I go through my phrases with cooking - I'm definitely not cooking as much lately, as much as I want to.
The thought that I have to pack up everything in the kitchen in a few weeks time does stress me out quite a bit. I'm trying to use up everything I have in the pantry, and not to increase new ingredients. It's just too easy for me to pick up bits and pieces for some one off dishes and keep the rest to use later, and end up, having quite a bit of left overs in the pantry. Some of the items I do use quite frequently. Like all different types of flour, self raising, chick pea, polenta, semolina, tapioca, whole meal, rye.... They do end up in different jars and containes, and all different types of sugars and syrups etc etc etc.... argg.... the panic of packing!
So the strategy is trying not to replace the item used, including every day items like cheese, butter, flour, I don't mean don't replace any, but reduce to just one type of every major category, so by the time I have to pack up the pantry for the worker to do the demolishing work, it will be easier.
But that also means I have to cook a bit less of varieties of things until my new kitchen's in, which is about a month and 2 weeks away.....
However, there are a few items I'd like to keep it going, including the yoghurt, and the sourdough. I have to keep the yoghurt culture alive as well as the sourdough starter. They are my babies, although I haven't really named them yet!
I bought some tubs of strawberries for the children's school lunch box. There were some left so I decided to make some strawberry yoghurts.
It's simple. Add 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp water to half tub (around 100g-125g) of cleaned strawberries, bring it to boil on stove top, let it simmer for a few minutes to maximise the strawberry taste in the syrup.
My children don't like the actual fruit in their yoghurt so I took the cooked strawberries out leaving just the strawberry syrup.
The rest steps are the same as making any other yoghurt.
Bring 1 lt full cream fresh milk to boil, I usually let it simmer for 10-15 minutes, let it cool to 110F or 43.6C, add the strawberry syrup to cooled milk, and 2 tbsp of warm plain yoghurt, leave it in the thermo pot to keep the heat over night.
Home made yoghurt are nicer with all the fresh ingredients.
I have been making yoghurt for myself for a while, I like plain yoghurt, simple to make, can be used in cooking, dips and add a bit of fruit, coulis, jam, it's great for a snack.
However, I have been having trouble converting my whole family into home made yoghurt, maybe sometimes, but not all the time. They are used to the sweet taste of flavoured yoghurts.
So recently, I have been making Vanilla Honey Yoghurt for them, it's easy, and it has the natural taste and as many natural ingredients I can put in.
It's simple.
1 lt milk, full cream, good quality milk, it's always a good sign to tell if milk is really milk - some milk can't be made into yoghurt. Can we trust any products these days?
2 heap tablespoon of full cream milk powder
1 tsp vanilla essense
3 tbsp white sugar
1 heap tablespoon of good quality honey
2 heap spoon of plain yoghurt (home made will be best, you know what's in there, otherwise try to get organic yoghurt, full cream. There are yoghurts sold in shops that will not make yoghurt)
Bring the milk to boil and then reduce heat to a slow simmer, let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Let milk cool to around 110F or 43-45C, add to the mixture of milk powder, vanilla, sugar and honey, stir through till smooth, and let sugar dissolve, add the room temperatured plain yoghurt to the milk mix.
I use my trust worthy thermo pot to keep the yoghurt warm over night, it can be a slow oven of 43C (110F).
Usually it takes 7-8 hours, the yoghurt will set in pot, and leave it at the back of the fridge to cool. If it's left in a warm spot, yoghurt culture will keep multiplying.
Ready to be consumed when it's chilled!
I love home made yoghurt, it has a different texture and so much nicer. I normally just make plain yoghurt, and add on home made jam or sauces, or sometimes just drizzle with honey.
Plain yoghurts are in cakes and other dishes when yoghurt is needed, so it makes sense to make plain ones. I've posted how I make my yoghurt, but nowadays, I usually make 1 litre at a time.
It's simple to make yoghurt at home, the method is here.
For the cranberry sauce, it's a sweet sauce but not as thick as jam as I didn't use gelatin.
Soak dry cranberries in some sherry over night.
Add enough water to cover and raw sugar (or white sugar).
Add some mixed spice powder and cinnamon, reduce to thickish consistency.
It's nice as a snack or part of breakfast.
I have been making yoghurt for a while, so part of the come home thing to do is to make a new batch of yoghurt.
I've been away for 3 weeks so I didn't have any yoghurt left from my last batch, so I bought a small tub - 200ml of natural yoghurt as starter.
Making yoghurt is relatively simple, and I normally make plain flavour yoghurt as I can use it for dips, marinate meats or add a bit of home made jam and fruit or honey, as brekky.
2L Full Cream Milk
200ml natural yoghurt (plain)
Boil the milk in pot until scalding.
Cool the milk in cold water or just leave it as is till around 110F, or 43C.
Add in the yoghurt.
Put it in Thermo Pot to keep temperature the same for 8-10 hours. You will see the yoghurt forming and solidifying.
I usually make 1L at a time and normally takes about 5-7 hours.
When the yoghurt is made, put in the pots or any fridge friendly jars etc and keep at the back of the fridge, it will keep for 2-3 weeks, label them if need to.... And leave some for the next batch of yoghurt.
No additives, no artificial flavouring... you don't need gelatine or starsh to set your yoghurt.... Enjoy.
I wasn't able to eat meat lately, but Graeme loves the lamb mid loin chops..... Luke's starting to eat lamb and the chops are his favourite part of the lamb. Monique... hmm... she eats some normally.
But as always, I couldn't decide what to do until the last minute. Life of a home cook is always like openning up a mistery box... That's the view shared by most forumists on the Masterchef Forums. We use what we can, and we adapt the recipes as we go... After all, I do have a budget to keep and we have to cook with what we've got.
I did have the intention to make pita bread again, but somehow, I changed my mind, so it end up with normal cheesy buns... Sourdough of course.
This is what I did with the chops:
Red Wine Chops:
6 Lamb mid loin chops.
1/3 cup of red wine
Chopped fine mint
Mixed Dry Herbs
Cracked Black Pepper
Pitch of salt
1.5 tbsp of golden syrup
Half of lemon
Yoghurt Dip:
1/3 cup Greek Yoghurt
1 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 of lemon
½ tsp salt
Simple Salad:
1 Lebanese Cucumber, de-seeded and diced.
2 Roma tomatos, diced.
A few sprigs of coriander and spring onion.
¼ lemon juice
Cracked pepper and 1.5 tbsp olive oil
Marinate lamb chops in red wine, mint, dry herbs, salt, golden syrup and lemon juice for 1-2 hours (I must say I do miss warmer weather when my herbs are growing and I don't have to use dry herbs all the time, at this moment, there's only corriander and spring onion in the garden, very few others like winter. Must get a small green house?)
.
Grill on griller pan till meat is pink in the middle, keep the charcoal marks, look pretty like that.
Mix yoghurt (drain water as much as you can) and lemon juice and mix with salt and garlic.
Mix salad and add in olive oil and lemon juice.
Cheesy bread recipe will be listed separately.
Ever since I learned how to make sourdough breads from Susan of Wild Yeast Blog, I'm hooked on sourdough... and so are my friends...
Thanks Susan!
Please refer to Susan's step by step guide on Sourdough Starter from scratch
At the meantime, I'm happy with my Kalamata Olives & Greek Yoghurt loaves, made using my starter, which is 100% hydrate starter
Kalamata Olives & Greek Yoghurt Sourdough Loaf
80g Sour dough starter
1 tbsp salt
100g Greek Yoghurt
500g strong bread flour
200ml water
50ml Olive Oil
Mix all ingredients and knead well.
Knead for 6 minutes and stand for 30 minutes, repeat 6 times. The dough should be pretty wet, but will be able to knead to elastic through the process.
Add olive oil around the bowl and cover with damp cloth to prove until double sized.
Shape dough into desired shape and prove again till double sized.
Bake in 230C oven for 20-25 min.
I made 3 small loaves.
I've been using only small amount starters in my recipes because I'm making the bread over night.... and it's cold in Melbourne, you can't rush breads...
Submitting to Yeastspotting again...
