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7 May 2022 THE WEEKFood & Drink
LEISURE
What the experts say
How baking banished the blues
The Orange Bakery, in Oxfordshire (see
recipe below), is renowned for the quality
of its baked goods, says Tim Lewis in The
Observer. But the story behind it “might
be even more remarkable”. In 2018, local
teacher Al Tait noticed “something was
up” with his 14-year-old daughter, Kitty,
who was becoming withdrawn. “Soon, she
couldn’t get out of bed, and stopped going
to school.” He and his wife Katie tried
everything – therapy, gardening, poetry.
Then one afternoon, Al made a loaf of
bread using the “no-knead method”
pioneered by New York baker Jim Lahey.
“It was like alchemy,” Kitty recalls. She
began baking avidly, and was soon even
sleeping in the kitchen – to be “around
her dough”. Soon, her hobby had become
a business. Funded initially via Kickstarter,
Kitty and Al launched the Orange Bakery
in 2019. In their new book, Breadsong,
the pair have collected many of their
recipes, and describe how their shared
love of baking helped Kitty recover.
“Fundamentally, when all my fragments
broke, when I was just all over the place,
Dad was there and bread was there,” Kitty
says. “And that’s just who I am.”Making the most of asparagus
During the all-too-short English asparagus
season – from April until June – I cook the
stuff “every third day”, says Diana Henry
in The Daily Telegraph. It’s a vegetable thatrewards being treated simply – it’s hard to
beat steamed asparagus with melted butter- but for those inclined to experiment,
there are “hundreds” of ways to prepare
it. You could go for the Veneto approach,
which is to serve white asparagus (though
green is fine too) with a sauce made of
four hard-boiled eggs whizzed in a food
processor with eight anchovy fillets,
1 tbsp of capers and 1½ tbsp of white
wine vinegar. Then slowly add 200ml of
extra-virgin olive oil. Crab mayonnaise is
another fine accompaniment for steamed
asparagus: mix white crab meat with
mayo, chopped chervil and chives, and put
a small spoonful of salmon roe on top.
Roasting asparagus with olive oil – it takes
about eight minutes at 200°C fan – makes
it better able to “take Mediterranean
treatments”. Try serving it with black olive
and bacon vinaigrette; or with Hollandaise
with chopped anchovies (which have been
“melted” by being gently heated in olive
oil); or with homemade Romesco sauce.Our hidden taste for nutmeg
To hold a nutmeg in your hand, said Bee
Wilson in the FT, is “to be reminded how
much our ideas of what is precious can
change”. A few hundred years ago, these
“ridged brown kernels” – product of a
tree native to Indonesia – were prized by
cooks for their “musky flavour”, and very
expensive. Hannah Glasse’s The Art of
Cookery Made Plain and Easy – the most
influential 18th century English cookbook- “contains no fewer than 318 references
to nutmeg”. Today, that prestige is long
gone: nutmeg is valued less than other
warming spices, such as cinnamon, and
nutmeg graters are no longer “standard
kitchen kit”. Yet the odd thing is, we’re
still consuming plenty of nutmeg; we just
don’t always know it. Nutmeg is contained
in many of the world’s most popular spice
mixes; it “finds its way into numerous
packaged foods”; and it’s an ingredient
in Coke and Pepsi. Perhaps the “true story
of nutmeg in the modern world”, then, is
“not that it is unloved, but that we often
don’t recognise our own desire for it”.
Kitty and Al Tait of the Orange Bakery- In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, yeast, salt
and citrus zest, if using. Crack in the eggs and pour
in the water. Give everything a good mix and then
knead for 4mins until you have no visible patches
of dry flour left. This is a very wet dough, so an
electric stand mixer is the best option. - Gradually incorporate the butter (a small chunk
at a time) until your dough is smooth and elastic.
Place a cover over the top and leave for about
1 hour, or until it doubles in size. Knock back the
dough and place in the fridge for 4 hours or
overnight. This dough really needs to be chilled
before you handle it. - Take your dough from the fridge and cut it into
30-40g pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. If you
want to add a hidden chocolate filling, simply roll
the ball of dough around your chosen treat. Place
the balls on a floured baking tray with plenty of
room between them so they can prove without
merging. Cover loosely with cling film and leave in
a warm, cosy place to prove for 2-3 hours.- Fill a heavy-bottomed pan or deep-fat fryer
halfway with vegetable or sunflower oil. Heat the
oil to 180°C. Working in batches, deep fry the
doughnuts until well browned (about 1 or 2 mins)
and then flip them over with a fork to cook on the
other side. Drain well on kitchen paper and roll in a
bowl of caster sugar until well coated. If you want
to go really fancy, you can flavour the sugar with
some cinnamon or ginger.
Recipe of the week: doughnuts
Makes 25 doughnuts
500g strong white bread flour 80g caster sugar, plus extra for coating 7g instant dried yeast (2 tsp or a whole sachet)
10g fine sea salt zest of one lemon or orange (optional) 4 eggs 150ml water 125g soft unsalted butter
chunk of your favourite chocolate bar (optional) vegetable or sunflower oil for deep fryingOur doughnuts have a twist, say Al and Kitty Tait, of the Orange Bakery in Watlington, Oxfordshire. We wrap the dough around
a chunk of chocolate, giving it a gorgeous gooey centre. There’s a whole world of possibility – Terry’s Chocolate Orange, the
entire cast of Celebrations, Snickers Bites. The choice is yours.Taken from Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives by Al Tait and Kitty Tait, published by Bloomsbury at £20.
To buy from The Week Bookshop for £15.99, call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.© MURDO MACLEOD/THE OBSERVER; MARK LORD