Sunday 29 April 2012
Thursday 2 February 2012
Super gooey chocolate brownies
Ok so at the risk of sounding bizarre because i'm going in back in time, I thought i'd mention that I bought a recipe book in the sales. I wanted to collect scraps of recipe's and keep notes of the journey with my cooking. I call it a journey because I can't seem to just cook something from a recipe. In fact everytime I do that, they're not as good, so I've come to realise that the process is like a well fitted glove, it needs a bit of tailoring. Not that i've ever own tailored gloves... I just thought that sounded wise, and you know what I mean.
I'm starting to ramble now... but the point is, I kept some notes as I started the cooking so i'm going to include a couple of those recipes. Basically i'd probably just have kept up with that food diary, if my handwriting wasn't so bad!
Now for a dinner party I threw for some friends, I decided to do a choco brownie. My friend who suggested I follow the recipe from Jamie Oliver 15, actually pretends that it's her own secret recipe, which is funny. Now unintentionally I tweaked the recipe, because I didn't have enough full fat butter... ok here goes...
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/bloomin-brilliant-brownies
what I did was use this recipe but instead of 250g of unsalted butter, i Used lighter Lurpak butter and I then found 100g of lurpak unsalted in the fridge and added that too. It turned out like a spectacular gooey dessert. I took some to work, which went down really well and I also used a circular powder pot as a cutter (i disinfected it) and it turned out pretty snazzy. I plated it up with a little river of single cream around it and fresh berries on top.
Oh and I didn't put in the cherries or nuts as it suggested.
I'm starting to ramble now... but the point is, I kept some notes as I started the cooking so i'm going to include a couple of those recipes. Basically i'd probably just have kept up with that food diary, if my handwriting wasn't so bad!
Now for a dinner party I threw for some friends, I decided to do a choco brownie. My friend who suggested I follow the recipe from Jamie Oliver 15, actually pretends that it's her own secret recipe, which is funny. Now unintentionally I tweaked the recipe, because I didn't have enough full fat butter... ok here goes...
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/bloomin-brilliant-brownies
what I did was use this recipe but instead of 250g of unsalted butter, i Used lighter Lurpak butter and I then found 100g of lurpak unsalted in the fridge and added that too. It turned out like a spectacular gooey dessert. I took some to work, which went down really well and I also used a circular powder pot as a cutter (i disinfected it) and it turned out pretty snazzy. I plated it up with a little river of single cream around it and fresh berries on top.
Oh and I didn't put in the cherries or nuts as it suggested.
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Couldn't quite believe it
So day 2 of my blog and something quite extraordinary happened. The sticky toffee pudding in my last blog went into work today. Now people do often bring in bits and bobs and send round a group email offering them up, this is a bold statement clarifying a) look at me b) try my food i'm confident you'll like it. Now I do love a bit of attention like the next person, but making a bold statement about my cooking is really not me with a large group of people. So i've taken to just placing it in the kitchen and mentioning to a couple of people to help themselves... So i'd done this last week with some simple flapjacks (recipe will follow) and they went down well. Unlike the cupcakes - which were embarrassingly neglected and I think only a mouse or the cleaner had one bite out of one. So because I don't like to waste food, i basically ate quite a few and force fed them to friends. I actually have a slight phobia of cupcakes as a result.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you some back story to this as there's been quite a bit of food neglected humiliation on my part that I think is worth knowing. So back to the sticky toffee action... I left them in the kitchen and word got round. There was intrigue and interest but none were eaten. So anyway, I just plotted how I was going to force feed my guinea pigs (family and friends). But then midday happened and the floodgates opened. One by one, the compliments came and it was amazing. They were over the top which was great, one person said "that was unreal. no. totally unreal. absolutely amazing. I can't tell you. How good that was (groan)". I thought she was slightly mental to be honest, maybe on some sort of extreme diet and the only thing she'd eaten in a week was my pudding so it's bound to taste nice. Anyway, am I hyping this enough for you? Probably not enough so i'll list a couple of others. This is my glory moment after all... One person said they were the conoisseur of sticky toffee and this was the best they'd ever had. 10 out of 10. Another suggested I teach their wife how to cook and another said they dropped it but picked it up and ate it because it was so good.
Ok so i'm being super self indulgent, but considering i'm the only one that even knows about this I can do what I want. In fact, isn't that the whole point of this? Isn't this a platform for being totally self indulgent? Don't worry, that's not the plan. My plan is to document this cooking journey. To one day be able to share these recipes with people and to talk through our adventures.
I thought i'd mention a couple of foodie faux pas. I seem to get a lot of funny looks, I'll make some bold ignorant statements sometimes without thinking... today it was about soup. One person was laughing about the idea that someone was making a soup with no liquid other than tinned tomato. So I asked, what are you meant to put in? She looked at me as If I was joking. I wasn't and so I was just told "liquids"... not very helpful but I got the point. The point is... "you must be joking". There are so many clanger moments, so i'll think of more for next time.
Anyway, that's all for now. Here's the flapjack recipe....
ok so I forgot to buy the oats but had a new packet of golden syrup coated ones in small packets.
Anyway I used a whole box 375g golden syrup oats
200g unsalted butter
200g soft brown sugar
2 tbs desiccated coconut
1 tbsp almond powder
handful of chopped dried apple
1) grease proof paper a baking tin and preheat the oven to 180c/gas 4.
2) melt the butter and sugar. once it's all melted, add the oats, coconut and almond powder.
3) transfer to the tin and it should be around 2cm thick - the thicker the softer they will turn out in the middle and the thinner the crunchier.
4) after 15-20mins they should be ready - they need to be golden brown around the edges and still ever so slightly soft in the middle.
5) leave to cool in the tin and once they've cooled down, cut into squares and serve up.
*As a good guide, i used the honey flapjacks on the BBC food website - first thing that comes up in google under flapjacks. I amended this though as I only had the oats that were in golden syrup. I also found some almond powder on my flatmates shelf when I went to borrow some coconut and that worked well. I also have had a stash of dried fruit that I needed to use up so that's why I put in the apple. Also the recipe suggested demerara sugar, which I didn't have but the brown soft sugar worked perfectly.
PS in my last blog I was furiously ranting about white wine vinegar. I finally found a good use for it. I do a little tuna mix for work lunch as an easy fix and I poured in some vinegar and it nicely takes out the super fishyness. This is great! Finally it has a purpose... now what the hell do i I do with a giant bottle of white grape balsamic vinegar? I accidentally had bought it thinking it's the same as white wine vinegar and it's just a large threatening figure in my cuboard..... hmmmm
Anyway, I just wanted to give you some back story to this as there's been quite a bit of food neglected humiliation on my part that I think is worth knowing. So back to the sticky toffee action... I left them in the kitchen and word got round. There was intrigue and interest but none were eaten. So anyway, I just plotted how I was going to force feed my guinea pigs (family and friends). But then midday happened and the floodgates opened. One by one, the compliments came and it was amazing. They were over the top which was great, one person said "that was unreal. no. totally unreal. absolutely amazing. I can't tell you. How good that was (groan)". I thought she was slightly mental to be honest, maybe on some sort of extreme diet and the only thing she'd eaten in a week was my pudding so it's bound to taste nice. Anyway, am I hyping this enough for you? Probably not enough so i'll list a couple of others. This is my glory moment after all... One person said they were the conoisseur of sticky toffee and this was the best they'd ever had. 10 out of 10. Another suggested I teach their wife how to cook and another said they dropped it but picked it up and ate it because it was so good.
Ok so i'm being super self indulgent, but considering i'm the only one that even knows about this I can do what I want. In fact, isn't that the whole point of this? Isn't this a platform for being totally self indulgent? Don't worry, that's not the plan. My plan is to document this cooking journey. To one day be able to share these recipes with people and to talk through our adventures.
I thought i'd mention a couple of foodie faux pas. I seem to get a lot of funny looks, I'll make some bold ignorant statements sometimes without thinking... today it was about soup. One person was laughing about the idea that someone was making a soup with no liquid other than tinned tomato. So I asked, what are you meant to put in? She looked at me as If I was joking. I wasn't and so I was just told "liquids"... not very helpful but I got the point. The point is... "you must be joking". There are so many clanger moments, so i'll think of more for next time.
Anyway, that's all for now. Here's the flapjack recipe....
ok so I forgot to buy the oats but had a new packet of golden syrup coated ones in small packets.
Anyway I used a whole box 375g golden syrup oats
200g unsalted butter
200g soft brown sugar
2 tbs desiccated coconut
1 tbsp almond powder
handful of chopped dried apple
1) grease proof paper a baking tin and preheat the oven to 180c/gas 4.
2) melt the butter and sugar. once it's all melted, add the oats, coconut and almond powder.
3) transfer to the tin and it should be around 2cm thick - the thicker the softer they will turn out in the middle and the thinner the crunchier.
4) after 15-20mins they should be ready - they need to be golden brown around the edges and still ever so slightly soft in the middle.
5) leave to cool in the tin and once they've cooled down, cut into squares and serve up.
*As a good guide, i used the honey flapjacks on the BBC food website - first thing that comes up in google under flapjacks. I amended this though as I only had the oats that were in golden syrup. I also found some almond powder on my flatmates shelf when I went to borrow some coconut and that worked well. I also have had a stash of dried fruit that I needed to use up so that's why I put in the apple. Also the recipe suggested demerara sugar, which I didn't have but the brown soft sugar worked perfectly.
PS in my last blog I was furiously ranting about white wine vinegar. I finally found a good use for it. I do a little tuna mix for work lunch as an easy fix and I poured in some vinegar and it nicely takes out the super fishyness. This is great! Finally it has a purpose... now what the hell do i I do with a giant bottle of white grape balsamic vinegar? I accidentally had bought it thinking it's the same as white wine vinegar and it's just a large threatening figure in my cuboard..... hmmmm
Tuesday 31 January 2012
The Awakening
Ok so brief why i'm doing this... well despite the title, this blog is mostly going to be about food, and because I love a rant, a few of those as well.
Background: Both my parents are exceptional cooks and my mother is the ultimate domestic goddess. She's not just a spectacular cook but a total inspiration for life long glamour. I'm not... i'm trying but i'm erratic, unpredictable, forgetful and disaster prone, but thankfully the end result is tasty because I care. The journey no matter how chaotic is the exciting part.
So where do I start... well. I just think food should be delicious and cooking as easy, complicated and adaptable as necessary. Since my 2012 cooking New Years resolution, i've realised how frustrating it can be not having the right ingredients.
This brings me to the plan of action. I hope to point you towards the options, I want to discuss alternatives not just list them... ie replacing creme fraiche for cream in a toffee sauce, works just fine but it'll have that ever so slight kick rather than the smoothness of cream. But this is exciting right? Why can't we make a Thai green curry without coconut milk? Well there's no reason. I'm going to have a host of disasters. No doubt about that. And quite a few mediocre dishes, but that's better than spending lots of money on a whole host of expensive ingredients that I use once then hide away in the cuboard.
I hope to discuss what we can do with these random items, like white wine vinegar. I bought this for some stupid red velvet cupcakes that went horribly wrong. I hate them. They upset me because I went to every bloody supermarket nearby and none of them had white wine vinegar in stock. Then eventually i found one last bottle, a giant bottle of white wine vinegar. All i needed was one tsp for this recipe. Eugh. nightmare. I'm sure for an experienced cook, there's lots of stuff you can do with white wine vinegar... but for me... it's not so clear.
I'm not embarrassed to admit my ignorance, i'd like to know more, i'd like to be more experienced but hey, i'm learning now and it's exciting. I hate the weird arrogance involved with food and cooking, where people make you feel guilty. I had a full blown debate about the pointlessness of making homemade gravy with someone at work, because quite frankly, who actually gives a crap if you mixed some flour and stock together? if you end up having to add browning to give it colour anyway? For gods sake just use the meats juices and some bisto. Obviously i'd be secretly impressed if someone did make their gravy, but the sheer pompousness of the way this colleague insisted that everyone should make gravy from scratch made me quite furious! This is based on experience by the way, this Xmas I made my own gravy and it was just a nightmare and the least appreciated thing on the plate. It was a nightmare because i was cooking quite a few different things at the same time and i'd managed to have my head in the oven so long that my face of makeup had actually melted all over my face, like something from a horror film.
Ok so this is a little intro to explain my motives. I end up using about 3 different recipes for one dish because I hate their measurements or I don't understand what they are telling me to do or they are using tropical ingredients I can't simply get from my Turkish supermarket next door. I love the supermarket they must think i'm a complete fruit loop with the amount of times I visit looking for last minute ingredients.
I really hope I stick with this, because i'd love to start a little club for people like myself who love food but are totally intimidated by all the recipe books out there. I made risotto for the first time and I had no idea what Jamie Oliver was on about in his 30minute meals, i genuinely had no clue and I bought a giant encyclopedia of cooking and that didn't help much so I called my flatmate. It really shouldn't be that confusing, but if you are a complete amateur then it is. The obvious isn't obvious yet, and we shouldn't be afraid to ask, to learn. So let's get cracking!
My first recipe is the most recent...
Sticky toffee pudding.
This is an absolute favourite dessert of mine and i'd love to perfect it. I made it last night for the first time and I was really surprised that it was quite tasty because I disobeyed a lot of the instructions... on the websites.
Ok so the first disobedience was the cooking aparatus. I was told to use pudding dishes, didn't have one so just used a cake tin. If I had a loaf tin, that would have been better.
Lined the cake tin with greaseproof paper. I'm not sure the size of the cake, medium sized with a spring bottom thing so you can pop it out.
Pudding
190g plain flour
2tsp tsp of baking powder
170g demerara sugar
50g unsalted butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs
(2 tbsp black treacle -reduce golden syrup if you have this - i didn't)
200g pitted dates chopped
250g boiling water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tea bag
1) Preheat the oven to 200c/ gas 6?put the dates in a saucepan with the boiling water and tea bag. After one minute remove the tea bag. Add 1/2 tsp baking soda. Keep stirring the dates until they soften and bring to the boil. Once softened set aside.
2) mix the butter, sugar and one egg. Then add the other egg. Then add the flour and vanilla essence. Mix well making sure no lumps. Then once it's a smooth consistency add the dates mixture. Once mixed well, pour into the tin.
Keep an eye on this, I think mine was in the oven for 35-40mins because it took a while to set. I turned the heat down to 180c as it was starting to go a little too brown but not setting. It needs to feel springy but firm. Do the toothpick test, it can have a little mixture stuck to it but only a very tiny bit.
3) for the toffee sauce mix the sugar, creme fraiche, treacle and butter together until it's all melted and smooth then bring to the boil.
Leave the cake to cool slightly, pour the hot toffee sauce and some vanilla icecream on the side. I reheated the cake and sauce in the microwave for 5-10secs and it was fine.
*I used a combination of BBC food James' sticky toffee pudding, allrecipes.co.uk Sticky toffee without dates and, BBC good foods Apple steamed pudding with toffee sauce.
I used a combination because I didn't have self raising flour - so needed plain flour alternative. I didn't have black treacle, but turns out the turkish shop has some in stock. I also didn't have cream so I used creme fraiche.
All in all, I'm happy with it!
Background: Both my parents are exceptional cooks and my mother is the ultimate domestic goddess. She's not just a spectacular cook but a total inspiration for life long glamour. I'm not... i'm trying but i'm erratic, unpredictable, forgetful and disaster prone, but thankfully the end result is tasty because I care. The journey no matter how chaotic is the exciting part.
So where do I start... well. I just think food should be delicious and cooking as easy, complicated and adaptable as necessary. Since my 2012 cooking New Years resolution, i've realised how frustrating it can be not having the right ingredients.
This brings me to the plan of action. I hope to point you towards the options, I want to discuss alternatives not just list them... ie replacing creme fraiche for cream in a toffee sauce, works just fine but it'll have that ever so slight kick rather than the smoothness of cream. But this is exciting right? Why can't we make a Thai green curry without coconut milk? Well there's no reason. I'm going to have a host of disasters. No doubt about that. And quite a few mediocre dishes, but that's better than spending lots of money on a whole host of expensive ingredients that I use once then hide away in the cuboard.
I hope to discuss what we can do with these random items, like white wine vinegar. I bought this for some stupid red velvet cupcakes that went horribly wrong. I hate them. They upset me because I went to every bloody supermarket nearby and none of them had white wine vinegar in stock. Then eventually i found one last bottle, a giant bottle of white wine vinegar. All i needed was one tsp for this recipe. Eugh. nightmare. I'm sure for an experienced cook, there's lots of stuff you can do with white wine vinegar... but for me... it's not so clear.
I'm not embarrassed to admit my ignorance, i'd like to know more, i'd like to be more experienced but hey, i'm learning now and it's exciting. I hate the weird arrogance involved with food and cooking, where people make you feel guilty. I had a full blown debate about the pointlessness of making homemade gravy with someone at work, because quite frankly, who actually gives a crap if you mixed some flour and stock together? if you end up having to add browning to give it colour anyway? For gods sake just use the meats juices and some bisto. Obviously i'd be secretly impressed if someone did make their gravy, but the sheer pompousness of the way this colleague insisted that everyone should make gravy from scratch made me quite furious! This is based on experience by the way, this Xmas I made my own gravy and it was just a nightmare and the least appreciated thing on the plate. It was a nightmare because i was cooking quite a few different things at the same time and i'd managed to have my head in the oven so long that my face of makeup had actually melted all over my face, like something from a horror film.
Ok so this is a little intro to explain my motives. I end up using about 3 different recipes for one dish because I hate their measurements or I don't understand what they are telling me to do or they are using tropical ingredients I can't simply get from my Turkish supermarket next door. I love the supermarket they must think i'm a complete fruit loop with the amount of times I visit looking for last minute ingredients.
I really hope I stick with this, because i'd love to start a little club for people like myself who love food but are totally intimidated by all the recipe books out there. I made risotto for the first time and I had no idea what Jamie Oliver was on about in his 30minute meals, i genuinely had no clue and I bought a giant encyclopedia of cooking and that didn't help much so I called my flatmate. It really shouldn't be that confusing, but if you are a complete amateur then it is. The obvious isn't obvious yet, and we shouldn't be afraid to ask, to learn. So let's get cracking!
My first recipe is the most recent...
Sticky toffee pudding.
This is an absolute favourite dessert of mine and i'd love to perfect it. I made it last night for the first time and I was really surprised that it was quite tasty because I disobeyed a lot of the instructions... on the websites.
Ok so the first disobedience was the cooking aparatus. I was told to use pudding dishes, didn't have one so just used a cake tin. If I had a loaf tin, that would have been better.
Lined the cake tin with greaseproof paper. I'm not sure the size of the cake, medium sized with a spring bottom thing so you can pop it out.
Pudding
190g plain flour
2tsp tsp of baking powder
170g demerara sugar
50g unsalted butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs
(2 tbsp black treacle -reduce golden syrup if you have this - i didn't)
200g pitted dates chopped
250g boiling water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tea bag
Pudding
- 200g creme fraich
- 125g unsalted butter
- 175g soft brown sugar (ideally muscovado sugar - i don't know why, but i didn't have this)
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- vanilla ice cream, to serve
1) Preheat the oven to 200c/ gas 6?put the dates in a saucepan with the boiling water and tea bag. After one minute remove the tea bag. Add 1/2 tsp baking soda. Keep stirring the dates until they soften and bring to the boil. Once softened set aside.
2) mix the butter, sugar and one egg. Then add the other egg. Then add the flour and vanilla essence. Mix well making sure no lumps. Then once it's a smooth consistency add the dates mixture. Once mixed well, pour into the tin.
Keep an eye on this, I think mine was in the oven for 35-40mins because it took a while to set. I turned the heat down to 180c as it was starting to go a little too brown but not setting. It needs to feel springy but firm. Do the toothpick test, it can have a little mixture stuck to it but only a very tiny bit.
3) for the toffee sauce mix the sugar, creme fraiche, treacle and butter together until it's all melted and smooth then bring to the boil.
Leave the cake to cool slightly, pour the hot toffee sauce and some vanilla icecream on the side. I reheated the cake and sauce in the microwave for 5-10secs and it was fine.
*I used a combination of BBC food James' sticky toffee pudding, allrecipes.co.uk Sticky toffee without dates and, BBC good foods Apple steamed pudding with toffee sauce.
I used a combination because I didn't have self raising flour - so needed plain flour alternative. I didn't have black treacle, but turns out the turkish shop has some in stock. I also didn't have cream so I used creme fraiche.
All in all, I'm happy with it!
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