Sunday 26 January - Cheesemaking

We love trying to make things from scratch - it's even better if Bob gets to make a bit of equipment to help with the cooking. It's a horrible wet weekend, so we decided to make some cheese.

The first stage began yesterday - a litre of milk was warmed , and a pack of starter added to it. This then had to ripen for 24 hours before it could be used. The spare starter has gone into the freezer in icecube bags for next time.

Here is the equipment needed to make cheese  -  the press is Bobs contribution. A thermometer is probably the most vital bit of kit to ensure success.

The ingredients we used - we used gold top milk this time, hoping to get a nice rich end result.

Stage one is to warm the milk very slightly, and add the starter to it - it's then left for 45 minutes.

\Next the rennet goes in - 5 drops in a bit of cooled boiled water.

Then it is left to form the curds - we went shopping and came home to find it was ready.

Once the curds have set, a pallet knife is used to cut them.

\Next stage is to very, very slowly warm the pan, whilst stirring by hand.

Then drain the curds through some cheesecloth in a colander.

\Next, drain the curds by hanging and leaving to drip - this took as long as a weeks worth of ironing!

The firm block of curds is then sliced and layered.

It is then chopped into small pieces and salted.

Finally, it's scooped into a cheese mould lined with muslin, and placed in the cheese press.

It will stay in the press for a couple of days - with the pressure gradually being increased.
Then it will be brined, and wrapped, and left to mature - we should get to taste this in 2 to 3 months.

T

This is the cheese after two weeks maturing - the second one is a week younger and has annatto added for colour.

Bit of an update as the first of the cheese was sampled on 3rd April - it has quite a mild flavour, a bit like a Lancashire. Quite pleased with the results!

Saturday 25 January - Tom Kerridge Cookathon

Another Cookathon night for the Facebook Group, and the chosen chef for this week was Tom Kerridge. I chose the Belly Pork with Cavolo Nero Salsa and Lentils  - mainly because I had most of the ingredients in, and this fabulous Cavolo Nero is about the only thing flourishing on the allotment at the moment.

The belly pork was placed in brine for 24 hours - there is an error in the recipe book as it has far too much salt in it - fortunately I was aware of this as Jen had spotted a tweet from Tom Kerridge about this. The brine was salt, brown sugar and some herbs and spices.

Once brined the pork was slow roasted.

The lentils were cooked with white wine, bacon and onion until tender.

Finally the Salsa, which was the star of the whole meal. The cabbage and was blanched and drained, along with mint and parsley. This was then finely chopped with capers, garlic and anchovies.

The chopped ingredients were added to lemon zest and chopped shallot, seasoned with cayenne and olive oil was added to make a rough salsa.

I didn't feel the brining added a lot to the final dish, but the Salsa was definitely one to do again.

Sunday 5 January - Sausage and Black Pudding Plait

We caught part of an episode of a Paul Hollywood programme where he was making this - George announced it looked nice, and as this doesn't happen often decided to make it.

I didn't however make the pastry, as no time to do this, or really any reason to make puff pastry.

There were three layers to the plait - the first one was finely chopped mushrooms - dry fried until the moisture had evaporated.

 

Next the sausage meat mixed with chunks of Bury Black Pudding.

 

and finally a layer of caramelised red onions

The pastry was rolled out and the layers were  placed in the middle.

 

Then came the fun part with the plaiting - not quite how we saw it done on TV but it seemed to work ok...

 

Once it was all plaited up, it was brushed with egg and sprinkled with sesame seeds before baking and slicing. This made enough to have for two meals so it will be used up with jacket spuds and baked beans during the week.

Saturday 14 December - Christmas Chelsea Buns

Some festive ingredients to make some festive Chelsea Buns

I started off by making some bread dough in the bread machine (it's a bit too cold in my kitchen for dough to rise at the moment). I enriched a basic bread dough by adding egg and milk instead of water.
Once risen it was rolled out into a rectangle, and sprinkled with some brown sugar, cinnamon, and the cranberries and pecan nuts. I also dotted a bit of butter of the dry ingredients

The dough was rolled tightly from the long side -

and then cut into nine even slices. I've found the best way to cook this sort of bun is in a square cake tin, but with some reusable silicon liner at the bottom.

The buns were left to rise again, then cooked in a hot oven.

Icing was drizzled over while still warm - I mixed some icing sugar, cinnamon and a dash of maple syrup, then added warm water until it was thin enough to drizzle over the buns.

They need to be eaten the day they are cooked really, as go stale quite quickly.

Friday 13 December - Chicken Makhani (Butter Chicken)

We often like a curry on a Friday night, and this one from the Hairy Bikers book has proved to be a popular choice in this house.
It's similar to a Tikka Massala in that the chicken pieces are cooked separately in a marinade before being added to a cream and tomato sauce.

The spice mix first - whole spices were roasted and then whizzed in our spice grinder - cloves, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, cardamom and black pepper.
 

To this the powdered spices were added - hot chilli powder, paprika, turmeric and salt

Half of this spice mix was stirred into some thick yoghurt along with ginger and garlic paste and the cubed chicken was left to marinate for as long as possible.

Once marinated the chicken was threaded onto skewers and grilled.

For the sauce - onions, garlic and ginger were fried, then the remaining spice powder was added along with tomatoes, tomato puree and some water and it was left to simmer until soft. The sauce was pureed until smooth and a tub of creme fraiche was added, along with the cooked chicken.

We also made some naan bread to serve with the curry, which we cooked on a pizza stone in a very hot oven.

The finished dish went down very well, although there seemed to be rather too much sauce for the meat.

Saturday 30 November - Hairy Bikers Cookathon

A Facebook page I belong to 'What's For Dinner Tonight Mum' has set a monthly challenge where we vote for a Chef or food writer, and on the designated night we all cook recipes from the winner and the photos of our food are tweeted to them.

Tonight was the first time I've taken part, and the chosen chefs were the Hairy Bikers.

My main course was pork in pastry.

Pork fillet was coated in seasonings and chopped rosemary and sealed  quickly.

 

The cooled pork was wrapped in German cured Black Forest Ham and then in pastry that was covered in grated emmental cheese.

 

This was rolled up, eggwashed and baked until the pastry was crisp. We served with vegetables and goose fat roast pototoes - I also made a red wine sauce as it seemed it would all be rather dry, and this worked very well.

After that something not too heavy was required - Flan -or Creme Caramel Spanish style.

The main difference was that a cinnamon stick was steeped in the milk before adding to the vanilla and egg mix.

 Poured over caramel and baked in a bain marie in the normal way.

We served it with cream and fresh fruit - lovely after a heavy main course.