Bread of Heaven

Today we made bread. With all due respect to Mr. Warburton and Mr. Hovis, there is nothing like fresh bread straight out of the oven. Why can we buy it anywhere else in Europe, but not in Britain? I've tried my hand at bread-making before, and only really been successful with the all-in-one variety from Tesco, where you just empty the bag into a bowl and start from there.

But today, we made bread! Proper bread. Edible bread. Bread that didn't a) completely fail to get off the ground b) spread itself as a sticky goo all over the baking tray or c) promote itself straight to the top of Moh's scale of hardness. Loaves, buns, flat breads, sticks. Plain, glazed, with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, rosemary, bacon and onion. Fantastic! There's no secret, except a bit of hard work, and sticking to the specified quantities (yes, Margaret, even I had to measure things out for this one). That's my bread you're looking at, right there, topped with sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary.


Hervé showed us how, again. Apparently instead of using a teaspoon of sugar to get the yeast going, you can use something called runee-unnee. Runee-unnee is a substance produced by the common or garden bee, so I believe.

I think we've had our first drop-out. I feel quite pleased with myself because I predicted he wouldn't last the first week. George (the person in question) turned up on the Tuesday last week, meandered round for a couple of days, then didn't turn up again on Friday (for the Hygiene exam). His mother had paid for him to do the course, I think basically to get him out of the house. An expensive way of doing it. Assuming he doesn't come back, well over £1,000 a day. Nice one George!

GARLIC MUSHROOM SALAD (serves 1, or 4 as a starter)
Possibly the best salad I've ever eaten. The mixture of mild and rich, smooth and crunchy, fresh and fried just works so well.

shredded lettuce
cubed celery, cucumber and radish
1 hard-boiled egg, quartered
half a ripe avocado, chopped
satsuma, segmented
oyster mushrooms, in manageable sized pieces
bread, cubed into croutons
lemon juice, dressing, butter and olive oil
garlic, crushed and chopped

1. Mix salad ingredients, dressed with lemon juice and dressing. Arrange on plate.
2. Fry mushrooms and croutons together in garlic, butter and oil until browned.
3. Throw the mushroom mixture over the salad and tuck in.

That's the no frills version - you could serve as a starter by splitting into 4 and arranging nicely.