Fortunately the last weeks, though short of time to post, have not been devoid of exciting new food experiences, including all sorts of culinary delights in Japan and some new discoveries in London. Not just eating, either, but also cooking -- on a boat! With four friends, I spent a week going up and down the Bridgewater and Leeds-Liverpool canals: cruising; singing at the top of our voices in the open air (sometimes to the amused glances of towpath pedestrians); conversing on all manner of random and diverse topics; laughing -- a lot!; playing various games; and of course eating and drinking. This was actually our second such trip; last year saw us bravely attempting (and conquering!) the Cheshire Ring, with its 91 (or is it 92?) locks, amidst adverse conditions which included extreme cold, a day of biting sleet and snow (in April!) and several mishaps to our boat and its crew, such as yards of plastic sheeting tangled in the propeller and an incident with a boathook, a bow window and disturbing amounts of bloodshed. We were determined that this trip would be equally successful but less hair-raising!
We began the week as we meant to go on, with a celebratory afternoon tea treat of chocolate-dipped strawberries, cheese-on-toast and champagne. This boded well for the days to come!
Beautiful waterside views contributed to the peaceful atmosphere as we puttered gently along.
The logistical challenges of a small and somewhat under-equipped galley (I brought a good deal of my own equipment from home, including knives, chopping board, peeler, shredder, zester, whisk, blender... and pepper grinder!) were more than made up for by the enjoyment of cooking with and for friends, and the appreciativeness of the eaters!
On last year's trip, the Boat Scones were particularly well-received. Although I have never had much success with scones in the past, something about the cooking environment (perhaps the eggcup-cutters or the gas oven) seemed to be in my favour, and my baking efforts yielded appropriately light, fluffy, crisp-tender results. At any rate, scones seemed to be anticipated again by all this time round, meaning I had a reputation to live up to! The initial lack of self-raising flour (due to an Asda delivery accident) put a bit of a hold on scone plans, but by the next day cheese scones were back on the menu. Sadly the eggcups on this boat were not suitable for scone-cutting but I made do with a small-mouthed tumbler instead; there were no complaints, and no scones left uneaten!
Cheesy Boat Scones
550 ml SR flour
generous pinch salt
1 tsp sugar
a couple of grinds of black pepper
60g butter
80g sharp cheese, grated
~200ml milk
1 egg
Preheat the oven to Really Quite Hot, which was Gas Mark 9 on this year's boat, not quite full blast on last year's boat, and probably corresponds to 200-210C in a regular oven depending how accurate it is.
Mix together dry ingredients. Before you get your hands covered in flour and butter, measure out the milk, crack the egg into it and beat together. (I always forgot to do this step until later. D'oh! or d'ough...)
Rub cold butter into flour mixture (cutting it into small chunks first will help) until more or less incorporated (coarse breadcrumbs yada yada; there shouldn't be any big lumps of butter left). Stir through cheese (or, if you are flummoxed and in a hurry like I was one time, forget to stir through cheese until you've mixed, rolled and cut out the scones; curse roundly; and then sprinkle some on top and pass the rest round for sandwiching. Not really recommended although still adequately tasty!!) and then tip in most of milk/egg mixture and mix quickly and gently (with a knife, even if it does cause strife -- experience tells me there's no strife that deliciously light and tender scones can't make better...) until combined into a soft but not sticky dough. If it looks like the mix will be too dry then add more of the liquid; it should come together quite easily with no large amounts of dry flour remaining.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured cabin table or other flat surface. With lightly-floured hands, pat into a rough but at least vaguely regular shape about 1-1.5" thick (depending on size of your cutter). The aim is to be able to cut out as many rounds with your cutter, be it eggcup or tumbler, as you can from this first rolling. Do this, dipping the cutter in flour as necessary to prevent sticking and transferring the cut-out rounds to a greased baking sheet. Press the scraps together, without over-handling, into a slightly thicker mass of dough, and cut out remaining rounds (you'll probably end up with one misshapen bit that can't be cut out. Bake this and eat it with glee).
Glaze the tops of the scones with any remaining milk-egg mixture, or just with milk if you've used all the liquid mix. Pop them into the hot oven and bake for around 15-20 minutes, depending on size of scones and oven strength. You probably want to check them at about 10-12 minutes just to see how they're doing; if the ones towards the edges look done then swap them round for the ones in the middle to ensure even cooking; if they're not browning fast enough then turn the oven up a bit; if they're a bit too brown then turn it down; if they're cooking more on one side than the other, rotate the tray before putting it back in. Scones are done when they are risen, look golden-brown, sound vaguely hollow when tapped on the base, and when you can't wait any longer before trying to eat them.
Serve with generous lashings of (real!) butter, extra cheese or whatever other toppings you like.
***
Another baking highpoint on this trip was a flatbread topped with caramelised onion and cheese, to go alongside one of the lunch soups (to which the quick stocks we cooked up from vegetable trimmings made a vast difference, incidentally). This used an iteration of the No-Knead Dough method (made famous by Jim Lahey and subsequently publicised everywhere) and a simple topping inspired by a conversation about goats cheese and other complementary flavours a couple of evenings before, and was, not just by my account, quite successful.
For dough:
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp (3.5g) dry yeast
2 tsp olive oil
275 ml warm water
2-3 tbs olive oil (for greasing tray and dough)
Stir together dry ingredients; mix in water until a flexible dough forms, with no dry flour remaining. Scrape dough down into a ball, cover and leave to rise overnight (8-12 hours). The next day, about 2 hours before baking, turn dough out onto a well-oiled baking tray; turn to coat in oil and then stretch out gently towards edges of baking tray (the dough will also spread as it relaxes and rises).
For topping:
2 large / 3 medium red onions, finely sliced
30g butter
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbs red wine / balsamic vinegar
1 tbs sugar
~ 100g crumbly white cheese (Wensleydale, Cheshire, Lancashire etc), crumbled into bits
2-3 tbs tomato paste (optional)
few sprigs thyme (optional)
Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add sliced onions and cook until translucent, reducing heat if they seem like browning. Add salt and pepper and continue to cook over low heat for 30-40 minutes until very soft; add wine or vinegar as needed to prevent sticking. Add sugar and continue to cook until soft and sticky.
Heat oven to Really Quite Hot (Gas Mark 9 or around 200C). When dough is spread out and risen, spread tomato paste (if using -- I did half with and half without; both tasted good) and then caramelised onion mixture over surface. Scatter with crumbled cheese and with thyme leaves, if using. Bake in preheated oven about 25 minutes, or until edges of dough and cheese are both browned and base is cooked through.
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