Life, the Universe and Everything

Ration Challenge Recipes - Page 8

2021-05-03T11:47:00.072+01:00

Pepita Purpura - Congee doughnuts

I used the congee recipe in the book. Once the congee is cooked and slightly cooled I added 1 tablespoon of flour and a lot of cinnamon! (If I had earned sugar I would have added this too!)

I then pressed the congee into a doughnut mould baking tray and baked for 45 minutes at 180! If you don't have a doughnut baking tray I’d suggest maybe making small cupcakes instead!

This is perfect for on-the-go!

Sioned Lois

Made some sticky rice doughnuts. They can be eaten as they are or fried for a bit of crunch, add some spice to go with Dahl or some cinnamon (and sugar if you can) for a sweet “treat”

Michael POgson – Rice flatbread

100g of rice soak for 6 hour in 4 times as much water, strain and add back half as much of the soaking water as you have soaked rice, blitz with a hand blender for a good few minutes, and leave for another 6 hours, blitz again add a little salt then shallow fry this batter in a little oil, will make rice flatbread.

Michael POgson - Rice and Lentil Flatbread

50g lentils, 100g rice cover with 4 X as much water as dried ingredients, leave to soak overnight. In the morning, strain and reserve a cup of the soaking water. Add back approx half the volume of water as you have rice and lentils (fill to just below level of rice and lentils) blitz for a good few minutes with a hand blender. It should be consistency of a thick batter; if too thick, add a little more of the soaking water. Leave for 6 - 8 hours at room temp, add a pinch of salt and blitz again. Heat a lightly oiled pan on medium heat and pour in batter to form flatbread of desired size. Fry till the edges start to look cooked and you can get a spatula underneath to flip. Fry the other side till golden brown. When cooked brush with a little oil and sprinkle with salt and your choice of spice.

Val Law - Quesadilla

You could try my rice and kidney bean quesadilla for something a little bit different. I made 4 flour tortillas with 50 grams flour, 1tbsp oil and enough water to make a dough. 50gms cooked rice, 50 grams kidney beans, I added some shallot and hot smoked paprika from my rewards, mashed it all together, filled the tortillas, fried in a lightly greased heavy pan until golden both sides. You could adjust the filling to use what you have but it makes a bit of a change from plain rice.

Stefania Testa - Fish cake Recipe

Blend cooked rice, the sardines and the kidney beans (I had precooked and seasoned). Season more if you wish. It should clump together in the blender.

Use two spoons to form a roundish quenelle type thing and drop them into flour. Coat in flour using a spoon. Flatten in your hands. Fry in oil

Kate Spence – Rice Crisps

I cooked the rice until sticky, put in in a blender with a tablespoon of oil and a couple of tablespoons of water and blended until it formed a dough. Pop a teaspoon size ball on a silicone mat or baking paper put baking paper on top and squash with a glass until 1-2 mm thick. Bake until browned

Eloise Greenwood: Tofu Curry

Ingredients:

240g tofu (120g which we get initially plus my reward of 120g)

75g (Half an onion, 170g is what you get for the challenge so I would have 95g left, I haven’t chosen my vegetable yet just thought I would try a recipe!)

The spices I used are the ones my team has chosen:

Ground pepper

Cumin

Paprika

Garlic

Turmeric

Salt

Half a tin of tomatoes (half a tin left)

100ml of coconut milk (from the 210ml so I would have 110ml left)

Cooking:

Tofu: 200 degrees for 20 minutes.

Simmer the curry for 15 minutes after you’ve added the tofu in.

Katherine Trezise – Crispy Rice Balls

For these, I cooked 50g of rice per the basic recipe, then blitzed it with a stick blender and formed it into balls with my hands. I dipped the balls in aquafaba, then dry flour (12g) and then a spiced batter I'd prepared using;
18g flour

25ml milk
chilli powder
garlic powder
onion salt
black pepper powder
salt
I put 15ml of oil in a small pan on a high heat and fried them until golden on all sides. This recipe used 7 small balls and I felt full after them (though I do generally eat small portions!).

One other top tip I've discovered since yesterday morning is that it takes a lot of time to cook very little! These took the best part of an hour to prepare! Worth it though!

If you like these recipes, feel free to use them. If you are feeling generous, please consider donating a couple of quid to a Ration Challenger

Or even to me. Thanks in advance

Ration Challenge Recipes - Page 7

2020-09-11T11:23:00.006+01:00

Biscuits - Darcy Williams

Half a cup of flour, sprinkle in a pinch of salt, then I added a teaspoon of oil and used the rubbing in method to turn the mixture into fine breadcrumbs. You might need slightly more oil if the rubbing in method isn’t making it crumby). Then I added tiny bits of water a little at a time whilst mixing until it came together (about a teaspoon). Then I rolled it out in some flour and used a cookie cutter but you could use a knife. And baked at 180 (fan) for about 15-20 mins! The mixture is different from normal shortbread, it’s a lot crumbier.

Tofu Curry - Hannah Childs

Sauce: 7g (teaspoon) flour in a mixing bowl, add water gradually, mixing away nasty lumps, once fairly watery, I used some of the wonderful spices that my lovely team chose! Cumin, paprika, cinnamon, garlic granules, and pepper! Just a dash of each (I went a bit heavy on the garlic. Put in a saucepan and put on a medium-low heat and stir CONSTANTLY. If it starts to thicken up and bubble, keep adding tiny splashes of water until you get the thickness you want!

Tofu: (60g) dry the heck out of that tofu, dice the heck out of that tofu, fry the heck out of that tofu

Rice: (97.5g) boil, as usual, set aside until cool and FRYYYYYYYY!

Put it all together and voila - another rice dish

CARROT and CUMIN COMPOTE, with TURMERIC TOFU - Jenny Meldrum

Pick six tiny carrots (the equivalent of just under one shop-bought carrot I'd say). Wash the whole carrots thoroughly, but don't peel. Take a cereal bowl, and snip the leafy bit with scissors into the bowl. Really small pieces. Include the stalk bit. Nothing of these carrots is wasted.

Slice the carrots lengthways into thin pieces into the bowl too. Add a little bit of oil, and some cumin, and some salt to the mix, and stir it together well. Let the mixture stand for about 15 minutes.

Put the bowl of greens and carrots into a steamer. Like making a Christmas Pudding. Steam gently until the slivers of carrots are soft but still have a bit of a crunch.

Slice some tofu thinly and sprinkle on some turmeric. Fry on medium heat, turning occasionally. Only cook for a short while. Arrange your tofu on ready prepared rice. I was using leftover spaghetti, but I haven't started the Challenge Week yet! I've held off from rice so it will be a treat next week.

Arrange the carrot+greens mixture on top of the tofu and rice.

Don't pour away anything. Use all the cumin infused oil that is in the bowl.

This is such a delicious meal. It has a bit of a crunch, and a sweetness, and it's filling. If I was using the carrots mixture next week, I'd probably make it last over two days.

Biscuits - Mary Oswell

So you’ve earned your sugar! All two teaspoonfuls... what are you going to do with it?

May I suggest biscuits? I tried these little darlings and they tasted just fine!

1 tbsp rice, pounded in pestle & mortar (ground rice, almost), 1 tbsp flour - plus scant 1/2 tsp each cinnamon & ginger, and a pinch of salt, 2 tsp sugar

Mix with about 2 tsp oil and a little water to mix, making a pliable dough. Form into balls and flatten to discs on a baking tray. I baked mine for about 8 min @ 180C. CAREFUL! Easy to overcook!

Gnocchi - Sarah Punchard

I made it up as I went: 6 tbsp rice flour, 1 tbsp wheat flour, seasonings of choice, 7 tbsp boiling water. Work into a dough, pinch off small pieces, drop into boiling water for 5-7 minutes, approximately. They need a sauce, so when they were cooked I heated them in my dal for a couple of minutes.

Sel Roti - Charlotte Woolley

Soaked some rice for 24 hours so I could have a go at making some ration friendly Sel Roti. As a trial I used 1 cup of rice and 1/tbsp of oil and 1 cup of oil for frying (though this is obviously almost the whole allowance, but the oil was fairly clear afterward so could be strained and reused). Blended (with a hand blender) with a little water still in there, not much though, it turns into a proper paste and was super messy and I had to cover my bowl with a bag to stop rice flying everywhere, I used a cup of rice, could have easily done a lot less, but would have been harder to blend. Once it was paste-like I added a little oil and a bit more water until I got it to the thick consistency I wanted

Sel roti usually have ghee, sugar and something to help them rise, the 1/2tbsp oil I tried replacing the ghee with the oil but didn't want to use too much, everything else was just water used

What I made didn't deserve to really be called sel roti, it had the delicious popcorn taste that I love them for and a crunch on the outside, but obviously none of the sweetness and the spongy texture was missing too, a bit tough and perhaps a little too crunchy, but a great experiment! I could have probably tried putting some flour in the mix, but not sure how much it would have helped.

Breakfast cinnamon rice: Rachel Hawthorn - Based on Charlotte Woolley's Sel

Method:

Bowl of cooked rice, Spoon of flour, A good spoon of cinnamon, Water

Blend together. Put into a food bag and cut the corner. Fry in deep hot oil.

I feel like I've had doughnuts!!!!

Due to small amount of oil, I used a very small pan. And I will put the oil back in the bottle when it's cool to use for other meals.

Puffed rice: Larna Nicole

There are 2 methods for making it. You can either heat oil and drop plain dry rice into it, it will begin to puff up and float on the top of the oil (literally takes 3-4 minutes) add cinnamon and its a tasty dry treat or you can drain it and add milk like cereal. The other way is to cook the rice (around 20 minutes) lay it on a baking sheet and dehydrate it in a dehydrator or in the oven (this does take time, around 1-2 hours) to fully get rid of excess water. Then pull it apart as best you can and again drop into hot oil it puffs up into mini clouds almost like a lighter popcorn (3-4 minutes) can either add a spice or again cinnamon to it. Maybe worth a go

Ration Challenge Recipes - Page 6

2020-09-10T01:18:00.001+01:00

Dosas - Sophie Fellows

If like me you’re not a massive rice eater and are wondering how you’ll possibly manage to trick yourself into eating enough rice to sustain non-hangry life... dosas!

Super easy. Just grind rice in a coffee grinder or similar and sieve. Add 1 1/2 cups water to 1 cup rice flour and salt to taste. Whisk together. Pour a thin pancake amount into a hot flat bottom frying pan (lightly oiled). Should form bubbles/holes on hitting the pan, or it needs a bit more water. Cover with lid and cook for approx. 5 mins until the edges start to go crispy. Job done!

Perfect with bean dip or dhal, I reckon.

Lentil Dhal - Louisa L Lorena

The Dhal is approximately 56g of onion (as sharing veg with 2 other teammates) fried in oil, salt, chilli and ground cumin then added. 60g of drained lentils added but will probably use more next time (maybe half of the entire lentil ration) and 1.5 cups of boiling water; again will increase water slightly next time. Bring to boil then simmer for 15-20 mins. Two servings

For Tarka Dhal you cook the spices, onions, tomatoes separate to the lentils and then mix them together when the lentils are cooked.

My twist on this would be to cook lentils with salt, chilli/paprika, onion powder and turmeric for at least 20 minutes. Then fry cumin, coriander, garlic granules in some oil and sieve the oil into the lentils. It's a more subtle taste. Make sure you don't burn the spices.

Ice Lolly - Louisa L Lorena

Milk/Water/Cinnamon ice lolly. Is this allowed?

For when you just fancy ice cream or something sweet; this would help a bit.

Crispy De Lunes - K De Lune

I made congee for the first time then wondered what else I could do with it so I added my spices and a drop of oil. I just splodged them on a baking sheet like little ricey cow pats and baked for quite a while (45 minutes) and they all puffed up nicely. They're really crispy on the outside with a bit of gooey flavoured rice in the middle.

Variation: (Author?) Boil the rice until it was like literal mush. We mixed in our spices and then added about a tablespoon of oil and mixed that in too. Then packed them into the tray. Put them in the oven at about 190C for about 20/25 mins and they cake out so crispy! 100% will be making them after the challenge because we loved them

Soya loaf - Sarah Lascelles

Uses soy mince/tvp (reward protein)

20g soy mince, 60ml boiling water, Reward spices, Salt

Put the soy mince in a bowl, add some salt and team reward spices - I strongly recommend garlic powder if you have it, you need a good strong spice profile as the soy basically has no flavour of its own. Multiple spices mixed as works for you...

Add the 60ml boiling water to the soy /spice mix

Leave until the soy has absorbed the water, which will vary.

Mix in enough flour to hold it together, up to 1 tbsp

Move into a suitable ovenproof dish either really non-stick or lined with greaseproof paper

Bake in the oven for 15 mins

Tofu Pilaf - Sarah Lascelles

Ingredients

Makes 2 portions

120g tofu (of the block kind)

200-300g rice

85g reward veg, 2 Tbsp oil, 30 ml milk/non-dairy replacement, Salt, Reward spices

In advance;

1. Press your tofu - at least for a couple of hours. If this is a new concept to you - open the package and drain the water, then place between kitchen roll and tea towels and weigh down with something heavy, I use a pile of cookbooks because they live in the kitchen anyway.

2. Measure out your oil and add some of your reward spice in to infuse the oil. If you have garlic granules, this would be perfect.

Dice your tofu into approx 1cm cubes

Add about half the oil to a pan and heat up then add the tofu. Cook this until it is pale brown on each side.Take the tofu out and leave to one side.

Rinse off the rice

Boil the kettle

Measure out the milk (you can skip this if you are saving your milk for something else). Add the rest of the oil to the pan, then add the rice, and fry off for approx 30 seconds. Add the milk and stir in and cook for another 30 seconds. Top up with boiling water and cook the rice as normal

Chop your veg and add as appropriate for whatever it is (eg a courgette will be added right at the end, a carrot slightly earlier...)

Right at the end, when the rice is appropriately soft, add the tofu back in to reheat. Check for taste and add more salt/spice as you like

Variations:

If you are saving your milk for something else, skip that step and go straight to adding the boiling water

This could also work with chickpeas or beans added instead of veg. The amount of rice can be increased to stretch it to more meals

'salt and spice' tofu - Sarah Lascelles

The other half of my tofu will be 'salt and spice' tofu. Press as above, cut into slices rather than chunks.

Mix approx 1 tbsp of flour with salt and spices. Coat the tofu in that mixture, then shallow fry.

Beef and Lentil Chili - Nikki Hardiman-Price

Beef and lentil chili made with 120g mince, 72g lentils (3 days' worth), 150g kidney beans (3 days' worth), 38g onion (1.5days' worth) oil, spices and water

Easily enough for 3 portions probably 4

Variation: Use soy mince instead

Ration Challenge Recipes - Page 5

2020-08-31T14:19:00.009+01:00

Kidney bean, rice and onion stew, served with savoury, salt pancakes: Georgie Braggins-Taylor

The recipe uses the whole week’s worth of kidney beans (1 tin, 400g un-drained weight) and my entire vegetable allowance, so plan accordingly.

Method: • Soak 85g of dry, uncooked rice (to bulk them out a bit!) overnight. • Boil in a pot with the kidney beans (with salt to soften the kidney bean skins) - do not drain the saltwater in the tinned kidney beans, use this to cook the rice in! • Add 30ml of vegetable oil • Finely chop 1 onion (my choice of vegetable for the week) and cook until the whole mixture is soft.

The pancakes:

(Bung the following in a bowl and whisk until it reaches the right consistency): • 30ml of vegetable oil • 60g of flour • 60ml milk • 1 egg • salt • water

Whisk until runny and smooth and then dry them in as dry a pan as you can get (conserving as much vegetable oil as possible to last me the whole week!)

Present however you fancy!

All ingredients serve 3 hungry people.

Earned rewards are the egg and the onion

Georgie's website: https://www.realhealthliving.net/post/recipes-on-rations?fbclid=IwAR1c99iGuA0XYH5kw1QpGLP-VSYNW_XTiba6cesCg9WxDQKMBLgS6mh0NzA

Chicken congee served with shallot and paprika pancake: Val Law

The pancake needs more work, the batter was too thin, but the taste was there. For chicken congee, heat small amount of vegetable oil in pan, fry chicken wing over low heat, add rice and continue to fry for around a minute. Add approx 5 times weight of rice boiling water, stir well, cover and simmer for 30 minutes checking it doesn't boil dry - add more water as necessary. After 30 minutes remove the chicken wing, add a very little salt to the rice and continue cooking until the required porridge consistency is reached. Remove meat from chicken bones, add back to congee. For pancake, beat 30 gms flour with 110 ml water and a little salt(I am going to reduce water next time) and let stand for at least 10 minutes. Chop shallot or onion finely, mix with a little of your chosen spice. Fry gently until softened. Pour batter into the pan, cook for 2-3 minutes until set, turn and cook the other side. This makes a tasty and filling meal.

Earned rewards are the wing and the shallot

RC Crisps: Holly Newing

If you make pasta dough (just add enough water to flour and knead to make a smooth dough), then roll out very thin. Cut into whatever shapes you want and then fry. Season with salt and your spice of choice and you have a pretty good alternative to crisps!

If you make actual pasta then you can do this with your offcuts

Sardine Flatbreads (this makes 2): Josephine Hearn

100g flour, 60ml water (approx), 1/2 of a sardine, Salt (if reward met), Personal/team spice/s to taste (I used black pepper, chilli, garlic powder and cumin), Oil

Mix 100g flour, a generous pinch of salt and 60ml water - add a little bit at a time until the dough is a workable consistency but not sticky. Split in half and set to the side and rest for 10 mins.

Meanwhile - mix sardine with salt and spices until un-bound paste consistency and to your chosen taste.

Roll out dough with a little bit of oil on the work surface until it's a long rectangle, fold in edges (like a leaflet) and roll out again.

Spread on 1/2 the sardine paste, leaving about 2cm of dough at three of the edges (this prevents any of the sardine mix escaping later on!)

Roll up the dough from the sardiney edge until you have a log, pinch either end and wind this in on itself, keeping the seam inside, until you have a shape that resembles a spiral (or cinnamon swirl if you don’t mind being fooled!)

Leave to rest for 10 mins - whilst you roll out/roll up the other half!

Roll out into a flat circle (about 15cm diameter). You might get a couple of holes but this will just add a bit of crispy sardine flavour!

Brush each side with a little oil and fry in a hot dry pan until golden and slightly charred in places - this adds extra flavour.

Little tip: don't use a wooden rolling pin - if you do wrap it in a bit of clingfilm first - the sardiney smell might hang around!

Ration Challenge Recipes - Page 4

2020-08-29T17:02:00.006+01:00

Carrot Mug Cake: Susan Morgan

I reckon that using 50g of your veg allowance would make quite a tasty treat. I used a mix of 2 recipes.

1 tablespoon of oil, 3 tablespoons of milk, 3tablespoons (50g)of grated carrot, pinch of cinnamon and 4 tablespoons flour. Mix well. Microwave for approximately 2 minutes in a 300ml/1/2pint mug and hey presto!

Quite tasty! And...it does taste sweet. Mmm

The pud in a mug recipe also made 5 small buns which could provide me with 5-midweek treats.

Sardine Paste: Mary Oswell

Pound sardine (INCLUDING bones) with finely chopped shallot, and a pinch of chilli, with enough oil to make it spreadable - only about 1tsp.

Fillipino roasted rice coffee: Eric Leverentz

Roasted white rice in a pan, I chose to get a very deep roast, almost burnt so I could achieve a more coffee-like flavor and color it was shockingly nice! Boiling it for a slightly longer time than suggested it had a great taste somewhere between deep roasted coffee and brown rice tea. Thanks, Alexander Neave, for the idea

https://lovers.coffee/the-rice-coffee/?fbclid=IwAR04dplnhtT4vShURLUc9wvsokRZ-2K7t90C9dBJm_c4XeLWRy3b4eT7yHU

Chickpea Coffee

https://parabolacoffee.com/blogs/the-umbrella-stand/coffee-from-chickpeas?fbclid=IwAR3eYEqG0_gkF8rtGgkBp-L0D7vAFdP5XhjwC45jqYWongTW-TJOQAhju3k

Chinese puff pastry spring onion pancake: Eric Leverentz

Link to the onion pancake recipe! Swap 5 spice for a spice you have access too they're a bit of a faff but very good! I also did a half batch and much less onion.

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/chinese-scallion-pancakes/

Dosas: Sophie Fellows

If like me you’re not a massive rice eater and are wondering how you’ll possibly manage to trick yourself into eating enough rice to sustain non-hangry life... dosas!

Perfect with bean dip or dhal, I reckon

Ration Challenge Recipes - Page 3

2020-08-28T15:08:00.012+01:00

Laura’s Leftover Congee Battered Sardine Fishcakes

1. Spread 2 tbsp of Congee thinly on to baking parchment and place in an oven at 160°C for approximately 45 mins or until golden brown and crispy.

2. Break up the dehydrated congee into crispy pieces – these taste great and would be a great crunchy addition to any meal!

3. Sieve/remove moisture from desired quantity of congee (I used about a third of the amount of congee a 97g rice portion makes).

4. Add onion/spring onion and a third of a sardine to the congee, a pinch of salt and a spice if desired (I used chilli powder) from step 3. Save the oil from the sardine tin for frying the fishcakes.

5. Mix up all the ingredients and add flour to help dry the mix until it can be handled. The drier the congee from step 3 the less flour needed.

6. Make a batter by using 18g of flour, a pinch of salt and spice if required (again I used chilli powder) and add cold water whilst mixing until required consistency is obtained.

7. Form fishcakes from the congee sardine mix, dip in the batter and then dip in the crispy congee pieces.

8. Fry in the sardine tin oil on a medium heat for approximately 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

Pasta and tomato and chilli creamy sauce - Gemma Jackson

All I did was mix my daily flour amount with warm water to form a dough.

I kneaded this for about 15 mins and then put a tea towel over it and left for about an hour to firm up.

I then rolled the dough out thin (I placed between greaseproof paper which was coated in oil and rolled the pin over the paper) and cut it into strips. I then left it overnight to dry out.

I then boiled a pan with water and salt and added the pasta. It needs to be fully dry to work.

In a frying pan I had oil and my cherry tomato (daily allowance). I added 50ml of oat milk and poured over. Added chilli, garlic powder and black pepper then once all soft and nice turned off the heat

When pasta was done I drained and then poured the sauce over (in the pan the pasta was in) and done!

Tomato was the earned veg, team spices, milk is team reward

Chickpea Curry - Mark Williams

There is enough for two decent meals from this recipe and it's simple.

Soak half of the chickpeas overnight, then boil them up.

3 quarters(ish) of these need blending.

Add a tbsp of oil to a pan heat on medium-high for 20 seconds then add cumin, coriander, paprika and chilli. Once the spices are fused with the oil add the full chickpeas and cook for a minute or so then add a cup of water.

Bring to the boil then add the blended chickpeas.

Stir until the blend has taken to the mix and let thicken. Add more water if needed.

I've used spinach as.my veg so added 30g spinach to this.

The rice is just plain and for the flatbread I fused some oil with chilli and coriander then cooked as normal

Crackerbread (or Crisps/Doritos) – Jon Battams

Roll the dough between 2 pieces of greaseproof paper, as thin as you can. Then bake on a non-stick sheet at 180-200c for approx 10mins (but keep an eye on it) it will be like a crisp!

Also, you could make crisps tbh...cut into small triangles or whatever before baking, then sprinkle with your spice before baking...DORITOS ANYONE!?