Octopus and Prawn Skewers

These are so simple and a big hit at parties. Putting the two on the same skewer spreads the cost around a bit and also adds interest. I have nothing against frozen prawns and the only baby octopus I can ever find is frozen in bricks. Read the notes for instructions on defrosting. Ingredients Fish Monger 1Kg Shelled Green Prawns, Tail On 1Kg Baby Octopus, Cleaned, Fresh or Frozen Green Grocer 100ml Lime Juice 1/2 bunch Coriander Stalks, Finely Chopped Dry Store 100ml Fish Sauce 200ml Peanut Oil Bay Leaf Salt Bamboo skewers Method

• Soak the skewers in cold water for several hours - this will stop them from burning too badly.
• Put the octopus in a pot with salted water (taste it, it shouldn't be sea water salty, just pleasantly salty).
• Starting from cold water (this is important), bring the water up to the boil and turn it off.
• Let the octopus sit in the water for 5-10 minutes before draining.
• Put the peeled prawns and octopus is a dish with the rest of the ingredients. Note that the marinade ingredient quantities were totally made up on the spot and forgotten soon after. These are the approximate proportions but you can mix these together before adding the seafood and taste it. It should be quite salty and quite sour.
• Leave to marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours.
• Skewer the meat.
• Cook it on a really hot char grill for just about a minute on each side.

Notes The best way to defrost anything is in the fridge. Put it in a deeper dish than necessary and be sure to drain any liquid that forms as it defrosts. This has a number of advantages over other methods: In a warmer environment, the outside of the food gets warm quickly and is exposed to bacterial growth. Soaking in water can cause flavour loss as will soaking anything in water. Microwaves tend to cook random bits of the food and will eventually give you cancer ;-) And, I've never tried those wonder defrost plates but it seems to me that it must make the bottom of the food heaven for bacteria before the top is defrosted. In an emergency, seafood can be defrosted quickly in really salty water. In this case it should be as salty as sea water. The reason for this is osmosis, kids. If you don't know what that is, go to wikipedia - this is a recipe not a science lesson.

Vacherin like a cake.

A Vacherin is a strange animal. A mix between a cake and a bread, it uses yeast as the rising agent and is made with strong, bread-making flour rather than a softer cake flour. It has hardly any sugar in it (usually just enough to get the yeast all excited) and is traditionally soaked in a sugar syrup after it is cooked. I've tried it both sweetened a little and soaked and I prefer the soaked version. It seems a bit more moist that way. I give directions for both methods in the notes. Ingredients Pantry 500g Strong Plain Flour 8 Whole Eggs 100g Sugar 1 teasponn Yeast 2 tablespoons Milk Powder pinch Salt Fridge 250g Unsalted Butter Method

• Mix the yeast with a little warm water (about blood temperature) and the sugar and let stand.
• Cut the butter up into 1 inch cubes and let it soften.
• Place the flour, salt and milk powder in a bowl (I never sift but then I sometimes get lumpy results).
• Lightly wisk the eggs just to break up the whites a bit.
• Make a well in the flour and work the eggs a little bit at a time into the flour with a wooden spoon.
• By then, the yeast should be a bit frothy, add it to the paste.
• Beat the mixture well until you have a smooth and slightly elastic batter.
• Place the batter in a warm spot (I usually turn the oven on and leave it on top of the range).
• Put the softened butter on top of the batter.
• Cover the bowl with a cloth and allow it to double in size (About an hour). This is called 'prooving' the dough.
• Grease a cake tin generously with butter.
• Pour the batter into the cake tin but remember that it will almost double in size, so don't fill it right up (If you have any left over, grease some muffin trays and pour the rest in there).
• Place in a warm spot to rise.
• When the mixture reaches the top of the tin, put it in the oven at 200 degrees for 40 minutes.
• The cake is cooked when you can put a skewer in and it comes out clean.
• Remove from the tin immediately by running a small knife around the edges and upending the tin.
• Cool on a cake rack.

Notes Ish's birthday cake: Stew 3-4 Granny Smith Apples with some sultanas (Actually I decadently used goji berries for this) and about 200g of sugar. This should take about 15 minutes. Don't add any water. Before pouring the cake mixture into the tin, mix in the cooled fruit.

Ice the cake too; beat 300g Icing Sugar, 1 Egg White and a dribble of Lemon Juice together until it turns verry white and holds stiff peaks (this is called royal icing). Pour over the top of the cake making sure to coat the sides. For Ish's birthday, I also pushed some toasted sunflower seeds into the top and sides of the icing. It looked very exotic.

Adams' birthday cake: Make a sugar syrup by boiling 300g of sugar with about 100ml of water. Add in about 5-6 shots of Grand Marnier or your favourite liqueur. Cut the cake in half horizontally so you have two cakes. Tip the top half upside down and pour the syrup all over both of them. It will seem like a lot but trust me on this. Let them soak for a good half an hour before replacing the top. You could fill the middle with cream if you wanted to at this stage. For a glossy finish, melt some apricot jam and paint it over the top.