Greek orange marmalade dessert

If you have ever been to Greece, you will have seen there are thousands of ‘wild’ orange trees lining the streets.

Orange trees in Athens. Pic: Andrew Gustar

I love walking through Athens in spring, when the trees let their delicious floral scent fill the air when it’s blossom time. When the fruit ripens, the trees are replete with juicy-looking oranges. 

But while you can pluck these oranges and take what you want for free, you’d be laughed out of town if you tried to snack on one, as the fruit is so bitter it’s a very unpleasant eating experience.

However, while you cannot eat these the normal way, many Greeks use this bitter fruit to make a sweet called ‘glyko tou koutaliou’. The addition of sugar and honey in a preserving process cuts through the bitterness to create a nice marmalade-type of dessert.

You can use normal oranges (such as navel oranges) but many people prefer the Seville or Asian oranges as otherwise the sweet can be, well, too sweet.

To make roughly 1 kilogram of this (approximately two average-sized mason jars):

You will need:

• Oranges (normal 'Navel' oranges from a shop or, if you have access to them, the free, bitter kind). You will need 8 to 10, depending on the size.
• 1kg of caster sugar (yes, I know it's a lot. Bear with me).
• 4-5 tablespoons of Thyme honey OR 3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice to taste.

How to:

• Wash the oranges well if they’re shop-bought, especially if they are waxy. It’s worth grating the outside layer a little, as it helps to unlock the zest.
• Put the oranges whole and unpeeled into a large pot and cover them completely with lots of water, then bring these to the boil. Let them stay on the boil for 5 to 10 minutes (depending on how hard the oranges were in the first place).
• Drain the water and leave the fruit to cool down, because once cooled, you can slice into thick wedges and, after removing the creamy white pith, throw the wedges into the pot again and cover with the sugar.
• Resist the temptation to add water. The aim is to reduce the sugar and juice of the oranges into a thick marmalade.
• Bring to the boil, keep on the boil for 10 minutes and remove to cool down. Cover and leave for a day.
• The next day, bring the sticky mixture back to the boil, testing to see if the mixture is too sweet or too bitter. If it is too bitter, add the honey; if too sweet, add a few tablespoons of lemon juice.
• Boil for 10 minutes and scoop into your mason jars.

Greeks often eat this as a little treat, for example when they come home from school and want a light treat, or instead of cake for dessert.

George’s family usually give us several jars of this to take back to the UK with us but, as we rarely eat this sort of thing it has been left lying in the fridge. And as we are getting ready to head back to Athens we need to make room for more.

So I cheated with ready-made shortcrust pastry (with a little baby to look after I’m all about saving time) and made it into a tart. I blind-baked the pastry base first for about 20 minutes on 160 (find out how to blind bake here), then added a jar of the glyko to fill it up to the top of the crust, then baked again for 30 minutes on 160 (I have a fan-assisted oven which gets very hot so I usually take the heat down a notch from most recipes).

Oh it ain't pretty but it tastes pretty darn great! 

Basically, with the marmalade being made by our family and the pastry coming out of a shop, the whole thing took hardly any time to prepare or bake, which is great when it comes to fitting in dessert-making around feeding and entertaining a five-month-old baby!

Now although it wasn't elegantly prepared (I'm sure you will make it look much better), it smelled so good that we became rather impatient. I suppose we could have left it to cool down completely but we are greedy and hungry so ate it when it was a decent temperature.

As the ‘marmalade’ that our family gave us was quite sweet, we topped it off with cool Greek yoghurt to cut through the sweetness, but if your pie is more bitter to the taste, some delicious honeycomb or vanilla ice-cream will do just nicely!

Biscuit Baking the Tim Fisher Way!

Tim Fisher is an award-winning and widely respected pastry chef, having won more than 50 competition awards including over 30 medals at the British Open Cookery Championships. He also won the Dessert of The Year title in 2004.

And I, budget baker that I am on occasion, have had the immense privilege not only of meeting Tim on many occasions but also enjoying samples of his work - melt-in-the-mouth chocolate chip cookies, mini pastries, petite gateaux and delectable savouries when he catered for my friends' events.

This is why I am so happy to endorse his Biscuits and Cookies book, which can be snapped up at Amazon for a sweet £14.

I've enjoyed trying out his recipe for peanut butter cookies (you may recall I am obsessed with PB, and have a couple of years ago posted my own budget PB cookie bake). I won't say whose is better but I'll give you a clue - it's Tim's. Don't tell him! I'm also going to try out his custard cream and jammy dodger recipes - the sort of biscuits one never thinks to make at home but Tim makes it look easy...

What I really like is that Tim has made this book exceptionally accessible to the normal person who likes to bake every now and then. Too often recipes call for random and expensive items, like Belgian woodland truffle flakes, or Fijian salamander scales dipped in 100% Cambodian carob. This is not baking on a budget, but cooking on credit.

But Tim's book is designed to help even casual bakers like myself produce great-tasting treats for friends and family without having to shell out on unusual ingredients. Of course, if you want that little bit extra, there are some fancy biscuits in there too for those extra special occasions!

For those of you who happen to live in Surrey, England you might be interested in joining his Facebook: Tim's Pastry Club, or following him on Twitter: @timspastryclub Instagram: Tim's Pastry Club www.timspastryclub.com

Bake Off's pastry perfection: what is Blind Baking and how can I do it?

I s-pie. Pic: Samantha Beddoes (2012)

The Great British Bake Off (#GBBO) has filled us with a host of new terminology. Cream cakes are no longer cream cakes: they’re crème patisserie. In fact, it's actually Crème Pat. 

Those spaces under the oven where we all store our spare cake tins is actually a proving drawer, which should be kept clean and clear and tidy for when we need to prove our home-baked dough.

We're now alert to the dangers of soggy bottoms and dense sponges.

And, what is more, we all have to blind bake whenever we make pies.

But what is Blind Baking when it comes to pastry? Well, it's basically a way to get a perfect pie crust.

If you cook the pastry without its filling, the pastry could rise and become bumpy and uneven. But if you cook it with the filling from its raw form, the moisture from the filling could make the bottom of the pastry crust flabby and soggy. 

So blind baking involves weighing your empty pastry case down and cooking for a certain length of time to help get that perfect crustiness.

The easiest steps to follow when it comes to blind-baking shortcrust pastry (whether sweet or savoury) are as follows:

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6.
2. Fill the pastry case with a round of greaseproof paper and add baking beans (these are basically ceramic peas and can be bought quite cheaply from Lakeland or Amazon) to weigh it down.
3. I usually prick the bottom of the pastry a couple of times. I’m not sure why. My mum always did it so I do it.
4. Bake for 15 minutes (check on it though as some ovens are slow and fan-assisted ovens are fast) then carefully remove the paper and beans and cook the pastry for five more minutes.

This can then be cooled ready for whatever filling you need to put into the pie, flan or tart. 

PRO TIP: don’t touch the ceramic beans when they are hot. Please learn from my fail.

Pumpkin Pie - easy recipe

Pumpkins are fun, let's face it.

Not only do people love playing with pumpkins come October, carving them into ever-intricate caricatures, but they also love the versatility of pumpkins, which can be used for sweet and savoury dishes.

Having posted a photograph of my no-baked pumpkin pie on Facebook last year, I was asked repeatedly to post the recipe - which I promised.

Now, three months later, here it is: No-Bake Pumpkin Pie.

No-bake pumpkin pie. Source @simoneysunday

You can either use condensed milk or, which I prefer, 300g (approximately 11oz) low-fat cream cheese, such as Philadelphia.

You will need: 
One can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk or 300g low-fat cream cheese
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg and some for sprinkling on top.
1 sachet Dr Oetker vegetarian gelatine (one sachet sets 1 pint of liquid)
1/4 cup water (approx 60ml)
16oz of soft pumpkin (453g)

Whipped cream for the topping (if you like)

Some pumpkin seeds for decoration

1 sheet of pre-cooked puff pastry*

How to: 
After chopping up the pumpkin (save a good hour or two for this - cutting and chopping a pumpkin, I have found, is a job for lumberjacks), reduce it in a pan with a LITTLE bit of water until soft. Not too much water - you will have too much liquid and you'll need to strain it.

Clean and save the pumpkin seeds.

When you've got 16oz of softened pumpkin, blend it gently until it is smooth.

Add gelatine to water in a medium-sized saucepan. I tend to use half a pint of water as the pumpkin is quite liquid (as is the condensed milk).  Leave it to stand for 1 minute, before cooking on a low heat for two to three minutes until all the gelatine is dissolved.

Meanwhile, whisk together the condensed milk (or cream cheese), cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until smooth. Add this to the gelatine/water mix in the pan, and stir constantly.

Cook for a further 5 mins or so until the mixture is slightly thickened. After removing from heat, stir in the pumpkin until blended.

Pour it into the pre-cooked pastry dish and leave to set in the fridge until firm.

When cooked and cooled, spoon the pumpkin mixture into the crust. Put in the fridge for 3-4 hours or until firm. Decorate with a sprinkle of nutmeg and pumpkin seeds.

Serve with whipped cream if desired.

*Cooking the pastry
I use ready-roll pastry as it's so much easier, but it will need to be cooked before using.

Put the pastry into a suitable pie case, press down the edges with a thumb or spoon to make a pattern, cover the bottom of the pastry with baking beans (to make sure the pastry base doesn't rise in the middle), and bake according to instructions.

Pizza. With Fruit? It must be - Fruit Pizza

I am not a great fan of doing any unnecessary work in the kitchen. Most of us live extremely busy lives, balancing work, family and social events so the idea of having to slave over a table making pastry or labouring to create the perfect icing is simply unappealing.

While I am all for doing things on a budget – and making pastry or icing from scratch is cheaper in the long-term – there has to be a limit to being a domestic goddess. Not all of us have kitchens the size of a supermarket, despite what TV chefs would have you believe.

Not all of us are so wealthy that we can afford not to work so live a life of baking luxury. There has to be a line drawn between doing it yourself and doing yourself in.

And this is where my fruit pizza comes in. It’s simply called Fruit Pizza. I believe I made this up out of my own head, having tried a recipe for making my own savoury pizza, and deciding that I could make a dessert along the same lines. I certainly have never seen this recipe anywhere else!

Fruit Pizza
This recipe will have your friends, family and even children oohing and aahing and getting all excited, despite the fact they are basically eating fruit – lots of it.

It looks amazing when it comes out of the oven, in all its sizzly, sweet, sticky glory and tastes divine. You can mix and match fruits to your heart’s delight – but a word to the wise, oranges, clementines and satsumas do not sit well with the other fruit. Leave the strong citrus fruit alone and stick with berries, bananas and orchard fruit.

You will need:
1 large, flat pizza tray, circular or square, lightly oiled
1 sheet of Jus’Roll puff pastry OR BETTER STILL make it yourself - recipe for this is elsewhere on this blog.
2 large apples
1 cup of blueberries
1 cup of strawberries, sliced lengthways
1 cup of blackberries
1 cup of raspberries
½ cup of custard – pouring custard will do but you can make it yourself and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Don’t allow it to be too thick-it has to be spreadable.
Two tablespoons of icing sugar to dust
Some cream – Elmlea low-fat pouring cream does the trick

What to do:
Roll the pastry out over the pre-oiled tray – whether square, round or rectangle, it doesn’t really matter. Score a distinct line about 1cm away from the edge of the pastry all round – this will help the edges to rise up in puffy goodness and go all brown.

Don’t make the base too thin – the fruit juices will penetrate the pastry base otherwise.
Take the cold custard and spread it over the base as if you were spooning tomato puree over a savoury pizza base. Sprinkle some nutmeg or Allspice if you like.

Start laying the fruit onto the custardy base. Have fun creating faces, patterns or just being liberal-handed. It doesn’t matter.

Cook it for 20 minutes on gas mark 6 or the electric equivalent. Personally, cooking with gas is just the best thing in the whole wide world, until the government announces that we’ve run out. I’ll cross that ecobridge when I come to it.

When the edges are all puffy and goldeny brown, take it out of the oven, dust it with the icing sugar and serve immediately at the table, using pizza cutters and a slice. If you leave it too long before you get to the table, the icing sugar will have dissolved.

Serve with low-fat Elmlea double pouring cream (30% less fat than normal cream) or go the whole hog and serve with vanilla ice-cream.

How to be extra:
People at school used to say I was “being extra” if I drew in the margins of my essays. If you want to be extra, crush a meringue nest into pieces and put that over the top. These usually come in packs of eight and you can use the other seven for another fabulous dish like cherry meringues or Eton mess. Or just eat them by your own, when nobody but the cat can see. And he can’t tell a soul…..

How to save money
1) Berries freeze brilliantly if you are using them for baking or for smoothies. So I tend to buy bulk whenever there is an offer on for blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. So if you freeze these – and they keep for ages – you can save money and time when you make this in the future. Apples can also be cut up into nice slices and, if sprinkled with a little lemon juice to prevent oxidisation, can also be frozen. However, strawberries do not freeze well AND keep their shape afterwards, so best to buy these fresh.

2) Make your own custard – but not from scratch, using vanilla pods and all that. Who has the time? Insanity. But do always have a tub of custard powder and granulated white sugar in your cupboard. This will help you save lots of money as buying a carton of pouring custard is exceptionally costly – you use it once and it’s gone.

And that's basically it! Enjoy.

Salmon and Feta Leftover Pie

Watching television programmes such as The War on Waste about people throwing perfectly good food and clothes away makes me angry.

I have never been a wastrel. I was not brought up to consume without conscience. Moreover I was also blessed with an imagination which has helped me make the most of whatever leftovers and remnants I could find in my home.

It does not take a genius to work out that supermarkets want you to throw good food away instead of pickling it or freezing it, because their business model depends on the relentless spend, spend, spend of the consumer.

So this Sunday I decided to cook a two-course meal using only leftovers or 'out of date' food. The menu was: Salmon and Feta layer pie with filo pastry, and a spicy bread and butter pudding. I'll do the pudding separately because I'm lazy when it comes to posting stuff. Honesty, eh?

The date of eating was Sunday 15 November. It's now Tuesday 17th and we're both still alive and hearty, thank you very much!

Indeed, I have never seen this recipe anywhere before and so I believe what you are about to read is a world exclusive - the finest luxury leftover pie for you to try yourself. It really was tasty - light on the palate yet packed full of punchy flavour.

Salmon and Feta pie. Made with love - and leftovers

Ingredients:

Loch Fyne Smoked Salmon - Frozen on day of purchase (August). Consumed: November

1/2 pack of Feta cheese - use by date 30 October. Consumed: November

1/3 pack of mushrooms - use by date 6 November

1/2 tin Heinz Mushroom soup - October 2015 use by date 

One onion, use-by date 30 October. Still hard, dry and firm thanks to a good fridge.

6 sheets of Filo pastry, found secreted in the back of the freezer since March 2015

Teaspoon of dried Saffron, found in my husband's possession, dated June 2012. Yes, 2012.

Salt

Pepper

Home-grown chives and parsley (obviously these were in-date)

Well, I have NEVER seen a recipe for this, and I have never made this before so I was basically making this recipe up out of my own head. So it was complete trial and error. 

NOTE: I am sure the smoked salmon can be swapped for a tin of salmon. So give it a go.

How to: 

Prepare the pastry

Defrost the pastry slowly (DO NOT MICROWAVE IT INTO FROSTLESS SUBMISSION)

Carefully peel the layers and fold a first layer into a lightly oiled square pyrex cooking dish. Mine is a square 13'inch by 5inch deep pan.

Brush lightly with oil.

Make the filling

Chop the onion finely and add to a pan with some olive oil. Stir until a little brown.

Clean and chop the mushrooms, add these to the pan along with the seasoning. Add garlic to taste.

Add the salmon, making sure to stir well for three minutes. 

Add the mushroom soup, stir well for another minute.

Chop and add the feta cheese, stir gently and remove from the heat.

Layer a little of the salmon and feta filling onto the bottom sheet of filo pastry.

Add another layer of pastry on top of this as if it were a lasagna, repeat the process until all the filling has been used up.

Layer the remaining filo pastry over the top, brush with olive oil and a little paprika or herbs of your choice, and bake for c.20 minutes at 180 degrees.

And there you have it. It served four (so we ate the rest on Monday). We served it the first day with a Greek Salad made by hubby and the following day with carrots (which were also two days past the use by date!) and peas. For hints on how to keep carrots crispy and crunchy, see here.

Let me know how your version turned out - and if you swapped any ingredients with great success! 

Cheat Treat!

Blackberry Tart. On a Budget, innit! Credit: Simoney Sunday

I wouldn't normally advocate buying prefabricated pastry cases, but not everyone has the time or the energy to be a domestic goddess - not to mention the fact that getting the pastry case absolutely perfect is a beggar. And it's always good to get something in your store cupboard, just in case.

Many big supermarkets stock pastry cases of various sizes and, when I happened to find a batch in a 'sin bin' - with a 'Use By' date of that very day, I could not help but consider 4 small cases at 89p a bargain.

The thing is, these can be frozen. And frozen they were, until I needed to use them to try to impress the female parental unit with a posh-looking dessert that didn't take me any time to prepare.

This was very, very simple although it looks fantastic. Or would have, if I could take pictures properly

Ingredients
Ice-cream (home made is best - see the recipe here - but this occasion Sainsbury's helped out)
Whipping cream
Blackberries (I normally get these for free by harvesting and freezing but these were from my friend's garden)
Cocoa Powder (I have a feeling this might have been WeightWatchers!)

How To
Whip up the cream (some people put a little icing sugar into it to sweeten it but we don't like things too sweet in our house)
Spoon it into pastry cases
Decorate with some washed and dried blackberries

Waft some cocoa powder over the side of the plate and scoop a ball of icecream
Decorate with some home-grown mint leaves if you're feeling extra (which I was. You should see mum's garden when the mint took over. That was a three-year battle)

And whoop! A professionally presented dessert that takes all of say, 5 minutes (depending on how quickly you can whip that cream).

Champagne tastes, cola budget. What can I say?