Potato and Chorizo Frittata

As I sit all the lights in our house are flickering from the storm outside.  I'm hoping that we don't get a power cut!  I went the bed last night wondering if my beans and chicken would survive the storm - I will see when the sun rises.

With spring on the way my chickens are laying more reliably so quick, easy and cheap (cheep?) egg dinners are on the menu nearly twice a week.  A couple of weeks ago I snapped up our favourite chorizos at a bargain price (I usually get one for $4-5 but on special I got 6 for that price - I would have got more but that's all they had left).  Chorizo are great, if you get good quality ones they go a long way to jazz up a meal, be it a risotto, pilaf, soup, salad or frittata.

This tasty meal was a bargain, with home grown coriander and lemon, and eggs from my hens it cost about $4.  For a dinner party version swap the milk for cream and stir crumbled feta in with the chorizo.

Potato and Chorizo Frittata Recipe
Serves 6

4 medium potatoes, scrubbed and diced to 1cm (about 350-400g)
1 Large Onion, peeled and diced
4T Olive Oil
8 Eggs
½C Milk
1t Salt
Pinch of Pepper
Few sprigs of Thyme or Tarragon
1 or 2 Chorizo, diced (I used one because I'm cheap)
Handful of coriander
Lemon Wedges to serve

Pre-heat oven to 180°C bake.
Bring a pan of water to the boil, drop in diced potato and cook for 5 minutes or until just tender.  Drain well.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat and sauté onion till clear.  Set aside.
In a large bowl whisk eggs, salt, pepper and milk.  Add in potato, onion, herbs and chorizo.
Heat at 25cm pan oven proof pan over medium high heat (use the pan from frying the onion if it's oven proof).  Add remaining oil and when hot pour in the egg mixture.  Transfer to the oven and cook for 25-35 minutes until set in the middle.  Leave for 10 minutes before cutting.
Sprinkle with coriander and serve with generous wedges of lemon - the lemon brings the whole things together, trust me.

Serve up with salad or greens, we enjoyed ours with a mountain of steamed broccoli with a dressing of lemon juice.

Loads of fresh broccoli spears from the garden - from garden to plate in 10 minutes, sweet and delicious

Something Different : Soft Pretzels

For Sunday lunch we had some day old rye bread and coleslaw on the menu, not too flash - I fancied something fresh and warm with the weather being so wet outside.  After considering a few things like foccacia, bagels and soda bread, I opted for a new recipe - soft pretzels.

I've never had fresh pretzels before, only the cracker-like ones from a pack.  I jumped in totally blind and was really pleased, and surprised, with the result.  They have a distinct pretzel taste, a chewy crust and perfect crumb.  I substituted about a fifth of my flour with rye flour to make them extra tasty.

I also tested one batch on conventional bake and one fan forced.  The batch cooked with conventional bake were darker and had a better crust than those cooked on fan forced, so I'll stick with conventional bake next time.

Soft Pretzels
Makes 10 'breakfast' sized pretzels

2t Brown Sugar
22g Yeast, Dried Active or Instant
375ml Water, Blood Temperature
575g Bread Flour, Plus Extra for Dusting
2t Salt, Plus Extra for Topping
¼C Baking Soda
1 Egg

Mix sugar, yeast and warm water and leave to activate for 10 minutes.  Add in flour and salt and stir till it starts to come together into a ball.  Tip out onto work surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic (the dough will be quite sticky, just scrape down your hands and bench a couple of times as you go, it will come together).

Dust your work surface to keep the dough from sticking and divide into pieces (I made 10 which turned out about the size of a breakfast bagel).  Form into rounds and rest for 10 minutes.  Roll out into 30cm long sausages and twist into pretzels (I used this diagram).  Lay on a baking tray lined with baking paper and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes then refrigerate for another 30 minutes.

15 minutes before the pretzels are due out of the fridge turn oven onto 220ºC (425F) bake and put a medium sized pan with 1 litre of water on to boil.  When the water comes to the boil add the baking soda - a little at a time, it fizzes like crazy!  Turn water down to medium-low.

Gently remove pretzels from the tray, one at a time, and poach in the baking soda solution for a minute on each side.  Remove with a slotted spoon and return to baking tray.  When all the pretzels are poached beat the egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush over tops of pretzels - this makes them nice and glossy.  Sprinkle with a little salt and bake for 15 minutes, swapping trays half way through if using conventional bake (which gives a much better colour).

Poached Pretzels

15 Minute Soba Noodle and Miso Soup

This meal is a favourite for us, the perfect dinner for a cold night - a dash of chilli sauce makes it extra warming.

15 Minute Soba Noodle and Miso Soup
Serves 4

3 Bundles of Soba Noodles
4 - 8 eggs (1 or 2 per person)
4T White Miso Paste
1T Soy Sauce
1T Sesame Oil

Extras
Steamed Asian Greens
Fried Shallots
Chilli Sauce
Spring Onion, Finely Sliced
Seaweed Flakes

Put a large and a medium saucepan of water onto high heat.  When small pan begins to simmer crack eggs into pan and poach for 4 minutes on low simmer, place cooked eggs into the bottom of noodle bowls.  Add soba noodles to large pot when boiling and cook for 7 minutes, or until tender.  Drain noodles and rinse with cold water.  In the large empty pot add 3 cups of cold water.  Mix miso paste with to a fourth cup of water and stir until smooth and there are no longer any lumps.  Add thinned miso pan with water and put onto medium heat.  When miso soup is at blood temperature add cooked noodles, soy sauce and sesame oil.  Continue heating till steaming hot (do not boil).  Add chilli sauce and seaweed flakes if using and stir.  Dish noodles and soup over eggs and top with any extras - greens, shallots and spring onion.

We had ours with kale.  I heated a dash of sesame oil over a medium heat.  To the oil I added a minced clove of garlic and a tablespoon of sesame seeds.  When the seeds started to pop I chucked in a big bunch of chopped kale, a tablespoon of soy sauce and a half cup of water and covered with a lid.  When the water had gone the kale was steamed and ready to add to soup.

Croque for Kids

With dinner needing to be cooked in a hurry on a cold Autumn night Croque Madames popped into my head.  All I could kind of remember was that they have egg, white sauce of some sort with cheese on top - maybe. With no time to look for a recipe I turned on the ovenette, whipped up some sauce, bunged some left over beans into the bread cases, popped them in the oven for 20 minutes and the kids devoured them.  The extra white sauce topped the fresh garden broccoli perfectly.

Croque for Kids
Makes 6, muffin sized

Cases
6 Slices of Bread
2T Butter, melted


White Sauce
1T Butter
1T Plain Flour
1 1/2C Warm Water & 2T Milk Powder (or 1 1/2C warmed milk)
Pinch of Salt, Pepper and Mustard Powder

Fillings

1/2 Tin Baked Beans (or what ever left overs you have - chicken, ham, bacon, mince)
2 Eggs, beaten slightly


Cheese (I used Edam)

Cut the crusts of the bread and roll out each slice and thin as you can.  Brush both sides of the bread with the first measure of melted butter.  Line muffin tins with bread cases, pushing them down gently into the bottom of the tin.
To make the white sauce melt the butter over a medium heat.  Add the flour and stir over the heat until the mixture looks pale and kind of sandy.  Continue stirring and slowly add in the warm milk mixture.  It's important the liquid isn't cold or the sauce will be lumpy.  Continue stirring and add in the the salt, pepper and mustard powder.  When it's nice and thick and starts to bubble it's done.
Fill a third of the bread case with beans (or left overs), then one third with egg and then a large tablespoon of white sauce.  Using a vegetable peeler shave a thin layer of cheese over each case.  Bake for 15-20 minutes till golden.
They will be super hot on the inside, so transfer to cool on a wire rack while you steam some vege or make a salad for the side.

Curried Pumpkin Soup - with Soda Bread and Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

With Pappa Bear recovering from a nasty virus, and starting to gain an appetite, a big hot soup was in order.  In a little over half an hour we were slurping up sweet and spicy soup and crusty soda bread, perfect for a rainy Autumn afternoon.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

2T Oil
2T Curry Powder
2 Onions, diced
500-700g Pumpkin, 2cm cubes (I used 1/3 or a large Crown Pumpkin)
Salt and Pepper
1-2C Milk

1 Soda Bread - recipe here...

To serve - Spiced pumpkin seeds (see bottom of recipe)

Start off by putting the soda bread in the oven.
In a 4L pot heat oil over a med-low heat.  Add curry powder and onion and cook until onion is soft, about 5 minutes.  If the curry powder starts to catch just add a splash of water to the pan, no need for more oil.  Add pumpkin, dash of salt and pepper and add enough water to just cover, bring to a simmer.  Cover and continue to simmer for 20 minutes or so till pumpkin is tender.  Remove from heat and mash or whiz with wand blender till smooth.  The soup will be a thick puree at this stage so stir in enough milk to thin down to thick creamy soup.

Serve up with hot crusty soda bread, butter and spiced pumpkin seeds.

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
For extra HEAT put a tablespoon of oil over medium heat, add a teaspoon of chilli flakes and sizzle for half a minute.  Add in handful pumpkin seeds and cook until they pop - serve seeds and oil on the side to sprinkle over hot soup.

Beef Tongue

With the homekill half of a cow that we purchased last year we got a huge tongue.  I've been meaning to cook it up for ages and try the method that my mother in law had told me about.  I finally pulled it out and defrosted it to cook at the weekend.  It was quite easy really, a set and forget kind of recipe.  I was not one bit queasy cooking or peeling this odd peice of meat - but I can see how some would be.

Homemade bread, spread, tongue, pickles with tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber from the garden

Beef Tongue

1 Beef Tongue
Salt
1 Onion, peeled and halved
1 Carrot, scrubbed
2 Bay Leaves
8 Peppercorns
Gelatine Powder

Put tongue in a large pot and cover with water.  Add a good pinch of salt, onion, carrot, bay leaves and peppercorns.  Gently simmer for 4 hours or until tender (a knife will easily push into the thickest part of the tongue when done).  Keeping the cooking liquid, put the tongue into a bowl of cold water and peel away the leathery skin and any fatty pieces (the cold water makes it much easier to peel).  Find a bowl that the tongue will just fit into and squeeze it in.  Strain 2 cups of hot cooking liquid and dissolve into it 4 teaspoons of gelatine (better to have too much gelatine mix than not enough).  Pour gelatine mix over tongue to fill mold, place a plate over the top of the tongue and weigh down with something heavy (jug of water or tin cans).  Allow to set and cool overnight before removing from the mold.

This is great sliced thinly and added to salad or sandwiches.  Or fry up some butter, onion and sage - when the onion is soft add slices of beef tongue, heat through and serve on hot buttered toast - YUM!

Bacon and Eggs for Lunch

On Saturday my husband was putting up fencing for another chicken run.  We're hoping to have a few little fluffy chicks this week, so are making a new area for them.  The initial plan is to keep the laying girls in their run for the morning while they lay and let the meat birds have the yard, then opposite for the afternoon.  We plan on doing this because of their different diet requirements.  Young and meat birds need more protein and layers more calcium.

I had a bacon and egg pie in mind for our lunch after spending the morning in the garden but time got away on us, with only 40 minutes till noon I opted for an easy quiche instead.  After a rummage in the garden I found spring onion and spinach.  With the eggs, feta and bacon already in the house I chopped everything up, covered with the eggy mix and put it in the oven.  Just as Mr 3 came in to ask for 'dinner' (his name for every meal), it was ready.  We chomped it down with salad and had left overs for dinner, it was super tasty.

Mad about bread

Right now it's still dark outside and I should be tucked up in bed waiting to woken up by my husband and 2 lovely boys for my birthday breakfast in bed - but - there was sourdough waiting on the bench.  I could have left it till 7 or 8am, not 5am!  What's happening to me?

I guess it just that I have a real passion for bread now, I have even put away my bread maker that I used to do all my kneading.  I love the feel, taste and smell of the stuff.  I love coming in the from the garden to a kitchen filled with the aroma of baked bread, the tang you can only get from a loved and nurtured sourdough loaf and the chewy but soft crumb that waits beneath a glorious crust.  Beautiful.

My sourdough batter was tucked up like a baby last night.  Warm water, flour and a dollop of my wild yeast, stirred and wrapped up with layers of cloth to do its work over night.  I woke up feeling just a little like a kid on Christmas morning, how could I go back to sleep when there is a little bit of magic working in my kitchen.  I was rewarded to find my batter was full of life and waiting for some good kneading to transform it from a sloppy, bubbly batter to a smooth and elastic dough.

Sourdough Bread

Overnight Batter
650ml Warm Water
250g Wholemeal Flour
250g High Grade Flour
Soughdough Starter (about a cupful - but a bit more or less will do)

In the morning
475g High Grade Flour
125g Wholemeal Flour
20g Salt

Oats/flour for dusting

Before you go to bed combine the overnight ingredients in a large bowl and give a good stir.  Cover the bowl with a plastic bag and wrap with a couple of layers of tea-towels.

In the morning you will have a bubbly batter, add the morning ingredients to this and bring together with your finger tips.  When the dough is looking a little raggedy tip everything onto your bench, giving the bowl a scrape down as you do so.  Now, don't be afraid of the sticky mess in front of you, just start working with it.  Knead, pull, stretch and roll then every few minutes pull the doughy mess off you hands.  Soon you will see the gluten starting to work, your dough becoming smoother and pulling away from the bench cleanly - keep going.  After 10 minutes of giving your arms and the gluten a good workout you should have a smooth, strong and elastic dough.  Form this into a ball and add a slug of oil to your mixing bowl.  Roll the dough in the oil, cover the bowl and leave to start rising.

After an hour grab an edge of the dough, pull it up and over to the center of the dough and give it a push to hold in the middle, turn the bowl by an eighth and continue to pull the sides to the middle until you have worked your way around the bowl, this is giving the gluten structure.  Repeat this stage every hour for 3 to 4 hours.  As each hour passes you will feel your dough becoming more light and airy.  Give 3 hours in warmer seasons, more for cold.

Lightly oil 3 loaf tins (mine are 29 x 14.5 x 7cm).  Divide your dough into 3 pieces, weighing them out so they are the same size for even cooking.  On a floured surface flatten a piece of dough to a rough square with your knuckles, about 22cm wide.  Fold the top down by a third and the bottom up over the first fold - like a letter.  Push the seam down a little to hold.  Holding the short ends lift and gently pull the dough so it is about 50% longer.  Now fold the left and right sides in by thirds.  Using your knuckles again push the dough into a square, to the width of your loaf tin.  Starting from the edge farthest from you, begin to roll the dough into a sausage, rolling nice and tight to keep all the tension you have created from the folding process.  Roll the dough in your oats or flour to coat and place seam side down in you loaf tin.  Repeat with other dough balls, cover, and leave to rest for another 3 or so hours, till the dough is about double in size and feels soft and airy when you squeeze the sides.

Turn your oven on to 250C Fan Bake (a little higher for standard bake), put a roasting tin on the bottom shelf of the oven and turn on the kettle.  Once the oven has reached temperature gently slice the top of the loaves a couple of times, about 2 cm deep -  use long pulls with a bread knife while gently holding the loaf - don't saw it.  As fast as you can put the loaves in the oven and a cupful of boiling water into the roasting tray.  Don't bang the loaves around or slam the oven door - this will deflate air from your bread.  The steam helps your loaves rise by letting the crust stay moist and elastic for longer.  Cook for 10 minutes at this high heat then turn down to 180C and switch over to standard bake, cook for 35 minutes longer.  If you take the bread out of the tins 10 mintues before the bread is due to finish cooking you will get a better crust.

Let the loaves cool completely before you tuck in - you'll squish all your lovely air bubbles down if you try and cut while its hot.

Cheese and onion corn scones

Now I wasn't sure this was going to work - I haven't worked with corn flour much.  But after having home made corn tortillas a few times and loving the nutty taste it gives I thought I'd try broadening my use of the pale golden powder that's been hiding in my larder (it's not really a larder - it's the old hot water cupboard in my hall that I've filled with all my dry-goods).

To my surprise, golden fluffy scones resulted from my latest experiment - one I will remember when I have a glut of spring onions in my garden.  I think next time though, a handful of bacon bits would make them extra special.

You'll notice the cheese is only on the top - that's because I'm cheap.  Add a couple of handfuls to the mix with the spring onions if you're feeling generous.

Cheese and Onion Corn Scones


250g/2C Plain Flour
125g/1C Corn Flour (or maize flour)
Pinch of Salt
6t Baking Powder
1t Smoked Paprika, heaped
Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
75g of Butter (I use my homemade spread - more on that later)

3 Finely Chopped Spring Onions
1 1/4 C Milk
Grated Cheese - cup of handfuls will do and what ever flavour you fancy

Set oven to 220 C on Bake
Mix the first 6 dry ingredients together then rub in the butter with your finger tips.
Toss the spring onions through the crumbly flour mix.
Time to get your hand very messy, pour in the milk and start mixing with your finger tips.  When it's starts to come together - STOP - wait about a minute while the corn flour soaks up a bit of the milk.  Now massage together a little then tip onto a floured board and chaff the dough a little until it forms a ball (chaffing is a very gentle knead - look it up if you want to get it right - just don't over work your dough) - flatten out onto a boad and get a sharp knife ready.
This part is important - cut your dough into pieces with downwards strokes and lift your knife our int the same direction, never saw or drag your knife through.  You want clean cuts so your scones can rise in the oven.
Put onto a floured baking try, spinkle with cheese and bake for 12 mintues.

If your dough is too wet when if comes to chaffing the mix - don't worry - just tip the wet mixed mess onto your floured tray, pat into a tidy disk with floured hands, sprinkle with cheese and bake for a little longer - a giant scone.  Cut into wedges and no one will ever know of your scone mishap.