A New Year wish list

My belated New Year's resolution is to expand by bread-making repertoire in 2011.

I make bread a reasonable amount already - maybe once every 1 or 2 months - but I only have one really successful method for a loaf so far. I've managed foccacia, soda bread, and flatbreads, but the foccacia selection could definitely be expanded to include some different toppings.

On my recipe wish list are:

Sourdough bread
Bialys
Bagels
Pitta bread
Pizza dough (I struggle to get this thin enough as I love a thin and crispy pizza base)
Hot cross buns (when we get to Easter of course)
Chelsea buns (for a nostalgia kick - a childhood favourite!)

I'm sure this list will expand massively as I get more into experiments with bread-baking. I hope our appetite for bread can keep up! We don't eat masses of the stuff, but I am an awful bread snob, so when I do eat bread I demand that its decent! Is there anything better than the smell of fresh bread wafting through the house? Other than perhaps the taste of the fresh bread, with the butter melting into the crumb and a lovely crunchy crust. If I'm feeling extravagant then a thick smear of honey on the top too. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.

My Christmas present from Dan is going to be a bread mixing bowl. We've asked a potter who lives in the next village to make one for me, so it should be ready in a couple of weeks' time. Then I can get started on my list. I'm quite excited! Here are some of the other things the same potter has made...I wonder what he'll come up with for me?





Also on this year's recipe 'to do' list: rice pudding, onion bhajis, fondant potatoes, pain bagnat, lemon meringue pie, gravlax, sweet and sour (I don't like the takeaway version, but suspect I may like a homemade attempt), sorbet, cranachan, toad in the hole, treacle sponge, salted caramel icecream, macaroons.

What would you add?

I love.....Risotto

A few weeks ago I made Jamie O's cauliflower risotto (twice in a week).
This week I made Silvana Franco's red onion and cannellini bean risotto. Find the recipe here.

Both were very satisfying dinners.
Creamy, vegetarian (I like to eat vegetarian once a week if I can), flavoursome, filling, and non-fattening. Also, they were both recipes that I didn't have particularly high expectations of but which turned out to be surprisingly lovely.

So now I'm having a love affair with risotto and am on the hunt for more flavour combinations to try.

I know its basically just a vehicle for using up odds and sods in the vegetable drawer and the fridge. But its a wonderful one!

Smoked fish bake

My Dad has got involved!

He was very enthusiastic about this recipe when I went home for a visit last weekend. He picked up the recipe card in Waitrose & adapted it a little by changing double cream to creme fraiche and adding paprika.

I decided to have a go too (you can't ignore it when a parent pitches in), but in true Greenaway-fashion I couldn't resist tinkering with the recipe a little more. Consequently the creme fraiche has now become yoghurt, herbs have been added, and I have increased the proportion of fish and reduced the amount of potato.

Here's what I ended up with:

Smoked Haddock and Potato Bake

300g smoked haddock (I prefer undyed)
300g potato
150g plain yoghurt
100ml water (from poaching the fish)
1/2 onion
1 garlic clove
shake of paprika
a few mint leaves
handful of flat leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 200C.
Poach the fish for 5 minutes in simmering water, then take it out of the water and flake it. Reserve 100 ml of the cooking liquid.

Finely slice the potato, then cut into matchstick shapes. Slice up the onion and garlic. In an oven proof dish mix together potato, onion, garlic and fish.

Pour the yogurt and water over the top, sprinkle on the paprika and season with salt and pepper. Mix the whole lot together so that everything is coated in yoghurt.

Bake in the oven for about an hour until the potato is tender. Check after 20 minutes and if the top is browning too quickly then cover with foil for the remainder of the cooking time.

5 or 10 minutes from the end of the cooking time mix in the fresh herbs.

Served with peas it was indeed a very tasty supper - Thanks Dad!