Things that are easier back home, vol. 1

strandi — 2008-12-03T21:12:00Z

How to make apple pie in Switzerland: Buy "Kuchenteig, ausgewallt", put in a tin, put some apples in it, mix two eggs, a bit of milk, one bag of custard powder and some sugar, pour over pie, bake for ca. 45 min on 180°C. Done.

How to make apple pie in the UK: try to find simple pie pastry at Sainsbury's. Be annoyed at the fact that you only find either puff pastry or short crust pastry, which is both not what you want and decide to buy the basic ingredients (which is quite easy, even if you've never made pie pastry from scratch). Buy everything else you need. Including a big container of Bird's custard powder. Don't forget to buy a rolling pin.

At home, be faced with the following problems:
1) you do not own a bowl to mix the pastry dough in.
2) you do not own a scale to measure 500 grams of flour for the pastry dough.
3) you do not even own a whisk.
Reconsider making apple pie for about 1.28 seconds. Then remember that you love apple pie. Take a sauce pan and mix the dough in there, roughly guessing how much 500 grams of flour is. Whisk the egg-milk-custard powder-stuff with a fork, even if you get clumps. Put the assembled thing in the oven and hope that this shitty oven will not turn all your efforts into a pile of crap.

And for everyone who has stuff like whisk and so on and would like to know how my mama taught me:

apple pie

500 gr plain white flour
250 gr butter
2 eggs
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
2dl water (though I used less. I think. Have no measuring cup either.)

bag of ground almonds

3 apples

2 eggs
5 tablespoons of sugar
a gulp of milk
2 tablespoons of custard powder (maybe two and a half)

Mix flour with sugar and salt. Add butter, cut in pieces and rub crumbly. Add eggs and water. This is very squishy, especially if you have to mix it with your hand. Knead the dough untill it gets smooth and stops sticking. Put in a plastic bag and let rest for about thirty minutes. Roll it out on a surface, but it in your tray and prick the bottom with a fork. Sprinkle some chopped almonds on it. Peel apples and cut into wedges, removing the apple core, line up neatly on the dough. Sprinkle with some more almonds. Whisk the eggs, sugar, milk and custard powder and pour it all over the apples. Put into the preheated oven for about 40 minutes at 180°C.

Now all I got to do is sit here, gloat over the fact that I winked back at scottish business suit guy and hope that this stupid gaz oven with a door that doesn't properly close won't mess up my pie. I'll keep you posted.

EDIT: Even though it was very different from what apple pie is supposed to taste like (to me), I think I did okay under the circumstances. But I'll give it another try soon (I froze half of the pastry anyways)

Things that only happen to you in London

strandi — 2008-12-03T00:12:00Z

Number One: One fifth of the people working at square pie are gay.

Number Two: New team member plays in a band, which is actually even really good.

UNDERGROUND* (a swiss lad living in london for a year) : topic:Roestigraben 2.0

Things that are easier back home, vol. 1

Things that only happen to you in London