Another year older

Yesterday was my birthday so I celebrated with a wee party for a few friends. It was a great way to celebrate turning older, although at times I'm still like a child when it comes to my excitement for my birthday!

Birthday's are always a time to reflect a little, at the year that has just passed and at what the future may hold and I'm hoping that this next year will be exciting! In fact I'm pretty sure it will be. That thing I was worrying about a while back, well stuff is happening and hopefully it'll be good news. I'll be sure to let you know!

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!!!

Ashburton Coookery School

The real reason for going to Devon was to spend a day on the Gastro extra course at Ashburton Cookery School. This was a one day course which we thought might be fun to do before middle sister has her baby and we'll not be able to escape together so easily.

And it was fun! We started with making a starter of curried mussel soup. A nice light soup packed with flavour. Although neither of us were too keen on muscle so it was a bit more of a curried veg soup with the odd mussel in it! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it. We also made yummy bread, which came out really well. A lot better than my bread normally does! I felt like I learnt quite a bit from the bread making bit as it's improved my confidence a lot and taught me a couple of tips.

Our main was pork medallions with braised fennel and a creamy taragon and haricot bean sauce. My only criticism of this was that the haricot beans weren't quite right with the meal to me but the sauce was lovely and the pork good to cook as it's not something I normally cook. Oh and this also came with a shallot tarte tatin! Yummers!! And another thing I've always wanted to make (tarte tatin that is) but haven't quite had the confidence to.

For pudding we griddled pineapple, peppered it, added passionfruit sorbet (which they showed us how to make) and a spiced syrup, which was lovely and had a great chilli kick. Plus a couple of extra bits. Although by this time a little full as we were eating all we made :)

Finally a picture of me and of instructors. On the right is Phil who was lovely and really helpful, on the left James, equally lovely and you might recognise him from the Restaurant on BBC2 or 'Out of the Frying Pan'.

Highly recommended, even if you are relatively confident just to pick up a few tips. I now feel much more confident about my seasoning as we were told that our seasoning was good :) I would definitely go for it also if you have no confidence in the kitchen as they do all levels of teaching and the instructors are great.

2 days in Devon Part 1

To start my holiday this week I tottled off to Devon. It was a grey miserable rainy day and as I sat on the train I thought just how leaving London was taking some of the stress from my shoulders. And then the sun began to come out and I steadily was getting closer to my destination. I arrived in Ashburton and joined my sister and her friend in a little cafe with a garden. Lunch followed by the yummiest cream tea. Great homemade scones with yummy cream and jam. And to continue the Twitter debate I must admit to putting cream first then jam...

We were staying at the accommodation which the cookery school ran. Our room above we both thought was just lovely. The cookery school was Ashburton Cookery School, of which more on the next post... Then a gentle afternoon, a stroll in the sunshine and catching up with my sister. She's very patient with my moaning but also offers a different perspective on some of the things I moan about. So we dined and then off to bed to make sure we were ready for the next day!

Creme Caramel - Recipe

As promised the recipe I used for the creme caramel I made the other day!

For custard:
500ml milk
Vanilla pod
6 eggs (4 yolks, 2 whole)
125g caster sugar

For caramel:
100g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon water

Boil 500 ml milk with a vanilla pod split in two. In a mixing bowl blend 2 whole eggs, 4 egg yolks and 125g caster sugar. Gradually add the boiling milk (having removed the vanilla pod), whisking it quickly. I do this quite slowly to avoid the eggs cooking, or start slow and then speed up once it's all cooled down a little. Then you have your custard.

Put caramel ingredients into a heavy bottomed pan and heat until the mixture turns a pale caramel colour at 160C (I don't have a sugar thermometre so just guessed at what pale caramel was, it changes so quickly though!). Pour the caramel into the mould and tilt until it has covered as much of the sides as possible and it stops flowing.

Pour the custard into the moulds, place them into a bain marie and cook in a preheated oven at 190C (375F, gas mark 5) or until the custard is lightly set. Take the mould out of the bain marie and allow it to cool completely.

To get it out dip into boiling water for a short while then turn out onto dish, this should help remove the caramel stuck in the mould and get it all out all over the custard... Mmmm

Enjoy!

Creme Caramel - Success!

So on Monday I managed to tick off number 3 from my list. Which made me very happy! It also made J quite happy and our friend A who was joining us for a Bank Holiday lunch.

I got the recipe from Larousse, amazingly enough the only cook book I had with the recipe and off I went... Below the little beasts before they were turned out on to the plate.

The yumminess in its glory. Sorry I am bragging but I was amazed they worked and looked like they should, plus they tasted pretty good too... Hopefully you can see the vanilla throughout the caramel and custard (I only put it in the custard but somehow it ended up in the caramel too).

The only slight problem I had was with the caramel, I think I did something wrong as my moulds now have a rock solid layer of caramel at the bottom. Exceedingly hot water will be the only thing getting that out, although I have tried I promise!

If anyone wants the recipe I used leave me a comment and I shall get it for you!

Cupcakes

It was J's birthday a couple of weeks ago and the day before I had the day off, so what better to do with my time than make cupcakes for everyone coming to his birthday drinks. I had been given a cake recipe book for my birthday last year and never made anything from it so decided now was the time.

The top cakes are Mojito cupcakes, surprisingly Mojito-y with rum, lime and mint in them. I didn't go for the meringue icing but thought my rum and lime butter cream worked pretty well. The bottom cakes are chilli chocolate cupcakes. Supposed to be served warm with a melting centre, instead served cold but with a moist texture,

Much fun to make cupcakes seeing as I normally avoid them like the plague as they scare me but now I think I'll give them more of a shot and try and make them look prettier next time...

Bread

First apologies for the appaling picture quality but I somehow wanted to show you the bread I made on the weekend. Having not made bread since I was a little girl and had mummy's know how to guide me on the way I was a little concerned as to how it may turn out. I also had foolishly decided that I was to serve this to my dinner guests as I had not form of biscuit to go with my cheese.

It was great fun making it, feeling the lovely dough between your fingers is just wonderful and working the dough as you knead it makes both your hands and head feel better. Kneading while thinking is something not to underestimated. And the pride when it came out of the oven, was hollow when knocked from the bottom and tasted like bread!

I used a recipe from The Imaginary Cafe and it was both simple and successful and so now highly recommended from myself also. I then tried a slight variation on Sunday having discussed with sister recommendations for making it and purchasing a loaf tin. I am yet to try my next loaf but it looks better and I am looking forward to giving it a shot.

So there we are, all my quietness and then all I've been up to is making bread!

What I cooked for Valentine's Day

J and I like to mark but not celebrate Valentine's day. I buy him a card, he forgets (or maybe buys one a few days later when he gets round to it) and we try and use it as a good excuse to spend some time together. He's been absurdly busy at work these past few weeks and so the opportunity to sit down together, cook together and eat together was too good to miss.

So on Saturday after meeting my friends for lunch I toddled off to Harrods food hall, at Christmas I had been given a gift card and now seemed like a good time to put it to use. And look what I found!

Yummy langoustines, all pink and pretty and looking ready for the pot. After a little consultation of Georgio Locatelli's Made in Italy cook book (incidentally one of my favourites) we had our rough recipe and off we went. Between us we managed to cook the dinner below:

Linguine with langoustine, served with pan fried scallops. Decadent and probably excessive for a Saturday night but also yummy and a great meal to enjoy together.

For pudding I tried my hand at custard to use in a Bread and Butter pudding. Surprisingly easy to make is custard, my recipe this time from Larousse. And then we settled in to watch a movie and finish the wine!

For me a wonderful celebration of my love for my husband and for the food, wine and most importantly time we get to spend together. Hope you all had lovely valentine's celebrations too, M x

I forgot the meringues

Making bernaise sauce requires egg yolks but no whites. I normally just throw the egg whites down the sink (naughty, I know) but this time I thought I'd use them to make meringues! And I'm pleased I did. Using an online Rachel Allen recipe, I whipped up a little batch of loveliness. Swirled with a bit of Vanilla essence right before baking and spooned on, not piped, I was pleased with the crunchy exterior and sticky interior. Next time I shall also make the fruit compote and whipped cream... But for now I am just munching through my meringues. Yummy :)

A gastronomic Saturday

We had the first weekend in London together for an age! After finishing up at work with J's help we were over in Paddington and thought a nice walk to Marylebone could be in order. The weather was glorious!

And so we ended up at the Ginger Pig... Home to fabulous butchers and a mouth watering selection of meat. Seeing all those great steaks it seemed a good idea to purchase some giant rumps ready for dinner. A big fat meaty dinner.



We decided to make Bernaise Sauce to go with our steaks, and of course chips! Bernaise recipe was courtesy of Michel Roux Jr, whose cookery book I have, which is okay. Well the bernaise recipe is more than okay because it was delicious!! The book I am mixed about to be honest.



And boy was it a good steak, chips and bernaise. I was a happy girl, husband, good bottle of wine and giant plate of food!



Having been to the Ginger Pig, which happens to be next door to La Fromagerie, we couldn't resist just popping in for a small lump of cheese. For those London based readers if you like cheese and have never before been to La Fromagerie, go now!! It's cheese heaven, the European equivalent to Neals Yard. So much choice and you get to try it all too. So making your mind up is an even longer process, but a better one too.

We ended up with three cheeses, a lemony goats cheese, an Irish blue and a Southern French nutty hard cheese. I can't quite remember the names, but Cashel for the Irish Blue, and Napoleon for the French. The goats cheese I have no idea I'm afraid.



And there ended our gastronomic Saturday evening, and boy was it my kind of evening. Something we've not done for so long which was just so pleasant. Great food, time with J and a glorious London day. What more could you ask for?!

Pizza Party

We had a pizza party for J's birthday, much, much fun. I made the dough in the afternoon from a Giorgio Locatelli recipe with fresh yeast and then prepared the tomato sauce for the topping. A slight mistake there when I forgot to cook it down after straining it but a little tomato puree sorted that out!

All our lovely friends bought toppings, you can see a couple above, pesto, mushrooms, bacon, egg, black pudding, lots of sausage, asparagus and on I could go... Then away we went. We all took turns in making pizzas and then shared them out whilst drinking and conversing and perhaps singing too. All good! Much much fun. Definitely one to think about again.

Foccacia

Last weekend we had a couple round for dinner who we haven't seen in a while. So J and I got excited, especially as this was the first time we were having people round since getting all our wedding gifts! So we wanted to use all our fun new things. And use them we did! One of my favourite things J did was to make foccacia. I haven't made bread since I was little and I used to make it with my sisters and mum and I had forgotten how lovely it is to see bread being made, and to smell it!


The bread turned out yummy, although the salty wash the recipe told us to put on it was a little too salty... But next time we'll remember and adapt it.

Then this weekend we also had friends round, sorry for the lack of photos of any of the other dishes but I got carried away eating them and forgot to photograph them! Suffice to say it made me remember how much I truly enjoy spending time sharing food and wine with people who I really like.