carbon14 Blog

I made some fishcakes yesterday, very easy and extremely tasty.

This should make 4 fishcakes. Enough for 2 people as a main meal with a salad or a handful of chips.

Boil some potatoes, around 250g, until tender. I used new potatoes and then peeled them, but you can use any floury potatoes and peel them first if they have thicker skins. While they were boiling, I was able to steam 180g of fish fillet above the boiling water. You can use any firm fish, cod, haddock or salmon for example. I went for coley because I had some in. It's a little darker in colour than cod, but with a similar flavour, a little less delicate.

Take 2 handfuls of fresh parsley and blend with 15g of cold butter. Then mix with the hot potatoes and mash them with a fork until smooth. Flake the steamed fish into the mash, add two handfuls of fine breadcrumbs and combine thoroughly.

Form the mixture into patties and then chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. They will become a good deal less sticky as the breadcrumbs absorb some of the moisture, and the cooling potato congeals.

When you are ready to cook the fishcakes, beat an egg into a shallow bowl, dip the patties into the egg, coating both sides, and then cover them with a mixture of breadcrumbs and polenta grains. Shallow fry for a few minutes on each side until they are golden brown and the coating has become crispy.

Serve immediately.

This weekend I cooked what's probably the most complex dessert I've ever attempted.

I got a copy of James Martin's Desserts for my birthday and it's a sweet looking book.

On Thursday, a friend brought round 3 boxes of blackberries, a bottle of Creme de Cassis, some double cream and a jar of glucose syrup - along with a birthday present of a cake ring. A not exactly subtle hint that she would like me to make the Delice au Cassis recipe.

Well it's not really the right time of year for fresh blackcurrants, so the blackberries had to do instead and I didn't need to alter the recipe to make it work. I suspect that the blackcurrants would have given a greater intensity of flavour to the finished pud, but it worked a treat.

Sometimes a complicated recipe has just too much going on for you to get to grips with it first time. This took me a large part of one day to complete, but despite the marathon it worked flawlessly. This is really the sign I think of a good cookery book. My first recipe from the book, the most complex recipe in the book, and it just works.

This was the first time I've used a sugar thermometer, real vanilla, leaf gelatine, stock syrup or Italian meringue and yet the step by step instructions did the job.

This is a really good book to drool over, it's proper food pr0n. But it's also a very practical and workable recipe book.

Try it. And when you've got a day to spare, try the Delice.

I got a pair of venison leg steaks at the weekend. It seemed to someone like a good plan. Then I had a good look through my collection of recipe books to figure out how to cook them.

I had no joy there. The closest thing I could find to a useful recipe was for venison loin, courtesy of Elizabeth David's 'French Provincial Cooking'.

So in the end I had to make something up.

Take 1 small red onion and two rashers of back bacon, chopped medium fine. Saute in olive oil until golden. Lift out the onion and bacon and put to one side for later, then add a little more oil if necessary and bring the pan up to just about smoking point. Add the 2 venison leg steaks and stand back. Let them brown and turn them over to brown the other side. Then I turned the heat down to a little below medium and added a half ounce of butter. (You can probably do without the butter, but I was making it up as I went along.) When the butter is melted, pour in a good glass of robust red wine, a Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon. Season and add a stock cube. Put the onions and bacon back in, along with a handful of small peeled shallots. Cover and leave to simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally and turning the meat over half way through the time. If it looks as though the wine might all boil away, add a splash more.

At the end of the hour, the wine should have produced a nice rich dark gravy, remove the lid and carefully push the ingredients to one side of the pan, to make a bit of room. Take care with the shallots and they might be very delicate by now. Add a splash of cream to the pan and stir it into the gravy. Cook it through until it thickens slightly. Now serve, take the meat out onto two plates, carefully place the shallots on top and then spoon the onion and bacon and gravy over the top.

I served this with a gratin dauphinois, steamed purple sprouting brocolli and more of the lovely red wine.

I've never tried to make fudge before. I've never got round to acquiring a sugar thermometer, so I've always been scared to try anything that involves setting sugar.

The thing is, grandmothers have been making fudge for years without the benefit of fancy brass thermometers, and I know that grannies have super-powers, but really, how hard can it be.

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The moist maker was just a throwaway line in an episode of the US Sitcom Friends, but just occasionally it's an indulgence worth making. It comes into its own the day after Christmas/Thanksgiving when you're making those turkey sandwiches.

All you do is take an extra slice of bread, soak it in warm gravy and put it in the middle of the sandwich along with the turkey (and the stuffing [and the cranberry sauce {and a few roast vegetables too}]).

MMMMMmmmm.