Cannelloni filled with Broccoli and Ricotta

These broccoli and ricotta cannoli are just the thing to fill you on a cold autumn night and as that's what we're going to have in the next few weeks, you'd better get cooking straight away. They also freeze well so you can make them up to the pre-bake stage and freeze until you want them.

What you need to make these for 4 people:

12 sheets of lasagne pasta. You can use fresh of dried.

1 large head of broccoli

250g ricotta

100g freshly grated parmesan

salt. pepper

1 egg

fresh breadcrumbs if needed

I tin of tomatoes

1 medium onion

1 clove of garlic

Hot chicken stock

1/2 pt of white sauce

What you do:

Steam the broccoli until tender and then mash roughly.

Add the egg, ricotta, parmesan, salt and pepper and enough bread crumbs to make a soft mixture. You don't want it to be sloppy as you will have to roll it in the pasta.

Now make the tomato sauce, by frying the onion and garlic in a little oil until lightly golden brown. Add the tomatoes and and about half a tin of hot stock. Simmer gently for about an hour until the sauce is reduced, season to taste.

Cook the lasagne sheets until soft enough to roll. Drain and lie them out on the work surface.

Divide the filling equally between the pasta sheets and then roll up. Make sure than the fold is under the cannelloni so that they do not open while cooking.

In a large roasting pan or baking pan that will hold the cannelloni in one layer add about 2 large spoons of tomato sauce. The tomato sauce should not be too thick. Place cannelloni side by side in the pan leaving a tiny space between each cannelloni. Cover with additional tomato sauce and the white sauce.

Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over top. Bake the cannelloni for about 1 hour.

Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Yumm, yumm, yumm. these just have to be tried to be believed. They are basically a cupcake with a topping of sweetened cream and cream cheese in equal quantities. I tend to sweeten to taste, I don't like things too sweet. Just enough sugar to contrast with the sharpness of the raspberries. Whip them all up together and pipe onto the cupcake. Fill the center with a compot of raspberries that you have thickened with a small amount of cornflour.

Tea Time Scones

The sun has been shining today and that really is a surprise, even though it is July. It's the time of year that you should expect a guarantee of sunshine but this year the weather has been dreadful So by way of a celebration we are having tea in the garden with the speciality of the British cream teas: scones.
This one is brimming with cream and home made jam which makes anyone, even those with iron wills, unable to resist taking a mouthful.

To make these scones you will need:

225g/8 oz self-raising flour

1/4 tsp salt

50g/2 oz butter

50g sugar

1 egg

100ml milk, plus extra to glaze

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425 F/Gas 7. If you are using a convection/fan oven drop the temperature 25 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.
2. Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Rub in the butter and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well in the flour and break in the egg gradually pour in most of the milk, mixing quickly with the tips of your fingers as you pour. DO NOT ADD ALL THE MILK AT ONCE. You should get a soft but not wet dough. It should look rough. If the dough is too wet it will expand sideways instead of rising straight up.
3. On a lightly floured board, gently bring together the dough and roll or press out until it’s 2.5cm/1 inch thick and stamp out into rounds. I used a 4cm/2 inch cutter and made 7 rounds. In between each stamp, dip the cutter in flour and with a firm shake downwards release the scone directly onto the baking sheet- try not to press with your fingers or you will misshape the dough. It is also important to cut directly down into the dough, if you twist then they will rise unevenly. Another important point is to roll the dough out evenly. If the dough is on a slope before you cut out the scones, then the finished scone will also be like a downhill ski slope.
4. Place on the baking sheet and brush with extra milk. Depending on size bake for 15-20 minutes, or until risen and golden.
   

If you've made them the right way then this is what they should look like. If you haven't then who cares if they are a bit lumpy as they will taste good even if they look like a landslide.

Almost Store Cupboard Ham Pie

This pie is great because it is so simple and can be made from a tin or good quality ham when you have very little else to feed a fair number of people.

Firstly you need to make the pastry:

250g/9oz Plain Flour

125g/4.5oz cold unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp ice water

heaped tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Put the flour and butter in a dish, and put the dish in your freezer for 10 minutes.
Stir together the yolks, salt and water in a cup, and put the cup in the fridge.
When the time is up, tip the flour and butter into a food processor, add the sugar and pulse to combine, it will look somewhere between sand and porridge oats.
Pour in the egg yolk mixture and pulse till it looks like it's on the verge of coming together (stop just short of it binding). You may need to add more water.
Turn the dough out and mash together with your hands.
Once it is all bound together wrap in cling film, and let rest in the fridge (generally about half an hour. If you are making a springform cake tin pie, then cut one piece slightly larger than the other (one for the base, one for the top).

Ingredients to make the pie filling:

500g of ham that you have boiled yourself. or failing that a 500g tin of ham from Marks and Spencer. Don't buy one of those awful tins of ham made from reformed pieces. the better the ham, the better the pie. 

125g mild cheddar

250g cream cheese

1 medium onion, fried until soft

2 tbsp chopped parsley (optional) I didn't use any in the pie in the picture as I didn't have any at the time.

1 or 2 eggs, lightly beaten, it depends on how soft the mixture is

freshly ground black pepper

1 heaped tbsp dried breadcrumbs

To Make the Pie:

Cube the ham and pulse in a food processor until coarsely chopped.

Transfer to a bowl and then add all the other ingredients except the breadcrumbs. Preheat to 200C/400F, and put in a baking sheet.
Roll out the larger disc of pastry to cover the bottom and sides of a 25cm springform tin with a cm of overhang.
Sprinkle the bottom with breadcrumbs, then fill with the mixture.
Roll out the rest of the dough to make a lid.
Fold the overhang over and seal by pressing down with the tines of a fork.
Just before baking glaze the pie with the milk salt egg combo, and stab it here and there with the prongs of a fork to make steam holes.
Bake at 200c/400f for 10 minutes, then turn it sown to 180c/350f and bake for a further 45 minutes. Leave the pie to cool at least 10 minutes, but 25 is better.

Chocolate Verrines

My cousin, Martine has come to stay with me and has brought the latest in food crazes from Paris. These are 'verrines' which are basically beautiful small glasses which are filled with delicious foods. They can be savory or sweet, but I've decided to start with something sweet.

These cute little desserts are basically a chocolate mousse that is piped on top of amaretti biscuits that have been soaked in chocolate liqueur. Can you ask for better? The chocolate leaves on the top and mint chocolate leaves from Green and Black. Could you ask for easier or better?

Ready to Drink

Some of you may remember that I had a glut of mirabelle plums last summer. One of the things that I did was put some of the plums in alcohol and sugar. The jars were left untouched over the winter, probably because I was in the UK and unable to sample, (nothing like a thousand miles between you and temptation). Now I can say that it is well and truly ready to drink and even though I say so myself it's delicious.

The photograph was taken from the balcony of the house at the end of May.

The recipe :

All that I did was take a large jar. About 2 liters is good. I filled it with as many mirabelles as I could... push them in... then I added white sugar up to about the half way mark. Don't put too much sugar or your liqueur will be too sweet. Shake it down as it will tend to stay on the top. Now comes the exciting part. I filled the jar with 95% pure alcohol. Don't think for a moment that your finished product will be that strong. The plums will leech out their juices and mix with the alcohol making it much weaker. Leave to dissolve in a dark place. Shake the jar every day to help the sugar dissolve and when it is dissolved and the mirabelles are starting to shrink. However, taste a bit first. leave it longer if it still tasted of raw alcohol. Do not store in the light as the produce will turn brown rather than the amber colour that you see in the photo.

Do not throw away the plums as they are fantastic served in small glasses or over vanilla ice cream.

Cinnamon Almond Ring Coffee Cake

This is a superb recipe that I got from the following site.

http://www.cookscountry.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=3843&bdc=46116&extcode=L8CN1BG00



It's all explained there so there's no need for me to go into detail, except to say that the filling was so runny that I had to add more almonds to stop it running off the dough.


It's delicious with coffee and even on it's own when no ones looking. I suggest that you keep it in the cupboard out of sight. Saying that it does not keep fresh for longer than a day or two so bake when there are lots of people coming around for brunch.