The result was brilliant! I am not just saying that so he will do it again. The wax we got with the iron is quite expensive, so we are hoping that the cheaper wax we have ordered will come out as well.
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Wax on, wax off
Doug has been banging on for literally years about how much he wants to be able to wax our skis (ok that is poetic licence, I take it back, he never bangs on about anything). I have been waiting and waiting for my perfect lovely wax to happen, but it has never has... until now... To be fair we have never had space to do it before, as the flat in Chamonix was tiny and didn't have anywhere it was ok to cover in wax. The equipment required isn't complex, you just need an iron (ideally a specialist one with rounded edges, but apparently a normal one will do too - if you don't mind it being ruined)
The result was brilliant! I am not just saying that so he will do it again. The wax we got with the iron is quite expensive, so we are hoping that the cheaper wax we have ordered will come out as well.
The result was brilliant! I am not just saying that so he will do it again. The wax we got with the iron is quite expensive, so we are hoping that the cheaper wax we have ordered will come out as well.
Pasta Gorgonzola Recipe
I find that in restaurants we go to often I tend to order the same thing pretty much every time. It is very difficult, sometimes I feel I should venture to have something new, but what if it is not as good and you have wasted an opportunity to have one of your favourite dishes? Hm hm what then? In Chamonix there were a few places we went back to many times and always had the same thing. One is Pasta Gorgonzola at Le Caveau (the review on the link doesn't do the place credit but they don't seem to have a website - not that they seem to need one as they are plenty busy without).
What I have come up with may not be exactly the same, but it is pretty yummy anyway - and it has to be eaten with chili oil. If you don't have any then make some - I know it sounds a bit much, all that pasta, cheese, cream and then oil on top, but the idea is you do something active (eg skiing) first and it is really tasty!
Ingredients (for 2 people)
100g Gorgonzola cheese
1 cup single cream
200-250g penne pasta
300g steak (one biggish steak. I use faux fillet - not sure what that is in English maybe sirloin but doesn't seem so expensive - anyway needs to be nice and tender fried)
Parmesan for on top
Method
Put the pasta on to boil
Put the cream in a pan and bring to the boil
Chop up the gorgonzola
Cut the steak in to small bite sized pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
About 5 mins before the pasta is ready add the gorgonzola to the cream and heat slowly until is just comes to the boil. Let it simmer slowly until the pasta is done.
Around the same time add the steak pieces to a hottish frying pan. You are aiming to just cook the steak through so it is still tender and juicy and maybe a bit bloody if you like it like that.
When the pasta is cooked drain it and add the steak and cheese sauce. Stir well.
Serve with parmesan and chili oil to top.
What I have come up with may not be exactly the same, but it is pretty yummy anyway - and it has to be eaten with chili oil. If you don't have any then make some - I know it sounds a bit much, all that pasta, cheese, cream and then oil on top, but the idea is you do something active (eg skiing) first and it is really tasty!
Ingredients (for 2 people)
100g Gorgonzola cheese
1 cup single cream
200-250g penne pasta
300g steak (one biggish steak. I use faux fillet - not sure what that is in English maybe sirloin but doesn't seem so expensive - anyway needs to be nice and tender fried)
Parmesan for on top
Method
Put the pasta on to boil
Put the cream in a pan and bring to the boil
Chop up the gorgonzola
Cut the steak in to small bite sized pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
About 5 mins before the pasta is ready add the gorgonzola to the cream and heat slowly until is just comes to the boil. Let it simmer slowly until the pasta is done.
Around the same time add the steak pieces to a hottish frying pan. You are aiming to just cook the steak through so it is still tender and juicy and maybe a bit bloody if you like it like that.
When the pasta is cooked drain it and add the steak and cheese sauce. Stir well.
Serve with parmesan and chili oil to top.
Quick Chili Oil
We are planning on making some 'slow' chili oil next year with chilis you grow. You can't generally get spicy chilis here as the French seem not to like them.
It is a bit difficult to have a precise recipe for this as chilis vary in strength. I like the oil to be pretty hot and have some bite so you don't need to add too much.
Ingredients
2 table spoons flaked chilis (or chop up your own dried chilis)
150ml oil (olive, peanut, walnut whatever you fancy)
1 clove garlic cut in to 4 pieces
Sprig of thyme
Method
Put the chili and thyme in to the oil and heat gently until the oil is just starting to bubble. Heat it like this for a few minutes. Don't get it hot enough to smoke or burn the chili, it should sizzle a little but not a lot.
Turn the heat off and and the garlic and swirl around for a while.
Leave to cool.
You can use as soon as it is not dangerously hot or put in a jar/bottle for later use. I remove the garlic and thyme when I bottle it and some of the chili. It will continue getting hotter slowly.
Goes well on pizza.
It is a bit difficult to have a precise recipe for this as chilis vary in strength. I like the oil to be pretty hot and have some bite so you don't need to add too much.
Ingredients
2 table spoons flaked chilis (or chop up your own dried chilis)
150ml oil (olive, peanut, walnut whatever you fancy)
1 clove garlic cut in to 4 pieces
Sprig of thyme
Method
Put the chili and thyme in to the oil and heat gently until the oil is just starting to bubble. Heat it like this for a few minutes. Don't get it hot enough to smoke or burn the chili, it should sizzle a little but not a lot.
Turn the heat off and and the garlic and swirl around for a while.
Leave to cool.
You can use as soon as it is not dangerously hot or put in a jar/bottle for later use. I remove the garlic and thyme when I bottle it and some of the chili. It will continue getting hotter slowly.
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Cheesy update
The first cheddar has been maturing for a few weeks now. It has gone pretty mouldy on the outside, but I have read not to worry about this. Although the first one isn't ready to taste yet, I have made a second one in the hope that it is ok and we will want more. I decided to 'wax' this one. Actually it isn't actually wax but some easier to apply stuff that you paint on with a brush and leave to dry, no need to mess around melting it like wax.
We plan on starting another one soon.
I have made several more batches of coulommier as it is quick and easy and very tasty. It seems that if you use raw milk it is better if it is very fresh, I made one batch with raw milk that was a couple of days old and it was still nice but had a more sour flavour. The cheese is better if aged in the fridge for 2 or 3 days as it dries out a little more and has a less sharp flavour.
I have made more ricotta with the whey from the various cheeses and it is in the freezer mixed with spinash waiting to be made in to raviolli. We have a LOT of whey and so have been feeding it to the cats, dog and chickens. The dog and chickens seem quite keen on it, but strangely the cats are not sure. It is a shame we don't have pigs at the moment to feed it to, that would be a good traditional thing to do with it. We have also used it making bread and pizza dough. It is quite nice but slightly bland to drink, I have found some cocktail recipes that use it, but I am not convinced that is a good idea (typically they are a take on whiskey sours with whey instead of egg).
I started a parmesan and plan on getting more of them going soon too. This one is a bit covered in dog hairs as they were on the cheese cloth (I did not notice) when it came out of the washing machine. I did boil it before using it so hopefully it will be ok.
I have got the culture for making a brie/calembert type cheese. Basically it will be the same recipe as the coulommier with an additional mold culture added to give the rind and soften the inside.
We plan on starting another one soon.
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| First cheddar maturing |
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| Magic cheese coating stuff |
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| Second cheese (with organised label) |
I have made more ricotta with the whey from the various cheeses and it is in the freezer mixed with spinash waiting to be made in to raviolli. We have a LOT of whey and so have been feeding it to the cats, dog and chickens. The dog and chickens seem quite keen on it, but strangely the cats are not sure. It is a shame we don't have pigs at the moment to feed it to, that would be a good traditional thing to do with it. We have also used it making bread and pizza dough. It is quite nice but slightly bland to drink, I have found some cocktail recipes that use it, but I am not convinced that is a good idea (typically they are a take on whiskey sours with whey instead of egg).
I started a parmesan and plan on getting more of them going soon too. This one is a bit covered in dog hairs as they were on the cheese cloth (I did not notice) when it came out of the washing machine. I did boil it before using it so hopefully it will be ok.
I have got the culture for making a brie/calembert type cheese. Basically it will be the same recipe as the coulommier with an additional mold culture added to give the rind and soften the inside.
Saucisson Sec
We froze several batches of meat and fat weighed out to be the correct mixture for saucisson sec (or salami or whatever you want to call it). We got round to processing the first of these.
I have two books with salami recipes in (Hugh's River Cottage Cookbook and a new book I got for Christmas called Forgotten Skills of Cooking) both of which are quite simple recipes that don't worry too much about whether the 'right' mold grows on the outside or with the complexities of what goes on inside the drying meat. However reading about it on the internet it seems rather like cheese and beer in that you can make a very simple version or you can get in to the science of what is happening and control more about it.
We have started off with a simple version which is pretty much what is suggested in the 2 books I have. However we have made two changes, the first is to make half the batch with yoghurt to see if it comes out any different (the theory is that this causes fermentation inside the sausage as it dries making for a better flavour and more efficient cure). The second is to spray the new made saucisson with water in which the skin of a saucisson we bought has been soaked to try to encourage the right mold to grow quickly which improves the cure by slowing the speed at which the saucisson dries and stops other less good moulds growing.
General rules of the recipe
Approx 70% lean meat and 30% back fat by weight
2.2-2.5% of the meat + fat of salt (by weight)
Some seasoning and flavourings (pepper, mace, mushrooms, cheese etc)
100ml liquid per 1kg meat + fat
Something to stuff them in - traditionally beef bungs (ie cow intestine). The thickness of the skin will affect how the sausage comes out as it affects the drying process and what goes on inside while the outside dries.
Our ingredients
1450g lean meat
380g back fat
45g salt (2.5% weight of meat)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 garlic clove crushed
I made two mixtures using half the meat mixture in each, one with a teapoonful of yoghurt and a teaspoonful of sugar (made up to 50ml with water) and one with red wine (50ml).
About 150cm beef bungs
Try to keep everything as cold as you can throughout. Obviously keeping everything clean and sterilising as much stuff as you can is important too as the meat is not going to be cooked. I put all the utensils through the dishwasher on a hot wash and wore an overall to try to keep dog hairs out (they get EVERYWHERE)
If you are using beef bungs they will come in salt, so you need to put them in to rinse before you start. Put them over the end of the tap and run water through them, then leave in a bowl of water to soak the salt out. They don't smell too nice but apparently that is normal. It took several hand washes and a shower (or what passes for a shower here) to get the smell off my hands and I am not quite sure it is gone even now...
They won't be ready for a couple of months. I will update you then on how they turn out.
I have two books with salami recipes in (Hugh's River Cottage Cookbook and a new book I got for Christmas called Forgotten Skills of Cooking) both of which are quite simple recipes that don't worry too much about whether the 'right' mold grows on the outside or with the complexities of what goes on inside the drying meat. However reading about it on the internet it seems rather like cheese and beer in that you can make a very simple version or you can get in to the science of what is happening and control more about it.
We have started off with a simple version which is pretty much what is suggested in the 2 books I have. However we have made two changes, the first is to make half the batch with yoghurt to see if it comes out any different (the theory is that this causes fermentation inside the sausage as it dries making for a better flavour and more efficient cure). The second is to spray the new made saucisson with water in which the skin of a saucisson we bought has been soaked to try to encourage the right mold to grow quickly which improves the cure by slowing the speed at which the saucisson dries and stops other less good moulds growing.
General rules of the recipe
Approx 70% lean meat and 30% back fat by weight
2.2-2.5% of the meat + fat of salt (by weight)
Some seasoning and flavourings (pepper, mace, mushrooms, cheese etc)
100ml liquid per 1kg meat + fat
Something to stuff them in - traditionally beef bungs (ie cow intestine). The thickness of the skin will affect how the sausage comes out as it affects the drying process and what goes on inside while the outside dries.
Our ingredients
1450g lean meat
380g back fat
45g salt (2.5% weight of meat)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 garlic clove crushed
I made two mixtures using half the meat mixture in each, one with a teapoonful of yoghurt and a teaspoonful of sugar (made up to 50ml with water) and one with red wine (50ml).
About 150cm beef bungs
Try to keep everything as cold as you can throughout. Obviously keeping everything clean and sterilising as much stuff as you can is important too as the meat is not going to be cooked. I put all the utensils through the dishwasher on a hot wash and wore an overall to try to keep dog hairs out (they get EVERYWHERE)
If you are using beef bungs they will come in salt, so you need to put them in to rinse before you start. Put them over the end of the tap and run water through them, then leave in a bowl of water to soak the salt out. They don't smell too nice but apparently that is normal. It took several hand washes and a shower (or what passes for a shower here) to get the smell off my hands and I am not quite sure it is gone even now...
- Cut the meat up in to chunks and then mince with a coarse plate. I used 8mm on a manual mincer.
- Put in the fridge while you cut the back fat in to 'pea sized' chunks
- Mix the meat, fat and other ingredients together in a bowl and stir thoroughly with your (very clean) hands
- Tie off one end of the sausage skin with butchers string. There is a special knot you should apparently use otherwise the knot can slip and the contents slop out. To do this you tie a single knot around the skin, fold the skin over and tie another knot to hold it in place and then tie one more round the folded over end. It is pretty tricky to do as the skins are very slippery and hard to hold on to.
- Stuff the mixture for one saucisson in to the sausage skin, we made 6 but you could make bigger or smaller. Use sausage stuffer or funnel - bit tricky either way - and squeeze it down to the end where the knot is (this is where the sausage stuffer is a bit easier than the funnel as it inserts right to the end).
- Squeeze the meat mixture around until it is evenly distributed and fairly tightly packed but not overly straining the skin. Tie another piece of string to make the other end of the saucisson the same as you did the first one. Leave long ends on the string to hang by.
- Cut the skin to seperate the saucisson
- Tie another knot in the end of the skin and stuff the mixture for the next saucisson in and tie it off and remove it in the same way as the first.
- Continue stuffing like this until all the mixture is gone.
- Hang the saucisson somewhere coolish (10-12°C) and draughty until they are firm when you squeeze them. Probably a couple of months. You can go on drying until they are rock hard or eat them at this point.
- Apparently all kinds of mold will appear but you shouldn't worry about them and only be put off if the final product smells rotten.
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| Soaking salt off the beef bungs (skins) |
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| Finished product with the stuffer |
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| Hanging up to dry |
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| Useful book stand (christmas present) |
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| All siz hanging to dry with the hams |
They won't be ready for a couple of months. I will update you then on how they turn out.
Making Parmesan Cheese
We haven't tasted the cheddar yet as it needs 4 weeks minimum to mature. But I am pushing on and making parmesan anyway as that takes much longer to mature and if we don't get it on it will never be ready.
4 liters semi skimmed milk
1/3 tsp rennet
Thermophilic starter according to instructions on the packet (I bought mine here and used half a packet and kept the other half in the freezer for later)
Heat the milk to 33°C
Add the starter and stir thoroughly.
Maintain the temperature for 30 mins to let it ripen
Add the rennet and stir again
Leave for a further 30 mins
Cut the curd with a knife and then break down the pieces further by gently dragging a balloon whisk through the curds. Continue to do this for 10 mins
Increase the temperature of the curds to 43°C over 10 mins (stirring occasionally)
Increase the temperature of the curds to 55°C over a further 10 mins (stirring occasionally)
Strain the curds out using a sieve (keep the whey to feed to the dog/cat/pig/chickens/compost/etc)
Transfer the curds to the mold lined with a cheesecloth
Fold the cheesecloth over the top of the curds, add the follower and put in the press
Press until the whey runs (5kg on my press = approx 1psi))
After an hour take the cheese out of the press, unwrap it, turn it over and rewrap it
Return to the press with double the weight (10kg for me) and leave for 24 hours
Remove again and unwrap and return to the press for a further hour up the other way to smooth the cheese
Put in a covered container somewhere coolish (warmer than fridge) for 2 days
After the 2 days (you might want to make the brine the day before to let it cool)
Put 1 liter of water in a pan with 250g of preserving salt and bring to the boil
Cool to 10-12°C and pour over the cheese in a container just slightly bigger than the cheese
Leave for 24 hours turning the cheese over occasionally to get both sides salted
Remove from the salt and leave to age, after 2 weeks oil it or wax it and let it continue to age for something like 9 months - should improve with age.
4 liters semi skimmed milk
1/3 tsp rennet
Thermophilic starter according to instructions on the packet (I bought mine here and used half a packet and kept the other half in the freezer for later)
Heat the milk to 33°C
Add the starter and stir thoroughly.
Maintain the temperature for 30 mins to let it ripen
Add the rennet and stir again
Leave for a further 30 mins
Cut the curd with a knife and then break down the pieces further by gently dragging a balloon whisk through the curds. Continue to do this for 10 mins
Increase the temperature of the curds to 43°C over 10 mins (stirring occasionally)
Increase the temperature of the curds to 55°C over a further 10 mins (stirring occasionally)
Strain the curds out using a sieve (keep the whey to feed to the dog/cat/pig/chickens/compost/etc)
Transfer the curds to the mold lined with a cheesecloth
Fold the cheesecloth over the top of the curds, add the follower and put in the press
Press until the whey runs (5kg on my press = approx 1psi))
After an hour take the cheese out of the press, unwrap it, turn it over and rewrap it
Return to the press with double the weight (10kg for me) and leave for 24 hours
Remove again and unwrap and return to the press for a further hour up the other way to smooth the cheese
Put in a covered container somewhere coolish (warmer than fridge) for 2 days
After the 2 days (you might want to make the brine the day before to let it cool)
Put 1 liter of water in a pan with 250g of preserving salt and bring to the boil
Cool to 10-12°C and pour over the cheese in a container just slightly bigger than the cheese
Leave for 24 hours turning the cheese over occasionally to get both sides salted
Remove from the salt and leave to age, after 2 weeks oil it or wax it and let it continue to age for something like 9 months - should improve with age.
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| The cut curds in the whey before heating |
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| After heating (curds are hiding at the bottom) |
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| Curds strained out from the whey |
It is 2013!
We had a nice quiet evening in at our own fireside. We did have a bit too much whisky and fizzy wine (and roast pork with perfect potatoes done in duck fat) so didn't leap up to greet the first day of 2013 with the enthusiasm we could otherwise have. We managed to get it together to go skiing by lunch time though. We had a good ski as it was snowing at the resort (raining at the house) and that kept it quite quiet.
I am having some problems writing this post because Lorna (my mum) is not doing very well , so 2013 is not off to a great start and chirpy messages about having a great year don't seem to fit. I don't write much about it on the blog because that is not what it is about, but it is obviously a big thing in my life at the moment and being so far away is very difficult. I am heading back to the UK at the end of the week to spend some time with her.
However despite this sadness we have mad plans, hopes and dreams for this year which you can continue to follow on the blog. I wish everyone luck with their plans and dreams, and hope that you all have as good friends and family as me to help you enjoy the good times and get through the bad.
Cheers!
I am having some problems writing this post because Lorna (my mum) is not doing very well , so 2013 is not off to a great start and chirpy messages about having a great year don't seem to fit. I don't write much about it on the blog because that is not what it is about, but it is obviously a big thing in my life at the moment and being so far away is very difficult. I am heading back to the UK at the end of the week to spend some time with her.
However despite this sadness we have mad plans, hopes and dreams for this year which you can continue to follow on the blog. I wish everyone luck with their plans and dreams, and hope that you all have as good friends and family as me to help you enjoy the good times and get through the bad.
Cheers!
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