Deep Fried Brie with Cranberry Chutney...

I absolutely love cheese! A wedge of mature Irish cheddar on a slice of warm soda bread, a generous portion of Roquefort with a chilled Sauterne or smooth creamy garlic and herb Le Roule spread thickly over oat cakes – I love it all! One of my all time favourites though is deep fried Brie or Camembert with homemade chutney. This is top of my list of things to order when I dine out.

Before I watched Simon Rimmer prepare this dish on Something for the Weekend I thought it was well beyond my capabilities. The idea of deep frying cheese made me nervous – maybe because I am so accident prone – but really this is such a simple dish to make. I don’t have a deep fat fryer but I did use my wok – it worked very well but it is important to be careful (especially if you’re accident prone like me) as hot oil can be dangerous.

The best thing is now I don’t have to wait to go to a restaurant to have it – I can make it at home easily whenever I have a craving – which unfortunately for my waistline is often.

It’s perfect for lunch or elegant starter and will definitely impress your dinner guests. I serve mine with a simple salad of rocket (arugula) with red peppers and a lime vinaigrette.

Here is Simon Rimmer’s recipe from the BBC Food website.

Deep Fried Brie with Cranberry Chutney

Ingredients

For the chutney

1-2 tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 red chilli, finely chopped

200g/7oz demerara sugar

150ml/5½fl oz red wine vinegar

250g/9oz fresh cranberries (the supermarkets have these in abundance in the lead up to Christmas so buy a few packs and freeze them for later)

100g/3½oz dried cranberries

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp ground cloves

For the deep-fried Brie

100g/3½oz plain flour

2 free-range eggs, beaten

125g/4½oz polenta (I have used both regular bread crumbs and gluten free bread crumbs and both work just as well as polenta)

1 lime, zest only

4 x wedges Brie or Vignotte cheese (I have also used Camembert)

Vegetable oil, for frying (I used olive oil)

Directions

For the chutney, heat the oil in large saucepan and fry the onion and chilli for 4-5 minutes, or until softened.

Add the sugar, vinegar, cranberries, seasoning and cloves. Bring the mixture to the boil and cook for a further 15 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened.

Meanwhile, for the deep-fried Brie, sprinkle the flour onto a plate and beat the eggs in a bowl. Mix the polenta and lime zest together on a separate plate.

Dredge the Brie pieces first in the flour, then dip them in the egg, then coat them in the polenta mixture.

Heat the oil in a deep heavy-based frying pan until a breadcrumb sizzles and turns brown when dropped into it. Alternatively, use an electric deep-fat fryer heated to 180C/350F. (CAUTION: Hot oil can be dangerous. Do not leave unattended.)

Deep-fry the coated Brie pieces for 4-5 minutes, or until golden-brown. Using a slotted spoon, remove the Brie from the pan and set aside to drain on kitchen paper.

Serve the deep-fried Brie piled onto small plates with the chutney in ramekins alongside.

Enjoy!

Picnic Success: Spicy Cucumber, Carrot and Cashew ...

I am still recovering from last Saturday when my husband and I went on our first ever road trip since passing his driving test. We got some supplies the night before, namely an extra large cooler box. Perfect for keeping our picnic cool and also providing a great storage place for any treats we happened to pick up along the way. It is cherry season after all!

I woke up early and set about making the Spicy Cucumber and Cashew Salad. I had planned on making it the night before but got carried away watching several episodes of Burn Notice (Bruce Campbell is my hero!). Fortunately it is a very simple dish to make. The most labour intensive part is chopping and mixing.

We did make some adjustments to the original dish that chef Bill Granger showed on Saturday Morning Kitchen. He made a marinade for some chicken thighs and used half for the chicken and the rest as a base for a spicy salad dressing. As we just wanted the salad we followed his recipe for the salad dressing but added a few extra bits to compensate for the lack of marinade.

To view Bill Granger’s fantastic original recipe courtesy of the BBC Food website please click here.

This is how we made our version of this tasty salad.

Luna Raye’s version of a Spicy Cucumber, Carrot and Cashew Nut Salad with Vermicelli Noodles.

Ingredients

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

2 large red chillies, finely chopped

2 tsp of fresh ginger, minced

4 tbsp sugar

4-5 tbsp of fresh lime juice

250g of vermicelli rice noodles

1 large cucumber halved and thinly sliced

1 medium sized carrot halved and cut into thin strips

4 spring onions, sliced finely

Small handful of fresh mint leaves (we used apple mint from our garden)

3-4 tbsp unsalted cashews, crushed.

Directions

Put fish sauce in large bowl with lime juice and sugar.

Stir until all the sugar has dissolved.

Add the chopped garlic cloves, chillies and minced ginger to a pestle and mortar and crush and blend until you get a nice paste (it won’t be a smooth paste but everything should be blended up well).

Add this mixture (it should smell fantastic!) to the liquid in the bowl and give a gentle stir.

Cut the cucumber, carrot and spring onions into thin strips and set aside.

Cook the vermicelli noodles by putting them in a heat proof bowl and adding enough boiled water to cover them. I gave them a quick stir as I did this just to make sure they didn’t clump together.

I also snapped the noodles in half before cooking them – to make them a bit more manageable in the salad.

Leave the noodles to cook for 4 – 5 minutes. Once they have softened drain and rinse them in cold water.

Once cooled, add the drained noodles to a large bowl and gradually start to mix in the liquid (fish sauce, lime juice and dissolved sugar) and the finely chopped vegetables.

Toward the end add the finely chopped fresh mint and continue to mix until well combined.

Just before serving add the crushed cashew nuts.

Enjoy!

NOTE: I also wanted to mention a really helpful tip that Bill Granger shared as he was preparing his dish. Limes can be difficult to squeeze, and even rolling them on the countertop before hand sometimes doesn’t help. He suggested cutting the lime in half and then taking the very end of the lime off. This leaves you with a rather large ‘slice’ of lime which is much easier to squeeze. I tried it and it worked a charm!

We had a fantastic day out and really enjoyed our picnic. The salad made a refreshing change and in the current heat wave we have been experiencing it was just what we needed.
In our eagerness to tuck into the salad we forgot to put the cashew nuts on. Luckily we brought the bag with us but we hadn’t crushed them. My husband not having the patience to wait dumped a handful of cashews onto each plate. It still tasted great but I think in future we will crush them, if we can remember that is!

As we continued with our driving adventure (Ok we got lost!) we passed a sign saying cherries for sale. We turned down a lovely country lane and found a mother and daughter selling the most beautiful cherries out of their back yard, which led into their orchard. We got a pound of cherries and ate them all on the way home. It was a successful day and a very successful picnic. We did make it home eventually and it was no thanks to the sat nav!

Spicy Cucumber, Carrot and Cashew Nut Salad with Vermicelli Noodles

Underneath a Willow Tree, The Perfect Picnic Spot.

Perfect Picnic Food But We Forgot the Cashew Nuts!

Horseradish: Where have you been all my life?...

I do know the answer to this question and shouldn’t really need to ask. Mainly because you are always there, generously dolloped on the side of my dad’s plate (or between slices of bread) every time he eats roast beef. I even remember, many years ago, the tiniest of portions being offered to me on a teaspoon so I could give it a try. Unfortunately, in giving it a cursory sniff, I foolishly stuck the spoon right up to my nose and promptly had my sinuses cleared for a year. That was enough for me to stay as far away as possible from horseradish for the next 30 odd years.

Well here we are in 2010 and for Valentine’s Day I wanted to prepare a really special and romantic starter. I looked through several recipes but kept coming back to the same one; Smoked Salmon with Prawns, Horseradish Cream and Lime Vinaigrette. The idea of covering beautiful salmon and prawns with horseradish cream filled me with dread, but I loved the look of this recipe so much that I decided it was time to confront my fear. I am so glad I did. This recipe from Mary Cadogan has been an absolute revelation to me.

• Firstly the use of smoked salmon that doesn’t rely on bagels laden with cream cheese.
• Secondly because it made me realize that even simple dishes can be stunningly elegant.
• Thirdly and most importantly for me, the use of horseradish, which I have discovered is….DELICIOUS!

The flavours of this dish are wonderful as the lime cuts through the heat of the horseradish cream bringing out the delicate flavours of the smoked salmon and prawns. It is refreshing and light with a subtle kick and it goes extremely well with a chilled white wine. Trust me this recipe is a keeper!

Since making this dish I have already worked my way through 3 jars of horseradish sauce and it is now something that is always in my fridge. This website offers some great tips for using horseradish in a variety of dishes. I have bookmarked quite a few to try. Top of my list for tonight is one of my favourite cocktails – a Bloody Mary! If you have a favourite recipe that uses horseradish I would love to hear about it.

Smoked Salmon with Prawns, Horseradish Cream and Lime Vinaigrette.