Tuesday 27 July 2010

In search of domestic godessness

I've been trying to get more in touch with my domestic goddess recently which has been quite good fun, it's been really nice trying some new recipes and working at old ones. First are some of the old ones J and I work on, his tabbouleh (soooo good), my houmous with lamb and pine nuts and some labneh. Yummy! This all went with our lebanese feast we had when we were in one weekend recently.

And then up come the choux buns! This was the first time I've made Choux pastry, and it was surprisingly easy. I thought it would be much more liable to go wrong but somehow it turned out really well. And tasted good too! I then filled these bad boys with creme patissiere and covered with melted nutella...

And finally the meringues from the egg whites left over from the custard. These were a little crumbly, something went wrong somewhere but they tasted okay so all good in the end!

Now I think I might have promised the choux pastry recipe at some point so below please find the recipe, taken from Michel Roux Jr's recipe book "A life in the kitchen"
125ml water
125ml milk
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon sugar
100g butter
150g plain flour sifted
4 eggs
Put the water, milk, butter, salt and sugar into a pan and slowly bring to the boil. Take off the heat and beat in the flour. When the mixture is smooth put it back on the heat and beat vigorously for a minute. Take off the heat and put the paste into a bowl, beat in the eggs one at a time. Now put the paste into a piping bag with a 1.5cm nozzle, pipe out buns measuring 3cm across onto a non-stick baking sheet (I used oiled baking paper). Cook in a preheated oven at 220C/Gas Mark 7 for 5 minutes. Open the door for a few seconds to let out the steam, then turn down to 180C/Gas Mark 5 for 20 minutes or until fully cooked.
And enjoy!!!

10 comments:

anna and the ring said...

Gosh yummers!

Did you pipe your meringues? Maybe I need to do that as mine always turn into amorphous blobs!

Emma said...

Yum, this all looks amazing! Will have to try and take a leaf out of your book and do some domestic goddessery one weekend...

k said...

i'm pretty sure you're goddess status compared to me! that lebanese feast looks amazing!

elle said...

Oh my gawd. That lebanese stuff?!?! Oh my gawd! *bows down*

Marie said...

@anna - I did pipe these ones but normally blob on with a dessert spoon and pull the top and it just about works :)

@Emma - Really it was lots of fun, so yes do it!! But only if you want to ;)

@Krystal - tried and tested, Lebanese mother-in-law so it's something I'm learning through the master!

@agirl - why thank-you, *blushes*
as I said I'm being taught by the best :D

Kylli said...

That looks yummy. Maybe you can cook for me when you come over :)

Joan Hunter Dunn said...

Your Lebanese feast looks absolutely delicious. Perfect for this hot London summer.

Metropolitan Mum said...

Mhm, yum!! Judging by the look of it, you are much much closer to your inner goddess than I'll ever be. :)

CameronPoe2409 said...

The food looks gorgeous!, I think I'm going to consult my cookbooks to bring out my inner domestic goddess!

http://ihavetoomanyshoes.blogspot.com/

Marie said...

@Kylli - Of course :-D

@Joan - It does feel just right for this heat... Plus I do so very much love it!

@MM - Thank-you very much

@Cameron - Thank-you and yes do it, it's lots of fun and can bring small moments of pride to life!