Baby It's Cold Outside

More snow this weekend and it is still snowing this morning. My poor old hens gather round the backdoor hoping to be let the house (only allowed when Sacha is not here!) - their claw prints look so cute in the snow! They even tried to get in through the cat flap yesterday having watched peapod go in. Two small deer were also looking for food in our garden. Luckily our thick thatch roof is keeping us warm!

I am not quite sure about how I feel about this photo - it was taken on a visit to a bakery in Suffolk earlier this week and takes playing with your food to a completely new level. The baker had constructed a beach hut from tin loaves and baguette for the roof sandwiched together with margarine and complete with miniature bunting. I wonder if it would have appealed more if made from cake rather than bread - a project for another day perhaps!

Chicken Soup for the Soul

There is nothing worse than feeling poorly when you are away from home. Our poor house guest Maren has been poorly for the last two days and in bed and I have been trying my best to make her feel better. There is nothing nicer when you are feeling under the weather than chicken broth so this is what I made yesterday evening for Maren. Giancarlo Caldesi, when I spent time in his kitchen, taught me the importance of making a proper soffrito for the base of any soup. Although it takes a little extra time, it gives a delicious flavour. It seemed to work as by bedtime yesterday evening Maren was feeling a little better. Get well soon Maren xxx

Serves 4
Preparation time 35 minutes, cooking time 1.5 - 2 hours
3 tbsp olive oil
3 large carrots
2 small leeks
1 red onion
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 large sprig rosemary
3 bay leaves
salt and pepper to season
2 tbsp brandy
6 chicken thighs (skins removed)
2 litres chicken stock

Peel the carrots and onions and trim the leeks. Finely dice the carrots, onions and leeks by hand - as small as you can (Giancarlo says that chopping in a food processor just won't do - although if you are short of time you can of course use a food processor) Add the oil to a large saucepan and saute the vegetables, together with the sprig of rosemary (leave whole as you don't want the rosemary in the soup, just for flavour) and bay leaves. Crush the garlic clove under the flat blade of a large knife so that the flavour will be released but the clove stays whole and add to the pan. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes over a gentle heat until the vegetables are very soft. Remove the rosemary, bay and garlic clove and discard. Add the brandy to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season the chicken and add to the pan (pushing the vegetables to the side of the pan so the chicken is in contact with the base of the pan) and brown gently. Once the chicken is browned, add the stock to the pan and simmer for 1 1/2 hours over a gentle heat. When the soup is ready, use a slotted spoon and remove the chicken from the pan. Chop into small pieces (allow to cool a few minutes before you do this as the chicken will be hot). Strain the vegetables from the soup so you are left with the clear soup base (but keep the vegetables as you will return them to the soup shortly). Skim the soup to remove the oil that will cover the surface using a large spoon or a gravy strainer. Return the chicken and vegetables to the pan and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with crusty bread and you are sure to feel better soon.

Lovely Kathy Brown has just posted a feature on her blog about planting with my hen's blue eggs. I just knew there had to be a use for the leftover egg shells from all my baking and Kathy has the perfect idea. Displaying them in a cupcake cakestand is just genius and so me! Pop by and have a look at Kathy's lovely blog if you have time - she has some lovely stories about her garden and recipes too - www.kathybrowngarden.blogspot.com

Is this not the coolest popcorn you have ever seen? I found it in a deli in Leamington Spa at the weekend. You put the whole cob in the microwave in the special bag provided and 2 minutes later the cob is almost empty and you are left with lots and lots of popcorn. It was delicious! I served mine with maple syrup butter (just melt butter with maple syrup and a pinch of salt) - naughty but definitely nice!

On Friday evening my friend Jess and I made 150 cupcakes for her sister in law's birthday. Jess wanted the cupcakes to look as mad and brightly coloured as possible and I think we managed to achieve that! Thank goodness for disposable icing bags as we made 8 different coloured icings. The whole kitchen was covered in a dusting of edible glitter when we had finished including Jess and myself! My favourite were the purple ones with glace cherries - so simple but they looked so pretty with a little dazzleberry glitter! Can you spot the mad Crusty the Clown cupcake that we made with all the leftover icing at the end of the evening!!!!

Sometimes I really believe in destiny! There was definitely destiny in play when we were in a large antique/junk shop in Bath last weekend and, up in the attic rooms, came across this tiny miniature dresser. I have no idea why anyone would have had such a small dresser made (apparently it came from Croatia so perhaps kitchens there are small?) but we both looked at it and said in unison "Shepherd's Hut" and bought it there and then - even thought it was a little damp and I am sure had lived outside for a while (this helped greatly with the price negotiations)! So we are now the proud owners of what I am sure must be one of the smallest dressers in the UK which is gently drying out in front of the Aga and patiently awaiting the arrival of our hut. I don't think I have ever purchased a more "me"/"Hannah's Country Kitchen" piece of furniture!

Guinness and Irish Cheddar Easy Loaf

This is one of my recent recipes from Country Kitchen Magazine. A super quick bread with no yeast. You can substitute other fizzy beers or cider which will change the flavour of the bread if you prefer. Given the addition of sugar to the bread, it is a sweet loaf, but goes very well with soups and pates.

Preparation time 15 minutes, proving 30 minutes, baking 45 – 50 minutes
Makes one 8 inch round loaf

250ml Guinness
350g/12½oz self raising flour, sifted
60g/2oz caster sugar
100g/3½oz strong Irish cheddar cheese, grated
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds (optional)
2 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/350F/180C and grease an 8inch round spring form tin. Place the Guinness, flour, sugar, grated cheese and seeds if using in a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon until all the flour is combined. The dough will be sticky and not like a normal bread dough that you would kneed. Transfer the dough into the tin using a spatula and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes then drizzle the melted butter over the top of the loaf and return to the oven for a further 10 – 15 minutes until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap it. Serve warm or cold. To freeze this bread, cut into slices and place in a zip lock bag in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Last week, the lovely people at Interflora asked if I would like to try their Valentine cupcakes - as you can imagine I had to think about this for all of a milli second before saying "YES PLEASE!" Now I am not a huge fan of store bought cakes and was not expecting much when the parcel arrived earlier this week. How wrong was I!!!! The cakes arrived in a lovely Emma Bridgewater tin (my favourite and I will definitely be using this to store all my cake decorations in as soon as all the cakes are gone). There were 18 cakes all carefully packaged with spacers between them so that the cakes were perfect despite being posted - 9 chocolate fudgy and 9 white, all prettily decorated with sugar hearts. They taste so good and I had to take them to our sewing circle last night before we ate them all ourselves (which would not have been a good idea). The overall verdict was a resounding delicious! Gentlemen reading this blog, let me let you into a little secret - your partner, wife, girlfriend, will love you for buying these - they make such a nice gift, particularly with the Emma Bridgewater tin! (Sacha if you are reading this - I wouldn't object to a second tin!!!!) So there you have it - my recommendation for this years Valentine's day (unless of course you are going to bake yourself) - click here Love Heart cupcakes for a link! It goes without saying that if anyone wants me to try any more things, I would be happy to oblige!!!!

Longleat Gatehouse

I am just back from a wonderful weekend in Bath - seeing the History Boys play (the tickets were a very nice birthday present). We stayed in Longleat (can you tell I am a secret "Animal Park" fan - ahhh lovely Ben Fogle swoon, swoon) in the Gatehouse Lodge. When we booked it I thought the gate house would be somewhere on the edge of the Longleat Estate. I never imagined we would have the spectacular views of Longleat House that we had from our kitchen window! You can just see the house in the distance through the lodge archway. The decor inside was so crazy that I am convinced it was designed by Lord Bath himself (he being the great purveyor of very loud and bright waistcoats) including a snug room in the attic with billowing fabric covering the ceiling and a hallway painted in bright red, yellow and brown stripes. The Bath Arms food was delicious - our favourite being the sea salt caramel sticky toffee pudding (yum yum!) Sadly with the Safari Park closed, we didn't catch a glimpse of a single wild animal, nor of Ben Fogle! Next time!

Tangerine and Cinzano Sorbet

This is the sorbet we had on Christmas Eve as a refreshing interlude between Turkey and Christmas Pudding. I will not deny that having a juicer for this recipe is pretty much essential! Squeezing so much fruit by hand is no easy task. You can use clementines or satsumas too in place of the Tangerines.

20 Tangerines, skins removed
juice of 2 limes
juice of 2 oranges
juice of 2 lemons
100ml Cinzano Arancio or other orange flavoured spirit
180g caster sugar

Juice the tangerines, limes, oranges and lemons and combine the juices in a large bowl, making sure that there are no pips. Add the sugar and orange Cinzano and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. If you do not have an ice cream machine, place in a freezerproof lidded bowl and store in the freezer. Remove from the freezer after an hour, transfer to a bowl and whisk with an electric handmixer or whisk to break down the ice crystals. Repeat every hour until the sorbet has frozen.

We are getting excited as we have ordered a shepherd's hut for our garden and it is due to arrive soon. Actually it was due to come before Christmas but work stopped due to all the snow. It has a little log stove and a bed that I have been busy making a cushion for and will be the perfect place to read or write books or for camping out in. As soon as it arrives we are having a hut warming party (with mulled wine and hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows) and I have just ordered some lovely paper flower bunting to decorate the hut with for the party - so pretty! (from thelastdetail.co.uk in case you want some too - click here paper flower bunting for a link) Now all we need is for the hut to arrive!!!!!!!

Burns Night Supper

Last Saturday saw a Burns Night Supper in our village. We live nowhere near Scotland and very few people attending were Scottish, but 140 people celebrated the life of Robert Burns in style in a large marque (which was toasty warm despite it being January) with a glittering starry roof and lots of scottish flags. Our menu Cock A Leekie soup made by lovely Carmella, Haggis Neeps and Tatties made by Pam Tena and Susan with my Whisky gravy and no suprises here puddings made by me! Making 140 puddings (plus extras for waitresses) took me right back to the days of Masterchef! The puddings took 3 hours to assemble (although thats a rate of about 1 per minute so not too bad) - invidiual trifles comprising whisky poached pears, chocolate cake soaked with whisky, white chocolate buttons, cranberry puree, white chocolate custard, topped with cream, sprinkles and of course edible glitter. The puddings were served with shortbread made by Cathie and Alison. All in all a lovely evening and the auction of promises etc raised over £4,000 - just brilliant for a tiny village like ours. Happy Burns Night to you all and if you are having Haggis this evening, have a tot of whisky on me! The picture - although not very clear - is Andrew addressing the Haggis (following a procession with a proper piper) before promptly stabbing it with a ceremonial dagger. All very dramatic!

Masterchef Goes Published

For any Masterchef fans out there, a new cook book has been released this week of the 250 best Masterchef recipes from all of the Masterchef Goes Large series including the professional and celebrity versions! It contains some really lovely recipes - lots of ones that I watched on the programme and wanted to try at the time so I was thrilled when the book arrived. I can happily report that our 2007 MC series is well covered with recipes from Steven Wallis (incl his winning pear and chocolate sauce - to quote Gregg it feels like you are "floating away on an ice cream dream") and David Hall's yummy pan haggerty. Four of my recipes have made the book - chocolate cake, tiramisu, chilli stuffed squid and lamb with wild mushrooms and I am described as "Lawyer turned Cookbook author and Masterchef finalist 2007"! Hurrah!

Broccoli and Gorgonzola Soup

I have to confess I have a complete aversion to stalky vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage (unless the stalky bit is cut out) - even asparagus is not my favourite thing which is a travesty for a foodie I know!) One of my new years resolutions was to try and solve this food fad so this week I brought broccoli and cauliflower in the hope that I would eat them if pureed into soup. It worked (proving that it is really a texture thing and not a flavour issue!) So here is my recipe for broccoli soup - yum yum!

Serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
2 large heads of broccoli - stalks removed and cut into small florettes
5 spring onions, finely chopped
125ml sherry
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
100g gorgonzola dolce
200ml milk
salt and pepper to season

In a large saucepan, saute the broccoli florettes and spring onions in the olive oil for 3 - 4 minutes to soften. Add the sherry and cook for a further few minutes. Pour over the stock and simmer for about 10 minutes until the broccoli is soft. Puree with a hand blender until smooth. Chop the gorgonzola dolce into small pieces and add to the pan with the milk. Season well with salt and pepper and simmer over a very gentle heat until the cheese has melted but do not boil. Serve immediately with warm crusty bread.

As you may imagine, I have a lot of equipment in my kitchen - so much so that there is not enough space in the cupboards! For my birthday I was very kindly given some vouchers to spend at my favourite kitchen shop in New York - Sur La Table (thank you Mum Dad and Gareth). It was a tough choice as to how to spend my $100 as there were so many lovely things. I think everyone thought I was mad when I settled on this pan (not least as I had to pack it in my suitcase to come home!) but I have wanted a couscousier ever since seeing one on front of Nigella Lawson's book "Feasts". The top pan has tiny holes, just enough to let steam through but not enough for the couscous to fall through. Strange though, as I have never been a fan of couscous, I think I just fell in love with the bulbous curves of the pans and the idea that perhaps if cooked in a proper pan, couscous may be OK afterall. I was so right!!! We christened the pan last night, cooking a pork and pear tagine in the bottom pan and then steaming the couscous with cumin and fresh corriander in the top pan. The result was perfect couscous, light crumbs, gently scented of the tagaine and not a lump in slight. A complete revelation and I have never eaten couscous like this before! So much so that I am making more for lunch today. So how do you flavour your couscous - I am keen to try all your recipes!

Well Ladies and Gentleman... I am proud to present to you..... the first proper glimpses of my next book - Sundaes and Splits! My lovely publisher Julia gave me my advanced copy at the end of last week and I literally squeaked with excitement! I had already seen the pictures (and loved them) but it is so much nicer to see them in the actual book. So, for all you lovely readers of this blog, here are a few sneak peak pictures. Above is the inside front page with pretty tubs of ice cream and sorbet (and my name!!!!!), the inside cover cover (one of my favourite pictures - white chocolate coated ice cream wafers with sprinkles), plum crumble sundae, sticky toffee pudding sundae and lemon meringue pie. I am soooooo pleased with it and really hope you like it too. Thank you Steve, Julia, Kate and Sunil for all your wonderful work on the book. For anyone with beedy eyes who spots the references to cups, custard sauce and Jello-o - these pictures are from the US version of the book - the UK version has grams! It is out on 8th April and I am planning an ice cream party to celebrate! It is available to preorder on Amazon (link on the right)...plug plug!

My lovely Publisher Julia and I with my book at the party in London! Photo kindly taken by my other lovely Publisher Grace! So nice - thank you both for a lovely evening xxx (photo taken on my mobile so sorry for the not so brilliant quality)

Quite a few of my friends and family have given copies of my cook book to people for Christmas. It was so nice to think of them on Christmas day unwrapping my book from their Christmas stockings. I have been receiving some lovely letters and messages about the book and particularly loved Emma's drawing of her cakes and the photo of Taran and Dillon with their checkerboard cookies!

New York Lights!

Pear and Walnut Galettes

Makes 8 galettes Preparation time 30 minutes, cooking time 15 – 20 minutes

100g/3½oz walnuts

85g/3oz butter, plus extra for greasing

85g/3oz icing sugar

45g/1½oz self raising flour, plus extra for dusting

1 egg

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

1 tsp vanilla essence

500g/1lb1½oz puff pastry

3 ripe pears, cored and thinly sliced

1 tbsp apricot jam

Pre heat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/350F and grease two baking trays with butter. Soak the pear slices in the juice of one lemon to prevent discolouration. Place the walnuts in a food processor and blitz until finely chopped. Add the butter, icing sugar, flour, egg, lemon zest and vanilla to the processor and blitz to form a smooth paste. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the pastry to ¼ cm thickness, cut out 13cm/5in circles and transfer to the baking tray. Using a sharp knife, score in inner circle on each pastry disk about 1cm from the edge, taking care not to cut all the way through. Place a large spoonful of the nut butter in the centre of each pastry circle and spread out using a knife. Top each with pear slices in a circle. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar and bake in the oven for 18 - 25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the pears are cooked. Remove the tarts from the oven and allow to cool. Heat the juice of the remaining lemon in a saucepan with the apricot jam until the jam has dissolved. Use a pastry brush to brush the apricot over each tart to glaze.