Treacle Tart Debacle

So last week, when I said I was about to make treacle tart? I was lying. Well, that's not to say I didn't try, but apparently the universe just didn't want me to do it.
For one thing it turned out that I didn't have enough golden syrup, but that didn't really matter because I only found that out after this had happened:

Yes, that is meant to be the pastry case. I'm not sure what happened, I followed the recipe exactly. I think it was a combination of my scales not being very accurate and trying to use canadian ingredients to follow a british recipe. But never mind. A couple of days later, I went and bought more golden syrup, and, I have to admit, a pre-made pastry case *guilty face*. I made the tart on Friday and it turned out very well

I used the recipe from the Peyton and Byrne cookbook my sister got me for my birthday. The filling was delicious, though I used bread crumbs instead of cake crumbs, and there was a bit too much to fit inside the pastry case.

Back to the Grind

A couple of weeks ago I gave a hint about what I was up to during reading break, and I can now reveal that I was in Maui, Hawaii, with my parents! I went last year at easter with my Mum, but this time around my Dad came too, which gave us a lot more freedom since he rented a car and is up for a lot of activities.
We had about a week, we stayed in a very nice hotel, did the road to Hana, snorkelling, paddleboarding, kayaking, swimming, tanning, and lots of eating and sleeping! We saw humpback whales, and green turtles, without even stepping on a boat, as well as colourful lizards, and lots of lovely birds (although none were endemic), amongst other things, including some biting insect that feasted on me when we stopped for a taco on the road to Hana!

Mum and Dad in Keanae

Now, however, I am back at school, trying to get back to work. The trip to Hawaii has lifted my winter blues somewhat, and I think the rest and sun did me good as I'm feeling a lot healthier (not to mention fatter!) than I was before the break. So, seeing as I haven't posted in a while, I thought I'd put up a recipe. I had this for dinner tonight, it is very warm and comforting, and brings a little spice to a winter night.

Easy Kedgeree

serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked rice
4-6 eggs
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
2 heaped tsp curry powder
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
250g hot-smoked fish (eg kipper, salmon or mackerel), flaked or chopped
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 bunch asparagus or other vegetables of your choice


- bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the rice according to the directions on the package. Ten minutes before the rice is done, add the eggs, whole, to the pot. When the rice is cooked, drain it, and run the eggs under cold water until they cool.
- in a deep frying pan, heat the butter and oil, then add the onion and soften for a few minutes, then add the ginger, garlic and curry powder and cook for another minute.
- add in the fish, and stir it around to get coated in the spice mixture, then add the stock. Bring to the boil for a few minutes until it becomes a thick sauce, then add in the rice and asparagus and heat through*
- peel the eggs, then cut into halves or quarters. Serve the kedgeree topped with the eggs.

*I like asparagus to be crispy, but if you are using other vegetables, such as carrots or peppers, you should add them between the onions and the spices.

Winter Warmer

I cooked this before Christmas - the last proper meal I bothered to cook before the stress of flight cancellations! It is very comforting and rich, and I rather enjoyed it!

Veal Meatballs with Slow-cooked Tomato sauce and Spaghetti


Ingredients
olive oil and butter for cooking
 - For the sauce -
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon chili flakes
2 carrots, finely diced
1 tin chopped tomatoes
300ml veal stock (chicken or beef is fine)
 - For the meatballs -
500g veal mince
1 cup crushed crackers
1 egg
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp grated nutmeg


Start off the sauce first: Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat, then add the butter and let it melt in the hot oil. Next, add the onion and saute until it begins to turn translucent. Add the garlic and chili and saute for a minute, then add the carrot and saute for another minute or so. Next add the tomatoes and the stock. It should look a bit like this:

Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down so that it is barely simmering, cover and leave to cook for 2-3 hours.

Now for the meatballs: in a bowl, combine all the ingredients, using your hands or a spoon to make sure everything is well mixed

Shape the mixture into tablespoon-sized balls, then cover and refrigerate for at least half an hour*. To cook them, fry them in a little olive oil and butter until they are cooked through and crispy on the outside. Serve them with spaghetti, and the sauce, which will have reduced over the cooking time and become thick, rich and flavourful.

*The raw meatballs can also be frozen at this point - freeze them on a baking sheet, then when they are hard, put them into a tupperware or freezer bag

Chilli Weather

Sorry it's been a bit quiet here on the cooking front recently, but it is exam time at the moment. It's hard to feel inspired to cook something interesting when you are weighed down by the thought of finals!  I have a bit of a gap before my last exam (chemistry '~' ) though, so I thought I would cook something that actually required a bit of planning, rather than some ridiculous stir-fry or a boring pasta sauce. Having said that, my food store is a bit limited since I am going home at the weekend(!!!!!) so I have to work with what I've got.

Just so you know, I am planning to do some much more exciting cooking once I get home for Christmas, in our lovely big kitchen with the lovely big cooker, so stay tuned for that!

This is somewhere between chili con carne and moussaka - sounds strange but tastes good!

Spiced Aubergine (Eggplant) and Beef Bake
serves 4
1 Aubergine
1 onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pack lean beef mince
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tin chopped tomatoes
grated cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F

start by cutting the aubergine into thin slices - no thicker than 0.5cm. I happened to be using one of those long japanese aubergines, but any kind will do.

Lay them in a colander or sieve like this, then sprinkle them with a bit of salt. This will draw out some of the water and get rid of any bitterness. Leave them like this for half an hour, or while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Chop up an onion,

and saute it with the garlic until it starts to go translucent

Then, add the beef and cook until it is nice and brown before adding the chili, cumin and tomatoes, and seasoning with salt and pepper.

it will look a bit like this! Bring it to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, then turn off the heat.

Next, lay half of the aubergine slices in the bottom of a baking dish

and cover with half of the meat sauce, using a slotted spoon so as not to transfer too much liquid from the pan - the aubergines still have a lot of water in them, and we don't want too much in the finished dish.

Repeat the layers, then top with some grated cheese. If you have more cheese than I did, you should also put some in between the first layer of meat and the second layer of aubergines, that would be yummy.

Cover the dish with foil and put it in the oven for 45 minutes. Take the foil off for the last ten minutes, so the cheese gets all tasty.

and that's that! Simples.

Serve it with rice, or if you are really clever, you could make it into some freaky lasagna by adding extra layers of (very) al dente rice or pasta!

Comfort Food

There are some days when all you want to eat is greasy fake-chinese food. I'm talking gloopy sweet and sour with battered pork - calorie central! So, for when those days strike, here is a slightly less artery-clogging option!

Salt-and-Pepper Chicken with Egg-Fried Rice
Serves 1-2
For the chicken:
1 skinless boneless chicken breast
1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper

For the Rice
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
vegetables of your choice, chopped finely
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups of cooked rice (I used brown)
1/2 cup frozen peas

oil for frying

First off, the chicken

in a tupperware or large sandwich bag, put the flour, some salt, and lots and lots of pepper (I used about 20 turns of a pepper grinder). Seal it, then shake it about a bit

cut the chicken into bitesized chunks, and put them in with the flour mixture

then put the lid on and shake until all the pieces of chicken are covered with the flour mixture.
Then heat some oil in a pan and start to fry the chicken.

While the chicken is cooking, it is time to start the rice.

Mix together the oyster and soy sauces in advance

Heat some oil in a wok or high-sided frying pan, then mince the garlic and cook for a minute or so.

Then add your chopped vegetables. I used cabbage because it's what I had on hand, but carrots would also be good.

Push the veggies to one side of the pan, then pour in the egg on the other.
Scramble the egg and break it up, then add in the rice and the oyster and soy sauce and stir fry.  When the rice is heated through, add the peas and stir fry some more until the peas are cooked.
Now you are ready to serve!

Hale and Hearty

I finally found beef short-ribs in a supermarket! I've been wanting to cook with them for ages, since they are the perfect meat for slow-cooking, and are just generally very tasty.  I got a bit overexcited and ended up buying 6, which is enough to last me for almost a week, so there will be another short-rib recipe coming up soon, I expect.

Hearty Beef Short-rib Stew
serves 3-4
1 onion
2 small turnips
2 carrots
about 400g chestnut or other mild mushrooms
3 or 4 beef short-ribs
flour
1 cup red wine
3 cups beef stock
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 star anise

Let's start by preparing some vegetables:

an onion

chopped!

turnips

chopped!

carrots

diced really fine because I don't like cooked carrot!

mushrooms

sliced!

now for the meat:

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm... look at that marbling - this is going to be yummy!

season the short-ribs with salt and pepper

then coat them in flour.

Heat some butter and oil (this stops the butter from burning) in a pan and seal the meat

when they are nice and brown, remove them to a plate

it's at this point I really wish I had one of those le creuset pans

You will be left with all of this yummy stuff!

throw in all the vegetables

don't be like me and throw them all over the cooker.

stir them around in the nice tasty stuff, and let them cook down for a couple of minutes

it's at this point that if I had some red wine, I would put in some of that and some beef stock, but I didn't, so I just added 4 cups (just under a litre) of beef stock

once again, don't be like me and pour half of it on the counter.

then add chili flakes and nutmeg. If I had star anise, I would also throw one in at this point. The spices just add an extra warmth and depth of flavour, they are not at all overpowering.

now, add the beef back in, bring to the boil, then cover and cook over a very low heat (i.e. not even a simmer) for 2 and a half hours. If you want the gravy to be thicker, then at the end throw in a spoonful of flour and boil through for a couple of minutes.

and there we have it! I served mine with mashed potato and kale. The meat was moist and tender, the veggies were melt-in-the mouth and the mushrooms were meaty and flavourful - yum!

My Thanksgiving Dinner

I don't really celebrate thanksgiving - we don't have it in England, as I have repeatedly had to tell people here - but I figured that a 3-day weekend was something to celebrate, so I made a vaguely festive meal - steak with hassleback potatoes and peas! I also made "Pumpkin Pie in a Pan" from this recipe, but I won't go into that in detail, since it wasn't my recipe.
I'm going to focus in this post on the potatoes.  In the spirit of full disclosure, they didn't turn out exactly as planned - I think the oven needed to be hotter, but since I was cooking the pie at the same time, I couldn't crank up the heat. They were still good though, so I'm going to share the recipe

Hassleback Potatoes


hassleback potatoes are basically roast potatoes, but they are cut open to help them cook so you don't have to par-boil them.

Start off with some potatoes, as many as you think you can eat.  Longer, more oval shaped ones are ideal, but I could only find round ones, and they work just the same.  You want them to be relatively small, whatever shape they are.  No need to peel them if they look like the ones in the picture, just wash them and chop off any gnarly bits.
Now for the hassleback part:

slice into the potatoes, almost all the way through, but NOT all the way (it is surprisingly difficult, so don't be surprised if it takes a couple of tries to get it right).

Put them in a roasting tin and drizzle them with olive oil. As you can see, I had some trouble slicing the potatoes, and ended chopping off the ends of a few of them!

Then sprinkle with salt, and put them in the oven at about 400F for around half an hour, or until the potatoes are cooked through.

et voila!

As I said earlier, I had mine with steak and peas

Yum! I love meat.