Coat of much coatiness...

I blame Giles.

At festival I was admiring his coats. He said they were easy.

'But I don't have a pattern', I wibbled.

'That's okay. You've got this. You know how to do it.'

That stayed with me. This week, home sick, we decided to attend a feast in Canberra in the middle of winter. Mr had no coat....

Better - the wool was from my stash that I've had about ten years. The faux fur came from my old v- neck Burgundian and was set aside for reuse. I had thread.

Cost: stash busting :)

It's unlined. I may go back and split the sleeves later if I find more fur.

Thanks Giles. You're right and your faith in my mad skillz kept me going this week.

Rosewater, take two...

Pariya rosewater arrived!

300ml light cream

200ml full cream milk 

2tsp gelatin

About 50g white sugar

About 2tbsp rosewater 

Microwaved gently - I was in a hurry and the kitchen is a pit.

And now, I wait. Is it set yet?

...

Too much gelatin, it's a bit firm.

But.

DELICIOUS.

Rosewater milk pudding

Rosewater. Check.

Gelatin and milk. Check.

Decide to play, as I've never used gelatin before. Read the rosewater label. Find out the lovely organic stuff my beloved purchased, that the health store person told him was food grade, is in fact for topical use only. Swear.

Okay, so vanilla bean milk pudding then.

500ml milk. 2tsp gelatin. 'Some' castor sugar. 'Some' (maybe 2-3tsp) vanilla bean paste.

Heat until it just starts to boil. Pour into tea cups.

It was set in about two hours. Firm. Err...gelatinous. Not particularly silky, but as I didn't use cream I was expecting that. Delicious. Too sweet, but delicious.

Next step: actual rosewater pudding.

A recipt.

There's a feast on this weekend.

We're going off-board, as we often to, to meet dietary requirements. Also, it's in my home town - so it's a perfect time for some experimenting.

I found this recipe and knew that both milk jellies and rosewater were period, so wanted to see if I could document something very close:

http://modestmunchies.com/rose-halwa/

It turns out it was easier than I thought.

I had only seen 'Snowe' served with egg whites before, and not the non-egg version:http://www.godecookery.com/engrec/engrec21.html

Perfect. Cream, sugar and rosewater in one place.

This one, a white leach, is closer to what we know as a panna cotta:Thomas Dawson (1597) has a recipe for a white leach which is very similar to panna cotta: a white leach.Take a quart of newe milke, and three ounces weight of Isinglasse, halfe a pounde of beaten suger, and stirre them together, and let it boile half a quarter of an hower till it be thicke, stirring them all the while: then straine it with three spoonfull of Rosewater, thē put it into a platter and let it coole, and cut it in squares. Lay it fair in dishes, and lay golde vpon it. It is very sweet.


And it's in our time 'period' of pre-16thC, by a whisker.

It's been noted that I need to ensure my cream doesn't contain any additives, and I will likely use gelatin instead of agar or isinglass, due to ease of being able to buy it.

Next stop: testing the recipe!

Musings

In which I attempt to start a new blog and actually track thoughts and creations and musing and inspiration.

I decided to abandon my old LiveJournal - it's five years since I last updated and doesn't really have much substance beyond a few links, which I can just as easily reproduce over here.

So, for my reference:
- frock blog posts - from idea to creation, inside and out, underthings to top layer bling.
- recipe thoughts and redactions and notes and shopping lists

And occasionally, updates of knitting or regular sewing or machine embroidery, because I can.