Easy flatbread

I was very creative today.  I used up loads of veg in a delicious veg curry and I made flatbreads to go with the curry instead of rice.
And then I made a 'picture' of it all.

So here you go - easy peasy flatbread, easy to halve, quarter or whatever, easy to freeze, very nice indeed and courtesy of Jamie Oliver, thank you very much.

Oh - and frugal!  Of course.

Home made brioche buns

I had a rather nice school lunch a few weeks ago - a chicken burger in a brioche bun.  The bun was really nice so I went a-looking and found this Good Food recipe.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/brioche-buns

Because the link is there and I hardly changed the recipe at all, I won't reproduce it here although I can't for the life of me see why they gave the butter in tbsps - it's about 60g!

I don't really like working with such soft dough which is why I was glad to do the messiest bits in Thermione.  However, that resulted in a very 'liquid' dough that transformed dramatically into a soft, sticky dough with 'body' when I added another 50g flour.  It might have been the way Thermione kneads, I don't know.

I didn't have sesame seeds so didn't bother with the egg wash bit either.  They would have looked nicer if I had, but the taste is great anyway.

This amount made 15 buns.

Frugal: one large cauliflower

Over a week ago I found a yellow sticker cauli - a HUGE beast, it was - for 60p.
I did mean to use it earlier but real life took over!

Anyway, today I cut off all the florets and blended them into tiny grains and now have six portions of cauliflower rice/couscous to go into the freezer (I googled and it said you can) and I had the stalks and some inner leaves left.

I used them to make rather a delicious soup.

I won't go into what I did - if you look back in this blog, you will see that all my soups are made in more or less the same way - but these are the ingredients.

cauliflower stalks and a few of the inside leaves
an onion
a carrot
an outer rib of celery
some butter (oil would be fine)
a tsp Pataks rogan josh curry paste
a vegetable stock pot
a squidge of garlic
some nutmeg
boiling water
black pepper
three tbsp fat free fromage frais (because it needed using as it's well past its date but is still OK), added at the end
(and I added a little salt at the end after zizzing, adding the fromage frais and tasting)

It's made at least four portions, might be more when I portion it out for the freezer.

Now that's what I call frugal!  :-)

Frugal: The Fabulous Baker Brothers' burger baps

The dough felt very solid but the rolls came out wonderfully soft, fluffy and delicious.
They're very frugal - I use Aldi strong flour and didn't do the egg wash/sesame seed thing (I rarely do!) and they came out as just over 5p each.  I thoroughly recommend them.

Here's the link.
http://www.mytaste.co.uk/click/index/589553/thiscotswoldgirl.com

Now I have to plan in some burgers/bacon butties, etc . . . oh, the hardship!

Curried sweet potato and lentil soup.

Ingredients:
one onion, peeled and chopped
one small carrot, peeled if necessary and chopped
half an outer rib of celery, cleaned and chopped
one medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped
a little dollop of butter or a splash of oil
half tsp mild curry powder
a squeeze of garlic puree
three tbsp red lentils
a chicken or vegetable stock pot (or the equivalent)
some boiling water.

Method:
Melt the butter or oil in a pan, add the onion, carrot, celery and sweet potato, stir to coat and gently saute for about five or six minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the curry powder, garlic puree and lentils, stir well and continue saute-ing for a few more minutes

Add the stock and boiling water to just over the one litre amount (including the veg).

Cover and simmer until the veg is all soft and the lentils are cooked.

Take off the heat and zizz until the soup is smooth.  Check seasonings and adjust, if necessary.  I didn't need to add anything else.

Reheat and enjoy.

It would be a nice way to add up leftover coconut milk.

Pea soup

  I've just made this.  It is delicious.  I got the general idea from trawling around the internet but a happy accident has made it mine!  So there!

The ingredients are enough for one.


Pea soup
Ingredients:
5g butter
about 1/6 of a smallish to medium onion
120g frozen peas
180 mls water with 1 tsp marigold stock
a good dollop of fromage frais (this was the accident - I thought it was creme fraiche)

Maybe a little salt.

Method
In a small pan, melt the butter and saute the onion until well softened.  
Add the peas, the water and the stock.
Bring to a boil and summer until the peas are soft

Pour into a blender (or use a stick blender) and zizz until well smooth.  Taste and add a very little salt if needed.

Add a dollop of fromage frais, mix well, reheat to just under summering and enjoy.

It's that easy.

It would also be very nice with some shreds of ham or bacon or if made with a non-salty ham stock or you could sprinkle some fresh mint over before eating.

Jack Monroe's coconut milk soda bread

I'm very fond of soda bread and from time to time I will make it just for fun.  Jack has added a twist to it by using the newly fashionable coconut milk that can be found everywhere.  I didn't have milk in a tin or carton but I do have powdered coconut milk so I reconstituted some of that.

It's a very tasty loaf but I did add a scant half tsp of salt and I'm glad I did.

The recipe can be found here, on Jack's site.
http://cookingonabootstrap.com/2016/01/03/veganuary-coconut-milk-soda-bread-51p-vegan/