I Made some pasta, and now I'm blogging about it!!
After quite a lot of nagging and grinding him down, the husband finally gave in and let me have a stand mixer! He has a long standing dislike for worktop appliances and much prefers a clear worktop. This is all very well but what I think won the argument for me was that the space that now homes my new mixer used to be the holding place for the recycling and all other general crap that gets left in the kitchen... Well that still sort of happens but still, it is better than it was! To be honest, I think the promise of all manner of delicious baked goods was probably the real winner! He even bought it for me! Very lucky girl!!
After lots of deliberation and research on different makes, I decided to go for the Kenwood kMix. Shock horror I didn't go for a KitchenAid!! I briefly considered one. My mum has one and it is very nice but its hugely more expensive for essentially the same thing and I don't particularly like having the same as everyone else. Also, there was an offer on with the Kenwood at the time to get a free attachment which helped clench the deal!
Isn't it pretty! The black one was the only colour choice really for out kitchen. We considered the cream as our cupboards are cream but there was so many different variations of cream we wouldn't have been happy if it didn't match. The induction hob, sink and worktop savers are all black so it still matches in lovely! I think it looks really smart!
I have made pasta by hand once before. it was one hell of a lot of work! Hence only having done it once. However it tasted really nice and I really did fancy giving it another go sometime. So when one of the options for mt free attachment was a pasta roller I jumped at the chance of having another go!
Okay, mixing the ingredients, although quicker, wasn't life changing. I still had to knead it to get the dough the right consistency before rolling it. Which although takes a fair amount of muscle, isn't the worst part of pasta making...
The pasta roller however, is bloody amazing!!!! Completely makes it worth all the effort. One for the taste but also for the fun doing it! We had good husband and wife joint cooking session this evening, Scott making the lasagne filling, me the pasta sheets! The roller has settings for how think it rolls the sheets. I set it to 1.9mm which is apparently what brought lasagne sheets are. However next time I think ill do them a bit thinner as by the time it cooked it was still a little thick when in layers in the lasagne. It's been such a long time since we have made a lasagne, we googled the correct way of layering. Apparently the best way is by starting with a meat sauce (or equivalent, whatever floats your boat), then pasta, cheese/white sauce (cheese for us, because were very health conscious us... and slightly hypocritical as we don't drink milk.. or rather should I say, keep our milk usage to a minimum), pasta, meat, pasta, and cheese/white sauce to top. Well when we have made it before we have never layered cheese sauce between pasta. Quite frankly I don't think it's necessary... We usually do meat sauce, cheese sauce, pasta, repeat. Much better in my opinion!
After a lot of procrastinating there, I conclude that that pasta roller is mint (not peng... the new 'in word'... not sure I still understand it or which would be the right context for it.... However, there is an observatory at Slimbridge Wetland Centre called 'Peng' so it is an actual real word, not just some weird slang term! Peng is also the word Pippa uses instead of 'penguin', as shes not quite got that one yet!).
Sorry another side note, you are new to my blog, I procrastinate with brackets ALL the time. Sorry, not sorry! I recently wrote about why I do this in my blog bio. Check it out if your interested!
I really enjoy making pies and quiches, but I am a very lazy baker and unless I am feeling really motivated to do a good job, my pasty is always average at best. We keep our butter in the fridge usually and i never remember to get it out in time so it is room temperature. I also dislike the 'making breadcrumbs' process (basically the bulk of the work needed for pastry). Because of this, I microwave the butter to make it easier... and well if you make pastry often, you know that actually cooler butter is better but also makes the breadcrumb process more of a bore. By heating the butter, it's quicker but also doesn't really make breadcrumbs at all, and when I then add the water, I usually end up with a sticky mess I then add more and more flour to until it resembles something I can roll out. As a result of shoving the ingredients together in this way, more often than not, the pastry 'stretches' when rolling out. I know your thinking well 'duh' but you don't want to force pastry in this way because when it cooks, it basically shrinks again.. Not by loads usually but it doesn't give the best taste, or look that good! ANYWAY, after my intense description of pastry making, what I am trying to say is I now do it in my mixer which cuts out everything I dislike about making it! Many purists would say you shouldn't make pastry in a mixer because it tends to heat the butter with beating, however this hasn't been a problem for me at all! If anything, because my butter goes in the mixer from the fridge, by the time it's worked it's wonders, it's just how I want it! Life changing!!
I am also a pretty good cake maker, well I think so anyway and my husband hasn't exactly complained over the years. They are not always the most beautiful (though please note the use of hundreds and thousands here, really pushing the boat out for blog photo purposes!!) but they usually taste lush! My favourite is a ginger cake, the cupcakes are lemon and this is an iced marble cake!
After lots of deliberation and research on different makes, I decided to go for the Kenwood kMix. Shock horror I didn't go for a KitchenAid!! I briefly considered one. My mum has one and it is very nice but its hugely more expensive for essentially the same thing and I don't particularly like having the same as everyone else. Also, there was an offer on with the Kenwood at the time to get a free attachment which helped clench the deal!
Isn't it pretty! The black one was the only colour choice really for out kitchen. We considered the cream as our cupboards are cream but there was so many different variations of cream we wouldn't have been happy if it didn't match. The induction hob, sink and worktop savers are all black so it still matches in lovely! I think it looks really smart!
I have made pasta by hand once before. it was one hell of a lot of work! Hence only having done it once. However it tasted really nice and I really did fancy giving it another go sometime. So when one of the options for mt free attachment was a pasta roller I jumped at the chance of having another go!
Okay, mixing the ingredients, although quicker, wasn't life changing. I still had to knead it to get the dough the right consistency before rolling it. Which although takes a fair amount of muscle, isn't the worst part of pasta making...
The pasta roller however, is bloody amazing!!!! Completely makes it worth all the effort. One for the taste but also for the fun doing it! We had good husband and wife joint cooking session this evening, Scott making the lasagne filling, me the pasta sheets! The roller has settings for how think it rolls the sheets. I set it to 1.9mm which is apparently what brought lasagne sheets are. However next time I think ill do them a bit thinner as by the time it cooked it was still a little thick when in layers in the lasagne. It's been such a long time since we have made a lasagne, we googled the correct way of layering. Apparently the best way is by starting with a meat sauce (or equivalent, whatever floats your boat), then pasta, cheese/white sauce (cheese for us, because were very health conscious us... and slightly hypocritical as we don't drink milk.. or rather should I say, keep our milk usage to a minimum), pasta, meat, pasta, and cheese/white sauce to top. Well when we have made it before we have never layered cheese sauce between pasta. Quite frankly I don't think it's necessary... We usually do meat sauce, cheese sauce, pasta, repeat. Much better in my opinion!
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| Like my Master Chef presentations skills there? |
After a lot of procrastinating there, I conclude that that pasta roller is mint (not peng... the new 'in word'... not sure I still understand it or which would be the right context for it.... However, there is an observatory at Slimbridge Wetland Centre called 'Peng' so it is an actual real word, not just some weird slang term! Peng is also the word Pippa uses instead of 'penguin', as shes not quite got that one yet!).
Sorry another side note, you are new to my blog, I procrastinate with brackets ALL the time. Sorry, not sorry! I recently wrote about why I do this in my blog bio. Check it out if your interested!
I really enjoy making pies and quiches, but I am a very lazy baker and unless I am feeling really motivated to do a good job, my pasty is always average at best. We keep our butter in the fridge usually and i never remember to get it out in time so it is room temperature. I also dislike the 'making breadcrumbs' process (basically the bulk of the work needed for pastry). Because of this, I microwave the butter to make it easier... and well if you make pastry often, you know that actually cooler butter is better but also makes the breadcrumb process more of a bore. By heating the butter, it's quicker but also doesn't really make breadcrumbs at all, and when I then add the water, I usually end up with a sticky mess I then add more and more flour to until it resembles something I can roll out. As a result of shoving the ingredients together in this way, more often than not, the pastry 'stretches' when rolling out. I know your thinking well 'duh' but you don't want to force pastry in this way because when it cooks, it basically shrinks again.. Not by loads usually but it doesn't give the best taste, or look that good! ANYWAY, after my intense description of pastry making, what I am trying to say is I now do it in my mixer which cuts out everything I dislike about making it! Many purists would say you shouldn't make pastry in a mixer because it tends to heat the butter with beating, however this hasn't been a problem for me at all! If anything, because my butter goes in the mixer from the fridge, by the time it's worked it's wonders, it's just how I want it! Life changing!!
I am also a pretty good cake maker, well I think so anyway and my husband hasn't exactly complained over the years. They are not always the most beautiful (though please note the use of hundreds and thousands here, really pushing the boat out for blog photo purposes!!) but they usually taste lush! My favourite is a ginger cake, the cupcakes are lemon and this is an iced marble cake!
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| 'happy baking' |
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