Cyder with Eloise

Another weekend and time to explore another local foodie delight – The Bedfordshire Clanger.

Gunn’s Bakery in Sandy has been making the Clanger since 1928.

The Bedfordshire clanger was originally the food of farm laborers. A suet pudding with a meat filling, portable cold or eaten hot on returning home. They were considered affordable, filling and very calorific. As the pudding could be left simmering away all day, ready for the family’s evening return, it suited an area where many of the women were employed outside the home in the 19th century.
For centuries hungry fieldworkers all over the county have tucked into their Bedfordshire Clangers as their lunchtime snack. We are very proud to have produced the Bedfordshire Clanger for the last 50 years, maintaining the tradition and supplying the county with a little taste of history.

However my verdict of the Clanger is going to have to wait as it appears you have to get there before midday to get one. So instead we stopped off at the Chinese supermarket on the way home to pick up some delicacies so we could start cooking from Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey. As usual our eyes were too big for our bellies.

Cambodian marinated beef: – Based on a dish from the Ta Ouv restaurant in Kampot, south-east Cambodia. This is a very simple recipe to put together and the marinade is so fresh I will be using it in a few other dishes in the future. This is the recipe taken from the new book

Ingredients:
500g Rump steak
1 Romaine lettuce, leaves separated
1 tomato, halved and thinly sliced
1 small onion, halved and sliced
50g peanuts, roasted and chopped
3 tbsp vegetable oil
For the marinade
1 red chilli, roughly chopped
1 tbsp chopped garlic
25g/1oz fresh root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
½ lime, juice only
1 tbsp palm sugar
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the dipping sauce
½ lime juice
2 tsp ground black pepper
¼ tsp salt

Method:
1. Trim the beef steak of all fat, then cut into 2.5cm/1in pieces and place into a bowl.
2. For the marinade, place all of the marinade ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour the marinade over the beef and leave to marinate for at least 20 minutes, covered, in the fridge.
3. Meanwhile, arrange the lettuce leaves and sliced tomato and onion on a serving platter. Place the peanuts into a small bowl. Set both the platter and bowl aside.
4. For the dipping sauce, mix the lime juice, freshly ground black pepper and salt together in a bowl and divide among four small dipping saucers. Set aside.
5. For the beef, heat half of the vegetable oil in a wok or large deep frying pan over a high heat. Lift half the beef out of the marinade, add to the pan and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes, or until golden-brown all over but still rare in the centre (or until the beef is cooked to your liking). Spoon the beef onto a warmed serving plate and set aside. Add the remaining oil to the wok or pan and fry the remaining beef in the same way.
6. To serve, set the table with the plate of beef, salad platter and bowl of peanuts in the centre, and a small dipping saucer at each place setting. Instruct your diners to spoon some beef into a lettuce leaf and add the peanuts, sliced onion and tomato on top. Wrap up the beef, then dip the parcel into the dipping sauce before eating.

We also made:
Tom yam gung – Luckily we did not add the prawns too early as this soup had to keep till Sunday as we were so full from the first dishes.
Fresh Spring Rolls – These were quite delicious and have given me a new idea for some packed lunches, but remember once made you have to keep them damp until you eat them to stop the rice paper drying out. You can get the rice papers from any Asian supermarket.

And then if that’s not enough pigglyness for one weekend we have a friend popping in for coffee and cake tonight and it’s our turn to do cake. Chocolate Cheesecake. Never tried baking this before. It is a recipe I found in an Olive magazine booklet.

Chocolate Cheesecake
Ingredients:
125g Butter
250g Digestive Biscuits
400g Light Cream Cheese
180ml Low Fat Fromage Frais
250g Golden Caster Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1tsp Vanilla Extract
200g Dark Chocolate

Method:
Melt the butter and crush in the biscuits then press into a cake tin and chill in the fridge.
Melt the chocolate in a bain marie.
Beat the cream cheese, fromage frais and sugar. Stir in the lightly beaten eggs and vanilla extract.
Pour half the mixture over the biscuit base and then spoon on the melted chocolate and cover with the remaining cheese mixture. Use a knife to make the swirls.
Bake for 45 minutes and then turn off the oven but leave the cake in till the oven has cooled down. Once cold transfer the cake to the fridge and chill preferably overnight.