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.