My housemates love Come Dine with Me. It can be almost guaranteed that at 5:30 every evening, someone in the house is watching it. Discussing the show one night, someone had the brilliant idea of us doing our own version. This resulted in diaries and pencils being pulled out and everyone was given a date of when their time to play host was. Then, a list of everyone's food hates was drawn up as well as the rules of the competition (this was all done in lots of bright colours and looked very neat and very lovely - thanks Helen).
So, we started off with Mel, doing a Mexican evening for everyone, complete with home made maracas, which was excellent. This was followed by Helen's Pirate themed evening which included a treasure hunt and all of us smashing eggs on our foreheads (luckily mine was hard-boiled!).
Last night was my turn. After a while of thinking about it, I settled on a Moroccan theme and my menu was as follows:
Pre-dinner:
Cumin flatbreads, hummus, carrot and cucumber
Starter:
Spinach falafel and salad
Main:
Moroccan spiced chicken, roast vegetables and couscous
Dessert:
Individual caramel cheesecakes
After dessert:
Moroccan tea, strawberry chocolates and minty white chocolates
Obviously I had a lot of cooking to do, so I started my preparation on Sunday.
I make the strawberry chocolates from the October Thermomix Newsletter, but halved the recipe as I didn't want 900g of chocolate! (if you want the Thermomix newsletter, just pop them an email and ask to be put on the mailing list, they are great source of inspiration!)
I then made the minty white chocolates:
400g white chocolate, broken into pieces
50g double cream
A few mint leaves
A few drops of peppermint oil
1) Put the chocolate, double cream and mint leave in the TM bowl and melt for about 8 mins, 50°c, speed 1 REVERSE blade (I didn't put the reverse on and had lots of little bits of mint in the chocolates, but if you want it like that then don't put the reverse on)
2) Add the peppermint oil (and remove mint leaves if you've left them whole)
3) Put in the fridge until fairly well set and scoop into little ball shapes (or weird oval shapes which is what mine looked like)
Then I made the cheesecake:
(serves 5)
125g digestives, broken up into crumbs (although I left some bigger pieces in too)
500g soft cheese
65g golden caster sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
7 (ish) Tbsp caramel (I used Carnation's and just mixed it a bit in the tin to make it smooth)
1) Add the cheese, sugar, vanilla and 5 tbsp of the caramel to the TM bowl and mix for about 20 secs on speed 4. I wanted a rippled look, so I stopped mixing before everything was well combined.
2) Divide the biscuits into the 5 cups and spoon on the cheesecake (I had to make sure all of mine had the same amount in otherwise there would have been arguments that someone got more than someone else).
I then spooned a bit of caramel onto the top of each one and swirled it around with the top of a knife to give it a finishing touch. I then left them in the fridge to chill.
On Monday, I made everything else!
First I made the falafel:
1 tin of chickpeas, drained
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1Tbsp of flour
An assortment of spices: some cumin, coriander, lemon juice, what ever you like can be put in
A handful of spinach
1) I put everything into the TM bowl and pulsed on Turbo a few times until it was a smooth paste.
2) Roll into balls (this made about 20 small ones) and bake in the oven at 200° for about 20/25 minutes
Then the hummus, which I got from the Fast and Easy cook book, and just added additional flavours to it.
And finally, I made the flatbreads!
200g self raising flour (I used gluten free flour)
150ml natural yogurt
1tsp ground cumin
50ml water
1) Add all the ingredients to the TM bowl and mix on the dough setting until a dough was formed (easy really)
2) Take a handful of the dough and make an oval shape, that is fairly flat. Repeat until all the dough it used and put under a medium grill for about 5 minutes until cooked through
And that was everything I made in Stanley!
I think the meal was ok, I didn't kill anyone so that is a good sign (being a vegetarian, serving my friends chicken was a bit worrying).
We rounded the evening off with trying out Henna tattoos, which unfortunately didn't work very well but were fun anyway.
Now we've just got Sam and Grace's meals left before we reveal the winner! So I'll keep you posted on how I do.
Thank you for reading this blog, I've had some really lovely comments about it and I've had over 500 views, which is really impressive, so thank you for taking the time to read it and I hope to update you with more tales of Stanley soon!
Tuesday 23 October 2012
Sunday 14 October 2012
Summoning Soup
Upon returning home on Thursday afternoon, I was not in a good mood. Having nearly slept through my last lecture, knowing I would be going back to a freezing cold house, I dragged myself home with one thing on my mind: going to bed.
A friend on my course, Tom, who I was walking home with had something else on his mind: lunch. His plan was to have some soup and lots of bread.
The thought of soup was then far more exciting than pyjamas and bed and it made walking up Stanmore Lane a little easier.
I got to work on my soup and suddenly saw a little head poke round kitchen door. It was my housemate, Sam, who had been drawn downstairs by the smell of the soup. A few minutes later another head poked round the door and it was Mel, coming to investigate what smelled so good.
So it appears I can summon my house mates with the smell of my cooking. I may see if this works at 8 in the morning!
If you plan on summoning people with the power of smell, here is the recipe for my lentil and tomato soup:
20gm vegetable oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
375gm red lentils
1 veg cube
800gm water
1 tin of tomatoes (400gm)
2Tbsp tomato puree
1) Put the onion and garlic in the bowl and chop 10sec/ speed 8
2) Add the turmeric and oil and sauté 100°c/ 2 mins/ speed 1
3) Add lentils, stock and water and cook 100°/ 20 mins/ speed 2 REVERSE blade (unless you want smush!)
4) Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and cook 100°/ 5 mins/ speed 2
I used 1000g of water, but this was too much as it kept bubbling over the top, so I had to take some out.
This cost about £1.61 to make, and made 3 servings. So each one was about 54p each, much cheaper than a 75p tin of Heinz Tomato Soup that Tom would tucking in to. And much yummier.
I also did some cost comparison with Sam who made a lasagne. Because I'm a vegetarian, I didn't take into account the price of the fillings, just the sauces.
He bought a jar of sauce for his meat and a jar of cheese sauce, which were £1.75 each.
The sauce for my lasagne came to about 65p and my cheese sauce came to 35p. So that is just £1.
Fairly impressive I'd say.
A friend on my course, Tom, who I was walking home with had something else on his mind: lunch. His plan was to have some soup and lots of bread.
The thought of soup was then far more exciting than pyjamas and bed and it made walking up Stanmore Lane a little easier.
I got to work on my soup and suddenly saw a little head poke round kitchen door. It was my housemate, Sam, who had been drawn downstairs by the smell of the soup. A few minutes later another head poked round the door and it was Mel, coming to investigate what smelled so good.
So it appears I can summon my house mates with the smell of my cooking. I may see if this works at 8 in the morning!
If you plan on summoning people with the power of smell, here is the recipe for my lentil and tomato soup:
20gm vegetable oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
375gm red lentils
1 veg cube
800gm water
1 tin of tomatoes (400gm)
2Tbsp tomato puree
1) Put the onion and garlic in the bowl and chop 10sec/ speed 8
2) Add the turmeric and oil and sauté 100°c/ 2 mins/ speed 1
3) Add lentils, stock and water and cook 100°/ 20 mins/ speed 2 REVERSE blade (unless you want smush!)
4) Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and cook 100°/ 5 mins/ speed 2
I used 1000g of water, but this was too much as it kept bubbling over the top, so I had to take some out.
This cost about £1.61 to make, and made 3 servings. So each one was about 54p each, much cheaper than a 75p tin of Heinz Tomato Soup that Tom would tucking in to. And much yummier.
I also did some cost comparison with Sam who made a lasagne. Because I'm a vegetarian, I didn't take into account the price of the fillings, just the sauces.
He bought a jar of sauce for his meat and a jar of cheese sauce, which were £1.75 each.
The sauce for my lasagne came to about 65p and my cheese sauce came to 35p. So that is just £1.
Fairly impressive I'd say.
Thursday 4 October 2012
I started this post 3 days ago...
One of the first skills you master when you begin university is the art of procrastination.
Everything that once was dull is suddenly very interesting and it is very, incredibly, terribly important that your time is spent on this newly wonderful task.
For example, today I've learnt that the state of Louisiana got its name from the French word meaning 'Land of Louis', named for the King Louis the 14th.
I also learnt that giraffes can go without water longer than camels can.
And the continents names all end with the same letter with which they start.
See, wasn't that a brilliant use of my time?
One of the best forms of procrastination however, is when it comes to dinner time.
What makes this time so brilliant is that you have to have dinner, so you don't feel guilty about cooking.
It is therefore necessary to drag this process out as long as possible.
And this is terribly annoying when you have a Thermomix.
One thing I thought I could rely on to take a long time was a veggie lasagne, as it normally takes me ages cooking on the hob. True to form, Stanley proved me wrong and whipped one up in no time.
Here is what I did:
For lasagne filling:
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
20g oil
2 carrots
1 red pepper
A handful or so of green beans
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can of green lentils
1 Tbsp tomato puree
1tsp mixed herbs
Some lasagne sheets
Cheese sauce:
20g butter
20g plain flour
200g milk
Pepper
40g cheese
1) Add onion and garlic, chop 5 sec/ speed 5, add oil and sauté 100°c/ 2 mins/ sp 2
2) Add carrot, pepper and beans and chop speed 7 for a few seconds (I over chopped mine and had lasagne that resembled baby food!)
3) Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, lentils and mixed herbs and cook on reverse blade 100°c/ sp 1/ 15 minutes
4) Then put this in an oven proof dish and make the cheese sauce, don't worry about washing out the TM bowl.
5) Add all the cheese sauce ingredients into the bowl, chop 10 seconds, speed 6
6) Insert butterfly whisk, cook 5 minutes/ 90 °c/ 5 minutes.
7) Remove butterfly whisk, blend 5 seconds, speed 8 with no heat.
8) Put the lasagne sheets on top of the lasagne filling, then pour on the cheese sauce.
9) Put into an oven heated at about 180°c for about 15 minutes, until the pasta is soft.
This made about 500 portions (ok about 4/5), it was huge!
Unfortunately this wasn't very difficult to make and being able to leave it meant that I had no choice but to do some work whilst I was waiting.
And by work, I mean I was catching up on QI on iPlayer.
Another skill that is developed when you become a student is how to eat everything in your fridge in one go because everything is past its sell-by date.
I'm going home for the weekend and I didn't want to leave vegetables in the fridge whilst I was away because they wouldn't last.
So on Wednesday night I made a 'throw everything in and see what happens' curry.
It had:
1 onion
20gm oil
The last of my new potatoes, broccoli, green beans and a red pepper, which came to about 500 grams
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of chick peas
Tomato puree
Various spices that I found in the cupboard, like cumin and turmeric, about 1tsp of each
1) Add the onion and chop 5 seconds, speed 5
2) Having the memories of last nights baby-food lasagne, I chopped the veg myself and added them, along with the tomatoes, tomato puree, chick peas and spices and cooked on reverse blade at 100°c/ speed spoon/ for 20 minutes.
Et voilà, my experimental curry was complete! I had the rest for dinner tonight, so my fridge is empty which can only mean it is time to go home and empty the fridge there!
Everything that once was dull is suddenly very interesting and it is very, incredibly, terribly important that your time is spent on this newly wonderful task.
For example, today I've learnt that the state of Louisiana got its name from the French word meaning 'Land of Louis', named for the King Louis the 14th.
I also learnt that giraffes can go without water longer than camels can.
And the continents names all end with the same letter with which they start.
See, wasn't that a brilliant use of my time?
One of the best forms of procrastination however, is when it comes to dinner time.
What makes this time so brilliant is that you have to have dinner, so you don't feel guilty about cooking.
It is therefore necessary to drag this process out as long as possible.
And this is terribly annoying when you have a Thermomix.
One thing I thought I could rely on to take a long time was a veggie lasagne, as it normally takes me ages cooking on the hob. True to form, Stanley proved me wrong and whipped one up in no time.
Here is what I did:
For lasagne filling:
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
20g oil
2 carrots
1 red pepper
A handful or so of green beans
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can of green lentils
1 Tbsp tomato puree
1tsp mixed herbs
Some lasagne sheets
Cheese sauce:
20g butter
20g plain flour
200g milk
Pepper
40g cheese
1) Add onion and garlic, chop 5 sec/ speed 5, add oil and sauté 100°c/ 2 mins/ sp 2
2) Add carrot, pepper and beans and chop speed 7 for a few seconds (I over chopped mine and had lasagne that resembled baby food!)
3) Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, lentils and mixed herbs and cook on reverse blade 100°c/ sp 1/ 15 minutes
4) Then put this in an oven proof dish and make the cheese sauce, don't worry about washing out the TM bowl.
5) Add all the cheese sauce ingredients into the bowl, chop 10 seconds, speed 6
6) Insert butterfly whisk, cook 5 minutes/ 90 °c/ 5 minutes.
7) Remove butterfly whisk, blend 5 seconds, speed 8 with no heat.
8) Put the lasagne sheets on top of the lasagne filling, then pour on the cheese sauce.
9) Put into an oven heated at about 180°c for about 15 minutes, until the pasta is soft.
This made about 500 portions (ok about 4/5), it was huge!
Unfortunately this wasn't very difficult to make and being able to leave it meant that I had no choice but to do some work whilst I was waiting.
And by work, I mean I was catching up on QI on iPlayer.
Another skill that is developed when you become a student is how to eat everything in your fridge in one go because everything is past its sell-by date.
I'm going home for the weekend and I didn't want to leave vegetables in the fridge whilst I was away because they wouldn't last.
So on Wednesday night I made a 'throw everything in and see what happens' curry.
It had:
1 onion
20gm oil
The last of my new potatoes, broccoli, green beans and a red pepper, which came to about 500 grams
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of chick peas
Tomato puree
Various spices that I found in the cupboard, like cumin and turmeric, about 1tsp of each
1) Add the onion and chop 5 seconds, speed 5
2) Having the memories of last nights baby-food lasagne, I chopped the veg myself and added them, along with the tomatoes, tomato puree, chick peas and spices and cooked on reverse blade at 100°c/ speed spoon/ for 20 minutes.
Et voilà, my experimental curry was complete! I had the rest for dinner tonight, so my fridge is empty which can only mean it is time to go home and empty the fridge there!
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