BEER BREAD

makes / 1 loaf

“This simple, sweet-tasting, crumbly bread is about as easy as bread baking gets. There’s minimal kneading and no proving. The resulting loaf is perfect when lightly toasted on a grill and served with offaly treats like parfait or seared liver.”

INGREDIENTS

450g (3 cups) self-raising

flour Pinch of salt 375ml (1½ cups)

of golden ale, cold 75g butter, melted

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200C and lightly butter and line a 20cm bread tin. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Pop in a pinch of salt, then make a well in the centre of the flour. Pour in the cold beer and gently mix until the dough is evenly combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared bread tin, then pour over melted butter. Bake for 40 minutes. The loaf should have a beautiful golden crust and sound hollow when tapped. Let stand on a wire rack and enjoy warm. rich sauce, it’s easy, cheap and incredibly satisfying with a big bowl of buttery mashed potato.”

If you’re feeling a little more adventurous and keen to try your hand at offal cookery, then a pate is good for beginners.

“It’s more butter than liver, so the flavour is more approachable,” he says.

PRESERVE OF THE RICH

Preserve something — jams, relishes, sauces, take your pick. Get some friends together and make a day of it.

“When you do it as a group you won’t even notice the bit of work that you have to put in, you’ll be too busy talking and laughing. At the end of the day everyone gets to go home with a few jars and some fond memories that will flood back whenever the jar gets opened,” Paul says.

TABLE TALK

Invite some friends over for dinner. “Sharing a meal and conversation with your favourite people really is one of life’s great joys, plus it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than eating out, it’s always BYO and you can choose the music. There’s so much that preparing a meal and sharing it with loved ones offers, on a real basic, human psychological level.”

SLOW FOOD

“Everyone talks about the need to slow down. Cooking food does that. When you’re preparing something like a pickle, there’s a fair bit of mundane chopping work that goes with it, but it’s a form of mindfulness. It might be a lofty assumption, but I think cooking is a panacea for much of the troubles of modern life.”

POT LUCK

“Cook something and give it to someone who could use a hand. Young family on your street that just had a kid? Old lady who lost her husband? It doesn’t really matter who,” Paul says. “Cooking for someone when you aren’t obligated to is a beautiful gesture of generosity and humanity.”