52 Recipe Challenge – Week 8

When I started this blog I looked in my recipe books at recipes I had not tried and made a plan of which recipe to do when and that went well, up until about week five and after that the plan changed a little. I decided against doing the recipe I had planned on week 6 because it required buying too many ingredients and last week I changed my mind partly for that reason and partly because I had a craving for sweet things. Unfortunately that craving hasn’t yet subsided and this week I have succumbed to baking once again when I should be making salads...

Because I succumbed to my sweet tooth once more this week’s recipe was a Scone Bread Recipe I had seen in Sam Stern’s: Real Food, Real Fast,  when making more tried and tested recipes.

To make this recipe you need:

375g Self Raising Flour

1 ½ Teaspoons of Salt

90g Butter

125ml Milk

125ml Water

1 Tablespoon of Caster Sugar

1 Handful of dried fruit.

I started making this by pre-heating the oven to Gas Mark 7/220c and getting my ingredients together. Next I measured out the flour and sifted it into my mixing bowl with the salt and sugar.

Then I made a small indent in the middle of the mix and melted the butter, after it was melted I added the butter, dried fruit, water and milk to the flour mix and stirred it with a fork.

When it started to come together and seemed doughy I transferred it to my kitchen side which I had floured before kneading (well more like punching it a bit) until it seemed mixed together enough. After that I let it rest for a minute as I greased up a baking tray then I transferred it on to a tray and made a few shallow cuts in the top as directed in my recipe. The recipe I followed said make six half inch cuts as if dividing up a pizza so I ran my pizza cutter over it in a rough star shaped pattern.

After I did that I gave the dough a quick brush with some milk and sprinkled some flour over it and then bunged it in the oven. I left it in my oven on gas mark 7/220c for 10 mintues and then turned it down to gas mark 4/180c for another 20 minutes. It seemed to cook ok fine on the bottom but I was concerned it wasn’t cooking on the top so I flipped it over for the last 10 minutes.

When I took it out the top seemed a little flattened but it seemed to have cooked ok but you know what they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating.... well let’s just say it went well with a cup of tea, butter, jam and clotted cream.

A good reward for a hard day’s decorating!

52 Recipe Challenge - Week 4.

This week I ended up tried a couple of recipes although I didn't manage to blog about them as I got over excited about the free music festival happening in my city.... I have a bit of a soft spot for live music which got in the way of my blogging. I tried part of a recipe from another blog I enjoyed reading called Domestic Sluttery, this is the link to that recipe.  I haven't included my attempts to make that recipe as I interpreted part of it and ignored the other half... I didn't attempt to spatchcock a chicken I just made Jalepeno  butter and put it on some chicken thighs. This made a lot of mess and didn’t look very appetising but tasted quite good.

The recipe I decided to blog about this week was another spicy one from a Spice Box I received as part of a Christmas gift earlier in the year. This recipe is one for Aloo Gobi a spicy potatoes and cauliflower dish which I haven’t tried before as the chocolate thief doesn’t like cauliflower.

To Make this recipe you need:
1 Small Cauliflower
3 or 4 Medium Potatoes
1 Onion
1 ½ teaspoons of Mustard Seeds
1 ½ spoons of Cumin Seeds
1 teaspoon of ground Corriander
1 teaspoon of Tumeric
½ a teaspoon of Garam Masala
½ teaspoon Ground Cumin
2 Long Chillis
200ml Water

When I started this recipe the first thing I did was start to chop up the Cauliflower into florets as advised in the Spice Box recipe before putting it to one side. Then I put the Mustard and Cumin seeds in my pan and started to cook them.

Whilst they were cooking I sliced up the onion. When the Mustard and Cumin seeds started to pop and jump I added  the recommended glug of oil and the onions and started to fry them off.

As the onion fried I cut up the potato, the recipe said to peel the potato first but I didn’t because I was tired and I don’t mind potato skins.

Once this was done and the onion had turned golden brown I added the spices, chilli’s, cauliflower and potatoes to the pan.  I stirred the cauliflowers and potatoes in the spice mix so they were covered in the spices before adding the water.After I poured in the water I turned up the heat to boil the water; however, there didn’t seem to be enough water so I added enough to cover the potatoes and most of the cauliflower.

Next I brought it to the boil, put the lid on the pan and let it simmer for about half an hour and then let it simmer with the lid off for another then minutes. The recipe I have for Aloo Gobi didn’t say how long I should cook it for so I turned it off when the mix potatoes had become mushy and the cauliflower had broken up into pieces.When I went to try it I worked out that I had made loads.

It tasted like a spicy, slightly mushy mash potato.

Not a standalone dish but it will go great with other curries!  Now, who's got a good Naan bread recipe?