I found this lemon slice recipe from Kitchen Wench by Belinda Jeffrey. Mine didn’t come out as pretty as hers, but OH MY WORRRRD it was delicious. For some reason, there was a crumbly top, I suspect some of the base came to the top as it was baking? Either way, it made it really delicious with the gooey centre… Only half left…

Notes:
halved the recipe.

But the year I started uni I began living on my own; and up until then I never gave a second thought about cooking. REALLY cooking. In fact, up until then I almost had a smug carelessness about the fact that I couldn’t cook, my lacking culinary skill was a part of my personality. But eating out or ‘feeding myself relatively well’ just didn’t cut it anymore.

I have a very vivid memory of watching a cooking show and seeing satay skewers sizzling on my tv and thinking, I can do this. I proceeded to making the satay sauce with the entire recipe from ‘memory’. Obviously my memory was lacking because to this day, it’s probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted in my life.

To be honest I cant remember if that was the point I told myself I can’t cook. Or the point where I told myself I have to learn how to cook. Either way. That kitchen disaster stuck with me.

Despite my urge to rebel against the very un-feminist notion that women must know how to cook, I attribute the fact that I now can, and love to cook, to those years of living alone. When you live on your own you cook for yourself and its ok to fuck up and fail miserably. There is no mouth to feed but your own, and you can always make do with a salami sandwich for another night. I discovered a place where I could experiment and enjoy the results, until then I had never realised that cooking is both a labour of skill and creativity.

After discovering that I wasn’t such a disaster in the kitchen after all, I sifted through my memory of all the things I missed about my mum’s cooking. High on the list was her dumplings. These dumplings aren’t fancy, in fact, my mum used to make huge batches of them and freeze them ‘for a rainy day’ (ie. when she couldn’t be fucked cooking). But they were always delicious.

I’ve been told by a friend that my dumplings are a my ‘specialty’ and ‘family secret that should never be revealed’ so I am not allowed to divulging the full dumpling recipe – but I’m sure you smart chefs out there can figure it out with the clues given

Here’s my ‘ingredients list’. Please do not ever purchase that brand of dumpling skin (in the back) – I had to throw both packets away after spending half an hour try to separate them without it ripping. However the wonton skins are beautiful, smooth and stretchy and delicious. I also throw in some asian flavours like soy and sesame – season to taste!

I had to go out and purchase some more, luckily these turned out to be perfect. After thawing, they separated easily and was stretchy enough for me to put a big dollop of the filling in.

The beauty about this ‘recipe’ is that once you have the base ingredients, you can add any extra herbs or veg as you like. EXPERIMENT!

Took me years of practice to fold the dumplings as well as my mum. If you are having trouble, just fold in half and press the sides tightly together. Just keep in mind you won’t be able to fill as much inside and make sure you PRESS TIGHTLY or they will split when cooking. It’s worth practicing the ‘pretty way’ – gather the skin towards the middle in a pleat-like fashion – really helps to have a good quality dumpling skin to work with.

voila!

1kg of mince and 1 small-medium cabbage makes roughly 100 dumplings.

Enjoy!

I had another interview yesterday. If it’s possible, I want this one even more because it’s an IT job and they actually encourage people to learn and step outside of their specific responsibilities. The thing is, after this interview, I was smiling all the way home. It felt positive. Whether or not it was remains to be seen, but I actually felt like, yes, I could work here. The people (3 interviewed me) were friendly, to the point and open. I will know by Friday if I get it, and on the weekend I will either be making Celebratory or Mourning Muffins… but meanwhile, I bake in anticipation!

You do know it’s just an excuse to continue my muffin baking frenzy right? So without further ado…

EDIT: As I’m writing this post, I received a call after making the muffins, that I didn’t get the job. They went for someone more junior because they thought I was ‘over qualified’ and that I’d get too bored in this role. Enjoy these muffins while swearing like a sailer mother fuckers!

Nigella’s Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins:

I ran to the shops this morning for the ingredients in a pretty shitty attempt to balance out the muffins I’m about to make. Unfortunately the Tesco Express near our house is pretty crap and didn’t have 1.Golden Caster Sugar and 2.White Cooking Chocolate. I made do with white caster sugar and a 100g block of Milky Bar but at least the raspberries were fresh!

Thought I’d go the full she-bang this time and use the full recipe, hoping to make giant muffins with big muffin tops. However, I did put in slightly less sugar since I find white chocolate to be overpoweringly sweet. Hopefully this won’t affect the final taste.

The way this recipe is put together was slightly different to the blueberry muffins I made the other day. The butter was melted instead of creamed. Yet to see if this makes any difference to the final product. I did notice that the wet ingredients wasn’t very attractive when I added the butter to it. Not sure if that’s normal or my butter was too warm?

This time, I filled the cups to the brim and added some shaved white choc and raspberry halves to try and doll it up.

Alas it failed. There was no big top, my attempt to prettify the cakes were to no avail and there was muffin batter oozing over the top of the cups. Perhaps this outcome was a preemptive strike, a preview of how I would feel after I receive ‘the call’; surprised, deflated and utterly disappointed.

I don’t know how they taste yet. I hope it’s not dry and bitter like how I feel right now. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, it’s back to the drawing board. Job search wise and finding the perfect muffin top wise.

Recipe is here.
Notes:
soy milk instead of milk
120g of caster sugar instead of 150g of golden caster sugar
added white choc shavings and raspberry halves on top

This morning, I had a very important interview. I say important because I really really want this job. It’s at the prestigious auction house Sotherby’s, and I just really want it. Isn’t it always the case that when you go for interviews you don’t care much about, you exude a sense of confidence and calm, but it’s ever like that when you genuinely do want it.

So I dressed smartly, arrived early, even got to see their brilliant restrooms (I would’ve taken a picture but there was a lady powdering her nose), I met my interviewers and answered their questions – well most of them. I made sure to keep eye contact, constant smiles and nods, but a few questions just caused me to brain fart. For some reason, I couldn’t think of ANYTHING I’d done that was ‘difficult’ and deserved merit, or any reason why I’d be happy to ‘go back into admin’ – what are you talking about, I never left!

After the interview I was slightly confident, as I walked down Regent Street, texting Alex, I decided maybe I didn’t do that well despite asking many questions. As I turned on to Piccadilly Circus, I became convinced that they absolutely despised me. As I type this, thinking about the whole ordeal is making my fingers tremble. OH GOD, STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.

And so I did. I decided to bake some muffins.

I was going to make dumplings, but China Town seemed so quiet and eery at 10am, I just didn’t know where to start looking for my ingredients. So I came home, put on the apron I got from Jan and Liz for Christmas and off I went.

Being in London means I don’t have all the pre-bought baking utensils that my mum has amassed over the years, so I’m down to basics. Baking is quite muscle-demanding without an electric beater, it took me a good 10min with a fork, whisk and wooden spoon to properly beat the butter to smoothness. Also, it’s times like this, I think an iPad would actually be a handy tool and not a novelty item/iphone for The Incredible Hulk™.

I was really worried about these muffins turning to rocks. One year, I brought over tough and bitter apple muffins to Liz’s family Christmas lunch. They were horrid, I didn’t even taste one before I decided to spread the evil. Their whole family were so sweet to say they were tasty. LIES! LIES!! But since then, I think, I’ve improved in baking, and I’ve also learnt to FOLD the flour through the butter and that it’s ok to have LUMPS.

So in went the lumpy batter, into glasses that used to be IKEA candles, and a glass dish I collected from buying Gü Chocolate Souffle (was OK not worth the original price, but I got it on sale, of course, the glass that came with is worth it!).

The result wasn’t really what I expected. I thought it would rise a lot more. I have to admit I accidentally put them in the oven before I sprinkled the cinnamon and sugar mix on top, but they were only in the oven for a minute, it shouldn’t have affected the rising right?

I let it rest before I split open the little one

And then I enjoyed it with a glass of minty fizzy Ribena <3
I miscalculated how big those candle glasses were. I probably could have got away with doing a full batch of batter and made giant muffins with enormous muffin tops. Maybe next time, giant muffins and a giant iPhone… I mean iPad.

The Recipe is here : I halved the recipe, and replaced milk with soy milk

With all the commotion of Tuesday night, I’d forgotten about my other exciting outing.

Burlesque Life Drawing!

I found a website that organises weekly life drawing get-togethers at £10 a pop. Not bad considering some classes go for about £40. They even provide pencils/charcoal and paper for 20p/p.

Found another one in Islington for £7 so trying that as soon as I get a bit of cash in!

Was from 6:30-9:30. Damn was it draining. I left at 9.

It was nice to finally do something creative again. I miss all my craft stuff, but i’m glad a sketchbook and some pens help.

Here are 3 I specifically chose because they were the best – no – ONLY good ones I did that night.

As I’ve kept saying, eating out in London isn’t exactly easy on the pocket – or the mouth. So me and A have resorted to cooking at home a lot. Kitchen experiments range from a normal stir fry to mushroom meatballs. Here are a few that we remembered to photograph!

Pattern from: Softies by Anon
(http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780670070824)