Evolution March - Home made meatballs and spaghetti pesto

The March evolution comes from Naomi:

"In the true evolution spirit I present the next fossil in our collection, on reflection this is a bit like the Cambrian where we see a new life born from a previous ancestor that seems to bare no resemblance!

The ingredients were: (new ingredients in bold)

1 Onion
1 clove Garlic
2 Courgette
2 Carrot
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Chilli oil
Basil

Mince beef (as much as you like / veggie mince can be substituted)
3 Bashed crackers
A small egg (1/2 is better)
Few (5)spinach leaves
A slosh of soya cream
5 Hazelnuts
3 Mushroom
Mange-tout (handful)
Spaghetti – replacing the wraps!

Removed
Aubergine
Peppers

Using the Onion, garlic, courgette, carrot, salt and pepper; with a little oil from the previous evolutionary fossil, I whizzed them all up in a food processor with the grating blade attached. Tipping the mixture into a bowl add mince beef, bashed crackers and a small egg. I combined all these ingredients with a spoon then using my hands I made 8 medium balls. Placing them carefully in a Pyrex dish lightly oiled and with a lid I put them in the oven at 200°C (not sure my oven temp is accurate but needs to be fairly hot but not enough to burn them!)

The balls were turned after 20min and the lid removed to let them crisp and harden a little. They were left for a further 25-35 min to cook fully.

In the “incubation” periods I used the garlic, cream cheese (ricotta and quark), olive oil, chilli oil and basil with the addition of a few spinach leaves, a slosh of soya cream and hazelnuts to make the pesto (whizzed in a mini blender). I also chopped up the rest of the courgette, carrot and added some mushroom and mange-tout; these were roasted and added to the pasta later.

The spaghetti was cooked when needed as directed by the packet; I used gluten free pasta because that is what we have in the house.

When the pasta was cooked and drained the pesto and roast vegetables were stirred in (I made a little too much and added a little too much but it was still scrummy)

I placed the meatballs on top and voila – my evolution creation!

Although there appears to be lots of new ingredients I only used a very small amount of each – Natural selection prevailed because that’s what I had in the fridge! (in the pic there is a sauce which was just for decoration! But it’s from Ikea)"

From Dad and the FT!

Violet Creams

When we were in Alpes d'Huez I came across a bottle of Violet Creme Liqueur and thought immediately of Mum's love of Violet creams. So I thought I'd have a go at making some. I used a really nice 70% dark chocolate, which was probably a bit strong for the delicate violet flavour, so next time I'll have to go for a lighter filling, but tasty nonetheless.

100g 70% chocolate
40ml milk
2teaspoons violet liqueur
100g chocolate for coating
crystallized violet petals

Melt the chocolate and heat the milk to nearly boiling, then mix together and stir in the liqueur. I put the mixture into small domed molds and set in the fridge for a couple of hours. Then melted the chocolate for coating and dipped each one in leaving on a rack to set. Then topped with crystallized violet petals. This makes about 16 chocolates.

Evolution February - roast vegetable wraps with pesto and cream cheese

The February evolution comes from Muireann:

"Well evolve the recipe I have - although sadly without pictures due to the dementia which seeme to afflict me as I chomped through it. Two days ago I whipped up some roast vegetable wraps with pesto and cream cheese for dinner. The main vegetable I chose was an aubergine. My other half had done some Moroccan stew on Monday with aubergine in it but I decided it might be cheating if I didn't make something myself. The ingredients are:

1 Onion
Garlic - as much as you can handle
1 Aubergine
1 Pepper - any colour
2 Carrots
1 Courgette
Olive oil
Chilli flavoured oil
Salt
Pepper
Dried basil
Wholemeal wraps
Cream cheese pesto

Now it was meant to be vegetables and humous wraps but I forgot to soak the chickpeas and had none in a tin - hence you will see how the cream cheese and pesto got substituted. So I guess I even evolved my own recipe.

Chop up all the veg and place in a baking tin with the garlic crushed. Sprinkle over with the oils and salt, pepper and basil. Cook for 30-40mins at gas mark 6. Mix veg a couple of times.
When done heat up the tortilla wraps, spread pesto and cream cheese over them. Place veg on the wraps and roll up.
Eat and enjoy."

Tod Man Pla

This was a new recipe that I hadn't tried from a cook book I have had for about 10years - Rick Stein's Fruits of the Sea. Exceedingly easy and very tasty!

225g white fish (skinless and boneless)
1tsp fish sauce
1tsp Thai red curry paste
zest of half a lime
1tsp chopped coriander
1 egg
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
6 french beans thinly sliced
oil

Blitz together everything but the beans and oil, to a smooth paste. Stir in the beans and then shape into 8 small patties. Fry in the oil until golden brown, it'll only take a minute on each side. Serve with rice and a sweet dipping sauce made from dissolving 100g caster sugar in 50ml white wine viengar and 20ml water, stir in 2tsp fish sauce and finely chopped cucumber, carrot, onion and chilli to taste.

Rather than braving the snow on Whistler this moring I sauntered down to the railway station, taking a shortcut across the end of the canal. It was looking so atmospheric I just had to stop for a quick photo!

ebi yakitori

We've been trying our hands at making recipes from the Wagamama cookbook - these prawn and veg skewers were really yummy! And really easy - just thread prawns, peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, spring onions and mushrooms onto skewers. Brush with ebi kuzu kiri sauce (2tsp sugar, 2tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce and the juice of three limes) and then grill for 5min until cooked. For the noodles we used soba noodles and once they were cooked stir fried them with spring onions, garlic and a smidge of sugar.

Darwin

As I mentioned the department are having Darwin talks - and every time someone starts they show their University's image of Darwin. Just as I was wondering if we had one, Buzz (Uni newspaper) dropped on my desk with a picture of Darwin in it. Of course, he looms above the Great Hall along with several other scientists of note - actually I didn't check, they might not all be scientists! Pottering along, I thought how am I going to tell who's who all that way up but they were handily labelled in gold paint and weren't so far up in the end! I think he's looking rather compassionate here - Watt and Faraday looked decidedly grumpy!

Evolution January - Baked Provencal vegetables

To kick off the Evolution project I had a good hunt through my cookery books and after contemplating several recipes I settled on this one from the Oven book from Albert Hein that Sarah and Juul gave me for Christmas. I think that it gives plenty of scope for future participants and was exceedingly tasty. In the kitchen last night were Laura, Nick and me! Laura and Nick did a fine job of washing and slicing the vegies whilst I translated the recipe (from Dutch). The recipe said it was good with rice so near the end of cooking we boiled some up and they were right - exceedingly tasty!! So who's next? We need a volunteer for February's evolution spot!

Baked Provencal vegetables

2 fat aubergines
2 courgettes
8 tomatoes
1teaspoon Provencal herbs
3 tablespoons olive oil
250g marscapone cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven at 200°C

Begin by washing all the vegies and then slice them length ways to give long strips half a centimeter wide. Salt the courgettes and aubergines and leave for 10min to loose a little water, before patting them dry. Next line them up ('om en om') so that they are overlapping in a large dish - alternating between the different ones. Sprinkle with the herbs, splash over the olive oil and season with pepper. Cover in foil and bake in the oven for 35min. Meanwhile mix up the marscapone with a little salt and pepper. Then take the dish out of the oven, remove the foil and dot with the marscapone. Put back in the oven for 15min, without the foil and then serve!

Evolution

This year is the year of Darwin - all over the place are celebrations for his bicentenary. Here at the university we have a series of lectures mapping out how his therories of evolution have impacted on research. I was pondering various things with Kira in the coffee room - always a good place for a mad idea to fly - and wondered if we could try a little evoltuion ourselves. The idea was to start with a recipe and over the year let it evolve in our kitchens. The starting ingredients each time being what was used at the end of the month before, letting each cook decide what they are going to do and what they are going to change. So may be we'd go from french onion soup to an onion tart to a tart tatin......what ever the particular monthly volunteer fancied - taking the starting point and evolving it in some way. I could round up the changes here....so any takers? Contact me laughingsnail AT hotmail DOT co DOT uk.

King Cake

Yesterday I decided that I would make a king cake - a gallette de rois and so after work I called in at the supermarket for some supplies. As I went through the checkout the lass on the till asked if I was making a cake and so I explained what I was doing. She replied that she was from Goa and that they too celebrated with an almondy king cake! What a small world this multicultural city is! Back at home I creamed together sugar (125g), ground almonds (125g) and butter (125g) before adding 3 eggs and a tablespoon of quince vodka. I rolled out two large circles of puff pastry and spooned on the almond mixture on one before topping with the other, sealing the edges with egg wash. I brushed the top with egg wash too and left it to rest before baking for 30min (180°C). I mustn't have sealed it very well as soon I could smell it cooking and looking in the oven I discovered almond filling making a break for freedom! Nevermind it still tastes pretty good! I have brought it to work where it is being demolished by my co-workers - I left out the 'king' as I recon that someone would just eat it without realising the significance!

See more about King Cakes with Zorra at Kochtopf!

Up to a point.....

I saw this in the Times on Saturday - absolutely priceless...of course it was supposed to be advertising Boot of The Beast in his tale in Ishmaelia.... the wonderful Scoop by Evelyn Waugh!

Cupcakes

Opening night

I have been patiently waiting for my pitcher plant to open - its taken two weeks of shooting on the time lapse to capture it and the movie last just 60hours in the end, which I suppose is actually quite a long time for the lid to pop open! The images are taken 30minutes apart and the music is Solito de Charango from Cesar Palacios.

Norwich Union Classic

An afternoon of beautiful cars! In the sunshine, waiting for Adrian and Nick to arrive in the Merc at Silverstone, listening to a little live jazz and photographing some beauties!

Cycling to Bronkhorst

Zutphen Kermis

Moseley Folk Festival

The weather was perfect just long enough for us to hear all the singers and bands at the Moseley Folk Festival - Morceeba definitely topped it for me, though our picnic or steamed salmon, pasta with pine nuts and basil oil, green beans in vinaigrette, tomatoes and mozzarella in balsamic vinegar and strawberries were pretty good too. Not to mention the face painting!

NSCR Hull to Newark

The next leg on the NSCR (north sea cycle route) took me and Nick from Hull to Market Rasen, where we camped and then on to Newark via the very beautiful Lincoln. The weather was perfect, Nick had done lots of training and we bowled along! The highlight was definitely coming over the Humber Bridge, even if we did get covered in spider silk, though its closely followed by hurtling 35mph down the Lincolnshire wolds after pootling up them at 5mph! Lincoln was filled with people on tandems - very strange, it must have been a special weekend for it! Next I head for Norfolk.......but when?

Lab Olympics

The boys and girls of the 5th floor of Biosciences raced in the 100m, 400m, 800m and 1mile! All one after the other! They derserved their 'gold' medals!

Raspberry recipes from the Sunday Times

Nick, an avid reader on the Times and raspberry fiend, found the following two recipes in the Sunday Times in the last few weeks. Eyeing up my ice cream maker the request was to make some sorbet and when he found the cheese cake recipe (albeit changed from blackberries to raspberries) we had a whole desert!

Raspberry and Mint Sorbet

250g caster sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

15 large mint leaves and 15 small mint leaves, chopped

500g raspberries

juice of 2 lemons

Make a sugar syrup by placing the sugar, vanilla and large mint leaves in a bowl with 25oml boiling water. Leave to stand for 10min. Then blitz the raspberries with the lemon juice and add 400ml sugar syrup. Seive out the pips. Chill the juice and then churn in an ice cream maker, adding the small mint leaves at the end before putting into the freezer.

Raspberry cheesecake

80g hazelnuts

140g digestive biscuits

1tsp cinnamon

4cloves, finely ground

3tbsp sugar

80g butter melted

600g full fat cream cheese

150g sugar

2tbsp plain flour

1tsp vanilla extract

zest of 1 orange

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 medium eggs

250g raspberries

180ml sour cream

Heat the oven to 160°C. Blitz the hazelnuts until finely ground and then add the digestive biscuits and blitz until they are crumbs. Mix in the sugar and spices and finally stir in the melted butter. Press into the base of a loose bottomed cake tin with high sides. Bake for 10min, remove from the oven and turn up the oven to 240°C. Beat together the cream cheese and sugar (or find someone with strong arms to do it for you), then add the flour, vanilla, orange zest and lemon juice. Mix until smooth. Beat in the eggs and the sour cream. Pour on top of the biscuit base and stud with the raspberries, pushing them into the mix. Bake in the oven for 10min, then turn down the heat to 110°C and cook for a further 25min. Then leave to cool in the oven. We found that transferring it to the fridge and eating the next day made it even more tasty! Serve with the sorbet for extra raspberriness.

Hamlet at the Courtyard Theatre

Last night I joined Naomi, Matthew and Debbie for a jaunt to Stratford. With the main theatre under renovation what I knew as the Other Place has been consumed by the Courtyard Theatre into a magnificent venue that put me in mind of the Globe. The stage was embedded in the audience, a layer of black shiny tiles with a mirrored back drop. By out heads (we were in the gods) there were six chandeliers waiting to be lower into the play. The opening scene was cleverly done, the auditorium was in pitch black and the guards on the roof tops of Elsinore castle shone their torches onto the shiny floor to illuminate their own faces and the ghostly king in the reflected light. The king Patrick Stewart - he also played the living king Claudius) had a coat that billowed smoke, which gave a very good effect. In the first few scenes with the non-mad Hamlet David Tennant was hardly recognizable but as he ruffled up his hair and became more lively in his actions he became more like the Doctor, we even had twiddling of knives and recorders a la sonic screwdriver! Horatio (Peter de Jersey) sported leather elbow patches and complimented Hamlet well, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Sam Alexander and Tom Davey) were suitably stuck up, whereas Laertes (Edward Bennet, who looks remarkably like Prince William) fenced like a champion! Gertrude (Penny Downie) and Ophelia (Mariah Gale) gave dazzling performances but bumbling Polonius (Oliver Ford Davies) had us in stitches many a time. The atmosphere was perfect and had us speechless by the end.

Crucible 2: Edinburgh

Once more this weekend I joined up with my fellow cruciblists in Edinburgh. Another packed weekend was started with a speed collaboration - just like speed dating but trying to marry ideas rather than hearts. It was a great way to re-acquaint ourselves again but also to spark off potential ideas, all in 2 minutes. After wonderful food we adjourned to the campus bar and chatted until we were ousted at closing time. Then for a strange few moments we compared bathrooms - Robin had a magnificent bath in a bay window, whereas I had a shower head that could accommodate thousands and Jim had what we thought of as a fairly normal bathroom but with a view into someone elses! (Not that he was looking). The following day Steve, our facilitator, took us through Global challenges and Utopian universities allowing us to build models and generally make stuff with playdoh, pipe cleaners and willow withies - I was in my element. In the evening we went for a trip down Mary King's Close - under the streets of Edinburgh lies an old city, no longer lived in but full of ghosts. The final day came round quickly and we talked of art and writing in science before heading once more to our disparate parts of Europe.

Les Madeleines du 'France'

These are no ordinary madeleines!! Soazig kindly gave me a silcone madeleine baking tray a few weekends ago along with the recipe below which came from her grandfather who was the pastry chef on board the France, a big cruise ship about 50years ago. Prone to making things in vast quantities and not doing the washing up he was banished from the kitchen by his wife when not at sea. I have just made a fifth of the original recipe and have 27 beautiful little, light and fluffy madeleines to enjoy!

To make 27 madeleines whisk together 2 eggs and 100g caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in 100g plain flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, the zest of a lemon and 80g melted butter. Then spoon a little of the mixture into the madeleine moulds and bake in an oven pre-heated to 200°C for 8min. Unmould immediately and reuse the mould for the rest of the mixture!

Wordle

Matthew from the CBC sent round an email showing some very cool art that he had made using this website - so I thought I would give it a go using one of my recipes - isn't fab!!! Not got completely to grips with how to change everything yet but I think it looks pretty good!

Castleton Moor to Hull

I've just arrived back from my latest jaunt along the North Sea Cylce route - possibly the hardest few days cycling I have ever done! I think combining tired legs from the 3 peaks challenge with the massive hills of the North York Moors and the wind coming off the North Sea finished me off! But great views, though the stretch from Whitby to Scarborough is not recommended on a schedule!

3 Peaks Challenge

Well I made it! Up all three peaks - Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon. I definitely have the poorly knees now but otherwise all is well, and enough so for another bout of the North Sea Cycle Route tomorrow!

Fabulous Chelsea

Mended Spiderwebs

The Innocent newsletter has provided another gem - this time the art work of Nina Katchdourian. I simply love her mended spiderwebs!

Crucible

Sat in Euston train station waiting for my train back to reality, already I have been jostled on the tube but my mind is dwelling on the events of the past few days. It all began on Saturday as I, anxiously, took the train from Birmingham to Cambridge for the first Crucible (http://www.nesta.org.uk/crucible/) lab. There I met 30 young scientists from a huge variety of disciplines. Our initial afternoon, in the first warm sunshine of the year, was packed with 3min slots where each of us gave a snapshot of our lives and research. At dinner I got to know Jim as we discussed films and books, amazed to discover new ones from our overlapping likes. A late night in the pub was followed by an early morning start for discussions on interdisciplinarity and the media. Again a spectacular dinner, with Viv doing a pseudo-ballet on the government offices involved with science and scientists. Another late night followed by an even earlier morning as we travelled down to London to meet at Portcullis House with policy makers, influencers and MPs. Another jam packed day. At the close of our meeting we walked down to the Institute of Chartered Engineers where we were having dinner. As we arrived to a room already thronged with people I was taken aback. After our cocoon over the past three days we emerged into a sea of people. After speeches we set about talking to many people around the room. Becky and I sought out the black suited gentlemen, who were so attired as they had just come from work. The time flew by and it seemed dinner was upon us too soon for my head but just on time for my stomach. At dinner Viv showed her flair for getting to know us in just three days and I think we were all sorry to hear that our fairy godmother won’t be with us in Edinburgh or Cardiff. Relaxing with Ally, Chrissy and Jamie we all said how amazing an experience it had been and that we couldn’t wait for Edinburgh, though sometime to digest the events of the weekend are definitely necessary. To the Royal mile in a couple if month’s time!

(The wonderful beetles are from New Hall)

Spectacular cycling

I've just finished watching 'the man who cycled the world' on the iPlayer - an amazing documantary about Mark Beaumont who cycled from Paris around the world and back to Paris, 18,000 miles in just 195 days!!! Pretty spectacular stuff, check it out at his website.

Congratulations to Vicki and Seb

This morning outside my window the world had turned white. Without a thought I donned my out door gear and walking boots, grabbed my camera and headed out. It was beautiful and I couldn't resist nipping down to my favorite spot to see what the cobwebs were looking like. Lots of snow and ice were clinging to them and I thought this picture was particularly nice. I'm using it to say congratulations to Vicki and Seb who got married yesterday!! Both bride and groom were looking lovely and thankfully it only started snowing in the night. Lets hope it hasn't caused extra trouble for Terminal 5.

I just found this picture on my draft list on the blog - it was a tasty recipe - cream and peaches but I can't remember how I made it - nice pic though!

Cycling video

At the beginning of February I packed up my bike, Whistler, and headed for London and then on to a plane head for Vietnam. There, luckily Whistler arrived in one piece and I met up with a great crowd of folk for a cycling holiday that would take us from Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) through the Mekong delta and then up to Cambodia and from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, finishing with the spectacular temples that include Angkor Wat. This video is made up of sereval clips I took whilst cycling. The first three are from Vietnam and then we head into Cambodia, first along some busy roads out of the capital and then along more rural roads and finally through the South and North gates of Angkor Thom. The sound is just what I picked up a dn rather than put a tune over it I decided that just the vague clips of the bike and the strains of music as we came past a festival were more atmospheric.

Bread baking day #7 Lefse

Petra is hosting bread baking day this month and the theme is flatbreads. I instantly thought of these fantastic Norwegian Lefse which we always have when we go and visit Dougal in Stavanger. I had a little root about and found that to make them all you need to do is to make mashed potatoes and add enough self raising flour to make a dough! What could be easier and it was incredibly simple! Everyone in the lab is now enjoying them with a little homemade bramble and apple jam and cream, though I also really like them with a little sugar and cinnamon.

Lefse

6 medium sized potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
100ml double cream
25g butter
self rasing flour

Boil the potatoes until soft, drain and then mash with the cream and butter until very smooth. Then add enough self rasing flour to make a smooth, non-sticky dough. Divide the dough into 32 portions and roll out very thinly. in a dry frying pan or on a griddle toast each lefse until lightly freckled on each side. If you have a bigger frying pan or griddle you may be able to make bigger ones just divide the dough into fewer portions. I made mine the night before eating them and I think they would freeze well too.

You can eat them with pretty much anything, including the dreaded Lutefisk!

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

A little bit shaky without a tripod, this was a really wonderful way to spend our last morning, even though it involved being up at 4.45am!!

Vietnam and Cambodia prelim

Here's a preliminary map of where we went! I am still fiddling with Google Earth to get a map and then it'll be a little bit more interactive!

Muffins galore!

Fig and cardamom, pear and almond and pumpkin seed butter muffins!

For the Fig and Cardamom and the pumpkin seed butter muffins make a base with 225g unsalted butter and 225g caster sugar, 225g self raising flour and 4 eggs. Then mix in either 150g chopped ready to eat dried figs with 3 crushed cardamom seeds (the big green ones but without the green papery bit) or 115g pumpkin seed butter. Put in little cases. Bake at 200°C for 20min.

For the pear and almond muffins Soak 225g chopped dried pears in 4tbsp whisky for 1h. Blitz together 450g self raising flour, 115g usalted butter, 115g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 75ml plain yoghurt, 50g chopped almonds and the pears and their juice. Put in little cases. Bake at 175°C for 20min.

Some jolly sheep from a walk at Christmas - their bells made lovely tinkling noises!

A little New Year's Eve video - stills were taken every 30s from about 6 until about 10 in the evening. The music is Johann Strauss's Champagne Polka (appropriate I thought!).

Nyttarsmeny

Our fabulous New Years eve meal at Sorensons on the harbour front in Stavanger:

Kamchatka carb with avacado spring roll, wasabi cream and ginger foam

Trout, pumpkin soup, fennel and pumpkin seed oil

Deer filet and sausage, mashed potato, mixed vegetables and cranberry jus

Choclate cake with orange salad and panettone ice cream!

Christmas Cakes

For Sally's birthday party I made a few little cakes - fruity ones and muffins!

Mini Christmas Cakes a la BBC Good Food
225g butter
2 tbsp brandy
pinch of saffron
225g golden catser sugar
4 eggs
225g plain flour
50g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
300g raisins
300g sultanas
100g glace cherries, halved
85g mixed peel
50g almonds, roughly chopped
50g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
50g pecans

Heat the oven to 160°C. Heat the brandy in a small pan and add the saffron and leave to infuse for a few minutes. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a bowl, beat together until smooth. Mix in the fruit, nuts and brandy-saffron. Spoon into 24 muffin cases and bake for 50min, or until a skewer comes out clean.

To ice I used ready rolled marzipan and regal icing because I'm lazy but you could easily make your own. I dusted the cakes with edible snowflake, silver or gold from Squires Kitchen.

Cranberry and orange muffins
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp baking poweder
125g caster sugar
100ml low fat plain yoghurt
grated rind of an orange
100ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 egg
150g fresh cranberries

Heat the oven to 200°C. Put the cranberries in a baking dish and sprinkle with 50g sugar. Bake in the oven for about 10min until they have burst and soaked up the sugar, but are still whole and not mush. In a bowl sift the flour, bicarb, baking powder and remaining sugar. In a jug mix together the yoghurt, egg, orange juice and rind. Then combine the liquids and flour mixture and stir in the cranberries. Just incorporate everything and don't over mix to get fluffy muffins. Then distribute between 12 muffin cases and bake for about 20min. The cranberries give the muffins quite a tart taste so if you like them a bit sweeter just adda little more sugar.

Sunrise over Chancellors Court

A couple of weeks ago I was cycling to work, I needed to be there early and everything was very frosty. As I came over the bridge I couldn't help but stop and take a few photos of the spiders webs encased in frost, I never did get to work that early in the end.

Hurrah!

Ok so this is very geeky but these are my cells that I have got to express green fluorescent protein! (The red is actin - the cytoskeleton- and the blue are the nuclei). The top one is of three oral keratinocytes, gum cells and the bottom one is a neuroblastoma cell, a brain cell!

Dawn

Its been like this every day this week - very beautiful!

We're Jammin'

and jellying.....
I have been busy preserving - I managed to get some medlars and quinces from the farmers market and made some jellies, and also used up the end of the free damsons and mini quinces making jam and quince cheese. The medlars are quite interesting - I'd never used them before but they were quite popular several hundred years ago! The interesting thing is that you have to let them 'blet' of rot before you can use them - so I left mine under several rather ripe bananas for a week or so to get them all soft and brown. Then I stewed them for about an hour until they were pulpy and strained the juice. Finally for evey 600ml I added 450g sugar and boiled up the jelly until it set on a plate. This didn't take long as they're packed full of pectin! The other jellies were just the same and the jam, with help from Fran, Katie and Kira soon coated nearly every surafce of my very sticky kitchen after an evening of stirring and testing! The quince cheese is curing in the airing cupboard so more on that later.




These are medlars before bletting

Katie's Zombie cake

Just a plain sponge with lime curd inside - but I went a bit wild with the decorating! Happy Birthday Katie!

Friday night at the jazz

Early Friday evening
Picking up a muffin and hot choc
On the way to the jazz
The glow of the evening light fills the eyes
Pink fluffy clouds linger in the sky
Orange lights flicker on across the square
The unexpected notes
Untangle the week in my mind
The euphoria of Friday night seeps deeper

Cake Festival

We're having a wee cake fest at work today - many people have brought in home made cakes - Kim brought orange chocolate muffins and Ania brought Polish cheesecake, I whipped up a little ginger bread:

Sift into a bowl 250g self raising flour, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, a few gratings of nutmeg and a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. In a saucepan melt together 200g black treacle, 2 tablespoons syrup from a jar of stem ginger, 125g butter, 125g dark muscavado sugar, zest of an orange, 110g raisins and three pieces of stem ginger that have been chopped. Once everything has melted then bring it to simmering point. In another bowl mix together two eggs and 250ml milk. Finally beat the sugar mixture into the flour and then mix in the milk mixture until everything is combined well. Pour into a greaseproof lined loaf tin and cook in a pre-heated 170°C oven and cook for 35-40min until a skewer comes out clean. Exceedingly good fresh with vanilla ice-cream or a few days later when it has matured.

The little one in the picture was left over mixture that wouldn't fit in my loaf tin and was baked for as long as the loaf alongside it.

KT Tunstall

WOW!!! What a fantastic concert!!!!!!!

The Guillemots at the new Town Hall

Yesterday was a rather fabulous day - not only did I get to hear the charismatic Jeremy Niven talking about energy trade off in neurons but I also got to go and see the Guillemots live in the newly refurbished Town Hall in Birmingham. Fyfe Dangerfield had written a new piece for the CBSO, which we heard in the first half - all fantastic contemporary type stuff with amazing technical string movements, the cello solo was really quite something. The only thing that was disappointing was that the programes were £5 which I felt weas a bit steep so I wasn't entirely sure of what was going on. Then in the second half the rest of the band came on stage and we were treated to a fantastic set - the finally of Sao Paolo with Fyfe legging it up to play on the organ was just spectacular! My head is still ringing to the sound..... thrown across the water.......I love you through sparks and shining dragons.....

Incaholic cheesecakes

I had a crazy idea whilst having dinner with Anna and Anthony a wee while ago - how about combining cheesecake with beer. We discussed the merits of various brews and decided that Guinness was a must but also something fruity. Anthony suggested heather beer from Scotland but as I haven't been north for a few months I didn't manage to get hold of any. However on my recent trip to Zutphen I picked up some very fruit Rose beer and Sarah and Juul donated a bottle of coriandery Kronenberg blanc. All I needed was a suitable recipe to administer beer to and I was away. Looking through my cookbooks I found Nigella's passionfruit cheesecake - a baked cheesecake that had a substantial volume of liquid added to the mix. So this was the one. Having whisked up the cheesy mix I then separated it in to three and added a little beer, a little taste and then a bit more. Finally into the oven, fingers crossed that they would cook and end up like cheesecakes and not as scrambled eggs. And they did and they taste pretty good too, currently I have the lab tasting them - so far the only comment has been beery!


At the beer adding stage.




The final product!



Beery cheesecakes (with a little help from Nigella)
For the biscuit base
200g digestive biscuits
75g butter

For the filling
600g cream cheese
125g caster sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
200ml double cream
juice of 1/2 lemon


First blitz the biscuits to breadcrumbs and add the butter and whizz again. To make little ones add a dessertspoon of this mix to each mould of a silicone muffin and press down. Put the muffin mould into a baking dish that you can fill with water.


Preheat the oven to 170°C. To make the filling beat the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth then add the sugar and beat in. Add the eggs and yolks mixing them in one at a time. Stir in the cream and lemon juice. Then split the mixture into three. Add 100ml of beer to each - three different beers for a taste challenge. Stir in gently, there will be lots of fizzing. When completely mixed leave to stand for 10min. Put the kettle on. Carefully spoon the mixture over the biscuit base. Pour the water from the recently boiled kettle into the baking dish under the muffin mould. Carefully transfer it all to the oven and bake for 1hour. Carefully take it out of the oven and remove the mould to a cooling rack. Leave to cool and then refrigerate overnight. Unmould by running a palette knife (nothing sharp!) around the individual cheesecakes and then pushing the mould up from the bottom. Enjoy!

Weekend away

Dougal came across sans crutches for another fabulous weekend in London. Starting off with a spot of shopping in Covent Garden and then heading to Le Pain Quotidien for tea before going to see The Emperor Jones at the National Theatre. I was really surprised (though shouldn't be) that there was Friday night jazz there too! Paterson Joseph was fantastic as Brutus Jones and the set was brilliant - especially in the boat scene, it was like the whole theatre was in the swell. The music was fab too - lots of wild drumming! Its on until the end of the month so still plenty of time if you fancy going to see it. More shopping on Saturday and then a walk at Wisley on Sunday to see the Surrey sculpture club exhibition - brilliant but it was the last day so until next year.

Congratulations!

My excitement had been building all week, many people were about to descend upon our little street in Kings Norton for Sarah and Juuls's big day! After torrential rain on Friday I eagerly pull back the curtains on Saturday and saw sunshine! Fantastic! Our first port of call in the morning was to Bank to finish off setting up the tables and then a quiet stroll over to the register office with a few phtotos along the way. Then time seemed to accelerate through the ceremony, Cecile (Juul's cousin) played her clarinet beautifully, Jet read a wonderful poem. Sandwiched between two massive wedding parties we had a few photos in the garden, but more outside the Ikon. Lunch at Bank with a few elegant speaches completed our stay in town and then back for a wee party in the 'party garage' and garden! Wonderful!

The Chocolate Festival

The fantastic chocolate festival in Zutphen was on Sunday! We could hardly believe the numbers of people in town for this - there were demonstrations on how to make chocolates, chocolate sculptures and plenty of things to taste!

Zutphen

Beautiful Zutphen in the autumn sunshine!

Free Jam.....

....well nearly anyway! Having gathered all my fruit I just had to decide what to make with them all. I have a book called Fruits of the Hedgerow by Charlotte Popescu and I leafed through this and decided first of all to make some damson jam and hedgerow jelly. I also made some sloe gin (in a 1litre kilner jar put 225g sloes that have been pricked with a fork, 125g sugar and 70cl of gin, seal and leave in a dark place for 3months) but this will only be ready later in the year.

Damson Jam

1kg damsons

450ml water

1.35kg granulated sugar

juice of a lemon

Wash your jam jars and lids and place the jars into a 100°C oven. Wash the damsons and then put them in a large heavy based saucepan. Add the water and bring to simmering and simmer for 30 min. Leave to cool and then try and find all the stones. You could leave then in and remove them once the jam has reached setting temperature as the will float up to the top at this point but I find it easier to remove them now. Then add the sugar and lemon juice and bring to the boil. Stirring occasionally to stop the fruit sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan boil until it reaches setting point. To test this have a plate in the fridge. Put a little of the boiling jam on to this and then place back into the fridge for a few minutes. If its set or if it forms a crust then the jam is ready for bottling. Turn off the heat and allow the jam to collapse back into the pan, skim off and scum (its just the protein that's in the fruit nothing to be alarmed about) and ladle into the hot jars. Seal whilst hot and then leave to cool.

Hedgerow jelly

450g haws (the fruit from the hawthorn tree)

450g crab apples

450g elderberries

a handful of rosehips

water

granulated sugar

juice of a lemon

Remove all the stalks from the fruit and rinse to remove any bugs of dried bits of flower petal from the fruit. Put all the fruit in a sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to simmering and simmer until all the fruit is soft, crushing the fruit on the side of the pan. Then strain through a muslin cloth into a bowl, overnight. Discard the pulp and measure the juice. Put the liquid in a pan with 450g sugar for every 600ml juice. (I had about 900ml juice and so needed about 700g sugar) Add the lemon juice and bring the mixture to the boil, dissolving all the sugar. Boil rapidly until setting point is reached (see above) and then bottle in prepared jars (also detailed above).

Bountiful Birmingham

This is my 'haul' from the canalside yesteday when I went a-picking! Nearly 5kg fruit and a few hazelnuts. I found a whole field of sloes so there will be sloe gin and lots of jam. Watch this space!

Fabulous vegetarian and vegan food

Liz and Ethan intited a whole crowd of us along to the Warehouse Cafe on Allison Street on Saturday lunch time for a celebration with vegetarian and vegan food. The cafe is upstairs from the Friends of the Earth Shop so it was a little like going up to a friend's sitting room clambering up the stairs in the old victorian terrace house. And the place was hopping - we took the centre of the restaurant on several tables and generally enjoyed ourselves whileeverything was cooked up! The policy is to bring your own wine which we did, and cava and beers! The food was fabulous - for me an aubergine and chickpea fritter stack on a bed of couscous with youghurt dressing followed by a vegan cheesecake with strawberries. Fantastic, it was nearly 6 by the time we dragged ourselves away.