The Warmer Months Menu

For the most part the warmer months are here, although you wouldn't think so today. I put all the plants wintering inside, outside over the weekend and then had to cover them last night...down to just above freezing in the early hours of this morning.

Anyway, the spring menu has kicked in. While soups, pies, casseroles, and roasts are year round, spring sees a change in eating and cooking habits in my house. As I said before...'time to drop the hibernation chubbiness  .
 
Overnight oats are great. I eat them for lunch most day of the working week, once milder weather has kicked in. I make 5 days worth on Sunday or Monday nights and spoon the mixture into a mason jar (why I don't know) to eat as wanted.

Here's my go to mixture:

* 3 rice cups of quick oats
* 2 rice cups of mostly cooked oats groats (I'm actually using wheat berries atm...stuffed-up the shopping)
* Coconut, walnuts, whole almonds, sunflower seeds, raisons...or any other seeds/nuts I have on hand at various
    times.
* 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.
* 4 small cartons of bean milk, black being my favorite. I use sweetened rather than not sweetened. Any
   milk is good though.

Stir it all together and refrigerate. I add frozen blueberries (atm) and a banana when ready to eat.

The mixture is fine over 4-5 days but any longer I'll put in mason jars and freeze until the following Monday.

What do you fix to eat this time of year?

I second overnight oats being great.

My current single serving recipe is this:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup milk (low fat)
2 tbsp low-fat greek yogurt
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

Seeing as oats seems to be the theme, last weekend I made some granola for adding to my yogurt.

rolled oats
sunflower seeds
pecans
almond slices
coconut flakes
cinammon
brown sugar
maple syrup
olive oil
salt
raisins
dried cherries

I second overnight oats being great.

My current single serving recipe is this:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup milk (low fat)
2 tbsp low-fat greek yogurt
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

this one sounds good, might have to try it and finally get some use out of the oats ive had sitting in the cabinet

I second overnight oats being great.

My current single serving recipe is this:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup milk (low fat)
2 tbsp low-fat greek yogurt
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

I like the idea of adding Greek yoghurt and vanilla...sounds tasty. I'll give it a go next week!
Yeah, chia seeds are great. I used to add them along with hemp and flax seeds a few years back, but never bothered to restock after I ran out. The hemp seeds were great but the flax seeds were a bit fishy and too strong for my delicate taste buds  . Apparently they get this taste when sitting too long in the cupboard.

No cooking or anything? Just mix and chill?

No cooking or anything? Just mix and chill?

Yes, that's the one...simply and tastes great, unless you want to add oat groats or some other whole berries to the mix. Personally, I love the chewiness so I do boil up a bunch and freeze until needed.

Sounds neat. Will give it a try.
Drinking porridge out of a mason jar while driving to work does have a certain appeal!

Sounds neat. Will give it a try.
Drinking porridge out of a mason jar while driving to work does have a certain appeal!

Sounds like a good way to get a sticky, white substance all over your crotch when you're inevitable cut off by a dozy ajumma in a mint-green Kia Ray or a tipsy ajossi with zero peripheral vision in a Bongo.

...or a morning zombie glued to their phone screen and unaware of their surroundings, walking into the path of your car.


FYI Kyndo, they are usually too thick to successfully drink, but it can be done by adding a bit more liquid  .

Salad rolls are a favorite warm weather meal. So, I'm putting down a new bread flour sourdough starter tomorrow. I discarded my old rye starter during covid after feeding it religiously for 7 years...it got too sour and smelly.

I'm hankering for a mild sourdough taste, so this will be perfect for baguettes and rolls filled with crispy lettuce, beets, egg (or cheese), tomato, spring onions, relish and a bit of sliced pork or beef. Even a bit of homemade coleslaw and potato salad on the side.

I'm not going to weigh the new starter. Just do it by feel...2 heaped tablespoons of flour and a little water to make a thickish paste. Repeat for a week without discarding any starter, and it should be bubbling away and ready to go. Cross fingers.

When I was a butcher (well nearly a butcher), the skirt steak was always used for cat food or for steak and kidney or something like that. It was seen as less than a prime cut. These days, it's been getting a rep as a tasty piece of meat, if cooked hard and fast in a hot pan.

My wife bought a couple of good size skirts from HomePlus the other day. For some reason, I'm craving steak and salad rolls, buns, and sandwiches lately, so, on the advice of the butcher she grabbed a couple, thinking it would make a nice change from the steaks that I usually eat. She wasn't wrong.

Cooked at 3 minutes per side. These medium to medium rare pieces of beef are fantastic. Best sliced, they make a flavorful, tender, and juicy addition to any sandwich or with a salad on the side. Well worth buying and eating. look forward to barbecuing them come the hot months.

A steel tumbler holds hot or cold for half a day so my warmer weather go-to is yesterday's remaining tea with a squirt of half lemon (or dirty: apple cider vinegar facsimile), half-filled cube ice, and a handful of frozen berries. ... Three hours later, the sips are still refreshing. Six hours later I finish it off, swallowing still-cold but soft berries.

The sourdough starter I put down a month ago is ferocious. It's nice and mild with a hint of tang...just how I like it.
The whole family are at the Temple for the day, so I have the kitchen to myself. I've just put together a sourdough dough for a couple of pizza bases. I'm using an unfed mixture with a hint of dry yeast to get it moving. I'll let it do its thing over 8 hours or so before shaping, resting, and topping. Bacon and pineapple sounds good for one of them...steak and bell peppers for the other.

I just remembered that we were given a big bag of freshly picked asparagus yesterday. I'll try some of the skinnier spears on the steak pizza. Have no idea if it will taste any good but steak and asparagus are generally a great combo. We'll see 

The sourdough pizza dough from the last post turned out pretty good. The dough rose well and tasted great.

Anyway, having a bit of extra time on my hands, I made a two day sourdough pan loaf.

I pulled the starter out of the fridge Sunday morning, gave it a big feed and by late afternoon it was fizzing and threatening to overflow the jar.

I decided on a multi-grain and mixed 300g of whole wheat, 100 grams of strong white, 30 grams of spelt, 70 grams of dark rye, and 100g of partially boiled whole wheat berries. I also added 12 grams of salt.

I scooped 120g of bubbly starter out and mixed it with 400g of water. Then added it to the flour mixture. On hindsight, I should have lowered my hydration to about 350g of water... it was very wet. I forgot about the starter hydration and the water in the berries 

Once mixed, I let it sit in a bowl covered with a shower cap for 45 minutes then folded the dough 30 times over itself (using the bowl method where I just turn the bowl a quarter turn and then fold...easy and not messy). Rinse and repeat 3 times. This stretches the gluten (not much in the flours I was using though) and stiffens up the dough a little. I usually leave it a few hours, then shape and put it in the fridge overnight, but I decided to leave it out on the warm baking table for 14 hours.

The next morning, it had risen to near the top of the bowl. I dumped it onto the well flour baking table and gently folded and shaped it (still very wet) and put it in a 22 by 14 by 7cm loaf pan...covered and in the fridge for 8 hours.

By 6 that night it had risen again to near the top of the pan. I scored it length-wise with a razor, brushed it with watered down egg (purists would object for some reason) and put it in the oven at 200c for 50 minutes with the fan on. I wouldn't usually bake it this long but it was very wet and I hate a gummy crumb.

It turned out great. Full of flavour and extremely moist without being gummy. The crust was a deep golden brown and very chewy. High hydration bread, if you feel comfortable handling it, produces a wonderful crumb. It also makes great toasties...on the menu tonight 

If you bake a bit of bread, I'd love to hear what you bake.

A nice cold Mexican taco salad.

Beans cooked for 20-25 minutes. Add green hot peppers and tomatoes for another 5-10 minutes.
Optional additional savory variant: add powdered garlic and ginger.
Add chopped red onion with about 3 minutes remaining.
Let it cool down and add a can of corn and chopped up fresh mini-paprika sweet peppers.
Shake on black pepper, as desired; squirt on red wine vinegar.
Mix and eat with plain nacho chips (either broken on top, mixed in and eaten right away;
or nacho scooping up the rest of the meal).

Make enough to refrigerate some for another day.

A nice cold Mexican taco salad.

Beans cooked for 20-25 minutes. Add green hot peppers and tomatoes for another 5-10 minutes.
Optional additional savory variant: add powdered garlic and ginger.
Add chopped red onion with about 3 minutes remaining.
Let it cool down and add a can of corn and chopped up fresh mini-paprika sweet peppers.
Shake on black pepper, as desired; squirt on red wine vinegar.
Mix and eat with plain nacho chips (either broken on top, mixed in and eaten right away;
or nacho scooping up the rest of the meal).

Make enough to refrigerate some for another day.

Instructions too vague, look what you did



Please get in touch so we can discuss how you are going to reimburse me.

Hahaha...good one Renma!

That looks good Van...cheers! Good enough to make me want to put some together. I will give that a go over the warmer months. Would be a good side dish addition for the barbie...just not Renma's barbie.

My hot peppers and mild peppers are ready to eat...so too my tomatoes. Just hope that the red onions are ready at the market...should be!

Good enough to make me dribble a little.

Bugger! You got it before I deleted it. Me being Mr. inappropriate on a food thread, accidently of course. Could of led to all sorts of innuendo