roast·ed toad·stools

I have been asked why I called this blog The Laughing Gastronome.

In 1967 David Bowie wrote a song called The Laughing Gnome. Now, this song is a bit different than his usual work, but for some reason I find it hilarious! So what better way to pay tribute to something that has amused me than by naming my food blog as a pun on the title of a song that is full of puns itself. I mean, it isn't so strange, he does feed the [gastro]gnome roasted toadstools, dandelion wine, caviar and honey . . .

The Laughing Gnome
David Bowie
1967

I was walking down the high street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man (hello)
In scarlet and grey, shuffling away (laughter)
Well he trotted back to my house
And he sat beside the telly (oaah..)
With his tiny hands on his tummy
Chuckling away, laughing all day (laughter)

Oh, I ought to report you to the gnome office
(gnome office)
Yes
(hahahahaha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you cant catch me
Said the laughing gnome

Well I gave him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine (burp, pardon)
Then I put him on a train to eastbourne
Carried his bag and gave him a fag
(havent you got a light boy? )
Here, where do you come from?
(gnome-mans land, hahihihi)
Oh, really?

In the morning when I woke up
He was sitting on the edge of my bed
With his brother whose name was fred
Hed bought him along to sing me a song

Right, lets hear it
Here, whats that clicking noise?
(thats fred, hes a metrognome, haha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me

(own up, Im a gnome, aint I right, haha)
Havent you got an ome to go to?
(no, were gnomads)
Didnt they teach you to get your hair cut at school? you look like a rolling gnome.
(no, not at the london school of ecognomics)

Now theyre staying up the chimney
And were living on caviar and honey (hooray!)
Cause theyre earning me lots of money
Writing comedy prose for radio shows
Its the-er (what? )
Its the gnome service of course

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, oh, dear me

(ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me)

(one more time, yeah)

fresh yeast

It seems so alive.

I bought my first block of fresh yeast. It cost about $2 and is big enough to make all the bread I could eat if I was to only eat bread for a month. I have shared it among my friends and family, and it is still going. I had read somewhere that fresh yeast only lasts two weeks, but I have had this wonderful item for three weeks now and it is still going strong.

If you like to bake bread, I whole heartedly recommend fresh yeast over dried.

Update : use twice the amount of fresh to dried yeast - both volume and by weight work.

Am·a·zon cake

1/3 cup of cocoa powder - all it takes.

I stumbled upon this recipe, which I will reproduce below, and I can only reiterate Debbie's comments of just what a wonderfully easy, chocolatey, quick cake this is. Try it. It is brilliant.

I have made it many times now and have changed the recipe to suit what I always have to hand. Some modifications I have made :

• I have used peanut oil, which gives a nice faintly nutty flavour, but I usually use olive oil because it is always in the cupboard.
  
• I use white sugar or soft brown sugar, which gives a slight caramel flavour.
• I have used different types of vinegar : red wine, white wine, cider, but not malt yet!
• I have accidentally added more cocoa powder than required, to no ill effect.
• I have scaled the recipe up and down, which is very easy to do, with no eggs to divide in half.
• I have baked it in a loaf tin, a round tin and a square tin, all of which cooked perfectly.
  

Amazon Cake
via Words to Eat By, The New York Times, Cafe Beaujolais by Margaret Fox

5 tablespoons olive oil
1½ teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup cold water
1 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 180°c, grease a cake tin.
Whisk together the oil, vanilla and vinegar with 1 cup cold water, whisk in the dry ingredients, to make a smooth batter.
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes or until it tests cooked with a skewer.
Cool in the pan.

beer for Eas·ter

Beer for Easter - hooray!

My NZ Blogging by post parcel arrived on the door step on Thursday, the day before Good Friday - just in time!

So, I eagerly ripped open the box to find a wonderful 6 pack of Emerson's beer. There was London Porter, Dunkelweiss and Taieri George. Have a look at the Mary sent me an email, which I will quote here, describing her intentions for each :

"the Taieri George beer be eaten with some nicely sauced (but not highly spiced) sticky date pud, or as a dessert in itself. Let the dunkelweiss set for awhile to settle.. I would decant it, not carefully but I find less lees better for the dunkel. It may also accompany a light choc dessert but it's a nice way to end an evening solo. And the last, save for a chilly, wet and windy Wellington night in front of the fire.."

Thanks Mary - I think this is such a good idea for a blogging by mail parcel!

Unfortunately there had been a bit of a problem with the parcel, with it being sent back to Mary due to some of the contents being broken in transit. Sadly this also meant that the pud and biscuits that were included had to be thrown away in case they were contaminated with broken glass - what a shame . . .

plum cake

What a fab way to use up plums!

When plum season begins and plums are all the fruit you want to buy, eating them from hand is just wonderful. But as time goes by and you are still buying all the types of plums in the same quantities, you need something else to do with them. Just to take a wee break, you know? I have the best answer to this most wonderful dilemma - plum cake.

I have tried making jam and chutney and stewed plums, but we don't eat that much jam or chutney and the same stewed fruit each morning is just, a little, well, boring. A slice of a wonderfully moist cake is a brilliant way to get your fruit quota, don't you think?

I just noticed that I said "wonderfully moist" in reference to the cake for which I am about to type the recipe, without realising that is exactly how Nigel Slater describes it in the title in The Kitchen Diaries - you must believe it is true now! Incidently, The Kitchen Diaries is one of my favourite books I bought last year.

Fresh Plum Cake
adapted from The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater
makes about 6 slices

75g of butter
75g of caster sugar
1 egg
35g of flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
90g almonds, ground in a processor to fine rubble
8 plums, stones removed and cut into pieces

Preheat the oven to 180°c. Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Fold in the flour baking powder and almonds.
Pour the batter into the loaf tin and stick the plum pieces in to the batter, making sure to put some right to the edges.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into a batter area comes out clean. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, then remove to a rack.

Thai spiced fish cakes

Easy Spicy Fish Cakes

A frequent friday evening supper in our house is spiced fish cakes. Of course, fish seems right on a friday; I like to suppose that the cultural traditions that make this so, also mean that the fishmonger has a good turnover at the end of the week - a good time to buy fish. Any white fish will do : I tend to choose tarakihi, because it is not as bad as other fish on offer. It is often fairly cheap, and since it is being ground up and highly flavoured the texture and flavour of more expensive fish would be wasted here.

Little fish cakes, piled on a communal platter is a lovely way to eat, and relax, after a hard week at work. They are quick and easy and undemanding in both their preparation and cooking - much easier than popping out for a takeaway, I really do think.

Thai spiced fish cakes
enough for 2

250g white fish fillets
1 heaped tablespoon cornflour
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 egg
a handful of coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
a chilli, chopped
2 teaspoons Thai curry paste
1 spring onion, white and green, sliced

To serve
Vietnamese mint, Thai basil, or another herb
Lemon or lime wedges
Chilli or soy sauce

Process all the ingredients, except the spring onions, in a food processor until chopped and combined. Fold through the spring onions. Place in a bowl in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Heat a heavy frying pan with a little peanut oil for frying. Fry spoonfuls of the mixture until golden on each side. Keep the cooked cakes warm in a low oven while the rest are cooking.
Serve sprinkled with herb leaves, lemon wedges for squeezing over and a sauce for dipping.

car·a·way and black ses·a·me seed bis·cuits

Just right with a glass of wine on a sunny Sunday afternoon!

Last Sunday, Jules came round for a glass of wine in the last of the sun - it was so nice to finally meet him properly. He lives just up the road ; we knew we were neighbours and have bumped into each other a couple of times, but last Sunday was the first time we have sat down and started to get to know each other.

I made some little biscuits flavoured with one of my favourite things - caraway seeds. These biscuits are savoury and crisp, nice to nibble on with a pre-dinner drink. Caraway is such a soothing flavour, tasting like seed cake that Gran used to make and like Gripe water I remember having as a child! Black sesame seeds are just a bit nuttier than regular sesame seeds, and I think have a bit of an aesthetic advantage over the white ones in a biscuit like this. I made them in quite a rough elongated oval shape, but they could be cut out with a biscuit cutter if a tidier shape was wanted.

Caraway and black sesame seed biscuits
makes about 48

2 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
60g chilled butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons of caraway seeds
2 tablespoons id black sesame seeds
1/2 cup chilled water
salt

Mix the flour and baking powder in a food processor then add the butter, processing until crumbs form. Add the seeds and pulse briefly. Add the water a little at a time with the motor running until the dough just starts to come together. Turn out onto the bench and press into one mass, taking care not to knead the dough.
Divide into two logs, wrap in plastic and rest in the fridge for half an hour while the oven is preheating to 180°c.
Cut slices from the logs then roll out as thinly as possible to an elongated oval shape, or roll the dough out thinly and cut shapes with a biscuit cutter. place on a lines baking sheet and sprinkle with a little salt. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden at the edges.
Cool on a rack.

It has been an exciting week in other ways too :

On Monday I met up with Bea as she passed through Wellington - it is so wonderful to meet someone who so nice and is turns out to be just like she comes across in her blog, La tartine gourmande!

Barbara emailed me to say that our blogs were mentioned in the latest NZ House & Garden - so hello to everyone who have found their way here from there!

Also, NZ Blogging by Post - the Easter Edition is under way - I am looking forward to putting together my parcel to send this week, and of course waiting excitedly for the mail the week after!