Resolution

M and I did not make many resolutions this year - I think M made none except the one I will be talking about, and mine are always the same: buy less yarn (failed already), buy less in general (failed as well)... So none of great consequence. But we agreed on one thing - that we will eat 100% British food (and drinks) at home. And what it really means is that we have to cook a lot from scratch (to ensure that it is British flour, British butter etc). We have a couple of exceptions - condiments (we found salt but not pepper yet) to spice up our dishes and products in which the main ingredient (at 95% for instance) is known to be British (e.g. some brands of crisps). We are also still using some of the ingredients bought in 2011 that we have left - cannot bring myself to throw away food!

Black pepper and linen seeds Water Crackers

The good thing is that I did not have to stop having cheese! We are tasting all sorts of cheese at home - never had so many in my fridge. But there was the question of water crackers - we had to find a solution. A little googling and testing later we think we have the recipe for homemade water crackers - the original recipe is available here.

Ingredients

200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g butter , cold, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp of table salt
flaky sea salt (to garnish, not to add in the dough)
We are using the pasta maker to make the crackers super thin (on setting 6 if you have one) - using that technique you can probably make around 40

Cumin seeds version

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Place the flour, baking powder, butter and ½ tsp of the table salt in your food processor, then whizz for a minute until the butter is completely mixed with the flour. Add some water and work until the dough comes together. You want a soft but not sticky dough.

2. Roll out the dough very thin, or use the pasta maker to make thin sheets.

3. Brush a little water over the surface of the dough, scatter 1 tsp salt flakes over and press in lightly. You can also add pepper or linen seeds (British). Prick the crackers all over with a fork, then cut into squares. Place on the prepared trays - don't worry if they stretch a bit. Bake for 10-15 mins until the biscuits feel dry and sandy but are still pale - they may should be a bit hard.

4. Transfer to a wire rack and leave until completely cool. Will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.


So here we are, these two batches should keep us going for .. a maximum of two days. We made some over the past weekend - but they were not thin enough.I am just glad the pasta maker multi-tasks!

So more to come on our cooking adventure - we have nearly finalised the mushroom soup recipe, and the pasta one as well (hence the fact we have a pasta maker!), and we may also review some of the products we find along the way.

The adventures may become a separate blog altogether - we just have had no time to actually set it up, but I will keep updates on this blog as well.