What's everyone cooking this week?

[Binky Profile]

Those rolls look good.

We had a Quorn sausage casserole tonight. Onion, red pepper, yellow pepper, sweetcorn, tinned tomatoes, paprika, mild chili powder, and Quorn sausages cut into chunks. Takes about 30 minutes to cook. We had that with a jacket potato and some broccoli.

[Renee Profile]

Errrmmm ... yes, that was a very worthwhile experiment Sakkarin!

[patpoyntz Profile]

Those rolls look beautiful Saks, I make almost all our bread, and will try the Tesco flour next time. Rolls are 26p each at our bakers, so a good saving as well as tasting better.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Excellent Sakkarin!

I remember my “auntie”, a trained pastry cook, saying years ago that cheap flour was often good for bread (and Choux) as the premium stuff like Homepride or McDougalls was soft cake and pastry flour and pretty much everything else was strong or strongish

I’d forgotten all about it until you so completely proved her right

[Joanbunting Profile]

You might have lobbed some over Sakkers. Rolls like that can only ne made at home here because they are one of the things that the natives don't get. But they can only be made on the rare occassions when I can lay my hands on strong flour.usually when I get an ocado order via friend Paul.

I make Scottish baps and stotty cakes when I have some but for every day our baker does lovely French style breads - not that I eat much usually but if those rolls had appeared on my breakfast table they would have been eaten.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Shame that groceries that are so universal here are hard to get there, Joan. Mind you, isn't that always the case. There are so many ingredients that disappear off the shelves here when they're out of favour, too.

I've been fixated on Steak and Kidney since they were mentioned a couple of days back, but I couldn't bring myself to go for pie or pudding, because I just kept thinking of the enormous amounts of fat involved, so I went for a steak and kidney hotpot, enhanced with half a pint of John Smith's. 4 hours in the oven, gorgeous.

Incidentally it was made with Boswell Farms cheap steak, which gets some horrific panning in the reviews of being mostly gristle and fat. Not at all true of the packet I bought (scroll down for reviews - and it was £2.65 not £3.29).
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p ... /300439397

[Renee Profile]

I had beef in red wine out of the freezer tonight with new potatoes, carrots and baby spring greens that I got from Booths. The cut up braising steak from Sainsbury's was excellent and very lean. Although I rarely eat beef, I will buy some again. I cooked it for the usual 1 1/2 hours.

[Sakkarin Profile]

To be honest my beef was a bit overcooked, I gave it especially long cooking time just in case the reviews were right...

One portion left for today and another for the freezer.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Mac n'cheese last night - I regretted it as I felt horribly bloated all night.

Lunch today- just the two of us. Poast pork with HM sage and onion stuffing, potatoes cooked ound the meat , courgette gratin and fresh beet. M had a rare treat a syrup steamed sponge and custard. Well he needs to be spoilt sometimes

[Sakkarin Profile]

My midweek mac'n'cheese had the same effect!

[Amyw Profile]

Mac and cheese is definitely not a slimmers friend is it , still though.

I made a gruyere , cheddar leek and mushroom quiche today . Had a warmed slice with couple of roasted new spuds and some Lemony wilted spinach . Really lovely mix. Have been given some aero truffles as a get well soon present which may well be dessert soon

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I've just thrown out a pack of macaroni dated 2009.
Tony asked to try mac n cheese, but never wanted it when I suggested it for all these years.

Aero truffles? New one on me, I shall have to investigate, Amy.
I hope each day you are feeling better and better.
When I had gen an. it took me 2 months to get the fogginess out of my system.

Serrano ham wrapped cod, lemon sauce, and shredded greens last evening.

[Renee Profile]

Amy I'm so pleased that you're feeling up to doing some cooking again. Your quiche sounded delicious!

I would have loved your Serrano wrapped cod Gill. It's something that I've never tried. How do you make your lemon sauce?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

So, I made a loaf yesterday, more or less following a recipe suggested by Suffolk, I've had her version so I knew what I was aiming for,

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1916656/easybake-bread

At her suggestion I replaced 100g of the wholemeal with white bread flour, I didn't use any seeds as it was first try.
It needed a lot more water than the 300 ml mentioned in the recipe
Confirmed my suspicion that I've been using far too hot an oven since I changed from gas to fan, and that mainly explains the unpredictable results
Will need to get a bread slicing guide, the slices are carefully arranged in the pic to hide the chaos, I can't tell whetyher I have a straight line or not

[Sakkarin Profile]

Good to see you're cooking bread again, but I can't see why it would need more water - at pretty much 3:2 flour to liquid, that should give a very soft dough, it's the magic figure I always use now. It's not until seeing Bertinet kneading an incredibly wet mix that I've trusted myself to go so sloppy with a normal bread dough (as opposed to the more battery doughs like ciabatta and brioche).

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I was surprised it needed much more water, but the 300 ml I'd measured out didn't even get all the flour into the dough, and 3:2 would be closer to 350ml so I wasn't astonished it required a little bit more, though in the end I think I added quite a bit - I stopped measuring and went by feel, and had a dough that was just slightly sticky when I started kneading and pretty firm and resilient when I finished

I'll weigh the water next time, as I can easily misread a measuring jug and they aren't very accurate anyway

[Sakkarin Profile]

Ah, that's the answer. None of my measuring glasses/cups are even vaguely accurate, I always weigh my water now. The oil/honey counts as liquid, hence my 3:2.

On the cutting front, here's an even more OCD than I am friend's precision baking and slicing kit...

I dread to think what that knife cost!

EDIT: some "45p flour" bread dough resting at the moment, I shall be steaming one of the six portions...

[Pampy Profile]

Doesn't the gluten content affect the amount of water needed?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I think the gluten content may well affect the amount of water, the bran content certainly seems to both in theory and in my own experience, bran soaking up and holding a lot of water

Sakkarin, the rack thingy for slicing is the sort of guide I'm thinking of, only worth it for the OCD and the visually impaired probably, you can get them at all prices from inexpensive plastic - some of a different design are less than £2 - to around £30 or so, but you can get a folding bamboo one that looks much like the picture and has good reviews online for £12.99 - £14.99

I though about getting one a while back, when I got my lovely Sambonet bread knife, a Morrison's special bonus offer, but couldn't find much then, clearly the rise of the bread machine and the artisan loaf has made them popular

Not sure I aspire to the perfectly rectilinear bread brick though

[dennispc Profile]

Dan Lepard suggests weighing water.

500g flour mix, I use 325 of water. 50/50 white/wholemeal, 350 or thereabouts.

Can't cut anything straight but live with it.