Meatballs!

My mom’s food was always ugly, but almost always tasted great – and she was constitutionally unable to cook the same thing twice. Most great meals were the product of some divine flash of inspiration while stirring a soup or pondering the spice cupboard. But lightning never struck the same way twice.

In our way we talked a lot about food over the years, trading descriptions of good meals we’d stumbled into. I don’t think I ever asked her about the cooking she did in my growing up years. But as I get older, and more unavoidably adult with a job and a husband and cat to feed, I think I have a bit of insight into her methods.

When I lived with my mom, she worked til 5 or later, came home, stared at the wall for a bit and made dinner for us. Which sounds remarkably like the bulk of my evenings. What was lacking for her – and for me – was any kind of forethought or plan about meals. You cooked what you had. Because we were both rather random shoppers, we tended to have a lot, and a lot that needed to be eaten quickly. (Trouble with expiration dates is apparently genetic. who knew?)

I think about this now, because 4 nights out of 5 I spend my last 10 minutes at work picturing the contents of my fridge and wondering what the hell I can turn into a meal. I suspect my mom spent a lot of her last few minutes at work doing the same thing. While I’m not in her league, it’s also my saving grace as a cook. I can’t follow recipes, can’t measure things, have no particular techniques mastered – but I’m willing to get creative, and know that whatever mess comes out, Jesse will eat it.

Which brings me to Wednesday. I had two chicken legs and four sausages which all needed to be eaten, and not much else. The answer? Meatballs.

I can’t take pictures of food

I mean look at that

Bad picture of good fish

Compare to Ryan, Anna and Eve’s pictures, I should be ashamed! This was aforementioned pollock-pollack whatever it’s called with tomato -thyme sauce. Totally easy and very good, but boy do I need to work on presentation….

- Stef

Autumn comfort food

Ok, when I mean autumn I really mean winter by now. But with the sun setting at 4pm (why god why), I feel inclined to cook warm food. Sounds easy but with my fear of cooking still a challenge. But lo and behold my result- well chuffed I was…

Now this might not look like much (contrast with my usual recipe generator on Good Food website and how pretty it looks there) but it tasted really fantastic. I was a bit suspicious of adding a can of baked beans at the end but it really added a bit more depth to the whole thing. Any recipe with few ingredients is a winner in my book as I simply don’t have an extensive range at home (yes, Jamie Oliver, that means I don’t ever attempt your recipes, nor the people at the River Cafe, sorry, half of the time I don’t even know what you’re talking about..). So wohoo for cold weather hotpot!

- Stef

Grilled leeks

Charred, caramelised goodness

- Anna

French Toast avec citron

Another weird thing if you’re not from the US or Canada or anywhere else where they serve warm and weird breakfasts- French Toast. Why it’s called French Toast I don’t know, having spent extensive time in France I have never ever seen anything remotely like it. But enough of my snobbery, now suddenly in possession of lots of bread, I thought it’s worth attempting this oddity (soaking bread in eggs is just weird).

So once again I turned to BBC Good Food who have had the idea to add lemon zest to the eggy mix. And even though I didn’t go as far making poached plum, it was still really yummy. The lemon zest gave it a really nice fresh and zingy touch. Not so bad after all, hmmm….

- Stef

Trying new things (inadvertently)

Trout fillets - they look just like salmon fillets

Trout looks just like salmon, so I picked it up by accident at the supermarket this week.  Epicurious gave me inspiration in the form of this recipe for trout poached in Riesling, which I made without either the Riesling or the carrots the recipe called for.  Still tasty though, and nice to try cooking something new.

- Anna

Bread making the old-fashioned style

I’m conflicted about bread at the best of times because a) it’s amazing, yummy and comforting and b) it’s full of gluten and wheat ergo unhealthy and all that. Having grown up in Germany, contemplating a life without bread is borderline impossible but if I sin at least I want to sin right, i.e. have some decent bread.

Self-made bread

Easy enough, one would think, but alas there is no decent bread easily to be had in this lovely country. The loafs in the supermarkets are not bread (sorry, it’s sliced stuff impersonating bread, because nothing can call itself bread if it needs to be toasted before you can eat it).  So I decided to break out of my comfort zone and venture into breadmaking, without bread baker/machine, whatever it’s called.

Dan Lepard published a “fail-safe” bread recipe and therefore my ideal choice for first step in my bread baking career. Things I learned quickly:

a) you need to have time because it requires several stages of kneading, keeping warm, more kneading etc etc for someone cursed with essentially no attention span whatsoever that is a challenge.

b) sticky sticky sticky and gets all over your fingers and hands.  No wonder people prefer making bread with machinery, damn it’s messy

c) despite all of that whining, and an aesthetically somewhat disappointing result, totally worth it. It lasted several days, was yummy as hell, just needed a wee bit more salt. And something terribly comforting and old-fashioned about making bread, I’ll try again soon to make something less flatbread like….

- Stef

Kitchenaid mixer fun: meringues

Anybody who has walked past one of London’s fine Ottolenghi locations (www.ottolenghi.co.uk) has undoubtedly noticed their beautifully displayed sky-high meringues.  I have had their fantastic cookbook for quite a while now but a number of the recipes require a stand-mixer in order to thoroughly mix ingredients.  Although I’m sure you could make these with a hand mixer and loads of patience, I recently indulged in a longtime dream of owning a Kitchenaid mixer.  It was the perfect opportunity to invite Anna over, drink a few beers, and bake some delicious treats.

Ryan's shiny new toy

 

These are based on a swiss meringue, which makes a very stable meringue but requires you to fully dissolve the sugar in the egg whites over heat before the mixing stage. The mixture will go from clear and brown to thick and white (and shiny) when completely mixed.

We used Ottolenghi’s recipe for Cinnamon and Hazelnut Meringues. This recipe creates 8-10 large meringues, enjoy!

200g Egg Whites (about 7)

140g brown sugar (1/2cup + 2 tablespoons)

260g castor sugar (1cup + 1tablespoon)

1tsp cinnamon

A small handful of chopped hazelnuts

Combine both sugars and egg whites in a bowl. Place a sauce pan with a small amount of water on the stove, bring to a light simmer and create a double boiler with the bowl. Be sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Do not allow the egg whites to cook, but heat through, ensuring the sugar is dissolved. Place the egg white and sugar mixture into an electric mixer and beat for about 10 minutes on high-speed or until the egg whites are shiny and very stiff. Scoop the mixture into large balls onto baking paper and top with roughly chopped hazelnuts.  Bake at 110c for about 1:20 – 2:00 hours depending on humidity and oven settings.  The meringues should be firm on the bottom but still gooey in the middle.

Beau's contribution: sprinkling the nuts

Ready for the oven

Meringue success!

 

- Ryan

Quote of the day

Ryan, ever tolerant, in reference to this video of a Bear Grylls dinner (warning, not for the faint-hearted):

“I would much rather eat delicious rare moose steak cooked over a fire than to take a bite out of a still beating heart.  To each his own.”

- Anna

Muffins revisited

Nothing like a bad day that makes me bake – ironic that I attempt muffins again considering my previous misfortunes with muffins.

Anyways, here I go again but this time armed with Mary Berry’s Baking Bible, a most wonderful book that will undoubtedly be mentioned again and again (by me mainly..). Straight forward, crucial baking tips in the beginning from why sometimes it’s important to use a wooden spoon rather than a metal spoon and vice versa, why temperature of ingredients is important (otherwise watch it all curdle up) to great illustrations throughout.

So off I went to make some chocolate chip muffins and the result you can admire above.  Some progress compared to the nutmeggy disaster before but still not entirely happy – primarily because they are not quite sweet enough and once again my oven was a wee bit too hot (they’re a bit too dark for my taste). Anyways, edible and progress – not much more I can ask. And lessons learned? Don’t overbeat the dough, barely mix it (which is where the wooden spoon comes into play), and when the recipe says softened butter, that does not mean warm butter but simply not icecold butter that is soft enough to rub it into the flour.

Hippo Muffin

This one lookes like a hippo I thought….

- Stef