Tea and toast
Lentil and garden vegetable bake
The other day, my Argentinian flatmate noted that people go on about the British being obsessed with tea, but in reality, Brits are just as keen on toast – and yet it never seems to get mentioned. After a quick ponder, I reasoned that she was probably right. We love toast. Or certainly, we value it much more than other countries seem to.
I certainly love toast, whether it's a cultural culinary trait or not. One of the reasons I took such a low-paying freelance job once is because one of the office perks was as much free toast as you could eat. Suffice to say, I made the most of the toast. The thing is, I just think that it's the perfect base for a meal (hello beans on toast), a great accompaniment to a meal (full cooked breakfast with rounds of buttered sliced white on the side anybody?), or simply a meal in its own right.
I’m not the only one who loves toast, as I found out when I went to see Nigel Slater’s Toast in the theatre a few years ago. The character (a young Nigel) proclaims, ‘No matter how bad things get, it's impossible not to love someone who made you toast. Once you've bitten through that crusty surface, to the softer underneath and tasted the warm salty butter, you're lost forever.’
People might think that the basis of good toast has to be good bread, but I beg to differ. The whole point of toast is that by toasting even the worst kind of bread, you elevate it to a different palate-pleasing plateau. Add a scrape (who am I kidding) of butter or perhaps a good blob of jam and you have a product much tastier than the original.
I remember being in food technology class in secondary school and the teacher (Mrs Westerland) asking what the difference between bread and toast was? I answered that, besides the obvious, toast was sweeter than bread. "Yes!" She said, "The starch in the bread turns to sugar when you toast it". There’s a whole lot of science behind it really, in what’s known as the Maillard reaction – the chemical change that happens when we brown any sort of food, not just toast. The genius of science!
Some of the best toast I’ve ever eaten is either the butter-laden rounds lovingly prepared by my mum, or the perfectly cut triangles of medium-sliced white Braces bread spread with Flora that my granddad Poppa used to make us when we were kids – always accompanied by the best cup of tea I’ve ever tasted.
The Recipe
Lentil and garden vegetable bake
This week, we have a meat-free meal that a great mid-week dinner. I’ve spoken before of my love for lentils and pulses, and this sort of shepherd’s pie uses them as the base instead of lamb. You can make this completely veggie by omitting the Worcestershire sauce, or vegan by using vegan spread instead of butter.
Ingredients
Olive oil/butter
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 fat garlic clove, grated or finely chopped
4 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 large courgette, roughly chopped
2 large mushrooms (or a handful of small ones), roughly chopped
1 medium sweet potatoes (about 500g), peeled and chopped in large chunks
2 medium potatoes (about 500g), peeled and chopped in large chunks
250g brown or green lentils (I used a mix of both as that’s what was in the cupboard)
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 bay leaf
150ml red wine
Good splash of Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp tomato puree
500ml vegetable stock made with 2 stock cubes
Black pepper to season
Method
In a large saucepan, add a drizzle of olive oil or a knob of butter and gently fry the onions, garlic and carrots until they begin to soften, while you peel the potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Boil the potatoes and sweet potatoes in a large pan of salted water until tender enough to mash.
Meanwhile, add the lentils, courgette, mushrooms, paprika, and bay leaf to the onion mix and stir well.
Turn up the heat and add the red wine, Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and vegetable stock and season with black pepper. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 20-25 minutes until the lentils have absorbed a lot of the liquid and are cooked bit still hold their shape.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/ Gas Mark 6. Drain the potatoes and sweet potatoes and mash together with a good helping of butter or olive oil.
Tip the lentil mix into a pie dish, fish out the bay leaf, and then gently top with the mash.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until the top is starting to turn golden brown. If it needs a helping hand, you can pop it under the grill for a few minutes.
If you try the recipe out, don’t forget to tag any photos with #mywelshkitchen.
The Playlist
To me, cooking and music go hand in hand, whether that’s singing at the top of your voice using a wooden spoon as a microphone while waiting for pasta to boil, or dancing around with the oven gloves on as the oven timer counts down. Here are this week’s ideas for your Welsh Kitchen playlist.
This week we have the calming, ethereal sounds of Siân James from Llanerfyl in Powys. Second up is a more up-tempo, bluesy number from Gareth Lewis, a UK Americana artist from Swansea.
Dod Dy Law by Siân James
Vultures by Gareth Lewis
The Pantry
Good food is nothing without good ingredients and thankfully there are plenty of fantastic Welsh products on the market. Here is where you’ll find recommendations to stock up your cupboard, fridge or fruit bowl, or a really great place for food.
Dylan’s Pickled Samphire
I love a good pickle, whether punchy Korean kimchi or a good spot of fruit chutney to go with a bit of mature cheddar. This pickle from Dylan’s is right up my street. The wonderfully salty flavour of samphire pickled with mustard, black pepper and fennel. Ideal for serving with fish or to elevate a tuna melt to heavenly levels.