I found a new food group: Gougère

I now understand what Eric Cartman is about:

"I want my cheesy poofs"

The other day we were invited to dinner, and we inquired as to what we could bring.  Nibbles was the reply.  I didn't want to cop out and buy some biscuits and dip, I wanted to cook something.  My first thought was Parmesan Cheese Twists.  My idea was, flour, yeast and parmesan, rise, twist, bake.  But I was pointed to another recipe by my lovely wife, John Burton-Race's recipe for Gougère, in his book French Leave.  I read through it and there were techniques that I had never encountered.  Game on, I love a challenge.

And the challenge of the recipe, of which I had only vaguely heard of, was Choux Pastry.  Everyone knows of it, but you may not know that you know.  Choux pastry is comonly used in profiteroles, the little round pastry balls filled with cream or custard.  Stack a few of these into a tower and you then have a crockenbouche.  Easy.

Now gougère are just savoury "puffs" with cheese as the main flavouring. How cool is that! Here is the recipe:

Serves eight.

125g unsalted butter
1 large pinch sea salt
Pepper
300ml water
240g plain flour
5 eggs, beaten
225g Gruyere, grated (Use Heidi)
Olive oil for greasing
1 egg, beaten, for egg wash
Preheat the oven to 220C/425F. Cut the butter into rough pieces and place in a saucepan with the salt, pepper and water, then bring to the boil. As soon as the butter has dissolved and the water begins to froth and bubble, remove the pan from the heat and vigorously beat in the flour until you have a smooth paste. Return to a gentle heat and stir and beat the mixture until it forms a ball that comes clean away from the sides of the pan.
Remove from the stove and, a little at a time, beat the eggs into the paste. Stir in the cheese. The choux paste should now look glossy and smooth, and again come away from the pan easily when you stir.
Lightly grease a baking sheet with a little oil. Put the choux paste into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm nozzle and pipe 2-3cm-round balls on to the greased tray. There should be four balls per person and they should be 4cm apart. Brush the egg wash over the top of the buns and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until golden and expanded to three times their size. Remove from the oven and enjoy straight away

Here is my effort:

Free range fresh eggs, not x-large

The Heidi Gruyere cheese

Butter and flour.  Next add the eggs, a bit at a time, and beat it vigorously

Piping the mixture is not easy, very sticky

TaDa

We are now going to try extending this recipe for Xmas day.  As an afternoon snack we are going to make the above recipe.  Then straight out of the oven we are going to fill the hollow centres with a smoked salmon/dill creme filling.  I cannot wait.

For Choc's Sake

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.

Some people would walk over hot coals for chocolate, some would always have a stash in the house.  It has been around since ~1400 BC, that's 3,500 years ago kiddies.  Although it would not have tasted anything like what we have today, it would have been the unprocessed cocoa beans.

The principal ingredient of chocolate is the cocoa bean, but how does it get from bean to chocolate bar?  A little bit of research found this very handy diagram, which I had no idea of.

Simply, it is:

1. Harvest cocoa pods, open, ferment seed
2. Roast seeds, crack open, separate the shells from the nibs
3. Grind nibs to make Chocolate Liquor (I think this is the "100% Cacao" that you can buy, correct me if I am wrong)
4. Press Liquor to separate Cocoa Butter from Cocoa
5. And some of the Cocoa Butter to the Chocolate Liquor 

How did anyone come up with this process?  Nutter.

For interests sake, I checked out the ingredients on my favourite chocolate drink, Milo:

Extract of malted barley, milk solid, sugar, cocoa vegetable oil [containing one or more of the following: palm oil, palm olein, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, whey, corn oil, soya oil] whey ACTIGEN-E [dicalcium phosphate, magnesium carbonate ascorbic acid, vitamin pp, ferric pyrophosphate, calcium-d-pantothenate, vitamin B6, vitamin B2, vitamin B1, D-biotin, vitamin B12, disodium phosphate, vanillin, maltodextrin.

and have just realised how evil it is, with very minimal actual cacao.  I would like to know what cocoa vegetable oil actually is.

The reason for this was to find out more about chocolate, and in particular tempering chocolate, and so I went straight to the source and interviewed Gillian from Cygneture Chocolates.  

Unfortunately the recording at the Salamanca Markets is little ify, but we did have a delightful chat about how she started out, and how chocolate is tempered.  Fascinating. And she also has shared a recipe with us:

Chocolate & Beetroot Brownies

by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (& adapted by Gillian from Cygneture Choc)

250g unsalted butter, cut in cubes (I use Ashgrove or Elgaar)

250g dark chocolates (between 50 & 70% cocoa, depending on how sweet/ bitter you want it)

3 medium eggs (use free-range, they taste better 'cause they're from happier chooks!)

250g caster sugar (I personally use less)

150g self-raising flour (either white or wholemeal, if using Callington Mill, just add 1 1/4 tsp baking powder & pinch of salt)

250g fresh beetroot, boil until tender, cool peel & grate.

1. Grease a shallow baking tin & line with baking paper

2. Put butter & chocolate in heatproof bowl. Set oven to 180 degrees centigrade/ gas mark 4. place bowl in oven until chocolate & butter start to melt, stir & return to oven to melt thoroughly.

3. Whisk eggs & sugar together in large bowl to combine, add chocolate mixture & beat until smooth.

4. Sift dry ingredients into chocolate mixture and fold gently with large metal spoon.

5. Fold in grated beetroot, be careful not to over-mix or it will make the brownies tough.

6. Pour mixture into tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Test by inserting a knife or skewer into the centre of the brownie, it should come out with a few moist crumbs on it. DO NOT OVER COOK or you'll end up with rubbery door stops!!!!

7. Remove from tin & allow to cool on wire rack before cutting into squares.

8. Eat to your heart's content.

Here is the audio from the show:

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As a coincidence, I was at a friends place for dinner and the post-dessert dish was a selection of chocolates, including the entire range of Willies from England.

It was amazing to try so many different dark chocolates, all ranging from 68-80% cacao.  The single origin chocolates from Willie (he is that mad Brit on TV, trying to make the worlds best chocolate bar) was really fascinating as there was a real difference in flavour, due only to where the cacao had grown.  I was privileged to have been shown this.  We also tried to wrap our tongues around this bad boy:

  100% Pure Cacao.  Careful, it will take your head off.

Thermomix on

So the other night I had a "Thermomix Party" at my house with 4 other friends and family.  And yes, that does sound a little like a "Tupperware Party",  but I assure you, the two are chalk and cheese. Or should I say, the two are as different as a blender and a Thermomix.  What is it, well here is a photo with ALL of its features:

An over-glorified blender you say.  Well yes, but it has got some really cool things, but first, the "Party".

This all came about through the radio show.  A few weeks ago I had Stephen Estcourt on to chat about food blogging, but in the end we blabbed on about how much he loved his Thermomix, old post is here.  I put the call out over the air, "... if anyone can give me a demo ...".  That is when Erica from @Mixotrophy got in touch with me and said "would you like to host a party?"  Yes, of course, who doesn't love a party?  2 weeks later, I am sitting around the Norden with 5 other friends, surrounded by lots of cookbooks, pamphlets, demonstrator Erica, super assistant Fiona and sitting pride of place at the end of the table, The Thermomix.

And what a party.  Lots of fun, plenty of food.  We had a 6 course meal showing a range of features of said Thermomix.  Dinner consisted of:

• Fresh fruit sorbet
• Hommus
• Raw beetroot salad
• Wholegrain bread rolls
• Pasta
• Lemon custard

Raw beetroot salad

I wont spoil your joy in telling you the secrets of the party, I really think you should have a party for yourself.  Highly recommended.  But I do want to talk about some of the features of the Thermomix that really piqued my interest:

Milling

• It can make flour from grains, how cool is that. Fresh flour, no additives, all the germ left in
• It can make icing sugar from raw sugar.  That is, it is raw icing sugar, which I think you can't buy, and would be a whole lot tastier.  And you keep just raw sugar in the cupboard.

Temperature 

• You can dial up any temp you want (10 degree increments)
• Potential for Sous-vide
• Custards, mayonnaise (etc) are all very simple

Baby food

• It does it all

Scales

• Inbuilt load sensors in the legs, very handy

Garlic

• Apparently (I have yet to see it) it can peel garlic

I went into the party thinking I wouldn't buy one, and came out impressed.

Organic Vegies, now everyone can have them

Organic fruit and vegetable is ingrained into our lives and is now acceptable by a lot of society.  But it didn't always used to be this way.  In the past it was thought of as hippy food by consumers and heresy by "conventional" farmers.  But now even the most conservative farmer will consider things like minimal till, compost and softer chemical options.

As a viticulturist, a grape farmer, I am always aware of that what I do on the vineyard can, and does, affect the greater environment.  I am a custodian of the vineyard.  It should be in same condition, or better, as when I started.  Although we are far from organic, we do try to be "soft" and caring for the environment.

Why?  Why should I?  Does anyone care whether I spray Roundup once a season, or twice?  Each chemical that I use comes with a label that is a legal document, that state safe practices, limits and timings.  These are registered with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), the guys who make sure that everything is safe for us.  They are the Government, they never get anything wrong?

But there are options.  Out in the vineyard we try to be clever with our chemical use, try to use options that are softer, such as Sulphur.  It is used to combat Powdery Mildew, and it is very effective, and registered for organic production.  Great you say, get on it, and we do.  One problem, it can kill beneficial mites.  So what do you do?  This year we are alternating between sulphur and synthetics, it may work.

Now if you need convincing that organics can be cool, check out this trailer for a movie I saw a few years ago.  We were lucky enough to have Farmer John actually visit the State Theatre here in Hobart and present his film, "The Real Dirt on Farmer John".  This movie didn't inspire me to be organic tomorrow, but it did get me to question what I was doing.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John


Like it?  I just found the whole movie on Youtube here

And if you didn't think organics was going play a larger part of the food chain in the future, these guys think they know something.  Woolworths bought organic food store Macro Wholefoods in 2009.

Enough ranting, the reason for it is that I had Jonathon of Harvest Feast came into the show.

He and his partner run an organic fruit and veg stand at the Salamanca Markets every Saturday.  We had a great chat about how he got into running the stand, about how he procures the excellent food and about Jewish Punk Rock band Yidcore. Yeah we did, and they are mad.  On the serious side we also chatted about how there is about to be the mother of all potato gluts.  I should share his recipe to:

Jonathon of Harvest Feast: A recipe for the season

2 Handfuls of asparagus

1 Head of green garlic

Parmesan cheese

balsamic vinegar

Throw the asparagus under the grill, after 5 mins turn the asparagus and throw finely chopped green garlic over the top, drizzle with balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice, anything acidic really) and cover with shavings of Parmesan cheese.

Leave under grill for another 5 mins and until cheese is melting.

Server with some salad or anything off the BBQ

So I tried it tonight with some hibachi chicken, raw beetroot salad, and, doing my part for the potato glut, some spuds.

Here is the audio from the show

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Apple Tree Pruning - Fail

I have now owned apple trees for 2 seasons worth.  I have no experience with them and have only ever dealt with pruning grapes and a few roses.  So I thought, yep, no problem I can cut, shape, saw, hack.  It should be fine.

Year 1

I successfully cut off all the fruitful buds.  I tried to spur prune it like a vine.

Fail

Year 2

This past winter I tried to cane prune it, like a vine (well, it is my area of expertise).  Flowering is now pretty well under way, you can look at the result for yourself.

Not many flowers. Hmmm

Fail.

Here is close up of one of the branches and the reason for my gross incompetence.

You can see that all the flowers are coming off 2 year old wood.  I never knew.  For grapevines all the fruit is off one year old wood.  Cool, learnt something.

And what happens if you don't prune at all?  This is one of our transplanted youngsters.  

Just full of flowers.

Lesson (well, trial for next winter)

• Prune nothing
• At flower prune off all non flowering shoots

That should fix em.

Wine Judging, Clover Hill and The Moonambel Pub

I had a great chat last night with Karina Dambergs, it was heaps of fun.

We spent a bit of time chatting about her daytime job, as winemaker for Clover Hill.  They have been doing some fantastic things with sparkling wine, winning lots of trophy bling here and there.  Their wine has also been served to some famous people such as

The Queen

Our Princess Mary

But the serious side of the show was chatting about judging at the Royal Hobart Wine Show.  Karina said on the show that the previous day they tasted 120 odd different glasses of Shiraz.  Sounds like a great job, yes?  Well it is not.

 

I remember doing similar tastings for my wine degree and it is serious work.  Hard work, concentrating all day.  For our exams, we were given 6 glasses of mystery wines (of a possible 8) and were asked to score it out of 20 (link to wine scoring system).  They then repeated that 3 more times over 2 days.  The idea is that you give the same wine the same score, if your good.  Not fun.

Wine judging is not as intense as that, as you are not marked on your result.  But it does require the same level of concentration for the whole day.  As a judge you are given your own flight of wines and asked to score them, in silence.  At the end of this you get together with the other judges of your panel, and an associate judge, and share your marks and add them together.  Then all the silver and gold medal wines are repoured, retasted and discussed, to determine if the results are fair.  Also the top wine may win a trophy so this needs to be decided.

And as Karina said in the interview, no one knows who the producers are, not until the presentation dinner on Wednesday night. 

We also spoke about the Moonambel Pub.  It is here.  If your in the area go visit, but not on a Sunday, no roast anymore.

Here is the podcast from the show:

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Hibachi Chicken

I bought my Hibachi a long time ago, I cant remember why.  It is a portable Japanese charcoal burner.  I hardly used it and kept lugging it around the country as I moved from vineyard to vineyard.  But after a holiday to Vietnam last year, I have a new found love for it.

Everywhere we went there was street food cooking over coal.  Coal, not coals, not charcoal, but coal dug from the ground and compressed into these heat cylinders.  

The sulphurous smell, mixed with the tropics and the wonderful foods was hedonism.  I just  had to emulate it as best as I could.  So I broke out the old rusty Hibachi and went to my local BBQ shop, grabbed some charcoal and went nuts.  The charcoal, created from heating/cooking wood, doesn't give that same third world aroma, but it is a pretty good approximation. Here is what we had last week, when summer appeared in Hobart, for a brief moment.

Hibachi Chicken

As usual we use only the best chicken, Nichols, but grab thighs.  Chicken breast meat is for pet food, it is dry and I have never had a good one.  Yes, breast is fat free, also flavour free.

Coat your chicken in a generous amount of Waji Cajun Meat Seasoning and marinate for awhile.  Don't have this in your cupboard? Why not!  It is the best spice mix, and very reasonably priced.  Also get your self one of these bbq racks (we got ours cheap from Chatuchuk):

Now lay each chicken thigh steak (dont chop your chicken up) on the grill and close it up.  Place it on the Hibachi, which has been lit half an hour in advance. 

Now you want to turn the chicken regularly as the coals will be (should be!) hot, and you want to avoid a black mess.  But brown crunchy bits are recommended.  Every time you turn the grill, undo it and knock the sticking chicken off the top section.  This will save you lots of pain when it comes to removing it.

Please don't over cook it, chicken so often is.  This should be cooked when it is firm, not hard, to compress.  Cut a bit open if you are unsure, it should be just cooked through.  Now plate up with your favourite accompaniment. We served our chicken with roast potato wedges and home garden salad.  Enjoy

First Weekend Garden Club - November

It is the first weekend of the month and we are spending a lot of time in the garden.  The warmer weather is finally here and everything has taken off and is going nuts.  There is a massive amount of work on, and spending 2 weeks away on a holiday has not helped.  Here are my favourite photos for this month.  #firstweekendgardenclub

Herbs going nuts. Oregano, Sage (flowering) and Rosemary

Seedlings in the hot house reading for planting or updating to larger pots

Speckled lettuce. Great flavour, bolts least

The Peas marching on

Californian Poppies

Food Blogging with @StephenEstcourt, or how I learnt to love the Thermomix

This week on the show I chatted with Stephen Estcourt.  

He is a QC lawyer with a food habit, well it is better to describe him in his own words from his blog:

"I am a lawyer cum food tragic. My love of produce is powerful and inexplicable. It is more than cultural. It is an instinctive pull that rules my waking and my dreaming."

We had a great chat about what is involved in a food blog, how he got into it, and what he enjoys most about it.  But for the most of the show we ended up talking about this:

It is a Thermomix.  This nifty bench top machine can apparently chop, beat, mix, whip, grind, knead, mince, grate, juice, blend, heat, stir, steam and weigh food.  It seems like some miracle machine, and Stephen is absolutely in love with it.  Actually, when I chat with anyone who owns one these beasts (~$1,900) they can not get enough of them.  But I still love my simple bench top mixer, and won't be giving it up anytime soon, my KitchenAid:

Here is the audio with Stephen Estcourt:

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