Ask first © 2010 R Khooks. Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

What do you do with a bag of very ripe/almost rotting pears? Throw them away, no. Put them on the compost heap, no. Make a pear & vanilla caramel spread of course! I recently discovered a bag of pears when I came back from my trip downunder. I was quite impressed they lasted that long considering I was away for a bit. Trying to reduce the amount of food wastage whenever possible (hence my fridge being full of little tupperware containers of leftovers or me constantly giving away food). I am on a constant search of making the most of the ingredients.

Left: Stewed pear and vanilla juice with sugar. Right: Pear caramel cooking. Ask first © 2010 R Khooks, Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

This recipe is similar to the Belgian “Sirop de liège” a gooey syrup made from pear and apple juice. The apples and pears are stewed for so long to create a dark almost molasses kind of syrup which is spread on toast or even used in savoury dishes. My version is slightly less time consuming and therefore lighter in colour. If you want a darker colour, stew the pears for longer, so they “caramelise” (slightly burn) before extracting the juice.

The bread in the shot is a slice of homemade sourdough made by a friend of mine who gave me a crash course in sourdough today. I have now got my own “live” sourdough, so I’ll be giving sourdough bread a go myself soon. Fingers crossed and mine will be as good.

Ask first © 2010 R Khooks, Rachel Khoo. All rights reserved.

1,5kg pears
200g sugar
50ml water
1 vanilla pod, cut in half
pinch of salt

Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the vanilla grains add to a large pot with the pod, pears chopped into large pieces and water. Cook on a low heat for 1 hour with the cover on. Stir occasionally. Once the pears have become soft and pulpy, take off the heat.

Pass the mixture through a jam bag or very fine nylon sieve. Be careful not to push the mixture too hard if the sieve is not very fine as otherwise you will get a fruit puree in the juice mixture.

Return the extracted juice to a large pan with the sugar and salt. Simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes or until the juice has become a sticky syrup. It will thicken and set once cold, so do not overcook.

Pour into a sterilised jar* and close tightly. This will keep unopened for at least 6 months. Keep in a cool and dark cupboard. Once opened store in the fridge.

*To sterilise jars, wash in soapy water, rinse well and then place open in a cool oven at 130°c for 15-20 minutes.

There were no sausages on this menu which explored the East/West divide in Germany. Fellow foodie Caroline Hobkinson and I got cooking in her amazing Berlin kitchen. Dishing up two different menus (one East, one West). Each representing their relevant culinary history. Guests on arrival were assigned their sides for the nights. They bartered, they smuggled and some sneekily stole from the opposite side to get a taster of the forbidden food.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

Many thanks to the school of life for the photos.

500 biscuits to make for The School of life Sunday sermon on Good Design held by Alice Rawsthorn, Design critic for the International Herald Tribune . They weren’t just any old biscuits which had everyone at the Conway Hall, London on the 28th June 2009 munching.

Specially designed “digestives” or better “designtives” were mixed, kneaded, rolled out and baked by hand. Yes, all 500 of them.

Digestive biscuits were invented in 1892 by McVities and in the UK we now consume 52 chocolate digestives per second. They originally claimed to “aide” digestion but this has been proven untrue. In the States it’s still illegal to sell the biscuits under the name. Rachel Khoo has improved on the design of the digestive but giving it added “digestion” properties.

Read more here on how they were ‘designed’ and the recipe.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

Photos from event taken by Bronia Stewart.

I whipped these little delights for a girlie teatime. Chewy, buttery  with sweet confit cherries and crunchy almonds. They went down a treat. The recipe is the one I used when baking industrial quantities at Autostadt last December, although they were made chocolate chips. Similar to Anzac biscuits but using a brown/white sugar combination instead of golden syrup. It was the only sweet thing I felt like eating. Straight out of the oven with a cup of tea or a glass of milk. Super yum!

Confit cherry & almond cookies

125g caster sugar
125g brown sugar
250g butter
325g oats
100g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
100g blanched almonds, chopped
100g confit/glacé cherries, chopped
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven 170°c. Cream the sugars, vanilla essence and butter together. In a second bowl mix together oats, baking powder and flour together. Add the chopped almonds and cherries and mix. Combine the two mixtures together and add the eggs. Mix together until you have a cookie dough. Drop a generous tablespoon of dough on a greased or baking paper lined tray. Leaving at least a good couple centimentres space between cookies. Bake for 20 minutes (maybe a little longer if the cookies are bigger). Leave to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Alternatively you can just bake a couple and then keep the cookie dough in the fridge. Use within the next couple of days. Or you form the dough into cookies. Freeze and then bake when you want to (baking time will be longer however).

I’ve been recovering from my 5 week stint here. I finally mustered up the courage to mettre la main à la pâte as the French say. It wasn’t easy to decide what to make but a cake was not definetly on the menu. Nothing better than a bit of kneading to think things over (a great bit of exercise if you do it by hand ). With every new year there’s always a mad rush to start new things or stop old things. It’s not an easy option to stick with the old and get through the difficulties much easier to give up, especially when you have so many  other “better looking” options. I guess it’s a bit like just putting an egg in one basket rather than spreading them about. A risk that 2009 is going to be for me and many others. I’ve finally decided to be a full time professional freelance food creative after several years of doing it part time. To get a better idea of what I’m getting myself into check out my professional website. It’s not quite finished yet, still having some teething problems.

I wish everyone a success, fun and delicious filled 2009!

Back to the food, I did this recipe twice. Once at home and the other at my parents. Second time round it turned out perfect, I must say myself. The bread had a beautiful texture. Crisp crust with a light airy dough inside topped off with a egg in the middle. A snack or breakfast all-in-one on the run. Yummy I’ve based my recipe on Andrew Whitley’s Bread matters book which I consider one of the best bread cookery books on the market. He uses a wetter dough technique which results in an airy bread. His recipe requires using a specific water temperature which I, being lazy just used warm water. I also tried my hand at air kneading (which involves kind of throwing/stretching the dough from one hand to another in the air) but my arms just ached too much after 10 minutes so I chose to knead the classic way, on the work surface. A little messier.
Just a note the dough will feel wet and sticky at the beginning of kneading. Don’t feel tempted to add loads of flour. Once you start kneading for a while the dough will start to come together.

Egg in a basket
Recipe adapted from “Bread matters” by Andrew Whitley
(makes 8 )

Overnight sponge

5g fresh yeast
130g Water, warm
150g Strong white flour

Mix the yeast with the water and then combine with the flour. Place in a large bowl. Cover with clingfilm and leave in a room with an ambient temperature (if the room is warmer than 25°c than place somewhere cooler) for 12-18 hours. The sponge should triple in size: bubble and have a slight beery, vinegary taste.

Final dough

285g overnight sponge
350g strong white flour
100g stroneground strong wholemeal flour
5g Salt
270g water, warm
15g olive oil
8 eggs

Mix all the ingredients into a soft dough and knead until it becomes silky and stretchy. Leave to rise for an hour. Grease two trays with some olive oil. Divide into 8 parts. Then divide each part into 3. Make 3 long “worms” and plait/braid them and join the two ends to make a circle. Make sure to leave a big enough space in the middle to crack the egg in. Leave to prove (double in size). Set the oven to 230°c or the hottest setting. Bake for 5 minutes at the hottest setting and then turn down to 200°c. After 15 minutes take the buns out and crack one egg into each hole. Bake for another 5 minutes (altogether baking time 20 minutes). Leave to cool slightly before eating or eat them cold too.

These little spoons make fancy canapés with not much work effort and a small budget (total ingredients 7.23€). If you want to see some of the stuff which has been keeping me away from blogging. Take a look here and here.

Credit crunch cucumber & Snow white mousse spoons

200ml whipping cream
150g soft goat’s cheese
1 cucumber, washed
2 tsp of lemon juice
1 small jar of “fake” caviar (i.e. Herring roe)

Makes about 15 spoons.

Chop 3/4 of the cucumber into small cubes and mix with lemon juice. Keep the rest for the garnish.
Whip the cream until stiff. In a separate bowl whip the goat’s cheese until soft and smooth. Beat a couple of spoons of the whipped cream into the goat’s cheese and then fold in the rest of the whipped cream. Scoop into a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle.
In each serving spoon add a tsp of chopped cucumber. Pipe the mousse on top and garnish with a little of ‘fake caviar’ and a slither of cucumber.

If you don’t have the spoons, you could either use squares of dark wholemeal bread or a thick round slice of cucumber (instead of chopping the cucumber up).

Back to work Bento box at Jo Evens Showroom in Paris on the 5th October 2008. Wacky manga characters, blue rice, lots of veg…everyone got their hands sticky making their yummy bento boxes.

If you are on a picture and you want it to be removed, please send me an email.

Le dimanche 5 Octobre au Showroom JO EVENS à Paris “Spécial Fashion – L’atelier de boite à Bento”.

Télécharger la recette de l’atelier Bento box ici

Right now I’m busy prepping for my first cookery class @ La Cocotte this Thursday. I’ve been busy researching, testing, tasting, doing all things muffiny…so much so I think I’m actually becoming a muffin. I found out the word muffin comes from the old french term “moufflet” (=soft). And that the American muffins did originate from the English ones but quickly developed their own style.

The polenta, feta & sundried tomato muffins are ones I’ll be putting in the goody bag which everyone at the cookery class gets to take home (with a few sweets ones too). I’ll let you know how it goes.

Wish me luck!

Btw I tend to use a mini muffin tin because the size is great for snacks or dinner party canapés. But you can make it any size you like, just change the cooking time accordingly.

Polenta, feta & sundried tomato muffins

240g plain flour
150g polenta
2 tsp baking powder
150g sundried tomatoes
150g feta
1 handful of parsley
1 tsp of salt
1 egg
250ml milk
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 185°C. Chop the feta, sundried tomatoes and parsley smaller. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Then mix all the other ingredients. Combine both mixtures (don’t overmix will result in tough muffins). Spoon the mixture into the muffins cases. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until they are golden. To verify poke a wooden skewer into the centre, if cooked it will come out clean.

Hate to blow my trumpet, but who cares I’m so excited about being on the cover (with my cake) of this month’s Elle à table I just had to share it with you. There’s an 8 page article inside “Christmas dinner with the 4 girls from la Cocotte“. Andrea and I wrote the recipes and made the food (and some food styling). Nathalie did the beautiful interior and prop styling…well worth rushing to your local newsagent and getting a copy now, while there are still some left