Cake.

I'm really going to try this time. Promise!

2011-03-24T21:29:00.009Z

I can't believe I've neglected my poor, innocent blog for the best part of a year! I've decided I need a hobby to fill a void in my meaningless life and to hopefully make me a bit happier. And really, this (cooking, taking photos, writing) is one of the very few things I enjoy in life. So back to blogging it is! Then there's also my ill-formed plan to start a fatshion blog, but that's a story for another day - or never, as I am spectacularly brilliant at procrastination and avoiding things.

Anyway, before I babble on for much longer, I present you (you as in... god knows who. I occupy a lonely, tiny corner of cyberspace) with a meager offering of scones that I threw together tonight to liven up the prospect of leek and potato soup. Bacon, spring onion and cheddar scones though! But they're still just scones, I know... I promise I'll come back with something more adventurous. Maybe. No. DEFINITELY.

Cheddar, spring onions, crispy bacon. I somehow managed not to eat this awesome concoction by the spoonful. What's wrong with me?

You know the drill. Rub butter into flour. Moisten with enough liquid to create a crumbly dough. Bake. I don't use eggs in my scones, and have even used purely water as the liquid when I've run out of milk. I grate butter straight into the pile of flour, it's so much easier than rubbing it in if you're in a rush (this was a weeknight dinner and there was a hungry, grumpy five year old bugging me). Scones need a hot oven, gas mark 6 - none of this weak-ass gas mark 4 required for dainty cakes. They can be cut individually into rounds or just formed into a rough circle and cut nearly all the way through into trianges before baking.

Sorry about the vaguely sweaty appearance. I totally forgot to take a photo and they
had been in the oven for a few seconds.

Please, please do not forget to slather generously with butter. It's amazing. It's magical. No margarine or 'healthy' alternative can replace it. Have these scones, made with butter and cheese and crispy bacon and topped with more butter, once every so often. Totally worth it.

Oh and I forgot to mention, don't be like me. I didn't use a recipe, I chucked things into a bowl and hoped for the best. If you do them by the book and cut them neatly into rounds they should get a higher rise.

Pork burgers & sweet potatoes.

2010-04-22T14:57:00.008+01:00

A super quick, super healthy, super easy, super delicious dinner. SUPER!
If I had been bothered I would have made a tomato sauce, but for some reason the meal still didn't feel dry or incomplete. To keep the burgers moist and give them a lovely texture moosh together a slice of bread (any type, I used wholemeal cos that's what was lying around), one egg and a splash of olive oil into a smooth paste and mix into the pork mince.
To clear the fridge out a bit I also chucked in a yellow pepper, a red onion, coriander, spring onions and a few spices. Chop everything as finely as possible so the burger holds together well.

Bitches be jealous of my mad chopping skills.

Why are sweet potatoes regarded as being so much healthier than white ones? This bad boy had such a high sugar content that it was leaking caramel as it baked.

To make up for being lazy and not making a sauce some tomatoes were roasted. Salt, pepper, olive oil, oven, done.

To make sure you've seasoned correctly, cook off a small amount of burger mixture. Raw pork doesn't taste too good.

Beautiful golden coins of sweet potato and deep red beetroot discs. All these colours mean it's healthy. But also delicious - healthy is good but being tasty is as equally important.

Lamb for Jesus! (Yeah I know it's waaaay past Easter, sorry.)

2010-04-04T20:11:00.010+01:00

What's with everyone eating lamb at Easter? Does it have some sort of religious significance?
Well whatever the reason, we had lamb too. But instead of doing a traditional roast, we made a lamb biryani, vegetable samosas, lamb-stuffed aubergine, and a paneer and okra curry.

Paneer & okra curry.

I don't like paneer. I find it rubbery and tasteless, but I am in the minority - everyone else seems to adore the stuff.

Chopped aubergine for the filling, which was combined and cooked with lamb mince, red onion, garlic and spices.

After removing the flesh (raw) and then baking.

Aubergines are really, really weird vegetables. They have unappealing looking flesh and become an odd texture once cooked, however the smell and taste makes up for its shortcomings.

After baking with the lamb mixture.

Brother and sister forming the samosas. We actually used, controversially, a spring roll pastry instead of the more traditional heavy pastry, simply because that's what was on hand. It worked brilliantly, although being the hideous glutton that I am, I do prefer the thicker pastry.

I apologise for the awfully long absence, although I doubt anyone reads this anymore. So basically.. I should just be ashamed of myself for not having any self discipline. To any freak out there that did miss me, I'm sorry! (Feel free to comment and tell me off.)

Pavlova.

2010-03-14T23:10:00.007Z

Yesterday was mother's day, I made a pavlova.

I had to do the whole thing by hand with a tiny, partially broken whisk, but is was worth it - I love the way the slimy yellow-tinged egg whites gradually become thick, white and lustrous with only the addition of sugar and a bit of elbow grease (mmm, delicious).

I don't care what they say - size DOES matter. At least when it comes to whisks.

It took about 45 minutes but after I put on some banging choons and chatted to people coming in and out of the kitchen, I hardly noticed the work. Plus, it kinda sorta counts as some form of exercise right? Ok, maybe eating it totally negated the three calories I burnt making the thing but whatever.

The recipe is easy, it's just two ounces of sugar to each large egg white. Add a pinch of cornflour and a splash of vinegar (or lemon juice) and it becomes a pavlova. Bake in a low oven for around an hour and 20 minutes and leave to cool. Top with whipped cream and whatever fruit you have lying about - I used frozen raspberries.

I planned to make some sort of raspberry sauce with hints of lime and ginger, but unfortuently there was prosecco to be drunk and bubbly stuff gets me tipsy pretty quickly. This was evident when it came to decorating the thing - the cream and raspberries were dumped unceremoniously on top and I accidentally broke the base a little. Oops.

What happens when you drunkenly attempt to decorate a pavlova.

So taste wise how was it? Well, honestly, there's only so much you can say about it. Sweet meringue (shatteringly crisp outside, marshmallow soft inside), cool cream, sharp raspberries. Simple but pretty awesome.
But my favourite part of the whole thing was definitely getting lots of gratuitous shots of the silky gleaming mixture:

Oh, and yes, I did do the bowl-over-the-head test. I used my sister for that.

Mincemeat & frangipane tart.

2010-01-31T19:35:00.005Z

I could make a thousand excuses as to why I haven't been blogging, but I won't. I don't really know why I've been neglecting this blog - I felt all tingly and happy when I entered in the name of today's post.
Anyway, a billion trillion apologies! Let's get onto the food.
This year (this year? Last year!) I made homemade mincemeat, which is the easiest recipe ever. You gather all your stuff, chuck it all into a massive bowl and mix. Sure, the ingredient list is kinda long, but the process is child's play.
I pretty much used Delia's recipe, changing the ratios and flavours wherever I felt like it. I also didn't bother heating it, but just packed it tightly into sterilised jars (dishwashed, dried in a low oven).
So basically, I had a buttload of mincemeat to use up that had been lurking in the cupboard for two months. Yes, I could have made mince pies but that's a pain in the ass! So a tart it was. Lazy as I am, I acknowledged the fact that one cannot make an entire tart out of dried fruits. This is where the frangipane came in - a soft, almost creamy layer to complement the flaky, crumbly pastry and fruit.

The pastry was a classic shortcrust (half fat to flour) bound only with a little water.

I didn't make enough pastry for the huuuuge case, and ended up having to do a major patch-up job on it. So it look pretty ugly unfortuently. No sugar was added since the filling is sweet enough. In terms of fat, I would advocate using half butter and half lard. Lard freaks people out for some reason, but it really gives the best results. You could use vegetable shortening at a push I guess.

This tart is best served warm with maybe a little cream poured on top if that's the way you roll.

For the pastry, combine 4oz of sifted plain flour with 2oz of salted butter and 2oz lard (both cubed and cold). Rub with fingertips until the texture resembles breadcrumbs.

Bind with as little water as possible.

Blind bake until very lightly golden.

Blind baking with (dried) kidney beans! Works just as well as ceramic baking beads, and the beans are totally reusable.

For the frangipane, clickety click.

Spread frangipane over the bottom of the tart case. Bake until firm to the touch, top with as much mincemeat as you desire and bake again until the mincemeat is slightly golden on top.

The tart was awesome, and I got a thumbs-up from Jamie!

Next time I may have the mincemeat as the bottom layer and the frangipane as the top - this would negate the need for a third baking.

My mincemeat and frangipane tart, if it were to enter a beauty contest, would get totally booed offstage. I'll think of a way to make it more presentable (individual tartlettes would certainly help) but for now, for the family, it's all good!

Stay tuned... please?

2009-12-20T11:21:00.002Z

Bad news: I'm a douchebag with the attention span of a newt and can't keep this blog up.
Good news: I'm going home for the holidays which means a) I'll be doing a lot more cooking and b) I'll have access to my step-dad's awesome camera and will therefore be doing a few more posts.
First up, mince pies?

I know, I know, I'm a total weiner.

2009-11-16T19:19:00.003Z

A delightful photograph of a lady, her pet, and a hotdog.
It's my little way of saying 'I'm sorry'.

No posts in three months??!
I don't even have the excuse of 'I've been busy!' because frankly, I haven't.
I'll try to be super-good and do a post on the party food for my 18th.
Stay tuned folks!
(And try to forgive me?)

In 11 days..

2009-08-27T21:09:00.003+01:00

...I start training as a patisserie chef!
Well, technically I start training as a chef chef, but then I'll branch out into doing more desserts etc.

I'm looking forward to this - it's a little baby step towards my ultimate (and whimsical) dream of owning a very cool cafe with beautiful little cakes, a chocolate counter like they have in France, and proper pastries made with butter.

I don't really know what will happen to this blog.
Will I be too cooked out at the end of the day to even contemplate making a meal for one?
I really, really hope not.

Banana & pecan flapjacks.

2009-08-07T18:38:00.006+01:00

Banana, pecan and blueberry flapjacks to be precise.
Although, I actually only added the blueberries because they had to be used up - the result wasn't disastrous, but it did distract you slightly from the harmonious pairing that is banana and pecan.
Still, flapjacks are flapjacks and everyone ate them with gusto regardless of any intruding berries.

I've only made these twice, and both times I made them by melting sugar and butter together in a pot, adding the squished bananas and pecans, and stirring in the oats with a good pinch of salt. This is imperative, becaause otherwise they would be too cloying and sweet. A quick taste and a prod and you'll know whether it needs more of anything. Then bung it in the oven until it's golden brown. Great for breakfast, packed lunches (they're back in fashion now, right? Recession chic and all that) or to have with a cup of tea in the afternoon if you are so inclined.

The lure of the flapjack is that you feel as if you are eating something very healthy indeed. It seems rather angelic on the surface - lovely nutritious and invigorating oats, fruit and nuts. The food equivalent of taking a bracing walk through the countryside. The food equivalent of a guy with a beard wearing a colourful knitted jumper. Of course, the only reason that they're so moreish is not because of the health benefits, but more to do with all that delicious sugar and butter. Hurrah!

Tip of the day!

2009-08-01T18:31:00.003+01:00

Store nuts in the freezer.
They stay a lot fresher for a lot longer than if they were in the cupboard, and you don't even have to defrost them.

Blackurrants.

2009-07-29T23:22:00.012+01:00

Apparently we have blackcurrant bushes in the garden.
I wasn't aware of this fact until my brother and sister proudly brandished a large bowl of the things in my face this morning.
Despite my obviously marvellous and astounding talent of being able to eat a lime like an orange, I find blackurrants too sour, so whatever we decided to make with the haul, it had to involve copious amounts of sugar. (And so it did! A whole kilogram, in fact.)

After one initial boiling with just a bit of water, we strained them to remove all the skins and tiny stalks and possibly insects. The thicker stuff that came out was mixed with sugar and combined with cream to make a delightful fool.

The rest was boiled again with sugar and a few pieces of ginger. Whilst skimming, I took the time to enjoy the pyschadelic swirls of colour in the pot.

Okay, so it doesn't look too impressive, but trust me, it was.
Kind of. I'm clearly very easily amused.
Anyway, after the syrup was boiled I squeezed in one lime to make a blackurrant, ginger and lime cordial. It's scarily addictive in its un-watered down form - tart and sweet, slightly hot and tantalising from the ginger, and fragrant with lime. I needed a bigger lime hit however, so I trickled some cordial into the squeezed out lime and sucked it all back out. I love lime, did you know that? My teeth were squeaky and my stomach hurt after repeating this process many times, but it was worth it.

I think I also might have invented my own cocktail. This cordial + gin + tonic water = a good drink? I know nothing about cocktails, but the family seemed appreciative. (The kiddies, of course, got an alcohol free version.) Can I ™ that? I'm going to ™ that.

That's the non-alcoholic version. It was pretty cool the way this foamed right over the top of the glass, and it does make a beautiful - and entirely natural - colour. The parents christened this a Bloody Sophie, which they found hilarious. I most certainly did not, and would love and suggestions for an alternate name before that one sticks..

The last blackurrant related item were some cupcakes with blackcurranty icing. My sister is having a sleepover as I type and apparently children these days require sugary treats at ridiculous hours of the night. We ran out of cupcake cases, so I hedged my bets with some petits fours cases - adorable, but labour intensive. What would have been 12 normal cakes turned into roughly 45 mini ones.

Icing them was not fun, let me tell you. Here is a 10-year-old brother's hand to illustrate the size:

Cute, but annoying.

Bread.

2009-07-15T11:54:00.009+01:00

Back from Turkey, sporting some ludicrous tan lines. The worst came from the fact that I was constantly wearing leggings (don't ask), so my legs are ridiculously pale and my feet are beautifully bronzed. How are your holidays coming along?

A while back I had mentioned that I hadn't baked a loaf of bread in all my seventeen years. This fact was unbearable to me so I decided to start making my own bread immediately.

Wanting to take things easy for the first couple of attempts, I decided on a no-knead recipe (the laptop is broken so I've lost the link but I'll try and track it down somehow). Suffice to say, I'm utterly hooked. There is now a permanent, on-going bowl of dough in the fridge just begging to be baked at any given moment. Basically, you chuck together a basic dough (something along the lines of 6 cups of flour, 3 cups of water, 3 tsps of yeast and 3tsps of salt, but don't hold me to it), leave it to rise, then stick it in the fridge for up to a week until you fancy bunging it in the oven. The bread itself is very airy and chewy, with a lovely dark crust. When it gets a bit stale after a few days - if it lasts that long - it makes brilliant toast.

Since there's no kneading involved, the dough is very wet and incredibly hard to handle. Eventually though, after much wrestling with a ball of gloop that loves adhering to your fingers, you will manage to get it onto the tray. I dust mine with flour or semolina usually, but always find that I have to chisel and prise the finished product off the metal. Therefore, I find baking parchment to be the best option.

One day I was feeling particularly energetic so decided to do a bit of kneading. Same formulation, very different dough. Much easier to handle, and of course the baked loaf was different in texture - softer and with less big air bubbles in it.

There were also some experiments with a brown loaf.

And, everyone's favourite, an olive and chilli bread. This particular loaf was gone by the time I woke up the next morning.

Bread machines: Just Say No!

See you in a week!

2009-07-03T12:47:00.004+01:00

I feel bad about not posting recently.
My laptop broke and I've been using - or not, as it seems - the big communal desktop.
Then I realised that I was going on holiday today (had no idea!) so I obviously can't go ahead with a new one right now. But I promisepromisePROMISE I'll come back with something about homemade pasta (hint: never again).
Hope you all have amazing summery adventures.
x

Tip of the day!

2009-06-24T20:55:00.002+01:00

Get ready for beach season
Is swimsuit anxiety kicking in for anyone else yet?
Eat most of your carbs in the morning, and end the day with a light dinner.
Walk more.

Yeah.. that's it.
I don't try hard enough.

Gnocchi with veal ragu.

2009-06-23T13:55:00.010+01:00

Gnocchi, in my opinion, is the best pasta ever. That's probably because I can take or leave spaghetti, orecchiette and farfalle but, hey - these little potato dumplings are fantastic. I adore the way they obediently float to the surface of the water when they're ready.

Usually we would just buy gnocchi ready-made, just like normal pasta, but also just like normal pasta it is very enjoyable to make from scratch.
In my madness, I didn't leave nearly enough time to make these properly and calmly, which is why they look exceptionally lumpen and misshapen. However, it matters not - a blanket of veal ragu and parmesan masked most of the dumpling's 'hunchback of Notre Dame' ugliness.

Gnocchi, of course, would be very easy to convert into a vegetarian meal. You could have them with a simple tomato sauce, or pan-fry in butter until crisp and melt over some mozzarella along with some basil and tiny fragrant tomatoes.

Tip of the day!

2009-06-23T12:55:00.008+01:00

Go vegetarian
It makes sense to forget the meat just once or twice every week -
you'll save money and it's a lot better for the environment.
(Check out the ever-growing veggie category on the right.)

Thanks for encouraging my obsession :)

2009-06-20T11:24:00.004+01:00

15 followers!
Thanks for reading!

Toffee meringues, blackberries & cream.

2009-06-19T18:58:00.015+01:00

There was a small cupful of egg whites in the freezer, and upon finding that there was nothing else interesting to bake with in the cupboards, decided to try my hand at something new.

Meringue, fruit and cream isn't an original combination by any stretch of the imagination, but I really had forgotten just what a good one it is.
I called these 'toffee' meringues because the muscavado sugar gives them a gorgeous buff colour and toffee-like taste. I was going to christen them 'burnt sugar meringues' but decided that sounded a bit too pretentious! So toffee it is.
If we must get technical about it, these are actually mini pavlovas - the addition of cornflour and vinegar makes them so. But, hey, does it really matter? They taste bloody brilliant.

Ingredients:
5 egg whites
200g brown granulated sugar
150g light or dark muscavado
2 tsp cornflour
splash of vanilla
1 tsp vinegar

How to do it:
Preheat oven to gas 4/180°C
1. Whisk the egg whites until they hold firm peaks.
2. Add the sugar slowly, spoonful by spoonful, beating after each addition.
3. Once the mix is thick and glossy, fold in the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla. Spoon onto a paper-lined baking sheet.
4. Stick in the oven, close the door and immediately turn the heat down to gas 2/150°C.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes, then switch off the oven, leaving the meringues in there for about half an hour.
6. Sandwich with whipped cream and serve with a tumble of fruit alongside (blackberries for preference).

The home oven is completely unreliable, so I go by eye for everything which is not a great idea for something as exacting as meringues! But I didn't find them too scary - as long as they're baked at a low-ish temperature, you'll be fine. I started off at roughly gas 4, immediately went down lower, thought they weren't cooking so whacked the heat up a bit more, and then switched it off completely. They turned out lovely though! And as you can see, I had no greaseproof paper so used foil instead. It was absolutely fine, you just have to peel them off rather nimbly.
I also foolishly did this recipe by hand. Suffice to say, my arm just about dropped off.
Also, I think my mix wasn't quite stiff enough - I didn't even contemplate doing the bowl over head test! So it's probably best doing it in a machine.

If you're in the UK, look out for 'king' blackberries. I think they may be exclusive to M&S. They are absolutely stunning fruit. The normal variety are delicious, but these, these are something else.

I honestly haven't enjoyed a dessert as much as I enjoyed this - the meringues were crisp and chewy, the cream soft and thick, the berries slightly tart and staining everything a gorgeous purple.
My little heart is all aflutter with joy after the first attempt at these worked!

Impromptu seafood.

2009-06-19T16:06:00.004+01:00

Scallops with runner beans and watercress sauce.

Basil, minestrone & veg box fury.

2009-06-18T20:27:00.016+01:00

Mother is on the verge of cancelling the organic veg box we get every Wednesday.
I would believe her but for the fact she has said this every week for about 2 months now. Granted, it is rather annoying - it's summer and we're still getting rubbish potatoes, wizened carrots and massive smelly onions, just with the odd gnat-infested lettuce chucked in as a sign of 'summer' produce.
I know for a fact that not all organic produce is as crappy as this. We used to have an allotment, and the stuff we got out of there was 100 times better. It's just a theory, but we're almost certain they save the best produce for the market - everything was so fresh and crisp and enticing enough at their stall to make us sign up for the scheme in the first place.
That being said, we did get some utterly charming little broad beans this week, so maybe we'll hang on in there and see if it gets any better!
They were shelled by little hands (sibling no.4) and added to the minestrone.

Weirdly, I've never actually made this before, but I wasn't too worried since soup is one of the easiest things to cook.

I sauteed one large onion and three cloves of garlic and added two courgettes, a red pepper, two carrots and a handful of wholewheat spaghetti. On top of that went a whole load of water, one chicken and one mushroom stockcube, and a tin of tomatoes.
The ubiquitous squirt of ketchup and dash of soy (in my cooking at least!) also went into the pot.
Our purple basil is growing wonderfully, so a handful was finely chopped into lovely ribbons and added last of all. Yes, yes, I know - never chop basil, always tear. But to that I say CODSWALLOP.

I won't give a step-by-step recipe as it seems a bit condescending to be honest. Soup is lovely and forgiving because it is completely open to interpretation, so is pretty hard to get wrong.
Please forgive the photos, it looks rather awful but tasted fantastic - savoury and tomato-ey and fragrant with basil which was intensified with a little pesto and handful of freshly grated parmesan. Even the veg hater of the family managed a whole bowl! (And no, that's not me..)
I just wished we had an old hunk of parmesan rind to chuck in the pot, because it makes the broth lovely and silky and provides a beautiful savoury undertone.

I'll definitely be making more of this in the future. It's a fantastic way of using up odds and ends, tastes great and is exceptionally good for you.
Huzzah!

A 'marbled' banana bread.

2009-06-15T20:14:00.003+01:00

Found four bananas blackening quietly in the bottom of the fruit bowl today.
Attempted to make it a marble cake, failed spectacularly.

Chicken macaroni soup, revisited.

2009-06-15T19:42:00.008+01:00

So, waaaaaay back (well, okay, only a month ago, but doesn't it feel a lot longer?) I promised to get a better shot of my chicken macaroni soup, since the last photo, frankly, sucked.
If you've read that post you'll know just how much I adore this. I mean, I will love it irrevocably until I die. True story.
Anyway, if you haven't eaten this before, I must implore you to do so. It's really easy to do and can be tailored to your own taste with ease.
(Clickety click on the link above to get the recipe.)

Tiramisu for a birthday dinner.

2009-06-12T11:28:00.019+01:00

Sibling no.3 turned his first double-digit number yesterday.
As is family tradition, we are allowed to choose three courses for a birthday dinner.
He went for vietnamese spring rolls, followed by rendang, with tiramisu for dessert.
For some reason he didn't choose the crispy spring rolls (why? why would you forgeo something deep-fried?) and instead went for the fresh variety. I must admit, they taste totally amazing thanks to the great filling my mum makes.
I think it involves carrot, pork mince and some form of cabbage, as well as copious amounts of fresh grated ginger, a few cloves of garlic, red chilli, and a splash of nam pla (fish sauce). I made nuoc cham (a dipping sauce of lime juice, nam pla, sugar and red chilli) to go with them. Once constructed, they look gorgeous with the slightly translucent rice paper skin shining whitely against the plate. They were delicious with a few tiny purple basil leaves tucked inside too.

I was going to write about the rendang (a sort of curry dish popular in Malaysia. It's usually made with beef, and it's slowly cooked. Once all the liquid has evaporated, the curry paste is added and fried with the then tender meat). However, I realised it is highly un-photogenic. Like, even worse than stew . You can see what I mean by clicking here .

So we shall instead skip gaily onto dessert.
It's a bit weird to sing happy birthday whilst crowded round a tiramisu and sticking candles in it, but that's just the way we roll. Yeah.
This is the recipe I used.

The whole thing turned into quite a debacle.
I had already started making the sponge when I realised I had only 6 eggs - the recipe calls for something like 9.
Secondly, there was no sugar in the house apart from muscavado.
Thirdly, I managed to scramble my egg/sugar mixture when I left it on the heat and wandered off to do something else..

So I ended up making a few adjustments to the recipe.
I was meant to use 3 eggs + 3 yolks in the sponge, instead used only one extra yolk.
And, since I screwed up the egg mixture for the mascarpone layer, that ended up eggless.
With everyone else at work/school, I had to work out which bottle in the cupboard was rum. I naively thought it would actually say 'rum' on it (that's not too much to ask, is it?), so when I couldn't find any I instead sniffed my way through about 5 different drinks until I found the one that smelt like it would be good in this dessert. I still do not know what I put in there!
Luckily the muscavado worked - the soft dark sugar gave the dish an extra flavour not to be found in caster, and lent the mascarpone and cream a lovely colour.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool the way the eggs and sugar turned from this:

into this:

Or maybe that's just me, I'm very easily amused.

I have a shameful secret..

2009-06-11T13:08:00.006+01:00

My name is Sophie and I am a fussy eater.

There.
I said it.

Alas, dear friends, it is true. I am and always have been very picky.
It's not that I don't try different foods - how can I not? I'm mixed race after all - but it just so happens that most of what I try I don't like.
I really, really hope I grow out of it, but to be honest I'm not holding my breath.
I mean, how can I write about food, photograph food, savour food, and love food when I don't like half of what I cook?
Remember those cute little spiced beef patties I made on Wednesday? Yeah, didn't eat them.
And the Italian beef stew that I waxed lyrical about? Didn't touch it.
Other things that make me ever so slightly green are:

-fish
-shellfish
-in fact, any seafood
-beef, bar the occasional burger or steak
-dried fruit and candied peel
-curries of any kind
-mushrooms
-lamb
-sausages
-bread & butter pudding
-charcuterie
-stew
-meatballs
-Middle Eastern spicing
-Indian spicing
-risotto
-celery & celeriac
-aubergine
-pork (except bacon, duhh)
-coconut
-lemongrass & lime leaves
-ravioli

Okay, let's stop there before you lose all faith and denounce me as a philistine and person of ill-repute, as this lady clearly does.

I thought I should own up before continuing with this BLOG OF LIES. I am so ashamed.
So next time you read about me fawning over some lovely fat, speckled sausaged that were delivered from the farm, you'll know I'm talking bs.
Oh dear, I really haven't thought this through..

How frankly atrocious of my tastebuds to betray me in this way!

Dan Leperd's 'simple milk loaf'.

2009-06-03T23:23:00.009+01:00

As you can most certainly tell by now, 11:00pm is my favourite time to be baking.
The house is quiet and I'm always effortlessly calm.
Tonight I chose to do a plain white bread, and went with Dan Leperd's milk loaf because he is simply quite brilliant and his recipes are among the few that I trust.
The technique is really interesting - usually the wet ingredients are added to the dry, but in his you whisk together milk, yeast and golden syrup, and then add the flour and salt. To make things even weirder, you knead in the fat after forming the dough. Then there's also the fact that you knead it FOUR times (leave for 10 minutes, knead for 10 seconds, repeat).
Clearly, it was worth it - the raw dough looked absolutely gorgeous, and the finished product was outstanding.
So, it seems that trust remains unsullied.
This bread is truly delicious, and isn't at all leaden or tough like I feared homemade bread would be. It has a lovely dark crust and a pillow-soft, fluffy inside.
The only instruction I didn't quite get the point of was to split the dough in two before placing in the tin. Why? It looked a bit weird, kind of like a seam. Frankenstein's (bread) monster:

Sorry about the fuzziness, it was obviously rather dark so the shutter was really slow. I absolutely refuse to use flash - I hate the way the light looks harsh and flat. I did try out a flash diffuser a few times, and although there was a difference, it was only a slight one.

So, simple it is not.
Was it worth spending 3 hours of my life on?
100%, definitely, absolutely yes!

Hummus, pitta bread and spiced beef patties.

2009-06-03T19:16:00.017+01:00

With the abundance of steak mince that arrived yesterday it made sense to make something with it tonight.
Since we had pizza yesterday it seemed a bit wrong to have pasta, which unfortuently ruled out the obvious and easy options of lasagne, bolognese and meatballs.
Instead the mince was turned into little patties to go with hummus and pitta bread - two things we eat often, so I was glad to have the oppertunity to make them from scratch. The meat was coarsely ground, which made it perfect for the job of making sure the finished product had lots of texture.
If you can't find sumac, it can be replaced with some lemon zest.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
1kg steak mince
1 shallot
3 cloves garlic
coriander
sumac
paprika
1 red chilli
salt
mustard seeds
breadcrumbs
1 egg

How to do it:
1. Finely chop the shallot, coriander, red chilli and garlic.
2. Lightly toast the mustard seeds in a dry pan.
3. In a big bowl combine the mince, shallot, coriander, garlic, chilli, mustard seeds, spices, salt, egg and breadcrumbs.
4. Shape into tiny burgers or 'sausages', kofta-style, and cook in the oven, a pan, or on the barbeque.

You can of course omit or add any flavourings you wish. These would also work with minced lamb.
Another variation would be using pork mince (with red chilli, coriander, garlic and ginger) and rolling them up in big lettuce leaves with a chilli, lime and nam pla dipping sauce on the side. Yum!
Go vegetarian - for a chickpea overload, make little falafels instead of the meat patties.

Hummus is very rewarding to make from scratch, because it requires only a few minutes of your time, costs pennies and is absurdly easy to do, but what you get out of it tastes fantastic. Remember the salt - chickpeas are a delicious but bland canvas and need to be seasoned well. This recipe is hummus at its most basic, and can therefore adapt to any additions you may choose to throw at it - black pepper, coriander, paprika, chilli...

Ingredients:
chickpeas
garlic cloves
lemon juice
tahini
olive oil
salt

How to do it:
It couldn't be simpler - go blender-happy and blitz the stuff into oblivion!
Well, okay, not quite. I blended the chickpeas, garlic, salt and tahini first for a bit and gradually added the lemon juice and olive oil. This ensures you get the texture you like best.
I didn't put any measurements down, because it's one of those things that does not require a recipe. You just blend away, and taste as you go along until you're happy with it.
I ended up using five cloves of garlic and the juice of 1 & 1/2 lemons, when I thought it would only come to about two cloves and half a lemon.
Point is, it's all down to personal taste so just go with it!

And lastly, onto the pittas. I used Jill Dupleix's recipe, which can be found here.
I'm assuming I rolled them too thickly, because they weren't slightly hollow as pittas should be. Also, I added some coriander to them to echo the coriander in the meat which is why you can see some weird dark green flecks in the dough.
They tasted really good though, and I would urge you to try making them - people are very impressed but they're so easy to do! I'll just have to remember to roll them thinner next time!

All in all, a very successful dinner. I felt all glowy and ethereal from cooking all day. I love being in the kitchen when it's quiet, just slowly and calmly working through everything.

Intense heat & the wonder that is online shopping.

2009-06-02T15:34:00.016+01:00

True happiness would be if the myth about Scottish weather (always cold or snowing) was actually true. Even though I'm half SE Asian, I still can't stand the heat! Anything above 8°C is too hot for me to handle. True story. So imagine my immense displeasure when I read the thermometer today:

It's a little hard to read but basically it was THIRTY degrees celsius! I think that equates to around 86°F. Disgusting.

Luckily there were two deliveries to cheer me up - the first was a huge box of meat straight from a local farm. I think there were roughly 10 packets of this steak mince, and that only acounted for a third of the overall weight. Crazy.

The second was full of Italian deliciousness. As you can see, I had lots of fun demolishing the packaging to see what was inside.

First to be uncovered was fresh pasta, some of which was basil and some mushroom.

This is for sibling no.3's 10th birthday. He is completely enamoured with stuffed pasta. It's a possibility that he may be getting a pasta machine so he can make his own - for now though, the good bought stuff will have to suffice.

Next up was a tiny panettone. I show you this not because I especially enjoy it (dried fruit, specifically dried peel, makes me gag), but simply because it was so darn adorable:

Third, some delightfully retro (in design only!) stock cubes.

This is why I love my mum:

I've always wanted to try a '00' flour, just to see it lives up to the hype. It was 99p for 1kg, which isn't too bad but you probably wouldn't use it for everyday things like a roux.
I cannot wait to try my hand at some '00' dough.
Other items included a jar of pesto, and another of beautifully russet-red sundried tomato paste.
There was a large silver packet of yeast (which I'm slightly worried about because the whole thing has to be used within a month of opening), a bottle of wine*, marinated olives, buffalo mozzarella, pizza mozzarella (proper stuff, just dried slightly so it doesn't leak milky cheese juice everywhere upon cooking) a ball of pizza dough, and carnaroli rice for risotto.

I must say, I was sceptical about the ready-made dough, but tried it tonight and it was pretty fantastic. The ingredients were 00 flour, olive oil, water, sugar, salt and yeast, so it wasn't gross & overly-processed. It was shatteringly crisp and pretty much perfect. I still don't really get the point though, because you still have to roll it out which is the most labour-intensive part of pizza making anyway. Actually making the dough is the easiest part.

Most teenagers get excited over the prospect of an alcoholic beverage and a house party - I get excited over deli items. Hmm.

*Please don't ask me about it.. I can tell the difference between a bad wine and a good wine, but that's about the extent of my skill concerning fermented grape juice.

Video entries - yes or no?

2009-05-31T21:02:00.004+01:00

I'm toying with the idea of posting some video entries:

Pros
It would provide endless amusement for you all to see what a prat yours truly really is.

Cons
It would provide endless amusement for you all to see what a prat yours truly really is.

Opinions?
Should I go for it? Everybody that knows how to open a packet of instant cake mix has their own cooking series on Youtube.
Would yet another one do that much damage?
It would probably just be a drop in the ocean to be honest.

But what do you all think - yay or nay?

Orange cake and summer eating.

2009-05-29T16:58:00.012+01:00

Tonight two American scientists came to our house for dinner.
I think their accents are funny.
They have trouble understanding mine.
It's silly, at school I was teased for my accent being too 'English' and 'posh', but to the rest of the world I might as well be wearing a kilt and swilling whisky.

It was really hot here today, round about 25°C.
Dinner was simple as mother had no time to shop or cook, because she came home straight from work with the Americans in tow.
As an impromptu starter, we had houmous with a dusting of paprika and a drizzle of olive oil, olives, vividly pink radishes, crusty baguettes and a pressed ham hock terrine.

As the 'main course' there were prawns with garlic, red chilli and finely shredded basil, fish done on the barbeque (which unfortuently managed to fall apart spectacularly) and potatoes baked in cream and shallots which contrasted rather oddly with the otherwise light meal, but in my defence I had no idea what was happening and was instructed to make something, anything, with the mountain of spuds that had arrived with the veg box on wednesday.

For dessert it was yet another concoction I managed to bluff my way through - a rosewater, almond and orange cake with a honey and orange syrup poured over it. Very similar to the orange and poppyseed one in fact, but better.
It was extraordinarily dumb of me to completely make up a recipe when I was supposed to be impressing guests. Ah well, it ended up being delicious so that's all that really matters I suppose. I have no idea what the measurements were, but I basically creamed together butter and sugar (not too much sugar, as it would have been hideously saccharine with the syrup), added two egg yolks, ground almonds, rosewater, the juice of an orange + the zest. Flour was folded in and then the egg whites were beaten and stirred in gently. The syrup was the juice of one orange, half a lime, muscavado sugar and honey.

Annoyingly, there was an absence of any icing sugar in the house, so I had to serve the cake all covered in holes from where I had poured in the syrup, with no way to disguise them. Ugh.
It's an ugly looking creation, but one that tastes so, so gooooood.

I need to restrain myself..

2009-05-29T10:11:00.004+01:00

from posting non-food related entries!
The only reason I allowed the previous 'At the moment..' to slip through was because there was a KitchenAid tucked in there somewhere.
I do apologise.
I have a new blog that's all about my futile attempts at being human.
It should distract me from posting non-foodie things on Cake.
Here's hoping!

Tonight: salted butter tart?

At the moment..

2009-05-28T17:55:00.012+01:00

The disadvantage of having your birthday so close to Christmas is that you have to wait a whole year to have gifts bestowed upon you. Those with summer birthdays only have to wait six months.
I want these items so bad that it hurts.
I fear that if I have to wait for another 7 months I may implode.
Yes, I know I shouldn't be focusing on material goods because that's badbadbad, and that other children have nothing, but I can't help it.
Feast your glazzballs on these beauteous objects and tell me you don't feel the same way:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH.
I told you!
Look how beautiful and gorgeous and appealing and charming and colourful and amazing and fantastic and [insert more adjectives here] they all are!
Only 169 days to go...

Challah-like bread pt. 2 - (slightly) better photos.

2009-05-28T02:16:00.005+01:00

I wasn't satisfied with the previous photos of my first loaf of bread.
So here are some new ones.*
Isn't this your lucky day?
(Hah.)

Yet again my braiding is an epic fail, but the texture of this loaf is actually better than the last.
It looks a little dark because it's currently 2:39am. I felt slightly sick so went to bed at 5:00pm, woke up at 9:00pm, and now can't get to sleep again.
There's nothing like a little thereputic late night baking, so hopefully it will aid me in losing conciousness.

*I know, I know, they still really suck. It is, however, far too late at night/early in the morning to be worrying about artistic merit or even whether the photo is in focus or not.

Banana bread & my first attempt at risotto.

2009-05-25T19:21:00.014+01:00

The family members that went to England (two siblings and both parents) returned today.
I wanted to cook something nice.
Possiblities were narrowed somewhat as dinner had to involve a whole cooked chicken that had been lurking in the fridge. Serving it whole was out of the question because it wouldn't stretch to seven people. A salad seemed too dull, sandwiches too pedestrian, a pie too boring. So funnily enough I settled on a dish that many find repellent in it's blandness, but seemed slightly exciting to me as I had never cooked it before. I have eaten risotto half-heartedly many times, yet never once made it myself.
I shredded the meat and used the carcass to make the chicken stock. I had no peas so instead sliced green beans into tiny rounds which were added with the shredded chicken to the risotto. Alongside, we had asparagus that had been brought from England. I forgot to add saffron.

Don't you hate it when bananas go brown before you have a chance to eat them? There were five like that in the fruit bowl this morning so I baked banana bread. We haven't had it in a while, so it was lovely to make it again.
Banana bread is pretty hard to get wrong. Case in point, I completely made up this 'recipe' today and it turned out beautifully. This recipe is not very sweet, so tweak the sugar content to your liking. I used five bananas to save them the fate of being chucked in the bin, however three is around the right number.
The riper the bananas the better.

Makes one loaf.

Ingredients:
3 bananas
3 tablespoons natural yoghurt
1/2 cup granulated or muscavado sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 free-range eggs
100g butter, melted
2 cups self-raising flour
salt
cinnamon

How to do it:
Preheat oven to 350°F/gas 4
1. In a large bowl mash the bananas with the yoghurt, sugar, and eggs.
2. Stir in the butter, vanilla, salt and cinnamon.
3. Fold in the flour.
4. Pour mixture into a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper. Bake until a skewer comes out clean.

This weekend was good.
My first loaf of bread and my first risotto.

More late night baking & something vaguely challah-like.

2009-05-24T01:26:00.011+01:00

I can't believe I have never baked a loaf of bread.
Not once.

Sibling no.2 has a ballet exam tomorrow and will be dancing all day so I thought I would make her something sustaining for breakfast tomorrow. Hence the fact that I am awake at 1:30am, glazing a loaf with egg before it goes in the oven. I am attempting to make challah - it's always seemed so tempting, but one of those things that I never really thought to make at home. After much researching, I decided all the recipes online differed too much from each other. Not knowing which one to pick, I cobbled together my own:

Ingredients:
5 cups of plain flour, plus extra for kneading
1 & 1/4 cup lukewarm water
5g of dried yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
poppy seeds

How to do it:
Preheat oven to 350°F/gas 4
1. Combine the yeast, sugar, honey and a 1/4 cup of water and leave for a few minutes until frothy.
2. In a large bowl mix the flour, salt and poppy seeds.
3. Into the flour add the oil, yeast mixture, cup of water and 3/4 of the egg.
4. Combine and knead on a floured surface, adding flour gradually until the dough is smooth and elastic.
5. Put dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a teatowel and leave for an hour or until doubled in size.
6. Split dough into three equal parts, and roll these parts into long snakes.
7. Lay the three parts alongside each other and press their ends together. Braid the dough and press the other ends together.
8. Place on a floured baking sheet, cover again with the teatowel and leave to rise for 45 minutes.
9. Using the remaining egg, glaze and scatter more poppy seeds on top if you want.
10. Bake until golden brown.

Makes one very large loaf.

You can see from the rather poor quality photo (sorry about that - the good camera is off to England along with half the family), I wasn't too great with the braiding. I am far too impatient. It didn't really matter in the end though - what a handsome loaf! And, wow, did it grow - as you can see, it rivals a cast-iron Le Creuset pot in size. I'm very pleased with my first attempt at bread.

Right, I'm going to sleep!

P.S. I have no idea how traditional my recipe is. All the recipes I came across stipulated using sesame/poppy seeds on the top of the loaf, whereas I put them through the dough too (I am a poppy seed fiend). I am certainly no expert, and haven't even eaten challah before. So this is most likely not the real deal. You have been warned!

Meat, meat and more meat. Oh, and some asparagus too.

2009-05-22T20:04:00.004+01:00

Today was a fantastic day.
We went to Loch Lomond and frolicked on the beach and climbed trees and threw rocks into the water and clambered along rocky paths and climbed a small hill and smelled some wild mint and then stole some of said wild mint to plant in a pot and had a pub lunch and laughed when sibling no.2 fell down twice in a row and attempted to skim stones and sat in the sand and fell asleep in the car on the way home. It was fun.
It was also sunny and warm so we broke out the barbeque and had a protein-fest consisting of burgers, chicken and sausages. Along with that there were little pastry half-moons filled with feta cheese (M&S I'm afraid), asparagus with olive oil and chorizo, salad and olives. There were a few leftover baked potatoes from the other night (I was telling the truth when I said I hadn't eaten anything interesting recently), and the flesh was scooped out and mixed with spring onion and cheddar, and then baked in the skins. There were two profiteroles each for dessert.

Everyone was thoroughly confused as to why we had such a feast today. Mother basically read me her will as half of the family is travelling to England tomorrow and told me it was a possibility that they may die a horrific and fiery death on the motorway. So I am now doubly confused. Why the sudden paranoia?

I despise it when people pronounce chorizo as 'cho-RITZ-oh'. It drives me bloody insane.

At the moment..

2009-05-21T20:38:00.006+01:00

So I feel I ought to apologise for not posting anything in what feels like weeks but is in actual fact two days.
I haven't been eating anything very interesting.
We did have a chicken dish which was thighs and drumsticks roasted, coated in a sort of Chinese BBQ sauce*, and roasted again. A beancurd, cucumber, beansprout and peanut salad was served alongside. I was planning to write about it because it tasted great but was in a slightly weird mood that day and decided that the photos were, frankly, rubbish. So I forgot about it. Sorry.

But anyway, I was half-heartedly surfing through youtube and stumbled across something called 'Cooking Coarse' (purposefully misspelt). It's a series of little lessons in methods of cooking, rather than actual recipes. I completely agree with his 'philosophy', and ended up watching about 15 of the videos today alone! So to understand what the heck I'm babbling about, I must implore you to check out the below video:

*soy sauce, ketchup, sesame oil, chinese vinegar, five spice powder, sweet dark soy sauce, salt + pepper seasoning (which includes five spice powder, ginger powder, salt and sugar)

Italian beef stew.

2009-05-19T17:58:00.009+01:00

Well, I say Italian, but it's nothing authentic.
This is a great way to make the most of a so-called 'inferior' bit of meat - after a few hours of cooking it becomes incredibly flavourful and everything melds together wonderfully.
There's also the added bonus of it being incredibly easy to do. Even though it takes a good 3 or 4 hours to cook, you're don't have to be anywhere near the stove during that time. It'll just bubble away quietly while you do other things. All in all this requires just 20 minutes of hands-on time.

Ingredients:
1 kilo of braising steak, cut into chunks
3 medium red onions, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
salt + pepper
1/2 bottle of good red wine
1 tin of tomatoes
1 beef stock cube
3 bay leaves
4 large carrots
and an optional sprig of thyme, rosemary, oregano, whatever you have to hand

Serves 8

How to do it:
1. Chuck the onion and garlic into a big pot with the olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and cook over a low heat until softened.
2. Turn up the heat to medium and add the meat to the pot.
3. Add the wine, tinned tomatoes, stock cube and herbs. Grind in a fair amount of black pepper.
4. Top up with water and leave to simmer away for as many hours as you can, but a minimum of three. This makes the meat incredibly tender.
5. An hour before you plan to serve, add the carrots into the stew. You could also add mushrooms.

Today we had the stew with crushed potatoes and buttery pan-fried leeks.
It's also great with pasta, or even just some crusty bread to mop up the meaty juices.

P.S. I hate how stew always looks like dog food in photos. Delightfully delicious dog food, but dog food nonetheless.

Hurrah!

2009-05-19T13:34:00.004+01:00

I have 10* followers!
Thanks guys!

Tonight: Italian beef stew.

*Okay, so two are friends that were forced into it and one is my step-dad.. but still, 10!

At the moment..

2009-05-18T14:18:00.008+01:00

I'm listening to Franz Ferdinand on Youtube of all places, since I can't afford the CD right now. Ugh, and I call myself a fan! I should be peddling crack just to be able to purchase it.

I dropped the boy off at nursery today. He was sporting a large cut underneath his eye from some toy-related incident.
I was wondering why the first thing the nursery lady said to me was 'What happened to his eye?' and was even more perplexed when she proceeded to ask him the same question as I was leaving. Being the naive idiot that I am, it didn't occur to me that she might have thought I/mother/step-father had beat on him until I had walken halfway back to the house. So rather unfortuently I am now a renowned child-beater. Fantastic.

On a more positive note, I made cookies!
Yes, yet another batch of deliciousness!
It's okay though, because I'm at the house so the family will eat them all to save me from myself. I just thought they should try the doughy awesomeness.
Today they're extremely grown-up cookies with 70% Green & Black's chocolate and hazelnuts. G&B's chocolate is quite interesting - it almost tastes like black olive and is very intense. I still can't decide if I like it or not.
Also, are cookies something that shouldn't be dressed up? Should they be trashy with bad milk chocolate all the way? Is attempting to make them more sophisticated a travesty? I am very undecided on this most controversial issue.

Late night baking - boysenberry & lemon biscuits.

2009-05-16T23:02:00.008+01:00

So it's 11:00pm here and I've just put a tray of biscuits in the oven. It's not to satisfy some rampant craving, but rather sibling no.2 needs some baked goods for her tennis match tomorrow at 10:00am and I don't plan to be up earlier than that. So out of love for sleep & laziness, I'm doing them now. Perversely, it's the same amount of work and the same amount of sleep whether I make these today or tomorrow.. I guess I just like being awake later rather than earlier.

Note: the dough will seem too crumbly too bind together, but don't be tempted to add any more liquid, instead persevere and conquer!

This is adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe for Lemon Gems.

Ingredients:
200g butter, softened
75g caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
zest of one lemon
pinch of salt
275g plain all-purpose flour
40g ground almonds
25g cornflour
boysenberry jam

How to do it:
1. Beat the butter and sugar together. Beat in the lemon juice + zest, salt and egg yolk.
2. Fold in the flour, then the cornflour and ground almonds.
3. Preheat your oven to gas mark 4/350°F.
4. Shape the dough into balls and flatten onto a lined baking sheet.
5. With your thumb, press to make an indentation in the dough (for the jam to go in later).
6. Bake in an oven at gas mark 4 for roughly 20 minutes.
7. Once very lightly golden, remove and immediately spoon some jam into each indentation.
8. Leave to cool completely.
Makes roughly 20.

Variations: You could of course top with lemon curd to match the lemon in the dough. For orange biscuits, replace the lemon zest & juice with orange, and use marmalade for the top. For lime ones, use lime zest and juice and top with lime curd. Or, my siblings' favourite, add some crunchy peanut butter to the mix (beat in at the first stage) and use strawberry jam for the topping - delicious.

These were great. Crisp and buttery, not too sweet, and the boysenberry went nicely with the lemon.
Again, sorry for the rubbish photo! It was obviously rather dark, it being nighttime, so the flash had to be on. In real life the jam is a vivid purple, and the biscuits look like pretty little jewels.
Ah well.
You can always make them and see for yourself (:

Extreme deliciousness and an Indian takeaway.

2009-05-16T18:28:00.012+01:00

First off, mother will probably want you to know that we hardly ever get takeaways.
We've given up on Cantonese ones because they aren't executed very well, do not do the cuisine justice and the quality of the chicken makes me want to vomit. The only pizza place near us is Domino's, and at £12 a pizza it's not very cost-effective for 7 people.. so basically, we never get takeaways.
The occasional exception to the rule, however, is an Indian takeaway. Unfortuently curry is one of the worst foods I could be presented with*. However, upon trying a new place, I have decided to give it another go. I generally enjoy sniffing at food (I do this when no-one is looking as it is quite a bad habit), and I must say, this smelt pretty nice.

What we ate:
- raita and chickpea salad
- chicken pakora and vegetable pakora
- lamb samosa
- naan
- potato paratha
- lemon and cashew rice
- chicken curry
- chicken and spinach marsala
- Delhi style lamb
- lamb kofta
- okra curry
- yellow split pea dhal
- gulab jamun
- AND carrot halwa which we got for free because we are awesome!

Even though I really couldn't face properly eating any curry*, I did try a scant amount of each sauce. It was outstanding for takeaway food - everything tasted fresh and vibrant rather than sad and old and greasy.

I had a samosa, some salad, two pakoras and some paratha;

And damn fine it was too, sir. In an average meat samosa most of the content is veg, but this one was stuffed full of lamb mince - in fact, I think I only detected three peas in all, an outstanding result I think you'll agree. The paratha (a type of flaky pastry/flat bread hybrid) was also absolutely delicious.

Okay, I must admit something. This whole meal was in fact a ruse. A cunning one to disguise the fact that all I really wanted was gulab jamun. These babies are the absolute pinnacle of perfection. They are basically balls of dough, deep-fried until dark brown, and then doused in a sugar syrup. They are 100% joy, 100% deliciousness, and a 100% better than doughnuts (!). They are also incredibly sweet, so eat all four at your peril and your dentist's disapproval.

Everyone was overjoyed since the last time we had them was.. actually, I can't even remember. They are quite tricky to get hold of because not many shops stock them, and if they do, they're all the way over in the other side of Glasgow.
So all in all, this was a pretty fantastic dinner.
I shall sign out with another shot of the lovely golden spheres, and a video of a lady named Manjula showing us how to make them - whatever else?

*There was an unfortunate incident about a decade ago in which I was rather violently sick after eating some curry. Only recently have I been able to smell any kind without feeling faintly nauseous, but there's still a fair few years to go before I could face actually ingesting any.

A lonely dinner - chicken macaroni soup.

2009-05-15T14:35:00.014+01:00

You know how food from other countries can seem really strange? And then you think to yourself, 'it's obviously not strange for them, because that's whast they've grown up with.. but DAYUMN! That's some weird food.'
Well, this is a dish that may seem slightly weird to some. I mean, it's not outlandish in any way, but I find a lot of people don't really get how delicious this soup is!
I don't think of it as anything exciting since I've been eating it my whole life. Actually, it's one of my top 3 favourite meals ever, but whatever.
Chicken macaroni soup (praise the lord) is from Singapore, where my mum grew up, and it is absolutely divine. I don't know why I like it quite as much as I do, but there you go.
As usual, I don't have any weights or measurements because this is also a meal that heavily depends on personal taste. Go with what you feel you will like, but if you feel you want some weights, give me a shout.

Ingredients:
chicken (breasts, thighs, wings, a whole bird, whatever you've got)
ginger
garlic cloves
spring onions (i.e. scallions, green onions, salad onions)
a red chilli
coriander
soy sauce
sesame oil
sriracha chilli sauce
chicken stock cube or concentrate
macaroni
beansprouts

How to do it:
1. Fill a big pot with water and place over a medium heat. Add the raw chicken. (The base of the soup is a chicken stock so meat on the bone is best, but you can use breast meat and add more stock cubes.)
2. Chop up the rest of the ingredients for the stock.
Slice the ginger into thick coins, and squash the garlic cloves under a knife. Add to the pot.
3. While the stock is bubbling away happily, get on with the garnishes.
Finely slice the spring onions and place in a ramekin or small bowl. Slice the chilli into rounds, as thinly as you can, and put in another ramekin. Chop up the coriander, and, you guessed it - put in a remekin.
4. Once the chicken has cooked and become tender, remove from the pot and shred the meat. Throw away the bones and put the shredded meat into a serving bowl. Taste the stock. It'll probably need some more chicken flavour, so add a cube or concentrate from a bottle. Keep the stock on a low simmer.
5. Cook your beansprouts by blanching them in a big pot of boiling water. You want them to still have some crunch so don't overcook them. Put the cooked beansprouts to the side. In the same water, cook the macaroni according to packet instructions. Once cooked and drained, return to the pot and douse in sesame oil to stop it from sticking and also to give a faint aroma that's crucial to this dish.
6. Pour some soy sauce over the sliced red chilli in the ramekin.
7. To serve: place the ramekins of spring onion, chilli in soy sauce and coriander on the table along with the bowls of beansprouts and chicken and the pots of soup and macaroni. Also have on the table the condiments (soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli sauce). Construct your own bowl of soup and enjoy!

This is the way we have it at home - everyone serves themselves and adds as much or as little of each component as they want.
I have my chicken soup with lots of shredded chicken, beansprouts, sliced chilli, a squirt of sriracha, copious amounts of spring onion and lots of soy sauce.
Your finished bowl, however you wish to garnish it, will be fragrant with ginger, very faintly garlicky, and extremely, extremely delicious.
You could also have some chinese veg in this, such as pak choi, or substitute the macaroni for noodles (but trust me, macaroni is the best here!).

Sorry for the rubbish photo. I'm at the flat so I only have access to a rather old compact digital camera. (But look how sparkling and white my stove is ;D) And unfortuently I don't have those lovely big chinese bowls at the flat, or chinese spoons so I had to have it in a tiny white bowl ):

I love chicken macaroni soup more than life itself.

The cookie saga continues! (And possibly ends)

2009-05-15T13:03:00.015+01:00

Today I was reflecting. Reflecting upon my failure to bake a proper cookie. Yeah, yesterday's were okay but they just weren't good enough.
Well, I decided that this pitiful character flaw cannot go unchallenged so I tried a new recipe today.

Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 tablespoons plain all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 sticks (170g) butter, melted
1 cup soft light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg +1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
chocolate chips

How to do it:
Preheat oven to 325°F/Gas mark 3
1. Combine together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
2. Combine the melted butter, two sugars and vanilla extract and beat together. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat until thick and homogenous.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar/egg mixture until combined.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Roughly shape into balls - the craggier the better - and bake for roughly 15 minutes.
6. Take out when the edges are lightly browned. You want them to look slightly underdone in the middle - they'll harden slightly upon cooling and still be soft and chewy.

I don't know exactly how many this recipe makes since I only baked one as a test run and froze the rest of the uncooked mix in logs. Since mother reads this blog I thought it best not to be gorging myself on dough. However, I would guesstimate it to make about 15 chocolatey circles of delight. (UPDATE: It makes 12 large cookies.)
And, yes, these are about as near to perfect that I'll probably ever get. They're thick and chewy and soft and pretty amazing.
I implore you to make these as soon as possible. In fact, just go and do it now. Yes, you. Make them. Make them now! And tell me how you get on (:

NOTE: The dough will seem really crumbly and won't mix together easily, but do not add more liquid! Persevere and squidge it together with your hands.
Also, the recipe specified unsalted butter + 1/2 tsp of salt. I used salted butter and also the extra salt. Possibly because I am a disgusting human being, but whatever. They taste goooood.

Original recipe here.

Chocolate chip cookies.

2009-05-14T13:01:00.006+01:00

Oh no! I can't find my ancient digital camera that I keep here at the flat. No photo today ):
I've only made CCCs twice before, and they have always been disasters - flat, spongy, delicious disasters. You know the type of cookie that's really chewy and thick? That's what I've aimed for, but when they come out of the oven they've collapsed into cakey puddles of (not so much) joy. They tasted nice and were chewy, but it just wasn't what I wanted.
So I've been scouring the internet ever since for a recipe that sounds good, and decided for this one. I halved the mixture because the full amount claims to, rather disconcertingly, make 60 cookies. So these are the modified amounts.

Ingredients:
1 & 1/8 cup plain all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup soft light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
Chocolate chips

How to do it:
Preheat oven to 375° F/Gas mark 5
1. In one bowl mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.
2. In another cream together the butter (I used salted but you can use unsalted) and both sugars. Beat in the egg until the mixture is homogenous and completely blended - it will be quite runny.
3. Add the flour mix into the butter mix and stir until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips (or chocolate that you've chopped yourself).
4. Shape into balls and place onto a lined baking sheet.
5. Bake for roughly 10 minutes until slightly golden, then take out and leave to cool for however long you can restrain yourself. If you want smaller cookies make the balls of dough smaller and bake for 7/8 minutes, and bake for longer if you want bigger cookies.

By halving the amounts, this is meant to give 30 cookies. I actually got about 15 from it, and these weren't even very big. This recipe is fantastic, the cookies come out browned but soft inside, and perfectly sweet and salty.
However, it's still not exactly what I'm looking for - I'm beginning to think only factory machines can make the perfect American cookie. ):

Original recipe here.

Oh, and you can roll any unused cookie dough into a log, wrap in clingfilm, and store in the freezer. They can be baked without thawing.

Chilli con carne pt. 2

2009-05-12T18:38:00.010+01:00

Wanted to make guacamole. Cut one avocado open and it was brown. Cut the second one open and it was brown. Dammit.

Ah well. We had salsa, grated cheddar, sour cream, tortillas and rice. Some disgustingly decadent individuals even had a mix of chilli and rice within a tortilla.
Personally I find the texture of the mince with the tortilla too soft, and with rice too same-y, so I compromised and toasted my filled tortilla (chilli, cheese, salsa) in a dry pan. I had it with salad and dipped the wrap into sour cream. It was okay - I guess I'm just not that into chilli. Except of course two days later, when the flavours intensify and everything is just a heck of a lot better. The photo is unfortunate in the way that the lovely black beans in the chilli aren't visible.
And is it just me or does that blob of delectable sour cream look a little like an albino fried egg?

A very basic salsa recipe:
Chop two tomatoes, a red pepper, a little coriander and one spring onion finely. Make garlic paste by crushing one small clove with salt under a knife. Mix everything in a bowl, squeeze some lime juice over and mix again.

Chilli con carne.

2009-05-12T13:54:00.013+01:00

There was a load of mince to be used so I decided on chilli for two reasons:

1. Apart from some initial chopping and getting everything together etc., it's a very easy meal - plonk it all in a pot and simmer for a good few hours. Okay, that may be oversimplifying things but you get the jist ;D
2. The whole family likes it. With seven of us, there's going to be at least one person (usually me) that doesn't like what's on offer. We're all very good and eat it anyway, but it's nice to have something that everyone looks forward to.

So here's the first ever recipe I've posted on the blog. I don't use measurements because a) something like a chilli is really all about your own personal taste and b) I actually have no idea what the measurements are... indeed, the ingredients vary too depending on what there is to hand! Tinker with this recipe to your heart's content. Oh, and if you have it handy, a single square of 70% dark chocolate is always good to add in.

Ingredients:
Steak mince (1kg)
Chopped tinned tomatoes (two cans)
Two medium red onions (finely chopped)
Three cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
Olive oil or vegetable oil
Beans (kidney beans, turtle beans, whatever you like)
Cumin
Smoked paprika
One dried smoked chipotle chilli
Soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato ketchup
Chilli sauce of your choice.

Serves 8.

How to do it:

1. Add your oil to a large pot (enough to coat the garlic and onion). Put the pot over a medium heat and add the finely chopped onion and garlic. Stir until softened. Add the mince. (You can brown the meat if you want but I don't bother since I'm using such a large amount.)

2. Once no more pinkness is visible in the mince add the two tins of chopped tomatoes, a glug of soy sauce and a generous shake of worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine then top up with water. (I leave the chilli to simmer for about three hours, so I add a lot of water. You may want to add less) Adjust the heat so everything starts to simmer.

3. Add your spices and seasoning - today I used cumin, smoked paprika, a smoked dried chipotle chilli, a little chipotle sauce, a squeeze of ketchup and, of course, salt. Play about with whatever flavours you wish.
4. Add in your beans.

5. Leave to simmer gently for as long as possible - the longer the better - because the flavours will get better and the meat will be tender. Remember to stir everything together every so often so it doesn't all burn onto the bottom of the pot.

6. When it's thick and a lot of the water has evaporated it's ready. Serve with guacamole, salsa, tortillas, rice, sour cream, cheese... whatever you want. You could also have it with corn chips, or cornbread (chopped green chilli and cheddar in cornbread is delicious).

At the moment..

2009-05-12T10:47:00.005+01:00

I'm watching Archie the inventor gyrate suggestively to a musical picnic hamper on Balamory. They also focused in on his sporran-clad crotch which was rather alarming. Children's programme my arse.

Tonight - chilli con carne.

Lamb.

2009-05-11T17:17:00.007+01:00

I stuck a lidded pot full of lamb (on the bone of course), whole garlic cloves and whole shallots, in the oven three hours ago. And my, my, my, it is smelling gooood.
After rifling in the fridge for a bit I settled for carrots, new potatoes and beetroot to be roasted alongside the lamb. There was also a monster celeriac lingering in the fridge drawer that really had to be used soon, so it was promptly sliced very thinly, and layered in a buttered baking dish. Some cream was chucked over, a few lumps of butter dotted were over the surface, and into the oven that went. Sort of like a celeriac dauphinoise I suppose, as there was no cheese involved.
Celeriac & I have a fraught relationship, as it's smell when raw is reminiscent of some vile medicine I had to force down as a child. How unfortunate then that I still have celeriac-odour lingering in my hands, despite having washed them three times. It's also the bane of everyone's veg box, sitting there all lumpily like the prize no-one wanted at a fair. Poor, poor celeriac. It's not really it's fault that it happens to be a hideous root, desperate to be loved as much as the humble potato.

The photo really isn't up to much, so I'll describe it instead: the beetroot stained the carrots an amazing vivid purple, the celeriac was delicious and creamy (I'll have to take sister no.2's word for it since I didn't eat any), the beetroot was outstanding and went surprisingly well with the lamb, but the best part was the roasted garlic and shallots which we squidged out of their skins. They were mellow and soft and utterly beautiful.

10.00pm: Mother just made a chocolate and beetroot cake to take into work tomorrow. Why must I be tempted with cakey wafts of goodness coming from the kitchen? Ugh.

Pizza night!

2009-05-10T20:25:00.007+01:00

Ordinarily, mother doesn't view pizza as a proper meal, but I managed to convince her that it was a good idea. Usually I lack the patience to let the dough rise properly, roll it into thin, individual bases and leave again for a short while to rise (which is why in the past everyone's ended up with two gargantuan, doughy pizzas to share). Thank goodness I did it properly this time - the end result was a lovely crisp base. The oven, which is usually a sort of nemesis, was fantastic at cooking the individual bases to perfection when on at full blast. I also chucked in a few sausages since the family are dedicated carnivores and would miss the protein in an otherwise carb-rich meal.
The adults had spinach and sausage pizzas, the kids had theirs plain (apart from sister no.2, who is infatuated with onions in any form) with sausages on the side. I was thoroughly disgusting, and went slightly overboard with a vile - yet sooo delicious - topping of spinach, pineapple and jalapenos. I know, I know. But I enjoyed it ;D We ate it with a simple mixed-leaf salad with very finely sliced red onion. Unfortuently everyone ate their pizza with such gusto that I didn't have time to get a photo before it was demolished.

Tomorrow: something with lamb shanks.

P.S. you can find the pizza dough recipe here. It specifies the use of a bread maker, but you can do everything by hand which is what I did.

Cheesecake.

2009-05-10T16:51:00.011+01:00

It was mother's and step-father's 7th anniversary the other day. Seeing as it was only two days ago you would think I'd be able to remember what we had for dinner*. Alas, I cannot, and only have memories of dessert because there was photographic evidence!
Anyway - cheesecake. Personally I favour the unbaked kind, but since mother is on the baked team I made the latter.
It was originally a plain cheesecake with a hint of citrus through it (juice of half a orange), but then someone managed to excavate some raspberries from the freezer so I made raspberry sauce to go with it (raspberries, the rest of the orange juice, tiniest hint of vanilla).
Unfortuently this was definitely the worst cheesecake I have ever made - I ran out of sugar so it wasn't sweet enough, and we were one pack of cream cheese short - but the flavour of orange and raspberry together worked nicely. Disaster (not quite) averted.

*Update: STEAK! We had steak! I totally remember now!

Hazelnut brownies.

2009-05-10T16:21:00.009+01:00

A few weeks ago my aunt came down from London to stay for a few days, an occasion that clearly warranted brownies. So brownies it was.
I have a huge dislike for brownies that think they're cakes - the only proper type in my book is one that is fudgy and in some cases, gooey. These were very chocolatey and fudgy indeed and I decided to top them with hazelnuts.
As you can see from the photo, a gooey brownie makes for a messy brownie. I actually kinda like the big, shambling pile it made though.
The children (2 cousins on top of the usual) weren't huge fans, instead preferring the whipped cream that was served alongside. What is it with women and chocolate, though? I myself am female and yet I'm pretty sure I don't like chocolate that much.. mother, and aunt, on the other hand, love the stuff. Maybe I've not got as much oestrogen as I would have liked..

Orange & Poppyseed Cake.

2009-05-10T13:52:00.010+01:00

On friday I was babysitting sibling no.4. Understandably, he didn't want to go to nursery so we baked instead. Plan A was actually peanut butter-nutella cupcakes, but we found to much dismay that mother had run out of cupcake cases (Update: they were tucked away at the back of the cupboard. Gah.) so settled for an orange & poppyseed cake.
Not knowing how to make one and not bothering to look up a recipe, we instead creamed butter and sugar, added 3 eggs and the juice of an orange + zest, poppyseeds, self-raising flour and ground almonds. A whole lot of guesswork and a kitchen covered in cake mix later, a delicious cake was born!
Sibling no.4 then proceeded to poke holes in the top with a skewer, which he thought was lots of fun. So I covered the whole lot in some orange-vanilla syrup (muscavado sugar, juice of one orange, vanilla extract). The result - a deliciously damp, sticky, orange-y cake full of little blue poppyseeds.

Who wants to bet I won't be able to re-create it ever again?

A birthday lunch at La Vallée Blanche.

2009-05-09T22:13:00.006+01:00

Today was the step-father's 52nd (52nd!) birthday, and luckily for everyone involved (mother, the birthday man, sibling no.2, 3 & 4 and myself) he chose to go to La Vallée Blanche for lunch. And, dear lord, this restaurant is seriously, seriously, good.
It's formal enough to feel special, but really relaxed and comfy enough to bring kids to (although I get horribly stressed when going out to a restaurant with the family, and I really wouldn't want to go there for dinner accompanied by small kiddies). You completely forget the ambience, however, because when the food comes you focus on little else. Everything is just so well balanced, seasoned perfectly, and the great ingredients make everything outstanding.
Even something as potentially bland and uninteresting as a vegetable salad was a complete delight - the shallot dressing was lovely, and not at all onion-y, and the vegetables were so small, cute and tasty I felt slightly guilty at the display of carrot infanticide. Potted chicken with toasted onion bread was utterly delicious, as was the chargrilled pork chop with cassoulet.
For dessert, the sister had lemon posset & blood orange panna cotta. The posset was lovely, but I thought the panna cotta was outstanding. The youngest brother (3) demolished a pot au chocolat with thyme shortbread. Luckily I managed to get a spoonful - it was intense and smooth and very very good, and the shortbread was beautifully light and crisp with a hint of the herb about it.
The birthday man was very upset when he saw everyone else getting some exquisite petits fours. I told him that it was probably because we were having dessert and it made no sense to have them at the same time. Thank goodness they came with the bill, because I was worried everyone would start crying if they had stayed absent. There were tiny profiteroles, cubes of pineapple jelly (like a grown-up fruit pastille, except brimming with flavour), pistachio jelly, peanut butter biscuits, and some more of the thyme shortbread. These were promptly demolished by the children, and thoroughly enjoyed. Oh, and I guess I should mention that a three-course lunch is £12.95 - an astounding price given the outstanding quality of food and service. There's also a fantastic burger if you don't fancy the French/Scottish theme.
So, if you're ever on Byres Road (Glasgow, Scotland), this restaurant is most certainly worth a visit.

Cupcakes.

2009-05-09T21:48:00.003+01:00

There seems to be a huge following for cupcakes nowadays, which is attracting more and more people every day. It is understandable - they're sweet and cakey enough to feel like a treat but, crucially, small enough to not feel like you're pigging out. They also now come with a plethora of pretty designs which helps matters somewhat.
I've always liked cupcakes, so the other day I made a tray for my younger sister's tennis match. I reckoned it's what a bunch of preteen girls would like. Safe bet indeed - they were a hit, and had the mothers angling for one, too. I used the usual equal butter-flour-sugar & two egg mixture, and topped with a generous amount of vanilla buttercream.
Unfortuently, I was using my mother's oven and the cupcakes got a little more brown, and rose a little more unevenly, than I would have liked (said oven has a door that leaves a 2-inch gap, and only two temperatures: warm gently & blitz).
However, the most best part was when one girl ate the blossom flower, thinking it was intended to be consumed, and proclaimed it to taste 'a bit funny'. In hindsight, it would probably have been a good idea to point out that the decoration was not edible.
Ah, fun times!

First post!

2009-05-09T21:15:00.000+01:00

I am not at all familiar with blogging - as it happens this is my first experience of one, so bear with me (: Basically, what I plan to do here is blog about things I cook, post a few recipes, and some photos. It'll take me a while to get comfortable and write something interesting - at the moment it feels rather like I'm talking to myelf. I guess that's it for now!