The Cookery Thread

[Bunnylump]

OK, see you in about 5 minutes?

[Bunnylump]

After a stoopidly long day...

I've just cracked open the apple brandy which Gill suggested to me way back when. Possibly not a good move, because I can't resist eating the apples too. I think it may be quite difficult to remain vertical for long. (Bit of a worry as I am here on my own... )

[Scurra]

Haven't you fitted a trolley to the tortoise?

[Bunnylump]

I probably should. D built tortoise defences in my kitchen, which he managed to escape from AGAIN. So the first thing I had to do when I got home at stupid O clock was to search the entire house for him. He was wedged under the sofa... You'd think at 50+ he'd be slowing down, wouldn't you? No.

[LAT]

You'd think at 50+ he'd be slowing down, wouldn't you? No.

Are you?

I am however totally confused as to the link between drinking apple brandy and fitting a trolley to the tortoise.

[Bunnylump]

Well, Scurra probably thought of that because he's off his trolley.

[Scurra]

It followed from this:

I think it may be quite difficult to remain vertical for long. (Bit of a worry as I am here on my own... )

[Bunnylump]

See, now I like a man who thinks outside the box. And tortoise trolley applications are pretty much thinking outside the box...

[Scurra]

Well I seem to recall you've got George Clooney inside the box. (Or was it SparkOut?) So there's not a lot of room in there for thinking anyway.

[Bunnylump]

Yes, I must get George out of his box and dust him down a bit. He hasn't been out for a while. Unfortunately, SparkOut managed to escape to return to his pile of chicken poo, so I suppose I shall just have to make do with George and the tortoise. Oh, and the apply brandy. Or is it brandyy apple?? Ho hum.

[MBH]

Just catching up with this conversation now (and having a laugh in public - dropped in at Newcastle Library to see what's happening).

I love the fact you've got a tortoise who thinks he's and escape artist (but can't deal with furniture)

[giraffe]

Lemon cheesecake

1 lemon Jelly (Can use lime, makes it slightly green!)
1 large packet of Philadelphia
8oz Evaporated milk
5 oz Sugar
8 oz Digestives (But I use the rest of the packet which is another 6 oz)
8fl oz water
3 oz butter (plus another 2 and a half oz for the rest of the biscuits)
Vanilla essence

Dissolve the Jelly in 8 fl oz water and allow to cool, add lemon juice.
Cream the cheese and sugar together.
Crush the biscuits and rub in the butter. (I tend to melt the butter and stir in the biscuit crumbs)
Whip evaporated milk until thick and frothy (takes ages)
gradually mix into cheese, add jelly and vanilla essence.

Makes enough for 2 flan dishes with the added base mix.

[Wulfruna]

You can speed up whipping evap milk if you put the tin in the fridge for 24 hours beforehand. When the kids were small, I used to keep a tin permanently in the fridge for emergency use. (useful for making ice cream as well - add some vanilla essence to improve the flavour).

[giraffe]

That's a useful tip, thank you.

[Bunnylump]

Carrot, ginger and pecan cake.

NB This makes two deep,moist, 2-tier 6" square cakes, so you could halve the quantity and make it in two 7"" round sandwich tins. It also makes far too much frosting for my liking (I had loads left over) so you might want to reduce the quantities for that.

450g peeled, finely grated carrot (I did this in the food processor).
2 tbs peeled, grated root ginger
80ml buttermilk
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
350ml vegetable oil
420g golden caster sugar
500g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
80g of pecans, toasted ( just toast them, carefully, in a dry frying pan for a few minutes, stirring)

Frosting
100g unsalted butter, softened
600g icing sugar
1 tbs finely grated orange zest
250g full fat creme cheese
Pecan halves to decorate

Preheat oven to gas 3

Line tins with baking parchment.

In one bowl, whisk together carrot, ginger, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla essence, vegetable oil and caster sugar.

In another, sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb salt and spices.

Gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into your whisked wet ingredients in 3 batches. Stir in chopped pecans.

Pour into the tins and bake for 30-50 minutes (depending on the tin you are using). The cake should spring back when gently pressed, and a skewer inserted should come out clean.

Frosting
Cream together the butter and the icing sugar with an electric whisk (or by hand if you're not lazy like me). Add the orange zest and the cream cheese (note, don't accidentally purchase cream cheese with chilli, like I did!! ). Mix until fluffy. When the cakes are cook, spread the frosting into the "sandwich" and on the top.
Decorate with pecan halves.

I also added a little orange food colour into the frosting to make it look a bit prettier, but you don't have to if you want to avoid the E numbers.

[gill216]

That sounds yummy.

I have a tip for you all. I was cake making the other day (Mum's birthday) and I didn't have enough ground almonds so I did an experiment. I rooted through the cupboard and found ground semolina which is exactly the same texture. I added almond extract to it until it tasted right and it worked a treat.

[gill216]

Yesterday I bought a probably two or three times used breadmaker at an outdoor market from a friend of a friend.

This thing does bread of any kind, pizza dough, cakes, jam etc and it works a treat.

I've already made the basic white bread, cheese bread and scones. Anyone got any recipes?

[giraffe]

I think I have a breadmaker book somewhere. What recipes are you after?

I haven't used mine for several years as the bread hasn't been very good the last few times. It was fine at first, but I think I need to experiment to work out what I am doing wrong.

[Wulfruna]

We use ours all the time - it was Peter's retirement gift from his colleagues! But he only makes basic loaves, albeit with a variety of flours to ring the changes. We find the best is a half-and-half mix of granary and white flours - has the lightness of the white, but the lasting power of brown bread, so it's still fresh the second day.
It can make a difference if the yeast is getting a bit stale - the loaves suddenly come out a bit flat instead of nice and rounded

[giraffe]

I used it a lot at first, but when we moved it was boxed up and we haven't had any success since. I haven't had time to get it out and experiment.