LUNCH
Baked potatoes
Veg stew (leftover ratatouille mixed with leftover soup and rice)
Grated cheese
TEA
Banana Bread – see RECIPE below
I made this celebrate one week in lockdown til I realised that technically it’s only been 6 days. Feels like about 6 weeks.
SUPPER
Pasta with sauce made from fried leeks, a jar of pesto, and leftover chicken.
Grated carrot salad (oil and vinegar dressing).
This was the end of the cold chicken from Friday night, so it’s done 3 meals. Now I’ll make stock from the carcass by putting any bones and leftover gravy in a saucepan, covering with water, and leaving in the bottom oven of the Aga for 24 hours. Or you can simmer gently on a hob for 3-4 hours.
BANANA BREAD – RECIPE (can be gluten-free)
Based on Nigella Lawson’s recipe from How to Be a Domestic Goddess, slightly adapted, mainly because her method uses so many bowls. Also reduced the sugar, added a bit of ground almond and left out the booze.
Ingredients
100g sultanas or raisins
75ml strong tea (NL uses bourbon or rum)
125g butter
120g sugar
175g plain flour – or, 125g plain flour and 50g ground almonds – or, use 175g ground almonds to make it gluten-free
2tsps baking power (gluten-free if necessary)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
3 or 4 very ripe bananas (about 300g)
50g chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 170C.
Method
Soak the sultanas or raisins in the tea.
Mash the bananas with a fork.
Line a 23cm loaf tin or 20cm round cake tin with baking paper, or grease well. (I usually line the bottom of the tin and grease the sides, as you can put a knife round the sides.)
Melt the butter. Put in a large bowl with the sugar (or, if you have a microwave, you can melt the butter in the bowl) and mix well with a wooden spoon.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat in well.
Add the mashed bananas and mix in well.
Add the walnuts if using.
Add the flour, ground almonds if using, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda.
Pour mixture into the tin.
Cook for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Leave in tin to cool.
Morale is low today. The weather has turned, and the prospect of many weeks of this is quite daunting. In today’s press conference they said we should be prepared for it to take 6 months for life to get back to normal. Trying to stick to very sensible advice from two of my sisters – get through one week at at time.
Dominic Cummings is self-isolating now.