Onion Bread

We often used to buy onion boule from Morrisons for lunch, but then they stopped doing it! So we found a way to make something even better. Who needs Morrisons?

1 large onion, finely chopped
600g bread flour (your choice of wholemeal, granary or white; we like granary)
2.5 tsp instant dried yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
400 - 450ml warm water

Preheat oven to 170 C. Spread onion out on a baking sheet and bake for around 30 mins to let it dry out. Remove from oven and leave to cool.
Put flour, yeast, sugar, salt into stand mixer mixing bowl. Stir in the cool dried onion bits.
Add 400 ml water and oil and mix in using kneading hook.
The mixture should not be too dry and flaky. Add more water if needed. Wetter is better, but you still need to be able to shape it into a loaf or rolls.
Knead for a few minutes, in the machine or by hand until the dough is stretchy and pliable.
Either shape into rolls, or put into a loaf tin.
Leave to prove for around an hour and a half, or until it is about double in size.
Preheat oven to 200 C (fan) - needs to be good and hot.
Bake for around 10 - 15 mins for rolls or around 25 - 30 mins for bread.
Tap the bottom of the bread - it should sound hollow if cooked through.

Dauphinoise Potatoes with leeks

enough potatoes for however many you're serving - about 2 or 3 medium per person
300ml tub of single cream (enough for about 4 portions)
milk if needed
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 leek, washed
salt and pepper
grated nutmeg to taste

Preheat oven to around 150C fan.
Peel and slice the potatoes and leeks into thin slices (with a food processor it's very quick)
Mix with enough of the cream to coat the spuds and garlic, and salt and pepper in a shallow baking dish, adding a bit of milk if it needs to stretch further. The cream should be almost level with the potatoes, but you want them sticking up a bit so they brown. Grate some nutmeg and black pepper over the top.
Bake for about an hour, until the spuds are cooked and you have a golden crust on top.

Hot Chilli Sauce

Beware! A little goes a very long way! Based on this recipe https://honest-food.net/homemade-chiltepin-hot-sauce/ I used the little hot chillies I'd grown from seed from last year's chillies. Not sure what variety they are, but they're hot. I strained the sauce through a sieve, although the original recipe did not call for that. I thought it wise to remove the seeds as it tasted really really hot already.

1/4 cup about 25g chillies, green ends cut off

2 big cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp paprika

Blitz all the ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Strain through a fine sieve and bottle.

Keep in fridge.

Salmorejo

We had this in Andalucia. It's a kind of cold soup, thicker than a gazpacho, almost dip-like in consistency. I guess they need a way to use up all the ripe tomatoes. We also have a surfeit of tomatoes at the moment, and this is a delicious way of using some.

About 6 large very ripe tomatoes

1 small clove garlic, roughly chopped

1 cupful of stale white bread or baguette, no crusts (about 2 slices of a cob loaf)

1 tsp vinegar - the authentic recipes say sherry vinegar, I substitute balsamic as I didn't have sherry

salt to taste (about half a teaspoon)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 hardboiled egg, chopped

slice serrano ham, chopped

1. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, leave for a couple of minutes, then peel and put them in the blender with the garlic.
2. Blend until fairly smooth.
3. Add the vinegar and some salt, along with the torn up bread and leave to soak for a couple of minutes, then blend until smooth.
4. With the blender running, gradually trickle in the olive oil to emulsify.
5. Transfer to a bowl and chill.
6. Traditionally it's served with some chopped hardboiled egg and serrano ham scattered on the top, with slices of bread on the side.

Vegetable Samosas

Pastry:
500g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
large pinch curry powder or turmeric
80g chilled diced butter/cooking marg

Filling:
glug vegetable or olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
2 cm piece of ginger, crushed
1 - 2 chili, optionally de-seeded and finely chopped (depends on your spice tolerance!)
About 400g leftover cooked potatoes roughly chopped(small cube and microwave if making from raw)
can substitute with other cooked root veg - sweet potato and carrot are good but sweeter than using regular potato
75g frozen peas
1tsp garam masala or mixture of cumin and coriander
1 - 2 tsp Pataks curry paste or to taste
2 tbsp fresh coriander choped
oil for deep frying

1.  For filling, heat oil and cook onion garlic ginger and chili and curry paste for 3 - 4 mins until softened and golden, not burnt. Add spuds, mashing down roughly.
2. Add the peas, garam masala and salt to taste.
3, Remove from heat and stir in the coriander (filling freezes well if you have too much for the pastry).
Leave the mixture to cool (if it's too hot it will make the pastry melt).
For pastry, whisk together the flour salt and curry powder, then rub butter into flour mixture. Stir in about 300ml water and knead to form a soft dough.
4. Take 60g lumps of dough and roll into balls.
5. Roll out each piece of dough into a circle (mine are not very circular as you can see), cut in half, then fold as in the photos to make a cone shape.

6. Spoon some of the filling into the centre, filling almost to the top, then pinch the top edge shut, pressing edges gently to seal.

7 Deep fry the samosas in about 5cm oil in a deep frying pan for a bout 3 minutes, turning until crisp and golden. Serve with the raita.
Raita
plain yoghurt
sliced onion
squeeze of lemon juice
chopped fresh coriander and mint
1/2 tsp sugar
chopped cucumber
optional small clove garlic, crushed
Mix together.

Carrot and coriander soup

See Veggie Daughter blog!

Tuna Lasagna

2 tins tuna
4 eggs, hardboiled
1 large onion
50g butter/marg
50g cornflour or plain flour
1 pint/500g milk + extra for topping
sprinkle dried mixed herbs
sprinkle dried tarragon (optional)
1 courgette (optional)
frozen spinach, about 100g
pack of lasagne sheets
mozzarella

Melt the butter/marg in a large frying pan, (if you're using tuna in sunflower oil, drain the oil into the pan and reduce the amount of butter slightly). Add the onion, courgette if using and mixed herbs and gently saute until onion is soft and transparent and courgette is soft and slightly browned.

Stir in the flour and cook gently for a minute or two, then gradually stir in the milk, heating gently and stirring until it boils and forms a smooth sauce. Add the frozen spinach and stir until it melts and is dispersed through the sauce. Then stir in the tuna and chopped eggs and remove from the heat.

In a baking dish put a layer of the sauce, followed by a layer of lasagne. Repeat until you are left with about half a cup of sauce, ending with a layer of lasagne. Mix in about half a cup of extra milk and heat to thicken it slightly, then pour over the top of the lasagne and top with torn mozzarella pieces.

Bake in 190 degree oven for around half an hour, until top is golden and lasagne is cooked - if it's burning, cover the top with foil and reduce the heat.