What The Vicar Taught Me...

Last month I dropped in at the Parish church "Coffee, Cake and Chat" group, and Rev Rachael taught us to make paper roses [thanks]. I've been cutting squares for a Kusudama Workshop I am running today at my conference, here's a quick tutorial on roses...

For each rose you need 3 squares [these are 9cm²]
Fold each square into 4, then diagonally in half.

Now holding the point of the triangle, trim rund the open edge to get an ice cream cone shape. 

Then cut a tiny triangle from the bottom

Now open out your three flowers [A,B,C] Cut one segment out of  A, two out of B and three out of C. Line the 6 pieces up in order of size.

 

Now you need to take the smallest petal, run a line of glue down one straight edge and roll it up. Then take each petal in order, rolling it round the central 'stamen' and gluing down its outer edge. Here is the last petal waiting to be added. The pen mark indicates where you put the glue!

Once the glue has dried, gently roll each petal over a pencil to give it some curves. 

I made stems using wire, wrapped in a thin strip of paper. One flower is made from pages of an old paperback book, the other using an old map. 

The map pages were hard to curl. Next time I shall curl them before  rolling and sticking, I've tucked the blooms in my reed diffuser!

Come back Marie Osmond, all is forgiven!

Reliable Retro Recipes

Last Tuesday evening we enjoyed a visit from one of my WWDP committee friends, and her husband. They were down here camping and came over for a meal. Then on Wednesday the Alpha group were here again. I didn't want to spend a lot of time in a hot kitchen, but I did want to provide something a bit special. I decided to go retro, and use 'old faithful' recipes.
Tuesday's starter was Prawn Cocktail. I used some fancy glasses which Steph gave Bob. The greenery is shredded little gem lettuce, with cucumber crescents. A mixture of two sorts of prawns- regular and kingsize [from Lidl] A very simple Marie Rose Sauce [mayo and ketchup] A sprinkling of paprika and some cress to garnish - with a king prawn and slice of lemon hooked over the glass. 

On Tuesday, and again on Wednesday, I served Jamie Oliver's Mediterranean Chicken - a really easy traybake. This photo is his - I forgot both times to take pictures. I substituted a big bag of chicken pieces for the legs when I doubled up to serve 8 on Wednesday night. Accompanied with a green salad. Lemony and fresh for a summer's evening.

Ingredients

1 lemon

4 free-range chicken legs

1 kg new potatoes

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 bunch of fresh thyme

olive oil

100 g pitted green olives

 Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.

Slice the lemon lengthways into quarters and place in a large roasting tin with the chicken legs, new potatoes and all of the herbs. Toss in 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil, season well and roast for 45 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven. Carefully squeeze the roasted lemon wedges over everything, squashing down some of the potatoes so they burst – this gives you a bigger surface area so they soak up lots of flavour and get nice and crispy. Add the olives, give everything a stir and roast for another 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are golden.

Tuesday's dessert was Delia Smith's Chocolate Mousse.

You can find her recipe here. I served mine in coffee cups, with a strawberry fan in each saucer.

It is very rich, you don't need much.

Wednesday's dessert was Martha Stewart's Strawberry Tart. I have known this recipe for years, and it is so simple - I love the ease with which you make the pastry base. It was actually featured in the Guardian recently as the perfect example of this dish.

I made mine in a long rectangular loose based tin [much easier to serve 8 portions] and ignored the instruction to stand the strawberry wedges up - I laid mine in pretty rows. The orange slices and mint sprigs were there to prettify the space. because I couldn't find a narrower serving tray!

The perfect strawberry tart (Serves 8)

For the pastry:
200g plain flour
110g cold butter, cut into cubes
65g caster sugar
¼ tsp fine salt

For the filling:
200ml whipping cream
2 tsp icing sugar
1½ tsp rose water
200g thick whole milk yogurt
About 500g ripe strawberries

To make the pastry, put all the ingredients in a food processor and whizz until they look like damp ground almonds – this will probably take a minute or so. Tip into a loose-bottomed shallow tart tin about 25cm wide, spread out and press with a mug or glass until you have a pastry case. Put in the freezer for 15 minutes until firm. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180C.

Prick the base all over with a fork, then bake for about 20-25 minutes until lightly golden (overcook it and it will be crumbly). Allow to cool in the tin, then gently transfer to a serving plate. When the shell is cool, whip cream to soft peaks, then whip in the sugar and rose water, and fold in the yogurt. Spoon into the tart shell and smooth. Hull the strawberries and cut into quarters, or sixths if large, and then arrange, point upwards, in concentric circles. [Or lay down in rows!]

I really had fun making these meals for my friends, and using my best dinner service and cutlery [retro wedding gifts from 1979] 

What would be on your dinner party menu for a warm summer evening? 

Do you have a tried-and-true recipe?

Parmesan, Poison And Picadilly

Lots of reading here over the past week - and it is holiday time so neither of us feels in the least bit guilty about indulging in hours of happy page turning. Here are three of the novels I have borrowed from the library

Delicious! by Ruth Reichl. I saw this mentioned on someone's blog - [my greatest apologies, I cannot find the original recommendation - but thank you so much] This is a tale of love, war and cake - set in contemporary New York, at the HQ of a Food Magazine - but with links back to both the Second World War, and the Underground Railroad/Anti-Slavery Movement. Lots of plotlines, but I think [with some simplifications] it might make a good film. Wonderful food descriptions, enough to make you want to go and get a sandwich whilst reading [but a gourmet one - crayfish tails and crisp lettuce with Marie Rose Sauce on granary bread - not  a slathering of Nutella on white sliced...] . If you enjoy Joanne Harris' Chocolat  I think you may like this too.****

Another Man's Poison by Ann Cleeves. I have watched Vera [with Brenda Blethyn] and Shetland [with Dougie Henshall] on TV and really enjoyed reading the Shetland series of books. This one is not about a 'professional' copper- but a husband and wife team. Rather more like Christie's 'Tommy and Tuppence' - but older! The cover picture is confusing- didn't spot a lighthouse anywhere in the book. It is the 5th in the series - I shall check out the others, as they may become more interesting once I get into them. It was OK - but I have to admit, I prefer Jimmy Perez on his wild Scottish Islands to this motherly retired social worker and her dapper husband. ***

Murder In Picadilly is another of those reissued 1930s Crime Classics. However this is no exquisitely written Wimsey-cal piece by Ms Sayers. I found it incredibly hard going. At page 42, I declared "I don't really care who died or whodunnit, I have other things to read!" I thought the prose turgid, and the storyline confusing. Dorothy Parker is supposed to have said of another novel "This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly, it should be thrown with great force" I don't feel that strongly - and furthermore, I do not throw library books, or any other books for that matter [especially if reading them on a Kindle] but this one didn't do it for me at all, sorry ** [it gets 2 stars simply because I rather like the cover designs in this series, nothing to do with content]

Hearts And Flowers

For our meal on Valentine’s Day, I put my ‘vintage milk bottle’ with three silk tulips on the table. I think they look pretty convincing, and they won’t droop like the real ones! Then I made my salad vegetables into flowers as well, so we each had a little bouquet to eat. I first used this idea a few summers ago, it came from a Marie Claire Magazine

• Radish ‘roses’ [trimmed and left in iced water to open up a little]
• Cherry tomatoes – ‘vandyked’ with a jagged edge
• Crescent shaped celery slices
• Orange peppers and cucumber slices, cut out with a small circular pastry cutter with a crimped edge.
• Short lengths of spring onion
• The central leaves of a ‘Little Gem’ Lettuce

The ‘flowers’ were skewered onto cocktail sticks, then arranged by sticking them into half a pear which I had place round the bottom of a bowl. I used the lettuce leaves and spring onions as ‘foliage’ I served the ‘bouquet’ with breast of chicken [poached, and drizzled with sweet chilli sauce, then cut into bite sized pieces] There’s also a rosette of mayonnaise on each plate too.

For dessert, I diced another pear and divided between two dishes, topped it with Greek yogurt, then cut half-strawberries into heart shapes. I presented the food on my shiny red Christmas ‘chargers’ and lit a candle. All very romantic…and not a red rose in sight!