Tira, and quite possibly, misu.

Yesterday I took part in the second cheesemaking course. As before, it was excellent, and if anyone is contemplating learning how to make cheese, and lives in NZ, you should not go past these courses, run by Jean Mansfield.

Yesterday's course took us through the making of Camembert, Gouda (blue and white) and Marscapone.

Needless to say, the Camembert and Gouda need to be matured, and are doing so in the fridge (which I have had to turn down to the lowest setting so that the bacteria and mold can develop). Apologies to all who wanted a very cold drink...

However, the Marscapone is ready, and I've never made Tiramisu before, so it just had to be done. Especially as my wonderful dental assistant and her husband make their own Kaluha, and have given us a bottle!

So I bought some sponge fingers (Savoiardi) and we had all the other ingredients:

Whisk 4 egg yolks with 200g of caster sugar, then, when the mixture is pale and thick, add the marscapone and whisk till smooth. Add a tsp of vanilla extract. Fold in the beaten whites of 4 eggs.

Meanwhile: soak (briefly) the sponge fingers in a mixture of cold espresso and kaluha,

and make a layer in a bowl/dish/supertanker.

Cover with about half the eggy/cheesy goodness and grate some chocolate over it.

 Then another layer of soaked fingers, and the rest of the cheesy/eggy goodness and more grated chocolate.

Then place in a fridge (or ram into an antarctic glacier if you are using a  supertanker) for about 3 hours.

Then eat. Tiramisu was invented in 1985. So something wonderful did come out of the 80's. I'm amazed that it took so long to be invented, but, perhaps, people made it all the time but never called it that?

Biryani!

This afternoon a few friends are getting together for a curry cook-off. Last year was the inaugural event (we didn't know it then, we just got together to compare our favourite curries). I think 10 different dishes were made, all of them excellent, and a brilliant time was had.

So this year I suspect that the standard will be pretty high, and I haven't made a Biryani in ages, so that's what I'm doing. There are 100s of variations on this dish, as it's celebrated from the Middle East right across to the Philippines. The version I'm making owes more to India, but I suspect that I'm bastardizing several cultural standards in the process. Call it a fusion biryani. Actually, call it whatever you like; I'm sure you will.

Here's a brief rundown of what I done did:

I browned off a kilo of diced shoulder lamb in some ghee, and then fried a couple of chopped onions in the oil.

I made a very rich gravy with ground cumin, coriander, cardamon, garam masala, tamarind, ginger, garlic, chilli, prawn paste, mustard, coconut cream and chicken stock. I added so many little bits of things that I can't remember if that list is complete. Just keep tasting, and adding stuff until it has that balance of sweet/sour/salty/hot that seems right. I made about 3/4 litre of gravy like this.

Meanwhile I cooked some Basmati rice in stock with a few cloves, some saffron, and some bay leaves.

Once the onions were cooked, I used the same oil to cook some prawns adding some stock and some lemon juice.

I then removed them from the pan, and mixed the reduced gravy, the onions and the browned lamb and simmered the whole lot for about 40 min.

Meanwhile I took a good handful each of cashews and almonds, and dry roasted them in a pan. Once brown, I added salt, sugar and pepper and some stock, and reduced it until dry, whence all the seasoning had stuck to the nuts.

Oh, and I hard-boiled 5 eggs.

So now I have all the various elements of the biryani ready. I next made a layer of half the rice in a baking dish, and on top of that placed a layer of the meat and onions, leaving the gravy in the pan.

I then added a layer of nuts

and a layer of prawns.

On top of that, I added the other half of the of rice,

topped it with halved eggs,

and poured the gravy all over the top.

The whole thing then goes in the oven at about 150degC for 45 min with foil covering it so that it doesn't (hopefully) dry out. Ideally it should be a better fitting lid than that (tradition suggests a clay pot with a lid sealed with dough, but I'm using crossed fingers instead).

It smells wonderful and fragrant, so we shall see...

I shall have to add a comment as to how it tasted, and, if I remember, I'll take some pics of the other curries. Wish me luck!

Mayonnaise

We now have eggs in abundance!

Some eggs. In abundance.

some more eggs.

At least 6 per day, and some of the youngest chooks are showing all the signs of being ready to lay too. In fact, we have so many eggs, that LW has plans to sell them from the farm gate. Here's proof!

LW's Lovely sign, to go at the end of the drive

We don't make mayonnaise nearly often enough. I still am in the habit of buying my favourite brand (It was Hellman's in the UK, here, it's called Best Foods'). So, to get out of the habit, we made some today to remind us what a superior version the home-made one is.

3 Egg yolks, a tsp of Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt, whisked up until thick, and then the oil (90% Rice bran oil, 10% extra virgin olive) dripped slowly into the whisking mixture with the occasional tsp of lemon juice every so often, to add sharpness and to thin the rapidly thickening emulsion.

thick...

thicker...

thickest...

It's ready!

It's ready when you say it is. It can be thinned with warm water, and more salt and lemon juice added to taste.

No, I won't buy the manufactured version again.

frittata, meet tortilla.

Eggs are back in season! The chooks are laying again, not without some hesitancy, but we are accumulating them more quickly than we're using them.

Usually, this heralds the first tortilla espagnol of the season; LW's best friend in Glasgow is a lovely Spanish lady who knows the recipe for the authentic tortilla, passed it on to me via LW and then I corrupted it somewhat. I think it's something to do with a problem with authority. I'll think about it later.

However, I wanted to see how things went if I extended the ingredients...

So Here's what I did:

I pan fried onion & garlic to soften but not brown them, added thinly sliced potato (so far exactly like a tortilla). Then I blanched brussels sprouts, broccoli florets and thin slices of carrot, and added them to the frying pan, added an unseemly amount of butter, and softened everything adding some seasoning in the form of salt, pepper and a little cayenne and cumin (don't tell LW- she doesn't like cumin). I also added a handful of crushed, toasted cashews

In a bowl I cracked 10 eggs, and added some cream and a heap of finely grated parmesan, whisked it all up and poured it into the veggies in the frying pan. Cooked slowly in the pan until the sides had set, I then put the pan in a hot oven to let the mixture bubble and brown.

I made the mistake of using the wood-burning range to keep the whole thing warm; it was warmer than I anticipated and I nearly burnt the damn thing. It looks burnt, but it tasted fine!

This was actually rather tasty, and great with a little chilli sauce. Or cold the next day. Or the day after:

Curried Egg & Mash

It's nostalgia food time!

LW has always had a love for a dish she ate as a child: Hard-boiled eggs, curry sauce and mashed potato. It sounds like an odd combo, but it's good comfort food and quick and easy.

For LW, it's vital that the curry sauce is as simple and "traditional" as possible. Traditional in this case means a roue, curry powder and milk.

LW's choice

For me, this just won't do. What I need is to experiment. So in my sauce, we have onion, garlic, finely sliced chilli, garam masala, fenugreek, anchovy sauce, tamarind, turmeric, paprika, and curry paste. And a large dollop of yoghurt.

my choice

And then there's the mash. LW insists her's be made with potato, butter, a little cream and milk. By some weird co-incidence, so do I. It's like we are made for each other.

Brilliant!