Cookbooks/TV

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Yesterday, I made dinner from CCCP Cook Book, a present from fivemack. It's a delightful book, as full of anecdotes as recipes, and I'm enjoying it immensely, but this is the first time I cooked from it.

I made cheburek (with quorn instead of lamb) and vinegret (which according to the book, is in Russia a name used for chopped game and boiled vegetables with a vinegary dressing). The book is very Russian - witness the Good Reads reviews which tend to say 'hmm, the author didn't leave Moscow much' - but from my pov that's OK. It's like the criticism of the Gok Wan book that 'it's too Hong Kong'. I'm not looking to recreate my childhood, I'm looking to expand my horizons.

Anyway, that was all very nice, and then I made sweet syrniks for pudding, which are a kind of pancake made mostly of quark, and therefore a perfectly plausible breakfast idea, I probably will make again.

One day I'll make the cake calling for 14 eggs, which looks fun.

During this, I watched Goya Exposed with Jake Chapman. I love the Chapman brothers. Their art makes me stop and think, while also retaining a sense of inevitability, explaining the world a little bit more: or as Jake put it in this show, extorting as much meaning as possible. Jake's language is so precise, his explanations as concise when speaking as in his art.

I've been enjoying watching more iPlayer stuff, on a laptop or my phone, and thinking of expanding my TV horizons. Mostly, I'm watching Firefly on DVD when I get time to watch by myself, and enjoying it a lot more second time round. This all came up when a stranger made a recommendation based on my email address: Snow Leopard: Beyong the Myth and Andreas and I cuddled up and watched it together, and lo, it was greatly pleasing. Then I got interested in what else was available, and we watched Darcey's ballet heroes, leaving A much inspired by the works of the Royal Ballet's resident choreographer, Wayne McGregor, in particular.

I think TV while I cook if I'm cooking alone, or grabbing some TV time when the children are half busy but might want to joing me, is a good idea and I should do more of it.

Comments

[ceb.livejournal.com]

Re TV, you may already have seen these but I have become very addicted to _Edwardian Farm_ et seq., which I think you would also really enjoy. They've fallen off iplayer but are largely available on youtube (I have copies of the EF episodes that aren't).

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I've basically not watched TV apart from the dramas C & I watch together, Doctor Who and children's stuff, for years.

[ceb.livejournal.com]

The littles might like them also. They're historical reenactment of farm and home life from various time periods - there's Victorian, Edwardian, wartime, I think some others too? Victorian's a shorter series and doesn't go into stuff in as much detail so isn't as good - it has some fun Christmas episodes though. Edwardian is fantastic, I haven't seen wartime yet.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

One day I'll take them to the Edwardian working farm I went to when I was 5 and still remember fondly. Yes, it does sound interesting to all of us :) Thank you

[badriya.livejournal.com]

I loved Edwardian Farm. I like farming stuff anyway, and there seemed a lot of sense and decency about how they farmed then. Less wasteful and destructive. More care for sustainability.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Do the people who say "didn't leave Moscow much" mean why is this book so *Russian* or why is this book so *Muscovite*?

I can see that, were I from Glasgow, I might look at a book sold as "British" and think "wow, that's very ... London" and be unhappy about that, even if it was full of excellent recipes for London-ish food.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I think a little of both? But yes, I can see why it's a problem, I just think it doesn't apply to me as a reader.

Warning! Warning!

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

"One day I'll make the cake calling for 14 eggs, which looks fun."

Many years ago, my grandma (or, I suppose in this context, babushka) had a hand-written recipe book, passed down from her mother and in turn to my mother. It had many recipes for all manner of things, mostly in longhand but occasionally clipped from a newspaper or magazine.

One of the more eye-catching recipes in longhand was Mrs (something something)'s Never-Fail Sponge Cake which had a long and detailed ingredient list and method written out.
BUT written in block capitals right across the whole recipe was the single word "WASHOUT".

From time to time, the recipe book (and this recipe in particular) cropped up in conversation. Without fail, Grandma would say "Yes, and it had SIX eggs!" Now, during or shortly after the War, a recipe which proved to waste six eggs would be a significant calamity.

So when you mention a cake recipe whose most noticeable characteristic is an astonishing FOURTEEN eggs, I feel honour bound to warn you. Proceed at your own risk, but informed.

Re: Warning! Warning!

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm slightly nervous about that because even now, eggs are precious. The thing is, it's not that it's a sponge with all the eggs; it's that it's sponge layered with mousse, which is where the eggs mostly go. So I can see how it needs lots of egg white, and therefore the yolks go in because 10 yolks makes a lot of mayonnaise.