hello my little panna cottas! This week, while I’m not usually that clumsy in the kitchen, I had two massive spills; one was double cream leaking on my fridge shelf, the other being brownie batter all over the counter. Both of these happened and it felt like an accurate visual metaphor of the emotional double whammy I faced this week. And what a week it has been for International Women’s Day, am I right ladies???
Jokes aside, this week’s awful news stories were all unfortunately timed with me writing what turned out to be quite a harrowing personal essay for my course which covered amongst other things, sexual harassment. I was caught by surprise by how affected I was by this, but it was that funny feeling of realising that you’ve been plastering over a puncture inside of yourself, only for that plaster to be ripped off and everything rushes out and leaves you deflated.
And then, I spilled the brownie batter.
But the good thing about spills is that you can clean them up. Neither mixture was completely lost and in these situations I learnt you can scrape it back up, put it back together and still make brownies.
Which leads me onto the stuff you’ve all been waiting for.
Milk Choc Brownies via Serena
So my friend Serena has been asking me to make this milk chocolate brownie recipe for months at this point, and after a tough week, I finally relented. I can’t ever remember making brownies before as I often find them hit and miss (often too dry, too dense or too bitter or in worst case scenario, the absolute disaster which was this year’s Bake-Off). This however, with their use of dark brown sugar (I used muscovado) created a pretty ideal brownie, rich, fudgy but with the right amount of sweetness that only improves with time.(I chalk this up to the use of dark brown sugar, of which I used muscovado). Excellent for a no-nonsense chocolatey treat to hit the spot when you’re sad, happy or just watching UK Drag Race.
Tesco’s own brand crunchy nut cornflakes
It’s rare that I found a new favourite breakfast cereal as essentially my tastes haven’t changed since I was an unsophisticated teenager. However, I had tried Crunchy Nut a while back at a friend’s house when I was very hungry and wanted to try again to see if hunger was in fact clouding my judgement. (Almost any food tastes 1000000x better when you are hungry). I bought Tesco’s own brand because I’m not made of money and after tasting, am reluctant to concede this might be the new fave. It is less overtly sweet than Frosties, but has more flavour going for it than your average cornflake. Please don’t eat if you are allergic to nuts though (I can’t have this newsletter be responsible for deaths).
Jack Monroe’s cannellini and garlic soup (with added basil)
As I stated last week, I am very bored with cooking at the moment, so last Sunday I decided to pick a load of new recipes to try to liven things up. The first I tried is this soup from Jack Monroe’s Vegan(ish) cookbook. It’s incredibly easy to do as you just need to simmer the beans in stock and garlic for forty-five mins before blending in any additional herbs and seasoning you fancy (I used leftover basil from last week’s crispy gnocchi). As the cooking is just simmering the mixture on a low heat, you can easily just read a book or something in that time and taste-wise it’s simple but filling and comforting. I recommend with a nice bread and a hefty dose of freshly ground pepper on top.
Jack Monroe’s Chinese-style Mushroom Curry
Recipe number two. This was part of Veganish’s Fakeaway section and while I’m not sure if I’ve ever had the kind of curry it refers to, it tasted pretty good and was easy to make. The large chunks of mushroom were surprisingly good but it was quite salty, even though the only salt was in the stock and a dash of soy sauce; I only had dark soy sauce though when it specified light, so that’s probably on me.
Ella Risbridger’s Pea and Parmesan Pasta
This time we were working from Ella Risbridger’s Midnight Chicken and other recipes worth living for and tbh, I just wanted something super easy. This fit the bill, where you cooked the pasta in stock (the recipe specified chicken but I used my mushroom stock cubes), added peas and then a lot of parmesan and some olive oil. It didn’t look super fancy or anything (not sure if it was meant to make a smooth incorporated sauce bc mine definitely didn’t), but equally tasted good, especially the marinated peas with a little parmesan.
Aims for the future:
Banana Kaya Experiment
So our flat is obsessed with kaya jam, a sweet coconut jam popular in Singapore and Malaysia to the point we have accidentally ended up with three open jars of the stuff and I’m not sure entirely how. I need to use some of it up somehow so I have decided to try making a banana bread with a coconut jam drizzle. I’ve never made a drizzle before though, so we’ll see how it goes.
Brooklyn Naranjito Pale Ale
Today we are having another takeaway for our Friday treat, so for the first time in a long while I have bought myself this can of orangey beer to go with it. (I personally love any fruity beer, especially my beloved Apricot Sam Smiths or a Lindemans Pecheresse if anyone ever fancies sending me some, cough cough) I tried a sip of it a couple of weeks ago from my flatmate so want to see if it is worth a whole can.
Mushroom Ramen
Is this the weekend where I will finally make mushroom ramen?? We shall see!!
That’s all for this week, but hope you’re doing okay in spite of…everything and as always do get in touch! I’d love to hear your recipes, ideas or just a nice meal you had.
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