Cookies and Chutney.

It's been a while since I last wrote on here, and i'm starting to get a little bit fidgety and generally just being a bit of a grumpus. I would say that me writing is not a choice, but a deep seated need to project my inner creative out like a pretentious tit but my body does seem to be proving my theory right. I give to you this example; I've been tired all evening, I get into bed, say hello to Jupiter up to the South-East of my sky and decide to write myself a reminder sentence, something I often do, and here I am, two hours later, bolt awake and writing tirelessly. I've not written anything properly for the past few weeks, and I feel like my brain cells are slowly dying, a reaction I, coincidently, also develop when i've not read (...about cooking) for a while. But back onto the post, this is more of an update to all of my happenings during my absence rather then a history-based post, so i'm sorry if you're disappointed, but there will be a rewarding recipe by the end I promise.

I've just started a new job and i'm balancing as many hours as I can and putting off all my other things, like having a social life and cooking properly. Oh the shame! I say that, i've still cooked a fair amount, for example, a fortnight ago I made a huge batch of cookies (see rudimentary figure below!)

I was quite chuffed with them, me and my sister crowded round the oven 'ee'-ing at the cookies to not spread any further and squeaking at random intervals when we spotted a rogue chocolate chip melting into the dough. They were yum, so to reward your patience, I give to you a pretty damn sexy cookie recipe. Make them right and they are lovely, chewy and soft, love it!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter
200g dark brown soft sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
300g chocolate chips

- Set your oven to 170C or Gas Mark 3 to start with, and cover your baking sheet with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.
- Melt the butter and leave to cool a little, whilst you're waiting sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a separate bowl and set aside. Once cooled a little, cream together the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until really well mixed. Add the vanilla, egg and egg yolk and whisk as hard as you can until light and creamy.
- Add in the sifted ingredients until just mixed and then add in your chocolate chips (I used a mix of dark and milk because I couldn't decide on the one I wanted!).
- Spoon your mixture out onto a tray, leaving about 3 inches in between each cookies, you should fit maybe 9 cookies on a good sized tray. If you want to as well, instead of laying out your cookies relatively flat, try to pile them high and thin, that way when they melt they'll stay a decent thickness and will be even more awesome!
- Bake for around 15minutes, but keep a very close eye on, to keep them chewy they're almost a little underdone. It's difficult to tell if they're golden brown because the dough is already that colour, and once you notice they're getting darker it's already too late, so you have to do it by touch. If you open the oven after 12 minutes, touch the top of a cookie with your finger and it feels completely liquid underneath, they're too raw, but they shouldn't be solid. They should spring back ever so slightly but not feel like you're poking an egg with no shell...or a fake boob.
- Leave them to cool for 2 or 3 minutes on the tray, then lift them off onto a cooling rack to cool properly.

What they look like once finished! (Stolen from Allrecipes where this recipe is from!)

This recipe is pretty perfect, I remember many, many years ago when I was still an angst-ey goth and I made a set of cookies that were absolutely amazing. I literally searched for 5 years to try and find it and I just sort of gave up that it was a one off and it wasn't to happen again. Turns out it was this recipe, to cut a long story short, and they're still as lovely as I remembered, sweet and satisfying with milk, as any good cookie should be I suppose!

I've not just stuck with cookies either, I also decided it would be a brilliant idea to make a plum and apple chutney with the huge bowl of yellow plums my grandad bought up from his allotment. My dad loves cheese and by the time Christmas comes around it'd be perfectly matured. It was a good idea, in theory, until I realised my biggest pot was not big enough to fit the monster haul...after i'd put in all the ingredients. After much chutney was slopped about and transferred to my slow cooker, I left it to bubble down into a sticky, lovely mess and pour into jars. And voila, the finished product!

Hooray for cute chutney jars (thanks Dad for indefinitely lending them to me!)

Something you thankfully see just off screen is not only the horrific state of the caked on chutney on my slow cooker, but also the fact that i'd taken merely 3 ladles of chutney out of the beast, leaving me with a three-quarter full pot of chutney, and no jars to store them in! Oopsie.

Also, as well as starting a new job, I also turned 21. Hooray, I can finally drink in the US and Canada, not that it's that big of a deal, i've been able to have a cider or eight in the UK for three years, but it's encouraging that I can now go to North America and drink to my heart's content. But anyway, I had a little get together to celebrate my coming of age, with lots of yum food and good company!

From right to left (clockwise); in the slow cooker on the right, a slow cooked Greek shoulder of lamb with orzo stew, Sailor Jerry's Tiramisu (with a nifty little link to my recipe and everything), cherry tomato and parmesan omelette, tortilla chips and Tzatziki dip, pesto pasta with chorizo and roasted peppers, brownies and bread. It looks a little bit sad when I see it laid out, you wouldn't think this took me almost an entire day to prepare.

I would go on a little more about my exploits but it's coming up to 2am UK time and I'm going to go and work three very long days at the Jersey Music Festival. So I better go get my beauty sleep on so I can be up bright and early for 6am.
So for now, tara. I shall not leave it as long as I last did until my next post, I will doubtlessly be full of excited Jersey energy and bring back some wonderous tales of French-English food from out Channel Island cousins.

Peace
JR

Celadon Sweets

Anyone who remotely reads about food on the internet will know about macarons. I can vouch that 90% of the food blogs, or the baking blogs at least, I have read will have mentioned these little things. And with good reason, they're reasonably difficult to make, nigh on impossible to get perfect and they are beautiful. Ladurée is probably the best know macaron maker in the entire world, though its most certainly not the only notable one, but for the purpose of this post, you'll come to learn how obsessive I've become.

For those who don't know, i'll give a brief overview. Macarons are almond and meringue crisp shell cakes/biscuits, with a cream based centre, all sandwiched together. The centre is usually some sort of ganache, but the possible flavours are endless. Ladurée's range from the basic vanilla or pistachio, to chocolate and passion fruit, lily of the valley and liquorice.
There are other masters out there though, Pierre Hermé for example, offers an even bigger variety, with matcha green tea, Azuki red bean, lime and ginger all in just one macaron. There is one I noticed on his website that looked pretty amazing, called Arabesque, which was apricot and pistachio. I'm quite intrigued, perhaps when i'm a little more practised i'll give it a go!

I'm going to be perfectly honest, I am an absolute sucker for good branding, not necessarily fashion, but food I definitely am. I was a sucker for Gü and i'm a sucker for Ladurée. When you live in a place where people won't pay over £10 for anything food-wise, it's quite exciting when something new and stylish pops up. Perhaps that's just me? I suppose I am a food retailer's dream, I am quite impressionable.

But it's difficult not to be impressed when you see their shop, it's just beautiful. It's celadon façade hints at style, the subtle bohemian shapes notes the history of the place and the intricate metalwork atop can only, I presume, emulate the process of making these beautiful little things, and all the other pastries they sell for that matter. I know, i've become more than a little obsessed (and don't worry, the phrase "Macaron Mad" will most certainly not be gracing this page today...other than there). Ladurée is just an amazing place, it's hard not to get swept up in it's wake.

Now, please don't think of me as naïve. It's not that I'm unaware of the power that luxury brands have over people. It's just like I'm seeing myself in third person buying these things and I can almost hear the CEOs rubbing their bigwig hands together. I don't know why, a bad habit I must shift no less. Don't judge me!

Ladurée is by no means the worse offender of luxury brainwashing, it did come from an integral source. It came about in 1862, when a miller, Louis Ernest Ladurée opened his first bakery just outside central Paris, at 16 rue Royale. At the time, tea rooms were relatively rare and women weren't allowed to congregate in public, so after a doubtlessly revolutionary talk with his wife, Jeanne Souchard, good ol' Louis opened up one of the first Salons de Thé in Paris. Though there were many a cafe strewn across the city, Ladurée had the advantage of allowing women to come together and talk freely in a public space. I'd make a crude joke of Sex and the City here, but it feels tasteless. But there they are, still at 16 rue Royale in Paris, with nine more tea salons opened in Paris alone, one of the nicest on the Avenue des Champs Élysées. They have spread globally, luckily for us, with twenty more of them dotted around the globe; Harrods in London, Dubai, Milan, Zurich, Riyadh and Nihombashi Mitsukoshi in Japan. It may be a big business, but it is so worth €2 a pop for a macaron!

As this is only a relatively short post i'll keep it simple, it's my 21st birthday on Monday, and i'm cooking up a storm for those who are coming for the feast on Sunday. So i'll have more recipes than I can handle to share from my exploits. I'd share the macaron recipe today, but I've not tested it out yet, and I wouldn't want to give out a recipe that is untested, oh no! What would thou'st think of me?

It's going to be an epic journey, but I must mention how excited I am! I've set myself up for utter failure so I'm presuming anything above that will be a bonus. The reason I'm starting so early is because (i'm going on rumours here) egg whites should be aged for 2-3 days prior to the making, to produce the best meringue results. As I said, just rumours so far, but i'm taking any tips I can get my hands on to up my chances of doing well.

So until then my little muffins, enjoy perusing the macaron craze. Remember, there is more than one magical refuge in Paris!

Peace
JR

When the Banana Boat Comes in.

When my mum enquires as to what i'm having for dinner, I automatically go to my happy place, my recipe rolodex. I think of every meal i've ever made, and then what I fancy. Ruling out the carbohydrates helps me narrow it down to mere hundreds. Then comes whether I fancy beef, chicken, pork, vegetables etc. I do admit, fish is never the first, second or even third on my list. But I fancied something lighter tonight, so I decided upon salmon. This entire process lasts only a few seconds, eyes glazed and mouth gaping in deep thought.

I made this really simple, sticky marinade for chicken not too long ago and I thought it would suit this just nicely so I gave it a whirl. I posted a recipe a while back for 'Bridge Chow Mein', and the marinade isn't drastically different, just the addition of sesame and mirin, to add a little tang, and some heat with some chilli and cayenne. I'll admit, I did sort of chuck things together to see what it was like, but it worked out as quite a nice combination of sweet BBQ and sticky teriyaki. 

Teriyaki is usually only mirin (sake rice wine), soy sauce and a little sugar, but I fancied something a little bolder, so I added garlic and chilli. Why the hell not? I'm a crazy person, I know. But yes, as well as yearning for bolder pastures, I was feeling pretty lazy, and what's lazier than yummy fried noodles? I would love to put a picture up, but I am still phoneless (aka, camera-less) so i'm afraid you'll just have to make do with someone who has a better camera than me and a full studio taking a picture of something similar!

You can't beat a nice bit of stir fried broccoli!

In all fairness, it didn't look drastically different from that; add some rice noodles, cucumber and peppers and you're sorted. Word of advice though, when marinating salmon, don't use every last drop as a sauce for your solo stir fry. It's a lot of sauce, and if you're heavy handed like me, it will have a fair amount of dark soy in it. Consequently you will most likely end up with a bit of an accidental soy-marinade-mixed puddle at the bottom of your bowl, especially seeing as you've probably just gotten it out of a piping hot wok. As lovely as the marinade is with salmon and as a sauce, it is mindblowingly salty in big doses, and when you get a completely sodden, sad looking bit of broccoli at the bottom of your bowl, it's a bit disheartening. I think I might ease up on the portion size next time too, so at least i've got a fighting chance of getting to the bottom in time, either that or easing up on the soy sauce, but where's the fun in that?

Onto my recipe of the post, I am aware that i've been very lax with my recipe giving recently, so I will make sure this is a useful, but happy recipe that will satisfy your tastes somewhat. I can also guarantee that about half of you will look at this recipe, look at your fruit bowl and realise that there is a very sad, blackened banana or five looking up at you, begging to be put out of their misery. Alas! As I am persistently resistant to trends, be them through any cultural output, I bring to you a timeless classic in my eyes. Something that it endlessly useful for picking up the wasted remnants of your fruit bowl, and pretty damn tasty. I speak of course of the humble variety of banana bread.

Isn't this the cutest bread you ever saw? Nibbly bread!

This isn't really a recipe from my childhood, i'll be honest, but I really started getting into it when I got sick of eating baked bananas at University. But I grew to love this simple cake-bread and if I ever end up having children, they are going to have this every week. I've tried a few recipes over the years and I keep going back to my trusted old favourite, my good ol' G & B recipe. 'Green & Blacks Unwrapped' is possibly my most prized cookbook when it comes to chocolate (I know that seems obvious to say but still), and I am quite happy to stick with it. So I give unto you today, my favourite banana chocolate chip bread recipe. 

G & B Banana and Chocolate Chip Bread

Makes 1 big loaf

125g unsalted butter, melted

175g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

150g caster sugar

2 large eggs

4 overripe ripe bananas, mushed

100g good-quality chocolate (white, milk or dark!)

1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

Optional: 60g walnuts, chopped

NB - This recipe was originally for 'Banana, White Chocolate and Walnut Bread', but dark and milk chocolate work just as well. And if you're not a fan/are allergic to nuts, you can give them a miss. I leave them out normally, just in case I accidentily send someone into anaphylactic shock.

- Preheat your oven to 180C degrees/gas mark 4. Prepare your loaf tin by brushing with melted butter and a dusting of flour.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.

- In a separate bowl whisk the melted butter and sugar, then the eggs one by one, followed by the bananas and vanilla. At this stage it looks disgusting, but it will turn out fine!

- Prepare the chocolate by tossing it in a little flour to stop them sinking too much in the mixture and set aside.

- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three intervals, stirring lightly, working up to a light fold at the end to not beat too much air out of it.

- Sprinkle in the chopped, floured chocolate and fold gently once or twice, add to the loaf tin and bake for about an hour - an hour quarter in the over.

- It should spring back under your finger when it's done and a knife should come out clean, but after removing from the oven, run a knife around the edge of the tin to prevent too much hassle. It doesn't normally play up, but you never know, sometimes the tin isn't non-stick enough, a teeny little bit burns and breaks half the side piece off the bread or what have you.

How very artisanal!
Overall, it's very very simple to make, and so nice, especially with a cup of tea and spread with nutella if you're into that kind of thing, I just enjoy mine plain. This whole banana chocolate chip bread was all my sister's idea, in all fairness. She mentioned my brother's chocolate chip banana bread, in quite specific detail, and how amazing it was, so it naturally made me want to bake some cake. Dang it.

I'd like to briefly mention before I go about how happy I am with this little blog of mine, it's coming up to the year mark and i've surpassed 2000 views. Which is pretty awesome to say it was just to document my journey. Thankyou if do read this though, it is kind of nice to share. Until another day my dear readers.

Peace
JR