Sponge Toffee

If you ask me, I'm not a Hallowe'eny person. I don't carve pumpkins, I don't decorate the house with cobwebs and I generally don't give out candy.

But the thing is if you give me the opportunity to appear in fancy dress, I plan and dream for weeks. It could be one of my foofy tafetta gowns for a swanky doo or it could be an opportunity to don my red sequinned devil horns, striped leggings or even kitten ears, the chance to wear something a bit out of the ordinary just gets me giddy.


This Hallowe'en saw me in shades of black and gold, with glittery deelybopper antennae and glittery wings.

Yup. I was a bumble bee. Complete with tiara...which made me a Queen B.

I've always wanted wings...and glittery wings just made it better.

To keep with my sweet dress-up theme I decided to make some honeycomb candy to take into the office. I'm not much of a candy maker--far too finicky for me--but Nigella's hokey pokey recipe seemed so easy not even I could mess it up--simple caramelise sugars, whisk in bicarb and pour onto a greased pan and let cool.

But mess it up I did...the first time. In hopes of a larger surface area of candy, I spread out the foamy goo. The foamy goo deflated to a sheet of sticky sweetness...which later turned into crunchy sweetness.

My second attempt was far more successful. This time I substituted honey for half of the needed golden syrup and increased the amount of baking soda and poured it out and let it sit on its own. Honey definitely improved the flavour, making the candy taste a bit earthier and smokier than purely sweet.


Hokey Pokey
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe in Nigella Express

yield approx. 125g

100g (0.5c) sugar
2Tbsp golden syrup
2Tbps runny honey
1dspn (2tsp) bicarbonate of soda

Grease a tin foil-lined cookie sheet

Mix the sugar, syrup and honey together as best as you can. Put on the hob, over a medium flame and let it sit there--untouched, unswirled and unstirred--until the sugars are melted and are a medium-light amber colour. This happens rather quickly (2-4 minutes, depending upon the strength of your flame), so don't take your eyes off the pot.

Immediately take off the heat and quickly whisk in the bicarb. It will foam and become moussey. Pour onto the prepared pan. Do not spread it out as the bubbles will burst and you'll lose the lovely honeycomb effect. Let cool thoroughly before breaking into pieces.

Store in an air-tight container.


cheers!jasmineWhat I'm reading: I'm a quill for hire!

Baba Ganouj

I treat election nights as many others do the Oscars, Grammys, or World Cup or Stanley Cup Finals. I barricade myself in the TV temple, a friend or two at my side watching names and numbers scroll across the screen as talking heads and experts try to explain how things will be different in the morning.

I yell at the television when the other side looks as if they'll win. I try and physically push the pixels so the person I voted for gets in. I hold my breath. I hide behind the cushions. I stay up as long as I can to watch final numbers.

Tomorrow is municipal election day in Ontario. Hopeful mayors, councillors, school trustees are all on the ballots, as are various questions about this that and the other. I've read the literature and the newspaper articles. I've made various decisions and will exercise my right.

Our local races aren't overly contentious. Okay...that's my opinion. Others won't agree and are doing their best to draw attention to heinous wrongs and/or if the rest of us don't acquiesce to their obvious superiority our area will go to Hell in a handbasket.

So I'll be home Monday night, and will flick on the returns while tucking into nibblies. This year I'll have a bowl of baba ganouj (or baba ganoush, if you will): creamy, garlicky goodness, oozing over mini pitas and raw veggies.

Good baba ganoujs I've had have all been made with fire-roasted aubergines--the smokiness permeates the flesh and imbues the dip with an extra savouryness that other versions just...lack. I don't have a gas hob, a barbecue, or a blowtorch, so I oven roast the eggplant until the skins char.

Baba ganouj is easy to put together and can be made a couple of hours in advance and left to sit in the fridge so the flavours marry. I don't use as much tahini as some recipes do--just enough to impart its sesame flavour, but I lighten the texture with sour cream. You can use less garlic if you wish, but I tend to add more.



Baba Ganouj
Yield: approx: 1 cup

One large purple aubergine
Salt
Pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp Tahini
2 Tbsp Sour Cream
juice from half a lemon
Extra virgin Olive oil
Toasted sesame seeds (for garnish, optional)

Preheat oven to 170C/350F. Line a baking tray with foil, smear with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Slice the aubergine into 5cm/2" thick discs and arrange on the prepared tray. Rub oil over top of each disk and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake for 45 minutes or until the flesh yields to a knife point and the skin has blackened. Remove from oven and let cool.

Scrape the innards into a bowl and stir in garlic, tahini and lemon juice. Balance flavours to taste. Cover and let sit in fridge until ready to serve.

Drizzle olive oil over and sprinkle sesame seeds on top before serving with pita breads/chips, flat breads and/or crudité.

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

Hobble. Cough. Sniffle

If you've followed my Twitter feed for the past couple of weeks, you know that I've spent more time wrapped in cuddly blankets and an ankle propped on a pillow than causing the usual chaos and mayhem (not to mention hunger pangs for those all around me).

Yup. I've turned my ankle--not as badly as a few years ago, but bad enough that carrying out my usual kitchen business just isn't happening. For a brief second I thought about bringing back Cooking By Proxy, but the exbf (who was part of it last time) made it more than clear that he would not go through that again. Apparently in my hobbled state I am just as scary weilding Pokey the Walking Stick as I am weilding my favourite kitchen knife.

So I ate frozen leftovers and splashed out on enough Chinese food to feed the Red Army.

Things were going well enough until they weren't: scratchy throat, tightwire walking a fever, drippy nose, and a cough reminiscent the soundscape of San Francisco's Pier 39. Yup. I've caught the flu...or something.

My Dear Little Cardammumy's nurse's training has kicked in, plus her "my only baby is sick and needs to be better" instincts. Yes...a combination of scary and comforting.

So again, I'm not in the kitchen, save for boiling a kettle or preparing a few very easy things like tinned soup and a sandwich or two. Which means I have nothing foodish to really share with you other than something that's become a recent go-to meal, completed with a cup of tea:

A buttered, lightly toasted bagel with ribbons of paper-thin proscuitto tumbled atop each slice.

Easy delicious.

cheers!
jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!