During the Winter months I think there are only so many times you can eat roast potatoes before you start looking for an alternative or a different flavour and here we are.
These were gorgeous they really took on the garlic and rosemary flavour but without it being overpowering . Plus they made a fantastic change to normal roasties.
My top tip is once you have cut your potatoes stand them in a bowl of cold water for as long as possible I usually Chop mine first thing on a morning and leave them until dinner time. This removes some of the starch from the potatoes making them easier to cook and they also seem to need less oil.
I also par boiled my potatoes in the microwave, it’s just so much easier this way plus your potatoes don’t absorb loads of water making them “mushy”. It is definetly easier to cook them once par boiled plus it reduces the cooking time.
I wanted to create a budget family friendly meal especially for Sunday Dinner and I can say with full confidence I definitely nailed it.
The gammon was perfect I used 1kg unsmoked Gammon which we got from the Co-op costing £3.50 this joint will feed a family of four or more depending on what you served with it.
One recurring comment with Gammon is “mine falls apart and does not slice” this is because the gammon is overcook, there is nothing wrong with that shredded Gammon is gorgeous.
If you want your Gammon to slice you need a digital meat thermometer and once the internal cooked temperature is reached remove it from the slow cooker.
I was kindly gifted some pizza bases by Lo Dough I have heard lots of good things about them so decided to take up their offer.
There are so many recipes you can make from the bases but I went for standard pizza because I think we can all gauge how good or not so good something is from pizza.
I made 2 pizzas one for me one for Graeme, he is way more fussy than I am so when testing out things like this I always get him to taste too.
We both really enjoyed them but I do think you need to get the heat under the base to crisp it so I used an oven tray with holes in to allow this to happen.
The video below is a brief demonstration of how I cooked ours.
You can find more information regarding Lo Dough here https://lodough.co
Another recipe update for 2024 and once again i have transferred it over to the slow cooker but as always you can do this on a pan on the hob if you wish.
Look out for the butternut squash hack in my video i promise it will save you so much time trying to cut these beasts of a vegetable.
All of my recipes are Slimming World and Calorie Counting friendly and low in fat so perfect for those trying to lose weight.
In the video towards the end you will see i added chorizo to the whole batch of soup i just fancied something different you could add bacon or lardons etc. Here is the thing all recipes are just guides so its up to you to add whatever it is you fancy, herbs, cream, more stock etc. All our palettes taste differently so my advice is once you come to blend the soup taste it and adjust it at this point even if you want to add another stock pot just add it from the pot and mix it and the heat of the soup should dissolve it.
The vegetable chopper and slow cooker i use in my video is on my Amazon Shop press the link it will take you there then look under KITCHEN GADGETS https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/julesthelazycook
I used to love making this with the kids when they were little, but haven’t made it for years. Tesco decided to substitute my flour order when Covid first hit and gave us a 3.5 kg bag of bread mix 🙈
That is a lot of bread mix but we were determined to use it! What slowed the process is me and my neck injury I can’t knead dough so I needed Graeme and booking his free time is like catch gold dust.
As you will see we got there and I actually found out my food processor has a dough hook so I can now do it all myself.
This recipe is for using a packet of bread mix but you can use any bread recipe you like. 500g of flour is what my recipe is based around this is because its the maximum for my 3.5 ltr slow cooker.
If you watch the video carefully you will see how big the dough ball is before it’s cooked and how big it is after its cooked, it needs room to rise and prove.
Adding water to the mix I used it said use 370ml of water BUT I have learned over the years that flours are different and they don’t all absorb liquid at the same rate. I started my dough mixture by adding approx 300ml of water.
Then add small amounts once the dough starts to come together and you have incorporated all the flour into a sticky mixture and it comes away cleanly from the sides of the blow it’s ready.
I would say for the bread mix Im working with in the video I used 350ml water in total.
You can leave the bread plain or add any flavours you like… cheese is gorgeous, but doesn’t make great jam on toast 😉
I cooked on high for 2hrs but all slow cookers don’t work the same so. I would suggest you cook your first loaf whist you’re in the house. It’s cooked when you tap the bottom and it sounds hollow same as cooking bread in the oven.
The big question you are all going to ask is calories or syns this is impossible to answer as it’s going to depend on the bread mix you use and how many slices you cut it into.
Below are some types of bread mixes you will find in most susupermarkets these images are from Tesco.
Jules The Lazy Cook 