Monthly Archives: July 2013

Gourmet Farmer

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A couple of months ago we were lucky enough to meet Matthew Evans, the Gourmet Farmer. He was the special guest at the main dinner of a conference I was attending in Hobart. It was fantastic to hear of his journey from the city to the country, and particularly farm life. Watching the TV series it all looks so easy, but long hours and hard work is what’s on the other side of the cameras. What a story!

I’ve got my own veggie patch but doesn’t sustain us by any means. But we love picking fresh produce straight from the backyard and eating it raw or cooking with it straight away. There’s nothing worse than when you realised you’ve forgotten something from the green grocer. Then there’s nothing better than when and you realise you have a substitute in the backyard! It’s always better from the backyard anyway.

At present the veggie patch can’t be expanded too much but I do hope that we may get a little more land and even a cow to put on it. That was the best part about hearing Matthew Evans, I got to ask a question (I also bailed him up for 15 minutes at the end of his talk for more advice, and of course a photo opportunity). I wanted to know what type of cow he would recommend for milking. It’s a Jersey. One day, just one day.

 

Black Pepper & Yoghurt Curry

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Black Pepper Curry

It may not look pretty, but it’s tasty!

Another slow-cook wonder, this curry is best made the day ahead. It doesn’t take long to prepare and then it can be shoved in the oven for a couple of hours. Just don’t do what I regularly forget to do…putting it in the fridge after letting it cool out of the oven. Thankfully, I have lived to tell the tale after remembering in the morning. If it was chicken I wouldn’t be too confident about eating it the next day, at least it’s always beef or lamb.

These quantities fed us well for dinner as well as lunch for one of us the next day. Doubling the quantities will certainly feed 6 hungry adults.

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
500g beef or lamb, 2cm dice
1 large brown onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, less if you don’t want the heat
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
200ml natural yoghurt

Method
Preheat oven to 170°C.

Heat oil in an oven-proof pan over a medium-high heat. Brown the meat, this may need to be done in batches depending on the size of your dish. Set aside and reduce the heat. Add to pan onion and garlic, sauté for 5 minutes, or until soft. Return the meat, and any juices accumulated, as well as the ginger, cayenne, paprika, salt and pepper. Stir to coat. Once the aromatics have released from the spices add the yoghurt and bring to a simmer. Cover the pan and place in the oven for 1-1½ hours, or until tender. Check fluid levels every half hour. If the curry seems to be drying out add half a cup of water.

Serve with steamed rice and naan. We steam the rice with some frozen peas to add some greens (and colour) to the meal.

You might also enjoy Massaman shanks…yum!

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Sourdough

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Sourdough

Now that you’ve mastered the starter the big day is here. Don’t forget to feed your starter as described in the starter instructions in the lead up to bread making. The proportions mentioned below are for a yield of 2 loaves. Anymore and your mixer will probably not cope. If mixing by hand, as James will be, you’ll be kneading for hours! All of my sourdough recipes have been largely based on those in Bourke Street Bakery’s book.

My biggest tip is to read the recipe carefully a couple of days before you start. There are many steps and waiting periods. Given that I work full-time I can only make the bread on the weekend, starting the mixing & resting process on a Friday or Saturday night. The dough benefits from a rest in the fridge for about 8-12 hours. Over this time the complexity of the flavour develops. After the rest it needs to sit out of the fridge from 1-4 hours while it rises. I can’t get out of bed that early on a work day! So I have a routine of starting the mix when I get home from work on Friday and bake on a Saturday morning. It might seem tedious but once you get in the swing of it, it’s really not that onerous.

A note on flour. What I’ve seen recommended for sourdough is stone-ground flour.  This is the traditional way flour was once milled. These days high-speed steel rollers are used which heat the wheat as it is milled, thus destroying much of its nutrient content. The stone-ground flour is naturally strong, which is recommended for bread. Organic or biodynamic flours are most likely to be stone-ground. I started making my sourdough with a supermarket brand organic white flour and have recently switched to a biodynamic stone-ground white flour. There has been a definite improvement in taste & texture since. By using this flour in the starter I have seen improvements there too. If high-grade ingredients are used it will be reflected in the results.

Ingredients
310g sourdough starter
510g stone-ground organic flour
265ml filtered water
14g sea salt

Method
Place starter, flour and water in the mixer’s bowl. Using the dough hook attachment kneed on low speed for a couple of minutes until all ingredients are combined. Increase the speed to medium and knead for another 6 minutes. Turn off the mixer and cover the bowl with a damp tea towel, or cling film, and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle the dough with the sea salt and mix again on low speed until the salt is incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix for another 6 minutes. The mixing time may need to be increased. The dough is ready once it can be stretched out easily without the dough breaking apart. It should almost be transparent. This point is very difficult to reach by hand kneading…just ask James.

The dough is now ready to be set aside for an hour for its first bulk prove. Place the dough in an oiled container and cover with plastic wrap. At the end of the hour lift the dough out and fold it back on itself a couple of times, this is called the “knock back”. Put back in the oiled container and bulk prove for a further hour.

Divide the dough in two with a blunt dough splitter. Working with one piece of dough at a time, stretch it out to a rectangle. Fold it in thirds like you would a letter before putting it into an envelope. Then fold into thirds again, starting from the top end. Now the dough is ready for shaping. Starting at the top edge fold the corners in to form a point, just like you would when folding a paper plane. Roll the point back into the dough and keep rolling towards you, pushing down at each roll so there’s no air trapped in between the rolls. Place the loaves, seem side up, in the proofing baskets. If you do not have a proofing basket (like most) use a baking dish or basket lined with a floured tea-towel. Cover with a plastic bag and place in the fridge for 8-12 hours (overnight).

 

Folding the dough to form loaves. I used kaipseeds in this mix which explains the grains!

Folding the dough to form loaves. I used kaipseeds in this mix which explains the grains!

Next day, remove the loaves from the fridge and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot. The loaves should increase in size, this will take about 1 – 4 hours. While this is happening preheat the oven to it’s highest temperature. We have a wood-fired oven which I get up to about 300°C. When I was using my kitchen oven, baking the loaves on a pizza stone, the oven could reach about 275°C. The loaves are ready to bake when you push on the dough and it bounces back – leaving no trace of your fingerprint. If the dough collapses once pushed the loaf has over-proved and needs to go in the oven ASAP. Once ready remove the loaves from the proofing baskets. Gently does it, you don’t want to bump any of the air out of the loaves.

Just before putting in the oven slash the loaves down the middle with a serrated knife (however, do not slash if over-proved). Get the loaves into the oven immediately after slashing them. As the loaves go into the oven put a couple of ice blocks on the base of the oven. This will create a humid environment in the oven ensuring the loaves will not crust up too quickly, allowing them to rise to their full extent. The loaves will take about 30 minutes to cook, however, keep an eye on them every 10 minutes. Cooking time will vary between ovens. The loaves are cooked properly when they sound hollow once tapped on the base.

Allow the loaves to cool for 20 minutes and enjoy a slice with butter and any other spread you prefer…maybe some marmalade!

Window Sill Pots

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Window sill pots

I’m trying to trick these little seeds into thinking it’s spring from the inside. It worked last year. I planted over 100 seeds to make little herb pots for table decorations at our wedding. This year I’m working on a smaller scale for our kitchen garden. Three pots, I think, will do us! We have more hardy herbs in the garden. This time I’m coaxing basil, sage & oregano along to be great things. Once they’re big and strong I can introduce them to the elements, but until then they’ll stay in the comfy environs of the central heated kitchen window sill.

Use good quality soil, such as a terracotta pot mix, and place behind a window that gets a lot of sun, preferably a north facing window. Plant the seeds according to planting instructions of the packet. Basil, coriander, sage, oregano, thyme, chives, dill and parsley should all grow well.

I can’t wait to see these little beauties come up…more than watching food I LOVE to watch seeds grow into seedlings.

Marmalade

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MarmaladeI have just undergone my yearly attempt to keep my father-in-law happy…making marmalade. I could tell you that I whipped up this batch of marmalade with ease, but that would be a lie. What a nightmare it’s been to produce these 8 bottles of golden marmalade! After traveling back from Melbourne after a long lunch I started the first batch at 9pm on a Sunday. I had pilfered Dad’s orange tree just before we jumped in the car. According to Stephanie Alexander you must cook the oranges immediately, so I did. The next evening, after work, I added the sugar to cook the marmalade until a setting point. I thought I had reached it…clearly not. Two nights later, I had to be in Melbourne for a seminar for work on the Tuesday night, I went to re-set the jam by cooking it down some more. By this stage it was getting past caramelized and bordering on burnt. It still didn’t set! The icing on the cake came the next day when I decided to give up and start again, I still had HEAPS of oranges left. I was transferring the jam from the jars to the bin via plastic bags. Obviously my jam was too heavy for the bag…it ended up all over the verandah. Sigh. Moving right along…

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My second batch seems to have worked well! I must admit that I did add some Jamsetta…I couldn’t face the disappointment a second time. Andy was given some excellent advice from the coffee van man. The reason why my marmalade probably wasn’t setting was because the pectin content of the fruit wasn’t high enough. The older the fruit, the higher the pectin content. The fruit I was using from Dad’s tree, although ripe, probably could have done with a little longer on the tree for marmalade. Aunty Sue also got some advice from her brains trust on the issue…Boolarra wool group. I think I needed more sugar according to their advice.

Anyway, with my marmalade making over for another year, here is what I found triumphant. I have adapted this recipe from Stephanie Alexander’s Seville Marmalade recipe. I found the water content too high in that recipe so have adjusted to what worked for me.

Ingredient
1kg prepared oranges
3L of water per 1kg of prepared fruit
1/2 tsp of salt per 1kg of prepared fruit
Sugar – LOTS! The amount will depend on the quantity of fruit, see method.

Method

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERACut the oranges in half and remove the pith with a small paring knife. Thinly slice the oranges (I used a mandolin) and place them in a large pot, measuring as you go. Once you have all your fruit add 1.5 litres of water per 500 g of prepared fruit. On the stove, bring to the boil and simmer until the rind is soft – this should take a bit over an hour, but keep an eye on it. Let this sit overnight in the pot or a covered stainless steel bowl.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe next day, add sugar to the existing orange mix in equal quantities. I use cup measurements, with my quantities I had 9 cups of prepared fruit, including liquid, so I added 9 cups of sugar. Cook for about half an hour. Mine still wasn’t setting so I added some Jamsetta at this point, follow the instructions on the packet. To check whether your marmalade is set, place a couple of saucers in the freezer. When ready to test the marmalade take the saucer out of the freezer and put a teaspoon of the marmalade onto the saucer. After 30 seconds draw your finger through the marmalade – if it’s going to set properly the two sides of marmalade you’ve created shouldn’t join up together.

Once the marmalade is ready, pour into sterilized jars. (I had the most delightful experience shopping for jars in a second hand shop in Warragul – beautiful assistants, old school music, amazing collection of second hand goods – the jars were the cleanest jars I’ve seen! A seriously delightly lunch break from work). To sterilize, I boil the jar lids and put my clean jars in a hot oven for at least 10 minutes.

Enjoy this marmalade on a slice of fresh sourdough or a croissant…heaven.

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Sourdough Starter

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Before making delicious sourdough bread you need a sourdough starter, or culture. The starter’s not made of much but if you mix together flour and water and leave it for a while something amazing happens. When left for a bit, making sure you feed and love it, your gluggy mixture will develops natural yeasts and good bacteria. The starter is initially high maintenance, but once it gets going and you’ve got the hang of it you’ll be able to put it in the fridge and forget about it for about a week. I even managed to go away for 4 weeks and it still survived!The easiest way to get a starter is to ask someone who’s already got one for some. A portion of the starter is regularly discarded so it’s no problem to give some away. Besides, you don’t need much old starter to make a new starter. If you don’t know anyone though, you can start your very own from scratch. (My cousin gave me some of his starter to get me going…but I killed it. Too embarrassed to ask him for more, given that he lives interstate, I started my own from scratch.) It will take a week to see some results but before you know it you’ll have a deliciously smooth and bubbly starter.

As always, a little note on ingredients. There’s only 2 ingredients to worry about but they are important. Starters are best when they’re pure. Try and source some stone-ground organic, or biodynamic, flour and use only filtered water. Our water in Warragul is pretty good, but I still filter it.

Now that you’re ready follow the schedule below.

sourdourg starter ing1

 

 

 

Keeping your starter alive & well

The starter loves routine, just like us. We like to be fed about the same time everyday, or at least I do! I feed my starter in the morning as it’s the most consistent time for me to be home. Keep at room temperature. If you live in a warm climate, ah-hem Darwin ah-hem, put your starter in the fridge to sleep at night. The warmer the starter the quicker it eats. Leaving it out in the heat all the time will cause the starter to starve…no one wants that! Try using a see-through container or bucket to grow your starter so you can see all the bubbles. The starter will be fed different quantities depending on whether you are about to bake with it or just maintaining it. See below.

What to do with the starter in between bakes

Once your starter is established you can relax the feeds. I usually only bake once a week (if that, although sometimes it can be more). After I have finished baking I will mix together 50ml water & 50g flour and add to that 2 tbsp active starter. I will leave that in the fridge until I am ready to feed it up again for the next bake. If it’s going to be a couple of weeks before I bake with the starter I will refresh the starter by repeating the above process, discarding the rest. If the starter is left idle for too long a film of black liquid forms on top and comes with a bit of a pong. It’s not all doom and gloom. It just needs to be refreshed over a few days and it will be back to its happy bubbly self in no time. Last year when I was on holidays for four weeks I did an experiment. I put one container of starter (100ml water & 100 flour with 2 tbsp of active starter) in the fridge and another in the freezer. I thought it was a bit extreme to have someone look after my starter while I was away, we already had friends looking after the dog. But, don’t think it didn’t cross my mind! Anyway, upon return the starter from the fridge was much more successful in its revival. Although, I had read that it is possible to freeze sourdough starter – maybe I was using wrong quantities.

Priming your starter for use

Prior to baking with the starter you’ll have to fatten up the starter quite quickly. I usually mix my bread in the evening. The first feed of the starter begins 1 day before I am going to mix the dough, eg. Mixing on Friday night I start feeding the starter Thursday morning. Second feed is the night before (Thursday night), third feed the morning of the mixing day (Friday morning).

sourdough starter ing2

 

 

 

The starter will grow quickly, make sure the container has lots of headroom.

1st Feed

1st Feed

2nd Feed

2nd Feed

 

 

 

 

 

Now that your starter is up and running, make sure to make some sourdough!

Massaman Shanks

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANothing says winter more than a le creuset in the oven. This little one-pot-wonder will certainly warm you up! The recipe is super simple. The only trick, as with all great winter dishes, is that it needs to be started in the afternoon as it takes a couple of hours to cook. However, the prep time is very little. I have used a Massaman base for this but you could substitute for another curry base.

Serves 2

Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 jar Massaman curry paste
2 lamb shanks, 3 if you’ve got a hungry boy to feed
1 x 250ml can of coconut milk
250ml chicken stock
1 large desiree potato, 1.5cm dice
1 red capsicum, sliced
handful green beans, cut into thirds
1/4 cup dry-roated peanuts, chopped
steamed rice to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. In an oven-proof pan heat oil and massaman curry paste. Once the aromatics of the paste have released add the lamb shanks. Once browned add the coconut milk and stock.

Cover the pot and place in the oven. The shanks will need to cook for about 2 hours until tender. After an hour add the potato and stir through the sauce. If the shanks are sitting out of the fluid, turn them over and return to the oven.  With about 20 minutes to go (when the shanks are pretty soft and almost falling off the bone) add the capsicum and beans to the pot. Stir them through and return it to the oven. At this point, get the rice on.

Once the rice is ready the veggies should all be cooked – the potatoes will be incredibly creamy (they are in fact so amazing you’ll struggle to stop eating them). Sprinkle with peanuts and serve with steamed rice and naan – perfect for mopping up the sauce.

For a lighter option, why not try caramel chicken?

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Yellow!

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This week has been all about yellow in the garden. The first daffodils have popped their pretty little faces and we have our first yellow lemon. I’m particularly excited about the lemon as we’ve only had the tree for 2 years. We were told by the man at our local nursery that it wouldn’t fruit for 3 years. It must have something to do with the acidic soil Andy has been providing it…

Shouldn’t be too long before we get some snow peas (first flower spotted today) and some more bulbs. Can’t wait to harvest the rhubarb to make some jam!

daffodil collage

 

The lucky first lemon was sacrificed for delicious lemon & sugar crepes.

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Caramel Chicken

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Caramel ChickenThis recipe is super tasty and super quick and easy to whip up. Great for a mid-week dinner when you REALLY don’t feel like cooking but know you should resist the temptation to take another cheeky option. If you’re feeling super healthy you could serve with brown rice, a little less health basmati rice and if you want to go all out serve with jasmin rice. This recipe has been adapted from Bill Granger’s Bill’s Open Kitchen

Serves 4.

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 brown onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
8 chicken thighs, halved
freshly cracked black pepper
60ml dark soy sauce
30ml fish sauce
1.5 tbsp brown sugar
steamed rice and steamed greens, such as asparagus, bok choy & broccolini, to serve

Method
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan (make sure you have a compatible lid) over a medium heat. Add onions and sauté for 3 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add chicken to pan and lightly brown. Season liberally with freshly cracked pepper. Add soy sauce and stir to combine. Cover with the lid, reduce heat to low and cook for10 minutes.

Remove the lid and increase the heat to medium-high, add the fish sauce and brown sugar and stir to combine. Cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes until the sauce has thickened. It should be coating the chicken well at this stage.

Serve with rice and greens.

Looking for another easy mid-week chicken dish? Try my pad thai.

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Red Velvet Cupcakes

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Velvet cupcakesRed Velvet…so hot right now! First time I saw it I asked my friend Katie “What is it?” She tried so hard to explain it to me at the hipster café in Brunswick where we were lunching. I just couldn’t get it. It’s red…if it’s not raspberry then what flavour could it be? I don’t care about the details anymore. After trying it, I found out for myself that the flavour is DELICIOUS!

This recipe will make 12 cupcakes. Or it will make a 20 cm cake…or if you double the recipe it will a make 2 layer cake. Makes a pretty special celebration cake, just like I made for Karen’s 60th!

Preheat oven to 180°C

Ingredients
60g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
10g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1.5 tsp white vinegar
Cream Cheese Icing
150g cream cheese
50g cream, lightly whipped
2 tbsp pure icing sugar, sifted

Method
In a mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in egg until well combined. In a small bowl, mix cocoa, food colouring and vanilla to a paste. Add to the butter mixture and incorporate fully.

On a slow speed add half of the buttermilk until just combined followed by half of the flour until just mixed. Repeat with remaining buttermilk and flour. Combine the bicarb of soda and vinegar. Add this with the salt to the mixture and beat only until they fully incorporated.

Spoon into cupcake patty pans until 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes. If making a cake cooking times will need to be adjusted.

While the cupcakes are baking make the cream cheese icing. I prefer to whip the cream until just shy of soft peaks, then beat through cream cheese and icing sugar until well combined.

Once the cupcakes have cooled either pipe or spread icing on to the cupcakes. If you’ve got something red, pretty and edible on hand feel free to sprinkle over your beautiful little cupcakes!

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