All the young people are home from university and busy sending can you come and get me texts at three o clock in the morning and telling stories of their new lives visiting blues clubs in Soho and drinking shots and having arguments with their lecturers and doors getting broken during a party and demanding to know how do you cook chicken in the oven again?
They seem well and happy, bubbling over with energy and enthusiasm and eating vast amounts of everything. We had our first celebration last night, a big feast of roast lamb, potatoes and vegetables, plenty of gravy, and then ice-cream and special biscuits and fruit and cheese and nuts. Prosecco for the young people, proper beer for the old fellas, a large brandy for the cook.
Today is more sober, a #meatlessmonday meal of split red lentils made into an easy dish and served with mashed potatoes, swede and peas:
Easy Red Lentils
200g split red lentils, washed
100g onions, roughly chopped
100g carrots, roughly chopped
500ml vegetable stock or 1 vegetable stock cube
15ml olive or other vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
optional:
15ml tomato puree
1 garlic clove, minced
Preparation time: about 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 20 minutes
Serves four, costs pennies and has about the same calories
Method:
Make up the stock cube (if using) with 500ml boiling water.
Sauté the onions and carrot in the oil over a medium heat until they soften, stirring occasionally. Add the minced garlic (if using), thyme and bayleaf and cook for a few more minutes, stirring to prevent the garlic burning.
Add the lentils and vegetable stock, and tomato puree (if using).
Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer until the lentils are cooked, checking and stirring occasionally, add a little more stock or water, if needed. Check before seving and add seasoning as needed.
While the lentils are cooking, peel and thinly slice or dice the potatoes, rinse in cold water, then add boiled water to cover and a pinch of salt. Bring to a fast boil, turn down the heat to a slow boil and allow to cook until soft (ten-fifteen minutes); strain the potatoes and mash with a little milk and a knob of butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Swede can be cooked in the same way - either separately or with the potatoes.
We had rye bread on the side - I tried my new rye flour with my standard bread machine recipes and settings using 50% rye flour and 50% strong white bread flour (both produced by Dove's Farm, although mine came from Leicester Wholefoods).
Rye bread baked today in the bread machine: very light and crumbly with 50% rye flour and 50% strong white bread flour. I added 5g caraway seeds, too.
While I was experimenting in the kitchen and it being Christmas, I decided to make some pease pudding - an old-fashioned English dish, still eaten in the North East, with a nursery rhyme to match:
Source Porridge, pudding and potage are interchangeable - published about 1760 it says. I was never sure about the nine days old bit. I guess it depends how hungry you were.
Then I discovered you had to soak the peas first ... tomorrow then :) but here's a recipe and method from 1750 ...
Delicious, eh? ;)
