Abercrombie & Feast

I’m writing this in our living room in England.  I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be fresh off a flight from Sydney, AU to Tokyo, Japan.  I’m supposed to be slightly tanned from spending a week in Sydney, getting ready to enjoy my first bowl of steaming Tokyo ramen.  But here I am, at home.

When stranded in England, pints in the sun are mandatory. 

It’s the volcano’s fault.  That silly Icelandic volcano ruined my vacation twice.  Flights cancelled all across Europe struck my vacation plans down and we weren’t able to recover.  The whole trip was cancelled.

But, I had planned ahead really well.  Perhaps too well?  I planned our pre-flight meals very carefully, trying to use up everything in the fridge, not leaving anything to go to waste whilst we were away.  A cancelled flight meant not only travel disappointment, but dinner disappointment as well.  There was nothing to eat!

We’ve made the best of the situation.  We’ve booked another little trip, now that the airspace is open again.  We’ve seen friends and tried to enjoy the surprisingly sunny days.  We’ve eaten out a little more often and when we’ve eaten at home it’s been very simple meals using as few ingredients as possible.

On sunny spring days, England is a lovely place to be stuck!

I was looking forward to eating our way around Sydney and Tokyo, and telling you all about our food adventures.  Instead, I’ll show you this beautiful Ploughmans platter and meat plate that we shared for lunch after our first flight was cancelled.  We’re still pale and we’ve not had even one bowl of ramen, but we’re here and we’re doing our best to enjoy our dinners.

My friend Ali really likes to wash dishes.  I think she’s completely mental, but she loves to get her hands in some hot soapy water and turn a messy kitchen into a clean one. 

Here’s Ali the Dish-Washing Queen

So, when planning a big baking project that was sure to produce lots and lots of dishes, I invited Ali to join me in the kitchen to “help.”  AKA- come do all the yucky washing up whilst I make bright blue meringues. 

I’m mostly kidding.  I wanted to try to make these macaroons with Ali because she’s great fun and a great cook and knows how to help out with a bottle of wine whilst we’re cooking.  The fact that she does the washing up as well is just a huge bonus.

Ali and I assembled all the ingredients to make French patisserie-style macaroons on a Sunday afternoon.  The ingredient list was deceptively short and simple for what turned into a huge, fiddly, messy, tasty task. 

We whisked and we coloured and we burnt things.  We tasted and we laughed and we made a meringue that looked just like a foot.  We measured and we piped and we washed pink butter cream off the mixers (but not before licking the beaters.)

And the results were…. Not bad.  Our meringues were all crackled on the outside, rather than smooth like the stunning creations you buy in France.  Our meringues weren’t uniform in size and shape- in fact you’d be hard-pressed to find any two that looked remotely alike.

But, our macaroons were really delicious.  The texture was spot on… chewy meringues sandwiched together with smooth, rich, brightly coloured butter cream or Nutella.  We made strawberry ones and vanilla ones and peppermint ones.  It was a rainbow of confectionery. 

By the time we finished making the macaroons, we were so tired that we could barely eat any of them, but the ones that we did manage were really something special.

And the best bit, no washing up left over for Monday morning!

Thanks Ali!

French style macaroons
adapted from Delicious magazine

Makes about 20 macarons

For the macarons
175g icing sugar
125g ground almonds
3 large free-range eggs
75g caster sugar

For the butter cream filling
150g butter, softened
75g icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 160C or gas mark 3.  Whizz the icing sugar and ground almonds in a food processor until the mixture is very fine.  Sift this mixture into a bowl. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of sugar.  It helps to use electric beaters for this, or your arm might fall off.  Once the egg whites form soft peaks, whisk in the caster sugar a little at a time until thick and glossy.  At this point you can divide up the egg whites into separate bowls and whisk in different flavours and colours… for example red food colouring and strawberry extract.)

Fold half the almond / icing sugar mixture into the meringue and mix well.  If you’ve divided your meringue up, you’ll need to also divide up the almond / icing sugar mixture.  Make sure you use a spatula to cut and fold the mixture until it is shiny and has a thick, ribbon-like consistency.  Spoon this mixture into a piping bag with a 1cm plain nozzle. 

Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.  Pipe small rounds of the macaron mixture, about 3 cm across, onto the baking sheets.  Give the baking sheets a sharp tap on the kitchen counter to ensure a good, smooth bottom. 

Now, you have to leave the macarons to stand for at least 10-15 minutes to form a slight skin.  I think this is where we went wrong and why our macarons were crackly looking.  You should be able to touch your macarons lightly without any of the mixture sticking to your finger.

Bake the macarons for 15 minutes.  Keep a close eye on them.  After 15 minutes remove them from the oven and leave to cool.

To make the filling, beat the butter and icing sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.  Once you have the right consistency, you can divide the filling into smaller bowls and add colours and flavours to match the macarons.  Use the filling to sandwich together the macarons. 

During my sophomore year at university, a little Thursday night ritual immerged.  Tired from a week of classes and studying, a group of 19-20 year old girls would gather, wearing pastel stripped pyjama bottoms with our university sweatshirts, in a cramped dorm room strewn with socks and text books.  We’d crowd onto the single beds, cue up Legally Blonde on a tiny television and order a large pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut. 

 By the time Elle Woods had been accepted to Harvard our pizza had arrived.  We’d eat the pizza on jewel coloured plastic plates and drink Diet Coke that we had to buy off campus (I lived on a Pepsi sponsored campus… it haunts me still) while we watched and gossiped and laughed and laughed. 

 I’ve eaten pizza from Pizza Hut a few times since, but it’s never tasted as good as it did then.  I’m sure it was more about being cozy and happy and 20 years old surrounded by friends, but I thought that pizza tasted amazing. 

 But then, doesn’t all pizza taste amazing?  Bread and cheese and tomatoes?  Toppings like olives and pepperoni and onions?  How could you possibly go wrong with pizza?

 I’ve come along way since those heady pizza-ordering Legally-Blonde watching days in the dorm.  You might even say that I’ve graduated (pun intended) on from Pizza Hut pizza. 

 These days it’s homemade pizza on the couch in our flat, drinking a beer and watching TopChef with my husband.  The only part of the picture that hasn’t changed…. I’m still wearing my university sweatshirt.  Always Orange!

Pizza dough
adapted from Deb at smittenkitchen.com

makes dough for 2 pizzas

2 cups plain flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
1 pinch dried chilli flakes (optional)
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup luke warm water (plus one or two tbs more if needed)
2 tbs olive oil

Stir the flours, salt, chilli flakes and dry yeast in a large bowl.  Add the water and the olive oil and stir until it begins to come together and form a loose dough ball. 

At this point you can either dump the dough out onto a floured surface to knead, or you can do what I do and just knead it right in the bowl you’ve mixed the ingredients in.  Knead it for just a minute or so, until the dough comes together in a fairly smooth ball.  Then spread a little extra olive oil around the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Place the dough in the bowl and cover with a damp towel or cling flim for an hour or two, or until the dough has doubled in size. 

Once the dough size has doubled, knead the dough gently again for a minute to knock the air out of it.  Roll the dough into ball shape and leave to rise for 30 more minutes. 

Preheat your oven to its very highest temperature.  Sprinkle your baking sheet with some cornmeal or semolina. 

Divide your dough in half and roll one half out as thin as you’d like it.  We prefer it pretty thin-crust, so I rolled mine out quite a bit.  However, I did not manage to roll mine out into a perfect circle.  Life’s too short to stress about that. 

Once you’ve got the dough rolled out, place it on the baking sheet that you sprinkled with cornmeal.  Then, you can top it with whatever your little heart desires.  We had spicy tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, carmelised onions and green olives. 

Place the baking pan in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until the toppings are a little charred and the dough is cooked through.