Hello! My name is Rebecca May Johnson, I am a writer and cook and this is my Substack. This newsletter is some eating notes on midweek meals and meals made for the baby.
Eating notes
Roast chicken,
potatoes, butter braised carrots’n’peas and leeks in white sauce
At the weekend I roasted a chicken for some friends: I rubbed the whole chicken with 1 rounded teaspoon of fine sea salt. Then rubbed it in a tablespoon of olive oil all over. I cooked it on the highest heat in the oven for 30 minutes, then a lower heat of 170C (fan) for around an hour further, then left it to rest for 30 minutes. I covered the breast with a square of foil after c. 45 mins.
We had peas and carrots that I cooked together in a way inspired by how my mother does it. I cut carrots quite small: halved lengthways, then quarter ways then into cubes of around 1cm length. I put them in a saucepan with a generous knob of unsalted butter c. 40g, 2-3 tablespoons of water and covered with a cartouche (a disc of greaseproof paper) on a low-medium heat. When the carrots were half done, I poured some frozen petit pois on top, replaced the cartouche and continue cooking until they were done. When the peas are almost done, I stir them all up together and seasoned with salt and pepper.
We also had leeks in white sauce that took several attempts as I kept getting caught up in talking to people and totally forgot I had just added flour to melted butter until I smelled burning. One of our friends had to stand over me as I did it a second time, as I kept getting distracted by other topics of conversation and almost burnt it again. I steamed the leeks then mixed them with the white sauce. We also had roast potatoes that I added under the chicken and tossed in the chicken fat after it had had the 30 minutes in the oven.
Our friend brought a delicious pudding of blackberries and pear cooked in frangipane, served with single cream.
Monday
For my lunch I mixed some leftover leeks in white sauce with a few tablespoons of grated cheese and a heaped teaspoon of french mustard, put it on a piece of lightly toasted bread with a bit more grated cheese sprinkled on top, and grilled it until the cheese was bronzing. I had it with a few sliced cooked beetroots seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil.
On Monday night I made a chicken pie using leftovers.
First I made a quick pastry with 4oz grated cold butter, 8oz plain flour rubbed together, then added enough water to bring it together into a dough. I wrapped it in cling film and left to rest in the fridge for 30-40 minutes.
Meanwhile, I made the filling:
I sliced thickly and fried two large ‘portobello’ mushrooms tossed in a little oil and salt in a very hot frying pan and removed to a plate.
Then I softened two small sliced onions in the same pan in a generous knob of unsalted butter (30g). When the onions were soft but not browned, I pushed them to the side of the pan, and added a bit more butter and a spoon of flour to fry for a moment before adding the mushrooms back in, mixing it all together, then adding a glass of white wine and leaving it to bubble for a minute.
Then I added in leftover leeks in white sauce, 300ml hot chicken stock and handful of wild mushrooms that I rehydrated in the stock, 80ml double cream and the leftover chicken from Sunday. I stirred it all well and allowed it to bubble gently for a few minutes before leaving to chill – I put it in another metal tray and squeezed it into the freezer for rapid cooling for around 20 minutes!
I rolled out the dough into two squares (as I was making two small pies in Falconware dishes) then covered the pastry with cling film and put back in the fridge for 10 further minutes. Meanwhile I spooned the chilled filling into two smallish Falconware dishes. Then I laid the pastry on top, glazed with a mix of beaten egg and milk and added two holes in each pie with a knife. I baked for around 30-40 minutes until the pastry was bronzed. We ate one of the pies with boiled peas and have another for the next day.
Tuesday
Pumpkin, chickpea, chestnut soup
For lunch I made a soup with: onion, carrot, celery softened in olive oil with two small dried chillies. Then added 300g diced pumpkin (c. 1inchx 1inch), and a tin of chickpeas with its liquid and one extra tinful of water, and a frond of rosemary. Simmered for ten minutes then added some vacuum packed chestnuts and simmered for a further ten minutes. Seasoned with salt. Served with olive oil and finely grated parmesan.
For dinner we had the second pie! With buttered cabbage.
Wednesday
Rice and things
I made rice and served it with steamed pumpkin dressed with fermented bean paste fried in oil, then added chilli oil, soy sauce and black vinegar, ginger and garlic – a dish that from memory resembled the excellent one for squash in Fuchsia Dunlop’s fantastic cookbook Every Grain of Rice.
I also made -
Cucumber salad with sugar, black vinegar, soy sauce and sesame
Sliced smoked tofu in a sweet soy dressing
Hard boiled eggs
Then/
Baked bramley apples filled with currants, almonds, coconut, golden syrup and cinnamon sticks, with some water in the bottom of the dish.
In fact I ate most of this meal on my own as Sam was ill. We saved the baked apples till the next day to have with porridge.
Thursday
My lunch with mum who came over to look after Ursula in the morning – leftover pumpkin chestnuts soup. Ham, cheddar cheese, cucumber, toast.
For my dinner I had an oven pizza to which I added tuna and onion – and then a baked apple with cream.
Friday
I made a quick gentle pasta with two garlic cloves, finely chopped and fried gently in olive oil, then with half a sliced de-seeded red chilli, then 200g sliced chard added, then at the end I added in a few tablespoons of creme fraiche and served with a little parmesan (we had a tiny end of a piece left).
Saturday
Breakfast: bacon in naan bread with mango chutney, brown sauce, yogurt and a fried egg.
Sunday
Roast beef at the Anchor in Nayland in Suffolk after walking through the countryside with some friends and seeing John Constable’s altar piece in the church there. All very beautiful. (Message me up if you want a link to 3.16 mile circular walking route - I am an Ordinance Survey Map App obsessive!)
For dinner Meera Sodha Daily Dal, as made by Sam.
Monday (yesterday)
For dinner: rice from the rice cooker, fish fingers, curry mayonnaise, sliced avocado with soy sauce.
Eating notes for a baby
Ursula went to nursery with packed lunch and a packed tea as Monday is her full day at nursery: leftover roast chicken, leeks in white sauce mixed with a mashed roast potato, peas and carrots. Then tomato pasta with grated cheese. I put in two little bananas, a few cherry tomatoes, and in case she took against one of the packed meals, a meal pouch. Apparently she ate all the chicken! And ate lots of her tomato pasta.
For Tuesday lunch Ursula had a mini cottage pie that I’d made and frozen and and some sliced large grapes that our friend Holly brought over at the weekend. She has been loving the mini cottage pies.
Tuesday Ursula had our leftover roast chicken meal for her packed tea at nursery.
Wednesday was chaos as all the lights in the house were being replaced as around half of them haven’t worked for several years and we have been having power cuts to all the sockets every few hours for the last few weeks. There was no power to make anything for Ursula so I tried to feed Ursula an Ella’s pouch and various other cold snacks in the semi-dark in the sitting room. She didn’t really want to eat much.
On Thursday Ursula didn’t eat much breakfast aside from a bit of yogurt and blueberries. Refused potato and mackerel at lunch then I made her tomato pasta which she wolfed down a huge quantity. Sent home from nursery mid afternoon with a temperature. Wouldn’t eat tea. I tried a few things. Ate most of a hard-boiled egg leftover from dinner the night before an hour or so later.
Since Thursday Ursula has been been ill and has not eaten many proper meals since then apart from thick greek yogurt, sometimes with peanut butter mixed in. Blueberries sliced in half. A few halved tomatoes, and lots of milk and water. Sam made some more daily dal which we both ate and she had a tiny amount of with yogurt. This morning she had a half a boiled egg, a tiny amount of toast, and a bit of yogurt.
Reading this has left me incredibly calm. How lovely. I hope Ursula gets well soon!
I have been making your chestnut soup for the best part of a year now, it is such a fan favourite in my family