British mackerel in Venetian guise
British mackerel in classic Venetian recipe - delicious, healthy and beautiful!
“Sarde in saor”
Mackerel is in season from October-May and is packed with omega-3 fatty acids, Selenium and vitamin B12. Its robust flavour is perfect for this recipe.
70ml olive oil
2 large onions, finely sliced
100ml white wine vinegar
60g caster sugar
1 orange – zest cut into wide strips
1 lemon – zest cut into wide strips
A pinch of saffron
For the fish:
8 fresh mackerel fillets
Plain flour for dusting
Maldon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil for frying
1. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the sliced onion on a low heat until meltingly soft but not
browned. Transfer the onion to a large bowl and add the remaining marinade ingredients.
2. For the fish, lay the mackerel fillets on a large board or tray and season with salt and a
little pepper. Dust with the flour.
3. Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan and fry until golden on each side, about 4-5
minutes.
4. Place the fish in the bowl of marinade and stir to coat. Leave the fish in the marinade for a day to absorb more flavour.
Swedish sponge cake with winter Orange
A delicous cake that takes 5 minutes to make and is a classic favourite - in Swedish "fika".
Whisk 3 organic eggs with 150g caster sugar until thick. Meanwhile, melt 75g butter in 75ml water. Add this plus 110g plain flour and 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder to the eggs and flavour either with half a teaspoon of coarsely ground cardamom - my personal favourite - or the grated rind of one orange. Bake at 175C for 45 min. Eat as soon as possible!
GOLD RUSH!!!
Are you a GOLD card holder?
If the the sound of unlimited cookery classes for 1 year sounds like bliss, you certainly should be!
We are offering an exclusive, limited edition GOLD card valid for 1 year and giving unlimited access to all cookery classes*. The cost of the card is £1000 - the value is unlimited - only time and willingness to join us in the kitchen will stand between you and our stoves.
If you would like to sprinkle a layer of GOLD dust over somebody special, perhaps for a birthday or for Mother's Day, this truly is the kind of gift that keeps on giving.
£1000 would normally cover 7 classes so this exclusive offer is truly amazing. To join the GOLD RUSH email us now on [email protected]
*The GOLD card is personal and non-transferable. It can not be traded in for fewer classes for more people or used by more than one person. It does not include the 8-week, D of E or Chalet courses, nor our culinary trips.
Site development
Our big news is that we will be moving! Not far, and to grow our 3-year old kitchen in an even more stunning building. Our wonderful landlord Homerton college are building a brand new home for us on site, starting this summer and completing next summer. We hope. In the meantime, we will share our site with up to 100 builders...we assume they will need feeding...
Follow our journey here. Pics will follow shortly...
Largest corporate event to date!
As the only providers of corporate events in Cambridge with a cookery theme, we are thrilled to receive glowing reviews from our guests. Our latest challenge was giving 60 people - of which 57 were male and mostly over 6ft - a fantastic time creating delicous food. It is safe to say that we succeeded.
Cambridge BakeOff winner 2014
Cambridge BakeOff 2014 We have found our winner for this year and nobody who followed the 2013 BakeOff will be surprised to hear that last year's runner-up, local sixth former Rachel Stonehouse this year's . Rachel who is doing science subject A levels won with her stunning "First signs of Spring" cake. The Cambridge cookery school team and fellow judges were blown away by a cake so perfect it scored 21 out of 20 possible points!
An apple a day . . .
Apple day at Cambridge University Botanical Gardens brought blustering winds but a lot of happy apple goers!
With preparations all done the night before, myself and Niki arrived at the Botanical Gardens ready to intice the crowds with slow-risen focaccia topped with apples, sage and sea salt. We also served up the massive crowd-pleaser - Apple Crumble Cake.
Placed next to Watergull Orchards, we soon became firm friends for the day in a trade-off of food for cider! There were other great locals exhibiting alongside us - from The Real Bread Campaign to Glebe Farms each of them offering information on how they work with apples.
Our aim of the day was to educate guests on what we offer at the Cookery School and to promote the wonderful gift of a gift voucher for (dare I say it!) Christmas. A gift voucher with us is not just a material object but a wonderful experience that will be remembered forever and will change the way you cook for life.
Due to the heavy foot fall, we were unable to venture too far from our tent yet the array of apples being eaten by people was amazing. My particular favourite was the Red Devil, which seemed to be the apple of choice for kids as well. I do like to think I am ‘down with the kids’!
All in all it was a great day and we hope to see some of the new faces we meet at the Cookery School very soon. Personally if the ‘Nonno’ (Grandfather) from Italy telling me my focaccia bread was amazing and better than home came back I would be enormously happy!
To finish this blog though I have let out a trade secret and added the recipe for the Apple Crumble Cake, if you would like to know about making the Italian styled bread we had, look under our bread courses and it features on Beginner’s Bread. Lastly, don’t forget those gift vouchers for Christmas either for someone special or for yourself, an easy alternative to braving the crowds of town. If you are interested in buying one – please email us at [email protected] and we can take it from there!
Apple, cinnamon and ginger cake
150g soften butter
150g castor sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g plain flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
70g ground almonds
2 apples chopped into small pieces
1 tablespoon each of cinnamon and ginger
Topping
100g each of chilled butter, flour and Demerara sugar
3 tablespoon rolled oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pre heat oven to 180C and line a round loose bottom tin.
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
- Add each of the eggs slowly whilst continuing to beat. Once they are incorporated add the vanilla to the mix
- Sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture and fold in gently. Add the ground almonds and fold to combine.
- Take the prepared tin and spoon the mixture in, smoothing the surface over with a spatula.
- Scatter the apple pieces over the top of the batter and lightly press them in to the cake with your finger tips.
- For the crumble mix rub the flour and butter together to resemble coarse crumbs. Stir in the Demerara sugar, oats and cinnamon. Lastly scatter the crumble mix over the top of the cake.
- Bake the cake for 45-60 minutes.
- Once the cake is removed from the oven place it on a cooling rack cool for 15-20 minutes then release the sides of the tin.
- 10. Once cooled place in an airtight container, it will keep well for 2-3 days (that’s if it hasn’t been eaten in the first 10 minutes!).
- 11. This cake freezes well but make sure it is completely cooled before wrapping tightly in cling film and placing in the freezer.