Hamstering

You are not allowed to shop with more than one, but we took the liberty to stock up at Mercadona each with our own shopping trolley, each doing half of the store.

Mercadona actually had nearly everything still in stock. Meat: completely stocked up. Only dishwasher tablets were nearly gone, all dried chick peas, and all crisps (chips), apart from one flavor.

Bought extra supplies to not have to visit for a while: 2 x 5 kg flour (bread!), 1 kg couscous, 4 kg rice, 1 kg spaghetti, 2 packets with 8 small tins of tuna, 16 big tins of dog food (4 flavors), 8 tins canned tomato, 1 bottle washing liquid, etc.

Spain in lockdown

Spain is in lockdown, which for us is not totally horrible, as we’re always sort of in lockdown ourselves, being more or less asocial to start with. Only allowed to go out to the shops for basic supplies. Took advantage yesterday to get a fresh supply of dog food. We are flexible, we can eat almost anything, but dogs are a bit less flexitarian, so I relieved Ramblizo of 4 big bags of Royal Canine. Regular for Zoomba and Papaya, Adult7+ for Coco, antiallergenic for Alma, and mini for Lucero. That should last us up to 2 months.

We still had 3 kg flour, if we cannot reach a baker, ca 5 kg of various dry pasta, 2 kg couscous, 1 kg migas, etc. And some pots of pesto, quite a few liters of olive oil, 5 kg sugar, 2 kg salt, 10 bottles of Guv’nor, 4 liters Campari, 1 bottle Grand Marnier, etc. We’ll survive. I hope.

No Kneading Crusty Bread

Yes baking bread, no kneading, perfect crust. And it works. Just mix flour, water, salt, sugar, dried yeast, the night before. In the morning dump the risen dough on a work surface, fold it a few times. Have a cast iron pan and lid ready in the oven at 200°, dump the dough in, lid on, 30 minutes. Lid off, a further 15 minutes. And: crusty bread!
Instructions: Yannick Lescure: https://youtu.be/kB19bv_tHI4 or: Jenny Can Cook: https://youtu.be/I0t8ZAhb8lQ

Basically: by volume (original recipe uses cups), 3 flour (500-800 grams), 1.5 quite hot water, teaspoon sugar, teaspoon salt, teaspoon dried yeast, mix up with a fork in bowl. Cover with plastic, towel, leave overnight. Cast iron pan and lid, preheat in oven at 200º. When 200º dump dough from bowl onto worktop, fold three times, put in pan. Lid on, in oven, 30 minutes. Lid off, 15 more minutes.