I was reading Not Quite Nigellas post for yesterday, where she was describing a disaster she had while making custard for her beesting/bienestich cake. Lorraine posed the question, "had we ever had any disasters in the kitchen".
Disaster with a Gateau Helene
Well it reminded me of a disasterous episode in my teens, that I still think about. I had bought a French cookbook by Greta Anna, and in the cake/gateau section there was a double page close up photo of a 4 layer Gateau Helene.
Well is was my mission to make this cake. Now part of this recipe was for ground almonds, which in the 70's (I did say I was in my teens !), you couldn't buy in the supermarket. So I had too soak the whole almonds in boiling water, then peel of the skin, then chopped them with a Zyliss chopper until fine. Then there was a lot of separating eggs and beating separately. Anyway it was made and placed in the oven. While it was cooking I did the dishes, and left the water in to wash the springform tin. Now to this day I don't know what possessed me to take the sleeve off the very hot tin, while having my hand under the base, but I did and when the sleeve released from the base it slide rapidly towards my arm, which made me jump which in turn made the cake fly from my hand, hit the sink slide across it and into the sink full of water. I stood there in horror as this cake that I had spent ages making slowly sunk !
To this day I have never attempted to make the gateau again, but thinking about it I think I will make it my mission to make one in the next month.
Overcooked peas
Now this was a funny event, at the time all I could do was laugh, it still brings a smile to my face when I recall this eventful meal. Now in our early years together Mr CLI always liked lots of red meat, with potato and vegies. The meal I was cooking was lamb mid loin chops, with mashed potato and boiled peas. Well everything started off alright, then I smelt a burning smell, I had been busy with the washing and not paying proper attention to this meal. I rushed into the kitchen to find the peas, now black stuck to the bottom of the saucepan. So into the sink that went to be covered with water. By now the chops had cooked, so I went to drain the potatoes, but to my horror these were those potatoes that one moment are hard and the next have dissolved into the water. As I was draining the potatoes I noticed that most of them were going down the plug hole and what I was left with was a grey glomp in the bottom of the saucepan that wouldn't mash. OK so the peas are burnt, the potatoes have dissolved perhaps the chops would be alright, BUT no they were tough and stringy, so into the bin they went and around to the fish and chip shop we went !
These are only a couple of mishaps in the kitchen, one tragic and one funny.
Do you have any kitchen mishaps that still terrorise you or make you laugh when you think about them ?
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