Jul 30th, 2010 (14 hours ago) by Helen
Danny, the Food Urchin, and fellow attendee of Masterchef for bloggers cook off, has a side line at Where’s My Pork Chop. For those not in the know, this is his scheme to get fellow London foodies to bring him a homemade takeaway supper when he is working late shifts in the culinary wasteland that is Barbican. In return, Danny buys you a drink, brings produce from his allotment and is great to talk to as he understands most foodies’ obsessions. He has also been known to host a party and cook a whole lamb in a pit to thank everyone that feeds him. Sadly I fed him after this wondrous party had occurred, but have an empty diary for next summer and am looking forward to attending the replay.
He is a thoroughly nice bloke too. I have now met him 3 times, and I really enjoy our conversations. It was a pleasure to provide him with supper, even if I did have to go to Barbican. If you have not yet fed him do give it a go. Read about the meal I made for him here, and Danny, I really think you need to give Ocado a trial run.
Posted in Food Blogging Events | No Comments »
The August challenge, and my first, from Fresh From the Oven was to make a whole wheat walnut bread. Like the Daring Bakers, Fresh From the Oven has a new challenge, hosted by one of its members, every month. For July our host was Sarah from Simply Cooked who chose her recipe from The Neighborhood Bakeshop by Jill Van Cleave.
After some sourdough mishaps, I feel I have lost confidence in my bread making abilities, and am delighted to have joined Fresh From the Oven, and to have the nudge to make bread once a month and am looking forward to building my skills.
I pretty much followed Sarah’s recipe to the letter, but, my sponge starter was made with 50% white / 50% whole wheat flour, and I was out of walnuts and so used pecans instead. I really like the sponger starter method, and will be using it again as I think that it gives far more flavour and hit of sourdough character to the loaf. Continue Reading »
Tags: bread, pecans, walnuts
Posted in Baking, Breakfast, Food Blogging Events | 4 Comments »
It seems that the entire world has gone mad for matcha, and once again I am late to the culinary bandwagon. Last week I visited the Mind Apples pop-up health farm, then went to the Japan Centre for some of their splendid (and very affordable) sushi and spied lots of matcha. I remembered reading about Matcha Madness Month on Catty’s blog and decided that it was time to get some fuss free matcha madness in my kitchen. Bewildered by the choice of matchas on offer I choose a 10g pouch for £2.
For those not in the know, matcha is finely ground Japanese green tea. It is made from tencha, which is stoneground to a bright green talc like powder. It is fairly labour intensive process, taking up to an hour to grind 30g. The tea bushes are covered for several weeks before harvest; the shade slows down growth, resulting in darker leaves and more amino acids giving a more intense flavour. Matcha is packed full of all sorts of things that are good for you; antioxidants, betacarotene and vitamins A, B & C. And matcha is also delicious, like green tea, but more intense and sweeter in flavour. Continue Reading »
Tags: matcha
Posted in Baking, Food Blogging Events, Muffins, Vegan | 3 Comments »
Have I mentioned before that I really really really love dips? Looking back at my dippy posts it seems that I usually serve them with crudities, but sometimes a bit of non veggie crunch and crispiness is required. Instead of from a packet and laden with fat and all manner of nasties, these tortilla chips are made from tortilla wraps which I usually have in the freezer. Continue Reading »
Tags: tortilla wraps
Posted in Dips & Dressings, Quick & Easy, Starters & Light Bites, Vegan | 5 Comments »
This summer I have been getting an iceberg lettuce every week in my co-op box and frankly I am a little bored of them. Nothing conjures up an image of an 1970’s salad more than an iceberg. Add some pale watery tomatoes, celery and chunks of cucumber and a good dollop of salad cream and you have something straight out of the canteen of my 1970’s primary school in the middle of Kent.
I recently read an article by Mark Bittman on The Charms of the Loser Lettuces. I was struck by a comment on one of the recipes, which pointed out that if icebergs were not so long lasting and virtually indestructible, they would not be so loved by supermarket buyers and thus available so cheaply and easily. The rare and scare (and expensive?) iceberg would probably popular with certain groups of foodies. I hope that my tastebuds are not solely governed by rarity value and cost, but I am sure that there are some foods out there that are more popular because of their rarity rather than the merits of their flavour alone. Continue Reading »
Tags: iceberg, peas
Posted in Food Co-op, Quick & Easy, Salad, Side Dishes, Starters & Light Bites, Towards 5 a Day, Vegan | 8 Comments »
Another bumper haul for £6.
I have just discovered the perfect fuss free recipe for iceburg lettuce that makes it totally delicious! I’ll be posting it soon.
Posted in Food Co-op | 1 Comment »
This is the pudding that I came up with for the recent foodbloggers’ Masterchef cookoff with Miele. When planning a menu it is perfectly normal and reasonable to come up with a pudding first and then plan a main course to go with it? I wanted a very summery pudding using my homemade elderflower cordial; it also had to be very quick to make, impossible to mess up and hopefully delicious. I think that I have attained all 3 requisites here. Looking back over my archives it would also seem that possets will freeze well too.
As these possets have extra liquid from the cordial added to them I used extra thick double cream to make sure they set.
Continue Reading »
Tags: Cream, Elderflower, lime
Posted in Dairy, Food Blogging Events, Freezable, Fruit, Puddings, Quick & Easy | 4 Comments »
I was delighted to be recently asked by Wildcard to an evening with Jo Pratt, who would be demonstrating the new range of Tilda stir fry rices. A large group of bloggers arrived one boiling hot summer’s evening at the rather wonderful Food at 52 which is situated in a rather lovely street of Georgian townhouses near King’s Cross. Here we were greeted by the Wildcard team, Jo and Camilla from Tilda who was going to talk us through the range. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food Blogging Events, Grains & Rice, Review - Product | 4 Comments »
I do not understand why some people think that they do not like tofu. It is so versatile and takes on the flavour of whatever it is cooked with there realy is nothing to dislike, although I do agree that watery slimey tofu is a very sad experience indeed. I first made this at the start of June and unbelievably I have lasted over a month before making it again. As before I made my own tofu in my soyquick machine but this time I had the idea of making black pepper tofu so added some Steenburgs Spanish Black Pepper (available here) to my coagualted soymilk. If you have never had ultra fresh tofu it is worth making from scratch once, but it is a bit of a faff and does lead to a huge number of dirty pans. Continue Reading »
Posted in Starters & Light Bites, Vegan, World Food | 10 Comments »
It is Friday again and I have received a bumper number of entries for this week’s PPN. Happily for those of us in the Northern hemisphere there are some salads and for those in the depths of winter a pasta bake or two! Continue Reading »
Posted in Food Blogging Events, Pasta | 13 Comments »