February was great. It was filled with all sorts of foodie fun experiments. Here is just one of them! Now, I know Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) was on the 12th of February, which is why I've expressed in the title of this post it's delayed, but this is sort of worth holding out for! My housemate, who is a fancy photography student, took this beautiful photo of her amazing pancake creation! - Delicious crisp, yet fluffy pancakes (made with the greatest & simplest batter), coated in a thin layer of +Nutella chocolate spread, topped with sliced banana, chopped strawberries, and a handful of blueberries. How magic does that sound!? HOWEVER, my other housemate may have topped this... with her crazy, creative, collaboration... Pancake, coated in a thin layer of MARMITE, topped with cooked CHICKEN, and sprinkled with sliced ham & grated cheese. INSANE? Yes. But, surprisingly good! I kid you not. Try something different once in awhile, you never know. You may just discover something great!
After having returned from Germany, I came to appreciate the satisfaction received from simple, good quality food. (A similar ideal to the Italians...) However, whilst there I enjoyed things like a hot roll, with just butter and a pinch of salt. Sounds dull perhaps, but my word, there is nothing quite like it on a cold Northern German afternoon, with a cup of Earl Grey. Another thing I came to learn, was that German's, much like many Europeans, love cheese! I luckily enough got to visit a local cheese makers, directly across from the dairy in the North of Germany, and purchased a selection of lovely Cheese's. - This was my English meets German breakfast interpretation of simply, a hot piece of roll, with some butter, a sprinkle of salt, a piece of German cheese, and a beautifully soft boiled egg. Simplistic perfection!
These are my slightly homemade cheese and marmite straws. To make this I used some ready made puff pastry that I had left over. I rolled it all out thinly until I had as much as I needed or wanted, ideally you want it at a thickness of about 1cm, so that it's not thin and hard to pick up. I then coated the whole lot in marmite and sprinkled some good Cheddar cheese over the top. Then cut along the pastry in strips of a thickness just a bit larger than your index finger. Then pick up either end of the pastry strip and TWIST! This is the slightly messy yet fun part. Then once you've made all your twists give them all an egg wash, place them on a baking sheet and cook them in a pre-heated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown! :)
Here is a photo of my homemade cheese burger. I had some left over mince that needed using up, and I just fancied one of these! I didn't do anything too special to it, just the usual mince meat, onion, salt and pepper! If I had more time and ingredients I may have added some thyme and honey! They were just right though, simple and satisfying. :)
As a reward/promise to myself for having completed my Part 2 Essay assignment for University, I decided that I should be allowed to bake some bread. This bread however doesn't follow a traditional bread making recipe. There is no yeast..!? I have taken the recipe from Lorraine Pascale's- Home Cooking Made Easy. It's a great recipe, called Twenty-First Century Ham, Cheese and Chive bread. It is easy to make, and fun to do! The smell of cheese and bread whilst it was in the oven was heavenly. It is always a treat for anyone to enjoy freshly baked bread, but in this instance it was a particular treat indeed! I hope this inspires you to either bake some bread, eat some bread or reward yourself after having ticked off one of those tasks that you know 'you really should just do'. :)
