Thursday, 6 February 2014

Three-Course Valentines Day Dinner with Perfect Pans

  Valentines day for many people is the adult version of Christmas. We give thoughtful and romantic gifts to our husbands and wives, we enjoy a nice meal together enjoying each other's company and spending quality time with those we love. Why go out to a restaurant full of people, for that "romantic night alone" when you could make dinner for that special person and infuse the best ingredient into each dish... love. 

 We have scoured the books and internet to find you a three-course super indulgent, tasty meal that is sure to be a hit, and can all be done with the added use of your trusted Perfect Pans.




Scallop Caprese Salad

Ingredients:
8 sea scallops
2 thick sliced vine ripe tomato's
120 ml of red wine
2 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

Using a Crafond sauté, frying pan, or Castey Flat Tray add the scallops and brown on one side and cook till you see the tops looking like they are cooking through around seven minutes. Flip over, cook not as long on this side, as they should be almost all done. Around three minutes. Remove from pan set aside, lower heat and add the wine, butter, brown sugar, cook for around 5 minutes and the sauce will thicken a little. Stack the tomato, mozzarella, basil together. Add scallops on top, drizzle sauce over the top and serve.


Lamb with Tangerine-Chile Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon sunflower or rapeseed oil
  • One 2 1/2-pound frenched rack of lamb

  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated tangerine zest
  • 120 ml fresh tangerine juice
  • 1 small fresh red chile, thinly sliced
  • 60 ml chicken stock or low-sodium broth
  • 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter


Preheat the oven to 180°. In a Crafond 28 cm Sauté, heat the oil until simmering. Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Add the lamb to the sauté, fat side down, and cook over medium heat until richly browned, about 3 minutes. Turn the lamb fat side up and cook for 2 minutes longer. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast the rack for about 20 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the centre of the meat registers 65° for medium-rare meat. Transfer the lamb to a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes.

Discard the fat in the Crafond pan. Add the tangerine zest, juice, chili and boil over medium heat until the juice is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add the stock and boil until reduced by one-fourth, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

Carve the lamb into chops and arrange on warmed plates. Spoon the sauce over the lamb and serve.

Serve with seasoned Asparagus and carrots to add colour and vegetables to your dish.


Love Heart Red Velvet Crepes


Crepe Ingredients:

  • 225 grams all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 480ml butter milk
  • 300 ml whole or low fat milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
  • 1 tablespoon red food colour gel
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons sunflower or rapeseed oil (for pan if desired)


Tip for Crepes: Because the buttermilk lends to the acidity of this batter, do not substitute the baking soda for extra baking powder. If you add more baking powder, and omit the baking soda, you’ll end up with a heavy and dense crepe. In order to activate the baking soda, it requires an acidic substance, which the buttermilk provides.  Double-acting baking powder (likely, this is what you have in your kitchen) is activated by heat and an acidic element, and in this case, baking soda does the trick.  Enough with the chemistry lesson– just don’t make substitutes if you want light and fluffy crepes; the recipe is balanced to account for ingredient properties.

Mascarpone Cream Filling
- 500 ml heavy cream
- 300 g mascarpone cheese
- 70g cup icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of 1 orange (optional, but adds nice tang)
-70g raspberry jam (optional, for filling crepes)

Chocolate Ganache  Topping
- 75 g bittersweet chocolate
- 75 ml heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon sugar

Directions:
For the Mascarpone Filling:
1. Using a mixer, mix mascarpone cheese, 30g  sugar, and vanilla until soft and fluffy.  Set aside.
2. Whip cream and remaining sugar to a stiff peak. Carefully fold into the mascarpone cheese until combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For Chocolate Ganache Sauce
1. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. In a small Crafond sauce pan, heat cream and sugar to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, and pour over chocolate. Carefully mix until homogenous, and set aside until ready to use. If the ganache sets, re-melt the chocolate over a double boiler.

For Red Velvet Crepes
1. In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, milk, egg, sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract and food coloring. Whisk until combined.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are combined. The batter will be a little runny (think soup). If you find that the batter is too thick and pancake like, add more milk (regular). Make sure the batter is clear of lumps.
4. Heat a Crafond Crepe Pan over medium heat. For each crepe, spoon or ladle about  60ml of the batter into the center of the pan. Holding onto the handle of the pan, remove it from the heat and swirl the pan so the batter coats the bottom of the pan. You want to make the coating as thin as possible. If you have holes in the crepe, go ahead and add more batter to the pan to cover them. Return to heat.
6. As the batter cooks, it will dry and lose its shine (~ 2 minutes). Once this happens, use a spatula and carefully flip the crepe over. Finish cooking the crepe on the other side (~ 45 seconds).
7. Gently slide the cooked crepe onto an oven proof plate, and keep the finished crepes warm in an oven set at 195 degrees.

Assembling the Crepes:
- If using raspberry jam, place a small amount the center of the crepe.  Pipe mascarpone cream filling, and carefully roll.
- Drizzle with chocolate ganache sauce and dust with icing sugar.




Thursday, 16 January 2014

Soup for your Soul and Waistline


    Hi chefs, we are back into the swing of things following the busy holiday season. As I'm sure you can all agree the weather has been dismal with all this rain and chilly nights. Not to worry though, as we have a double recipe for you this week with two really flavourful soups to brighten up your evenings and warm up even the coldest fingers and toes. Either soup can be made in our  Perfect Pans or the Lloytron Soup Maker we currently have on offer this month for £79.99 with FREE shipping and a FREE recipe book.
www.perfectpans.com


 

French Onion Soup




This recipe is best done in the Crafond or Perfect Pans Stock Pots.

Ingredients:

80g butter, plus a little extra for the toasts
4 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbsp plain flour
3 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
400ml medium cider
600ml good-quality beef stock
Dash of calvados or other brandy
8 slices of baguette
1 clove of garlic, halved
100g Gruyère, grated

Method:

Pour a few tablespoons of sunflower or rapeseed oil into a Crafond Stock Pot and set on a low heat. Add the onions, season and cook, stirring regularly, until caramelised and deep brown. (Once they've softened, you can turn up the heat a little, but keep an eye on them.) This will probably take between 90 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on your nerve.

Stir in the flour and thyme and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring, then add the vinegar and a third of the cider, stirring constantly. Whisk in the rest of the cider and the stock, and bring to the boil. Simmer for about an hour. Meanwhile, heat the grill and rub the baguette slices with the cut side of the garlic clove. Brush with melted butter, and toast on both sides.

Add the brandy to the soup and check the seasoning. To serve, ladle into ovenproof dishes and top with 2 croutons and a mound of cheese. Grill until golden, and then serve immediately.



Onion and Almond Soup

This recipe is best done in the 7ltr 6 in 1 Soup Maker found on our website.

Ingredients
1 onion very finely chopped
½ tsp sea salt
sunflower or rapeseed oil. 
100g almonds (with skin on)
750 ml hot chicken stock
60g butter
¼ tsp nigella seeds
4 large onions diced
1 red chili chopped
1tsp muscovado sugar or dark brown sugar
1tbsp balsamic vinegar
120 ml single cream 
Salt and pepper to taste
 

Method:

Optional fried onion garnish:

 
Put onion slices in a shallow dish and sprinkle with sea salt, then set to one side for at least 2 hours. This dries out all the moisture in the onion. Using your hands squeeze out any excess liquid and pat dry with kitchen towel. Fry the onions in hot oil in a Sauté or sauce pot for 1-2 minutes until golden then drain on kitchen paper.
 
Bring a sauce pot to boil, add the almonds. Turn off the heat and cover with lid. Leave to soak for 15 minutes then drain and slip off the skins when the almonds are cool enough to handle.
 
Put 200ml of chicken stock, almonds, butter, nigella seeds, diced onions, sugar, vinegar into the soup maker and turn on to the smooth setting for approximately 30 minutes. 
 
Add the rest of the stock, cream and salt and pepper to taste and turn back on the soup maker for approximately another 20-30 minutes on the smooth setting. 
 
Serve garnished with the fried onions.


Don't miss us at our upcoming shows and exhibitions, check out our calendar for locations!

Recipes taken and adapted from:
Onion and Almond Soup-Roopa Gulati
French Onion Soup- Guardian Recipes
 

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Fat-Free Cooking Recipe Herb Pork Medallions

Cook Fat-Free, healthy meals with Perfect Pans.  
Give us a call at 01623-441886 or send an e-mail to sales@perfectpans.com



Herb Pork Medallions

Ingredients

· 120g packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

· 15 g finely chopped fresh rosemary

· 1 (12-ounce) pork tenderloin trimmed

· 2 large carrots

· 454 grams asparagus, ends trimmed

· Salt

· Pepper

· 1 bunch(es) radishes, trimmed and cut into thin wedges

· 1 spring onion, thinly sliced

· 1 package(s) (5-ounce) baby greens and herbs mix

· 60 ml balsamic vinegar


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Heat Crafond Sauce Pan of water to boiling on, medium heat.

2. Finely chop one-third of parsley. Rub chopped parsley and rosemary all over tenderloin and let stand while oven heats.

3. Fill large bowl with ice and water. Add carrots to boiling water. Cook 5 minutes. With tongs, transfer to ice water. When cool, remove with tongs to cutting board. Add asparagus to boiling water. Cook 3 minutes or until bright green and crisp-tender. Transfer to ice water. When cool, drain well.

4. Sprinkle 1/8 teaspoon each salt and freshly ground black pepper all over pork. In Crafond 28cm Sauté Pan, add pork; cook 6 to 8 minutes or until evenly browned, turning. Transfer to oven. Roast 8 to 10 minutes or until meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of pork registers 70 degrees C; let rest 5 minutes.

5. While pork cooks, cut carrots into 2-inch-long matchsticks. Cut asparagus into 5cm long pieces. In large bowl, toss carrots, asparagus, radishes, spring onion, baby greens, and remaining parsley with 1/8 teaspoon each salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add balsamic vinegar; toss to combine. Divide salad among serving plates.

6. Slice pork; arrange on top of salads.


New Year, New You, New Pans!


Sunday, 15 December 2013

Pork and Black Pudding Wellington

Hi Chefs! Just got an excellent recipe from one of our customers on Facebook. It would make a hearty dinner, lunch or Christmas evening treat and is made on a Castey Flat tray!





Pork and Black Pudding Wellington
Ingredients

500 g pork sausage meat
200 g black pudding
Chopped parsley
Half tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp. English mustard
500 g puff pastry (I buy mine pre-made at the supermarket because if you have time to make it you have to much time on your hands)




Method:
Mix all the ingredients together, roll out pastry, (40cmx30cm) place all the mixture in the centre of pastry and fold over sides, turn over and place on 35cm Castey PlanchaBrush with beaten egg and bake at 190C for about 30 minutes or until golden brown

Remember if you have any recipes that that you’d like to share post on face book or send us an E-mail with photos and how you did it and we will include it in our next posting. 
This will probably be our last post of the year, so from our kitchen and family to yours, Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 
From all of us at Perfect Pans.






*Recipe Submitted via Facebook.com/perfectpans from Alastair.