Rye soda bread

Rye soda bread and soup

So, I've recently become interested in soda bread, inspired by a friend of mine, as I've mentioned earlier and I had some rye flour left over from something or other.  So, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I decided to try..  rye soda bread, using Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe.

Served with some soup I knocked up with vegetables that needed using up, it was a really nice autumn meal.  Because I made two small loafs rather than one larger one, they cooked faster.

The only criticism I'd make of the recipe is that I thought the amount of salt was completely wrong.  I thought this when looking at the recipe and went for a whole teaspoon rather than 1/4 teaspoon as suggested but both my lovely husband and I thought it was still undersalted.  I'd be tempted to go for two teaspoons next time.

Rye soda bread

Rye soda bread

Caponata in gram flour pancakes

For some reason, I have never attempted to make caponata before.  I don't know why.  It combines many of my favourite things:  aubergines; olives; capers; tomatoes. 

I think it may be because I first had it, when cooked by my Italian best friend at university, who has been one of the big influences on me cooking-wise.  I wish I could say the same were true vice versa but I fear she still thinks I'm a barbarian with no tastebuds because of my general love for strong flavours.  It's not that she did a bad job when cooking it, it's more that I realised through cooking with her a lot that I just plain understood very little about non-Gujarati food at 18 and I found it all rather intimidating.

Funny-looking aubergine

Anyway.  I bought a funny-looking aubergine (see right) at the supermarket the other day - yes, I did buy it basically because it was funny-looking, yes, I do have a mental age of about 7 - and I thought I'd give it a go.

Anyway.  Caponata.  I went for a combination of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe, a vague recollection of what my Italian friend did, and whim.

I chopped an onion, a couple of sticks of celery and three cloves of garlic.  Fried for a few minutes  Then added a tin of reasonably nice Italian tomatoes, some chopped green olives and some capers. 

onion, celery and garlic

chopped aubergines

Did a bit of seasoning at this stage (and tweaked and tasted at the end)-  some balsamic vinegar (about 3 table spoons) and about 4 table spoons of sugar.  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall suggested only a table spoon of sugar but, to me, that just didn't taste quite right so I kept adding more until it did, and obviously salt and black pepper.  Left to reduce for around 15 minutes. 

Caponata

Frying aubergines

While that was reducing, I chopped up a couple of aubergines into relatively small pieces (about 1.5 cm square) and fried until golden in some olive oil. 

I then combined the aubergine with the onions/celery/tomato mixture, Topped it with fresh parsley.  Though, I did think belatedly that rosemary would have been nice as well and might be worth a try next time.

gram flour pancakes batter

For no particular reason, I decided that it would be good to have the caponata in pancakes and I haven't made gram flour pancakes for ages, so that's what I went for.  Went for a gram flour/plain flour mix - 2:1 ratio - added a dash of milk, and then enough water to make it a pouring consistency (just slightly thicker than single cream), spiced it a bit with salt, chilli flakes and black pepper.

gram flour pancake about to be filled with caponata

Heated up about a table spoon of olive oil in a large frying pan, cooked the pancakes (it takes around a couple of mins each side, depending obviously on how thick you want your pancakes), filled them with the caponata and put them in the oven for about 5 mins to warm through before serving.

It was pretty good.  Nice fun dish to cook on a Sunday afternoon.  In retrospect, I'm not sure that it's really worth bothering with the pancakes - I think bread would have been just as nice with the caponata and a bit less of a faff but I like my gram flour pancakes so I don't really repine!

Gram flour pancakes with caponata

Carrot, spinach and cumin muffins - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

I bought a couple of muffin tins a while ago and I have been feeling guilty about them ever since.  I love buying things for the kitchen which is already stuffed with things - crockery of various sorts, stockpiles of things like spices and pulses and things I bought for a particular recipe and then pushed to the back of a cupboard - and do try to restrain myself from buying more.  So, having only used the muffin tins a couple of times has been weighing on my conscience. 

So, I decided to bake some savoury muffins for a party that we had recently.  I like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipes so decided to try his one for carrot, spinach and cumin muffins.  The recipe can be found here (need to scroll as it's the last one in the article).  They came out beautifully - I particularly liked the slightly sour tang from the natural yoghurt - and were a big hit at the party.  It was, however, crucial to monitor them carefully in the last few minutes they were in the oven as they went from undercooked to cooked in only a couple of minutes.

 

 

Cookbook review - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Veg Every Day

I really like this cookbook.  It's not my natural style - Ottolenghi is more my wavelength, multicultural, complicated, lots of flavours - it's simpler but what I love about it is that the recipes are straightforward but still original.  I love the sweet potato and peanut butter gratin, the leek and chestnut risotto, macaroni and peas.  A couple of the recipes, most notably the chachouka recipe (but also another - I think the risotto) had slightly strange quantities - it said that it would serve four but, even with bread on the side, barely sufficed for two.

In general, I sort of feel that the directions and quantities and so on aren't totally precise, it isn't sensible to follow the recipes completely blindly.  I don't mind, though, I'm more than happy with any cookbook that gives me one or more recipes that make it into my everyday repertoire and this has given me three - and there are still a few recipes in there that I'd like to try.

I'd recommend this one - it strikes me that it would be a particularly good one for omnivores who are experienced cooks but who  want to acquire a couple of good dishes for vegetarian dinner guests as it isn't too scary.

Springtime themed Sunday lunch

We had a couple of friends over for Sunday lunch, last Sunday when the weather was actually nice, and decided that we were filled enough with the joys of spring to have a spring themed lunch. 

We had Ottolenghi's stuffed onions to start, then Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's macaroni and peas with tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, and Delia's Eton mess to finish. Am slightly uncomfortable about plagiarising recipes but you can get to all of them through the links.

The stuffed onions are probably the fiddliest dish that we make regularly basically because it is so delicious that I kind of don't care that it's fiddly. It involves making stuffing of: parsley, feta, spring onions, garlic, breadcrumbs, grated tomato, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then boiling the halved outer layers of the onion in stock and white wine for five minutes. Then stuffing them and baking for around 45 minutes. The resulting onions look a bit like little missiles but who cares?

Stuffing for onions

Stuffing mixture for onions

Pretty onion shells

More pretty onion shells

Little onion missiles

Cooked onion shells

More little onion missiles

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipes - by contrast - are much, much simpler.  But still really good.  I love the macaroni and peas recipe - so easy, just mashing some peas (and keeping some whole) with butter and garlic and parmesan.  What could possibly be bad about that?  What I love about it is that it really tastes of peas. I know that sounds silly but peas are such an underrated vegetable and they deserve their time in the spotlight.  Poor peas. Best known for stealing a princess's night's sleep. 

The humble pea - photo from patrickbaty.co.uk

Tomato and mozzarella salad - like most Italian food is as good as the quality of its ingredients.  We had tasty tomatoes so it was delicious.  

Tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad

Eton Mess - I went for Delia's recipe, which was a nice way to round off the meal but, I think, next time, I might not puree the strawberries for the sauce but just mash them a little.  I really like strawberries and I think I'd rather keep more of their texture.  I failed to take a photo of it but plan to remake it soon and will take photographs then.


Overall verdict:  thought this meal worked well, was well balanced, and I might make it again for (different) guests.