tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21884225047497429682024-03-21T13:54:38.046+00:00vanille & chocolatfood drink travel home love and moreInnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-37366239717023628032010-01-18T21:40:00.001+00:002010-04-28T21:45:18.749+00:00kitchen closed<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaigRyQjav7G1Z2ktDklWF3lA4_LCEkytLH5_E2fXnqWXtLoRQsgEzgRG4aTUea1OciVCGJZHbs4umOS4PweBBFAhy3PreoBihQ3E2Rr_AgliSD9irBSRH5P-7hkZtZTFa2pfD-VrYMCM/s1600/keuken.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaigRyQjav7G1Z2ktDklWF3lA4_LCEkytLH5_E2fXnqWXtLoRQsgEzgRG4aTUea1OciVCGJZHbs4umOS4PweBBFAhy3PreoBihQ3E2Rr_AgliSD9irBSRH5P-7hkZtZTFa2pfD-VrYMCM/s400/keuken.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465307348032990018" border="0" /></a>Or, more accurately, kitchen demolished. The day we left for our christmas break with our families in Belgium, the builders moved in and started tearing down our kitchen/bathroom extension. And this is what's currently left of it - some of those beautiful (not) dark blue wall tiles, lots of rubble and especially lots of dirt and dust in the rest of the house. Not to worry though; shiny new kitchen (and new bathroom, and extra bedroom) coming soon!<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-84920989307202895632009-09-23T15:10:00.004+00:002009-10-01T07:53:57.953+00:00free(berr)ies<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSeaGe3Pp3Ys6q03mgmC0G4CHKMOVv3Z2KVfi75KW8Sy0bnnnXQWOn8xodvP4Oi-x2RsRJTrbcC9IpPNZ0ALFnNIW7Yp4K5nV-m1EVV4tnLn8bAsbrq9ewpcd_OJKrAw7els3JDQdd70/s1600-h/berries.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSeaGe3Pp3Ys6q03mgmC0G4CHKMOVv3Z2KVfi75KW8Sy0bnnnXQWOn8xodvP4Oi-x2RsRJTrbcC9IpPNZ0ALFnNIW7Yp4K5nV-m1EVV4tnLn8bAsbrq9ewpcd_OJKrAw7els3JDQdd70/s400/berries.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387536425657485938" border="0" /></a>A bowl of blackberries does not a blog post make. Not even when I gathered them myself while on holiday in Dorset. And not even with a gratuitous picture of bebe enjoying said berries thrown in. It will have to do for now though, since S and I are getting married next week and there are a million tiny little things to sort out still. After the wedding I'm hoping to get back into the swing of blogging, but right now I need to go sort out table arrangements, centrepieces and more of that...<br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-19056970204918919522009-07-11T20:27:00.002+00:002009-07-11T20:32:32.037+00:00figs after easter<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRhU1E_WfDG2wuyYUgUbzsXps9_aM0d7vxaY7rKle094r-gjhF__M1_w7b5fqoX_eGFTnEO5wiPqw6qoqXdbGL_tRGKcT-pFaU3N5jfE3yqtdC-EJmv6Fw4ppS8B7kIYboggfRL65QYQ/s1600-h/baby.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRhU1E_WfDG2wuyYUgUbzsXps9_aM0d7vxaY7rKle094r-gjhF__M1_w7b5fqoX_eGFTnEO5wiPqw6qoqXdbGL_tRGKcT-pFaU3N5jfE3yqtdC-EJmv6Fw4ppS8B7kIYboggfRL65QYQ/s400/baby.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357302284792442578" border="0" /></a>This post won't have anything to do with figs whatsoever. Or food for that matter. It's just that, when you do something so late that it's really no use anymore - say announcing the birth of a baby when said baby is four months old for example - in Flemish the expression for this is 'figs after easter'. <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Our baby girl was born on 7 March, a week after her due date. At which point I was convinced we 'missed our window' and she would never ever come out. But that's a whole different story altogether. Delivery was smooth and easy (as was my entire pregnancy), the three of us settled nicely back into some kind of normal life at home and bébé is an absolute joy to have around. She's very alert and inquisitive, and it seems she will be as stubborn as her mummy. Having a baby is a lot of work though, especially when combined with renovating a house and planning a wedding (a combination I do not recommend by the way). It's not that I don't have time to cook or bake - I can't remember how often I have made my chocolate fudge pie in the last few months, it's the easiest cake to make and a real crowd pleaser - but having time to try out new recipes, write, photograph and blog is something else entirely. All the pics on our camera these days are of the little one. But I will try to change that, if only because the world should not be deprived of a recipe for a wonderful chocolate cake.<br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-33728427697478620322009-03-03T14:25:00.007+00:002009-03-04T17:02:41.642+00:00a weekend away, an easy dessert and nesting<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3sbAAfcYWWVuJ-ABIjdzZOSirC9kdOpUJIJBjffDebbjtJv1Wu_b3rXnnGdhWoV5xNpQJPOXvrx1ogxgDx6r1gahP_2auWi-0ydxrJI7cSmz6vxEy55tTdHqhUsKCKHau5DGIVsleHkM/s1600-h/manorbarn.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3sbAAfcYWWVuJ-ABIjdzZOSirC9kdOpUJIJBjffDebbjtJv1Wu_b3rXnnGdhWoV5xNpQJPOXvrx1ogxgDx6r1gahP_2auWi-0ydxrJI7cSmz6vxEy55tTdHqhUsKCKHau5DGIVsleHkM/s400/manorbarn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309374456498276994" border="0" /></a>Last month S and I decided to leave our dining room/building site and all the DIY as it was and go away for a long weekend - just the two of us, one last time before the arrival of our little one. So a week after the big snow - I do wonder how Britain ever managed to colonise half the world, when something as normal as snow in the middle of winter brings the entire country to a complete standstill - we set off for a relaxing countryside weekend. We found a lovely <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.manorbarnnorfolk.co.uk/">B&B</a> in Happisburgh, Norfolk; a beautiful Georgian farmhouse and barn owned by the wonderful David and Rosie, about a half hour's drive from Norwich and only five minutes from the sea. We saw seal colonies at <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.tournorfolk.co.uk/horsey.html%20">Horsey Beach</a>, where volunteers were very happy to answer all our questions about the seals; had a nice walk at the <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.tournorfolk.co.uk/hickling.html%20">Hickling Broad Nature Reserve</a>; had a <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.thefurandfeatherinn.co.uk/swan_index.php">superb pub dinner</a> in Ingham; and visited the grounds of <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-blicklinghallgardenandpark/">Blickling Hall</a>, which made us feel very Jane Austen!<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course both S and I were a bit paranoid about me going into labour while away (even though I was still 3 weeks away from my due date) so we packed my hospital bag and baby car seat as well, just in case - we both reasoned 'if we take the bag, we won't need it, but if we leave it at home we will'. We decided to have dinner at the B&B the first night, so this tired pregnant woman wouldn't have to go out foraging for food at night after the long drive there. After emailing back and forth with Rosie about all the good things I'm not allowed to eat, we were served a delicious and hearty home-cooked meal, perfect for the cold February month. Dessert was either a sticky toffee pudding - S's choice - or <span style="font-weight: bold;">lemon posset</span>. Which I'd never even heard of before, but I like anything lemony and am always keen to try new things, so that's what I went for. A quick <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posset%20">google</a> didn't return much information, other than it seems to be a very old English dish and something about MacBeth. Of course I just had to try and make it myself at home, and I can tell you it is most definitely the easiest dessert in the world. All you need is cream, sugar and lemon juice. I would love to understand the chemistry behind it - when you add the lemon juice the mixture thickens instantly - but for now I'm happy having this recipe on stand-by should I need a delicious dessert in a pinch.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJh9rEctpx9pqwBYEwOW4GpG3GdRv7kG_F4G5rBTiJpg3Asv1rT08tuiOh7e-o3DWlWQ-Dfgrc65X8CMY629hs1XJBrFrofM3GsVSnRgvjzQ9wI4U8uU_yaGeGeBSrRJAQcruoBhn3-Rk/s1600-h/posset1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 287px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJh9rEctpx9pqwBYEwOW4GpG3GdRv7kG_F4G5rBTiJpg3Asv1rT08tuiOh7e-o3DWlWQ-Dfgrc65X8CMY629hs1XJBrFrofM3GsVSnRgvjzQ9wI4U8uU_yaGeGeBSrRJAQcruoBhn3-Rk/s400/posset1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309374465675556642" border="0" /></a>Which brings me to the nesting bit. Maternity leave is a wonderful thing: I'm cooking and baking a lot and even bake my own bread most of the time - that Kitchenaid mixer sure is getting a regular workout and S isn't complaining, as his dinner is on the table by the time he gets home from work. I've been having fun with some knitting and sewing projects (our sitting room now has proper curtains, yay), the nursery is all set up, and once in a while I even have time to meet up with girlfriends for coffee. And of course I've been nesting: scrubbing floors like there is no tomorrow, doing laundry like it's going out of fashion, re-organising the kitchen cabinets and wardrobes, cleaning out the fridge and defrosting the freezer, and then spending a whole day making soup and healthy meals to restock the freezer. Now the house sparkles, my laundry basket is empty and the freezer full, so all that remains now is put my feet up and wait for our little one to arrive. And maybe have another lemon posset...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">lemon posset </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">serves 4</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">300ml double cream </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">75g caster sugar </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">juice of 2 lemons </span><br /><br />Pour cream and sugar into saucepan and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Boil for three minutes while stirring continuously. Remove from heat and add lemon juice; mixture will start to thicken instantly. Leave to cool for about five minutes and pour in small glasses. Chill in fridge for a few hours, until set.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">I added a layer of lemon curd at the bottom (I used Duchy lemon curd, but of course you can make your own) and decorated with a lemon peel curl. The posset would no doubt be even better with some lavender shortbread, but that will have to wait until another time.</span></span><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-27913381473999137402009-01-09T16:02:00.005+00:002009-01-13T20:42:33.843+00:00sugar and spice and all things nice<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHGG5mDO0m6cOX08aaHM8wTCuMhjya179eOZKoGQIObctPjWLJT7haOHPaNFr3dKeMofTR4Ai6-kMlxviUjTsXvdfTerxyStR1bQINFY6dlFpln2tWeGu1jbx8y2jEtU17UPTrvwS09M/s1600-h/cookies5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 298px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHGG5mDO0m6cOX08aaHM8wTCuMhjya179eOZKoGQIObctPjWLJT7haOHPaNFr3dKeMofTR4Ai6-kMlxviUjTsXvdfTerxyStR1bQINFY6dlFpln2tWeGu1jbx8y2jEtU17UPTrvwS09M/s400/cookies5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290880457060677266" border="0" /></a>Happy New Year everyone! Santa has been very good to me and brought me not only a subscription to the Donna Hay magazine, but also a Kitchenaid stand mixer! With a note from Santa saying I can now bake him lots of bread and cookies.<br /><br />I haven’t had any time to use it yet though, S and I are still spending every spare moment doing DIY – I know, the story is getting really old now, but what can I say. S and I are both perfectionists, we want everything to be done properly. With my parents’ help, we did actually get our sitting room finished, decorated and furnished in time for Christmas. There is now a sofa, armchair, cabinet, tv, and even some pictures and ornaments above the fireplace. And we even managed to put up a Christmas tree. We don’t have curtains yet (the windows are still covered with newspapers, very classy) and there are some details to sort out, but the room is finished enough to enjoy spending time in there.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqb30uEbycdl9a3dxTXRs_Pze_bgGDwlns-RcWSADLW6x0Wo4VOaZHFM93-z5dz11TM_3Sb7UmlRMmWtC4S1aFw8c9MrqQSg1n0zzcgPumC6MApvv_upo8qBK3OWI2niBjdHCw67JAxBM/s1600-h/cookies4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqb30uEbycdl9a3dxTXRs_Pze_bgGDwlns-RcWSADLW6x0Wo4VOaZHFM93-z5dz11TM_3Sb7UmlRMmWtC4S1aFw8c9MrqQSg1n0zzcgPumC6MApvv_upo8qBK3OWI2niBjdHCw67JAxBM/s400/cookies4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290880453095473298" border="0" /></a>Now we only have the dining room to finish and we really want to get that done before our little one arrives. Yes, seems like I’m part of the <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.latartinegourmande.com/">baby</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://lobstersquad.blogspot.com/">boom</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://definitelynotmartha.blogspot.com/">in</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://divineambrosia.blogspot.com/">blogland</a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span> Must be something in the flour. Or the eggs. Less than two months to go now and only one more week until my maternity leave, so hopefully I’ll get some use out of that Kitchenaid before our little one makes her appearance and my days (and nights) get filled with bottles and diapers.<br /><br />We’re trying to hold off on the pink (and plastic Dora/Bob/Disney/…) invasion for as long as possible, but a bit of sugar and spice never hurts. I baked these sugar and spice cookies for our antenatal class (pre-Kitchenaid), where they were demolished in the blink of an eye. I fully intended to make these cookies again for Christmas, in nice snowflake shapes with some icing swirls, but that of course never happened. They taste just as good though without any fancy shapes and go perfect with a nice cup of tea on a cold winter’s day.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLd4nEtRJZEA4i2W_e3x9dsYBtyIIdfZl-VdsA8l7fEN2OFMwPlToYDVFldC7c4R9oCW0dT96mvzw4cdG6oMgUhhPUNUsSG98H4ZeLm3MJpgtnRcWRCJjXGZy-VH9psuIRJHw5tB70Mzk/s1600-h/cookies3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLd4nEtRJZEA4i2W_e3x9dsYBtyIIdfZl-VdsA8l7fEN2OFMwPlToYDVFldC7c4R9oCW0dT96mvzw4cdG6oMgUhhPUNUsSG98H4ZeLm3MJpgtnRcWRCJjXGZy-VH9psuIRJHw5tB70Mzk/s400/cookies3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290880449660146914" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">sugar and spice cookies</span><br />makes 24<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">100g butter</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/3 cup muscovado sugar</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tbsp mixed spice</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 cup plain white flour</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 egg, beaten</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Demerara sugar</span><br /><br />Cream butter and sugar together. Add flour and spices. Roll in a log and put in fridge for about half an hour. Cut off 24 ‘slices’ and pat those slightly out with your fingers. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Bake for about 12 minutes at 150˚C. Enjoy.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-5842567259866145062008-11-12T15:13:00.004+00:002008-11-12T15:44:56.063+00:00a busman's holiday*<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWL0fQEpziV50QS4RaJerLFR-bOQRSZCeDCwU_TSdKbr1awuunmKJS7ye_a1DboqtoDCI6KINbkUO28MiXuCsVt9JzIEcUj2p9G_txsqdfhQF3iEQJ4-kXQWi_Gojg-bXx-YT9_hRGE0/s1600-h/vc.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWL0fQEpziV50QS4RaJerLFR-bOQRSZCeDCwU_TSdKbr1awuunmKJS7ye_a1DboqtoDCI6KINbkUO28MiXuCsVt9JzIEcUj2p9G_txsqdfhQF3iEQJ4-kXQWi_Gojg-bXx-YT9_hRGE0/s400/vc.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267797469595864258" border="0" /></a>A few weeks ago, my parents arrived at our house for a week’s stay. But unlike <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/2008/10/chocolate-and-pistachio-mousse-cakes.html">Aran’s parents</a>, they didn’t find lavender sachets under their pillows, or beautiful chocolate pistachio cakes waiting for them. Instead they found sanding paper, a heatgun, paintbrushes and tins of paint.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Just in case you’re wondering, of course we don’t make all our houseguests work for their stay – my parents had offered to come and help us out for a week. So, while S and were sitting behind our computers at work, mom and dad were hard at work in our house, leaving us with beautifully painted ceilings and woodwork when they returned home a week later. We still haven’t finished renovating the entire house, but at least all the big jobs are done and a few more weekends of painting and decorating should be enough to get us nearly there, so we can finally put up christmas decorations and a proper tree for the first time in years. Thanks mom and dad for helping us!<br /><br />Until a few hours before my parents arrived, our house was completely upside down. Luckily I managed to make our guest room look decent enough for them to actually stay there, but with our big sofa stored on its side in our kitchen, I wasn’t able to do any baking at all, so no fancy cakes or desserts for the parents this time. To keep up with all the DIY, they needed something more substantial anyway, so I made a big pot of soup to get them through the week (and of course we cooked them proper dinners every night as well). It’s one of my favourite winter soups: hearty, warming and filling. I originally found the recipe in a 2002 christmas supplement of LivingEtc. (as a way of using up left-over turkey) but have changed the recipe quite a bit over the years. My version takes a bit of prep work, but it’s absolutely worth it. And it will keep you going all day when doing DIY.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">spiced chickpea soup</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 large onion, roughly chopped</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">3 cloves of garlic, minced</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">10g cumin seeds</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">10g coriander seeds</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">40g harissa</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">500g dried chickpeas</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1.5l chicken stock</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">2 chicken breast fillets</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">coriander</span><br /><br />Soak the chickpeas overnight (8-10 hours) and then boil them for 2 hours. Dry roast he cumin and coriander seeds in a pan until they start popping and release their fragrance, then grind them roughly with a pestle and mortar. Boil the chicken fillets in water, when cool enough to handle, tear them by hand into small strips.<br /><br />Fry onion and garlic in some olive oil. When the onion has softened, add cumin and coriander seeds and harissa and fry for a further 5 minutes. Then add chickpeas, tomatoes and stock and simmer for 30 minutes. Purée about half the soup in a blender, then add chicken and coriander. Enjoy.<br /><br />And you could easily substitute dried chickpeas for canned ones and use cumin and coriander powder instead of seeds, to make it easier.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">* I learned this expression from a neighbour only last month; when I told her my parents were visiting for a week to help us with the DIY, she said ‘oh, a busman’s holiday then’, meaning it wouldn’t be a holiday for them at all, but work.</span></span><br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-24081333141560380072008-10-15T14:16:00.005+00:002008-10-15T14:35:50.298+00:00a few short summer breaks...<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEWcqFgQ2ik8GAUx2X_Yd4WDux6rH1SlHz6fICdUQJXKl0ibWyltJtrOxLPVLDs7JooaDuJsoqktChL6M1wgvgRf-lsWVYwddhHPzId6RV6vv_0CXqniX4WVvk9QyLHDEhtG2IOiiT4Wg/s1600-h/hadrianslibrary.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEWcqFgQ2ik8GAUx2X_Yd4WDux6rH1SlHz6fICdUQJXKl0ibWyltJtrOxLPVLDs7JooaDuJsoqktChL6M1wgvgRf-lsWVYwddhHPzId6RV6vv_0CXqniX4WVvk9QyLHDEhtG2IOiiT4Wg/s400/hadrianslibrary.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257386032363640514" border="0" /></a>… and a very looooooong blogging break. When even my mum remarked that it had been a while since I updated my blog, I knew it was high time I did something about it. It’s been a busy summer at casa v&c, with lots of little trips and a steady stream of visitors. And not much time for baking.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUCdv96VWinsTrGiQWwUqLPk9mTheINpOcpaUhQAPQthyMunfFn6CMPhOz_S-sDuYCdJuoKIFO-PRKUd8rFSvLsK3f8hj3lYH2bxscBFs2yKu0Yqz0r9QOdbKE3XnpQR5Z2ILsEz1O1Pk/s1600-h/acropolis1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUCdv96VWinsTrGiQWwUqLPk9mTheINpOcpaUhQAPQthyMunfFn6CMPhOz_S-sDuYCdJuoKIFO-PRKUd8rFSvLsK3f8hj3lYH2bxscBFs2yKu0Yqz0r9QOdbKE3XnpQR5Z2ILsEz1O1Pk/s400/acropolis1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257386012123701490" border="0" /></a>After a busy July, in which we celebrated S’s birthday (though we didn’t make it there this year, the good people of Paris put on a parade and fireworks especially for the occasion again), bought a car (after 7 whole years without, doing grocery shopping is suddenly very exciting), escaped to our friends’ country cottage (for a weekend of long walks in the woods), and lots of other things, we packed our bags for a quick trip to Greece, where we were graciously hosted by our friend G in his hometown of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Piraeus</span>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh8HwkVjViLL8UUJL5UjPU6ZH2zHDqP0en-2nDefM4K8d_W1PQniwf1Yz9ETdTa_zyX8pKkRw0_-Ws5tR34GY4XC44w2dIS5WXdXnj7Xt2hIx-NjXnFWQZQi0M-xjhlJkcBgXzczkV3fA/s1600-h/statue.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh8HwkVjViLL8UUJL5UjPU6ZH2zHDqP0en-2nDefM4K8d_W1PQniwf1Yz9ETdTa_zyX8pKkRw0_-Ws5tR34GY4XC44w2dIS5WXdXnj7Xt2hIx-NjXnFWQZQi0M-xjhlJkcBgXzczkV3fA/s400/statue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257386221379730834" border="0" /></a>It was our first trip to Greece, somehow we had never made it there before, and we finally got to see all the ancient monuments in <span style="font-weight: bold;">Athens</span> we had learned about in school. We also discovered why Athens is empty in August: because it’s HOT. So after a few days of seeing all the monuments – and seeking refuge in museums during the afternoons (great tip: museums in Athens have airconditioning!) – we did what every straight thinking Athenian does and hopped on a boat to one of the islands. Where it was still hot, but a beach, a warm sea and a cool sea breeze are an unbeatable combination for a perfect day.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgnBOIvlwaPuPbNdBwnc2B7Si8IokHTqGKl3jn7IsnyW4SAVHw_dfMeiVeWwfyfikJO2rcbPzJJBk7db05E8VpexU4FjJS1SGUsLwuGFdE6CEnzRDapYA0I_Es_VVqnkekPBUONJhazw/s1600-h/aegina2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgnBOIvlwaPuPbNdBwnc2B7Si8IokHTqGKl3jn7IsnyW4SAVHw_dfMeiVeWwfyfikJO2rcbPzJJBk7db05E8VpexU4FjJS1SGUsLwuGFdE6CEnzRDapYA0I_Es_VVqnkekPBUONJhazw/s400/aegina2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257386023386220098" border="0" /></a>Our island of choice was <span style="font-weight: bold;">Aegina</span>, less than an hour by boat from Piraeus, and home to a wonderful sweet shop: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Aiakeion</span>. All sorts of goodies there, so we picked a few of each: almond paste with gum mastic, sugared pistacchio nuts (the product of Aegina apparently) and of course baklava. All extremely sweet, but because of their being bitesized, just perfect. And still not as sweet as all the Moroccan sweets we had in Marrakech. Then there were also the many late and leisurely dinners, with the ubiquitous ‘Greek salad’ of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and feta, meat patties, wonderful baked aubergines and lots of olives of course. Strangely enough fish is scarce and expensive. I thought I'd be eating fish all week, but no.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6PuGrUM9_pfcFsIX7NjWJGPWin-miwTpmrbxHOHHZ5itOgX2O-1son81ojB1C0TfKLlX9YGzKHdqpht2X0ig6YXPkoiJPX5hyphenhyphengn0TbhpDFh9OKevHSyVmP4Ha1KUqKGRMlVhU7Gtu3rY/s1600-h/aegina1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6PuGrUM9_pfcFsIX7NjWJGPWin-miwTpmrbxHOHHZ5itOgX2O-1son81ojB1C0TfKLlX9YGzKHdqpht2X0ig6YXPkoiJPX5hyphenhyphengn0TbhpDFh9OKevHSyVmP4Ha1KUqKGRMlVhU7Gtu3rY/s400/aegina1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257386021282026146" border="0" /></a>Back home with recharged batteries (no sunshine or real summer in London) we hosted my parents for a week and we made it into a proper British week, with fish and chips (with mushy peas of course), a lovely weekend at our friends’ countryside cottage and a proper Sunday roast at the pub. There was also a wonderful dinner at <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.rules.co.uk/">Rules</a>, one of London’s best kept secrets. It’s the oldest English restaurant in London, they specialise in game and even have their own estate where they shoot all said game.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIis_9k3lY3xjahr3YcZFbG2pE0xW0TcUW-XzssL1hzTlf_lIeeBFlzAcjtt2rrvYleT8CqQTtubxcNBMkKF8-Vxwo7CX0KGdfzsKnv_s2-STxLE-srbhCsBgHsln19WSR10-Pf3X5m1Y/s1600-h/rye1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIis_9k3lY3xjahr3YcZFbG2pE0xW0TcUW-XzssL1hzTlf_lIeeBFlzAcjtt2rrvYleT8CqQTtubxcNBMkKF8-Vxwo7CX0KGdfzsKnv_s2-STxLE-srbhCsBgHsln19WSR10-Pf3X5m1Y/s400/rye1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257386214673785618" border="0" /></a>In September S and I made a few trips to Belgium, for a big family reunion weekend and a friend’s wedding. And we spent my birthday in the lovely and quaint seaside town of <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.visitrye.co.uk/">Rye</a> in East Sussex. Rye has lots of (expensive) antique shops, a nature reserve by the sea perfect for long walks, and lots of good <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2188422504749742968" com="">fish restaurants</a>. Having a car sure is wonderful and allows us to get out of London once in a while. It also means that, when we have to buy or rent DIY stuff, we can now bring it home ourselves, rather than having to organise and pay for delivery of everything. And DIY is all we've been doing the rest of the summer; currently S is sanding the downstairs floorboards, making a lot of noise and dust in the process. All the things we had in the living room are now stacked up in the bedrooms (note to self: stop collecting stuff and do a big ruthless spring clean); the only place in our house which is still sort of usable is the kitchen. Which means in the next few days, I'll bring my baking things out of retirement and will get stuck in making autumn goodies. Something pumpkin-y perhaps...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWt1OLbBiFGWXiChc7eHPRDS7TvuIJSclbl-yibJ7KWV1okfwKhDc6WdtTNz8_o96FEMjuuZs4M9ap9OEP7tuThKTp88tpolClS2NK8UZLl2PD3kTeLB1cCC6G8ITebodLEZhnsGWa4jA/s1600-h/rye2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWt1OLbBiFGWXiChc7eHPRDS7TvuIJSclbl-yibJ7KWV1okfwKhDc6WdtTNz8_o96FEMjuuZs4M9ap9OEP7tuThKTp88tpolClS2NK8UZLl2PD3kTeLB1cCC6G8ITebodLEZhnsGWa4jA/s400/rye2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257386220355084722" border="0" /></a></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-13323474392433267862008-07-13T15:15:00.001+00:002008-07-13T15:41:12.194+00:00mmmmm*<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">coconut tapioca soup with mango sorbet, passion fruit, cilantro syrup and coconut tuiles</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">* that's Meeta's Monthly Mingle Mango Mania</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5WJd2sPSp0Zc1QxWJ34bst-j6iVgVjYOUbwxA6l47um9GNIym9cM9urGbPq4PB-Pww5hAQtGy4sx-RvlN1bduXKRbJ1bVxdoIUn5ITtYnzRHD1klwRVErzlxfndrv7EIl1ste7HksLOA/s1600-h/mmmango1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5WJd2sPSp0Zc1QxWJ34bst-j6iVgVjYOUbwxA6l47um9GNIym9cM9urGbPq4PB-Pww5hAQtGy4sx-RvlN1bduXKRbJ1bVxdoIUn5ITtYnzRHD1klwRVErzlxfndrv7EIl1ste7HksLOA/s400/mmmango1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222518910395614034" border="0" /></a>Seems like I embraced all the relaxing and doing nothing of our June holiday for a bit too long. Instead of baking and posting, we spent our weekends catching up with friends, enjoying the sun (something that very rarely happens here, so whenever we do have a sunny day, I try to make the most of it), and going to Belgium for a friend's wedding. We also had a lovely dinner party with our Japanese friends S and A; last time <a href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/11/vanilla-custard.html">t<span style="font-weight: bold;">hey cooked Japanese food for us</span></a> so this time it was our turn to cook. We made them <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentse_waterzooi">Gentse waterzooi</a> – a sort of fish stew from Ghent. Which didn't look very pretty, but tasted rather good. Which was a good thing, because we had never made it before and it could have all gone horribly wrong. I had warned our friends though, that if it did, they would have the choice between an Indian or Chinese takeaway. Or halal pizza.<br /><br />For dessert I also decided to experiment, with a multi-component concoction. But even if the whole thing failed, the sorbet bit couldn't go wrong so there would be something edible for dessert at least. And fail it almost did. I had set my mind on one of Claudia Fleming's composed desserts: coconut tapioca soup with sorbet and some garnishes – something sunny and tropical.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEHrxIDZj1_C3yqLMBUHksqIqKXZXgQ7vGaW5VRe0Je1pvgTBQoYqRJycc2OKffKgYBuIw9F5z4rci-GFBV3hly5-qhYZIn4lvqZgv0l5BTZfUvRZQkNScRm8JSpbgmuKmDj1fPZYKviQ/s1600-h/mmmango2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEHrxIDZj1_C3yqLMBUHksqIqKXZXgQ7vGaW5VRe0Je1pvgTBQoYqRJycc2OKffKgYBuIw9F5z4rci-GFBV3hly5-qhYZIn4lvqZgv0l5BTZfUvRZQkNScRm8JSpbgmuKmDj1fPZYKviQ/s400/mmmango2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222518913819075602" border="0" /></a>I had never used tapioca before, so I tried the soup bit of the dessert the week before. British tapioca must be different from American one, as I ended up not with a soup, but a very thick custard. Yummy, but not soupy enough. During the week, I looked up some other recipes and found one on <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/03/12/tapioca-pearls-with-sweet-coconut-cantelope/">Steamy Kitchen</a> that sounded promising. So promising, I didn't try it out beforehand. Big mistake. Nothing wrong with Jaden's recipe, it's just that I didn't know how to cook tapioca and there were almost no cooking instructions on the packet. I started off making the tapioca soup first thing in the morning and had to make it three times before I finally got it right! Soaking the tapioca in water for an hour didn't work, I just ended up with a big mush. Boiling it separately in water didn't work either. What did work in the end (lucky me) was combining Claudia and Jaden's recipes: I cooked the tapioca in milk, which gave me a thick custard, and later added a milk-water-coconut milk mix to thin it into a proper soup. Phew, crisis averted.<br /><br />For the mango sorbet, I used those incredibly sweet, small and pretty yellow mangoes which I finally found at my local market. Unlike those sour, unripe ones I used <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2008/05/shf-43-coconut-lime-cake-with-mango-and.html">last time</a>. They're not cheap, but worth every penny. And they come nicely decorated with ribbon and wrapped in some tissue paper. All I did was add a bit of sugar and some lime juice, bang the whole thing into the freezer and stir it every half hour or so.<br /><br />The <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/07/hhdd13-passionfruit-slush.html">coriander syrup</a> takes no time at all to make and the tuiles I wasn't too fussed about: if they worked: great, if not: tant pis. Luckily they did. They didn't look anywhere as elegant and thin as Michel Roux's version, but good enough to serve to our dinner guests. Who loved the whole dessert, seeing as how they asked for seconds and even thirds...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiunpjsjY2Zc9ZZopdMS1ZyHJvjJtqvu8gSYTKKjC__te-lawSuDcqwNSYL4OaIjz2u06CBmEJSaX1jiRryhChEOoqVcQ4c_FWsXG63ng6jfY7gwqPvm-BeSSvj_D2SlRf85Kh4pQfbUKI/s1600-h/mmmango3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiunpjsjY2Zc9ZZopdMS1ZyHJvjJtqvu8gSYTKKjC__te-lawSuDcqwNSYL4OaIjz2u06CBmEJSaX1jiRryhChEOoqVcQ4c_FWsXG63ng6jfY7gwqPvm-BeSSvj_D2SlRf85Kh4pQfbUKI/s400/mmmango3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222518914727341634" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">coconut tapioca soup</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">adapted from Claudia Fleming's Last Course and Jaden's Steamy Kitchen</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/4 cup tapioca</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/4 cup sugar</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">2 1/2 cup milk</span><br /><br />Bring milk and sugar to the boil, add tapioca, reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tapioca pearls are soft (appx. 35 minutes).<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">plus:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 1/2 cup water</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/2 cup sugar</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/2 cup milk</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 cup coconut milk</span><br /><br />Bring water and sugar to a boil. When boiling, turn heat to low and stir in milk. When mixture returns to a boil, turn off the heat and stir in the coconut milk. Remove from heat, let cool to room temperature and chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Before serving dessert, add this mixture to tapioca mix to thin as required.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">mango sorbet</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">adapted from Tessa Kiros Apples for Jam</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">about 1.2 kg mango (as this sorbet basically is frozen mango, everything depends on the quality of the mangoes)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/2 caster sugar</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">juice of 2 limes</span><br /><br />Peel mangoes and cut into small chunks. Put in bowl with sugar and lime juice. Leave to macerate for a few hours. Purée everything and freeze.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">coconut tuiles</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">adapted from Michel Roux Jr's Le Gavroche cookbook</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 egg</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">80g caster sugar</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">80g unsweetened desiccated coconut</span><br /><br />Whisk eggs and sugar, until just mixed, add coconut and whisk until smooth. Spread out thin shapes on baking sheet (the back of a fork dipped in water works well for this) and bake at 160˚C until pale brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and leave to cool.<br /><br />To assemble: ladle some soup into martini glass. Add a scoop of sorbet. Add passion fruit, some coriander syrup and finish with a tuile. Enjoy.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-83464999751437220672008-06-12T15:34:00.004+00:002008-06-13T12:10:04.970+00:00marrakech<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGNvlieB7fVX8IQAmW5i_dO3EBYG_kaGCAfKYi4RIfVe88-rUe-qVvKp5f4_nx7M3wySshIWmZwH8YKXNY16coL4Wrxmye_np6N3j5YKU59Pi5MqLm7tEbZZZG3Dc22MFD1nTYdSew2Bo/s1600-h/street1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGNvlieB7fVX8IQAmW5i_dO3EBYG_kaGCAfKYi4RIfVe88-rUe-qVvKp5f4_nx7M3wySshIWmZwH8YKXNY16coL4Wrxmye_np6N3j5YKU59Pi5MqLm7tEbZZZG3Dc22MFD1nTYdSew2Bo/s400/street1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211292088498459458" border="0" /></a>Last week S and I escaped a grey and wet London for a warm and sunny Marrakech. We stayed in a delightful little riyad inside the old medina, right at the edge of all the souks and about five minutes walk from the central square, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jemmàa el Fna</span>, or ‘la place’. I had read mixed reviews about <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.darmouassine.com/">Dar Mouassine</a>, but it suited us just fine. If you like your every whim to be tended to then it’s not the place for you, but, if like us, you prefer a more relaxed atmosphere and do your own thing, I can highly recommend it.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixllv4t__dqmtPxmPOfyZZuBZxljHFcrhyWMSYCHyG92pJzPl0jlWcHQn-6qPp5iZ4JI_FyaHC5QqgoQx_9hgKEkb5n9JFXTCIMSRSVswCQzWMPFlN_kBm643LaMDD-2CdcYQGgrjz_Ac/s1600-h/riyad.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixllv4t__dqmtPxmPOfyZZuBZxljHFcrhyWMSYCHyG92pJzPl0jlWcHQn-6qPp5iZ4JI_FyaHC5QqgoQx_9hgKEkb5n9JFXTCIMSRSVswCQzWMPFlN_kBm643LaMDD-2CdcYQGgrjz_Ac/s400/riyad.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211292086908140258" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">our riyad, Dar Mouassine</span><br /><br /></span></div>I had heard about two restaurants, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Le Tobsil</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dar Moha</span>. Dar Moha used to be owned by Pierre Balmain and is now owned by a European-trained Moroccan chef who serves ‘Moroccan nouvelle cuisine’. At Le Tobsil, there is no menu, you just eat whatever is prepared that day and you pay a fixed price, which includes drinks.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6nBb46mH05R2vjDro0N1JyTjirOi6yLiKWv1NQMneAPRAQvB1Hn4hKkQK12S44-b_VgZ7CxSlJUyTRTi4zoqgd8JNe-RW-Mp7jjOnyfVgUSqX1yX4_UavrqxNzmwM1OeXWceBwPHfxg/s1600-h/laplace.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6nBb46mH05R2vjDro0N1JyTjirOi6yLiKWv1NQMneAPRAQvB1Hn4hKkQK12S44-b_VgZ7CxSlJUyTRTi4zoqgd8JNe-RW-Mp7jjOnyfVgUSqX1yX4_UavrqxNzmwM1OeXWceBwPHfxg/s400/laplace.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211292080095192530" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the lively Jemmàa el Fna with orange juice,<br />spices & dried fruits, and barbeque stalls<br /><br /></span></span></div>We dined at Le Tobsil, but although we liked the live musicians and the food was absolutely delicious, we wouldn’t really recommend it. It is quite expensive (plus the bill cheekily mentions that service is not included), tailored exclusively for tourists and we both found it rather poncy. There wasn’t anything wrong with the restaurant at all, it’s just that tables strewn with rose petals, waiters decked out in a European’s interpretation of traditional Moroccan dress, and being brought the bill in a wooden box, which contained a little book with ‘the best restaurants in Morocco, isn’t really our thing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjfCxgsmPAIyTAxYAJoAXPly6DPYRpqOYoAXMft0fVJ7yBGvZG0iuTGp_osEzjfERzVKxFsLsU3knOdfiBTioRtlgMvwT_bRHvpY5CvpX7sA9qtZnNn2Ddt6upM0TTJshsX7qKHftAdZU/s1600-h/food.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjfCxgsmPAIyTAxYAJoAXPly6DPYRpqOYoAXMft0fVJ7yBGvZG0iuTGp_osEzjfERzVKxFsLsU3knOdfiBTioRtlgMvwT_bRHvpY5CvpX7sA9qtZnNn2Ddt6upM0TTJshsX7qKHftAdZU/s400/food.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211292073068701810" border="0" /></a>After that, we decided to give Dar Moha a miss and just try some barbeque stalls and restaurants at ‘la place’. I wasn’t brave enough to try the out of the way hole in the wall places, but the places where we did eat had a mix of tourists and locals, so I figured we couldn’t go wrong. We tried various tagine and couscous dishes, barbequed meat and vegetables and of course some sweets. We also had an amazing lemon and olive chicken tagine, cooked by our riyad’s own cook Latifah. There seems to be a propensity for thoroughly boiled mushy vegetables, and the sweets were VERY sweet, but other than that we thoroughly enjoyed all the food we sampled.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjie28nXH5bbAkegecnYpKAX9ZLzPcBhu1upmN897QwNUxcwqhryFGwPkbz4jRvAQheVbKhCdSANXjt_jKocNBOw70w6-DpIQAQUVCsRfwULRyL2tlFhyChkuCgUot7tRMuGnTGMRP9MiM/s1600-h/mosque.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjie28nXH5bbAkegecnYpKAX9ZLzPcBhu1upmN897QwNUxcwqhryFGwPkbz4jRvAQheVbKhCdSANXjt_jKocNBOw70w6-DpIQAQUVCsRfwULRyL2tlFhyChkuCgUot7tRMuGnTGMRP9MiM/s400/mosque.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211292080793242786" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">rooftop view over Marrakech and the Koutoubia mosque (right)<br /></span></span></div><br />Apart from sampling Moroccan cuisine and doing a bit of shopping (babouches, a leather pouffe, some bowls and spices), our big plan was to do nothing at all, and do it very slowly. Of course there are plenty of things to see if you want: a museum, palaces, tombs and gardens, but for us this holiday was all about relaxing. We did bring back the sun with us, but of course that didn’t last and now London is grey and wet again. Time to start planning our next holiday…<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-82065274839609050322008-05-25T11:36:00.000+00:002008-05-26T11:47:03.463+00:00SHF # 43: coconut lime cake with mango and mascarpone lime mousse<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYKTI82ZszIMGPgBkKPXRfhv9jhWHiDQof-c1KH3v96p_CXfSxiB55x7wN06LnszaNoMBXm-ir2iY7ohMQzCHSoEohy09qTLRff3hRd0Cov6Gq7lOQiswcVEFe20XyZG27V3rChVo4Sug/s1600-h/SHFcitrus1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYKTI82ZszIMGPgBkKPXRfhv9jhWHiDQof-c1KH3v96p_CXfSxiB55x7wN06LnszaNoMBXm-ir2iY7ohMQzCHSoEohy09qTLRff3hRd0Cov6Gq7lOQiswcVEFe20XyZG27V3rChVo4Sug/s400/SHFcitrus1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204651078946375298" border="0" /></a>Like <span style="font-weight: bold;">Helen</span>, of the beautiful blog <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://tartelette.blogspot.com/">tartelette</a>, I'm a big fan of anything citrus. So when she chose citrus as the theme of this month's <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.domesticgoddess.ca/pages.php?page=10002">Sugar High Friday</a>, I couldn't have been happier. And I immediately got Harry Nilsson's coconut, one of my all-time favourite songs, stuck in my head. I first heard it when watching Practical Magic and I have actually watched the film again just for the song. It's sweet and silly and makes me laugh. I can thoroughly recommend this song, especially on a blegh and grey day. So, SHF. I wanted to make something pretty and tropical, and after going through some cookbooks, browsing a few blogs, and taking cue from the coconut song, I decided on a combo of coconut and lime with mango, in the shape of little cakes with fruit and mousse layer. Something I'd never tried before, but it didn't look all that difficult - baking a cake? I could do that half asleep. Chopping up some fruit? Easy peasy. And whipping up a mousse? five minutes' work.<br /><br />For the cake base, I chose <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://deliaonline.com/recipes/coconut-lime-cake,1187,RC.html">Delia's coconut lime cake</a>. A bit risky, since I hadn't made this cake before, but I find that Delia usually delivers. And deliver she did. The cake didn't rise very high, but it turned out quite well - I knew I could trust our Delia. The mango, unfortunately, didn't deliver. Instead of the sweet juicy and orangey-yellow fruit I was imagining, I got a hard pale and rather sour mango. That will teach me for buying mangoes out of season I guess. I should have waited for those incredibly sweet small yellow Pakistani mangoes I will find at my local market in a month or so. But all was not lost, I added a few spoons of sugar and some vanilla bean paste, which made it ok. Not great, but more than edible.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitxC980FJUMk2PvJkQTp7olX-RKyDWHsvlEScKfVQJzaag6aPzywy5WbWKayQTYJYtmOgKg5kQaJ_9thA4c0kDmGqDSXJo0AVrNNBsSeLMsIskG3iihXlubKQZrWRBhEHjuOeAOv1Fd4c/s1600-h/SHFcitrus3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitxC980FJUMk2PvJkQTp7olX-RKyDWHsvlEScKfVQJzaag6aPzywy5WbWKayQTYJYtmOgKg5kQaJ_9thA4c0kDmGqDSXJo0AVrNNBsSeLMsIskG3iihXlubKQZrWRBhEHjuOeAOv1Fd4c/s400/SHFcitrus3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204651087536309922" border="0" /></a>For the mousse, I browsed <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.latartinegourmande.com/">Bea's</a> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Helen's</span> archives, but all the recipes I found had gelatine in them, and I have a <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/07/grmph.html%20">very strong dislike</a> for the stuff. A google search only returned gelatine-based mousses as well, so I took a risk, and luckily it worked. I used Helen's <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2008/03/raspberry-and-lime-mascarpone-mousse.html">mascarpone lime mousse</a> recipe, but left out the gelatine and the lime zest (another thing I don't like), without changing anything else. I figured, with the whipped egg whites and whipped cream, the mousse would set in the fridge. After all, my chocolate mousse and tiramisu set in the fridge, so no reason why this mousse wouldn't set either. And I was right, phew. It might not work in hot or humid climes though. I guess that's the one good thing about living in grey and temperate London.<br /><br /><br />Getting the whole thing assembled took a bit of fiddling, but wasn't too hard. Of course I started with grand plans: I had wanted to add a frozen cone with coconut yoghurt and mango purée, like <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nordljus.co.uk/en/orangey-weekend-imbb-14">this one</a>, put a glaze on the cakes, and add a cilantro syrup. But in between all the weekend DIY, finally getting to meet our friends' new baby, and getting engaged (yes, after almost 12 years together S proposed), I didn't get around to executing all those grand plans. They will have to wait for another time. That evening, S and I cracked open a bottle of champagne and had a simple but lovely pasta dinner, followed by these cakes were our dessert. Surprisingly, S really liked it. Separately, the three components weren't great: the cake was a bit fibrey with all the desiccated coconut, the mango not ripe and the lime mousse not very sweet, but together they were just right. A sweet end to a wonderful day...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJ70Q3bAlP7GMV-hVLiAfQJMREn8a-KyVFjHY6V0tLvXar_nXQEWmL_zeCUB7C8VQvBD_q9ZzXIJCqPILdzk9uQJZ45MPh-0esU0d3PtmeppgRQnnOKD7jKcLc7jcclcbFhz3-bBixPg/s1600-h/sugarhighfridays_160.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJ70Q3bAlP7GMV-hVLiAfQJMREn8a-KyVFjHY6V0tLvXar_nXQEWmL_zeCUB7C8VQvBD_q9ZzXIJCqPILdzk9uQJZ45MPh-0esU0d3PtmeppgRQnnOKD7jKcLc7jcclcbFhz3-bBixPg/s400/sugarhighfridays_160.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204651448313562802" border="0" /></a><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-22537945537409008002008-05-18T11:02:00.000+00:002008-05-20T11:06:55.083+00:00milk jam<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPmlDNcUKmVnNCDlMds-4LiVkBuNWNOfiEFv1y27kMCUAZx6pu9Ry7cGmX9dJDl118VIf6sA4Qau_jDblwL31vNRJYZrJ92DsDCOgM9raSkwO3-FnvMTIvWpIvnoqowVI-6n7AuiwtCao/s1600-h/milkjam1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPmlDNcUKmVnNCDlMds-4LiVkBuNWNOfiEFv1y27kMCUAZx6pu9Ry7cGmX9dJDl118VIf6sA4Qau_jDblwL31vNRJYZrJ92DsDCOgM9raSkwO3-FnvMTIvWpIvnoqowVI-6n7AuiwtCao/s400/milkjam1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202414043153095810" border="0" /></a>About a month ago, I discovered <span style="font-weight: bold;">Aran</span>’s beautiful blog, <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/">cannelle et vanille</a>, when she left me a comment. I instantly fell in love with her beautiful creations and photographs and luckily, she hasn’t been blogging for very long, so it didn’t take ages to read through her archives – lucky me, otherwise I would have been reading through the night. One thing immediately caught my attention and that was her milk jam. I’d never heard of it before, but it sounded intriguing and lovely.<br /><br />Especially because vain little me wanted to bleach my teeth and my dentist had instructed me to only eat ‘white food’ for the two weeks it would take. No coffee, red wine, tomatoes, red peppers, strawberries … Of course after about a week I got incredibly fed up with eating cauliflower, rice and apples – we have a saying in Flemish that goes ‘they came out of my ears’, which I think pictures my sentiment quite well – and I was desperate for some variation. The milk jam provided just that; luscious, creamy, buttery and milky. Delicious! If you haven’t made it yet, stop reading and go make it right now. The recipe is <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/2008/04/milk-jam-and-chocolate-meringue-cookies.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6j6JUwqHCAr2Mxk6zAUYoes9orU4Ns9GgA1ibKecOWrfrgYVFQmzIvBjtCfwDY7F1OU6cF-axrzjtAGztJiBCKvprIBsJke_xm5epHFV1gWpeiMQ-Xq-hPDsz2ayJTMbKueDYPjFuvh8/s1600-h/milkjam2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6j6JUwqHCAr2Mxk6zAUYoes9orU4Ns9GgA1ibKecOWrfrgYVFQmzIvBjtCfwDY7F1OU6cF-axrzjtAGztJiBCKvprIBsJke_xm5epHFV1gWpeiMQ-Xq-hPDsz2ayJTMbKueDYPjFuvh8/s400/milkjam2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202414047448063122" border="0" /></a>I have mentioned before I’m not a fan of <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/07/grmph.html">gelatine</a>, so I left out the gelatine and reduced it a bit more to compensate, to about 250g. It set to a very spreadable paste in the fridge. For my second batch (did I mention how delicious this is?) I had to use half and half milk (S drank all the full-fat milk) and I added some nutmeg. Out of curiosity I reduced it to 300g, which also worked fine. And for my next batch, I’m thinking coconut milk. Or maybe sweet massala spices…<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-62940733105866845912008-05-04T09:52:00.005+00:002008-05-20T11:10:49.343+00:00breadcrumbsIt's a good thing I made that breaded cheese salad when I did, because yesterday evening, when I was looking for the breadcrumbs to top the <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2007/01/cauliflower_gratin.php">cauliflower gratin</a> I was preparing for dinner, they were nowhere to be found. Of course there was only <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/05/s-starring-in-kitchen-and-white-plate.html">one</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/05/ravioli-update.html">place</a> they could have gone, I didn't even have to ask (but I did anyway, silly me).Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-61358123837184810582008-04-29T15:45:00.001+00:002008-05-04T16:09:20.813+00:00here’s one I made earlier…<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIOfxHwfkyfPwOp2fYkAju85Ip17LhwV0r2AS3th1CPeJzL_AxPjd0hgy6AqvHZMUWb_HH_CyOlY42vjOVmjke6QE4_82E_NL7zMDwOWEg6k44t43PIyX1XB187OzZVwz64g6XgVcLHxY/s1600-h/salad.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIOfxHwfkyfPwOp2fYkAju85Ip17LhwV0r2AS3th1CPeJzL_AxPjd0hgy6AqvHZMUWb_HH_CyOlY42vjOVmjke6QE4_82E_NL7zMDwOWEg6k44t43PIyX1XB187OzZVwz64g6XgVcLHxY/s400/salad.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195502485024572242" border="0" /></a>… because I was nowhere near my kitchen this weekend. Instead, I spent a lovely weekend in Belgium to celebrate my friend’s 30th birthday. She is Spanish and prepared some yummy food: tortilla, albondigas and much more. No pictures, too busy talking. The rest of the weekend I caught up with my family: chatting with mum, taking gran out for lunch and enjoying the wonderful sunshine and 25˚C weather. And stocking up on chocolate of course.<br /><br />So all I’ve got right now is this salad: goats’ cheese, walnuts, apple (this time, I also use pear, dried cranberries or goji berries) and rocket with an olive oil-balsamic vinegar dressing.<br /><br />S doesn’t like goats’ cheese at all, so I only make this occasionally, just for myself. And every time again I’m surprised how fast and easy this is. All you need to do is brush the cheese with egg, roll it in breadcrumbs and gently fry it in some olive oil, until the breadcrumbs are golden and the cheese a bit squishy in the middle. While the cheese is frying, dress the salad leaves, throw in some nuts, berries or whatever else takes your fancy. Plonk the cheese onto the salad, add a good twist of black pepper et voila…. an utterly delicious salad in about 10 minutes.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-49934825014049988932008-04-17T16:39:00.004+00:002008-04-18T11:51:05.299+00:00hanami<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX5JSyE1KBoWRcp1fI3_w0-nE75226DsWkXJX6TwZDBzU0_5DEoAfrpCzmSsEXE3VCOPMprVkCcwx5APe4GWFsdUJW68ZtIMcL85ctwHw_wGYVcECCdCMT2AvKyXT43LQdggZ5p2AlmXw/s1600-h/hanami7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX5JSyE1KBoWRcp1fI3_w0-nE75226DsWkXJX6TwZDBzU0_5DEoAfrpCzmSsEXE3VCOPMprVkCcwx5APe4GWFsdUJW68ZtIMcL85ctwHw_wGYVcECCdCMT2AvKyXT43LQdggZ5p2AlmXw/s400/hanami7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5190519632252729746" border="0" /></a>Four years ago S and I went on holiday to Japan – my first real big trip and a very exciting thing for me. For the first four days or so, I kept on pinching S and shouting at him ‘We’re in Japan! We’re in Japan!’. He bore it patiently and we're still together, so he must really love me (or maybe he just stopped listening after the fourth time I yelled). Growing up I never lacked anything, but my parents didn’t have the money to travel far. We spent many a happy summer at the Belgian seaside, in the Belgian Ardennes, and even a few summers in France. But holidaying in exotic locations was something for rich people.<br /><br />When I was at university, my student club organised a trip to Istanbul. I remember passing the poster on the notice board and thinking ‘oh that must be nice for the people who can do that sort of thing’. Then I had a second look at the poster and almost fell over backwards when I saw the price of the entire trip: BEF 6,000. That’s about £100 (or US$200), for a weeklong stay. Flights and hotel with breakfast included. Of course I signed up for this trip immediately. The realisation that I too could holiday in exotic locations and that it wasn’t just something for the other half was one of those defining moments for me, as I’d always dreamed about travelling to far-off places, but never thought those dreams could become reality.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHobMwMAPEDUu6hgSEYQJiw_rZ7ugZigB3psLWdC73S2AfK2hDa-FHDyeib05qnLq93TGh9SzAnm_OVJsvzM8lZseHJ-yvIOobJ3xQLcZ4MEJIJD_KNs_tx44B1nvqLlBAh-VrlpDn9eo/s1600-h/hanami6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHobMwMAPEDUu6hgSEYQJiw_rZ7ugZigB3psLWdC73S2AfK2hDa-FHDyeib05qnLq93TGh9SzAnm_OVJsvzM8lZseHJ-yvIOobJ3xQLcZ4MEJIJD_KNs_tx44B1nvqLlBAh-VrlpDn9eo/s400/hanami6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5190519623662795138" border="0" /></a>Of course as a student I didn’t have the money to travel far and extensively, so when I started working and earning a living, travel was high up on my list of priorities. Top of that list was, and always had been, Japan. And it just so happened that it was at the very top of S’s list as well. So off to Japan we went. Our trip was perfectly timed with <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura">sakura</a> season so a lot of <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanami">hanami</a> was to be done. We encountered a lot of people taking photographs of the cherry blossoms and even saw two sweet old ladies, sitting in the park and discussing the beauty of the flowers and how the petals wafted to the ground. And of course all the sweet shops were filled with special sweets for the occasion.<br /><br />I’m a big fan of Japanese sweets and there is a <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.kitchoan.com/E/index_b_natsu2004_e.html">shop</a> close to where I work, so once in a wile I treat myself to a nice mochi. The sweets always seem so intricate and complex and impossible to recreate at home. But among the presents I received for my <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/10/oops.html%20">birthday</a> last year was <span style="font-weight: bold;">Harumi’s Japanese Cooking</span>. Which had just the recipe I was looking for: little read bean-filled crepes. Delicate looking, appropriately pink and super easy to make. I feel a bit like a cheat, because it was so easy, but the results were absolutely delicious. Since I followed the recipe to the letter and didn't tinker with it, I won't repeat it here, but the crepe batter was a mix of water and flour with some sugar and oil, with a few drops of red food colouring added to it. The red bean paste I simply bought in my local Japanese supermarket. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUp1ynsWsShynaOHwGcMhgZBYFAvs2Rx5Qhvj5BVKp8JoRdK3IPLElDKC6XKeSitEdUHZdUBJflgUxkz50Fjc-b7U3dBCeYrdSTPpv299_dpK04wvCT7WgPEqSjan4JIZO44mTlMKLako/s1600-h/hanami8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUp1ynsWsShynaOHwGcMhgZBYFAvs2Rx5Qhvj5BVKp8JoRdK3IPLElDKC6XKeSitEdUHZdUBJflgUxkz50Fjc-b7U3dBCeYrdSTPpv299_dpK04wvCT7WgPEqSjan4JIZO44mTlMKLako/s400/hanami8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5190519636547697058" border="0" /></a>With all the DIY I’ve been a bit out of the loop in recent months, and I haven’t kept track of all the food events, but after I had made these little crepes I discovered the theme of this month’s Sugar High Friday, hosted by <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.lapetiteboulangette.com/2008/03/shf-asian-sweet-invasion.html">La Petite Boulangette</a>, is <span style="font-weight: bold;">Asian sweet invasion</span>. Perfect for my crepes.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-59385414353628867432008-04-11T16:05:00.002+00:002008-04-12T17:11:28.472+00:00whoosh*<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic;">* that’s the sound of March flying past. And come to think of it, a good chunk of April as well.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu96EPkGTguD4pD1iHLu_px1Sfe8cWRkRrLwZASFCq-wwGGq0HZHgOxSwJxzEb5W61Z3GPnXLT624KQA_i7WsDG1UoLMHtd45jH_JAjmedJI_eAXiHS7HF2VRFhybzgGe-dZvnqtcAzoM/s1600-h/Cake1VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu96EPkGTguD4pD1iHLu_px1Sfe8cWRkRrLwZASFCq-wwGGq0HZHgOxSwJxzEb5W61Z3GPnXLT624KQA_i7WsDG1UoLMHtd45jH_JAjmedJI_eAXiHS7HF2VRFhybzgGe-dZvnqtcAzoM/s400/Cake1VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188406936373032514" border="0" /></a>I’ve been a very bad blogger these last few months, shame on me. Another whole month has passed without any baking or experimenting. The only action in the kitchen was that of an entire colony of mice, running around in plain daylight and eating everything in sight. Greedy little buggers. They’ve gone now; old-fashioned mousetraps with a bit of peanut butter did just the trick. I’m sure there were more than the four we caught, but the rest probably got fed up and decided to move somewhere else.<br /><br />Also, last month S and I survived – barely – two very traumatic trips to Ikea. We’re scarred for life now, the mere mention of something blue and yellow Scandinavian and flatpack furniture reduces us to gibbering wrecks. Seriously, what is it with that store? Their website says everything you need is in stock, but the shelves in the warehouse are completely empty. And the personnel at the information desks think it’s much more important to chat with their mates and yell abuse at their co-workers than, I don’t know, helping out clients maybe? We did eventually manage to get an entire wardrobe puzzled together, miraculously nothing was lost when we had it delivered, we lived to tell the tale and our bedroom looks much tidier now. But those nine hours of our lives, we’ll never get those back.<br /><br />Oh, and that long bank holiday weekend in March I had so many plans for? Three guesses how that was spent. Yep, even more DIY, resulting in lovingly restored sash windows, looking absolutely yummy. Sash windows aren’t edible though.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMX-Y75D-LJlKfWQ7uZXAepsBQf-eIRiIDenJVmHxmi5nobAW0PO6hqxmomdStTC95BAFpxg1S7hclTYeOao17-lJqDrda3SLNiTsrj5oE5V77xLC9riFeCwIdt1COx1pNAhc8W2UF3Q/s1600-h/cake2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMX-Y75D-LJlKfWQ7uZXAepsBQf-eIRiIDenJVmHxmi5nobAW0PO6hqxmomdStTC95BAFpxg1S7hclTYeOao17-lJqDrda3SLNiTsrj5oE5V77xLC9riFeCwIdt1COx1pNAhc8W2UF3Q/s400/cake2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188406940667999826" border="0" /></a>So I figured it was high time I put on my apron and baked something, before I completely lose skills like whipping egg whites. Or switching on the oven. And my good friend <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/02/mini-madeleines-with-oomph.html">Claudia</a> was just the woman to provide me with inspiration. I had been meaning to make her lemon and lavender pound cake for ages – in fact, it was the recipe that immediately caught my eye the first time I ever browsed through her <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Course-Desserts-Gramercy-Tavern/dp/037550429X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208019907&sr=1-1">book</a> – but somehow I always got distracted trying other things. Not this time though.<br /><br />The recipe is that of a very simple and basic pound cake – quite different from <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/04/cake-on-request.html">the one</a> I normally make though, so it was a good ‘exercise’ to compare techniques and results. This one is certainly easier and a bit less work, withouth much difference in taste. I adapted the recipe a little bit: I omitted the lemon zest because I really don’t like lemon zest and cut down the quantities of the lavender quite a bit as I thought using the full four tablespoons might be a bit overpowering. The resulting cake was wonderfully moist and lemony with just a hint of lavender. I was convinced S wouldn’t like it, because of the lavender, but he obligingly tasted a little piece. And then… his eyes lit up, he started licking his lips and rubbing his belly, said ‘yum!’ and cut himself another piece. Maybe that 'whoosh' was also the sound of pigs flying past...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">lemon and lavender pound cake</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">adapted from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">200g butter</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">5 eggs</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 cup sugar</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 1/2 cup self-rising flour</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 teaspoon vanilla extract</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tablespoon dried lavender</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">for syrup: 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup lemon juice</span><br /><br />Melt butter with lavender, leave to infuse for 10 minutes, strain, discard lavender, and set aside to cool.<br />Beat eggs with sugar until thick and pale. Sift 1/3 of flour into egg mixture until thoroughly combined. Fold in rest of flour in 2 batches. Whisk one cup of batter with vanilla extract and melted butter, then add this to remaining batter. Bake cake at 150˚C for 45 minutes.<br /><br />Make syrup (bring to simmer in saucepan and cook until sugar is dissolved). When cake is ready, poke all over with skewer and brush with half the syrup. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, invert cake and brush bottom and sides. Reinvert and brush with remaining syrup. Enjoy.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-76712503688599799092008-02-22T15:52:00.004+00:002008-02-22T16:15:12.576+00:00randomness<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ2hy-9K5YnQ_zklbGatNjQVF73MqBpWDrgzGwnuCoHvJaJqG6eIMo5qrz8lhYReUiCHdoGDClpPLOigVR3909Gk6p2nI3FfqzxCUdUjPfULG986nEFTjkxP9xECSI6-vOOZ0LAfK7r90/s1600-h/flowers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ2hy-9K5YnQ_zklbGatNjQVF73MqBpWDrgzGwnuCoHvJaJqG6eIMo5qrz8lhYReUiCHdoGDClpPLOigVR3909Gk6p2nI3FfqzxCUdUjPfULG986nEFTjkxP9xECSI6-vOOZ0LAfK7r90/s400/flowers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169834690321764610" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">with the freakish winter we've been having, the flowers in my garden have all come out way too early</span></span><br /></div><br />Where has February gone? It seems the new year started only yesterday, and suddenly two whole months have passed! As must be glaringly obvious from a complete absence of posts, not much baking has been going on in the vanille & chocolat household.<br /><br />The one thing that has been going on, in large quantities, is DIY. Which usually starts on Saturday morning and ends Sunday evening, after we’ve washed all the dust out of our hair, soothed our aching muscles with a relaxing hot bath, and settled down in front of the telly with a nice cocktail (yes, those lemons sure served their purpose, if not the one originally intended).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHNriXDcsHiC_16Tfs2L3lxViS6lLTL_l8daK-5sFTkuQWHrLLbTJM0SDbeBV0-QckyY-wdJq4uc55Z5cV2a_flDixKtSXwy61qgLSxY1XYEsDC4LsvijavyDvbAavOjSck2fJayFWWU/s1600-h/random.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHNriXDcsHiC_16Tfs2L3lxViS6lLTL_l8daK-5sFTkuQWHrLLbTJM0SDbeBV0-QckyY-wdJq4uc55Z5cV2a_flDixKtSXwy61qgLSxY1XYEsDC4LsvijavyDvbAavOjSck2fJayFWWU/s400/random.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169834681731829986" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">American pancakes, baby knitting and my beautiful new ironing board cover</span><br /></span></div><br />During the past few weeks, there was a wonderful and comforting Flemish dish: <span style="font-weight: bold;">witlof</span> (chicory) and ham rolls, in a cheesy béchamel sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and butter, baked in the oven. Prepared by S – yes, I am one lucky woman. There were also hearty breakfasts, to get enough energy for all the DIY. I’m totally in love with the American <span style="font-weight: bold;">pancakes</span>, bacon and maple syrup combo. I know this must seem a very mundane breakfast for you Americans out there, but I find it very exotic and if S would let me, I’d make it every weekend.<br /><br />Weeknights, there has been lots of soup, housework, knitting (hadn’t done that for ages and my friend L having a baby was the perfect excuse to take it up again), and also the discovery of <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://fourbedstwobaths.blogspot.com/">house renovation</a>, <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.paperpony.net/">crafty</a> and <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.designspongeonline.com/">decoration</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://decor8.blogspot.com/">blogs</a>. And <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.etsy.com/">etsy</a>. All very addictive, but oh so inspiring!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglG34CkhsZJWanKo_tXAb93C1p-Rsq5183GiCNz-AJNqxQODoUkYNnl8MElRVn4uFKeSdV5UXVwprKSeenFAB7Eu6nStvORm9N63cT68W6RYkVj8NYA9870dwJwEyX4jMIi6DUYPckisc/s1600-h/etsy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglG34CkhsZJWanKo_tXAb93C1p-Rsq5183GiCNz-AJNqxQODoUkYNnl8MElRVn4uFKeSdV5UXVwprKSeenFAB7Eu6nStvORm9N63cT68W6RYkVj8NYA9870dwJwEyX4jMIi6DUYPckisc/s400/etsy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169834686026797298" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">details of two prints I fell in love with and just had to buy on etsy</span><br /></span></div><br />This weekend we’re taking a break from all the DIY and are jetting off to Belgium for another one of <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/03/family-lunch.html">these</a> and some retail therapy. But I’ve got some new goodies and interesting recipes I can’t wait to try, plus there’s a few bank holidays coming up and the days are getting longer, so hopefully March should see something more than one sorry blog post saying I don’t have time to blog.<br /><br />Have a nice weekend everyone!<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-67473835716044029252008-01-28T15:11:00.000+00:002008-01-28T15:23:11.324+00:00lemon meringue pie – the Daring Bakers’ January challenge<div style="text-align: justify;">Another month, another <span style="font-weight: bold;">Daring Bakers</span> challenge, and this month’s host – <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://canadianbaker.blogspot.com/">Jen, the Canadian Baker</a> – chose <span style="font-weight: bold;">lemon meringue pie</span>. Now, I love me some lemon pie. I have a <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/deep-lemon-tart,880,RC.html">favourite, foolproof recipe</a>, but it can’t hurt to try something a bit different once in a while. As usual, I left it to the last weekend to complete the challenge. S shopped for groceries, while I was stripping more paint off the woodwork.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgyMLONkU8I0Og95kVxLEBUsU-JyWy9jGrMaN1m7K0LbIGb85iKylh9_URxTapEYwVFOUFHtETGwRT5wWYGN5NN7zQqclD5W-jkacJef9ojr6ftCHybKXcYlu9wJ6M-vQtRU_3g_oJE4/s1600-h/dough.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgyMLONkU8I0Og95kVxLEBUsU-JyWy9jGrMaN1m7K0LbIGb85iKylh9_URxTapEYwVFOUFHtETGwRT5wWYGN5NN7zQqclD5W-jkacJef9ojr6ftCHybKXcYlu9wJ6M-vQtRU_3g_oJE4/s400/dough.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160547324233007938" border="0" /></a>With a pantry full of butter, sugar, eggs, lemon and cream, I fully intended to start baking. I even got as far as making the dough for the crust. And then… the call of the DIY became too strong to ignore. And so, by the end of the weekend, there was a lot of stripped wood, a ceiling without wallpaper on it, and not a lemon meringue pie in sight. Those lemons did come in handy though for our cocktail hour on Sunday evening…<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihlIkGlKZDe_bzCM3NCChc3uTt5OPgRraiiiSxhgnOtU-_SVzvJliu_v_teWDeRLQZAG8g7JydjbtzGibghA_ieZp5_DK72Mu6O4q6pj0p05_ZL-FbuJQXZeO30ZtGiZF8Pp6NAcd97uQ/s1600-h/mantelpiece.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihlIkGlKZDe_bzCM3NCChc3uTt5OPgRraiiiSxhgnOtU-_SVzvJliu_v_teWDeRLQZAG8g7JydjbtzGibghA_ieZp5_DK72Mu6O4q6pj0p05_ZL-FbuJQXZeO30ZtGiZF8Pp6NAcd97uQ/s400/mantelpiece.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5160547328527975250" border="0" /></a>Check out all the other Daring Bakers’ real pies <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com/">here</a>.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-54186838568022657262008-01-21T17:30:00.000+00:002008-01-22T13:00:56.980+00:00another weekend, another DIY project<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnI5aRT3bsLv4513C4DcVCr6XNmweIBgH9_iPyjfB-sFOaw5NxWuKLRshepqYIOZ3VvSoOXaFggf9jIk8AYfHI4ACDfHJ6CN9et8wcTo6r4RLX1SDknsvhWEiw68Fc1DIdTTfCnintPh8/s1600-h/tartlet1VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnI5aRT3bsLv4513C4DcVCr6XNmweIBgH9_iPyjfB-sFOaw5NxWuKLRshepqYIOZ3VvSoOXaFggf9jIk8AYfHI4ACDfHJ6CN9et8wcTo6r4RLX1SDknsvhWEiw68Fc1DIdTTfCnintPh8/s400/tartlet1VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157983886359763330" border="0" /></a>Now that we’ve finished renovating the upstairs of our house – we have doors in our bedrooms! with doorknobs! and blinds! – S and I started all over again downstairs. Stripping awfully textured wallpaper off the ceiling (yes, the ceiling. Must be some kind of British thing), stripping a gazillion layers of paint off the woodwork, ripping out three layers of awful carpet, sanding wooden floors and completely overhauling the beautiful but neglected sash windows. I guess we could hire someone to do all the work for us, but it is very hard to find decently skilled craftspeople here without having to take out an extra mortgage to pay them. Plus I’m still upset about how the jobs we could not do ourselves were done by so-called professionals. And that was more than two years ago. Also I’m a bit of a control freak and I’d rather do everything myself, so I know it’s done properly. Which takes a lot of time. In addition to all the DIY I’ve also found myself in a spring-cleaning mood recently (must be the too warm weather we’re having here) itching to clean out cupboards, reorganise shelves etc.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-AfdFQaA5rlgwXPXTs0d0SzogJMB-Wfo_4BFBr2t4L54PQBDHmS7Jr8FJWpkqhS3T4Pwbz16crEM0gz9gP75WAbzq9qv2qYf3pd1Oi2kc85WCnUkrV2iRKBMQGpRqNHWdDgJnv3AGAis/s1600-h/tartlet3VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-AfdFQaA5rlgwXPXTs0d0SzogJMB-Wfo_4BFBr2t4L54PQBDHmS7Jr8FJWpkqhS3T4Pwbz16crEM0gz9gP75WAbzq9qv2qYf3pd1Oi2kc85WCnUkrV2iRKBMQGpRqNHWdDgJnv3AGAis/s400/tartlet3VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157983890654730658" border="0" /></a>So, loads to do at home and not much time for other things. But just enough time to bake something quick and easy: I had some left-over chocolate shortcrust pastry in the freezer, and a whole bunch of walnuts from my aunt’s garden. But no nutcracker. So what does one do in a DIY-filled, nutcracker-less home? Why, use a DIY tool as a nutcracker of course. I found a quick and easy Donna Hay recipe, et voilà, little butterscotch walnut tartlets.<br /><br />S wasn’t a fan (but he doesn’t like walnut and he doesn’t like honey), so I brought some tartlets over to the neighbours, who were big fans. And told me I should open a pastry shop. And please could they be my test audience. I think they just want more sweets. Now, all I have to do is find a quick way of getting rid of the other stuff in my freezer, so I can start spring-cleaning there as well.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDgso737nBVcwMeTR1_MMYOZ6SqEsrHONLCzCfGqon2GvB958tf0HWv4vLkrjTeMsZADZvuP61zeZebreOyOXQ6fMihuAdcgPTftIKYs1rm9clb1SeoopyW-8nBTvawSbdsMny3Evi-g/s1600-h/tartlet2VC.jpg"><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="on down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Bold" title="Bold" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 3);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span></span><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDgso737nBVcwMeTR1_MMYOZ6SqEsrHONLCzCfGqon2GvB958tf0HWv4vLkrjTeMsZADZvuP61zeZebreOyOXQ6fMihuAdcgPTftIKYs1rm9clb1SeoopyW-8nBTvawSbdsMny3Evi-g/s400/tartlet2VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157983886359763346" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">butterscotch tartlets</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">adapted from Donna Hay Magazine, issue 32</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">shortcrust pastry</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">30g unsalted butter</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">¼ cup double cream</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">¼ cup honey</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 cup walnuts</span><br /><br />bake pastry in individual moulds (I used a muffin tin) and let cool on wire rack. Put butter, honey, cream and walnuts in a pan and heat gently until butter is melted. Up heat until caramelised (a few minutes) and pour filling in pastry shells. Top with some double cream and crushed instant coffee. Eat.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-19784592259994996972008-01-08T16:28:00.000+00:002008-01-08T20:20:24.189+00:00Happy New Year!<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBhadbAuScNPYM6DFNAgcmhL4_MzLCYopICFQmuLGvpgOOTsN7QGW0aNHCdI5PdeuD2ThtJt1SpiGf1cazRa-Bl50McK-ywmHslOcyCsYTXoseeZg2GoycibJLJNwRDNxYsApM79XoXw/s1600-h/lights.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBhadbAuScNPYM6DFNAgcmhL4_MzLCYopICFQmuLGvpgOOTsN7QGW0aNHCdI5PdeuD2ThtJt1SpiGf1cazRa-Bl50McK-ywmHslOcyCsYTXoseeZg2GoycibJLJNwRDNxYsApM79XoXw/s400/lights.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5153202256105587474" border="0" /></a>A bit late, I know, but in my family you can wish each other a happy new year during the entire month of January (I have a ginormous extended family, so it would usually take a while to tick everyone off). Also, getting a stomach bug is a wonderful way to lose all that holiday weight, but not such a fun way to start the new year. My stomach is back to its old good self now, but there hasn’t been much cooking in the V&C kitchen and hence not much to report either.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />S and I spent most of the holidays with our families in Belgium – a wonderful week of eating, sleeping and not much else. And I was too busy chatting with everyone to think about updating my blog. We‘ve always celebrated with our little family on christmas’ eve; christmas day was reserved for a big lunch with my dad’s side of the family (fifty-odd people – told you I have a big family) and the last years is a perfect day for going to the cinema, or, even better, doing nothing at all.<br /><br />The traditional christmas day lunch with turkey, cranberry, stuffing etc. is not really done in Belgium though (and we don’t have Santa Claus either – but we do have <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas">Sinterklaas</a>, who comes on 6 December). We usually eat something nice and festive, and this year we all helped cooking. Mum did something nice with fish for starters, my brother made a lovely cream of mushroom soup, S made a beautiful gratin dauphinois and of course I was in charge of dessert.<br /><br />I wanted to make something Sinterklaas-inspired, with speculoos, spices, and mandarines. And dad loves ice cream, so there had to be ice cream in it as well. And this is what I came up with: speculoos with cinnamon ice cream and mandarine caramel. Those fancy schmancy mandarine segments I didn’t do on purpose (I do have a life you know, and I don’t spend it dissecting mandarines into individual thingies); my original intention was to have large segments in the caramel and when I was trying to get the membrane off each segment, they just fell apart in these little thingies. And they looked kinda cute, so I used them like that. All the components for this dessert can be prepared in advance and are very easy to make; just be careful with the speculoos, because it burns easily.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNogEhXSPYWXicH_zbzBCE7Sbn4cdew7xXPi8W3PffOm51Gysdd0p7dUvdOIooRi_qrRjkQEW0zp-C44ctZORSsy45RaCwztG7SpznMXWOqUyosBSwr1Qu_iESUzgEzD1OWsqkwvjhKeo/s1600-h/dessert.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNogEhXSPYWXicH_zbzBCE7Sbn4cdew7xXPi8W3PffOm51Gysdd0p7dUvdOIooRi_qrRjkQEW0zp-C44ctZORSsy45RaCwztG7SpznMXWOqUyosBSwr1Qu_iESUzgEzD1OWsqkwvjhKeo/s400/dessert.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5153202247515652866" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">speculoos </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />500g self raising flour </span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />250g butter </span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />350g soft or dark brown sugar </span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />1 egg </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/2 shot glass of cognac (or milk or water) </span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />mixed spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg etc.)<br /><br /></span> Knead everything together into a smooth dough. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least one hour. Roll dough to a thickness of 1/2 in for crispy speculoos, or 2 in for soft speculoos and shape as desired. Bake at 170 - 200˚C, for about 5 to 10 minutes (burns easily).<br /><br />For this dessert I baked thin crispy rectangles of speculoos which I trimmed again after baking (the scraps mixed with coffee made a delicious spread for sweet sandwiches), but this recipe makes massive quantities of dough and, as my mum loves the thick soft speculoos, I baked a massive slab of that with the leftovers. Which disappeared in no time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">cinnamon ice cream </span><br /><br />Find any basic ice cream recipe and infuse milk or cream with cinnamon sticks when heating it. (sneaky, I know, but my old basic recipe doesn't really cut it. Not enough egg yolks I think)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">mandarine caramel </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">adapted from Claudia Fleming's Last Course</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/2 cup sugar</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/4 cup water</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/4 cup mandarine juice</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tbsp butter</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">mandarine segments</span><br /><br />combine water and sugar in saucepan and simmer until sugar dissolves (stir regularly). Raise heat and boil mixture until caramelised. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and fruit juice. Set over low heat and whisk until caramel is smooth. Let cool for at least 1 hour. Before serving, stir in mandarine segments (which I didn't have, so I just scattered my mandarine thingies over the plates).<br /><br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-6622694738619067332007-12-18T11:53:00.000+00:002007-12-21T12:01:08.013+00:00learning to like Brussels sprouts<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOj1n6b0Z2vSiqm7BLYFvAcwOgQqpuc-OmpsrTzP3jezAuJvfe3aqvtVXLbNpijPW5WEJibLrIBnJc2Zg2KaBGbsIz_Jqm3EfisLS-DpGBHeV-eDqaaGdJeu1bKfL83bboOaRXAEL0460/s1600-h/sproutsVC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOj1n6b0Z2vSiqm7BLYFvAcwOgQqpuc-OmpsrTzP3jezAuJvfe3aqvtVXLbNpijPW5WEJibLrIBnJc2Zg2KaBGbsIz_Jqm3EfisLS-DpGBHeV-eDqaaGdJeu1bKfL83bboOaRXAEL0460/s400/sproutsVC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5146393770868753138" border="0" /></a>Growing up, there was nothing I detested more than Brussels sprouts. Along with every other child in Belgium, it would seem. My dad would occasionally make them (boiled) and the house rules were such that I had to eat whatever was on the table. I usually got away with three sprouts – my brother even managed to get away with eating just the one.<br /><br />I felt the same about chicory and didn’t like the bitter taste of it at all, but it now is one of my favourite vegetables. Braised, or wrapped in ham with a cheesy béchamel sauce topped with breadcrumbs in the oven – I absolutely love chicory. And so I thought I owed it to myself to give Brussels sprouts another chance as well.<br /><br />Plus they keep on popping up everywhere: at my local market, in Christmas food magazine articles and on <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/goldencrusted-brussels-sprouts-recipe.html">various</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://orangette.blogspot.com/2006/12/best-thing-since-brussels-sprouts.html">blogs</a>. All of which was starting to make me feel like I was missing out on something. So I bought myself some sprouts and got a-cooking.<br /><br />I went with <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://orangette.blogspot.com/">Molly’s</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>recipe, because masses of butter, cream and brown bits are always a good thing in my book. In an ideal world I would have added some bacon as well, but I didn’t have any. And as for the result… I think I can learn to like Brussels sprouts. They probably won’t make it on my all time favourites list, but they certainly are off the yuk list. And for S, who still didn’t like them because ‘they still tasted of sprouts’ (even though he had to admit they didn’t taste as bad as he remembered from his childhood) I mixed them with potatoes into a wonderfully creamy mash the next day, which he did like.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">apologies for the awful picture, but the vanille & chocolat household has been extremely busy of late with hardly any time to cook, let alone take decent snaps (and of course I will continue to blame lack of decent daylight for the next few months)</span><br /></span><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-20647475439141383552007-12-12T11:47:00.000+00:002007-12-13T13:04:35.114+00:00lavender crème brulée - almost<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic;">SHF#38 the proof is in the pudding - with a Tartelette tutorial</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGus0hwJyA0vjHamsLjs5rWMdmTHx2a42EFbVVrQCPJXE4HjtuGft5uN4FhNArAxKUyRbAK4yI5a9lNRMsHO3KgOrhrsQKf-qzFDnv3QszwxO3O-DuFuMIcaYVir37xms6sqKZQ3Z0ny8/s1600-h/lavender4VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGus0hwJyA0vjHamsLjs5rWMdmTHx2a42EFbVVrQCPJXE4HjtuGft5uN4FhNArAxKUyRbAK4yI5a9lNRMsHO3KgOrhrsQKf-qzFDnv3QszwxO3O-DuFuMIcaYVir37xms6sqKZQ3Z0ny8/s400/lavender4VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143052122384114258" border="0" /></a>It's been ages since I participated in <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.domesticgoddess.ca/pages.php?page=10002">Sugar High Friday</a>, and this month's theme - <span style="font-weight: bold;">the proof is in the pudding</span> - chosen by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Zorra</span> of <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/4494853/">Kochtopf</a>, is just up my street. Also, for my birthday way back in September my auntie gave me a nifty little blowtorch (and she even smuggled a can of gas lighter refill stuff to go with it in her luggage on Eurostar!). Which, shame on me, I hadn't used yet. Although S had a jolly good time playing around with the torch already. What can I say: boys, gadgets, and flames - an irresistible combination.<br /><br />Crème brulée was on Kochtopf's approved pudding list, so crème brulée it would be. Somehow it's one of those things I've never made before, even though it seems dead simple. Maybe because it's I'm not utterly crazy about it - to me, there seems to be something not quite right about a fridge-cold dessert with a piping hot crust on top - or maybe it's because I had a few bad versions in the past, one of which made me really sick.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4v7Ya9At9YeCf4pQsQsO0f6BpXhYZ7u2aQ5hyphenhyphen8KT1pWBvHI0iBSWV6oQZGBQbNu6cTQwLHZnBNAi1f833rIUYcViRHuzfVLmZIXY-4K9AxtXV645l7_CAUi5k0N9glGriD9Cfeag5bRw/s1600-h/lavender3VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4v7Ya9At9YeCf4pQsQsO0f6BpXhYZ7u2aQ5hyphenhyphen8KT1pWBvHI0iBSWV6oQZGBQbNu6cTQwLHZnBNAi1f833rIUYcViRHuzfVLmZIXY-4K9AxtXV645l7_CAUi5k0N9glGriD9Cfeag5bRw/s400/lavender3VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143052126679081570" border="0" /></a>Anyways, I decided it was high time to put my little blowtorch to good use, finally use that lavender I still had lying around, and give crème brulée a go. The recipe I used was a Claudia Fleming one and very easy to make: basically a custard, which is then baked in the oven in a water bath covered with pierced aluminium foil. I was a bit nervous about the bain-marie - all the other times I tried similar things were complete disasters; whatever I put in there would completely boil over. And this time was no different. Luckily the cremes were not completely ruined and still salvageable. And they still tasted quite nice, so not all was lost. I was stumped though, and in need of professional advice. And who better to turn to then the one and only <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://tartelette.blogspot.com/">Tartelette</a>! Who, very kindly, answered my questions and suddenly things seemed very clear.<br /><br />Turns out that my crème brulée wasn't exactly crème brulée, more like a set custard with a layer of sugar over the top. See, you're not supposed to thicken the custard on the stove, which I did - you just pour the hot cream over the beaten egg yolks with sugar, let that mixture cool, skim off the foam on top and bake au-bain-marie. The water bath distributes the heat evenly and gently to the custard so that the eggs don't curdle. It is also a bit more forgiving if you let them cook a little bit longer than necessary. Tartelette top tip number one: 'check for that tiny giggle in the middle and remove them before they are completely done'.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_QTHJNIcnCrRziuM8YDnMa5Y3_4ATV8VRmj2DVvBfznzB8tkplz9ubJiuQPJ_YxZjl5M7_MA-NT3rz0WMfQ5po85Ie2tVfuHCYu0dsSD0K9B93IHFaNhZQNtHMZh3zaGm0RGPGtenW0/s1600-h/lavender2VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_QTHJNIcnCrRziuM8YDnMa5Y3_4ATV8VRmj2DVvBfznzB8tkplz9ubJiuQPJ_YxZjl5M7_MA-NT3rz0WMfQ5po85Ie2tVfuHCYu0dsSD0K9B93IHFaNhZQNtHMZh3zaGm0RGPGtenW0/s400/lavender2VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143052139563983474" border="0" /></a>Then there was that issue of my custards 'boiling over'. Enter Tartelette top tip number two: 'I am thinking the steam and heat created by the foil makes the cremes boil over. Also if you whisk your eggs too vigourously they will have a tendency to foam up a lot and create a soufflé motion.' and whisk vigourously I sure did. Funny how I almost never succeed in turning out a good soufflé, except when I'm trying to make a crème brulée.<br /><br />And to finish her tutorial, Helen threw in a basic crème brulée recipe for free! Thanks so much for your advice, Helen. It is much appreciated and I will certainly give it one more try before I throw in the towel. If only because S would like to have another go playing around with that blow torch...<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-79147209117214726792007-12-04T21:16:00.000+00:002007-12-05T12:04:50.570+00:00design dessert<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-rTIH14Bhujeif9dd8BCLSnRvAGao6yPJ-Xt_ok49T-LouJOd1I5zZvZ234RHgD9vOpt_yShIYVAWqy9ilm8Jne8efOBLTDyU8sRtvxASMnivNni9OnopJMDbXvoD_wfIU8tzxfu5-TY/s1600-h/sweetpotato2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-rTIH14Bhujeif9dd8BCLSnRvAGao6yPJ-Xt_ok49T-LouJOd1I5zZvZ234RHgD9vOpt_yShIYVAWqy9ilm8Jne8efOBLTDyU8sRtvxASMnivNni9OnopJMDbXvoD_wfIU8tzxfu5-TY/s400/sweetpotato2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140438489545030258" border="0" /></a>Last weekend I finally got around to doing something with the sweet potatoes I'd had lying around for way too long - I don't use sweet potatoes all that often and all the lovely Thanksgiving posts I've been reading everywhere made me itch to try something new. I browsed through my cookbooks, thought about adapting and combining different recipes and was determined not to get myself into a <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/05/shf-31-shades-of-white.html">catch-22</a> situation, where I end up making nothing at all because I'm unable to choose from all the possible dishes.<br /><br />Also, I wanted to challenge myself a bit: I have a few cookbooks with complex dessert recipes, consisting of several components and looking oh so beautiful. Which I never get around to making, exactly because they're so complex. Not difficult - just a lot of work. Invariably, you need a gazillion different ingredients for all the parts, so it takes half a day doing the preliminary grocery shopping, another half day to make everything and when you're finished, the kitchen looks like a battlefield. And then, of course, just when you sigh and think 'that was ok', you take a last look at the recipe and you find that, under 'assembly' or 'presentation', a few more components and some complicated garnishes are thrown in for good measure.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9iR99VoDvnulp8-M1wbzwJ9fx7Ko4uCPIWBUliczEvQxdwgV7pjO3Vdu6FRFjWk2wLDy9yq1EKjH1eK6vm1S70rXnAf5zoCUkRvyaXyQmNX99fX1gEE67ukuxzEbXxybT_rch8iH2pYw/s1600-h/sweetpotato3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9iR99VoDvnulp8-M1wbzwJ9fx7Ko4uCPIWBUliczEvQxdwgV7pjO3Vdu6FRFjWk2wLDy9yq1EKjH1eK6vm1S70rXnAf5zoCUkRvyaXyQmNX99fX1gEE67ukuxzEbXxybT_rch8iH2pYw/s400/sweetpotato3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140438493839997570" border="0" /></a>So I often end up making just one component, rather than the whole dessert. Which tastes nice and looks fine, but not spectacular. And sometimes, you know, a girl just wants to show off and make something that looks as if it came out of a restaurant kitchen. This girl does anyway.<br /><br />And so here it is, my first show-off (but no sweat) dessert: sweet potato and white chocolate flan on a gingersnap crust, sweet potato gnocchi and coconut custard, all flavoured with sweet massala spices. Very easy to make, because it doesn't use a million different ingredients, and looks like a million dollars. Just one warning: pretend you don't know how much butter goes into the whole thing.<br /><br />Also, because the flan squares tasted rather nice all by themselves and because - in my mind anyway - the sweet potato thing has a decidedly American feel to it (plus they are not too showy by themselves and won't upstage a brand new house) I'm taking them to <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2007/11/12/home-is-where-the-heart-is/">Peabody's housewarming party</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFt5rgYtq7RKvewDx1q9xB4qAmbPevOQsqMx1vhJnKZNyK1_EwFWz_GY-bfP0zCU_qnB9YeCQ2H_2EGIyJPbl3n5xNq7tueuzt5KlfKbKwm8Totn19rEFCfKGClDqP_0yHJpnWWkpAjVw/s1600-h/sweetpotato1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFt5rgYtq7RKvewDx1q9xB4qAmbPevOQsqMx1vhJnKZNyK1_EwFWz_GY-bfP0zCU_qnB9YeCQ2H_2EGIyJPbl3n5xNq7tueuzt5KlfKbKwm8Totn19rEFCfKGClDqP_0yHJpnWWkpAjVw/s400/sweetpotato1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140438480955095650" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />sweet potato flan squares</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">inspired by D & C Duby's Wild Sweets </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">100g roasted and mashed sweet potatoes</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">100g crushed gingersnaps (by all means, make them yourself if you want, but store-bought will do just fine)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">195g + 25g butter</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">130g white chocolate</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">3 eggs</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">80 caster sugar</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tsp vanilla bean extract</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tsp sweet massala spices</span><br /><br />line a baking tin (I used a 20 cm square one) with baking paper, making sure it the sides of the tin are covered as well. Melt 25g butter, mix with the crushed gingersnaps and spread evenly on the bottom of the tin. Melt butter with chocolate (I used the microwave, in 30 second bursts). Combine sweet potatoes with eggs, sugar, vanilla and massala, then fold in the chocolate mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Pour mixture over gingersnap base and bake in oven (150˚C) for 30 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">sweet potato gnocchi</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">inspired by Hidemi Sugino The Dessert Book</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">125g roasted and mashed sweet potatoes</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">50g plain flour</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/3 whole egg</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tbsp coconut milk </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">caster sugar with pinch of sweet massala spices</span><br /><br />combine all ingredients in mixing bowl until incorporated. Cover bowl and leave to rest in fridge for at least one hour. Flour work surface and roll dough into a log, about 1 inch diametre. Cut into half inch cubes and cook in boiling water (they are ready when they float). Coat in massala sugar mix.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">coconut custard</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">adapted from </span><a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/11/vanilla-custard.html">here</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 1/2 cups coconut milk</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tbsp cornstarch</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">3 egg yolks, beaten</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tsp vanilla bean paste</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tsp sweet massala spices</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/6 cup sugar</span><br /><br />Combine 1/4 cup coconut milk and cornstarch in a bowl and blend until smooth. Whisk in yolks, beating until smooth. Combine rest of coconut milk, vanilla, massala and sugar in a saucepan and carefully bring to a boil. When the mixture just boils, whisk a ladleful into egg mixture to temper it, then whisk this back into the cream mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour into jug and cool.<br /><br />To assemble: dust flan squares with icing sugar, add a few gnocchi and a drizzle of custard.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-837006574221862072007-11-26T10:26:00.000+00:002007-11-26T16:22:22.486+00:00potato bread<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjypaSZwGseNdAB_oDqqmEIY1ZGArtFYSzZusvNQkJ99jgeHhNIFf5U7Ecgisn-4sd1UMbbGfAy6xt2_iDDjpuv9RLWzArXEeajgyWy0cSQJ3o2qqngEUziC_LYCOBoweskno3thIj5OCY/s1600-h/bread.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjypaSZwGseNdAB_oDqqmEIY1ZGArtFYSzZusvNQkJ99jgeHhNIFf5U7Ecgisn-4sd1UMbbGfAy6xt2_iDDjpuv9RLWzArXEeajgyWy0cSQJ3o2qqngEUziC_LYCOBoweskno3thIj5OCY/s400/bread.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137184999967884978" border="0" /></a>Another month has flown past, which means it's time for another Daring Bakers' challenge. This month, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tanna</span> of <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://web.mac.com/tannajones/My_Kitchen_In_Half_Cups...Second_Helping_/My_Kitchen_in_Half_Cups...Second_Helping/My_Kitchen_in_Half_Cups...Second_Helping.html">My Kitchen In Half Cups</a> chose <span style="font-weight: bold;">potato bread</span> - you'll find the recipe on her blog. As usual, I left it to the last minute to start baking, but this weekend was the only weekend this month I actually spent in my own home. One weekend I had to work, another weekend there was an interesting symposium, and last weekend S and I were in Antwerp, showing 'our' city to two friends, doing touristy things, and of course sampling lots of chocolate and beer. Such a hard job, playing tour guide!<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />When I told S I'd be making potato bread, he went 'seriously, potato bread? Why? Not so sure about that'. But by the time I switched off the oven and had him taste one of the rolls, he was singing an entirely different tune. And then... I told him he couldn't eat any more of it until the next day, because I wanted to take a decent daylight photograph. Which I couldn't take at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, because it gets dark ridiculously early these days (yes, I will probably keep complaining about this until, oh, April or so). We couldn't resist though, which is why the focaccia (brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, black pepper and rosemary from my garden) is mysteriously absent in the pics. We ate it all while watching Star Trek - it didn't survive Captain Picard's mission of the day and didn't live to see real daylight.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZZ7Ysmquk6W8Dib7fUsf9xkstnfvSsZ3Dyqf9K7Zbbbi7UKLXyYS7snyEhBjfQBjfU2HM0xKxKrgfcfnrQ_WMGSfXuMNaspVR_O7JcqKBMAF2KRzCcy0qE-0eR4CTj4iUGqJvnKrNv8/s1600-h/bread2VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZZ7Ysmquk6W8Dib7fUsf9xkstnfvSsZ3Dyqf9K7Zbbbi7UKLXyYS7snyEhBjfQBjfU2HM0xKxKrgfcfnrQ_WMGSfXuMNaspVR_O7JcqKBMAF2KRzCcy0qE-0eR4CTj4iUGqJvnKrNv8/s400/bread2VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137091318141224546" border="0" /></a>I often bake bread at weekends - it's just so much better than the stuff you can buy here, at least you know what goes in it, and you won't get a heart attack or break your tongue when trying to pronounce all the ingredients in pre-packed breads. I'd never tried potato bread though. And one thing I can now say: when you make potato bread, make sure you have someone at hand to flour the work surface and scrape the dough together because, boy, is this a sticky bugger!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3K_g7kxStZkDO1F_GjLJfoBhERXAIwtK3VQED0AkLC3p_Xoy1kQHwH4VnA2UroS_ewsopmuEe_NeZt4wgHSuh28kmWG65v5zEJkp2-gLBKJ3cAZ7EjFEo-WVpV21naz3c3ksjCnByoaI/s1600-h/bread3VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3K_g7kxStZkDO1F_GjLJfoBhERXAIwtK3VQED0AkLC3p_Xoy1kQHwH4VnA2UroS_ewsopmuEe_NeZt4wgHSuh28kmWG65v5zEJkp2-gLBKJ3cAZ7EjFEo-WVpV21naz3c3ksjCnByoaI/s400/bread3VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137091322436191858" border="0" /></a>This month I've been a good daring baker and stuck to the recipe. Well, almost stuck to the recipe, but no major cheating this time. I added the butter to the mashed potatoes instead of later on, because I didn't think I'd get the butter to distribute evenly otherwise. And I skipped the second rise for half of the bread: I forgot to buy fresh yeast, so had to make do with the dried, instant, fast-action stuff, which only needs to rise once (you knead your dough, shape it, let it rise and then put it straight in the oven). In the past, I have tried two rises with this yeast, but without success: after the first rise and re-kneading the dough it wouldn't rise again, resulting in a rather dense and heavy bread. There was plenty of dough to go around though, so I put half in a rectangular bread tin and plonked that in the oven straight after the first rise. The other half I reworked into smaller bread thingies and left for a second rise, ready to put in the oven after my first bread came out. And, this time, both methods worked equally fine.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUn1nYS-8WZ3NvZMSB0-AUDAg9p2-iimmGnUQKbbeOjq0DS8l35Rgap_ldt0fn_4gs6ijf37idgKrZpn9q_w8D346A2m9_16xLhtwksu9x_5U5deoeGMgZrmRgnDD5EZ3n86W8Xv28ROY/s1600-h/bread4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUn1nYS-8WZ3NvZMSB0-AUDAg9p2-iimmGnUQKbbeOjq0DS8l35Rgap_ldt0fn_4gs6ijf37idgKrZpn9q_w8D346A2m9_16xLhtwksu9x_5U5deoeGMgZrmRgnDD5EZ3n86W8Xv28ROY/s400/bread4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137091326731159170" border="0" /></a>Like I said, the dough is incredibly sticky - after the 5 cups of flour specified in the recipe, the dough is nowhere near dough-y enough to turn it out onto a floured work surface. But, following the instructions to a t, that's exactly what I did (I am a bit blonde sometimes). and that's also when having an S on stand-by came in incredibly handy. He kept on adding flour until my blob became a workable, silky smooth, elastic dough, out of which I got a loaf, a piece of focaccia and some rolls I sprinkled with sesame seeds, and cumin seeds.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA30eu8ZJ0yPIlXbfv0tTXJ1M5gm_WcoBfTqcIUS9RIKBQBlpG5z4TQFhNZxR0hdzDfl3ANmUxKu17So7yI8Z8E0UHyZB9ccVwv44wD8XI5oCNsIZU4xrTx_z9vfRXDwE1CEuy8zrvWZM/s1600-h/pink_db.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA30eu8ZJ0yPIlXbfv0tTXJ1M5gm_WcoBfTqcIUS9RIKBQBlpG5z4TQFhNZxR0hdzDfl3ANmUxKu17So7yI8Z8E0UHyZB9ccVwv44wD8XI5oCNsIZU4xrTx_z9vfRXDwE1CEuy8zrvWZM/s400/pink_db.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137093169272129186" border="0" /></a>Even if I say so myself, this was one of the best breads I've ever baked, and S wholeheartedly agreed. The taste took him right back to his childhood, because it tasted exactly like the 'ovenkoeken' he would eat at a local harvest festival. I will certainly bake this again - but next time I might try it the other way around. Usually when I bake bread I start with flour and add a liquid gradually, however this recipe started with 'potato water' to which flour is added - rather strange and more difficult I think. But the end result was more than worth it.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlbGqLkGdQ3CwkakTnlwKu03EV2TYJowwvgy_vubyDBofRhDIjkqcBPfOC5W_sJ_r8k1IGzkZFkRiJhWIZXNRr5EfxczNsw9IZqUyik-2zdDbRnJOuIFOmvcjs0JSrqe3mdsnK-jpzDe0/s1600-h/bread5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlbGqLkGdQ3CwkakTnlwKu03EV2TYJowwvgy_vubyDBofRhDIjkqcBPfOC5W_sJ_r8k1IGzkZFkRiJhWIZXNRr5EfxczNsw9IZqUyik-2zdDbRnJOuIFOmvcjs0JSrqe3mdsnK-jpzDe0/s400/bread5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5137091331026126482" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">random pic of dead stuff in my garden</span></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Check out all the other Daring Bakers' potato breads <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com/">here</a>.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-46199380676092538362007-11-18T16:47:00.000+00:002007-11-19T22:49:10.986+00:00sweets for Diwali<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRr5PKohhoWWarm0Rg4q_CRt_W1VQveg5K5Kj3WIuL38FmkDyVaMepH6a9wT3jn4lR0s9oujrIDE7htxO1raCACa3-6XnsYp4zpTkU68Enz6skt9NeKmWc5V-irzQbjKuIsY9kCEtQ3f8/s1600-h/spices4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRr5PKohhoWWarm0Rg4q_CRt_W1VQveg5K5Kj3WIuL38FmkDyVaMepH6a9wT3jn4lR0s9oujrIDE7htxO1raCACa3-6XnsYp4zpTkU68Enz6skt9NeKmWc5V-irzQbjKuIsY9kCEtQ3f8/s400/spices4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134685783495831266" border="0" /></a>Diwali was actually celebrated on the 9th of November this year so I’m an entire week late, but I’m sure <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh">Ganesha’s</a> appetite for sweets is the same all year around. And as for <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi">Lakshmi</a> (even though she’s a tough cookie – my friend’s words, not mine), surely my rice pudding is sweet enough to sway her.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali">Diwali</a>, the festival of lights, is celebrated big in the area where I live, with lots of fireworks. My friends who celebrate it make sure their house is spic ‘n span clean from top to bottom, in anticipation of Ganesha and Lakshmi’s visit. These Hindu deities bestow wealth, success and happiness, but only upon clean households. In addition to all the cleaning, there are also sweets. Lots of them.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_9zo9v3era9bVys1mSLls05Mpe28qd2wjyoMS7iwypWchIqGeq-UjmXMLjYX19AyowzN7uyocjbJ82PypEMOmko2Fwlt1WnMPMg_f1LkGIb7ow8znD28rth-iFhSeAaepc1jcjifbHE/s1600-h/spices6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_9zo9v3era9bVys1mSLls05Mpe28qd2wjyoMS7iwypWchIqGeq-UjmXMLjYX19AyowzN7uyocjbJ82PypEMOmko2Fwlt1WnMPMg_f1LkGIb7ow8znD28rth-iFhSeAaepc1jcjifbHE/s400/spices6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134685787790798578" border="0" /></a>Now why would I be celebrating Diwali - blonde Belgians and Indian festivals, surely that’s a strange mix? Well, blame my friend S, a crazy (in a lovely way crazy) Mauritian girl, from Indian descent. She not only decided that I was going to be half Indian, but also introduced me to Bollywood music and films, textiles, henna, and of course Indian sweets. Which, with all their spices, are absolutely perfect for this time of year. And after restraining myself with the custard last week, I was itching to make something else with a mix of heart-warming spices.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqSeGBYMdJ0PW4zYV0iPp_n_pIqcebKP4tQP2MiLK9SKhasKIkLurXPutpgNBX0_0QD8Xfghqsx_je27DXgpVeuO8Tr5ymC6aVZLmJYxNNezy-avf53QVrZV8lRBCZoEox7Nvyb5vNHU/s1600-h/spices2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqSeGBYMdJ0PW4zYV0iPp_n_pIqcebKP4tQP2MiLK9SKhasKIkLurXPutpgNBX0_0QD8Xfghqsx_je27DXgpVeuO8Tr5ymC6aVZLmJYxNNezy-avf53QVrZV8lRBCZoEox7Nvyb5vNHU/s400/spices2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134685779200863954" border="0" /></a>Many moons ago I made <span style="font-style: italic;">gajjar ka halwa</span> (carrot halwa) – an extremely sweet dessert with grated carrots and lots of cream, butter and milk – which was delicious but took me an entire afternoon to make, and I just didn’t have that much time on my hands. <span style="font-style: italic;">Ras malai</span> is my absolute favourite – it’s a sort of milk curd ball in sweetened milk with pistachios and rose water – but I have absolutely no idea how to make that myself. And so I thought I’d give <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://chocolat-vanille.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-granny-rocks.html">my gran’s rice pudding</a> a go.<br /><br />A bit nerve-racking, considering her rice pudding is heaven on a plate (and that’s a lot to live up to!), and also a bit of a challenge, with the vague instructions she gave me. It turns out her vague instructions are absolutely spot on though, there’s no way to make them any clearer. Gran only adds saffron to her rice pudding, but I added a bunch of spices. Other than that, I stuck to her ‘recipe’. And the result? A very Flemish dessert, with an Indian twist.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIK3YdLify_CFVaXKTXNbI-jAHblsjBzk0i-uYGk_XVRKtQLuvP4ZOsFI1-IQkwT-D-IbMB4vt49lb94LI_JlP1IlOEcNexDCuYi9lhXpHi1NXqkFTizBsd1YUDlByk3b5HhyeRabE2mM/s1600-h/spices1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIK3YdLify_CFVaXKTXNbI-jAHblsjBzk0i-uYGk_XVRKtQLuvP4ZOsFI1-IQkwT-D-IbMB4vt49lb94LI_JlP1IlOEcNexDCuYi9lhXpHi1NXqkFTizBsd1YUDlByk3b5HhyeRabE2mM/s400/spices1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134685774905896642" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">recipe</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 cup of rice (I used Arborio, but any rice that is suitable for risotto will do)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">a knob of butter</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">full fat milk (about 1 litre)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">a squeeze of honey</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">half a stick of cinnamon</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">a pinch of saffron</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 star anise</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">5 cloves</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">3 cardamom pods</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">a pinch of nutmeg</span><br /><br />Melt some butter in a saucepan, add rice to pan and make sure it is coated with butter. Add enough milk to cover rice and add all the spices. Keep on stirring and adding milk (I added a tiny squeeze of honey halfway through) until the rice is soft, about 45 minutes.<br /><br />It’s basically like making a risotto, so it takes some dedication, but the results are more than worth it. The spices I listed are the quantities I used, but you can of course adapt according to preference (S tasted and said it was ok, but he thought the star anise was too overwhelming), add some cream instead of only milk, and sweeten it as much or as little as you like.<br /><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2188422504749742968.post-66257112544785568482007-11-10T15:22:00.000+00:002007-11-12T18:11:05.624+00:00vanilla custard<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUC2ysk-eDgLyzuqKBVUoydu9P8ADVSoGfG1S4k-MA0oKyniEnMV7ahHKG3iyBkDJD5nmJFZwDrFTSa9-TlIR6Z0YjGwQh8GG7cs0Y3wCaHyr8RAm8l7JK8C30VAvWyH0TvuxD1RxgAR8/s1600-h/polkadotVC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUC2ysk-eDgLyzuqKBVUoydu9P8ADVSoGfG1S4k-MA0oKyniEnMV7ahHKG3iyBkDJD5nmJFZwDrFTSa9-TlIR6Z0YjGwQh8GG7cs0Y3wCaHyr8RAm8l7JK8C30VAvWyH0TvuxD1RxgAR8/s400/polkadotVC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5132013827519457186" border="0" /></a>After reading all the comments on my last post (the cheating-custard one) saying how easy and quick the custard was to make from scratch and how delicious it was, and a ticking-off from the one and only <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://tartelette.blogspot.com/">Tartelette</a>, I shamed myself into making the custard part of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bostini Cream Pie</span> Daring Baker challenge. Which, indeed, took about fifteen minutes or so to make, was incredibly easy, didn't curdle at all, thickened within a minute and was utterly delicious.<br /><br />I was of course tempted to add a twist to it - I was thinking cinnamon, cardamom and maybe star anise - but I know that S loves his custard good ole' plain vanilla. And since he had volunteered to make a lovely Sunday roast (and also because I love him and like to make him happy), I decided to stick to vanilla. When the custard had thickened I called S over to the kitchen and said 'look what I made'. His eyes lit up and I didn't have to ask him twice if he wanted to scrape every last bit of the custard out of the pan and lick the whisk.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCpSo_UlEdtYIoa2HwsqBvWyceA8R5A5YP7GYVV15r2YDq3pGHv8swy_tRXOwU-KxtngGdxaru_8CT-zjxxiorRfGn7f6g1a6gscMV4KHLgnxccY-ELkI2fXY7EziiYGVa1IV3N_LUWM/s1600-h/custards.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCpSo_UlEdtYIoa2HwsqBvWyceA8R5A5YP7GYVV15r2YDq3pGHv8swy_tRXOwU-KxtngGdxaru_8CT-zjxxiorRfGn7f6g1a6gscMV4KHLgnxccY-ELkI2fXY7EziiYGVa1IV3N_LUWM/s400/custards.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5132013367957956482" border="0" /></a>Luckily I had started early enough in the day so that I could still get a decent daylight picture of my custards - unlike the nuclear looking pics in my last post. I probably should have done something fancy with the custard, saucing it over a decadent chocolate cake or something to that effect, but that would mean I'd have to bake a chocolate cake as well, and by the time that would be ready it would be dark, resulting in more fluorescent looking food. Plus there is something quite comforting about vanilla custard all by itself and so, after the pics, S and I dug straight in.<br /><br />S of course loved it but I needed a lie-down afterwards, it was so heavy. Couldn't move for half an hour. Even S had to agree that, yummy though it was, it was a bit too creamy to eat by itself - next time I might substitute all that cream with milk. It would have made a perfect sauce for a Bostini Cream Pie though.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPkcMA64KMruejxm25DSFlwdNbxgsv6VlAOklKVNCnl0X5vjOk1IqtfAGlnuhuqKGRg3k1u0dju69nJCS_k6bZ1bnqBTUBGXu3nYAHM0aJ_capzwQVG6P-VqZXau_iT7m542R0wBjbLk/s1600-h/Pottekes_VC.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPkcMA64KMruejxm25DSFlwdNbxgsv6VlAOklKVNCnl0X5vjOk1IqtfAGlnuhuqKGRg3k1u0dju69nJCS_k6bZ1bnqBTUBGXu3nYAHM0aJ_capzwQVG6P-VqZXau_iT7m542R0wBjbLk/s400/Pottekes_VC.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5132013874764097458" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">recipe</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">adapted from </span><a style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" href="http://alpineberry.blogspot.com/2007/10/whole-lot-of-eggs.html">Alpineberry</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/4 cup whole milk </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tablespoons cornstarch </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">3egg yolks, beaten </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 tsp vanilla bean paste </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1/6 cup sugar </span><br /><br />Combine milk and cornstarch in a bowl and blend until smooth. Whisk in and yolks, beating until smooth. Combine cream, vanilla and sugar in a saucepan and carefully bring to a boil. When the mixture just boils, whisk a ladleful into egg mixture to temper it, then whisk this back into the cream mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour into cups and refrigerate to chill. Delicious with chocolate sprinkles. <br /><br />p.s. <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://bakemyday.blogspot.com/">Baking Soda</a> is only forgiving me for cheating with custard if I send her over some of that Japanese dinner our friends made us. You'll have to make do with a virtual treat, Baking Soda, I hope that's enough. And for good measure, I'll throw in a few pics of our lovely weekend in the country.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_K55s-tHm9EaWN00FFBWGmWPMZdr8CEu3F_pTU_GZGPLSO0kwNxdraOjfruE16hijCuyzZJNPBb61GOfiEAKIIGZa35WjSOMVmBUgheoncp1x_cI5LAZt9TjuvJHOL3dWbFG_89ejkI/s1600-h/JapaneseFood_VC.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_K55s-tHm9EaWN00FFBWGmWPMZdr8CEu3F_pTU_GZGPLSO0kwNxdraOjfruE16hijCuyzZJNPBb61GOfiEAKIIGZa35WjSOMVmBUgheoncp1x_cI5LAZt9TjuvJHOL3dWbFG_89ejkI/s400/JapaneseFood_VC.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5132013415202596754" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">sushi rice with salmon flakes, green beans and egg ribbon;<br />stew with minced meat, potatoes, onions, carrots and okra, with pickles;<br />French beans with black sesame<br /></span></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirfIwFw_EHZk7SUydUh_6zy7YW9Tkoacm_5zt6TypkkDRFdoPn6Dwa4LxBAo3OQlRgZAspIP1VFOYvLarUGzK-IPAt4G_L3yeTK8luXds_JYbQZgTHQrcI6PEQ1WKvlqIlH7d-te120Q0/s1600-h/Countryside_VC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirfIwFw_EHZk7SUydUh_6zy7YW9Tkoacm_5zt6TypkkDRFdoPn6Dwa4LxBAo3OQlRgZAspIP1VFOYvLarUGzK-IPAt4G_L3yeTK8luXds_JYbQZgTHQrcI6PEQ1WKvlqIlH7d-te120Q0/s400/Countryside_VC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5132013015770638194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">countryside - you know, a place outside the M25, with real trees and fresh air<br /></span></span></div><br /></div>Innehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14822393890666142460noreply@blogger.com6