Jottage from Lancaster - Kale and Mushroom lasagne (2)

There's something to be said for trusting a recipe book. To my genuine surprise (tinged with a little horror) I found out that many recipe books just put in random recipes that had never actually been tried out. Many of Mrs Beeton's recipes, for instance, are just made up figments of her imagination. They may work out - they may not. Although I don't know if Delia Smith was the first of her kind to have actually whipped up every recipe in her famous books - but in my mind she was the first cook I trusted. Many of us feel the same I know, as the blessed Delia's Complete Cookery Course must be on almost everyone's cookery bookshelf. I know that people love Jamie and that there are other equally brilliant cooks (mostly of the TV variety) who produce books that people 'swear by'. Since I'm not a huge fan of TV cookery, these have largely passed me by. However, our chance encounter with Hugh changed all that (as you must realise) and I have come to rely on, trust even, the River Cottage recipes. 


In my Delia phases (Marigold stock powder, real Madagascar vanilla essence et al), I was always pleased with the results of what I made - and I never doubted that what would turn out would be palatable, but it was never quite as exciting as I wanted to it be. Now I wouldn't call my self anything but a decent, plain cook. Cottage pie, steamed ginger pudding, Yorkshire pud and decent gravy are my strengths and Delia provided recipes of that ilk that I was quite happy to make. But suddenly when I bought River Cottage Everyday I felt that it was something I really wanted to try. To be able to make things that were a bit different and a bit more exciting. But kale and spinach lasagne would have to be a no-no. It sounded bland, uninteresting and 'not quite my thing'.


However.

Assembled but not cooked

Once Heather had made it and I looked again I thought I would have a go. Just because I trusted the book not to put me through the shenanigans of making it if it wasn't better than half way decent to eat. Bearing in mind Heather's warnings about the lasagne not being cooked, I did what I usually do and made it in the morning in the hope that the lasagne sheets would soften enough before it was cooked to avoid pre-cooking. I had a minor hiccup as I suddenly thought it needed 200g of parmesan and not 20g and I also got completely muddled about which layer was which and ended up just stacking up the kale, mushrooms and lasagne pretty randomly in the dish before I sprinkled on the obligatory cheese. So far so good. It seemed to be a simple recipe (and certainly cheap - especially given that it didn't need much Parmesan. But boy did it make a lot of washing up!

The finished lasagne!

The end result had the obligatory bubbling cheese on top. And amazingly it tasted really wonderful. Definitely one to make again and again. Really the pre-cooked lasagne did need to be cooked - it was a bit more al dente than It perhaps should have been. But I don't mind making it again as I want to eat it again!






All that was left was to eat it - and then do the washing up!

Jottage from Cambridge – The Art of the Kitchen

When I was about eight months pregnant my bump suddenly started to grow in size by the day and, before long, it was almost impossible to get past my husband in our tiny kitchen. Cooking is something that we’ve always enjoyed doing together (n.b. Hugh’s Chicken Curry is a fabulous recipe to make with another person as there are lots of components (each complicated in their own way, and worthy of admiration by your other half) which are thrown into the same pot), but given the size of our kitchen it was always going to be a challenge in this house – even without a bump! So, imagine my delight when we started looking to buy a property in Cambridge and the place we agreed on had an enormous kitchen – in fact it was the biggest kitchen I had ever had the pleasure of using on a daily basis. So, this made me think about some of the kitchens I have had to contend with, and how they compare. Also, from writing this post, I have realised that over the past ten years I have switched loyalties (from Delia, to Jamie and now to River Cottage) depending on where I’ve lived and personal circumstances. 

Unsurprisingly the kitchen I encountered at my University Hall of Residence wasn’t up to much, and Baked Bean toasties were probably the extent of my culinary repertoire for those three years. I do remember buying packets of Safeway Savers fish fingers too so perhaps I did use the oven. (Like everyone else I had a Student Cookbook, though I’m certain I never used it.) It wasn’t until I was studying for my second degree that I discovered pesto. It was a perfect match and, after a night out or a day of dull seminars, nothing quite compared to spaghetti mixed with pesto and tomatoes and sprinkled with parmesan. I lived with three girls that I didn’t get on with at all so, although the kitchen in our shared house was ok, I didn’t want to spend any more time in it than I had to  another reason why I consumed so much pesto. 

Moving to London for my first job in 2000 I lived in a cheap flat in Cricklewood with a surprisingly large kitchen. Suddenly I had sophisticated friends who weren’t afraid to attend private views at the Serpentine Gallery with arty types. They invited me round for homemade pizzas and meals that didn’t come out of a packet. It was all very frightening, especially when one of my very best friends described coming round to another person’s house and being served pizza from a box! I was that very friend, though she had clearly forgotten it was me and I didn’t confess to such a faux-pas. However, I didn’t really take advantage of this big kitchen (and I was fairly terrified of my landlady who lived with me at the time and I didn’t want to spend too much time weighing out ingredients in our shared space), so going out to Pizza Express or Wagamamas became an almost weekly event. Also I never went out with anyone for long enough in those early years to need more than one recipe, so experimenting in the kitchen was hardly a priority. When I invited a boy round for dinner I would always give them pasta served with roast veg, passata and bacon. This was exactly what I gave to Theo (my now husband) when he first came round. It was quite frightening when I realised we were becoming more committed to each other, and a second invitation would be necessary. I didn’t know what on earth to serve up that would impress him (though my pasta dish probably didn’t win his heart so a good cook probably wasn’t top of his criteria for a girlfriend). Delia came to the rescue. Over the following months I served him up all kinds of meals which I printed out at work from Delia online. We also discovered that cooking was something we enjoyed doing together so some of the burden was taken off my shoulders. He adored cooking with fish, not something I had eaten much of previously – see ‘A Fishy Dilemma’ – and the stir fry became the fast-food option rather than pizza.  

I’m part of the generation who adores Jamie Oliver. I doubt that I have any friends who don’t have a pile of his books stacked up on their kitchen counters with well-worn pages. Moving to Manchester in 2007 I bought one of those characterless flats in the ‘trendy’ Northern Quarter, and Jamie became part of the furniture. All painted white (the lease actually forbids the tenants from painting the walls any other colour) the kitchen was an add-on to the main living space. Although it wasn’t very big, I found it perfectly suited my needs. The trick was not to make anything too complicated (which is where Jamie really comes in) so that when friends came round for dinner they wouldn’t see me getting all flustered in the kitchen. Instead I would pour them a glass of wine and try and keep myself sober while I made a recipe I knew by heart. I invited various new acquaintances round for dinner, and a risotto of some kind, or indeed homemade pizza (see Jamie’s Italian), was always on the menu. 

From Manchester to Cambridge, and I have already described the contrasting kitchens I have experienced here. As you can see from the photo I now have ample space – Tristan is at the centre of things and around him are cupboards, and a huge stove which have eight hobs, and two ovens! I even have a shelf in one cupboard for my expanding collection of Tupperware. I will definitely make the most of my new fancy kitchen and, in the spirit of this blog, will endeavour to concoct as many things as possible from my River Cottage cookbook. Living just off Mill Road with a wealth of food shops surrounding me I should be able to source all the ingredients and, with dinner parties becoming rare treats, it feels worth venturing beyond Jamie and Delia and into new territory. 

Too small for me and a bump...

Big enough for all of us and more...

Jottage from Cambridge – Season and Unseasonality

Food is not something I know much about. I have never been one of those people who buys fruit and vegetables in a particular season – I’ve even been known to eat Cadbury’s Cream eggs at least two months either side of Easter. So, when my mother gave me a copy of River Cottage Everyday I thought it would sit snugly with my other reasonably untouched cookery books. It still might be between Jamie Oliver and Delia Smith but for the fact that suddenly food has become much more important in our household. This is all down to ‘weaning’ – that very daunting process between your baby only consuming milk and them eyeing up the sweetie counter at the supermarket.


My sister assured me that weaning was great fun, and indeed I have loved every minute blending up bits of carrot, sweet potato, butternut squash and all the other amber coloured vegetables that Annabel Karmel (the guru of weaning) suggests you puree into a mush and feed your baby. However the market for blenders has no doubt been damaged irreparably by Gill Rapley. Rapley is synonymous with ‘baby led’ weaning - the latest fad of new mums who assemble with their Pumpkin Patch kids at the Cambridgeshire Childrens’ Centres. In fact the first question anyone asks now after that all important ‘is your baby sleeping through the night?’ is ‘are you doing baby-led’? Anyone who hasn’t heard of this latest phenomenon is looked at disdainfully, and an assumption is made that their baby will be an impossibly fussy eater who won’t be able to hold a spoon until their second birthday (Rapley claims). 


There are great assumptions made for ‘baby led’, and I was certain that Tristan would be the perfect candidate. However, owing to the fact that at five months he was still waking every couple of hours, I was advised to start weaning early to save my sanity. Because baby-led means that you only give your child solid food (you can give them soups, yogurts etc. but you never give them the instruction to open their mouth while you shove a spoon in, instead they take the spoon from you and feed themselves) – which they don’t have the ability to digest until they’re six months old – I began to puree instead. When Tristan hit six months I began to give him solid foods, although still relying on my blender, and very rarely having the courage to let him take the spoon for fear of the walls, carpet, furnishings etc. being forever porridge stained in our rented accommodation. 


My freezer is now full of little pots (I have become fairly obsessive about Tupperware recently) of lamb stew, minced beef mixed with baby pasta and salmon risotto. New inspiration came with the acquisition of the River Cottage Baby & Toddler Cookbook which sits beside River Cottage Everyday not on a dusty shelf, but within easy reach on the kitchen counter. I have got through a huge number of recipes already, and Tristan just as easily wolfs down the Chicken Curry (see p.223 of Everyday) as the Apple & Spelt Stars (see p.234 Baby & Toddler). So, food is now very important and the some of my trials and tribulations of feeding my baby son will be recorded in this blog. In addition I hope to tell our readers about the amazing food stores on Mill Road, a thriving shopping street to the east of the city centre.