Food experiment fail

Time to draw a veil over this week's food activities. I've had not one, not two but three complete wipeouts in the kitchen wasting food and gas.

The first mistake is pictured above and below, a riff on Mediterranean stuffed vegetables. There's not really all that much wrong with them except they are entirely and totally unappetising. I've made a curry and 2 pints of soup so far in order to avoid eating these excrescences and even when I decided to hide the evidence by eating the photo shoot I gave up half way through because I simply couldn't force another mouthful in.

Then there were the sections of pumpkin, roasted because I had the oven on anyway. They weren't quite soft enough, so I left them in for another hour. I now have pumpkin leather, possibly of use to Ray Mears as something to sharpen his blade on or even to light fires but hardly edible.

Finally, there is no way on earth I will reveal what I did to a poor defenceless aubergine in the interests of research because it might lead someone of unsound mind to try to repeat the experiment and I couldn't take the guilt for the resulting disaster. It's very rare that food in my kitchen goes straight from oven to compost bin but this was a prime example. It makes me gag even to think about it.

So there you have it. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a top chef after all.

Lagana and Etnos

We have a small book on Roman Cookery which makes fascinating reading. I've long wanted to try some of the dishes in it which have been translated from the original Latin, but although I have no doubt that the translations by this renowned scholar are good, as a cook some of the substitutions and modernisations seem bizarre.

Anyway, the first two dishes that seemed easy to bring back into the vegan repertoire are Etnos, a very simple dried pea soup that is still standard fare all over the globe and Lagana, which is fried pasta. This makes a sort of crisp puffy wafer, golden and with a snap to it. It seems the Italians didn't hit on the idea of boiling their pasta until the middle ages.

This very simple fried bread was used to scoop up the soup as a sort of edible spoon. I am actually thrilled at how easy and effective this was, as my experience of frying flour and water pastes in the past has been mixed to say the least.



To make stacks of lagana (at least 100) you need:

150g flour. I think the type of flour is probably important. I used a medium atta, a wholemeal chapatti flour, sieved before weighing to remove the coarsest portions of the bran.
90-100ml water. Start with the lower amount and add a little extra if needed.
Oil, preferably olive, for cooking.

Mix the flour and water together to form a smooth pliable dough. Knead it for a minute or two. I wondered if it would need a rest period and tried cooking some immediately and then after a rest of a couple of hours but it seemed to make no difference.

Seasoning, there is none but I think some crushed pepper would sit nicely in this.

Roll small portions, the ubiquitous walnut sized lump springs to mind, out on a lightly floured board as thinly as you can, and I mean thinly but I didn't measure it, so I can't tell you exactly. Not quite as thin as phyllo pastry but getting there. After trimming the edges I got ten chips out of each of my walnut sized lumps.

I cut my sheets of rolled dough into rectangles about 2cm by 4cm which makes a good size for a couple of bites. The frying and rolling is probably best approached on a production line basis if you have help. I had to stop and take my pan off the heat a couple of times to roll out more crackers. The crisps cook so quickly that a constant feed stream is practical.

Heat about 1cm of oil in a heavy flat bottomed pan. The temperature needs to be just hot enough and shouldn't be smoking. Try a test piece, it should sizzle around the edges if the oil is hot enough. I used a frying pan but you could probably do this in a deep fryer if you wanted. Float each cut section on the oil. It will immediately puff up, sometimes in little bubbles but sometimes as perfect jolly little pillows. Turn them over almost immediately and allow the second side to cook, then remove from the oil and allow to drain on a rack or kitchen towel.

Like many fried goods these benefit from a few minutes in a warm oven to remove the greasiness so it's possible to cook quite a lot and keep them warm while you finish the batch.



The soup is simply a couple of handfuls of split green peas, soaked over night and then cooked with a chopped leek or onion for an hour or so at a simmer until the pulses are completely soft. Whizz them up with a stick blender (or get the house slave to rub them through a sieve) and then season with herbs, salt and pepper. The Romans liked dill in their pea soups but mint or coriander are acceptable substitutes. A drizzle of olive oil is also used for flavour but I left it out of mine because of all the fried noodles to come.

The soup needs to be thick. If there's still a lot of water in the pan when the peas are cooked strain some off before blending or you'll have to do what I did and simmer the soup again to make it thicker.

The simple flavours and bland texture of the soup are an excellent match for the puffy, crispy lagana which worked really well as spoons. They are particularly good when they've formed pillows as you can use them to scoop up the soup inside them for a taste explosion when they get to the mouth. It's all pretty easy too. I'll be trying more recipes from this book over the summer.

Hungry Gap Risotto

Risotto with Leek Scapes and Good King Henry

O.k. it's not pushing back the boundaries of culinary exploration but give me a break, I had oven chips for lunch, this is a huge jump back into the saddle for supper.

Tomorrow, something you might never, possibly, have seen before, maybe.

Toodlepip.

Too hungry

Pan Braised Potato, Pumpkin, Celeriac and Onion in a Miso Wine gravy with Toasted Hazelnuts.

This was supposed to have been oven roasted veggies, cooked along with a loaf of bread to save fuel, but the dough was slow and I was too hungry to wait. Perhaps a bit wintery for the time of year but it's still pretty cold here in the evenings.

Vegetables were pan fried with just a little oil, slowly so that they gained some colour and flavour, then a miso and wine stock was added and the pan lid put on to complete the cooking. The lid doesn't fit too well and there was a little evaporation which helped the sauce thicken.

The toasted hazelnuts were sprinkled over for added crunch and protein.

It's all very well announcing I'll be eating from a menu plan but that means I have to make one. I had no idea there were so many recipes in my 'good ideas to try' box but I'm making some lists now. There should be enough variety that I can post a couple of new experiments each week without giving up on old favourites already blogged.

A good plain cake

It sounds like something out of Mrs. Beaton, Plain cake, suitable for children and servants. But, it's simple, fool proof and can be soaked with brandy, filled with fruit and glazed with sugar for extra fancyness if required.

The only thing I'd change when making this again is to use a white flour instead of the wholemeal used here. It was just a bit too worthy for a celebration and I much prefer bread to cake for every day use.

250g flour
100g sugar
1 pkt. (11g) baking powder
100g soy yoghurt
100ml (about two small fruits worth) fresh orange juice
1 medium banana, well mashed
100g light flavoured oil

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and then add the dry ingredients to them. Mix just well enough to combine evenly and scrape into a well greased and floured loaf tin. Smooth the top gently.

Bake at about 200C for about 40 minutes. It will rise to the top of the tin and become firm and golden. Test with a skewer and make sure your cranky and inconsistent gas oven doesn't burn the bottom before cooking the middle.

The serving suggestion has sliced strawberries macerated in sugar and a little Rivesaltes Ambre atop a couple of sections of trimmed cake. What's not to like?

Health and Beauty

A bunch of weeds and herbs including red valerian, scuplit, sorrel, sweet cicely, chives and flowers, clover flowers, comfrey, bramble shoots, parsley, tarragon, sage and lemon thyme.

One of the main reasons for writing this blog is that when I'm on my own I don't eat healthily, usually choosing easy starchy snacks to pick at along with a lot of strong coffee.

This season I've not been managing very well at all, firstly with the excuse of not having the option of particularly fresh foods and now, because I have access to junk food again, the ability to avoid healthy eating with 'treats'. It's got to stop.

Tomorrow, Mr. S-C will be back for the weekend so I'm planning to bake him a cake and a nice dinner which may or may not be blogged but starting Monday it's going back to working to a menu plan and no more cheating.

Tonight, a rather pedestrian selection of tomato, cucumber, onion and chopped chicon has been enlivened with the bunch of foraged greens and herbs shown above. The dressing was made with olive oil, mustard and sherry vinegar which I find much preferable to the rather abused balsamic available in supermarkets (although if anyone would like to gift me a drop of the real stuff I'd be very grateful!).

Cravings

So the Mister came and we went shopping. As expected plantains aren't available in the local Leclerc (nor was root ginger, boo). I bought the greenest bananas I could find, and that wasn't very green, and fried them anyway.

It was o.k., pleasant enough and intriguingly textured with crispy edges and a soft centre. Not really what I've been fantasising about but probably the less said about that the better. This is a food blog after all.

Almost there

After nearly two weeks the worst thing about eating up my stock cupboard has been the boredom. I can hardly bring myself to go the kitchen because there's nothing there that's the slightest bit inspiring and I know whatever I make will be pretty much slop on carb.

Without counting any chickens I'm confidently expecting Mr. Stripey Cat to arrive tomorrow bearing fresh baguettes in a bouquet for our breakfast. So, in theory at any rate, tonight's the last night I'll be scraping around for something nice to eat. I thought it was time for some serious foraging.

Everyone eats nettles and I have plenty so naturally a handful of those were picked but I also saw some extremely fat and succulent looking bramble shoots, the sort of fat juicy spears that head to the sky on their way to looping over the fence and rooting elsewhere. I tried a bit raw, you have to peel off the spines of course but it's easy with a thumbnail to get you started, they just rip away. It was pretty good.

And then, what else do I have a lot of at the moment, rhubarb! Also for the pot, a small handful of the Good King Henry (how have I lived this long before appreciating this plant) and the last of the stock potatoes.


Making a curry is too easy to record. I'd have liked to have roasted and hand ground my spices, grated my own coconut and all the rest but I didn't so I can't boast about it.

After the sauce was made and the cubed potatoes softened a little I added the peeled bramble shoots (like asparagus, just take it from above where it breaks naturally), the blanched chopped nettles and a smallish handful of finely sliced rhubarb. I didn't add much of that because I was worried the end result would be too acid but it wasn't a problem.

The bramble shoots were a huge success. They reminded me of drumstick (Moringa oleifera) in curry and I'm half kicking an idea around in my head to cultivate a blackberry stool just for shoot production.

It's been an interesting experiment. I made no promises for any ethical reasons, it was just that I'm too lazy to make the two mile hike to the village for anything less serious than running out of cat food and there was little chance of that, those cats are spoiled rotten.

I expected that by now I'd have a shopping list a mile long and cravings from here to New York but actually the only thing I've even considered putting on a list is bananas and it's not really bananas I want but greasy golden plantain chips. I can't imagine anything less likely to be obtainable in Normandy so that has to be purely psychological. Oh, but I do need some cooking oil that isn't EVO and I've run out of vinegar, except for balsamic.

No Comment

I have enough food for two more weeks, if I eat this every day. Curry tomorrow.

Scraping the barrel

Tonight's concoction was so poor that I nearly didn't blog it. Then I remembered I'd promised, then I discovered that both cameras had flat batteries. I coaxed a little juice out of one of them because I wasn't going to wait any longer for my supper.



Using up some old Brick pastry sheets I decided to make pancake rolls. For filling I used some matchstick potatoes, shredded leeks, some peanuts and a little finely chopped horseradish. I was a wimp and could have used a lot more of the spicy stuff.

The filling was quickly stir fried to take the edge of the spuds and used to fill 2.5 sheets of Brick. I thought I had five. The unwieldy shaped rolls were shallow fried and greasy and tough in consequence.

Still, I'm not hungry any more, which is a good thing.

Only two more days before I can hit the shops, which will be a huge relief even though, had the bomb dropped, there's still food for another couple of weeks carefully managed.

Stripy the Cat

Stripy is a feral cat who was shot and has now found some kind new owners. He has his own blog at stripythecat.

He's no relation but Stripey cats must stick together. Say hello and tell him you heard about him here.

All the best, Stripy.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

Rhubarb and yoghurt for supper.

Absolutely no interest in eating or cooking today. Horrible weather, dull day and the bad cats broke a bottle of Oban single malt.

Easy

As previously mentioned, I've no access to the shops for a while, originally expecting 10 days and now it's stretching out to nearer 13 days before Mr. Stripey returns with my car and the freedom to roam. I do have one loaf of made bread still in the freezer but I've promised myself I won't start that until Wednesday, so there's a chance of making it to the weekend.

I still have a little flour and with the help of a starter made last week and kept in the fridge it's been possible to make some pikelets and now this focaccia to eke out my essentials with.

Giving directions on how to make bread is beyond me. I read other people's very detailed recipes and I know I'd never follow them. For me, bread is like art. Either it reaches my expectations or it doesn't. This did. I apologise that these instructions will be no help at all to the neophyte but hope anyone who's made a little bread before will be able to pick up what I'm talking about.

Add enough flour to a wet starter (equal parts flour and water with a pinch of dried yeast, fermented 12 hours in the cool and refrigerated for a week) to make a shaggy moist dough. You'll need some water too and a sprinkle of fine salt. This is a no knead bread, so just use your hands to gather everything together and make a smooth ball to pop back in your bowl. The problem in this house is finding a place to set the dough to rise, there's nowhere warm. In the end I resorted to putting the bowl on a sheltered south facing windowsill outside to use solar energy for my heating.

When the dough has doubled in size, spread it out over a well oiled high sided tin and leave to rest for 30 minutes to an hour. Punch little depressions all over with your finger tips and sprinkle with rosemary and a little sea salt (I used too much). Add a final drizzle of olive oil if you need to, I didn't, and bake in a hot oven until cooked. This took about 35 minutes but my oven isn't great.

Enjoy.

Everything they say about vegans is true...

we are boring, food faddists and everything we eat is no fun at all.



At least, looking at that picture you'd be forgiven for believing that. It's impeccably wholesome, low fat, highly nutritious, low GI and simply terribly good for you but there's no denying that it looks... well, brown.

Tonight's supper is just a little more uninteresting to look at than usual because normally when I make this I include some fat slices of braised mushrooms or some roasted pepper strips to add to the complexity but because I have none of those things at the moment the best I can do is a chiffonade of herbs, wild sorrel, chives and sweet cicely with its lovely light anise flavour. Even so, it's absolutely delicious.

Soak some wheat berries for a few hours and then set them to cook until nice and soft (at least 45 minutes). Don't let the water run out during the long simmer.

Cook some brown or green lentils until they are soft but still hold their shape. These took about 25 minutes.

Drain both, and mix together. Add a couple of cloves of garlic (yes, two or more even!) well mashed with a very few grains of salt. You only need a little salt to start that mashy thing because you'll also be adding a splash of soy sauce and a splash of wine vinegar to taste. That's it. Dressing done. No oil.

If you have them then try the additions, one or the other, mentioned above but this is a meal that stands on its simplicity. A few herbs are always worthwhile.

Eat on your own, with friends or with an irritated audience of vampires. That garlic is strong.

Ackee Fried Rice

Almost didn't blog this evening although this was the dish I had planned since yesterday when I realised I'd have loads of left over rice. The evening wore on and my appetite wasn't great, and even less was my desire to do some more of the same old cooking stuff but eventually I started to get hungry and while rooting around for something more interesting realised that this was as good as it was going to get. I'm glad I thought that, because it's rather nice.

Ackee are the arils of a tropical tree and a staple food in Jamaica, you can read all about them on wiki which will explain that it's almost as exciting as eating puffer fish. Actually, there's little to fear and the ill effects are almost never fatal unless you are already in poor health. My tin, because they are only available in cold climates in a canned form, was a bit past its date. This isn't because it was part of the batch I was given but because we'd been saving it for a special occasion. That moment came tonight!

Fry a little onion in some oil, add some chopped fresh tomato (except I only had tinned), a crushed clove of garlic, a finely chopped green chilli (adjust to taste), some lemon thyme (or ordinary thyme) and some tarragon. You only need to take the rawness away. Add your drained ackee. They are very soft and in order to preserve the look of the dish should just be gently shaken into the sauce.

This is my way of making fried rice which never sticks and always works. Take your day old, refrigerated rice and crumble it over the top of the food in the pan. Break down any lumps and sprinkle evenly until everything is covered. Cover the pan and leave over a low heat for the rice and ackee to heat through.

Then, turn up the heat and stir the rice into everything else. You'll need to be extra specially careful with the ackee but usually a vigorous stir fry action is fine.

Decorate with some finely chopped spring onion greens or chives.

Fried, with rice

I notice from the archives that I had a very similar meal just after I started this blog way back in May 2007 only this time I left out the mushroom pâté, I had it in my lunchtime sandwich instead. Also, instead of sweet and sour I tried to recreate the sort of cornflour and lemon sauce you get on Lemon Chicken in Chinese takeaways but it didn't work too well, more research needed there.

Still, in such beautiful sunshine any meal would be delicious and this was no exception.

Past its best

I should have posted this entry last night but like the good researcher I am I had to wait overnight, just to see if I died of anything I'd eaten! Actually that's not true, it's just that I was lost in a book and forgot.

I've been given a number of tin cans of food which are considerably past their sell by date. However, commercial canning is one of the safest methods of food preservation known to mankind and provided a few simple rules are followed you should be able to use these resources up safely and without contributing to the mounds of food waste that are made every day.



This is a tin of tomatoes, best before the end of August 2007. The first thing to notice about it is that the label is still dry, clean and relatively undamaged. There are no visible dents. I have to say that I don't think the sort of cans with easy lift lids are as long lived as those you have to open with a tin opener, but if everything else checks out you should be fine.



Next check the top and bottom of the can for rust marks or discolouration. This one looks o.k. A few surface marks can be ignored but the main body should be clean. Tip the contents out into a clean bowl (if they're fizzing you can stop now, and just chuck the whole lot out) and rinse the tin.

Examine the inside of the can for damage, discolouration, any dents that weren't visible from the outside. If it's a coated tin like this one then it's pretty easy to see what's going on but on other tins you'll have to look closely to ensure the metal is in good order.

Then turn your attention to the contents. Anything that smells bad, looks a funny colour, has strange lumps or is unexpectedly watery or solid should be discarded. Even if it won't kill you worrying about it will give you a bad night so don't take the chance.



Finally use your rescued produce in a dish that has a good long cooking, ideally something that reaches a boil for a few minutes and then simmers for half an hour or so. I made a leek and tomato soup with my old tomatoes and it wasn't too bad.