Sunsets are distracting!

My time in Florida is winding down. I wanted to make just a few more recipes before I left tomorrow, and we had leftovers for dinner, so I thought a perfect snack for after would be brownies!!!

103. Very Quick Brownies - *Afters*

These were indeed very quick to make. I got to use my friend's lovely red KA for this; I almost feel like I'm cheating on my cobalt blue boyfriend, but I'm a baker, does he really expect me to be faithful?!

So, first I started by melting some chocolate and butter together in a pan. I used a combination of 70% cocoa Green & Blacks and milk chocolate.

In the mixer bowl I whisked the eggs and sugar together. To this I added the melted chocolate and then folded in some self-raising flour.

Then, it was just a matter of buttering and flouring the pan (since I didn't have any parchment), and scraping in the mixture. The pan was a bit too big for a brownie pan so I had to do some clever tilting maneuver!


I was fortunate enough to have some kids around to lick the bowls and scraper! Perhaps a bad idea to give them chocolate so late, but I didn't have to tuck them in. Muahhahahahaha.

I set the timer on the oven and put the pan in to bake. The recipe says 20 minutes, but I was planning on checking it after 15 since I knew the mixture would be thin due to the wide pan. And then, this happened...



We sat outside in the gentle breeze, watching the sun go down... It would be my last before my wonderful trip was over. :'( When I came back into the kitchen, there were three minutes left till the brownies were 'done', but I saw that they were far too dry for salvaging. Those who know brownies know that a mere minute makes all the difference; I was walking a tight rope already by using a big pan. Argh, shoulda known better!!

I have to say, though, that my audience loved them!!! They were perfect, they said, with vanilla ice cream. I went a bit overboard with the 'presentation'. Here is the artist at work:


I look a bit demonic with that grin! The things some powdered cocoa would do to a girl!

Voila! The finished product!


Well, all in all, not a bad effort, and as long as the hosts are happy, so am I!

So this is indeed my last night here; I leave tomorrow evening... I have been silly the last few days, and probably laughed and swam more than I have ever in such a short amount of time. The company is great; so is the weather and the cooking. It's really any foodie's dream, but then again, you also gotta have friends like these, and they are so damn special, that would be pretty hard to come by every day. I am lucky!

Good night! :D

Rated Double 'R'

Time for more dessert!! I said I need to get through the Afters chapter!

102. Rocky Road - *Afters*

So, for after dinner tonight, I made another 'American' classic; rocky road. Most Americans know Rocky Road as an ice-cream flavor. Tom's version is more deconstructed, and each ingredient gives its own special note.

I melted some milk chocolate and quickly tossed it with skinned hazelnuts and mini-marshmallows. I spooned some blobs of it onto some foil and let it cool.



It wasn't long before the peanut gallery discovered it!



At this point it was already evening and the kids were on a strict no-sugar policy, so this dessert was for adults only!

After the mixture cooled, I added it to some cold vanilla ice cream. The combination was heavenly. Such a simple recipe and so incredibly delicious.



Just to prove I'm not a strict person, I saved some of the blobs for the kids to have tomorrow after their lunch -- and their mummy agrees that it is ok.

This is something that kids would really enjoy as well!

Kid's Play

Back home in Brooklyn, I don't have a big audience for sweet treats! Rafa doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, and let's face it, eating one dessert after another is definitely something my widening hips can't handle!

My friend has four young boys, so I think I was in good company here to try out a kid favorite - s'mores!

Tom's version of s'mores are a bit different than the traditional- which are traditionally made on the campfire - graham crackers sandwich together marshmallows and chocolate. Fantastic! Tom's versions has all the same ingredients, just mixed together in a different way so they are actually a sort of traybake, as the Brits would call it. Lisa and I joked that we should have a bake sale here and make a fortune! Ah, maybe next time! These s'mores were all for us!

101. Something 'Smoreish' - *Afters*

The first thing I did was melt some butter and mix it up with crushed graham crackers!



Then I melted some milk chocolate in a pan (Tom calls for 'dark' but since my audience was pint-size, I thought I'd keep it kiddie-friendly) and started to melt some mini-marshmallows into it. When it was slightly melted, I just mixed it all up with the graham crackers and butter combo. In a buttered pan, I scooped this mixture -- but wait, I had a few distractions before I did that. The kids saw chocolate and marshmallows and they came runnin'!



So once they got a fix of the yummy concoction, I spread the mixture into the pan, with some help! ....



And let it set for about a couple of hours in the fridge. We had some awesome pool time and then a lovely lunch -- the s'mores were dessert!

Needless to say, they were a BIG hit, with the grownups and kids! They were a good bartering tool to make the kids finish their lunch first. I put my negotiating skills at work!




Whatever was left, I cut up and put in a tupperware container - I AM the suburban domestic goddess! LOL.



I could get used to this kinda thing!

...and another thing!

Just a small tidbit here about the lovely ice cream shake I had for dinner!

89. Marathon Shake - *Afters*

It don't look like much but it sure is yummy. Formula to yumminess = banana + chocolate ice cream + peanut butter + golden syrup (I used corn syrup) + milk + ice. Mmmmm!

Tom named this the Marathon Shake because it reminds him of the Marathon bars he used to eat as a kid -- before they were renamed, eh-hem, Snickers!

Check in your knives at the door!

Now I'm back in familiar territory - vegetables! It's been a while since I checked out the Stir-Fries chapter!

81. The No-Knife Stir Fry - *Stir-Fries*
82. Chocolate and Banana Shake - *Afters*

Tom is true to his word about the stir-fry ; there is indeed no chopping at all! It consists of oyster mushrooms, bean sprouts and mangetouts (snow peas). All of these items were purchased when I got home from work.

The preparation for the stir-fry sauce was equally simple; I grated some ginger, garlic, and lime zest into a bowl. To this I added lime juice, honey, and soy sauce.

The stir-fry itself took minutes. First I heated some light olive oil until my pan was smoky, and I started frying the oyster mushrooms, that were just torn into smaller slices. They fried for a couple of minutes, and then I added the mangetouts, followed by the bean sprouts. The sauce was added last, and that's it! The rice was ready on the next hob, so dinner was promptly served!

This was really wonderful! I particularly liked the tang of the lime in the sauce and also the oyster mushrooms. It was the first time cooking or eating with them and I was happily surprised! Mmmmm!

For dessert, I decided to just make a quick shake of chocolate ice cream, bananas, and milk! Delicious!!!

The shake could have been a tad sweeter - it's due to the bananas not being ripe enough. I'm an impatient gal!!

So now that I have had my veggies and fruits, I could afford to have a brownie or four, right?!

Hope you like curry!!!

Friday night had finally arrived, and it was time to get my curry cooking underway! I had decided to invite my wonderful friend Rosie, who is probably the most appreciative person in the universe when it comes to food, and my sister and brother-in-law with nephew in tow. My bro-in-law couldn't come because my nephew wasn't having a good day, so was instead put to bed early, and my B-I-L stayed with him.

I knew that all of my guests love some good Indian food, so I knew that the meal would be a hit, provided nothing went totally wrong!

39. A (kind of) Prawn Korma - *Indian*
40. Peas Braised with Indian Cheese (Muttor Paneer) - *Indian*
41. DIY: Make Your Own Paneer - *Larder Salads*
42. An Easy Pilau - *Indian*
43. Mint and Onion Chutney - *Indian*
44. Tropical Shake - *Afters*

You may recall that I had already made the Mango Chutney, but I needed to get the rest of the stuff done just before eating so that it could be lovely and fresh. Usually curries are best left in the fridge for a couple of days, but since I was working with prawns and cheese, I didn't want to cook the meals too far in advance. So the whole thing was a bit of a rush but I am not one to shy away from a challenge.

As soon as I got home from Queens, we started getting ready as we weren't sure when my sister would arrive. I chopped up the onion for the chutney as it needed to sit in milk for about an hour to get rid of its acrid taste. (After the hour, all I did was add chopped mint and salt, and that was it!)


I then sliced up another onion for the garnish for the Easy Pilau. I added the thinly sliced onion to a pan of warm vegetable oil and slowly fried it until golden brown.

In the short time it took to brown, I defrosted the prawns for the korma. Once the fried onion was done, I removed it with a slotted spoon to a plate, and then I started on the actual pilau. Using a few of the tablespoons of the oniony oil, I slowly fried a cinnamon stick, cloves, and some cardamon pods to release their aromatic flavor. To this I added the rice, sultanas, a saffron-infusion made of water, and enough water for the rice to steam. I let the mixture boil and then reduced the heat and covered the rice. After about fifteen minutes, the rice was lovely and fluffy, and I let it sit covered until the rest of dinner was done. (The final stage was to add some butter and salt to the rice, but I did that last, shortly before serving.)

While the rice was cooking I was sweating some onions, garlic, and loads of spices for the Muttor Paneer. Once they had released their juices, I added passata, water, and peas. This simmered gently for about fifteen minutes. I then took it off the heat, so that I could add the paneer (lovely Indian cheese) later. You will notice that I added the DIY version in my recipe count and included it in here, as well. Well, Tom has a few DIY recipes; I gather they are a way of showing anyone they can make lovely shop-bought ingredients from things you have at home. I'm taking these suggestions with a grain of salt, as I find sometimes shop-bought would be ten times better than my concoction. I am not being overly modest; I am just really clumsy, and a bit lazy! So although I will be only making some of the DIY recipes, I have included all of them in my recipe count -- how naughty am I! Before you start throwing your CL's at me, I have to say I have counted some recipes in the count that I now find aren't actually separate recipes, like the 'raw toppings' for the pizzas, which I intend to make. So the count still stands at 201 as it is approximately how many separate recipes there are in the book... Phew, back to cooking!

It was at about this time that my sister arrived, and quite hungry, so I put the pedal to the metal and really cranked it up a notch! We put the naan and samosas in the oven to warm a bit, and then it was time to cook the korma, which didn't take very long at all. It involved also sweating some onion and garlic with water. To this I added some spices, and then the prawns. The final additions were yogurt, ground almonds and some water. The korma thickened slightly, I added the paneer to the muttor, Rosie did an excellent job with her pyrotechnics while charring the poppadums, and then it was time to serve it up!

muttor paneer - absolutely luscious and delicious -- fantastic!

Clockwise from far left -- fresh naan, mango chutney, easy pilau, mint and onion chutney, prawn korma, and lovely poppadums prepared by my pyromaniac friend (and aren't the chutney bowls so cute - courtesy of Patel Brothers)

Fabulous Rosie -- lover of fire, eater of everything, and the perfect sous chef always asking how she could help -- that is the pilau on the left, my favorite part of the meal

Another view of the table - better view of the pilau

My plate - poppadums with mango chutney and the spiciest samosa known to man!

Well dinner was a complete success!! Everyone seemed to really enjoy everything, but as usual I made too much! Tom's recipes served 2, so I doubled all of them, but I think since we had extras like naan, poppadums, and chutney, we could never finish everything, though the prawns and the rice were almost finished. I have to say I enjoyed everything except for the prawns. Tom commented in the beginning of the recipe that his was not a typical Anglo-Indian korma that many Brits, and Americans I daresay, are quite familiar with. I found his particular korma too watery; perhaps I didn't thicken it enough, or maybe I should have added a thicker type of yogurt, like greek yogurt. It was still pretty darn good though, piled high on top of the pilau. Speaking of which, the rice was so perfect, lovely with the scent of cinnamon and cardamon, and the added sweetness of the fried onions and sultanas. I am going to be making this again, curry night or no curry night.

After some lovely dinner conversation and lots of laughing, I got started on dessert. I hadn't planned on anything heavy due to the large amount of courses, and wanted something cooling after the heavy curry. The Tropical Shake was the perfect candidate. It was a blended mixture of vanilla ice cream, pineapple juice, ice cubes, and bananas. It turned into a perfect, cooling shake, and so unbelievably yummy!

We all had a fair share of the shakes, and then my sister finished all of them off in her lovely slurping manner.

So the verdict from last night's curry night: Yum, and fun! And I was lucky that my guests loved to eat, a lot!

Hold the anchovies!

I noticed fairly recently that I don't include a lot of vegetables in my day to day. I don't know why that is, ate loads of veggies as a child, but I guess they were never presented as 'veggies' and I never really learned to cook them myself. As an adult, I have the option of eating whatever I bloody choose to eat, and I guess my subconscious told me no veggies. Well I decided for my general health I should go against my natural instincts and really dig into some.
For me, broccoli is the ultimate veggie! And Tom includes it in a lovely dish in the Pasta chapter.

33. Orecchiette with Broccoli and Anchovies - *Pasta*
34. Frozen Summer Berries and White Chocolate Sauce - *Afters*

Now you're probably looking at the post title and at the recipe title and wondering what's up with the anchovies?! Well I'll tell you what's up! I loathe anchovies; there are no words to describe how repulsive they are to me... they are squirmy and hairy, they are the culinary equivalent of the smelly guy with greasy hair on the subway.

Ok, now that I've totally put you off eating ever again, let's talk dinner.

Tom says one should love his/her cupboard and kitchen. If I'm to love both I need to omit anchovies from my life. Maybe I am completely off (and I can imagine many of you shaking your heads) and they could be the most wonderful thing on this planet, that may be the case, but let's just agree to disagree. So, the recipe includes anchovies, but I took them out altogether.** I don't think the dish suffered at all.

This recipe is the first time I have ever eaten, or bought, orecchiette. I actually had no idea what they were. For the linguists among us, I now know they mean 'little ears' in Italian. Psst, Tom told me, right on page 26! In the intro to the Pasta chapter, Tom indicates that he really likes the De Cecco brand of pasta. Haha, check it out!


It's not some kind of telepathy thing -- it was the only brand I could find that made orecchiette!

While I had the water put on to boil in a pot, I started chopping the broccoli into small florets along with some garlic cloves. Then I put some oil and butter into a warm pan, and once these were warm as well, I added some garlic, chilli flakes, nutmeg, fresh thyme. I finally added the broccoli with a few tablespoons of water and a pinch of sea salt, and put the lid on so that the sauce could incorporate and the broccoli could steam.

That broccoli is a-steamin!

While the sauce steamed, the pasta was cooking away in its pan, and each were done at approximately the same time. I drained the pasta, and incorporated the sauce into the pasta (I forgot to add lemon juice, whoops!) and finally added some grated poorman'sgrana. And then I was all ready for my veggie love fest!



The pasta was fabulous!!! I wasn't sure what to expect but it was very fiery and flavorful. The broccoli was the perfect texture along with the orecchiette. This pasta shape will definitely make it as a regular occupant of my cupboard. Yum! And the big bonus is Rafa liked it too! Usually pasta without meat or tomato sauce is not his 'thing' but he actually enjoyed this one a lot! (He said it would have been better with anchovies! The mandatory rolling-eyes-at-annoying-hubby commenced at that point)... And that was dinner done!

Afterwards, I was feeling like something sweet, and since Rafa was noshing on gummy bears whilst studying for his final tomorrow, I knew I was on my own.

The berries/white chocolate sauce combo was mentioned to me eons ago when a lovely 'English Girl' on Nigella.com said it was a great Tom Norrington-Davies recipe. I hadn't realized at that time it was in Cupboard Love, or rather, I should note, that I would be making every single recipe in CL!

This combo is pretty popular in Tom's circle, and is really as simple as it sounds. All it involves is adding white chocolate to some bubbling heavy cream, and pouring this over some frozen summer berries. Tom says, though, that one should use 'grown-up' white chocolate. I have to agree with him; any other white chocolate would be way too sickly for my taste.

my grown-up chocolate - Ghirardelli

perfection

For some reason, the chips did not melt fully, but that was ok as they provided a lovely crunch with the strawberries. I think that is probably because they were fridge-cold. No worries, it was still lovely. Tom said that in time, the chocolate would melt the berries, and the berries would thicken the white chocolate sauce, resulting in 'carnage on a plate'.

carnage in a wine glass!

**if you want to add anchovies, do it when the broccoli is added ;)

Easy-Peasy Night: Part 2 - Word!!, to the homies!

The curried eggs took about 2.2 seconds to make so I needed something a bit more challenging this evening! Tom includes a hometown favorite - chocolate-chip cookies - in his Afters chapter as an accompaniment to ice cream, but really, they could be eaten with anything or even perfect on their own.

10. A simple chocolate chip cookie - *Afters*

So after having a very non-American, and dare I say, Anglo-Indian dish like the Curried Eggs on Toast, I thought I'd give a shout-out to my homies and make this quintessential American cookie!

I would have to say that this cookie, bar-none, has to be one of the simplest around. Methods don't often change, and these cookies spread out quite thin so do not take long to bake at all.
The dough is basically a combination of butter and caster and brown sugars. Tom asks for golden caster sugar, which I learned this week (peace to my homies on N.com!) is just an unrefined caster sugar. It is not widely available here so I used the American superfine sugar, which is the closest we have here to the very fine caster sugar. To the fluffed up butter and sugar, an egg is added, and then sifted flour (with baking powder) is folded in. Last come the chocolate chips. Tom suggests that he has had a hard time finding good chocolate chips in the U.K., but since I am making a very American type of cookie, I thought I'd add the household favorite (and cupboard stand-by) Toll House semi-sweet morsels.

Yo, can you see my reflection in the bowl?? I am wearing lavender! Far out!

To get big m-f'er cookies, you would need to measure out about a tablespoon of batter. I didn't want my cookies to be that huge so I measured a teaspoon of batter, and Tom said it would take half the time to bake and come out to roughly 20 cookies. Well I got 20 cookies, but it took way longer to bake than Tom indicated, even with my nuclear reactor oven.

For teaspoon size, Tom said 5 minutes! I think it was closer to 15 minutes for me, even with a bit of squidiginess in the center. I let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a little bit, and then I transferred them to the cooling rack.

Hey, this evening was two for two!!! Awesome! Man, I should start out every night with the feeling that I can't be arsed! Look what masterpieces I can come up with when I'm being a lazy bugger!

Burger-licious!

I had it in mind this evening to cook a nice comfort meal - with all the works. Tom N-D's Junk Food chapter includes many recipes for meals such as these. I discussed my idea with Rafa over email:

Me: Tonight I'm thinking burgers. Let me know what you think!

Rafa: With meat?

Let me explain. Rafa doesn't consider anything that wasn't once an animal to be part of a burger. So when I made Nigella's Mushroom Sandwich, I called it a Portabello Burger. He found that ridiculous; as how could it be a burger if the mushroom was never a living breathing walking animal! I am inclined to agree with him, and only called it a 'burger' because I didn't think 'sandwich' sounded substantial enough.

But for tonight I wanted to make a burger for real... and this time with lots of sides.

4. A basic, no-nonsense hamburger - *Junk Food*
5. Dill sauce - *Junk Food*
6. An edible coleslaw - *Grills*
7. Basic ice cream shake - *Afters*

I bought all the ingredients for dinner after work and got started as soon as I got home! The coleslaw came first as it needed to 'cure'. The carrot was grated and white cabbage finely chopped:

Then, they were put in a bowl with lemon juice, salt, and a pinch of sugar. They were left to 'cure' for 30 minutes.


Meanwhile, I started working on the dill sauce which was supposed to be an added condiment to the whole burger operation. I've never eaten dill sauce before, let alone made it. This is probably when I should tell you I haven't actually eaten an entire burger in my life! I have a phobia with minced meat, and I figured this project was the way to overcome it. The dill sauce was a very basic combination of mayonnaise, yellow mustard, dill, and chopped up gherkins. I am not exactly sure what gherkins are so I bought some lovely Israeli pickles instead... yum yum yum! (I also added some dijon mustard and mayonnaise to the cole slaw when it was all 'cured', and it was ready to go!)

Love that color!

The condiments!!! Squeezy-bottle central!

Then I got started on the burgers. All that Tom indicates to add to the meat is some salt and pepper - the meat should do the rest!

I don't use this grill pan enough -- I love it!

And then it was all down to putting the burgers together. Rafa wasn't sure about the dill sauce, but he drowned his burger in it later... It's a yummy and pungent sauce; I could imagine using it for many things.

My burger - tarted up with cole slaw on the side and dill sauce on top

And Rafa's - tarted up in his own way ;)

After dinner, I watched a fabulous episode of Lost and then got started on our 'afters'. No burger diner experience is complete without a frothy and yummy ice cream shake.... Or maybe it's just me that has romantic visions of poodle skirts and tight sweaters, eating burgers with shakes after school... Or maybe I just watched Grease one too many times.

The 'ice cream' of choice was chocolate! Maybe too bold for Sandy Olsson, but definitely not for me!! A couple of scoops of ice cream were pureed with some ice in a blender and then a cup of milk was added.... Turned out to be the most fabulous shake ever!!! And a perfect end to a lovely meal!

I loved the combination of all the flavors and I'm looking forward to many more theme nights such as this one!