Bus-stop Bento

A while ago I read a lovely article on the New York Times food website, all about people making their own Bento boxes for lunch (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/dining/09bento.html). Bento boxes, for those who aren't familiar, are the Japanese 'lunch box', usually comprising of rice, pickled and raw vegetables and some sort of fish and/or meat. The article made them all look so pretty, and sounded even more delicious, and since then, I have been putting more effort into making my own lunches more appetising.

Last night, as I was packing my suitcase ready to head to London, my mind started pondering what to bring on the bus for my lunch. I'd forgotten to buy anything 'easy' at the supermarket and since it was a miserable wet night, didn't fancy heading out and buying supplies. In the fridge was some tortellini, but I didn't think that would be particularly appetising cold, some leftover soup (but I don't have a thermos), and one perfectly ripe avocado. Naturally this was going to have to be the basis of my lunch - it would be criminal to waste a beautifully ripe avocado, surely?! If I had tortilla chips in the house then I probably would have made guacamole and munched on that all the way down the country, but tortilla chips seldom last long in my house, so that wasn't an option. And then I remembered the sushi rice I had lurking in the back of my pantry cupboard...of course, I'll make some vegetarian sushi, I cried! Looking forward to the prospect of lunch the next day, I put the rice on to cook and started fosicking for other bits to pop with the avocado. Some crunch - thinly sliced carrots and some shredded iceberg lettuce - and some sweetness through slices of yellow capsicum. I was out of pickled yellow Japanese daikon, but that would have been a wonderful addition (must get more of that as it really does make homemade sushi taste much more authentic) and then I remembered I had a can of 'teriyaki' tuna...dubious sounding perhaps, but I had a feeling it might just provide the perfect sweet, salty and meaty compliment to the avocado and vege.

My lunch thus made and stashed, I went to bed feeling relatively calm and organised - not a usual feeling for me on a Saturday night these days! I even had a tube of wasabi and some pickled ginger to pop in the box. Amazing what you can find when you start searching the fridge for long-forgotten ingredients.

Anyway, I'm waffling, but I just wanted to show you my own wee Bento box...eaten at the road-side services bus-stop just south of Sheffield (photo a wee bit blurred because I took it with my cellphone camera and was attempting to do so surreptiously...so as to avoid looking like too weird a food-geek, you understand!).



Much tastier than Burger King or KFC which were the available options to buy, healthy and made from left-over bits lurking in the fridge and pantry...what more could you want from lunch?!

A sad sea of brown...

Well. The oven was fixed today, in a manner of speaking. That's to say; the guy did come and repair the broken fan (which we thought was the problem) but the damn thing is still not working properly! My rage is gone though...I've been worn down by the oven and all I feel is tired and saddened by it. The worst part is that I didn't realise that it was still broken until I started cooking.

I made the Earl Grey Tea Biscuit dough, then put it in the freezer to chill; chopped the fruit and mixed the dry ingredients for the cake - ready to bring it all together at the last minute before baking; made white sauce for the lasanges; and made the banana butterscotch muffins. The latter went in the oven first. My first clue that things were not altogether 'right' was when the muffins began browning to a crisp within 3 minutes of going into the oven. The clue was 2 minutes later when the oven switched its useless self off. Deep, weary sigh...

By this point I was committed to the whole baking afternoon so I just had to go ahead and make do. The sad, overly-browned effects can be seen above. Pretty damn irritated by it all really. On the upside, despite their bronzed edges, the Earl Grey Tea cookies are quite delicious! They are essentially a shortbread biscuit but so aromatic and fragrant - lovely! The recipe is below - yours should be considerably paler than mine once they're done.


Earl Grey Biscuits

1 c plain flour
1/4 c icing sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 tbsp earl grey tea leaves (use teabags - 2 should be enough)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp water
1/2 c butter

Preheat oven to 180degC. Blitz dry ingredients in food processor (I don't have a proper food processor anymore, so I did this in the little mini-processor thing that came with the hand blender. Worked perfectly fine!). Add butter, water and vanilla and pulse until it comes together. Smoosch into a log, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 mins. Slice into thin rounds (about 1/2 cm thick, but by all means thicker if you prefer). Bake until slightly browned on edges (unless your oven is psychotic in which case keep a close eye on them and yank them out before they turn to tiny pieces of charcoal!!). Enjoy with a steaming hot mug of strong tea on a cold winter's day...or for dessert with good vanilla icecream and strong espresso in summer!

It's a big day today...

The blog has had a revamp, as you can clearly see...no real reason; just time for a change and a splash more colour. Hope you like it!

And, more importantly - big news...(drum roll please)...the oven is being fixed today!!! Many aborted attempts later, I am finally booked in to have the electrician come and repair the broken fan at lunchtime today. Oh, that he shows up and can reunite me with the world of baked goods...

And if he does, in fact, manage to repair the evil oven, my baking list to be completed is as follows:

Nigella's Butterscotch Banana muffins
Earl grey tea biscuits
Plum and apple cake
Lasange made with the leftover slow-roasted pork from dinner the other night


Watch this space...!

New cookbooks

I love reading, anything and everything, but I don't think any book excites me as much as a new cookbook does. Geeky, perhaps, but I love to read them and flick through, imagining the deliciousness to come. I'm relatively particular about cookbooks too...I don't enjoy those run-of-the-mill, straight-up recipe books (you know the ones - they fill the 'bargain bin' at your local bookshop and often originate from certain "women's" magazines) because I find them fairly soulless - and if the cookbook is lacking in soul, then surely the recipes will be too? But I do like recipe books written by one specific author whose presence is really felt throughout the book. Unfortunately in recent times this has meant largely celebrity chefs, and I don't really want to jump on that whole celeb chef bandwagon, but by the same token, I enjoy reading a cookbook which has a sense of the author about it. I like reading why a recipe has been selected for inclusion in the book, reading how guests at dinner parties have responded to the decadent desserts, and hearing how a recipe actually evolved. To me that makes the food seem much more real than the glossy, plasticky looking pictures other cookbooks contain.

So, this week I got two new cookbooks (there was a sale at the bookshop...). The first is Nigella's Express. I have to say that while I was originally a Nigella fan, I've become less enamoured by her TV show cookery - finding her need to wax lyrical to camera about each and every ingredient inclusion a bit much to stomach. But I do like her cookbooks. She has a wonderful style of writing and her love of food and cooking - without the poetic editorialising - really comes through in her books. Some people aren't aware that Nigella was a food writer - a restaurant reviewer, I think - before her meteoric rise to culinary stardom, and I think it is in her writing where she really stars. So, Nigella has finally joined my cookbook collection, and I welcome her to the fold!

The second book I bought is called Economy Gastronomy by Allegra McEvedy (who writes for the Guardian) and Paul Merrett. They actually had a tv show on the BBC earlier this year based on the book and its principles...these being, use what you have, don't waste stuff, cook things from scratch because it's cheaper, and generally stop wasting money! Their idea is that you can eat really well, but cheaply, if you are organised and put in a bit of effort. Now, I have to admit that a large chunk of my enjoyment in watching this TV show came from the sense of superiority I felt over some of the idiot families whose kitchen and cooking efforts were 'made over' by the cheffy duo (yes, I freely admit that part of the pleasure of reality TV is how much better about yourself it frequently makes you feel...come on, admit you feel the same way!) These families spent an exorbitant amount on food and were wasting horrendous amounts of both food and money, and in the show were taught how to do things more sensibly, while still eating really well. These are all principles that I tend to adhere to anyway (I could frequently be heard quipping, 'I bet they couldn't cut more than 5pounds at the most from my weekly food budget', while watching) - planning meals, using leftovers, making one recipe and then using it several times - so really in that sense, I didn't need the cookbook. But they do have some lovely recipe ideas that I'm dying to add to my repertoire, so I got Economy Gastronomy at the same time as Nigella.

The major challenge I have when buying new cookbooks, though, is actually making recipes from them! I tend to get all overwhelmed with ideas and inspiration and become completely incapable of deciding what to make! Silly, probably, but there you go. I'm still sans oven, too, which is limiting my choices considerably. When I make a decision, I'll let you know...!

What are your favourite cookbooks? And are they the ones you actually use? Which are the most food-splattered books on your shelf (because surely that's the mark of a truly brilliant cookbook)?

The New Books:

Nigella Lawson, "Nigella Express: Good Food Fast", Chatto and Windus: London, 2007.

Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merret, "Economy Gastronomy: Eat Better and Spend Less", Michael Joseph: London, 2009.