Radio radio

There seems to have been a lot of foodie stuff going on on the radio in the last few days.

Let me explain. I don’t usually listen to Radio Scotland, but on the way down to Galloway on Boxing Day to see my parents, it was G’s channel of choice. Now, I’m a fan of baking, but I would never have thought to make a radio programme out of the search to make the perfect cake. It turns out that the perfect cake of choice was a Victoria sponge, which felt like a bit of a cop out to me – it is after all one of the simpler cakes to make, and most people’s first real cake they baked as a child (after the obligatory chocolate crispies).

It turns out that you have to have your ingredients at room temperature, you need to beat the butter and sugar together till really fluffy and you should cook it in an oven at the correct temperature (170ºC for the cook on the radio).  Who’d have known? These are things I’ve done all my life, but it was interesting to hear some of the science behind the recipe.  And to know that if I do it differently, it really won’t be as good.

The second radio programme I caught a bit of, was describing how to make the perfect cup of coffee, presumably to go with the perfect cake.  I may have to see if it’s available on listen again, which only goes to show quite how sad I am.

In other news, I’ve been finding new ways to use smoked salmon. You need to get creative when you’re given over 1kg of smoked salmon for Christmas and there are only two of you.  So far we’ve had smoked salmon and cream cheese in croissants for a snacky lunch; smoked salmon scrambled eggs; and my favourite, smoked salmon fishcakes.  Recipes will follow.

Off to the local Italian restaurant tonight.  I’m in the mood for their fish stew.