No knead sourdough - you asked for it

A few friends have requested the recipe I've been experimenting with lately - a no knead sourdough. Now it doesn't have quite the same complex sour taste as a bread which has been more traditionally manipulated but for a daily bread that the working person can incorporate (mostly) effortlessly into their routine this is the bomb. Here is a link to the original recipe I started using http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2010/10/rustic-sourdough-the-secret-to-making-amazing-bread-at-home-5-ingredients-simple-baking/ with my own run down to follow. 

INGREDIENTS

200g sourdough starter (if you haven't got any, can't be bothered growing your own and you know me and live in Hobart just text me and I'll give you a blob of mine with some care instructions to get you started.)

275g water

1 1/2tsp cooking salt

325g strong or bread flour (we'll discuss this more in the variations below I use Lauke organic unbleached strong flour)

Extra flour and or semolina

METHOD

1. In the morning before work mix the starter, strong flour, salt and water together. I use one hand so I know it's mixed and I have a clean hand to scrape the dirty one with. Scrape it all together and cover. Leave it for 8 to 12 hours (ie the work day)

2. When you get home from work put a really ovenproof dish with a lid (I favour cast iron, some ceramic ware will craze in a super hot oven do beware!) in the middle of your oven and turn it up as high as it will go (11! If you don't get the This Is Spinal Tap reference we can't be friends)

3. Dump your bread mix out onto a floured work surface. Sprinkle the top generously with flour. Fold the edges into the centre to form a rough loaf.

4. Rub flour into a tea towel (not a fluffy one), drape tea towel floury side up in a medium sized bowl or colander (or just use a proofing basket - you do not need to know what a proofing basket is, stop panicking). Put loaf rough side down into your floury tea towel covered colander (or proofing basket). Sprinkle over more flour or semolina (I use the excess from the work surface - thrifty alert!). Cover gently with excess tea towel. Leave for at least half an hour whilst your oven fires up. 

5. Remove dish from oven. Sprinkle with semolina, if you like. Invert loaf into dish so rough side is up. Put lid back on. Shove it in the oven and bake on maximum for 30mins. 

6. Remove lid. Turn oven down to 200°C. Bake for a further 15mins or until nicely browned. 

7. Turn loaf out onto rack to cool. 

VARIATIONS

Alternatively this could be done so the bread did it's thing over night, you form the loaf and set the oven to heating prior to heading out for some stupidly early morning exercise, put loaf in oven on return to house, have a shower, remove lid and turn down heat, dry off and get dressed, pull fresh bread out of oven in time for breakfast. All my early morning exercises this is entirely possible. 

Use wholemeal or spelt flour instead - I would usually add a tsp of gluten if I substituted all of the white for spelt or wholemeal. 

Substitute some of the flour for wholemeal or spelt or rye. 

Add 40g of mixed grains or seeds - I have a mix I got from Eumarrah (local Hobart whole foods store) which has sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, pearl barley, sunflower seeds and linseed. Sprinkle some in the tea towel as well after flouring but before dumping the loaf in for proofing - remember that the tea towel side will end up being the top of your loaf. 

Add olives and/or diced pecorino. I haven't done this yet, it's next on my list. 

Add dried fruit - again I haven't tried this yet. Gimme till next week if you want me to go first. 

Here's a picture of my little cast iron casserole. 

Fig and Walnut Porridge (serves 2)
 
1c. rolled oats
2c. water (cold if you're putting the oats on to soak before a little early morning exercise, boiling if you forgot to do it before leaving the house)
1/2c. milk (soy, full-fat, lactose-free, whatever takes your fancy)
dried figs - roughly chopped (readily available from the supermarket)
walnuts (Lucas Trading have Tasmanian ones for a better price than the supermarket which generally has imported nuts)
prunes - if you like that sort of thing
greek yoghurt - for preference I like Jalna
maple syrup - about a tsp per serve

Method
Cook oats, water,  milk  and figs altogether on a medium heat till soft.  Top with chopped walnuts, a spoon or two of yoghurt, some chopped prunes and a tsp or so of maple syrup. YUM.

More things to do with cheap pumpkin

Egg, Bacon and Pumpkin pies

7 extra-large eggs (6 would probably be fine I had too much mix in the end)
6 rashers of bacon (you know I like Scottsdale Pork's free-range stuff)
a wedge of pumpkin (I just sliced off "enough". Can't be more specific)
100g or so of cheddar diced (that's half price at Woollies at the moment all you Hobart folk)
pepper
3 sheets of butter puff pastry

Method
Pre-heat oven to 220C
Get pastry out of freezer so start warming up.
Dice and steam the pumpkin.
While that's on the go, slice and fry your bacon. Once it's cooked to satisfaction, drain off and reserve the bacon fat for some other nefarious purpose.
Mix pumpkin and bacon together. Once cool enough throw in cheese and eggs. Add pepper to taste. 
Generously spray a standard 12-pan muffin tin with canola oil or some such thing. 
Cut a strip approximately 6cm wide from each sheet of pastry. Hand one to your attending toddler to play with. Using little cookie cutters cut 12 shapes of your toddler's choice (stars and airplanes) from the remaining 2 strips. Cut the remaining 3 sheets into 4 squares apiece. Line your muffin pans with the softened pastry. If it's not soft enough and you accidentally poke holes in it just pinch some from the stuff left over from the strips and make a patch. The excess pastry that sort of hangs over the edge will become the tops - you'll fold it over the filling in a moment. Fill pastry lined pans with the filling. Fold over excess pastry. Plonk an airplane or star or whatever it was on top.
Using the excess filling or an extra egg if you didn't have leftover filling - brush the pies with egg and pop them in the oven for 20mins or thereabouts. I let my 2yo do the glazing. He loved it.

A little bit about hitting the Barre when pregnant

Dear Reader,

For anybody who frequented the river end of Murray St at lunch time in 2012 you would have been graced wtih the sight of me waddling from the Executive Building to the Barrecode studio next to Customs House. Whilst it's hard to compare pregnancies - I think continuing to exercise up until a week or so before my due date greatly improved my comfort levels during pregnancy and my strength during labour.

Barre was pretty much the only exercise I was doing throughout my recent pregnancy - I went 3-4 times a week. I attended Barre Lite classes with Bonita once a week and prevailed upon the kindness of the Barreistas and my fellow Barre devotees (who gave up cherished window spots and endured loads of boring abs, glutes and no-swimming in order to accomodate the pregnant one) at other times during the week. I had a lot of hip pain (right around the gluteus minimus) and symphysis pubis disfunction during my first pregnancy. Whilst this timeI had a small bout of fantastic pain in the SI joint - remedied by a visit to the physio and doing extra clams every day, I had much less hip pain than last time, I think due to the regular butt work at Barre. The reduction in hip pain meant that I slept much better throughout pregnancy - it didn't wake me once. And having awesome triceps made it soooo much easier to get in and out of the bath (admit it, you had been wondering what the point of those thousands of tricep dips you've racked up over the years was) - it was a struggle first time around. Second time? No sweat.

I felt much less whale-like the second time around. I think I put on less weight and maintained more muscle mass - which, considering I had a 2yo to chase around, was a good thing. I cannot recommend enough the services of a good lady-bits physio - I saw Bernie at Jane Barker's Allcare Physiotherapy during and after pregnancy. And the Barre Lite classes are fantastic because I didn't have to worry about modifying any of the exercises or that I was holding up the rest of the class.

My hot tips: If your pelvic floor is or has recently held up a baby as well as the usual grab bag of internal organs? Crunches, deep lunges and wide plies are not your friend. If you're getting pain in the front or back of the pelvis, one-legged stuff probably isn't for you either. With the help of a good instructor and a physio you can probably keep up moderate exercise right up until D-Day. Get the window spot - you really don't want to overheat and nobody else wants you to either. Water. Water. Water. Don't stand up too quickly. Always roll onto your side to get up rather than trying to sit straight up.

Um... That's all for now.

MM

Chicken Run!

One of the problems with a young family is that you're still really only cooking for two. But I like roasts. But its hardly worth it for two. But I like roasts. So managing leftovers from roasts is a big deal in my house.

Chicken Pies
left over roast chicken
left over roast vegetables
roasted pumpkin puree (when pumpkins are $1/kg buy them whole, bake in a slow oven, cut a whole in the top scoop out the seeds, set aside. Scoop out flesh - I divide it into 250g lots and freeze flat in ziplock sandwich bags)
frozen peas if you didn't have any peas leftover
100g or so of cheddar
50g or so of chia seeds
3 sheets of frozen butter puff pastry
1 egg beaten with a little water

Method
Spray a standard muffin pan. Heat the oven to 220C
Roughly mash roast potatoes. Dice other vegetables and the chicken.
Mix chook, veg, chia and cheese together.
Line the holes in the muffin pans with puff - leaving sufficient for the tops.
Fill pies. Top pies with remaining pastry. Brush with egg wash. Prick the tops with a fork. Pop 'em in the oven!
Bake for 15mins or till golden (let's be honest, maybe 20mins).

Actually pretty much everything can be jammed into little pies and its amazing the things your kids will eat if it's wrapped in puff and baked. 

Frittata is another good idea. A frypan that can be stuck under the grill without burning your house down is essential.

Green Eggs and Ham

What to do with leftover pesto and ham from the weekend's pizza adventure? Green eggs and ham. Of course!

Green Eggs and Ham (serves 1)
2 or 3 eggs
a splash of full fat milk (I'm a little lactose intolerant so I use Liddells lactose-free milk)
a little grated cheddar
a couple of thin slices of ham roughly chopped up
a tsp of pesto
olive oil and butter if you like that sort of thing

Method
Heat frypan on a medium heat. Add oil and butter once pan has heated.
Mix everything together except the pesto.  
Scramble those babies. When egg is nearly cooked stir through the pesto.
Serve on toasted sourdough. YUM

A post about Sunday

Dear Reader,

Sunday, as well as being the anniversary of an important Mexico v France showdown, was the birthday of two very important people; my cousin, Alexander (erudite brainbox, chef and restauranteur), and also Jo, friend and godmother to my children (you might ask why an atheist has godparents for her children, good question and I'll tell you all about it another day). I didn't get to see my cousin but we did get to see Jo - her would-be-wife, the ever delightful Jac, organised a semi-surprise party for her. We were invited/instructed to bring something savoury and not too messy. I left it too late to bake so decided on something quick instead. Here it is, my take on the Cantonese classic san choy bau. I've given it a Szechuan twist.

San Choy Bau - Ma Po Doufu style
(Apologies in advance for imprecise possibly untranslatable measurements)
baby cos or little gem lettuces - pull off the leaves, wash and neaten stem ends (they usually come in packs of two, I bought two packs)
250g beef mince
packet of fried beancurd - diced (sometimes sold as golden nuggets or alternatively, fry your own)
some dried shiitake mushrooms
rice bran oil
a dessert spoon or thereabouts of fermented soybean (aka blackbean) chilli paste (an oily blackbean and chilli condiment that most of the Chinese world is addicted to - see your local Asian grocers, they'll get you on to the good stuff. Don't say I didn't warn you. See here for a picture of the sauce in question, it's the second from the right but there are a couple of varieties so read the label carefully) 
a dessert spoon of hoi sin sauce
Tbs blackbeans (the fermented Chinese sort)
a jolly good splash of light soy sauce (I recommend Healthy Boy previously branded Fat Boy)
a good splash of xiao sing rice wine
heaped tsp or so of Szechuan (AKA Sichuan) peppercorns, toasted and crushed with a mortar and pestle (these really are essential they give a lovely crunch to the finished dish)
2 cloves garlic - grated
about a 2-3 cm lump of ginger - grated
1 heaped tsp cornflour

Method
Put the shiitake on to soak in a 500ml jug of boiling water - I like to rest a ricebowl on top so the mushrooms stay submerged.
Mix cornflour with 1Tbs of cold water, set aside.
Put wok or large frypan on a high heat, add oil.
Brown mince, stirring to ensure it breaks up rather than cooking into large lumps.
Add bean paste,  hoi sin sauce, blackbeans and Szechuan peppercorns. Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
Add ginger and garlic. Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
Add beancurd. Reduce heat to medium.
Add soy sauce and rice wine.
Fish out mushrooms - save the water, remove any hard bits, dice finely, add to mince mixture.
Start adding mushroom water gradually, allowing it to absorb before adding more - a little like risotto.
When there's about a third left of the mushroom water, add the cornflour paste.
Add as much of the remaining mushroom water as is necessary. You want the mince to have a nice thick consistency, when you run a spoon through the mince it should take a moment or two for the parted sauce to flow back together.
Now if you're taking this to a party, throw sauce in a container, grab your prepared lettuce and GO! Assemble them in situ. A teaspoon or so of mince per little cos leaf. And that's it!

Coming up: my recipe for green eggs and ham, some musings about bread-making, a little chat about exercising during pregnancy and maybe a wee chat about boobs and bras.