November Roses and Golden Threads

Hello you lot!

Now, apologies first off for being a busy bee, this week seems to have flown by with dinner dates, salsa parties, food shopping, sushi, bonfire night parties and lots of exciting news! However, what it does mean is that I have lots and lots of recipes for you, inclusive of glittery donut sparkler pudding, venison steak, turkish delight flavoured cheesecake, a moroccan feast, proper bloke's sausage fusilli, and blueberry, banana and raspberry french toast! All very exciting and calorific!

I had a lovely bonfire night, which sadly, our charming american cousins over the pond do not have, not celebrating the delightful tradition of burning traitors on large fires. Anyway! My chums and I went off to watch fireworks on the beach - Ooooh, aaaaah!! They were ever so pretty, green and gold, set to pounding club music (the last bit still confounds me) and we were rather glad, once they'd ended, to shuffle back to our friend's house where I assembled our pudding and we stood around drinking beer, sailor jerry and some very peculiar vodka jellies. I bought donuts from the bakery on the university campus prior to my linguistics lecture (I must have seemed very hungry to all my fellow students, clutching a giant bag of sugary donuts) but I made a cone-structure out of them, and then liberally sprinkled them with more sugar and edible glitter, and then I stuck two mini sparklers in the top! There's something very relaxing about a pudding you only need assemble but still looks fab. Sadly, only a few friends stayed after the fireworks so we had a very entertaining time listening to Steel Panther and trying to look interested in WWE Smackdown... We got home very tipsy in the wee hours of the morning but having had a great time!

The next day I woke up with a fairly sore head but my enthusiasm for cooking wasn't dampened in the least, and I trekked out in the windy rainy wet to the local Halal supermarket, which was a treasure trove if ever there was one! I unearthed rose water, rose syrup (see pic for the pretty bottle), peppercorns, almonds, unsalted pistachios, huge bunches of fresh mint and coriander and fresh fruit and veg, plus a scary looking butcher tucked away at the back. Lots of unusual produce, but much less expensive than imported things in the local supermarket! Go check out your local supermarket, just wander in and you'll see for yourself what I mean! I made a huge amount of meatballs for my moroccan feast that evening with two trusty helpers by my side. For the meatballs you need:

Minced lamb or beef - 500g
4 spring onions
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
Cracked black pepper
Handful of fresh mint and of fresh coriander
1 egg
Lime juice from 1 lime
oil for frying

Get your hands in there! Empty your mince into a bowl, then slice your onions finely and combine your spices in a small bowl. Break your egg into the mixture and then add all the various ingredients. You'll really need to work the spices and flavours in there, and you've got to do it with your hands - it's so therapeutic though, you'll see what I mean! This recipe will make roughly 30 ping-pong ball-sized meatballs, and it doubles up beautifully.

Fry them in hot oil for a good ten minutes, and you'll want to do this in batches. Let them drain on some kitchen roll and then transfer them to a warm crock pot before mass consumption.

I also tried out a persian rice recipe, which went down a storm. You'll probably get best results with a zester for the lemon (or lime, as I used), because large chunks of zest aren't exactly ideal here. You're also meant to use saffron, but being a student, and therefore cheap, I sidestepped that, as I think it's mainly used for colouring.

75g pistachios, roughly chopped
As above for the almonds,
Zest of one lemon or lime,
One onion, finely chopped
Saffron strands
Salt, cracked black pepper to taste.
400g basmati rice

I find bashing the nuts wrapped either in a plastic bag or a dishcloth with a meat tenderiser the best way of breaking them up - before you do this, pop your onion in a frying pan and caramelise over a low heat until golden and bubbling, then dry roast your nuts. Boil your rice until cooked and fluffy, then soak a couple of strands of the saffron in some hot water. When your onions are caramelised and your nuts toasted, mix them into your drained rice along with the pared zest of the lemon or lime and the saffron-water (remove the strands) the salt and the cracked black pepper. This will sit quite happily in a covered pot for a good half an hour until you want to serve, and it really is delicious.

The venison spoke for itself, I must say. If you've never eaten venison, you've got to try it. Be careful not to overcook or it will taste like liver, bleugh! My boss told me that the best way to cook venison (or any kind of steak) was to flash-fry it until it's sealed on either side and then let it rest before popping it in the oven to cook for a little bit longer. I like mine medium rare, and I served it on a bed of rocket with mustard and seasoning on the side. You can be forgiven for believing venison is hugely expensive, but I was able to pick up two steaks for £3 from my local farmers' market. If you have one nearby they're always worth going to - I picked up some beautiful Brie de Meaux as well and some fresh organic farm eggs... Yuuuuuuuuum!

I threw a dinner party this Sunday last for friends of my boyfriend and I - such lovely people and fantastic company and a brilliant evening to boot, as well as letting me use them as guinea pigs for a recipe my mother had sent me that day, known as Proper Bloke's Fusilli - a Jamie Oliver one; full of gutsy flavours and so filling.

2 heaped teaspoons of fennel, crushed
2 dried red chillies, crumbled
olive oil
600g good-quality coarse Italian or Cumberland sausages
1 tablespoon dried oregano
a wineglass of white wine
zest and juice of 1 lemon
500g good-quality fusilli or penne
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a couple of knobs of butter
a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped

Bash up the fennel seeds and chillies in a pestle and mortar or Flavour Shaker until coarsely crushed, then put to one side. Heat a splash of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins and put into the pan, really breaking it up using the back of a spoon. Fry for a few minutes until the meat starts to colour and the fat has rendered slightly, then crush it once more so it resembles coarse mince. Add the bashed-up fennel seeds and chillies and cook on a medium heat for around 10 minutes until the meat becomes crisp, golden brown and slightly caramelized.

Stir in your oregano, then pour in the white wine and allow it to reduce by half. Add the lemon zest and juice. Turn the heat down to low while you cook your pasta in a large pan of salted boiling water according to the packet instructions. When the pasta has cooked al dente, drain it in a colander, reserving some of the cooking water, and toss it in the pan with your sausagemeat. Coat the pasta in all the lovely flavours then add the butter, Parmesan, chopped parsley and a few spoonfuls of the reserved cooking water. This will give you a lovely loose, shiny sauce. Taste and check for seasoning, then serve immediately with a little extra grated Parmesan sprinkled over the top. It is so yummy, and even though it takes a little while to cook, it's totally worth it and you'll go to bed with a full tummy (especially if you manage a sliver of the pudding about to follow!).

Turkish Delight flavoured cheesecake? Bizarre? Totally. Described by one of my friends as fantastically weird, it really is but I love both the idea of it and the cheesecake itself.

You need:
One patient boyfriend to drag around a supermarket holding a basket for you
250g soft cheese (I use Philadelphia)
250ml sour cream
3 x chocolate covered turkish delight bars
200g digestive biscuits
3 tablespoons cocoa
80g honey
Rose water or rose syrup as I used
Splash of millk
125g butter, melted.
Edible glitter (yay!)

Bash up your biscuits using a rolling pin or a meat tenderiser in a freezer bag, melt your butter in a pan and then add your biscuits, honey and cocoa powder. Stir until the mixture has come together and then spread the mix into a loose bottomed cake tin and pop in the fridge. Mix your cheese and your sour cream together, and chop up your turkish delight bars. You can either create a turkish delight layer over the biscuit base or put the chunks with the cheese mixture into a blender and then whizz. Add your rose water or syrup to taste and then fold your lovely mixture over the cold base. Pop the whole lot back in the fridge and let it chill for 1 - 2 hours or overnight. I sprinkled glitter over the top of mine because I am addicted to it, but of course, this is optional.

Right, last but not least, french toast - another slightly adapted Jamie Oliver recipe: the fillings are entirely up to you!

Two nice thick slices of bread - brown or white
Some butter for frying
Two large ORGANIC FREE RANGE/FARM EGGS (not only is the flavour far superior, you’re eating and therefore supporting a better kind of egg farming. Poor wee battery hens just ain’t cool.)
Splash of milk
Sprinkling of any sort of sugar
Fillings for your toast! Blueberries and bananas, raspberries, dark chocolate - whatever you fancy.

Beat your eggs together with the milk and the sugar and meanwhile heat a knob of butter in a frying pan. Toss your fruits in a little bit of honey and add the banana (mashed) to help it all stick. Dip both sides of both slices of bread in the eggy mixture and then smear the fruit on one side of the bread. Squish the slices together and then throw the sandwich into the hot pan. Let the toast crisp up and go golden on one side before you flip it over and let the other side cook. Once beautifully crisped and golden, slide it onto a plate and serve with crème fraîche and some more berries. I must say, it makes a very pretty breakfast, even for a student!

Anyway, I have exhausted myself now, so I'm going to forage around in my fridge and chatter to you later.

By the way, I've had myself an article published! Have a look-see here: http://www.mookychick.co.uk/body/vegetarian/veggie-breakfast-of-champions.php

Big love!
Eloise xxx

(Having friends over for dinner is like weaving the fabric of your life with golden threads. Makes it sparkle. Invite someone over for food today, and may all your eatings be magical.)

Snickerdoodles and Chilli, anyone?

Good evening gorgeous people!!

I hope you have all had lovely weeks so far. I have! It's been busy, productive, and (especially today) bloody freezing! My mother sent me a beautiful jumper in the post today and it has become a Winter, not an Autumn jumper- it's that nippy! It is only the fourth of November, and I shouldn't be surprised at the weather, I suppose - it brings pleasant thoughts of mulled wine, Christmas stockings, fairy lights and cosy evenings curled up in front of the fire. I set my Christmas countdown by the fairy lights strung up around the university buildings and to my delight they were put up yesterday. You should see how excited I get when the Christmas tree with its rainbow bulbs goes up! Lovely thought in my Linguistics lecture the other day... Apparently Norwegians call "lightbulbs" light-pears, because of their shape.

How whimsical!

Now, before I carry on: recipes!

I shall be giving you recipes for chilli, guacamole, (plus recommended additions) and the charmingly named snickerdoodles.

Excellent stuff.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

Chocolate cardamom chilli.

Now, this is a rough estimate as always and you can use either stewing beef if you're feeling extravagant, or as I am here: lean mince.

500g mince/stewing beef
1 can red kidney beans
1 can chopped tomatoes
50g darkest chocolate or 1 tbsp cocoa
3 cardamoms, bruised
2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped (I only used one, because my friend Martin grows his from seed and the vapours from the tiny 2cm one I used were so strong that we had to leave the kitchen due to stinging eyes)
2 cloves of garlic - chopped or minced
1 onion
shakings of powdered cumin, coriander and cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste

Chop your onion (I always wear goggles for this and it entertains my boyfriend hugely if ever he sees me wearing them), and mince your garlic. Heat oil in a heavy-based pan and soften your onions before adding the meat. Brown the meat and then add your garlic, the chocolate, chillies, cardamoms and spices. Let the meat absorb all these lovely flavours before you drain and add your kidney beans and chopped tomatoes. For greater depth of flavour you can add passata. I added Worcester sauce myself. (wooster, you lovely Americans) Shake in your salt and pepper... like a polaroid picture!! And then let the whole lot simmer for a good 20 minutes. I am always a fan of speed and whilst slow cooked chillis are exquisite, sometimes I just want an almost-instant bowl of the stuff.

I make guacamole with two ripe avocadoes, a huge helping of fresh coriander, the juice and pulp of two limes and a deseeded green chilli. I then add sea salt and cracked black pepper and mash the whole lot in a pestle and mortar - not only does it taste fantastic but it's so green I'm almost tempted to count it as a veg portion!

It's not often I boil rice with this as I prefer to eat it with good old sour cream and tortillas, Mexicana cheese and the guacamole mentioned above, but a huge mound of fluffy rice would make a nice addition if you were serving it to your friends for dinner. If I'm slow cooking I tend to use stewing beef and I leave it in a warm oven for a good two hours in a beautiful crock pot. (It looks very pretty when I dump it on the table in front of my friends)

Onto the snickerdoodles!!

I made these earlier today in a fit of work avoidance (I can only take so much French political philosophy before I want to cry) and they weren't actually as good as ones I've made in days gone by. I didn't have the nutmeg as requested by the recipe but to be honest it was a half teaspoon to 250g of plain flour and I didn't see the point.

One of my favourite spices, however, is cinnamon and I think the incorporation of more cinnamon and less vanilla extract would improve these babies no end. You're actually meant to roll the snickerdoodle-dough balls in cinnamon sugar, but I can't see why you shouldn't put cinnamon in the mixture as well.

You need:
One preheated HOT oven.
250g plain flour
125g unsalted butter at room temperature (do make sure it is room temperature, I took mine from the fridge and gave myself terrible armache trying to cream the sugar into it)
100g granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (any more than this and it gets all icky and overpowering)
Cinnamon, lots
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Combine your baking powder and flour in a bowl, add a good sprinkling of cinnamon (0r any other winter spice you deem appropriate) then in a separate bowl cream the sugar and butter together until pale. I always get nostalgic at this point because butter and sugar creamed together remind me of a very naughty sugar sandwich my grandmother once made for me. Now she makes fantastic apple sponge I will one day discover the secret of instead. Once you have creamed said nostalgic sugar/butter mix, add the extract and beat in the egg. Add the dry ingredients and stir until you have a dough which is ever so similar to that found in Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream (ironic, no?).

Anyway, roll your mixture into little balls just shy of a ping pong ball size, and dip them in cinnamon and sugar before placing them on a baking tray. I tend to flatten them out with a fork so they are slightly more biscuit-like in appearance but whichever way you shape them they will still taste just as good. Bake these in your oven for as long as it takes - once they are golden brown and the sugar is glistening, whisk them out and let them cool down before you devour them.

I would tell you how much this recipe makes, but I ate three straight off the tin and burned my tongue so any estimate would be just that. Call it thirty, just as a rough guide. You'll see what I mean though - they're utterly addictive with strong coffee or a pot of tea. They seem to last a good long while as well, as long as your friends/family/flatmates don't discover them. Pop them in a padlocked airtight container just to be safe.

A quick note... I would love to tell you how much my recipes make and for how many people but in truth I eat at least twice the amount a normal person would, one of my flat mates eats half a normal portion, and my boyfriend is almost worse than me. The chilli above would do two large servings, so double the recipe if you are feeding four, for example.

I hope you all had lovely, lovely Hallowe'ens and celebrated in style. I'm holding a dinner party tomorrow evening and also dropping in on one with a foody gift, so expect more of my writings coming your way.

Sleep sweetly!
Eloise xxx

Cinemas, Autumn jumpers and wet, wet weather!

Morning all!

It is wet, cold and grey today, much as it has been for the last week. Or two, or three, in fact. In truth, it's really quite depressing! This is the time (and season, I feel) to surround yourself with as many friends as you possibly can, in order to enjoy their company and the shared body heat!! I plan on having a thanksgiving party soon, and treating my lovely American friends to a British twist on their home food. I have never celebrated thanksgiving before but it certainly seems like a wholesome sort of thing to do and as the days grow shorter and the darkness creeps in, I think it's safe to say that all of us crave a little piece of home; at least, I know I do.

Going home is one of the best things about holidays - my parents have a lovely old cottage in a very picturesque town and it's filled with childhood memories, dog fur and my (little) brother - the little has to go in brackets because whilst he is only 15, he is a man-mountain, pushing six foot with a goatee some of my friends will never be able to grow in their lives! We have a golden lab called Muffin - small and silly, and then there's my favourite thing about the whole house - the Aga!!

For those of you who don't know, an aga is a giant gas fuelled oven which you not only use for cooking, it heats the whole house! It has two settings - hot and really hot. Moving in to my flat meant the discovery of gas ring cooking, which I have to say is helpful, but some how a little less soulful than the giant green aga sitting at home. It does have its downsides, though, as my father discovered when trying unsuccessfully to cook my mother a 40th birthday cake (burnt edges and a soggy middle). 14 cakes later and an SOS message sent to the best cook we know, we had something to present at pudding eventually, after we'd stopped laughing over Dad's cremated baking.

Anyway, eventually I plan on posting the recipes for mustard and orange chicken pasta, chicken and bacon with a white wine and gorgonzola sauce and my mother's lasagne, but first let me exclaim over two food fuelled excursions: going to see Julie and Julia for the first time, and buying the American edition of Jamie's magazine.

Julie and Julia was charming. My flatmate and I went to see it on Sunday evening, via Peckhams (a gourmande's heaven if ever there was one) and bought a slab of Victoria sponge, a coffee and pecan muffin and a bottle of pink lemonade - all lovely and girly, like an afternoon picnic tucked up in the back of the cinema. The film itself was lovely - although Meryl Streep wore on me a little by the end (there are only so many exclamations in bad french I can take!) and the shots of Paris were beautiful. I was suffering from serious house envy. It was charming, entertaining, amusing and an all around feel-good film, although the ending lacked a little bite (pardon the pun). Certainly not a film to watch when hungry, however, as it is easily imagined that you could come out with a dangerous boeuf bourginon craving. Which reminds me, I must make that sometime.

Jamie's Magazine (Jamie Oliver the TV chef, is the Jamie in question) was a surprise find in WH Smith's, searching for reading material having been disappointed by this month's edition of Vogue. How glad I am that I was! The edition features family breakfasts, autumn treats, risottos, pies, burgers and cocktails. Oh, and also the ultimate guide to chilli! What more could anyone really want from a food magazine?

The next update I do will hopefully inundate you with recipes, as my French Culture lecture is creeping ever-closer. I recommend you go searching for your Autumn jumpers! Keep yourselves warm!

Oh, and if you're ever in need of quick cheer, I recommend 90s girl duo Salt 'n' Pepa - so bad it's good. Learn the lyrics and then play it loud - instant buzz!

Have happy days,
Love,
Eloise xxx

Bacon, crumpets, and the perfect cup of tea.

Good afternoon, lovely people!

So, this post arises out a total change in sleeping habits - thanks go to the superb salsa party I went to last night, and subsequently the pouring rain that has kept me partially house bound (apart from a mild dose of mental defiency, which caused me to believe that going for a run in the rain, gale-force winds and freak hailstones would be a good idea.) In fact, the adrenaline rush was totally worth it, as was the hot shower afterwards. Discovering that my flatmate had left all the washing up for me and had eaten all the bread and sprinkled toast crumbs liberally over the countertop afterwards was not such a rush, especially as I have a bacon sandwich craving.

I duly raided my freezer, and discovered the crumpets I had stashed in there for, ironically, a rainy day! They are now being defrosted in my oven whilst I sit here with a cup of tea. A very entertaining article from the BBC provides insightr into George Orwell's perfect cup of tea: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3016342.stm. Have a look at this as well: http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm - evidently Mr. Orwell was a bit of a tea enthusiast. It's got to be a Brit thing...

Quotes, anyone?

There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims

Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company. ~Author Unknown

Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage. ~Catherine Douzel

Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea. ~Author Unknown - my favourite!!

Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone. ~Hilaire Belloc

Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on. ~Billy Connolly

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~C.S. Lewis

Anyway, enough procrastination - now that I have toasted my crumpets, and fried my bacon and hav consumed both I can assure you that this is so much better than your average bacon sarnie! The slightly sweet doughie-ness of the crumpets goes so well with the salty bacon. If you're ever down in the dumps, please, please,give this a try - you'll be full, warm and contented in such a short space of time (and that's the best thing, this is so simple to do, you'll be a happy bunny in minutes.) Just don't do what I did, if you can help it, and have a craving for a bacon crumpet when said crumpets are frozen solid. Try to buy them fresh so you're not sat watching the oven defrost your crumpets for 40 minutes (like I had to!!) - in saying that though, crumpets tend to mould quickly so munch up fast.

In case you have been bacon-deprived all your life - (you poor wee waif)...

In a frying pan, melt a knob of butter over a high heat (you could use oil but butter lends itself so much better to bacon) and as soon as it is bubbling nicely throw in your rashers. You can use smoked or unsmoked, dependent on preference, but I find unsmoked to be the less salty option, which means that my blatent use of salted butter is somewhat justified, although unsalted is probably the better option. (At least, professionals seem to think so)

Bung your crumpets in the toaster to warm them through (the bacon provides the crispiness here). You can butter them if you wish, (I did, simply because I am a pie) and then one your bacon is cooked to perfection, slide a rasher on top of each crumpet.

Consume your creation. Greedily, appallingly; just shove it down and experience an all pervading sense of well being.

Warm, full and contented? I should think so too.

Happy eating!
Eloise xx

The birth of a blog!

Well, hello there, darlings!

Welcome to my newest foray into the internet - blogging! I was sat down in the university library today, banging out an essay on linguistic semantics, when windows word processor asks me very sweetly if I would like a new page, or a new blog post. Now, I am nothing if not a stranger to reading blogs (many exciting posts from schoolfriends, various shabby-chic queens and of course "stuff white people like" have all been trawled in the wee hours), but it was the first time I had considered writing one of my own! And so I set to, and here we are - at Eloise-Likes-Food.blogger.com. I'm Eloise, by the way - and I'm very much a foodie. I'm currently studying French and Linguistics at University in Scotland, loving every moment of it. Well, I say studying - what I mean is that I write essays when I'm not surrounded by cookbooks trying to work out what will satisfy my current craving - be it a snack or a full-blown meal. (Despite working in a charming little coffee shop, I also try to do this on a budget - leftover pocket money for yet more cookbooks and things of the glittery variety, you see.)

Perhaps this blog could be seen as a long time coming - I realised a few weeks ago that since moving into my flat and having a beautifully fitted kitchen, that putting it to use was a worthy pastime. I was further inspired to domestic goddess-ness by the unearthing of my Nigella Lawson cookbooks, (Nigella Express and the aptly named How to be a Domestic Goddess) and all the newspaper and magazine cut-out recipes I get on a weekly basis from my mother - who also shares my love of food.

I hasten to add that I am not a glutton, although you'd be forgiven for thinking it, coming from a food blogger! No. There is much more to food than simply the eating thereof - shopping for the ingredients, assembling them and having some "kitchen-therapy", as well as entertaining friends over the weekend, or having a lazy, yet satisfying breakfast; knowing what to do with leftovers, and knowing what can be salvaged all combine to make good food not only enjoyable, but a wonderful way of life.

Now, this is an unformulated thing - updates will be sporadic, I warn you, but hopefully each time I post I'll have a few anecdotes and recipes to match. They may not be all my own creation, but there will usually be variations therein. Enjoying good food can't always be done on a budget, but I'll make amendments where appropriate! I truly hope you enjoy reading as much about the food I make as much as I know I'll enjoy writing about it.

I'll leave you with a personal recipe for this evening. This was something my mother used to make back in the days when I couldn't be trusted with the tin of golden syrup when making warm milk before bed; the ration of syrup to milk would be horrifying, I assure you.

300ml milk (whole or semi-skimmed work best)
1x 15 ml tablespoon of golden syrup
Sprinkling of cinnamon, or a cinnamon stick for stirring.

In a small pan, gently warm the milk (you don't want to boil it, it will smell eggy and unappealing) and slowly add the golden syrup, stirring until the tablespoon you dollop it into the pan with comes clean. Add the cinnamon to taste, and once you deduce how hot it is, pour it into a large mug and stagger off to bed. I discovered the grown up version of this the other day, when Prudence placed a bottle of Sailor Jerry rum beside me, and I had the mind to add a slug. The vanilla and lime flavours are delicious with the cinnamon and it makes a good night's sleep all the more attainable. Try this yourself and you'll see what I mean: sweet dreams in no time.

Ironically, I am being called away by food - dinner is upon me and I shall deliver my mother's tomato pasta sauce to you in no time.

Til then, keep warm, full and happy!
Love,
Eloise xx