Food Minia

  A few weeks  ago I went to the Schoolhouse Cafe in Paoli, Wisconsin with a couple friends for lunch.  Paoli is a tiny little town with a few shops and this wonderful cafe.  The schoolhouse was built in 1854 and became a cafe in 2008.  I've been there a few times and each time I've really enjoyed the food along with the atmosphere.     I had the Goat Cheese Salad (mixed greens, pecan encrusted goat cheese, pears, strawberries, grapes, blueberries with a balsamic vinaigrette).  It was so good, especially the fried goat cheese!  I don't know when I'll get back to the Schoolhouse so I had to try and recreate this salad at home.  I didn't have any pecans so I used seasoned bread crumbs and it turned out great!     The first thing you want to do is put the goat cheese in the freezer for about 15 minutes to firm it up so it’s easier to slice.  I used 4oz log of goat cheese but i t’s easy to scale up or d...

Mincemeat and apple streusel, what could be more comforting? Perhaps the addition of a big bowl of softly whipped cream or a jug of steaming yellow custard. Without further ado I will give you the recipe as I know that this is a cake that you will want to make immediately. 175g self raising flour 125g sugar 1 egg 125g unsalted butter a pinch of salt 1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and sliced Half a jar of mincemeat, better if it is homemade. Crumble about 6 digestive biscuits. 1 baking tin approx 18cm x 27cm. It will not be a problem if it is slightly larger or smaller. Not too much though. Heat the oven to C160 fan or C170 top and bottom heat. Put the butter, sugar and egg in a largish bowl and beat well to combine. No need to cream really as this is not going to be a sponge. Fold in the flour to make a fairly stiff mixture. Sort of half wak between a sponge and pastry. Spoon into a  buttered baking tin. Smooth out with the back of a spoon or a spatula. Top with spoonfulls of...

I am not sentimental. My husband complains about it a lot. "Don't go near her, Sam," Giles will warn my son as he toddles towards me, eyes shining, with his chubby arms outstretched. "Your mother doesn't like clinginess. Don't ask for a hug or anything, she hates that. That's not the way to her heart. " "Oh fuck off, you dickhead," I will snap. But he is basically right. How I have ended up with the world's neediest husband and, in turn, the world's neediest toddler, must some sort of dastardly revenge wreaked upon me by some unknown force. At least there's Kitty. Thank God for Kitty! She couldn't give a flying shit whether I'm alive or dead. Anyway, I'm not sentimental. And I've never been more sure about anything as I've been about not having any more kids. I want to want to have more children, just like I want to want to enjoy clubbing, ski-ing and "girlie dinners". But I don't. Yet even I ...

This pastry cream is a standard of patisserie cooking and can be used in many of the cakes that you can buy in your favourite pastry shops. If you don't want as much as this then scale the recipe down. So to make it you will need: 400ml of whole milk 100ml of cream 150g egg yolk, this is approximately 7 yolks. It is best to measure as not all eggs are created equal. 150g sugar 36g cornflour 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence Put the egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and mix lightly.  Add the cornflour and whisk together fo a few seconds until evenly blended. Now add the cold milk and cream and mix to combine the ingredients.  Cook in the microwave for 2 minutes at high power. Open the microwave and mix well. This makes sure that the heat is evenly distributed. Replace the cream into microwave and cook for a further minute. Remove and mix well. Do this twice more and by the time that you have cooked it for 5 minutes in total it should be cooked. If you are nervous, you can cook for 30...

Yesterday I demonstrated how to use a thin sheet of genoise sponge to my wonderful WI. I had already made the sponge. To cook it I used the sheet that you can see in the image. I bought it last year or even the year before from Lakeland and luckily they still have them. So click the image to go to the Lakeland site. To make a thin sponge to just fill the sheet: 1 egg yolk 2 whole eggs 75g plain flour 75g caster sugar 25 butter melted and allowed to cool. It should still be liquid Grease and flour the silicone tray. If you don't do this, it will stick, I don't care what claims the manufacturers make.Put the sugar onto a sheet of ovenproof paper and warm gently.  Whisk the eggs until they are starting to lighten in colour.  Add the warm sugar and continue to whisk to the ribbon stage by which time the mixture shold be cool. Now remove about a quarter of the mixture and fold in the melted butter. Add this back into rest of the egg mixture and fold it gently into the mix. Pour int...

Lemon curd is one of my favourite preserves and one that I try to keep in the fridge for when the urge takes me to make a lemon cake. Light sponge filled with a generous layer of lemon curd is one of life's real pleasures. So to make lemon curd you will need: 4 lemons. If your lemons are small then up this to 5. All in all you will need about 300g. 250g Unsalted Butter 350 g Sugar,  4 Eggs lightly whisked Zest of 2 - 3 lemons, Again this depends on the size. Put the butter and sugar into a saucepan and heat to about 40 degrees C. Don't get worked up about this, it is just a little warmer than body temperature. Remove from the stove and beat in the eggs a little at a time. Now return to the stove with the lemon juice and zest.  Bring to the boil, stiring all of the time. When it comes to a rapid boil it is ready. Remove from the heat. Delia suggests adding cornflour to the mix. If you do this, add it to the lemon juice before  mixing into the butter and sugar mixture.

I have rarely done video posts on this blog because I think my actual presence probably spoils whatever voice you have for me in your head. Historically I have posted videos and everyone has gone "Oh my god you're so posh fnar fnar!" which I have found embarrassing.  But in these last days, I feel I have less to lose, maybe it's time to throw a video into the mix just for a laugh.  So the way I did this was just to write a normal post in a document and read it out - recipe and all - sitting at my desk in my "study" (our junk room).  Here it is. This is what I really sound like, I'm afraid. Thank you in advance for not being mean.