Putting our new Katto santoku knife to the test

We were sent a Katto santoku knife for review. All images and opinions are our own.

I’ve just got back from a week in a holiday cottage in Wales. Getting away gives us the chance to shake off the 9 to 5 and spend more time doing the things we enjoy, like cooking. As a busy mum, our evening meals are hastily thrown together, and are designed to provide as much nutrition as possible, as quickly as possible. I am horribly bored of our mid-week meals, so a holiday is a chance to change gear and spend a bit more time in the kitchen cooking nice meals. The problem with holiday cottages is their kitchens can be basic, and their knives are invariably woeful. Whenever we go away, foodies that we are, we always pack a decent pan or two and a couple of good knives. Last week I packed our new Katto santoku knife, and we were determined to put it through its paces.

When I left home, my Dad bought me a set of chef’s knives, and they’ve stood me in good stead for the last 20+ years. Occasionally I’ve bought a new knife but they never last, and if I’m honest, I think you need to spend good money to get good knives. I’ve been thinking about getting a Japanese style knife for a few years now, but I’ve struggled to find something which fit my budget and my knife-based needs.

Katto knives are handmade in the UK. Their knives combine super sharp Japanese steel blades with hand-carved wooden handles. They are beautiful, beautiful knives and just owning one makes me want to spend more time in the kitchen.

Putting our new Katto santoku knife to the test

The Katto website is full of great looking knives and other kitchen accessories. There’s also a knife quiz which can help you choose the right knife for you, something which I found really useful.

I opted for the Katto santoku knife which is a straight edged and ‘sheep’s foot’ blade. Santoku knives were originally designed to perform three tasks in Japanese kitchens – mincing, dicing and slicing. The Katto santokus come in three distinct handle styles – Henry (black walnut), Nala (beech) and Olivia (rosewood). I opted for the Henry, as I just liked the look of it. The price you pay for your knife depends on the finish you’re going for. I’d recommend also buying a scabbard for it, as it’s really sharp and it’s not a knife I’d like lurking in my kitchen drawer unsheathed.

Putting our new Katto santoku knife to the test

On holiday we ate incredibly well. I’m a veggie who probably doesn’t eat enough veg, so we spent many happy evenings in the kitchen chopping, slicing and dicing vegetables and creating wonderful dishes with them. From shakshuka, to Cantonese scrambled eggs, Thai green curry and simple but veg heavy pasta dishes. We ate and we ate well. Our Katto santoku knife was a revelation. It was so well balanced and comfortable to use. It was sharp and sliced through everything we put it to with ease. The Katto santoku knife was a joy to use, so much so that there was the occasional tussle over who got to chop and who got to stir.

You can see the knife in action over on Instagram here.

Putting our new Katto santoku knife to the test

Keeping a knife like this is good condition can be daunting, but they offer free sharpening in London, and you can always buy a whetstone from them. There are videos on their website which walk you through how to care for your knife and sharpen it when the time comes. It’s not the kind of knife you just throw in the dishwasher, just wash it gently with soap and water, dry it and pop it back in its scabbard for safe keeping.

I can’t say that this knife is going to revolutionise my mid-week meals, but it probably will speed up the process a little. I am hoping the knife will make our more leisurely weekend meals more enjoyable to prepare. It has changed how I view all the other knives in my drawer, and I suspect over time they will be replaced with other knives from Katto. If you spend any significant time cooking, then it’s a huge game changer to be using really good quality knives. I don’t think I can go back now.

For more information about Katto knives and their other kitchen accessories, visit their website.

Family things to do: Going on a Bat Walk

The not so small boy and I love going on bat walks. Our first one was a few years ago, with the nice people from Wild Discovery at Ribby Hall. Since then we’ve been on a bat walk at Platt Fields in Manchester and last week, we booked an early evening bat walk in Heaton Mersey in Stockport with Sustainable Living in the Heatons.

If you’ve never been on a bat walk before, but fancy having going on one, then we really recommend it. They usually take place just as the sun is starting to set, when the bats are coming out to feast on insects while the light fades. Usually you’re given a bat detector to share with a friend or two, and you’re led by a guide who will help you find an active bat spot.

Family things to do: Going on a Bat Walk

On our bat walk with Sustainable Living in the Heatons, we met Fiona and a group of other keen bat fans near Heaton Mersey Park. We were issued with fluorescent jackets and a bat detector, and we quietly walked to the nearby fishing pond.

The bat detectors have a dial which you tune in to try and hear the bats echolocating. We were told that we were most likely to encounter three different bats on our walk, if we were lucky.

What bats could you find?

The common pipistrelle is a tiny bat, about the size of a thumb. It is one of the most common bat species in the British Isles, so probably the one you’re most likely to meet on a bat walk. The common pipistrelle echolocates at around 45 kHz, so if you turn the dial on your bat detector to there, you should hear them clicking as they fly around you. If you are lucky and the sky is clear, you might even catch a speedy glimpse of them silhouetted against the darkening sky.

Other bats we might catch sight of on our bat walk would be the soprano pipistrelle. This bat is very similar to the common pipistrelle, but it echolocates at a higher frequency – 55 kHz.

The third kind of bat we could encounter is the Daubenton’s bat, which is slightly larger in size than the pipistrelles. The Daubenton’s bat echolocates at frequencies between 32 and 85 kHz; though typically it is mostly commonly found at 45 to 50 kHz.

The bats emerge at twilight to hunt for insects over the water. Their main diets consist mainly of non-biting midges and other midges; as well as small flies, mayflies, and moths. Bat detecting over a pond or river is a great place to find them, as these insects are drawn to the water.

Family things to do: Going on a Bat Walk

What did we find on our bat walk?

On our bat hunt, we found lots of common pipistrelles flying around over the pond. We stayed there for quite a while listening to them on the bat detector and occasionally spying them darting over the water and into the trees above. After a while, we walked through the trees to the Heaton Mersey Bowl. The Bowl is a large, steep-sided field, and somewhere I remember sledging as a child. Apparently in the early 1800s, cloth from the nearby bleachworks would be pinned out here. Today the Heaton Mersey Bowl has a football pitch in one corner, and footpaths and benches around the edges. It’s a popular spot with the locals and bats alike.

We had some luck finding bats flying about in the trees surrounding the Bowl. The sky was darkening quickly, so they were harder to spot.

We had a lovely couple of hours watching and listening. It was our third bat walk and each time we’ve had a really different experience. We’ve learned new things about these fascinating creatures and we have developed a fairly deep affection for them. For my birthday earlier this month, I was given a bat detector of my own. I’m really looking forward to building it and seeing if I can find a bat population in my back garden.

If you’re interested in taking part in a bat walk, Facebook is a good place to find events listed. Join local wildlife groups or contact your local bat group. It’s a lovely thing to do on a fine evening with the family.

Family things to do: Going on a Bat Walk

How to make a Giant Butterfly Cake

I’m a keen baker, but lack confidence in my decorating ability, so I tend to go for simple styles. Occasionally I’ll bake something incredibly pretty, like my lemon curd cake. It was so pretty, it was featured in BBC Good Food Magazine, which was nice. For my birthday this year, I was low on time and energy, but needed something tasty but pretty to share with my family. I’m quite big on whimsy, so I decided to bake a giant butterfly cake.

Here in the UK, butterfly cakes are a bit of a birthday tea staple. Little sponge buns, with their lids cut off, filled with buttercream, and the top put back on in the shape of butterfly wings. They’re incredibly simple, but they are quite a joyful little bun. Whilst I was wondering what to bake for my birthday, I thought an upgrade to my standard Victoria sponge, but with a butterfly cake top would be simple but really quite fun. I was not wrong.

How to make a Giant Butterfly Cake

I know my Victoria sponge cake recipe is a good one, but this re-working of it really made it extra brilliant. It was as light and airy as a butterfly wing, but the vanilla buttercream and butterfly wings really made it extra special.

Giant Butterfly Cake

Ingredients:
200 g caster sugar
200 g softened butter or margarine (I use Stork)
4 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tbsp milk
200 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

Buttercream
200g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
A large slug of vanilla extract, approx. 10mls

To finish
1/3 of a jar of good quality raspberry jam
Icing sugar for dusting

How to make a Giant Butterfly Cake

Method:
Heat your fan oven to 190c. Grease two 20cm sandwich tins, I also lined the bottom of each tin with a circle of baking parchment. In a large bowl, beat your butter and sugar together until fluffy (I used a hand mixer). Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and combine, then add the flour and baking powder and mix together until you have a smooth batter.

Divide the mixture equally between the two tins. You can weigh them to make sure they’re fairly equal if you’d like. Bake in your pre-heated oven for around 20 mins until golden and they’re cooked through. Remove from the tins and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Once your sponge layers are as cool as they can be, thickly spreading good quality raspberry jam between them and sandwich them together on a cake plate or stand.

To make the buttercream, sift your icing sugar to make sure there are no lumps. Then beat the softened butter and icing sugar together with the vanilla extract until it is fully combined and fluffy.

Take a sharp knife and carefully cut a circle out of the top cake layer. Don’t cut all the way through, you’re looking to create a small crater for the buttercream to sit in. Carefully remove your circle from the cake and set it aside.

You can either pipe or spoon your buttercream into your cake crater, it’s up to you. I used a spoon. Fill the crater and smooth the buttercream, I sort of made a small ravine in the middle so there was a dip where I’d be putting the butterfly wings.

With a sharp knife, cut the circle of cake in half and place them onto the buttercream ravine. As this is much bigger than your average butterfly cake, I used my spoon to build up the buttercream underneath the wings to support them, which worked really well. Once you’re happy with how the wings look, you just need to sprinkle a tiny bit of icing sugar over the top, and it’s ready to be shared.

The cake did look awesome, everyone was oohing and ahhing over it, which is exactly the response I was going for. It’s a great, simple, fun bake and one I suspect I’ll be asked to make over and over.

How to make a Giant Butterfly Cake

Visiting Warhammer World, Nottingham

This summer has been a busy one for my boy. He’s 11, about to start high school and busy learning to be more independent. He has many hobbies and interests, but one he shares with his cousin and best friend is Warhammer. For the uninitiated, Warhammer is mostly painting tiny figures and then playing war games with them. So this summer, I decided to take them both to Warhammer World in Nottingham, and what a day out that was!

Visiting Warhammer World, Nottingham

My own enthusiasm for Warhammer mostly extends to being supportive of my son’s interest in it. I was reassured that even someone with no prior experience of Warhammer would probably still enjoy their time there. I’m happy to say that I did, and I would go again. The boys however, aged 11 and 12 are pretty obsessed, and their excitement alone was pretty infectious.

We decided to make a couple of days out of our trip to Nottingham. It’s not that far from Manchester, so why rush? We stayed in town the night before, and after breakfast we grabbed a taxi to take us to Warhammer World. In terms of getting there, it’s really accessible by tram, bus or car, and there’s plenty of free parking.

Visiting Warhammer World, Nottingham

It’s free to enter Warhammer World, but you do have to pay to explore the exhibition centre (currently £7.50 per adult, £5 per child over 12 years). It’s definitely worth visiting the exhibitions at least once, they really are incredible. The exhibition centre is made up of four rooms filled with painted figures, elaborate dioramas and lots of inspiration for two keen boys.

Visiting Warhammer World, Nottingham

The exhibition areas are packed with thousands of Citadel and Forge World miniatures painted by the talented people at Warhammer World. They really are awesome, and we dashed from display case to display case being wowed by what we saw. The exhibition was really inspiring for the boys, they’ve seen Warhammer scenes in the shops, admired them and they were keen to emulate them, but this was on such a huge scale, it was a lot to take in. I recommend you really take your time through these areas. There’s an awful lot to look at. You are allowed to take photos for our own personal use, so the boys did take a few snaps of things they’d like to recreate at home.

Visiting Warhammer World, Nottingham

Undoubtedly the highlight was The Battle For Angelus Prime, which is the largest display in the building. It’s housed in its own room, with a staircase winding around it, so you can appreciate it in 360°. It really has to be seen to be properly appreciated. It contains over 5,500 miniatures, and is over 22 feet in length, 12 feet wide and almost 20 foot high. It is big!

There are over 20,000 miniatures on display in the exhibition centre. All of them are fixed to their displays except one, an assassin which is moved each night and is part of The Battle For Angelus Prime. If you spot him, you can win an assassin figure of your own. We had a really good look, but we were unsuccessful.

Visiting Warhammer World, Nottingham

Once we’d had a good look around the exhibition centre, the boys were keen to get something to eat. We decided to visit the on-site café, Bugman’s Bar. This is a large, airy bar with lots of space for people to hang out, play games; or do what we did, which was eat burgers. The food was really very good and reasonably priced, the boys both left clean plates. The staff were friendly, helpful and really made us feel welcome. I’d happily eat there again.

Bugman's bar

Between the shop and Bugman’s Bar was the Event Hall. This is a room where you can play games and reserve tables to play games at. You do need to bring your own miniatures and gaming equipment, but it looks like a fine place to do battle. Alas, we’d arrived empty handed, but the boys are keen to return at some point with their own armies.

Visiting Warhammer World, Nottingham

With pocket money burning holes in their pockets, the boys spent a good hour or so exploring the shop (there’s a Warhammer Shop and a Forge World Shop). While they were deliberating, the painting table in the Warhammer shop opened and they grabbed a couple of seats. They have painting tables in the Warhammer shops on the high street, and it’s worth phoning ahead and booking a slot if you’re visiting, but the boys were keen to learn some new techniques.

The painting tables are really great for newbies. Although they’ve been painting miniatures for around a year now, they still have much to learn. You are given the choice of one of two miniatures to paint and access to all the paints you’d need. The tables are looked after by knowledgeable members of staff who make helpful suggestions, offer advice and can show you some painting techniques you might not have tried before.

Visiting Warhammer World, Nottingham

The boys spent around an hour painting their miniatures. As there’s no crèche for tired mums, I decided if you can’t beat them, join them. So I pulled up a chair and tried my hand at painting my own figure. It turns out that if you’re in the same room when your child is watching hour after hour of painting tutorial videos on YouTube, occasionally some of that sticks in your head. Apparently I’m not terrible at painting miniatures. I’m happy I gave it a try, and if you’re a parent supporting you child’s hobby, then it’s fun to have a go, even if it’s just the once.

Again, I cannot fault the staff in the shop. They were so knowledgeable, helpful, friendly and clearly used to being spoken to by excitable children, like my two.

We spent around 5 hours in Warhammer World in total. There was plenty to see and do, and I really feel we made the most of it. The boys were sad they couldn’t play in the Events Hall, but there was scope for a small game in the shop, so it wasn’t the worst. It was a really fun day out. Both boys have said it was the highlight of their summer, and I don’t think you can get much higher praise than that.

Will we be back? Yes. Will we take our own armies next time? Also yes. Are the boys pestering me for a return already? Yes.

Warhammer World is in Nottingham, it’s brilliant and you can find out more on their website.

Note: You can take photos for your own personal use at Warhammer World. I asked for permission to take and share some pictures from our visit.

School dinner style Chocolate Concrete with Pink Custard

I was chatting to my son about his school dinners earlier, and whilst things have come a long way since the spam fritters of my 80’s childhood, it seems that pudding wise at least, he’s missing out big time. His puddings tend to be ice cream, cookies, fruit and occasionally cake and custard, and there’s none of the cornflake pie or sprinkle cake from my childhood. I was telling him about chocolate concrete, something which was a regular and popular feature of our school dinner menu. It’s hard to describe, it’s sort of like chocolate shortbread but quite hard, and it was usually served with a bright pink custard. There was nothing else for it, I had to make a batch to show him what he was missing out on.

The chocolate concrete is really easy to make, and I’ve found an exceptionally good cheat for the custard, which is well worth a try. It’s a real store cupboard classic and it got the double thumbs up from my 11 year old, which is high praise indeed!

School dinner style Chocolate Concrete with Pink Custard

Chocolate Concrete with Pink Custard

For the chocolate concrete:

225g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
114g granulated sugar (plus a bit extra for sprinkling)
114g melted butter or margarine

For the pink custard:

600mls Strawberry milkshake (I used Yazoo)
3 egg yolks
25g caster sugar
2 teaspoons of cornflour
Red food colouring, a few drops

How to make your chocolate concrete:

Preheat your oven to 180°c and grease and line a 7 inch square baking tin.

Sift all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Pour in the melted butter or margarine and mix until it forms a pretty stiff dough.

Tip the mixture into the baking tin and press it down with the back of a spoon until it’s pretty evenly spread and is level on top.

Bake for around 30 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle the top with some extra sugar. Leave to cool.

It’s best to cut it while it’s still a little bit warm and not fully cool and brittle. I found this cut into 9 good sized pieces of concrete. This can be eaten on it’s own, but it’s traditional to eat it with pink strawberry flavoured custard.

School dinner style Chocolate Concrete with Pink Custard

To make your pink custard:

Tip your strawberry milkshake into a saucepan and warm through. While the milk is coming up to temperature, mix the egg yolks, sugar, cornflower and a few drops of the red food colouring in a large bowl.

Once your milkshake is hot, using a ladle, add some of your hot milk to the paste and whisk thoroughly. Keep adding ladle after ladle until it’s all combined. At this point you might want to add a bit more food colouring to get the shade of pink you’re hoping for.

Return the mixture to the pan and whisk continuously over a low heat until it thickens. You’ll know it’s the right consistency if the custard coats the back of a metal spoon, if you draw a line in the custard on the back of the spoon and the line holds, you’ve got custard! Pour into a jug and get ready to serve it.

There’s something about pink custard that just brings a smile to your face. Replacing the milk in the standard custard recipe with milkshake is such a brilliant cheat, it really gives a great strawberry flavour, and although the natural pink of the milkshake is very pale and needs boosting with a bit of food colouring, it means it’s already well on the way to pink custard heaven. I urge you to try this recipe. It’s a belter!

If you enjoyed this, you might also like to try these peppermint crunch slices, or the classic chocolate cake with chocolate cake with minty green custard.

School dinner style Chocolate Concrete with Pink Custard

Toy Review: Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Goo Shifters

We were sent a Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Goo Shifters figure to review on this blog. All images and opinions are our own.

In 2019, Heroes of Goo Jit Zu crash landed onto Netflix, and a new craze was born. In Heroes of Goo Jit Zu, a meteor crash transforms a group of zoo animals into squishy, gooey and stretchy superheroes with special powers. To accompany the hit TV series, a collection of Goo Jit Zu figures were launched. Just three years since that launch and several incarnations of Goo Jit Zu figures later, we have the Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Goo Shifters.

Toy Review: Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Goo Shifters

Fans of Goo Jit Zu will be thrilled to hear that the heroes have returned and are ready to be powered-up. This latest series of Goo Jit Zu figures, each contains a goo filled orb, which when squished and squashed, bursts and fills the figure with a contrasting colour. This activates their “goo-formation” and releases their inner power!

Toy Review: Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Goo Shifters

There are 7 heroes with ultra-powered up styling to collect (in the Hero packs). Blazagon, Thrash, Pantaro and Tyro are back and have a “goo-forming” core plus there are new Goo Shifters Heroes to transform. Meet the heroes’ new friend Bengal; she’s super gooey and ready to rumble! The heroes will need all the help they can get when they face Rock Jaw and his new companion Corruptagon – the Ultra Rare villain with a light-up Core!

Toy Review: Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Goo Shifters

The Goo Jit Zu Goo figures have always been goo-filled and stretchy, but the goo-filled orb is new and rather cool. It does take a bit of squashing and squeezing to get the orb to burst – which is one of the reasons why we failed to catch the moment on camera as it took us a bit by surprise. When it does burst, it fills your Goo Jit Zu figure with a contrasting colour. We had the Blazagon figure who was a pale pink colour at first, but once his orb had burst, he was filled with a bright red goo.

Toy Review: Heroes of Goo Jit Zu Goo Shifters

These figures are suitable for ages 4+, but my 11 year old, who loves squishy things and the Heroes of Goo Jit Zu TV series really loved playing with his Blazagon figure. He told me it was like a really cool fidget toy, all squishy and stretchy and relaxing to play with. He has some sensory needs, so this really ticked a big box for him. He’s been squashing, squeezing and stretching it since he got it; and it does seem to be a big hit for him.

These Goo Jit Zu figures cost around £12 each and are available from a range of toy shops including Smyths Toys Superstores.

Restaurant Review: Wagamama Ashton Moss

We were invited guests of Wagamama, and we were given a contribution towards our meal in exchange for our visit. All images and opinions are our own.

My son loves Wagamama and it’s somewhere I’ve been taking him since he was old enough to clutch a set of chopsticks in his little hand. He loves the food and would choose to go for a yakisoba at Wagamama over pretty much anything else in the world. Because of this, we are frequent flyers at our local Wagamama in Didsbury. When I was invited to visit the new Wagamama restaurant at Ashton Moss, I was excited to go, not least because it stands almost in the shadow of IKEA, and a trip there meant I could also legitimately fill my boots with tealights on my way home.