Pink!

I've had a yen for a pink Smeg fridge for a long time now, and have finally taken the plunge!

It was about time. Our chest freezer was constantly icing up, and the old fridge had a broken veg drawer, a broken bottom glass shelf and a sagging door. In fact, when the delivery guy went to take away the old fridge, the door came off in his hand. 

The new one is a fridge-freezer, so no more backache whilst scrabbling in the bottom of the freezer. And did I say it's pink? PINK!!! 

Cazz did cook

Time to make the Xmas pâté. I have blogged the recipe on my tumblr, so there is no need to repeat it here. Suffice it to say, the pâté is good. 

I tried two new gadgets today. My shiny cast iron mincer, and the dough hook for my hand-held mixer. 

Neither of them worked quite as well as I had hoped. I thought the dough hook might save me some kneading time for the bread I was making, but the mixer motor probably isn't powerful enough. The hook did collect up some dough, but not all of it, and I ended up kneading by hand anyway. It would probably work ok for pastry, which is lighter and needs less work. The bread turned out ok though. I made some rolls to have with meatball burgers, and a loaf of fennel-seed and raisin bread (I bought one once from Carluccio's and really liked it). 

I was using pork mince for the pâté, so decided to make meatball burgers à la Toria  (recipe on CazzCanCook). They were really good. 

But back to the gadget testing. The mincer's main purpose in life is to mince liver for Xmas pâté. It worked, but there were some problems. 

The first was the amount of space for a "catching vessel". Liver is really oozy, so needs to be caught in a bowl. The only one that would fit under the mincer was a shallow soup bowl with a wide rim. The bowl didn't have the capacity to contaim all the minced liver in one go, so several transfers were needed. There was a lot of drippage from both the bowl and the mincer during these transfers. The liver also started to seep out behind the ring that holds the blades in place, then eventually backed up and oozed through the handle seating, dripping onto the floor (but fortunately not onto my feet). It was also a nightmare to clean- lots of corners and angles inside for stuff to get caught in. The mincer is very pretty to look at, but I can't even use it as an ornament, as it is so heavy it's likely to make my shelves tip over. 

Sadly, neither gadget gets ten out of ten today. 

Cazz Can Cook

I decided to collect all my recipes together in one place, so I started a new tumblr blog called "Cazz Can Cook". You can link to it from my list of blogs down there in the left hand corner. So far it has bread pudding, five-spice lamb and sea pie. (Sea pie and bread pudding are reblogged from my other tumblr, and have also appeared here). 

From now on, as  I make a dish, I will blog it there. 

Look forward to Italian style chicken, christmas pate and (if she gives permission) Tori's meatball burgers. I plan to make all these in the next few days. 

The quest for Waitrose

I needed to grab a couple of grocery-type things, so decided to take a trip to the new Waitrose in Greenwich. 

This turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. In Greenwich there are signs pointing towards Greenwich high road and Lewisham ( don't know why- the shop is actually off of Creek Road- the opposite direction). Anyway, a 188 bus is supposed to go there, so off I trotted. 

I knew it was not far out of the town centre at Greenwich, so when the bus went over creek bridge and I hadn't spotted it, I got off and started to walk back. Oh look- there it is …

It had started to rain quite heavily. No umbrella of course. Then this happened …

I got really wet. 

Anyway, finally found my way in and was disappointed in the range of goods on offer- very limited range of bread in particular. Service was dreadful. My cashier was the only one working on the tills, and was dithery and wanted to have long conversations with everyone. The woman in front of me had a trolley full and a small baby and was clearly getting agitated. The store manager decided to open up another till, and asked the woman with the baby to go over.. She unloaded her trolley, then realised (as I already had) that there wasn't actually a cashier there yet. I felt sorry for her as she waited helplessly. I had unloaded mine and was paying when the other cashier finally turned up. 

I won't be going there again. 

Anyway- I hobbled back out to the main road, only to see my bus sail by. The next bus only went to the university, but it was raining so I got on it and then stupidly changed on to a 386, forgetting that it doesn't stop at the Standard any more. On the walk back round to the standard, I got hit on the head by this…

Yes- autumn has arrived. 

Five-spice lamb

Snip a breast of lamb into thin strips, sprinkle with Chinese 5-spice (as much as you like- I used about three small pinches, to give a very subtle hint of flavour). Put in the oven and bake until crisp. (About an hour at mark 5). 

During the final 20 minutes, get cracking:

Put 1 cup rice and 2 cups water in a saucepan, bring to the boil, cover and simmer until all the water is absorbed. This is called the absorption method. 

Meanwhile

Fry in a little bit of olive oil in this order, frying each a bit before adding the next thing:

About 1 inch of fresh ginger, cut into matchsticks. 

3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced. 

2 small red onions, sliced. 

A few mushrooms, sliced ( I used about 10 smallish closed-cup white ones)

A handful of sugar-snap peas, cut in half. 

A few cherry tomatoes, cut in half ( I used about 8). 

A good glug of soy sauce. 

The juice of a small lime (the zest would be a good addition, I think, but my lime was a bit old, so I didn't use it). 

A whole star anise. (Put this in, stir for about 30 seconds, then take it out again). (Or leave it in longer if you like aniseed). 

Finally, a couple of big teaspoons of smoked chilli jelly. (This is a magic ingredient- I use it in loads of things). 

I made this up as I went, and it turned out as a really good sweet, sourish vegetable dish with enough sauce to moisten the rice. It was delicious. 

Note: my seasoning was very subtle- I was cooking for someone who doesn't usually like aniseed. (Who ate every scrap!).  Add more 5-spice for a stronger flavour for the lamb, more chilli for more heat, different veg etc. you get the idea. 

Autumn

Autumn has pretty much arrived. The cyclamen are flowering and I am starting to feel "nesty". 

The house is pretty tidy throughout, and I'm getting the urge to decorate. I need a new dressing table, having broken the drawer in the one I have at the moment. Sadly, the local antique shop, where I expected to be able to get one, has closed down. At the moment, I am still using my old dressing table, with the bottom drawer wedged half-open. 

I've started embroidering a cushion cover. Turquoise! It will be ok, because we already have a turquoise footstool. 

I bought new flat ankle boots- a black pair, and a self-indulgent dull silver metallic pair. I completely wore out last year's black boots, so I did actually need some, and I got both pairs at a discount, so it's not as extravagant as it sounds. 

I have begun my Xmas shopping. I can only carry a small amount of stuff at a time now, so will need many trips. My threat to buy a donkey adoption certificate for anyone who doesn't give me a wish list soon is now on file…

 I got my first pension statement today- annoyed to find I will be paying £70 a month in tax. Sigh. 

I did nothing in September that could be called "cultural". I did finish reading the first MathsBookClub book, which we will be discussing during October; and I did eat out several times. I am getting braver about eating out alone; and this month I went to Cafe Rouge and Jamie's Italian, as well as Wimpy and the Giggling Sausage. The monthly food pic shows that I did eat quite a range of foods this month. Last night's meal was chicken risotto, which I forgot to photograph.

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