Spilled Notes

Prickly Impulse

Last week, L and I impulse-bought a prickly pear.  We had no idea what to do with it, but bought one anyway.  And I can testify that they most certainly are prickly!  They don't look it, but they have lots of tiny, hair-like spines, a bit like those cacti that look furry but aren't.  When we got home, I looked up what to do with it, and we had a go...

Wear gloves to prevent any more prickling incidents.

Chop off the skin at the top and bottom...

 ...then peel the rest away from the flesh.

It was quite nice and refreshing, but full of seeds!  So maybe better suited to being made into juice or sorbet.  We're thinking perhaps a dragon fruit next - no idea what to do with one of those either!

Potato Update

Remember the potatoes planted - as per tradition - on Good Friday?  Well, when I was home earlier in the month, some of them were ready to dig!

 

We planted lots of different varieties this year, to see which ones crop best.  These are 'Kestrel'.  I love the bright purple splodges.

The harvest used to be celebrated with big feasts for the whole community.  Even the ancestors were invited, although they were politely asked to leave at the end of the night so as not to stay and cause trouble throughout the rest of the year.  We didn't have a feast, and didn't invite our ancestors - I hope they don't feel offended...

Ratatouille and Rain

The weather seems to have turned here today - grey, gloomy and damp - so no walk in the Meadows this evening.  This is the sky from Saturday night, though.  Beautiful.

Today, I made ratatouille for the first time.  It could have done with a bit longer in the oven, as it wasn't quite as meltingly, velvety soft as I think it probably should be, but I was too hungry and couldn't wait.  It was still pretty good though, a lovely bright and sunny dish for a rainy evening.

While the Cat's Away...

L is away in London for a week with her placement, working on the Culture Evolves exhibit at the Royal Society's Summer Exhibition.  If you're in London and fancy going along, it's on at 10-8.30 until the 4th of July, and is free!

So I'm trying to find ways to occupy myself while she's gone.  This afternoon I had a bit of a baking experiment.  Thanks to the new Poundland that just opened on Nicolson Street, I now have silicon bun trays (although they're actually more like mini muffin trays).  I made a dozen buns, three each of four flavours.  From left to right we have: Nuremberg Spice, Ginger (with a bit of golden syrup that made them stick a tiny bit), Apple and Cinnamon and Almond and Chocolate Chip.  As you can see, I'm not that good at separating the mixture evenly, so each set of three is slightly larger than the last!

Apologies (again) for my absence.  My only excuse (not a good one, I know) is that I've been trying to balance getting better with writing my last essay (all finished, due on Monday!).  Hopefully normal service will now resume (at least until my exams in August, that is).

An Apple Within an Apple

Nature can be amazing sometimes.  Like when one apple clearly wasn't enough, so another one started to grow on the same stalk (but didn't get very far).  I'm surprised this was allowed into the supermarket as it's not completely perfect!

Chocolate chip almond cookies

I'm trying being gluten free at the moment as going dairy free hasn't solved all my problems, and have been missing sweet things rather a lot (which you could probably guess!).  Yesterday evening I decided to make myself something, so I took a normal recipe for chocolate chip cookies and replaced the flour with ground almonds.  They turned out much better than I expected, although when they were half way through baking I thought I should probably have put a raising agent in as they're usually made with self-raising flour.  I'll just have to make them again...

Frangipane

L had her last exam on Wednesday, so in celebration I decided to cook a three-course meal for us.  We started with pear and Serrano ham salad (courtesy of Lidl!), followed by spaghetti bolognese (made from scratch).  Dessert was something I've been wanting to try for ages.  I wish I could say it was my creation but unfortunately it isn't - it came from 'Chocolate' by Maxine Clark (this is a wonderful book, the same one my fudge recipe is from, and I want to try almost every recipe in it!).  I made a pear and chocolate frangipane tart - perfect as I love both chocolate and almonds.

I started by making a rich shortcrust pastry.  I always used to hate rubbing in, but I must admit I rather enjoyed making this, even though I was removing bits of pastry from my nails for hours!

Next was the frangipane.  Here it was a sort of sponge rather than a paste - basically an ordinary sponge recipe but with ground almonds instead of flour.  Add slices of pear on top and bake, and it looks like this.  As it cooks, the pears sink and the frangipane rises.

Finally, once cooled, add a glaze of melted raspberry jam:

Mine was a little on the soft side and could have done with a few more minutes in the oven, but it still tastes good!

Flutterby Cakes

Earlier this week, I decided to bake.  We didn't have much in the cupboards, and I couldn't be bothered to go shopping, so most (actually, all!) of the recipes I considered were impossible.  My eye was caught by ginger and chocolate cupcakes - we didn't have the ingredients (predictably) so I made up my own recipe.  After a minor setback when I thought my scales were broken beyond repair (luckily they aren't, but they still don't work all that well), this is what I came up with:

It's just a regular sponge cake, like you would make for a Victoria sandwich, with some spices added to taste instead of vanilla.  I used Nuremberg spice mix (bought at the Christmas market in Edinburgh but still unopened), which contains cardamom, cinnamon, anise, star anise, nutmeg, cloves and ?, and added some ground ginger.

As we somehow don't have a bun tray, I made them into muffins instead - I only had enough to make half a dozen but they are on the large side.  Once cooked and cooled, I cut the tops off and filled the holes with rich chocolate buttercream (butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder and a few squares of melted plain chocolate for extra chocolatiness), cut the tops in half and placed them on top like wings.

Not bad for a spur-of-the moment invention, although perhaps a little too reminiscent of Christmas for May!

Chinese Pears

I love getting Chinese pears from the greengrocer.  It's a bit like Christmas, all those layers to unwrap.  First, the polystyrene 'net':

Then the tissue paper:

Until finally...

 ... you reach the pear inside.

 Wonderfully crisp, refreshing and juicy, almost more like an apple than a pear.  Delicious!

Decadence, thy name is...

...porridge!  (Weren't expecting that, were you?)

My new favourite breakfast - porridge with chunks of dried apple, cinnamon, a drizzle of golden syrup and, on especially decadent days, a square of 72% plain chocolate broken into pieces and swirled in gorgeous, melting streaks.  A delicious way to start the day.