Jackets

I've been mostly sewing with wool in the last few months. Its such a lovely, tactile, and malleable fabric to work with that it has been a joy.

Having signed up for some sewing lessons at the beginning of November I decided that my first project would be a jacket. It seemed a good place to start - incorporating linings, sleeves, lapels, button holes it ticked off a lot of the things I wanted help with. I chose a Vogue pattern, some beautiful heather-y green wool and was good to go.

This was the pattern I chose to make, Vogue V8543:

But then I got over-ambitious and spotted this pattern, which I thought my Mum would love (Vogue V1146):

So I decided to make that for her for Christmas. My word, it needs A LOT of fabric. And that makes it very awkward to work in the last few steps (of which there are nearly 100), as it gets very heavy. Never say I'm not up for a challenge!

So there I was, the wool was purchased, the tasks were set. Would I mess up, sew something on upside down, cut my expensive fabric incorrectly? Well, yes is the short answer. There was some unpicking and resewing, but fortunately no cutting errors, which would have been more serious.

I battled through acres of fabric to make the coat. I kept waiting for the bit that would take it from 'medium difficulty' to 'advanced' as stated on the pattern envelope, but fortunately it never came. Maybe the difficulty grading was just because of the sheer weight of material making it difficult to work at times. I completed the coat in time for Christmas and my Mum was thrilled with it. (I'll get a better photo some time soon.)

By Christmas my jacket had stalled. It was close to completion, but I couldn't find the perfect buttons to finish it, but then last week I finally found the perect ones. Hurrah!

I admit, I was scared to make the button holes. Cutting into the fabric at the final stages felt terrifying in case I ended up ruining all the hard work I had put in. But with a sigh of relief I completed them without major mishaps, and here's the final jacket:

So, onwards - what should the next sewing project be?

February Daring Cooks Challenge

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

I make my own burger patties reasonably often as I like to know what's gone into my burgers. Also, I don't eat beef and it is often a bit tricky to find burgers made from any other meat. I  liked the idea of making patties for this month's challenge, but having previously tried out recipes for lamb, pork, chicken and turkey burgers I didn't want to make a meat recipe this time. Instead I chose to make some fishcakes - I figured they were the same shape and cooking method so technically could be counted as a patty!

I decided to use a combination of mashed potato and lightly smoked salmon fillet. To this I added some sweetcorn kernels, finely sliced spring onions, and peas, as well as an egg to bind it all together. I crushed some wholegrain crackers to crumbs and sprinkled these over my patties to make a crunchy crispy outside.

I then grilled these (the challenge was to shallow fry or bake the patties, but I hope I can be forgiven a minor transgression!) and served them with some homemade amai sauce (vinegar, ketchup, tamarind, soy, sugar), new potatoes, and crunchy vegetables. Yummy.

Thank you to the Daring Cooks for getting me to look out a new recipe: I think this one will become a regular feature on my dinner table!

The Guardian Comfort Food

So, did you collect the recipe cards in The Guardian newspaper last week?

I missed the Ottolenghi one, but my Dad is a gem, and knowing that I'm a fan he saved it from their copy for me. I love the turkey and sweetcorn meatballs recipe in the Otolenghi cook book, so it seemed a fine idea to try out the new recipe for turkey and courgette meatballs with a wasabi guacamole. It sounded a healthy and highly nutritious meal - just what I need now that I'm training for the London marathon. (About that - I may not have all that much time to cook exciting things between now and April.)

The meatballs were very easy to make. I thought they didn't sound like a meal by themselves so I served them with rice. This really wasn't the best accompaniment. I loved the flavours of the meatballs - courgette, turkey, mint and cumin are a wonderful blend - but next time I will make them into burger patties and serve them in toasted pitta breads with the guacamole on top. With some potato wedges it could be a dinner, or without the potato it would be a good weekend lunch.

So, the recipe's a keeper, but the serving needs some adjustment.

Find the Ottolenghi Comfort Food recipes here.

An update: these are WAY better as burgers - serve in a warm toasted pitta with paprika potato wedges and minty yoghurt. 

home decoration

This week I failed on the cooking front (no new recipes), but I did only get back from holiday on Monday afternoon to an empty fridge and bare cupboards, so I'm using that as an excuse!

I did, however, complete a blind for the house. We have a long window at the front of the house which is too long and too narrow for an off-the-shelf blind, so I decided to have a go at making a roman blind. Basically, I was tired of the neighbours seeing me in my pyjamas when I stumble out of bed and downstairs to make coffee every morning!

I was pretty pleased with the final result:

I thought it wasn't too bad for a first attempt. I followed some instructions I found online, with some minor adaptions, and it turned out to be quite straight forward to construct. The only awkward part was marking out (accurately) such a large shape for cutting the pattern.

10 on 10 January 2012

I'm late posting my 10 photos from the 10th January, but I hope I can be forgiven since I was on holiday somewhere with slow and intermittant internet access.

For other participants in the 10 on 10 photo project look here:


Here they are; my 10 photos taken on 10th January in Vinales Valley, Pinar del Rio Province, Western Cuba.

 

Pork en Croute

Christmas has crept up without me noticing this year. It feels like only a moment ago it was October, and now all of a sudden its only a couple of weeks until Christmas Day. This means that I'm now into the busy evenings and weekends of Christmas concerts, Christmas meals, and the last few running events of the year. Because of this, my intention to cook the Daring Cooks December challenge recipes of Char Sui Pork, followed by steamed pork buns using some of the left-overs, fell off the timetable due to time pressure. A great shame as both dishes sounded delicious. I'll have to make an attempt at them when I have a little more spare time.
Instead, I used the pork tenderloin I had bought for those dishes to make two improvised Pork en Croute. I have to say, they were delicious, so I didn't miss the Char Sui too badly! Here's what I did:

Pork en Croute No. 1:

120g pork tenderloin
70g puff pastry (I used shop bought, ready rolled - I'm lazy!)
2 slices serrano ham
Some thin slices of courgette
Finely sliced rosemary and garlic
salt, white and black pepper
Fennel seeds

Unroll your puff pastry and lay the 2 slices of ham on it. Place the pork tenderloin on top of the ham and season. Sprinkle the garlic and rosemary on top before covering with slices of courgette, wrapping the ham over to encase the pork and courgette, then wrapping the puff pastry over and sealing the edges.
Brush with a little melted butter, beaten egg, milk, or olive oil, sprinkle with fennel seeds, and cook as below.

Pork en Croute No. 2:
140g pork tenderloin,
camembert slices
3 slices serrano ham
120g puff pastry
button mushrooms, sliced small
butter, olive oil
Finely sliced rosemary and garlic
salt, white and black pepper
Fennel seeds

Fry the mushrooms, garlic and rosemary in a mixture of butter and olive oil on a low heat. Once cooked remove from the heat and allow to cool a  little.
Unroll the pastry, lay out the ham on the pastry and place the prok tenderloin on top. Season with salt and the peppers, then spoon the mushrooms onto the meat. Top with a few slices of camembert, fold the ham over to encase the meat and cheese, then fold the pastry over and seal the edges.
Brush with a little melted butter, beaten egg, milk, or olive oil, sprinkle with fennel seeds, and cook.

Place on a greased baking tray and bake for 15 minutes at 200C, then 10 minutes at 180-190C.

Serve with gravy, apple sauce, new potatoes, and runner beans for a hearty and warming winter dinner.

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: