My New Gadget

Today I got a metal potato ricer which, just in case your wondering, is the best thing since sliced bread!  I am loving it.  Now I too can have silken potatoes and no longer will the mash that I envy so much be only the domain of others. 

Of course given it is only my first time using it, (not that you'd think it should be difficult) I managed to under cook my potatoes and so have ended up with slightly grainy mash.  Perhaps some more butter/milk/cream will sort it.  But not to worry, I'll get it right next time.

An Empty Fridge

I have just been reading Trish Deseine's blog 'Feeding my World' and she was talking about getting your kids used to seeing an empty fridge, unfortunately mine are only all too used to it.  And the reason is this, I plan ahead with weekly meal plans.  As organised as it might seem, the fridge only looks full for so long and not as long as you might think.  I do my best not to buy too much quick gratification food stuffs.  Firstly because they are expensive and secondly because they never last long - hence quick gratification.  Although the kids tend to kibosh me regularly with demands for crisps, I try to ignore their pleas but even I know what simple pleasure a packet of crisps can give you!  

As always with me its onwards and upwards and so I am trying to teach myself to be a better cook.  I can't afford an intensive year long course as much as I would love it.  I have an awful lot of cookbooks on a variety of topics and my thinking is, if I have to make thing's from scratch then my understanding will be greater and hopefully my food will taste better.  Thanks to Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills of Cooking my chicken stock is knockout and a brilliant base for my soups and sauces.  Last weekend I got 5 chicken carcass's from the butcher for 50p, so there really is no excuse.  I don't add any salt into the stock base as advised by Darina, enough will get added in later.  A good vegi option is Kerstin Rodgers vegetable stock from her Supper Club cook book.  She adds in garlic cloves which I think raises the stock up a level.

 Homemade chicken stock

Too Chicken?

Happy New Year to one and all.  I haven't been in the mood to write for a while, Christmas had me cream crackered what with driving to Ireland to collect my mother, stopping off at my friends house in Kildare for a catch up drink which never ends that well for my head but I always enjoy.  Then driving back to London again.  Obviously not all in the same day but still, its tiring.

Yesterday I got a call from a chap up the road who was going shooting and wondered if I would like a bird once the day was over.  Even though I agree that it is wrong to kill a bird for sport and then not eat it, I did have difficulty with the fact that I would have to pluck the thing and I think that that was a bridge too far for me.  On this years Masterchef they had to pluck a pigeon prior to trussing it and how badly some of them did it was just upsetting!  I wouldn't want to do a disservice to the creature.  By the end of the conversation it was agreed that if the butcher took a few from him I would pay to have it plucked and the innards taken out.  So as it turns out I am too chicken to pluck a bird!

Scandilicious Krumkaker

An afternoon of making and baking - now what to make?  Scandilicious has a recipe for Norwegian Kurmkaker (cornets)  I think. I had a look to see what a cornet iron looked like, for some reason thinking it would look something like a clothes iron but longer.  It doesn't.  Rather it is an electric round press, more like a Tortilla Press.

I have been holding off making these cornets, as I couldn't be bothered to make the template.  I wrongly assumed it would take more time than the 2 minutes it actually did.  They turned out really well and taste really good although it did take me a couple of goes to get the shape going.  Now I can impress the Norwegian lot - well the kids mainly - when I see them again in the new year.

 Template and batter discs prior to cooking.

Disc's prior to rolling - if you don't do it when hot they crack as they roll.

 Finished cornets with homemade blackberry icecream, not too bad for a first go.

The Lighthouse Bakery

What a trip.  I got lost twice and it took me over an hour more than I had anticipated to get there.  Got myself into such a state I was actually screaming in the car at my own stupidity - I haven't done that before!  When I did finally arrive they had only just finished their talk about breads and the practical bit was starting.

We were taught by the lovely Liz.  She had a good way with people and had everyone at their ease very quickly getting everyone smiling and chatting.  All the starters had been made that morning, at about 2am or something ridiculous, and were ready for us to use in our wonderful bread creations.  I learnt how to get a tight form for my dough and actually its the dough I should spray to get a nice crust on my bread hence, I am not going to bother spraying the inside of the oven again.

Lunch was a great mushroom risotto with our first batch of bread rolls and salad for lunch.
We left with enough bread to feed an army.  I think we came away with 6 types of bread each, a cottage loaf, wholemeal loaf, epis, baguette, caraway loaf and some other loaf which I can't remember the name of.
I do feel like I bought the shop out, but I had only bought what I felt I needed and no more, a (very heavy) baking stone, a lame (a handled razor blade to slash the dough), a lined proving basket and couches.  It was great fun and I feel like my bread will be improved, so now all I have to do is put it all into practice. 

 A selection of loaves

Liz with our cottage loaves

Once I got home and showed off my breads to the fam.  The girl ate the epis, a baguette which has been snipped and twisted prior to baking to look like a shaft of wheat.  With the baguette I made a quick sandwich for myself and the hubby with fried off cured ham, tomatoes, onions, thinly sliced red pepper and drizzled with olive oil not forgetting the seasoning.  I toasted the slices of bread on the griddle & rubbed on some garlic clove.  To give it some heat I smeared on some of my homemade hot chilli jam - not too much, its hot stuff. And wha-la a very delicious end of day fix.  Although, not quite enough to fill the hubby, who then proceeded to have some of the wholemeal bread with smoked salmon as a chaser.  Needless to say lots of bread left over and to the freezer it shall go.

Carb on Carb

Just a quickie - yesterday I was so hungry that I knew just eating Spaghetti Bolongnaise wouldn't fill me.  It had to be made into a sandwich.  Nothing fancy just plain bread and butter, but boy was it delicious and filling.

I had already eaten the first before I took a breath to take a picture.

Yum, yum, in my tum!!

MsMarmite's Underground Farmers Market

Had a great time being chief person stamper at MsMarmite's market's over the weekend.  Friday night was great fun and more importantly it didn't rain.   I was on the door with Colin and Jane who were brill and really good craic.  Seemingly I managed to get a little bit blotto, something to do with Alexander coffee's and fancy cocktails, there might also have been a bottle of wine in there somewhere.  I do know that I wandered home with not a donner kebab tucked under my arm but, a very tasty Fosse Meadows Farm rotisserie chicken - it was delicious!  As Fosse Farm says "Happy chickens are tasty chickens", a bit more expensive but worth it.  I usually buy my chickens free range from the butcher, but I like the thought of knowing a bit more about the provenience of the bird.  The Fosse guys have a stall at the Sunday market in Queens Park, so that's where I shall be venturing to get my chicken in future - shush don't tell my butcher!!!!!

It never ceases to amaze me, who comes to these events.  People I think, enjoy the subversive note it has while being within the law, being part of that clique perhaps, of not being too conformist.  Maybe its as simple as just doing something different.  The vibe really was phenomenal.  I'm sure there was somebody from every country represented.  There was a whole spectrum of types, from early 20's hip and happening peeps to couples with babies and even a crowd in their early 60's turned up.  Although they seemed very trendy, so perhaps not too surprising.  There was great coffee and ice cream at the front, live music on the terrace and a Jail House cocktail bar serving through the bars of a bedroom window.  Cooking demo's in the kitchen and a bar in a bath with oysters on the side, served by Big Dave (who was just lovely).  I did have a feeling of deja vu on the Saturday afternoon but it turns out that some people came on both days.  As I was soooo busy stamping people I have no photos to post, other than the one Kirsten sent me, so have a look at MsMarmites blogspot for lots of great pictures of the event over the two days.  http://marmitelover.blogspot.com/