragant and spicy.
• Add the crab and 1/4 cup of water and do a quick stir. Cover the wok with its cover for 3 minutes.
• Add the green and juicy stuff from the shell and stir well.
• Add in sugar, tamarind juice, a little salt to taste and continue stirring for about 2 minutes or until all crab pieces turned red.

Serve with Chinese Steamed Rolls. They are a pain to make so you can buy them in Asian markets.. if not, just serve with rice.

Caramel Slice

If Belinda Carlisle sang a song about baked goods this would be the goods. Otherwise known as a Millionaire's Shortbread this is heaven. I'm calling it a caramel slice because this is more about the caramel than the shortbread. It features as prominently as the shortbread does and it's lightly salted flavour makes it a bit different to your usual Millionaire's Shortbread, but different is good. If I want to show someone I like them I will make this for them as it isn't the quickest to make. The components in themselves take little effort to make but having the patience to assemble everything is the real work. I actually found the recipe for the caramel and the shortbread separately in a book called Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan. Published in the US and the UK so I'm not being biased. Each part broken down here:

Shortbread

1 cup/8 ounces/225 g cold unsalted butter, dices, plus extra tsp softened for greasing

1/2 cup / 3 1/2 ounces /100 g caster sugar

2 cups / 8 1/2 ounces / 250 g flour

Pinch of fine sea salt

1/4 tsp fleur de sel (if making a sweetshortbread on its own then you can sprinkle with demerara sugar instead)

Line a 25 cm x 15 cm (ish!) tray with greaseproof paper making sure that it comes all the way to the top of the tin and use the extra teaspoon of butter to lightly butter the tin.

Combine the cold butter and sugar in a bowl and if you have a mixer, using a paddle attachment, mix on low speed for 15 seconds. If all you have is elbow grease (like me) they mix the two together until combined. Add both the flours and a pinch of salt and mic again until the dough comes together (if using the machine this will take about 3 to 5 minutes on low speed).

Form the dough into a ball and, on a floured surface, roll in out about 1 cm thick rectangle. Gently place the dough into the tin and pat it out until lit even fills the tin. Using a fork, prick the dough all over, right through to the tin.

Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour and preheat the oven to 150 C/300 F.

Take the dough from the fridge, and sprinkle with the fleur de sel and place the tin on a baking sheet. Bake until the shortbread is just firm in the center and beginning to colour, about 40 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it cool in the tin. Please note that the shortbread is wonderful on it's own if that's as far as you care to go this time around.

On to the caramel...

Salted Caramel

1 1/4 cups / 9 ounces / 250 g caster sugar

1/2 cup / 4 ounces / 115 g salted butter, diced

1 cup / 250 ml whipping cream

Pinch of salt

Combine the butter and sugar in a deep, heavy saucepan over medium heat. It is easier if you use a silver based pan as that way you can see the caramel turning colour, this is not so easy with a black non-stick pan. Stir to mix and cook, stirring occasionally, until the butter and sugar caramelize, 10 to 15 minutes. The sugar and butter will go through several stages. First it will look like a flour and butter roux, then it will appear curdled and then the butter will leak out of the sugar mixture. Don't worry: it will all come together in the end!

While the caramel is cooking, pour the cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Keep stirring the butter and sugar mixture, watching carefully as it begins to caramelise and remembering that the heat in the pan will continue to cook the caramel once it is removed from the burner. You want a rich, dark caramel colour, but you don't want to burn the mixture. When the caramel reaches the right colour, remove the pan from the heat and slowly and carefully pour in the cream; the mixture will bubble and spit. When the caramel stops bubbling, return it to low heat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the caramel in the cream. Remove the pan from the heat and let the caramel cool in the pan. It may be wise to leave this overnight, if you have the time. Alternatively, let it cool for about 45 minutes then poor it directly onto the shortbread and leave it to set overnight.

When the caramel is set (be warned, it will always be slightly runny rather then a stiff fudge-like consistency you often get with a millionaire's shortbread) you can finish it off with the chocolate topping:

Melt 200g of the finest milk chocolate you can get your hands on - or if you prefer it slightly richer you can up the cocoa - in a bain marie and smother over the caramel. Leave this to set until the chocolate is hard and then here comes the only hard bit of this:

To cut the chocolate squares take a bowl of boiling water and a sharp knife. Gently cut straight lines in a sawing motion rather than just applying pressure as this will cause the chocolate to crack in uneven shards and wont look as pretty. Continue in the same method - you will need to dip you knife in the boiling water from time to time to help it through the chocolate.

Once they are cut into squares lift them out all together using the greaseproof paper as a handle and share with friends. They will like you for it.