Peas and beans in the garden

I've just planted out some peas and beans. Sadly, the autumn-sown peas and beans didn't survive the winter, mainly because I was too idle to cover them through the harsh weather. The rotting remnants of the plants stayed in the ground just outside the kitchen window all through February, causing one visitor to remark on how well my compost heap was doing.

So I went to the garden centre and found some sturdy little plants; the weedy-looking sweet peas in the middle were germinated on the kitchen windowsill, and I've planted them out before pinching them out and giving them a chance to bulk up because I had them in tiny little plugs which wasn't doing their lovely long roots any good at all. So it's kill or cure. Fingers crossed.

Garlic paste

Here's a worthwhile time-saver: garlic paste on hand in the fridge, no need to fry off before adding to - well, anything you're cooking, really. You just need a food mill, unless you've got strong arms and a sieve. Keeps well.















8 heads of garlic
2-3 bay leaves
a bunch of thyme
peppercorns and salt
a little oil
water

Break the heads into cloves, but no need to peel them. Put in a single layer on a baking tray; add the peppercorns and herbs, a splash of oil and enough water to come not quite half way up. Cover the dish with foil. Bake for 90 minutes at 150C, until the garlic is completely soft.

Fish out the pepper and bay leaves, and some of the twiggier bits of thyme. Drain and push through a mill or sieve. Add a little sea salt and bottle. Keep in the fridge.

Note: These quantities make about 300ml.

Quick real bread - a new take on Jim Lahey's loaf 2

Karen at Cornflower baked the original Jim Lahey bread today ... it's a two-day process that makes good bread. If you need bread on the table NOW, just bake your usual dough in a covered Le Creuset pot (what Americans call a Dutch oven) in a hot oven. The fastest I can manage this is 90 minutes start to finish (45 minutes in the breadmaker on dough setting), straight into the hot pot without a rest (better to rest the dough for at least 10 minutes, but things are not always perfect, and yeast is very forgiving), 30 minutes covered, 10 uncovered. A little time to cool. Method and links here.

The loaf in the photograph was made in a hurry, but, even so, had a good holey crumb and tasted great

Bread - a new take on Jim Lahey's loaf

I've been baking a lot of bread recently. I haven't bought a loaf for a couple of years, and these days my homebaked bread feeds not only the family but also the chickens and the dog. I use a bread machine for days when there isn't the time or inclination to bake by hand; in the winter in this cold house it's the most reliable place to nurture the yeast, so I often use the dough setting and then finish the loaf by hand.

Years ago, I was one of a multitude of bloggers entranced by the New York Times loaf, and this winter I've been reading Jim Lahey's wonderful book explaining how it came about, the journey of a lifetime. And so I've been playing with the core idea of that bread: baking the dough in a hot, covered Le Creuset pan in the oven.

It's the ultimate loaf for beginners: whatever dough you use, the end result is a beautiful boule of bread, a little cracked, full of air

- it even gives rise to a wholemeal loaf made with winter wheat, which normally makes the kind of heavy wholemeal loaf that gives home baking a bad name.

Try it: make your usual dough. After the first rise, shape it loosely into a ball,* dusting liberally with flour or semolina/polenta (it gives it a nice finish, but it also means you can pick it up easily). Leave it to rest while you heat the oven to 220C at least - if your oven will go to 240C, so much the better. Put a Le Creuset pan**** + lid in the oven**. When the oven and the pan are hot hot hot, remove the lid and drop the dough in***. Put the lid back, and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake for 10 more minutes. The crust will sing as it cools (on a rack).

Notes

* don't worry if the dough is shaggy, don't worry if you can't shape it, the heat of the covered pan will sort all this out
**no need to grease or flour, so long as your loaf has a good dusting of flour or cornmeal, it won't stick
***the dough should be as centrally placed as possible, for a perfectly circular loaf; if you drop it off-centre, you'll get a charmingly lop-sided loaf
****you can apparently also use a Pyrex casserole, but I've never tried this

















Things to do with stale or leftover bread

Be warned, these suggestions only work with good bread - useless with supermarket pap!

Panzanilla
Herb stuffing for roast chicken
Grilled trout with rosemary stuffing
Baked scallops
Anchovy toasts
Bread sauce


Related posts

Daily bread
Daily bread 2

Six seed rolls
Bread knots - another simple way to make beautiful and delicious rolls, using this dough, or your default dough

Yeast starter for bread - and the bread make your own sourdough starter

No-knead bread the famous NY Times recipe
Speeded-up no-knead bread and a different take on it

Yoghurt bread fabulous, easy, TRY IT
Quick oat loaf
Spelt bread - it's getting easier to buy this highly-flavoured flour

Anti-oxidant tea bread - I made this for my husband for a pre-surgery boost - delicious, too!

Yeast conversion - fresh/dried/quick
Oven temperature conversions - Centigrade, Fahrenheit, gas mark, descriptive


Useful links

Susan at Farmgirl Fare has just updated her very good post of tips for better baking

She's one of the contributors to A Year in Bread, which is a very useful resource for anyone interesting in baking

Tanna at My Kitchen in Half Cups has been an inspiration to my baking, although our paths don't cross so much these days ... try her cornbread