May 31, 2012

Foodie Penpals May 2012

By Rock Salt

Time for another Foodie Penpals reveal! This month I was really lucky, and was matched with Jessi who lives in the Netherlands. Jessi prepared a really special parcel for me, featuring a mix of Dutch treats and more globally recognisable things!

The first thing I had a look at were two packets of spice mix, one specifically for salmon and one for general use. Part of the fun in opening this parcel was trying to pronounce and translate the Dutch writing on everything, that kept us quite amused at work – perhaps for a little too long…

Jessi had also written little notes on everything to tell me what it all was, which I thought made the parcel even more special. It was obvious that she’d put a lot of thought into everything, and I must thank her again for it.

 

The next thing was a box of Pannenoeken, which is pancake mix to you and me. Looking forward to trying these with some bacon and maple syrup, or a nice thick layer of jam.

After the Pannenkoeken, I took out two packets of Dutch cookies – one is stroopwafel, which my colleague immediately recognised as a favourite treat of hers from times she’d been on holiday to the Netherlands. Needless to say I subtly put these just out of her reach. The other packet is a mix of cookies, which Jessi and I are going to both try so we can compare notes! I’ve opened the stroopwafel and had two in a row, before dinner – very bad, but they really are a delicious snack, two crisp and sweet waffle patterned biscuits held together with caramel in the middle.Just as good as they sound.

Another thing I loved about these cookies was the packaging – so kitsch and quaintly Dutch!

For me, the piece de resistance of the parcel was the next item – and it was such a stand out because I never, ever expected to see it:

 

A bottle of wine in the post! This was a great surprise, and I’m so pleased that it made it safely in the airmail. Slightly amazed too, in truth… I have plans to make this delicious wine into a fruity, refreshing sangria. On the same day as I received my penpal parcel, I got a recipe book in the post that I won in a competition months ago – it’s a Spanish cookbook. I feel like the universe was telling me to make sangria.

As well as all these lovely things, Jessi put in some things of her own that she said were languishing in her cupboard. All I can say is that I’m delighted to re-home them and will try to put them to good use. They were a really good quality heart shaped cookie cutter, two packets of pretty cupcake cases and a weird (I hope Jessi will forgive me for describing it that way) jelly mould, that you can use to make egg shaped jelly. While it is a slightly odd idea, I can see me using in future kitchen experiments where I want to make something egg shaped – not necessarily just jelly. It comes with instructions for making clear jelly and creamy jelly. Again, the word ‘weird’ wants to escape my keyboard, but so do the words ‘interesting’ and ‘fun’, and overall the word ‘generous’ as Jessi went above and beyond to send me a great parcel.

 

 

If you would like to be part of Foodie Penpals, you can see all the details at How it Works, then if you’d like to join in, read the Terms and Conditions – you can sign up from the bottom of the T&Cs page! It’s a lovely community based around thoughtful parcels and getting to know new bloggers within the UK and Europe.You don’t have to be a blogger to join in, everyone with an interest in food is more than welcome. Who knows, next month it could be you getting a bottle of wine delivered to your desk…

To see all the blog posts from this month, visit The Lean Green Bean where you’ll find a linky post featuring enough Foodie Penpals posts from the UK, Europe, Canada and the US to keep you going for quite some time.

 

A final close up on those cute cupcake cases – it’s a wee rabbit!

 

5 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Uncategorized

May 31, 2012

Foodie Penpals May 2012 – Hannah’s Parcel

By Rock Salt

This post was written by Hannah, the Foodie Penpal I was posting to this month. She has written some very kind words! Her whole post made me blush deeply, but I have left it as written and modesty be damned. The photos are my own, taken before I parcelled it all up and sent it on its way. You can find Hannah on Twitter - @hansyquirk.

This was my second month of Foodie Penpals and after the first fantastic parcel I received I was so excited to do it all again. The person I had been paired with this month was This Is Rock Salt aka Carol Anne, the fabulous lady responsible for Foodie Penpals in the UK.

After letting Carol Anne know my likes (everything) and dislikes (erm… nothing) I was luckily not left with too long to wait to see the foodie delights that would be sent to me and knowing how passionate Carol Anne is about Foodie Penpals and about food in general I knew that I would be in for a treat and I wasn’t disappointed….

Even before I opened the parcel I was excited by the fragrant, smoky, slightly sweet spice I could smell wafting from beneath the wrapper and was amazed to find a small tub of chilli powder that the incredibly talented Carol Anne had made herself! I love spices and have to stop myself throwing chilli in everything I eat so this was perfect. I’ve used it a couple of times so far but am waiting to pick a really special recipe to use more of it because I really think it deserves to be used properly- although I would be just as happy to use it as a nosebag the smell is that great! (CA: click the link to see the recipe for the very same chili powder)

Chili powder, gunpowder tea and garlic and chili vinegar

Not content with making just one item for me, Carol Anne also made some delicious chilli and garlic vinegar and some very unusual sounding turmeric sweets. Turmeric is another spice I really enjoy and use regularly but I have never seen it used in this way and was really intrigued by them. They actually reminded me of a slightly more savoury (although still sweet) crystallized ginger and I actually ended up finding them really addictive, the downside to this being a slightly tingly and bright yellow tongue so maybe a ‘maximum consumption’ rule needs to be applied! (CA: click the link for another blog post, this time about the turmeric sweets)

My other goodies consisted of some lovely little dried apple snacks and jelly babies as guilt-free snacks, some chocolate hazelnut Mikado sticks which I must have seen a hundred times but never actually bought but definitely will be again (the box also had a cheeky little squirrel on the front which has to make them a winner too), a jar of delicious Scottish lemon curd which indulges my sweet tooth to perfection and a tub of gunpowder green tea, something I really enjoy but only treat myself to occasionally when I’m out.

Semi guilt free snacks

Scottish treats

Carol Anne also included a pack of fantastic heart shaped foil petit four cases which I can’t wait to use and some lovely little edible gold star sprinkles to use in my (fairly newly) acquired love of baking.

The thought and effort that went into my parcel by Carol Anne absolutely blew me away and makes me so pleased I got involved in Foodie Penpals. If you’re not already, get involved and you could enjoy the delights of a surprise foodie parcel winging its way to you as well as making someone’s day by making up one for them.

Thank you Hannah for a great post – if you are still considering starting a blog, I know we’d all love to read more of your writing.

If you’re not already a participant, find out more about How Foodie Penpals Works and then go ahead and sign up here!

1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Uncategorized

May 30, 2012

Turmeric Pastilles

By Rock Salt

This was a kitchen experiment that went really well, even if it did behave in a way that I wasn’t expecting. After I’d made crystallised ginger, it occurred to me that you could try crystallising other things. This is the way of it – much like after making the chili powder it has occurred to me that I can dehydrate a lot of things, once I get a new notion into my head it can be hard to remove it again. My local supermarket has recently started selling fresh turmeric, an exotic new ingredient that I’d never seen before, and it seemed a prime candidate for crystallising.

Raw turmeric

The flavour of turmeric can be overwhelming, and usually you only use a little powdered turmeric in a recipe for colour and taste. I thought, though, that in its fresh form it might be a little less pungent, since it wouldn’t be so concentrated. What I didn’t really bank on, though should have, was that the colour is just as vibrant in the fresh root as in the powder, and thus my hands and several areas of my kitchen ended up stained what I can only call a luminous yellow. When I was at primary school there was a great craze for ‘luminous’ pens, and the colour of the soap bubbles as I tried to scrub my hands and fingernails on the day of candied turmeric reminded me very strongly of the yellow one that we used to colour in smiley faces with. My face was a little less smiley. My fingernails looked like I’d been chain smoking cigars for a fortnight.

 

Peeled and sliced turmeric

 

Once I’d peeled and sliced the turmeric roots, I was struck by how orange it was, very like carrots. I had a wee taste of the raw stuff. It does taste something like a spicy carrot, with a heavy, bitter aftertaste. I still wasn’t completely sure that this experiment was going to work out, but I remained hopeful.

I followed the instructions for the crystallised ginger (which are posted on Jillian’s blog), and the first step was bringing the turmeric to a boil, then draining off and starting again. I did this one extra time to try and draw out more bitterness, and then replaced into the post with a measured amount of water and sugar, just as stated in the candied ginger recipe.

When the ginger has absorbed all the syrup, you tip it onto an oven tray and put it in a low oven to dry out. I expected to have to do the same with the turmeric, but I was in for a surprise. As the last of the syrup was soaked up or evaporated away, I was left with sugar coated turmeric and, mysteriously, a powdery, exclamatory yellow sugar residue. I didn’t have to dry the turmeric out at all, and the texture of it was very different to the ginger. The candied ginger had been chewy, lie a jelly sweet, but with a crunchy outside and a fiery taste. The turmeric was soft, yes, but not really chewy, and the surface felt more dusted in sugar than rolled in it.

I let it all cool down and then packed it straight into a clear cellophane bag, to put in my Foodie Penpals parcel. However, I couldn’t very well send it off without having a taste. The carrotty, spicy and bitter flavours all remained in the pastilles, but they’d been softened and merged together by the sugar syrup. This is the kind of sweet that you really can just have one or two of, and feel satisfied. They are unusual, and refined, and exotic, and they even come with a big load of turmeric flavoured sugar which I’m sure would have many uses. Turmeric also has many health benefits, though whether those remain through a coating of sugar I’m not positive…

 

Free turmeric sugar with every purchase

1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Confectionery, Dairy free, Gluten free, Indian Food, Original recipes, Snacks, Spicy food, Vegan, Vegetarian

May 28, 2012

The Daring Bakers Challenge May 2012 – Challah

By Rock Salt

 May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

 

Edit – for ALL the lowdown on challah, visit Ruth’s blog The Crafts of Mommyhood. She gives the history of challah, info about the significance of different methods of braiding, three recipes and even videos on how to braid the different loaves. She is an inspiration and a great Daring Baker!

I’ve been meaning to try challah (you don’t pronounce the c, if you were wondering) for some time. I love the look of it, but until now I didn’t know that there were so many different ways to braid a challah. The braids I tried were six strand braids, though you can also do a simpler three strand braid, a four strand braid or a really fancy round braid. I did want to try a round loaf this month but, alas, the time ran away with me! So much so, in fact, that my post is a day late. Tsk tsk.

I chose to make the Honey White recipe that was provided, which you can find here at Tammy’s Recipes.

My first attempt didn’t go too well… I didn’t add enough flour to the dough, which made it very soft and a bit, well… runny. Here are some photos, though I sort of gave up after it went in the oven so I don’t have a finished product photo!

The first challah dough after rising

The dough deflated a lot after punching down – it was very fragile

The dough was so elastic that as I rolled it out it just stretched and stretched, meaning that the strands I was braiding were growing as I worked with them. I thought I might never reach the end of them, like trying to drink a cup of tea in the rain. I rolled it into the scroll shape because it was a bit unmanageable by the time I was finished, and I rather liked the effect. It could have been a lovely loaf, if it hadn’t been so relaxed. It was still a nice bread, though a bit on the thin side. There was certainly lots of it – that was only using half the recipe.

I tried the same recipe again but adding more flour to get a tauter, firmer dough. This attempt went much better and kept its shape beautifully as I shaped and braided it.

This is the dough before rising – much more firm

I did a six strand braid, which was fun to pull together. I’m an old hand at the three strand braid, having had lots of toy ponies as a child whose tails I would braid. In fact any scarves I own that have tassels on the end get braided over and over again if I happen to be at a loose end. Bus journeys see a lot of braiding, for example. The six strand braid was a fun challenge – you start from the left and go over two, under one and over the last two, then repeat until you run out of space. Then you tuck the narrow ends under and let the challah rise for a little while before glazing and baking.

I happened to have run out of eggs, so I brushed the loaf with oil before scattering with sesame seeds. It didn’t give the lovely lacquered, deep coloured finish that you usually see on challah but I liked the end result all the same.

The close up shows the stripes in the finished loaf, which I think are made by the dough stretching as it rises. Stretch marks have never been so appetising.

I really enjoyed making challah. The bread itself is soft and rich and it kept me in sandwiches (tiny sandwiches) for a while. It wasn’t as yellow in colour as I’d expected, but I know there are hundreds of different recipes for challah available and some will include more eggs, or just egg yolks, to give that really deep colour. It was also quite a sweet bread, with the honey in the recipe – next on the list is a wholewheat challah, I’m looking forward to trying a more savoury version.

17 comments   |  tags: , | posted in Bread, Dairy free, Eastern European food, Other people's recipes, Vegetarian

May 25, 2012

The Strawtini

By Rock Salt

This idea was borne of Celia’s strawberry daquiris at The Kitchen’s Garden. She posted them on a Saturday afternoon and, as it happened, I had a punnet of strawberries in the fridge just begging to be turned into a boozy treat. What I didn’t have was rum – I’m more of a gin fancier myself. So, I made strawtinis instead.

First, de-stalk and puree a punnet of strawberries. Pop them in the freezer for a wee while to get nice and icy.

Get out one of your fancy martini glasses. Take a slice of cucumber and run it round the rim of the glass to moisten, then roll the glass in some granulated sugar. Pour in two tablespoons of gin, a teaspoon of sugar syrup (if your strawberries need sweetening) and squeeze in a lime wedge. Top the rest of the glass up with your icy strawberry slush and mix well. Garnish with the cucumber wedge and another lime wedge.

 

 

Do not take any photos except one at the end, and drink two before dinner.

If you want to make sugar syrup, all you have to do is combine equal amounts of sugar and water in a pan, and heat until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid has turned clear again. You now have sugar syrup. It’s great for sweetening lots of different cocktails.

As you sip your strawtini, do yourself a favour and go and read Celi’s blog, it is so beautiful, warm, welcoming, funny, fascinating and soothing.

That is all.

14 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Dairy free, Drinks, Gluten free, Original recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian