Happily, these things have not put him off completely, and bank holiday Monday saw us tripping off to the local Waitrose (yes, we are posh shoppers on occasion) to purchase ingredients from a real live list drawn up by my little chef.
He chose to do pork with apple and mustard (Fay Ripley) for us, and a chard and ricotta tart (River Cottage) for Mark. Nightmare. I tried (without success) to steer him towards the 'ooh, lets have something the three of us can eat so you only need to cook one thing' idea, but he was having none of it. Hell's teeth. AND we had to buy chard. Chard!!!! After years of having the national chard mountain growing in the garden, this year we had - none.
Although the whole operation called for what felt like hours in the kitchen, (it was a long time), I had to admire his application.
In the end, the pork was undercooked and had to go back in, so the three of us sat down to enjoy the tart. It tasted beautiful, but hadn't set enough (despite being in at the right temperature for the right length of time) and was very runny. This bloody annoys me with cookbooks. I had suspected the pork wouldn't be done, but put my faith into the recipe anyhow. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I am really proud of Oliver for the massive efforts he put into this, and it all tasted wonderful. (We had the pork the next day for lunch in the end - sliced and warmed through in the oven with the appley-mustardy sauce. Bloody lovely.
I have been doing a spot of baking myself lately, and did the red velvet cupcakes from the HB pixie book. They were fabuloso, and my confidence with cupcakes is growing daily. I was therefore delighted with the arrival of these:
A selection from the Book People - this little lot came to just under £30 including delivery, which I think is brilliant. (sorry Kindle) Note the HB cake days book. I urge you to get this one - it is the best cake book I have ever read, and I don't think there is one thing in there I wouldn't want to have a go at. Yummers.
And finally.
There sure are moments when I wish I was my cat.
I recognise a lot of what you refer to here! Having offspring take over the kitchen can be a stressful undertaking although it's never investment that's wasted! How wonderful Oliver wants to cook "real" stuff though. Only to be encouraged in this over-processed age. Things that don't quite turn out as planned are much better learning experiences than being told so by a mother who knows from experience what's likely. H adores garlic and loves making soup - a somewhat messy operation to say the least! Last week he insisted on using seven (!) cloves of garlic in one batch which I told him was too many but let him go ahead and use anyway. The result was (as you can imagine!) indeed too garlicky as he appreciated for himself and has spontaneously made a note not to use so much next time! Overall, despite the garlic, I am happy he wants to cook though! So I have to say "Go for it, Oliver, you may be the masterchef of coming years!"
ReplyDeleteLovely.. and he looks quite comfortable in the kitchen.. my girls love to bake, but usually cakes.. even though JB tells me she cooked crab linguini at work she doesn't seem to be able to make much savoury at home! Ah well..! You mentioned Art Jornals, Linda has really got into the art side of things and has a creative space with sme videos which you might find interesting.. I think this is the link..http://justscrapbooking.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteHey if you ever get this way you could always come to one of our first Sat in the month sessions and do some messy play! ;-)
Brilliant! Well done, Oliver!
ReplyDeleteOven temps and conditions vary so much and often recipes are only tested in one so it can be very tricky but in other ways it's a good thing because you come to learn how to use your instincts to tell when things are done rather than using a timer.
Cameron had a cooking blog at one stage - he was more motivated to type and record his creations than to hand-write them at that time.