So life in Istanbul, without going out too much and I've decided,
to try and make some flat breads this afternoon. I thought make flat breads,
they'll last for a few days.
I could do flat breads and maybe some lentil curry,
because I don't have any meat,
and I can also turn the flatbread into mini pizzas.
And we also have some humus in the fridge,
But Marianne won't let me make the dough in the van,
so I'm going to set the table up outside,
it's a beautiful day here in Istanbul, the sun is shining.
So yeah, we're going to make flat breads outside,
so if I make a mess .....
I'm not trashing Trudy! (the van).
Is that a good plan love ?
Good plan - ha ha !
Okay so let's get creative!
it's actually really handy being able to put the table outside.
It just attaches here.
And if the grounds not quite level, a little bit of wood underneath works.
We use this block for jacking up the van.
Serves the purpose.
So let's get some dough made.
So it's always best to use warm water when you're making your dough,
so I'm just using the leftovers from the kettle,
because we just made a coffee.
Perfect just slightly warm,
so we got flour, warm water, a little bit of dried yeast a little bit of salt,
we don't actually have any measuring scales or anything like that
so it's just going be estimate it, put it all together
and then we'll leave the dough to rise.
So each sachet of yeast does about 500 grams of flour
So I'm just going to put a little sprinkle in
and then I might make another batch,
because this will all rise and then I can make more,
because They will keep for a couple of days.
And then just add some water in
and then we'll give it a stir
and until we get a sort of doughy consistency.
If you do it, and it looks a bit dry,
just add a little bit more water in.
I actually find that if you make it slightly wetter,
it's easier to add a little bit more flour to dry it off,
rather than it being too dry, and you add a bit of water.
Are we going to call this video "Cooking with Chris" ?
Ha Ha !! Cooking with Chris !!
So you can see I've actually added in a little bit too much water because it's sticky.
So I'll just keep putting a pinch of flour and kneading it until it stops sticking to my fingers.
So now I'm just going to give it a little knead on the table,
which is why Marianne told me not to do it inside,
and you literally just roll it,
move it,
roll it, move it, like that,
and you just work it, if it gets a bit sticky
just put a little bit of flour on it,
just a little a little sprinkle,
and you keep doing it for a couple of minutes
and then we can leave it to rise.
And I'll probably make another batch actually.
So the consistency of the dough should be slightly sticky,
but not so that it sticks to anything.
Just so It looks a bit like a raw loaf of bread.
And now we'll just leave it to rise,
until it's pretty well doubled in size.
and that's why he's not allowed to make in in the Van !!
I don't know why I've got black trousers and a black t-shirt ... because it goes everywhere!!
But we have got a washing machine here, so it is fine. Yes we do, yeah.
There you go! two batches of dough made,
and now we're just going to leave them to rise.
Okay! so now for the lentil curry!
Okay ! So the dough has risen beautifully
and then inside here,
the dhal is finished, and I got this recipe online
I didn't have the exact ingredients but
I followed it as close as I could,
so I'll put a link for that below!
it looks amazing!
So now we're just going to roll out and fry the flatbreads.
I brought this really small little wooden rolling pin.
It does the job,
and I'm going to make little mini flat breads and then cook them off in the frying pan.
it's time to roll them out, so I'm just going sprinkle
a little bit of flour on it, because the dough can be a little bit damp,
because we made it on the wet side, and then we want it to fit in the frying pan,
so I'm making them about that size.
A little bit of flour, and then I'm just going to roll them out,
keeping them roughly round
and there's no precision, this isn't fine-dining!
this is just whacking it in a frying pan,
so to cook the flatbreads, I've just got a little bit of oil a bit of tissue paper,
I'm just going to rub the frying pan.
There's just a little bit of oil, and then griddle them both sides.
Flatbreads and dhal curry. Owww!
Who said cooking in a van needed to be dull!
Mmmmmmm
That is cooking in a van needed to be dull - not cooking in a van needed to be dhal !!
That's really good!
Amazing what you can make with just a bit of flour, and some lentils and onion and a tomato.
Good job! That is us sorted for a few days.
The Next day
So dinner tonight,
we have leftover flatbreads,
which I'm going to turn into little mini pizzas,
and heat them up in the frying pan with a lid on.
Which will melt the cheese,
I've made some tomato sauce
with onions and garlic, some herbs, tomatoes,
we have chilies, chopped garlic, a bit of cheese and some olives.
It's pizza night!
And I am just answering loads of messages, comments
My phone is pinging! But we are saying, if you feel isolated and you want to chat send me an email,
it is absolutely fine! we're in self isolation too and we're happy to message.
In fact it's actually funny, because they stopped the football in the club that we are in, but the kids are having fun out in
the park, out there you can hear, they got music playing and they're playing
football in the park instead.
So yeah, that's still people are still out about here at the moment.
So I put a little bit of tomato, you can see we haven't planned this very well,
this is real and raw people ha ha.
Put a bit of garlic,
because I like garlic, there's a bit of garlic in the sauce,
but we both eat it so it doesn't matter if we put lots of garlic!
Yep love garlic, a little bit of cheese,
which we have to ration a little bit. Normally I would pile it on!
but this is really good for using up your leftover flat breads,
couple of olives
there we go! That looks lovely !
And, we know this is going to fit in the pan, because I cooked it in the pan
and because it's got a lid,
it's actually gonna cook really well.
So we'll put that in there,
! haven't actually lit it! It should probably be hot before I start,
and you just want to cook it slowly
and what I'm going to do, is when the pan gets hot I'm gonna add a little bit of water
just because it will help steam it and melt the cheese,
and you want it to be quite low so it doesn't burn the flatbread that's already cooked.
so just do it all low !!
There you go, that's it.
And you can tell that I let Chris do the cooking because he's an amazing chef,
and then I'm here to clean up everything afterwards