10 on 10

10 photos on the 10th December; one an hour through the day for 10 consecutive hours.

Check out the other project participants here:

Alexander McQueen

I have a bit of an obsession with McQueen. The clothes are just amazing.

Here are two videos which give you a real sense of the creativity, imagination and awesome skill which goes into producing such amazing couture:

An interview with Sarah Burton can be watched here.

Backstage at the SS12 show:


Enjoy!

An eventful week

Last week I consider that I was very brave with my food choices. I am proud of this, so I felt it was worth sharing.

I ate mushrooms in a risotto.
Mushrooms are my nemesis in the food world, but I'm trying to be more grown -up about them and not gag at the very thought.

I ate beetroot gratin, and beetroot in a cake.
Yes my wee turned pink which was disturbing, but the food was tasty enough.

I ate lamb's liver in a stirfry.
I have never eaten offal of any kind before. It just seemed un-necessary, but in eating our way through the whole lamb we were given you do eventually have to approach the grizzly bits. It wasn't too bad.

On tuesday I ate a mushroom

A field mushroom.

Actually two of them, stuffed with a mix of pork mince, apple and red onion.


I didn't gag.

Hurrah! I must be growing up.


That is all.

Apologies

Apologies that my blogging has been neglected for a couple of weeks: I've been working on a different kind of creativity.

Last week I did a week-long course at London College of Fashion on how to make custom-designed and fitted corsets. It was amazing! I learnt loads of good sewing techniques, as well as cutting a pattern for a corset to fit me, and making it (well, nearly anyway - I have some finishing up to do at home). The course was just a starting point though - there's loads more that I can learn through trial and error, practice and experimentation. I'm looking forward to improving on the skills I've learnt!

So here's the pattern as I drafted it:



Then traced out into individual pieces and ready to cut the fabric:



Snipped to size!



Catching up a bit by doing some of my sewing at home:



And the front (on the right) and back parts of the corset in the workshop:



You can see the industrial sewing machines in the background - they gave me a lot of grief! Being used to a domestic sewing machine I found it tricky to get the hang of the heavy, FAST, industrial machines. I'm sure I would manage them if given enough time to get accustomed to them, but a week wasn't really long enough to do so.

I'll be finishing the corset at home over the next couple of weeks, so watch this space for a snap of the completed project.

10 on 10

I've recently been checking in fairly regularly on a lovely blog called A bit of Sunshine. Its written by a lady called Rebekah over in the US, and she has had the fantastic idea to start a bloggers photo day. In her own words, the idea is that "once a month on the tenth taking a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours. Finding much life and beauty among the ordinary things of our day!" Read all about it here.

This is my first month taking part, and the 10th was an unusual day for me, involving a road trip across the Gloucestershire countryside and down to Wells for a day of music at the cathedral. Having said that it was unusual, that isn't so much of a rare occurence in my job in music publishing, but nonetheless I can't really claim that this was an average day!

Here are my 10 (I haven't meddled with them beyond some cropping of the images):

Yummmm

I love Oxford. Really I do.

In what other city can you hop on your bike at lunchtime and 2 minutes later be cycling past this....



On your way to an idyllic little spot that feels like the deepest darkest most rural of countryside...



To pick lovely sweet, fresh strawberries



And eat a few as you pick of course - why make the effort to pick your own otherwise?

The asparagus and fresh garlic on sale were an added bonus.

This little haul is for me and Dan to eat fresh, but next time I'll buy enough to make jam.



How wholesome.

Off topic - a music blog post

In the real world I work in music publishing. Its a quirky little mixture of art and commerce.

Last night one of the composers I represent was featured on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction. The composer is Howard Skempton, and of all the composers whose music we publish his is the work I have the most inate affinity with. I'm not sure if I'm meant to admit that (is it like having a favourite child?!), but its definitely true. He's a lovely, chatty, intriguing man.



The Radio 3 Late Junction sessions pair up 2 musicians who have never worked together, throw them into a studio together, and record the results. Howard Skempton was paired with Robin Williamson, who is described as a 'celtic bard'. Their resulting creations were suprisinging, magical, haunting. Completely brightened up my friday to 'Listen Again'.

If you're in the UK (I'm not sure if it works elsewhere) take a listen to the programme here. The session starts 1 hour into the programme, and there's an amusing little treat at 1 hour 16!

Broadening my horizons

Yesterday I found myself in central London with a little time to kill, so I wandered into Selfridges and then down Bond Street.

I'd read about Vogue magazine's Street Lights project at the weekend, so I made a beeline for Old Bond Street to see the window displays. It was fun and inspiring, with quite a buzz about it. Lots of people were checking out the displays, there was live music, and there were lots of interesting concepts on show. My favourite was the Tiffany's window, with perspex shapes which turned and magnified the jewellery.

Here's a small selection of snaps, just taken on my phone as I meandered around.



If you want to check out the window displays they're only up this week, so go go go!

Read a bit more about it here.

I also saw this in the Selfridges window which I thought was mad, cool and very funky:



Must practice my origami!

PS You may see more off-topic posts on this blog in the coming months. I'd like to broaden the subject matter a little here and there, to include a bit on crafts, art, fashion, jewellery, photography, and other things that interest me.

Festival excitement

I'm excited.

Super-excited actually.

I've just read that there's a festival literally a few miles from me this summer which two of my food heros will be at. Yotam Ottolenghi AND Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Throw in a few bands, a couple of gardeners, an opera of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mister Fox, and a generally lovely location, and its a festival I can actually get enthusiastic about.

Hurrah for Alex James's Harvest Festival. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase - no pots of jam and corn doilies at this one!

Here's the link:

Harvest

Daring Cooks April Challenge

The Daring Cooks April Challenge has been a goody. It has really made me think, puzzle and try to be inventive. Sadly, I'm not sure that I've succeeded on the invention test - I found it difficult to come up with anything non-obvious - but at least it tickled my brain cells!

So here we are: The april challenge was to make a "savoury edible container and fill it with something appropriate".

My immediate thought was to use a pumpkin and stuff it with interesting goodies before roasting it, but I rejected the idea as obvious, and also Dan doesn't very much like pupmkin so it would have been a little antisocial.
Then I thought I could make Pain Bagnat, which I have been meaning to try out for some time. This I rejected beacause the bread in pain bagnat isn't EXACTLY an edible container since the bread and filling are all squashed up together.

An interesting suggestion was made by Dan. He's recently been to Poland for work and had a traditional soup called Zur which he really enjoyed. It was served in a hollowed out round loaf of bread. I loved this idea, but due to time constraints I had to reject it for this challenge as I only had one free weekend to cook before the challenge results had to be posted. Given that I was going to be looking after 3 children that weekend making both bread and a complex soup didn't seem very practical, so I'm keeping this idea for a future occasion.

What to do, what to do......?

Chilled soup in an ice bowl was the front-runner until I saw someone else had already done a salad in an ice bowl. But then, in a dull day at work, I finally came up with the idea to make a savoury sorbet in a savoury cone. The idea pleased me because ice cream in a cone is so familiar, but the taste will be surprising. (Incidentally the savoury icecream research has brought up a few other to try at a later date.)

So, here we go....a gazpacho soup sorbet in a spiced tortilla cone.

Step one: I found a gazpacho recipe which sounded ideal in the Riverford Farm Cook Book. A lovely sounding combination of tomato, cucumber, chilli, herbs and red pepper, which looked beautiful and spring-fresh once all chopped up together:



Step 2: blend everything up and then push it through a fine sieve. I fully expected it not to look at all pretty at this stage!

Step 3: Add olive oil and chill for a few hours. Churn in an icecream maker the afternoon before you want to serve it for dinner, then freeze for at least half an hour.

Step 4: dampen a tortilla wrap (or a portion of one if that's the right size for you - I used about 1/2 of a tortilla for each cone) with a mixture of water and a little olive oil.

Step 5: roll it into a cone shape and secure with a cocktail stick. Sprinkle with a little salt and smoked paprika. Scrunch up some foil into a small ball and place inside the cone so that it doesn't collapse in the oven.

Step 6: place in a preheated oven at 220C for about 8 minutes until the cone is crispy and slightly golden.



Step 7: Allow the cone to cool then scoop your sorbet into it.

Step 8: finely chop some fresh mint leaves and mix with a couple of teaspoons of yoghurt (you can't have icecream with out toppings!), put a blob on top of the sorbet, and enjoy!



I have to admit that I wasn't sure how this would turn out - whether I would actually even be able to eat it, if it would delicious or totally disgusting! In fact, it made a really lovely, quirky, bite sized starter.

We enjoyed it before our sunday dinner on an unseasonably warm spring day, and it was brilliantly refreshing. My tastebuds enjoyed the confusion of having something that was a little bit spicey hot from the chilli at such a cold temperature.



The whole idea has proved a bit of a talking point in my office - opinion is divided on people believing this to have been delicious or inedible!

Blog-checking lines: Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th here at The Daring Kitchen!

Coming over all Cornish

Dartmouth Harbour

Last week we extended our weekend by a couple of days on either side and took a little road trip.



We meandered down through Dorset and Devon to St Ives in Cornwall, then back via the north Devon coast and a flying visit onto Exmoor. It was lovely to have some time to explore our own country, and made us remember that the UK is a lovely place and that its great to spend time just chilling out together.



To get into the spirit of the trip, the recipe I attempted this week was Hugh's curried trout pasty, from the River Cottage Fish Cook book. The pasties would make great picnic food, although they perhaps were not the perfect dinner - I couldn't come up with a very satisfactory accompaniment. Given that Dan sampled a real, home-cooked, Cornish Steak pasty while we were away I was glad to have attempted a lighter interpretation. I think I'd still be living off one of those 3 days later!


St Ives

One or two mini pieces of cookery inspiration from the trip:
Seville Orange Tart - an amazing dessert served up with creme fraiche at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow. A little bit bitter and fresh. We had a really lovely, rather over-indulgent Sunday lunch there - this is Dan with his Lobster and Prawn Tourte, which was delicious too:


Leek and Walnut quiche - a surprisingly brilliant combination.
Also, fantastic cake from a bakery in Dorchester in Dorset - we sampled half a slice each of Rhubarb and Ginger loaf cake and Chocolate, Pear and Almond loaf cake in our beachside picnic that day. Yummy scrummy. Glad I don't live close to that bakery - I'd definitely end up over-eating every day!


Padstow

Photos

When I started this blog I had great intentions as far as the photography went: Every picture woud be effortlessly beautiful, making you want to climb into the computer to eat the meal portrayed.

Clearly, it has not turned out this way.

Every once in a while I manage to take a photo in which the food does at least look edible, but that's about as good as it ever gets! What can I say? There's a whole litany of excuses I could make - I'm usually cooking in the evening so there's no natural light left, I'm too greedy/hungry to wait to eat (and who wants cold dinner?), a lot of the pictures are taken on my phone, etc etc....

But really, I have to confess that the photography of the food isn't the bit that motivates and interests me. I love taking photos, I'm just not bothered about taking photos of food. At least, not enough to delay the eating part!

So, sorry about that. I hope the poor photography doesn't make you think the recipes all turn out inedible. Most are good, and when they're not there will be a warning!

A New Year wish list

My belated New Year's resolution is to expand by bread-making repertoire in 2011.

I make bread a reasonable amount already - maybe once every 1 or 2 months - but I only have one really successful method for a loaf so far. I've managed foccacia, soda bread, and flatbreads, but the foccacia selection could definitely be expanded to include some different toppings.

On my recipe wish list are:

Sourdough bread
Bialys
Bagels
Pitta bread
Pizza dough (I struggle to get this thin enough as I love a thin and crispy pizza base)
Hot cross buns (when we get to Easter of course)
Chelsea buns (for a nostalgia kick - a childhood favourite!)

I'm sure this list will expand massively as I get more into experiments with bread-baking. I hope our appetite for bread can keep up! We don't eat masses of the stuff, but I am an awful bread snob, so when I do eat bread I demand that its decent! Is there anything better than the smell of fresh bread wafting through the house? Other than perhaps the taste of the fresh bread, with the butter melting into the crumb and a lovely crunchy crust. If I'm feeling extravagant then a thick smear of honey on the top too. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.

My Christmas present from Dan is going to be a bread mixing bowl. We've asked a potter who lives in the next village to make one for me, so it should be ready in a couple of weeks' time. Then I can get started on my list. I'm quite excited! Here are some of the other things the same potter has made...I wonder what he'll come up with for me?





Also on this year's recipe 'to do' list: rice pudding, onion bhajis, fondant potatoes, pain bagnat, lemon meringue pie, gravlax, sweet and sour (I don't like the takeaway version, but suspect I may like a homemade attempt), sorbet, cranachan, toad in the hole, treacle sponge, salted caramel icecream, macaroons.

What would you add?

My Boyfriend is a Heathen

...As demonstrated by his choice of lunch on sunday.



Warm pork pie and mushy peas, all topped with a liberal helping of mint sauce.

Bleurgh!

I'm told its a Yorkshire thing.

Argentina

My Dad tells an interesting story about being on a ship that docked in Buenos Aires. They were carrying coal, but the next cargo was to be grain. After unloading the coal in Buenos Aires they had about 48 hours to the next port in which to completely clean the hold of any trace of coal dust.
However, red wine was super cheap in Argentina, and the sailors got so drunk on it that they gave themselves alcohol poisoning and were completely incapacitated. Dad and the other officer cadets worked round the clock to clean the ship, staying up working for the full 48 hours straight. He was 17 at the time and had only been in the navy for a year. He swears that it was the hard physical work like that experience, as well as the poor food once you'd been at sea for more than a week, which meant that he stopped growing almost as soon as he joined the merchant navy.

But anyway, I digress. This week I made an Argentinian dish - Empanadas. Hence the musing on my Dad's tales of his travels. They're the South American version of Cornish Pasties! The filling was a combination of chicken, onion, leek, paprika, cumin, stock, pear, and peach. My fear was that the pear and peach chunks would make these wierdly sweet for a dinner dish, but the stock and spices balanced out the sweetness of the fruit remarkably well. I cheated and bought ready-rolled puff pastry for the outside; the ultimate in convenience! I baked the empanadas in the oven and served them with green vegetables and a few new potatoes, but if you made smaller portions they would work well with a salad for lunch.

My other recipe this week was to take advantage of the last of the wild blackberries which I had picked at the weekend; Blackberry and apple souffle.
I actually made blackberry, apple and pear souffle as I already had some stewed apple and pear in the freezer so it seemed sensible to use that rather than starting from scratch!

Here's the recipe (enough for 2 souffles):
Blackberry and Apple Souffle


(Sorry for the horrible picture - souffles sink fast once they're out of the oven so you have to 'snap' and serve!)

120g blackberries
1/2 apple
squeeze of lemon juice
10g sugar

1 egg white
30g caster sugar

butter for greasing the souffle dishes

Grease the souffle dishes with a small amount of butter.
Preheat the oven to 200C and place a baking tray in the oven to warm.
Peel, core and dice the apple. Place in a saucepan with a squeeze of lemon, 10g sugar, a splash of water and the blackberries. Heat gently until the apples break down to a pulp, then take off the heat and allow to cool a little. Press the fruit mixture through a sieve to make a fine puree.
Put a tablespoon of fruit puree in the bottom of each souffle dish and put the rest to one side.
Whisk the egg white until stiff, then add the sugar and whisk again until it is a glossy meringue-like mix. Gently fold in the remaining fruit puree with a metal spoon, then spoon it into the souffle dishes.
Put the souffle dishes onto the preheated baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown on top.
I suggest serving this with vanilla icecream.

For a man who claims not to have sweet tooth Dan does seem to have a definite enthusiasm for fruit puddings. This one was declared to be a keeper. He almost licked the plate!

A year in review

Given that I've been cooking a new recipe (at least 1) every week for a year now it seems like the right moment to review the high and low points of the Recipe-of-the-Week challenge.

Gallettes and Goats Cheese were early successes which I've made frequently throughout the year.
Other more than one-hit wonders:
Eggs Benedict
Mint and Cannellini bean dip (Bethan's favourite)
Goats Cheese souffle
Yorkshire pudds
Spiced red cabbage with apple
Salt and pepper squid
Dauphinoise potatoes (Dan loves this way of doing potatoes)
Cuban quail egg-stuffed meatballs
Guacamole - I never thought I liked guacamole, but the homemade one is great

Fruit in main meals has been a revelation - Salmon and mango sauce stretched our European tastebuds a bit far, but a range of Thai-style salads using mango were delicious, parma ham and figs has become a firm favourite, and both Duck with Mango and Duck with Cherry sauce were gorgeous.

Good week night dinners that have become regulars:
Steamed chicken spirals
Stroganoff
Fish cooked in yoghurt
Cauliflower risotto
Roasted new potatoes
Tomato and pepper eggs

Surprisingly good combinations:
Rhubarb and strawberries
Yoghurt can be used in cooking loads of stuff. Particularly surprising since I don't like yoghurt really.

Failures:
Crumpets. Boringly time consuming and fiddly.
Venison stew - the most disgusting meal of the year
Lamb stew
Aromatic Madura chicken

Occasion cookery which I enjoyed:
Christmas cake
Peanut caramel popcorn
Jam and chutney
Lobster!

Things I found an excellent recipe for, even if I have made them previously:
Bread
Custard

Things to refine:
Parkin
Steamed toffee pudding
Hollandaise sauce (not having good success rate with this of late! It keeps splitting at the last stages.)
Salmon en croute (try again using puff pastry)

Things I should definitely make again soon:
Terbiyeli Kofte (Turkish Lamb meatballs in lemon sauce)
Middle Eastern spinach with almonds
Zanzibar chicken
Crackers
Shahi Murg
Jerk Chicken
Torta di Spinachi
Aubergine Parmigiana
Steamed couscous with Fish
Frozen Yoghurt
Asian noodle salad with Cashew butter
Mexican one pot courgettes

Favourite recipe books:
A runaway winner, despite being a late addition to the shelf has to be the Riverford Farm Cook Book. Its simply excellent for lovely ideas for vegetables.
Silvana Franco has a great range of low-fat recipes that you'd never guess were low-fat recipes if you weren't "in the know".
Jamie Oliver has some lovely recipes and good tips but I don't find that his recipe books are all that user-friendly. I can't place my finger on why not. Perhaps its that they're very visual and chatty which is lovely for the coffee table, but a bit annoyng if you want clear instructions.
Angela Hartnett is fantastic, but unless you want to gain several stone its probably best to keep her dishes as occasional treats.

Lessons learnt:
Most recipes don't need as much fat or oil as they say.
Quite often poaching, steaming, or baking will do just as well as frying.
Often recipe books play it safe on amounts of spices - the quantities should be increased a bit if you like food to have a bit more punch.
I enjoy eating vegetarian meals fairly regularly, and they can be as varied and satisfying as meat/fish based dishes.
Meringues are unbelievably simple.
Homemade pasta definitely needs a pasta rolling machine.
A good fruity olive oil is worth paying more for. But keep it for moments when you can actually taste it - salad dressings, dipping bread.
I'm rubbish at making cakes.

Dishes still on the list:
Beef Wellington
Onion Bhajis
Chocolate steamed pudding with custard (Chocolate duff)
Cranachan
Rice Pudding
Semifreddo
Gravlax
Pear Jam

Future Ideas:
Make more Middle-Eastern recipes. I adore the warm spices and aromatic flavours that are used in the cuisine.
Explore some Japanese cooking. I might have to do this at times I'm eating on my own if I'm seriously considering tofu. Dan would be horrified. I've managed to get him to eat both lentils and pulses, but fear this would be a step too far!
Cook some old-fashioned recipes from Mrs Beeton's old fashioned cook book.

Shopping list:
Pasta rolling machine
Bread mixing bowl that holds enough douch for 3 loaves.
Icecream machine (a bit over indulgent - How often would I really use it?!)

Build a pizza oven in the garden!

A little trip to Devon

A couple of days in Devon last week was the perfect antidote to the 9-5 blues.



The scenery was quintissentially English, all summer prettiness and hazy lazy sunshine.

We ate fish and chips and too much icecream.



We walked along the seafront and picked which boat we would have if we were the boating types.



We went to concerts in the impressive Great Hall at Dartington.

I ate my first ever whole crab - cracked the claws myself and everything!



We napped in the afternoon. And had bacon for breakfast.

We discovered that we were only a few miles from the Riverford Farm shop - the recipe for rhubarb and strawberry crumble which I made in May came from their website - so we stopped by and bought some fruit and veg on the way home. Yummy. Their website is here.

Aahhhhh.....if only it had been more than just a couple of days.

My take-home treat? I have aquired a copy of the Riverford Farm cook book, which is chock-full of brilliant ideas for vegetables; something which I think is overlooked in the majority of recipe books. This week I will be putting them (and myself) to the test when I attempt Fried Green Tomatoes. My monster tomato plants are currently covered in not-quite-ripe tomatoes, so this seems the perfect recipe to get a sneak preview of whether they're going to be any good.