Finally cooking again: Roasted Tomato Focaccia and Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

Sorry blog for abandoning you! For the past few months I have been interning in London at mydeco.com (check out their great new website that I helped on!). This meant long hours, plus living with family friends (who cooked me delicious meals every night), plus using spare moments to apply for jobs, resulting in little time to cook or blog myself. But now that I am back ensconced in the countryside I can get cooking again and this weekend I got round to do some baking, namely some quick focaccia and the Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook which I’ve been wanting to make for a long time - although my topping is more fruits of the forest cream than raspberry cream. 

While in London I managed to go to some great restaurants (when my intern budget allowed!). Working in Notting Hill I discovered a newly opened deli called Menoo Eclectic Food on Kensington Church St which was Ottolenghi in style but cheaper and with a lovely relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff – their huge cheese stuffed risotto balls are delicious! I did a return visit to Polpo and it was just as good as last time. I also managed to get to Cambio de Tercio on the Brompton Road, as it had got a great review by Matthew Norman in the Telegraph. It was absolutely fantastic – the best Spanish food I’ve tasted, beautifully presented and with a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

But back to baking, and this Focaccia is the perfect bread to make when you want a lunch of cold meats, salads and cheeses to go that bit further. Although it is drizzled in olive oil, you can scatter it with lots of delicious roasted vegetables to keep it healthy rather than cheese-laden like a pizza.

Focaccia with Basil, Slow-roasted Tomato and Parmesan.

Makes 12 pieces

• Firstly, slice 5-10 Large Vine Tomatoes in half and place on a baking tray lined with parchment. Season with sea salt, drizzle with oil and put in the oven at 120˚C for 3-4 hours (or until they look semi-dried).
• Make the dough by mixing together 250ml Water, 3 Tbsp Olive Oil, 1½  Tsp Sea Salt, 400g White Bread Flour and 2¼ Tsp Dried Yeast. When it has come together in a ball, knead for 5 minutes. You can do all this with a dough hook too.
• Place in a greased bowl and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour until it has doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven to 190˚C and lightly grease a 33 x 23cm baking tin.
• Chop up half the tomatoes. Knead the dough on a floured surface and add the chopped tomatoes, a small handful of chopped Basil and knead again to combine.
• Now stretch the dough out over the surface of the baking tray – you can be quite rough, the more rustic the better – and finish by sprinkling over more chopped basil and the other tomatoes. Drizzle over more olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
• Place a tray filled with ice cubes at the bottom of the oven and then the prepared dough on the shelf above (this creates a steam). Bake for 25minutes until golden.

Ottolenghi's Hazelnut Cupcakes

These cupcakes are the ultimate indulgence but the nuts in the batter stop the cakes from being too sugary whilst adding texture. Light as a feather, and with the cream cheese topping synonymous with American cupcakes such as those at Magnolia Bakery in New York, this is definitely my favourite cupcake flavour!

Hazelnut Cupcake Recipe, Ottolenghi 'The Cookbook'

• Preheat the oven to 150˚C. Place 45g Unblanched Hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast for 15 minutes, until lightly coloured. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once cold, rub them in a tea towel and shake to get rid of most of the skins. Blitz in a food processor with 75g Caster Sugar until finely chopped.
• Increase the oven temperature to 170˚C. Line a muffin tray with 8-12 paper cases (muffin sized). Sift together 180g Plain Flour, 1¼ tsp Baking Powder, and 1/3 tsp Salt. Cream together 150g Unsalted Butter, 75g Caster Sugar, 1 tbsp Hazelnut Oil (or any other nut oil) and the chopped hazelnuts until light and fluffy.
• Beat 2 small Free-range Eggs together and then mix into the wet batter slowly. Next fold in half the dry ingredients and half a 150ml pot Soured Cream. Once incorporated do the same with the other half of the dry ingredients and Soured Cream.
• Spoon into the cases, filling them to with 5mm of the rim and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.
• To make the icing: Beat 150g Cream Cheese with 150g Mascarpone until light. In a separate bowl, beat 80g Soft Unsalted Butter with 100g Icing Sugar with an electric mix for 5 minutes. Fold in the cheese mixture and then ice each cake using a spatula to create swirls. 

Stylishly Sated in...Paris and Grenoble

Good food is synonymous with France, but I find that if you go to the big cities or tourist destinations you can so easily have a below par meal at huge prices (the euro quickly squashes any notion of anywhere in France on a budget!). I long to find those quiet bistros, tucked sown a side street, populated solely by locals, but of course you can only find those by stumbling upon them as any form of publicity would put paid to their anonymity. So when a whirlwind long weekend to Paris and Grenoble beckoned, the pressure was on to find some good places to eat.

Paris was barley a 24 hour stop, so it was wonderful to find that our hotel sat just behind Angelina, 226 Rue de Rivoli, the famous Parisian tearoom – in fact I could have done some serious patisserie bin raiding if I hadn’t been worried by my sanity and a raised eyebrow from the all-black clad glamazon fashionistas pounding the cobbles of the Place Vendome nearby. And actually, if I have to admit it, the beautifully crafted cakes look better than they taste! I had a much better millefeuille at Ladurée but, no matter, Angelina’s delicious Croquet-Madame more than makes up for it.

Eye candy...

Sea Bass Spring Rolls with Pineapple Dipping Sauce

I caught Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers on Friday and loved the idea of his guests’ Anh Vu & Van Tran spring rolls, especially as I had a frozen sea bass in the freezer left over from my last fishy foray.

It was slightly time consuming but easy apart from the gutting and scaling of the fish which I did very inexpertly! As there was lots of marinade left over after the fish was put on the grill, I added it towards the end of stir frying steamed asparagus and courgette to infuse them with the lemongrass, chilli and citrus flavored liquid.

• For the marinade, combine 1 Garlic Clove, peeled and chopped, 1 Red Chilli, finely chopped, 50g Fresh Ginger, chopped, 2-4 Sprigs of Dill, chopped, 1 tbsp Sugar,  4 tbsp Lemon Juice and 4 tbsp Water. Add some Fish Sauce to taste (about 2 tbsp).
• Put 1 whole gutted and scaled Sea Bass in a dish. Make three slits through the skin of the fish on both sides. Place 1-2 stalks of bruised Lemongrass in the slits and rub the marinade all over the skin and inside the fish. Leave for 20-30 minutes.
• Heat a BBQ or grill pan to high and cook the fish for about 10 minutes on either side. N.B. My skin stuck so I’d drizzle some oil over the skin beforehand.  Set aside to cool.
• For the dipping sauce, combine 250g fresh Pineapple, puréed, 3 tbsp Fish Sauce, 1 tbsp Lemon Juice, 1 Red Chilli, finely chopped.
• To assemble: Have ready 12 Rice Spring Roll Wrappers, a bowl of Water, 100g cooke Rice Vermicelli, 200g Carrots, grated, ½ Pineapple,  ½ deseeded Cucumber and ½ Courgette all cut into thin matchsticks and a bunch of fresh Dill.
• Wet a rice paper sheet by dipping your fingers in the water and running over the surface. Place a pinch of the Noodles and a tbsp of Sea Bass flesh in the centre and fold the paper in half over the filling. Then add 1-2 pieces of Pineapple, Cucumber and Courgette and a sprig of Dill. Fold the sides in and roll up.