lunch

Beer and seed bread

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bread

Home made bread was a big part of my childhood. It was a real treat to have a slice that was buttered while it was still warm from the oven.

After much nerding out and research, this recipe has been updated. I love home made bread, but it often has that sitting in the bottom of your stomach like a lead weight quality. This solves the problem and gives you a really light loaf. The trick is to replace one cup of flour with self raising flour and to do a really quick first rise and a long second one when it’s shaped to go in the oven (it’s normally the other way round).

Makes one large loaf or two small ones

350g strong white flour

150g self raising flour

500g seeded bread flour

10g quick acting yeast

20g salt

300ml beer and 300ml water – together they need to be hand hot, so I add water from the hot tap at its hottest. Or use 600ml of hand hot water.

1 tablespoon melted butter

If you’re lucky enough to have a Kenwood mixer (thanks Tony’s mum) then weigh all the ingredients into it, mix with the dough hook and then knead for ten minutes. Otherwise mix into a dough, tip out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead for ten minutes or so.

When all the flour’s incorporated and before you start your ten minute knead, have a look at the dough. It will be very wet. Do not panic.

Leave it in the bowl in a warm place for just half an hour. Then knock it back to push out the air and pop it in a loaf tin. I like my rolls kind of craggy so I just tear off small pieces. In theory, for loaves, round or tin, it’s best to fold the ends underneath so you create a kind of platform for the bread. That works with a dryer dough, but for this I just sort of pour it in.

Get the bread in its shape and in its tin and then leave it to rise again. This is the long rise – maybe an hour, maybe an hour and a half, till it’s doubled in size and is springy. By my warm Aga it just takes half an hour, so keep checking it. Push your finger in and – counter intuitively to me – the dent will remain if it’s ready to bake. You can adjust your rise time by leaving somewhere cooler for a slower rise or warmer for a quicker rise, depending on how much time you’ve got. I think a slow rise is generally better – tastier and supposedly gentler on the stomach. Keep looking and keep pushing a finger in.

Anyway, after its second rise you need to prepare it for the oven. Slash the top, sprinkle with seeds, wash with egg or milk or dust with flour. I brush mine with milk and sprinkle seeds on top.

Then it goes into a hot oven. Put a dish of boiling water from the kettle on the bottom of the oven first – that gives your bread a good crust. If you’ve got a conventional oven, give the loaf a blast in a hot oven first (the hottest you can get it for 10 minutes – gas mark 9 or 240) then turn it down to 170 degrees (gas mark 3) for another 30 minutes.

In an Aga, which seems better suited to bread making, just pop it in two rungs up from the bottom of the roasting oven (that’s about 200 degrees, I think). Total time: 10-20 minutes for rolls, 30-40 minutes for a small loaf, 40-50 for a large loaf. In my Aga this quantity of dough takes 30-35 minutes, but Agas are not neccessarily representative I don’t think. In the gas oven it’s the 10 minute blast then 30 minutes at the lower temperature.

Pre-Bert I used to make this bread all the time. This is maybe the second time I’ve made it since he was born. I suppose the length of the recipe tells you why, but remembering my fresh bread filled childhood has inspired me to start again.

Raspberry and soft cheese sandwich

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raspsand

Okay, I admit I didn’t eat this myself, but Bert loved it. I’ve been struggling with lunches since he stopped eating eggs and refuses most sandwiches, but this worked. Now, how can I sneak a carrot in?

Serves a greedy 0.5

1 English muffin

Generous slathering of Philadelphia cheese

Scattering of raspberries

Split the muffin, spread with cheese, squish in the raspberries and stuff in face.

We walked Ray, hunted Gruffolos and Bert ate a picnic in his baby carrier, which he found a totally hilarious concept. At one point, Ray ran into the woods and a couple of seconds later three black spaniels, including Ray, ran out – also hilarious if you’re one and a half.

Gently spiced crunchy chicken couscous

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couscous3

Last night we got back from the holiday that made us all realise that holidays were no longer holidays. This morning Bert greeted Ray (our long-suffering dog) with rapturous delight and offered him a dummy and a soft teddy bear. We all greeted stair gates and child locks with relief and pleasure. And we cooked chicken couscous.

This is an adapted Leon recipe.

Serves 2.5-3

3-4 chicken breasts

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon mild curry powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

Splash olive oil

1/2 packet of couscous

Another splash of olive oil

1/2 dessert spoon butter

4-6 tomatoes

4 cloves garlic, crushed, and combined with a tablespoon of olive oil

To garnish adult portions – chopped coriander, chopped mint, toasted pinenuts

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, put in an oven proof dish and coat with the spices and oil. Meanwhile, put the couscous in a bowl, stir through a splash of oil till all the grains are coated and cover with boiling water. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and give it five minutes for the water to absorb before stiring it through the chicken. Dot the butter on top and bake in a hot oven (200 degrees or near the top of an Aga roasting oven) for 25 minutes.

Chop the tomatoes into generous pieces, coat in the garlic and oil and put on the next shelf down in the oven for 20 minutes. (If you combine the garlic with the oil first, it won’t burn.)

If your baby is a better baby than mine, try him or her on the tomatoes.

If your baby is an even better baby, try them on the herb garnish.

Creamy tomato and marscapone pasta

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IMG_0525

Got laryngitis from shouting ‘didDA’ too much? What you need is a soothing, creamy, tomato pasta sauce.

Serves 1.5-2.5

1 shallot (I used the white of a massive spring onion), chopped

Glug olive oil

1 large tomato, chopped

300ml passata

100g marscapone

1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Fry the onion gently in olive oil till translucent, then add the chopped tomato, salt, sugar and passata and cook for around 10 minutes (while your pasta’s cooking). Stir in the marscapone and serve with a pasta like fussili, which will hold onto the sauce and can be grabbed easily by a chubby hand.

Watch as your baby eats half and throws the other half on the floor, piece by piece, while fixing you with a cold, unblinking Sopranos stare.

Gran’s sweetcorn pudding

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sweetcorn

My mum used to make something like this when we were small. It came to me in a flash today and I thought it would be nice with the pulled pork I put in the oven at lunchtime.

Serves 4-6 (just me and Bert here though, ahem)

2 thick slices white bread – about 170g

2 eggs

400ml milk

1/2 teaspoon paprika

250g can sweetcorn, drained

salt to taste

100g grated pecorino

Break the bread into chunks and put in a pan with the milk. Warm till the bread’s absorbed the milk and is soft. Break it up into smaller pieces with the back of a fork or spoon until it looks like mash. Then stir in the paprika, salt, sweetcorn and beaten eggs. Put in an ovenproof dish, top with the grated cheese and bake at 180-200 degrees (or near the bottom of the Aga roasting oven) for about 25 minutes till it’s puffed up and golden.

While it was cooking, I desperately tried to add ‘mummy’ to Bert’s repetoire, which now includes car, hiya, RaRa (for the dog), Didda (for daddy) and bye bye. Priorities, Bert!

Ratatouille

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ratatouille

Served 3.5 as a side dish

1 small aubergine, diced into 1cm cubes

2 medium-large tomatoes, diced into 1cm cubes

1 small onions, diced into reasonably large pieces – about 1cm cubed

1 large red pepper, diced into 1cm cubes

2 cloves garlic, crushed Olive oil

Chopped oregano – leaves from a couple of sprigs, chopped

Fry the onion and garlic till soft then add the rest of the veg, diced into equally sized pieces. I was basically aiming for the same quantity of each veg, so start with your aubergine and attempt to match. Stir through the herbs and a dash more olive oil and simmer on a really low heat for as long as you have – a couple of hours at least.

I did it in the Aga simmering oven, where, I saw on Facebook, a friend used to keep their baby lamb as a child. Either it really is a very cool oven or that baby lamb was beautifully slow cooked. Or both.

We had ours with roast lamb (which the last story makes me feel a little queasy about) and had there been any leftovers, I planned to give it to Bert for lunch with some alphabet pasta in some sort of homage to tinned seventies childhood food.

Fresh tomato sauce

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tomato

Serves 2.5

3 tomatoes, diced

400ml passata

1 clove garlic, crushed

Glug olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Black pepper

Get your pasta in a pan of boiling water on the hob.  Fy the garlic briefly in olive oil. Add the tomatoes, passata, herbs and seasoning and cook for around 10 minutes, mashing the diced tomatoes into the sauce as you go. Serve with freshly grated parmesan. This is a good, easy dinner for lazy busy days.

We have this cold as ‘ketchup’ – or will do until the day Bert tastes Heinz ketchup.

Spinach, mint and parmesan frittata

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frittata

Serves 2.5 (if the large people are greedy)

4 small floury potatoes

Tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Large handful spinach, chopped

Leaves from a sprig of mint, finely chopped

4 eggs, beaten

Handful grated parmesan

Peel and thickly slice the potatoes (to about 1cm thick), place in a pan of boiling water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes till tender. Drain and leave them in the colander for a couple of minutes to dry.

Heat the oil in the pan and fry the potatoes till golden, adding the garlic at the last minute. Mix the eggs, spinach and mint and pour in, topping with cheese. Cook on the stove top till firm then finish off under a hot grill till the cheese is bubbling and golden.

We had ours with sausages and cherry tomatoes. To be honest, this really could have served four.

Mini risotto alla Milanese

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milanese

Oops, we’re having a barbeque for dinner and forgot to start it in time for Bert.

Serves 0.5 with leftovers for risotto balls for lunch – triple the quantities to serve 1.5

1-1.5 teaspoons butter

1/2 onion, diced finely

1/3 stick celery, diced finely

1/2 clove garlic, crushed

1/3 cup arborio rice

1 and 1/3 cups hot water from the kettle

About 1/3 to 1/2 a low salt chicken stock cube, crumbled

Pinch of saffron

Handful grated parmesan

Grating of black pepper

Saute the onion, celery and garlic in the butter till soft and translucent then stir through the rice. Add the liquid bit by bit till it’s absorbed – it will take about 20 minutes. Throw in the saffron with the first addition of liquid and add the pepper and cheese at the end.

We’re using the (pretty tiny amount) of leftovers for risotto balls for Bert’s lunch one day this week. They’d be nice with tomato sauce in the middle.

Fishfingers and ketchup

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fishfinger

Serves 1.5

For the fish:

1 large piece of skinless and boneless cod (it was about 280g)

1 slice of bread, blitzed into breadcrumbs

2 good pinches of cayenne pepper

Glug olive oil

Flour for dusting – cornflour works well

Milk

For the chips:

2-3 medium sized potatoes

Sunflower oil

For the ketchup:

1 tomato, diced

200ml passata

1 small clove garlic, crushed

Glug olive oil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Black pepper

To make the ketchup, fry the garlic briefly in olive oil, then add the tomatoes, passata, herbs and seasoning. Cook for around 10 minutes, mashing the diced tomatoes into the sauce as you go. This makes enough to use on one day as a simple tomato pasta sauce, with leftovers for ketchup (or a dipping sauce for fish cakes or sweetcorn pancakes). It would keep in the fridge for around 3 days, I’d say.

Cut the potatoes into chunky chips (about 1.5 cm square at the end), put in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and parboil for 5 minutes. Drain, give them a couple of minutes to dry off and coat them in sunflower oil, cooking on a lined baking sheet in a hot oven (220 degrees) for about 25-30 minutes. Turn them over half way through.

Combine the breadcrumbs with the cayenne pepper, get a glug of olive oil hot in a pan, and brown them till they’re crispy. The cayenne gives a bit of a kick and a touch of that Captain Birdseye orange hue. Cut the fish into thick fingers and dip in flour, then milk and then in the crumbs. They join the chips in the oven for the last 15 minutes.