Devilled Crab Gratin

Devilled Crab Gratin

         Some jobs in the kitchen just have to be done by hand, topping & tailing gooseberries, stoning plums for the freezer, shelling fresh peas, pricking sloes for sloe gin and picking the meat from a hole crab. There is nothing for it but to gather all you need sit down at a table and get on with it. Company of some sort is essential, ideally a real live person who will share the task or one engaged in other activities that you can chat to. Failing live company the radio will keep me entertained.

Of course the point of these activities is to end up with something delicious to eat!

Last night I took on the crab picking challenge and it was well worth it. The brown meat is essential to this dish as it gives a richness that can’t be achieved with anything else.

Crab meat and shells

and the rest.

2 crabs

2 small onions or 1 large one

50g butter

2cm piece of fresh ginger peeled

2 cloves of garlic peeled & chopped

1 dessert spoon of lime pickle

double cream

salt & pepper

fresh coriander chopped

grated cheddar

Pick the brown and white meat from the crabs.

Peel the onions and slice them very thinly, melt the butter in a pan over a low heat and add the onions. Cook the onions gently. 

Grate the ginger and chop the pieces of lime in the lime pickle. Add the grated ginger, garlic and lime pickle to the onions and continue cooking until the onions are soft.

Heat an ovenproof dish and preheat a grill.

Add the crab to the pan with the onions and enough double cream to loosen the mixture. Heat it all through and stir through the chopped coriander, pour into the warm dish and sprinkle with the grated cheese and grill until browned and bubbling.  

Leave to cool until the bubbling stops and serve with a green salad.

Let the bubbling stop before serving!

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main course.

PS Add a chopped chilli if you want a really spicy version, but I like the crab flavour not to be drowned by the chilli.

All in the cooking!

      Is there a cookbook you used in school for cookery classes? Do you still have it? Sadly I got rid of mine, it was a paperback and prone to falling apart, but I later found an early edition of it in a secondhand book shop and later again book 2.

      What I didn't realised was that it was a classic and has just been reprinted by O'Brien Press! 

      It is "All in the Cooking" written for Coláiste Mhuire  and approved by The City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee. It also became the cookery textbook for all Intermediate and Leaving cert students. Many of whom kept their copies and went on to use them in their homes.

      Hearing it was being reprinted I got out my copy and had a go at a couple of the recipes that I remember. We had a lot of plums at the time and one of the childhood desserts we I enjoyed was "Stewed Plums and Custard". 
      Partly for the fortune telling at the end when I counted up the stones.
I added a little spice to the plums and made the custard to the All in the Cooking Recipe.
It went down as well as I remember it.

          The second recipe I looked out was one for a 'cake' of Brown Soda Bread, 'cakes' of bread are round with a cross cut into the top of them and baked on a baking sheet. When broken into four quarters the individual quarters were known as a 'square' of bread in our house!

      These two brought back happy memories of watching in the kitchen as Delia, my Mum's wonderful kitchen help, made cakes of bread always pouring the last of the buttermilk onto her hand and smearing the top of the bread with it before cutting the three slashes to make the cross. Oh, happy days!

  

A Seasonal Pie: Apple and Blackberry Tart!

      Now you may well ask why this is called a tart, as it has a top on it and is therefore a pie, but for some reason this sort of plate pie is known as a tart here! We were regularly fed on apple tarts and custard in the autumn. Apple tarts are always a big hit with any older men at a gathering, so much so I keep a supply of foil plates to make them on if I'm asked to bring a dish to a 'do'!

An Apple and Blackberry "Tart"

      

       I love the old white and blue enamel plates for these tarts, they remind me that no matter how sophisticated we have become or so on trend with our kitchen equipment that something like enamel wear, used by our grand parents is still around and doing a great job.  

      And why didn't I put tart in the post title, well you can guess what might come up if you put "Seasonal Tart" into an internet search! 

      

      The filling for this tart I make by eye rather than by exact measurement. I do use exact quantities for the pastry, but the filling is dependent on the size of the plate, the sweetness of the apples and blackberries, all variables. Elderberries are also good with the apples.

      
      The blackberries were really good the week before last I picked a couple of tubs full and froze them the day before the rain came. And rained steadily for about 18 hours! I was very glad of them as I needed some for a cookery demonstration at GROWFest organised by GIY  in Waterford.
      Blackberries have a uniquely autumnal scent when hot, well worth the stained fingers to be transported back to childhood kitchens, warm and fuggy with just out of the oven tarts.

Pastry 

250 g plain flour 

125 g butter 

3-4tbs cold water

apples

blackberries

sugar

egg wash 

      Sieve the flour into a bowl and cut the butter into small chunks.

Add the butter to the flour and rub it in with the tips of your fingers. When the flour and butter resembles breadcrumbs add the water.  Mix with a dinner knife or wooden spoon to make a stiff dough.
      Take the pastry out onto a floured worktop and shape into a ball, cut in half and flatten into two discs. Wrap in cling-film and chill for 20-30 minutes in the fridge.

       Place a baking tray or pizza stone in the centre of the oven and pre heat the oven to 200˚C, GM 6. 

Roll out one of the pastry discs on a lightly floured work surface and line the pie plate. 

Fill with a layer of peeled and sliced apples and sprinkle with sugar, then add a layer of blackberries and some more sugar. 

Frozen Blackberries and Sliced Apples

      Repeat until the layers come just above the hight of the pie plate. Leave the edge uncovered and paint with egg wash.

      Roll out the other disc of pastry and cover the tart with it crimp the edges, decorate with pastry leaves stuck on with egg wash and paint the top with egg wash.

      Place the tart into the oven onto the hot baking tray or pizza stone and bake for 15-20 minutes. When the top is golden turn the oven down to 180˚C, GM 4 and finish baking for another 15-20 minutes.

A Slice of Autumn!

Going a Little Potty!

        I love having a treat at the back of the fridge for the days I need a quick supper after a long day or to bring to work for lunch. Smoked mackerel pate is one I tend to fall back on. 

      

I have been reading the lovely "Kitchen Essays" of Agnes Jekyll first published in 1922 (the original articles were first published in The Times). The "Potted Shrimp" recipe is one recipe that caught my eye. I had had these recently in a restaurant, but they were seasoned shrimp in a ramekin topped with butter, chilled and then warmed to soften the bottom half of the ramekin. They came with crisp toast, as I scooped out the hard top layer of butter on to the toast added the shrimp, pressed down with the knife, the shrimp fell off and the toast broke.

       I knew this was not what it was meant to be. Lady Jekyll had the answer, 'pound' most of the shrimp with the soft butter! So I set about 'pounding' my shrimp, which in my case were defrosted Atlantic prawns. My mortar was on the small side so I moved to a bigger bowl and a fork and I achieved a coarse pate in no time.

     

Potted Shrimp or Prawns

Potted Prawns

125g of shrimp after cooking and shelling or peeled Atlantic prawns defrosted

50g soft butter

mace blade

lemon zest

clarified butter

salt and pepper

      Dry the prawns on kitchen paper. Save 10 or 12 whole prawns. Put the rest of the prawns into a bowl with the butter, a grating of mace, a teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest, a pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper.

     Mash all these together with a fork until combined. It should not be too smooth, then stir in the reserved prawns pack into ramekins and cover with clarified butter and chill.

Bring to room temperature before serving with Melba toast.

       If you prefer some dill or fennel could be chopped through instead of the mace. This is lovely for a picnic too.

Spread on crisp Melba toast

      This other recipe for a 'Mousse of Sardine and Egg' also caught my eye, I had a feeling it could be a fish paste and not very tasty, but I like it. It's not for people who like their fish not to taste of fish.

     

      The recipe recommends 'pushing' everything through a sieve, the egg went through easily enough but the mini processor was a godsend for the sardines! It is also recommended as an alternative to marmalade at breakfast time! That could be a shock to the unwary first thing.

Mousse of Sardine and Egg

The basic ingredients 

3 to 4 sardines

1tsp soft butter

salt pepper

1tbs lemon juice

2tbs cream

a couple dashes of tabasco

a dash of Worcester sauce

1 hardboiled egg

       Put everything except the hard boiled egg in to a mini food processor and blend Remove the blade from the processor and sieve in the hardboiled egg. Stir in to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning.

       Serve on crackers or with crudities. I spooned the rest into a small jar to be stored in the fridge.

Breakfast!

Summer is on it's way!

Some photos from around and about.

Taking got dogs for a walk on a wet day!

A nest that blew down, love the strand of blue plastic.

The Boarder 

Rose

Scented stocks

Wet Day!

Early Mushrooms

Variegated Sycamore Seedling

Chocolate Mousse Cake

I can’t remember where the recipe for this cake came from, but I did find it in a magazine recently. It is very rich, almost a custard!

The lettering is cut from pale green florist paste and milk chocolate modelling paste. I used royal icing for the knives & forks. 

Cake is always good especially when we have something to celebrate and the launch tomdoorley.com is!

150g (70% cocoa solids) dark chocolate broken up

150g butter cut in cubes 

75g soft brown sugar

75g golden caster sugar

2tbs double cream

1tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

cocoa powder

Heat the oven to 160˚C, GM 2.5. Butter and line a 20 cm square tin with baking parchment.

Put the chocolate, butter, sugars, cream and vanilla into a bowl and melt them all together with the bowl standing in a frying pan of hot water.

When melted take the bowl out of the water and add the eggs one at a time, whisking each one in with a ballon whisk, until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place the cake tin onto a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until almost set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin.

When cold turn out and dust the top with cocoa powder.

Serve with whipped cream and strawberries.

Making the most of a surplus.

              Sometimes our shopping and eating gets out of sync and the fridge fill up with extra things I’d planned to use, but didn’t.

One of these was a lovely tub of Mossfield Organic Farm natural yoghurt. I decided it was time to go back to my cheese making roots and turn it into a soft cheese or labneh.

Peppered Labneh

500g tub of thick yogurt 

1tsp salt

2tsp peppercorns

Line a colander with muslin or a brand new ‘J’ cloth, scald by pouring over some boiling water to wet the cloth.

Season the yoghurt with salt and mix well. Pour the yoghurt into the cloth and draw up the sides of the cloth and tie with string. Hang up over a bowl and leave to drip overnight.

The next day tip the strained yoghurt into a bowl and mix well.

Crush the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle and add to the cheese little by little until it is as spicy as you like it. Add more salt if you feel it needs it too.

Pack into a dish and cover, it will keep in the fridge for about a week if it doesn’t get eaten.