Pasta isn’t really too difficult to make, but somehow I hardly ever get around to it. Having just made a pesto, though, it seemed fitting to have a home-made pasta with it. The result was definitely worth it! For the pesto wash a bunch of basil and make sure it’s as dry as possible. This…… Continue reading home-made pasta with home-made pesto
Tag: home-made
home-made pastrami
As a gift I was given CHARCUTERIE The Craft of Salting Smoking and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Bryan Polcyn. It’s packed full of excellent recipes. This is how our home-made pastrami turned out. To make this you will need some beef brisket with most of the fat removed. For a 2¼kg (5 lb) brisket make a…… Continue reading home-made pastrami
home-made prosciutto
Having learned how to make salami recently we were inspired to try a whole prosciutto. The first stage was salting. We’re not experts so we allowed our butcher to give us the correct amount of salt for the 9.5kg (21 lb) leg. We surrounded the leg in the salt for 9 days (with a few spices added for good measure).…… Continue reading home-made prosciutto
panforte
Panforte translated means ‘strong bread’ and comes from the region of Siena in Tuscany, Italy. It was originally known as Panpepato or ‘peppered bread’ due to it’s spicy flavour. It dates back to the 13th century when it was used to pay taxes and is believed to have been carried on quests by Crusaders. My friends Mary, Caroline and I made 2…… Continue reading panforte
salami class
It’s winter here and time to make salami. We hadn’t ventured into salami making before so we decided to take a class run by Costante Imports. The salami was made from coarsely ground pork shoulder with a fat content of 30%. For each kilo (2.2 lbs) of meat we added 30g (1.05 oz) of non-iodised salt, 3g (.1oz) of…… Continue reading salami class
super soft sandwich bread + cultured butter
Many years ago I attended classes run by Carol Bates in Simply No-Knead Breadmaking. I discovered that good quality untreated flour makes for less work. This recipe makes a deliciously soft white bread. For 2 loaves, mix together 8 cups of unbleached white bread flour, ⅓ of a cup of ground or instant oats (1 sachet), 6 teaspoons of…… Continue reading super soft sandwich bread + cultured butter
sourdough
My very own home-grown sourdough is finally working! I don’t make bread every day so I’ve been cultivating my sourdough starter for quite a while. There are a myriad of recipes out there for sourdough starter but I decided to make it the old-fashioned way so I used only flour (unbleached organic) and water (spring). First you…… Continue reading sourdough
brioche rolls
Inspired by French visitors, these brioche rolls make a good breakfast, or morning tea, or afternoon tea…….. The night before baking them mix 200g (7 oz) of butter, 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and 3 eggs until just combined. Add 500g (17½ oz) of fine “00” flour, 7g (¼ oz) of dried yeast and 200 ml…… Continue reading brioche rolls
pizza 2
More pizza ideas. Here is the recipe for the base. This one is reminiscent of Mexican food with tomato paste, Provoletta (a cheese mix would work too), chorizo, corn, red onion, green chilli and fresh coriander to serve: And this one has 3 cheeses (Provoletta, Gorgonzola and Parmesan) with thinly sliced zucchini, black pepper and…… Continue reading pizza 2
pizza
Everyone loves to make their own pizza, so I divide a batch of dough into pizza-sized balls, prepare all the topping ingredients and let everyone else take over! A pizza stone (or unglazed terracotta tiles) preheated in a hot oven or covered barbecue does an excellent job of cooking the pizzas. For the dough, take…… Continue reading pizza
michelle picker cooks 