No Knead Bread - 14.11.15

I stumbled across this recipe here 

A bread that 

NEEDS NO KNEADING!!!!!

INGREDIENTS

3 Cups Flour

.25 (1/4) Spoon Dried Yeast

1T Salt

1.5 Cups Water

METHOD

Heat oven 180C

High shelf in the oven.

 Chuck the flour, yeast and 1 tablespoon of salt into a bowl, add the water

 and stir until everything is whetted.

 It makes a wet and sticky 'dough'

Cover and leave for 24 hours.

 Dough gets VERY bubbly

: )

Tip out onto a bed of flour, dust with more flour and flatten out your sticky mess - plenty of flour.

Fold up your dough into of thirds, repeat once, or fold any way you fancy - plenty of flour needed so you don't stick.

 Put into cooking trays - support the sides with rolled up tea towels if you want French sticks, 

or tins and/or banetons (dough's a bit too sticky for proving bowls like these : / ).

Leave to rise again for at least 1 hour and up to 6  hours.

 Or put them straight onto the warm (not too hot) griddle. These were like old fashioned MUFFINS crossed with CRUMPETS 

: P

Cook HOT - ideally with a pizza stone under the tins, or in the woodburner.

The finished bread is light, and airy with a great texture and the thinnest,crispiest crust ever.

Can also be made using your own sourdough yeast culture and any flour you fancy.

Try it, 

it's

GENIUS!!!

Banana Cake - 14.11.15

A lovely, simple, foolproof and

BANANA-EEEEEEE

cake.

INGREDIENTS

2C/8oz SR Flour

1.5C/6oz Sugar - any type

2 Eggs

2 Big/4 Small VERY RIPE (black as possible) BANANAS

Scant half pack/4oz Butter

METHOD

Oven on 180C 

Place a shelf in middle of oven

1lb loaf tin/6in cake tin (push up bottom - we all want one of those)

Paper/butter wrapper to cover top of cake 

Let's get mixing!

 Cream butter and sugar together

These bananas aren't quite black enough and 3 this size would be better! 

 Gather the other stuff and chuck in bananas first, then eggs, then flour. 

The important thing is to get the bananas to mash. 

All in one method?? DISASTER!

 Pop into a greased (buttered) tin.

 Bake until a skewer comes out clean: 45 - 60 mins. Cover the cake if it colours up too fast.

Cool, 

Cut

EAT!!

: )

Gaucho Food - Sunday 22.2.15

Last week we watched a programme on IPlayer about a cook visiting Argentina. All beef, beef, BEEF!

We're veggie. It wasn't great viewing, until they hit a tip top restaurant that cooked simple food in a trad way and served it to hi-rollers.

Pretty much everything was cooked directly on the hot fire wood - not on the fires' base/bottom/floor, but laid on top of HOT embers; the meat, the vegges, the bread.

We had to try it, and then show you the result.

We began with a good, thick layer of nice (Oak, Apple, Beech etc) burning wood, broken up into HOT embers: burn the wood and break it up and spread out the wood as it's finishing burning, repeat until you have an inch or three of embers. The more you have, the longer your 'oven' will stay HOT.

 Instead of beef, we used Hallumi cheese seared in a small cast iron 'sizzler' tray placed straight onto the embers. Once cooked, it was popped on top of the woodburner to keep HOT.

 Meanwhile the dough was rising, ready to make the flatbreads.

 Hallumi out, vegges in! Dropped into the woodburner, turned over and cooked some more. Door shut, keep an eye on it. It cooks FAST.

 Knock the dough into flatbreads. and leave to plump up whilst the veggies cook. We put in the mushrooms at this point too,  squeezed into a small space between the other vegges...

 We didn't turn the mushrooms, they steamed themselves successfully.

 Whilst the flatbreads cooked on the embers, the cooked veges were also left on top of the woodburner to keep hot.
No shots of the breads on the embers, with their clinkers clinging to the dough and, at one stage, they burst into flames. We were so busy cooking them that we forgot to take any piccys.

Here's the meal. We ate it with the flatbreads, 2 types of homemade chutney, home grown and made sundried tomatoes and some green olives.

We'll work on this some more, but it was delicious and for a first attempt it worked amazingly well. Perhaps, another time, we'll cook the bread first, as the fire was cool by the time they went in. Or, we should buy a bigger woodburner and cook the bread alongside the vegges!

Why not give it a go. 
No woodburner? 
I'm pretty sure this would work very well on a BBQ with a lid to hold in the heat.
Which means we can all give it a go!

: )

Biccys R Us

Came across some alphabet cookie cutters recently in a shop called TIGER; it's part of a chain.

The cutters cost 2 quid for the set.

I used them to make these simple butter shortbread biccys and gave them as a fun gift to friends along with one of  those fun packs of 4 icing pens.

Recipe for Super shape holding, buttery Shortcake:

Heat oven to 180 degrees c
Grease a baking tray

3oz butter
3oz caster sugar
Cream together
3oz rice flour (or any gluten free flour)
6oz plain flour
Force all together into a dough - warm hands help.

Roll out
Cut out
Cook for 12 mins
Cool t about body temp before racking up.
Decorate once cold.

OOh We Eat Well

As the winter draws on, or as my winter drawers on, this blog will restart.

In the meantime, please don't try this at home;

'Flighty'

The Recipe?

Tea, Fly X 7 (any odd number will work)

YUM!

Moules Mariniere

This is such a SIMPLE MEAL to make!

If they are not ready to cook, prepare your mussels - clean the shells and rip off the black frizzly beard. Tap each shell to check it closes, this means it's still with us and so must be fresh. You'll need half to three quarter of a  kilo of mussels per person - depending what else you're having with the meal/how many courses.

Gather together and dice onions/shallots, parsley, garlic.

Chuck the onions and garlic into a big pan/wok with a generous knob of butter

Fry gently, as you gather the next small set of ingredients.

Stage 2: White wine, third to half a bottle,

pile of parsley, and the mussels.

Chuck all into the the pan and heat vigorously.

As soon as the shells pop open, chuck in some cream. You can miss out the cream, it's still fantastic and a lot less deadly!

Heat through for a moment.

Check seasoning - you wont need salt!

Serve with the trimmings: the rest of that bottle of wine, French loaf, napkin, finger bowl, big bowl to chuck your dead shells into,and a fork - unless you really want to eat with a couple of spare muscle shells!

When all the empty shells are in the big bowl,

open the box and

admire the little French tarts,

then share them and do the English thing - 

SMOTHER THEM IN CREAM!

Nacho Nacho

Claire and Damian gave favours to those of us at the wedding!

MEXICAN SPICES 

: )

I gathered the things I needed and got cracking.

Heat the oven to 180c or get the grill going on low.

Grate cheese - any type you like, a mixture is good.

The BASIC TOMATO SALSA - Whizz together a tin of tomatoes, 2T tomato purée, 2t pesto, 1 small onion,  3 cloves garlic, 1 chilli, 1 sweet pepper, 1T WEDDING SPICES, heat it, put it in a shallow dish

 - HEART SHAPE = ROMANTIC. 

Cram the corn chips onto the sauce - edge on. Be Quick or they'll go soggy.

Chuck the grated cheese on top. Add a GENEROUS amount of herbs - basil, celery seeds, oregano, ground pepper, are all good.

Pop into the oven/under the grill.

Take out when the cheese has melted and before the corn chips burn.

Eat straight from the dish with your fingers, your bestest mate and wine.

Quick, easy and yummy.

DEEEEELICIOUS!