angharad_gam

Yeah, it's been a while, and a lot has happened - all the crazy business of 2020 (and 2021) and a bunch of stuff at work, and so on. But really I just came by to write down a couple of recipes so I can remember them later.

This was an exercise in 'how can I find something all my picky kids will eat', and it's become a bit of a regular since most of the household will actually eat it. You can use gluten free pasta without any other changes to make this gluten free.

Chicken pasta bake
500 gms reasonably finely diced chicken breast
1 red onion, diced (but not super fine)
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 cup frozen green peas
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 400 gm tin crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup white wine or rose
1/2 cup cream
1 generous handful of grated mozzarella cheese
1 less generous handful of grated cheddar or parmesan cheese
black pepper
dried basil
olive oil
350 gms small shape pasta (shells, spirals, elbows)
optional: 1 large rasher of bacon, roughly diced

Preheat the oven to 180C, and put the pasta on to cook in the usual way.
Take a heavy based roasting tin and put it over a large ring over a high heat (you can do this part in a frying pan if you don't have an ovenproof dish suitable for putting on the stovetop, then transfer to an oven tray later, but this saves washing up and wasting any sauce). Add a generous quantity of olive oil to the bottom of the tin and when it is hot, saute the chicken until it is sealed. If you want bacon, put it in with the chicken and cook them together. Add the onion and carrot and cook until the onion has begun to soften. Then add the garlic.
When the onion is fairly well cooked add the wine and let it bubble down a bit. Then stir in the tomatoes, peas and the cream. Bring back up to a simmer, and let cook until the tomatoes are broken down a bit (this might not be very long if they're very crushed). Then season generously with black pepper and dried basil.
By now your pasta should be cooked. Drain it and add it to the tray with the chicken (or add both the pasta and the chicken mixture to an oven tray) and mix together well. Sprinkle the lot with mozzarella, then with another more strongly flavoured cheese. Put into the oven and bake for about 20 mins or until the cheese is nice and brown on top.

This cheesecake was a bit of an experiment, borrowing from a couple of different sources, including Nigella Lawson's cherry cheesecake (which is excellent and super easy). This is not a baked cheesecake, but not exactly a set one - it relies on the consistency of the dairy products to achieve some measure of solidity, so don't skimp and go for low-fat. You can happily use gluten-free biscuits to make the crust - any plain biscuit will do (I use gluten free milk arrowroot, because you can't get gluten free digestives around here). I should note that cardamom is a flavour that I find a bit overwhelming if present in more than the subtlest way. I probably used a little over 3/4s tsp for this, but you could use more if you enjoy cardamom.

Orange and cardamom cheesecake
500 gms cream cheese
200 mls full fat sour cream
200 mls double cream (at least 48% milk fat, but the higher the better)
100 gms caster sugar
3.5 tblsps Cointreau (or some other orange liqueur)
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp (scant) of cardamom
200 gms plain biscuits
1 tsp mixed spice (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg)
100 gms butter
Line a 20-23cm springform cake tin with baking paper. Take the cream cheese out of the fridge to let it soften a bit.
Crush the biscuits thoroughly. You can do this in a food processor, but I usually just put them in a plastic bag and smash them up with a rolling pin. Melt the butter gently (30secs in a microwave then stir until any unmelted lumps have dissolved). Stir the mixed spice into the butter, then add the biscuit crumbs and mix well. Press firmly and evenly over the base of the cake tin, and put this into the fridge.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese with the sugar. It will be hard to stir at first, but gets easier as the sugar gets mixed in. Make sure the sugar and cheese are well combined, then beat in the Cointreau, orange zest and cardamom. Beat in the sour cream, then the double cream very thoroughly, ensuring there are no lumps. If your double cream is not very thick you could whip it lightly first, then fold into the mixture.
Remove the cake tin from the fridge and pour in the cheese mixture (although it should be more like scrape in if you've gotten sufficiently thick dairy products), making sure there are no air bubbles and smoothing it evenly over the base. Return to the fridge and refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours before serving. This won't be firm in quite the same way a baked or gelatine set cheesecake would be, but it should thicken up enough that you can cut pieces without it oozing everywhere.

{edited to add the tomatoes in the pasta recipe, which I had forgotten - this is why I try and write these things down}

Yet another space of months passes without posting, I haven't been super amazingly busy (well, I was for a few weeks around the end of June), just not terribly inspired to come in here and write. In July I went to a couple of fairs with

dirtygreatknife - a craft fair and a book fair. Much yarn and many books were acquired. Erin also went off to the UK for most of this month, where she had a great time meeting various extended family members and traipsing round all kinds of historic sites. August is usually the month of getting colds and 'urgh, isn't winter finished yet?'. I did indeed get an unpleasant virus that really knocked me out for a couple of weeks. September has so far been the month of things breaking. The pump on the rainwater tank, and the car have broken. The pump was replaced relatively painlessly (except for the part where we discovered it was installed in such a way that was against building code and doing far more than any pump that size is meant to, but that's another story). The car's transmission (the gears) was basically completely wrecked and that has not been painless to replace, not to mention the additional pain of being without a car for nearly two weeks. Fingers crossed we are done with that for a while.

In pleasanter news, the garden is bursting out in Spring at the moment. We are swimming in broccoli, and will shortly be swimming in peas, and last night we ate the first of the spontaneous potatoes. They were really yummy. Next month I am going to the Great Southern Gathering (an SCA event focused on the less martial arts) where I am teaching three classes - two on cooking and one on fibre arts. I am also looking forward to the ABC plant fair.

I have been cooking rice dishes around the world a bit lately. Here are some recipes - Hoppin' John is a traditional southern US dish, and Paella is, well, paella. I made a really amazing paella with prawns once, but Andy is not a big fan of seafood, so this is a purely meaty one.

Paella
2 chorizo sausages cut into 1/2 cm slices
500 gms chicken, diced
300 gms (about 1.5 cups) arborio rice
3 cups chicken stock
1 400 gm tin diced tomatoes
1 red onion, roughly diced
1 red capsicum, roughly diced
3/4 cup peas
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2-3 tsps paprika
pinch saffron
2-3 tblsps fresh parsley finely chopped

Put the stock and saffron in a small saucepan and heat until it reaches a low simmer. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a large, lidded frying pan (you will need the lid later, not right now), and fry the chorizo slices until they are starting to get crispy. Add the onion, and when that is beginning to soften, add the garlic and then the capsicum. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the chicken and cook until it is browned all over. Stir in the paprika, then the rice. Add the hot stock, bring to a boil and then turn down to a gentle simmer. Put the lid on the frying pan and allow to cook for ten minutes. Add the peas, stir well, replace the lid and continue to cook for another ten minutes or until the rice is completely soft. You may need to stir a bit during this last part to stop it sticking and to ensure the rice evenly absorbs the liquid. You may also need to add a bit of extra stock or hot water if it's getting a bit dry. Many recipes for paella (or risotto) state that the rice cooking part will take 15 minutes, but I have never met any arborio rice that will cook properly this quickly. Maybe I always get the tough batches.

Hoppin' John
1.25 cups black eyed beans
300 gms bacon sliced into strips
2 sticks celery, finely sliced
1 onion, finely diced
1 red capsicum, finely diced (or 1/2 red, 1/2 green)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 litre vegetable stock
2 tsps paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 large or 2 small bay leaves
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cup long grain rice

About 2-3 hours before cooking, place the beans in a bowl and cover with hot water. Add more if the beans swell above the water level.
Add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large frying pan with a lid, or a large heavy-based saucepan, and fry the bacon until it is starting to crisp. Add the onion, capsicum and celery and fry until the vegetables are beginning to soften. Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes more. Stir in the paprika and cayenne pepper, and then add the drained beans. Stir well to combine everything, then add the stock, the bay leaves and thyme. Bring to the boil, then cover and let simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in the rice, and simmer for another thirty minutes. Season with salt and pepper, remove the bay leaves and thyme stems, and eat.

Note: you can add more cayenne, if you like spicy. You don't need to soak the beans before hand, but the first part of cooking will need to be at least half an hour longer, maybe more and you will need more liquid. Traditionally Hoppin' John is served over rice, not with the rice mixed in, but I overestimated the liquid needed to cook the beans and my rice cooker was dirty, so i threw it in with the beans. If you cook the rice on the side you will probably only need 3 cups of stock.

Since it has been so cold and damp here lately...

This soup will stick to your ribs:

Lentil and bean soup
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot diced
2 cloves garlic , minced
1 tsp minced ginger
3 large stalks of kale
1 litre 'beef style' vegetable stock
3 400 gms cans of beans, lentils, chickpeas etc, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup dried red lentils
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp chilli/cayenne pepper (or more if you have an asbestos mouth)
Olive oil

There's a bit of 'as you like it' with this soup. You can use any combo of beans or lentils you like or happen to have lying around. Tonight I used 1 can each of butter beans, brown lentils and chickpeas. You could use cannelini beans, or four bean mix, or bkack beans, or whatever. If you don't like kale you could use baby spinach instead, but put it in later, when the soup is nearly finished cooking. I have barely any tolerance for chilli, but you could add more if you have a preference for heat.

Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan and put over a high heat. Add the onion and carrot, saute for a minute or two, then turn down to medium and let it sizzle a bit until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and ginger, stir well, and saute for another minute.
Add the spices, stirring well and cook for another minute or so. Stir in the drained cans of beans and then add the stock. Turn the heat back up to high.
Cut the large white stems out of the kale and slice the curly leaf parts into thin strips. Put the kale in a sieve and rinse well under the tap (it's difficult to wash whole kale properly on account of it being so curly). Add the kale to the soup.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins, stirring occasionally. Add the red lentils and simmer for another 15 mins or until the red lentils are soft and transparent. Eat with some nice crusty bread.

And not just for the cold, but when you have a cold:

Honey and lemon drink

Squeeze half a lemon into a 300ml cup. Add a tablespoon (ish) of honey, and fill the cup with hot but not boiling water (I usually set my kettle for 80C). Stir until the honey is dissolved then do a quick taste test (since some lemons are juicier or sharper than others). You want to be able to taste the lemon but not make that puckery 'oh this is sour' face. Now add some brandy. If I am making this for the kids I only put in 2tsp. For me, maybe double that. Stir again and drink while warm. This is great for coughs and tickly throats. Do not ignore the brandy (although you could potentially substitute some other spirit I make no guarantees for efficacy or taste if you do).

So, I am laid up on the couch with a rotten cold, which is probably going to stop me from getting the 'flu vaccine at work this week. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but apparently we are having a flu epidemic here atm, and there are shortages of the vaccine. As you might guess from the title, it's been an eventful few weeks, and since I have nothing to do but sit around and feel sorry for myself, I thought I might pop in here and complain about it.

It hasn't all been bad, mind. We had a nice Easter lunch with Andy's family - I made a gluten free carrot cake which came out rather well. Baking is always a bit hit and miss without gluten, and this was actually the first time I've ever made carrot cake. And I took the week after Easter off work, and we had a very pleasant week with nice weather and a bit of pottering around in the garden. I dug 3-4 years worth of compacted compost out from underneath the compost bin and promptly planted some peas in it, and the plants I acquired for the courtyard when

dirtygreatknife and I went to the ABC Plant Fair are doing really well.

But the week before Easter Erin got up one morning and noticed that the ceiling in the lounge room was falling in. To understand this, you should first know that Adelaide is built on big chunks of reactive clay which expand quite substantially when wet, and shrink just as drastically when dry. It's a problem all over the place to some extent (at our last house 0.5cm wide fissures used to open in the back garden during summer and then close up again in winter and that was a relatively stable area). Houses getting big cracks in the walls or ceilings because the ground is moving under them is a pretty standard problem.

Our street has a bad case of the reactive clays (if you have ever driven down it you would notice how remarkably bumpy the road is). This manifests in all kinds of ways, including weird bulging spots in the driveway and courtyard pavers. The house itself is pretty solid, except for one narrow spot where the lounge and dining room meet. To add to the 'this small part of the house could easily be snapped off the rest' effect, there are a couple of vents for the heating and air-conditioner in the ceiling in this part. Not long after we moved in the ceiling started cracking from this corner to one of these vents. We got a guy in to fix it and he did a pretty good job. But for a while now there has been another crack creeping across to the other vent. We have been ignoring this for probably longer than we should have. Add to this the driest start to the year since the 1880's and the weight of the vent, plus the weight of the fancy cornice tore a dirty great hole in the ceiling.

We propped it up with a bit of wood, and the same guy who fixed our previous crack has come around to have a look at it. The ease of the fix will apparently depend on whether they can cut out the broken bit of ceiling without breaking the fancy cornice along the top of that wall (if they do then the whole length of cornice will also need to be replaced). Anyway, they will be starting late this week or early next week, so that will be fun.

I also ended up having an ultrasound just before Easter because I have been having some rather unpleasant pain in my right breast. The ultrasound showed nothing to be concerned about, which is always a relief, and apparently breasts just get that way sometimes. I can't help but wonder if this is some sequelae to the terrible case of mastitis I had after Liam was born (I had a 3cm x 3cm x 2.5cm abcess in that breast - that was some fun I can tell you). If there's scar tissue of some kind in there the sonographer didn't say anything about it. I had some pain on and off in that breast afterwards, but not really anything since Ashwyn was born.

Our local greengrocer also closed over Easter. We have been going there since we moved back to Adelaide (nearly 15 years ago - yikes!), so that was a bit of a blow. I do not like buying fruit and veg at the supermarket, so we are experimenting with getting our fruit and veg at the Central Markets. It's difficult to go to the Central Markets and just buy fruit however. There is a great temptation to splurge on fancy cheese and smallgoods and beautiful pastries. We got some amazing asparagus there last week, and this is what I did with it:

Pasta primavera (yes it is autumn here)
1 small onion, finely diced
2 bunches asparagus (16-20 spears)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup of shelled, peeled broad beans
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup cream
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 generous tblsp fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
black pepper
olive oil

Set some pasta to cook. Wash and trim the asparagus (the best way to do this is just flex the stem gently - it will snap off at the point where it is too woody to eat). My theory on asparagus, btw, is that the skinnier it is the better.
Heat 1-2 tblsps of olive oil in the bottom of a frying pan. Add the onion and saute on high heat until it is beginning to soften. Add the asparagus and continue cooking until the asparagus has turned a much brighter green colour. Add the broad beans and then add the wine and let it boil down until there is less than a cm left in the bottom of the pan. Stir in the cream, then add the peas. Once this also begins to boil, turn down the heat and add the cheese and sage. Season generously with pepper (and salt if you're into that) or according to taste. Simmer gently for 10 mins or until your pasta is cooked. Toss the sauce through the pasta and serve with additional parmesan.

This is still pretty nice if you don't have any broad beans.

Things have been fairly quiet recently, in comparison to my last post (which I hadn't realised was quite so long ago). The talk went well in the end, and Fields of Steel was a great success. I managed to come through it not completely exhausted, which was not bad given I made 150 pies the day before the event actually started.

We had a flying visit from my parents in the last few days of the school holidays, with my aunts from England in tow, so I took a couple of days off to play tour guide. I also made it to the ABC plant fair with

dirtygreatknife .

Spring has well and truly sprung. The front garden was lovely for a short while, but is still in dire need of weeding. The vegie patch has been doing pretty splendidly this year, however, with peas and radishes in abundance and zucchinis, broccoli and tomatoes all doing well so far.

Erin has two days of school left now, and then she is finished with formal lessons for good (all being well). Her graduation is later in November. I think I am going to blub like a baby. It didn't bother me much when she started school, but it seems like five minutes ago she was a funny faced little bub with a crazy tuft of black hair, and now she is graduating high school!

I have another work trip interstate before then, and I will try and get to an event next month too, but aside from these things I am hoping for a fairly sedate run up to the end of the year. Then we are off to Queensland for Christmas.

Anyway, to make up for months of silence, here is a cheesecake recipe. I adapted it from a 16th century Spanish recipe because I needed to use up some cream cheese, and blueberries are super cheap at the moment. If you don't fancy blueberries you could do the same thing with cherries or strawberries.

400 gms blueberries
3-4 tblsps sugar
500 gms cream cheese (I have an aversion to Kraft cream cheese, but if that's all you can get...)
200 gms sour cream
3 large eggs
1/4 cup caster sugar
200 gms arrowroot or digestive biscuits (gluten free work just as well as normal ones)
90 gms butter

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Place the blueberries and first lot of sugar in a small saucepan with a small amount of water (1-2 tblsps). Bring to a boil over medium heat then turn down to low and simmer for 10-15 mins or until the blueberries are soft and juicy. Set aside and let cool.
Place the biscuits in a clean plastic bag and crush thoroughly with a rolling pin. This is an excellent opportunity to relieve tension and stress, but be careful not to burst the bag. Melt the butter (30 secs in the microwave, then stirring away any remaining lumps will usually do the trick), and mix in the biscuit crumbs, combining well.
Line a 23 cm springform cake tin with baking paper. Press the biscuit mixture firmly into the bottom of the tin, forming a layer approx 0.5cm thick. Place the tin in the fridge while you do the next bit.
Place the cream cheese in a large bowl and stir a bit until soft. Leaving it out to come to room temperature can help a lot if it is quite stiff. Add the sour cream and stir/beat together (which it is might depend on how thick your sour cream is) until smooth and lump free. Beat in the caster sugar, then the eggs, one at a time.
Pour this mixture over the biscuit layer in your tin. Scoop out about half the blueberries and approximately two tablespoons of their juice. Drop these into the cheese mixture in the tin in strategically placed blobs and swirl them around carefully with a knife or skewer. Place the tin in the oven and bake for sixty minutes or until the cheesecake is more or less set. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool for half an hour inside. Then remove from the oven and pour the remaining blueberries and their sticky juices over the top of the cheesecake. Set aside to cool further, and ideally chill in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

If you want to make the 16th century version leave out the blueberries and sugar (all of it), and make smaller cheesecakes (these quantities are probably enough fot two) with a pastry not a biscuit base. Once the cheesecakes are baked pour 3-4 tablespoons of honey over the top of each, carefully so as much of it seeps in as possible.

Do you?

I made tiramisu tonight, for the first time in ages. (I made it for lunch tomorrow). There are lots of ways to make tiramisu, but I find the following generally gives pretty awesome results:

Tiramisu
500 gms mascarpone cheese
250 mls whipping cream
2 egg yolks
4 tblsps caster sugar
400 gm packet of savoiardi or sponge finger biscuits
2 large teacups of espresso coffee (two long blacks, basically)
6-8 tblsps of coffee liqueur (eg Tia Maria)
Cocoa or grated chocolate

Make the espresso, pour into a shallow bowl, and leave to cool. Whip the cream into stiff peaks.
In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick, and the sugar is mostly dissolved. Beat in the mascarpone until smooth and well-combined. Carefully fold in the whipped cream.

Stir the liqueur into the espresso.

Take a large baking dish or flat-bottomed bowl. Dip sponge fingers lightly into the coffee mixture and lay in the bottom of the dish until they form a complete layer (you may need to reak a couple into pieces to fill in gaps). Spread half the cheese mixture carefully over the top. Make another layer of coffee dipped sponge fingers, and then spread the remaining cheese over this. Dust with cocoa, or sprinkle with grated chocolate. Cover the dish with cling wrap and refrigerate until serving.

These quantities make a pretty large tiramisu for occasions when you're feeding a horde. For just a handful of people half will probably be plenty.

Tiramisu is one of those things where the flavours improve if it sits for a bit. Make it the night before for a lunch, or first thing in the morning for a dinner. However, given this has raw egg in it, you cannot keep it very long (though lasting too long is usually not too much of a problem).

Some variations: whisk a tablespoon of cocoa powder into the espresso for a mocha touch. Use roughly broken amaretti instead of sponge fingers (maybe only if you're making a small tiramisu or you will bankrupt yourself on amaretti). Melt 200 gms of dark chocolate and stir in a couple of tablespoons of butter. Spread this out to form 10-12 cm diameter circles on pieces of baking paper. While the chocolate is still molten drape each piece of paper over the end of a narrow-bottomed glass. Let the chocolate set then carefully peel off the paper. Put a couple of large spoonfuls of tiramisu in each chocolate 'bowl'.

I actually started writing this post earlier in the week, but I wrote half of it on the bus on the way to work one morning, and then discovered Dreamwidth had failed to save the draft *grumble*

I thought I might write about Christmas dinner instead of complaining about coughing, or rambling on about Mass Effect (getting close to the end of it now, but it is going on hold while I spend the next few days cooking and feeding people). For mains we are having roast pork loin and turkey stuffed with figs and pecans (which stuffing I made this morning), alongside salads (lentil and beetroot, fancy coleslaw and a plain green salad), roast potatoes, asparagus and butter beans. For dessert I am making a Christmas bombe and a summer pudding. If we don't all end up in a food coma after that it will not be my fault.

I wrote up the recipe for Christmas bombe a few years ago here: https://angharad-gam.dreamwidth.org/109948.html, so I will give you the recipe for summer pudding. Summer pudding is quite an old-fashioned dessert, but it is a favourite of Andy's and relatively simple, so I often roll it out at Christmas alongside something more virtuosic. It's also largely fruit, so you can pretend it's healthy if you like (the same way I pretend parkin - a traditional northern English ginger cake - is healthy because it has oatmeal in it). The ingredients are quite simple. Assembling the pudding requires a little bit of care and creativity.

Summer Pudding
1kg mixed berries, fresh or frozen (cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, all good)
1 double package of plain, unfilled sponge cake
Handful of sugar

Put the fruit in a saucepan, add a small amount of water and some sugar to taste,. Note, even if you think the fruit does not need sugar you should probably add a couple of tablespoons as it will help draw out the juices. If you have frozen fruit you will not need as much water as if you are using fresh. Cut up any bits of fruit that are larger than a big raspberry. Put the pan on the stove and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring until any sugar is dissolved. Cook until the fruit is juicy and soft, but still has recognisable pieces (don't boil it to a homogeneous pulp, in other words). Set aside to cool.

Take a 1.5 or 2l pudding bowl. Open your sponge cake and cut a round piece to fit the bottom of the pudding bowl. Now cut some wedge shaped pieces to fit the sides of the bowl. Squeeze them in quite snugly as you want the cake to be fairly compressed. Now cut a large circular piece for the top. The idea is that you are making a shell of cake to fit the pudding basin.

Separate the fruit from its juices and retain both. Take each piece of cut cake, beginning with the bottom circle, and dip into the fruit juices so the 'outside' (the face that will be sitting against the bowl) soaks up some juice. Don't allow it to become completely saturated - you want the juice to penetrate 1/3rd to half way into the cake. Now place each piece in place in the bowl, juice side outwards until you now have a juicy pink cake shell for the bowl. It is a good idea to have a few spare bits of cake in case you need to plug any gaps. Before you do the top, place the fruit into the hollow inthe middle of the cake shell. Now dip the top and place it. Cover the whole thing in cling wrap, pressing the wrap over the cake (don't just stretch it over the top of the bowl). Press down firmly, giving the whole pudding a good squeeze (there's nothing like a pudding that needs a good squeeze). Now put the bowl in the fridge. If you have something that can apply a nice even pressure over the top of the pudding, like a heavy plate, put this on top. Leave for at least a couple of hours before serving, but ideally, overnight.

Before serving, turn out onto a plate (basically, turn the pudding bowl upside down, hold your breath, and hope). Serve with whipped cream or cold custard. Try not to let Andy eat it all.

A few notes: summer pudding is traditionally made with bread not cake, but I think the texture is better this way. If you use bread you will have to cut it from an unsliced, stale loaf so the pieces are thick enough. If you are completely mad you could make your own sponge cake, but whatever you do, don't use the sponge fingers sold for making tiramisu or trifle. You can use fresh or frozen fruit, but given you are cooking it, it doesn't matter too much if you use frozen, and it is much cheaper (unless your garden is overrun with blackberries).

Now I am off to actually do this (I already made the bombe this morning), and to roast some turkey. I doubt I will have the time or energy to do another post later, but I hope you all have a lovely Christmas with much excellent food, and the company of people you care about.

I didn't realise how long it had been since I posted. To be fair I was in Canberra for nearly a week with bad hotel internet, and then, not long after I got back, we were shaped for a few days. Also I have been spending a lot of time playing ESO lately and that requires me to use Andy's gaming laptop. There's no way this slow old thing could cope with ESO, but I don't want to set up any of my accounts or anything on another computer, so I haven't been checking email much and mostly doing other internet things on my phone. Supposedly we will soon (which probably means in about two years) be getting BYOD capability at work, and then I will get a lovely and exciting new laptop that can do all the things. That is my ultimous dream anyway.

The doing my boss's job and mine at the same time thing seems to being swinging strongly towards mostly doing my boss's job and not doing much of mine. However, I rather badly need to start working on some slides for a talk I am supposed to be giving at a conference in July, so I hope the pendulum will swing back the other way a bit next week. I have managed to wheedle my way out of the travel I was thinking I might have to do the week before the conference, which is helpful, but I think I have actually just postponed it until later in July. August is going to be the month of falling in a heap.

Today we had a rather nice lunch at the Blue Gums Hotel in Fairview Park. Tomorrow is gardening. Tuesday is catching up on all of my Monday meetings as well as my usual Tuesday ones.

I got this recipe from Taste originally but I have modified it quite a bit. It's actually one of the easiest Christmas desserts I have ever made, and so nice.

500gms mascarpone cheese
300mls of whipping cream
100gms caster sugar
75gms dried cranberries
75gms whole pistachios
2 tblsps chopped candied peel (the stuff you get for fruit cakes is fine)
100gms dark chocolate chips (or good quality dark chocolate chopped into small pieces)
4 tblsps orange liqueur (I like Cointreau)
1 whole candied mandarin/clementine (optional - you can buy these from one of the cheese shops in the Central Markets)

Pour 2 tblsps of the liqueur over the cranberries, cover and leave them to soak for an hour or so. Then drain off any juices (you could probably drink these quite happily, but you can't put it in the pudding as it's a bit pink and will discolour it).

Line a large pudding basin (at least 1.5 litres) with generous quantities of cling wrap (basically you want to have enough left hanging over the edges that you can fold it back over the top again).

Beat the sugar into the mascarpone until it is dissolved (if your mascarpone is stiff you might need to beat it until it softens first, but most mascarpone shouldn't need this). Stir in the remaining liqueur and the cranberries, pistachios, peel and chocolate bits, and mix well. In a separate bowl whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold carefully into the mascarpone mixture.

Spoon half the mixture into the lined pudding basin, being careful not to get any air pockets. If you have a whole candied mandarin you can now put it in the centre of the basin and fill in around it with the remaining mixture. Otherwise just tip the whole lot in and smooth over the top surface.

Cover the top of the basin with the overhanging flaps of cling wrap and put into the freezer. Freeze overnight. Before serving put into the fridge for 30 mins. This should soften it enough to be able to turn it out onto a plate for serving. If you are still having trouble extracting it, dip the pudding basin briefly in a sink full of hot water. Cover and return to the freezer if by some chance you don't eat it all at once. It will keep for about a week thusly in the freezer.

And believe it or not, Santa has delivered...

I've been meaning to update for a while, but lazing about on holiday keeps getting in the way. There are a few things to write about, but let's start with the house...
( Read more... )

(Pronounced cla-foo-tee because it is French).

Because I seem to be doing this thing where I post nothing for weeks and then do all the posts at once, here is one more thing. Today was one of those filled every minute with doing things and now I'm completely knackered but in a pretty good way kind of days.

So I got up this morning and gave Andy his Fathers' Day present, and made him blueberry and strawberry crepes for breakfast. And then I went out and planted a bunch of plants I bought recently. The gardening I mentioned early was basically a massive weeding of the front garden, which now has a lot more space since the bottle brush fell down. Today I covered a large portion of the weeded area in bark chips, to discourage more weeds and also make it look a bit more tidy (we will possibly be selling this house soon, after all), and put in alyssum which is a small, creeping plant with purple flowers, and parsley, and a passionfruit vine, and spinach and shallots.

And then I made lunch, and spent half an hour playing a new game I have called Memoria, and then we went to see Andy's dad, and then we came home and I made lamb with red wine and quince glaze and a cherry clafoutis for dinner and then after dinner I made muffins for the kids to take to school next week.

I like clafoutis. It is a French version of what in English is called batter pudding, which you've probably never had unless your family was into those old-fashioned English desserts like spotted dick and cobbler and so on. So here is a recipe.

25gms/1 tblsp butter melted
4 eggs
1 cup/250mls milk
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
Filling

Preheat the oven to 180C

Mix the flour and sugar very well in a large bowl. In another bowl beat the eggs one at a time into the melted butter, and then whisk in the milk. Add this to the dry ingredients and whisk together thoroughly until smooth.

Take a greased pie dish. Put in the filling. You could use a punnet of blueberries or strawberries (hull and quarter the strawberries first), a big handful of stoned and halved fresh cherries, or as I do, a large jar of cherries very well drained. Generally you want some fruit that is small and lightweight as the pieces will float to the top when it bakes. Pour the batter over, and put into the oven.

Bake for about 30 mins or until the clafoutis is evenly puffed up and golden brown. Take it out and dust it liberally with icing sugar and eat it straight away.

This really is one of those things like soufflé that needs to be eaten pretty much straight away. After a few minutes it starts to sink and when it is cold is kind of dense and rubbery (I actually don't mind it like that too much, but it is infinitely better when freshly out of the oven). Nice fresh eggs, a well-preheated oven, a strong arm with the whisk, and making it really quickly and getting it in the oven straight away will all contribute to a great clafoutis.

I reckon I have just about perfected this chicken pie recipe now. The version I made tonight was rather good. It's been a while since I posted a recipe so I thought I'd put it out there.

500gms chicken fillet, diced
1 large leek, thinly sliced
1 large clove garlic, crushed
4 sprigs fresh thyme
scant cup of sour cream
shortcrust pastry

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken until the pink has mostly gone. Add the sliced leek and continue cooking until the leek is soft. When the leek is nearly done, add the garlic. Pull the leaves off the thyme and add them to the pan (note if you grab the thyme near the growing end of the stem and pull briskly towards the root end all the leaves pop off quite handily). Add the sour cream and stir well until it has melted. Bring it to the boil then let simmer for a few minutes.

Line a greased pie dish with shortcrust pastry. Add the filling, then cover with a pastry lid, sealing the edges carefully. Cut a couple of steam holes in the top then bake for about 30 mins at 180C.

Note that you can also add a couple of tablespoons of Dijon mustard in with the sour cream and this is also very tasty.

Andy and I accidentally had a nicer lunch than we intended on Friday. We were going to Ajisen Ramen, but they had no seats, so we wandered down a few doors to The Corner Bistro, and had a very, very nice lunch.

Anyway, it must have inspired us, because yesterday I made a French style chicken pie and then tonight we had Boeuf Bourginon and Cherry Clafoutis for tea. Yum!

Our local greengrocer has had some very nice black currants (not actual blackcurrants, which are a kind of berry, but black currant grapes) in lately, so I have been buying a few at a time and hording them until yesterday when I had about half a kilo to make jelly (with the idea of having black currant jelly as a substitute for red currant jelly). But alas I was a little hasty in making it yesterday and I took it off the stove before it had reached the correct setting point. Even after sitting in the fridge overnight it still remained little more than a thick syrup. No problem, thought I. I'll just put it back on to cook a bit more tonight. So I did. And it promptly boiled over and spilled thick syrupy black currant goo all over the stove. And then I think I burnt it the remainder.

Liam came by while I was mopping pink goo off the stove.
"What happened here?" he asked. "Jamfail?"
"Yes," I said. "Jamfail."

Playing a lot of Skyrim and Anno 2070 (which is a lot like Anno 1404, except you can build stuff underwater which is kind of cool), doing jigsaw puzzles,
taking the kids swimming and eating cheesecake.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special was funny (“Sir, I appear to have been run over by a cab”) and The Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey was pretty cool too, and very, very pretty.

And that’s just the first week. I have two more weeks off. Yay!

Actually I’m beginning to think I will be happy to get back to work by the end of it, and away from squabbling children. Although they haven’t been too bad so far…

Some photos of various random Christmassy things and other stuff below the cut.

( Read more... )

Just waiting for the kids to go to sleep here. Liam is lingering....

I spent most of today cooking, and remembering why I don't make caramel very often. Caramel eludes me. I think about 3 out of four times I make it, it doesn't work (if you do caramel wrong the sugar crystallizes instead of remaining a clear liquid and you end up with a crusty, opaque mess). Today I managed to get something more or less acceptable on the third try. And I think I might have cracked my problem, namely that I have been cooking it too slowly over too low a heat.

So anyway, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, whatever that involves for you.

Current Mood: chipper

Let's see...stuff to catch up on...

The kids finished school last week. Their reports were all fairly good, which was pleasing. I mentioned their end of year concert in my last post. Ashwyn's performance was quite memorable. The concert was outside on the oval, with the kids singing/dancing along to amplified music. Ashwyn's teacher told us that she'd put him in the front near the microphone because he was so loud. He was so loud that we could hear him from the back of the crowd, in the open air, over all the other kids and the music. He's got quite a talent for voice projection. He had a good time though.

Like all my children, he has his strange little moments. The other night he was complaining because he couldn't bite his own willie. "I'm trying," he said. "But I can't reach." There's not much you can say to that really.

On Sunday we put Erin on a plane and sent her up to Queensland to stay with my parents for a week. I can tell you, there are a lot of hoops to jump through when you send a child alone on a plane. I suppose this is only to be expected. It certainly is very quiet around here without her, but it's strange, not knowing precisely where she is or what she is doing. I mean, it should be no different from when she's gone to sleepovers or school camps, but somehow it is.

I have been playing a lot of Skyrim lately. We got the new Solstheim DLC and it is pretty cool.

We will be doing Christmas at Andy's parents place this year, which means I only have to worry about desserts. I am going to make a summer pudding and a frozen honey and praline cheesecake. I will do the shopping for this at the Central Markets on Friday. Apart from this, and waiting for various deliveries, we are pretty much organised.

Also whilst doing my Christmas shopping I noticed that a new shop has opened in Rundle Mall. It's called 'Forever New' and it has opened right next door to Copycat Fashions.

This is where you're damned if you have a father (or father-in-law) who is a complete techno-phobe and damned if you have a father who is a techno-phile. One might even go so far as to say my father is an early adopter. He should have known better, but he installed Windows 8 yesterday. It wiped most of the stuff from his hard drive. Uninstalled all his programs, cleaned out his inbox and so on. He lost 600 Gb of stuff. If you're thinking of getting it, maybe back-up to an external place first....

Yesterday I took the kids to the Innilgard 30th Anniversary Foundation Picnic. They had a fairly good time I think, especially Ashwyn, who was into everything. I spent an awful lot of time telling him to leave the harp alone, leave that coronet alone, leave those swords alone, come out of that bag, go put that goblet back, no really put that sword down....

Also Erin seems to have given half the house a cold that she brought back from camp.

And in celebration of Halloween - disgusting cakes - don't look if you have a weak stomach (no, really)

Current Mood: sick

No, actually five. A meme, actually, from

irreparable. If you want me to give you five topics/questions then say so in the comments.

My five:

1. What's your favourite board game?
It's probably a game called Arkham Asylum, which is a cooperative game in which the players travel around the town of Arkham trying to stop one of the Great Old Ones from arising (and destroying the world usually). Some people don't like it because the odds are stacked heavily against the players to win, but I don't mind that - it justs adds to the atmosphere. I'm also quite fond of Fury of Dracula and Cleopatra and the Society of Architects (but the latter may be because I usually win when playing this).

2. Which dance was the hardest to learn?
There's a 16th century Italian dance called Leggiadria d'Amore which I really struggled to get the hang of because it has an asymmetrical chorus (you do something on one foot that you don't do on the other). It's really screwy.

3. SCA
The most fun you can have with someone else's clothes on? There are some legitimate criticisms of the SCA as far as re-enactment goes, but for me it's still the main game because a) I like the flexibility to be 16th century one day and 12th century the next if the mood takes me, and b) it's the biggest game in town (especially in this town) and so you're more likely to find an event to your liking with people to your liking (or have the opportunity to cook for 150 people if that's your thing, and it happens to be mine).

4. What's your favourite thing to cook?
Ohhhh...this is a tricky one. It's difficult to tease out what I like to cook from what I like to eat. And there are so many excellent things to both cook and eat. Some days what I most want to cook is the thing I really want to eat. And sometimes my favourite thing to cook is something simple but done just right. And sometimes it's something amazing and virtuosic. So, picking some things at random ... hand-made pasta, tiramisu, pancakes, calisciones (fried marzipan pastries), falafel.

5. Statistics
A deeply misunderstood topic. I am constantly surprised by the range of uses for statistics and statistical methods, and constantly frustrated by their misunderstanding and misuse.

Current Mood: sleepy

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angharad_gam

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Page Summary

Just dropping in to record some recipes
Oops
Recipes for the cold
In which the ceiling falls in, amongst other things...
Cheesecake!
I tiramisu...
Christmas food...
Still here...
Christmas bombe
All I want for Christmas is a nice new house...
Clafoutis!
Chicken pie
La cuisine Francais
Jamfail!
What I have been doing on my holidays…
Merry Christmas to all...
It's been a while
Damned if you do, part ii
Now answer me these questions five....three sir

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Page generated Jun. 29th, 2025 03:41 am

Entries tagged with cooking - modern

Just dropping in to record some recipes

Oops

Recipes for the cold

In which the ceiling falls in, amongst other things...

Cheesecake!

I tiramisu...

Christmas food...

Still here...

Christmas bombe

All I want for Christmas is a nice new house...

Clafoutis!

Chicken pie

La cuisine Francais

Jamfail!

What I have been doing on my holidays…

Merry Christmas to all...

It's been a while

Damned if you do, part ii

Now answer me these questions five....three sir