eat me, drink me

Beautiful quirky prints from the Etsy shop - Coco de Paris http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?search_submit=&q=coco+de+paris&order=most_relevant&ship_to=US&view_type=gallery  In the kitchen this evening I have whipped up a cardamom cake due to a sudden bout of nostalgia for cardamom.  I absolutely love turkish coffee and gave fig and cardamom ice cream a whirl in the summer, but now here it is starring in a cake!  It has turned out sweet and moist although incredibly sunken... I still think it's lovely though. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/8776536/River-Cottage-Baking-recipes-family-cakes.html?image=2 Also onto the third batch of madeleines in the quest for perfection - now trying a simple Heston Blumenthal recipe with ground almonds and lemon zest.

Don't look back, you're not going that way...

macaron making

An interview with Shappi Khorsandi, a stand-up comedian and author in Psychologies. Asked if she could give her son one piece of advice?  'Don't spend a minute of your time doing something you're not enjoying.  You don't need job security you need happiness security!' Meanwhile I'm impatiently waiting the arrival of digital scales so I can proceed onto macaroon making oh happy days!  We had to send the first set back as they weighed 250g butter at 255g which could have done all manner of things to all manner of recipes... shall keep my fingers crossed.

Be true to love wherever you find it, and be true to yourself and everything that you really are.

the art of coffee and cake

Life in a little cafe. It feels like being enveloped in a beating heart on a wintry day. An old regular dropped in and asked 'so what are you doing working here all the way from the other side of the world'.  And I said 'having a midlife crisis'.  He said 'don't worry love I've been having one every year since I was 19'.  His friend just nodded solemnly!

Well I'm also fufilling a dream which is nothing to be sniffed at. A new foodie magazine I have just spotted 'bon appetit' has an article on coffee houses and the art of matching coffee with cakes and flavours inspiring!  Imagine chocolate peanut butter fun cake and cardamom morning buns... http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2012/02/best-coffee-shop-desserts.html

We are made out of the stars you and I. Shantaram

moments of promise

Wandering between epiphanies. A friend once said to me 'you just have to keep going in between ephipanies'. Sometimes I wonder how? And...where is the next signpost?
Sam Manicom travels around the world on his motorbike and writes of his adventures. I read on his website today his words 'the moment a person's senses are brought alive' and it made me tingle. What makes your senses come alive? I know I feel alive on the back of a motorbike!
Meanwhile on the baking front I made some scones from Rose Prince's Baking Club and they were perfect. She reckons the secret is in the flour and you should use strong white bread flour to avoid stale dry scones http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/9103943/Rose-Princes-Baking-Club-perfect-scone-recipes.html I love her recipes and writing but this is the first I have attempted. I added the zest of a lemon - a little tip from the Rose Bakery scone recipe and because I like adding lemon zest to EVERYTHING! Now lemon zest... that is another thing that makes me feel alive!

'If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders'

salt caramel

Pancake day has been and gone but I have just stumbled across a recipe for crepes with salt butter caramel. What a revelation! In the Telegraph magazine I spotted salt caramel coffee ymmm http://cherizena.co.uk/store/information/press-releases.html. Green & Blacks have my all time favourite chocolate recipe - chocolate salt caramel torte - simply stunning. Meanwhile my favourite smell today was Union coffee beans. Inhaling from the freshly opened packet before pouring into the grinder intoxicating!

'If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change' Buddha

the happiness of pink

... and of Rob Ryan papercuts. http://www.misterrob.co.uk/  Today I made soup in a pink house which made me curiously happy. It was a sort of rambling country house painted entirely rose pink and I wondered why more people don't have pink houses? I also came upon an article in Stella magazine discussing the endlessly fascinating debate of perfect chocolate brownies.  Apparently they used to contain far less chocolate and flour than the decadence of today... and here is yet another brownie recipe to try: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9093945/Please-less-chocolate-in-my-brownies.html.  I remember reading an interview with Tom Ford a while ago. He said the last thing he was excited about was a chocolate brownie.  See, it's contagious!

If you can't get someone out of your head, then maybe they're supposed to be there.

madeleines and sunday mornings

Madeleines are entralling me. The unanimous decision between orange zest and lemon zest/vanilla recipes was for the latter, although I may have overplumped the orange version by spooning too much into each mold - the end result was fat and floury.  Rose water and ground almonds may need to play a part in future concoctions ooh la la! I think I may now have to devote my life to macaoons AND madeleines.


No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea.

—Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

madeleine mad

Well my Dad and I found ourselves having a little cappuccino and a little macchiato in the village today. While he read 'don'ts for husbands' I found a book called 'eat your way to success fame and fortune' which did make me giggle.

And then I wandered home to begin the business of cooking all the things I had to cook, including honeycomb chocolate brownies, moules marinieres and a new recipe for home made oven chips before getting down to madeleines. The brownie thing has been knocking around in my head for a while, I thought it would be a stroke of genius to sprinkle fine honeycomb crumbs on top of the (tried and tested perfect brownie recipe) before cooking.  I felt a swell of pride as I swept it into the oven which I now recognize as an indication that pure disaster is looming.  Roll on 30 minutes to a cinder burnt top and brownie mixture cascading down the side of the tin onto the bottom of the oven with people in the general vicinity wondering what is burning?  Next the mussels in the moules marinieres didn't open and the chips were soggy. But I plowed on stoically in the face of adversity because I had promised to make madeleines for work tomorrow.  I experimented with 2 recipes - one from allrecipes http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6332/madeleines.aspx and the other from b comm bon http://bcommebon.canalblog.com/ - a blog I adore for it's beautiful food photography.  The recipes were quite different - I noticed Julia Child's has another version. Had fun sprinkling half with icing sugar and the other half dipped in chocolate - jury is out until tomorrow!

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. Albert Einstein

a flash in the pan

Thankfully I am still in possession of eyebrows post first flambe session and the cooker appears to have survived it's brush with death. This beautiful grand marnier sauce!  Which may or may not have been the result of an accident long ago by a young french waiter, whose crepe caught alight at the last minute and he had no option but to serve it to a prince and princess with resounding success! Princess Suzanne to be precise. If only my accidents provoked such miracles one can only live in hope.

Crepes
200mg flour
3 eggs lightly beaten
500mls milk
butter for frying
Sift flour into a bowl, beat in the eggs and milk until a batter resembling single cream emerges.  Heat frying pan until hot and add a little butter, wipe off the excess and pour a ladle of batter into the pan tipping to cover the whole pan. Flip and fry a little on the other side.


Crepes Suzette (Nigella Lawson - Nigella Express)
2 oranges, juice of both and zest of one
175g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
8-12 crepes
80mls grand marnier
Pour the orange juice, zest, butter and sugar into a saucepan.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until thick and syrupy.
Fold crepes into quarters, then arrange them in a pan slightly overlapping in a circular fashion.
Pour warm syrup over the crepes and make sure warmed through for 3-4 minutes over a warm heat.
Warm grand marnier in the saucepan used to cook the sauce.  When the crepes are hot pour over the liquer and carefully flambe.
Serve as soon as the flames have died out!  Bon apetit!

Motto of the day:  Old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway.

mole sauce

I have vaguely heard of this before and can't believe as a chilli, chocolate addict I didn't pay it closer attention! A savoury mexican sauce containing among other things chilli, chocolate, nuts served over meat. So many things to experience in life! Today brainstorming food creations at work my colleague described her pasta with tomatoes and vodka.  I wondered whether she could taste the vodka and she pondered and said no, but it added depth.  As when you add a chilli to something and you can't taste it but it adds something to the general concoction. I also remembered some exquisite caramelised cherry tomatoes that I had in France - sort of like toffee apples... then I spent the afternoon dreaming about what cakes I was going to cook next - honeycomb chocolate brownies, lemon curd cupcakes with raspberry frosting and madeleines.

I live for the present always. I accept this risk. I don't deny the past, but it's a page to turn. Juliette Binoche

cocktails and markets

A wander on a clear crisp winters day around the 'Real Food Market - Southbank London'. I happily munched on an iberican pig burger with roasted peppers, rocket and chilli sauce and gazed longingly at the delectable cakes on display at 'Oustider Tart' which included glorious things like red velvet whoopie pies. http://www.realfoodfestival.co.uk/markets/real-food-market-at-southbank-centre/whats-on-in-february?view=exhibitors&event_id=6&task=listexhibitors.  On the cocktail front I fell off the wagon straight into a 'zeal raspberry' concoction. Fresh raspberries with ginger and mint shaken with stolichnaya raspberry vodka, lychee liquer and pomegranate juice served long over crushed ice!

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. Storm Jameson (via my beautiful sister)

salad lyonaisse

A simple salad with a perfect poached egg and crispy bacon has inspired me this evening.  Cooked by Raymond Blanc...http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/salad_lyonnaisse_44174

dar ahlam - morocco

My perfect weekend escape... here's to dreaming of the 'house of dreams' which I spotted ages ago on Garance Dore's blog.  Hers is the beautiful picture above. It will take your breath away. http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/us/luxury-hotels/dar-ahlam?utm_source=PARTNERSHIP&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=nasa_061211_garancedore_darahlam%2B
In ode to all things exotic a recipe for pistachio and cardamom brownies... http://www.quickindiancooking.com/2008/06/09/divine-pistachio-cardamom-brownies/...and now I'm craving a turkish coffee thick and bitter laden with cardamom and a waft of warm jasmine air about my face. Oh and maybe a mint raspberry shisha! My dad also recommended this pistachio nougat that Rachel Allen has been whipping up lately. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/nougat_93479

Hold on to your dreams. Build bridges not walls!

beautiful cookbooks

Well despite having twice baked my chocolate cheesecake brownie it was still fairly liquid at room temperature.  However the edges had set so I managed to salvage several slices. The general consensus from cake eaters surrounding me is delicious and I'm determined to perfect it.  I shall increase the cooking time, but also change the cream cheese from shop brand to philadelphia.  A colleague told me she always goes middle of the road with cooking ingredients, but a few things like chocolate and cheese you have to be careful to buy good quality due to water content.  On the chilli front, I have a bar of chilli chocolate so will attempt chilli chocolate brownies tomorrow morning and maybe a red chilli infused into dark chocolate for extra vrooom! Ooh la la! Also very exciting my book order for the 'hummingbird bakery cookbook' came in today and their recipes are hard to beat. I spoke to a lady today who said she recently ate a delectable 'cupcake of the day' with an apple tea infusion at The Hummingbird Bakery.  How lucky was she?

Create the space and it will be filled.

la vie en rose

Chocolate cheesecake brownie day.  A tray full of heaven. Another Rose Bakery recipe, but although I baked it for 5 minutes more than recommended the mixture has not set fully. Most cooks recommend slightly undercooking as it will continue to cook once taken out of the oven. Meanwhile the perfect chocolate brownie debate which is extremely close to my heart is battled out in this guardian article.  I'm tempted to try the end result they look absolutely scrumptious. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/sep/09/how-to-make-perfect-brownies

Put on your rose tinted glasses!

the queen of hearts

Red rose petals scattered on the window sills and red roses on the tables, another day in the cafe serving delectable cakes and debating the perfect cup of coffee. Red roses signify passionate romantic love, yellow roses friendship and white roses purity or happy love.

Rose petals let us scatter

And fill the cup with red wine

The firmaments let us shatter

And come with a new design

blueberry scones

Nailed.  Well I obtained the 6cm scone cutter this morning. And this afternoon I was asking a lady who bakes all sorts of cakes to sell, what the secret of making scones was. And she said 'I don't know, I never make them I can't!  'Either you can or you can't!'. After my first batch of disastrous ones this was devastating news. So obviously I came straight home and made blueberry scones from Rose Bakery - 'breakfast,lunch,tea' and voila perfect! Even though by all accounts I was slow getting the mixture cut, onto the tray. glazed with egg and sprinkled with brown sugar.

Your time is limited - don't waste it living someone elses life.  Steve Job.

risotto

A lovely little risotto for lunch with rocket, sweet potato, red chilli and a sprinkling of blue cheese using arborio rice.  I have only learned today there are many types of risotto rice but the 'king' or 'caviar' of risotto rice is carnaroli. It has a higher starch content than arborio and is more resistant to over-cooking fancy.

If something was easy to find it wouldn't be worth finding...

audrey hepburn wisdom

I was driving to work this morning and saw the word 'sea salt' on a window.  On the coldest day of the year so far - minus 9C on the car thermometer and doors frozen shut, it made me take a deep breath and think of the sea. The sound, summer, refreshing, intoxicating spray seasalt.  Meanwhile watching Saturday Kitchen, James Martin made my perfect meal - Beef Tournedos Rossini with Madeira http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/beef_tournedos_rossini_68537

maple syrup scones

A day full of kitchen fancies.  Bacon, cranberry, brie toastie for lunch.  Now regarding Rose Bakery maple syrup scones I anxiously awaited their rise. But alas they never did.  How high are scones supposed to rise?  Dad thinks Mum put a curse on them because her advice was to mix them quickly and pop them in the oven - you simply don't have time to be fluffing around with scone cutters.

Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it!

serendipity

I do so love this word. Beautiful salad of crayfish tails, lemon mayonaise, rocket and coriander with lemon and olive oil dressing.  Dessert: Rhubarb and custard cupcake!  An inspiring photo that caught my eye from http://www.etsy.com/shop/birdandbloke?ref=seller_info

Bhagavad Gita - 'it's better to live your own destiny imperfectly thatn to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection'.

rose macaroons

My new career in macaroon making suffered a minor setback today when the very first batch was a complete disaster! By this I mean a watery mixture that ran all over the tray and when cooked became large flat dusky pink circles stuck to the tray. Initally I did contemplate a Pierre Herme recipe but settled for Loraine Pascales easy baking one. Alas I only have scales that measure manually in 25g increments slightly inconvenient when you need 40g egg white. And the red food colouring initially became orange before it settled on a dusky sort of pink.  Not happy rose pink as was pictured in my imaginings. Perfection needs perfecting!

You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you!  Andy Warhol

life is for strange adventures and rambling

I love this picture with it's framed words. Lamb chops marinated in beer, garlic and fresh thyme - recipe from 'what Katie ate' for dinner.  I must learn how to roast garlic properly it completely dried out and was of no use whatsoever.

This is my simple religion.  There is no need for temple; no need for complicated philosophy.  Our own brain our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.  Dalai Lama

love is in the air

Well it is nearly Valentines Day.  This papercut is so perfect it makes my heart ache. From papercuts by Joe http://www.etsy.com/shop/papercutsbyjoe Today I had a scrumptious toasted sandwich with goats cheese and homemade scarlet pepper & red chilli jam.

Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket save it for a rainy day...

salmon souffle

The day of the salmon souffle, and if my memory serves me correctly my first ever souffle. Fresh salmon subsituted for tinned, single cream for milk and if I had a splash of vodka I would have added it - sounds so much more exciting! Day dreaming a little of future macaroon creations.  Rose with pistachio or mint filling and a velvet kiss which would be heart stopping red velvet luscious and brimming with life and love and colour. Maybe a chocolate center.  Or is that too obvious? I will decide... it may have to be purple after all.  Deep purple hibiscus.

   When the night has been too lonely

And the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun's love
In the spring becomes the rose.

bacon wrapped bananas

NZ greenlipped mussels and prawns in a white wine cream sauce... bacon wrapped around a melting banana and grilled until sizzling hmmm these were a few delights that graced my day.  I wonder what I should call the banana... surely something slightly more exciting than bacon wrapped bananas? If bacon wrapped around a prune is a devil on horseback?

The latin root of the word 'perfect' means only finished, not without flaws...

what's for lunch?

Today I have a few recipes to whip up which have been tickling my fancy for a while including pistachio cake, scarlet pepper and red chilli jam and perfecting my vanilla custard ice cream technique! Hmmm sounds a little bit glorious. The jam comes out a little like sweet chilli sauce if that's your thing.

Scarlet pepper and chilli jam
8 red peppers halved deseeded and and chopped
8 medium sized chillis halved and chopped with seeds
1.25 kg sugar
600mls white wine vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
350mls liquid pectin.
Put all ingredients except lemon and pectin into large pan and bring to the boil.  Simmer until vegetables tender. Leave to cool a little then blitz quickly in a food processor leaving mixture chunky.  Put a small saucer in the freezer.  Put the mixture back into a clean saucepan with the lemon juice, bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute.  Take off the heat, stir the pectin in and gradually bring to the boil again.  Use a jam thermometer to test when you are nearing the setting point (104-106C).  Also do the wrinkle test if needed.  A drop of mixture onto the frozen saucer and popped in the freeze for one minute.  If the surface wrinkles when you push it gently with your finger it has reached the setting point.  If too liquid just keep boiling for a few more minutes.  Sterilize jam jars by putting them into an oven at 180C for 20minutes.  Scrape off any scum on top of the mixture and ladle into hot jars.  The jam thickens as it cools!

As Orson Welles said 'ask not what you can do for your country, ask what's for lunch...'

rose bakery

Ah happy memories of Paris.  And now I have my very own 'breakfast lunch tea' to ravish over! I am wondering how they obtain their perfect mini carrot cake shape but surely all will be revealed shortly.

Sometimes you've just got to have a little faith in everything!

inspired

If it's for you it won't pass you by...