Mediterranean bread

Costs over a £ for a loaf from the supermarket and this is far superior. I made this sundried tomato, olive and roasted pepper loaf yesterday I used the jars of antipasti from Aldi for the Olives, Peppers, and SD toms (wich had oragano in with them too). I coated it in parmesan and flour before cooking it and this seemed to add just the right seasoning to the crust. Infact it went down so well that I forgot to photograph it but wil do on another occassion as it is notthe first nor the last time I will make it. Basic wholemeal bread is as usual then add a few goodies:
ingredients £0.62


400g of half white and half wholemeal
10g salt
1" cube of fresh yeast (or 5g fast action dried yeast)
3 sundried tomatoes chopped
6 black olives chopped
3 pieces of roasted red and yellow peppers in oil chopped
1 tablespoon of the sundried tomato oil
220 ml blood warm water
25g grated parmesan mixed with a little flour for the top of the loaf.

1. Crumbled the yeast into the flour and added the salt to a bowl for the kenwood fitted with the dough hook.

2. Added the chopped tomatoes, peppers and olives switched it on and add ed the oil and then enough water to make a soft dough. turned out onto a floured surface and kneaded to ensure the texture was silky.

3. formed into a loaf shape. rolled the loaf in a mixture of parmesan and white four then set aside to rise.

4. after around an hour it had doubled in size so preheated the oven to 200°C put the last of the flour and parmesan mixture on the top then slashed the loaf once down the middle and popped it in the oven for 30 minutes.

5. checked for it being hollow before setting side to cool.



I had this last night for tea with creme fraiche (with a little grated lemon zest in it), smoked salmon, chives, thyme and cucumber. sounds like pure luxury and in flavour it is but with the smokd salmon trimmings available for pennies at a supermarket and with the little you actually use the topping cost around 15p for each slice.

Cod with Creamy Prawn Sauce

Another trip to the beach today supplied me with a couple of cod straight off the boats.

Ingredients £2.51

2 cod fillets

400ml milk

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 dtsp butter

1 Shallot finely chopped

1 dtsp plain flour

75g freshwater (small) prawns

½ lemon zest

Method

1. Poach the cod in the milk with the salt and pepper, cover and cook for approximately 10 minutes.

2. In a clean pan melt the butter and add the chopped shallot and cook until softened. Add the flour and coat the shallot.

3. Add the prawns, lemon zest and the milky liquor the cod was cooked in and stir to ensure the liquor is absorbed into the flour.

4. Finely adjust seasoning to taste and spoon over the cod fillets to serve.

Maple Syrup and Rosemary Loaf

A nice loaf to serve with lamb, gammon or a sausage hotpot. The smell of maple syrup is stronger than the flavour and the mild taste of rosemary.

Ingredients £0.37

500g Strong Plain Flour

50g Oat bran

50g Porridge oats

10g salt

6g fast action dried Yeast

1 tspn Finely chopped rosemary

2 tblsp Maple syrup

1 tblsp Olive Oli

380 ml Luke Warm Water

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl then add the oil and water. The dough should be quite sticky, but this will change with kneading.

2. Turn out onto a floured work surface taking any bits that are stuck to the sides of the bowl and knead for around 5-10 minutes until the dough is soft and silky to the touch it should still be quite loose.

3. Grease the bowl the bread was mixed in and return the now soft dough to the greased bowl, cover with either a damp tea towel or greased cling film and leave to rise for around an hour till the dough has doubled in size.

4. Turn out on to a work surface and knock back by punching the dough once or twice then knead lightly and shape the loaf either into a floured baking tin or into a neat round on a floured baking sheet. Sprinkle the top with flour cover again and allow to double in size.

5. Preheat an oven to 200C. Slash the top of the loaf with a very sharp knife (a blunt one will knock some of the air out of the dough) and bake for approximately 35 minutes. Test by tapping the base of the loaf for a hollow sound. If not cooked through after the 35 minutes return to the oven upside down and check every 5 minutes until cooked through.

Scones

I bake these very regularly and have won prizes at local shows for my honey and lemon scones (entirely my own recipe) in the 1990s when I used to have the time to enter them.

The basic scone mixtures(plain, rich, fruit and cheese) I originally used were from The Bero Book now available on line.

I have also used the Rachel Allen Soda bread scone recipe using buttermilk and find them all great although I feel often they recommend that the dough is rolled out to thinly.

Honey and lemon scones

225 g (8 oz) Self Raising Flour

1 lemon Grated zest and juice

pinch salt

50 g (2 oz) butter

30 ml (2 tblsp) runny honey

enough milk to make a soft dough

method

1. add the zest of the lemon to the flour and salt. Rub in the butter until it is like breadcrumbs
2. Add the honey and enough milk to make a soft dough but be careful not to overwork the dough just bring the mixture together.
   
3. Preheat an oven to 200°C Place on a floured work surface and roll or pat out to about 2.5cm (1inch). With a cutter, press into the mixture and when you think you are through the mixture give it a sharp tap, do not twist the cutter (this will result in uneven rising in the oven).
4. Place on a baking sheet just slightly apart, brush the tops with a little milk and cook for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Left Overs

It is said that a third of the food bought at present is thrown away in this country. I horrific thought in my mind I just can’t afford to do so and even when there was a really good income in the house I just couldn’t bring myself to throw perfectly good food away. Even the majority of vegetable peelings/trimmings make their way into stocks in this house. A small potion of anything left over will be enough for a toastie or a light meal, if there is enough for a full dinner for 1 or more it is frozen as such and brought out to be used as what I consider to be my convenience food.

Last week we had roast chicken for Sunday lunch along with stuffing, roast & steamed vegetables and gravy, and fruit salad for dessert. A chicken of the size I used can be currently picked up in a supermarket for as little 3 for £10. The fruit salad was more than enough to go round and was eaten for tea as well as chicken sandwiches with some carrot salad and coleslaw knocked up as I cooked lunch so no cooking for me after lunch was served. The roast chicken made a left over pie for Mondays dinner with the left over vegetables and gravy with a crust on it, the rest of the chicken with the peelings made 2 litres of stock some of which I added to the meat stripped from the carcass before finally discarding it and some other vegetables to make a pan of soup for Thursday’s dinner.

This week I cooked a turkey crown which cost me close to the price of the three chickens but I will make it go far further than the chicken did. First of all there was less than half of it used for Sunday lunch along with roast potatoes and parsnips and some lovely freshly steamed spinach and mushrooms in garlic cream, with a dessert of hot cross bun bread and butter pudding. There will be enough for another two family meals that will be sliced and frozen with some freshly made onion gravy to freeze it in which keeps it nice and moist while it defrosts. Today I shall make a pie with vegetables and a creamy white sauce. Finally using some of the stock from last week and some coconut milk I think a curry for later in the week.

Next week I have a leg of lamb, with all the trimmings, earmarked for Sunday lunch as it will be Easter Sunday and my mother’s birthday. Depending on how much is left over I can already foresee a lamb and lentil salad, and a soup from that if not more.

White Sauce

White sauce

Ingredients £0.43

2oz (50g) butter

2 tblsp heaped plain flour

1 pint(450ml) of milk

Salt and Black pepper

Method

1. Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour stirring to make a rue, which is a sort of lump incorporting all the butter and flour evenly..

2. Slowly add the milk stirring to incorporate the milk into the rue, eventually the rue will turn from a solid lump and eventually into a smooth thick sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

All sorts can be added to this to make flavoured sauces, herbs,(mixed or indiviually) or cheese as some examples.

Onion gravy

Ingredients £ 0.18

1 tblsp olive oil (or any non flavoured cooking oil)

1 medium onion sliced

1 tblsp heaped plain flour

Black pepper

1 (500ml) pt water

Method

1. Put the oil and sliced onion in a pan on a medium and cook until the onions are beginning to turn golden brown this will take a while.

2. Add the flour and coat all the onions cook for a further few minutes to allow the flour to cook through then slowly add the water stirring to make sure there is no lumps. Finally season with plenty of pepper.

Left Overs Pie

ingredients £0.48 for the suet pastry

I term I heard used yesterday on the television and something I have done since I started cooking for a family over 25 years ago and generations of my family and others did before that. If there is no left over gravy there are two ways round this. either make an onion gravy or make a white sauce.

2-4 oz per person Left over meat cut into bite sized pieces

6 oz per person Left over vegetables cut into bites sized pieces

Left over gravy/onion gravy/white sauce to cover

6oz suet pastry

Method

1. Preheat an oven to 200°C. If needed make the onion gravy or white sauce.

2. Place the left over meat and vegetables in a pan and cook for around five minutes to enable the vegetables to begin to heat through thoroughly. Then place into a deep pie dish with the gravy or white sauce.

3. Make suet pastry as per recipe. Roll out to fit the top of the pie dish, place on top and trim. Brush with a little milk and bake in the oven for 40 minutes until the crust is cooked and the filling piping hot.

Fairy/cup cakes

Fairy cakes are traditionally British, a small light cake with a simple icing made of icing sugar and water, left plain or flavoured and coloured if preferred, topped with a glace cherry or hundreds and thousands, in fact with anything you wish. Also used to make butterfly cakes by slicing of the top and cutting this in half to make the wings putting butter cream on the top before replacing the ‘wings’ and dusting the cake with icing sugar.
Variations can be by adding some dried fruit or chopped glacé cherries or flavouring with a few drops of essences or with cocoa powder to make a chocolate version.
In more recent times since the explosion in popularity of the ‘cup cake’ this recipe has been used to make larger cakes and decorated often very elaborately with butter cream and adornments.

Ingredients £0.53
4oz 110g butter
4oz 110g caster sugar
2 large eggs
Pinch salt
4oz 110g self raising flour

Method
1. Preheat an oven to 180 °C. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until smooth, light, creamy and quite pale in colour.

2. Beat the eggs with the pinch of salt and beat this into the butter and sugar mixture with three tablespoons of flour. Then fold in the remaining flour.

3. Divide equally into 12 cake papers in patty tins. Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes until firm and just spring back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool before decorating.

Variations
Chocolate: substitute 1 oz (25g) of flour for 1oz (25g) coca powder (NOT hot chocolate powder).
Cherries: add 1 oz of chopped glacé cherries to the mixture.
Dried fruit: add 2 tablespoons of sultanas, raisins, chopped apricots or chopped dates to the mixture.

To make cup cakes with the mixture I use an icecream scoop to make 6/7 cupcakes in muffin papers/tins with the same mixture and cook for aproximately 20-25 minutes.

Oat bran bread

Oat bran has a lower GI than wheat bran and therefore is better in two ways for my family, first of all the lower GI means that after eating it a person will feel fuller longer and secondly having a lower GI people who are diabetic will maintain blood sugar level over a slightly longer period.

I have been experimenting with the proportions of bran and prefer this mix level it is a higher proportion of bran than in a home made wholemeal loaf for which I would use half wholemeal flour and half white. Any more bran I fell produces a loaf that is to heavy.

Ingredients £0.28

350g Strong White Flour

30g Oat bran

20g Porridge oats

10g Salt

4g Fast action dried yeast

260 ml Water

15ml Tasteless oil like sunflower

Method

1. Mix the flour, bran, porridge oats, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the oil and then enough water to make a soft pliable dough. It should seem slightly wet.

2. Turn onto a floured work surface and knead (see note below) for around 10 minutes until the dough has become quite elastic and smooth to the touch. If the mixture is to dry add a little water by wetting your hand and sprinkling it on the dough. If it is to wet to handle add a little extra flour. A loose dough will make a lighter finished loaf.

3. Put into a greased bowl and cover with greased cling film or a damp tea towel. This is to prevent the dough from forming a crust on it while rising. Place in a warm place to rise for around an hour or until it has doubled in size this could take longer than an hour.

4. Punch the dough and turn out onto a floured surface and lightly knead a couple of times but not too much.

5. Shape by putting into a floured tin (loaf or cake) or into a desired shape to cook freeform and place on a floured baking sheet. Cover again and leave to rise to double in size this should take around ½ an hour but can easily take a little longer. Preheat the oven to 200 °C and cook for 30 minutes.

6. Check if cooked by turning out of the tin and tap the bottom if it is cooked it should sound hollow. If not fully cooked, place in the tin upside down exposing the bottom of the loaf and return to the oven to cook until done, testing every 5 minutes. Leave to cool.

Baking

I love to bake I would say it is the one job in the kitchen that gives me the most pleasure.

If I’m feeling stressed over something, a cake is often the answer after all if I don’t feel better after baking it I can always eat it and that usually does the trick.

Cakes and scones often considered life’s little luxuries and one of the first things to go out the window when a budget is restricted. Yet I find them to be a pleasant way of stretching a meal for only a few pence. To have sandwiches followed by cake or scones leaves the family well fed and feeling like they have had a decent meal.

Scones are so simple to make and if people have any difficulty making them it is usually through one of two problems either they roll the mixture out to thinly or they over handle the dough.

Simple fairy cakes are the easiest of cakes to make and variations are so simple by adding dried fruit, drops of flavourings and even zest of citrus fruits. Decorating them can be elaborate or simple which ever you feel you skill level to be, letting the children make or decorate them is a great family activity. There are many people who put more filling in a muffin cake paper to make cup cakes, although technically there is really completely separate recipe for cup cakes mixture, many people prefer a larger individual cake and fancy decoration.

To make any cake in muffin cases I find using a medium sized ice cream scoop to measure the mixture into the cases creates the perfect sized cake.

I have a regular request when there are Scout or School fundraisers to make what I suppose has become my signature dish, carrot cakes. Originally made as a large cake I prefer to make them in muffin cases when making them to be sold as this is easier to cost and easier to sell. I like to be able to say how much it costs to make 1 cake so they can be sold at a few pence more than it costs to make, rather than giving them away at ridiculously cheap prices. I would rather donate the money directly and not bother making anything nice to sell.

A carrot cake for example will make either a 6” cake that can be cut into 10 comfortably or 12 muffin sized carrot cakes so it is easier to cost for fairs and fates and can even produce 2 more portions for a fundraiser.

I find baking is a good way of using up fruit that needs to be used up quickly adding to cake recipes such as my Carrot and Pineapple cake, Banana loaf even adding coconut milk to this make an even moister tea loaf, or in muffins.

For many, many years muffins seem to evade me until I discovered Rachel Allen’s 30 day muffin recipe, a great base for carrying all sorts of flavours and another way of increasing a fresh fruit intake. 5 a day is no problem in this household.

Click on the links below to find the recipe:

Banana loaf

Banana and coconut milk loaf

Carrot Cake

Carrot and pineapple cake

Fairy/cup cakes/butterfly cakes

Fruity Christmas cookies

Scones

Fruity Christmas Cookies

This recipe makes a lot of cookies but great for presents and are very, very morish. A friend gave me the recipe after I had received some as a gift from her one Christmas.

Ingredients £2.30nocoupons

¾ lb dried mixed fruits (I use a mixture of Sultanas, raisins, chopped dates, chopped apricots)

2 oz glacier cherries, coarsely chopped

1 tblsp honey

2 tblsp sherry

1 tblsp lemon juice

6 oz chopped nuts

Salt

½ lb unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ teaspoon ground cloves

4 oz superfine sugar

3 oz light brown sugar

1 large egg

all-purpose flour

Method

1. In a bowl, combine the fruit, honey, sherry, lemon juice, nuts, and a pinch of salt. Cover with cling film and allow to sit overnight at room temperature.

2. In a bowl cream the butter, cloves, caster sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add the egg and mix until incorporated well. Add the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt and fold in until just combined. Don't over mix.

3. Add the fruits and nuts, including any liquid in the bowl. Divide the dough in half and place each half on the long edge of a piece of parchment or waxed paper. Roll each half into a log, 1 ½ to 1 ¾ inch thick. Put the dough in the fridge for several hours, or overnight.

4. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into ½ inch thick slices. Place the slices ½ inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden.

5. Allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet as they are very delicate at this stage then remove with a fish slice to a rack to finish cooling.

Beef Stew and Dumplings

Also know as 'Pound Stew' because the weight is roughly a lb of each main Ingredient. Although traditionally cooked in the oven I often do this is the slow cooker for 8 hours.

Ingredients£

450g Stewing beef fat trimmed and in 1½ cm cubes
3 tblsp oil
450g Onions sliced
450g Carrots sliced in chunks roughly same size as beef
3 tblsp well seasoned plain flour
Salt and Pepper
Water to cover

Directions:

1. Toss the beef in the seasoned flour and heat the oil in a frying pan then seal the meat by turning it in the hot oil till all sides are browned.

2. Put sealed meat in the casserole dish and add the onions to the frying pan and soften.

3. Add the onions and the carrots to the casserole dish.

4. ‘Deglaze’ the frying pan to do this add some water and bring to the boil use the spoon to remove the meat juices and flour from the bottom of the pan. Pour this into the casserole dish, season with salt and pepper and top up with water to just cover the ingredients.

5. Cover with a lid or foil and cook in the oven on 160ºC/gas3/325ºF for 3 hrs.

6. Mix dumplings. Wet your hands and take roughly dessert spoonfuls of dumpling dough, roll into balls and drop into the stew leaving space between them for them to double in size.

7. Return to the oven for 15-25 minutes depending on the size of the dumplings added.

Herbs such as thyme or a bouquet garni can be added into the stew straight into the casserole dish before cooking or finely chopped herbs such as thyme or parsley can be added to the dumpling dry mix.

Dumplings

Ingredients £0.52

225g Self raising flour

100g Suet (I use Atora Light – vegetable suet)

Pinch Salt

Cold water to mix

Method

1. Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and add enough cold water to make a wet dough.

2. Wet your hands and take walnut sized pieces of dough and roll in your hands then add to the stew or soup etc of your choice.

I use Atora Light a vegetable suet although is beef suet that is used traditionally.

Variations:

I often vary the dumplings according to what I am making and may add any of the following:

1oz Parmesan cheese

1 tspn dried herbs

1tblsp fresh herbs finely chopped

Sprinkle a little grated cheddar on the top

Carrot and Pineapple Cake

Ingredients £1.10

225g (8 oz) Self Raising Flour

1 x 5 ml spoon (1 tsp) ground mixed spice

1 x 2.5 ml spoon (½ tsp) ground ginger

150g (5 oz) soft dark brown sugar

150g (5 oz) carrots, peeled and finely grated

100g crushed pineapple or slices finely chopped

2 medium eggs

150 ml (¼ pint) corn or sunflower oil

To finish:

50 g (2 oz) butter

1 tub cream cheese (full fat)

2 x 15 ml spoon (2 tbsp) pineapple juice

50g pineapple chunks

340 g (12 oz) icing sugar

Method

1	Heat oven to 180ºC, 350ºF, Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the base of an 28 x 18 cm (11 x 7 inch) oblong tin or a 6” cake tin for a deeper cake not slices.
2	Place the flour and mixed spice in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Stir in sugar, carrots and pineapple. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, oil and milk. Beat well with a wooden spoon until evenly blended.
3	Place in the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes. Turn out from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
4	Cook individual cakes for 25 minutes checking after 20 and cool on a wire rack.
5	Beat the butter, cream cheese, pineapple juice until smooth light and fluffy add the icing sugar and beat till blended. Spread over cake or pipe onto smaller cakes and finish with pineapple chunks.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients £0.63

225 g (8 oz) Self Raising Flour

1 x 5 ml spoon (1 tsp) ground mixed spice

1 x 2.5 ml spoon (½ tsp) ground ginger

150 g (5 oz) soft dark brown sugar

150 g (5 oz) carrots, peeled and finely grated

2 medium eggs

150 ml (¼ pint) corn or sunflower oil

2 x 15 ml spoon (2 tbsp) milk

Icing (£1.56)

1 tub cream cheese (full fat)

2 x 15 ml spoon (2 tbsp) orange juice

½ orange, grated rind only

340 g (12 oz) icing sugar

Method

1	Heat oven to 180ºC, 350ºF, Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the base of an 28 x 18 cm (11 x 7 inch) oblong tin or a 6” cake tin for a deeper cake not slices.
2	Place the flour and mixed spice in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Stir in sugar and carrots. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, oil and milk. Beat well with a wooden spoon until evenly blended.
3	Place in the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes. Turn out from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
4	Cook individual cakes for 25 minutes checking after 20 and cool on a wire rack.
5	Beat the cream cheese, orange juice and rind until smooth light and fluffy add the icing sugar and beat till blended. Spread over cake or pipe onto smaller cakes.