Scrambled Soya

The snow over the last few days has thwarted some of the plans I have had over the Christmas period and meant that I have needed to stay closer to home than first thought. Today was no exception as I was able to get out a short walk however although the main roads near my house had improved, traversing the side roads nearly resulted in a number of slips that would have seen me end up flat on my back if I had been less lucky.

After I got home I stuck my new Christmas Present on the playlist; it was Genesis' last studio release 1997's Calling All Stations which features vocalist Ray Wilson and lots of languid songs like "Shipwrecked", "If that's what you need", "Uncertain Weather," and "There must be some other way" that matched my tired midwinter mood. The album is a little bleak but very atmospheric and despite being disliked by many I think it is a key part of the band's often brilliant and multifaceted catalogue.

As I watched the weak winter sun caress the crisp snow covering the back garden I realised that I needed to make something quick and easy that was comfort food so as to make me feel a bit more motivated. The inspiration for this recipe came from a trip to Verdo Lounge Café in Sutton Coldfield in the summer. This café has a wonderfully innovative approach to its recipes and often puts interesting twists on traditional dishes using spices and sauces as is evidenced in their excellent 'Dirty Beans on Toast' dish that is found on their breakfast menu.

I followed Verdo's example by making some scrambled eggs with my beans on toast that included soya milk and paprika in the ingredients. I did this by first beating together two eggs in a bowl with a whisk and then in a saucepan melting twenty five grams of margarine while also adding half a tablespoon of paprika to the melting margarine. Once the margarine was melted I added the beaten eggs and two tablespoons of unsweetened soya milk. I turned up the heat on the saucepan and stirred the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon.

I saw that despite the extra heat the mixture was not thickening, probably because there was not enough egg in the pan. This said I poured the yolk and white of another egg into the mixture and slowly but surely it began to thicken and the eggs and paprika absorbed the melted margarine and soya milk. Once this happened I served the scrambled eggs by putting them on top of some baked beans, that I had laced with paprika, and toast.

The use of the paprika gave this traditional dish a really distinct flavour and adding a much needed warmth to it. The meal was made healthier through the use of the soya milk, as opposed to full fat dairy milk or cream, and the melted margarine also added a richness to the eggs that helped make this snack into more of a main meal.

Above: the scrambled egg was nearly ready to serve when it had absorbed all the soya milk and melted margarine.

Perfect food for a winter's day with some beans on toast.

Festive Foccacia

The weekend before last I was starting to feel in a festive mood as we had put the Christmas decorations up and to match the upsurge in festive cheer that had started to seep through my body I decided to make some Focaccia Bread with a particularly seasonal twist.

There was more Jethro Tull on the playlist while making this bread; this time it was 1987's "Crest of a Knave" which beat Metallica to a Grammy Award for best heavy metal album around the time it was released.

Focaccia Bread is something that reminds me of my childhood as my parents would often buy it from the supermarket to have as a side dish to a salad. The key to making decent Focaccia is to make the dough soft and give it plenty of flavour and with this in mind I mixed together fifteen ounces of wholemeal bread flour, a tablespoon and a half of yeast and two teaspoons of dried sage. As with all the best breads it is important to get some flavouring into the mix early on by mixing it with the dry ingredients and this was the reason why I added in the sage at this time.

I next added in six teaspoons of olive oil with nine fluid ounces of cold water and stirred the whole mixture until the dry ingredients had become part of the wet ingredients and there were no loose parts of the dry ingredients left in the mixing bowl. 

I then kneaded the dough heavily for about five minutes until I had a soft piece of dough that was as easy to shape as Plastecine.  I placed the dough on a greased baking tray and made an indent in the middle of it that was around five centimetres deep and two or three centimetres wide. Either side of the indent I used the other end of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the bread that I filled with dried sage. I also added raw red onion to the indent in the dough and then glazed the bread with Olive Oil using a brush.

I then cooked the bread in the oven for around twenty five minutes at 190 degrees (or 200 degrees if you don't have a fan oven). The bread had a real taste of Christmas Dinner about it with the sage and onion and the wholemeal bread flour provided it with a more savoury taste than it would have had if I had used white bread flour.

Above before putting in the oven the bread was strewn with onions and olive oil.

Sliced and ready to serve.

Kurly Kale

Friday night had been an evening of excitement and luxury; we had checked into a plush hotel, that incidentally fifty years earlier had been the venue where my late great aunt had held her wedding reception, and that evening I had night that involved a four course meal and lots of quality conversation with new colleagues all in the name of the work Christmas Party.

The next morning after a suitably fortifying breakfast and a walk round the picturesque grounds of the hotel we went our separate ways; variously to do Christmas shopping and have a haircut and much needed rest. When I returned home I had a short rest and then thoughts turned to a making a meal to revitalise me. As I my circumstances have changed recently I have begun to split my weekends between my hometown and the West Yorkshire town of Huddersfield. One of this town's many qualities is that it has a good number of curry  houses and therefore the evening's meal was one I wanted to remind me of those places. As those I was cooking for were vegetarians no meat was allowed and although the best curries in my opinion need to contain meat I found a decent compromise in a Kale and Green Lentil Curry.

As darkness began to fall and flocks of gulls wafted south over the house on the late afternoon breezes I began preparing the food. The album I listened to Jethro Tull's was underrated 1982 offering Broadsword and the Beast. It was unfairly criticised by reviewers on its release for its over reliance on synthesisers but this is unfair as the synth work is atmospheric and fits well into the band's overall sound. The album also shows a willingness for the band to evolve from earlier records; a hallmark of all the great bands. The version of the record I chose to listen contains the original album which includes the defiant title track, the frosty, claustrophobic "Clasp" and the hard-rocking "Seal Driver". It also has a number of excellent bonus tracks including the festive "Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow" and the bouncy, earnest "I am your gun".

There are really two parallel approaches to preparing curries that ultimately converge into one; the first is the cooking of the main ingredients, the second is making the curry paste and the final part is combining the main ingredients and the curry paste. I first placed around two hundred and fifty grams of green lentils in a pan of water with a teaspoon of powdered Turmeric. I put the pan on the hob, brought it to boil and let the lentils and Turmeric boil for twenty minutes.

While the lentils and Turmeric boiled I sliced up around twenty green beans into small pieces and topped and tailed a carrot before peeling it and dicing it. After the lentils had been boiling for the requisite time I added the carrots and green beans to the boiling pan with one hundred and twenty five grams of pre-washed Kale, half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and two teaspoons of coriander. I left these items to boil with the rest of the contents of the pan for another twenty five minutes.

Next I prepared the other part of the curry; that is the curry paste. I took two shallots and three cloves of garlic and cut them up finely. I put them in a Le Cresceut on the hob and fried them with some olive oil on a medium heat for around five minutes with a teaspoon of cumin and one of coriander. I find that the tastiest curry pastes are those where the fresh ingredients are combined with the spices early on in preparation. Next I added two tablespoons of tomato passatta and stirred them hard into the garlic, shallots and herbs. I turned the hob down to the lowest light possible while I waited for the ingredients in the pan to boil for a sufficient time.

Once the contents had boiled enough I poured them into the Le Cresceut with the curry paste and then combined the ingredients. After it all had been heated through it was ready to serve with some white rice I had boiled up. Despite the lack of meat the curry still had plenty of strength and taste with the Kale adding a robustness to the dish the combined well with the varied spices.

All the ingredients in the Le Cresceut warming through

Ready to eat with a side order of rice