A kitchen notebook: one recipe a week, cooked twice before it is written down.
This week in the notebook
A pot for a cold evening: beans soaked overnight, a pinch of saffron, and bread to wipe the bowl.
Serves four. Fifty minutes at the stove, a night for the beans.
The beans want a night in cold water and no salt until the end. Everything else happens in one pot while the bread warms.
Three jars is the right amount: enough to give one away, not so much that the pan boils over while you answer the door.
A dense, sour loaf that keeps for a week. The second trial came out flat, so the amount of water is still being argued over.
Stocks, clear broths and the thick ones that are nearly stew.
41 recipesOne pot, one tray or one pan, and what to put beside it.
86 recipesBread first, then the cakes that travel well in a tin.
52 recipesJams, pickles and bottled things for the back of the shelf.
35 recipesWritten down on 16 February, after two trials and one burnt pan.
| Ingredient | Amount | Unit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dried white beans | 300 | grams | soaked overnight |
| Leeks | 2 | whole | white parts, sliced |
| Saffron | 0.2 | grams | a generous pinch |
| Vegetable stock | 1.5 | litres | unsalted |
| Olive oil | 3 | spoons | and more to finish |
Warm the oil in a heavy pot and let the leeks soften without colour. This takes ten minutes and is not to be hurried.
Better the next day. It keeps three days in the cold; on the label write broth 16-02 so that it is found again. More in the notes on keeping.
Something to wipe the bowl, and something sharp afterwards.
Rye loaf with caraway Blood orange marmalade All soups and broths Send your own version
Nobody has written back about this recipe. Cook it, then say what you changed.
Write the first noteEverything in the notebook, newest first, with how far its testing has come.
| Recipe | Course | Written | Minutes | Serves | Testing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saffron broth with white beans | Soups | 16 February | 50 | 4 | Tested twice |
| Blood orange marmalade, small batch | Preserves | 9 February | 100 | 12 | Tested twice |
| Rye loaf with caraway | Bakes | 2 February | 180 | 8 | Still testing |
| Celeriac baked in salt | Mains | 26 January | 140 | 4 | Tested twice |
| Leek and potato pie | Mains | 19 January | 75 | 6 | Tested twice |
| Quick pickled red onions | Preserves | 12 January | 15 | 10 | Withdrawn |
| Barley soup with smoked paprika | Soups | 5 January | 65 | 6 | Tested twice |
Write it as you would on a card for a neighbour. It is cooked here before it is printed.
Draft kept. Your card was saved a minute ago and will be here when you come back.
Not sent. The time at the stove is missing. Fill it in below and send again.
Weights in grams, spoons level, oven temperatures for an oven without a fan.
Say what can be left out, and what cannot.
See a finished page