Sunday 23 September 2012

Orange Bread

I've been watching a lot of Great British Bake Off (who hasn't), and while I always assumed that it was a great motivator to get in there and 'experiment' in the kitchen. But honestly kittens, I don't think I have the personality for it. This is why I will always cook from recipes.
I made Orange Bread from Caribbean Cooking which was easy, cheap and tasty. I'm not a fan of very sweet sweets, so the slightly challenging, sophisticated (lets face reality) bitter taste of the orange rind is a winner for me. I actually used lemon rind instead, but that is as far as I'm willing to 'customise' the recipe. After the forth or fifth loaf I got cocky and attemted to swap out the orange juice and rind for strawberry pulp and powder - nasty. I can't eb bothered to type out Lambert Ortiz's recipe, but a ery similar method is here, with pictures.

Also, I'm taking some time off, I need to focus on a couple of other projects which frankly means I've stopped cooking. I might come back once in a while to give a scintillating account of some bloody sandwich I ate for dinner, but don't count on it.

Friday 7 September 2012

Steamed Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing

I wrote a somewhat vitriolic version of this post dealing with food intolerances, and the nerve people have, daring to dislike certain ingredients. But honestly, I don't care. What happened was that this weekend I served some food that could have made someone sick, but didn't. That's why there are no pictures, I'm not proud of this.
My stepmother is on quite a strict diet, so I'm always on the lookout for recipes that conform. I came over to their house this Sunday arms laden with dishes I though were safe, but was blindsided by their house guest.
I made sesame dressed chicken salad from Harumi's Japanese Cooking, Uzsca-which are dumplings filled with beef and mushrooms, tomato salad and herb bread from Theodora Fitzgibbon's Making the Most of It.
Harumi uses the microwave as the primary method of cooking almost everything, which I found incredibly annoying because I have issues and can't shake the feeling that that's 'cheating' and also because my microwave was purchased at a car boot sale in 1995 and I'm always expecting it to explode and splatter me with microwaves? Having said that, it's undeniably incredibly efficient - you bone some chicken thighs and cook on a covered bowl (Harumi thinks this should take 4 minutes, but was more like 15 for me) then make a dressing using the chicken juices, tahini and soy sauce. Serve with cucumbers. It's delicious, unfortunately soy was one of the things my parent's friend couldn't have - a fact she chose to disclose at the end of the meal, wtf?
The herb bread is also good, I've made this so many times this week that I actually have a picture of it - see? You mix a decidedly unfrugal amount of milk and butter into the dough, sprinkle with dried rosemary, fennel seeds and dill seeds (delicious), and serve to someone who is secretly freaking lactose intolerant.
Next time I'm just staying in bed.