Knead for Speed

 The February rain was unrelenting in a way described by one of the classic cricket broadcasters and writers of the second half of the twentieth century. There is something different about the rain at this time of year. It seems to create more floods and leave people more drained from having to travel in it. Almost as if it is the final boss to get through before the spring and summer seasons arrive following a long winter.

There was not much to do on the Saturday just gone then but stay indoors and sort out life admin and plenty of cooking projects. I decided to make some homemade Rosemary Bread to power us up for the week to come.

On the player was Paul Weller’s debut album. This eponymous record, released in 1992, appeared after three years of inactivity following the disbandment of his previous group The Style Council. His disappearance from the music scene allowed him to return refreshed with this album and reach great heights from thereon. 

It reminded me of my four year hiatus from my beloved cricket club, triggered largely by spending more and more time in tedious committee rooms and less time actually playing the game I loved. The time away allowed me to grow as a person and so return in a position to contribute meaningfully to matches with bat and ball, and captain on occasions, in a way I could only have dreamed of during my first stint with the club. 

With these happy thoughts on my mind, I turned to the ingredients for this bread which go like this:

500 grams of bread flour.

1 sachet of yeast 

200 millilitres of warm water 

50 millilitres of milk 

Some sprigs of fresh Rosemary from the garden.

Pinch of pink Himalayan salt.

Sunflower oil and Plain Flour to soften and harden the dough as required.

The method went like this:

1. Stir together the Bread Flour, Yeast and Pink Himalayan Salt in a mixing bowl.

2. Gradually add the Warm Water and Milk plus the Rosemary until all the ingredients are absorbed and you have a pliable mixture.

3. Sprinkle a liberal amount of Plain Flour on the worktop and knead the dough on the worktop for around ten minutes absorbing the Plain Flour as you knead. 

4. Add some Sunflower Oil to avoid the Dough getting too dry and if it gets too sticky add some Plain Flour to make sure the dough is easy to manipulate but isn’t excessively sticky or moist. Practice makes perfect here.

5. When the dough is properly kneaded, roll into a sausage shape and cut lines across it.

6. Leave on a greased baking tray to rise for around thirty minutes.

7. Bake in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for around thirty to thirty five minutes.

The end result was a loaf of bread that was thick and slightly crunchy on the outside with a soft fluffy interior. It worked equally as well as a sweet dish with coffee or as a savoury dish acting as a sandwich for a corned beef cake with cucumber and lettuce. Another recipe on the list for the fasting month that would soon be upon us.

Sushi City

 The first day of February set the seal on an action-packed January, which had seen plenty of spiritual growth, some resetting of important things and the prelude to a month of intermittent fasting to come. I was on the lookout for some quick, easy and filling recipes that could serve to power us up before fasting sessions and revitalise us after we broke our fasts. I looked no further than a homemade sushi recipe.

I realised music too would be out of the equation during the month of fasting and so took the opportunity to listen to one of my current favourites in the shape of the Style Council’s 1989 album “Modernism; a new Decade” . The final effort from this group, which was not released until 1998, sees messrs Talbot, Lee and Weller embrace wholeheartedly the burgeoning acid house club and trip hop scene with a record that is satisfying and as essential as similar contemporary efforts from the likes of the Happy Mondays and Soul II Soul.

Sushi has long been a love of mine since a trip to a now defunct restaurant in one of the big cities near home back in 2008. I’d never made it from scratch but now seemed as good a time as any. 

The ingredients were as follows:

One cup of Sushi Rice.

A small tin of Red Atlantic Salmon.

A cucumber.

An avocado.

Some fish sauce.

5 seaweed sushi roll wraps.

The way to make the Sushi is like this:

1. Boil and simmer the Rice for 25 minutes. Then leave to cool down.

2. Take a wooden sushi rack and put a sushi roll wrap on the rack.

3. Spread the rice over the sushi roll wrap so it covers three quarters of it and is half a centimetre deep.

4. Spray in a vertical line down the part of the rice immediately to your right the fish sauce.

5. Put the Avocado, Salmon and Cucumber on top of the line of fish sauce in a straight, vertical line.

6. Roll the contents up to form a tube, use two or three roll wraps if there’s a lot of filling in your sushi, and leave it in the tube to set.

7. Once set, remove and cut into slices and serve with Soy Sauce. 

This was a recipe that was filling and very flavoursome and it took my mind back to a recent rewarding trip to Asia. Next time I’ll improve it even more by spreading the rice more thinly through several tubes and using more cucumber and avocado to make more bite-sized sushi pieces.

World of Cupcakes

The Holiday Season brought much time to reflect, unwind, be thankful and focus on the future. Not to mention to try some new recipes. This time round it was an opportunity to make some cupcakes with the ingredients below:

Ingredients

For the Sponge:

225 grams of Self-Raising Flour

Half a teaspoon of Baking Soda

Four Beaten Eggs.

225 grams of Salted Butter, softened at room temperature.

200 grams of Sugar, 100 of Brown Sugar and 100 of Caster Sugar.

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence. 

If you want a coffee sponge, add three tablespoons of instant Coffee of your choice. 

For the Icing

50 grams of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature

5 tablespoons of icing sugar

Food Colouring of your choice

Dolly Mixture, ensure it is made with Beef Gelatine, rather than pork, to keep it healthy and Halal. 

The Method

1. Cream the Butter and Sugar for the sponge until fluffy. 

2. Add the eggs and stir thoroughly into the mixture.

3. Add the flour and baking soda, plus the vanilla essence and, if desired, instant coffee granules. Stir into a thick paste.

4. Divide the mixture between bun cases, the mixture should make about sixteen or more cupcakes depending on how liberal you are in distributing the sponge mixture.

5. Cook in the oven for around 35 -40 minutes on gas mark 2.5. That way the sponge is moist and not excessively dry.

6. At the end of the cooking period, you will know the buns are ready because the sponge comes out clean when a fork is stuck into them and the sponge will spring back slightly when pressed. 

7. Place the buns on a wire rack to cool. 

8. Make the topping by creaming together the remaining butter and icing sugar. Add food colouring of your choice and decorate the cupcakes, once cooled, with the icing and the Dolly Mixtures. 

This recipe was one that was a hit all over the local region as we distributed cupcakes to loved ones for them to savour as 2026 approached us. 

King Kenny's Muffins

 It seemed almost like a dream, two weeks in a tropical paradise with the family sandwiched between two life-affirming stops in the Arabian Desert. In between, there was a break at the seaside at a resort featuring the bluest and clearest of seas and sand that was whiter than white. On the seafront was one of a chain of restaurants founded by the late country star Kenny Rogers. While there we sampled healthy fast food, if that is not an oxymoron, that included corn muffins. These were the muffins that inspired today's dish.

Having absorbed more Taylor Swift by osmosis, I found her 2019 album "Midnights", featuring the undeniably defiant "Karma" was on the player as I prepared this recipe.

These were the ingredients:

2 eggs Beaten

140g Cream Cheese

Half a tin of Sweetcorn.

Pinch of Mustard

Pinch of Tarragon.

Pinch of Pepper.

Pinch of Nutmeg

4 tablespoons full cream milk.

400g Self-Raising Flour.

Method

1. Stir the wet ingredients, eggs, cheese, milk and sweetcorn, together to form a paste.

2. Add the dry ingredients, being the flour herbs and spices, and stir them into the mixture.

3. Divide the mixture into balls around the size of a golf ball. 

4. Cook for 20 minutes on Gas Mark 6 on a greased and flat baking tray. 

5. Remove from the oven and put the muffins on a wire rack to cool.

Savoury met sweet on this dish while the pastry had a light and fluffy vibe to it that made it very textured and flavoursome. 

Cake it to the limit

It was the penultimate day in November and the rain just would not stop. That was a feeling that once would have left me exhausted and willing to hibernate until the first of January. Those days are gone though, brighter thoughts have ensued and a better way of growing and doing things naturally has followed. 

One way to feel thankful for that was to use the indoor downtime to make a cake that was inspired by a recipe from a couple who had, by taking matters into their own hands in the appropriate way, contributed towards new growth and happiness.

The cake was a coffee cake, the music on the player was an album taken from Fleetwood Mac’s  spirited 1997 comeback tour called “The Dance” and the mood in the kitchen was decidedly groovy.

Here’s the recipe:

For the Sponge 

225g Self-Raising Flour.

225g Sugar

225g soft unsalted Butter. 

4 beaten eggs

Two teaspoons of instant coffee.

For the filling

Five tablespoons of Icing sugar.

A tablespoon of Cocoa Powder

50 grams of Melted butter.

A tablespoon of instant Coffee. 

The method goes like this:

1. Cream the butter and Sugar until they are fluffy.

2. Mix the Eggs in.

3. Then add flour and the two teaspoons of  instant coffee and stir until there is a thick paste.

4. Divide the mixture evenly between two baking tins containing greased baking paper.

5. Cook in oven on Gas Mark 4 for 35 minutes.

6. Remove the sponges from the oven and leave to cool on one side.

7. Make the filling by mixing the tablespoon of instant coffee, 50 grams of  melted butter and five tablespoons of icing sugar together in a bowl to make a smooth paste.

8. Once the sponges have dried, remove from their cases and put on plates. Spread the icing mixture over the top of one sponge and then place the other atop it to form the cake.

The strength of the coffee was, in this cake, balanced out with the sweetness of the sugar. It proved a hit on the day and again when it was made, this time with some vanilla extract in the mix, for a special party on an equally rainy day just over a week later. 

Upper Class Beef

 An inspired, tasty meal at what is hoped will become the new "local" helped me in creating this beef meal recently. Thanks to the Peak Edge Hotel and Red Lion Restaurant for inspiration. Check out their website and amazing menu at: Red Lion Restaurant in the Peaks - Peak Edge Hotel 4* and the beef steak with Shallot and Chive sauce below:

One of the the best things about dining out is discovering new recipes and taking the inspiration from those recipes back home to apply to your own cooking. It is a bit like living someone else's dream and then borrowing its contents to help you live your own dream. The recipe in question was venison with green vegetables and blackberries and I felt I could create something similarly tasty using some Beef steak from the freezer. 

The ingredients of this dish are :

1 piece of Rump Beef Steak.

5 leaves of Kale.

2 Parsnips, peeled, topped, tailed and cut into batons. 

For the Shallot Sauce

1 Shallot, peeled, topped and tailed and then cut thinly.

5 chive stems diced thinly. 

10 ounces of melted, Salted Butter.

A tablespoon of Cornflour 

A pinch of Mustard.

The music on the player for this one was 10cc's 1978 record "Bloody Tourists". I first encountered this record on a rack between several Genesis albums at the house of the father of a good friend of mine at the turn of the century. Released two years after the departure of important founder members Godley and Creme, the two remaining original members and a core of session men are on good form with the big hit "Dreadlock Holiday" and plenty of other quality numbers on the record to bolster its brilliance. 

Let's now find out how to make this recipe, it is like this:

1. Fry the Rump Steak. For rare, which isn't really Halal, 2-3 minutes per side but to keep it Halal try frying it for closer to 6-8 minutes per side on a medium heat.

2. In a separate frying pan, heat some butter and then fry the Kale on a medium heat for around 10 minutes to create a crunchy texture and a sweet taste. 

3. Steam the parsnips for 15 minutes and add into the frying pan with the Kale when that is finishing cooking.

4. To make the Sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the Shallot cooking it on a medium heat for about five minutes. Turn off the heat and add the Cornflour, Chives and Mustard and stir them thoroughly together. Re-heat and cook on the hob for a further five minutes ensuring the sauce is quite runny. 

Serve by arranging the Steak, Kale and Parsnip in a creative way on a plate and then drizzle the Shallot Sauce over the Steak. 

The richness and fresh ingredients of the Sauce coupled with the crunch of the Kale and protein of the steak made this feel like a restaurant quality dish was being served at home. 

Field of Breams

To quote a vintage 1980s episode of Doctor Who, it was a wet November on Earth. The day never seemed to get light due to the short daylight hours and heavy cloud with relentless rain. It's weather like this that makes the moods of many British people see-saw between elation during the long sunny summer days and sadness during the winter months. However, a wider perspective on faith, the world we live in and some good quality food can chase seasonal sadness away. 

It was the philosophy above that was taken into the making of today's recipe of Sea Bream with Greens.

The ingredients for this dish are:

1 Sea Bream, gutted and thoroughly washed.

1 bag of Spinach

8 Ounces of pre-cooked Boiled Rice.

12 Peanuts.

1 Large Parsnip, peeled, topped, tailed and cut into the shape of some batons.

Small Chunks of Fresh Cucumber

On the player was Taylor Swift's current offering "Life of a Showgirl" . Taylor's career before this album has been stellar and in her own she has been as iconic to the current generation as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Michael Jackson were to their own generations. The album finds her moving beyond the bittersweet songs of lost love and distrust and into a glorious technicolour of a wider lyrical range and varied arrangements. This is, perhaps, in no small part due to her finding a genuine romantic partner in her life. 

So to the method of this dish:

1. Fry the Sea Bream on a medium heat turning frequently for around 35-40 minutes. The goal is to make the skin crisp as a potato chip while ensuring the flesh inside the Bream is cooked.

2. Steam the parsnip for around twenty minutes until soft but still retaining a bit of crunchiness.

3. Fry the Spinach, Rice and Peanuts on a medium heat for around 10 minutes until the Spinach has softened and the mixture has compacted. 

4. Remove the Bream from the pan once cooked and remove the flesh from the bones and the gills . 

5. Serve and garnish with the Cucumber Cubes.

It was the first time I had made this dish and the Nuts with Spinach provided important iron while the Bream had a fresh but quite rich taste to make this a filling treat on a wet winter's night.