Friday night I ate not particularly good Indian food with my step-son and his girlfriend. It rained which was a gift after months of nothing but dry. Manuka was packed with a very dreary crowd. My step-son was waxing at great length about eco diesel and a get rich scheme but though it all sounded plausible, experience has demonstrated that he is strong on ideas and weak on execution. It's a continuing financial sore that I am still, via my marital obligations, funding his education at 23. He's a nice young man but this drives me nuts.
Saturday morning I was up early to drive down to collect my children. I bought a flat white and an almond croissant in Silo and hit the road. The temperature dropped and the sky got more leaden the closer I got to the high country. I began to worry that my fleece was not going to be enough warmth for standing in a paddock watching a mini-horse trial. As I cut across country outside Cooma I could see traces of snow on the mountains. Fortunately, the horse people had decided to exempt us from pony parade. I was so happy to see my children. They were predictably tired and grubby but full of horse gossip. It's a great environment with lots of emphasis on safety, respect for others and personal responsibility. The winter activity of the
horse people is in breaking in brumbies from Kosciuszko. Both of my girls want to ride in the Jindabyne gymkhana in two weeks so I agreed they could do it since the horse people will lend them horses. By the time we got back home it was still only around 12C so we lit the fire and moved the tv into the sitting room and snuggled up and watched movies all the rest of the afternoon.
On Anzac Day I knitted a scarf for Miss S in a yarn I bought at Kingston market. It's shades of pink and flame and a twisted mohair. I spent the afternoon knitting a cobwebby sort of affair. I half hoped she'd reject it so I could keep it but alas she likes it. She had been to her friend's and brought home the most divine fudge choc chip cookies they had made.
Today was a cooking day. We made a beef, thyme and anchovy stew adapted from nigella lawson but with mushrooms instead of celery; a bolognaise sauce to see us through those evenings when anything more arduous than grating cheese will induce a fit of the vapours; lemon biscuits from the Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer
Tuscan cookbook. I also made a wholemeal loaf from
Sophie Grigson's recipe - you add a crushed vit c tablet and although I don't know the chemistry for this it really seems to lighten the loaf. I am still in pursuit of the flour to make wheaten bread the way I tasted it in Ireland. I have, in the past, brought the flour back with me. I recall it having yellow flecks in it and wonder if it's cornmeal. I tried mixing polenta with my flour but have never really managed to reproduce it. We also made risotto again for dinner. I've worked out that the ritual of ladling in the stock is one my older daughter likes. In fact, she loves the predictable all round. We made this one with lemon again but this time added some sauteed zucchini. Pretty damn good. Of course, the glass of Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc tossed in at the beginning may have added to the overall deliciousness.
Kitschenette had a supplementary food
blog. She asked me about my formula for rough puff pastry and I failed to post this. This won't make mille feuille but it's good for sausage rolls and pies.
500g plain flour
250g butter (it needs to be very cold, you can put it in the freezer to do this)
iced water
Put the flour in a bowl and grate the butter into it - keep dipping the butter in the flour if it starts to stick on your grater. You need to use one with large holes.
Using a flat bladed knife, stir in enough cold water to make a dough.
Turn out onto a flour board and roll into a rectangle. Fold in the bottom third and then top third. Give it a quarter turn, roll out gently again and repeat. I do this about 10 times. In classic pastry making, I think you are supposed to let it rest every 3 turns but give me a break.
Let it rest in the fridge for 30 mins then use. Easy peasy.
Note 1: I think my mother used half butter, half lard but I can never find lard in my supermarket.
Note 2: lest anyone think I am too precious, I once went to a cookery demonstration by Sophie Grigson who was asked about how she made her puff pastry. She looked incredulous, "I buy it in Sainsbury's, like any sane person" she replied.
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