Herbs

Dried Herbs: Preparation and Storing.

The weather is getting cold now here in Victoria, Australia.  Some plants started looking tired, wanting a rest over winter.  However, most herbs are still there, and they are green enough.  Pick them now and keep in the freezer for cooking.  During summer, when you have plenty of them, you could quickly dry them and store them in jars.

Herb Plant

Lemon Thyme

Other ways that you could dry herbs are by hanging them at a dry place, maybe in the garage. This is my experience to dry herbs in a cool place,  I pick them, then wrap it with a clean kitchen paper then I put in the refrigerator undisturbed,  for at least three weeks.  You have to check it out, if it is not dry enough, you may have to put it back (wrap it correctly) and wait for more time. The herbs are ready when it's brittle/crisp to touch.  Then you could crush and shake it to get all the good bits, discard the twigs.

Processing The Dried Herbs

Lemon Thyme

Dried Herbs: brittle and Crisp

Shaking, crushing to get the best of the dried herbs

Dried Herbs stored in a Jar

The shelf life expectancy is useful, It keeps for a long time,  I replenish new dried herbs every year.  Smell the dried herbs, when it is no longer fragrant that is the time to get rid of.

Use the dried herbs sparingly for cooking, they have a stronger flavour than fresh herbs.

If you have a chance to explore the Australian Bush, bring some of your dried herbs, self-raising flour, butter, lemon or lime and salt, so you could bake herb damper.

Herb Damper- Susy's Recipe

2 cups self-rising flour

62g softened butter (a quarter of small block-standard Australian Butter)

1/2  of lime juice, mix with a cup of water

a pinch of salt

2 teaspoons mixed dried herbs

Method

Place the flour in a bowl, add in the salt dried herbs, mix together

Rub the flour mixture with the butter thoroughly

Add in the water and lime juice, mix lightly to make a soft dough

Knead quickly, shape into a large ball, press it down to make a round shape with 2 cm thickness

In the Bush: bake in a hot place until the damper is cooked

At home (Bake in a hot oven at 200 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes.  Until the damper is golden brown)

To serve:  serve hot and buttered

(I think you will enjoy the Damper)

If you bake at home, you would have the luxury of buttermilk, proper tools, and a good oven.

There are the various way to serve this herb damper: 1. served hot and buttered, 2 cut into wedges dressed with cold butter and topped with ( smoked trout, smoked salmon and garnishes)

Herbs and Citrus in My Garden

Lemon Grass, Tahitian Limes, and Lisbon Lemon

Herbs in my garden are tired but the lemongrass which I planted this year is doing well, it will die down during winter.  It has been useful for cooking Javanese curries and for spiced coconut dressing.

Get all the herbs that you have from the garden, and now it is time to start to dry your herbs in a cooler and dry place. In winter, you will have a home prepared dried herbs for your baking and cooking. If you have a chance, don't forget to dry some bay leaves too.

Dried Bay Leaves on Branches

Herbs that you can dry quickly and keep well are mint, oregano, sage, tarragon,  rosemary and bay leaf.  I think they are suitable varieties of herbs, essential herbs for your kitchen.  With these herbs, you could bake herb scones or bread, for stuffing roasts and flavouring roasts,  braised meat dishes, casseroles and soups.  Have fun.

Herbs to be continued.  Stay tuned everyone.

Thank You For Stopping By

Until Next Time

Susy

Beautiful Flowers and Plants

Beautiful, healthy plants indeed cheer up the place.  Inside the house, the succulent is healthy and looks so pretty under the glass table, and one cymbidium orchid with its buds is very pleasing, the other orchid which I propagate, is slowly growing.


In three weeks maybe the buds of the cymbidium orchid will open to bloom, and the cutting of the crucifix orchids keep on flourishing.  It will be a miracle if it can flower.

The cymbidium orchid has two buds.

Healthy succulent enhances the look of the glass table.









The potted and flowering cyclamens brighten up the entrance from the backyard.

Acute bud of the cyclamen

The Triple: LLL.   Lemongrass, Lime, Lemon are looking very good.  Lemongrass flavoured syrup, lime cheesecake and delicious Curry dishes can be achieved with this three L

 Trio Plants the latest member of the garden.

The joy of having new plants is unreasonable at times. Cursing the rains due to the eagerness of planting the latest member of the garden. YES, today we brought home three plants, a blueberry, rosemary-creeper and perennial basil.

Keeping you all up to date for sure about the tree new plants,  I have lost my potted perennial basil for some time now, to have found one today, I feel so lucky.  The blueberry gives me another collection of potted fruit plants.  The creeper rosemary has a blueish flower, it is going to make my mixed potted herbs prettier.

It has been an enjoyable Sunday.

A quotation of the day

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is

in having lots to do and not doing it

(Mary Little)

__________

Thank You For Stopping By

Until Next Post

Susy

Preserving

Short Term Preserving

Condiment making and looking after Feta cheese were today's activities in the kitchen.  Chilli paste has been done, it is fire red and very smooth, I am glad.  Two Feta kinds of cheese, Greek Feta and Danish Feta, were preserved in light olive oil and herbs, they keep well that way.  What I did was cutting the cheese into cubes, then I put them in jars and added some oil and herbs. They're only for a short term preserving to keep the cheeses stay healthy or fresh for cooking shortly.  I love the look of the cheese kept in oil.

I was told that I could keep these cheeses by immersing them in water, another right way to keep Feta cheese better.

Processing chilli paste in the blender.

The quantities for the chilli Paste
155 g of red small hot chillis, 125 red capsicum. a tablespoon salt and 1/2 cup oil

I have posted a recipe for Chilli Paste, but the one that I made today is a different version.  It does not contain tomato.  It was not easy to get the blender going, but in the end, I got a smooth chilli paste.  The oil was the liquid that made the mixer going well.

The Recipe

Susy Chilli Paste Without Tomato

155 g fresh chilli

125 g red capsicum, chopped

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon cooking salt

extra oil

Method
Place all ingredients in a blender but only with 1/4 cup oil

The process put the blender going to make a smooth paste
At this stage, the paste is very thick, and it has a rough texture

Add in the remaining oil, keep the blender working for a few seconds

Now you have a smooth but thick paste

Transfer the paste onto a clean jar and top it with the extra oil, make sure it covers the paste
Take out some when you need it, clean the top edge of the jar every time
Make sure that the paste is covered with the oil at all time, keep refrigerated!

I will be using the Feta cheese next week or even later, in the meantime they are kept safely in the refrigerator.  Feta cheese preserved with herbs and oil is delicious to serve with salads or even as a part off Mezze.
You can add any dried herbs that you like.  I used dried lemon thyme for the Feta.

I think we ought to be careful about how to handle and look after our food.  We don't want to waste it and to have food poisoning.  A short term preserving particular food is necessary to have a safe and healthy.

Fresh Herb-Lemon Thyme and Dried Herb-Lemon Thyme

Food Trivia

Tahini is a smooth, creamy, delicately flavoured paste of

ground raw sesame seeds. It is used in Middle Eastern

cooking and as a dip with pita bread. If you can't find tahini in your supermarket or natural-food store, try making your own. Combine sesame seeds with a little

water, and grind into a paste in a blender. Always store

tahini in the refrigerator; the oil from the seeds can

quickly turn rancid.

(From Home is Where the Heart Is)

Happy Weekend To You All


Thanks For Visiting My Blog
Until Next Post
Susy

Butter (Continued)

Quality of Butter
A good butter should have a semi-soft consistency at room temperature and ought not to 'sweat' (an indication that it contains too high a proportion of water).  It should have a slightly aromatic smell and a sweet, pleasant flavour.  When placed on the tongue, it should melt without leaving any deposit.
The colour varies according to the time of year it was produced and the type of animal feeding chosen by the farmers.  It can be almost white.  The content of substances other than fat (milk constituents remaining in the butter after churning and washing mush not exceed 18 per cent, of which 16 per cent should be water
The Value of Butter
Butter is an expensive energy food (750 calories per 100 g).  It contains a large amount of Vitamin A (the vitamin that promotes growth) and Vitamin D (the anti-rachitic vitamin), but the quantities of these vary according to the quality of the butter, animal feeding methods, and the season. (New Larousse Gastronomique)

Cooking With Butter

Susy's Recipe

Braised Apple on Buttery Dough

Sliced Susy's Apple Tart

Braised Apple on Buttery Dough.

It's light and luscious.

Preserving of Butter- There are various methods of preserving butter.  The most common is by adding some salt.
- Salted butter is done by working a quantity of fine salt into the butter.  There are two types: demi-sel butter (3-5% salt) and salted butter (8 to 10% ).  Demi sel or salted are the most suitable for cooking.

Unsalted Butter

Baking with butter.

Salted butter is butter added with some salt as a preservative. Unsalted butter is the best for baking.  Salt toughens the glutens in flour.

Clarified Butter.
Butter is frequently clarified for cooking purposes, the water is evaporated, precipitating the casein contained in the butter.  By using clarified butter, food can be lightly fried or sautéed without over browning and, the butter has been dehydrated, without causing spitting and spluttering.

Susy's Apple Tart Recipe

Braised Apple on Butter Dough.

The dough

250g plain flour

125 unsalted butter, cube and softened

7 g yeast and 1/2 cup of warm water

2 eggs

1 tablespoon caster sugar

Method

In a bowl stir and mix the warm water and yeast, keep aside

Place the flour in a mixing bowl, add in the two eggs, salt.

Pour in the yeast, then mix with an electric mixer,  to make a soft dough

Mix for two minutes, then add the soft cubes butter, each cube every time

Keep on beating until you have a smooth, soft dough (about 6-8 minutes)

Keep in the bowl, cover and proof it for 1 hour or more.

Braised Apples

2 delicious golden apples, peeled and diced

4 tablespoons sugar

1/2 juice of a lime

lime rinds

1/2 tablespoon water

Place all ingredients in a heavy based pot, stir them together

Cook the apple to braise over a low heat with the cover on for 30 minutes.

Stir it from time to time.  When it is cooked and soft, take it off the heat.

The diced apple should hold the shape with some syrup in it

Keep it a side to cool.

Extra ingredients

1 tablespoon almond meal
15 g butter, cube into small pieces

Baking

Roll the dough into 1/2 cm thickness

Cut and shape into a small circle about 20 cm

Place on a lined round tin

Put the apple mixture on in, spread evenly, add the small cubes butter.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 11- 13 minutes

To serve

Transfer onto a serving plate, dust the pastry with icing sugar

Cut into wedges, I serve it plain without cream.

(Serve as you wish, add some cream or ice cream)

The Preparation and the Baking

Cooking with butter

Butter has excellent flavour in cooking, but there is a negative thing to cook with butter. It has the lowest smoking point of any form of fat.  Butter is the smallest, followed by olive oil then Sunflower oil.    For sautéing, you need a hot temperature to do, a combination of butter and some other oil is used, (e.g., butter with sunflower oil).

Butter is a big topic, most European cooking uses butter, mainly French cuisine. 
I may be back to share my experience to cook with butter again next time.

Have fun, I do hope you like my apple tart recipe.  Have fun and enjoy baking.

Happy Weekend To You All

Thank You For Visiting My Blog

Until Next Time

Susy

Butter

Butter Tastes Better

The old way of making butter
 (New Larousse Gastronomique)

Butter.  - Fatty substances extracted from the milk of mammals, known and used as food by man.  The origin of butter goes back to the early nomadic people who used the milk of goats, cows, ewes, mares, she-asses and she-camels to prepare it.
The Aryans brought butter to inhabitants of India, who soon considered it a sacred food.
The Hebrews used butter as a medicine as well as food.  Abraham offered buttered, a typical meal, to three men who came to his tent in the plains of Mamre.  In his proverbs, Solomon says: 'Surely,  the churning of milk bringeth forth butter . . . .'.
The Scythians also had butter and brought it to the Greek, and it uses to spread throughout the civilised world.
People living in some southern countries, like the Romans, used oil much more than butter in their cooking.  This preference still persists in certain parts of the south of France, mainly in Provence, where oil plays a principal role in all the dishes.

A short history of butter, according to my book, New Larousse Gastronomique.

Friendly Family Feast-My Sunday Best

Succulent Loin Pork Wrapped in Portobello Mushrooms

Served with Compound Butter-Sage Brown Butter.

Compound Butters

1. Butters mixed one or more substances, generally reduced to a purée or chopped.
2. Butters cooked to various degrees, or melted, seasoned and served spiced; an accompaniment to numerous fish, meat and vegetable dishes.

 Compound butter of the first category is used either in sauce and various dishes, or as a garnish for cold hours-d'æuvre.

Sample of compound Butters:

 - Brown butter,  - cook 150 g butter to a dark brown colour.  Add 2 tablespoons washed and dried parsley leaves and 1 tablespoon capers.  Pour the butter into a sauce boat or over the food with which it is to be served, and add a tablespoon vinegar heated in the same pan.
Uses: this brown butter is served with eggs, vegetables boiled in salted water and several other dishes.

 Sage and salted butter

My home cooking for a Sunday Best, delicious and succulent Pork wrapped in Portobello mushroom is added with one of the compounds butter; sage brown butter.  The sage goes very well with pork.

Juicy and succulent pork.

It is a beautiful home cooking for a family dinner, maybe for a special occasion as we all are busy to do cooking every day.  The pork fillet is cooked perfectly, the brown butter dressed the dish deliciously.  Peas are the excellent garnish, it is a vegetable which is available all year round, definitely a family favourite.



Other Compound butter that may be common for home-style cooking:
Anchovy butter- desalt and dry 75 g anchovies fillets and pound them in a mortar with 200 g butter.
Uses for certain sauces, as a garnish for cold hors-d'ævre.  It is also an excellent accompaniment for grilled fish and meat.
Mustard butter-add 2 tablespoons mustard to 200g butter softened to a paste.  Blend well.
Uses: the same as Anchovies butter
Chive butter-shred green chive and blanched, drain, dry, and pound them in a mortar.  Add in the same weight of butter.
Uses Accompaniment to grilled meat and fish.
Kneaded butter- blend 75g butter and 100g flour into a smooth paste.
Uses: to bind some sauces.

Butter keeps well in a container.

Well if you use butter for cooking,  maybe you can be more adventurous now using these compound butter.    Enjoy your food, be creative and have fun.

I do love the taste of butter for my toasts; indeed, it tastes better, it is natural.

Butter to be continued, stay tuned.

Hope you all had a great day

Thank You For Stopping By

Until Next Posts

Susy