I've been tagged!

The lovely Anna Maria - my LighterLife compadre - has tagged me! Here is the premise of her tag (lifted from her beautiful blog)....

"Right guys, listen up....I'm starting a tag. It's called 'Top 10 food pics'. Here are mine, all my favourites.I'm tagging 5 people to do their own 'top 10'. Then if those 5 people could each choose 5 people we'll get to see some really good food pics! Almost like our very own food pic chain..."

Since I have spent a *lot* of my time cooking from the gorgeous How to Eat by Nigella Lawson, it is only right that my "top 10" food pictures are from my HTE journey; a journey which is not yet over. I plan on returning to this blog as soon as I am down to my target weight. I have had a good look through my photos and lifted the 10 which I feel are nicest. Just 2 things to remember;

1,) These are *not* in any order. Just the 10 nicest in my opinion...

2.) These are not necessarily the recipes that I have enjoyed the most. Just some of the nicest photos. It is always the way - isn't it? - that the photos of the nicest meals never do them justice and yet you can take a great photo of a meal you aren't particularly keen on!
Anyway....here are my top 10;

1.) Sunday night chicken noodle from HTE





2.) Gorgonzola, Marsala and mascarpone crostini topping from HTE.

3.) Victoria sponge from HTE.

4.) Fancy cake from HTE

5.) Clementine cake from HTE

6.) Tropical fruit salad with butterscotch sauce (HTE)

7.) Basic white loaf (HTE)

8.) Special meatballs (HTE)

9.) Almond and orange blossom cake (HTE)

10.) Apple crumble

I hope you like these pictures and don't forget that if you want to read what I thought of them, they are all on my "on-hold" NewNigella blog (http://www.newnigella.blogspot.com/).

Now, who to tag.....?! I would like to tag a lot more people, but I can only choose 5, so here they are:

1.) Tina: http://tina-cookerybookchallenge.blogspot.com/

2.) Laura: http://www.hungryandfrozen.blogspot.com/

3.) Gayle: http://theovenison.blogspot.com/

4.) Vicky: http://www.ahealthyappetite.blogspot.com/

5.) Erika: http://ohmy-applepie.blogspot.com/

All of these lovely ladies are good friends of mine and have supported my NewNigella blog right from the begining. Good luck girls ;)

Crostini di polenta con gorgonzola

Crostini di polenta con gorgonzola, from Twelve by Tessa Kiros

What did I make? I did warn you that I have been salivating over this book, since I brought it a few weeks ago and to be honest, it was only a matter of time before I cracked and made something from it. It is a really lovely book. I adore Tessa's recipes and her writing. I find the way in which she divides her chapters really appealing. For example, "Apples for Jam" is divided into "colour" chapters, which is very aesthetically pleasing. "Twelve" is divided into the months of the year, although I must admit that I ignored this seasonal advice and made something from the "January" chapter. This recipe - for polenta crostini with gorgonzola - was just crying out to be made though. Firstly, I had all the ingredients for a super Morrocan spring lamb with roasted red and yellow peppers, tomatoes and olives (courtesy of "Delicious") meal at home, so only really needed something for a light "antipasto." Secondly, we just happen to have a gorgeous wedge of gorgonzola picante at home, which - unless I make something from it sharpish - is bound to end up being the ingredient that breaks my diet! I don't know if you read in my "NewNigella" blog, but blue cheese of any kind is my ultimate food of all time. I absolutely adore it! Luckily, Chris loves it too, so this seems the ideal choice of recipes for my first endeavour into this lovely book. Neither of us have tried polenta in this way before either, cooked, spread and griddled - so that too will be a novel culinay experience.

Oh, my weight-loss seems to have reached a disappointing plateau over the last few weeks. Last week I lost 3lbs, which was fine (ish), but this week I only lost 2 lbs again. That's two weeks now I have only lost 2lbs (in week 4 and this week). It just seems so unfair, because I can assure you that I have not even cheated *once.* I have been very good and stuck to my LL diet religiously. Anyway, I have now lost 29lbs (2 stones and 1 lb) and I still have 4 stones, 1 lb left to loose.

(Cooking the polenta)

(Spreading the cooked polenta onto the baking parchment - and check out the crumbly edges - see below)

Where did I get the ingredients? As I mentioned, we already had some wonderful gorgonzola picante and there really is only one other ingredient; polenta. Polenta is available in Waitrose, which is where I brought mine. Because I read through the recipe prior to buying ingredients for it, I saw that the cooked polenta is "spread" onto baking parchment. I have had nightmares with things sticking to baking parchment before (think the almond macaroons in Feast), so I invested in some decent non-stick baking parchment; better to be safe than sorry methinks.

(The cooked polenta cut into squares...and yes, I know they look like Dairylea slices!)

Was it easy to make? HEL NO! This really was irritating to make which I suppose is quite an achievement for a recipe with 4 ingredients, 2 of which being water and olive oil. In fact, I think that I had problems at every stage of the method. Firstly, you need to cook the polenta, which involves bringing some water to the boil, pouring the polenta into the water in a steady stream, whilst whisking all the while to prevent lumps. So far so good. Apart from the fact that the water into which I was pouring the polenta was boiling so furiously that it seemed to "return" to the boil halfway through pouring the polenta and the polenta-water sort of "erupted," and globules of the bloddy stuff landed on the cooker etc. So, I lowered the heat and poured the rest of the polenta in off the heat, even though Tessa doesn't say to lower the heat until *after* all the polenta has been mixed in. Then one cooks the polenta over a low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

After 30 minutes, one is supposed to "spread" the polenta over a sheet of baking parchment. Note that I say "supposed," because there was no way that the verb "to spread" could be connected in any way with the porridge-like consistency of the polenta in my saucepan. In the end, I spooned the stuff out and tried to glide the stuff out into a coherant "whole" with the back of a wooden spoon. The middle of the "sheet" of polenta looked okay, but the edges were very dry and crumbly (see picture), which was fine given that I was just cooking for one and could therefore sacrifice those crumbly edge pieces to the bin, but I would not have wanted to do this for any more than...say...2 or 3.

After the "sheet" of polenta was cool I then cut it into squares, binning the crumbly ones as predicted. I then got on with griddling them over a ridged griddle. I suppose this was when everything started to come together for me because griddling them was very easy. The squares of polenta needed about 3-4 minutes a side until the grill marks started showing through. I then transferred each one onto a foil-lined grill tray. It was at this point that they started looking much nicer; with grilling they went a much more golden yellow and the grill marks made them look much nicer also. The grilling process also gave them a nice crispy and crunchy "crust" which in my opinion is a step up from those flabby, soggy squares just cut from the cooked polenta.

After that, it is simply a matter of crumbling the gorgonzola onto the grilled polenta squares, grilling them just until the cheese starts to melt (about 2-3 minutes), cutting each square diagonally in half and serving...TA-DAH!

I served all of them to Chris as an antipasto about 15 minutes before the lamb was due to come out of the oven.

(Grilling the polenta squares on a ridged griddle)

What did Chris think? I think that Chris was quite unsure about what to expect from this antipasto, as indeed I was. However he really liked it (a shame, because I will not be bothering with this again!). He said that the polenta reminded him of light tortilla chips, as they had that light corn flavour and were almost starchy - like pureed mashed potato in solid form. Very pleasant though. Like me, he really appreciated the crispy, crunchy crust. He also loved the gorgonzola - who doesn't?! He did say that the next day they weren't so good.

Overall, though, he rated this a 5/5, which is a really great start to my "Twelve" adventure.

(Pre-oven; griddled polenta squares)

Was I tempted to cheat and eat some? I must admit that the whole saga of making these put me off them slightly. I got irritated with them quite quickly and just wanted to make them and serve them and get rid of them. However, when they were all done and looking lovely I did begin to warm to them again (a love-hate relationship with a bloody crostini?!). With things like this, I define my temptation as more of an "intellectual curiosity." I wanted to see what it tasted like, what the texture was like etc, because I have never eaten anything like this before and I was curious to see what they might be like.

(With the added gorgonzola; before that final grilling)


Did I cheat? Nope. I am so disappointed with my miniscule weight losses that I am terrified that a cheat at this point would spell the end of ever having a decent weight loss again.

Scented sugars

I have gone rather overboard with scented sugar making as of late. I made vanilla sugar for the first time last year and exhausted my supply within months. I used it in crumbles, pies....you name it. Since then, I have kept vanilla sugar (that is, caster sugar in a jar with vanilla pods) in the house regularly and belive me; there is nothing nicer than a mug of warm milk in the evening with a teaspoon of vanilla sugar stirred in.

Since then, I have started making cinnamon sugar (caster sugar with cinnamon stick or two). According to Chris it is wonderful in a crumble topping or used in home-made ice-cream.

Reading How to be a Domestic Goddess at the weekend I realised that I haven't even scratched the surface of scented sugars and so now I have 4 gorgeous big jars of scented sugars;

Vanilla sugar,
Cinnamon sugar,
Rosemary sugar, (perfect for sprinkling on rosemary cakes, or even - just a pinch - in casseroles),
Lemon sugar, (with dried lemon peel and dried lemon grass; ideal for sprinkling on a lemon drizzle cake).

Just seeing them makes me feel happy in a warm domestic kinda way!


I have recently been financially endowed enough to purchase Twelve by Tessa Kiros and am thinking about cooking as much from that gorgeous book as possible before before I finish my weightloss and reach my target weight. So, expect to see a *lot* from that book before August!

Weight loss

I do apologise that this isn't a foodie post. It is my dad's birthday this weekend and I am cooking up a storm for Chris, mum and dad....so stay tuned. I am also cooking again for Chris on Sunday...so stay double-tuned!
I just wanted to give a progress report on my weight loss. Here goes;

Week 1: 9lbs
Week 2: 3lbs
Week 3: 5lbs
Week 4: 2lbs
Week 5: 5lbs
Week 6: 3lbs

So, thats a total weight loss of......27lbs. Let's say 2 stone. (PLEEEEEEASE lets say 2 stone..well, it is nearly :D). That means that I have 4 stones, 3 lbs left to loose. Which means that I'm looking at a finishing date of around July-August. HOOORAY!

Curried Scotch eggs

Curried Scotch eggs from Tom Norrington-Davies (taken from Delicious magazine April 2008 p56)

What did I make? Well, foolishly enough - Scotch eggs. I say that this decision was foolish because ever since I started on the LighterLife diet (5 1/2 weeks ago), I have been craving Scotch eggs to the point where I can practically taste them and smell them and I have even dreamed about them! I have told pretty much anyone who has asked about any food cravings about them and some people have asked whether I ate them a lot prior to starting this diet. But that's the funny thing really. I didn't eat them a great deal. I might - at the most - have had 2 a month, so I couldn't tell you why I am craving them so much right now. I think it is just that they sum up so many forbidden things right now that I absolutely love. I love eggs in all forms and particularly have a thing for hard-boiled eggs. I love pork, sausage meat and all that good (but naughty) stuff and I love breadcrumbs (especially deep-fried breadcrumbs) - oh dear! When I brought this months Delicious magazine I couldn't help but notice the amazing picture of Tom N-D's Scotch eggs (get thee behind me!). Being the true Psychology post-graduate that I am, I decided to opt for "immersion" therapy and just go ahead and make them and thus enjoy them and fulfill my craving vicariously.

Even without my craving, I would have made these anyway. I love T N-D as a food writer. I first came across him in Nigella's Feast, where she names him as the culinary influence behind her Bakewell slice (and very nice that was too!). Last summer, I brought his book; "Just Like Mother Used to Make" and I thought it was absolutely super. The one recipe that stood out the most was his banana custard and those of you who have read my blog about Nigella's banana custard from HTE (http://www.newnigella.blogspot.com/), will know that I actually preffered it to Nigella's (gulp!).

Because it is very difficult to justify making Scotch eggs for dinner (tea), I decided to make Chris a "picnic-themed" dinner and serve them alongside a quick steak sandwich with all the trimmings - horseradish sauce, rocket, a garlic and red wine jus with some parsnip crisps scattered alongside. I actually got the recipe from a Waitrose recipe card ages ago and have always preserved it as a useful blueprint. It *is* very useful actually, so if anyone wants the recipe, just let me know and I will type it out for you.

Oh by the way, I am *much* happier now with the my weight loss. After a very disapointing 2lbs last week, this week I lost 5 lbs! This brings my total weight loss in 5 weeks up to 24lbs. Just 4 more lbs and I will have lost 2 stones! I still have 4 stones, 6lbs to loose though. That might sound a lot to loose, but that is to bring me down to a very low (imho) target weight of 9 stone 5lbs. Plus, I know from experience that I can look good at 12 stones (I mean, that's the weight I have been through most of my adolescence and 20's) and I only have 1 stone, 11lbs to go before I am just that :)

Oh, by the way, the recipe makes 6 Scotch eggs.

Where did I get the ingredients from? Well unfortunately I had to buy everything from Tescos, because annoyingly our butcher had run out of pork mince (unusual for him). I brought Tescos' nicest looking organic pork mince and hoped for the best. Everything else is fine to buy pretty much anywhere. I must admit, I was a bit dubious about buying curry powder. For some reason, that particular ingredient never sits right with me (I would be very interested to know if it is used in authentic Indian cooking) but I trust Tom's advice implicitly!

(Step 1; boiled, cooled and peeled eggs)

How easy was it to make? For some reason, I think people have terrible prejudices about making "many-layered" food (think Swiss rolls, sponge cakes etc), but I think that this is totally unfounded. Okay, Scotch eggs *look* tricky and they *are* quite laborious to make, but I assure you - they are not difficult and there is a massive difference between the two things.

All you do is boil some eggs for 4 minutes and then plunge them into cold water for a further 4 minutes, make a mince from pork mince, finely chopped bacon (I used the food processor dahling; no faffing around with a cleaver for me!), pepper and curry powder and then wrap a handful (50g) of the mixture around each peeled egg until fully covered by the pork mixture. And believe me; you need less than you think you will. It is quite easy to press one side of the egg into the mixture and then "press" the mixture around the other side to cover the whole egg. Clever, eh?! Then it is just a quick assembly job. Dip each pork covered egg into flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs and fry in a deep pan in a ridiculous amount of oil at a ridiculously high heat for 10 minutes each.

The beauty of this frying process is that the eggs become crunchy and golden almost immediately and look instantly wonderful.

If you are planning on making these - or similar - then just be aware of the fact that the deep frying is *very* dangerous. The heat is tremendous for one thing. Also, be aware that the finished product is very oily and will need to sit on kitchen paper until fully cool. Lastly (and I really don't mean to scare you off here), the whole house *stank* of deep-frying Scotch eggs for at least 24 hours after making them....and possibly still does...I may have just become immune to it and walking around in a big greasy cloud...

(Step 2; each egg fully wrapped in the pork, bacon, pepper and curry powder mixture)

(Step 3; each egg dipped in flour, beaten egg and rolled in breadcrumbs)

What did Chris think? Luckily, even though the Scotch eggs were essentially *my* craving, Chris absolutely loved them. He said that they were by far the *best* Scotch eggs that he has ever tasted (high praise indeed, given that he used to eat home-made fresh Scotch eggs when he was younger).

He said that the eggs were gorgeous and nothing like the shop-brought ones. He said that each one was like a full-meal in itself - there was spicy meat, eggs and the carbs of the fried breadcrumbs (I think I've hit upon the reason why I'm craving them!) and all in all, they were just lovely. Chris said that the best bit was the meat - he could really taste the streaky bacon in the mixture.

As I had made 6 and Chris had only (!) eaten 3, I took 2 over to my parents and the last one over to my friend Louise's house and I'm pleased to say that everybody that has tasted them has become an instant convert!

(Step 4; Frying the eggs in a hideous amount of oil!)

Was I tempted to cheat and eat one? Given that I have been craving them for over 5 weeks now, it was probably a monumentally stupid decision to go ahead and make them, so yes; I was tempted. Very tempted.

(Step 5; Tuck in!)

Did I cheat? I will never know how I mustered up the will-power not to....but no. I was a good girl and didn't even eat a scrap! Hey, come on....I had my mushroom soup and peanut bar baked into a flapjack to look forward to! Plus, I have lost so much weight now that it would be a massive shame to jeopardise that.

The next day, when I took the leftovers to my parents and Louise's house, I was less tempted to cheat; I always find the lure of fried food much less in the cold light of day.

(Chris's dinner)