Whats this you say.. a…. Giveaway?

by Cake in the country

Good people of Ireland, do I have news for you or wha!

I, (along with some other esteemed bloggers) have been given a super duper hamper by the absolutely wonderful and recently honoured Robert Roberts Tea & Coffee producers.

But, not for mise.

Nope! It is to give away to one of you, my loverly readers. Would you believe they received a rather spiffing 12 stars at the recent Irish taste awards? I would. 12 stars. Puts me to shame. I don’t think I’ve gotten a star since our 2nd class weekly spelling competitions fizzled out. Cupboard was usually the one that got us. But luckily, 12 stars and all, they want to share the love (and the tea and coffee)!

I’m hoping this shall make up for my absolute lack of posts lately, what with being in a different country and now running round wards like a mad eejit, I have developed a severe bout of…

Laziness. (Lament!)

It’s a terrible affliction, one cannot know how one suffers.

(I’ve been reading Louisa May Alcott books on Stanza recently and can’t help feeling as though I would have done well in those times)

Anyway, now I am going to bribe you into liking me again with said giveaway..

To enter:

All you have to do is tell me how many cups of tea and/or coffee you drink in any one day.Simple, ya? I dare anyone to beat my mothers record. She’s mad for the tea as we’d say in the wesht.

Winners will be chosen at random. One entry per person. Answers on a postcard please to: The den, po box….

Ah no, only joking! A comment, good sirs. One comment and you are in it to win it. Closing date Friday 6th of August.

For extra entries:

Tweet about this giveaway (including @reindeersp and  in your tweet. Here’s a generic one: Just entered @reindeersp’s giveaway at http://wp.me/pRPVK-9S  #robertrobertsrocks (and leave me a separate comment with your twitter username)

Like the page on Facebook right here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Musings-of-a-med-student/115718308461396?ref=ts (and leave me yet another comment telling me you have done so!)

Wowzer. Off ye go. Get to it!

Butternut Squash and Pancetta Risotto

by Cake in the country

This was a rather yummy dinner. I tasted some of Mary’s risotto one day and vowed to make it or something similar. And so, one dismal rainy summers day, I stood at the fridge, stared down the pancetta, and began to cook. Now this was kind of put together on the day, so change it as you like! (Cheap eats too!)

Here’s what you need! Serves about 6.

  • 1 mediumish butternut squash
  • Hmm.. I should weigh stuff. I used about 3 very thick cut slices of pancetta
  • 1 onion, medium sized
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely diced
  • 1 pack- 500g risotto rice
  • 1 cup of white wine
  • About 1.5 litres of stock- I used half chicken and half vegetable – Low sodium if you can get it <- That there – for any Cardiologist that I have to meet. Now my conscience is clear!
  • 30g Parmesan
  • A spoonful or so of butter and a wee bit of olive oil

What you do:

  1. Pop the butternut squash in the microwave for about one minute- this makes it easier to peel.
  2. Peel the squash, cut in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds (save them if you can as they’re nice toasted as a snack!) Cut into small cubes.
  3. Cut your pancetta into little strips or cubes. Pop it into a saucepan of simmering water for about 2 minutes. I didn’t want the smokiness to take over the dish so this way it’s not too strong. Then heat up some oil and give it a wee bit of a sizzle until it’s crispy. You may taste it here. But do not eat all of it. Ahem.
  4. Put your butter and a little drizzle of olive oil into a nice pan (must be nice..) on medium heat.
  5. Pop in your onion and garlic and cook until they’re soft
  6. Add the squash and give it about 3 minutes cooking over medium heat.
  7. Add your rice and cook for one minute or so.
  8. Get your white wine (must be good dry wine, never cook with anything you wouldn’t drink!) and pour it in, giving your rice a good stir.
  9. Back to the risotto rules- add your liquid one cup at a time and wait until it’s absorbed before adding the next one. Now it depends on your rice and personal tastes how much you end up adding. Start tasting after 1.2 litres or so gone in. You want your rice to be nice but not stodgy! When it tastes
  10. Add your pancetta, give it a wee stir.
  11. Throw in your parmesan (how I love thee parmesan…)
  12. Oh, I believe I snipped some fresh chives in. Just because I felt like it.
  13. Serve and enjoy it’s yumminess.. Now did I remember to take a picture… I shall have a root around…
  14. Eh.. it appears I yet again forgot to take pictures. So here’s one of Corgan looking dismal after exploring the coal bucket in the rain instead:

Yeup..

Enjoy the risotto!

Aha! Kitchen Tips

by Cake in the country

Because I love ya, and because I wish I hadn’t learned all these the hard way, I have decided to pull all my old tips outta the closet. Or notebook. I have a notebook full of em! These have been tips I have picked up, been given by others, or seen in books or on cookery shows! I shall add more as I remember them.

  1. Eggs
    1. When whisking egg whites for meringues or icing:
      1. Using a copper bowl and a balloon whisk is best.
      2. Giving the bowl a quick wipe with the cut end of a lemon will help.
      3. And separate each of your eggs in a separate CLEAN non-greasy bowl so that you don’t lose all your egg whites if a yolk sneaks its way in!
  2. Bread
    1. If you don’t have a nice warm place for it to rise, before you start pop the oven onto 70 for about 5 minutes and turn it off before you start kneading so that you have a nice draught-free place for it to rise! 🙂
    2. If you want a nice crust you can take the bread out of the tin and pop it on a flat tray on it’s side and back into the oven for 5 minutes!
    3. Don’t forget to create some steam in the oven when putting your bread in for a perfect crust.
  3. Pastry
    1. Keep your butter cooold when making shortcrust pastry
    2. You can make ‘fine breadcrumbs’ in a food processor. Just don’t overprocess it!
    3. Know your exact measurements of liquid, adding bit by bit is going to give you a nasty uneven pastry.
    4. Bring your pastry together between 2 pieces of clingfilm and roll out between these 2 pieces of clingfilm to save mess, cut down on the amount of flour that ends up in your pastry giving you a richer shortcrust!
  4. Pasta
    1. If you put oil in the saucepan when cooking pasta it can seal the pasta and stop your sauce from being absorbed, so just put it into lightly salted simmering water and you are good to go!
  5. Cheesecake
    1. For baked cheesecake
      1. Do not overwhip the mixture. It will crack
      2. Grease the tin REEALLY well.  Otherwise it will crack/turn grainy
      3. Cook in a waterbath for even cooking. Double wrap your tin in tinfoil to ensure no water gets in.
      4. Leave to cool in oven overnight without moving it. Don’t even open the door. Just turn off oven and leave there for at least 3-4 hours, preferably 6-8. Then it will not crack!
  6. Baking
    1. Grease and LINE every tin – Nothing as bad as your cake getting wrecked because you didn’t take a few minutes to cut out some greaseproof paper
  7. Cooking
    1. Mandolin = Great. Not using safety thingy = Massive cut on knuckle. I speak from experience. Use the safety thingy.
    2. Unwaxed lemons. Pain in the bum to find. If you really cant find any and need zest, boil the lemons for about 3 minutes in water and then give them a bit of a scrub to get the wax off. Tip from a greengrocer in sligeach, has come in handy.
  8. Cleaning up/Other
    1. Put a cup of baking soda in the fridge to absorb icky smells!
    2. Garlic hands — We all suffer from it. Wash hands in soapy water, rub with salt, wash again with soapy water
    3. Clean a microwave — Dip a clean sponge in water, microwave it on medium heat for 1 minute and then just wipe down the microwave with the sponge!
    4. Clean silver with coke 🙂 (Gotta wonder what it does to your teeth)
    5. Silicone spatulas are a godsend. You can get every last bit out of the bowl. There’s still the mixer to eat the batter off, not to worry!
    6. Sugar thermometer. Buy one. Changed my life.
    7. Measure out all your ingredients first. That way you don’t forget something (like the yeast in bread, ahem!

Raindrops on Roses…

by Cake in the country

And whiskers on kittens? Perhaps. But here are a few of my favourite things 🙂

Well given that I really have to stop being super lazy and write posts, and due to the fact that there was thunder here today, I’m popping in a new topic.

Things I love.

You know, the things that make you smile. I’ll write up a few on each day and comment with your own thoughts!

__________________________________________________________________________

1.  Thunderbolts  and Lightning. Very very frightening? No.

I love a good storm. My favourite stormy memory is of the muggy day that my neighbour (Also known as Santa, I am not kidding. He is the spit of good old Santy Clause, who used to own horses and carriages he was english and had grown up showing them) called to the house and asked if I wanted to go in the cart with him (and 3 of his grandkids) to leave the horses at his other farm for a few weeks. I’d like to say I replied with a dignified ‘I shall of course accompany you’, but if I remember correctly there was more squealing and excitement and attempting to jump into the cart with a solid helping of joy.

So off we went back the road, feeling like I was back in the 50s or such. Then the weather broke. And it broke with a bang. An almighty bang. The horses didn’t so much as bat an eyelid.. We got absolutely soaked. But none of us seemed to mind. It was all so wholesome and happy. Bring on the nostalgia..

The one really vivid memory I have is of a lightning bolt or a reflection of one coming through the trees and hitting the ground beside the horses with an almighty crack. They shied over a little but carried on, not a bother on them. They were the nicest horses! Apart from my current lovelies…

And just to really get the ball rolling…

___________________________________________________________________________

2. Wheelbarrow rides

Long ago when I was but a wee one. Or wee-er than I am now anywho, I would sidle up to my Daddy, who was inevitably chipping away at something on the farm.. In fact, thinking about it, I have no idea what he did seeing as the farm and garden are always a big mess.. But he often had in his possession an old and rickety wheelbarrow, and that would draw me towards it… for with a wheelbarrow, there was a always a chance of wheelbarrow rides!

They were the best.

Climbing into the wheelbarrow we’d inevitably fall over or sideways or backwards or forwards in the process, and acquire a large and painful bruise to show off. But eventually we’d make it in, and sitting horribly uncomfortably (but not caring) and brimming with excitement, you shout ‘GO’ and off we went, poor Dad trying to run as fast as possible and not topple you out (pretty sure he was tempted to), and when he stopped, trying to catch his breath and simultaneously avoiding heart attack, screeching ‘AGAIN AGAIN’ in our charming and eloquent country farm voices…The best of times really..

Ok, I’m off to find someone strong and acquire a wheelbarrow.

Summer Salad days: Roasted tomato salad with balsamic dressing

by Cake in the country

This one is simple and lovely

You will need

400g cherry tomatoes
Sea salt
Handful of fresh basil
Drizzle of olive oil
_________________________
Mixed leaves of your choice.
Red onion, small and finely sliced
Parmesan.  I had originally intended to use feta but ran out, so if you’d rather that then go for it!

For dressing:

2 tablespoons good balsamic vinegar
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 finely minced clove of garlic
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp sugar (I used soft brown)
About 50mls or so olive oil, good quality

Ok. First off, preheat oven to about 100 degrees.

if you would like the oven roasted tomatoes you have to do them well before as it takes a few hours. Pop them on a tray and tear a few pieces of basil over it. Drizzle some olive oil over and scatter a little sea salt over them and pop them in the oven until they’re lovely and squidgey. I actually ended up giving them about 20 mins at 150, covered with tinfoil and then turning them down to 100 for about 2 hours.

Make your dressing my mixing all the ingredients together. Pop them all in a bottle and give a good shake or whizz them up with one of those milk frother whizzy things that I love! Give them a taste and season should you need to.

Then it’s the simple matter of mixing your leaves, red onion, and shaving some parmesan (or scattering some small cubes of feta over it) and placing your tomatoes over the whole lot. Serve your lovely dressing on the side. Use it sparingly, it is rather strong but just lovely altogether.

Culinary adventure of sorts…

by Cake in the country

Well there I was, settled in front of my computer glancing out at the trees being bent over backwards by the wind, happy in the knowledge that I could have a lazy day. And then it all changed. For in passing, farmer Richie sauntered in and casually came out with ‘you know we have gooseberry bushes over beside (neighbour’s) house, don’t you?’.

Well I shall tell you now I did not! With this information I knew, knew that my life was about to change. Or at least the next hour of my life was.

No longer would I stay plonked in the living room. No. I was off to find these alleged gooseberry bushes! But not before a doubtful yet excited ‘Really? You’re being serious? This isn’t an attempt at some kind of cruel trick or bad joke, is it?’ With that I paused, and waited for a punchline.

None came.

Not that that rules out the fact it may have started as a joke and Richie may have just forgotten where it was going. Alas, that happens quite a bit, much to the amusement of the jokees. He’s a bit scattered. I have none of those genes I’m sure…

With that I got up, fought open the door, and got blown 6 foot back and landed in a coal bucket. It’s a bit windy out, would you have guessed? But I would not be thwarted. I found my way out of the bucket and with unknown vigour and bravery, if I do say so myself. I edged closer to the door. I made it out. It was blustery, to say the least. Trees being relieved of their leaves, the odd cows hurtling by a la ‘Twister’ and I’m pretty sure the garage was about 4 foot farther away than it was yesterday. But heedless of these small setbacks, I set about my mission. I traipsed over to the gate, yanked it open with strength of 6 superheros, and set off across the field to the place rumoured to hold these beauties. Well I searched. I looked and peered and squinted and surveyed. I saw no gooseberrys. But then, I spied some greenery in the corner. Behind the fence of the remains of last years vegetable patch.

Could this be it.. My heart thumped, my hands were shaking. Well perhaps not, but I was excited ok?

I slowly approached the gap in the fence, and there they sat.

My very own precious gooseberries. Not quite ripe yet, but I’ll give them a week and then the gooseberry recipes will commence!

Look, lots!

I picked a wee handful just to play around with. Nick wasn’t a fan I’m afraid

Nor was Betty

But Hope sent her and Emma packing fairly lively

And I left the wind and rain and came back inside to chill out and enjoy looking at some pretty green gooseberries:

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Yummy Cookies!

by Cake in the country

Yes. That is their official title. Please do not refer to them as anything but this title.

These were one of my cookies for the #twookieparty! Link to yere own posts in comments #irishfoodies!

These, my good people, come with a warning: You cannot stop at one. Sorry. Sorry to your waistline too. But you have now been warned. lets get to the good stuff…

You will need to make 12 large cookies or 24 mediumish small:

  • 160g flour
  • 120g butter
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 100g light golden caster sugar
  • 100g light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg, 1 egg yolk mixed together minus a spoonful of the mix. Sorry.. awkward.
  • 180g choc chips- I use 60% cocoa
    1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. And prepare a baking sheet! Maybe two.
    2. Right oh. First up- you’re gonna brown your butter. To do this, get a saucepan with a light coloured bottom so you can see it change colour. Keep some cold water in a sink etc, as you may need to stopPut your butter in the pan, put over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. Watch it like a hawk. As soon as it turns to a tan colour (keep an eye on it under the bubbles, it will turn too dark very very quickly). If you need to, plunge the pan in the water to stop it cooking and burning. (Although all is not lost if you do as you can use it in some french sauces).
    3. Pop that in your mixer. Let it cool a little, add your sugar and cream until pale and creamy.
    4. Mix all the rest of your dry ingredients up in a nice bowl…have it at the ready…
    5. And mix your eggs and vanilla together…
    6. And add your eggs and vanilla and beat til nicely mixed.
    7. And stir in your flour.
    8. And stir in your chocolate chips. All of em. You may eat one. Quality assurance that is.
    9. Spoon out in little spoonfuls like:

    Notice they’re not very even. Cos I was making 5 items on my baking friday, so I wasn’t bothered. Ooops.. They taste just as good, trust me.

    Put em in the oven. Then, then this happens..

    Let cool on the tray for a few minutes, and remove with a spatula to cool on a wire tray.

    Eat em warm. Seriously. I mean, these guys are good.. but warm: they are amazing…

    Enjoooy!

    Have two. Gowaaan…

      Twookieparty Updates!

      by Cake in the country

      Seeing as twitter is over capacity, I’ve set up this post for people to leave their updates on as comments 🙂

      I’ll throw in a picture to get us started:

      Go ahead and post pictures etc  🙂

      Steamed Mussels, Pan Fried Garlic Prawns served with some Fluffy Long Grain Rice…

      by Cake in the country

      A dinner fit for kings! I went down to our local beach today and picked some mussels. As you do. Not much time tonight, so straight to it. I used what I had on hand, feel free to substitute fresh ingredients 🙂

      You will need:

      About 20-30 mussels or so
      1/4 bottle of white wine (How you choose to dispose of the other 3/4 is entirely up to you. Just saying. I won’t tell)
      Half a small onion, finely chopped
      A pinch of thyme
      A sprinkling of black pepper
      1 & 1/2 tbsp of dried parsley
      A guilty chunk of butter (about 60g)
      __________________________
      1 packet of prawns, about 20 in it if I remember correctly! (Alas, the countryside has a sever lack of fresh prawns)
      30g butter
      2 cloves of garlic (you know me and my garlic)
      2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
      __________________________
      Um… Rice. Whatever kind you like. I used long grain today because I didn’t have to stand on a chair to get it. So there.
      1. And now the fun stuff. Put your rice on. I use a rice cooker and love it to bits. Otherwise, go with manufacturers instructions!
      1. Mussels need to be clean and barnacle free. They should be if you buy them. Just make sure. Give them a few rinses. Discard ANY that are open. They shall give you food poisoning. And that ain’t pretty. Going to write up a post on how to clean em if you’re picking them for free (yaay!) in a sustainable fashion and all that!
      2. Ok put all your 1st batch of ingredients (minus the mussels) into a nice saucepan that has a lid. Bring to the boil and let it reduce a little and let the alcohol boil off.
      3. Pop your mussels in, bang a lid on (I do like a bit of noise in the kitchen) and give em a wee shake.
      4. Leave on a boiling heat for about 5-7 minutes. When the mussels are open and peering out at you from their shells, they are done. And yum. Believe me.
      5. Take out the mussels. Discard any that have NOT opened. They are bad. Out to get you. Trust me.
      6. Keep the broth on a boil until the liquid has reduced by half. This? This liquid of wonder is what you will spoon over your mussels and perhaps rice. As it is amazing. Like really.. It’s really good.

      1. For the prawns: Defrost thoroughly if frozen. Peel and de-vein if fresh.
      2. Heat your butter, garlic, onions in a pan until soft and beautiful smelling (heaven!)
      3. Add your prawns and cook until heated through, or pink if you’re using fresh. It shouldn’t take too long, if you overcook them they’ll get rubbery and disappointing.
      4. It’s as simple as that. Really. Taste one. See? Yum.
      5. Grind some black pepper over and enjoooy

      Serve the whole lot with some lovely fluffy rice. Mmmm fluffy rice. You could probably mix it up a bit but my family don’t always like food touching each other. Particularly with new recipes. I’m not sure this all even goes together thaaat well. I just wanted to cook both mussels and garlic prawns. So there you have it. Yep.


      Roasted Vegetable and Goats Cheese Quiche

      by Cake in the country

      Well I am back with a bang! After a rather eventful weekend it’s high time I made some fooooood! And I had some goats cheese that was staring out at me every time I opened the fridge. So I decided to use it up! And what better way to use it up than in a quiche. With aubergine, some courgette, a few peppers, and of course mushrooms!

      Here’s what it looked like..

      The pastry is butter heavy so its just lovely and flaky. Not the best for the old calories but sure that’s the way it goes 🙂

      This is enough for an 8″ tin. I used a cake tin with a removable bottom to make it as a quiche should be able to stand on its own once it’s cooked!

      Ok, so heres what you need:

      7 oz cream flour
      5oz butter, very cold and chopped into cubes
      1 teaspoon of sugar
      5-6 tbsp of ice cold water
      Baking beans.
      ___________________________________
      1 Aubergine
      1 Courgette
      1 Pepper
      4 portobello mushrooms
      Good quality goats cheese
      ___________________________________
      Pinch of salt
      3 eggs
      250mls cream
      Small pinch of pepper
      Small pinch of nutmeg
      1. Ok. Start with your pastry. Mix your flour and sugar and add in the butter. Now you can either blitz this in a food processer, or rub it in until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. I blitzed and it looked a little something like this:  which is a terrible photo but you get the idea!
      2. Next, pop in your water. Start squeezing the dough into a ball. It will come together!
      3. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Now to bring it together, get the heel of your hand and start pushing the dough in little bits away from you. It’ll start to turn into a lovely smooth goopy ball sometime after about 3 mins of doing this!
      4. Then you just have to scoop it up, form a nice smooth ball, cover in clingfilm and pop it in the fridge for a few hours until nice and firm.
      1. In the meantime, prepare your vegetable. Cut the 4 ingredients into even slices.
      2. Heat up a griddle pan until piping hot. Place the slices on until the look lovely and… well.. griddled. Like this:
      3. Yum. Now do that with all the veg, and then just pop them into an ovenproof dish. You want to give them about 10-15 mins depending on thickness in a 200* oven. Look at these lovely items:
      4. And while they are getting ready, you can check on your pastry. When it’s nice and firm, you can take it out and roll it out. It’s handy to do this between 2 pieces of clingfilm as it’s a tough pastry to work with! Mine was a little thick, but about 1/8 inch thick should work!
      5. Line your well buttered tin with the pastry,  carefully. Press into the tin lightly. Trim off any excess pastry.
      6. Use greaseproof paper to make a package for your baking beans and line the pastry case. You are going to pop it in the oven for 8 minutes, then take the beans out, and bake for 2 more minutes until just coming away from the edges.
      1. Mix your eggs, cream, nutmeg and pepper in a bowl.
      2. Take your roasted vegetables and arrange in the partially baked pastry case.
      3. Pour the egg mix in until 3/4 full. It will rise up so you need to give it a bit of room to do so!
      4. Arrange your goats cheese on top and push a little down into the mix if you wish (and I did wish.)
      5. Pop the whole thing into the oven (180*) for about 30-40 minutes. But not before taking a photo of course. Like this one…
      7. It is done when you take it out of the oven and a knife come out of the centre clean. When it’s done, just let it sit in the open oven for about 5 minutes to rest.
      8. This wasn’t done fully but still looked pretty good!:
      10. Serve. Eat. Enjoy.