Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

DH made our sourdough starter @zafiro1984 - The first thing is your starter. If you have a good artisan bakery locally they might sell you a bit if you take in a jar, or you can make it.

Ours is equal by weight, quantities of water and strong bread flour. Our jar has 150g of water and 150g of flour, mixed. (When he feeds it, he adds the same again and then "discards" half into a jar I make bread with.) Paul Hollywood recommends adding some apple peel from one of your own homegrown apples (so not a SM washed one) as the natural yeasts will get the initial mix going a bit quicker, but if you keep the jar out at room temperature, it will begin to ferment after maybe 4-5 days. Then you feed it, so it doesn't burn through all the food. We keep ours in the fridge and there is a very small pot in the chest freezer in case we stop and leave it too long (gone black is too far, although separating before that is fine if you feed it). 

I cheat with my bread, making a hybrid loaf normally. I start a sachet of dried yeast in a jug of tepid water (250ml or g) and half a teaspoon of sugar to make sure (because I often use old yeast sachets near their BB date). I add 15g (level tablespoon) of flake salt to 500g of flour in a bowl and stir the salt through it, as salt can stop yeast in its tracks. Then I add the sourdough, and then the foaming dried yeast mix. I rinse it out with maybe 30ml water to get it all. I stir the whole lot and it goes "claggy" (you will know) and then I use the dough hook on my stand mixer to mix on low speed for 10 minutes. I then tip it onto a floured surface and knead it myself to make sure it is the right relaxed texture before putting it in a large oiled bowl with a shower cap over to prove for an hour and a bit. Once it reaches the shower cap I tip it onto an oiled surface and bash it flat (knock it back) then it gats sort of rolled and squished and goes in a three pound loaf tin I have oiled. It proves again with the shower cap over for about 40 minutes, then I slash the top with a sharp knife and put it in a hot (200c) oven for 20 minutes, reverse the tin for even colour for another 10-15, - if you tap the top it is firm and sounds a bit hollow. Tip it out of the tin and tap the bottom. Unless it is brown and hollow sounding, pop it back in, upside down for about 6-8 minutes and the out and cool.

I sometimes usually add a piece of unsalted butter to the mix with the dough hook, as Nigella does to stop it sticking, and often an egg too at the same point, so the bread is softer at the end (better for a sandwich).

 If I added only water and not yeast, the prove would take 4-6 hours, and my way ensures we get the flavour and preservative effect of the sourdough (whereby it lasts about 4 days, happily, assuming you don't eat it all in one go).

EssexHebridean

Loving the bread chat. I keep feeling vaguely tempted to get a starter going again - then remind myself I stopped because once I was back at work after furlough giving up a good chunk of my Fridays to bread making wasn't in my game plan, no matter how tasty the bread was!  

This week we will mostly be eating ham as I got the second of the two I cooked at Christmas out of the freezer. With hindsight I should have frozen it uncooked, as it's going to take some getting through!  Anyway - this evening will be omelette - mushroom, ham & cheese, with a big pile of salad. Tomorrows couscous will have nice hammy chunks as well! 

joedenise

I mentioned to DH about all the sour dough chat and guess what, yes he decided to get another starter going!  It's just beginning to get little bubbles on day 3 so another couple of days and it should be good to go.

rtandon27

ooooo - JD - I'm so jealous - how can I convince my OH that he wants to make sourdough?

He makes lovely flatbreads of all kinds, but I'm wondering if he's up for anything involving patience!

joedenise

The funny @rtandon27 is that I don't even eat it!  I prefer wholemeal ready sliced although I'm going to have to try some again once it's made as I've got curtail the fibre for a while so no more wholemeal bread and cut back on most of the fruit, veg & pulses that I normally eat!  My diet is going to be very bland with no onions and garlic for a while!

EssexHebridean

Oh JD that does sound rotten - if it's some sort of elimination diet I hope you reach the reintroduction phase nice and soon! 

I wish I could persuade MrEH that he'd like to have a go at sourdough! 

Frugalistamama

Really trying to stay out of the shops and only do an online shop this week as I'm so bad at getting tempted in the shop. I usually online shop with sainsbob's but for some reason all the fresh fruit and veg is showing as out of stock 🤔 been like that for days. Weird. So I might be forced to do a Lidl shop as well. 

Tonight was spaghetti, with homemade sauce, frankfurters and veg plus a salad.
Tomorrow will be veg soup with mountains of homemade egg drop noodles. 

rtandon27

Friday's Waitflower date meal was rather odd - first course was chili king prawns with noodles and continental green onions to make use of a large quantity of yellow stickered marinated prawns from the deli. Second course was spanokapita - a long time favorite from the freezer section - it was neither on sale nor creative - we just fancied it!

Saturday was yellow stickers marinated pork shoulder with oven roasted kalettes, red cara potatoes and yellow stickered yorkies - I don't regret double carbs for a minute but I'm sure my waistline does.

Last night I indulged in mussels in garlic butter sauce with toast and OH had ham and cheese on toast.  Mussels, ham and toast all courtesy of Waitflower deals!

I'm still on the train, so who knows what we'll be having tonight and when!?

zafiro1984

Thanks everyone for the suggestions of a sourdough starter. I'll have a go when I've a minute to spare.

I think I'm all set up for the digging to begin tomorrow to level the drive. They are going to start at the top and work their way towards the road. The machinery arrives in the morning. Exciting, nerve racking, and a job that needed doing for almost 20yrs. I had a food delivery earlier this evening which hopefully will last until the end of the month. 

Yesterday's lunch was cheese and crackers left from the weekend and tea was LO egg and bacon flan plus LO blueberry pavlova also from the weekend. a nice easy day

Today we had HM green pea and ham soup from the freezer and for tea sausages wrapped in bacon with chips. I used a whole packet of sausages but took half of them out of the cooker early, let them cool to put back in the freezer for another day. Followed by some uncooked Christmas pudding I'd frozen last year. It was quite moist so I cooked it in the microwave which worked well - another easy day.

I had shortcrust pastry left from the weekend - not a lot, but I've made half a dozen jam tarts using the remnants of a jar of raspberry jam in the fridge. However, there's still some pastry left so I'm thinking tomorrow I'll do a lattice mincemeat and apple pie and that should see the end of it.

EssexHebridean

We're still noshing our way through the ham. (And buying a couple more of those joints is definitely on the agenda for if they do the offer again over Easter!) This evening will be ham, egg and jacket tatties - and some lightly stir fried savoy cabbage as it keeps staring at me from the fridge and anyway, we ought to have some form of green with it. 

This means that my originally planned spag bol can go across to tomorrow evening instead as I'm out and about all day (day off work - hurrah!) and don't entirely know what time I'm likely to get home, so that will be a nice quick simple option - as long as I remember to get the ragu out to defrost! 

Currently debating between buying chicken in some form or another for next week, and using the lamb shoulder out of the freezer. The lamb would be logical as the following weekend will be the farmers market so I'll be able to re-stock...