Glanbrydan’s Weblog

It has been quite a while since I last put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to update the blog.

We like so much of the country found ourselves covered in snow for much of December. It must be the most snow we have seen since we moved here over 5 years ago. Whilst I cannot deny the beauty of a blanket of white and the wonderful quiet that descends when the roads are bereft of traffic. It did little for our business at what should have been one of the busiest times of the year.

I do feel for all small businesses, where a bad month can crucify what may have otherwise been a reasonable year. I have spoken with local shop owners and fellow food producers who have had to pull their belt in another notch.

Talking of pulling belts in I managed to lose 2 stone in weight last year only to regain about ¾ of a stone through Christmas and our late week away in Scotland where we found some wonderful places to eat. I am swallowing the bitter pill and attempting to get back to some healthier meals.

We are starting with a pot roast chicken this evening.

I purchased a new deep casseroler with lid at a very good price in the sales and have been looking for an opportunity to make a pot roast of some sort. So when we found a reduced price chicken I jumped at the chance. The chicken is not free range but is not battery either. It is a middle of the road option where the birds are given space to act as they should with real light to live in. I believe that once the battery hens ban comes into effect next year this will be the norm.

Based on Delias Frugal food ‘chicken pot roast’ the bird will be partly roasted and then cooked on the hob. If T.W.O does not feed the rest of it to the animals as a ‘treat’ we should at least get one evening meal, tomorrows left over’s cold cuts lunch and then a soup from it.

You will need a casserole pot or pan with lid that is suitable for cooking on the hob and is big enough to get your chicken in.

I chicken (giblets removed)

5 shallots or an onion

A few cloves of garlic, skin off, chopped or crushed

A few carrots, scrapped and chopped

A skinned diced onion

A handful of swede , skinned and chopped

My chicken is 1.9 kg so I will be cooking it for 25 minutes per half kilo plus 25 minutes. In this case I will just round it up and say 4 x 25 minutes plus 25 minutes, the first 30 minutes of this will be spent in the oven and the rest cooking on the hob. So 2 hours and 5 minutes in total. However the chicken was falling off the bones so it could have been cooked for a bit less.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or gas mark 4

Remove the skins from the shallots or the whole onion and stud with a few cloves. Put these into the belly cavity of your chicken and roast – lid off for 30 minutes

Remove the chicken from the oven and put on the hob on a medium heat. Tip in all the veg, put the lid on and cook these for a few minutes while you boil a kettle of water. Put in some salt and pepper. I used quarter teaspoon of black pepper and a half teaspoon of salt.

Pour the water round the chicken until it is two thirds covered. Turn the chicken over and cook lid on at a gentle to medium simmer for half an hour.

Turn the chicken up the right way and complete the cooking time.

You should have a nice juicy chicken and a bowl of stock. Strain the stock of the vegetables and either eat with the chicken or discard. Keep the stock in the fridge once cooled where the fat should separate out and can be scrapped off the top leaving a bowl of jelly like stock ready to make a nice soup. I’m thinking leek and potato……….

Whilst in Scotland we went out for lunch a few times. We noted that the local cafes made a big thing of home cooked soups. We chose from a soup menu in one such establishment which included ham & pea soup as well about 4 other options.

It was a lovely homely, thick soup and made me want to cook soup when we returned home. I went to town and purchased a cheap bacon joint but failed to find split green peas in our small local coop branch. Settling on lentils we made a basic soup recipe which was delicious.

 As I watched the TV last night we saw a ham & lentil soup being made on the hairy bakers show (I think it’s UK only TV series but please do look it up on the web as they have lots of lovely baking suggestions). Ours is slightly different but I think all versions are probably yummy.

I purchased a small bacon joint in the supermarket but gammon or good ham would all be good if a little more expensive.

This would serve 4 people for lunch as well as enough bacon for a dinner for 2. Just increase the quantities for a bigger pot of soup and don’t worry about weighing things too much.

 1 unsmoked bacon joint  – ours was 1.2 kg

A blob of butter for cooking

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed and then peeled

2 carrots, peeled & sliced quite thinly

2 sticks celery, washed, de stringed & sliced

Half a swede, peeled & chopped into small pieces. Ours were chopped into battons about an inch (2.5cm) long and a half an inch wide (1 ish cm)

350 grammes of lentils or a good part of the half kilo bag they sell

Black pepper

The day before you want the soup soak the bacon joint in a bowl of water. You only need to cover the meat with the water and leave it for a few hours to get rid of some of the saltiness.

Then get a saucepan that is big enough for your bacon joint and cover with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer until cooked. We cooked the 1.2kg for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The general guidelines for boiling bacon are 20 minutes per pound (454grammes) plus 20 minutes. You need to keep the water the meat has been cooked in.

We then ate half the bacon for our dinner served with mashed potatoes and green beans.

 The next day

Heat a biggish pan  – it will need a lid and need to hold all your soup – put the butter in and cook gently until the butter has melted. Stir in the onion & garlic cooking gently for about 10 minutes.

Stir in all the prepared vegetables and pop the lid on for 10 minutes checking regularly and stirring to make sure they don’t stick

Whilst this is cooking chop the bacon joint left over’s into bite sized pieces and add to the pan. You are eating it so make them the size you like.

Rinse the lentils under cold water and stir them into your pan of cooking meat & veg.

Pour over some of the liquid you saved from cooking the meat. It needs to cover the cooking meat, veg and lentils plus a little bit. Give it all a good stir and bring to the boil. Then turn down to a high simmer for 10 minutes. Again you must check and stir the pan every few minutes or it will stick. Also if it looks too thick add a bit more water.

If at this point you are asking what is too thick then think that the food needs to keep absorbing the liquid so make sure it always has some water visible.

Turn down the heat to a gentle simmer for about another 15 to 20 minutes. You need the vegetables to cook though.

Add black pepper to taste. You shouldn’t need salt.

 Now this chunky, filling soup is ready to dish up.

If you are a smooth soup only peroson then whizz it up in the blender.

We ate it on it’s own as we had crumpets for breakfast but it is good with some fresh bread & butter and a bit of cheese on the side.

 This can be made a day or two in advance and keeps well in the fridge as well as being good to freeze.

I have eaten the sourdough bread I made this week and it has a very different texture to normal bakery bread. I am now using the rest of it up as toast and it strikes me it would make very good brochette. The elongated slices, slightly denser than bread made with commercial yeast make a great surface for rubbing garlic into.

Brochette (my way) – a simple starter. The oil mix would easily do 4 – 6 or about 3 people for a nice lunch.

Cut up several cloves of garlic into very small pieces and steep them in a cup of olive oil for a day or 3

On the day you are serving the brochette:

Chop up some tomartoes into 1 cm of half inch cube sized chunks, put them in a bowl then pour over some of the garlic oil mix. You want them generously coated but not swimming around. Any remaining oil can be put back in the fridge and used for cooking anything you like garlic in.

If you have some basil add some torn up leaves to your mix. If not try a few chopped chives or a bit of parsley. If out of season used a dried version of the same, about quarter of a teaspoon

When you are ready to use them;

Take slices of bread and toast them – usually 1 or 2 per person if it’s a starter. Slightly stale bread is best

Cut a fresh clove of garlic in 2, dip it in the olive oil mixture and rub your bread all over with it. Very lightly salt and pepper the toast.

Serve cold with the bowl of the tomarto mix and small spoons for people to pile onto the toast. Or put into individual ramakins on the side of a plate.

Other versions;

Serve the toast with melted cheese on top (Yum Yum)

Serve with some mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic as an additional option for topping the toast with.

Serve with thin slices of grilled courgette.

Gently cook a diced onion for about 15 minutes until it is caramelised and serve in separate bowl.

All of the above for a great lunch or yummy tea time. I am sure you can add to the list…………..smoked salmon, goats cheese…….what do you like.

Other things to add

Fresh sourdough bread

I finally made the bread today! My starter has sat unloved except for one feed for a week in the fridge as I’ve tried to find time to finish the bread making. Yesterday evening I took some of the starter out of the fridge and made a sponge with it (yes it’s all new terms to me as well, but I will explain). Today it was back to the methods I am used to, it all just took a bit longer but no extra effort.

The recipe is as usual a conglomeration of information from the web, books, information passed on and of course other bloggers.

So here is the starter

a sterilised Jar, cooled . You will need a lid or some clingfilm

Mix 1 cup of strong bread flour. I used an own brand strong white flour and 1 cup of warm water in the jar. It needs to be kept warm and stirred with a none metallic implement. I used a plastic spatula. I moved our starter around with us. In the living room on the radiator when it was on. In the kitchen when we were cooking. It must NEVER get near 100 degrees C as that will kill your yeast. Cool temperatures makes it slower to develop.

The lid should just be rested on top or clingfilm with  some in. It has to breathe

Pour off the separated water, add half a cup of warm water and strong flour to the mix each day. Lumps don’t matter.

After a few days it should start to show signs of bubbles. It’s now alive.

I kept this up for about 8 or 9 days. In the end and it smelt like a yeasty liquid and you could watch the bubbles popping by peering over the jar.. NOT A BAD SMELL in any way.

After this put it in the fridge and feed a cup of water and a cup of strong flour every week until you use it.

The sponge

Take 2 cups of the starter, put it in a none metallic bowl, add another cup of strong flour and warm (hot to the touch from the tap) water. Set this aside over night. It should now have a frothy head.

Add in

2 cups of flour

2 tablespoons of olive oil

4 teaspoons of sugar

2 teaspoons of salt.

I used the mixer with dough hooks to bring it all together and had to add a half cup of warm water to it. Mix for about 5 minutes. It needs to be pliable and slightly elastic.

Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave it somewhere slightly warm to prove for a couple of hours.

As per normal bread knock it about a bit and form into a loaf. Then lightly oil a baking tray and put your dough ball on it. Dampen your tea towel again and cover the dough.

The raised dough ready for baking

I ended up leaving our dough for about 6 hours and it had doubled in size.

Put the oven on to 220 degrees C and put the loaf in after a couple of minutes of warming.

Check it after about 20 minutes turn down the heat to 180 degrees C – a quick peak to make sure it is ok. Then after 30 minutes total take the loaf out turn it over and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes on it’s back. Making sure it doesn’t burn .

Take it out, allow it to cool a bit and then try a slice……….