List Item: Try 500 of the 1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die
Okay, so this is going up months later than the event (as per usual) but today’s post covers how during the course of my mum’s [EDITED] birthday I was able to get a number of easy food list items in… full disclosure: three were by surprise, two were planned.
Food items: Cheesecake and Eclair
So, as part of my mum’s birthday celebrations (after a visit to John Lewis to pick up her birthday present) we went to The Wolsely for a spot of afternoon tea. This not the first time I have done this in 2014, that was when I had some amazing looking fancies, but it is something she loves… and I love the never-ending parade of sandwiches.
I am not really going to write about cheesecake and eclairs since they are commonplace and I could probably right a sonnet about my love of cheesecake. That rich, vanilla cheesecake with it’s biscuit base and creaminess and… *drools*. I am still hoping for a cheesecake wedding cake… so if that works we’ll probably see more about that then.
Food items: Okra and Filé
As part of my mum’s birthday (we are now a few days later since we were so stuffed after sandwiches, scones and cakes that we had to postpone this) I made her favourite meal that I make: gumbo. This is how I was able to plan to eat okra (since it is one of the main ingredients) and filé powder.
Now, I had never used filé powder before this batch of gumbo but I knew that this was a traditional ingredient and was something I substituted out for a traditional roux since I was never able to get my hands on it before. Now, thanks to this list, I actually took it upon myself to find it to make the gumbo complete. It gave the gumbo an earthiness that it never had before, actually gave it a new angle.
List Item: Have a signature dish
Progress: Completed
So yes, this is the base recipe that I use for gumbo, but the great thing about having a signature dish is that you start to know it so well (if not by heart) that you are able to play around with it. With the filé powder I just chose to omit the oil and flour in favour of 2 teaspoons of the spice. One of the benefits, other than the taste, is that this makes it lower in calories. Always a plus.
Food items: Kugelhopf
Now for the big surprise of the evening… my mum went for another afternoon tea the day after I went with her. She went for a Viennese tea at The Delaunay and had some random cakes left over. It just happened that one of them was a kugelhopf, a miniature version to be sure but still delicious. It will tide me over before I am in a German speaking country again.
Progress: 234/500
Before I Kick 