Spilled Notes

Pakora!

I think we've found our 'regular' in Edinburgh - a little Indian cafe on Nicolson Street called 10 to 10 in Delhi.  Decorated with Indian drapes and cushions, with Indian music and a Bollywood film always playing (usually with the sound off and intermittent English subtitles).  Everything on the menu is tempting, and every time we look even though we really know what we're going to have already - spinach and potato pakora, served with curried chickpeas (some days much spicier than others!), cous cous, salad and delicious yellow coleslaw.  Followed by a milky masala chai and, if I still have room, a slice of wonderful mango cheesecake.  L and I met a friend there for coffee this week, and my cheesecake was heart-shaped in honour of Valentine's Day:

 

I wasn't really a curry person until I met L, and now I am a fervent convert.  I keep getting curry cravings, and their pakora are just so tempting... 

The Fudge Witch

I have a new theory on what witches use their cauldrons for.  It's not to mix up deadly poisons, or love potions, or concoctions with fillets of fenny snakes, eyes of newts or toes of frogs.  No, bubbling and boiling in the huge pots is, in fact, sinfully sweet and delicious fudge:

 

Oh, and if you were wondering, this is what it turns out like:

  

Tea and Cake

L and I occasionally treat ourselves to tea and cake out somewhere - it's much cheaper than dinner, and means we get to try more delicious sweet offerings.  Here are a few of the best from the last few months...

This is a slice of Swedish chocolate cake from one of my favourite cafes, Peter's Yard.  It was lovely and light and chocolatey, very moist in the middle.

This is where a Valrhona chocolate muffin (also from Peter's Yard) was!  I love the atmosphere at Peter's Yard, it's always calm (probably something to do with the fact that there are windows instead of walls and the ceiling is high, so it's very airy).  I also love the china, plain white with a blue or grey stripe around the rim - I want some like it.

This is a striking baked vanilla cheesecake from The Beach House at Portobello.  I didn't know what it was but I knew I wanted to have it - it looks so amazing.  It didn't taste at all cheesy, and the vanilla was just right, not overpowering at all.  The base was a lovely soft, slightly chewy chocolate biscuit, and the stars were cut from the same biscuit.  Such a good idea!  I want to find a good vanilla cheesecake recipe so I can try it out myself.

There have also been numerous wonderful cakes at Caffe Lucano and a few at Cafe Grande.   Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of these - I guess we'll just have to go back again...

More Marzipan...

Having made a Battenburg as a Christmas present, I had some leftover bits of marzipan.  I hate to waste anything, and although I could just have eaten them, I thought it would be more fun to make something out of them.  So for L I made some tiny toadstools (next time they'll have white spots like Fly Agaric):

And then I made some little snowmen, complete with scarves and chocolate-painted hats (this was after I painted the giraffes):

I love being creative with food - it's pretty and edible!

The Significance of the Potato

William Marshall once called the arrival of the potato to Scotland 'the greatest blessing that modern times have bestowed on the country'.  I fervently agree.  I don't know what I would do without potatoes. They're just so versatile, and they go with everything.  I've grown up eating home-grown potatoes that I helped to plant and pick.  I'm hoping I'll get to help plant this year's crop when I'm at home for Easter (we always plant them over the Easter weekend).  The potatoes below are Roosters, which are wonderful for pretty much anything.  They're especially good for roasting (I must admit, L does make wonderful roast potatoes), which I think is probably my favourite sort of potato.  We bought two huge baking potatoes in Lidl today, later in the week they will be consumed with copius amounts of tuna and salad.  I just found a brilliant quote from Oprah Winfrey - 'my idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with'.  Only I would call it a jacket potato. And I don't need to find someone to share mine with :-)

I'm currently procrastinating (again!).  I should be reading about land use for my archaeology tutorial, or doing a documentary analysis for Scottish history, or working on my project on mummers for Scottish Ethnology.  I know I'll regret not working now, but somehow that motivation isn't enough.  Douglas Adams once said that 'it is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes'.  I wish our potatoes could do my incredibly boring reading for me.  Oh well, I'm sure chocolate will help instead.

Moggy

There's something so wonderful about tea.  It can be warming and comforting, refreshing and invigorating, whatever you need it to be.  And it goes perfectly with cake.  My mum sent me up part of a fresh moggy cake this week.  No, it's not made of cats, or in the shape of the cat.  In fact, I have no idea why it's called 'moggy' cake.  It's a wonderful sticky ginger cake from a family recipe, I think from the part of my mum's family who came over to Yorkshire from the Isle of Man.  I think it has to be my favourite cake.  It only gets made a few times a year; I remember that we always used to make it when we went to visit my grandparents in Lancashire (usually at New Year and in May).  It's one of those cakes that gets better as it matures, and is perfect a couple of days after it's made.  And it goes perfectly with a steaming mug of Yorkshire Tea.

Church of the Marzipan

I love marzipan.  But not enough to worship it (I know you were getting worried).  No, the title comes from a mistake I made several years ago while staying with my grandparents in Heysham, Lancashire.  I've walked past this particular building quite a few times, but for some reason I misread the sign on this occasion.  It was not, in fact, the 'Church of the Marzipan', but the 'Church of the Nazarene'.  (They both have a 'z', which clearly confused me!)  I might be tempted to be religious if there was a church of the marzipan.

I also love Battenburg, but then who doesn't?  It looks so happy and is so reminiscent of childhood.  I decided to have a go at making my own, because my partner can't have dairy and so wouldn't be able to share a shop-bought cake.  It was HUGE!  But looked just like Battenburg should.  And the offcuts of marzipan made wonderful strawberries (though that did result in me having rather pink hands). Unfortunately I can't find any photos of it (though I'm sure I took some).  I guess I'll just have to make another one - what a shame!