The Cookery Calendar Challenge

Once again I am joining in with Penny of The Homemade Heart and her Cookery Calendar Challenge. My chosen book for October was Scandinavian Comfort Food by Trine Hahnemann, a book I was given for my birthday last February but which has sat on the shelf ever since. What a waste, for this is a real gem of a book and I think one of my favourites of all those I've tried this year, although I did have to make a special shopping trip for things like rye flour, quark and rye bread. It's a beautifully written, photographed and produced book, made up of larger chapters (Family Meals, Soups, Salads, Bread etc) but interspersed with charming mini-chapters (Summer Nights, Christmas Lunch, Easter Hygge) containing just a few recipes and lots of words and photos which create wonderful vignettes and very inspiring meal ideas.

My first recipe was actually from the Christmas section; Kale and Pancetta Tart, with a pastry crust made from spelt flour. I tend to think of quiches, or savoury tarts, as summery food, something eaten with salad and perhaps some new potatoes, so I was keen to try this one. It's easy, but not perhaps that quick. 

You begin by making the pastry in a way I'd never tried before with spelt flour and quark. I'm usually quite scared of making pastry (and will buy ready rolled whenever possible) but this was very easy to roll out and handle. While the crust is baking, you fry the pancetta with some onions, then add in kale and chopped boiled potatoes, before mixing in the beaten eggs and quark at the end and pouring it into the pastry shell.

Everything about this recipe works; kale and pancetta work well together (I always think anything pork and cabbage related are cooking friends) and the potatoes give it all a bit more solidity and make it a filling meal. The spelt pastry was a revelation; crisp, nutty and full of flavour. We ate it warm for dinner and cold for lunch the next day.

Next, a breakfast dish: Rye Bread Porridge. I was really keen to see how soggy bread could in any way translate into a tasty breakfast, but I had the rye bread (which, actually, I love and have started buying every week) and so I gave it a go. You soak two slices of stale rye bread overnight in some water, then chuck the slightly grey, revolting looking slop into a saucepan in the morning. 

As you simmer the bread and stir it, something amazing happens; the bread breaks down and absorbs the water, turning darker and velvety as it does. After five minutes or so you add some lemon juice and zest, then serve it with a little cream and syrup. It's not exactly a light option, definitely a weekend treat, but oh my goodness it's incredible. The slightly rich, dark taste of the rye is balanced by the freshness of the lemon and the syrup and cream just make the whole thing heavenly.

Finally, I made some bread. I had wanted - especially since I cooked all these over the half term break - to have a go at making my own sourdough, or perhaps some rye bread. But I just couldn't quite get my act together and felt like I had enough on my plate with a puppy and two children to feed, without nursing a sourdough starter too. So I made Easy Morning Spelt Rolls. I freely admit I was attracted to the word "easy" and what do you know, the recipe does not lie.

You make a very straightforward bread dough in the food mixer  - you just thrown in the spelt flour, yeast and water and mix for ten minutes - then you put the bowl in the fridge overnight. In the morning, it has more than doubled in size and is ready to go.

It's a very wet dough, so it needs knocking back and kneading with a generous amount of flour. Bella and Angus enjoyed this process very much.

Then you divide the dough into around twelve rolls and bake for twenty minutes. 

I froze half my dough and defrosted it this afternoon and have just baked the other six rolls for the week ahead. I will need to make more though because - and this was quite unexpected - the kids really, really, like these rolls. They don't have that hard a crust, and are soft and chewy inside with a flavour that's a bit like sourdough, and they keep really well for three or four days. They are now requesting them in their lunchboxes. Angus even said they were "lovely". Lovely! I don't know when I've ever had such a positive response to something I baked.

So, this book was full of surprises: spelt flour makes incredible pastry, rye bread porridge is delicious, and my children like spelt rolls. I feel like I should write the author a thank you note. 

November's choice is Pieminister: A Pie for All Seasons, which seemed an appropriate choice for a dreary month during which I will mainly be comfort eating.

I hope you are all well. We are all good here, and mightily relieved that Ziggy doesn't seem to be remotely troubled by the bangs from fireworks as, for those not in the UK, it's Bonfire Night tomorrow. I've just remember that I was going to make some parkin. Maybe I'll bake some tomorrow.