Visit: Norfolk Coast

Norfolk is one of my favorite places and it’s been pretty well documented between myself and B over the last year or so! I did want to share a few memories from our little holiday last month, we stayed about 100 yards from the beach at Bacton where we flew kites, ate carrot cake, walked dogs and visited the poachers pocket. We took a trip to Cromer for ice creams and arcades. We visited the lighthouse at Happisborough and the lifeboat at Thornham for the most amazing Fish and Chips I have ever seen!

A truly brilliant holiday, I can’t wait to go again…..

Make: Picnic bread

 

Picnic season has officially started, A few weeks ago we had a picnic on the side of a very windy hill to watch some racing at Dingley race course. Its a bit of a family tradition to go to Dingley, The racecourse is built in a natural valley so the view is spectacular. I remember as a child spending many a happy afternoon rolling down the hill then racing back to the top to admire the horses and their colourfully clad jockeys. Key ingredients for the day are always good food and good company, everyone brings a contribution to the picnic and the afternoon is spent catching up with friends and family whilst watching the racing.When thinking of something delicious but relatively stress free to make bread always seems to fit the bill nicely, this is a basic bread recipe with impressive results for fairly little input. I even made the dough and the filling the night before so the dough could prove up overnight. All I had to do on the day was assemble and bake- easy!

The kitchenaid with it’s dough hook attachment does come in handy here, but if you don’t have one a handheld electric mixer with dough hook attachment would work just as well, I have never attempted to make bread without either of these tools, it can be done, just takes a little longer. I’m quite impatient!

For the dough:

500g plain flour

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp dried fast action yeast

2tsp salt

30ml olive or rapeseed oil

330-350ml warm water- blood temperature

For the filling:

2 medium red onions

1 clove garlic- crushed

50g chorizo diced into small chunks, about 5mm diameter

1 tbls tomato puree

salt and pepper to taste

75g mature cheddar cheese- grated

A 6″ cake tin with a removable base

Place the plain flour, salt, yeast and sugar into a mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir the mix with a spoon to combine all the ingredients.

Add the olive oil, start the mixer and slowly stream in the warm water until the mix comes together as a dough and no flour is stuck to the sides of the bowl. The dough should be fairly soft and elastic in texture and only slightly tacky to the touch, it may not need all the water or it may need a little extra. If the dough looks sticky and soggy then too much water has been added, but it’s fairly forgiving, just add extra flour. Continue mixing/kneading the dough for 5-6 minutes to develop the gluten and the dough is smooth and stretchy. Cover the bowl with cling film and set aside in a warm place to prove.

To make the filling gently fry the onions and chorizo for around 5 minutes until the onions are soft and golden, add the garlic and fry for a further minute. Stir through the tomato pure and season to taste. Set the filling aside until completely cool.

Once the dough has doubled in size it’s ready to roll out. Dust a work surface with flour and transfer the dough to the worktop. Dust the rolling pin with a little flour to prevent the dough sticking and roll the dough out into a rectangle roughly 35cm x 25cm spread the onion and chorizo filling over the dough and then sprinkle over 1/3 of the cheese, reserve the rest for sprinkling over the top of the loaf later.

Roll up the dough tightly and cut into 8 pieces. line a baking tray with parchment and place the cake tin onto the tray. Place the rolls cut side up into the cake tin. Cover the cake tin with cling film and set aside to prove again for an hour or so, in the meantime pre-heat the oven to 160°C

Place the loaf onto the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 40 minutes, then sprinkle over the remaining cheese and bake for a further 10-15 minutes- the usual way to test if a loaf is cooked is to tap the base to check for a hallow sound, this is a little difficult here so use a skewer to test- insert the skewer into the centre of the loaf, if it is clean and warm to the touch the loaf is ready, if it is cool and a little tacky bake for a few minutes longer.

The loaf was still warm as it travelled in the car with us to the races, which made it quite difficult to resist! It did arrive in one piece and was well received by all who managed to get a slice!

Visit: Amsterdam

Two weeks ago my boyfriend D took me to Amsterdam for my birthday – a really lovely present

We spent four days in The Netherlands’ capital, and I fell in love with the place!

As with our trip to Paris, we were on a bit of a budget – but it didn’t stop us having fun

Apart from one rainy day, we were really lucky with the weather – especially on my birthday, which was super sunny!

Definitely in consideration for the ‘places I could live’ list!

Ontbijt, lunch en diner

We rented a room in an apartment we found on airBnB – which turned out to be great for cutting costs as we were able to use our hosts’ kitchen

Every morning we made breakfast to eat in our rooms (D introduced me to the naughty, but nice hagelslag – chocolate sprinkles on toast!)

And then we made a little picnic up for our lunch (Dutch cheese and ham sandwiches, a piece of fruit, stroopwafels and a big bottle of water)

And for two of our three evenings we made simply, but tasty pasta to eat in the apartment – on my birthday evening we ate pasta again, but posher…

(This is ham, lemon and what seemed like pretty much a whole block of butter!)

And then there were the holiday snacks D couldn’t wait to get his raw herring fix (I think it’s his Dutch heritage)

While I was more than happy with a big slice of the AMAZING apple cake they serve up at Winkel 43 on Noordermarkt – a must visit

Which would you prefer?

 

I loved the casual alfresco dining we saw around the city – with locals literally dragging little tables and chairs out to the canal banks, drinking wine and serving up dinner from massive saucepans

Let’s go ride a bike

The transport system in Amsterdam is amazing – there’s really little excuse for a car when you can choose from train, tram, bus, moped, canal boat or – of course – bike!

Cyclists rule the roads/paths – and with everything being so flat it’s much easier than my usual cycle to work

I’d definitely recommend renting bikes if you visit – it’s a great way to experience the city and a practical way to get from place to place

Better than a bouquet

Of all the attractions we visited, my favourite was the trip we took to the Keukenhof tulip gardens on my birthday

The gardens lie just outside the city, and during the Spring months are filled with seven million colourful tulips, daffodils and hyacinths

We couldn’t have wished for nicer weather to wander through the grounds, eating ice-cream, and trying to decide on our favourite flower

Oh, and taking lots of photos…

Beautiful!

A few notes…

• Buy tickets for Anne Frank’s House online well before you arrive – or expect to queue for a while
• Learn the difference between a coffee shop and a cafe (you may be interested in both)
• So many Dutch people speak perfect English, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try a bit of Dutch (unlike me!)
• Be aware that trying to take a bike lock home to the UK in your hand language may interest airport security… (oops!)
• It can take as little as 45 minutes to fly from Birmingham to Amsterdam – quicker than Leicester to Birmingham!

Grow: Spring at last

So finally it’s here, Spring. Garden preparation has begun and seeds have been planted. Cauliflower, courgette, celeriac, cayenne pepper, nasturtium, french beans, dwarf sunflowers, mustard leaves, aubergines, to name but a few, went in at the end of March/beginning of April and have this week been put outside to harden off before finally going into pots or joining the herbs in the vegetable patch.

Seed swaps are happening between friends too, we are hoping to trade some of our cauliflowers (which were sown a little too enthusiastically!) For delights such as electric daisies, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

Now I can’t say that my growing skills have improved any since this time last year, but it turns out C is rather talented when it comes to growing, and has a little more patience too. Last autumn’s offerings, despite the rubbish weather, were encouraging. So with a bit of luck and sunshine hopefully this year will be even better.

Listen: Daft Punk – Get Lucky

http://randomaccessmemories.com

Though they have not been announced in the official line up, bookmakers odds are currently 3/1 that Daft Punk will make a surprise appearance at Glastonbury this summer. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed!