Pink thick knitted socks

Not pretty but warm and quick to knit

Just like the last pair, they don't match as I experiment on the first one and improve on the second.  This time I crocheted a top edging.   I will put up the really thick ones I knitted for John as soon as he takes a pic.  Other than perhaps knitting a round the neck cover for my phone and fingerless mits, that maybe it for knitting for now, though people say you get the bug and there are quite a few knitting evenings in coffee shops etc  in trendy hoxton and elsewhere which may tempt me - probably not.

My first Soufflé

Beginner's luck.  I saw it on 2 Hairy Bikers Best of British TV show.  They said we shouldn't fear it.  It's easy.  So today I was going to have omelet for lunch and thought, well souffle is like an omelette so I just did it from memory.  I can't believed it worked without even remembering the exact ingredients - I made a roux of oil (had no butter/marg left)  and plain flour, milk and cheese.  Add 2 beaten egg yolks then folded in 2 beaten egg whites and cooked for 30 mins - suppose to be at 220 deg but i started off at 160 by mistake for first 10mins till i checked.  So it must be easy if i can do it.

I am adding to this post as a friend has been dying to try a souffle and just this morning the wonderful Eric Landlard on channel 4, who i just discovered in the last few months,  a fantastic French chef, maker of incredible fancy cooking especially deserts and has started a new series of Glamourous Puds.   Yes, get rid of the stubble.  The strong French features are enough.

This series is about the influence of Careme, starting off in Russia and today he made his mock non cook iced Soufflee which I must try.  See it here http://www.channel4.com/programmes/glamour-puds/episode-guide/series-2.    He makes things seem possible but they look amazing - eg: chocolate/chocolate mouse bejeweled Faberge eggs. I loved the film with Gerdard Depardieu playing the 17th century chef François Vatel and Careme introduced the Russian idea of eating food in courses so you got hot not cold food, to the rest of Europe.

Below is the recipe by the Two Hairy Bikers (which I will actually follow next time) and I will add Eric's when it comes up on the site - yes together in the same place.  I will post when I have tried both of these, then I will know if it was beginners luck.

Two Hairy Bikers  Goats' cheese and chive soufflé

·       300ml/10fl oz full-fat milk

·       1 onion, quartered

·       1 bay leaf

·       1 small bunch thyme

·       300g/10oz goats’ cheese

·       50g/2oz butter

·       50g/2oz plain flour

·       4 free-range eggs, separated

·       3 tbsp finely snipped chives

·       10g/¼oz finely grated Parmesan

·       sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

·        

·        

1.     Cut a 42cm/16in piece of baking parchment in half lengthways. Fold one half in half again and tie around a 13cm/5in soufflé dish using kitchen string. Lift the paper so it creates a collar that rises around 5cm higher than the dish. Butter the inside of the soufflé dish and the paper generously.

2.     Put the milk in a small non-stick pan and add the onion, bay and thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer then remove from the heat and set aside to infuse for 15 minutes.

3.     Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

4.     Place a baking tray in the oven to heat. Strain the flavoured milk through a fine sieve into a jug. Cut the rind off the goats' cheese and cut the cheese into 2cm/¾in pieces. (You should end up with 200g/7oz cheese.)

5.     Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan over a low heat. Stir in the flour, cook for a few seconds then gradually start adding the milk, a little at a time, stirring well between each addition. When the sauce is smooth and very thick, continue to cook for a further two minutes, stirring constantly then remove from the heat and stir in half the goats' cheese.

6.     Whisk the egg yolks lightly and stir into the milk mixture until smooth. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour into a large mixing bowl and cover the surface with a sheet of cling film to prevent a skin forming.

7.     Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. They are ready when you can turn the bowl upside down without them sliding out.

8.     Stir the chives into the cheese sauce. Fold in the remaining cheese. Fold in a large spoonful of the egg white until combined, then fold in the remainder.

Watch technique0:35 mins

9.     Pour the mixture slowly into the prepared soufflé dish. Sprinkle with the parmesan and freshly ground black pepper. (Keep the parmesan towards the centre of the soufflé so it doesn’t melt and hinder the rise by sticking to the paper.)

10.   Bake on the preheated baking tray in the oven for 23-25 minutes or until golden-brown and risen. Remove from the oven, remove the string and serve the soufflé immediately.

 

Aussie Lamingtons - Heaven

Haven't had these for over 20 years since Oz days.  Never made before.  Yummy.  Sponge 'laminated' in chocolate runny icing/sauce and dipped in coconut (that's not why they're called Lamingtons -see -   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamington   'Friday 21 July 2006 was designated as National Lamington Day in Australia' ) .    Since John doesn't like chocolate much I will experiment with my favourite 50% fruit jam made into a sauce instead of the chocolate - jamingtons?

Cheese sauce eggs on toast

Felt like eggs on toast with cheese sauce so tried 2 version.  1. to try out my egg slicer.  2. my version of egg cooked in ramikan i saw on My Litte Paris Kitchen.  Cheese sauce made with a roux, little milk and ball of mozzarella cheese and grated extra mature cheddar.  Both were delicious - much better than they look in my quickly taken pictures.

1. sliced boiled egg on toast with cheese sauce and rocket.

2. A slice of bread with crust removed to line a ramikin baked in oven with baking beads to hold shape, for 5 mins.  Then add cheese sauce and rocket, egg and cheese sauce again and rebake.

Just out of the oven

Egg side up

Bread side up

Cut open

My new coffee perculator compared to espresso stove top makers

Got my  lovely looking retro percolator from amazon yesterday.  Was worried I was wasting money on something that wouldn't make good strong coffee, but I am very happy with it.  Was £25 - can get it here:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004AMQXQE/ref=fb_lfb_prodpg_0.    Comparable in price to large 12 cup/600ml espresso makers (£20-30)  but holds almost twice the  liquid - 1000ml.

I bought it because although I love my espresso makers - (they make great very hot coffee and my coffee has to be boiling hot which is why I don't like cafetieres) -  they do not hold enough coffee when I have visitors.   The internal parts of the perculator look a bit flimsy - lightweight aluminum so I will find out from the seller if there replacement parts - (will update review then).  In the meantime I am careful with them when washing.   In case you wonder -  the handle doesn't get too hold to hold.

Size comparison
Thought this would be useful to people considering buying coffee makers as the different sizes in espresso makers have always confused me:

• The Percolator holds  litre of liquid (3/4 way up to beginning of spout) - that's just over 3 of my 300ml coffee mugs. It didn't work well with just 300 ml/1 mug as it wasn't enough liquid to get up the spout but good with 600mls -1 litre.  That's fine with me as i bought it for larger amounts of coffee.  When i made the larger amount I used the remaining amount the next morning and it tasted good (sacrilege to some  of you coffee lovers who don't like reheated coffee) as I wanted to see if I could use it to make coffee once a day and use it throughout the day.
• The espresso coffee makers are measured in terms of tiny espresso cups - approx 50ml depending on brand:
•           my large one - so called  9 cup one holds about 450ml or 1 1/2 300ml  mugs,  
•           the medium one which i use when i just want a cup for myself - the so called 6 cups one,
            holds one 300ml mug 
•           the tiny one is more show than anything, but you can get a cup of coffee out of it if you
            add more boiling water
•           the largest ones you can buy - so called 12 cups hold about 600ml

Amount of ground coffee to use: 
I usually use a 1 heaped desertspoon per mug/300ml water -I like it strong - in my espresso makers.  With the perculator I added another 1/2 spoon per 300ml.  I need to experiment more to make sure this is correct but I think the pressure in the espresso makers get more flavour out of the coffee.   So, if you add a litre of water and nearly fill up the basket of the perculator you will get good strong coffee.

I used Ikea espresso ground coffee equavalent to strength 6 on supermarket shelf ratings - best value for flavour ground coffee you can get - approx £1.70 compared to £2-4 for supermarket equivalent size and strength.

Here are 2 pics showing the size difference of my coffee makers:

Internals very light weight aluminium but ok.  Though it looks messy, I didn't end up with any coffee granules in my mug.   I think this only happens when you use the last dregs and you can always use fine sieve at this point:

Cheesy Biscuits

Knitted socks as shoes prototypes

Learning to knit socks.  After knitting black pair for J, I am now trying to learn to knit socks that look like socks in shoes.   This pair is made up of the 2 prototypes.  I can't bear to unpick them so will wear myself.  Still some problems to sort out.

Spicy Cheesy Peanut Butter Biscuits

Felt like something spicy and savoury on a rainy afternoon and couldn't be bothered going to the supermarket so I improvised.    Flour, cheese, peanut butter, butter and spices - black pepper, cayenne, paprika, mustard powder and garlic salt.  Yummy.

Revamped shirts

As well as sewing new jim-jams, I have been revamping John's shirts.  He was going to throw out because they were too baggy and long.  I thought the materials were too nice.  The lovely blue linen one on the right is Donna Karen.  So I turned up the bottoms to make them straight, newer style of wearing outside trousers but still long enough to tuck in for work.   I also worked out how to take off 2 1/2 inches off the chest and sleeve width  from the one on the left.  Now that I know this is possible I can revamp more of his shirts.  Next experiment is to tailor one with some darts.

Chicken Dumplings

Saw it on 'little Paris kitchen' last night but recipe not on site and i didn't pay enough attention so i did my own thing on it.

1. Cut the meat off 2 chicken quarters and put the  left over chicken bones and skin, with a couple of wings, in oven to brown for 20 mins.

2. Put chicken pieces into food processor with  1/2  fried onion, seasoning, lemon juice, mozzarella cheese ball, egg and flour.  Spoon out into little chicken dumplings and rolled in seasoned flour.

3. In big pan add chicken stock/2 cubes, seasoning (pinches of S&P, cayene, paprika, mustard, vinegar, bay leaf, ginger ).  Add the roast chicken pieces/bones/skin from oven with cabbage, celery, 1/2 fried onion and 1 red pepper - all finely sliced/shredded.  Cook for 15 mins.

4. Add chicken dumplings and cook further 30mins.

Have only just realise that this blog is a great dumping (not dumpling) ground for things I don't want to forget - a proper useful diary/cookbook/sketchbook etc.

Art exhibitions I've been to recently

I've been to a few and been meaning to blog about them.  So will now precise:

Freud - Nat Portrait Gallery -   Love the flesh but uneasy feeling about him and women
Hockney Royal Academy - beautiful bright coloured paintings of Yorshire landscapes.  The huge ipad prints really interesing - just got couple of books from library on his digital art.   Look forward to getting ipad one day.
Hirst - Tate Modern - agree with some critics - doesn't need 9 rooms at the Tate.  I liked half of it - the butterflies and flies (I know, they belong in science museum).  Some pretty stuff.   A big butterfly flew onto my bright orange coast and attendant had to remove it before I could leave the room.
David Shrigley - Haywood - only 10mins so will go again.  Some humour in the drawings.  Not sure about the scupltures.  I loved his animations a few years ago.

Tate Britain - all in one afternoon for quick previews.
Patrick Keiller -  'The Robinson Institute'   -friend from NZ wants to see it so i thought i'd check it out - for me with poor attention span and dislike of standing, I didn't stay long enough to read the long texts in detail or watch the 1/2 hour videos which moved very slowly but i think i got the jist.   Not bad but not my thing.  Admire rather than love.
 Picasso and British Art - Tate Britain - only had 10 mins before closing.  Will probably go again.  Seems ok.
Migrations - British art through the theme of migration from 1500 to the present day.  Need more time/less aches and pains to read the labels about the artists.

Still to see:
Hajj - British Museum
Turner - National Gallery

Sunshine Citrus Drizzle Coconut Cake - all 4000 calories of it

My take on lemon drizzle cake.  Added cocount instead of ground almond as in the recipe.  Sauce is lemon, lime and orange juice with icing sugar (and a little cornflour which I added by mistake instead of icing sugar so had to heat it to cook the cornflour then add masses of OJ.  So I now have masses of the sauce.)

Apple buns

Am experimenting with bread dough - different lengths of rising.  Used a little of the dough to do a variation on the German Beer Buns I saw on the cookery program Hairy Biker Bakeation - them travelling round Europe cooking local foods.  Here is recipe for their cabbage and meat filled buns  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/meat_and_cabbage_buns_80117

My dough wasn't sweet, I just rolled out in rounds put apple and a half teaspoon of lemon curd in middle, bundled up and sprinkled sugar on top.  They taste fine, though might try a sweet dough next time.  Good alternative to pastry as there is no butter.  No pretty yet but will improve.

Am also watching My Little French Kitchen on BBC - very cute - a pretty young English girl, studying cookery in Paris, living in the tiniest flat - she has to put up her bed each day and cooks on a pin head of a kitchen.  Yet she turns her flat into tiny restaurant at night for 2-3 people - brave - cooking French food for the French.  She has some lovely recipes.  You can see why she got the job on the telly.  Does she really not have a boyfriend or two with mansions in paris? - or is she an independent passionate - it's all about the food and my career as a chef or - somewhere in between probably.  She seems very sweet and passionate to me.

http://www.thelittlepariskitchen.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dy7yt

I will be trying more recipes from both these programs though harder to find her recipes on online so i will have to make notes while watching (unless i buy the book!) whereas bikers have them all bbc online. - You can see why I had to enlarge my jimjams.

My first Baguettes from scratch

They are not perfect (need to be more lighter open holes in centre and taste not quite same)  but considering i adapted online hand made recipe to my bread machine not bad.  Taste ok especially the really crusty crusts.

1. bread flour, salt, yeast and water
2. twice thru my bread machines dough mode (20 min kneading, 1 hour rising x 2)
3. folded on board and shaped into 3 baguettes as for hand recipe then place in floured towel with ridges in between and with moist towel on top for 15 mins
4. oven 230C,  a floor tile to place rolls on,  bowl of water in bottom to create steam and sprayed rolls towards end to help with crustiness

texture needs to be more open

 looks like baguettes

steamy water at bottom

floor tile to cook on

I really love the style of Irene Jones' Tudor Ladies

Saw her works at Affordable Art Fair

This gallery has her works and bio online.
For more go to: http://www.hybrid-devon.co.uk/index.php?page=current-exhibition

Mrs Average and the Minotaur

In a previous post I posted a drawing I did at the cafe of the Watts museum where i joined together his minotaur and Clytie works.  Since then I have been thinking about doing more minotaur drawings.  When I went to the Affordable Art Fair on Sunday I saw several works including minotaurs.  Then yesterday an artist friend sent me an invite to her latest exhibition and guess what - the private view invite picture was of a minotaur with a women - well i thought it was until i noticed the title was Cat Loves.   I really like that idea, how our pets can comfort us - as i told her when i emailed again about my confusion.  
For more about her work and exhibtion:  http://victoriakiff.weebly.com/

Red Shoes

Had a friend staying and she like a very early painting of mine which made me look at it again, especially after having gone to the Affordable Art Fair where I had liked cute painting of shoes.  I've always wanted to do one of thick old leather boots and may do.

ShirleyG Artstuff ShirleyGStuff

test to see if having my name in post subject helps finding me in google search

roosvandevelde Beautiful ceramics, paintings, website and music

another great feed from designers block.   she loved the ceramics which i do too but when i went to the site i loved lots of the other work and the website is great with very beautiful appropriate music - a total experience. Definately going into my fav websites list.

http://www.roosvandevelde.be/

Mini banksy street artist Pablo Delgados

perfect way to create lovely street without getting up anyone's nose - would fit there though.  really cute.
http://streetartlondon.co.uk/blog/pablo-delgados-miniature-street-scenes-part-iii/