Bread

One thing that I've taken to making myself pretty often is bread. I love to eat a slice of bread or toast or a roll as a snack, and it's very difficult to get nice bread cheaply. Making your own bread is inexpensive, easy and requires very few ingredients! Cost: 8p per roll

Makes around 14 rolls
Ingredients:
1kg strong flour
2 sachets fast action yeast (7 or 8 g sachet)
1tsp salt
Approx. 600ml warm water
A little milk (optional)
Oil

Method
Put the flour in a large bowl and add the salt and yeast. Mix together.
Add the water gradually, stirring all the time and bringing together with your hands as the mixture starts to come together.
It's better for the mixture to be slightly dry at this point!
When the mixture has formed a very slightly crumbly ball, pour a little oil onto a (glass) board and roll the ball of dough in it.
Knead until the dough becomes smooth and silky (probably about 5 minutes).
Return the dough to the bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Grease a baking sheet.
Knead the on an oiled board again, then divide into 100g pieces.
Shape each piece into a ball and place on the baking sheet, then score a deep line across with a knife.
Brush or rub a little milk onto the surface of each roll (I think this gives a better crust but it's not necessary).
Preheat the oven to 180C and cover the rolls with the tea towel and leave to rise for 30 minutes.
Remove tea towel and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until a roll produces a hollow sound when the base is tapped.

University!

Hello again... I know it's been a long, long time since I posted any recipes here, but I am now at university and actually putting into practice all those skills that I have perfected over the last couple of years. Being the intelligent person that I am, I managed to leave my camera at home, so haven't been able to record the meals that I've made. I have cooked pretty much every meal I've eaten, bar one or two that I've eaten out or with the people with whom I'm living, so I count that as a success!
On the money front, the market in the city in which I'm at uni has been my best friend, as the fruit and vegetables are fresh, incredibly cheap and discounted on top of that (because I'm a student)! I've probably spent an average of about £30 per week on food, and that's providing me with 3 or more (sometimes up to 5 when I'm doing rowing training) meals a day; about £1.43 per meal! Not bad.

Anyway, during the Christmas break, I'll hopefully begin posting again and I might even remember to bring my camera with me next term! We'll see.

Week Eleven: Breakfast Frittata

The weather has been really sunny and the temperature has rocketed to a massive 25 degrees C! I decided to do a summer recipe, so this can be served either hot or at room temperature, either way with plenty of fresh salad and bread. Serves 4. Cost: £1.40 pp

Ingredients
6 eggs, beaten
4 sausages, cut into 1/2" pieces
200g chopped bacon / pancetta
A handful of fresh herbs (thyme, sage, bay...)
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying



 Method
Heat the oven to about 200 degrees C.
In a large frying pan, fry the sausage pieces in a little oil until browned. Put these to one side, then repeat with the bacon / pancetta.
Mix the herbs and seasonings into the beaten eggs, then add 2/3 of the meat and stir.

Pour into the hot frying pan, then immediately add the remaining sausage and bacon.

Allow to cook until the edges turn pale and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, then place in the oven. Cook until the top is just set, then either serve or cover and allow to come to room temperature.

Week Ten: Pulled Pork

This recipe was based on an original from Waitrose and makes a really nice meal that can be served with bread or rice. Cost: approx. £2.00 per person.

Serves 4.
Ingredients:                           
1/2 tsp ground ginger                 
1/2 tsp mustard powder               
1/2 tsp salt                                 
1/2 tsp smoked paprika               
1 tsp tamarind paste
10ml Worcestershire sauce
300g creamed tomatoes
250g tomato sauce (ketchup)
500ml chicken stock
175g dark brown sugar
175ml cider vinegar
4 pork shoulder steaks (or equivalent weight
                                      belly pork in chunks)
1 shallot, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped








Method:
Gently fry the shallot in a little oil until starting to turn golden and caremalised. Add the garlic and fry for another minute. Add the rest of the ingredients (apart from the pork), starting with the spices.

Sear the steaks in hot oil in a frying pan - about a minute on each side.

Add the steaks to the sauce and bring to a gentle simmer. Braise for 1h 30m, half with the lid off and half with it on. Leave the pork to cool in the sauce.

Remove the steaks and pull them apart with two forks.

Depending on the amount of liquid left, you may want to bottle some of the sauce (make sure any jar you use has been sterilised and bring the sauce to a boil before pouring it in).

Return the pulled pork to the remaining sauce, then heat through until piping hot before serving.



(Original recipe: http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/h/heston_s_slow-cookedpulledporkwithcabbageslaw.html)

Week Nine: Green Chicken

This recipe originally came from the July edition of the Sainsbury's Magazine and isn't particularly cheap - I cooked it on skewers on the barbeque instead of in whole pieces under the grill. 
Note: this needs to be marinated for several hours. Cost: £2.70 pp

Serves 4
Ingredients
Spices: 1tsp each cumin and fennel seeds
            1/2 tsp each black peppercorns and cloves
            Seeds from 4 cardamom pods
            7.5cm root ginger, peeled and chopped
            A large handful of mint leaves
            4 cloves of garlic, chopped
            1/2 tsp each turmeric, cinnamon and nutmeg
            2 green chillies, chopped

Others: 10 chicken breasts
            Juice of 1 lemon
            250g natural yoghurt
           
Toast the cumin, fennel, black peppercorns and cloves in a dry frying pan until you can really smell them, then grind with a pestle and mortar or a food processor, along with the cardamom seeds.
Blend the mint, ginger, garlic and chillies in a blender with a little water until you have a paste, then mix this into the yoghurt with everything on the spice list. Add the lemon and mix again.
Chop the chicken into strips about an inch wide and 2 long and toss in the marinade. Leave to infuse (in the marinade) for at least 2 hours. Put some bamboo skewers in water to soak.
Thread the chicken onto the soaked skewers.
Barbeque over a medium heat for approx. 15 minutes, depending on the heat.

Revision Biscuits

I know that most people have trouble with staying motivated while revising... I have problems with actually starting to revise. These biscuits were because I needed to do some chemistry revision and I was feeling lazy, so there's very little cooking involved!

Ingredients:
An even number of digestive biscuits
Some whipping cream
Some icing sugar                                        Precise, I know!
Some vanilla essence
Some chocolate
Some icing

Method:
Melt the chocolate.
Whip together the cream, icing sugar and vanilla.
Sandwich together two digestives with cream, then spread the top with chocolate and allow to set.
Ice with whatever facts need to be remembered, then only eat the ones that you have thoroughly committed to memory!

Week Eight: Cakes and Biscuits

Ok, I know that this isn't exactly a meal, but it was my sister's birthday party and I also wanted some way in which to revise without dying of boredom (revision biscuits to come later...).

Gooey, rich chocolate cake
This will stay moist for several days and is amazingly chocolatey. Don't be put off by the long ingredients list - it's incredibly easy to make!
The decoration is up to you - I haven't included any ingredients for it. My cake was "Cowboys and Indians" themed, to tie in with the party.

Ingredients
85g Plain flour
85g Self-raising flour
200g Caster sugar
200g Brown sugar
200g Unsalted butter
100g Milk chocolate
100g Dark chocolate
75ml Cream / Buttermilk
25g Cocoa powder
3 eggs
1 tbs coffee granules, dissolved in 125ml water
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C and grease (or line) a round tin - about 8" or 20cm diameter.
Break up the chocolate then melt together the chocolate and butter, then stir in the coffee.

Mix together the dry ingredients (sifting is desirable but not entirely necessary).

Beat together the eggs, cream / buttermilk and vanilla, then mix thoroughly into the dry ingredients.

Stir in the chocolate mixture; the final mix is very runny - this worried me, but apart from slight leakage on the part of the tin, it was fine. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

Put in the oven (TIP: If there's any chance of your tin leaking, put a baking tray on the shelf beneath to prevent that burnt toast smell from haunting your oven) and cook for anywhere between 1h 15m and 1h 30m. The top should feel firm to touch.

Leave in the tin until just warm, then turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.