River Cottage

Dear all,

More catching up…

Various rarebits - this was a history lesson for Jamie.J Why is it called a welsh rarebit etc. He also was sure of the fact that he has only ever eaten cheese or beans on toast with no other variation on theme. Surely not?! So with selective communication I explained and prepared welsh rarebit for Jamie.J. and celery rarebit for me.  He took a few mouthfuls and found it rich to his taste and reached for the spice in chilli jam to help.  Celery rarebit is good too and the boy has tried and tested a traditional dish.  I admit to calling it posh cheese on toast having been born and raised in the South East.

Kale and onion pizza – the recipe reads you can make 3 pizzas with 1 quantity of magic dough but we prefer to make 1 pizza and several garlicky breads. Jamie.J. and I made this homecoming pizza for BA who has been teaching in Germany and loves nothing more than home cooked food when he gets home.  Trying something extra special we attempted this pizza to take to the airport and enjoy on the journey back to Bristol.  Jamie.J. has been working for us until his apprenticeship starts and we got the pizza in oven and took a much longer time to ‘discuss’ a mileage spreadsheet.  Of course I use ‘discuss’ fast and loose and the pizza resembled and tasted like crispy seaweed on toast! So, lucky for us, the garlicky bread was lovely and coupled with shaved summer veg.  BA ate and I drove and we talked all the way from London to Bristol.

Tomatoes with thai dressing – simple and delicious.

River cottage summer garden soup – it was early evening and BA agreed this would be perfect after his bike ride to Ashton Court with J.  And it was, except he had so much fun, it was hours before he came home and took almost as long to wash his mountain bike and himself that I was tucked up in bed.  Well earned soup was delicious.  I had a bowl the next day and still found it light and fresh.

Green beans, new potatoes and olives – simple and tasty and celebrates the sunshine even when we don’t have any Bristol, or so it seems this summer.

Poached egg on toast – I won’t be predictable about teaching an old dog to suck eggs here.  But, I am again reminded of being back in the classroom in experimentation mode.  Turning of the heat IS just the perfect amount of time to make toast and a cup of tea and life is again (just for a few minutes) in perfect balance.

Sweetcorn fritters with coriander raita – deep fried food of any kind is not always easy to digest so we don’t have it very often.  It was helped by a side salad of spinach leaves and I feel sure using rapeseed oil is lighter and worked well.

Kohlrabi ‘carpaccio’ – elegant is right and perfect for BA.  It’s hard to find kohlrabi in our neck of the woods so we go to Bristol Sweet Mart which is just about the best supermarket in Bristol.  We buy lot’s of fascinating ingredients then eat giant dosas for 2 breakfast at the Thali Café with a couple of large glasses of chai. I love living here.

Smiling inside.

Clair.