This week see’s the return of tip of the week with how to make your very own cream cheese!

Ingredients
1 Pint Thin Cream
Pinch of Salt

Method
Stand 1 pint thin cream in a basin for 12 hours. Stir in a good pinch of salt. Put into an old clean napkin and hang up in a cool place for 24 hours. (Remember to keep a bowl underneath for drips.)

Take down, turn inside out, tie and hang for another 24 hours.

It is now ready to press.

Chances are you will not have access to a dairy press so instead get a small wooden box with holes bored in the bottom. Get a strip of towelling, enough to lay across the sides and bottom and fold over. Scald it in boiling water, then run cold water over it. Lay it in the box, and over it, a piece of butter muslin. Press in the cream, fold muslin over, then the huckaback. Put on the lid, which must fit inside the box. Stand the box so that the whey can run clear at the bottom, put a heavy weight on to the lid and leave for 24 hours.

This is a dish I frequently serve as a starter, or to a vegetarian as a main course. The ingredients are fairly flexible, but I like to serve with French Goats Cheese. It is so simple, and very quick to prepare.

Ingredients
1 large spread/flat mushroom per person
Goats Cheese [French or Welsh]
Salted Butter
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Cooking Instructions

1. Warm some olive oil and a few knobs of butter in a pan, and place the spread mushrooms top side down. Lightly fry for 2-3 minutes, then turn and fry the other side. The mushrooms should only be lighted cooked at this stage, just enough to colour and partially cook
2. Place the mushrooms in an flat over wish [spread side up]. Top with Butter, Crushed Garlic, & Goat Cheese. Then season lightly.
3. Depending on the size of the mushrooms [I have some which are around 8 inches in diameter!]. Around 15-20 mins for a good size mushroom, but keep your eye on them!
4. Serve with warm crusty bread as a starter, or with an array of vegetables for a vegetarian main

Some variations of this dish I have used involve adding bacon, panchetta, serrano or blank forrest ham. Also nice topped with tomatoes and a fried egg for that extra special breakfast. They key is to experiment and make it your own.

Ingredients.

Large packet of digestive biscuits
Butter
1lb mascapone cheese
1pt double cream
1 vanilla pod
8oz icing sugar
3 tbsp yoghurt (I use muller corner type, greek or natural will do just as well)

Crush the biscuits into fine crumbs and add enough melted butter to dampen all the crumbs. Firm down the biscuit base in one large or two small trays. Chill in fridge.

Place the cheese in a bowl, split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a knife, add the seeds to the cheese along with the (sifted) icing sugar and blend together with a spoon.

In a separate bowl, beat the cream until dry and stiff, add the cheese mixture and the yoghurt and mix until fully combined. spread mixture onto the biscuit base and chill until set.

Eat. You could arrange fruit coulis [strawberry or raspberry is wonderful] or jams on top

An interesting question which I found in my webstats this morning, and I thought I would attempt an answer.

Basically, it all depends on the recipe. Evaporated milk is whole milk that has been cooked to remove some of the water and make it thicker. Basically it is thicker and subsequently sweeter than whole milk, and contributes a great deal more to a dish. While there is no law that says you cannot replace the evaporated milk in my family’s rice pudding with whole milk, it would be less rich than with.

I sometimes find when a recipe calls for evaporated milk. Here are a few alternatives

1. Homemade Evaporated Milk :- Try combining powdered milk with half the normal of liquid to make a thicker version. To make it even richer try combining a measure of powered milk with a half measure of whole or low fat milk.
2. Half Cream / Half Whole Milk :- Useful for replacing evaporated milk in some pumpkin pies.
3. All cream :- Useful for a lovely rice pudding – replace all the evaporated milk with single cream. Makes a whiter rice pudding.

I have always wondered why people continue to purchase runny lack lustre versions of this much loved, and extremely simple dish. My version is so simple, and yet so very tasty you will never buy another frozen version again.

Sometimes I like to throw a little broccoli into the mix – adds an extra touch of goodness and colour to his much loved recipe. A really nice tip is to sprinkle a light dusting of parmesan or other hard cheese to the top (maybe even a very light dusting of toasted breadcrumbs which add a sensational second texture). Incidentally I prefer wholemeal or granary breadcrumbs for this.

Ingredients

1 Cauliflower
40g plain flower
40g butter
300ml milk
125g Grated Cheese [Cheddar is exceptionally good]
salt and pepper
40g Parmesan Cheese, grated
1. Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil. Cut the cauliflower into even-sized florets and plunge in the boiling water. Cook until just tender before draining in a colander and reserving about 125ml of cooking liquid.

2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan set over a low heat. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring all the time, for about 2 minutes. The flour should take on a slightly toasted aroma. Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas 4.

3. Now this is the bit I like to take my time over, I add a small amount of milk to the flour and butter, and whisk out any lumps as it heats through and is absorbed. I continue adding a small amount of milk, whisking until absorbed, right up until I get a nice sauce consistency. If you still have a sauce that is too thick for your tastes when all the milk has gone, try adding a small amount of the cooking liquid you saved from earlier.

4. Add a little mustard, and some seasoning, then add the grated cheese [not the parmesan].

5. Add the cooked florets to a dish, and pour the sauce over. Sprinkle with the parmesan [and if you like a few breadcrumbs - although I tend to leave these out]

6. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, until it is tinged with a beautiful golden brown.

This was created by me one evening, when I had the urge for some classic home cooked comfort food. I didn’t have a recipe to hand so created it from scratch, but I promise you this – its delicious, and so very easy!