Book 22 / Cranks Light by Nadine Abensur / Poached pears with chocolate sauce

Have recently been to Cafe Rouge and had v.lovely poached pears with waffle and chocolate sauce. Poached pears are very en vogue. Delighted that book has recipe for poached pears. And book says it’s healthy. Bargain. Says I need dessert pears. No idea what dessert pears are. Husband goes to supermarket. Buys ingredients without me asking. Lovely. Buys normal pears. Recipe says to peel, halve and core pears. Suspect they won’t look as pretty as modern day poached pears which appear not to be cut in to pieces. Put wine, apple juice in saucepan with cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and sugar and bring to boil. Add pears and simmer. Nice. V.straightforward.

Now for sauce. Husband has bought 85% cocoa chocolate. He’s trying to wean me off the milk stuff. Chocolate easily combines with hot water in bowl over boiling water. In jug mix cocoa powder, sugar and boiling water to make paste. Doesn’t quite make paste. Unhappy with consistency. Add another tablespoon of sugar and cocoa. Better. Combine with chocolate mixture. Test pears. Are tender. Good. Was worried there’d be something special about dessert pears and had got wrong ones. Remove from liquid and put in bowl. Cover (liberally) with chocolate sauce. Didn’t get any Easter eggs. Am allowed. Taste. Pears and chocolate sauce are delicious. Pears have absorbed wonderful cinnamon flavour and are quite special.

Back to cooking. Have got v.distracted.

Book 20 / Cooking with Herbs and Spices / Josceline Dimbleby / Orange Butter Spice Biscuits

After last (not very appealing) book featuring herbs, decide to utilise spices instead. Have got faith in Josceline Dimbleby. Like Dimblebys. Met David when I was in audience at Question Time in Derby in 2005. Was the one where man in audience proposed to his girlfriend. Hadn’t happened before. Hasn’t happened since. Have also met Henry (of Leon fame) whilst working on cooking radio show. Josceline has v.big reputation. Am sure she won’t let me down.

Book is another one by Sainsburys. Supermarket used to produce some v.g books. Is from 1979. Pick orange butter biscuits. Seems convenient. Apparently this is American method of biscuit making and dough will keep in fridge for up to fortnight. Have got all ingredients at home. Cool. Beat sugar and butter, add egg, add orange rind, sift dry ingredients and add wet ones to it. Shape dough in to roll. Is sticky. Add more flour to hands. Seems squidgy. Comes in to roll shape. Doesn’t look that appealing. Think roll may not be thick enough. Struggling to push back together. Will have to do. Put in fridge. Says to chill for 3 hours. Always seem to pick recipes where I have to wait. Decide to make biscuits next day when has proper chilled.

Remove roll from fridge. Has got dents from margarine tub which I laid it on. Is manageable though. Cut slices. Slices don’t seem that big. Husband says they’ll expand and to leave room on baking sheet. Take his advice. He seems confident. Put in oven. Biscuits cook v.quickly. They’ve expanded into rich, big, orange, golden loveliness. And they’re not sticking to tray. Leave to cool. Take some round to neighbour Ann. Feedback is that they’re light, but crunchy, with a v.slightly moist centre (which is good). A success.

Next book: Cranks Light, Nadine Abensur, 1998

Book 20 / Cooking with Herbs, 1984, Herb Pancake Strips

Intrigued by two things.

1. All recipes have metric/imperial and American measurements. Don’t know why. Maybe book was published in both UK and US and to save money all measurements were included.

2. Recipe includes herb called chervil. Never heard of chervil. V.exciting.

Have got a problem. Can’t find chervil. Supermarket seems to sell mainstream herbs, nothing else. Have got ample supplies of coriander, basil, mint and parsley (the flat and funky one). Wonder if chervil was v.popular in 1980s and tastes have changed. Google chervil. Looks a bit like parsley. Twitter followers suggest inferior substitute would be combination of parsley and tarragon. Good plan. Go back to supermarket. Buy some nice parsley. Not sure plant on windowsill will provide enough for recipe. Think plant needs a bit of love. Oh no. Can’t find tarragon either. Buy some of the dried stuff. Hope that’s ok. (Have since learned you can get chervil, am told by twitter follower Pepperpot Herbs that it’s available at farmers market in Surrey and is still v.popular in French cooking).

Make pancake mixture. Is v.easy. Sift flour. Make hole in middle. Add salt. Whisk in egg. Pour on milk. Is good consistency. Nice. Says to leave mixture for an hour. Am impatient. Really should read through recipes first before starting them. Keep discovering long waiting/cooking times buried in detail. Add chopped herbs. Says to use lard in frying pan. Don’t eat lard. Use oil instead. Don’t like the sound of pancake strips in clear soup. Decide to make big ones instead and eat with cream cheese. Cook pancakes. Come out ok. Fill with cheese. Eat. Eugh. Pancakes are v.boring. Not sure what I was expecting. Maybe herb substitution was not good.

Looks and tastes like omelette imposter.

Next book – Cooking with Herbs and Spices, Josceline Dimbleby, 1979.

Picture from the book

Omelette imposter

Week has gone by. Need to re-focus. Am still determined to cook from one book a week. Pick easiest thing in book.

Book 19 / The Complete Book of Wok Cooking by Vicki Liley, 2005 / Chickpeas with spinach

Have already got HUGE bag of dried chickpeas. Husband bought them after I made gammon chowder. Was convinced they’d be good for casseroles. Or making hummus. Bucket loads of it by looks of size of bag. Just need to buy tomato paste, spinach and mint. Consider buying mint plant. Decide not to. Haven’t needed mint since summer when I made jugs of pimms. Think we have cat mint in garden. Wonder if I could use that in emergencies. Not sure. Buy packet of mint.

Soak chickpeas overnight. Feel v.worthy that have gone to lots of effort to soak veg. Drain chickpeas and cook for 1-1 and a half hours. WHAT? Oh dear. Didn’t read full recipe. Was just looking at easy ingredients. Is already getting late. Am not going to have chickpeas for dinner. Belly is rumbling. Cook 4 minute pasta instead. Chickpeas take ages. Am due to go to bed. Husband asks ‘why do you love cooking so much?’ don’t know how to answer this. Could say:

1. Love baking. Is therapeutic. Can be quick. Cake tastes good. Neighbours love me

This is not baking. Answer does not apply. Mumble something about letting myself (and the chickpeas) down if I don’t follow through and cook dish. Am resenting chick peas. Have tasted them. Taste boring. 10 hours worth of cooking for boring chickpeas. Continue anyway.

Here comes the wok. Finally. Cook onion in wok. In lots of oil. Add all the fun stuff. Add chickpeas. Hoping special ingredients do for chickpeas what a full face of make-up does for me at 5am. Meant to chop up spinach. Can’t be bothered. Weigh spinach. Didn’t buy enough. Have only got one third of spinach required. Recipe must be wrong. Can’t fit any more spinach in wok. Unless there’s section at start of book that says you need industrial sized wok. Like those ones that people cook record breaking paellas in. Husband comes in kitchen. Says something smells good. Looks in wok. Says chickpeas look good – like an Indian takeaway dish. Yay! Agree. Spinach has completely broken down. Maybe recipe was right. Try chickpea concoction. Is delish. Not spicy, but v.fulfilling, good texture, v.yummy. Is like those little salad side dishes I pay £2-£3 for in supermarket. But there’s lots and lots of this. Decanter into boxes and leave to cool. Chickpeas. You’ve done me proud*

*but next time I won’t cook so late, I’ll buy correct amount of spinach and I’ll be v.patient.

No more spinach is fitting in here

* they liked cooking with vegetables / may be vegetarian

* their fave shop was Sainsbury’s

* they liked baking

* they were interested in cooking quick and easy meals

* they had connections with Hampshire and Somerset

* they cooked for two people (ingredients for recipes for 4 peeps halved in margins)

* they were particularly interested in cooking during 60s 70s and 80s.

Slightly concerned about next book.

Cooking for one by Molly Perham, 2001

Wondering why they needed to only cook for one person during noughties.

Discover in introduction that ‘eating alone should be much more fun than cooking a solitary pork chop or heating a packaged ready-made meal in the microwave’. This is true. Book could be useful. Sometimes meat-eating husband eats one dinner. Sometimes I eat something different. Would be awful to just eat separate ready meals. Book seems to make things v.easy. Says ‘recipes in this book are as quick and easy as grilling (broiling) a pork chop.’ Book is obsessed with pork chop. Hope book is not actually book about 100 ways to cook pork chops. It goes on ‘they (recipes) are all cooked on top of the stove, so you don’t even have to turn on oven’. This is v.g. Mum always used to say putting on cooker for one small thing was waste of time and used too much electricity.

Pick something nice. Winter warming. Veggie. For me. For one person. Just me. On my own. Not including husband. He can eat pork chop.

Courgette Soup – makes 2 servings

** confused **

Makes TWO servings. TWO. Not one. What happened to cooking for one?! Suspect naming book ‘cooking for one plus an additional serving to take to work for lunch the next day’ would not have been so catchy. Have got most of ingredients in house. Just need to buy courgettes. Feeling smug. Already have cumin in cupboard. And a parsley plant on windowsill (is looking slightly limp – is suffering in cold weather). Recipe is v.straightforward. Heat oil and butter and cook courgettes and onions for 5 mins. Add rest of ingredients apart from parsley and heat. Blend. Add parsley. Done. Looks good colour. Is delish. Tastes fresh. And filling. Take second serving for work lunch the next day. Colleague asks ‘what’s that smell?’ Tell her is courgette soup. Asks if it’s homemade. Take great delight in saying it is. V.cool.

Have discovered the joy of SEC = The joy of Slow Economical Cooking

Is marvellous. Chop up ingredients. Bung them in slow cooker. Switch on. Stir. Done. Makes lots. Is good value.

Have not been v.adventurous until recently. Mainly made beef casserole. Not really followed recipes. Husband gets bored with beef casserole every day for a week. Is starting to look like beef casserole. Must make different stuff. Must be more to life than beef casserole.

Ultimate Slow Cooker by Sara Lewis

Look through book. See nice recipes. Don’t have all ingredients in house. Photograph recipes on phone. Take phone to supermarket. Buy everything on list. No excuses. Much to be said for taking shopping lists to shop.

Make many things from book including this salmon chowder. Doesn’t go quite according to plan. Have no idea what fennel looks like so buy dried stuff. Fail to realise chowder is several stage process. Decide am v.hungry. Decide not to use slow cooker. Cook in oven instead. Doesn’t make much difference. Is well lush. Use fish stock made from cube. Not sure if this is right. Don’t cook enough fish to make fresh stuff.

Also make parsnip soup with chilli and stilton. Need lots of parsnips to make 625 grams. Will be well parsnipy. Have to add turmeric and cumin seeds to spice collection. Hope I use them again. Have to cook off parsnips, apple and spices first. Turmeric makes everything go nice colour. Oh dear. Needs to go in slow cooker for 4-5 hours. Is not good. Is already 6pm. Put that in normal oven too. Make stilton butter. Use stilton left over from cheese board at Christmas. Hope it’s ok. Can’t tell if it’s new mould or old mould. Enjoy making butter cylinder. Little time to chill. Bung it in freezer. OMG. Is best soup ever. Just so sweet and spicy and lovely and… words don’t do soup justice. Can’t wait for husband to get home. Stand there watching whilst he tries soup. Am like child bringing painting home from school. Must get praise. Husband has said in past I often add too many spices to things. Wait for verdict. He loves it. Yay. Think it’s best soup have made. Ever. Makes 5-6 portions. Take some for lunch.

Am on a roll. Also make smoked gammon & mixed bean chowder. Just need to think about it in advance. Have to soak gammon and country soup mix overnight. Drain country soup mix and cook with other ingredients. Put in slow cooker with gammon (gammon joint too big so use remainder to make gammon and poached eggs for breakfast at weekend – v.nice). Husband says it smells good. Gammon literally falls apart in to smaller than bite sized pieces. Take some round to neighbours Mick, Ann and Rob. Wondering if they find it strange me always popping round with random food samples demanding feedback. Hope not. They like it. Rob says he could taste cloves. Suspect he ate cloves. Did warn him about cloves.

Book 17 / The Book of Yoghurt – An International Collection of Recipes by Sonia Uvezian / Yoghurt Muffins

Like yoghurt. Don’t do too much with it though. Buy big pots of it in effort to be economical. End up throwing half of it away. Have never heard of book. Was published in 1978. Doubt anyone else in whole world owns book. Is very interesting though. Discover that ‘the mountain folk of Bulgaria and the Caucasus (where a large number of centenarians also exist, including the oldest people in the world) live long and healthy lives for several important reasons and not just because they are yoghurt lovers.’ Wahoo. Must mean long life is partly attributable to yoghurt. Throw out the anti-aging cream ladies, enough with the zumba… copious amounts of yoghurt here we come.

Book is packed full of yoghurt related recipes. Never realized how versatile yoghurt is. All 162 pages of it. With few pictures. Some pages have three recipes on. Could make persian yoghurt cheese with cucumbers. Or chilled senegalese soup with yoghurt. Or ghivetch. Not feeling adventurous. Need cake. Decide on yoghurt muffins. Sound tasty. Sieve and mix dry ingredients. Combine wet ones. Add to dry ingredients. Stir until moistened. Look at mixture. Looks like wall paper paste. Has same texture as wall paper paste. Eugh. Convinced it’s a recipe for wall paper paste. Need more wet ingredients. Hmmm. There’s only one egg in it. Add another egg. Is much better. Divide mixture in to muffin cases, not patty pans as specified. Not sure what patty pan is. Cake tin? Not keen on lining tin with mixture. May never get it off. Put in oven. Cakes rise well. Topple slightly. Keep close eye on them after frequently getting distracted and burning cakes. Leave to cool. Look good.

Try one. Tastes of nothing. Zilchio. Nada. V.boring. Terrible. Gutted. Waste of ingredients.

NB. Still ate all 12 though during week as had no other cake.

Book 15 / Buying and Cooking Vegetables by Mary Norwak / Simple Mayonnaise

Is confirmation owner of books loved Sainsbury’s. Is mostly book about information on vegetables. With illustrations. Appreciate illustration of fennel. Wasn’t quite sure what fresh fennel looked like. Read that ‘a few years ago, it was only possible to buy vegetables in season… now thanks to improved methods of cultivation and skilled buying from home and overseas growers, Sainsbury’s are able to offer most vegetables throughout the year‘. That’s fine. Book was written in 1980. Think our attitudes have changed. V.much encouraged to buy fruit and veg in season now.

Not sure what to make. Has some recipes for all veggie dishes. Farmer neighbour pops round. Is going through cooking phase himself. Has made veggie crumble with artichokes. Try crumble. Is very tasty. Calls me next day. Asks if I’m ok. Say yes. Says artichokes gave his guests bad wind. Nice. Google this. Seems common. Decide not to make all veggie dish. Think I’ll try mayonnaise. Not made it before. Like it very much. Ate a bit too much at university. With chips. And cheese. Discover it’s very simple. Understand why it’s fattening. Huge amount of oil and and egg and other seasoning. Not that cheap to make either. Mix egg with seasoning. Doesn’t make paste as recipe described. Blends well though. Gradually add oil. Looking good. But yellow. Is mayonnaise meant to be yellow? Decide posh homemade mayonnaise must be. Put into new jar bought from supermarket. Take round to neighbour Dave’s house. He likes it. Says it tastes less acidic than shop bought stuff. Take this as compliment. Serve with chips made from sweet potato. Lovely. Not sure how long it will keep for. Mum says until it goes green.

Next book: Cooking with a Remoska (or not, v.worried, still don’t know anyone who can lend me one, can not fake remoska, can not pretend slow cooker is a remoska, book is not ‘cooking with a slow cooker’)

Fewer life dramas + new bookcases + eating some cake again = more cooking time.

Have not been totally bad. Have made some stuff from new recipes. Was inspired after holiday to US to make American style pancakes. Recipe says they’re fluffy. Oh boy was this mixture fluffy. Was also delighted to get book by Nick Coffer for Christmas (have decided am allowed to receive more books as gifts – can’t be helped – but won’t buy any more for time being as book cases can’t hack pace) and have since made this banana cake. Was well delish, v.moist, think I got distracted though as slightly burnt top. Still trying to track down person who had cheeky nibble before I took pic.

Book 14 / Burnt Cakes and Other Offerings. A Taste of Burrowbridge / Rumblethumps

Is not really a book. Is a collection of recipes made by a school. Don’t think my school ever did this. Start flicking from back. Children give quotes about their mum’s cooking. These are my favourites.

‘I love fish and chips – mummy cooks it all by herself, she gets it from the freezer’

‘My mum makes lovely sketti bolognese’ (love the word sketti)

Wonder where Burrowbridge Primary School is. Suspect it may be in Hampshire like Botley Mills was. Google school. Is in Somerset. Read further down google to this article. School is to close in March! Number of pupils has fallen to just 12. In shock. Either book is really old and lots of pupils used to go to school or book is not that old and pupils’ mums are v.g cooks and managed to come up with 59 pages worth of recipes. Oh dear. Didn’t see that coming.

Flick through booklet. Includes recipes for ‘wiener schnitzel’, ‘gerald’s athelney eels’ and ‘Beryl’s chocolate sponge’ among some classics like pumpkin pie and prawn cocktail sauce. Opt for something have never heard of but looks relatively simple: rumblethumps.

Mix all veggies together, cover with cheese and bake till golden. Is v.easy.

Nice enough way of serving veggies. Husband says it’s ‘ok, tastes like veggies with cheese’. Bit of an alternative to bubble and squeak. Next book is ‘buying and cooking  with vegetables’. That’s ok. VERY WORRIED about book afterwards. Book after is ‘Cooking with the Remoska’. Have had to look up what ‘remoska’ is. Is cooker from Czech Republic. Don’t have one. Know Lakeland sell them. They’re £104. Ouch. Have looked on ebay. Still sell for a lot second hand. Remoska may be brilliant. But not sure it’s investment purchase, and don’t really have cash post-Christmas. Have asked friends. No-one has remoska.

No remoska = no blog post = blog failed at book 16

Help.

Veggies topped with cheese

Cake baking is on hold. There. I said it.

Take deep breaths.

Love baking cakes. Too much it seems. Husband and I have put on muchly weight in last couple of years. Lots recently due to discovering old recipes. Find baking therapeutic. Love creativity of baking. Love sharing cakes. Have not been sharing enough cakes though. Don’t think it’s all down to cakes. Love chocolate too. And other cheeky snacks. But cakes are part of the problem. Has to stop. Have got family portrait being taken in a few weeks. Concerned I will have cake oozing from pores.

Exercise more + eat fewer cheeky snacks = way forward

Will continue cooking recipes from books but focus on savoury more fulfilling-dinner-type recipes. Make next recipe last cake recipe. Below is homage to successful and not so successful cakes cooked in last year.

Book 13 / Be-Ro Home Recipes Scones Cakes Pastry Puddings / Macaroons

Book is falling apart. Must have been well loved. Book does not have date. Suspect it’s from 1950s. Google Be-Ro. Very excited. Picture of book is on website’s ‘about’ page. Also discover that ‘In the early 1920s, plain flour was the flour most commonly used. Self raising flour was considered a novelty – consumers bought plain flour
direct from the miller and self raising flour was only sold into independent
grocers. In a bid to make self raising flour more popular among the general public,
the company staged a series of exhibitions in the early 1920s where freshly
baked scones, pastries and cakes were sold for a shilling to visitors. Fascinating. Discover Be-Ro still produces recipe books. Is now up to 41st edition. Twitter followers say they remember books. Some still have them. Others threw them away. See that some people sell old ones on ebay. Tempting. Not sure where I’ll put another 39 books. Husband instructs me to move away from computer.

Flick through book. Not sure what to cook. Then spot macaroons. Macaroons not like modern macaroons / rons. But do have almond type paste. Have never made modern macarons. Suspect these may be completely different. Look much easier. Mix almonds and sugar with beaten egg. Recipe is quite correct. Do not need whole egg. Recipe for pastry is straight forward. Don’t use lard though. Don’t like lard. Use marg instead. Roll out pastry. Add jam. Look like jam tarts. (Made jam tarts with puff pastry once. Bad idea. Very bad idea. Jam went everywhere. Ruined tin) Add almond mixture. Then pastry strips. Put in oven. Get distracted. Am a v.distracted cook. Almost burn macaroons. Decide to photograph from good angle and not show burnt ones. Neighbours Mick, Rob and Barbara taste test them. (See I do give some cakes away, just not enough). Verdict: very tasty, like bakewell tart, much appreciated, thanks.

Macaroons taken from a flattering angle

Homage to cakes: not such a success

No more fishy cakes for me

Cake stand now in storage