Why?

Because WordPress.com has introduced advertising. I was horrified to see the intrusion into my post and up with it I will not put.

Matt always said that WordPress is absolutely free and always will be. Well, that’s a moot point when we have to pay indirectly by allowing ads in our personal space… or cough up $30 per annum to keep the blog ad-free.

I feel abused. I feel dirty and shabby and used. It grieves me greatly after so many years of unstinting wordpress use and support. I feel that all that faith was misplaced.

The current content and any future material will be posted to a self-hosted wordpress blog somewhere on my woolgathering.org.uk domain. I’m not sure yet whether it will be http://www.woolgathering.org.uk/paradise or whether I shall choose to return to a single blog with a mixed content. Anyway, if you want me, that is where you shall find me.

While I am still here – I have just been given an Android phone. I am wondering what apps there are out there for baking and cooking. Do you have any recommendations? I’m thinking there must be apps for converting US recipes for UK use, certainly in terms of converting cups to metric weights and measures. Is there one that can decode some of those mysterious ingredients, I wonder? And how about a really good timer application so that I don’t burn any more biscuits (I don’t mean scones!) or over-rise my dough?

We got to discussing a replacement and Mr L reminded me that we had been researching attachments for my stand mixer, a Kenwood Chef. We had faded before the final fence, having found it all too difficult.

Well, we tried again. Fundamentally, the choices are between a roller attachment that is literally a motor-driven direct replacement for the existing manual machine and  a hopper-fed extrusion attachment. This is further complicated by the fact that Kenwood offer a plastic kit that makes 6 different shapes or a better quality hopper that only makes maccheroni rigati but offers a wider range of extrusion dies as additional purchases. Each die costs more than the whole plastic kit and the purchase of the extrusion hopper and a couple of dies will cost more than we paid for the Chef itself!

I was asked to choose which I wanted – the roller or the extruder.

Well, although we use far more flat pasta than we do shapes, that’s probably due to the fact that we do not currently have a facility for making pasta shapes! I cannot assume then that a roller is exactly what we want. On the other hand, I would be bereft of ravioli, tagliatelle and lasagne if we got an extruder… but I can always roll flat pasta by hand…

After much discussion, research and analysis I reported back that there is no decision to be made. It is not an either/or situation but that any kind of a cook would want both equally.

If I cannot have both at once, I’ll have an extruder first. When we have an egg glut in the Spring I’ll make mountains of pasta for freezing. Twirly shapes and tubes and shells and…

So, I am turning to the blogworld. Got any advice for me or any experience to relate. Do you have a Kenwood mixer and one of the pasta attachments? Can you tell me what you think before I make an expensive mistake?

I think that the old roller is now fit only for polymer clay work but I do have an array of cutter attachments and ravioli hopper, so I’ll take those along next week to flog off on a sale table at the Autumn Fair.

Just to bring us back onto topic – I made Onion Baguettes to accompany the pasta yesterday. Carb overload, but delicious.

I checked the ‘fridge and found a family-size carton of mushrooms. Mushroom soup – what could be faster? I decided to go down the flatbread route again in order to quickly free the oven for cake-baking at a lower temperature.

Today I decided to try the Hemp Oil thing. I topped the breads with celery seed and a little salt. The breads were good but they lacked that nutty flavour that I had hoped for – the difference was not great enough, given the price of hemp oil, to warrant doing that again.

Anyway, the breads were good enough for six of them to disappear at lunch time, leaving just two for tea. I split and buttered them and filled them with good Cheddar Cheese and slices of Spanish Onion. To die for, I tell you, absolutely to die for. What finer food is there than a good cheese and onion sandwich? Let me save you the trouble of responding to that question. None.

The soup was nothing fancy – just my go-to basic cream of mushroom:

• Sauté a small onion with as much garlic as you feel will enhance the soup – use either butter or olive oil, as suits you
• Chuck in a load of chopped fresh mushrooms
• and some soaked dried porcini
• Stir it all about and allow it to mellow gently before tossing in a glug of dry sherry
• Add vegetable stock and throw in some tarragon to taste
• Simmer for a while
• Blitz until smooth
• Stir in cream or soured cream to taste
• Season and reheat

Spinning Cake today was Nigella’s Storecupboard Chocolate Orange Cake but with Peach and Passion Fruit jam instead of marmalade and topped with the remaining Hazelnut and Orange Praline from last weekend’s torte.

Tomorrow’s lunch has been elected – Leek & Potato Soup with Cheese Scones. The scones are ready made and lurking in the freezer.

Mr L has requested more flatbreads soon and he wishes to dunk them in a dish of cheese baked in tomato sauce – he’s thinking back to the days of Frankie & Benny’s and the 4 cheese bake we used to enjoy there. Even when they reduced it to 3 cheeses, we still enjoyed it.  (I see that they still do Mama’s Cheese Bake) I have to go to town on Tuesday so I shall seek out some good cheeses for baking and also look for some nice fresh herbs, as they will make all the difference.

We ate them with a bowl of Carrot and Coriander Soup and the breads were no less good than yesterday. The touch of cumin and kalonji went very well with the soup.

This was my first attempt at Carrot and Coriander – I have never been impressed by this soup in the past and have had no urge to make my own. Well, today’s batch has made me a convert. There will be more in my future.

I looked around at various recipes and the soup that I made in the end most closely resembled Delia’s version, though without the measuring part.

Carrot and Coriander Soup

• Gently heat a dessert-spoon or so of coriander seeds in a heavy-bottomed pan. When toasted, grind in a pestle and mortar.
• Melt a goodly chunk of unsalted butter in the now empty-but-warm pan
• Sauté one small chopped onion in the butter with
• One clove of crushed garlic
• When translucent and starting to soften, add the ground coriander seed and stir it about a bit
• Throw in several carrots (I used 5 medium-sized ones) roughly chopped and stir well to coat in the flavoured butter.
• Close the pan with a lid and leave the carrots to sweat for ten minutes or so
• Throw in the stalks from a bunch of fresh coriander and stir until wilted in the butter
• Add vegetable stock to cover well
• Simmer until everything is tender
• Remove from heat and blend until smooth
• Throw in the chopped leaves from your bunch of coriander
• Reheat
• Season to taste if required, with salt and black pepper. You might like to add a little sugar or honey.

We both enjoyed the flatbreads very much and I have several ideas for ringing the changes. I am reproducing the recipe here, mainly for myself so that I can refer back to it easily.

From Raymond Blanc and the BBC:

For the dough

• 250g/9oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 15g/½oz fresh yeast
• 2 pinches caster sugar
• 2 pinches salt
• 150g/5½oz water, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

To top the breads

• 2 tbsp unsalted melted butter
• 1 pinch black onion seeds
• 1 pinch ground cumin
• 1 pinch coarse sea salt

Preparation method

• For the dough, mix all the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl until evenly mixed. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about five minutes, or until smooth.
• Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature until doubled in size.
• Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll to form into an even cylinder 30cm/12in long. Cut into eight equal parts and form each into flat, 3-5mm thick rounds. Place onto a lightly floured peel or an upturned baking tray.
• Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7 and place a baking stone into the oven.
• To top the breads, lightly brush the top of each flatbread round with the melted butter and scatter a mixture of the onion seeds, ground cumin and sea salt over the surface.
• Using the peel or upturned baking tray, transfer the flat breads to the oven and bake directly on the baking stone for 10 minutes.
• Remove the bread from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

I plan to try these substituting hemp oil for olive oil – they should taste beautifully nutty.

Toppings that I plan to try include poppy seed, sesame seed, cheese and onion, sun dried tomatoes, paprika, celery seed… In fact I think this recipe would make a very good light pizza base. Ob: good with hummous and other dips.

How about using some truffle oil along with the olive oil and topping with garlic mushrooms, eh? A fine supper.

Mr L says he’d have them in place of naan with his curry.

Taking my inspiration today from a trip to Kirkness & Gorie, and from watching Raymond Blanc. We begin our meal with a baked cheese and some lovely flatbreads to dunk into it. To wash it down we have a very fine Amontillado sherry.

The breads are just out of the oven, the cheese will be baked later. If I had realised just how very quick and simple the flatbreads would be, I might well have started them later in the day than I did.

There are too many for supper. I shall use the remainder tomorrow with a carrot soup – the cumin, kalonji and salt on top of the breads should make for perfect partners.

I scour the cupboards and  the refrigerator for some ideas.

Today I assembled this little lot.

Storecupboard ingredients

Inspired by the White Chocolate Torte recipe that I often use for a fast dessert for a special meal, I whipped up a dark chocolate and orange version using Mascarpone. The original recipe uses cream, I normally sub Crème Fraîche.

Melt the chocolate, crush the biscuits

Form the biscuit base, slacken off the Mascarpone before mixing with the chocolate

For good measure I made up a batch of orange praline to dress the plates. Right now I am considering making an orange glaze for the top of the torte, once it is firm enough to take it.

We cannot possibly eat all of this ourselves so, if you find yourself passing, do pop in for a slice and a mug of coffee.

Unnecessary Torte

• 50 g unsalted butter, melted
• 100 g Amaretti biscuits, crushed. Ratafias will do, Digestives won’t. If they still made Orange Barmouth Thins, I’d bet they’d be fabulous…

Mix the biscuit crumbs into the butter and use to line the base of a 7″ (approx) loose bottomed flan tin.

• 1 bar Lindt Excellence Orange Intense, melted
• 1 tub Mascarpone cheese
• a little sour cream/yoghourt/cream/crème fraiche/milk to slacken the cheese – your choice. I used Sour Cream, to take the edge off any sickliness.

Slacken off the cheese a little so that it mixes easily with the chocolate… Use a large dollop of the mix to stir into the chocolate first then tip that mix into the remainder of the cheese and whip it together quickly. Spread over the biscuit base whilst still malleable. If you work fast, you’ll  get a better finish than I did.

Fill the tin, smooth the top as best you can

Leave to chill.

To make the praline:

Heat approx 100 g caster sugar in a heavy bottomed pan until it first melts and then turns dark golden brown. Stir in a good handful of roasted nuts and remove from the heat before it burns. Pour onto a silicone sheet or a lightly oiled baking tray and leave to cool. Break up into pieces and grind or crush to a fine powder – I added some dried orange peel at this stage.

Crush or grind the praline – finer than this is better

You could use the praline to top the torte off, or to accompany it as a decorative item on the plate. I still think an orange glaze would be pretty damn wonderful… and I am thinking of a batch of under-boiled marmalade that I have. I could quickly boil some up just now. Drizzle with cream to serve, if wished (and your hips will accommodate it).

The bloke is no longer veggie but we traditionally celebrate this weekend by  cranking up the Pink Floyd and revisiting the dish (it was Mollie Katzen‘s Influenced Vegetable Stew) that I made for him all that time ago. This year we are departing from tradition – perhaps because we had the dish very recently.

This year we are going Chinese and making a spread of several Dim Sum dishes. I know Dim Sum are supposed to be eaten for lunch but, well, he likes Bao especially and if that’s what he wants, that’s what he gets. It also means, being flour-based, that I get to mention it here.

Thus far on the menu I have lined up:

• Char Siu Bao (pork)
• Pot Sticker Dumplings (chicken)
• Shrimp & Spring Onion Fritters (prawns)
• Spring Rolls (veg)
• three different dipping sauces

I’m still considering some Salt & Pepper Prawns…

I am also kind of wondering if we should not have deferred until Monday, when Radio 2 would be providing the Pink Floyd Fest – there’s a Dark Side celebration on.

While I was in the kitchen I knocked up a batch of Granola cereal. I had to ring the changes today; I had no sunflower seeds, so I doubled up on the pumpkin seeds. I also chucked in a new ingredient – some dried orange peel. I love dried orange peel in all manner of odd recipes. It imparts a deep spicy flavour, almost clove-like in some ways and the results are often not noticeably citrus-y. Sesame seeds went into the toasted mix and some Chia went in with the fruit and nuts. It should be yummy, nutritious and reasonably healthy. I have settled now on a basic toasting mix of:

• 300 grams organic jumbo rolled oats
• 50 grams pumpkin seeds
• 50 grams sunflower seeds (when I have them)
• ½ cup maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil

normally also including:

• a goodly handful of sesame seeds
• 100 g flaked almonds

… ringing the changes with flavour additions from time to time, but mainly just vamping the un-toasted fruit and nut elements. If I use freeze-dried strawberries, I prefer to hold the almonds back and add them un-toasted and leave out the sesame seeds.

I made coffee during one of the waiting periods and sat and watched The Incredible Spice Men on the BBC iPlayer. They are preaching to a convert here, but I was interested to see what they had to offer…

…and I was immediately seduced by a recipe for a Bread and Butter Pudding with orange, vanilla and cardamom.

I adore cardamom. I can still recall the first time that I tasted it. It was a mid-Eighties June afternoon in York, in an Indian Restaurant on Monkgate. I bit into a cardamom seed and the flavour just exploded in my head. What a revelation. Since that time I have enjoyed all manner of dishes flavoured with cardamom, including a ritually prepared Ethiopian coffee – the cardamom was roasted in an open pan with the coffee beans and, before being ground for the brew, had to be passed around the table for all present to savour the aroma. The coffee was wonderful and the best part of the meal.

The recipe for Pulled Pork with Cinnamon and Clove is also very tempting…

On the topic of spice – Sunday’s dinner was culled from Masterchef. I made John Torode’s Pappardelle with curried meatballs. The recipe says that it feeds 4 and, unlike most recipes, it certainly would feed 4 hungry adults. I lacked the fresh herbs and had to use dried but all the other ingredients were to hand, including of course (and keeping on topic)  some home made bread for the breadcrumbs.

I made a full batch of pasta dough (500g flour), freezing half unrolled and making pappardelle from the other half. There was plenty to go around. I balked a little at the quantity of egg involved but did manage to turn out what I believe to be the best pasta I have made to date. To my mind, it was faultless. Certainly it was delicious. I give my heartfelt gratitude to my lovely ladies in the garden, who produce fabulous tasty and golden yolked eggs.

A full batch of meatball mix yielded 22 meatballs. I kept half back, and we are having them reheated today with some naan and some aloo saag from the freezer. Neither of us managed to eat all 5.5 meatballs on Sunday – they were very filling.

It was the best lentil soup that I have ever made. Very tasty and deep and seemingly rich, although no butter was involved. I used Hemp Oil to sauté the onions, hoping to impart a little nuttiness to the soup. The result was something of a revelation and it is  a tactic that I shall certainly deploy again.

briefly:

Warm a heavy bottomed pan with a little Hemp Oil in it. Toss in a large onion, diced. When the onions becomes soft and translucent add diced carrots and potatoes in equivalent quantity to the onions and season well. Toss in some mashed garlic, two teaspoons of cumin seeds and one of celery seed and cook for a minute or two. Stir in a cup of red lentils – washed, picked and drained. Add vegetable stock to cover, and simmer until the veg are tender and the lentils have broken down and thickened the soup. Stir in a large ripe tomato, cubed, and a handful of parsley. Simmer gently, adding a final seasoning to taste.

I had intended to serve my soup with home-made pitta breads. I got things wrong and accidentally thawed some naan instead. No matter, they worked equally well. They are just as good for dunking.