Tuesday 23 April 2013

The proof of the pudding is ..................

Thank you for your comments about ice cream, some good tips there. Yes I should have possibly whipped it up a bit more, it turned out quite hard, frozen actually. Mind you I expected it to be hard, like the ice cream you have on a stick, rather than the fluffy stuff you get in a tub.
It tasted nice, but there was probably no need to put nuts in it, all that did was to make it gritty. It took a bit of stabbing with a spoon, but as I was sat outside in the sun eating it, it soon broke up and melted in my mouth. I would make it again but without the nuts, I'm not going to get into the habit of buying chocolate too often though.  
Next experiment, make some ice cream out of rice pudding and peach slices.
I used a whole tin of rice pud, and three quarters of a tin of peaches, with a little juice.
It has made five pots. It's taking a bit longer to freeze, so it won't be ready for tasting till tomorrow.
As nuts are quite expensive, I was curious as to whether it would be cheaper to buy fruit and nuts, and separate them. I wondered how the mix was divided. This bag cost 80p for 250 grms.  
About 50/50, and if I read the back of the packet first it would have told me that, ha ha. 40% peanuts, 10% almonds, 40% dark raisins, and 10% green raisins. So, 125 grms of nuts cost 40p. I also bought a 200grm packet of chopped mixed nuts for 89p. In it was peanuts, almonds, and walnuts. Oh dear, now I can't work out which is the cheapest way to buy nuts based on this finding. I need to go back to school :o) Maths was never my strong point.
I'll give you the low down on tonights dinner. I had a couple of organic swedes, reduced to 4p and 5p, so I chopped them into chunks and steamed them.
This is a made up recipe, by the way. The rest of the ingredients are, two raw mushrooms chopped, five spring onions chopped. Half a tin of chick peas mashed with a fork, a veg stock cube, a desertspoon of chopped nuts, garlic, grainy mustard, mixed herbs, and one egg. Was going to use two but it didn't need it. Mash the swede, add everything else, and mix together.
Make some round flatish cakes and put under a low grill, for ten minutes each side. They flip over easily with a spatula.
I have lettuce and potato salad in the fridge, and I added pickled onions and beetroot for a bit of variety and colour. The Value range are very good, and reasonably priced.
They were a bit like the frozen veggie burgers you can buy, only mine were very tasty and much better, and they didn't fall apart. I have enough mix for about eight more in the fridge. I could freeze them but I won't bother, I want to eat them tomorrow.
My experimental food day has kept me occupied today, as well as the other jobs I have done. Putting a net curtain up at the back door, washing all the cat litter boxes, taking Ollie and Alfie a walk, washing my hair, washing the car, paying the council tax at the post office, and doing the Dysoning. Busy little bee today.
Toodle pip.

23 comments:

  1. I'm enjoying reading about your experiments! your swede burgers look tasty.

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  2. Ilona, what are the numbers on the tins and jars?

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    1. Hi Paul. That's the price I paid for them. I like to keep track of how much things cost, whether they go up or down. I go through my till recipt when I get home and mark the prices. I noticed that Value porridge went from 75p to 85p, now it is back to 75p. Helps me to keep numbers in my head.

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  3. Hello Ilona from House fairy
    In the kitchen on a warm day like today? I am surprised you were not in the garden starting your tan.

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  4. Lovely burgers...one of the reasons I pop in is to see your experiments...Helps me get ideas, too.

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  5. Any meal that contains chick peas has to be good, I like sweed as well so will have to give this a go.

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  6. Ilona, what is a swede? Haven't heard of it here in the USA ...

    Sharon in Alabama

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    1. Hi Sharon. It's a round root vegetable. They are usually quite big, and the skin is tough so it has to be peeled before cooking. Difficult to describe the taste, you can put them in stews, soups, and mash them.

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    2. A Swede is what you would call a Ruta baga .

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    3. Sharon, a swede is known as a rutabaga or Swedish turnip here in the US.

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  7. I love chick peas as well. Your veggie burgers look really good. I add black beans to mine and some corn. I also put green onions (scallions) in mine if I have them on hand. Adds a little fresh taste to the veggie burgers. Your ice cream also looked good. I hope your rice pudding/peach ice cream is good. It certainly sounds good (the ingredients are great). Thanks for a very interesting post today. You were very busy!

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  8. Yum! Your dinner looks delicious. Like a gourmet cafe meal..

    I might make some vegie burgers today. You've inspired me.

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  9. Thank you. Bought some chickpeas last night so I'm definitely going to try those burgers for tea (they look so good). I don't have swede but I have a butternut squash, no nuts - so might use a bit of pnbutter. Your icecream pudding looks like something you get in a posh restraunt! I have loads of rice pudding and peaches in the cupboard so I'll pop back and see how you got on with it.

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  10. I have some chickpeas too, might do some myself but need some more veggies.

    Re chocolate - rather than buying the cheap stuff, get Aldi's 85% dark, plain (they do fancy flavours with it too) and you would need less of it. The higher cocoa content is better for you and has less sugar and fat in.

    I have never been very successful with ice cream, although I think you have to whip it when it is slightly frozen and then it is a lighter texture.

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    1. Hi Campfire, When I do another lot of ice cream I'm going to leave it in a big bowl in the freezer, and stir it several times during the freezing process as suggested. Maybe it won't set quite so hard.

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  11. I am going to set this recipe aside to try a little later when the rutabaga comes up. I'll bet it tastes as good as it books! Thanks for the idea :)

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  12. Love the look of your burgers, very healthy they must be too. You little greedy guts eating them all in two sittings...lol :-)

    I am still thinking about all the possibilities of flavours of icecream, your chocolate ones look nice, I've heard that to keep a homemade icream softer you can add alcohol, this stops it completely freezing rock hard, I must give that a go....hic!!

    Although simply chocolate dipped bananas sound good too.

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    1. Hi Sue, I had five burgers yesterday, and I have five more left for today, so I got three meals out of it.

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  13. Ahhh, you get such amazing prices! I need to start popping up to the shop for a nose! They always have VERY reduced fresh bread after about 9pm, which is good, but I think people snap up the veg before I get there!

    I have to say, I just got some of those pickled onions and didn't think much of them. I will still eat them eventually, but won't be gobbling them all up in a few days!

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  14. Hi Ilona, you had a veg stock cube in the ingredients - do you just crumble that in or dissolve it first? If so what in? Thanks

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    1. Hi Yvonne. I just crumbled it in. You could mix it with a bit of water if your mixture is dry, but mine was wet enough already.

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    2. Hi Ilona, thanks for that, I'll have a go at making these. More choc bananas too as I've some chocolate left, it goes further on the bananas otherwise I'd just eat it in one go!

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  15. Ilona - Quick and dirty way to calculate cost. Since the cost of both is fairly close, I just doubled the amount of the nuts and the cost of the mix. 125 grams times 2 is 250 grams, 2 times 40 p is 80 p. So you're paying 80 pence for 250 grams of nuts versus 89 pence for 200 grams of nuts. The mix is the better buy. And you're getting 125 grams of fruit for free.

    Leslie from New Orleans

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