Dancing with the Aga at Duncan's

One weekend a month my sister and her family head off to Wiltshire where they stay in a cottage owned by their friend Duncan. Over the last couple of years the weekend at Duncan’s has become an indispensable ritual in my sister’s life – pack up and head off from London on Friday night after work, arrive late and collapse into bed, wake up Saturday morning to a view of rolling hills and fields with sheep and beautiful dopey cows. The village itself is a small windy street of thatched cottages with a church and a bus stop. No shops, not even a pub (whoever heard of an English town without a pub?). But best of all no broadband or mobile phone coverage. Ah the serenity.


There is very little to do at Duncan’s other than read and, of course, cook. Before I’d been to the cottage my sister had told me about the amazing oven – a Swedish designed cast iron Aga. I’d never heard much about Agas but after a few months living in England have discovered that they are quite the thing to have. Definitely a cold climate accoutrement as the Aga is always on which means it does make it toasty in the kitchen.

The beauty of the Aga is supposedly in the flavour of the food as it uses a less drying, gentler form of heat to cook. The tricky part is you can’t really set the oven temperature. You ‘find the heat’ according to the smug instruction book and learn where to position the food in the different parts of the Aga to get the desired result. For example, you start a roast chicken on the top shelf of the top oven to get a crispy skin then transfer to the bottom oven for a slower cooking heat; boil water in the centre of the left hand hotplate; gently simmer on the edge of the right hand hotplate etc etc.

It feels a bit like learning to dance with a partner. You can’t just close your eyes and boogie like you’re the only person on the disco floor. You have to dance in step and sometimes even let your partner take the lead.

The Aga and I danced the weekend away and together we found the heat.

Saturday lunch - a little two step

Carrot, thyme and orange soup with rosemary and onion bread


Ingredients

2 tbls olive oil
1kg carrots peeled and chopped into pieces
1 onion
clove garlic
about 1 litre stock
thyme
juice of ½ orange



Heat olive oil in large saucepan and sweat onions and garlic gently for about 15 minutes. Add carrots, thyme, then the stock and turn up heat to bring to the boil.


Simmer until carrots are tender. Remove from heat. Blend soup and then add orange juice and reheat. Season with salt and pepper and serve with bread.

Rosemary and onion bread
(makes 1kg loaf)

Topping
1 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic crushed
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
Heat oil in fry pan and slowly fry onions until translucent and sweet- about 10-15 minutes. Add garlic and fry another 2-3 minutes.
Mix in the rosemary and leave to cool.

Dough
500g wholemeal plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 sachets fast action dried yeast
310 ml warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix flour, salt and yeast together in large bowl. Stir in the warm water and olive oil. Work to a dough and knead well (about 10 minutes until it becomes springy and bounces back when you poke it with your finger). Roll out the dough into a short, thick oblong shape. Make holes along the top with your finger and spoon over the onion mixture. Roll dough around the filling and knead briefly.

Shape into a loaf and place into well greased loaf tin. Cover and leave to prove in a warm place for approximately 40 minutes until doubled in size.



Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Glaze loaf with a beaten egg. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until well risen and golden. It should sound hollow when you tap it with your finger. Allow to stand in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Saturday dinner - the tango

Boef en daube followed by apple and blackberry crumble


Recipe from the Divertimenti cookbook by Camilla Schneideman (serves 6)

1.5 kg chuck steak or shin of beef cut into large cubes
350g streaky bacon
5 cloves garlic bashed with flat of knife
1 can plum tomatoes, with juice and seeds from tomatoes discarded
6 strips of orange zest
1 ½ glass of red wine
2 teaspoons herbs de Provence or if using fresh herbs, 6 sprigs of thyme, 2 sprigs rosemary, 6 sprigs parsley and 1 teaspoon fennel seeds

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cut bacon into thin strips and fry gently in a heavy pan until fat is translucent and begins to brown. While bacon is cooking, mix together the meat, garlic, tomatoes and orange zest in an oven proof casserole. Add the bacon and salt and pepper. In the pan used to cook the bacon, heat the red wine, deglazing the pan with a wooden spoon to release any sediment. When bubbling, pour over meat in pot.

Put on the lid and transfer to the oven. Once simmering (about 15 minutes) turn the oven down to 140 degress and cook gently for further 2+1/2-hours until meat is tender.

The stew has a thin sauce like French casseroles rather than the thick Italian type ragouts. I served it with mash and string beans dressed with lemon, oil and salt and pepper.

Apple and blackberry crumble (serves 6)


2 cups black berries
6 apples peeled, cored and sliced
2 tbls castor sugar
pinch ground cinnamon
2 cups plain flour
110g cold unsalted butter
½ cup light brown sugar
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 190 degrees
Put apples in pan with sugar and sprinkling of water. Gently cook until apples start to soften. Stir in black berries and cinnamon. Place in 25 x 20cm baking dish.
Mix dry ingredients together. Cut butter into small pieces and rub it through the dry ingredients with fingertips until it resembles dry bread crumbs. Sprinkle mixture over the fruit and bake for 40 minutes till top is golden.

Sunday brunch - lets rumba

Egg and baked bean tart


A little while ago I made egg and baked bean pie's for one. Here is the group version for 6. This time I thought I'd try a different baked bean recipe and I reckon this one's the winner. I had to cheat a little and use tinned haricot beans as I couldn't find any dry beans as I sprinted around the Tesco store in Salisbury on Friday night before jumping on the last bus to Duncan's.

Baked beans

3 tins haricot beans
4 slices maple smoked bacon
1 onion finely chopped
400g canned tomatoes mashed
1 tbls brown sugar
2 tbls wostershire sauce
1 bay leaf
1 star anise
1 teasp sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 extra tbls brown sugar
2 tbls chopped fresh mint

Cut rind from bacon and cut into cubes. Cook bacon and chopped onion in base of lidded ovenproof casserole until bacon is slightly crisp and onion soft. Add tomatoes, brown sugar, maple syrup, wostershire, bay leaf, star anise, salt and pepper and mix well.

Add the beans which have been drained and rinsed, together with 2 cups cold water. Stir and cover tightly. Bake for 2 hours adding a little water if dry. Sprinkle with extra brown sugar and bake uncovered for another 20 minutes until glazed on top. Remove from oven an stir through the fresh mint.


I cooked the beans on Saturday afternoon and then assembled the tart Sunday morning. You need a 28cm pastry case. Follow the same recipe as for the individual pies or use frozen pastry. Heat the beans and spoon into the pastry case which has been blind baked. Make six holes in the beans with a spoon and then gently crack the egg into the hole. Cook in a hot oven for 20 minutes or until the eggs are just set.

Egg bacon and bean pie

My take on the British classic of eggs bacon chips and beans. The magic of my version is that you can hold it in one hand, making it a mobile little tart of happiness.

About the beans. I know it is sacrilege in this country to suggest that there is anything wrong with tinned baked beans but think of this as an entirely different dish - a bit like tinned spaghetti and tinned asparagus - tasty in their own right but neither bear any resemblance to their non-tinned form.

I’m still experimenting with the bean recipe. This time I soaked and cooked the cannellini beans before baking them in the oven. Some recipes skip this step and put the soaked beans straight in the oven with all the other ingredients. This method has a longer continuous cooking time in the oven which means you're stuck in the house whereas you can stagger the cooking when you cook the beans first. I often put the beans in a pot with water to soak as I leave the house in the morning, cook them that night and then bake them the next day. It might sound like a palaver but it really isn’t and once you’ve tasted home cooked baked beans you’ll be serving them on toast at your next dinner party.

Ingredients

250g dried cannellini or haricot beans
1 onion spiked with 3 cloves
1 teaspoon mustard powder
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoons treacle (or tbls brown sugar)
1 x 400g tin peeled whole tomatoes (chopped)
4 slices of smoked bacon, streaky bacon or speck (about 75g) rind removed and chopped
1/2 large onion
bay leaf
1 1/2 teaspoon chopped mint
salt and pepper

Method

Soak the beans 6-8 hours or overnight in cold water. Discard the water and place drained beans in large pot. Cover with cold water. Simmer 1+1/2 hours until tender. Drain and discard onion and water.

Heat oven to 140 degrees. In a large lidded ovenproof casserole saute the chopped onion with the bacon and bay leaf.
In a bowl combine the mustard powder and a small amount of red wine vinegar to make a paste, then add treacle.
Add the chopped tin of tomatoes to the sauteed onions and bacon. Add the mustard and treacle mix and combine. Add salt and pepper then the cooked beans and 1 cup of cold water and mix well.
Place a tight fitting lid on the saucepan - or baking paper and then foil- and bake at 140C for 2 hours (stirring occasionally and adding more water if it starts to look too dry). Remove the lid and add the last tablespoon of red wine vinegar.
When beans are ready, add chopped mint and taste. Adjust with seasoning if needed. If beans are too sweet add some more red wine vinegar, and serve.

The Pastry (Alternatively you could buy ready rolled short crust pastry, but again, home made tastes so much better and once you get over the fear of pastry making it is insanely easy).

Ingredients

240g plain flour
180g unsalted butter
pinch of salt
1/4 cup water

Method

Chop butter into smallish pieces and place in food processor with flour and salt. Process for about 5-8 seconds. Put mixture in a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and add the cold water. Using a fork, quickly stir the ingredients together and then use your hands to bring the dough together into a disc. Lightly dust with flour and wrap in cling film and place in fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out pastry on a bench top, dusting with flour as you go, to about 4-5mm thickness. I do this on a big sheet of baking paper so that it doesn't stick to the bench. Cut to fit 6 x 9inch pie tins. Lightly oil the pie tins and press pastry into the tins allowing the pastry to have a 5mm edge higher than the tin as the pastry will shrink. Prick bases with a fork and then chill or freeze cases for 20minutes or as long as you like. When ready to bake, line pastry with foil and fill with dried beans or rice to stop it from rising. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees for 15 minutes then remove foil and bake further 5 minutes or until light brown , remove from oven and brush with egg white when you remove from oven to seal.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Reheat the beans (apparently when you are putting a wet filling into cooked pastry cases if you heat the filling it is less likely to make the pastry go soggy). Fill the tart shells about 1/2 to 3/4 full with beans. Make a well in the centre of the beans and crack an egg into the hole. Bake it in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the egg is just set. Remove and grate some parmesan cheese on top. Eat in or take it away.