A glorious day at From Spade to Plate

I made lavash today and thought of the 3rd feb when we first made this

We were welcomed by the sun today, the first bee was already buzzing so a little walk to the allotment was a treat.

As we were going to have to use the oven to bake our Lazy dough bread rolls so rather than having an empty oven to warm up, we made some Lavash. We used sesame and poppy seeds as well as some smoked paprika and put it directly into the flour. Then just before going into the oven we sprinkled sunflower and pumpkin seeds over the crackers.

 






When I saw this tasty Cheddar Soup,  and having some broccoli  and carrots in the allotment, thought we might slightly alter it to make a sauce rather than a soup. We just left out 2/3 of the stock, so it was thicker and  stayed in the bread rolls better.

Whilst June was keeping an eye on the oven (filled with crackers, vol au vents and bread rolls) the rest of us went off to forage for our salad.  We harvested some yacon, carrots, oca's in addition to edible flowers like daisies, corn flowers, calendula and rosemary (not too many as they are important for the bees to visit at this time of the year)

Three bean curry with flatbread rice and a fennel salad

Today I was given a fennel bulb by Julie in the allotment. I made some Fennel Cordial with it as well as turning it into my mum's favourate salad. Fennel and egg salad. Just as normal a mustard vinegrette and added the sliced fennel and a couple of hard boiled eggs.

For my main meal I used the red kidney beans I soaked and cooked a few days ago, chickpeas and baked beans in tomato sauce, and the preserved tomatoes I made in oil in a  Kilner Jar in September last year.  A chopped onion, a garlic clove, 1 table spoon of ground coriander, 1 tea spoon each of garam masala and mild chilli powder, I added a chopped carrot (as I still had one in the bottom of the fridge)  Add it all together cover with stock and boil until all nicely hot and cooked.

Lovely on a bed of rice, and a Crazy dough flat bread.

Thank you garden!

First week of no from Spade to Plate

What a weird week it has been. Nature is in full swing. Birds are in and out the garden picking up materials for their nests. The temperature outside at times is above 12C which brought the (bumble) bees out to pollinate the nectarine and peach trees.
To be honest looking into the garden all seems exciting with a longing for the months ahead.

On the other hand, looking at the TV, papers and shops however, it is crazy. The Corona virus crisis has made us all take big steps to stop the spread of the virus.  For this reason I am not running the cooking sessions with my friends, I had an idea though to keep on giving inspiration on what to cook, by sharing the menu I am making for the family.

So today, I need to bake bread, I found this video on how to knead for those of  you who have not done this before.  The recipe I normally use is either Lazy Dough or my basic bread dough.
One needs eggs and yoghurt  the other just flour, water, salt and yeast.

During the year we made many versions of bread with the Lazy Dough, here are some pictures of us making this dough

Ai and Kim mixing the dough

dough doubled in size

Hiroe showing what the dough should look like

Joan shaping the dough into bagels

Li, Alice, Lucy and Erika showing off their flat bread made with  lazy dough

 .