A week and a day - Day 1

Hi, my name is Chris, and in Fe's absence I am hijacking this blog (it's ok, Fe knows) with my own tales of success and woes in the culinary world. From the content of this blog you would be right in assuming I don't have much influence on what goes on in the kitchen - but alas, with Fe away in London for a week I've been left to my own devices with full decision making authority.

So it is to Day 1 of my adventure. With little ingredients available until I went shopping later I was left with just the basics. I was however able to source an important item from the cupboard - potato, which was later to be mashed. Accompanying this was a hooped version of tinned spaghetti which I've been keeping spare for this very situation, and some peas. Please note the wedge of butter resting upon the peas - this was done purely for its photographic qualities.

Had I had fish fingers and gravy available, my all time favourite meal would have been before me (another time perhaps).

Flowers Please!

Hurray for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall! You know I have never had a recipe of his turn out anything short of fantastic. Maybe it's down to my impeccable recipe choice, but probably it's because he is the best cook in the world!

This Thursday I have been inspired to conjure up some elderflower fritters which I thankfully shared with Chris and Alyssa (they're delicous but very filling). They are quite easy to make really. Once you have, like me become obsessed with noticing and memorising every local elderflower bush, you then need to make a batter:

125g Plain Flour

25g Caster Sugar

Pinch of Salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp Rum or Kirsch

150ml water

2 egg whites

8 Large, fresh and fragrant sprays of elderflowers

5cm groundnut or sunflower oil for frying

mix the flour with the salt, sugar, olive oil, rum/kirsch. Whisk in water stopping when it looks like very thick paint and thick enough to hold 2 egg whites. Cover and leave in a cool place for at least 30 mins.

Give your flowers a quick bug check but be careful not to lose too much pollen as this is the tasty bit. In a large, high sided pan or deep fat fryer. Heat until small cube of bread goes brown within a minute when thrown in. Lower heat to a simmer.

Meanwhile whisk 2 egg whites until they form soft peaks and gently fold them in to the batter. Dip your flowers in to the batter and lower them gently in to the pan. Turn them once or twice until puffed up and golden brown. Keep in low oven to keep warm.

Serve with sprinkled sugar and lemon-honestly they are sooo yum!

Strawberries for Celebration

As you can tell from our Harry Potter/ Wiccan gowns it was our graduation yesterday afternoon. And ofcourse how could an alchemist celebrate without ones champagne and strawberries?!

Viv Westwood herself was even in attendance looking more like a High Preistess than any body else there. What hair that woman has, I'd love to be able to carry off 'carrot' in my old age.

There was even a spot of general course reunion in the garden party (below). I cannot quite belive just how quickly four years has gone, warning to all those still at uni! I've been very lucky however and made some fantastic and often truly peculiar (in a good way) friends. Who I hope to bake for on a regular occasion. Speaking of which I really havn't been very creative this past month following the degree show. I must be all arted out...one more day of realxation can't hurt!

Spring is Fun!

Degree Show night has been and gone, as you can see from my two amigas here they had a thoroughly brilliant time. The stress of fourth year has now thankfully surpassed, hence the huge grins of glee, but I will miss my girls.

The week itself was a success with all my comrades having a gallery support them and selling the odd bit or two. It was a great excuse not to have one of us bake weekly, but daily!! This accounts for not losing any weight to stress throughout fourth year, a good nutritional tip to potential graduates. Eat home baked cake as much as your stomach will allow, it's good for you!

After all the glamour of degree show week I thought it best to take some time out in nature. This Spring has been exceptionally kind in terms of its sunshine. So generous infact I have been able to dine alfresco three days in a row, for Scotland this is a rarity. One of these occasions took me to Dunkeld where I found these happy scenes:

I had no idea Dunkeld had a bluebell wood! Incase you want to find it, it's behind the cathedral next to Papa Larch, the daddy of all perthshire larch trees. The wee chap on the left was a keen duck feeder despite them being a bit rough and beaky.

I hope spring is inspiring you all!

Saving Grace

At long last! I've been meaning to make this great weight of a tea bread for weeks. This is a Welsh tea bread called amusingly Bara Brith, what a gorgeous name! It means 'speckled bread'.

I dizzily didn't realise I had to soak the raisins and sultanas for over six hours in strong tea-honestly! So I had to make it the following week when I was fully briefed on the recipe, which is actually very simple. It makes a lovely heavy, elasticy loaf which should be left for 2 days to mature, but I couldn't help have a sliver today with some Chai...


Recipe time:


500g mixed dried fruit and peel

300ml strong hot tea

250g self raising flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 egg forked to blend


1. Soak the fruit and peel in a large bowl in the tea for at least six hours (don't forget this bit), or overnight.


2. Sieve the flour and spice in to the soaked fruit, don't drain, stir in the sugar and egg. Beat altogether until smooth.


3. Heat the oven to 150 C or gas mark 2. Tip the mix in to a prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 1/2 hours when it should be well risen, firm and brown. Cool and store for two days (if you can) until rich and gluey (Mmm). Use salty butter to spread on to thin slices with a hot cup of tea.






NEVER think you can get away with baking cookies with Flora omega 3 marge, just because it was buy one get one free at Tesco! Utterly Butterly marge works very well actually, but that's not the point.

I thought it may be okay to try making some chocolate pecan goodies without decent ingrediants, what a mistake. Hence why this jar is remaining empty and the blackbirds shall have a feast today. They were tasteless and cakey. They were even described as 'offensive' by a budding cookie fan who tried them warm from the oven! Alas.

Busy Busy Bee

Cream and Brown are two colours that I love to mingle together. I actually had been trying to make pieces that could use both these colours but didn't see it happening for this project. So this was a very happy accident. This piece is a neckpiece (not completely finished), and if I had time I think i would have enjoyed making a few more pieces in this style, oh well!

The list just keeps getting longer and longer (degree show must do's) however I'm going to reward my hard work(?) with some baking come sunday as I have the whole place to myself, and therefore all the baking results must too be all for myself, mmm. That thought presses me on to get in to uni this morning and make some stuff! Must go...

Showtime!

The countdown has begun - five weeks to go until degree show 2008. I'm hoping to have all the work I planned finished by this time, which seems to always take me a lot longer than I had anticipated. I think I must work at the rate of a sloth.


This here is my postcard image, which unbelievably took a lot of tweaking and probably will still print very differently. I chose this image as it's one that I did at the beginning of fourth year, but eight months on with a splash of strawberry tartan it has much more character.


After Uni I would like to keep this theme going and apply it not only to traveller imagery but to themes such as history, flora, fauna, baking, and unsurprisingly tea drinking. Preferably they would be related to Scotland, requiring many a mini break to an isolated west coast island.