Pink Martini at the Brighton Dome

Last week me and my lovely friend Hülya went to see Pink Martini. To those of you who don’t know Pink Martini are a 10 piece band hailing from Portland, Oregon. When people ask me what their music is like I find it really hard to describe them, the easiest way to sum them up is to say they are an international jazz orchestra who make lounge music that you can salsa to for one song then coolly sip a gin and tonic for the next one. My favourite thing about them is that they have songs in all different languages from Italian to French to Turkish despite the fact that the singer, China Forbes only speaks fluently one language.

I discovered the band one day years ago because I was googling Eugene Hutz from Gogol Bordello and Pink Martini’s song ‘Hey Eugene’ came up in the search results. I gave it a listen, liked it and got one of their albums which I periodically listen to on my ipod. For me personally they are a band I dip into occasionally but for Hülya they are her favourite band and very special to her, so when they announced last October that they were coming to Brighton I immediately knew what to get Hülya for her birthday.

After months of waiting the date for seeing them finally came around and last Tuesday we put on our best dresses and made our way to the Brighton Dome. Honestly I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, but the best gigs are the ones that take you by surprise and give you more than you were hoping for. What made it for me was that the band were so relaxed and just seemed to be having so much fun. When a member of the audience shouted a song request they got her on stage to sing as China wasn’t sure she could remember all the words as they hadn’t played that song for years. I also loved that they encouraged people to get onto stage and dance to their songs which is really what they are meant for. When we first arrived I was worried that the audience would be a bit too wooden and not get into it, but the conga line at the end cast any doubts away that I had.

For me the best part was the encore when Rufus Wainwright came on stage, yes RUFUS WAINWRIGHT *swoon* for their latest album they have done a duet and they performed it together before ending the set with a cover of ’Get Happy’ then we went to a signing after the concert and met the band. Perfect night.

I’m off to slip on a ball gown, sip a cocktail and dance around the room with Pink Martini as my soundtrack.

Weekend highlights

It’s amazing what a difference the sun makes. This week the weather has finally got more Spring like, which has woken up Brighton and me from Winter hibernation. Instead of staying in watching films and trying to keep warm I’ve been out and about socialising pretty much the whole weekend and what great fun it was too.

Highlights include having a manicure, something I nearly never do, but I had a voucher so decided to use it this weekend. A cold beer followed (just making sure my nails were dry) then we got down to some serious pie making as we were having friends over for dinner. I made a cheese and onion pie for the main event and Daniël tackled a banoffee pie for dessert, his first time making pie I must add. Despite being thoroughly stuffed we managed to fit in a late-night showing of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ at our local cinema. Sunday was a lazy day with a long lie in followed Sunday jobs (washing and food shopping) but rewarded with coffee and a good catchup with my friend Sally. A really lovely and chilled out weekend which we rounded off the weekend with a large gin and tonic.

Gent

Easter seems a long time ago now, but over the break after visiting friends and family in the Netherlands we decided to go to Gent (or Ghent as us Brits say) in Belgium for a few days. I love going to Belgium, I went for the first time last year to Antwerp and really love the chilled out vibe there. When we go the visit usually revolves around trying as many different Belgian beers as possible, eating frites (chips), waffles, chocolate and wandering round the city with no set agenda.

Getting to another country on a train within three hours is still a novelty for me, especially as it is so easy, quick and comparatively cheap! We arrived in Gent in the evening on Easter Sunday and went straight to our hotel. After dropping our bags off we headed into the city to find traditional food and BEER! I love my fruit beers, or girly beer as Daniël likes to call them and could have happily drank cherry beer all weekend. But in an attempt to take advantage of all the different beers on offer we decided not to have the same beer twice all weekend. Beforehand I did a bit of research and read about Het waterhuis aan de bierkant  a cafe which serves over 100 types of beer. For me that is too much of a selection and I got Daniël to order me something at the bar, luckily he came back with a Kwak. I wish we could have spent more time here, but we had we were going to the cinema, so could only manage a quick drink here, but it’s definitely the kind of place where you could have spent the whole day ‘sampling’ the beers. If you’re interested we went to see Sightseers a film I missed at the cinema over here and really enjoyed watching.

We planned on visiting a few museums, the museum of psychiatry looked particularly interesting, but as all the museums were closed on Monday and we had to leave around lunchtime on the Tuesday we didn’t actually get to any. We were just happy sleeping in, having good food and walking round the city.  We did manage to make it along to St Bavos Cathedral, where the famous painting ‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’ is housed. This is a bit of a tourist hotspot and gets quite busy. It’s free to go round the cathedral, but to see the painting you have to pay  in.

                                                                                                        Frites with andalouse sauce

                                                                                      Caipirinha and DVD browsing.

                                                                               Riverside in Gent

                                                                                      Shoes on a line!

                                                                                  St Michael’s bridge.

                                                                               The best beer I had: Omer.

                                                                                  Probably shouldn’t eat it all…

Please be aware that after constantly eating frites, chocolate and good beer you may end up looking and feeling like this! The effects of overindulgence.

Home made pizzas and oreo cupcakes.

We spent last weekend with friends in London, the plan was to chill out, relax and catch up. Before we went there I had in my mind that we had to make pizzas, we were meant to make them the previous week, but for a variety of reasons that didn’t happen, so it HAD to happen this weekend. I have never made pizza dough before, sure I have had home made pizza before, but someone else has always made the dough, but this time it was my turn.

I always get nervous when I’m trying out something new whilst cooking for other people. Fair enough if it goes wrong for me I can throw it in the bin and pop something in oven out the freezer, so the pressure was on. I had many worries with this recipe, the main ones being that there wouldn’t be enough dough for four people and it wouldn’t rise, luckily none of those worries came to fruition. We all got a decent size pizza and it rose. The one tip I would say when cooking is cook it in a really hot oven or you will end up with a soggy base.

Making pizza dough is pretty easy, you just need a bit of time to allow for the rising. The recipe is as follows:

500g bread flour (plus more for kneading)
1tbsp salt
1 7g sachet of dried yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
330ml tepid water

Sift your flour salt and dried yeast into a large mixing bowl, making sure the salt and yeast are separate, then make a well in the middle.

In a jug mix together your water and oil then pour into the flour mixture

Mix together with a spoon until you get a sticky dough

Flour your work surface and need the dough until it is springy and elastic, this takes about 10 minutes
Put the dough in a floured mixing bowl cover with clingfilm and leave to rise somewhere warm for one hour or until it has roughly doubled in size.

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 7 (220°C) If you wish you can heat a baking sheet in the oven, this should help make the base extra crispy.

When the dough had proved I divided it into four worked each batch with additional flour for a few minutes then rolled out the dough, it takes a bit of man power to roll it out, but keep at it and you will have a nice thin base. Place onto grease proof paper or foil then add your toppings.

For the tomato sauce you can use passata, or what we did was blend chopped tomatoes with some chopped onion and herbs.

For me the best part of making your own pizzas are the toppings, you can go crazy and make creations you would never find in the supermarket or restaurant (maybe that’s a good thing). For mine I had, grated cheese, mozarella, blue cheese, fried onions, mushrooms and spinach. But if I had to choose one topping it would have to be blue cheese, dolcelatte to be precise, absolutely delicious melted on top of a crisp pizza.

When you have got as much as you want on the pizza pop it in the oven for 10-13 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and you cannot resist any longer.

For dessert we made oreo cupcakes, something I’ve been wanting to make for some time. To make these you need two packets of oreos. Firstly you need to separate them and put the biscuit with the fillings at the bottom of your cupcake cases. Keep the tops you’ll need them later.

Now all you need to do is make a chocolate cupcake recipe any recipe is fine, the one I used was very muffin like but as these cupcakes are fairly versatile you can work with any recipe. I decided that I wouldn’t use a buttercream topping as I find that a bit too sickly and wanted to try something lighter. Instead I whipped up a tub of double cream added some oreo cookie crumbs (remember the leftover tops?) then added a few tablespoons of caster sugar to taste then piped this on top.

To finish I added half a cookie to each cake.

These cupcakes were so yummy and tasted so much better with the cream topping, we had them with icecream after our pizzas and spent the rest of the evening in a food coma watching films and feeling full but happy.

International Women’s Day

Last Friday on International Women’s Day I started thinking about what I thought about the day and what it really means. I’m still not really sure what I think of the day, highlighting something for just one day which needs to be a consideration all the time unsettles me yet if because of the day someone gains a better understanding of women’s issues surely that is a good thing. I was reading an article only today in Nature discussing how science is still institutionally sexist. and for me at least when I think about these issues more deeply I’m worried that equality is at a status quo.

I would describe myself as a feminist, no I don’t hate men or have hairy armpits I like shoes, do take a pride in my appearance and like to bake, but I can be all of those things and still be a feminist. When I was first thinking about what feminism meant a few years ago I didn’t really know how to gain any information to help put my thoughts about it into context and guide me. I tried reading ‘the Female Eunach’ and for me it wasn’t accessible then I tried going to a local feminist group, but again it was not for me, at the time it seemed too academically focused and I felt I didn’t really connect with what they were saying there. What I found was a really good starting point was a book that I was given for Christmas by a friend, Caitlin Moran’s ‘How to be a Woman’. For me this book put  the issues and debates surrounding feminism into something I could really understand, relate to and actually get angry about.

I’m not against fashion, baking or lifestyle blogs, I love them all, but I can’t help thinking that these places can be used as a space to discuss ideas on gender whilst educating and empowering. By no means am I suggesting people change the direction of their blog and for most it may be out of place to put in random posts about feminism. But if someone reading this post thinks about things regarding gender inequality more deeply or reads an article or picks up a book about it then in some way passes that message forward then I think that can only be a good thing. I have no idea what to do next regarding this, but do feel ready to learn and educate myself more.

Lucky Voice, Brighton

I am not usually a fan of karaoke, I live in a house of massive karaoke fans and have been subjected to five hours of karaoke before including a Disney themed hour in the past. It’s not that they’re bad singers in fact quite the opposite they are all great singers which makes it worse for pitchless me who can’t hold a note as I have to sing after a near note perfect version of Adele. Since then karaoke has been rather joyless for me, so when my friend Kyle suggested going to Lucky Voice  I was less than enthusiastic, but as it was his leaving party and I think he is pretty cool I decided to go.

The first surprise of the night was that we didn’t have to pay for the hire of the booth, as we were going on a Wednesday night and the majority of our party were students we got the hire for free, coupled with two for one cocktails even before the singing started I was already having a good night. Having been to a couple of booth style karaoke bars before I was surprised by how large the room was that we were given, usually they are really poky with no room to dance but this room comfortably got eight of us in with plenty of extra space. Plus there was a fantastic dressing up box with with wigs and inflatable microphones which we all made use of.

The good thing about these booths is that you never really feel like you are in the spotlight and all eyes are on you, you can change the light settings, get the glitterball going or just chill and take in whats going on, all of which provides a more relaxing atmosphere. There are several microphones so people can sing at the same time and it feels like it’s designed to be a more collaborative effort. Though I did sing my karaoke classic ‘I love to hate you’ by Erasure. It’s what I always sing, I know all the words and even though I can’t get the high notes I don’t care.

We all had so much fun and were genuinely disappointed when we were cut off mid ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as our two hours had run out. Though past experience tells me it’s best to end on a high note than a Disney themed hour. We all stumbled out of Lucky Voice had a parting gin n tonic at the Cricketers then happily made our way home (via Subway). A surprisingly good night.

Planet India and mighty battenburg checkerboard cake.

A few weeks ago my flatmate’s girlfriend asked if I would be willing to make a birthday cake for her this year. Of course I said yes, then she sent me this link. I was hoping she was going to send me a link to a simple chocolate cake that I could make look pretty, but no epic battenburg cake it was. Well I like a challenge and am always trying to expand my baking CV so I decided to give it a go, but was secretly dreading making it. Rather sensibly for me I planned to make this cake over two days, the baking of the cake on the first day and the construction of it on the second. I will go through the method of making it later on but essentially I would say that this recipe needs some modification. The main problem is that the cake comes out a bit too dry and falls apart, to rectify this I would probably reduce the ground almonds and flour. Though the technique for getting the checker board effect is one you could use with other cakes, I’m very keen to try a vanilla and chocolate version of this cake held together with chocolate ganache. Anyway getting back to the battenburg…. surprisingly despite all of the cakes falling apart I managed to glue it all together with apricot jam, cover it with marzipan, refrigerate it and hope it would resemble something close to a checkerboard pattern when cut, so off I went to the party cake in hand (then swiftly hid before the birthday girl saw it).

For my flatmate’s birthday we all went to Planet India, it really is quite a special and unusual place, nothing else like it in Brighton anyway. The first time I went there I didn’t really know what to think of it, it feels like you are having dinner in someone’s lounge, with saris hanging from the ceiling and the owner walking round barefoot while you eat with spoons. The menu is fully vegetarian and quite simple, but equally you get dishes that are not your usual Indian restaurant staples, plus you can get ‘Thumbs Up’ there, an Indian version of coke which is served iced cold in glass bottles. Drinking it always reminds me of sitting on plastic stools in dusty roadside restaurants in India in blistering heat eating endless curry in a state of wonder.

As there was a large group of us we  ordered all of the starters and shared them between us all. Ones to note and order if you go there are ketchoris which are balls of spicy peas and coconut in pastry, pani puris which are fried balls filled with chickpeas and potatoes then filled up with spicy water and taken in one bite and finally the Punjabee style samosas.

For the main course I decided to go for the sweetcorn and patra curry,  sweetcorn and chunks of vine leave with a spicy paste in a tomato sauce. At first I didn’t think this curry was too spicy, but it’s one of those that builds with each mouthful, so by the end of the curry I was struggling and my mouth was burning.

Then came the surprise dessert…. Cat seemed pleased then she had received a birthday cake.

And I was quite pleased when she cut it.

It looks like a proper battenburg. I have never been so proud of a cake, though it will be a long time before I make it again!

Method and construction.

Following the recipe make the cakes, the recipe makes four cakes but I lost one in the construction, so probably worth having the extra one to have as a spare or you can make a four tier cake if you prefer.

Once you have made the the cakes you need to cut two circles of cake out of each of them then swap the middle rings of the almond sponges with the middle rings from the rose sponges, and fit the cut pieces back together. It’s worth chilling the cakes for an hour as this makes cutting them alot easier. To cut the pieces I made templates and cut round them. To work out the sizes of circles you need just divide the diameter of your cake tin by three to get the diameter of the first circle and double that to get the diameter of the second. The diameter of my tin was 21cm so the diameter of my two circles were 7cm and 14cm.

The  mix and match cake pieces should look like targets. Now you need to place the whole cakes on top of each other alternatively (pink edge, plain edge etc) sealing each layer with warmed apricot jam. I warm the jam in the microwave, this makes it easier to spread.

Finally you need to cover the cake in marzipan. I had absolutely no idea how to do this, so had a quick look at a youtube video, so I had a better idea of what I was meant to be doing. Once you have rolled out the marzipan to a couple of mm thick you want to cover it in the warmed apricot jam using a pastry brush then using the rolling pin to pick it up cover the cake. As long as you have rolled it larger than the cake you should have no trouble. Smooth it on top first then go round the edge patting it to the side of the cake and getting rid of the pleats. When you are happy with the covering use a palette knife to trim off the excess. But really just watch the video and you will feel alot more confident doing it. Now take a rest and bask in your achievement of having made a battenburg cake.