Food experiments

[Arsenic Queen]

Post your favourite little recipes here. Simple stuff. Good stuff. ^^




I'll start with an AWESOME apple-cider soup I made this week. It first was supposed to be a sauce to go with some duck, but on its own as a soup it is DREAMY!

- - -

AWESOME APPLE-CIDER CREAMY (and dreamy) SOUP (or sauce)

Ingredients
375ml (1 cup and a half) of apple-cider
375ml (1 cup and a half) of cream (or whole milk (3.25% fat))
1 or 2 apples, peeled, chopped to bits (I use granny smith apples)
30ml (1 oz) whiskey
15ml (1 table spoon) of chicken broth (or any meat broth)
5ml (1 tea spoon) of cinnamon

How-to
Pour the cider in a saucepan, add the apple bits. Bring to a boil at high heat.
Add the broth, stir, reduce the heat to medium-high. Add the cream and cinnamon. Bring to a boil again, don't stop stirring.
Leave simmer for 5 minutes. Keep stirring.
Add the whiskey, mix well.

It's ready.
Tell me what you think if you try it, or post your own food experiments.

 

[Mouse]

What an inspiring thread!

Blackberry and Apple Cranachan

For this seductive breakfast beauty it's important to use the correct whisky. Like Bruichladdich 12 Year Old that has a defined sherry background without that insipid ladies fave, Highland Park or the overly-peaty smokiness of Laphroig. Otherwise with the latter it will taste like wet dog.

Online cooking conversion chart: http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking#subs

Serves: 4 people

You will need: 50g butter, 75g rolled oats, 50g caster sugar, 50ml whipping cream, 115g Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons each of honey, whisky and light muscovado sugar, 200g blackberries, 2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced, Creme de mure or creme de cassis to drizzle. Unsalted butter in this recipe would be better.

1. Melt half the butter in a small pan, add the oats and cook for 1 minute, then add half the caster sugar. Stir for 4-5 minutes until the oats are lightly caramelised, then tip onto a piece of baking paper and leave to cool.

2. Lightly whip the cream, then fold in the yogurt, honey, whisky, muscovado sugar and oats. Stir in the blackberries (set a few aside to decorate), crushing them slightly. Use a wooden spoon for this as it's kinder.

3. In a pan, melt the remaining butter and saute the apples for 3-4 minutes. When the apples begin to soften, add the remaining caster sugar and cook until caramelised. Put on one side to cool.

4. Layer up the cream and oats with the apples in 4 glasses. Top with the reserved blackberries and drizzle with a little blackcurrant cassis.

 

[Mouse]

What an inspiring thread.

Blackberry and Apple Cranachan

For this seductive breakfast beauty it's important to use the correct whisky. Like Bruichladdich 12 Year Old that has a defined sherry background without that insipid ladies fave, Highland Park or the overly-peaty smokiness of Laphroig. Otherwise with the latter it will taste like wet dog.

Serves: 4 people

You will need: 50g butter, 75g rolled oats, 50g caster sugar, 50ml whipping cream, 115g Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons each of honey, whisky and light muscovado sugar, 200g blackberries, 2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced, Creme de mure or creme de cassis to drizzle. Unsalted butter in this recipe would be better.

1. Melt half the butter in a small pan, add the oats and cook for 1 minute, then add half the caster sugar. Stir for 4-5 minutes until the oats are lightly caramelised, then tip onto a piece of baking paper and leave to cool.

2. Lightly whip the cream, then fold in the yogurt, honey, whisky, muscovado sugar and oats. Stir in the blackberries (set a few aside to decorate), crushing them slightly. Use a wooden spoon for this as it's kinder.

3. In a pan, melt the remaining butter and saute the apples for 3-4 minutes. When the apples begin to soften, add the remaining caster sugar and cook until caramelised. Put on one side to cool.

4. Layer up the cream and oats with the apples in 4 glasses. Top with the reserved blackberries and drizzle with a little blackcurrant cassis.

 

[Peter Lorre]

Apple cider soup, sounds interesting. I'll give it a try sometime

 

[Arsenic Queen]

Mouse that little Cranachan sounds awesome.

I forgot to mention that the Apple-Cider soup is only for adults. Too much alcohol in there for kids.

 

[Mouse]

Queen, the cranachan is delicious eaten anytime. Even as midnight munchings when the house is quiet and nobody is about so the mice can play.


Here are two more recipes. Seductive, both of them.

Consommé de vin aux fruits d’été

The effect of this concoction is exquisite. The cool, semi-set jelly trembles for a moment on the tongue before the heat in the mouth begins to melt it and the jelly returns to its pure liquid form as it slides seductively down the throat. I haven’t specified the amount of fruit. You don’t need a lot - one nectarine or peach will easily do four people, for example.

75cl cheap sweet white wine - Spanish Muscatel does very nicely, as does a grapey Asti.
1 teaspoon gelatine powder
Fruit - strawberries or nectarines or peaches or pears or blackberries or blueberries, or a mixture thereof.
16 basil leaves

Pour the wine into a saucepan and place over a gentle heat. It shouldn’t get too hot, or it will lose some of its flavour, but must be hot enough to dissolve the gelatine. Add the gelatine and stir to dissolve. Pour the mixture into a bowl and put in a cool place to set.

Some time before you need to serve, peel and slice the nectarines / peaches / pears / whatever and divide up the slices and other fruit among the plates. Slice the basil leaves into thin strips and scatter over the top. Stir the jelly to break it up, then divide up among the plates.


~ * ~


Strawberries in red wine

This makes an easy but rather splendid end to a great meal. And it requires you to eat with your fingers - one of the essentials of summer feasting. Serves four.

500g perfectly ripe strawberries, larger ones halved
300ml fruity red wine, like a plummy Italian Valpolicella
1 squeeze lemon juice
2-3 tbsp caster sugar or vanilla sugar
Crème fraîche, to serve (optional)

Gently wash the strawberries and pat them dry with kitchen paper. In a large bowl, stir together the wine, lemon juice and two tablespoons of the sugar until the sugar dissolves.

Taste, and add more sugar if you think it needs it.

Stir in the strawberries and leave them to macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes, then chill in the fridge for no longer than an hour - any longer and they start to go a bit mushy.

Serve with a little of the sweetened wine poured over and, if you like, give each person a little pot of crème fraîche to dip them in.

 

[Arsenic Queen]

Wow Mouse, you really cook some fancy things! These two "summer" recipes are perfect to add some sunshine to my canadian bleak winter days

 

[Mouse]

Actually I'm quite a plain cook, though love tasty things that include French dishes and Italian. Especially Italian desserts and English trifles.

Presently I am wondering at what temperature vodka freezes at. I'd like to experiment on freezing ice cubes of it with a single raspberry or a cut strawberry or a little slice of nectarine in each.

Imagine freshly squeezed orange juice or mandarin juice in a tall frosted glass with several vodka, fruit-laden ice cubes bobbing inside, a shady tree and a languid summer's afternoon...

 

[Arsenic Queen]

You'll have to tell me how that goes. I don't know if alcohol freeze well. Been contemplating making pops with flavors like cocktails, but there isn't any of them existing in the industry, I am thinking it's probably for a reason.

 

[Mouse]

I managed to freeze down some Stolly cubes by laying an old fashioned metal ice cube tray on the bottom of my chest freezer. The 'tray is deep is enough to hold a single raspberry and the vodka froze completely, though not clear like ice cubes would be if made from boiled water.

Later in the week I'll plop some vodka cubes into freshly squeezed OJ and see what it tastes like. I can't drink today because this time tomorrow I have my driving test.


Edited to add,

I found a recipe on how to make your own Lemoncello. It looks quick and easy to make, about 10 minutes, but needs to be left for a couple of weeks at least before you drink it. Then the lemon zest and lemon grass really infuse the vodka to give a delicious sharp but rich taste.
Makes one 750ml bottle

8 unwaxed lemons
2 lemon grass stems
700ml bottle of good quality vodka
7 ¾ oz / 220g caster sugar

Zest the lemons and crush the lemon grass and put them into a large sterilised kilner or preserving jar and pour over the vodka.

Put the sugar into a saucepan with 350ml water, bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Leave the syrup to cool, then add it to the lemon zest mixture.

Seal the preserving jar and leave for a couple of weeks.


... once I get some lemongrass and extra lemons, I'll let you know hoe I get on.

Love, Anna Mouse xx

 

[Arsenic Queen]

No idea how to find unwaxed lemons in Montreal, but that recipe sounds cool. Lemon grass probably gives it an interesting touch too.

 

[floffyschneeman]

all my recipes, or lack of it, are food experiments I don't usually follow recipes. I just depend on my taste buds. If it gets too salty, I add vinegar, if it gets too sour, I add sugar. If it gets too spicy, I deal with it




ehm not really, I add water (hehe)

 

[Arsenic Queen]

all my recipes, or lack of it, are food experiments I don't usually follow recipes. I just depend on my taste buds. If it gets too salty, I add vinegar, if it gets too sour, I add sugar. If it gets too spicy, I deal with it




ehm not really, I add water (hehe)

You sound like quite the expert chef to me if you have solutions for everything like that. Vinegar to make something less salty? I never thought of trying that.