The Sneaky Magpie

This is not an ordinary cheese and pickle baguette, this is a home-made sourdough baguette. The first successful bread we made.

A couple of weeks ago two architects moved into our office, I got talking to them and soon we discovered our mutual love of sourdough bread. It turned out that they have a 9 year old starter and make proper bread at home. I tried to make a starter last summer but failed. Later on that day they made me toast with home-made plum jam (one of them has got an allotment in High Gate) the bread was delicious, close enough to my very favorite bread from Gail’s, the jam was amazing too. I was determined to give it a go.

So to my delight the next day I was given a bit of their starter and a book to get my head around bread making. They also gave me a bunch of very good tips:

- in order to create steam in the oven for good crust, get a squirter for the oven walls and a ‘bath’ to put on a shelf

- get a stone instead of a baking sheet

- get a proofing basket

We had a go earlier this week and made pain de campagne. It was good, but it needed more salt and more kneading.

It was way better than any bread we baked before but we realised we have to keep making it till we are happy.

Yesterday we decided it was the time to make sourdough baguettes, we chose the recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini. It took about 17 hours but the baguettes turned out really well. Actually, they were amazing. It’s a really straight forward process with a lot of proofing time in between including a 12 hour rise in the fridge.

From this:

Via this:

To this:

So we are hooked. I fed my starter again and in few days time we can bake again.

I also baked some sweet buns.

M planted some herbs: basil, oregano and dill.

I sorted out the freezer.

Whenever I buy fresh herbs I only keep a small bunch in a glass with water and freeze the rest for future use. I usually toss them into sandwich bags which is not a great idea as the sizes are uneven and they spill. The solution to this are small take-away containers which will keep my herbs neatly. I even wrote names of the herbs on the boxes, I know, I am sad. Soon enough though I will have my own herb garden.

I got up on Sunday morning wanting to bake with hazelnuts. I have got a large jar of hazelnuts and am eager to use them up before they go off. I flipped through a number of cook books desperately trying to find a good nut recipe but didn’t quite feel satisfied with anything. There was either pastry to make, billion of eggs or tons of butter to use. I had a clear idea of fruit, hazelnuts and yogurt.

Looking through My Favorite Ingredients by Skye Gyngell cherry clafoutis caught my eye and after reading the recipe carefully I decided that I can replace cherries with plums, almonds with hazelnuts and cream with yogurt.

First things first, I had to prepare the nuts. Step 1. blanching. Step 2. roasting for 10 minutes. Step 3. rolling in a tea towel to get rid of bitter skins. Step 4. grinding. And there you go – ground hazelnuts aka hazelnut flour.

I got some ridiculously cheap plums rescued from the supermarket’s shameful rack of things passed the sale by date. The plums were not even entirely ripe let along not suitable for retail. They would be in the skip the next day while absolutely fine to eat.

First step is to stone and cut the plums into chunks, melt 40g of butter till bubbly but not brown, add the plums, 100g of sugar, tsp of ground cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick and rind of 1 unwaxed lemon and let it cook for 10-15 minutes till the juices thicken.

Place 1/3 of the fruit at a bottom of a low round baking dish and save the rest of fruit and juice for serving. This is super delicious on its own or on porridge.

To make the batter you need to cream 2 egg yolks with 5 tbsp of sugar (Skye says 3 spoons but it was not sweet enough). Combine it with 75g of ground hazelnuts, 75g of sifted flour, 1 stick of ground vanilla. Beat the eggs whites with a pinch of salt and add it to the mixture carefully.

Pour the batter over the fruit and bake in 200 degrees Celsius for 20-30 minutes. Let it cool for few minutes and serve with the plum sauce.

I will definitely make the proper cherry version this summer.

Now to books. I haven’t read a lot this past week due to going out a lot. So I promise to make up this week. I am actually reading a number of books at the moment, I am wondering how I am even able to do it. I am still going through Chekhov’s stories as I don’t like to read them all at once, I read one story in between books. At the moment it’s Three Years, as everything by Anton it’s very good.

I am re-reading The Golden Age of Couture. Drooling over the beautiful pictures and soaking up all the details about making couture clothes. There is a fair bit about rationing as well and the transition from poor post war years in to the opulence of New Look. This leads to another book on rationing, Utility Furniture and Fashion, which describes the rationing years not only in furniture making but other areas too. This little book is my breakfast read.

I am also enjoying the very silly Fashion Babylon by Imogen Edward-Jones which can tell you one or two interesting things about the true face of the fashion industry. Last but not least is the gripping biography of the Marquess of Bath – Strictly Private – one of Britain’s biggest eccentrics is not afraid to say it all. I am now yearning to visit Longleat. Vogue has arrived as well and it is a very fat issue, M is out climbing tonight, I will be having a night in with my magazine.

Oh, and films. I have seen a couple of films.

Do you remember Dolly Bell? Emir Kusturica’s early film full of human drama, politics, love, suffering and generous dose of the usual music and animal antics.

A woman under the influence by John Cassavetes. Brilliant performance by Gena Rowlands (p.s. her early 70s dresses were to die for) portraying a housewife going through a nervous breakdown, her husband trying to keep the family together in a very dysfunctional manner and committing his wife to an institution. Her suffering is almost tangible, a woman so desperate to please her family she forgets about herself, having no creative outlet she focuses on being a housewife so much she becomes self destructive.

And there was also a bit of music, well kind of. It was experimental avant-garde hosted by Resonance FM in the depths of Hackney. It was interesting. The two first performers were good but the third was not so good, noises that were very unpleasant to the ear. We didn’t stay for the fourth performer. Good experience all together and a very nice cafe, if you are ever in Dalston you must visit. It’s called Cafe Oto. It serves cakes, snacks, Montmouth coffee and the whole place is furnished with vintage Ercol chairs and tables. I loved it.

My weekend started at Osteria Antica Bologna in Northcote Road, a nice family run Italian restaurant where I enjoyed delicious scallops with lentil, apple and parsley salad accompanied by good wine and fabulous company. I actually tried to recreate the lentil salad but it wasn’t as good, truth be told I used the wrong kind of apple. If you are ever in Clapham Junction area do go, it’s a fantastic place for lunch, dinner or drink. Beware of a slow service but the wait will be worth it!

Saturday was all about food shopping and a very early spring cleaning of the flat, we have thrown out a bagful of old papers and organised a lot of cupboards. We also visited the local charity shop to offload some stuff where I couldn’t resist buying F.Scott Fitzgerald collection of short stories for 50p.

After last two weeks of ebay madness I hardly have things to get rid of which feels so good.

Sunday was spent on cooking and playing with my little niece. I baked Allegra McEvedy’s Swedish apple cake which is more of a pudding than a cake, especially when served with good vanilla ice cream. Very easy recipe, it takes about 10-15 minutes to put everything together and 50 min to bake.

Got to read a little too, Vogue and ELLE arrived, The Sunday Times had a good article on Mad Men which btw won the best drama at Golden Globes for the 3rd year in a row, well deserved!

I am reading Chekhov’s stories and this weekend I enjoyed Ward no6. I also got D.V. by Diana Vreeland which I am very much looking forward to. Following the Norman Parkinson show at Somerset House I decided to re-read The Golden Age of Couture – the book accompaniment to one of my favorite exhibitions.

I watched the rather bad Breaking and Entering (a total waste of time) and the very graphic yet beautifully shot Antichrist.

Few things I am looking forward to:

a visual feast of A Single Man thanks to Dan Bishop

visiting V&A to see Quilts, Grace Kelly and Horace Walpole shows, and might even pop in to see a rather intriguing sounding The Metropolitan Police Service’s Investigation of Fakes and Forgeries

Foal and Tuffin at Fashion and Textile Museum should be fun, along with a stroll down Bermondsey Street

William Eggleston at Victoria Miro Gallery

Irving Penn Portraits at NPG

whole lot of good stuff at the Tate Galleries

buying some plants – I quite like the idea of mother-in-law’s tongue in nice mid-century pots, at the moment I own no plants whatsoever, even my basil died so this will be a challenge.

Yesterday I got home drenched with cold rain, the only day I forgot my raincoat the sky has decided to open, just my luck!

Quick change of clothing and off I went to the supermarket to get supplies for my first truffle session.

It’s amazing how easy they are to make, I shall be making more of them for Christmas gifts.

Recipe for about 20 truffles:

100ml thick cream

150g good quality dark and milk chocolate (or only dark chocolate if preferable)

cocoa for coating

2 tbsp amaretto

Break the chocolate in small pieces. Heat the cream till nearly boiling and pour over the chocolate, stir till smooth. Add alcohol and stir in. Cover your bowl with cling film and chill overnight.

Next day roll small balls and cover them with cocoa.

I used Green&Black’s 85% cocoa solids chocolate and milk chocolate with whole almonds which worked great with the amaretto. You can use brandy or other alcohol or skip it altogether.

You can also add other nuts inside – roasted hazelnuts will work a treat and form lovely round balls (almonds made my truffles wonky).

The cocoa coating is also optional – crushed nuts, coconut, cinnamon, coarse sea salt or even chili can work when combined well.

I didn’t manage to take a picture as I was making the truffles when the sun wasn’t even up!

Tonight I am going to make them again for my friends in Leeds. And then next week probably for someone else….

I have been searching for the perfect carrot cake recipe for a very long time. An ideal carrot cake would be something like the individual cakes from Le Pain Quotidien, dark, moist and full of raisins and walnuts. I don’t like creamy, puffy sponge cakes, I can’t understand cupcakes and muffins, I dislike scones. But give me a moist, fruity cake, preferably made with almonds instead of flour and I am in heaven.

Tommy recommended the recipe from Rose’s Bakery cookbook Breakfast, Lunch, Tea so I used it as my base and tweaked it slightly, I also cross referenced it with my friend Kim’s recipe whose cake is delicious. This is what I came up with.

Carrot cake recipe:

7 large carrots, grated

4 eggs

125g caster sugar

100g muscovado sugar

300ml vegetable oil

150g flour

150g ground almonds

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp all spice

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tbs baking soda

1/2 tbs salt

100g walnuts

100g raisins

Icing:

200g cream cheese

75g butter

30g icing sugar

juice of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cream eggs, sugar and oil. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Combine both and add grated carrots. Butter your baking tin and pour the batter in. Bake for about 1h or until the knife comes out clean.

Baking tip: I always keep butter wrappers in the fridge and use them to prepare baking tins.

Once the cake is baked, cool it well and prepare the icing by creaming the butter and cream cheese and adding the icing sugar and lemon juice till you have the perfect taste and consistency. Ice your cake, I have sliced it in half and put a layer of the icing in between but it is optional. If you fancy individual cakes, muffin tins are the best.

The cake is moist, fragrant and delicious, not the LPQ cake yet but close enough. I just need to keep adjusting the recipe and hopefully one day I will get there.

After bright greens and reds of the summer we get the mature, serious colors and deep, hearty  flavors of autumn: pumpkins, nuts, apples, plums and beetroots.

I get very inspired by this season and experiment a lot but there are two dishes that I especially love.

The first one is butternut squash risotto, slightly sweet, not too stodgy, topped with roasted pine nuts. Perfect with a glass of wine on a cold day.

Butternut squash risotto

200g arborio rice

1 butternut squash

1 large onion

500ml vegetable or chicken stock

handful of grated parmezan

handful of chopped parsley

olive oil

salt and pepper

Heat up the oven to 200 degrees. Peel and dice the squash. Place half of it on a roasting tray, season with salt and pepper and roast with a bit of olive oil for abut 15-20 minutes. The high temperature will crisp it up nicely.

On a stove fry chopped onion in a bit of oil till translucent, add the rice and stir it well with the oil and onion. Add the diced butternut squash and add the first ladle of stock. Every time the liquid gets absorbed add a ladle of stock and keep stirring till the rice is cooked. It will take about 20 minutes. When the rice is cooked and the squash soft and bit mushy, coloring the risotto pale orange, season the dish with salt and pepper, add the parmezan and parsley and mix it gently.

In a separate pan dry fry some pine nuts.

Now you can plate up your risotto and top it up with roasted squash and nuts.

If you like you can add some white wine before you start to add the stock. Just replace the first ladle with some fruity Riesling.

The second recipe is a hearty beetroot soup, the color is amazing. Some people hate beetroot but I find it to be one of the most amazing vegetables. I also think that beetroot and dill are a perfect combination.

Beetroot soup

4-5 beetroots

1 carrot

3 celery sticks

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

vegetable stock

2 potatoes

olive oil

2 sprigs of thyme

2 bay leaves

3 all spice berries

salt and pepper

yogurt or creme fraiche

fresh dill

Chop celery, carrot, garlic and onion and fry it gently with thyme, bay leaves and all spice berries in olive oil for 15 minutes. Add peeled and chopped beetroot and cover it all up with stock. Cook till the beetroot is soft, add diced potatoes and cook till these get soft. Take the soup off the heat and blend till smooth. Garnish with a dollop of yogurt or creme fraiche and fresh dill.

I went to the farmers market this morning and they had some wonderful pears, apples and plums.

I bought a punnet of plums and made tea cakes, recipe as before. They were fantastic, I topped them with a lot of fruit which kept the cakes nice and moist.

The baking didn’t stop there. As much as I don’t like to start thinking of Christmas that early in the year unlike all the shops that are already fully stocked and prepared, I decided to make a Christmas cake which demands to be made well in advance. The cake will be fed with brandy till December. Unfortunately I cannot share the recipe – I got it from my mother in law and swore not to give it away, a family secret I suppose. So I will only post the picture of the end result.

If you fancy making one Nigel’s recipe looks very good.

There is nothing better on a cold rainy day than a bowl of hearty warming soup. When feeling a bit run down and on a verge of getting a cold soup is the only thing that will make you feel better (plus season 3 of Mad Men of course).

This autumn I have introduced two new soup recipes to my dinner menu.

The first one is a sweetcorn chowder. So tasty and moreish.

This recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi for The Guardian and you can find it here.

I tried the spiced butter once but it is slightly overpowering. I prefer it with some bread on a side (or crumpets if none available). Another tip for this soup is to poach smoked haddock in milk and then add some of the milk and chunks of the fish to your chowder.

I have tried few recipes from Ottolenghi and they are all very delicious.

The second soup is from Skye Gyngell’s book My Favorite Ingredients – the tomato and bread soup.

I cross referenced the recipe with Jamie Oliver’s Italian cook book. Skye had sage, Jamie basil which I prefer for this dish.

The important thing is to have good balsamic vinegar and stale bread. All the components come together wonderfully creating a superb and fragrant bowl of soup.

Inspired by my trip to Petersham Nurseries I was going to purchase A Year in My Kitchen, Skye Gyngell’s first book but I was so busy and distracted I ordered My Favorite Ingredients by accident.

Not a drama.

The book is very good and covers some of my favorite ingredients too, like cherries, mushrooms, nuts, chocolate, pulses and honey.

I tend to try most of the recipes from cook books I buy but only few of them become regular dishes on our menu.

I am off to get some supplies from the shops and cook away. Here are few recipes I am going to start with.

Ribollita

Cherry Clafoutis

Hazelnut tart

Tomato and bread soup

Chocolate and hazelnut cake

The most beautiful salad ever!

Fish with tomato salsa

I have been catching up on reading and films this weekend. Due to the postal strike magazines arrived late this month, same goes for DVD rentals. Pretty annoying. The strike is still going on and nobody knows when this will end.

Vogue and ELLE made me wish for even more pretty things. No matter how few things I really need there is always something new to wish for.

I also went to All Saints just to have a look and of course spotted things that would be very useful, especially this great hunting coat, perfect for rain, outdoor activities and cycling (same material as Barbour jackets but better cut). Skinny black jeans are always good,  fitted shirt would look good with these. And I really need a good belt.

After our visit to Petersham Nurseries I decided to expand my cook book selection to two Skye Gyngell books. I have just ordered A Year in My Kitchen which is all about seasonal cooking – it has been my cooking philosophy for years so I am sure I will enjoy exploring her recipes. If the book is a culinary success I will also get My Favorite Ingredients.

Speaking of seasonal food, I got some fresh figs yesterday and prepared them for my lunch. I love figs: fresh, roasted, baked in cakes; in savory and sweet dishes. It is such a wonderful and diverse autumnal fruit.

For my lunch I made roasted fig salad, this is the recipe:

4-5 figs

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp honey

1 buffalo mozzarella

handful of rocket

toasted pine nuts

few mint leaves

Quarter the figs and spread them on a baking sheet, pour a little bit of balsamic vinegar and honey, roast in  190-200 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Tear the mozzarella into chunks, place on a plate, mix with rocket leaves and pine nuts. Place roasted figs on top but let them cool first otherwise the cheese will melt and the leaves will wilt. Balsamic, honey and fig juice will create a lovely syrup which can be dripped over the salad. Sprinkle mint leaves on top.

Serve with good sourdough toast.

This has been inspired by Jamie Oliver’s fresh fig salad with parma ham aka the easiest sexiest salad in the world. You can find his version in Happy Days with the Naked Chef.

The whole afternoon was spent on reading Generation A which is yet another great book by Coupland. I only read two contemporary writers religiously, the other one is Dave Eggers.

Watched a couple of films:

Me and You and Everyone We Know – Funny, uplifting and quirky directorial debut by artist Miranda July. I also recommend her short stories No One Belongs Here More Than You. This girl is very talented.

Meantime by Mike Leigh – A very good English film that I can watch over and over again, Leigh captured the Thatcher era and life in the east end of London spotlessly and shot it beautifully. Amazing performances by absolutely everyone, especially by Tim Roth, Phil Daniels and Gary Oldman.

My weekend ended in Hoxton, had Vietnamese food at Cay Tre. Authentic tasty food, the summer spring rolls are super delicious.