Salted caramels.

One of my favourite things to make is petit fours so having treated myself to a sugar thermometer I embarked on mission to make salted caramels.

This is best made in the bottom of a 2lb loaf tin. It makes 30-40 depending how big you chop them up.

180ml Double cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
rounded 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp flaky sea salt
160g Golden syrup
200g Caster sugar
60g Salted butter

Line loaf tin with foil and spray the inside with cooking spray or liberally grease with vegetable oil.

Heat the cream with 1/3 of the butter with the vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt until the mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat but keep warm.

In a medium sized pan heat the golden syrup with the sugar, and cook, stirring gently, to make sure the sugar melts smoothly. Once the mixture is melted only swirl the pan don't stir it.

Cook until the syrup reaches 310ºF (155ºC). Turn off the heat and stir in the warm cream mixture, until smooth. Turn the heat back on and cook the mixture to 260F (127C).

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cubes of butter, until it’s melted and the mixture smooth.

Pour the mixture into the tin and wait ten minutes, then sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of the sea salt over the top. Set on a cool rack and let cool completely. Once cool, lift out the foil with the caramel, peel away the foil, and slice the bar of caramel with a long, sharp knife into squares or rectangles.

Fruit tart with lemon and marscarpone.

I have promised various people that I would post this recipe. It is what I call a store cupboard pudding. It can be whipped up in ten minutes flat with very little thought, is super easy and looks so impressive. The only really important thing is to make sure that the lemon biscuits that you use are good quality otherwise it can end up being slightly bland.

500g Lemon biscuits

100g Butter melted

500g Marscarpone

1 Lemon

75g Icing sugar

Aprox 20cm tart tin

Pulverise the biscuits and add to the butter, place the mixture into the bottom if the tart tin. Cook for about tin minutes at 120C to firm up the base. In another bowl mix the marscarpone, icing sugar, zest and lemon juice. Spread this on top on the biscuit base and decorate with any soft fruit of your choice.

Goan Fish Curry.

One of the advantages of working as a lodge cook in Scotland is you do get some fantastic kitchen sink views. This is a photo of one that I think is hard to beat. The disadvantages include your kitchens looking like this! Having said that this particular kitchen might be basic but at least the oven is consistently hot which is a rare treat.

I am afraid I must again apologise for another not great photo, this dish doesn't hold very well and there weren't any left overs for me to stage a more artistic photo with. This is more of an aromatic curry that a hot one. I always make it with cod loins but you could use monk fish or some prawns as well if you have them. I tend to serve this as a main course but you could probably serve it in smaller porions as a starter.

1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
A lump of fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 garlic cloves crushed
2 red chilies
2 tsp tamarind paste
2 tomatoes roughly chopped
400ml coconut milk
500g white fish cut in large chunks
Handful of fresh coriander

Soft the onion with the mustard seeds over a medium heat. Add in the rest of the spices and cook for a couple of minutes to release the maximum flavour from the spices. Add in the coconut milk, tomatoes and 100ml of water bring to the boil, allow to simmer for 10 minutes or so until it has thickened slightly. The length of time needed will depend on your coconut milk if you are using low fat milk this will take longer as it is thiner than the full fat version. At this stage the curry can be left to sit until just before you wish to serve it. Add in the fish and bring to back up to a simmer it will only take about 3 minutes for the fish to cook, it should be translucent. Don't over cook the fish or it will simply fall apart and you will end up with a curried fish soup! Serve with a smattering of chopped fresh coriander