2 posts tagged “cooking”

 
Baking research
Originally uploaded by Thoroughly Good

Since returning from holiday, I've set my sights on one very important goal.

It may seem to early to be thinkign about it, but as much as people want to deny it Christmas is coming.

With such an important celebration coming up, some individuals find shameless self-gratification in the creation of a whole variety of foodstuffs we wouldn't otherwise eat ourselves or offer up as gifts to friends of family.

Those same people suddenly start pouring over recipe books in a bid to find the formula for the perfect Christmas. If we can only find the perfect recipe we could, potentially, give the perfect gift.

According to Delia Smith, I should technically be starting the prep for the stalwart Christmas cake on Thursday night. Brilliant. I rub my hands together with glee. I get to start the cooking process on Thursday night. I can't wait.

Then there's the preserves (apparently, again according to Delia, these have to be left in a cupboard for three months before consumption) and sundry sweet titbits.

All of this adds up hours of baking joy to be had in the run up to the main event.

Normally I'm foaming at the mouth when I clap eyes on wrapping paper or gift catalogues or big expensive gifts showcased in high street stores and internet websites. But where food is concerned, forward planning is not only fun and acceptable but advisable to.

Such a shame that work is getting in the way.

What was your biggest cooking disaster?

Around about the time that people suddenly jumped at the chance of re-enacting Nigella Lawson's sassy preparation of groovy food, I succumbed to one of her recipes in her first How To Eat.

Ham cooked in Coca-Cola looked good on the page and oozed glamour - probably more to do with the words Lawson used more than anything else. The idea that a joint of ham could be cooked in something as ubiqutous as fizzy pop seemed appealing. "Haven't you tried the ham cooked in Coke? You must dahling .. it's simply divine."

We figured we'd christen the ham cooked in Coke with a special family gathering. Six people sat around the cramped table in what had become quite unexpectedly smelly as the ham cooked. Everyone was, inevitably, quite excited at the prospect of seeing what this strange idea for a meal would look like.

Whilst it did cook, the truth was that we had seriously underestimated quite how much ham we would need for six people. As a result our guests had a plate consisting of one meagre slice of ham accompanied by limp looking vegetables. (The vegetables had been in the steamer for as long as it took for me to recover from the shock of discovering just how small the resulting joint of ham was) and very watery gravy.

I resolved to give Nigella Lawson's How to Eat book an extremely wide berth from that moment on. It's just not worth the risk.