Cooking challenge!

I use this one

http://ozlemsturkishtable.com/category/cakes-and-desserts/page/16/

I agree, it is nicer without the gelatine.

Do you have a recipe for lokumu? The stuff I have had there; pistachio, rosewater and other flavours. I have a Greek loukoumi that uses gelatin but prefer the stuff I had in Turkey, nicer texture that I put down to not being made with gelatin.

Pierogi, I love those. I shall add that to my to-do list.

Recently I have been embarking on 2 new challenges.

The first is biltong, after 4 batches I am finally getting a really satisfying result. I built a drying box and received some lovely spices for Xmas so this one is progressing well.

The second is Turkish cuisine, I lived there for a while and the food is amazing. Some of the ingredients are hard to find, sumac, sweet chilli flakes, but with a little perseverance and the help of the net, I am getting close so some of the delights I ate while I was there. Some of the techniques are a little more difficult to learn, but that is why I am practicing.

Little bit of a difference. Crumpets quite chunky and a little wetter mix than pikelets. My daughters love crumpets, so I do them now and again. The holes are not quite right but the texture and appearance otherwise getting there.

Just made 'hamburgers' with beef, yesterday's left over smoked duck and smoked bacon. Serving over a bed of creamed leeks with pitta (home made) and chips (oven chips bought - girls prefer them). Off to serve...

Ha! no... scottish/irish, but childhood in the midlands - the land of the 'cob'

by pikelets i mean the things with little holes in the top - and oh my goodness are they worth making - first try stunning - tony and me and the dog with melted butter running everywhere... crumpets are muffins i suppose?

Teresa, are you a Yorkshire lass? Pikelets there, crumpets nearly everywhere else?

my mother was not a good cook but she made pies...fruit ones in Bobby cooks

Pie and Mash shop in Dalston.in a market.

Nice. I like cooking with lavender too. As a Scot I use neeps a lot (swedes to everybody else), especially for clapshot, but celeriac and potato mash is my favourite. I had a mother who destroyed food rather than cooked it, my father might have managed to boil an egg, full stop. Because it was a multicultural neighbourhood I had Indian, Polish, kosher, West Indian and probably other food in other people's places (none ate what my mother offered...) so had a taste for tastes. When I left home I started to cook, watched professionals everywhere work took me, then ordinary people anyway and have never not chanced my arm trying something new and different. Food is great, preparing it for a 'good audience' better.

Brian we sounds to me like you can cook and appreciate quality ingredients.

Food does not have to be Michelin styled.Last night I

braised some oxtails for hours with lots of shallots and some mushrooms.

Just a little celeriac and carrott in chunks.

We had that with a sweede puree and wilted spinche....young leaves.

I used my smoker at Perfumed Conservatory to start of a process of

lamb cooked in Hay and lavender....very little lavender very strong

flavour.

Brian your duck supper sounds delicious!

We freeze our figs too - I've just made pots and pots of fig chutney (from your recipe i think?) - a nice winter thing to do - but won't be nice until the summer at least

Tony would LOVE a smoker - top of the list for his tips money next summer - but for now we smoke things on the BBQ - we bought a tiny bag of hickory chips from gamme vert i think - you just soak them overnight then into foil, punch some holes and throw them on the coals. Hot smoked salmon is AMAZING, and takes no time, any sturdy fish works... Smoked turkey is really nice - just the breasts, and we have it for sandwiches!

I was given a smoker for Christmas. That was outside my range. I started with wild salmon, wowee! Knocks the spots off the the stuff bought smoked. I did some duck this evening. I accompanied it with steamed red cabbage that is prepared with muscavados sugar, sultanas and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Just steamed, very plain potatoes with that. Rocket lightly salted but no dressing and a bowl of radishes. It is hardly Michelin restaurant stuff but the family were silenced. They ate. Smoking is my new challenge. I must find some cheese to try out. Plus I am making my own wood dust but not the oily stuff cut by the chainsaw.

Just after Christmas I stuffed fresh figs with marzipan (I make my own always, so easy). I made the marzipan filling softer than usual to give it a nice fluid feeling that matched the texture of the figs. For the sauce I used Armagnac and muscavados sugar ground cinnamon and cardamom and accompanied it with a vanilla Chantilly. It is very Provence style, one I wish to perfect. I cheated, of course, I freeze some of our four trees worth every year but they defrost as though off the tree. We have four trees, one of which is Violette de Bordeaux which I find the more attractive that the almost black varieties for doing desserts like this.

You paint a difficult picture.

Locksmiths lads....as I remember.

A prune which is stuffed with a little marzipan and a teeny amount of choc....not in the original

recetgte

dipped into doughnut mix.... and quickly fried like a doughnut. Cook in peanut oil if you can.

enjoyed by big kids as well as small.