This Christmas, darling Glutton Boy gave me a slow cooker. I'd been mithering about buying one for ages but two things had put me off: 1) I am a bit OCD about leaving things on 2) I have a very small kitchen. But on the understanding that slow cookers are designed to be left on for 12 hours I feel relatively comfortable with it. And I've already cooked in it - lamb shanks cooked in pale ale. And delicious it was too.
So this got me thinking about what sort of cook I am - I'm not the sort of cook that has a million hot pans on the go, that when people come round I'm plating up towers in the kitchen. And I don't know anyone else like that either. I am more of a shove-it-all-in-the-slow-cooker-and-pour-myself-a-gin kind of girl. Which is by far the better in my view. How much nicer to spend time with people I've invited than to stress that the souffle hasn't risen properly. Really, who needs that kind of stress?
And a slow cooker lends itself to the sort of cheap and delicious food I love. The mainstay of the Jewish sabbath is a casserole called a cholent. My grandmother cooked this as does my mum and she leaves it in the oven all day. It's a slow one so you don't have to do any work once the sun sets. Brisket, carrots, potatoes, butter beans, stock. Sometimes pearl barley but I find it sucks up all the moisture so not brilliant in some ways. And it is absolutely delicious in its simplicity. Plain, tender and nourishing in all kinds of ways. How lovely to come home from a crap day at work and find a dish of loveliness bubbling away on the counter top. How much would that make you feel that someone was looking after you, even if that someone is really you.
I have loads of people coming over in January as I've just moved house and I am planning a succession of slow-cooked delights. Pig cheeks, a good chilli, a daube of beef, oxtail for the more robust of stomach and adventurous of spirit. And, another blessing for January, a really economical way to cook.
Cheap, tasty, uplifting. Much like GluttonGirl herself.
Much love
GG
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The ties that bind...
It's blindingly obvious and been said before, but food is so much more than food.
I have a group of four girlfriends who I've known for years. I met one at university when I was 19 and the others were friends of hers. We used to see each other all the time and take turns to cook madly good dinners with ridiculous amounts of wine which more often than not ended up with us flashing our knockers at the neighbours.
As time has gone on, we've seen each other less - one has had a baby, two of us are married and two live with their partners, so life is very different to how it was when we first met. We've been through all kinds of terrible boyfriends, houseshares, jobs and for the last seven years, whatever else has been going on, there has always been Christmas dinner at Sharmin's.
Sharm is an amazing cook and a brilliant convivial hostess. There are pressies, drinks galore and bags of laughing. Boys are most definitely banned. This year we broke with tradition and held it during the day and it lasted around 8 hours. And it did my heart good to be with these girls who have known me so long, round a table, sharing a brilliant meal. If we didn't do Christmas at Sharm's, it wouldn't be Christmas.
So that's the holiday spirit - people you love, being together, having fun, sharing news. It's like a Hallmark card come to life but I won't apologise for that.
So thank you ladies, for another brilliant Christmas.
GGxx
I have a group of four girlfriends who I've known for years. I met one at university when I was 19 and the others were friends of hers. We used to see each other all the time and take turns to cook madly good dinners with ridiculous amounts of wine which more often than not ended up with us flashing our knockers at the neighbours.
As time has gone on, we've seen each other less - one has had a baby, two of us are married and two live with their partners, so life is very different to how it was when we first met. We've been through all kinds of terrible boyfriends, houseshares, jobs and for the last seven years, whatever else has been going on, there has always been Christmas dinner at Sharmin's.
Sharm is an amazing cook and a brilliant convivial hostess. There are pressies, drinks galore and bags of laughing. Boys are most definitely banned. This year we broke with tradition and held it during the day and it lasted around 8 hours. And it did my heart good to be with these girls who have known me so long, round a table, sharing a brilliant meal. If we didn't do Christmas at Sharm's, it wouldn't be Christmas.
So that's the holiday spirit - people you love, being together, having fun, sharing news. It's like a Hallmark card come to life but I won't apologise for that.
So thank you ladies, for another brilliant Christmas.
GGxx
In which I am quite tired but also quite exhilarated
If you had to put together a bunch of stressful things that are inadvisable to do in roughly the same time period, they might look a bit like this:
buy your first flat and move house
Christmas
make cakes for friend's wedding
make cakes for boss's party
snow
Stupidly, I have done all these things lately. GluttonBoy said of me this weekend 'if you die before me, your gravestone will read 'she bit off more than she could chew.'
Let me explain - in early December we moved into our first flat - the finding and buying of said flat and the moving processes was so stressful I almost called it off. And then we were plunged headlong into Christmas, which due to family stuff is always a tiny bit on the fraught side. And I had been hired to make 80 wedding cupcakes for a dear friend's wedding on the 20th. That's fine, I thought to myself, I have the Sunday before to bake/ice. Except my annual girls' Christmas beano was then scheduled for the Sunday. And on the Saturday I agreed to make 80 cakes and deliver them to Camden. And then it snowed so there were no cabs and I don't drive. So much, so hellish.
But, when I saw the wedding cakes on the stand I felt unbelievably happy and proud it was all worth it. And I had a brilliant time with the girls for Christmas. So now, is just Christmas to cope with.
And actually, I love Christmas food. Not just the big day itself, but almost more the peripheral days. GluttonBoy always wants the same Christmas eve dinner - salmon, new potatoes and hollandaise. Smoked salmon, scrambled egg and bucks fizz for breakfast, the constant mince pie/quality street grazing and best of all in my book - the boxing day neverending gluttony.
I'm not at home this year for Boxing Day and neither is GB, but we've decided to make the 28th (our first full day together of the Christmas season in our own flat) a late Boxing Day. On the menu (or rather in the fridge) will be:
Sausages - rolls and in blankets
Cdld meat - turkey, ham, beef
Cheeses - english, french and boursin
Pickes and chutneys
Some fruit for the sake of appearance
Christmas cake (once I get round to making the bloody thing)
I would even go so far as to make vol au vents and potato salad
There will also be drinks galore, enough to ensure a low-level fuzzy head all day. And Mad Men series 2 and 3 which I intend to watch in full.
Christmas is suddenly looking up!
Much love
GG
buy your first flat and move house
Christmas
make cakes for friend's wedding
make cakes for boss's party
snow
Stupidly, I have done all these things lately. GluttonBoy said of me this weekend 'if you die before me, your gravestone will read 'she bit off more than she could chew.'
Let me explain - in early December we moved into our first flat - the finding and buying of said flat and the moving processes was so stressful I almost called it off. And then we were plunged headlong into Christmas, which due to family stuff is always a tiny bit on the fraught side. And I had been hired to make 80 wedding cupcakes for a dear friend's wedding on the 20th. That's fine, I thought to myself, I have the Sunday before to bake/ice. Except my annual girls' Christmas beano was then scheduled for the Sunday. And on the Saturday I agreed to make 80 cakes and deliver them to Camden. And then it snowed so there were no cabs and I don't drive. So much, so hellish.
But, when I saw the wedding cakes on the stand I felt unbelievably happy and proud it was all worth it. And I had a brilliant time with the girls for Christmas. So now, is just Christmas to cope with.
And actually, I love Christmas food. Not just the big day itself, but almost more the peripheral days. GluttonBoy always wants the same Christmas eve dinner - salmon, new potatoes and hollandaise. Smoked salmon, scrambled egg and bucks fizz for breakfast, the constant mince pie/quality street grazing and best of all in my book - the boxing day neverending gluttony.
I'm not at home this year for Boxing Day and neither is GB, but we've decided to make the 28th (our first full day together of the Christmas season in our own flat) a late Boxing Day. On the menu (or rather in the fridge) will be:
Sausages - rolls and in blankets
Cdld meat - turkey, ham, beef
Cheeses - english, french and boursin
Pickes and chutneys
Some fruit for the sake of appearance
Christmas cake (once I get round to making the bloody thing)
I would even go so far as to make vol au vents and potato salad
There will also be drinks galore, enough to ensure a low-level fuzzy head all day. And Mad Men series 2 and 3 which I intend to watch in full.
Christmas is suddenly looking up!
Much love
GG
Friday, December 10, 2010
GG thinks about what really makes a home.
August was my last post. I know that's shocking. And also a blogging sin. So I'll get the excuses out of the way:
1) I've bought my first flat
2) The day job has been pretty stressful
So, that's that. What's been happening in the world of GG? In the last six weeks, mainly packing and unpacking. If only we'd unpacked half of our stuff, but luckily we have a garage so the vast majority of boxes have been shoved in there. Some of it I'll need but frankly I was appalled at just how much kitcheny type equipment I have. Some particular highlights were:
20 boxes of cookbooks. 20.
11 cake stands
14 heart shaped ramekins
6 small jugs
Two massive boxes of baking tins (normal and silicone)
20 cake forks (my excuse - they were my grandmother's)
A tiffin box
A trifle bowl
20 royal family themed shot glasses
Boxes upon boxes of jam jars (brand new ones for home made as well as empty bonne maman ones).
So we like cooking. And now I'm in my new flat I am loving it even more. It didn't really feel like home until we'd cooked a meal, and the first thing I cooked was Sausage Special. This was something my late mother in law cooked for Glutton Boy and his sister through their childhood. It comes from the Dairy Cookbook (I have her very dogeared and fragile copy) and was called 'Devilled Sausages' originally. I never tried it cooked by her and I used to laugh about it, due to it's slightly peculiar ingredients but after she died I gave it a go and it now makes a regular appearance at dinner time. I partly like it because most of the ingredients are in the cupboard and I usually just need to get a few things which, at a push, can generally just be found even at a corner shop but it is something I make when either GB or I is feeling a bit weary or fragile or low. And actually, I wouldn't make it at all if it wasn't delicious. So, as we drag ourselves towards a few blissful festive days off to fight with our loved ones and drink too many snowballs - I share with you, Gill's Sausage Special.
Fry off a pack of sausages in some oil till lightly browned (but not cooked through. Remove to a plate.
Fry one onions, sliced finely into half moons until soft.
Stir in two tablespoons of flour and cook for a bit. Add in 1/4 pint of water gradually to make a roux.
Chuck in (in any order) a can of tomatoes, a teaspoon of mustard, a teaspoon of vinegar, two teaspoons of Lea and Perrins and, the key ingredient, two tablespoons of Branston pickle. Now, GB thinks the small-chunk variety is a travesty, but I prefer it as you get the taste but it's less intrusive!
Add sausages back into the pan and simmer for roughly 20-30 mins (or, in my case, to the end of whatever programme I'm watching.
Traditionally served with spaghetti but we also like it with rice.
You may prefer 'gourmet' sausages, but trust me, works better with ordinary. Not horrible pink 'value' ones, though. They're vile.
Lots of love
GG
1) I've bought my first flat
2) The day job has been pretty stressful
So, that's that. What's been happening in the world of GG? In the last six weeks, mainly packing and unpacking. If only we'd unpacked half of our stuff, but luckily we have a garage so the vast majority of boxes have been shoved in there. Some of it I'll need but frankly I was appalled at just how much kitcheny type equipment I have. Some particular highlights were:
20 boxes of cookbooks. 20.
11 cake stands
14 heart shaped ramekins
6 small jugs
Two massive boxes of baking tins (normal and silicone)
20 cake forks (my excuse - they were my grandmother's)
A tiffin box
A trifle bowl
20 royal family themed shot glasses
Boxes upon boxes of jam jars (brand new ones for home made as well as empty bonne maman ones).
So we like cooking. And now I'm in my new flat I am loving it even more. It didn't really feel like home until we'd cooked a meal, and the first thing I cooked was Sausage Special. This was something my late mother in law cooked for Glutton Boy and his sister through their childhood. It comes from the Dairy Cookbook (I have her very dogeared and fragile copy) and was called 'Devilled Sausages' originally. I never tried it cooked by her and I used to laugh about it, due to it's slightly peculiar ingredients but after she died I gave it a go and it now makes a regular appearance at dinner time. I partly like it because most of the ingredients are in the cupboard and I usually just need to get a few things which, at a push, can generally just be found even at a corner shop but it is something I make when either GB or I is feeling a bit weary or fragile or low. And actually, I wouldn't make it at all if it wasn't delicious. So, as we drag ourselves towards a few blissful festive days off to fight with our loved ones and drink too many snowballs - I share with you, Gill's Sausage Special.
Fry off a pack of sausages in some oil till lightly browned (but not cooked through. Remove to a plate.
Fry one onions, sliced finely into half moons until soft.
Stir in two tablespoons of flour and cook for a bit. Add in 1/4 pint of water gradually to make a roux.
Chuck in (in any order) a can of tomatoes, a teaspoon of mustard, a teaspoon of vinegar, two teaspoons of Lea and Perrins and, the key ingredient, two tablespoons of Branston pickle. Now, GB thinks the small-chunk variety is a travesty, but I prefer it as you get the taste but it's less intrusive!
Add sausages back into the pan and simmer for roughly 20-30 mins (or, in my case, to the end of whatever programme I'm watching.
Traditionally served with spaghetti but we also like it with rice.
You may prefer 'gourmet' sausages, but trust me, works better with ordinary. Not horrible pink 'value' ones, though. They're vile.
Lots of love
GG
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