“We are eating too much bread” I said, and then contemplated my new regime for January in which few treats would surface…

A lengthy discussion about the rights and wrongs of our current regime ensued. We resolved, to eat less bread – much less bread. When we do have it, it should be ‘good’ bread – by which I mean it should be really tasty and have a good measure of nutritional value.

So it came to pass that yesterday afternoon having been foiled in my attempts to secure rye flour in our wretched local supermarket, that I did find my heart’s desire in a  local health food store and was able to get cracking with a rye and walnut loaf by Nigel Slater that I have been keen to try. The great thing is it works with a rye and spelt mix with just a little white flour, meaning a reduced level of gluten.

I pretty much followed Nige’s advice, my other half was whispering in my ear ” baking is a science, you need to be precise..” as I’m not very precise and like throwing things together much to Rocket’s chagrin…back to the tale.

I followed ‘Nige’ and he was quite correct about the addition of a little parmesan to enhance the flavours, I love the slight undertone of sweetness from the nuts and the honey, the only thing I would change, on reflection is that our fan oven bakes that bit faster and higher, so here is the recipe and if baking in fan, I’d reduce the temperature to 200/210 and bake it for 3/4 minutes longer – thats it. The result was a perfectly nutty, really tasty loaf.

Waking as we did on the last day before going back to work – a rainy day to boot, I thought to make my love some brunch, and so pleased was I with the result, I thought I’d share …

I like pickles, I am a pickley kind of a girl and I come from a very pickley family. The pickles therefore were central to what I think of as a slightly Scandi, slightly Swiss, slightly Brit conconction and even more pleasing was that the pickled cucumbers were grown and pickled by my very own brother Karl-Heinz (I told you we are a pickley family).

The result was a potato cake, piled with smoked salmon (seasoned with a little lemon and black pepper) topped with a soft boiled and crisp crumbed egg, and encircled with some lightly pickled red onion and capers with pickled cucumbers, sweetfire beetroots and dill infused sour cream. This all accompanied by some of the toasted walnut rye bread.

Happy Sunday!