pancakes

There's no bread in the house this morning, so it's back to the pancakes. Kit loves pancakes and that's motivation enough, since she doesn't eat enough (I'm filling the gaps, sadly, all of them, add our sizes together and divide by two and all would be well in the wardrobe).

Kitty favours the Dairy Book of Home Cookery (1977) recipe for pancakes. It's a book my mother used to have, and I found copy in a charity shop. I think the mixture doesn't have enough egg, (100g flour/1 egg/250ml milk). In my Bases de recettes book the proportions are better (200g flour/2 eggs/250ml milk) and they add two spoonfuls of oil, and recommend letting the batter stand. I don't have time to let the batter stand, and my 1977 English oeuvre says 'modern science shows' there's no need. I'm not letting a forty year gap bother me, in defining what is modern.

My mixture works well. Give it a go. It makes about 12 pancakes, depending on the size of your pan.

Cooking pancakes can be a bit anti social, and hot. I like to make a pile and then reheat them.

Recipe

ingredients (alternative measurements at bottom of the recipe - cups, oz and mugs)
125g flour
2 eggs
125ml milk
125ml water
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp sugar
pinch salt

oil for pan

method

• sift flour into large bowl (I use a plastic jug and stir it with a whisk)
• add sugar and salt
• make a well in the middle, crack the eggs into it and add the oil
• stir it all together vigorously
• add liquid bit by bit, beating all the time until smooth (if it isn't smooth, resort to the hand blender)

I use a heavy based frying pan, which is not non-stick. I have a heatproof pastry brush and a little pot of oil, and I brush the pan between each pancake. I use a small ladle, which measures about 1/4 cup. I don't like non-stick, and I think the pancakes taste different if you pour the batter into a thin layer of hot oil.

It might seem obvious how to cook pancakes, and if you've got it down pat, ignore this. If you're like me, and sometimes end up with a thick layer of batter sticking to the pan then read on.

Heat the pan for a couple of minutes before starting the pancake cooking, and get the pan good and hot, then  brush with oil quickly and pour in the batter - just enough to coat the base of the pan. You'll know the pan is hot enough, because the batter starts to cook straight away, roll it around the pan to cover the whole base. Once the pancake starts to bubble a bit and the edges curl, it's ready to turn. Watch the pancake bubble a little bit, then remove it from the pan. And so on.

I turn the gas down a bit once the pan is hot, otherwise it gets too hot.

other stuff
if you don't have scales, or can't be bothered, about one mugful of flour and half/half mugful of milk/water is the right amount, adding a tiny bit more liquid. Providing it's an average mug, and I'm not debating what's average.

warming and cleansing soup

Feeling a bit leaden, cold ridden and not really hungry, with a stonking headache only receding when plied with paracetomol, I am avoiding milk. And eating when not hungry. So I reached midday today on mint tea alone, and as my appetite returned my thoughts turned to ginger. Fresh ginger. Very cleansing, very warming and very refreshing. I have to buy some more, as I used mine making this soup. I've just eaten it and my mouth is tingling happily.

Cooks in one pan.

Recipe

Ingredients
1 large carrot
1/2 onion
1 leek
1" ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 egg
soy sauce
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp powdered vegetable stock
three mugs of water
1 nest of fine rice noodles


Method
Put the water in a pan and bring to the boil.
Peel the carrot and slice thinly. I like to slice mine at an angle.
Slice the onion and leek.
Peel the ginger and garlic, and chop finely.
Add Veg stock to boiling water, followed by 1/2 carrot, onion and leek and 1/2 chopped ginger and garlic, cook for a minute.
Add everything else and cook for two minutes while you beat the egg together with a slosh of soy sauce and the chilli powder.
Pour egg mixture into boiling water with other ingredients, leave for a moment, then stir.

Eat. Mind your mouths it is hot.

spinach, lentil and coconut soup

I like soup and I like cobbling things together from the cupboard (and freezer). I occasionally eat a ready made soup, but it never satisfies. I really liked this combination, it was filling and tasty, and great to dip chunks of bread into. The coconut I used was powdered, which lent a good texture, something to chew.

No exact measurements. Only one pot used and a stick blender.

Recipe

Ingredients
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 mug split red lentils
1 mug water
3 blocks frozen spinach
1tsp curry powder
1/4 mug powdered coconut
salt and pepper
2 tbsps oil

Method
Roughly chop onion and garlic, and fry on low heat until onion is transparent
Add curry powder for a moment
Add lentils and stir, adding water and stir
Cook for 20 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally
Add frozen spinach and cook for 10 minutes, adding extra water if it gets dry
Add salt and pepper

Blend with stick blender until smooth.

Check the taste and adjust seasoning.

Eat.

Brioche too

Brioche to me is a sticky breakfast cake-meets-bread concoction. Latterly its name has been sullied pappy 'brioche'rolls, which are just sweet yellow white bread that make bridge rolls seem attractive.

What I made wasn't what I call brioche either, so I shall try again. I used strong and ordinary plain flour with yeast and three eggs. It rose beautifully and smelled beautiful, almost spicy.

When it was cooked I had high hopes, and it was very tasty, but it wasn't brioche. So back to the marble pastry board.

In the French recipe book there are two approaches, one of which is called 'instant'. Maybe that's what I'm after. It doesn't use yeast. Hmmm. We shall see.

salad dressing - a lift on a winter's day

I had salad as usual yesterday, green leaves with the family dressing. Absolutely great on a grey day. The garlic is good for you and at the moment I seem to love anything that is that vibrant spring green, and lettuce hits the spot.

Try it.

salad dressing recipe

Brioche

I'm going to try making brioche. Sweet and slightly claggy in the mouth. Yum. I'm looking at recipes in Toutes les bases et les recettes de la bonne cuisine and my breadmaker book. I may make it lemony. More follows.

Steve's avocado sandwich breakfast - healing food and hangover cure

Having listened to tales of Christmas woe, filled with fevers and flu, I was lulled into an unattractive state of smug, a vulnerable place to be. I woke up on Saturday with a sore throat, a headache and backache that made me wonder if I’d been sleep drinking. Painkillers helped a bit, but not enough to stop me feeling very sorry for myself, as I monitored my symptoms to see if I was in the running for the ‘most sick’ title. I am not an attractive invalid.

Fortunately, Steve delivered just what was needed: an open sandwich of avocado with a squeeze of lime, salt and pepper. His original recipe is for buttered toast with marmite and the lime etc on top. I didn’t fancy the marmite, so mine came without. I tried his with marmite and found it edible, much richer, almost chocolatey, and not what I wanted.

The vibrant green of the avocado is definitely a healing hue. Even with a limited sense of smell, and the inability to lift my head properly, the colour and smell of the lime made me feel cheerful and hungry. I ate mine much too quickly, and had another.

I would recommend an avocado per person. For the greedy. Especially the hungover and greedy, oh, and the ill.

Recipe

Ingredients

Ripe avocado

Bread

Butter

Lime

Pepper and salt

Method

Make a slice of toast and let it cool

Butter the toast and spread with slices of avocado.

Squeeze lime juice onto the avocado slices, add pepper and salt.

Eat.

chocolate fridge cake

I made some of this over Christmas, in case we got peckish. Hahahahhahahahaha! It was delicious, if I say so myself. And I used salted butter, which I like. I'm not a purist about chocolate though. Oh and I used non wheat biscuits, made with almond flour, and I mixed up the nuts, so my version had almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts.

I made it chunky, which meant it was hard to cut, so remember a small and flat version will facilitate the eating. Not that you'll need any help.

I like it if the two chocolates aren't so mixed up. If you're feeling lazy, just use a few more biscuits and make the milk chocolate one with nuts already in it.

RECIPE

Ingredients

250g digestive biscuits

150g milk chocolate

150g dark chocolate

100g butter

big spoonful of golden syrup (or honey – makes it more sticky)

100g walnuts

50g hazelnuts

Method

o    line an 20cm/8" cake tin or 2 margarine containers with greaseproof paper

o    break up digestive biscuits - I like to smash them in a plastic bag, to contain the crumbs

o    roughly chop the nuts

o    put broken biscuits and chopped nuts into the lined tin

o    melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, with the butter and syrup

o    stir to combine, allow to cool a bit  and pour over the biscuit mixture

o    press in to make sure all the gaps are filled

o    leave to cool

Eat

Goes well with a stiff black coffee.

Remember not to pour hot mixture into a plastic container - you'll end up throwing it away, or eating plastic.

If you don't have greaseproof paper butter the tin or container liberally, refrigerate and when completely set it should pop out like an enormous chocolate ice cube, without the ice.

cold and grey, it's a brownie day

There's a lot of debate about who makes the best brownies around here, and, I reckon it is me. Or Kit, now she's using my recipe. Some might say there is no way for me to know, since I am not the most chocolate focused person, preferring to spread my net wider, however I love these brownies. They have the chocolate intensity loved by many, as they are made with pure cocoa. They are good and chewy, and surely they must have less calories than their use-five-bars-of-chocolate cousin recipes.

brownie recipe here

Ideal with black coffee.

dry fried spicy potatoes

This recipe lets potatoes take centre stage. If you're going veggie it is a lovely main dish with a salad, and of course it can be a great side dish as well. The fried spices give a sweet and nutty warmth, and can give a quick pep to a simple meal.

My source recipe, by Madhur Jaffrey, suggests cooking the potatoes in their skins, leaving them to cool and then peeling them. Being inherently lazy, I like to peel them, cut them into cubes and cook them like that. If you follow MJ's instructions you get a lovely waxy skin, providing you use the right kind of potato. This version allows for all varieties.

Other than the potatoes the main ingredients are ginger and garlic.

Use a non-stick or heavy based frying pan.

RECIPE

Ingredients
1 lb potatoes
1" ginger
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp paprika or cayenne
several pinches of salt
5tbsp oil

Method

Peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm cubes, boil in water for 5 minutes and drain.
Blend ginger, garlic, lemon juice, turmeric, cumin and paprika together with salt to make a paste.
Heat the oil on a medium flame, adding the spice paste and let it sizzle for a moment.
Add the cubed cooked potatoes and turn the heat up a little.
Stir the potatoes around, letting them get well browned on all sides.

Serve.