Back, Bigger and Hungrier

I am returned, much like the prodigal son. Kill the fatted calf and welcome me back with open arms. Lets resume….

So lots has happened during my absence, the most important and exciting piece of news is that Boo is getting married! P proposed in Italy while we were on holiday and we had the most wonderful time – photos below. So now we have the rather wonderful and not at all stressful job of planning a wedding. Don’t get me wrong. while the stress is very much present, not so much the elephant in the room, more the dancing bear that’s covered in bells and clashes cymbals – nothing shy and retiring about this one – it’s a wonderful stress. So many things to think about, from where aunty Dotty is going to sit to where the thing is even going to happen!  The thing I am most excited about, no surprises here, is the food.

We are having a sit down meal after the ceremony for a small number of people then having a massive knees up in the evening, where various little bites will be served. I love the idea of having mini versions of proper dishes rather than a cracker with half a cherry tomato and some cream cheese on it, it may be a little hackneyed, but I don’t care. We were at a gallery opening a little while ago where you had bite size (literally – it was all one bite) shepherds pie, toad in the hole and fish and chips which were excellent. The problem is, we’re not getting married until next May and the place we’re going for the meal has said they’ll contact us in April to start making decisions as to a menu etc. APRIL? I can’t wait until April! It’s one of the most exciting bits!

I shall keep you all updated with the various bits and bobs – the CAKE, how could I have forgotten the cake? Going cake tasting is going to be a good day. Until then it’s just a case of getting on with getting on, we’re off to India at christmas and are thoroughly looking forward to that as an adventure, so in the meanwhile it’s a case of carry on cooking.

 

My friend Meera recently had a baby, well I say recent, the little miss has just turned one and Meera has turned her hand to baking. She has always been a wonderful cook, the sort of woman who could have a jar of pickled onions and some Ribena in the fridge and nothing else and could still rustle up something that is delicious and wholesome. I don’t tell her this, but I am very envious of this trait. Anyway, Meera made the most beautiful birthday cake for her daughter Ava, along with various other baked delights and has decided that this may be something she wants to pursue more fiercely. If you want to get in touch with her to see if she will make you a something special then let me know.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Right, i’m off to buy myself a new recipe book. For me, there is no greater pleasure than looking through the pages of a new recipe book. The pictures all glossy and inviting and I love ones that have a narrative to them too. Lets see what I come home with.

The Internet is a Terrifying Thing; like how much we waste

So I have been determined to cook from scratch this week, and cook from scratch I have. Apart from on Friday, when my beautiful friends cooked from scratch. Burgers, homemade, with sweet potato crisps. Banging.

Cooking from scratch has led me down many wonderful and sometimes terrifying roads, my many recipe books have been pored over and the internet thoroughly scoured for the best way to cook from zero to hero. Things I have made in the last week: pesto, dough, fish fingers, smoothies, cock-a-leekie soup. Next on my list: pasta, humous, if you have any suggestions or want me to try out something then give me a shout.

One woman who had a recipe for chicken soup from a raw carcass (I’ll explain later) is also the author of the thoroughly intriguing and also utterly bemusing 105 Ways to Celebrate Menstruation. Seriously, it’s on Amazon and everything ‘the perfect book for any woman wishing to feel more empowered and creative during her monthly cycle.’ Ok then. Call a me a cynic or maybe just plain old fashioned, but I’ll stick to Anadin and a hot water bottle, thanks.

Another website gave me this as a recipe:

Chicken soup – dry fry some onion in a pan, add a can of Campbell’s cream of chicken soup, heat through. Eat.

WTF?

So why am I so desperate to find a killer chicken soup recipe? Well I’m making lavender and lemon chicken for this evening ( a Rachel Khoo idea); in case you’d forgotten (and I won’t mind if you have) there will be six of us eating this evening in my little home to watch the Euro 1012 Cup final. Italy V Spain and we’re all on the side of Italy. Apart from me who will secretly be cheering for the Spaniards as a) I can’t bear the idea of someone being ‘uncheered’ for and b) my aunt lives in Mallorca so I’m going to claim it as a family thing. She was actually born in Wiltshire and is about as Spanish as The Tower of London or Queues, however she’s been there long enough, I think we can call this one.

So I went to my butcher and asked for enough chicken to feed six hungry people, he showed me what at one time must have been a rather splendid cockerel and very kindly jointed it all up for me – my knife skills being somewhat lacking – and gave me a separate bag for all the bones. Now this particular beast cost me 22 quid. It was an expensive piece of meat and I am damned if half of it is going to waste because it’s not immediately edible.

This is a massive bugbear of mine. We have become SO lazy. SO complacent. SO frightened. SO, yes I’m going to say it, PATHETIC when it comes to food and cooking. We rely so heavily on everything being easy, or it looking nice, or being something recognisable before we think to eat it. Everything is regulation size in supermarkets, if the food doesn’t meet the standards it’s thrown away. The waste is disgusting. Baby boy calves killed at birth as they’re too expensive to raise for meat on dairy farms and obviously don’t produce milk so they’re shot, thousands of tons of lettuce ploughed back into the ground because they’re not the ‘right’ size. Food being so heavily processed that we can keep it for YEARS before it goes  off, and food given flavourings because it’s treated with so many chemicals it loses any taste it’s supposed to have. People eat ready meals more than cooking at home, it’s quick it’s easy and they haven’t had to think about it. It’s depressing. I’m always amazed when I go to markets how big some of their veggies are, and I will happily confess to saying that if it’s a weird shape i will choose a more regular looking one instead. I always go for the ones that are closest to the supermarket version as I trust these will taste better. It’s sad.

Maybe it’s because I find cooking such a joy, or maybe it’s because I love my food, or maybe I’m simply lucky enough to earn enough that I’m able to make these choices; buying ethical produce is expensive and lower income families are unable to make the choice, so buy food that was badly treated when alive and so tastes of very little when dead. Cooking is time consuming and people are all so busy so why not shove a plate of oven chips on a plate with something pretending to be a sausage? (Meat content on some of the cheaper brands can be as little as 14 % (I don’t even want to imagine what makes up the other 86…salt, water and toenails I imagine.)

One awful fact I found out on my tour of the internet about badly treated meat is this: When an animal is frightened, it releases a hormone and obviously bucket loads of adrenalin, all of which floods its veins and this for want of a better word ‘solidifies’ when the animal is killed. Just as blood stops flowing when you die, and it congeals, so anything that is being carried along with it does too. You then eat this. You can see it too in the meat, you’re quite literally eating the fear of the animal. Now that can’t taste good. So the next time you tuck into KFC or Chicken Palace or whatever noble chicken shop graces your street be thankful for the crispy coating, it’s so you can’t see what’s really underneath. I’m starting to sound massively sanctimonious, I’ll stop.

So I have decided to wage a personal war on this. I am determined to try making things myself so that I lose the ‘fear of food’, so I don’t buy things in jars so much or plastic tubs, or worse, plastic tubs with a plastic seal with a cardboard wrap around and then a sticker on the top of that. It’s not just about reducing food waste, but the packaging it comes in too. Acres of plastic and cellophane and sticky labels and security plastic and cardboard, all thrown away.

Sell by dates are now not sell by dates, but death by dates. No one seems to trust food that is even one day over, it all gets thrown away because if you eat it, you might get sick, or even DIE.

Yesterday I made my own fishfingers (Thank you Nigel Slater for showing me how), and today cock-a-leekie soup from leftover bones. Both were delicious.

Maybe I’m preaching to the converted. Maybe you, my lovely readers, shun ready meals and can name 6 vegetables beginning with P off the top of your head (literally don’t know if I can, hang on… yup I can.) Maybe you’re not scared of trying new things, and you’re already interested in what makes up the stuff you eat. But if you’re not – and that is fine, it’s really hard to be when everything is already there, then give something a shot. Try something small first, like reading the ingredients on an innocent smoothie and then seeing if you make it does it taste the same? If so then it will cost you far less than their bottle, you’ll make twice as much and it won’t mean another plastic bottle in the bin. Start small, be adventurous, try something new and have faith, if somewhere out there a machine is programmed to make these things, then you can too.

I’ll leave you with this, a joke one of my kids at school told me when I said I had made dough:

Why did the baker have brown hands?

He kneaded a poo

xxx

Smoothie Operator

Buongiorno! Italy have beaten Germany in the football and this makes for a very happy household.

Continuing in my making something from scratch every day, I bring you the smoothie.

If you’re being honest with yourself, do you eat your five fruit and veg a day? I do pretty well with veg, but I simply don’t eat enough fruit, I sometimes have raspberries on my cereal or a banana as a snack, but the truth is I’m simply not adventurous enough. Enter the smoothie.

I have started making a smoothie for breakfast, pouring it into a bottle and drinking it throughout the morning. I can tell you, they’re filling, delicious and put me in a very smug mood. There literally isn’t anything bad in them. You do need a blender, either a hand held one or a magi mix, however if you have access to one of those, the sky’s your limit.

Here are my favourites:

Superfood Fig Smoothie

I’ve been having this for breakfast every day, it’s filling and delicious and can be drunk slowly which i really like as I often end up stuffing breakfast down my neck and never feeling the true benefit, so being able to savour it keeps me fuller for longer.

2 fresh figs sliced (you can use dried too, but then you’d need more, or mix the two if you feel it needs bulking out)

1 banana

4 tablespoons plain low fat probiotic yoghurt

100 ml skim milk (if you want it thinner then simply add more milk)

A couple of ice cubes (optional)

A handful of hazelnuts

Put it all in a blender, whizz it up, pour into a glass and drink. Or pour into a bottle and bung in the fridge until you want it.

Babyfood Smoothie

This is a classic that can be whizzed really smooth (I prefer them with bits in) its ingredients are all crowd pleasers and this is a way of getting fruit into your most reluctant audience.

1 banana

150g strawberries (hulled and chopped)

100g apple juice NOT FROM CONCENTRATE

4 tbsp yoghurt

whizz in a blender, drink at once or bottle in the fridge for later.

The Saul Smoothie

So named after my good friend Saul who invented this one. This is excellent for keeping you going and giving you an energy boost. It also tastes amazing.

150g/200g frozen berry mix (strawberries, cherries, blueberries, red currents, raspberries)

150 ml orange juice

100 ml skim milk

a thick teaspoon of peanut butter

a sprinkling of cinnamon.

A couple of ice cubes (optional)

Whizz it all up and love it. I do.

Now I’ve got 4 coming for dinner on Sun (6 of us in all) to watch the final of the Euros. What to cook? You decide. I have a couple of dishes I know I’m doing, but what could I add to the table? Oh and by the way the visitors are all of P’s family, so you know, no pressure. If you have any other suggestions, don’t hesitate to comment!

My Kitchen, the Lab.

Morning, afternoon, whatever the time of day may be with you!

My kitchen currently resembles something of a mess, my magimix has been working overtime and everything has a slight covering of strong bread flour. 

P is listening to music trying to ignore my occasional shouts of ‘COCK IT’, ‘DAGNAMMIT’and even at one point ‘HELP ME! P IT’S DRIBBLING IN MY SHOE!!’

What on earth can you possibly be doing? I hear you ask yourselves, well my friends, let me enlighten you. 

I have set myself a challenge this week that I will try and make one thing I never have before from scratch.

Monday – Pesto. 

I am never buying pesto again. It is so easy, tastes so much better and you can experiment all over with it changing herbs, adding bits and bobs, and it tastes so much better. Oh I said that. 

I have even bought a basil plant to feed this ever growing obsession, P has named it Basil and is nurturing it much like a family pet. He feels guilt over the fate of Robert, our house plant who despite our best efforts continues to sicken and try heartily to die. He is the elephant in the room. 

So Pesto: Basil leaves, olive oil, one clove of garlic (add as you wish) parmesan freshly grated (a good handful here, I love cheese) pine nuts, a wee dusting of salt and pepper, aaaaaaaaaand you’re done. 

Tear the basil leaves as this produces the most wonderful smell and stains your hands with the smell of holiday, put in a blender with your garlic and the salt and pepper and pulse. If you are a massive puritan then do it with a pestle and mortar but you have to spend a phenomenal amount of time chopping. then transfer to a bowl and add the cheese and olive oil little by little until it has the flavour and consistency you want.

  

I made a rather good tart last night of which my pesto was a rather fabulous and fundamental feature.

Ready to roll puff pastry cut into four and laid on lightly oiled baking paper, with the oven set at a rather hot 220 degrees C. Score lightly round the edge of the oblongs and prick the bases with a fork. I then spread the pesto on the base. I sauteed some leeks and pan fried some turkey breast together and then spooned this mix on to the puff pastry bases, sprinkle the top with feta cheese and add some halved cherry tomatoes then put in the oven for 20 minutes on 190 or so. This makes 4 and P and I took one each for lunch today, they’re just as wonderful cold as they are straight out of the oven. 

  

 

Tuesday – Pizza

This was possibly my most ambitious project to date. It’s not particularly difficult, it is hugely time consuming however. 

You need special flour, Tipo 00 or strong white bread flour – a kilo of the stuff no less seived with a tablespoon of salt on a clean work surface.

14g dried yeast, 4 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp golden caster sugar mixed with 650mls lukewarm water. 

You then make a well in the middle (don’t make my mistake and make high sides with a small well, make a lot of space in the middle) then pour in the yeasty mixture and slowly stir the flour into the mix. Then it SHOULD become smooth and elastic the more you kneed it. FOR GOD’S SAKE MAKE SURE YOU FLOUR YOUR HANDS. 

The when the dough is ready put it in a floured bowl and sprinkle flour on the top. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place somewhere warm – I chose the heater in my bathroom – for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size. 

Kneed it once again on a floured surface to get the air out of it and then roll it out. This should make 4-6 medium pizzas so tear the dough into as many balls as you want pizzas. If you want to save some wrap it in clingfilm and either put in the fridge of freezer depending on how long you want to save it for. 

I used pesto on the base (now i know how to make it i can’t get enough, then topped it with goat cheese red onion, cherry tomatoes and rocket. It was amazing. I am now stuffed. 

 

Deleasa’s Goat Curry…well, sort of.

Boo has gone Caribbean, I have been massaging a lamb for about 15 minutes and my kitchen smells like Notting Hill Carnival. As a tribute we have among other things Michael Kiwanuka playing and his dulcet tones, much like the amazing smells emanating from my stove, are filing the flat. I should mention, I have never attempted any form of Caribbean food before, and we’ve got people coming for dinner….

So why am I attempting a dish I have never cooked before, cooking it wrong and cooking it now?

I work with a wonderful woman called Deleasa who is as much of a foodie as me and her enthusiasm is infectious. She has also just started a blog (it’s still under construction – be patient) focusing on her love of cooking and how it’s such a deeply ingrained part of her culture. She writes beautifully, opening her childhood and world growing up in a Jamaican family, and anecdotally involving you in the heart of each dish. The rather wonderful thing is that there is no recipe for this, so my cooking of it really is at the mercy of my own skill. No pressure then.

She sent me over her recipe for goat curry which I have tried to recreate to the best of my ability, however the more unusual ingredients have been replaced with whatever I can find that was close enough! So here it is:

My local butcher despite stocking most things drew the line at goat. Apparently he had some in last week, but that was last week and I was to find an alternative or leave empty handed. I asked for Mutton (Deleasa said to use that if goat failed) and with two very raised eyebrows I was told.. er it’s lambing season… we’ve got lamb? So 4 lamb shanks later I left.

I used:

4 lamb shanks

1 red chilli (far too scared to use a scotch bonnet on my first go)

2 medium onions cut into half moons

spring onions I used about 5 but they were proper small

5  sprigs of thyme

1 waxy potato

1 carrot

1 yellow bell pepper

5 cloves of garlic

3 tbsp garam masala (you were supposed to use Caribbean curry powder, I had nor could find none)

2 tbsp  Jerk seasoning (all purpose Caribbean seasoning is the preferred, however again, could neither find, nor had any!)

1 tsp allspice

300 ml water

Method:

In a bowl mix the spices, onion, garlic, chilli and spring onion then using your hands massage this into the meat until you’ve coated it and it really well. This is actually really therapeutic and I really enjoyed making the meat really full of the spices, which by the way, smell UH-MAY-ZING.

Then brown the meat in a large pan and add the onions/garlic/spice mix.

Now Deleasa says you only need 300 mls of water. I used far more than this as I needed to cover four pretty large lamb shanks. She did say that too much water probably meant less flavour and a nasty consistency, but in just 300 mls nothing was going to happen to my lamb shanks except they dried out. I think. I hope. Anyway I have a contingency plan should this be the case, lets just hope I don’t have to use it.

This then has to simmer for about 11/2 / 2 hours, though I think i’m going to have to leave mine for closer to 3 as there’s a lot of meat. I also added the potato and pepper and carrot about half an hour in. All I hope is that I do Deleasa justice…and that my guests don’t go hungry because I’ve messed it up. Thankfully P is keeping an eagle eye on it, mainly so he can keep sticking his head over it and inhaling great wafts of smell.

So it’s eaten, and it was good. Watery, it needed to reduce further but I ran out of time. Lesson learned there. However it was very flavoursome, still a strong taste of lamb,very nice, but next time I’m going for goat. I need to try Deleasa’s to get a real feel for what it should have tasted like. There were clean plates all round, but I felt my flavours weren’t intense enough ( I was warned this would happen if I used too much water. I’m now really annoyed with myself) However I am now not scared to try Caribbean food, it smelled right it just needed more intensity on the tongue, next time, far less water.

I have been reducing the rest of the stock and got it to where it should have been, it tastes amazing, layers of depth and with a gentle heat from the chilli. You can really taste the seasoning and as the sauce is thicker it gives a fuller taste.

Learn the rules before you break them Gillies!!

Visit Deleasa here: http://www.flavoursfromhome.wordpress.com

BURGER CAKE

I had so many wonderful responses to my cake pops, thank you all so much! My mum loved them and they went down a treat. In fact it was a wonderful party, I was able to watch my mum with all the people who loved her best in the world celebrate and despite the relentless slate grey sky and rain everyone was very smiley and drink and cake flowed freely. It was such a pleasure to be there and returning to work after the weekend was a pretty horrid affair. Or so I thought. I remembered only this morning that I was taking 30 kids to see Mamma Mia – I spent my afternoon singing along to ABBA with a bunch of 14 year old girls who were such a delight to take out, a great time had by all. 

Anyway, so as I had such a lovely response to Cake pops I decided to take this one step further, and head even further into the land of baking. 

A Cake That Looks Like a Burger

End result: 

It’s actually really basic, you can add all the decoration you want to make it as detailed as you like, but it’s only 3 victoria sponges (one with cocoa powder) as the bun and the burger and the rest is vanilla icing for mayo and fondant icing made into lettuce and tomato and cheese. This one has no cheese as I had no yellow food colouring (massive disappointment – I didn’t think this through).

We’re having a celebration with my kids at school tomorrow, celebrating our cultures and diversity and I wasn’t sure how to represent myself – lots are bringing in clothes they wear at special occasions; Eid, at mosque, football games, birthdays etc, music that is traditional in their culture, and of course food. I thought I was bedt represented by cake denoting my love of all things sweet and a burger because, well, i do love a good burger. Especially ‘exotic’ ones: chorizo with avocado and red pepper in focaccia is a winner! 

So here it is, how to bake a burger in 3 easy steps. 

1) Make a victoria sponge (enough to split into 2 cake tins)

200g caster sugar

200g self raising flour

200g butter at room temp

4 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1) Mix all the ingredients together and place in 2 pre greased cake tins (or do it one at a time as I had to because despite buying two for just such a purpose, I can only find one!! DAGNAMMIT!)

2) Bake for 20 mins at 190

3) Leave to cool. 

For the ‘Burger’

• 150g butter or margarine
• 150g caster sugar
• 110g self-raising flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 3 medium sized eggs

Bake at 200 for 20 mins 

 

Now, how you choose to ‘build your burger’ is entirely up to you. The one I made has the following…

Victoria sponge 1 – a thin layer of vanilla icing (left over from mum’s birthday cake) round the edge 

Burger – whole thing covered in vanilla icing with ready to roll icing tomato and lettuce put round the outside. The trick is to add the food colouring drop by drop and build up colour otherwise you stain everything from your fingers to the chopping board to in my case, the front of the fridge. (Don’t ask, I don’t know.) 

I chose to add detail to the tomatoes as I had some red writing icing (again from mum’s cake) and P’s sister was keen to get involved with the lettuce…which sounds slightly more exciting than it actually was 🙂 

Victoria sponge 3 – I added white chocolate chips to the top as sesame seeds.

The possibilities are endless, I wanted onion rings and cheese and gherkins and ketchup and all sorts however I was limited in my choices and am pleased with the outcome, hopefully my year 7 class will be just as impressed!

Probably The Best Thing I’ve Ever Made

Right guys,

If I say so myself, I have excelled myself today. I promised myself that I would make the cake for my mum’s 60th birthday, someone else is doing the catering, but I said I would make a birthday cake for her.

As her name is Victoria, I thought that I’d make her a plain Victoria sponge with a difference. The recipe for this is below:

Classic Victoria Sponge

Ingredients:

• 225g/8oz butter or margerine, softened at room temperature
• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 225g/8oz self raising flour
• milk, to loosen
• Method
• 1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
  2. Grease and line 2 x 18cm/7in cake tins with baking paper.
  3. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
  4. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, and stir in the vanilla extract.
  5. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little extra milk if necessary, to create a batter with a soft dropping consistency.
  6. Spoon the mixture in the cake tin and gently spread out with a spatula.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  8. Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and peel off the paper. Place onto a wire rack.
  9. I then bought some ready made icing, as I am not genetically wired to ice cakes at all and covered the top. I also mixed in chocolate chunks to the mixture, I don’t know how it works, but they don’t melt in the oven, it’s inspired.

  This was the end result:

  

  Now this is only the beginning; while picking up my mum’s present (it’s a doozie, but she reads this so nothing is being revealed until the 10th) I found an amazing little invention –

    

  YOU CAN MAKE CAKE THAT LOOK LIKE LOLLIPOPS!

  
  Now I don’t know about you, but I am EXCITED. The weather is also appalling, it’s rained for weeks, with barely a break and what better way of spending a day indoors than experimenting with baked goods?

  So here we go.

  Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter

  3/4 cup chocolate (dark 72%)

  3/4 cup sugar (cane)

  3 Tbsp Cocoa

  2 eggs

  3/4 cup flour

  pinch salt

  more chocolate to melt (of your choice, dark, milk, white etc)

  assorted sprinkles

  Cake Lollipops

  1) Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan

  

  2) Mix the butter and chocolate with the cocoa and sugar

  

  3) Add the flour and salt little by little. The mixture should be looking really thick and glossy at this point.

    

  4) Spoon the mixture into the little shells so they’re slightly proud of the tin.

  

  5) Close the lid and secure with the little keys that come with it

  6) Bake in a 170 degree preheated oven for 15-18 minutes

  

  7) Melt chocolate in a pan while these are in the oven

  8) Remove the cake balls from the oven and the little scoops and leave them to cool

    

  9) Roll the toothpick tips in the chocolate and stick them in the balls and leave them to cool like cement.

    

  10) Roll the balls in the chocloate and decorate however you wish.

  

  The problem I had was how to let the chocolate an decorations to dry. I ended up shoving them in a loo roll!

 

I can honestly say I have had so much fun making these and have seriously coated my kitchen in an explosion of sprinkles. I had a friend C come over for lunch, we sank several glasses of wine and had a wonderful day catching up and baking together. Safe from the elements and at the mercy of eggs, flour, sugar and cocoa.

Excellent stuff.

Lindy Hop

Gillies has 3 main loves in her life. P is one and is only mentioned here as it seems mean to not though it’s pretty much a given, the other two are food and Lindy Hop.

This is a blog all about my total and all consuming love for Lindy. I’m explaining most of my stuff through links, i know it’s time consuming, if you click on no others click on the links to the teachers, watching them dance is awe inspiring.

What is it?

The Lindy Hop is an American dance that evolved in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time. Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development, but is mainly based on jazz, tap, breakaway and Charleston. As a result it’s one of the most versatile daces out there, with steps to suit ever pace even up to 240 beats per minute. The thing i love most about it though, it makes you smile. It’s impossible to dance Lindy without a smile on your face and when your not dancing but instead spectating, you’re faced with a sea of grinning laughing people all having the time of their life for the length of a song, it’s very special. The godfather of Swing is Frankie Manning. The video link gives you the best of Frankie, you can get an insight from the first 30 seconds.

How I got in to it

I lived with a girl, E, who had a brother D. We went to a party he was at and he said he’d got into this amazing new dance and he tried to show me (i was somewhat under the influence and knew none of the steps, but i gave it a shot) and I thought nothing more of it. Until I went to his birthday. He had his birthday at Corbet Place where swing dancing happens every Sunday. I was mesmerised, the whole place was full of people dancing like crazy and looking amazing, all laughing and jumping and moving so fast, I sat and watched finding it all hypnotic. The music was wonderful, all big brass and Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Sidney Bechet. This was music that made your insides swell and tingle and when you saw the dancing that was done to it, the two went together like drops of water. I was asked to dance and despite knowing none of the steps was flung around the dance floor laughing my head off. I joined a class the next day dragging my friend B along for moral support.

Classes

I belong to a Swing Company called Swing Patrol which runs classes and events all over London for all levels and abilities. You can learn to fly with Aerials where you’re thrown over heads and arms, or learn how to make the smallest movement look awesome with Balboa or simply learn the basics and build on it. There are huge dances where you can put on your glad rags and dance until the early hours (or the late ones if after parties are your thing) or social nights every week for you to showcase everything you know on the dance floor. There are beginners social nights too so you don’t feel overwhelmed (and it can be overwhelming when you see how technical those who have been doing it for a while can be) and more than anything it’s the friendliest of communities, where everyone smiles and is pleased to see you! There’s also something rather wonderful about being asked to dance, I can’t explain it, but it makes you feel great.

The Shim Sham

Is just one dance of many that are to be danced as a large crowd all together, but individually. I was so determined to learn the Shim Sham after watching the dancefloor flood with people all smiling as they did awesome things with their feet! Others include the Tranky Doo and The Big Apple. They all have specific songs too, so every time you hear one you know what’s coming.

Awesome Lindy

It’s currently the London Swing Festival. An amazing event where classes are put on with teachers from all over the world during the day and then you dance your socks off at night. I am currently writing this with a banging headache from the party last night, but boy was it worth it. Yesterday I was privileged enough to be taught by these guys:

Vincenzo and Isabella

William and Maeva

Remy and Moe

Cam and Loz

I even got a dance with Remy last night, it was wonderful. Watching/dancing swing dancing is like falling in love. There’s nothing quite like it in the world.

The Music

It’s impossible to say the best thing about Lindy, because the music and the dancing are inseparable. The music is brilliant, from the simple to the fast and the furious it governs every step and the layers and depth mean it never gets tiring. Well your legs do, but hearing it doesn’t. Here are some classics that I learned to dance to and that always get me on the dance floor.

When I get Low I get High

Solid as a Rock

Minnie the Moocher

I like Pie I like Cake

Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?

Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me

There are so many more, some of them I can’t find on Youtube, like LaVerne Baker: On Revival Day which is a total favourite.

And Finally

I have to get up now as my next day of classes starts in an an hour and a half and I have a hangover to cure before I begin.

I just thought I’d leave you with this final thought. Yesterday I did a taster session of Inappropriate Swing Moves. I have never laughed so much in my life, who knew what a cheeky spank thrown in could do! Here’s the guy in action.

Kenny and Tiff

I’ll upload pictures after today.

If you want any more info about swing dancing or you want to try it out just ask!

Summer fare

The sun has finally got his hat on and come out to play! This makes Gillies a very happy girl; and with a change in the weather comes a change in dinner. 

There are two main periods in the year in which people try and lose weight. New Year and Spring (the get  fit for summer drive), one of them is a total nightmare, the other one surprisingly within your grasp; just work with the weather!

Winter is a time for hunkering down with thick stews and wedges of bread, for covering up in layers and for (in my case) ditching running for snuggling on the sofa. The summer is a time for shedding all of that. Shedding the heavy layers and the hearty food for lightweight clothing and lightweight food. Trying to do this in January, when it is still freezing, still dark and even more depressing when there’s not even Christmas to look forward to isn’t the best time to think about this. The summer time when all you want to do is be outside and because it’s hot you’re appetite is less as your body needs less fuel, is. 

My hint for getting in shape for summer? Don’t eat like it’s winter! 

The following is what I made for dinner tonight; light, fresh and super easy, it’s filling and very good for you.

I got home super late and was about to eat my own arm, the following takes 6 minutes and is just wonderful.

Asparagus with Parma Ham

Ingredients: Asaparagus, Parma Ham, Black pepper

Method: Grind black pepper over the asparagus and grill it for three minutes, then turn it and grill for another three.

Take out from under the grill and wrap in parma ham. 

EAT.

Then the main attraction:

Roast stuffed tomatoes with feta. (feeds 2)

Ingredients: 4 large tomatoes, 100g couscous, 1 stock cube in 150ml , 4 medium spring onions finely diced, half a green pepper, 75g feta.

Method: Heat oven to 170 

slice up the pepper and roast it for about 20 minutes in the oven

put the couscous in a bowl and cover with the stock for about 5-10 minutes so it swells and then fluff it up with a fork.

meanwhile cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the middle cutting with a sharp knife and a spoon chop up the squishy bits and then leave the middles in a bowl.  

Heat your frying pan with a little oil and cook the spring onions for 3-4 minutes and then add the tomato middles and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the peppers straight from the oven. 

Then add the feta and the couscous and mix all together.

Fill the tomato shells and put the tops of the tomatoes back on.

Then put back in the oven for 15-20 minutes. I served with salad. You can have these as a meal on their own or as a side for something else, whatever, they’re proper delish. 

Keep tuned in for some summer soup recipes, and enjoy the long evenings and the truly marvelous weather! 

3 Pasta Recipes to see you through pretty much anything.

I started so well with keeping you all up to date with the project, never fear we didn’t fail!

The only thing was life got in the way. We had P’s Granny’s Birthday on Wednesday so popped over there to say hello, and on Thursday I got the chance to see a film as a trial audience member. It was great fun, it’s called the 7 Psychopaths and as a black comedy delivers lots of laughs, great fun. However there was no dinner to be had for Gillies that night, as the film started at 7 and I wasn’t out of there until 10 and by the time I got home eating seemed a little bit pointless!

We never got to eat the Pork Belly, so this is Sunday’s project. We managed to eat our way through almost all of our larder. We still have some lentils (unsurprisingly) and the baked beans never got eaten, but the real triumph of the week was pasta.

The beautiful thing about pasta is that it is so utterly versatile, have it as a dish on its own, as an accompaniment to something else, to beef up soups and broth and with approximately 60 different types to choose from you’re never far from something delicious. I was given a pasta maker a couple of years ago but it broke rather tragically, however before its untimely demise, it made some of the most delicious pasta I’ve ever had, springy and light and simply beautiful. Dried will see you just as well as fresh though and while homemade is always best, don’t worry about it.

GOLDEN RULES

1. Make sure that you use plenty of water to boil the pasta (1 litre of water for every 100 grams of pasta).
2. Bring the water to a hard boil before you add salt (around 10 grams of salt for every litre of water). Then pour in the pasta and return to boil.
3. Stir occasionally to prevent it from sticking and continue to boil, without a lid.
4. Don’t over-cook. The pasta should be “al dente”, which means it should be “firm to the bite”, yet cooked through. It’s better to taste the pasta before draining it.
5. When it’s ready drain the pasta but don’t rinse it with cold water. The pasta should be hot when mixed with the sauce. (If you are using the pasta for cold salads you may rinse it with water or drip on a little oil to prevent it from sticking while it cools).
6. Timing is important. The sauce and pasta should be ready at the same time. In many recipes such as carbonara, bad timing would result in bad pasta. Mix the pasta with the sauce as soon as it is ready. Leaving the pasta on its own might result in sticking.
7. With very few exceptions, pasta should be served immediately. According to an Italian saying, “The guest should wait for the pasta, not the pasta for the guest!”.

8. Don’t eat too much. People fall into the trap of serving family sized portions for one and overdosing.

9. Don’t cheat. I have seen amongst other things someone thinking it was OK to squeeze tomato ketchup all over pasta as a tomato sauce substitute and on one occasion someone making macaroni cheese with condensed milk. Use good ingredients and it will never fail you. 

Know your pasta combos

If you’re making a fine delicate sauce, such as a fresh tomato one for example it will go best with a fine delicate pasta, spaghettini (a thinner spaghetti) for example; while oil based sauces or thicker tomato sauces go better with thicker flatter pastas such as linguini. If you go for real thick pasta like fettucini it can stand really robust flavours like Fettucini Alfredo which basicially consists of cream cheese, some cream and some cheese, with some more cream and some cheese sprinkled on the top. It’s amazing, but would drown most pasta. 

Seafood pasta is my favourite, Vongole (VON – go – lay) is heaven and P’s mum makes a dish that despite my best efforts I cannot rival. Steaming bowls of pasta drizzled with olive oil, spiked with garlic and chilli as clams peep out from the bowl is one of life’s greatest pleasures. There are two camps those with tomatoes and those without, I have never tried it with, why mess with perfection after all? For this one with such delicate flavours nothing heavier than spaghetti, please and it’s particularly good with Vermicelli or Capellini.  

Seafood generally works better with thicker pastas, Pappardelle for example as there is more surface area for the delicate flavours to stick to. YUM.

The chunkier the pasta the better is goes with chunkier sauces especially ridged ones as this gives something for the pasta to stick to inside and out which make for a much stronger depth of flavour, our cheese, creamy mushroom, chunky meat sauces, arrabiata or pesto work best with these kinds of pasta. More delicate sauces go better with smooth pasta. If you’re baking it, go for the thickest tubes as they can stand the cooking time. 

My mum would argue that there is nothing better than a plate of spaghetti with olive oil, salt and pepper. However I am including 3 recipes below that make Gillies a very happy girl whatever the weather. 

Pasta with anything in the fridge –  “Economy”

This was devoured by the bowlful last week, staving off hunger like a pro. Ingredients vary to whatever you have to hand… we had the following: 4 chorizo slices, a green chilli, mushrooms, a red onion, garlic and a half empty bottle of olive and tomato pasta sauce (about a teaspoon or so left) some dried spaghetti.

Slice up all ingredients, keeping the onions in rings as best you can and fry in just a little oil, the chorizo should give up some of its own too and you don’t want to soak everything. 

Heat the pasta in a litre for every 100g of salted water and when it’s still got some bite (no one likes flaccid pasta) drain and return to the pan with a little oil to stop it from sticking. Or you can keep some water at the bottom of the pan. Add the ingredients from the frying pan and some of the pasta sauce (only enough to lightly cover it, you don’t want to overpower everything else, most people always make this mistake and smother their pasta, it really isn’t necessary.) Season as you like, transfer to a bowl and eat as quickly as possible. Student food it maybe, but delicious it certainly is. 

Pasta with chilli, lemon and prawns – “SImple Luxury”

This is P’s signature dish, he makes it for me when I am sad, tired, stressed, overworked or just plain hungry, it never fails to put a smile on my face and is beautiful in its simplicity.

Use Linguini, small cooked prawns (or you can use nice big ones it’s no matter, though small are the originals) 2 small chillies one red and one green (not the birds eye ones, that would be crazy!) the juice of two lemons and 4 cloves of garlic very thinly sliced to they virtually melt into the oil. 

Heat olive oil on a medium heat and add the chilli and the garlic, leave to soak in the oil so that all the flaours are absorbed for 15 to 20 minutes raise the heat a little (by about a quarter) add the prawns and let them soak up all the oil and flavours, then put it on a really high heat for about thirty seconds to get it really excited. Be very careful not to burn the chillies as they will go black taste and look horrible. 

Meanwhile the linguini should be cooking in salted water, drain when al dente and mix everything in together. While mixing it all squeeze two lemons into the pot and stir through.

You should have a plate full of gorgeous colour; pink prawns, green and red chilli with the glossy yellow pasta. It tastes delicious, all tangy with the sweetness of the oil and the prawns. God it’s wonderful. 

Spaghetti Carbonara – “The Classic”

You will find a million and one recipes for this in every book and on every website there’s someone claiming they can master the dish. Most make it too complicated or drown it in cream. The trick, as with most things, is to keep things nice and simple.

Use spaghetti, diced pancetta and about three egg yolks, a small white onion very finely chopped and a couple of cloves of garlic done the same. 

Lightly fry the pancetta, onion and garlic while the pasta cooks on the hob. Crack the eggs and separate the yolks and whites. In the yolk bowl break them up a little bit DON’T whisk them or you’ll simply scramble them when they heat. As always when al dente drain the pasta and stir in the egg yolk and the pancetta onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. EAT.

So there you have it, three wonderfully easy, always pleasing, filling and comforting dishes which can be made for as little as 3 pounds, or used to impress a girl or boy on a date. Pasta is your friend. 

This post has been written listening to the rather fabulous Rory Charles: http://rorycharles.com/ do check him out the CD on this site is the one I’m currently listening to.