Week 10!

I am quite surprised that what started as a vague resolution to do one new recipe per week has actually reached its 10th week, and still going strong. In fact, I'm finding myself actively seeking out new ideas in my recipe books even when I've already done my recipe for the week. Its definitely reawakened my interest in cooking.

I think I'd got myself into a bit of a food rut - not that I was living on takeaways or ready meals or anything like that, but I was cooking the same few dishes week-in, week-out. Easy, but it gets boring after a while.

I haven't been buying any extra ingredients these last few weeks, but I've just used what I have in the cupboards in a more varied way. It helps that since we moved house we've had a vegetable box delivered each week from here. This forces me to be a bit more inventive as you don't know what you're going to get that week until it arrives on the doorstep. Sometimes we get things I would never have added to my shopping list (celeriac, corn on the cob, avocado) so I've had to find recipes to suit the vegetable selection. Its forced me to try vegetables I didn't think I liked - avocado being a case in point - and I've become a master vegetable soup maker!

In honour of week 10 I attempted quite a few recipes over the course of the week:
Steamed Italian chicken spirals with hazlenut pesto and pasta
Spinach gnocchi
Japanese steamed prawn custards
Shahi Murg (a creamy chicken curry)
Soda bread

Actually none of them were particularly tricky, and it was a bit of a cold, wet weekend so there wasn't a hell-of-alot else to do! (except DIY. Yuck!) No photos I'm afraid, as it was after I realised that I'd lasted 10 weeks that I started taking the odd snap of my 'masterpieces'.

Let's see if I last another 10 weeks on the culinary experimentation experience!

Soda Bread

This is much quicker to make than a normal loaf of bread. It has a slightly sweet taste and a texture closer to cake than most breads. It was nice warm with a bowl of soup (I had roast squash and red pepper soup with it) and kept well until the next day, but I wouldn't recommend keeping it much longer than that.

250g plain flour (not bread flour). I used 75g wholemeal, 175g white.
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons soft brown sugar
200ml live yoghurt

Heat the oven to 230C.
Sift flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl.
Add the sugar, then stir in the yoghurt and bring the mixture together to a dough with your hands. (This is another one where you get messy - its usually the way with baking!)
Kneed for a minute or so until its smooth, shape into a tall ball and place on a greased baking sheet.
Cut a deep cross in the top of the dough - going almost all the way through the ball of dough, but not quite.
Bake for 12 minutes at 230C, then turn the oven down to 200C and leave for another 15-20 minutes.
Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.