Prepping for Brexit thread

CRANKY40 · 31 December 2018 at 7:13AM

Hello folks. With Christmas out of the way I've turned my attention to matters Brexit related so I'd like to join you please.

I'm more prepared than most of my friends but less so than most on here probably. I have a camping stove and plenty of fuel for it and supplies of tinned food. I have a lockable outhouse that is accessed via the alleyway outside my back door but which is part of my house so brick built and vermin free. Even so I store only tins in there. I know how to cook from scratch which I happen to believe is a major advantage given any kind of food shortage....

There are a few things that I need to add to make me a little more settled. MrsLW would you be kind enough to share your flatbread recipe on here please? It's something that I've never made but if baking facilities are not available methinks it could come in very handy.

I'm also thinking that a few other simple recipe ideas wouldn't go amiss? I know we have the grocery thread here but a few simple recipes that make filling meals from the minimum of ingredients could be helpful to note down in preparation for time without internet. I like soup made from a tin of pease pudding for instance. Healthy and filling and with the aid of a stock cube and some water a little tin of split peas is turned into a tasty and filling meal or starter for two (depending on appetite but it would do me for 2 lunches).

Jojo_the_Tightfisted · 31 December 2018 at 7:51AM

CRANKY40 wrote: »

Hello folks. With Christmas out of the way I've turned my attention to matters Brexit related so I'd like to join you please.

I'm more prepared than most of my friends but less so than most on here probably. I have a camping stove and plenty of fuel for it and supplies of tinned food. I have a lockable outhouse that is accessed via the alleyway outside my back door but which is part of my house so brick built and vermin free. Even so I store only tins in there. I know how to cook from scratch which I happen to believe is a major advantage given any kind of food shortage....

There are a few things that I need to add to make me a little more settled. MrsLW would you be kind enough to share your flatbread recipe on here please? It's something that I've never made but if baking facilities are not available methinks it could come in very handy.

I'm also thinking that a few other simple recipe ideas wouldn't go amiss? I know we have the grocery thread here but a few simple recipes that make filling meals from the minimum of ingredients could be helpful to note down in preparation for time without internet. I like soup made from a tin of pease pudding for instance. Healthy and filling and with the aid of a stock cube and some water a little tin of split peas is turned into a tasty and filling meal or starter for two (depending on appetite but it would do me for 2 lunches).

I'm awake, so will butt in.

Cup of flour (doesn't matter what kind)
about a quarter of a teaspoon of bicarb or baking soda/powder. Maybe half if you're using a big old mug, rather than a cup.
pinch of salt
Optional - dried thyme, coriander, chives, whatever
Cup of yoghurt or milk you've curdled with a few drops of lemon juice/vinegar or creme fraiche, (whatever you've got that's vaguey acidic and vaguely dairy like).

Put dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in enough wet ingredients to turn it into a dough. Roll a small ball. Squish it in your palm (dust your hands with flour) until it looks like it's flat. Put it in a dry frying pan and heat gently until it looks like bread. Bingo, flat bread.

Ridiculously cheap when combined with veggie soup - cook veggies + 1 medium potato, drain, blitz with water and a stock cube, check seasoning, add herbs if necessary. (additional fat or dairy unnecessary due to the potato's starch, no faffing about with chopping and wasting lots of other veg, only to take it out again). Suggestions - leek and potato, beetroot (yes, that needs a potato), spicy parsnip or carrot (yep, potato again), broccoli stalk and stilton/dried up old cheese broken into small lumps melted in at the end (guess what? A potato helps).

Otherwise, there is potato bread. Mash spud, season and beat in flour until it forms a dough. Splash in a tiny bit of water if it gets too dry to form a round, press into shape. Lightly cut a cross in it & cook in pan. I've heard of this thing called 'leftover mashed potato'; never seen it myself, but that will work as well, even though added butter and milk isn't necessary. I'd imagine it also works well for mash that has been made too sloppy or where potatoes have disintegrated in the pan through being forgotten and overboiled.

Use the same mix rolled into little sausage shapes about the thickness of your thumb (or the mini sausages in tins of beans) and dropped into boiling water for gnocchi.

Moving away from potatoes (grow your own out the back, too - they taste great), get some chickpea/gram flour/besan (same stuff, only the name changes). It's very high in protein. Turn into a batter with water and season. Chuck into pan. Dip into fairly wet, soupy curry made with red lentils or fill with (sorry) spiced potato & frozen peas.

CRANKY40 · 31 December 2018 at 7:55AM

Thanks Jojo. I already make my own pizza dough, bread, scotch pancakes etc but for some reason I've never attempted flatbreads. I feel the need to try them and they also have the potential to be very useful.

[Deleted User] · 31 December 2018 at 8:31AM

My recipe is virtually the same, very simple to make and tasty too. I've a recipe for non yeasted Naan breads that I'll look out when I'm sorted out for the day and I also have found that a normal soda bread recipe can be cooked very well on the top of the woodstove, so presumably could be cooked in a frying pan with a lid on a camping stove too. I make the soda bread in a pair of those rectangular metal 'mess tins' with folding handles, the dough going into the smaller one and the larger one being used as the lid. It takes around 40 minutes on the stovetop and I turn the tin over every 10 minutes to ensure both sides of the loaf are evenly cooked through. I think it would take less time in a frying pan as the loaf would be thinner, I make soda 'farls' which are cut 1/4s of the recipe in a cast iron frying pan very successfully. Any soda bread recipe will do for these too.

Goldiegirl · 31 December 2018 at 4:55PM

I've been making my Brexit preparations since the Autumn, and in the last few days I've read thread the entire thread, to see what everybody else is doing.

On thing has struck me. The overwhelming message is that Brexit is seen as a need for disaster preparation, something to be endured, to get through as best we can.

Even people who voted for Brexit haven't given any opinion on how the nation will be improved afterwards and how we'll be better off.

What a strange time we are living in, that it is necessary to prepare for a self inflicted crisis which, even now could simply be stopped. (Yes, I know it's apparently 'Willo the People' that forces down this ever chaotic path, and we must proceed, because if we don't it's a 'betrayal')

However, does anybody else think it's a madness that we are in this state of affairs?

Honey_Bear · 31 December 2018 at 5:07PM

Yes, I do, but you'll find yourself in a minority on this thread.

moneyistooshorttomention · 31 December 2018 at 5:09PM

No - in a word..........

Whether we voted for or against - it made sense for us personally to prepare. It is going to be Brexit - despite those who don't want it to be and are still arguing against democracy.

Hopefully, our government has also made preparations.

So....

machasraven · 31 December 2018 at 6:08PM

Brexit itself is not a problem its the people who will use it as an excuse to cause disruption afterwards for their own ends. To me it is a good excuse to make sure that you are prepared for the future of the world - a test really. Worldwise we cannot go on as we are in the west we take far too much for granted now. One big global disaster food wise and we are in big trouble as the majority are unable to cope without supermarkets and convience food. We have been taught for years to depend on others ie government to prove for us, internet and social media have influenced us even more - how many people now have a library of cook books and the knowledge to cook from scratch - Im not including the ones on OS - who ignore dates on food and use their senses to check.

Farmers are starting to be vilified and attacked for growing/breeding food as according to many they are doing it wrong(ones who have never been on a farm in their lives).

If brexit makes us appreciate the sheer luxury of life we have then yes it is worth it.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted · 31 December 2018 at 7:49PM

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Well - I've just scanned the later editions of online newspapers for the day. Just goes to show that (whatever our viewpoint) there will be preparations we may not even have realised are necessary. It would never have struck me, for instance, I needed to stop donating to the RNLI for the time being/stop volunteering for them if I were doing that until all this is over.

I'm not going to explain why just-in-case - people will have to read the newspapers for themselves and realise why.

That is a real shame - as they do much valuable work...

If it's because they're fulfilling their objectives of rescuing all people in danger at sea, I think that's totally unfair - and, if enough people do the same as you, all it will achieve is more flowers on memorials in fishing towns.

Unless of course, you expect them to ask and check the nationality and immigration status of every person onboard before they decide whether they're supposed to rescue them or chuck them back like bycatch. Or want the beaches to look like some of those of the Mediterranean where walking the dog or beachcombing becomes more like a day trip to the mortuary.

Saving lives is saving lives. Doesn't matter if they're a nice, middleclass, middleaged couple who have engine failure on their retirement purchase, a Swedish trawlercrew, a drunken lad who was tombstoning with his mates, a couple of kids whose dinghy got caught in a riptide, a desperately unhappy bloke who has jumped off Plymouth Hoe - or somebody trying to get illicit goods or immigrants ashore - save lives first.

They aren't a law enforcement agency, they aren't funded to enforce laws. It's nothing to do with them. It's not their (voluntary) job.

By all means, if that's your beliefs, campaign for immigration officers to attend every single shout just in case somebody is rescued whilst being foreign (it's a possible source of further employment to have 3 people/shifts per station 24 hours a day - and they could conceivably be useful in making the tea and sweeping the floor whilst waiting for the boats to return), but to expect a charity and people that willingly volunteer to risk their lives every day to save people - good, bad or indifferent - to start enforcing political decisions at the cost of lives under the threat of costing further lives? That's just wrong, selfish and leaves blood spots that can never be washed away.

ancientofdays · 31 December 2018 at 8:14PM

JoJo a simple thank you is nowhere near enough.

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Prepping for Brexit thread

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