The Lil(le) Black Dress

Now that winter is well and truly on it's way, why not do a post about a really hot summery daytrip in July, eh? The occasion was The Manbacon's 35th birthday, and I'd spent the previous two weeks frantically arranging tickets to Lille, and making sure that he'd booked that day off, while keeping the trip a surprise from him. I also managed to make myself a little black dress for the trip, in between everything else. 

It's difficult to make out many details on this dress, but it's made with black jersey (from the op-shop, of course), to a bodice pattern by Sew Vera Venus. The pattern itself is only available in one size, for busts between 35 to 37 inches, and is meant for woven fabrics. Since I usually wear a 34" bust, I simply 'cheated' and made the seam allowances slightly larger, instead of faffing about with grading it down. I figured that since my fabric had quite a bit of stretch to it, it wouldn't really matter too much if I accidentally took too much in.  

Once the bodice came together, it took no time at all to make a skirt from the rest of the fabric (simply two rectangles joined at the side seams) and attach it to the top. I also cut a long strip of fabric and sewed it into a tube, to make the spaghetti straps for my dress. Probably not the best idea to use a flimsy strip of stretchy jersey to hold up your dress - I spent many minutes throughout the day tugging at the bodice and tying and retying the straps and as they had a tendency to stretch and head south as the day progressed. 

Other than that little problem (which seems to have finally sorted itself out - the straps seem to have stopped stretching), the dress itself was a dream to wear, especially on a filthy hot, humid summer day. I've since worn that dress several times, putting it to the test by cycling and even getting tangled in blackberry bushes while wearing it, and it's held up wonderfully. 

As I mentioned above, it was a pretty disgustingly sweaty type of day, so we passed the worst of it in the seemingly under-hyped treasure that is the Lille Natural History Museum (Musee d'Histoire Naturelle). There was almost no one else there except for us and the staff, so we explored the collections in peace. There's plenty of wonderful taxidermy animals in it, including the rather magnificent Ron Swanson-like snow leopard above, as well as a little tableau showing how they mount the animals for display. 

The twitchers among you might also be interested to know that the museum has a vast collection of stuffed birds, all displayed in beautiful old vitrines, including hundreds of jewel-toned hummingbirds. These were breathtaking, I spent ages staring at them trying to memorise every single detail. There are a few displays of dinosaur fossils, although nowhere near as spectacular as the displays at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. And, almost forgotten in a hidden corner upstairs, is a rather lonely little axolotl. It's quite a small musuem, but it's got such a still, old-fashioned air about it that it's easy to lose hours in there enjoying the various exhibits. 

Dress - self made, pattern from Sew Vera Venus, handbag - vintage, belt - Sainsburys, sunglasses - vintage

Musée d’Histoire Naturelle

19, rue de Bruxelles
59000 Lille

France

Mocha Choca Madeleines

Having chanced upon some madeleine tins while in Calais in November last year, I returned to London with all the best intentions of churning out try after tray of the tiny delicacies. I would be making madeleines every weekend, my kitchen would be filled with edible seashell shapes in all colours of the rainbow, all with different flavours. Best-laid schemes of mice and (wo)men, and all that...and so the tins languished in my kitchen cupboard for the next few months. 

Anyway, Ari sent me a link to that John Whaite off the GBBO's* recipe for madeleines flavoured with chocolate and coffee. They sounded tasty, and not too complicated. So I gave them a go. He also includes a recipe for a cocoa-flavoured dipping sauce, but I left that out and simply dusted with icing sugar instead.

*That's Great British Bake-Off for those of you not au fait with today's yoof slang. 

Mocha Choca Madeleines (adapted from John Whaite's recipe for the Telegraph)

Ingredients
100g salted butter
2 eggs
100g caster sugar
1 tsp coffee extract (I used this)
85gms plain flour
15g cocoa powder

Directions
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.

- Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat, then set aside.

- Put the eggs, sugar and coffee extract into a mixing bowl, and beat with an electric whisk until light and fluffy, and tripled in volume. This should take about 12 -15 mins.

- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the egg mixture, then pour in the butter. Gently fold these into the egg mixture until smooth and silky.

- Fill the madeleine moulds about 2/3 full, then bake for 8 - 10 mins or until the madeleines look slightly browned around the ages. Turn them out of the tin as soon as they are baked or they will stick. Lightly dust with icing sugar or cocoa powder (optional). 

Ginger Quince Upside-down Cake

Let's return to our regular blogging schedule now, shall we? Regular readers may remember that quinces are one of my favourite fruits, so I couldn't resist an opportunity to add them to a cake when I found a couple of huge specimens at the General Store. 

This particular recipe was inspired by Yossy Arefi's version, and combines some of my other favourite flavours including ginger and molasses. It's especially comforting on a rainy winter day, with a steaming cup of tea, but if quinces aren't in season (or you simply can't find them where you are), they can always be replaced by apples or pears. 

Ginger Quince Upside-down Cake (adapted from Apt. 2B Baking Co.)

Poached Quince 

1 large quince (or 2 small/medium quince)

3 cups water

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/2 lemon

few strands of saffron

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

- Mix all the ingredients (minus quince) in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer.

- Cut, peel and core the quince, and plop them into the simmering pot. Put a lid over the top, covering about half the pot. 

- Simmer until tender (at least an hour). Leave quinces to cool in the syrup* until ready to use. This step can be done the day before.

Ginger Cake (adapted from Apt. 2B Baking Co.)

Topping

1 1/2 tbsp butter (room temperature)

1/4 cup brown sugar

poached quince, cut into wedges

Cake

115gm unsalted butter

6 tbsp light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup molasses (or black treacle)

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 cups plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cups milk

Directions

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a high-sided 7" cake tin, and line the bottom with baking paper. 

- Topping: In a saucepan, mix butter and brown sugar, and cook over medium heat for about 1 min. Pour mixture into bottom of cake tin, and cover bottom of the tin with quince slices. Put aside with preparing cake mixture.

- Cake: In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add ground ginger, mix for 1 more min. Add eggs one at a time, then pour in molasses.

- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. 

- Alternately, add dry flour mixture and milk to the batter in first bowl, being careful not to overmix. Pour batter into cake tin and smooth the top.

- Bake for 45 mins or until golden brown (a skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean). Let cake cool in tin for about 10 mins, then invert onto a plate and peel away baking paper. 

Enjoy warm, with clotted cream or vanilla ice cream.

*The leftover poaching liquid is delicious as cordial - pour a bit into a glass, and top up with sparkling water.

Recently Made and Eaten

Some almost-neon popcorn sprouts - very sweet, almost artificial-sugar levels of sweetness, in fact. 

Half white/half wholemeal bread with cranberries and pistachios. 

Caraway seed cake topped with vanilla glaze and cornflowers - recipe coming soon (i.e. when I remember to post again).

Homemade pizza dough, topped with tomato paste, button mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, salami and cheddar cheese. 

Easy-Peasy Squidgy Loaf

Not exaggerating at all when I say this loaf is easy-peasy - once you've got the ingredients ready, all you really do is dump them all into a big bowl, give it a couple of stirs, then into a loaf tin and to the oven it goes. This is also, quite accidentally, perhaps the healthiest baked item to ever appear on this blog - no butter, no eggs, hardly any sugar, plenty of fibre. It makes me think of a homemade version of Soreen. That probably makes it sound like really boring, but well, it's not! It's packed full of flavour from the dried fruits, and goes especially well with butter. 

The inspiration for this came from baking buddy Yusuf, who has published the original recipe on his Snapguide thingo. It sounded so yummy and I was all proud of myself for getting a bag of coarse wheat bran to make it, then I got home and looked through the cupboard and realised I didn't have the essentials - stuff like self-raising flour, muscovado sugar and...oh yes, he also said 'bran flakes' not 'wheat bran'. Turns out I'm not very good at reading through something before jumping straight in. This is how accidents happen. 

Anyway, I was much too lazy to go back to the shops to get the right stuff - and doing things the 'right' way is so boring and I'm my own boss! - so I decided to make do. And it turned out pretty tasty if I say so myself. Just don't tell Yusuf. 

Squidgy Malt Loaf (inspired by Deco Reco's Raisin Malt Loaf)

Ingredients
300 ml milk*
200gms dried cranberries**
25gms candied ginger
150gms plain flour
pinch of baking powder
pinch of bicarbonate soda
100gms caster sugar***
50gms malt extract****
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
lemon zest and juice (optional)

Directions

- Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Grease and line a loaf tin.

- Into a large bowl, add the milk to the wheat bran and set aside for a few minutes so the bran soaks up some of the milk. Add  the cranberries and ginger to the mixture, before adding in the sugar. Add your spices and the malt extract, and finally, add the flour. Fold it all together with a wooden spoon. If using, add zest and juice of lemon now.

- Transfer the mixture to the loaf tin and smooth the top of the mixture down. Bake for 45 minutes, then switch the oven off and leave the loaf in the oven for another 30 minutes. Take it out and let it cool down, or slice and serve straightaway (with butter!).

Some notes

*The original recipe has whole milk in it but I used some rice milk, and you could probably even make do with water too if you haven't got any.

**The cranberries were soaked in hibiscus tea for about half an hour until they plumped up. Of course, I understand not everyone has easy access to multiple packs of dried hibiscus petals, in which case you can simply use just-boiled water or your favourite tea. I used hibiscus tea because I like the slight sourness it imparts.

***Optional - I've left it out on my next few attempts and the loaf has been fine, just not as sweet and a tiny bit less squidgy.

****Can be replaced with honey, or golden syrup or treacle or some other viscous syrupy item of your choice. 

Edible Paris

One Night In Paris (Part Deux)

Sorry to inundate you with more Paris photos, but well...maybe I'm not really sorry! It is impossible to go to Paris and not want to take a gazillion photos. And yes, of course gazillion is a proper number. The photo above was taken on the steps just outside the Sacre Coeur - there's a platform where you can see almost all of Paris. 

We also had escargots - it probably isn't to everyone's taste, but Shad and I loved it so we were looking forward to it all day. These ones were pretty good, served with lots of herby garlic butter and not overcooked. They came with some fancy forks and special escargot tongs, and we had to concentrate on handling the tongs to avoid a repeat of that scene in Pretty Woman. You know the one...she's in a fancy restaurant and has to use the tongs to pick up her snails and her dinner ends up flying off into a waiter's face. We were both too hungry to remember the name of the restaurant, but there are plenty of places around Montmartre serving them up if you want to have a go.

Shad and I also paid a visit to Shakespeare and Company - it's a haven for bibliophiles, and has been visited by writers including William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Henry Miller. There is an antiquarian section, as well as a lending library and some boxes outside containing a selection of curiosities you never knew you needed. 

One night is Paris simply isn't enough...

One Night In Paris

From one city to the next... I enjoyed a rather impromptu 24 hour trip to Paris last week with Shadi. We ate a lot, of course! 

Cranberry and Walnut Chocolate Muffin

No proper recipe yet - this is what happens when you wake up one morning and decide to throw some ingredients together. The result smells wonderfully chocolate-y, and weighs a ton due to amount of cranberries and walnuts stuffed inside. It came out rather dry though, which is why I'm going to redo it and add more moisture to it before I write down a recipe. A dollop of clotted cream on top certainly helps with the dryness though. 

Boutteau, Dunkirk

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, we took a daytrip to France two Saturdays ago. The ferry arrived in Dunkirk around lunchtime - perfect. After a quick sandwich, the three of us wandered around town and had a look at the market before we spotted Botteau. Time for dessert!

Its display cases were filled with dainty, delicious jewel-hued pastries, drawing us in like a siren song. What to choose? Everything looked too good, too colourful. It took me an age to decide on one, and even then I wanted more. 

Our travel companion J choose a flan, without really having a clue what it was. He seemed a bit disappointed by his choice, but I thought it was great. Creamy, slightly sweet, and rather light too. 

I finally decided on a frangipoire - a glazed frangipane tart with sliced pear, topped off with a chocolate button inscribed with 'Boutteau' in gold. It was wonderful, sweet and moreish, with a slight tartness provided by the glaze. 

Manbacon went with the chocolate bombe, a huge, round sugar grenade of a dessert. The meringue core was surrounded by a layer of chocolate, and coated with more chocolate, and finally dusted with icing sugar. Spectacular looking, but rather too sweet for me. 

Boutteau

19 Bart Jean Bart

59140 Dunkirk

France