Meal 5: Jacket Potato Mash- Creative Cooking

One of the things I want to get out of this project is the ability to be inventive and creative with food.
 Right now I guess you could say everything I make is pretty simple and either from a recipe or from my parents. I want to be able to create my own interesting dishes, unfortunately the problem with that is that I'd have no idea where to start. What kinds of food go with what? Which flavours taste good together? What about herbs and spices? I don't even know this, let alone any cooking techniques that would make exciting meals.
 One reason why I think it'll be tough for me to think outside the box when it comes to inventing my own food is my personality. I need structure and organisation AKA recipes with fixed quantities! My crazy brain cannot handle instinct or making it up as I go along. It's not in my nature to be creative at all. I make lists, lots of lists (which I'm very good at). I can't just open a fridge, see what's inside and go from there, I think my head might explode.
 This post is basically my reaction to my experience cooking Jacket Potato Mash, a recipe invented by my dear friend, Sarah. Now it's not very complicated but it's different. It just takes something as simple as a jacket potato and makes it a bit more fun. I think I want to try doing something like that. If anyone has any good ideas of really simple food stuff that I could try and reinvent let me know!

Here's my attempt at Sarah's recipe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMlSb-ssJYc


Happy cooking!

Hannah x

Meal 4: Chicken Korma

This was the first time I made something I was entirely new to, which was a challenge but I had a recipe to follow which made everything a bit easier.
 First I had to blend lemon juice, curry powder and yoghurt to make the marinade for the chicken. However, I couldn't get my blender to work so I ended up using one of those electric whisks (the last time I'd used one of those was when I was a lazy cake-baker). The I chopped the chicken into random sized "curry chunks" and mixed them into the marinade. I love chopping chicken, I don't know what it is about it but it's always loads of fun.
 I then had to chop an onion. I cried. It was just as bad as the lasagne onion. Me and my friend, Rachael, were inspired by my tears and started singing Flight of the Conchords "I'm Not Crying" and then various other songs by them, which was lots of fun :) After the onions had sufficiently ruined my face I put them in a pan to fry. I added more curry powder and next the marinated chicken which was all gloopy and ew. Once the chicken was cooked I added single cream and water and then we left the curry to its own business. Then, rice time! I always do rice to water 1:1.5 and that seems to work fine, hurray!
 Everything was ready. Sarah had arrived and so we sat down for a Come Dine With Me style meal. We all gobbled it up and it wasn't spicy at all so that was good for me!

Chicken Korma video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrsn26Y6UvI

I would definitely make this again.

Hannah x

Meal 3: Lasagne

A while ago I went down to London to stay with some friends and I thought to earn my keep I would cook them something. I decided to practice two skills I had already learnt: bolognese and a white sauce, and put them together in a lasagne. Alex, Charlie and Bryarly all offered to help but I wouldn't let them. However, whenever I was slightly stuck I would ask Bryarly for some assistance. The bolognese went fine, no problems there. Except the onions were really strong and I was crying like a maniac and couldn't see what I was doing. Alex had to wipe my eyes for me. The white sauce, however, was weird. I made this one too thick and it tasted kind of floury.
 Bryarly thought we should boil the pasta sheets first before we started layering everything but the packet said you could layer them uncooked so that's what we did. It turned out I made far too much bolognese compared to white sauce so the layering process was interesting and it cooked a bit dodgily. We sprinkled some cheese on top to make it crispy and then put it in the oven for 30 minutes. I didn't realise it needed so much time to cook and I'd taken my time making all the parts so it was really late when we eventually sat down to eat.
 Everyone seemed to enjoy it, I hope they weren't just being polite. Charlie and Bryarly even took seconds. There was just one problem with the lasagne which was that the pasta layer on top was hard in places. Bryarly was right! Unfortunately, she got a corner piece so was crunching her way through the meal. Sorry!
 It was a relative success, and all I can say is that I hope they'll let me cook for them again.

Hannah x

Pub Grub

One day me and my mother dearest had a girly outing in the city of Manchester. We went shopping, we went to the cinema and WE ATE FOOD. 

 There's this pub in Manchester city centre near the wheel which looks really cool and mock tudor stylie and I'd never been there before- until this day!

 I'm sorry I didn't order more exotic food from the menu but we were in a pub so I opted for a pie. The pie was HUGE. Well, the pastry on top was and it made it really awkward to eat. There was so much of it though I couldn't finish the whole pie : ( The pie also came with vegetables, which just were cooked weird and were horrible, and chips! Which I completely smothered in vinegar. I like my chips swimming. 

Check out the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gml9wf9C3s

How much vinegar do you like on your chips?

Hannah x

Passover!

I'm Jewish. But I'm also an atheist. For me, being Jewish is about identity, family and culture. Jewish festivals are so much fun and the rare occasions during the year when all of my mum's family are together (my dad isn't Jewish).
 It was Passover/Pesach recently and so our family went to Birmingham, where my grandparents live, and my cousins came too. Now, most Jewish festivals involve a lot of eating and also some special, interesting foods that you'd only eat during that festival and Passover is no exception. Here are some of the things you eat at Passover:

• Parsley in salt water
• Boiled egg in salt water
• Matzah (flat bread)
• Bitter herbs (raw  horse radish)
• Charoset (appley, nutty, winey mix)
• Kiddish wine

Now, I love the egg in salt water but the parsley isn't great. The matzah is great especially with the charoset which is gorgeous. Seriously, try it. SO GOOD! The horse radish, however, is the part of Passover that I always dread. You have to eat the bitter herbs raw because it's supposed to make you feel pain like the Jewish slaves did all those years ago. And boy does horse radish hurt. I have no idea how to describe it, it's spicy, bitter, sour and a bunch of other stuff all at once. My mum says she likes the horse radish because she's used to it from eating it every Pesach for her whole life. I just think she's crazy. 

 All of this food is eaten during the Seder (service) but then we also have a HUGE meal, prepared by my grandma with love. The meal included jacket potatoes, salmon, chicken, coleslaw, homemade mayonnaise, salads, vegetables and probably more stuff that I can't remember. Oh and don't forget the pudding afterwards. Basically, we eat A LOT of food. 

 I'd never done this before but this year (because I'm learning to cook and what not) I offered to help cook. Most stuff was already done, but the salmon still needed chopping so that was my job. Salmon is a fish I do like but any fish raw is pretty gross. I really struggled cutting it, there were giant bones and the sound of the knife sawing through them was disgusting/creepy/puke inducing. I made it to the end though, smeared the fish in some buttery, garlicky paste and then bang in the oven. I was very proud of myself.

Here's my video of Passover with my family:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3vQz7ucPU

This isn't the way all Jewish families celebrate Passover but it's my family's interpretation of the Seder. I don't believe there's a right way or a wrong way. It's just all about tradition. 

 

Happy Belated Passover!

Hannah x

Too Spicy!

I am a complete wimp when it comes to spicy food. Don't get me wrong though, I love curries, just not the spicy ones. And even with some of the mild ones I need a lassi at hand to cool my mouth down.
 So dinner on this particular day was prawn and vegetable stir fry with CHILLI and coconut sauce. Now, immediately 'chilli' scared me but also 'prawns' and 'vegetables'- two things I'm not the biggest fan of.
 I don't remember what the vegetables were like but with the prawns I have a vague memory of not finding them too disgusting. But mostly it's all clouded by the fact it was TOO SPICY! My parents didn't think so at all but they're hard core.
 So this tasting session was a complete failure, especially coming from a member of the chilli household (as my mum explains in the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma3PMr0QssQ

We also have a dangly thing on our kitchen wall with different spices in it (for decoration purposes only, of course). We also have a variety of chilli fridge magnets and on our cupboards in the living room the handles are... yep chillies.
 So, there you have it: I'm a total disgrace.

Hannah x

Meal 2: Cauliflower Cheese

Please don't call me a cheat but I have made this before and there's no ingredients in it that I don't like... I said don't.
 The thing about cauliflower cheese is that I had to make a roux sauce or a white sauce or a cheese sauce (whatever you like to call it). Pasta is easy to do and although the cauliflower was awkward to chop, all I had to do was boil it. The sauce is where I failed.
 Firstly, as soon as my sister, Leah, saw the video she told me I had put the flour in wrong and that I didn't have to sieve it. And secondly, I just couldn't get the consistency or the taste right AT ALL. But I had no idea how to fix it so I just threw it in with the pasta and the cauliflower anyway.
 A white sauce might be something I have to practice making. Which I did. I made a lasagne recently (blog post to come) which contained a white sauce, but that also had its problems and they were completely different to this time.
 Here's the link to the cauliflower cheese video- filmed by my lovely friend, Sarah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENTpYMX2lnc

As you can see we had a bit of trouble with the salt. Even so, Sarah thought it still needed more salt and my mum thought it was too salty. Can't please everyone eh?

Hannah x

Meal 1: Spaghetti Bolognese

I thought I would start off with something basic and pretty essential. The main thing for me about making this dish was putting in vegetables that I don't like, so I included a courgette and mushrooms into the sauce.

 So I started by chopping an onion and some garlic which resulted in tears, although it wasn't as bad as previous encounters I've had with onions. It must have been a tame one. Next I chopped the carrots (which I like) and the courgette and mushrooms (which I don't like). I'd never chopped these two things before so that was interesting. I really had no clue if they grew, shrunk or stayed the same size when you cooked them so I had no idea what sort of size pieces to cut them into. I also had to make up my method of chopping as I went along. The mushrooms were actually really nice to chop, the feeling of the knife going through the raw mushroom was surprisingly satisfying and I would definitely recommend it. 

 Oil went in the pan, (although my dad told me later I used the wrong type of oil) followed by the onions and garlic which smelt really good as they were frying. Now at this point I wasn't sure whether to add the minced meat next or the vegetables I had just chopped. I opted for the veg (please tell me if I was wrong). I wasn't sure what courgette and mushrooms look like when they are cooked but I took a guess and then threw in the meat. 

 One hurdle I've always come across whilst cooking is flavouring. I genuinely have no idea what different herbs, spices and sauces all taste and smell like so I could never be that person who says "oh it definitely needs some rosemary or thyme..." Most of the time I even forget to add salt and pepper!

 After the meat was nice and brown (number 1 priority is to not poison anyone) I added two tins of chopped tomato and some tomato puree, my friend, Sarah, told me I added them the wrong way around but hey. I then left it to simmer in the pan whilst the spaghetti cooked. 

 Me, spaghetti and any other pasta type thing really don't get on very well. I can never judge how much to use. It always doesn't look like much and then when it's all cooked you realise you've got enough pasta to feed a hungry football team. I ended up asking my dad how much to use. 

 Once everything was ready it was time to dish up and to taste the mess I had just created. Mum said she liked it but it needed more flavouring (see!) and dad just seemed to think the only thing missing was wine. As for myself, I ATE THE WHOLE THING! I couldn't taste the mushrooms at all which was a relief but I could taste the courgettes, which weren't that great but I powered through anyway. 

To see spaghetti bolognese in action check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQqNgQYP9Gk

Hannah x

My Relationship With Food

What makes a good cook? And I don't mean head chef/owner of a restaurant good cook. I just mean someone with an ability to make nice, interesting meals for themselves and friends and family. I am not a good cook. If it was acceptable to feed myself and others cake the whole time I would be an excellent cook, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it works.

 My parents are both great cooks so I've never needed to really learn and also I'm a terribly fussy eater so if I'm ever home alone I have no clue where to start and I end up just shoving a pizza in the oven. Done. 

 As I am well into adulthood now, I thought it high time I learnt how to feed myself properly and experiment more when it comes to trying new food. 

 I will try to cook as much as possible and document it in film and/or words. This way of keeping a tab means that hopefully I won't simply give up when I get bored.

 So, here goes nothing. Prepare to witness some awful cooking!

Hannah x