Jempins

I have not been blogging much in recent months, but you should not infer from this that I have been living some sort of slothful existence.  I have, in fact, been in a whir of activity since the start of December, and after I finished my million ornaments for friends and swap partners I had other gifts to make.

The most significant was toffee for my Dad.  We give him toffee every year (pretty much always Thorntons) and it’s a bit boring, so I thought it might be nice to make it myself this year.  I studied several instructional articles on the Guardian site, including this very helpful lightbox and decided it was going to be a piece of piss.  Which is half true.  Definitely the theory is a piece of piss.  The actual practice is a bit more tricky because the caramel really will turn from lovely browny-red to black in about 2 seconds and be ruined.  And if it’s not dark enough it tastes of nothing but sweet, but if it’s burnt it tastes disgusting.  The ingredients are cheap enough that you can try again and again until you get it right, but after a whole weekend of making caramel I had a horrifying sugar headache and had developed a strong gag reflex to toffee, fudge and tablet.  Luckily I also had a couple of decent batches of toffee – toasted brazil nut and maple pecan.  The brazil nut was slightly bitter and I did wonder if I’d burnt it a tiny bit, but it was quite nice so I decided to keep it.  When I tasted it a few days later it seemed to have mellowed, although this could have just been my frazzled taste buds returning to normal.  The best bit was I had enough to give to a few people as well as my dad.  People appreciate a homemade gift so much.

My dad is also a big fan of nuts so I made a batch of sweet and spicy ones to go in another jar.  These really are a piece of piss, just your choice of nuts stired through whizzed up egg whites mixed with sugar and flavourings toasted in the oven.  I used a Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall recipe that I stumbled on (again through the Guardian I think), and they were nice, but a bit too wholesome.  Next time I’ll be making these sugar and spice candied nuts from smitten kitchen, which have about twice as much of everything to about half as many nuts.  In the photo they look all crusty and lovely with sugar, so I think they’re more what I’m looking for.

I did have a couple of food triumphs over the festive season.  Almost a month on I’m still extremely proud of the giant 3kg of chilli brisket I made on Hogmanay (and of which I still have about half in my freezer because people had already eaten before they came over).  It was just the most brisket I could fit in my biggest oven friendly pot cooked with vegetables and red wine for a few hours, and then roughly torn up and a vat of homemade chilli sauce poured over.  It was pronounced by several people the best chilli they’d ever had.  Since everyone has their own favourite ingredients for chilli I’ll tell you mine: a really good slug of little doone balsamic dressing.  In fact, it’s my favourite thing with any tomatoes.

My other pet success was a ridiculously good lemon drizzle cake.  Nothing fancy, it’s not even drizzled with lemon syrup, just juice and sugar.  And it looks like nothing, so I didn’t bother with photos.  But it’s the nicest sponge I’ve ever made and stayed light and moist for 3 days.  I’m getting rather excited thinking about variations.  Lime and coconut.  Orange choc chip.  Something involving lavendar.  It’s one of Annie Bell’s Gorgeous Cakes, of which I’ve made many, and they always turn out very good if not excellent.