For Manly Men

If I were a manly man/ If I were a manly maaaaaaann.../ I'd have --

Okay, this is what I like to call a family-friendly blog (I am quite obviously lying, as I don't recommend small children, pregnant women or the eldery be exposed to my terrible language. Next thing you know they're all on crazy rampages, and I don't want that to happen) so I'm not going to finish that particular song about manly men. Needless to say it goes on for several verses, and includes 'testosterone', 'a really really really really deep voice', 'chest hair', a liking of 'wrestling bears', 'really curly sideburns' and other such manly characteristics (my friends and I have a very accurate view of the world, along with our song-writing talents).

Anyway, it's common knowledge that one thing manly men DO do (when they're not wrestling bears or being unable to communicate emotions *sings* because I'm socially devoiiid!) is drink Guinness, the drink of Men. Men, and The Irish.

None of my friends are Irish Men (although some of them are one or the other - I'm thinking of the lovely Nirish here (the clue's in the name) or... Boy close enough) so since, at a strapping five foot two, I am the strongest and most manly of the group (sorry, Boy) I thought the time seemed right for a Guinness cake.

Technically it's a Guinness cake made with 'Irish Stout', but I am a Man, and to the Manly, that means Guinness.

I'm entering this in the St. Paddy's Day Pub Crawl event just because I can, even though I've seen several Guinness cake posts on other blogs, all far better than mine - but this is a Gary Rhodes recipe that I haven't seen on anyone else's blog, and it has a soft icing rather than a buttercream one. Actually I think the idea was to let the icing cool a bit and set over the top, ala a pint of Guinness, but I am Manly and Impatient, and couldn't be bothered waiting, basically. So it all ran over the sides and into the middle, because my cake sank. The bastard.

The icing is also oddly yellow, that's the other strange thing. It's mostly white chocolate, so I've no idea why this is. It was less yellow once it had set a bit (you can tell by the shine on the pictures that it hadn't set when I took them) but... hmm. Mysterious. Looks a bit like custard. I promise it isn't.

Guinness Cake (For Manly Men)
Recipe from Rhodes Around Britain by Gary Rhodes
Makes one 8-10" (20-25cm) cake (I used an 8.5" round tin)

225g butter
350g soft brown sugar
4 eggs, beaten
225g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
400ml stout (Guinness)
100g cocoa

1. Oven to 180C. Grease/ line your tin.

2. Cream butter & brown sugar til pale. Gradually add the beaten eggs. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarb, and in a separate separate bowl mix the stout and cocoa powder (whee, volcano!). Now add the flour and stout mixes alternatively to the butter and eggs until completely and evenly bound. The consistency will be quite soft. I don't recommend you lick out the cocoa/stout bowl because it tastes FOUL. Stick with me.

2. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour - 1 hr-15 until done. (Mine didn't need more than an hour)You might need to cover it with foil after about fifty minutes or so to stop it browning too much, but with an almost-black cake it's hard to tell. Allow to cool before removing from the tin.

For the topping:

200g white chocolate
180g butter
1-2 measures whiskey

3. Melt the white chocolate and butter with the whiskey until just softened, then leave to cool. I mean it. Leave it to cool. Don't be like me. Spread it on top of the cake (clue: it should be spreadable). Unless you're feeling daring, you might also want to let the cake cool first, too.

Now cut yourself a manly hunk and toast St. Patrick!

Or at least walk around for twenty minutes or so going 'top o' the morning to ye, Moo! Oi be called Noirish, on account o' the fact tha' oi be Oirish! Oi drink Guinness by day, an' eat potatohs by noight!'.

Warning: Irish friends may not be as amused as you are.

Not-Actually-Sweet Temptation

I think I should make it pretty clear that my eating habits don't revolve around cake or chocolate cookies (although with these, I could make a good go of it). You might not believe me, but I eat pretty healthily most of the time; it's just never light enough in Winter to get good photos of my dinner. Yeah, that's the reason. Ahem.

Anyway, now it seems pretty weird to get all excited over something that is -gasp!- Not Sweet, but AJSNJFSD. These are GOOD. Yes, they're all sorts of vegetables and, you know, filled with nutrients and suchlike (am I disappointing you? Sorry, I'm having an out-of-character day), but they also taste godly - I think it's the basil pesto. And when they're fresh out of the oven which these pictures don't show as I had to photo the leftover portion the day after when it was light the peppers are roasted to a golden sweetness, just charred on top, and the feta cheese bubbles from beneath the salty fresh pesto, and I'm making myself feel hungry.

It's another recipe from Rose Elliot's Vegetarian Supercook, which I am thinking of making my Bible (blasphemy ahoy!). I've not done anything original with it, but it is THAT GOOD that I'm going to put the book's recipe up anyway (copyright issues ahoy!). Looks like I'm going to hell. Or, you know, prison. Maybe they'll let me off if I say: 'BUY THIS VERY EXCELLENT BOOK. ALL PROCEEDS TO ROSE ELLIOT HERSELF AND NONE AT ALL TO INDY'.

Time for a not-so-subtle subject change. The lovely Maria on The Goddess's Kitchen tagged me for a meme decades ago and I'm so disorganised that I've only just got round to posting it. Enjoy!

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Well I was seven, so probably not a lot. I don't know any seven year olds so I don't know what kind of things they get up to, but I imagine primary school and getting generally messy O__O

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Pretty much the same as I am now; working towards my A-Levels and wishing something a bit more exciting would happen ^__^. Dying to go to uni, which is a bit closer now!

Five snacks you enjoy:
1) Chocolate hobnobs. Actually to be honest, I don't really snack, but chocolate hobnobs are just -- kgdnksnjdn <333>

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1) One way ticket to Japan, I think?!
2) A few more tickets so my friends could come too.
3) Buy a house in Japan by the sea.
4) Get a car other than the Satanmobile (my current set of wheels, which I'm learning on. I blame the car for my total failure at driving). I've always wanted a VW campervan.
5) I'm keeping this one free, in case something else occurs to me ^__^

Five bad habits:
1) Binge-eating. I'm trying to stop, haha. I don't eat a lot usually but if I'm upset or drunk I go straight for the fridge.
2) Procrastinating (did I not mention I'm doing this instead of homework?)
3) List-making. All the time. It wouldn't be a bad habit if it was just occassional, but I can't sit with nothing to do - I start planning things I need to do, things I want to make, what outfits I'm wearing where...
4) This sounds very up-myself, but I don't have a lot of patience with people who aren't as clever as I am. If someone can't follow my train of thought (which is admittedly pretty insane) I get very frustrated. I do try not to show it, though.
5) Checking the mirror too much. I don't know what I expect to change, haha.

Five things you like doing:
1) Hanging out with my friends (we always do fantastic things, like having tea parties and building tree forts, or going to safari parks)
2) Cooking and baking, especially for other people.
3) Playing guitar & singing
4) Shopping, especially if someone else is paying.
5) ...Building tree forts?

Five things you would never wear again:
1) Can I be honest and say there's not a lot I won't wear? I'll change my mind in a couple of years, but give me a chance to look ridiculous first ^__^

Five favorite toys:
1) My computer. No question
2) My pink electric guitar
3) My digital camera (it's not a great one, but we have fun)
4) My computer tablet, Belle
5) My acoustic guitar (it used to be my mum's, back in the day, so it's pretty vintage XD. It's also the best guitar I've ever played, and I've unofficially inherited it ^__^)

I'm supposed to tag five people but I'm feeling tired, so I'll just say that anyone can have it who wants it =P

Meditteranean Stuffed Peppers with Cauliflower Mash
Recipe from Rose Elliot's Vegetarian Supercook
Prep: 10 mins, Cooking: 30 mins
Serves 4
301 kcals per serving

4 red peppers
200g feta cheese, cut into 1cm cubes
8 heaped tsp pesto (I used green basil pesto)
16 cherry tomatoes, halves (mine were particularly mini so I used more - almost all of a small 250g tub)

For the cauliflower mash:
1 cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets
25g butter
salt & pepper

1. Halve the peppers, cutting right through the stems too if you can. Trim the insides and rinse away all the seeds. Put the peppers in a roasting tin and divide the feta between them, then spoon over the peso. Finally top with the halved tomatoes, skin-side up. Bake in a preheated 200C oven until the tops are charring and the insides full of juice.

2. Meanwhile, make the cauliflower mash. Bring a couple of inches depth of water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the cauliflower, bring to the boil, cover and cook for 5-6 mins until it's tender. Drain well, then put it in a food processor with the butter and some salt & pepper and whizz to a smooth, thick mixture. Return to the saucepan and gently reheat, stirring so that it doesn't catch. Serve with the peppers.

I may be going to prison/hell, but at least I will be glowing with energy and nutrition, having already had three of my five portions of vegetables for the day. Outwitted!

So Outrageous, It's The Rage

Chocolate. Probably the best invention in the world, ever. Except maybe the internet. Whoever introduced chocolate to the Earth (I'm thinking maybe the Aztecs?) deserves a knighthood, or a large sack of gold, or maybe one of these cookies.

Only one, though.

I'm trying desperately to think of ways to fully express the chocolate hit of these cookies, and the fudgy, brownie-like texture, and the chunks of sweet, milk chocolate spread throughout... and nothing I can think of really does them justice. I'm, to be honest, not much of a cookie eater (I prefer cake XD) but across the bottom of print-out of this recipe, I have scrawled in giant, black felt-pen capital letters 'THESE ARE GODLY', underlined it twice, and drawn a huge, lopsided heart beneath it.

Probably you get the idea.

The recipe for this is from Bake Or Break, but I had to change it quite a bit as the recipe conversion flummoxed me. Yeah, I can handle the quantities, but I had one, big problem - semi-sweet chocolate? The what?

In Britain, we have plain (dark) chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate. Thassit. But one Google search later, I was sifting through realms of 'bittersweet', and 'dark' and 'semi-sweet' and (most confusingly) 'baking' chocolate. I tried to narrow down my quest; the British equivalent of semi-sweet chocolate. Was it just milk chocolate?


Er, apparently not.


'Do not substitute milk chocolate for recipes that call for semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate' one site told me.

'you should never use a bittersweet chocolate if the recipe specifies semi-sweet or sweet' another ordered.


'Semi-sweet - plain (dark) chocolate.' The Recipe Corner tried to clear it up for me.

But then it added that it was apparently sweeter than bittersweet WHICH IS ALSO PLAIN CHOCOLATE. LE FUCK?

Apparently American plain (baking) chocolate is darker than British plain (dark) chocolate, and not something you'd eat on its own. I don't know if we have a British equivalent to that - just dark chocolate with higher cocoa solid level, maybe? So bittersweet chocolate is more like British plain/dark chocolate. Semi-sweet chocolate is somewhere between dark and milk chocolate, I think. 'Right,' I decided, 'I'll bloody well go halves'.

...A victory for my mad conversion skillz. But my head still aches.

Safe in the knowledge that almost 49% of my readers are actually British, I'm going to blame the Americans for this. Damn those Yanks!

Except not too much, because, uh, these are good cookies.



Outrageous Chocolate Cookies
Original recipe by Martha Stewart found here.
Makes 24 (but mine were too big and only made about 17)


100g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
125g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
55g unsalted butter
100g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
100g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g milk chocolate, chopped into chunks (I used 300g cause my milk choc comes in 200g bars, so it made sense to use two)


1. Preheat oven to 180C. Heat the 100g milk choc, the dark chocolate and the butter in a microwave safe bowl until almost melted, stirring together. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low, and beat in the melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.


3. Drop smaaall tablespoons of dough 2-3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in the centres, 12-15 mins. Cool on sheets for ten mins, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

I made these for an evening out with my friends, and naturally I have too much self-control to eat two before then, so I'm afraid if you want pictures of the middle, you'll just have to--




--Oh.

Bloggers who made this:
17/03/08 Antonia at Food, Glorious Food

Spectacular, Spectacular!

There is a certain baking etiquette for most situations. Birthdays require cake, book groups or sleepovers call for brownies or slices, afternoon tea (because obviously I have that so often) needs biscuits, presents should always involve cookies.

Okay, yes I did make up half of that. Feel free to use it as your staple baking etiquette guide from now on. I live to serve.

You may remember my unfortunate tendency to come up with bizarre ideas. I'm insanely lucky that in my friend group, when I send an email round saying 'WE SHOULD BUILD A TREE FORT!!' I get a load of replies emailed back - not saying, 'er, what have you been smoking?' or even, 'haha, that would be mildly amusing', but saying 'sure, let's do it on ____ at ____'s house!!' XD.

The point is, my amazingly definitive baking ettiquette guide doesn't cover tree-fort building.

Addendum #1: If in doubt, make cupcakes.

When I think of cupcakes, I always turn to this book, and the first thing that caught my eye was lemon coconut snowballs. Everything was merry and bright (I sometimes like to throw in phrases like this when people aren't expecting this; I'm just adding a bit of Julie Andrews to my corner of the blogging world) until I realised that when I added the frosting we were talking about at least nine egg whites here. Bollocks to that, I thought (sorry Julie). Nine egg whites is nine egg whites. What the buggery am I going to do with nine egg yolks? (that is a hypothetical question, by the way, before you all start shouting 'ICE CREAM' at me XD)

Anyway, I flicked through the book a bit more and came across another white cupcake recipe that was almost exactly the same but with just three egg whites in the cake. I also couldn't be doing with the 'let's-make-lemon-filling-even-though-you-could-just-use-lemon-curd-but-shush' malarky that the filling is all about, so (unsuprisingly) I just used lemon curd. To summarize; I've bastardised this recipe to the nth degree (and that's not even including my dodgy conversion). But God, it tastes good.

I seem to be effing and blinding all over the place now (if by 'effing and blinding' you mean 'using three very mild swearwords', which I do). Over-compensating for the Julie Andrews moment, I think. I'm very insecure.

These are pure white cupcakes with a chilled lemon filling, covered in the mystery that is seven-minute-frosting (the first time I've had it - it's not buttercream, it's not whipped cream, it's not meringue... what is it?! Crazy, that's what it is. Crazy good) and sprinkled with tons of coconut flakes. One of my friends described it as 'more or less the best thing in the world', which I think says it all and then some. ('And then some' being that I have the greatest friends XD)

Snowball Cupcakes

adapted to save egg whites from Cupcakes by Elinor Klivans

Makes 12 regular cupcakes (I had enough left over to make a couple of mini ones too, but that was cause I didn't fill my case enough D=)

White cupcake recipe:

175g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

180ml milk (it says whole milk, but obviously if you're making these cupcakes you're crazy-healthy and only have semi-skimmed in the house. Right? Yeah, me too)

1 tsp vanilla extract

85g butter

180g caster sugar

3 large egg whites

Filling:

Jar of lemon curd

Seven Minute Frosting:

150g icing sugar

80ml water

3 large egg whites

1/4 cream of tartar (I lived without)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Looads of dessicated coconut to sprinkle ^__^

1. Oven to 180C. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper liners. 'Sift' (ha! I do not sift) the flours, baking powder & salt into a bowl and set aside. In a separate small bowl, stir the milk & vanilla together.

2. In a large bowl (get your kitchen mixer out) beat the butter and sugar until smooth and light, until it's sugary and in large clumps. Sounds attractive, hnn. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, alternating between the two - so you start and end with the flour. Mix just until the flour is incorporated and the batter is smooth. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl, beat the egg whites nice and fast with clean beaters until they look shiny and smooth, and the beaters form lines in the egg whites. If you stop mixing and lift up the beaters, the whites should cling to them. Stir about 1/3 of the beaten whites into the reserved batter, and use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining white until just blended.

4. Fill each paper liner with however much mixture it takes to fill all twelve. We go in for accuracy, round here. Hint, you shouldn't have enough to make mini ones as well X__X. Bake for about 20 minutes until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and leave to cool.

5. To make the seven minute frosting, put the sugar, water, egg whites and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl and beat with a handheld electric mixer (I don't have one, so used one of the handheld mixers that you beat by hand. I fail at terminology. It was bloody hard, is the point) until opaque, white and foamy (about 1 minute).

6. Put the bowl over (but not so the bottom's touching) a pan of barely simmering water. Beat on high speed until the frosting forms a soft peak that stands straight up if you stop the beaters and lift them; about 7 minutes, hence the name. Remove the bowl of frosting from the water, add the vanilla extract, and continue beating for 2 mins more to further thicken the frosting.

7. To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped piece (about 1 inch across & 1 inch deep) out of the middle of the top of each cake, and keep them aside. Put a spoonful of lemon curd into each hole and replace the cake pieces. Immediately frost the cupcakes (you might need another quick beat of your frosting if you've left it while you filled, here. This is where another person would be good).

8. Put a plate underneath to catch falling coconut before you start frosting. Holding a cupcake in the palm of your hand, dollop a thick layer of frosting over the top and sides of each cupcake. Sprinkle coconut generously over the frosting, letting any extra fall onto the plate to be recycled for another cupcake XD.

The cupcakes can be refridgerated for up to 2 days. If you're spending one of these days tying pirate flags to trees in the freezing cold, they should pretty much survive.

I'm entering these in Cupcakes Spectacular , just because I can. ^__^

An Apple A Day

I should think you're thinking something along the lines of, 'er. What is this?'. I completely understand why. This is, to use its full name, 'A Piece Of Apple Streusal That Refused Point Blank To Photograph Attractively Until Indy Gave Up And Covered It With Ice Cream And Then Ate It, In A Very Bad Mood'.

My theory was that if you can't see it for ice cream, you can imagine that underneath it's dazzlingly well presented. Actually, it didn't look that bad in real life. It just didn't want to photo.


Oh yeah, and the pastry? That didn't want to cook without shrinking (not the pastry's fault; I just have a shrinking-jinx). The apples didn't want to core in a straight line, resulting in pips shooting all over the kitchen. The kitchen-aid mixer was on strike, full stop (the handle actually broke. Wassgoingon). In fairness, I was trying to make the tea at the same time, while my sister and my dad had a blazing argument in the background and I internally reminded myself that I'm leaving in October. Just October. It's not so long. And breathe out.

The ironic thing was, the reason I was making this Stubborn Apple Whatsit (its shortened name) was in honour of An Apple A Day, in which the challenge was to make something using food that reduced the risk of a stroke. Considering I was on the verge of a heart attack the entire time I was baking, this was probably just as well.

Here, have a photo without ice-cream, just because I love you.

And the thing was, my nervous breakdown was completely worth it (and, I have to make clear, not anything to do with this recipe, which was pretty simple - I think the heavens were just against me. I must have offended someone, cause karma was more or less laughing in my face). Because this is gorgeous. I mean, gorgeous with a capital GUH (the noise I made when I first tried it). I have a complete soft spot for cooked apple, and this is like apple crumble and apple pie rolled into one... I'm trying to stop myself saying 'glorious apple extravaganza', but I think you get the message.

And, you know, HEALTHY. Apples. Repel doctors, and help prevent strokes, and all sorts. If you're a doctor you may not be too fond of them, but they seem pretty popular with everyone else (in my mind, apples are to doctors what garlic is to vampires, but this isn't necessarily factually accurate).


The above picture is the point where I gave up on food photography and just decided to take pictures of melting icecream. Hooray.

Apple Streusal
Recipe by Janice Hewerdine and featured in Good Food magazine, October 07

Serves 8
Prep 30 mins + chilling
Cook 45 mins
462 kcals per serving
Can be frozen.

For the pastry:
200g (8oz) plain flour
140g (5oz) butter, cut into cubes
50g (2oz) caster sugar
1 egg, beaten

For the apples:
6 medium dessert apples, peeled, cored & cut into thick slices
zest & juice of 1 lemon
25g (1oz) sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 1 tsp)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

For the streusal topping:
85g (3oz) softened butter
85g (3oz) plain flour
85g (3oz) soft brown sugar
zest 1 lemon

1. Rub the flour & butter in a bowl together until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then add most of the egg to bring the pastry together. It's helpful if your mixer works, but you know, whatever. If it seems too dry, add more of the egg. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30mins (or you could stick it in the freezer for a few minutes, which I am a firm believer in).

2. Toss the apples with the lemon juice & set aside.

3. For the topping, cut the butter into pieces and rub lightly into the flour, sugar & lemon zest to make a lumpy-looking crumble.

4. Heat oven to 200C. Dust the work surface with flour & roll pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin. Line a 20x30cm tin with pastry and trim the sides, crimping the edges if you don't want to be my friend anymore. Tip in the apples, then sprinkle with lemon zest, sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg. Scatter the streusal topping over the fruit.

5. Bake for 20 mins, then reduce oven to 180C and bake for about 25 mins more until the topping and pastry are golden. Serve warm with ice-cream (in case you didn't guess) or creme fraiche.

I've also been tagged for a meme by Maria, but it looks like I'm not going to have time until my next post - it'll feature then, I promise!

Extreme Sushi

Perhaps, if you live in London or the middle of the city and wear black pumps and do yoga and read Vogue magazine, sushi isn't a big deal for you. Probably you go to sushi bars for lunch; maybe you order sushi without rice and watch your carbohydrate intake.

I do none of these things (well I do wear black pumps sometimes, but they're in about five pieces and should probably be replaced), and for me, sushi is a big deal. I live in a village consisting solely of about twenty pubs and thirteen old people's homes (no restaurants, or, you know, houses. Just alcohol and senior citizens. A deadly combination) and neither the pubs nor the old people are big sushi fans. So the first time I tried it was when I went to Japan last summer.

The idea of sushi existing in my village is quite radical, so in a rebellious, 'YES I'M EATING SEAWEED, MOO HAR HAR' kind of way I'm pretty proud of these. They're not fantastic in a London-sushi-bar way, and I didn't want to get ambitious with fillings or anything - firstly because their intended audience was largely vegetarian, and secondly because; old people, okay? They'd have had heart attacks and died, and that would be three quarters of the town's population down in one blow. Also thirdly because I would have FAILED. DISMALLY. and I couldn't bear the potential humiliation.

Hosomaki (Slender sushi roll)
Using guidance from Japanese Cooking at Home by Hideo Dekura

For the sushi rice:
150g medium or short grain/sushi rice
120ml rice vinegar
2 tbsp caster sugar
pinch of salt

1. Cook rice in a pan or rice cooker, then transfer it to a wooden salad/sushi bowl.

2. To make sushi vinegar, combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a bowl; you might need to nuke it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds to help the sugar dissolve.

3. Gradually pour the sushi vinegar across the rice, and mix it evenly around the bowl using a wooden spatula or rice paddle in a slicing action. While mixing, cool the rice with a hand fan (I happened to have one!) or you could use a piece of stiff card or something. This helps the rice absorb the vinegar mixture and creates a glossy surface on rice.

4. When rice becomes lukewarm, cover with a damp teatowel.


To make the sushi:
Your rice, obviously
1 nori sheet, halved crossways (mine were half-sized, so I used two, obviously)
Wasabi paste (this is Japanese horseradish and not something we keep in our cupboards; I use regular English horseradish paste/sauce thingy.)
1/2 cucumber, cut lengthways with the soft bit cut off.

Use vinegar water to handle the rice (240ml water and 1 tsp rice vingear).

As a first time sushi roller, I'll point you to these two posts for rolling-guidance:
Soy & Pepper
Sushi Day

My first roll was not exactly sucessfull as I rolled it too loosely, and my knife wasn't sharp enough, meaning I couldn't cut through the nori very easily and everything got squashed X__X:

Oh dear. Please don't look at that too long.
Second attempt:

I was on a bit of a roll (*groannn*) and had been pleasantly surprised how low-stress the hosomaki was, so I also make smoked salmon nigiri-zushi ; basically rice with a topping. This recipe was in Good Food magazine, so I'm not vouching for it being, you know, genuine.



However, it's very simple: you basically prepare 300g of sushi rice as above (using 4tbsp rice wine vinegar and 1 tbsp caster sugar in this case, according to the article) and spread it into a 20x20cm baking tin lined with a double layer of clingfilm. You then cover the rice entirely with smoked salmon slices (200g, but I had a 100g pack cause it was reduced at Tescos, and I made it enough). Fold the clingfilm over the salmon to cover, pressing down well with your hands to mould everything together. To serve, just use a sharp knife to cut it into 16 (I went for 24) rectangles. ^__^

Crazy stuff.

E Is For Excellent!

You know the days when things are just so the opposite of excellent that you want to rip your Psychology coursework into twenty billion pieces and eat the bits? OK, just me. But yesterday was one of those days. So you can imagine my reaction when I logged into Statcounter yesterday night and found I had about five times more hits than usual (in case you can't imagine: basically, 'EH??' accompanied with lots of arm-waving).

An embarrassing amount of bewilderment later I found that the lovely Pixie of You Say Tomahto, I Say Tomayto had awarded me the above! (Cue a bit more flailing. I flail quite a lot, actually). What can I say; everything suddenly seemed so much... excellent-er. Both Tomahto/Tomayto and Pixie's sweet blog, A SweeTart are fantastic, so it really means a lot to be given something like this. I still consider myself a bit of a baby to food-blogging, and I don't have a huge readership, so - guh, basically ^__^.

Am I gushing? I gush nearly as much as I flail. I'll start with the 'I'd like to thank's soon, if you're not careful.

Ah, go on. Massive thanks to Pixie for the ego-boost and cheering-up, and thanks to everyone who came over and commented and basically said all sorts of lovely things ♥.


The idea is to pass this award on to five other deserving bloggers, but I don't know a huge amount, haha. Despite this, I'm passing this on to some gorgeous blogs - some bloggers I know quite well, others less so, but I don't want my internet-reticence to get in the way X__X

Firstly one of my very favourite blogs is Kitchen Wench. I know Ellie doesn't go in for memes, and I don't know if this counts, but I her site is so excellent and I visit it so often that I'd feel wrong not offering this award to her. After all, I'd never have found this cheesecake without her...

What I love about Ovenhaven's blog, Epicurean Escapism, is that everything so obviously cooked with so much love and thought (macaroni and cheese from a cheese-phobic? That's dedication). Some fabulous baking goes on round here!

Want to know why I think A Whisk And A Spoon is so excellent? Take a look at Steph's almost-fudge gateau at the top of the page. Enough said ^__^.

Su Good Sweets is another blog I've made a cheesecake from, oddly enough (I'm seeing a trend here), but I think Jessica needs recognition for her gorgeous desserts. I'm a sucker for sweets, I admit it, and she does them brilliantly...


R Khooks is a site that I came across only very recently, but it's so delicious looking and the photos are so fantastic that I think it really deserves the title of an Excellent blog.

Thanks again for the award and for everyone who came over to say hi - I hope to keep seeing you all around! Here's a preview of my next post, but it'll have to wait I'm afraid - Torchwood calls ^__^