Having made the focaccia dough last night, I knocked it back this morning and rolled it out to fit the baking pans so that it could prove. I don't think the house is very warm as it's taking a long time to rise again. Here's hoping it will be ready for tonight.
I made the soup this morning - a butternut squash one and a lentil and chickpea one. As I was making the soup, I realised that I didn't have any bouillon powder left to make the vegetable stock. I did think about driving to the shop to get some more but decided I would make do with water. I made the butternut squash soup by frying three chopped onions, then adding two diced butternut squashes and salt and pepper. I added about 2 litres of water, cooked until the squash was soft and then blended. It was at this point that I realised the soup didn't have enough body so I decided to cook some chopped carrots separately and then add them to the soup and blend again. It now tastes much better. For the lentil soup, I dry fried 4tsp of cumin seeds and 2 good pinches of chilli flakes. I then added olive oil and 3 diced onions (you don't have to dice them really small as the soup will be blended). Add 280g red lentils, 2 tins of tomatoes and 1.7 litres of veg stock (I added water as I had run out of stock). Boil for about 20 minutes until the lentils are soft. Blend the soup and then add 1 tin of drained chickpeas. Add salt and pepper to taste. As you can see from the photo, this amount feeds enough for an army so hopefully I should have enough for tonight. The lentil soup is at the front of the photo.
I've also made a double batch of chocolate brownies and I've just taken a double batch of fairy cakes put of the oven. I thought it would be good to have something sweet that isn't chocolate. I'm planning to ice them then maybe add a malteser to each one. Here's the chocolate brownies which I'm really pleased with.
The only problem is that after doing all this cooking and tidying the house up, I'm shattered. I now need to sit down and take the weight off my feet before everyone comes round. Have a lovely evening.
What time did you start this morning to do all that!?
ReplyDeleteI think I've sorted the timing issue now. It was on Pacific time rather than UK time
ReplyDelete