Salmon with Mustard and Gruyere Herb Crust

I love salmon and often when I'm planning my week's meals, I put down salmon for one night - it tastes so good I don't really need to do anything, and can quickly cook a piece of salmon and some vegetables for a delicious dinner.

Sometimes though it's nice to do something a bit different. I found this recipe in my BBC Saturday Kitchen Cookbook; it's also available on the BBC website.

You make a crust from breadcrumbs, cheese and herb, and press it on top of the salmon. I didn't bother with the part where you chill it in the fridge and instead mixed it and pressed it straight onto the fish.

The fish is baked in a mixture of fish stock and wine which keeps it light and gives it a lovely flavour. I didn't bother roasting the tomatoes as I don't like them, but didn't think the dish lacked anything for it.

Cheddar and Mustard Loaf

 

I wanted to make some bread to have alongside a barbecue at home so had a look in my Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking. This is the book that came out to accompany the series before last that was won by Nancy.

There's a whole section on bread, and I hadn't made any of the recipes from the book, so decided to have a go at the cheddar and mustard loaf. It turned out really well, even though it was left to prove for a lot longer than intended as we went round to my mother-in-law's part way through and didn't get back until late!

To make one large loaf, you need:
150g mature Cheddar, grated
500g strong white bread flour
5g salt
7g fast-action dried yeast
2.5 tbsp. Dijon mustard
300ml lukewarm milk


Mix the cheese with 1 tbsp. of the flour in a small bowl - this will stop the cheese sticking together in clumps. Put aside until later.

Put the flower, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Add the mustard and milk and mix together, either by hand or in the slowest setting in your mixer.

Either turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, or if you are using something like a Kitchenaid, continue to mix on the slowest speed setting for 3 minutes. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest for 5 minutes, then add the cheese and knead again for the same length of time.

Return the dough to the bowl if necessary and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rise at normal room temperature for an hour until doubled in size (personally I'd advise a warm room or a warm place as I left mine at room temperature and it didn't increase in size that much).

Then roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle. Roll up from the short end and tuck the seam under. Place in a greased loaf tin- I couldn't find mine and my dough was far too long anyway so I put it on a flat baking tray.

Put a large plastic bag over the tin and secure the ends so the dough has space to rise inside the bag. Leave again at room temperature for an hour until doubled in size.

Towards the end of the rising time preheat the oven to 190C/ Gas 5. Brush milk over the top of the loaf and bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.

Cool on a rack before slicing. We had a lot more bread than we needed for our barbecue and it kept for several more days which was good. You can definitely taste the cheese and mustard in it!

Baked Camembert With Wine, Mustard and Honey and a Cheese Plate Review

I was sent a set of cheese plates to review by Culture Vulture Direct, a UK-based company that sells gifts and homewares inspired by traditional crafts and artisans around the world. They have a great tableware section and you can see the set of four gourmet cheese plates they sent (RRP £19.99). The plates are in an attractive presentation box so would make a nice gift.

Each one bears the name and depiction of a different cheese; the plates are what I would call quite rustic, French farmhouse in style, and the four cheeses depicted are all French. These are good quality bone china but helpfully both dishwasher and microwave save.

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I decided to test them out by, well, eating some cheese! I have made a baked camembert before, where I baked the cheese in the wooden box it came in and didn't do anything to it, though I did bake my own bread sticks to dip into it. This time I decided to see if I could find anything more interesting to do with the cheese and found this recipe on the BBC Food website for a baked camembert with garlic, mustard and honey - but discovered at the last minute that I had run out of garlic. Regular readers will know I'm not very good at making sure I have the correct ingredients in advance! Still, I followed the rest of the recipe and this still turned out really well.

I have a ceramic camembert baker I was given a year or two ago which consists of a pot with a lid that you put the cheese in and put in the oven, and a wooden knife to go with it. I preheated the oven and placed the cheese in it. Cut a cross in the top of the cheese.

In a small bowl mix 1 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp white wine and 1 tsp wholegrain  mustard then pour over the cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for ten minutes. I put the cheese still in the pot on the camembert cheese plate from the set to serve. It was just the right size and looks really good.

We ate this simply with some fresh bread dipped in. When I have baked camembert I always think it needs something either sharp or sweet to cut through the richness of the cheese - a quince jelly perhaps - so this dressing ticks both the sharp and sweet boxes. I highly recommend it!

Thanks to Culture Vulture Direct for sending the cheese plates to review. I was not required to make positive comments and all opinions are my own.

I am sending this to Speedy Suppers, the blog challenge hosted by Sarah at Maison Cupcake, as the theme this month is cheese.

Vegan Picnic Food

Here are a couple of quick ideas for picnic food. I needed something suitable for vegans which meant that my usual sausage rolls and the like were out - also I wanted a healthier option. So I made a pasta salad and potato salad.

For the pasta salad:
Cook some pasta according to pack instructions - I'm not specifying quantities here. Chop some red pepper and spring onion and halve some cherry tomatoes and add into the pasta. In a jar with a lid mix a little white wine vinegar with agave nectar and some dijon mustard and toss with the pasta.

For the potato salad:
Cook some potatoes until just tender and cut into cubes or large chunks. Chop some red onion, spring onion and fresh herbs such as basil or parsley and toss with the potatoes. In a jar with a screwtop lid, mix a little olive oil, lemon juice and wholegrain mustard and drizzle over the potato salad.

These are also nice as a side dish if you are eating at home; if you are taking them on a picnic use good tupperware with tight-fitting lids!

I'm sending this to the Extra Veg challenge, hosted by Allotment 2 Kitchen, who is looking for savoury vegetarian recipes. The challenge was launched by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

 Lisa's Kitchen is hosting No Croutons Required this month (co-founded by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes) and is calling for vegetarian soups and salads.

Honey Mustard and Blackcurrant Cheesecakes

   

 Mustard producer Maille asked me to take part in a challenge to come up with an original recipe using at least one of their ingredients, and they sent me a list of products they could send me. I immediately had an idea - I've made plenty of stews and casseroles using mustard, or could put mustard in barbecue sauce or to coat a joint of meat, but I've never made a dessert using mustard. Because that sounds crazy, right? I don't know - if you can put candied bacon in brownies a la Nigella, why can't you put mustard in a pudding?

One of the products Maille was offering was a blend of vinegar and mango puree which I thought would be brilliant in a cheesecake. Unfortunately the company had already run out of this product as they were only sending out a certain amount of each one for this challenge, so I had to rethink. I still wanted to make a cheesecake and knew that Maille's Mustard with Honey was what I wanted- I always have a jar in my fridge and it is quite sweet, with a bit of a kick - and then I saw they also had a Red Wine Vinegar with Dijon Blackcurrant Liqueur I knew I had the flavours for my cheesecake. 

Honey Mustard and Blackcurrant Cheesecakes - two ways

An original recipe by Caroline Makes

Makes six individual cheesecakes

For the base:

100g ginger biscuits such as Ginger Nuts

2 tbsp butter, melted

2 tbsp Maille Mustard with Honey

For the filling:

250g cream cheese

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

1 and 1/2 tbsp Maille Mustard with Honey

290g tin blackcurrants in light syrup (reserve the syrup)

For the coulis:

2 tbsp Maille Red Wine Vinegar with Dijon Blackcurrant Liqueur

3 tbsp syrup from the tin of blackcurrants

4 tbsp icing sugar

Preheat oven to 170C. To make the base, blitz the biscuits in a food processor or place in a plastic food bag and smash with a rolling pin. Melt the butter in a small pan (this will only take 1-2 minutes over a low to medium heat) and stir in to the crushed biscuits. Then stir in the Maille Mustard with Honey.

Press the biscuit mixture into the base of a large muffin tin. It is easiest to use a silicon tray as you can just turn the tray inside out to get the cheesecakes out later, but a metal tin would also work.

To make the cheesecake, using an electric hand mixer, mix together the cream cheese, caster sugar and eggs then mix in the Maille Mustard with Honey. 

There are two ways you can make the filling for the cheesecake and I recommend doing both. For the first flavour, pour half of the cheesecake mixture that you have just made into three of the muffin holes onto the biscuit base, reserving the other half of the mixture.

Now drain the tin of blackcurrants, reserving the juice, and stir the blackcurrants into the other half of the cheesecake mixture, reserving a couple of spoonfuls for decoration later. Carefully pour or spoon this into the remaining muffin cases onto the cheesecake bases.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until set.

Meanwhile make the coulis. Put the Maille Red Wine Vinegar with Dijon Blackcurrant Liqueur, 3 tbsp of the reserved syrup from the tin of blackcurrants and the icing sugar in a small pan. Bring to the boil, stirring, and simmer for 5 minutes until thickened. Allow to cool.

When the cheesecakes have come out of the oven, allow to cool and then refrigerate for at least an hour. To serve, place a few of the reserved blackcurrants on top of a couple of the cheesecakes and drizzle them all with the coulis.

I invented this recipe without having any idea what it would taste like and I absolutely loved it. The mustard provided a subtle kick but the sweetness of the honey mustard worked perfectly with the biscuit base and creamy cheesecake filling. I would never have thought vinegar would work on top of a dessert but by making the vinegar into a coulis and playing up the blackcurrant flavour, this was the perfect topping for the cheesecakes.

Biscuit base

Pressing the base into the silicon muffin mould

Cheesecake filling

Pouring into the moulds

Tin of blackcurrants, with the juice drained

Blackcurrants mixed into the cheesecake and poured into the silicon moulds

After baking in the oven

More baked cheesecakes

Maille Red Wine Vinegar with Dijon Blackcurrant Liqueur

Making the coulis

Cheesecake with blackcurrant topping

Mustard cheesecake drizzled with blackcurrant vinegar coulis

Blackcurrant mustard cheesecake with blackcurrant vinegar topping

Inside the cheesecake

Pork in a Spiced Cider and Mustard Sauce

 I created this original recipe for the Co-operative Electrical's Winter Warmer competition. I thought about the flavours and textures that I like to eat on a cold winter's day and wanted as well to keep the recipe largely British, to showcase some of the Co-operative Food's best ingredients. Pork and apples is a great traditional combination so I decided to use cider rather than apple sauce and slow cook the pork in the oven in a casserole dish so it would be beautifully tender. I love the zingy taste of mustard and there are some great mustards available from the Co-op, so I decided to combine two of them from the Co-operative's Truly Irresistible range, the wholegrain and the dijon, in this recipe. However, I also wanted to add an original twist and a slightly unexpected flavour that people would enjoy and perhaps wonder what it was - so I used star anise. Mushrooms add to the texture and make the dish more substantial; what's more this is a relatively inexpensive recipe as you could substitute pork chops for the pork fillet.

To serve 4, you need:
about 750g pork fillet

salt

pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

100g button mushrooms, halved.

150ml Co-operative Tillington Hills premium dry cider

100ml pork or chicken stock made up from a stock cube

1 tbsp Co-operative Truly Irresistible wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp Co-operative Truly Irresistible dijon mustard

2 star anise

150ml plain yogurt (optional)

1 tsp cornflour

Preheat the oven to 180C. In a large frying pan, season the pork fillet and sear on both sides in a little oil then remove from the pan.

In the same pan, fry the chopped onion and button mushrooms until browned.

Make up the stock cube and mix with the cider in a large jug. Stir in both mustards. Place the pork fillet in a large casserole dish, add the onion and mushroom and star anise, and pour the liquid over the top.

Cover and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Five minutes before the end, remove from the oven, carefully pour off the liquid into a small pan and re-cover the pork to keep warm. It doesn't matter if a little of the onion and mushroom gets into the pan, but do remove the star anise.

Mix the cornflour with a little water and stir into the liquid in the pan. Heat, stirring, until the liquid has thickened and reduced.

If you want a thicker, creamier sauce, you can stir in a couple of spoonfuls of plain yogurt or creme fraiche. Slice the pork fillet on the diagonal and pour over the sauce to serve.

This goes really well with mashed potato and green veg like cabbage or broccoli and carrots. It's a lovely winter warmer!

I am sending this to Co-operative Electrical for their Winter Warmer competition; you can enter the competition here.

Crispy pork medallions

I'm always trying to find ways to make pork more interesting- I don't like it as much as any other meat but it's inexpensive and I do like to vary what I eat. I came across this recipe for crispy pork medallions, which you could also use with a pork chop or pork steak.

To serve two, you need:

2 pork chops or 4 pork medallions (as they are quite small)

2 tbsp Dijon honey mustard

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

oil or Fry Light for frying

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix the breadcrumbs and herbs in a bowl and season.

You can use any mustard for this recipe - wholegrain would also work well - but I really love this Dijon mustard with honey.

Spread mustard over one side of the pork medallions

Coat with the breadcrumb mixture and repeat on the other side. Place on a baking tray lined with tin foil and cook for 15-20 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the pork.

Serve when the pork is cooked through and the breadcrumbs are crispy.

I'm sending this to Cooking with Herbs, hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage.