Improv Super Stew

Perhaps my Blog has found it calling: cooking! Whist I am not typically a frequent cook, I did do a GCSE in Food Tech and have the general capabilities, but sometimes eating out is just so much more appealing.

However, after the pancake success and knowledge that I had some (reduced) casserole beef in the fridge I decided to make a stew/broth thing... due to my plans changing I had no time to find a suitable recipe so I had to improvise and make it in flash (because I was going to a gig to see Kelly Clarkson... another story) which had a recipe for disaster written all over it!

So, after a quick dash via Sainsburys on the way home, this occurred:

A standard packet of diced beef into a frying pan with a whole finely chopped onion, a lining of oil was hot before they were put in

Now, I peeled two (very) large potatoes, two medium carrots and skinned a six button mushrooms

500ml of beef stock, with a minature bottle of red wine along with 500-750ml of boiling water in a giant stew-pot on a high heat to come to boiling

Veg were chopped chunkily, in haste

Beef was now browned and had produced lots of juices

Beef and juice into pot, along with all veg

This was all I had planned, however, I made a few additions into the pot:

One crumbled Oxo cube, around a tablespoon of instant beef gravy powder

A satisfying squirt of tomato puree and a little less of garlic puree

A liberal shake of salt, pepper, thyme and mixed herbs

I found some frozen green beans in the freezer so I chucked in a couple of handfuls of them

I waited until this all came to a boil, and then it was left at an intense simmer for an hour and a quarter, stirring occasionally. The stove here is electric so I turned it off as I left for the gig, so the heat would have slowly died down over the next half hour or so.

And the results: shockingly good! I did fear over my perhaps liberal quantity of red wine, but that reduced as it simmered. There are many areas for potential change as opposed to improvement, perhaps a couple more green veg (I really hate the stringy bits you get in frozen beans...) and a beef tomato. The overall consistency of the liquid was still runny, so for someone who despises thick gravy it was perfect but some may prefer to thicken it slightly with corn-flour.

Anyhow, I think the key rule here is that as long as the principles are right, it can't go that wrong! I was slightly dubious with my minimal simmer time, whereas many recipes suggests 3+ hours, but the par-cooked meat solved that problem.

So, go forth and cook! And let me know how it goes! Anyone made pancakes today?

Pancakes

Well, I admit I've neglected poor little blog in the past week or so, but the coming week is currently planned by the hour and the prior week was not much better, so blog didn't quite make it onto the to do list.

However, today, along with my housemate Albane, we made pancakes! I am sure this would not be a notable event for many people, but for us, despite not being inexperienced at cooking, our success rate does sometimes leave something to be desired for, be it Albane who loves rice so much she still manages to cremate a pan each time she does so, or myself who can cook any veg and any meat as long as is with pasta and Tesco 'generic' pasta sauce.

Thanks to dearest Delia (I did try to Nigella but I couldn't find her pancake recipe) we followed her guidance and along with Albane + Chris teamwork we made six divine pancakes! My attempt last year failed miserably, a sort of shallow fried yorkshire pudding explosion, so I am beyond overjoyed at how they turned out.

Notable thoughts that we discussed whilst making the masterpieces were roughly as follows:

a) if you can cook a pancake does it mean you are now ready to have a child, for all parents must make a pancake for their child

b) should we set up a pancake shop, so we can make pancakes, sell pancakes and make money

c) we have enough flour to make over one hundred pancakes

d) how varying the quantity or milk/butter/flour/salt/sugar could alter the taste/texture of the pancakes

e) how could a man ever resist us now we are able to say 'Darling, go back to sleep whilst I go and make you some pancakes for breakfast?'

f) we may replace men with pancakes and get fat and never have a man again because we are fat but we will still have pancakes and we love pancakes because they love us back

So, I took a couple o f pictures of the pancakes, cooking, on the plate and I couldn't resist, my child/gerbil also had some pancake, because she is almost a human, just in gerbil form. She loved it, and I think the sugar sent her a little deranged.

So, much happiness from this unexpected culinary success and I urge one and all, make pancakes this week and let me know how it goes!

Pancake love, Chris xx

Past, Present and Future

As my time at University approaches an end, I've been having thoughts about what I have gained from this experience (other than a whopping debt, lots of Ikea furniture, a gerbil and a slight penchant for cheap white wine).

The negatives need a mention my course (Business Studies) in its nature of being quite general and broad has had many topics that I have no interest in whatsoever, hence ultimate boredom for many lectures. Without a doubt I would recommend to anyone choosing a degree to study that a specific subject would be a better idea.

Also, BSc. or BA. I only learnt the difference in my second year when I complained that half of my degree so far had been mathematics,  in retrospect I would choose a BA, even if it is less well regarded in some subjects, I feel for what I wanted to learn - practical, realistic, modern ways of working in a wide range of business environments the arts side would have been more applicable that science.

So on to the positives. Whilst I don't think I have become an amazing businessman, I did mange to get onto a work placement, which did allow me to gain endless amount of real world skills, experiences and a graduate job! Hurrah! Also, I've met a huge variety of people, one giant plus by going to Uni in London as opposed to some other UK cities is that in the past four years I've met people and learnt about cultures from every corner of the globe Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Iran, India, Israel, Russia, Lithuanian, Tanzania, South Africa right over the Atlantic to Brazil, the US and Canada - and no doubt a few others I've missed out somewhere in between.

London is definitely home nowadays, with Scunthorpe as my home town. Living in three locations in four years has taught me a lot, mainly about estate agents, utilities and packing! A notable recent example is my households first water bill for using 73,000 litres of water in a month, which in practical terms is the equivalent of flushing the toilets 243 times or putting the washing machine on 40 times a day, every day, for a month! I have yet to get a reply from Thames Water about my presumption that they have billed us for the street!

Where will my degree take me, other than being able to write a book '101 things to do with pasta, tomatoes and cheese'? Well from September back to retail, possibly a path I thought it could have been four years ago, but I do have intentions to explore other options, teaching has always been on the back burner, the media certainly interests me although how I'd get into that now is a little beyond my current thinking, or some form of events or project management and I can't forget at the moment my recent interest in politics may just persuade me to do a Masters (MA not MSc...) if working life is getting a bit of a drag in a few years.

One thing I know I really, really, really won't miss about Uni is the computers... after trawling the campus to find one, as usual Firefox freezes for five to ten seconds every twenty for thirty seconds, so writing this blog was a bit of a challenge... gave up in the end and returned home to write it on my trust Mac... although I think that opens up a completely separate blog in itself!

Snow Day

No good Blogger could let today pass without reference to what Londoners have deemed 'Snow Day'. In my four years living in London I have never seen more than a sprinkling of snow and according to the news this much has not fallen for 18 years!

I didn't quite realise the extent of the disruption to transport until I heard that all buses had been suspended, no buses in London is the equivalent of closing the roads in any other townor city which doesn't rely on public transport, even though the tube was generally running, many people need a bus to get to the tube station, so in short, anyone needing to make a journey was going to have limited success.

Nevertheless, ignoring advice not to travel unless it was a necessity, I decided to make my way to Hampstead Heath using the Overground which was generally working well. Unfortunately, as my train pulled into Highbury & Islington we were evacuated because it had set on fire! I'm not quite sure how it had managed to do this on the snowiest/coldest day London has seen... but TfL never ceases to amaze!

Anyhow, all in all, a terrific day, many people and children who didn't make it to work or school were out in force, people were happy and talking to each other, two things quite untypical for London and the inventiveness of some sledges people had created were top notch, my three favourites were: 

a) a dustbin chopped in half 

b) a lid off the recycling box 

c) an estate agent to let sign 

I've attached a few links to pictures throughout (I did try and include them in the blog, but either I'm rubbish or my Mac didn't want to let me do it). I'll also use this as the moment to unveil my Picasa Web Albums! Unfortunately my camera battery was dead, so all of the HH photos are on my average iPhone camera. Please feel free to have a look at any of my other albums!

I hope whatever the weather is in your area you are enjoying it to the maximum! It doesn't happen that often... so enjoy it, have some fun!