the clumsy woman of szechuan

Oh pesky! Things have changed a little on this blogging software, so now if I sneak back and publish an old blog that I hadn't finished, it pops up as if it is the most recent thing I have written.  I have such a terrible memory I'll forever be wondering why the Gent's birthday came half way through Spring after we had moved from Soho.

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I laughed with everyone else in the audience, when Prue Leith told us that in years gone by women were not allowed to cook in a kitchen at certain times of the month, as they may curdle the milk. How archaic!

But this weekend I revised my opinion: I will henceforth stay clear of the kitchen on crucial days, for all our sakes.

After the frisbee-like seed cake (from a luscious recipe - how on earth did I get it wrong?), and somewhere between the freshly-ground coffee I threw across the kitchen, and the really awful coffee I made thereafter, the point was made. I am lucky to still have fingers.

I was planning to note down the various deliberations I went through choosing the right the recipe for the Gent's birthday cake - a seed cake - but the result isn't something I would intentionally cook again. Poor Gent! We covered it in creme fraiche and it went down nicely enough, but it is really quite dry, and his words rather say it all:
"Mmm, lovely! But ... is there any sugar in it?".

I avoided the old-fashioned recipe in my 'Good Housekeeping' from the 50's, on account of it looking a touch dry. Instead I used a lovely butter-heavy Madeira cake recipe and added 2 tsp of caraway seeds.

Notes to self: use self-raising flour, if it specifies this. It rarely works to guess at the flour + bicarb ratio, but ever still I try! Also, the loaf tin (or 'loaf silicone' as it would more accurately be described) is, after all, the best one for the job.

Avoiding further calamities, we ate out. The Gent's treat, he chose Szechuan at Barshu, fitted between watching 'The artist' at Soho Curzon and 'Crimes and misdemeanors' at the BFI. The pigs ear was spicy and knobbly (brave and somewhat thrilling, but I'm not sure I would order it again); the minced chicken with preserved mustard greens was aromatic and wonderful.  Prawns with cashew nuts is one of their 'most popular dishes' for a reason: we ate it with decreasing politeness towards each other.  The sure sign of a winning dish.



Written on the 15th January 2012: re-found in May and deemed suitable, after all.