Fondue

This Christmas my dad brought me something I really wanted, but probably shouldn't have. My very own fondue pot! I know fondue is very 60's, unless you're in France or Switzerland, but I was still very excited. The first time I tried fondue was when my boyfriend took me to Paris. I was looking on the internet for restaurants that would serve vegetarian food, and found Pain, Vin, Fromages a tiny restaurant that serves traditional french fondue, as well as raclettes and tartiflettes. The restaurant was amazing and I instantly fell in love with fondue, well, what's not to love, melted cheese on crusty bread!

And when we got home we realised that my boyfriends parents had a fondue pot! We have fondue as an occasional treat, as I'm sure its about as bad as eating 5 big macs. And I now that I have my own pot I can share this much loved treat with some other friends and family. It may be retro food, but this social dish should have a revival! I used my pot for the first time tonight and shared it with my mum, but I forgot to buy methylated spirit, so it was powered by cupcake candles!

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The Microwave

My Dad has never had a microwave in his house (he is a technophobic hippy!) and we haven't had one in my mum's house for over 4 years. So when I came down on Christmas morning to find our fruit bowl (often filled with random objects and a lonely fruit) replaced by a microwave, I didn't really know how to feel. There's once in my house at uni, so it's not like I'm scared of them. It just feels weird to have one in the house. When I first got to uni, I hardly ever used it as I was so used to cooking everything in the oven. I've realised how useful they are for some things, like making a jacket potato. But I still think people rely on them too much, I even know a few people who don't own an oven! And they also bring the convenience of the microwave meal, which, although I have had a few and probably will eat a few more, don't really like. I think it's a shame that most children today aren't taught how to cook, or how to use the stove or the oven. If I have children I'd love to raise them without the connivence of the microwave, so that they have to learn how to cook, because I think there is no better feeling than cooking yourself a nice healthy meal!

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Happy Holidays

A while ago I wanted to make some fudge, so I started looking on the Internet for a good recipe. I've made fudge numerous times, and I’ve always used the same recipe from my Nan’s super old cookbook. After looking on the Internet for ages I realised there were none that were quite like that recipe, so I decided to wait until I could copy it from the book. This book lives at my Dad’s house and is technically mine, and as much as I love it, I don’t trust myself to look after it (I somehow destroy everything I own). So for now I have to wait until I go to my dads and copy all the recipes out. The last time I made it was two years ago as part of Christmas hampers for people, so it felt apt to be making it again this time of year. After copying the recipe (but no instructions) down I happily created some lovely nostalgia with the smell and taste of the perfect fudge recipe. So here it is!

Ingredients:

60g Butter

450g Sugar

1 Small tin of condensed milk

¼ Pint of water

Fudge to me is basically a form of one pot cooking, so chuck all the ingredients in a large heavy based pan and heat gently until the butter and sugar have melted.

Then turn the heat up slightly and most importantly don’t stop mixing! Then you play the waiting game, carry on mixing and heating until the mixture turns deep golden brown. You can tell when it’s done by dropping a bit of the mixture into cold water, if it turns in to soft balls then it’s done. Or if you have a candy thermometer (destroyed mine) then heat it to 240 degrees Fahrenheit.

When you think it’s ready, remove it from the heat and beat well until it is thick and creamy. Apparently the more you beat it the grainier it becomes, because it encourages crystals to form. So beat for longer if you like it grainy, like me! Then pour in to a buttered dish to set.

I also tried my hand at making truffles today, they we’re slightly more successful than the last time I attempted it. As last time I just seemed to make some sort of yoghurt! Any way I used a Waitrose recipe. I’m definitely enjoying having some time off at the moment to make people homemade gifts.

I’m hoping to make some more sweets to accompany the candles I’ve been making! Well, I say making, I just got some old jugs from a charity shop and melted down some cheap candles to pour in them!

Happy Holidays!!

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Christmas Dinner.

Can I call it a success? Well probably not, firstly it was supposed to happen on Saturday but the terrible snow saw an end to that. Despite my boyfriends best efforts to make sure it happened, as I saw the snow getting heavier and heavier, I decided to stop cooking and go to bed. So we had it last night instead, and although the food was maybe not as good as it could have been it was still exactly how I wanted it, filling up on food and feeling festive. Because of the snow I didn’t think two of my friends could come, and one was ill which was going to leave me as the only vegetarian! It felt really silly making myself a veggie wellington so I made a few small ones instead, but luckily one veggie friend braved the snow and made it all the way from Oxford and I had someone to share it with. Aside from that the night started well with the starter, probably because it was piss easy to make, and would have taken a complete idiot to muck it up! But the main was a bit more tricky, despite putting the beef wellington in for quite a bit longer than it said on the recipe, when I got it out it was really rare! And to me looked inedible. Luckily my mum came down at this time and managed to salvage the meat while I had a small nervous breakdown. After that the cheesecake was okayish, but nothing compared to the chocolate fudge brownie sundae from last year. I think I’ll stick to Hotel Chocolat’s brownie recipe for now; it’s so much richer and gooier. The cheeseboard was the savior of the night! All in all, I don’t think it was as successful as last year and I don’t think I will do it next year (I bet I forget how stressful it all was and decide to do it again) but it was still such a nice night and I love cooking for people more than ever.

I’ve realised that I can’t upload any pictures because I think I’ve left the camera cable at uni, well that or it’s in my room, but I’m too lazy to look for it so I can only provide this image of the totally destroyed cheese board.

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Christmas!

So, it’s 8 days until Christmas and that can only mean one thing, food, food and more food! Tomorrow will be my annual Christmas dinner with my friends, which started out about 5 years ago as vegetarians only, but now, seems to have merged into a dinner for everyone. I must confess, although the meat eaters came last year my mum did the meat. So this will be the first year I have cooked meat! And it’s not like I never cook it, I sometimes do for my family or boyfriend, but nothing fancy. I went to look at the meat for the beef wellington I’m making and realised I way out of my depth! There we’re so many different cuts! Cooking meat isn’t my favourite thing to do, but I’m not one of those preachy vegetarians who hate the stuff. If people enjoy it then it’s just the same as me enjoying my vegetarian food. So today I am going to go shopping for the ingredients and start the prep, this is what I’ve decided on so far:

Goat’s cheese and apple salad

Beef Wellington or Butternut squash wellington

Raspberry brownie cheesecake

A shit load of cheese

I love the fact that everyone gets excited about food. Especially the cheese aspect, because I love cheese! And a good cheeseboard is the key to ending any meal successfully! This year everyone is bringing a cheese for the board, because last year one of my friends ending up spending as much on cheese as I did for the whole meal! I picked a truffle butter Camembert for mine, as it is just the best cheese I have ever had and I can’t really justify buying it otherwise because it is so expensive. Anyway I hope it all goes well and I’m sure I will be posting lot’s of lovely pictures!

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Atomic Burger

A while ago when I was working in Oxford, the team kept going on about a place called Atomic Burger, they pretty much built it up to be amazing in my mind. When I finally got to go it was nothing short of it. Atomic burger is an American style burger restaurant filled with nostalgic comic books and toys, offering fresh and unique burger choices. Walking in I felt like a kid, and with the amazing menu featuring burgers such as the Dead Elvis, The Goober and the Forest Gump, the choice of burger and inspired flavours is amazing. Another reason I was so impressed was that there was such a wide range of vegetarian burgers and toppings. The first time I went I had the Jonny Cash, which had refried beans, American cheese, hot sauce and jalapenos with a side of sci fries. The burger was incredible and like nothing I’ve ever tasted, as soon as I left I knew I needed to go back. It was the kind of place I knew my boyfriend would love so I’ve been nagging him for ages to go to oxford. Although it was a bit of a treck from the center of Oxford it was definitely worth it, this time I had a Cheech and Chong with vege chilli, jalapenos and nachos. It was just as good as I remembered and is perfect for vegetarians that are sick of the same old bean burger. My boyfriends had the beef burger, with bacon, cheese and onion rings and he said it was the best burger he’s ever had. I’m so happy to have finally found a burger restaurant that fulfils vegetarian needs!

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