Cook Next Door Meme

Stolen (what? Again? I hear you shout ...... yeh, yeh, yeh! I have been nicking for my blog since April 6th 2005 - Maria and Katya were the first of many victims!) This was stolen from Nicky @ Delicious Days!! The Cook Next Door meme - huge and in many languages - right, lets talk food!

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own? Not entirely on my own, Sunday afternoons, after our roast dinner when I was a kid - my Nana and I would make a Victoria sandwich/sponge from scratch. I still use her recipe - 6, 6, 6, 3 (6oz each of margarine, sugar & flour with 3 eggs and a splash of milk) eventhough I supposedly use metric measurements these days - Nana wasn't supposed to touch the mixture, she was there to do the dangerous bits (the whole gas oven thing) and the bits I didn't like - greasing the sandwich tins and scraping the bowl! Sometimes, if we were feeling "adventurous" we'd do pikelets instead, or rock cakes which my father would have to feed to the birds by Thursday!

Who had the most influence on your cooking? This is not actually anyone in my family at all, but instead two French women that I have spent holidays with / "lodged" with over the years. Jacqueline Bahi was the mother of my penpal Virginie when I was growing up - we (our families) met on a campsite in the Vendée in the early 1980s and used to spend holidays together. I stayed with the family at their home in Nantes and was always amazed at the effort that went into purchasing, preparing and eating each and every meal in that household! Every lunch was shopped for that day - vegetables and fruit inspected, chosen because they were in season and prepared with care and love. Jacqueline's husband was from the Cote d'Ivoire so once a month a boat visiting Nantes would arrive with a friend / cousin as part of the crew from the Ivory Coast and delicious pots of West African fish curry would take the place of melon du pays, salade de tomates or sardines. Staying "chez Bahi" shaped a part of my life and gave me a life long interest in gastronomie.

The second influence was another French woman but this time a friend of my parent's - Monique Agostini was a nursery school teacher @ the local primary school, mayor of the village and secretary of the local twinning association - which is how my mother knew her! Monique made the most wonderful food, never sat on the couch, always @ the kitchen table and cooking was her life - coq au vin (which took two days and two full bottles of wine per chicken to make), stuffed vegetables, roasted salt-fed lamb with garlic and rosemary, chicken (or rabbit ) Marengo to name but a few! I lived with Monique and her husband whilst I worked in a tourist office near Bordeaux. I shared some extraordinary meals with them - I remember one "fete de Reveillon" meal (New Year's Eve) lasting 7 hours and we danced around the dining table between courses and a wedding that lasted 4 full days! Some nights there would be a knock at the door late at night, (no I promise not to start singing "I'm the son of Hickory Holler's tramp! ..... But if you insist!!) and there would be a friend who had hit a deer whilst driving home. Monique, Jeannot (OH) and the friend would disappear out to the garage and for the next couple of days we would eat roasted / casseroled roebuck - delicious!

Do you have an old photo as “evidence” of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it? I have a couple of photos, but they're mainly of me eating and not cooking. I asked my mother why this was and she said "there just never seemed to be a camera around at the time!" No answer to that really!! So here you go .... a mini-me or two, eating!

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat? I'm not overly keen on scaling/gutting fish. I know how to do it, but .... well .... you know! I just would rather the lovely lady @ Tescos did it for me.

My most used gadget is :: kitchen tongs from Australia via Steve in work and his Mum in Brisbane - fab! And my Sabatier 6" knife - sharp as hell ... I use it everyday!

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else! Philadelphia cream cheese and strawberry jam on thick cut white bread/toast! I really like sweet & savoury mixed together - hot smoked mackarel with gooseberry compote is a favourite, but I also liked warm baked ham/rare duck with panfried peaches!

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don’t want to live without?

1. Onions/garlic/shallots; who can cook without onions or any of the other members of the family? [You know I mean the other members of the onion family right .... I wasn't talking about Simon and my brother!!]
2. Steak/red meat once a week - everyone (health professionals) say I shouldn't eat red meat often - but I love it and once a week can't hurt, can it? I do try to make it steak and not minced red meat; or lamb fillet - lean, not too fatty and I like it cooked very, very rare - bleu if possible. Simon says it looks like a massacre on a plate - but I just adore it!
3. Sainsbury's make a lemon dessert that I have once a fortnight - usually on a Friday as it is horrible "dinner duty day"! It's creamy, thick and very lemony and has a curl of very, very dark chocolate on the top. Jo (who I work with) and I buy a two pack and retreat to a corner and don't speak and just eat! I always use the smallest tea-spoon I can find to make it last as long as possible, close my eyes as each spoonful melts on my tongue and really savour the whole experience! You probably ask why I eat this "delight" in work and not at home with my darling husband - well, I took a box home once and he ate his with a dessert spoon in 3 mouthfuls - and I realised he just wasn't appreciating it properly - not giving it the respect it deserved .... charlatan heathen animal!

Bonus Questions - I will probably never eat :: tripe again - bleugh!!!!

Favourite icecream :: good quality chocolate &/or French coconut ice-cream. Oh and whilst we're @ it lemon sorbet - really lemony, sharp enough to give you goose pimples!

Signature dish :: I make a mean bacon (lardons or pancetta) and green bean salad with a warm balsamic vinaigrette; there is never any left over. Simon and my father have been known to fight over the empty bowl with a chunk of bread!

What piece of equipment don't you have that you'd like :: a wooden lemon juicer, I keep looking!!