plus ca change

Well, there are a few Cooking Class posts banking up, but it’s been too busy to get them online. With any kind of luck I should find time away from the stuff that makes up our busy evenings sometime soon. Maybe. I’m not making any promises. The main problem is discovering Dowtown Abbey and Second Chef wanting to watch MOAR EPISODES.

Ah well.

Around here there have been some useful advances in suburban farming, with the garden giving up a pretty good supply of garlic this year, a kg of beetroots being turned into relish, the leeks coming along nicely, we have a few surprise self-seeding pumpkins coming along, and plenty of rhubarb, lettuce, bok choy, herbs and a HUGE crop of coriander seeds (the potatoes were woeful, the peach tree only produced one edible peach, the tomatoes failed, and the onions were put in too late). The coriander is really fragrant, so I’m very much looking forward to using them in cooking.

Also, a few weeks back I noticed that a friend on twitter was growing her own mushrooms in buckets. A bit of quick inquiry and a reference turned up these guys. Parkvale mushrooms will send you two buckets of pre-prepared mushroom mycelium for$NZ42.50. I followed the instructions, watered the compost, and put them in the sunroom under black polythene for a week or so, then parked them in the basement. Within another week I’m taking about 1.5kg of flat brown mushrooms off the buckets in the first flourish. Looking at the growth that still happening there I reckon we’d have at least that left to grow out. Based on an average price of about $NZ15kg for gourmet mushrooms I’d say we’d be pretty close to breaking even by next weekend, and they say that each bucket will flourish at least three times! And, they’re delicious.

Although, anyone with recommendations for mushroom recipes? They’ll be gladly accepted.

The further news is that the spent mushroom compost is excellent for the garden. With that and the chicken straw-poo the neighbour dropped around we should be well on the way to a big improvement in the former-packed-clay-garden next year. So all in all, pretty good.

 

How to make light, fluffy, moreish waffles

Well, this was another of the recipes I was pretty sure I’d absolutely have to make before any steam on this project ran out, and it was a good choice (we are still taking photos, but bloggage has been slow due to a multitude of other need-to-dos). The photo in the book is particularly awesome – but we just had ours with maple and/or golden syrup.

Americans like waffles for breakfast with honey or maple syrup – perhaps an acquired taste early in the day [ed: perhaps the author here was your typical late colonial marmalade on dry toast eater...]. We serve them for a delicious desert, topped with ice cream and caramel sauce, bought or home made. And it is such an easy recipe – everyone can make their own waffles

The ingredients for this one are pretty simple. It’s essentially a batter. You mix it up, then put onto the waffle iron. And therein lies the rub. If you don’t have a waffle iron you’re going to be looking at crepes instead. In this case TradeMe was my friend.

• 2 eggs, separated
• 1.5 cups milk
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 60g butter
• 2 tbsp cold water

We made the recipe this way initially, but have since swapped out the dry ingredients for a gluten-free cake or bread mix. It’s a bit easier on Dad’s stomach.

 

Why I spend so much time stacking, chopping, and sourcing wood

I worry this title will attract all kinds of unlikeable traffic, but there you go.

Something we seem to do an endless amount of here at Newlands Manor is sourcing cheap firewood. The main reason for this is the obvious, fireplace-related one. It’s also because the fireplace is hands-down the most efficient way to heat this old house. We and insulation put in to bring it up to code, we put some heavier curtains in the bedrooms, and we took out the old gas central heating (natural gas is simply too expensive).

All in all we’re unlikely to see most of the money back in savings on the heating bill, but we are substantially more comfortable than the first winter we were here.  And man, that first winter with only a 3.5kW heat pump and some heaters in the bedrooms? FREEZING. In total we had about 8kW of power and the bills were really starting to ramp up. Then the worst happened, a power cut in the evening, July, wind blowing sleet sideways from the South. Thank goodness for the welcoming neighbours and their fire.

Second Chef had been suggesting very strongly that we needed to change the heating to a toasty, heartening fireplace, and that night I agreed. And not only am I glad I agreed, we haven’t looked back.

Of course, now I seem to spend all summer getting wood together to see us through the winter. But this fireplace puts out 17kW, so we are extremely warm indeed. Last year during the epic snowstorms when it was -1C outside and people were tweeting non-stop about their heat pumps stopping the coldest part of our house was 16C. Now that is what they call in the business ‘sweet as’.

But as I say, I’m not sure that we’re saving all that much money. A cord of wood bought in the city cost at leas $480, and you need at least two to make it through our long winters. I’ve been sourcing free/cheap firewood whenever I can, but… it’s still an annual bill of at least $1,000. Now, 1k will buy you a heck of a lot of electricity, and more than likely enough to buy you 17kWh of heating when you need it. When it’s working that is.

And because I’m a glutton for punishment, I sat down and worked out exactly how much power we’ve saved. So here’s a nice graph using three-month rolling average and a smoothed line.

The blue line is the first year when we only had the heat pump, and it pummets when we get in the fireplace. Looks like a reasonable saving in electricity right? Well, that’s actually only around $200 saved. A reasonable amount, sure, but the firewood cost is far and above it. And as the next graph shows, 2010 wasn’t particularly different to 2011 (data from Cliflo).

The years vary, but overall there is less than 0.1C difference in the minimum and maximum average temperatures (2011 was warmer).

The question this begs is, if you’re not making big savings, why not just stick with the heat pump? The answer is: solely because the fireplace provides a far more comfortable heat, is more reliable, doesn’t put a constant flaming draft in the house, and you can spend your winter heating money when you have spare cash instead of when the power company demands it (we can put away up to 4 cords if we find any great deals).

Before we got the fireplace we did our reading, and most sources said that the cost was around the same unless you have your own source of firewood (I’m dreaming of having enough land to put in a coppice). Of course… that didn’t take into account the amount power bills are likely to increase in the near future.

 

How to make Waffles

Of all the pictures in the Cooking Class there were two that stayed with me. The first was the brandy snaps. I still have a soft spot for them despite knowing they’re basically just cream wrapped in sugar (what’s not to like, right?). The other was the waffles. The shot is a waffle being smothered in what looks like a caramel sauce.

So, after a little hunting about on TradeMe I snaffled a waffle iron, and set to!

 

How to make a Beef Stroganoff that tastes like just about everything else in this book…

Well, I think the title about says it all.

All countries have their food specialities. But this beef dish from those commies in Russia has become famous on an international scale. It is excellent food to include in your menu if you’re giving a party: noodles or rice are usual accompaniments.

To be honest I was holding out hope for this one.

Here’s what you need:

• 750g fillet steak (I used some weiner schnitzel)
• 125g butter
• 1 medium onion
• 500g small (button) mushrooms
• salt, pepper
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 beef stock cubes (I swapped this and the water for 1/2 cup beef stock)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 300ml sour cream
• 1tsp cornflour

And that’s all she wrote. This recipe is a doddle, so let’s get into it.

 

How to make your classic Vanilla Slice

The Vanilla Slice, also known more commonly as the custard square or the “snot block” is a tuck shop classic here in good old New Zealand. A conversation with a workmate the other day revealled that her mum used to substitute the traditional puff pastry with Huntley and Palmers cream crackers. The luck coincidence of my having to partially cater a morning tea, and this being a recipe in the Cooking Class Cookbook meant I had the opportunity to share this wonderful recipe with you, dear readers.

With a delicious filling of rich vanilla custard, these are the most popular of all slices. The slices are made with packaged puff pastry and topped with passionfruit-flavoured icing.

Actually… I didn’t have and passionfruit. Also, these were indeed extremely popular, with some people coming back for a second slice. Unfortunately though the recipe is made with a boatload of starches, so half the floor had to go out for a walk at lunch to wake themselves up! I was therefore responsible for a marked decline in productivity…

For the slice you will need:

• 1 packet of Huntley and Palmers cream crackers
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornflour
• 1/2 cup custard powder
• 1 litre milk
• 60g butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

For the icing you’ll need:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 tablespoon of jam, or, a passionfruit
• 1 tsp of water

This is a straightforward recipe, with the only real trick being the mixing of the custard – it needs to be as stiff as possible to stop the squares from schmooshing everywhere when you try to eat it.

 

How to make corny old Chicken Chasseur

Well, this is an interesting one.

“Chasseur” means a sauce containing mushrooms and shallots. it can be a sauce for many meats. Here we have allied it to chicken for a dish with rich, superb flavour. Serve with hot rice or mashed potatoes, crusty bread and separate green salad. Serves four.

In French chasseur means ‘hunter’, and this makes sense when the most important ingredient in this dish is actually mushrooms. I think that means you could likely make a vegetarian version by dropping the meat and adding beans, or perhaps paneer.

Anyhow, the list!

• 1.5kg chicken or similar
• 30g butter
• 2 tbsps oil
• 250g mushrooms
• 1 large clove garlic
• 1 cup dry white wine
• salt, pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon tarragon (I had none, so substituted sage from the garden)
• 2 large ripe tomato (I used a tin of Italian tomatoes)
• 6 shallots (or use the pre-prepared fried Asian ones, they’re pretty good)
• 2 tbsps chopped parsley
• 2 tbsps tomato paste

For the brown sauce

• 125g butter(!!)
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 3 cups water
• 3 chicken stock cubes (I just used 3 cups of chicken stock for this and the previous ingredient)
• salt, pepper.

We made an executive decision after the tedium of the Beggars’ Chicken to get a little creative with the ingredients. I’m trying to stay true to the recipes in the book, but we need to actually be able to eat these things! I’ll admit that this may also have been prompted by Second Chef asking, “Why are all these recipes soooo boring?”

 

How to make delicious Masala Potatoes

Masala potatoes are a dish I’m making a lot these days to accompany a curry I take to work for lunch. I had to cut bread out of my diet, and needed something starchy, but not too starchy to keep me awake during the afternoon. These are basically just ghee, spices, and par-boiled spuds, so they’re an easy something to whip up on sunday night before the week starts.

So, you’ll need:

• some parboiled small or new season spuds
• a couple of tablespoons of ghee (or just plain old butter if it’s all you have)
• tbsp of tumeric
• 2-3cm of ginger
• tbsp-ish of cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp of chilli powder, or a couple of fresh chillis
• a pinch of asafoetida

From here it’s easy

 

How to make delicious crunchy muesli

This recipe isn’t in the Aussie cookbook, but is something we make pretty regularly here. The idea was initially to save a little money, but over time it’s mostly become about making a meal that isn’t jam-packed full of sugar. Plus, oats! What’s not to like.

You’ll need:

Oats, maybe four cups

Dried fruits, pretty much whatever you’re into (and won’t break the bank)

Dried coconut

Seeds; pumpkin, sesame, sunflower. You get the picture

Vegetable oil

A sweetener. We use a golden syrup, but you could use honey (if it wasn’t so damn expensive), or malt. Even brown sugar could do.

So this recipe is pretty straightforward. Toast the oats in the oven, toast the seeds on the stovetop, and chop the fruits. Here we go.

 

How to make “Beggar’s chicken”

And here in the first of the ‘How to cook from an 80s cookbook’ series is Beggar’s chicken. To be honest I’m surprised they didn’t call this something dodgy, but there you go. Apparently PC was alive an well as early as the mid-80s. And so we begin:

This is one of the renowed dishes of the Orient. The chicken was originally wrapped in lotus leaves, then in clay, then thrown into a hot fire. Supply chopsticks for four lucky people.

You’ll need:

1.5kg chicken

3 shallots (I used a small onion, which was probably a mistake)

2.5cm piece green ginger

1 tsp sugar

3 tbsps soy sauce

2 tbsps dry sherry

1 tbsp water

1/4 tsp five spice powder

2 extra tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsps oil

extra oil

1kg cooking salt (!!)

4 cups plain flour

1 1/2 cups water (approx)

The recipe itself is pretty simple, the first thing to do is to mix all the dough, then stuff the chicken with the surprisingly limited amount of spices, wrap the whole shebang in foil and dough, and cook that thing for a total of FOUR HOURS. You’ll need to pay attention to that last bit.