25 June 2012

I awoke this morning to a frightful sight in the kitchen ... Stanley had exploded!! It appears he over-ate*, then got a bit carried away and fermented his way right out of his jar, onto the kitchen counter and down the side of the cupboard. Turns out I was meant to transfer him to a bowl last night so that he could have room to rise. Whoopsies. But all was not lost - there was enough of Stanley left to make my sourdough - actually two loaves and they are in the oven as I type. The second I hear the timer go off I will be leaping out of this chair and risking serious burns to cut a thick slice and smother it with butter...

* Ok, I over-fed him ... it runs in my family. 

Stanley gets a turn in an industrial-sized mixing machine - the dough hook was  bigger than my head!

The twins.

I probably should not have opened the oven door to take this photo....

Back to today's recipes - I cooked beef rendang (apparently voted number one in a poll of the '50 most delicious dishes in the world'). It is incredibly delicious, but then again most things are after you add FOUR cans of full-fat coconut milk. I can see why the Indonesians traditionally only cook this dish for special occasions - each serving reduces your life expectancy by 10 days (disclaimer - I have no evidence of this). But it really good - so good in fact that The Editor popped by just to have a bowl. 

Also on my menu today were deep fried courgette flowers (yes, my curiosity with the deep fryer continues). The recipe was for simple battered flowers, which seemed a bit boring - so I stuffed mine with a little goats cheese and basil pesto and served them on a 'bed' (so pretentious) of reduced tomato, chilli and basil sauce. They looked like little money bags and they tasted divine.  I don't think I can fight it any longer ... I have to buy a deep-fryer. 

In today's extra fabulous** demonstration we learned to cooked: Homemade pasta, Pasta verde (pasta coloured with spinach), Pappardelle with chicken liver sauce, Lasagne verde, Tortellini with parsley and ricotta, Ravioli with sage butter, Cappelletti, Cannelloni, Fettuccine all'Alfredo, Vegetarian lasagne,  Ragu, Tomato and cream sauce, Panzanella (Tuscan bread salad), Tira Misu, Zabaglione semi freddo, and Italian fruit salad. 

Cute couple - Tortellini and Cappelletti

**All of the afternoon demonstrations are great (sort of like watching a live taping of a cooking show), but today we got to watch an ex-student (who has four year's experience at the River Cafe in London) hand make the most exquisite pasta shapes as effortlessly as I ate them. It was pure food porn.