Herman the German Friendship Cake

So, the department is slowly being taken over by a big, bubbling mass of yeast that will more or less devour everything in sight. We're archaeologists, we're not equipped to handle this! Where's Steve McQueen when you need him?

Just kidding.

A friend of mine dropped off a Tupperware container of yeast at my house a few weeks ago. I was tickled to see that Herman the German Friendship Cake is somewhat similar in theory to the Amish Friendship Bread that friends have passed around back home. The instructions are pretty simple: stir for a few days, feed with flour, sugar, and milk, stir a few more days, divide amongst your friends, and then bake!

My version of Herman bubbled away quite happily in my kitchen for nine days. I thought he smelled like bananas whilst my flatmates thought he smelled like beer. I told them that they were lucky it was only a beer smell, because some starters can smell pretty darn funky (yeah, I'm looking at you, sourdough starters).

I stuck with the original Herman recipe, although I forgot to put in raisins. Poor Herman - it was murder. Tasty, tasty, fluffy, cinnamon-y, yeasty murder.

For instructions on how to make your own Herman (and variations on the Herman recipe), go here: http://www.hermanthegermanfriendshipcake.com/.

Adventures in Baking: Focaccia

The Ph.D. is a hammer, to paraphrase on of my favorite Tamora Pierce novels. Yes, I went there (the Ph.D. is definitely the academic's version of the Chamber of the Ordeal!). My stress levels have been through the roof, but with the lows come extreme highs - such as getting a poster abstract accepted as a paper for a rather large conference this summer!

Back to the hammer. There are many things that are responsible for relieving my stress throughout this Ordeal (heh), but two are particularly effective: writing and baking.

Baking. I can tell you're all terribly surprised. It's been mentioned before, I'm sure.

I've recently turned my attention to baking bread. I admit that I've mostly stuck to quickbreads (I have the Better Home and Gardens' Cookbook version memorized, I've made it so many times) in all of the years that I've been baking. Let's blame it on the fact that I attempted to make focaccia some time in high school. The prospect of kneading was rather intimidating, so I didn't do enough of it. As a consequence, the finished product made a spectacular doorstop.

But since then, I've been summoning up my courage with baking bread, taking baby steps. Beer bread (no yeast involved, yay!). Calzone dough. Cinnamon rolls. Parker House Rolls. Cheesy pull-apart bread. All have turned out spectacularly well. So it was time to step things up a little.

I've been inspired by The Hairy Bikers' Bakeation. What an entertaining show! Dave and Si baked focaccia on the banks of a Venetian canal, and inspiration struck. My favorite bread here in Durham is the garlic rosemary focaccia from Ciao Ciao, which is so divine it's not even funny. I knew that I just had to try and make my own.

So I took Dave and Si's recipe, which I took here, and converted to U.S. measurements. I decided to take some instructions from Joe Pastry as well, and allowed the dough to rest for a day in the refrigerator so that it could ferment and develop a deeper flavor. The results?

Oh me. Oh my. Light, pillowy, and just a little crisp, redolent with olive oil, rosemary, and just a hint of Maldon sea salt...lovely. I would just cut little squares and eat it as it was, because it honestly did not need anything else. It was also a little too thin for me to cut in half and use in a sandwich, but I suppose I could have just used two squares and pressed them flat to make a panini...oh well, something to do for next time!

Kids, today's lesson is not to be afraid of failure. Just think, if I'd stayed terrified of baking bread, I never would have had this beauty!

Eating the Northeast - Spring Roundup

I've gone on quite a few excursions around the northeast and eaten quite a lot of good food. I think my friends here are still getting used to me whipping out my camera for a quick shot (well, not so quick, perhaps). When my friend Patrick visited a few weeks ago, he patiently rolled his eyes and waited for me to photograph first his food, then mine. It's nice when friends indulge your little quirks! But you don't want to hear me natter on, do you? You want the food.

This was my first ploughman's lunch, eaten at a cute little cafe in Alnwick. There were two hunks of fantastic cheddar cheese, a toasted baguette, apple slices, small pickled onions, and a side salad. Simple, filling, and yummy.

Vegetable tagine at Cafe Continental in Durham. The vegetables were tender and well-seasoned and the rice nice and fluffy. My only complaint was there could have been more! The dish was quite shallow.

Patrick enjoyed his gumbo, though I'm leery of trying Cajun/Creole food here. Gumbo and jambalaya are sacred.

Lemon meringue pie, also at Cafe Continental. It's hard to go wrong here, and Patrick liked this dessert as well.

I had a cheesecake with some sort of caramel-chocolate candy bar crumbled on top and drizzled with caramel sauce. For an unbaked cheesecake, it was pretty spectacular. I like the lightness of it. Hmmm, now I want cheesecake.

A picnic lunch at the Museum Gardens in York. We stopped by at a lovely little deli and bakery just before the museum and picked up our lunches. I had a smoked salmon and cheese sandwich on hearty whole wheat bread and some tart and fizzy Victorian lemonade. They really hit the spot on that warm and sunny day!

We had high tea at Gray's Court, located just behind York Minster. My tutor at college recommended the tea room there, saying that it was better than Betty's! The atmosphere was absolutely lovely and there were no queues. Patrick had the Welsh rarebit.

I had a fantastic tower of lavender shortbread with chantilly cream and blackberries. The lavender wasn't overpowering, giving the perfectly crumbly shortbread just a hint of floral flavor. The cream was divine and the blackberries tart. What a great combination!

Another day, another cafe - this time at Seaton Delaval Hall, just north of Newcastle. I had the vegetarian quiche and a slice of toffee cafe. The quiche was quite good, but the cake...oh that cake. It was very soft, the frosting was just the right texture, and boy was it sweet! I'm usually not fond of overly sweet desserts, but this was extremely well done.

 

And last but not least, HAGGIS! How could I visit Edinburgh and not have haggis? A friend of mine recommended Dirty Dick's for its food and whiskey. I loved the atmosphere - dark and cozy with kitschy items everywhere. The whiskey collection was extensive and while I can't remember what I had, it was still quite good! But oh, the haggis. Tender and flavorful, resting on top of a bed of neeps and tatties (mashed potato and rutabaga, to those of us stateside), covered in a whiskey sauce with a crunchy oatcake on the side. I still have dreams about this meal!

It's still spring and who knows when summer will come, but there's definitely more delicious eats out there just calling my name!

Searching for Spring...

Weather-wise, March was glorious. It was unseasonably warm and unbelievably sunny, with little to no rain. My British friends tell me that Durham's not as rainy as the rest of the country, but it's still much more rainy than what I'm used to! So the sunshine has been a treat. We even had a barbecue! In March!

The weather was so nice that when one of my friends visited from home, we had a picnic lunch at the museum gardens in York...

...explored a "secret garden" connected to a lovely little tearoom (also in York)...

...and explored the gorgeous grounds at Seaton Delaval Hall, located north of Newcastle.

The azaleas were blooming. I have a soft spot for these flowers. I am named after them, in a way.

This has to be one of my favorite photos, with Seaton Delaval Hall in the background. The architect was the eminent John Vanbrugh himself!

We also explored the gardens at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh...

...where I found these strange green flowers! Are these hydrangeas? I have absolutely no idea.

In any case, the weather took an unexpected (and entirely typical) turn at the beginning of April. The temperatures plummeted and it snowed for a day or so. Since then, the temperature has been decidedly brisk and spring-like, and it has rained almost every day. I can only cross my fingers and hope for more of that lovely warm, sunny weather. Until then, I have these photos to cheer me up!

Novel Food: At Home

"...it is surprising to reflect that nothing about this house, or any house, is inevitable. Everything had to be thought of - doors, windows, chimneys, stairs - and a good deal of that, as we are about to see, took far more time and experimentation than you might ever have thought." -pp. 54-55

 Such are Bill Bryson's musings at the beginning of Chapter Two of his book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life. As of last month, Bill Bryson has officially concluded his duties as Chancellor of Durham University. It seemed rather fitting to pay tribute to the man who has served as a wonderful ambassador for my university by reading one of his novels for this round of Novel Food. This is the first time that I've used nonfiction as inspiration for this event, but Bryson has such a wonderful way of imparting his information (and there is a lot of it), that I never questioned my choice.

In each chapter, the reader is taken through each room of the house and regaled with its evolution and history of use, the various materials and inventions that adorn them, and the colorful characters that invented them. Bryson's style of writing is warm and inviting. Reading his books is like chatting with an old friend, one that's incredibly smart and prone to wandering off on entertaining tangents. Sometimes it's not entirely clear what wrought and cast iron have to do with the cellar, but it's fun to read about these things all the same. The features of a home have become so commonplace to us that it's fascinating to delve into how they came about in the first place (and how past peoples got along without them). It certainly makes you appreciate modern comforts such as central heating and plumbing!

Early on in the book, Bryson gives a little nod to my area of study by mentioning the ancient village of Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands and the man that excavated it, Vere Gordon Childe. Childe is one of the fathers of archaeology in the United Kingdom, if not the world. Bryson spends a few pages discussing Childe's eccentricities and skills (one of which was not archaeological excavation, hilariously enough). Skara Brae is spectacular from an archaeological perspective because of its degree of preservation. For a prehistoric site, its context is about as pristine as one can get. It offers a view into life in the past that we as archaeologists don't get as often as we like (if at all, but that's another matter entirely). But, as Bryson notes, life wasn't all too bad at Skara Brae, which can't be said for some of the poor people mentioned in the book!

Of course, the chapter on the kitchen was one of the most interesting chapters in the entire novel. It also provided the inspiration for this round's recipe! There were so many possibilities - Bryson talks about bread's function as a dietary staple (bread baking!), the invention of mason jars (pickling and jam-making!), culinary indulgences of the Victorians (here he mentions a suggested dinner for six: "carrot soup, turbot with shrimp sauce, lobster patties, stewed kidneys, roast saddle of lamb, boiled turkey, knuckle of ham, mashed and brown potatoes, stewed onions, cabinet pudding, blancmange and cream, and macaroni" - p. 120), and so many others. And that was just the kitchen chapter. More inspiration could be had from the scullery and larder chapter, as well as the dining room chapter!

But the item that jumped out at me was ice. In the kitchen chapter, Bryson discusses the beginnings of the ice business and the sheer trickiness of shipping the stuff before it melts. It's amazing to think about how ice changed the way we ship and store food - just think about refrigerated railway cars and the rise of Chicago's meat-packing district. Ice also changed the way we eat food - imagine how we'd be without chilled beverages and that wonder of wonders, ice cream! Imagine, if you will, a kitchen without a refrigerator or freezer. We have ice to thank for that.

Ice cream was, of course, the obvious choice for this, but as I contemplated ice, the first thing that popped into my head was icebox cake. What better way to celebrate ice than make a cake that requires an overnight stay in the refrigerator? In the Philippines, we have a version of icebox cake (called ref cake, go figure) that calls for layers of sliced peaches, condensed milk, whipped cream, and graham crackers. Yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I decided to go for the original icebox cake recipe, though: layers of whipped cream and crisp chocolate wafers. However, in the absence of Nabisco famous chocolate wafers (which can't be found here in the UK), I had to make my own.

Luckily, Smitten Kitchen came to my rescue. I apologize for the fact that my icebox cake is in a Tupperware container, but our tiny British refrigerator leaves no room for a cake on an open plate - everything needs to be stackable! It still turned out marvelously. The wafers were ridiculously simple to make, and assembly was a cinch. One day later, the cookies had melded perfectly with the whipped cream. My British housemates and friends had never seen anything like it, and devoured everything quite happily!

Homemade Chocolate Wafers (via smitten kitchen)
1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder (see Note)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.
• Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed.
• Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices a scant 1/4-inch thick and place them one inch apart on the lined sheets. Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.
• Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.

Icebox Cake (via smitten kitchen)
3 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 (9-ounce) packages chocolate wafer cookies
Unsweetened cocoa (or chocolate shavings)

• In a large bowl, beat cream, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.
• On a flat serving plate, arrange 7 cookies side by side in a circle, keeping 1 cookie in the center.
• Spread with 1/2 cup whipped cream, making a 7-inch circle. Repeat with remaining cookies and cream, making 11 layers of cookies and ending with a layer of cream (there will be a few cookies left over). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• To serve, dust top lightly with cocoa powder or chocolate shavings.

Enjoy! I leave you with a photo of the icebox towers I made with the leftover cookies and cream.

Birthdays and Baked's Malted Milk Chocolate Cake

My birthday was a few weeks ago, and I wanted to keep it pretty low-key. I went out to dinner with a few of my friends, and then we adjourned back to the house for a night of board games. I'm not the go-out-and-party type, so this kind of event was pretty perfect.

I chose Central Thai in the Gates Shopping Centre for dinner. I have to say, the location itself is somewhat dodgy, because you come up from either the parking lot or the river to get to the restaurant proper, and it doesn't look like the safest place! But the restaurant itself is gorgeous, a little hidden gem right off the River Wear. The decorations are sumptuous and the staff polite and friendly. Everyone was suitably impressed when we sat down to eat.

I decided to splurge - it was my birthday, after all - and order a starter. I've been craving dim sum somethin' fierce, so when I spotted it on the menu, it was a no-brainer. The dim sum turned out to be siomai (or the Thai version, anyway), and was pretty darn good. Nice, flavorful meat filling, perfectly steamed dumplings, crushed peanuts, and a sweet, garlicky soy-sauce based dipping sauce. A great start to the meal.

I do love Thai food when it's done right. The balance of flavors is pretty spectacular, and as I'm terribly easy when it comes to anything coconut, Thai curries with coconut milk really do hit the spot. So I ordered the Thai green curry with chicken, and coconut rice (natch). The curry had some heat to it that made me absolutely grateful for my cooling coconut rice, as well as my enormous pot of jasmine tea. The chicken was tender and the veggies had just the right amount of snap. The coconut milk offset the heat quite nicely, and the flavors were spot-on.

Mmmm. Coconut rice. Need I say anything more?

I bought myself one of Baked's cookbooks a while back, and until now, have only made their Lemon Drop cake. I made myself a cake for my birthday (it's not that sad, I rather prefer to make my own cake), and chose their Malted Milk Chocolate Cake. The white cake was oh-so-fluffy and terribly delicate, which made assembly something of a challenge. My only complaint about it is that there wasn't enough malt flavor! I might increase the dosage next time, even though the recipe already called for one cup of malted milk powder!

And oh, that icing. Light and fluffy, with just the right amount of sweetness. I think they've got their icing recipe down pat, really.

All in all, it was a pretty good birthday!

Barnard Castle and the Bowes Museum

Hello! It's been quite a while! Life has been crazy, as per usual. February has been a month of deadlines, and I've decided to restart theater activities as well. In hindsight, that probably wasn't my brightest idea. I'd forgotten just how much time and energy that requires and let's face it, I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore.

These photos are actually from last month, but better late than never. Lara, Jon, and I took a quick little day trip out to the town of Barnard Castle. It's a lovely little market town with lots of bakeries and butcher shops - perfect for exploring on a lazy weekend!

Unfortunately, we were doomed to hunger for quite some time. All of the pubs had stopped serving food when we arrived (yeah, okay, we got lost and almost ended up in Darlington), and we ended up wandering until we found a pretty decent chip shop. I'm still on the search for the perfect fish and chips! It continues to elude me.

Barnard Castle is also home to the Bowes Museum, which is housed in the former home of John and Josephine Bowes, who were great art enthusiasts. The home (a mansion, really) now houses a renowned art collection. I have yet to visit the museum proper, but I've been dreaming of the outside for quite some time.

Isn't it beautiful? Can you imagine being John and Josephine Bowes and actually living there?