Time to make a luscious tea loaf

The tea loaf is quintessentially British or to be more specific, Yorkshire in origin. No doubt some of you will be screaming "that's not true" at the screen as you read this, but it is, I should know being a Yorkshire man...

There is nothing more luscious, in my opinion, than a slice of tea loaf spread thick with butter served in the shade of a sunny terrace with a cup of strong tea or lemon verbena infusion. Luscious because it has scent is to die for with the aroma of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg permeating the air as you raise a slice to your mouth and take a bite of the moist, fruit-laden loaf.

It is quite difficult to get dried fruit here in Spain and when you come across it, more often than not it is in small 100gm bags. I usually stock up with dried fruit in the UK and periodically use it to make this lovely afternoon tea treat.

The recipe we use has been adapted to suit our taste and with the reduced sugar, additional spices and earl-grey tea, it has proved very popular with our neighbours and friends who happen to to be around when tea loaf is on offer.

Tea Loaf

These quantities will make three loaves but they freeze well so you don't have to eat them all at once...

225g raisins
225g sultanas
225g currants
50g mixed peel
900ml of tepid Earl Grey tea
250g brown sugar
750g self-raising flour
3 eggs
3 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger

Soak the fruit overnight in in the tea. Next day add the flour, sugar, beaten egg and spices, mix well. Spoon into greased or lined loaf tins and transfer to a pre-heated oven 175c /Gas 3 for 60-75 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool and serve with butter and jam to taste.

A true Yorkshire treat made with the finest Yorkshire ingredients... ;-)

Go on spoil yourself...

Rhubarb and home-made breakfast muesli

The last time I looked the rhubarb was nothing but an emerging crown with one or two bright green leaves beginning to unfurl. With the rains and warm weather it has had a growth spurt and is now ready for harvesting over the next couple of weeks. This particular variety is Victoria. We also have a later one which is only just beginning to emerge and show its first leaves of the season.

The rhubarb is cut, washed and chopped, put into a pan with a small amount of brown cane sugar or honey, gently simmered until the pieces begin to soften and break down. No water is necessary as it produces enough from its own juices.

The leaves have been put under the gooseberry bushes, an idea we heard about which is supposed to deter gooseberry saw fly. It makes sense as we sometimes use rhubarb leaves as an insecticide (see here for previous post).

In a conscious effort to eat less wheat and dairy I am trying to find alternatives to toast and butter for breakfast. I heard about home-made breakfast muesli from our friends Cal and Rob and I must say it is delicious. This is my take on it:

Crushed oats (I really like the quality of Flahavans Irish Organic Oats)
Almond or rice milk
Fruit (in season)
dried fruits, nuts and seeds to taste.

This mix had dried apricots and cranberry, pumpkin seed and linseed, hazelnuts, oats, and rice milk. Add all the ingredients into a bowl and stir until you get a loose mixture - pop it into the fridge overnight and stir once or twice during that period. The milk will be absorbed by the oats so you may have to add a touch more for the right consistency.

In the morning, no need to cook just add a tablespoon of rhubarb or other seasonal fruit and if you are feeling indulgent add a dollop of Greek yogurt and stir. I generally make a large bowl full which keeps well in the fridge for up to 3 days (if it lasts that long).

It really tastes rich especially with the almond or rice milk which has a natural sweetness but none of the lactose. With the dried fruits and rhubarb, there is no need to add additional sugar. Delicious and satisfying as a start to a busy day.

Mange tout recipes and ideas

We planted peas, sugar-snap peas and mange tout this year. The sugar snaps have not performed that well, the peas are swelling daily and the mange tout are cropping abundantly. Each day we are collecting a good bowl full. This year they are particularly sweet especially if eaten soon after picking.

In addition to eating them raw in salads, they are so tasty we have been processing and cooking them in a variety of ways.

At their simplest, the mange tout are lightly steamed until tender but with some bite. Served as a side dish with a drizzle of minted vinaigrette or a dash of butter the are a delicious accompaniment to nut roast, lentil loaf or home-made spicy bean burgers.

We used today's excesses to make a fresh vegetable soup comprising: mange tout, carrot, celery, onion, rice, stock, oregano, mint, sage, salt and pepper, a dash of vinegar. Cooked until tender, then take out about a third of the finely chopped vegetables and stock, blitz with a liquidiser the remainder, add back the third you removed, mix and re-heat. Served with fresh crusty bread and a dash of good olive oil, there is nothing tastier.

Stir fried with a splash of oil, then quickly sautéed in a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, great as a side dish.

We will freeze some and also dry some in the Excalibur as a trial for use in soups and stews later on in the season. If you have any recipe ideas for using mange tout please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.

Salad days

Being able to walk around the garden and harvest a mixture of fresh salad leaves is a treat. Our temperate climate means that we can grow salad crops most of the year however, now is the time when we get an abundant crop of leaves such as various lettuces, rocket, young beetroot leaves, chives and fresh herbs. Plenty of variety readily available to make the basis of a good fresh salad.

Crisp and vibrant mange tout add variety and sweetness to any salad and are best eaten within an hour of picking if you are going to get the full benefit of the natural sugars.

We eat a lot of salad during the year and I enjoy coming up with new ideas to try. This weekend we put together a Chestnut and date salad with an orange and garlic vinaigrette. Served on a thick bed of lettuce, cooked, chilled chestnuts and dried dates were topped with rocket and orange segments. A generous helping of Orange and garlic vinaigrette is drizzled over the salad. We also added some sweetcorn but it really wan't needed.

The orange and garlic vinaigrette worked very well as it cut through the dryness of the chestnuts and its slight acid taste worked well with the sweetness of the dates.

With a glass of wine, home-made bread and a lovely sunny terrace, what more could you ask for?

This is the vinaigrette recipe is really worth a try - I usually make up my own recipes, and adjust to taste, as I go on but here are the approximate quantities for two servings:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon of honey

1 teaspoon of English mustard

1 glove of minced garlic

Juice of half an orange

Salt and black pepper to taste.

Mix ingredients well and leave to infuse for 30 mins before using.

A busy week at La Pasera

There is a never ending stream of things to do here at La Pasera, not much different to most people's lives I suppose. The tasks may differ but the need to keep things moving along, no matter where you are, is ever present. There are some jobs that we put off and put off for no real reason other than it either comes lower down on the list of priorities or else it is a job we are not particularly looking forward to.

We completed some much needed building preparation on the drive way this week which has been hanging around now for far too long. Over winter, we aim to make headway with the hard landscaping and drainage needed at the side of the house.

We managed a couple of walks in areas we haven't explored before which was great. Good weather prevailed which made it even more enjoyable.

The garden is nearly ready for winter with just a few more grasses and shrubs to trim and prune. We have levelled some areas of lawn and plan to re-think the wild flower areas for next spring. The vegetables are producing well with a great crop of leeks, swede, celeriac, beetroot, celery, cabbage and broccoli.
Luis has just tied the winter lettuce which will help to tenderise and sweeten the inner leaves. Peas are busy sprouting in half drainpipes and showing lots of new growth in this typically unseasonal warmth.

Lots of cooking going on as usual with making our own fast food - 40 spicy bean burgers for the freezer, bread supplies replenished and the last of the marrows and the first glut of leeks made into soups both to eat fresh and to freeze. We'll feature the recipe for the spicy bean burgers in a later post.

Luis has been hard at work completing work to restore the cane work on an old bergere three piece suite with hall chairs. Good news this week also as he accepts his first mosaic commission since the exhibition.

The cats are looking bulkier since putting on their winter coats and making the most of the warmer weather although there does not seem to be as much rodent activity as they would like. They make their way back to the house in the cool early evening knowing full well that a warm log fire awaits.

All in all, a busy week with everything else that is happening but never-the-less satisfying. A few more jobs ticked off the never ending list.

Downsizing - less is more

Hard work pays dividends

It’s been five years since we took a conscious decision to alter our lives drastically, abandon a decent full-time salary and downsize, abroad. Asturias on the north coast of Spain had captured our imagination and hearts when we came here on holiday several years previously.

Since relocating, many people comment on how lucky we are and how idyllic our lives must be. We are and it is, but not in the way some people believe it to be. Yes you can sit on the terrace and drink gin and tonic, you can laze away your summer days on the beach and you can eat out fairly cheap, in fact some people do opt for the extended holiday type existence. The problem is those who opt for the sun and sangria approach soon get bored, they find that their social circle is, in the main ex-pats, and they moan constantly about how much better it is back in the UK.

Downsizing and relocating brings with it many challenges, in fact twice the challenge of just relocating. For a starter, it can be hard work. Living on a reduced income means that you do what you can for yourself over and above hiring someone to do it for you or buying it in. Leaving family and friends behind is a wrench but on the positive side, they have a holiday home whenever they can get over...

Given the option to fell a tree, generously offered by a neighbour, knowing full well you will have to: use a lethal weapon (chainsaw) to chop down a 30 foot dying cherry tree; process it into firewood size chunks; transport it; stack it; clear up all the non-usable stuff, or to buy a lorry load from a local merchant, we opt for the former.

Growing vegetables year-round does never just happen. After 5 years, we rarely buy vegetables but they come at a price. There is ground to be dug, compost to be made, manure to be brought and added to the beds, seeds to be sown that will need daily care, pests and diseases to contend with that could potentially devastate your crop, tying and staking, watering and weeding, and hopefully, harvesting.

You have a glut of vegetable, several times a year, all requiring processing or storing. This results in full days in the kitchen making pickle, pisto, pesto and jams. Whilst you wait for things to cook, you decide to make bread, which eventually becomes routine as you rediscover the pure satisfaction that is home-baked bread. You cook fresh food and rarely long for convenience food, instead you develop your own and freeze it. Over time you become increasingly imaginative with courgettes and beans, you soon learn that there is more than one way to preserve the fruits of your hard work. Tomato jam, now there’s a first for many.

Home-made soap - nothing better...

DIY takes on a new meaning. After several bad experiences, DIY has come to stand for  “do it yourself as you can probably do it much better than someone else and considerably cheaper”. You learn new skills through trial, error and advice from great neighbours past (Terry and Bob) and present. You begin to realise that small-scale building projects and ongoing maintenance work doesn't necessarily need an estimate nor a shaking of the head that signals this is going to cost. You begin to believe that “actually, I could do that myself”.

Downsizing has never only been about having less money to spend but a conscious decision to try to be more responsible with the earth’s resources. Reduce, re-use and recycle has become the new mantra. In addition, something that was told to me by my mother on more than one occasion has become second nature as we assess our need for more possessions i.e. “Do you really need it and can you really afford it? If the answer is no, maybe, not really or possibly, then we do without. We have reduced our need for stuff considerably by leading a simpler life where it isn’t necessary to be virtually attached 24 hours to a transmitter, where television isn’t our main source of entertainment and where shopping trips are planned when real need arises. We make do and mend where possible and entertain ourselves in much more creative and productive ways.

There is no doubt that this change of direction in our lives has resulted in a complete re-think and re-evaluation of what is important in life. Gone are the days when we sit in traffic jams on our way to work for organisations that are so wrapped up in the politics of managing that they have forgotten what they are there for. Gone are the days when we would spend silly amounts of money on the latest must haves and holidays that were over before they began. Gone are the days where you sit daydreaming and wishing your life away as you cannot wait for the weekend to arrive.

Our new life isn’t perfect, but whose is? The joy of living in a place that you never tire of discovering, the taste of home-grown food, the sense of pride you feel in what you build, make and mend, the daily walks though traffic free country lanes and caminos (small lanes and footpaths), the time to pursue your hobbies and interests and the never-ending motivation to get out of bed in a morning as you are really looking forward to your day makes it all worthwhile.

Overall, it has been the right decision for us. What has become clear is that relocation has been the vehicle and stimulus for change. Downsizing is much easier when you do not have the constant competitiveness of careers, when you are not constantly bombarded with advertising telling you that you life sucks without possessions and when you can take the necessary steps to take stock and re-assess what is important. On reflection, we could have downsized anywhere and not necessarily relocate abroad. The trouble is, when you are in the thick of it, those brief moments of sanity when you think “there has to be more to life than this” are swept away by the constant stream of detritus that comes with a life of convention and expectation.

Chemical free food

Ian Hicken 2011 ©

Home-baked bread

Making our own bread has become part of the routine here at La Pasera. Bread in Spain tends to be either of no substance or far too expensive. Unable to find a baker who can provide the sort of bread we enjoy, we have developed a recipe that works for us and one that involves little or no kneading. To top it all, it tastes great.

Home-baked bread - Humous on standby

We usually bake about 6 or 7 loaves at a time and freeze them. So we only need to bake about every 10 days or so. Fresh yeast is readily available and is easy to use and gets better results than dried yeast. Organic flour is used in various mixes i.e. using various combinations of wholmeal, white, Rye, corn, and spelt. Mixed seeds are often added and other flavours sometimes used such as onion seed, malted barley or pesto. We tend to make the bread mix more sticky than normal which seriously reduces the need to knead as it helps release the gluten from the flour. We always let it rise twice, once as a whole in a rather large bowl and then a second rise in the tins.

Left over dough can be used for pizza bases or a few extra bread rolls.

Basic Recipe for 6-7 loaves:

These are the key ingredients that can be adjusted to suit your own taste and method. Other ingredients can be added such as herbs, spices, flavoured oils, olives, pesto, sautéed onion....etc.

3kg Flour (any mix you like: wheat, rye, corn, spelt, malted)
100gm of fresh yeast
salt 25g (to taste)
1500-1600 mls Lukewarm water
150 ml Sunflower oil (other flavoured oils can be used sparingly)
Seeds (sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, flax, poppy, onion...) (To your taste)
Optional:
(If available) Malted Barley Extract 2 dessert spoons
(If not) 1 dessert spoon of sugar or honey

The key to a no knead approach is to mix your dough slightly stickier than normal - hence the need to adjust the water according to the type of flour used. Some, like wholemeal and rye, might absorb more liquid. Handling is easier if you grease/oil your hands to handle the dough.
Mix water, yeast, sugar or malt extract in large bowl. Dissolve. Add half of the flour, oil and seeds, mix with wooden spoon until smooth (ish) add remainder of flour and salt, mix with spoon until formed into a whole. Final bringing the dough together with oiled hand. Cover with cloth, leave to rise for approx 60-90 mins. Lightly form dough into large lump, divide, shape and pop into greased tins or tray. Cover with cloth until risen (30-40 mins). Pop into oven 190 C for 30 minutes. Cool out of tins on wire tray.