This little film is a time lapse of photos taken every minute over a 3hour period of the area where the hedgehogs are living in Sarah and Juul's garden. I tried to bait the area with a slug found trying its best to demolish some tomato plants, but it had other ideas and is seen speeding away at the start of the movie, the little hedgies are in there too, the best shot is right near the end!

Chocolate cells

After finding the 1696 article on medicinal uses of chocolate I was chatting with Kira in the coffee room at work. We got to a point where we decided that may be we should try feeding chocolate to adipocytes (fat cells), though now I can't remember what all the connections were. Naomi is an expert on adipocytes and kindly said that we were welcome to use some of these cells that she would extract from stored tissue. The aim would be simple, we'd incubate the cells in the presence of some chocolate and hopefully they would expand in size as they took in the fat from the chocolate. A nice circular idea whereby the cells, which had been discarded to remove 'fat' would get fed fat. Kira was also interested in embellishing them with gold or other precious objects. After some research I reckoned that the easiest way was to add so cationic gold (positively charged) that would adhere to the outside of the cells through an electrostatic interaction as the cells are slightly negatively charged. Rachel generously said we could visualise them on the scanning electron microscope (SEM) too, which meant we'd be able to see the gold and the structure of the cells.

So first off Kira and I spent the afternoon trying to get chocolate into solution. I had hoped that just warming it to 37°C would be OK but this had a tendency to sit as gloop at the bottom of the tube. After a lot of fiddling we decided upon grating some high cocoa solids content chocolate (85% Green & Blacks in these experiments but later Kira sourced some French 100% from Cortes Ingles in Valencia) and melting and mixing it into standard serum supplemented media.


Adipocytes in culture

Then Naomi kindly supplied us with some cells, but the transport between labs caused massive infection and they all died, so we decided to go to them and spent a couple of days over at Aston. We helped to process the tissue and extract the individual cells before adding the chocolate solution. We gave them an overnight incubation to see if they would take up any fat. The next morning the chocolate stimulated cells certainly looked different from the non-chocolate stimulated ones, but it was more that they had a fine coating of particulates rather than having swelled in size.

To add the gold we had to tether the cells. They were floating atop the liquid in which they were growing so using poly-D-lysine coated coverslips (making use of electrostatic interactions again) we captured the adipocytes. Once isolated we coated with the gold solution, taking only 10min, before fixing in preparation for the SEM. Further dehydration was required, as the SEM works under partial or near vacuum, before we could 'see' the fat cells. Rachel and I had a quick look-see under the low vacuum instrument before using the higher powered one over in the microscopy suite with Naomi. And ta-dah!!! We found lots of things, mostly bits of chocolate particulate but also a fat cells that had adhered and then subsequently lost most of its cell contents. It looked like the nucleus had been ripped from the cells, looking like a fried egg missing its yolk. Using back scatter electrons we could also see the gold - looking like constellations sprinkled across the membrane!


Whole fat cell missing its insides

So what does all this mean I hear you cry? Well, according to Naomi, its the first time anyone's tried to visualize adipocytes under SEM and hopefully we can use further experiments to characterise these cells. So from a scientific point of view this 'Friday afternoon experiment' has been incredibly useful. On other fronts, this has been totally mind blowing - I've never used such high powered microscopes before and seeing a cell in such high magnifications is really quite something, and add in the gold stars/sparkles and I'm very excited! So the cells didn't do what we expected, but then as Prof Einstein said 'If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be research' and as such trying something different has brought out something new and exciting, not to say broadened all out horizons.


Magnification of the mambrane using back scatter electrons to see the gold labelling, like little stars

Fresh Garden Salad

To accompany or BBQ on Sunday I picked some pea shoots and borage flowers to go into the green salad, I just need the courgettes, cucumbers lettuce and beans to be ready at the same time and then everything will come from the garden!

Sylhet Spice Cuisine

My favourite curry restaurant in Birmingham - the Sylhet Spice Cuisine in Kings Heath - just yummy! This was Nick's fish dish on Friday night - complete with chilli 'green beans' ala Dougal on the Bramaputra!

Evolution June - Aku Shaak

This month the evolution baton passed to fellow food blogger Sabine of A lot on my plate who has summarized the progress so far and made a fantastic contribution with Aku Shaak - stuffed vegetable curry. Go and read her blog entry for more info!

Some lovely foodie pictures from our Gothenburg trip!

First potatoes

Today we dug up the first of our potatoes - variety rocket - that we planted back in February in a big pot in the garden. They were delicious made into a Spanish omelette!

Ireland surprise

It was Dougal's birthday at the weekend and Soazig organized a surprise - that we would all meet up in Dublin and spend the weekend staying at Ballyknocken cookery school. We couldn't have been more lucky, the weather was magnificent and the food was fantastic. Late on Friday night we tucked into tapas in Al's Diner in Wicklow and then snuggled down in the very comfortable hotel, to be greeted the following morning by the chucks and brilliant french toast at breakfast. Then a whistle stop tour of the region, calling in at Glendalough and Powerscourt. The back to the cookery school where Catherine created beautiful antipasto, potato and lemongrass soup, pork tenderloin with stuffing and polenta cake.



The following day we celebrated Dougal's birthday with another splendid breakfast, followed by a walk along the coast from Bray to Greystones, in the sunshine, we really didn't need lunch but had ice creams on the beach. Then to Bates in Rathdrum, behind a lively Irish pub, for a delicious locally inspired dinner - Wicklow crab ravioli, Dover sole, lamb and creme caramel with orange sorbet!



Our final day took us back to Dublin to the Guinness Storehouse and a little Guinness tasting, and to Trinity to gaze at the Book of Kells and the evocative Long Library.

Evolution May - Aubergines everywhere

This month Kira has taken the evolution idea to another level!

"I guess evolution had its dead ends and abandoned experiments, organisms that shifted and drifted into various and variable embodiments before environment and circumstances rendered obsolete, extinct and no more. I’m intrigued by the possible short term species that didn’t become more, longer and established. And that’s kind of how my May cooking evolution has been.

I was inspired to take the aubergine forward, but to find it a new circumstance and context, and likewise the ricotta. I fantasized about ricotta pudding, custards and pana cotta, and all kinds of recombinant aubergine/tomato type things but really I wanted to depart from that combo. It’s sturdy presence in cooking all over the world is there for a really good reason, it adapts to multiple favours and environmental factors, but I wanted another thematic to intrigue into June. Perhaps.

So my final dish was Aubergine, halloumi and asparagus, with lemon/oil dressing. Accompanied by Ricotta and dill Bread, and here are a couple of the species that also evolved along the way.

Baba Ghanoush
the aubergine/tahini combo – which was utterly divine with a crunchy green salad wrapped in a warm chapatti.

Here is a version slightly adapted (amounts scaled down) from Recipes for Self-Healing by Daverick Leggett, an excellent info/cook book on nutrition according to Traditional Chinese Medicine.

1 Aubergine
1/3 cup light tahini
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons of water
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
2 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 paprika
Coriander.

Cook aubergines under grill or in a hot oven until soft.
Scoop out the insides and mash.
Combine with tahini, garlic, water, and lemon and stir well.
Add salt and pepper.
Drizzle olive oil over and garnish with paprika and coriander.

I found it was even better after a night in the fridge, the flavours combined wonderfully.

Baked aubergines with coriander yogurt dressing

Adapted from
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1667/baked-aubergines-with-coriander-yogurt-dressing

I didn’t have cous cous so I used quinoa which worked fine.
I also scored the aubergine too deeply so I wasn’t able to preserve the skin to refill with the final mixture, so my presentation was not so pretty. It was an OK meal, again somewhat better once the ingredients could sit and combine. Interesting that.

Ingredients
1 medium aubergine
2 tsp olive oil
juice 1 and zest 1/2 lemon
100g couscous
300ml/1/2 pt boiling vegetable stock
85g ready-to-eat dried apricots, roughly chopped
4 sundried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
3 spring onions, finely sliced
25g pine nuts, toasted
pinch ground cinnamon

For the dressing
4 heaped tbsp Greek-style natural yogurt
2 tsp lemon juice
1 fat garlic clove, crushed
small knob ginger, finely chopped
small handful coriander, roughly chopped

Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5.
Leaving the stem on, cut the aubergine in half lengthways and score the flesh deeply with a sharp knife in a criss-cross fashion.
Place in a shallow baking dish.
Mix the olive oil and lemon juice then brush over the scored surface of the aubergine.
Season with freshly ground black pepper and bake uncovered for 25-30 mins, until the flesh is tender.

Meanwhile, put the couscous in a large bowl, pour over the boiling stock and leave to soak for 10 mins until all the stock is absorbed. Fluff up with a fork, then stir the apricots, tomatoes, spring onions and pine nuts into the couscous. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and toss well together.

Remove the aubergine from the oven and scoop out the flesh, taking care to keep the skins intact.
Chop the flesh and toss into the couscous mixture. Place the aubergine skins back in the baking dish and spoon the couscous mix into them, piling it up to
hold a generous amount in each.
Scatter any left over couscous mix around the edge of the dish.

Return to the oven for 10 mins to heat through while you mix all the dressing ingredients together - add a drop of water if the dressing is too thick. To serve, heap the loose couscous mix under the stuffed aubergines so they're propped up on a slant.
Drizzle over dressing and serve with mixed leaf salad.


Ricotta and Dill Bread (adapted from The Art of Handmade Bread by Dan Leopard)

1 1/4 cups (300 g) water at 68 degrees
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
1/2 c (125 g) ricotta cheese
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups (250 g) bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping T very finely chopped fresh dill
1 tsp olive or vegetable oil

1. In a bowl or pitcher, beat together the water and yeast. Wait for the yeast to get bubbly, and then stir in the ricotta cheese. In a large bowl, combine the two flours, salt, and dill. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and stir to form a soft, sticky dough.

2. Rub 1 tsp oil on the work surface (I used a big cutting board) and knead the dough 10 seconds, ending with the dough in a smooth, round ball. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and leave for 10 minutes. Remove and knead once more on the oiled surface, returning the shape to a smooth, round ball. Place it back in the bowl, cover, and leave 1 hour in a warm place.

3. Grease and flour a 9-inch loaf pan. Shape the loaf into a baton and lower it neatly into the prepared pan. Cover with a cloth and allow to rise for 1 1/2 hours, or until almost doubled in height.

4. Preheat the oven to 410 degrees. Dust the top of the loaf with flour and bake 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 25-30 minutes, or until the top of the loaf is a shiny dark brown and the loaf has come away from the sides of the pan. Remove from pan and cool on a rack.


Aubergine, halloumi and asparagus, with lemon/oil dressing.

This is so simple but I really enjoyed the combination.
As it’s asparagus season, the bite of the fresh green worked well with the stodginess of the other ingredients. But it would also work with rocket or something equally green and zingy.

Amounts variable depending on how many and ones love of asparagus and halloumi.

Aubergine, 1/2 per person.
Halloumi cheese, 1/3 – 1/4 block per person.
Asparagus tips, as many as you can eat.
Olive oil
Freshly squeezed lemon.

For the dressing:
Olive oil.
Freshly squeezed lemon juice.
2 cloves garlic at least.
Chilli flakes.
Salt
Pepper
Honey
Whole grain mustard.

What to do:

Make up the dressing: I do it by taste, adding lemon juice to the oil, then adjusting, then adding a tiny bit of honey and mustard and a pinch of chilli, salt and pepper. I let it stand for a while to allow the flavours to meld.

Cut an aubergine in half and cut into long slices.
Paint each slice on both sides with a mixture of olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice with seasoning added.
Add halved cherry tomatoes.
Bake for 10 – 15 mins in oven at 180, turn half way though.
Alternative do on a griddle if you’ve got one, or fry.
Slice the halloumi cheese and fry in olive oil, remove to kitchen towel to soak up oil when done.

Steam the asparagus shoots for 3 minutes until tender but with some bite!

Wrap asparagus shoot and halloumi cheese in a slice of aubergine, add tomatoes, drizzle with dressing, soak up oils and flavours with a thick cut of bread.

Delish."

Milan

Last week I went to Milan for work and had a fabulous time eating all sorts of new things. I had a panzerotti for lunch - a sort of pasty thing filled with spinach and brie, the pastry was very light and almost tasted of doughnuts. Then for dinner we went to t Garba, sole with courgette flowers and pistachio cake for pud!! Very delicious.

Vanilla Oil and Peas shoots

I keep forgetting to blog about the weekend we spent in Newark - we were very decadent and in between painting and decorating we went out for lunch at Ann et Vin and for dinner at Cafe Bleu. Both were lovely - I quite fancy going back to try the tapas at Ann et Vin, though the pate I had for lunch was scrummy - Nick had to restrain me from licking the plate! We were lucky to get in to Cafe Blue - apparently they normally have a 3 week waiting list but managed to squeeze us in at 6.30. I now can't remember everything we had to eat but Nick's starter came with vanilla oil to dip his asparagus in and pea shoots. These were so pretty and very tasty, unusual for me and dedicated pea hater!! I may have to start growing some to put in my summer salads.

1696 - Chocolate was good for you then too!

I have been leafing through William Salmon's 1696 New London Dispensatory and found this entry on cacao and chocolate - it seems that even then it was known to 'fortify nature' and 'preserve health'....and boys - 'create sperm'!

Evolution April - Hunt Family Moussaka

This month Laura has taken the project further - which she has termed foovolution‏ which is rather fab!!

"I wanted to continue the meat theme for April (sorry veggies...although this is easily converted by using veggie mince into an awesome veg friendly dish) as I have only been non-veggie for a year or so and I'm still rediscovering the wonders of meat! The minced meat from the previous sparked my memories of spiced meat full of cinnamon and nutmeg stuffed into pittas with salad that my mum used to give us for tea as kids, and actually prompted me into asking her to cook this recipe for my birthday meal a fortnight ago. In the spirit of foodvolution I hope you can see where I'm going on this - although lots of the ingredients are new, the methods of using minced meat and some of the original staples (oregano, aubergine and tomato) as well as layering are still there.

Moussaka is such a homely dish for me: full of lovely smells and tastes - it just makes me feel like I'm 10 again! And although it's quite labour intensive and time consuming in parts, it's the kind of dinner you would make every week if you could just because it tastes so wonderful!

Unfortunately, I can't take the credit for this: it goes to 3 women: my mum, Delia Smith (who she took her original recipe from) and Tessa Kiros (whose book 'Falling Cloudberries' inspired a few additions by me). Mum reckons hers always tastes so good because she doesn't bother with the measurements - and just goes on taste. But, for those of you who don't trust your palate, here's the recipe!

450g minced lamb
2 medium sized aubergines
6-8 medium sized peeled potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions peeled and chopped small
2 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
1 heaped tablespoon chopped fresh mint, 1 heaped tablespoon chopped parsley, oregano
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 rounded tablespoons tomato puree
1/2 can chopped tomatoes
125ml red wine
salt and freshly milled black pepper

for the topping:
100g ricotta
275ml whole milk
25g plain flour
25g butter
1 bay leaf
1 medium egg yolk
salt and freshly milled black pepper


Slice the aubergines and place them in a colander and sprinkle them with salt.
Put a bowl on top of them and weigh it down with something heavy (i use cook books) then put another plate underneath to catch the juices.
Leave them like this for 1 hour.
Shortly before the end of this time preheat the grill / oven to its highest setting.
When the hour is up squeeze out any of the excess juice from the aubergines with your hands.
Now, you have a choice: you can oven roast them with about a tablespoon of the olive oil over them, grill them or shallow fry. Whichever way you do it, you need to be able to squash them with a fork and have a kind of pureed aubergine consistency. If they're papery to touch then they probably need a bit more oil and a bit longer in the oven .I grill mine for colour and then oven roast them for consistency. This can take an hour.
In the meantime, peel and boil some potatoes whole.
Also, heat the remaining olive oil in your largest frying pan and fry the onions, garlic, minced lamb and tomato puree gently for about 5 minutes.
Turn the heat up high add the minced lamb and brown it for a few minutes turning it and keeping it on the move.
Cook the whole lot stirring all the time for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients with a good sprinkling of salt (Maldon if you have it). Cook all this for about 20 mins, seasoning to taste.
Next make the topping by placing the milk, flour, butter and bay leaf in a saucepan. Delia reckons you can heat all together until everything comes up to simmering point and the sauce becomes smooth and glossy. I reckon you need to add a little more milk as the sauce becomes thick. Remember, you will add ricotta and egg so it will thicken again later.
Turn the heat down to its lowest setting and let the sauce cook gently for 5 minutes.
Taste and season discarding the bay leaf remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool a little before whisking in the Ricotta and egg yolk.
Give it a good whisk to blend everything thoroughly.
Finally layer the ovenproof dish - 1/2 the roasted aubergines 1st, then the potatoes. Follow this with the meat mixture and top it off with the remaining aubergines.
Pour the topping (optional: over sprinkle the surface with the Parmesan).
Bake on the centre shelf of the oven at about 180-200 degrees for 40 - 50 minutes by which time the top will be golden brown.

Demolish!

I always have mine with a nice green salad, dressed simply in extra virgin olive oil and maybe a bit of balsamic. Hunks of bread make a good accompaniment too, helping to soak up the juices left on the plate. "

On Dunwich beach

This photo was taken while we had a break in the sunshine on Dunwich beach. We had been cycling along the east coast from Lincoln to Ipswich, finishing off the English section of the North Sea Cycle route. From Lincoln we rolled through the cauliflower and daffodil fields - I'd never seen cauli harvesting before, and then from Boston round to King's Lynn along The Wash. Then up through Sandringham park to the coast at Holme-next-the-Sea and along to Sherringham. Then down to Lowestoft and on to the delights of Southwold in the sunshine, reaching our final destination after 268 miles! Oh and it took 6days!

At Carluccio's

Pitcher plants in Tallahassee

These are the first pitcher plants I found on a recent jaunt to Tallahassee - there were lots of them too - may be 6 species of pitchers and then at least 2 of sundews. Magnificent!! Corpisolve has more details.

Ricarelli

2 egg whites
225g caster sugar
pinch of salt
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon almond essence
300g ground almonds
icing sugar

Whisk the egg whites until stiff and then whisk in the salt and sugar. Stir in the zest and essences and finally stir in the almonds to make a stiff paste. Divide into 32 balls, or more traditionally diamond shapes, and lay on a baking sheet. Either leave over night to harden or place in a recently used oven with the door open, for a hour or two. Then bake at 140°C for 30min until just colouring. Sprinkle with icing sugar. Recipe from Nigella's How to be a Domestic goddess.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day

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