The Panettone is here - Food Find

The Ulcigrai family began making Panettone five generations ago in Trieste. Having discovered this fantastic version of a "large bread" last November, I was so happy to see it again at arch 104 Druid Street, Bermondsey on Saturday.  It's a Leila McAlister discovery and you can buy it from the arch on Saturdays or from Leila's on Calvert Avenue, Shoreditch Tuesday-Sunday.  Made with top quality dried and candied fruits and a natural sourdough starter, this, for my money, is the best you can get in London and far from the most expensive.  Leila also supplies the Panettone to Monmouth Coffee, so look out for it between now and Christmas.  If you want to keep it until Christmas, I recommend you put it out of sight as the one I bought on Saturday is fast disappearing.

Pasticceria Triestina Ulcigrai
http://www.pasticceriatriestina.com/home_ing.htm

Butternut Squash & Sage Ravioli

Butternut Squash
& Sage Ravioli

There is an abundance of winter squash and pumpkins around at the moment, some so beautiful to look at that you hardly want to cut them open.  Their names are equally lovely - Baby Bear, Butterball, Jack Be Little, Sweet Dumpling and Turk's Turban to mention just a few.  They are easy to grow and if you're short of space you can grow them up a wigwam of hazel sticks instead of horizontally.  The seeds can be planted straight in the ground once frosts have passed.  They need less water than summer squashes as they develop a good root system, and as they have hard skins they can be harvested in autumn and kept well into winter.  If you are planning to keep them a while, make sure you leave a good length of stalk when you severe the fruit from the plant to prevent rotting.  Squash generally have a better flavour and texture than pumpkins.

Uchiki Kuri Squash

Butternut squash has a rather boring flesh-coloured appearance by comparison, but it has a delicious nutty flavour and it's easy to find in the shops.  It also, mercifully, has quite a thin skin so it is possible to peel one without slicing a finger, unlike some, if you don't want to roast it skin-on.  Its firm flesh works really well as a filling for ravioli.  Toss chunks of the squash in olive oil and bake in the oven with a few sage leaves to allow the natural sugars to caramelise and the sage to crisp. Mash the ingredients together to a firm puree.  If the mixture is very stiff, you can let it down with just a little double cream.  A few gratings of parmesan add a salty piquancy to the sweetness of the squash.  This mixture can be made in advance and left in the fridge along with your home-made pasta - don't panic, pasta is easy.  You can buy some decent fresh pastas but for ravioli you really need to make your own.  You do need a hand-cranked pasta roller, or an attachment if you have a good electric mixer, but it's a purchase you will never regret.  The only expensive ingredient in this recipe is the pinenuts but you could toast hazelnuts or cobnuts instead.

Filling the ravioli

Dressed with a smattering of toasted nuts, fried sage leaves, grated parmesan, and a slick of best olive oil, there's nothing like serving up a ravioli to make you look like a serious cook.  The FILLING THE RAVIOLI section below is long as I've tried to be clear for the sake of those of you who have never made ravioli before.  Once done, you won't need to refer to it again.  You can carry out all of the following steps in advance right up to the COOK AND FINISH section.  So, let's start with that scary pasta.

Squash & sage ravioli

Butternut Squash & Sage Ravioli
(serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main)

PASTA:
100g 'OO' flour
1 large egg
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
A little polenta to help prevent sticking

Put all ingredients in a mixer, or use your fingers, to mix just until everything holds together.  Either change to a doughhook and knead for 2 minutes or knead the dough on a work surface by hand for 10 minutes if you want an excellent work-out for your arm muscles (saves on gym fees).  If you use a machine, knead the dough by hand for a final half minute (the warmth of your hands finishes it off perfectly).  You will now have a smooth firm dough. Wrap it in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.

FILLING:
1 small-medium butternut squash
1 tablespoon good olive oil
2-3 sage leaves
1 tablespoon Parmesan
salt and pepper
(1 tablespoon of cream if mixture is very stiff)

Heat oven to 180C.  Peel the squash (or leave peel on and remove it after roasting), cut it into quarters then each quarter into 2 or 3 pieces.  Toss them in the tablespoon of olive oil with the sage leaves and roast in the oven on a baking tray for 20-25 minutes until soft and lightly browned.  After about 10 minutes check the sage leaves and when crisp remove them to a bowl while the squash continues cooking - you don't want the sage to burn.  Add the cooked squash to the bowl and mash or use a stick-blender to mix to a smooth paste flecked with sage leaves.  Add  cream if the mixture is very stiff, then parmesan and salt and pepper.  Once cool, cover and refrigerate.

FILLING THE RAVIOLI:
Feed the pasta dough through the pasta machine on its lowest setting.  Fold the dough and repeat 3 more times.  Increasing the setting by one mark each time, feed the dough through the machine once until you reach its highest setting (if you are as short of kitchen space as I am you'll want to cut your rolled pasta in half part way through the rolling to make it more manageable, so you end up with 2 sheets of pasta).  Sprinkle your work surface with a little polenta.  Place your sheet(s) of pasta on a work surface and put heaped teaspoons of squash mixture just over half way across and 3cm apart.  Use a pastry brush to paint the pasta lightly with water between the dollops of mixture all the way to the nearest edge and down that long edge.  Bring the untouched half of the pasta sheet over to gently meet the water-brushed edge (don't press it down yet).  Press down between the filling with the side of your hand to create separate pockets, easing the air out of the pockets as you go.  You can now press down all along the edge.  Neaten the edge with a knife, or pasta wheel if you have one, then cut to separate your filled pockets into individual raviolis.  Sprinkle a tray or plate with the polenta and lay the ravioli on this in a single layer to stop them sticking together until you're ready to cook them.

TO COOK AND FINISH:
A tablespoon or two of good olive oil
A handful of sage leaves
2-3 tablespoons of pinenuts (or hazelnuts or cobnuts)
Grated Parmesan and a little extra virgin olive oil to serve

While you bring a large pan of water to the boil, lightly brown the nuts in a dry frying pan.  Fry the sage leaves until just crisp in hot olive oil (takes just a few seconds) and drain them on kitchen paper.  Once it comes to the boil, salt the water and add the ravioli.  Bring back to the boil and cook for 3 minutes.  Remove the ravioli parcels gently to warmed plates (a little of the pasta water on the plate is a good thing), scatter the pinenuts, and crisp sage leaves over.  Finish with a few gratings of parmesan and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.

The Butchery - Food find

'The Butchery' has arrived in my favourite shopping area of London.  Having bought meat from Nathan Mills at Ginger Pig and Barbecoa in the past, it was great to see him on Saturday behind the counter of his own business.   Nathan and his partner Ruth are buying in whole carcasses direct from small farmers, or in conjunction with The Traditional Breeds Meat Market, and butchering to the customers' needs.  Choosing rare breed animals, pasture-fed, organically reared and as chemical-free as possible - this is as good as it gets.  For now you will find them in the railway arch at 1 Ropewalk, Bermondsey SE1 along with The Ham & Cheese Company and The Kernel Brewery on Saturdays only.  Sign up to naththebutcher to keep up with The Butchery Ltd and check out these websites.  The Butchery is a great addition to the area which already has the excellent Jacob's Ladder butchers round the corner, in the arch at 104 Druid Street SE1.

http://www.thebutcheryltd.com/
http://www.tbmm.co.uk/default.asp

Genoa - Acciughe to Stoccafisso

Adding sugar syrup to
pistachio dragees
at Romanengo fu Stefano

Just back from a short trip to Genoa, which unfortunately coincided with a massive two day storm, but that's another story.  I thought you might be interested in my food experiences in this capital of the region known as Liguria.  Located in the coastal centre of the narrow strip of land bordering the French Riviera, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany, the Italian city of Genoa is about a 90 minute drive south of Milan.  It bridges what locals refer to as the Riviera di Levante and Riviera de Ponente. Tumbling down to the Mediterannean Sea, it was home to Christopher Colombus and the banking houses which bankrolled the Spanish conquest of the Americas.  The people are proud without being boastful and, you won't find any grand statements of their past glories.  They wear their heritage lightly.  That's not to say Genoa isn't an attractive city.  The architecture is imposing rather than flashy.  The people are friendly and helpful but interact with a formal politeness which is charming.

With the Mediterannean to the south and the Maritime  Alps to the north, Liguria has an enviable micro-climate. Olives, citrus, hard and soft fruits, chestnuts, pine nuts, mushrooms, chickpeas, vegetables such as artichokes and chard, and herbs grow particularly well.  The three foods you will see again and again are pesto (mostly using basil but sometimes other herbs), focaccia (or fugassa) and chickpea farinata (a thin, crustless savoury tart/pancake, known as Soca over the border in France).  A dish of Trofie pasta with basil pesto, a Levante speciality, is on most menus, and take-away farinata shops abound.  Genoese locals like their focaccia or fugassa quite thin but crisp outside and fluffy within and take it with a morning cappuccino.   If you'd prefer something sweeter for breakfast, and I'm afraid I do, then breakfast at Fratelli Klainguti Bar Pasticceria on Piazza Di Soziglia.  Its history goes back to 1826 when two Swiss brothers, who were trying to get to America, missed the boat and stayed on to open a Pasticceria instead - the caffe was good and the Kranz delicious.  Another speicality of Genoa is the pandolce cake studded with pine nuts and candied fruit.

Despite its proximity to the sea, apart from anchovies (Acciughe) and air-dried cod (stoccafisso - more pungent than salt cod), of which they are very fond, the Genoese have a great love of vegetables.  In particular chard and bitter field greens (preboggion) which they use in tarts (torta salata).  Their similarity to ancient pastry dishes of Greece, Turkey and Persia speak of the influences of past trading links.  Tripe and rabbit are popular too.  A big feature of Genovese cooking is the wood-burning oven and you will see them in many of the trattorias, making for cosy meals.

Sugared Marzpan

Genoa is full of small food businesses that have been around for generations, and they are still there for good reason.  One of the oldest and best is the confetteria Romanengo fu Stefano, who I managed to catch on their short visit to London last month.  Producing seasonal candied fruits, including the rare chinotti, a locally grown rather bitter citrus fruit which is transformed by sugaring (and can also be found locally as a soft drink) and chestnuts, syrup-filled dragees, chocolates, marzipan sweets, delicious sugar coated pinenuts and aniseed.  They also make a sensational rose petal jam, delicate syrups of orange blossom and an intense wild cherry.

I was lucky enough to be shown around their factory on Viale Mojon where the fruits and nuts used arrive mostly from Ligurian growers, suppliers for generations  No artificial preservatives are used and everything is hand made in small batches using decades old equipment and molds.  The skills of the craftsmen and women is essential to the processes involved and it was a joy to see.  Needless to say, the aromas were heavenly and the tastings - no doubt helped by the fact the products were just made - amazing. The purety of the fruits and fruit syrups shine through, rather than just tasting sweet as many such products do. 

Sugar coated cinnamon bark
at Romanengo fu Stefano

The first batch of sublime soft almond torrone, which is only made in November and December, was cooling as we passed by.  Invited to sample it, I can honestly say it was without doubt the finest I have ever tasted. 

The original Romanengo shop is in the Caruggi area of Genoa nand has been since 1814.  Dive into these medieval alleways off the beautiful Palazzo-lined Via Garibaldi.  The Caruggi and adjoining Molo areas, descending to the port, are the best places to go to get a handle on Genoese food.  The numerous narrow streets are home to hundreds of Pasticceria, Tripperia, Drogheria, Salumeria, Alimentari, Gelateria and Enoteca along with Restaurante, Trattoria, Taverna, Osteria and Caffe.  You will never go hungry in this area.  Ristorante La Berlocca on Via Soziglia, for one, proved a good lunch stop for a dish of Minestrone and a plate of Stoccafisso with onions, potatoes and olives in front of the wood-fired oven.

Another must-see is the Mercato Orientale (meaning in the east of the city rather than any reference to the orient).  There are several food markets but if you can visit only one, I recommend this one on Via XX Septembre which operates every day except Sunday.  Check out the lovely fish and vegetable stalls and the trader who specialises in tomatoes and chillies/peppers.  The streets around the market are good for food shops too - the Vias Vincenzo, Galata, Colombo and also Piazzaa Colombo.  There is a lovely fresh pasta shop (its name escapes me for reasons which wiil become clear later); Cremeria Colombo for artisan ice creams made only with ripe fruit, high quality milk and cream and natural flavourings; Eto Oleo Granoteca for olive oils and dry goods and Gerolame Pernigetti-Gamalero for dry goods (both on Via Galata); and the grocery store, Chicco Caffe.


Fritture at Sa Pesta

Trattoria Sa Pesta on Via Giustiniani is listed in the Slow Food Guide to Genoa and proved to be a good recommendation for dinner.  The atmosphere is laid back, the room simply furnished, and the food straightforward.  We ate Farinata layered with Strachini cheese, Verdure Ripieni (stuffed vegetables), and shared an excellent dish of Fritture of fresh anchovies, baby squid and other small fish.  With half a litre of local red wine and coffees the bill came to 35 Euros.

The following evening Trattoria Rosmarino  just off Piazza de Ferrari (you can't miss the the huge fountain) proved friendly and welcoming and served local food with a bit more refinement.  The highlights were an antipasti, Sformato - a fantastically light artichoke (carciofo) souffle with a goat cheese sauce - and  pasta dish of Trofie, made with chestnut flour and served with basil pesto genovese.  Although not listed in my guides we had a good time here and the service was excellent.  My view could be coloured somewhat by the fact we were struggling to find any restaurants open after a day of constant heavy rain which caused the centre of the City to be virtually closed down.  So bad was the freak weather that the next morning the area around the Mercato Orientale was a mud bath and many of the shops remained shuttered all day.  Disappointing but it only meant we would be returning to see what we missed.

The Riviera's steep, terraced terrain does not allow for much grape growing but the wine produced is generally light and fruity.  Varieties have small yields and require hand-harvesting so local wines are relatively expensive.  The main grape varieties for Ligurian white wines are Vermentino and Pigato, and the main red is the Rossese.  They are, however, very acceptable to my, admittedly untutored, palate.

Look out for words such as Tipico, meaning local or regional; Genuino, meaning genuine, authentic; Naturale meaning wholesome, without artifical flavourings etc used particularly in ice cream making; Cucina casalinga meaning home cooking.  If you plan a trip to Genoa I highly recommend David Downies book "The Italian Riviera & Genoa".  It's a weighty tome but it proved invaluable on our trip and it's stuffed with useful information.  The only regret was we didn't have time, or the weather, on our side to do it justice.

Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano
Via Soziglia 74R
16123 Genova
and also at Via Roma 51R, 16121 Genova (they have a small number of select stockists around the world.  In London you can buy some of their products at La Fromagerie on Moxon Street, Marylebone).
http://www.romanengo.com/
http://mercatoorientale.org/
http://www.sapesta.it/
http://www.trattoriarosmarino.it/
http://www.davidddownie.com/

Cod, Kippers and Yorkshire Brack



Herring in Fortune's
Smokehouse, Whitby

Not having been to Whitby for years, I was expecting a nippy autumn day, quiet streets and no queue at The Magpie Cafe.  How wrong can you be?  The weather was warm and sunny, the streets as busy as on a summer day and the queue at the Magpie was enormous.  The streets were full of goths, corseted maidens, black-cloaked counts, bustle-bearing ladies and top-hatted gents, and a chap in a truly gorgeous red dress.  I'd been away for so long that for a moment I thought this might be normal for Whitby as the locals were taking it all in their stride, but trust me to pay a visit during the annual Bram Stoker film festival. 

So, I can't introduce you to the food of Whitby, in the farthest reaches of North Yorkshire, without getting the Dracula thing out of the way.  Whitby is the small north-east England fishing town where the Irish novelist, Bram Stoker, began to write the story of 'Dracula'.  Largely thanks to its picturesque ruined clifftop Abbey and atmospheric churchyard sloping towards the sea, it is a huge draw to devotees of the book.  Go in winter or early spring to see Whitby at its quietest and, if you're lucky storm-lashed, best.

By 1890, when Bram Stoker lived in Whitby, Mr William Fortune had been firing up his tiny smokehouse on Henrietta Street for 18 years.  Now, 139 years later, the fifth generation of the Fortune family continue to cure herring to turn them into the delicacy known as kippers.  Gutted and briefly soaked in brine, they are then hung from rods and cured in the original smokehouse over oak, beech and softwood chippings before being moved to the shop next door.  It can take up to three firings and 18 hours to produce the perfect Fortune's kipper.  

Herring shoals move around our coast and until 1979 locally caught 'silver darlings' were landed at Whitby during their short season.  Today, sadly, due to EU quotas the Whitby herring fleet is no more but north-east Atlantic caught herring are used instead.  Frozen immediately after being caught, they are defrosted, gutted and cured by the current family members, Barry and Derek, using the same methods employed by William Fortune.  Kippers are one of our best British products and those from Fortune's Smokehouse are, I think, exceptional.  If you get to Whitby, a visit to Fortune's is a must and don't miss any chance to poke your head round the door of the wonderfully tarry smokehouse (ask permission, of course).  They used, occasionally, to smoke the odd salmon which came their way.  These days haddock, salmon and sides of bacon find their way to the smokehouse.

The aroma of grilling or frying kippers is appealing to me, but if you are concerned about lingering smells you could cook them using the "jugging method".  Place the kippers head down in a tall warmed jug, pour on boiling water to cover all but the tails and leave for 5-6 minutes.  Serve them up dressed with a knob of butter, a slice of buttered brown bread and a mug of tea. 

With my own newspaper-wrapped pair of kippers secured (sadly in The Sun rather than the Whitby Gazette) I headed for the Magpie Cafe for a take-away of cod and chips.  The Magpie is a relative newcomer, having been a cafe since only 1939.  Their fish and chips are far from a secret and they have won several awards in recent years so I was keen to try them, especially as they cook locally caught and sustainable fish as much as possible.  I hardly ever get to eat cod these days - the guilt trip is just too much - so, accepting that it was sustainably fished cod, I had to have it.  It was super-fresh and the crispy batter was excellent.  The chips were fat and fluffy but a little bit longer in the fryer to give them more colour and they would have been perfect.  Well worth queuing for but, for me, they didn't quite match up to my memories of Rick Stein's take-away in Padstow, Cornwall.

I had to finish my visit with tea and Yorkshire Brack at Botham's.  I thought Fortune's Smokehouse had been around a while but here we go again - the bakers Elizabeth Botham and Sons started out in 1865.  If you're familiar with Betty's tearooms in York, you will be disappointed by the look of this shop and tearooms.  What was once no doubt quite a grand space is somewhat faded, but you will get a very good cup of tea and a delicious slice or two of Yorkshire Brack.  This version of a tea loaf (somewhere between a cake and a bread in texture) is moist, treacly and packed with good quality dried fruits.  I think it needs no additions.  I can recommend the Stem Ginger Brack and the Plum Tea Loaf as well. 

If you can't get to Whitby, you can buy from Fortune's and Botham's on-line (Botham's also has a limited number of stockists).  The Magpie Cafe now has a wet fish shop (The Whitby Catch) a few doors down and they sell locally caught fish on-line too.

I didn't see any Bram Stocker devotees on my food trail.  Don't these people eat!

http://www.fortuneskippers.co.uk/
http://www.magpiecafe.co.uk/cafe/#content
http://www.thewhitbycatch.co.uk/
http://www.botham.co.uk/

Celeriac Soup with cripy pancetta or toasted hazelnuts



Celeriac Soup
with crisp pancetta

Bonfire Night approaches so what to serve up before the fireworks get going?  Last November I suggested a sticky Gingerbread recipe.  A quick look at the weather forecast for the UK this 5th November suggests we might need something warming, so here's my plan.   Celeriac is perfect for now.  This knobbly, beige, unpreposessing root veg is far from beautiful to look at but its creamy texture and mild celery taste make a luscious soup.  A few additions can turn it into something special. 

Celeriac is a close relative of celery, though hardier and less trouble to grow.  The leaves can be used in cookery but personally I find them too strong and prefer to use celery leaves instead.  The swollen stem is the prize here.  Seeds planted in late spring take 22-26 weeks to grow into a usuable size.  They can stay in the ground right through winter if protected from frosts with straw or a cloche.  Slugs do like it, but they like most things.


Celeriac Soup
with toasted hazelnuts

Topping a bowl of celeriac soup with a few pieces of crisply fried pancetta or bacon and a good grinding of pepper, adds a porky kick and gives it carnivore appeal.  Don't waste the fat which is rendered by the bacon, it has lots of flavour so pour it on as well. 

Alternatively, for vegetarians, use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock and garnish the soup with a few roughly chopped hazelnuts.  Toss the whole nuts in a hot pan to toast lightly and loosen the skins.  They will mostly come off under thumb pressure.

So, if the weather where you are is set to be unkind, try this warming soup.  Whatever you eat, enjoy your Bonfire Night party.

Celeriac Soup with pancetta or hazelnuts
(Serves 6-8)

30g (1oz) unsalted butter
1 onion, diced
1-2 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 medium-sized or 1 large celeriac, peeled and chopped (if you do this in advance you'll need to place the pieces in acidulated water)
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 small deseeded red chilli (optional), sliced
1.5 litres of chicken or vegetable stock
Salt & pepper
2-3 tablespoons of double cream

Garnish:
1. A thin slice or two of pancetta or bacon, fried until crisp and crumbled.
OR
2. A good handful of hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Heat the butter in a large pan and fry the chopped onion gently to soften.  Add the sliced garlic and continue cooking for a further couple of minutes.   Add the chopped celeriac and the potatoes (and the red chilli if using) and cook for a further 3 minutes.  Add the chicken or vegetable stock, bring to the boil, season and simmer for 30 minutes.  Puree the soup until smooth (if you want a very silky result, pass the soup through a sieve but I find this unneccesary).  Add the double cream and adjust the seasoning.  Serve garnished with one of the above.

To turn it into a really special dish, you could top the soup off with a slice or two of ceps instead, fried in a little butter until they caramelise then cut into manageable pieces (in this case you may want to pass your soup through a sieve in honour of the king of mushrooms).

Chocolate Brownies from The Pedlar at Monmouth - Food Find

Having noticed the chocolate brownies at Monmouth Coffee had changed over the past few weeks, my resistance finally cracked today and now I'm hooked.  Rich and intensely chocolatey this little square of fudgy bliss went down a treat with a double espresso.  Made by The Little Bread Pedlar, a baker who has got on his bike to bring bread, croissants and brownies to London's streets and small cafes.  Using top quality flours, chocolate and butter, he's only been pedalling since July so you'll need to check out the website below to keep up with him.  Exceptional lemon madeleines and now great chocolate brownies to go with the excellent coffee at Monmouth.

http://lbpedlar.com/
http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk/

Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Bread Pudding
with Butterscotch Sauce

This is not 'Bread and Butter Pudding'.  Bread Pudding is much less rich.  In August I posted a piece on Bread Pudding dishes from around the world but teasingly I didn't post any recipes.  To make up for that, here's a recipe for English Bread Pudding based on the one in Beyond Nose to Tail written by Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly of St John.  This is the follow-up book to Henderson's Classic Nose to Tail Eating.  In conversation with Justin one day I learned they sometimes use their leftover Raisin Bread to make this pudding and that is what I've used in the dish photographed above.  If you can get a good raisin bread, give it a go but any good quality stale sandwich bread can be used together with dried fruit so I have reflected it in the recipe below.  As it is cooking, the spicing will make you think of Christmas and put you in the mood for mixing that Christmas Pud or Cake which we should be turning our attention to soon.

You sometimes see grey, unappetising squares of what they call 'bread pudding' in high street bakery shops in England.  Whatever you do, do not buy it!  Here is the real deal. At St John Bread and Wine they serve this dish with vanilla ice cream and sometimes use ginger cake or date loaf instead of bread pudding.  All three work brilliantly but the thriftyness of bread pudding appeals to me particularly and, as Fergus says, "never waste yesterday's bread".

Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce
(Enough for 8)

350g (12oz) stale raisin bread (if your raisin bread appears rather light on raisins, add a bit extra dried fruit)
[or 250g (9oz) white sandwich bread + 55g (2oz) raisins + 30g (1oz) currants+ 30g (1oz) sultanas]

65g (2½oz) minced suet
130g (5oz) soft dark brown sugar
25g (1oz) chopped mixed candied peel
60g (2oz) Bramley cooking apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 large egg
1½ teaspoons ground mixed spice
½ teaspoons ground allspice
2 tablespoons dark rum
25g (1oz) unsalted butter, diced
1 tablespoon of demerara sugar for sprinkling

Cut the crusts off the bread and rip the bread into small pieces.  Place in a bowl, cover with water and soak for 30 minutes.  Butter a deep baking dish.  I find a loaf tin around 10cm x 20cm is about right but be sure to use a deep dish or you'll end up with a biscuit rather than a pudding!  Pre-heat oven to 170C.
Put all the remaining ingredients, except the butter and demerara sugar in a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon for 3-4 minutes.  Squeeze all the excess water out of the bread then add the bread to the mixture.  Stir again for 3-4 minutes.  The final mixture will be very wet.  Pour it into the prepared dish.  Scatter the diced butter and the demerara sugar over the top.  Bake in the oven until golden brown - I find if I use the raisin bread as my main ingredient it needs no more than 1 hour of cooking, but the bread and extra fruit version takes 1½ hours at 180C according to the recipe in the book. 

Butterscotch Sauce
This does make rather a lot of sauce so, personally, I find halving these quantities makes quite enough.

250g (9oz) caster sugar
2 tablespoons water
600ml (20 fl oz)double cream
125g (4½) unsalted butter, diced

Put the sugar into a heavy-based saucepan with 2 generous tablespoons of water and melt over a low heat.  Tilt the pan gently occasionally to melt the sugar evenly but don't swirl it or you'll end up with a hard crust of sugar around the pan which won't melt.  Resist the urge to stir it.  Once the sugar has melted, raise the heat and cook without stirring until the mixture turns golden brown and you begin to get that almost burnt aroma.  Slowly pour in the cream (take care as the hot caramel will spit).  Then turn the heat down low to allow the caramel to disolve slowly into the cream for a couple of minutes.  Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the diced butter a few pieces at a time. 

Serve a slice of warm pudding with a slick of butterscotch sauce and either a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a little extra cream.  Should you not finish the pudding all in one go, it will keep for a couple of days wrapped in clingfilm - fry slices of pudding in a little butter.  The butterscotch sauce is also good for a couple of days if kept in the fridge - pour into a heat-proof bowl and warm through over a pan of hot water.

Pietro Romanengo - Genoa comes to London



Pietro Romanengo
Candied Fruits and Chestnuts

Rose petal jam.  Is there a food which sounds more decadent?  Can breakfast get more indulgent than rose petal jam on a slice of warm toasted brioche?  Last Sunday morning started well and just got better as La Fromagerie in Marylebone was showcasing Genoese sweetmaker Pietro Romanengo Fu Stefano.

This artisan producer has been making candied fruits and chestnuts, syrups, flower waters, jams, chocolates, sugared dragees and more since 1780 and is now run by the 8th generation of the Romanengo family.  Based in Genoa on the Ligurian coast, the company has remained true to its original ideals and is considered by many Italians to be their country's finest sweet maker.  The Romanengos arrived in Genoa in the 18th century from France, bringing French ideas and influences to sweet production in this northern Italian port.  The area is nestled between the Maritime Alps and the Mediterranean sea where there is a perfect micro-climate for fruit growing.  Most of the ingredients used, excluding the sugar, are sourced from producers surrounding Genoa, some suppliers going back generations.  No artificial preservatives or colourings are used in the products.

But back to that Sunday morning breakfast at La Fromagerie.  Starting with an intense Black Cherry Syrup poured over yogurt and the sublime Rose Petal Jam on brioche we progressed through Ricotta scented with delicate Orange Flower Water, a smooth Chestnut Cream on truffled Caprini goat cheese, and a dash of Almond Syrup in warm almond milk.  The main show was the demonstration of candying fruit and chestnuts which illustrated just how special Pietro Romanengo is.  Maria Palumbo gave a flavour of the artisan techniques employed to bring out the best of the apricots, peaches, oranges, loquats and pears we tasted.  Maria also candied the finest new season chestnuts.  OK, so we were lucky to be eating them still warm from the final process, but they were delicious and by far the best marron glace I've ever eaten.  To bring our sugar rush to a peak, there were pots of 'Confetti' and dragees including aniseed (literally individual sugar-coated aniseeds, good for stimulating lactation in new mothers apparently!), almonds and sensational sugared pine nuts.  The Violet Chocolate Fondant was a little too sweet for me but the candied violet on the top, a Romanengo speciality in itself, was lovely.

Production is still largely unmechanised and mostly done by hand with equipment and moulds many decades old.  Sugar syrup for candying fruits is used for one fruit only so as not to allow any muddling of flavours.  The sugaring technique is very particular to the Romanengos and it's a slow, time-consuming and very skilled business.  Low temperatures are maintained to preserve the full flavours of the individual fruits rather than just producing the sugary sweetness of many candied fruits. To watch a Romanengo chocolatier giving a final polish to a chocolate egg is to appreciate the love and care that goes into their creations.

The good news is you can buy a selection of Pietro Romanengo's products from La Fromagerie in time for Christmas.  If you try only one thing, I urge you to indulge in the Rose Petal Jam.  In England we are more familiar with a syrup made from the hips of roses.  Perhaps because roses appeal so much to the eye and to the nose in this country of gardeners, we have tended to stay our hand until the blooms have passed and the fruit appears.  The hips are packed with vitamin C so the syrup has long been taken to ward of winter's chills.  Taken neat or used as a cordial, it's a memory of childhood for many.  The rose has long been valued for medicinal, culinary, cosmetic and aromatherapy use.  The use of rosewater in Persian cuisine has been traced back to the early 9th century and in Turkey roses have flavoured Turkish Delight since the 15th century.  The passion for roses spread thereafter into Europe.

As it happens I'm going to Genoa in November, and I now know what I'll be bringing back.  
http://www.romanengo.com/
http://www.lafromagerie.co.uk/

Observer Food Awards 2011 finds Maltby Street - Food Find

Good to see national recognition for "Maltby Street" with the Observer Food Awards voting this collection of small businesses "Best Newcomer" 2011.  Maltby Street is the centre of my Bermondsey Trail which I first posted about in September 2010.  The award encompasses the  businesses operating from the railway arches starting with Tony Booth's fruit and veg  (Tayshaw Ltd) at 60 Druid Street and ending at Kappacasein and Union Ice Cream at Spa Road/Voyager Park.  You can buy everything here from fruit and veg, bread, coffee, wines, beers, prosciutto, mozzarella, parmesan and salamis, British, French and Swiss cheeses and cheeses made on site, Polish sausages, meats, ice creams, cakes, honey and more.  Kernel Brewery was also runner-up in the Best Producer category for its beers, stouts and porters brewed here underneath the arches at 1 Ropewalk.
You won't find a better selection of high quality traders than in this little enclave in SE1.  Also, happily, some of these traders who left Borough Market after a dispute have returned to stalls there now that the Market is under new management. 

See http://www.maltbystreet.com/ for regular updates.