Shepherd's Pie with Butternut Mash & Capers

This is the hubs' recipe for shepherd's pie, and it is epic. Born to British parents, he knows a thing or two about hearty, pub-style cooking. This is the kind of thing you'll find in a country pub, perfect for warming you up with a pint alongside. It's also great because it makes so much, so cook it up to feed a crowd, or put some in the freezer for easy meals later in the month.

The slightly sweet butternut-sweet potato mash is the perfect topping for the salty, caper-flecked ground meat (and makes this savory pie gluten-free). We sometimes crumble a little stilton or blue cheese over the top if we're feeling extra cheeky... but that might be a step too far for some.

No pictures yet for this one. Honestly, it's a hard dish to catch an an aesthetic angle, like many good comfort food, casserole-style dishes. But I promise it's worth making, especially if there's a chill still hanging around where you are! And if the temp has already hit 80, as it is here in Los Angeles, file it away for next winter: you'll thank me. In lieu of a Southern Spoon pic, here's a cheat photo of Jamie Oliver's delicious-looking vegan shepherd's pie:

Jamie Oliver's photo, not mine!
Recipe below is original to Southern Spoon, and is very much not vegan.

Shepherd's Pie with Butternut Mash & Capers
Serves 6-8

1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 2-inch pieces (about 1.5 cups)
2 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2-inch pieces (about 1.5 cups)
3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced into coins (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon oil (such as olive or canola)
1 yellow or brown onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2 packages ground beef (20% fat content works well)
1 cup beef stock
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup frozen peas
1-2 tablespoons capers, drained and coarsely chopped
1-2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon anchovy paste or 1 anchovy, mashed with a fork (optional!)
1 teaspoon coursely ground pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup shredded cheddar or crumbled stilton/blue cheese (optional)

Place the butternut and sweet potato pieces in a medium size pot with water covering the vegetables. Bring to a boil, then place the carrots in a steamer basket, and set the steamer basket on top of the pot with the potato and butternut pieces. Boil/steam the vegetables for 10 minutes. Remove the steamer basket and set the carrots aside (they will go into the pie's meat filling). Drain the potatoes/butternut, and mash them thoroughly with a potato masher or fork. Stir in a pinch of salt, and set aside.

Heat the oil in a dutch oven or large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, and sauté for 3-4 minutes, until onions begin to turn translucent. Add the garlic and mushrooms, and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add the ground beef, and carefully stir and break up the beef as it browns in the skillet. Cook for about 6-7 minutes, until beef is mostly cooked through.

While the beef is cooking, whisk the cornstarch evenly into the beef stock. Add the steamed carrots and the stock to the beef, along with the peas, capers, Worcestershire sauce, anchovy paste, pepper, thyme, paprika, and a pinch of salt. Stir carefully to combine, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes, then taste and adjust any seasoning-- adding a bit more Worcestershire, capers, salt and peppers, etc, as you like. Simmer for another 5-7 minutes to further reduce the stock.

(At this stage, if you are not using a dutch oven, transfer the ground beef mixture to a large, oven-proof casserole dish).

Carefully dollop and lightly spread the butternut/sweet potato mash over the top of the ground beef mixture, and sprinkle the shredded cheese evenly over the top. Place the shepherd's pie under the broiler set at high heat for about 3-5 minutes, until the cheese begins to bubble and slightly brown, watching to ensure it doesn't burn.

Serve immediately.

Storage Tip: Shepherd's pie will keep in the fridge, covered, for 2-3 days, or can be covered and frozen for up to 3 months.

Nutrition changes (Southern Spoon goes a little paleo)

Some big dietary changes going on in the Southern Spoon household the past couple of weeks that I wanted to share. Pour a cuppa tea, this post is a little longer than usual.

rocket salad with roasted eggplant, dukkah-crusted pumpkin,
grass-fed beef steak, and garlic, olive oil, tahini vinaigrette

If you read this blog, you know that I cook whole foods and work around a number of food intolerances: preservatives, artificial colors / flavors, peanuts (and lentils), and foods with high levels of the natural food chemical salycilates (tomatoes, for example, are out for the hubs, as is wine). Since moving from England to Australia in 2011 we have adopted what we presumed was a more healthy diet: making many more meals meatless, eating a wider variety of vegetables (produce is so much better here!), and being more active in the balmy weather.

However, despite those dietary changes, a massive reduction in stress levels, getting more sleep, and losing a little weight over the last two-and-a-half years, recent medical tests have revealed extremely high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. In an effort to ensure we're treating our bodies as best as possible, a doctor referred us to a nutritionist.

This nutritionist has planned a dietary approach with the goal of reducing inflammation in the body. Inflammation is believed by a number of medical and nutrition professionals to be a major cause of poor health (including heart disease), and it's not hard to trust that reducing inflammation through dietary and lifestyle changes is a good idea.

cauliflower crust pizza with chicken & veggies: delicious

On this nutritionist's plan, breakfast is the carb-iest meal of our day: carbs with a protein and a fat, preferably working in barley and soy milk (to up soluble fiber and help clean up bad cholesterol). Lunch and dinner should have a protein, a fat, and what the nutritionist calls *free foods*, basically low-carb vegetables (so excluding potatoes, grains, legumes). This diet is meant to keep insulin and blood sugar levels more level during the day, and thus help reduce inflammation.

This means our lunches and dinners are very similar to a paleo-style eating plan, emphasizing plenty of protein (mostly animal-based protein, since higher-protein plants like legumes and grains are to be avoided), vegetables and some fruit, and sources of fat from things like avocados, olive oil, even butter. The nutritionist didn't cut out dairy, and even recommended some cheese, yogurt, etc, so we're still eating some dairy.

salad with roasted tomatoes, eggplant,
dukkah-crusted pumpkin, & chorizo

We've been eating this way for two weeks. We both feel more energetic - physically and mentally - and I find that my blood sugar swings are hardly non-existent, whereas I used to rush home after work starving for dinner, even after having a big, veggie and grain-based lunch, and a granola bar snack. I feel full more quickly when eating increased levels of protein and fat (lots of eggs, yum!), but without feeling bloated. We're also trying to get out and move a little more: walking to the beach, running a few laps, doing more strength training.

It's been an adjustment to think of our typical dinner dishes without grains, legumes, or potatoes, but so far we've made it work, and everything tastes just as (if not more) delicious. I'll be interested to see what the medical tests reveal about cholesterol and blood pressure levels in three months after the next check-up, but mostly I'm interested in simply continuing to feel a little bit better, in mind and body.

From now on I'll be sharing some of the dishes we're enjoying on this eating plan: they'll be low-carb, usually grain- and legume-free, with an emphasis on quality protein and fat, and a variety of vegetables. The photos in this post are some of the meals we've enjoyed so far, recipes to come.

Hope you like these dishes too, and, of course, always communicate with a medical or nutrition professional before making big changes in your own diet. Happy Spring, all.

Moving house & international travel break

September came and went in a flash. We packed up and moved (still here in Sydney), then unpacked to repack and fly to Europe for a three-week stay in England and France.This trip was chock-full of family events, quick visits with friends, work for me, and a flying 48-hour sojourn to Paris for just the two of us to celebrate our wedding anniversary taking place when both of us were in the same country for the first time (not to mention work for me in London and Cambridge). Although not a relaxing vacation, it was a treasured time, and we got to catch up with lots of people we love, visit places we know well, and also see some new things together.

In Paris, the hubs was delighted to dine on snails, horse, wood pigeon, pigs' trotters, cheese, etc...

I ate enough pastries to tide me over till we're there next....

 

We enjoyed a beautiful anniversary meal at Le Timbre (highly recommended). And we loved wandering around the left bank, visiting the places where the writer ex-pats of the 1920s lived, ate, drank, and worked.

 

Back in Australia, and October has come and gone just as quickly. The new apartment is fully unpacked and mostly organized, and I'm getting the hang of the new kitchen arrangement and older/smaller-model oven/stovetop. We've hosted our first international guests in our new place (brother and sister-in-law!), and are looking forward to seeing some more friends and family come through Sydney in the next few months.

When they came to stay with us, my wonderful brother and sister-in-law brought me the cookbook for their favorite bakery in San Francisco, Miette. I road tested some of the cake and frosting recipes last weekend to make cupcakes for a barbeque (Sydney summer is on the horizon!), and they were a huge success.  More complicated than your typical cake recipe, they involved steps such as pressing the ingredients through a sieve after having mixed together the cake batter-- a step that produced an incredibly even and tender crumb in an already deep, dark, delicious chocolate cake recipe. The European buttercream recipe was perfect, and worked beautifully with creative stir-ins for a range of flavors (chocolate-orange-bourbon; strawberry-vodka; margarita; and cappuccino). Look for Miette-inspired recipes to come.

Recipe post to follow this weekend, but just wanted to round up the many events that have delayed posting over the last few weeks. Happy end-of-October, all, don't eat too much candy on the 31st.

Fisherman's Pie topped with Crispy Capers

I had never had fisherman's pie before living in England, but it soon became a go-to item whenever I saw it on a pub menu. The flavorful base of seafood, onions, and cream, topped with piping hot mashed potatoes, was an ideal dish for warding off chilly fall and winter nights. The hubs and I began making it from scratch, sometimes using a sweet potato topping to change things up. Since our move down under we've fallen out of the habit of cooking some of the cold-weather dishes we used to rely on so often. The chill is in the air, however, on these Sydney winter evenings, and I find myself cooking up casseroles and roasts like we used to in our tiny London flat.

fisherman's pie hot out of the oven: fish and prawns in a fragrant white sauce
with leeks and onions, topped with mashed potatoes and salty capers

So fisherman's pie is back on the menu, until it begins to warm up again in a few months. I was delighted to discover that Katie Quinn Davies includes a recipe in her What Katie Ate cookbook, and have used it as my inspiration the past few times I've baked up a fisherman's pie. She tops the mashed potatoes with crispy, pan-fried capers: genius! We love capers, and the hubs finds any excuse to add them to whatever we're making. Though I've simplified Katie's method by sprinkling the capers straight from the bottle onto the top of the pie, rather than frying them up first, the taste really sets this recipe apart from your tried-and-true fisherman's pie. 

Fisherman's pie, adapted from the wonderful What Katie Ate cookbook

The celery, onion, leek, and green onion layer on the bottom is glorious; don't leave out the leeks. We use whatever combination of fish we feel like: a few fillets of firm, white fish, a couple handfuls of prawns, or a seafood medley of baby octopus, prawns, calamari, scallops, etc from our fishmonger. I also use milk rather than cream in the pie filling, just to slim things down a bit, though cream in place of half of the milk called for would make a beautifully decadent pie. Be careful when poaching the fish in the milk and cook over very low heat, stirring often, as milk can burn very easily on a thin-bottom pot over the stove (you'd think I would learn the first time...). If you're feeling adventurous, try sweet potatoes on top!

fisherman's pie, perfect dinner for a cold night

If you've never made fisherman's pie, I highly recommend this recipe for a cold night's dinner. Bookmark it away if it's too hot in your region at the moment to contemplate cooking a savory pie for dinner. I've often thought this would be a nice and casual winter dinner party dish if cooked in individual mini-casseroles. The pie also keeps well for a day, and the leftovers are even more flavorful. Enjoy.

Fisherman's Pie topped with Crispy Capers

5 hearty servings

adapted from the What Katie Ate cookbook

5-6 medium potatoes, scrubbed and peeled

3 fillets firm, white fish (such as Basa)

1 1/2 cups raw prawns (shrimp), peeled and deveined, tails removed

3 cups milk (divided use; any fat content will do)

freshly ground sea salt

freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon cornflour (cornstarch)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 long sticks celery, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces (about 1/2 cup)

1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 large leek, thinly sliced (white and light green parts only)

4 green onions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1 tablespoon capers

Preheat oven to 200C / 400 F, and lightly grease a (4 qt) casserole dish with oil. Set casserole dish aside.

Chop the potatoes into large pieces and place in a large pot of water. Bring the potatoes to the boil over high heat, then turn down to medium and simmer until a blunt knife cuts through the potato easily, about 10-12 minutes. Drain potatoes, return to pot, and mash with a fork or potato masher. Add a pinch of freshly ground pepper, a dash of freshly ground sea salt, and gradually drizzle in 1/4 - 1/2 cup of milk, whipping to combine and adding additional milk only as necessary, until thick and creamy. Set the mashed potatoes aside to use as your pie topping.

Meanwhile, in a medium pot over low heat, poach the fish in 2 1/2 cups of milk with a pinch of freshly ground pepper and a small pinch of freshly ground sea salt. Watch careful and stir often to make sure the milk does not burn on the bottom of the pot. Cook until fish is done and flakes easily with a fork (about 8-10 mins, this will vary depending on the thickness of your fish fillets). In the last couple of minutes that the fish is cooking, add the raw prawns, and cook until they turn pink. Remove the cooked fish and prawns from the pot to a chopping board, and reserve the milk for the white sauce filling. Roughly chop the cooked fish and prawns. Set aside. 

Make the sauce: Return the pot of reserved milk that was used to cook the fish to low heat. Whisk in the tablespoon of cornflour, whisking constantly for a minute until it is completely dissolved. Add the mustard, parsley, oregano, and basil. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes on low to let the herbs flavor the sauce. This white sauce will thicken up a little bit, but will remain fairly thin. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat the tablespoon of olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and leeks and sauté for about 5-6 minutes, until leeks begin to soften and break apart easily. Add the green onions, and saute for a further 4-5 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic, and sauté for another 2 minutes, stirring often to ensure the garlic doesn't burn. Remove from heat. Scrape the leek-onion mixture into the bottom of the prepared casserole dish, spreading the mixture evenly over the bottom.

Top the leek-onion mixture with the chopped fish and prawns, then pour the white sauce evenly over the fish. Spoon the mashed potatoes over the top, roughing up the surface a bit so that it's not a smooth layer. Place casserole in pre-heated oven and bake at 200C / 400F for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, remove casserole from oven and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon capers. Return to oven and continue to bake at 200C / 400F for another 10-15 minutes, until the edges are bubbly and the mashed potatoes are beginning to turn a bit golden brown in places. Serve immediately.

Will keep in the fridge for up to one day.  

Simple Crepes + Breakfast Crepes with Mushrooms, Spinach, & Eggs

It's a long weekend here in Sydney, with Monday off for the Queen's birthday. (Not QE II's real birthday, mind you, but her commemorated birthday date in Australia... except for Western Australia. Commonwealth holidays can be confusing!) So we're enjoying a beautiful, crisp, sunny 3 days' break. Planning to walk down to the beach this afternoon, then maybe head into the city tomorrow to read all day and sip coffee at a café.

To kick off the weekend yesterday morning, the hubs suggested trying out a new crepe place that just opened around the corner from us. When we lived in London's beautiful village of Hampstead, just a few stops up from the city centre on the Northern Line, we used to indulge a little too often in the famous creperie stand on Hampstead's high street. Some weekends, the line (queue) would be a block and a half long, everyone waiting patiently while the two French cooks inside the tiny metal stand churned out savory and sweet crepes. They were folded into big triangles and given to patrons to-go in triangle-shaped cardboard wrappers with a fork and napkins, and cost only a few pounds each. While they poured batter and skimmed the flat wooden paddles across the crepes to make them huge, thin, and crispy, the cooks chatted back and forth in French, reaching across each other to grab cans of ratatouille, heaping spoonfuls of sautéed spinach and fresh shredded cheese, or big spoonfuls of Nutella. Every time we ate a crepe, standing in the little laneway just behind the cart, that little corner of Hampstead felt like our own authentic mini-break to Paris.

I hope they serve crepes in heaven. Beautiful pic of the
Hampstead Creperie in London from Gourmet Traveller 88.

We haven't had a crepe since we moved to Sydney's north shore from Hamsptead almost two years ago, so this new creperie around the corner looked enticing. But when I had a glance at their (small) menu, I was taken aback by the prices. For one crepe! Sydney is notoriously expensive (ranked as the 3rd most expensive city in the world this year by The Economist Intelligence Unit), but this was just silly. I suggested instead that we make crepes at home-- how hard can it be? One of my college roommates used to make them all the time, without any of that fancy equipment: the big, flat, crepe griddle, the long wooden paddle to smooth out the batter. So we did. And they were easy, incredibly delicious, and we got a whole half dozen of them for a fraction of the cost of just one at the recently-opened creperie.

Delicious breakfast crepes with mushrooms, spinach, garlic, cheese, and an egg. 

This is an easy, fool-proof crepe recipe that can be used for savory or sweet fillings, serving as a main course for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Your imagination is the limit for turning a stack of crepes into a creative meal or gorgeous dessert. Keep a few in the freezer and warm them up in the microwave for a quick start to a meal or a tasty snack. Below the simple crepe recipe, I've given the method we used to make some spectacular breakfast crepes, full of sautéed mushrooms, garlic, spinach, topped with melted cheese and a fried egg. These were filling and truly delicious, and could easily serve as a main course any time of day.

Crepes in the morning: breakfast bliss

My next crepe mission: to make the mouth-watering crepe cake from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. Be fearless and try your hand at crepes!

Simple crepes. Super easy, and ready to serve as a base for creative breakfasts, dinners, or desserts.

Simple Crepes
makes 6 crepes
adapted from Cooking Light

1 egg
1 cup milk (I used skim, any fat content will do)

2/3 cup flour (I used 1/3 cup whole wheat and 1/3 cup wholegrain spelt flour)

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed (or buckwheat, wholegrain wheat, or wholegrain spelt flour)
pinch of freshly ground sea salt
oil for coating pan to cook crepes (I used extra virgin olive oil)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and milk until combined. Add the flour, flaxseed, and salt, whisking to combine. Cover with a tea towel and set aside for 15-30 minutes while you prepare your fillings.

To cook the crepes, heat a wide sauté pan over medium heat. Coat with a thin film of oil. When the pan is hot, pour a scant 1/4 cup of crepe batter into the centre of the pan, lifting and tilting it in a circular motion so that the batter spreads out into a wide circle. Set the pan back on the stove top and cook for about 1-2 minutes, until the crepe can be easily moved around the pan with a spatula and is golden brown on the bottom. Flip the crepe over and continue to cook for another 30 seconds to one minute, until golden on both sides.

Set the cooked crepe on a plate and cover with a paper towel, square of parchment/baking paper, or wax paper, and repeat with remaining batter. Make sure to layer the cooked crepes with a paper towel or similar so that they don't stick together as they cool. To keep them warm as you're cooking the entire batch, place the cooked crepes in a pre-heated 100C/215F oven. Serve warm with your choice of filling. (See Breakfast Crepe recipe suggestion below). Or just go with Nutella, always a winner.

* Storage Tip: Store cooked crepes, layered with paper towels or parchment paper or wax paper, in a freezer-proof bag in the freezer. To use, reheat crepes in the microwave until warm.

Breakfast Crepes with Mushrooms, Spinach, and Eggs
Serves 2 (multiply ingredients as required)

2 cooked crepes
extra virgin olive oil for the pan
1 cup sliced mushrooms

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups baby spinach leaves
pinch of freshly ground sea salt
pinch of freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 eggs

Heat a thin film of extra virgin olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. When hot, add the sliced mushrooms. Cook mushrooms, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until they begin to turn golden around the edges. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the minced garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring often. Add the spinach, salt, and pepper, and cook for about 3-4 minutes, until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat.

Turn the oven broiler (grill) onto medium-high. Lay the two crepes on a large baking sheet. Distribute the mushroom/spinach mixture over the crepes, and top each crepe with the shredded cheese. (Save the sauté pan for the eggs). Place the baking tray in the oven about 5 inches from the heat source at the top of the oven, and crack the door open an inch or two.

While the crepes are in the oven with the cheese melting, make two fried eggs. Return the sauté pan to medium heat, add a thin film of oil, and cook the eggs sunny-side up: until whites are opaque but the yolks are still runny. Keep an eye on the crepes in the oven to make sure they don't burn. (If the crepes are done before the eggs, turn the broiler off and move the baking tray to the middle of the oven so that the crepes stay warm).

To serve, place each crepe on a plate and top with a fried egg. Serve open-faced, or fold the crepe in half to keep the filling warm. Serve immediately.

Catching up, and Grilled Sweet Potato Wedges with Cherry Pecan Salsa

Too long since the last blog update...

In the past few months visiting friends, business travel, and family gatherings have filled up free moments.  I've eaten some amazing meals with great company and in fabulous locations (Perth, Cape Town, London)-- just haven't set aside the time to write about them!  I tried ostrich steak for the first time while in Cape Town (superb), and enjoyed fabulous wine in Stellenbosch and the surrounding vineyard-covered region.  The Dutch colonial-style hotel where I stayed near the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town made a mean pumpkin soup topped with coriander-infused popcorn.  The head chef visited my table to ask what I thought.  The recipe was the creation of one of his young, eager chefs, and they had been experimenting with the best herb for the popcorn.  The soup itself was velvety with a spicy kick, and the popcorn lent a bold herb flavor and pleasing crunch-- a winner in my books, and so I told the chef.  

Discovered adorable Bea's of Bloomsbury when meeting a friend for coffee in London.  I had a homey bowl of fresh fruit, muesli, yogurt, and honey to accompany my strong flat white, but I coveted my friend's thick-sliced whole wheat walnut toast spread thinly with butter and marmite.  I enjoyed a blissful dinner-for-one at Kitchen W8 the evening of our wedding anniversary, the only drawback being that the hubs was in the opposite hemisphere!  The informative servers made excellent wine recommendations for my meal choices.  An incredible starter of roasted beet, fig, microgreens, goat's cheese, and olive oil and chestnut purée drizzled salad was followed by pan fried sea bream fillet with garlic purée over a ragout of chickpeas, roasted peppers, and chorizo.  To finish, a bitter chocolate pavé garnished with new season's cherries, toasted buckwheat, and a cabernet sauvignon strawberry sorbet: divine.  

I had a nice and fresh quinoa vegetable salad with roasted eggplant dip (and a pecan-covered brownie) at Gail's Artisan Bakery, and a well-balanced fillet of herb-crusted sea bass with olive risotto, roasted tomatoes, and asparagus at Le Pain Quotidien.  Shared meals outdoors in relatives' gardens, soaking up the last warm rays of English sun, and even helped my cousin-in-law's husband create a side of grits for his slow-cooked lamb shanks (I'd gifted him the Texan grits when I moved to Sydney, fearful of the strict import laws for Australia).  A thoroughly enjoyable visit back to Blighty.    

As for recipes, I'll backtrack to the delicious grilled sweet potato wedges with cherry pecan salsa that I made to accompany our all-American hamburgers and corn-on-the-cob for July 4th.  The recipe can be found here at one of my favorite food blogs, The First Mess.  

grilled sweet potato wedges with cherry pecan salsa

Fourth of July was mid-winter in Australia, so while we hung the stars and stripes from our balcony, we didn't fire up the barbie for these.  Rather, I steamed them as per the recipe and grilled them on our indoor griddle set over the stovetop.  As a result, a few of the wedges were still a little firm in the centre.  I probably should have steamed them a little longer beforehand since the indoor griddle wasn't as hot as a bar-b-que would have been.  They were very tasty, though, and the cherry pecan salsa was a bright accompaniment to the spicy-sweet wedges.  

Highly recommended as a fun alternative to potato salad, baked beans, or whatever you traditionally serve with burgers.  The salsa would also be perfect over veggie burgers, pork tenderloin, or chicken.  I'll try this recipe again when we enter bar-b-que season (soon)!  More recipes to come... 

Raisin Scones

We had some Texan friends visiting this week and made sure to introduce them to a few English delicacies.  Fish and chips with mushy peas at our favorite pub was included on the list, and they were even brave enough to try marmite on hot buttered toast! 


On their last day here, I baked up a big batch of these raisin scones to serve for tea.  They are light and soft, rather than the dense and hard scones you're often served in a cafe.  


These are best eaten on the day they're made.  Serve with stirred clotted cream (or butter if clotted cream isn't readily available) and strawberry jam. 


Raisin Scones
makes about 20 scones


2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup cold water


Preheat the oven to 375F/ 190C.  Grease a 9x9 inch metal baking pan.


Mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives.  Stir in the raisins.  Add the milk and water, tossing with a fork just until the mixture comes together (it will be pretty sticky, as if it has too much liquid).  


Turn dough out onto a liberally floured surface.  Knead about 10-15 times, adding more flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the surface.  


Roll out to a 1 inch thickness.  Cut out circles with a 1.5 or 2 inch round cookie or biscuit cutter.  Place the rounds so that they are touching each other in the greased baking pan.  Brush the tops with a little milk.


Bake at 375F/ 190C for about 12-15 minutes.  Serve immediately with butter (or clotted cream, freshly stirred) and jam.