Pantry tea and gingerbread people

My long awaited, dreaded, and inevitable return to blogging is here, and I shall make more of an effort to assault you with my bakings and ramblings from now on.

Having been in England for four months from April to August, I had little opportunity to bake, having no kitchen to speak of, or worthy of the name of kitchen. Mr A's mum eventually took pity on me and invited me over to bake, which was a glorious release and an apple pie and a cherry pie came forth in quick succession. Both were rave successes, especially the cherry pie which was made with fresh morello cherries, and therefore had a lovely tart quality to it. The cherry pie was repeated for Mr A's birthday and crumbles full of bramley apples and summer berries were also made. We went blackberry picking, and picked a tonne of blackberries as Mr A was working up the courage to propose...which he did, and I said yes....A celebratory apple and blackberry pie followed, though I have since learnt that you must put some cornflour in when baking with blackberries as the pie was almost drowned by the vast quantity of delicious crimson juice.

Since coming home things have been busy with with the thesis, work and friends. My dear friend Miss P got married and so in the lead up the the joyous occasion we had a pantry tea, which allowed me to get my bake on!!

Having been deprived of means and opportunity for so long I made:

Little lemon tarts
Almond macaroon/biscuits - intense little almondy diamonds that you left to dry out over night before baking and smothering in icing sugar
Caramalised onion and bacon quiches
Balsamic Caramalised onion, pumpkin and Parmesan tarts
and Pistachio Macaroons.

I have made these macaroons before, but the first time, whilst they turned out really well, something was wrong with the mixture as it was very liquid and wouldn't pipe. These, on the other hand were perfect. They are Nigella's recipe from "Domestic Goddess". The recipe makes way too much butter cream - so I have some stashed in the freezer to use for something else as it is intensely sweet if you used it all to fill the biscuits it would totally overwhelm them and everyone would get diabetes instantly.






For Miss P and Mr D's bomboniere's they lovingly made gingerbread brides and grooms to give to their guests. We were called in once all the hard work had been done to turn the little guys and girls into brides and grooms. It was great fun, especially when I got half way through a bride only to realise it was actually a groom! The whole thing made me want to run away and become a pastry chef...which part of me still wants to do, especially on the days when my thesis is driving me insane or I have had a particularly good day in the kitchen....







HH

Fruit Flan

I love fruit flan. I always have. Between that and lemon/citrus tart, I can be a bit predictable. I am however, often, bitterly disappointed.

I have been meaning to make a fruit flan for years, and eventually cracked it for my anti-Valentines day dinner. (I am not anti as a general rule,but rather suffering from the tyranny of distance.)

Although I make short crust pastry all the time, I followed a recipe from a friends french cookbook. I think it included egg yolk to bind it and rather than rubbing the flour and butter between your fingers until it resembled breadcrumbs, you used the heel of your hand in a smooth pushing motion through the mixture on the bench to combine. Although dubious, it worked beautifully, and produced the most delicious tender pastry, which was a joy to work with and a joy to eat.

For the filling I made Nigella's creme patisserie, not feeling brave enough to make one I hadn't tried before. It turned out well, but I should have put the filled tart case in the fridge to set, as although thick, it wasn't set enough when I cut it.

For the fruit, I used strawberries and peaches. I had bought kiwi fruit but they were horribly bitter (and I don't seriously love them), and the peaches took up a lot more room than I anticipated.

All in all I was pleased with my efforts and it tasted amazing. I was quite heavy handed with the vanilla in the creme patisserie it went beautifully with the fruit and the pastry was just lovely. I am still working on making my tart cases look pretty as they always have a bit of rustic charm about them and I marvel at the pictures in the books of painstaking, near impossible precision and delicacy that the cases have. One day.

HH

Spiced Cake

A while ago I saw a recipe for a delicious sounding,beautiful spiced pear cake at Kalofagas, a blog which I stumbled on through Foodycat's blog. The cake sounded so inviting I could almost smell the spiced aroma and the sweet delicate fragrance from the pears, and knew I had to make it. A few months passed and with an afternoon tea date upon me I thought it was the perfect time to give it a go.

I followed the recipe pretty much as it was, but not having any ground star anise, I added a whole one to the poaching liquid with very pleasing results. I made an executive decision that the temperature wasn't fan forced, so reduced it to 160'c, and it seemed to be right. I also decided that 1/2 a cup of butter was 125 g, which is probably close enough.



This cake has to be one of the nicest cakes I have had. The cake itself is tender and moist and deliciously spiced. The pears, which I think look so pretty when poached in a neutral liquid, looked stunning in the cake, and tasted amazing. We finished the cake off between the 4 of us, and I think we all could have gone another slice. It didn't need cream or any other accompaniment, but I think a bit of cream or creme fraiche combined with a little of the poaching liquid would have moved the cake from afternoon tea to dessert.

I wasn't done with the cake just yet. As figs were in season and encouraged by foodycat, I decided to try it out with figs.


As the figs wouldn't need poaching I made a little syrup with 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar, a star anise and a cinnamon stick to use for the 60 ml of poaching liquid needed in the cake. Four figs replaced the three pears, and it worked a charm. As the figs cooled, they collapsed a little, but still retained their shape within the cake. They were sweet and jammy, and had lost any of the, what I can only describe as 'planty' flavour that some figs have. We served it with a little vanilla cream, and it was wonderful.




(Not the best picture of the last piece, taken the next day before I scoffed it for breakfast.)

This cake, in both its pear and fig varieties is already a favourite and I can see it being a go-to cake for a long time to come.

HH

Muffins

I have been baking quite a lot the last couple of weeks, partly for procrastination, partly for mental health, partly for my family who are all busy at the moment, and partly to have as a reward for if I happen to do some work.

I have made Nigella's Pear and Ginger Muffins, from Nigella express, many times before, and they are quick, easy and very delicious. The recipe makes a good base recipe for fruited muffins and I have been playing with it a bit of late, with excellent results.



The first was apple cinnamon muffins. Replacing the pear and ginger for apple and cinnamon gave the muffins a much more teacake taste and I also replaced the sour cream with Greek yogurt, as that is what I had, which added a lovely tang to the muffins. The total weight of fruit I used was 200g after it was peeled, cored and chopped, as 300g creates too much batter for the tins. I made two batches of these in the one week, and they remained moist and tender for 3 days after baking, after which time they were all gone.


My second foray was more seasonally inspired, after purchasing several punnets of fresh figs. After eating the figs with yogurt and honey, I thought that teamed up with yogurt and honey in a muffin, they would also be fabulous.

I went for fig and ginger muffins, the spice combination inspired by the fig and ginger pudding served atBadde Manors, a cafe which I go to very often. This time I replaced the caster sugar with brown sugar and again used Greek yogurt. I just tore the figs, letting the juices drip into the mixture. I added a little extra ginger which gave it a nice kick, though some crystallised ginger finely chopped might have been nice as well.




In both instances I forgot to top them with a bit of brown sugar, but I don't think they need it as they are quite sweet already.

HH

Sweet Potato and Roast Cashew Soup

I have always wanted to make a really tasty spiced soup. I have tried before, but haven't got the balance right, generally shrinking away from making it too spicy at the cost of flavour. This recipe is care of Mr A's SIL, but where she got it from, I do not know. She made it for us the night we arrived in Adelaide and it was wonderful, spicy and welcoming. It claims to be a wonderfully filling African soup, and it is indeed wonderful.



500g Sweet potato sliced
1 litre vegetable stock
25g butter
1 tsp chopped red chillies (I couldn't get fresh so used flakes)
1 tbs chopped root ginger
1 tbs chopped garlic (about 4 or 5 cloves)
175 g carrots sliced (about 3 medium)
175 g onions, sliced (1 medium)
50 g plain flour
3 tbs soy sauce
175 ml coconut nut milk
A hand full of coriander, plus extra for garnish
Salt and white pepper
250 g Cashew nuts.

Put the sweet potatoes and vegetable stock in a pan and boil for 15 minutes (or until soft). Melt the butter in a large pan, add the chillies, ginger, carrots and onions and fry over moderate heat until soft. Mix in the flour with a wooden spoon.

Add the onion mix to the sweet potato and whiz with a stick blender until smooth (or put in the food processor, but that is too much washing up). Cook on a low heat for 15 minutes, adding half the soy sauce, all the coconut milk at some stage during this time and the coriander roughly chopped, and seasoning to taste at the last minute. (I only added a little pepper, as the cashews covered in soy sauce along with the soy were salty enough.

Preheat the oven to 200'c/180'c. Pour remaining soy sauce over the cashews in a shallow bowl, mix thoroughly until they are all coated. Bake for about 10 minutes, turning them occasionally to ensure they are browned evenly and don't stick together.

Serve the soup with a garnish of coriander leaves and the cashews sprinkled on top.

Serves 4



HH

Raspberry and Vanilla Meringue Layer Cake

I have had a lovely, if somewhat jam packed three weeks with Mr A, and I was very sad to see him go on Friday. It was not a very culinary holiday, but that being said, I did not go hungry and had some excellent fish and chips (several times), a delicious spiced soup care of Mr A's sister-in-law which I intend to make, an excellent BLT on gorgeous sour dough bread at a very nice cafe in Cooma, yum cha at the Marigold in Sydney, a gorgeous peppery meat pie with mash potatoes mushy peas and gravy at The Lord Nelson.

Adelaide was beautiful, and the sunset we saw at Mount Lofty in the Adelaide Hills was gorgeous. We flew from Adelaide to Melbourne and after spending a day or so with Mr A's mum, we headed off to drive to Berridale. We took the scenic route, down through Gipsland and up the coast. It was beautiful, and really fascinating to see how the country changes. We visited lots of nautical things in Sydney, including the Maritime Musuem and Fort Denison, where Mr A, much to his excitement, got to fire the gun.

I did manage to get a little cooking in amongst all this travelling, though nothing really note worthy - except the dessert I made for the BBQ I held at my place so Mr A could meet some of my friends.

I had planned to make a pavlova, but as I didn't have a stash of egg whites, and didn't have time to make two desserts, one with egg whites and one with yolks (I was thinking a fruit flan). I combined the two and made a Meringue layer cake with creme patisserie filling. I based it on Nigella'sGooey Chocolate Stack from Domestic Goddess,which I have made before, but substituted chocolate for vanilla, adding a good bit of vanilla extract to the meringue mix before baking (and white wine vinegar instead of red wine vinegar) and some vanilla bean paste to the creme patisserie. The meringues were wonderful, chewy but crisp and the raspberries, which were inbetween each layer, as well as on top, cut through the sweetness. By the time I served it, the raspberries had bled quite a bit as they weren't defrosted when I assembled it, but it created a lovely raspberry sauce, which if anything, added to the overall deliciousness.

HH

Christmas Pavlova and the misadventure continues

I was feeling very unmotivated for Christmas this year, and whilst several batches of mince pies did make me feel a bit more festive, nothing could persuade me to make a proper boiled pudding this year. Instead I resorted to an ice cream pudding and a pavlova. I normally use Nigella's pavolva recipe, but I went with Jamie this time after eating a delicious offering from this recipe. It was pretty damn good. The unsugared egg whites are beaten until stiff and then the sugar is added gradually, but not a painstaking teaspoonful-at-a-time like Nigella suggests. The egg whites and sugars are then beat for between 6 and 10 minutes until the sugar is dissolved. It only took an hour to cook and doesn't have to cool in the oven - bliss for when you have left things a bit late and don't have time to let it sit in the oven. It is also the most wonderful texture, the perfect balance of soft and crunchy. Wonderful. I decorated it with mango and passionfruit, though it would have benefited from strawberries or raspberries, but I couldn't justify paying for the strawberries and I forgot to get frozen raspberries. But with vanilla cream, it was lovely.


In other, non-baking, news, I am reunited with Mr A tomorrow. It is only for 3 weeks, but it is better than nothing after what has been a long 11 months! We are heading to Adelaide then Melbourne and home via Berridale (wherever that is). Hopefully it will all go well and be lovely.

In thesis news, well, perhaps we shouldn't talk about that.

HH

Melbourne

This is a very delayed post of my now, not so recent, trip to Melbourne. The main purpose of which was to eat, drink and be merry; and that is pretty much all we did, that and walk, a lot!

First stop on our culinary adventure was Fifteen Melbourne. We went for lunch as we thought it would be a good way to kick things off, and indeed it was. After gingerly making our way down the steep stairs, we were shown through to the dining area, past the bar (where Toby was sitting having his lunch) to a lovely little table with an excellent view of the open kitchen (which was very calm and orderly, I must say). The waiter quickly asked us if we would like a drink, perhaps a gin and tonic, to get started, and as E and I were there with the distinct purpose of drinking a lot of gin, we were very pleased with his suggestion. Things improved when a different waitress came to ask us if we had any preference for our gin. We said we normally drank Tanqueray, and she suggested Hendricks with cucumber. After hearing its praises sung by Pips, we were very keen to try it, and it was amazing!! We couldn't get over it, so fragrant and crisp and delicious. We were truly in awe, and most definitely in love. After phwoaring over our gin for a bit we decided on the Express Lunch menu, which was two courses and a glass of wine for $35. The range was limited, but delicious all the same. We both went with the squid salad and parpadele with veal ragu. The squid salad was amazing; Beautifully cooked baby squid with a good hint of chili,and citrus with snowpea shoots and the most delicious fried capers, which were crispy little bursts of salty flavour, and were amazing. The ragu was lovely too, though the freshly made, perfectly cooked pasta was the star of the show. The nice mild red that we got as part of the lunch went perfectly with the ragu.

Breakfast the next morning was the next important stop as we found a gorgeous little Spanish cafe down a laneway off Flinders Lane and we ended up there every morning. The coffee was amazing, strong and sweet and the perfect temperature. I had sourdough toast rubbed with tomato and olive oil with a generous amount of delicious, smooth, jamon topped with parmesan. It was gorgeous. E had french toast made with brioche that came with a poached pear, maple syrup and cinnamon. It was gorgeous too, and I had it on our third visit and it lived up to my expectations. The second day we both had big breakfasts, which was huge (too much protein for me) but delicious all the same. It included delicious though quite spicy chorizo, bacon, two eggs, tomato, mushrooms and sour dough toast. After staggering out from that protein charged breakfast in search of juice, a little jazz band had set up at the end of the laneway, and we passed a good hour sitting over a coffee listening to them bust out some smooth tunes. It was really good, and left us wishing for such things in Sydney.

On Friday we wandered down the Southbank and were lured into a very stylish bar by the prospect of beer and by a Virginia Woolf quote by the menu. I can't remember what it was called for the life of me, but the wait staff were very attentive and lovely. We decided on some bar-type food, though this was pretty special bar food. We ordered goats cheese cigars which were the most delicate pastry filled with chived goats cheese. One end was dipped in what seemed to be dehydrated raspberries and it came with an olive caramel. It was beautiful and one of the most intriguing flavour combinations I have had. We also got some Wagu beef sliders (mini-burgers). This tender piece of wagu was served on a mini brioche bun with a pickle and blue cheese. They were very tasty indeed.

Dinner that night was much anticipated. We went to Comme a beautiful French restaurant, which I will say right away the food was delicious. Our table wasn't quite ready when we arrived so we waited in the bar with a gin and tonic, though sadly not Hendricks, and people watched for a bit. It was a lovely bar with nice, sensible, smart looking people, somewhere you would like to come for a few drinks and some of the very delicious sounding bar food. We were ushered in to the restaurant and eventually decided on our meals. I had the new seasons lamb with aubergine puree and garlic fondant and sauce ratatouille, though it is changed on the online menus slightly. It was delicious. There were two or three different cuts of lamb, all cooked perfectly, and the garlic and aubergine went wonderfully. The sauce was a very delicate , thin ratatouille with tiny pieces of capsicum, though it was a bit too capsicumy for me (I should have paid more attention when ordering. E ordered the Western plains rabbit, foie gras croquette, etuvee of courgette flower, crystal bay prawns, hazelnuts and tarragon. It looked amazing and E's reports were that it tasted fantastic. It included several different parts of the rabbit and was a beautiful well balanced dish. It was E's favourite of the trip. For dessert, although I was almost swayed by the poached peach, we both decided on the chocolate fondant with milk sorbet. We were happy to wait the 20 minutes for it to arrive and curiously watched what the other diners were getting. Due to a bit of a back log in the kitchen it took more than 20 minutes, and our lovely waiter couldn't have been more apologetic and came back several times to let us know the progress of the fondant and to assure us that it was worth the wait, and indeed it was. It was possibly one of the best desserts I have ever had, and certainly the best chocolate fondant. It was perfectly oozing in the middle, soft, tender, rich and delicious. The milk sorbet was the perfect accompaniment, and we did all but lick our plates clean.



Saturday night dinner would turn out to be the highlight for me and it was, I have to say, one of the best meals of my life. Gills Diner was our port of call, on what was a cold and rainy Melbourne evening. Set down a little alleyway, Gills is a charming little place with loads of character and a friendly, if noisy, atmosphere. We had an early booking, and although we were early were shown straight to our table. We were pleased to see that they had Hendricks, and quickly ordered some. Deciding what to eat was another question, as everything on the menu sounded delicious. We had heard that the meals were quite hearty so after a delicious selection of bread with excellent butter, we decided to start with a main. I decided on the pork, which was a roast Otway pork chop (clearly from a rack of pork) with a pumpkin and chorizo puree, a fennel and apple salad and asparagus. The pork was perfectly cooked. The meat was tender and juicy and the crackling was to die for. The pure was amazing, rich and smooth, and a generous amount. There was also a drizzle of heavily reduced cooking juices, which was perfect. The fennel and apple salad was finely chopped, like a coleslaw and the asparagus, which was white asparagus had been lightly battered and fried. It was a wonderful, tasty and perfectly balanced meal. E ordered a special, which was an eye fillet steak topped with an olive crust served with potatoes, cabbage, onion and bacon. Though full, we were sorely tempted by the dessert menu and decided on basil panacotta with strawberries and pistachioes. All I can say is wow! The panacotta was perfect, niether rubbery nor runny. It was a beautiful green and the flavour of basil was both distinct and subtle. The strawberry had been cooked and the syrup around was perfect with the panacotta. We were also persuaded into a dessert wine. We weren't sure which to choose and asked for one that would match the dessert, and we were not disappointed. The staff were lovely again and the whole experience was wonderful.

We finished off the evening with a trip to the Paris Cat jazz club where we saw Kimba and the Gin remedy - which was a fantastic show, if you like jazz and ever see her playing I can't recommend her strongly enough. Her band was wonderful, her husband was the lead guitarist and musical director, and was just amazing. All in all, it was a wonderful way to round off a wonderful day.

Our final culinary stop was Giuseppe Arnaldo & sons where we had a bit of an antipasto selection. We had some delicious Cacciatore salami, A ricotta basket with chili, lemon, mint and grilled bruschetta and aranchini made with spinach risotto. Again, Hendricks gin rounded off the meal.

We left Melbourne full and content and wishing that we could afford to eat and drink like this always.

HH

Caramel Slice

It has been quite a hectic few weeks since I last posted including my annual review (which I survived), our Post Graduate Conference which I gave a paper at (again, survived the ordeal) and watching the entire first season of Trueblood in just over 24 hours. My supervisor goes on maternity leave in less than a month and I have a chapter due before then. Little does she know I am going to Melbourne, which may result in a small chapter and a large amount of gin.

I also, stupidly, started a diet. I realise now, that not only do I like food a lot, I don't like being told what to eat, at all, and that 115g of ham is a hell of a lot of ham. I have, unsurprisingly, strayed from said diet, but may reengage it at a later stage as I am to be bridesmaid for my friend whose impromptu engagement party was the recipient of Chocolate-Guinness Tirimasu and wouldn't mind being a bit thinner for the occasion.

Baking has been a bit quite as a result. I did make some choc-chip cookies which almost ended in disaster when I realised after I put half in the oven that I hadn't added the Bi-Carb to the mix. After quickly withdrawing them from the oven and adding them back into the mixture, I ended up with marble cookies as the chocolate had already started to melt.

My most recent endeavour is caramel slice which I made as a result of an open can of condensed milk and this recipie for Dulce de Leche. I decided I should turn it into something, rather than just eat it all in its rich, creamy glory straight from the dish.

Having never made caramel slice before, it was good to make and the delcious tray of caramelly goodness in the fridge makes me want to make it again. I just made a digestive biscuit base, added the caramel and a very thin layer of dark chocolate. The thinness of the chocolate contributed to the cracking, but I don't care as it tastes fantastic.

HH

When good cakes go bad...

I am insanely busy at the moment, thesis, tutoring, life in general, all hectic. Despite all this, I couldn't miss an opportunity to celebrate with my good friend and her boyfriend, who got engaged last week. This saw me rush home from work with slight detours at the shops to make a cake, have it cooled and iced all in 3 hours. I also wanted to get some marking done, eat lunch, and write a job application. It doesn't need saying that I got very few of those things done, and with mixed results.

I decided on Nigella's chocolate Guinness cake, which I have made numerous times, as it is easy and involves no beating of butter, sugar etc as it starts its life in a saucepan. Something went wrong in the baking process as it rose gloriously, and then sunk, terribly, so much so that no amount of icing could have filled the void. I thought I would turn it over and ice the bottom - sweet. No, it didn't come out of the tin well (I rushed it, I know, and it was a new tin, silly me) - it was ugly, ragged and sunken and it was an hour before I had to leave - no time for a new cake or baked goods.

Then I remembered trifle - the saviour of cakes gone bad. From trifle I turned my thoughts to tirimasu, as the cake has a cream cheese icing - and from there the decision was easy, and the result I must say delicious (possibly better than the original).

Chocolate-Guinness Tirimasu
1 Chocolate Guinness Cake
1 packet of cream cheese
250 ml or so of thickened cream
(though you easily could use 1 1/2 or double the amount of cream/cream cheese)
100 g Pure icing sugar
Splash of Brandy (or whatever is left in the bottom of the bottle from Christmas cooking)
Sweet Sherry to douse the cake
Cocoa for dusting
1 packet of Frozen Raspberries thawed slightly in the fridge

Cut the dishevelled cake into thin slices.

Beat together the cream, cream cheese, icing sugar and brandy with an electric beater until smooth and fluffy.

Add a layer of cake to a trifle/any bowl. Douse with sherry, as the cake is quite dense I think you can be quite heavy handed with this.

Add a layer of the cream cheese mixture.

Repeat with the cake, sherry and cream cheese. (If you do double the cream cheese, you could do another layer of cake as you will have some left over) Dust over a generous layer of cocoa.

Leave in the fridge to do its thing until you are ready to eat.

Top with raspberries before serving.




HH

Cheesecake

I have spent my whole life thinking I didn't really like cheesecake, but secretly knowing that if I had a homemade one, that I would love it. The flavour combinations of cheesecakes always lure me in, I have spent hours looking at recipes, yet I have never made one...until now.

My little sister turned 16 last week, and as cheesecake is her favourite dessert I decided that it was the time to make it. She decided on Nigella's London Cheesecake, which I felt was a pretty good place to start.

My hand held mixer- which I borrowed several years ago from my grandma when our proper mixer died - was not happy with beating the cream cheese - making horrible screeching noises and casting off a nasty smell - but I persisted and eventually got to the lovely soft texture required. The rest went off without a hitch. After 50 minutes in the oven I added the layer of sour cream, vanilla and sugar as per the recipe. For whatever reason it didn't keep its lovely whiteness, but it was still lovely and added a nice touch.

The cheesecake was wonderful. Amazingly creamy, full of vanilla and just what I had been missing all these years! I shall be entering whole heartedly into the world of cheesecakes now, however, I may have to step it up at the gym to compensate!



HH

Profiteroles

I hate having to start these posts with an apology for how slack I have been, though I have been very slack this past few months. Apologies.

Thesis work is moving at a moderate to slow pace, and despite my asking for continuous extensions, and consistently failing to get things in on the date we agreed on, my ever patient supervisor is yet to wash her hands of me. My most recent chapter was well received, and I am trying to think about the next one. There is a moderate degree of stress building however, as my supervisor is pregnant, which is wonderful, but will be on maternity leave the semester I was planning to submit. This is a problem. I am thinking I will defer first semester next year and either go to England for a bit, or tutor a lot, but mainly work hard and try to write up and then try to submit as soon as possible after June.

In the baking world, things have been much more interesting especially since I have entered the world of creme patisserie, and am not looking back. My first effort was Nigella's chocolate meringue layer cake, of which the filling is a deliciously rich chocolate creme patisserie, and the second foray was with profiteroles. Not being familiar with choux pastry either, I made the first batch unmanageably small as I thought that they would expand more than they did, and also thought I was using a recipe that my friend said made a lot. ( I worked out a week later that I was not). The second batch were much better, though I need to work on my piping technique. The vanilla creme patisserie was beautiful, and over all I was quite pleased with my efforts. When I have more time and energy, I will revisit this new and wonderful world. I think next I will make a fruit flan.... I do love them.

HH

Poached Pears

Since my last post nothing has been done on my thesis, which is a terrible thing. The stress of having too much to do prevents you from doing anything, which compounds the stress you already feel, which in a vicious cycle, makes you do even less.

On the upside, I enjoyed, immensely, my time house sitting, getting into the Balmain lifestyle, making friends with the Gourmet Grocer, watching too much of the food channel, drinking, and having people over for dinner almost every night. My bank balance will, I am sure, be suffering for this extravagance, seeing I am only working one day a week at the moment, but, what is money when good friends and good food are to be had.

The highlights of the two weeks were a curry made with ginger, chili, turmeric, coriander, cumin and cardamon and chicken, pumpkin, and eggplant; Roast beef, which made delicious sandwiches the next day; a beef, eggplant and zucchini tagine, made with Herbie's Moroccan spice mix. I added dates and then honey at the end, it really was lovely with just the right amount of heat and fragrant spice; Moussaka, made with beef and pork mince, a bottle of white wine, beef and chicken stock, plenty of garlic, onions etc...and apart from almost dropping it on the floor as I took it out of the oven, it was amazing.

I didn't deprive my guests of dessert, and after making some more crumble topping, I made apple crumble one night, followed by mixed berry crumble the next. The berry crumble was by far the winner. I just used frozen mixed berries, a splash of vanilla, and a little brown sugar, let that sit whilst I finished dinner, and then topped it with the crumble and baked.

The overall winner, however, was poached pears. I have never made them before, and I couldn't find a recipe that I liked. Jamie's recipe wanted me to bake them in the oven, I didn't have time for that. Nigella doesn't seem to have one in the books I have, briefly looking on the BBC site, I couldn't find one that I wanted. I had, however seen Valentine Warner on his show What to Eat nowpoaching some pears, so armed with that and Jamie's recipe I proceeded.

Poached Pears:




1 Bottle of red wine
4 pears (though I could have fitted 6 or even 8 at a push)
Around a cup of caster sugar
Rind of half a lemon in thick strips
Juice of the lemon
A couple of Star Anise
A couple of Cinnamon sticks
A xouple of good slugs of vanilla
Knob of butter
Creme Fraiche

Peel the pears (slightly better than I did)
Add all the remaining ingredients to a saucepan big enough for the pears. Bring to the boil. Add the pears and cook for about 20 minutes until the pears are tender, turning the pears a couple of times if they aren't covered in the liquid. (My pears were pretty soft do didn't need a great deal of cooking). Leave to cool slightly in the warm liquid.

Divide the creme fraiche amongst the bowls. Place the pears on top. Meanwhile, reduce some of the poaching liquid, adding a bit more sugar to help sweeten and thicken it. Once reduced, add a knob of butter to make it silky and glossy. Pour over the pears and put any remaining syrup in a jug to add as you eat.




The (almost) best part of poaching the pears, however was not the delicious deep red pears, it was the remaining, unreduced poaching liquid, which I reheated, added a little more sugar to, and poured into a tall glass with a couple of shots of cointreau. Delicious, citrusy, peary, spicy mulled wine.



HH

'In the shape of some fragmented journal'

After a string of posts, I have once again become terribly slack in my blogging, and I do apologise, though I have had nothing of note to say. (perhaps I still don't).

I have finished my tutoring for this semester, all the marking is done, I just have to record the marks and haggle with my supervisor on the scaling. So this is excellent. I am now waiting, anxiously, to hear if I will be tutoring next semester. I hopefully will be doing a 20th C course, that I took when I was a first year, many moons a go. So fingers crossed.

Other points of interest were another trip to the Lord Nelson Pub where many pints were drunk, and where the pie with mushy peas (well peas that were mushed), mash and gravy was had. It was all very delicious, and Nelson enjoyed him self as well.

These pics are courtesy of my good friend Brennan




In other news, Mr A has booked his flights to Australia for a holiday in January next year. It is all very exciting and now we just have to work out our movements as he has family in Adelaide and Melbourne and go to see them before I spend a bit of time showing him round Sydney and its surrounds (and convincing him that he really wants to live here).

Finally, on the baking front, which was been relatively silent, I have made White Chocolate cheesecake cookies from Hungry and Frozen, as prompted by Foodycat. They are delicious, so creamy and tender and delicious, though I didn't enjoy them warm, patience in this case, is a virtue.



I shall try to be more diligent with the blogging, but seeing I have a chapter due in just over a week, perhaps it will have to wait. On the other hand, uni work tends to make me blog like fury, so you never know your luck!

HH

Speedy French Toast

As I mentioned, Mr A is in Paris for the Bank holiday weekend, and I am very jealous. I have taken to using google translator to write in French to one of my friends, though she started it, and I have also indulged in my newly discovered love of French Toast.

I have actually been craving it, in one form or another since Foodycat posted her delcious sounding Torrijas almost a month a go! A month is a long time to be craving something, and when the something arrives, it has big shoes to fill!!

Though I am very busy marking, I needed some down time, as well a break from sitting at my desk which is killing my back/shoulder/neck for whatever reason. I decided that last night was the time for French Toast action.

Needing to be speedy, and without enough Sherry to make Torrijas, I hastened to Speedy Nigella (Nigella Express), for her Doughnut French Toast. I didn't use thick white bread, just a normal pan loaf, and forgot to half the number of eggs, as I was only serving me, but it worked a treat. I let the bread soak for 5 minutes total, not 5 minutes a side. Delicious. Egg, vanilla and sugar. A wonderful supper.



This, however, did not satisfy my craving.

Breakfast this morning, I needed more French toast. I wanted something different, more breakfast-y. My weapon of choice, Nigella's Orange French Toast. Again I halved the recipe, remembering to only use one egg, though for the amount of bread (two pan slices)I could have used two. Now this was fantastic! Marmalade, cinnamon, egg, oranges. It was almost like Spanish Macaroons in French toast form! This was a winner, enjoyed with lots of syrup and two cups of tea. I am picturing lazy Sundays making this in my dressing gown, reading the paper and relaxing. I hope Mr A likes marmalade! (If not, ah well, more for me!)



HH

Zucchinni and Mint Fritters

In a break with tradition, my title is not a quote from Jane Austen, as I really don't have a lot to say that relates to Jane Austen, but am mainly posting because of the delicious lunch/dinner that I made myself today!

I am still in the throws of marking, though the end is nigh, sort of. Mr A is off to Paris for the Bank Holiday weekend, so I am very jealous and wish, more than ever, that I could be there too! Perhaps next year.

Back to food. I came home from work hungry as I normally do on a Saturday as I work 8-2.30 without lunch. I wanted something substantial but light at the same time, as well as being quick and easy, also making use of the zucchini's I had the the fridge. I picked up some goats cheese feta and some labneh on my way home, and decided that Zucchini and mint fritters were the order of the day. The recipe is based on one that a friend, P from mdw, posted ages ago and it has since been languishing in my "recipes I must try" folder. Today was its day.

4 small zucchini's (about 400g, grated
150 g feta, crumbled (or goats cheese, as I said I used goats cheese feta, so the best of both worlds)
Small handful grated Parmesan
Small handful of mint, finely chopped
Half an onion, grated finely
2 eggs
about 90 g plain flour
A generous amount of cracked black pepper

Combine grated zucchini with the cheeses, mint and black pepper.
Beat the eggs and add to the mix along with the flour. Mix well.

Heat oil in pan. Add heaped dessert spoon dollops of the mixture into the pan, flatten and cook about 2 minutes each side until golden.

Serve with labneh and more pepper, or they are great on their own. Freshly squeezed lemon would not go astray.
Makes 12-15 fritters.




HH

"My feelings will not be repressed"

Three times in one week! I think this is a record for me!

I had my annual review this morning, and all my anxiety regarding it was relatively unfounded, and while it wasn't "wow! you are amazing" it was good and I will consider the comments of my reader. Some of the comments were a bit strange, but she suggested I needed to take a step back from the material and not get too caught up in the story. I think the story is the best part, and I can't help feeling for them, as I am feeling some very similar things myself at the moment as the long-distance thing continues. Obviously we are not at war, and Mr A isn't fighting or even in the Navy, but the similarities are there. I have also managed to convince them that I am on track to submit next year, which is good. Now I just have to convince myself!

In more exciting things, and continuing with the chocolate theme, I made some delicious muffins earlier in the week. I have decided that they are to be called "Chocolate Brownie Muffins" as I kind of made them up.

Following a basic Muffin recipe (Plain flour, bi-carb, 2 eggs, 125 ml oil) I added 100g dark brown sugar, a block of dark chocolate, melted, a tbs milk, a few oats and a packet of dark chocolate chips. Baked for 20 min and cooled in the tin. ( I tried to take one out earlier and it wasn't firm enough). They probably would have benefited from some walnuts, but very delicious and not too sweet.



HH

" doubt not that you are an adept in the science yourself"

You will be amazed and astounded that I am keeping my promise of more regular blogging.

An overwhelming desire for chocolate and a curiosity at Just cook it'schocolate mousse, I decided to give chocolate mousse made out of only chocolate and water a go.

It worked....sort of. The chocolate didn't go grainy as the chocolate-hates-water theory suggests, but it didn't thicken either. I beat it for 40 minutes, once my arm died, with an electric beater. The texture changed, and it was full of air, so I put it in the fridge and it did get thicker. It was delicious and I will try it again for better success. I think it might have been due to my scales being unreliable and therefore getting the chocolate/water balance wrong. But still delicious and almost virtuous, it was half water after all!



HH

"A faithful promise! "

I seem to open all my posts with a disclaimer about what a slack blogger I have been and promises to improve greatly in the near future. This hopefully will be true this time as Semester (thankfully) draws to a close.

Things have been busy and tiring lately, but good. I am enjoying tutoring for the most part, and (legitimately) got to talk about Nelson in class a few weeks ago. I stopped at pulling out my Nelson figurine and placing him on the desk next to my 'nothing says "hello, sailor" quite like ruby red lipstick' pencil case. I am hoping to maintain some semblance of sanity so that the students can't claim special consideration on the grounds that I am mad.

It is annual review time this week, so while I am nervous I had a pep talk from my supervisor on Thursday and I am hoping the positive reinforcement lasts until Thursday this week.

I have incidentally been spending a lot of time on the Internet, procrastinating, but also just to give me little breaks in between marking and the like. I have therefore been reading every one's blogs, and as such was inspired today by Foodycat's most recent post to make something delicious for dinner. Out of the ingredients in the recipe I only had Haloumi, which didn't stop me. I had zucchini as a replacement for sausages and eggplant and grape tomatoes for peppers. I laid them all on the tray with two cloves of sliced garlic, a little olive oil and a good crack of black pepper. I let it all roast away for 15 minutes or so and then ate (ashamedly most of it!) with a good squeeze of lemon. Lovely!


HH

"You think it a faithful portrait undoubtedly"

I have been a bit silent of late, and I do apologise,the week "off" over Easter was greatly appreciated, though I could have done with two weeks. I am no where near where I want to be with my thesis work. Tutorials are going well however, and the feedback I have gotten from the students has been overwhelmingly positive, which is great.

Taking advantage of a lovely autumnal day we went to the Art Gallery to see the Archibalds. It was heaving with people, we had to wait in line for 10 minutes just to get tickets! The exhibition was good, though not overly profound. The highlight of the morning was seeing Bonita from Playschool in the crowd. That being said there were some very good portraits, particularly one of the little kid from Australia, that was stunning.

We then went to The Lord Nelson Pub for a pint (of real ale!!!) and lunch. We have been meaning to go here for about 5 years, and it didn't disappoint! I went for Fish and Chips and an Admiral's Ale, which was delicious, I am very much looking forward to going back there when I don't have to drive home and having several pints. It is a lovely pub though, and I am curious about the accommodation too. I am scheming for when Mr. A comes out to visit, it might be a nice place to stay for a weekend.

On the baking front, it has been also been a bit silent, or at least not worthy of photography. I did make some more choc-chip cookies, like the ones I made previously, but they turned out so different as I left out about 90 g of flour for oats. They were much crunchier, though equally delicious. I will make another batch tonight I think. I made ANZAC's too, but they weren't quite right. I think they needed more golden syrup. I will try again.

My Annual review paper is due in about 3 weeks. I haven't done it and I don't want to think about it. The panel is pretty nasty, and it isn't a stretch to say I am very nervous and anxious about the whole thing. Fingers crossed they don't hate me. Perhaps baking to soften them up might be the way to go!?

Ah well, better go and do some of the work that I have been putting off.

HH