Sunday 5 February 2012

My most useful pieces of equipment.

Well I could show you them, but as usual, I don'rt seem to be able to get the pictures from the folder into the blog. This is the second try.... here's hoping!  God, it's round the wrong way, but this is the spike that I use for cutting vegetables and hard fruits.have to put a dampcloth underneath to keep it from slipping.
The next is the body clamp, which I use by fixing it onto the worksurface,and pushing my body
against it(that's why it's called what it is!) The T bar presses against the jar or whatever it is that needs opening, just watch that it doesn't twist round.  Apologies for the inept ness .

What I have cooked this past week.

The Soda bread was a great success.
I mixed wholemeal flour with some seeded flour and polenta, and it made for a very interestingly tasting loaf.
Made a Risotto with Prawns and Mussels  for Thursday evening, using the stock I made from the prawn shells from the week before,and adding some finely chopped leeks to the basic mixture of celery and shallots. Frozen peas were just stirred in at the end,as they cook so quickly ,as do the prawns and mussels ,and I wanted to retain their bright colour ,and then some chopped parsley ,a spritz of lemon juice and a good slug of olive oil....job done!

Made an apple cake yesterday, as the boys came up after watching  the football match,  they were absolutely FREEZING COLD,as  it must have been around -6 degreesI haven't seen so many layers of clothing for a long time. .

Apple cake

2 eggs,their equivalent weight in flour, butter and sugar. Some powdered cinnamon and ginger
3 eating aples half chopped small, the rest in slices.Put the slices in some lemon juice to stop them from going brown.

Cream the butter and sugar ,add the eggs with the flour and the spices, ten added the chopped aple to the mix. Put in a greased and lined tin, and spread the slices over the top. Cover the slices with Demerara sugar,and put in the oven at 180o for 45 minutes. The apple makes the cooking time longer, but test the cake with a skewer if you think it is cooked before then.
Take from the oven the leave to cool. No need to ice ,as the apples make a good topping.

Sorry ,no picture ,as it was allmost all eaten, and they took the rest home with them!