5 things about food
Jun. 22nd, 2009 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tacitThere are a bunch of things I've been meaning to post about, and for some reason they are all to do with food.
1) In looking for my passport last Wednesday night (at 2am when I was leaving on Thursday morning, shut up), I found some bathroom scales on my bedroom floor. I weighed myself for the first time in over a year, and found that I weigh the same as I did when I finished the year of manual labour! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? I suspect every gram of muscle I had has turned to lard and migrated to my ass, belly and hips; there is no other explanation.
2) I have been obsessively doing 'Five a day' - that is, a minimum of five portion of fruit or veg every day. Generally, a handful is a portion. Juice counts as one, regardless of quantity (from a small glass upwards). This is the best food-related drive I have ever been on. I am eating so healthily! I used to normally have three or four portions a day and sometimes suck and have one. Or, um, none. Those last couple have really cut into my unhealthy snacking. My skin is great, my fridge is stocked with all sorts of exciting things, and I get to feel virtuous even when I've also eaten 100g of chocolate because I ate the fruit/veg, and that is all that counts! I don't know how it would be for weight loss, but for feeling healthy and energetic? It's fabulous. I am going to do it every day for the rest of my life.
3) I had an email forwarded to me that contained a recipe for a five minute mug cake. I timed it and really it was more like 7, but that was from the moment I started pulling ingredients from the cupboards to the moment the microwave dinged. I can't really resent those extra two minutes, you know? Cake. In a mug.
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deltacephei and I tried the recipe and pronounced it most acceptable. We also tried it using coffee and walnuts instead of cocoa and chocolate chips. The mix was very wet with the coffee, so I added another spoon of flour and didn't notice the resulting cake texture being any different.
5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE!!
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips or (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract and your favourite tipple
1 large coffee mug
Add dry ingredients to your largest mug and mix well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using), vanilla extract and a drop or two of your favourite tipple, then mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high).
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
It lacked that crispy yumminess of the edges of a fresh oven-baked cake, but, you know. Five minutes. I can't complain. If I make it again, I will switch the cocoa and choc chips for a tablespoon of swollen stoned dates, as per my mum's recipe for the best cakes in the entire world ever. In fact, hmm. *hunts* She emailed it to me. Here, have a go. Seriously: THE BEST.
tacit's mum's recipe for Sticky Toffee puddings.
You will need eight 6 oz(175g) metal pudding basins or eight 3 inch (7.5 cm) ramekin dishes, lightly oiled. (I have smaller ramekin ramekin dishes and I can make 9 puddings. I oil them with vegetable oil and also put non-stick paper in the bottom to make it easier to get the puddings out.
For the Puddings
3 oz (75g) butter, at room temperature
5 oz (150g) caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
6 oz (175g) self raising flour, sifted
6 oz (175g) stoned dates, chopped
6 fl oz (175 ml) boiling water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoons coffee essence (I use a teaspoon of instant coffee granules and 2 teaspoons extra of boiling water)
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
For the Sauce
6 oz (175g) soft brown sugar
4 oz (110g) butter
6 tablespoons double cream
1 oz (25g) pecan nuts, chopped
Pre heat the oven to Gas Mark 4, 350F(180C)
Begin by putting the chopped dates in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them. Then add the vanilla essence, coffee essence and bicarbonate of soda, and leave on one side. Next in a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, beating (preferably with an electric hand whisk) until the mixture is pale, light and fluffy. Now gradually add the beaten eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. After that carefully fold in the date mixture (including the liquid). You'll probably think at this stage that you've done something, because the mixture will look very sloppy, but don't worry: that is perfectly correct and the slackness of the mixture is what makes the puddings so light. Now divide the mixture equally between the ramekins, place them on a baking tray and bale them in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes.
When they're cooked, leave them to cool for 5 minutes then, using a cloth to protect your hands, slide a palette knife around each pudding and turn it out. Now place the puddings on a shallow, Swiss roll-type tin (I use a round pyrex dish). Next make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a saucepan and heating very gently until the sugar has melted and all the crystals have dissolved.
To serve the puddings : preheat the grill to its highest setting and pour the sauce evenly over the puddings. Place tin under the grill so the tops are about 5 inches (13 cm) from the heat (knock off any nuts on the top to prevent them browning) and let them heat through for about 8 minutes. What will happen is the tops will be hot and bubbling.
I think it'll work really well adapted to the mug cake because in my mum's recipe, the cakes have the wonderful flavour and the sauce provides the texture sensation. :)
4) I baked my first ever grown-up cake for my mum's 60th. It was good! I learnt how to make ganache. I planned to do more icing modelling, but I started so late in the evening that I just didn't have time. /o\ You can't tell from the picture, but the icing was smooth and the whole thing was a geometric joy - with a ton of chocolate and cake inside. \o/ I now have an LJ tag for cake. I posted a small slice of it to the other side of the world in the guise of Marie Antoinette, but that is another story.
5) At the posh French hotel my mum's birthday was based in, I chose a dessert that had a long description that I couldn't adequately translate, and an in-built menu translation that said, 'pineapple, pineapple, pineapple'. What with my recent fannish love for Psych, I didn't see how to resist. It turned out to be three things: a piece of hot pineapple baked in foil with a vanilla pod; a light pineapple mousse on a sponge base; and a shot glass of pineapple sorbet with something very boozy in it. *swoons* It had three pineapple leaves jabbed artistically into the mousse, swirls of something pineapply doodled on the plate, a rakish line of coconut flakes, and swirls of something bright red and yummy... I wish I'd had a camera with me, it was amazing.
I have not weighed myself again since I got back from France. I do not want to know.
1) In looking for my passport last Wednesday night (at 2am when I was leaving on Thursday morning, shut up), I found some bathroom scales on my bedroom floor. I weighed myself for the first time in over a year, and found that I weigh the same as I did when I finished the year of manual labour! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? I suspect every gram of muscle I had has turned to lard and migrated to my ass, belly and hips; there is no other explanation.
2) I have been obsessively doing 'Five a day' - that is, a minimum of five portion of fruit or veg every day. Generally, a handful is a portion. Juice counts as one, regardless of quantity (from a small glass upwards). This is the best food-related drive I have ever been on. I am eating so healthily! I used to normally have three or four portions a day and sometimes suck and have one. Or, um, none. Those last couple have really cut into my unhealthy snacking. My skin is great, my fridge is stocked with all sorts of exciting things, and I get to feel virtuous even when I've also eaten 100g of chocolate because I ate the fruit/veg, and that is all that counts! I don't know how it would be for weight loss, but for feeling healthy and energetic? It's fabulous. I am going to do it every day for the rest of my life.
3) I had an email forwarded to me that contained a recipe for a five minute mug cake. I timed it and really it was more like 7, but that was from the moment I started pulling ingredients from the cupboards to the moment the microwave dinged. I can't really resent those extra two minutes, you know? Cake. In a mug.
deltacephei and I tried the recipe and pronounced it most acceptable. We also tried it using coffee and walnuts instead of cocoa and chocolate chips. The mix was very wet with the coffee, so I added another spoon of flour and didn't notice the resulting cake texture being any different.5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE!!
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips or (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract and your favourite tipple
1 large coffee mug
Add dry ingredients to your largest mug and mix well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using), vanilla extract and a drop or two of your favourite tipple, then mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high).
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
It lacked that crispy yumminess of the edges of a fresh oven-baked cake, but, you know. Five minutes. I can't complain. If I make it again, I will switch the cocoa and choc chips for a tablespoon of swollen stoned dates, as per my mum's recipe for the best cakes in the entire world ever. In fact, hmm. *hunts* She emailed it to me. Here, have a go. Seriously: THE BEST.
tacit's mum's recipe for Sticky Toffee puddings.
You will need eight 6 oz(175g) metal pudding basins or eight 3 inch (7.5 cm) ramekin dishes, lightly oiled. (I have smaller ramekin ramekin dishes and I can make 9 puddings. I oil them with vegetable oil and also put non-stick paper in the bottom to make it easier to get the puddings out.
For the Puddings
3 oz (75g) butter, at room temperature
5 oz (150g) caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
6 oz (175g) self raising flour, sifted
6 oz (175g) stoned dates, chopped
6 fl oz (175 ml) boiling water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoons coffee essence (I use a teaspoon of instant coffee granules and 2 teaspoons extra of boiling water)
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
For the Sauce
6 oz (175g) soft brown sugar
4 oz (110g) butter
6 tablespoons double cream
1 oz (25g) pecan nuts, chopped
Pre heat the oven to Gas Mark 4, 350F(180C)
Begin by putting the chopped dates in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them. Then add the vanilla essence, coffee essence and bicarbonate of soda, and leave on one side. Next in a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, beating (preferably with an electric hand whisk) until the mixture is pale, light and fluffy. Now gradually add the beaten eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. After that carefully fold in the date mixture (including the liquid). You'll probably think at this stage that you've done something, because the mixture will look very sloppy, but don't worry: that is perfectly correct and the slackness of the mixture is what makes the puddings so light. Now divide the mixture equally between the ramekins, place them on a baking tray and bale them in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes.
When they're cooked, leave them to cool for 5 minutes then, using a cloth to protect your hands, slide a palette knife around each pudding and turn it out. Now place the puddings on a shallow, Swiss roll-type tin (I use a round pyrex dish). Next make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a saucepan and heating very gently until the sugar has melted and all the crystals have dissolved.
To serve the puddings : preheat the grill to its highest setting and pour the sauce evenly over the puddings. Place tin under the grill so the tops are about 5 inches (13 cm) from the heat (knock off any nuts on the top to prevent them browning) and let them heat through for about 8 minutes. What will happen is the tops will be hot and bubbling.
I think it'll work really well adapted to the mug cake because in my mum's recipe, the cakes have the wonderful flavour and the sauce provides the texture sensation. :)
4) I baked my first ever grown-up cake for my mum's 60th. It was good! I learnt how to make ganache. I planned to do more icing modelling, but I started so late in the evening that I just didn't have time. /o\ You can't tell from the picture, but the icing was smooth and the whole thing was a geometric joy - with a ton of chocolate and cake inside. \o/ I now have an LJ tag for cake. I posted a small slice of it to the other side of the world in the guise of Marie Antoinette, but that is another story.
5) At the posh French hotel my mum's birthday was based in, I chose a dessert that had a long description that I couldn't adequately translate, and an in-built menu translation that said, 'pineapple, pineapple, pineapple'. What with my recent fannish love for Psych, I didn't see how to resist. It turned out to be three things: a piece of hot pineapple baked in foil with a vanilla pod; a light pineapple mousse on a sponge base; and a shot glass of pineapple sorbet with something very boozy in it. *swoons* It had three pineapple leaves jabbed artistically into the mousse, swirls of something pineapply doodled on the plate, a rakish line of coconut flakes, and swirls of something bright red and yummy... I wish I'd had a camera with me, it was amazing.
I have not weighed myself again since I got back from France. I do not want to know.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 11:37 pm (UTC)2. This is the thing I've found most interesting when trying to be healthier. Looking back, I probably used o have 5-10 servings a WEEK and now I get that every day! Eeeee! Isn't is amazing what a difference it makes
3. I have never heard of such a thing, but you can bet I'll be trying it! Yum!
4. That is beautiful! I would totally pay good money for such a pretty cake. Perhaps you have found a new calling, yes? :P
5. Psych FTMFW! \o/ (If only I liked pineapple at ALL, I'd be good to go)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 08:41 am (UTC)That got long. I'm a little excited.
2) I heart veggies! I need to do some groceries. Normally it's when I run out of milk or bread that I get some food in. Now it's because I've run out of red peppers and orange juice HOW WILL I COPE. :)
3) I hadn't either. Cake! In a mug!
4) ♥ That would be one fun job! There's a lot of money in wedding cakes, no? Maybe I'll offer one up as a wedding gift some day and see how it goes. I'm certainly going to make my own, should I ever get married - they're so frickin expensive and I'd get weirdly obsessed with making it fabulous.
5) I am convinced that even a pineapple hater would find something yummy about that dessert.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 02:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 02:20 am (UTC)My sister was amazed when I told her what you did, I think you're her new hero:)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 08:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 08:47 am (UTC)