Eats #19: Sticky, Gooey, Goodness…
Ingredients: [Flavoured Butter] 75g unsalted butter, pinch nutmeg, pinch cinnamon, zest large orange. [Other] good quality bread, 5 egg yolks, 1/2 egg white, 70g caster sugar, 250ml whole milk, 284ml double cream, vanilla pod, 4 tablespoons fine-cut marmalade.
Note: I reduced the ingredients by half to serve 2 people.
Difficulty: 2/5
Rating: 4/5
Create the flavoured butter by mixing unsalted butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and the zest of an orange.
Cut as many slices of bread as needed to fill your bowl. Butter the bread on both sides with the flavoured butter and stack in the bowl leaving the tips protruding.
Mix the egg yolks, egg white and sugar until smooth. Gently heat the milk, double cream, vanilla seeds and vanilla pod and pour slowly into the egg mixture while whisking continually.
Then pour the mixture over the bread and leave to soak for 20 minutes. Once soaked cook in a bain marie for 40 minutes until the custard has set. Meanwhile, melt the marmalade in a saucepan and spoon over the bread and cook for a further 20 minutes until sticky and golden - serve!
Review
Despite parts of this recipe being unknown territory (custard and marmalade glaze) it was fairly simply to make and I’ve always loved bread and butter pudding so I was very happy to finally taste this dish.
The flavoured butter was lovely and aromatic and adds a hint of spice to the dish and the marmalade has created a sticky, gooey toffee like texture which is delicious!
The custard and bread has formed a smooth, light sponge which works really well with the other textures.
My only criticism of the recipe is it’s sweetness. I don’t personally have a sweet tooth and at times the dish can be a little sickly. I’d also like to add some dried fruit such as raisins or currents to this dish as, to me, bread and butter pudding isn’t complete without them.
Eats #7: Cauliflower Cover Up
Ingredients: head of cauliflower, sea salt, olive oil, knob of butter, 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, 1-2 dried chillies, handful blanched almonds, lemon.
Difficulty: 1/5
Rating: 1/5
This weeks last weeks recipe was “Roasted cauliflower with cumin, coriander and almonds” (page 342, Cook with Jamie)
Remove the outer leaves of the cauliflower and cut into florets - pop into boiling salted water for a few minutes, drain and allow to steam dry.
Crush the cumin and coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar, add the chili, almonds and a pinch of salt. Heat a dry pan until hot and pour in the spice mixture and toast for a few minutes. Toss the cauliflower in olive oil and a knob of butter and add to the pan, fry until slightly golden and add the zest and juice of a lemon.
Roast in the oven for 15 minutes and you’re done.
Summary
What can I say about last weeks recipe… Not a lot to be honest! It was always going to be a challenge to make what’s essentially a boring vegetable exciting and this recipe failed to wow my taste buds.
The chili, lemon, cumin and coriander gave the cauliflower an extra dimension in terms of flavour but the combination was a little odd for my liking. The lemon was too tangy and dominated the other flavours and the almonds gave each mouthful a weird texture.
I have to admit that there were a couple of diversions from the recipe - I used fresh chili instead of dried and I could only find almond flakes instead of whole almonds but I don’t think either would of changed the outcome.
Perhaps nothing could make cauliflower exciting for me or perhaps the recipe just isn’t to my liking… one things for sure, I won’t be cooking this dish again in a hurry.
