Foccacia Bread Recipe

The process of making any kind of bread can, on the surface, put you off before you even start. However the hardest part of the process is kneading the dough which can be made infinitely easier if there is a food mixer with a dough hook to hand, if there isn't it makes a great stress reliever as you pummel the dough about with your hands, imagining all those things you'd like to do to that certain person but would probably get arrested for!! All you have to do then is wait. The smell of the warm dough and rosemary filling the house as the bread bakes is certainly worth it!

Ingredients

400g Strong White Flour

100g plain flour

1 sachet easy blend yeast

2 teaspoons salt

300ml Warm Water

3 tablespoons oive oil

Bunch Fresh Rosemary Leaves

Maldon Salt

Method

1- Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl ( except the Rosemary & Maldon Salt)

2- Mix the oil & water together in a jug

3- If using a mixer simply add the liquid to the dry ingredients gradually as the mixer is running until you have a smooth, elastic dough. If mixing by hand it is best to form a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and start mixing in the wet ingredients with a palette knife, then go in with your hands. Kneading for approximately 10 minutes until you have a smooth elastic dough.

4- Bring the dough into a ball,Rub a little olive oil over it to prevent it drying out and cracking then leave to prove, covered with a damp tea towel until doubled in size.

5- Knock the air out of the dough and press into an oiled roasting tin approximately 20 x 30 cm. Cover again and leave to prove again.

6- Once the dough has risen, using your little finger, make a grid of indentations in the dough filling each one with a sprig of rosemary leaves.

7- Sprinkle the dough with the maldon salt and drizzle with olive oil.

8- Bake in a preheated oven (220c) until golden all over.

Best served warm and eaten on the day it is made.

I've started cooking ready meals!

I wouldn't normally advocate the cooking and serving of ready meals. A simple but infinitely tastier supper can be created in just the same, if not less, time than it takes to pierce the film three times and wait for a ping!!
The sort of ready meal I'm talking about is the components of a dinner party, prepped and ready to be cooked by the host....a sort of culinary meccano set.
For the time poor or those with lack of culinary inclination the idea of cooking a three course meal can be a daunting one. What I provide, apart from a sense of relief, is freshly prepared, simple to cook food with full instructions and ingredients lists ( for those who don't want to own up to the 'cheat')
An example dinner party that I've just provided is a starter of pan fried fillet of cod with Salsa Verde and lemon and roasted red pepper dressing, for mains a free range chicken breast stuffed with fresh pesto and buffalo mozzarella wrapped in prosciuto, tomato and white wine sauce, rosemary and rock salt foccacia and green bean vinagrette followed by marinated summer berries with an elderflower sorbet..all ready to go!
Recipe to follow.

Bloody Mary Sorbet Recipe

BLOODY MARY SORBET Makes 1 litre.
This is great for a party, In a shot glass with a stick of celery and a savoury tuile biscuit.

100g caster sugar
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
Small bunch of basil leaves roughly chopped
500ml tomato juice
80ml vodka
20ml Fino Sherry
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Splash of Tabasco
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

1) Dissolve the sugar in 300ml water over a low heat. Once the solution is clear add the celery and bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then strain the mixture into a bowl and discard the celery. Add the basil to the hot liquid and leave to infuse until cool.
2) Mix the tomato juice, vodka, lemon juice and Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces. Strain the
basil from the syrup then pour the syrup into the tomato mixture.
3) Season, then churn and freeze.

Tips
Alcohol prevents proper freezing so don't go too mad with the vodka and sherry, taste your mix before freezing...the seasoning will need to be very strong at this point as, once frozen, the flavours will deaden slightly.

Size isn't everything!!

It is not without some large amount of trepidation that I have agreed to provide the canapes for a wedding reception this weekend, although there's nothing quite like the pressure of somebody elses big day to sharpen the mind.
I like the idea of a canape, but all too often one is presented with a selection of rather non-descript round and brown offerings that you have to decipher in your mouth to gain an insight into what they are. It was Thomas Keller of the French Laundry that said something along the lines that the palatte is far more excited by little bursts of flavour so a multi course menu of small dishes will be a far more exhilarating experience than just two or three larger plates.
Imagine you've just put on a great new perfume, at first the senses are exhilarated by the new aromas and the coolness of the alcohol on the skin but shortly these sensations subside and one fails to even notice the scent is even there. One can't repeat the experience by simply adding more perfume, all that would acheive is overkill and possibly asphixiation!
For me the same applies to the creating of canapes. A dish that might become too much or alternatively boring after the first two or three mouthfuls can be pared down in size if not in flavour to create something wonderful. One or two mouthfuls and then move on to the next experience. It is important though to ensure that, as with a regular menu, the selection of mini dishes flow. One doesn't want confusion but harmony between tastes, textures and aromas.
With this in mind I decided upon four or five different canapes to be served with a nice chilled rose on a balmy summer's afternoon. A simple crostini topped with a young creamy goats cheese and a slither of lavender infused lamb, Crisp gem lettuce leaves filled with a refreshing mixture of peppery radish, salty feta cheese and fresh cleansing mint, cool cucumber cups filled with a creamy yet smokey trout mousse and fresh dill leaves and finally a shot of bloody mary sorbet with a parmesan and black pepper tuile...I'm particulary proud of this one, the secret is to ensure that your bloody mary is very highly seasoned then once frozen you get the interesting experience of cold yet spicy.
Recipe to follow.

What's it all about?

For as long as I can remember food has always played an important part in my life.

The consumed becomes the consuming. Early memories include a set of saucepans as a childhood toy, making fairy cakes in a baby belling oven in my primary school classroom, playing with the ends of pastry left over from one of my grandmother's fruit pies.

As I got older I would experiment and dabble with REAL food, I'd bake a cake for tea..there is something almost magical about taking three or four very simple ingredients, mixing adding a little heat and creating some delicious morsel - a sort of culinary witchcraft. Recipes such as Spag Bog and Chilli con Carne became old faithfuls, again very simple but in my youth these were considered the height of sophistication.

One less successful venture into culinary experimentation but no less memorable was into the world of hot beverages. I remember my brother and I reading on the back of a packet of banana milkshake mix that it could be served hot, in our innocence we opted to make up the mixture with cold milk as normal and then put it in the kettle and boil. My mother could not work out why her coffee tasted of bananas for ages after that. ( Sorry mum you didn't know about that one!)

In my adult life my tastes have broadened as has my ability and I find myself constantly musing about food and running through recipes in my head, sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and try it, more often than not things work out but as they say not to try is not to know.

With that thought in mind it was in 2007 that I opted to complete an online application for the next series of Masterchef. I really didn't think any more of it after pressing the send button, but some time later I received a call from the production team. Somehow or other I made it through to the filmed stages of the competition...but that's a whole other story!

Why 'A Stable Diet' - well these are the things that I like to cook after a day running around after 43 horses and 5 labradors, they may not be the healthiest in the world but when you do what I do you build up an apppetite and get plenty of opportunity to burn off the calories! A little bit of what you fancy does you good..both physically, mentally and emotionally.