Mushroom, Parmesan and Walnut Pasta

I’ve wanted to try walnuts with pasta for a while now, ever since I saw Nigella Lawson's recipe for walnut pasta, and this dish is inspired by that recipe. Toasting the walnuts really enhances their nuttiness and they’ve worked fantastically here with the mushrooms, garlic, cheese and bacon. The dish is substantial enough without the bacon, so you could easily omit it for a vegetarian version. I really can’t tell you how good this is, it’s great for winter; full of texture, warming and comforting.

Mushroom, Parmesan and Walnut Pasta

Ingredients
1 crushed garlic clove
2 -3 handfuls of thickly sliced mushrooms
4-6 tablespoons of mascarpone (or other cream cheese)
A handful of grated Parmesan cheese
A few handfuls of chopped walnuts
2 rashes of chopped bacon (optional)
Salt and pepper

1. Toast the walnuts in a non-stick dry pan, shaking the pan now and then, until they start to darken a little and you can smell their aroma. Set aside.

2. Fry the bacon, if using, and the mushrooms in a little olive oil until almost cooked through, then add the garlic and fry, stirring, until the bacon and mushrooms are cooked.

3. Stir in the mascarpone cheese and season well with salt and pepper.

4. Take the pan off the heat and stir in a handful or so of grated parmesan cheese to taste.

5. Stir the sauce through cooked pasta, adding a little of the pasta water to the sauce to loosen it if necessary.

6. Sprinkle over the toasted walnuts and grate over some more parmesan cheese

Serves 2

Don't forget, this month's 'In the Bag' closes tomorrow!

How are you getting on with your entries for 'In the Bag' this month? We've had some mouth-watering entries in and I'm looking forward to seeing even more! With chestnuts, chocolate and sugar in this month's bag it's going to be a deliciously sweet round-up!

Have you visited the forums yet?

I'm really enjoying chatting to 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' readers over at the forums. We're talking about seasonal food, cook books and foodie gifts, and we're sharing recipes and tips.

I'd love to see even more of you there so why not register now and join in the fun!

Monday Night Pizza

I know the thought of making your own pizza from scratch, dough included, on a Monday night is probably exhausting in itself, but honestly this was as quick as anything to make, and you’ll feel so virtuous for making your own rather than picking up the phone to the local pizza delivery service.

The sauce will take a good 20 minutes or so, so start that off first. You just need to sauté a crushed garlic clove and shallot in a little olive oil until starting to soften, then add in a teaspoon of sugar and a 400g tin of tomatoes. I used tinned cherry tomatoes for a change, but you could use chopped or even whole plum tomatoes and just chop them down in the saucepan as they cook. You can also add a squirt of tomato puree to if you like, to deepen the flavour. Let the sauce simmer until nicely thickened. You can either sieve the sauce as I did, or use it as it is.

While the sauce is cooking make your pizza dough. This recipe from the very lovely James Martin is so quick and easy – it contains no yeast so you don’t need to prove it.

Once the dough is rolled out smother it in the tomato sauce and then generously scattered over grated mozzarella and slices of cooked chorizo (or whatever topping you fancy or is to hand). Cook at 220c for 12-15 minutes.

Not only was the pizza really tasty and totally home made, but I made it and was eating it in less time than it would have taken for a take away pizza to arrive. How great is that?

A Brace of Pheasants and a Chocolate and Chestnut Truffle Cake

Last night Rob and I had a feast fit for a King, which celebrated the season in a big way. Pheasants, parsnips, chestnuts; we had the best autumn has to offer. The meal felt very festive and would make a spectacular offering over the Christmas period.

I bought the pheasants already prepared (thankfully!) from my local farm shop. Last time I cooked pheasant I casseroled it so this time I wanted to try roasting.

It seems that the biggest concern when considering how to cook pheasant is preventing the birds from becoming dry, which they easily can. This is of particular concern when roasting pheasant. In order to prevent this I used plenty of butter and lay rashes of bacon over the breasts, and I basted the birds in the buttery juices half way through the cooking time. Finally I rested them for 10 minutes after cooking, breast side down to encourage the juices back into the breast.

A few sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf inside each bird added good flavour, and a halved onion in the roasting tray along with some deglazing with white wine at the end of the cooking ensured delicious juices to pour over the birds.

I served the pheasants with mashed potato to soak up the juices, and roasted parsnips. You can tell that the parsnips are in season just by looking at them, they are larger, creamier and fresher looking – really at their best.




Roast Brace of Pheasants

Ingredients
2 pheasants
1 onion
A small bunch of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
4 rashes of bacon
A little white wine

1. Make sure the guts and other internal organs have been removed from the birds.

2. Smear butter generously over each bird and lay 2 bacon rashes across the top of each. Place a few sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf inside each cavity.

3. Place the birds in a roasting tray with a halved onion halved tucked just under each one. Put some tin foil over the tray and roast at 220c.

4. After 30 minutes remove the foil and baste each pheasant with the golden, buttery juices. Cook for a further 15-35 minutes without the foil, until cooked through. Note: the cooking time is just a guide as it will vary depending on size of birds.

5. When the birds are cooked remove them from the roasting tray and rest them breast side down for 10 minutes, covered in foil to keep them warm.

6. While the birds are resting remove any excess fat from the roasting tray and put the tray on the hob over a medium heat. Slosh in some white wine to deglaze the pan with, while scraping all the bits off the pan with a wooden spoon and stiring them into the juices. Remove the onion and pour the juices over the pheasants before serving.



I wasn’t sure I could manage anything else after all that, but I’d been so looking forward to trying Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chestnut and Chocolate Truffle Cake and not even my full tummy was going to stop me.

I’ve watched Hugh make this cake on countless occasions, thanks to the River Cottage DVDs Rob and I have almost worn out. Each time I’ve marvelled at how seasonal and festive it is and told myself one day I will make it.

Although this cake can be made with canned chestnuts I wanted to roast my own this first time of making it, particularly as chestnuts are in season and available at the farm shop. I found that these particular chestnuts weren’t quite as flavoursome or sweet as I’d hoped though, and that did reflect in the cake, so I’d say if your chestnuts aren’t so great you’re better off with canned.



There’s been some pondering in the blogsphere recently on how to roast chestnuts. They can be tricky and the peeling can leave you with sore fingers but I still find them so worth it. Hot roasted chestnuts are so wintry and festive and I absolutely adore them, particularly bought from street sellers and eaten outside out of those little bags they put them in.

The way I cooked the chestnuts last night was to cut a cross into the flat bottom of each (please do be careful when you do this, the skins are tough), and then to roast them at 220c for 30 minutes, by which time the shells start to peel back at the crosses and blacken a little. They are easiest to peel as hot as you can handle and they get harder as they cool. Having cooked them this way and peeling them whilst still hot I had no trouble at all, they just slipped out of their shells easy as anything.

Hugh’s recipe requires 250g of peeled chestnuts, so I figured on cooking 500g of the uncooked chestnuts still in their shell. This gave me a nice handful for eating straight away too!





The cake itself was a doddle to make and cooked perfectly at the temperature and time the recipe specified. Warm from the oven the cake was light and mousy, just as Hugh promised, and it firms up as it cools, becoming quite like a chocolate brownie. It’s very rich and very chocolaty so perfect for real chocolate lovers. It's a little on the rich side for me, but then I'm not a lover of dark chocolate. I think it would be delicious served warm as a pudding, with cold vanilla ice cream to cut through the chocolate.

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of November!

We’re going for a change this month with a sweet bag, and I just know you’re going to love it. Take a peek at the goodies inside:

Chestnuts
Chocolate
Sugar

For those new to this event, here's how it works. Each month we pick 3 ingredients, at least 1 of which is seasonal, for you to make a dish with. All you need to do to enter is to create your dish, then post about it on your blog or website and drop me an email.

Mmmmm....I can’t wait to see what you come up with! My next post should give you some inspiration, as I’ll be posting about Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chestnut and Chocolate Truffle cake.

Entry Details
Send an email with ‘In the Bag in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk by Friday 30th November with the following information:

• your name
• the name of your blog or website
• a link to your post
• the name of your dish
• a picture of your dish

Rules
Here are the loose rules - but ultimately remember the objective is to have fun whilst highlighting seasonal food:

1. Participants should attempt to use all the ingredients 'in the bag' for that particular month, but one can be left out if necessary. The dish should be based around the seasonal ingredient, rather then just including it as an afterthought.

2. Participants can include any "extra" ingredients that they see fit.

3. Entries should include a link back to the host for that month, and the post should be tagged "In the Bag".

4. Entries can be written any time during the month, as long as the URL is emailed to that month's host before the closing date.

5. Particpants from outside of the UK are most welcome to join in and substitute an item from their own local seasonal produce if necessary.

That's all! Any deviations from the above are at the discretion of the host. Have fun!

'In The Bag' is a food event run monthly by 'A Slice of Cherry Pie', 'Real Epicurean', and 'Cherry's English Kitchen'.

Technorati Tags: food blogging event, In the Bagchocolate, chestnuts

Beef and Red Wine Stew with Dumplings

We’ve had some beautiful days this week, with clear, bright blue skies and sunshine, the kind you often get on cold, cold days, as these have been. The last few mornings have seen frost; pretty on grass while a nuisance on cars that need driving.



With the frost and the cold comes the winter cooking, and when I saw this fabulous stewing steak in the window of my local butcher today I knew a rich stew was in order, and it absolutely had to have dumplings in it. I love dumplings but Rob doesn’t like them so I don’t make them very often. The last time I made a stew I decided to be self-indulgent and make myself some, but my suet was out of date (see, it had been that long), so I missed out. Thankfully my butcher, bless him, stocks packets of suet so today I was able to buy some with the beef. Tonight I would have my dumplings.

Beef and Red Wine Stew with Dumplings

Ingredients
500g good stewing steak, cut into chunks
250g baby carrots
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Half a bottle of good red wine
1 bay leaf
A few sprigs of thyme
Salt and black pepper

For the dumplings
50g self-raising flour
25g suet
Pinch of salt
A little water for binding

1. Brown the beef well in a casserole dish over a high heat with a little olive oil.

2. Remove the beef from the dish then fry the onion for a few minutes, adding a little more olive oil if required, until it just starts to take on a little colour.

3. Add the garlic, then the carrots, wine and herbs. Season well.

4. Bring the stew up to the boil then turn it down to the lowest setting so it is barely simmering. Put on a lid and cook for 2 hours.

5. To make the dumplings mix the flour, salt and suet with a little water to form a dough, then form 4 round balls for the dumplings. 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time place them on top of the stew and put the lid back on.

6. Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs before serving.

This recipe serves 2 but can easily be doubled.

Announcing the new Forums

I’m delighted to be able to bring you brand new forums for ‘A Slice of Cherry Pie’ readers!

It seems that forums are springing up on blogs all over the place, but I really do think they’re a great way to really interact in a way that you just can’t on a blog alone. Forums are a great place for help and support, to share recipes and ideas or just to chat on a rainy afternoon. I've been toying with the idea for months and after with a little know-how from my friend Cherry I've finally been able to make it happen.

I really hope you enjoy using the forums and I’m really looking forward to getting to know you all a little better through them. You can visit them by clicking on the side bar link under 'Interact', or by clicking here.

P.S. I’ve also opened forums over at the UK Food Bloggers Association, so if you’re a UK based food blogger and would like to join in visit the UK Food Bloggers Association Site where you can click through to the forums.

Cinnamon Hearts for Friends

What better way to spend an afternoon than with a friend? Be it an old friend or new, whether meeting for lunch, or for coffee, or for a walk in the park, it’s the nicest way to spend some time. Fortunately for me I got to do this both yesterday and today. And two of the friends I spent this time with I met for the very first time, the first being the lovely Cherry Menlove and the second my friend Viv’s gorgeous little baby girl.

I had been so looking forward to these meetings and as I had some time this week, being off work, I thought it would be nice to bake some gifts. There’s something very special about baking for other people; happily mixing, and kneading, and rolling out dough whilst thinking of your friends makes you put extra care in and I like to think a little of the warmth and love finds its way into the baking somehow. Little packages of home-made treats are not only lovely to receive but they’re lovely to give, so it’s a very rewarding type of baking.

I had great fun making these cinnamon hearts yesterday, although I found the fondant icing a little tricky to work with at first – this was the first time I’d ever used it. I soon got the hang of it though and before long I was happily colouring it and cutting out little hearts and flowers. And not only was the baking fun, but so was carefully choosing the ribbon and making up the little packages. It was a lovely way to spend a few hours, and before I knew it, it was time to catch the train into London to meet Cherry.

Cherry and I have been talking via email for quite some time now. As many of you will know, we run the ‘In the Bag’ event, along with Scott from Real Epicurean. I’m an avid reader of Cherry’s blogs, Cherry's English Kitchen and Tales from Pixie Wood and I’ve really been looking forward to meeting her. We’d been talking about meeting up for ages so it was really nice to finally get to do so yesterday.

You really get to know people through their blogs and as such I just knew Cherry and I would hit it off. Cherry is the first blogger I’ve ever met so, whilst I was excited, I was a little nervous too. But I needn’t have been, Cherry was lovely and we chatted away non-stop. We went to a bar just off of The Strand and as soon as Cherry asked ‘shall we have something white and bubbly?’ I knew she was a girl after my own heart!

Cherry’s lovely Fiancé met up with us when he finished work, by which time we were well on our way through our second bottle of Prosecco. It was a fabulous evening and worth the inevitable hangover in the morning. I laughed when I saw Cherry’s email to me this morning entitled ‘headache’ and I opened it with a sympathetic smile and a pounding head!

This afternoon was just as wonderful as Rob and I visited my very good friend Viv and her adorable new baby. Viv and I live some distance from each other so don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like, which makes our get-togethers even more special. Of course this visit was very special indeed, being our first meeting since she gave birth to her little bundle of joy. It was a lovely, lovely afternoon and we hope to repeat it again very soon.

Cinnamon Hearts

Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
250g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Fondant icing

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Beat the egg and gradually add it to the butter and sugar.

3. Mix in the flour and cinnamon, then bring together with your hands to form a dough.

4. The dough can be used straight away but is best after at least half an hour chilling in the fridge. It will be fairly sticky so you'll need to roll it out on a floured surface and sprinkle over more flour as needed. Roll the dough out until it’s about 1/2 cm thick.

5. Cut out heart shapes using a biscuit cutter

6. Bake the biscuits at 180C for about 10 minutes, but do keep an eye on them, they may need a few minutes less or longer. They should be very lightly golden when cooked.

7. Put the biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

8. Roll out coloured fondant icing and cut out heart shapes using the same cutter as you used for the bisuits. Brush the underside of the hearts with water and place over the biscuits, gently rubbing over the icing so it sticks.

9. Decorate the biscuits with fondant flowers stuck on using a little water.

Bacon and Camembert Stuffed Pumpkins

I couldn’t resist these tiny pumpkins when I was at the farm shop at the weekend. They made perfect starters, stuffed with cheese and bacon, and they had much more flavour than the larger pumpkins; buttery and nutty, with an almost chestnut-like taste.

Ingredients
(quantities depend of the size and amount of pumpkins so this is just a guide)
2-4 small pumpkins (1 per person)
1 round of camembert cheese
1 or 2 rashes of bacon
Leaves from a sprig or two of thyme
Parmesan cheese for grating over

1. Cut the tops off the pumpkins and scoop out the seeds and fibres
2. Chop the bacon and lightly fry it
3. Cube the camembert and toss it with the bacon and thyme, then stuff the pumpkins with the mixture
4. Bake at 190c for 35-45 minutes
5. Sprinkle over grated parmesan cheese before serving

Stir It Up

It can’t have escaped your notice that we’re now on the countdown to Christmas. Halloween has been and gone (and after tonight so will have bonfire night), Christmas adverts have been on the television for a while, the Christmas editions of the food magazines are on the shelves, the shops are bulging with gifts and the red cups are in the Starbucks coffee shops. There’s no doubt about it now guys.

I’ve decided that this year, for the first time, I’m going to make a Christmas cake. I’ve never bothered before because, firstly, whilst I do like it I’m not a huge fan, and secondly, Rob’s mum makes us one every year so there’s no need for me to do so. But I love Christmas, and I love cooking, so I think it’s about time I joined in this tradition that bakers and home makers all over the world look forward to each year. The preparation and activities in the run up to Christmas are all part of the excitement for me so the Christmas cake making is surely something I can miss out on no longer. Anyway Rob and I have taken this week off work for a well deserved break so I have some time on my hands, and what better way to spend it than baking?

My first port of call was the internet for researching the all important recipe. As a first timer I need to be in safe hands and I need a tried and tested, fool-proof recipe. Well who else would I turn to but Delia? And sure enough, her recipe sounds great, the cake looks moist and scrumptious, and the reviews are outstanding. So with one Christmas cake recipe found, I headed to the supermarket for the ingredients. I played around with the fruit a little; I couldn’t possibly include candied mixed peel (bleugh!) in my first ever Christmas cake so I substituted with dried cranberries which seemed much more fitting, reduced the currents and upped the cherries that I love (the clue’s in the blog name my friends).

The first stage of the cake making, although there’s hardly anything to it, holds the promise of all the good things to come. The soaking of the fruit in alcohol, in this case brandy (one of my favourites), seems almost ritualistic. Certainly when I weighed my fruit, mixed it with my hands and poured over the brandy I sensed a little of the Christmas magic. I must confess to using more than the 3 tablespoons in the recipe; it seemed such a small volume for the amount of fruit and I’m not one to be reserved with alcohol! I didn’t go too crazy though, just doubled it. They’ll be plenty more alcohol to be had when it comes to the feeding of the cake!

So now the fruit is soaking until the morning, when I’ll move onto the next stage and start mixing up the rest of the ingredients. If anyone has any tips for this Christmas cake novice, or if anyone has made Delia’s Christmas cake and wants to share their experience, I’d love to hear from you.

Hotel Chocolat Competion Winner Announcement

Thank you to everyone who entered the Hotel Chocolat competition. They tell me they had a hard time choosing a winner from all the fabulous entries from ‘A Slice of Cherry Pie’ readers, but after much deliberation they have chosen the entry from……………………

Victoria Singfield!!!

Victoria, many congratulations. Hotel Chocolat will be in touch, if they haven’t been already.

Here’s Victoria’s winning entry:

“Please send the chocolates to my sister, Rebecca. She is in the third year of her midwifery degree and is working very hard. She is pursuing her dream, but is struggling for money. She can just about afford all essential things, but can't splurge any luxuries at all. I think sometimes a girl just needs some extravagance and I know she loves chocolate! Rebecca needs a boost, and to know that we all think she is fabulous, and is going to be the best midwife ever. And she might even share some chocs with me!”

Rebecca sounds like a fantastic person and very well-deserving. I hope she enjoys the champers and chocs!

In the Bag: Cooking the month of October - The Round-up

We set you quite a challange for October's ‘In the Bag’ event - what dish can you create using Pumpkins, leeks and mushrooms?

But you came up trumps (as we knew you would!), and here are the mouth-watering dishes you created.

Courtney from Coco Cooks made this fabulous Oyster Mushroom, Pumpkin, Leek, Feta Tarte.



These delicious Lentil medallions in Pumpkin and Mushrooms sauce were served up by Sanja of Fresh Adriatic Fish.



Michelle from Greedy Gourmet made this fantastic Baked Pumpkin with Mushroom & Leek Stuffing.



Our very own Cherry from Cherry's English Kitchen gave us a drool-worthy Pumpkin & Pancetta Risotto.

So drool-worthy was it in fact that she consumed it before taking a photograph. Bad Cherry!

This Pumpkin-Leek-Shiitake Tart was the creation of Elle from Paletteable.



Last but by no means least, this spectacular Squash Bisque came from KayKat of Cooking from A to Z.



Thank you all once again for participating and making this event so much fun.

"In The Bag" is a monthly food event run by Julia from Cherry from A Slice of Cherry Pie, Cherry's English Kitchen, Scott at Real Epicurean