The Best Crumpets Ever (Really)

One of the joys of cooking with a wood stove is being able to cook directly on the hob.

We do this whenever we can. Toast of course. Pikelets and pancakes (not crepes, though I suppose you could) and any kind of fritter. And vegieburgers. Maybe not hamburgers in case the mince is a bit fatty (though we mince our own meat and cut as much fat off as we can, so we probably could).

One of my persistent failures, however, was crumpets. I tried several recipes, asked Chef Google for help, but to no avail. They just didn't taste right. Farmdoc ate them of course and swore they were the best things he'd ever tasted, but they weren't. I knew. He was just utilising one of the tools that has brought us to our 45th wedding anniversary later this month, a kind of husbandly chivalry.

So on to the best crumpet recipe ever. Seriously foolproof and delicious.

About 15 years ago, when Farmdoc first became interested in bread making, he attended a series of cooking classes run by Simply No Knead in Melbourne. I found this recipe amongst his pages from those classes and it really is the best.

First you will need:

450 gms of bread flour
3 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
285 mls of warm water
285 mls of warm milk

Later you will need:

1/2 teaspoon bicarb
150 mls of water

Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and then stir in the liquids.

Beat with an electric beater at first on low (or it will splash like crazy) and then on high for 3 minutes until a batter forms.

Cover the bowl tightly and place in a warm place for about an hour and a half until the batter doubles in size and then begins to collapse.

Dissolve the bicarb in the extra water and whisk into the batter until it is well blended.

Place greased crumpet rings onto a medium to hot preheated pan - or of course on the hob of a wood stove. If you do cook directly on the hob, you'll need to make sure it's not too hot, otherwise the bottoms will burn before the crumpets are ready. Pour batter into the rings until they are half full. Don't overfill or the mixture will overflow. They take around a third of a cup.

Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes until the surface bubbles and the top is firm. Remove the rings and turn the crumpets over. Cook for a minute or two. Repeat until all the remaining batter is used up. If it thickens while it stands you can thin it by adding a couple of teaspoons of warm water and mixing well.

Cool on a wire rack and toast to reheat. They freeze well.  

A Week In The Life Of

It's been a long, long seven days. This time last week we were trying to make time go as quickly as possible. While Farmdoc was in the operating theatre the rest of us were trying not to think about all the things that could go wrong.

On Monday he had a quadruple bypass and woke in Intensive Care at four am on Tuesday with no idea what day it was. He wiggled his fingers and toes and tested his brain. Yep, all intact. He'd survived.

On Wednesday he was transferred to the ward, feeling fine. We called it Walking Wednesday because he walked for the first time. But then his heart, swollen from all that had happened, went into fibrillation, pounding so fast and so hard that the bed shook. He was returned to the ICU.

He came back to the ward on Friday morning, the fibrillation somewhat controlled, but he was confined to bed. He was white with exhaustion and too sick to eat.

Then yesterday, Sunday, he made his physio debut - out of bed and walking around the ward. Afterwards, he was flattened from the exertion and still had the occasional fibrillation episode, but it was a start. Today was even better. He had his first shower in a week and the last of his tubes was removed.

It's been a weird week. I haven't been able to concentrate on anything. I wanted to record this experience but I couldn't write. When I had a chainsaw accident I sat up in bed and wrote down every awful moment, every variation of pain. When my mother slipped into dementia I recorded her loss, minute by heart breaking minute. I can always write. Not this time.

And it's funny too how when something big happens you fixate on the small things. Last Monday, when Farmdoc woke from his operation his wedding ring was missing. No one seemed to know where it was. I was distraught.

I knew it didn't matter. He could go without a ring or we could buy a new one. Just as long as he was all right. But I couldn't shake the feeing that it was important.

 We asked about it almost every day but it didn't appear. Then this morning he told someone that because his operation was on a Monday today might be a good day to check again on the operating theatre floor; perhaps some of the same team would be on duty.

And down it came. In an envelope labelled with his details. It's foolish of me I know, to care so much, but it seemed catastrophic that it was lost and it seems like a good omen that it was found.

I was 19 and Farmdoc was just 20 when I slipped that ring on his finger, 43 years ago, though he wasn't Farmdoc then - just a skinny medical student. And he hadn't planned to wear a ring. Neither of our fathers was a jewellery wearer. But one day we came across my mother's late parents' wedding rings in a box of trinkets and we decided we'd have them resized for us. So these gold rings have signified love and commitment in our family for a long time.

I was emptying his bottle of pee into the toilet the other day and the words 'for better or for worse' sprang into my mind. Is this what they mean? I wondered. But it didn't feel so terrible to me. Not nearly as bad as seeing him sunk in misery, too exhausted to care. That was truly the worst.

What a week. I'm glad it's over. The surgeon told us the recovery is in two stages and that the first six weeks will be the hardest. I guess that's one down and five to go.