Cooking out

For most young people, cooking is part of household chores. For me it's a pleasure, even if in the everyday life, when I go back home late and tired, I don't feel like making any effort. But generally speaking, I really enjoy cooking, and almost everything I eat is home-made. In fact I don't trust industrial food at all, maybe that's why I started to make by myself everything I'm able to cook. Don't worry, I'm not obsessive enough to milk my own cow and then make my own cheese, what I mean is that I never eat ready-cooked meals.

Cooking is a very relaxing activity for me, and I like the creativity it allows. Sometimes I don't feel like eating but I cook all the same, just for the pleasure of creating something good. For me, being a good cook has nothing to do with the sophistication of the dishes. It's rather about being able to turn your cravings into something good, without being dependent on an existing recipe. So according to MY conception of cooking, I'm a good cook, and everyone can be a good cook...which doesn't mean that I never mess up (far from that) or that I never use existing recipes. I pick ideas here and there and I adapt them to my tastes and to the content of my fridge.

What I enjoy cooking above all is desserts, and especially cheesecakes and muffins. Not exactly typically French, I know. But I also love making "flans pâtissiers" (custard tarts) and this is French! I bake cakes at least twice a week because that's always what I eat for breakfast.

Last year, in France, I had a tradition with my friends that I nicknamed "the muffin Tuesday". Every Tuesday, I brought them a new sort of muffins, and they acted as critics to help me improve. I really miss this ritual...

This is not my picture but it perfectly illustrates why I love custard tarts so much : childhood memories, nostalgia.

I didn't try to cook Irish specialties yet, but I'd like to. For the moment, I just customized my recipes to make them look a bit Irish : cheddar in my makis, Bailey's in my banana bread.

I've been a bit too severe with Irish gastronomy in one of my previous articles if I remember well. The problem with me is that I don't like meat. So Irish stew makes me shiver for example. Same problem for the full Irish breakfast, with sausages, bacon... God... But the same goes for lots of French specialties. Boeuf bourguignon, blanquette, langue de boeuf sauce piquante... Yuk-yuk!

HOWEVER there are at least 3 Irish specialties that I really like : tea brack, Bailey's coffees and soda bread. So I take back what I said about the inability of Irish people to make good bread. I love your soda bread. But your baguettes suck! I won't try to make my own soda bread, but I think I will try to bake tea brack, it seems quite simple according to the recipes I've read :

Ingredients

• 300 ml cold tea
• 4 tsp Irish whiskey
• 110 g sultanas
• 220 g currants or raisins
• 55 g chopped glacé cherries
• 55 g chopped mixed candied peel
• 200 g brown sugar
• 225 g self-raising flour
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• honey, for glazing (optional)

Method

1. Place the cold tea and whiskey in a bowl. Add in the sultanas, currants, glace cherries and mixed peel. Cover and set aside to soak overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.

3. In a mixing bowl, mix together the sugar, self-raising flour, beaten egg, nutmeg and soaked fruit, with its soaking liquid until well-mixed.

4. Transfer the mixture to a well-oiled loaf tin.

5. Bake for 1 hour, 30 minutes until risen and set.

6. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes in its tin, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. Glaze with honey if required.

7. Serve in slices with butter and store in an airtight tin.

Source : http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/514212

If I make it, I will post a picture! I have to warn you that it may be a Hello Kitty tea brack, because I received a Hello Kitty tin for Christmas and since then, I adopted a HelloKitty-shaped food diet...

My first HelloKitty cake. A speculoos rice cake.

To be continued...