Slacker's Delight

For those of you who cringe at the very idea of baking something just to have dessert and enjoy experimenting...also a 'cupboard/fridge cleaning' dessert, for those of you who enjoy that sort of thing.

Ingredients per dessert: one muffin, one scoop of ice cream, dark chocolate, double cream/half-and-half, golden syrup (optional)

The first ingredient is a muffin that is just a bit stale - not so much that it can't be eaten, but it is not just-fresh either. Get a serving bowl and break the muffin up into pieces, not too big, not too small. If a muffin can be broken up rustically, this is what you are after.

Then, ice cream. It doesn't matter if the ice cream in question is superdeluxe or ordinary as its main function is to add moisture to the muffin in question; the ice cream should go well with the muffin, of course, but that is a matter of taste I'll leave up to you. Put on just enough to make a good impression, as opposed to drowning the muffin altogether.

Now then - the cooking part. Get chocolate - the darker, the better - and break it up into pieces. Rig up (however you can) a bowl to melt it in, over boiling water. In my case I use my larger mixing bowl over the pot I make pasta in, as the bowl is large enough that no steam can turn back into water and mess the chocolate up. You could use a microwave for this I suppose, but chocolate is a delicate thing, so don't put it in there for much more than half a minute, I'd guess.

Melt the chocolate slowly - and the higher in percentage in cocoa it is, the longer that will take - and add a teaspoon or two of cream and stir. Be patient; use as much chocolate as you think you'll need for sauce, and wait and stir when it starts to melt. If you have some golden syrup around, put in a little of that, one squeeze will work. Stir some more and remove the bowl as it's hot enough now to keep going without being directly above boiling water. Stir until it's smooth and then using a spoon drizzle your sauce over the ice cream, leaving some for bowl-licking purposes, of course.

Good eats, as the man says! This recipe came from my own kitchen, though I am sure it has been done hundreds of times elsewhere.

What I've Been Up To

In case there's anyone still wondering about this blog - and there might well be - my only excuse for not writing here is that I am usually too busy doing other things, foodwise - namely, cooking, shopping, planning, eating or searching for yet another cookbook for my ever-growing/bookshelf-ingenuity-challenging cookbook collection. It grows and grows, people, as I fall, it seems perpetually to me, for one right after another. That said, there are only a few books I ever actually want at any given time, and this makes things easier. Not better, but easier. (I should also point out that my husband had a stroke just over two months ago and that has also, understandably, delayed my posting anything here.)

Of the making of cookbooks it seems there is no end; my only defence is my pickiness, which means that sometimes I just don't find anything, even in a good charity shop where there's more than one shelf. It takes an indefinable something to make me say yes to a book - and there's lots of ways a book can turn me off, including being too big (Ad Hoc at Home, I'm looking at you), being too much a restaurant-style food at home book (too many to mention but the cooking has to suit my modest kitchen), using Marmite (no explanation needed), being mainly about seafood (I don't really eat it, nor do I have much interest in it, frankly), and so on. Encyclopedic tomes with no discernible author, books with 'fabulous' in their titles, books published by a corporation (like Marks & Spencer or Sainsbury), books by anyone on tv that I am not familiar with...as a North American I naturally stray away from anything too "British" as I am not part of the "we" or "our" these books are so concertedly pitched towards.

What do I like? I am quite partial to pretty books; American books; books where the author (and again, I don't really care if the author of the book wrote it or not; the voice has to be consistent and trustworthy though, which means I want it to be well-written) seems to be on my side as opposed to the side of the food. Books by non-chefs are fine with me, as they will actually explain whatever it is that needs doing with a bit more care. Simplicity and charm always work; I am not, like some, in search of perfection or wanting to master every cuisine known to mankind. Humor is needed in the kitchen and is needed in cookbooks, whether they know it or not.

Above are some of my newer editions, all trustworthy books that I got in various places. My aim is to cook from them all, as you know; and I will write about what I've cooked (and give you the recipe, of course) when I do.

And Here It Is...

Welcome to The Edible Library, everyone! A place where I will review cookbooks, attempt to cook from each one at least once (I have over a hundred, so it's a challenge) and go on about cooking and everything around it in general. Bookmark me, link me, it's going to be fun!

New Blog Title Needed!

Without going into too many details, I must apologize for this blog's absence; I have been writing, but it is mostly at this blog, and not about food at all.

Now then - where was I?

There is another blog/book/tv show with the same name - one that is about encouraging those who have bad or no eyesight to cook, a noble thing to do - and I don't want to confuse this blog with that one, so I am going to re-name this blog. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

What have I been doing these last few months? Accumulating cookbooks, that's what. Cooking from them when I can; thinking about food. I now live somewhere where I have my own small kitchen with few 'mod cons' besides a small fridge, an electric stove with a grill, a toaster and a kettle. Something, as the British say, to 'blitz' or 'whazz' food will be acquired rather sooner than later, and perhaps a popcorn maker as well. Other than that I have no interest nor space for much else; the boombox is staying right where it is.

So I will continue to write and review recipes I come across that don't take much gear or time, because that is where I know a lot of people are coming from. I know I certainly am!

Thanks for reading - more soon!

Pumpkin Pie Sauce and BOOKS

Firstly, apologies to anyone who wondered if perhaps I had had an accident in the kitchen and was therefore unable to write; what happened instead was I applied for a job, was interviewed, patiently waited to find out if I was hired and was, indeed, hired. Thus I am working towards getting a laptop, so I may write after I cook (and eat, of course) about what I have made, and perhaps, God willing, post photos to prove I have done it.

In the meantime, here are some books I've got recently and am reading; I can't say enough things about them besides get 'em if you don't have them already, and also, if you're making a pumpkin pie from semi-scratch and you put all the condensed milk in by accident instead of some and then mix it up (a little), you can just spoon the extra milk out and hey presto, instant sauce for the pie for the week (just pretend it's French food and it will look quite elegant).

BOOKS


Fieri, Guy - More Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
This book makes me want to visit and revisit my home country in the best way possible - always hungry, always on the road.



Kapranos, Alex - Sound Bites

Rock 'n' roll memoirs from behind the scenes and on the street, all over the world.



Lawson, Nigella - Kitchen

La Lawson will eat anything, as long as she doesn't have to work too hard at it - most of the time. Great hints in the front section, and she has almost 4,000 cookbooks & books about food in her library. I want the list!




Oliver, Jamie - 30 Minute Meals

Sure you have to hustle, but these meals are worth the hustle and are doable with a helper (or two).




Ottolenghi, Yotam - Plenty

Vegetarian food for those who thought they had seen/eaten it all, no tofu required. Already judged a classic, and it just came out this year.

Jeepster Pasta

The other day I was dreaming that I was listening to "Jeepster" while making a tomato cream sauce; so of course I had to make this:

Jeepster Pasta

First, get some plum tomatoes (canned, peeled) and put them in a saucepan and heat them up, mooshing away until they look a bit saucy; while doing this get some water boiling for plain and spinach tagliatelle (yes, you need both; this is the surprise in the dish - paglia et fieno, aka straw and hay pasta is awesome*). Slice up some mushrooms while the tomatoes cook (don't boil them but don't leave them at a low heat either) and cook them in some good oil; they will be added to the pasta when it's almost done.

Once the tomatoes are ready, add some cream (double to cut the acidity of the tomatoes) and also a little red chili ("Jeepster" is a hot song, there has to be some heat in here!) and taste and add more cream if it's too hot, more chili - it won't take much - if it's too mild. Once the tagliatelle is done you can put it right in the saucepan and mix, adding the mushrooms in once the pasta is well coated. Serve immediately and eat with garlic bread and a good salad. Good Eats!

*This pasta is available at Sainsbury's and is quite worth it.

Summer Salad pt. 2 Foxy Salad

If you don't like the idea of a summer salad with lots of tomatoes, then you should try this - it's good and it's good for you, just because of the walnut content, though salad is always good for you, in my opinion. This one comes from Jamie Oliver's newest book, Jamie Does, and it's from his French chapter, one of utter contentment and satisfaction, which this salad most certainly brings. (It's not called this in his book, obv.; it comes from the story as to how Roquefort cheese was invented, haphazardly.)

Foxy Salad

First, get some interesting salad (no bitter leaf stuff though; rocket is not needed here, though radicchio is okay) and some smoked bacon, preferably lardons. (If you don't have lardons on hand, just get some smoked bacon anyway and cut it into chunks with a knife or scissors.) Also needed are walnuts (the more the merrier, a good handful at least), Roquefort cheese (a little goes a long way) and of course our good friend stale bread (the recipe calls for sourdough, though any basic strong-minded bread will do). Fry up the bacon in some olive oil, cut the bread up into managable pieces and once the bacon fat has come out and mixed with the oil, put in the bread and get it nicely friendly with the fat. Chop up some walnuts in the meantime, and also make a basic dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. (Dijon mustard is ideal here, but American mustard works well too - you should have this dressing be a little more acidic than usual, by the way.)

Then it's a matter of getting it all into a bowl and mixing it up with the dressing, putting it bowls and then and only then slicing pieces of Roquefort and putting them in the salad, not just on top. The nut and cheese combination here is awesome, of course, but the bread and bacon make this a meal to itself; have it with something lemony to drink and praise the French, again!