Miso/Toenjang Carrot Salad

 1 or 2 large carrots grated

1  shallot/onion/spring onions
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

small clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp white miso or toenjang if you haven't got white miso
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp sesame (I actually had to use a blend of sesame and soya oil as that's all I had)
1/4 cup sunflower or rapeseed oil
2 tbsp water (or a bit more if it seems a bit too thick)

1.Whizz the shallot and ginger in a food processor, scraping down the sides.

2. Add the miso, vinegar and sesame oil and whizz a bit more
3. With the motor running, pour in the  oil and water to form a smooth emulsion.
4. Stir in the grated carrots (or serve separately for people to decide their own amount of dressing). Also good with avocados.

Fish and Bacon Chowder - new improved recipe

 

We always used to make the recipe from the book that came with our pressure cooker, but since I made potato peel soup (Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe) this version has come out on top. It is very smooth and creamy, much thicker than the old version and the fish is cooked more gently.

600g potatoes

500ml semi skimmed milk

500ml stock

1 or 2 bay leaves

250g smoked bacon rashers or cooking bacon

1 large onion and 1 medium onion

sprinkling of dried mixed herbs

about 400g frozen white fish fillets, eg pollock (doesn't need to be fancy), or fish pie mix, defrosted and chopped into large chunks

salt and freshly ground black pepper

butter/oil

1. Scrub the potatoes thoroughly. Peel thickly, putting the potatoes into water for later and chopping the peel roughly. Chop the large onion.

2. Melt the butter with a splash of olive oil in a dutch oven and fry the large onion gently with the bay leaves until softened about 5 minutes or so.

3. Throw in the potato peel and one of the reserved potatoes, roughly chopped. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the milk and stock, and salt if the stock is not salty.

4. Simmer very gently for about 25 minutes, stirring regularly, until the potato skins and chunks of potato are cooked.

5. Remove the bay leaves and blend the soup with a hand blender. Set aside. (You can eat it as potato peel soup at that stage - but it's even nicer if you make it into chowder. )

6. Finely chop the medium onion and cut the bacon into chunks. In a frying pan, fry the bacon until the fat starts to run out and add the onion, frying until slightly browned. Add a sprinkling of dried mixed herbs and stir.

7. Tip into the potato peel soup and return it to the heat.

8. Cube the rest of the potato, add to the soup and stir over a gentle heat for 10 mins or so until the potato is almost cooked.

9. Add the fish and simmer gently until it is cooked (around 5 - 10 minutes). Check and adjust seasoning.

10. Serve with a grinding of nutmeg if you like it and some fresh bread.

Baked peanut butter and 5 spice tofu, stir fried vegetables and satay sauce

For the tofu:

Firm tofu,  drained and cubed (I used 2 280g packs of Tofoo Naked Tofu from the Tofoo Co which was enough for 4 people)

Marinade:

1 tbsp peanut butter 

2 tbsp soy sauce

 good dash maple syrup

1 garlic clove  crushed 

1 tsp 5 spice

1tsp dried basil

2 tsp sesame blend oil

Salt and pepper

1 tsp fresh ginger crushed 

Mix together and marinate the tofu for at least 30 minutes. 

Sprinkle with black sesame seeds and bake at 200 fan with the marinade for about 25 minutes. 

Sauce:

1 small onion finely chopped 

1 clove garlic

1 tsp thai red curry paste (or more if you like it spicier)

Half can coconut milk (about 120ml)

3 tbsp peanut butter (about 90g)

Juice of half a small lime

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

Saute onion garlic and curry pate in mix of sesame and olive oil. Mix i sugar. Stir in coconut milk and peanut butter, soy sauce and heat gently. Remove from heat. Stir in lime juice

Veg:

Any mixture of stir-fry veg eg carrot, beansprouts kale red pepper spring onions  garlic courgettes, red chilis. 

Fry in choice of oil eg sesame and sunflower. Stir in a tbsp of the satay sauce and a splash of water at the end and mix around to coat the veg. 

Serve with steamed sushi rice.

Pumpkin Spiced Muffins

 (Adapted from BBC Good Food - reduced the amount of sugar)

200g cooked pumpkin puree (see below)

225g self raising flour

1 tbsp cinnamon/mixed spice/tea massala mix

100g brown sugar

2 eggs

125g melted butter

1. For the puree, cut fresh pumpkin into chunks, put in a pyrex in the microwave and cook until soft, then mash. You may need to drain off some liquid - I added it to pumpkin soup). Leave to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 C fan.

3. Whisk the puree, melted butter and eggs together.

4. Whisk together the dry ingredients and whisk them into the puree until smooth and properly mixed.

5. Put into muffin cases and bake for about 15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Eve's Pudding

 (From BBC Good Food)

For 4 people:

3 - 4 large apples

100g butter

70g sultanas

50g dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

dash of vanilla essence

100g SR flour

1. Peel, core and slice apples. Put in the base of a casserole dish with the raisins.
2. Cream together butter and sugar, add vanilla.
3. Beat in the eggs.
4. Mix in the SR flour to make a sponge batter.
5. Drop the batter over the apple and bake at 170 degrees fan for around 40 - 45 minutes.
6. Serve with custard.

Large Sour Dough Loaf

 

You need to have active starter ready to go for this. If you don't, you need to feed up the starter and allow enough time for it to get active. I always have starter in the fridge and it can be fed and active enough in about 8 hours. From active starter to ready to eat loaf you need around 18 hours.

Feed up your starter. You'll need 140g of lively for the recipe and enough to feed up for the next loaf (at least 10g, preferably 25g or so). If you start this early enough in the morning, you can prepare the loaf the same day and put it in the fridge overnight to bake the next morning. Otherwise prep the starter the evening/overnight of day 1, then prep the loaf day 2 and leave it overnight to bake on day 3.

Sour Dough

140g lively starter

580 g flour (strong white or mixture of strong white and malted)

380g lukewarm water

8 - 10g salt

Day 1 

7am Feed 60g starter with 60g organic rye flour and 60g lukewarm water in a large jar. Stir, mark with a rubber band and leave to bubble up and double in size. 

4pm Mix the dough ingredients, leaving remaining starter in the jar. Either put it in the fridge or if you want to make another loaf the next day leave it out and feed it up. You can feed it up and leave it out for a couple of hours before putting it in the fridge to keep it nice and lively.

4.30pm Fold the dough on sprayed wet surface 12 - 15 folds

6.30pm 2nd fold (6 -8 folds), on wet surface

8.30pm 3rd fold (6 -8 folds) on wet surface

9.30pm Fold the dough on floured surface, around 6 folds and put in proofing basket upside down. Put in fridge overnight, uncovered.

Day 2

Take out of the fridge about half an hour to an hour before baking. If not risen much, leave a bit longer at room temperature or in airing cupboard. (It won't have puffed up that much, and will puff up in oven).

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C with lidded Dutch oven inside. 

Turn the loaf into the Dutch oven, replace the lid and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the lid, reduce temperature to 190 degrees C and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Leave to cool before cutting.

Quick Sour Dough and Yeast Loaf

 We've been trying out lots of sour dough recipes recently. Some of them are a huge faff. Others slightly less. I like the Bake with Jack recipe here https://www.bakewithjack.co.uk/blog-1/2018/7/5/sourdough-loaf-for-beginners, but I also wanted a recipe that doesn't need as much attention through the day and doesn't need an overnight proove. This one is loosely based on this King Arthur Flour baguette recipe.https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-baguettes-recipe. It is quicker than other sour dough recipes and it does have a little instant dried yeast in it to help speed it along. I'm experimenting with less and less yeast and will try leaving it out all together. You do get a slightly less open crumb from this one, but it is still really good.

You will need a lively sour dough starter to make this. Check out Bake with Jack for how to do that. I got some sour dough starter from my son Tom. I keep its descendants in the fridge (and have an insurance one in the freezer). I get it out of the fridge the afternoon before I want the loaf and feed it up ready to use the next day. Take 30g starter, add 60g organic strong flour and 60g room temperature water, stir and leave in a warm place. A few hours later feed again with 100g each of flour and water, leaving it again in a warm place overnight and checking that it is bubbling well, preferably doubling in size by the morning. Once you've got a bubbly lively starter that's doubled in size, you can be eating this loaf in about 4 hours with minimal faffing during that time.

For a roughly 900g loaf:

320g lively sour dough starter

190g lukewarm water

400g strong bread flour (all white, or a mix of white, wholemeal or granary)

2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp instant dried yeast

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together with a rubber spatula. The dough should be quite wet.

2. Knead in a stand mixer for 7 minutes.

2a. Optional step, but I think it improves the texture of the bread: Turn the dough onto a wet work surface and stretch and fold it (see Bake with Jack video to get folding technique). 

3. Put the dough into an oiled bowl, cover and leave in a warm place.

3a. Again optional step, but as above you get a better texture. Repeat the fold after about 60 minutes, leaving it to rest for another half hour.

4. Shape the dough into your chosen form (if you haven't done the extra folds, this will be about 90 minutes after you kneaded it; you'll need to gently deflate the dough and gently shape it) - I put it into a well-floured round proving basket, but you could just put it in a loaf tin for a sandwich loaf, or you could shape it into baguettes.

5. Leave to proove for another 90 minutes to 2 hours, preheating the oven towards the end of the prooving time. You want the dough to have risen, although not necessarily to have doubled in size. It should look slightly puffy and be about a third bigger than before.

6. For a nice crusty loaf, heat a large Dutch oven (Le Creuset) in the oven set as hot as it will go (around 230 C). When it is up to temperature, carefully transfer the loaf into the Dutch oven (I struggle with this, as it's hard to get the wet dough not to stick to the basket. I turn it out onto a floured bendy silicon chopping bard and try and slide it into the Dutch oven without burning myself. It usually manages to flip over on one side and I lose the nice round shape, but it still tastes great). Replace the lid and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and bake for a further 15 - 20 minutes. Turn out to cool on a rack.

Example timing:

Day before - feed up the starter in the afternoon, give it another feed before bed and leave in a warm place

8am - Mix and knead the dough/fold if folding

9.30am - Fold again if folding

10am - Gently shape and place in prooving basket or loaf tin

11am - 11.30am Preheat oven and Dutch oven with lid

11.30am - 12pm Bake the loaf

12.30 - 1pm Eat the loaf!