11 to 17 May is Real Bread Maker Week which is Britain’s biggest annual celebration of Real Bread and its makers and is timed to coincide with National Mills Weekend.

The aim of Real Bread Maker Week is to encourage people to get baking Real Bread or buying it from independent bakeries to support their local communities.

In addition this year they are raising money to provide opportunities to help people who, for one reason or another, have a tougher time than most of us enjoy the social, therapeutic and employment opportunities Real Bread making offers.

More information can be found at www.sustainweb.org/realbread/national_real_breadmaker_week/.

There is nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread to get your taste buds tingling!

May is British National Asparagus Month, although to be honest it looks as if everything is 2-3 weeks late this year due to the awful weather over the preceding 12 months.

Asparagus is native to Europe, and while not everyone’s favourite vegetable, we’ll be eating it several times a week during the local season. But it does have lots of health benefits; it’s a great source of fibre and is rich in vitamins A, B and C as well as folic acid. And there are lots of exciting recipes to try.

When buying asparagus choose firm but tender stalks with good colour and closed tips. Asparagus soon looses its flavour and tenderness so it is best eaten as fresh as possible. Before cooking rinse it in cold water and remove the woody ends of the stalks. Boil, or preferably steam, it until just tender (about 5 minutes) and eat with a knob of butter, maybe some parmesan cheese, and crusty bread. Or try it in a stir-fry, cooked and cooled in salad, or quickly cooked and tossed with some olive oil and pasta.

Asparagus comes in different styles: green, purple or white; thicker or thinner. The thinner green stalks, called sprue, are our favourites for both flavour and tenderness, although this isn’t the received wisdom.

There’s more on British asparagus lots of recipe ideas at www.british-asparagus.co.uk.

Another rather super past recipe I did for this evening’s dinner. I thought it would work well, having had something of the sort in a restaurant long ago, but I was surprised how good my version really was.

Like most of my recipes it is quick and easy and almost infinitely variable; indeed it is really only a variation on the pasta with prawns and pasta with bacon I’ve done before — but this is definitely more restaurant-y.

Pasta with Chorizo

Preparation Time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients (for 2 as a main course)
200g fresh linguine (or pasta of your choice)
200g uncooked chorizo (I had bought this as a pack of 4 sausages)
medium onion
dozen-ish cherry tomatoes (I actually had the end of some leftover onion & baby plum tomato salad plus about half a small tub of smoked cherry tomatoes)
as much garlic as you like
juice of a lemon
generous handful of fresh parsley
salt, pepper, olive oil and parmesan
(You can add sliced mushrooms, olives, etc. if you wish but this really doesn’t need it.)

Method
Cook the pasta; you want the pasta ready before you cook the rest of the ingredients (you don’t want to be waiting on the pasta and overcooking the chorizo).
While the pasta cooks, finely chop the onion, garlic and parsley; cut the chorizo into 3-5mm slices.
When the pasta is done, or almost so, sauté the onion, garlic, tomatoes and chorizo in a little olive oil. You need to cook the chorizo and get the onion translucent which will take about 5 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and season with a small amount of salt and pepper. Stir.
Now add the pasta and mix everything together to get the chorizo distributed and the pasta coated in sauce.
Add the parsley and mix, cooking for another a minute or so.
Serve with parmesan and a robust red wine.

I was surprised how well the chorizo and lemon worked; I had thought it would but it was even better than I expected with the lemon counteracting the fattiness of the chorizo. The tomatoes, which had only just disintegrated, made a lovely light sauce — just enough to coat the pasta and no more.

We’ve not had a recipe for quite a while, so here’s the reult of tday’s experiment. And an excellent meal it was too …

Cold Roast Beef
Mixed Salad a la mode
Homemade Oven Chips

Why have I never thought of doing my own oven chips before? It is so dead easy and much better than deep frying (which we never do).

Homemade Oven Chips

Pre-heat the oven to about 220C.
Cut enough potatoes into chunky-sized chips and boil or steam them for 3 minutes or so. Drain them and allow to cool a little so they’re handleable.
In a ziplok bag or bowl put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper (optional). You can also add salt, herbs or garlic if you wish.
Toss the chips in the oil and transfer then to a baking sheet. Spread them out so they’re in a single layer, so use two baking sheets if needed.
Roast in the oven until done — about 25 minutes — turning them once.

It is so easy. And although they’re oiled at least you can control the quantity of oil and you’re using “better for you” olive oil. It is no worse than doing another of our staples, garlic roast potatoes.

I foresee this will become a regular addition to the repertoire.

OK, so it’s recipe day today!

This one is a Hairy Bikers original recipe from their Hairy Dieters book. I have to thank my friend Katy who said how excellent it is, so of course I had to try it. But as always I didn’t follow the book, so I’m giving you the original recipe with my variations.

First things, first. You really want to start marinading the chicken the day before you want to cook it. As a minimum it should have fours hours marinading.

Masala-marinated Chicken (with minted yoghurt sauce)

Ingredients

For the marinade
6 cardamom pods
2 tbsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp ground fenugreek
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tsp hot chilli powder (the more you use, the spicier the dish)
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
I used a mixture of whole and ready ground spices according to what I had to hand
1 tsp flaked sea salt any salt will do!
I added the juice and zest of a lemon
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
40g/1½oz piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated
100g/3½oz low-fat natural yoghurt I used about half a 500g tub of full-fat Greek yoghurt

For the chicken
1.65kg/3lb 8oz chicken I had a 2.2kg bird
1 lime, quartered omitted
freshly ground black pepper
fresh watercress or baby leaf salad, to serve or veg if you prefer

For the minted yoghurt sauce
200g/7oz low-fat natural yoghurt I used the rest of the tub of yoghurt
1 tsp ready-made mint sauce this I replaced with chopped cucumber, onion and garlic

Preparation

1. To make the marinade, split the cardamom pods and remove the seeds I used pods as well. Put the cardamom seeds in a dry non-stick frying pan and discard the husks. Add the cumin and coriander seeds, cloves and black peppercorns and place the pan over a medium heat. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring regularly until the spices are lightly toasted — you know they’re ready when you can smell the spicy aroma. I didn’t bother toasting the spices, but it doing so may give a better result
2. Tip the toasted whole spices into a pestle and mortar, or an electric spice grinder, and pound to a fine powder. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the fenugreek, turmeric, paprika, chilli powder, cinnamon powdered spices and salt. Add the garlic, ginger lemon juice & zest and yoghurt, then mix well and leave to stand while you prepare the chicken.
3. Place the chicken on its breast on a sturdy chopping board and cut carefully either side of the backbone with good scissors or poultry shears. Chuck out the bone keep it and cook it with the rest or use it for chicken stock! and cut off the foot joints and wing tips.
4. Strip all the skin off the bird I didn’t, but it’ll be better if you do apart from the ends of the wings (which are easier to remove after cooking). You’ll find this simpler to do if you snip the membrane between the skin and the chicken flesh as you go. Cut off and discard any obvious fat — it will be a creamy white colour. Open out the chicken and place it on the board so the breast side is facing upwards.
5. Press down heavily with the palms of your hands to break the breastbone and flatten the chicken as evenly as possible. This will help it cook more quickly. Slash the meat with a knife through the thickest parts of the legs and breast. Place the chicken in a shallow non-metallic dish — a lasagne dish is ideal — and tuck in the legs and wings that depends how much you’ve broken the chicken!.
6. Spoon over the marinade and really massage it into the chicken on both sides, ensuring that every bit of bird is well coated — get your hands in there and really go for it. Cover the dish with cling film and put the chicken in the fridge to marinate for at least four hours or ideally overnight.
7. Preheat the oven to 200C 190C with fan. Take the chicken out of the dish and place it on a rack inside a large baking tray, breast-side up. Squeeze over some juice from the lime I didn’t and season with ground black pepper and any remaining marinade.
8. Roast for 1-1¼ hours I found it needed longer than this but I did have a bigger bird until the chicken is lightly browned and cooked throughout, tossing the lime quarters omitted on to the rack for the last 20 minutes to cook alongside the chicken. They’ll be good for squeezing over the meat later. The juices should run clear when the thickest part of one of the thighs is pierced with a skewer. Cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
9. While the chicken is resting, make the sauce. Spoon the yoghurt into a serving bowl and stir in the mint sauce cucumber etc. in my case until thoroughly combined. Transfer the chicken to a plate or wooden board and carve into slices, discarding any skin. Serve with the sauce and some watercress or salad and enjoy!

And yes, it was as good as Katy said it was. In fact we had another serving of it cold for lunch today, when if anything it was even better!

Another easy, quick and cheap meal this evening: bacon and cabbage. I know this is an Irish speciality, but as always I did it my way. It is good hearty peasant food, and none the worse for that! I give you the recipe in case you want to try it!

Bacon and Cabbage Leftover Somehow

You will need (adjust the quantities to suit):
Enough bacon. I used part of a large pack of bacon offcuts (hence cheap) but you can use any bacon you like.
Leftover potatoes
Leftover cabbage, or any other green veg
Spare soft tomatoes
An onion
Some cloves of garlic
Olive oil and black pepper

Do this:
Shred the cabbage, if it isn’t already.
Cut the potatoes, tomatoes and bacon into bite-sized pieces.
Finely slice the onion and the garlic.
Fry the onion, garlic and potatoes in a drizzle of olive oil for a few minutes, until the onion is going translucent.
Add the bacon and continue cooking until it is starting to cook (longer if you like it well done).
Add the tomatoes, put a lid on and get everything up to temperature; cook for a few minutes.
Now add the cabbage and a good grind of black pepper, bring it back to temperature with the lid on but stirring occasionally. Continue cooking for a few minutes until the bacon is cooked through and the whole has melded together and is good and hot.
Serve and eat greedily, washed down with a beer.

If you’re short on potatoes you can serve it with good bread.
And if you’re short on bacon you can always top each plateful with a fried or poached egg.