Complete novice's fruit loaf

Last week I managed to bake a fruit bread following a recipe from a newspaper supplement. I was rather nervous as this was only my second attempt ever to bake something in my whole existence. In addition to that, the very first time I ever tried to bake a cake, a dark chocolate cake to be precise, it all went horribly wrong. I was making the cake mixture according to the recipe and what happened was that I did not realise 4 tablespoon of espresso coffee should be in the liquid form. Yes, I simply used the ground espresso coffee beans instead and the result was a disaster. To be honest with you, I don't think it is very economical to bake breads or cakes at home when there are only two of us, albeit we are rather greedy people. Of course, it would be a different story if you have a big family or friends nearby to share the fruit (sic) of your efforts.

Anyway, a few weeks back I came across a fruit bread recipe by Peter Sidwell, the chef from Yorkshire, England. According to the paper, his recipe was based on a traditional Yorkshire fruit bread recipe from his wife's grandmother. It sounded quite nice and most importantly very easy to make. That's right. I wouldn't have been tempted if it had looked slightly complicated or required many ingredients nor any special tools. Good thing was that it turned out to be really easy actually. And to my great relief, both Rob and my friend seemed to like it.

Once again I would like to make it clear that my recipe is almost entirely based on Peter Sidwell's recipe. To reflect that and to emphasise my lack of baking skills, I have changed the name of the recipe accordingly. Since I did not want the loaves too sweet, I have reduced the amount of sugar and dried fruits slightly. I have also added raisins to dried dates. Maybe I should try with mixed dried fruits or cherries next time.

Complete novice's fruit loaf

Serves 4 - 6 (depending how greedy they are)

Ingredients
600g chopped dried dates & raisins
200ml espresso or strong coffee
400g self-raising flour
250g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
4 large eggs
100g whole hazelnuts
4 tbsp milk

Method
1. Soak the dried fruits in the espresso coffee for about 10 minutes until they have softened.
2. Rub together the flour and butter, then add the sugar and the whisked eggs.
3. Pour in the soaked dried fruits and coffee and add the hazelnuts. Finally add the milk and mix well.
4. Divide the mixture between two greased 2lb loaf tins lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for an hour at 130C/ gas mark 1, then for another hour at 100C/ gas mark 1/4.


PS: I was going to include the link to the original recipe here but I could not find it on the paper's website for some reason.

Swedish meatballs

It may sound sad but I love IKEA no matter what other people say about this Swedish furniture company. Probably I am not the only one considering the fact it has 231 stores in 24 countries now. (Yes, I had to check it on their website. I'm this sad!) For me, the attraction of IKEA is not only their furniture or the way they display them cleverly although I tend to spend hours and hours just wandering about in the store like many others. I also like the IKEA FOOD. I would never leave the IKEA store without buying loads of goodies from Swedish Food Market, especially the IKEA meatballs (Kottbullar) and all the trimmings - cream sauce (Graddas) & lingonberry jam (Lingonsylt). Yummy! I think they are the best meatballs I have ever had. (I know it's ready made ones but I'm not ready for making my own meatballs yet. Not just yet!) Since they are frozen, you can keep them in the freezer for quite a while, which is handy.

We normally have meatballs with mashed potato and sauerkraut as well as cream sauce and lingonberry jam. Being a Scot, Rob prefers mashed potato to boiled potatoes. As for sauerkraut, I know perfectly well that it is German not Swedish. One time we had to substitute the pickled red cabbage from IKEA with this German version since it was out of stock. Luckily its sharper taste worked very well with the rest. So there we go. Even without microwave oven, it only takes 15 minutes to cook the meatballs in the oven. You can make the mash and the cream sauce while they are being cooked. So quick and simple!

Sadly we finished the last bag of meatballs tucked in our freezer last Sunday. As we don't have any plans to visit IKEA any time soon, I think I am going to miss the tasty meatballs for a while. Still I have to say I was quite pleased to share the last meatballs with J, my friend.

Ready to cook...

... and ready to eat!!! (On this occasion we also had to

substitute lingonberry jam with the red current jelly.)

Korean egg toast

My husband never says no to an egg (or to eggs more likely) and neither do I. The beauty of eggs is that you don't need to know much about cooking to enjoy them. Even if you just boil or fry them, they are simply tasty. As an inexperienced cook I like its simplicity and readiness, but of course I do understand that there are far too many ways to use them in cooking & baking. I guess Rob's favourite egg dish will be egg sandwiches whereas mine should be Korean omelette (계란말이). We both love eggs so much that they tend to appear on our shopping list almost without fail. Now that we are joined by another egg lover, my friend J, the egg consumption index in this household seems to have reached its peak.

A recent addition to our egg dishes is the 'Korean egg toast'. This is a kind of street food popular among the busy Koreans as breakfast on-the-go or just as snacks. Basically it is an omelette sandwiched between two slices of toasted white bread (I don't think we had brown/wholemeal bread in Korea). It is important to toast the bread in the frying pan/griddle with a little bit of oil. To make an omelette mixture, use one egg and some finely chopped vegetables such as onion, carrot and spring onion per serving. No need to add milk or water. When the toast is ready to be assembled in the frying pan, it is optional to add a slice of processed cheddar cheese. Believe me - it is better than the real thing! And finally some dash of tomato ketchup to go with it. Now enjoy!

PS: This picture shows the toasts made with wholemeal bread because we do not normally have white bread. Still I think the soft white bread will go better with this recipe.

Friend's visit

J - one of my Korean friends is currently staying with us for a few weeks. We had met each other when we were doing our course at the University here. One of the reasons we became close was that we shared the love of food and the willingness to try new food stuff. For example, she was the only other Korean who liked Marmite apart from me. The main difference between her and me is the size, I guess. Whereas I'm very tall, J is tiny (& cute I may add) and naturally eats only a small amount of food. Unfortunately for me, she now lives in Korea and is only visiting the UK for a couple of months.

Thanks to her, we have been having lots of Korean food recently. Nothing grand or special but just simple dishes. Luckily, this suits fine all three of us. My husband loves Korean food, especially Kimchi or anything spicy. Like most Koreans, my friend seems to prefer Korean diet to western. A lot healthier arguably. Sensible girl! And me? As I said, I am quite happy with any sorts of food and I don't mind cooking either. The only trouble is that I am very very slow and tend to panic if the task looks slightly daunting. As a result, I tend to stick to a handful of recipes I feel comfortable with. Very bad! I know. Good news is that J is a lot quicker and more confident in cooking and with her help, I have been practising some other Korean dishes. I am sure that there will be another handful of Korean recipes in my collection by the end of her stay.