Flapjacks, take 3

So it's been a while since I've made any flapjacks - actually, it's been almost 2 whole years, yikes! (see failures here, and here). Anyway it's sort of a mission of mine to get better at flapjacks for a number of reasons, such as my boyfriend's crazy triathlon schedule and also because it's a failing of mine - I'm terrible at them, they always end up a crumbly mess! (I know, I know, they're 'so easy'... well, not for me!)

I made 5 different kinds of flapjacks today, and although my success rate was not 100%, I think I've figured out where I've been going wrong which is at least helpful.

I made a pretty standard batch of 3-ingredient flapjack, using

200g butter
6T golden syrup
330g oats

I put the butter and syrup in a pan, and once melted, I added the oats. Then I took out 3 lots of this plain batch and added more things to each one separately, and put them in a number of pans. (I didn't butter my pans.) The different varieties were:
-sunflower seeds
-sultanas
-choc chips (but not very many cos I had eaten the majority of the packet already, because I am an animal)

saving pans by putting 2 flavours in 1 pan

I popped these all in the oven at once at 180 degrees. Cooked them for about 20-25 minutes, and let them stiffen up for 15 mins or so before cutting them apart. Basically, the ones with sultanas and sunflower seeds both seemed to crumble everywhere, and I think it was because adding more ingredients means I need to add more syrup. They need to be better bound together. But the flavours of them were really good, I loved the nuttiness of the sunflower seeds, and the sultana flapjacks seemed to have been made sweeter such that they didn't taste anything like the sunflower seeded flapjacks.

this is why I think they needed more syrup

For an alternative flapjack base recipe, I tried a technique I spotted on The Londoner's blog - using condensed milk to hold the oats together.

397g condensed milk
350g oats

I heated slightly the condensed milk in a pan on the hob, until it was noticeably thinner, then I added the oats. Cooked these babies at the much lower temperature of 130 degrees, and for 45 minutes. Again, let them harden out of the oven before cutting them up.

These taste really different from the golden syrup butter ones, and I like the taste and the texture a lot but I'm not sure whether I like it more. It's just different.

see the difference?

Yum.

Sugar overload.

I'll have the triathlete try all 5 on Tuesday, but until then, my favourite are the sunflower seeded ones - should have just added more syrup!

Dans mon iPhone #12

from top left:

Kraft macaroni & cheese (7 months out of date); travelling by 1st class train; salad??.. or so says a delicatessan in Calgary airport; Wahaca, Soho; The Orange Tree (and see here, our £6pp lunch of soup and chips with aioli and fresh bread); Baddesley Clinton; Tuesday night drinks at the Townhouse; Coronas in the sun with a lime (putting my pocket knife to good use); Baddesley Clinton again; 2x trying to eat more protein on my working lunches

[Post inspired by Zoé Macaron]

Monty's Caribbean Kitchen

Monty's Caribbean Kitchen is not a restaurant, nor is it reeeally even a kitchen at all, in the traditional sense. Because it has wheels.

Isn't it cute! The couple are really fun, the lady pictured is British and her husband (cooking in the van and listening to music that makes you feel like you should be in the sun with a cocktail in your hand, slightly out of shot) is Caribbean and they have normal jobs and everything apparently (so says my mum) but they come to cook for the great Barnstaple public in north Devon between 6 and 8 on Saturday nights. If you miss them, they're gone. (Until next week!)

The menu consists of 4 items:
1. Jerk chicken
2. Jerk pork
3. Curry goat
4. Callaloo (a veggie dish)
They come in regular or large boxes and with salad and rice 'n' peas. We got one of everything for the three of us as we are a) greedy and b) wanted leftovers and c) wanted me to try everything. We weren't sure what the callaloo was so we asked as the music sang out, the generator squeeled, and we watched them pottering about clattering pans. Apparently it's a type of vegetable that's a little like spinach and is fried with some spices, but you can't get it in Barnstaple (which doesn't surprise me as our local Sainsbury's doesn't even sell guacamole.. although I did fill out a form requesting it formally to be reinstated in the store) so they just use spinach. There is sweet chilli and hot hot chilli sauce available to serve yourself with at the van and they also sell cans. Yum. And the portions are generous!

The bag full of food was heavy to carry home on my lap but totally worth it! Now, I tried my best to take good photos but I was in a rush to heat the food (for obvious reasons) so forgive me. What I will be sure to emphasise, however, is that the photos do not to justice to the food, as they are flat, very unlike the flavours.

Now, I'm not going to lie, I didn't love the goats' curry or the callaloo. The callaloo really reminded me of something from my childhood, it had a certain flavour that seemed to bring back horrible memories! And the goats' curry had what I think were really well balanced flavours and interesting dumplings but I don't think it was to my taste.

HOWEVER. I love love loved the rice and jerk pork in particular. The jerk chicken was good but there was just something about that pork, YUM. My closest friends and family will know that I'm not the biggest rice fan in the world, and yet I had seconds of the rice and then I had it on its own for lunch the next day. I loved it. I could smell cinnamon and it was so flavourful in general. And, by the way, that hot chilli sauce was hot! Ouch!! I can't recommend this place enough if you're in north Devon and fancy a spot of Caribbean food.

Fried cous cous balls

So, I haven't experimented with cooking for a little while (you'll have noticed it's been mostly reviews and travelling blogs) and today I decided to try something new. My friend mentioned Italian rice balls (arancini) the other day and basically, it got me thinking about doing a similar thing with cous cous.

And I think it worked!

I think these go really well with some sort of Moroccan-style stew. I whipped one up in about 20 minutes using ingredients that were all just in my cupboard anyway. Here's what I did:

Stew
Ingredients:

• 1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
• 200g drained tinned chickpeas
• 1 tin (400g) kidney beans
• 1T paprika
• 2t cumin
• 1t oregano
• 1t chilli oil
• 1t salt

Method:

1.  Throw everything in a saucepan, bring it to the boil and let it simmer for 20 minutes, or longer depending on how thick you want it.

Cous cous balls
Ingredients:

• Cous cous (I used wholewheat)
• Chicken stock
• Egg, whisked lightly
• Oil, for frying (I used vegetable oil)

Method:

1. Prepare the cous cous, using 3 parts cous cous to 2 parts chicken stock. (It should be slightly dryer than when you normally prepare it.)
2. When cooled, add the whisked egg gradually until the cous cous holds together when you try to form balls.
3. Heat oil in a pan while you form the balls, and then place them in the pan a few at a time, turning them gradually as they lightly brown.
4. Eat these as a side dish or plop on the stew with a dollop of natural yoghurt! Yum!

Now, if you can't imagine what these would taste like (I couldn't, before I'd had them) but they're delicious! They taste nutty and rich and salty from the chicken stock. They're a great change to just normal cous cous if you eat it quite a lot (I sometimes have it for lunch when I've forgotten to buy sandwich ingredients).

Try them and let me know what you think! You could easily flavour them differently, I think, too, so I might come back to these in the future.

P.S. Check out what I got up to yesterday with Charlie!