Spiced No-Knead Bread

This bread is slightly adapted from something I found online. You do need a tin or something with fixed sides, as this won't work a well as a baguette shape on a flat tray.

Tip: US/UK 'cups' are fixed standardised volumes , but when an entire recipe uses cups this isn't so important. While every measurement is in cups, they can be used as a ratio... So if easier you can substitute the word cup for mug, glass, jar or any available fixed volume container.

Bread is a procrastination bake. It doesn't take as much effort as you might remember it being if you ever did it in school, particularly no-knead to need recipe.

For the dough:

Three cups of Plain Flour + spare, Lidl, ( 45 p / 1.5 kg )
One and a half cups of water
One sachet of Easy Bake Yeast, Lidl, ( 59 p / 8 x 7 g )
A little brown Sugar
Casserole Dish with Lid
or a tin with high sides and something oven proof to cover it with.

For optional spice: 

Cumin
Cumin Seeds

To start my dough I started with warm water and yeast in a large mixing bowl. You want the water to be tepid - not much warmer than body temperature, and not much colder either; this is the temperature which will activate or wake up the yeast, but not too hot to start killing it. I used a sachet of 'Easy Bake Yeast' - it is actually cheaper to buy yeast in a little tin with a plastic lid, usually labeled as 'Quick Yeast', half a teaspoon of this is plenty.

Once the water-yeast mixture is ready it will smell very slightly of bread, and maybe have a very few bubbles at the surface. This isn't crucial if you have somewhere nice and warm to keep the dough once it is mixed.

Then I measured out the flour, and stirred or folded this into the bowl. It is important use a strong spoon or spatula, cheap wooden utensils might snap. The sugar I added to speed up the growth of the yeast, if you want to leave the dough a long time and bake the next day then you can add a little salt instead to slow down the yeast, but it isn't necessary to use both. This is also the point to include herbs or spices. I used about a tablespoon of cumin and the same of cumin seeds, for a really spicy bread with a slightly yellow crust.

We've noticed bread behaves differently at different temperatures and pressures, if it is too runny you may need to add a little extra flour. Before handling the dough make sure your hands are well floured and you don't cling to the mix. If you hold it too tightly then the dough will stick to you. Rather, have a clean well floured surface ( really well floured ), and scoop the dough out. Then I would pat the outside with flour until you have a floppy ball, all in one piece, which no long tries to glue itself to every surface-the outside should be soft like skin. This still needs to be handled quite carefully, don't squeeze it.

I've then greased my casserole dish with a little butter, and sprinkled flour over that so the bread doesn't stick too badly. Possibly using baking paper if you have some.

Tip: Don't forget the sides. 

Then leave the bread, covered, and somewhere warm for as long as it takes to double in size. This is probably about an hour. Bake for 25 minutes at 160C with the lid on, then 10-15 minutes with the lid off to get a good crust.

Tip: You can get an even better crust if you can find something to place next to it in the oven with a small amount of water in.

The loaf is done when it sounds hollow to knock on. Hopefully it will drop straight out of it's container, but if not leave it to cool where it is. Try and resist the urge to cut into the bread while it is still warm warm, if you aren't planning on eating it all now. If the bread has stuck- then that is really sad, you are going to have to try and pry it out with a butter knife, carefully.

May all your loaves forever spring freely from their metal prisons.

Really really lazy chilli-mac.

This has been a busy Sunday, and so this is an incredibly lazy, unhealthy meal.

Tin of macaroni cheese, Tesco, ( 45 p / 385 g )
Stale bread - crumbled up
Tabasco
Black pepper

So my dinner this evening is literally all of the above stirred together and microwaved in a mug for 3 minutes. That's it.




I also did my food shop today. I've actually got quite a stocked up fridge/freezer at the moment, so this is definitely NOT all the food I will eat this week.

Plain flour, Lidl, ( 45 p / 1.5 kg )

Yeast, Lidl, ( 59 p / 8 x 7g )

Seedless Red Grapes, Tesco, ( £ 2 / packet )

Pressed Apple Juice, Tesco, ( £ 1.40 / 1 L )

________ 

£   4.44 

I'm going to be making a really easy bread this week, ( which is actually a strange form of procrastination for me ). The fruit is for snacks.

Risotto, or is it Paella?

What really is the difference between an Italian Risotta and a Spanish Paella? I'm neither Italian or Spanish, so maybe I should just call this 'wet rice'. Really nice Paella's come with alot of seafood, meat and cream, but unfortunately we are on a budget here. Anyway, this short grain rice is an easy way of making a filling meal out of virtually nothing. Today I had something more of a 'one pot wonder' - which could be a sort of fall back dish for those who are sick of pasta, but not very inspired. After opening and closing the cupboard three or four times... hungry and hoping that I will magically see something that wasn't there five minutes ago, I remember I have a packet of Risotto rice.

Risotto Rice, Lidl ( £ 1.49 / 1 kg )
Small amount of cooked left over chicken breast, Superfoods ( £ 2.20 / large breast )
Cooked and peeled King Prawns, ASDA ( on offer at £3 / 180 g )
A tablespoon-ish of filling mix from the gyoza
Sliced black olives in brine, mystery jar
A tablespoon-ish of Balsamic Vinegar, Tescos ( £ 1 / 250 ml )
Red Wine Vinegar, Sainsburys ( £ 1.15 / 100 ml )
Small amount of milk
Some water

I actually weigh out 100 g of rice, as this rice expands and I'm never really sure by how much. Then I scoured the kitchen for other ingredients. The chicken breast was left over from one I cooked for it's sandwich meat, so I diced this. Then I cut off the tails from five prawns that had been left from something I had meant to make with the gyoza. Everything listed including the brine went in to a wok, stirred about bit, made sure the rice was submerged, then I placed a pan lid over the rice and left it to simmer for ~15 minutes. Then I served with a tiny bit of grated cheddar. The whole process was barely more effort than a microwave meal.

This kind of meal is where a few spices, and strong flavours, like the vinegars make up for a lack of some of the more expensive ingredients. Next time I will remember to take photos.

Gyoza to share

These made about 40 gyoza, with left overs. The cost before extra flavours was about £3.70. Unrushed prep took just over an hour, cooking takes less than ten minutes.

For the dough:

300g of plain wheat flour, ASDA ( 45p / kg )
200g of hot water

This was measured out into a mixing on a set of digital scales, ( 200 g of water is roughly 200 ml ). Then water and flour were mixed, first with a spatula then rolled into a ball with clean hands.

Tip: Lightly covering your hands in flour first, helps to stop the dough sticking too badly to your skin.

This was left to rest on the side in cling film, but the fridge is fine.

For the filling:

Pork & Beef mince, ASDA Smartprice ( £ 1.81 / 500 g )
Soya Mince, Tesco Wholefoods (£ 1.90 / 375 g ) ( optional ) 
Three onions, ASDA ( 70 p / kg )
Water

Really this can be anything you like or have in the fridge or cupboard. I made rather alot of filling. Which is fine because my left over mix will not go to waste, but you could happily half the ingredients.

Into the mixing bowl went all the meat, roughly a third of the bag of Soya Mince, three onions chopped as small as I could manage and roughly two tablespoons of water. I squidged the whole lot together with my hands.

At this point any other flavours should be added.

For 'dough glue':

A heaped teaspoon of flour
Some water

Other options, if easily to hand, could be used to help the parcels stick together; egg white, milk, corn starch... But a mixture of flour and water is cheap and easy. The flour won't dissolve, so just re-stir this as you go.

To make the parcels:

The dough was rolled out (with a floured rolling pin on a flowered surface), to about a 3 mm thickness, and circles pressed out with a drinking glass. Extra dough can be re-rolled immediately to 

form more circles.

A small teaspoon of the filling was placed in the circles. With a pastry brush ( or clean finger ), draw gently around the edges of the dough. 

Each Gyoza was folded up like a Cornish Pastie and pinched around the edges to seal.

These parcels can then be refrigerated or frozen and cooked for snacks as wanted later in the week.

To cook:

Place in a hot frying pan with a tiny amount of oil for 2-3 minutes standing up, then 2 minutes on each side.

Extras

We decided to split our filling into quarters before adding spices - to appease the pickier eaters. These ingredients were added to each quarter of the filling mix:

1. Just as described above ( still delicious ) 
2. Garlic, Spring onion, Chives, Worcester Sauce
3. Garlic, Turmeric, Ginger and Fennel seeds
4. Three Green Chillies, Garlic, Chilli flakes, Chilli powder, a little oil

The filling can be adapted to almost anything.

In China these are a type of Jiaozi which might be boiled, steamed or fried then served with a dipping sauce.  As Japanese Gyoza they can be fried or steamed then served with soy sauce. In America they are called pot-stickers. In Poland with cabbage added to the filling, and sour cream on the side these are Pierogi. With similar dishes in most of eastern Europe. Pierogi can even be made with sweet filling. 

To make it even cheaper:

The dough was really simple and cheap to make, so various ingredients can be added to make the filling go further, depending on what is available or reduced in your shops. Would also be a handy way to parcel left overs into something appetising. 

The meat in the filling has been made to stretch further with Soya Mince. The mince I've bought is dry, so remember the more you add, the more liquid is needed. You can also add more onion, celery chopped really finely, chopped cabbage and leaks. I've used meat in these dumplings, but there is no reason why the recipe could not be completely vegan, vegetarian.

I really can't emphasize how adaptable this is.