![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
How it all started in the kitchen
Jul. 20th, 2016 02:45 pmToday I am drinking my accidentally-invented easy homemade lemonade.
( The Discovery )
( The Lemonade )
( The Discovery )
( The Lemonade )
Paladium, promethium, potassium, polonium
May. 27th, 2014 09:37 pmWhen I was little, conversations about Easter eggs tended to happen in our house around August. They tended to start with the mother demanding whether I was ever going to get round to eating them, or whether she should throw them out[*]. As a result, the parents habitually give me a present at Easter rather than an actual egg. It is, of course, still referred to as an Easter egg. This year my Easter egg was a cookbook.
I noticed a month or two ago that Itsu had produced a cookbook, and requested it for Easter.
( Itswho? )
( Trying it out )
I noticed a month or two ago that Itsu had produced a cookbook, and requested it for Easter.
( Itswho? )
( Trying it out )
Once long ago on LJ, I made braised red cabbage and remarked that it was so lovely "I don't know why people don't eat it all the time". That was at the beginning of 2007, and I don't think I've made it since :(
Anyway, at the weekend I picked up a red cabbage at the greengrocers with the intention of braising. Sunday didn't go quite to plan so the cabbage with Sunday dinner just got boiled[*], but later in the week there was time for braising.
I no longer live in the house with the cookbook I used last time, so instead used this recipe. Well, I say used. More read, and then approximated. And gosh, isn't the cider I bought from the lovely microbrewery in Lancashire explosive when you open it?
Anyway, braised red cabbage is still awesome (I had it with sausages this time). But my new discovery is how exciting it is if you put sour cream on it. One bowl hot red cabbage, one dollop sour cream... an excellent accompaniment to a plate of ham sandwiches.
[*] .. which with the kale and the carrots did mean that the rather random and unplanned dinner served to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
leathellin was borderline psychedelic in its multicolouredness.
Anyway, at the weekend I picked up a red cabbage at the greengrocers with the intention of braising. Sunday didn't go quite to plan so the cabbage with Sunday dinner just got boiled[*], but later in the week there was time for braising.
I no longer live in the house with the cookbook I used last time, so instead used this recipe. Well, I say used. More read, and then approximated. And gosh, isn't the cider I bought from the lovely microbrewery in Lancashire explosive when you open it?
Anyway, braised red cabbage is still awesome (I had it with sausages this time). But my new discovery is how exciting it is if you put sour cream on it. One bowl hot red cabbage, one dollop sour cream... an excellent accompaniment to a plate of ham sandwiches.
[*] .. which with the kale and the carrots did mean that the rather random and unplanned dinner served to
leathellin was borderline psychedelic in its multicolouredness.This has apparently been doing the rounds of soshul meeja, so you may already have seen it. Having been driven to despair by comments on various news stories today, I am delighted to note that the comments on this BBC Recipe are well worth reading.
Well, as some of you may recall my task last weekend was to work out how to make beer cake. Cake which tasted like, and contained, beer.
Preliminary results from the beery-cake investigation board are now in.
( The report is quite long. It does contain pictures of cake. )
Preliminary results from the beery-cake investigation board are now in.
( The report is quite long. It does contain pictures of cake. )
Yesterday I took myself for a little wander round Kew Gardens. In between the exciting plants and inconvenient rainshowers, I paused in the café and bought myself a cake and some pop. The cake I bought was a strange-looking thing, rather like a small, dense pain au chocolat. It was, I discovered, actually a giant fig roll.
I presume the giant fig roll is a rare species which Kew is busy conserving. Anyway, I approve. But it has suddenly been revealed to me that I could make fig rolls. I could make giant ones! And eat them all myself!
Anyway... ( any advice on the recipe? )
I presume the giant fig roll is a rare species which Kew is busy conserving. Anyway, I approve. But it has suddenly been revealed to me that I could make fig rolls. I could make giant ones! And eat them all myself!
Anyway... ( any advice on the recipe? )
I have to make a birthday cake for this weekend... and I was considering making the port and chocolate cake from Cooking for Geeks.
However, the recipe requires "bittersweet chocolate", and has a note not to substitute "semisweet chocolate" due to their differing cocoa fat content.
I'm not sure that I completely understand how those USian folks use the terms bittersweet and semisweet. Can anyone translate for me? Wikipedia's classification of chocolate describes the two kinds as "interchangeable when baking"...
I'm low on time this week, so no chance of solving this experimentally.
However, the recipe requires "bittersweet chocolate", and has a note not to substitute "semisweet chocolate" due to their differing cocoa fat content.
I'm not sure that I completely understand how those USian folks use the terms bittersweet and semisweet. Can anyone translate for me? Wikipedia's classification of chocolate describes the two kinds as "interchangeable when baking"...
I'm low on time this week, so no chance of solving this experimentally.
Probably the most entertaining kedgeree recipe you will ever read
I will be trying it out just as soon as I have a spare morning. It sounds way better than my recipe.
I will be trying it out just as soon as I have a spare morning. It sounds way better than my recipe.
Last night, I was making cake to feed a bunch of people coming round this weekend. Among other things, I got out The Best Cake Recipe Ever.
Now, I'm not claiming that it makes the best cake ever: that would be quite a claim. However, it is the Best Cake Recipe Ever for these reasons:
1. It is trivially simple to make. No baking required, even.
2. It's a wartime recipe made with margarine. Make it with something like Stork and choose your chocolate carefully, and your cake is dairy-free.
3. It's got no eggs. See also (2), you can feed it to vegans.
4. It's got no flour. You can feed it to coeliacs.
5. I've never (yet) met anyone who didn't like it (although for one person I do have to miss the chocolate covering off, because she's allergic to chocolate).
And so it is my go-to recipe for just about every occasion (the only exception being people who are on a totally fat-free diet). Although (as mentioned) it's not the best cake in the world, it has the highest cake quality output to effort input ratio of anything I know. It's a recipe I got from my mum, and has been a staple throughout my life - but even she doesn't know who the Millie Piper named in the recipe is...
( Millie Piper's Rich Fingers )
Now, I'm not claiming that it makes the best cake ever: that would be quite a claim. However, it is the Best Cake Recipe Ever for these reasons:
1. It is trivially simple to make. No baking required, even.
2. It's a wartime recipe made with margarine. Make it with something like Stork and choose your chocolate carefully, and your cake is dairy-free.
3. It's got no eggs. See also (2), you can feed it to vegans.
4. It's got no flour. You can feed it to coeliacs.
5. I've never (yet) met anyone who didn't like it (although for one person I do have to miss the chocolate covering off, because she's allergic to chocolate).
And so it is my go-to recipe for just about every occasion (the only exception being people who are on a totally fat-free diet). Although (as mentioned) it's not the best cake in the world, it has the highest cake quality output to effort input ratio of anything I know. It's a recipe I got from my mum, and has been a staple throughout my life - but even she doesn't know who the Millie Piper named in the recipe is...
( Millie Piper's Rich Fingers )
Still we get the same old gruel
Sep. 23rd, 2010 05:43 pmAnother recipe request: anyone got any good ideas for interesting vegetarian soup which will also appeal to committed carnivores? Must be something which can be easily prepared in advance and reheated with minimum fuss, possibly more than once.
Your answer must not include lentils :) (I don't have anything against lentils, just two of us are supposed to be making soup so there is a choice, and the other soup-maker is planning lentil and vegetable).
For bonus points, any tips on making good vegetable stock appreciated. I usually make vegetable soup with meat stock of some kind, and when cooking soup for vegetarians I always find the results are just less tasty than I'd hope. Last time I made leek and potato soup it was really quite woefully bland with vegetable stock. I assume this is a resolvable problem which is just me doing it wrong.
Some of the committed carnivores are also the sort of people who are liable to look askance at anything which might be regarded as "a bit funny". So the ideal recipe will avoid outré ingredients like, say, anything which has not been commonly used in Britain since the 1950s. Identifiable ingredients, that is :) What they don't know won't hurt'em.
Your answer must not include lentils :) (I don't have anything against lentils, just two of us are supposed to be making soup so there is a choice, and the other soup-maker is planning lentil and vegetable).
For bonus points, any tips on making good vegetable stock appreciated. I usually make vegetable soup with meat stock of some kind, and when cooking soup for vegetarians I always find the results are just less tasty than I'd hope. Last time I made leek and potato soup it was really quite woefully bland with vegetable stock. I assume this is a resolvable problem which is just me doing it wrong.
Some of the committed carnivores are also the sort of people who are liable to look askance at anything which might be regarded as "a bit funny". So the ideal recipe will avoid outré ingredients like, say, anything which has not been commonly used in Britain since the 1950s. Identifiable ingredients, that is :) What they don't know won't hurt'em.
Wanted: one reliable recipe for a proper baked cheesecake.
Yes, I can google for one, but I'd sooner have one that someone has tried and can vouch for.
Yes, I can google for one, but I'd sooner have one that someone has tried and can vouch for.
