Summer on a plate

[moment when all the hard work in the garden becomes totally worth it]

Two years ago, I purchased a pasta machine. I used it lots, then last year, kind of forgot about it. Now that the summer is finally happening, and the garden is yielding all kinds of yummy treats, it was the ideal moment to dust off the flour, and make pasta again. I find home-made pasta a lot lighter and smoother, so it is much more suitable for summery pasta dishes (rather than say, Bolognese sauce, which is more of a hearty winter dish, and is better eaten with ordinary purchased pasta).

After a glut of peas, we are now expecting a glut of courgettes, perpetual spinach, chard, kale and tomatoes. Sadly, the tomatoes are not yet ready due to lacking sunshine, but the green stuff is definitely go.

To celebrate the first courgette, a plate of smooth, pale yellow, silky pasta was in order. The basic recipe is very easy - I tend to use 100g flour and one egg, then scale upwards. A smidgeon of water to bring it all together, wrap it up in the fridge, and done. Not having made pasta in a while, I was concerned about the slightly crumbly texture, but of course it eventually comes together nicely when you come to roll it out. Our own eggs give it a lovely golden colour, but I had to use two eggs for each 100g, as the Cotswolds Sid and Johnny lay quite dainty eggs.

 

The dough, rolled out manually in parcels first, then put through the machine, was firm yet eventually almost translucent. I go through all the settings on the pasta machine, as it seems that extra rolling makes the dough even smoother, and the pasta just that extra bit better. It is also easier with two people, as the pasta sheets can get quite long, and cumbersome to manoeuvre.

Hanging the pasta on an emergency rack (cooling rack, technically) to dry makes it less fiddly to deal with when you reach the boiling stage. As it is so delicate, it has a tendency to stick to everything that is somewhat warm and damp. Usually, my hands are pretty cold, and hence ideal for making pasta, but on that day, due to the weather, even my ice fingers were too warm, and there was a definite danger of creating pasta lumps instead of tagiatelle.

And if you are concerned about the amount of time it takes to make pasta from scratch - it is all clawed back during the cooking process. On your plate in 2 minutes, provided you remembered to have the sauce ready in time!

The lovely courgette and pea veg combination was accompanied by a herb garden pesto of our own invention - the real star of the dish. It is amazing what is edible in your garden, including leaves and flowers! This version included
marigold flowers
nasturtium flowers and leaves
borage flowers and leaves
sorrel
perpetual spinach
pea shoots
rocket
thyme and oregano
olive oil
salt & pepper
parmesan cheese



The sorrel gives it a lemony flavour, borage is very much like cucumber, the nasturtium and rocket add pepper, marigolds are sweetish-peppery with a lovely dash of colour and all other leaves are a solid base for green loveliness.

Best pesto ever. Even without pine nuts.

Jamming

<fruit+sugar=omnomnom>

I happened to be at the Wednesday market around 4pm this week when they had started getting rid of the leftover fruit and veg at dumping prices, and thus managed to get hold of four punnets of strawberries for a mere quid. That could mean only one thing - JAM.
(Well, it could also have meant strawberry gin, but as I have mentioned before, I am less alcohol- and more sugar-oriented than some of the contributors on this blog.)
Making jam is so simple that I really cannot understand why more people don't make their own, especially since it means you can cater to your own preferences when it comes to sugar content, size of fruit pieces, or additional flavourings you may want to add.


In any case, 20 minutes of hulling later I had 1.5kg of strawbs ready to go.

I am at the moment, for various health reasons, trying to avoid sugar, especially refined sugar, and since I LOVE jam, especially my own homemade one, this  this has been somewhat tough at breakfast. On a recent visit to Germany however I bought some low-sugar gelling agent, designed to be used with only 350g of sugar per 1kg of fruit, or even without any sugar, so that you can easily substitute fructose or sweetener. Sweetener alone tends to leave a bit of a bad taste, so I decided to use half fructose, half sweetener.

 My favourite jam EVER is strawberry with stem ginger, so that's what the first 1kg batch was going to be. 

I also like my jam as smooth as possible, none of that real big fruit pieces malarkey for me, so I pureed the strawberries with the stem ginger before cooking the jam.

And because I was feeling adventurous, I added some balsamic vinegar and some ground black pepper to the second, smaller batch. And because I had then run out of strawberries but had still half a packet of gelling agent left, I used up an elderly jar of Morello cherries, spiced up with Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum.

The gelling agent worked a total treat in any combination of fruit sugar and sweetener - I use a pre-chilled saucer from the freezer for my gelling tests, and the jam set in less than a minute on the cold saucer. 

I use my mum's (and apparently every German housewife's) trick for sterilising the jars by simply filling them as much as possible and then turning them upside down for a few minutes, so that the boiling jam heats up the entire jar and sterilises it automatically - simples! 

Result of an hour's work, from left to right: three jars of Strawberry and Stem Ginger, one of Morello Cherry and Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, and two (well, one and three quarters) of Strawberry, Aceto Balsamico and Black Pepper, which I am really looking forward to trying with cheese.

Feeding the Five Thousand

<how to make one small jar of sour dough go on producing lovely loaves again and again and again...>

MEET ERNIE AND BERT

I've had two jars of sour dough starter for a couple of years now, finally fed up with the sad excuses for bread that are sold under that name in the UK and fair desperate for something approaching the variety of sour dough loaves sold in practically any German bakery. I made the sour dough starter myself from scratch - easy peasy, mix rye flour and water, and ten days later, hey presto, sour dough starter. I've since divided it into two separate sour dough cultures, Ernie (the rye starter) and Bert (his all-wheat friend). They live happily in my fridge, and have never complained about neglect, even after weeks of no baking - forget all that nonsense about having to feed your sour dough starter every week or whatever; it may get a little less lively over time, but sour dough really doesn't go off - as the immensely helpful advice on the massive German sour dough forum Das Sauerteigforum puts it, unless the starter stinks to high heaven and has grown red or black mould, it's FINE. Seriously. Just in case, though, I did do something to make sure I still have this sour dough in the unlikely event the jar in the fridge should ever go bad - I took some of it and spread it thinly onto a piece of baking parchment, waited until it had dried in the warm room, and then broke it into pieces and put it into a jar for safekeeping. Sour dough safe.

FEED

To use the sour dough, start "feeding" it 24 hours before you want to start on your bread. Take it out of the fridge, put it into a bowl, and add a handful of flour and a cup or so of warm water. Whisk well to get some air in, cover with a cloth, and leave to stand in a warm place for 6 hours. Repeat. Then repeat again, only this time leave it for 12 hours. So if you want to bake on a Sunday, you could do
Saturday 10am - 1st feeding
Saturday 4pm  - 2nd feeding
Saturday 10pm - 3rd feeding
Sunday 10am - make your dough.

The timing is not really all that crucial, so if you want to make it on a working day, you could do 
Monday 6pm  - 1st feeding
Monday midnight - 2nd feeding
Tuesday 7am - 3rd feeding
Tuesday 6pm - make your dough.

Meet Ernie.

The next "sour dough is complicated" myth that needs debunking is that about the temperature needed while the sour dough starter is resting between feedings - the people on that German forum tend to be rather finicky about this and in their recipes specify that the starter should be kept at 26°C, or at a temperature which starts at 33°C and slowly falls to 23°C....bullshit, seriously. I mean, who has the facilities to regulate the temperature this precisely? And in any case it does not seem to matter at all - never has for my bread, in any case. Just keep it somewhere warmish but not hot (airing cupboard, kitchen table, next to the bedroom radiator in winter, but not in direct sunlight).

I made these from a starter I had fed over the course of a Saturday and then took over to a friends' house. But I had promised another friend a jar of starter and fresh bread for lunch this week, and had of course forgotten to take off an extra jar of sourdough before I took it away to be used, so Monday found me once again feeding the starter - it was rather more active now after only a single night in the fridge, so the dough rose really quick and the breads had a lovely fluffy texture. If your starter is very active and you are in any way in a hurry, two rather than three feedings can be plenty.

KNEAD

Now, before you do anything else: TAKE OFF HALF A JAR OF STARTER TO KEEP FOR YOUR NEXT LOAF. And then use all the rest for your bread. Again, the peeps on the sour dough forum tend to be rather fussy about the hydration of the dough, as in the ratio of flour to water. Some people go so far as to weigh the sour dough and discard what's more than they need, which I think is totally insane. I don't weigh how much water and flour I add in the different feedings, and I don't weigh the amount of sour dough starter I have left after taking off the half jar to keep either. I just add as much flour as I want (1kg tends to make me two nice large loaves, 750g a large one and a small one or a large one and a batch of rolls), start mixing it into the sour dough starter with my electric mixer and dough hooks, and add as much water as I need to get a nice elastic dough. I like at least 25% of rye in my normal bread loaves, or add some spelt or buckwheat flour for texture adn taste, but make my baguettes generally with pure wheat. IMPORTANT BIT: don't add salt just yet! Let the ready-mixed dough rest for 20 minutes, THEN add the salt and knead for a few minutes until it is smooth. The resting phase is called autolysis, and helps develop the gluten, so that you get more gluten (and thus a much better crumb) with far less kneading. Don't forget to add the salt after the 20 minutes, though! (Not that that has ever happened to me....)

Now that's what I call a decent crumb!

RISE

The best place to let the dough rise (initially for at least 2 hours) I have found, is the oven (unless you have a nice warm airing cupboard, or God beware, a proofing drawer....). I switch mine on on full heat for 2 minutes, then off again, and that is a perfect environment for your sour dough. Just leave it in the bowl you did the mixing in, cover with a disposable shower cap from your last hotel stay (or cling film, if you don't have any or any friends who travel for business a lot), and then wait.

SHAPE and PROOF

Once the dough has risen nicely I only lightly knead and shape it before it goes into the proofing baskets, or (for baguettes), is put on a tray between folds of cloth - there are a million of videos on YouTube which show you how to shape baguettes or how to shape bread loaves. You can also make very easy nicely-shaped loaves in a square loaf tin; just shape an oval loaf and put it seam side down into the lightly oiled tin.
At this stage you can add all sorts of ingredients to make specialty bread - dried fruit and nuts, or fresh herbs, sundreid tomatoes, roast onions, bacon bits, or bits of cheese - the list is endless, it really only depends what you want to eat the bread WITH afterwards!
Leave your shaped loaves to proof, again in the slightly warmed oven, for at least an hour, maybe two.

Wheat with 25% rye; pecans and raisins in the loaf near the back.

BAKE

The hotter the better. Seriously, the oven in my new flat goes up to 250°C rather than 220°C, and it makes a world of difference to the crust. Pre-heat until really really hot. If you have a baking stone, pre-heat that. Baking trays also work well when pre-heated.
Topple your loaf out of the proofing basket onto the stone or baking tray (of just slip your tin into the oven). Have a spray bottle filled with fresh water prepared, and use that to spray generously onto the loaves and onto the bottom of the oven until there is a nice bit of steam, then close the oven door quickly.
Bake at high temperature in the steam for 12-15 minutes, then open the oven door to let the steam escape, and reduce the temperature to 200-180°C, and finish baking for 45min to an hour - to test whether your loaf is done, pick it up and knock on the bottom; if it sounds hollow, it is done. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool - or just cut into the fresh loaf as soon as it is cool enough to handle and scarf down the first slice with the butter melting on it, I dare you to resist!

The egg bound chicken

[illness, during which much unpleasantness occurs, with a miraculous recovery and happy ending*]

We inherited some chickens with the house we bought. Had planned on chickens anyway, so very happy to take them on. There were two, a Bluebell and a Sussex, of indeterminate age, and varying character. Pock, the Bluebell, has little personal hygiene, but is otherwise happy and very keen on food. Not so keen on laying. Pickwick, the Sussex chicken, is a little haughty madam, parading around the coop, and a reliable layer.

Pickwick, as a healthy chicken

Enjoying some cottage cheese in a dignified fashion

One egg a day for at least 300 days of the year. So when we found her in the coop, hunched over and not moving from her spot, and when coaxed up, waddling and tumbling strangely, we were of course concerned. I had just returned from a business trip, and wanted to go to bed (it was just about getting dark, and the chickens were definitely sleepy - except Pickwick), which of course always means something will not go according to plan.

In any case, as relatively new chicken keepers (one year in without major issues), we hit the internet to check options. We had read some books (A Chicken in Every Yard, for example, and "Leben auf dem Lande" by John Seymour in the German translation - ask Nat about killing pigs, and she will tell you how to do so, fluently, in German), and knew about chickens getting egg bound. Our suspicions were confirmed to the worst, as, if not treated, it is a horrible way to go for a chicken.
Treatments recommended were
- sitting the affected chicken in a warm water bath
- steaming the affected chicken's bum
- using oil to lubricate the affected chicken's cloaca and further in (yikes)
- deal with the egg inside (no way)

So, we grabbed poor Pickwick, put her in a hot water bath in the living room and waited. Her breathing slowed down noticeably, and her back relaxed a bit, and after a while she started nodding off gently. We then woke her up to put her in front of a steaming water bowl to, as the instructions said, steam her bum. Making sure the steam was not too hot, she sat on a towel in a contented fashion, and relaxed a bit more. Rude awakening followed immediately of course - in the form of a latex-gloved hand covered in oil. We had to use olive oil (definitely not ideal, but beating GT85 as second contender on availability), and I had the doubtful pleasure of applying it. First, rubbing around the cloaca to relax the muscles. Also massaging the underbelly gently to relax her more. Then, some internal lubrication. Not a lot, as I did not want to break the egg - that was just too horrific and dangerous to contemplate. Repeat. Hot Water Bath. Steam. Massage. Oil.

After about 2 hours, we were all exhausted, and put her into a basket with comfortable hay, into the downstairs bathroom. It is the warmest place in the house, and dark. I then spent the rest of the night getting to grips with having to kill her in the morning (wring neck, then use largest axe).
At 0630 am, I opened the bathroom door. Pickwick was sitting on top of her blanket, pocking at me. Clearly awake and more comfortable.

Put her in the coop, and she laid a monster egg.

After the ordeal. A Cotswold Legbar egg for size comparison.

Two hours later, she laid another monster. A double-yolker in fact.

A fist-sized monster. Poor Pickwick! 

The yolks in question. Still sunflower-yellow, though.

* For a while, the episode seemed forgotten, and she was her usual self, snapping at the others, laying, parading. Sadly, now, it seems to catch up with her. She is a bit slower, sits often and is not as active. Lays less, and generally looks like an old tired granny. It has taken a lot of energy out of her, but now that she is basically well - just old and exhausted- I cannot get myself to reach for that axe. Old soft lump that I am.

Need more tomatoes!

[thinking one has not planted enough tomatoes despite contrary evidence]

And one could say the same thing about chilli plants.

Every year, I say to myself that 20 tomato plants are sufficient. We choose new tomato breeds, one per requirement. Last year, we tried Tiger Tomatoes, and Tumbling Toms, one for cooking, the other for eating;  - for want of time to research, these are relatively standard varieties, bought over the counter. Carefully grew them from seed, making sure that there were some spare plants in case of disasters - and ended up with 60 tomato plants. Could not bear to weed a single one out (well, if they show willing, who am I to put a stop to it?), and in the ground they went.
Revisited the pledge made above.

The 2014 harvest. Tiger and random.

This year, we have Maskotka, Currant and San Marzano. San Marzanos for making passata and sauces, Maskotka for salads and freezing, and Currants for just eating off the plant, like smarties.
To be on the safe side, planted 24 seeds of each. They all came up. They are now all in the ground.

Maskotka in progress

However, due to a cunning plan, we have several patches in the garden. Seven patches and a bunch of hanging baskets, to be precise. All plants had their side shoots nipped, and are neatly tied to sticks, because my mother came to house-sit and led by example. Yet, every time I look at a patch, I feel the old fear of not having enough tomato plants. There are only 8 on here! We will run out before the summer ends! Oh, hang on, there is another patch. But is it enough? It is an irrational feeling, especially because tomatoes are very unassuming and easy to grow - we even have a few self-seeded surprise ones in the buckwheat, the chickpeas, the squash patch, in the peas and in between the aubergines.

San Marzano, the saucy plum

Semaroh peppers - apparently temperamental 

and prone to germination failure.

The other fear is more rational. May I draw your attention to the description on the package of Semaroh peppers? It says here, and I quote "germination is not as vigorous as we would like, so we have included extra seed. Please sow more seeds than you require".
We sowed 16 of each Semaroh, Sweet Chocolate, Jalapeno and Scotch Bonnets. The first three are from the brilliant, if cautious, folks at The Real Seed Company, the other one from a bunch of dried chillies that we forgot to eat at some point.
In the airing cupboard they went (with regular daily spa breaks and exercise on the window sill), and now we have chillies coming out of our ears.

While we can deal with a glut of tomatoes (years of practice, and some grateful friends), making sauces, chutneys, stuffed tomatoes, slow-cooked tomato casseroles, Greek salads, barbecued tomatoes, roasted green tomatoes, tomatoes lightly salted on fresh sourdough bread..., chillis are much more difficult to use. Maybe a recipe for chilli chutney?

On the other hand, we are running low on Harissa. The Morito recipe calls for 250g of red chillis. What a lucky coincidence.

Chilli forest. Ignore the random Huazontle plant.