Refitting the Bathroom 4. Shower

Another bathroom post, I hope you don't mind; our lives currently revolve around little else and so the blog will naturally do likewise for a while still.

Since I last posted the focus has been on tiling in the hope we'd have the main walls done before the sparky arrived to wire in our new shower on Tuesday morning. This was a close call that saw us grouting like mad on Monday evening, but we did get there.

Tiled and grouted walls

This shower is one of the rather exciting bits about our new setup, a gadget for the bathroom! In the old bathroom the shower was one of those "connected to the bath taps" jobs, except that the handle to switch from bath to shower had long since snapped off and a spanner lived on the bathroom windowsill for this purpose. Having seen so many of the bathtap/shower combos that have failed over time we decided to try something different.

Shower fittings on the wall all ready to go.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard we tried to rearrange things, the bath and consequently the shower needed to go in the same location as before - with the shower head on a rather thin and flimsy stud wall. Worried about the weight of sitting a classic electric shower there we've opted for a digital shower instead. Any excuse!

The main body of our shower, tucked snuggly out of the way.

With a digital shower the bulk of the unit sits tidily away under the bath with just a small outlet for the shower head required in our stud - hopefully much less strain on the wall. The shower is controlled by a remote unit which, in the case of the one we've chosen, is wireless (you can also get digital showers where the remote is connected by a long length of wire). This means it can sit anywhere in the bathroom with no worries about water flow and pipework.

The wireless shower controller

Getting the shower wired into our mains has been the only job we've employed someone to do (well that and soldering up our pipework mishap), and yesterday Andy came and sorted it out for us. We used Andy to help us sort out the electrics when we first bought the house and he did all that was needed yesterday with minimal fuss which was great. All we need to do now is silicon around the edge of the bath and we can have a shower!

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Kitchen Gadget 11. Non-stick Sheets

A long time ago, back when this Kitchen Gadgets series was in its infancy, we talked about pizza. We mentioned in passing that we use non-stick sheets to stop our pizza sticking to its baking tray. It might have been a fleeting reference but the truth is that we have a growing collection of these sheets and we love them. We use them nigh on constantly.

You might then ask why it has taken us so long to give them a post of their own. The truth is that we use them in so many small little ways that it's been hard to think of a recipe to give you that highlights just how useful they are.

You see we baked biscuits on them and popped one in our roasting tin for sweet buns. We've used them for breadsticks and for collecting fresh pasta. The more I looked them more I saw them lurking in the background of bake after bake, blog post after blog post, they are the unsung heroes in our kitchen.

So, here's just one more recipe that we use a non-stick sheet for: Stollen.

Stollen
This is Joe's modified version of Delia's stollen recipe. We use our bread machine to make the dough and then plait the stollen and marzipan into three strands as this disperses the marzipan throughout the stollen - not just in the middle. Unorthodox, but tasty!

7g Dried Yeast
350g Strong White Bread Flour
50g Caster Sugar
1/4tsp Salt
110g Butter
1 Egg
150ml Milk
Zest of 1/2 Lemon

200g Dried Fruit and Nuts, approximately (use what you have around):
 - 100g Sultanas
 - 25g Glace Cherries
 - 25g Mixed Peel
 - 25g Apricots
 - 25g Flaked Almonds

200g Marzipan


1. Put all the ingredients, minus the fruit/nuts and the marzipan, in a bread machine on a dough cycle. Once finished mix in the fruit/nuts.

2. Split the dough into three equal pieces and then roll these into three sausages of equal length and thicknesses.

3. Flatten the sausages and tweak if needed to make them the same.

4. Roll out lengths of marzipan approximately a fingers width in diameter and lay them along your dough stopping 5cm short of each end.

5. Wrap each length of dough around the marzipan to re-form them into sausages.

6. Plait the three strands taking care not to stretch the dough as you do so (it will want to stretch!). Once you've finished plaiting tuck the ends of the plait under and transfer to baking sheet lined with a non-stick sheet.

Ours turned out to be a little long for the tray...

7. Leave to rise again (until doubled in size if you can be that patient).

8. Bake at 170C fan for around 30mins or until the top is golden and the bread sounds cooked (hollow when tapped - normal bread making rules apply).

9. Transfer the stollen on its non-stick sheet to a wire rack and allow to cool.

10. Once cool turn over and the sheet should just peel away.

11. Enjoy with a cup of tea!

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Kitchen Gadget 10. Kenwood Chef

Earlier this year we wrote a post about the accessories that we use with our Kenwood Chef and the time has finally come to talk about the main beast!

Afforded pride of place on our worktop since it was given to us as a wedding present we've used this for all sorts over the years. Before we got a bread machine this was our main workhorse for kneading our bread; now it has a slightly easier life but is still called on to whip up cakes, pastry, scones, profiteroles or whatever tickles our fancy.

It's great for those jobs where a longer period of effort is needed. Such as the constant whipping needed for a good meringue...

Italian Meringue

4 Egg Whites
160g Sugar
160ml Water

1. Using the Kenwood, whisk the egg whites into a soft peak.

2. Meanwhile, dissolve the sugar in the water over a high heat. Once dissolved, continue to cook the sugar syrup over a medium heat until it reaches 121C.

3. After bringing the sugar up to temperature turn the mixer speed up to high and slowly pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites.

4. When all the sugar has been incorporated turn the mixer down to a medium speed and keep whisking until the meringue is back to room temperature. You should now have a lovely glossy meringue ready to use however you like; though if I could make a suggestion, perhaps to top off Joe's Strawberry Layered Cake.

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Kitchen Gadget 9. Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer

Picture the scene. It's a beautiful autumn day. The sun is shining, the tree's are golden, your apple tree is full to bursting with ripe fruit. You carefully pick as many as you can, but you know that these apples are not keepers. No matter how nicely you pack them they just will not survive being stored for long. Instead you need to process them, eat some now, freeze some for later, maybe make chutneys and other preserves with the rest.

You get the picture? You're standing in your kitchen faced with a mound of apples and they all need dealing with. Every single one. Luckily, someone else has been here first - enter the Apple Peeler Corer Slicer. Simply skewer an apple on the prongs,

turn the handle,

and out comes an apple ready for cooking. Magic.

Apple Crumble
A simple recipe, but one that plays an important part in our repertoire. We use equal quantities of the main ingredients mostly because it makes it simple to remember. 

For the crumble:
120g Plain Flour
120g Porridge Oats
120g Butter
120g Sugar*

plus:
~700g stewed apple, sweetened to taste

*I've not specified type of sugar here as we use a different combination every time. We always start with granulated and then decide to swap out part of it for soft brown or muscavado, or whatever we fancy and have in the cupboard.

1. Pop all the crumble ingredients in a food processor and mix until, well, crumbly. Alternatively rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs and then stir through the sugar and oats.

2. Place the stewed fruit in the bottom of a casserole dish. Top with the crumble mix and even off.

3. Place in the oven at 180C for 25-30 mins, or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden. Serve hot with custard or ice cream or cream or yoghurt...

Once you've tried this once it's a great recipe for experimenting and using up odds and ends. In the crumble photographed here I added a handful of raspberries into the apple, a large teaspoon of ground ginger into the crumble mixture and a sprinkling of demerara across the top for a little added crunch. How will you make yours?

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Kitchen Gadget 8. Thermometer

Being scientists at heart we love lots of gadgets that make cooking more predictable, and this is definitely one of them. The food thermometer. Again, a very simple piece of kit, we bought ours from ebay for the princely sum of £3 and it gets used several times a week, though often this is as an upgrade to the little finger method of testing our reheated dinner is hot enough. It's been called in to service for everything from sugar syrups and caramels to checking BBQ food is safe and meats are cooked to perfection.

As an aside; when we're on our own we tend to cook enough for four people and eat the same thing for two nights. An odd habit but we've found it tends to be a little cheaper and means we only cook from scratch every other day - we both work full time and as much as we love cooking we also like getting home and not having to cook. Popping something in the oven to warm up is therefore an everyday occurrence (no microwave - about the only gadget we don't own).

Back to the topic at hand; on occasion we use our thermometer for slightly more technical things than reheats. This week we had roast pork and did just that.

Roasting with a Thermometer

Temperature has a very predictable effect on meat, be it a joint, fillet, or whole bird and you can use this knowledge to aid you in your cooking. Knowing the temperature of the centre of your meat will tell you all you need to know about its current state and should mean that you can go through the whole cooking process without needing to cut it open and check the colour.

The same temperatures apply to all meats - though what is considered a safe temperature varies. There are many references to what each temperature means for the proteins in the meat you are cooking, and we won't attempt to match that level of detail here - instead, we've put together a quick guide to the temperatures we refer to most.

McGee on Food and Cooking by Harold McGee has plenty to say on the subject!

How well done is my red meat?
55C - Medium Rare
60C - Medium
70C - Well Done
90C - Falling apart
Don't forget that these are the maximum temperatures in the middle - a big roast will climb a few degrees whilst resting (up to 10 for a particularly large joint) so if you want your roast beef perfectly cooked pull it out a few degrees early.

What's safe for other meats?
60-70C will kill most bacteria depending on how long the meat is held at that temperature, but over 65 is a safe bet. You also need to make sure you are measuring the thickest part of the meat - the outer section will be much hotter but it is the minimum temperature in the meat that matters. 90C in the middle will have it falling to pieces so long as it is still moist - 90C and baked dry will be like leather!

What does the Food Standards Agency have to say about this?
If we have any doubt about the quality of the meat we always go for food standards agency levels. Sausages, regular burgers, reheating things that have been in the fridge too long etc all get this treatment. I'm sure many chefs would point out that the best ways of cooking things wouldn't always hit these guidelines though! They recommend achieving one of 60C for 45 mins, 65C for 10 mins, 70C for 2 mins, 75C for 30secs or 80C for 6s.

We work on the 80C and it's dead rule - gives a bit of leeway for error of temperature reading. It is also a great target for most BBQ foods - its surprising how paranoid we have become about burning our sausages and chicken to a crisp before declaring it cooked but a quick stabbing with the temperature probe can ensure the food comes off cooked but still juicy and tender.


Roast Pork

The joint was seasoned and sat in an oven at 180C. After around 45mins it registered 49C, not cooked yet.

40mins later it had reached 72C. This is now cooked and safe to eat but not quite what we were aiming for on this occasion.

Finally we reached 88C - plenty enough to clear 90C after resting. This joint could bake to falling apart temperature as it had a good layer of fat on it to keep it moist.  After being covered in foil for 15 mins it was ready for carving. Being only a small joint 15 minutes was plenty of resting time and allowed it to rise the last couple of degrees. We tend to leave big joints 20-30 minutes to rest.

Perfect.

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Kitchen Gadget 7. Kenwood Chef - The Accessories

 

I'm sure one of these days we'll do a Kitchen Gadget post about our Kenwood Chef, but in a rather back to front sort of way we're going to start with a post about all the wonderful attachments you can get for it. We have three out of a wide selection and while they don't get daily use they certainly make life seem so much easier when there's lots to be done. These are kitchen gadgets that we can easily do without, but by no means regret having in the cupboard. A bit of luxury.

Firstly we have the shredder/slicer. Large bowl of coleslaw for a BBQ? It takes longer to top and tail the carrots than it does to chuck them all through the machine! We also use this one for dauphinoise potato type dishes - it really is so quick to do. (Plus it avoids the temptation to slice potatoes on that wide bit on the cheese grater - don't do it. Just don't.)

We also have a juicer. While this is the most under-utilised in our cupboard we hold out high hopes for the day when we get to turn a bumper apple harvest into beautiful fresh juice.

Today though, we have a recipe for you that we get out the mincer for: falafel. As with lots of our kitchen gadget recipes you can make this without a mincer - just mash it all up the best you can by hand.


Falafel
Serves 4

2 Tins Chickpeas
2 Onions
4 Cloves Garlic
4 Tbsp Plain Flour
2 Tsp Ground Cumin
1 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Paprika
1 Tbsp Fresh Herbs (we used Coriander and Thyme)
1 Large Egg - optional, it does help to bind and we have no shortage of eggs so chuck one in.

1. Set up your mincer and feed through the chickpeas, onions, and garlic.

2. Stir in the rest of the ingredients to make a firm dough.

3. Fry off tablespoon sized dollops of your dough in batches until you've used it all. Pop the finished ones in a warm oven while you're working.

4. Serve with toasted pittas, houmous, salad, olives, mayonnaise... or whatever you fancy!

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Kitchen Gadget 5. Slow Cooker

We can be rather lazy when it comes to cooking. We love home cooked meals, but even more we love meals that are all prepared in advance, that allow us to just sit down and eat.

This months gadget is our slow cooker (crock pot for those of you over the pond) and it allows us to do just that. We can fill it with some fairly simple ingredients on a Saturday morning, go out for the day, spend time in the garden, or get on with other jobs, and come back to a wonderfully cooked dinner for minimal effort. If we're feeling organised we fill it up on a weekday evening and then we just need to pop it on when we leave for work in the morning. Perfect.

As an added bonus, slow cooking can take even the toughest cuts of meat and turn them into a tender and juicy dinner. One of our favourites at the moment is short-rib. This is a beef cut that isn't particularly fashionable - you can't find it in the supermarket and tends to be fairly cheap at a butchers - but is full of flavour and beautifully tender when cooked slowly.


Slow Cooked Short-Rib in Beer, with Dumplings
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
2 Pieces of Beef Short-Rib (if you can't get hold of this, brisket works just as well)
2 Red Onions, coarsely chopped
5 Carrots, chopped into chunks
200g Mushrooms, chopped into chunks
1 Can Stout (we used Brains Black)
2 Bay leaves
A Small Stick of Horseradish (optional)
1/2 tsp Pepper
2 tsp Instant Gravy Powder (or enough to add a slight gloss and thickness

On a good day we fry off each of the ingredients as this adds flavour. If you're short of time then skip the first 4 steps and just place the ingredients in a slow cooker.

1. Fry the beef in a little oil until the outside is golden and brown. Transfer this to the slow cooker.

2. In the juices the beef has left fry off the onion and carrots over a fairly high heat until the onion is starting to brown. Transfer these to the slow cooker.

3. Do the same with the mushrooms. Transfer them to the slow cooker.

4. Next use the same pan to make the gravy (lots of good flavours are left behind by the rest of the ingredients). Pour the stout in the saucepan, and add the bayleaves, horseradish, pepper and gravy powder. Heat until combined. Transfer to slow cooker.

5. Turn on your slowcooker and leave for 8 hours.

For the dumplings:

150g self raising flour
50g suet
a pinch of salt
1 tsp mixed herbs
90ml water

1. About one hour before you wish to eat combine the dry dumpling ingredients. Slowly add the water and combine to make a dough.

2. Roll into balls and sit them on top of the stew. Pop the lid back on and leave until dinner time.

Catch up with the rest of our Kitchen Gadget's here.

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Kitchen Gadget 3. Bread Maker

We eat quite a lot of bread, lovely fresh bread. For a while we made it all by hand (with a little help from our trusty Kenwood Chef), but then one day we were offered a bread machine that was gathering dust in a friends kitchen and we've never looked back. We're now onto our second having worn out that first gift.

While we do regularly use it's normal cycles, we also love it's range of dough cycles. This gives us the flexibility to make more unusual loaves and achieve a range of bakes but saves us having to do any of the hard work! The machine will mix, knead and hold the dough at the right temperature to get a good rise all with the push of a button. All that leaves us to do is to turn it out, pop it in a tin or on a tray with any added flavours and put it in the oven. We can have the satisfaction of making bread ourselves, without having to pay much attention to the process.

One thing we find it very useful for is pizza dough. The shortest dough cycle on our machine is 45mins long so we can get this on when we get home from work without having to wait hours for our dinner. While we don't claim to have done anything particularly original here we thought we'd share what we do when homemade pizza is on the cards.

Homemade Pizza (with doughball starter)

Serves 4

500g White Bread Flour

6g (bread machine friendly) Yeast

6g Salt

15g Sunflower Oil

300ml Water

1 500g carton Passata

A large handful of Grated Cheddar Cheese

1 ball Mozzarella

Plus toppings of your choice. We went for:

2 Mushrooms

1 Red Pepper

1 slice of chunky Ham

1. Put the flour, yeast, salt, oil and water into your bread machine and put it on a short dough cycle (ours happens to be labelled "pizza dough" - but we use it whenever we just need a quick turnaround).

2. While the bread machine is running, empty the passata into a saucepan and leave on a low heat to simmer in order to thicken it a little. A whole carton of passata is too much but we cook the whole lot down and then pop the spare in the fridge to add to whatever our next tomato needing meal is.

Once the bread machine has finished and the passata has thickened:
3. Preheat the oven to 220C.

4. Empty the dough out of the bread machine onto a floured surface. Bring it into a ball and then split into three fairly equal sized pieces.

5. Split the first piece of dough into 8 small balls and place on a lightly oiled tray. Put these in the oven. They will bake for approximately 10mins.

6. Roll out the remaining two pieces of dough as thin as you can that will fit on your baking trays. We use non-stick silicon baking sheets between our baking trays and our pizza at this stage - but if you don't have them then just remember to grease your baking trays to make things easier later.

7. Spread a thin layer of the passata over the rolled out dough. Add a thin layer of grated cheese followed by torn mozzarella pieces to the tomato. Finish with your choice of toppings.

8. Hopefully your doughballs will now be cooked and looking a good golden brown colour. Take them out of the oven and put your pizza in.

Enjoy your doughballs with a little butter. 

9. After 10 mins check your pizza. Hopefully it should be starting to look cooked by now. If the dough is starting to feel stable at this point we slide it off the baking tray onto the oven shelf and leave it for another 3-4 mins. This helps to produce a crispier base.

10. Once the pizza crust is looking golden, the cheese bubbly and the toppings cooked then your pizza is done. Remove it from the oven and enjoy.

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