Last month, my friend Ella Dee wrote a blog post titled “It doesn’t have to be hard”.
She was talking about the lovely relaxed relationship she has with her Gorgeous Other, but I found myself reflecting on her words last weekend as we happily ate our way through some simple meals.
A qualifier: I know that our definition of “simple” isn’t the same as everyone else’s, but now that our garden is established and our bread baking routine is in place, putting food on the table really doesn’t feel like hard work. Every family’s situation is different though, and we all do the best we can with what we have. The aim of this blog has never been to tell others how they should live their lives, but rather to share with you how we choose to live ours.
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Ciabatta is a doddle to make, but friends rarely believe me when I say that. It’s not until they try it for themselves – as Alison, Sally and Claire have done – that they really understand how little hands-on time is required to produce this bread! If you’d like to give it a go, here are the detailed tutorials I’ve written for both our sourdough and yeasted versions.
The four sourdough ciabatta loaves I baked last week took – literally – ten minutes of dough handling time. I squelched everything together on Friday night, and baked it twelve hours later on Saturday morning…
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Our garden is awash with broccoli at the moment, so dinner on Friday night was this delicious pasta (based on an old Jamie Oliver recipe).
The broccoli stems were chopped finely and fried in butter and olive oil with garlic, chilli and anchovy fillets, then the drained pasta and broccoli florets (boiled together in the same pot), were stirred into the sauce. It was topped with fried breadcrumbs made from stale sourdough…
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On Saturday night, I glazed a leg of ham with Pete’s quince jelly and baked it until it was caramelised and delicious. We only made a small dent on the leg that evening – it will now provide us with a supply of easy meals for the next few weeks…
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On Sunday morning, I blitzed two chocolate pound cakes through the food processor – they took just minutes to whip up, followed by a long slow bake…
…before being topped with a basic chocolate glaze…
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A quick Sunday morning recon of the garden produced a handful of veg…
…which were combined to make a simple pasta for lunch.
The peeled carrots, leeks, asparagus and capsicum were all diced and sauteed in my Emile Henry stew pot in a little olive oil with a handful of chopped ham. Once everything was lightly browned and glossy, a litre and a half of water was added, along with a spoonful of Moroccan spice mix and a little salt. Half a packet of pasta went into the boiling soup and, just before serving, the podded peas were stirred through…
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We can’t always control the ebb and flow of life, so it’s good to have some easy meals to fall back on when things get hectic. Ella Dee was right – it doesn’t have to be hard!
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Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 