As a child, we killed our own beef on our station, so we ate a lot of beef. There is a lot of meat on an entire beast, and a most of it isn't fillet steak; lunch usually consisted of sliced cold meat and salad. With relish. When we packed lunches to take mustering, meat and relish sandwiches were the first choice; by the time we stopped riding for lunch (bottom numb, legs chaffed), the butter and relish would have soaked into the bread, making a delicious combination of buttery sweet and tart to wrap around the slabs of beef. My memories of mum's tomato relish come with the powdery dust of cattle camps and the smell of horse sweat, baking heat and tired muscles.
Mum had a vege garden that supplied us with enough food to last year round. We bought fruit, potatoes and onions, but the rest was from her garden. Lots of tomatoes, and every year she'd make a large batch of relish. She still does, and now we do too. This recipe would have come from her mother or her mother in law.
Mum's Tomato Relish
4 lb tomatoes
4 onions
salt
vinegar (approx 750ml)
1 lb sugar
1 1/2 tab Keens mustard powder
1 tab Keens curry powder
Chop tomatoes and onions, place on separate plates and sprinkle with plenty of salt. Stand covered on the bench overnight. Drain in a colander or seive the next morning and discard the juice.
Place in a large saucepan and cover with vinegar, then add sugar and bring to the boil. Cook at a bit hotter than simmer for an hour or so - until the liquid has reduced and the relish is thick enough. Mix the mustard and curry powders with cold vinegar and stir through. Allow to boil a few more minutes, then remove from the heat. Bottle and seal.
You can eat this straight away but the flavour improves with age.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
Rocket Pesto
This recipe was adapted from one I found on google. There is a commercial dip of rocket/cashew nuts that I like, so I tried cashews but the walnuts were nuttier and more peppery so I'll stick to them in future.
Rocket Pesto
3 cups rocket
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
1/3 cup parmesan, grated
200 ml olive oil
Whiz the first 4 ingredients in the food processer, till chopped, then slowly pour in the olive oil.
Most of what I made was frozen, for using on pasta and as dip when summer is gone.
Rocket Pesto
3 cups rocket
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
1/3 cup parmesan, grated
200 ml olive oil
Whiz the first 4 ingredients in the food processer, till chopped, then slowly pour in the olive oil.
Most of what I made was frozen, for using on pasta and as dip when summer is gone.
Basil Pesto
This recipe was given to me by a girl who had the most glorious wild tangly hair. She looked like Helen Bonham Carter. I've changed it over the years because I like less oil and garlic.
The basil bushes are enormous after a month of summer rain. So over the last few days I've made many batches of this and frozen most of it for later in the year. A lot has been frozen in icecube trays to use in cooking. The rest will defrost well for pasta, dips and winter breakfast on toast. I've made so much that I'm sick of the taste of it. Because you have to taste test each lot. With homemade bread of course.
Basil Pesto
100g basil leaves, picked
50g pinenuts, toasted
4 tab parmesan, grated
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
150 ml olive oil
juice of 2 small limes or one lemon
Place basil, pinenuts, parmesan and garlic in a food processor and process till mostly chopped. Pour the oil in with the motor running. Add the juice and process briefly to combine. Stir through salt and pepper if you like it.
The basil bushes are enormous after a month of summer rain. So over the last few days I've made many batches of this and frozen most of it for later in the year. A lot has been frozen in icecube trays to use in cooking. The rest will defrost well for pasta, dips and winter breakfast on toast. I've made so much that I'm sick of the taste of it. Because you have to taste test each lot. With homemade bread of course.
Basil Pesto
100g basil leaves, picked
50g pinenuts, toasted
4 tab parmesan, grated
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
150 ml olive oil
juice of 2 small limes or one lemon
Place basil, pinenuts, parmesan and garlic in a food processor and process till mostly chopped. Pour the oil in with the motor running. Add the juice and process briefly to combine. Stir through salt and pepper if you like it.
Ginger beer
The original recipe came from Down To Earth http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2007/05/ginger-beer.html
This is my version of Rhonda's recipe :
Ginger Beer Plant
1 dessertspoon of brown sugar (could use rapadura, white, raw)
1 dessertspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
300mls filtered water or rainwater
Mix all these in a jar with a largish open top. Place a piece of clean thin cotton fabric over the top and secure with a rubber band. Leave it on the kitchen bench and feed it every day with 1 teaspoon of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, stirring well.
This stage of the process is to grow the yeast population in the ginger beer plant. Yeast will come from the dry yeast you have added and wild yeasts from the air in your house. The cover needs to be breathable to allow air in for the yeast to live and ferment, and temperatures need to be moderate - not too hot or cold. The yeast use the sugar you add to breed more yeast. After a few days (or even one day) you'll see the top looking bubbly and a little scummy. You might even be able to see bubbles rising from the sediment at the bottom - this means that the yeast are alive and breeding and that fermentation is occurring, which is what you are aiming for.
To make the Ginger Beer :
After 7 days of feeding the plant, you need to strain the sediments from it in order to use the yeast-rich liquid. I use a 30cm square piece of old cotton sheeting and place it in a seive over a bowl. Pour in the plant and allow it to drain. You will need to squeeze the last liquid out by twisting the fabric tightly.
Dissolve 3 cups of sugar in 20 cups of water and allow to cool. Add the juice of 2 lemons and the liquid plant. Stir well.
You could bottle in sterilised glass bottles, which is what we did as kids, but overfermentation can cause them to explode. So I use clean plastic softdrink bottles (although the next batch I'll try glass Grolsch bottles with the swingtop lids as well). I pour a little near-boiling water into the bottle through a funnel before using them, but you need to use a funnel or the plastic on the sides will melt and deform as the hot water touches it. As you pour the water out, try to run it over all the sides of the bottle. Pour the ginger beer in and leave a couple of inches space at the top.
Screw the caps on and leave them to ferment undisturbed for a few days in a warmish place (but not too hot). The yeast will continue to multiply in the sugar-rich mixture, and will use the sugar to breed; the byproducts of this process are alcohol and carbon dioxide, which will give the beer fizz when you open it. The longer you leave it the more fizz and alcohol content the beer will have. I've left mine 3, 6 and 10 days, and the 10 day brew was good for a real beer; the 3 day brew was fizzy but no detectable alcohol content (using my 1 pot screamer alcohol detector).
If you want to re-use the plant sediment to start a new batch, use half of the sediment in another 300ml water/dessert spoon of sugar, and feed each day with sugar and ginger, as before. The longer you keep a ginger beer plant alive by re-using it after each batch of beer, the more wild yeast it will grow and the more complex the flavour will become - or so the story goes ;)
This is my version of Rhonda's recipe :
Ginger Beer Plant
1 dessertspoon of brown sugar (could use rapadura, white, raw)
1 dessertspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
300mls filtered water or rainwater
Mix all these in a jar with a largish open top. Place a piece of clean thin cotton fabric over the top and secure with a rubber band. Leave it on the kitchen bench and feed it every day with 1 teaspoon of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, stirring well.
This stage of the process is to grow the yeast population in the ginger beer plant. Yeast will come from the dry yeast you have added and wild yeasts from the air in your house. The cover needs to be breathable to allow air in for the yeast to live and ferment, and temperatures need to be moderate - not too hot or cold. The yeast use the sugar you add to breed more yeast. After a few days (or even one day) you'll see the top looking bubbly and a little scummy. You might even be able to see bubbles rising from the sediment at the bottom - this means that the yeast are alive and breeding and that fermentation is occurring, which is what you are aiming for.
To make the Ginger Beer :
After 7 days of feeding the plant, you need to strain the sediments from it in order to use the yeast-rich liquid. I use a 30cm square piece of old cotton sheeting and place it in a seive over a bowl. Pour in the plant and allow it to drain. You will need to squeeze the last liquid out by twisting the fabric tightly.
Dissolve 3 cups of sugar in 20 cups of water and allow to cool. Add the juice of 2 lemons and the liquid plant. Stir well.
You could bottle in sterilised glass bottles, which is what we did as kids, but overfermentation can cause them to explode. So I use clean plastic softdrink bottles (although the next batch I'll try glass Grolsch bottles with the swingtop lids as well). I pour a little near-boiling water into the bottle through a funnel before using them, but you need to use a funnel or the plastic on the sides will melt and deform as the hot water touches it. As you pour the water out, try to run it over all the sides of the bottle. Pour the ginger beer in and leave a couple of inches space at the top.
Screw the caps on and leave them to ferment undisturbed for a few days in a warmish place (but not too hot). The yeast will continue to multiply in the sugar-rich mixture, and will use the sugar to breed; the byproducts of this process are alcohol and carbon dioxide, which will give the beer fizz when you open it. The longer you leave it the more fizz and alcohol content the beer will have. I've left mine 3, 6 and 10 days, and the 10 day brew was good for a real beer; the 3 day brew was fizzy but no detectable alcohol content (using my 1 pot screamer alcohol detector).
If you want to re-use the plant sediment to start a new batch, use half of the sediment in another 300ml water/dessert spoon of sugar, and feed each day with sugar and ginger, as before. The longer you keep a ginger beer plant alive by re-using it after each batch of beer, the more wild yeast it will grow and the more complex the flavour will become - or so the story goes ;)
Welcome to my recipe book :)
I love food. Love eating and love cooking. Growing our own food matters to me; somehow it connects me to the earth, pulls me back to the soil. Stops me from floating away and becoming lost entirely.
This is a place to store the recipes we use, those we find, and to record the moments of discovery or rediscovery. Sometimes those moments are as simple as tomatoes for breakfast; the richness of homegrown cherry tomatoes bursting in your mouth, alongside hoummus and toast; or the tart caramel deliciousness of grilled grosse lisse tomatoes with bacon and rocket.
I love the process of food, the sharing and appreciating. It connects me to my children, my old friends and new friends, and to the generations of people before me. The history of recipes and the stories surrounding cooking intrigues me.
One of the most beautiful things in my kitchen is my grandma's sifter. She doesn't remember when it was aquired, too long ago. Knowing that her hands held it for so many years and knowing that my hands touch where hers have been is something wonderful.
This is a place to store the recipes we use, those we find, and to record the moments of discovery or rediscovery. Sometimes those moments are as simple as tomatoes for breakfast; the richness of homegrown cherry tomatoes bursting in your mouth, alongside hoummus and toast; or the tart caramel deliciousness of grilled grosse lisse tomatoes with bacon and rocket.
I love the process of food, the sharing and appreciating. It connects me to my children, my old friends and new friends, and to the generations of people before me. The history of recipes and the stories surrounding cooking intrigues me.
One of the most beautiful things in my kitchen is my grandma's sifter. She doesn't remember when it was aquired, too long ago. Knowing that her hands held it for so many years and knowing that my hands touch where hers have been is something wonderful.
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