Harrods Cookery Book

I recently picked up a copy of Harrods Cookery Book. As one might imagine, the recipes are comprehensive and quite detailed. Surely there is nothing that one cannot find at the Harrods food court, so why should the cookbook leave any ingredient untouched. There are recipes for everything g from kidney to quail eggs to okra.

The book features a fair number of traditional English fare: Simnel cake, hot cross buns, beef and Yorkshire pudding, steak and kidney pie and treacle tarts. They are only a fraction of the recipes included. One can find chicken enchiladas, rabbit with tarragon, pork and beans, and lasagna.

The book has rather lavish if a bit dated photographs. The most stunning are actually the vintage photos of Harrods. We posted a collection of vintage Harrods photos over at Lucindaville.

The book boldly boasts that now, "American cooks will learn to make real scones."

Well let us give it a try....

Scones

2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons butter at room temperature
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk,plus a little extra for glazing

Preheat the oven to 425. Lightly butter a cookie sheet.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Cut int the butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs, then stir in the sugar and golden raisins. Add the egg and 4 tablespoons of the milk. Lightly mix into a soft dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 3/4inch thick. Using a 2 1/2 inch plain or fluted biscuit cutter, cut out 10 circles.

Place the scones on the cookie sheet and brush the tops with milk. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until golden.

The Harrods Cookery Book may just be the next best thing to a trip to Harrods food court. Who are we kidding...that is such a lie, but we will not be heading across the pond anytime soon, so Harrods Scones it is.

My Bread

If you cook, or read the New York Times, or watch television, you have no doubt seen Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery showing you his no-knead approach to bread making. Most good bakers knew you could proof dough in the refrigerator. Julia Child’s husband, Paul, bought bricks at the hardware store to line Julia’s oven for bread making. Some people would take terra cotta flower pots from the garden center and make mini-ovens in their stoves. Even ugly dough seems to look better AFTER an hour in the oven. But when Jim Lahey took is sloppy dough and threw it in a Le Creuset pan, the world was mesmerized. It was like inventing the wheel.

My Bread is is the hardback follow-up. Chocked full of bread recipes and other things it is well worth the money, especially if you have ever made his bread. Lahey and co-author Rick Flaste have compiled a winner of a book. Lahey tells a funny ( yet tragically hip tale) of the results of his first New York Times article. Most New Yorkers possessed a Le Creuset cast iron pan and it seemed the likely choice for this bread. Unfortunately, those nifty handle “buttons” on the top of the lids are not meant to withstand temperatures of 450 F, so many of them broke. What’s a hip New Yorker to do? Well, evidently, the answer is to go to your favorite cooking supply emporium and steal yourself a new one. Really people!

So as not to tempt you to go out a-stealin’, we are offering up a non-bread recipe.

Tortino di Cioccolat

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
4 large eggs, separated
¼ cup fine dry Homemade Bread Crumbs
pinch table salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a small saucepan over low heat(or in a bowl n the microwave), melt the butter. Combine the chocolate with 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of the sugar in a medium bowl, add the hot melted butter, and stir a few times. Let sit for 3 or 4 minutes to melt the chocolate, then stir until smooth.
3. Put the egg yolks in a large bowl and slowly whisk in the chocolate mixture until thoroughly combined. Mix in bread crumbs very thoroughly.
4. Put the egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted whit the whisk attachment. Whip at medium speed until the whites are foamy, then reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar. Raise the speed to medium and continue whipping until the whites form stiff peaks (if they become dry or clumpy, they’re overwhipped and will not give the torte the light, smooth texture it needs; dump them and start over with new egg whites). Use a rubber spatula or whisk to fold a large scoop of the meringue into the chocolate mixture until incorporated (this will lighten it), then gently fold in the remaining meringue.
5. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Fill each cup approximately three-quarters full. Bake the tortini for about 10 minutes, until the are puffed up and just set in the middle. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a rack. The tortini will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for three days.

Truth be told, these are glorified, Italian brownies, but they are such a delight. And frankly, I love a cookbook author who tells you if you screw up, dump it out and start over! A man after my own heart.

Cooking With Seasons at Rancho La Puerta

Rancho La Puerta is a tony spa and frankly, "spa food" is a bit of an oxymoron. I would never buy such a book, but his came across my desk in a pile of books I purchased. I always flip though cookbooks and this was no exception. Actually, the "exception" was how good the recipes were. Loads of breads and fruits and generally yummy items one would not expect in a book about a spa. Cooking With Seasons at Rancho La Puerta is great fun and jam packed with nifty recipes.

There is a note on how to use the book. It says at one point:

"Cooking can be as improvisational as jazz."

That has always been my mantra in the kitchen. You can be Ronald McDonald and have everything you cook come out exactly the same or you can be Django Reinhardt and make everything you cook a different and lively riff. I love saffron bread and I can't wait to give my recipe this Rancho La Puerta spin.

Orange Saffron Pine-Nut Bread

1 teaspoons Spanish saffron threads
4 cups of warm water
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 cups agave syrup or maple syrup
Zest of 2 large oranges
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup toasted pine-nuts
4 to 5 cups unbleached all purpose flour, plus more as needed


1. Soak the saffron threads in ½ cup of water for 30 minutes.

2. Combine the remaining 3 ½ cups of water and the yeast. Let stand until frothy, about 10 minutes.

3. Stir the syrup, orange zest, saffron, melted butter and salt into the yeast until thoroughly combined. Add the wheat flour and mix until smooth.

4. Stir in the pine nuts and most of the all-purpose flour, reserving 1 cup. The dough will be a little sticky. Flour the countertop with some remaining flour and knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, adding flour to the surface as needed to make the dough manageable. You may not use all the flour, or you may need a little more. The final dough should feel moist and a little tacky, but not sticky or wet.

5. Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Turn over once to coat, and cover with a damp tea towel to prevent the dough from drying out. Let dough rise in a warm, draft free place until double in bulk, about 2 hours.

6. Punch down the dough. Divide into 2 equal portions. Spread each into a rectangle and pinch the ends together.

7. Place each loaf in an oiled loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft free place until the loaves have double in bulk, about 40 minutes.

8. Bake in a preheated 375-degree F oven for one hour, or until tops are browned and the loaves sound hollow when tapped. Cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Even at a spa one needs bread.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François is one of my all time favorite books. It takes all the fussiness out of baking. One you grasp the concept, baking bread couldn't be easier.



The book has its own website: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day to give you more info.
It is important to understand the concept of why the bread works and it the most complicated part of the procedure. You need to buy the book to fully understand it.

Their recipe was adapted for the New York Times. Here are the NYT instructions.

November 21, 2007

Recipe: Simple Crusty Bread

Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)

Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough

Cornmeal.

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Yield: 4 loaves.

Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.

The New York Time wrote about Jim Lahey who owns Sullivan Street Bakery. He has a no-knead bread technique which works in a similar fashion. I often use the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipe and use Lahey's technique of cooking in a covered, heavy pan.