Cranberry-apple Pie
This little beauty was made following the basic apple pie recipe in "The Joy of Cooking". The crust was just a basic flaky pastry made with shortening because they were out of lard at Sainsbury's. Honestly, I think it turned out better; I was never a fan of the meaty flavor lard adds to pastry. I of course altered the filling recipe by adding 250g of cranberries, and a teaspoon of almond extract. The next time you make an apple pie, add some almond extract: it changes everything.
Unfortunately, the apples I used (I've forgotten what kind) were a bit crappy, and they got too soggy during baking, so my filling didn't firm up the way it was supposed to. The crust was still divine. I gave it that nice sheen on top by brushing with pure egg yolk and sprinkling the top with sugar and cinnamon. Here's one more shot:
California Roll
I'm going to start out by saying this: I think California rolls would be way better if they weren't inside-out. Now, I don't know much about rolled sushi, I've only made it a couple times, but I do enjoy making it; I just think that inside-out rolls, the ones with the rice on the outside, are a bitch to make. I like it a lot better when the nori's on the outside. It makes everything much easier to handle.
The above picture pretty much shows all the ingredients. You need to make some Japanese rice, or some short-grained rice if you're in a pinch. I got mine from SeeWoo here in Glasgow. Interestingly, the rice actually comes from the US, which I read is the third largest trader of rice in the world. Anyway, you have to mix some vinegar, sugar, and stuff into the rice. We just used some sushi-rice mix, which is just powdered vinegar, etc. Finally, you spread the rice on the nori (seaweed), flip it over, then place the fillings (avocado, cucumber, and imitation crab meat) on the other side of the nori, and roll it all up. Doesn't sound so hard, and really, it's not, but turning the rice-side down is a pain, and you have to use plastic wrap on your rolling mat to keep the rice in line, so I don't like it.
Another useful trick is to cut it with a bread knife. We tried with a regular knife a couple times, and it just crushed the roll. I think I figured this out once before, but I didn't remember this time around. Anyway, it was good.
Thanksgiving Dinner
So today's Thanksgiving, so we decided to make a big dinner to celebrate.
What you see in that picture is: beer, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, white gravy, home-made cranberry sauce, corn on the cob, and green beans. Oh, and turkey, of course. The corn and green beans are just boiled. Everybody knows how to make mashed potatoes and gravy, and the turkey breast was actually just store-bought: we just put it in the oven for an hour.
The cranberry sauce was made following the recipe for cranberry relish in "The Joy of Cooking", and I have to say it ended up tasting more like oranges than cranberries. We halved the recipe, so we had 1/2 pound of cranberries, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup of orange juice (fresh squeezed in this case), and 1 tsp of orange zest. You just boil all of it together until you think it's done.
The candied sweet potatoes come from this recipe, and honestly, they're pretty great. Well, we quartered the recipe, and the actual amounts of sugar and butter are not quite right as they have written. First, I followed the recipe, but the sauce was too thick and didn't coat the potatoes at all, so I tried again with a lot more butter, a little more sugar, and about the same amount of other spices. I also made sure not to let it boil before pouring over the potatoes, because that makes it too thick. After all that, I followed the recipe to the letter, and it turned out great.
Okay, that's all the cooking for now. I'll try to be more diligent about in the future, but I'm also trying to write a thesis, so don't be surprised if I don't post again for a while. Feel free to remind me though. I'll do my best to oblige.
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