coming over all biblical

This weekend I have been mainly baking loaves and fishes. Ironic for a dyed-in-the-wool athiest!

Friday night we ate Greek Roast Cod. I came across the recipe on the BBC website. Its here.



This is the 2nd recipe I've made from Silvana Franco - the 1st was lemony meatballs with pasta. Both recipes are from her Hi-Low Cookbook, and after this one I figured that two really tasty dinners was enough evidence for me... The recipe book is on the way via ebay.

Saturday was a French trout recipe - whole roast trout with sorrel sauce. I had to adapt a little; there was no sorrel to be found anywhere in the shops near me so I substituted spinach, and I used yoghurt instead of creme fraiche. I got the trout at the Banbury farmer's market, and it was a lovely subtle flavour and superbly fresh.

Trout with Sorrel sauce

2 whole trout - cleaned, gutted, heads removed (always sounds gruesome to type that!)

200g baby spinach or sorrel leaves
1/4 onion or 3 shallots - finely chopped
10g butter
100g plain yoghurt
75ml dry white wine
A shake of nutmeg
salt, pepper

Put oven on to heat to 180C.
Melt the butter over a low heat and gently fry the shallots or onions until soft.
Add the spinach or sorrel leaves and a small splash of water. Cover and allow to cook gently for 3 or 4 minutes, until the leaves have wilted.
Add 1/2 the yoghurt, salt and pepper, and a shake of nutmeg, and allow to cook for a minute or so more before taking off the heat and allowing to cool slightly.
Stuff the trout with the sorrel mixture (don't worry if you don't use it all - keep it for making the sauce later), then place the fish in a roasting tin, pour over the wine and cover with foil.
Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes depending on the size of your fish.
5 minutes before the end of the cooking time pour the juices from the roasting tin into a small saucepan. Return the fish to the oven.
Add the remaining yoghurt to the saucepan, and any of the sorrel mix that you may have left. Place over a fairly high heat and allow to reduce to about 1/2 the volume.
Serve the trout with the sauce from the saucepan poured round it.
It goes well with boiled potatoes or mash, and leafy green veg or salad.

Now then I realise I haven't addressed the loaves bit.

A few weeks back I watched a Raymond Blanc cookery programme in which he made bread. I also watched a programme on BBC4 about craft bakers, and it got me thinking about bread-making again.

I have made bread fairly regularly in the past, but I haven't hit upon a recipe/method that I think is really my ultimate process. All of my attempts have been quite nice, but not write-home about it delicious.

Until this weekend that is.
I tried out the Raymond Blanc method (find it here) and it was just GORGEOUS. Even Dan liked it, and he's never particularly liked the bread I've made in the past.



I made it by hand in 2 batches of 2 loaves - I mean, really; who has an oven large enough for 4 loaves in their home kitchen? Or a food mixer big enough for over a kilo of bread dough?! But lack of reality for us home cooks aside, the bread tasted really good.
I will have a try at baking the bread in tins in future so that its easier to use for sandwiches.

And then lastly; pizza from my little old Carluccio recipe book (I had a little yeast left over). I didn't eat any of it, but Dan tells me it was lovely. Praise indeed!

This seems to sum up our weekend eating (Dan's sunday lunch) rather well, even if it is a somewhat unorthodox mixture!:



The sushi is from the deli a couple of villages away - turns out moving to deepest-darkest rural Oxfordshire doesn't mean you have to abandon all interest in foods from round the world after all. Hurrah for that!

PS This was week 30. Wonder how long I'll keep feeling inclined to be an enquiring cook? I think its a habit now...I can't imagine going back to a routine of similar dinners all the time.