These are my lemon slices just after they come out of the oven.
Having now made them a few times, I can make them quite fast, though still have to follow the recipe carefully.
I am thinking next time of trying to make them with oranges instead.
Tunnocks Teacakes
You know when you shouldn’t but you still do. Well it’s like that for me and Tunnocks.
Whether it be Chocolate Caramel Wafers or as it was tonight with a Teacake, there is something very nice, but also guilty about eating these very sweet delights.
The Teacake is a crumbly biscuit, covered in marshmallow and covered in a thin layer of milk chocolate. No matter how careful you are crumbs and flakes of chocolate drop over you.
Tasty, yet not quite delicious.
Bananas
Like a lot of children, my children love bananas and eat a lot of them. They are very much a staple at home and we take a bunch of them when we are out and about.
I am not averse to them myself. However unlike when I was young, my children do not like bananas and custard. This was a staple pudding of mine when I was a kid. Reminds me that I haven’t had a banana split in a while either, probably not had one of those either since I was a child.
Interestingly they don’t really like banana flavoured stuff either, you know that banana milk or banana flavoured sweets. I would suspect that’s because they don’t really taste of bananas!
Recently buying bananas has been a little fraught with some purchased bunches going black very quickly, or very bruised already. So much so that I have been buying them loose rather than buying them pre-packed. It wasn’t unique to a single supermarket either, regardless of where I was buying them, pre-packed seemed to be bruised or ripened too much. I wonder if it was anything to do with the recent weather?
Costa Flat White
Experience has told me that Starbucks though they now sell the flat white aren’t much good at making them. I have also found asking them to make a skinny flat white results in either excuses that this isn’t possible or that the end result will not be very satisfactory.
Costa however do seem to be able to make an adequate flat white.
Like most things, they don’t seem to come close to the ones I had out in New Zealand. Costa also don’t complain if you ask for a skinny flat white either.
The only thing I don’t quite understand is why is the flat white more expensive than other similar coffees on offer?
Oh and another question is a flat white different to a latté? It should be in my opinion, a latte should have less foam and a flat white should use a foam consisting of much smaller air bubbles than you would find in a cappuccino. Not every coffee place I go to knows that though. Ah well one day I will need to go back to Auckland for a visit.
Coffee at Pizza Express
When the Americano I had ordered at Pizza Express arrived, I wasn’t that impressed to be honest. It looked a little flat and there was no crema, something I normally expect to see in an Americano.
However appearances aside, there was a real depth of flavour and I really quite enjoyed it.
Monte Bianco Pizza
So after a visit to the Bristol Aquarium we headed off to the Bristol Harbourside Pizza Express for lunch.
It’s quite a small Pizza Express so can get crowded. However we had a warm welcome.
After looking over the menu I went with the Mariann Bogdan created new pizza, the Monte Bianco. It was very different to the other pizza on the menu. It consisted of a base, but on top it had chicken, béchamel, fontal cheese, courgettes, red and yellow peppers and garlic oil.
So no tomato.
However I really enjoyed this pizza, it was lighter than a traditional pizza and lots of flavour, to be honest I am not sure if even needed the chicken. I might have replaced the chicken with mushrooms if I was cooking this at home.
Penne with Spicy Sausage
I recently had lunch at a small Turkish place and decided to go with the penne pasta in a chilli sauce with spicy sausage.
It was very nice and quite tasty.
I don’t think the pasta was freshly cooked, it tasted in some respects like fresh pasta, but knowing the place I was in, I wonder if they used frozen pasta? The chilli was done well, nice and spicy but still subtle and not overpowering.
On the train…
Earlier this week on my way to a conference decided to have a coffee on the train.
In the past coffee on the train was basically a no no for me!
Why?
Well generally it was instant coffee and as a real coffee aficionado (or is that just a posh word for snob) I don’t drink instant coffee. So I would normally get a tea.
Things have improved in recent years and now on the high speed First Great Western services you can get freshly brewed coffee from freshly ground beans. As with any high street coffee outlet you can get your choice of cappuccino, latte, etc…
I went with an Americano and though pleased to see that it was Fairtrade, it was freshly made, I was disappointed with the resulting coffee. It lacked depth, character and flavour. Don’t get me wrong it was so much better than instant coffee, but was not special and to be honest on the way back I didn’t bother with the coffee.
Roast Potatoes
So do you like small or large roast potatoes?
Large roasties do take longer to cook, but often with their fluffy interior have more of a potato taste.
Small roast potatoes on the other hand are quicker to cook, are often more crispy. However you have to be careful with the par-boiling as too long and you will have roasted mash.
From a nutritional perspective, smaller roast potatoes have a higher fat content, so making them big makes them a little healthier!
So do you like small or large roast potatoes? Either way using the right potatoes is also important, I now prefer Maris Piper over King Edwards, do you have a favourite type of potato?
Baking Cakes
These cupcakes (or fairy cakes) are based on a recipe for a loaf cake.
It is based on a recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine for a chocolate loaf cake.
I had to adjust the ingredients as I had run out of cocoa.
Ingredients
175g softened butter , plus extra for greasing
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
140g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
½ tsp baking powder
50ml milk
1 tbsp cocoa powder
50g plain chocolate chips
Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.
Add paper cases to a bun baking tray
To make the cake batter, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder, milk and cocoa until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips, then spoon into the cases.
Bake for 10-20 mins until golden, risen and a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.
You could then drizzle melted chocolate over them, ice them, or leave them plain.