A House Made of Ginger

For all those red-headed bloggers, don’t worry, I've not been going round shaving the heads of gingers and turning the hair into some weird hairy-ginger houses. No, I got home from work and had an urge to create a classic Christmas treat completely from scratch. And then come to regret it three hours later when I was covered in flour and surrounded by never ending gingerbread biscuits, a bit like the Magic Porridge Pot but sweeter and not as sloppy.

Ignoring all the recipes online, and all the detailed instructions on how to put the house together, I searched my bookshelves and found ‘The Usborne Beginner’s Cookbook’ that used to be my bible when I was baking with my mum at aged 7. Their gingerbread biscuit recipe made 20 biscuits, so, being presumptuous, I doubled it, so I could make a huge house. However only having a small circular cake board, this soon changed.

After spending perhaps an hour kneading dough till my arms ached and I no longer cared about making a silly gingerbread house I realised I’d used the wrong sugar, and you could see little golden flecks in the dough. Deciding I really couldn't be bothered to make a whole new batch of dough, I discussed it with my dad and we decided it would give the house a nice ‘rendered’ look, or something along those lines. Then it was the good bit (after rolling out the dough to skinny sheets and throwing flour all over myself).

Designing the house. This combines three of my great loves – baking, designing houses (courtesy of The Sims) and maths. Yes, I am a geek. Embrace it. And buy me the Sims 4. Thanks. Anyway, I think I spent another hour drawing out designs, measuring them, working out how they’d fit together, and drawing on all of my maths A Level trying to work out the hypotenuse of the roof angle (quite impressed at how professional I sound here). After extensively sketching out all the pieces I needed, I washed one of my rulers and painstakingly cut them out of my dough. Screwing up a lot and starting again, covering myself, and the kitchen, in more and more flour every time.

As you might have guessed from the Magic Porridge Pot reference, I had wayy too much dough left after this. So I made gingerbread biscuits. And lots of them. Fortunately for me a guy was round fixing our internet and standing on top of the oven, which made it so much easier to keeping taking in and out and turning my biscuits, So much easier. And hardly any of them were overcooked and hard. At all.

Tra la la la la, let’s move on. It was time to assemble my house. Using egg whites to make my icing nice and sticky I threw my house together wall by wall, using my mum as a prop. Unfortunately as soon as we put the roof on it started to slip fall apart. The idea was to hold it still until the icing set, holding it all together. However my dad came round the corner telling us it was all put up wrong, and we needed to use supporting walls (he’s a surveyor, he can’t help it). So while he worked out how to make my higgledy-piggledy ginger-mess into a structurally sound gingerbread house, I took a break and decorated my dog for Christmas. She loved it.

Everyone who makes a gingerbread house needs a surveyor on hand, it stayed up! Five hours of baking and it still wasn’t finished! The next day I spent another five hours smothering my house in buttercream icing, dotting on jelly tots, scattering marshmallows and crushed meringues on the roof – snow of course, and after eating most of a box of chocolate fingers I used a few of them as timbers and windows. Taa Daaah! It was finished.

As for the 40, yes I made 40, gingerbread biscuits I had left over, I turned them into the base for a ginger and honey cheesecake which was much yummier and less chewy than bog standard ginger biscuits.

Please don’t try this at home if you don’t have time, patience and a Christmas dog to amuse you. Or alternatively you could go to Costco and buy yourself a gingerbread house kit and cut this process down by, ooo about 9 hours. It won’t be as satisfying though.

Merry Christmas! xxx  

CRAVING ALERT!

If you're a cheese lover you need to try these miniature wheels of cheese from the Sainsbury's cheese counter. Keeping with the Christmassy-theme they'd be great on crackers, but to be honest I'd eat them on everything from pasta to toast to cereal. Well maybe cereals a bit silly, but my point is, buy them, they are DELICIOUS!


















http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/fine-follicles/Content?oid=3199086

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW86VVnINHA

http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/book/1~C~CCBC~2466/beginners-cookbook.aspx

http://www.thesims.com/

https://www.philadelphia.co.uk/Recipes?search=cheesecake

http://www.costco.co.uk/view/product/uk_catalog/cos_6,cos_6.2,cos_6.2.8/84814

Mish-Mash-Messy Panna Cotta

Ever wanted to make a really fabulous looking dessert that everyone ‘Oos’ and ‘Ahhs’ at and tells you ‘oh aren’t you clever for doing that? Are you sure it’s not from M&S/Waitrose/[insert generic supermarket here]?’, when really it was simple as toast to make. Well I’m going to show you how... I think...

Lorraine Pascal has been hosting a show on BBC1 ‘How To Be A Better Cook’ where she teaches people how to be better cooks, bit of an obvious name. But she uses really simple recipes that look incredibly elegant. I got the idea to make a panna cotta and jelly dessert in a champagne flute from the show, but I’ve changed it slightly. She makes her panna cotta with Greek Yoghurt, which I have a bit of an aversion to so instead I used Simon Rimmers recipe for vanilla panna cotta. She also made a pomegranate jelly, but I couldn’t work out where the pomegranate juice was in Tesco’s so I used Delia’s strawberry champagne jelly instead. Actually I changed it to raspberry jelly because I prefer it, but other than that it’s the same.

The first thing you need to do is to go all Art Attack and construct a ‘glass-resting-rack’ out of egg boxes. Get an egg box, cut off the lid and all the annoying sides and then blu-tack it upside down to the centre of a deep tray. This seems really simple, but when you come to put your champagne glasses on it, if they’re not the exact right shape to rest in-between the egg box grooves, you’re going to have a nightmare getting them to stay still and not pop up or fall through the gaps every 5 minutes. No that didn’t happen to me... I’m just warning you.

Once you’ve got your champagne glasses to STAY STILL, you can start to make your panna cotta. Simon Rimmer’s recipe is really easy and you can get all the ingredients at a supermarket, although I used vanilla essence instead of a vanilla pod. I did have a bit of a meltdown trying to find gelatine leaves, I had to explain to a shop assistant 5 times that ‘no I am not looking for jelly, I need gel-a-tineeee’ before I gave up and asked a kindly old lady who looked like she knew her way around making jelly from scratch. Also, I know it might be tempting, but try not to play with the gelatine too much once you’ve soaked it in water, you’ll probably over boil your milk.

Once you’ve got the panna cotta mixture, you need to transfer it into the champagne glasses and then the champagne glasses into the fridge, without spilling it. This is impossible, especially if you’ve over filled your glasses and you accidently put them in the section of the fridge where the shelf is uneven so the tray wobbles. It might be easier to do what the rubbish cook did on ‘Lorraine Pascal: How To Be a Better Cook’, and knock together some bits of wood to make a stand for the glasses to go on. But I was sure that my egg boxes would hold together.

You only need to leave the panna cottas an hour until they’re set. Here are some things MENSXP suggest you can do in an hour http://www.mensxp.com/work-life/balance-work-and-life/21582-15-things-you-can-do-in-an-extra-hour-p1.html I watched three episodes of ‘Friends’ and ate a sharing bag of Doritos.

So once you’ve taken the panna cotta’s out of the fridge, determined that they’ve set by wobbling the glasses a few times, you can make your jelly. By the way, you won’t need the egg boxes for this next bit, throw them a away, eat up the panna cotta that dripped into your tray, and god help you if you used white-tack. The jelly’s pretty simple to make, but make sure you don’t overdo it on the fizzy pink wine, especially if it’s cheap-o, I was a bit heavy handed and it tasted quite tart. Fill the glasses up to the top with the jelly and whack in the fridge for another in six hours. Think how much you could get done in six hours, nearly a whole series of ‘Friends’ and your body weight in Doritos...

Once the jellies have set, stick a few raspberries on top and a dusting of icing sugar if you have any, present to your friends and family, bask in the glow of yummy-dessert-making-pride, and say it’s from Aldi if anyone doesn’t like it. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/vanilla_and_yogurt_panna_76284

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/vanillapannacotta_87907

http://www.deliaonline.com/home/Print-Recipe.html?PID=1757&ampCID=419


CRAVING OF THE WEEK
Mr Kiplings Cherry bakewells, yes please

In The Name Of Meat

If you live near Manchester you’ll have heard about Reds True BBQ, and if you haven’t, do you live under a rock? From the minute it opened in Albert Square my Instagram feed was full of my friends being defeated by the meat. It’s become the new food hype for Manchester, if you haven’t snapped yourself with a massive plate of ribs at Reds True yet then what have you been doing with yourself? At first I was a bit sceptical about this new trend, were my friends really in #meatheaven or did their hair just look really good that day? But now I've tried it myself, I've been converted.

From the outside, Reds True looks like another one of the Manchester’s bog standard restaurants, fancy building, not much signage, simple name above door, but go inside and you’re transported to a grungy Southern State of American diner. Tin can lids on the walls, bare light bulbs overhead, rows of homemade sauces on the table. You feel like you’ve just walked in off the road, dust in your hair, ready for some meat.  Just looking at the menu – The Good Book – made my mouth drool, I wanted to try EVERYTHING! Unfortunately the amount of different ribs, wings, steaks, burgers in different sauces was too much for even a pig like me. However the generous gods of meat have given us a combo menu, so you can stuff yourself senseless on at least two delicious meats.

I decided on Combo No.4: Texas Beef Brisket and North Carolina Pulled Pork. I was desperate to try Combo No.2: Jumbo BBQ Wings and St Louis Ribs, I love chicken wings, when I was younger at parties with buffets I could sit and eat chicken wings for 20 guests all by myself. But my lovely date had already decided he wanted that, so I went for something I wouldn’t normally order, in hopes that I could surprise myself, an

d if not I could sneak some wings when he wasn’t looking. Now before you start the exclamations - of course I've tried pulled pork, I couldn’t call myself a foodie if I hadn’t. But brisket is a whole other kettle of fish. Being an avid Big Bang Theory fan, every time the word brisket is mention I immediately think of Howards mother sweating over a tough, grizzly cut of beef. But I've always thought, if you’re going to try a new slice of meat, try it in a place that knows how to cook meat. And Reds True BBQ certainly know how to do that. The slice that came out had been smoked slowly for hours and was so juicy and succulent that it melted immediately in my mouth. Dousing it in the South Carolina Mustard Sauce was the best thing, it gave it a little kick without burning my mouth off.

My pulled pork came with apple sauce and had been cooked in a BBQ sauce. I've tried a lot of pulled pork in the past few years, in wraps, in burgers, on chips covered in cheese. But this, with just a simple, meat juice soaked salad, mixing with the flavours of the beef brisket, is by far the best I've ever had. I could have married it there and then. Much to my lovely dates dismay I managed to finish all of my meat while he was still struggling with his. I thought I’d be nice and give him a helping hand. The wings did not disappoint, as big as my fist, dripping in sauce and deliciously messy. The ribs were a gigantic slab on the plate, but when you picked them up the meat just fell off the bone it was so tender. We tried it with the North Carolina BBQ Mopping Sauce, and oh my god, my taste buds started doing a little dance in my mouth. I usually hate vinegar based sauces but this one mixed with peppers and chillies just hit the spot.

 

I don’t think I've ever gone out for a meal and not ordered sides. This was no exception, between us we ordered skin on fries – why would you not? giant onion rings and grits. The giant onion rings were just that, two together covered my whole face, and I have quite a largish face. More grease and batter than onion, and so good. The chips were yummy with the blue cheese that came with one of the combos, and I even forced myself to try the Triple 6 Hot Sauce on one of them, something I won’t be doing again if I want to keep my taste buds. But the real show stopper was the grits.

If like me you’ve never heard of grits, they are apparently a Southern State delicacy of porridge oats. Not really the most appetising thing in the world, but Reds True BBQ have put a spin on them and made them indescribably beautiful. In fact up until the point where I googled them I thought they were mashed potato, they were so buttery and fluffy I never would have connected them to porridge. They came with lumps of garlic in them, absolutely divine, and was dusted down with paprika. If I was told that I could only eat Reds True BBQ grits for the rest of my life, I would live my last few years very fat and happy.

Having been told last week that Sunday lunch was not cocktails o’clock, I decided that Tuesday afternoon definitely was. WARNING: if you have something important to do after eating at Reds True BBQ, do not have a cocktail, they are leathal! The Hickory Daiquiri Cox was small but hit me like a tonne of bricks, not for an empty stomach. We didn’t think we could fit in a desert after our meat feast, but cheekily we shared and rum and ginger beer float, it was pretty much what I would imagine butterbeer to taste like, alcoholic, creamy and scrumptious.

Reds True BBQ have definitely converted me to a believer of the meat, I keep having dreams about BBQ sauce and grits, wishing I lived in Texas. I left that day full, smiling and stumbling slightly, and I can’t wait to go back and try their burgers!!

http://truebarbecue.com/

 Craving of the Day

Stella Artois Rasberry Cidre, I'm a sucker for fancy new ciders, and I need to try this one soon!

Not-So-Sunday Lunch

When you’re planning a weekend outing in Cheshire you have to remember, nearly everything exciting to do is outside, Chester Zoo, Go Ape, Marbury Park, Tatton Park, all the other parks... Being born and bred in Cheshire you would think I would remember this before planning to take a picnic up to Beeston Castle without checking the weather, and surprise surprise, it rained. What is there to do in Cheshire when it rains? Go to the pub, have a pint, and wait for all this to blow over.

The Hazel Pear is a deceivingly small country pub in Acton Bridge, lots of wooden floors, chalkboards and low ceilings, with a few little quirky decorations and a comfy leather corner seat. Unfortunately this seat was right in the corner and one of the light bulbs above our table had gone out so it was a bit dim, reminiscent of Hollister. Someone joking remarked that ‘maybe they were trying to save on electricity bills’, but the pub was packed so clearly people don’t mind a bit of mood lighting.

Both knowing that we were having standard Sunday roasts later, we decided we’d have a light lunch, although the roasts going past us definitely whetted out appetites. Sandwiches are a no go on a Sunday, so we settled for the Hazel Pear Pub Platter, being the only one we could agree on: the fish platter, quite obviously, had a lot of fish on it, which neither of us fancied, and the summer platter had goats cheese. I’m not a fan of goats cheese.

The chicken and pepper skewers were so yummy we ended up arguing over who got the last one and you can’t really go wrong with cold meats and salad can you? And the scotch egg... it’s not something that I would ever crave or think of to ask for, but my god... perfectly cooked so only the yolk was a little bit gooey, not runny, and the meat around the egg was just heavenly. The nicest scotch egg I've ever tried.

I have never tried spam before. I have never wanted to try spam before. My dad used to tell me tales of coming home from school in Essex and having spam and eggs for tea. He then went on to describe to me exactly what spam was (which I won’t do now). That, doubled with the Monty Python sketch going round and round my head, I was not keen to try the spam fritters. All I have to say is: WHY HAVE I NEVER HAD THIS BEFORE?! It was kind of like a salty deep fried pate, and one of the nicest things I can think of to ‘fritter’, and now a major staple in my everyday diet.

The sharing platter not being quite enough for our light lunch, we decided to order the thrice baked chips and garlic bread as well. Probably the best decision we could have made. I usually overload my chips with salt and black pepper till my tongue tingles, but these, these chips didn’t need anything added to them. Evidently baking potatoes three times instead of just once or twice turns them into fluffy bites of heaven in a crispy case. And the garlic ciabatta... I will admit I have a little obsession with garlic, there is never enough of it in food and when I cook you can smell my breath for days. So I’m pretty hard to please with garlic bread, it’s never garlic-y enough! But this ciabatta had whole flecks of garlic on top of the mouth-watering butter soaked bread. I died and went to where a garlic-y buttery heaven.

 At the bar I spied cheeky little cocktail menu. Not driving I was all ready to try one of their bloody marys, but I was told that Sunday lunchtime was not cocktail-o-clock! So I had to make do with a ginger beer, but I am determined to go back at a more cocktail-suited-hour and try some of their concoctions! So after a pretty rubbishy start to the day, having my plans ruined by the storm god – yet again – following advice for a zombie apocalypse can work just as well for when it’s raining and be pretty delicious too.

CRAVING OF THE DAY: Tesco’s Finest Belgian Chocolate and Valencia Orange Melting Middle Pudding. Been day dreaming about this bad boy all day.

http://www.hazelpear.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE