Meatballs a la Sausage

Jamie's Georgia episode is playing on 4oD in the other tabbed window as I am tapping this out. Jamie has just prepared a surf 'n turf dish as his interpretation of "soul food" of the deep south. 

The verdict from the restauranteur's 81 year old mother is, "Well Mr Jamie, you'll have to come a little bit tighter with your salt", delivered in her syrupy southern drawl. 

But I didn't jump online to share my thoughts on his lack of seasoning.

Surf was prawns, Turf was meatballs...but did he prepare the latter from scratch? Oh no, he squeezed them straight out from a sausage! I was delighted, because although this sounds like cheating, I did the exact same thing last night for dinner! 

I was bored of the remaining half pack of sizzlers, so I turned the filling into super quick meatballs. A generous splash of soy sauce reduced with sauteed onions, bamboo shoots and pickled bok choy made a yummy-tummy sweet and sour topping on egg noodles. 

But Mr Jamie still has one up on me...I removed the casing before meatball-ing. How inefficient.

Why this blog? Part 3: Jamie's America

Initially, I was only going to write the ZINE article in the style of a blog, mostly because I am lazy and didn't want the stress of producing 500 words of cleverness and comprehension (almost all writing attempts are meet with mental blocks completely disproportionate to the gravity of the task). 

But whilst I was running my column* in the lab, my mind became flooded with ideas and by the end of the task I had secured this blogspot web address. Let's just say that the column took twice as long as normal and my final product was not as pure as previous attempts. Oops.

So here is the plan. Jamie's America is both a cookbook and a TV show running on Channel 4. In this series, he visits five different places in the US of A (Los Angeles, New York, Louisianna, Wyoming, Georgia and Arizona), and tries to get to the heart of what fuels the food and flavours of that area. Interesting choices, me thinks. 

Source

I will try a recipe from each location and document it here. Then viola! I can just edit it for ZINE. So you can think of this as my notepad.

I also want to make this useful for you, so I'll give my two pence on what it's like to shop for ingredients in Cambridge (grrr...) and cook and eat well while being a busy student. So please check in every now and then if these interest you.

There's not really much left to say except that I hope you enjoy it! 

First stop...LA!

*A "column" is a synthetic chemist's** way of saying that they are using the technique of column chromatography to separate components of a reaction mixture. 

Basically, when we put on a reaction to change A to the product B, we usually also get a number of other products as well, such as C and D. These usually arise from competing side reactions and/or decomposition. 

If a reaction gives few of these other products, we say it is a "clean reaction" (although the opposite is never described as "dirty"!). 

But if not, we can put the whole mixture down a long vertical glass tube that is packed with a material (usually silica) that makes B, C and D come out the bottom at different times. 

It all depends on how much the silica likes B, C and D. The more they like each other, the longer it stays in the column, so pure B can be separated from C and D. Clever, huh?

**A "synthetic chemist" makes molecules! (yes, there are other types of chemists...)

Why this blog? Part 2: In the footsteps of Julie

The bright little thing (blt from now on...oh dear. I have a thing for acronyms) had only been in Cambridge for four days before she secured funding from her College for this project, so super kudos to her! 

I'm not surprised really, because her older sister attacks tasks with an identical vigour. My involvement with ZINE actually stems from my connection with sister blt, who is also a PhD student in my research group in the Department of Chemistry (she is more of a biologist, but I am *definitely* a chemist). 

Seeing the pair of them in action is like watching the world in mirror images, in everything from their animated Geordie-accented story telling down to the way they apply their mascara, and I have a feeling that mummy blt completes the trio. But I digress...

So sister blt asked me if I wanted to do some writing, and I was like, "Oh I have so much work at the moment...". I've set a deadline for myself in the lab, and with Freshers Week coming up I'll be busy running around college looking after the new grads. 

But in addition to her perfected organisational skills, sister blt is also very good at convincing people to do things so I said, "Well, I suppose I could write a review on Jamie's new cookbook!". Another digression ahead.

I LOVE Jamie (we are on a first name basis).

Having recently seen the film Julie & Julia, sister blt joked that I could call the article "Jamie & Amy". 

You see, Julie & Julia follows the story of two women in different times - Julia Child, a bored middle aged wife-of-a-diplomat (I also like to over-use hyphens) who ends up with her own TV cooking show after she decides to go to cooking school while her husband is based in post-WWII France; and Julie, a modern day "lowly cubical worker" who decides to cook 524 of Julia's recipes in 365 days and blogs about it. A true story.

So in Amy & Jamie, I am Julie and Jamie is Julia. 

The fact that Jamie's and my name rhyme indicates to me that this is meant to happen aha! And to top it off, Julie-the-blogger's character is played by Amy Adams, what are the odds?! (Aaaaand, my sister's name is Julie, but even I have to admit that this particular link is a bit dodgy...!). 

I did consider changing the spelling of my name to "Amie" for the purposes of this project, but deemed it unnecessary (oh boy, but then I could make a connection between Julia Child's French experience and the French spelling of my name. Ok, someone slap me.). 

I'll probably engineer even more parallels once I've seen the film!

Why this blog? Part 1: ZINE

The central reason I started this blog is because I am preparing an article for ZINE, the hottest new Arts and Culture publication in Cambridge. 

It is student-run and the first issue will be making its debut along our cobbled streets at the start of Michelmas term - only a few weeks away! 

I think it's a brilliant idea and the bright little thing who came up with it has created an eye catching poster that explains the concept much better than I could - so here is the blurb:

"[This] publication aims to bring cutting-edge, groundbreaking contemporary art to the forefront. 

The society will endeavour to uncover new and emerging talent, support local visionaries and review current genii in the world of art in Cambridge and the UK.  

With blogs, submissions and reviews from students...we hope to touch on new movements in Architecture, exciting Installations both local and further afield; inspiring Photography, Graphics and Illustration; live Music, Film and Dance performances not to be missed and the glory of food within the art of Cooking."

Whew, doesn't that just make you want to be a part of it? Well, you can!

"We wish to represent the artistic talents of the students at Cambridge and that's why we would like you to submit your work, so we can give you a stage on which to shine.  

Whether it's photography from those travels through the African plains, creative writing you do in your spare time or a new film that changed your world if only for a moment, we would like to hear about it and hopefully publish as much of it as we can."

Email ZINEcambridge@googlemail.com to join the mailing list and/or to submit work. 

I've just had a sneak preview of the first few pages...ZINE is going to be *fierce*, be a part of it!

Ingredients for this blog

• A brief to write a piece for ZINE.
• Jamie's America, the latest cookbook from my favourite celebrity chef.
• Channel 4 on Demand (4oD).
• An electric saucepan, microwave and rice cooker.
• A bit of chemistry.
• Finally...a dash of "Julie & Julia" for inspiration.

I'm so excited about this that it's making me feel all jittery inside. 

I'll explain it all in the next post!