28/06/09 15:20
Last week we posted a recipe video on how to make whipped cream. Now some people e-mailed and asked why, why would I put up a video for something so basic? Here’s the answer; thousands of visitors have searched for ‘whipped cream recipe’ in our on site search box. That tells me that there is a need for this type of programming.
Now all the foodies (a term I despise by the way) may think rather smugly that this is child’s play, but I don’t. I shop in the supermarket, and hang out in my friends kitchens when they are cooking dinner - even the kitchens of my family, and I witness something that each and every one of us falls prey to: marketing. Yes advertising that drones on about how hard or time consuming a certain task is, so why not buy product ‘X’ and restore the good life! I know that there have been times leading up to Thanksgiving dinner when I think “I’ll just get a spray can of whipped cream, save some time and no-one will notice”... Or maybe someone in your family buys the tub of ‘edible oil product’ you know who they are.
So we thought, let’s just show how easy it is; you don’t need any special equipment - at the bare minimum two forks and a bowl! That’s it that’s all, but most people would have a wire whisk, some will have an electric hand mixer, and a few will have a stand mixer.
Start to finish the whole operation takes less that 3-4 minutes. Even at the most hectic family dinner, or elegant dinner party I can squeeze out 3 minutes to make whipped cream. Is it cheaper? Not always. Is it better? Yes. Anytime that you can control what you eat it’s better for you. Make it at home, and you can control the sugar plus there’s only two ingredients. The stuff in the tub has a few more than that, with quiet a few I can’t pronounce.
So I’ll get down off my soapbox now, and I encourage everyone who visits the website to send us a note about a technique you’d like to learn. If we don’t know how then we’ll learn right allow with you, even the basics.
Here is our whipped cream recipe.
Tags: Food, Recipe, cooking
23/06/09 09:18
Summer is here! In our part of the world summer always arrives with the first crop of strawberries, and the making of strawberry jam. I am old enough to remember when strawberries were only available in late June to early July, and really only from areas within 150 km’s or so from where we lived. California hadn’t yet kicked their strawberry factories into gear with the super hybridised, super large, and super tasteless red berries; so the only way to get a strawberry out of season was to freeze them or make jam.
We did (and still do) both. That first week after school ended was spent out in the fields picking berries in the morning and then making jam in the afternoon. More berries ended up in my mouth than the bucket, but what do you expect when the fruit practically explodes with flavour in your mouth? 30+ years later, picking berries is a very similar experience for me, except a few things have changed - the people around me, and the farms that still grow berries.
None of the berry farms from my youth are still around, most are now covered by subdivisions filled with people eating berries from California, or Chile, or South Africa; completely unaware of what they are missing out on. FLAVOUR! Those farms that remain might not last much longer as growth crowds them out... it will be a sad day.
Strawberry jam recipes can take a few different paths to reach the same point. Gran B made jam by boiling pectin in the berries and putting it into Mason jars that were shelf stable. Gran P boiled, didn’t add pectin and used sealing wax in whatever jars she could scrounge - I hear some of you out there gasp (!?), it worked fine, still works fine in fact... Ma made freezer jam, shorter time to prep, but you need a big enough freezer to keep it in; something I no longer have.
So here on the site our video recipe for strawberry jam is the boiled with added pectin type.
Now when I tell people that we make our own jam, the first reaction is “how do you find time?”. My answer is always that it really isn’t all that time consuming; we can drive to the farm, pick berries, and make jam all before lunch. Considering that last year we made 12 litres of strawberry jam alone, most people who will only make a couple of litres will be done much faster. As for cost, I don’t think that we save any money; it really is all about knowing where our food comes from, staying connected to the earth, and wanting something that has only 3 or 4 ingredients.
So summer just arrived here in Ontario, and the remaining berry farms are loaded with fruit - time to go out and make some jam.
Our Recipe for Home Made Strawberry Jam.
Tags: jam, preserves, cooking, Recipe, Fruit, Local
22/06/09 07:59
Around our house we love home-made sausage, our favourite is a recipe from my wife’s uncle Carmen who was born in Sicily. His family recipe for a hot Sicilian sausage seems to strike the right balance of flavours, and are a big hit whenever we grill them up at a party.
However we don’t just stick to one kind of sausage, they are so easy to make and the flavours you can add are limitless: some of the recipes we come back to time and again are these Beef and Mustard Sausage, and of course Pork Breakfast Sausage which can be made in links or as patties.
Of all the things I’ve learned about sausage making, the key points seem to be: Keep everything extremely clean, and keep everything extremely cold. Now keeping everything clean should go without saying... you do keep your kitchen clean right? And most people would say that of course they keep their meet cold; but I mean ICE COLD, only steps from frozen.
Cold meat grinds better, stuffs better, and you end up with an easier time making the sausage with the added bonus of much better texture when they are cooked.
Then there is the question of what type of casing to use: Natural or Synthetic? Around here natural casing is available in several of the local supermarkets, and in the butcher shops; so it’s a no-brainer - natural all the way.
Even if you can’t get them locally, you can order casings and supplies from several places on the inter-web.
Now if you’ve never had to prepare natural sausage casing before, don’t fret we have a video series on Preparing Sausage Casing, and on threading casing onto the stuffer.
As for equipment... Uncle Carmen’s family will get together, drink some wine and make 100+ pounds of sausage at a time. They split it up between them, and then do it again when their freezers are empty. So they have a pretty heavy duty industrial type grinder and stuffer. We join in on this, because it’s a great time to get together with friends and family - but it’s no place for experimentation so we started playing around at home.
At first we used a hand grinder, which works for very small amounts and wears you out very quickly, but it’s cheap and gets you started. Next we tried a grinder attachment for our stand mixer; again this works it’s not very big and is fairly inexpensive if you already own the mixer.
Now we've started using a dedicated grinder, pretty heavy duty, takes up storage space, fairly expensive, but in the end well worth it if you make sausage every couple of months or so.
If you have someone in your family who needs a little something extra on their sausage, or you’re not quite ready to make your own and you buy them at the supermarket... Maybe you would like a little sauce for your sausage? Check out our Red Wine / Marsala Sauce. Now in the video we use Marsala, which not everybody is going to love, but you can substitute just about any red wine that you like. Chianti is one that we will use, just match the wine you cook with to the one that you are serving.
Here are links to some recipes that we talked about:
Sicilian sausage recipe
Beef and mustard sausage recipe
Breakfast sausage recipe
Marsala sauce recipe
Tags: Recipe, cooking, Wine
