Making your own Stock

I had to do some catering recently to accommodate all sorts of different diets.  I quite often prepare a vegetarian meal for us here, but I don't need to worry about using a chicken stock if I think the dish needs it.  However, I had to make a cassoulet for the vegetarian contingent at the party and of course I couldn't use my chicken stock.  I finally capitulated to the advertising by Marco Pierre White for his Knorr stockpots.  I added two little jelly pots to my beautiful cassoulet made of organic vegetables and freshly soaked and boiled pulses and it is safe to say they destroyed the entire dish!  They are poisoned with salt and I had seasoned as I usually would do.  They have a deeply artificial, chemical flavour, created in a laboratory.  You get the idea?  For every "flavour" the first ingredient listed is fat, be it vegetable fat or chicken fat.  I am not sure about anyone else but I have never put fat in any stock and in fact skim it off.

I decided to make some vegetarian stock for my freezer stock-pile so to speak.  I generally have chicken and veal stock frozen into ice cubes and bagged.

When you buy organic vegetables such as onion, carrot, celery, and herbs such as parsley, save the outer skins and/or peelings and stalks until you have a decent quantity and put in a pot with some water.  You can add the peelings from squash and even swede but not the actual flesh.  Fennel peelings are good too.  Do not add cabbage until the very end as if you boil cabbage there is a chemical reaction which gives that horrible smell and taste of overcooked institutional boiled cabbage.  Simmer gently for about an hour and then strain.  Bring to the boil and reduce by half.  Cool and refrigerate.  I find it really handy to freeze in ice cube trays and then next day remove and store in zip-lock bags.

For chicken stock I use the carcass of the chicken and all the bones saved off plates, add your vegetable peelings/stalks as above and simmer for about 3 hours.  Strain and reduce as above and then freeze.

For beef or veal stock I roast the bones for about an hour or until they have been browned it a hot oven.  Then make as chicken stock.

For fish use the bones but also the skins and simmer for less time usually an hour is more than enough. 

The taste of stock made like this is really so much better than anything you can buy.  The preparation time is minimal.  The only drawback is steam in your kitchen however if you are lucky enough to have an Aga or similar you can make stock overnight in your oven.


Homemade Stock Recipe  Vegetable Stock  Meat Stock

Sour Dough Starter and Bread Recipe

I love sourdough bread.  My first memory of it was when I worked in San Francisco years ago.  Actually sourdough has been "around" since ancient Egyptian times and was more than likely discovered by accident.  The brewery and the bakery were often in the same place and possibly wild yeast spores settled into a dough and caused fermentation.  By trial and error they discovered that some yeasts cultures were more effective than others and could be used as a starter.  This starter was then used to start another batch.  The yeasts metabolise the sugars and starches in the flour converting them into lactic and other acids which gives the distinctive sour flavour.  It is incredibly easy to make your own starter.  I find it is easier in summer than in winter but don't let that limit you.  In summer it is warmer and you have windows and doors open more and there is more air circulation.  Get a kilner jar and put a tablespoon of unbleached, organic flour.  Mix to a paste with equal quantities of water.  Do not completely seal with lid,  just flip it over to cover.  Leave in a warm place (a window ledge).  Next day give it a good stir, throw some away and then add more flour and water.  Repeat this for about a week until you begin to notice some activity which appear as bubbles and a slightly alcoholic smell.  Continue for another few days feeding your starter until it is good and active.  You will notice that as the flour settles in the jar you will have a blackish liquid on top.  This is normal and it has not gone bad.  This liquid is called Hooch.  Some recipes I have seen say throw this away.  But to my mind that is crazy as it contains a lot of the flavours.  Just stir it back into the mixture before you use it.

To make your bread you need to remove your starter and pour into a bowl.  Add 250g of strong unbleached bread flour and 375ml of room temperature water.  Give it a good stir and cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place overnight.  Next day this will be a bowl of bubbles and froth.  This is what is called your Sponge.

Take approximately three quarters of this sponge and add 300g of flour to it as well as a tablespoon of olive oil, salt to taste and enough warm water to make a smooth dough.  Mix on a low speed with a dough hook.  The remaining sponge is your starter and just pop it back into a clean dry jar for use next time.  Remove your dough when it feels smooth and silky and when you stretch it, it feels like bubble gum.  This means the gluten has been stretched and unravelled and is now flexible enough for the bubbles of carbon dioxide produced by yeast metabolism to raise the bread.  You now need to prove the dough which means leaving it somewhere warm and with no drafts for about 8 hours.  Sour dough rises slowly and sedately  unlike commercial yeast bread production.  The longer you leave it the more the flavour will develop.  Remove, knock back and allow to prove for a second time.  This can take up to four hours or longer.  Place in a hot oven on a baking tray or in a tin and place a container with some water in the oven to create steam to help crust development.  Bake as you would a normal yeast dough and then remove and cool.

The portion of the sponge that you have retained becomes your starter and you need to keep this in the fridge for use next time.  However you do need to feed it at least once a week, by repeating the procedure when you first started to make your starter.  Throw away half of it and add more flour and water in equal proportion.  Give it a good stir to aerate it and put back into fridge.  If you have to go away it will survive but just give it a good feed in advance and feed it again when you return. Remember it is a living thing!

Sour dough bread takes time to make but there is not a lot of work involved.  I find if you time it right, it takes very little work on your part.

  

Sour Dough Bread  Sour Dough Starter  Bread Recipes

Pizza in a Domestic Oven

You always see Jamie Oliver on Tv or other chefs telling you that you can make your own pizza at home very easily.  Well you can't.  The simple fact of the matter is, that unless you have a professional oven you do not get sufficient temperature.  However, there is a way around it.  You need some basic equipment to help boost the temperature.  A pizza stone is a flat, smooth stone which you need to heat in your oven for at least an hour beforehand.  I have tried every way possible to see which works best and even with a stone you still do not get a good bake if you put the pizza in without cooking the base first.  If you heat the stone on a lower shelf at the top temperature you can get on your oven and then place the base on the stone and par-bake it for 7 minutes or until it is easily lifted off the stone and is not browned. 

Then remove the par-baked base and place on a wire cooling rack for a few minutes.  When it has cooled slightly then top and slide back onto your pizza stone but this time on a higher shelf for about 10 minutes.

To make the perfect base is easy if you have a Kitchen Aid or similar with a dough hook.  I just put my flour, yeast, salt and a dash of olive oil into the bowl and then dripple in water until you have a wet paste.  Different flours absorb different quantities of water so there is no point following a recipe slavishly.  Then I leave the mixer running on 2 for about 15 minutes.  After this increase the speed and watch until the paste seems to have formed a more cohesive ball and has cleaned the sides of the bowl.  If it is still gloopy just sprinkle some flour onto it to ease handling.  Place in a bowl, covered with a tea towel in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough is doubled in size.

Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to knock out the air bubbles and then roll out into your required size.

Baking the base first means that you have a properly baked base that is not doughy and indigestible.


Tags: Pizza  Pizza in a Domestic Oven  Pizza Dough  Food  Pizza Stone

Dogs Benefit from Good Diet too.

I inherited an in-bred dog.  Anyone who knows anything about dogs, pure bred or otherwise will agree that in-breeding causes huge problems to the health and well-being of the animal.  In fact, now there is a drive away from breeding pure lines and other breeds are being introduced to Pugs and King Charles spaniels among others.  The dog I inherited is an English Bull Terrier. He is the dog that was in the original Oliver movie.  He looks terrifying and is always mistaken for a Pitbull.  Actually a Pitbull is not half as challenged in the beauty stakes.  He was bought as a pup with all his papers for €1000.  If the person buying the dog had done any research or even looked at his "pedigree" he would have realised he was buying " a pig in a poke".  His grandmother on his maternal side is his great-grandmother on his paternal side for starters.

He is the most gentle, loving dog and in fact goes out of his way to avoid confrontation.  He is a terrific guard dog in that he has a big deep bark.  The fact that he can't be bothered to get out of his bed while barking, lying on his side, is a deterrent?  Well, it is when he eventually gets out of his bed and appears at the garage door.

He started suffering with skin problems early on and then he started developing sore feet with bleeding ulcers between his toes.  His pads were cracked and infected and he had difficulty walking.  He is a clumsy dog and tends to head butt everything out of his way and I put down all the unhealed sores on his head to this.  However, as it went on, I got weary going to the vet and trying to treat all his problems myself with saline and sudocreme.  I started to trawl the internet to try and find out what was wrong with him.  There was lots of information but nothing really concrete until I stumbled upon a paper written by a Glasgow university vet.  In it he described my dogs symptoms and indeed recommended a treatment.  The condition was named as Lethal Acrodermatitis caused by an inability of the dog to metabolise zinc and thus his immune system is continually compromised. This is due to generations of in-breeding and is usually lethal.  Pups affected fail to thrive and usually die before 6 months.  The treatment was long term use of an antibiotic and a steroid.

The drug treatment was going to be really costly so I contacted a friend who lives in Greece and regularly rescues animals and has a good relationship with her vet.  She now posts me the steroid in a large quantity for peanuts in comparison to what it would cost here.  Even there the antibiotic is an outrageous price so I don't use it.  I decided to try and improve his diet first.

I did a lot of research and read on the internet that commercially produced dog food is full of preservatives, colouring and stabilisers.  So off I set to make his food myself.  I used rice, pasta, lentils, meat, fish and vegetables (everything excluding anything from the onion family as they are apparently toxic for dogs).  I used brown rice, wholemeal pasta and added different meats and fish and raw egg.  Dogs can also be given fruit!  I fed him like this for weeks and his skin started to improve dramatically and his sores started to heal.  When he has an outbreak now and is slow to heal I use the steroids for a week or two.  The change in his energy level was phenomenal and instead of his picking his way along beside me with sore feet, he now bombs off in front.  His whole gait has changed and is now chirpy and happy.  I then changed to a dried dog food called Burns which has no additives and I add some meat and veg to it.  So far he is still great and he has been on this diet now for over a year.  The Burns food is very expensive - it works out at in or around €60 for 15kg but it has saved me a fortune in vet bills. 

If ever there was a doubt that "you are what you eat" or in this case a dog is what he eats then this surely proves it.

Dog's Diet   English Bull Terrier  Lethal Acrodermatitis  Dog Food Recipes  fInbreeding in Dogs

Candied Peel

The stuff you buy in the shops is a travesty and how they manage to make something so bland from something so zingy and tasty is beyond me.  It is really easy to make your own and I have been doing it for years.  Last year I made loads and put it in pretty jars and gave to family and friends as an early Christmas present.  I squeeze oranges every morning for breakfast and to build up a supply of peel I save the orange shell and put in a plastic bag in the fridge.  I also make lemon and lime peel and just freeze the juice for later baking.

Recipe
Orange, lemon and lime peel
Sugar syrup made of 2:1 ratio sugar to water. (600mg sugar : 300ml water)

When you have a decent quantity of peel, usually 7 oranges and 4 lemons and limes. Remove the skin of the orange or fruit leaving a decent amount of pith (the soft white spongy stuff).  Put in a saucepan with a teaspoon of bread soda and water to just cover.  Bring to boil and simmer until the peel is tender.   Be careful as they will soften at different times. Just whip out the ones cooked first with a tongs.  Drain and cool.  Make up your sugar syrup by dissolving the sugar in the water and bringing to the boil.  Place the peel pieces in and lower heat to simmer until almost all of the sugar syrup has been absorbed.  Lift out your pieces of peel and place on a wire rack on top of a flat metal tray covered with foil or baking paper.  Place in a warm, dry place overnight until dry.  I put mine on top of stove and am waiting to see if it has a smoky taste but don't think it has.  Do not throw out the rest of your sugar syrup.  Next day re-heat syrup and dip peel into it and place back on rack for more drying.  When completely dry, store in jars in a warm,
dry place such as a hot press.

When you want to use it, just cut to size and add to mincemeat, puddings and fruit cakes.  The taste is spectacular and really noticeable in a Christmas cake in particular.

 

Candied Peel Recipe  Christmas Recipes  Christmas Baking  Food