Home made noodle bake

I thought that, as an experiment, I'd try using home-made noodles in my usual leek and broccoli pasta bake.  They worked very well indeed.

The quickest and easiest way to make noodles is to use a potato ricer like this one, and use the disk with the fewest holes.  However, if you don't have one, you can always rest the dough in the fridge for a bit, then roll it out as thinly as possible, flour it, roll it up gently and then cut the resulting cylinder into strips, as Becca does over at Amuse your Bouche.  If I were making it that way, I'd use a strong flour, but in a ricer, any flour will do.  I did once try making noodles with gram flour and binding them with tahini, but this was a dismal failure! 

Anyway these ones were made with a mixture of buckwheat flour (which is gluten free, so if you needed to you could make them with 100% buckwheat) and ordinary plain flour.

So.  To the recipe.  Apologies for lack of photos, but it might not have worked well.....

Serves 2.

1 leek
1/2 head broccoli
250 ml milk
2 tsp plain flour
25 g butter
Salt, pepper and mustard powder to season
2 large handfuls grated cheese (probably about 100g each, but maybe less)
1 large tomato
125 ml (1/4 cup) buckwheat flour
125 ml (1/4 cup) plain flour
1 egg
A little water

Cut the broccoli into florets and steam them until al dente.  Chop the leek very finely and cook gently in the butter until soft. It saves time if you can do this in an oven-proof dish that will also go on the hob.

Meanwhile, make the noodles by mixing the last 4 ingredients in the list together until a stiff dough is formed.  I seasoned with salt, pepper and mustard, just as I did the sauce.  Press through potato ricer into boiling water, and when the water comes back to the boil, drain and reserve.

Put the 2tsp flour and the seasoning into the milk and whisk well until combined.  Pour this over the leeks and butter, and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.  When the sauce thickens and boils, remove from heat and stir in half the cheese, and all the broccoli and noodles.  If it's already in an oven-proof container, smooth it down, if it's not, transfer it into one (another pan to wash!) and smooth it down.

Top with thin slices of tomato and more grated cheese.  Bake in a moderate oven for 35 minutes or so. 

Kidney bean, cauliflower and peanut curry

When you have a meeting at 7:30 and need a quick supper..... I had been going to make ratatouille with beans, but had neither courgettes nor aubergine and hadn't got round to going to Lidl to get some!  But the kidney beans had been soaking all afternoon, and needed to be used.  So it was a matter of finding what to cook with what I had - and the end result was surprisingly delicious!

1/2 cup red kidney beans (or you can use a tin of)
1 tsp coconut oil
2 tsp curry powder
Additional spices if liked - I used asafoetida and turmeric and some dried garlic powder
1 onion, chopped
1/2 small cauliflower, chopped
1 tin tomatoes
1/2 tinful water
2 tbs salted peanuts
1 tbs sultanas
1 tbs coconut milk powder
Vegetable "Stock pot" (optional)

1/2 cup long-grain rice

To serve: mango chutney

Soak the beans in water with a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda for a few hours.  Then drain and rinse, and cook in fresh water, making sure they boil hard for at least ten minutes before you turn the heat down.  They'll probably take 30-45 minutes to cook, depending on how old they are.

Meanwhile, fry the spices in the coconut oil for a couple of minutes, then add the onions and stir well.  Add the rest of the ingredients (except the rice, but including the cooked beans), bring to the boil, and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes while you cook the rice.

Serve with the cooked rice and with some mango chutney (spicy or not, as liked) on the top.