Getting back to home made

It is well past time for me to get back into making more and buying less. I got out of the habit when overwhelmed with work+work+uni, but as the weather gets cooler and I have time before next semester I need to re-establish some good habits.

Step 1: Bread. I have a new sourdough starter fermenting which should be ready to start baking with it next week. In the meantime I will get back to making bread rather than buying it.

Step 2: I will start making yoghurt using the cultures I bought. I made a batch 2 days ago, and converted about 3/4 into labna (yoghurt cheese). My next experiment will be to infuse the milk with vanilla bean before making the yoghurt to see if I can come close to the flavour of 5am's very delicious (but expensive) vanilla bean yoghurt. I'll let you know how that goes.

Step 3: Get back into make some hard cheese. I think I'll start with caerphilly as it has a short maturing time, and we enjoyed it last time.

Step 4: Eat through the food we have in the pantry. We have loads of dried beans and I still have some ham bones and a hock or two so this excellent soup will be getting a few runs in the next couple of weeks. The presence of dozens of jars of fruit suggests that there will be a lot of crumble made and consumed in winter :-)

Getting back to the kitchen

It's been a bit of a foodie weekend here - in between my Harry Potter 1-7 marathon, which started mid week :-).

I made feta (cows milk) in between watching the prisoner of azkeban. It's a bit hard to see here in it's brine bath. I'm hoping this one turns out - the last one (goats milk) wasn't great because I forgot the calcium chloride, so it all fell apart. 

Shelling dried runner beans is the perfect activity while watching the goblet of fire.

Lunch was a mixed plate with leftover frittata (from Hugh F-W's Veg everyday book), and the start of the order of the phoenix.

Some chocolate date ricotta muffins were the perfect reward for ironing - enjoyed with  afternoon tea and the remainder of the order of the phoenix. I adapted the recipe found here - including substituting dates for the choc chips, and using a mix of Mayan chilli chocolate and green and blacks hot chocolate in place of the cocoa (I've run out). As a result I only used 100g of sugar (recipe calls for 250g). I could probably have left the sugar out altogether really as the hot chocolate mixes have sugar in them. However the chilli in the Mayan chilli chocolate gives them a nice warm kick. The Mayan mix comes from the fantastic Gewurzhaus in Melbourne (they do mail order too). If you're ever near one of their stores in Melbourne I do recommend it - it's like an Aladdin's cave, and I can easily spend half an hour or more just inhaling the aromas in each box.

I have also done various domestic and outdoor chores including vacuuming, compost making, and some pruning and weeding. I also made trips to the farmer's market, and to the gym. I don't want you to think it's all been sitting around eating and watching TV :-)

Now it's time for the half-blood prince, and perhaps some knitting? Oh, and getting the roast lamb on for dinner. Yum!

I DO like university holidays!!!!!

What have you been up to this weekend?

Sunday afternoon kitchen frenzy

After working all morning, the afternoon was a whirlwhind of kitchen activity.

First, I made some farmhouse cheddar.

Then I made a tea loaf. Then to make best use of the oven and some of the whey from the cheese I made 3 loaves of english "muffin" bread.

 

Then it was time to clear up the mess, and soak some kidney beans for tomorrow nights chilli.

Finally I made some dinner - Moroccan lamb casserole. Hope it tastes as good as it smells!

Now, where's my glass of wine..........

ooooooh aaar cheddar (with a Somerset accent)

Here it is, the last bit of my first organic farmhouse cheddar. Nearly forgot to take a picture!

There was a lot of liquid under the wax, but the cheese seems fine. It has a strong cheddarlike flavour, and a crumbly texture. In all not bad for my first cheese (although it's the second one I've eaten, as the Caerphilly was ready first).

Overall verdict, not bad. Of the two hard cheeses I've made and tried so far I think the Caerphilly was my favourite. Although my all time favourite is still the goats milk fetta I made a month or so ago.

And yes mama-in-law I will be making more cheddar for your visit  :)

Curds and Whey

Yesterday was another cheese making day.

Buoyed by the success of my Caerphilly from a few weeks ago I've been more adventurous and made Derbyshire. This is a cheese that will mature in 3 months rather than 3 weeks. Fingers crossed! It needs to dry for a few days then I'll wax it and pop it in the cheese fridge.

After making the cheese I had about 4 litres of whey left over. I could have used this to make some ricotta, but the yield is never that good, and I'm not a huge ricotta fan. Instead I fed 2L to the piggies, kept a litre to use in the chook mash, and used a litre to make 3 loaves of English muffin bread from Ricki Carroll's cheese book.

This bread is delicious toasted - a bit like a cross between a muffin and a crumpet. It also freezes very well. You can use milk if you don't have whey. The best part is no kneading!

Makes 3/4 loaves

• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 4 packets or 4 tablespoons active dry yeast
• Cornmeal (polenta) for sprinkling (I used wheat bran last time which I think was better)
• 12 cups bread flour or all purpouse flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarb)
  
• 4 cups whey or milk
• 4 teaspoons salt

Dissolve sugar in the water. Pour yeast into a large bowl, add the sugar water and let sit for at least 10 mins (it will froth up nicely).
Grease 3-4 loaf pans and sprinkle with cornmeal or wheat bran.
In another large bowl (large enough for 12 cups of flour plus mixing space!) put 6 cups of flour and the baking soda(bicarb).
Warm the whey and salt (or milk and salt) until just lukewarm, then stir this into the yeast mixture.
Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and stir to combine. Add remaining flour and work into a stiff, dry batter.
Preaheat oven to 200c (400F)
Spoon batter into tins, press flat, and let rise in a warm place until the dough is just at the top of the tin.
Bake for 30 mins

YUM YUM YUM

Waxed and ready to age

The first batch of Warrigunyah farmhouse cheddar waxed and ready to age in the cheese fridge.

First tasting in about 4 weeks....fingers crossed!

Another busy weekend

It's been another busy weekend! In between the outdoor chores I finally got around to making my first hard cheese on Saturday. I decided to start with a farmhouse cheddar as Rikki Carroll suggests it as a good first cheese.

I discovered part way through that my mould isn't big enough for the recipe!! So handy Jerry made me a temporary one out of an old honey container, and we mocked up a press using a few clamps from the shed. So I'll have a big and a small cheddar!

I also made a few loaves of english muffin bread using some of the leftover whey. It will be interesting to see how it tastes.

Sunday afternoon we measured up the new mini-orchard area for the new fruit trees we bought.
In the fruit tree department we now have

• 3 peaches - Elberta, Red Haven (both yellow freestones) and Lena Kirsten (white freestone)
  
• 2 apples - Granny Smith and Pink Lady
• 2 plums - Mariposa and Satusma (both blood plums)
  
• 2 nectarines - a dwarf variety and a regular - Emily Kirsten (white clingstone)
• 2 pears - A Williams and a Nashi (Nijisseiki)
• 2 apricots - can't rememebr the one from last year, but bought a Newcastle early today
• 2 cherries (Stella)
• 2 redcurrants
• 2 blackcurrants
• 1 gooseberry
• assorted berries
  

Should keep us going for a while :)

Making Ricotta

Matron of Husbandry over at the simple green frugal co-op posted some instructions a few days ago for making your own ricotta. It looked ridiculously easy- except for the milking your cow bit - I cheated and bought some from the store! - so with lasagne on the dinner menu last night I decided to give it a go.

I won't post the details here as the instructions in the link above are excellent. But here's a few photos to prove that it works! For those that are interested 2L of milk yielded 325g of ricotta. I used apple cider vinegar, and it required about 3 tablespoons (60ml) to get separation.

It's cheeeeese Grommit, but not as you know it

I discovered a very tasty Labna cheese (cheese made from yoghurt) at our local deli. However at $14 a jar, it was too expensive to buy often. So after scouring the 'net I found some recipes, realised how easy it was, and haven't looked back since then.

First step, get a kilo of greek yoghurt - I make mine with my easi-yo, but you could buy it from the store or make your own using another yoghurt making technique. It needs to be greek or thick yoghurt though.

To the yoghurt I add a splosh (that's a technical cooking term!) of olive oil, the zest & juice of a lemon, and some thyme. Give this a good stir.

Next step is to line a seive with cheesecloth, muslin or a clean chux, and pour the yoghurt in. At this stage you can cover the yoghurt with the cloth then put a plate with a weight on it (eg a can) on top to press down on the yoghurt. You want to force the liquid our of the yoghurt. If it's warm where you are pop this in the fridge for a day or so.

I tie my cloth up into a ball and then hang it in the pantry as it's nice and cool there at the moment.

After a couple of days you just scrape the cheese from the cloth, roll into balls and store in olive oil. Sometimes I don't bother with this step and just scrape the cheese into a container and pop it into the fridge. It never lasts long as it's so yummy!

I add the liquid to the mash for my chooks so nothing is wasted.