TheFoodieHistorian

Blogging

2012-01-25T11:45:00.000Z

My last blog post was on the 20th September. That’s ages ago. Yonks ago. A lot has happened since then.

I have mixed feelings about blogging. There’s something rather wonderful about having the opportunity to enjoy good food, and then tell the rest of the world about it. Except, I think I got slightly disheartened because very few people in the world read it. And I got busy, starting (yet another- the joy of contracts) new job, travelling quite a bit for work, and spending weekends catching up with friends. I’ll be honest, when I’m busy, I can’t be bothered cooking exciting food. I eat mostly toasties and soup, and random odds and sods out of the freezer. I suppose this is my form of ‘comfort food’.

But, I have been thinking recently that it doesn’t really matter if people don’t read my blogs. Maybe they will one day. Maybe they’ll take a glance at a recipe and think “ooh that sounds tasty” and have a go at making their own. The thing is, when I can be bothered, I enjoy food. I enjoy eating it, thinking about it, planning it and cooking it. I enjoy feeding people, trying new things with them, and learning from them. And so, now I can be bothered, I’ll blog again.

Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi

2011-09-20T18:13:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I got slightly overexcited and managed to buy three bags of spinach reduced to 10p each in the supermarket. I do like spinach - especially with eggs - but seeing as I have time on my hands I thought I'd try something a little bit different. This recipe has been hashed together from various sources I found on the internet - it's not the largest portion in the world and that was with a larger quantity of ingredients than most of the recipes suggested, so bear that in mind when making and double up if you're feeding boys.
Not perhaps the healthiest way of eating spinach, due to the vast amounts of cheese required, but certainly tasty in an unusual, delicate sort of way.

Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi with tomato sauce
Serves 1 if you're hungry and not hip-conscious, or 2 as small portions.

Gnocchi
150g ricotta
200g bag spinach
50g parmesan or similar vegetarian alternative, finely grated
generous pinch nutmeg
generous pinch salt
1 egg
75g plain flour (plus more for dusting)

Tomato sauce - to serve:
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 can tomatoes
pinch sugar
salt and pepper
25g ricotta or whatever's left from the tub (optional)

For the gnocchi:
First, prepare the spinach by blanching in boiling water until cooked. Drain and squeeze as much of the water out as possible, before dicing finely. I cheated slightly, and used frozen spinach, which I whacked with a rolling pin to crush before defrosting with hot water and squishing in a colander to remove the liquid.
Pop it in a bowl with the ricotta, egg and parmesan, season with a generous sprinkle of nutmeg and salt (don't be tempted to leave the salt out - for once I'm advocating it, as it brings out the taste), and mash together using a fork until it comes together. Slowly add the flour, still stirring with the fork. It should come to a slightly strange consistency - not dissimmilar to bread dough, but without the gluten to hold it together.
Using two teaspoons, mould the mixture into little mouth sized balls, and lay out on a flour dusted surface. This helps them to retain their shape, and stops them from sticking while you prepare them. Lightly coat the tops with flour.
Chill for approx an hour to allow to set slightly - enough time to prepare the sauce and crack open some wine.
Just before serving, bring a large pan of water to the boil. In small batches, drop in the dumplings using a slotted spoon if necessary to move them around in the pan and prevent sticking, but handle them as little as possible. Cook for about 3 minutes, and remove with slotted spoon - they should start to float once cooked. If cooking large quantities, they can be kept warm on a baking tray in the oven on a low temperature. Use greaseproof paper to prevent sticking.

For the sauce:
Sautee the onion and garlic in a generous glug of olive oil until transluscent. Tip in the tinned tomatoes (use the best ones you can get - add a tablespoon of tomato puree if you're using cheap ones. Heat through. Stir in the ricotta. Blend the sauce until smooth, and set aside on a low temperature to stay warm until the gnocchi are ready to serve. Ideally, serve underneath the gnocchi, so as to add to, but not overpower the delicately flavoured dumplings.

Tinned Tomato Soup

2011-09-12T18:20:00.001+01:00

I am a massive fan of tinned tomato soup. It is wonderful stuff with grated cheese on top, Worcestershire sauce dropped in, or straight from the tin on a camping trip. There's something really reminiscent of childhood lunches about it, probably due to the luminous colour and the fear that I'll drop it down my top and leave a lurid orange stain. Having spent half of my day staring out of my living room window at a very foggy and rainy park, and the storms brought on by Hurricane Katia, I need comfort. Preferably comfort that doesn't involve taking my slippers off or the use of an umbrella. Tinned tomato soup is the answer.

Tinned Tomato Soup
Serves 2

25g butter

1 garlic clove, sliced or diced

1 medium onion/small leek, chopped
1 tin of plum tomatoes (use posh ones if you can, but if you're feeling the need for frugality, smartprice ones can be topped up with an extra tablespoon of tomato puree)
1 tablespoon tomato puree
generous pinch of sugar
250ml low salt chicken or vegetable stock
50ml cream
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook gently until they begin to soften, and add the tomatoes. Stir through, and add in the stock and sugar.
Simmer through for 5 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft and the leek or onion are translucent. Blend thoroughly, adding more hot stock if needed until smooth. At the desired consistency, add the cream, and return to the heat slowly until at serving temperature.

Review: Demijohn

2011-09-06T23:11:00.000+01:00

I’m not a shopper, but I don’t half love shopping for food. Or drink. Or kitchenwares. This does mean two things – my nearest and dearest always expect some form of comestible as a presents, and I have a tendency to get a little over excited when purchasing.

My flatmate hit a ‘scary age’ last week, and therefore the purchase of alcohol was necessary on this occasion – luckily for her Edinburgh has some of the finest booze shops this side of the border.

One of my favourite shops in town is ‘Demijohn’. I discovered it while out shopping with my mum shortly after I moved to Edinburgh. We’d started at the bottom of the Grassmarket on Castle Terrace, where we’d got carried away at the Edinburgh Farmer’s market, and wound our way up the hill towards Victoria Street towards home. Victoria Street, despite its slightly random location, has some of the best independent shops in town. Demijohn is towards the top – past the knitting shop and the one with the exciting dresses, perched in a row along with Mellis’ Cheesemonger and Oink!, a shop I’m sorry to say I’ve never been in, but judging by the queues and amazing whole roasted pig in the window, I need to get my chops around one of their hog roast rolls.

The concept of Demijohn is simple, and I think that’s part of the reason why I love it so much. Even the name is pretty simple really. A demijohn is the vessel used to brew wine, mead or beer, but it’s also the name given to the vessels that liquids are stored in. It also describes pretty succinctly what the shop contains – shelves full colourful globes of delicious liqueurs, golden oils and dark vinegars, each with a small rubber tube and valve to allow the liquid to flow out and a hand written description.

There are two things that make this shop so wonderful – the produce (all British, championing small producers, specialist products and unusual ideas) and the staff. The staff are knowledgeable, friendly and happy to advise. I once went in to buy a British version of Limoncello – they didn’t have any lemon liqueurs but they did have a lime vodka and a grapefruit gin, and I was provided with a slurp of each without even asking to help me decide. The same happened last week when I went in to buy my flatmate’s present. I’d had a gander on their website and was fairly sure that I was going to get her the chocolate orange crème liqueur, but they didn’t have any left on display. I was offered a taste of a caramel instead, while a member of staff went off to rummage and see if they had any remnants in the store room. He came back waving a container, saying rather apologetically there was only just enough left at the bottom for a 250ml serving “if that was ok”. Not just ok, but marvellous – there’s decent customer service for you.

The packaging of the gift was beautiful. I’d brought an old bottle, bought on a previous visit. They (reasonably enough) ask that you buy one of their containers, but when you have one you’re welcome to bring it back to be refilled whenever you want – all you pay then is for the contents. Nice way to encourage return visits and recycling. The contents of the bottle are written on the side using a white marker pen, stopped up with a cork and wrapped using white tissue and raffia. They look lovely– but nowhere near as good as they taste!

Demijohn, 32 Victoria Street, EH1

Also online, Glasgow and York

Lentil Daal

2011-08-30T23:10:00.001+01:00

August should not be wet and rainy. It should not involve 'localised flooding', broken umbrellas and soggy socks. I should not be thinking of using my hot water bottle in the office. This August has been rubbish, weather-wise. It's never Edinburgh's finest month, which is a real shame, as it's when the tourists flood to town to enjoy the city and it's atmosphere during the festival.

This is my fourth festival - my third as a local, and like every year I do feel like I should probably take a bit more in. Alas though, like every year, I can't quite bring myself to spend £14 on watching a comedian who may (or most likely may not) be funny. It was at my second festival - my first as a local - that I first 'discovered' lentil daal, whilst chomping down some Mosque Kitchen with a friend. I'm sure my parents will say that I grew up eating lentil daal, and they're probably right, but for some reason I don't think I ate it for the entire 3 years of my undergraduate degree and therefore the first time I actively ate it as an adult classes as the 'discovery' moment. It's not the classiest or most aesthetically pleasing of foods, but it is cheap, nutritious and highly comforting.

Lentil daal.
Serves 2 generously as a main, or 4-6 as part of a thali

200g yellow split peas
1 large onion, diced
2 tablespoons ghee
1 garlic clove, diced
500ml low salt stock (vegetable or chicken)
500ml hot water
teaspoon mustard seeds
teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 medium hot red chilli, deseeded and diced
100g - or one bag - spinach, roughly shredded
100ml single cream (optional, but mighty tasty)

Rinse the lentils to remove any flour or grit. If possible, soak overnight, rinsing occasionally.
In a large heavy bottomed pan (one with a lid), melt 1 tbsp of the ghee and very gently fry the onion, chilli and garlic until soft.
Stir in the lentils and stock, and cover. Simmer slowly for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to stop the lentils sticking and burning. Continue until the liquid is absorbed. The lentils should begin to break down, becoming creamy and thick in consistency. If they still have a degree of hardness, continue to add water until they are cooked, and remove from the heat. They should remain a thick consistency - do not allow them to dry out or burn on the base, but be careful not to add so much water that they are soupy.
In a small frying pan, melt another tablespoon of ghee. Add the mustard and coriander seeds, and cook until they 'pop' - but be careful not to burn. Stir in the garam masala to toast slightly. Stir in the spices in to the daal, along with the spinach and cream - the spinach should wilt down and cook. Heat slightly - but do not boil - if necessary.
Ideal served with mini naan.

Review: The National Museum of Scotland Brasserie

2011-08-23T21:43:00.001+01:00

I'm not a fan of generalising, but I've recently come to a slightly sad conclusion.
Most museum cafes are crap.
I've pondered the reasons for this on and off for a while, ever since I had some particularly bad experiences at the National Gallery of Scotland's cafe on three separate occasions. I know, more fool me for going back, but generally I believe in second chances.

There are a couple of reasons I've come up with, most involving franchising and tenders - areas I'll admit that I don't know a vast amount about. If the profits of the enterprise are not being put back in to funding the museum or gallery, but in to the pockets of the owners and shareholders then it is perhaps sad but not entirely surprising that cafes and restaurants are not often up to the standard of the museum itself. They're not so much income generators, but a service that museums provide because they are expected to. Of course, there are exceptions - hence my reluctance to generalise - but sadly in the big tourist spots of Edinburgh and London it increasingly seems to be the case.

The National Gallery of Scotland's cafe is, for example, run by the Contini family, who also own Centotre on George Street. Until recently, they also had Zanzero in Stockbridge, but perhaps tellingly that has vanished rather quietly and become something else instead. They've renamed their NGS venture "The Scottish Cafe and Restaurant" and have managed to fill the venue rather admirably with diners in the time they've owned it, but there have been problems - poor service, soup so salty it had to be returned, drinks orders that were taken but never delivered...

Anyway. I digress. I am not supposed to be reviewing The National Gallery's efforts, but those of the newly re-vamped National Museum of Scotland instead. I fear this has also fallen foul of the franchise.

Mr FS and I decided to take a wander up to the museum last Saturday to see what had been done since the revamp and, of course, decided to partake in a midafternoon snack. The cafe section is in an interesting spot - nicely nestled in the main hallway entrance of the old building, underneath archways and tucked away to the side behind glass panels. It's a nice spot for people watching, with comfy chairs and fairly well spaced tables (although I did notice that the slightly haphazard layout seemed to be causing space issues for a gentleman in a wheelchair). And - best of all - the food looks amazing. The museum has rather cannily placed the cafe at the bottom of a staircase, so as you walk down you are faced with a wall of enormous home made cakes and pastries.

Strong contender for the largest scone I've ever had. And yes, that is real clotted cream!

The entrance to the cafe is a little gap in the glass screens. When we arrived at about 3.30, we wandered over to find a crowd of people looking confused by the entrance - and were then told that we would have to wait 15 minutes until the lunch service was finished - even though the cafe was half empty and there were tables ready. We had a wander around the shop and went back when the crowd had vanished, whereby we were greeted by a girl in jeans and a cardigan who presented us with menus and pointed to a table. The waiting staff were also messily dressed - some in jeans, some in black trousers, some in white tshirts and some in smarter white shirts. Confusing. Nice blue butcher's apron's though. So, we sat down and began to inspect our menus - which were different. Mine had Cheese Scone's listed, Mr FS's didnt. Confusing. We told our waitress, who replied with a mumbled apology, and then put our menus back on to the pile with the rest anyway.

They don't even look the same!

After about 15 minutes, our order was taken - they'd run out of Cheese scones (unsurprising, considering we didn't know if they were being offered at all), so we went for two Fruits, a coffee and an Earl Grey. The tea was loose, served in an unbleached paper strainer - for once not too much tea for the pot, although slightly disappointing that I wasn't offered lemon. The scones themselves were fantastic - huge, quite dense and cinnamon-y, and served with liberal portions of jam and cream.When I asked for butter it was brought straight over in another generous portion, nicely served in little ceramic pots - no paper packets here! I'm sad to say, I couldn't finish mine. Always disappointing when that happens.
We then waited about 15 minutes to get someone's attention for the bill, and decided to leave a tip because we couldn't be bothered waiting for our change.

I don't really like being negative in a review. The cafe had only been open a few weeks, it's all quite new, the staff looked very young and inexperienced - but I have to say, the service was shockingly bad, especially considering it was rather pricey even for table service. It was disorganised, waits were lengthy, and the staff appeared seriously in need of some training in the basics. A real shame. I won't be rushing back to try their lunch menu.

Tea and scones for two (including small tip): £10.

Steak Night

2011-04-06T11:57:00.000+01:00

Every now and then, probably about once a month, my flatmate and I have a bit of a catchup dinner. It's the perfect excuse to try somewhere new, have a go at a recipe we've had our eye on, or go for an old favourite.

Our last dinner involved steak and home made onion rings. Phwoar.

Home Made Onion Rings

Serves 2-4 (depending on how greedy you are).

2 large onions, sliced into rings of about 1cm,

oil for frying,

100g plain flour,

2 egg yolks,

1 egg white,

salt and pepper to season,

150ml milk

In a medium sized bowl, mix the two egg yolks with the flour and milk to make a smooth batter, and, if you have time, allow to stand for half an hour.

Heat the oil in a deep pan, or a deep fat fryer. Meanwhile, whisk the egg white until stiff, and fold into the batter. Test the oil by dropping in a little batter - if it puffs slightly, sizzles and turns golden then it's hot enough to cook the rings in.

Coat the onion in the batter, then carefully drop them into the oil in batches. Leave for a couple of minutes until golden (use a metal slotted spoon to turn them if they float like mine did!), and carefully remove. Drain any excess oil onto kitchen paper.

Serve immediately - perfect with garlic mayonnaise for dipping!

Recipe adapted slightly from here.

Chocolate Crispie Cakes

2011-04-01T13:54:00.000+01:00

Technically these should have mini eggs or little fluffy chicks in them, but seeing as I am skint, buying 4 Mars bars for a quid in the co-op seemed frivolous enough.
For some reason, I decided that, rather than just buy one, eat it, feel guilty, get over it and be done with it, buying four on offer would be a good idea. I thought that I would be less likely to eat them all if I made them into crispie cakes. Except that I sort of forgot that I don't have an office of colleagues to feed, and therefore spend most of my time alone in my flat. Unsurprisingly, 12 crispie cakes did not last long.
Damn you, supermarket multibuy offers.

Chocolate Crispie Cakes
Makes 12

4 Mars bars
50g butter
75g rice crispies

Chop the Mars bars into smaller chunks, and place into a large microwavable bowl.
Add in the butter, and microwave on medium for 3 minutes, stopping to stir every minute.
Once melted through, slowly add the rice crispies until all are coated evenly with the chocolate. If they start to get a bit dry, stop adding them, and stir thoroughly.
Scoop up using metal spoons and pop into bun cases. Allow to cool for about an hour, until they set.

Experiments with Soffritto, pt.2

2011-03-30T11:28:00.000+01:00

I admit that since my earlier attempts at cooking with soffritto, I have confused myself somewhat. I Googled. Wikipedia has been my downfall. See, according to my findings, what I initially thought was a Spanish trio of ingredients turns out not to be Italian (and not a tomato in sight!). It's also French, although it's called Mirepoix down there. And there as me, thinking it was Spanish, but apparently that's spelt Sofrito, and is actually garlic, onion and tomatoes. Although... actually, the ingredients all grow rather well in Britain... Oh well, I remain undeterred. Sod it, I'm going Spanish with it.

Spanish-style Summer Chorizo Soup
Serves 2

25g butter,
2 garlic cloves (diced),
1 medium hot chilli, thinly sliced,
1 large carrot,
2 small potatoes,
1 large onion,
2 small or half a ring of Chorizo sausage (sliced),
2 stalks of celery,
tablespoon tomato puree,
500ml good quality chicken stock,
1 tin haricot beans (drained and rinsed),
upto 500ml boiling water,

In a large pan, melt the butter and gently fry the chorizo to release the oils. Meanwhile, dice all the vegetables to about 1cm cubed. Sir in the carrots, garlic and chilli, and cook gently for 2-3 minutes.
Add in the potatoes, celery and onions, mix through and cover in the stock. Add more water if necessary to cover all vegetables, adding more of the hot water if necessary. Stir in the tomato puree, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, adding more water every few minutes if needed to make sure it doesn't burn or dry out.
When the potatoes are soft, stir through the beans to heat through for a minute before serving straight away with warm and buttered crusty bread - perfect for mopping up the juices.

Fishcakes

2011-03-28T11:25:00.000+01:00

I do love a good fishcake, but they're one of those things that I haven't made in years. I'm not sure why - possibly because I don't really eat a lot of fish and when I do, it's so expensive that I like to savour it in a fish pie or stew. However, when I managed to get two cod fillets for about a pound, I decided to revisit them. They really are surprisingly easy, and would take well to using leftovers or tinned fish if you're tight for finances, and because they're so simple, extras like chillies, herbs and spices will easily spruce them up if you fancy a change. The quantities are fairly flexible - as long as the fish to potato ratio stays the same and the egg is altered accordingly, you can make as many or as few as you fancy.
Great for kids too- healthy finger food!

Basic Fishcakes
Makes 8

1 egg.
300g potatoes.
4 spring onions, finely chopped.
300g fish - cod, haddock, salmon, mackerel - whatever takes your fancy.
Pinch salt
Ground black pepper, to taste.
25g butter.

Boil the potatoes until cooked, frying the spring onions until soft while the potatoes cook. Once done, mash the potatoes, using a little butter to allow the mash to come together if necessary. Stir in the onions, and allow to cool.
Meanwhile, poach the fish until cooked. Skin if necessary, and flake into the mash. Season with salt and pepper, and mix through, using an egg to bind it together.
Using your hands, squeeze into 8 equally sized balls, and flatten slightly.
Either fry or grill until crispy on the outside and firm on the inside.
Serve straight away, or allow cool and freeze using greaseproof paper to separate.

Perfect served with spinach and poached eggs, as an alternative Sunday morning Eggs Benedict.

Experiments with Soffritto, pt.1

2011-03-22T16:50:00.000Z

During one of my "ooh, it's 8pm, I wonder what Waitrose will be selling cheap before they close" walks, I stumbled upon a packet of soffritto, reduced from a still-quite-reasonable 99p to a bargainous 29p. It was somewhat of an impulse purchase, and no doubt my initial thoughts involved chucking it in a soup, but it went in the freezer with some other bits and bobs, and was promptly forgotten about.

In my latest attempts at 'proper' frugality (read: eating everything in house for real this time due to employment situation, rather than just talking about it and caving in three days later), I've decided to go a little bit back to basics, and bring out some old student tips - mostly in the form of menu planning.
I have very mixed feelings about menu planning, which I shall go into at another time, but as a start to the process, it's generally a good idea to work out what you have in the cupboards and freezer. Of course, this naturally meant a good rummage, reminding me of things I forgot I had (3 pigs cheeks), and things I bought on a whim when reduced, and am not sure what to do with because I don't really eat them (4 chicken breasts). I also discovered a slightly sad and lonely chorizo sausage floating around the bottom of the middle drawer, and the aforementioned bag of soffritto. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this...

Soffritto and Chorizo Risotto
Serves 1

200g soffritto mix
25g butter, or a tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, diced
75g risotto rice, such as Arborio or carnaroli
1 chorizo sausage, roughly 75g, finely sliced (you can do this from frozen if you have raw chorizo and a sharp knife)
100ml white wine if you have it)
1 tbsp tomato paste
450ml low salt chicken stock

Melt the butter in a medium pan, and stir in the garlic, soffritto mix and chorizo. Cook slowly until the oils begin to melt out of the chorizo, and the vegetables start to soften. Stir in the rice, toasting it in the oil and butter, for a minute, before pouring in the wine. Allow to simmer, stirring to avoid sticking, until the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the tomato paste. Slowly add stock, roughly 100ml at a time, stirring and simmering until absorbed. When the rice is cooked, soft but slightly with a bite, stop adding more stock and serve.

This is the first time I have cooked with soffritto, and there will be no money going into my bank account until Friday, so forgive the slightly basic nature of the recipe. If you're feeling adventurous, you could add some fresh prawns in towards the end - and a bit of saffron if you're flush. It is mighty tasty though - remniscent of paella, but without the seafood. It's worth a try though, for an easy freezer dinner. I've still got half a packet left, so more experiments will no doubt follow.

Turns out that it's quite hard to photograph risotto. Will have to work on this!

Green Pea Soup

2011-03-16T23:11:00.000Z

I know, I know, another soup recipe. But - I refuse to apologise. Soup is marvellous. Pea soup is particularly so, it's fresh and clean, a gorgeous colour, and totally delicious.
I've never really understood people who claim that making soup is difficult. I tend to follow the same pattern with mine - chop up veg, fry in butter, add stock, boil, blend, add a bit more stock. The secret is, in my humble opinion, to add slightly less stock that you think you'll need. You can always add more during the blending if it's too thick, but taking it away if it's too thin is nigh on impossible. However, if you do fancy making pea soup and would like a recipe to follow...

Pea Soup
Serves 2

250g frozen garden peas
1 medium onion, diced
25g butter
500ml of chicken stock
50ml cream (optional)

Sautee the onion in melted butter, until translucent, in a medium sized pan.
Stir through the frozen peas, and cover in 250ml of stock. Simmer gently with the pan lid on for about 10 minutes, or until the peas are slightly over cooked.
Blend until smooth, adding more hot stock if needed until it's the desired texture. If you fancy adding a bit of cream in, now's the time to do it. About 50ml is perfect - just a little - not too much, or it'll swamp the delicate pea flavour.
Serve right away with heavily buttered brown bread.

Chocolate Fudge

2011-03-15T23:12:00.000Z

There are a couple of lovely friends that I owe some mega thanks to at the moment. I'd usually go for the "nice bottle of wine" option, but seeing as I have time on my hands, it seemed a rather good excuse to have a bash at making fudge.
I've had a go before. Several times - each more disastrous than the last, most ending up burnt and grainy. I've come to the conclusion that there may be a bit of a crossover and that a lot of the 'fudge' recipes may actually be 'tablet'. Either that, or Rachel Allen has better pans than me, and that's why my attempts at her recipes are always rubbish and burnt.

However, undeterred, I decided to go oldschool and have a go with my Good Housekeeping cookbook. Everything I've ever cooked from here works, and this was no exception - hurrah!

Dark Chocolate Fudge
Makes enough to give to 4 people as presents

Dark chocolate chips (or a block of decent dark chopped with a sharp knife into shards)
Sugar
Condensed Milk
Large pinch of salt

Mix the milk and sugar in a pan, and slowly bring up to the boil, stirring constantly to avoid sticking on the bottom of the pan.
After a minute at the boil, reduce to the lowest heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, still stirring constantly.
Remove from the heat, and stir in the chocolate using a wooden spoon.
When thick and glossy, pour into a lined or silicone baking tray (8" square. I improvised with some buttered tupperware, which worked surprisingly well).
Allow to cool and form a thin layer on top, before covering and placing in the fridge for 4-5 hours to set.
Tip out onto the work surface, or a chopping board, and using a very sharp knife, slice into bite sized pieces.

These would look great presented in little celephane bags, like these ones from Lakeland.

British Pie Week

2011-03-06T20:54:00.001Z

British Pie Week is just around the corner, from the 7th - 13th March. Hurrah! I know, I know, it's a rather clever marketing ploy but still, I do like a good pie - whether it's fish, chicken, beef, or a good old cold picnic pie.

This weekend I made an impromptu trip down to Yorkshire to see my dad, and on Sunday morning we took a trip to the Blacker Hall Farm Shop down the road. I love farm shops - knowing that everything I'm buying is local, lovingly produced and picked fresh to eat rather than chemically ripened makes me feel a little smug. The meat and vegetables are generally pretty well priced - ok, so it's more expensive than the supermarket, but it's also higher quality, and the farmers are at least getting what they deserve for the products you're buying.
Anyway, enough of the ethical lecture. On with the pie.

That's a "ploughman's pie", that is. Thick, crusty pastry, light jelly and a smooth meaty filling with an ever so slight tang of cheese.
Delicious with some Yorkshire Porter and mustard. Or - true ploughman's style - piccalilli.
Phwoar.

A Kilo of Carrots, pt.2

2011-03-04T23:28:00.000Z

Ah, the remainder of the kilo of carrots. What to do with them? The obvious - carrot cake. I've never made a carrot cake before (although I've eaten a fair few), so I went with the easiest one I could find. Super easy, super tasty. Not exactly super healthy, but sod it, it has fruit and veg in, so that's 2 of your 5 a day right there. It's that lovely combination of dense and moist - probably due to the vast amounts of oil.

Almost the BBC Good Food's Carrot Cake

Serves 12

300g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2tsp bicarb of soda

200g brown sugar

4 eggs

250ml oil

1 orange, zested

1 lemon, zested

200g carrots, grated

227g pineapple pieces, well drained and chopped

250g cream cheese

150g icing sugar

1 teaspoon orange juice

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Pre-heat the oven to 160C.

Sift the flour, bicarb and baking soda into the sugar. Mix through.

Beat in the eggs, oil and citrus zests. Stir in the carrots and pineapple, pour into a 10" tin, and bake for 1h20, or until cooked through.

For the frosting - beat the icing sugar, juice and cream cheese together until smooth. When the cake is cooled, take out of the tin and ice thickly.

A Kilo of Carrots, pt.1

2011-03-02T22:11:00.001Z

After the aforementioned crap couple of weeks where I ate mostly toast and not a lot else, I ended up unemployed. This is shit, however way you look at it, but after a long weekend where I have cried on several colleagues, my boy, his flatmate, my flatmate, my old flatmate, my friend and her daughter (who is 4 months old and decided to give me a good run for my money at one point in the story), my mum and my dad, I feel better. There are positives. I have two months paid to find a new job before I need to panic. I have already had an interview. It will all be fine.

However, I do feel the need to warn you all that there may be a large selection of 'frugal' recipes being hurled your way. The advantage of unemployment is that I *actually* have time to write about things I'm cooking. The disadvantage is that they will mostly be vegetarian and of the thrifty variety. You have been warned.

The other night, I decided to get myself down to the supermarket, and buy some ingredients to make actual food as a start to my sort-of-plan of getting healthy whilst unemployed. Admittedly this is partly because the "toast diet" has meant I can fit my skinny jeans and I'd like it to stay that way, but it's also because I want an excuse to cook stuff despite having to be careful with the pennies.
So, I was good. My Friday night bargain consisted mostly of things that have now gone into the freezer - vast amounts of cheap protein from the reduced section, but also vast amounts of carrots.
A couple of years ago, an old lady came up to me at the self-service checkout in Tesco and told me to stick all my vegetables through as carrots, because they were so cheap. She'd been doing it for months and never been caught. This little incident has created a myth in my mind that carrots are really cheap. Turns out they're not anymore- the 1kg 'essentials' bag I bought for 39p was previously £1.09. Blimey.

It occurred to me when I got home that I wasn't sure what to do with said carrots. I don't really like them, unless they're slathered in honey and butter and roasted - and seeing as my oven has gone the way of my fridge and died a little over the weekend, that wasn't really an option. So, I did what I do with all vegetables that I don't know what to do with, and souped them. Except I don't like carrot and coriander, so I googled, and had a bash at a classic that ended up like this...

Potage Crecy
Serves 4 as a main or 6 as a starter.

50g butter or margerine
1 large white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
750g carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large (about 200g) potato, peeled and diced
500g chicken stock (or vegetable if preferred)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
50ml single cream
Teaspoon ground black pepper

Gently fry the onion and garlic in heated oil or butter until softened and translucent.
Add in the rosemary and cook for a minute, then add in the carrots and potatoes, mix through and cover with stock.
Simmer in a lidded pan for approx 30 minutes, until the potato is cooked through and the carrots are soft.
Add in the lemon juice, remove from the heat and blend until silky smooth. Add more stock or water if necessary.
Just before serving, stir in the cream and pepper.

Cheap and cheerful, but posh, 'cos it's French.

Pasta puttanesca

2011-02-26T18:57:00.000Z

Pasta Puttanesca. Ah, the joys of another store-cupboard dinner. At the moment, my fridge is decidedly dodgy, and seeing as it can’t quite make its mind up as to whether it wants to be hot or cold, it seems safest to avoid eating anything too perishable until the engineer’s been round. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I’m learning to be resourceful (read: I’m desperately avoiding too many takeaways), and it’s encouraging me to revisit staples of my student days, when I shared a fridge with 5 other people. Unsurprisingly, the drawer under my bed became my main food storage point.

Most of my meals therefore currently involve variations on pasta and tomatoes, this one being a recently revisited favourite. Possibly due to the name’s translation of tart's spaghetti, if I’m honest.

4 anchovy fillets in oil.

Large onion, finely chopped.

Medium red chilli, finely chopped.

400g tin of chopped tomatoes.

Pinch sugar.

Ground black pepper.

About 10 olives, de-stoned and quartered.

Tablespoon of capers.

Teaspoon of olive oil.

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

Fry the onions in the olive oil along with the garlic and chilli until softened. Add in the tin of tomatoes and a pinch of sugar, and allow the juices to reduce down slightly. Mix in the olives and capers, mixing through. Finally, add in the anchovies, breaking them into smaller pieces with the back of the wooden spoon while mixing through.

Serve with freshly ground pepper on al dente pasta.

Butternut Squash Soup

2011-02-19T14:48:00.000Z

The last couple of weeks have been a bit crap, and therefore my meals have largely involved toast in various combinations- poached eggs on toast, beans on toast, cheese on toast, toast with honey... you get the idea.

I did decide, though, that in an attempt to rectify the nutritional imbalance of meals consisting mostly of carbohydrates with protein, I'd shove in a few of my five-a-day on the side.

Butternut Squash Soup
Serves 6 as a starter, 4 as a lunch.

1kg (roughly one large) butternut squash
2 medium red chillis, deseeded and finely chopped
1 large leek, chopped into rings
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 litre chicken (or veg) stock
50g butter or margerine
100ml single cream (optional, but strongly recommended)
1 level teaspoon smoked paprika
cayenne pepper to taste

Peel your squash, using a potato peeler or super-sharp knife. Take out the stringy middle bit, the seeds, as well as any green veins down the outside, and chop into chunks.
Meanwhile, fry your leek, garlic and chillis off in the butter until the leeks soften. Make sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pan - if they start to, then chuck in a tbsp of stock to loosen it up.
Add in the butternut squash, cover with the stock, and simmer for 20 minutes until softened and slightly mushy.
Allow to cool slightly, add the paprika, and blend until smooth. Add more liquid if necessary, and cayenne pepper to taste if necessary. Remember that if you're adding cream, it'll dilute the chilli heat slightly.
Place the soup back onto the heat, and bring up to a gentle simmer. Take off the heat, add the cream, and stir through.

Serve immediately in warmed bowls, spooning a pretentious drizzle of cream on top for aesthetic value. Ideal with toast.

Ghee and Paneer

2011-02-09T00:50:00.002Z

There are a couple of occasions in life which are irrationally scary. I’m not talking starting a new job scary, or buying a new car scary – they’re both highly sensible things to be wary of, because they both involve the fear of the unknown. I mean the times like wearing new shoes out for the first time. Using your annual bus pass for the first time. Having a dinner party and introducing your new bloke to your best mate and her chap. You know the type of things. Luckily though, unlike the really genuinely terrifying occasions, the irrational ones can be got through with the crutches of wine and food.
Seeing as one of my guests was veggie, I decided to go for the easy option, and make for a curry. Mine tend to be largely vegetable and pulse based, mainly because they’re cheap and cheerful, and because the spices hide a multitude of pre-payday back-of-the-fridge sins. And, lets face it, when you’re trying to impress people – you can’t go wrong with a curry.
It's fair to say that I’m a sucker for punishment, and therefore decided that rather than take the easy option and buy my ingredients for my curry, I’d make them. If anyone else fancies being daft enough to make their own Paneer and Ghee the morning of a dinner party, this is how…
Paneer
Ingredients and equipment:
Full fat cows milk
Lemon juice, about 50ml - or - 250ml natural yoghurt.
Muslin or cheesecloth (mine was £1.75/metre from John Lewis)
A colander
Clean ea towels
(4 pints of milk makes about 350g)
In a pan you don’t mind scrubbing (in case of burn!) slowly heat the milk, until it begins to simmer.
When it begins to bubble, quickly add a teaspoon of lemon juice (or several tablespoons of yoghurt), and remove from the heat.

The milk should begin to separate – slowly at first, looking slightly like cottage cheese on the surface. Stir gently with a wooden spoon, until the solids are completely separated, and floating in a pale watery liquid.

Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with cheesecloth (muslin), and allow the liquid to drain out.

If you have time, hanging the cheesecloth from a tap will allow extra liquid to drain off.

Place the parcel on a clean hard surface such as a wooden chopping board, and weigh down to flatten and drain any final liquid out, for approximately 2 hours. A large, heavy pan filled with water - the one you cooked the milk in - is ideal for this. Quite a bit of extra liquid will come out over time, so it's worth popping a tea towel under the chopping board to absorb any extra milk.

Rinse, and store under water until needed for use.

Ghee
Ingredients and equipment:
500g unsalted butter
heatproof storage container
strainer
muslin
(makes about 350g - a jam jar full)

Take two blocks of unsalted, preferably organic, butter and melt slowly over a low flame. I’d use a steel pan, or one that you don’t mind scrubbing.

When the butter has melted, keep it on the flame, but don’t stir it. It should slowly start to bubble away – this is a good thing. Allow it to bubble. It’ll make a ‘whooshing’ noise, as it gets really hot – a sign that the water from the butter has started to split away from the milk and fat and is evaporating off.

It will continue to do this for about 30-45 minutes (depending on the size of your pan). Skim off any white scum that develops on the top as necessary while it is bubbling away. When the noise has subsided, and the water has evaporated, you should be left with a pale golden liquid, the colour of golden syrup. If the liquid is darker, towards a brown or caramel liquid, it has burnt, so keep an eye on it.

Pour the liquid, still without stirring, through a strainer. I used a tea strainer lined with a couple of layers of cheesecloth.

Decant into a heat-proof, clean, dry container (an old jam jar is perfect), and allow to cool slowly. It will solidify when cooled.

Ghee keeps fairly indefinitely and doesn’t need to be refrigerated – some schools of thought say it’s better if it isn't as it prevents condensation.

I'll admit, after a morning of being rather productive, I was a little lazy in the afternoon and followed other people's recipes for my curry selections - a rather marvellous saag paneer, a surprisingly easy pea and tomato curry with paneer (although I chucked in a tin of tomatoes instead of the fresh ones), and a slightly dull chana dal (I didn't have tamarind. Who does?!).
Easy, cheap, and fun - give it a bash.

Cheeks and Chorizo casserole

2011-01-22T18:19:00.001Z

When I first discovered the joy of pigs cheeks, I did a little googling to come up with some ideas as to how to cook them. Most of the recipes were casseroled in some way, allowing the meat to tenderise to perfection over time (excellent for our new stainless steel oven-proof pans, hurrah!), and most involved alcohol of some type - I presume to tenderise. Anyway, there was a bit of a recurring theme of red wine, and several mentions of chorizo, so taking inspiration from various internet sources, I came up with this...

500g pigs cheeks
2 carrotts
2 sticks celery
1 red onion
1 white onion
2 x 400g tins of tomatoes
250ml red wine
150g chorizo sausage for cooking, sliced
1 bouquet garni
1tsp sugar
50g butter

Firstly, dice the carrotts and onions into small pieces, de-string the celery, and slice.

In a large and oven-proof casserole dish, melt the butter and use to lightly fry the chorizo to melt the fat.

When the oil begins to coat the pan bottom, add the pigs cheeks, slowly stirring to prevent sticking.

After 2-3 minutes, or when the cheeks are lightly browned, mix in the diced vegetables, coating in the oil and butter, and allow to soften slightly.

When the onions begin to become translucent, add in the wine, stirring right to the bottom of the pan to scrape off any sticky bits. Allow to simmer slightly, before adding in the tomatoes, bouquet garni, and sugar.

Cook in the oven for an hour and a half to an hour, until the tomatoes are reduced down and the sauce is thickened.

Perfect served with crusty bread and butter, and the remainder of the red wine bottle.

Not the best picture in the world, apologies!

Sausage and Lentil Supper

2011-01-11T23:44:00.001Z

I have recently been plagued with man-flu (not actual flu, thank goodness, and nothing swiney either, but still). I am also in the throes of January poverty, and therefore the combination of laziness and a lack of pennies has meant that I am continuing with the eternal challenge of eating everything in the freezer before turning to the shops.
A couple of months ago, I managed to bag myself some bargains, including some mighty cheap and rather posh sausages, which I have been slowly working my way through. This weekend's comfort food involved several of them, slowly cooked up with a large portion of lentils and veg. Admittedly, a little heavy on the protein, but not too heavy on the waistline. Always a bonus for January.

Sausage and Lentil Supper

Serves 2 very generously on its own, or 4 with salad and garlic bread.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 carrotts, diced
2 onion, diced
6 sausages - the meatier and herbier the better
250g puy lentils, rinsed
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried mixed italian herbs
1 tin chopped tomatoes
450ml chicken stock
1 medium-hot chilli, de-seeded if desired, and finely chopped.

In a large lidded pan, heat up the oil and cook the sausages (pricking if necessary to let out more juices and fat) until lightly browned all over. Add in the onion, garlic, chilli and and carrots, and cook through until the onions begin to go translucent.
Add a small amount of stock to the pan (about 100ml), and use to de-glaze. Add in the lentils, stir through to mix with the sausages and vegetables, before adding the remaining stock along with the tomatoes and herbs.
Simmer for 45 minutes, until the lentils are cooked al dente, and the sausages are piping hot in the middle. Stir occasionally to prevent any burning on the bottom of the pan. Add more hot water (or wine if you have it!) if the stock has steamed away before the lentils are sufficiently cooked.

Leftover roast chicken pie

2010-11-29T18:19:00.000Z

Woman walks up to cashier with a leek, a bag of mushrooms, and a block of puff pastry.
"Madam, are you making a pie"
"Yes..."
" I was wondering... I've never made a pie. How do you make a pie?"
"Well...

you take your leftover roast chicken, and pick off all the meat. Put the bones aside to make into stock, the meat in a pie dish, and the skin in the bin.
Then you chop up a leek into rings, and fry in butter along with a half a dozen chopped mushrooms. Pop into the casserole dish with the chicken, mix through a bit, and cool.
In a medium sized pan, melt a couple of tablespoons of butter with a couple of tablespoons of flour, to form a roux. Gently pour in hot chicken stock (either made using the bones, or some ready made stuff if you're tight for time), until a thickish sauce forms. Mix in a couple of tablespoons of single cream, and then pour over the veg and chicken mix and allow to cool a little.
While cooling, chop your block of puff pastry into four, and roll out a quarter with a pin on a dusted surface until it's about 1/2 cm thick. Prick with a fork to encourage rising, then loosely drape over your pie dish, trying not to get it on the sauce because it won't rise as well. With a fork, crimp to the side.
Pop it in the oven for a bit, about 170C for 20 minutes, until the pastry is risen and golden.
Eat"
"Oh, pretty easy then? £3.10"
"Yep, and nice and forgiving. I've got a bag."
"£1.90 change. Enjoy"

And I did. Yum. Ultimate cold weather comfort food, ultimate leftovers food. Delish. It only took a the legs and wings to make a lush pie for three people (well, two days of pie and one for the freezer) - so far, that's five meals out of one roast chicken, not including the stock. Result!

Note to self: take photograph before devouring next time. And don't eat all the pastry from tomorrow's portion.

Cider braised pigs cheeks

2010-11-23T20:38:00.000Z

Finally, I've had a bash at the pigs cheeks! I should be honest and say that I actually had a bash at them over the weekend, but for various reasons involving camera batteries, laziness, and leftovers, I'm only blogging about it tonight.

I did a bit of googling, having read this post by Fiona Beckett about how horrendous her attempt was, and decided on the classic combo of pork-and-apple as a beginner's recipe. Tasty as other options involving chorizo and red wine sounded, I did wonder if they'd drown the flavour too much for a curious first-timer, so I ended up coming up with an adaption of this instead, which serves two generously...

50g butter
25g butter (yes, two lots of butter!)
6 pigs cheeks
1 large onion, roughly chopped
350ml dry cider
200g mushrooms, chopped into mouth-sized pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
Teaspoon flour
Fresh pasta to serve

Pre-heat the oven to 160C.
Slowly brown the cheeks in 50g of melted butter in a non-stick frying pan.
When slightly browned, add in the onions and cook gently until they begin to soften.
Transfer into an oven-proof lidded dish.
Sprinkle over the teaspoon of flour, mixing into the butter and juices to form a sort of roux.
De-glaze the pan with the cider, mixing in the butter and flour. Pour over the meat and onion, and place in the oven for about an hour.
After an hour, fry the mushrooms slightly in 25g of butter until softened. Add in to the dish in the oven, and continue to braise for another half hour.
After a total of 90 minutes or so in the oven, serve with fresh linguine style pasta, slightly al dente to absorb the sauce.

Delicious, cheap and nutritious. The cheeks have a really unusual almost gamey sort of flavour - not like the standard boring roast pork I'm used to. They're also incredibly tender, probably due to the braising and slow cooking. I didn't actually add the flour to the mixture, but I think just a little bit will probably help to thicken the sauce, which is probably handy as I ended up with a rather large amount of juices at the bottom of my pasta bowl.

Creamy cauliflower soup

2010-11-19T23:44:00.001Z

It is definatly soup weather. Cold, dark and misty on a night. Crisp, pink and golden on a morning. We are entering comfort food territory (and as you may have noticed, I am a fan of comfort food).
I like soup. It's a lunch, a dinner, or a drink. It's cheap, healthy and easy - bonuses when the festive season is approaching. It freezes, it re-heats and you can pretty much make anything into a soup.

In one of my slightly-too-hungry-to-be-safely-allowed-near-the-supermarket moments, I bought a small round of Welsh goats cheese, as it was reduced to about 40p/100g. Combining this with my desperate attempts to eat everything out of the freezer in the run-up to payday, and my housemate's increasingly raised eyebrows at my having begun to encroach on 'her' drawer, I ended up coming up with this:

Cauliflower and Goats Cheese Soup
Makes about 4 portions.

500g frozen cauliflower florets
1 large roughly chopped onion,
50g butter
450ml low salt veg or chicken stock
200g of soft and crumbly goats cheese per portion

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sautee the onion until it translucent.
Add in the cauliflower chunks, and cover with hot stock.
Simmer for approximately 10 minutes, until the cauliflower is cooked, but still retains a small amount of bite.
Blitz with a food processer or hand blender until creamy and smooth. If necessary, add more warm water to ease blending or to taste.

Blueberry Pancakes

2010-11-12T19:18:00.001Z

I am trying oh-so-hard not to throw anything away at the moment, which is leading to some slighly interesting meal time combinations, a rather full freezer, and (last night at least), breakfast for dinner. I am one of those people that bulk buys because it's cheaper and then panics when I can't eat them quickly enough - hence the above listed problems.
For a little while I have been craving pancakes, and therefore decided to have a bash at them last night in an attempt to use up the half-eaten punnet of blueberries. I should probably admit that I've never made pancakes before. Well, no actually I have. I've eaten plenty too. But I've never made them on my own before - a slightly horrifying thought considering my 23 years and how blooming easy they are.

I decided, as a beginner, that I should try an 'easy' recipe, and therefore plumped for this one by Fiona Beckett, partly because she's rather good at writing simple recipes that actually work, and partly because I'd quite like to be her when I grow up please.

The end result (quantities doubled)...

Fabulous.

The Power of the Pineapple

2010-11-09T18:44:00.000Z

Today my lovely friend Claire had a baby. I was supposed to be heading round tonight for a 'due date dinner', and as the usual bottle of wine probably isn't the best thing to take when you're the only person drinking, I decided to make a cake instead. Not just any kind of cake though, a pineapple-upside-down cake. Oh yes. But it seems that pineapple has even more powers than I initially thought to hurry up a baby - it turns out you don't even need to eat it, just know you're going to.

If you fancy recreating the recipe, then it's this one from the BBC's Good Food website. I made it on Sunday, and it got eaten in the office at lunchtime today, by which time the syrup from the topping had oozed its way through, making it slightly gooey on top - delish. There was a minor panic when I realised that I don't own an 8" cake tin, and that it would therefore have to go in either a 10" or two 6" tins. I went for the 6" tins, and had to whip up some more mixture (luckily it's pretty much just a sponge on top of the pineapples). I'm not entirely sure why I didn't just make a single small one rather than two, but there you go!

Still skint, but stuffing...

2010-11-04T23:43:00.000Z

I have a slightly bad habit of impulse purchasing things that are interesting, cheap or unusual. Even better if it's a combination of all of the three.
Since moving to my new flat, I have the (mis?)fortune of having a Waitrose as my local supermarket. Is it actually possible to go in there without spending over a tenner? I'm not so convinced it is, especially as I have a love for it, partly because they do amazing discounts at closing time. An £8 sushi box for £1.99? Yes please. Or a £1.29 loaf of organic bread for 10p?! Well, I don't mind if I do.

And so, that sort of explains why I may have got a little overexcited in Waitrose at the weekend. And why I may have bought a whole mackerel for 50p, 775g of outdoor bred pigs cheeks for 92p, and 9 pink veal and outdoor bred sausages for £1.69. Whoops. Ethical and cheap - I think I can justify that!

I have decided (again) that I'm going to try new recipes for these, in an attempt to be fun in my frugality, and therefore stumbled upon this stuffed pepper delight. Due to it's American measurements, and slightly enormous quantities, considerable altering was done until I ended up with this ...

For the stuffing:
6-7 large peppers
teaspoon oil
small onion, finely diced
250g sausagemeat (ideally squeezed from 'posh' sausages with a high meat content)
400g cooked rice
30g parmesan
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
For the sauce:
1 can tinned tomatoes
1 clove garlic, finely diced or crushed
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
large pinch of sugar

The peppers:
Cut the tops from the peppers, de-seed, and de-rib.
Flatten the bottoms of the peppers if necessary, so that they will stand upright.
Lightly brush the outsides with a little oil.
Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan, and add the diced onion. Fry until starts to become translucent.
Add the sausage meat, and stir while cooking to break up into small grounds.
When the sausage meat has started to brown, and loses pinkness, reduce from the heat, allow to cool, and drain of fat.
In a mixing bowl, combine the egg, cheese, seasoning and sausage mix. Stir thoroughly.
Stuff into the peppers, allowing a small amount of room for expansion (especially if your rice is freshly cooked or still slightly al dente). Leave the tops slightly mounded.
Place into a lightly oiled baking tray and surround with the sauce.
The sauce:
Heat a small amount of oil in a pan. Add in the diced onion and garlic, and heat until softened and translucent.
In a suitable container, purée the tinned tomatoes in their juices, until fairly smooth.
Add the tomatoes in to the onion and garlic, and simmer gently until reduced to a medium-thick sauce. Add small pinches of sugar to reduce the tartness as required.
Bake the peppers in the oven at 180C for 45 minutes.

The Verdict?
Admittedly, I forgot to put the egg in, so it didn't stick together particularly well when cooked... I think next time I'd perhaps up the cheese and use something like gruyère that would melt but still add a nuttiness - the parmesan gave good flavour, but didn't really bind the ingredients together, and 30g wasn't much compared to the rice! I also managed to run out of peppers, so stuffed a hollowed out aubergine, which was also rather tasty!
Pretty delish though despite that, even as leftovers for lunch the next day!

Tomato and Parma Ham Risotto

2010-10-30T19:17:00.002+01:00

Having hit the deli at closing time, deciding that as I would inevitably impulse purchase, it would make most sense to do it on the cheap, this seemed like a rather obvious and basic (but no less tasty for it) dinner option. I'll admit, I was mostly intreagued by the sun-blushed Pomodorino tomatoes. Delish, but disappointingly similar to the large ones in taste.

100g parma ham

100g sun-blushed tomatoes

75g risotto rice (such as carnaroli or arborio)

teaspoon olive oil

medium onion (diced)

500ml low-salt vegetable stock

Heat oil in a medium pan, then fry onion until soft.

Stir in risotto rice, toasting for 1 minute or so.

Add in stock, approx 100ml, and stir through the rice and onions. Allow to simmer until absorbed, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Add tomatoes once the rice has started to swell, along with further stock as needed. Meanwhile, dice the ham slices into small squares - approx 2cm, trimming off any large chunks of fat.

When almost cooked and ready to serve, stir in the ham.

Cheese On Toast

2010-10-25T23:30:00.002+01:00

Shropshire blue on farmhouse toast.
Is there any finer late night snack?

Poverty Strikes

2010-09-23T21:45:00.000+01:00

August was hectic - festival, visiting friends, having more fun than my bank balance allowed. By default, September has mostly been spent being poor... With a week still to go until payday, it's got to the eat-everything-left-in-the-cupboard time of the month, and when that time arrives, I turn to chickpeas.

I have a slightly strange relationship with chickpeas. I like them, in that they are cheap, healthy and the main ingredient of hummus. I dislike them in that I'm never entirely sure they taste of much, and I'm not a massive fan of the nutty texture. These things considered, it means I pretty much only eat them in one way - curried. Cheap, healthy comfort food in a bowl.
I must admit, I'm always a little nervous of using curry spices. I'm never entirely sure of the right combinations or ratios, and as someone who's wary of cumin (i.e. I'm not a fan of it...), I decided it was easiest to find a recipe to use as a basis. After slight adaptations, I decided that this recipe would be a good one to have a bash at adapting.

1 tbsp oil
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin chickpeas (drained)
1/4 tsp garam masala
half a bag of spinach - about 100g

In a saucepan, heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic
Add the salt, cumin, turmeric, coriander and chilli powder.
Tip in the tin of tomatoes, and mix through.
Add a couple of tbsps of water, and simmer down until smooth sauce.
Add in the ginger, garam masala and chickpeas, simmer until heated through.
Add in chopped spinach and wilt down.
Serve with warmed naan.

What I have been doing.

2010-09-16T20:01:00.000+01:00

The last 6 weeks or so have been absolutely bonkers busy.

I have moved house. I have my old flatmate back. I have spent way too much time unpacking, rearranging and organising. I have made new friends. I have been dancing with my new friends. I have had flu. I spent 36 hours in my pyjamas. I drank honey and lemon. I felt better. I 'did' the Festival. I opened my flat up as a Bed and Breakfast to various friends. I saw comedians. I saw music. I felt spectacularly untalented. I went dancing (again). I took advantage of knowing people who work for Festival venues. I used and abused their discounts. I had hangovers. I bought a new camera. I took photos with it.
I remembered how much fun Edinburgh can be. I remembered why I love this city.
I realised I hated my job. I quit my job. I found a new one. I start on Monday.

Sinigang Soup

2010-07-25T12:51:00.002+01:00

Or at least, my version of it.

Well, I am back from Croatia. Loved it, loved it. Back at work. Boo hiss. Photos will follow - I need an excuse to browse through them, reliving memories, so no doubt it'll be another week or so by the time they are up. I do feel I should admit that this is not just due to my laziness - I've also moved house this week (note to self, don't move house two days after getting back from holiday) and am internetless, excepting brief stops in coffee shops, and sneaky peeks at work.

Mr. Asda has come and delivered a full fridge of foodstuffs to me - hurrah - and so in celebration of our new place, my flatmate and I decided to have a bash at something new for dinner.
We decided on Sinigang Soup. We loosely based our recipe on one in the Filipino cookery book my friend gave me, although to be honest, I think it's a bit of a 'chuck things in and see how it works' kind of meal. It was good - warm, flavoursome, comforting, and surprisingly healthy. The seasoning is available in larger asian supermarkets.

1 onion, thinly sliced.
8 cherry tomatoes, halfed.
1 leek, chopped into 1cm rounds.
1 red pepper, thinly sliced.
1/2 courgette, ribboned.
1 packet of Sinigang seasoning mix (herbs, spices and dried tamarind to make it sour)
1 bundle glass noodles
200g prawns

Place vegetables into a large pan, and cover with water (about 2 pints). Add in the seasoning.
Bring to a simmer, continue until veg is cooked.
Add in glass noodles and raw prawns.
Simmer until noodles and prawns are cooked.
Serve

Fat Free Crisps

2010-07-07T23:31:00.001+01:00

Oh yes, dieters everywhere. They exist.
I accidentally stumbled upon the holy grail of hip-conscious ladies (and gentlemen) everywhere when buying some eggs in the wholefood shop a couple of doors down from home. As I stood, next to the till, daydreaming away, the glorious words "FAT FREE" and "CRISPS" in the same sentence caught my eye. Oh yes. If anyone cares, it's now less than a week until I will be burning myself and being a tourist in Croatia and, although I am aware that the laws of both physics and nutrition dictate that I shall not be dropping a dress size without the assistance of a surgeon, I can but dream. Therefore readers, I was excited. I bought one of each flavour.

I approached the beetroot ones first. 300g of fresh beetroot in each packet apparently - one of my five a day. Hurrah - crisps now count - every hip-concious person's dream.
Verdict: not bad, they taste like Tyrrels but without the oil and salt. They do need salt... but the texture's nice, and I'm a fan of beetroot. I do feel, however, that I should warn you - the old wives tale about eating too much beetroot is true. Alarming.

Next up: the carrot ones. Carrot and paprika no less - nothing 'plain' about these. Like the beetroot, they were one of my five a day, and although the colour was not quite so exciting, they were still decidedly carrotty. So carrotty that it was like eating dried soup in a bag... not as great as the beetroot ones. I've come to the conclusion since eating them that perhaps I am a little biased on this reaction (having spent several weeks whilst a student eating very little else except carrot soup whilst waiting for a student loan payment, I now can't stand the stuff).

Ho hum. Back to the drawing board it is. Worth a bash though. I'd probably eat the beetroot ones again but with a little sprinkle of salt!

The Joys of Pie

2010-07-06T21:05:00.003+01:00

When I'm stressed and tired, I don't want to eat. I have no idea why this happens, when usually I'll eat everything in sight, but it's a rather sad fact. The last couple of weeks since my birthday have been rather hectic - busy at work, busy socially and now, something I didn't think possible, busy at home.
I am moving house next week. I hate moving house. Hate, hate, hate it. It's unsettling, I don't have a full cupboard of food and my flat and room are full of half-filled boxes that I've frantically rammed stuff into after work. Unfortunately (and through no bad planning of my own I'd like to add), I'm moving house the day after I get back from my much-anticipated holiday, so I am really starting to freak out a bit...
*insert whimpering noises*
At times like this, comfort food is needed. I've already expressed my love of pie before - steak and ale is amazing, but sometimes a girl needs some mashed potato in her life.
This is where pies really come into their own I reckon. Cottage or Shepherd's pies are perhaps the ultimate ways of using up the random bits of vegetable found in the bottom of the fridge, and are the perfect excuse for a pie-mash-gravy combination in my humble opinion.
But when it's (supposed to be) summer outside, and you have a freezer to plough through before you move house, only fish pie will do.

I think my craving for fish pie, along with the last couple of days of crap weather and a desire for comfort food, came from reading this article in the Sunday Times Style Magazine a couple of weeks ago. I'll be honest. Most of the time I read Style as it gives me something to titter over whilst chomping on my breakfast. Seriously, how is a £250 Whistles dress a 'highstreet' alternative to a designer number?! Anyway... for once, Style approached an article touching on political. Good for them. It has made me think a bit though. The article suggests that, if management of international fishing waters and fisheries does not change, then 90% of the world's fishing stocks will be depleted to the point of exhaustion. That's a pretty horrific thought, and not just from a foodie point of view. I'm not great at maths, therefore not great at statistics, but that must mean that worldwide, the number of fish in our oceans are plummeting. Even if, say, just 2% of the world's fish stocks vanish in 40 years time, that will have a knock on effect. Fish are consumed by larger fish, who are consumed by birds and mammals. Food chain, anyone?

As someone who doesn't eat fish very often, I like to think of myself as fairly fish concious. I eat 'dolphin friendly' tuna (although, as this piece points out, the stuff in sandwiches is often not), I go for pollock and coley over haddock and cod. But still, is this enough? See, this is where the consumer gets into somewhat of a minefield. Fish is expensive. That's my main reason for not buying it. But even still - I don't trust supermarkets. There's an implication that 'wild' fish is better/more ethical/preferable to 'farmed' but is that the case? Is there a difference between a controllable stock which is fed dubiously ethically sourced food? After all, according to the Style article,
Vast catches are required simply to make feed for farms, which adds to imbalances in the natural food chain. It takes about 3kg of fish feed to make 1kg of salmon. The maths doesn’t add up!"
So, it was with somewhat of a sense of confusion and sadness that I chomped my fish pie. Blooming lovely it was. If you're not too depressed or confused about the ethics of eating fish, here's how I made it:

Ingredients:
650g potatoes
400ml of milk (I used soya because of my lactard tendancies, but I'm guessing full fat would be bestest)
1tbsp margerine
Bay leaf, broken in two halves
Couple of Peppercorns
1tbsp plain flour
1tsp cornflour
1x fish stock cube
1 coley fillet
1 salmon fillet
a dozen prawns (preferably raw)
Large leek, chopped up

In a frying pan, sautee the leek, then put into the bottom of a pie dish.
Pop the milk in a pan, along with the fish (but not prawns).
Bring up to simmer, and when the fish starts to cook, pop in the prawns.
Simmer for 3-4 mins until poached (doesn't have to be completely poached, but near enough).
Take out fish and pepper/bay leaves, flake fish into mouth sized pieces, and pop into pie dish (discard bay and pepper).
In a clean pan, make a roux using the butter and plain flour.
Add stock cube to the hot milk.
Slowly add in the hot milk, stirring until lump free. Allow to simmer, until sauce is thick and will coat a spoon. If necessary, add cornflour.
Put into pie dish, and mix through fish and leeks.

Peel and chop potatoes, put on to boil.

Once cooked, drain and mash. If there's any extra sauce left over, add to the mash rather than butter and milk to give an extra fishy richness.

By now the sauce will be cool. By allowing it to cool, it stops the mash sinking. Not sure how or why... but it works! Pop the mash onto the fish mix, and pop into an oven at about 180C to heat through and turn the mash golden.

Yum yum. Perfect comfort food - healthy, tasty, and surprisingly easy! Doesn't half make a lot of washing up though.

Banana muffins

2010-07-03T23:03:00.004+01:00

I am pretty rubbish at buying fruit and not eating it all. I tell myself that I need to eat more fruit (despite quite easily getting my 5-a-day in through other means) rather than just drinking it, but even still, there's always a couple of slightly soft apples, ever so mushy pears or - most frequently - brown and mottled bananas that make it past their best before date.
However - as part of my attempts to throw away less food, I've decided to attempt to bake more. Muffins, tarts, puddings... all decent ways of getting my portions in. So tonight, banana muffins. Ok, so more like banana cupcakes because I don't have any muffin cases. And technically, one of the recipes I adapted is for a banana cake. But y'know, details details.

Banana Muffins

3 medium sized past-their-best bananas
50g melted butter (although I used low fat margerine and it worked...)
110g soft brown sugar
1 egg
tbsp honey
250g self raising flour
tsp mixed spice
heaped tsp bicarb of soda
tbsp lemon or lime juice - or orange if you're desperate

Mash the bananas in with the butter, until in rough chunks.
Add in the sugar, honey and egg.
Sift in the flour, bicarb and mixed spice.
Mix through - doesn't have to be too evenly - then soften with the juice and a little water if necessary until dolloping consistency.
Dollop into silicone bun cases and cook for about 20 minutes at about 180C (sadly my oven doesn't have numbers, they've been cleaned off by the old residents, so I sort of have to guess) until golden brown and risen.

A Week of Birthdays

2010-06-28T19:15:00.001+01:00

Well folks, I am now 23.
I have been 23 for a week. I'm not sure I can 'feel' a difference, except for a somewhat rising panic that Now I Am A Proper Grownup (for 23 always sounded like such a grownup age until a week ago...), I should really know what I want to do with my life, career, money, etcetera. I don't. I was half hoping I'd wake up on the morning of the 19th of June and be struck by inspiration, but sadly not.

I have managed to make my birthday last a blooming long time though. Must remember this for next year - don't have a party, just go out with everyone individually. Hurrah!
It all started on Friday the 18th, the day before my birthday, when a little parcel arrived for me at work...

12 perfect pink fairycakes from my Dad and his partner! Brilliant! So, the girls in the office and I (and a couple of boys who managed to stick their heads round the door at opportune moments) kicked off birthday celebrations with a cup of tea and a bun. Lovely stuff!

I'd managed to blag the weekend off work, and decided last minute to run away to the countryside and see my mum, so Saturday morning was spend in the Lake District, where she lives.
I opened my lovely presents from my lovely friends and family, which included...

...a lovely handpainted cup and saucer from my friend, her boy and their bump...

...a sushi making kit from my adventurous friend and future flatmate...

...and a hardback (because there's something exciting about hardback over paperback) copy of Bill Bryson's new one, which is a potted history of the home. Fab.

We went on a little excursion to Hawkshead, where we popped into Wordsworth's old school (which interested me, as I'd studied him for the first time on my recent OU course). Apparently, the Hawkshead Grammar school was, during the 18th Century, one of the most respected in the North of England, particularly for maths, with pupils - all boys, from 8 to17 - from as far away as Manchester and into Scotland boarding nearby in order to gain an education. It was apparently considered acceptable for a little graffiti during school hours....

although that was possibly because the glass was frosted, to stop the boys from admiring the beautiful views...

So, we did a little wandering, stopping off at the deli and chutney shop (sampling the delights, and purchasing some for my sarnies), before relaxing with a pot of tea and a piece of birthday cake at a cafe I'm fond of.

Lemon sponge with lemon curd and cream cheese in the middle. Amazing!

The rest of the week carried on in rather spectacular style. Sunday was my mum's birthday, so we went for afternoon tea at Rothay Manor. Ay-may-zing. Just look at the food!

You can just catch a glimpse of the most enormous plate of sandwiches in the back corner - every type imaginable!

On Tuesday, my Filipino friend took me to try a Filipino restaurant near her house (awesome - no doubt a review shall follow on another occasion! Definitely want to go back!)

On Wednesday, I went for dinner with the girls from the office, and then to see the Rocky Horror Show at the theatre - the tickets were another birthday present!

On Thursday, I was mostly a little worse for wear... but I went to the King's Wark for a birthday dinner with another friend.

On Friday, I stocked the freezer full of bolognese sauce and lamb meatballs (Mr. Asda did a delivery) and I went over to a friend's for yet another birthday dinner. Chinese this time - we'd planned on trying the new Yo Sushi that's opened in Harvey Nichols, but couldn't be bothered heading into town!

On Saturday, I stayed in.

On Sunday, it was someone else's birthday.

Farewell birthday week. You were pretty great, even if my jeans are now a little tight for comfort...

Review: The King's Wark

2010-06-25T14:30:00.003+01:00

Last night my lovely friend Kellie and I decided to venture out for tea (part of a long line of birthday celebrations - more on that later!) down to Leith.
As a southsider, I find Leith a bit of a strange mix. Traditionally, it's been the 'dodgy' end of Edinburgh (although, if you want to get technical, Leith wasn't actually a single place until the late 16th Century, when the North and South boroughs merged, and even then - Leith and Edinburgh only officially merged in 1920, after a referendum), known for it's post-war decline. Until 2001, Leith was declared a 'tolerance zone' for prostitution, leading to it being known as Edinburgh's red light district and the home of Trainspotting- a sad demise, considering that it was once the site of the Scottish Court under Mary of Guise.

However... I'm glad to say that in recent years, Leith has undergone somewhat of an amazing transformation (due largely to regeneration - the temporary home of the Scottish Parliament, the development of Ocean Terminal and the docking of the Royal Yacht Britannia have all helped). It's now home to three of Edinburgh's 5 Michelin starred restaurants, as well as a huge number of other well respected bars, gastropubs and restaurants.

So - anyway - Kellie and I went to Leith in search of seafood and wine and decided on The King's Wark on the Shore. It was actually Kellie's suggestion - as a former veggie who's only recently started venturing into the world of fish, it seemed like a good place to start, with a well known and respected menu 'showcasing' locally caught fresh fish.

Sadly, they don't take reservations for the bar at the Wark, so I was glad we'd got there early-ish, at just before 7. The bar was full- all tables were taken by people eating - and so a sort of informal queue was formed of people waiting. I decided to head to the bar and grab a glass of wine while we waited... and I'm sorry to say, wait I did. For about 10 minutes... And I think that brings us to the only thing that disgruntled me about the King's Wark - they were horrendously understaffed, which meant that their service went slightly downhill at busy points. There appeared to be only three front of house staff - the owner, and two others, who doubled as both servers and bar staff, which created a slightly frantic atmosphere even before we'd been seated (although the staff were lovely and friendly when we did talk to them - and, a good sign if ever there was one - they seemed to take a break to sample the food themselves after the rush had subsided).

The bar menu is pretty flexible, in that most of the dishes are available as full or half sizes - perfect if you're indecisive and fancy a couple of things! We went conventional and did the starter-and-main thing, with Kellie being brave and picking Mussels followed by Haddock and Chips. I went for Scottish Seafood Chowder, followed by the Mussels and Frites.

A delicious mixture of clams, mussels, salmon and haddock, with carrots, leeks, swede, potato and celery in the broth. I've never made chowder before, so I'm a little unsure of the ingredients - but it was a fishy, ever so slightly creamy and delicate mix. The dollop of paprika mayo created the creaminess, and added a delicate kick to dip the fish in. Gorgeous. I actually finished my plate wishing I'd ordered that as my main... I will do next time.

The sauce for the mussels was unlike anything I've had with mussels before. On paper, it was the usual - cream, white wine and a little lemon, finished with a drizzle of garlic and parsley butter. But it was also light and delicate and brought out the flavour of the mussels fantastically. I do love mussels but I usually find that the sauce is so rich and overpowering that I can't finish my dish. Last night, I was sad that I couldn't finish it, but quite glad that instead it was because I was stuffed full without feeling like I'd gorged on terribly rich food- fantastic.

Neither of us had the room to finish with a desert, so we had a round of gin and tonics before we toddled off to our respective bus stops, planning what we'd have next time we'd visited. Definitely a good sign!

Two courses for two, including two glasses of wine, two gin and tonics, and a coke: £36.50

Fathers Day

2010-06-20T11:58:00.000+01:00

For you, Vati, just because I know it will embarrass you.
xx

And so it ends.

2010-06-16T01:15:00.003+01:00

I had my Open University exam today. I can honestly say I was really quite nervous. I sort of thought beforehand that I wouldn't be. I'd got it into my head that, if I did really badly it doesn't matter, it's something I started off doing for 'fun' and finished because I was determined not to quit it. I'd pretty much decided that, if all else fails (or rather, if I failed), at least I could say I'd learned things I didn't know before. That's definately true at least. I've learnt a lot, both "history" and "personal". However, as soon as I got into the exam room - all of the traditional knees-to-jelly stuff hit. ARGH!
There are definately pros and cons with studying through the O.U. For me, one of the cons was that all of the tutorials were on a Saturday. On paper, not a problem, but I increasingly found it difficult to manoeuvre my shifts at work around them, and therefore I missed a few towards the end. Irritatingly, it seems that this is where it all got useful. To begin with the tutorials went over the initial information, got us into the swing of studying by distance learning. They were handy to go to, but not perhaps essential. It seems the essential ones were the last two.
Something I've only realised this evening is that the OU actually gives you a list of topics to revise, which it appears to distribute through its tutors (at least, I didn't receive a copy myself in the post). I was posted a list of 'sample' questions and some info sheets from my tutor, read over them, and totally didn't twig that it was basically a list of everything to revise. I thought it was just what they'd covered in the revision sessions in the weeks I'd missed, and key bullet points to revise over. So, stupid old me has spent the last month revising things which didn't come up on the exam and were never going to come up on the exam. I could have spent my time cramming the topics on the list instead. What a bloody idiot.
In my defence, I think this is one of the problems with the Open University. I'd say that about 90% of the information about the course, such as the structure, the Tutor Marked Assessment (essays) topics are given to you in advance, and you're able to prepare yourself and direct your reading. However if, like me, you can't make the tutorials and occasionally find it difficult to get motivated through the bits of the course that don't interest you so much, then the remaining 10% is totally lost to you. Sort of defeats the point for a distance learning course really. I'd noticed early on in the year that there were no group forums for discussion - a real shame. It would have been nice to have had some people to talk it over with - and perhaps then I'd've twigged earlier!
In regards to the exam, I had, somewhat naively perhaps, assumed that it'd be like any other university course - revise what you can (a couple of topics from each section) and you'll be fine. My panic about not knowing enough and not having covered a wide enough range of areas was totally unnecessary.
I am bloody gutted. And very pissed off with myself, particularly because the pass mark is only 40% and I know that, in light of all this, I'm probably not going to make it. When I left the exam I was feeling fairly positive, now I'm a bit gutted. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Perhaps toes too.

On a more positive and totally unrelated note - I went out for dinner to a local Chinese restaurant as a post-exam celebration. I'll be honest, my friend and I stuck out like sore thumbs, which was really quite embarrassing considering our ignorance of Chinese food cultures and our slightly blank looks when we were asked what we didn't want to eat, rather than what we did fancy (I feel at this point that I should explain that, excepting the odd word, the menu was in what I think was Mandarin...)
On an evening, the restaurant only serves 'hotpot' food -

You get given a hot plate, and a double pan of broths. We picked a 'lightly spicy' option and a sort of neutral broth, kind of like a less salty miso. You then tell your server what you don't fancy eating from a list of ingredients ("anything but tripe" was our answer. They really did have it on the menu).Vast amounts of food are brought to the table, which you pop into the broth until cooked.

Missing from this is yet another pile of meat slivers, a rather generous helping of seaweed and tofu skins (seriously wierd texture...) and a mountain of some form of pak choi -esque cabbage.

In total we had:

pork, lamb and beef slices, something a little like spam, two types of noodles (glass and rice), tofu skins, tofu chunks, two types of funghi, mushrooms, slices of potato, crabsticks, whole prawns, fish balls, squid and razor clams. It also came with two dipping sauces - one hot and sour, one garlic. Sadly, we didn't scoff the lot. A good sized dent was made though...

Absolutely crazy, but really quite cool for a casual dinner. And - key point - mighty tasty. I'm still slightly bemused that I was basically persuaded to cook my own dinner, and pay for the privilege ( I shall be attempting at home no doubt if I ever get a fondue maker, I enjoyed it that much...) but good chat and tasty food was certainly a decent end to a long day.

Brain Food

2010-06-14T15:52:00.003+01:00

When I'm bored, I munch. So, when I'm revising, I munch.

However, I have learnt several things studying for a part-time uni course. Firstly, don't expect to get high grades if you work 45 hours a week on an irregular shift pattern. Not unless you want no social life, or are not a fan of sleeping. Or unless you are really alarmingly clever and considerably more dedicated than me.
Secondly, attempting to discuss Byron's Childe Harolde III will get you blank looks in the pub, not the recognition and sympathy received first time round as an undergrad. Ditto the aesthetic philosophy behind the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. You'll end up feeling like a bit of a pretentious idiot.
Thirdly, eat junk food, get fat. OK, so not really related to going back to uni, but something I have tried v hard to bear in mind whilst revising and being bored. Tempting as the Haribo are, I am sadly too aware that in 27 days I am going on holiday to somewhere hot, and therefore shorts will have to be worn. Apparently jeans are not wise in the Mediterranean in July.

So instead, I am turning to fish for my brain food.

3 small (2 large) smoked mackerel fillets, skinned and flaked
1/3 tub of Philadelphia or similar
2 teaspoons of single cream (if you have any)
teaspoon of ground black pepper
teaspoon of lemon juice

Mash up together in a tupperware or bowl.
Serve with pitta, crudites, crackers, etc. Also particularly tasty on brown toast with a bit of cheese on to -grill until cheese is melted for a variation on a tuna melt. Lush.

International Inspiration

2010-06-12T20:42:00.002+01:00

Dear reader, I bring you this from the comfort of my desk at work. Usually, not so much a comfort. It is, work after all. However, for the moment, I know that the only people who will come and bother me are colleagues trooping off to go smoke. Unfortunately, they are also the ones who are updating me on the England v. USA match. Currently 1-0 to England.
Funny thing is, they assume I am somehow bothered. Do they not remember the way in which I whooped when Scotland beat Australia back in November? Or my protestations that, I really am Not That Into Football? For goodness' sake, I grew up in Yorkshire. Rugby all the way!
I don't really understand the whole Anyone-But-England thing. It's a bit odd, if you ask me. Partly because there doesn't really seem to be a reason for it. I've been told that it's because "when Andy Murray loses, he's Scottish, when he wins, he's British". Eh? I think it's universally been acknowledged by both Scots, English, Welsh - whoever- alike, that he always seems to be a bit of a knob, so is that really a valid argument? I'm not convinced. I'm inclined to think that, actually, it's a reflection on the complexes and identity issues that both individuals and nations have when it gets to picking-on-a-colleague extremes. A little bit questionable and verging on the racist? Vaguely. Harmless banter? Possibly. Bloody irritating? Defiantly.

Note: I am guessing from the whooping at this point that the USA have scored. Ironic that the scorer was Clint Dempsey, who plays for Fulham. At least most of the English rugby team actually play, train and live in England. One of the reasons I don't get this "supporting my country at football" malarkey. Hmm.

Anyway, I digress. Slightly. Seeing as of 1pm on Tuesday I will be free - free! of exam revision and will be able to justify spending my time doing something else instead of learning, I have decided to embrace the World Cup as an opportunity to eat. As if I really needed one...
Inspired by my lovely friend Dave, who is part of a collective writing poems inspired each team that qualified, I have decided to cook meals inspired by countries of the World Cup. Lots of inspiration.
I have two ways of doing this... I could be English. This is not necessarily a bad idea, seeing as they're likely to be in a while and therefore could come up against some interesting people later on. Or - I could be (and this is considerably more tempting) from Uruguay. I drew them in the office sweepstakes and therefore they are "my" team. I initially got excited about a certain Roque Santa Cruz, undoubtedly rather attractive, but sadly it turns out he's from Paraguay. Yes. My knowledge of both Football and Geography are that bad.
If I am from Uruguay, then I can pick some rather tasty cuisines to sample. French, South African and Mexican are all up for grabs in the group stages. However... considering they are below the line on the BBC Idiots Guide to the World Cup, I have a feeling this means that they are most likely to get kicked out. Not so good. But, I've got a couple of weeks - until the next round starts to work that one out.
So. First on the list for Monday night - Uruguay. May the Googling begin.

Oh dear....

2010-06-07T19:11:00.001+01:00

I am getting a bit bad at this whole "regular blogging" thing. I think this is twofold. Firstly, I am panicking slightly about my upcoming Open University exam, and therefore am not cooking as many exciting things as I would like to be. Secondly, I worry that I don't really have anything to say.
I have noticed, however, that there are lots of little foodie hints, telling me that I need to Blooming Get On With It And Write Something.
Such as the rather exciting flower display in the office at work...

...look! Pineapples! Pink pineapples!

And, how excited I got when I realised that my new shower gel not only smells of lemon cheesecake, but also has a recipe for one on the bottle. No, really! Look!

It worries me somewhat that these things excited me. Yes, I am a geek. But, in a good way. Right?!

Note to self: get a life. Blog more about it.

Sunshine funtimes

2010-05-25T17:49:00.001+01:00

Ahh, that glorious day - or indeed, weekend, known as Summer. You know, the one where half the nation whinges about having to be at work, and the other half spends the weekend half naked in the nearest park?
We had it this weekend, and by all accounts it was glorious. I'm sad to say, I fell into the former of the above catagories, being stuck in an office with a painted shut window and crap air con for most of it.
That's not to say that I didn't join half of Edinburgh on the Meadows at the first opportunity - Saturday evening after work, my friend and I decided that instead of staying in and getting takeaway with a movie as planned, we'd adopt the glorious British habit of burning meat outdoors and sticking it in between bread instead.
Oh yes.
I say British habit because if my friends and colleagues are anything to go by, Aussies and South Africans find our attempts at a Bar-Bee-Que hilarious. Still, it's as integral part of summer to me as laughing at people who seem to forget that you can get sunburned in Scotland. You know, those people you walk down the street behind, with a growing sense of amusement and alarm at the random strap marks on display. Seriously though. Why would anyone wear a racerback vest, except to rue their tanmarks for the rest of the year?
I digress.
Saturday evening I legged it up from work to join my friend in the park. She'd been wise and pre-purchased the meat and barbie, so I was on wine and bread duty. Organisation: the key to burning meat in a park, as I discovered when queueing up in Tesco at 6.30pm, clutching the last remaining bottle of remotely chilled wine they had. Thank goodness, it was a screwtop.

We were 'good citizens' and picked a spot which had already been scorched, even though our barbie had legs.

We toasted buns

We ate meat

And munched strawberries while we gossiped.

There are several things I love about the Meadows - one is that it is always, always being used. Even when it's snowy, my friends and I joined several other groups of people having snowball fights, building snowmen and generally being daft. When it's sunny, half of the population of the city centre and its environs descend. Little children toddle, whilst being raced after by parents desperate to slather suncream on them. Dogs wander in and out of groups of lazing people, attempting to pinch a sausage of a BBQ when noone's looking.

I think the thing I love about the Meadows is that other people love it too. My friend Dave even wrote a poem about it.

When we left at about half 8, the park was still half full. Or, for once, that should probably be half empty, because people had left. But not only had they left, they'd left their rubbish in a neat little pile next to the bin.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I think this is Very Cool. I also thought it was Very Cool when, last summer whilst walking home from a friends house after another scorching day, I couldn't actually see the bin because it was so hidden by the rubbish that everyone had neatly bagged up and tidily left behind, rather than leaving it for some other bugger to clear up from all over the fields. Good work, citizens of Edinburgh.

Happy times.

Daytrippin'

2010-05-19T19:50:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was my day off, so I decided to get up at 6am. I'm sad to say, that opening statement is true - tempting as the thought of a liein was, especially considering I spent slightly longer in the pub than I'd originally planned - I'd agreed to go oop North with a friend from work.
Reasons why I love my job #14: the freebies. Free cocktails, free daytrips - hurrah! Who said I was all work and no play? Actually don't answer that. Anyway, we've been running a promotion recently with the lovely Highland Experience company, who are based here in Edinburgh. We were a little cheeky, we rang them up and pointed out that it'd be useful to know what we're promoting, and the next thing I know, I'm agreeing to get up at 6am to go on a daytrip. I wondered if I was slightly mad. I wondered if the essay I am supposed to be writing for Friday is going to get finished... but frankly, I wasn't overly bothered. Just the thought of getting into the countryside, out and about, was so lovely that I was a little overexcited. Well, once the cup of coffee and paracetamol had kicked in, and the hangover had buggered off.

We turned up and registered at 7.30am, and off we went on our nslightly cheesily named Monsters, Mountains and Massacres trip. After going through Edinburgh, where our guide told us the histories of the Old and New Towns, we went over the Forth Bridge...

...through Fife (where we were regailed with the history of the Scottish people, and why Fife is a Kingdom, not a county), and into Perthshire, stopping off at Pitlochry for the most amazing sandwich I've had in a long time from a lovely little deli with the largest menu in the world. Or Perthshire. Same thing.

Slightly embarassing moment when it took over 10 minutes for our sarnies to be made (my companion pointed out it was a little like that scene from Love Actually with Rowan Atkinson), and we were the last on the bus... but the views from thereon were lovely. Take a look...

... we then pootled up north, through the Monadhlaith Mountains. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather - the top of Ben Nevis was visible in Lochaber, where we stopped to pay our respects at the Commando Memorial. It was an absolutely breathtaking place. I know that sounds really naff, but both moving and beautiful at the same time.

Off up we continued towards Loch Ness, where sandwiches were consumed whilst looking for Nessie. Sadly, no sign. We did learn though that the loch contains more water than all of the lakes in England and Wales combined. No, really - it's true!

We then meandered down, through Fort William (considerably smaller than I expected), and on through Glen Coe, learning of the massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbell clan. A gruesome tale, but the perfect setting for such a story- a high, mountain sided valley with occasional lochs in the distance, and heather peat bogs on the other side. Gorgeous, although a Greek lady on our tour complained that it wasn't very green...! I later learned that one of 'my' two clans is a sept of the MacDonalds, although I'm not entirely sure what that means, other than what wikipedia has told me...!

After Glen Coe, we wound down towards Stirling, where we were regailed with tales of William Wallace as we passed the memorial, before heading back down into Edinburgh.

Such a wonderful, although tiring, day. It's always so nice to get out of the city, learn a bit more history (yes, I'm a geek...) and not have to think about how to get there, where to get lunch etc. I've decided - my next trip will be either the Loch Lomond one (and not just because of the whisky), or the Rosslyn Chapel tour (largely because I fell asleep around about Stirling...!).

Buy One, Get One Bee

2010-05-08T21:43:00.001+01:00

So, this morning I embarked on a train journey, accompanied by a little packed breakfast, which included this...

...Innocent smoothie.

Now, there are a few things that make Innocent a pretty blooming marvy company, and one thing in particular that makes them a slightly disappointing company. For the latter, I'm thinking of the increasing selling out to Coca-Cola (although they maintain through their website that the case isn't as reported in the papers). But there are also things about them that I like.
I like that they have a sense of humour. I like that they prioritise supplies certified by the Rainforest Alliance.
I admire their attempts to explain why, how and when they do things as well as why they don't - like here, for example. I like that they donate 10% of their profit to charity. I like that they're involved in Fareshare (I've blogged about them before).

Anyway, back to my breakfast.
I was rather excited to discover, attached to the rather delicious smoothie (a new flavour- highly recommended for a bit of variety) a teeny packet of seeds. Yes! Seeds! Innocent have joined up with the National Trust to make this month's Smoothie of the Month a bee awareness special. Profits from this smoothie will go towards setting up 40 new bee colonies, and providing equipment. They've also put little packets of the bee-friendly seeds around the tops, to encourage people to plant bee-friendly plants. Poor bees. Their decline is really quite sad, both for Mrs. Earth, and just in general. Info about bees and biodiversity here - to be honest, I'm a little confused about it all, but the thought of the end of the bee (and therefore honey, yum, is pretty worrying for multiple reasons by all accounts.

I'm not entirely sure how many people are actually going to plant the seeds, but it's definitely a lovely thought. And a tasty smoothie.

Image from this article, which also has some interesting info on about the decline of bees in the northern hemisphere.

Perfecting Poached Eggs

2010-05-04T23:35:00.004+01:00

Well folks, today I learned the secret of perfect poached eggs.
I do love a good poached egg - in a morning roll with black pudding, on toast, as part of a full Scottish or English, as Eggs Benedict or Florentine. Delish. And not just for breakfast either. Earlier in the week I had such a craving for some poached eggs that I went a little mad, and ended up having them for my tea.
Good times were had.

My poached eggs are not, sadly, the most attractive things in the world. They look a little like an alien has exploded in the pan - tendrils of white reach out slightly too far from the yolk to make them aesthetically pleasing. Good job they still taste good, if not a little watery around the edges. After great amounts of discussion and studying Masterchef whenever some poor bugger gets the job of poaching 400 eggs for the lunchtime service challenge, I decided to investigate how exactly they make them so perfect and spherical. After trying an egg poacher from Lakeland (one of my less successful purchases - the outside of the white was rubbery, the inside raw...) I decided it was time to turn to the professionals.

Queen Delia (for despite her mashed potato phase, I still adore her slightly) suggests cracking the eggs into water that's barely simmering, and leaving them for ages to poach very slowly. See, I've decided there are two problems with this. Firstly, it's at this stage that my eggs spread out. They don't stay all perfectly formed like Delia's. Oh no. The other problem? 11 minutes, she reckons. That's a mighty long time to have to wait when you're feeling peckish. I've also discovered - although, this isn't necessarily related to Delia's methods, that if you don't get the water quite hot enough, the egg has a habit of sinking and sticking to the bottom of the pan. Decidedly not cool when it comes to scouring off the non stick Teflon in an attempt to get rid of the eggy burn.

I also googled perfect poached eggs and discovered this site. Does what it says on the tin really. This method is much more like my method of choice - I'm particularly a fan of the "using the toaster as a timer" method. Works like a charm!
I'm also a fan of the egg gallery. Not so convinced about coffee with eggs, but we'll forgive that, as I'm really quite pleased to have found someone as bonkers as me.

However... I'm sad to say that neither of these methods make the perfectly spherical eggy that I love. I've heard rumours that cracking the egg into clingfilm and poaching that way does it, but frankly that sounds like a faff. And a waste of plastic. And I'm wary of clingfilm, after my dad freaked me out about the chemicals in it.
And - perhaps most importantly - how on earth do you get it out the clingfilm without burning your fingers?

So I asked a chef.

I learned several things doing this -

1. Poached eggs are not eaten in Poland. Now, I'm not entirely sure if chef was having me on, but he did tell an amusing tale about having to be shown when he moved to Scotland, and being mortified that even the KP's knew what to do...
2. It's all about the rolling boil. Pop a large glug of white vinegar into the pan, crack your egg into a little cup - a ramekin etc, and then pop it into the rolling boil. Leave for a couple of seconds, then turn the heat down to a simmer, and poach for a couple of minutes. It's the rolling action that wraps the white around the yolk, leaving that lovely spherical eggy shape behind.

A bit of organic ham, a dollop of hollandaise, and a split muffin. And of course, a cup of tea. Delish!

Not-quite-ready meals

2010-04-27T11:51:00.003+01:00

I work two late shifts a week, and quite regularly panic about what to take in for my dinner. Getting home at 10pm is too late to start cooking and eating (especially if I have to be back in at 7 the next day...), but a girl must eat!
Usually, I take me some leftovers into work, and blitz them in the microwave in the staff room, but quite frequently it gets to about an hour before I need to leave to work and the "argh, crap" panic sets in that I don't have anything. I'm not a fan of readymeals. There's something about the claggy texture that really puts me off, and that's not even starting with the e numbers, saturated fats, and overly processed foods.
I'm quite glad to say though, that healthier options are available. I know, I know, they're not ideal but let's be honest - surely the odd one is so much better than grabbing a sandwich or a takeaway as a meal option?

I've recently started stocking up on the following -

Innocent Veg Pots - this Indian Daal Curry Pot has 3 of your 5 a day in.

Sainsbury's have started doing 'healthy' ready meals too - Roast chicken with new potatoes and steamed veg - 1 of your 5 a day,

- and hot smoked salmon with broccoli, edamame, and petit pois - 1 of your 5 a day.

There's also this:

for a bargainous 46p! Crammed full of veggies, no additives, and only a pinch of salt and sugar (although, I'd use those in my own for a bit of extra flavour). Wouldn't that be fab with some kidney beans and chilli in? Or just stirred through pasta or rice for an quick lunchbox.

It does make me wonder - if some supermarkets are prepared to do healthy, clag-free meals, then why on earth are people not eating them? I suppose a lot of it is habit, and an element would be cost. All of the above ones are on 2 for £5 in Sainsburys at the moment, but when a full-fat lasagne is still only 99p, they do seem pricey in comparison. In my opinion- worth it, though, for a healthier, happier emergency meal.

Want not, waste not.

2010-04-21T17:40:00.003+01:00

Today I stumbled upon this article about the frozen food, and the pros and cons of it, whilst looking for a recipe involving frozen peas.
I'll be honest - I was shocked and fairly appaulled by the attitude of some of the commenters, who clearly thought that those of us who buy our frozen veg at low prices, and keep things in the freezer for a long time are Somehow Below Them And Second Class. I eat a lot of frozen vegetables - cauliflower, peas, broccoli, peppers - especially in soups. I'm not a fan of the mushy texture, but if they're chucked in with a couple of onions, some stock and a glug of hot water, they can be delicious, nutritious and a great way of getting veggies into you in the March-May period when so few fresh vegetables are in season.
But - that's not the point of today's blog. That conversation can be saved for another day.

Through the article, I discovered this article about Freeganism. Freeganism is a principle I greatly admire - the amount of food that supermarkets, local shops, and surprisingly (if some of the photos accompanying the article are to go by) supposedly eco-friendly farmshops and organic stores throw away horrifies me. The thought that there are people less than a mile down the road from most major supermarkets who are homeless, struggling to feed their families, or who could do with a 'good meal' inside them appaulls me.
But - again, that's not the point of today's blog. That conversation can also be saved for another day - possibly after I've read this.

The thing that struck me was some of the statistics about the amount of food that most people throw away in a year:

UK households waste 25% of all the food they buy
I reckon that as a single person, I spend about £100 a month on food. I'm not overly frugal with my food spend, but I do try to watch what I spend so that I don't go crazy. If I tried to cut my 25% in half, I'd be saving myself £12.50 a month - half my phone bill, half a dress, or a couple of bottles of rather nice wine...

40%: The estimated proportion of salad that British households throw away.
I'm probably one of those people. I buy some salad on my way home from work to go with a lasagne, but unless I eat it the next night with the leftovers, I generally forget about it. Either that or it gets pushed to the back of the fridge, freezes, and then goes all wet and mushy.

30million: The number of malnourished people whose hunger could be alleviated by the bread British households throw away.
I'm guilty of this. As a singleton with a freezer that's too small to fit a loaf of bread in, I regularly get halfway through a loaf and then throw it away. Bread rolls in packs of 4, or those vacuum packed ones that you bake as you need are clearly the way forward for me.

1.6bn untouched apples, or 27 per person, are thrown away by Brits each year.
I do this too. I buy them, thinking I'll take them into work for a snack, but they get so many dints and bruises that by the time they emerge from my handbag they're not fantastically edible.

Statistics from here and here.

So, I have decided. I shall start planning my meals and shopping accordingly.
It's actually something I started doing whilst doing my undergrad, after discovering that not only was I spending vast amounts of money on food, I was also eating a lot of crap. I'm going to spend my evening coming up with a meal plan, working out what I actually have in my cupboards and the freezer, and writing my online shop accordingly. I'm aware that this is perhaps a slightly anal and obsessive task, but, I'll be honest. I think I'll enjoy it.

Gaining a garden

2010-04-20T22:59:00.004+01:00

For a little while now, I’ve been craving a garden. I’d love to grow flowers, veggies and other little delights but I’m not entirely sure how or where I’ll go about doing it... It’s another downside to city centre living. Aside from window boxes (a good start, I’ll admit), I’m not entirely sure where to begin.

Last weekend, I went to a garden centre with my dad, and inspiration hit. I bought a Gardeners World magazine, I googled, and I decided.

I’m going to Grow Stuff!

So far I have discovered...

Mushrooms

Can be grown in a dark cupboard using a spore starter kit, like this one.
All you need is a bag of compost, which I’ve already got, and a large box or a dustbin. Just need to get myself down to a pound shop!

Potatoes

According to this site potatoes can be grown in a large bag or bin, too. All you need to do is ‘chit’ some, and stick them in a bag with drainage holes at the bottom. I think they’ve got to go outside, which is a bit of a bugger, because I’ll be moving house in the next 8 weeks or so. Moving them while they’re still growing is a bit of a problem, not only because of the weight, but also because it can disturb the roots. So... sadly I’m not sure they’ll be the best things to try just yet. But next year!

Actually, thinking about it a bit more... it might be worth trying to grow just one or two potatoes in a large pot. Hmm!

Chillies

Gardeners World has a section on growing veggies in pots, and chillies seem like they’re fairly easy too. Plus, I eat quite a lot of them, so might be worth trying.

I also came to the conclusion that actually having a garden to play with might be pretty cool. So, I came to the conclusion that it might be worth doing some searching and seeing if anyone would let me use theirs. A couple of years ago, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (I have no idea if I’ve spelled that right, he’s always affectionately been known as Huge Furry Twit to me) introduced a scheme called Landshare

So I signed up.

I’ve not quite worked my way around it yet – it has an interactive map where you can search for land and gardeners, and although there seems to be a few in my area, I’m going (for once) to be restrained before launching in. Mainly because I found a section which has subtitles like “Sample Legal Agreement”. Totally makes sense I suppose – there’s no point just launching yourself into gardening for someone if they want you to go all Geoff Hamilton on them, and all you can grow is green stalky things that never quite flower (yes, that would be me...). More investigating to be done, probably in June when I’ve moved house and don’t have an Open University course to finish.

I also – on impulse- signed up for a scheme I found through Care & Repair Edinburgh – a “not-for-profit agency which assists older people and people with disabilities, with house repairs, improvements and adaptations, enabling them to remain in their own homes in more comfort, security and independence.” They run a garden share scheme, encouraging volunteers to assist people who don’t feel able to fully able to take care of their own. What a fab idea! I’ve registered my interest, and am awaiting an email... I shall keep you updated!

Rhubarb, pt. 2

2010-04-19T19:21:00.004+01:00

A variation on yesterday's theme for tea tonight.

...with a generous dollop of...

Dribble.

6 stalks of rhubarb

4 tbsp of sugar

1 tbsp of water

couple of drops of ginger extract

small chunk of ginger, grated

50g butter

50g sugar

100g self raising flour

Chop up the rhubarb, pop into a pan with the 4 tbsp of sugar, water and ginger

Bring up to a simmer, until sugar dissolved and rhubarb starting to soften

Meanwhile, rub the flour and butter (or margerine) together until like breadcrumbs

Mix in the remaining sugar

Drain the rhubarb and pop into the bottom of a pie dish

Drizzle a couple of tbsp of the juice over the rhubarb

Add the topping, bake on gas mark 5 for 15 minutes

Dribble.

Rhubarb, rhubarb.

2010-04-18T22:33:00.004+01:00

I have fond childhood memories of Rhubarb. It used to grow in the middle of our garden when I was little, in the border between the patio and the grass (lawn, if you're posh). Every summer, when it got hot (on a side note -why were summers always scorchers when we were little?!), one of our cats would be found wound amongst the stems, using the large leaves as a parasol while he snoozed. It still grows in the same corner of the garden, and although our cat is sadly no longer spending his summers in its shade, it still provides us with some lovely puddings, nearly twenty years after it was first planted.

I grew up in the Rhubarb Triangle and I regularly tell anyone who I see eating or considering eating the stuff that Yorkshire Rhubarb is the way forward, over the speed forced equivilents imported from the continent. It's not just me and my Yorkshire pride that thinks so though. Defra applied for its unique growing methods - used by just 12 farmers - to be recognised, submitting this rather long, but really quite interesting document to the European Commission's Department for Agriculture and Rural Development in 2007. In February 2010, Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb was given European protected name status, ranking it up there with Champagne, Parma Ham, and Roquefort. Good stuff.

Anyway, back to my dad's garden.

I'm currently at home for a long weekend, being spoilt rotten and having all sorts of nice things cooked for me. Including - Rhubarb Tart Tatin, using the first crop of rhubarb from the garden. Dad's recently got quite into tart tatins, so I hear. I gather they were vaguely inspired by a meal we had a while back when he came up to visit me (I had a roast veg and goats cheese tart tatin for mains, he had an apple one for pudding), but I'm not entirely sure I can take too much credit for this. This morning, we cooked one together.

Puff pastry (about 1/4 of a pre-bought block).

4-5 stalks of rhubarb, chopped

about 75g of butter

about 50g of caster sugar

Roll out the pastry until it's about 0.5cm thick, and large enough to fill the pan with a little for the edges. Prick lightly with a fork in several places to stop it rising too much

Heat the sugar with a little water (a couple of tbsp) in the tatin pan on the hob until dissolved.

Add in the butter and stir with a metal spoon

Simmer until turns golden

Place in the rhubarb - thickest pieces first - until the base is covered

Gently lay over the pastry, folding over to fit

Pop into a warm oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden and bubbling on the edges

Remove from oven, drain any excess juice from pan

Tip upside down and remove

Delicious, and alarmingly easy. According to dad, who it appears has become a little obsessed with them, the trick is to get a decent non-stick pan. He bought this one from Lakeland, and loves it, but apparently if I'm going to invest, I should get a one like this Le Crueset one. Not just because I'm a little obsessed with their stuff, more because the handles make it considerably easier to turn out when just out of the oven. It's just a shame it's so pricey!

I'm inclined to try with veggies at some point in the near future - caramelised onions, spinach and baby plum tomatoes, anyone?

Chinese dumplings (or, potstickers)

2010-04-17T23:11:00.011+01:00

My life revolves around food in an almost alarming way. If I’m at work and it’s morning, I’ve normally got something close by to nibble on – some fruit, a pack of malteasers, some toast. If it’s the afternoon, I’m normally pondering dinner. Should I pop to the shops on the way home and get something for tea?

Needless to say, most of my socialising also revolves around food – cooking it with friends, eating it with friends, generally enjoying good food and good company (and usually good wine or gin to boot...)

My friend Yolande and I are both foodies. Technically, she’s Dutch. I say technically – her dad lives in Rome, her sister lived in India for several years, and she’s possibly more Scottish than I am (she does two types of Scottish dancing, and aims to visit every inhabited Scottish island). Her wonderful open-mindedness spreads to food, and I suppose in many ways she’s my ‘experimental’ friend. You know, the one that you’ll cook something new for, hope they’ll like it, and be totally unoffended when you get back from the toilet to discover a takeaway has been ordered instead. Yolande and I lived together last year, which was where our cooking nights began. My houseshare last year was lovely – really homely and easygoing – and I’m fairly sure that the reason for that is that we all cooked, ate, and chatted together.

Last week I discovered that Edinburgh has a Chinese supermarket, rammed full of wonderful and exciting goodies, and suggested a dumpling evening. A while back, in celebration of her new job, we went to Chop Chop, and I’ve been a little obsessed with the idea of making my own ever since. She agreed, and in a moment of madness, we decided to have a go. I’d not had time to get my bum down to the supermarket after work, but since when would a lack of authentic ingredients or any form of idea of what we were doing deter us?

After a little googling, we had a bash. Yolande had already hit on the genius idea of using sausage meat for the pork filling, and adding a little prawns for some variety. According to this blog, you have to add pork to the prawn ones, as they have a tendancy to burn due to their low fat content. Add in some ginger, garlic, chilli and salt, and voila! Dumpling filling!

For the casing, we pretty much mixed flour and water together, until it became non-sticky, and rolled it into thin mini-pancakes. After filling and crimping around the edges, ours looked a little like a miniature version of homemade cornish pasties and fajitas.

They should have looked like this...

After wrapping them, we fried off one side in a pan until golden, then chucked in a cupful of water. A little terrifying, but satisfying! Once steamed and cooked through, served.

We used a dipping sauce made up of soya sauce, ginger, garlic, chilli and white wine vinegar (similar to Chop Chop’s) and they were blooming marvellous!

EDIT: have twigged that they can be frozen prior to cooking as long as the prawns are fresh and not defrosted. How marvy is that?!

Bargain bowls

2010-04-05T09:32:00.004+01:00

I love food, especially when it's a bargain. I'll openly admit to being one of those people that zooms to the 'discounts' section of the supermarket first, in search of something cheap but, usually, random.

The downside of living in the city centre is that there are no supermarkets nearby. The nearest is perhaps a 30 minute walk, which is all very well when it's nice and sunny and you have a day off but not so great when it's 6pm and you're walking home from work.

On Saturday, I wandered into the Sainsburys Local I pass on my way home in search of inspiration for my dinner. I must have timed it right - the discount section was really quite impressive. I managed to get myself a pack of bacon, two organic salmon fillets, and some chillis for less than £3!

I've had a bit of a 'thing' about pea and ham soup for a while now, after becoming a little obsessed with the delicious (but slightly overpriced) Covent Garden Soups versions. Delicious! I've had a bash with using ham hocks before to make the stock, and it's been quite hit and miss. Aside from it being surprisingly hard to get hold of an unsmoked hock, it takes blooming ages, and doesn't half make the flat smell.

So, I thought I'd have a bash with my bargainacious bacon.

8 unsmoked organic bacon rashers

250g of dried yellow split peas

800ml of ham stock from cubes

2 large onions, chopped

Rinse and soak the split peas overnight

Chop the bacon, removing fat, and pop into a pan with the chopped onions

Fry until bacon has almost all changed colour, and onion is softening

Add the peas and top up with stock

Simmer for half an hour, or until the peas become softened

Blend

Serve with crusty bread

Delicious! A heck of a lot easier than boiling a hock for a day to make stock, and a ludicrously cheap and healthy meal in a bowl.

Food for thought

2010-03-15T21:39:00.005Z

Tonight I threw away half of my dinner.

I cooked a blue cheese and pumpkin risotto - yum yum, but I've currently got a bout of laryngitis and therefore am not fantastically hungry. I am mostly consuming Lemsips and hot toddies instead.

After washing up, I then decided that, seeing as my skinny jeans are really rather on the skinny side (you know when you take them out of the wash and have to wriggle to get them on? Recently, every day has become like that. Not cool...) I'd throw out the rest of the cheese that I'd used to cook with. I'm a nibbler, and seeing as operation summer shorts has begun, it wasn't wise to keep it there calling my name.

Two hours later, I was channel hopping and came across The Secret Millionaire. I like this programme. I like that the wonderful people who volunteer who are on it are, by and large, genuinely passionate and quite often, it's humbling to see the lengths that they will go to to support others. I like that it makes me appreciate how bloody lucky I am.

This evening, the Millionaire visited a charity called Fareshare. Fareshare collects surplus from supermarkets and wholesalers (all within date), and distributes it to those pockets of society who live in food poverty - the homeless, people with mental health problems and learning difficulties, single parents - anyone who struggles to provide nutritious food for their families.

The food supplied from the shops is amazing. Punnets of fruit, cartons of juice and milk, cereal, bread - one gentleman who is a regular in a homeless shelter described how he'd had a steak and salad for his dinner the night before. The staff interviewed in the shelter explained how, through the provision of nutritious and home-cooked meals, they had seen medical conditions improve and children gain weight.

Aside from the awe I have for these people - it made me think. It's easy to describe big, multinational companies as 'evil' and to group them together as the big baddies. But it was Sainsburys and Nestle who seemed to be funding Fareshare. When I lived in London, I regularly saw the Pret A Manger "Charity Run" van tootling around the city centre, providing spare sandwiches to people in need. It's made me think, does the good side of these companies get forgotten just because the negatives often outweigh the positives? Or should we recognise the positives more, because they are so little publicised?

Either way... I've been looking for some form of volunteering opportunity for a while now, and have been torn as to what kind to go for. As someone who spends way too much time (and probably money...) on food and drink, the idea of getting involved in an organisation that helps feed those in need is really quite interesting. More investigating to be done.

Green fingers are getting itchy

2010-03-09T22:04:00.016Z

In typical me-style, I have decided that I would quite like to grow some flowers. I say me-style, because I have decided to do it at totally the wrong time of year. I want to grow flowers NOW. But apparently it doesn't quite work like that - apparently you're supposed to plant them about 6 months before you want to plant them. Vexing.

I have, however, been attempting to grow some Iris bulbs in a little pot that I was given for Christmas. So far, so good - huzzah! They are looking a little anaemic, which is apparently normal, but still - I've not killed them yet!

Last year my grandpa gave me a couple of plants after I decided I wanted to grow vegetables - a pepper, a courgette and a tomato took pride of place on my windowsill. They sort of grew... they got longer if nothing else and the courgette plant produced some slightly week and feeble attempts... until I went on holiday, forgot to ask my flatmate to water them, and came home to a sad pile of dead and dying vegetable plants.

But despite my fingers being decidedly ungreen, I am determined that I shall grow plants. Oh yes. And despite my third floor flat with no garden access, flowers will bloom. Oh yes.

I love living in the city centre. I really do. But there are some things that are sadly lacking from my locale - a Garden centre is the obvious one. There's a few a bus ride away, but I'm not sure that lugging bulbs, pots and composts along Princes Street homewards will be the easiest task I could set myself. A little research informs me though that Asda delivers compost and bulbs as well as food - huzzah! Peat free compost too - even bigger huzzah! Minor flaw in the plan. They don't do vary many plant pots...

So. What can I use? I had a little Google of recycled pots, and came up with these...

I like the recycled look. Sort of vintage, eco-friendly and homely. Not quite so convinced by some of them - the drinks containers look decidedly like, er, drinks containers with plants growing in, but I reckon I eat enough tins of tomatoes to make a nice collection of cans! Jam jars would look gorge, but I can't quite work out how to get holes in the bottom without smashing them! Tins though, with a bit of ribbon around the middle and some bulbs popping out would be gorgeous on a sunny window.

I may have to wait until October to get planting, but I'm excited already! Note to self. Get planting early this year!

To bake, or not to bake

2010-02-06T16:47:00.013Z

I cannot bake.

I can cook, but I cannot bake.

My attempts at baking in the past have ended in sniffles of sadness and huffs of disappointment. I remember an attempt at making a Victoria Sponge cake for my mum a couple of years ago which ended up rather more like a pair of rock-hard 8" biscuits than the light and fluffy loveliness I'd imagined.

Then of course, there was the (infamous) attempt at making some birthday buns for my flatmate's birthday last year. It took me three batches to make a decent half-dozen...

...and even then there was only one which was presentable enough to count as a 'birthday cake'...

Oh dear.

Inspired by this wonderful website, which I stumbled across in a little tea break last week...

...I decided to make a mini batch to nibble on whilst watching the rugby. Well, I say 'decided'. I mentioned it yesterday, and gave in to my dad's hints this morning.

I decided to use the most basic recipe I could find. I find that recipes confuse me - I'm not great at following instructions... I have a bad habit of 'adding' extras. Therefore, to find a recipe with four instructions and four key ingredients in equal proportions made my day.

1 egg

2oz selfraising flour

2oz sugar

2oz baking margerine.

Cream margerine and sugar together.

Add flour and egg.

Add flavouring if using.

(The 'secret' step - add a tbsp of warm water and a bit of extra baking powder. My aunt told my dad this one - apparently it was my Grandma's secret trick and it works a treat!)

Bake at Gas 4 for 20 mins.

My cakes came out looking like this...

Not quite the artistic wonders of Liggy's Cakes, but they certainly tasted delish, and were apparently 'nice and cheerful' for half time nibbles!

Ahh, charity shops.

2010-01-25T23:23:00.012Z

I think I could quite easily begin a long standing love affair with charity shops. Actually, scrap that, I already have one. For a long time, I've collected books that I've never got round to reading, and some of my finest have been from charity shops. I usually buy them in a half-hearted attempt to Read For Fun - something I've not done since finishing my MSc. I think enforced reading sort of kills the joy... I pass three charity shops on my way home from work - a Salvation Army shop (sells lots of vintage clothes that, if I were more creative, I would have a field day with as well as crazily cheap VHS. Yes, I said VHS. I am the only person I know that still uses a VHS player - mainly because it's built into my telly).

I have recently purchased a double set of

Gormenghast

from there for £1. Bargain. I plan on spending a day on the sofa in my jammies, possibly accompanied by a bucket of popcorn the next time I have a day off and have nothing to do. I also pass a cancer charity shop - to be honest I can never remember which one it is. When I was recently looking for glass containers to put my Christmas Chocolates in, I also found

The Forsyte Saga

for £4. Crazy cheap - look at them all! That's another box set off my Amazon wishlist. Happy times. There's also a shop on the corner - the Edinburgh Methodist Association - which has beautiful if not pricey crockery and glasswear in its window. It's only open about 3 mornings a week, and I can never work out which. This is probably a good thing...

So, anyway. Yesterday I got a little overexcited and managed to spend a small fortune in a charity shop. Impulse purchasing. It's the way forward. I like to think of it as an additional little donation to the Haiti appeal. As well as an Alexander McCall Smith book on CD (fab for train journeys to stop me puking), and a couple of paperbacks for £2 a piece, I found this:

Isn't it adorable? There's something about a hardback book that sends my heart aflutter, but there's something even more lovely about a reproduction classic. The fact it's an Agatha Christie (politically incorrect in places, but really quite deliciously camp at the same time) is an additional bonus - nearly as good as the £2 price tag.

I'm currently on chapter two, chapter three at bedtime tonight!

Christmas - To Recieve

2010-01-22T23:09:00.010Z

January has been a month where I have been enjoying the love and gifts which my family and friends have given me for Christmas. I'm a lucky girl. They know me well, and pretty much every gift had a food (or history - or both!) related theme. Aside from some rather tasty chocolates, which rather found their way into my stomach at an alarming rate -

There was the ubiquitous cookbook, full of lovely pictures and comforting recipes...

And another, from a thoughtful friend who knows how much I enjoy experimenting. It even came with spice mix!

Marks and Spencer have been celebrating their anniversary, and have brought out some gorgeous retro packaging to celebrate (lovely little stocking fillers!)...

And some wonderful marinated garlic cloves. Delicious - but not to be nibbled before a night out!

A gingerbread house from my lovely friend, one of my tea-and-cake companions...

A blender, to encourage my soup obsession...

And a popcorn maker. Probably a good thing, considering the several tupperware I've melted and the glass bowl I've shattered attempting to make it in the microwave...!

Lovely, lovely gifts. Christmas - and January so far - have been great!

Christmas - To Give

2010-01-05T12:33:00.006Z

So - the fruits of my labours were wrapped, posted and sent off with a smile. As far as I know, everyone has received them (with the exception of my brother and sister in law, who were at work when their parcel was delivered and are therefore now playing hide and seek with Royal Mail...)

Stuff What I Made...

White chocolate fruit and nut bombes: cranberries and macadamias, moulded in ice cube trays.

Dark Fruit and nut - almonds, cranberries and raisins. Poured into a tupperware and scattered (bit of a nightmare to get out - but managed it in one piece!)

Mixed chocolate florentines - raisins, cranberries, raisins, almonds and macadamias. I used silicone cupcake moulds for these.

Hundreds and thousand topped marshmallows. Yum!

and - just cause - a picture of what my friend Claire made (truffles - yum!). Note the one that's missing. Just to be on the safe side, you understand...

Why - Oh - Why

2009-12-23T18:45:00.015Z

Why is it that, since it's now two days until Christmas, I've had loads of other homemade foodie ideas for presents?!

Such as...

Lemon and Ginger Whisky Liqueur

Summer Fruit Vodka Liqueur

Limoncello

Admittedly, they're all boozy presents, but I also saw these -

Muffins in a Jar

Cookies in a Jar

The website I got the last recipe from (http://www.taste.com.au) has some really fab recipes, including Chocolate &Walnut Fudge and Berry & Pistachio Biscotti, both of which would look totally gorgeous in large jars with a bit of seasonal fabric on the tops.

More investigating to be done, I think!

Beware family and friends. If I get my way, you'll all be fatties!

Comfort food, part 1.

2009-12-07T20:26:00.013Z

Well, this morning Mr. Asda delivered my December veg and meat shop (I try to limit myself to doing it online once a month, seeing as I always, always, always end up buying 'bargains' - usually tins - just because they are on offer...)

Tomorrow evening is the last evening before Xmas that myself, and my two lovely housemates will be together before they leave for home, so we've decided to have a bit of a girly evening. Muppets Christmas Carol, a large bottle of Shiraz, and a

block of Galaxy - and, of course, comfort food.

I am from Yorkshire, and therefore comfort food has to have one of two things. Gravy, or Mash. Of course, a combination of the two would be ideal but that would leave out such delights as toad in the hole and fish pie. However, as the girls are to be gone for a month, the ideal combination is being pulled out.

Today I made a pie.

Well, not a whole pie - more of a beef, ale and onion stew which I'm going to top with puff pastry, and bake for a bit, and serve with mash and carrots. I am overly excited!

Pie Filling

950g of beef stewing mince

50g of plain flour

50g of margerine

300ml of strong low-salt beef stock

500ml of light ale (I used St. Peter's organic light ale)

Generous splosh or two of Worcestershire sauce

Tsp of parsley

Tsp of rosemary

Bay leaf

Two medium onions

I sauteed the onion and beef (in two batches!) in a large pan, to seal the meat. Then added the flour, coating the beef and onions, and stirred into the fats.

I added the stock and ale, until it just reached the top of the beef and onions, added the herbs and bay leaf, and stirred through.

An hour and a half of simmering later - delicious beef stew in a thick, juicy gravy!

So, tomorrow all I have to do is pop on the puff pastry, and do the mash. Good times.

*excited face*

Must.Resist.Temptation

2009-12-06T13:56:00.011Z

Waitrose, wonderful Waitrose.

It's up there as a strong contender with Marks and Spencer for the place that I will do my weekly shop when I am rich. It's a tough choice between the two. Maybe I'd alternate.

Anyway, I went on a little excursion to Waitrose with my dad this morning, after we decided that some form of Roast dinner would be a good sendoff for my train journey back up to Edinburgh. Yum. I do love a Roast, especially when I'm not cooking it...

I should have been warned that Christmas fever had hit Waitrose when we were welcomed in the lobby (you know, the trolley bit), by the sound of a childrens choir. Spookily, no children were present. Clearly a CD. Once inside, the obligatory Sprouts were on offer (dad bought some, and will undoubtedly plonk a couple on my plate in the hope that I'll eat them), and wine was reduced. But it was not until the back of the store - the deli and dairy aisles - that I seriously had to exercise my willpower. I'll admit, it's a muscle which I am not so good at excercising.

I certainly don't do the recommended 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week with it.

So, faced with a wall of the most delicious Christmas treats, I was wide eyed and 'oohing' like a small child in a sweetshop. All of my favourite things -

Stilton in a jar. Now, I'm not quite sure I could ever bring myself to spend £12.99 on 250g of Stilton were it not so delightfully presented, but some mad woman instinct in me appears when any form of crockery or box goes hand in hand with food. Even though said presentation device is always, always thrown away or broken - I am a sucker.

Mmmmm pate. With crusty bloomer, vine tomatoes, green leafy bits and a generous glass of red wine. That's a last supper there, that is.

Smoked salmon, you say? With soft brown bread and butter, a slice of lemon and a glass of champagne?

Don't mind if I do...

However. the truly worrying thing is that I also found myself oohing and aahing over the gift section. Well, perhaps that itself isn't worrying. After all - what could be better than nibbling chocolates and dunking biscuits?

The cause of alarm was more the irrational desire to purchase flavoured salts and oils in fancy jars, £12 jars of skinned pears and £8 jars of marmalade. Why? When I know that I will never eat them, and that a £2 jar of Bonne Maman preserve will make me happy every time I fancy toast?

They look so pretty there on the shelf, glistening in a row, but for some reason, by boxing day they look like half a dozen slightly wrinkly pieces of fruit, rammed in a jar with some coloured sugar syrup and tied with a ribbon...

Christmas, christmas

2009-12-03T13:46:00.006Z

Already - argh!

So, it's officially December (three days in according to my Advent Calendar), therefore it is time to start beginning to panic about Christmas.

I've been contemplating making Christmas presents this year - edibles, naturally (until I can re-learn how to knit, or invest in a sewing machine, anyway). So far, the list has been growing

alarmingly long, I keep thinking of little treats and delights to have a go at making...

Chocolate Top Hat Marshmallows

Inspired by the ones from the window of a gorgeous little bakery in Bruntsfield.

Handmade, Homemade Desires

Inspired by the fabulous Bettys of Harrogate chocolates

and

I'm also thinking of having a go at making...

Honeycomb/Cinder Toffee

Just because it's fabulous really!

I'm not sure who I'm going to give all these goodies to. I have a small family, so maybe a jamjar or little bag of each might go to my parents, grandparents, and brother. But also, I'm thinking of distributing little parcels amongst friends and colleagues. Quite a few people I know are staying in Edinburgh for xmas, so a little extra parcel of goodies might be nice to deliver on a cold winters evening!

Yum yum.

Next stop - shopping list and recipe searching!

Polenta, Polenta.

2009-11-28T12:35:00.005Z

Mother, be warned if you are about to read this. It contains information which may shock you...

I like polenta.

No – really, I do. For years my mother has tried to convince me that polenta really is fabulous and versatile, and for most of my life so far, I have raised my eyebrows and shaken my head sadly when it has been offered. However, I think my taste buds have finally done the thing promised to you as a child – the dreaded “you’ll like it when you’re older and then you’ll wonder what you were making such a fuss about.” Sadly, I still don’t like sprouts or cabbage, but I am beginning to be partial to a bit of Polenta.

A good six months or so ago I went to David Banns, a vegetarian restaurant, with a group of friends. For the most part I was disappointed. The menu was fairly uninspiring – the food, when it arrived, appeared unappetising (burnt pastry, anyone?). Except, however, for mine. I ordered a stuffed pepper, filled with tomatoes and onions, and served with a side of garlic and olive polenta. I was dubious about the polenta, but seeing as I wasn’t in the mood for tofu and some of the other options sounded downright strange, it was (for want of a better phrase), the best of a bad bunch.
Anyway, back to the polenta, now is not the time for a rant about bad vegetarian restaurants.
The polenta I tasted was soft, creamy and delicately flavoured – somewhat different to the stodgy and gritty options I’d tasted before. So, when I spotted a pork ragout with polenta on the menu at work, I was inteagued. Again- soft, creamy polenta, fried in garlic butter to crispen up the edges. I was officially converted.

I asked one of the chefs how he made the polenta, and what I was doing wrong with mine. He shrugged his shoulders, and waved the back of a packet in my direction. “We just follow the instructions, really”. I laughed. I didn’t believe him. But he was deadly serious. It seems that polenta is not only one of those under used ‘hippy foods’ but somewhat of a mystery to many.

So, I decided to experiment, and last night I had polenta with my dinner. My chorizo and butterbean stew was accompanied by the polenta (following the back of the packet that Chef had presented me with). I have come to the conclusion that the trick is to add twice as much water as you think you will need and simmer it down until it becomes smooth and creamy. I added a couple of tablespoons of the tomato sauce from my stew, which turned the polenta an alarming orange colour, but definitely added a bit of flavour, alongside a generous pinch of salt.

I am, dear reader, converted. I am not ashamed to stand up and say – I enjoy Polenta. Of course, my bung-it-in-a-pan-and-boil method is slightly behind the exciting additions of olives, tomatoes and garlic butter in restaurants, but I’m already thinking of attempting to recreate Mr. Bann’s dish at home (and inevitably for cheaper than the £11.50 I paid for it).

So, maybe my taste buds have changed, maybe I am finally becoming a grownup. However, I am not ashamed to stand up and tell the world – albeit perhaps in a slightly bemused and surprised voice “er, I actually quite like polenta”.

How on Earth...

2009-11-19T18:40:00.004Z

... has it been 10 days since I last blogged?

Not good!

I'd planned to try blogging and writing a couple of times a week, but clearly have been finding that tricky. I'm not entirely sure why though to be honest, I do think "ooh that would be interesting to talk about" but I never quite get round to it. How do the likes of Nigel Slater whack out a daily column?! Must Try Harder.

Of course, a lack of blog doesn't necessary mean a lack of food in my life. Ohhhh no. In fact, I've recently gained the somewhat dubious honour of gaining a nickname at work - my boss now calls me "Hamster" because I'm apparently always eating whenever he comes into the office. This is probably true... but mainly because he makes his office appearances at 9 am (breakfast), 2pm (lunchtime) and 7pm (dinner time). Well, that's what I maintain anyway - and I'm sticking by it!

Anyway... there's been some interesting foodie discoveries in my life recently. One of my good friends is Filipino and after nearly a year of nagging, I managed to persuade her to cook traditional food for me. It was fantastic! Definately worth the wait! Of course, this means that at some point in the near future I need to bake a pie or some form of "British" culinary treat in return - but that's hardly a hardship so it's a fair exchange! (Must not get distracted by thoughts of beef and ale pie... Mmmm...)

Anyway, I cajoled Ida Mae into writing her recipes down for me, so that I could blog them for future reference. I've (foolishly) lost the fantastic hot and sour fish soup recipe - but here are the other two courses.

Pork Adobo

Sautee a roughly chopped large onion and a couple of cloves of sliced garlic in a little vegetable oil.

Add diced pork - about 500g and seal.

Add 2 cups of water, and 1/4 of a cup of soy sauce along with a cup of vinegar and a generous teaspoon of paprika.

Stir, and add 5 bay leaves, and a teaspoon of of peppercorns.

Simmer for half an hour, or until the sauce is thickened and coats the pork with a little left over.

Serve with rice, and salad.

Side Salad

Julienne two sharp apples (Granny Smiths) and a shallott or red onion.

Stir in a handful of diced fresh coriander, along with sliced cherry tomatoes.

Add the juice of a lime, a couple of teaspoons of palm sugar or brown sugar, diced deseeded chillis (Ida suggests birdseye - but they were blooming strong!!).

Turon

Soak skinned bananas in water for a couple of minutes.

Dip in brown or palm sugar, and wrap in "spring roll pastries". Dampen ends of the parcel with water to seal.

Sprinkle with sugar, and fry (preferably deep, although works in a frying pan if necessary) until golden.

Serve with IceCream, or chocolate/toffee sauce.

It was blooming fantastic - cleaner and sharper in flavour than the (admittedly not great) Chinese food I've had, and less creamy than other Asian dishes. Ida was telling me that much Filipino food and culture is influenced - inevitablly - by Spanish cusine. Adobo, for example, is Spanish for seasoning or marinade, but a little bit of googling helped me discover that the Filipino Adobo is centuries old - the cooking method is traditionally Filipino - but the name was adapted into Spanish. The Adobo can be cooked with cheaper cuts of pork, perhaps the equivalent of beef stewing steak, because the cooking method tenderises the meat, as well as allowing for safer storage in hot weather because of the high vinegar content. It's strange, as the method of cooking reminded me very much of beef stews - I guess every culture has its culinary similarities, even if they are half way around the world!

It's got me thinking though - I'd be interested in trying to gather a selection of cookbooks from various countries equivilents of Delia Smith. She seems to pretty much personify British cookery (admittedly slightly dated, and the whole mashed-potato-in-a-cake incident aside she's the only such character I can think of). I wonder if each country has a similar equivilent? My American housemate has noted that the UK has an outstanding number of cookery programmes, so maybe not, but yet another thing to add to my increasingly long list of foodie things to do is to find out!

The Elephant House

2009-11-09T18:00:00.003Z

Seeing as I recently decided to do an Open University course for fun - From Enlightenment to Romanticism - I've taken to studying in Edinburgh's many coffee shops as an excuse to get out of the house and take advantage of my days off.

A recent haunt (I say haunt, I've been there 3 times in a fortnight, so I'm hardly a regular) has become the Elephant House on George IV Bridge. With it's slightly dated paint, and collection of Elephant themed decorations, it's not your average cafe, but if Edinburgh was to be epitomised in a single room, the Elephant House would certainly be the likeliest of candidates I can think of.

The self proclaimed 'Birthplace of Harry Potter', one of four places I can think of offhand, is a city institution blending locals, students and tourists in one large and bustling room, boasting a spectacular view over the city - complete with an outstanding view of the Castle in all its glory.

Each time I patronise the Elephant House, I find myself rolling my eyes and murmuring the dreaded 'that's so edinburgh' phase. Opposite me on the large eight seater table, a finely dressed middle aged lady types into her laptop. To the side of us, two well heeled students play a unique game of oneupmanship.

"I'm starving, you'll never guess what I had for dinner last night... the only things I had in was a tub of mince and a Pataks sauce, so I had that on top of Supernoodles"

"Well", her friend retorts. "I had a packet of Jelly! I'm soooo poor!" she proclaims, before returning to her £6.99 pizza and coke.

The lady opposite with the laptop rolls her eyes and we share a knowing smile, raising an eyebrow at girls, but secretly amused by the American tourists posing for photos with their coffees, arguing over whether the castle is in the background.

Soup, Glorious Soup.

2009-10-29T11:46:00.003Z

I may have mentioned before that I really love homemade soup.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I just do. Actually, scrub that, there are many reasons why. It comforts me without adding to my hips, it warms me without upping my gas bill, and it makes me feel a little like Delia or Julia, because it's one of the few things that are very difficult to get wrong. It also provides at least two of my five a day, in one easy meal.

I'm more of a fan of smooth soups than 'bitty' soups. I do love minestrone, but it's a bit of a faff to eat. You can't slurp it out of a cup, dunking bread in it absorbs the broth and leaves slightly mushy vegetables behind, and, to me - a soup should be slurped, a stew should be chewed.

Anyway, continuing my search for quick, nutritious and healthy meals (strangely increasingly difficult. I had thought that working shifts would provide me with blogging and cooking time, but I seem to spend most of my spare time asleep or in the pub...), I'm rediscovering soups.

It's soup weather now in Edinburgh. The summer has left us, autumn is definitely in the air, and crunchy leaves have turned sludgy. I feel the need for soup.

Lunch today was a rather delightful, quick and easy broccoli.

250g of frozen broccoli

1 knorr chicken stock pot (purchased because they were half price and I was curious)

500 ml water

a chopped onion

Sautee the onion in a tsp of oil, until it begins to soften and becomes translucent. Add in the broccoli, and the stock. Simmer for 10 minutes, until the broccoli is soft. Blend, add water to dilute if needed, serve.

Easy, but delicious. For some reason, I find frozen broccoli works better in soup than fresh. It softens more quickly, leaves fewer unblended 'buds' and gives a creamy texture without the need for dairy. I've made broccoli and stilton before - either crumbling the cheese over the top, or adding a rind in to flavour the stock, but when it comes to soups, I think I'm a purest. Delicious as they were, broccoli stands on its own as a really delicious soup.

Anteaques

2009-10-16T21:09:00.007+01:00

My new job largely consists of shift work, meaning that I've decided I have time to study an Open University course for "fun". I'm not entirely sure that writing essays and doing exams necessarily go with "fun"... but over the next 10 months I aim to find out. Being interested in the eighteenth century, unsurprisingly I'm going to do a course entitled "From Enlightenment to Romanticism", mainly because I'm slightly ashamed of how little I know about the time period's politics (I do culture, innit). My first tutorial is tomorrow morning, and - for the first time in a while - I'm nervous!

I've also decided that I'm going to spend some time in coffee shops, studying. It's slightly frivolous, after all, I could easily do it at home and keep my coffee money to myself. But one of the joys of Edinburgh is the fantastic array of coffee shops and cafes that the city boasts, and seeing as I've been here a while I'd like to explore the city further. When living in London, I never really became a tourist in my own city. I never took an open top bus tour, I never went round any palaces or the Houses of Parliament. If I'm honest, I only really went to the V&A for their phenomenal meringues (and because it was free, and full of pretty things...). So, I've decided that I'm going to explore my city - through it's history, and it's tea shops.

My initial plan for this afternoon was to take my OU books, and go study in one of such places, but after being a bit poorly and antisocial, I ended up inviting my flatmates, and we had a girly afternoon gossiping. The venue was one I'd been introduced to before by a friend who thought I'd love it - she was right. Anteaques, a hidden gem on the busy Clerk Street, is sadly the type of cafe which I can imagine that many of the locals wander past on a daily basis without really acknowledging. Actually, on reflection, I'm not sure that is a sad fact. A selfish part of me worries that it will get busy, and it's quiet and understated wonderfulness will diminish if it expands or changes. It's so small that it currently hosts just 5 tables, and no toilet, but despite its small size, I've not been rushed or shooed out in an attempt to turn tables. Larger, more famous coffee chains take note...

For me, one of the charms of Anteaques (or I should say, one of the many), is that the love and attention to detail of the surroundings reflects the love and attention given to the teas served. Decoration comes from collections of tea and coffee cups - most of which are for sale, and not unreasonably priced - background noise is complemented by light opera and the sounds of silver spoons on china cups. Proper tea, served in proper cups and saucers. Bliss.

I went for the Cherry and Almond tea. Sadly, their vast range meant that I was accidentally brought Cherry and Chocolate (maybe not a bad thing. I'd ordered Cherry and Almond last time and am too bad at making decisions to venture outside my comfort zone!). As a tea, it was smooth and comforting. Hints of Kirsch and dark chocolate cut through the tannin, stopping the tea from being overpowering even when I got carried away with the chatter and forgot to take out my loose tea. I also plumped for a scone - homemade, of course, served with a generous dollop of clotted cream and raspberry jam.

Anteaques had a wide range of clients. To the left of us, were a range of students (American, from their accents). To the right, at the top of the corridor, a group of businessmen who appeared to be having a meeting over tea and scones. No, really.

I do love a cup of tea. And I do love Anteaques. It's been open since August 2008, and I hope that it passes through the difficult first two years. I have decided I am going to become a regular customer. Considering how much of a haven it is, and how cheap it is (£3.70 for a large pot of tea and a scone), it'd be rude not to be.

I am no longer a student...

2009-10-01T19:30:00.002+01:00

My MSc Dissertation was submitted yesterday (entitled: Discussion on the Food Cultures of England, Scotland and Ireland During the Long Eighteenth Century) and the stress is over. Or rather, I should say - the stress is over until September 2010. Seeing as I was offered a Ph.D place for this year and decided I wasn't ready, I rolled it over until next year, when hopefully the novelty of employment will have worn off, and I'll be ready to resume my role as the only person in Britain who cares about the multitude of ways in which porridge was eaten and cooked in the Eighteenth Century Highlands. Actually, make that the only 'other' person - either my tutor is a suprisingly good actress, or she finds it interesting too.

I am, a full-time employee...
With a 39 hour contract, a suit and a swizzly chair. The only other times I've done vaguely full time work have been in pubs and bars over the summer, so it's quite nice to have a bit of a 'proper' job for the first time. I am very glad to say, there are numerous foodie benefits to this. Luckily, my job involves liasing with a pretty amazing restaurant - which feeds me for half price when I'm working. Inspiration will hopefully hit me as I work my way through the staff dinners list and I'll have a bash at recreating or adapting some of my favourites at home. I have quite a large culinary repetoire, but I only really cook half a dozen meals if I don't plan ahead. Time to change this methinks.
It also means I'll have the time, money and inclination to rediscover cooking - yay! I've already been writing a little list of things I'd like to cook/learn to cook/eat more of. So far...

Calamari with aioli,
Japanese style noodles,
Tempura prawns and veggies,
Xmas cake,
Trifle,
Boston baked beans,
Quiche,
Cheese souffle,
Steak and ale pie.

are on the list. Not an extensive one, but I'm sure it will inevitably get longer, as the year goes on.
So... not quite a new start at the blogging, but definately a chance to rediscover food - eating it, cooking it, writing about it. And maybe a little about drink too, if I'm feeling adventurous. Hurrah!

Red Pepper Soup

2009-05-28T14:58:00.004+01:00

My local grocer seems to have had a glut of peppers recently, as he's been selling them off cheaply- very cheaply- at five for 50p. I got a little overexcited yesterday and bought 10. I ate two for dinner (fajitas, delicious), and had ideas about making a soup with the rest.
I'm a fan of soup, and red pepper and tomato sounded suitably summery for the gorgeous weather outside, so for lunch I had a bash.
Now, I'm not one of these people that follows recipes particularly precisely, so I'm always slightly bemused when a friend comments on home-made soup being difficult or laborious. I normally just chop it up, bung it in a pan, and boil it. For the peppers though, I thought I'd try something a little fancier (maybe because I've been watching The Great British Menu recently, and feel highly incompetent because of it...) so I decided to have a go at roasting them instead. Well, i say roast, it was more like grill.

Ingredients for two portions:
4 red peppers, deseeded and halved. (it might work with yellow and orange too though)
1 tin of plum tomatoes.
a teaspoon of tomato puree
large onion- white or red- finely sliced.
tsp olive oil or margerine
500ml chicken or veg stock

Split the peppers in half, deseed and place on a baking tray, skin side up. Pop under the grill for about 10 minutes. The skins should bubble, blister and turn black. This is a good thing!
Meanwhile, chop the onion and sautee it in a medium sized pan in the olive oil or margerine.
When the peppers are blackened, scrape the skins off with a butter knife, and roughly chop the peppers. They should be softened and juicy.
Add in the tin of tomatoes (and a teaspoon of puree if you're using smartprice ones) and 200ml of stock, and bring to the heat.
Blend.
Add more stock as necessary to ease blending, or to get the soup to required consistency.
If cooled, pop back into the pan until slightly bubbling, then serve with a dollop of creme fraiche and a slice of crusty bread.

I did contemplate adding some paprika and cayenne pepper to the soup, but I'm glad I didn't. In the past, i've made this soup with frozen peppers. They don't have the same flavour, so need a bit of help, but the advantage of grilling the peppers from fresh is that they take on a delicious delicate smokiness as well as caremelising slightly around the edges. It really brings out the sweetness, and contrasts with the sharp tomatoes nicely. It also makes for an interesting creamy and soft textured soup, without the need for cream or milk which would dampen the flavour.

Fish, Chips and Contentment.

2009-05-23T16:40:00.001+01:00

A while ago, an American friend commented to me that she loved fish and chips, and that she was taking her Mom to a pub for dinner so that she could try them. I was, not so secretly, horrified. From that day on, every time fish and chips have been mentioned (you'd be suprised how frequently, considering my international friendship group), a comment was made about heading to the beach. Like all good plans though, it finally came into fruition in the pub last night.
This morning, we set off. Two Americans, a Filipino, a Yorkshire girl and a Belfast lad. Somewhat of a motley crew. It was the perfect British beach weather- vaguely warm when out of the wind, a little muggy, and white skied. It was the location, rather than the promise of fish and chips that was the novelty to begin with. Open skies, and endless horizons get forgotten when you live in the city centre. I've never seen my Filipino friend so excited before. After eight months of being away from home, I think it was the first time she'd seen sand or the sea since she moved to Scotland, despite being (technically) in a coastal city. We wandered up and down the beach for a while, skimming stones, taking photos, and remniscing about childhood holidays - all strangely similar despite being spread over three or four continents - before spotting a sign offering fish and chips.

From the outside, the chippie wasn't promising. I'll be honest, I was nervous. There's something slightly intimdating about showing your 'national' foodstuffs off. We all opted for Fish Suppers though, and breathed a sigh of relief when we were told it'd be about ten minutes. A good sign- cooked fresh to order.

We took our perches on a wall, our backs to the chippie, our faces to the sea (which is, after all, the way that fish and chips should be eaten), and ate contentedly. I can honestly say that they were the best I've eated in a few years. Admittedly, the chips were not quite soggy enough to be proper chippie chips, but the fish was perfect. Crunch on the outside and buttery soft inside. The silence was only really broken with an "I'll have to bring my Mom here for sure" and the occasional crunch of batter.

There's something incredibly comforting about sharing food with friends. I think it's often the stories that come with it- today's were mostly holiday and childhood related. It was just a shame that the skies turned grey and it started to drizzle. Although, as my friend pointed out "Now we really know we're at the beach. All we need now is for someone to tell us to pack up our stuff and head back to the car..."

Taking inspiration from M&S

2009-05-19T23:49:00.000+01:00

I have a secret love for Marks and Spencers foodhalls, and especially for their adverts. A friend once described them as food porn, and I can completely see his point. I remember the first ones- "This isn't just any chocolate pudding. This is a Marks and Spencers Belgian chocolate melt-in-the-middle pudding, served with Organic Jersey Clotted Cream." God, it was a good advert. So good in fact, that my dad and I spent weeks checking our local M&S in the hope that we'd find some. Sadly, I'm not sure we ever did. They'd always gone.

Recently though, they've been advertising a risotto with butternut squash and gorgonzola. This advert has perplexed me. I think it's the lack of Dervla Kirwan, but I don't seem to be alone in this. I have to say though, that as a relative newcomer to the joys of Butternut Squash (I'm yet to branch outside of soup genres with it), I thought I'd have a go at making my own version. Reheated risotto is never quite the same as freshly cooked, and - aside from the cheapskate in me objecting to paying for a readymeal - it's so easy to make that I thought I'd have a bash.

75g of Arborio rice.
Half a teaspoon of dried sage.
150g of butternut squash, diced into 1.5cm cubes.
Teaspoon of butter.
400ml of chicken stock.
1 medium onion, diced.

Sautee onion in the butter, until it begins to soften and change colour, before toasting the rice along with it. Add the squash and then about 150ml of stock, along with the dried sage. Slowly increase the liquid, stirring frequently but gently, until the rice is on the bite.
Pop into a bowl and finish with the cheese- half diced and half crumbled, on top.

Cooking the squash (a bargain, at 59p/kilo!) along with the rice added a lovely flavour. The whole dish was delicately squashy - nutty and sweet without being unsavoury. The occasional tang of cheese by using the cubes on top worked well for my tastes. I decided against mixing it through in case it overpowered the squash.

Would I do it again? Yes, definately! It was lovely. However- I might follow the Marks and Spencers lead a little more closely. I used Danish Blue, which was what I had in, but next time I'll certainly pop to the deli and give some Gorgonzola a try instead. I think the more delicate texture would work a lot better. I'd also consider some walnuts, purely for a bit of extra texture. Plus, nuts and cheese- what more could a girl want?

Overall then, a sort of success for a 'have a go' tea, and one that will definately be built upon. As for the rest of the squash? It's going to be roasted with red peppers and turned into soup. Delicious!

Asparagus

2009-05-18T17:52:00.001+01:00

Oh, how I love asparagus.
There's something so fresh and summery about it, that it makes me quite excited!

I'm lucky to have some great (if a little pricey) grocers near me, and spotted some white asparagus on offer last week. I'm so cross with myself for not getting any... I'm not sure why I didn't, when it was 99p! I've never had the white stuff before, but apparently it's less bitter than the green, so would be interesting to taste. Hopefully they'll get some more in soon.
Anyway. Seeing I've been fancying some for a while, I caved in and bought the £2-a-bunch green stuff for lunch today and had a few stalks, steamed, with a poached egg, muffin and hollandaise. It was so lovely I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's lunch already!

Butteries, anyone?

2009-05-13T22:43:00.000+01:00

My Dutch flatmate posed me a question.
"er, what am I supposed to do with these?"
She'd bought some Butteries in Tesco because they were a novelty and reduced to 14p (fair enough!), but had bit into one and was disappointed. Maybe she was supposed to cook them? Or serve them with something? The packet was not forthcoming and neither was I. Clearly not a 'proper' Scot, I'd never heard of them. They looked a little like Eccles cakes though, so I was excited, but alas, they were not. All I could taste was salt, ugh!

And so we turned to Google. This website provided answers. It looks like someone in Tesco had an accident with the salt, there was definitely more than just a pinch in them! I'm contemplating trying the recipe, as I'll admit that the thought that they might be a nice variation on scones has excited me somewhat, but I fear that my poor thighs may expand with just a look at them...!

I have decided...

2009-05-13T22:36:00.003+01:00

... to just plunge into blogging. I can't claim to have ever blogged before (I'm not even a fan of the word. I might occasionally be pretentious and claim to be 'writing' if I feel like it), so I can't honestly say I know the conventions.
So, I'm just going to get on with it, it seems the easiest way!