h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah, I think that's what I'll do with it, although after hitting it with the blender it's more jam-like now than the runny jelly it was before. The recipe says not to cut up the fruit unless it's big, and then only in half, but strawberries don't disintegrate when you boil them for jam, which is why I mashed it with the spud masher first time around and I got exactly the kind of consistency (if a little over-set) that good strawberry jam should have. Next time I think I'll dice them.

Well, turns out that it tastes pretty damn good. I've just spread some on a slice of bread - it's a bit runnier than I'd like but it's quite delicious, so I'm keeping it.

Blinis.

Not only have I never made these before but I don't think I've even eaten them, so if they turn out crap I won't really know

The batter is currently fermenting for an hour. A 7-gram sachet of yeast for 7 oz of flour seems like an awful lot, compared to how much yeast (1 tsp) goes into a loaf of bread that has almost three times as much flour, but that's what the recipe says.

I seem to have a couple of egg yolks spare. Another batch of blinis and I'll have enough yolks for custard, or zabaglione

The blinis are... okay I guess. Nothing to shout about but they go really well with chilli Just fluffy bread really. I think they might be really nice spread with golden syrup.

I think I see a future where I'm buying a lot more golden syrup than I have been previously

Dammit. Back from the bar, got the munchies, only one and a half blinis left. I'm definitely going to be making more of those. And using up the spare yolks too

Candied peel.

I needed some for the Christmas pudding. It's hard to get around here, except at this time of the year (and expensive when you can get it), so I decided to make my own. It worked very well, and as a bonus I've got some deliciously lemon-flavoured sugar syrup that's sweet at first but with a tart twist in the finish (of course I took a sip - do you take me for a sap? ) which I'm damn well not going to throw away.

So what on earth *am* I going to do with it?

Freeze it for lemonade in a few months?

Use it in a lemon glaze?

*subscribes to this journal*

Crikey, there must be something in the air! I was standing peeling oranges and lemons this morning, and making candied peel myself. I'd been having a discussion on FB with Anoldgreymoonraker (remember him?) in Japan and with Pierce and various other people from all over the place. About mince pies. And then mincemeat and the lack of it.

So, I challenged myself to make it from scratch and then discovered that I needed candied peel. I've got loads now, although it's still a bit squashy, it needs to dry out. My leftover sugar syrup is in a jar and maybe will be used on a plain sponge pudding. It can stay in the jar though until I think of a good use. I made loads of peel. I might make some mandarin peel soon, as they will be in season soon.

Tomorrow will be the actual mincemeat making session.

As for Christmas puddings, they're much nicer mid February anyway, once all the normal christmas fayre has been eaten up.

I do remember Anoldgreymoonraker, although I don't think we ever conversed. Is he not active on h2g2 any more?

My candied peel was very squashy when I first took it out of the syrup (which it had been in for about two weeks). The recipe says to dry it out in a very low oven for two to four hours, or in an airing cupboard for three to four days

I made a big jar of mincemeat not long after I moved into a bedsit in north London in the late 80s. When I moved out almost five years later I still hadn't used it, and I had to throw it away, for reasons I won't go into right now, but before I did I opened it and cautiously took a sniff...

Oh my Yep, alcohol is definitely a preservative alright

Obviously a different recipe to mine. I'll check yours out, if I can find that method online. I'm writing the mincemeat making one up, as part of the Create December challenge. So the peel part is a subsection of it.
It's always good to have different methods to compare results.

oh, sorry, you asked about AGM - he was offended by somebody's racist remarks, in the BBC times, and left. Which was sad.

Ingredients

Any citrus fruit – 3 pink grapefruit/8 lemons/4 – 6 oranges
225g caster sugar
125 caster sugar
Granulated sugar

Method

Wash the fruit thoroughly and scrub it if waxed. Peel the fruit and slice into narrow strips. With grapefruit, you will then need to cut off the pith as well.

Put the peel in a saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil and lower the heat. In the case of grapefruit, which is more bitter than orange or lemon, you will need to change the water once it has boiled and repeat this twice more before covering and simmering for between 1 and 2 hours until very tender.

Drain thoroughly, reserving 275ml of liquor, adding extra water if necessary. Pour the liquor into a pan and add 225g caster sugar. Melt over a low heat, stirring and bring to the boil. Stir in the peel them remove from the heat. Leave the peel to stand in the syrup for 48 hours.

Drain off the syrup and pour into a clean heavy bottom pan, add 125g caster sugar and dissolve slowly, add the peel and gently simmer until the peel becomes translucent. During this phase you should nurse your peel like a risotto, giving it plenty of stirring to make sure it doesn’t catch on the bottom. Cover when cold and leave to stand in the syrup for 2 to 3 weeks (or however long you’ve got).

To dry, take the peel out of the pan and spread onto a baking sheet lined with non-stick parchment paper. Place in a cool oven set to 50°C (gas 1/2) and leave to dry until the surfaces of the peel are no longer sticky to the touch. Turn the pieces from time to time, the whole process may take from 2 to 4 hours. You can also leave it in an airing cupboard for 3 to four days.

Toss in granulated sugar and, when cold, store in airtight containers where it will happily keep for up to 12 months or longer.


There's a lot in this recipe that goes against what's in others I found around teh interwebz, so I sort of adapted it.

Other recipes say that you should change the water three or four times for *all* kinds of peel, not just for grapefruit, and I don't think any of them mentioned simmering it for up to two hours. 48 hours is also a very short time for the peel to sit in the syrup - most other recipes suggest anything from a week to a month. I haven't made up my mind yet about whether to toss what's left in sugar.

ooh, that sounds excellent - I wish I was near enough for a taste test. It's quite different from the way I did it.

Saag paneer.

I made the paneer myself. That's nothing new - I've done that a few times. But I've never used it in a recipe until now, and it came out rather well. I think it could use more spice in the recipe though.

I could have got some genuine saag from the Indian grocer but I used up some of the frozen spinach that's been sitting in the fridge for a while.

Puff pastry.

I can't tell yet if it turned out okay because it takes so long to make, what with having to chill it so many times, that I won't be using it until tomorrow, for a steak and kidney pie

It is one almighty faff though, and I can understand why people settle for the frozen stuff, but it's really not that difficult, just very time-consuming. And if it's a choice between paying $2.50 for it from the supermarket and not knowing exactly what's gone into it but it must be the cheapest of ingredients to sell for that price (GMO wheat, butter with bovine growth hormone, all kinds of additives and stabilisers), or $10 from the food co-op and it's probably made with wholesome ingredients...but $10?

I made it with nothing but organic plain flour (think I'll use pastry flour next time), organic butter and filtered water, and it probably cost me about the same as the cheap stuff.

Really looking forward to that pie

Well, I don't like to blow my own trumpet but that's some pretty damn good puff pastry. Certainly better than frozen stuff, and at least as good as any I've had in a restaurant, which for all I know might have been bought in frozen anyway, and probably was in plenty of places. I had just the right amount too.

Flaky pastry next, perhaps

Soil.

That's right, I'm going to cook some soil. Well, sterilise it, to be precise, and it's not exactly soil as such - it's leaf mould and a little bit of the underlying soil that I collected yesterday from underneath the trees down at the bottom end of the complex.

I spread it out on a plastic sheet yesterday afternoon so that the sun could get at it and dry it out a little, and so that any wildlife could take the opportunity to make good its escape, but before I actually plant anything in it I'm going to have to sterilise it to kill off any seeds and other... stuff that might be in there.

I'm told it might pong a bit while it's cooking

It stinks a bit, yes!

I remember a kid at school. He had a few skins and a packet of tobacco which only had about three flakes left in it. So he had the brainwave of bulking it out with soil. His face went a very interesting colour when he smoked it!

This is going to work out rather well, energy-conservation-wise. There's already a loaf of bread in the oven, then the soil's going in, and while that's cooking I'm going to make more paneer, and once that's separated I'll make another rice (or tapioca) pudding, so three things cooked but only one instance of getting the cooker up to baking speed

Mind you, it's getting a bit toasty in here. Current temperature outdoors: just shy of 90F/32.2C. Current temperature in the kitchen: well, it's hard to say exactly because I don't have a thermometer, but the readout on the probe thermometer I use for cooking says 91/32.8, so it looks like the a/c's going to have to go on pretty soon.