Hmmm... my project food blog intro

So I decided to enter this "Project Foodblog Challenge" thing. This first step is more challenging than I expected. I have to share with you what defines me as a food blogger and what makes me a food blog star... It is rare that I analyse this particular part of my life. Like most of my foodblogging friends I am passionate about food and cooking. 

I guess what I have that is perhaps a little rare in the grand foodblog community is simply the span of my cooking. 

Not just doing home cooking, nor modern cooking, nor cooking from a particular area, my food spans not only countries, but centuries. 

How many foodbloggers are catering for 200 people, as well as making dinner for one? 

How many are exploring medieval and renaissance recipes as well as inventing completely new and different food? Giving restaurant reviews across the world, as well as sharing recipes and cooking tips.

How many are cooking Italian, French, Japanese, Australian, English, Malaysian, Indonesian, Hungarian... the world on a plate? 

Hosting and cooking challenge dinner parties, organising social restaurant outings, and teaching cooking from pasta to sushi? 

Ooh, and I forgot.. doing the food design for my friend's published cookbook on the side. Many are doing one or two of these things, but I suspect very few do them all. 

I hope that what I also do is share what I love most about cooking: the adventure, the fun, and how wonderfully simple it all can be. I put together this photo montage of myself, to sort of sum up my foodie self... ======> 

Chocolate music

On Monday night my choir is singing in a concert, and as usual as well as delighting people with our music we also offer what is known as an 'apero', being a bit of a party, to which each of the choir members bring a dish. What could be better than musical treats.

Chocolate notes

250g butter
300g sugar
2 eggs
4 cups flour
3 tablepoons cocoa powder

Beat the butter sugar and egg in a bowl until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour and cocoa. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.

Roll out to 3mm. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Bake in a moderate oven for about 12 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks and store in an airtight container.

Spiced pavlovas with leatherwood honey clementines

My original idea was to do pavlovas with figs on top because I had seen lots of figs in the shops and markets, but when it came to time to cook I went to shop after shop and found not a fig!

But clementines were everywhere, so pavlovas with clementines it became and oooh they were goooooood.

Spiced pavlovas with leatherwood honey and clementines (original recipe by Kiriel)

6 clementines
1tbsp leatherwood honey
2 tbsp sugar

400mls of cream

4 eggwhites
250 g fine sugar
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp cinnamon

Beat eggwhites until it is at soft peak. Little by little, add the sugar, beating well, until mixture is firm and shiny. Gently fold in the rest of the ingredients. Spoon onto silicone paper covered trays in rounds and then pipe a wall of meringue to make sort of nests. Bake for 50 minutes at 120 degrees C and then turn off the oven and allow to cool for 1 hour with the door slightly ajar.

Meringues just about to go in the oven.

To top the pavlova: peel 4 clementines and clean up the pieces so there is no pith. In a small saucepan, heat up 1 tablespoon of leatherwood honey, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 cup of mandarin juice (squeezing the 2 clementines left) and simmer until thick and syrupy. Put in the pieces of clemetine and simmer for 20 minutes until the fruit has absorbed plenty of the flavour of the sauce and softened.

Whip 400mls of cream with a little vanilla until it has soft peaks.

Give each guest their own pavlova, topped with the whipped cream, mandarin pieces and drizzled with syrup. Scatter with crushed honey-roasted macadamias and serve.

Lobster scented potato veloute

I was sent from Australia some lobster flavoured oil, which got my mind buzzing with ideas.
What to do with it? The scent was slightly smokey and flavour delicate. What could I cook that would complement and not overwhelm it?

Potato soup seemed to be the perfect solution.

A tiny tureen of veloute (100ml)

Lobster Scented Potato Veloute

1 medium sized leek
5 large potatoes
1 tablespooon of butter
3 cups mild flavoured vegetable stock
3 teaspoons of lobster flavoured oil

Clean and finely slice the leek, and gently cook in butter with the lobster oil until softened. In the meantime, peel and cube the potatoes. Once the leeks are softened, add the potatoes and the vegetable stock.

Cook at a slow boil until the potatoes are disintegrating (adding water if required). Using a stick blender, blend until velvety smooth. I served this soup hot with a little extra of the lobster oil on top (using an eye dropper), but in fact I think that it would be better served at room temperature.

Farewell dinner (sniff)

Tonight was one of our grand foodies nights, but this time with a slightly sorrowful feel. Our dear friend Ugly Fruit is leaving us, so this was a farewell feast.

Sadly three of our fellow foodies couldn't come, which left us as a dinner for four with food for seven! Still, we did our best to bid farewell to our friend in style. The menu for the evening (photos and recipes for my bits to follow) ended up being:

- Gazpacho with avocado icecream
- Texmex cornbread
- fresh basil butter
- Vietnamese grapefruit and chicken salad
- San choi bau
- Lime and hazelnut cheese-cake
- deconstructed strawberry cheese cake (the photo will explain)

An amazing meal, and a fitting farewell to a dear friend. We will of course, continue to have our foodie nights, and invite our friend to come along via computer!

Feasting

Saturday night was a feast of amazing colour and proportion. Even though there were only six of us, we made up for it by having food for 12. The morning after the Potence dinner I quickly met up with a friend who wanted to borrow some fabric for a toga. He then came with me to the shops where I bought a fine file, and a trolley; you know the sort; made of wood, drawers, wine rack, shelves, and this one with a built in knife block... mind you I had to build it in!

Anyway I rushed home to get cooking, preparing for a special dinner party: the next installment of my regular food-friend group. Theme this time? Hidden secrets.

Inspired by a dish my friend Jeremy served, I made the following:

Seems a bit dull at first glance; boiled egg? but no! The egg is filled with white chocolate mousse, with a yolk made of an orange marmalade with just a splash of brandy. It was a total pain to make. Clearing out an egg with only one hole is a pain, believe me. I had to use a syringe to empty the egg, and then rinse it out multiple times. I then had to get chocolate mousse into the syringe and into the egg, which was quite a challenge. I then added a long thin tube to the syringe and injected that into the centre of the mousse.

But all the pain was worth it - they were a real show stopper:

Other exciting dishes included pork tarts with a raspberry top:

spinach and gorgonzola parcels, stuffed lamb, home made fortune cookies:

and icecream filled mochi:

One of the most exciting dinner parties yet!

The next day, I got up early (like 9.30am!) and went and sang at mass. Then, after a quick lunch, I got to spend an hour or two at home before heading out for dinner with a friend for Malakoff. I am sure that you know what Malakoff are don't you? A genuine Swiss speciality (of the Canton Vaud), it consists pretty much of a ball of cheese, on a slice of bread, the whole thing crumbed in an ingenious fashion and then deep fried. I realise it sounds a bit naff, but actually its very tasty; and hey, contains two of the food groups: cheese and burnt crunchy bits (well ok they aren't really burnt as such, but crispy counts!) Cholesterol city, we only managed two each. All in all a grand weekend of feasting!