Just to make you all jealous.

I made blackberry and lemon cupcakes at the end of last week. I didn’t take photos as I went, but I *did* take photos of the completed cakes. So, without further ado, I present cake:

They turned out super well, no?

Simple curry thingie

Hello!

Last night I made a butternut squash, baby sweetcorn and chicken red thai curry thingie. And because a) it was pretty good and b) I remembered to take pics, I’ve turned it into a blog post too!

I  had some chicken in the freezer, not much, that needed using (the use by date was September. I know that frozen stuff lasts longer, but in this house we are very prone to pushing that beyond any boundary that freezing respects, and the chicken needed some creative editing to get rid of the freezerburn. oops) and some lovely nearly dead  butternut squash – more creative editing. I really like things made with red curry paste, and yes, I buy it in rather than making it myself because really, it’s nearly as good and takes a lot less time and is much more reliable in terms of not blowing your head off with chilli or being bland.

Anyway. Ingredients:

Here we have the red onion and ginger, butternut squash and baby sweetcorn, and some rehydrating kaffir lime leaf. Need to find a better way to deal with lime leaf, as I didn’t feel it added enough to this dish. I love the flavour of kaffir lime, but I think maybe I need a source of fresh leaves. Hmmm.

 

 

Soften the onion and ginger in a bit of oil – olive oil is the standard for me, but only because I keep it next to the cooker. If i kept all the oil together in the cupboard, I might pick my oil more appropriately. Once the onion is softened a bit, add the kaffir lime leaf, and then a HUGE big spoonful of red curry paste. I should have added more.

Get the onion and ginger well soaked in the curry paste, heat the whole lot up till your kitchen fills up with that yummy scent of hot curry paste.

 

 

 

And then you add your veg. I let it fry away for a minute or two then chucked in a bit of water – I find that you can’t really cook butternut squash all the way through in anything less than about an hour, unless you add water. Brought it up to a boil and then… duh duh DUUUUUH, added coconut milk.

So it looks nice, and pale, and yaddah yaddah should definitely have added some more paste, too late now because too much moisture and it won’t cook out properly and oh BLAH. But actually, not a major disaster. Just a bit less fiery than I had intended. Different balance of flavours. Which I exacerbated by adding a handful of fine slivers of sour mango, which is my new favourite ingredient. Amazing flavour.

I had a load of very thin asparagus, and half a red pepper that needed eating. So I sliced the pepper up and halved (lengthwise) each asparagus. Very pretty and also very yummy.

When I chucked in the asparagus, I also added the chicken. Didn’t want that to cook for too long, and the rice (a mix of wild rice and basmati rice) was steaming away and only had about 9 or 10  minutes to go. At this stage, it all smelled fantastic, and the squash was nicely cooked through, just giving in to the point of my knife, with enough texture left to not fall apart.

And that was it, on the plate. A big handful of chopped coriander stirred through the curry, freshly steamed rice, a noseful of fragrant steam… Once again, silence of appreciation during dinner, and cleared plates all round.

One post a month is better than none in 2 years, right?

… I haven’t been on here in so long that it’s all changed!

… And now I’m confused. oh dear.

Let’s hope that this return to blogging makes more sense than the new layout did at first glance.

Last night’s dinner was a saffron and butternut squash risotto, and it turned out beautifully. In part due to the practice I’ve been getting – I have lost count of Risottos I Have Made – and in part due to re-reading Felicity Cloake’s http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/may/06/how-to-make-perfect-risotto

It’s not even so much the articles that make my mouth water. The comments usually provide so much more inspiration, and many many tips. So, riffing off that set of comments, I decided that last night would mark my return to blog-preparation. And of course now, it’s all much easier because of tools like dropbox, and the fact that my phone takes a jolly good photo, and there’s no faffing about trying to up or download the pictures. So. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

And actually, I’m not really beginning at the beginning, because I didn’t even think about it until I’d already done the chopping and putting the butternut squash in the oven, but when I did remember, I was here:

  Olive oil, saffron and finely diced onion. No point making a risotto if you’re not going to chop your onion properly. And all that nonsense about being able to get plenty of colour and flavour out of your saffron if you use 2 strands… well. As I say, nonsense. I tend to use a fair ol’ pinch of the stuff, because that way you’re guaranteed to get colour. So yes. Expensive, but worth every penny.

 

 

 

The next step is to add the rice – the recipes I’ve seen always seem to suggest rather more rice than is necessary – 100g per person is ok if you’re having a very plain risotto, but if you’re adding protein or, oh, say, butternut squash, then I tend to think 70g per person is enough. Unless you’re really really hungry. Anyway, so you add the rice to the softened onion, and heat it thoroughly – the rice will begin to become translucent at the edges, and when you add the good glass of white wine, it’ll go sizzle. If it doesn’t sizzle, you didn’t heat it enough and I don’t know how it’ll turn out.

 

Butternut squash. This was marinaded for a bit in a mix of olive oil, paprika, chilli flakes (only a very few), oregana (not even half a teaspoon) and black pepper. Then I heated the roasting tin in the oven with a bit of oil, same as you would for a yorkshire pud, and chucked in the squash when the tin was good and hot. I do think it made quite a bit of a difference. so I’ll definitely would take the time to do that again.

 

 

I love this stage of risotto making. The attention it requires, the opportunity to focus entirely on the one thing, the activity with purpose… It all adds up to make me feel  like I’m doing something that will be worth the reward of the finished article, ready to eat. So when the wine has been absorbed, and your risotto kind of sits where you’ve put it in the pan, you add a ladle full of nice stock. I’ve essentially abandoned stock cubes entirely, because they all seem to contain a) too much damn salt and  b) palm oil, which I’m generally trying very hard to avoid. So a home made stock (gleaned from the bottom of the vegetable steamer and saved in either fridge or freezer) or, as in this case, a bought fresh chicken stock, is probably your best bet. You then have much more control over the salt content and the overall flavour, and all your risottos don’t wind up tasting ultimately stock-cubey.

This is my favourite way of getting garlic into the risotto – when you start heating your stock, add two or three cloves of garlic, peeled and with a deep cut through each one, to the pan. By the time you need the stock, the garlic will have been par-cooked and will have lost that mad garlic tang that leads to everyone apologising for their breath, and waking in the middle of the night thinking “oh, dear, garlic”, but will retain the sweetness that you get when you roast it. When you want the garlic, just use your knife-edge to cut it into smallish pieces, then use the blade sideways on to kind of smoosh it into a paste.

I really like to add mushroom slices to the top of my risotto – it brings a different texture and flavour, and also it just looks nice. So I very finely sliced 3 largish ordinary white mushrooms, and added them with some olive oil and seasoning to a hot pan – it can be a bit tricky to stop your mushrooms smoking, but I’ve found that even if the heat is too low and the begin to boil in their own juice, so long as they’re on the heat long enough, you still end up with yummy little morsels. These ones took about 20 minutes, probably.

 

The squash, by this time, should be cooked through – it was in at about 160 by my oven’s dial, and I forgot to check my oven thermometer, so I don’t know what it was actually at, but I’d guess between 180(celcius) and 200. A knife, judiciously poked in, didn’t stick or falter, so I took it out of the oven and just had it sit on the side. For once, I used some forethought and put it on an actual trivet, rather than leaving a mad hot pan on the side to cause bubbles or burns on the surface. Go team me!

 

At this point, the mushrooms were about ready, but the risotto was not – you can see there’s still a bit of stock left, and the rice wasn’t quite cooked through, so I just turned the gas off under the pan and left it where it was. I reheated them briefly just before serving, though, which worked beautifully.

 

 

 

Once the rice was very nearly done, I added the squash and the last ladleful of stock, and set the table – complete with wine glass… No point wasting the wine that I didn’t use in the food, after all…

 

I have been learning about this next stage – the mantecare bit. You add a big lump of butter and a good grating of proper parmesan – none of your pre-grated stuff, please. And then you beat seven shades of hell out of your risotto until it goes all glossy, and then you put the lid on and leave it for long enough to throw together a plainish salad – I used just leaves and a nice dressing – to serve with it. This is also when I gave the mushrooms a quick blast of heat.

 

And there you have it – Saffron and Butternut Squash Risotto with Mushrooms and Salad. Lots of additional black pepper to be ground over it, big glass of wine to swig with it, and Bob’s your uncle. I don’t have an uncle Bob, though.

This might be a bit of a recipe re-tread, but I don’t feel bad about that because it has been a ridiculous length of time since I last posted, and every risotto is different, and I  need to start off gently.

There will also be posts about crafts. And theatre. And I’m not committing to once a day posting. Maybe once a week. 😛 unless there’s a ridiculous clamour for posts…

 

 

why do they do it?

There is something horribly, massively distasteful to me in the appeals that murderers make. “come home, darling, we’re not angry”, they say, in the cameras, as they hope the police won’t find the body before they can abscond.

“i just miss my [insert degree of relationship here] and him/her back” they bleat.

and because so many of them have done it before, anyone who makes those pleas *instantly* comes under suspicion. and then we feel bad because really, what if that person is just hoping and praying that their youngster will come back home safe and sound.

and then, 2 days later, we all think to ourselves “see? i THOUGHT it was him/her. you can’t trust anyone who pleas for the return of their child/sibling/grandchild/neice etc on tv, can you”.

fucking cynicism is eating me alive.

Some thoughts.

I’ve been watching a lot of Olympic footage this week, so far. I’ve been enormously impressed by how smoothly things have seemed to run, and by how much all the athletes have given (let’s pretend that those badminton bods don’t really count, shall we, since they proved that they don’t really know what Olympic spirit is…) and I have so loved watching the successful British athletes – I’m not just talking about those who have won medals, although seriously, massively well done to those who have.

No, I’m talking about those who have kept their concentration through the ridiculously loud roars of the home crowd (more distracting than lifting on, I would think, in some disciplines), those who have dealt with their disappointments, who have kept on cheering their team mates while they sit with the knowledge that their own performance was, despite being faaaaaaaaaaaar  beyond anything I could do, just wasn’t up to their best, or even if it was, was just not up to the performances of other athletes. I’m thinking of those who have thanked their fans on twitter for the support, who have thanked their families, whilst in tears, on tv, of Bradley Wiggins quite clearly desperate to find his family after his achievement today.

And I’m thinking of Tom Daley, who saw some horribly abusive, very unpleasant, TOTALLY unnecessary comments on twitter from a clearly disturbed young man.

The current trend on twitter for particularly abusive messages is depressing. I don’t see much of them, only when some particularly egregious incident leads to a bit of publicity. But it makes me feel a bit sick, that people who are, for whatever reason, in the public eye, have to read this kind of thing. And if you are a popular person, who receives a lot of tweets, then in the mix it is going to be hard to avoid seeing the abusive tweets. It seems particularly unfair that other people, who have never had to deal with abusive tweets, then tell the celebrities to suck it up. I don’t personally believe that celebrities are “special” people. They are people. But why should ANYONE have to “suck it up” when someone is abusing them?

I know there’s nothing I can do about this. I know that no one cares about my opinion of this. But still. I have an opinion, and I’m me, so I’m damn well going to state it, whether people care or not. *ahem*

Why can’t we all just enjoy the fact that we seem to be putting on a DAMN good Limpics, and have people stop being so bloody unnecessary?

Anyone?

Things on my mind

I know. I’ve been very remiss. Not posting and all. I have things on my mind.

As we all well know, jobs get in the way of social lives. I consider updating my blog to be social, rather than work. So I haven’t been doing it. But I have something bigger to think about.

20cm x 14cm, to be exact.

About 5 years ago, I had an ultrasound that confirmed that I had a fibroid – at the time it was about 6cm at its longest dimension. A year ago, I had a second scan, and they said it had grown – to about 10cm at the longest dimension.

3 weeks ago, having been to my doctor and said I was a bit worried about the rigidity of my abdomen, and the discomfort I had when I tried to lie on my front, I had another scan. It is now 20cm by 14cm, i.e. about the same size as a 7 month pregnancy.

When I spoke to the doctor about it, she confirmed I was going to, am going to, have to have surgery on it. I have, naturally, scared myself silly by researching it on the net, but I’ve also reassured myself a bit. The questions I have for my consultant (on 10th September) are not silly questions – they are questions that will help me determine if I don’t need to find another surgeon. I have the support of my family, and my friends.

I don’t feel I have the support of my workplace.

Every occasion of sickness I’ve had in the last year, apart from 2 weeks due to stress (caused by my employer, shockhorror) are directly or indirectly attributable to this fibroid. I am off sick today because my period started and it was… scary and made me feel weak, light headed and nauseated.

I know that this will now mean that I am put on a disciplinary. They will stop paying me for sick time, for the next 6 months. That very likely encompasses the time when my surgery will take place (I really hope so, anyway, because I don’t want to have to wait that long) but I really really don’t want to wind up not being paid for what will be at least a 6 week recovery. Might be as many as 10 weeks. Who knows.

I need a new job. Yes.

I also would quite like the surgery to be done, dusted, and recovered from.

There might be a significant amount of whinging in any posts I write in the next few weeks and months. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

*ahem* is this thing working?

I know, I know. I’ve been terribly remiss in posting, and I *promised* myself I’d get back into the swing of posting on a near daily basis. I’ll have to figure out how to get pictures from my phone to here, which I haven’t got the hang of yet, in order to provide the usual recipe goodness.

However, in the meantime, I shall give you all a quick update.

I’ve been in my current job for just over a year, and the itchy feet have set in, as per. I’ve been having some issues that I shan’t elucidate here, because I’m still working there, but which have culminated in my being signed off for 2 weeks with stress. Not to do with my actual WORK, but definitely to do with my employment.

In other news, I would be out voting right now if it wasn’t for the fact that it is PISSING it down with rain. Hoorah. Still, it’s bound to clear up before the polling stations close, isn’t it?

I managed to sell another much loved necklace, and I’m not sure if I’ve the heart to make another in the same colours. I might take my inspiration from the same source, but go about it a completely different way. Haven’t figured out how, yet, but I’m sure something will fire off a neuron sooner or later.

I’ve got a bookcase to put up in the next couple of days, so that I can get my dvd’s into a proper state of tidiness and alphabeticness, and so that I can reach all of them. This means clearing space, tackling the Allen Key of Destiny (and IKEA), and moving the completed bookcase into position.

Then in just under a month, I’m off to Boston, to stay with the lovely Miss Ginner (guest blogger extraordinaire) and TheBoy (TM), and their lovely cat. I can’t WAIT. I’m very excited about things. So excited!

Hm. I think that might be it for now. But I shall try very hard to keep a bit more up to date on here, and as I say, I’ll work out how to get the pictures from the phone to here.

Ta-ra!

FRIDAY! for real, this time.

Hello, loyal readers! I can see that a reasonable number of people are still visiting me, and I am enormously pleased by this. 🙂 Even though I haven’t posted for 6 months, I still have readers! Thank you all.

So I have some food photography for you. Not as much as before, because of the ol’ lack of camera thing. But some.

The following dainties were provided for me on my birthday, by my mother. They were from Maison Blanc, Raymond Blanc’s little patisserie in Winchester. And they tasted a-MAY-zing.

 

This first one was  an elderflower and pomegranate jelly, with a lightly flavoured mousse – I still think it was like jasmine, almost, but when I asked in the shop a few weeks ago, they had no idea… Not a good sign, if you ask me, but it tasted so fantastic that I’m willing to let it go. The jelly had tiny alpine strawberries in it, and a few aptils of pomegranate. There was a thin layer of moist, light, delicious sponge for it all to sit on, with a physalis on top.

The second dainty little morsel was a layer of sponge, one of mousse (blackcurrant flavoured), a second of mousse (more neutrally flavoured, and more there for the look than the taste), and then a top layer that was a sort of fine coulis of blackcurrant. Three blueberries and a’wing’ of white chocolate finished it off. The strength of blackcurrant in the mousse as fantastic, although it wasn’t the most epically blackcurranty thing I’ve ever had, that honour going to a coulis dressing on icecream that I had at the Mercure hotel in Exeter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third had a cunningly concealed WODGE of almost pure blackcurrant… mostly skins. And possibly pips. Do blackcurrants have pips? Anyway, this had been hidden away inside, as as unexpected treats go, it was a bit lacking. I like my treats to be genuinely covetable, not things that you eat as speedily as you can so that you can go back to the lovely mousse. Yes, another mousse. I get the feeling that Blanc likes his mousses. Since the whole experience is now about 4 months ago, I forget just how this one tasted, except I know it wasn’t as blackcurranty as you’d expect, given that it’s FULL OF BLACKCURRANTS. Or skins.

The last one was amazing. Lemony and passionfruity, once again moussy, but so flavoursome and rich that the half I had (we shared them all, half of each each) was exactly enough, despite the fact that it was also about as light as a small feather. Beautiful creation, very spiffily presented. Only problem with the whole venture is that Mum had to transport them home, and that led to a certain amount of, hm, movement in their little white box. No true disasters, but cracks in the surfaces that Blanc would have been most unimpressed with.

See? But also, look how sharply the passionfruit seeds stand out against the yellow coulis, and how the blackberry glistens juicily – no, wait, not glistens. Sit drily on top, failing to glisten. Oh well. As nitpicks go, that’s not too bad a one. After all, the blackberry had been sitting atop its mousse (yes, more mousse) for some hours, I think it can probably be forgiven for looking a bit tired. It tasted ok, but next time, I’d lay in a store of fresh blackberries to put on top instead.

And there we go. A Proper Food Post.

More after tomorrow evening’s dinner and canasta.

it’s FRIDAY!!! well. for ME it is. sorry ’bout the rest of you.

I have a day off tomorrow. Of course, there will be some helping move stuff around because mum needs help decorating, and there will no doubt be some bitching and whining (from both of us).

But hey. That’s life.

I’m also hoping to get to the bead shop in Winchester, and maybe HMV, and possibly, just possibly, somewhere to buy some cake. CAKE!

I will not be sharing said cake.

And I will write another post in the evening. When I will be curled up with Grey’s Anatomy, chocolate (probably) and my aloneness. Hurrah.

I have just spent my three spare hours moving old books around

My mother has far FAR too many books about prehistoric beasties, renaissance manuscripts, myths, and caves. This is only a problem when I’m having to cart them from one end of the room to the other. That gets wearing. Specially when we’ve only finished now. at 10.20. I want to go to sleeps and yet I’m far too keyed up from all the moving books.

So this is a fairly unformed post. No structure, as such. I’m also writing while watching Derek and Meredith have a fight  (Grey’s Anatomy, Season 2, my friends).  Oh but I love love love this show. He is SOOOOOO hunky, and she is so normal looking, and this gives me hope. NOt that I think I’ll be meeting my own Derek Shepherd any time soon, but man oh man a girl can fantasise can’t she?

Oh, except the bad stuff is coming up and it’s going to be SO SAD! sob sob gulp gasp.

In other news, while I dash the tears from my eyes, congratulations to Alaura and TLOHL on the birth of their truly gorgeous baby boy I’m truly thrilled for them, that after ALL this waiting (dear god i thought this would never happen) they have this whole little person to get to know. Amazing.

Life is amazing, right?

Night all!