What's for Dinner? (Tuesday)

Tuesday's dinner is broccoli chowder and last night's brown bread.

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Now, what I call broccoli chowder is basically just potato-leek soup with broccoli added in at the last minute.  And I never peel a potato if I can help it (like Mom says never to truss a chicken.)  The excuse I use is that all the nutrients are just under the skin, but really I'm just lazy.  

Broccoli Chowder
4 small potatoes, small cubes
1 large or 2 small leeks, thinly sliced
1 head broccoli, including peeled stalks, tiny pieces
1 T butter
1 T stock powder
1 bay leaf
1 T flour dissolved in a little boiling water
some milk

Fry leeks in butter until soft.  Add chopped potatoes, stock granules, and bay leaf.  Pour in just enough boiling water to cover the vegetables.  Simmer this, covered, until the potatoes are tender (20 minutes).  Throw the broccoli in and let that cook until only just done, then add the flour-water paste and stir until it starts to thicken.  Add the milk and let simmer for a few minutes, uncovered, stirring often.  When it is as thick as you'd like it, remove the bay leaf, and taste for salt and pepper.  If it gets too gloopy, add some more milk.  Blending optional.  
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I started chopping at 6:45 and it was ready to eat at 7:40.  We had the rest of last night's brown bread with it, and it was delicious.  

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What's for Dinner? (Monday)

Monday's dinner is lentil stew and brown bread.

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Lentil stew is a standby in this house.  I make it at least once a fortnight in the winter months, and it is a perfect good-for-you chaser after a weekend of eating out.  Even better, it is made out of cupboard ingredients and fridge-stable vegetables, so if there's no other food in the house, there's always enough to throw this together.  Sometimes I don't have a pepper on hand, and the result is always edible, but disappointing.

This is the recipe as I wrote in the cookbook I gave Jamie on our wedding day:

Lentil Stew
1 tin tomatoes
1 C lentils, any colour but red
2 C water
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 green (etc) pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 bay leaf
1 T cumin
1 T stock

Put everything in a cold pan and bring it to a simmer on high heat.  Turn it down to low and simmer covered until the lentils are tender (30-40 minutes, depending on variety).  If it still seems too watery, turn up the heat and cook uncovered for a few minutes.  Taste and add salt, pepper, and/or Worcestershire sauce.

I have altered the previously-linked brown bread recipe from Farmette:

Brown Bread
10 oz wholemeal flour
6 oz strong bread flour
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
~400ml milk
1 T vinegar
1 small egg
2 T honey

Preheat oven to 200°C. Whisk the egg in a measuring jug.  Pour in milk to bring it up to 450ml.  Add vinegar and whisk again.  Let this sit until the oven is heated up.  Measure all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and fork them together to approximate a uniform distribution.  Generously butter a loaf tin.  When the oven is ready (and not before!), pour the wet ingredients, remembering the honey, into the dry.  Stir to only just mix, pour in tin.  Bake at 200°C for 30-40 minutes.  

I tend to under-bake, which leaves the inside a bit soggy, so I'm now trying giving it another five minutes after I think it's ready.

Tonight I started making the bread at 5:45.  When it was in the oven (about 6) I started chopping things for the stew.  I took the bread out to cool at 6:38.  The stew was ready at 7:05.  A lot of the time in the middle was spent writing this post or doing other housework.  Oh, and playing Letterpress.  That game is awesome. 

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MAKE-LEARN-GIVE: Third Week of October

It's been a productive week.  I MADE a gingerbread in honour of Gran, and ate it with butter and Earl Grey.  

(download)

I LEARNED that Irish brown bread is a type of soda bread that is leavened with the combination of baking soda and buttermilk, which is slightly acidic.  It is more like cake than bread, and takes next to no prep time.  I found a lovely recipe online that I've made twice now, most recently with fish chowder.   

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I GAVE half of my nice muddy carrots from the Farmers' Market to my mother-in-law, since she appreciates their superior flavour.

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Greener Granola

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About once a week we have homemade pizza for dinner. I use Billy Reisinger's recipe for the dough, which yields enough for two pizzas; half goes in the freezer for the next week. This week our pizza was topped with pesto, purple sprouting broccoli, spring onions, sun dried tomatoes, and leftover venison sausage.

As part of my ongoing struggle against the delicious tyranny of breakfast cereal, I have learned to make my own granola, but I have resolved never to turn on the oven expressly to bake it. Since pizza is one of the few recipes for which it it vital to fully pre-heat the oven, I made a pan of granola with the extra heat. Low-carbon granola! Ta-da!

 

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