High quality vinegar is hard to find on the shelves yet easy to make at home, and it’s a great way to use up leftover bottles of red.
The best hand-crafted vinegars have all the complexity of great wines. You can make wonderful robust vinegar to your taste by starting with good wine. You only need a few drops of our full strength Shiraz vinegar to wake up your taste buds. The sour acid hit brightens sauces and salads, adding piquancy to both sweet and savoury dishes.
Vinegar can occur naturally when wine is exposed to oxygen, but if you want to kick start the transition add a bit of vinegar that has an active Mother.
For guaranteed success it’s best to start with low alcohol wine, around 5 per cent, you can use a bottle of 14 per cent Shiraz just dilute with a couple of bottles of water.
Half fill a jar with your red wine, allowing plenty of air space; then add the wine-vinegar at a ratio of about 5 to 1. Cover the jar lightly allowing ventilation while keeping out insects, just a few loose layers of cheesecloth, Chux, wax paper, or tin foil will do the job.
Let the bugs go to work, a lively colony of Acetobacter convert alcohol into acetic acid, that’s your vinegar.
Use a clear jar so you can see the Mother growing, it’s mesmerising to watch as one layer forms and gently drops to the bottom, then another layer forms. First thing you’ll see the wine mixture becoming hazy, then after a few weeks a thick glutinous skin will gradually develop on the surface, this is ‘the mother of vinegar’ a fascinatingly slimy smooth mass of cellulose that develops the distinctive flavour characteristics.
Store the jar in a warm position, roughly 25 degrees Celsius away from sunlight, for a few months. We keep ours in a tin shed, far away from where we make wine.
Just how long the conversion takes depends on conditions such as strength of alcohol, active mother and temperature. We’ve had cider vinegar turn in a month while red wine sat lingering over six months before reaching the vinegar stage. Taste as you go, it’s ready when you have a clean distinctive vinegar aroma and flavour. Now your batch is ready to strain and bottle. Keep the Mother for starting your next batch. Avoid spoilage by keeping everything clean during the process, and when bottling either pasteurise or fill the bottles very full to avoid an air gap.
Once you’re in the swing of it, you can keep making vinegar easily by adding some of your active vinegar mixture to any leftover wines. As you become addicted to the full flavour of your own home made brew, you’ll want to experiment with different wine varieties, strengths, blends, and maybe start some white wine, cider and sherry vinegars.
Store your vinegar like wine in a cool dark spot, and like a good wine it will improve with aging, mellowing and rounding out the flavours after six months or so in the bottle.
latest of the Do It Yourself at home Sumptuous articles ..
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Citrus preserving
We're just finishing the last of the Citrus preserving.
A seasonal luxury is picking oranges amongst the heavenly scent of blossom then squeezing the fresh sweet-acid juice for breakfast, naturally chilled from crisp morning air.
The aromatic skin, tangy juice and flesh of citrus are essential ingredients in our kitchen. Our grove of Grapefruit; Navel, Valencia, Seville, Poor Man’s and Blood Oranges; Lisbon, Eureka and Meyer Lemons; Pomelo; Mandarin; Kaffir, Tahitian, West Indian and Native Finger Limes and the grand Citron offer an endless variety of bitter-sweetness.
Every part of the fruit is useful including the leaves, flowers and peel - freshly grated, dried or candied.
If I could have only one citrus tree it would be the versatile Lemon.
We use Lemon everyday - a squeeze of Lemon juice adds the finishing touch, accentuating flavours. Finely grated Lemon zest adds a delicate taste to both savoury and sweet dishes.
In South Australia’s favourable climate, most of us are able to grow a citrus tree in our yard or pot. Plant in late early Autumn or mid-Spring selecting rootstock matched to your soil. For the best results, take a sample of your soil to a specialist, such as Perry’s in McLaren Vale, for advice on planting.
With excess Lemons you may be inspired to make old fashioned true Lemonade, classic curd, traditional cordial, salty preserved Lemons or sweet candied peel.
Lemonade
Lemons, Water and Sugar to taste makes Lemonade. Remove the peel and cover with water, heat gently to release the flavour, remove before the water boils and strain the water, adding Lemon juice and sugar to your taste.
Lemon Curd
4 large Lemons
½ cup butter
1 ½ cups sugar
4 large eggs beaten
Zest the Lemon rind, squeeze the Lemons and strain the juice, melt the butter over a double boiler, add the Lemon zest and juice, sugar and beaten eggs. Cook on low for 20 to 30 minutes whisking occasionally until smooth and creamy. Ladle into warm jars and seal.
Lemon Syrup / Cordial
2.5 cups Lemon juice
1.5 kilos sugar
1.5 cups water
½ tsp tartaric acid
½ tsp citric acid
Put zest, water and sugar into a pan, stir over heat until sugar is dissolved, add Lemon juice & acids, strain and bottle. Drink as a cordial 1 part syrup to 5 parts water.
Preserved Lemons
Preserved Lemon rind is ideal for soups, tagines, salads and stuffings. Cut the Lemons into quarters and rub all over with salt. Then pack the Lemons tightly into a jar, squeezing out the juice as you go, adding more salt between each layer, finish with salt and pour over Lemon juice and seal.
Candied Peel
3 Lemons (or any citrus – orange, grapefruit and ancient Citron work especially well)
2 cups caster sugar
4 litres water
1 cup water extra
Ø Cut the fruit in half and squeeze the juice (reserve for drinking or making syrup).
Ø Place the peel into a pan with 2 litres of water and bring to the boil, drain and add fresh water, boil again and simmer gently until the rind is tender, approximately ten minutes.
Ø Let the peel cool, then scoop out the flesh.
Ø Slice the halves into ‘leaves’.
Ø Mix sugar and water (at a ratio of 2:1), stir until the sugar is dissolved and then bring to the boil slowly without stirring, add the peel and simmer until it is translucent (depending on the peel, approx 30 min) then leave the peel to rest in the sugar syrup for another 30 minutes before placing on a rack to drain for a day, or several days, until dry. Store packed in sugar or dusted with sugar between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, cool cupboard or the fridge. Lasts for 12 months or more, for using in cakes, biscuits or delicious served alone with a strong black coffee.
A seasonal luxury is picking oranges amongst the heavenly scent of blossom then squeezing the fresh sweet-acid juice for breakfast, naturally chilled from crisp morning air.
The aromatic skin, tangy juice and flesh of citrus are essential ingredients in our kitchen. Our grove of Grapefruit; Navel, Valencia, Seville, Poor Man’s and Blood Oranges; Lisbon, Eureka and Meyer Lemons; Pomelo; Mandarin; Kaffir, Tahitian, West Indian and Native Finger Limes and the grand Citron offer an endless variety of bitter-sweetness.
Every part of the fruit is useful including the leaves, flowers and peel - freshly grated, dried or candied.
If I could have only one citrus tree it would be the versatile Lemon.
We use Lemon everyday - a squeeze of Lemon juice adds the finishing touch, accentuating flavours. Finely grated Lemon zest adds a delicate taste to both savoury and sweet dishes.
In South Australia’s favourable climate, most of us are able to grow a citrus tree in our yard or pot. Plant in late early Autumn or mid-Spring selecting rootstock matched to your soil. For the best results, take a sample of your soil to a specialist, such as Perry’s in McLaren Vale, for advice on planting.
With excess Lemons you may be inspired to make old fashioned true Lemonade, classic curd, traditional cordial, salty preserved Lemons or sweet candied peel.
Lemonade
Lemons, Water and Sugar to taste makes Lemonade. Remove the peel and cover with water, heat gently to release the flavour, remove before the water boils and strain the water, adding Lemon juice and sugar to your taste.
Lemon Curd
4 large Lemons
½ cup butter
1 ½ cups sugar
4 large eggs beaten
Zest the Lemon rind, squeeze the Lemons and strain the juice, melt the butter over a double boiler, add the Lemon zest and juice, sugar and beaten eggs. Cook on low for 20 to 30 minutes whisking occasionally until smooth and creamy. Ladle into warm jars and seal.
Lemon Syrup / Cordial
2.5 cups Lemon juice
1.5 kilos sugar
1.5 cups water
½ tsp tartaric acid
½ tsp citric acid
Put zest, water and sugar into a pan, stir over heat until sugar is dissolved, add Lemon juice & acids, strain and bottle. Drink as a cordial 1 part syrup to 5 parts water.
Preserved Lemons
Preserved Lemon rind is ideal for soups, tagines, salads and stuffings. Cut the Lemons into quarters and rub all over with salt. Then pack the Lemons tightly into a jar, squeezing out the juice as you go, adding more salt between each layer, finish with salt and pour over Lemon juice and seal.
Candied Peel
3 Lemons (or any citrus – orange, grapefruit and ancient Citron work especially well)
2 cups caster sugar
4 litres water
1 cup water extra
Ø Cut the fruit in half and squeeze the juice (reserve for drinking or making syrup).
Ø Place the peel into a pan with 2 litres of water and bring to the boil, drain and add fresh water, boil again and simmer gently until the rind is tender, approximately ten minutes.
Ø Let the peel cool, then scoop out the flesh.
Ø Slice the halves into ‘leaves’.
Ø Mix sugar and water (at a ratio of 2:1), stir until the sugar is dissolved and then bring to the boil slowly without stirring, add the peel and simmer until it is translucent (depending on the peel, approx 30 min) then leave the peel to rest in the sugar syrup for another 30 minutes before placing on a rack to drain for a day, or several days, until dry. Store packed in sugar or dusted with sugar between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, cool cupboard or the fridge. Lasts for 12 months or more, for using in cakes, biscuits or delicious served alone with a strong black coffee.
Butter
Thank you to Georgie asking for the butter 'recipe' - this is the Sumptuous Butter article, hope it gets you churning....
As the weather cools and pastures green, I’m drawn to butter. That irreplaceable melt-in-your-mouth flavour thickly spread onto crusty bread, melting into baked potatoes or a creamy risotto, butter makes the dish. Cooks love butter for the natural flavour, texture, and shine. And that wonderful alchemy of butter creamed with sugar, essential for a delicate cake crumb.
Though thankful for convenient commercial butter at the supermarket, whenever I find treasures of artisan butter in dairy regions I’m reminded this is worth the hunt. These small batches show seasonal differences in texture, taste and colour from the creamy white winter to the yellows of spring.
One of the finest pairings is that of butter with garlic. For a sensational Garlic Bread start with locally grown, organic, new season’s garlic thinly sliced and mixed into fresh butter, add chopped herbs, a dash of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Spread thickly between slices of crusty baguette, wrap in alfoil, and bake in a medium oven until the crust is browned and the aroma irresistible.
For making butter using the ancient technique of hand whipping, all you need is cream. You could use a whisk, but you would miss the miraculous feeling of cream turning to butter in your hand.
HAND-MADE COW’S MILK BUTTER
Ingredients
Cream
· Visit a dairy region or Farmers Market to source a good quality pure cream with high flavoursome fat content, 30 per cent or more.
· For a tangy ‘cultured’ butter leave the cream at room temperature for a day to sour slightly, if you prefer a sweet butter use fresh cream.
Equipment
Two bowls, colander, cloth, grease proof paper and cling wrap, whisk if using.
Process
· Line a colander with cheese cloth (a folded clean ‘chux’ works well) and set inside one of the bowls.
· Pour the cream into the other bowl and whip with your hand, keep fingers spread and wrist relaxed (or use a whisk).
· Firstly you will make whipped cream (the speed of your whipping will determine how quickly the butterfat reaches peak stage).
· After five to ten minutes the butterfat forms small lumps as it separates from the buttermilk (liquid portion of cream); continue whipping until the butterfat comes together as large yellow lumps.
· Pour the entire contents of the bowl into the cloth-lined strainer and let the mixture drain for several minutes.
· Squeeze the butter in its cloth to extract as much liquid as possible, then unwrap the butter from the cloth (save the buttermilk for making biscuits, cakes, scones and pancakes).
· Pour cool water over the butter and rinse, squeezing and folding the lump of butter until the water runs clear. Make sure it runs really clear or your butter will go rancid quickly.
· Knead the butter mass on a cold surface (marble is ideal) for a few minutes to aerate creating a smooth texture, (if you are adding salt or flavourings this is the time to add them) some additional liquid will seep out as you knead.
· Finally place the butter onto grease-proof paper and roll into a log; or make a brick, or wrap into individual serves. Wrap the butter in its grease-proof paper with a layer of cling wrap.
· Storage – Refrigerated, your butter will last for about three weeks, frozen it will keep for a few months.
· To Use - Slice off butter pats from your frozen log and leave at room temperature if using that day, or refrigerate for later.
· Salt - We make unsalted butter as it is most versatile for pastries, cakes and sauces, adding salt separately to the dishes. When we want salted butter for the table we roll the butter in salt to serve.
As the weather cools and pastures green, I’m drawn to butter. That irreplaceable melt-in-your-mouth flavour thickly spread onto crusty bread, melting into baked potatoes or a creamy risotto, butter makes the dish. Cooks love butter for the natural flavour, texture, and shine. And that wonderful alchemy of butter creamed with sugar, essential for a delicate cake crumb.
Though thankful for convenient commercial butter at the supermarket, whenever I find treasures of artisan butter in dairy regions I’m reminded this is worth the hunt. These small batches show seasonal differences in texture, taste and colour from the creamy white winter to the yellows of spring.
One of the finest pairings is that of butter with garlic. For a sensational Garlic Bread start with locally grown, organic, new season’s garlic thinly sliced and mixed into fresh butter, add chopped herbs, a dash of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Spread thickly between slices of crusty baguette, wrap in alfoil, and bake in a medium oven until the crust is browned and the aroma irresistible.
For making butter using the ancient technique of hand whipping, all you need is cream. You could use a whisk, but you would miss the miraculous feeling of cream turning to butter in your hand.
HAND-MADE COW’S MILK BUTTER
Ingredients
Cream
· Visit a dairy region or Farmers Market to source a good quality pure cream with high flavoursome fat content, 30 per cent or more.
· For a tangy ‘cultured’ butter leave the cream at room temperature for a day to sour slightly, if you prefer a sweet butter use fresh cream.
Equipment
Two bowls, colander, cloth, grease proof paper and cling wrap, whisk if using.
Process
· Line a colander with cheese cloth (a folded clean ‘chux’ works well) and set inside one of the bowls.
· Pour the cream into the other bowl and whip with your hand, keep fingers spread and wrist relaxed (or use a whisk).
· Firstly you will make whipped cream (the speed of your whipping will determine how quickly the butterfat reaches peak stage).
· After five to ten minutes the butterfat forms small lumps as it separates from the buttermilk (liquid portion of cream); continue whipping until the butterfat comes together as large yellow lumps.
· Pour the entire contents of the bowl into the cloth-lined strainer and let the mixture drain for several minutes.
· Squeeze the butter in its cloth to extract as much liquid as possible, then unwrap the butter from the cloth (save the buttermilk for making biscuits, cakes, scones and pancakes).
· Pour cool water over the butter and rinse, squeezing and folding the lump of butter until the water runs clear. Make sure it runs really clear or your butter will go rancid quickly.
· Knead the butter mass on a cold surface (marble is ideal) for a few minutes to aerate creating a smooth texture, (if you are adding salt or flavourings this is the time to add them) some additional liquid will seep out as you knead.
· Finally place the butter onto grease-proof paper and roll into a log; or make a brick, or wrap into individual serves. Wrap the butter in its grease-proof paper with a layer of cling wrap.
· Storage – Refrigerated, your butter will last for about three weeks, frozen it will keep for a few months.
· To Use - Slice off butter pats from your frozen log and leave at room temperature if using that day, or refrigerate for later.
· Salt - We make unsalted butter as it is most versatile for pastries, cakes and sauces, adding salt separately to the dishes. When we want salted butter for the table we roll the butter in salt to serve.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Tomato Sauce
Tomatoes are overflowing this year ... red plum, oxheart, beef, cherry, black Russians, yellow, orange and striped tomatoes.
First I’ll select medium sized and start some slow roasting on medium heat, when they’re cooked and while the oven is slowly cooling down put in a batch of halved salted tomatoes for oven drying. If you have a good spot and the patience for three days of sun drying the flavour is superb. I peel some of the larger tomatoes for bottling in the Vacola.
The most pleasurable task with the greatest rewards is sauce making. My fresh tomato sauce method is quite basic, starting with frying onion, carrot, celery and garlic in olive oil, add chopped tomatoes, cook for a couple of hours to reduce, then add salt, sugar and vinegar to balance the flavours. A few fresh basil and parley leaves finish it off.
I’m on a quest for the best sauce in town. I gather relish, chutney and sauce recipes and experiment each year with Australian style tomato sauce for spreading on steak, Italian style for pouring on piping hot pasta, and herby chunky relish for topping toast.
My obsession with collecting sauce recipes comes from living in the Vale of the Makers of Sauce. We have abundant Italian heritage mixed in with the varied European descendants in McLaren Vale, luckily the local families keep the tradition of growing and bottling their tomatoes each year. It is fascinating to hear the different methods, and while everyone has an opinion on why their sauce is the best it is extremely difficult to pry the closely guarded recipes from them.
First I’ll select medium sized and start some slow roasting on medium heat, when they’re cooked and while the oven is slowly cooling down put in a batch of halved salted tomatoes for oven drying. If you have a good spot and the patience for three days of sun drying the flavour is superb. I peel some of the larger tomatoes for bottling in the Vacola.
The most pleasurable task with the greatest rewards is sauce making. My fresh tomato sauce method is quite basic, starting with frying onion, carrot, celery and garlic in olive oil, add chopped tomatoes, cook for a couple of hours to reduce, then add salt, sugar and vinegar to balance the flavours. A few fresh basil and parley leaves finish it off.
I’m on a quest for the best sauce in town. I gather relish, chutney and sauce recipes and experiment each year with Australian style tomato sauce for spreading on steak, Italian style for pouring on piping hot pasta, and herby chunky relish for topping toast.
My obsession with collecting sauce recipes comes from living in the Vale of the Makers of Sauce. We have abundant Italian heritage mixed in with the varied European descendants in McLaren Vale, luckily the local families keep the tradition of growing and bottling their tomatoes each year. It is fascinating to hear the different methods, and while everyone has an opinion on why their sauce is the best it is extremely difficult to pry the closely guarded recipes from them.
Do you have a Sauce recipe to share?
Jock Harvey of Chalk Hill Wines makes one of the most talked about and copied sauces around. Jock’s sauce has been sold at the local Farmers Market, and on first taste this got my vote for packing a punch.
Jock swears by Wild’s ‘Ezy Sauce’ as a ‘bullet proof’ method for beginners’ home sauce making. I hadn’t heard of Ezy Sauce before this, but it was easy to find at our local supermarket – it is a mix of acid, pepper, clove oil and chilli in a brown ‘stubby’ bottle. Jock prefers using this mix for the lasting properties, he says it ages well in the bottle, developing depth and length of flavour. You can imagine Jock decanting small batches of sauce just to check whether this is good to put down or ‘drink now’.
Jock Harvey’s Super Spicy Sauce Recipe
1 x kilo chopped onions
10 x kilos tomatoes quartered (Romas - vine ripened, fresh from the garden are best)
1 x kilo chopped apples
170g x crushed garlic (fresh or jar)* or 100g fresh chopped
1 portion of Vindaloo Curry Paste* (no I can’t get the recipe for this but you can buy ready made and add to your heat’s desire)
2 x 25g packets dried chilli
1.5 kilo Sugar
½ Cup Salt
1 x 375ml bottle Ezy Sauce*
*available at most supermarkets
Jock's method is to cook warm olive oil in a large heavy based pan, add the chopped onions and cook until translucent, then tip in the rest of your ingredients and bring to the boil, lower heat and cook gently for 3 hours, then blitz it with a Bamix.
From Sumptuous Article Autumn Edition
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Mulberries are ecstacy
Summer Solstice brings the first ripe mulberries. We picked our first full bucket under the new moon. Perfectly ripe mulberry season is brief, only a few weeks. Perfection is found moments after they turn from light red to purple black ... ecstacy. An exquisite taste, briefly there is only you and that mouthful of flavour.
The fruit acid tangy flavour wanes each day, growing ever more lazy, fat, full berries wallowing in sweetness. This late crop is perfect for cooking slowly, coaxing out the sweet juices for sensational syrup, and my favourite - mulberry icecream.
It is one crop we don't share with the birds. They throw themselves against the white net in a fruitless attempt to forage. Only the lizards are cunning enough to slither beneath and feast on fallen berries.
If I had only one tree there would be none to preserve. Thankfully I have a friend with excess mulberries, her tree is like a small village. Wandering under boughs and strolling along branches, bucket in hand, we tickle the mulberries to fall. Stained hands and brilliant berry grins. Bliss.
Once we have eaten as many fresh mulberries as possible, and that is a lot, I freeze the rest in verjuice, swirled into yogurt or cream, preserved as compote, then with the last of the crop we'll make the amazing icecream.
The fruit acid tangy flavour wanes each day, growing ever more lazy, fat, full berries wallowing in sweetness. This late crop is perfect for cooking slowly, coaxing out the sweet juices for sensational syrup, and my favourite - mulberry icecream.
It is one crop we don't share with the birds. They throw themselves against the white net in a fruitless attempt to forage. Only the lizards are cunning enough to slither beneath and feast on fallen berries.
If I had only one tree there would be none to preserve. Thankfully I have a friend with excess mulberries, her tree is like a small village. Wandering under boughs and strolling along branches, bucket in hand, we tickle the mulberries to fall. Stained hands and brilliant berry grins. Bliss.
Once we have eaten as many fresh mulberries as possible, and that is a lot, I freeze the rest in verjuice, swirled into yogurt or cream, preserved as compote, then with the last of the crop we'll make the amazing icecream.
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