JamieOliver.com
libran_logic
From: Around and aboutabout me
I love all things from the art side of the brain and cooking for me proves a challenging, fun and experimental task!
Damson Gin Pies...?!
Feast your eyes on these babies!!! These, my friends, are Damson Gin Pies a substance partially of my own creation huzzah! Arent they pretty? This is a photograph taken with pride 
So as promised-tis recipe time! Although I should probably mention that this made an inordinate amount of pastry...so you may need to scale it down for what you need...i didnt and ended up with a lump of the stuff in the fridge. I'll put a star by the bits that are entirely my doing, but the rest of it is from Maria Ellia from 'Great Food Live':
makes:approx 750g of pastry (shortcrust)
making time: 15 mins/30 mins to cool
cooking time: 25 mins
ingredients: 500g plain flour (*gluten free flour)
250g butter (*I used normal block cooking butter)
When working with Gluten free bits, use 2tbsp of Xanthen to avoid cloddy flour
4-8 tbsp of water
for filling: * Approx 15 damsons soaked in Gin (my mother had made damson gin, and pickled these things for about a year so they were extremely strong, however, fruit can be infused with alcohol after about 3 days of soaking - be sure to split the fuit a little to allow the liquid in more easily).
* Some damson gin approx 60ml
*Some soft brown sugar
*A generous sprinkling of cinnamon powder
*A tiny dram of vanilla essence
* (optional* a swill of Amarretto liquer *slobbers*
Sift flour and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl
Use a knife to cut the butter into tiny pieces and blend into the flour using fingertips. Do this until the mixture looks like breadcumbs (always wanted to say that) and add a little water.
Bind the ingredients together using hands to form a doughy ball. The recipe said to wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge but I didnt bother and it turned out fine.
preheat the over to 190 degrees centigrade/gas mark 5
Roll out the pastry until it's about the thickness of a £1 coin.
*Cut out the adorable little pie shapes using two pastry cutters that fit into each other, this should make the base and the lid, my sides were pretty much guess work but I cut strips from the pastry and moulded them together with my fingers. Seal any gaps with milk and make sure you've greased the pie tins first.
*For the filling it's litertally a little bit of all the aforementioned ingredients into each pie, in cooking the sugar will bubble over and crystalise ove rht e pies, hence the rustic look in the photograph, I like it...
cooking time: 20-25 mins until lightly browned 
There you go people, my first proud moment in cookery, written up a little later than made but still awesome. The great thing about these pies is that they can be filled with anything, you can even add some herbs to the pastry for a savoury pie...but cook the meat well...*shudders*
meow for now
xoxoxoxoxo Lia xoxoxoxoxoxox
Hey Howdy and Hello all!
For my first trick I would like to introduce myself... I am Lia (pron. lee-uh),I am currently 18 years old and an art student. I am by all accounts a terrible cook, a mediocre artist and a truly horrible badminton player. However, I do severely enjoy all of the above and it is my intention to use this blog to drive myself onward in my quest to improve dramatically at the things that I love.
Obviously blah blah blah every ones 'watching their weight' and frantically trying to lose it, frankly, I'm a big fan of the days when fat was cool because it meant you were rich enough to afford food. Also, having done some research into beloved burlesque dancing (dancing of any sort being another thing id love to improve...) and found that in Victorian times, the showgirls would actually pad out their thighs and arms to look bigger! *swoons* my kind of living...
I think I'll deal with the most tangible topic on my improvements list which is cooking! I have made so many disastrous cakes- loving gestures all of which have been laughed off stage by friends and loved ones. Yet still I refuse to be bitter, and having made my boyfriend sit through a full five hour session of 'Come Dine With Me' to really inspire myself, I set about aspiring to cook at least something that I wouldn't be embarrassed by if I ever had to entertain....
However, life is made more difficult by my closest living guinea pigs having a) a gluten allergy, caffeine allergy and chocolate allergy (enter; my mother) or b) an incredibly vast sweet tooth, a strict hatred for vegetables and a severe case of the 'too nice' virus making honest criticism almost impossible (my boyfriend-Rick). To make things even more difficult/interesting, I have recently made the decision to become a pescetarian (not a real vegetarian because I love sea food). it wasn't entirely of my own free will, it really has been a case of every meat product I've eaten recently making me very very ill.
So my mission for now, should I choose to accept it (which I have) is to produce food which in a perfect world must be:
Edible
Delicious
Repeatable by me
Repeatable by others
This means that all of you lucky people will get to recreate the magic of my cooking by following any successful recipes in your own time, and any of my friends may be selected at random to volunteer themselves as victims for my tasting sessions.Wish me luck!meow for now (cat lover in case you were wondering)
xoxoxoxox Lia xoxoxoxoxoxox 