It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything.
I think I need to expand my blogging (blogness?) so I may start doing more than just baking. Although I still bake quite a bit, I just don’t seem to have the effort to blog about it.
We’ll see what the future brings…
One of the most interesting things about living in the UK is the use of language. In some cases, Americans and Brits use completely different words to mean the same thing, as in courgette and zucchini or aubergine and eggplant. That’s fairly easy to deal with, you just start learning the different names for things. So in my head I can do the translation. Easy peasy. Then you have words that are the same, but are pronounced differently. Like buoy or controversy or herb. Where the difficulty arises are those words which are the same, but have different meanings. For example pavement. Pavement in the US is what you put on the road, the asphalt. Pavement in the UK is what people in the US would refer to as the sidewalk. Someone tells you to walk on the pavement, and you think they’re trying to get you run over.
Enter muffins. In the US, we have two types of muffins: Muffins (those deliciously cupcake-like treats, but aren’t really cupcakes) and English Muffins (those bread-like round substances used often for Eggs Benedict). In the UK, they are both just called Muffins. They have both types, but it gets a bit confusing. Would you like a muffin? (MAYBE, what are you offering exactly). The younger people I’ve met seem to call them English Muffins, and thing of Muffins as what an American would, but some of the older ones still call English Muffins just plain old Muffins. It gets even more confusing when I attempt to explain the non-English Muffin as an American Muffin. Hijinks ensue.
Anyway, one of my friends, Ashley, who I met working at a coffee shop in college and who ran away to join the circus, has attended culinary school and has started her own web cooking show called Foodgasm. On this show she makes delicious looking treats for those with special dietary restrictions, from pescetarian to gluten-free to vegan and vegetarian. She once shared a link for an English Muffin recipe, and I decided that I should try it. Tom is always ordering muffins with breakfast everywhere we go, so I thought it would be a fun treat for him one morning at home. It was especially easy to do as I already bought a lot of yeast for my pizza making extravaganza, and a little yeast seems to go a long way.
As you may have seen, the recipe is incredibly simple. The first time I made them, I didn’t have the corn meal so I omitted that step. Since then, I’ve been dusting the pan with semolina flour instead. The cornmeal thing must be an American add-on because you don’t find it on any of the store-bought muffins in the UK. (Well at least the ones I’ve tried.) I’ve also switched to using bread flour instead of all purpose flour.
Interestingly, as I searched through more recipes for English Muffins, I noticed that this recipe is actually more similar to a crumpet recipe. The only difference is holes don’t seem to form on top of these, or I just don’t let them cook long enough for the holes to form, who knows? Crumpets though are another one of those amazing English inventions that have so many holes in them that you can probably put more butter in the crumpet than actual crumpet. One of our favorite brunch places in London actually sell “Crumpets with too much butter”, and the butter is oozing out of them onto the plate. Delicious. So are these English Muffins. They’re probably not as dense as ones you’re used to (if you are used to them at all), but they are tasty, delicious, and incredibly easy to make (as long as you remember you need to make the batter about two hours before you make the muffins). I do about 1/3 of a cup of batter for each muffin, but I’ve made them bigger. I also don’t have any sort of crumpet/muffin rings, so I go for free form style.
A few weeks ago darkcargo’s blog stated that it was National Knish Week. Interestingly, the week before smitten kitchen published her post about making knish. Due to this congruence of blog posts, I decided it was in my best interest to try my hand at this wonderful sounding dish.
Knish is originally an Eastern European food brought to the U.S. by Jewish immigrants. It consists of potato (yum) and caramelized onions (also yum) wrapped inside of pastry (everything is better with pastry). Clearly this is my kind of food, so I tried out the recipe on the smitten kitchen site. Basically it’s just boiled and mashed potatoes with the onions wrapped in the pastry. I decided to add a bit of mature English cheddar to the mix (although I think I could have used more) and bacon. I know that bacon is probably the worst decision to add to a traditionally Jewish dish, but for me, bacon is the perfect additive to a dish with potato and onion. So I did it. I went against tradition and religion and put some fried pancetta in with the mixture. I made up the pastry and the filling, rolled up the knish and put them in the oven. They turned out amazing looking. Perfectly golden brown.
Was it delicious? Yes. It probably needed more salt and more cheese. Like a lot more cheese. A knish reminds me of a dry cheese and onion pasty. Maybe a bit of fresh or dried thyme (or some other herb) would pep it up a bit too (either in the mix or the pastry). I decided to serve my knish with some out of season chestnut and mushroom soup. Living in the UK, you can get chestnuts year round in the freezer, and I’ve started to become very attached to the delicious roasted nuts. I’ve even been known to throw them in with my roast veg for a Sunday roast. (Just don’t over roast, they get really crunchy).
Basically the soup was just shitake and chestnut mushrooms that I sauted in a bit of butter and olive oil with sauted . I added some brandy after a bit, and let it boil off. I added in some roasted chestnuts and roasted shallots to the mix. I topped it up with about a liter of vegetable stock. I added a bouquet garni to the mix and a spoonful of truffle honey, and I let it simmer for about half an hour or so. Then I removed the bouquet and put it all in the blender. At this point I should have strained it through a sieve to get rid of the chunks, but I was being lazy. The soup was mostly smooth though, with only a few chunks left behind. I put it back in the pot and added a bit of cream to smooth it out and thin it out, and I was done. I served it with a knish, and it was done. (I’d put a real recipe down, but I usually cook by feel, unless I’m baking then I’m a bit more precise.)
On my trip to Italy in November, I found this cute pizza cookbook at the Colosseum gift shop. The book was round and each page contained either a recipe for a pizza or showed the pizza you were making. Lots of amazing images and delicious sounding pizzas. It was also in American measurements, so I picked up a copy (and two more for Christmas presents). There was also one showing tarts which looked amazing, but unfortunately, it was only in Italian, so wasn’t possible to pick up.
After Christmas I finally got the chance to try my hand at these delicious pizzas. There are four different pizza dough recipes, one thin, one thick, one whole wheat, and one gluten free. I’ve tried all but the gluten free at this point. All I can say is that making it at home is much more fun and tasty than most takeaways and restaurants in London. I’ve yet to find a great pizza place in London. The best pizza I’ve had to date is the one we had in Naples. Supposedly it’s the birthplace of the pizza, and some people claim it’s the water that makes the dough there taste so good.
Pizzas are great because while there are recipes, you can modify them, or even just do whatever you like. The pizzas I’ve tried from the cookbook so far are leek and pancetta; apple, onion and walnut; potato and mushroom; ground beef and onion; salami, mushrooms and fennel; tomato, garlic and sausage; and onion, cheese, and walnuts. (With leek and pancetta twice, because it’s awesome). I’m not going to include any recipes to make the actual pizza, but I will provide the thin crust pizza dough recipe. Interestingly, the dough makes two 12-inch pizzas. I think Little Caesar’s probably had it right with its PIzza! Pizza! promotions.
Living in the UK, I get exposed to a variety of new television shows. One show is Come Dine With Me where four or five everyday people get thrown together to cook a three-course (and sometimes more) dinner for each other, and to get judged. Ultimately, the best cook/party host of the week wins £1000. A few months ago, I thought about auditioning for the show, not to win the money, just because it looks like it could be a lot of fun. However, the more recent shows seem to be less focused on cooking and more about what sort of crazy people can they put in a room (who usually can’t cook) to see what sort of drama ensues. I’m pretty sure that is not necessarily something that I’d be down for.
However, one of the popular desserts I see being made on this show is Pavlova. It originates from New Zealand (which makes it an interesting choice for UK cooks), although that is highly contested by their neighbors in Australia. Needless to say, a Pavlova is just a meringue. It seems that there is claim that there is a difference between the two, but I’m not sure I necessarily agree, as the big difference seems to be the addition of corn flour/starch which is supposed to make the outside crisp and the inside marshmallowy. However, as the pavlova recipe I follow doesn’t call for corn starch (or powdered sugar), and it has those delicious Pavlova attributes that one would look for. It’s more likely that the cooking style is really what makes the difference as meringues can be completely crisp throughout or they could be soft and delicate depending on the process used to make it. Italian and Swiss meringues are a lot softer than the traditional French style.
The pavlova is finished by adding whipped or chantilly cream (sweetened whipped cream) to the top and adding fresh fruit. It’s an ideal summer dessert (even if mine were made in the winter). I’ve made two Pavlovas in the previous few months. The most recent was completely traditional: meringue, chantilly cream, strawberry and kiwi. The first one I tried to be a bit more elaborate and add some lemon curd as well as the cream and fruit, but it was a bit too sickly sweet, so I can’t really recommend it. Or perhaps just use less lemon curd. For both of them, I used Delia’s Pavlova recipe which calls for two simple ingredients to make the meringue: egg whites and castor sugar. There’s a bit of a timing issue as you don’t want to add the sugar until the egg whites are perfect, but if you time it correctly, you end up with a beautiful (and tasty) dessert.
It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything, as I’ve been trying to direct my writing to getting work-related writing done instead of food-related writing. But since the drafts are almost done, and I’m waiting for some feedback, I’ve decided to start catching up on some baking posts!
Well, first off I decided to make a Valentine’s Day treat for my partner and me. It started out with smoked salmon and caviar blinis, followed by a delicious cheese fondue. For dessert, I decided to make a pistachio and chocolate semifreddo. Doesn’t that sound delicious? Semifreddo is Italian for semi-frozen and it’s practically like a partially frozen mousse. I did my research, found two different places to get the key ingredient (pistachio paste), and trekked into London to pick it up. Unfortunately it turns out that it was a common ingredient for Valentine’s Day as everyone seemed to run out of it right before the big holidays. Frustrated, I bought some almond cream instead, and I decided that I would make almond and chocolate semifreddo instead.
I also decided to use my new cube-shaped silicon molds. I bought them for a pasta experiment gone wrong, but I still had them, and I decided to put them to good use. So I layered the almond semifreddo at the bottom of the molds and put the chocolate on top. A few cacao nibs from my cacao nib adventures, and I had a delicious dessert. However, I thought that maybe that wouldn’t be quite enough, so I decided to put them on a brownie base. I went to Smitten Kitchen to find a delicious brownie recipe (although I do have several at home, so I’m not exactly sure why I did this, except her recipes are usually amazing), and I opted to go for an easy brownie using cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate, just for ease of making during the week. I also added toasted almond flakes to tie it in to the almond semifreddo.
Was it delicious? Yes it was. We ate it during the entire week (as there were eight cubes of semifreddo). Surprisingly, the semifreddo was quite hard as I made it in advance (which made it really easy to pull out of the molds and plate up), but when I left it out for half an hour, it was soft and delicate. Well at least the almond was, the chocolate was a bit denser then I would have liked, meaning I probably added too much cream or something, but the flavor was really nice. Overall, I would definitely do a semifreddo again as it was incredibly easy to do up in advance and molds quite well to a shape, but yet is soft and delicate when allowed to defrost a bit.
Oh I almost forgot. When I served it on Valentine’s Day I didn’t have any sort of sauce or anything. Not that it needed sauce, but you feel like some sort of sauce could just liven things up a bit. Well, when I was on my failed pistachio paste search, I did run across the Italian ingredient saba. Basically it’s the must of grape juice that is kind of a precursor in wine making. It’s boiled down until it’s very thick, almost as thick as a balsamic glaze. Some sources say it’s also was used similarly to balsamic vinegar before there was such a thing. Mine was labeled as being quince must, and it turns out that some brands of saba are fortified with quince as well. Anyway, it tastes heavenly. It made quite a nice addiction to the chocolate flavors of the dish. (As a side note, I also mixed some of the saba with some fig vinegar and smoked paprika as a sauce for some pan fried duck breast I made for dinner, and it was amazing. The bottle says it can be used with meats as well, and it sure can!) If you can pick up this ingredient, I highly recommend it, and I plan on finding out new uses for it as time goes on. One advantage about living overseas is the ability to find these specialty ingredients that you’ve never heard of before, even if it can be very impossible to find the ones I’m used to!
Due to the overwhelming amount of bananas filling up my freezer (thanks to my fruit and veg box), I decided to whip up some banana bread. I made a double batch, as I was also giving a presentation for my department for our group meetings, and wanted to bring a little snack to distract them in case it was terrible. I have a standard recipe I usually make, but I decided to try a new one.
I went with the Smitten Kitchen banana bread recipe. I chose it for a couple of reasons, the first being that it seemed incredibly easy as you practically added the ingredients to the bowl and stirred. The second is the booze. I love anything with a bit of booze in it, and I used spiced rum instead of bourbon (due to my lack of bourbon in the house). I also added walnuts because I love walnuts and to give a bit of texture.
They turned out great. My co-workers loved the bread, and it may be my new go to banana bread recipe. I may still use the other one, as it is easily adaptable if I want to make other things, like pumpkin or zucchini bread.
Banana bread (with rum).
