JOANNA'S FOOD: family cooking, from scratch, every day


Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Julie and Julia

Just back from seeing the film of the book of the blog, Julie and Julia. At last, I understand about J Child - a sort of American Delia, but human, and a better cook. Funny how she doesn't figure at all here.

I liked Julie better than in the blog or the book. And there were moments for bloggers to treasure - the first comment, the who's-reading-this-rubbish-anyway, the decisions about what to include, who to leave out, the way blogging becomes part of your life.

I went on my own, but I'm going to get the film on DVD the day it comes out so that my family watch .... then perhaps they'll understand that my blogging, although occasionally embarrassing (think camera in restaurant), is not even near obsessional. (Or quite as lucrative.)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Cucumber and dill pickle



















Last autumn, I bought The Wonderful Weekend Book by Elspeth Thompson - I am not damning it with feint praise when I say that it is charming, also much the best of the recent deluge of books on home-making for the nostalgic.

Elspeth gives a really wonderful recipe for cucumber and dill pickle, and I made a huge vat with the last of the cucumbers. I've been eking it out carefully, as it is so delicious. But now the first cucumbers have arrived in my vegetable box, so I can polish off the few remaining slices and make some more.

I didn't post this when I made it, because there were no more cucumbers (I don't really think it would be a good idea to make this with watery winter indoor fruits). It can also be made with courgette, although I haven't yet tried that.


Courgette and dill pickle
for four 450g jars

It always seems to me a miracle that something submerged in liquid can retain its crunch, but this does. And the flavours are great from day one, none of that leaving it to mature until Christmas that you have to do with chutney. I've found this is terrific with my usual lunch of leftovers, almost as good as chilli jam.

3 large cucumbers (or 6 courgettes)
2 large onions
50g coarse salt
450g soft brown sugar
600ml cider vinegar
1 tbsp whole mustard seeds
a large handful of fresh dill

Thinly slice the cucumbers and onions, and this is easiest on a mandoline. Layer with salt in a large plastic box, and weight down with a plate and some tins. Leave it four at least four hours, then drain and rinse in a big colander. You want to get all the salt out.

Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar, then add the veg, seeds and dill. Bring to the boil. After one minute, drain, reserving the liquid. Boil to a syrup (which will mean boiling off around one third). Meanwhile, put the vegetables in sterilised jars. Cover with juices, and seal. Keep in the fridge once you've re-opened the jar.


Other good preserves

Spiced apricot preserve
this one is BRILLIANT for an instant gravy to go with roast pork
Roasted tomato ketchup very good for cooking
Home-made vanilla extract easy, and satisfies my need for the semblance of thrift
Rose petal jelly it will soon be time to make this, the buds are swelling - and it's pouring with rain at the moment, which can only be good for the roses


PS Elspeth has a new book about to come out ... she says on her blog today that it's already in some shops, so I'm hoping the postman will deliver my copy today

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

A play-date at Miele Experience Centre

A week or two ago, I spent a very merry day at the Miele Experience Centre, trying out their kitchen equipment. We've got a little light kitchen remodelling to do here, and I've been humming and hawing about it for months. Not any more. I've got it all sorted. Nearly.

The Experience Centre is unique amongst white goods manufacturers: anyone can go (by appointment) and play with the full range, everything is "live" - ie plugged and plumbed in. You can even take your washing. But mostly, people go there to cook, guided by Miele's home economist Elspeth.















You might think that a cooker is a cooker is a cooker. But you'd be wrong. (Well, I was wrong.) The test kitchen has four work stations, and each of them is equipped slightly differently: a hob, ovens, plus one item which might be described as a novelty. There was a barbecue grill, a salamander (which is a fancy, space age sort of a grill that rises up out of the worktop), a tepanyaki hotplate, and a built-in wok. All good fun, if in total contrast to my Esse woodburning stove, and the Aga that I have cooked on for over 20 years.

Someone commented that this was scientific cooking ... all that programming is not the thing for an instinctive cook. On the other hand, here's something worth having - the whole range is integrated, so that all the trays and racks fit everything .... you can prepare food ahead, put it on a metal tray which slots into your fridge and later will go straight into your oven. Every last little detail has been thought about - top class design and engineering.

I'm not a great one for gadgets, but the built-in coffee maker is a dream. We won't need a microwave any more, as we only ever use it to heat up milk for hot chocolate. And we'll have a heated drawer, which will primarily be used for proving bread, although we'll never have an excuse for cold plates any more, and we'll be able to keep supper warm for late-comers.

Miele are kindly going to lend me a steam oven to play with .... people who have them say that they are the best; I just wonder if it's too scientific for me, if it would end up as the world's most expensive egg boiler.















Anyone can spend the day at the Experience Centre, for which there's no charge (that's real confidence in your product), although my day there was specially arranged for a group of bloggers. I cooked with Sam, the Cycling Cook, whose post explains what we made. Also there were Alex from The Princess and the Recipe, Joy of Almanzo's Belly and Alex at Just Cook It. A great day out ... made perfect by Anna, the washing-up fairy, who made it possible for one fabulous day to cook without having to bother about clearing up.















Beware though, you may end up, like me, thinking that there's really no alternative ...

Monday, November 24, 2008

Black Boxes widget

Here's a new way to drive up traffic / waste time ... Black Boxes (scroll down a bit). You have several either/or decisions to make, and at the end, you're sent to a blog which has made similar decisions. Just before you link off, though, be sure to add your own dilemma, otherwise the game has an awful lot of A/B choices, which aren't much fun. It's a bit like Stumble Upon, only more random.

You know the sort of thing ... bread or toast (this IS a food blog), tulips or dahlias (with added gardening), Tennyson or Betjemann (and the odd bit of poetry), birds or bees (the wildlife in our garden gives me as much pleasure as the plants), etc etc

I found Black Boxes on Veg Plotting, but it started in the world of creative writing blogs, so there's a bit of a glut of writers at the other end ... though I'm confident that there are enough time-wasting food bloggers out there to have changed all that by the end of the week ;)

Just a thought for a cold, grey, wet November morning.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Tree of happiness award








Just having a bit of a spring clean of my computer, and found, hidden away, from long ago, a lovely award given to me by Top Veg, the Tree of Happiness.

You have to list six things that make you happy:

  1. all my family sitting round the kitchen table eating a delicious dinner
  2. tulips
  3. reading - a good book, a poem, a recipe, the newspaper ... not too keen on the cereal packet unless there really isn't anything else
  4. the warmth of the fire seen through the window of the woodburner, the smell of apple logs burning
  5. a delivery of fresh organic vegetables and milk from Riverford ... seasonal, delicious, and no need to go to the supermarket
  6. winter flowers - snowdrops, the scent of witch hazel, sarcococcus, iris reticulata ... all of them tiny, fleeting yet intense pleasures
And six blogs, new-ish to me, which make me happy, & which get my Tree of Happiness award:



Thanks, Top Veg!


PS Bridget, can't find your email address, but I know you'll find this anyway!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Weekend Herb Blogging, the round-up: 45 wonderful entries









I've had the most fun this week, hosting Weekend Herb Blogging for Kalyn ... the entries just kept pouring into my inbox, some from old friends, many from blogs I hadn't yet discovered. I've got masses of new feeds in my reader, a new clutch of clipped recipes, and a renewed respect for the friendly knowledgeable wonderful food blogging community. Thanks, all of you, for taking part, for sharing your ideas and photographs ....

I've checked and double-checked that I haven't left anyone out, but email me if I have. And I haven't yet checked all the links, so let me know if any don't work ... I'm going to have a cup of coffee in the garden while the sun's shining, but I will come back later to make sure. And then I'll reply to some of the emails that have gone unanswered as the week got more and more hectic.

PS Tuesday: make that 48 - two late entries, and HUGELY EMBARRASSINGLY I forgot Kalyn's entry ... so here they are, at the top!










Kalyn
planted dill in her garden earlier this year, and now she's picking and eating it - this time for a salad made with some leftover salmon, a little celery, some yoghurt. You'll find it at Kalyn's Kitchen.












The Chocolate Lady
was inspired by her visit to New Orleans, and when she got back to Greenwich Village she made a vegan jambalaya - a base of red beans and tomatoes, with scapes, mushrooms, radish greens, flavourings.










Anna at Morsels and Musings in Australia has made the quintessential Malaysian dish Kangkung Belacan - a lovely stir-fry with water spinach / Ipomoea aquatica / ong choy. There's lots of information about this popular vegetable, to encourage you to find it in your neighbourhood Chinese shop.









Victoria at Feed Yourself in Seattle bought tomatoes before hearing about the salmonella scare, so she cooked them up into a quick and creamy pasta sauce.













Dhanggit in Aix-en-Provence also made pasta at Dhanggit's Kitchen, this time Cannelloni Diablo, which she says is really really spicy! It looks wonderful, although I'm wimpish enough to want to leave out a little of the chilli pepper.










Maria from Organically Cooked in Crete has cooked something just up my street, a self-crusting carrot and courgette quiche. She says that in Crete carrots are thought of as a herb rather than a vegetable, and gives lots of links to other ideas for using carrots.









Katerina at Daily Unadventures in Cooking says her kitchen is a disaster and she doesn't feel like cooking, so she's made a simple grilled eggplant dip. Looks like cooking to me, delicious too. Mmm









Glenna at A Fridge Full of Food in Springfield, Missouri has made Broiled Orange Seafood over Brown Rice Pilaf. She calls this eating out at home - a way to avoid the extra fat and calories that seem to come as an automatic side to any restaurant meal.










Over at Intoxicated Zodiac, Gwen made a honeysuckle sour - with a Piscean twist, of course.










Over at Je le vous dirais Maggie's a semi-vegetarian living in Mountain View, Ca - she's opted for chunky herbed mashed potato made with fingerlings from her CSA box - they're a delicate French variety with red skin, and she's paired them with rosemary and oregano, and used soy milk for a vegan touch.










In Siri's Corner, you get a fable and a fabulous recipe. The story concerns a king, a peasant, and a large stone; the recipe is for tofu butter masala.










Cheryl from Alexandria, Va cooks Gluten Free Goodness - this week she's been picking alliums from her garden, only she hadn't labelled them, so there was confusion. Once she sorted that out, she roasted spring onions ... mmm













Syrie at Taste Buddies is doing penance for some calorific profiteroles - she need the simplicity of carrot and kale soup, flavoured with ginger and coriander ... actually I'm not sure I'd call that penance ;)










Sue at Coffee & Cornbread in Southwestern Virginia, USA says she's in a herbal rut, as it's the second time she's blogged about parsley in a week. She threw some parsley into her low fat ham crepes.










Ricki at Diet, Dessert and Dogs gives lots of nutritional information on avocados, and then she passes on the recipe for The Perfect Guacamole (heavy on the cilantro) ... she rinses the onion to remove its pungency.
















When Manitoban Fiddlehead Ferns Met Indonesian Kecap Manis is the title of Pepy's intriguing post from Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Check it out at The Art and Science of Food - true to its title, you'll learn about fiddlehead ferns (I'd never heard of them before this summer), and how to cook them.













Cherry and almond sour cream scones are on the menu at Fun and Food - Mansi in California made hers with fresh cherries, but says you can just as easily make them with dried cherries which you've soaked. She also gives ways to vary these scones, using different nuts and fruits.










Chriesi from Almond Corner had the idea of giving a king prawn one last swim - and so created her prawn in chilled canteloupe soup. There's lots of information about melons, too.










Wandering Chopstick
's Bun Bo Hue - Vietnamese Hue-Style Beef Noodle Soup - has lemongrass and lots of it. The soup originates in central Vietnam, Hue, but was made in California, and the post shows step-by-step photographs of all the processes, as well as an informative bit about the differences between bun bo hue and pho.











In the Backyard Pizzeria, it's time for "waste not want not" chestnut soup. If, like Pam (who lives in Victoria, Australia), you're in the southern hemisphere, now's the perfect moment to make this. In the northern hemisphere, we'll have to bookmark this recipe for autumn. By the way, Pam mentions that chestnuts are really a vegetable ...










Y has a ginger treat for us at Lemonpi ... Michael Bras's Pain aux épices: a quiet pleasure, a relaxation, a special moment, with a taste of spices that carry you away to a sunny land. Y says it's wonderfully spicy and not very sweet.










You'll find loads of veggies at A Delightful Delicacy in Elizabeth's chunky chicken cacciatore ... she's moving house, so she wanted to use up what's in the pantry, and - understandably - she played safe with tinned tomatoes because of the US tomato scare. It's Elizabeth's first-ever food blog event ... you chose well - mine was also Weekend Herb Blogging ;)










Dish of the week at Cooking 4 All Seasons is palak moong dal - spinach in mung beans. For Srivalli this is the dance of the youth all remembered again - she hasn't made this dish since her marriage because her husband prefers other foods (I've been there too!). Simple, wholesome, and with spinach from her garden, too.








Phool Makhani Curry (Puffed Lotus Seeds Cooked in a Spiced and Creamy Coconut Gravy)
is something I've never dreamt of making, but Sia's clear instructions at Monsoon Spice make it look easy. First you pop the lotus seeds, then you make the curry sauce. Mmm










Sherra's returning to WHB after a long gap, and she's chosen to make a sweet-savoury spin off of the Filipino favourite turon, a banana spring roll. You'll find it at A Taste of Our Life











Gretchen in Lima, Peru, was walking by the river when she found some breadfruit, and her friend Mayra showed her how to boil the seeds - find out more about this exotic cooking at Canela and Comino













Diane and Todd made little mini tangerine and carrot cupcakes for their party, using tangerines and carrots from their garden - you'll find the recipe at White on Rice Couple










At Kits Chow you'll find three ways to cook asparagus, South Beach-friendly and delicious - Christine's also got a nifty little bamboo steamer from the Chinese shop that's made me green with envy, it folds down to almost nothing when you're not using it.










Kevin's Thai lemon shrimp has kaffir lime leaves which he says are hard to track down - but he also says that they keep well in the freezer. There's cilantro in this, too, mmm, and you'll find it at Closet Cooking












The Foodie's dish has the longest name ever: Cheese Ravioli with Butternut Squash and Portabella Mushrooms, in a Sage-Brown Butter Sauce ... which tells you most of what you need to know!













Zorra in Andalucia, Spain, has marinaded a jar of olives with herbs from her garden ... such a useful recipe for those times when you find the olives you've bought don't quite live up to expectations. Parsley, thyme, rosemary, oregano - find it at Kochtopf








Pam says the herb that spells summer for her is basil, so she's made a basil sauce for chicken using supplies from her garden - as she says, it's easy to grow, and expensive to buy in those little plastic packs. Find it at Sidewalk Shoes










Elizabeth's paired halloumi with sweet marjoram, and gives lots of information and links about this Mediterranean herb - you'll find it at Blog from Our Kitchen








Laura's Vegetable Curry with Coconut Milk and Yogurt comes from south western India and so is not as familiar as many of the curries found in restaurants around the world. It's full of vegetable goodness, and includes garlic scapes, an early-summer ingredient here. You'll find it at The Spiced Life










Victoria gives us a taste of Morocco with her instructions for making ras-el-hanout using many spices - even rosebuds if you can find them. Check it out at her blog, Flavors of the Sun










There's a feast for the eyes - flowers at Heart and Hearth - not sure if you can eat them, though.













Tomatoes with a twist are on the menu at A Lifetime of Cooking - they're semi-dried and flavoured with pomegranate syrup ...










Martha Stewart gougeres with lots of chives and rosemary are on the menu at I'll Eat You - lovely for a party.










There's a mixed tomato couscous salad over at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies, inspired by a visit to the farmers' market, where Natashya found yellow orange and red tomatoes ground in the micro-climate at Niagara. Mmm











Crash-hot potatoes with rosemary and thyme are the side-dish at Technicolor Kitchen - Patricia says they're easy, they look delicious.










Kate at Thyme for Cooking is house-hunting in France, and has funny/good tips for anyone thinking of buying a house there - and a dish which starts out as a quinoa pilaf, then the leftovers morph into a quinoa and lentil salad, both with vegetables and herbs. Just my kind of cooking.













More of the food I love at Palachinka - grilled Atlantic mackerel with parsley garlic oil and lemon ... what could be better?














Check out this beautiful apple and celeriac salad at The Well-Seasoned Cook - Susan says this is quick and bracing, with autumn flavours that work for summer. Seems to me it's a great new twist on a Waldorf salad.









When he got back from holiday, Jerry's thoughts turned to grilled chicken with lemon and thyme, served with orzo salad and asparagus. Yum! Find it at Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants













More celeriac at Cook Almost Anything - this time in a more conventional Waldorf salad. Haalo gives full dietary information on celeriac, as well as beautiful photographs of her lovely salad.










At Do You Like To Cook we've got a grated courgette salad made with produce fresh out of the CSA box ... I love how the restricted choices of the seasonal veg box are making cooks all over the world so inventive.









How about asparagus the Japanese way? You'll find it at Apple Pie, Patis and Paté, dressed in a mustard sauce.










Those of you who know Susan at Farmgirl Fare won't be surprised to hear that her entry was the last to hit my inbox because she was working and moving the sheep all afternoon. But she still had time to make a wholewheat cookie recipe:
Yip Yap Organic Banana Snaps with Chocolate Chips, Raisins, & Nuts. Susan always urges people to buy organic - check out her post on what happens to non-organic bananas, you'll never buy them again.


That's it, 45 entries ... and I've only just realised that I haven't posted one myself! You can find everything you need to know about Kalyn's fabulous event Weekend Herb Blogging here - and next week, Kalyn's hosting.