Just because you live on your own, it doesn't mean you can't make your meals a bit special! Last night I made tempura butternut squash, shitake mushrooms and watercress and prawn with sticky rice. I've been back to Hashi for some Japanese home cooking evenings, and although we didn't learn this in class, I have this urge to cook alot of Japanese food this week. More to come on Hashi soon!
It's funny, when my fridges are full of food for an event and poor old me has nothing to eat! Well, I found a carrot and some leftovers to make a quick sandwich, I decided to peel my carrot and then thought, well isn't that cute, I may just have to take a picture of my lunch today. So here it is. My working lunch.
I quite like decorating cakes by chucking decorations at the side. It kind of looks like you've rolled the cake in them, but that wouldn't be as much fun!
Last summer I went on about Wheat n Rye bread from Waitrose, and how good it was for bruscetta. Well I haven't found anything that doesn't go really well on this stuff. I did these little bites for a party last week. I also did the beetroot and gin cured salmon with cucumber shardy things and mustard and dill creme fraiche for starters on another night. I love that burst of pink!
Some of my favourite puds are Gluten Free as they tend to be moist and rich. Some of my favourite recipes are from Claudia Roden.
Sometimes when I've been working really hard, I give myself a pat on the back and a little indulgent splurge may also ensue. This week's particular splurge was on a website of speciality ingredients. I will bore you with those in a later post but one of which was a concentrated grapefruit gel which I brushed on the top of this cake which was heaven. I also add a little lemon zest to the mix.
This cake is so moist it is almost wet and the taste is so interesting because you use 3 whole oranges. You must serve it with really cold greek yogurt to experience it at its best. You know in my last post where I was talking about the cake I was eating twice in one day? Well it was this, because I made two, one for a leaving present for a friend (who I met as the manager of a cookery shop in the high street, wow, I wonder how we became friendly?! hehe) and I made one for experimenting with, which has all gone now :(
I even had a few spoonfuls of mix left in the mixer which I popped into a Pyrex jug, microwaved for 2 minutes then ate with some yog whilst the cakes were cooling. That was genius, 2 minute cakes eh? Dangerous.
METHOD: Place the clean, whole and unpeeled fruit in water to cover, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 1½ hours or until soft, adding more water when necessary. Drain the oranges, cut into quarters, discard any major pips, and whiz the rest, including peel, in the food-processor, then cool. Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl until pale. Beat in the oranges, almonds, and baking powder. Beat the egg whites until softly peaky and fold gently into the mixture.
Pour into a 23cm (9in) springform cake tin and bake for an hour, until firm to the touch (cover with a loose sheet of foil if over-browning). Cool in the tin and dust with icing sugar to serve.
As you can see, I hand iced a pattern on the top cake and then for this one I played around with some string and pins. You'll need to be careful that you have removed all the pins from the cake if you wanna try this method!
I've been blamed for people's sugar cravings at work :(
So, before you grab a muffin for breakfast, may I suggest something healthy and zingy? I can get the same amount of pleasure from something like this as the next choc bar. This is also the easiest salad I have ever thought up and is going down well at this month's barbecues. Slice veggies and herbs thinly, or whack in a food processor and then whisk the lime juice and the mayo together and toss salad. Sprinkle with sesame.
Leila Lindholm is a well known chef in Sweden. I bought her book because I have a bit of a thing about cakes. Truth be told, I had cake for lunch today, and a slice in the afternoon. I microwaved it. That probably makes it double bad. Ah well. Last week George and I made this pie from the book, I'm not going to write out the recipe. It was pretty rubbish, made way too much curd, way too much meringue and didn't cook as well as I had hoped. Saying that, it's not like there was any leftover!
What a find. I found this pasta machine in the window of an Oxfam shop for £12, that is way cheap and I also think it's quite cute. I wasn't sure it was going to work when I got home, maybe there was a screw missing of it was broken? Why else would you give this little gizmo away?
Well, it works a charm and it made good pasta.
I made ricotta, chilli, lemon zest, and mint ravioli and then I made some pappardelle with pesto for a snack with the scraps. I go with one egg to 100g of "OO" flour. When I asked for this in waitrose the guy sniggered and said in front of his mate "no we don't have any James Bond Flour" then he clasped his fingers into the shape of a gun -dear oh dear. I bought mine off a guy who owns an Italian deli but it isn't hard to find. Work has been hard this week, I am very tired and don't have it in me to write up the recipe, lets learn by pictures kids...night night x
