Category: food

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bread food

bread

Is there anything more honest, rewarding and fulfilling as baking your own bread?
It almost seems like alchemy – magic even – to go through the whole process. And it’s so sad that we don’t either subscribe to the French model (new bread every day) or that making your own seems like such an unusual prospect. It’s so not difficult, and at least a million times better than anything you’ll ever buy.

A kilo of flour mixed with 14g of yeast (two of those handy little sachets), 20g of salt (for flavour), a pinch of sugar (food for the yeast), and 600ml of tepid water (party bath for yeastlings) gets you started. I often have to add water or flour to get the right consistency. Once it’s all sticky and malleable it gets a thorough kneading on a floured surface to encourage gluten formation. Then it’s left in a bowl in a nice warm place for an hour to let the yeast get it’s party started.

After about an hour it should have doubled in size. Now it needs pushing the air out and forming into the desired shape. Roll-size, tin loaf, squat thing.. whatever you want. Leave this again for another hour to settle down, dust with flour if you like, then put in a preheated 250C oven. Once it’s in there it can calm down to about 200C.
Every loaf cooks the way it wants to, and a time can never be prescribed. The best advice I ever heard was from Nigel Slater: lift the bread and tap the underside – it will sound like a hollow drum when ready. In the meantime, it will fill the house with that clichéd “house-buyers love it” smell. You’ll be desperate to gnaw chunks off it straight from the oven, but I promise you, half an hour’s rest will make it sublime. And you’ll feel like a King for making it. Just great.
Categories
bacon food mushroom pasta

pea, bacon and mushroom pasta

Here’s a mouthful. A little of everything in one bowl, quick and tasty.

I got some spaghetti on to boil whilst the pan business goes on. A quick frying of some bacon in a pan, and then some frozen peas and sliced chestnut mushrooms. Whilst that fries up I took a trip to the windowbox to collect some woody, aromatic thyme. I think it’s my favourite herb, so robust and penetrating, leaving a comforting note. I chuck a few leaves in with everything else.
Pasta’s about done now, so I drain that and chuck it in the pan with some creme fraiche and lemon juice. A quick season, a sloosh around for a couple of minutes, and in a bowl it goes. Instant and tasty.
Categories
aubergine food lamb

moussaka

This moussaka posited an excellent time-saver: red pesto as the main gravy indredient. You can’t hold back with moussaka; as a permutation of lasagne as all nations are wont to have, bold flavours work best here. This version oozed lambiness, retaining a lot of that savoury juice that characterizes rich lamb dishes.

The red pesto saved a lot of bother by forming the basis of the sauce, both gutsy and part tomatoey. Persuaded to try again I’d some tomato puree to oomph up that side. In a semi-traditional nod this recipe had a custardy topping, one which I’ve never been oversold on. And this is no exception. A clagginess underscores any flavour advantage you might gain. I’d rather head back to roux territory for the ultimate aubergine topping. And what a star aubergine is here. Meaty, moist and exuding a mediterranean flavour, and somehow always so filling.
Served with leftover courgettes from yesterday, this was a very satisfying meal.
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courgettes cous cous food lamb

lamb with cous cous and courgette


Inspired by a recipe in last month’s delicious magazine, this faintly Moroccan dish seemed too tempting to pass up. I love an excuse to eat lamb, which can often take too long to cook, so when I find a snappy lamb dish difficult to ignore.

I got some lovely lamb neck fillet, all chunky and packed with lambiness. This was smeared in a yoghurt-spice mixture and left alone for a while. The spice was supposed to be a Moroccan-style infusion but due to a kitchen mix-up got blended with my garam masala (gary masala…) which I’ll get to the recipe for one day but rest assured it’s fairly standard Indian-y blend of cumin, cinnamon, chilli, pepper, fenugreek…

The nice and sloppy marinated lamb was griddled to brownness and then left in the oven for ten minutes whilst the other stuff went on.

The cous cous was steeped in boiling chicken stock, lemon zest and butter and left covered to absorb the flavours. Meanwhile, I griddled razor-thin sliced courgettes a coupla minutes a side to get those attractive dark lines. Five minutes later, I’m adding lemon juice, chopped coriander and the browned courgettes. Tumble it onto plates, dot with lamb and serve with lemon wedges. Not difficult at all, but filling, tasty and very nearly healthy.

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