Julia Child

God, I'm so excited about Julie & Julia the film, it's ridiculous! I've just been on youtube watching old clips of Julia Child from her show The French Chef, and my word, she's an absolute dynamo - with such a refreshing presenting style. I particularly loved the one where she introduced the chickens as "Miss (insert cooking style here.)" Absolutely wonderful! And Meryl Streep in the trailer does such a good impression of her. She is a brilliant actress/actor - whichever is PC nowadays. I'm so looking forward to this film. I'm 3/4 of the way through the book now, and it's due back to the library on 11th September, the exact release date of the film. Anyway, that is all - just thought I'd share my adoration of the film, book and personal of Julia Child!

Impromptu Curry Courses

Today, I got home from doing various productive things in the bank and leisure centre and retrieved the coley from the fish with which I wanted to make fish goujons with a side salad. But I discovered that the fish was off. Even my cat, who usually devours all types of food, left it alone, which was a major warning sign, I can tell you. So, I decided on a pasta dish, maybe risotto with gorgonzola and bacon, which didn't work out, because I'd done it a few nights ago. So, on with a curry. The time: 6.50pm. Some onions in a pan, spices (homemade garam masala), ginger and garlic. A whole chilli with a nick cut out of the bottom for the flavour and not the heat. Then I whizzed some leftover tomatoes from the fridge and thew them in, cooking them down a bit. A can of chickpeas with their water in and then I reduced that a bit. Some chicken stock then. Reduce. I then put in some toasted and bashed up pine nuts and cashews and finished off with half a can of coconut milk which I left to simmer. Right, the bhajis. The recipe I was vaguely following said gram flour and greek yoghurt with a bit of water, a chopped chilli and some turmeric and garam masala. But, I completely forgot that I had gram flour, so used chapati instead. Didn't have yoghurt so I had to make do with some soured cream and creme fraiche. Then I used a bit of water and threw the onions in and let them soak while I heated the deep frying oil in my wok. Fried those and had too much batter left so I quickly quartered some chestnut mushrooms and coated them in the batter and fried them. They were good actually. Finally, I made some almond rice and then served. The time: 7.40pm, which, given my reputation of taking ages improvising meals and then leaving a huge mess, was quite good.
At lunch I just had Caerphilly cheese on toast. Caerphilly, I don't like. It was quite bland to be honest. That might just be me. But I think I'll be leaving the rest in the fridge for someone else.
Economy Gastronomy, the programme, I've also noticed is awesome. I already loved Allegra McEvedy and adore the Leon chain, but the show is great. I love the little masterclasses that Allegra and Paul Merrett give about stock cupboard stuff and his gastropub dishes. I really want to cook rabbit soon. And calves' liver with a mustard crust as described in Julie & Julia, which is such a great book, by the way.

Something New

Earlier this afternoon, I decided to make a carrot and cumin soup for dinner, to be served alongside some fish (coley) goujons and a side salad (of some form or another - I'm not a great advocate of salad.) The carrot and cumin soup was actually quite good - if a little hot. The first sensation was that of pure organic carrot, really nice and then you got the aroma of the cumin, along with the heat of the chilli and the ginger. Then, after having the back of your throat pleasantly warmed by this heat, a second spoonful burned my tongue lining off - the cheffy swirl of double cream that I put in the centre of the orange soup clearly not being enough to cool it down. A couple of dollops of creme fraiche later and it was really lovely. Just a nice warming taste that I think would have been better suited for the winter, but was still great. The folks loved it, even if they found the heat a little hard to deal with - they had four dollops of creme fraiche each. But I've known for a long time that they can't stand much fire - even if it's an entirely wimpy amount of chilli. Anyway, carrot, cumin and then a lovely warmth, followed - I think - by a little sweetness from the onion. On the whole quite nice. Even if the kitchen is still a mess from three blenders' work, two having broken on the first whiz. Hell, I'll clean it tomorrow.
Also, cardamom shortbread, I'm not sure if that many people do it. But I found a recipe for oat shortbread in one of Rachel Allen's books, made it and it was lovely. Tampered with it a bit and it's absolutely divine. You have a first bite and it's just normal, nothing spectacular, but then the second bite leaves your entire head filled with the scent of green cardamom and it feels like a sweet, buttery and crumbly ritual cleansing. Very good, if I do say so myself.
God, I should have started this blog ages ago. There's so much that I want to say and have wanted to for yonks. But I will try and keep the retrospective blogging to a minimum if I'm to get any, or keep any loyal supporters of my random rants.
Night :)

Starting Out

Ok. I've just been reading Julie & Julia - eagerly anticipating the new film which opens this Friday, of which I am very excited - and I thought that I might have a bash at blogging. Can't hurt anyone can it? Incidentally, if you are pained by my efforts, either tell me in a nice way or just don't come back.
I've been interested in food for ages now, not exactly sure how long, but a good while anyway. I'm eighteen and having got a few A Levels, I'm now waiting to go to Durham uni at the beginning of October. All through this summer I've been cooking my face off - cooking lunches, when sandwiches would have done fine, doing far too many curries after buying both Anjum Anand's books, too many Chineses - Ching He Huang, and baking far too much as a result of avidly watching Rachel Allen's Bake!, and generally having a great time in the kitchen. I still live with my parents, obviously, and have slowly but surely been replacing all their utensils and pans etc with ones that I have bought using my wages from a saturday job in a local newsagents. Basically, when I leave home for good, they won't have enough things in the drawers to cook with, that thorough is my cooking-based consumerism.
Among my friends, I'm now officially labeled as the food snob, or a foodie, a title which I am quite proud of, but also in shadow of as I feel like a fraud most days. I keep having to remind myself though, when I stumble into an area that I am not familar, that I am not as old as other foodies out there, and not as widely experienced in the realms of middle class food snobbery. My feelings of fraudulence do get me down occasionally I have to admit, especially when they are uncovered by my friends. Just last week I was at a friend's helping with dinner, while three others and their parents bustled about the kitchen, readying salads and other quick bites to eat. We were to have falafel (which I had an argument about the pronunciation - help would be greatly appreciated) and pitta bread with houmous as the main centre piece of the impromptu meal. Now, having not really eaten pitta bread before I (stupidly) did not realise that the whole ripping it open and shoving the houmous inside was the correct way of eating it. So you can imagine the hilarity and embarassment when I spread the houmous onto the TOP of the pitta. Oh dear. The piss was ripped out of me there, I can tell you. But, in my defence, I don't cook or eat Greek food that often, so how was I to know?...
Anyway, I think I've gone on long enough, so I will leave for now. I hope that this was a taste of what I hope to be blogging about from now on, and, well, I hope you liked it.