A stroke of nutty luck

When was the last time you saw ground hazelnuts in the supermarket?

I think in my case the answer may be never. Certainly not in a standard high street shop, I'm not saying Booths never does them, or the inordinately fancy Waitrose in Bath where I found borage a couple of times on holiday. But Sainsbos at the end of my (nearest main) road, past the dealers who are still struggling to re-established their casual drop-in clientele without school playgrounds and nightclubs? Ground hazelnuts is not usual. And yet.

What is more, I actually wanted them. I had a recipe, that said you could put in ground almonds instead, or obvs grind your own if you have that kind of processor. I had zero expectation of success, but I had at least parenthetically put them on the shopping list, and there they were. A handy pack of ground hazelnuts in precisely the quantity I needed.

Okay, we can't travel anywhere, or get a facial, and we might have to close the pubs to open the schools, but some things are going well. Right?

A bright side

This is the kind of simple dish that takes slightly more twiddling than you thought, it being a sort of souffle omelette.

As you see, not very simple for washing up

But it's simple at heart: a hazelnut pancake-omelette, to be filled with whatever you need. More faff than a buckwheat galette mix but this only needs one round to be fried per meal per person which meant it didn't set off my smoke alarm and worked first time. Hurrah!

The spinach is just what I wanted to fill it with - anything that you might have in a pancake would work, some cheese or ham, even fruit, and you can sweeten the batter if you like. This is a German recipe, since I've come by a German cookbook thanks to Paula*, and it's great to have the Food of my Ancestors represented by something other than pork products. This mix is essentially one my granny used to top fruit puddings with, I've realised - surprisingly familiar to taste, just cooked in a different format.

It's based on one egg per person, which needs separating and the white beating to soft peaks. Use a proper whisk when the weather is warm, unless you really wanted to sweat a bit extra for your simple lunch.

To the yolk, add 50g ground hazelnuts (or almonds), 80ml milk, a pinch of salt, a smidge of baking powder (the instructions say a 'knife tip' in fact, so I don't think this is very scientifically measured). Mix well, then fold in your beaten egg white, and dump the lot into a warm frying pan, with a mix of oil and butter (I might not have bothered with that part, just oil was fine).  

It may not look elegant - mine didn't. Though I think I slightly underdid the milk, which probably was a factor.

Also a factor in the cooking time being "2 minutes per side", when 90 seconds got me very solidly browned pancake the first side and less than a minute the second. Hey ho. It was cooked, and fluffy, and good.

As you can see up top, it's slightly lumpy to fold around its filling and wins no elegance prizes. But for tasty nutty goodness, it gets many votes. Expect more German cuisine here.

Because the year is turning. It's August, and I don't think I'm going to stop blogging my covid food regime any time soon. I've stopped loudly counting weekends, but it is in fact our twentieth weekend in lockdown now. And I know it's nowhere near as locked as it was, and we may bimble along at about this level for ages without having to recoil snail-like into our burrows proper. (Snail burrows are a thing. Yes.) But it isn't freedom, is it? So I reckon the Confined Kitchen will be with us for a good while longer. And I definitely think Confined Cocktails will be.

I'm out tonight (touch wood, still), having made all the transport/mask/distancing/household mingling rule calculations for this one three-hour stint with some other faces. I might even be out next week (tbc, and in part depending on how this feels). But I hope some of you tonight will raise a 7pm glass/mug/tumbler of whatever you're drinking together, because Saturday Night is *not* what it used to be, and it's good to know you're not the only one sitting on the sofa with an obscure cocktail you'd never have bothered with pre lockdown (my next one on account of both triple sec and Suze to use). I am tired of planning and calculating and deciding my personal risk tolerance, but I don't think it's going away soon. Whereas the Sofa Negroni? Easy.

I'll be back soon. Have fun meanwhile.

*Book is called Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings, by Anja Dunk. I've fondled it several times in Waterstones but thought the title would indicate too much faffing and stodge for most of my meals. But turns out it's excellent for soups, salads and snacks. Expect more from this.