Below are a couple of recipes I have put together that may help those in lockdown. Even though these recipes use basic ingredients you would never know that from the from the final products. I think we can eat well if we have some of the essential staples and certainly in my house these recipes are essential. I mean, fresh bread and pasta can open up a world of eating opportunities. Both of these recipes rely on plain flour, instead of using the usual specific flours required for these recipes, which most of us will have in the house already. So I do hope that these recipes will mean that you may be able to make less trips to the shop. Please stay safe and avoid going out as much as possible.
Emergency No-Knead White Bread
This bread has a soft aerated interior and a ciabatta/sourdough like crust. Most no-knead breads need to sit and rest for at least 12 hours to get a full rise, this bread, however doesn’t require as long it can be baked after two hours. The reason I decided to invest time in a bread recipe that was a no-knead bread and pretty quick to make is so that it was more accessible to everyone such as the elderly, who may not be capable of kneading bread or for parents who may not have the time to knead bread. Using hot water in the bread makes then yeast get straight to work and work overtime. The bread rises in a parchment paper lined mixing bowl for two reasons. Number one is that it is a wet sticky dough and it prevents it sticking to the bowl and secondly it means it can be transferred to the cooking vessel without losing all the air bubbles within. The bread is cooked in a very hot oven in a casserole pot or as other may know it a dutch oven with a lid on for the first thirty minutes this lets the bread steam giving you that lovely soft interior. For the remaining fifteen minutes in the oven it gets cooked without the lid allowing the bread to develop that crusty exterior and go golden brown.
Pasta
My simple pasta again just like my bread utelizes plain flour as most of us will have this in our homes already. The dough is a soft easy to knead dough. You do not require any fancy equipment to make this, a rolling pin is used to roll out the dough. If you are unable to knead and have a mixer with a dough hook this could be used instead.