Mrs Beeton’s Bread Recipe

Baking bread is definitely something I haven’t mastered yet. I was about to start another attempt and thought I’d have a look at what Mrs Beeton said. I guess unsurprisingly as bread has been around for such a long time that her recipe is not that far from current standard recipes. That being said it’s nice to see and try.

Home-made bread

Ingredients – 1 peck of flour, 2 ozs of compressed or distillery yeast, 1 1/2 ozs of salt, 3 quarts of water.

Method – ‘Turn the flour into a clean pan, and make a “bay”, or hole in the centre.  Let the water be about 80 degrees Fahr., or blood-warm, so it feels neither hotter nor colder than the hand when placed in the water.  Put the water into a bowl, add the yeast and salt, and stir up well with the hand till dissolved, then turn it into the bay, and make up into rather a stiff dough; knead well, and leave to dry, cover over with a clean cloth, and set the pan of dough in a warm place to prove for at least 2 hours, then give it another good kneading and drying over, and leave it for another hour; turn out onto the board, divide into suitable-sized pieces, make into loaves, prove and bake.’

See how it compares to my standard bread recipe:

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/?s=bread

if you need a bread tin similar to mine you can find it below.

Bread tin

https://amzn.to/3Cwwnih

I’d also highly recommend reading a copy of ‘Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management’:

https://amzn.to/3CTxIRq

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June’s Favourites

This month’s favourites are a real mix of a lovely pub we found; some makeup and a real obsession/problem I have with a particular food.

For our friend’s 30th birthday we visited the Lake District which is such a beautiful place anyway but whilst wandering the streets of Bowness on Lake Windermere we found this perfect pub. The Angel on Bowness is positioned on a hill slightly away from the village but close enough to get great views with easy access. We had some cold drinks and chilled out in the sun in the gorgeous gardens. Highly recommend.

Home

Next is a new lipstick/stain I picked up. I have a lot of this type of lipstick as I like them to last all day so can compare. This is from the ‘Wet & Wild’ brand which has just come to the UK. Previously I had to buy it in bulk when we visited the US.

You can also order it from Amazon below:

https://amzn.to/3yxofNi

Finally my new obsession is anchovies! How I didn’t like previously I have no idea. They are so salty and lose their fishyness when cooked so act like seasoning. I’ve now taken to buying tin and putting them on any pizza we happen to have or make. If you fancy making one from scratch I’d recommend my blog below.

https://wordpress.com/post/modernmrsbeeton.blog/1484

And yes that is pineapple!

Testing Microwave Angry Mama (easy cleaner)

The cutest new accessory to join our kitchen this week is Angry Mama which is a microwave cleaning tool that makes cleaning your microwave actually fun. It’s absolutely a gimmick but if anything encourages me to clean anything in my life I will take it.

So you take her head off… yes I did say that, take her head off. Well technically it’s her hair actually and you fill her body with part water and vinegar and pop her in a dirty microwave. You can leave  the the glass plate underneath.

Set the microwave on full for 2 minutes. Being super careful to pick her up by the arms (as she is full of very hot water) you take her out and the steam and vinegar has made the dirty loosen so you can wipe it away easier. Feel free to repeat it if it’s not 100% loose.

Now I do realise you can do this with a cup but trust me I’ve enjoyed using this so much I’ve cleaned my microwave twice this month. That has to be good.

You can buy one from Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3MpZc4a

Home brewing tequila lime beer

Today’s attempt is definitely not a recipe as such but a fun attempt at making our own beer. I’m hoping to get to a point whereby I can try out different hops and recipes but thought it best to start at the beginning.

Previously I’d bought a basic beer kit to make Elderflower champagne – see below.

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/2017/03/09/elderflower-champagne/

Basic Kit I bought:

https://amzn.to/3g30HJs

Whilst browsing a TK Maxx store I found a Tequila lime kit so thought it would be the next fun recipe to try. I couldn’t find it online so have included a similar one that I will probably try next!

Fun Beer Kit

https://amzn.to/3yCK79T

Basically, follow the instructions! They all vary. In essence you will add the kit to some water; keep it in a warm place for a few weeks until brewed and then bottle it.

My tips:

• Keep at a warm constant temperate or it won’t brew
• Make sure you sterilise everything so no bugs get in and ruin your work. If your kit doesn’t have one buy one
• When you bottle I’d recommend the ‘Grolsch’ style lids as they allow gas to escape if it hasn’t quite finished brewing so the glass bottles don’t explode
• Buy some bottles and caps or lids! They tend not to come with the kits
• Buy a cap fitter
• Get some funky labels made up from ‘Etsy’ or ‘eBay’ to really personalise your brew
• I’d also recommend a hydrometer to be able to see and not guess your alcohol percentage but it’s a nice to have for your first batch

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Easy Caps

https://amzn.to/3Ct0gQj

Standard Cap Fitter

https://amzn.to/3fR3kxY

I also found this that looked an amazing try for my next purchase… making Cider!

If you have any ideas or recipes for me to try please do send them through.

Cider

https://amzn.to/3CPtbj2

My husband’s takeaway pizza recipe

My husband and I have a serious problem with eating pizza. It started when we were dating and he took me to Pizza Hut in the UK and introduced to me the simplicity of very good margarita pizzas. Before then I’d had the odd takeway pizza and really just ate the most debated pizza Hawaiian!

Now I still love a Hawaiian pizza don’t get me wrong but after a trip we took to New York I started to completely fall in love with pizza.

If you are ever in Manhattan we’d highly recommend a few places but I think my favourite was inside Penn Station called ‘Don pepi‘ and they served me a “white” which I’d never heard of which didn’t have tomato sauce! Amazing.

Photo by Muffin on Pexels.com

The pizza I think my husband would choose especially in the UK is the ‘Croma‘ piri piri. Gorgeous stuff.

Croma Pizza

Chilled Drinks

Anyway, the point is that we are pizza eaters and pride ourselves on it so we decided we’d try and make our own.

Ingredients:

Dough

• 200g of plain flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 packet (7g) yeast
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 120ml warm water
• Any spices you like such as oregano. We found a really nice pizza spice mix in Aldi but the one from Amazon below looks very similar: https://amzn.to/3Ti050Y

Sauce

• Tomato paste tablespoon
• 2 cups passata
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 dash of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Garlic paste tablespoon
• 1 tablespoon onion flakes
• 1/2 tablespoon chilli flakes

Topping

• Grated mozzarella
• Sprinkle of oregano

Method:

1. Add the dry dough ingredients to a bowl but keep the yeast and salt separate as salt can kill the yeast
2. Mix and pour the warm water in to string with a metal knife (easier to clean)
3. When it starts to come together start to knead for 10 to 15 minutes. Only add as much flour as you need to keep it from really sticking to your hands. It should be tacky
4. Press into a pizza shape and let it rest for 30 minutes under a damp tea towel
5. For the sauce add all the ingredients to a pan and stir on a low heat for about 20 minutes to simmer down.
6. Take the pizza dough out and add the sauce and your cheese
7. Cook on a high heat (220 degrees c) for about 8-10 minutes until golden brow
8. Store your excess sauce in little pots for the freezer

Pizza slice

Looking at other recipes I think our next purchase to enhance the process is a pizza stone. Link below to the one I just bought and I’ll feedback on whether it helps.

https://amzn.to/3rLJOpz

Trying Slimming World’s Chilli Chicken balls

So Slimming World isn’t really an area I know well or have ever really tried out. After I’ve released some of my favourite Keto recipes when I use that diet primarily to prep intensely for my holidays, I’ve been asked if I could test some of the Slimming World recipes for use throughout the rest of the year. Seeming like a very sensible idea and some of them look amazing I thought I would start with one that looked the most interesting and that was ‘Sticky Chicken Balls.’ The recipe is all over internet but I was recommended the following from Slimming Eats.

Recipe:

• 455g (1lb) of extra lean chicken mince (ground chicken) or can use turkey
• 30g (1/2 cup) of panko bread crumbs – 5.5 syns
• 1 egg
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 1 tbs of chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp of freshly grated ginger
• pinch of salt and black pepper

www.slimmingeats.com/blog/sweet-chilli-chicken-meatballs-oven-or-actifry

INGREDIENTS FOR THE MEATBALLS

• Circa 500g of extra lean chicken mince (ground chicken) or can use turkey. I used turkey as it’s much easier to find.
• 30g (1/2 cup) of panko bread crumbs

(If you can’t find it you can get it at https://amzn.to/3EBAEUc

• 1 egg
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 1 tbs of chopped fresh cilantro (or Coriander in the UK!)
• 1 tsp of freshly grated ginger
• pinch of salt and black pepper

FOR THE SAUCE

• 3 tbs of sweet chilli sauce (Aldi make a good one)
• 1 tbs of light soy sauce
• 3 tbs of water

TO GARNISH

• chopped spring onions

INSTRUCTIONS

I used the standard oven method.

• Preheat oven to 200c/400f
• Add the ingredients for the meatballs to a bowl and mix until ingredients are just combined.
• Form into 12 equal size meatballs
• Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper
• Spray over the top with cooking oil spray
• Bake for 15 minutes, until they look lightly browned and firm
• Whisk together sauce ingredients, add this to a frying pan with the meatballs and heat over medium heat until coated and sticky and meatballs are cooked through
• Sprinkle with chopped spring onions

My Turkey was quite lean so I used a little less Panko breadcrumbs than they advise in the recipe. I also added a dash of chilli sauce to the balls before cooking which was nice as it gave them some moisture and extra chill flavour.

Overall they were tasty but a bit dry more me which makes sense as it’s a lean recipe. I think I’ll move onto the sticky chicken Slimming World recipe next as that seems to be really popular on ‘Youtube’ and looks like a bit more moist. If you have any recommended recipes from Slimming World I should try please do send me or any advice on how to enrich the recipe you’ve come across I’d be really grateful.

Slow Cooker Super Easy Chilli

Inspiration this week came from an social media request to do a slow cooker chilli. I’ve tried quite a few slow cooker recipes recently and it’s really nice to use it again as it’s so practical. At the bottom of the blog I’ve included a link to one that’s fairly similar to mine. On slow cookers in general I’d also recommend buying some slow cooker liners for some recipes. Chill is fairly simple to clean up.

So onto the recipe. There’s a fair mix of spices here but I think it gives a really rounded flavour. However, if you really love garlic add some more or want it super hot add some more chilli or maybe cayenne too. It’s a fun recipe to play with. Remember you can always serve it will cold soured cream or nice cheeses if you’ve accidentally made it too hot, you won’t ruin the whole meal.

Ingredients:

• 400g mince meat
• 1 tin red kidney beans
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 150ml water
• 1 tsp onion flakes
• 1 clove garlic chopped
• 1 onion chopped finely
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp chilli paste
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Salt & Pepper

Method:

1. Dump everything into slow cooker
2. Cook on high for 4 hours

Making chilli

Chilli Done

I love to serve my chilli with rice or chips but we particularly love it with soured cream on baked potatoes. See below for my slow cooker baked potatoes that obviously you can bake low and slowly in the oven whilst your chilli is cooking.

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/2019/05/30/slow-cooker-baked-potatoes-have/

If you don’t have a slow cooker here’s one I’d recommend:

https://amzn.to/3CqgIkh

Tarragon Chicken Pasta for lunchboxes

In an attempt to be good by not spending lots of money in my work canteen I’m working on collecting up recipes to take for my lunch at work. If you have any good recipes please do send them through to me to try. I can heat things up but do prefer the simplicity of cold lunches.

Photo by Keegan Evans on Pexels.com

Here’s my other recent example at a lunch attempt.

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/2019/06/10/healthy-lunch-boxes/

This week’s attempt is chicken tarragon pasta. I used soured cream rather than full fat heavy cream mainly because it was all I had in but the sourness really works.

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast strips
• Olive oil
• Cup of peas
• 1 tbsp Tarragon chopped
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/2 cup soured cream
• Splash of white wine
• 2 cups of pasta
• 1/2 onion diced
• 2 garlic cloves diced

Method:

1. Put a big pot of water with salt on to boil and then add your pasta
2. In a frying pan add a splash of oil and add your chicken
3. When it starts to brown add the onion and garlic
4. Continue to cook until chicken is fully cooked and browned
5. Add the wine and cook for about 20 seconds (to burn off the alcohol)
6. Turn the heat down to low
7. Add the peas; tarragon and cream
8. Add a small splash of the starchy pasta water
9. Cook for about another minute
10. Drain the pasta and add it to the mix
11. Stir up
12. This should made make 2-3 lunch boxes (I have shared mine below)

Chicken before

Tarragon chicken

Links to lunchbox:

https://amzn.to/3VgcvIJ

Healthy Chicken Kebabs

Not really a recipe; more an assembly of ingredients but always lovely and super tasty.

I think I started eating chicken kebabs on holiday in European countries like Greece and Portugal. The novelty value of the stick was I think was tempted me.

Now I just love the charring you can get on the meat and how the vegetables cook and catch on the edges which tastes amazing. Also, there is something really practical about turning skewers over to cook them.

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast cut into chunks (you can use any meats you like or fish)
• Vegetables cut into similar sized chunks
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper

1. Soak your wooden skewers in water for about an hour so they don’t catch fire
2. Alternate pushing picks of chicken and vegetables on the skewer
3. Drizzle with oil and salt and pepper
4. You can then grill on a medium heat or I like to cook in the oven for about 10 minutes and then finish on the BBQ

You can keep these kebabs plain and simple which is great for getting kids to eat vegetables or you make spicy or serve with tasty sauces. Piri piri (https://amzn.to/3CrdZHh)is a particular favourite of mine.

Or Here’s a few examples from my previous blogs.

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/2018/05/30/spanish-chicken-and-garlic-new-potatoes/

https://modernmrsbeeton.blog/2018/10/03/basic-homemade-hot-sauce/

Also, if you want to buy the skewers here a link:

https://amzn.to/3EGWnKx

Before kebabs

Cooked kebabs

Lamb stew and homemade dumplings in a slow cooker

This is the first time I’ve ever made homemade dumplings and I have to say I am completely in love them. Granted I absolutely underestimated how big these get after they’ve been steamed so if you try this I’d recommend one large or two small person. It does however now completely make sense that this was done in more frugal times in history to make a really hearty meal. Complete genius if you ask me.

Stew Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 500g lamb cubed
• 1 garlic clove
• 100ml of Guiness beer (or any dark beer) (https://amzn.to/3VqM8zF)
• 1 carrot peeled and chopped
• 1 large potato peeled and chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• Thyme
• 1 tbsp of plain flour
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 onion chopped and diced
• Salt and pepper
• 200 ml of water
• 1 beef stock cube
• 1 splash of sunflower oil
• 50g peas

1. Add your lamb to a pan with the oil and brown on a high heat to get a good crust on the outside but not cook them through
2. Add your onions to give them a little colour
3. Add the flour to coat the beef and dump everything into a slow cooker. If you don’t have one I’ve dropped a link below to one similar to mine
4. Add all of the other ingredients and mix. Set the slow cooker to low for 4-6 hours
5. Stir occasionally
6. 30 minutes before the end add the dumplings

Slow Cooker:

https://amzn.to/3yA3Rei

Dumplings Recipe:

• 100ml milk
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 50g butter
• 125g self-raising flour
• Salt and pepper

1. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. I cheat on rubbing in recipes and use my pastry cutter as it reduces the time your warm hands handle the mix which tends to help with most recipes and keeps your hands less sticky. See a link below of mine from Amazon.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and form into balls
3. 30 minutes before the end of the stew cooking add gently to the top of the slow cooker and close the lid
4. Serve!

Pastry Cutter

https://amzn.to/3TeI2ZM

Dumplings Before

Dumplings steaming!