Leek and Camembert Tart

1661 days ago.

This is a really easy and quick to make tart that will really impress your visitors. Lovely with a simple salad and new potatoes. This is a Sarah Whitaker recipe.

(For more recipes by Sarah Whitaker: Sarah Whitaker Recipes)

Ingredients

For the Pastry

1) Cheat and buy some ready rolled shortcrust. If Mary Berry does it then why can’t you!
2) If you don’t want to cheat, then…

6 oz (175g) plain flour
3 oz (85g) butter
1tbsp Parmesan cheese
2-3 tbsp water
1 tsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp mixed drives herbs
Up to 3 tbsp water

For the Filling

1 oz (25g) butter
12 oz (350g) leeks
3 eggs
1/2 pint (300ml) cream
Salt and Pepper
5 oz (150g) camembert

Oven

Simmering Oven, 130C, 250F, Gas 1 and floor of roasting oven

Method

If you are making the pastry, put the flour, butter, poppy seeds, herbs and Parmesan into a processor and whizz until it becomes the texture of breadcrumbs. With the motor running, add the water a spoonful at a time until it comes together as dough. Rollout the pastry and line a 9″(23 cm) flan dish. Chill until required.
Trim and slice the leeks.
Melt the butter in a pan on the boiling plate and add the leeks. Put the lid on the pan and when the lid is too hot to rest your hand on, there will be enough steam in the pan in order to move the pan into the simmering oven for 15 minutes until they are soft.
Mix together the cream, eggs and seasoning. Add this to the leek mixture then pour into the pastry case.
Slice the cheese thinly and arrange the slices on top of the leeks in the pastry.

In the Oven

Put the dish on the floor of the roasting oven and bake for about 25 minutes until the cheese has melted and puffed up a bit.
Garnish with a bit of parsley.
Serve with salad, new potatoes and sunshine!

Tips

Forget loose-base tins. A pyrex dish is perfect for this.
No need to worry about blind-baking the pastry first. In the AGA, it will cook from underneath!
As the dish is on the floor of the oven the pastry bottom will be lovely and crispy.

Enjoy!

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Recipes

Pear and Ginger Brioche Pudding

1977 days ago.

This is a really yummy pudding that is very simple to make on the AGA. Lovely with a dollop of natural yoghurt or cream. This is a Sarah Whitaker recipe.

(For more recipes by Sarah Whitaker: Sarah Whitaker Recipes)

Ingredients

1/2 oz (10g) butter
4 large ripe pears
1 tin condensed caramel (saves you boiling and possibly exploding those condensed milk cans!)
3/4 pint (450 ml) milk
2 balls of stem ginger from a jar and 1 tbsp of the syrup
3 eggs
1 brioche sliced loaf
4 oz (100g) sultanas
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Oven

Baking Oven, 180C, 375F, Gas 5

Method

Set the butter onto the back of the Aga to melt. Brush an Aga deep baking dish with the butter.
Peel, core and quarter the pears and cut them into slices. Grate the stem ginger.
Beat the eggs and milk together in a jug and stir in the ginger and syrup. Mix in the caramel.
Lay slices of the brioche into the dish. Add a layer of pears and half of the sultanas, then another layer of brioche, another layer of pears and finish with a final layer of brioche.
Pour the egg and milk mixture over the pudding and leave to soak for at least half an hour, or overnight.
Scatter the demerara sugar over the top of the pudding and bake

Baking

In a 3,4 or 5 oven Aga: Hang the dish from the 3rd runners in the baking oven.
In a 2 oven Aga: Set the dish into the large roasting tin and hang the tin from the 4th lowest runners in the roading oven. Slide the cold shelf onto the 2nd runners above.
Bake the pudding for about half an hour until it is golden and crunchy on top.

Enjoy!

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Recipes

How to Cook Aga Made Pancakes Like Jo Wheatley

3091 days ago.

Bake Off winner, Jo Wheatley, is a dab hand at cooking on the Aga – she even has a website dedicated to it called Jo’s Blue Aga!

It’s Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) on Tuesday, 9th February 2016 and here’s a simple recipe that Jo has put together.

You Will Need:

3 eggs
1 cup of plain flour
1 cup of milk
20g melted butter
pinch of salt

Jo Says:

“I find this a really simple method and the easiest way to make pancakes. Just use a cup (any sort of cup, tea, or coffee mug as long as you use the same for everything) of plain flour, a cup of milk and 3 eggs, about 20g melted butter and a pinch of salt. Whisk them all together. I cook mine on the cooler AGA hotplate with a reusable mat, but they come out just as fab in a large non-stick frying pan which is brushed with a little light oil. Ladle some of the batter into the pan or onto the mat, wait until the pancake has a dry appearance and then flip over and cook until golden”.

We Say

These are yummy with freshly simple granulated sugar and squeezed lemon juice.

For Jo’s favourite fillings, see Jo’s Favourite Pancake Fillings

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Recipes

Aga Cooked Steak with Chippy Chips for a Holiday Treat

3092 days ago.

Alice, of Brambleberry Jams, has shared with us one of her favourite treats that she and her family always enjoy when on holiday. It’s a very simple and easy Aga method dinner and is perfect for when you want a quick, but tasty ‘evening in’ holiday treat.

What You Will Need:

An Aga!
Cast iron frying pan
Steaks (whatever your favourite cut is)
Chippy Chips
A bottle of your favourite red wine

Whilst You are Out Enjoying Your Day:

During your afternoon exploring, pop into the local butcher and pick up some succulent steaks – whatever cut you fancy but ask his advice on what’s the best deal of the day. Later, on your way home, pop into the local chippy as the last thing you do before you head back to your warm cottage. Don’t feel guilty, you are on holiday and chippy chips always taste nicer when you are away!

When you get back to the cottage, keep the chips wrapped up in their paper and pop them into the bottom oven with the dinner plates (this is the warming oven and on most Agas it is on the bottom right).

Method

Heat the cast iron frying pan up in the roasting oven (that’s the top one, usually on the right) for 20 mins so it’s really hot. Don’t worry, it won’t melt and the Aga won’t catch fire! Meanwhile, unwrap the steaks and put them on a dinner plate and place on top of the simmering hot plate lid to warm up to room temperature (that’s the right hand plate – leave it down so you just put on top of the silver cover). Also, don’t forget to get the red wine opened and put right at back of the Aga on the black flat surface to enable gentle warming.

Next, massage a little cooking oil and seasoning into the warming meat. Then remove the hot, dry, frying pan from the oven and it on the boiling plate (that’s the hot hob plate on the left) and drop the oiled meat in. Be careful not to grab the hot handle with your bare hand! Keep turning the steak every minute for a maximum of 10 mins to be medium done. Leave the cooked meat to rest while you get the chips out of the warming oven and onto your warm plates and then pour your wine.

Alice Says:
The secret of this lovely treat is in the warming of the steaks and pre-heating the pan. It really is the prefect holiday dinner that could only be made on an Aga in 30 mins …. and with only 1 frying pan to wash up!

We Say:
Congratulations, you have just learned all about the Aga ovens and hot plates. Now, wasn’t that easy?

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