Having this in your kitchen will not literally change your life… but it will be quite close because you’ll want to add it to almost everything!
Continue reading “Dukkah”Dukkah
Pa de Sant Antoni (savoury, with sourdough)
After my first attempt at a Pa de Sant Antoni and realising that it was sweeter than I remembered it, I decided to develop a recipe for a savoury version.
I was also really determined that it had to be a plaited bread, which inevitably forces you to use a less wet dough so you can handle and shape it without losing your wits.
The result, once baked, has less definition in the plait than I’d like, but I am very pleased with the bread itself nonetheless. The crumb was quite open, and the anise flavour was there to give it the air of an special bread. I also practiced “painting” the surface with water to give it a smoother surface, and it worked! It felt a bit like biting into a brioche. Quite interesting!
Continue reading “Pa de Sant Antoni (savoury, with sourdough)”Pa de Sant Antoni (Saint Anthony’s bread)
While the Fallas festival in Valencia is quite well-known, the Sant Antoni (Saint Anthony)’s celebrations are less flamboyant, more inward looking. A domestic affair, say, for the locals and by the locals.
Happening around the 17th of January, it is a very unassuming celebration: there is a parade where people bring their animals to church to get a blessing, there will be a small market called “porrat” with stalls selling, amongst other yummy things, delicious nuts, figs and confectionery based on those (which are also called “porrat”), and finally one or more bonfires will burn and light up the dark January night, spreading the aroma of pine wood all around the neighbourhood.
All good things!
Continue reading “Pa de Sant Antoni (Saint Anthony’s bread)”Celeriac, potato, onion and courgette soup
The first thing I think of when autumn arrives is mushrooms. Then pumpkins. And then, celeriac.
But for some reason, they were not stocking it anywhere near us. I kept peeking at the vegetables section each time I visited the shops, and all I saw were sad swedes (the roots, not the people) and tiny squash and potato cubes. No! That will not do!
So I finally braved the rain and wind, walked to a supermarket further away, and found celeriac there. At last!
This appetite of mine for celeriac soup is a bit of a recent thing though. I blame The Celeriac Soup that I had at Brunswick House once.
Have it once, try to mimic it forever. Such is my fate…
Continue reading “Celeriac, potato, onion and courgette soup”Skulls and bones (or: scones and scones)
Is there anything funnier than making your own pastry and then baking a Poison Pie (like I did last year)? Yes—making skull and bone shaped scones!
