Foodiness! Saturday, 1st March 2014.

I’ve been hallucinating about food this week, while we’ve been doing other things, such as grand parenting duties and waiting in for people not turning up, shopping or walking Alice.

The grandchildren were lovely and we enjoyed being with them and I have so much enjoyed thoughts of food and the dear SO has been cooking, whilst I have been writing.  It’s good when the words flow and I’m in command of my thought processes!

It must have been the lack of cooking which set-off the food day-dreams.  Suddenly, I could feel the soft chewy texture and the sugary crunch of a sticky jam doughnut.  I could smell and taste the warm jam as if I was indulging in another bite, taste the sugar and the soft dough structure.  It was quite amazing and rather sensational, also rather enjoyable.  I have not eaten a doughnut for a very long time; one would be a very great indulgence indeed, thankfully, I do not venture down that pathway to foodie heaven.  It would be a great occasion even to consider eating one!

Thankfully, my following impressions were of chicken, creamy curry sauces, coconut milk and cream, mushrooms and cooking with my pressure cooker.

Last Sunday, I made more English crumpets and muffins from Elizabeth David’s book – English Bread and Yeast Cookery – ISBN 0 7 139 1026 7 - a sponge cake for tea and biscuits, which all turned out very well.

I had planned to make a sourdough starter for bread making and the experiment began at the end of my Sunday cooking session, using both regular strong white bread flour and wholemeal Spelt bread flour.  These starter cultures should be allowed to prove in the warmth of a kitchen for seven days.  To set one up, you mix an agreed amount of flour with warm water, creaming it well to remove any lumps, pouring the mixture into a 2pt. Kilner jar, leaving the lid slightly ajar for the air to circulate.

My kitchen has not enjoyed great warmth from long daily cooking, apart from the roasted chicken and veggies on Tuesday and Friday’s griddled belly pork, for we have eaten very lightly of soups and one Morrisons Beef Pot meal.  Conscious of this lack of warmth, I wrapped improvised cosies about my jars and hoped for the best, leaving both lids slightly open!

Yeasts are circulating about in the ether which, I presume, help galvanise the mixture into life, for what you are waiting to see, over the course of its seven-day life cycle, is a bubbly, spongy rise of mixture in the warm Kilner jars.

This has happened easily with the white strong flour but less so with the wholemeal Spelt flour but it is still working and I’ve read this lack of bubbly mass, does not automatically mean, starter failure.

It’s the last day of my experiment today, and the last addition of creamed flour and water to my culture and I’m really looking forward to the bread making to follow.

I have a chicken to pressure cook, browning it first in a little hot oil, minus its skin, after which it will be portioned and used in different ways, using the stock for a sauce and soup. Allow the cooled stock to set overnight in the ‘fridge, and scrape off the crust of fat, for a lighter liquid, particularly if you don’t skin your chicken before cooking.  Here I am getting to grips with my bird!

The breast meat will be just perfect on a bed of rice with veggies, whole and lightly sauced, or shredded up and used for a fragrant, herbed, risotto.

Or mixed into a creamed curry sauce served with a crisp green salad and warm baguette, or gluten-free flat breads, and I rather like the idea of melting coconut cream into a dish of hot rice, with shredded chicken and mushrooms!  And, what about creamed mushrooms and chicken, on crisply toasted wholemeal bread, with just a whisker of butter, to add to the flavour?

After sauce making, use the remaining stock for soup, adding the tiny scraps from the bones, fresh veggies, topping up the liquid with boiling water and one or two chicken stock cubes.  I like to blend my cooked mixture for a chunkier texture but you could always serve your soup, as cooked, with the vegetable and chicken as larger pieces.

A bowl of hot chicken soup is so satisfying and a one-dish meal too, so less washing up to do!

Have yourself a little kitchen fun, hey?!

Daisy