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

Lesley_Gaye

Hi Weezl, have just downloaded the spreadsheets for a peruse, will look this eve. Haven't got access to the veg stock checker at the mo

Am popping in and out at the mo, we picked up a load of Freecycle gravel for the garden this morning - 2 trips and a lot of shovelling, and I have to go up to the village hall several times today, the last time is to lock up after midnight, so I will have time to play this eve.

Weetabix cake - is proving very popular with DP. Have made a few changes as I went along. Have reduced the sugar and added some oil, have also tried substituting 50g of flour for oats and couldn't even taste them, so will up the proportion next time. Have tried doing half and half with wholemeal which worked well. Did a date and walnut one yesterday which came out well (150g dates, 40g walnuts) plus added an egg as it is very crumbly, but still crumbly, so might leave it out again. Have plans for a coconut one. And yes, I am making a lot of them as DP loves them and is eating great chunks of them. The tasting each time I try a new variation isn't great for my diet tho!

Did one with DGD yesterday (2 years) and she loved helping Nanny make yum yums

OrkneyStar

Hi,
Regarding the burgers- he likes veg, and will eat veg based dishes once or twice a week if I make them. I think the word 'burger' conjures up meat ideas though. TBH I think they almost tasted like the spicy bean burgers that McD's/Burger King used to sell. I think I will eat my other ones in a roll, with salad, chutney and cheese. More cost there obviously but hey I am being honest!
He said he would/could eat them if needs must!
hth

Lesley_Gaye

forgot to say re spreadsheets - I can understand the gulp, I would feel the same way. When people use my recipes, here or elsewhere, I feel like saying to them, treat them gently

We had your tomato dahl and rice last night from the freezer with a (bought) lentil poori. Delish

HowlinWolf

ceridwen wrote: »

On a somewhat unrelated point - I've just stuck some sloe muffins in the oven (yep...THOSE sloes - ie the ones normally used for sloe gin...) - and if any of the more "expert" cooks on here have any tips for a better way than I just tried of getting the stones out of those sloes - 'twould be appreciated for the future please:)

- as in I just squidged all those stones out with my fingers - whilst thinking "no wonder no-one ever uses sloes for actually eating...:cool:" - but this is one of my experiments in a different-ish direction to this thread.

So - if anyone else has ever actually tried cooking with sloes - advice welcome:) - the taste test is later today - when I try them out on friends...

.......and yep....I kept the eggshells to add into breadmaking flour...

Ceridwen, I received some sloe truffles for christmas from Culpeppers. The sloes were used to flavour gin and were then dunked in chocolate, they are lovely.

Chicken pie thoughts - Weezl I noticed you suggested making the chicken pie into a suet pud, but as we already have one suet pud what about giving the chicken pie a lovely crispy suet crust instead? No need to line the bottom of the dish with pastry just put the pie filling in an oven proof dish and put a suet crust on top. I used to do this all the time and it's yummy, especially with a few dried herbs in the crust.

weezl74

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Hi,
Regarding the burgers- he likes veg, and will eat veg based dishes once or twice a week if I make them. I think the word 'burger' conjures up meat ideas though. TBH I think they almost tasted like the spicy bean burgers that McD's/Burger King used to sell. I think I will eat my other ones in a roll, with salad, chutney and cheese. More cost there obviously but hey I am being honest!
He said he would/could eat them if needs must!
hth

yes I think the word burger could be a hindrance, hmmmmn will think further. I'm really glad you were honest, I think this project will only work if people are honest about how palatable they find the recipes.

I guess in most normal families there's probably an element of people having a less favourite as well as some more fa vourite dishes that are regularly served, so I'm not going to abandon the whole dish as a bad job;):)

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

forgot to say re spreadsheets - I can understand the gulp, I would feel the same way. When people use my recipes, here or elsewhere, I feel like saying to them, treat them gently

We had your tomato dahl and rice last night from the freezer with a (bought) lentil poori. Delish

I think the tomato dahl can feature on the veggie planner, do you think it's a good addition?

Avocet wrote: »

Double Pea Mash

500g dried peas (96p from ASDA shopping list, up from 48p last week)
500g frozen peas (48p)
3 tbsp lemon juice (7.9p)
2 tsp = 10g garlic pur!e (6.6p)
salt and pepper
a little boiling water (if necessary)

Cook the dried peas and the frozen peas separately, according to the instructions on the packet. When cooked, drain off excess fluid, leaving a tiny bit of cooking water in the pan with the dried peas. Mash the dried peas, then beat in the lemon juice and garlic pur!e, and (if necessary) slacken with a little boiling water so that the mixture is not too dry. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the cooked frozen peas, and serve hot.

Judging by the batch I have just made, the yield is about 1560g in total (depending on how much water you have, and how much your dried peas have absorbed). One serving suitable as a "proper" vegetable serving (approved by my teenage son) is about 160g, so this quantity serves 10 on that basis. Serve half as much again, or even double, if serving as a starchy carby thing. It's got quite a garlicky aftertaste, so would go well with something plain. Or you could always reduce the amount of garlic!

It's quite a substantial dish. According to the packets that my peas came in, the dried and frozen pea elements contribute 147.5g protein, 157.5g fibre and 2080 calories in total (so a tenth of that for each son-approved portion size).

Total cost is £1.58. But this is because the most recent shopping list shows a doubling in the price of dried peas at Asda, which seems a bit odd. At the previous price, which matches the price of 500g of yellow split peas at Ocado, the total cost would be a much more reasonable £1.10.

I imagine this would freeze well (at least, it would certainly freeze well without the garlic pur!e, but I haven't used that before today so I don't know how its flavour responds to various treatments). If the mixture gets too stiff when cold, just beat in a bit more water. The version I usually make has olive oil to moisten it, but this water-lubricated one has actually turned out very nice.

murrell this was our pea mash, you can also add some oil for mouth feel if you like

OrkneyStar

Just to add, when I said the burgers tasted like McD I meant it in a good way- just in case you wondered .

HowlinWolf

I have a double batch of apple curd on the stove and it's being encouraged along by the ACM gospel choir. I managed to get hold of a kilner jar at TK mx today so it will be going into that and the jar is sterilising in the oven as we speak.

I have used butter instead of buttery spread as I really don't like using spread in cooking. I'm using one bramley and the rest are golden delicious which I wouldn't normally eat as I think they are a bit tasteless. I did fiddle with the method a bit as I put the sugar in with the water and apples as this is how I would normally cook apples. I have just put the spices and butter in and tasted both before and after. It is delicious and I think I would be equally happy to eat with spices as without.

Off to blend it now. Will report back on taste again after it has cooled and will do survey but so far its a HUGE thumbs up from the Wolf house

ceridwen

HowlinWolf wrote: »

Ceridwen, I received some sloe truffles for christmas from Culpeppers. The sloes were used to flavour gin and were then dunked in chocolate, they are lovely.

.

Well - I tried my sloe muffins out on friends - about 15 opinions of them later says they were lovely:D and there was a couple of hints that a second "sampling session" would be welcome:D.

I've got some sloes sitting there in sloe gin and sloe vodka that I made a few months back - and I'm looking nervously at that. Errr....I dont know if I even LIKE gin....<cough> but I had a go at making some.

Am thinking I will save the sloes from these drinks and use in something or other - something chocolatey could be one possiblity...:)

shanks77

weezl74 wrote: »

hello


Is there anything we could have served this with (other than meat :rotfl:) which would have made it more of a winner? Home made lemon mayo, a spicy salsa/relish, a tangy apple chutney?

Do you think it's partly how we marketed the recipe that made it a bit less than you'd like, I mean if we had called it a spicy hash brown would it have had more appeal, whereas the word burger made you think of meat?

Weezl i know this question wasnt for me and hope you dont mind but i asked my ex the above questions and his reply was that he would rather it was marketed as a "veggie rissole" rather than burger he knows they are both the same but the first sounds more appealing to him. He would like it served with a salad and a spicy salsa. HTH

ceridwen

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Just to add, when I said the burgers tasted like McD I meant it in a good way- just in case you wondered .

Just as well to make that clear:D - I had taken that as meaning "dont try them then - you wont like them":D