THE BOOYAH COOK: GODESS

One day I will bother explaining the ins and out of what it has been like living with Bipolar Mood Affective Disorder [aka Manic Depression that most people use - albeit incorrectly] but frankly it is a drag and a drain IRL so never really feel like blowing the trumpet online. But today as a absolute forced activity to get myself off the sofa I decided to work on my cake invention recipe and perfect it in the aim of sharing it with all of you. I can say categorically that cake eating Hayley at work has nominated this her favourite. She can elucidate her thoughts on every cake I every made and everything that goes into her mouth infinitum so truss, yeah. She knows.

So after today's success I feel confident to announce The Booyah Cook has achieved some earth bound status - NOW KNOW AS GODDESS!!



Since then I have been with Sean Combs on a jet ski in Miami, making it rain up and down the strip in LA, my life is like a movie but if it looks like I'm having more fun than you then sue me. ETC.

MY CAKE
In concept is my favourite bits from different kinds of cakes: super moist vanilla sponge, fresh fruit, clafoutis-esque, lasts a long time. I have tried both a cherry one and a blackberry one. I think it will work with anything like mulberries, figs, fresh apricots or peaches, nectarines - strawberries would taste good but they would look rank.


Cherry

1] Grease a 9 inch / 23 cm (ideal size for BDL's) circular cake tin and dust it with flour. It has to be a loose bottomed or spring loaded tin or when you get the cake out all the fruit is gonna mush up.

2] Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F

I would like to say "freestyle freestyle" but the science of silkience will not adjust [remember that ad or is it just Australian? Mrs G?] when it comes to baking cakes. If a recipe recommends a particular tin at certain temperature, and you change either of those things it will impact on your recipe. Maybe even instant fail you.

3] With electric beaters cream together 120g butter and 120g castor sugar.
If you never made a cake before, this means mix the two together until the colour changes to a lighter shade and smooths into a paste and isnt all crumbly sugar and icing any more. Can take anything between 5 - 8 minutes.

4] Add two eggs. Get on the beating again. Mix until the colour changes again. It will end up pretty pale. Takes about 5-6 mins after adding the egg.

5] Add 240 grams of plain flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Mix it in with a spoon or spatula. Don't using the electric beaters now. The beaters will over work the flour and make it "tough" and you will end up with a loaf of flat bread. When you have mixed in all the flour, you will have a kind of doughy looking mixture though.

6] Mix in 6 drops of vanilla essence and 200 mls of creme fraiche with the spoon. It is still gonna be a doughy looking mixture. If you think it is too dry, add 10 mls of milk / water / alcohol whatever but not more.

7] Tip the mixture in the tin and spread it with the back of the spoon to the edges. Doesn't have to be smooth, just kind of level.

8] Cover the top with whatever fruit you want. You are going to bake your cake for a fairly long time. So don't put anything too small on it and the cake needs to rise underneath the weight of the fruit so make small slices of peaches or whatever. Try the blackberries first though. Awesome!

9]Put the cake in the oven for 40 minutes. It will most likely have to go in again. Everyone's oven is different so maybe 40 minutes will be enough. Test like this: Use a skewer and prick the cake right to the bottom in the centre of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean, then the cake should be done. If there is any goo, put it in for another 15 minutes.

If the middle is gooey but the top has turned brown, turn your oven down 10-20 degrees before shoving the cake back in for the second go in the oven.

10] Leave the cake too cool a bit in the tin before turning it out. Then leave it on a rack to cook completely before you dust it with icing sugar you sprinkle on through a sieve.


Blackberry

The end.

Yum.



The icing sugar will eventually dissolve into the cake after a while with the moisture. It isn't even really important to put it on there. Whatever you want!

BOOYAH

xx Lektrogirl

THE BOOYAH COOK IS BACK!!

So, to all my regulators out there: MOUNT UP!

I know it has been some time since I have given a full detailed report from my kitchen, but for those of you who follow my Flickr will have seen more developments in my kitchen in "my lost months". But y'all know me, still the same O.G., but I been low key and hated on by most these niggaz wit no cheese, no deals and no G's, no wheels and no keys, no boats no snowmobiles, and no ski's & mad at me cause I can finally afford to provide my family wit groceries.

TODAY THE BOOYAH COOK PRESENTS: CLAFOUTIS! Which just happens to be the easiest of posh desserts that you can make yourself and look truly incredible.

And I mean like you wanna run around talking bout guns like I ain't got none - what you think I sold 'em all cause I stay well off? Now all I get is hate mail all day saying that I fell off. What cause I been in the lab wit a pen and a pad
trying to get this clafoutis off?



If you don't trust my measurements which are still highly confidential and in levels of development stages depending on who's kitchen I'm cooking in, I suggest you try this one here by Jill Dupliex who also created the recipe for Mini Egg and Bacon Pies.

To describe Clafoutis - it is like a giant cherry custard pancake and an old school French dish.



Cherry is the traditional but I even I saw some YouTube video of some New York Jewish Chef where he used Clementines. [Didn't like the look of it but he was into it.] You could use any fruit though - see my suggestions in the secret recipe below.

INGREDIENTS
500g fresh dark ripe cherries. Don't take the stones out - they are better left in!
3 tablespoons of icing sugar
1/2 cup caster or icing sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup cows milk [not soya - sorry.]
6 drops Vanilla essence or extract
Pinch of salt

VARIATION ON A THEME
The recipe above is the basic. You could also:
Soak the cherries in kirsch, amaretto or rum for an hour before starting.
Use apricots and nougat cut into chunks
Try figs
Pear and chocolate
Basically - you see it can be a fruit freestyle.
Use as much of whatever to cover the bottom of the dish you are using.

METHOD
1] Turn on the oven to 175 degrees C.
2] Grease the dish you want to use with butter and then sprinkle a bit of your 3 tbs icing sugar over the buttered dish.
3] Put the cherries [pre-soaked in booze or not] in a bowl with the rest of the 3tbs sugar and roll them round til they are coated.
4] Cover the bottom of your dish with the cherries [or other fruit.]



5] Use a hand whisk if you have one and a big bowl and mix the eggs and sugar together. A spoon will do but you do look more OG with a whisk.
6] Add the milk, vanilla and salt and mix again.
7] Add the flour but don't mix it too much. Over beating it will make the final thing come out doughy and not custardy. The mixture should be quite runny and not like a thick-shake. If it is, add a little bit more milk.
8] Tip the batter over the fruit.
9] Put it in the oven for 40 minutes. It should be all puffy and golden going a bit crisp right round the edges.
10] Leave it to sit for a little while and it will sink on itself a bit - but don't leave it too long, it is better eaten warm!



This recipe is so Booyah I am considering this as the dessert for the next time I have a Lady Gang dinner at my house with the apricots and nougat.

If you make one, please send me a picture!

xx Lektrogirl

THE BOOYAH COOK: Sweet Basil Pesto

Yeah sorry for the wardrobe malfunction there, a bit NSFW but since getting put on the Flickr watch list, but yerrr, care less etc.

So I have to admit this isn't even a real recipe but an attempt at freestyling something that Valeria and I ate at Dehesa the other night. We had it with baked figs and marscapone there, but there were no figs in M&S so we decided strawberries and creme fraiche would be just as good to accompany the BOOYAH recipe of the day which is SWEET BASIL PESTO.



Et voilà! Les fraises dans la tasse. Miam miam! Très joli!

INGREDIENTS
2 cups basil leaves loose not all packed just sitting in a friendly manner in the cup measure [don't stress about it being exact]
half a handful of pine nuts
2 tablespoons runny honey
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
castor sugar / icing sugar to taste

You need a food processor or blender for this. Mush everything together and every so often, stop and taste the mixture to see if it tastes velvety [the basil] and sweet [the honey]. You could possibly make the mixture a little runnier than I did but my oil wasn't the best - kind of heavy.

Cut up the strawberries into little bowls and then add some creme fraiche or marscapone. Yerr. Then eat like a pig and stuff yourself and feel sad that you have finished when you get to the bottom of the bowl.

Anyway - the pesto should look like this when you have finished mixing it:



And so far it has kept very well in the fridge under a layer of oil.

I reckon you could serve it as a "relish" with a hard Spanish cheese or really crumbly chedder for a little canape or part of a cheese platter. And if this is not a stamp of approval I don't know what is: The Cardinal said "If I hadn't already had my FunDineWithMe I would make this for dessert! It's really good!"

We ate it after a toad in the hole from the Waitrose recipe & ideas free magazine that The Frenchman cooked for Valeria as an English experience.



Banging! [OJ LOL]

Anyway bed... though the action is NEARLY finished...

xx Lektrogirl

THE BOOYAH COOK: BAKED FISH

Yerrrr... so now we have this thing on Friday night's at my house called 'Family Dinner' only it isn't really a family dinner because we aren't family, but we do it cause we are homeless or orphans or new to London and we eat food together in the really Australian / European way which a few decades ago, the British also did. But now they don't so much cause the most organised meal of the week happens to be a Sunday roast which doesn't count.

Anyway I really wanted to make mussels at the last Family Dinner, only when I went to the shop, there were none there. Mussels are super easy, so we will come back to this another time. BUT I went into a tailspin at the supermarket cause I hadn't planned and alternative, I was fucking dead tired and wanted to die. Hmmm... With some quick thinking I came up with the ultimate solution: BAKED CHERMOULA FISH!!!



Chermoula is a middle Eastern thing and can be used for Lamb as well. You can marinade a piece of fish with it and fry it too.

INGREDIENTS**
1 bunch of coriander chopped finely as you can be bothered
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley chopped finely as you can be bothered
6 cloves of garlic [or less]
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon paprika
1 big pinch cayenne
Juice of 2 lemons or 150 mls vinegar
300mls olive oil

Beat all the ingredients together. Marinate the fish for an hour. Cook the fish. [Details to follow]

** With the ingredients list, you can freestyle to whatever is in the cupboard. I had no cumin so I skipped it and no cayenne but I had some green thai chilli.

I reckon you could keep the parsley, but use basil, garlic, lemon, red pepper, pine nuts or slivered almonds for pseudo Italian style. Or pan-asian and have coriander, parsley, lemon grass, chilli, lime etc. You get my drift.

SO IN THE CASE OF THESE BAKED FISH!
I used rainbow trout cause they were only £2.03 each and were already gutted. For each fish, I got a sheet of aluminium foil, drizzled some oil with my hands over it. Then I lay the fish on the foil, spooned some of the marinade inside the fish, and a bit on the top. Then I wrapped the fish up kind of loose in the foil, but tight enough so juices wouldn't go everywhere. I did it two more times and put all three on a biscuit tray side by side. I left them for about 40 minutes to let the flavours 'vibe' and then baked them in the oven at Gas Mark 6 [is that like 190 degrees centigrade or 200?] for 25 minutes. Then I put them on a big plate all together and impressed the Family Dinner guests with the big fish platter and I felt like a total expert. We ate them with rice and salad.

BOOYAH!!!

The next day, after another Xi Gong class which I have to say I am really into, V and I went to the Highgate Cemetery for a walk - WASN'T THE WEATHER AWESOME TODAY.



Here is a nice picture we took. I have been trying to coax the Cardinal into something like this, but it never happened. Not sure what I have been doing wrong... I'll keep trying.

Oh and if I might say, the other time in my life which I am enjoying IMMENSELY is Lady's Night where like a fake family we sit down and have a nice dinner together which somehow always ends up with Pippa pulling this face:



Not sure why.



And if only Pippa's knees weren't so pressed together!

Anyway I want to be in bed asleep now dreaming of other lovely things. I think next family dinner the french man is going to cook toad in the hole as a cultural experience for V.

xx Lektrogirl

P.S. UBM coming soon!

THE BOOYAH COOK: DESSERTS WITH BOOZE

After a really tedious day at work, after an argument with your ex, after treading in dog shit [which can potentially make you feel just as bad as the run in with the ex] or even at the end of a big dinner here is my refreshing and alcoholic dessert option that kills two birds with one stone - feeding something other than your appetite and getting drunk.

Elderflower, Cava and Fruit Jelly


The leftover portion photographed in a bowl cause I forgot to take a picture of the real ones and I smashed one as well I made these desserts and served them in sherry glasses. The fruit does all the decoration and if you put it in a glass you look really chic. Even guys could make this. [Roffing to myself]

Ingredients
Mixed soft fruit [you can use anything like blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries - MULBERRIES WOULD BE BANGING! In fact any fruit but not pineapple or kiwi fruit or there would be a reaction with the gelatine and it wouldn't set. Kind of a CSI thing.]
4 leaves of gelatine
140ml elderflower cordial
2 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
425ml prosecco or cava

Put the cava, fruit and serving bowls all in the fridge so that they are cold.
Soak the leaves of gelatine in bit of cold water for about 2 minutes.

If you have a double boiler put the cordial in over hot water and add gelatine. If you don't have a double boiler you can fake one with a bowl floating in a saucepan. And if you can't be bothered to do that [like I wasn't] just put the cordial and gelatine in a saucepan over a really really low heat and constantly stir it until the gelatine is dissolved. If it looks like it is going to get too hot boil, take it off the heat again for it to cool down a bit. If you boil it, the gelatine won't set. [It's a CSI kind of thing too.]
Then add the sugar. It should dissolve pretty quickly in the warm cordial mixture.

Take the saucepan off the heat and leave it to cool down a bit which will take as long as it does to get all the stuff out of the fridge you need, put the fruit into all the bowls or glasses [Take the green bits of the strawberries and cut them in half. You don't need to do anything to the other fruits.] and open the cava and measure it out.

Add the cava to the gelatine. It is going to froth up quite a bit so add the cava slowly. Once it is all mixed together pour over the fruit.

Put it back in the fridge to set. You can easily make this the day before so no sweat on the big night.
Serve with crème fraîche or on its own.

Don't drop and smash one on the kitchen floor though like I did and have sticky elderflower everywhere and a beautiful glass dead because you were a bit pissed already and miss handled it.

xx Lektrogirl

THE BOOYAH COOK: DRINKS / CANAPÉS

Fucking OMG I have just had a total time warp weekend starting on Friday where I feel like months have passed since I was last on planet Earth. I really need to behave like this more often - having dinner parties, not answering the phone, shirking responsibilities, making men dress in Babycham pyjamas etc. But now I am back my beauties with a report and recipes from THE FRIDAY THE 13TH DINNER PARTY.



I am a total leisure slut and would rather spend hours watching CSI than anything else. But, to allude to an air of sophistication about me other than being the main Thug Misses that I am, the first thing I set my mind to for dinner was WHAT TO DRINK? In the last two years, thanks to the indoctrination of the Cardinal I am now a "bubbly fun" convert so top of my list for drinks is always Prosecco or Cava with a little splash of something in the bottom. On Friday 13th I offered either Elderflower Cordial, Lingonberry Cordial, Larks Distillery Apple Liqueur or Clementine juice in a champagne glass filled up with £4.80 Cava from Sainbury's.

Here you can see Pippa Brooks in self portrait looking as though she is about to give the glass a blow job in a very sexual aura kind of way. Credit to a very fine lady.



Then with the booze as an issue out of the way, the second thing in my mind was: HOW DO I START THIS FEAST? Et voila:



This is actually a salad recipe of The Cardinals that I feel a bit of a cheater ripping off and flipping back at her. Out of respect I can't tell you the recipe other than it is dairy and chilli. Miam!

And here is the other one that I will tell you the recipe for! It is kind of one of those no quantity recipes and good for free-styling.

Hummus is yesterday's news so welcome Minty Pea and Pecorino


Ingredients
2 big man handfuls or 3 little lady handfuls of fresh peas
1 handful of fresh mint leaves [of either sized hand depending on how much you like mint]
1 handful of grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Juice from half a lemon
Salt and Pepper
Crackers [something crunchy]

If you have a hand blender, a food processor or a mortar and pestle moosh the peas and mint together til they become like a chunky paste. You could even in desperation put the peas in plastic bag, hold it closed and hit it with a wooden spoon then turn the bag out into a mixing bowl for the next step. Then mix the rest of the stuff in. Taste it. It should be tangy [lemon and cheese], minty [mint] and fresh [peas]. Twirk it til you like the balance. Then I think actually putting it on the biscuit part doesn't warrant description. Booyah.

xx Lektrogirl

THE BOOYAH COOK: RASPBERRY VINEGAR

Ladies and Gentlemen: This Friday some lady friends are coming to dinner and I have been scavenging through cook books, trawling eBay for the right tableware and china, criss-crossing the West End looking for utensils and ingredients - and I was only to happy to have a time out at Milkbar yesterday. I haven't decided entirely 100% what I will be making for the dinner - I mean what do you do for a group of ladies with a series of predilections like non fish eater but eats shellfish, no cauliflower, no chickpeas, no lobsters, no pork, no beef, semi vegetarian, no egg white unless it is scrambled and no dairy? I am semi-sure about a few bits and pieces though. Hence this mysterious Booyah Cook post with half recipes for odd things.

Which lead me to Gerry's on Old Compton Street to buy this:



Danish Taffel Akvavit. I cannot even begin to describe what this tastes like because the first thing I thought of when I sipped it was 'alcoholic chalk'. Scandinavians apparently drink Aquavit [various names] to burn a hole through what they ate to aid digestion. I am going to be using it in a roasting recipe to marinade meat I think. At £24 a bottle I wouldn't recommend getting the whole thing just for a taste but they do sell it by the shot at the Nordic Bakery on Golden Square. I reckon this has potential as a splash in a glass of Prosecco.

I do have a proper recipe for you now though. Raspberry Vinegar! Sometimes it is nice to make your own potion for a special recipe from scratch particularly when it is easy. It is details like this that make you totally Booyah in the kitchen. And when I say easy, I mean easy.



You need:
A 350ml bottle of WHITE WINE vinegar [important you get the right kind - it's common]
About 20 washed raspberries

Tip all the vinegar out of the bottle into a jug. Soak the bottle in a sink of hot water to get the label off. Should only take about 15 minutes.

Then shove the raspberries into the bottle. Fill it back up with the vinegar. Screw the lid back on leave it to stand for about 3-4 days.



By which time the vinegar will have gone an amazing pink colour and be infused with the raspberry flavour. You need to get rid of the raspberries now by tipping out the vinegar and raspberries into a jug, throwing the berries away and pouring just the vinegar back into the bottle. Then you can make your own cool label for it and make lesbo names like "From The Big Dykes Raspberry Cavern" or something more appetising... Up to you. You can use the vinegar in exactly the same way as you would balsamic or something - salads, fish etc. Personally I would choose light kind of vibes, use with virgin olive oil and some salt and pepper - nothing more. Something about this keeps making me think of cheese. Dressing for the side salad on a Ploughman's or something. Now I do have a particular recipe to use this on which I cannot reveal today. But I promise all will be reported back after the dinner of Friday 13th in the case of this vinegar AND the Akvavit.

Oh God and if you live in Tasmania and you are lucky enough to live close enough to visit you could always go to the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm and buy some of their special Raspberry Vinegar dressing!



Those were the days!

xx Lektrogirl

THE BOOYAH COOK: BROAD BEAN RISONI

Many years ago God created earth, humans, rocks, animals, houses and Google. When He put everything here, we were all the same. Then suddenly some people starting thinking for themselves. God said "Don't Eat The Apple" but Eve made Adam eat the apple. God cast them out of the Garden of Eden for being Vegetarians. Fast-forward to the year 2009 and like the rest of us, even God has chilled out and reconsidered some of his first ideas. Vegetarians live peacefully amongst us thinking up one thousand and one things to do with tofu. Sometimes as cooks, we have to come up with nice dishes that don't look they came out of some Earth Mother's armpit that both regular people and Vegetarians can all "break bread" with one another and feast at the same table. This is why today I am presenting in The Booyah Cook series "Minted Broad Bean Risoni" that can be an accompaniment to something like roast lamb or chicken [yum!] or on it's one in a smorgasbord of salads. Or if you are a student, have it just on it's own but substitute all the green stuff for broccoli and the risoni for rice as per usual.

Here is the list of ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
500 grams of broad beans
3/4 cup of risoni
4 green onions / spring onions whatever you call them, sliced thinly
2/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons lemon juice - use fresh not squeezy lemon. IMPORTANT.

Initial tips:
All this stuff you can buy at Marks and Spencer or Waitrose more readily that other places. See this recipe already smells of quality.
Risoni is a small rice shaped pasta. It is also available in Turkish shops. [i.e cheap]



First things first, get your broad beans, put them in a heavy saucepan or a ceramic bowl that you can cover with a dinner plate, and tip boiling water straight from the kettle on them. Cover and leave to stand for 10 minutes. Drain them and wait for them to cool down. After that is done, you have to peel the greyish outer shell from the bean. Anticipating that this was going to be fucking boring, I decided to use a mixture of baby garden peas and broad beans so that I only had to peel 250 grams worth. Not just a pretty face.

Cook the risoni like the side of the risoni packet tells you. Rinse under cold water when you drain it.

Then get your favourite saucepan. [Mine is still my Le Creuset one even though I nearly killed it with a freestyle Lamb and Honey Moroccan stew I made the other day that burned almost dry. But that is another story.]

Put the oil and the onions on a low heat and wait till the bit of onion go a bit soft. Add the cold risoni and the beans / peas / sugar snap peas / whatever [NOT LENTILS] til everything warms up together again. Add all the herbs [these don't have to be exact measurement BTW. A big handful of parsley and a slightly smaller one of mint would be accurate enough] and lemon juice.

Eat. Or leave it and eat it cold.



Here it is.

THE BOOYAH COOK: ANZACS

So as I described in my previous post, we are having a party at work and I needed to make some Anzac Biscuits. I thought I would take the opportunity to use it as my first in my other new blog item "The Booyah Cook". This segment will focus on easy recipes which are pretty booyah.

So, here is the recipe*:



My sister and I grew up with this particular recipe. It never made 48. We would also sometimes use muesli instead of oats cause we liked sultana and dried apricot in it. It is a pretty freestyle kind of thing. Probably chopped blanched almonds would be good.



There are no eggs or milk in the recipe just a hunk of butter and a gang of golden syrup. Golden Syrup - SO GOOD. These biscuits would have to last in tins from Australia and NZ to the soldiers in the trenches. I don't know how they survived the journey but they did. If anyone knows the chemistry on that please let me know. BUT melting the butter and the golden syrup is the only 'fancy' thing to do.

[In a side note, Grissom left the CSI lab for good, only to trek off into the forest in Costa Rica to sneak up on Sarah Sidle and they have a huge big romantic pash. Not only is it gross because he is all beardy weirdy with a sweaty paunch, but it is also funny cause she is a lesbian in real life. Obviously this highlights her as a great actor though because she can also play 'straight'.]



Basically for Anzac biscuits you get all the ingredients and moosh them together into this and put it out on trays. Then you shove them in the oven for about 12 minutes and they come out a bit like this:



My oven was running a little hot but it is so tricksy I can't turn it down without it turning itself off. Even so the end result??!!

BOOYAH!!

xx Lektrogirl

* Please note: this recipe uses AUSTRALIAN measures. Fuck knows how it is that UK, US and AU measure can all be different but they all are.