Little Things

I may be enjoying this mini griddle. In a fit of insomnia last night, I had a craving for drop scones, and thought, 'hey, wonder if I can make those in the mini griddle?'

So that's what I did this afternoon. I used this recipe - http://www.be-ro.co.uk/recipe/showrec9.html

100g of plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp of baking powder
50g of sugar
1 egg, beaten
4tbsp of milk (or substitute)

I used slightly less milk (just over 3 tbsp). Once mixed together, the batter will be very thick.

I brushed a bit of oil on the griddle, then dropped a big tablespoon of batter onto it and closed the lid.

When you make drop scones in a pan, you need to flip them over, but not in the mini griddle, where both side get cook at the same time.

They were done in about 4 minutes. And were super tasty with a bit of margarine!

Yum!

New Little Gadget

So Christmas inevitably involved Santa leaving me kitchen gadgets under the tree, because, well, this is me we're talking about!

One thing I got was a mini griddle! It's so tiny!

I believe the Scottish would call this 'wee'!

I finally gave it a go tonight. I got some Bambi venison burgers from my butcher a while back, and took one out of the freezer to try this out. It fit perfectly!

I pre-heated the griddle, then brushed a bit of oil on each side before popping the lid on.

Lots of steam came out! And it was done much quicker than I thought, it only took about 5 minutes to cook!

I popped in in a burger buns and it was done. Whee!!

Christmas Eve Yum

It's taken me a few days to post this. My intention for Christmas Eve was to spend it doing as little as possible as the last few days weeks months have been absolutely brutal at work. However, like most of my plans lately, I failed miserably.

When I went down to my butcher to pick up the piece of turkey I ordered (haven't succeeded in cooking that either, it's in the freezer) I went in with no plan of what to eat for Christmas Eve dinner. The butcher was putting some pork through the mincer and I immediately thought of the French Canadian Christmas Eve tradition - tourtiere!

So I spent part of Christmas Eve cooking them (and frantically doing Christmas baking, which I failed miserably on this year). Tourtiere is pretty easy, but I kind of suck at any pastry, as this shows it.

The inside of a tourtiere is mostly mince pork. I asked for half a pound, thinking this would make me two small ones. I got a heck if a lot more than that!

So I fried half a pound of mince pork and a little bit of finely diced onion.

Traditionally, this calls for a lot of onion, but being a Chronie, I only used a little. If you want to really low-residue this, substitute with onion powder.

Add 1/4 tsp of cloves and 1/4 tsp ground black pepper.

Give it a stir and add 1/2 cup of water.

Cook until the meat is no longer pink. Then add about 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs to soak up some of the remaining liquid.

For the pastry, use shortcrust pasty. I suck at making pastry, so this came courtesy of Sainsbury's. Bring it to room temperature and unroll it. Cut to desired shape.

This is where I started to go wrong, as I figured I would do some triangle ones rather than a traditional pie shape. Someone remind my overtired brain that you need a square to make a triangle when working with pastry . . .

So, I ended up with some mini triangles and cut some squares for bigger ones. And some rectangles for squares. Bloody hell, this made more than I thought!

After spooning some meat onto the pastry, I brushed some beaten egg yolk on the edges of the pastry, folded it and pinched it to seal.

This is where things started to go wrong again. The kitchen had become too warm with baking and the edges if the pastry for too moist and they wouldn't stick! It took me a lot of tries, two different forms, fingers, then just folding the edges over (and losing filling along the way) to get them to seal. Sort of.

Am I the only person who can screw up store bought pastry?

I put them in the fridge for a bit to solidify the pastry again, then took them out, brushed with the rest of the beaten egg yolk.

This was only supposed to make two small ones, not two trays worth!

I cooked them for 10 minutes on 200C/400F, then turned the heat down to 180C/350F for 40 minutes.

They were nice and brown then. And decidedly stuck to the pan. Should have used parchment paper. After some wrangling and some course words, I had my Christmas Eve dinner.

I roasted some sweet potato wedges to go with it (peel and cut sweet potato, toss with a bit of oil, salt, pepper and thyme, bake alongside tourtiere).

I also had a lovely bottle of Sainsbury's Celebration Ale.

Don't knock store brands, they can be really good!

Good eating for Christmas Eve! And all the extrasgot devoured at friends' on Boxing Day!

Oh Fudge!

Like most people, I love fudge. Both the Judy Blume books and the tasty treats. Thankfully, dairy isn't causing me as many problems as it used to, but I still like trying out dairy free recipes as there are people in my life who can't have it.

Last week, an acquaintance posted a recipe for dairy free fudge on her social media account. She is one if those converts to coconut oil who claims it is the best thing ever. I've had a jar in the cupboard for a while, but have never tried it out. Coconut oil has been 'the thing' in 2015. It's widely used in West African and Caribbean cooking, but is currently held up as this year's grand cure all for everything that ails you. Whether or not it will still cure you in 2016 is yet to be seen.

The cure for all that ails you? I doubt that.

The recipe looks simple enough, so I thought I would give it a go. http://thecoconutmama.com/coconut-oil-fudge/?c=JERF

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of coconut oil to be whipped. At room temperature, coconut oil is pretty much solid, and even more so in the cool-ish houses of the UK. It said if the oil was already runny, it wouldn't have to be whipped, but it is unlikely to ever get that warm in my house.

So I put the 1/4 cup of coconut oil into the mixer a beat it on high.

My first thought was that this didn't seem like a lot. And whipping it really didn't seem to increase the volume much.

Then it says to add 1/4 cup of cocoa powder.

This still didn't seem like a lot. But I mixed it in anyway. I added 1/2 of vanilla and a pinch of sea salt. Then it says to add a "natural" sweetener and honey was suggested.

The recipe got vague at this point, indicating to sweeten to taste. I haven't made fudge for a few years, but it definitely has a lot of sugar in it. So I started off with one heaping tablespoon and kept tasting it. And another. And another. And another. And another.
I like bitter chocolate, but fudge isn't meant to be bitter. I probably used at least a quarter cup of honey.

Then it said to spread it in a 5" x9" loaf pan. This is where the quantities really didn't seem right. It barely covered the bottom of the pan, and the pan I was using was a 4" x8".

I also noticed that the coconut oil was already re-hardening in little clumps.

Not a good picture, but the little white flecks are the hardening coconut oil

I covered it and put it in he fridge overnight as directed.

Then cut them. Or tried to anyway.

They're, in, rather sticky. And gooey. Really not the consistency if fudge.

When I tried to pick one up, it melted into my hands. I found it easier to pick it up with a fork!

They tasted good enough. Sweet and chocolaty, but definitely not the consistency of fudge! As soon as it comes out if the fridge, it melts into a gooey mess. 

Oh well. Worth a try!

Every Day is Different 7 - #7daysofIBD

Today is a 'post jab' day, meaning that I took my Humira injection last night.

Bloody hell, it makes me feel awful.

Every Day is Different 6 - #7DaysofIBD

Today has been about trying to catch up with life while work snows me under. I managed a bit of work on my long suffering post-grad work and otherwise spent the the day doing housework. But I thankfully managed the energy to cook up some festive treats. Tonight is the first night of Chanukah, and that means only one thing - latkes!!!

I'm not Jewish, but I love Jewish food and I like having a little Chanukah in my Christmas, so making latkes is a holiday treat for me.

This is the low-residue version I made today.

Peel and grate a good size potato.

This is always very messy. Shredded potato sticks to everything! Next put the potato into a colander and rinse under cold water. Then push as much of the liquid out as you can with your hands.

Transfer to a bowl. Add 1/2 tbsp of onion powder (to replace the chopped onions), 2 tbsp of flour (gluten free flour works well too), an egg and salt and pepper to taste.

Mix it all together until well blended.

Heat about 1/4" of sunflower oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Spoon mixture into the oil, and push down to make a pancake shape.

Flip them over when the edges start to go brown.

When they are cooked, remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on several layers of paper towel.

Serve with applesauce and soured cream.

I had mine with some roast butternut squash and roast venison tonight. Yum!

Every Day is Different 5 - #7daysofIBD

A Saturday in early December means braving the Christmas crowds and going into town to sort out a few gifts and run a few errands.

Most women go into Boots (or any other pharmacy) to buy pretty make-up, indulgent bath bombs and a variety of hair stuff.

I go into Boots to buy this -

Oh the joys of eczema in winter! It's greasy, expensive, smells like a hospital and it works brilliantly.

What does eczema have to do with IBD? They aren't directly related, but Humira makes my eczema worse, especially on my face and I ran out of this stuff earlier this week. Such luxuries I treat myself to!

Every Day is Different 3 & 4 - #7daysofIBD

I'm trying to catch up on this #7daysofIBD thing.

Day 3, which was Thursday, was bloody exhausting. I had a very long day at work which involved some travelling, then somehow dragged myself to a gig. This pretty much sums it up -

Friday was equally exhausting. I can manage a lot of things about living with chronic illness, but it's the fatigue that kills me. Comfort food was in order. So I made my easy peezy macaroni and cheese.

I seriously never understood the Canadian obsession with macaroni and cheese when this is soooo much better!

To make for one, cook macaroni as directed.

While the pasta is cooking, melt half a tablespoon of butter or margarine in a microwave safe bowl (about 20 seconds). Stir in half a tablespoon of flour, then add 1/3 cup of milk and whisk. Put bowl back in the microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir, then microwave for another minute. Remove from microwave, give it a stir, add some black pepper (I also add a dash of paprika and a pinch of cayenne pepper), then stir in half a cup of shredded cheese (I like Double Gloucester). Drain pasta, add to sauce, stir. Job done.

Every Day is Different 2 - #7daysofIBD

I'm still behind on this #7days of IBD thing. But if one thing sums up Wednesday, it's this -

 And this -

I've been doing a lot of this lately. Everyone says that I will feel better once I stop . . . 

Every Day is Different 1 - #7DaysofIBD

According to Crohn's and Colitis UK, 1st-7th December is IBD Awareness Week. This year, the theme is 'Every Day is Different' and those with IBD are being encouraged to do 7 days of social media posts to raise awareness. Insanity at work and in life generally has conspired to prevent me from doing this for the past few days, so I will try to do a few to add to the cause.

This is a photo for 1st December. My Humira supply was delivered Tuesday morning. Each delivery comes with four needles, and I still have one left from the last delivery.

Ever wondered what £2500 in a fridge looks like?

Seriously, each needle costs £500!

It occurred to me when I put this in the fridge that this is quite possibly the most expensive thing in my house.

Thank God(s) for the NHS!

Chicken Pasta Bake

I tried a new recipe I found in the Co-operative's magazine today for a chicken pasta bake. It sells itself as an easy weeknight meal.

I made a few adjustments. As I'm only feeding me, I cut the recipe in half and substituted mushrooms for carrots (carrots with pasta? Just wrong.) or peppers (didn't have any) as suggested in the recipe. I also substituted onion powder for the onion to low-residue it and added more garlic (because, well, garlic).

To start, I put on a lot of water to boil pasta and pre-heated the oven to 220C/425F.

I cut up a chicken breast into chunks and fried it in olive oil. I also cut up two rashers of smoked bacon from my friendly butcher (removing excess fat and the rind) and put that in the frying pan. Then I added some cut up button mushrooms, two crushed cloves of garlic and half a tablespoon of onion powder. I let that cook for about 10 minutes until the chicken was cooked.

Meanwhile, I cooked some macaroni and drained it once cooked.

Then, I added a can of cream of tomato soup to the pan.

And then added the cooked macaroni.

Then I tipped the lot into a casserole dish.

I then sprinkled it with parsley and torn mozzarella cheese.

I then put it into the oven and let it cook for about 25 minutes until the cheese bubbled and went brown.

Voilà! Chicken pasta bake!

The verdict? It's okay. A bit salty between canned soup and the onion powder. The flavour isn't overly interesting and could have used some black pepper and something else to make it more interesting. It took about 45 minutes to make, so while I would agree that it is easy, I wouldn't say that it is quick for a midweek meal. But it did the job, and I would eat it again. Which is good, as despite cutting the recipe in half, it made loads!