Easy days

So after last week's day-long cake extravaganza for a cake that isn't even finished yet -- I was sloshing brandy over it this very morning -- this week has seen some dishes which require little effort.

This year has given me the ability to make delicious home bread, which I had to keep reminding myself of when I made Delia Smith's quick and easy wholemeal loaf. Well, yes, it was quick and easy, but I think that may have been the problem. There is no kneading in this recipe. This should have been a warning, as kneading stretches the gluten in the flour and allows bread to rise and become generally soft and nice. However, like so many home-cooks in this country, I believed Delia would never trick me or lie, so when she said don't knead it, I didn't. In fairness the piece I had warm was fine. However, the next day I made sandwiches out of it, and I swear I burnt approximately as many calories chewing it as are in a slice of dense brown bread. And look at the picture in the link: mine looked EXACTLY like hers. Pah. (Her recipe for apple charlotte is still a winner though.)

I love Jamie Oliver. I can't cook a 30 minute meal in 30 minutes, and some of his early books have slightly odd amounts of ingredients, but I have enjoyed everything of his which I have ever made. And so, running mistrustfully from Delia, I opened Happy Days with the Naked Chef for solace. Sam and I had the great joy of a Friday night dinner with AC, CB, A and J, and we wanted to show off. Sam did his award-winning risotto for a starter and chicken stuffed with all sorts of nice things for a main, and I was in charge, first of all, of side dishes; the cookbook has a recipe for runner beans with tomato sauce.

I don't like runner beans very much, so I used green beans. Also I prefer the Silver Spoon's method of of making a tomato sauce, which involves adding crushed garlic, a pinch of salt and sugar, in my case a splash of balsamic, and a tin of tomatoes to a pan, putting the lid on, and leaving it over a low heat--don't touch, stir or anything for 15 mins. Then give it a stir to break them up, and then give them another 15 minutes, still with the lid on. This method means the tomatoes lose their tinned flavour and take on an intensely garlicky flavour. Splash the sauce over the beans, which you will have steamed with lots of olive oil. This recipe typifies why I love quite a few of Jamie's recipes, especially from the Naked Chef/Ministry of Food era: his recipes work very nicely as they are, but also adapt beautifully to personal tastes.

As Sam and I were showing off on Friday, there obviously had to be a pudding, and I found the answer to this in this month's Olive: Lulu Grimes's hazelnut tart with mascarpone and strawberries, (surely a better name than listing half the ingredients is possible!). It looked simultaneously not too much effort and show-offy enough for a dinner party. The hazelnuts go in the pastry, but I substituted ground almonds to no ill effect. The only effort in this recipe was making the pastry. And, for the first time in my life, I didn't find making pastry a hassle: my cooking is improving. Once the case had adequately cooled, I filled it with a filling of mascarpone, whipped cream, orange juice and zest (obviously these ingredients are carefully mixed) and then topped with macerated strawberries. Essentially, it is posh strawberries and cream in pastry--but there's nothing wrong with that when it looks so good, and there was not a scrap left.

The biggest cake you ever did see.

I read an article in the Guardian on Monday about how asparagus is about to go back out of season, and so naturally, this made me want some. I decided to give this recipe for asparagus with a tomato and feta salsa a shot as we had all the other ingredients in the fridge, and I do love feta cheese--I have deluded myself into thinking that it's healthy, even though I can taste all that salt! I decided to go for a fusion meal and make kofta to go with the asparagus, as they are a real favourite of mine. I'm afraid I haven't been clever enough to save the link to the recipe, essentially, however, it was mix lamb mince with some onion, cumin and mint, squidge round some skewers till kofta shaped, then brush with oil and cook for 15 minutes in a frying or griddle pan.

At the end of Monday, I was very glad I'd made this supper, it made the rest of the coming week feel a lot better. Nice food is always cheering. The asparagus side dish was light and the salsa was tangy and sharp and salty with feta. The kebabs weren't quite spicy enough, and could probably have done with some chilli (I don't think I have ever said that before) but they were tasty enough to keep me happy. I served with pitta bread, but forgot to photograph till I'd handed Sam his plate, so please excuse his thighs.

The faux North African theme continued on Wednesday, when A and H put in a most welcome appearance for the Apprentice (how did Jim get away with it this week, by the way!). I decided to make Olive magazine's harissa chicken and herby couscous. I can't possibly count another way to cook couscous towards my total, but I'm taking the chicken. I'm afraid it's not on the internet, just in the magazine. The recipe said wings, but I used thighs (I think I have mentioned before that I am not convinced that the meat on wings is worth the effort of gauging and scraping required to get it off the bones). Now these aren't marinated,  but grilled for 15 mins (turn halfway through) and then tossed in a coating of orange and lemon juice and zest, cumin seeds, maple syrup and harissa paste (see definitely not authentic!) and then grilled for another 15 minutes. 

I'd have never thought of adding the coating halfway through, but this way the sugar didn't burn and the acid in the fruit didn't destroy the chicken. This was an utter success; H gave it a 10 out of 10 (and then she suggested a rating system for blog dishes, but I don't think that my ego could take it!). The chicken was sticky and tasty and good, and this was a lovely light summer meal.

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So, from North Africa to North America and banoffee pie. Now this is my favourite pudding, but I have never made it before. We had some ripening bananas (overripe because I have decided I no longer like them for a snack) so I thought it was time to have a go at it. To save on calories, I made mini ones, as in the words of Marjorie from little Britain, 'if you cut it in half, it's half the calories, so you can have twice as much'. Anyway, I whizzed up six digestive biscuits in my food mixer till they were fine crumbs and then stirred in a couple of knobs of butter, I pushed this into three ramekins, and then sadly had to throw some out, so if you do this, only use four biscuits. They then went in the fridge for half an hour. I then spread Waitrose caramel sauce over the bottom, Carnation Caramel would do the same thing, and put some sliced banana on top of the caramel, and topped with whipped cream--150ml will be enough. I may sound arrogant, but they were delectable and so easy they are so going into my repertoire. 

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And finally.... A cake so huge it only fits in my oven by a hair's breadth. More than this, it is only one tier of the monster birthday cake I am making for my Grandma and cousin K (K, if you're reading this, your layer will only be marginally smaller and be incredibly chocolately). Grandma wanted fruitcake, I have never made fruitcake, till this afternoon, and I have never made a cake so large, or served anything in tiers. Anyway, I used this recipe and mixed it in the (thoroughly scrubbed, scoured and de-germed) washing up bowl, as the only receptacle large enough to take it. It took two hours to weigh, mix and deposit in my enormous lined tin (how tedious is lining tins? And this one needed a double lining inside and out). Oh and incidentally, if anyone you know requires a celebration cake, I'm hoping to make that my job in the medium future, and will be offering knock down rates for a while...

As it will spend the next few weeks maturing, I'm afraid I can't give a verdict on the taste, all I can say is that it smells like a nice fruitcake, and I am watching it like a hawk to ensure it won't need any carbon scalping off. This cake has been the most satisfying, but most labour intensive thing I've made (I mean that physically too--my arm ached so much, I thought it might fall off). However, love that is totally without condition is rare in life, I think most people can consider themselves lucky if they need to use both hands to count those who love them without requesting anything in return, and Grandma has loved and looked after 13 grandchildren in precisely this way, and I hope I'm making outsize cakes for her for years to come.

Offally bad

Please excuse the terrible pun, but I feel I deserve my dodgy jokes even more than usual this week! In the name of trying to make new things, I decided to try cooking things I don't like. I hadn't eaten liver in years, and the last time I did I was in a situation where I really felt I couldn't refuse, and I did at least manage to smother it in gravy. Anyhow, I thought, with the recent renaissance in cheaper cuts of meat and offal, and my rapidly expanding eating horizons maybe now was the time to give it another chance. (A spell as a smoker has also killed of several of my tastebuds, so I was in hope that I wouldn't be able to taste it.) Anyway, armed with this recipe for chicken liver salad with mustard pears and shallot rings from Gordon Ramsay, which had lots of nice sounding bits to go with the organ (can I just say at this point, I wanted to make pate, which I know I do like, but the gentleman I live with vetoed this strategy), I decided to try it again.

I should say at this point, that I am not sure I cooked it correctly, I thought it looked a little bloody after the recommended minute of cooking, so I gave them a bit longer in the pan, and they still didn't look nice. The mustard pears were easy to make, tasted nice, like a pickle, and making them before I started on the shallot rings and liver was a good idea. The shallot rings shall definitely be making another appearance in this kitchen, they were amazing: crispy and sweet. I attempted to assemble the components in such a way to make the liver look appetising. I tried to eat it, I really did, but I couldn't get beyond a small piece. It still just tastes like something which should not be eaten. And as its primary function in life is to remove toxins, I stand by my correct opinion that liver is for dog rewards, not my Cath Kidston crockery. The second photo is of our plates, Sam made a much better job of eating liver than I did (he usually does make a better job of eating than I do).

So to my next, er treat. Most people who know me well, know that I hate jelly.I find the way it wobbles unnerving, I dislike its texture, in particular the way it collapses in the mouth without any chewing. The last time I can recall eating it was when, during a spell as a vegetarian, a relative made me a trifle with jelly in it as she was concerned that my animal free diet was leaving me malnourished!

Anyway, I thought to myself, now could be the time, jellies have got a lot more sophisticated of late. I found this recipe for summer berry and lime jellies from James Martin. Perhaps with fresh fruit, I could learn to love the wobble! I say perhaps, and could, because I haven't tried them yet. Hang on a minute.... It's good! I can report that having my own private ramekin of delicately flavoured and coloured not-excessively-set, filled-with-summer-fruit jelly is very lovely indeed.

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Not being a complete masochist, I decided I would also make something I knew I would like: iced buns, or 'sticky buns' as we say in Yorkshire. Once, when out with best-friend-now-in-Australia F we bought a couple of iced buns and I vividly recalled her saying that they were a crap treat. I think this is a very fair assessment: there is no chocolate, no fruit, no jam, custard or cream, but those fluffy bready buns with a stripe of icing are a treat nonetheless, and I had all the ingredients for this lemony variation on them in the house, so I thought I'd have a go. They were nice and simple to make--the usual knead a bit, wait a bit, knock back, divide up and wait a bit more, that you get with bready things.

I know my oven is a flaming inferno. However, I would still like to moan about the cooking times on this recipe. My buns were on the point of being overdone after 9 minutes--if I'd left them for the lower end of the cooking time, I'd still be sobbing over a pile of ashes! As it is they have a somewhat deep hue, but are perfectly nice. The icing also requires rather more sugar than the recipe says, and, even after adding more, it was still rather runny. But they were good sticky buns, excellent fodder for me and A to have with tea and a few episodes of Ab Fab.

Au revoir for this week, and adios to liver for good. I have no idea which direction the blog is heading in next week, so it'll be a surprise for everyone concerned.

On picnics

Fairly early on in this project I did part of a post on picnic food, to be eaten at a sporting event. I'm afraid that this is more of the same on that score. But I make no apologies for that, I love picnics, and I particularly like swerving the expensive and usually disappointing food vans at sporting venues. We were outdoors this time though (last time I was at the velodrome in Manchester) and the sporting event, which I attended with HR, was rather more up my street: Bramham horse trials. I'm afraid that I was one of those 'Mummy I want a horse; Mummy I need a horse; Mummy I'll DIE if I don't have a horse' children, and I still love a day outdoors watching horses go over fences. ANYWAY, this is distracting from the cooking-it-for-the-first-time theme of the blog.

I seem to have entrapped myself in a subscription for Olive Magazine, so expect lots of recipes from it. I selected the courgette and goat's cheese tart, from a handy feature on picnic recipes. I'm afraid I can't find a link, so I'll describe it as best I can. It has a filo pastry base (and so lots of layering pastry painting on butter). Then a layer of goats cheese with creme fraiche and lemon, which I substituted for ricotta (as suggested in the recipe) as I thought goat's cheese had the potential to go quite smelly when left for half a day in a backpack. And a layer of ribboned courgettes on top of the creme fraiche middle layer. It was very nice, very fresh, very light, very summery.

For afters, I made ginger loaf with butter icing, also from the picnic section in this month's Olive. The recipe produces enough for two large loaves, although they apparently keep rather well, so I'm sure they'll get eaten! This was easy peasy to make, especially with a food mixer to do all the hard work. The recipe produces flavoursome moist cake, shop bought ginger cakes tend to lack the punch which the stem ginger brought to the loaves I made. HR and I demolished rather a lot of it whilst watching John Whittaker do his stuff in some show jumping.

I think that food always tastes better outside (not, obviously, if it's tipping it down, but there is something celebratory about a picnic) and HR and I did feel smug about not being stung by the expensive food vans. And what can be better than watching a favourite sport with an old friend and some nice food? It was a lovely way to spend Sunday, and I've thus far suppressed the urge to ring my Mum and demand a horse. And I am halfway through my recipe count.