More soup and a bit of a bread recipe

Went of to school all bright eyed and bushy tailed, but as soon as I rolled up there was someone waiting to harrass me about something. I've only got four days to go until the holidays, but I'm still trying to appreciate each day.

This concoction is kumera and pumpkin soup. It contains a big onion, a massive kumera, half of a pumpkin (leftover from the last batch of soup) and three rashers of this bacon:

This is New Zealand bacon which is from free-range pigs. You would think that in NZ bacon would be from piggies allowed to roam free, but don't be fooled. Most of the bacon on sale here is not NZ bacon. You need to look for specifically labelled products. Any ham off the bone that is available here is apparently imported too, in most cases. I don't want to contribute to sow crates where lady piggies are kept for their whole lives, unable to move around freely. I'm sure the conditions for the other pigs wouldn't be much better.

I blitzed up my ingredients in my food processor to save time as we had visitors. Then I added water and boiled it up. It was seasoned generously with smoked garlic seasoning and pepper. I was chatting to Meg on the phone and accidentally browned the bottom when I was cooking the onion and bacon, but that added great caramelised flavour. I really recommend this recipe, even though it was super simple. I think that it would be a good idea to cook the kumera before chopping it up because it maintained its grainy texture even though I boiled it forever. The pumpkin broke down much faster.

Now for Ryan, who need some bread-making tips. I made this yesterday:

I faced some time challenges when making this, so it didn't get to prove (rise) for as long as usual. Never mind, it was scrummy with butter while it was still steaming hot.

I make bread by random luck, so providing you follow my basic steps you can't go too far wrong.

1. Put about 1 dessertspoon full of granulated yeast (NOT EASYBAKE!!!) and 1 teaspoon of sugar or honey in a big bowl.
2. Add about 2 cups of lovely warm water and give it a wee stir around (I have it fairly warm so it will stay warm for a while, really hot will kill the yeast and too cold won't work).
3. Cover this and keep it warm (cover with a towel on a cold day or stand next to the fire).
4. Once it starts sort of foaming you know you are in business (10 mins approx.)
5. Add a good dollop of olive oil, about a dessertspoon full of salt, or a bit more, plus herby things if you want (mmm, sundried tomatoes, olives etc. Don't be stingy with the salt as bread needs it for the flavour. Pepper adds a nice zing too, if you add plenty.
6. Now add your high grade flour. Tip some in and stir it. Tip in more until you can stir it into a dough. Take your dough out and put it on a floured board. Knead for a while (until you get sick of it) so the dough goes lovely and elastic feeling (if you didn't get bored too soon). If you don't know how to knead, buy a breadmaker.
7. Flour the inside of your bowl and put your lovely ball of dough in again. Cover and keep warm until it is all fat and exciting looking (at least doubled in size). This depends on how warm you can keep it. I have resorted to standing the bowl in warm water in the sink and covering the sink with a towel.
8. Now for the weird bit. Take your plump, soft ball of dough out and put it on your board. Knead it for about a minute again. It will go all small again, which is very disappointing.
9. Shape your pitiful blob of dough into a loaf, rolls, a plaited twist with wheat sheaf trim etc and put it on a floured tray.
10. Leave in a warm place and I promise it will get fat again. Once it is fat and happy bung it in the oven and bake until golden. Tapping on the bottom of a cooked loaf makes a hollow sound.
11. The oven should be about 200 degrees celcius or around 180 on fanbake. I think you can have it hotter too.
12. Just remember not to burn yourself trying to cut it when you just got it out of the oven, and put it on a cooking rack to stop it getting a soggy bottom.

Some home truths about bread making:

• Using a bread maker does not mean you have made genuine handmade bread. It doesn't taste anything like it, plus you actually don't do anything, the breadmaker does.
• Easybake Yeast gives bread a nasty taste. I really don't like the stuff. I would love to try fresh yeast but it isn't very easy to come by.
• Bread requires quite a bit of time. Set aside about 2 hours for your first go at my recipe. There is plenty of reading time while the bread is rising, so you shouldn't be feeling like a slave to your oven.
• Homemade bread is usually gone the first day you make it, so make twice as much if you want some for the next day.
• There are thousands of bread recipes. I only do this one because I can whip it up without too much thinking.

Good luck. Go forth and give it a go! You can do it Ryan XXX