lexy

Beating the odds in my extremely dodgy kitchen (uni residence), I managed to turn out a blueberry and lemon pound cake. I think I've discovered the way to eat puddings and never gain a pound - bake in an extremely poorly equipped kitchen! Try creaming butter and sugar with a fork - excellent upper body workout. Haven't tasted the entire thing together yet (it's for a dinner party tonight), but all the individual components were tasty How dodgy is my kitchen you might ask? Here's my "cooling rack", with my loaves (nicely burnt by The Oven From Hades) resting atop it. edited because I can't spell

Well, I won't be in Canada, but I'm going down to the Henley regatta Saturday, so I'll be (sort of) celebrating with a picnic alongside the Thames.

Kensington Kitchen, if I recall, has a small patio out back. It's been a while since I've eaten there, but I remember it was green and leafy, and not too noisy (it's behind the restaurant, not on the street side).

Thanks, will definitely be looking into these (I finish exams next week, and I think I need a celebratory cake )

Do you have a favourite carrot cake recipe? I love a good carrot cake, but I rarely make them, and have been disappointed with the results - I've only tried my mum's family recipe though, which (shh! keep this quiet!) makes a rather rubbery cake.

Ah, another fruit fiend! It's at least an apple and an orange a day for me.

Wow, um, that pretty much rules out … everything How about home-made popsicles? My mum used to make them by just freezing milk (soy milk?) and fresh fruit in molds. Fruit juices are good too, and I should think a fruit puree would work well. You could sweeten these with honey if they needed sweetening.

Hobnobs and Digestives, especially the dark chocolate-dipped kind custard creams do flapjacks count?

Forgive me if someone's already mentioned this, but is there a North African presence in Sardinian cuisine? Carthage controlled Sardinia at one time (ok, that was quite some time ago) and the couscous-type dish made me think of North Africa.

I was going to point this out about La Palette too, but I wasn't entirely sure … You might want to check, but I've walked past La Palette a number of times around lunch time and noticed it was closed.

Aha, that was the Japanese place I'm thinking of!

Hmm, having read your comment, not baking the apples didn't sound quite right so I double-checked the recipe - oops, I was meant to bake them after layering in the apples! That'll teach me to bake by (hazy) memory. That said, I don't think they lost anything by being uncooked - it gave them a firmer bite, although because they had been sliced thinly and macerated they were nowhere near the crunchiness of a raw apple. I'd try baking if I made them again, but to be honest I rather liked them as I (incorrectly) made them.

Thank you! - unfortunately they got a bit squashed before the end of the day. The recipe is a loose adaptation of Rose Levy Beranbaum's Open-Faced Designer Apple Pie (pg. 84 of the Pie and Pastry Bible) Make a batch of your preferred pie dough (I use my Mum's recipe, but it doesn't really matter much what you use - phyllo or puff pastry would probably be nice too), roll it out and cut out circles about 3-4" wide (depending on the size of your muffin tin). Blind bake the pastry shells at 425?F for a little under ten minutes, then prick the bottoms and put them back into the oven, uncovered, until lightly browned. Let cool. For the apple filling: I used four medium-small apples for 12 tartlets, but mileage may vary. Peel, core, and halve the apples and slice them as thinly as possible. Toss with 2/3 cup brown sugar (packed), splash of lemon juice, pinch salt, shake of cinnamon, and a touch of nutmeg. Let the apples macerate for at least an hour (I left mine overnight in the fridge with good results). Strain the apples, reserving the liquid. Add a knob of butter to the reserved apple-sugar liquid and boil down untiil syrupy and lightly caramelised. Arrange the apple slices in the now-cooled pastry shells, starting from the outsides of the shells, and layering the apple slices in tighter circles as you get towards the centre. Pour the caramel-syrup over the tarts and let cool. If you transport them, do so very carefully, because there isn't actually much holding the apples in place.

Is Kensington Kitchen open for lunches? If you're shooting for a 'cool' vibe there's been a bunch of restaurants that have opened recently in the Kensington Market area that aren't grungy but are still edgy. They won't be terribly formal, but they will also be cheap. There's a place (can't remember the name) that does a thing where you pick a kind of rice and then various toppings that's pretty good. Baldwin St is still in general a good bet - I had a nice lunch at the Japanese restaurant there last year (sorry - again, I can't remember the name!)

I don't normally bake during term time since the oven in my residence kitchen is pretty dodgy, but I made some apple tartlets this morning because this afternoon my team competes in qualifying race heats, and I thought we'd probably want a little something for afterwards.

Not exactly a cooking question, but related: how do you pronounce 'rooibus', as in rooibus tea? I rather embarrassed myself in the tea shop this morning trying to say it, but the staff just goggled at me and didn't provide me with a correct pronunciation.

*nods vigourously* key is to dip into into the tea until it's just soggy. Even better is choc digestives (no butter) dipped until the chocolate melts

Sirop de rose is indeed rose sugar syrup - rose-infused simple syrup possibly?. Essence alcoolique de rose translates as alcoholic rose essence - I'm not sure what this might be, maybe it's called something different in English normally?

Pie - I love fruit, and to those who whine about 'fruit goo', well then they haven't been eating good pie. Cake is special because of the occasions it's served at, but it's the circumstances that make it good - most cakes just aren't very interesting. And is crumble pie? (no crust, but it's obviously not falling into the cake camp) Because I would do almost anything for a good apple or rhubard crumble.

Agreed - I did a double-take (double-read?) when I saw that. It must be especially difficult if the waffle is hot off the iron and still a little bendy.

Just another post to say happy birthday, and I'm thrilled that you're blogging again!

It's odd, but your comment's just made me remember the buckloads of fresh lovely favas my grandmother (who lives in Halifax) always seems to have on hand. I've never lived anywhere where they seem that readily available - do you have any idea why favas are so available in Halifax? (I'm pretty certain my grandmother buys them at the farmer's market - perhaps there's a local farmer who specializes in them?)

Another vote for the Bittman lentil-rhubarb recipe - I too had doubts about it, but it was pretty good, although not memorable enough for me to make again. And a bizzare-sounding (although kind of tasty) snack an old man at the farmer's market recommended: dip a raw stalk (washed), in salt. Eat. I thought he was a little mad, but it's actually pretty good.

By the way, I know you've already chosen what you want to do for sandwiches, but if anyone else is looking for interesting sandwich ideas, I've been dying to have a sandwich party ever since reading Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book.

Did nobody else make hot cross buns for Easter? Regarding the River Café pistachio cake, two points: although it's very tasty, it's also quite dense and quite rich (just a warning), and because it contains a mix of almonds and pistachios, I seem to recall it tasting more 'almondy' than of pure pistachios.