Everyone always talks about how the parents feel when their kid moves out of home. What seems to pass unnoticed is how the kid (usually an adult in pretty much every sense of the word) feels about moving out, clearing out rooms and leaving only a trace of themselves.
Having spent the best part of 2 days binning and packing up my room and then carefully arranging them into the back of the world's smallest car whilst trying to maintain some level of visibility through the back windscreen I can tell you it's odd. Now this is not the first time I've moved out so to speak. 4 years ago I packed up and moved out for uni and the whole thing was pretty emotional, but this was still my home. I still had clothes and general stuff and my room was still classed as my room. But now the game has changed. Now I get to be a grown up and move all my stuff out to Derby to start a new job, without even the luxury of an attic cupboard of my stuff left here like my other siblings have. Instead my mum appears hellbent on binning all old uniforms, books and everything else it seems.
Which leaves my room empty, shell-like. What's left of me in this house? Old school reports and exam certificates (for now), a couple of photographs and a couple of fancy dresses and pairs of shoes. And that's it. I feel odd about leaving, sad in some ways, excited to start the next chapter, nervous about having to step up and take responsibility both in the workplace and of my own life.
I'm launching into the great unknown, with only an empty shell to go back to. But hey, at least there's an ensuite guest room waiting for me if I ever decide to go home...
Friday, 31 August 2012
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Looking on the bright side
So my gnocchi merged into a delicious mush, that tasted right but lacked texture, sometimes that's just the way things are.
Similarly the pavlova texture was all wrong, but oh my it tasted amazing, almost better that the right texture would have been. Looking back I should have trusted my instincts on the whipping and talking to my brother (who completed a chef course so I consider him an expert in these things) he agreed with me. His suggestion is to whip in the cornflour and vinegar first as they are stabilizing agents and then fold in coffee sugar, not the other way round.
Despite the less than positive events in the kitchen it has been a pretty good week. I finally managed to work out how to dry my hair curly and keep the fringe not kinked. And....
.... I passed my driving test at last.
I kinda feel like it is all going to be taken away from me, definitely doesn't feel real though. Not yet gone out solo but very much looking forward to it.
And I need to make me some peanut butter brownies or cakes or something as it's all I've been thinking of this week. Mmmm peanut butter.
Similarly the pavlova texture was all wrong, but oh my it tasted amazing, almost better that the right texture would have been. Looking back I should have trusted my instincts on the whipping and talking to my brother (who completed a chef course so I consider him an expert in these things) he agreed with me. His suggestion is to whip in the cornflour and vinegar first as they are stabilizing agents and then fold in coffee sugar, not the other way round.
Despite the less than positive events in the kitchen it has been a pretty good week. I finally managed to work out how to dry my hair curly and keep the fringe not kinked. And....
.... I passed my driving test at last.
I kinda feel like it is all going to be taken away from me, definitely doesn't feel real though. Not yet gone out solo but very much looking forward to it.
And I need to make me some peanut butter brownies or cakes or something as it's all I've been thinking of this week. Mmmm peanut butter.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Complementary recipes aka gnocchi and pavlova
I know a lot of people are good at storing egg whites in the fridge/freezer/whatever and coming back and using them later, but I tend to forget, or wait too long. Plus I'm convinced that frozen egg whites just won't work, even though the world says otherwise.
So as I was making some gnocchi romana for dinner which uses egg yolks I figured that it was the perfect excuse to make a pavlova, or more specifically a cappuccino pavlova that I have been drooling over the recipe of for over a week now.
I came across the cappuccino recipe on twitter and knew I just had to have it. I'm not usually that successful with pavlova/meringues and I'm pretty sure this one is no different, although I need to wait for the oven to cool until I can check it out. How on earth are you supposed to not over-whip egg whites when you are adding almost 200g of sugar a tbsp at a time?! I erm also forgot the salt at first so that might also be the culprit...
At the moment both the gnocchi dough and the pavlova are cooling down, I hate playing the waiting game. Normally any recipe that involves chilling time is a deal breaker for me.
I've already linked the pavlova recipe above, but I made it with a couple of modifications to match the quantities of egg whites to the number of egg yolks required for gnocchi. Everything was scaled down to work for 3 egg whites instead of 4. I cut the baking time by about 10 minutes and the size of the circle down to about 20cm dia.
The final product looked like this, but only the taste test will tell whether it is a success. I was slightly confused as to why the top was dome shaped and the bottom had formed a similar dome underneath. Thankfully cream covers all sins in this case.
Luckily I know I can make successful gnocchi so at least part of the meal is a guaranteed winner.
Gnocchi romana with homemade black olive pesto (adapted from here)
for the gnocchi
1L milk
40g butter
pinch salt
250g semolina
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
for the pesto
30g pine nuts
4 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp dried basil
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
black pepper to taste
handful of pitted black olives
about 4tbsp olive oil
Heat the milk with 20g of the butter in a saucepan and add a pinch of salt. When the milk comes up to the boil whisk in the semolina to prevent lumps forming and then stir with a wooden spoon. The mixture will thicken up to form a dough, turn the heat down and cook for a further 15 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, beat in the rest of the butter, then the egg yolks 1 at a time. Finally add the cheese, and taste the dough for seasoning, I added a litte extra salt.
Dampen a baking sheet and a rolling pin, turn the dough out onto the baking sheet and roll to about 1cm thick. Make sure the pin is kept wet or the dough will stick.
Cool the dough for about 2 hours, it should firm up a lot.
Whilst the dough is chilling make the pesto. Combine all the ingredients apart from the oil in a food processor and pulse to form a rough paste. Add the oil and pulse again to form a pesto style sauce. Taste and adjust flavouring, you might want some more herbs or oil.
To make the dish cut circles of dough and cover the base of an oven dish with them. After each layer spread some of the pesto over it, and then continue layering until everything has been used up, ending with a pesto layer.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20 minutes until the top starts to go crispy.
Serve with a crispy salad
So as I was making some gnocchi romana for dinner which uses egg yolks I figured that it was the perfect excuse to make a pavlova, or more specifically a cappuccino pavlova that I have been drooling over the recipe of for over a week now.
I came across the cappuccino recipe on twitter and knew I just had to have it. I'm not usually that successful with pavlova/meringues and I'm pretty sure this one is no different, although I need to wait for the oven to cool until I can check it out. How on earth are you supposed to not over-whip egg whites when you are adding almost 200g of sugar a tbsp at a time?! I erm also forgot the salt at first so that might also be the culprit...
At the moment both the gnocchi dough and the pavlova are cooling down, I hate playing the waiting game. Normally any recipe that involves chilling time is a deal breaker for me.
I've already linked the pavlova recipe above, but I made it with a couple of modifications to match the quantities of egg whites to the number of egg yolks required for gnocchi. Everything was scaled down to work for 3 egg whites instead of 4. I cut the baking time by about 10 minutes and the size of the circle down to about 20cm dia.
The final product looked like this, but only the taste test will tell whether it is a success. I was slightly confused as to why the top was dome shaped and the bottom had formed a similar dome underneath. Thankfully cream covers all sins in this case.
 |
| Cappuccino pavlova |
Luckily I know I can make successful gnocchi so at least part of the meal is a guaranteed winner.
Gnocchi romana with homemade black olive pesto (adapted from here)
for the gnocchi
1L milk
40g butter
pinch salt
250g semolina
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
for the pesto
30g pine nuts
4 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
2 tbsp dried basil
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
black pepper to taste
handful of pitted black olives
about 4tbsp olive oil
Heat the milk with 20g of the butter in a saucepan and add a pinch of salt. When the milk comes up to the boil whisk in the semolina to prevent lumps forming and then stir with a wooden spoon. The mixture will thicken up to form a dough, turn the heat down and cook for a further 15 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, beat in the rest of the butter, then the egg yolks 1 at a time. Finally add the cheese, and taste the dough for seasoning, I added a litte extra salt.
Dampen a baking sheet and a rolling pin, turn the dough out onto the baking sheet and roll to about 1cm thick. Make sure the pin is kept wet or the dough will stick.
Cool the dough for about 2 hours, it should firm up a lot.
 |
| It may not be pretty but it is gnocchi. I can't figure out what shape it reminds me of. |
 |
| Mmmm blacky green sludge- tastes significantly better than it looks! |
To make the dish cut circles of dough and cover the base of an oven dish with them. After each layer spread some of the pesto over it, and then continue layering until everything has been used up, ending with a pesto layer.
 |
| The bottom and middle layers were perfect circles but the top layer not so much... |
Serve with a crispy salad
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Juice and pulp
Having rediscovered my juicer in the back of a cupboard I've been on a bit of a juicing spree recently. Which has turned out to be a very good thing as today I woke up at 7am with pain. As in the pain woke me up. Not good. So lunch today was juice as chewing hurt. A lot.
Making juice is fun as all the vegetables and fruit produce juices of different colours, although the end product is pretty much always sludge coloured. My sludge of the day was: apple, sweet potato, celery, carrot, ginger, red cabbage and tiny little bit of lemon. Sweet potato juice was starchy but not unpleasant.
The by-product of all this juice is that there is pulp a plenty. Looking around I found that plenty of people suggesting mixing pulp into recipes as a source of fibre. I decided to go one step further and make it into the meal. I concocted a pulp and pinto bean chilli, served up in iceberg lettuce bowls with pitta chips with cheese. Even my sceptic mum and carnivorous brother seemed to enjoy it!
Pulp chilli
Pulp from a selection of veg (I used a couple of slices of cabbage, 2 carrots, a sweet potato, 2 sticks celery and an apple)
A little oil
2 tins chopped tomato
1 tin pinto beans
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
salt and pepper
Heat the oil in a saucepan and then add the pulp (you could add some garlic and fresh chilli at this point but I couldn't be bothered with the chopping). Add the tins of tomato and about half a tin of water extra. Take care as the mixture is thick and air pockets will bubble up through it. Stir in the spices, adjust seasoning to taste, allow to cook for about 20 minutes.
Put into an oven dish, top with cheese and bake for 20 mins at 200C until all the cheese is melted and delicious. Line bowls with intact lettuce leaves and serve in the bowls.
Making juice is fun as all the vegetables and fruit produce juices of different colours, although the end product is pretty much always sludge coloured. My sludge of the day was: apple, sweet potato, celery, carrot, ginger, red cabbage and tiny little bit of lemon. Sweet potato juice was starchy but not unpleasant.
 |
| Cabbage juice. Odd but not bad tasting and very pretty |
 |
| This is what happens when you run apples through after the cabbage |
Pulp chilli
Pulp from a selection of veg (I used a couple of slices of cabbage, 2 carrots, a sweet potato, 2 sticks celery and an apple)
A little oil
2 tins chopped tomato
1 tin pinto beans
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
salt and pepper
Heat the oil in a saucepan and then add the pulp (you could add some garlic and fresh chilli at this point but I couldn't be bothered with the chopping). Add the tins of tomato and about half a tin of water extra. Take care as the mixture is thick and air pockets will bubble up through it. Stir in the spices, adjust seasoning to taste, allow to cook for about 20 minutes.
Put into an oven dish, top with cheese and bake for 20 mins at 200C until all the cheese is melted and delicious. Line bowls with intact lettuce leaves and serve in the bowls.
Monday, 13 August 2012
Popcorn, bagels and juice
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| More thriller, less filler - the cereal edition |
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| Popcorn shower. Formed a lovely pattern on the floor, unfortunately I'm still finding it everywhere |
I think in future I might just stick to bagel for breakfast, much safer. And with the excessively large batch I made on friday/saturday it looks like I'll be eating them for a while. Although not with my brother around. Last night he commented that "you probably already know it, but the bagels are excellent, surprisingly." High praise indeed from a boy that did a chef course. The downside to him enjoying the bagels is that they keep disappearing...
I've been lusting after a food processor to take with me when I move house in september and have narrowed it down to 3. One of the main attractions of this nifty little Bosch one I've seen is that it has a hard fruit/veg juicer attachment. This morning when I was making breakfast I remembered the juicer attachement and thought about how much novelty it would bring, and then realised I already have a proper fruit juicer!
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| Waring kitchen classic juicer - given its size, it's surprisingly easy to forget about |
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Bagels
A couple of days ago I was doing my usual online shop and decided to go for some bagels. I realise some people think they are the enemy as 1 bagel = 4 slices of bread, but for me they are perfect! When the order arrived I noticed that bagel pack size has been decreased to 4! Outrageous!
As a result I decided to try my hand at making bagels, thinking how hard can it really be? To be fair the last time I tried making them (many years ago) they didn't turn out that well, but now that I've mastered bread I figured it would be ok.
After much searching I found there were 2 types of recipe, a 1 day recipe and a 2 day one involving a poolish type starter. I figure if you're going to try something you might as well do it properly so I went ahead with the 2 day bagel. I did cheat somewhat as I used the dough hooks instead of hand kneading but the first day of bagel making still took longer than expected!
After nearly 4 hours of mixing, waiting, kneading, dividing, resting and testing the bagels were finally ready for bed and so was I! In the morning there was actually very little to do, which was reassuring!
In the end the bagels turned out chewy, with a good crust and so tasty, if a little bit hard to slice well. Next time I will start these much earlier in the day so they don't mess with my sleeping patterns quite as much...
If you want to have a go and have far too much spare time, like me, then I can highly recommend this recipe, from the Smitten Kitchen blog.
As a result I decided to try my hand at making bagels, thinking how hard can it really be? To be fair the last time I tried making them (many years ago) they didn't turn out that well, but now that I've mastered bread I figured it would be ok.
After much searching I found there were 2 types of recipe, a 1 day recipe and a 2 day one involving a poolish type starter. I figure if you're going to try something you might as well do it properly so I went ahead with the 2 day bagel. I did cheat somewhat as I used the dough hooks instead of hand kneading but the first day of bagel making still took longer than expected!
After nearly 4 hours of mixing, waiting, kneading, dividing, resting and testing the bagels were finally ready for bed and so was I! In the morning there was actually very little to do, which was reassuring!
In the end the bagels turned out chewy, with a good crust and so tasty, if a little bit hard to slice well. Next time I will start these much earlier in the day so they don't mess with my sleeping patterns quite as much...
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| Bagel selection: onion, mixed seed, plain, sea salt and cinnamon and raisin |
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| One just happened to disappear before I managed to get a photo... |
If you want to have a go and have far too much spare time, like me, then I can highly recommend this recipe, from the Smitten Kitchen blog.
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
New kitchen toys
The weather up here has been pretty torrential for the past few days, so I haven't been out much as I didn't fancy swimming fully dressed! Additionally my NTC classes are cancelled for a couple of weeks (booo) so I've been at a bit of a loss.
In the middle of the downpour yesterday I realised I needed a few things, so ventured out and ended up in the giant ASDA near me. It's so huge I feel like you would never need to leave. They have everything. After much aimless wandering I picked up these cuties:
Of course you can't let a new toy rest idly in a drawer, so I just had to make some muffins. I'd read about bran muffins on my search for a healthy breakfast muffin and had managed to track down everything required for them. One thing I'm not sure about is what is meant by molasses in American recipes. In the UK you can buy molasses sugar which is a solid, but then there are sometimes references to molasses (treacle). In the end I went down the treacle route, which gave the muffins a strong burnt sugar taste I'm never quite sure of.
Otherwise the muffins were a success and the muffin cups easy to use and clean!
The muffin recipe can be found here.
In the middle of the downpour yesterday I realised I needed a few things, so ventured out and ended up in the giant ASDA near me. It's so huge I feel like you would never need to leave. They have everything. After much aimless wandering I picked up these cuties:
Otherwise the muffins were a success and the muffin cups easy to use and clean!
The muffin recipe can be found here.
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