Andys Kitchen Links

We were recently sent a selection of lovely chocolate products from Gourmet Gadgetry who are based in Dartford, Kent, and what great products they were.

Gourmet Gadgetry started life in the chocolate fountain industry and have rapidly developed the business to now include all types of fun kitchen gadgets, which includes products from Magimix, Cuisinart, Sensio and Dualit to name but a few. The chocolate fountain part of the business is still thriving but we were more interested in the Baking & Dessert section.

We were sent some lovely chocolate pencils that make fantastic decorations that can be used in all manner of desserts, from just using them as decoration or crushing them up into ice creams. We were also sent some great chocolate decorations that have been crafted in gorgeous dark Belgian chocolate, and these really help to lift a dessert up to another level.

But the stand out ingredient for us was the Callebaut Milk Chocolate Mousse, which is a real chocolate mousse mix that creates a light, fluffy, creamy texture that melts in the mouth! It's so easy to create by simply adding milk, whisking and leaving to chill in the fridge.
- Contains 70% pure milk chocolate
This Callebaut milk chocolate mousse is simply incomparable; the first kind that actually tastes homemade!
It really is lovely, and goes a very long way so please try it, I promise you that once you have tried it you will buy more.

At Andys Kitchen we have created a couple of lovely desserts using these products, and these will be posted up on our blog over the next few weeks, so please keep a look out for them as they really are lovely.

Please visit the Gourmet Gadgetry website at www.gourmetgadgetry.com and folow on Twitter @gourmetgadgetry and be sure to check out there Facebook Page as well.

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Yorkshire Pudding & Raspberry Cream Clafoutis Recipe

I have received a few requests of subjects to talk about in my articles. One of them was from a Yorkshire Pudding fan. Who was chatting to me about how his mum would make Yorkshire Puddings years ago, when he was a boy. He said she would make the batter, then pour it into a square roasting tin she had specially for the job, then when cooked she would cut the big Yorkshire Pudding into squares and serve each person a square.

I too can remember my Grandma & my mum doing this too. As well as use the Yorkshire pudding tins or moulds. It’s very interesting to talk about, it just confirms my thought that food fashion is making its way back to the days of simple cooking, retro dishes. This Yorkshire Pudding Fan was comparing homemade to factory produced ones, ‘’No comparison’’ he said, ‘’ you even don’t get the right colour on factory one’s’’ he said. ‘’Too processed, you can’t beat home made ones’’

Let’s have a look at Yorkshire Puddings, traditionally accompanied with Roast Beef, remember my article on Sunday Lunches, which I had a lot of comments and replies. Am guessing you all like simple home cooking.

Well, there is nothing simpler to make then a good Yorkshire Pudding Batter. We have all the housewife tales on how to make them rise & puff up more than ever.

‘’Is the tray hot first’’, ‘’Heat up the oil in the tray before adding batter ’’ , ‘’It depends on the amount of eggs or the size of the eggs’’ , ‘’It’s all in the whisking’’... Well I don’t think its one thing in particular; it could be all those elements. Personally I always add one more egg just before I start to pour in my moulds, but I do believe it is the air you incorporate in the whisking that adds to it, also I leave to rest the mixture for 5 minutes, then giving it a little whisk again before I begin to pour. A bit of superstition I suppose and one last prayer for luck ! I also remember when I was at college in my practical lessons and been told to incorporate as much air as possible.

Yorkshire Pudding batter is very easy, just made with eggs, flour and milk at little seasoning with salt & pepper does it really, some people like to add herbs to their mixes, dried or fresh doesn’t matter. Some people when making Yorkshires, make loads, then after the main course continue to eat them cold with sugar, treacle or honey. Another person to speak to me about Yorkshire Puddings told me that his dad liked them right at the beginning of lunch or dinner like a starter, a appetiser to get the juices flowing ready for lunch or dinner.

One other way to use a Yorkshire Pudding batter is to use it as a dessert or pudding. Clafoutis, a French origin dessert traditionally used with cherries, but other fruit have been used in it too. Here is a easy recipe for a Raspberry Cream Clafoutis. Takes minutes to prepare.

• 400g Raspberries
• Zest and juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tsp honey
• 75g flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 150ml milk
• 100ml double cream
• Icing sugar to dust

METHOD

How to make Raspberry Cream Clafoutis

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Lightly butter a 25cm round baking dish and tip raspberries into base. Scatter over lemon zest and juice and drizzle over honey.

2. Whisk flour and caster sugar together. Form a well in the centre of the mixture and add eggs. Gradually draw the flour into the eggs from the outside of the well, mixing well, then beat in milk& cream, a little at a time, to form a smooth batter.

3. Pour batter over blueberries and bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden and puffed up. Serve warm, or cool and dusted with icing sugar. With a scoup of ice cream, it’s very yummy.

Tell me your thoughts on Yorkshire Puddings, always good to hear what you have to say about my subjects too.

Many thanks to Guest Blogger Richie Stamp, who co owns "Delicious", which is a lovely cafe/bistro in Scunthorpe, for this fantastic piece. Richie produces some lovely recipes and has offered to share some with the Andys Kitchen readers, so welcome aboard Richie. Please visit the "Delicious" website at www.deliciousathome.co.uk and you can also follow Richie on Twitter here, and Delicious on Twitter here. For more great recipes and stories from Richie please visit his great blog here.

Brogdale Juice Review

Recently we were sent a lovely selection of fruit juices from Brogdale Juices, and with just freshly pressed juice in each bottle you feel healthier with every mouthful.

The award-winning apple and pear juices are produced using fruit grown in and around the orchards at Brogdale Farm. Early season fruit is picked, pressed and bottled within days, where some of the later varieties are better for having been stored for a little while to bring out their natural sweetness.

Producing small batches of single variety juices means that Brogdale Juices can cater for all tastes. From the almost "nutty" sweetness of an Egremont Russet, to the sharpness that some people crave in a Bramley Seedling, they can cover all types of palate. Various old variety apple juices are produced plus one or two more contemporary varieties if they feel it makes a great juice.

The most popular products are the Heritage Selection apple and pear juices. These are specially blended juices that not only contain widely grown traditional varieties but also old and rare varieties of apple and pear that would otherwise stay on the National Fruit Collection trees. Making use of these unknown or lesser-known varieties helps to conserve the trees and support the collections.

But how are these fantastic juices made? Well the process of production involves sorting the fruit and discarding any that is unsuitable, before it is crushed using a large belt press. This press extracts every last drop of juice from the fruit before discarding the fibre and pith that goes for animal feed.

The fruit is then stored in large stainless steel vats where a small amount of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is added to stop the juice turning brown. Apple, Rhubarb or other fruit juices for our blended varieties are added at this stage. It is then heated and pasteurised before being bottled in either 75cl or 25cl bottles and capped.

The bottles once they have cooled are labelled date stamped and have a neck shroud (75cl bottles only) applied. They are then shrunk wrapped in 12’s (75cl) or 24’s (25cl) and placed on a pallet awaiting purchase by our trade customers and despatched.

The Pear juice was our favourite and is certainly very popular as Brogdale have had to increase production to keep up with demand.

If you see these lovely juices please take the opportunity to try them as they really are so refreshing and healthy, all of us at Andys Kitchen certainly recommend them.

Please visit the Brogdale Juice website at www.brogdalejuices.co.uk for all the latest news, and to find stockists.

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Yum Yum Tree Fudge Review

We met Lily earlier this year at The Edible Garden Show, and was really impressed with the packaging and different varieties of fudge that she has on offer.

In 2008 Lily started selling her fudge in her local post office in Bury St Edmunds as Christmas gifts, and they sold so well that Lily then started making more to sell at local farmers markets. And now you can find Yum Yum Tree Fudge at various food shows across the country as well as various other food outlets, including the Harrods Festival of British Food in 2010, so a fantastic achievement and the kind of artisan producer that Andys Kitchen really endorses.

All of the fudges at Yum Yum Tree are made using natural flavours and use local sugar from Bury St Edmunds, the variety of flavours are fantastic and range from Blackcurrant to Chilli Chocolate to Lemon Bon Bon and they look really good in the very subtle packaging.

The flavours that we were given to sample were:

• Cappuccino Fudge; it really is like taking a mouthful of coffee, very smooth and just the right amount of coffee flavour.
• Passion Fruit Fudge; at first when we tried this fudge the passion fruit flavour did not come through but after a few seconds…….you get a lovely passion fruit hit that takes you to distant shores.
• Sea Salt Fudge; a very unusual flavour combination but one that works really well, with just the right balance of fine sea salt flakes and sweet decadent fudge.

As with all fudge they are very sweet so you really can only eat a couple of pieces at a time, but that just means that the fudge lasts a lot longer.

If you get the chance to buy some Yum Yum Tree Fudge please do so, we need to support our great UK Artisan producers as much as we can.

Please visit the Yum Yum Tree Fudge website at www.yumyumtreefudge.com and keep an eye out at Andys Kitchen for a delicious recipe which uses the Sea Salt Fudge….coming soon

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