Soufflé-ish.  I’ve made up a bit of a fancy name for what is really a cheesy baked potato.  It’s my solution to the fact Dom isn’t excited at the prospect of a baked potato and Liddy thinks they are the food of the gods.  I make these in all kinds of incarnations.  I feel sure if I keep blogging for any length of time they will be in your destiny.

Marauding teenagers, giving every appearance of being prepared to eat you if not given an alternative, can be a frightening thing.  It’s reassuring to have a stash of these tucked away in the freezer.  Open freeze on a tray, uncooked.  Once frozen they can be transferred to a more convenient box.  Ideally, thaw before cooking.  In real life, I have good results straight from frozen.

It begins with the potato and you want a ‘floury’ one.  The same type you’d use for chunky chips and mashed potatoes.  In the UK the most easily available are Maris Piper and King Edward.  Size-wise it depends on what you can find.  Is it just me or are the ones in ‘bags’ universally small now?  I try and pick mine up at the market and have a rummage.  Give them a good scrub under running water to get all the mud off.

Since I am the woman who, early in my married life, managed to set fire to the microwave by not remembering to prick my potato skin before setting it to zap … PIERCE the skin.

Then, because I like my potato skins crisp, I rub my potatoes with rapeseed oil and Malden sea salt.  Fortunately, for the safety of my family, I no longer own a microwave and mine go in the oven.

If you are in a hurry a metal skewer pushed through the centre will speed the cooking up.

Meanwhile, I get on with the fancy bit.  With Seb away at university there is nothing to stop me including spring onions.  Wash and finely slice.

Then, into a saucepan with butter and full-fat milk.  Truthfully, I don’t weigh any of this.  But – for 8 potatoes (weighing about 1.8kg/4lb) I’ve used 100g/4oz butter and 300ml/½ pint of milk.  I used one spring onion per potato for no other reason than I’d have had to buy another packet if I wanted any more!

Over a medium heat, melt.  When small bubbles appear at the edge, turn the heat off and put on the lid.  Let it sit and infuse until the potatoes are cooked.

How long depends on the size of potato you’re using.  It’s somewhere between 1-1¼ hours at Gas Mark 7/220ºC/425ºF.

Cut them in half.

As soon as you can, and I seem to have asbestos fingers, scoop out the soft potato leaving the potato skins behind.

Pass the cooked potato through a potato ricer.

Then add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Now it’s time to add the infused milk.  I scoop out the spring onions with a slotted spoon and add them all.  Potatoes vary in size and you may not need all the buttery milk.  Add as much as is needed to create a soft mashed potato.

One large handful per potato – plus one for the pot.  Give it a taste.  I’m using a cheese called ‘Sussex Charmer’ which is a cross between a mature Farmhouse Cheese and Parmesan.  There are all kinds of truly fabulous cheeses being made in the UK today and I’m on a mission to try them all.

There’s a whole lot of history behind that – in 1939 anyone making cheese was required by Wartime Law to make one type of Cheese.  It was called ‘Government Cheddar’, and was rationed.  My Grandparents absolutely loathed it.  That law wasn’t repealed until 1954 and, even then, the Milk Marketing Board only allowed Stilton, Red Leicester, Lancashire and Wensleydale.  If you wanted to experience great cheese, you went to France.  The Milk Marketing Board was abolished in 1994, the year my daughter was born – and it was the beginning of the cheese revolution.  By 2010 there were more than 700 named varieties of cheese produced in the UK, that’s 100 more than there are in France.  Fun.

I use 1 egg yolk for every two potatoes – roughly.  Stir them in.

Whisk the egg whites until they are billowy.

Stir one large tablespoon into the cheesy mash to loosen it slightly and then gently fold in the rest.

Pile it into the empty potato shells.  I, of course, can’t waste any of it ..!

A sprinkle of cayenne pepper and a finely sprinkle of cheese.  Then, it’s into the oven for 15-20 minutes until it is golden and slightly risen.  Again, Gas Mark 7/22oºC/425ºF.

Fresh green salad.  Roasted tomatoes.  Chutneys.

Eat.

Cheese Soufflé Jacket Potatoes

Serves 4

• 4 baking potatoes
• Rapeseed oil
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• 50g butter
• 150ml/¼ pint) milk
• 2 eggs
• 120g/4oz strong cheddar-like cheese, grated
• Cayenne Pepper
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 7/220ºC/425ºF, if necessary.  Aga:  Cook in the Roasting Oven – directly on the grid shelf on the third set of runners.  Wash and scrub 4 baking potatoes.  Prick all over.  Rub in rapeseed oil and sea salt.  Bake for 1hr-1¼ hours.

Meanwhile, place the finely sliced spring onions in a saucepan with the butter and milk.  Bring to a boil, then cover and remove from the heat.  Leave to infuse until the potatoes are cooked.

As soon as you can handle the cooked potatoes, split in half.  Scoop out the soft potato, leaving the skins intact.  Pass the potato through a potato ricer.  Then add the butter, milk and spring onions.  Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Add the grated cheese, leaving a little behind to sprinkle on the top.

Separate two eggs.  Add the egg yolks to the potato mix and stir everything together.

Whisk the egg whites until they are ‘soft peaks’.  Stir a heaped tablespoon into the potato mix to loosen.  Gently ‘fold’ in the rest.

Return the potato mix to the skins.  Sprinkle with cayenne pepper and a final grating of cheese.

Bake at Gas Mark 7/220ºC/425ºF (Aga:  Roasting Oven) for 15-20 minutes until golden and slightly risen.

Eat.

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‘Cottage Garden Pie’ is the name I choose to give this dish, but my children call it ‘bottom-of-the-fridge Cottage Pie’ simply because I tend to use up all the lonely vegetables I have sitting there.  It’s even not unheard of, if I particularly want to stretch the meat and feed more mouths, for me to add lentils …!  What am I thinking of???

But, if Cottage Pie is usually thought of as a thrifty way of using up leftover beef from a Sunday roast, my approach is very much in the spirit of the dish, isn’t it?  Cooked long and slow, it’s delicious.  It’s exactly the kind of thing I want to eat when the weather starts to hold an autumn nip and the leaves start turning shades of russet.

And here …. is the contents of my fridge, together with some store-cupboard faithfuls and 500g of good quality minced beef.

If I had happened to have had any leftover Roast Beef I wouldn’t use it in this.  I think it’s so much nicer made with fresh mince and I can think of plenty of things I’d rather do with cold Roast Beef.  Aside from the virtuous glow I get for using everything up, the vegetables also make the whole thing taste fresher and more flavourful than the more traditional meat-heavy recipes.

I start by browning good quality beef in a dry pan.  There’s rarely any need to add any additional oil,  even with lean mince.  I’ve gone for 20% fat.  I break up the clumps with my fingers as I add it to the pan, but the back of a fork is also a good option.  When the meat is beginning to take on some colour I tip the whole lot into a bowl and move on to the vegetables.

First up it’s the onions.  There’s a knack to cutting up onions, but the most important thing is to have a really sharp knife.  Halve and peel back the onion skin, keeping it attached so you have something to hold onto, and  make some vertical cuts.

The reason chopping onions makes you cry, by the way – and they really do make me cry – is because when you cut through the root the onion releases an enzyme.  No idea what an ‘enzyme’ is exactly, but I wish it didn’t.  The enzymes are released when the cells of the onion are crushed and it reacts with water to produce a gas.  Your eyes are watery ….

Since a sharp knife does far less crushing than a blunt one, go for a knife of razor sharpness.

I absolutely love my onion goggles.  They were a Christmas present from Jem, who is offspring 4.  Brilliant!  I may look idiotic, but it’s a price I’m prepared to pay.  (Clearly I have an ‘average’ sized head and I don’t wear glasses …)  If that’s not you, you might like to try freezing your onions for ten minutes before you start cutting.  Apparently it’s effective and would certainly be safer than trying to chop under water.

Having made the vertical cuts, you then make a couple of horizontal ones.

Keeping your fingers curved away, start cutting down and you’ll produce neat, finely diced onions.

Add a little beef dripping, if you have it –  or rapeseed oil – to the residual meat fat in the frying pan and, over a low heat, gently fry the onions.  You’re looking for them to soften, but not colour.  Keep an eye on it while you get on with prepping the rest of the vegetables.  Turn off the heat as soon as they are ready.   (If you cook on an Aga – put the onions in your Simmering Oven and entirely forget about them until you’ve done all your chopping.  I love my cooker.)

Seb, offspring 3, particularly dislikes leeks so I chop them finely.  Not, so you understand, that he won’t notice they’re there but so there’s no prospect of his picking them out.  That drives me potty.  Of course, I could not include them …!  Only I’m not that kind of a mum.  A friend with a larger-than-average-family once told me she worked on the principle that over a week her children would all get something to eat they particularly liked …. so, if it didn’t happen to be that day, they could just eat what was in front of them politely.  I never looked back.

Leeks are a real harbourer of mud and sand, so give them a good swish around in a bowl of water.  Grit wouldn’t be a great addition.

Celery.  (Seb doesn’t like celery either!  You see the problem?)  Big fat sticks like this I tend to peel.

Carrots, peeled and diced.

Mushrooms, sliced.  I had three big flat field mushrooms, so they were peeled too.  Little mushrooms don’t need to be.  Brush off the dirt.  Don’t wash them.

Celeriac, parsnips, turnip and swede are all tasty additions.

Garlic.  A contentious addition it seems, but I like it.  I use a microplane grater so I have the garlic evenly distributed through the onion.  Turn the heat back on and give the onion and garlic a stir.

.

Start adding the vegetables.  Carrots.  Celery.  Mushrooms.

Leeks.  Add some salt and pepper.  Give the whole thing a good stir.

Herb-wise I keep it simple.  A single bay leaf and a couple of sprigs of thyme.  I like to add  a squirt of tomato puree for colour.  Give it all a stir.

Then, after a few minutes, return the minced beef to the pan.

A couple of tablespoons of flour will absorb the juices and ultimately thicken the gravy.  Give it all a good mix.

A couple of tablespoons of chopped parsley is next – and a stock cube.  I’ve used a ‘knorr rich beef stock-pot’ here, but I could equally well have crumbled in a ‘Kallo Just Bouillon’ stock cube.  They are my favourites.  Stir.

Nearly there.  It’s now time to add some liquid.  This could quite easily be water, but I had some red wine left over from last night and used a mixture of the two.  You want the mixture to be loose.

Now put the lid on and cook – very gently – for a couple of hours.  Check every thirty minutes or so that it doesn’t need topping up with water.  (I slip it into the Aga Simmering Oven and completely forget about it.  Have I mentioned how much I love my cooker?)

At the end of the slow, gentle cook the mince should have thickened and be a lovely rich colour.  If it’s not, take off the lid and turn up the heat.  (Aga users – don’t add so much liquid.  150ml is all you’ll need.)

Add a splash of Worcestershire Sauce.

A sprinkle of cayenne pepper.  Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf.  Taste.  Decide now whether it needs more seasoning.  More cayenne?  More Worcestershire Sauce?  It shouldn’t be bland.

Then tip the lot into your serving/baking dish.  Leave to cool for thirty minutes or so while you get on with mashed potato topping.

You need a ‘floury’ potato to get a ‘fluffy’ mash.  Waxy potatoes get a bit ‘gluey’ so I’m not in favour of the 50/50 mix approach.  I’m using Maris Pipers.  Wash, peel and cut them into even-ish pieces so they’ll cook in roughly the same time.  They go into a saucepan filled with cold salted water.  That’s important.  If you put potatoes into boiling water the outside is ready before the inside has cooked.  Since the potato will absorb water you’ll end up with soggy potato and that’s revolting.  No amount of butter will put that right.

Put the saucepan on the hob and bring the water up to a boil.  Once it’s boiling reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes.  (On the Aga you let it boil for a few minutes and then completely drain the water out before putting the potatoes back in the saucepan.  Lid back on and pop them in the Simmering Oven.)  It’s ready for mashing when a knife meets no resistance when pushed into the potato.

A ‘dry’ potato makes the best mash so set the drained potatoes down on the side and cover them with a clean tea-towel.  Let it absorb the steam for five minutes or so.

Meanwhile, warm the milk in a saucepan.  (Or, if you’re me – in a bowl on the Warming Plate).  You don’t want to bring the temperature of the potatoes down by adding cold milk.  For my 1kg of potatoes, I used 50g of unsalted butter and 150ml of full-fat milk.

A potato ricer is my weapon of choice.  Season.  This can take quite a bit of pepper and I don’t worry in the slightest about the dark flecks.  Get out your wooden spoon and beat until creamy smooth.  Taste.  (Have a second spoonful if you like.  Cooks’ perks?)

The now fluffy mash goes on top of the beef.  Spread it out.

I like to make fork marks over the top in a grid pattern, partly because that’s what my mum did and partly because when it emerges from the oven the crispy bits are delicious.  Definitely dot the top all over with little knobs of butter.  This is not the moment to hold back.

It’s ready in about 20 – 25 minutes.  Gas Mark 3, 325ºF.  Aga roasting oven.

I like to serve it with a green vegetable.  Broccoli is good.  Here I’ve paired it with steamed cabbage and roasted home-grown purple carrots.

My first attempt at carrots.  I fancied some purple ones for salads.  Endless fun!

Cottage Garden Pie – Serves 6

• 3 onions, chopped
• Beef dripping – or rapeseed oil (olive oil is also fine, but if you use that don’t moan about my use of tomato and garlic!)
• 2 garlic cloves
• Mixed vegetables – celeriac, parsnip, turnip, swede (rutabaga), carrots, leeks, celery and mushrooms.  I used 3 large flat mushrooms, 3 carrots, 2 leeks and 2 sticks of celery.
• 500g/1lb good quality minced beef/ground beef.  (You get what you pay for.)
• A splurge of tomato puree
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 300ml of liquid – water or red wine (Aga users – 150ml)
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped parsley
• Salt (I used Malden Sea Salt) and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce
• ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper

For the Mashed Potato Topping:

• 1 kg/2¼lb of floury potatoes
• 50g/½ stick of unsalted butter
• 150ml full-fat/whole milk
• Small knobs of butter

Brown the minced beef/ground beef in a large casserole dish.  When it’s starting to take on some colour, tip into a bowl and put on one side.

In the same, unwashed pan, soften the chopped onions.  You want soft, but not coloured.  Then add the garlic and your choice of vegetables.  After about 5 minutes, return the beef to the casserole dish.  Add the tomato puree and the flour.  Stir until all the juices have been absorbed by the flour.

Add your liquid.  You want a loose texture (unless you’re cooking on an Aga when you’ll need about 150ml).  Add the seasoning and the herbs.  Cover.  Cook very gently for 2 hours, by which time it will be dark and unctuous.  Add the Worcestershire Sauce and the cayenne pepper.  Taste.  If all is good, transfer to your baking/serving dish and leave on one side.

Wash and peel the floury potatoes.  Place large even pieces in cold salted water and bring up to boiling point.  Lower the temperature. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Drain.  Place a clean tea towel on top and allow the steam to be absorbed.  Meanwhile heat the milk and dice the butter.

Put the milk and butter into a large bowl and, using a potato ricer, squeeze in the potato.  Season well.  Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy.

Place the mashed potato on top of the beef mixture and spread to cover.  Fork the top and dot with butter.

Place in an oven – Gas Mark 3/160ºC/140ºC Fan/325ºF/Aga Roasting oven – fourth runners – for about 15 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Serve with a green vegetable.  Eat.

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New blog.  New camera.  First post.

It seemed difficult to decide what to begin with – and then the weather turned ‘autumnal’ and I do like my warm jet streams ..!

So, comfort food.  Obvious.  I’ve been eating Welsh Rabbit all my life.  Perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch proper, high tea or supper.  I’ve even served it cut into small squares as a Christmas ‘nibble’ with drinks.  What’s not to love about molten cheese with a Worcestershire Sauce kick?  It’s a hug on toast.  I just love it.

Having witnessed the bemused expression on our French exchange student’s face, I ought to state upfront this recipe does not include rabbit.  (And ‘Toad in the Hole’ doesn’t contain toad either …!  Confusing, yes?

My Grandma ‘Dowton’ told me the name was an insult – traditionally rabbit was the meat of the English poor, the suggestion being the Welsh couldn’t afford to even eat that.  Sounds possible.  Or, maybe, it was just what a Welshman had for dinner if he didn’t manage to shoot a rabbit??

Or should it be ‘Rarebit’ and not ‘rabbit’ at all, so the discussion is irrelevant?  (Whatever a ‘rarebit’ might be.)  If historical precedence is important to you, ‘rabbit’ appears first – but both have been used for hundreds of years to describe a cheese on toast dish.  I’m bi-lingual with a childhood induced leaning towards ‘rabbit’.

The truth is, there are countless ways of making Welsh Rabbit.  Some are more like a fondue sauce poured over toast.  Some contain eggs.  If you separate the yolk from the white and whisk to snowy peaks you produce something more akin to a cheese soufflé on toast.  When I first married my husband I discovered he merely mashed up grated cheese with cold milk.  It was a shock!  I put a stop to it.  Then there’s paprika, cayenne ….

For me – I like my Welsh Rabbit to taste of cheese and stay on the toast, hot and bubbly.  Cheddar is most definitely my cheese of choice, and a strong one at that.  I tend to go for Montgomery Cheddar when cooking, but, truthfully, any hard English cheese works just fine.  There are passionate supporters of Lancashire Cheese out there.  I’m braced for the backlash.

The choice of bread is far less important.  Toasted.  Yes.  Both sides.  Personally, I like a ‘country’ loaf, cut thick.  I’ve used a seeded white loaf here which, I guess, may be a blog for a different day.

So … the rabbit.

 I start by warming the milk and the ale together.  Honesty compels me to own the ale is entirely optional.  My mum always used all milk but I like the taste of the ale.  I suspect its inclusion first came about because it was the accompanying drink and, over time, a bit of it got sloshed in the sauce.  Stout and beer are also good.

Obviously the easiest way is to zap it in a microwave, but I don’t have one and use a saucepan.  I go for hand-hot.  Essentially we’re making a béchamel sauce here and there are differing opinions as to whether you need to bother with this stage.  Aside from fridge cold liquid I’m inclined to think it all works fine, but I tend to warm through if I want to flavour the milk (with an onion, bay-leaves) or when I’m combining with another flavour as here.

Once it’s warm, tip the ale and milk mix into a jug and get on with making a thick roux.  If you want to be really technical – after all, the question might come up in a pub quiz sometime and be the difference between winning and losing – it’s a white roux.  That’s the one used to thicken a creamy/milky sauce.

Give yourself a break and use the same pan if you’ve used one to heat the milk/ale.

 Put the unsalted butter into a saucepan and allow it to melt.  Unsalted because it keeps you in control of your seasoning but, again, my mum used salted because it was what she could buy.  So, don’t stress.

 Then add an equal amount of flour.  Keep stirring.  You need to cook the flour ‘out’.  If you don’t your sauce will have a floury taste at the end.  Not the end of the world, perfectly edible, but not so nice.

 Cook until it starts to froth, but not colour.  A few minutes only.  Done.

 With the heat on low, add the liquid in about three goes.  Slowly.  Stirring all the time.  If you try and combine the liquid too quickly you’ll have to put in more work to get a smooth sauce.

Also, if the liquid is too hot and you add it in a splurge it’s possible to melt the butter in the roux which makes it all a bit greasy.  If that happens, take it off the heat and give it a good beat with a wooden spoon.  It will combine.  Have faith.

 When you have a smooth, thick sauce, turn off the heat below the saucepan.

 Then add the grated cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

 Add a dollop of English mustard and a goodly splash of Worcestershire Sauce.  (These are technical terms, you understand.)

Stir.  Allow the cheese to melt into the sauce and leave to cool.  That’s the basic Welsh Rabbit topping done and you can get on with the toast.

Or ‘tweak’.

Some people seem to like a bit of crispy bacon in their ‘Rabbit’.  Or tomato ketchup stirred through, which makes it a ‘Blushing Rabbit’.

 

A bit of leek, washed to get rid of any grit, drained and then sautéed in butter until soft but not coloured, has a nice Welsh vibe.

With or without the additions, it’s now time to spread the Rabbit on your toast.  Go right up to the edges.  That will stop the bread catching when it’s put under the grill/broiler or, if you’re me, top runners of the Aga Roasting Oven.

That’s it.  Wait until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.

 

Eat.  A little watercress and some roasted cherry tomatoes ups your fruit-and-veg intake – besides making the plate look pretty.  May I suggest you drink the left-over ale ..?  Cook’s perks?

 Should you have any mixture left over – pop it in a cling-wrap lined dish for another day and/or midnight snacking.  It’ll keep quite happily in the fridge for a few days.

 It emerges looking like this.  Don’t show anyone you want to impress, just spread it on toast and pop under the grill/broiler.  It makes for the easiest (and tastiest) Mothers’ Day breakfast in bed.  You can get your Welsh Rabbit ready the night before – so it’s edible – and that leaves your loved ones with nothing to do but toast the bread while they make your cup of tea.  What could go wrong?!?

And, once you’ve had enough of that, how about ..

 A newly laid egg, softly poached, and plopped on top turns it into ‘Buck Rabbit’.  Now that really is food fit for the gods.

 And Welsh Rabbit on-the-side makes a bowl of soup feel more like a meal – or so I tell my boys.

 Or you could make a rabbit ‘Rarebit’ because … Well, just because!

Welsh Rabbit – Serves 4

• 50g unsalted butter
• 50g plain flour
• 150ml full-fat milk, warmed
• 150ml ale/beer/stout, warmed, or more milk, if preferred
• 150g mature English Cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 tsp English mustard
• 1 tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 thick slices of ‘country’ bread

Over a low heat, melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour.  Cook for a few minutes to make a thick roux, stirring all the time.  You don’t want it catching.

Then add the warmed milk and ale – slowly.  Keep stirring until your sauce is thick and smooth.

Turn off the heat.  Add the grated Cheddar and stir until it has melted into the warm sauce.  Next add your solace of Worcestershire sauce and a dollop of English mustard.  Stir.  A few twists of freshly ground black pepper and you’re done.  Leave to cool until it reaches a spreadable consistency.

Lightly toast four thick slices of bread and place on a baking tray.  Spread the Welsh Rabbit on each of the slices, right up to the edges.  Pop under a hot grill (top runners of the Aga Roasting Oven) until bubbling and beginning to spot with brown.

Eat.

 

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