The joy of july is you don’t just get to eat the rainbow, you get to eat the alphabet. All of the really really yummy food is good right now. Apricots, Peaches, Melons, Cherries, Aubergine, Courgette, Peas, Crab, Lamb, Tomatoes. Don’t worry though, this carries on into August, so you don’t have to stuff your face with Peaches right now, but make sure you make the most of what I am pretty sure is one of the best food months in the Calendar. I certainly will be.
What a delicious time of year. When even in England you feel like you can get a taste of sunshine. The arrival of peas. What a delectable vegetable. On my to do list this year – try to make a cake using peas. It has been done – and they’re so sweet I am hopefully it will be scrumptious.
So you might have been wondering why my posting has been even more irregular than usual.
After my recent dairy failures it was with great trepidation I attempted yoghurt. Yogurt is apparently ‘really easy’ so if I couldn’t get this right then I think my career in attempting to make dairy From Scratch would be well and truly over.
But determined/stupid as ever I was convinced I could at least get this one right.
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Monday morning – time to do battle with curd. Just to be clear, I am talking about From Scratch Cheese!
It’s been a long time since I have sat down with some crackers and sunk my teeth into some delectably creamy offering. I would akin my love for cheese close to that of Wallace, and if I had a Gromit there would be Wensleydale oozing out after every meal.
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This is a story about shoving common sense to one side, and blindly following recipes.
As I’ve said before, pasta was a big part of my staple diet before the start of this year, and filled pasta (predominantly tortellini) was the ultimate in lazy. You didn’t even have to make a sauce: just boil some water, drop the parcels in for a few minutes and chuck some grated cheese on top.
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Muesli is the oxymoron of the patient/quickie food analogy.
I compiled it in about 30 seconds, but to prepare the ingredients took over five hours (and if I had chosen different fruit, my research tells me could have been hitting the eight hour mark). Continue reading
(***Health Warning! The following recipes were cooked by trained professionals under strict safety conditions. Suppers From Scratch cannot take responsibility for any pastry induced cardiac arrests. Do not attempt unless you plan to neutralize the copious amounts of butter with a strict exercise regime!***)
So last week in my perfect French bliss I enrolled on a one day veinnoiserie course. I was going to learn to make the perfect Croissants, Pain au Chocolat and Pain au Raisin. Continue reading
I think the reoccurring theme with my cooking tends to be ambition. As I am not one to go against the grain, this bank holiday weekend I planned a roast, two loaves of bread, cake, pancakes, pea soup and Jam.
And for once I actually achieved it all! (Although I think it was more to do with the extra Bank Holiday Monday than with anything else)…
With these iconic words ringing in my ears I set about to become the chocolate king I had always dreamed off.
I won’t lie; I have grand ambitions to be the next Willy Wonka.
So with these expectations of grandeur and the craving of chocolate goodness (which has been building up as I watch everyone around me gorge on mini eggs, crème eggs and a plethora of other chocolaty delights) I set out on Easter Sunday to make my own chocolate … sans recipe.
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