Month: December 2009

Toffee vodka

I first made this years ago and it is rather like Marmite… not in taste, of course, that would be silly, but in causing complete polarity amongst my friends. They either hate it with a passion or they love it.

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Toffee vodka – at least this rough and ready version of it – is the easiest thing in the world to make. Quick, too. Which is handy as I have a couple of friends coming to stay tomorrow night and it would be good to offer them at least a little drink….. These are the friends who once called me, whilst on a camping trip, for instructions on how to make it. J & M  called later to say they had been bashing the toffees with a tyre iron to get them to fit in the bottle neck.

That did cause a bit of a mess as they were bashing them on the dashboard. Shards of toffee were found for months afterwards.

Anyway, this is the quick and easy way to do it……

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Get a bottle of vodka – it doesn’t have to be good vodka.. in fact, why would you use expensive stuff when you are going to add a packet of Werther’s Original Toffees?  Then, get a large jar

The first experiments involved taking some vodka out to free up some space and shoving the toffees down the neck of the bottle (hence the adventures with a tyre iron) but we realised that while that may be necessary when you are living rough (or camping, as they chose to call it) a large jar was much easier to deal with.

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Step one…. unwrap the Werther’s (they really do taste the best)  and add them to the jar

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Step two … add the vodka

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Step three… watch how quickly it all dissolves – this is after ten minutes

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Step four… give the jar an occasional shake… it will be dissolved completely within 3 or 4 hours. Shake or stir to help it along….

Step five…. decant it into pretty little bottles, wrap a ribbon round and give it as a Christmas present… OR… serve it in a glass with plenty of  ice and some single cream.

I’d like to think it was some sort of cocktail…..It probably is in some sort of chavvy way.  

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Oh and be warned. You really must dilute it .. While it tastes almost innocuous with its rich toffee flavour, it is, after all, the equivalent of drinking neat vodka while sucking a toffee.

The way to go is to add a mixer and what seems to work best is milk or cream. M and I like the cream option while J goes for soya milk. It transforms it into a soft and delicious drink. In fact, you could start off a party evening with  a round of this for everyone.

 

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Drinking it neat is madness and may lead you to complete inebriation and a life on the streets.

And don’t sneer… some of us are very partial to it!

Tandoori Pheasant

 As you may know (if you read my post about Game) I do tend to get my hands on a variety of game birds. The latest to turn up was pheasant.

One of the luxuries of having a ready supply of game is that you can experiment more readily than you would if you can only get  the occasional bird.

About a year ago, I scrawled some notes about a recipe for Partridge Tandoori. I know it was Valentine Warner but when I searched for it online, I couldn’t find it, so I can’t link to it. You’ll have to take my word on it. He had worked out the calorie count as coming in around 329 calories per serving. Well, pheasant would do instead of partridge and it would still be able to feature in the 400 and Under section.

You don’t need a tandoor oven to cook it on – you could use a barbecue, but I think in this weather, it is appropriate to stay indoors and use a griddle pan.

The trick with any tandoori dish is the marinade. The meat (whatever sort you are using) goes into that and stays overnight to absorb the flavour.  If you want this you need to start a day ahead . The only reason it is red is because of red food dye so we can miss that out, I think. So… start with making the marinade

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You’ll need 2 tsp of ground cumin

2 tsp of turmeric

1 and a half teaspoons of ground coriander

1 tbsp of garam masala

Nutmeg – a good grating

1 tsp salt flakes

6 garlic cloves, peeled

Half a small onion

1 red chilli, de seeded

Half a juiced lemon

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Blitz them all into a fine paste

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Then  add 250 ml yoghurt  – I was using the Total Greek Yoghurt 0%

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and give it a quick blitz but don’t over process it – see it has some texture?

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Put it all into a large bowl. It needs to be large because you are going to put your pheasant in there.

And now for the fun bit. I have some poultry shears, which are big, strong scissors that can snip their way through any bird… if you are going to be doing this sort of thing a lot then it would be a good idea to get some. If not then have at the carcass with a sharp knife – but watch your fingers

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You need to cut the bird, first down the breast bone

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so you have two bits

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and then separate the legs and thighs

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Then, take the skin off… the skin of game birds is not like the sweetly savoury crispy skin you can get on a roasted chicken, so just stick your fingers in there and rip it off. It’s quite easy, really… and besides the skin is already torn from where it was shot.

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Now then.. you have a plate of naked pheasant, cut neatly (or not)  into pieces.

 Because you are going to marinade the pieces overnight, you want that spicy, yoghurty mix to get into the flesh. Score the breasts and thighs with a sharp knife so that the marinade can get into the flesh.

Really give it a good covering, squishing it about….

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and then cover the bowl with cling film and leave overnight.

The next day, wipe your griddle with a piece of kitchen roll and vegetable oil then get it hot. Lift out each piece of pheasant at a time, shaking off the excess marinade and lie it down in the pan.

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Don’t move the pieces around too much because you want them to get a lovely. slightly charred crust…

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It will take maybe 8 or so minutes on each side…..

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Just check that you are happy with the amount of cooking… I quite like it just cooked and tender but you may be different.

All you need to serve it with are some lemon quarters and maybe some naan braed on the side

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That was delicious … and perhaps one of the tastiest ways of eating pheasant.

All that and under 400 calories…. oooh, I feel thinner already!

Lemon glazed cake

There’s something very nice about a plain cake to have with a cup of coffee or tea. A plain and simple cake with a single flavour… no huge amounts of whipped cream and jam… just something to have with a hot drink. Something to change a snatched drink and a quick pause from work into a relaxing break.

Easy enough to make, as well…. I had an old recipe that I thought I might do – hence the measurements being in ounces… I have converted them because I can’t, for the life of me, work out how to get my digital scales to switch from grams to ounces.

I thought a nice plain cake with perhaps a lemon glaze would be good…

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 Start off by heating the oven to 180 degrees then mix

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310g /11 oz caster sugar

56g/2 oz butter

3 egg yolks (you use the whites later)

Get everything mixed together

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See, it is still grainy here… keep going until it is smooth.. then add  225g/8 oz of yoghurt –

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Zest a lemon and add that to the mix

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Stir it in gently – don’t overbeat things at this stage, then fold in 170g/6 oz self raising flour

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Then whisk the egg whites

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And carefully fold them into the cake mix… start with a spoonful first to get the mix broken up slightly and then add more

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There you are, done.

All you have to do now is pour that into a cake tin – a springform is best as you can get the cake out easily afterwards, and popping in a paper cakeliner makes it the easiest job in the world.

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Into the oven with it for maybe 35 minutes.

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You can occupy yourself by making the lemon glaze….remember you zested a lemon for the cake mix? Squeeze it now

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and add it to some icing sugar  in a pan and heat it through, making a lovely syrup

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.. which needs to cool.

You can relax now until the cake is ready to come out… stick a skewer in to make sure it is cooked and then get it out to cool

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Once everything has settled… stick holes in the cake and then pour over the syrup to make a lovely glaze

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It is a really rather lovely cake, you know. Light and moist and beautifully tangy.. just the thing for a mid afternoon boost.

My boss, who doesn’t normally like cake, ate two slices and would perhaps have eaten more… but for the fact the whole thing had been polished off already. I suppose that is as good a rating as you will get for a cake.