Welcome

Welcome to the premiere of “Weekly Wrap” - the internet’s latest premium dispatch keeping you entertained. Make a cup of coffee, sit back, relax and enjoy the inane ramblings.

Below I have treated you to a week in review, alongside some recommendations and inspiration, food and non-food related alike. Dig in!

Preface

This is the first one of these that I’m doing, and I’ve yet to decide which direction to take it in.

I’m sure over time it’ll get more fleshed out and tighter, but for now, the inane ramblings of a madman will have to do.

If you have any feedback at all - please, drop me a message on Instagram!

Update on food history

Food history is so much more complicated than I thought it would be. I am way out my depth, barely floating. I’m getting there, and some progress is being made - heavy emphasis on some. If all goes well and to plan, and I stop being lazy, next week should be the inaugural history lesson.

The only hint I’ll give is this: generally made of flour and stuffed. Every culture has them in various shapes and sizes.

Why is it complicated? Well, I have to decide a starting point. Let’s look at the humble pasta - a delicious food made of flour and eggs. When I study pasta, do I then fall down the rabbit hole of the introduction of flour to Italy, or instead study regional differences.

You can see my dilemma (I hope). You’ll be learning with me, tagging along whilst I figure out how far is too far. Nonetheless, it will be done.

What have I been cooking this week?

I cooked up two delightful recipes from East by Meera Sodha

First up is a ‘Potato, Kale and Coconut Curry ‘- delightfully simple to make, utterly delicious and completely open for subs (originally made with rainbow chard - which I can’t get a hold of, so kale it was). You seemingly can’t really go wrong with your typical Indian mix of garlic, ginger and onion + spices; add coconut milk and vegetables and you’ve got a winner. Here’s the recipe.

Next up was a ‘Jersey Royal and Green Bean Istoo’. I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of “istoo”, and the only way I could describe it is as a fragrant coconut curry. According to East, istoo is a “corruption of stew”. When I search online, I get one recipe, an NHS resource on caesarean sections, a youtube video about a baby, and then more NHS resources on other ailements. Anywho, here’s the recipe.

Other than those two, I’ve been on a baking frenzy. I’ve made 2 focaccias, a boule of bread, sourdough pancakes, sourdough banana bread aaand I think that’s it.

Let’s start with focaccia. Why two? We have to go back to the best focaccia I’ve ever had - it’s from Tough Mary’s in Nottingham. It’s pleasantly oily, perfectly salted, and stuffed with cheese and salad. I could eat it for days. Every focaccia I’ve made in the past has left a lot to be desired. They’ve been bready, still light, but not bubbly, they haven’t been oily enough, salty enough; ultimately, they’ve been nowhere near the Tough Mary’s one.

Enter the River Cottage Bread handbook - I made the focaccia from there - it was better, but still not close. It suffered form the same issues as all my previous focaccias - dry and non-bubbly. I hesitate to use the word dense, because they weren’t dense, just they were akin to white bread almost. We ate it nonetheless, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with some za’atar.

Enter Samin Nosrat’s Focaccia from Salt Fat Acid Heat:

I’ve heard rave reviews about this. On the Netflix series, it looks TO DIE FOR. Let’s give it a go. I’ve got ample time to wait for dough to endlessly rise, as the recipe asks for. After about 17 hours of patience, out it comes from the oven. Instantly, I could tell this was the one. It was OILY, it was BUBBLY, it was light and airy. It was overbaked on the top. In all my excitement and idiocy, I didn’t turn the oven temperature down, accounting for the fan oven. This thing was CRUNCHY. Tooth shatteringly crunchy.

I think it’s time I took a break from bread.

The focaccia were the two main highlights of the week. Whilst my sourdough starter decides to behave itself and not be a drama queen, I decided to make a white boule from River Cottage Bread, which turned out surprisingly pleasant, considering I no longer have my cast iron casserole - I had to improvise by flipping a PYREX over the dough to trap steam. With the sourdough discards I made sourdough pancakes and sourdough banana bread, from The Perfect Loaf.

These turned out so light, surprisingly nutty (starter is made with rye and wholemeal flour), and so moreish.

Other than the bread, above, and the fermenting starter, I’m trying to broaden my fermentation repertoire, setting up a “fermentation station”.

At the moment I’ve got a maple kombucha on the go, recipe from The Noma Guide to Fermentation. I’ll be reducing some of the kombucha down to a syrup to drizzle over more of the sourdough pancakes, and finish the rest off later.

My foray into kombucha is something I may report on at some point in the future, after I’ve got a few batches under my belt.

What have I been reading this week?

Two books this week, which is very unlike me. They’re both non-fiction and I needed something to stop me getting bored from either one.

The first book is Bad Pharma, by Ben Goldacre - discussing the, hmmm, mismanagement of the pharmaceutical industry, shall we say. This follows on from another pharma book I read, detailing fraud in Ranbaxy - a former Indian drugs company - and general ongoing systemic fraud.

The second book is Gandhi’s Search for the Perfect Diet: Eating with the World in Mind, a book about Gandhi and his diet. Not so far into this one yet, but I’ve learnt a few things already: Gandhi used to be a lawyer, flying first class and in suits and all, and he led a low salt diet. The next chapter details Gandhi’s struggle dealing with the moreishness of chocolate.

Expect more detailed reviews in the following weeks for both, once I’ve worked my way through them!

Music recommendation of the week

This week I rediscovered Tom Odell. The last time I listened to him was damn near 5 years ago, near the start of University. I’ve found the mix of energy and frankly beautiful singing hard to beat.

Every once in a while I end up listening to old favourites from years ago.

Fin

That’s it for this week. All this time has meant I can cook and bake to my heart’s content. I’m finally able to cook through East regularly, pickup all the fermentation and bread projects I’ve been eyeing up, and report on them more frequently.

Until next week!