Books: Cooking For Geeks
I got this bad boy as a belated Christmas present from my big brother (see here why it was late), but I can confidently proclaim: it was well worth the wait.
This weighty tome from Jeff Potter looks like a text book, but dear lord, if all my text books were this readable, I would have read them all cover to cover by now.
Cooking For Geeks is made up of some science, some “hacks”, some interviews, and tonnes of little nuggets of fascinating facts.
Maybe you’ll love it for the recipes (whilst I haven’t yet tried any, they all sound amazing). Maybe you’ll love it for the miracle berries, or many of the other weird and wonderful additives (which sound AMAZING and I must experiment). Maybe you’ll love it for the stupidly dangerous over-clocked oven (pizza cooked in 45 seconds, anyone?).
If you’re me, you’ll surprise yourself by finding the section on pathogens the most interesting.
The only annoying thing is probably the fact that this book is written by an American, for Americans. Broiling? Seriously? It’s a grill. Also, the references to the FSA make you wonder about our own, British food standards. Must…do further research…
But the problems presented by that fact are minimal. Far too small a problem to detract from the pure joy that is getting immersed into the strange and wonderful world of geeky cooking. Yay!
There is also a Cooking For Geeks website to accompany the book. Double win.
Food: Homemade Pizza
Everyone loves pizza (not true actually, I have a couple of friends who have declared a hatred of the stuff). OK, pizza is a good fall-back meal. But some pizzas are better than others. We all have our favourite toppings (I LOVE capers and the odd anchovy. Ben is a meat fiend).
And is it just me, or are takeaway pizzas getting really expensive? Hmm.
There is something really satisfying about making your own pizzas (from scratch, I mean, dough and all). You can control the thickness of the base, load on whatever and as many toppings as you like, and get creative with stuffed crusts if you’re feeling brave.
Pizza is REALLY EASY TO MAKE. Please don’t be afraid – don’t be fooled, it’s really straight forward. Here, I’ll show you…
You will need:
- 250ml warm water
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons dried yeast
- 375g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Whatever toppings your heart desires
MAKE IT, GODDAMNIT!
- In a small jug, mix the water with the sugar an yeast. Yay, yeast! It stinks like stale beer, but it’s aliiiiive. Let the mixture stand in a warm place (in the sun, or on top of the tumble dryer (on) are good ones) for about 10 mins to let it froth a bit
- Pour the yeasty water into a bowl with the floor and salt, and hand mix until combines. Splat the dough out onto a clean, floured surface, and knead it for another 10 mins. This is very therapeutic. Imagine it’s someone’s face (someone you don’t like, ideally).
- Pop the dough into an oiled bowl, and cover with a damp tea-towel. Leave in a warm place (airing cupboard? Above a radiator? Just not under a cat) for about an hour. It’ll double in size – very exciting!
- While the dough is expanding and expanding in all of the directions it can whizz, prepare your toppings. Certain things will need pre-cooking – mushrooms, onions for example. But peppers, capers, cheese, deli meats, sweetcorn will all be fine. Use your intuition
- When the dough is nearly ready, preheat your oven to about 200 degrees C.
- Your dough will make two decently sized pizzas (or one ENORMOUS one). So out onto a tray it goes (half or all of the dough, depending on how many pizzas you want), squish squish til it’s your desired thickness. There is little science to this.
- Put on your toppings! I advise a base of tomato purée or something similar – passata, pesto are both good too. But why not try gentleman’s relish, or Marmite if you’re brave (it’ll be damn salty)? I like to put cheese on last of all, as it goes all melty over the top and prevents some of the other toppings from burning.
- In the oven for 15 mins
- EAT.
Other topping ideas -
- Try different cheeses – not just mozarella, but how about feta, brie, or your other favourite cheese?
- PEAS. I <3 peas so hard.
- Olives, ofc.
- Try different cured meats - pepperoni is not the only option. Parma ham, thinly sliced chorizo, sliced bratwurst all work well.
- Sun-blushed tomatoes make a nice change from “normal” ones.
- Pineapple isn’t the only fruit. Srsly. Try figs.
- CRACK AN EGG ON IT. OMG this is one of my favourites. But please be aware that you may have to bake the pizza a lot longer (and in a less hot oven) to cook it nicely through. Maybe you want to fry the egg in a pan and just dump it on the cooked pizza?
Food: Crab Cakes
Remember when I made that giant bread-based monstrosity? Yeeess…. I had a lot of bread innards left over.
Well, I did what I promised – I chucked them in a blender, and made fresh breadcrumbs. And then, looking in the cupboard, I spied a tin of crab meat. Oh ho! I said – crabcakes!
A recent trip to Sainsbury’s and a strange craving meant that I also had a jar of capers in the fridge – adds a nice tang to crabcakes. So here we go -
You will need:
- One tin of white crab meat (approx. 120-140g)
- 75g white breadcrumbs
- A dozen or so capers, roughly chopped
- 4/5 spring onions, finely sliced
- A tablespoon of mayo
- One medium egg, beaten
- A splash of lemon juice
- Half a teaspoon of chilli powder (or more, if you’re “well ‘ard”)
- Oil for frying – you choose
Cookin’ time!
- This is fairly straight-forward – mix everything (except the oil, obv.) in a bowl. You can add other stuff if you fancy – garlic, lemongrass paste, grated ginger – be imaginative.
- Heat a splash of oil in a pan.
- Form the crabcake mix into small balls – I managed to get 10 out of this recipe, but you could do 8, slightly larger balls.
- Pop them in the pan and push them down slightly with the back of a spoon/spatula, to make them into cakes.
- Fry them over a medium-high heat for about 5-10 mins each side – you’ll have to use your intuition for this. They should be golden brown, but a couple of mine were more on the crispy/black side. Still nommy though.
- Serve on a bed of salad, and drizzle with your sauce of choice. Personally, I only had plain lettuce and ketchup. C’est la vie. They were awesome.
Food: Paxton’s Tower Lodge
Well, I promised you a post devoted to the food I made on our holiday, so here we are.
WARNING: CONTAINS MEAT. Please turn away if you are a vegetarian, vegan, or just a bit squeamish.
Whilst we ate a lot of junk (mainly sausage sandwiches, crisps, service station chocolate, and the metre of Jaffa cakes that Ben’s nephew & niece gave him for Christmas), there were a couple of beautiful creations, made by my own fair hands. OK, those were also fatty piles of calories, but hey, we were on holiday, and it was cold!
First up, I made my own spin on eggs Benedict. So much a spin, in fact, that you can’t really call them eggs Benedict. An English muffin, a slice of fried middle bacon, a fried egg, and a glob of creamy parsley sauce. We had three each (champion!! Did not need to eat anything until 9pm that evening)
OK, looking at that, I do feel a leeeettle bit sick. But they were amazing, I swear to god.
But let’s cut to the chase: there is only one real reason I wanted to write this post, and that reason is PIE.
I did, in fact, make the pie of a lifetime. Ben says it was the best thing I’ve ever cooked, and I will have a hard time EVER topping it. This makes me a happy housecat. But what made it so good? It all comes down to Kennington farmers’ market…
Every weekend, there is a farmers’ market outside the big church in Kennington, and just down the road lies FWR, the bike shop where Ben gets all his bike repairs done. So, one afternoon, nearly a year ago now, Ben was in Kennington having has bike looked at, and he decided to pop to the farmers market. Needless to say, he came home with three pheasants, a duck and a rabbit. Thankfully, they were all plucked and gutted.
Well, two of the pheasants met their end in the oven over the following weeks, but the final pheasant, and his two other woodland friends, remained in the freezer for many months. Then, a couple of months ago, I decided enough was enough, and chopped them into little bits.
Let it be known that I would be a pretty poor butcher.
However, I’d make a fairly awesome pie chef. I fried up the chunks of game with some cubes of black pudding, then threw in some roughly chopped garlic, a glass of red wine, a good glob of chilli jam and about half a pint of gravy (just for good measure). I let the gamey stew simmer away for about 2 hours, tasting and throwing in herby loveliness along the way. And then? I stuck it in a tupperware box and straight back in the freezer. D’oh.
But then Paxton’s lodge came around. I packed my tupperware box of game stew and a roll of puff pastry (ready made – what do you think I am?!) and on our last night at the cottage, it was only an hour of preparation until pie loveliness. I kept singing “I don’t think you’re ready for this pieee” at Ben (in the style of Destiny’s Child, as you do), which may have gotten annoying, but there we are.
Before pie could be assembled, of course I needed to make some sides. I had some basic ingredients at my disposal, so peeled some potatoes and carrots, and boiled them separately. The potatoes went straight into a tray of hot duck fat, and into the oven at about 180 degrees C. The carrots went into a roasting tin, with “rustically” chopped brown onions, a whole bulb’s worth of peeled garlic cloves, some chopped chillis and lashings of olive oil. That tin went in alongside the potatoes.
And now, the piece de la thingy, Landmark Pie. Easily done: big glass dish, pie filling in, topped with puff pastry. I pricked the top with a fork to let some steam out (as you do). Into the oven. 45 minutes later, this is what we were left with:
Think all that is too much for two people?
Think again.
This pie was nearly a year in the making. Truly epic. I miss it already.
The diet starts today.
Food: Chicken and veg stir fry
OK, it’s now party season. Which means you’ll be going to work Christmas dinners, buffet parties, drinking a lot of booze and piling on the calories. It’s fine. We expect to put on some weight in the winter (and fair enough too – it’s cold!) But I wasn’t expecting to put quite so much insulation on quite so soon – part of it has to do with Saturday’s fantastic hog roast wedding buffet. Part of it has to do with the fact the I LOVE FOOD
But fear not! I know, partying has left your wallets tight and your waistbands tighter, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. When you’re not out painting the town red, food can still be delicious AND low fat. Here’s one meal I whipped up yesterday and LOVED.
You will need:
- One lonely chicken breast, diced
- 25g butter
- 3 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
- 1 bunch of spring onions, sliced finely
- half a cup of orange juice
- 2 teaspoons of cornflour
- 280g sliced runner beans
- 160g tender vegetable mix
You can add more veg for extra bulk if you like, but I really liked the balance that the above provided.
Cooks away!
- Heat the butter in a wok. I just use a large frying pan (my wok has died through over use). Enjoy the smell of molten butter.
- Chuck in the chicken and splash with a little of the soy sauce (not all of it). This will add colour to the chicken, yay!
- Cook for about 5 mins until the chicken is nicely browned
- Chuck in your bean & tender veg and half the spring onions, and cook for a few more minutes
- Mix the cornflour, the remaining soy sauce and the orange juice in a cup until smooth, then chuck over your stir fry, stirring until thickened.
- Scatter over the rest of your spring onions, and TAADAAAA! Stir fry.
- Serve with rice or noodles if you fancy. Will comfortably feed 3, might feed 4 if you bulk with more veg.
Enjoy 
Image credits: cancerbattlefield.com
100!
I made it. This is officially my 100th blog post. I have managed to blog every day since mid-September, and nearly all my posts have been useful or interesting (yes? No?)
This has come at a perfect time as well, because today I need to concentrate all my efforts on finishing a lab report that I have barely started – so I thought today’s post could be a good excuse to do a bit of a round up of the last few months. And share some pretty pictures, yay!
Well, on the topic of my lab report: the most obvious milestone for me in the last few months has been starting my Psychology MSc. Since then, it has been non-stop – most of it fun, a lot of it stressful but all of it fascinating.
Unfortunately, starting my MSc has meant that I’ve had to leave some things behind, such as my beloved Horniman museum, but I still get a chance to go back and visit. And of course, there are little reminders of the Horniman all around me…
I haven’t lost all my fun though: I still sing quite frequently, and even got a couple of double bass concerts in this season (although one had to be cancelled last week due to snow). I managed to go clubbing once or twice, did a lot of cooking and baking, and had several wonderful meals out (including finally trying out Time&Space for Ben’s birthday).
I have to interrupt myself briefly, just to say that doing this round up is making me realise that I have actually been quite busy over the last few months, which is reassuring and also quite emotional. Ignore me.
I have been to visit friends, I have had friends come to stay with me, I have been to soooo many extra-curricular lectures, and had wonderful cultural days out. I even had a silly day out sledding with Ben when the snow hit.
In amongst all the shenannagins of having my brain scanned but not zapped, all the cocktails and the pottery painting, and even my first trek to IKEA via public transport, I have still managed to sit back and relax.
I have read a huge amount (by my usual standards) of books this year (so far! I aim to read a few more before 2010 is out) – 37 is the count so far, and that’s excluding all the text books and journal articles I’ve had to read for uni. I’ve dabbled with Kesey, Banks, Parker, a very special seagull, and then a whole bunch of NON-fiction (madness!) – Music from Sacks and Levitin, Language with Pinker, Neuropsych with Broks and a mammoth book on depression.
I’ve been busy, you’ve been busy – we’ve all been busy bunnies. Maybe it’s time to chill out and enjoy the holiday season? I have a wedding to go to this weekend (my eldest brother got married in August, and now it’s my other brother’s turn!), and that pretty much heralds the time for festivities. I best get this lab report out of the way, then…
Thanks for indulging me – it’s been a fun 100 posts. Here’s to many more!
Food: Lazy Brunch
I had a conversation with Angharad recently about scrambled eggs. I have no idea what brought us to this topic, but we got there. She said that she could never be bothered with scrambled egg first thing in the morning, so was surprised to hear that I make scrambled egg, fuss free, in the microwave. As I briefly related the recipe, she declared that she was coming to mine for breakfast.
I have just had a helping of said scrambled eggs – long day today, I’m not feeling top notch, so I thought a hearty breakfast was in order.
What’s the secret? Well, this time, you get to thank my Pa! He used to make scrambled egg like this for me when I was a kid, and I’ve been making it this way ever since. Thanks, Pa
You will need:
- 2 eggs (per person)
- A handful of grated cheese – mature cheddar works best, but please feel free to improvise
- A splash of milk
- Some ground black pepper
- Mustard – use as much as you are happy with. I use Coleman’s mustard powder, but any mustard would do. I guess you could use chilli if you prefer, or wasabi paste if you’re mental
- TOAST
The beans are optional. My dad used to do scrambled eggs on ham on toast, but I have no ham in the fridge. I assume you know how to heat up beans. I add some curry powder for “pep” but again, this is entirely optional. You know what you like, eh?
Cooks away!
- I start by heating up the beans in the microwave – they stay hot long enough, and I only have the one microwave (dunno about you)
- Whilst the beans are on the go, crack your eggs into a pyrex jug (or other microwaveable container). Throw in the pepper, mustard, milk, cheese, and whatever you fancy for “pep”, and mix it all together thoroughly (a fork works best for this)
- Once the beans have “pinged”, take them out and pop them to one side. Put your jug of egg mixture in for one minute on full power (and stick your bread in the toaster)
- Give the eggs another good stir with the fork to break them up, then back in for another minute
- This may be enough – give the eggs another stir (they’ll continue to cook under their own heat). If you are worried that they’re still to runny (you might have used large eggs, or are a wuss) then pop them in for another 20 seconds or so
- Toast, beans, egg, VOILÀ.
Enjoy. That didn’t take long, did it?
Food: Cooking lamb by wine-light
Nigella, eat your heart out. I, too, can raid the fridge of random bits and produce tasty loveliness.
Yea, I can throw stuff in a pan and get something edible out of it, too. Usually, I just make up stir fries, or on the odd occasion, I might follow some convoluted recipe (which turns out ok, but it was way too much work, so we won’t do it again, will we darling?) But, add wine, and I suddenly get this mad belief that I am a Really Good Cook. When I am in one of these moods, I will cook something a bit more Mad, and it will probably take several hours. But you know what? I can vaguely remember what happened on Wednesday night, so perhaps you want a glass of wine right now, and you fancy giving it a go, too…
Wine Inspired Lamb Tagine. Thing.
You will (probably) need:
- 3 or 4 boneless lamb chops – diced
- 1 large brown onion – finely diced
- 5 cloves of garlic – finely diced, or even minced if you like mincing (loool)
- A good tbsp of Lebanese 7 spice
- Some red chilli flakes – as with all my recipes, use as much as you’re comfortable with
- 5 of those frozen spinach “pellets”
- 1 red pepper – diced
- A handful of shredded cabbage
- A handful of red grapes
- A large glass of red wine – you’re allowed to drink the rest of the bottle
Let me explain how this came about (aside from the wine thing) – I am not much of an eater of fruit. I have just never gotten on with fruit that well. I don’t get the urge to eat fruit. Some is too much of a fight (oranges are a prime example) and most of it can mislead you – like the one sour grape in the bunch being enough to put you off all of the rest. But I keep trying to incorporate it into my diet – I buy fruit and mostly eat it. However, I have been carrying around the same box of grapes for over a week now. And I hate throwing fruit out. So, I thought to incorporate them into something I DO like: a hot meal.
OK, anyway:
Cooks away!
- Heat some oil in a big ol’ pan, then throw in the lamb, onion, garlic and Lebanese spice. Jostle it in the pan a bit, so the meat and onion is thoroughly covered in spice. Brown off the meat (brown is good!) for about… Oh, I have no idea. Some minutes.
- Add in a your chilli – as much or as little as you like. Again, jostle. Hurrah!
- Chuck in the grapes – give the pan a good shake and cook for about another 5 mins
- Pour over that big glass of wine. Hopefully, you didn’t drink it. Come on – you had the rest of the bottle for that! Sheesh. Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer, and go off and do something else. I actually forgot about the stew at this point, and read my book for about an hour, I think. I’d advise giving it the occasional stir. If it looks a bit dry, pour on more wine or some stock.
- Right, once you’re bored/super hungry/think the lamb might be tender enough, throw in the frozen spinach. You’ll obviously need to cook further until this has thawed out.
- Throw in the cabbage and the red pepper, and cook for a further 5 minutes, so that the cabbage is wilted and the whole thing is heated through.
- Serve with rice. Yay!!
If I do any more drunken cooking, I’ll let you know. If it’s good of course. If I don’t burn things. Yay!
Image credits: anaemic photo of food is very much my own
Food: Nasi Goreng
OK, don’t think I’m escaping hard blogging by just posting up another recipe. You like my recipes, right? I’m a miserly student, so my food is mostly cost-effective. But I love food, so it’s mostly tasty, too! Double whammy of greatness.
So, why another recipe, so soon? It’s because I am so terribly busy, me. OK, not strictly true. I’d probably be less “busy” if I used my time more effectively, rather than floating in and out of tasks, via Facebook and Twitter (this problem needs addressing). Also, could someone bless me with the ability to read quickly?
Anyway, on to the food. This is another store cupboard miracle – you don’t to follow the recipe exactly, just throw in veggies that you’ve got clogging up the fridge. And if, like me, you like meat in stuff: go on, be my guest, chuck some in.
You will need:
- 300g long grain rice (you can use left over rice from last night’s take away if you really fancy. Gwaaaan…)
- 2 eggs, beaten (so tempting to try this with big ol’ goose eggs!)
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 onions, sliced finely
- 2 red chillis, thinly sliced – although temper it to your tastes, by all means
- 1 sweet pepper – yellow or red, simply because I don’t like green ones
- 2 medium sized carrots, julienned (ok, cut them into matchsticks. I use my mandoline!)
- 4 spring onions, shredded
Make it!
- OK, this has become my most favouritist way to make rice. Stick your rice into a wok (or deep frying pan), and pour on a pint of water. Bring it to the boil, then let it cook away on a simmer until all the water has been absorbed. Then, simply turn out onto a plate and allow it to cool.
- Next up, heat a splash of cooking oil in your wok (it’s fine if there’s still a few grains of rice in there – won’t kill you. Don’t bother using a clean wok – just makes more washing up later)
- Pour your eggs in, and scramble them. Take them out and set them aside.
- You have a blender, right? If not, no problem – just chop stuff finely. But if you DO have a blender (or pestle&mortar, I guess) whizz up the garlic together with half your chilli and half your onion into a paste.
- Heat another splash of oil in the wok (again) and fry your paste for about a minute.
- Add the rest of your onion, chilli and vegetables (except the spring onions) and stir fry for about 2 minutes.
- Chuck in your rice and stir fry for another 3 minutes.
- Stir in a good glob of proper dark soy sauce, your spring onions and the egg, then fry a bit more until it’s heated right through.
- Eat it quick, before someone else asks for some! Should serve two, but I’m pretty certain I could eat the lot on my own.
Food: Maccheroni con la Salsiccia e le Carote
Aren’t I good to you? You can (once again) thank my Mama for this. She cooks ALL the best food. This recipe is one of my absolute all time favourites, and is a wonderful “store cupboard” recipe.
Macaroni with Sausage Meat and Carrots
You will need:
- 225gr. good sausages (the herbier and spicier, the better)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 carrots, grated
- 1 can of chopped tomatoes
- 1 small can of tomato purée
- 110ml chicken or beef stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 350g macaroni or other pasta
- 75g grated parmesan or mature cheddar
- Seasoning to taste (chilli might be fun – be creative)
Make it!
- Slit down the side of the sausages and remove the meat – I’m aware that you can buy sausage meat loose, or pork mince might do, but there are so many nicely flavoured sausages out there (and they are CHEAP)
- Heat the oil and cook the onion gently until translucent
- Add the sausagemeat and lightly brown, breaking it up with a spatula
- Add the carrots, tomatoes and tomato purée, stock, bay leaf and oregano and cook covered over a low heat for 30 min
- Taste for seasoning. You may decide you want it to be garlicky, or super spicy, or whatever. The joy of cooking it that you can always make it the hell up
- Cook and drain the pasta and mix with the sauce
- Serve with the grated cheese, baby
Yet another one of those easy recipes that you can make tonnes of and send you boyfriend to work with. Isn’t tupperware great?
Toasted cheese-on-toast cheese bagel
A bit of a cop-out comedy post today, simply because I’m about to set off for the day to galavant about town with one of my old school friends (who I haven’t seen for about 3 years!)
So, what’s this? Ben and his dinner last night?
He looks way too happy. What is that? It can’t be healthy if he’s that pleased. And he made it himself…
That’s right folks. It’s cheese on toast, in a bagel. Ben will eat anything in a sandwich. Even if it’s another sandwich. Scratch that, ESPECIALLY if it’s another sandwich.
It’s so wrong. So very wrong.
But it does look tasty…
Baking with dinosaurs
A full English breakfast is an excellent remedy to a night out – well, we didn’t really drink much (I think I had one alcoholic drink actually at the club!) but it’s nice to have a fry up nonetheless. I made a breakfast of KINGS (everything I make is “of kings” damnit) for my house guests: it had pretty much everything. Bacon, black pudding, beans… Other things. I even attempted fried bread, and Sas and Ben ate it, so it must have been ok.
And then? Well, Sas and I did some baking. Well, Sas did all the hard work: she is a champion biscuit maker. I thrust recipes upon her, and dough she did mix.
Unfortunately, the first dough we made needed 2-3 hours in the fridge before cutting. We’re impatient, so we made another dough that could be cut faster. This dough is for my mum’s “Valentine or Swedish Hanging Biscuits”. Mum doesn’t really like the taste of them (I do!) but they are robust enough to be threaded onto ribbon and hung on the Christmas tree, and last for weeks without going stale.
Oh, you want to make some? Fair enough…
You will need:
- 230g margarine (I used unsalted butter. I always do. Feel free to do so also)
- 230g dark brown sugar
- 2 egg whites
- 450g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
- pinch of ground cloves
OK, you know what? With the spices, be inventive. If you want vanilla biscuits, be my guest. My mum put “ginger optional” on the recipe, but didn’t say how much. I really don’t think it matters too much. I don’t have any ground cinnamon for example (I sent Ben out to buy cinnamon, and sticks are fine by him, apparently), so I used a combination of “mixed spices”, ground nutmeg and ground cloves. Measurements were very approximate.
Make them!
- Cream the margarine/butter and sugar together
- Beat in the egg white
- Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl (I have no sieve. They turned out fine. You figure it out)
- Add a little at a time to the creamed mixture and blend together well to make a dough (if it was me mixing, I would have lumped in all the flour and gone mixing mad. Sas was very good and methodical and followed the instructions. It depends how patient you are)
- Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge (the dough that is) for 30 minutes (or freezer for 10 minutes – WE DID THIS
) - Preheat the oven! 180C
- Roll out the dough onto a floured surface, about 5mm thick (my biscuits varied so much from batch to batch. They all taste awesome)
- Use cookie cutters to cut out your biscuits and pop them on a baking tray. If you want to make hanging biscuits, now would be the time to use a drinking straw to pop a hole near the top of the biscuit.
- Pop into the oven for 10 – 12 minutes
- Allow to cool, and then DECORATE
My mum says this will make about 30 biscuits. I have no idea. I didn’t count.
So… How did we get on? Well, I have a variety of cutters (not as many as I want though!) including woodland critters from IKEA and dinosaurs from the Natural History Museum
We went bonkers. We made buttercream icing, and applied liberally to the biscuits like a couple of sugar hungry children. And after we were done? We ate the rest of the icing.
MAGIC.
Just a small selection of our efforts. Sas and Matt took a box of animals home to enjoy
And what’s that on the bottom left? OH YES. IT’S A FOX.
You need to get baking. What are you still doing here?
Food: The salmon with clout
As opposed to the salmon of doubt. See what I did there?
I’ve been at my mum’s again. She is still trying to offload courgettes on me (I’m not complaining), so lunch was another round of the previously featured courgette gratin.
But this time, I had another one of her ingenious creations alongside it. Ichthyophobes look away now: I had baked salmon fillet wrapped in parma ham.
This is a very easy way to perk up salmon. Not that salmon particularly needs perking, but sometimes it’s nice to give something a simple twist, to mix things up a bit.
Want it? It’s unbelievably simple. And I’ll even throw in some suitable side dishes, if for some bizarre reason you don’t fancy courgette gratin. I apologise for the vagueness of this recipe – I do not write recipes for a living. Go with your gut, I guess.
You will need:
- One salmon fillet per person (I don’t know – as big as you like it to be, although if it’s REALLY big bear in mind you will have to cook them longer)
- One slice of parma ham per person
- Some potatoes for MASHIN’
- A jar of green pesto (or make your own, if you’ve got time to kill – personally, I do not)
- Olive oil
- A punnet of cherry tomatoes
- Sooooome herbs. Herbs de provence maybe? Whatever tickle your fancy.
Make it!
- OK, before you turn on the oven, you need a shallow overproof dish. Tip in the cherry tomatoes (just a single layer – don’t pile them), slosh over olive oil (enough to coat them) and sprinkle on some herbs for FLAVA.
- Now, bung the toms in the oven, and whack it up to 190C – it’s ok, you weren’t MEANT to reheat it. Trust me.
- Whilst the oven is heating up (with the toms in it), wrap your salmon fillet in a slice of parma ham. Do this as many times as you need servings. Put the fillet(s) on a baking tray, and once the oven has actually REACHED 190C, pop the salmon in
- The salmon will take about 25mins to cook through, which is about the same amount of extra time the toms need. Perfect.
- Whilst the salmon and toms are cooking, make up your mash. Any method will do, I really don’t care. Whatever makes good mash for you. Try not to add TOO much cream/butter/whatever, because once the mash is made…
- Add pesto to it! This makes green mash. What not to love? The amount of pesto you use depends on how much mash you’ve made. Just keep adding until it’s beautifully green and tastes nommy. Pesto is no bad thing.
- Once you’re done, the toms will be lovely and mooshy and the parma ham will be lovely and crisp. Dish up, and put some more pesto on you salmon – trust me.
- BEAR IN MIND that the toms WILL be volcanically hot. What is it with my mum making food that BURNS you? Oh well. It’s delicious.
Enjoy. It’s ok – you don’t have to thank me
Don’t like fish? Try it with chicken I guess. I have no idea how long it’d take to cook. You might want to check the net for a recipe for that… Hmm.
Food: Zucchini fun
Who has ever grown their own vegetables? It’s very satisfying. Unfortunately, in our current flat, there is simply no space to grow anything (I don’t care what Jamie Oliver says – I am not growing tomatoes on my window sill). But my mum’s situation is a different story – she lives in gorgeous Sussex, and whilst she had a “town house”, she has an enormous garden. It’s full of fruit trees, berry crops and a large vegetable patch. I’m fairly sure that she could quite happily live without ever buying any fruit and veg. As my dad works abroad and my brothers and I have all moved out, she produces more fruit and veg than she could ever eat by herself.
(OK, not a photo of my mum’s garden – just another gratuitous photo of her gorgeous lurcher puppy, Dusky.)
Fruit is fine – my mum’s basement is crammed with jars of homemade jams. Veg is a little more tricky – certain veg freezes or pickles really well, but for things like courgettes (or zucchinis as they’re sometimes known) this isn’t really the best option. Another issue with courgettes, as many veg gardeners will know, is that you don’t just get one or two: you end up with dozens on each plant.
So, about this time of year, every time I visit my mum, she has a massive pot of courgette soup on the go, has courgettes for me to take home with me, and then cooks me something with courgettes as the headline act for supper.
My mum has been kind enough to share her recipe for courgette gratin with me, and I in turn am passing it on to you! This can be used as a side dish (yesterday, I got it with tuna steak and chips) or can quite happily stand alone as a main meal.
COURGETTE AND TOMATOES AU GRATIN
- Courgettes (sliced) – I imagine 2 or 3 should be fine
- Olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic
- Grated cheese (Mozarella or Cheddar)
- 4 large tomatoes (sliced)
- Grated Parmesan
- 2 eggs
- Salt and pepper if required
Pick a good quality cheese as this definitely changes the whole flavour of the dish. I’m sure you can use some different cheeses if you like: get creative. Brie tempts me, always. Or maybe Bavarian smoked cheese.
As for quantities: use your initiative when decided how much cheese to use in the dish. You need enough for layers in between your veg
Make it:
- Preheat oven to 190C.
- Arrange layers of sliced courgette, tomatoes and grated cheese in an ovenproof dish (layer it up a bit like a lasagne – courgette, tomato, cheese, courgette, tomato, cheese… until your dish is full!)
- Sprinkle top with Parmesan and ground black pepper. I think the cheese in this dish makes added salt unnecessary – I rarely ever add salt to my cooking. However, pepper is good in pretty much everything!
- Bake in oven for 30 mins.
- Beat the eggs and pour over the top of the courgette and tomato – it should distribute nicely throughout the dish, but don’t worry if it pools a bit. You might want to give it a gentle shake to encourage it down through the different layers.
- Put it back in oven for another 10-15 mins. And you’re done! Be aware that your dish will be VOLCANICALLY hot. Cheese has a habit of holding heat that is only matched by potato. So, you have been warn. Dish up, but mind your tongue!
