Friday 29 July 2011

Does expensive food make you happier?

You were supposed to get a recipe for a raw tomato sauce today but then Patton posted a really nice one at East Coast Kitchens earlier this week so it felt somewhat boring giving you yet another one.
I had a Kobe Beef burger last night though and that got me thinking.


Franzi, Holly, Nora and moi went to the Tübinger Sommerinsel and enjoyed some of the food there. I ended up getting said Kobe Beef burger mainly because I was craving a proper burger (it's been a while).
What can I say, it was a lovely burger but Holly really summed things up - what's wrong with a simple, non-fancy burger that has been made from good quality 'normal' beef?

I was reminded of this TASTE3 talk by Benjamin Wallace (you can watch it at TED) where he discusses whether expensive things actually make us happier. And of an older The Times Magazine (from 28/05/2011, which I can't find online...sorry) where they talked about the 30 things or so you had to eat before you died. Most of them seemed to be rather far away from the UK so yes, you might be able to get the best burger on this planet at Shake Shack but if I have to get on a plane first that turns into one very expensive burger.

Now, the thing I've been wondering about since the Kobe Beef burger is - would I enjoy my Shake Shack burger more just because I had to get on a plane first?
Or, am I enjoying my Tesco's Finest butter more not, because it actually tastes better than a normal organic one but because I pay 10p or so more?

I'm definitely not saying 'let's slum it and start buying the cheapest food we can find' if it's all about how much you pay for it (I could come up with a pretend story about the cheap food, I could also go on a 10 day hike before buying the stuff, that would make for quite a story around it) - I truly believe in fair prices for farmers and even more so in eating good quality food; but how much of my enjoyment of the food comes out of how much I paid for it, or whether a Tibetan monk chanted for 10 days while he made the smelly yak butter I am using for a dish (I don't actually know whether Tibetan monks make yak butter and if they do, whether you can even buy it)?
How important is all of this for my overall enjoyment of the food I eat?

Don't get me wrong, I am that person who buys the hawaiian salt just because it's a really cool story (and it came in a pretty glass jar) or who might have been trying to get hold of real straw straws for the last 3 years just because she can't get the story the people at Manufaktum had in their catalogue about 10 years ago out of her mind (yes, there is a reason why I can't remember anyone's birthdays, it's because my brain prefers to remember useless stuff like this...).

What do you think? In how far is the story around food more important than the actual food?

Note (01/08/11): It's only 30 things you should eat before you die, not 50, but now that I am sitting next to the magazine, let me tell you about the other amazing things as well:
1. Pasta at Da Vittorio, Sicily
2. Curry at Monsoon Forrest, Bandhavgarh, India
3. Oysters at Moran's Oyster Cottage, Ireland
4. Hamburgers at Shake Shack
5. Bouillabaisse at Bacon, Cap d'Antibes
Should I continue?

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Cranberry, Walnut, Oatmeal & White Chocolate Cookies


I know I've been a bit absent lately, but to be perfectly honest I haven't been cooking a great deal - I mean I could tell you about pasta with humous and tomato puree or how I believe that sometimes eating cinnamon toast crunch 5 times a day is what gets me through the day, but then again let's face it I might as well not write at all, so while I'm hoping that things will get less hectic and that I'll cook more sensible things, you might not hear that much from me for the next month or so.
That said, I do actually have a recipe for you today.
A couple of weeks ago Katie got a parcel full of cookies in the mail and when I tried one I was blown away. They were incredibly moorish oatmeal cookies, filled to the brim with dried cherries, roasted pecans and white chocolate chips. The kind of cookies that make you eat not one or two but more like your own weight in cookies. So I made some last week but since I couldn't find dried cherries they got swapped for cranberries and then I started doubting my sanity when I went to the supermarket with one item on my shopping list - pecans - only I came back with a bag of cashews. While I'm still wondering what went on there, the cranberry and cashew version worked out beautifully as well.
The version I'm using in the recipe today is yet another one which I made this weekend. I think I've found my favourite combination and I hope you like it just as much as I do. Otherwise, try the other combinations because they're lovely as well.
Oh, and you can easily make a double recipe of these, they'll keep just fine and chances are they won't last that long anyway :)

Cranberry, Walnut, Oatmeal & White Chocolate Cookies (about 15)
150g Walnuts
150g Cranberries
125g Butter (at room temperature)
100g Light Brown Sugar
100g Caster Sugar
1 Egg (at room temperature)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
100g Plain Flour
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Cinnamon
135g Porridge Oats (I like using the jumbo ones for these cookies, but normal ones (non-instant) work just fine)
100g White Chocolate Chips

Preheat your oven to 175˚C.
Toast the walnuts on a baking sheet for about 5 minutes until they go brown and the smell of roasting nuts fills your kitchen. Take the walnuts out of the oven and let them cool.
In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and set aside.
In a large bowl cream the butter for a couple of minutes, then add the sugar and cream everything together for anther 3-5 minutes until the mix goes slightly fluffy. Then add the egg and whisk until everything is well combined.
Take the cooled nuts and chop them into fairly large pieces.
Now add the vanilla extract to the butter mixture and then start adding the dry mix in 3 parts.
Once you have a smooth batter, stir in the oats, the cranberries, walnuts and chocolate chips. I tend to have issues stirring everything together using a spoon (probably partly because I tend to make a double recipe and partly because my fine-motor skills are pretty much non-existent (have you seen my handwriting???)) so I inevitably end up mixing things together with my hands.
Spoon 2 tablespoon-sized bits of dough onto a lined baking tay and flatten them slightly.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the outside edges are a lovely golden colour.
These cookies are amazing on their own, but with a cup of coffee they make even the most annoying day slightly less so.
What's your favourite cookie recipe?

Sunday 17 July 2011

Taste of Edinburgh

A few weeks back Anna and I got some super cheap tickets for Taste of Edinburgh and I thought I could share some of the photos we took with you. We had an absolute blast, starting our outing with some homemade meatball sandwiches on the train (that recipe will pop up at some point but needs some more tweaking beforehand) and then basically ate our way through the Meadows in Edinburgh.

©Anna Blanch

Oh, and I obviously had to get my photo taken next to the awesome magenta fork :)

I must admit I was a bit disappointed with the cooking 'shows' they put on and the interviews with some of the professionals they had there. And I might have raised my voice a bit too much when I realised the cupcake papers everyone was fawning over were more expensive at the show than when I bought the same ones in New York in May (I think the thing that got me was that it was a British company) - oops. Anyhow, I got to spend the evening with Anna and eat some amazing food. Here are some of my favourite impressions

We got some cannoli from Silver and Green



Then we had a kebab thing and a mushroom risotto that blew my mind



I want my own prosecco truck (I don't even like prosecco, but I think the truck was awesome!)


Have you been to a food fair recently and if so, what were your impressions?

Note: Thank you Alex for finding the typo - I should stop writing things at night....

Friday 15 July 2011

Salty Caramel Popcorn


In case you haven't noticed in the past, I'm one of those people who can't get from one meal to the next without a snack in between (I don't mean mindless munching away on sweets, though). I guess you could also think of it as having 5 meals a day :)
While I normally have some fruit or some nuts or perhaps some leftover cake from the day before, I've recently become obsessed with popcorn. I mean I have never hated popcorn but I always got sick of the sugar or salt not sticking to it the way it does when you go to the cinema so I never really got into making my own.
Until I read a post on Chameleon Girls on Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn and realised how easy it was to make caramel popcorn (I got sidetracked by their post on stenciled walls and by looking at all the pretty stencils you can buy on the internet before getting around to actually making the popcorn). I guess I never really thought of how you would make it and had just assumed that it would take forever and involved like a gazillion steps. Isn't that the case for everything you don't know much about?
Anyhow, I've been relishing in the amazingness that is salty caramel popcorn for the last week now and while I know that I'll have to stop at some point because you know...you can't go and replace your mid-afternoon snack and dinner with popcorn every other night...or at least that's what the sensible part of my brain keeps saying (the other part is normally too excited by the sugar high to respond).

Salty Caramel Popcorn
50g Butter
1 tbsp Groundnut Oil
4 tbsp Sugar
90g Popcorn Kernels
3/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

In a heavy bottomed pot heat the butter and oil. Once the butter has melted, add the sugar and (while you're stirring) allow the sugar to turn a light golden colour. If you're using unrefined sugar like I tend to, wait until it's turned a slightly darker golden colour, you definitely don't want it to turn into caramel before you add the kernels.
Add the kernels, stir and then cover the pan. Cook until the popcorn is nearly all popped (there will be 2 or 3 seconds between the individual pops) but make sure you shake the pot regularly so the caramel gets a) mixed in with the popcorn and b) doesn't burn at the bottom of the pan.
Once the popcorn is done, transfer it into a bowl and sprinkle with the salt and cinnamon and then stuff your face with popcorn instead of having a sensible dinner :)
What is your favourite snack these days?

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Summer Pasta

I hope you're having an equally lovely day as I am having today (is that actually a proper sentence?).
I just gave my friend Louise a chapter to read (yes, the one I haven't managed to get into proper draft form for like 3 weeks now...), the sun is shining through my window and it's a balmy 16 degrees outside.
If I was allowed to exercise these days (long story involving a wasp, my arm and a couple of visits to the minor injuries unit at 3am last week, but for once I'm listening to my mum - dear mum, I hope you notice how much effort this takes to not go and enjoy the sun on a run!) I would sooo go out and enjoy the weather some more - perhaps I'll go for a gentle stroll later this afternoon.
Anyhow, as I am re-learning how to eat when I'm not exercising I am rediscovering the wonders of summery pasta dishes. I can't seem to get enough of the many possibilities these days.
Yesterday I was inspired by Alex's mum's pasta recipe, but I thought I could share two of my favourite combinations with you today. They both follow the same principle and the quantities for the veg are based on a 40-50g portion of pasta - i.e. if you are a fan of larger pasta portions, use some more but at the same time I probably wouldn't treble the amounts if you want to have 150g pasta.

So what I normally do is stick some thin pasta (the type I use is called spaghettini but then again they seem to have a different name depending on the brand and the country, I am talking about the kind that takes 5 minutes to cook, and no, not the quick-cook kind) into some boiling salt water and then get on with sorting out the veg/fruit.


Courgette Pasta
150g Courgette (that is 2 small (12-15cm) courgettes), washed and the ends cut off
15-20g Parmesan, grated
Salt, Pepper
Some nice Olive Oil

Using a vegetable peeler, 'peel' the courgette into thin strips and set aside, then you grate the parmesan cheese. Wait until the pasta is nearly done (i.e. you feel like it's going to need another minute), then add the courgette and, after that additional minute, drain the pasta. Put the pasta into a bowl, drizzle with some olive oil, season with some salt and pepper and sprinkle with the parmesan.
See, that didn't take that long...


Pear and Gorgonzola Pasta
1 Pear
30g Gorgonzola

While the pasta cooks, wash the pear, core, and cut it into thin slices.
Cut the gorgonzola into smaller pieces and put the pieces into the bowl you'll eat the pasta from. Once the pasta is done, drain it but don't worry about all the water draining off. Mix the pasta with the cheese (the remainder of the cooking water that didn't drain off should turn some of the cheese into a creamy sauce that will stick to the pasta), then add the pear slices and smile while you enjoy this super quick lunch.

Monday 11 July 2011

Weekend of Pizza Part IV


With the weekend pretty much over (if I close my eyes and pretend it's still the weekend, right?), we're on the last instalment of our pizza trilogy of four :)
Today we're using up some of the leftovers of Saturday's pizza on another sweetish topping.

Apple, Bacon & Stilton Pizza
1/2 recipe of Pizza Dough
1 cup Milk mixed with
1/2 tsp Salt
11/2 tbsp Flour
2 tbsp Butter, unsalted
Salt, Pepper & Nutmeg
1 Apple (e.g. Pink Lady)
3/4 cup Stilton, cut into small pieces (that is about how much we had left after making 1 1/2 Tunisian Pizzas)
2 Rashers Bacon, grilled or fried so they are slightly crispy (don't go for super crispy otherwise they'll dry out when you bake them with the pizza later), cut into little pieces

Preheat your oven to 230˚C.
Roll out the pizza dough and transfer it onto a floured baking tray.
Make a white sauce as follows:
In a small saucepan heat the milk and 1/2 tsp salt -  I tend to heat it over a low heat and get on with the next couple of steps while it heats up. In the end you want the milk to be scalding hot but not boiling.
Heat the butter in a saucepan. Once the butter has melted stir in the flour and 'cook' the flour for a few minutes, stirring more or less continuously with a wooden spoon. You want the roux to be slightly golden but not properly browned. Take the pot off the heat and once the roux stops bubbling whisk in the now scalding hot milk. If the milk was hot enough you should end up with a lump-free white sauce (if you have lumps, strain it through a fine sieve). Allow the sauce to thicken for a minute or two and season it with some more salt, pepper and some nutmeg.
Cut your apple into slices that are approximately the same thickness as a £1 coin.
Spread the white sauce over the pizza base.
Top with the apple slices and bacon pieces, then cover everything with the cheese.
Bake the pizza for 8-12 minutes and enjoy it once it's cooled down slightly (I mean it's lovely super hot, but my second slice was definitely more exciting on the flavour-front).

Sunday 10 July 2011

Weekend of Pizza Part III


Today's topping is very different from yesterday's one.
My friend Katie is completely addicted to Thai chicken pizza and when we had our board-game night that ended up involving no board-games at all Katie showed me how she makes it.
Oh, and now I'm craving Thai chicken pizza all the time.
Again, the quantities are approximations (I mean they are the amounts we used but you could easily use more or less)

Thai Chicken Pizza
1/2 a recipe of Pizza Dough
1/2 sachet Satay Sauce
1 Carrot, grated
1/2 Chicken Breast, cut into strips
Some Olive Oil
1 ball Mozzarella, cut into small pieces
A handfull fresh Coriander, cut into large pieces

Preheat your oven to around 230˚C.
Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the chicken breast strips until they are cooked through and start to brown. Take the pan of the heat and transfer the meat onto a plate lined with a couple of pieces of paper towel.
Roll out the pizza dough and transfer it onto a floured baking tray.
Spread the satay sauce over the pizza base, then top with the carrot, chicken breast and come coriander.
Cover everything with a generous layer of mozzarella cheese and bake for 8-12 minutes.
This pizza is lovely hot but it's also super nice once it's cooled down a bit.

Saturday 9 July 2011

Weekend of Pizza Part II


Today's topping was originally inspired by a meal I had back in November when I drove down Highway 1 from San Francisco all the way to San Diego in 4 days (I know...you don't have to tell me that you really need more time for that trip, but that was all I had so in my book that's still better than never going) anyhow, I got to relax for a bit and I stopped at Crystal Cove Beach where I had what they called a 'Tunisian Pizza' which was made with a grilled flatbread and a very intriguing mix of dates, blue cheese, roasted tomatoes and bacon.
To me it was one of those meals you have and then can't get out of your head for the next 10 years. Do you get that? You have a meal and then you can't forget it because it pretty much blew your mind away?
Anyhow, I'm digressing, I've been thinking of making this pizza for a while now and when we decided to have another boardgame evening I finally got a chance.
Oh, and I don't know about you but I don't measure things when I'm making pizza so here's a list of the ingredients with rough estimates of amounts.

Tunisian Pizza
A handfull of Dates
3 or 4 rashers of Bacon
Some Slow-Roasted Tomatoes (if you don't have any, sundried ones would probably work as well, if you don't know how to make your own, have a look at the Smitten Kitchen one or the two peas and their pod one, they're both super easy and pretty much what I do when I make them)
Some Blue Cheese (such as Stilton)
1/2 a recipe of Pizza Dough

Turn on the grill in your oven and heat it until it's nice and hot (mine has a temperature gauge and I tend to turn it to 250˚C).
Lay out the bacon on a piece of tinfoil and grill it in the oven for a few minutes (you want it to cook but make sure it doesn't go too crispy, it will go on the pizza and we don't want to end up with bacon-charcoal).
Once the bacon is done, switch your oven onto it's normal setting and let it get to around 230˚C (if you have two separate compartments you can do this before you deal with the bacon).
Roll out the pizza dough until it's about the size of you baking tray. Sprinkle some flour onto your baking tray and then transfer the dough onto the tray.
Mince the dates (i.e. play the game of 'how small can I cut the dates'), you want to end up with something that is starting to resemble a paste.
Spread the dates over your pizza (I've made this recipe twice now and the first time the dates were fairly dry so all I could manage was sprinkle them on top of the dough, the second time they were super fresh and I actually managed to spread them out like some slightly unruly butter).
Cut the bacon into little pieces (I don't like the fat so I cut that off beforehand, if you like it obviously leave it on) and spread them out on top of the dates.
Crumble some blue cheese on top of that and then add some of the tomatoes. If you have fairly large chunks you might want to cut them into smaller pieces.
Stick your pizza into the oven and bake for 8-12 minutes until the crust is golden (or until you're starting to get worried that the tomatoes or the bacon are turning into charcoal, whichever happens first).
Hmmmm....pizzapizzapizza :)


Friday 8 July 2011

Weekend of Pizza Part I


I thought we could have a weekend of pizza recipes for a change - I've been writing about too much sweet stuff lately.
This series of posts was inspired by yet another evening of boardgames and pizza (though this time we ended up chatting all evening and forgot to play Risk).
Before we get to the toppings though, I thought I could talk about pizza bases for a bit. Making a pizza base is super easy (yes, there's yeast involved but we can do this together, I promise :) ).
There is only one thing that you really need - time. If you expect your pizza dough to be done in 30 minutes, go and get some take-out because it's not gonna happen. If you know you won't have much time you could easily make the dough ahead of time, put it into the fridge and then give it half an hour or so to get to room temperature just as you're getting the toppings ready.

Easy-Peasy Pizza Base (makes about 2 pizzas the size of your baking tray)
600g Strong Breadflour
21g (i.e. half a cube) Fresh Yeast
Lukewarm Water
11/2 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp Olive Oil

Put the flour into a large bowl, using your finger, make a well in the middle and crumble the yeast into it. Add a few tablespoons of water to the yeast and combine the two. It's ok if you stir in some of the flour as well but what you are aiming for is a fairly liquid mix - think chocolate malt milkshake.
Give the yeast about 20 minutes or so before you incorporate it into the rest of the flour. Now you can add the salt and more water (you need less than you might think so add some water, knead the dough, and if it still looks like it needs more water then you can add some more. You don't want your dough to go all sticky but at the same time you don't want it to fall apart because it's too dry.
My mum always told me that the dough should be the same texture as the flabby bit of your armpit. I guess that works for us humans, if you are blessed with a body that has no excess flab can you tell me more about your workout, please? ;)
In that case you could ask someone else (I mean, please don't start going round groping strangers...).
Anyhow, knead the dough until the gluten bonds have properly developed. If you are kneading by hand this could easily take 15 minutes (just think of it as a short 15 minute workout). You will know the dough is ready when it starts feeling slightly velvety and develops a slight sheen. I know this sounds weird but it will make sense when  the dough gets to this stage.
Stick the dough back into the bowl, cover the  bowl with a damp tea towel and allow it to proof until it's doubled in size. Since you're not using crazy amounts of yeast this could easily take 4 hours or so. Knock back the dough and allow it to proof for another hour or two. The thing about the timing here is that I don't think you can give the dough too much time (ok, I wouldn't leave it for 3 days or so), you could start knead the dough in the evening, then leave the dough in the fridge overnight (the cold will slow down the activity of the yeast but it won't stop it completely, i.e. things are just going to take a lot longer), then if you want the pizza for lunch take the dough out around 10ish, allow it to come back to room temperature for an hour or so before you knock it back and give it another hour or two at room temperature before you make your pizzas.
To make the pizza, preheat your oven until it's really hot (230˚C works fine in my oven, but if yours is slightly sluggish you might want to go for the highest temperature it can handle).
Roll out 1/2 or 1/3 of the dough depending on how thin you want the pizza to be, flour your baking tray and transfer the dough onto the tray. Cover the base with your choice of toppings and then bake your pizza for 8-12 minutes or until the toppings are heated through and the outer edges of the base look nicely done and crusty.
Enjoy with a salad and in the company of some lovely friends.




Wednesday 6 July 2011

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies


Ok, before we go any further, these are hands down the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made.
I don't think I was made for cookie baking - I don't tend to want to have 3 dozen cookies sitting around in my kitchen (I won't eat them and, unlike what some people have been suspecting, I don't want to make everyone around me obese) and I seem to go for a hit-and-miss approach when I'm making cookies.
Unlike cake when I can just try a new recipe and will change quantities that sound slightly off, I can try two cookie recipes that appear both sensible and end up with an amazing one and another one that makes me want to throw them out the second they have cooled down.
But these cookies didn't just look the way I want cookies to look, they also tasted like I had died and gone to cookie heaven. So you might wonder what I did different this time - at least I hope you are because I'll tell you anyway.
I went back to basics and adapted Ree's chocolate chip cookie recipe (have you ever had a recipe on PW not work out? I haven't) and I started wondering why I hadn't done so years ago. I think this will turn into one of my standard recipes because it was super quick and the cookies are just plain amazing.
Anyhow, enough talking...let's make some cookies!

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 12)
100g Butter, at room temperature
100g Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
65g Plain Flour
35g Buckwheat Flour
1/2 tsp Instant Coffee
1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda (slightly) heaped
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Flaxseed, ground
100g Chocolate (I used 75% cocoa), broken into pieces

Preheat your oven to 190˚C
Cream the butter and the sugar, then add the vanilla extract and egg and keep mixing until they are well combined. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, salt, instant coffee and bicarb. Add the dry mix to the wet mix in 3 parts, stirring after each addition, then add the flaxseed (do not over-beat but make sure the ingredients are well-combined). Finally add the chocolate chunks and stir until they are relatively evenly distributed across the batter.
Using a spoon put little lumps (about the size of 2tbsp measuring spoons) of batter onto a lined baking tray leaving enough space between the lumps so the cookies can spread out.
Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes, allow them to cool slightly before transferring them onto a wire-rack and eating them either still warm or cold, but always with a big glass of milk.

Sunday 3 July 2011

Orangey Oat Scones


This is not the recipe I have been going on about for ages now (no, that one is still not quite there) but I made these today instead and they were absolutely lovely with some butter and jam.
If you don't have oat flour, do what I did and take some porridge oats and whizz them in your food processor until you are left with something that resembles breadcrumbs.

Orangey Oat Scones (makes 6)
150g Oat Flour
125g Plain Flour
50g Butter, cold
1 tsp Bicarb
2 tsp Cream of Tartar
50g Sugar
A pinch of Salt
50g Yoghurt
100ml Orange Juice

Preheat your oven to 220˚C.
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, bicarb and cream of tartar. Then cut the butter into cubes the size of hazelnuts and rub the cubes into the flour mixture until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.
Then add the yoghurt and the orange juice and mix it in using a spoon or a knife (try to do this as quickly as you can),  transfer everything onto a floured surface and pat the dough until it's about 2 - 2.5 cm thick. Cut into rounds using a 6cm round cookie cutter, transfer onto a lined baking sheet and brush with some milk if you feel like it.
Bake the scones for 10-12 minutes, then allow them to cool on a wire-rack.
Enjoy your scones with some butter or clotted cream and jam and some tea while you sit back and relax with your friends :)
Oh, and once I get the oatmeal scones to cooperate I'll share that recipe with you as well :)

Friday 1 July 2011

Experimenting

I've done a lot of experimenting with my recipes lately. There is this recipe for boozy chocolate-chip cookies, which is getting there but I am still trying to coerce more rum into the little buggers while still having them resemble a chocolate-chip cookie.
I think I might succeed with the current plan of using ground flaxseed and rum rather than eggs, but I'll have to try that this weekend.

Then there's the scones-saga that I've been whining about on twitter...I had this amazing oatmeal scone at lab-coffee a while back and you know, scones should be easy enough to make, right? Well I am on batch number 9 or so and while I'm getting close there were some interesting versions, we had one that was more closely related to a hockey puck than to a scone, then came the one that tasted of bicarb and not much else, a few batches later I got the flavour just right but they looked like they had cellulite or something


I mean I don't want ugly scones, so I am still trying and once I get it right I promise I will share the recipe with you :)

Oh, and then there's the pancake thing...my lovely friend Katharina I had these heavenly airy ricotta pancakes at Five Leaves and after the first recipe I tried was quite boring flavour-wise I have been making a batch every weekend since





(I am starting to worry about my waistline with the amount of scones and pancakes I'm eating these days) and while I feel like I'm honing in on a winner they're not quite there either.

Same goes for my peach cobbler recipe. I had always assumed that a cobbler was basically a crumble but instead of the crumble topping you had a biscuit topping (correct me if I'm wrong). But then I watched Paula Deen make peach cobbler which was something completely different. No, before you ask, there was no deep-frying involved :) but it reminded me of a clafoutis without the eggs.
And....it was lovely, but I used white self-raising flour and I think the cobbler could be just that bit nicer with some nice wholegrain flour. I just haven't decided which one to try first - the bag of Kamut is whispering to me telling me that the flavour would be perfect but I'm hesitant because I'm not convinced the texture will be right, next to it the bag of rye flour is making a more convincing argument flavour-wise but again, what should I mix it with to get it to look nice?
Buuut, the recipe is on the way so all you lovely people in places where it's peach season right now can make yourself some lovely peach cobbler (oh, and don't you worry, I've already reduced the sugar and the butter, you won't die from a heart attack when you read at the recipe :) ).
Anyhow, let's see which one of these makes it into a post first.
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