Motivational cookies

Okay, so it's still a bit early to get all Christmasy on you, but I couldn't resit making these cookies today. I had a pact with myself: finish my thousand word target and I could leave the laptop behind and make a dash for the kitchen.

I managed it...but I got a bit ahead of myself. The pull of the mixing bowl was too strong. I made these at the five hundred word mark. Oops! I like to think of them as motivational cookies, because I did at least get the words done, if with a little pause in the middle.

I went out and did a shop today, and finally broke the no supermarket resolution. It turns out that there are just some things you can't find unless you give in. Oh well. As N reminded me, we've managed right up until the festive season, and we constantly support our local community, so don't think anyone will begrudge us a sneaky trip to Tesco for dried cranberries, veggie sausages, soya milk and pecans.

Anyway, with that guilty confession out of my system let's get to the good stuff: cookies! In celebration of having dried cranberries in the cupboard again I decided to try out and idea I had for a dried cranberry, white chocolate and ginger cookie. In a little while I should be participating in this, and wanted to test out some ideas. I took the basic idea of what should be in a cookie and experimented. I used grated white chocolate and less sugar than usual, to spread a subtle creamy sweetness through the cookie to combat the tartness of the berries, then added some ginger for a bit of festive heat.

They're untried as yet - they're cooling on the side - but yet again we're off to a match tonight, so no doubt they'll get tried at half time. I'll report back of course.


In the meantime here's the recipe:

Cranberry, white chocolate and ginger cookies - Makes 21 small cookies

100g unsalted butter, softened
75g brown sugar
175g Self-raising flour
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
50g dried cranberries
50 white chocolate, grated
2 tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 180C

Beat the butter until soft and then add the sugar and cream together. Add the egg and vanilla essence, then the flour, cranberries, chocolate and ginger. Finally add the milk and make into a stiff, but sticky dough. More milk can be added if it's too stiff.

Place tablespoons of dough on lined or greased baking trays and place in the preheated over for 15 mins, rotating the trays half way through cooking.

Cool on a wire rack before eating - if you can wait that long!

VERDICT: So we tried these at half time as I anticipated. My response? They're "alright". Not bad or anything, just not what I was hoping for. The ginger is barely there, and the grated white chocolate didn't work as well as I'd hoped. They're a nice cookie, but I will work on them before making again. I reckon just chunks of chocolate and a whole load more ginger might be what's needed.

Soaking

Today's heading is two-fold. It's been pouring with rain since last night. Earlier it was so heavy I could barely hear myself think for the thundering of water on our glass roof. It seems the dreary bit of autumn has arrived to see the season into winter.


Sniff is not happy at all. He just can't believe why we could punish him by making the weather so horrid. I think the combination of the rain and having been shut in over the weekend because of the fireworks means it's going to take more than the usual bribes to get some appreciation from him in the next few days. Fortunately there will be some baking tomorrow, so I doubt it'll take that long to bring him round. (I know the above is a blurry photo, but I think it truly captures the extent of Sniff's frown!)

The other sort of soaking is this:


beans! I've decided to branch out into the dried beans world. I have always used tins before, for convenience sake. But since I am almost always home, and am often planning meals in advance I thought I would try and make the switch. Plus Nigel Slater says you can soak them, rinse them, and then freeze them so they're ready to bung in a recipe any time. Sconto! They are supposed to taste loads better like this, and also it's loads more economical. Fortunately a tin of bins is unlikely to break the bank for us, but every little helps, and since the weather suggests there might be more than a few rainy days on the way, now is the time to start saving!

I'm not sure what I'll be up to with the beans. I think a stew, homemade baked beans again, and perhaps a cassoulet. Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll make it's way up here when I get stuck for NaBloPoMo ideas!

Until then, I shall have to leave you with a non-food picture of the rain in North London. There's washing up to be done, and somewhat aptly a chapter on "liquidity" that is waiting to be finished...

The pride of North London

These are my victory chips! We very rarely eat junk food, but after a tense football match, which took place over lunch, meaning we only had coffee and a pastry to keep us going, the smell of chips - it's the vinegar more than the chips - just cannot be ignored! In a jubilant mood after our fantastic win yesterday (I might have already mentioned it once, but I don't mind saying it again) we decided to treat ourselves. Proper chip shop chips, wrapped in paper and with a wooden fork. Delicious.

Almost as delicious as these:

Our very own homegrown tomatoes! Okay, so out of all those plants we only got two fruits, and they took almost two weeks to ripen, but they were fantastic. They tasted "amazingly tomatoey" as N put it!


Mmmm.....tomatoes. Let's just hope that next year the weather is better and we can get a higher yield.

Now, back to Match of the Day to watch our goals again....did I mention we beat Man Utd yesterday?!

K's magic stew

Phew, almost didn't make it for today's post. I'm working on something very exciting at the moment. Something very hush, hush, and it's totally consumed the latter half of my day. The first half of course being taken up with Arsenal's fabulous win over Man Utd. Mwahahaha!

Anyhew, to come back to the point. Today we're going to talk about stew. Not just any stew. K's Magic Stew.

I have a friend. No, wait she's more than a friend, she's a posse member, and to a certain four ladies that's a very very special thing to be indeed. Not only is she one of the posse, she's also part of the hivemind. Now this comes with certain responsibilies, like finishing my sentences before I've even thought of them, texting me at the exact same time I text her, thinking the same things and not even having to say them outloud. You're getting the picture now aren't you?

Well, this lovely hiveminded lady, let's call her K, has talents far wider ranging than just knowing what I'm thinking, and amongst these is cooking. Not just any cooking, but the cooking of all those fabulous comforting savoury dishes that make you think of warm fires and hearty walks in the hills, even if you never had or did those things.

Once when I stayed with her she made stew. Just stew. Not a decedent plate of beautifully stacked food, resting in a "jus." A bowl of simple, steaming vegetable goodness. It was amazing. One of those things that stays with you forever.

When the weather became cold and rainy here, and the autumn veg started piling up, I thought of the stew, and failing having K to make it for me, immediately emailed her for the recipe.I almost followed it to the letter, but couldn't resist adding some wine! I hope she doesn't mind, but I am going to post here exactly what she told me. The results were wonderful, if you ever need a bowl of autumnal comfort then here it is:"Basically get the veg you want chop it into large pieces (larger than you think as it mushes down!oh and peppers are surprisingly good in it!) and cover with water and a veg stock cube - add pepper (I don't generally bother with salt as its usually in the stock cubes) and whatever herbs you fancy. The secret is a bay leaf....you need a bay leaf. Simmer away until veg etc are almost cooked and then crumble in a further stock cube, taste for seasoning and add the dumplings for the last 20mins or so. You can make it without the stock cubes but you generally need some pretty flavoursome veg and need to simmer it for longer!"

My dumplings:

118g self raising flour
50g vegetarian shredded suet
herbs to taste
white wine to make into a dough

Mix together the flour and suet, then add as much dried herb of your choice. Then add white wine so that it comes together into a dough. Place in the stew twenty minutes before serving, and turn over ten minutes into the cooking time.

Scones that really cut the mustard.

Every so often I forget to make bread, and for some reason since we got back from our holiday in September this happens more and more. I think because I got out of the routine, and it stopped being second nature to spend the first part of the morning kneading, resting, proving and baking.

Being out of the habit wouldn't be too bad if I had an emergency batch in the freezer, or a good local bakery. But as it happens we have neither, and many months ago I made some crazy resolution that all the bread in the house - with a few exceptions - would be made by me. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and in the months that followed. Now suddenly finding myself without fresh bread and with a growling stomach I begin to curse my self-righteousness and wish for that sneaky loaf of supermarket stuff stashed in the freezer. I know it won't be anything like as nice, but at least it would be there.

However, it's not and so I must come up with another solution. Often I turn to soda bread as my saviour. I have a great recipe, quick, easy and so versatile that so far everything from figs and oranges, to seeds and nuts have made their way in without mishap.

Thing is, I don't always want soda bread, and then we're in trouble.

Not any more. A few weeks ago I made cheese scones. I had just spoken to my Mum and heard about hers and couldn't resist, especially as we had cheese in the fridge and chutney in the cupboard to try. It went down very well indeed. So this week I decided to branch out again. This time I made a plain scone recipe and added two tablespoons of grain mustard. The result was a scone with a nice texture, and just a hint of mustard. They were a great accompaniment to the cranberry chutney I made at the weekend (I know you're supposed to let it mature, but sometimes we can't wait!) and the strong cheese from the farmer's market.

In fact, I am about to make them again, as once more I failed to make bread yesterday and I know that in a few hours my stomach will be growling. I think the only adjustment I will make this time round is to add more mustard. The subtle flavour from last time was good, and the slight crunch of the grains nice, but I want something with a bit more bite.

So, I'm off to make these....why don't you. I reckon a bit of cham could go with them very well!


Mustard Scones - Makes 8-12 (depending on how thick you roll the dough and how large a cutter you use).

225g self-raising flour
50g butter (I used half salted, half plain and ommittted the salt)
pinch of salt
2 tbsp grain mustard (or more for a stronger flavour)
enough milk to make up into a rollable dough.

Heat the oven to 220C and grease a baking tray. Rub the butter into the flour and add a pinch of salt. Then rub in the mustard. When this is combined start adding milk about a teaspoon at a time until you get a stiff dough. Roll out and cut into rounds. Place on the baking tray and bake for 10 mins, or until lightly golden and springy at the press of a finger.

NB: I adapted this recipe from the Be-Ro Flour recipe book. My Mum used to use this book (more of a pamphlet really, as it's just 86 slim pages) all the time when I was a kid, and I had such fond memories of it (okay, mostly of the chocolate chip cookies in it) that when I went off to university my Mum tracked down a copy for me. Talk about best Mum ever. It's a great go-to book for pretty much any basic recipe that uses flour, and according to my front cover it's in it's 40th edition - and this was a good few years ago now. Believe me, it's worth buying a copy if you see it, if only for the cookie recipe!

Get your five a day - eat cake!

Doctors, politicians, nutritionists and all manner of other health "experts" keep harping on about needing to get our "five a day" of fruit and vegetables. Now, being a vegetarian, it's really not that hard to manage this, and quite frankly if you're veggie and you do find it hard you must be doing something very wrong indeed and might want to consider switching sides.

We usually eat a dinner that mainly consists of vegetables, albeit bulked out with some pasta, or bread or cous cous. But, if we might need a top up of veggie goodness, what better way to do it than by eating cake! Pumpkin and carrot cake to be precise.

A few years ago for Halloween my then flat-mate and I were the lucky recipients of quite possibly the largest pumpkin in the world. It was a gift from a friend who worked on the grocery stall on the market where I was tending the bread stand. He had promised that when Halloween came round he would get me a pumpkin, and wow, what a pumpkin it was. I could barely lift it into the van, and walking home I must have been quite a sight. An ickle person with an uber pumpkin. I must have been somewhat akin to a pumpkin on legs that afternoon.

Now, we gutted and carved it and "Gerald" did us proud. His leering face grinning at us for the whole Halloween weekend. Problem was, we then had a huge bowl of pumpkin flesh sitting in the fridge and no idea what to do with it. I was considerably less adventurous in the kitchen in those days, and after an experiment with pumpkin pie - loved by my housemate, hated by me - we ran out of ideas.

So I decided to do what any self-respecting person would do in that situation. I baked it into a cake! You get carrot cake, why not pumpkin. It's orange, and not too strongly flavoured and goes well in pie with spices. Thus was the birth of the pumpkin cake. It went down very well indeed. Light, moist and spiced it was a lovely autumn surprise.

That was three years ago, and for some reason I just didn't get around to making it again. No pumpkins came my way and alas the recipe I used went astry too.

Then suddenly Halloween rolled round again and I got my act together and bought us a little pumpkin. It didn't get carved this year, there just wasn't time. But it did make itself into a cake. I had to top up the amount of pumpkin needed with carrot, but I think this gives an extra dimension to the flavour. We ate it at half time during the match last night and it was really nice. I can't help thinking though that it will be nicer tonight having had a day to rest and the spices to develop.

I've been storing it in the fridge because of the high veggie content. Just take it out a little before serving so it reaches room temperature as it's nicer when not cold. I adapted this recipe from Rachel Allen's one in Bake. Mostly because it was the first one I found that used a loaf tin rather than sandwich tins. I topped it with orange buttercream icing. I would have preferred a less sweet cream cheese icing in hindsight, but didn't have the ingredients.


Pumpkin and carrot cake, with orange buttercream.

200g grated pumpkin
100g grated carrot
100g raisins (I probably would have soaked these in alcohol if I'd though ahead!)
100ml olive oil
175g self-raising flour
175g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fresh grated nutmet
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice

Grease and line a 5" by 9" loaf pan (I actually used one that was a bit longer than this and it stil worked fine). Preheat the oven to 150C.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the oil, sugar, pumpkin, carrot and raisins and mix together. Sift in the dry ingredients and bring the mixture together. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the surface. Bake on a central rack for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool completely before turning out of the pan.

Orange buttercream icing:

75g unsalted butter, very soft
175g icing sugar
zest of one orange, finely grated
2 tbsp milk
enough juice from the orange to make the icing come together.

mix the butter, zest and milk together, then add the icing sugar and combine. Add enough orange juice to make the icing wet enough to spread easily - though it should still be thick. Ice the cake when completely cool and leave in the fridge to harden the icing slightly before serving.

Cauliflosaurus

Who knew that dinosaurs were such fans of cauliflower?!

This amazing vegetable arrived in our organic box today, and since I promised I post to show off my newly decorated dinosaurs last week, I couldn't resist doing so with a dramatic cauliflower backdrop.


Still to come this week: mustard scones and pumpkin and carrot loaf cake.