#26 All A Bit Flat

Oh wow - has anyone else epically SLUMPED this week? Is it the clocks (quite possibly jetlag), is it the month itself? is it the change in weather (cold and wet is NOT the one)… I’m not quite sure but I’ve felt all kinds of FLAT… and I can’t blame it on Mercury being in retrograde! It’s not like it’s been a painful, depressive episode; I’ve just felt this dark greyness hang over me. It’s been damp and cold, I’ve felt lethargic and unreasonably tired, it’s all been a bit bland, and kind-of… boring? Each morning, once I’ve reach peak porridge moment, I’ve been on a countdown to hitting the sofa, and subsequently wriggling into bed, which has been sheer joy. I know… it’s been a BLEAK week!

It’s funny, when I feel like this, I find myself somewhat perpetuating the problem. I don’t do things that will make me feel better, more fulfilled or purposeful, instead, I withdraw from people a bit and I just wallow in self pity. I often have a list as long as my arm that needs to be tackled, yet I’ll find something completely irrelevant to obsess over instead, I’ll really beat myself up about my worth when things don’t go to plan, I’ll pick out all my imperfections and shortcomings and generally give myself a hard time.

What’s good about episodes like this is that I always emerge out of them, usually it’s pretty spontaneous and comes without warning… it’s just epically frustrating waiting for THAT moment to occur. Suddenly though, I’ll feel like I’m back in a bit of flow again; I can never be sure what will entice me back to feeling a little brighter and more productive, but experience tells me that it will happen eventually… so for now, I’m just riding the grey, inertia wave and having faith that I’ll sparkle again soon.

… also, in case the tone doesn’t come across here, I should make it clear, I’m not feeling the real darkness of a few weeks ago… I’m absolutely ‘ok’, and you know I’m not here to moan for pity or sympathy. This is just one of those low level ‘stagnant’ episodes we get from time to time, and I’m here to normalise it if you have felt it or are feeling it too.

Better bits

Despite the gloom, I’ve been out for plenty of fresh air - it’s the best tonic, I’ve popped to the gym, and I’ve managed to call upon some of my ‘hero’ recipes to provide some much needed foodie emotional support:

• Porridge always features, obviously, but it’s been even more satisfying than usual this week.

• I brought back my trusty no-knead simple white loaf when I encountered a desperate bread craving on Monday morning - it was better than I remembered, despite being a bit… ugly!

• I rustled up a batch of carrot and coriander soup - made better with a hunk of the above bread and a smear of butter.

• I baked some fiery ginger nut biscuits… a sort of ‘Bonfire night’ themed bake?

• and made a winning lentil shepherds pie.

On reflection, my foodie endeavours have really hit the spot - simple, warming, comfort grub. I’ve popped the best recipes below… let me know if you give them a go.

Other than that… I have very little else to report… if you’re feeling the same kinda flat and grey then I’m with ya… let’s meet on the sofa and hibernate for a bit until we’re dancing again shall well?

Basic ‘No knead’ White Loaf

I didn’t plan on sharing this one but it sparked a fair amount of interest when I posted it on my Insta stories on Monday… so here ya go. It’s an absolute winner when you’re in need of a bread fix - ok it’s not super speedy but it’s simple and the results are majestic… if you’ve never tried to make bread before, this is quite a good place to start I think!

Ingredients

500g Strong White bread flour
355ml tepid water
7g Instant dried active yeast
10g Salt

Method

Measure the flour into a large bowl, add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other. Finally pour over the water and mix together to form a shaggy dough - YES, it’s sticky… if you use your hand to mix, you’re likely to have some dough glued to it, but I find this preferable to a spatula, as you can properly combine the ingredients and give it a good squish - we love a bit of sensory therapy! Once combined, leave for 20 minutes to ‘autolyse’ or rest.

After 20 minutes, perform a series of ‘stretch & folds’ on the dough whilst it’s still in the bowl: wet the fingertips of one hand and slide your fingers between the bowl and dough. Lift and stretch the dough up and fold it over itself, turn the bowl 90° and repeat, four times i.e. a total of four stretch and folds. Cover with a damp tea towel and rest for a further 20 minutes. Repeat the stretch and fold sequence before resting for a further 20 minutes and performing one final sequence of stretch and folds (you should have performed a total of 3 stretch and fold sequences over a period of 1 hour).

After this, cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to prove in a warm environment for around 1.5 hours or until doubled and pouffy.

Once proofed, lightly dust the work surface with flour, press a bit of the air out of the dough and tease it out of the bowl. Pat it down a bit so that it’s an approximate round disc and fold each side in on itself to form a central seam. Flip the dough over and use your hands to shape it into a ball using a circular motion - use the friction of the work surface to try to make a taught ball.

Now Transfer to a Banneton basket or a medium sized bowl lined with a floured tea towel. Cover and leave to prove for a further hour. Meanwhile place a heavy baking tray or baking stone in the oven and preheat to 220C/200C fan.

Once proofed, CAREFULLY turn the dough out onto a piece of baking paper. Give the top of the dough a few slashes with a super sharp knife, remove the preheated tray from the oven, quickly transfer the loaf (via the baking paper) onto the tray and return to the oven (if using a baking stone transfer the loaf on the baking paper directly to the stone), bake for around 40-45 minutes or until a deep golden and sounding hollow when tapped underneath.

TIPS

• Place a roasting tray in the bottom of the oven and throw a cup of water into the roasting tray as you transfer the loaf to the oven to bake - this will help create a wonderful crust.

• Alternatively, use a Dutch oven or heavy cast iron pot to bake the loaf in, again for a super crust and great oven spring. Preheat the oven to 230C/210C fan and place the Dutch oven INSIDE to heat up, once the oven is up to temp, carefully remove the Dutch oven, use baking paper to lift your dough into the dish, place the lid back on and return to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes covered, then remove the lid and continue to bake for a further 15 minutes.

• For more flavour allow the second proof to occur in the fridge over night and bake the loaf off the following morning - adjust the bake time to 45-50 minutes.

Lentil Shepherds pie

I’m subscribed to Mob’s newsletter - I recommend you do so too as they share some corkers of recipes each week - this week was all about their warming cottage pie… the intro to which went like this:

Cottage Pie is up there with some of the greatest comfort foods of all time. It's warming, it's filling, and there might not be a more satisfying sensation than plunging a serving spoon deep into the fluffy layer of mash on top of a Cottage Pie to unearth the meaty goodness beneath.

Ok so I’m calling this one Shepherds pie; Wikipedia informs me the two names are used interchangeably, although I believed Shepherds involved lamb and more often included cheese on top. Regardless of its name, my version involves a lentil and veg sauce with all the comforting notes of shepherds pie - Worcestershire sauce is the hero ingredient in my opinion - topped with a potato and sweet potato mash and a healthy scattering of cheese. It’s wholesome, comforting and a hug on a plate. If you want a meaty version, find Mob’s version HERE, I’m sure it’s epic.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion chopped
1 stick celery chopped
1 small carrot chopped
2 garlic cloves grated
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tin Mutti crushed tomatoes
300ml vegetable stock
125g red lentils (puy lentils would possibly be better here as they have a more earthy flavour but I used what I had)
1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
150g Baby spinach roughly chopped
150g Chestnut mushrooms thickly sliced
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
50-100ml Red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Topping

300g Marfona or Maris Piper potatoes peeled and cut into ~ 1 inch cubes
300g Sweet potato peeled and cubed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Soured cream
2 tbsp milk
40g Coarsely Grated extra mature cheddar
1 tbsp Finely grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for around 10 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute. Next add the tomato puree, followed by the crushed tomatoes, stock, lentils, red wine, oregano and Worcestershire sauce, bring to the boil. Cover and simmer over a medium heat until the lentils are tender - around 50 minutes or until the lentils have softened. Add the spinach and mushrooms and heat until the spinach has wilted and the mushrooms are cooked. Once cooked, season with salt and pepper to taste, then transfer to a medium sized deep ovenproof dish and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, place the potatoes in a large pan of salted water bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes, then add the sweet potato, bring back to the boil and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes or until both are tender. Once both are cooked, drain and return to one pan with olive oil (or a knob of butter), the milk, soured cream and salt and pepper to taste, mash until smooth.

Whilst the potatoes cook, preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan.

Spoon the potato mix on top of the lentil mixture, sprinkle with the cheddar and finally the parmesan. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until bubbling and golden. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

NOTES

• Double the ingredients and use a bigger dish, then box up leftovers and refrigerate for work tomorrow or chuck it in the freezer for an easy midweek meal.

Ginger Nuts

I debated sharing these little biccies because I wasn’t sure how well received they would be - do people like a ginger nut? How do we rate this biscuit generally? After nibbling on them through the week, (they seemed to get more flavoursome with time), I decided you needed to be able to sample them too if you wish. They’re incredibly simple to whip up and will fulfil your biscuity needs for the next week or so. To ensure a decent crunch, make sure you flatten them evenly and if your oven is a bit weak, give them an extra couple of minutes cooking time - just eyeball them to check they’re not browning too much.

Makes approx: 25

Ingredients

250g Self raising flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp Ground ginger
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp Ground Allspice
125g Unsalted butter
75g Soft light brown sugar
100g Golden syrup
25g Treacle

Method

Sift the flour, bicarb and spices into a large bowl. Meanwhile, combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on a medium speed for around a minute until combined and creamy. Next add the golden syrup and treacle and beat again until just combined. Finally, tip in the flour/bicarb/spice mixture and beat on a low speed until the mixture just comes together to form a soft dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for a couple of hours (or more) until ready to bake.

Once rested, preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Cut approximately 25g chunks off the dough, roll into a ball and flatten by placing a small piece of baking paper over each ball and pressing flat (8-10 mm thick - yes I get out my tape measure) with the bottom of a glass - leave plenty of room in-between each biscuit as they spread a bit as they bake. Bake for around 25 minutes… a couple of minutes longer to ensure epic ‘crunch’ levels. Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to FULLY cool and crisp up further on the trays.

Notes

• Fancy elevating them further? Dip, drizzle or spread a little melted dark chocolate over them - ginger and DC is a WINNING combo!

EXTRAS

• Positives of the new glasses… my eye aches less now, I don’t have a headache, they have a blue tint which reduces the glare of my phone and compute - winner…

• …Negatives of the new glasses… they’re permanently steamed up or filthy, how does one drink a hot drink please? I’m a real mucky pup and apparently glasses are major muck victims! I forget where I put them and you can’t ring them like you can your phone - not ideal. They hurt the bridge of my nose, they’re not ideal gym wear… and when you realise you haven’t taken them off pre-gym, you have to juggle them around with you during your session hoping that no one will tread on them when you abandon them on the floor.

• Popcorn - On Wednesday afternoon the weather was SO miserable, it was dark by about 3pm or at least it felt it and I needed some immediate foodie entertainment… so I ‘popped some corn’ and marvelled at the wizardry! If you have never done this, you must when you need 5 minutes of entertainment. Just place 1 tbsp of olive oil in a deep saucepan (make sure you have a lid for the pan to hand). Place it over a medium heat for 1 min. Add 2-3 kernels of popcorn kernels. Put the lid on and swirl the pan to coat them in oil. Heat until they start to pop. Once the first 3 kernels have popped, the oil is hot enough. Use tongs to remove the popped corn, then add 50g of kernels. Hold the lid on and shake sporadically until the majority of the kernels have popped. Once the popping has slowed to every 2-3 seconds, remove from the heat and pour into a large bowl, season with salt or get creative with sweet or savoury butters and spices - TUCK IN!

• Speculoos spice mix… add it to everything! 3tsp ground cinnamon, 1tsp ground Nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ground clove, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground cardamom, 1/4 tsp ground fennel seeds - mix to combine and store in an airtight container. Then use as you wish: sprinkle it into your porridge, include it in your apple crumble topping or add it to your next granola mix!

Right… that’s ya lot I’m afraid, it’s currently 8pm on Saturday evening and I’m off to enjoy the sofa, my hot water bottle and soon bed - yippee!

…WAIT, I just want to add one more quick note of appreciation… because you need to be aware that your messages, the support, you making and sharing my recipes; it means everything to me - so another monumental THANK YOU!

Big hugs and love!

Steph xxx