Category Archives: Savoury

a day at home

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The cold I have been feeling coming on for some days really hit me today so I took a sick day and stayed home from work. I needed something nourishing so I tried something new for breakfast – quinoa flakes. They were really tasty, I had added a tiny splash of maple syrup but really I think you could have them plain. It is not like porridge which could be a bit dreary on its own. I cooked the flakes by adding two parts water to one part quinoa flakes and then stirring them over a medium heat for about 1 minute. Next time I think I will add slightly less water.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is apparently a good food for vegetarians as it is high in protein and contains balanced amino acids. The usual form of it is getting more common, I use it in place of rice sometimes, but I hadn’t heard of these flakes until me aunt mentioned them at the weekend, they look like the usual quinoa but bashed flat. It is not cheap; £4.89 for 500g but only a small handful seemed quite filling.

This is still an experiment in progress for me but as it started so promisingly I thought I would mention it now :)

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My desk, I moved aside the half-made wallet to do some work.

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Lunchtime. I had fully intended to go into work until I actually left the house and had to come right back after voting in the elections, so I had already made my packed lunch. This little two tier tiffin box is made by a company called ‘Seagull’, I got it in Japan. I am generally moving away from using plastic to store food.

athome_may10_003This is what was in the box :)

athome_may10_008Beep squishes her way in behind me on my desk chair (the ironing board was out because of ironing the wallet).

athome_may10_006Ira on my chair later. I think the kitties were glad I was home! We are now on tenderhooks waiting to hear about the election.

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recent experiments in bread

Preferably I would eat porridge for breakfast each day but sometimes there just isn’t time and so a piece of toast is what is needed. I have been making a small loaf a week for the past few months. My requirements in a morning bread is for a dense chewy loaf preferably containing seeds and nuts.

cardbread
Pulla Cardamom Bread. This was nice and fragrant but a bit too frivolous for our daily needs. I think it would be brilliant in bread and butter pudding. (Recipe here)

nutbread
Brown loaf with walnuts and sultanas mixed in. I took an ordinary brown loaf recipe and added the nuts and fruits, nice but not the most practical idea as the slices break in half where the layer is. Next time I must mix it in more.

sodabread
Brown soda bread with walnuts, seeds, and sultanas mixed in. Nice! I will be making this again.

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A normal brown loaf.

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Another brown loaf.

The bread experiments continue. This week I made a nice Olive Fougasse but that was for our lunch rather than breakfast. I try to avoid buying bread as it is easy enough to make plus it’s nice to be able to make your own choices about flour and avoid the preservatives that are in supermarket bread. To keep homemade bread ‘fresh’ I slice the loaf once it has cooled and store the sliced loaf in the freezer, then I can take out a slice or two as needed.

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nice packaging

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I thought I would try a different local-ish brand that our local wholefoods stocks. It’s nice when everyday things come in pretty packets :)

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Weekend Cooking

This weekend I made an effort to keep track of the various things that were cooked. I find the eco bulbs that we have around the house rather a yellow light to photograph under so pictures of meals don’t always happen in the winter, but I thought I would go ahead anyway to see what came out at the end.

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I made these Walnut Shortbread stars for a friend’s birthday, a nice recipe and they are not too sweet. The paper bags are from Japan, I stocked up on quite a few food gift bags when I was there are they have much more interesting designs than the ones I see here.

cranberryporridge
A handful of dried cranberries and a small spoon of agave nectar are my current favourite porridge topping.

walnutpasta
I made this Pounded Walnut Strozzapreti dish on Saturday night. Really really good. I made it again today, it seems nicer when you don’t roast the walnuts too long, just enough to get them warm and oily. I roasted them too long the second time and it was still nice but gave it more of a praline taste which was not as good as the first go when it tasted more like pine nuts. I also found that I didn’t need as much olive oil as the recipe mentions.

frozenfruit
Since the new year we have been slowly slowly having a clearout of our freezer so that I could defrost it, finally all we had left were some frozen berries and mango from the summer. I whizzed these up with some soya milk with a hand blender, I was going for a smoothie but it looked pretty tasty when I was halfway there so I stopped and had it in a more sorbet form. Very refreshing and not as sinful as it looks, it only contained soya milk and fruit.

buns
My sister sent me some wholewheat hot cross buns that she had made :) We have a bit of a parcel exchange going, often books or edible things. My last parcel to her contained some pieces of my Earl Grey Barm Brack. It is really nice coming home to unexpected treats! My sister is a really good and inventive knitter and she sometimes knits these cute little fruit people and also in the parcel was Mr Tomato Head which I was lucky enough to be given. You can see him below.

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Mr Tomato Head has to be carefully guarded from the cats as they have taken a keen interest in him.

dumplings
It was the Chinese New Year on Sunday as well as Valentine’s Day. We both love going out to eat but Valentine’s Day doesn’t always seem to be the best day to eat out, I don’t like those special Valentine’s menus. So this year we stayed in to cook a meal in celebration of the Chinese New Year. I made these Steamed Vegetable Dumplings (Zhēngjiǎo) from Andrea Nguyen’s book Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Pot Stickers and More I used her Basic Dumpling Dough recipe and it is so very much better than bought wrappers. I am never ever buying wrappers again! It is much easier to form the dumplings with homemade dough, and so easy to make – just flour and water. I am really enjoying reading this book, it is laid out very clearly, every step of the recipe is explained carefully so I think it would be suitable for even inexperienced cooks.

wok
Simon cooked scallops and ginger, really tasty. Normally around here, because of interests and schedules, I cook and he washes up which suits us both very much, but he is a good cook when he gets a chance.  I am pleased that I have influenced him into using the big Japanese cooking chopsticks to cook with :)

candle

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making pitta

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Recipe: Pitta

500g strong white flour (plus some extra for dusting)
300ml warm water
2 tsp easy blend dried yeast
1.5 tsp caster sugar
1 tbsp mild olive oil
1 pinch salt

Heat the oven to 220 Celsius

- Mix the yeast, oil, and sugar into the warm water. Leave it to rest for a few minutes.

- Measure the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, make a hole in the centre of the flour, pour the yeast, sugar, and water mixture into this. Mix well, then knead for about 6 minutes until it is a smooth elastic dough.

- Cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise for 1-2 hours.

- Divide into 12 even pieces. Roll each piece out on a floured board into a flat oval, roughly 0.5cm high.

- Place onto two baking sheets and bake in the oven for 10 minutes until they are puffed up and very slightly golden.

- Remove from the oven and wrap them directly in the same damp tea towel until cool. This stops them getting crunchy.

PS. The Kitchen Aid, a gift. What a dream!! And in my favourite colour :)

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