Cullen Skink from KK 2013 Calendar

By Ceri 

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I am lucky and get to spend some time in Scotland every January for an amazing festival they have in Glasgow called Celtic Connections.  I love Scotland.  I love the people, the music, the landscapes, the Whisky and also the food.  Babbity Bowsers is a great pub in Glasgow and is where I was introduced to this Scottish dish by my dear cousin, Gareth.  A hearty, warming treat of a dish in the form of smoked haddock and potatoes in a tasty soup.  Some people add cream to this, but I don't think it needs it.  Best eaten whilst sipping on a fine ale, catching up with family and listening to some cracking tunes

Ingredients

500g undyed, well sourced smoked haddock

2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks

1 large leek, finely chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

500 ml milk

100 ml white wine

1 bay leaf

1 lemon

1 tsp mustard powder

salt and pepper

2 garlic gloves, finely chopped

Fresh chives or parsely to garnish

Method

• Place the smoked haddock skin side down in a large pan with 500 ml water, peppercorns and the bay leaf.
• Poach gently for approx 4 mins so the fish is just cooked.
• Remove the skin from the fish, put the skin back in the cooking stock and set aside.
• Flake the fish and place to one side.
• Gently fry the onion, garlic and leeks in a separate pan until soft but not browning. Add the potato cubes and fry for 10 minutes coating the outside in butter.
• Add the fish stock, wine and lemon juice and boil the potatoes for a further 10 minutes until soft. Now add the milk & mustard powder and season.
• I very much prefer my Cullen Skink to have a hearty feel to it and therefore like having chunks of potato and fish to eat. I usually mash the potato lightly in the mixture and then add the fish. If you prefer yours a smoother texture, run it through a blender or liquidiser.
  Warm the mixture through, check seasoning.
• Add chopped parsley or chives and serve with a big piece of chunky bread. Yum!

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January food on film

Start the year as you mean to go on - with a Gowlett pizza

Carrot, lentil & carraway with lemon, chilli yoghurt

Pork in milk

Soda bread from this year's Keston Kitchen calendar (February). Great for homemade garlic bread as recently discovered.

Soba noodles with aubergine and mango - thanks to Mr. Ottolenghi

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Sunday Brunch in Camberwell 13th January

Keston Kitchen and Elrington Table are getting together for their second outing - this time a fantastic brunch in Camberwell on Sunday 13th January. Email elringtontable@gmail.com if you fancy stopping by for a course or two and a bloody mary... x

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The Keston Kitchen Calendar 2013

Back in 2010, The Keston Kitchen Calendar was born.  Packed with seasonal, delicious recipe's by the 4 of us and featuring some excellent photographs plus we raised £1000 for The Passage, a charity that helps feed homeless people in London and recieved a personal letter from Her Delianess.  It was a good year!!

We are very excited to announce that 2013 will welcome the 2nd edition of the KK Calendar. Each month features original, seasonal recipes, and the calendar as a whole reflects the variety of British dishes conjured up in the Keston Kitchen.  This year we are  lucky to feature the incredible photographic talents of Miss Ellen Doherty from Duchess Photographic. 

Peckham Fried Chicken- shot from 2013 Keston Kitchen Calendar

For 2013, we are delighted to be supporting a wonderful charity called Give Me Education whch was set up by Viv Nutt, a friend of ours from The Shire. Give Me Education supports children in Aksum, Ethiopia by giving them resources for an opportunity to go to school. 

The design has once again been lovingly put together by the fantastic Nick Ritchie.  Thanks so much to Ellen and Nick for their time, patience and commitment to the project.

So, if you are at a loss for what to buy loved ones at Christmas, or just can't get enough of the Keston Kitchen, order your calendar today! They cost £10 each plus P&P - we want to raise as much as possible for Give Me Education.  If you would like to order a copy, email thekestonkitchen@gmail.com to place your order. We will then reply with payment and delivery details and get them to you before Christmas.

Alternatively, if you are local to Peckham or Camberwell we can arrange collection.

Jules, Ceri, Charl and Rach. xxx 

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Winter Tomato Tarts

Winter Tomato Tarts

with Parmesan short crust

New / old tins from ebay have been staring at me for two months now so here goes...

Rule - half fat to flour. I used 110g flour to 55g butter (Netherend is simply the best) with a pinch of salt and tbsp of water. Rub the fat into the flour lifting as much as possible - mum says add the water and mix with a knife - do no knead. Add some grated Parmesan if you fancy. Pinch the ingredients together, form a ball and put in the fridge wrapped in baking paper until you are ready.

Roll out the pastry and push into your tin(s). Metal tins are best as they are good heat conductors. Prick the pastry, fill with your beans to bake blind and bake on 200C for 12-15mins.

Meanwhile make you're tomato sauce, a basic sauce that can be used for many things. Slice and slowly cook an onion in olive oil, add a clove of crushed garlic. Add one tin of tomatoes, a handful of fresh tomatoes (not many around right now), chopped basil and salt & pepper. Simmer for 20-30mins. Cool.

Heat the oven to 180C and when the pastry has cooled make the filling - whisk one egg and one egg yolk, add 110ml milk/cream mix and your tomato sauce with a tsp chopped marjoram. Season. Pour the filling into your tart(s) and bake for 30-40mins until firm to touch. Eat warm.

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Berlin - 5 days of food

Last weekend i went to visit Julia and her Keston Kuche in Berlin. The weather was very chilly but the cafes were warming and there is an amazing choice of food to sample from traditional German to cuisines from around the globe.
Berlin may not be the obvious choice for a foodies paradise but if you go to the right places (and hanging out with a resident definitely helps) you will be pleasantly surprised.
Her are some of my culinary highlights, take note if you are planning a trip there!

Rachael x

 My favourite gallery in Berlin is the Hamburger Bahnhof, before embarking on the art we paid a visit to the restaurant in the gallery. I have been to Berlin a few times and always avoided currywurst and the orange sausages they serve everywhere but this menu made it sound appetizing and promised that the sausage was organic. It came with lots of mustard and fresh horse radish which made it edible!

For dessert at the gallery restaurant we had apple strudel with vanilla sauce which was absolutely delicious and not to be missed!

It was Julia's friend Andrew's birthday while we were visiting so Ju whipped up some black bottom cupcakes (from the humming bird bakery cook book) and a lovely coffee cake to celebrate.

This brunch featured in the previous Keston Kuche post and rightly so, i was keen not to miss out on trying it for myself. Anna Blume is a bustling cafe in Prenzlauer Berg, the brunch was worth making the trip for - a tower of meats, cheeses, salad, fruit and jams and a basket of bread to go alongside.

 Julia and I stopped for cake at a cafe in the Hackescher Markt courtyards, i had a huge slice of apple, walnut and caramel cake with cream cheese and caramel frosting. Ju had an equally exciting looking carrot cake.

After a long morning of culture in the sub zero temperatures we were in serious need of a hot meal, we stopped at a restaurant called Schwarzwaldstuben for a hearty lunch of schnitzel with fried potatoes and a cucumber salad. 

Back to Anna Blumes for a fruity breakfast

 

We headed south one evening to a jazz night in Neukolln at Cafe Engel and stopped off on the way for a Korean meal at Kimchi Princess. Lu and I opted for this feast which was strips of pork belly that you barbeque yourself at the table and the eat wrapped in lettuce with a selection of tasty curry pastes and spicy cabbage. I will definitely be keen to try more Korean food in future.

  

 The last thing i ate before leaving Prenzlauer berg was at my favourite cafe from previous visits. Kauf Dich Glucklich on Oderberger Strasee does the most amazing waffles with a huge choice of toppings. Every time a visit i have the same though - apple sauce and cinnamon!

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Roasted & Stuffed Butternut Squash

by Ceri x

Autumn is officially my favourite season.  Summer is lovely, but always infinately hectic and, erm well... hot!

With the arrival of Autumn comes the crisp clear mornings and the inevitable back to school feeling, that I still very much get due to how busy the summer is.  I love seeing your breath as you step out into a cold sunny morning with frost still on the ground, kicking and crunching the leaves underfoot in the park, digging out the knitwear and cosying up by the fire.  Then to top it all off: there is the food!  Autumn brings us the harvest so is the very best time for picking, foraging, pickling, boiling up big vats of chutney and generally getting the best that the country and season has to offer.  Stews, pies, casseroles, steaming puddings, soups, crispy skinned jacket potatoes and all the other foods that are just too heavy for the hot summer months.

This year, I have been loving the fig.  That delightfully juicy fruit with an amazing texture,  flavour and which I recently cooked up a fig tart recipe courtesy of our Jules (currently on location in Berlin) which she posted previously and is well worth a look.  However, my other dearly beloved part of  the autumnal menu is the return of the most traditionally fabulous of British food institutions, the Roast!

I love a Sunday roast.  Sundays and Autumn seem to go together hand in hand.  Lazy Sundays reading the papers, giggling about the activities of Friday and/ or Saturday night, doing the crossword, drinking good coffee/ Bloody Marys and having a stroll in the park whilst donning aforementioned knitwear before coming home/ going to a decent pub and settling in for a damn fine roast eating session for me are irresistible.

This Sunday, Rachie cooked up a Pork Belly with delicious home made Apple sauce and the crunchiest crackling I ever did chomp.  However, for  this post I am going to go for a vegetarian option and roast up another shining star of Autumn, the Butternut Squash.  This works very well as the vegetarian option on a Sunday, or you can do as I did and serve it with salad for your Monday Roast (why limit yourself to just once a week).

(Apologies for the slightly fuzzy picture, my camera is playing up!)

Roasted & Stuffed Butternut Squash
Serves 2

Ingredients
1 medium sized butternut squash
4 garlic cloves
1 small onion
100g chopped walnuts
60g blue cheese (I used roquefort)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary (dried will be fine if that's all you have)
5 mushrooms
150g spinach
200g watercress or other leaves for salad
drizzle of olive oil + more for dressing if used
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Tip- You can more or less make up the stuffing as you wish.  Goats cheese, peppers, celery, tomatoes, feta, cabbage, pine nuts, toasted almonds, olives etc etc would all work well and it's fun trying out different flavour combinations.  I have done a few though and this is my favourite.

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. Cut the butternut squash lengthways.  Scoop out the seeds but do not throw away. Cut out the flesh approx 2 cm down leaving a 2 cm ledge around the edge of the squash.  If the flesh is too hard for this at this stage, you can always do it once it has cooked a little.  Place both halves skin side down into a baking tray.
• Score crosses in the flesh, drizzle some olive oil over both sides, add a garlic bulb inside each + one in the bottom of the tray.  Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and the thyme then bake in the oven for 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile, add the walnuts to a heated, dry frying pan with the squash seeds and a little salt, moving the pan often for approx 5- 10 minutes until they start to toast- set aside in a bowl.
• Then chop the garlic and onion, add to the frying pan with a bit more olive oil and gently fry.  Once the onion has softened, add the chopped mushrooms . Fry for another 5 minutes, then add watercress and spinach until it wilts.  
• Check that the squash has cooked through  the flesh will be soft and the edges will have begun to brown slightly.  Cube the blue cheese and sprinkle throughout the stuffing mixture along with the toasted walnuts and place inside the squash.  I like to give the whole thing a short drizzle with balsamic vinegar or worcester sauce at this point.
• Turn the oven down to 100 degrees and return the squash for 5-10 minutes until the filling has heated back through and the cheese has begun to melt.
• Serve with a salad and enjoy!  Happy Monday Roast :)

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