Cullen Skink
Cullen Skink is one of my all time favourite recipes - the ultimate comfort food. Cullen is a small town in North East Scotland, and Skink means soup or stew. This soup can also be known as a smoked haddock chowder.
This rough recipe (adapted from this one) serves 6:
500g undyed smoked haddock, skin on
A bay leaf
Knob of butter
splash of dry white wine
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 leek, washed and chopped finely
2 medium potatoes, unpeeled, cut into chunks
500ml whole milk or half milk and cream
salt and pepper
Chives, parsley or spring onions, chopped, to serve
Put the haddock in a medium pan and cover with cold water. Add a bay leaf and bring to the boil slowly - when it reaches boiling point remove the fish and leave to cool on the side (reserve the water!). In the meantime fry the onion, leeks and garlic (all finely chopped) in butter for about ten minutes until translucent., then add the peeled, chopped potatoes and stir to cover in butter. Add a dash of white wine and pour on the water from the cooked fish and simmer for about twenty minutes.
Remove the skin from the haddock and all the bones and flake into pieces. Then remove a spoonful of the leeks, onions and potatoes and add most of the smoked haddock and mash or blend with a hand blender until you have a nice smooth soup - add the rest of the leeks and potatoes and the remaining fish to give a bit of texture and pour in the milk and cream, with salt and pepper to taste.
Garnish with chives or parsley - I like to add a few finely chopped spring onions as well to boost the flavour.
Serve with a big chunk of crusty bread and enjoy!
TweetRosehip Jelly from the hedgerows
Whilst walking the dog this weekend I collected handfuls of beautiful ruby red rosehips from the hedgerows - like all wild food, its only disadvantage is that it is covered in thorns and spiders, but the effort and scratches were well worth it when I made my own Rosehip and Quince jelly.
I used this recipe from Times Online with a few amendments as always! Instead of crab apples I used a lovely quince, and I added the juice and zest of a whole lemon (I like my jelly tart)
A classic recipe taken from the WI Book of Preserves
Makes: about 3 x 225 ml jars
Prep: 45 minutes, plus straining overnight
Ingredients 500 g ripe rose hips (from rugosa roses, if possible), stray leaves, stems and flowers removed
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 kg crab or cooking apples, roughly chopped, including cores, pips, skin
Caster sugar
Method
Wash and drain the rose hips. Chop roughly and put into a preserving pan with the lemon juice, apples and enough water to just cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes until soft. Mash thoroughly to extract as much juice as possible. Strain through a jelly bag or muslin-lined nylon sieve, set over a large bowl. Do not press the fruit or squeeze the bag as this will make the jelly cloudy. Leave until the dripping stops. This may take several hours or even overnight. Next, measure the liquid and return it to the pan along with 450 g (1 lb) sugar for each 600 ml (1 pint) of liquid. Stir well over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and boil rapidly for 5–10 minutes. Test your jam for a set — setting point is 105C (220F). If necessary, boil for a further minute then test again. Continue testing at one-minute intervals, as necessary, until the jelly has reached setting point. Remove the pan from the heat, skim off any scum and allow to cool briefly. Carefully pour into hot, sterilised jars. Seal the jars and allow the jelly to cool completely before labelling and storing.
Broad Beans with Mint
I love recipes but very rarely stick to the instructions - I like to adapt a dish depending on my mood and what I can find in my cupboards.
This week I made a spicy broad bean and mint salad based on a moroccan recipe, but altered quite a bit to fit my ingredients! Broad beans are delicious and are in season at the moment, so I really enjoyed shelling and peeling the fresh beans before cooking them - the smell is mouth watering.
After shelling the beans I boiled them for a couple of minutes and then dropped them in a cold water bath to keep them crisp and fresh. Then I fried half an onion with garlic and chili before adding a handful of pine nuts and spices - I used cumin, coriander and paprika with a pinch of salt and pepper. When the onions are soft and the pine nuts crunchy and brown I added the beans and fresh mint leaves for a couple of minutes to warm up and absorb the flavours.
For this dish I decided to serve the beans with chick pea patties - not exactly felafel, as I didn’t have all the right ingredients again, but tasty nonetheless. I minced a can of chick peas with a hand blender, adding garlic, cumin, coriander and chili with a spoonful of tahini and a tablespoon or so of olive oil and a squeeze of lime. Shape the mixture into small balls and flatten into patties, covering lightly in flour. Fry in vegetable oil for a couple of minutes each side until crisp and golden. Delicious.
Served with a little salad and tomatoes, with feta cheese crumbled over the beans (unless you fancy a vegan option), this is a really tasty dinner!
Shopping list (for two):
Fresh broad beans (a bagful)
Fresh Mint 1 can chick peas
1 onion or 2 shallots Tahini
Garlic bulb 1 lime
pine nuts plain flour or gram flour if you can find it
red chili vegetable oil for frying
olive oil
spices:
Coriander
Cumin
Paprika
Chili
salt and pepper
Recipe for Soda Bread
450 g flour (either cake flour or all-purpose)
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Between 200-300 ml / 8-10 fluid ounces buttermilk, sour / soured milk, or plain milk, to mix
If you don’t have buttermilk, add a teaspoonful of lemon juice or vinegar to the milk for a few minutes to sour it slightly.
Sift the dry ingredients together thoroughly to make sure the bicarbonate of soda is evenly distributed. Put the sifted dry ingredients in a big bowl and make a well in the center. Pour in about three-quarters of the buttermilk or sour milk, and start stirring. You are trying to achieve a dough that is raggy and very soft, but the lumps and rags of it should look dryish and "floury", while still being extremely squishy if you poke them. Add more liquid sparingly if you think you need it. (You may need more or less according to conditions: local humidity and temperature, the absorptiveness of the flour you're using, etc.)
Blend quickly (but not too energetically!) until the whole mass of dough has become this raggy consistency. Then turn the contents of the bowl out immediately onto a lightly floured board or work surface, and start to knead. Only knead for a couple of minutes to bind the mixture together.
Flatten the lump of dough to a slightly domed circle or flat hemisphere about 6-8 inches in diameter, and put it on a baking sheet (which should be dusted lightly with flour first). Then use a very sharp knife to cut a cross right across the circle. The cuts should go about halfway down through the sides of the circle of dough, so that the loaf will "flower" properly
Bake for 45 minutes at 200° C without opening the oven. At the end of 45 minutes, pick up the loaf and tap the bottom - a hollow sound means it's done. For a very crunchy crust, put on a rack to cool. For a softer crust, as above, wrap the cake in a clean dishcloth as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Collecting Vintage Cameras
Over the years, my passion for all types of photography has led me to many junk and antique shops in search of long forgotten cameras. I love to imagine what these cameras have seen over their lives, and the people who loved them once.
Often the old cameras available in junk shops are beyond repair, but I frequently stumble across a little gem in perfect working order, or one requiring just a little TLC.
One of my favourites is a Kodak Duaflex II, picked up for just £8 in a bric a brac store in Reading. This camera was once widely available, and takes 620 film. Sadly 620 film is no longer produced, but there is another way - pick up a dark bag (or lock yourself in a dark room) and respool a 120 film (available from most camera stores) onto a 620 spool. The metal 620 spools are cheap and easy to find on ebay, and the process takes about 5 minutes. This is a great site to show you how it works.
Now the film is ready for loading, and it’s time to play. These cameras are so easy to use, and get interesting results - the joy of an antique camera is that you never know exactly how the image will turn out, so it is always a treat when the film is developed. Don’t forget to respool the film onto the plastic 120 spool or ask the developer for your 620 metal spool back when you get the film developed.
Often the insides of lenses of old cameras are quite dirty - I find that by setting the shutter to ‘Bulb’ (you should have this option) and the widest aperture (f4 or lower), I can clean the lens effectively from the inside (very carefully) using a small paintbrush and cleaning solution from any camera store.
If you have a digital camera and a cardboard tube you can also turn the Duaflex into a ‘Through The Viewfinder’ or TTV camera simply by shooting through the glass lens on top of the camera. A cardboard tube is advisable to reduce glare on the lens, making the digital image clearer.
Many junk shops also stock old 35mm SLRs such as the Zeiss Ikon Contaflex and the Russian Zenit range. Test the shutter in the shop before buying - if it works, you’re onto a winner. These old SLRs have good lenses and again, produce variable and interesting images.
If you are a fan of the current trend for Lomography and plastic cameras, you will love these antiques. They are generally much cheaper, more interesting and better looking, as well as producing fascinating, nostalgic pictures.
The ‘Orphan Camera’ site has instructions and tips for using most types of antique cameras, and is a fantastic source of information when attempting to repair or use your latest purchase.
This post has also been published by Creative Boom Magazine
