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

weezl74

Aless thank you! that's so Fab

How are you finding it as a tool? Have you clicked to share the recipe?

xxx

weezl74

Calories

OK team this needs a bit of thinking through. The calorie needs that this family have are quite varied.

Bob and DS1 need 3000 ish
DD1 needs 2300
Shirley needs 1900

Based on average heights of UK men/women.

My current thinking is to make the breakfast, lunch and tea options add up to shirley's 1900, and then add in the snacks for the others.

But I'm not sure how practical this would be.

Is there another way of getting shirley to stop at 1900? Not that I'm saying she's greedy, just it would be hard to bake a lot of cakes and not eat any of them, maybe?

poohbear59

Last night's pizza was a sure winner! And not one of them asked for supper at bedtime. They were all flup as they call it:)
Three of the men worked out in the cold all day yesterday and one was in school all day so I wanted to make something really warming, hence the abandoned onion tart idea.

weezl74

poohbear59 wrote: »

Last night's pizza was a sure winner! And not one of them asked for supper at bedtime. They were all flup as they call it:)
Three of the men worked out in the cold all day yesterday and one was in school all day so I wanted to make something really warming, hence the abandoned onion tart idea.

:T:T:T:T

so that was 4 hungry men on 1/3rd of the recipe. Amazing. So I think we can safely say that a 3lb bag of flour (1.5kgs) makes 3 Bob et al dinners

Yay for poohbear!

How was the topping and remind me how much cheese you used on each pizza?

Allegra

Potato and Onion Tart

Well, first of all, I forgot I have no tart tin. No matter, I thought, I'd just use two sandwich tins and make two smaller tarts. That just about worked - the pastry (from which I omitted the cheese in the interest of further frugality, and because I had very little left, having used some up in the risi e bisi the day before, and a further chunk in our lunchtime calzoni) spread just about big enough to line the two tins, and while it probably could have done with being a little bit thicker, it did the job, so that was good.

Then I was faced with the question of how much potato between the three of us. I was going to serve the potato salad with it, but then happened to mention potato wedges to DD, so of course she wanted that instead. Working on the assumption that each of us would need 250g potato altogether, I took my 750g of spuds and with no real logic behind my reasoning decided to use 500g of that in the mash for the tart filling, and the remaining 250g for the wedges.

Those of you more at home with actual weighing and measuring of stuff have probably already realised where this is going - 1lb of spuds, mashed up with 1/4 pt reconstituted skimmed milk, plus 1 1/2 lb of onions.... There was no way I was going to stuff all that into two little sandwich tins.

Next time I'm using half the potato or less. I figure that will about cover it.

So, once as much of the filling was inside the cases as I could possibly wedge in, I grated about 20g cheese over the top (divided between the two little tarts), and baked for 30 mins.

The verdict - it's nothing like a quiche, much to the OH's relief Therefore, if that is the taste and texture you are after, the Weezl's version is probably the one to go for. This, however, had a lot going for it as a dish in its own right. It is very filling, too, and next time I would not serve more potatoes with it, in whichever form - the whole meal last night was a bit "death by potato". Next time, it'll be peas and baked beans, as OH requested - he felt it lost a point by being a tad too dry; some gravy or aforementioned beans would take care of that, he feels.

Serving it to DD required a certain degree of bravery - bar one or two exceptions, she does not eat cooked vegetables. She did, however, eat one quarter-seized wedge of a little tart, made a start on the other, and only stopped because she felt too stuffed. She gave it 4/10, but would not have it again. She felt it was too oniony, and that pastry and potatoes just do not go together. She is probably right, but we are philistines and we will have them together again.

OH gave it 7/10 - would have been 8 if served with gravy or beans. That's rather good for a meat-free meal, I thought ) My score was the same, for similar reasons.

All in all, a successful experiment :beer:

Allegra

So, the final recipe, such as it is, would go;

Pastry

2 oz SR flour
2 oz plain flour
pinch salt
2 tsp mustard
2 oz butter or marge

Filling

1 1/2 lb onions
1/2 lb potatoes
2 oz butter or marge
4 fl oz milk
40 g cheese
salt and pepper


And I'm afraid I am no Weezl when it comes to presentation skills or photography, but this is the final result - and yes, it probably would have looked better, not just tasted better, drenched in gravy

weezl74

Allegra wrote: »

Potato and Onion Tart
next time I would not serve more potatoes with it, in whichever form - the whole meal last night was a bit "death by potato".

:rotfl::rotfl:
Allegra I love your writing style!

And what a great dish!:D:beer::beer:

shanks77 thank you for your kind supportive post earlier and for your offer of more recipe testing. I am really touched, I genuinely am, thank you.

All of the testers are owed my sincerest gratitude, I don't always have the head space in my late preggy brain to say it online but I am ALWAYS grateful, and I think this project would be a big fat washout if real people didn't practice these dishes on their real life loved ones. :A

poohbear59

weezl74 wrote: »

:T:T:T:T

so that was 4 hungry men on 1/3rd of the recipe. Amazing. So I think we can safely say that a 3lb bag of flour (1.5kgs) makes 3 Bob et al dinners

Yay for poohbear!

How was the topping and remind me how much cheese you used on each pizza?

The topping was scrummy, all loved it. I did roughly chop the onion to make them go a bit further. I cooked the onion in a tsp oil to soften and take away the bitterness then added one crushed clove garlic as we are still using up free garlic. Then I added the tins of tomatoes and put on a low heat to simmer to reduce the sauce. It made a lot of difference to the flavour. Whilst it was reducing I made the pizza base.

Last Friday when I sent DH to buy the ingredients he bought half fat cheese. I still don't think he has noticed:) Anyway, I used 100g so that is more than I would have used had it been bog standard cheese. In hindsight I am pretty sure I could have got away with less cheese. They all had one medium potato each cut into wedges and sprinkled with chilli seasoning (store cupboard).

Don't forget I made a mini pizza for me too with same dough slightly more tomato than the men and a teeny sprinkling of cheese. All out of the samebatch of ingredients.

Tonight I am going to make the pasta carbonara and for lunch I am making tomato soup with home made bread.

poohbear59

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.

Make a roux with the butter and flour. Add the hot stock in about 4 goes. Between each addition of stock stir the mixture until all the liquid incorporates into the flour and butter. (If you lift the pan off the heat and beat hard with a wooden spoon after the liquid is incorporated your sauce will be beautifully glossy). By the time all the liquid is added you should have a sauce which will coat the back of a spoon. If not add more water or stock. Stir in the mustard and most of the cheese. Leave a spoonful of cheese for the top.

Fry some bacon bits, chopped bacon or ham from ham joint. Add cooked bacon to the sauce and season sauce with pepper and salt.

Stir sauce into shed load of cooked pasta (I use most of a 500g bag but I am a piggy).

Put saucy pasta in baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Shove in oven at 180 until there are nice brown crunchy bits on the top.

Stuff face.

If Shirl has them available she could add mushrooms or some peas or diced cooked potato to the dish. To enrich for calcium purposes she could add a splash of milk or some milk powder to the sauce.

Is this the pasta carbonara recipe you proposed using? This is how I would usually make mine but with milk instead of stock I will make it with powdered milk.I will use 100g pasta per man with the above sauce quantities.Just four plus me again tonight.Good luck for today weezl!

Lesley_Gaye

Every now and again the local butcher (that's Pomfrets in Heathfield High Street Phizzi) puts out bags of beef bones that are free in a tub at the front of the shop. They are stripped of all meat.

I picked 2 bags up earlier in the week and roasted them in the oven to give them more flavour. Then simmered them in the SC with a tblsp of vinegar to get more calcium out. The resulting stock was a very thick delicious smelling jelly.

Today I made the Apple and Pea soup with it and OMG does it taste good. I had a lot of stock, so the resulting soup has made 8 500ml portions using the original ingredients, plus I whizzed in a small dish of leftover veg from last night (grated swede and a couple of broccoli florets). We will be having some for lunch, leave some out for tom and freezing the rest

Not a fair test for the soup as Shirley may or may not have stock available and it will have made a lot of difference to the flavour

Last night we had the Crecy Plate Pie (basically carrot and onion in a pastry case) I mentioned a while ago. I bought some wholemeal flour to make the pastry with as I like it better that way. The CoOp flour was £1.39, and I needed some cheapy white flour as well and that was 85p. Wish I lived nearer to Asda! Don't need enough to justify an online order