Poached nectarines.

Left over from the parents day trip to france we have a tray of white nectarines that need dealing with before they go off so I decided to poach some in the bottle of rather nasty white wine which was left in the fridge. The flavour was very delicate as I was using white fruit but it would work equally well with yellow nectarines or peaches. 


Ingredients:
180g caster sugar
1 orange
1/2 lemon
8 peaches, firm but ripe, white if possible
500ml water
500ml white wine, dry
1 vanilla pod



Method:
Split the vanilla pod in half lengthways and with the blade of a knife scrape the seeds. Cut the orange and lemon into fine slices 2 - 3mm, rind on. Peel the peaches and put them in a pan a single layer deep the peaches in a single layer. Add the caster sugar, water, white wine, vanilla pod halves and seeds. Top with orange and lemon slices. Cut out a round of greaseproof paper the same size as the saucepan and cut a hole in the centre to allow the excess heat to escape; place it directly on top of the peaches. On a high heat bring to the boil, immediately reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for approximately 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave them to cool in their own juices. Serve cold.

Lemon Tray Bake.

Tomorrow is St Peter's and St Paul's holy day of obligation I have managed to escape church in exchange for making a cake for the congregation. When I am not at university we live in a quintessential English village where the women run a flower and tea roster for the village church. the only thing we are missing is a WI. I am much looking forward to the village fete in a few weeks time as it is an opportunity to try out new baking recipes with no guilt over who is going to eat them or how much my waist line will suffer. I have relied upon a tried and tested recipe from the Mary Berry Aga cook book where she has a section devoted to tray bakes perfect for coffee mornings, fetes and school. It is neither an inspiring recipe nor one that you could not find elsewhere but if you are cooking in an Aga then the quantities are designed for a large Aga roasting tin. 


4 Eggs
350g Self raising flour
250g Caster sugar
250g Butter
3 Level tsp baking powder
6 tbsp Milk
zest 2 lemons


for the icing the juice of 2 lemons and either enough granulated sugar or icing sugar to make a thick consistency. I prefer the crunch of granulated sugar but children often prefer the white icing gained from icing sugar.


Pre heat oven to 180C or the grid shelf in the bottom of the roasting oven with a cold self. Simply mix all of the ingredients together and pour into the roasting tin. The mixture does not look like there will be enough but trust me it is. This does make a shallower cake designed to be eaten in fingers. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. If you are using granulated sugar ice immediately but if you are using icing sugar allow it to cool first.

Baked smoked haddock creams.

I made these the other day for my brother for lunch and served them with salad from the garden. But they are designed to be a starter. I'm afraid I did not manage to take a picture. The best way I can describe them is a quiche with no pastry so they felt much lighter than having a quiche. If you are on a diet or just generally very healthy I can't see why you could not use single cream instead of double. 

300g Smoked haddock un-dyed is nicer

1 Bay leaf

150ml Milk

150ml Double cream

3 Egg yolks

1tbsp Chives chopped

Nutmeg

Pre heat oven 175C or in a 2 door Aga bottom of the roasting oven on the grid with one cold shelf. I found that this was fine but if your Aga is hot you may need to watch them and put in a cold shelf. Skin the fish then poach it for 5mins in the milk with pepper and a bay leaf don't add salt the smoking should have made the fish salty enough. The fish should be only just cooked at this point. Flake fish into 6 separate 4oz ramekins. In a mixing bowl mix yolks, cream, chives and nutmeg whisk thoroughly. Whisk in the hot milk and pour over fish. fork the fish to the top of the ramekins. Bake for 15-20 mins then leave them out of the oven resting for 10 minutes. I was in a rush and to my detriment tried to avoid this stage don't do this. The ten minutes cooling slightly allows the egg to set enough to turn them out with out overcooking. They should be nice and golden brown around the edges. Run a knife around the edge before turning out the look nicest if you serve them cooking side up. These can be cooked in advance and reheated at the same temp they are cooked at. I don't know how many days in advance you can make them as I have yet to experiment but you can definitely do them in the morning for a dinner.