What To Do With Left Over Shortcrust Pastry?

What do you do with your leftover shortcrust pastry?

If you ask most home cooks they will probably say make jam tarts, lemon curd tarts or something similar.
 I was quite interested to see a good idea appear on my facebook news feed a couple of weeks ago for pastry biscuits with leftovers. Such a simple idea but a great new one for us at The Old Red Lion to serve complimentary to our customers, with a dip, whilst they peruse the menu.
So what do you do? Well as i said, simple! Roll out your pastry. Cut out some circles, or other shapes if you prefer, with cutters. Place on a baking sheet and top with salt and pepper. You can add other toppings if you fancy. I sprinkled poppy seeds on some and sesame seeds on others. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Shortcrust Pastry Biscuits Ready To Bake In The Oven

 

When cooled serve with your favourite dips!
I put my first batch with red onion marmalade.

Shortcrust Pastry Biscuits With Red Onion Marmalade Dip

And for the second batch I made a garlic, red onion, red pepper and ricotta dip. Easily made in the food processor!
Seemed to go down very well with tonights customers.

Shortcrust Pastry Biscuits With Red Onion, Red Pepper, Garlic & Ricotta Dip

 

So what do you do with your leftover pastry??

Summer Wedding

This Saturday saw The Old Red Lion play host to a high tea wedding reception.
Fortunately the heavy lunchtime downpour of rain turned into an afternoon of hot sunny weather, perfect for afternoon tea!
Food was fiddly, and time consuming to make, but well worth the effort when it was all put together and a perfect end result achieved.
Unfortunately we were too busy to be able to take as many photos as we would have liked but below is a small selection.

Restaurant at The Old Red Lion laid up for high tea.

Pretty bunting

Table arrangemennts

Mis match of crockery gives a great effect

table decorations

Bride and groom initials

Champagne reception

Smoked salmon& cream cheese blinis

Canapes.
Mushroom and tarragon crostini.
 Mini yorkshires with beef and horseradish
Smoked salmon & cream cheese blinis

Mini fruit and custard tarts

Close up of fruit tarts

Christmas Party

Last Thursday saw the first of our christmas parties.
The local bell ringers joined us at The Old Red Lion for an evening of fun and gorgeous christmas fayre.
Very successful evening and I managed to capture a few shots of the food.

Smoked salmon, red onion marmalade and cream cheese tart

Parsnip,apple and chestnut soup

Basil roulade

Stilton mushrooms and ciabatta

 

Baked ham and roast vegetables

Chocolate and chestnut torte

Pear and ameretto cheesecake

Homemade Christmas Pudding

I can remember as a child going to my aunts every christmas with the whole of my family, (she had a BIG house!), and 20 of us would sit around the dining table after a large turkey roast awaiting the arrival of THE Christmas Pudding! The lights were extinguished as my aunt carried in the flaming pudding and everyone applauded the event. Then we each would have a slice with brandy sauce or butter and hope that we would be one of the few rewarded with a silver 2 1/2p that had been cooked within the pudding. If you found a coin it was considered to bring you luck, unless, of course, you found it whilst choking on it!!!!
Happy days for me but I have to admit as I grow older I am a bit Bah Humbug with the whole christmas event. It's a lot of planning and expense for just one day and, personally, I think it's been spoilt by the commercial side of it and people starting everything too early. My friend reported yesterday that a house in her street is already displaying their christmas decorations!
Having said that I love a new cooking challenge and this year, at The Old Red Lion, it has been decided to make our own christmas puddings for our festive menu.
It's a long winded process but the results are well worth your patience so why not give it a try and impress the family on christmas day.
First job was to find a recipe. We chose this "Cook Britain" book by Sainsburys for ours.
Lots and lots of ingredients to purchase first! (See below for list of what you need)

Cookbook Containing the recipe

First part of planning was to soak currants,raisins,sultanas,mixed peel and figs in a solution of fresh orange juice and zest, stout and ameretto together with nutmeg,cinnamon and mixed spice. This was left overnight for a good soak.

Soak the fruit overnight

Next day I weighed out all the remaining ingredients needed. Easier way of doing things so everything can be quickly put together.

Weighing out the ingredients

For the first stage I melted some butter and brown sugar in a pan and added pecan nuts,mixed peel,glace cherries and flaked almonds and mixed to coat.

Preparing the topping

I then placed in the base of my greased pudding case.

Filling the bowl with the topping

All the other ingredients were then mixed  thoroughly into the bowl of soaked fruit and added to the pudding bowl, packing it in tightly. The next stage is to cover the top ready for steaming with greaseproof and foil in a tight manner, so as to avoid any water getting in.
I went to youtube at this point as I wanted to make sure I did the job properly. Check out this link on the BBC food website http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/techniques/sealing_steamed_puddings
I found it great information.

Wrap very tightly so no water gets in

Puddings prepared, I placed them in a pan with an inverted plate in the bottom and filled with boiling water to half way up the pudding bowl. I then covered with a tight fitting lid and left to steam for 6 hours, checking every hour to see if the water needed topping up.

Cooking the pudings

The long wait over I removed from the pan, took the foil lid off and put on a rack to cool.

Cooling down the puddings

The moment of truth came when I tipped them out of the pot and wow was so pleased at the final result. They looked just like the picture in the cookbook!!
Wrapped in greaseproof and foil, these puddings will last up to 2 months. How's that for forward planning for christmas!

The finished article!

If you would like to try these for yourself I have listed the ingredients below.
Go on, give them a go!

Beautiful glazed topping

Ingredients

Soak in a bowl overnight:
100g raisins
100g sultanas
100g currants
75g chopped dried figs
25g mixed peel
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp mixed spice
1/2tsp nutmeg
200ml stout
2 tbsp ameretto
1 orange, zest and juice

For the topping:
25g melted butter
25g dark brown sugar (melted with the butter)
25g flaked almonds
50 pecan nuts
25g chopped glace cherries

Other ingredients to add to the fruit mixture AFTER it's overnight soak. Mix together well.
100g vegetable suet
2 medium eggs, beaten
50g plain flour
100g natural breadcrumbs
225g dark brown sugar

This mixture will fill a 1.2litre greased pudding bowl. I used 3 smaller ones.

New Menu Launch

As the weather turns much colder, and the leaves fall from the trees, it is time to move on from our summer menu and create something new to take us through the winter at The Old Red Lion.
It takes a while to create something special for our customers.Many hours spent looking through cook books for ideas, googling ideas and thinking what accompaniments work well with each dish. Then, armed with ideas, ingredients are bought and we make each meal to ensure sure it looks and tastes nice.
After several weeks of ideas and trials, finally, on Friday evening, we officially launched our new menu.
The whole weekend went really well. Most main course dishes were ordered, though sadly, not many starters, and the feedback received was really positive.
Great news for us, and if you fancy having a peek at a few things we have on offer, scroll down the page and see if anything takes your fancy!

Sundried Tomato Hummus served on a bed of vegetables roasted in soy sauce with rosemary and basil and accompanied by handmade mini heart shaped pittas.

 

Courgette & Sweetcorn Pancake Stack filled with melted mozzarella and roasted peppers.

Tuna Steak served on a bed of lime & herb butter noodles and wilted spinach, topped with a tropical fruit salsa of mango and papaya.

Peppered Fillet Of Beef Steak serve on layers of potato rosti and roasted peppers and topped with a creamy peppercorn sauce.

 

Chicken, Choritzo & Prawn cooked in a tomato and basil cream sauce served on Fusilli Lunghi and accompanied with mini, handmade, heart shaped garlic bread.

 

Venison Steak cooked in blackberry sauce and served on dauphinoise potatoes with sprouting broccoli.

                                   

Halloumi Filo Parcel with zesty chilli middle, served on a bed of sweet potato & sesame mash with marinated olives.

Duck Breast cooked in a spiced red wine & redcurrant sauce served on garlic and parmesan mash and ribbons of vegetables.

 

So have I tempted your taste buds?
 Hope so!

Mushroom, Pesto & Halloumi Filo Parcels

What do think of if I say the words "Buffet Food" to you?

For most of you I bet the first thing to come in your head was either sandwiches or sausage rolls?

Funny how traditions are passed down through the ages.Sometimes though it's fun to experiment with new ideas and this is just what I did for last weekends buffet at The Old Red Lion, Litchborough.

Simple, but really effective, and certainly tasty, these mushroom, pesto and halloumi parcels went down really well with the guests and could also easily be considered as an ideal starter for a vegetarian dinner guest.

I layered 4 sheets of filo pastry on top of each other, brushing each one with melted butter, and cut into squares for the parcels. Then I fried off some chopped mushrooms and garlic in butter, stirred in a spoon of pesto and added diced halloumi. Into the centre of each pastry square I put some filling, then brushed the 4 sides with beaten egg and gathered all sides together to form a money bag shape.

3-4 minutes in the deep fat fryer at 180C and they were ready.

 

 

Preparing the filo parcels

Mushroom, pesto and halloumi filo parcels

Very pleased also with the photos from my new camera! 

Mushroom, pesto & halloumi filo parcels

As for following tradition, well yes we do that too!
Delicious homemade sausage rolls.

Sausage rolls

Olive, cheddar and cherry tomato on cocktail sticks.

Olive, cheddar and cherry tomato

Scotch eggs made from our own eggs and sausage meat from the farm and proper breadcrumbs.

Scotch eggs

Mini tarts too.

Mini quiches and red onion and cream cheese tartlets

 

So what's your favourite?



Fruit Tarts

We have an abundance of fruit in the village store at The Old Red Lion today so I got creative!
Sweet pastry tart cases filled with custard and topped with a mixture of fresh fruit glazed with apricot jam. Find them on sale at Radmore Farm Shop, Cambridge tomorrow afternoon.

Fresh Fruit Tarts

Fresh Fruit Tarts

A Fishy Tale (or How To Oven Cook A Side of Salmon!)

As the sun shone, and the church bells rang, late morning today, 50 guests crossed the road from St Martins Church, Litchborough to The Old Red Lion to attend a christening party and a buffet lunch of the pubs finest food.
Buffets are renowned in the catering trade for being hard work and very time consuming but, it is immensely satisfying when seeing the end result of all your hard work spread out on one long table.
I have spent many years preparing buffets so basically know what I'm doing by now, however, for this particular buffet, along with the beef, pork and hot new potatoes was also a request for whole salmon. There was a slight SHREAK inside my head on hearing this news as I have never cooked such a big fish before but I'm always up for a new food challenge and set out straight away to find out how to achieve the best results.
Usually, it seems, most cooks use a fish kettle to cook salmon on the hob but, as we don't have a fish kettle at the pub, I decided to do my research on oven baking.
 Having  googled loads of recipes and ideas, and making pages of notes, this morning I very nervously put it all together and prayed for great results!
I had a beautiful fish to work with. Weighing 10lb and having been gutted and pinned I was left with 2 large, clean and very pink sides of salmon.

10lb Salmon gutted, pinned and ready to cook.

 

 

First I laid out 3 large pieces of foil on a baking tray and covered with slices of lemon.

Slices of lemon on a bed of foil.

To the lemon I added slices of onion, rosemary and bay leaves.

Lemon, onion, rosemary and bay leaves on foil base

 

I rubbed the skin on the salmon with olive oil then laid the fish, skin side down, onto the foil and seasoned the top with sea salt and cracked black pepper. I then wrapped the foil around the fish, like a parcel, and, just before totally closing the top, poured white wine over the fish. The "parcel" was then transferred to the oven for about an hour until we were ready to serve it.

Sides of Salmon on a prepared bed of lemon, rosemary, onion and bay leaves.

 

While the salmon cooked I prepared a few items of decoration for when it was on display on the buffet table. On removal from the oven it took 2 of us to very carefully transfer both sides to a display slate, and I mean CAREFULLY as it was a tricky manoeuvre to lift the fish!
I quickly got to work decorating.
I had made tomato roses with halves of lemon and cucumber for the top.

Tomato rose decoration with cucumber and lemon.

 

Lots of cucumber and lemon!

 

I piped some flowers out of cream cheese and paprika directly onto the slate to the side of the salmon, and added a finishing touch of king prawns.

2 decorated sides of salmon with tomato roses, cucumber and lemon.

 

Finally completed and our young restaurant manager Chris had the rather important task of delivering this large platter to the buffet table. No Pressure on that task at all!!

Dressed salmon with cucumber, lemon and tomato roses with cream cheese and paprika piped flowers with king prawns.

 

The party hosts and guests were extremely complimentary about all the food and service today. It's lovely for us all to receive such praise when we have worked so hard. Good job done once again by Team Red Lion!!!