BREAD

HOME BAKING.
Baking bread is not the same as baking cake.  Cake baking is more reliable, as long as we follow the recipe to a T and with the right ingredients, the cake is here for us. I am very comfortable with it.
Bread baking can be done by following the recipe, too, but every baking can have different results.  It is because of the various things, they could be the flour, the weather and the method/kneading and the oven to bake in etc.
It is good to follow recipes for baking bread, but more so we have to follow our intuition.

Pictures of beautiful looking bread but they are not quite right.
I had a great time to do bread baking, and the following recipes were so much fun.

Baking French baguette is difficult, it is tough to achieve success.  I am a very keen learner, and I have been trying to bake the bread for some time now,  and yet I have not been successful, so I have to keep on trying.

Sourdough French Baguette.
Using sourdough starter only,  no extra baking yeast.

Freshly Baked Baguette

This baguette looks good just about all, but it is not good enough, look at the scoring, it does not spit as French baker would say, and I tell you what, it has not had decent crumb either.
I did follow a recipe, and also believe in my intuition, but no result, basically! Well, I may do better next time.
The baguette was sliced and delicious toasted.  I did not waste it.


There are so many aspects of failure in bread baking.  Learn from mistakes.

I have been following the recipes of The Larousse Book of Bread by Eric Kayser, thanks Rayner for the gift.  But the result obviously has not been right yet.  Now I have to refer and to read the book to learn more.

Home Bread Baking.
FERMENTATION
Central to the bread making process, fermentation arises from the development of natural 'wild' yeasts in the dough (the sourdough starter) or from the addition of commercially developed baker's yeast - or from a combination of the two.  Baker's everywhere manage this process daily, but, in fact, it is a complex physical-chemical operation.  A good understanding of how the mechanism of fermentation work will help you bake bread that will delight your family and friends. (Eric Kayser-pg 24)

Liquid Sour Dough Starter

I started by preparing the sourdough starter, merely following the recipe, and it is easy enough.

From the starter, the very first bread I baked was the batard,  it was good enough, the crust was not very crusty though, but the crumb was good.  Second I baked a batard and also baguette.  The scoring was not good enough, and the shaping of the baguette was too fat and too short.  I did bake it in a convection oven as I was supposed to do, but the result was not great.

 Batard

Baguette-the shape was too fat, and the scoring does not spit

No, definitely I won't give up, I will try again.  Maybe to start to bake a boule, followed by the batard and the baguette is going to be the last, after all, it is the hardest of French bread to do.

Sourdough bread, from Batard to Tabatiere.

Batard.
The batard was baked in a fan forced oven, the scoring was not successful, the crust too thin but the crumb was not bad.

Boule

The boule looked OK, it has a light crust, and I am not sure about the crumb just yet.  It was frozen right away.

Tabatiere
The tabatiere baked in a convection oven, using a baking stone, it was not cooked enough, and the bread was too dense. Another failure.

Batard,  Boule and Tabatiere

Freshly Baked Batard - the first bread I baked.

The Crumb of the Batard looks OK.

Boule-unsuccessful scoring.

Tabatiere

The crumb of the Tabatiere looks dense, and it was indeed.

It has been suitable for the past few months to do bread baking. The result was not right yet, but  I liked it. I enjoyed the flavour of the sourdough bread, and the family did too.
My aim is baking bread to perfection in my kitchen.

I shall be back, and I will show you my bread baking, and hopefully, this time, I could do a better job, and I can share the recipes with you. 


Until Next Post
Susy

Australia Day

What is Australia Day?


I ask a question about it, and I believe everyone gives the right answer. 
I found an article about it, and here it is I copied and pasted for you.

Happy Reading!

From:  www.australiaday.org.au/australia-day/about-our-national-day/

On Australia Day we come together as a nation to celebrate what's great about Australia and being Australian. It's the day to reflect on what we have achieved and what we can be proud of in our great nation. It's the day for us to re-commit to making Australia an even better place for the future.

Australia Day, 26 January, is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain, and the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove by its commander Captain Arthur Phillip, in 1788 (you can read a comprehensive history of the evolution of Australia Day here).

Though 26 January marks this specific event, today Australia Day celebrations reflect contemporary Australia: our diverse society and landscape, our remarkable achievements and our bright future. It also is an opportunity to reflect on our nation's history, and to consider how we can make Australia an even better place in future.

On Australia Day, over half of the nation’s population of 21 million attend either an organised community event or get together with family and friends to celebrate our national day. Many more spend the public holiday relaxing with family and friends.

Yet Australia Day is much more than barbeques and fireworks. It is more than another public holiday. It is more than the pride and excitement of new citizens who call themselves Australian for the first time on 26 January after being conferred citizenship.

At its core, Australia Day is a day driven by communities, and the celebrations held in each town, suburb or city – unified by the celebration of what’s great about Australia and being Australian – are the foundation of its ongoing success.

Sports and Activities bring people together, to share, to achieve a better life and healthy living is very Australian.  I am for it.
On that note, I was lucky enough to be spending time with people at our ping pong sports group, since the next day was going to be the Australia Day, I decided to share savoury and sweet dishes for morning tea.  They were cooking from Java, the place where I come from.  

 Lemper And Wajik

Lemper: stuffed glutinous rice rolls with savoury minced beef

Wajik: steamed sweet glutinous rice, flavoured with palm sugar
or white sugar.

Delicious savoury and sweet dishes-Javanese cooking.

In my thought with a good spirit, the cooking was dedicated to the Australian Day celebration, and I was glad that people enjoyed the morning tea.  

Today I wish you all a perfect celebration for the Australia Day 2016. 
We must live together in harmony and move forward to achieve a better life.

Until Next Post

Susy

Fruits and Vegetables.

In our garden the fruit trees are fruiting, the apple tree is doing well, the pomelo tree has about ten fruits. But the nectarine tree is giving us just about eight, it is strange, the tree is looking so healthy with millions of leaves.  However the potted figs provide me with hope, a few figs fruits are there, and I hope they are maturing for harvest.

The Fruits

Potted Fig

The fig trees are not looking great, I think it is time to be repotted, or maybe it is a good idea to transplant into the ground.

I am happy with my vegetable patch, it is small, and I have a new hose which is fixed close by to make the watering easier.  The herbs have been there for a few years now, the chives, sorrel, mints are at their best.  I planted one tomato which is fruiting now, eggplant and I am so pleased that I harvested one last week. Three capsicums are growing well and showing some flowers soon.  It is a shame that the three vegetables are not ready to fruit at the same time, if they were, I could cook a delicious ratatouille.  The best vegetable which I planted this year successfully are apple cucumber, the seedlings were a gift from Eileen, our neighbour, thank you.  I have been harvesting at least three dozens of cucumbers, they can be very tender and crunchy as long as you pick them at the right time. I suggest, plant this apple cucumber in your garden, they are so suitable for salad, chutney etc. 

Tomato, Eggplant and Capsicum Plants

Apple Cucumber 

The three plants are growing so well intertwining with other plants, and also they are sprawling to the next space happily.  The harvests have been good.

T

Spare a little time daily to care for the plants and the reward is priceless.

I hope you enjoy your garden and have a lot of fun out of it as I do.

It is so good to have fresh fruits, vegetables from our own garden.

Until Next Post

Susy

COOKING MEAT.

Medium Rare.
Perfectly Cooked Meat.

I love meat, and I love eating and cooking it.  But a lot of time, I could not do it right.   Learning more about joints and cuts of meat is essential and understand it well is important too,  that way you could cook them accordingly.  That is the key that I have to have, I had to learn it properly

Thanks to my Kris Kringle for the cookbook, indeed I learnt how to cook red meat better and correctly.  Before I got the book, my experience of cooking the meat was not good enough.  I had to cook a whole fillet of beef, which is the best cut of meat more than once,  the result was either overcooked or almost raw.  Now I know how to do it properly.

I cooked a medium rare of the whole fillet of beef successfully, and I served with simple garnishes which complement the meat beautifully.
These were what I did:
- I trimmed all the sinews and fats from the meat.
- I cut off the ends bit, and I had to make sure that the whole piece is at equal thickness.
- I tied it with string-kitchen twin up to nine knots, for even cooking and easy slicing.
- I rubbed it with oil and seasoned it with a lot of freshly ground black pepper and salt.

The Preparation and the Cooking.

I rubbed the meat with some oil, seasoned with
freshly ground black pepper and generous salt.

To Cook the Beef

I used a terrine dish to cook, but you could use a pan to pan-fry the beef.

I Cooked the beef on a hot temperature 8 -10 minutes to brown all over. Continue coking
 in a hot oven at 220 degrees C for 8 minutes.

Out from the oven, and I
placed it on paper, wrapped in foil
 to rest for 18 minutes or more.

The Beef wrapped in Foil to Rest

The string had to be taken out before slicing.

The meat was cooked in perfection.

Slice Thinly to Serve

Parsley paste in oil was added on a plate to serve the beef.

The meat was served with red wine sauce, baked sweet potato, and avocado dressed
in mustard sauce.

A Delicious and Delightful Beef Dish.

The cooking of the beef was the main part, it was crucial to get it right.  

To serve the meat is up to anyone fancy.  There are a lot of choices on how to garnish beef dishes.

I believe that lean red beef is suitable for any age group, and if we have it once a week on our diet, it is advisable.


More meat cooking is coming soon!

Fresh Fruits for Breakfast,  It is healthy and also a treat.

It is the new year 2016,  and a new healthy diet is for us.  We love fresh fruits and vegetables, and we cannot do without them.
Make the best of fruits in season.  Have them fresh or bake them served with yoghurt for dessert instead of ice cream or cream.


I am looking forward to sharing new recipes with you this year.



Until Next Post
Susy.

Happy New Year.

My Very Best Wishes for The New Year 2016 to You All.  May the New Year Bring Happiness,  Good Health and Prosperity.

Our Breakfast for The New Year, 1-1-2016

I am looking forward to a fruitful and a healthy new year, and also I wish to spend more time with family.

I will continue, and I hope I could share exciting stories and recipes through my posts in 2016.

Happy New Year

God Bless.

Susy