Scrummy Muffins

Having muffins for breakfast means getting up earlier, to finish the recipe started the night before, but theres something in getting up early, seeing the sun rise. Takes 5 mins to mix and knead the dough, then you have 40 mins or so to let them rest until cooking. Lots of time that for me at least was productive time. Shower, cup of tea, quiet time, putting dishes away....

And then breakfast of an English muffin straight off the grill with butter and local honey... mmmmm

I whinged the other day that my hubby almost never picks up the camera so he insists on taking one this morning. Thanks babe.

ENGLISH MUFFINS (sourdough recipe)

The night before: combine 2 C flour, 1C water and 1C starter

Leave overnight.

In the morning put 1C starter aside to keep, mix in

1/4C milk powder

1/2tsp baking soda

1/2tsp salt

1tsp sugar

and enough flour 1/2-1C to make a dough that sticks together.

Turn onto floured surface and knead well until smooth and no longer stickly, adding more flour if needed (for 2-3 mins.) Flour generously and roll to 1/2inch thickness. cut out with drinking glass about 7-8cm diameter. Place on parchment or silicon baking sheet sprinkled with polenta. Sprinkle more polenta on top.  (Should get about 16 muffins from this recipe)

Leave to rise, covered in a warm place at lease half an hour.

Cook muffins kind of like a pancake, in lightly greased pan - cast iron is best for this if available.

7-8mins on low-med heat (I set the timer and get other things done while waiting.

Have a happy day xo

another use for milk - cheese

My work has started getting milk delivered.

Problem is not everyone looks at the dates before they open the next bottle of milk...

Problem?

There were three unopened 2L bottles of milk at work today that were out of date...

So I thought I'd make cheese - Ricotta cheese is one of the most easy things to make in the world.

1. Put milk in a clean saucepan

2. Heat up to lukewarm

3. Put some lemon juice/vinegar - or as I tried tonight some junket or vegetarian rennet in the milk, stir then let the curds form (the white lumpy stuff in the photo below)

My experience is that with acids - like juice and vinegar - the curds are lumpy

With the rennet it formed a huge curd, which I then cut with a long knife into inch sized cubes and stirred while warm

4. use a slotted spoon to scoop the curds out into a colander (mine is one that was one that a large round of ricotta came in - so gets the perfect lines as seen in the next photo that is on the ricotta you purchase at the supermarket.)

5. Let it drain

6. If you want to you can use the whey for breadmaking, the yeast loves the protein in it.

 

I think Ricotta and spinach something is in order for dinner tomorrow night.

Have a Happy Day xo

Exciting new project... and chokes!

Very exciting to be asked to be part of a new blogging project -

can't say much yet but know it will be fun

And bless your world

and mine

For now you can see the photo shoot done to start setting up the blog....

Soup for lunch!

Made from Jerusalem Artichokes straight from the garden.

These were planted in the spot they're growing about three years ago, got a harvest the first year, then little the next, then they were mulched over with newspaper and woodchips and suddenly they made a reappearance!

They are a member of the sunflower family and you just eat the tuber - great sliced thinly in salads, pureed and mashed, or just baked.

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup.

Saute One onion diced in 20-30g butter.

Add 500+g jerusalem artichokes (scrubbed and chopped roughly) and 1 litre vegetable stock

Bring to boil and simmer 15 mins or until soft. Puree and season.

Delicious!

Lots happening at the farm... all 1/8 of an acre of it :)

I am loving having a strong set of arms (belong to my husband) who is happy to dig holes, move heavy things and is currently installing my fence between the lawn area and the vege garden area. All the posts are in now, just need two more recycled hardwood rails - from my BIL who is renovating his and my sister's house and ripped out some walls.

I have been busy in the kitchen...

Sourdough english muffins for breakfast this morning...

Sundried tomato and olive sourdough loaf....

And exciting to be bottling the first produce entirely from the garden! 4 size 20 jars of yummy rhubarb. I was given the plants from a special friend who was killed in a freak car accident shortly afterward and they are very special to me. This year I divided most of the original plants and they are doing so well. I always make sure I leave two leaves and one baby leaf on each plant when I am picking it.

Sourdough loaf (you need starter from a friend or watch multitudes of youtube videos on how to grow your own.

Feed your starter with a flour/water mix the night before

Before work the next morning....

1 cup starter

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar or honey (only if going to be a fruit loaf)

I put all these in a mixer with a dough hook and then add plain flour (mix of regular and wholemeal) until dough forms a lump and comes away from the sides.
Then place dough - still a bit sticky - in an oiled bowl and turn a few times to coat in oil (stops it drying out) Put the whole bowl in a plastic shopping bag and leave all day.

When you get home from work.

Tip dough (should have about doubled in size) onto well floured bench.

For a plain loaf - knead a minute or two then put in loaf tin

for a fruit loaf - knead a minute then use fingers to spread dough out into a rectangle. Sprinkle mixed fruit (I am using sultanas/raisings and dried plums at the moment) and 1 tsp mixed spice onto the bread, then fold it over and knead the fruit through a little. Place in loaf tin.

For a savoury loaf. Do the same but use sundried tomatoes and olives (no pits) chopped roughly and I use mixed italian herb sprinkle too. Place in loaf tin.

Leave for 1-2 hrs. (I have noticed that there is a warm spot just in front of my oven... not sure why, but tins go there while oven heats up)

Bake in a hot oven 200-220'c for 30-35 mins

Should pop out of tin straight away.

(loaves can also be made freeform on a pizza stone)

delicious toasted.... just had two slices of fruit toast to prove it.

Anyone have any other interesting sourdough recipes

Hannah xo

learning new skills

A year or two ago I bought some cake decorating equipment at a garage sale. My grandma has a history of beautiful cake decorating, equisite fine lacework and my parents wedding cake (in fact every wedding cake of my aunts and uncles) my dedication cake and other special events were all celebrated with cakes she had made.

Today I spent the morning with a friend from church learning and experimenting with how to use some of the equipment I had purchased. These are the piped butter icing cakes, a sunflower, a flower and a swirl. Then we played with fondant, and I made a rose and a carnation. Amy my friend has attended two short courses and then taught herself the rest, and is very inspiring. She was very impressed with the supplies I had bought... and it may have inspired her to start attending garage sales :)

I had one of the cakes for afternoon tea with a cup of earl gray, and it was very nice.

Then while I listened to a uni lecture, I made cassoulet - I have been wanting to make this since we ordered it on our honeymoon in july and it was delicious, both then and now. I roasted vegetables to go with it, and the sage, leeks, kale, potatoes and sweet potatoes were from my garden! And served with my sourdough bread... The proportion of food from the garden is steadily increasing...

I didn't find this recipe on any of the websites, but the place we went served the dish with an amazing crumb, reminded me of farofa from brasil. The chef told me it was almond meal and sage in olive oil.

My version of sage crumb
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup almond meal
1 clove garlic crushed
small bunch sage leaves finely chopped
s and p
2 tbsp olive oil

Lightly cook garlic in oil then add other ingredients, turning to coat crumb with oil and prevent burning. Ready when fragrant and lightly brown. Serve generously sprinkled over cassoulet

Speaking of the garden, yesterday I visited a gardening friend and came away with a plum tree sucker I had been wanting ever since eating the fruit of one of the other trees, a fig tree, warrigal greens, leeks, carrot seedlings, mint, currant bushes, turnips, and land cress. Everything seems to be growing well, and the bunnies are enjoying the pepino leaves she picked for them.

ferment and family

I got a wonderful gift from a colleague at work - some sourdough starter. Her sister has had this one going for almost a year, and got it from someone else before that so I have no idea how old it is.
It was not very exciting looking when I picked it up, murky white underneath, with watery liquid on top, and faint bubbles coming through, a bit of a beery smell....

I quickly did some research on tending for my new aquisition and headed home to feed it... after a while it started to respond, as you can see in this photo, full of bubbles - a sign that it is alive and well, as the yeast and bacteria eat their way through the new flour.
I divided the starter and with some started making pancakes for the morning, and with the other fed it and in the morning, mixed up dough for a loaf of bread. The pancakes were amazing.

Recipe:
1/2-1 cup starter
mix with one cup flour and one cup water
Leave overnight

In the morning mix in one egg
2tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

It's ready to cook, they were lovely, thick and moist with lots of bubbles. Delicious with fruit and yoghurt, or jam/syrup

The bread was delicious too... I will post recipe and photos soon.....

Also had a lovely time on father's day at local cafe with my dad, siblings and some partners. My nephew was only a few weeks old last father's day. He's a toddler now and thinks he's very grown up

Garden Lovers Fair and hummus recipe

Last sunday I woke up, looked outside and felt a sigh of relief as I saw the sun. It was the sunday of the Garden Lover's Fair, annual fundraiser of our permaculture group, and the weather can be quite changeable at this time of year and the fair is amazing, the biggest collection of plant growers, seeds, garden supplies on the south coast, and this year we increased the focus on food products and sustainable living.

I spent a lot of time on the gate, and behind the permaculture stand, answering questions about growing food, living sustainably, meeting times etc, and eventually found some time to have a wander around, buy my spring seedlings (there's a store that does pick your own punnet - so I got a punnet with 2 each of tomato, capsicum and eggplant, and one with different herbs and some red onions.

Also got a strawberry guava and a lillipilli (native food producing plant) which I'm going to plant in my neighbours yard ( we have a hold in the fence so I can get in to water and harvest) and an orchid I have been wanting to get for a while... I then texted my hubby to say thankyou to him for buying me such a lovely gift.

One of the highlights was the cooking demonstrations that were put on by www.ifeelgood.com.au with a vege tagine, hummus and salad. I went home and made the salad and hummus monday night, and it was amazing...

1 tin of chickpeas drained

1/4 cup tahini (ground sesame seeds)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 clove garlic

salt

Put all in a food processor and start it, slowly adding water to the mix until it is a smooth consistency and able to be poured (like thick cream)

Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika and served with flatbread to dip.

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Homemade Ricotta - simply

Cheesemaking has always been on my list of things to do, and yet seemed scary with thermometers, tools, special things to add that you had to buy from victoria.....

When I saw this simple recipe for making ricotta on a blog that I follow (and forgive me because I can't even remember which one) I knew I had no more excuses. It looked too easy to stuff up.

1. Get milk. put it in a clean pot and heat. As soon as it starts to froth (but before it boils) cut off the heat if using gas, or take off the heat if electric.

2. Add one tablespoon of acid (either lemon juice or vinegar) per one litre of milk. Stir.

Within seconds this was what I saw in the pot. The curds (clumps of cheese) and whey (liquid) had separated and it looked a bit like off milk. funny that.

3. Get a strainer and line with cheesecloth, or if you're doing this after a meeting at 10pm at night and only the supermarket is open - a couple of chux type cloths.

This is what mine looked like before I poured the stuff in.

4. use a pot or bowl to collect the liquid that pours off. It's still very good for you. I used some that night to make up some bread and froze the rest for another batch in place of water.

5. Tie up the cloth around a wooden spoon so the mixture drains. Allegedly the more whey that is drained off, the longer it will last.

And this is the end result - Ricotta Cheese! I did it, and it was delicious. I put it in the yummy ricotta pancakes from Stephanie Alexander's kitchen garden book. Went down a treat.

If you've got some milk that's nearing the use by date. You know what to do!

B is for Bread

I have been wanting to start baking my own bread for a while, but the whole hours of work and kneading was not the most appealing thing in the world.

So when I came across the idea of no-knead bread with next to no effort involved, just a bit of time to do all the work, I had to give it a go. I found this website to be the most helpful, as it explains the why not just the how.

Basically put 3 cups plain flour, (I have been using 2 cups no-name and one cup of wholemeal organic flour) 1.5-2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp dried yeast in a bowl and mix. Now add 1.5 cups water and mix (I find I have to add just a bit more water to make it all come together. It should be sticky to touch, with no dry bits of flour left.

Cover this with gladwrap and leave overnight (I do the first step before going to bed at night, it takes less than 5 mins)

Optional step - in the morning get a spoon and beat the mixture down before covering again. Last loaf I made I forgot to do this and it had no discernable impact on the loaf.

The Yeast doing all the work

The following evening I heat up my baking dish - a rectangular cast iron casserole dish in a very hot oven, around 250 degrees celcius. It must be a dish with a lid. Initially I used two smaller dishes, hence the two loaves below, but now am just using one larger one, it's about 4 litres in size I'm guessing.

While that heats, I shake flour over the dough in the bowl, use a wooden spoon to pull it away from the sides and then tip it out onto a floured piece of baking paper. I roll it around a little to ensure that the whole loaf is floured and then when the dish is hot I flop the lot into it, cover and leave in the oven 30 mins.

Using the lid creates a steam like effect, that gives you a loaf like a bread artisan would make. After 30 mins take the lid off and cook for a further 15-20 mins at the same heat. Tip it out onto a wooden board, and listen to the crust crackle as it cools. It will be hard to wait, but if you can leave it for at least an hour it will be the best loaf you've ever eaten. Delicious plain, toasted, with oil and dukkah....oh the possibilities.

Loaves just out of the oven. (Can you hear them crackle)

Just looking at them is making me hungry, oh and the fact that it's lunch time

And this is the inside of a loaf. We have a woodfired sourdough place that sells loaves which don't taste much different to these for 6-7 dollars a piece. I reckon this one costs under a dollar and takes about 15 mins maximum time to make (plus 24 hours where you are not involved.)

I gave Allison some last night, and she said it was amazing. So amazing that she doesn't want the recipe, she just wants me to make it for her. Anyhow, hope some of you try it out. It really is failsafe. Well so far at least, and i'm on my third loaf and more coming!

Spicy Simmered Pork

I have only tried this with Pork, but imagine it would go well with chicken as well for those who don't like pork. For vegos, hmm, sorry. Promised this recipe for Shannon and Ian. This is adapted from a recipe in "Off the shelf" by Donna Hay I think

1/4c soy sauce
1/2c sugar
2 sml red chillies, seeded and chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon shredded ginger (I used grated fresh ginger)
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
1 teaspoon ground star anise
650grams boneless pork fillet (I used a pork leg steak cut into small strips)

Place all the sauce ingredients in a deep frypan. Heat over med heat 4-5 minutes. Add sliced pork and cook on both sides 1-2 minutes. Sauce should be simmering/slightly frothing.

Serve the pork on a salad of mixed leaves. (I used lettuce, parsley coriander and nasturtium leaves, book suggests mint and spring onions as well.)

Drizzle some of the remaining sauce over the salad.

Delicious.