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.