Meringues

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I had some egg whites to use up and this was the perfect time to make some meringues. I followed the recipe from the Cook with Jamie recipe book but I cut the recipe in half (since I only had 3 egg whites left)

One thing that I have noticed with working with this book is that the size of the eggs seems to be a bit off. The recipe calls for 6 large egg whites but one of the tips was that 1 egg white should be about 1.5 oz. So this time I actually measured them out and it turns out that Canadian "Large" eggs aren't that large. They are about 1.3 oz instead.

So I modified the recipe with the amount of egg white that I had (1.5 oz egg to 1.75 oz sugar) and I started to whip the eggs.

Flash back to making mayo.... >.<

I really should get an electric mixing machine, but there is something I like about doing everything by hand the way it would have been done when the recipe was first created.

Anyway, after a good 20 minutes of whipping I finally added the sugar (with Talia's help :*) and off to the baking it went. As I write this it is still in the oven but hopefully it will taste great. It certainly looked good :)

~(' ')~

Tempura

So for last nights dinner I decided to make Japanese tempura. I have never made it so it was a bit of an adventure :)

For veggies I used some of the yams that came in last weeks box as well as the remaining radishes.

The batter consists of:
 2 egg yokes (leave me egg whites for meringues)
200 mL of iced water ( I actually put mine in the freezer and let it partly freeze)
100 g sifted flour

After dipping the veggies into the mixed up batter and tossing it into the hot oil (325F) they come out looking something like this

 I also made my own dipping sauce for the tempura out of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin boiled up together. Talia really liked the sauce.

 The one problem I have with this is the amount of oil that is used up. I used more than 2 cups of oil and I`m not 100% sure I can reuse the oil for other things. I saved it just in case and I`ll give it a try next time I need to fry something.

~(' ')~

Pasta

So I was feeling really good today and so I left school early and went grocery shopping. But that's not really that interesting. What is interesting is that I got home early and so I decided to make some home made pasta. I started with the basic egg pasta recipe from my Jamie Oliver book but I didn't want that much pasta so I cut it down.

I also looked on the web for egg-less recipes so that next time I don't need to get eggs and throughout all of my readings I noticed that it's about 1 cup of flour to 1/2 cups of liquid. So that's the recipe I used tonight. So with the eggs that I was using it was about 2 eggs to get 1/2 cups of liquid (with a pinch of salt).
 

After mixing is all together and kneading it for a while it looked like this

It was at this point that I made a couple mistakes. At first I was going to make ravioli but after I rolled out the pasta with my pasta machine I started to notice that the dough was getting a little dry. Far to dry of me to make a filling and then still be able to use it. So, note to everyone who wants to make ravioli, make the filling first and the pasta after.

So about half of that ball went into the compost. On top of that, I had put a damp paper towel over top of the rest of the pasta while I worked the ravioli pasta, and it decided that it would stick to the pasta. As I didn't really feel like eating extra fibre pasta I chucked that part as well. So with a little less than half the dough I started again. This time I was doing okay. The pasta was working nicely and I managed to get it nice and thin. 

I put it into a plastic bag so it wouldn't dry out too much while I made a quick sauce for it. I just did a simple tomato paste sauce with some basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley. I also tossed in some TVP and veggie mix that Talia had made for lunch today. I'm not 100% sure I know what was in it over than cauliflower and carrot but it tasted good. 

Another thing to note is that putting fresh pasta into a bag is not the best idea. I had some trouble separating it in order to boil it and even more in order to try and mix it with the sauce. 

I think the pasta was a little soggy but Talia really liked it. I cant wait until I get to try again. I'm gonna make ravioli if it kills me

~(' ')~

box projects

So last Thursday we received our second box of veggies. This time we requested only veggies rather than fruit and veg because we weren't impressed with the fruit. My parents also got their first box so they came over that Thursday to cook with Talia. They made a delicious red cabbage casserole, celery root fries, and guacamole.

The next Friday we went up to the cottage with my parents in order to cut some wood for winter so we didn't get a chance to make anything with our box of veg. So today was the first time we cracked into it. I decided for my first recipe with this box I was going to make some okonomiyaki. The last time I made it I tried to make it vegan and failed terribly. This time I said screw it and got some eggs.

Basic recipe:
1 egg
1 cup flour
3/4 cup water or Dashi

I used dashi for mine since we have powdered dashi for miso soups.

I also added some green onions and tofu chunks for a little more flavour. Finally we had a little pepperoni on top since it was also in the fridge.

You can't really see the tofu in this picture but its there in the middle. It turned out very nice. Talia was Very happy and asked for me to make some more for lunch tomorrow. Unfortunately it never tastes as good on the second day so I'm not going to bother. Instead I am making bread. Just a basic bread, but it was a special request from Talia so how could I say now?

~(' ')~

updates updates updates

So it's been a while since I have updated so lots of things have happened.


First off, we finished out steampunk costumes mostly on time. My vest looked really nice. The pants were epic fail the first time but Talia quickly saved them with another pattern. Thankfully we had enough extra fabric to make it or it would have been bad. Sadly, after the party friday night we were all too tired on saturday to go and take pictures. But we agreed to take some pictures in the park this coming Sunday so stay tuned for pics of that.


The steampunk party itself was kind of mhe. The people were very friendly and nice, but the music was all over the place. The most fun of the night was when the belly dancers came on to perform. Their dancing was really nice, but the one lead girl.... WOW you could tell she had a major pushup bra on. To the point where it was comical. 


So next thing. Our box of random veggies and fruits came. We were kind of disappointed with it to be honest so we have decided that for next week we are only going to get the veggies and no fruit. The total contents of the box were:


2 Avocados (Fairtrade, Mexico)
4 Beefsteak tomatoes (LFP, Waterford, ON)
4 Beets (TO)
1 package Cremini mushrooms (ON)
lots of Gourmet blend salad mix (TO)
couple leaves Hearty greens medley [chard, collards, kale] (TO)
5 Yellow Onions (ON)
4 Oranges (Calif.)
4 Bananas (Fairtrade, Ecuador)

Chase really liked the box :)

So we weren't really sure what to do with all of this so Talia looked up a really nice recipe for the beets. It also involved some onion and potato and was kind of a shredded veggie pancake or sorts. It was very delicious and my parents enjoyed it very much as well (they came to visit and look at our box).


All the random leaf veg we just tossed together and are slowly eating salads with them. The nice thing about this is that we have salads with different kinds of leaves. Normally when we make a salad it will only have romaine or iceberg lettuce and that`s it.


Oh, Talia also made a nice guacamole with the avocados and one of the tomatoes. That also went over really well with the parents and me. So well in fact that I ate the last of it this evening when I came home.


To accompany all of this I also made a nice loaf of bread which turned out perfect this time. Last time it didn't really rice that much and I left it for over an hour. This time it doubled in size in less than 40 minutes. I know have the perfect place to proof the bread; on top of the fridge where its warm. works perfect. So good in fact that after dinner My parents and us ate half of the batch I made. We were all so full after that we just lay in beanbag chairs and chatted for the rest of the night.


One other thing I tried out. Tonight I tried making Yorkshire puddings... which are not actually a pudding, its more of a bread or pancake that you bake in the oven. Sadly mine didn't turn out quite right. Instead of puffing up and being light and fluffy it turned kind of heavy and dense. I think its actually the eggs here. The recipe calls for 1 egg, but I think the eggs in Canada are smaller than the eggs in the UK or something. This is the second time that something like this has happened to me. I also think the reason the mayo attempts didnt work was because of the smaller egg yoke.


But I am not discouraged. I will try it again but I will had a little more milk to make it a little more watery like it was pictured in the book.


~(' ')~