I had some veal mince in the fridge to make meatballs... but I've eaten too many meatballs lately. I also had some leftover sheets of shortcrust pastry in the freezer (when you have to make a large mound of triangular pasties, shop-bought sheets of pastry are better than making the pastry by hand). So here is what I did:

500g veal mince (or any sort of mince)
1 large onion
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tsp mixed herbs
Salt
Pepper
2 sheets shortcrust pastry
Glaze made from tbs cornstarch and 2 tbs water

Preheat oven to 220 degrees celcius.

Dice onion. Mix mince, onion, egg, bread crumbs, herbs, salt and pepper in a bowl with your hands.

Cut each sheet of pastry in half. Brush the edge of one of the halves with the glaze, then spoon the mince mix on the opposite edge and roll up the pastry. Make sure the edges are securely pressed down. Continue until you've run out of pastry and mince mix.

Cut each sausage tube into thirds or quarters, then lay on a tray with the join side down. Brush with glaze and sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds (or any herb or spice you think would work).

Bake in the really hot oven for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 190 degrees celcius, and bake for a further 20 minutes.

***

They were a bit dry and under salted. The dryness could be overcome by including bacon, or dunking in tomato sauce, which would also help with the seasoning.

I really need a better cooking icon.

I had a crappy week at work last week. After a couple of weeks of only minor hassles, the fibromyalgia came back and screwed me up. Then a project that's been consuming vast amounts of time turned ugly. But I won't bore you with the details, and don't ask anyway, because I don't like to talk about bad work stuff on my blog. Still, it was bad enough that I broke out some cooking wine when I got home (before anyone freaks about be drinking cheap stuff, my cooking wine is what wine lovers drink. There's no point using crap wine in food).

I've had a bit of a cooking frenzy this weekend. The sumac chicken salad was amazing, the ginger shortbread was lovely, the macaroons... didn't work. I didn't read the bit in the recipe ingredients that said "50g egg whites, beaten to soft peaks", I just read the "50g egg whites" and the macaroons spread into manky, runny globs. They taste OK, but they ain't macaroons. I'll be trying the lamb shanks tomorrow.

Still, the cooking frenzy has worn me out. When the time came to go to the Baronial gathering this afternoon, the thought of getting up made me whimper. My head had the staticky feel that fibro gives me*, so I decided to stay home and veg. And scour the internet for stuff. I'm thinking I need a proper mixer - I have a hand held one that's OK, but gets mighty tedious when whipping egg whites. And you can't do bread with it. I really, really want one of these - a href="http://www.catererswarehouse.com.au/product.asp?pID=2743&cID=270" target="_blank"> a Kitchen Aid Ultra Power Mixer</a>. The whopping price tag is a worry, but the thing will probably last for years, and it comes with a range of awesome gadgets, and you can even get an ice cream maker attachment. Guess I'll have to start saving.

Oh yeah... I've meant to post about one of my culinary creations from last week - coffee jelly. I'm thinking that jelly is fun to play with, and relatively simple once you work out how to handle gelatine. I need to strain the coffee a bit more (some of the espresso grounds sneaked in), and it won't appeal to everyone - surprisingly, non coffee drinkers liked it more than coffee drinkers. Many people just couldn't get their head around coffee in the texture of jelly.

* Honestly, "head full of static electricity" is the best way I can describe the sort of tiredness fibromyalgia causes. It's not like the weariness you get when you've been working hard, or not sleeping. Other people describe it as "fibro fog." Whatever, it's not pleasant, and people don't always believe you when you say something's wrong.

I know, I know, it's been over 2 months since I posted...

Sorry about that.

Truth is, I haven't had the 'puter on much in those 2 months. If you have any news you think I should know, drop me a comment and also feel free to berate me for my long silence.

If you want to know where I've been, like literally millions of Australians for the past few months, I was glued to the TV watching MasterChef Australia. This show has been a phenomenon - the final on Sunday night was officially the third highest rating show in Australian broadcast history. Yes, a COOKING SHOW. And a REALITY TV COMPETITION COOKING SHOW at that. TV commentators and network executives have been falling all over themselves wondering why the Hell a cooking competition has been such popular TV; for me, I love food and cooking shows and always watch them (unless it's a Gordon Ramsay show, in which case I want to throw things because I don't like him). The cooks were all amateurs, but generally had great skill - these were ordinary people, doing something that just about everyone does each day - cook. And most people like to try to make their food enjoyable. The three judges were knowledgable, and good judges - they praised good efforts, but when food was rubbish, they said so, and gave valid reasons as to why.

So after MasterChef (and the nightly discussion with my mother and/or brother, because they both liked it too), I would look through my growing collection of food books, dreaming up new things to cook. And yes, I have cooked a lot in the past few months. Here's a tip, though - monster cooking sessions beginning around 8:30 at night aren't recommended. Especially when you are incapable of leaving the washing up. Especially when you have to work next day. And especially when you have fibromyalgia and need sleep.

But now, if you;ll excuse me, I've just found a Japanese grocer in Sydney who has an online mail order service. And I'm still looking for somewhere that has Australian bushfoods for sale online.

Just ordered more stuff from Amazon. And the last order hasn't even shipped yet. Oh well. The latest order was relatively small for me, books about the spice trade and spices in medieval cooking (and one on Roman clothing).

I had to sneer at one of the reviewers for The Spice Route, who insisted that the author obviously knows little about spices as he called cubeb a pepper. Even though it's in the Piper genus, it's not a pepper, apparently.

And here was me, thinking that "pepper" was the general term applied to spices derived from plants of the Piper genus. And all my spice books that class cubeb as pepper are clearly wrong as well. It must be nice to know you're right when the rest of the world is wrong.

On Sunday night I did a Tudor chicken recipe, Chicken in a Lemon Sauce. It was really tasty, though I made it with drumsticks. This was a bit of a mistake; you braise the chicken, which makes the skin fall off during cooking, so it looked somewhat manky on the plate. If I make it for myself again, I will probably use chicken thigh fillets, because they braise beautifully and don't go manky. However, for SCA feasts, I imagine drumsticks will be fine, as in the dim lighting a manky appearance won't be as much of a turn off.

Tonight I made my good old Garlic Soup for dinner (yum yum 25 cloves of garlic I will still smell it a week from now), which meant I had 3 egg whites hanging around. My freezer already has quite a few frozen egg whites, so I decided to have another shot at making some coffee meringues (second time I've ever tried anything meringue). The first time I used too wide a bowl, so I couldn't beat the egg whites properly. This time I used a much narrower bowl and the meringues turned out much better - they didn't run everywhere. And they taste really good, too. They're still a bit too crisp for my liking; I just found a cooking tip to lower the cooking temperature when you put them in the oven, which crisps the outside while leaving the inside still slightly gooey.

( Recipe for Chicken with Orange or Lemon Sauce )

But right now, I'm hunting for recipes for tea-smoked duck breast. And even though it's quite late, I think I'll have another coffee meringue.

Today, I think I have finally cracked the recipe for Chicken and Leek Pasties, so I am recording it for posterity (this is about attempt #5, I think). It's based on a recipe from the Goodman of Paris (a late 14th century household manual written by a wealthy burgher for his much younger wife). My recipe differs quite a bit from his, and it's taken me a few goes to get it right.

( Yum yum yum... )

(In which I have terrible trouble tracking down certain ingredients that would have been readily available in ancient Rome)

Today was our fortnightly Baronial cooking group, in which we continued our search for a dish involving carrots and no honey (honeyed carrots have been done to death at SCA feasts and they are BORING). We also made some egg and cheese cakes, and stuffed meatballs. We're doing a bit of a Roman theme so far this year. Most of our recipes come from Apicus, who really loved his food. In fact, he ate himself into such bad debt he committed suicide rather than face his creditors.

The carrots were cooked and served in a cumin sauce, and were extremely tasty. Apicus knew what he was talking about. The egg and cheese cakes were tasty, but need some more work, partially to get the recipe right, and also to figure out how to stop them from sticking to the dish. We made them a muffin tray, and they stuck to the tray badly. Admittedly, I was using an old, somewhat dodgy muffin tray.

The stuffed meatballs were also good, but led me to problems tracking down some of the ingredients. The meatball mix was pretty basic - pork mince, breadcrumbs soaked in wine, pepper, garum and myrtle berries, stuffed with pine nuts. However, you are supposed to wrap the meatballs in pork caul to cook them, and they are cooked in a wine product called caroenum. I have been looking for pork caul all over for about 2 weeks now, and I could find only one butcher who even knew exactly what it was, and he didn't have any. Apparently it's removed from the carcass before the butcher gets it. So we used eggs to bind the meatball mix.

It was on Wednesday night I realised that caroenum is basically vino cotto, a sauce made from reduced sweet wine. I was able to get some this morning... $47 for a 250mL bottle. GAH. It was, however, utterly delicious. Australian cooking guru Maggie Beer says vino cotto can be used as a sauce on icecream, and I'd agree with that, provided it was really, really good icecream. Maggie also sells vino cotto for half the price, but the shop I went to had sold out of hers.

The meatballs turned out well as well, only next time we are going to use more pine nuts, and replace the myrtle berries with currants, because they overpowered the dish (OK, we used juniper berries, but they are pretty similar). And we are thinking that prune juice would be an acceptable substitute for vino cotto, because even Maggie Beer's vino cotto would make for a coronary-inducing feast cost.

However, I've killed my coffee grinder. I was going for a Turkish grind, and blew the motor. Oh well, I've been thinking of getting a new one for a while. It really didn't grind all that well if you wanted fine. And also, I can't find my Sweets cookbook. There's a recipe in there for pine nut candy I'd like to make.

Pine nuts are YUM. So is vino cotto. Juniper berries, not so much.

Listen up everyone, Aunty Dreamwind has some advice for you all:

If you decide to make garlic bread for your dinner using a hotdog sized roll, don't use three whacking huge big cloves of garlic in the garlic butter.

This is what I did for dinner. I think there was more garlic than butter in the final mix. It was quite nice going down, but... well, let's just say the aftermath isn't being fun at the moment. And I think I'm going to reek of garlic in the morning.

There is, indeed, such a think as too much garlic. I didn't think there was. At least this means today has not been wasted - no day is wasted in which you learn something, even if it's something you didn't want to learn.

It's nearly 11PM, and the little thermometer in my kitchen says its 28 degrees celcuis. And it's cooler in the kitchen than it is in the study.

Oh well. At least I have placed all my orders for weird herbs and spices, in preparation for more cooking adventures. Couldn't find betel leaf. I assume I'm supposed to use the leaf, seeing as the nut's kinda banned in Australia and there's recipes using betel leaf all over the internet.

NEED SLEEP. NEED SLEEP NOW. I've had about 4 hours the last 2 nights, and I really, really want to sleep.

But first a shower, so I don't accidentally glue myself to the bed.

Hi everyone.

In case anyone has been wondering, I am still alive, and today, I'm actually quite healthy.

My mother and I went to Melbourne to spend Christmas with my brother. I was going to put a post up before I left, but had a sucession of horrendous headaches, so any posts would have been along the lines of "Have headache, sorry." I'll probably post about Christmas during the week... it was mostly fun, but a few disturbing incidents (mostly revolving around having to watch Barbie movies because my niece is turning into a Girly Girl, and being absolutely forbidden to even talk about Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, let alone watch them).

Speaking of headaches, 2008 ended in a way that summed up the year perfectly - a five day bout of gastro. My mother had exactly the same symptoms as me, we think we caught it on the plane. Still, five days lying around on the couch meant I had a great excuse to feed my inner child lots, given the poor inner child wasn't aloud to come out in Melbourne. There was watching all the morning cartoons each day, and then watching hours and hours more cartoons. All my favourite cartoons from when I was a chronological child are being released on DVD, so that was five days of Astroboy, Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets and my all-time fave, Voltron. (Lion force Voltron - I always thought vehicle Voltron was a bit silly). I've also seen all around the original Transformers, as well as Robotech, Macross and Southern Cross, but those box sets are more expensive, so they'll have to wait a bit.

It was only yesterday when I was well enough to do anything normal, so I spent the day repairing the damage a week of neglect in summer temperatures did to the garden. I'd much rather talk about today, because today was a lovely day. It started with Class of the Titans and Storm Hawks, then a new cartoon I haven't seen before called Dragon Booster, which looks quite cool (it comes from Nerd Corps which bodes well). I did some cooking - actually, first I got into a bit of a cleaning frenzy in the kitchen. I'm trying out some medieval Islamic recipes, and the 2 I tried today were dead simple; a chicken dish and one with broad beans.*

Then jane_stockton came over to help me bath Tilly and try out my food. We had fun catching Tilly to get her into the bath, and she didn't like getting wet at all, but she was, for a cat, quite co-operative. Neither of us had any blood drawn, in any case. The loose fur that came off was incredible, and she looks breathtakingly beautiful now (camera batteries are charging, so I can't take a photo). She'd even forgiven us within about an hour, suggesting she liked the results, if not the process.

With regard to the food, the chicken dish was a hit - Jane even liked the sauce, which is based mostly on cucumber. The bean dish needs a bit more work; I used a bit too much balsamic vinegar, and we think cider vinegar might work better, along with some more tahini.

* Incidentally, it's REALLY BLOODY HARD trying to find medieval recipes that just have vegetables. The cookbooks that survive are generally all about preparing luxury meals, so are mostly meat. But I'm trying to find vegetable recipes a) for vegetarians and vegans,** and b) because I'm SICK of carrots, peas and beans and other boring vegetables at feasts.

** Islam views vegetarianism with great suspicion, as they are seen as rejecting Allah's bounty. I've actually found a reference to a C15 Sufi who wanted to practice a more ascetic diet for health reasons, and had to obtain a special dispensation from the Caliph of Baghdad to not eat meat.

( Recipe for Chicken Barida )

Last night we had our first Baronial cooking night, hosted by the lovely Lady Avril, with me, Dominika, Jasmine (who has no society name yet) and Avril's husband Herc.

People underestimate the social power of food. Not just the eating of it, but the preparation. I feel sorry for people who can't be bothered cooking - they don't know the devotion you can put into preparing food for someone else. And the FUN you can have preparing food with other people. It was a great night, and we're going to make it a fortnightly event (hopefully others will start coming, which will provide the impetus for finding a better gathering spot).

And the food was good, too - Jowtes with Almond Milk (spinach soup) - an excellent starter/palate cleanser - bland at first taste, but as you progress through the bowl you realise it's waking up your taste buds.

And Mushroom Pasties - a ubiquitous SCA food, but none of us knew how to make them. Dead easy, delicious, great social food.

And Golden leeks - good, filling side dish involving leeks.

Next time we're having a Fowl Night - quails, chicken and Golden Pie. The pie has lots of eggs in the filling. Yum.

asakiyume and miafedup asked nicely, so here's the garlic soup. And it's under a cut, so poor coanteen doesn't freak.

( Read more... )

The soup is very light, so I'd recommend it for a starter for a meal (unless a guest is a sad person who hasn't realised garlic is one of God's great gifts), or for invalids. In fact, I will definitely be cooking this when the Crohn's Disease flares up again.

I have actually done stuff today!

* I sorted out the kerfuffle with the car rego (and never again will I let the car rego go until it's due!).

* I vacuumed and cleaned the floors.

* I did three hours of overtime (at $66 an hour... but I've already spent it).

* I found an Asian grocery store that stocks Miso paste, and learned where there's another one.

* I cleaned the shower recess.

* I made lasagne. The freezer is now stuffed with microwavable meals for work.

* I critted 3 stories for Critters.

* I exercised.

* I started cleaning up the study.

I would have liked to have critted more stories, but cleaning the shower and making lasagne took more time than expected. Lasagne is quite fiddly, especially if you make the bechamel from scratch rather than buying the jarred stuff.

I am very happy, because this is the first time in a long time that I can go to bed feeling I have accomplished things. It's amazing how GOOD that feels.

Oh yeah - I learned something too.
Don't clean the floor before making lasagne - you'll only have to clean it again afterwards.

You might have noticed, I haven't been posting resolutions updates for a while. This is because I've bombed really badly on the resolutions this month. I haven't had any decent exercise in ages, my couch has a trench worn in it from where I've been watching TV, I can't remember the last time I was in bed before 11PM, and I've seriously blown the book budget. So June has been written off for resolutions, and I'll start again in July.

*slaps wrists, gets Tilly to chew hand some more*

Last night, however, I did try a new recipe. I have decided to try more Japanese food, mostly inspired by one of my favourite TV shows, Iron Chef (I would love to raid Chairman Kaga's wardrobe and steal some of his coats). So last night I cooked TORI NO TERIYAKI (Teriyaki Chicken). I made my own sauce rather than getting it from a bottle. However, I don't think I put enough sugar in the sauce, because it was very runny and not very sweet. But definitely worth trying again.

( I'm a food-obssessed person. )

I had another cooking adventure in Melbourne, courtesy of my SIL Fiona's baking. You may recall how in February, she tried to make butter icing using table butter and it wouldn't set. She decided to make Ellen a fancy teddy bear cake for her birthday. This time Fiona used proper butter and the icing worked perfectly. Much cursing and swearing ensued while she beat the butter, but that's how you know you're working with real butter.

However, the cake split when Fiona took it out of the tin. My brother ate some of the split cake, which Fiona had intended to glue back together with icing. The teddy bear pattern no longer fit, so Mum and Fiona had to resize the pattern. Poor Fiona was nearly in tears.

So the lesson is: Do not sample food unless the chef permits you to. This is especially important if the chef is 7 months pregnant

Steve realised he was In The Cacky and did lots of housework without being asked.

I told my workmates about the baking. One of my colleagues, who is something of a know-it-all, insisted that she always uses table butter in baking and her cakes always turn out fine. Actually, they don't - she's brought them into work occasionally and she should not be allowed anywhere near an oven. One of my other workmates who has cooked professionally just looked at me with her eyebrow raised. Trust us on this one, use proper butter when baking.

As I have said before, any day in which you learned something is not a complete waste of time. And I have just had today's lesson:

SET THE TIMER WHEN BOILING AN EGG.

See, I'm having a Salade Nicoise for lunch tomorrow, and that requires a boiled egg. About an hour ago, I put the egg on to cook. And forgot about it. I was just heading out of the bathroom and heard weird bubbling noises, and that was when I remembered the egg. Lucky it hadn't boiled dry.

Good thing I like my eggs hard boiled, because that sucker's gonna be well and truly boiled.