Russ's Restaurant and Recipe Repository

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

So today is the last possible day for making the savory and spiced jellies that set meat and game off so nicely if I'm going to have some for Christmas, so I'm boiling a bunch of quinces to make Quince jelly (and Quince cheese, hubby's fave snack) Bramble jelly and spiced Apricot jelly to go with the goose I'm serving, and my own recipe redcurrant jelly with a hint of chilli to go with venison. I also make my own mint jelly, it goes so perfectly with lamb hot or cold, and a tangy sweet Redcurrant and beetroot jelly to go with my home-baked Christmas ham and a nice sharp cheese in the aftermath of Christmas.

 

[SimonDoom]

Here's an interesting way to use up oddments frozen or stashed in the fridge and kept 'for later':

SINGAPORE-STYLE CHILLI FRIED RICE

Ingredients:

Peanut oil
One egg (cracked)
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1 green chilli very, very finely chopped
Two cups of pre cooked (steamed) jasmine rice (left in fridge overnight)
¼ each of yellow, green and red pepper "julienned" or finely diced
A generous pinch of salt, ditto sugar
Large handful cooked prawns, or shredded leftover chicken can also used
¼ cup of frozen peas
Handful of sliced roast pork (if available, I’ve even seen this work with cubed and fried Spam, any meat will do, though)
½ tsp of chilli powder (more if you like the heat)
1 level tsp powdered turmeric
1 heaped tsp of hot curry powder (Malay, if you can get it)
1 tsp of light soy sauce
2 tbsp chicken stock
2 spring onions chopped diagonally for garnish

Method:

Heat the oil in a wok, add the egg and stir fry 30 seconds approx, then add garlic, turmeric, and chilli, all the time stir frying
Add the rice, keep stir frying, add the 3 coloured julienned peppers, then add salt, sugar
Add the prawns, peas, chicken, pork, chilli powder, curry powder, and the soy sauce, keep stirring.
Add the spring onions and chicken stock, cover and steam for 1 minute, serve steaming hot

Make sure you give 30 seconds of stir frying after each ingredient has been added!!!

The other day I cooked a version of this, with the ingredients I had on hand, and it was very tasty.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

The other day I cooked a version of this, with the ingredients I had on hand, and it was very tasty.

I'm glad you liked it. Will has a thing about Straits cookery, he gave me this recipe, and a rice vermicelli version I'd be happy to share.

 

[Handley_Page]

.
Bramble jelly and spiced Apricot jelly to go with the goose I'm serving, and my own recipe redcurrant jelly with a hint of chilli to go with venison. I also make my own mint jelly, it goes so perfectly with lamb hot or cold, and a tangy sweet Redcurrant and beetroot jelly to go with my home-baked Christmas ham and a nice sharp cheese in the aftermath of Christmas.

Do tell me about Apricot jelly please. I've seen Bramble jelly in my local shop.


I need help with the making of a Trifle.
Sounds daft, don't it ?
But I cannot seem to get my head round the process. As I write this, the jelly is made, poured and (I hope) setting. The fruit is available and the cream's in the 'fridge. It's the custard bit I'm having trouble with.
I do not like thick custard.
A tin of Ambrosia Devon custard, perhaps ?

A prompt PM would be appreciated.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Do tell me about Apricot jelly please. I've seen Bramble jelly in my local shop.


I need help with the making of a Trifle.
Sounds daft, don't it ?
But I cannot seem to get my head round the process. As I write this, the jelly is made, poured and (I hope) setting. The fruit is available and the cream's in the 'fridge. It's the custard bit I'm having trouble with.
I do not like thick custard.
A tin of Ambrosia Devon custard, perhaps ?

A prompt PM would be appreciated.

Here we go, HP, pin back your lug-holes, as husband creature likes to say...

Apricot Jelly

2.5kg/5.5 lbs fresh apricots
1 sharp crisp apple, such as Cox's or even a Bramley
2 tbs Cointreau, Calvados, or scotch
The juice of one large lemon
750g/1.5lb caster sugar
2 leaves unflavored commercial gelatin

Rinse the apricots, discarding any bruised, damaged, or discolored fruit as you do so. Peel, core and chop the apple. Place the apricots and chopped apple in a large, heavy-based pan, preferably stainless steel or cast iron. Pour over enough water to give a 1/2-inch depth but no more and bring to a simmer. Cook gently over a medium heat for 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and stir in the cointreau/Calvados/Scotch.

Tip the contents of the pan into a muslin-lined large sieve, or make up a jelly-bag by laying a large square of clean, unbleached muslin inside a deep pot, pour the fruit mix into the center of the muslin, and draw the corners together, tying them tightly and suspending the bag over the pot so the clarified, filtered juice runs into the pot; sometimes, a clean stick or wooden spoon laid across the pot is sufficient to suspend the jelly bag adequately; this drip-feed filtering process helps to obtain the clearest jelly. Don't be tempted to squeeze the jelly-bag to hurry things along, let the juice slip through gently on its own – it may need to be left overnight in order to do so.

When the bag has stopped dripping DON'T squeeze it 'to get the rest of the goodness out', instead reserve it to make coulis or fruit cheese. Return the juice to the pan along with the lemon juice and sugar. Soften the gelatin in a pan of iced water. Boil the juice steadily without stirring for eight to 10 minutes, then stir in the gelatin until it dissolves. As the jelly reduces, carefully skim any scum off the surface. To test whether the jelly is set, place a spoonful on to a chilled plate you kept in the fridge – it should be the consistency of syrup, and running a fingertip through it should leave a clear trail that doesn't fill up again.

Ladle the hot jelly into sterilized jars (hot-washed thoroughly and 15 minutes in the oven at 180 will be enough to sterilize the jars) and allow to cool completely before placing in the fridge, lids-on, to let them set properly.

I use this same general method with mint, rosemary, sage, Quinces, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and redcurrants, sometimes less sugar and more aromatics to those fruits and herbs that wouldn't benefit from being too sweet, especially the herb jellies.

Generally, the jellies I make are for consumption with game, they're tart, and not really jam-like. Redcurrant I mostly make for hubby if we're eating turkey, which is technically game, not poultry, adding that tartness that cranberries give, but which he can't eat because cranberries inhibit his anticoagulant medication. Mint and Rosemary jelly goes especially well with lamb, quince jelly with all game, redcurrant goes particularly well with turkey and venison, and as a flavoring in beef pies and casseroles, sage goes well with things like rabbit, partridge and pheasant.

 

[Rustyoznail]

So, just for Lori to save her arteries…

French Toast, or Eggy Bread

2 slices of thick cut bread. Preferably not too fresh as it needs to soak up the egg mixture.

2 eggs

About ½ cup of milk

1 tablespoon of vanilla essence

1 tablespoon sugar (the finer the better)

2 tablespoons of butter

And for a Christmas version…

¼ cup of brandy

Place everything besides the bread and butter in a large container with a flat base. Mix thoroughly.

Put bread in the container and leave to soak for a few minutes. Flip bread and soak up the remaining mixture.

Put butter in the frypan and heat until it's bubbling. Reduce heat to low and carefully slide bread into pan.

Cook for about 3 minutes and then turn over.

Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Serve with bacon. (Durh…)

Nice with maple syrup.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

So, just for Lori to save her arteries…

French Toast, or Eggy Bread

2 slices of thick cut bread. Preferably not too fresh as it needs to soak up the egg mixture.

2 eggs

About ½ cup of milk

1 tablespoon of vanilla essence

1 tablespoon sugar (the finer the better)

2 tablespoons of butter

And for a Christmas version…

¼ cup of brandy

Place everything besides the bread and butter in a large container with a flat base. Mix thoroughly.

Put bread in the container and leave to soak for a few minutes. Flip bread and soak up the remaining mixture.

Put butter in the frypan and heat until it's bubbling. Reduce heat to low and carefully slide bread into pan.

Cook for about 3 minutes and then turn over.

Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Serve with bacon. (Durh…)

Nice with maple syrup.

Hi Russ, Will loves this slathered with strawberry or apricot conserve, or my own Damson jam; he calls it 'Poor Knights of Windsor', when I asked him why, he says that's what they called it in boarding school. He's a bit of a history buff, and he thinks, with admittedly no real evidence to back him up, that the name originated from the fact most belted knights were expected to provide banquets when they were knighted, but the average knight was relatively poor compared to their feudal lord, and things like nuts out of season, honey-cakes and exotic fresh or preserved fruits like dates and figs to serve as desserts at said banquets were usually beyond their pocket, but sweet fried bread smeared with jam, honey, or conserve might have served as an acceptable dessert.

It's as good as an explanation as any, I suppose. I've heard French Toast called Arme Riddere, which also means 'Poor Knights, in Denmark and Norway, ditto the German version, Armer Ritter, which also means 'Poor Knights', Pain Perdu ('Lost Bread') in France and New Orleans, Pamperdy (the Anglicized version of Pain Perdu) in some of the English Tudor and Jacobite cookbooks I've read, because the recipe called for stale white bread to be torn up and soaked in eggs, milk, and Madeira or Malmsy, then fried gently and smeared with honey, Pobres Caballeros (Poor Knights) or Tostados Francesca (French Toast) in Spain, and Köyhät Ritarit in Finnish, which means, surprise, surprise, 'Poor Knights', so he might be on to something; flip a coin and decide...

 

[Rustyoznail]

So a quick hangover cure...

Bacon.

 

[Handley_Page]

So a quick hangover cure...

Bacon.

with sausages ?

 

[Rustyoznail]

with sausages ?

Bacon sausages...

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Bacon sausages...

Got a family recipe for sausage made with ground pork and bacon, molasses, and paprika I serve as patties with pancakes or in natural case links for barbecuing, you want?

 

[Rustyoznail]

Got a family recipe for sausage made with ground pork and bacon, molasses, and paprika I serve as patties with pancakes or in natural case links for barbecuing, you want?

Mmmm, bacon patties....

***drool***

Yes please

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Texian Bacon-Molasses Sausage

Ingredients:
10 oz ground pork
6 oz smoked bacon, run through the fine blades on a food processor, or through a meat grinder
1 oz finely chopped pickled black cherries or apricots
1 slice white bread processed into breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon light (or dark) molasses, but NOT Blackstrap, it's far too bitter, or, for Brits and Aussies, Black Treacle.
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
¼ teaspoon chilli powder (optional, if you want a spicy heat)
½ teaspoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon kosher or iodized sea salt
¼ teaspoon dried sage
¼ teaspoon chopped fresh or dried Myrtle
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Natural casing, soaked and relaxed in iced water (if making sausage links)

(for larger quantities, scale up ingredients accordingly)

Method:
Mix the pork, bacon, molasses, breadcrumbs, smoked paprika, pickled fruit, brown sugar, salt, sage, myrtle, chilli (if used) and black pepper together by hand until well combined.

1. Breakfast Sausage:
Fry a small spoonful of the sausage for a couple of minutes on each side over a medium heat, taste it, and season as necessary.

Once you're satisfied with the flavor, refrigerate the mixture for an hour or so for the flavors to develop.

To cook the sausage, roll into golf-ball sized balls and flatten between the palms into 2-inch-wide, ¼-inch-thick patties and fry over medium-high heat until both sides are brown and crisp, 5 minutes per side.

Serve with pancakes and syrup, or fried eggs, fried potatoes, and ham steaks. My mom used to make them thicker, fry them, split them, and make Burgoo or Brunswick stew with them.

2. Sausage Links:
Pack the finely ground meat mixture into the sausage extruder attachment of a food-processor and prepare the nozzle with soaked, chilled, and uncoiled natural sausage casing.

Feed the meat mixture through into links the preferred length, pause, twist to end-off the link and resume. Keep the link casing wet at all times, and feed the meat through the extruder as smoothly as you can. A good tip is to watch You Tube videos of sausage-making, to get the technique for bunching the sausages as they come off the extruder nozzle. A little practice might be a good idea, just to get the hang of the process. Sausages can be fried, broiled, or barbecued just like ordinary links.

Note: If you don’t have a food processor with a sausage-filling attachment, ask your friendly local butcher to make the links for you, or find out if any of your friends have one they can show you how to use.

The uncooked sausage mixture will keep in the refrigerator for a week, rolled tightly in several layers of kitchen film, or it can be frozen uncooked for 3 months. If you decide to freeze the mixture, roll it tightly in kitchen film to make a tight, fat ‘sausage’ and freeze immediately. If you want to make 'instant' patties, thaw the frozen sausage meat, slice it into disks when it's not quite fully thawed, and fry the disks gently.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Looks wonderful, Lori. Thanks.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Thanks Lori

I'm going to make a batch today and let it sit in the fridge overnight to let the flavours develop.

Cheers

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Thanks Lori

I'm going to make a batch today and let it sit in the fridge overnight to let the flavours develop.

Cheers

Hi Rusty, quick tip; if you're going to process the bread into breadcrumbs, break it up and run it through the meat-grinder first to clean the cutters before milling it into breadcrumbs, makes washing it a lot easier.

 

[NotWise]

Speaking of bacon, I'm curious. Does anybody know of or have a recipe for meat pie or meat loaf that uses bacon?

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Speaking of bacon, I'm curious. Does anybody know of or have a recipe for meat pie or meat loaf that uses bacon?

Most pork terrines would have a central layer of streaky bacon, and a bacon wrapped top, but the English also make a bacon, leek and mushroom pie with a flaky pastry topping, I have recipes for both, if you're interested? I also have a cheese and bacon pie in a flaky pastry that hubby is particularly partial to on a cold night.

 

[NotWise]

Most pork terrines would have a central layer of streaky bacon, and a bacon wrapped top, but the English also make a bacon, leek and mushroom pie with a flaky pastry topping, I have recipes for both, if you're interested? I also have a cheese and bacon pie in a flaky pastry that hubby is particularly partial to on a cold night.

Too much bacon! (When have you ever heard that?)

I wouldn't even step close to a cheese and bacon pie, or if I did, I'd feel a need to run five miles and wash, just by my proximity.

The bacon, leek and mushroom pie sounds like something I might be able to convince my wife to eat. If you post it, then I'll write it down.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Speaking of bacon, I'm curious. Does anybody know of or have a recipe for meat pie or meat loaf that uses bacon?

I'll see if I can find a recipe for a steak, cheese, and bacon pie.

As for meatloaf, the simple thing is to wrap the loaf in bacon...

The excuse is it helps stop the meat drying out.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Especially for Not Wise...

Warwickshire Bacon, Leek & Mushroom Pie

Ingredients:

500g cooked gammon ham or bacon steaks, cut into chunks. The ham or bacon chunks can be lightly browned in butter over a medium heat if preferred to add a smokier, sweeter taste
50g butter
2 leeks, washed and thinly sliced
1 large onion, finely diced
150g mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 tbsp. of plain flour
250ml milk
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp English hot mustard
1 tbsp. fresh tarragon or 1 heaped teaspoon of chopped fresh Rosemary
Freshly ground black pepper
1 x sheet of frozen/thawed flaky puff pastry
1 egg beaten with a little milk


Method:

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6, 200°C (400°F). The oven MUST be pre-heated to the right temperature, putting the pie in a still-warming oven will make it soggy and flaccid.

Heat a large pot over a medium heat, add in the butter then gently sauté the leeks, onions and mushrooms until soft.

Stir in the flour and cook to a loose roux for about a minute, then gradually and gently stir in the milk with a small balloon whisk, making sure to break up any lumps.

Continue to cook, stirring all the time until mixture thickens and bubble-boils.

Add in the ham, mustard, tarragon and black pepper, then taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Add salt sparingly until the taste balance is right; over-salting will completely ruin the delicate flavor balance.

Pour into a pie dish. Cover with the sheet of uncooked flaky pastry, making sure to wet the edges of the pie dish and press the pastry firmly to make it adhere, brush with the beaten egg, and with a very sharp knife cut a small cross in the center of the pie.

Bake for at least 30 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden and flaky.

Best served with steamed broccoli or green beans, fluffy, salted boiled potatoes, and boiled carrots.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

I'll see if I can find a recipe for a steak, cheese, and bacon pie.

As for meatloaf, the simple thing is to wrap the loaf in bacon...

The excuse is it helps stop the meat drying out.

Every Christmas I make a pork and confit duck terrine layered with trimmed streaky bacon and then wrapped in bacon and steam-baked in a bain-marie; the family and friends eat it sliced cold with buttered wheat crackers, crisp slices of sweet Pink Lady apples, and sparkling white wine

 

[NotWise]

Especially for Not Wise...

Got it. Love it. I showed it to my wife and she liked it too.

Neither of us knows "gammon ham," and does "English hot mustard" come under a different name?

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Got it. Love it. I showed it to my wife and she liked it too.

Neither of us knows "gammon ham," and does "English hot mustard" come under a different name?

EDIT and clarification:
Gammon is the name given to the meat from the hind legs of a pig that has been salt or brine -cured and smoked in the same way as bacon. The main difference between gammon and ham is that gammon will be sold raw, like bacon, and needs to be cooked; ham is sold cooked or dry-cured and ready for eating. I usually wrap the raw gammon joint in foil and slow bake it at 220 for at least a couple hours, then, when it's relaxed out of the oven, sliced, oil-brushed and broiled like bacon steaks. For really large gammon legs, I'll slow bake it overnight, tight-wrapped in baking foil, and tied, securely, in a bain marie, then bake it loose-wrapped in foil next day and baste it in a gravy I make from the drawn-off juices, kosher salt, maple syrup, and coca-cola. it's a rigmarole, but my family love it, so once a year, at Christmas, they'll get a crackling Gammon leg joint, and fried ham sandwiches until New Year!

English mustard is the yellow, hot as hell stuff, I don't know if there's an American brand, the best known brand over this side of the pond is Reckitt & Colman, and a blob of the stuff on the end of your tongue will clear your sinuses for sure, think fresh horseradish, but in small amounts it complements meat dishes perfectly; a dollop in a beef stew raises the flavor significantly, and to balance it I add a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly.

 

[NotWise]

Gammon is basically the British term for brine-cured and smoked ham, sorry, married too long to the English boy. English mustard is the yellow, hot as hell stuff, I don't know if there's an American brand, the best known brand over this side of the pond is Reckitt & Colman, and a blob of the stuff on the end of your tongue will clear your sinuses for sure, think fresh horseradish, but in small amounts it complements meat dishes perfectly; a dollop in a beef stew raises the flavor significantly, and to balance it I add a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly.

Thanks. I'll look it all up.