Alice, you are not the only one...

Food on Friday: Slow Food

 ON

I am not a member of the slow food movement although I do agree that taking the time to cook some things really slowly does result in great flavour.  This Food on Friday is collecting all sorts of recipes that have only one thing in common – they require a long slow cook.

To add to the collection, just pop your name and the name of the dish into the first Mr Linky box and paste the url of your post about it into the second box.

I'll be pinning the dishes to this Pinboard - this will let you see the pinned dishes at a glance so you can choose which ones you want to check out in more detail.

Happy slow food, everyone!

Yay, Dr Seuss!

Need some inspiration? Try Tuna

Food on Friday: Tuna had lots of great ideas of what to cook with tuna.  Here are a few of them to inspire you!  To see more pop over to this Pinboard.

The first one at the top of the post is Salade Nicoise by James & Everett.  So appetising.

Lemon Dill Tuna Salad by Cooking Weekends

Tuna Melt by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Baked Tuna Cutlet by Mix & Stir

Tuna Fishcakes by Chumkie's Kitchen

Tuna Stuffed Cornet Buns by Cooking Pleasure

My own Zucchini Tuna Fish Cakes

I just loved this song when I was little .... come to think of it, I still do!

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

I was prepared to dislike Mad About the Boy purely because of its premise – that Darcy had died and Bridget was a widow.  But Helen Fielding has done it again.  Captured the spirit of the contemporary age.

I found myself giggling helplessly when Bridget is obsessively monitoring how many Twitter followers she has – the parallels with follower numbers of blogs is just too rich to ignore!

But be warned –  the hilarious section which deals with the children getting nits is likely to make your own head itch!

If you liked the original book, I think you will like this one – a lot!  Bridget Jones is back!

Thomas Aquinas - patron saint of booksellers - it's his day on the 28th

Plum Plus Jam

I called this jam Plum Plus because in addition to the plums I included a handful of blueberries, some sour cherry nectar and a splash of Amaretto (an almond flavoured liqueur).

I have posted about my normal approach to jam making – here.

But I used a different technique for this jam and it worked just fine.  I didn't pit the plums (1.5k) but simply put them in the jam  pot with the sour cherry nectar and some water and simmered them for 30 minutes.

The fruit turned pulpy and I was able to fish out the plum pits with a slotted spoon.  I missed a few I think but they will be easy to spot when spreading the jam.

I then added the sugar (1k of jam setting sugar) and a tablespoon or so of Amaretto.  You boil this away merrily until you get to the setting stage.  It took longer because of the original water that needed to be boiled off a bit.

The only stressful thing about making jam is making sure that you boil it long enough for the jam to set but not so long that it goes too thick and loses the fresh flavour.  As a result my jams tend to be a bit on the runny side ever since one overcooked disaster which was practically inedible.

Capital City of the Week – San Jose

San Jose from the air

The National Theatre in San Jose is probably its most loved building.

Stone spheres like this are an important element of the country's cultural identity.

This is Okayama Park in San Jose

So where in the world is San Jose?

San Jose is the capital of:

Doris Lusk

I don't know much about the life of the New Zealand artist Doris Lusk but I do know that I like her work.  She was born in Dunedin in the South Island in 1916 and died at the age of 74.  She specialised in landscapes with buildings in them.  She was also a potter.

The pic at the top is called The Pumping Station and is her best known work.

Tobacco Fields

Tahunanui

Kaitawa Power House

Do you like her work too?

My Aussie cousins love their Vegemite - we Kiwis usually choose Marmite!

A Vintage Poster to mark Australia Day

Spare Ribs

These spare ribs tasted fine but were a tad over cooked – half an hour less in the oven would have been better.

I marinated the ribs for several hours in:

Sour cherry nectar

Golden syrup

Cayenne pepper

Manuka honey & cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

I cooked these in a low oven for 3 hours.  I covered them in foil at the beginning and as you can see took the foil off a bit early!

And are we really any better off - except for blogging of course!

Need some extra inspiration? Try fish cakes

Tuna Patties by Kayla's Joy

I have selected a few of the many fish cake recipes in the Food on Friday: Fish Cakes collection to inspire you today.  To see the others, just pop over to this Pinboard.

The pic at the top of this post is of Tuna Patties by Kayla's Joy

Crab Cake Bites w Spicy Remoulade by picture-perfect meals

Salmon Fishcakes w a Thai Dipping Sauce by Amazing Appetizer Recipes

Shrimp Cakes by Mary's Food Journal

Scallop Cakes by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Tuna Cakes by Life Currents

And my own  Zucchini Fish Cakes w Lemon Caper Butter