I like the way you move

Victorians loved its obscene nature, Heston and Nigella have all tried to tempt us, and I made a dessert with the stuff for a Ready Steady Cook challenge at college. Now it seems, jelly is coming back. And it's big people, oh my is it big.

Jellymongers is the brain child of jelly entrepreneurs, Sam Bompass and Harry Parr. They've made it uber-trendy and became prolific in the food world after Mark Ronson commissioned a £30,000 centrepiece for his birthday bash- a mould of St.Pauls. These guys have even mastered glow in the dark jelly and for the discerning bride, a jelly wedding tower.

I must say, these two look like they are having loads of fun and I can't think of another job I'd love to have more. It's up there with Ice-cream taster and toy tester. I'm definately going to be serving up jelly at my next dinner party. Jelly Spinaker Tower anyone?

Christmas@SouthDowns College

I have faced my fear this week and went back onto mains. It was OK. Not my favourite section but I got back on and my sea bass was pretty good-looking.

The previous week I was on starters and it was great because everything was plated and ready to go before service. We were serving:

Smoked Salmon and Prawn Tian with a Tomato Chutney and garnished with micro leaves
Deep-Fried Brie in a Parmesan Basket with Pear Chutney
A Trio of Melon and Poached Fig with Spiced Syrup

I took charged of the melon and managed to slice through my finger and nail with a carving knife-it was swollen cartoon-stylee, red and throbbing and eventually last weekend became INFECTED! It's OK now though, it looks like I won't be losing it.

I also prepared a million Parmesan Baskets which made the whole kitchen smell of sick, but I can honestly say, apart from their bad feet/sick aroma, they looked really pretty.

Parmesan Baskets:

Finely grate Parmesan. On a piece on parchment paper or baking paper, using a metal ring, sprinkle grated Parmesan. Carefully remove ring and put in microwave for 20-30 seconds. It will bubble and smell. Oh will it smell. Then remove, cool for a couple of seconds and then carefully peel off paper and mould over an upturned ramekin or similar. Simple.

On Mains this week we were serving:

Christmas Turkey with all the trimmings including pigs in blankets
Fillet of Beef with a veal jus and fondant potato (which tastes like heaven by the way-extremely fattening though)
Grilled Sea Bass on crushed new potatoes and a dill buerre blanc sauce.

I took care of the Sea Bass, which meant descaling, gutting and filleting, proving I'm not a wuss or squeamish in the kitchen. Next week I'll be on desserts so I'll let you know all about it.

I also have to let you into this tip, especially if you're having lots of people over on Christmas Day.

Christmas Dinner can be crazy so when it comes to your turkey, cook it hours in advance and rest as usual. Then carve it into slices in the calm before the storm and arrange in a roasting dish, with your slices of stuffing. Cover with water, so there is a film over the turkey (not immersed) and tightly cover with foil. When you are nearly ready to serve, pop the turkey into the oven. This will reheat the turkey but keep it incredibly moist and make it so easy to serve.

On the subjects of Turkeys, I now have the skills to de-bone one! Again, a messy job but I loved it. After two goes now I feel confident I can do it more quickly and apparently it's the same for lamb, chickens etc so another bow to my string.

Next week is my last week at college and then we break up for the holidays. And it will be Christmas before we know it.

I had a chat with my tutor and he has planted some seeds into my head about what direction I could take. I can't say about them now as I have to discuss them with my husband and our lifestyle means it may not be possible but I will reveal more when I know more.

TA-DAH!!!!

So what do you think? Does my blog look big in this?

How amazing does this look? I have to give major props to Ellie at Rainy Day Templates (see footer or previous post for link). I gave her a few directions like 'erm, yes I like cooking and retro things and stuff' and she produced this. I am in danger of falling into the river as I fall in love with my blog. Massively happy and now I just have to write the posts to live up to the shiny new look. Please let me know what you think.

Adele xxx

High up in my blogosphere

So I have told you I hate my job right? Well, that kind of subsided on payday this friday which means I guess I am a filthy capitalist at heart and not at all the commie I pride myself on being. Ah well.

Anyway, the point is, I have decided to reward myself for all my hard work (who am I kidding?!) with a makeover. A blog makeover! I have been following Elliequent nee The Lucky Nest blog for a while since it featured on Blogs of Note, and the girl has got writing skills. And we all know people like bloggers with skills. She has also just started up a blog template company, which you can view here http://www.rainydaytemplates.blogspot.com/.

I contacted her and she is going to get started on something for me in the near future, so watch this space!

****UPDATE****

You can get a sneak preview of my shiny new template if you click here...
http://rainydaytemplates.blogspot.com/2007/12/sneak-previews.html

Very excited!

Here Come The Girls

I am writing this with a bit of a hangover which can only mean one thing- I had a good night!

Finally, the WAGS got together for a night of wine (quite a lot of wine actually- lying on the cold lino floor at 4am amount of wine...), food and gossip. Sometimes you just need to get it all off your chest and these girls know better than anyone else what I am going through right now.

Menu was as follows:

Starter: A trio of mini starters- The 70's classic Prawn Cocktail, a quenelle of hot smoked salmon pate and filo wrapped king prawns with a sweet chili dip

Main: Beef Wellington with a Madiera sauce, roasted parsnips and carrots, and peas.

Dessert: Chocolate fondant with a Cornish ice-cream and orange crisp.

I have to say that the amount of wine consumed meant that my timings were a teeny bit off and the fondant was a bit more cakey than I would have liked but I wasn't worried, the conversation and company were the main event anyway.

In the morning, after everyone showered and had that oh-so vital morning cuppa, we headed out to Wickham and had lunch in the most gorgeous tea and coffee house called Lilly's. AMAZING hot roasted beef and horseradish sandwich on doorstop white, home-made Yorkshire pud on the side and REAL gravy. Divine!

All in all, a great weekend with the girls, an excellent opportunity to catch up, laugh and moan!

So Monday is upon us again and in a few hours time, once I have got some much needed sleep, I will be getting into my chef whites and getting prepped for a busy festive service. I am praying I get starters or desserts!

Anyway, off to Bedfordshire, my eyes are bloodshot and I am in danger of looking like Amy Winehouse if I don't get some sleep, in a BED! x

College Update

You've all seen MasterChef, where you first meet the contestants and the generic comments are ' I love food, I love feeding people, it's the only thing that makes me happy' etc etc.

And they get through to the professional kitchen round and they crumble. It's too chaotic, it's hot, they have a head chef telling them their dish is crap. A 1000 miles from pottering around in their own kitchen, making steak and chips for a dinner party.

Well, last week I felt like that. Previous times in service I had been on the dessert section, I loved the buzz, the pace, making everything from scratch, and the admiration for our dishes from the other chefs. Last week I was put on mains. I hated it. It was chaos.

My head chef will probably say I'm being too hard on myself but I felt like I sank. I know it was my first time on mains but it was awful. I couldn't remember how many mains I had on order, I had to keep asking. It was hot and fast and unforgiving. I felt deflated. There were tears in the locker room.

Next week sees the start of the Christmas Menu. It is going to be bloody busy. I will have no other choice but to step out on mains again. And that's OK.

A journey wouldn't be worth taking if it was easy. No lessons learnt along the way you see. What I have learnt in that it doesn't pay to panic during service. You have to have fun, relax and enjoy it. I knew it was going to be difficult, I knew I would struggle but you never achieve anything if you stay in your comfort zone. I going back on mains and this time I will be focused. I will let you know all about the Christmas menu when I get that information myself.

For now, I am getting ready to do some baking. A little precision needed with measurements but on the whole a relaxing venture. A lot of love will be going into the biscuits, cakes and slices as they will be sent off for action men to enjoy. Ha, I didn't think of it like this before but my cakes will be shipped into a country in conflict, hopefully raising morale for a few moments. Morale Cakes. I'm seeing a window of opportunity here!

Delia's Classic Christmas Cake

I cannot claim this recipe as my own unfortunately so here I must redirect you to Delia's website and give props where they're due. There is pretty much EVERYTHING you need to know on here. Also the recipe is like, a mile long (just look at the ingredients list!) so I think it is best I leave it to the experts:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/the-classic-christmas-cake,1293,RC.html

I am still feeding my cake every couple of weeks or so with cherry brandy, man it smells good. I am still wondering about how to decorate- arty things not really being my forte. I shall keep you updated nevertheless.

Changing the subject, my father-in-law and partner are coming to visit this weekend and have kindly offered to take me to lunch (fantastic, seeing as since husband has been away I've been living on things very much toast-based). Instead of the uber expensive 36 on the Quay, we are trying Fat Olives this time, still in the gorgeous town of Emsworth. I will also probably bake some Double-Ginger cake for Maureen as it went down well last time (see September 2008 post, A Cake Fit For A King, for recipe).

The lack of food posts on my foodie blog can be attributed to a few dents in my soul since my husband left for a sandier-terra. My passion for food deserted me for a while there, but I can feel my interests being pipped once more as my eye was caught by a Vietnamese cookbook in the library the other day. Hopefully we will see the return of more food orientated posts here at TwentyFour Blackbirds, just want to say thanks for hanging in there.