A Warm and Frugal Wintery Menu

 

Fresh baked bread and a thick bean bowl built an enjoyable dinner from ingredients found in winters' kitchen. I started with dried beans and canned tomatoes from the cupboard and added seasonal greens and citrus fruit from the refrigerator. (Our local grocery store featured a "buy one get one free" on ruby red grapefruit this week).

Here are the recipes:

Pressure Cooked Bean Curry

(Serves 3-4)

Soak beans overnight in water.

1/2 cup dry white beans

1 cup water

Heat olive oil in pressure cooker.

Add and saute onion, garlic and sweet pepper for 1-2 minutes.  

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoon onion, diced

2 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup sweet pepper, diced

Add curry paste and mix into softened vegetables for about 30 seconds.

1 tablespoon red curry paste (can substitute 1 teaspoon curry powder)

Turn off brown or saute function of cooker.

 

Add beans, tomatoes, vegetable broth, salt and pepper.

Tighten lid and pressure lock. Cook for 30 minutes. Allow cooker to set for 10 minutes before releasing pressure. 

White beans, drained and rinsed

2 cup canned tomatoes, no added salt (I mixed crushed and diced)

1 cup low sodium vegetable broth (mine is made with a bouillon cube)

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

 

Stir in fresh spinach and heat for 1-2 minutes to wilt leaves.

1 cup fresh spinach, stems removed

 

The bread recipe is from Pantry Mama. It combines sourdough discard with commercial yeast to leaven the bread.

 Sandwich Bread

(1 8-9 inch loaf)

Remove sourdough starter from refrigerator and allow to sit overnight.

Place the following discard in mixing bowl.

Feed the original starter and store. 

91 grams sourdough discard

 

Using standing mixer with paddle blade in place, add water and flours to sourdough discard. Mix for about 30 seconds to form a shaggy dough. Allow to rest for 30 minutes.

275 grams water

225 grams whole wheat flour

225 grams all purpose flour

 

In mixing bowl with dough hook in place, add yeast, sugar, buttery spread and salt. Beat on low speed for about 6 minutes.

2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

22 grams sugar

66 grams buttery spread

1/2 teaspoon salt

Place dough in a bowl greased with olive oil spray. Cover and allow to rise until double. (My kitchen is not quite 70 F and this took about 1 1/2 hours)

 

Shape dough into 8-9 inch loaf pan. (Mine is baked in a Pullman pan) 

Cover and allow to rise until double. (This took 2 hours in my kitchen and the dough did not reach the top of the pan.)

Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes.

 

We grated some aged cheddar onto our soup to serve.