Fennel and saffron fish stew

We are very lucky where we live - about as far from the sea in any direction as I've ever lived, and we have the best fishmongers. Barkworths, in the Market Hall in Shrewsbury is brilliant, well stocked, well informed, with accurate sourcing and advice on sustainable fish, locally caught fish and some amazing extras - smoked carrageen, potted crab, fresh samphire... plus a couple of little tables where you can order fresh bouillabaisse or mussels with some chilled Chablis from Tanners up the road. It's pretty amazing. I am aware that I sound about as middle class as it's possible to be, but hey, I might as well own it. I like nice food, and nice wine, ok? I cant really afford it all the time, but I try.
Anyhow, where was I? So there's this incredible fishmonger, I try and get there once every couple of weeks, and am sometimes at a loss as to what to get that won't blast our weekly shopping budget and will keep the kids happy too. In this slightly iffy weather, which is boiling hot one minute and chucking it with rain the next, this spiced, tomato-ey soup/stew is perfect. Warming, comforting and yet not out of place on a warm night with some chilled white Rioja. You could make it spicier if it was just for the grown ups.

Fennel and saffron fish stew, serves 4 easily

1lb/500g of fish pie mix - smoked haddock, salmon, some smaller bits of firm white fish which I think was pollock? - whatever your fishmonger chuck in I guess. It works out about £6 or £7 and is enough for a family of four easily.
1lb/500g of small new potatoes - little waxy ones are best for this, you want them to keep their shape, cut into halves, skin on if clean
1 large Onion sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 plum tomato, chopped roughly
1 fennel bulb sliced in thick slices. keep the fronds for serving
1 red bell pepper cut into medium sized chunks
small bunch flat leaf parsley
large pinch saffron
2 teaspoons paprika - the sweet variety
1/2 chorizo cut into smallish cubes
1/2 litre stock - I used chicken but fish is obviously best if you have it
1 tin plum tomatoes
A couple of chillies (optional)


In a large measuring jug pour about 1/2 litre boiled water over the saffron strands and leave to infuse. Fry the onion, fennel and garlic in a good glug of olive oil until translucent, then add the chorizo, the pepper, the tomato and the paprika. sauté everything until it begins to brown, then add the potatoes, the chillies if using, and any left over parsley or fennel stalks - you will remove these later but they add tons of flavour. Also a wedge of lemon if you have it. Pour the saffron water, stock and tinned tomatoes on top and stir well. Leave to bubble away on a medium heat for at least 40 minutes, until the liquid is a rich red and packed full of flavour. It should not be too thick, more like a soup at this stage, but the liquid should be a bit unctuous. When you're happy, either take it off the heat, move the stalks and lemon and set aside until you're ready to eat, or proceed. Add the fish pieces, I like mine chunky, and cook for a few minutes, until the fish is cooked through but not falling apart. Throw in a large handful of finely chopped flat leaf parsley and fennel and season with salt and pepper to taste. It may want more lemon juice. Serve with more chopped herbs on top and some crusty bread and butter, and ideally some crisp white wine :) (and you might want to put a big bib on the baby - this could get messy, and bright red fish juice is hard to get out...)

easy peasy child friendly chicken

I'm off on my first child free weekend in quite a while the day after tomorrow, and have just started a new job, so these first few sunny days of the week, with a very grumbly teething baby and not enough hours in the day have necessitated some easy quick dinners. The hours between four and six are known as the witching hours in our house... Trying to make dinner, entertain two kids and then get them to bed without tears is a daily challenge. This dinner, super quick, and loved by both the six year old and the 11 month old, was probably as much work as getting fish fingers and oven chips out of the freezer, and was so much nicer. It was made to the soundtrack of a loudly shouting baby trying to shuffle around on the kitchen floor and get in the cupboards, a manic six year old running around at my feet, all while face-timing my husband who's working away. In the twenty minutes it took to make, the baby pulled a glass off the side and smashed it, I de-greenflied the roses, and even managed to take photos of the resulting meal! Some sort of medal must exist for mothers who manage to do all this without having a meltdown (or a very large G & T at four in the afternoon), surely??

So, here it is, easy peasy chicken, lol.

One pack of free range chicken fillets - or just get two chicken breasts and cut into thick strips.

Mix a large handful of breadcrumbs with one finely chopped garlic clove, a tablespoon of fresh thyme, a few sprigs of rosemary, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of fennel seeds (these go beautifully with chicken!). Lay out a large double layer square of clingfilm on a surface, then drape each chicken strip in the breadcrumb mix on both sides before arranging on the clingfilm. Do all the chicken pieces, ensuring they are evenly coated on both sides with the breadcrumbs, then cover with another two layers of clingfilm. Then take out all the pent up aggression you have by beating the chicken with a large rolling pin until flattened, and all the breadcrumbs have been mushed into the meat. This not only tenderises the meat, it makes the chicken much easier and quicker to cook as it should be les than a cm thick once you're done, and it gets the flavours right inside the chicken meat.
Heat a griddle pan (or frying pan if you don't have one) and add a little olive oil. Lay the pieces of chicken gently into the pan and press down firmly. All the pieces should fit in to one pan - lay them close together. Fry the chicken on both sides until golden brown - on a high heat it will take about five minutes on each side, adding a few sliced tomatoes in to griddle with the chicken. We had ours simple -  with boiled spuds and steamed broccoli - but I chucked the potatoes in the griddle pan after the chicken was done, purely for flavour. We drizzled a little pesto over the lot to add colour and zing. Yummy.

So we just have one more hot afternoon to survive where I'm on my own after work with two grumpy hyper kids.. then I'm off to Singapore for the weekend :))) beyond excited... Am planning to eat lots of food, take lots of pictures, and generally go on and on about it for quite some time. Think I packed my bag about three weeks ago, and have talked of little else to anyone who'll listen.
It will probably be fish fingers and oven chips tomorrow night :)

Gugelhupf - German yeasted crown cake

Gugelhupf – Almond raisin yeasted crown cake

 A traditional German Gugelhupf, this is a sweet yeasted cake made with raisins, almonds and a little lemon zest. Adding candied lemon or orange peel would make it very similar to a panettone. It is almost a less buttery version of a brioche. You can get a gugelhupf tin from Lakeland. Make sure it is well greased and the breadcrumbs make sure the cake doesn't stick.

500g plain flour

1 teaspoon dried yeast

125g caster sugar

zest of one lemon

I pinch salt

3 eggs

200ml crème fraiche

200g melted cooled butter

75g blanched sliced almonds

150g raisins

breadcrumbs (panko are good)

Melt the butter in a saucepan and leave aside to cool. Sift the flour intoa a large bowl, and add the yeast, sugar, lemon zest, salt, eggs crème fraiche and butter and mix with a dough hook for around five minutes, until it is an evenly combined, whole sticky dough. Cover with a cloth and leave somewhere warm to rise, for about an hour or so, until visibly risen.

Throw in the almonds and raisins, knead in until well distributed, then stretch the dough into a sausage shape and plop into your well greased and dusted with breadcrumb gugelhupf tin. Leave again, for another hour or so, until risen. Then bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for about 30 mins. I covered it for the last five minutes with silver foil to stop it burning. A skewer should come out clean when inserted. Tip out onto a wire rack to cool then dust with a thick layer of icing sugar before serving. Perfect for afternoon coffee or with ice cream.

Oh, and this? This is just a picture of my ridiculously cute baby being a bit weird while I bake. Sorry. Couldn't help myself, I had to share :)

Gooseberry and elderflower torte

Gooseberry and elderflower torte
(Stachelbeer und holunderblueten torte)

For the base

300g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

150g cream cheese

100ml milk

100ml vegetable oil

75g sugar

half teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch salt

For the Filling

800g gooseberries

150ml elderflower cordial

450g cream cheese

250g crème fraiche

200g sugar

3 large eggs

2 eggyolks (the whites make the meringue – do not discard)

50g melted cooled butter

50g cornflour

For the meringue top

2 eggwhites

100g sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. 

Over a gentle heat cook the gooseberries in the cordial until softened but not completely disintegrated – keep gently stirring to ensure they cook evenly. Tip into a sieve set over a jug and leave to cool and drain.

In a large mixing bowl sift the flour and baking powder together, then add the cream cheese, milk, oil, sugar, vanilla and salt and beat with an electric mixer with the dough hook for about a minute until the dough combines, but no longer as it will start to stick. Press this into the base of a well oiled 20cm springfrom cake tin.

In the rinsed and cleaned mixing bowl now put the cream cheese, crème fraiche, sugar, eggs, egg yolks, melted butter and corn flour and beat on a high speed with a whisk until well combined and creamy. Fold in the gooseberry mix – they have been drained but are like a thick puree. The draining liquid will form the sauce for the finished torte so keep this aside. Pour the mix onto the dough in the cake tin, cover with a piece of tin foil that has been folded down the middle to allow for expansion, and bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about 30-30 minutes. It will rise to the very edge of the tin so beware! Once it has set, it will be a little wobbly still.

In the meantime, in the same cleaned and thoroughly dried mixing bowl whisk the two egg whites on a high speed until very stiff – so you can leave peaks – then slowly add the sugar in a steady stream as you beat it until you have a stiff meringue mix. Spread this onto the cake, swirling into soft peaks with a fork, and bake for a further 5-10 minutes, until it is lightly browned all over. Remove (without catching the edge on the bl*@dy oven rack as I did...) and leave to cool completely before removing from the springform.

bake like a german

My mum recently had a clear out, she seems to have these periodically, moving furniture and throwing out old stuff. In fact it seems to run in the family - all three Charpentier girls seem to love 'moving rooms' a regular change around of furniture and stuff. Rarely does a week go by when one of us isn't bringing a bag of clothes we've gotten bored of to the other's house to 'process'. All I can say is I feel sorry for our husbands and boyfriends :) My husband regularly comes home from work to find the sitting room and dining room have been swapped around and all our furniture has been donated to charity because I've decided we need a more minimalist life :)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, my mum and her clear out. So, this time it was books. Most of our childhood books, mainly the German ones, and then these beauties: My great-grandmothers and my mum's first husband's mother's (whose surname and title I inherited) recipe books. One Northern German, the other Alsace-French german. The writing so beautifully spidery and scrawled I can barely read it, in the old gothic style that predates the first world war. One in French, the other German. The french grand-mere even left her cigarette on her book once, and it's burned a hauntingly emotive hole in the front. Which recipe was she cooking when she smoked that cigarette? What was her kitchen like? Why did she get distracted? Did she burn the cake at the same time? And what swear words did she use when she noticed the smell of burning leather, did she swear at all or did she shrug it off with a gallic 'pa'? This was the lady who had a recipe for homemade cherry brandy no less, so it might be connected.

These two recipe books, both at least a hundred years old (My German great-grandmother wrote the date and place she started hers: 17th October, 1907, Bonn) are the most precious material thing I own now. They supersede even the very beautiful gold edged crockery and the fob watch my grandfather owned. They include recipes for grand meals, simple loaves, salads, cakes, puddings, soups and sauces, and the French one has a whole section on spirits - a recipe for Chartreuse no less, next to recipe for chocolate mousse. How I would have loved to have been there for that day!
This glimpse into what they cooked, what they ate, is beyond romantic to me. I have decided that before these two books fall apart completely I need to at least make an attempt to transcribe them, and make some of the things in them.

The biggest section, the part where they have scribbled on every single available page, is the baking sections, in both books. Hardly surprising that Germany is famous for its baking really. Not just its bread, its rye and its pumpernickel, but also its kaffee und kuchen, the apple cakes and the black forest gateaus, the sacher torte and the stollen. So many incredible cakes. So that's the section I'm going to start with. Bear with me while I spend the next few millennia trying out these ancient recipes. I'm hoping they give us some hints we have forgotten, and are interesting to you, my single lonely reader, whoever you are... (If you're reading this and enjoying it, or not, do let me know, I'd love some feedback! Thanks!)

The first recipe that grabs me, and one of the simplest, is one for a redcurrant cheesecake and meringue type torte. lots of layers, and ingredients, but relatively simple. I've adapted the ingredients slightly. see next post :)

Cacao, date and walnut bread

I never, ever thought I'd utter the following sentence. And I think there are some people I know who will guffaw into their coffee when they read it. If asked what my most used kitchen gadget (after my beloved Japanese knife and coffee machine) would be, I'd have to be honest and say... bread maker. yes I know. As an ex 'artisan' baker, known for making slow-fermented, slow-risen, artisanal loaves with love, care and attention to detail, this seems a little strange. For years I told customers in the bakery, if they had a bread maker, then that was great, at least better than buying supermarket pap, but that nothing could beat making and kneading your bread by hand. And I stand by that. Nothing is better than watching your hand mixed yeasty dough rise, and kneading the cool, elastic, pliant dough with your bare hands. Somehow having done all that the smell of the crusty loaf in the oven is all the sweeter. And yet. And yet. I now use the bread maker a friend of mine gave us when she kept some of her stuff at our house during a home move almost every day. We eat a lot of bread, this family. Toast for breakfast, late lunch, evening snacks, for solace, energy, a quick boost, babies and grown ups alike. There's a reason this blog has that name. Baked goods are the way to our hearts, and the reason we have to exercise regularly!
I can't bake a fresh loaf every day by hand, I have a life to lead (of sorts). And I tried doing a weekly bake - we still ran out halfway through, and our freezer was always too full of bread for anything else to go in there. I love that fresh bread smell, and this way I get it every day. It also works out pretty cost effective too. A £2 bag of white flour does at least week's bread, excluding added ingredients.
Loaves from our bread maker are not half bad either. They're not as crusty, granted, and they are not half as chewy and substantial as a hand made sourdough. But they're tasty, fresh, healthy and full of all sorts of random stuff I chuck in as I'm making them. Our current favourite is this strange mix, great for breakfast or a sneaky mid afternoon snack, not sweet really, a strong cocoa flavour with a hint of nuttiness, but perfectly suited to sweet toppings like honey or nutella.... Even good with cheese, weirdly. A strong cheddar ideally, and a few slices of ripe pear.
BTW...You could substitute the dates, walnuts and cacao for the same weight in mixed seeds, or oats, muesli, dried fruit, or even grated veg like courgettes and carrots. I'm sure I've ranted about bread here before, but it's not half as scientific and restrictive as the purists would have you believe. Half the fun is in chucking something in and seeing what happens, especially with a bread machine. there's something magic about throwing things in a pot, and three hours later pulling out a steaming browned loaf, not knowing what it will taste like. Add yoghurt or beer instead of water, or chuck in something in your cupboard you haven't tried before. We've even had nice bread by adding uneaten porridge to the mix, or the fruit pulp from your juicer. And if it doesn't work, try something else!

Cacao, date and walnut bread.

400g strong white flour
100g wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon dried yeast
1 teaspoon salt
100g chopped dates
50g walnuts, broken up
50g cocoa nibs (from holland and barrett)
1 tablespoon raw cacao

Chuck all the above in your bread tin, then add 350 ml warm water. I use a panasonic machine, on the standard setting for a large loaf.

pastry rules

Here it is. The truth, like you've (almost always) heard it before. Most chefs don't make their own pastry. I know. shocking. If they do they're as proud of it as you would be. Puff pastry especially. I used to bake croissants for the shop, every saturday. I had to start the night before, rolling out butter, and layers and layers of pastry, folding and rolling, every few hours, panicking about the ambient air temperature, and in the end be rewarded with beautiful flaky little delicacies, yes, but were they worth it? Marginally, maybe. If I had charged what they had taken in (wo)man hours they would have been hundreds of pounds! Pastry can be fun to make, and certainly I would always make my own shortcrust, but most of the time life is too full of other more valuable things to be doing (like reading the paper - oh if only...)
So, puff pastry from the shops is ace. And such a great cheat dinner, as most of you probably already know. This is not a life changing, unusual recipe. Just what we had for dinner last night, and it was tasty, and everyone liked it, even the baby.
So here it is: Spinach, egg and sausage tart.

One block of puff pastry, rolled out to fit a large-ish baking tray, which has been well oiled. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.
In a large non stick pan sauté one chopped onion, half a dozen butcher's sausages, snipped into chunks with scissors, one courgette peeled into ribbons and a handful of chestnut mushrooms. cook on a medium heat until all is browned and sizzling nicely. In a separate pan wilt a large bag of washed spinach down, then drain thoroughly.
Spread a tablespoon or two of pesto over the base of your pastry, cover with the spinach and then the sausage mix. Ensure it is evenly spread, then crack half a dozen eggs into pockets all over the tart (we   had the lovely luck of loads of double yolkers in our box of eggs, which pleased Matilda no end). Grate a little cheddar all over this, and sprinkle with thyme (or any other fresh herbs you have to hand - sage or a little rosemary will do too). Bake for about twenty to thirty minutes, until the eggs are set and the pastry has risen and is golden and crispy. Serve on its own, with PSB (purple sprouting broccoli - I can never be bothered to write all that :) or a simple salad. Even nicer the next day, cold, but it never lasts that long in our house!