Kemp Kitchen

07/12/2024

7th of December so about time to sound the mince pie klaxon! Here’s the recipe again for my crumble topped version with almond pastry and bergamot infused mincemeat.

For the pastry / crumble
250g cold unsalted butter, cubed
250g plain flour
90g caster sugar
130g ground almonds
1 orange, zest only
pinch of salt
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar (or soft brown sugar will do)
80g flaked almonds
2 tbsp icing sugar

Mix the butter, flour, caster sugar, ground almonds, zest and salt together in a large bowl with your fingertips (or use a food processor). Once you have a chunky crumble texture, remove a quarter of the mixture and put to one side, this will become your crumble topping. Continue to mix until the pastry comes together into a ball. Wrap & chill for an hour or overnight. Mix the muscovado sugar with the crumble topping and refrigerate too.

Once chilled, roll out the pastry to roughly 3mm thickness and use a round cutter to make circles that will fit your tray. I usually chill again at this point but it’s not completely necessary. Add the mincemeat to each pie, top with the crumble topping followed by the flaked almonds. Bake at 180c fan for 30-35 minutes or until golden. Wait to cool before removing from the trays, sift over icing sugar. You should make 18-24 pies depending on tray size, I use a slightly deeper bun tray but use what you have. I’ve also used this recipe to make one larger mince pie using a 22cm loose bottomed fluted tart tin.

No mincemeat recipe, I’ve never weighed the ingredients or written it down. But if you are making your own it’s a great way to use up any packets of dried fruit in your cupboards and add lots of grated apple or quince is also delicious. Otherwise buy a jar of the best shop bought you can and add 1 bergamot, zest and juice and a generous slosh of brandy. Bergamot (but looks like a lemon/ lime)is the citrus that gives earl grey tea its unique flavour and if you can find one you should definitely add it to your mince pies. If not try soaking your fruit in earl grey tea over night before making your mincemeat.

These reheat well in the oven and are best served with a big dollop of thick brandy cream

03/12/2024

Back to cook a couple of festive dinners for 🎄

Served this delicious salad of winter radicchio with smoked mustard & orange dressing & marcona almonds. Lots of caper & sea salt focaccia, roast delica pumpkin, crispy potatoes and a refreshing clementine & Campari granita before the first mince pies of the season. There was also a pomegranate granita made by blitzing the seeds and extracting the juice, as faffy as it sounds but worth it. December in full swing.

14/11/2024

The almighty Delica pumpkin (with an almighty price tag to match) strikes again. Really the queen of pumpkins for me, and something to look forward to at this time of year. With low water content, higher sugar, and ultimately more flavour. Roasted half to make this very light and moist spiced cake, I make this every year and it’s always a winner. Adapted from a recipe from the archives I’ll link in my stories, with extra ginger in the cake batter and ground cardamom added to the cream cheese icing, toasted sugared pumpkin seeds on top. The other half roasted too, and as the pumpkin roasts, onions, garlic and olive oil cooked down in a pan, then the whole lot whizzed up until silky smooth to make pasta sauce with pasta water and cheese, crispy sage on top. Two recipes making the best of the Delica. Bang for your buck.

15/10/2024

Finally got round to making an Autumn oxymel for the change of seasons. My version of fire cider with lots of ginger, turmeric, lemon, chilli and rosemary with good honey, left to steep in apple cider vinegar. I’ve skipped the garlic, horseradish and onion often added just because I find this combination more enjoyable to drink (loads of fire cider recipes online if you want to do it properly). I’ll leave this for a few weeks, strain it and drink it through the winter. Thought to be anti inflammatory, anti viral and immune boosting, but also a delicious mix of sweet sour and spicy.

03/10/2024

Plum crumble cake. I used light muscovado sugar this time but often make it with regular light brown soft sugar. Or golden caster would also work. You could swap the fruit if you want, apple and blackberries work well but I’ve made this jammy plum version alot and it’s my favourite.

400g plums, stoned and sliced, mixed with 2 tbsp sugar
130g butter, softened
130g sugar
2 large eggs
125g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
70g ground almonds

For the crumble topping
120g plain flour
60g sugar
100g butter, chilled
Pinch of salt
50g hazelnuts, plus more chopped for the top

Line a 22cm round cake tin. Start by mixing the plums with the sugar and leave to soften. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until lighter in colour, add the eggs one at a time mixing well in between. Weigh out the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and sift into the batter half at a time, add the almonds and a small pinch of salt and mix gently. Pour into the tin, spread out to cover the base and top with the plums and their juices. Blitz the topping ingredients in a small food processor to a chunky crumble texture and top the plums. Add the reserved chopped hazelnuts to the top. Bake at 160C fan / gas 4 for 45-50 minutes until golden. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Great hot, great cold, and very good with yogurt / cream /ice cream.

01/10/2024

Realised I hadn’t made a good old vanilla in a while. Vanilla bean ice cream and hot chocolate sauce, name a better combination.

01/09/2024

Yesterday’s cover star is Rukmini Iyer’s hot and sour prawn noodle soup. Shot by the brilliant and styled by me with an all star team

14/08/2024

I’ve been making a lot of this light fresh courgette pasta recently. A recipe written earlier this summer using little baby conchigliette shells, Anglesey sea salt and courgettes while they are in season (abundant if you are growing, cheaper if you are buying and generally at their best flavour wise, especially these baby courg’, so sweet). It’s an easy one to pull together when it feels too hot to do much cooking. shallots cooked down with fresh oregano until soft, pasta cooked to al dente, very finely sliced rounds of courgette added and cooked a little until just starting to soften, feta crumbled into the pan with the pasta water to make a brothy sauce. Pasta added. Lots of fresh basil, a little lemon. A drizzle of your best olive oil. That’s the gist of it but head to for a proper written recipe.

04/08/2024

Stone fruits in salads I love you, part I (big juicy Kentish cherries, Moscatel vinegar, crispy sage + mozz)

05/07/2024

Melons are at their sweetest so I’ve been throwing them in salads every time the sun shines. This juicy melon with juicy toms tossed with a pinch of salt and left for 20 mins. Dressing made from the tomato juices, lime zest and juice, chilli oil, lots of Thai basil and topped with crispy shallots. Please come back 🌞

12/04/2024

28/03/2024

Counting down the days until sunny dinners outside and big ripe juicy peaches to throw in salads.

Last summer at with 🌞

13/03/2024

Got a list as long as my arm of new flavours I want to churn, but can you really beat a good pistachio

18/01/2024

Spicy mushroom ragu bake with plenty of melted mozzarella and lots of crispy edges. Weather for it.

10/01/2024

Spent the first week of the year mostly eating cheese on toast and getting caught in the rain. This much needed sunshine had me craving something fresh and zingy. Citrus season comes when we need it most in January. I used a pink grapefruit here in the place of clementine (or a blood orange, coming soon) to one of my favourite salad dressings to serve in winter. It’s got charred chillies, citrus and lots of herbs. Great with burrata or mozzarella and winter leaves like chicory and radicchio. Use your sharpest knife to segment the citrus and catch the juice in the bowl to make the dressing -
70ml good olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp honey or maple syrup
Juice of 1 big grapefruit/ orange / blood orange
Coriander, chopped
2 green chillis, charred and chopped
Sea salt, black pepper

19/12/2023

December highlights/ the only photos I’ve managed to take. Reads like abit of a bonkers menu, in no particular order

Clementine mezcalitas
Winter leaves with burrata, charred chilli dressing & hazelnuts
Focaccia
Roast carrots, herby yogurt, pistachio dukkah
Little chocolate Amarena cherry & mascarpone tarts
Campari & orange granita
Malted chocolate tiramisu
Pistachio pesto & burrata toasts
More focaccia🎄

17/12/2023

Quince custard ice cream from last month when I was working my way through the bumper crop. Sweet smelling quince filled my flat, lots got poached low and slow with lemon & vanilla, turning the magical deep rose orange colour. This ice cream captures that flavour, I blitzed the poached fruit and mixed with a heavily vanilla laden custard. Already missing the smell of little quince ornaments in every room. Until next year.

13/12/2023

Back from a month of technical glitches on here just in time to sound the mince pie klaxon! There are so many delicious mince pie variations, but this crumble topped version with almond pastry and bergamot infused mincemeat is my favourite. I’ve made a s**t tonne over the years, and it’s still these crumble pies I always come back to every December.

For the pastry / crumble
250g cold unsalted butter, cubed
250g plain flour
90g caster sugar
130g ground almonds
1 orange, zest only
pinch of salt
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar (or soft brown sugar will do)
80g flaked almonds
2 tbsp icing sugar

Mix the butter, flour, caster sugar, ground almonds, zest and salt together in a large bowl with your fingertips (or use a food processor). Once you have a chunky crumble texture, remove a quarter of the mixture and put to one side, this will become your crumble topping. Continue to mix until the pastry comes together into a ball. Wrap & chill for an hour or overnight. Mix the muscovado sugar with the crumble topping and refrigerate too.

Once chilled, roll out the pastry to roughly 3mm thickness and use a round cutter to make circles that will fit your tray. I usually chill again at this point but it’s not completely necessary. Add the mincemeat to each pie, top with the crumble topping followed by the flaked almonds. Bake at 180c fan for 30-35 minutes or until golden. Wait to cool before removing from the trays, sift over icing sugar. You should make 18-24 pies depending on tray size, I use a slightly deeper silicone bun tray but use what you have.

No mincemeat recipe, I’ve never weighed the ingredients or written it down. But if you are making your own it’s a great way to use up any packets of dried fruit in your cupboards. Otherwise buy a jar of the best shop bought you can find and add 1 bergamot, zest and juice and a generous slosh of brandy. Bergamot orange (but looks like a lemon/ lime)is the citrus that gives Earl Grey tea its unique flavour and if you can find one you should definitely add it to your mince pies.

These reheat well in the oven and are best served with a big dollop of thick brandy cream.