Tuesday 21 August 2007

Flour for home baking

The consequences of using the right (or the wrong) flour for home breadmaking.

Thursday 19 July 2007

Greek Olive Bread Recipe

I've done this one twice now - brilliant!

Friday 6 July 2007

Isn't pizza supposed to be round?

This is my first attempt at baking a pizza - don't laugh!

Tuesday 5 June 2007

South of the river? No, not me, mate.

Do cabbies really say that? See here

Saturday 2 June 2007

Free Calorie Counter

I've found this useful (if americanised) calorie counter. Fuller review here.

Wednesday 30 May 2007

Sunday is cancelled

A brief description of how DSPS affects some of us.

Monday 21 May 2007

Rye bread from Britain

A lovely light rye bread, great with soups and cheese. Try it!

Monday 14 May 2007

Ciabatta - the easy way

Nice easy recipe for those who like a decent ciabatta.

Wednesday 9 May 2007

What do you call telephone chuggers?

Catch the link to comments on current charity mugger trends.

Wednesday 2 May 2007

Nutcrackers or cycle racks?

Saw this one on my sister station - can't be bothered to copy it all over; I'll just make links like this from now on.

Thursday 26 April 2007

Finally, some more veg.....

Alas they aren't mine! Check out these pics on: Flickr carrots

Thursday 19 April 2007

Free parking? You must be joking!

My neighbour had a good moan to me yesterday about the state of the nation. Actually, he was more concerned with the state of parking, parking tickets and apparent peremptory council land-grabbing.

Turns out he has what he called a 'static' - a permanent caravan, if that's the right word - up at Dobbs Weir, alongside the Lea river. He bought the static a year ago, on the understanding that there were no plans to abandon the site in the near future. Cost him £20K, he says. Presume that means site and trailer.

Last week, the council gave the lessee of the land (the trailer park operator) notice to move out - which was passed onto the tenants - because they wanted the land back so that some company or other can dig the whole lot out to get to the gravel beneath, just in time for construction work on the London 2012 Olympics.

He was totally miffed by this, as it is an area of considerable charm and beauty (his words, I have not visited the site) alongside the river, which will be destroyed for the sake of commercial gain. Not to mention the fact that the neighbour - and all the other 'residents' are having to move out post-haste and relocate their trailers.

Although the company involved (and probably the council) evidently have the right to do this, it does seem a shame to destroy naturally beautiful parts of the capital for a few bucks.

Or is it that the local council can see a few bucks for them - an astonishingly prevalent attitude around here - and just pushed the permits through?

We had something similar in my area recently, with the council trying to justify the implementation of a CPZ (Controlled Parking Zone) on a few roads around the local railway station. Happily they were obliged to take public consultations on this, and our local residents rebelled.

They dropped the scheme in our immediate area, but a couple of other areas where it was vaunted did not object strongly enough, and are stuck with something they didn't really want. The council think it's wonderful, though - all those permits to sell!

And now that it has been introduced, but not yet implemented - at a promised low permit price of roughly 25 quid a year, they're considering the permits should be a minimum of double that, and up to 400 quid for 4WD gas-guzzlers.

I've no objection to larger cars paying more if they take up more space, but they do seem to have gone overboard this time. Sometimes I wish they would literally go overboard, whilst far out to sea.

And I won't even mention the consideration being given countrywide for measuring the amount of rubbish in your bins - they've put the council (local) taxes up consistently, yet fail to provide consistent improvements in the services provided; well, not here, anyway.

Enough.

Wednesday 11 April 2007

Happy Birthday, me!

Well, that's another year over with, yet another year closer to the next existence - wherever or whatever that may be, if at all!

I get the feeling that maybe a belief in reincarnation would indicate that I'd return as something fitting to this blog - like a randy carrot, or a potato that looks like the Virgin Mary.

Birthdays are a PITA if you allow them to bug you. If no-one sends a card (despite the fact that you said you wanted no cards this year), you feel slighted; if they all ignore your pleas to help save the planet by reducing the amount of card and envelopes consumed, you feel as if they consider your entreaties as inconsequential. It's a lose-lose situation, really.


Despite the fact that I don't encourage cards, and don't actively discourage them either, I've had two real card ones this year (my mother and her next-door neighbour) and two electronic ones - one from my daughter (an emailed Powerpoint card) and one from Classic FM! My son, whose birthday was yesterday, tends to forget mine, as I almost forgot his. I did send him a txt msg and left a message on his mobile - neither have been answered, so he's obviously nursing a hangover - or something.


Later - I take it all back; got an SMS from him later this morning - make sme come over all warm and comfortable.


See what I mean about letting it get to you? It doesn't really bother me either way, but I gave up on birthdays on or around my 40th (which was sometime ago).


The picture? Part of the 'Ales Stones' an alleged burial place for a group of Vikings - see Land of the Swede II.

Friday 6 April 2007

Hot cross buns? No problem!


Hot cross buns are go! This time, they not only tasted good,
they looked good, too.

The basis of this recipe came from a book by Jane Grigson on 'English Food'.


This is to make 6 fairly small buns.

You'll need:

175 g strong plain white flour

good pinch salt

1 teaspoon dried yeast

20 g sugar

1 teaspoon mixed sweet spice

50 ml milk

50 ml boiling water

30 g butter

1/3 (one-third) of a beaten egg (rest is used elsewhere)

70 g mixed fruit with peel

20 g shortcrust pastry

Golden syrup or 1 tablespoon sugar dissolved in just enough water (bun wash)


Method:

Mix flour, salt and sweet spice in a warmed mixing bowl. Into a small pudding basin, put the yeast, 1 teaspoon of the sugar and 50 g of the flour from the mixing bowl.


Put the milk into suitable jug, then add the boiling water straight from the kettle. Using a wooden spoon, mix this liquid slowly into the yeast, sugar and flour in the pudding basin. Make as smooth a batter as possible. Leave in a warm place to froth up - should take about 15 minutes.


Meanwhile, mix the rest of the sugar into the mixing bowl flour, add the butter in small knobs and rub in. When the yeast mixture is ready, make a well in the centre of the main mixture, add the 1/3 beaten egg and the yeast mixture, and combine using a wooden spoon. The resulting mix will be a sticky gooey mess.


Flour a warm surface (I use the drop-down lid on the cooker, having had the oven on low for half an hour - this also serves to heat up the grill compartment just enough to use as the 'warm place' for raising the dough) and knead the dough mixture, adding more flour gradually, as needed, to give you a tacky - to the touch - lump of dough, which should not stick to the surface you're using. Whatever dough you have on your fingers should rub off easily - if it doesn't, your mixture requires a tad more flour.


Wash and dry the mixing bowl, and grease it with butter. Place the dough in it, cover with a tea towel and put into a warm spot to rise. To double in size, this should take up to an hour with modern dried yeast, but if you're using fresh yeast, it may take longer.


Punch down the risen dough, and on a warm surface, knead in the mixed fruit and peel. Once this is evenly distributed, roll the whole thing into a sausage and cut into 6 pieces. Make each piece into a bun-shaped ball and place on a lightly buttered baking tray.


Your shortcrust pastry (made by blending 15 g of flour with a knob of butter and a spoonful of water) should be rolled out and cut into strips. Brush the buns with some of the remaining beaten egg and place the pastry strips on them in the traditional cross shape. Brush with the egg again afterwards.


Cover the buns with a tea towel (will get greasy) or a piece of kitchen foil, and allow to rise in the warm spot for 30 minutes. Then bake them in the middle of a hot oven (230 degrees Celcius, 450 degrees Farenheit or UK Gas mark 8) for 10-15 minutes, until they are golden brown on top but before the shortcrust strarts to darken significantly.


Immediately after removing from the oven, brush with the golden syrup or the bun wash, then put onto a cooling tray - edible in about 20 minutes!


If any survive the first tasting, to reheat them, put in a moderate oven (160-180 Celcius, 350 Farenheit, UK Gas mak 3-4) for 10 minutes.


Enjoy!


For recipes on different foods, keep your browser on this space (or subscribe to the RSS feed), or look at Healthy Eating Recipes.

 

Monday 2 April 2007

Not-so-hot cross buns

In plenty of time for Good Friday, I attempted to make some hot cross buns - you can see how they turned out.




The flavour was just right, but the texture was a little heavy, and the glaze/crosses were a disaster.

Will try again before Friday (so I'll still be in time), and post if any improvement. And if improved, I'll post the recipe, too.


 

Sunday 1 April 2007

The new spaghetti crop

It does grow on trees! The BBC proved it 50 years ago, in what was thought to be the first TV April fool spoof.

Click here to see the story as it was broadcast - courtesy of the BBC archives.

I remember seeing this myself, and being almost totally taken in. The whole story is here

For recipes on different foods, keep your browser on this space (or subscribe to the RSS feed), or look at Healthy Eating Recipes.

Saturday 31 March 2007

Vive le baton!

Why not try to create a French baguette? Well, I did partly succeed in doing what I set out to do....

Half of my result shown above, about a foot long. I used part of my sourdough starter (see 'A well-bred loaf' from a few days ago), instead of the 'poolish' suggested in the recipe that I used - French bread and baguettes.


Whilst the recipe seems to be comprehensive, I did find it a little confusing, particularly as to how many times I had to knead the dough. In the end it got three kneads, prior to being put into the hot oven.

Perhaps my dough was a little damper than it should have been, but the two loaves I made were too close together and ended up like siamese twins, with the area of contact being a little moister than it ought to have been - but the other loaf (the one you can't see) was very palatable, despite that. I regret not having some means of making the bottoms of the loaves more rounded - I gather you can buy a specific bread tin for this - but nevertheless very enjoyable!


It will help the next time I do this if I change the loaves around on the baking sheet, as well as turning the sheet around; I feel this would give a more even bake.Yum!

For more recipes of different sorts, keep your browser on this space or take a look at Healthy Eating Recipes.



Thursday 29 March 2007

A well-bred loaf

Having done a little bread baking in the recent past, I thought it was time to take on my first sourdough. This is what happened. (Nothing to do with vegetables, either!)
I picked up the recipe for this from Sourdough bread: How To Begin.


Rather than me go through the whole thing here, best read what he's written first.


I begun my starter last Sunday afternoon (when I had nothing to do, evidently), but I did cheat a little and add a very small amount of dried yeast to the mix - about half a gram.


It didn't take long to start bubbling away in the old (but meticulously clean) pickle jar I had selected as my starter home. As it was doing so well, it wasn't fed as per instructions, as I expected to use it fairly early on.


Decided on Tuesday night that I'd like to bake Wednesday morning, so I started the 'sponge' at about 8 pm. By bedtime, it was going almost like the Old Faithful geyser. Quite fortuitously, I had to get up in the middle of the night, and was able to observe that it was still going well at 3 am.


When I looked at it at 7 am, however, in anticipation of starting the real work, it was as flat as pancake batter - no bubbles, nothing. It smelt as I thought it ought to, though, very yeasty and sour.


Undeterred, the next step was to make the actual dough, but I cheated once again and added 3 gms of dried yeast to the mix before adding the additional flour. Once I'd made the dough, it did rise well, and rose well on the second proofing, too.


After about 30 minutes at gas mark 4, I had a nice-looking loaf, which smelt yeasty-sour. After it had cooled off, it was lunchtime, and this bread was used for the ham sarnies. Great! Nice and chewy, but not too much, and a smashing taste.


The rest of the loaf (I only made a small 1lb. one) went with the soup being made (not by me) for our evening repast. Well, almost all - there was a little left over for a cheese sarnie at suppertime - I can tell you that sourdough and strong cheddar go very well together.


Try it - the major cost is probably the gas for the oven. Going to try a wholemeal or granary one next - or maybe plain old baguettes.....l

Friday 23 March 2007

The land of the swede II



Well, we made our expected trip to Scandanavia, including Copenhagen and some of southwest Sweden.

Of the few supermarkets that we actually looked into, I think only one tray of swedes (or were they yellow turnips?) was spotted!

However, we enjoyed the rest of the trip so much, the thought of which vegetables were brought to us by Bjorn the Younger or whoever (see last item), didn't have a major place in our outlook.

Starting with two whole days in Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark, for those who are unaware), we saw as much of the city as we could, all of that on foot. Needless to say we were tired by the end of the day, and did not seek out eating establishments too far from our hotel. This was perhaps a mistake, because eating at (touristy) places along the Nyhavn gave us the impression that Danish food was not inexpensive - and we really wondered whether the cash we'd brought for the Swedish portion of the trip would be enough - expecting Sweden to be more expensive.

As far as food was concerned, we were wrong on that score; it seemed to be generally cheaper in Sweden - in the limited number of places we went (not Stockholm, certainly). Our first food in that country was in Lund, where the sandwich we ordered (and were admittedly advised it might be too large for one apiece) turned out almost to be too much split in two - and all for 3 quid!

Other places we visited later did not change that impression - our only regret was that we didn't find the 'real Swedish' restaurant serving meatballs as a main course, though they seemed a frequent part of open sandwiches.

Both countries make a thing of their open sandwiches, but I think the Danes may have brought it to a finer art with their smorrebrod (excuse lack of correct accents) than the Swedish smorgasbord - no doubt the idea behind each is slightly different, but we just enjoyed.

A word about the town in Sweden that we picked to stay in - sounds really cheesy when you think it was selected on the basis of wanting to see the place where the action from most of Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallender series of detective novels takes place - but the fairly ordinary town in Skania that we were expecting (Ystad) turned out to have a large number (about 300) of well-preserved and lived-in timber-frame houses. Despite the cold weather - it was 5-10 degrees, but with a 50mph wind most of the time - these houses were a delight to look at. In the summer, when the trees and flowers are out, it will surely be a beautiful place to visit.

We managed to climb up to their Stonehenge equivalent - the Ales Stones - a 'ring' of standing stones in the form of a Viking ship - legend has it that it is a burial place, or a memorial for lost sailors, among others - in the face of a biting 70mph wind (well 25m/s, which I reckoned as 70mph). 'Twas bloody cold, that.

Anyway, we didn't bring any swedes (vegetable type) home with us, but our memory was that the food in both Denmark and Sweden was excellent. The people (90% of whom we spoke to had better English than many Brits) were unfailingly helpful. Driving in Sweden was a little boring - everyone stuck to the speed limits - even when there were few other cars on the road - which is most of the time, even in the rush hour.

Nice place - would go again.

Thursday 8 March 2007

The land of the swede

We are soon off for a short break in the land that first gave us the swede - Sweden, suprisingly enough. Made me think of a couple of things related to this vegetable (and in its various other guises such as rutabaga, neeps or turnips).

At boarding school, where we had no choice in what was served up to us, we did get mashed swede occasionally, but not that often. At home in the holidays, though (well, my grandmother's house) we had it regularly. Unfortunately, she was the sort that put the sprouts for the Christmas lunch on at 9am in the morning (for lunch at 2!), so when swede was served, it was practically tasteless. I think that is what really put me off it, and can't recall having actually asked for it to be included in my diet for over forty years!

The Scots tend to serve it up (so I hear from the likes of Billy Connolly) mixed with spuds as 'neeps and tatties' - but I don't recall whether they're mashed up together or diced and mixed.

There must be some recipes around for this apparently filling vegetable (it was practically all they had to eat in Germany in the winter of 1916-17) that make it attractive to eat?

Will be attempting to find swede recipes (or at least restaurant dishes containing it) during the upcoming holiday. If I'm suitably impressed, I'll report back - otherwise I won't.

Tuesday 6 March 2007

Carrot and Stick (without the carrot)

This is a green issue, I suppose (and does have a vegetable in the title).

The current UK government (and all the ones before, and most likely all the future ones), claim they would very much like us motorists - along with all other roadusers - to create fewer exhaust fumes and so reduce pollution, most likely so they can boast of their 'green' credentials among their EU peers, rather than a real wish to reduce greenhouse gases.

The latest among a whole range of suggestions (read 'threats') was for country-wide road pricing, along with 'big brother' monitoring. I seem to recall that one of the experts who put forward this proposal on behalf of the government claims he was misrepresented (or has since changed his mind, I can't remember exactly), and that he only meant for busy routes to be chargeable. Whichever of the two is correct, this is still a 'stick' to beat the driver with.

A majority of private motorists would probably accept such charges, on condition that the funds accrued from such charges were applied directly to the replacement public transport system that we would all be using instead of our cars. This would be the 'carrot'.

But no UK government seems capable of producing a unified public transport policy, much less actually implementing one!

How is it that many european countries seem able to do so, but not us?

I used the system (trams, trolley buses and buses) in Zürich over a couple of years (admittedly this was a number of years ago), and it worked fine. Towns in southern France are waking up and installing tram systems, to try to reduce traffic within the city centres. Marseilles, Nice and (I think) Bordeaux are well advanced in such projects. Yes, Sheffield and Croydon have done something similar, and these seem to be working well in reducing centre traffic. We would probably be reasonably happy to give up our private cars to travel in well-appointed and dependable mass-transit systems, particularly in the rush hours.

We are encouraged (or threatened with having) to travel by train rather than drive. On long-distance stuff, like London-Edinburgh, I would have no problem with it in terms of reduced stress; then you find that you may have to stand all the way (how is that for reducing stress) despite having had to get a second mortgage to afford the ticket. If there are two of you, it is far cheaper to drive London-Edinburgh than take the train. So that 'carrot' almost becomes a 'stick'. Admittedly, the rail system is no longer government-run, but they should include it in their planning - I wonder if they do?

Are there any real carrots on offer to us poor drivers? Or are we simply to be beaten with the stick until we give up totally?

Friday 2 March 2007

Rhubarb! Rhubarb!

There is a rumour that rhubarb is to be outlawed.


In order to reduce the continual scaring of government ministers by frequent shouts across the chamber of 'Rhubarb! Rhubarb!' by the opposition and Labour back-benchers alike, it has been rumoured in Whitehall that a Bill will soon be put before the House that rhubarb (or at least the mention of it) should be banned from Parliament.


Whilst a total ban may calm the nerves of ministers in one sense, how many of them will feel deprived of one of their favourite desserts, with custard, as a total ban would probably have to include all of the eating establishments that the House of Commons (and the Other Place) has?


Perhaps the ban would result in a new cry - 'Custard! Custard!'. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it somehow....

Thursday 1 March 2007

Lemon Plums

Just uncovered this link.

Lemon Plums

Anyone seen these in the UK?

Tuesday 27 February 2007

Knowing your onions (or someone else's)

Today someone who is an acknowledged expert on one subject seems almost to have to become a guru on many other subjects just to retain credibility, or at least retain their position as a public figure.

Did the likes of Beethoven get asked his views on global, or even local economics?

Was Mozart pestered for his opinion on the pros and cons of the green issues of the day?


Have I ever been asked to discourse on the politics of southeast Asia?

The answer is probably 'No' to them all (it's certainly true for the last one).

I suppose it is all a consequence of the wish for 'fame at any price'. Becoming a member of the A list (or a list even further down the alphabet), means you're almost public property. As such, you are expected to know something about everything - particularly the other members of your list.

And all us bloggers are doing the same thing in reverse, to some extent. Unless you keep your blog strictly to 'what I did today', at some point you are tempted to make some pronouncement about the state of something, be it politics, global warming or the condition of the roads in your local area. At which point, I suppose, you (and I) are pushing your view - without the option of being asked!

Now I am really beginning to wonder why I started this.....

Friday 23 February 2007

Apples & Pears

Once upon a time, in this part of the world, that title would have had two meanings - the literal one and the the one resulting from rhyming slang.


Rhyming slang, or as most of it was probably erroneously named - 'cockney' rhyming slang, lent a colourful slant to everyday speech back in the early parts of the last century. The article's title would have been known to mean 'stairs', with the intended meaning being a rhyme for the last word (or part word) of the slang substitute.


Whilst it has fallen out of general use, some of them occasionally turn up in the full-blown variant on some of our comedic TV shows, or dramas about the period. It can certainly be seen in films made in the 30s,40s and 50s. The added comedy in some of those earlier films (before 'real' working-class accents became the norm, after films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) was that the majority of (UK) film actors had trained RP (received pronunciation - i.e. BBC English) voices, and their attempts to sound genuinely cockney were funny in themselves. Almost like Dick van Dyke's chimney-sweep in Mary Poppins.


So let's have a short list of the common ones - no doubt others can add to this:

apples and pears - stairs

frog and toad - road

rub-a-dub - pub

trouble and strife - wife

plates 'o meat - feet

mince pies -> minces - eyes

pork pies -> porkies - lies

cobblers' awls -> cobblers - balls



There are still some in common use today, but without real reference to the original slang. One that springs to mind was a sort of shortened slang - 'berk', meaning someone who is a bit of an idiot. Although seen as something mild nowadays, its original rhyme came from Berkshire Hunt or Berkely Hunt. A similar derivation gives us a right Charlie - from Charles (Charlie) Hunt, a well-known East-end figure in the 30s.



There are many more detailed references on this subject out there - Wikipedia, for one. Some of the current links to old rhyming slang may surprise you!

Tuesday 20 February 2007