This has worked, quite beautifully! The soap, which we last saw in their moulds drying off in the airing-cup
board, hardened far more quickly than I thought it would, and I was able to turn it out yesterday. Meanwhile, I tried using one of the washballs, and found it delightful, so decided to make some more as I had a bit of time. They are currently hardening in the airing-cupboard (the original 5 are on the same plate, to make life easier!).
Then this morning I decided the moulded soap was hard enough to cut up, and, behold - 16 bars of soap flecked with lavender and/or rose-petals.
These can sit on the corridor cupboard to dry for a few more days, and next week I will wrap and label them, all ready to be given away!
As I still have a drawerful of ends-of-moulds and so on waiting to be used, I think I will use them up in these sorts of bars before making any fresh!
Those of you who know me well will know that I have been making my own soap for many, many years. It never ceases to amaze me how drain cleaner and cooking-fat can be turned into the most lush and lavish soap - I almost never wash my face with anything else.
However, this also means that I have a drawer-ful of bits of soap - mostly the ends of moulds that aren't nice enough to give away. We use these in our bathroom, but obviously a bar lasts some time, and the drawer was getting fuller and fuller.
But the other day, I came across this video on YouTube.
And that gave me some ideas. I started by making a few balls as proof of concept,
but then it occurred to me that one could make some extremely nice soap by melting down existing bars with rosewater or orange flower water, and maybe adding some ground-up flowers or herbs.
You start by grating your soap, 2 or 3 bars at a time,
then put in a bowl with your flowers, if using (I used lavender and rose-petals in the first lot, and just rose petals in the second lot. You moisten this with rose-water, or orange-flower water, and stir vigorously. Now at this stage you can absolutely form the resulting squidge into balls and let them harden off, as Sally does in the video, but I chose to melt the soap down. This is done in the microwave, a minute at a time, stirring vigorously between bursts. When it has gone fairly liquid and looks absolutely revolting,
pour into moulds (I used silicone loaf tins for this, to distinguish from the empty water-bottles I usually use), cover with cling-film or whatever, and put in a warm place to harden off.
When they are hard, probably in three or four days (although they'll have to come out of the airing-cupboard before then as it'll be wanted for clean laundry!), I'll unmould them, and probably slice them up a few days later.
If they are a success, I'll be using up all my ends before I even think about making more goats' milk and/or lavender and/or oat milk soap! I'll update on the results in Part 2.
Update: For Easter Day, I boiled up yellow onion skins the day before and left them to sit overnight, then boiled our breakfast eggs in them this morning, with this result:
In German supermarkets, they sell boxes of six or ten hard-boiled eggs, dyed pretty colours, all year round, and I often buy them, both for us to eat at lunchtime and to take home for my mother, who likes them.
However, we are not in Germany, and won't be going for another month, and it is Eastertide. I have vague memories of reading that one could dye eggs with natural ingredients, and then a picture form this post popped up in my Facebook feed. So I had a couple of experiments.
WARNING: The eggs, while perfectly edible, are horrendously hard - I still haven't quite perfected them. The ones you buy in Germany are hard-boiled, of course, but not to the extent that they get a black ring round the yolk, But I think it's probably difficult not to when making them at home.
The basic recipe is very simple. In a stainless-steel saucepan you put your dyestuff of choice (I used firstly 1/2 packet of frozen blueberries, and then secondly the skins of 5 or 6 red onions), and a large spoonful of vinegar. Fill the saucepan with water, bring to the boil, and simmer for 20-30 minutes (don't let the saucepan boil dry, which I nearly did!). If necessary, top up with cold water and bring to the boil again. Let it cool, strain out all the solids, and then add your eggs - as many as you can spare, or as can comfortably fill the saucepan, bring back to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, then let them cool in the liquid. If they aren't coloured enough, let them soak a little longer. Remove from the water and admire! When cold, polish with olive oil.
This was my first attempt, with blueberries:
and the next day's, with red onion skins:
Of course, the colours will vary according to whether you use white eggs (not so easy to get here, but Lidl does sometimes have them) or brown. I think for Easter Day I'll use yellow onion skins (maybe make the dye bath the night before) and then just boil the eggs as normal for Easter morning breakfast. We shall see....
I rather think this is one of those unrepeatable dishes, but I had half a trout and half a pack of (packet) hollandaise sauce, and didn't fancy a fish pie, so improvised. But the basic idea could work for all sorts of things.... This served 2
For the rice:
c 1 tbs cooking oil
a little salt
1 tsp Pilau seasoning (bought in Nour, Brixton)
1/2 cup (125 ml) long-grain white rice (I used Basmati, but whatever you like)
1 cup (250 ml) boiling water
Hot the cooking oil, then stir in the salt and spices. Add the rice and stir thoroughly. Add the boiling water, stir again, then cover and reduce the heat to as low as possible for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, and let stand for another 5 minutes.
Meanwhile
Another tbs cooking oil
Various vegetables, diced. I used:
A slice of butternut squash
1/2 yellow pepper
1 medium courgette
1 small pak choi
A sloosh garlic paste
A few drops of sriracha
1 tsp Dunns River All-purpose seasoning
1/2 tsp each vegetable and fish seasoning (these are from Germany, but any similar ones will do)
Heat the oil, then stir-fry the vegetables for at least 5 minutes. I then added the cooked trout and Hollandaise sauce and made sure it was heated through, but you could use any fish, or perhaps cooked sausages, cut into chunks, and if you don't have any sauce, then about 100 ml water, or just let the vegetables moisten it all - you don't have to use my choice of veg, but a range of different colours is always good. If you wanted it veggie or vegan, you could add peas or beans and sweetcorn to balance out the proteins.
I've put sausages in quotes because honestly, I think it would be easier to form them into patties or burgers, but whatever. I thought this would feed 2, but it was so filling we both left half to live to fight another day!
I adapted this recipe from one I saw on Facebook or YouTube or somewhere - really can't remember where. I happen to have the most enormous courgette you ever did see, so cut a chunk off that to use.
1 medium courgette, or a chunk off a large one
1 medium potato
1 medium carrot,
1 egg
2-4 tablespoonsful gram flour
1/2 packet halloumi cheese
Peel and grate all the vegetables (no need to peel the courgette unless the peel is a bit tough), squeezing as much liquid as you can out of the courgette and potato. Dice the cheese, add about 2 tbs gram flour (aka besan or chickpea flour), season, and mix thoroughly. Add the egg and mix until it holds together, then with very clean hands, form into sausage - or patty - shapes and put on a floured board. Sprinkle with more flour and rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes or so. Fry in a little oil in a covered pan for about 8 minutes each side. I served this with a rich tomato sauce and green beans.
The original recipe used oatmeal, which might have been better for absorbing moisture, and also grated cheese that would have melted and bound the whole thing together, and I think, if I make them again (which I expect I shall), I might use grated cheese. But the gram flour does add such a lovely texture!
I do love watermelon at this time of year, and tend to buy whole ones as being less extravagant than the boxes of chunks you can buy. Okay, someone has to cut it up, but that's not difficult. But, of course, you end up with boxes full of watermelon chunks in the fridge, and while it's a refreshing dessert, or a delicious salad with feta, but....
And I had run out of "yelm", and although I had the lemons to make more, I didn't have any mint. While plain yelm is delicious, I am also not averse to experimenting. I only made a small amount, to see if it worked.
Rind and juice of 2 lemons
About 300 ml watermelon juice (fill a blender goblet and see how much it makes. Drink whatever is left over!)
25 g citric acid
250 g sugar
About 450 ml boiling water, maybe 500 ml.
Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool for awhile, then strain and bottle. Keep in the fridge. Dilute to taste, either with plain or sparkling water, ideally chilled!
This is absolutely lush, and well worth the time it takes!
2 tsp cooking oil
1 large onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tin tomatoes (ideally tinned cherry tomatoes, if you can get them)
1/2 tub soft cheese, ideally garlic and herb
Seasoning to taste - I find it doesn't need salt, just pepper.
Place the oil in a heavy-based saucepan and heat gently. Peel the onion, and chop it as finely as you are able. Put the chopped onion into the saucepan and stir well to coat.
Let them cook gently to soften and go translucent. Meanwhile peel the garlic, and either chop, crush or grate it - I always use a crusher, but I know other people have other ways. Add this to the onion and oil, and again, allow to cook gently for a few minutes. Now add the tinned tomatoes and about 1/3 tin of water. Stir thoroughly and bring to a simmer. Cover, and let it simmer for about 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then add the half-tub of cream cheese and stir thoroughly to mix. Delicious with pasta, either as is, or as a pasta bake. I also made a roast vegetable bake with it earlier in the week, which was lush!
