Archive | October, 2011
31 October, 2011 

What I did in October

Tomorrow is November, can you believe it? We experienced a small heat wave and freezing cold mornings in the same month. Even though the weather is fairly mild we are approaching winter very fast. This makes me dream of all things woolly and I decided to make time and knit a hat and a scarf for my boy.

My model wasn’t very cooperative and every attempt ended up in tears. He keeps pulling his hats off, successfully most of the time.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss cashmerino which is super warm and soft.

What makes me feel happy are not only warm things to wear but also warm things to eat, especially stews and soups. A couple of weeks ago, totally randomly, I bought Martha Stewart Living where I found a recipe for beef and barley soup. It was one of the best winter soups ever and will definitely stay on the menu.

As I mentioned I went back to work. I actually quit my job and went freelance. It was great to be in Soho for a week but I was missing my son a lot. I found that I was rushing to work in the morning because I wanted to stay a bit longer with the boy and then I rushed back in the evening hoping to catch him before bedtime, I only managed it once. Mind you, he kept waking me up throughout the night to makes up for the lost time. Going to work on the train meant I finally got a chance to test my Kindle on the public transport and what a great gadget it is. Even though I was nearly glued to someone’s back I could still enjoy reading – it’s the perfect size and weight and no flipping pages meant I could get lost in my novel. I read Therese Raquin by Emil Zola, some say it is his best book. I wouldn’t go as far but it is one of his greatest achievements for sure.

I managed to see Degas at Royal Academy, fantastic studies of light and body movements, sketches and his photographs – I had no idea he took photos. There were also quite a few examples of Muybridge. Degas is my favorite Impressionist but the show was missing something, a star picture perhaps. Or maybe it is the space which I don’t particularly like, I tend to enjoy the smaller shows much more.

We are off to Wales for the Bonfire Night and I have yet another classic pie recipe to share. I was also hoping to see the Soviet exhibition but the boy is sick and moody so this is going to happen later.

26 October, 2011 

Classic cakes: Apple pie

One of the reasons we bought this house was the mature apple tree in the garden. The tree is right in the middle casting huge shadow on the lawn. We have a swing hanging off one of its branches and on a hot day it is a delight to sit underneath on the grass to escape the burning sun.

The tree produced a huge amount of fruit this year, at some point I was making a large pot of apple sauce every day but it all came to an end. I also made a lot of apple pies, they are so easy to make and so delicious with some cream, custard or served warm with vanilla ice cream.  A slice of apple pie was my favorite treat when I used to live in Holland and believe me, the Dutch are masters at making it. They spice it with cinnamon, add raisins and even pistachios. They serve it with whipped cream. It is best when accompanied by coffee verkeerd and a couple of magazines in a brown café.

I tried to recreate the cake last year but it wasn’t the same. I decided that I will never make it as it should be so a simple pastry case with apple-y goodness inside will be my go-to recipe.

Apple pie

Pastry:

125g butter

100g icing sugar

a pinch of salt

225g plain flour

zest of 1/2 lemon

2 large egg yolks

2 tbsp cold milk

Cream butter, salt and sugar, rub in the flour, lemon zest and egg yolks till it looks like bread crumbs, add the cold milk and combine . Wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1h. Yep, same recipe as the frangipane tarts but halved.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease a pie tin.

Filling:

7 apples, mine are (I think) a cox kind

a knob of butter

2 tbsp sugar – depends on what apples you use so taste it please

1 tsp ground cinnamon

a handful of raisins

a handful of pistachios

Slice apples into small slices, put in a pan with a dash of water and the butter, sugar and cinnamon. Cook for about 15 minutes, the apples should keep their shape but be soft. Add raisins and pistachios. Leave to cool.

Roll out your pastry and line the pie tin. Put the apples inside and with the remaining pastry either cover the whole pie and make a hole or, like me, make strips and cross them. Make sure the ends are pinched together. Give the pie an egg wash and a sprinkling of sugar. Bake for 45min-1h or until the top is golden brown.

NB. If you fancy, take few apple halves, peel and core them and slice them thinly but not completely so they keep together and put them on the top underneath the strips.

NNB. If you are ever in Amsterdam the best apple pie is at Café Winkel. What you want is appeltaart met slaagroom.  

 

24 October, 2011 

Tea Party

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Freddie’s Christening and afterward everyone came over to our house for a little tea party. I had great fun baking small cakes which really are so easy to make. My only disappointment was the red velvet cake which wasn’t red and the icing was terribly sweet. It was made according to The Hummingbird Bakery recipe which sponge is nice rich and moist, mine wasn’t. I always skip the icing with red velvet as it gives me a mega sugar rush but I thought the cake has got to be finished and white chocolate icing split. Anyway, I won’t be sharing the red velvet recipe here.

However the small cakes came out very well.

Fig and frangipane tarts

Pastry:

250g butter

200g icing sugar

a pinch of salt

510g plain flour

zest of 1/2 lemon

4 large egg yolks

4 tbsp cold milk

Cream butter, salt and sugar, rub in the flour, lemon zest and egg yolks till it looks like bread crumbs, add the cold milk and combine. Don’t overwork it though otherwise it will shrink when baking (I actually was so terrified not to overwork it that mostly it was way too short, I finally mastered it). Wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1h.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease 12 small pastry tins. Bake for around 8 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the frangipane.

285g of ground almonds

55g flour

255g butter

255g sugar

2 large eggs

1 vanilla pod or 1tsp vanilla extract

10 ripe figs for the topping.

Mix all the ingredients together. You can put it to the fridge for 1h to firm up but I don’t think it is necessary.

Fill the shells with frangipane and put 4 quarters of figs in each. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Chocolate and Nutella mini loaves

4 eggs

100g sugar

100g flour

80g cocoa

185g melted butter

small jar of Nutella

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and great 8-10 small loaf tins.

Beat eggs and sugar until light and creamy, add flour and cocoa, mix well, add the melted butter and combine. Place a spoon of batter into the tin, a spoon of Nutella and cover with a spoon of batter. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. When cool sprinkle with cocoa or eat warm with a dollop of cream. Delicious!

Raspberry friands

175g melted butter

225g icing sugar

100g flour

125g ground pistachios (traditionally it would be almonds but I love the crunch of pistachios, Lebanese supermarkets sell great quality ground nuts or just wizz up the whole pistachios and leave a bit of larger pieces)

6 egg whites (perfect when you are making pastry shells!)

12 raspebrries

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Butter 12 hole muffin tin.

Combine all the dry ingredients and create a well, pour lightly beaten egg whites and melted butter into the well and mix together, don’t overdo it, it should be gooey and elastic. Pour into the tin, make them about 3/4 full. Place a raspberry in each. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. When cool sprinkle with icing sugar.

 

 

 

23 October, 2011 

Long autumnal walks and the last bbq of the year.

We had lovely weather, probably one of the last good weekends before the cold and rain come.

On Saturday we went to our first baby birthday party, I was responsible for the cake which was a great success. I baked chocolate sponge (Mary Berry’s recipe) layered with lightly sugared whipped cream and raspberries. Then I decided to cover the sides with the cream too. The top was covered with Nigel Slater’s rich chocolate and butter icing which then run down the sides so I decided to cover the whole cake with it. I sprinkled the cake with pink beads and took it to the party. It was good, the babies had a tiny bit too and went mental. Freddie’s cheeks were bright red and the boy could not stop jumping. No pictures of the sliced cake as it disappeared very fast.

Today we went for a long walk in Wimbledon Common, it’s such a beautiful place in autumn.

Then we pottered round the garden, we are starting to prepare it for winter, lots of clearing to be done. Then we decided to have a bbq.

Quick tomato salad and even quicker fig and mozzarella salad with bit of extra virgin olive oil and honey. Some cheeky chipolatas and beers. Perfection.

16 October, 2011 

Car boot sale

Today we had the coldest morning since last winter, it was so cold I regretted not taking my gloves. We still braved it to a car boot sale, it turned out to be a great decision as we came back with a decent amount of goodies.

A mid century tile to serve as a place mat for hot dishes and a great orange coffee pot. I thought it looked good next to my geranium plant and vintage apple ice bucket but it ended up on the staircase window of which more soon, this space is getting a face lift. Price £5 for both.

This beautiful Deco lamp shade will go perfectly in our home, either in the entry hall or in our living room, still haven’t decided, £10.

Two vintage serving bowls, just the look I was after, not the greatest of conditions but at 40p for both I won’t complain. They will look great with the silver plated serving spoons I got last time, especially when used on a balmy evening in the garden…next year.

A massive addition to our Ladybird book collection at £1 a pop, we got 10 books from 1960s.

Lots more to share: good reads, knitting, a classic pie and a tea party. Stay tuned. I also quit my job and went freelance, first project starts tomorrow, first week without my baby boy, scary and exciting.