Going My Own Way: Friday Morning

The weather may have been truly awful, but there is one thing that is thriving here in South Devon, you will be pleased to hear that the slugs are alive and well. They have been climbing up my strawberry planter, the sides of potato sacks and even the patio doors in search of sustenance, and finding it at the expense of all my developing fruit and veg. They studiously ignore the enticingly placed slug pellets in favour of anything that I might find edible, so perhaps they’re not so stupid after all. If they could only evolve opposable thumbs they could take over!

They have destroyed my early potato plants overnight, so I had to dig them up, instead of the large crop I was hoping for, this was the result.

However the taste made up for it. And I now had two plastic pots for my tomato plants.

Good news here is that Naomi and George will be coming down for the weekend, it means a trip to Bistro 46 in Brixham for a meal as there are two birthdays to celebrate, and the anniversary of moving here and Fathers Day (any excuse). If you need a fix of mouth-watering menu gazing, check it out here. http://www.bistro46.com/menu.php

I always have the problem of wanting to try everything, and from experience I know that it’s all fantastic.

Onto my own culinary efforts now, and this time I have tried a lamb and couscous stir fry, also a potato cake with Chorizo and smoked pimenton. In honour of the visit, I made some choc-chip biscuits in the style of Peter Reinhart, as well as baguettes and a boule.

But first, some more of Yvonne’s Beaded creations,

these are hanging decorations for windows or well anywhere you like I guess. As ever the standard is superb, I need a camera with a better Macro lens to really do them justice, but I think you get the idea.

To accompany the lamb I made some flatbreads using Gram flour and Olive oil, with a sprinkling of Za’atar, fried in my cast iron pan.

The Lamb mince was fried with onion and garlic and tagine paste (a bit of a cheat I know, but I had been at work all night), with added raisins and chopped dried apricots, these soak up any liquid as they plump up.

Meanwhile soak some couscous and when fully hydrated add to the lamb mix and stir.

Tragically, we had no desert so a store cupboard raid was in order. All I could find was a tin of Cherry pie filling and a savoury pastry case. It was time for some creative cookery.

To counteract the pasty being savoury, I coated the case with chocolate spread?

before adding the pie filling and heating.

Whilst that was going on I made custard in the microwave. It might not have been haut cuisine but somehow it didn’t matter.

I also started my ferment for Baguettes tomorrow.

Poolish

Overnight Rise

Today, in between the bread making, I thought that I would try the aforementioned potato cake with Chorizo, so combining my love of Chorizo with that for Potato.

As usual I fried onions, peppers and garlic until soft, adding sliced Chorizo and simmering until the oil runs,

meanwhile I boiled and mashed some potato, combining this with the veg/sausage mixture in an oiled dish.

I will cook the cake in the oven for about 20 minutes and serve with some leaves out of the garden (If the slugs are OK with that), tomatoes and a bit of balsamic dressing.

The choc-chip biscuits were meant to be for tomorrow, and I even made some smaller ones for “samples” to try today,

unfortunately the plan didn’t work as they are so tasty it’s a case of “Just one more” until there aren’t any left. I may have to make some more tomorrow or just pretend that I didn’t make them at all.

The baguettes had a good crumb,