Making doodles

Hello! So I did this the other day inspired by the Kimbra's 'Love in High Places'. I photographed the background and used Indian ink and water colours for the drawing.

Chawanmushi

Chawanmushi with Spring Vegetables from ‘How to Boil an Egg’ by Rose Bakery

So this turned out alright despite me not having a steamer or casserole dish, instead I used a large pan with lid and a small bowl to get placed into the boiling water. That made one portion, the rest I had to just stick in a separate pan and cook normally. But it all tasted good so I’m happy!

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 600ml vegetable stock
• 1 tsp shoyu (or just some dark soy sauce)
• 1 tsp sugar (I did without)
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 head of broccoli, cut into florets, blanched and drained
• 80g cooked peas
• 4 spring onions sliced thinly
• 4 shiitake mushrooms sliced thinly (I used portobello)
• handful of spinach
• 1 carrot sliced into rounds, blanched and drained
• salt
• fresh herbs

Instructions

1. lightly mix the eggs with a fork in a bowl, make sure you don’t make them forthy
2. Add stock, soy sauce, sugar and cayenne pepper. Taste, add salt if you want
3. Strain the mix in a jug. Divide the vegetables into four heatproof bowls or cups (just the one for me)
4. Pour water into the pan and put the cups in, then fill the cups with the egg mixture. Then put a lid on and let it steam on high heat for two minutes. The reduce heat to low and steam for another twenty minutes until quite set. To test, stick a cocktail stick, or knife in and see if it comes out clean.
5. You can the garnish it with herbs if you want and it’s ready to serve.

Spicy Bean Burgers!

I did another recipe from Vegetarian Living Magazine! Here you go:
Burger Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 red pepper cored deseeded and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1tbsp cumin seeds
• 1/4-1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 2x 410g can of black beans or red kidney beans (or whatever beans you like) well drained
• 4 tbsp. roughly chopped coriander (I used dill I believe)
• 50g soft breadcrumbs
•  dried breadcrumbs for coating
• bit of olive oil

Mayo ingredients

• 1 free range egg
• 1 tbsp. of Dijon mustard (I didn’t use this)
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• 300ml light olive oil (I used less)
• a spoon of flax seed mix ( I added this because it can go with virtually anything and it’s packed with nutrients)

 

Mayo Instructions

1. Put the egg (and mustard/salt/pepper) and lemon juice into a blender and whizz for a few seconds.
2. With the motor running slowly add the oil through the top of the blender until thick, then set aside.

Bean Burger Instructions

1. heat oil in a saucepan, add the onion, cover and fry for 5 minutes. Add the red pepper and garlic, stir, cover and cook for another 10-15 until tender. Ad cumin seeds and chilli flakes and cook for another minute or two, then remove from heat.
2. Add the beans to the mixture breaking the up with a masher/blender until roughly mashed. Add the coriander (or dill) and stir in two tablespoon of the mayo and soft breadcrumbs until the mixture hols together

1. Divide the mixture into 8 (I did 4) equal pieces. Dip into/ or sprinkle on some of the dried breadcrumbs and form into burger shapes. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the burgers on both sides until crisp, about 2-3 mins each side
2. Drain on some kitchen paper and serve with the mayo. Or(!), get some burger buns, some rocket leaves, maybe a bit of cheese, with the mayo as a sauce, and have some very filling scrummy buns!

Pepper Pea Spinach Frittata

Hello! So I did a frittata yesterday, and it turned out quite alright! Really easy to make (if I can do it, anyone can!) and not too much washing up afterwards either. Here’s the recipe from ‘vegetarian living’ magazine:
Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• half a yellow pepper finely chopped
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 100g of fresh baby leaf spinach
• 200g frozen peas thawed
• 6 free range eggs beaten

Instructions

1. heat oil in 19cm deep frying pan (I just used a large pot) and sauté the pepper and spring onions gently for 3 mins. Add the spinach and sauté for 2 mins until just wilted
2. Add the peas and pour in the eggs. Cook over a gentle heat for about 10 mins, until nearly set
3. Pre-heat the grill and place the frittata under it for 5-8 mins until golden and set. Turn out of the pan and cut into wedges.

 

And you can serve it with a salad, potato wedges or whatever you like! Lovely!

Butternut Squash Boat

So, It has begun! Well it started a while back but I am now sharing it with you guys. I’ve started to explore food a bit more and hopefully gain some weight by doing so. This was made a couple of weeks back and I’m afraid I can’t remember the exact recipe I used but here’s the approximation: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1940678/stuffed-butternut-squash-with-quinoa. Further kitchen endeavours to follow.

Here's a few from my 'Art and Advertising'  A level project. Many thanks to Lucy Silcocks, Abi Hills, Rhys Mortimer and Zak Hamdia for helping me out with this!

A few more photographs from the 'Urban Landscape' theme of my A-level work

 

I believe this set of photos was taken when I visited Portsmouth if I remember correctly. And a lovely day it was too!

 

 

A Couple of Years Back

So this piece was done for one of the tutors after I had finished sixth form. The original photos were by Miss Caesar and of the construction of her self-built home. So she asked for a photo collage of the process in the sort of style I had been doing with my 'Urban Landscape' theme and this was the end result.