BBQ Time - Speedy Flatbreads!

Garden is shaping up

This might change your opinion of me (if you had one), but I'm not a great lover of being outside, although I do like the outside. I like the air and the weather, the smells, the birdsong, wildlife in general and I appreciate "the great outdoors". I have no desire though, to trek for miles in it or climb up it or investigate under it (I've seen The Descent after all, I'm not mad!). A nice stroll, a picnic, a country pub, that's more my scene, always safe in the knowledge that there's a warm, cosy, safe home waiting for me somewhere. I appreciate my garden and Mr H has been busy in lock down turning it from a square of dubious lawn, with a rickety deck and it's saving grace "The Apple Tree", into something that we can call a garden with pride (well if we don't look at the fence that is!) I think, although if you ask him, he will mutter about it needing height and structure.

Long before I became a Goth in the 80's and it became obligatory to avoid the sun, my (19)70's were spent playing out with the neighbours, I loved it on our bikes, playing detectives, doctors and post offices, but ask me to help with some gardening or to sit outside just for the fun of it, urgh! No thanks!

I was reminiscing yesterday about the super hot Easter holiday we had late 70's, early 80's, where mum finally snapped and forced me away from my dark bedroom (I favoured curtains closed, red light bulb in those days) and into the bright and sunny garden, where I sat in my dusky pink, freshly knitted, roll necked jumper, with an expression that would turn milk sour for a few painful hours while everyone else lounged in bikinis and shorts and worshiped the sun. 

90's shorts and sunbeds!

I wasn't always like it, there was a brief period in the 90's when I discovered "holidays abroad" and I embraced the outdoors with my factor 2 Ambre Solaire oil and a few pints of  Estrella. When I first moved in with Mr H I could also be found from time to time dabbling with a bit of planting in our tiny, triangular garden. In the early 2000's I even had a share in an allotment for a while until I retired due to pregnancy! One thing I will always sit out for though is a BBQ. When I was growing up our family fully embraced the BBQ, come rain or shine you could find us outside shrouded in smoke, awaiting a burnt sausage or dangerously under cooked chicken drumstick...sorry Dad only joking, we had some amazing BBQ's both at home, with our extended family and on our many camping holidays.

As I've not seen much of the outside world in the last 7 weeks, yesterday seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a BBQ. We had meat in the freezer, salad from our Veg box, the lettuce growing in the garden needed eating, charcoal, a clean BBQ, it was sunny but not too hot, the wasps have not emerged yet (a deal breaker for Lauren to venture out!).

The BBQ

Frilly lettuce from our vegetable box,

the other lettuce grown in the garden.

Salad on the right is some amazing orange

tomatoes with a mixture of celery, spring

onions, cucumber, radish, capers and olives.

              

I like to keep accompaniments simple. I'm eating lots of meat, so the calorie content will be high, it's protein and will be filling, so I like simple salads, pickles and salad cream.

I suggested doing without bread but Mr H's face told me I was making a grave mistake. Trouble is, me and Lauren had finished the last of the Swedish Oat Cakes with our soup at lunch and the coals were already lit. Only one solution - make some super speedy, super easy flat breads.

Easy Flat Breads

So easy they hardly warrant a header, but here goes.

In a bowl mix equal quantities (equal weights) of Greek yoghurt, self raising flour and a teaspoon of baking powder until you have a soft dough.

• I allow about 40-50 g of flour and 40-50 g yoghurt roughly per person
• Depending on the quality of your flour you may need to add more yoghurt
• I use low fat Greek yoghurt, but I'm sure full fat would make them even better, I've also user Skyr.

Divide the dough into the required number of pieces and roll our until quite thin, but so you can still pick it up. You'll need a reasonable amount of flour for rolling but pat it off before cooking or it goes black. 

Spray a heavy frying pan with oil, or rub some oil round the pan with kitchen roll (don't get burnt if the pan is on). Heat until it's hot and then put in the flat breads, you may have to do a few batches depending on the size of the breads and the size of your frying pan.

Fry on one side until they start to puff away from the pan and they are either golden or have brown spots and flip to do the other side, usually 3 or 4 minutes on one side and a couple on the other. You want them to look cooked, so opaque no translucency or any wet looking, doughy spots.

They are best eaten as soon as possible, you can keep them warm on the edge of a BBQ or in a warm oven wrapped in foil. 

• You can flavour them with herbs or spices, try adding some turmeric and then rolling them in cumin seeds, or add garlic and soft herbs like oregano or basil.
• Use whichever oil is appropriate olive oil if using herbs, vegetable if using spices, but other oils like rapeseed or sunflower would be fine
• Try brushing with melted garlic butter when they come out
• They make a great alternative to naan breads, or pitta breads
• Top them like a pizza while they are warm and grill them to melt the cheese for a quick pizza lunch

Salad, some essential pickled cucumbers / gherkins, garlic butter potatoes, flat bread,
some chicken thigh marinated in garlic teriyaki sauce, a bit of belly pork marinated in Korean Gochujang sauce (fiery hot!), a good quality sausage and half a Haché steak (a French beefburger with high meat content and low fat)

Nutritional Info (May 2020)

The flat breads work out approximately 2 calories per gram.