A Present on the Doorstep

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It’s not through lack of cooking though; I’ve been trying out an offers various ingredient delivery service. Rather than take you through dish by dish I thought I’d just write one post about it.

In case you aren’t aware you pick your recipes about a week before they arrive. Then a large cardboard box will be left outside your door for you (which in this heat does give a bit of a half life on getting it indoors) containing your ingredients for your 3 meals as well as a cool bag with many ice packs at the bottom. It’s advantages are numerous but the biggest I guess are the fact you don’t have to step foot in a shop and the fact that there is next to no wastage in ingredients.

There are about 10 or so recipes each week to choose from and to spread it out I always chose a meat dish a fish dish and a vegetarian dish. Often this limited my choice even further but never to the point where I didn’t want to try anything. The food itself is not really out there but designed to get from the bag onto your plates in well under an hour. I found the ingredients high quality and I enjoyed the different recipes such as Pork Satay Burger, Roasted Feta and Lentil Salad and Butternut Squash Risotto. These services are always a bit pricey (too much for me regularly) but they are great for keeping you cooking when time is short.

The best thing about these perhaps is that they tend not to have really out there ingredients that are hard to find. It is perfectly possible to take a recipe and recreate it yourself in a weekly shop. One of the best ones we’ve had is below.

This looks very simple and I suppose it is but the balance of flavours is great. It is also another of those recipes which flows well. The main star is the sea bass which barely needs any time at all. 4 minutes flesh up is all it needs to give its crispy skin and finished off with one minute the other side up. Then a quick squeeze of lemon and it is done. 

It is paired firstly with a lemon mashed potato. Rather than finish it with butter to give that creamy texture the recipe suggests olive oil and it really gives a different mash. The olive oil background flavour works well with the lemon juice (added to taste right at the end of the mashing) and its richness works well with the bass. To cut through it some roasted cherry tomatoes (with just seasoning and a little sugar) gives that sauce element that helps tie it all together. 

The final thing which really doubles down on flavour is the what could be described as British pesto. Equal parts of parsley, basil and grated mature cheddar are mashed together in a food processor along with a clove of raw garlic. Olive oil brings this all together and it and the tomatoes bring this whole dish together as well as giving a major flavour hit. I’ve made this a few times now and it is always a winner for being quick and easy whilst making the most of its flavours. This was made whilst drinking litres and litres of water during the heatwave we are having and with Doctor Who on in the background as I catch up ready for the new series and new Doctor.

Some Browner Breads

I will full admit that this is hardly adventurous; in fact in adventure terms it is roughly the same as a weekend city break that is in your own city. But I feel that this is a good next step and a good way to solidify bread skills.

I started with another bloomer (by far my favourite so far in white form). Apparently the wholeness of brown bread flour will partially shred your gluten so to try and compensate for this I kneaded for an extra 5 minutes and let it prove for longer the first time. I would say that it came out well but it is definitely flatter than its white equivalent. The crust is also much crustier which is not unwelcome I must admit. I think that free form brown loaves are going to suffer from more spread and less rise so perhaps (in my quest to mostly make good basic loves quickly for general life) it needs to be done in a tin. My partner and I have also noticed that we tend to carry these loaves between our two houses quite a lot so they get used up before they go off. In that spirit I’ve decided to start counting how far each loaf travels before becoming just crumbs. This loaf managed 54 miles before it was consumed

https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/rye_ale_and_oat_bread_52123

Next it’s time to try something a bit different. This loaf is much more of a special loaf (well it looks like to me before I have baked it) and as it has quite a long prove time not one an everyday loaf. I think i messed this up at some point. My dough was so wet and sticky that I am sure I took it too far with adding liquid. The recipe does say that you should add as much water and ale (I was using Adnam’s Ghost Ship) as possible and I think I just took it too far. The dough was so very sticky that instead of my usual kneading method of using a table I would up just going with it being stuck to my hands and stretching it in between them for most of the knead before it was ready to go back on the table for a final bring together (with quite a bit of extra flour added to try and save this loaf. I honestly have no idea how big this will be in the end with so much dough on my hands. Next time I will be much more gentle with the water and might well use the dough hooks on the electric whisk to save myself some issues with the stickiness.

After forming the loaf I thought that I would skip out to run some errands. I had read that this needed more time to prove than a standard loaf so I thought it would be fine. I was really wrong. In the massive heat at the moment it expanded massively and collapsed a bit creating a huge hub cap of a loaf. It also managed to spread beyond the grease proof paper I had down. Once it was baked I found that this was such a sticky dough it had managed to rip off some of the non stick coating from the tray. 

Once it was cool I cut off the bits of non stick costing and laughing at the irony I had a piece. This is a really flavourful loaf and had a great malty flavour running though it. I loved eating it which is good because it was such a pain to make it. My partner suggested one tweak in future; putting some raisins through it to give little bursts of sweetness which it is eaten and I think that will really lift this special loaf up. Just need to remember all my mistakes and try and find new interesting mistakes to make. This loaf was eaten a bit quicker and managed just 34 miles before it was eaten.

For the end of this period of experimentation I had a challenge that was to be honest entirely self inflicted. A friend was holding a World Cup BBQ and I offered to do the bread. Obviously this could just be standard rolls but I thought it was better to do some loafs along side it. First of all the Ale and Rye loaf. Rather than do all of the kneading by hand I decided to do a good bit of it at the beginning with an electric whisk with the dough hooks. This really help first of all get it kneaded but also meant that it had come together and was less sticky when the time came to finish kneading by hand. I also was less daring with the liquids so the dough was easier to handle.

It was still pretty difficult though so still a special loaf. Taking my partners advice I folded in 100g of raisins and they really made a different; adding a bit of sweetness to offset the malty earthiness of the beer. This lifted the loaf in my opinion and made it a tastier more balanced bread.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2902668/easy-white-bread-rolls

The next thing on the list was the burger and hot dog rolls. I was running out of time at this point so was looking for a recipe that gave me a couple of short cuts. The above helps because of the little bit of sugar helps boost the yeast as does the warm water. The rise was quick and soon I had 16 rolls ready for any protein you can throw at it. This is a good recipe for the back pocket in the basic bread range. I do need to get better at shaping though. Originally half of these were hot dog bun and half burgers but they clearly all wanted to be the same in the end. Speaking of which you might have noticed a white bloomer peaking its head out in the above pictures. I had a bit of white flour left over and decided to throw this together. Its 2/3 the size of my normal loaf but it worked well as a ‘back up’ bread in case one of them didn’t come out right (a worry for the recipe below).

https://countryskillsblog.com/2014/01/09/pain-de-savoie-from-paul-hollywoods-bread-cooking-the-books-week-2/

This is the final loaf for this post and its one of the ones I’ve been most looking forward to making. Wonderfully rich and flavourful as it has both the bacon and the Comte Cheese to lift it along with the small amount of rye flour which really goes along way. It is not that hard to make actually; the dough is easy to work and its extra ingredients get added easily. I think I took the lardons slightly too far in the frying pan; this recipe might benefit from having less fatty lardons too. It also scared me as the bottom did not sound hollow when I tapped it but it was baked through; I should have just trusted the recipe. I thought the flavour was great; my only regret is that I didn’t have a chance to toast a slice as I think that this is where this loaf would really come alive (and the picture did not come out so I can’t show you how it ended up). All these loaves together managed to go 207 miles before being eaten thanks to a great weekend with multiple stops to make! Next some Soda Breads

A Trio of protein

This months Abel and Cole box comes with 3 great treats. 2 chicken breast, 2 pork escalopes and 2 pieces of coley – so much potential!

https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/peruvian-griddled-chicken-with-smashed-potatoes

I first tackled the chicken and found the above recipe. I really liked the look of the chicken but thought that the sides weren’t going to work for me at this time of year; for some reason the thought of combining Crema fraîche and Soy Sauce did not appeal. So after a bit of reading I replaced it with a sort of genetics rice side. After getting the marinade done I fried off a red onion and garlic clove in oil before adding a diced pepper. Once those were done I added some peas and the rice itself. A sprinkle of paprika finished everything off nicely. 

The chicken itself went in a frying pan rather than a gridle pan and I am glad I chose this as it meant I could really reduce down the marinade and stick it to the chicken. It was a great marinade I’m so glad I found it. The Tamari rather than soy is worth it if you can find it as it has more depth of flavour and it was this umami feel that ended up through the whole dish thanks to this. A real winner of a dish with bags of flavour.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/greek-style-roast-fish

This is one of those nice easy recipes where you are just adding things to a pan or roasting tray in order as you go; it’s even courteous enough to give you enough time to chop everything for the next stage whilst the first stage is cooking. I made a bit of an error and put in a whole lemons worth of wedges rather than a half. I also over added some of the fresh parsley slightly so this whole dish was slightly unbalanced. It tasted great though; the roasted lemons just dissolved away along with the tomatoes to make a very slight sauce which brought the whole thing together. I used a ‘Mediterranean spice mix’ on top of the fish (and through the whole dish actually) instead of just the oregano and it helped add a real depth of flavour to the whole thing. It was a great and easy dish that was light enough for a great summer favourite. 

https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/sticky-honey-five-spice-pork-escalopes-with-noodles

I’m afraid I must end this post with a mistake. This recipe has all the ability to be excellent – the noodle with veg is a great combination and the flavours in the marinade turned sauce were great. Tamari is again confirmed as a great ingredient for me. But what let this down was the meat. It was tender and had enough time to rest but was just a gristly mess to eat. So if made again I would get a different cut of pork or do it with chicken. I would also add a bit more veg; some more carrot for sure but also some bean sprouts or mange tout would make it a better eat.

Aside from litres of tap water as it is so hot at the moment these, dishes were washed down with some bottles from Adnams Brewery and with some old episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Look.

Basic Breads

As I’m sure anyone who reads this is aware I am a cook who flits between recipes and might come back them in a few months or a year. This is fine a suits me to be honest as I want to try new flavours and styles as much as possible but where I don’t think it helps is where my skills need developing. With some time on my hands over the summer I’ve decided to get better at baking bread. After consulting various sources I found a book that is basically how to be self sufficient with bread. It is going to be my guide at the start and if I can make each of their recipes I will hopefully have a much better idea of how to bake bread and also be better set to bake bread much more in my normal work/life pattern. Combining this with Paul Hollywoods Bread bible and lets wee where we end up.

To start, the standard white bloomer. My first attempt here was good, well it was definitely edible and it had that fresh bread effect where everyone on the house tried to eat it before it was cool. Looking at it I made a couple of mistakes. First of all for the prove I lined the bowl with olive oil rather than flour which looking at the result accounts for the two bread ribbons on either side at the bottom. Either I need to work it a bit more after the grove of I need to use the flour like I was told. Secondly the oven temperature was too hot. It needs to be a bit lower and bake for longer so that the bread inside is a bit more done. It was only just baked and a lower temperature would make this surer.

The second attempt has worked better than the first. As it didn’t have the olive oil lining the bowl and instead used flour it was easier to bring back together into the loaf shape and therefore avoided the ‘ribbons’ I got on the first attempt. I kneaded it a bit more (or just more effectively) so the dough was better and I think this made for a nicer crumb structure. It wound up being slightly over-proved on the second prove as it fell back a little but it was only a case of 5 minutes (and as I’m sure everyone who shares a house knows the oven is rarely free exactly when you want it). Finally the lower temperature (200 rather than 220) did help I think as the loaf had longer to cook without browning the top quite a much. A definite improvement but still a bit to go for number 3.

The third attempt looks to be the best yet. The crust is lighter than any others so far which for me suggests that I got the temperature right this time. It also suggests that the oven is less than accurate because as far as I’m aware it was the same both times. I may need a thermometer for it. I also found the best way to stop it sticking to the bowl during its prove; rather than dusting the bowl I dusted the ball of dough itself. This has been the best combination of getting the dough out of the bowl compared with having the oil disrupt the bread coming together when it goes into the tin.

Next I thought I would try and create some free form classic loaves, the bloomer and the cottage loaf. Both of these needed a bit of a different dough with some olive oil mixed in with the water according to Mr Hollywood. Based on internet research this make the dough less elastic and so it has less irregular air hole and a closer texture. Perhaps this makes it stronger and less likely to collapse so it is better for a loaf without a tin – if anyone has any more information please advise. Anyway, the major differences seem to be longer kneading time to get the loaf to come together and a longer time on the second prove to let it rise.

The bloomer I am very happy with; it was firstly huge! As I’m trying to make bread for 2-3 people (depending on whose in) for a few days this is definitely a positive. It is also a better crust. I took the advice to put a litre of water in a roasting tin underneath the bread and this has cause the crust to be more chewy and less crusty. Obviously this is personal taste and there are some times when I would want a crusty loaf but for general eating I think something a bit softer. This method achieves this.

Finally there is the cottage loaf. It is another classic, apparently created to be more tall so it takes up less room in the oven. It is slightly harder to shape as there is no way to know if you have got the top slightly off centre until it has risen. If one side is hotter then it might rise at different rates too; perhaps proving should be done on a Lazy Susan.

Obviously this is just a aesthetic thing which means I do not really care if I am honest. My advice though is to use your sharpest knife to do the cuts in bread. I know some people buy in scalpels to do this and i can see why as you want the least resistance possible to do this. Overall a good start to bread I think and now its time to branch out into different flours.

Seafood Specials

https://blog.hellofresh.co.uk/sri-lankan-prawn-stir-fry/

For this wonderful week off which has been given to me I have decided to cook – a lot. It has been ages and I have been itching to just have time to cook often so that most of my food is fresh rather than desperately trying to cook for the week ahead on my days off then spending most evenings reheating in a microwave in dinner break at work.

We start with some leftovers – well sort of. Some the mango chutney has gone down at a really fast rate and for the last of it I remembered a Sri Lankan Stir Fry I had made several months ago and had the sense to write down the recipe for once. Originally from a Hello Fresh recipe kit this dish was a great balance of flavours that was to be honest quite new for me so I wanted to be able to have it again. So for the first time I will try and recreate it from supermarket supplies.

First of all I had ingredient trouble. It is meant to have a green pepper along with the red which helps balance the sweetness from the other ingredient but unfortunately I could only find the red to yellow end of the rainbow so that is what I must use. Otherwise it is a simple ingredients list; in fact I even asked them to look rear of house in the shop in case they have any green peppers as they are usually the last pepper in the shop.

It is a very simple dish to prep as you just work your way through everything and put it in one of the bowls for each stage of the recipe. There are two stars of this dish and firstly it is the rice. That hint of liquorice running through it from the star anise makes it interesting and works with the salty stock to add a great umami taste. Add in the toasted coconut and this is a great base. The second is the prawns themselves as the relatively small amount of mango chutney basically glazes them creating caramelised sticky goodness surrounding your main event. It is I hope always going to work because it is a great recipe and eats really well.

https://www.simplycook.com/recipes/Ancho-Glazed-Salmon

The second dish for this week is this ancho glazed salmon. The picture for this dish is enough to make your mouth water – all the colours in each part of the dish making it look so vibrant. It is also very very quick to make once the chopping is complete; it’s done in the time it takes to cook the rice and you have time to wash up as well.

It is some fiddly chopping to start with – getting all the pieces of the salsa into a salsa size but actually it was kind of therapeutic. Ironically it was easier to use the pre-chopped fruit first of all because of the small quantities involved but also because it was slightly dried than if the fruit had been enclosed by its skin so was easier and firmer to chop right down to a small dice.

It is a very well balanced dish with the pepper rice giving salt, heat from the ancho glaze and the sweet freshness of the fruit salsa mixing together well however you want to take a forkful. It is a light and flavourful summer dish and a great kit for a mid week meal. As it’s a school night just some squash whilst a made these two and then some music courtesy of the Spotify Throwback Thursday playlist.

Spice Off

What do you do when your partner challenges her friend to a spice off? Well most people would join in but as I am distinctly the lemon and herb end of the Nando’s sauce range I thought that offering to cook would be better for me and my dignity.

My first problem was how to do the spice levels. Rather than cooking lots of things at different levels I thought that the best thing to do would be to get some sauces to have with the food that could then be first of all made by someone else who actually is used to adding lots of heat to food but also for space reasons as it means less dishes on the hob. Enter the sauce shop

https://www.sauceshop.co/collections/gift-boxes/products/hot-sauce-selection-4-x-150ml

I decided to go with a vague Indian theme or at least western imitation from various sources. As nothing should have sauce I started with some other dips, a lemon pickle and a mango chutney which is much more my speed of sauce. The other advantage is that these could be made the day before or even the week before if I was anywhere near that organised. Mr Jamie Oliver to the rescue here – if I am honest this is always one of the first places I look when trying to find a recipe as they have proven successful for me many times before.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/mango-chutney/

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/lemon-pickle/

First of all there was a lot of chopping. This needed 2Kg of mangos and it was so so long to get them all ready. Then there was the vinegar and sugar mix which is certainly one of the most pungent things I’ve ever had to reduce down; just don’t breath in too deeply if you are standing over it unless you have a major blocked nose because this would cure it. Then it just needs to bubble and reduce down as you stand there and wonder if your pan will come clean at the end of this. The Lemon Pickle also require much much dicing of the lemons in order to not have big pieces that would not break down when cooked. As I swore loudly on my last for slices my housemate, apparently thinking that I was just starting, suggested using a food processor. So if anyone else want to make this then please start there so you don’t feel like i did when the wool was pulled from my eyes and I realised how much of a muppet I had been.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1695/indian-bread-with-courgettes-and-coriander

The best thing to dip would be a good bread. Obviously there are traditional breads like a naan and a roti which would be ideal but I thought I would try something a bit more out there; a Courgette bread. The light spicing and the extra flavour added by the courgette would hopefully make a good base for loading then up then adding the sauce. They were actually really easy to make with the courgette actually binding with most os the flour first meaning that it was easier to mix together in some ways than normal bread. The only thing to watch is how long it is on the pan as it catches so quickly (as you can perhaps see from the photo). I also discovered that not whipping out the pan after each one allows the flour to build up which gives a false positive for it being ready as well as adding a burnt flavour to the later breads. So alway give it a quick wipe with your least favourite cloth to keep the flour off.

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/spicy-sour-chickpea-chaat.html

My original thought was to just do some skewers with chicken/halloumi, peppers and some onion petals. but then I was flicking through the Tesco magazine and found this recipe for a Chaat. This very fresh dish is packed with flavour from the herbs and is ideal to balance out the hot sauces that are going to be put all over it. It was so easy to make that I think I will be doing it as a side whenever i make an Indian meal in the future.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/baked-veggie-samosas/

Finally we needed something else to dunk into sauces. I love things like samosas and pakoras but i’m not ever that keen on deep frying stuff at home especially when there are other people in the house; it always feels like something I should give my full attention to rather than trying to chat at the same time. Luckily I found this recipe for oven baked samosas which is much more what I was looking for. The dough looks odd as it has the fat content provided by oil so it was slightly weird to work with. I forgot to over-season the filling when making these which normally would have left them a little bland but luckily as they were going to be had with various sauces and dips i got away with it. But this dough recipe is great and I really think it would work with whatever filling you wanted to try – the only variation is that I used Nigella seeds rather than ajwain because well I had them for the chutney.

And finally the tasting. First of all this all cooked well. With a vary large amount of prep I was able to just throw the samosas in the oven; reheat the breads and then add the bowls of prepped veg into the pan to make the Chaat. For me this was very much the aim – even though I was in the kitchen for most of the day before people arrived I was able to spend most of the time sitting around with wine. Secondly it did work taste wise. The Chaat was a particular win as its freshness and herbs worked well against the spicy sauces. The bread was good but not as flexible as a roti or naan so not terribly usefully if you wanted to wrap up a meal and take it away – with plates it was fine though. The samosas were also good; just that bit more seasoning and spice and they would be a stand alone dish for a lunch but with the chutney they worked fine. Speaking of the chutney for me this was the best thing; it had a bit more kick to it than a shop brought one and also bigger chunks of mango which works for me. It also makes a lot of chutney which means there are many opportunities to use it over the coming couple of weeks. The pickle was nice but it didn’t work as well for me; I’m just not sure it worth the effort of cooking it compared to the other bit. The sauce shop hot sauces also performed very well – the two spice fiends made it all the way up to the top of the scale whilst I languished at the bottom of the table. This meal was washed down with a nice bottle of white Rioja and made over the course of the day with a fair amount of Star Trek: The Next Generation playing in the background.

A chicken duo – Simply Cook

https://www.simplycook.com/recipes

A pair of chicken recipes round off this week. First is Churrasco Chicken. Rather than use a thigh or breast I had a couple of chicken legs left over so I tried this on them. I was also knackered when I made this so instead of wedges I grabbed some pre-cut sweet potato fries. The being knackered also made this a great recipe as it is very easy to prep.

This very nearly worked but I missed slightly. The spice mix was great for the sweet potato chips and I enjoyed the sweetcorn with aioli a lot – they were a great mix. But my subing of the chicken was a mistake as it was much bigger surface area to cover and the skin of the chicken meant that the peri-peri flavour did not penetrate as much as it could have. A very near miss that still gave a good meal.

Second is Cajun chicken with red pepper and sweet potato mash. The title of it sounds great then when you go deeper into the recipe you find bacon, feta and courgettes (I can’t find any Okra in my local shop I’m afraid).

Again it is best to get everything prepped before starting as it makes the whole process much easier (especially as I am currently making a stir fry and a pasta sauce at the same time for the week ahead). And also again it flows really well with the sweet potato starting to boil as the chicken goes in and then the mashing starts when the bacon goes in. A really easy recipe to follow.

The garlic oil seems simple but really adds a lot of depth to the dish especially when mixed with the bacon fat for the cooking of the courgettes (dam these were good) and the cajun spice mix for the chicken is exactly the amount of fire I want. But for me the start of this dish is the red pepper stock which gets mixed into the mash and really lifts the whole thing. A nice bottle of Riesling helped this down along with The Thick of It on Netflix.

The Great Inter-shift Bake Off

At work we have 2 shifts working opposite each other. We also have a fair number of bakers scattered amongst each and therefore a competition evolved. Each year we compete for best overall shift as well as in a few individual categories. Unfortunately it is in my busiest period of work this year so I had to get quite creative in my bakes.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/736229/recipe/improved-chocolate-guinness-cake

My first thoughts were of cakes. I have been practicing a chocolate and Guinness cake (originally a Nigella recipe but since adapted by a BBC Good Food member) for a while now and it is actually perfect for making ahead. It needs to cool overnight really in order to be completely cool for icing. As it does this in the tin and with a tis towel over to top it doesn’t dry out so this is the perfect cake to make. It is a very easy recipe where you have 3 bowls of various ingredients to add to the saucepan of Stout and Butter. It does require so much whisking to keep everything from burning and to make sure that the flour hasn’t stuck in lumps. It then gets poured straight into the preprepared cake tin and then into the oven I find that once the top has solidified sufficiently I cover with tin foil to stop it burning any further. It then needs a lot longer in the oven than the recipe states till it stops whistling and bubbling. A rummage in the beer section of the shops gave me a Thornbridge Cocoa Wonderland; a good substitute for the Guinness which really balances well in the cake giving an undertone of coffee notes. The addition of the double cream to the cream cheese frosting makes it permanently runny and really balances out the rich chocolate flavour well. Then its just finished with some greater chocolate or cocoa powder. This cake is a winner for me as it always gets great reviews and from people who aren’t just me.

https://www.thespicery.com/blogs/spicery-kitchen/april-top-tips-2018

Brownies are famously better after a few days and this is exactly what I was looking for. I chose a chilli brownie recipe after getting this free sample and recipe with all my Spicery kits I got earlier in the month. It is again an easy bake with the only question being when to take it out the oven. I chose the wrong tray really as I went for one which was too deep compared to surface area. The brownies would have had a better baked to squidginess ratio (a scientific term I am sure) if it was in a wider, shallower tray. Still they tasted great especially with the cherries in to amp up the fruitless from the chillis. It was also fun to wait and see who noticed the chilli kick which took a bit of time to come. But everyone agreed it was a nicely warming kick rather than anything too unpleasant.

https://therosielife.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/cornish-fairings-recipe/

Biscuits are another thing that can last for a couple of days if you make the right biscuit. Normally I make Cornish Fairings (from the National Trust’s Teatime Baking Book) to be a little bit soft in the middle because thats how I like them best but as these were going to have to last a few days I thought I’d give them literally an extra minute in the oven. This made them much more like a gingersnap that should ideally be dunked for maximum enjoyment. I double the quantities of spices from the recipe because I think that it is needed to get the best flavour; otherwise they are a little bland to me. A great biscuit the make again which is easy to make.

http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/m/martha-collison-smanaeeshmiddleeasternflatbread.html

Finally something for the bread category. Again time is against me so rather than something that take a lot of proving I found this recipes for Maneesh Flatbreads by GBBO’s Martha. I love Oregano so the spice mix is perfect for my taste buds. I decided to double to quantities so I could make half with Halloumi and half without. But looking back they all should have been Halloumified – it just added an extra flavour and texture. I can also confirm it looks a lot better if the Halloumi goes on before the spices as it stops it catching quite as much. These tasted delicious but I missed a trick serving them alone. They are a good vehicle for Houmous or another dip rather than being a bread to be enjoyed alone. They are also huge – I suppose that the advantage of cooking on a really warm day. So if you ever need new hubcaps then this is your recipe.

My own contritions do not look nearly as big compared to the spread everyone else provided. From Bundt Red Velvet Cakes to Chocolate Croissant to Orange Drizzles to Mille Feuille to Sausage rolls to Ninja Bread Men; we had it all. Certainly enough to ignore the Stay Healthy Poster you can just see int he background above. In all 19 bakes were made by the Blue Shift which was enough to secure us half of the individual medals as well as the coveted trophy (or in fact tea tray with sharpie decorations) of ultimate baking glory. Same again next year we hope!

Goan Cod Curry – Simply Cook

https://www.simplycook.com/recipes

Part two of the Simply Cook kit is one I’ve had before from them during a free trial a couple of years back. The Goan Fish curry give you two great advantages in whipping up a midweek meal. The first is the same as all of their kits for me and that is the amount of flavour and spices they get in those little pots (as very few peoples spice racks would be big enough for all of those different ones). But second is that you don’t need to let the curry cook for ages on the hob to develop that kind of flavour that makes a curry worth eating.

Adding the 7 ingredients needed in order is hardly time consuming so this dish was an actual 30 minutes from start to finish (as I like to have everything prepped before I start. The only thing I did that could have been better is that I brought fish with skin on which just isn’t going to be nice in a curry so removing that was fun (and by fun I mean that there is a plaster on my finger now after I cut it! I need to practice my fish skinning skills apparently). But it was so easy to make this; just add the ingredients in order and use the three flavour pots to amp it up. 

This is my favourite kit so far and it tasted great. You’ve got the freshness of the lime and coconut working with the heat from the chilli and balanced quantise of things like ginger, star anise and mustard seeds (which I love – I’m really in a mustard mood at the moment). Exactly what I needed after a long few days at work.

This was a Background Bake off recipe (I’ve nearly finished them all I promise) and washed down with just some water (as I will be up at 5 again tomorrow).

Scandi Salmon – Simply Cook

https://www.simplycook.com/recipes

Another day, another recipe kit to keep me cooking when time is scarce. It’s actually a day off today, but I’ve spent a lot of it doing chores and baking for our work’s inter-shift Bake Off later in the week (post to follow for sure). I like having fish when I have a day off, mostly because I don’t microwave fish whilst on a break at work if I can help it as it is just not nearly as nice as fresh fish (as well as it being a very pungent smell to inflict on my colleagues).

So tonight’s dinner is Scandi Salmon from Simply Cook. They give you quite a small list of ingredients to buy and three pots of flavour to use at various points during the recipe. In this case, a rub for the salmon itself, a spice mix for the hasselback potatoes and a pickling mix for some cucumber and beetroot slices.

It is very easy to make; the only slightly tricky bit is evenly slicing the hasselbacks (so called after the restaurant they were first served in – Hasselbacken). After that small amount of prep is done, it’s plain sailing with ribboning the veg then just pressing the rub onto the salmon.

I made two mistakes on this recipe. First of all, I tried to use some oil spray (Frylite) I found at the back of the cupboard rather than nipping out to get some more proper oil. This meant the potatoes were only just done and were not quite the texture I would want. I also forgot the spoonful of crème fraîche at the end. However, to be honest, I think this addition would have taken away from the flavour of the salmon rub, which would have been a shame.

I really like this recipe as it balances the three main elements well, packs a great big flavour punch (just the right amount of chilli following the main event) and it is so easy to make and quick to boot. A great recipe made with Bake Off on the TV (as I try to improve my skills by osmosis) and some ice cold apple juice to cool off after a glorious bank holiday Monday in London.