Journeys in Delicious

A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks. I had a gorgeous trip to Meadowhall with Jenny, I got yet another cold, I got my 2-stone award at Slimming World and I fulfilled one of my dreams by going to see Florence + the Machine in Manchester. You may recall that I posted 2 of her songs in my countdown to departure back in August, and since then she released her second full-length studio album,Ceremonials, in October. I bought tickets in November and I can’t believe how quickly time passed between then and now.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I have been recently; on Tuesday I’ll have been in the UK for 7 months, and though that may not seem like a milestone to some, I’m pretty damned proud that I haven’t had any sort of emotional breakdown or burned out. A lot of things have happened in the last month that could have pushed me to the breaking point, too; on Friday one of my best friends got engaged, and even though I would have given anything to be there with her to celebrate it, it didn’t make me sad.

I think I’ve been able to do this well because of the amazing support of my family and friends back home and here, and because of that, I dedicate the video in this post to all of you. It’s Florence singing “You’ve got the love” at the show on Thursday night, and I’m dedicating it because the lyrics are absolutely true: you’ve got the love I need to see me through.

Food in England has been somewhat of a HUGE surprise; I expected to encounter bland, overcooked, badly prepared food and much to my shock I discovered that the food here is great!

The main supermarket here is Tesco and it’s definitely the one I like going to the most. It’s massive and it has basically everything you need, from fresh meat, fish, produce, dairy, groceries and all that to electronics (you can march into the store and buy an Amazon Kindle eReader right off the shelf, no online ordering necessary), clothing (F&F is a really good clothing line and I’ve already bought a lovely brown trench coat from there), home improvement items, kitchen gadgets, music and DVDs, photo developing services, a pharmacy, you name it, the damn place has got it. It also has a service called Tesco Direct that’s basically an online shopping mall. I just ordered all the things I need for my new bedroom from that website and they delivered it to the store 48 hours after I placed the order. Fantastic! But I digress…

One of the things I really love about eating in Cleethorpes is the amount of cheap, fresh local produce available. The carrots here are absolutely fantastic; they compare to the carrots my grandparents grew in their garden in Edmonton so I can’t get enough of them. There are potatoes in abundance and the Brits love to eat them with every meal if they can; I can’t quite get on board with that, but I will admit that they’re pretty nice potatoes. There’s also onions and garlic from UK growers as well as many other root vegetables and some fruit. It’s all dead cheap so you can pretty much eat like a queen when it comes to fruit and veg. Some of the imported stuff is pretty dear, but sometimes it’s worth paying the money for mangoes or grapes.

Meat is in abundance here in the UK, and beef and pork come well before chicken and lamb. UK lamb is very expensive and most people choose to buy theirs frozen from New Zealand. I still haven’t eaten lamb, but I imagine I’m going to get coerced into it sometime soon. The other kinds of meat are also quite inexpensive, though; you can get 4 packages of very nice pork chops for 12 pounds a lot of the time, and yesterday Jenny paid 2 pounds each for 2 lovely, fat little roasting chickens. What a deal! 

There are also a tonne of prepared foods available, and even though I’m not impressed with how few people actually prepare their meals from scratch, why would they when Tesco prepares stuff that’s much more gorgeous and delicious than the alternative? They sure put together some really beautiful meals. That will be my next round of pictures. For now, please enjoy some of the beauties and oddities that I noted on this morning’s stroll around the store.

Okay, I can’t decide if I’m totally grossed out or absolutely amazed by this video. All I know is it warrants further investigation and makes me want to go to Costco.

efccooking:

Meat Building 101 - Epic Meal Time (via EpicMealTime)

OK, the sheer amount of meat that they use here is actually gross, but they visited Queen’s!  And built Grant Hall out of meat!  Cha gheill!

I did it! YAY!!!! I followed the directions exactly, only veering to add a little extra water to the dough (it was still crumbly after 15 minutes of kneading, so drastic measures were taken). I rolled it out jellyroll style, but I guess I didn’t seal the bottom well enough because it split in the oven and made the loaf look like it was being tipped by a tire jack haha.

The bread has a delightfully pillowy, soft texture underneath a perfectly crunchy, hard crust, and the roasted garlic flavour is subtle but very pleasing. Definitely not a breakfast bread because of the garlic, but it certainly would make for a delish lunch or dinner sandwich.

Now that I’m gaining confidence in the bread department, I do believe I’ll try my hand at some other kinds. Maybe potato chive is next, or a classic cinnamon raisin bread!!! Any suggestions?

-Laur

Kelvis came back today and installed these new floating shelves in the kitchen, among other things. Don’t they look great? Like my ever-expanding collection of cookbooks? Yay cookbooks!

Vietnamese cold salad rolls done my way:

Start with a large rice wrapper, soaking it in warm water on a plate until softened and then drying both sides on a clean, damp dishcloth. After that, don’t wait too long but add your ingredients. Some of the ingredients I prefer are:

• romaine lettuce, chiffonaded (sliced in ribbons)
• cucumber, sliced lengthwise
• green onion, sliced lengthwise
• chopped cilantro
• steamed cold shrimp, halved down the vein
• skinny rice vermicelli, but I use a kind by Rooster brand made from beans and peas (I don’t technically understand how it’s made, but it’s yummy)
• Hoisin sauce

My mom likes other stuff in hers like sliced pepper and surimi crab, but I like mine with mostly green ingredients. If I have shrimp it’s a bonus, but just the veggies and noodles will do.

I usually dip my rolls in straight hoisin but my friend from work, Big Bryan, is Vietnamese and he makes a dipping sauce that’s hoisin thinned out with lime juice and some sugar. I did that today with the juice of two key limes and some of the instant dissolving, superfine white sugar and it was absolutely delicious. I could really taste the lime and it was a nice sour foil to the rich hoisin sauce. Thanks, Bryan!

-Laur

Last Thursday my friend Irina came over to watch a chick flick and I decided to surprise her with dessert. She has a sweet tooth and I wanted to make something special, so I decided to try my hand at a molten chocolate cake.

Molten chocolate cakes are the individually-sized cakes that you bake only until the outsides are cooked and then serve immediately so that the interior of the cake is still liquid. When you cut into the cake the centre flows out onto the plate like lava from a delicious, chocolatey volcano. Yummy.

I found a recipe on my favourite website that had a lot of favourable reviews and used it because I had all the ingredients it asked for. The recipe, which was one of many similar ideas in the search results, is called Chocolate Cakes with Liquid Centres. Way to get down to business with that title, eh?

The results were a little firmer than I wanted, though that’s my fault because I left them in the oven a little longer than I meant to. Also, the recipe tastes kind of, well, eggy. You can really detect the eggs in the recipe and I wonder if there’s a way around that. It was delicious and melty and decadent, don’t get me wrong, but I would like something that’s a little less omelet and a little more liquid chocolate. Suggestions?

-Laur