Update from Cassius

Cassius is going from strength to strength. The summer rain and sun has widened his cracks, but he doesn’t care. We’ve tried to add coats of protective clay but he isn’t interested. He just shrugs them off and demands to be used. If we cook in the Aga he starts sulking like a moody teenager. Our efforts in Cassius to date have been great. But we are constantly trying to improve our technique.

So in preparation for a party in Somerset, I bought a cast iron rectangular skillet to act as a DIY pizza stone. So far we’ve been using upturned baking trays, but in light of the fact that we have ruined 3 of Cowie’s parents’ pans, I thought it would be worth the small investment.

The other area we’ve been keen to improve on is the dough. We’ve been following a Jamie Oliver recipe that demands semolina flour, but have always cheated and used plain flour. The bases have been tasty but lacking the authentic bubbles that you get at places like Franco Manca. So we visited At the Chapel in Bruton who have a pizza oven and to our delight they gave us not only a bag of their semolina but also a small pot of their sourdough starter! To say that I was excited would be the understatement of the century. (More on “Simon the Sourdough Starter” another time)

The combination of using dough made with semolina and the cast iron “pizza stone” resulted in our best pizzas yet. The skillet got so hot in the embers that it had the pizza base dancing and bursting. The pizzas cooked in around 3 minutes flat and tasted of Napoli!

A simple parma ham and mushroom pizza kicked Christened the new skillet…

The “La Reine”, excusing the lack of olives, put Pizza Express’s version to shame.

A plain, tomato and mozzarella pizza was simply brilliant. Some torn basil and a twist of black pepper had us shouting with greedy delight.

And a fully loaded beast with mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and chilli that we’ve named “Arnie”.

Our Eggy Pizza was a triumph as well. The yolk oozed across the plate and acted as a fantastic dipping sauce.

Cassius is loving life. He’s just getting better and better. The combination of semolina and skillet has made a huge difference to the bases. They’ve become much lighter and are developing the bubbles we’ve been hankering after. For our next trick we’re going to make our bases using “Simon the Sourdough Starter” that we’re lovingly nurturing… If you’ve got any suggestions for awesome toppings let us know.

Japonica

Cowie’s parents’ have got a wonderful Japonica plant that produces very attractive green and red fruit speckled with white dots. I’ve been told that it is part of the quince family and therefore could be suitable for making jelly. When I heard this I got pretty excited and thought I’d do some research before I went off half cocked and poisoned people…

Does anyone know if:

a. … the fruit in the picture is a Japonica
b. … it is edible
c. … I can make jelly out of them
d. … there are any other recipes that we can try

If you can help I’d be hugely appreciative. Thanks.

Pizza Oven (Cassius) Progress

As my way of butting in on Cowie’s pizza oven project, I have not only decided that our clay oven will now be called “Cassius”, but I have also given him another layer of clay which means I have technically been part of the building process!

Despite dislocating my thumb in the “claying” process, it was a huge success. Cassius is now looking and cooking better than ever. Next time we are going to add an insulating layer of clay mixed with straw/sawdust which will help to bind it together and conserve heat. Once this is set and the structure seems sound we will add a cosmetic layer of clay and maybe even decorate Cassius with some mosaics and possibly a very manly name badge.

The next step will be to convince Cowie and her parents that they are desperately in need of an “outdoor kitchen” which will give us license to build a little table and sink to make the pizza making easier. It might also be a good idea for us to get a little bakers shovel so we don’t land up using the spade! Even though it does make for a great photo.

Here’s a photographic update:

After the first firing, it is quite natural for the clay to crack. It looks a bit like crazy paving. So to stop the cracking and to add strength you have to add another layer of clay mixed with sand which is what I’m doing with Andrew in the pictures.

You can see how wide the cracks are, but they are relatively cosmetic. I hope!

Our proscuito, olive, mozzarella and pepperoni pizza was awesome.

Great spade work from Andrew or Andreas as he likes to be called now!

Each time we fire up Cassius and cook a fresh batch of pizzas we get ever so slightly better. We’ve got our pizza dough down to a fine art and this time got the oven so hot we could barely stand near it – which wasn’t really the ideal way to welcome our new layer of clay to the oven! Once we’ve finished the oven fully we are looking forward to experimenting with sourdough pizza bases and baking/roasting things beyond pizza. I’ve got my eye on a porchetta recipe for instance.

If you’ve got any bright ideas for what we should cook in Cassius let us know.

Cowie’s Pizza Oven

Being the amazing girlfriend that she is, Cowie took it upon herself to build a pizza oven from scratch over Easter whilst I was back at home with my family. Not only is this an incredibly brilliant thing to do… it is also enormously selfless as the wheat in pizza dough doesn’t really agree with Cowie’s stomach. So it was quite literally a labour of love.

I’ve been desperate to have a clay pizza oven ever since we saw one at River Cottage. I bought the book , by the amazingly well named Kiko Denzer, that they recommended and became engrossed in the incredibly passionate world of DIY clay oven sites such as “instrucatables” and “clayoven”. I love the idea of crispy based pizza. Of charred, smoky crust.And of puffy dough.Of that Neanderthal smell of primal food. I guess it has brought out the latent Ray Mears in me.

If you want full instructions please visit this brilliant, brilliant site. But here’s a quick overview of how we bodged our oven together.Or rather how Cowie went about creating the best pizza oven anyone has ever made for me!

1.Persuade parents, landlords, other-halves etc. that they simply cannot carry on living without a pizza oven. Don’t underestimate how important stakeholder buy in is.
2.Build a base for your oven. This should get to a height at which you’d like to cook at.
3.Use a concrete slab as the floor to the oven. Or fireproof bricks.
4.On top of you base, build a dome of wet sand. Make sure the dome is the right size. You want space around the outside to form the clay oven. The sand is essentially mapping out the negative space that will become the inside of the oven.
5.Coat the outside of the wet sand with wet newspaper.
6.Dig up some clay and moisten. Mix with sand and build a layer of clay that covers the newspaper. Ensure this is around 2 inches to 3 inches thick. Make it as strong as possible.
7.Leave a hole at the front that is 63% of the height of the oven itself. Apparently this is the perfect ratio to allow the oven to breathe.
8.Once the dome is formed and secure, pull out the sand.
9.Light a small fire and allow the oven to dry.
10.Add a second skin of clay to fill in the cracks that will have formed.
11.Light another fire to continue the drying out process.
12.Add a third layer of clay as a cosmetic layer. Make it as smooth and attractive as possible.
13.Light a proper fire and get baking!

So far we’ve got to number 9. We got a bit overexcited and decided to cook in it straight away. To our joy it worked! (We’re going to finish the process next weekend.)

Cowie made some dough following a Jamie Oliver recipe and we threw together a collection of toppings. Given that we didn’t have any mozzarella we’re delighted with the results. The pizzas were gorgeously smoky, crispy and authentic. Step aside Zizzis!

We now can’t wait to evolve our technique. For instance I’m keen to make sourdough bases, buy a herd of buffalo and to harvest my own wheat. Also, if anyone knows where we can get a bakers’ paddle, please can you let us know.

Battered Creme Egg in Bruton

Wow. I am ashamed to say the fish and chip shop selling these crispy, coronary inducing confections was closed so I haven’t had a chance to sample one. But, rest assured when I next visit Bruton I’ll give one a try and tell you all about it.

I just love the line, “Cadbury’s may splatter ’em, but we batter ’em”. Surely someone from Publicis is behind this!

Duck with Jumperland Sauce followed by Vanilla and Cardamom Plum Crumble

Down in Somerset you need to wear an extra jumper. Unless you are cooking, in which case do it as close to naked as possible, because the heat from the fire in the living room and Aga in the kitchen is fierce.

Duck with “Jumperland” Sauce

Score the skins on the duck breasts and place them all on a wire rack. Pour boiling water over them to draw out some of the fat. Repeat. Dry with a clean tea towel and season aggressively. Set aside.

Whilst the duck breasts are recovering from their spat with the boiling water it’s time to get stuck into the Jumperland sauce – so called because of Somerset’s chilly winters and its vague similarity to Cumberland sauce.

It’s a sauce of necessity. A sauce born out of improvisation.A sauce of great pride. Gently fry two chopped red onions in butter until soft. And then add 3 skinned and chopped apples and the same of pears. Pour in a large glass of orange juice and add a splash of Tabasco or Habernero hot sauce. Throw in some sage leaves. A glug of cider vinegar helps to give it some zing. And a spoon of red currant jelly delivers sweetness and gloss. Stir attentively on a low heat until the fruit has capitulated and the mixture has become a sauce. Check the taste frequently and adjust as necessary.

Whilst stirring the Jumperland sauce it’s time to render the duck breasts. Having salted the skin side liberally place the breasts skin side down in a hot frying pan in 2 batches. The fat should freely run. Spoon the fat out of the pan and retain for roast potatoes another day. Once you’ve got as much fat from the breasts as you think is possible and skins are feeling slightly crisp to the touch transfer them to a wire rack in a roasting tray. Repeat for the second batch.

Re-season the breasts and launch them into the top of a hot oven to roast for 10 minutes MAX. Assemble mashed potato and beans in the meantime. Remove breasts from the oven and allow them to rest for as long as you can. Carve on the diagonal and serve.

The Jumperland sauce was a great success. It was sweet and sour with a satisfying background kick of chilli. It was a great plate-mate for the duck which had emerged from its three stage cooking process with crisp skin, pink flesh and deep flavour. Perfect.

Vanilla and Cardamom Plum Crumble

This is an evolution of my recent baked plums recipe, but given a tweak and then crumbled.

Steep a bowlful of plums in rum, bourbon or Canadian whisky (you want sweetness rather than the woody, smokiness of Scotch). Add half a dozen cardamom pods and a quarter of a vanilla pod to the mixture. Leave for half an hour. Then lay out the plums in a roasting tray, sprinkle with brown sugar and roast for 10 minutes. You want the fruit to slightly caramelise and the booze to burn off. Remove from the oven and breathe in the incredible smell. Your nostrils will tingle with the fragrant burst of tropical cardamom and the sweet homeliness of vanilla. Remove the cardamom pods and the vanilla and set aside. Once cooled slightly, add a layer of crumble which is comprised of equal measures of flour, sugar and butter.

The crumble emerged with splendid appearance that resembled an old fashioned map of the world. You can clearly see a plumy North and South America, Europe and a distorted Africa seeping through the crumble topping.

Cook at a lowish temperature for the best part of an hour before serving to excited friends and family with a dollop of crème fraiche. The vanilla and cardamom add layers of sophistication to an otherwise humble crumble.

Kimber’s Steak on the Fire

Cowie has raved about how she grew up cooking mammoth steaks on their family’s open fire… Given that Agas are terrible for cooking steak properly, this is a great idea for many country houses. Steaks cooked on our Aga tend to go from being raw to grey – somehow they completely bypass the lovely medium rare stage that is the Holy Grail of the edible bovine world.

I’ve been badgering Cowie to have “fire cooked steaks” for months now. And finally she gave in! Success… It just goes to show that nagging isn’t just for girls. It works on them too. It just takes patience. I had to set a weekly alarm to go off just to be safe.

So off we went to Kimber’s farm shop for a special trip… It’s one of the joys of spending the weekend in Somerset. To break free from London and indulge in life as it should be. We parked in the farm yard and breathed in the deep, sweet, intoxicating smell of cowshit. It’s without doubt one of Cowie’s favourite smells. And is the hallmark of a top quality purveyor of meat. Maybe Moens and Dove’s should start pumping out pooey smells to attract customers like supermarkets do with the smell of bread.

All of Kimber’s meat is of the highest quality. I couldn’t help myself from touching everything. I stroked a turkey and almost cuddled a bristly pork belly. My eyes were transfixed by the way that geese have naturally pre-scored skin that is geometrically perfect. Their duck breasts were vast – about the size of my face. Duck hearts, pig’s tongues, liver, kidneys, snouts and trotters were proudly on display next to prime cuts of meat. Tamsyn (Cowie’s mum) and I got very excited about their faggots… which are made from lungs, kidney, heart and liver. They’ve tried making them without lungs in the past but they are too dense. You need the lungs to add the lightness that makes faggots so special. Cowie wasn’t so impressed by the faggots – in fact her reaction of “they’re full of all the rubbish bits” almost got us thrown out of the shop!

Mrs Kimber is a fantastic meat expert. The previous week she had been to a meat show at Smithfields to exhibit a huge rib of beef and a dressed turkey. The trade reaction had been so overwhelmingly good that a Frenchman had bought the beef to take home to France… higher praise than this is hard to find! I guess that’s why the Frogs call us Les Rosbeefs.

Talking of beef… after we had finished ogling all of the meat in Kimber’s store we picked up a couple of giant rump steaks paid up. As Mrs Kimber was settling the bill we started talking about turkeys. This Christmas they are due to sell around 1,000 birds.. which seems pretty impressive to me. Just as she was telling us how they are all grown on site and killed in the barn I looked out of the window to see that it had suddenly started snowing… but in fact the whole farm was being treated to turkey feather snow storm!

Cowie’s dad took control of the steak. Salt, pepper and oil did the job. We sandwiched the meat between a toasting wire and balanced it on the scorchingly hot embers of the dining room fire…

4 minutes on each side and the same for resting yielded a perfectly scorched and rare steak. All the meaty, fleshy smells are extracted by the chimney. So it is not only cheap on fuel but also great for stopping the house from smelling of burning meat. I’m not going to have my steak cooked any other way from now on!

http://www.kimbersfarmshop.co.uk

Paul & Ruth Kimber
Higher Stavordale Farm
Barrow Lane
Charlton Musgrove
Wincanton
BA9 8HJ

Tel: 01963 33177

Thorners Pigeon with a Soy and Honey Glaze

Cowie brought some delicious pigeon breasts back from Somerset this weekend from Thorners, her fantastic local farm shop near Bruton. Coloured like blackberries and soft like butter we marinaded them simply in soy, honey, chili and garlic and then blitzed them quickly in the griddle pan and mounted them simply on a bed of spinach.

The marinade was composed of a good glug of dark soy, 2 squirts of honey, a squeeze of lemon to add some acidity, a clove of garlic and a hint of chili. About 30 minutes in the tar like mixture was plenty. It gave the delicate breasts a lovely edgy glaze that complemented their gamey flavour.

And here’s the result.

If anyone’s got any more recipes for pigeon we’d love to know.