Bacon!

A post on one of the forums I frequent started me down this journey, the whole process looks so simple I’d be crazy not to give it a try. This lead to further research showing that home made sausages and salami should also be possible… Lacking a sausage maker, mincer or other necessary utensils I figured I might as well get started on the bacon, besides who doesn’t love bacon. My first step was to buy 200g of Prague powder cure #1, which is salt mixed with sodium nitrite and dyed pink. The pink colouring helps distinguish it from normal salt because in large enough doses sodium nitrite can kill a person! You don’t have to use the curing powder but it helps kill the nasty bacteria that forms in pork. A quick search on TradeMe put me in touch with a seller of Prague powder. This arrived on Friday which was excellent timing since I’m in Australia next week giving time for the meat to cure. Saturday I shot off to the local butcher to pork belly, unfortunately they only had one pack left and when I got home I found it still had a good portion of bone on it! Which is a disappointing start. Never mind, Sunday morning I de-boned the belly, mixed up the curing salt (for 900gm of meat): 2 Table spoons sea salt 2 Table spoons cane sugar 1/2 teaspoon Prague powder Pepper Cut the meat into two portions, covered then in the salt mix making sure get as much as possible covered then placed them in glad bags and into the fridge where they will be left to cure for a week or more. The left over bones will be cooked for lunch today so I coated them in a marinade and let the sit before they get grilled: Honey Sweet soy sauce clove of garlic Next time I think I will not use sea salt, or at least grind it into a finer powder, since it was quite grainy and I’m worried that it will take longer to dissolve into a brine now. Some useful links: Online converter - Weight to Volume Cure Calculator From Belly to Bacon

Ginger Beer Part Two

This week my Ginger Beer Plant arrived from the UK. The instructions I received with it advised that the GBP will be quite stressed after the time spent travelling (8 days) so it is best to treat it to a lemon bath to revive it. For this mix up a jar of water and sugar till it is sweet like tea, add the juice of a lemon and the GBP. Let it sit for a day or so then drain off the water the add fresh water, sugar and lemon. Repeat this until you begin to see bubbles coming off the GBP (shouldn’t take more than a couple of days). After two days I did the first water swap and tested the mixture, it had a nice zing to it, a bit like flat lemonade which is a promising start! This time when I topped the water up I didn’t add any lemon and used cane sugar, having read that this gives the mixture a caramel flavour. By Sunday the mix was starting to bubble, so I gave it one more wash, this time with lemon juice, cane sugar and white sugar in preparation for making Ginger beer on Monday (giving it time to ferment over the week while I’m away). What I’m planning on doing is splitting the plant into two batches, one with ginger and one without.

Terrine

Wikipedia's description of a terrine: A terrine (French pronunciation: [tɛ.ʁin]) is a French forcemeat loaf similar to a pâté, made with more coarsely chopped ingredients.
Terrines are usually served cold or at room temperature

How bland a description! Honestly, we're talking about a fine slice of deli here; one that is carefully sliced, flourishly served on a plate with gherkins, baby tomatoes and gourmet bread, then reverently served on the nicest bread you can lay your hands onto. Only to be devoured by the nearest four-year-old without so much as a passing thought as to how much labour went into making it.

How much labour do you ask?

Not much. It's actually surprisingly quick and easy. The ingredients are also pretty affordable and easy to obtain from supermarkets, making terrine a dish that would be best homemade than purchased.

The recipe below is adapted from Simon and Alison Holst.

What you need:

• 350 g chicken livers, rinsed & halved
• 1 egg
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1/4 ts ground cloves
• 1/2 to 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp sage leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1 Tbsp thyme leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 c sherry or 1 Tbsp brandy or cognac
• 500 g sausage meat
• 250 g thinly sliced bacon

There are two ways to do it. The original recipe was designed for slow cookers, which appealed to me for various reasons. If you'd like to go down this route, an often-overlooked but essential step is to ensure that your terrine pan fits inside the slow cooker insert. As I learnt - the hard way.
So now I'm using my oven.

1. Discard the fibrous bits from the chicken livers. An evil but necessary step if you want a smooth terrine. An easy and utterly disgusting way to do it is to lightly pinch one vein between your thumb and index, then slide through the lobes. Transfer to a food processor and add the egg, garlic and spices. Process until smooth, then add the sausage meat in golf ball-sized pieces and process again until smooth.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
3. Coat the inside of the loaf tin with non-stick spray if you're not using silicone, and line the long sides with bacon strips, leaving long ends to fold over the top of the terrine if you like. Spoon the processed mixture onto the bacon in the loaf tin. Fold the bacon ends over the top, then cover tightly with foil. Place a weight on the terrine.
4. If using a slow cooker: place the terrine on 2 metal lids in the slow cooker, pour in enough bath-temperature water to come halfway up the sides, then cover and cook on HIGH For 2-3 hrs or until the centre of the terrine feels firm when pressed through the foil.If using an oven: sit terrine a hot water bath and bake for about 1 hour.
5. Remove from the slow cooker or oven.
6. Cover with a piece of heavy, foil-covered card, then stand several cans on top to flatten the surface. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for up to 3 days. When ready to serve, unmould the terrine so its bottom is uppermost, and slice as required.
7. Serve sliced, on a platter, garnished with baby tomatoes, gherkins and rabbit food lettuce leaves. Accompany with slices of interesting crusty bread.

Terrines, being made from liver, are rich in iron and vitamin A.

(photos of the process to be posted next week-end. Or the week-end after.)

Ravioli

Tonight’s dinner was Ravioli, which is a favorite of Cecile’s.  To make the ravioli I use a ravioli tray Cecile bought on TradeMe. Our first attempt was with the dough made in our bread maker and hand rolled with a rolling pin. This was a bit of a disaster, we just couldn’t get the pasta sheets thin enough by hand. After we got the pasta machine I felt brave enough to give it another go. I went online to find different options and watch how-to videos. Turns out there are four ways to make ravioli; making each piece by hand (no show), with a special rolling pin, with a tray or with a special attachment to the pasta machine. The last option appealed to me the most, but they’re not easily available in NZ so I figured I’d give the rolling pin a try and ordered one from Amazon. At the some time I also ordered a pasta cutter. The rolling pin didn’t work out either. The way it works is that you spread out the filling between two sheets of pasta and then roll them together using the roller. This turned out to be messy and ravioli was small. So after the first attempt I pulled the old tray out for take two. Ingredients: Pasta 500g High grade flour 5 eggs Salt Filling 250g Ricotta 100g feta cheese 300g spinach Pine nuts Parmesan cheese Nutmeg Salt Pepper Make the pasta dough as per my earlier post. Mix the filling ingredients together in a bowl, adding seasoning and parmesan cheese to taste. Roll your pasta into sheets using the thinnest setting on the machine. Lay the sheet over the tray making sure that you cover all the edges and that you have enough of a tail to fold back over the tray again. Spoon in the filling then fold the tail of the sheet back over the tray. Pat the sheets together to squeeze out the air then using a rolling pin press the pasta sheet down so that the ridges on the tray cut the sheet. Don’t worry if you don’t get a clean cut. Peel out the sheet of ravioli and using a pasta cutter, cut them into individual pieces. From there move them to a tray that has a light sprinkling of flour.  Don’t stack them on top of each other or they will stick together. You can also put them in the freezer for a short time to stiffen the pasta and make it less sticky. To cook, bring a large pot of water to boil and drop in the pasta, the ravioli will float to the top when it is cooked. Take care not to over cook the pasta, it should be al dente. Drain the ravioli but don’t rinse it. To finish I heated some olive oil and garlic in the pan, added back the ravioli gave it a quick stir then put it in the serving dish and sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese. This will make enough for five adults.

Appelmoes / Compote

Appelmoes or stewed apple was a favourite dessert of mine when I was a kid. But it is one of those items that disappeared from the home menu over time… Fortunately we have a village market very close to us every Saturday morning in Mangere village and in-season apples can be found there for less than a dollar a kilo (ironic because the same apples still cost $2-3.00 a kilo in Pack ‘n’ Save not 500m from the market). So now when ever we see the price of apples go under $1.00/kg we buy a large bag full (about 6kg).
To make the appelmoes:

• peel and core the apples
• cut them into quarters
• add a little water
• add them to a large pot over a medium heat and cover, you want the mixture to simmer.
• add honey and cinnamon to taste.
• Mum adds an egg or two to her appelmoes, which helps thicken it a bit but our family prefers without.

Once enough apple has softened into a jelly like state you can use a potato masher to break up the rest with a potato masher, this has the added benefit of leaving nice apple chunks in the mix. When the mixture has cooled we measure it out (what hasn’t been eaten already!) into plastic containers to be frozen for a later date.
Apples can be substituted with pears or a mixture of apple and pear. The honey is optional as there’s plenty of sugar in the apples but what can I say… We’re a family of sweet tooths!

Pasta

A couple of years ago I gave Cecile a pasta maker for Christmas, as what often happens with these kinds of presents I end up getting a lot of use out of them while Cecile gets a lot of enjoyment. The pasta maker that I got was the Imperia SP150. Being an Italian brand I figured it would do the trick. The Imperia 150 is a compact unit that comes in two separate parts, the main one has rollers to progressively flatten the pasta into a sheet of the desired thickness. The second is an attachment with two blades to make either spaghetti or fettuccine. The whole thing clamps on to the bench top which is not as secure as I would like. The pasta maker came with a recipe that was easy to follow so I stuck with it: 400g high grade flour 4 eggs salt. If I want to increase the amount of pasta I make, I add an extra egg for every 100g of flour, I’m not sure if that is orthodox but seems to work. Some people mix the ingredients in a bread maker however I prefer to knead it, even though it takes more time: form the flour into a mound on the bench top make large crater in the middle and add the eggs and salt. with a fork mix the egg and flour together taking the flour from the inside edge. once it is all mixed knead the pasta dough. I often leave a little flour behind so that the initial mix is wetter and then add more flour towards the end. Once the dough is complete, wrap it in glad wrap and let it rest in a cupboard for half an hour or so. Next step is to cut off a portion of the dough, about a quarter or three fingers width. Flatten it out with a rolling pin then feed it though the rollers of the pasta machine on its highest setting. Fold it in three and feed it though again. Do this a couple of times, I’m guessing this helps make sure that the dough mix is even. Then run the dough through the rollers each time decreasing the setting by one. For fettuccine or spaghetti stop at the second to last setting. At this point you’ll have a sheet that is 40-50cm long, cut it into a more manageable length and lay it flat or hang it on a rack to rest for 10-15min. I normally proceed to cut up and roll out the rest of the dough, so that by the time it is all done the first lot is ready to be cut. At this point you can either use the sheets for lasagne, cut it into shapes, for ravioli or pass it through the blades for fettuccine or spaghetti. My preference is for spaghetti. To cook the pasta bring a large pot of water to boil then drop in the pasta and cook it for two to three minutes, no longer. Once cooked, drain the pasta in to a colander or sieve but do not rinse it under water. At this point the pasta is ready to serve, however I normally follow up by heating some olive oil, crushed garlic and fresh basil in the pan and mixing that through the pasta before serving. Unused pasta can be hung to dry and stored for a couple of days. While the cost of making your own pasta, both in time and ingredients cannot meet the cost of store brought dried pasta, the difference in flavour is day and night making it well worth the effort.

Ginger Beer

Both Thijs and I are both keen drinkers of ginger beer but the closest I’ve ever come to the home-made version is a batch that my Grandmother made many, many years ago and the key lesson from that was that it was possible to make ginger beer at home.
So I thought it was time to give it a go. Research on the internet revealed that traditional ginger beer is made from an organic culture commonly referred to as (not surprisingly) Ginger Beer Plant or GBP. GBP is actually a plant but a mixture of bacteria and yeast that live together in a symbiotic relationship. Being a living organism, real GBP has the added bonus of growing during the process of brewing ginger beer, so that you end up with more than you started with. For this reason it was plentiful and common in UK households and people weren’t able to give it away. Nowadays though it is a lot less common to find and people have resorted to the internet to trade GBP.
Being in New Zealand this is a little more complicated, while there are lots of Ginger Beer plants advertised on Trade Me most aren’t the genuine culture but a substitute that is only good for a couple of batches (at best). So in an effort to get the real thing I have ordered 50g of GBP from Jim at The Ginger Beer Plant who has experience shipping internationally. Being a living culture, care needs to be taken to ensure that it will survive the journey to around the world.
So now we wait for the package to arrive and hope that it isn’t intercepted if MAF decides that I’ve broken their rules by bringing it into the country.
More information on making your own Ginger Beer at the Guardian UK Word of Mouth blog or The Ginger Beer Plant Yahoo group