Pistachio, Walnut & Almond Baklava

I absolutely love the Great British Bake Off (GBBO) – a baking competition which is televised on BBC1. The 5^th series of the programme reached its climax last night with three finalists vying to be this year’s baking champion. For anyone who has not seen it yet or is waiting to watch the repeat, I won’t reveal who the winner is… but watch it… it was hugely entertaining.

 

In last week’s semi-final, the remaining four contestants were challenged to bake their own versions of baklava. One of the offerings particularly intrigued me as it was made with a ‘breakfast’ filling which used toasted muesli and other ingredients more associated with the first meal of the day. Watching the programme definitely inspired me to make my own baklava, but I decided that for my first attempt, I would keep to the more familiar versions.

 

It has been many years since I have eaten baklava and my overriding memory was that it was very sweet and tasted predominantly of rosewater. Now; here is the thing… I really am not a great fan of recipes that incorporate the flower waters, extracts or essences. I think that the problem I find is that the taste of the particular flower, whether it be lavender, rose or hibiscus tends to overpower everything else. To be quite honest, often the smell of dishes where flowers have been used reminds me of soap, perfume or other beauty products; not something that I want to eat! But there is no denying it; the flavour of flowers is very on trend in the restaurant world these days!

 

After watching GBBO last week, I really wanted to bake my own baklava, but decided that any flower flavouring I used would be quite subtle and that I would avoid using rosewater. I carried out some research by reading a number of different baklava recipes contained in some of my cookbooks and also looked online at a variety of alternative baklava recipes and found that although rosewater is regularly used it is by no means mandatory.

 

The recipe that I give here is based in part on a couple of the recipes shown on GBBO but also largely on one by Mark Hix in his wonderful book Mark Hix on Baking.

 

I have used pistachios, walnuts and almonds as my nuts of choice for the filling of my baklava and these tasted wonderful. I ground the nuts in a food processor and would definitely recommend that you do the same rather than buy nuts already ground, as these would be too powdery – what you want is for them to retain a bit of texture! Once baked the baklava is soaked in a syrup which serves to hold everything together once cooled. I decided to confront my flower flavour issues and used a little orange flower water to flavour the syrup. I didn’t go overboard with it and I will admit that I really liked what it brought to the finished pastries!

 

Finally, unlike the contestants in last week’s GBBO, I did not make my own filo pastry. I used store-bought filo and found that it worked a treat, although it is a little temperamental to handle (you must cover any pastry you are not working on with a clean damp cloth to prevent it from drying up and becoming unworkable).

 

This baklava is buttery rich and very sweet, but there is something a little addictive about it which leaves you wanting more. It keeps its crunch for an incredibly long time if stored in an airtight container.
 

Ingredients:

225g butter, melted
16 sheets of filo pastry
125g pistachios, coarsely ground
50g walnuts, coarsely ground
50g almonds, coarsely ground

1tblsp granulated sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cardamom

Syrup:

300g granulated sugar

275ml water

½ lemon, juice only

2tblsp orange flower water
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease a 18cm x 25-28cm non stick baking tray/dish with deep sides with a little butter and line with on-stick baking parchment.

2. Place the nuts, a tablespoon of granulated sugar and the ground spices in a bowl and mix together to ensure that everything is evenly distributed. Set aside.

3. Take a sheet of the filo pastry and place on the baking parchment in the lined baking tray/dish. Brush liberally with butter and fold over any excess pastry and brush this with butter too. Place another sheet of filo on top of the buttered layer and then butter the new layer with butter. Continue doing this until you have used half up half the filo pastry. N.B. Make sure you cover the unused filo pastry with a clean damp clothe when you are not using it to prevent it drying up.

4. Sprinkle the nut/spice mixture over the buttered filo pastry, reserving 2 or 3 tablespoons for later.

5. Place another layer of filo pastry over the sprinkled nuts and repeat the buttering and layering process that you used before. Butter the uppermost layer of filo and using a sharp knife cut the baklava into small squares or triangles.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes and then reduce the heat to 150C/Fan Oven 130C/Gas Mark 2 and bake for a further25-30 minutes until the pastry is a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly while you make the syrup.

Syrup:

7. Place all the ingredients for the syrup in a medium sized saucepan over a moderate heat until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring up to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat so that the mixture is simmering briskly. Allow to cook for about 15 minutes until the liquid has reduced by over a half and has become quite syrupy.

To finish:

8. Sprinkle the reserved nuts over the baked baklava. Pour the hot syrup slowly over the top of the baklava and set aside and allow to cool completely and to give the syrup a chance to soak in completely. The baklava can be served when completely cooled.
 

Makes 20-24 small squares.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creamy Celeriac Soup with Waldorf Garnish

The weather has begun to get quite chilly and the days are definitely getting shorter. To be honest, I am not actually complaining because I actually love this time of year. I love sitting snuggled into the sofa, in front of the firs, sipping tea and reading through my cookbooks! To me that is the perfect way to spend an evening… well… THE perfect way to spend an evening is having a good meal out in good company, but snuggling on the sofa comes a close second!

When autumn and then winter really set in, there is nothing I crave more than comfort food; food that is delicious, warming and satisfying. When I think of comfort food, I think of hearty stews, puddings with loads of hot custard, hot milky drinks and steamy bowls or mugs full of nourishing soup.

One of the first things I ever cooked from scratch was cream of celery soup, which upon tasting my mother loved and would often ask me to make thereafter.

I often feel sorry for celery… because it is so rarely showcased as a vegetable in its own right, but rather it is used as a base ingredient in stock, stews and soups or raw as a crudité. It never seems to get the limelight. Although celery leaves can be eaten they are rather string tasting, so it is most usually the stem of the plan that we eat, which when fresh is beautifully crisp to eat.

The first time that I really appreciated this particular vegetable was the first time that I made my cream of celery soup. Celery can sometimes taste a little bitter, but I actually quite like that and it is this quality that makes it perfect for pairing with blue cheese where the earthy sweetness of the cheese balances any slight bitterness in the celery.

Celeriac on the other hand is a root vegetable which has become extremely popular as a vegetable in recent years. Celeriac is not unlike celery in taste, but it has a sweeter, earthier taste. It is extremely versatile and can be eaten raw as in, for example, a classic remoulade or cooked in a variety of ways.

Given the slightly cooler weather, I really felt in the need for something warming to eat, but didn’t want something heavy or stodgy. I had initially decided to make a cream of celery soup, but opted to use celeriac instead.
 

If you have never used or prepared celeriac before, do not be put off by its very knobbly almost alarming appearance. Let me assure you that this strange looking vegetable makes the most velvety soup imaginable. It is easier enough to prepare, just use a large sharp knife to cut away the outside skin to reveal its creamy white flesh, which you can then cut into chunks ready to be used in the soup.

The soup can be eaten as it is, once it is made, but you can also garnish it with croutons, a dash of cream or the option that I give here, with a spoonful of finely chopped Waldorf salad. The constituent ingredients of a Waldorf salad are celery, apple and walnuts bound together in a mayonnaise dressing. I have dispensed with the mayonnaise and dressed the garnish with a light vinaigrette made with cider vinegar and rapeseed oil. I also lightly caramelized the walnuts before chopping them and I loved the sweetness that this brought to the dish. This garnish was absolutely heavenly and added a fresh and fruity element to the rich and creamy soup which was delicious.
 

Ingredients:

Soup:
50g butter
3 shallots, peeled and chopped
1 large celeriac, peeled and diced (about 600g)
500ml vegetable stock

200ml cream

A little freshly grated nutmeg

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Waldorf garnish:

20g caster sugar

50g walnuts

½ Granny Smith, apple peeled and finely diced

2 sticks of celery, finely diced

1tsp cider vinegar

2-3 tsp rapeseed oil

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
 

Method:

1. Place the butter on a large saucepan over a moderate heat and once it is melted add the chopped shallots and allow to sweat for about 5 minutes, without colouring until they are translucent. Add the diced celeriac and allow to sweat for a further 5-7 minutes, again without colouring.
2. Once the celeriac has begun to soften a little, add the vegetable stock and increase the heat under the saucepan. Bring up to the boil. Once everything is bubbling away, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and allow to cook for approximately 15 minutes until the celeriac is very soft. Remove from the heat.
3. Spoon the mixture into a food processor (or use a stick blender) and purée until smooth. Pass the purée through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan and add the cream. Taste, add a pinch of ground nutmeg and adjust seasoning as necessary. Allow to heat gently (but do not boil) while you make the Waldorf garnish.
Waldorf garnish:

4. Place a small frying pan over a moderate heat and add the walnuts. Heat the walnuts for a minute or two until they begin to small nutty and just start to colour. Sprinkle the sugar over the walnuts and toss together. The sugar will begin to melt. Keep a close eye on the walnuts, stirring them frequently as the sugar can caramelize very quickly. As soon as this happens, remove from the heat and turn out onto some non-stick baking parchment. Allow to cool.

5. When cool chop into small dice and mix with diced apple and celery in a small bowl. Add the cider vinegar and rapeseed oil and season well. Mix everything together with a small teaspoon.

To serve:

6. Pour the soup into serving bowls and top with a heaped teaspoon of the garnish.
 

Serves 6.
 

Seared Scallops with Cauliflower

I do love seafood and as I have stated before, I believe that it is the ultimate in fast food being easy to prepare and incredibly quick to cook. Take scallops for example; depending on their size, they only need a couple of minutes in a hot pan and they are ready to be served. It’s been quite a while since I last cooked scallops at home, but I managed to get my hands on some beautifully fresh ones, so decided to cook some up. I absolutely love them quickly pan-fried, but scallops can also be baked, poached steamed or if exceedingly fresh can be served raw in a tartare or ceviche.

Scallops have a natural sweetness and when quickly fried in a very hot pan the natural sugars quickly caramelize and take on an almost nutty flavour. It’s for this reason that rather than sauté them gently, you need to preheat your pan until it is burning hot. Add the scallops and let them fry, without moving them for 1 minute before flipping them over and allowing them to finish cooking on the other side. The key thing is not to overcook them because they take on a rubbery texture which is not pleasant to eat.

This is an incredibly simple dish and perfect for serving as a starter or as a light lunch. I’m not going to pretend that I have unearthed some new-fangled way of serving scallops; pairing them with cauliflower is one of those classic taste combinations. I have puréed the cauliflower but have also charred some thin slices of it in a hot pan to create a contrast of textures.

Both scallops and cauliflower have a natural sweetness and as such, and also in order to create a more balanced dish, I think that it is important to add a good squeeze of lemon juice to the scallops just as they are finishing cooking in the pan. I find that the acidity cuts through the sweetness and the overall richness of the dish.

The cauliflower purée can be made in advance and heated up just before serving whilst you are cooking the scallops. This really is a beautiful tasting dish and incredibly quick to prepare.
 

Ingredients:

Cauliflower Purée:
50g butter
500g cauliflower, broken into small florets
1 small onion, peeled but left whole and studded with 5 cloves
2 bay leaves

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Enough milk to just cover the cauliflower in the saucepan

To finish:

12 scallops

Flavourless vegetable oil

Knob of butter

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
 

Method:

Cauliflower purée:

1. Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan and then add the cauliflower florets, reserving 3 or 4 for slicing and charring later. Sweat the cauliflower in the butter for 5 minutes, turning occasionally until it begins to soften, but do not allow it to colour.

2. Add the clove studded onion, the bay leaves and add enough milk to just cover the cauliflower. Season well and bring to the boil over a moderate heat. Once the mixture is bubbling reduce the heat and allow to simmer uncovered for about 12-15 minutes until the cauliflower is soft.

3. Using a slotted spoon remove the cauliflower from the saucepan and purée in a blender, adding a little of the warm milk to thin it if the purée is too thick. Pass the purée through a sieve into a small clean saucepan. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Set aside but keep warm while you cook the scallops and make the charred cauliflower.

Charred cauliflower:

4. Take the reserved cauliflower florets and cut them from top to bottom in thin slices about 3mm thick. Set aside.

5. Heat a very tiny amount of vegetable oil in a small frying pan until very hot. Add the cauliflower slices and heat for about I minute ion each side until the cauliflower takes on a slightly charred look. Remove and set aside.

To cook the scallops:

6. Heat a little flavourless vegetable oil in a large frying pan until very hot. Add the scallops to the pan and then add the butter. Allow the scallops to cook for about 1 minute without moving them and then flip them over so that they can cook on the other side. Cook for another minute. They should be beautifully caramelized on both sides. Add a generous squeeze of lemon juice and season well. Remove from the pan and serve 3 scallops per portion with the cauliflower purée and the charred cauliflower. (Note: this recipe makes more cauliflower purée than you will need but if you thin down the remaining puree with a little vegetable stock it makes a fabulously tasty soup).
 

Serves 4.