Pessimistic though I was about the arrival of Gwyneth Paltrow's cook book Notes from my Kitchen Table, (would it too easily fall into the celebrity-turned-everything-else-but-in-a-rubbish-way category?), I must say that aside from a few rather dubious sounding items, such as Vegenaise (?!!?), I am actually quite the fan.
Though there is nothing groundbreaking, her recipes are homely, balanced and most importantly, they're tasty. Notes from my Kitchen Table is aimed at foodie families and recipes are presented in a bit of context, which is always nice as food evokes nostalgia.
Charmingly, Paltrow labours under no professional pretenses and upon the first page declares: "I am not a professional cook. I am an amateur and a lover of all things culinary." Once renound for her extreme macrobiotic diet, she offers plenty of healthy options in her recipes (sometimes with a complete alternative list of ingredients) but on the whole, there is nothing scarily extreme and you won't need to schedule a visit to a far-away health shop; your local supermarket will do fine.
My first foray into the Gwynnie-guided world of cooking was an attempt at her blueberry muffins (the less healthy versions, in case you wondered). My lovely friend Lizzie and I set about making these little wonders yesterday afternoon. It was easy and enjoyable with a short and simple list of ingredients that let the fresh blueberries speak for themselves. In a moment of culinary creativity (and due to the fact Tesco metro had failed us) we decided to make the muffin cases ourselves from squares of baking-parchment, giving our muffins an appealing deli-esque touch.
The resulting golden buns, packed, bursting, oozing blueberries were so divine I couldn't resist popping one back in the oven to re-heat for breakfast this morning... This tasty homemade variety lacks that undesirable preserved chemical 'blueberry-flavour' so prevalent in a shop-bought batch.
Here's the recipe:
125g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large free-range eggs
125ml milk
225g plain flour
175g caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
300g fresh blueberries
-Preheat the oven to 190 C
-Pop some muffin cases into a muffin tin, or impress and alternatively make your own (a la Lizzie!) with 14cm squares of baking parchment pressed into the muffin tin so the corners spike up at the sides
-Whisk together the eggs, milk and melted butter
-In another bowl mix the dry ingredients together (salt, flour, sugar and baking powder)
-Combine the wet ingredients into the dry, apparently 8 stirs is sufficient and ensures the muffins are not too dense
- Divide the mixture equally between 12 cases and sprinkle a little sugar on top of each before baking in the oven for around 30 mins. Blueberry bliss!
Georgina Davies
