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Great ways to learn new skills – classes, books and demonstrations.

Getting To Grips with Rosetta Stone

22 May 2013 6 Responses »

May 222013

It’s one month into my quest to learn Japanese using Rosetta Stone’s TotalE online solution.

Here’s an update on how the system works and how I’ve been getting on with it.

Finding Time

I’ve spent 15 to 30 minutes almost every morning working through one or more lessons, as they vary in complexity and duration needed. To my surprise, staying focused has not proven difficult, nor has dedicating the daily time slot. During the week, I set my alarm clock half an hour earlier than it needs to be for work and once I’m showered, dressed and fully awake, hit the “books” before heading to work. On weekends, I’m more relaxed about when I start, but still prefer to learn in the mornings when my concentration is at its best. In one month, I’ve missed only a handful of days, a couple when we’ve been out of town and a couple more when poorly.

In that time, I’ve worked through Level 1 Units 1-4 at a fairly steady pace.

How Rosetta Stone Works

Described by its makers as an immersive way of learning, somewhat like the way children learn their first language, Rosetta Stone is loosely based on Krashen’s Comprehensible Input Hypothesis which postulates that comprehensible input is the key to language learning, that understanding the spoken and written word is far more important than speaking and writing (as far as learning is concerned) and that learning success is heavily dependent on the mood and motivation of the learner. (Note: Krashen himself disputes that the input provided by Rosetta Stone is sufficiently compelling to really fit his hypothesis). Of course, it’s based on far more research than that, and they have invested heavily in research and design to create their unique learning system.

So how do the lessons work?

Essentially, the lessons are all image based.

For each step of a lesson, a number of photographs are displayed. Words or sentences are spoken and the learner picks the matching image to indicate comprehension.

Different lessons focus on vocabulary, pronunciation, reading, grammar and writing.

The written text of the words and sentences are displayed too, usually after you indicate the answer. For Japanese lessons, you can choose whether to see the written word in kanji, hiragana and katakana or romaji (our roman alphabet).

In the pronunciation lessons, you must speak the answer. Rosetta Stone incorporates powerful voice recognition software, and I’ve had no trouble with this aspect at all. In the earliest lessons, you are required to pronounce each syllable of a word in turn before pronouncing the word; it’s just a matter of repeating what is said. But before long, some example sentences are spoken, along with appropriate images, and then you are required to work out (and say) the sentence for the next image.

Because the tool is designed to be immersive (and perhaps also so a single version can be sold to learners worldwide, with a native-language dashboard applied to the front end), there is absolutely no information within the lessons in your native language.

Group Sessions

Rosetta Stone is not a cheap option and many baulk at paying so much.

One aspect of the new TotalE subscription that makes the price far more of a great deal is the inclusion of live group sessions lead by tutors who are native speakers of the language you are learning.

Details seem to vary according to language but for Japanese, sessions are 25 minutes long and the maximum group size is 5 students.

Non-Lesson Learning

There are also a few learning games provided, many of which are best played with another learner. At the times I’ve been logged on and learning, I’ve never been able to find another learner at the same level also looking to play the games with me.

Additionally, there are some stories provided for reading out loud.

Positives & Frustrations

I’ve learned a pretty decent amount of vocabulary, and a few very simple sentences, and it definitely feels like it’s sticking. I don’t have to struggle to recall it at all.

That said, thus far there’s very little of much use in that. I still can’t ask someone’s name or tell them mine, say where I’m from, ask for directions or how much something costs or request the menu or bill in a restaurant… I’m starting to wonder when we’ll move away from the kind of vocabulary that’s of interest to a small child and on to more useful content.

I am not sure that the reading and writing is very well integrated, for Japanese learners. Firstly, I have found myself asked to identify a written phrase at a point when I’ve only learned a handful of hiragana characters. Secondly, I don’t see the point of including writing lessons based on a roman alphabet keyboard, for non romaji learners.

Because of the lack of explanation or help in English, when I don’t understand the lesson or what I’m asked to do, there’s no way within the tool to find out what that lesson is trying to teach me. Sometimes I’m so completely and utterly stuck that I am forced to Google for answers, and hope someone else has asked the same question.

Support material in my own language, even in a printed or PDF document provided alongside, would be very welcome now and again.

Likewise, I would like a way to reference back what I’ve already covered, but reviewing previous lessons is impossible unless I want to actually take an entire lesson again all the way through.

It’s possible to cheat, unintentionally. When learning numbers, I couldn’t understand the words for the numbers, but chose the right answers because I knew the word for the items in the images, such as 3 eggs, 1 ball, 2 cups, 4 chairs. If the images had all been the same item, I’d have been forced to focus on the actual numbers themselves. This was further complicated by the fact that Japanese has several different versions of each number, the choice dependent on the type of object being described. Rosetta Stone fell down in this area, and this was another instance when I had to look for information outside the tool to understand.

The 3 group sessions I’ve been able to take with a tutor have been really great and really allowed me to see where my gaps are as well as see that I am making progress. The tutors are helpful and encouraging. The sessions follow the same material and use the same images as the core lessons.

However, scheduling these sessions is proving very difficult indeed. Firstly, for Japanese learners, sessions are offered only for every 2 units rather than at every unit level like with some languages. Secondly, there are not very many slots available, especially that are suitable for learners in European time zones. Thirdly, whilst I’m happy with the restriction to only be able to book 2 sessions ahead at a time, the additional restriction that I can’t have 2 for the same unit booked at the same time doesn’t make sense. Rosetta Stone is happy for me to take as many sessions at any given level as I like, but not to let me have 2 scheduled as such. So by the time I can book another session, I usually find nothing available for a date and time I can manage.

Progress

Spending a small amount of time every day has allowed me to progress fairly quickly. With the proviso that I’ve had to Google when I’ve been completely stuck a few times, I’ve found the majority of the lessons very easy and have found progress straightforward.

Despite my frustrations above, I find the interface fairly easy to use and am delighted that it’s enabling me to learn Japanese!

With thanks to Rosetta Stone for my online subscription.

My Pinterest Addiction

17 May 2013 14 Responses »

May 172013

Bookmarking Ninja

I’m a prolific bookmarker.

The hierarchical directory structure I’ve created for my Internet browser bookmark folders is a thing of beauty, even if I say so myself. It’s not visually attractive, of course, but it’s sufficiently well designed that I can quickly find what I’m looking for, whether it’s the link to the hotel we stayed in when we last visited the Loire Valley or the collection of best websites to find cheap train tickets or the folder of shortcuts to national newspapers’ travel sections or the enormous collection of recipes I might someday try to make. Because I have such diverse interests, the structure has many levels, but it works for me, it does the job. And it’s that ease of use that gives it beauty in my eyes.

Where it falls down is when I can’t remember the name or details of what I’m looking for, even though I know I’ve definitely saved it, so can’t think what I might have called the shortcut or which folder it’s in.

What is Pinterest?

In many cases, the memory I have of a web page I’ve saved is purely visual – biscuits made in the shape of buttons and tied up with ribbon; fruit trees shaped into espalier forms; a great example of how to arrange lots of different sized picture frames on a wall in a pleasing way; a low-tech way of making tiny spheres of coffee to decorate desserts; a gorgeous eco-camp in the midst of an expansive desert of red dunes; topiaries shaped like elephants; a website full of pretty Moroccan-style tadelakt and tiled bathrooms; the nifty idea for a folding cupboard-cum-picnic table for an outdoor garden wall; a bacon-wrapped meatloaf recipe, a crêpe cake recipe, a pull-apart cheese bread recipe…

Those examples (and hundreds more) are why I jumped on Pinterest over a year ago.

In a nutshell, Pinterest is an image-based bookmarking system, which allows you to “pin” images onto virtual pin boards; as many boards as you wish. When the images are pinned from websites, they retain a direct link back to the page in question. It’s easy to follow other people’s boards, so you can re-pin anything that catches your eye, and likewise, other people can follow and pin your content. Click on any pin to visit the original source article.

I have a whole slew of boards for food and drink from a board showcasing entries to my Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream challenge to ones for potatoes, cheese, bacon, sweet baking, savoury baking, deep fried treats, hot drinks and many more.

I have almost as many for craft and DIY including ideas for home-made artwork, clothes, jewellery and bags, greeting cards, furniture, lighting and even a board for nothing but hooks!

I have a board for gardening tips and ideas, one for favourite words of inspiration and quotes, another for places I’ve loved or would like to visit, beautiful photographs of wildlife and flora, a collection of ideas for my dream bathroom and dream kitchen, and even a window shopping board!

Creating Content

Whilst some use Pinterest as a virtual scrapbook, or to create mood boards, I use mine to collate visual bookmarks, all of which have links through to relevant content, whether it’s recipes and tutorials on how to cook or make something, travel guides to appealing destinations, or more information about an artist and their work.

I am an avid reader of many blogs and websites, and often pin articles directly, when I come across great content I want to revisit and enjoy later.

Pinterest also lets me follow my friends’ Pinterest activity, so I can see all their latest pins on my home page. And for those occasions where they have boards I’m really not interested in (shoes, weddings, kid stuff, work topics…) I can follow and unfollow individual boards rather than an entire user profile.

It’s also fun to browse pins from all Pinterest users, by category. I not only find some great content this way, but often find new boards to follow, created by people I don’t know but whose interests and tastes I clearly share. I regularly find new blogs to read too, and have added many more to my RSS reader since I started using Pinterest.

Because I believe in respecting content creators, I choose not to re-pin links to pages which have simply lifted a pretty picture from its original source, with neither permission sought nor credit given. Indeed, sometimes I end up investing a fair bit of time Googling to find an original source, and then create a fresh pin directly to it. If I can’t find such a source, I just don’t pin, regardless of how much I like the picture. As a content creator myself, I think that’s only fair.

Sharing Content

As a blogger, I make sure I pin my own blog posts too and I always appreciate it when other users choose to pin any of them to their own boards for future reference. It’s not simply about driving traffic to the blog, though that’s a lovely benefit, but about finding another way of sharing one’s interests with a new community.

I make it easy for other Pinterest users who visit my site to Pin my content themselves, if they wish, by providing a Pin It button at the bottom of every post.

Like a comment left here on the blog, a pin of one of my posts tells me someone appreciated what I posted, and that’s a welcome pat on the back.

Registration for Brits

This month, Pinterest are inviting Brits to register on Pinterest, create their own boards and get pinning.

Why don’t you go ahead and register? And of course, follow me and my boards!

Becoming a Rosetta Stone Blogger

10 May 2013 11 Responses »

May 102013

I wanted to visit Japan for as long as I can remember. Every time I juggled the travel wish list, there it was near the top, beckoning me to book a trip.

But the appeal of wildlife safaris in Africa, meandering self-drives in France, and cruise expeditions to Antarctica were also strong. Japan’s time never seemed to come.

It wasn’t aided by my husband’s eating habits: whilst he’s not a fussy eater, his diet of choice didn’t extend to fish and seafood (cooked as much as raw), pork that wasn’t formed into bacon or sausages, miso soup or sweets filled with red bean paste or flavoured with green tea. The thought of being presented food he might not be able to identify was also a big turnoff. But after years of being married to a foodie, his palate has become more adventurous over time, and the last two years witnessed a sea change in the seafood stakes.

Buoyed by the more positive response to Japan as a holiday destination, I struck while the iron was hot and booked non-refundable flights!

We spent 17 wonderful days in Japan last autumn.

Japan was everything I’d imagined it to be and many things besides: the contrast between modern and traditional, between shiny new and revered old; a populace both friendly, welcoming, incredibly polite and yet with interests and behaviours that were, to our eyes, utterly (and compellingly) strange; the soothing rituals and etiquette of ryokan living with cypress wood baths and futons on tatami mat floors; all singing and dancing toilets with musical choices, pre-warmed seats and wash and dry functions; young girls crawling through a hole in a rock shrine, convinced it would bring them true love; the most efficient train system we’ve experienced; an incredibly rich and diverse food culture offering all the Japanese dishes we know here in the West and a hundred more we don’t; restaurants and cafés specialising in tempura, ramen, sushi, soba noodles, pickles, shabu-shabu, sukiyaki and yakitori, along with foods that are less well-known in the West, such as tonkatsu, wagashi, okonomiyaki, wagyu beef, and all things matcha to name just a few….

Of course, part of feeling at ease in a strange and foreign land is the ability to communicate, but Japanese seemed to be an inscrutable language. Whereas European languages, which use our familiar Roman alphabet, feel easier to get a handle on, Japanese, with its (three) unfamiliar character sets, not only sounds unintelligible to our ears, it’s impossible to read, too.

Oh I printed out a tiny list of phonetically represented useful words and phrases to carry around with me and was rewarded with warmth when I used them. But there were many times when we felt that a deeper understanding and more meaningful exchange of ideas would have been possible had we only known Japanese. Not to mention the ability to ask for (and follow) directions when we got lost, to work out which tickets to buy from station-ticket machines, and to order more confidently from restaurant menus.

Fast forward a few months, and the wonders of our first trip are still so strongly in our minds that we’ve booked a return trip for another three weeks later this year.

With a better feeling of how much more we will get from our trip if we have some language skills under our belt, I’ve decided to invest the next few months in learning Japanese. With its reputation for making learning feel natural and achievable, Rosetta Stone seemed the obvious solution. Not needing to attend physical classes also makes it easier to slot into daily life.

In exchange for writing regularly about how I’m progressing, Rosetta Stone have given me 6 month’s access to TOTALe, the online version of their popular language learning system. My online subscription lets me learn at my own pace, working through lessons as often as I wish. It also includes a number of live group sessions with a native Japanese tutor, to practice what I learn.

I am nervous.

Learning new skills becomes harder with age, as I discovered when I studied for some professional certification recently – I passed with good marks, but it certainly didn’t come as easily to me as the exams I sailed through so comfortably back at school a few decades ago.

I realise a few months is still not long enough to gain true fluency in a new language, especially one with as little in common with my native tongue as Japanese. But I’m fired up and full of enthusiasm. Already, in the few short weeks since I’ve started, I’ve worked through at least one lesson nearly every single day and have assimilated a pleasing number of words and phrases.

Over the next few months, I’ll keep you updated with my progress.

And of course, I’ll share how it all went after our second trip to Japan.

With thanks to Rosetta Stone for my online subscription.

Book Review: "Eat Your Veg" by Arthur Potts Dawson

03 May 2013 2 Responses »

May 032013

Guest Post by my friend Monica Shaw.

Arthur Potts Dawson has a really big heart. Sustainable. Seasonal. Responsible. He ticks all the right boxes, and has done some fantastic things for London by creating two sustainably aware urban restaurants, Acorn House and Water House, which exemplify the diversity of the city and London’s, what he calls, "environmental salutations". He also recently wrote a cookbook, Eat Your Veg, which has a great premise: how to cook vegetables seasonally and sustainably. What’s not to like? Well…

Let’s first say that I really wanted to love this cookbook. It’s not vegetarian, but rather, a book about vegetables, beautifully photographed, and I love the design. Just look at the cover: pink and yellow in perfect harmony, brought together by one of my favourite things: beetroot. And the pages inside are just as inviting. This cookbook makes you want to cook with vegetables, which is half the battle for many folks who know they should eat more veg but aren’t really inspired to cook with it. Even for those of us who don’t find vegetables a challenge, it’s always nice to find inspiration and ideas to try.

And that’s exactly what we were looking for – "we" being me, Pete and Kavey on a recent weekend at Orchard Cottage, an occasion that typically involves lots of cooking together and feasting (perhaps one of the highest forms of social engagement ever in the world). We settled on a few recipes…

Penne with garlic, rosemary and mascarpone for its simplicity and because it used lemon juice and Kavey likes lemons
Samphire with spinach and lettuce as a salad to go with our fish course
Pea and mint iced lollies because the idea was just so weird that it had to be tested

We ran into a few hitches on the way to "Eating Our Veg". The penne was so overwhelmingly lemony that none of the other flavours came through. It was hard to re-establish the balance of flavour and save the dish. So we moved on…

The samphire with spinach and lettuce seemed unnecessarily fiddly and a bit strange. First, he calls for three pans of salted water for each of the vegetables. First of all, why three pans? That seems like a lot of unnecessary clean-up. Second, why salted water with samphire which is plenty salty in itself? And third, why are we boiling wonderful crisp gem lettuces? So, we skipped the salt…and the three pans. We cooked the samphire then tossed it with the spinach to wilt the spinach, then added our still crispy lettuces and dressed it in lemon and oil as directed. It was fine (and by fine I mean edible), but needed something more. A drizzle of balsamic helped immeasurably. Would we make it again? No.

By this point I felt this strange determination to make Arthur Potts Dawson recipes all the time, as if I were possessed with an insane curiosity: surely some of these recipes must work? Or, to quote one of my favourite television programmes, "I want to believe."

Given my resolve, it was perhaps unwise to choose the pea and mint iced lollies as our next experiment. But I couldn’t resist, and I had a bag of peas. And so it was: peas, shallots, butter, cream and mint, cooked and pulverised and stuffed into lolly moulds then frozen. Sounds weird? Yeah, because it is. Why a lolly? The mix was far better not frozen, but warm, as a dip for corn chips! (And really, do shallots ever have a place in an iced lolly? Discuss.)

At that point I decided to take a break from "Eat Your Veg".

I later came back to it and found much better luck with his grilled aubergine, cooked in a way that was a bit of a revelation: the aubergine is sliced thick, grilled with no added oil until the very end, at which point you smear it with chermoula. The aubergine stays wonderfully moist, almost creamy.

His house dressing is also good, but I mean, it’s just a Dijon vinaigrette, which you can find in most cookbooks. (Though I did enjoy this one in particular with a salad of apple, celery and walnuts.)

There might other recipes in this cookbook that are real gems like the aubergine. But when you’ve tried a few recipes that seem like they haven’t been thoroughly tested or sense checked, you start to lose faith. Worse, you start to lose the inspiration to cook with vegetables, the thing that led us to this cookbook in the first place.

I might dip into this book again, perhaps for some more of that house vinaigrette, and who knows, maybe that’ll lead me to his other pages. I think I won’t push my luck with the "parsnip and shiitake salad". But surely you can’t go wrong with "new potato salad nicoise", or "French onion soup" or "ratatouille". Surely, right?

With thanks to Monica for text and images. Read more on her blog Smarter Fitter.

Eat Your Veg by Arthur Potts Dawson is currently available on Amazon (UK) for £16 (RRP £25).

Gastrogeek’s Amazing Roasted Aubergine Macaroni Cheese

18 Apr 2013 12 Responses »

Apr 182013

Fellow blogger and food writer Rejina is a friend of mine, and one I’ve long thought deserved a cookery book deal, so I was delighted to be sent a review copy of her first title, Gastrogeek (What to eat when you’re in a hurry, hungry or hard up). Her blog of the same name has been a source of great ideas for the last four years – indeed she launched her blog just weeks before I started mine.

Having talked to Rejina, I can understand why her innovative pitch instantly caught her publisher’s attention – she proposed (and showcased) a photographic comic-book style approach based on her memory of teenage magazines from her childhood. Just as the illustrated stories in those magazines did for teenage love dramas, her aim with this book was to provide solutions to common kitchen dilemmas such as creating restorative meals after shitty days at work, conjuring up meals from the store cupboard when cash is tight, cooking up a storm to impress guests and feeding a hangover in the best possible way.

There are some disappointments about the book, and I know Rejina will forgive me for being honest about them. In my opinion, the publishers haven’t done a great job on the book design. Too focused on Rejina’s clever theme, they seem to have fallen under the impression that the audience for the book must be the same teenagers those magazines were aimed at and the design feels a bit childish as a result. And whoever thought teal green was the right colour for the cover of a cookery book or that a font suspiciously similar to Comic Sans was right for the text inside ought to be ashamed of themselves. I also found many of the photographs far too dark, especially the black and white ones – I’ve no idea whether the fault lies in the image processing or the printing but it makes the pages look far drabber than they should.

The good news, however, is that the quality of Rejina’s content shines through regardless and is why I recommend you purchase this book even if the appearance puts you off at first glance.

In a few of the dishes, Rejina’s British-Bengali background comes through – she shares her Dahl of Dreams, Curried Roast Bone Marrow (which reminds me of my own bone marrow curry) and Duck Egg, Spinach and Coconut Curry, amongst others. But the majority of the recipes are a wide-ranging and eclectic mix with influences from all around the world – just the way many of us cook these days. Rejina lived in Japan for a while, and her love of umami (and a few key Japanese ingredients) comes through too. I’ve bookmarked Miso Butter Roasted Chicken, Mini Chicken & Mushroom Pies, BBQ Ribs in Dr Pepper and Teriyaki Rice Burgers to name just a few.

Recently Pete and I made her Roasted Aubergine Macaroni Cheese and to say we liked it is an understatement. Not only did the textures and flavours of the dish come together to create a whole that was far more impressive than its simple ingredients suggested, the instructions were also spot on and very straightforward to follow. That last bit should be a given, shouldn’t it, but it’s not uncommon to find yourself adjusting cooking times and amounts to achieve the consistency and results described by the author. In this case, the recipe worked like clockwork.

What made this macaroni cheese shine were the smokey flavours from the smoked paprika, aubergine and smoked cheddar.

Gastrogeek’s Amazing Roasted Aubergine Macaroni Cheese

Serves 4 (or 2 very greedy people)

Ingredients
1 aubergine
300 grams dried macaroni
35 grams butter
25 grams plain flour
300 ml whole milk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Freshly grated nutmeg, to season
0.5 teaspoon smoked paprika
1-2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper
90 grams smoked Cheddar cheese, grated plus some for sprinkling
100 ml double cream
1 garlic clove, crushed

Method

Roast the aubergine in a hot oven (220 C) for 20-25 minutes. Carefully peel and mash the creamy innards.
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Cook the macaroni according to the packet instructions. Drain and transfer to a 25 x 20 cm greased baking dish, reserving a little of the cooking water.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium pan and stir in the flour. Cook the roux over a medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly and then gradually add the milk, still stirring constantly.
Stir in the mustard, nutmeg, paprika, salt, pepper and cheese and stir until melted.
Stir in the aubergine flesh, cream and garlic, along with a little reserved pasta cooking water (to adjust the consistency if required).
Pour the sauce over the cooked pasta and mix well. Sprinkle generously with extra grated cheese.
Bake at 180 C for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

There is absolutely no question whatsoever that we will be making this again, and soon. I recommend that you do too!

Gastrogeek by Rejina Sabur-Cross is currently available on Amazon UK for £10.23 (RRP £15.99).

Chocolate Ecstasy Tours in London

15 Apr 2013 2 Responses »

Apr 152013

My friend Jenn is the founder of Chocolate Ecstasy Tours, a company dedicated to helping people enjoy great chocolate.

She (and a team of dedicated guides) run chocolate-themed walking tours in Mayfair and Chelsea during which they lead the (small) group between a number of carefully picked specialists. During the tour, you learn more about how chocolate is made, the different types available and how to taste chocolate properly. At each shop you are treated to some specialities ranging from hot chocolate to frozen yoghurt, filled chocolates, plain bars and even macarons.

Jenn has also negotiated discounts in many of the shops, so you can buy your favourites for a little less.

A nice extra touch is that as a history enthusiast, Jenn is able to share many fascinating stories about the history of London, as you walk from place to place.

My ticket was a very thoughtful birthday gift and I must say, these tours are a fantastic gift idea for those who enjoy chocolate, especially those who are hard to buy for as they have all the socks, vases, books, games, jumpers, posh chutney they need!

Thanks to Jenn for a wonderful day!

Making Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts + A Review of Pure Vanilla

05 Mar 2013 17 Responses »

Mar 052013

When you think of foods that benefit from deep frying, what springs to mind?

For me, the list was long…

Fried chicken, battered fish, proper chips, pakoras, tempura, tortilla chips, sesame prawn toasts, whitebait, crisps – not just potato but courgette, parsnip and beetroot, fried tofu, onion rings, samosas, calamari, gulab jamon, even deep fried mars bars…

But before all those came doughnuts! So when we were sent a Judge Cookware Multi Basket deep fat fryer to review (coming soon), the very first thing we made just had to be doughnuts.

Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

With a pile of cookery books also awaiting review, we flicked through Pure Vanilla by Shauna Sever and chose her Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts recipe to try.

Published by Quirk Books, a young American publishing company based in Philadelphia, Pure Vanilla has been written primarily for the US market, which means you’ll need to make a little effort to translate aspects of the recipes. Fahrenheit cooking temperatures and cup measurements are easy as conversion charts are handily provided inside the back cover. You’ll also need to parse ingredients such as all-purpose flour, confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream and sticks of butter, but in the era of Google, that’s not too onerous.

Often, single ingredient cookery books can be a little too gimmicky, adding the chosen ingredient to recipes in which it doesn’t really belong or contribute much just to shoe-horn them into the book. But I really like the kind of recipes Sever has included in her collection – I’m drawn to Light, Crisp Vanilla Waffles, Vanilla Cloud Cake, Tres Leches Cake, Vanilla Snaps, Vanilla Biscotti, Vanilla Bean Marshmallows and Vanilla Mojito, amongst others.

There are some weaknesses with the book too: the index is truly appalling – it lists over a third of the recipes under “vanilla”, which is surely a given in every single recipe in the book and should have been excluded!

Not all recipes have accompanying photographs, which is a shame as those which do instantly appeal more strongly.

The recipe we made was straightforward to follow and came out beautifully. The colour of our finished doughnuts appeared a touch dark, and we worried we’d overcooked them but they were perfect in both taste and texture, with a light and fluffy interior and a perfectly judged vanilla flavour – it came through clearly, made a definite contribution but didn’t overwhelm.

As we made half the amounts given, I’m sharing the amounts we used rather than those in the original recipe.

Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

Makes 6 doughnuts

Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
1.5 teaspoons dry active yeast
2 tablespoons (30 ml) warm water
3 heaped teaspoons granulated sugar, divided
120 ml whole fat milk, at room temperature
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract (not essence)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 egg yolks
30 grams unsalted butter
225 grams plain flour, plus a little extra for kneading
0.5 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil, for frying
For the glaze:
100 grams icing sugar
1 tablespoon whole fat milk
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Note: Vanilla bean paste is a thick paste full of actual vanilla seeds and is a great alternative to scraping a real vanilla pod. I used Nielsen-Massey’s paste, which I think is excellent. If you can’t find this product, either use the seeds from a quarter of a vanilla pod or an extra teaspoon of extract instead.

Method

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together yeast, warm water and one teaspoon of the granulated sugar. Leave to stand until it foams, about 5 minutes.
Using the paddle attachment on the mixer, at low speed, mix in the remaining granulated sugar, milk, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, egg yolks and butter.
Add the flour and salt and mix for a further 3 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.
Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand, briefly, dusting with flour if you need to.

Place in a large bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. Ours took a couple of hours; you can also leave in the fridge to rise more slowly overnight).

Turn the dough out onto baking parchment and divide into 6 equal portions.

Roll into balls, flatten and cut a whole out from the centre of each one. We used an icing nozzle, as we didn’t have a suitably small cookie cutter. We also combined the dough from the four holes into two small round doughnuts.

Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise for 30 to 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
Make the glaze by whisking together the icing sugar, milk, salt and vanilla bean paste.

Heat oil to about 180 C and fry doughnuts, in batches, until golden brown – about 2-3 minutes per side. Sever warns against turning too often, as this can result in greasy doughnuts.

Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Spoon the glaze over the doughnuts whilst they are still warm, so it melts and trickles down the sides.

With thanks to Quirk Books for the review copy of Pure Vanilla and to Judge Cookware for the multi basket deep fat fryer.

Scandinavian Cooking with Trine at Food at 52

27 Feb 2013 No Responses »

Feb 272013

I’ve already attended a couple of cookery classes at Food at 52 – Flavours of Italy run by school founder John and Scandinavian Christmas Baking with Trine Hahnemann. Recently, I went back to attend another of Trine’s classes, Flavours of Scandinavia.

The class focuses on the kind of simple, healthy cooking that Scandinavians enjoy at home, using ingredients such as root vegetables, kale and rye grains.

Unlike my previous classes at the school, this one was less hands on. In the other classes, we worked in pairs to create most of the recipes ourselves and made just one or two as a whole group. This time, we made nearly everything as a group. In practice, that meant we discussed and watched a lot more, but there was still plenty of opportunity to handle the ingredients, to smell and touch and taste. Where we did get more hands on experience was in peeling and chopping vegetables, forming and frying frikadeller (Danish meatballs), making individual salad dressings and frying the mushroom and rye dish and the apple and onion dish.

What was most valuable, for me, was the confirmation of how simple and achievable this cuisine can be when you focus on everyday cooking rather than the new modern approach of the famous Scandi restaurants.

And though I’ve had it once before, at an Abergavenny Festival class by Trine and Signe Johansen, I had forgotten how very delicious celeriac root is when baked whole after rubbing with oil and salt. It has a wonderful earthy flavour and a soft fluffy texture, much like a properly baked potato.

Even without the three day curing, Trine’s orange and lemon cured salmon was another hit for me – I had never imagined that orange would go so well with salmon, even though it’s second nature to pair the fish with lemon. We tried a few slices of the salmon after only a dew hours, and it was super.

Roast root vegetables are always a winner and Trine encouraged us not to peel them, for added flavour and roughage. Tossed in oil and sprinkled with a restrained scattering of fennel seeds these beetroot, carrots and parsnips were very good indeed.

Rye grains turned out to be much like spelt grains once cooked, and make another excellent alternative to rice.

Trine brought along some of her home made rye bread too, which is always a treat.

The chicken, potato, kale and almond salad was good, but I’m still not as much of a fan of kale as I am of other cabbages such as savoy. The dressing was much as I usually make – vinegar, mustard, honey and oil.

On the other hand, the kale “pesto” was wonderfully green, lemony and light. Because it didn’t have the heaviness that cheese brings, it was also a good way to eat more of this nutritious winter vegetable.

But my favourites were the frikadeller served with fried apple and onion. Similar in taste, but not in shape and size, to the Swedish köttbullar I fell in love with during many childhood trips to Sweden these were comfort food at its most comforting.

Making good frikadeller is all about the fars, or minced meat mix, so Trine made sure we all had the chance to feel it and understand the texture we should aim for. Then she showed us how to shape the balls with oiled spoons and we formed a rotating queue, shaping and dropping into the pan, shaping and dropping into the pan.

After the cooking (and talking and laughing) we sat down to lunch (with more talking and laughing) and enjoyed the feast.

Thanks to Trine and Food at 52 for another lovely day.

Kavey Eats attended this class as a guest of Food at 52.

About Home Canning & Other Preservation Methods

05 Feb 2013 9 Responses »

Feb 052013

I’m very used to making jams, jellies, chutneys, ketchups and pickles, all of which require basic sterilisation of jars, easy recipes and a straightforward process to fill and seal the jars. In these recipes boiling helps kill harmful bacteria and yeasts as well as reducing the moisture in which they thrive; sugar or acid stops regrowth and sealing in a sterilised airtight jar prevents recontamination.

But these techniques aren’t suitable for low acid foods such as fish and meat which is why we often turn to other techniques to extend their shelf life. The same goes for vegetables, when we want to preserve them without introducing the strong acidic flavours of a pickle.

Most commonly for fish and meat here in the UK, we freeze, cure or dry them.

Freezing turns moisture into ice and also inhibits the growth of most bacteria. The advantage is that the fish or meat is as fresh once it’s been defrosted. Curing with salt, sugar, nitrates or nitrites works by drawing out moisture. It changes the nature and flavours of the fish or meat, but this is often highly desirable – many of us adore cured salmon, bacon and cured hams such as Parma and Serrano. Drying, by sun, in a dehydrator or oven, or by smoking, works on a similar basis of reducing moisture. It also seals the surface of the fish or meat, which makes it difficult for bacteria to enter. Smoked fish such as salmon and mackerel are popular in the UK. Biltong, Bresaola and jerky are examples from the dried meats category.

I do know people who cure and smoke fish and meats at home. But it’s relatively rare.

Preserving by fermentation is becoming more popular here too, though it is still uncommon. As the food ferments, it produces lactic or other acids, which are themselves preserving agents. Kimchi (which is enjoying a surge of popularity amongst foodies at the moment), sauerkraut and surströmming (which my dad enjoys but I just can’t get into) are all examples of preservation by fermentation.

Of these three methods, freezing is probably the easiest for the home cook. Indeed, our freezer is full of raw home grown vegetables as well as raw meat and fish and portions of cooked food such as stews and curries.

There is another way of preserving low acid foods so that they can be stored at ambient temperatures and retain their essential flavours or textures. Known as canning, the process was first trialled by the French navy in the early 1800s, after they launched a competition seeking new methods of preserving food. Although the method was originally tested and developed using jars, when the process took off commercially, most food was preserved in tin cans rather than glass and hence the process became known as canning.

After the food is prepared and sealed in to the tin (or glass jar), a heat and pressure treatment is applied to the container to kill the bacteria within. It’s the heat, not the pressure, which destroys bacteria, but pressure provides the easiest method to achieve sufficiently high temperatures. It’s important to be thorough here, as there is no acid, sugar or salt added to the ingredients to restrict the growth of any bacteria that survives the treatment.

Canning as a commercial process took off around the world, nowhere more quickly than in the US, as did its counterpart, home canning. Indeed, judging by online content, I consider America to be the spiritual centre of home canning! Many of the other preservation methods are more popular in Europe and elsewhere in the world, but it seems to me that the Americans have taken the canning process to heart.

It’s critical to reach the correct temperature and to maintain it for a sufficient duration, which can be quite a challenge for the home cook. To that end, there are home pressure canners available, though in the UK we have access to a smaller selection, at higher prices.

Because of the risk of botulism, the toxins of which are not detectable by taste or smell, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides detailed guidelines for home canning. Botulinum spores are very hard to destroy at 100°C but can be eliminated at 120°C, provided the temperature is maintained for long enough. Where foods do contain enough acid, the guidelines suggest a boiling water bath will be sufficient. For lower acid foods, a pressure canner to reach the higher temperatures is recommended.

As an avid food blog reader, I’ve been bookmarking home canning recipes for several years.

Attending an event by Le Parfait, when they launched their products into the UK last year, gave me the last push to give this form of preserving a go myself, especially when they kindly provided some sample jars for me to use.

In the US, Ball or Kerr brand Mason jars are the most popular, featuring a two part lid – a flat disc cap that seals to the rim of the jar and a screw on band which secures the disc cap into place until the canning treatment creates a vacuum seal. Here in the UK, we’ve traditionally used hinged clip top jars with rubber sealing rings such as those made by Kilner. Indeed, like Hoover vacuum cleaners, “kilner” seems to have become shorthand for describing this style of jar regardless of manufacturer. Le Parfait is a French brand and has been going for over 80 years. They offer both styles of jar – their Super Preserve and Super Terrine both have clip top lids and their Familia Wiss have seal caps under screw-on lids.

As far as I can see, the advantage of the clip top design is that, once purchased, the costs are minimal. The rubber sealing ring lasts well, though not indefinitely, and needs replacing from time to time. That said, I find them more difficult to open and close, and awkward to sterilise, since I use the oven method for jars and boil the lids separately. The Mason style jars are much easier to use but since the disc caps are single use only, the costs of using them are higher.

At the moment, I don’t have a pressure cooker or pressure canner, so I’m using a large and ancient Indian aluminium stockpot. I mentally refer to it as a cauldron, though that does give a slightly wiccan air to it. I also don’t have a canning rack – essentially a special wire metal basket and handle which makes lowering and lifting jars from the water much simpler; it also keeps the jars from sitting directly on the base of the pan, touching the sides or rattling against each other. In my cauldron, I use several flannels and tea towels to line the pan and separate my jars and I’ve not yet discovered an easy way of lowering the jars into boiling water!

Without pressure, I can’t achieve temperatures above 100°C, so am hesitant to use the technique for fish or meat products.

Stay tuned for my first canning experiments.

Billy Law’s Coca Cola Chicken

10 Jan 2013 17 Responses »

Jan 102013

Billy Law will already be familiar to those of you who follow his very popular food blog, A Table For Two. He also made it into the top 7 on Aussie Masterchef 2011. Born in Malaysia, he moved to Australia in the mid ‘90s to further his studies and has lived there ever since. On his blog, he explains that it was only when he moved, and missed the home-cooked dishes of Malaysia, that he took up cooking himself. These days, he cooks not only the cuisine of his native country but a wide range of Eastern and Western treats and there are plenty of both in his first cookbook, Have You Eaten?

My book has the cover on the left, I think the other may be an Australian edition

The book is named for the common Malaysian greeting – not “How are you?” but “Have you eaten yet?”, which shows a commendable focus on the importance of food in the culture. This appeals to me!

One of the things I’ve long enjoyed about Billy’s blog is the beautiful food photography, which really shows off all his dishes so temptingly so it’s great news that he did the styling and photography for his book himself, bringing his trademark rich and warm style to the book. Recipes are easy to read and the whole book is a true feast for the eyes.

Dishes are divided into sections called Snack Attack, On The Side, Easy Peasy, Over The Top, Rice & Noodles Sugar Hit and Dress For Success, most of which I found self-explanatory except for the last one, which was obvious once I looked – it covers dressings, of course!

There are lots of recipes which appeal, from Guinness battered prawns to Pandan chicken, from Deep-fried salt and pepper tofu to Watermelon, baby tomato, chevre and candied walnut salad, from Breakfast pie to Ayam pongteh (braised potato chicken, from Beef Cheeks Bourgignon (using my favourite, Pedro Ximinez) to Burnt butter lobster tail with apple and salmon roe, from Claypot chicken and mushroom rice to Curry laksa, from Popcorn and salted caramel macarons to Gingerbread ice cream, from Wasabi mayonnaise to Chilli onion jam. And that’s just two from each section, there are many, many more that sound delicious.

The recipe we decided to make first was Billy’s Cola Chilli Chicken, as I’ve been reading about savoury recipes featuring Coca Cola for such a long time.

We skipped the cashews, as Pete’s not a fan, but otherwise followed the recipe as it was. We did find it needed quite a bit longer for the liquid to reduce down, but that may also be a factor of the size and shape of our wok and the heat we cooked over. Otherwise, it was very straightforward.

The finished dish was absolutely delicious. The sauce wasn’t sickly sweet but beautifully balanced. Given how easy it was to cook, this is likely to be something we make again.

And it makes me even more excited to try many of the other recipes in the book.

Billy Law’s Have You Eaten? is currently available from Amazon UK for £16 (RRP £25).

Kavey Eats received a review copy from Hardie Grant Books.

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About Home Canning & Other Preservation Methods

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