Dancing disco primrose.

I have finally got round to using my Secret Santa presents. Disco Primrose edible glitter and blue and white polkadot cupcake cases.

The cupcakes were based on Nigella's recipe with, of course, a few variations!

Beat 200g caster sugar with 175g good marg (butter is richer but heavier) then add 2 eggs. Mix in 200g self-raising flour, 40g cocoa and 150ml sour cream.

Keep an eye on them while they bake and test with a skewer when they have risen. A few minutes makes the difference between moist (sorry to use that word) and just too dry.

Topped when warm with a syrup made from sugar, cocoa and water (nothing fancy) and sprinkled with the glitter.

I have never made anything so garish in my entire life. The pictures don't really do them justice. They disappeared pretty quick at work though! 

Macaroni winning.

Macaroni cheese divides opinion. It does. A dish with so much potential for variation that can absolutely delicious or truly awful.

My university halls only had basic kitchens. Fridge, kettle and microwave. One day I decided to buy a tin of Heinz Macaroni Cheese. I remember unpleasantly soft pasta, a slightly powdery sauce and a taste like 1980s pre-grated Parmesan. Vom. I covered the bowl with a tea towel, put it in the corner of my room and my best friend had to remove it for me. Bleurgh.


It doesn't have to be like this. Neither should it be bland, stodgy or dull.

Cook the macaroni in salted water until just done. There should still be a little bite. Make a white sauce like you would for a cauliflower cheese. I added strong grated cheese, a finely chopped garlic clove, grated nutmeg, mushroom ketchup for spice and seasoned with lots of black pepper and a little salt to taste.

Remember a white sauce is just a base so experiment. Add cooked onions, mustard (grainy, strong etc), bacon, ham, chorizo, different types of cheese, a little cream or mascarpone for richness, mushrooms, spring onions or try using different spices and herbs. Taste it as you go.

All you need to do then is pour the sauce over the macaroni, top as desired (cheese, breadcrumbs etc) and grill or bake until crispy.

A whole world away from the Heinz of the early noughties.

Tastes like a health food shop...

Last night was kale night. The big smooshy (it's a word) bag of kale. Also good for playing kale Jenga. See picture.

Stir-fried kale with marinated tofu and egg-fried rice. AmSam style. Totally non-authentic.

By the time decided what we were going to eat the shops were shut. Rubbish Sunday shopping. Is it like this in other countries?! So Dr W headed off to McColls for rice/noodles and came back with Uncle Ben's boil in the bag rice. I am uncomfortable about admitting to the use of BITB rice. It's just not right.

The rice was boiled. In it's bag. Hm. Scrambled an egg, added the cooked rice and chopped fresh tomato (Ching told me to). It should have been finished with spring onions, soy sauce and sesame oil. But, due to bad planning and lack of supermarkets, in my case onion, soy and toasted sesame seeds. Not quite the same.

The kale was stir fried with ginger, garlic, chilli (slightly too much. hah. hot.) and soy sauce with, as requested by Dr W, matchstick carrots.The tofu was fried until coloured and slightly crispy.

A bit of of a mish-mash but good. Except the tofu which tasted like a health food shop. I will marinate my own in future.

Real life spoiler.

Dr W being served at the Euston Tap by Tim Andersøn from Masterchef 2011 currently airing on the BBC. 


Guess he didn't win then.


...
 
Good pub with a brilliant selection of beers. Well worth a visit.

Purple sprouting...

Veg Box Wednesday! Beetroot, courgettes, curly kale, vine tomatoes, red pepper and the usual potatoes, onions and carrots. Roll on summer veg please.

I do like how Abel & Cole have presented their kale like a bag of candy floss at a fairground (on a stick would be a little hopeful). A big pillow of kale. I'm not a big kale fan and this makes me want to eat it! Or cuddle it... Hm.

Anyway. Supper tonight was treat supper for tired people. Purple sprouting broccoli (last weeks box) pasta bake with anchovies. Will serve four hungry people or two hungry people with plenty left over!

Cook one onion, three fat garlic cloves and a tin of anchovies in olive oil until soft. Add two tins of tomatoes and a small pot of double cream (treats). Simmer and season to taste with salt (remember the anchovies) and black pepper.

In a wide, deep dish put the dried pasta and broccoli. Pour the sauce over the pasta and top up with vegetable stock (not too strong) until the pasta is just covered with liquid. Bake at 200°C until the liquid is absorbed and the top is crunchy which is about 45mins. I put mozzarella on the top about 15mins before I took it out the oven.

It's rich. And good for sleepy people.

Green beer and other stories.

Check out my Alien Veg: Part II. A celeriac bulb the size of my head. Like a swirly, celery-scented Saturn.

My parents came to stay this weekend just gone and treated us to a big bit of Hampshire pork. So I roasted it. I wanted crackling.

Turn the oven to 240°C. Dry and score the skin then rub generously with salt. Cook at the high heat for about 25 mins and this will get the skin bubbling. Turn the oven down to 200°C then cook for 25 mins per pound. Always make sure that pork is cooked all the way through.

The roast pork was served with celeriac and potato boulangère, red cabbage, parsley carrots and stuffing balls cooked around the pork. I choose Paxo. There is delicious, freshly made stuffing out there but this is savoury, comforting and ever so slightly doughy. Oh, and butter your veg. It's Sunday.

For the gravy, if you have a metal roasting pan remove the meat and place the pan on the hob. To the juices from the roasting pan, add the water from the carrots, a good stock cube and cider then sprinkle a little bit of plain flour and whisk over the heat until it looks and tastes like you want it to.

On Saturday night Dr W had drunk a green pint. After the pub he came home looking slightly concerned and was rather relieved after some Internet searching that the beer was in fact meant to be green. Not just a pub with algae affected lines. Phew. He did still drink the green beer even though he wasn't sure it was meant to be green... Hm.

So we took the parents back for a pint of Stonehenge Ales Sign of Spring. Nothing to do with St Patrick's Day. It was lovely. And it was green. Why? We don't know.

A. Food colouring
B. Seaweed
C. Magic

Answer on a postcard please.

Pancake Tuesday!

I take back everything mean that I said about Delia's pancake recipe at work today. They were delicious.

As previously discussed I'm a pancake maverick. I wing it. And always end up with an edible result. But sometimes I have to concede to the weights and measures side of cooking.

Ok, I didn't stick exactly to the recipe but I only changed it slightly.

110g plain flour
2 eggs
200ml milk (add this gradually, you may not need it all)
A melted knob (hehe) of butter
A little caster sugar (in place of Delia's salt)

Whisk all ingredients, except the butter, together until smooth. Melt the butter in the frying pan you intend to use, pour into the batter and whisk again.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and ladle in enough batter to thinly coat the bottom of the pan. Pick up the pan and gently tilt & swirl the batter around the edges until there is no runny batter left. Leave for a minute or so and flip in whichever way you choose.

AmSam's Pancake Tips

1. Don't listen to Delia when she says "I admit it can be a hazardous affair if you don't know the ropes". This is rubbish and why, Delia, cooking scares people.
2. Use a non-stick frying pan. This makes for easy flipping and you won't need to use any extra butter for frying unless you want to.
3. Use a small frying pan. 20cm in my case. Easier to flip and more pancakes to play with.
4. Eat more pancakes.

Final Shrove Tuesday Fact- I was born on Pancake Day. Resulting in a lifelong affinity with said food. Yes. Good excuse.

Bento One.

Chicken with Sambal Oelek & coconut milk (leftovers)
Rice noodles
Salad & pickled soy cucumbers
Vinaigrette

Rather proud of bento number one.

Go on, play with your food.

JustBento.com

Dr W and Miss AmSam take the waters.

After the excesses of the weekend it seemed appropriate to seek some restorative spa water.

Crystal clear with a delicate mousse and a warm, disconcerting mouth-feel. The initial hint of sulphur on the nose follows through to the palate and is joined by a rush of salinity similar to a questionable Manzanilla. The palate is dominated by a bold metallic tang that contributes to the exceptionally remarkable length. Timeless. - AmSam, N.A.C.

It didn't help.

Thank you Dr W, Mum & Dad, D&R, Mrs Johnson, Deano, C&D and Niffa!

Balloony Fun

Cards n Tings

 

 

 

 

 

Lobster Pick

Pretty and Useful!

How well they know me.

Clever Niffa

Homemade Peanut Cookies

Lunartik in a Tea Cup

Bunny Eggs

First, hard boil your egg. Peel immediately (careful, hot things are hot) and place in the lightly oiled mould of choice.

Close the mould, immerse in cold water for 10 mins and then stare in amazement.

That's a boiled egg. That looks like a bunny.

Yup. Brilliant!

Bento!

So my parcel from Japan was a goody box packed with Bento fun!

The bunny print box, little decorative cutters, dressing bottles, egg moulds (more about these later), an octodog slicer, pretty picks and two other bento boxes with silicon dividers so that Dr W and I can bento together.

It's like being a child again with brightly coloured plastic things to play with! Love it.

AMAZING. Thank you Big Brother.

Don't knock the cheese & pineapple.

What better way to start a birthday weekend than with pancakes! Buttermilk pancakes with bacon and maple syrup to be precise.

Whisk together self-raising flour, caster sugar, a little melted butter, buttermilk and an egg into a thick batter. Add some milk if the batter looks too thick or a bit more flour if it looks too thin. I'm not precise about quantities and they always seem to turn out ok!

Drop batter into a non-stick frying pan and flip the pancakes when little bubbles rise to the surface. Keep them warm in a low oven while cooking.Served with bacon and maple syrup. Ok, not maple syrup. Maple flavoured golden syrup. Passable substitute!

A little later on the friends arrived and we ate cheese & pineapple on sticks, roast chicken with lemon and garlic, mashed potatoes, buttered carrots with parsley and salad with vinaigrette. No pictures. Too busy eating.

The chickens were roasted with olive oil, two lemons and a whole head of garlic in a heavy pan (ancient hand me down Le Creuset in my case) with the lid on. This way all the juices stay in the chicken and the meat just falls off the bones. When the chicken is cooked just pour the lemony, garlicky juices into a jug and serve.

After lunch we were all more than a little snoozy (poor travelling friends) but totally manned up and headed to the pub. Fun times. Apart from the cinammon vodka. Nasty.

Home Made Goodies!

Friday. A Fed Ex man arrived at my door with a parcel from Japan. The description on the box said kitchenware. I stopped myself from opening it. This was hard. I put the parcel down. Picked it up. Put it down again and went in to town for last minute purchasing of chickens and bacon, squidgy brie and cured meats from the nice man at Nibbles Cheese Shop.

Then some friends arrived, ate the squidgy brie and gave me some excellent presents.

An enormous jar of little, crunchy pistachio, chocolate and cranberry cantucci. For dipping in espresso or Vin Santo. Mmmm.

Soft, sticky banana bread. Half of which has gone straight in the freezer for future banana bread needs.

Ginger syrup for vodka. Or anything else that may need a sweet, fiery kick.

All home made and all delicious. The beautiful labels are from Frank and the enviable handwriting from my best friend. Thank you D&R.

Gnome Home

I took a couple of days off this week to relax and prepare for the weekend and despite it still being super cold I did a bit of pottering outside on Thursday.

Primroses and violas and a new hiding place for my well travelled gnome. What will the neighbours think? I did draw the line at my pineapple shaped bird feeder. Thought that may be a garden ornament too far.

Preparation for the weekend involved deciding what to feed eight people that would be relatively simple to prepare and not too expensive. My decision was based on what had come in the veg box on Wednesday and what was in the cupboards. I'll tell you about what I picked later.

I also made a cake. Based on a Nigella recipe. Mix 175g butter with 200g caster sugar until creamy then beat in two eggs. Fold in 200g self-raising flour and 40g cocoa and 150ml sour cream. Pour into a lined tin and bake for about 40mins. Check if it's cooked by gently poking the cake with a skewer. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked. Magic.

I'm not keen on sweet, sticky butter icing (bleurgh) so I just covered the cake in melted chocolate and chocolate buttons.

Sorted. Thursday done.

AmSam's Birthday Week.

It is my birthday. I am now probably officially in my late 20s. Gosh.

The week started very well with an AWESOME charity shop find. A wall mounted plaster doe and fawn. I couldn't leave it in the shop because it was such a good find but now it's mounted on my wall, it scares me a little bit. I'm not going to lie. Weird. Love it.

The Whole Bagel. I usually take my own lunches to work but on Wednesday I bought a bagel. I totally pushed the boat out. Treats. The Mighty Swiss- ham, swiss cheese and salad. With added gherkins. On a toasted cheese & jalapeno bagel. Epic bagel fun. Very much recommended!

So that was the start to my birthday week and I have a lot to share. But have a look at this first. Captures her perfectly I think. It's a little bit blue so you have been warned. Sophie Dahl. I'm not a fan.