Monday 29 August 2016

Sourdough ciabatta

So what on earth is 70s about sourdough ciabatta? Well, it's a tenuous link I grant you, but Italy did exist in the 70s, and so did sourdough, it just wasn't cool. They call it artistic license, or in this case, license...

My sourdough journey began last Christmas with a voucher from the Bearded Argentinian for a bread making course in Hackney (where else?), although it was June before I managed to go. The course was at E5 Bakehouse near London Fields station, a short Boris Bike-ride away (only once again there were no bikes at the Barbican, so I had to get the bus). It was run by head baker Eyal and I can't recommend it enough - 6 hours of patient tuition, demonstration and hands on practice resulting in 4 bagels, 3 ciabattas, 1 rye loaf, a ball of "Hackney wild" dough to bake at home, a pot of Jeff (my sourdough starter), a banneton proving bowl and a dough scraper. I didn't bother trying to Boris bike home with that lot strapped to the handlebars! 


The Hackney Wild is probably the tastiest loaf we made but takes 4 days to make, and this ciabatta is so delicious, even just dipped in olive oil. You'll need a sourdough starter, either by making one from organic flour and water, or asking someone kindly for a portion of theirs.

Ingredients

makes 3-4 loaves - sounds like a lot but trust me you'll eat it

130g leaven, made from 20g starter, 90g water and 90g strong white flour, left overnight.
250g lukewarm water
3.5g dried yeast (half a sachet of fast acting yeast)
20g olive oil 
330g strong white flour
8g sea salt



Method

- Add the water, yeast and olive oil to the leaven and mix together using one hand and squishing it through your fingers

- Add the flour, mix and leave at room temperature for 20 minutes

- Sprinkle on the salt and mix in, using a bit of water to dissolve it, and leave for 30 minutes

- Drizzle olive oil around the side of the bowl and scrape the dough into a ball in the middle using a dough scraper. Then use a stretch & fold* technique to "knead" the bread for a couple minutes. Leave for 30 minutes and repeat twice more. The dough will become silkier and smoother with each round.


*stretch & fold was the most valuable takeaway from the class for me and you'll probably have to go yourself to learn it. It involves holding the dough with one hand, stretching it out away from you with the other and folding back in. I don't know why this is different from kneading but it works - you can feel the gluten strengthening with each stretch.

 - Oil the work surface, pour the dough out and knock into an oblong. Fold over itself in thirds, turn 90 degrees and fold again. Rest for 45 minutes.

- Now flour the work surface (yes this is all delightfully messy) and stretch the dough out. Cut into 3 or 4 loaves and prove on a lined baking tray for 60 minutes


- Bake at 230 degrees for about 20 minutes


- Enjoy while still warm with the best quality extra virgin olive oil you can get your hands on. I'm also a massive fan of this year's cheese of the moment, Burrata, which seems to be in every menu going but goes brilliantly with this bread







Tuesday 16 August 2016

Celery soup (aka Barbican party leftovers)

Remember the stuffed celery from last week's 1970 Barbican party? Well I didn't stuff all of it - I should have done because a) it was surprisingly popular and b) what on earth am I going to do with half a head of celery? Not eat it raw, obviously, it's disgusting. Just as fruit salad shouldn't be classified as pudding, food that takes more calories to eat than you get from eating it shouldn't be classified as food.

So it's back to old favourite Delia and her matching orange-pan-and-cardigan combo on the evening standard cookbook, for some celery and nutmeg soup in the hope that all the other ingredients disguise the taste of celery...

Ingredients 
(for 2, or 1 person twice if no one else will risk it)

Leftover celery
1/2 large onion
2 small potatoes
250ml vegetable or chicken stock (from a cube)
125ml milk
Nutmeg


Method

- Wash the celery well, peel off any stringy bits and chop small. Also chop the onion and potato (no need to peel the potato)

- Cook the onion and potato in some butter for a couple of minutes then add the celery. season, cover and leave to sweat for 10 minutes (look - 3 out of 4 Hobs in a row!)


 - Pour in the stock and milk and simmer for another 30 to 40 minutes, then carefully blend with a soup stick


- Serve with a dollop of Greek yoghurt, grated nutmeg and some toasted flaked almonds. This should just about cover up any taste of celery - enjoy!





Saturday 13 August 2016

Celebrating in 1970

Our flat is in the first Barbican block to be completed in 1969, so when we moved in we danced to a 1969 soundtrack whilst sitting on the floor eating pizza... One year on, we didn't just update the playlist but added a 1970 menu to complement proceedings. Fortunately our friends are lovely enough to eat pizza sitting on the floor and eat random homemade 1970s experiments...



The menu
(in photos from top to bottom)

- Devilled eggs: providing huge amusement to Dr Hill with piping bag "egg farts"; note sprinkling paprika over them hides terrible piping technique
- Ham & mushroom vol-au-vents and Salmon & cream cheese vol-au-vents: incredibly easy with shop bought puff pastry
- Crunchy crisp chicken: photographed twice as so amazing, from Zena Skinner
- Stuffed celery: one of the surprise favourites of the evening
- Cheese and pineapple hedgehog underpinned by half a grapefruit as instructed by Auntie Katherine
- Porn star martinis which sound so 70s they count
- Garlic potatoes (from the familiar Delia's evening standard cookbook; basically baked potatoes stuffed with Boursin, no photo as I was making them during the party and forgot)
- and of course Prawn cocktail (detailed below)


You'll be relieved to know that I'm not going to do the recipes for all the dishes, and Zena Skinner's crunchy crisp chicken will get its own post as it rightly deserves (yes, it is chicken coated with actual crisps!).

Prawn cocktail recipe

Marie Rose sauce:

Tomato ketchup
Mayonnaise
Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco


I wasn't in a measuring mood, so the sauce is roughly half and half tomato ketchup mixed with mayonnaise, with a couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce and a few drops of Tabasco. Build the cocktail with some crispy lettuce, plump peeled pink prawns and the sauce either on the side or over the prawns. Or a combo of the two as below (dropped some prawns in the dip). Top tip: buy a small packet of fancy looking prawns and add them last and everyone will assume all the prawns are posh and you are an incredibly generous hostess.


Enjoy with a dollop of nostalgia and sprinkling of closest friends.