Saturday, October 13, 2018

Dumpling disaster all over again

Do you ever find yourself in the middle of cooking something and thinking, 'This is going to be a disaster'?


steak and kidney pie delia
This is what it should look like.
I should have known better than even  thinking about making a steak and kidney pie tonight after yesterday's dumpling disaster*. But no, I strode in to it as if I were Delia Smith herself. To make matters worse I decided to follow the recipe on the Cookeen - 'for the best possible pastry' - fat packet.

I don't make pastry very often but when I do I usually follow my gran's recipe for shortcrust using twice as much flour as fat, the fat being half and half lard and butter. My gran made wonderful pastry. She showed me how to make it. I make poor pastry. It's edible - usually - but not up to my cake standards.

I have a 'thing' now about making pastry. A fear of failing. A certainty of flopping. And I always have cold hands, which are good for pastry.

Anyway the recipe on the packet recommended using a third fat to two thirds flour. It's in the oven now. It's not looking good.

It doesn't help that I have no whatsitcalled - spatial something or other. I can't look at something and work out what size dish I will need. So I have ended up with not enough filling and over-stretched pastry.

It always sounds so good in my head. A bit like my singing.

I bet you're glad you're not coming for dinner tonight.

* My dumplings were so hard they could have been used as cannon balls.

Postscript

Not a total disaster. Tasted okay as long as you like anaemic slightly crunchy/chewy/soft pastry. (You didn't know pastry could be all three at once? You haven't tasted my pastry.)

4 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I totally sympathize. I too have had some cooking and baking disasters over the years. I wrote a blog post about my worst disaster here:

https://shewhoseeks.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-matzo-ball-that-ate-winnipeg.html

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Often. The only thing I can usually guarantee is soup, but then any fool can make soup!
But you're right. Your cakes always look splendid.

Anonymous said...

Neither my mother nor I could make decent pastry so it was up to my father to bake the pies in our family. Hunky Husband does a decent job of boiling water; but, all of the women in his family made superb pastries. In fact, the elder of his two sisters had made her living off of her pastry talents having published a book or two on the subject and having owned a bakery and a deli. (She now, age 77, is a pastry chef for a fancy restaurant.)

All that said, I normally eat the filling and leave the crusts, anyway; so, I don't much care how the pastry came out. *chuckling*
Cop Car

RCA said...

nice blog!