Amazing lockdown food discoveries

[coffeeagogo]

I made this www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dal_makhani_30779 the other day as the fridge was empty and the food shop isn’t coming until 12 may - OMG it was so amazing.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it ( food obsessive) so DDs and I had it for dinner tonight done in the slow cooker with brown lentils and black beans and it was even nicer. No rice so we had it on chips with grated picked onions and mango chutney - soo delicious.

Anyone else found a legendary lockdown meal?

Not one dish specifically but my whole ethos around cooking has changed. We were at the point of having loads of takeaways and easy "bung in the oven" dinners. We are now cooking from scratch, meal planing and batch cooking. I knew it would be cheaper but it's so much nicer than before. I've also rediscovered my love of sourdough and am baking for friends and relatives too.
My daughter is getting involved too. We have a batch of sourdough discard cheese scones in the oven right now and they smell amazing.

They sound spectacular do you have a recipe link for the scones please?

Would this recipe work with brown lentils which weren’t tinned? Would they need to be soaked first and cooked?

I found it on a Facebook group and they are amazing.
100g sourdough starter
350g self-raising flour
1tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
85g cold butter, diced
75g grated cheddar
250g milk
Mix dry ingredients with butter to make fine breadcrumbs.
Add milk and starter, then cheese.
Cook on 200 for about 20 minutes.

I will no longer buy pre chopped stir fry veg. I’ve realised I don’t really like all the different versions of cabbage they put in there so buy doing my own I can make a stir fry that I enjoy a lot more (including stir frying leaks, which is a revelation to me!

Now I want to know how you make your own stir fry!

Stir fry liver.

Cut up liver in bite size pieces, dust in flour and paprika.
Fry lardons of bacon in a dry pan
Once they star to fry add chopped onion and chopped red peppers.
Once softened add in the liver.

Rose harissa pesto - gorgeous! Not a meal but definitely upped my spag Bol game 😂

I'm not a one for bread making but thought I'd give focaccia a go. Just w sea salt and rosemary, nothing fancy.

Oh
My
Word

We have it as a treat for lunch once a week now when we've run out of bread. With ex voo and Belazu balsamic to dip in. Teens adore it. Literally like vultures hovering waiting for it to come out of the oven.

I can’t give you a recipe for my stir fry as the beauty of it is it utilises anything that needs using up! Usually a base of carrots, peppers, onions then chuck in anything else lurking in the veg drawer, recently this has included mushrooms, broccoli, leaks and then i add tinned pineapple, sweetcorn and always water chestnuts! I usually add chicken but you can add pretty much any meat, tofu, quorn or just nuts at the end. I then combine pineapple juice, rice vinegar, honey, soy sauce to make a sauce.

I’ve been making ‘Chinese’ on a Saturday instead of ordering takeaway. I do sesame chicken, chicken chow mein and egg fried rice. The sauce for the sesame chicken is amazing, I’d have it on everything if I could.

I made a honey mustard sauce thing some chicken thigh fillets yesterday, and did them with rice. That went down well too, nothing left. I’m at the end of my repertoire, and googling like mad.

@ArabellaPilkington have you a recipe for your foccacia please?

Sure here you go:

www.rivercottage.net/recipes/focaccia

@SymphonyofShadows please could you share the sesame chicken recipe.

Risotto. Luckily I have loads of Spanish rice which is just like risotto rice so we have been having it regularly. All types.

This is the recipe that is my favourite...

www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/goats-cheese-sun-dried-tomato-risotto/?fbclid=IwAR1569xfSg59o-IY8SwBCFe4tYCtOfXMwEXTn4d2OTw4DH8QJRmP8wXnQVE

My discovery is that literally no matter what BB date on a tin/jar it is fine. We have been trying really hard to use everything in the cupboards/fridge up and lots of cooking from scratch. Not quite made it to bread yet but hopefully soon.

I have rediscovered black pudding (I know 🙄) Had it fried and crispy tonight on a bed of green beans done in the wok with shallots, chillies, soy sauce and sesame seeds. Odd - but delicious.

DH accidentally bought a bag of gram flour, so I made chapattis and onion bhajis to go with curries. The bhajis especially were delicious and super easy.

Haggis lasagne. So delicious. I used a normal haggis and a veggie haggis (left in the freezer from Burns Night). Mix with 2 tins of chopped tomatoes. Layer with pasta and bechamel sauce and top with cheese. Baje for 45 mins. Wish I had more haggis in the freezer!

Also, bread and butter pudding when we had milk and bread to use up, that was good, but the pavlova made from the leftover egg whites was even better.

Just to say: it's leeks, not leaks

Great thread, am noting down some ideas.

@Hippee
I’ve a massive veggie haggis to use up in the freezer-genius idea!

salmon alfredo(ish)

Spaghetti
onion, garlic, black pepper, tin of red salmon and cream.

Cook onion and garlic add cream and salmon (we added blanched broccoli tonight) heat until cream thicken and mix through spaghetti

My teens cleared and asked for the same again.

I have been ordering fortnightly a fruit box from a local wholesaler. It is huge and costs £20 but the quality and variety of fruit is just lovely. I will stick with this after lockdown I think.