From the kitchen to the emergency room
August 22, 2010
Posted in Food
I did it. I sliced a piece of my finger off. I’ve cut myself a couple of times previously while cooking but this time I really sliced a piece off. Not a big piece of my finger but large enough to create a gush of blood resembling a small slasher movie and prompt a visit to the local casualty ward.
I was chopping some tomatoes for a quick dinner. I wasn’t really concentrating. The next moment my kitchen resembled that of Gordon Ramsey. The F-Word was bouncing off walls and I was hopping around looking for something to staunch the blood flow.
A painful reminder of why good knife skills are essential.
Here are a couple of timely videos about using the pinch and claw grips to avoid ending up in your local emergency room.
Banishing demons: Easy Mayonnaise
August 21, 2010
Posted in Food
I’m going to say it. Making your own mayonnaise is a big deal. At least to me.
It’s got a reputation for being fiddly and finicky to make, but making your own mayonnaise is a small badge of honour in the cooking world. Homemade always tastes better but most people just can’t be bothered.
Mayonnaise’s hard-to-make reputation is generally well-deserved. I’ve tried many times over the years, each time with an increasingly complicated recipe, but pretty much failed every time. The worst was on a Christmas morning when I had a dish planned for lunch that involved mayonnaise. After finishing off all the eggs and sunflower oil in the house in a number of failed attempts I had to resort to rescuing the remains of a jar of mayonnaise from the back of the fridge and spread it thinly.
I got away with that time but that wasn’t really the issue.
Then one day I happened upon this recipe. I can’t remember exactly where I got it but it looked pretty simple so I gave it a try and I’ve never looked back. We no longer buy that horrible over-preserved stuff from the supermarket any more. It takes just a couple of minutes to whip up this mayonnaise when you need some, and it last for a good while in the fridge.
There are a couple of tricks to getting this right but they’re not as complicated as some recipe writers like to make out.
The first thing to do is use room temperature ingredients, particularly the eggs. The second is to add the oil in a slow (really slow), steady stream. Spend the extra couple of minutes and get it right.
I use a liquidiser to make my mayonnaise, primarily because it has this cool lid with a very small hole it, which makes adding the oil really easy.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 cup (250ml) oil, sunflower or olive
Put all the dry ingredients and the eggs into the liquidiser and blend for four or five seconds. Next, with the liquidiser running, add the oil in a slow, steady stream. You’ll notice the mixture starting to thicken.
Now add the vinegar and lemon juice and blend for another few seconds, just enough to mix it all up.
If you add the oil too quickly you ‘ll probably end up curdling the mixture. If this happens add a couple of drops of water. If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to start again.
The mayonnaise can be kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks, though you’ll probably use it all up before then.
I sometimes leave out the mustard or add some more cayenne. It still works and you can change your final flavour by doing so. You could also use a red wine vinegar to give it some colour.
No-fuss, simple Ciabatta bread
August 17, 2010
Posted in Food
I’m going through a bread phase. There is something uniquely fulfilling about making your own bread; it’s not just that it tastes better than the soft, sliced bread you get in supermarkets, it’s more than that.
Perhaps it is because in its simplest form bread-making is such a basic skill. And yet it can also involve great skill and artistry.
One of my favourite breads is Ciabatta. Making a good Ciabatta bread can be time consuming and pretty fiddly. This is my super-simple version which gives a great result but doesn’t take much time. It also produces excellent rolls for things like hamburgers.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 1/4 cups bread flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
You could make this by hand but I tend to stick all of the ingredients into my bread machine and use the dough setting. I start with the water and flour, add the rest and set the machine. The resulting dough is pretty soft and sticky, which is another good reason to use a bread machine.
Once the dough is ready, take it out of the bread machine, place on a board, cover with a large bowl and let it stand for about 10 minutes.
Next, split your dough into two and shape into oval shapes. Alternatively, split the dough into six or eight pieces to make bread rolls.
Leave these to prove for about an hour. In warmer climates this may take less time, and in colder ones you may need more.
Once the dough has risen, place it in a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees C for about 20-25 minutes, until nicely browned. Spray the loaves lightly with water ever three minutes for the first ten minutes of cooking. This prevents the crust browning too quickly and keeps the crust moist enough to keep on rising. Spraying more than this can make the loaves very pale.
If you’re making bread rolls out of this, brush the surface with milk or egg before cooking. The milk gives the bread a lighter shade than the egg and the egg gives a deeper glaze.
Remove the bread from the oven and stand on a wire rack to cool before eating.
