Descaled

Pan-Asian Edinburgh

2014-04-14T21:31:00.000+01:00

So we found ourselves hungry and in Edinburgh yesterday. There's always the temptation to feast on haggis when in Rome and all that. But as much as I love haggis, I think it's overpriced when you buy it in a cosy city pub at anything upto twelve or thirteen quid for a pile of local stuff served with a dollop of Smash and some instant whisky sauce.

We decided to head somewhere else - Bar Soba, a bar on Hanover Street which serves pan-Asian street food.

After ordering an Asahi and a diet coke for the driver (boo!), we studied the menu.

First up, Hong Kong dumplings, something I try to eat as often as possible.

They came in a little gang of three. They're incredibly easy to scoff but not so easy to photograph when you get so carried away in an eating frenzy that you forget.

I'm pretty sure these aren't made in Soba's kitchen but they are really good.

Next to slip down my throat were little salmon nigiri.

These did look slightly home-made. If they're not, I'd like to know where I can buy them, to pass off as my own when I next have folk over.

By now, I was mostly covered in soy sauce but it's a dimly lit place and I don't think anyone noticed.

Next out, an odd little steamed bun filled with pork and pickled apple. Mr P had wanted to try this on our last visit but they had sold out. I remember thinking they must be really good but perhaps the chef just forgot to order buns that day.

I was right. It was really good.

I tried not to eat much, being a bread avoider. Steamed buns are pretty good though.

Here's an action shot of Mr P slam-dunking a crab cake into some sweet chilli sauce. He was fast. I wish we'd ordered more of these.

I've already mentioned my love of dumplings and other dim sum so when the server said she was having fried dumplings for her lunch, I had no choice but to order the same. It was the only way to avoid lunch envy. These are the same as the steamed dumplings but erm, fried too. Ths often results in blistered lips so I approached each one with caution after letting it cool for a while.

Hmm, what next?

Enter the chicken katsu firecracker.

That is chicken katsu cut into pieces and rolled into inside-out rolls.

Crunchy and salty - what's not to love?

And that last dish ended our pan Asian lunch. We had refuelled just enough to give me the strength required for a Sunday trip to Ikea.

If you're tempted to visit Bar Soba, check out the 'Treat your friend to lunch in Edinburgh' deal on their website.

Bar Soba

104 Hanover Street,
New Town,
Edinburgh,
EH2 1DR

edinburgh @barsoba.co.uk

Cauli-cous

2014-03-28T20:40:00.001+00:00

It's no secret that I enjoy a bag of Tangfastics and pork scratchings now and again.

But if like me, you want to reduce or halt that 40-something bloat, something has to give.

My secret weapon used to be a bag of konjac noodles made from the root of an Asian plant. It is virtually carb and calorie free. It also comes in little rice-like pieces but at £2.19 a bag, it's not cheap.

A good (and thin) friend mentioned cauliflower rice and I decided to investigate...

It's really straightforward providing you like cauliflower, which I do.

1. Buy a cauliflower

2. Cut it into small pieces

3. Whizz up the pieces in a food processor

4. Season with salt and pepper,

5. Add a drop of light olive oil or sunflower oil to a frying pan

6. When the oil is hot, throw in the cauliflower.

It's as easy as that. Keep it moving so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and make up you don't add to much at once. This will cause it to steam when you should be drying it out a little.

7. After 5 minutes, remove from the heat and serve. This is a good time to add more flavours; chopped coriander or more seasoning but be careful if your adding anything wet such as lemon juice. This can cause the cauliflower to go soggy if left too long.

This is a brilliant way of getting more vegetables into your diet and great for carb avoiders. Not so great for the rice importers.

And now Tesco has muscled on to the scene and are selling this as cauliflower couscous. After all, it's much more couscousy than ricey. How nice to know that if you really can't be bothered to flip a few pieces of cauliflower into the blender, you can pay someone else to do it.

Low-carb Christmas Puddings

2013-12-24T23:51:00.000+00:00

Here's a cheeky little idea for you. These take minutes to prepare, cook and decorate and look fantastic too.

You will need...

250g minced lamb

2 large crushed garlic cloves

2 tsp harissa

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp ground cumin

Salt and pepper

To decorate...

Small snack-size pack dried cranberries

Fresh coriander

Natural Yoghurt

1. Take a large bowl and add everything, except the items you need to decorate the puddings. Mix together with your hands to make sure the spices get right through the mix.

2. Divide the mixture into approx 16 balls. Roll these in your hands and place on a baking tray in a 180c oven for 15 minutes.

3. Remove and allow to cool.

4. Using an icing bag, pipe the yoghurt onto each balls to resemble dripping icing.

5. Next place a coriander leaf and a couple if cranberries onto each ball.

6. Eat.

That's it!

Chicken and Duck Terrine

2013-12-21T18:20:00.001+00:00

Dhicken Terrine, or is that Chuck?

I haven't been here for three months.

I got myself sorted with a great little Lumix camera only to be faced with a dying laptop. So here we are; a new camera minus a macro lens and a replacement laptop. I've given myself a few weeks to get my aged head around Windows 8 too. I'm not quite there but we'll see how it goes...

Inspired by festive reruns on The Food Channel, I had given serious thought to the food I wanted to eat at Christmas. I need a starter for the big day and I wanted something I could do in advance.
My first terrine was a mixed game terrine of venison, rabbit and various small birds. Some people ( you know who you are!) found it too 'gamey' and one even asked if it was supposed to be served hot. It was not and so it was back to the drawing board.
Still smarting from the previous comments, I decided to play it safe and work with duck and chicken; still full of flavour but not quite as rich.

Before you begin, assemble a meaty pile of ingredients;

500g minced pork

2 slices brown breadcrumbs

1 egg

7 crushed juniper berries

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3 crushed garlic cloves

Glug of port

Salt & pepper

2 chicken breasts

2 duck breasts

20 rashers streaky bacon

This is enough to fill a medium loaf tin.

1. Mix the minced pork with the other ingredients except the duck and chicken breasts, and put it to one side.

2. Cut the duck and chicken breasts into small cubes and fry in olive oil for 2 minutes.

3. Then turn your attention to the bacon rashers...

4. Line the tin (or terrine) with the bacon, making sure you allow overhang to tuck in once the filling is in place.

5. Add some minced pork, pressing down firmly as you go.

Then, add a layer of breast meat.

Follow that with another layer of pork, another of the chicken and duck breast and top with a final layer of pork.

6. Once you've neatly covered the top with the ends of the bacon rashers, cover tightly with tinfoil, place in a Bain Marie - a deep baking tray filled with an inch or two of hot water - and bake for around 1 hour and 40 minutes at 160c.

7. When your terrine is cooked, top it with a heavy board, weighed down if necessary with something heavy.

8. Leave it in the fridge overnight, still with a weight on the top. I used three tins of chopped tomatoes. You might prefer to use something more creative. Anyway, the weight compresses the meat as it cools and makes the terrine really dense. You'll see from my photos that it has a few holes through it and could have done with extra weight. I hate this fridgy-cooling waiting game but it has to be done.

9. Go to bed.

10. The next day, ease the terrine from the tin and serve, or cut into slabs and freeze for another time.

If you're a carbs avoider, you'll be pleased to hear this contains around 3.5g in each serving, depending on the depth of your tin and the thickness of your slice.

But does it really matter if you're going to eat your body weight in Christmas pudding?

Festival time

2013-08-23T21:00:00.002+01:00

Ah, festival time.

Or should that be 'aaagh', festival time?

A month of utter madness, surely more expensive than keeping your ATM card in your back pocket alongside a scrap of paper on which you've scribbled your PIN.

Playing British bulldog with a man in a leotard, desperate to hand you a flyer advertising their show 'AAAdam's Flying Dog Project'. Who wouldn't want to spend their weekend here?

It's also impossible to get a decent hotel room for under £190. This is where AirBnB comes in handy.

Edinburgh was to be the first time I'd used this portal to book accommodation and I must admit, I was anxious. And yet, as I approached the steps of 17 Herriot Row, I noticed something inscribed into the brickwork.

Yup, I had inadvertently booked us into the childhood home of Robert Louis Stevenson. Not bad, eh?!

Slumming it, Edinburgh style

Our host John showed me to our room, the master bedroom once belonging to RLS's parents.
His Father, the well known lighthouse designer and engineer, was responsible for the ensuite installation which we would be using for the next couple of days. Who knows what other famous folk had soaked in this very tub?

I tore myself away and headed to meet Mr P at the ticket hut. He was collecting tickets for Amnesty International's Secret Comedy Podcast. Hosted by Julian Clary, the hour-long show featured Al Murray and some other folk. It's a good way to check out acts you don't know, and some you do, for just a few quid.

Next stop - Chez Jules for a hearty two course lunch of Ricard, goats cheese, wine and Coq au Vin. The price and quality of service is always good. We usually end up here when we're in town.

Goats cheese on bread with a smattering of walnuts

I'm not sure where the rest of the day went. We managed to eat again, this time a dirty burger, and enjoyed some overpriced wine.

But it wasn't long before we were queuing to get into the John Taylor event at the International Book Festival.

John Taylor and journo with awkward body language

This wasn't my choice but it was pretty amusing seeing hordes of housewives getting damp at the sight of their idol. The event was sponsored by Tena lady, I believe.

We queued for ages to get a book signed. Ok, so we sat on deckchairs with a glass of wine until the queue had almost gone...

After that, it was time to call it a day. We headed wearily back to 17 Herriot Row for bed. I should mention at this point about the complimentary decanter of whisky in our room. I'm not a whisky drinker but Mr P certainly is and he made that decanter his own.

The following morning, we rose for breakfast. The family were out so we were looked after by the housekeeper, a friendly German lady who had been with the family since November of last year. It is thanks to her that we feasted on smoked fish, ham, cheese and eggs.
I'm not a delicate morning person. I could quite happily eat left over curry with my Bran-Flakes, so this sort of breakfast is ideal for me.
What made it interesting were the coach-loads of tourist gawping at me as I tucked in. I counted five coaches in one hour. I waved and smiled as not to disappoint.
I'm sure with some planning, you could have a lot of fun with that, especially around Halloween.

We met our friends Mr & Mrs Stewart for another Amnesty show and lunch before heading to the Usher Hall for The Shawshank Redemption. I wasn't aware of the story but it wasn't the romantic comedy I had hoped for. However, by the end, I was moved and almost in tears.

Next, we raced back to the International Book Festival - this time for a 'invitation only' party. Starrily-eyed, I spotted Ian Rankin. Unfortunately he was leaving the festival and not at the party as I had hoped. But at the party, I spied some well known authors, chatted to some and generally hob-nobbed with the rest. Oh and I enjoyed some free wine. Not a bad day's work.

We headed home, exhausted, vowing to bring more money and stay longer next year.
And who knows where AirBnB will put us?

I'm aiming for Holyrood Palace.

Seafest 2013

2013-08-14T22:14:00.004+01:00

Spink's Seafest Smokies

It's been a funny few weeks at Persoglio Towers.

Mr P has been home in the evenings and has taken over the kitchen. He's also learned how to use the dishwasher and other small appliances. He's taken to following me around and moaning at the trail of mess left in my wake. I'm starting to wonder if I've slipped into some weird parallel world and I'm hoping I don't start sprouting a thick dark beard. Well maybe I have already but my friends and colleagues are too polite to comment...

So although I haven't cooked or baked anything blog-worthy, I have been doing other blog related stuff behind the scenes.
The first and most torturous of tasks was to get a proper domain name.
Like an idiot, I chose the ridiculous 'CrazyDomains' to handle the sale. I paid for descaled.co.uk and bought some web space on which I would host my site.
Then, when descaled.co.uk was officially mine, I set about making the changes, first on Blogger which seemed pretty straight forward, and then to CrazyDomains which did not. In fact, it's accurate to say my dealings with CrazyDomains did send me, and those around me, kinda loopy after a while.

To cut a very long painful story short, I abandoned CrazyDomains and settled instead for a web forwarding service with another company.

I'm not sure if this will improve my site traffic or improve my Google position but it does mean I'm easier to find.

I've also treated myself to a new camera which should improve the quality of foodie pics here. It's not going to be as easy as whipping out a mobile phone in a restaurant and snapping away but I'll see what I can do. Mr P has a serious case of 'green eye'. He's currently looking to upgrade his old Canon to something with a few more megapixel, to keep up.

It's unfortunate that I didn't have my new camera in time for Seafest 2013. I had to make do with my iPhone. It's not easy taking photos on a phone, in bright sunlight. But it was bright sunlight so I can't complain too much.

Seafest takes place each year in Arbroath, a small fishing town near Dundee. I had hoped for a plethora of fishermen on their stalls, cooking and selling their catches. Instead, we were met with a sea of burger vans and candyfloss.

Luckily, someone was serving Arbroath Smokies.

Smokies are haddock that has been salted, dried and smoked. This is done by men who I imagine have long since lost their sense of smell and their friends.

The end result is a mummified-looking piece of flaky white fish; brown on the outside and white on the inside.

The Smokie smoker - if that's what they're called - will remove the spine for you. But beware - you're left with smaller bones which you'll need to keep an eye on if choking to death in a field in Arbroath isn't your thing.

After feasting on the large fishy beast, washed down with coffee, I felt weirdly healthy and yet salty and dirty at the same time. I had finally discovered my inner seaman.
A few minutes later, my inner seaman was somewhat dehydrated and desperately gulping a bottle of water.

The next time you're out and there's a smouldering fish odour in the air, it might be the Arbroath Smokie man.

Just don't add salt.

Frightening on the outside...

...acceptable on the inside

Another Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!

2013-07-16T18:44:00.000+01:00

We bickered for days over the menu and so resorted to l'internet for inspiration. There we found various recipes for Basque Chicken. On the French side, they refer to it as Poulet Basquaise. It's amazing what can learn from chatting to people in your local deli.
But this isn't about Poulet Basquaise. That's for another post when we've had time to perfect the recipe; to try it with different parts of the chicken and other cooking methods.

For now, I'd like to leave you with something very quick and simple - my take on Pissaladiere. This simple Niçoise creation has just a few ingredients. If you can make a pizza base, you can make a Pissaladiere.
However, we were in the middle of preparing the above mentioned chicken dish and constructing a four storey cake of cheese for twelve guests. Knocking out a 12 inch pizza base was not an option...

Petite Pissaladiere (makes 24)

Ingredients

1 block of shortcrust pastry
4 large white onions, sliced thinly on a mandoline
50g unsalted French butter (of course!)
2 cans or jars of anchovies
Pitted black olives

You will also need...
A mini morsel or mini tartlette baking tray, a mandoline or a sharp knife and fingers of steel, a sauté pan, some butter to grease the baking tray and your kitchen scales.

When you're ready...

Heat the oven to 190c.
Grease the baking tray with a little knob of butter.
Melt 50g of butter in a sauté pan over a low heat.
Finely slice the onions and add to the pan. Sweat the onions gently without giving them any colour.
Take the pastry and cut it into even pieces. If you're using a Lakeland Mini Morsel tray, each piece of pastry needs to be around 13g. Roll the pieces into little balls and place the balls into the greased baking tray. It's easy enough to make your own pastry but if you're short of time or space, do what I do and buy it ready made.
Using a dibber tool or your fingers, press the balls of pastry into each little compartment of your baking tray.
Next, spoon the sweated onion into each pastry case.
Wrap an anchovy fillet around a pitted black olive and place one on top of each Petite Pissaladiere.
Bake the tray of salty beauties for around twelve minutes, turning halfway though.

Serve these as soon as you remember to. Alternatively, don't serve. Eat them yourself, in bed, once your guests have gone.

Ask me, ask me, ask me...for some rhubarb

2013-06-02T10:07:00.000+01:00

'So, if there's something you'd like to try

If there's something you'd like to try

Ask me I wont say no, how could I?'

I recently completed a women's development programme in which it was explained that women don't ask, and that's why we don't get.

Later that day, I put the learning into practice and when I heard a colleague offering a bag of rhubarb to another, I stepped up and asked for some. It worked.

The new (empowered) me considered a duck dish with a rhubarb sauce but I think I've bored you guys enough already with duck this 'n' that.

Instead, I thought I'd try a rhubarb chutney. Tah dah!

Mr P pulled a face at the idea - hmm, a tough audience. It would have to have to be pretty special to win him over.

I assembled the kit and prepared for battle.

4 tbsp olive oil
2 medium red onions
3 huge stalks of rhubarb
200g brown (or other) sugar
1 tsp fenugreek
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsps mustard seeds
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Handful of dried cranberries
Salt and pepper
Splash of hot water

First, chop the onions into fairly chunky pieces. Splash the olive oil into a large pan.
Sauté the onions until they start to soften.
Wash and chop the rhubarb into 1cm pieces and add a third to the pan.
After 5 minutes, add the spices as listed above and another third of rhubarb.
When the spices have fried a little, 2 mins or so, add a splash of water to prevent the spices sticking to the bottom of your pan.
Stir the pan for 5 mins before adding the two vinegars and the final third of rhubarb. Adding the rhubarb at different stages gives you a lovely velvety base, some blobby bits and finally some more defined pieces for 'body'. It'll look pretty nasty, but in a good way.
At the same time, throw in a handful of dried fruit. I went for cranberries because I had some in the cupboard.
When the largest chunks of rhubarb are just about soft, add the sugar and keep stirring until dissolved. The nastiness should be bubbling and generally making a mess on your hob/shirt/face.
Remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool.
Ignore the mess on hob.
Apply damp towel to facial burns.
Wash your jars and rinse them with boiling water. Pop them into the fridge to chill.
Then, spoon the chutney into the jars.
Once it has cooled, put the lids on and store the chutney in the fridge.

We ate the first batch with a wedge of mature Anster cheese and some black pepper oatcakes.
I'll be saving a jar to use as a hot sauce for duck...but I think you knew that already.

Lookin' nasty

'Ask me' courtesy of MARR, JOHNNY / MORRISSEY, STEVEN PATRICK.

Carcassonne, cassoulet and castles

2013-05-11T11:07:00.001+01:00

As much as I love slow travel, when you only have a weekend, you need to get there as quickly as possible. So, Ryanair boarding passes in hand, we made our way to Prestwick for a 'Pure Dead Brilliant' early morning flight to Carcassonne.

A couple of hours later, we landed where the air was heavy with the scent of lavender and moped exhaust fumes.

It was too early for cassoulet but we needed to eat so, after dumping the bags at the hotel, we went in search of lunch.

Waiting for lunch

The first stop was a busy restaurant in the bustling Cité square.
Le Trouvere is a traditional looking restaurant which attracts tourists in their droves. It's not a place to sit and leisurely ponder life but it is a place to have a cold beer while you await the arrival of your lunch.

I feasted on Confit de Canard as a warm up to that evening's much anticipated cassoulet.
I was after all, a lean bean eating machine in training.

Later that evening, Carcassonne experienced a freak thunderstorm which lasted all evening. The entire Cité emptied and resembled a horror movie set. I half expected Boris Karloff to lurch around the corner at any moment. This was all good for us as we hadn't booked a table.
So, armed with an umbrella lent to us by our kindly hotel receptionist, we made our way back to the Cité for dinner where we stumbled into the very homely Restaurant Au Four Saint Louis. We peeled off the wet layers and ordered a couple of drinks while the rain continued to pound the cobbles and turn the streets into streams.

Cassoulet - The first of the trip

We both ordered cassoulet.
It was very pale compared to previously munched cassoulets, due to the absence of tomatoes. It wasn't heavy on thyme either. However, it was well seasoned and it was flippin' delicious.

You would think one bowl of hearty cassoulet would satisfy the hungriest of tourists. It did, but luckily we still had room for pudding. We finished off with a creme brûlée that was quite literally on fire.

What trickery was this?
Does anyone know what they put on the sugar to make it burn?

Creme brûlée - A lovely fire on a wet night

I couldn't detect any trace of brandy or other spirits so figured it was just good old fashioned witchcraft. I have a feeling I'm going to cause a lot of damage trying this out at home. I may have to stick with the blow torch.

The following morning, I woke to discover that I was suffering from 'the bloat'. This would be a day for salad.
We spent the morning on a walking tour which ended at the Canal du Midi on the other side of the Aude.
After much discussion, reading menus and gawping into windows, we took a table in a large bistro where I ordered a colourful salad Niçoise. I can't remember what the place was called but I'm pretty sure I'd find it again if I had to.

The bloat reducer

By evening, the bloat had gone and like a vampire needing a blood fix, I turned my thoughts once again to cassoulet.

We headed back to the Cité and found a table outside a restaurant in the square. Some people would refer to this place as a 'tourist trap' but it's kinda hard to avoid them in the Medieval part of Carcassonne. Besides, it was a great spot for people watching and eavesdropping.

However, this time the dish was somewhat disappointing. It was more expensive than the previous evening and was seriously lacking seasoning, thyme and garlic. Still, it was okay and the bottle of local wine was excellent. It gave us enough energy to head to Le Chapeau Rouge for a guitar and lute gig with the hipsters of Carcassonne.

Cass-souless number 2

Day three was upon us. Determined not to waste a beautiful day inside, we grabbed a merguez sandwich and a bottle of Orangina and had lunch on the Cité wall. It's not really the area for merguez but I just couldn't resist.
They didn't have any harissa either but we made do with spicy mayo. We made a vow to return to Marseille soon for the real thing.
We spent the rest of the day in the sun, walking around the ramparts and thinking about dinner.

When that time came, we spent an hour wandering around, trying to find somewhere nice to eat. We eventually decided to go back to the Restaurant Au Four Saint Louis.

The one that almost
grounded the flight

After a couple of kirs and a platter of charcuterie, we dived head first into the final cassoulet of the trip.
This time was different though. My stomach, semi-full with charcuterie, was beginning to revolt. The beans, the wine and the plentiful breakfast pastries had all taken their toll.
This stomach was full.

I admitted defeat and passed my half-eaten bowl over to Mr P. This wasn't, after all, a European version of Man vs. Food and I did need to leave room for pudding - another flaming creme brûlée.

Restaurant Au Four Saint Louis, Carcassonne

At 11am the following morning we left Carcassonne to catch our flight. The struggling plane just about managed to heave itself off the runway with its engines at full throttle.

By that afternoon, my diet had restarted.

Carcassonne - I'm sure there's a castle in this picture somewhere

Nice 'n' Sleazy

2013-04-27T09:18:00.001+01:00

Nice 'n' Sleazy is a Glaswegian institution.
A few days ago, I checked Mr P and I in, using the stalker-friendly Facebook feature, and was amazed by the number of 'likes' it generated.

Nice 'n' Sleazy was first introduced to me as somewhere with a great collection of Tretchikoffs. Its walls hang heavy with familiar prints of Chinese and Balinese ladies, although the prints are somewhat lost against a backdrop of Aztec patterns and DJ posters. Nevertheless, they have Tretchikoffs and that in itself is a good enough reason to go...

But wait!

There's also another good reason to go - the food.

We were in Glasgow for a gig so it seemed only natural to fill up on a dirty burger for strength and energy. There was to be a great deal of bouncing later that night and we needed to fuel up on something manly.

The menu features some robust sandwiches, burritos and quesadillas and is backed up by the burger board; an intimidating selection of animal bits in buns.

The Murderous Hog comes with smoked bacon, pulled pork, smoked cheddar, tomato (healthy!), gem lettuce, Boubon jam, chilli mayo, hot sauce and pork gravy - all served in a bun that has been dipped in beef dripping.

And where else will you find a chicken burger that comes with a serving of crispy chicken skin and a bun dipped in chicken stock?
The bun, by the way, is a neat little glazed home-made thing; a work of art in its own right.

I decided to try a lamb burger that had been pimped up with a touch of harissa.
Mr P ordered the Murderous Hog. Both came with twice cooked chips that actually looked like pieces of a real potato. It was obvious that these little fried beauties had been handcrafted with love.

To complement our burgers, I selected some fine bottles of Budweiser Budvar.

The Murderous Hog (left) vs. Lamb's Supper

Fully refuelled, we left for the gig at the ABC. We fought our way through a sea of youth and hormones to the front and bounced around all night to Public Enemy. We even had enough energy to walk back to the hotel afterwards.

Yeah boy!

Yeah boy!

Slow and low is the way to go

2013-04-18T18:00:00.000+01:00

As the Beastie Boys once said, 'slow and low' cooking really is the way to let yourself go.

I have a slow cooker.
It doesn't take up much space and it's always close to hand. It doesn't even use much electricity. It's an almost perfect kitchen gadget.

In an ideal world, I'd stick a pot in the oven for a few hours but, if you're out all day and slightly OCD about leaving things switched on, this isn't always possible, and that's where the slow cooker comes in handy.

My fear of leaving things switched on, can just about handle it.

However, there are two dishes that definitely need to be cooked in this way - and this may offend the entire Chinese and French population - Chinese ribs and confit de canard.

I have a beautiful pair of duck legs (or is it just the way I stand?) in the freezer, left over from last weekend's trip to the farmers market. It would be extremely rude to ignore them for yet another week

Because I'm not preserving the duck, I won't need to bother with the curing process, the part where you rub the leg with salt and garlic and chill it overnight. Instead I place the legs into the slow cooker, skin side down, and add a touch of garlic, salt, pepper and thyme. In fact, add more thyme. The smell after a couple of hours will be heart-warming.

So that's it. Legs into the slow cooker with some bits and pieces. Put the lid on, forget all about it and by the time you get home, the duck will be soft and melting. The skin might have shrunk away from the leg bone. Running a knife around the ankle before cooking will make sure that it always does.

After its time in the slow cooker the legs need to go into the oven. Heat the oven to 200c and roast the legs until the skin has crisped up a little. This should take around 15 minutes.

Serve with sarladaise potatoes, a great way to use up the leftover duck fat.

This could do with another five minutes

Cathar capers

2013-04-14T18:18:00.001+01:00

Inspired by the recent television adaptation of Kate Mosse's Labyrinth, and one of our favourite board games, we've decided that a visit to the fortified French town of Carcassonne is necessary.

We've tried to visit before but it's never quite worked out.

Other commitments and overpriced flights have put the kibosh on this trip at least three times. But now we're going.

So, we need to decide how we're going to fill our three days at this World Heritage Site. More importantly, we need to know where and what to eat. As much as I love cassoulet, I can't eat it for three days in a row. I'm not sure my body can handle that amount of heartburn in one weekend...

Do you have a favourite restaurant or café in Carcassonne?

We want your suggestions of reasonably priced places, that are typical of that region.

Now, back to my packing spreadsheet...or does anyone fancy a game of Carcassonne?


Carcassonne - The board game

Slow cooked 'n' spicy

2013-04-07T12:25:00.001+01:00

The first Saturday of the month usually means an early morning walk to the farmers market in Perth.

We didn't arrived until 10am which is late by my standards, but we were fortunate enough to bag a couple of Hugh Grierson's organic lamb shanks.

Last weekend, I had served up shanks in red wine to friends, so this time I was determined to try something different.

My creation was made using the following bits and pieces...

200g natural yoghurt
Olive oil (a generous glug of!)
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp garam masala
2 tsp chilli flakes
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
3 cloves finely sliced garlic
4 drops red food colouring
1 tsp dried coriander
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
Handful fresh coriander
Salt and pepper
2 red onions, sliced

And my two lovely pieces of lamb.

All of the above, excluding the yoghurt, lamb and fresh coriander, are things I have in my spice cupboard. Since I didn't need to carry any heavy spice jars back from the supermarket, I was able to buy a bottle of wine and two bottles of Cobra. It seemed pointless to carry a half empty bag all the way home.

The next part is simple...

Take a large bowl and a wooden spoon
Add everything except the lamb, onions, salt and fresh coriander and mix together
Stab the lamb with the point of a sharp knife
Next, add the lamb to the marinade, making sure it's completely coated
Cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge for a hour (minimum)

After an hour or so...

Heat the oven to 200c
Take a large covered pot
Gently fry the onions. Add a clove of crushed garlic too if you like
After 5 minutes, add the lamb and some of the marinade. Place it in the pot with the bone sticking upwards
Cover the pot and put it in the preheated oven
After 30 minutes, turn the heat down to 160c

The lamb should be ready to eat after 2.5 hours. But if you're not ready, just turn the oven down to 140c and come back when you are.

Just before serving, sprinkle a handful of chopped fresh coriander

I served this with some simple boiled rice but it would also go well with a salad or a chapati.

Perth - Host to the farmers market on the first Saturday of each month

Cheese on toast? Don't take the pizza.

2013-03-24T18:05:00.001+00:00

I have long held the opinion that pizza is little more than cheese on toast.
But I don't dislike pizza. It has its uses.

Many years ago, in the distant '80s, it was the only way we could legally get our hands on alcohol. Sure, those with a face that fitted, simply went to The Crown or The Corinium Court Hotel. For the rest of us blessed with youthful looks, booking a table at The Pizza Provençal restaurant allowed us to abuse a well known legal loophole where 16 and 17 year olds can drink lager, beer and cider with a meal. All you needed was a friend over the age of 18 and the entire group could drink like fish until the pizza was finished.

These days, I prefer my pizza to have a thin base but I still enjoy quaffing a cold lager with it.

So, how do we create a pizza that has more pizazz than cheese on toast?
This is how...

Make sure you have the following:

300g '00' flour
1 teaspoon dried yeast
1 (small) teaspoon salt
1 (small) teaspoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
200ml warm water
Polenta

When you're ready to begin, pop your mixing bowl into the oven for two minutes to warm it.

Then sieve the flour, sugar, salt and yeast into the bowl.

Make a well in the middle and add the warm water and olive oil.

Work the mixture together with a wooden spoon until it binds and the bowl is clean.

Removed the ball of dough from the bowl and place it onto a lightly floured surface.

Give it a kneed for a few minutes until it becomes smooth.

Put the dough back into the (lightly floured) bowl, cover it with clingfilm and leave it somewhere warm to rise.

Don't worry too much if your dough doesn't rise or you don't have time to wait. I've used dough that has risen for 30 minutes and dough that was given an hour. They were both great. It's all down to what you prefer so consider doing this a few times until you find what works for you.

It's also worth mentioning that at this 'pre-cheese' stage, this pizza is suitable for vegans.

After 30-60 minutes, place the risen (or not) dough ball onto a board or work surface that has been lightly dusted with polenta.

Knock the air out of the dough for a minute or two.

Next, flatten the dough to make your base. You can use a rolling pin or your hands. Remember to dust the work surface with polenta each time you turn the base.

When it's the right thickness, move your base onto a warm baking tray or pizza stone. For me, the right thickness is as thin as I can get it - which isn't usually as thin as I would like.

Now it's time for the topping:

2 crushed garlic cloves
400g (approx) passata
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Simply put everything into a pan and heat through for 20 minutes. You could even make this the day before, to give the garlic and oregano time to infuse. You'll have far too much so consider freezing the leftover sauce for another time.

Spoon a small amount onto the base and smooth it around until you have an even covering. Don't over-sauce the base. It'll affect the cooking time and your toppings will be browned before the base is done.

When you're happy with your tomato distribution, go to the fridge and see what you have. Hopefully you'll have a ball of mozzarella in there. After that, anything goes.

Here are some suggestions...

The 'Thyme to Kill'

Tomato base, fresh rosemary, slices of garlic, drizzle of olive oil, sea salt.

Great for vegans and those avoiding dairy or fighting vampires.

The 'Tramp's Vest'

Tomato base, mozzarella, anchovies and black olives.

An interesting and unique odour that'll have the neighbours wondering who you're entertaining tonight.

The 'Sid James'

Tomato base, mozzarella, Roquefort and a firm pear.

Perfectly kitsch for a '70s night.

The 'Easter Egg'

Tomato base, mozzarella, slices of smoked duck and an egg.

Why not go the whole hog and add a smattering of minced rabbit too. Possibly not one for the kids.
Goes well with lamb.

Introducing the 'Cack-hander'

I have discovered that a small-medium size pizza, as pictured, takes exactly 10 minutes at 200c, followed by 4 minutes with the oven turned up to 220c. This is in a small modern fan oven.
Turn the tray after the first 5 minutes so you get an even tan.

Watch yours closely the first couple of times to make sure you get your own timings spot on.

Before

After

Cheese on toast?
Maybe not.

The Wrong Sausage

2013-03-10T11:41:00.000+00:00

Horrified by the recent horsing around with supermarket meat, I ordered a box of goodies from a local butcher.

The delivery arrived in good time. I opened the polystyrene box to reveal a humongous pack of French smoked pork sausages. Quelle horror!
"Why?" I hear you shout.
Indeed, there is nothing wrong with a nice smoked sausage. I'm not talking Mattessons here but a fine artisan beast tethered with string and sticks to secure the skin.
However, I had ordered, and was looking forward to, a large pack of merguez.

I spoke to the butcher and explained my predicament. He offered his apologies and blamed someone in distribution who thought the large pack of French smoked sausages would be a suitable alternative to the unavailable merguez.
"Of course," I explained, "these humongous French smoked pork sausages are just like merguez...other than the fact they're made of pork, they're smoked and each one weighs 250g.
But they are both eaten in France so I guess you're right."
He agreed. The likeness was uncanny.

A few days later, I found myself in Duo, a shiny-new restaurant in Perth.
This little gem of a place has seating for around twenty people which gives it a cosy and secluded feel. For those not quick enough to bag a table, there's the option of buying goodies from the little deli that shields the restaurant from the street.
In the short time this place has been open, I've consumed home-made ravioli, pizza, tartiflette, smoked duck salad, clafoutis, brioche, croissants, cappuccino, espresso, red wine and several bottles of Prosecco. I'm not doing so well at diet club these days.

It's difficult to get out without adding some of the deli things to the bill. You can pick up Wicked chocolates, reblochon cheese, Breton cidre, plenty of cured meats and bread and croissants that bear no resemblance to the crappy things you get in Tesco. And best of all, this little deli sells merguez.

It is indeed a pretty inspiring place - which is why, after my last visit, I decided to make ravioli.
The pasta machine was hauled from the top shelf of the pantry and securely clamped to the kitchen worktop.
An early morning dash around Perth's monthly farmers market resulted in a haul of top quality ingredients; minced beef (horse free) and eggs. The experts at Perth's other deli, Provender Brown, sold me a small jar of white truffles. Shopping done and bank account emptied, I returned home to begin.

I emptied 300g of '00' grade flour into a large bowl, made a well in the middle and added 3 large eggs. Using my hands, I mixed the eggs and flour and worked the mixture into a ball. It's really easy at this point to think you should be adding more eggs as the mixture initially appears dry and stiff. Kneading the ball on a floured board develops the gluten which makes the dough stretchy and smooth. You really need to work the dough until your arms ache. My Dad, while making bread in the early 80s, would fashion the dough into a face and pretend it was my Gran's. You could try something similar if you think it'll help.
After kneading, wrap the dough in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes while you work on the filling.

For the filling, I used a small pack of organic minced beef, around 250g. The beef was fried with a small finely chopped onion, a touch of seasoning and oregano. Once lightly browned, the mix was left to cool for five minutes before going into the food processor. At this point, I added a good amount of matured cheddar. I didn't weigh the cheese but I imagine it was around 100g. When it reached a fairly fine texture, the filling was ready.

So back to the pasta machine...
Always run a small piece of dough through the machine to clean it before you begin.
Starting on the widest setting, run a small piece of dough through a couple of times, working up through the width settings until your pasta is thin enough.
Next, on a floured board, lay the pasta sheet down and cut a disc using a pastry cutter. Add a small amount of filling and brush around the disc edge with milk.
Cut another disc, slightly larger than the first disc, lay it over the filling and gently fix in place, making sure to push the air out.

Lovingly place your creation onto a floured plate and start working on the next.

A few things to remember:

Work in small batches and always wrap the unused dough in cling film to prevent it drying out.

If your plate isn't well floured, your pasta will stick.

Filled pasta needs to be thinner than unfilled. Mine was a touch too thick so took longer to cook.

Once you have your hands covered in flour and eggs, your friends will send you texts and your husband will call.

I served my pasta with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a light grating of white truffle.
A tomato sauce would have suited the beef filling but at this point, my need to eat was greater than my desire to create more washing up.

This one goes up to 11

Croquembouche

2012-12-22T12:28:00.003+00:00

Croquembouche, also known as Piece Montée, are glorious towers of choux buns, each gently filled with Creme Anglaise and glued together with caramel.
They are France's traditional Wedding cake and are beginning to catch on in the UK with couples who don't want fruitcake or mounds of cupcakes to dominate their photo album. Mr P and I opted for a Croquembouche at our Wedding breakfast, three years ago. The group was small and it seemed less intimidating than a full blown tiered Wedding Cake. The restaurant bought it in from a patisserie in Edinburgh and it was a small work of art.

The professionally made Wedding version

Some time later, after a few glasses of wine, I found myself in Lakeland buying a Croquembouche kit. This contained a cone which you fill with choux buns to make a small Croquembouche or stack the buns around the outside to make a larger tower.

The practice version

Choux buns are very easy to make.
You will need a good non stick backing tray (or a crappy one with some grease proof paper), a saucepan with a lid, a couple of mixing bowls and a piping bag with nozzles.

Make sure your kitchen scales are accurate too.

You will also need:

375ml water
150g unsalted butter (cubed)
175g plain flour
5 large beaten eggs

If you like to munch as you go along, I strongly suggest that you increase these amounts by 50%.

Preheat the oven to 200c. That's 180c for a fan oven and gas 6.
My first batch went into a fan oven accidentally heated to 220c. They were fine but a little dark at the edges and had to be eaten immediately.

Put the water and butter cubes into a saucepan, cover and boil until the butter has melted.
Add the flour to the buttery water and mix frantically with a wooden spoon until it has become a smooth paste. Put the paste into a bowl and leave to cool for 5 mins.
After 5 minutes, slowly add the beaten eggs, a little at a time and stir until the mix is smooth.
Stick this mixture into a piping bag and pipe little balls onto your baking tray.
Bake these for 20 minutes, turning the tray after 10-15 minutes.
After 20 minutes, remove from the oven and pierce a small hole in the button of each bun. This releases the steam. Once pierced, return the tray to the oven for 2-3 mins to dry the buns out.
Cool the buns on a wire rack.

For the Creme Anglaise, you will need:

600ml full fat milk
Vanilla pod or essence (3-4 drops)
6 large egg yolks
75g caster sugar
65g plain flour

The method:

Pour the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla. Bring the milk slowly to a simmer.
In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar and flour until creamy.
Pour the hot milk over the egg mixture and stir
Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook over a low heat until it thickens and the floury taste has been cooked out.
Cover and leave to chill in the fridge
Spoon the Creme Anglaise into your pipping bag and fill each choux bun through the steam hole.

Next, make the caramel. This acts as a glue for your tower.

You will need:

300g caster sugar
225ml water

The method:

Put the sugar and water in a pan and stir on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved
Raise the heat to a boil. Do not stir
The temperature needs to reach 154c but if you don't have a thermometer don't worry. You can actually hear it getting sticky and the colour gets a little darker too

The Christmas Croquembouche

So now all you need to do is construct your tower.
Dip each bun in the caramel and arrange around the base of the mould. If the caramel starts to get a little thick, just add a splash of water and return to the heat for a few minutes. Beware of the caramel, it's really hot and will give you a nasty burn. Make sure there are no animals or children in the kitchen when you're at the construction stage.

Once you have your tower, you need to decorate it. As it's Christmas, we decided not to do the classic spun sugar thing but instead to dust it with icing sugar and top with a star. Ahh!

I believe that in every photo of a Croquembouche, there should be a delighted or exhausted face behind it. This is mine, a mixture of both.

Goodbye diet. I'll see you in the new year...

Truffle Kerfuffle

2012-09-02T20:46:00.000+01:00

After the previous day's lampredotto excitement in Florence, I thought I'd have a sandwich for lunch. By dinner time I was starving.
We blundered aimlessly until we came across a restaurant we had previously considered. The menu was handwritten which in my mind means the food is fresh, unfrozen and unmicrowaved.

I asked the woman for their most romantic table and signalled to a small table for two on the terrace. Before we knew it, the table was adorned with a cloth and candle and Mr P and I were seated.

The scent of romance became so strong that a rose seller appeared immediately. We shooed him away to the next table where a loud man, trying to impress his date, said he'd take a rose and then tried to underpay the seller.

To start, Mr P ordered tortelloni stuffed with ricotta. The pieces were drizzled in a bechamel sauce and garnished with shavings of black truffle. The waitress told us that we'd be sharing this starter - a sure sign that the next course of tagliata with rocket and Parmesan would be a true feast.
Some time later, after the pudding, the next table order the same starter and the scent of theirs was enough to bring back the sensation of eating it all over again.

So strong was the desire for more that we grabbed a jar of the 'black diamonds' at the airport on our way home.

Back in Scotland, we made a beeline to Lakeland and treated ourselves to a pasta machine. It's a glistening beauty of chrome and whirly handles. The first attempt at a pile of tagliatelle was so successful that we spoke of nothing else for the rest of the evening.

Today, I am going to try to stuff the pasta and recreate that Florence dish.
The pasta recipe is from the Jamie Oliver website. It's a mix of eggs and flour. The thing that makes it work is the amount of time you spend kneading the dough. It's so enjoyable, it's difficult to know when to stop.

Grab yourself a bag of 00 grade flour. The grade tells you that it's finely milled - ideal for making pasta.
Poor 300g into a bowl, make a well in the middle and add three eggs.

Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs up and introduce the flour a little at a time until you have a ball of dough.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it for at least ten minutes on a floured board or surface. After ten minutes, the dough will start to feel stretchy and smooth.

Wrap the ball of dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for half an hour or so.

Set up you pasta machine. Once clamped into position, break off a small piece of the chilled dough and run it though the machine on roller setting 1. You'll need to run the dough through a couple of times on each setting, starting at 1 and finishing at 6. I'm assuming these settings are standard on all machine but if yours goes up to 11 then just keep going until it's as thin as you can comfortably get it while retaining its strength and elasticity. You might need to re-flour your dough each time you change the roller setting to prevent it from sticking to the machine.

Take your length of rolled dough and place onto a floured surface.
Cut the strip into squares and place a small amount of filling into the middle of a each piece. Here I've used ricotta.

Next, paint water around the edge of each piece with a a pastry brush or your finger. Fold each square into a triangle, pushing air out from the mound of filling and make sure the wet edges are sealed. I pronged the edges with a random cake fork. We only have one and I've never found a use for it until now.
Lightly dust each piece with flour or semolina flour, to prevent it from sticking to the other pieces.

I served the pasta with a light drizzle of bechamel sauce, just as we had enjoyed at the start of this story and a generous amount of grated truffle.
We're now on to the second truffle of three. Like the first, the second truffle was tasteless and woody and not at all like the pungent beast we had been seduced by in Florence.

Let me know if you're flying to Pisa anytime in the near future. I'm sure I have the receipt here somewhere...

An offal lunch in Firenze

2012-08-26T09:37:00.001+01:00

Lampre-don't

We headed down for breakfast just before 8 'o' clock the following morning.

The Hotel Cellai does breakfast really well but I struggled to stuff too much into my mouth after the night before. This was a good thing - we needed to act quickly so we could get into the Accademia before it got too busy.

One of the best ideas we had on this trip was to buy a Firenze Card. These cost 50 euros each and gives you access to loads of museums, galleries and gardens over a period of 72 hours. If you go to two or three places, you don't really save much but what you do gain is access to the Firenze Card queue.

At 9.15am the Firenze Card queue was empty and we walked straight in. The normal queue wasn't massive but if you hate queueing as much as I do, any queue is bad news.
The same happened at the Uffizi Gallery. We walked straight past the long queue of sweaty visitors and up to the Firenze Card entrance where a smiling man waved us in.

Such touristy smugness makes you hungry so this is the bit where we decide to eat like the locals. I suspect we were eating as the locals 'claim' to eat but I'm not sure anyone would willingly eat lampredotto, pictured above.
One sniff tells you that this isn't going to be a good thing - but reassured by a smell similar to that of haggis, I had to give it a go. It was only as I tried to force the slimy yet chewy slice into my mouth that I realised this fourth cow stomach and my own were not destined to become good friends.
The lampdredotto and the nearest bin became acquainted shortly after this revelation.

I managed to rid myself of the taste by eating a giant bag of rosemary crisps before dinner where

Mr P ordered a bowl of wild boar and polenta and I opted for the fixed menu of crostini followed by Italian sausage, ribs and pork. The dinner was enhanced by an inexpensive bottle of Chianti which in turn enhanced my sleep ahead of another day of sightseeing and eating.

Where to begin?

2012-08-24T22:04:00.000+01:00

We arrived in Florence to temperatures of around 40 degrees.
Once in our hotel room, I changed into the first outfit on the spreadsheet and we headed out for lunch.
It's difficult to know what to do when there is so much choice and we walked for hours before a crazy waiter with a rubber face and flappy arms forced us, too weak to resist, into his restaurant.

Quattro formaggi with ham and mushrooms

The pizza above was delicious but lacking any sort of blue cheese. I don't have enough vocabulary to complain so I really have to accept what I'm given. The Peroni (or was it Bierra Moretti?) made it all ok.

Later that night, once showered and changed, we ventured into the hotel bar for an aperitif. The public rooms were set up with honesty bars. This seemed like a good idea but at 6 euros a glass, we didn't linger for long.
I'm not sure why I didn't take any photos of dinner on this evening. I'll blame it on the heat but it means you'll have to use your imagination...it was a plate of undercooked tortellini. I would have chosen better if I had known what awfully offal delights tomorrow would bring.

The Sun setting on our first day in Florence

The road to Florence

2012-08-23T11:34:00.001+01:00

The journey to Florence started with a short drive to Prestwick wearing the heaviest and bulkiest of my holiday clothes.
I had exactly the right amount of clothes for the trip thanks to my innovative 'packing spreadsheet'.

It's a simple thing. You look at where you're going and what you'll be doing and from this you can decide what outfits you'll need and how many times you will wear each garment. If something gets just one wear, then it gets deleted from the spreadsheet. You also need to think about scenarios.

Do I have something to wear to a museum and then on to cocktails?

Do I have something with sleeves that will permit my entry to a church?

I failed by not referring to the spreadsheet as I packed my bag. A silly mistake which caused me to forget my PJs which isn't great when the hotel's fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night.

The Premier Inn at Monkton will remain forever in my memory for this reason and also as the first place I ever saw someone wearing rollers as a fashion accessory.

To begin our culinary trip, I ordered a pint of Stella and a ticket for the all you can eat chippy buffet. The barman suggested that I was preparing myself for a night of Husband beating. They were flogging a bottle of red wine for £7.99 so we had one of those as well.

Two of my '5 a day'

We checked out early the following morning so we didn't get to try the breakfast. My cholesterol level was grateful for the small amount of recovery time.

More mince

2012-04-28T09:19:00.000+01:00

Cottage pie, that unsexy humble offering of minced meat, onion, floor sweepings and poverty.

But give it a French name and it transforms into the very glamorous hachis Parmentier, show stealer extraordinaire!

We were staying with my folks and had offered to cook dinner. It had to be pretty great to match the hospitality.

We had...

400g minced beef

1 large onion

4 cloves of garlic

Half pint of beef stock

Bouquet garni

Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

Splash of red wine

Several potatoes (depending on how wide your pot is)

Two egg yolks

First, we fried the onions, garlic, sliced carrots and minced beef until the onions were soft.

We added the stock, red wine, bouquet garni and a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce and seasoned well.

This was left to simmer for an hour or so until it had reduced considerably.

The potatoes were peeled and boiled until soft in a pot of salted water.

Once cooked and drained, a crushed clove or two of garlic, knob of butter, a splash of milk was added and seasoned.

After mashing the potatoes until smooth, we then stirred in two egg yolks.

We emptied the meat into an oven dish, spooned the mashed potato over the top and forked it into peaks.

The whole thing was baked in the oven for around 30 minutes until the peaks of the potato turned brown.

As you can see from the specimen below, it's not a pretty dinner but damn fine nevertheless. Not bad for a tatty cottage pie pimped up with garlic and red wine.

Fin

Pancake day

2012-04-21T10:23:00.000+01:00

You can tell a lot about a man by the music he listens to.
This morning at 4 'o' clock, I learned that my neighbour is possibly a little deaf and quite inconsiderate. In addition to this revelation, it has become apparent over the last eight months that he has an awful taste in music.

When I awoke again at a more civilised hour, my thoughts turned immediately to breakfast. You can tell a lot about a man by the breakfast he likes to eat at the weekends and Mr P favours something luxurious and indulgent. You've guessed it...today was a day for pancakes.

The method is simple. Get out of bed, scrape hair out of face and find the kitchen. The list of ingredients is small and is made up of things you probably have in the cupboard.

3 medium eggs
Pinch of salt
115g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
140ml milk

The technique...
Separate three eggs.
Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whisk like mad until they peak a little.
To the egg yolks, add the plain flour, a heaped teaspoon of baking soda and 140ml of milk and mix until your batter is free of lumps.
Heat the frying pan and squirt in some 1cal oil. You can use butter if you prefer but the1cal spray is much healthier and you can't really taste it.

This is a good time to heat the oven so you have somewhere to stash the pancake while you're cooking the next. You might also want to put the coffee on too and it'll all come together perfectly.

So, back to the batter...

Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter.
Take your place in front of the hot frying pan and add a decent dollop of the batter. Because it's thick, and not runny like usual batter, you'll need to smooth it down with the back on the spoon to a thickness of your fingertip. Cook on a high heat for around 15-20 seconds on each side until it's the colour of Jodie Marsh.
Repeat until you've used all the batter and the warm stack in the oven is of a respectable size.

Serve in bed, with maple syrup and a mug of coffee. A dollop of double cream on the top works well if you have some to hand. I imagine yogurt works well but I had cream, I tried it and it was amazing.
If you use skimmed milk and 1cal spray, each naked pancake comes out at approx 100 calories but once you start adding syrup, cream and other adornments, you're on your own.

This is the point where you're expecting to see a picture of the finished product. Instead, I'll finish off with a photo I 'borrowed' from the Internet for demonstrative purposes. This should give you an idea of to what the pancakes looked like in the brief moments before they were devoured.

More small things

2011-11-20T18:30:00.001+00:00

I found this recipe on Red Magazine's website. I'm not sure how much I stuck to the original but it seemed so quick and easy, I must have missed something.

All you need to do is this...
Cut up a ball of mozzarella into small chunks. Pop these into a large bowl. Splash in some extra virgin olive oil, dried chilli and a few drops of lemon juice and season. Place this in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Take a pack of Parma or similar and rip it into strips. Take each piece of mozzarella, wrap the ham around and fasten with a cocktail stick. Drizzle the left over marinade over to serve.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

2011-11-13T23:05:00.001+00:00

While small things are quite lovely, sweat isn't.

- Confucius

My favourite small things are mostly edible.
Canapés, pintxos, tapas, dim sum and other stuff found on offer across the world have put an end to selecting just one dish from a menu and suffering an evening of dinner envy.

My favour small inedible thing is my iPhone, essential in the kitchen for following on-line recipes or when stuck in the Bose for a Jackson 5 session. I also like making lists but that's for another time. Oh, and bullet points, don't forget the bullet point.

So, what music to play when working on small stuff?

I guess it depends on why as much as what. If you're getting ready for a Christmas party, why would you want to listen to anything other than Christmas tunes?

If it's a Christmas cocktail party then you have to chose between Christmas and cheese. For a Hallowe'en party, I'd expect nothing less than a full on Goth-rock-Euro session or what ever that genré is. Or Rammstein.

I recently spotted a mini savoury scone on a buffet table. The scone itself contained tiny pieces of black olives and was filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese. When I came to recreate these delicious little snacks, I lost my nerve with the black olives and left them out. This was partly due to the fear that they would turn the scone mix grey and partly because after thinking about it, I forgot.
I also realised I hadn't actually made scones since a home economics class in 1983. This was going to be a tough one. I now see that if they're asking children to make scones, it's probably because there's not a lot that can go wrong, other than forgetting to put something in or leaving them in the oven too long.

The scones I made today were of the cheese variety. I used the hard stuff.

So, 250 grams of plain flour, a tablespoon of baking powder, and a pinch of salt were dumped into a mixing bowl. I rubbed in about 50 grams of butter.

Next, I daringly switched the iPod to random and added 9oz of grated Parmesan and some milk. I used skimmed because that's what I use. I splashed in around 5floz.

I used a knife to muddle the mixture together and gave it a little knead to get it into a ball. Flour your worktop and press the ball down until 1.5 cm thick.

Use a pastry cutter to make your scone shapes. Place your rounds onto greased greaseproof paper lined baking tray. Brush them with egg.

Place these in a hot oven for 10 minutes. If yours are larger than mine (5cm) allow a few extra minutes.

Unfortunately this is the last of my photos. I don't have one of the finished article filled with cream cheese and smoked salmon because I was too eager to eat it.

Cooking with gas

2011-08-10T22:07:00.001+01:00

It has been an eventful month so far. We've just picked up the keys to a new flat.
The kitchen is slightly bigger and has more storage and it also features a gas cooker. It's not fitted in so there is plenty of opportunity to drop and spill stuff down the sides as it seems someone else already has. My old Le Creuset pans have emerged from storage and the tagine should be fine on the naked flame.
The coffee thing doesn't quite fit and I'll need to buy a diffuser. At the moment, it perches dangerously and shakes frantically as the steam builds up.
Lighting the beast is fun too. Ignite too late and you risk losing an eyebrow; too soon and you might just gas yourself.

On the menu tonight is a delicious vegetable curry.
I came across the 'inspiration' recipe a while back while perving through an Olive magazine. It's very similar to a curry I first sampled at a 'pot-luck' lunch for a retiring colleague. The dish was always well received; a real crowd pleaser, a show stopper and the dog's disco-ball. It unleashed a polite queuing frenzy amongst those tired of sandwiches and quiches.
It was probably too light on garlic but I suspect that was intentional and thoughtfully done to keep the office odourless.

In the past, I have made this with butternut squash but this time I'll be using sweet potatoes. Whilst we all love butternut squash, peeling the monsters does weird things to my knuckles and tonight I just can't be bothered - a good enough reason in my opinion. I'll also use chilli powder because I don't have any fresh chillies which I love, but it's easy to get caught out. I recently ate a chilli so hot that I suffered violent hiccups for ten minutes. Many of the fatter chillies can be too mild.
If you have the option, why not try powder and fresh which will layer the heat throughout the dish. Mr P does a similar thing with garlic which gives you the taste of very cooked, cooked and raw garlic in the one dish. He's good like that.

So, my lovely curry munchers, here's the plan...

First, gather the following bits and pieces.

Then when you're ready, take a large pan. I'm using the tagine because it's unpacked, clean and to hand. Slowly fry the chopped onions until they're soft.

Then smash two crushed garlic cloves up with some cumin seeds. Add the rest of the spices (but not the fresh coriander) and mix together.

Chuck the spice mix into the pan and fry for a minute. This cooks the spices and takes away any bitterness. Unfortunately this technique doesn't work on the bitter people I know.

Next, add the chopped tomatoes and the same amount of water. Season well.

Chop up the sweet potato and chuck this in.

Then, turn your attention to the cauliflower. Cut it up and add the pieces.

At this point, turn your attention to the garlic. Crush up a few more of the cloves and add these in. As always, the amount you use is your choice. I advise you to go heavy on the garlic. It's good for you.

Cover the pan and leave until the vegetables are almost soft.

Add the chickpeas and cover and after five minutes you're ready to go. Just before serving, stir through the fresh coriander.

Serve with roti or rice...or both. *groan*

So there you have it. Give it a try if you have time and let me know what happens. Add your own spices, stick your favourite veggies in, crack open a Cobra while you're at it and see what happens.

I would like to dedicate this recipe to the grotesque looting scumbags of England. If you're passing, pop in and have a go at lighting my new oven.