Hey K, your wish is my command!
The party is this afternoon, and the cake is not much more advanced than this. So guess what I’ll be doing this fine spring morning.
The Story of the Cake – Part 2
Cinderella – The Story of the Cake Part 1
Well, we weren’t able to put it off any longer. The poor Minx has her birthday at the beginning of January, and we are always so overcome with Christmas fatigue that we can never be bothered to organise a party for her.
Until now that is. The guilt (coupled with ongoing emotional blackmail from the Minx – where does she learn this stuff?) was becoming too much to bear, so we’ve buckled to pressure and scheduled a bouncy party extravaganza for 20-odd five year olds (so help me) this coming Saturday afternoon.
Last year we managed to get away with a Nemo theme, but this year we are having to go full out Disney Princess and I have promised to try making one of those ‘dolls with cakes for skirts’ in the shape of Cinderella. Feeling rather nervous about it I must say.
Last night I completed stage 1, which was to make decorations from Wilton’s Candy Melts after last year’s success with the seashells for the Nemo cake. I bought some plastic flower moulds and was pretty happy with how they turned out (these Candy Melts are VERY easy to use).
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that there are no blue flowers here, despite the fact that Cinderella always dresses in blue and white. This is because bad mummy didn’t get blue melts last year and was too disorganised to get blue ones this year. I have told the Minx that Cinderella will appreciate more colourful attire. Quite frankly I could also do without the Pepto-Bismol/calamine lotion pink as well, but I don’t think the Minx would accept the absence of pink so readily.
To refresh your memories, here are the cakes I’ve made for the Minx so far (and yes, the expression ‘making a rod for your own back’ does come to mind). Tonight will feature burying a naked Barbie up to waist. Wish me luck.
Alice Waters’ Chicken Noodle Soup with Italian Additions
What with crumbles and pot roasts I appear to be on a bit of a traditional cooking kick a the moment. Part of it is because there’s a reason the old classics are classic – we’re talking seriously good food here – but it’s also because I’m increasingly realising what a pleasure it is to share great classic food with the Minx who is experiencing it for the first time. It makes me seriously happy to see her hoovering up things like homemade apple crumble with gusto.
Another of the Minx’s favourites is Chicken Noodle Soup. This has only entered my repertoire fairly recently, but we’ve been making it A LOT as it’s a very easy way to give a kid (and adults) a complete and tasty meal in a bowl, with plenty of leftovers for lunch and supper.
I use as my starting point Alice Waters’ recipe from The Art of Simple Food (one of the best cookbooks I’ve come across in America) which essentially makes the soup in two stages.
Firstly create an intensely-flavoured chicken broth by taking bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (or sometimes I use thighs) and simmering them for 45 mins in store-bought chicken broth (or stock-cube stock), with roughly sliced onions, roughly chopped carrots and a little roughly chopped parsnip. Alice Waters adds celery, I of course do not because cooked celery is the work of the devil. Instead, because I am Italian, I add some roughly chopped cloves of garlic and one or two squooshy old tomatoes from the depths of the fridge.
If you want some more precise quantities then an adaptation of Waters’ recipe is here. Though I seriously would encourage you to buy the book or just improvise using these instructions. I tend to guesstimate based on what I have to hand and how much I want to make. All I would say is be measured in your use of parsnip. Its subtle sweetness is a wonderful addition to the soup, but a little goes a long way.
When the broth has simmered for about 45 minutes, hoik out the meat and skim and strain the broth, discarding the vegetables. Remove the skin and bone from the meat and shred it into small pieces. Put it in a small bowl, cover with a couple of spoonfuls of broth and then cover the bowl. This way the meat remains moist, and yes, it does seem to make a difference.
About twenty minutes before you want to serve your soup, whizz up some more onion, carrot and parsnip in the food processor until finely chopped. I do it in the processor, instead of dicing the vegetables by hand, because a) it’s easier and b) it’s incredible how much vegetable matter the Minx will inhale if it’s chopped so finely she can’t see it. Again Alice Waters adds celery, I don’t but add garlic and go easy on the parsnip.
Simmer the broth with the fresh vegetables for about ten minutes and then add fettuccine or soup noodles and cook them until soft (Alice Waters cooks her noodles separately and then adds them at the end. I have no idea why you would want to do this). When the noodles are ready, stir in the reserved chicken and get ready for some serious comfort food.
Alice Waters suggest sprinkling with chopped dill to finish. I prefer some chopped Italian parsley, some grated Parmesan cheese, and little freshly ground nutmeg, which seems to meld with the parsnip flavour to add an intriguing extra dimension to the dish.
How do you make chicken soup? I think it’s one of those dishes where there’s an infinite number of variations and you’ve probably all been making it longer than I have.
Blackberry & Apple Crumble
Aka the lazy girl’s pie.
I’m always a little surprised that America, with its obsession with apples and fruit pies of all kinds, seems to be unaware of the humble and quintessentially British fruit crumble. After all it hits exactly the same comfort eating spots that pie does, but is much, MUCH quicker and easier to make.
The Minx and I were casting about for something to bake yesterday evening when I remembered that I already had a bag of stewed apple and blackberry in the freezer, left over from a crumble session last autumn.
Crumble can be made with any sorts of stewed fruits though, either mixed with apples or on their own – plum, rhubarb, apricots, pears and raspberries – are all traditional British faves.
Essentially you need to chop the fruit up into small pieces, add a couple of spoonfuls of water, enough to stop the fruit sticking, and mix with couple of spoonfuls of sugar to taste, how much will depend on the tartness/sweetness/quantity of your fruit. Then cook very gently until the fruit is very soft. Again then cooking time will depend on what fruits you’re using. I like to make a big batch and shove a couple of bags into the freezer.
If I’m just using apples, I like to add a little cinnamon and some raisins; chopped nuts of all types – walnuts, pecans, almonds are also delicious. I’ve also eaten the most incredible crumble which added small cubes of vanilla fudge to stewed apples.
As the Minx and I already had our stewed fruit to hand, all we needed to do was make the crumble topping. I’ve found that about 2 cups of flour to 3/4 cup chilled butter to 2/3 cup sugar works well.
When I say flour though, you can go a bit mad at this stage and experiment with other dried goods. Last night’s crumble was made with 1 cup of flour and half a cup each of ground almonds and rolled porridge oats. Other ground nuts would be good, wholewheat flour is a nice addition and I’ve even thrown it spoonfuls of muesli on occasion. Granola, chopped nuts, crushed cookies and other flours and grains would be interesting to try. Likewise you can also experiment with different types of sugar – last night’s crumble was made with soft brown sugar instead of white.
When you’ve customised your crumble topping ingredients, chop the chilled butter into the flour with a pair of kitchen scissors and start rubbing it in as if you were making pastry. Stop when it reaches the consistency of large breadcrumbs and stir in the sugar. If you’ve experimented with oats or nuts you may need to add some flour to get it to the right consistency. Don’t worry though, quantities are extremely approximate and the important thing is to get the right breadcrumb consistency. Kids love making this by the way – they can literally be very hands on but it’s over before they can get bored.
And that’s all there is to it. Put your stewed fruit in an ovenproof dish, top with the crumble topping, press it down gently with a fork and bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees F/180 C. When it comes out of the oven it won’t look much different, just a little more golden round the edges, but it will be firm and almost crunchy to the bite.
Serve warm or cold with ice cream, cream or, if you want to be really English, CUSTARD. Here are a few crumble ideas including a recipe for homemade custard (most English people would just use Bird’s custard powder or buy it ready made).
UPDATE: It appears that there exists in America something called an Apple Crisp, and looking at recipes, it does seem very similar to apple crumble (though the fruit is cooked at the same time as the topping? – Must try this, seems like even less work.) I thought it seemed strange that there was no equivalent. Having said which I haven’t come across it in Seattle, and we gave some crumble to our babysitter last night and she’d never had anything like it.
Today I Am Mostly…
…eating breakfast
2% Fage Greek yogurt, strawberries, bananas, almonds for crunch and protein, drizzle of raw Washington honey = breakfast of the gods.
Experimenting with that ‘slightly over-exposed’ feel that other photographers get.
Brasato al barolo
or, as it’s known chez us, ‘Italian pot roast’.
The beauty of this dish is that it really is p*ss easy to make and yet so very splendid that you could honestly serve it next time the Queen drops in for supper.
The recipe is a classic from my mother’s home region of Piemonte, though the actual recipe I use is from the fabulous The Food of Italy by the incomparable Claudia Roden, which I’ve had in my collection for years and is to my mind one of the very best books out there on Italian cooking.
Roughly chop an onion and three-ish carrots and crush a couple of cloves of garlic. My mother (and Claudia Roden concurs) would also chop and add a couple of stalks of celery. However, since I consider cooked celery to be the work of the devil it is resolutely lacking in my version.
Saute’ the chopped vegetables in a tablespoon or three of olive oil until soft. Then add a sprig of rosemary and a big lump of beef suitable for potroasting. My beef lump was labelled ‘chuck’ and ‘ideal for pot roasts’ in my US supermarket. I’m not sure what the UK equivalent would be. The most important thing is that it comes marbled with fat, as in the magnificent specimen above.
Brown the meat on all sides and then throw the meat, vegetables and rosemary in the slow cooker. If you don’t have one of these, this can also be made in your finest Dutch oven/casserole dish.
Then add a PINT of red wine. Barolo – the magnificent red wine of Piemonte – is recommended, but it is also fiendishly expensive, so probably best reserved for when you actually do have the Queen coming over. I referred myself to Google for the best substitution and was pointed in the direction of either a cabernet sauvignon or zinfandel. I used a nice-ish Californian zinfandel for my version – the wine is quite prominent in this dish, so you may want to take a step up from really cheap supermarket plonk. I also add a tablespoon of tomato puree/paste at this point, because my mother would, but Claudia doesn’t and you don’t have to.
And that’s pretty much it. Cook for 6-8 hours on LOW in the slow cooker, or 2-3 hours in a casserole dish, or until the meat is meltingly tender.
When it’s done hoik out the meat and rosemary and whizz the juices and vegetables together with your hand blender to create a smooth unctuous deeply flavoured sauce. Season with salt, pepper and a little freshly ground nutmeg to taste.
I like to serve this with some mashed potato to which a little truffle oil has been added and some carrots, which have been sliced thinly and gently sauted in olive oil and garlic for about 20 mins until soft and browning at the edges. This is the way Italians cook carrots and is by far my favourite way of preparing them.
Buon appetito!
Fancy Hotel of the Week – the Wickanninish Inn
aka (by the uber-geeky Husband anyway), the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
This is where we were lucky enough to stay last week in Tofino. The Wick is a 4* Relais et Chateaux hotel perched on the most glorious and enormous beach way out on the westernmost tip of Vancouver Island. There is something utterly beguiling and sobering about looking out to sea and knowing that the next stop is Japan or something.
The view from our balcony
We went in February with the intention of hunkering down and ‘storm-watching’, instead, we had the most incredible sunny weather and were truly able to enjoy the beach and the stunning natural surroundings.
Which you can do without ever leaving the bar thanks to the amazing nearly 360 degree views from the restaurant.
The other thing which sets this place apart is the food, which was insanely good, some of the best I’ve eaten in North America.
Everything we had, from different freshly squeezed juices every morning, to the homemade breads, to the wonderful seafood, to spaghetti and meatballs for the Minx was utterly delicious and clearly made with only the freshest and best ingredients. And it was so nice to come back from a grubby afternoon at the beach and drink paradisical cocktails/hot chocolate.
Breakfast! Just the best smoked salmon bagel I’ve ever had in my life
As for the decor, it’s all pretty standard North American ‘lodge’ stuff – all hewn timber and earth-toned textiles (which frankly were looking a little tired round the edges, why not replace them and add some colour next time?) – which, as you know, is not exactly my cup of tea.
However, this was really well done for the genre, with lots of local art and thoughtful touches everywhere – art glass, Native American wood carving, driftwood furniture, a soaring copper fireplace, stone statues of local wildlife and a gorgeous copper screen of swimming salmon.
As an aside, and for those of you who care about such things, the hotel was also super child-friendly, but in a very grown up way. The staff could not have been friendlier and kinder to the Minx, who fell in love with the hotel the minute she found the basket of beach toys they had thoughtfully supplied in the room. Best of all they provide complimentary babysitting, so parents can go and have dinner in the restaurant. Other hotels please take note.
But at the end of the day it was mostly all about this
and this
and this
and this
Pasta with Leeks and Ham – Pasta con Porri e Prosciutto
You know how you suddenly remember a recipe and then go through a phase of cooking it ALL the time? Well, we’re currently going through a ‘pasta with leeks and ham’ phase, which we’ve been having once a week since Christmas. It makes a tremendously quick, easy and delicious weekday supper.
It certainly helps that in the grey tail end of the Seattle winter, when most other vegetables have invariably been flown in thousands of miles from Mexico, the supermarkets are full of beautiful white and green leeks.
For this recipe you need to slice thinly a heap of slim and pretty leeks (I think this was about five leeks).
Then melt a knob of butter and a slug of olive oil in a deep-sided saute pan. I use oil so I can pretend this is more healthy but it’s sadly one of those recipes which improves the more butter is added. If you just want to melt one ginormous lump of butter then I won’t stop you.
When the butter/oil has melted add the sliced leeks and stir until they’re completely covered in the butter, then add about a cupful (8 fl oz or 1/4 litre) of chicken broth or stock. Turn the heat right down and braise the leeks gently, uncovered, for about 30 minutes until the leeks are soft and sweet and the liquid is mostly absorbed. This is a very traditional Italian way of cooking leeks. My mother would do this, replacing the stock with white wine or vermouth and then serve the leeks as a side vegetable. But I digress…
Meanwhile cook some pasta (I like using rigatoni or penne – anything tube-y – with this).
When the leeks are done, add a few slices of cooked ham, chopped into matchsticks, and half a cup (4 fl oz or 1/8 litre) single cream (half and half). Heat everything through, stir into the pasta and then add as much grated Parmesan as your diet will allow.
Buon appetito!
Jolly Cookie Jar
I found this recipe for layered cookie mix last year on the Williams-Sonoma website and the Minx and I had fun making jars to give to some of her friends and godparents.
This year we decided to make some for her teachers.
This is a great project to do with young kids as they can be genuinely helpful, measuring out the different ingredients and patting it down into layers. I got the jars quite cheaply at Ikea but they were much bigger than suggested in the recipe, so we had to stuff them with coloured tissue paper. I like the decorative effect and it means the teachers end up with a bigger jar to put the cookies in afterwards. As you’ve probably guessed the Minx chose the colour schemes for each teacher (and she had very precise ideas for each one).
You could use any cookie recipe for this though the one given in the link above works very well as it makes for some interesting layers – brown sugar layered between white sugar and flour, and layers of nuts, cherries, rolled oats and chocolate chips. Recipes for hot chocolate mix, with chocolate chips and marshmallows would also be good.
All the recipient needs to do is stir in butter, eggs and vanilla and then bake the cookies, using the recipe provided on the label. The recipe in the book tells you exactly what to write.
Next year I’m thinking it might be quite fun to decorate the jars with glass paints.
The Williams-Sonoma recipe comes from Kids in the Holiday Kitchen. I picked up the book this year as we’d enjoyed the cookie jar recipe so much last year. There are lots of fun projects for kids – including makes, not just baking , though I was a little perturbed by how unhealthy some of them food was– yes that is a chocolate brownie covered with buttercream and crushed candy canes you can see above. Also not all of the projects come with pictures, which is a great shame. But overall I think we’ll be using this book a lot.
Petrossian Hot Chocolate on a Stick
About this time last year I did a little blog post on Petrossian’s very exciting-looking ‘Hot Chocolate-on-a Stick’ – big chunks of chocolate on sticks specially designed to be stirred into hot milk.
Petrossian somehow found my post and very kindly offered to send me some to try. Sometimes this blogging business is very hard, but someone has to do it. Today I have a sick little Minx at home, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to experiment with decadent hot chocolate.
Each chunk of chocolate comes packaged in its own little box. My only criticism of this product is that the packaging could be SO much more exciting, as it is it doesn’t give much of a hint of the pleasures lurking within.
There, that’s more like it. There is after all nothing more attractive than a large unadulterated lump of chocolate. The Minx and I decided that our Snork Maiden and Moominmamma mugs (we are great fans of the Moomins) would be most appropriate. If you’d like some of your own they are available here from FinnStyle in the US or from the DesignShop in the UK.
The chocolate blocks are designed to be enough for 8 fl oz of hot milk, so only one is enough for two Moomin mugs as they are quite small.
The blocks seem to be made mostly of Belgian chocolate, with cocoa powder and heavy cream. Petrossian recommends eating them within 2-4 weeks. I expect all ours to be used within 2-4 days.
All you need to do is stir the stick into warm milk or cream. It takes a minute or two for the chocolate to fully melt into the milk, but it’s worth the wait.
This hot chocolate is seriously divine, not too bitter, not too sweet, just really rich, creamy and chocolate-y, with no clumps of unstirred powder. It’s like the gorgeous stuff you get in European ski resorts. You could add whipped cream or marshmallows, but honestly this doesn’t need it. The Minx pronounced it ‘yummy’ and devoured it in about 5 seconds flat, so it’s not too sophisticated for kids either.
You can get yours here.They cost $18 for 6 individually packaged 1.3 oz chunks, which will make six enormous mugs-full or 12 perfectly reasonable cups-full.
Thanks Petrossian!
