Farewell To Summer …..

Tags

Autumn, Blogging News, Books, Books for Cooks, Bread, Food Blogs, Food styling, Food writer, Foods in season, Fruit, Life, Mayonnaise, nuts and seeds, organic, Photography, recipe, stews, Travel, Vegetables, Writing

In Season For March

With the month of March comes the dancing in of autumn, the days are cooling and the mornings are noticeably darker. It is time to welcome back stews and other autumnal treats.

Apples continue to be in season and make wonderful warm desserts or can simply be cut into quarters, sautéed in butter until softened and slightly caramelized, to serve with roast pork or with game birds such as pheasant. The classic Waldorf salad becomes one of my favourite light lunches or side dishes at this time of the year; all the ingredients required to make it of which apple is just one component, are of course in season, providing a perfect end result.

Enjoy the last of the blackberries; and spoil your family with this easy tart. Blind bake a short crust pastry case and when cooled fill with following mixture. For the filling you will need seeds from 1 vanilla pod, 250 ml Mascarpone, and 100 ml pouring cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, 40 ml Vin Santo. Whip all the ingredients together until nice and shiny. Fill the cooked and cooled pastry case with the mixture and top with blackberries. Drizzle over the top with a little blackberry jam, gently heated and thinned with a little water or Vin Santo, cooled before drizzling over the tart.

Capsicums are at their peak from summer to autumn, make the most of them while in season. I love them simply roasted then sprinkled with herbs, salt and olive oil and eaten with sourdough or ciabatta bread; wonderful served either hot or cold and goes well with lamb, chicken, or grilled beef.

Eggplant with its alluring shinny purple black skin is a wonderful carrier of flavours and as such can completely transform a dish. Dusted with flour, fried and layered with a freshly made tomato sauce, basil leaves, parmesan and buffalo mozzarella, then baked, provides an unctuous simple dish to serve either as a starter or a main meal together with some bread; I usually choose a sourdough loaf.

Tomatoes; picking them fresh from my garden, still warm from the sun, served on toasted bruschetta or sourdough, sprinkled with salt flakes and drizzled with peppery olive oil is another one of my favourite light lunches.

Super markets although convenient, I have to say don’t sell the bright flavoured tomatoes I am seeking. Instead and sadly to say, I find the tomatoes they offer to be lacklustre, hard and rather devoid of flavour. If you want great tomatoes, seek out the organic growers at your nearest farmers market, or try growing your own, it is a lot of fun and extremely rewarding.

Also in Season:

Fruit

Apples, avocado, bananas, berries, figs, grapes, lemons, limes, melon, nectarines, oranges, papaya, passion fruit, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries

Vegetables

Asian greens, beans, capsicum, celery, chillies, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, shallots, silver beet, squash, sweet corn, sweet potato, tomatoes, zucchini

Other

Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, Olives

Classical Waldorf Salad

This is an iconic and classical recipe and one with a long pedigree. For best results use the tender stalks from the inner part of the celery

Ingredients

75 g walnuts toasted and a few extra to garnish

2 red apples

Juice of 1 lemon

3 tender celery stalks, finely sliced

1 radicchio leaves torn into bite size pieces

2 Witlof leaves separated

200 g red seedless grapes

1 cup parsley leaves, use flat leaf parsley

Mayonnaise

2 egg yolks

1 tbsp. red wine or chardonnay vinegar

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

130 ml olive oil

25 ml walnut oil

Lemon juice to taste

Makes about 200ml

Garnish

A few leaves from the heart of the celery

A few extra walnuts toasted

Method

To make the mayonnaise: place the egg yolks, vinegar and mustard in a food processor and process for a few seconds. Combine the two oils and with motor running add the oils in a thin steady stream. The mixture should come together in a nice thick emulsion. Add lemon juice, to taste and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Cut the apple into julienne (small strips) place in a bowl and combine with half the lemon juice. Add walnuts, celery, radicchio, witlof, grapes and parsley. Add 2 tablespoons mayonnaise and remaining lemon juice. Toss to combine and season to taste. Scatter with a few celery leaves from the heart of the celery and a few extra walnuts and serve.

Potato Bread Rolls ~ I just love the smell of bread baking

Tags

Bread, Bread Rolls, Chefs, Cook Books, Cooks, Food Blogs, Food Writing, Life, Photography, Portuguese, Potato Bread, recipe, Travel, Yeast

There are too many potatoes in the larder so I am using some to make potato bread rolls. I usually use this recipe to make bread loaves but today I am in the mood for making bread rolls instead, some of the rolls will go to a friend who I am expecting to arrive later today.

The recipe is Portuguese in origin, just one of the many cultural influences in our cuisine.

Potato Bread Rolls

Makes 24 rolls

Ingredients

500 g cooked mashed potatoes

900 ml lukewarm water

1.5 kg plain flour

20 ml salt

15 g instant yeast

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C and grease two baking sheets.

Start by blending together the mashed potato and warm water until smooth.

Place the flour salt and yeast in a bowl, make a well in the centre and add the blended potato mixture and work it into the dry ingredients until everything comes together, then turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in a bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until double in size. Knock the dough back and divide into four equal portions, then pinch off pieces of dough roughly equal in size and form into plump sausage shapes. Arrange on baking sheets, leaving enough room for the rolls to rise during baking.

Leave to rise again until nicely plumped up, dust with flour, pop into the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 220C then reduce oven temperature to 180 C and continue to bake for about 10 to 15 minutes. He rolls should have a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

Seed, Date & Raisin Loaf

Tags

baking, Blogging News, Books, Bread, Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve, dates, Food Blogs, health breads, honey, Life, raisins, recipes, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, Travel, Writing

My trip to the Cederberg mountains  and Bushmanskloof Wilderness Reserve was wonderful. Everywhere you looked there were carpets, and carpets of the most beautiful display of wild flowers, the rock formation of the mountains were equally breath taking (see pictures below recipe).  And today is Sunday, the weather has closed in once again and it is pouring with rain, so I am heading for the kitchen to make bread and to try out a new chicken liver pate idea as well as start the oxtail for tomorrow evenings dinner menu.

The bread is dead easy to make, is also wonderfully healthy and stays fresh for a week if it lasts that long. It also makes excellent toast.

You will need two bowls in which to place dry ingredients A and the wet ingredients B. you will also need a 1 litre capacity bread tin rubbed with butter and dusted with flour.

Set oven temperature to 180C

Ingredients A

250g whole wheat flour

100g oats

75 g shelled sunflower seeds

50 g All bran flakes

50 g seedless raisins finely chopped

50 g sesame seeds

50 g wheat germ

50 g cornflower

50 g dates, pips removed and finely chopped

Ingredients B

500 ml Bulgarian yoghurt

3 tablespoons sunflower or olive oil

3 tablespoons honey

1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp. sea salt

2 tablespoons molasses

Method

Mix all the ingredients listed under A together and in a separate bowl all the ingredients listed under B. Add part B to part A and mix through well. Put the mixture into the bread tin and sprinkle the top with a little sunflower and sesame seeds.

Place the bread into the oven set to 180C and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 150C and bake for a further 1/12 hours. Remove from oven and leave to cool in the tin before turning out.

This loaf cuts best when using a seated knife.

 

Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve

A good Crisp Loaf of Bread

Tags

baking, Bread, Bread Rolls, Country Loaf, Crisp crust, Flour, food and drink, Pizza, recipe, Salt, Yeast

Warm air wafts in gently through the bedroom shutters, typical of this time of the year and is referred to locally as the ‘Berg’ wind. We tend to get a few days of these conditions during the winter, a warm respite from the cold.

The dawn is just breaking through and the garden is filled with different bird calls. I open the shutters and gaze out over the sea, beautiful pink and blue shades, different from last evening’s sunset where the sky was a magnificent magenta hue, casting deep pink shadows across the sea.

After my morning coffee I will start a batch of bread. Through the years I have tried many different recipes but have since settled on a handful of reliable favourites; one does not need much more than that.

I enjoy making bread and love the smell that fills the kitchen as the warm yeasted dough starts to rise. The loaf today is a white ‘cottage’ loaf with a nice crispy crust. I find this recipe suitable for making a loaf, to shape into rolls, or to roll some of the dough as thinly as possible to for a pizza base.

This recipe makes one large loaf or 2 smaller ones or a loaf and some rolls. I usually mix my dough in the Kenwood mixer using the dough hook, but you can do it just as easily in a large bowl by hand.

Bread Recipe

Ingredients

1 kg white flour plus a little extra for dusting and kneading

14 g instant dried yeast

20 g salt

700ml water (approximately)

Method

Place the flour, yeast and salt in the mixer bowl, pour in almost all the water and mix to sticky dough. (Add more water if too dry) Mix for about 5-6 minutes adding a little extra flour if required until you have dough that is soft, spongy and slightly sticky to the touch.

Scoop the dough out onto a flour dusted work surface, work the dough with your hands, pushing flat with palms, then folding far edge towards you, pushing it back into the dough with the heel of your hand. Work firmly but gently for about 5 minutes. The dough should feel soft, springy and alive.

Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place (not hot) to prove, the dough should almost double in size. The time this takes will depend on how hot or moist the room is, the type of flour and the age of the yeast, usually about an hour.

Once the dough has doubled in size, tip it onto the floured surface and knead for a few more minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a floured baking sheet. Dust heavily with flour, cover with the tea towel and leave to rise; about another hour.

Set oven to 250∘C.

After an hour the dough will have spread, it should be twice its original size. Gently, tuck it back into a neat, high ball and place in the hot oven, taking care not to slam the door.

Bake for ten minutes at 250∘C, then turn the heat down to 220∘C and continue to bake for about twenty five to thirty minutes. Check the loaf for doneness by tapping on the bottom, it should sound hollow. Let loaf cool and settle before slicing.