Another Day, Another Disaster

After my sourdough problems, I thought that a return to my old favourites, bread wise, would be a good plan.

I brought some multigrain flour, as I hadn’t made a brown loaf for a while, and tried the Sandwich loaf recipe that I’d done many times, using Honey, Lard and milk.

Well when it came out of the oven, it looked and smelt good, but on cutting, I found a huge hole in the middle, all the length of the loaf. I think that I didn’t shape it properly, or maybe the dough developed a skin on rising, that ended up in the middle and didn’t join together.

So I used it in a bread and butter pudding.

 The day out in Heligan was amazing, we both find the place so inspirational, It feels timeless and to me has such an atmosphere of peace (apart from the noise of the other visitors) It also gave me a good chance to try out Georges Camera.

We also visited Tessier Gardens in Torquay, which had a different sort of atmosphere, very cold and restrained, but a very friendly squirrel.

Yvonne has been busy with the jewellery, now she is trying freestyle rope beading, the camera has trouble coping with close-up work but I think you can see how good it is.

Now back to the cooking.

Twice Cooked Potatoes.

Here’s an idea that I had when faced with a pan of cooking juices from chorizo and veg, (Aug 25^th last year) because, having enjoyed the flavour, I didn’t really want to just throw it away.

So, thinking of dauphinoise style potatoes, I decided to use the liquid as a stock.

I sliced potato into the stock and cooked at 150 degrees for about 90 minutes, until the potato was soft. I then put them into an oiled roasting tin, sprayed with oil and baked for 30 minutes.

Potatoes Poaching in Stock



Ready to Bake



Yum!

Meanwhile I fried up a mixture of Onion, pepper and Mushrooms with Balsamic Vinegar, and of course some sausages.

Talking of Potatoes, it was time to harvest the first earlies, should be nice with Roast Beef.

We have enough Rhubarb in the garden now for a crumble, with the addition of some of last years Blackberries and the last of the bottled apples.

We are both very partial to a snack, and have recently discovered Honey Roast Peanuts, by a well known manufacturer. Being averse to spending a fortune on these unless I have to, I have tried a version of my own.

500g mixed raw nuts

250g Icing Sugar

10g Smoked Paprika – or to taste

10g Sea Salt – or to taste

Wash and drain the nuts, and mix the other ingredients together in a bowl. Mix in the damp nuts and stir together until well coated. Place on a lined baking sheet in a 180 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool, break up and store. Will keep until the football (or decent movie) is on.

Washed Nuts

Coated

Baked

Ready.

Olive Oil Crackers.

A basic yeast-less dough of Oil, Water Semolina and White Flour, rolled out very thin and baked. These go with soup or cheese, and can be topped with herbs, or salted. If anyone wants the recipe, e-mail me.



Dough Ready to Roll 





Mint Sauce.

I make a lot of this for people that I work with, and as the mint grows like weeds in our garden I’m never short of a supply. No recipe needed, just put the leaves in the processor, add just enough vinegar (Malt, Balsamic or Whatever) to enable chopping, and a small amount of Brown Sugar.

I feel that his post has been a bit disjointed, there is a lot going on here, if I can sort my head out normal service may be resumed.

Bread Baking when you can't get in the garden because of the rain.

Firstly, a couple of things that I missed showing last time round. I found this Jubilee celebration on the A303 near Sparkford and managed to get a photo at 5am when the road was quiet. The arm moved up and down in a “Royal Wave”.

Also my two dogs, who normally monopolise the sofa, found that when Yvonne is sitting there they can still both fit on the other end!

I’m still getting the hang of the new camera, and have taken a lot of bad pictures; the flash is the thing that is causing most trouble, as it seems a little harsh in close-up, so the following description is a bit short of illustration.

Naan Bread.

When I went on the bread course, we made a version of this bread, including some stuffed with a spicy lamb ragu. As we have curry on Sunday from the local takeaway,

www.bombaymixbrixham.com

I thought I would make some to mop up the sauce.

Here is the recipe that I was given

·                5000g Bread Flour plus additional for dusting

·                1 teaspoon salt

·                125ml plain yogurt, at room temperature

·                125 ml hot water

·                10g yeast or 5g instant yeast

·                20g sugar

·                1 smallish egg

·                25g melted butter or ghee, plus additional for brushing

·                Sesame, poppy or nigella seeds. (optional)

As you can see it uses only white flour but I thought that I would amend it to include Gram flour and see what difference it made. So I substituted 100g of Gram flour in the 500g total and made it as usual.

At the same time, I was making a Cottage Pie, so I prepared extra mashed potato which I mixed with a Masala spice blend to form my filling. It doesn’t look too appetising but tastes fantastic.

I thought that I would try both Oven baked and Griddled Naan, you can see the difference in appearance, and I think that the Griddled taste better, as they are drier and less oiled.

Three above, Griddled



Four Baked Naan. with Loaf



I also made a Focaccia with Onion dough, adding some of my baby new potatoes as a topping. These had been part baked in oil and Balsamic vinegar before being pressed into the dough after knocking back.

Finally, having tried the No-Knead white bread a while ago, I had a go using a 60-40 mix of wholemeal and white. It didn’t rise as much but was just as good. I think that maybe I need J to use a bit more water as wholemeal flour tends to absorb more than white.

We desperately want to get out in the garden, as everything has grown, especially the weeds, but with the present weather all we can do is watch through a rain streaked window, as it reverts to Jungle. Or should I say Rain Forest.

Of course we could always head out for tea and cake

This one is Bailey's Cheesecake and helped take our minds off the weather, if only for a while.