I have to start somewhere.

Right, so here we go.

Friday’s dinner was a bit special as it was for a birthday. So I really wanted to make something I don’t usually make to mix it up a little.

The birthday boy requested steak (he is the quintessential cave man – meat ugh!)

So it was time to tackle a recipe I had avoided over the years. Cream puffs.

I honestly can’t tell you why I had avoided it. I guess I imagined the recipe would call for dozens of ingredients and huge amounts of time and technique. So I turned to page 86 of the Edmonds and there it was, staring at me Ahhh!! However, looking through the ingredients list I was genuinely shocked at how few ingredients there were. Which could only mean one thing. The method must be hugely technical and complicated right? but reading through it actually seemed quite simple and not really time consuming at all.

Throwing the butter and water together I have to admit it was hard to imagine that this was the start of the creation of little puffs of golden gloriousness. I got the rolling boil happening, took it off the heat and threw in the premeasured flour and began the most difficult bit, the stirring.

The reason I am calling this the difficult bit is because it involved a heck of a lot of stirring and because the paste was quite thick it takes the use of muscles I have avoided using for a long, long time.

I let the mixture cool and then added the eggs. Mixing the eggs in was a little tricky as it took a bit of convincing to get the paste to welcome the eggs into its life but eventually it happened. So back to hard core mixing. Seriously, the mixing actually kind of sucked but I was sure it would be all worth it in the end. Surely. Once the mixing was finally done and the mixture looked nice and glossy, I put spoonfuls on a tray while piping some onto another. I was interested to see which technique looks the best in the end.

The recipe suggested a 30 minute initial cook and 15 minutes for the puffs to dry out but I must confess I let them dry out for an extra 20 minutes because on splitting one open after the suggested time they were still raw in the middle.

The spooned puffs looked more rustic

The piped puffs felt a bit hard.

Once cooked and cooled I filled them with whipped cream with some icing sugar added and finished them off with a dipping of chocolate melted with a little cream and a few drops of hazelnut oil added. The oil gives the chocolate a beautiful gloss.

So my thought on this recipe? This recipe is a winner. It’s not that difficult or time consuming and to be honest the stirring wasn’t as traumatic as it seemed at the time. I just need more practise. The recipe calls for small teaspoon amounts of the mixture to make the puffs but I really think a full teaspoon full or even half a tablespoon is a much better size. I also think I preferred the look of the spooned ones rather than the piped ones. Generally the consensus was that they were delicious and I have a feeling I will be asked to make them over and over again. I am really pleased I faced my “fear” and tried this recipe.

The finished Tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh ingredients.

To go with the steak (ugh), I decided to make a couple of salads. A simple green salad and a tabbouleh salad. I had never made tabbouleh before either. The ingredient list and method were both straight forward and the end result was a tasty salad. Although I did add an extra tablespoon of lemon juice but this was a personal taste thing and you may be happy with it how it is. The recipe lends itself to the addition of more of certain ingredients if your taste buds call for it without ruining the overall outcome. The salad was really nice. It was light and fresh and went really well with the meat and other salad. It’s a little lacking if you eat it by itself but once again that’s just my personal opinion. This salad only gets better over time and the next day was delicious with a little chicken mixed in for a light lunch. So the tabbouleh was a success and it’s definitely a recipe I will be making again. The recipe can be found on page 185.

So I have finally started. I will be posting again soon. In the meantime happy cooking 🙂