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

canidothis

I have made this today for the very 1st time- it is scrumscrum scrummy and so easy to make - however for some strange reason mine has a hole all the way through the middle

HowlinWolf

I have done the onion tart survey. Considering making the sweetcorn fritters for DS's tea.

ceridwen

I'm thinking I'll do all my survey results a batch at a time - when I can spare a "patch of time" to compile/work through survey if thats okay?

One thing I'm not quite clear on re the survey - having done a coupla tweaks of my own on the recipe done to date (ie carrot cake) - is it okay to fill in my results on my own personal "tweaked" version. Is that valid?

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ONION TART (as per post 84)
I'm working my way through this recipe now. Right at this moment - my pastry is having its little lie-down in the fridge with eyemask on and little snores emerging through the closed door:)

Comments so far (speaking as someone who has taught/is still teaching herself to cook):

- those time constraints in making this recipe are certainly there. I am having to take it in stages. I sauteed up the onions yesterday and then had two social things in quick succession to go out to - so that was the end of that for that day. Hence - I'm doing the rest of it today and hoping it will be ready in time for dinner today.

- there is another element to the time constraints angle - ie that 30 minutes to gently caramelise the onions. Well - I took 25 minutes for mine actually. BUT - to me (and possibly quite a few others) my way of cooking is probably normally a bit haphazard. I tend to bung something in the oven and go off and do something else. I tend to start something off cooking on a hotplate (or two) and go off and do something else and just come back at intervals for a check on it (if that...).

- So - my onion sauteeing consisted of me getting them in there in the saucepan and then wondering whether I was supposed to stand there and "supervise proceedings closely" for 30 minutes:rotfl:. So - I started them off frying away at low heat and then went off to make coffee/do manicure/clean teeth/etc and only nipped back to see how they were doing a couple of times. Hence - the alteration to the method that I will be inserting at that point will be "check out after 15-20 minutes to see if they are sticking". In the event - they did stick slightly at the end because I hadnt been able to just stand there and "supervise".

- Am now resting that pastry - but dont actually know why I am supposed to do so? The comment on the pastry-making so far besides my total ignorance as to just why I should rest it (does it make it easier to roll out or summat?) is that I wasnt sure how much cold water I should be adding to the other pastry ingredients before I started mixing it up (think I mighta been a tad over-generous in guesstimating at 6 tablespoons worth).

- I think a bit of "expansion" on the words "add enough cold water to make a dough" would be a good idea for those who dont know how to cook at all. I've learnt enough to know what is meant by a "dough" and to realise that I'm supposed to mix the ingredients into a ball with a fork at that point - but I wouldnt have known that when I started out cooking:cool:

- oh...and general comment on the tart = I will be crossing out the instruction about preheating the oven right at the beginning and inserting instead to start doing that 5 minutes before the pastry has finished "resting". (I've just got these visions of the oven sitting there pre-heating away for 30 minutes or more whilst I cooked those onions and rested that pastry - and my suspicion is that I would end up with the oven on for nowt for about an hour in the event...).

Lesley_Gaye

Inspired to try the Weetabix cake as I had everything in.

Very easy to make, surprised to see there was no oil or fat in it.

Having tried some, OH and I agree that it is a bit too sweet for us. I think I would put some oil in next time and cut back on the sugar, OH didn't miss the fat at all (I put spread on mine!)

OH loves sultanas and would have them in every cake if he could. Will def try again

canidothis

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

Inspired to try the Weetabix cake as I had everything in.

Very easy to make, surprised to see there was no oil or fat in it.

Having tried some, OH and I agree that it is a bit too sweet for us. I think I would put some oil in next time and cut back on the sugar, OH didn't miss the fat at all (I put spread on mine!)

OH loves sultanas and would have them in every cake if he could. Will def try again

Did you have a hole in your cake????

System

weezl74 wrote: »

Avocet, might you be willing to try a frugalised version to give us an idea of quantities

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.

Lesley_Gaye

ceridwen wrote: »

- Am now resting that pastry - but dont actually know why I am supposed to do so? The comment on the pastry-making so far besides my total ignorance as to just why I should rest it (does it make it easier to roll out or summat?) is that I wasnt sure how much cold water I should be adding to the other pastry ingredients before I started mixing it up (think I mighta been a tad over-generous in guesstimating at 6 tablespoons worth).

.

resting pastry helps you to roll it out because once the flour gets wet the gluten in it starts to develop and stick it all together. So resting it gently in the fridge gives you a more pliable dough than one rolled out straightaway and it tends to shrink less in the oven too, so you don't get a tart where the pastry has retreated from the sides leaving the filling stranded.

Kneading bread develops the gluten too, but you can't knead pastry or it would be really tough when cooked

when adding the water, it helps to keep pastry 'short' and crumbly if you add the minimum amount of water to make it come together. I find I can do this best if I use my hands rather than a fork or a spoon. I can feel how much more liquid to add, or if enough is there and it will be a dough in a minute

Lesley_Gaye

canidothis wrote: »

Did you have a hole in your cake????

no, no hole. I put it in a quite large loaf tin, so it's only about 2.5 inches high, that might have something to do with it

what's your feedback on it?

edit - oh, sorry, I've just seen it was scrumscrum scrummy!

canidothis

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

no, no hole. I put it in a quite large loaf tin, so it's only about 2.5 inches high, that might have something to do with it

what's your feedback on it?

edit - oh, sorry, I've just seen it was scrumscrum scrummy!

technical term dont you know?

My cooking ability or knowledge is fairly limited but I wanted to know could you just reduce the sugar with no ill effects on the production of a loaf? and what would adding oil do to it?

ceridwen

ONION TART THOUGHTS (MARK 2)

Well...my pastry has finished its "snooze" - so duly switched on the oven for its pre-heat and rolled out the pastry.

errrm.....think mine is a pretty standard-size flan dish - but I'm not quite sure the quantity of pastry is quite enough for it. I'm always a bit unsure just what thickness to have pastry and certainly dont know how to have a reasonable chance of it approximating to a nice neat circle to fit a flan dish (hence one reason I would want a bit more of the dough to roll out - so I could drape it over the edges and cut off the surplus with a knife).

- Read onto next stage and thought ":eek: 15 minutes of baking the pastry case before I can even get onto adding the filling and starting the cooking proper" - at which point 'twas a "collapse of stout party" moment. Gulped - and duly put that pastry case in oven and thought "goodness only knows what time dinner will be tonight....".

- So I've got the actual cook it up stage to go yet - so still dont know the final appearance/taste of it. Thinking to myself = if I like the taste of it - then I might do it again (but only subject to using some other form of "base" - eg perhaps a quick flat bread base, with the base just put straight onto the baking sheet - rather than in a baking dish). Sorta more of a pizza effect in fact...
(thinks - "now what was that Italian (or French?) - as sorta pizza type recipe that just features onions and not a lot else on it - maybe we ought to have a variation on that, rather than a variation on Delia's tart??")

So - though I havent done that last stage yet and cant judge taste/smell yet - my verdict is already reached:

"Far too much faff for me I'm afraid" - BUT maybe we could do some sorta savoury thing with a base to it and onions as a topping - as per that Italian (or was it French?) recipe I'm trying to think of the name of...
(though would still be a weekend - rather than a weekday recipe). But something along these lines of "base + onions" that doesnt involve pastrymaking (and would avoid the need for this mythical family to possess a rolling pin and flan dish).