It all goes Pete Tong – Day 41

Sunday, 26 April, 2020

Forty-first day of sheltering in place.

I was doing well for a long time. I  was not feeling stir crazy, actually enjoying the pace of my days, like being on holiday and having the luxury of quiet afternoons to read, nap, write, or even make cookies. Then it all shattered. But first things first.

I made the vegan peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I learned to make at Cake or Death. I had enough for four nights of cookies. Each time I got a slightly different result. I think perhaps there was not enough flour or perhaps Krish mixed them too vigorously. But they were still delicious.


Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
Vegan peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

There were the usual casual dinners. This was the fish finger tacos we eat quite often. Help yourself to all the toppings!

Fish finger tacos
Fish finger tacos

And old favourites like matzo ball soup. So comforting.

Matzo ball soup
Matzo ball soup – I love lots of carrots in it

I even had a go at chicken congee. It wasn’t too bad, considering I had the wrong rice and cooked it only ninety minutes. I’d like to try it again with short grain rice and cooking it for much longer.

Chicken congee
Chicken congee with extra ginger and green onions

It was interesting to watch people responding to social distancing. I had a lot of fun looking out of the window to see the spaced-out queues outside the Little Local, and people ‘meeting’ at safe distances in the houses opposite.

New style meetings
New style meetings

Continue reading “It all goes Pete Tong – Day 41”

Vegan baking

Wednesday, 26 February, 2020

I belong a site called Nextdoor. It unites neighbours in areas around the world, sort of like an updated BBS. It’s so useful for finding things like local tradespeople, events, sales and free stuff and so on. (There’ll be one in your area too!) Some time before Christmas I saw this:

Katie Cross,
NEW VEGAN CAKE SHOP OPENING IN DALSTON
Hello everyone, I am a vegan baker and I am opening my bakery CAKE OR DEATH every Saturday until Christmas starting tomorrow 10am – 3pm. It’s in Dalston on the corner of Dalston Lane and Martel Place E8 2FR. I’m a small business – just me baking – and I make delicious cakes, brownies and cookies and everything is vegan. Do pop down if you’re in the area – I’d love the support! Best wishes, Katie www.cakeordeath.net

Now, veganism isn’t for me but I do have two vegan friends and Hackney is pretty much Vegan Central. Every bakery has a good selection of vegan cakes, some are strictly vegan. When I go out with Lisa, I let her choose somewhere that’s vegan because it’s so much easier than her finding something on the menu where I usually go. I didn’t get to Katie’s bakery, Cake or Death, though.

Then Katie started to advertise classes at her bakery. I still didn’t go for those, until she had a sale. I couldn’t resist, even knowing this would mean…cake!

I arrived at the class and there were nine of us- eight women, one man. There were also no baking spaces other than Katie’s kitchen area and a big table.

We watched her make lemon cup cakes. She made the batter, then worked on the icing. She whipped broad bean water from the can until it stood in stiff peaks, then added in icing sugar and lemon. She also made a lemon curd, which is a normal recipe but with Flora ‘buttery’ margarine instead of butter.

We then made our own carrot cake, measuring and mixing and pouring the batter into tins to bake. Again Flora is used and also unsweetened soy milk. And a lot of oil! It smelled good.

Once that was in the oven, we all had a part to play in making sticky ginger cake. I stirred the huge bowl of liquids – Flora, soy milk, treacle, muscovado sugar, and golden syrup, all melted in the microwave and ready for the dry ingredients.

Our last baking effort was at the end of the class. We each made our own peanut butter chocolate chip cookies – seven large ones. They went into the oven when the other things were ready or almost ready to come out.

The whole place smelled great. The participants were friendly and I chatted a bit to the other two locals that were there – a couple. I should have got their details but I didn’t. Maybe I’ll see them around. Even though we didn’t have our own cooking stations, things worked well. Katie’s helper gave us each a huge box and I put in my cakes and cookies and balanced them all the way home.

Then the eating. The only thing we haven’t tried yet is the carrot cake. It’s in the freezer, cut into three pieces. Everything has been delicious. Nothing tastes like it should be labelled vegan. I’m ready to host my vegan afternoon tea party!

Next, the photos! Continue reading “Vegan baking”

I love to make things – messy or not, here I come!

Sunday, 29 December, 2019

Quite honestly, I’m not very good at making things. This would make my friends and everyone who sees my ‘things’ laugh really. They’d tell me I’m creative and talented. I can see how that happens.

I would say, though, that I have five thumbs on each hand, or that somehow the messages from my brain don’t get all the way down to my fingers when I create. In my head is a beautiful image, which by the time it gets down to my hands becomes a muddled mess. But then I’m messy – let’s get that out in the open right now.

What I can do is make use of my mistakes. Take my dolls – the end result is good, sometimes great, because I cover up the mistakes with lace, ribbon, bits of fabric… and I smile a lot and don’t let a mistake interrupt or stop me.

And so messy becomes ‘me,’ ‘my style.’ I think or hope that people see that the end result reflects me. And yet…

I was recently interviewed by a woman who is writing a book. As far as I can tell, she is taking photos of older people and writing about them. We talked for about an hour, I told her all manner of things about me, holding very little back and at the end, it was the dolls – something I mentioned only briefly at first – that caught her attention, even though I suggested she photograph me in front of some Hackney Stik art. And so in January I’ll be taking all of my dolls to a studio where she’ll artfully display them and take my photo with the whole lot. I hate having my photo taken so we’ll see what comes of it. At any rate, her eyes lit up when she saw the colours and personalities I’d created – forget the travels, forget the search for street art and local culture, forget the foodie obsessions – this, apparently, was it!

In November I took a course on how to make rye bread. Somewhere in Dalston, down a less-travelled alley, is the Dusty Knuckle Bakery. I went one evening to their classroom, which is across the yard from the bakery/cafe, in a container. The instructor was Tomek, a somewhat serious man, who knew a lot about bread.

Tomek with Marta
Tomek with Marta

There were only three of us! A woman, her daughter, and me. This was perfect. We could each do our own thing, and the mood was unhurried and personal. Rye bread, it seems, is the simplest bread to make. We were learning the slow method, which uses a sour dough starter instead of commercial yeast. The starter at the Dusty Knuckle is called Marta. She sits in a large plastic container with a cracked lid, growing and being used to start hundreds of rye loaves. Bits of her have been shared around the students and bakers, and now a bit of her is in my fridge, waiting to be woken up when I need another loaf.

Yeast, Tomek, explained is natural and it’s everywhere. If we had special ‘yeast glasses,’ we would see yeast covering everything and it might be horrifying. So Marta picks up that natural yeast and. when fed, grows. My Marta is different than anyone else’s because it’s picked up the yeast in my environment, including from my body. If I gave some to you, it would change again. Yeast is pretty special.

We created one loaf of sour dough rye bread, one loaf of quick (soda) bread, and some thin rye crackers that use buttermilk and honey. All in three hours. I am not used to weighing on a scale or with grams, British-style, and that may be the reason that, after the sour dough loaves had risen (proved) to be ready for baking, mine was smaller than the others. I was a bit devastated. Why mine? Of course mine! Messy me strikes again. Out of the hot oven, mine was still the smallest. At home? Tasted delicious! Job done.

The dreaded scales and grams
The dreaded scales and grams
Finished dough into the tin to prove
Finished dough into the tin to prove

The classroom
The classroom
Rye soda bread
Rye soda bread
My sour dough rye at home
My sour dough rye at home

How do you make rye bread, you ask? Well, you take some starter, add rye flour, salt, and water, mix just till the flour disappears, plop the whole lot into an oiled loaf tin and you’re done! Seriously, good bread is made with flour, water and salt – that’s it. (Even the starter is made with just flour and water and allowed to ferment.)

In December I went to a Christmas wreath making workshop. I’d done the same workshop the year before and, despite how many hours it took I loved it. So I was back. It was at the Geffrye Museum – recently controversially renamed to the Museum of the Home! While the museum is being renovated and enlarged, workshops, front garden events, and almshouse visits are continuing.

Walking up to the workshop at the Museum of the Home
Walking up to the workshop at the Museum of the Home – see all the greenery waiting outside?

This year there was less greenery than before so my idea to make a wreath with some bare twigs, trailing eucalyptus and flowering branches and such, evaporated. However, I had lovely tablemates this year, Heather was her usual helpful, competent, and friendly self, there were chocolate bicuits, tea, and mince pies, and I happily – and more calmly than last year – got to it.

To create the trailing effect that I’d seen on Instagram, I chose some lighter pine in with the sturdy spruce. The messy result ensued and people must love mess based on the number who came by the table and remarked on how they were soooo going to copy my ideas. Another job done.

My finished wreath
My finished wreath

To create a wreath, you start with a wire frame and pack it tightly with live moss, which you firmly wire to create the round shape. Then you staple a plastic backing to protect your door. You take your greenery and push it firmly into the moss to create the wreath, and then add finishing touches – ornaments, ribbons, spices… Mine this year was made with spruce, pine, pine cones, artificial red berries and a subtle white and gold bow. It’s bigger than I’d planned – second time that’s been the case – but it looks good on the living room door. Continue reading “I love to make things – messy or not, here I come!”

Superclubbing! The Nyonya Supper Club

9 August, 2019

I haven’t been to a supper club for years!

I’ve been reading a blog called The Boy Who Ate the World for about ten years. I can’t even remember how I came across it.  The blogger is Guan Chua. He was born in Kuala Lumpur and lives in London, in the Whitechapel area. Guan used to be a financial analyst but then trained as a Cordon Bleu chef. He loves to travel and write about his foodie treks but best of all he loves to cook the Malaysian-Nyonya cuisine of his childhood.

Guan was a contestant on Nigella Lawson’s ‘The Taste,’ where he fulfilled his dream of being mentored by Anthony Bourdain. He didn’t win but I enjoyed his time on the show a lot. I knew he ran a supper club – better still, it was in the Whitechapel area! – but Krish isn’t keen on Malaysian food and I wasn’t keen to go alone, and spend the money! Instead I would just read Guan’s Instagram and think about the food. Emails would come in announcing a new supper club but typically I’d be too late to get a place, they’re snapped up so quickly.

One day a couple of months ago an email came in as I was sitting doing something else so I emailed back immediately – any date in August, please! This time I made it. I was going!

The night of the supper club, just as I was about to leave, a ridiculously unexpected and fierce rain and wind storm sprung up. I had to wait for it to pass, then saw that the next bus would be quite a while. I jumped on the next bus that took me anywhere close and we trundled along oh so slowly in the rainy, slow moving traffic. I found a bus stop for another bus to complete my journey and had quite a long wait again. By the time I reached Aldgate East station, I had only a few seconds to get there.

But I got lost! Dinner was feeling far far away. A few calls to Guan and I finally made it to his apartment block and into his small flat in the new complex I’d walked by so many times. I was at least 20 mins late but Guan greeted me with a lovely gin and tonic. I felt quite ready for it. I’d not had time to buy any drink for the table, as planned.

There were ten of us sitting down in the dining space in the open plan living room/kitchen. I was probably 30 years older than the oldest of them. These twenty and thirty somethings were chatting back and forth about their travels around Asia, and the food they’d found there. I felt quite overwhelmed with it. How had they travelled so much? What was going on? Somehow the world was leaving me behind, so I listened politely and waited for food. Definitely worth the wait!

The menu
The menu
Sambal Crab Bites - but I'm allergic to crab so didn't get the taste them
Sambal Crab Bites – but I’m allergic to crab so didn’t get to taste them
Guan had kindly made me my own crabless Sambal bites - Yum!
Guan had kindly made me my own crabless Sambal bites – Yum! (Although I lost my two temporary fillings crunching them up!)

This noodle dish was my favourite!
This cold noodle dish was my favourite! Kerabu Glass Noodles with crayfish and Nyonya Herbs. So fresh and mouthwatering. I want this recipe!
Lemongrass and Belachan chicken wings
Lemongrass and Belachan chicken wings.

Drunken prawns
Drunken prawns. I wimped out and didn’t eat the heads

Continue reading “Superclubbing! The Nyonya Supper Club”

Christmas 2019

Tuesday, Wednesday 25-26 December, 2018

A nice dry day for Christmas. Lots for me to do. Luckily, I’d wrapped Krish’s presents the night before.  Christmas rituals – Christmas lights, Christmas candles, Christmas music.

The crazy thing was that, along with the two wrapped presents for Krish under the tree – OK, the poinsettia – there were four wrapped presents for me. This is actually the first time this has ever happened. He really has found the Christmas spirit, at least for this year!

Presents!
Presents!

Then I made eggnog as a surprise. Krish yearns for it every year.

I belong to three Facebook pages for Canadians. Two for London, one for the UK. Eggnog is a huge topic at Christmas, how everyone misses it, where can you buy it, if only there were eggnog… In a blog I read regularly, I found a recipe and decided to give it a go. It’s made with whole creamy milk, double cream, sugar, egg yolks, and nutmeg. I nailed it! It tastes perfect. A big hit!

First try at eggnog - nailed it!
First try at eggnog – nailed it!

And I made stuffing and cranberry rolls instead of sausage rolls this year. Sounds odd but stuffing in the UK isn’t the bread affair it is in Canada. It’s mostly sausage meat, with herbs and onions.  Some ready-to-cook stuffing topped with freshly made cranberry sauce and sealed all around. I actually really liked this. Lighter and less salty than a sausage roll. New favourite!

My presents were: Three books, and two espresso cups so I can start using my moka now – have been hesitating on that! The books were typical Krish choice – To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Unfinished Palazzo, and The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici. I’ve started on the introduction to the second.

My Christmas books
My Christmas books
Espresso cups
Espresso cups

For Krish this year I wanted to focus on memories – the egg nog is part of that. Then I got him a clockwork toy from Bazar Bonino in Torino, and a large box of meccano, which I saw advertised on the local neighbourhood site. All three were a really big success but I knew the meccano would shock and delight him – he was dumbfounded. I hope he makes something with it. I’ll never be able to top this gift.

German clockwork toy
German clockwork toy
Box of meccano
Box of meccano

We watched a lot of romantic Christmas movies. Silly ones. Krish was in charge of cooking. We had pork pie, some leftover quiche, and raw veggies for lunch and for dinner, a steak with mashed potatoes and some red cabbage. Food bulletin done. No photos of the plate before we started!

Time for a rest
Time for a rest

Boxing Day has been mostly quieter. I’ve done some organising and some catching up on this and that. And now we’re making the late Christmas dinner between us.  Stay tuned.

Dinner is done and Christmas proper is over for another year.

Traditional Chrismas dinner - roasted potatoes, turkey, stuffing, brussel sprouts, with gravy, cranberry sauce and pickles
Traditional Chrismas dinner – roasted potatoes, turkey, stuffing, brussel sprouts, with gravy, cranberry sauce and pickles
Mince pie, vanilla cream, cuppa tea!
Mince pie, vanilla cream, cuppa tea!
And we're done
And we’re done