Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

HowlinWolf · 3 March 2010 at 8:37PM

Fivenations wrote: »

poohbear59 wrote: »

Originally Posted by HowlinWolf
1 oz butter or spread
1 oz flour
about a pint of hot stock
2-3oz of whatever hard cheese you have, grated. If using parmesan or gran padano less cheese is needed.
1 heaped tsp of grey mustard or mustard powder for Shirl.

Is this the pasta carbonara recipe you proposed using? QUOTE]

Pedantic Italian here so please excuse my dropping out of lurkdom! Delicious as this is it cannot be called a Carbonara style dish but is Pasta al forno con besciamella, piselli e prosciuto (Italian for white sauce, peas and ham - ).
The only dairy in a carbonara are the grated parmesan and sometimes romano cheeses beaten in to the raw eggs before they are mixed in with the piping hot pasta just before being served - no baking, no cream, no white sauce and a lot quicker to put together, though the timing is crucial.

And before you think I'm a fusspot - Seriously Strong cheddar is very good with pasta and on pizza and is selling for £4 kg at Mr A's.

I'd put togther a recipe but as I can only use gluten free pasta at over £3 kg....

Fivenations I believe that i titled the dish egg free saucy pasta bake. I don't believe that I have referred to it as carbonara anywhere but if I have I apologise for any offence to you or any other Italians on the thread.

I did however post a separate recipes for a carbonara style dish which contained cream but was not baked.

Please could you share your authentic carbonara recipe as it sounds quite frugal?

ceridwen · 3 March 2010 at 8:38PM

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

Bristling happening here too - how very dare they

With you on that Lesley..

Note to MSE team - as far as ceridwen is concerned...we are "sharing" this...you do what you please/and we will do what we please.....

Joint "ownership" time by MSE and the "team":D

We couldnt have done this without you...you couldnt have done this without us...

...ceridwen goes off feeling bit "huffy" still in case they are going to try saying this is 100% MSE - when actually its 50% they provided the "venue" and 50% we are contributing the info. I like to see "fair dos".

Lesley_Gaye · 3 March 2010 at 8:39PM

weezl74 wrote: »

he sparked my initial interest in subsistence and also is the writer who taught me about Umame! So I wondered if you were a sneaky fan

Aah, even more reason to read him then. I have always specialised in long slow cooking and making something from nothing - although nowhere near the level here.

I have never eaten things like lobster and approach expensive cuts of meat with caution as I really don't feel that confident about doing them justice

weezl74 · 3 March 2010 at 8:57PM

:rotfl:honestly chaps the new rules affect everyone not just us and I really understand the forum team's reasons, I'm sorry if I made people bristle in the way I worded it

pesky hormones!

Anyone with a project manager brain... Lesley, avocet.... (who I haven't seen for a while, hope you're ok I miss you

)

I've been wondering since finding out that Kester is so firmly engaged now, what would happen to our little project if I disappear all of a sudden :rotfl:

Do people feel it's worth me giving any more info so there's stuff that people can still have fun with while I cope with an initial whirlwind of newness and work out which way is up again?!

Lesley_Gaye · 3 March 2010 at 9:09PM

I have just been costing a possible HM muesli recipe. It is something I have fairly often, although not for a while now, have had porridge every day for months. Started off using Jamie Olivers recipe and have added all sorts of goodies to it.

I start off with a bowl of porridge oats and add dried fruit (cranberries give a lovely sharp tang), almond slivers, fine chopped crystalized ginger and seeds. Then add skimmed milk and let it steep for half an hour until thick and creamy. Transports very well in that state for a breakfast on the run and a bit more makes a good and filling lunch.

For a frugalized version I wondered about something like this - might make something different for breakfast for Shirley and Bob
700g SP oats 35p
100g SP raisins 13p
56g dried milk powder 50p
100g SP brazil nuts, well chopped 50p

The Pluspints isn't showing on mySupermarket, so used Asda milk powder which is 49.7p/100g and 56g makes up to 568ml milk, which sounds enough liquid milk for this qty muesli.

Total price is £1.48 and total weight is 956g, having an 80g portion would make 12 portions at 12p portion, which I know is 2p over budget for a breakfast
I will make some up for my own plan and see if the proportions are right. Sound nice?

queen_of_string · 3 March 2010 at 9:18PM

I had what I think was a brain wave about this, though it may have been a brain melt, the difference is slight and sometimes hard to tell these days!!

While reading the recipe I thought of poor Shirley and all the stewing and pulverising of apples she is having to do. Then it occurred to me. I have some apple curd in the fridge, ingredients: apples, butter, sugar......

So, feeling brave I mixed the flour, salt and baking powder then the milk with the vinegar, then all of it together, then enough apple curd to make a cake consistency.

About half a jar of apple at a guess, you could stipulate half a jar and then add a tablespoon of warm water if it seems a bit stiff due to variations in flour and water content of apples.

I dont know what that does to the price of the cake, but it would save Shirley some time and effort as she could make extra of the curd all in one go rather than 2 lots of apple chopping and blitzing.

Results wise, the texture of mine is fine, needed about 40 mins I used 350f but I think probably 375 next time. Mine isn't very appley but I think that's because we dont get baking apples here and so the flavour isnt as good. Oh and I dont have a blender so I had to sieve mine, which may have lost some taste.

Might be worth someone else making half a batch maybe, as our flour here tends to be high gluten so gives variable results on english recipes, Yorkshire puds dont seem to work at all, for example

.

I'm going to chop mine into little pieces and serve it with custard I think

Lesley_Gaye · 3 March 2010 at 9:20PM

weezl74 wrote: »

:rotfl:honestly chaps the new rules affect everyone not just us and I really understand the forum team's reasons, I'm sorry if I made people bristle in the way I worded it

pesky hormones!

Anyone with a project manager brain... Lesley, avocet.... (who I haven't seen for a while, hope you're ok I miss you )

I've been wondering since finding out that Kester is so firmly engaged now, what would happen to our little project if I disappear all of a sudden :rotfl:

Do people feel it's worth me giving any more info so there's stuff that people can still have fun with while I cope with an initial whirlwind of newness and work out which way is up again?!

Sure, we can keep going whilst our beloved leader is temporarily missing in action.

Once we have our spreadsheet discussion, I will have a better feel for what tasks are outstanding and what direction we could all go off in while you are not around.

If you have a (mental or otherwise) list of things you currently want to be done, we could get on with those
eg further testing of recipes, any more nutrition info, any new recipes that need testing, any thing else you want done

I def feel that people will want to carry on, I certainly do - what do others think?

HowlinWolf · 3 March 2010 at 9:22PM

I went to Tesco at lunchtime today and I spotted a few things that made me think aaaah Weezl.

The first was a big jar of NATCO garlic paste for less than £1
The second was a tin of ghee. I got to wondering whether Shirl and her dd particularly would be better off with ghee than oil and then I wondered if the budget would be better off too.

Strange what you think about when you get involved in a Weezl project

ceridwen · 3 March 2010 at 9:27PM

weezl74 wrote: »

Do people feel it's worth me giving any more info so there's stuff that people can still have fun with while I cope with an initial whirlwind of newness and work out which way is up again?!

Yep - please I think its worth it...

We'll just carry on without you our Weezl if need be whilst Kester turns up on the scene.:)

Hiya Kester:wave:

Lesley_Gaye · 3 March 2010 at 9:36PM

I'm off now to watch the rest of Masterchef and Five Days

See you guys tomorrow

Lesley x

Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free