Crumpet experiments

By special request of Beck, fellow Canberra blogger from In Search of Golden Pudding, today I'm posting the crumpet recipe I've been using for the last couple of years. I only make these a couple of times a year, so even though I'm not entirely overjoyed with this recipe, I've just been tweaking it rather than researching others. The way these come out reminds me more of the American version of English muffins than like my memory of crumpets - not enough air holes, in particular. However, I will come clean here and say that my only experience of crumpets (other than my own) is out of a packet, so my expectations may not be realistic.

This recipe is adapted from Delia's Complete Cookery Course, by UK cooking powerhouse Delia Smith. My main adaptation is drastically cutting the amount of yeast (from 1 Tbsp), because I prefer to let the dough rise overnight rather than the 45 minutes suggested in the original recipe - I think the crumpets taste better, plus I'd rather not have to hang around for 45 minutes before I can even start cooking Sunday breakfast.

1. Heat 275 ml/10 oz milk and 55 ml/2 oz water to 'hand-hot' in a small saucepan (I interpret this to mean I can stick my finger in for about 10 seconds).

2. Pour liquid into a jug, stir in 5 g/1 tsp sugar and 5 g/1 tsp yeast and leave to prove for 10-15 minutes, or until frothy.

3. Sift 225 g/8 oz plain/all-purpose flour and 5 g/1 tsp salt into a medium-sized bowl, then add yeast mixture and mix together thoroughly. (I use my dough whisk.)

4. Cover the bowl and leave batter to rise overnight. (I do this in the fridge.)

5. When ready to cook, grease your frying pan or griddle well, as well as the inside of your crumpet or egg rings. When your cooking surface is hot, spoon 1 Tbsp of batter into each ring, and let cook for 4-5 minutes, looking for the appearance of bubbles and allowing them to burst.* Then remove the ring and flip the crumpet to cook for 1 more minute.

Makes 10-12 crumpets.

* This is the step that hasn't really worked for me - I don't get as many bubbles as I expect, either using the original recipe or the adapted overnight version. They're still yummy, though. Suggestions welcome.

Disappearing January

Oops! I can't believe the month of January has come and gone and I didn't manage to post once. I did manage to do a lot of other stuff, though, including host my sister M for a 2+ week visit, go on three trips, and complete (along with a large number of my colleagues) a colossal work deadline.

I also got a new phone! So I have some pictures to share of all these things that kept me from blogging. I didn't get it up and running until after the first trip (we took my sister to Melbourne), so no pictures of that - which is probably for the best, because it was New Year's weekend and the temperature was over 40C/105F both days.

Then we had a few days in Canberra, which was a blur of sightseeing, cramming work, and prepping for our next trip (warning, lots of pictures coming):

We went on our annual beach vacation to Jervis Bay - self-catering as usual:

Action shot from the first night, when I was in the middle of prepping pizzas for six - the opening salvo in a full-on week of cooking....

Some of it documented by Miss B, who wrote up and illustrated some menus....

The counter laid out for leftover lunch on Sunday - leftovers from Saturday night's surf and turf dinner, a corn salad made from leftover ears of corn, a green salad, and various other bits and pieces....

On Monday we went to have lunch with friends who have a house further down the coast; my contribution was a pan full of frico....

It was our turn to cook for them later in the week, and I cleaned out the fridge to make a massive seafood chowder....

I even managed to MacGyver up a batch of cookies for DP and Miss B to bring along as a thank-you for a special-access visit arranged for them.

Two days after we got back from the beach, I left again, this time for work. I spent 5 days in the UK, of which I took almost no pictures, although I did get one of Jobn Snow's famous parish pump, with the pub that bears his name in the background - an important landmark for anyone involved in any way with public health:

Then I went to Freiburg for another 4 days; luckily 2 of them were over a weekend, so I got to do some fun stuff as well as work - like go to the Saturday market with my friend C...

...go for a drive into the Schwarzwald (aka the Black Forest)...

...and go sledding!

And, of course, no visit to these Freiburg friends would be complete without a raclette dinner:

The day after that, I flew back to Australia, returning just in time for the final push to meet the huge deadline I mentioned earlier. And now it's February, and school starts in 2 days, and it's quite chilly out, and where did summer vacation go?

I hope all is well in your worlds, and that I'll be back very soon to provide more details on some of those dishes listed above.

Three countries

Good morning from cold and rainy London! I woke up early to Skype with DP and Miss B back in Canberra, and I have some time to kill before our train to Oxford later this morning. So I thought I would use my time profitably by lying in my hotel bed and updating my blog.

Yesterday was a first for me - I ate breakfast in Freiburg, lunch in Paris, and dinner in London. My friend and colleague C. (okay, technically my boss) makes this trip regularly, and prefers to do it by train. I'm always happy to opt for a mode of travel that doesn't involve planes, especially when it incorporates a planned four-hour stop in Paris for lunch. We went to the oldest covered market in Paris (Marche des Enfants Rouges, near the Place de la Republique, thanks to a recommendation in Clotilde Dusoulier's Paris guidebook), and browsed around the stalls before settling on a one-man show offering enormous toasted sandwiches and savory galettes. I always associate the term galette with a rustic-looking pie or tart made with pastry crust on a baking sheet, but this galette was a huge buckwheat crepe, filled with a haddock salad and lots of other goodies. The sandwich, crusty bread drizzled with olive oil and piled with ham, cheese, veggies, and then grilled, was equally fantastic. Then, after loading up on cheese to bring to England and a fortifying glass of vin du table in a sidewalk cafe, it was back on the train - the Eurostar to London this time. Shopping for jeans on Oxford Street, a pub visit (of course), and then we had dinner at my hands-down favorite Mexican restaurant, wahaca. I've been there once before, three years ago, and I've been dreaming about it ever since. No Mexican food I've had in the interim, and certainly not in Canberra, even comes close.  

And now I'm hungry again. Time to go hunt down some breakfast. More from Oxford.

Car buying

We did two stints of living in the UK without a car, and managed 15 months here in Canberra the first time around without one. It wasn't always totally convenient, but between public transport, occasional car rentals, and a lot of walking, we managed without a car for more than 8 years in total.

When we moved to Kansas City, on the other hand, pretty much the first thing we did was head to a Toyota dealership. We hadn't been in the Midwest more than a day before we had confirmed our suspicion that living car-free wasn't going to be an option, at least where we were, and we were the proud owners of a new Prius before our first week in Kansas was out. We thought about trying to ship it down here along with the rest of our stuff, but that also turned out to be a non-starter, so we sold it to my sister M., and drove to Boston to deliver it before heading down here.

It's hard to go back to being carless, even after only two years, and we started looking into the possibility of buying a car not long after we returned to Canberra. Having been thoroughly satisfied with our Prius, we looked into buying one here, and then we found out two things:

1. Buying a Prius in Australia costs more than buying one in the US. A lot more.
2. Buying anything that involves signing a contract is slightly more complicated when you're not a citizen of the country where you're living.

Since the only place I've ever bought a car before now is the US, I had no idea that the fact that we're in Australia on a visa would be a factor in buying a car. As we discovered, you can't sign a contract - such as a lease or a loan - for a period longer than the term of your visa. And trying to cram the cost of a normally five-year contract into the term of the visas we're currently on is definitely out of the question, financially speaking. So, for the time being, until our visa status changes or we find a cheap, reliable option, we're back to being carless. One of the reasons I'm so happy to have at least one transportation option that takes my feet off the ground.

Current events

Love this so much that I have to share with you all--especially for those of you in the UK. Enjoy and Happy December!

April roundup

Like sands through the hourglass, so goes another month, leaving only the last crumbs behind. And, like yesterday’s Royal Wedding tea party, almost consumed before there’s enough time to take a decent picture. Before it slips away completely, here are a few links to commit some of April’s best mouthfuls to memory:

Tea cake

I have vivid memories of my first Royal Wedding. I was still in grade school, and very excited about it. I spent the month before cutting every scrap of information I could find out of newspapers and magazines, and set up a collage wall in our attic play area. I set my alarm for 3:30 am on the big day, and got myself up to watch the live coverage (incidentally astounding my mother, because even then getting up in the morning was not my forte). I spent the morning glued to the TV set, while various family members passed in and out, mildly curious and bemused at my preoccupation. It remains the only time I ever remember being carried away by the whole “princess/fairytale” narrative.

Wordless Wednesday

Cake or death?

Yorkshire pudding

Six fun facts about Yorkshire pudding

Did you know?

1. Yorkshire pudding and popovers are the same thing.
2. The same batter that makes either of these savory accompaniments can also be served as a sweet dish, as in a Dutch baby pancake.
3. The batter contains no leavener; it rises and gets puffy because of steam trapped inside the dough as it bakes, a method also used in choux pastry (to make profiteroles/cream puffs (sweet) or gougères (savory)).
4. It is most often served as part of a traditional English Sunday lunch, alongside roast beef, roast potatoes, and vegetables.
5. Tradition also holds that it was devised as a cheap way to fill people up so that they wouldn’t eat quite so much of the more expensive beef.
6. It is about 90% of my motivation for cooking roast beef.

Wordless Wednesday

Just because.

Superlative snacking

I can hardly begin to quantify the number of things I learned about cultural diversity and human nature during my years of living overseas, but I must also confess that many of the most memorable lessons are less than profound. Prominent among these is my recollection of the first time I went to the movies (or should I say the cinema) in England. Having bought my ticket, I went to the concession stand and requested popcorn.

“Salt or sweet?” inquired the helpful person standing behind the counter.

UK recap

I’m back in the US, jet lagged and still recovering from four solid days of meetings and thinking and face-to-face social interaction. I’m glad to be back, but I had a great trip—and was reminded in about equal measure of the things I miss, and don’t miss, about living in the UK.

Second home

I’m back in England, for the first time in nearly two years. It’s amazing to me that I spent the better part of ten years of my life living here, and now nineteen months have flown by since my last visit—just a couple of weeks before I started this blog, in fact. My travel plans escaped unscathed from Volcanageddon, or whatever we’re calling it, although it was touch and go for a bit there, and I arrived yesterday morning, right on schedule. I spent about 24 hours in London, getting acclimated, going to meetings, and eating quite possibly the best Mexican meal (including margaritas) I’ve ever had. And tonight I’ve returned to my old stomping ground: Oxford. I’ll be spending most of the next three days inside a conference room, but I plan to escape from time to time and revisit some of my favorite haunts—yes, of course they all sell food, why do you ask?—and catch up with some friends. You can only get away with that kind of thing in a visit to a place you’ve called home, and I plan to make the most of the opportunity.