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.

You may be one of the growing number of people adopting a gluten free life, for whatever reason. Maybe you've been tested and discovered you're coeliac (or perhaps you have 2 of the 4 coeliac genes and you've decided that's too high a risk). Maybe you have Crohn's Disease or Colitis and gluten is one of your triggers (like it is for many of us). Maybe you have a psychosomatic reaction to gluten. Maybe you've just decided gluten free is healthier. Whatever. Here are some very simple rules to follow.

1. Don't whine about how hard it is to avoid gluten, particularly to other gluten-intolerants. WE KNOW. And we know how to deal with it. We've bought the gluten-free ingredients booklet from the Coeliac Society, or we've learned to read labels. We cope. Do the same. And this may astonish you, but people who aren't gluten intolerant don't really care.



2. Learn to cook. There is a surprising number of easy meals that don't involve gluten, and you can easily avoid the gluten in bottled pasta sauces etc by learning to make your own. It's tastier, cheaper and healthier, because you avoid all the extra salt, sugar and preservatives that go into those things. And no, making bolognese sauce from scratch does not take a long time.



3. If you don't like rice, either shut up about it or learn to like it.



4. If you are going to occasionally indulge in gluten food (yes, I do this, very occasionally) be aware of the affect it will have, plan for it, and don't whine about it.



5. For the love of kitty cats, STOP EATING NORMAL BREAD, PIES, SAUSAGE ROLLS, HAMBURGERS, DONUTS AND THOSE GODAWFUL CHICKEN SCHNITZEL THINGS if you have decided to go completely gluten free. If you really are that intolerant, there are no half-measures. You either avoid all gluten or you don't. And no, only eating "2 or 3 slices of bread a day and the odd hamburger" isn't avoiding gluten. Following this rule is particularly important if you are going to constantly violate rule #1, if you want to avoid snarky remarks from other gluten intolerants.


These rules are simple. Which is not the same thing as easy. Never said it was.

We had our baronial Newcomer's Feast (barbeque) on the weekend. 17 people had said they were going to come, we figured on more than twice that, had around 50 people there, so some people missed out on lamb kebabs. It got to the stage where I was holding back food for the fighters, who wanted to eat after they'd fought, and people got huffy with me. What was really annoying was the fact that all the fighters had booked, and paid, and several of the huffers hadn't booked. Next time, there will be tokens for people who've booked in advance, and everyone else will have to take their chances.

It was still a very good event, and everyone liked the food. It's always a complement when people don't clear out to get McDonald's, people come back for seconds, and there's not much in the way of leftovers.

I have also discovered my behaviour gets somewhat manky during food preparation. I snapped at a couple of people, in fact I think I frightened one person. Though in fairness to me, pouncing on me to tell me they had some stuff I'd loaned them when I had my arms full of stuff, and then later trying to talk embroidery while I was up to my wrists in raw lamb threading kebabs was probably not the best move on their part. Still, I have made up a sign warning everyone I'm a manky bitch when getting food ready, so best to stay away unless I've asked for help (seriously, asking a person if they need any help every 10 seconds is not the best course of action).

But onwards, ever onwards, and on to planning the next feeding frenzy. This will probably be mostly Roman. The Romans had lots of cool finger-food, great for eating outdoors.

(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.

On Saturday, my mother and I went on a trip to see My Fair Lady with Richard E. Grant as Professor Higgins. It was a thoroughly enjoyable show. My mother did not have to stand up for her rights there.

We had lunch in one of those ubiquitous food courts... the fast food places, the chain coffee stores, the sushi bar (thank heavens for sushi. Sushi makes everything better. Sushi is good). My mother went to a salad place, and asked for a serve of chicken and avocado salad (I had a bento box, in case you didn't already guess).

The salad looked particularly tempting - lots of chicken and avocado, with other bits, and not much lettuce. This is important, because my mother happens to be allergic to the milk in lettuce stalks. She's OK with the leafy part, but not the stalks. She generally asks people to go easy on the lettuce for this reason. In fact, I distinctly heard her say, "not too much lettuce" when she asked for her salad.

Turns out, the chicken and avocado was a sort of layer on the top, and underneath was mostly, yes, lettuce. So when Mum got her "chicken and avocado salad" back to the table, there was a box of mostly lettuce, with a few bits of chicken and one measly sliver of avocado. Mum picked out everything that wasn't lettuce, ate a few bits of leaf, and grumbled louder and louder. I ate my lovely sushi and was thinking "take it back, take it back," but didn't say anything, because Mum usually lets these things slide.

But then, Mum said, "I really should take this back. I told the girl not to give me too much lettuce." I replied, "well, I would, you didn't pay for a box of lettuce."

And Mum said, "I think I will." So she got up, took her box of lettuce back to the salad place, and came back loaded with chicken and avocado. Apparently they'd offered her money back, but Mum said, no, she'd paid for chicken and avocado, if they gave her that, she'd be happy. As we were leaving, the woman next to us took her Greek (and lettuce) salad back and did the same thing. I wonder how many other people have come away from that salad bar with a box of lettuce?

Onya, Mum!

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.

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.

I made a dinner tonight that was so tasty I decided to share it with you. I sorta made it up myself and everything.

( Recipe for Almond-Lemon Chicken )

In other news, I have developed tinnitus - an ear disease where the high sound frequency nerve endings are out of whack. This means that I have a cricket living in my left ear. The doctor assures me there is no infection or nerve damage to the ear, so it's probably been caused by sinus and stress. It should clear up within a week.

It made the meditation class hard today - we were doing a mindfullness exercise, that is, focussing the mind. It's kinda hard to do that when there's a constant high-pitched chirping in your ear.

I ate the last of my asparagus soup tonight. It's really nice, but I don't think I'll be making any more. Asparagus is going up again in price, and asparagus also has a couple of really unfortunate side effects.

( Too Much Info about gross things about asparagus )

See, told you it was gross.

"Fair Leandra of the Black Heart" progresses. I'm now at 2,240 words. It's easier and harder than an essay. Easier, because at this stage I'm writing solely for myself, but harder, because it all has to come from me. I got stuck on the middle tonight, so I wrote the end. Does anyone else get stuck in the middle? It's going to need some serious editing, because a lot of it is the narration of a myth, and some of it doesn't read as though someone is speaking aloud. So I shall have to read it aloud myself to see how to make it better.

No writing at all yesterday - I went home at 10:30 with a migraine, brought about by evil office furniture. But good news on that front - I have found a chair from an approved supplier that is actually very comfortable, so it's on order. Fortunately the bossman that approves all reqs is understanding about furniture comfort, because it's an expensive chair. Another worker in another department wanted the same chair, but her boss wouldn't shell out the money, so poor Michelle has had to settle for one of those "Ergonomic" chairs that don't really adjust properly.

I don't think I'm going to make any more writing progress tonight, so I will sign off and go to bed.