Strange, he thinks, that they thought the same thing.Perhaps they’ve been spending too much time together.
His yeast starter has been a trusty tool of his for over a decade.The original tiny jar came from one of his Baking Soc friends at university, who had got it from a witchy aunt known for her rustic bakes and myriad of possibly illegally grown plants.The sourdough recipe is one he’s been using since he was a teenager, which he tweaked while at pâtisserie school when he learned all the ways he wasn’t making the best loaves he could.Now they pretty much always turn out perfect.Sourdough isn’t particularly fancy, in truth, but people love fresh bread.Cakes and treats are shinier and easier to sell, especially on miserable days, but what makes a meal is a still-warm slice of softly pillowy bread with a thick crust, slathered in melting salty butter.That’s what people need today.Some comfort, some nourishment.
He guides Nash and Tegan through mixing up the dough, and how to knead it consistently to develop the gluten, which will be important later, after it’s proved and filled with microbubbles that need to be incorporated back into the dough.The more kneading, the tighter the crumb will be in the final loaf.
Naturally, Nash is very good at this part.Christopher tries very hard not to look at his toned arms working the dough, and it looks as if Tegan is doing the same.
The dough in his hands has been somewhat mangled in the last few moments of arm ogling, and he pats it back into a more acceptable blob shape.He’s always worried about overworking it, going past the point of activating the gluten into mashing it all up into a tired mess.It’s possible he’s arriving at the point where one turns into the other.
Still, there’s magic to the whole process that Christopher is glad he’s not lost, even after making his hobby his job.It’s truly a wonder to take all these individual ingredients and, in combining them, create joy and full tummies.
Despite the distraction, Tegan does a really good job following his instructions, and even asks questions when she’s unsure.Why hasn’t he asked her for help before?He always thought that working with other people would destroy the sense of calm, but with Nash and Tegan, he can still tap into that feeling, even when they’re all singing along to a song that features Mariah Carey alongside a few other singers ...which he’s pretty sure isalsofrom a Christmas movie.
‘Hang on, is this playlist made exclusively of songs from Christmas films?’he asks with a laugh.
Nash shrugs awkwardly, clearly embarrassed to have been caught out in something so obviously self-referential.‘They’re all bops!’he cries, kneading the dough a little harder.
‘Don’t take it out on the bread,’ scolds Tegan.
Nash pretends to look chastened.‘Yes, chef.Sorry, chef.’
‘Damn right,’ she laughs.‘This is actually kind of fun.’
‘Thank you for coming to help,’ Christopher says.‘It was really thoughtful of you.’
‘Means I get to be away from my little siblings.I have donewaytoo much babysitting this week.There’s only so muchBlueyI can watch.’
‘Don’t go slanderingBluey’s name in front of me,’ says Nash, flipping the dough round.‘Bingo is an angel.’
‘Yeah, but I’ve seen all of it.Three times at least.And they just want to keep watching the sad ones, because they’re little demons.’She sighs with the kind of world weariness that you can only associate with being a teenager.No one could pay him to be a teenager again.‘Plus, Grandma is driving my mum nuts, which makes the whole thing much worse.’
‘How’s your mum doing?’Christopher says, remembering suddenly that Tegan had mentioned her mum had been under the weather.
‘Better,’ she says, and he decides not to pry into what she might have been recovering from.
Tegan is flagging as she kneads, but she keeps going, eventually patting the dough into round loaves.She’s a little powerhouse of fury and eyeliner.He makes a note to have a proper conversation with her about what she would like to learn – after all, that’s the point of her being here, isn’t it?She should get to learn how to do any part of the business she’s interested in so it’ll be on her CV for wherever she goes next.
Eventually, they have ten proving baskets with dough quietly rising, and a timer set to check back on them in a few hours.
‘What’s next on your plan?’Christopher asks Nash.
‘We’re going to slow-roast the lamb legs.The oven upstairs is little but if we use that, then we can leave them in low and slow for the next few hours.’
‘Good plan.’
‘Also, Dai and Thelma gave us these hams but I’m not sure I’ve ever cooked one.Usually, it’s just like a thin steak of ham that tastes of despair.The internet says to boil it in water, which for some reason sounds disgusting to me.’
‘Boil it in Coke,’ says Tegan sagely.‘That’s what Nigella does.I’ve seen it on TikTok.I’ll ask Danny from the shop to bring some up now.’
‘That sounds somehow worse, so I’m going to leave you to it,’ Nash says, hoisting the lamb legs under his arms, and a bagful of herbs in the other.
It doesn’t take Christopher long to find the recipe online, so he takes over the hams, scoring the skin and studding them with cloves plus a coating of brown sugar and some ancient mustard powder he finds upstairs, squeezing around Nash’s intense lamb preparation.
If Christopher was sceptical that an Angeleno would know how to handle two whole legs of lamb, he shouldn’t have been.In Christopher’s trusty and huge casserole dishes, he makes a trivet of the saddest-looking supermarket vegetablesfor the lamb to sit on.The lamb legs have been rubbed and studded with garlic and rosemary and salt.
‘Worked in a lot of kitchens too?’he asks, peering over as Nash breaks up the sprigs of herbs.
‘Not in real life.I played a chef in—’
