Pumpkin Pouffe

Baked Alaska with Raspberry Coulis

I've not been doing well of late. I lost yet another baby this week in a painful and horrendous journey that started over a couple of years ago. Not many people talk about these things and women suffer in silence with little support. I am hoping this post a tiny step towards helping change that attitude. It is part of my little mission to lift the taboo on the awful subject of miscarriage. If you have suffered like me, it is worth checking out Sands. Anyway, what does all this have to do Baked Alaska?! Well, making the Baked Alaska whilst being bed-ridden with a threatened miscarriage was my way of maintaining sanity. I have a fantastic husband who meticulously followed my instructions and actually made this recipe. It also proves that it is dead simple to do, no offense to the husband.

Ingredients:
1 flan base or a thin sponge cake
500ml ice cream. Try and avoid the soft scoop versions as they melt quicker. I'd recommend something like Mackies Scottish
4 egg whites, I used Dr. Oetkers powdered egg whites to avoid any salmonella risk
250g icing sugar.
1 cup raspberry coulis

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 230 deg C. Whisk egg whites until frothy and slowly add icing sugar. Whisk with an electric blender ( although you could do it manually I suppose) until the mixture is stiff and peaky. Now layer the ice cream on top of the sponge base. Cover the ice cream with raspberry coulis and then layer the meringue mixture on top and the sides. Stick this in the oven for 5-10 mins i.e. until the top has slightly browned. Stick this in the freezer for 10 mins and serve the strawberries or raspberries.  Simple!

Lessons Learnt: Now I believe using a blow torch instead of the oven has a much better effect and would make the whole process even quicker. Also in hindsight, making individual portions with smaller sponge bases may be easier or helps you decorate the meringue in pretty patterns.

P.S. Raspberry coulis recipe to follow

Sewing Machine Cover

Some years ago I bought a sewing machine off Friday Ads for £10. Its was in very good condition and had hardly been used by the lady I bought it from. I also found a fabulous antique musical sewing table off eBay to rest my machine on. The table has a chest and it sings when its opened. Is there a pun there?! I found scraps of fabric from an upholstery store and shown here is a simple yet pretty cover made for it. It is also incidentally my first sewing project. Did I mention I only just started using the machine as nearly 5 years!? Instructions to follow shortly. Ann x

Spaghetti Carbonara with Rainbow Chard

Sometime last year I posted a picture of my spaghetti carbonara without cream. I did not however end up posting a recipe which I have now done. This is the same recipe but I have fried a handful of  finely chopped rainbow chard (which has been growing like mad in the lottie) along with the onion and bacon. Its a more colourful version of the original and relatively tasty. My husband wasn't convinced by the chard but I thought it was alright. Worth having a go I think. Ann x

Quirky Afternoon Tea for Fashionistas

Some weeks ago my hubby and I were at a BBQ where I met some girls who had just walked in with some pretty goodie bags. The bags were quaint but the cakes and savouries inside looked even more exquisite. I found out that they had been to Afternoon Tea at the Berkeley and had great things to say about the whole deal. My friend Cherie and I were planning a London trip and so I asked her if she fancied doing Fashion Tea instead. Her response was a very enthusiastic yes.

Soon enough we were having Pret a Portea at The Berkeley where Anne Hathaway was also hanging out after the premiere of 'One Day'. The fare included cakes and savouries inspired by the latest catwalk fashion. So I was eating a Miu Miu inspired bikini, Tory Burch bags and Stella McCartney inspired mousse. The selection changes every 6 months in line with the latest catwalk trends. We ate the Spring Summer 2011 collection. The service at the Caramel Room could not be faulted and our  cakes and sandwiches were continuously re-filled. Cherie and I also finished two large pots of tea each plus tried another two. The tea was also fabulous. I had the 'pear caramel' which I highly recommend followed by the 'posh melon' tea. After stuffing our faces for a whole two hours we were given pretty goodies bags to take away. What more could a girl ask for?!

More recently I heard about a similar Afternoon Tea at The Langham. This one is called Stephen Webster Bijoux Tea. As you can expect the theme was fashion and bling and more bling. This has only recently started and is inspired by his latest collection 'Murder She Wrote'. It is  slightly pricier than Pret a Portea at £49 but maybe I'll give it a go one day. Meanwhile I am going to think of ways to use my pretty vintage style cake stand to make some fashion inspired goodies myself. Watch this space! Ann x

Biscuits for a Not-So-Little Boy

Keeping with the birthday theme I discovered this great little company that makes these beautiful biscuits. They taste good too and I thought it would be a perfect little for my husband who is a little boy at heart. Check them out at Biscuiteers. My next mission will be to try and make something like this without the luxury of fancy machinery. Till then, ciao!

Cheeky Chocolate Fondant

Now that I had a simple starter and main course sorted for the husband's birthday, I focused my energy on dessert. The choice was unanimous and based on a recent visit to the Beehive in Peterborough. There we shared a chocolate fondant for dessert and it was divine. I looked around for recipes and chose the Gordon Ramsay version as a starting point.

Ingredients:
200g plain flour

200g dark chocolate + a small bar of plain chocolate

200g caster sugar

200g unsalted butter

4 eggs

25g butter for melting and lining the moulds

Cocoa powder and icing sugar for dusting

Method:

Line the baking moulds ( or ramekins in my case) with melted butter  and allow it to cool in the fridge. Once cooled brush some more butter and then dust evenly with cocoa powder. Shake off any excess. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, add sugar and mix well. Now slowly add the flour and mix well. In another bowl melt dark chocolate and butter together. The gurus say do it over simmering water. I did it for 15 secs at a time in a covered bowl in the microwave. I think my method is quicker. Now add the butter-chocolate mixture to the flour-egg-sugar mixture and mix well. Pour into the baking moulds and chill for about 30 mins. The batter should set a little now. Now this is my touch: I broke cubes off the plain chocolate bar and pushed a cube into the heart of very fondant mixture. Stick this in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg for about 10 mins till a crust is formed. Once done, take it out and let it cool for a couple of mins before extracting the fondant. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar, fresh strawberries or raspberries ( or both!) and some orange sorbet ( or any ice cream). Your fondant should melt in the middle like in this picture. Thanks Gordon. Ann x

Thai Style Mussels

Following on from my previous post, I also had to come up with a relatively effortless main course that Ed would like. We love going to Loch Fyne in nearby Elton for a regular fish fix and they used to do a Thai inspired mussel recipe. I thought I'd try and re-create that taste. I bought a kilo of live Scottish mussels from Tescos and cleaned/de-bearded them over running water. This was the only time consuming bit.

In a casserole dish I fried some finely shopped onion and fresh chillies. To this I added some ground giner, garlic and lemongrass. I also added 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp nam pla ( fish sauce), and 1 tbsp lime juice. I let teh mixture cook before added 1.5 cups of water and bringing it to boil. Once boiled I added 1 can of cocunt milk and the mussels. The mussels don't take more than 5 mins to cook. You will know they are ready when they open up nicely like in the photo. I serve dthis with some lovely Tiger loaf.  A lovely meal for a summers evening ( although we are having an Indian summer really)

Pear, Chorizo and Baby Leaf Salad

It was Ed's birthday the other day and I had big plans for what I wanted to do to spoil him. As luck goes I was sick and we spent most of the early hours of his birthday in hospital with me feeling like a drugged pin cushion. I insisted on going home later in the morning as I wanted to spend whatever little was left of the day with him. Drugged pin cushions can't do kitchen marathons so in discussion with Ed ( no point cooking things he does not fancy) I decided on the menu for a 3 course meal. Simplicity was key and so I made this scrummy salad for starter. La Tasca do a similar salad as a part of their tapas selection and its a favourite with both of us.
Making the salad could not be simpler. You make a bed of baby leaf salad and drizzle balsamic vinegar and chilli oil. I then layered the salad with chorizo slices and fresh pear (not very ripe), added a bit more seasoning and we were ready to munch. I thoroughly recommend this for dinner parties as it looks good, tastes great and takes very little time! Ann x

Framboise-ish

If there is one thing we have plenty in our garden all summer, it is raspberries. There are only so many raspberries you can eat or jams you can make so I thought I'd play with alcohol. You can do wonderful things with the right spirit and I chose to make my own version of framboise.


I like to keep it simple so all I did was dunk a couple of handfuls of fresh, clean raspberries in a jar of basic vodka. The jar was half full of raspberries. I then set this aside in a cool dark place, shaking it every other day. Its a bit like making sloe gin except you add the sugar after some time and after straining the raspberries out. I did this about a month and half later. I added about 4 tbsp of sugar to each jar (do it to your taste). I also added 3 tbsp of glycerin to improve the texture of the liqueur. You store this for another month at least and it should be ready to use. Happy days!

Quick & Easy Chilli Oil

Chilli oil is fabulous for spicing up a stir fry, pizza or for that matter anything bland or needing a bit of 'oomph'. I used De Cecco Extra Virgin Oil as my base as its always good to use quality oil and I had a couple of bottles of these  given by my father-in-law and partner from their time in Italia. We had a some extra hot chillies growing in the garden and I chopped a few of these and fried them for a few minutes in the olive oil. I also added about 5 whole ones ( as the chillies were of a smallish variety) to the hot oil to kill off any nasties. I then let the oil cool and poured it into a oil drizzler. Voila! Go on, try it yourself. Ann x

Shoefatuation: Meet Kobi Levi

Exactly 3 days ago, I discovered Pinterest through a uni mate's blog. Now I'm officially hooked. Whereas before I scoured magazines and the Internet for hours to find inspiration, now its so much easier to find what you want. Through one such Pinboard I discovered Kobi Levi and I am smitten by what this man creates. I believe it is the second coming of Shoe God. If you don't believe me, see for yourself. And to see more, check out his blog, Kobi Levi Footwear Design. Now excuse me while I continue to drool!

P.S. I still haven't found a store to buy them from. When I do, I'll let you know. Ann x

Elderberry Adventures

Late summer and Autumn are a great time for foraging the hedges in the English countryside. I love making Sloe Gin and Bramble Jams from the bounty outdoors and this time I extended that to elderberries. My original intention was to be make elderflower champagne but I lost the window of opportunity for that due to all the summer events. Elderberries though are just as nice and I chose to make a pie.

Ingredients: Short crust pastry: 500g

5 tbsp sugar in half a cup of boiling water for the sugar syrup   

1.5 cups elderberries ( this does depend on the depth of your pie dish etc. You may need more or less depending on the size of the pie)           
                                                 

Method: I rolled out enough short crust pastry to fill out my pie dish and blind baked it in the oven for about 20 mins. In the meantime, I washed the elderberries removing any green or red ones and cooked them for about 5 mins in a sugar syrup. Once the pastry was ready, I poured the elderberry mixture onto the pie dish. Now I love the look of lattice pastry and figured it wasn't that difficult at all. I divided the top half of the pastry or the cover into strips as shown in the picture and then alternating strips vertically onto the pie. I then folded alternate strips (see photo) and then laid the remaining strips in perpendicular. I'm hoping you will figure it out from the photos. All you then do is stick it in the oven at 180 for about 20-mins to half an hour or till the crust is nice and brown. The pie is lovely with a bit of vanilla ice cream. If you are more adventurous, try coconut ice-cream. The tartness of the elderberries is nicely complemented by the richness of the coconut ice cream.

Sushi for Beginners

Once upon a time, in what seems like a lifetime ago, I used to hang out with a bunch of foreigners. We spent many evenings and weekends together, drinking, cooking and talking. What we had in common was our foreignness and disdain for the English reserve. What I remember most about those evenings was the cooking. We took turns to cook (mostly native cuisine) and I remember being introduced to some fabulous Thai, French and Asian food. One of the lads once cooked sushi and I was amazed at how simple it looked. Soon I set off to the local Chinese shop to  buy the sushi sudare, nori, wasabi et.al. and set about experimenting.  Making these pretty parcels was so satisfying. Time flew, life happened, differences appeared and foreigners went home. I stayed on, made new friends, found love and grew vegetables. Here's to old times and forgotten inspirations.

Tools and Ingredients:
Sushi sudare (rolling mat)
Sushi nori (seaweed)
Sushi rice-1 cup
Pickled sushi ginger
Japanese mirin (vinegar)
Wasabi paste
Soy sauce
Fillings- this could be a number of things including tuna from a tin, avocado, chicken, spring onions etc. This time I used mostly smoked salmon and finely chopped courgette and roast squash

Method: Cook the sushi rice as per the pack instructions. In a bowl mix  sugar and sushi vinegar for working with the rice.  Place the nori on the bamboo mat and thinly spread rice ( using the vinegar mix to dampen the rice). Add fillings of your choice about a third of the way up the nori. Carefully roll using the bamboo mat. There are plenty of YouTube videos out there showing you the technique. Once rolled, use a sharp knife and cut out the sushi rolls according to the size of your choice. Smaller the size, daintier they look but it also depends on the fillings. Serve with soy sauce, ginger and wasabi. Enjoy! Ann x

Summer Blooms in my Garden

Whilst the last of my summer blooms are slowly fading away I thought it would be nice to share some on the blog. I absolutely love the different rose varieties that provide colour from Spring through to Autumn. Some of the roses are a legacy from previous owners but have been tended to with love. The others are all flowers I grew from bulb or seed. There is so much satisfaction in seeing them bloom and smile :). My favourites are the gladioli and the dahlias for their fantastic colours. I love nothing better than fresh cut flowers at home to provide a healthy dose of colour and cheerfulness. Hopefully I'll have some more interesting photos next year. Ciao!

Squid Ink Risotto with Roast Vegetables. Caution: Not for the faint-hearted!

 

I really can't remember where or when I got the idea of cooking with squid ink. It was sometime early 2008 and I remember looking for hours in shops and online for a bit of squid ink. I finally bought it off  Rick Stein's website and paid four times the cost of the product for delivery. My first experiment back then went quite well and I served the risotto with some homemade Greek style yogurt and peppers.  Now that we have a lottie and enough veg to feed the city, I decided to cook a simple recipe with an assortment of veg. I must admit that not all offers to cook this at dinner parties were accepted. Shame really as it does have a special flavour. Anyway, here is the recipe. 

Ingredients:

Squid ink

250g risotto ( 4 servings)

2 cups chicken stock-use 1 cube

1 Courgette

1 Aubergine

1/2 Acorn Squash

Onion
3 large tomatoes

Method:

Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan and add the risotto and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the squid ink and continue to fry. Now add stock and stir until the risotto is smooth, creamy and cooked. Meanwhile, chop and season the vegetables and roast them. I like spicing my veg but you can do whatever you like really. Serve the risotto topped with roast veg. Finito!

Gyoza Anyone?

'What else can I cook with bloody cabbage?!' I thought the other day. As I sat on the bed watching TV whilst doing mental arithmetic of the various veg and how to store/cook/freeze them, I chanced upon a Jamie Oliver show. Jamie was making a Japanese favourite of Chinese origin, Gyoza. I found my solution to the cabbage conundrum! The recipe was simple enough.  And I could either make the gyoza wrapper myself or find some. I cheated and chose the latter. Our local Chinese shop stocks most asian food items and it only cost me a pound something. Here is how I made the gyoza.

I shredded a cabbage and chopped an onion and fried them in a bit of olive oil. To add my own twist, I mixed some dessicated coconut to the frying mix. I fried the mix for about 10 mins and the added it to a bowl of 500g pork mince. I mixed all the ingredients by hand and took it back to the pan for frying. I believe the traditional recipe does not require the pork to be cooked in advance but I did not fancy that method.

Once cooled, I spread a spoonful of the mix into a gyoza wrapper, crimped the edges of the wrapper and set aside. Once I had a batch of these dumplings I placed them in a saucepan and fried them for a few times before adding 1/4 cup of boiling water, closing the lid and letting the dumplings steam. The result is a dumpling that has a crunchy bottom but is soft on the inside.

To make a dipping sauce, mix soya sauce and chili oil in equal measure and serve. Douzo meshiagare = enjoy your meal! Ann x

Kanga Shift Dress

We went travelling around Uganda and Tanzania earlier this year and I loved the bright fabric prints worn by the local women. It also reminded me of the 2010 ASOS Africa collection which the thrifty girl in me found a little overpriced. So I looked around fabric shops in search of the perfect kanga. Most visible places were touristy and did not have the choice I wanted. Then in Dar-Es-Salaam our taxi driver took me to a tiny shop in the back streets of the city where a lovely African mama sold hundreds upon hundreds of kanga. These are symmetrical fabrics approximately 2m long and were priced at about $3-4 a piece. I was in fabric heaven. This dress I'm modelling is my first dress sewing venture!! Instructions to follow shortly. Hakuna Matata!

 

Harvest Festival!

August has been a very busy month in the allotment and September seems to continue that way. So far I've made loads of curries and curry sauces (shocking bastardisation!), desserts, savouries and pasta dishes, pickles and jams. We've also been regular gifting family and friends with veg boxes to share the love. I'll slowly try and post some photos but I find a few minutes in between the manic cooking and the equally manic day job. My husband looks suitably neglected too and I think he does come before the blog. Oh and did I mention that I've picked up my guitar again? I've found a great tutor who will hopefully get to play the guitar a bit and I need to find the time for that somewhere in between all this.  Anyway, now that I've given you many excuses, here are some photos to look at! Tata!

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

I would have never thought of making ketchup had it not been for a visit to the popular Huffkins restaurant at Stow on the Wold. They did a fantastic Full English brekkie, the best I've had so far. They also served some of their own tomato ketchup made with a 'secret' recipe. To that I thought-thank you very much, I'll make my own non-secret version and I'll make it just as good. Ha! Anyway, August has provided us with a plentiful tomato harvest and so I decided to give the ketchup a go. As usual I scoured the Internet for ideas and then created my own version of tomato ketchup. 

I fried 5 shallots along with two tablespoons olive oil, a teaspoon of chili powder, a spoonful each of ginger and garlic pastes, a tablespoon of cumin and coriander and a pinch of salt. To this I added 500g fresh cherry tomatoes and 1 tin of canned tomatoes. I brought this mixture to a boil for about 10-15 mins stirring often and mashing the tomatoes. I let this mixture cool, pureed it in the blender and then sieved it to release a thick 'bit-free sauce'. I brought this sauce back to boil, added 100 ml balsamic vinegar and 100g brown sugar , reduce the heat to simmer and stirred continuously until the sauce had thickened to ketchup consistence. I let the ketchup cool completely and then poured it into a sterilised bottle. I think this sauce will keep at least for a month in a fridge although I can't be sure. I'll keep you posted on how long mine lasts.

Summer Allotment Snapshot

Borage Flower Ice Cubes

I found some borage growing in our allotment and was scrounging around for ideas on what to do with them. I found this fab idea on the net that meant the flowers could be used for a long time and in pretty cocktails. All you do is wash the flowers put them into ice cube trays, fill the tray and freeze. I improvised and used sweet lime juice instead of water to make it a bit more interesting. Easy peasy! Ann x

P.S. Apparently borage is good for the spirits so if you are having one of those down times, trying munching on some flowers ( unless you are pregnant!)

Courgette and Lemon Jelly Sorbet

Like most allotmenteers, we've been having a courgette glut this year. I've used these babies in pretty much any recipe I could think of and slowly getting bored. Yesterday I happened to see a recipe in the Times for a courgette sorbet and I instantly loved the idea. As we were planning a picnic with friends I wasnt sure the frozen sorbet would really work so I improvised a bit and added a couple of my own ingredients- gelatine and rum. The result was tasty. Different but tasty. Here is what I did.

I chopped a couple of small courgettes and pureed them in a blender with 1/4 cup of lime juice. I then added caster sugar, rum and a few mint leaves and blended the mixture again. In a small saucepan I added 1/4 cup of water and added two gelatine leaves. I simmered this so as to melt the gelatine leaves completely. I then added the gelatine mixture to the green mix in the blender, blended a couple of more times before pouring them into jelly moulds and freezing them. To serve, garnish with a mint leaf and a top with a teaspoon of rum!

Cornwall Camping Highlights

Polkeris Beach

St. Michael's Mount

Fowey Harbour

The beautiful St.Ives

St. Ives Beach. Gorgeous light and white sand

Camping grub from our allotment

Who said camping can't be civilised?

Dinner cooking

Bird of Paradise at Eden Project

One tiny bit of the magnificent Eden Project

Fishmongers at Padstow

Rick Stein Oyster take-way

Rick Stein's Fish & Chips

Newquay-surfers paradise

Ferns at the Lost Gardens of Heligan

Lizard. UK's most southerly point

The stunning Kynance Cove beach. Check for the tide table

Shakespeare in the moonlight at Minack theater