Bannetons are On My Mind

Another wonderful week has come and gone, full of school holidays and guests from home. Time to join Rhonda.

There is so much to learn on this sourdough journey. Different recipes have different hydration levels, different kneading methods and different proving times. It is a matter of me working out which suits me and my tastes. The loaves from my kitchen so far have been in the shape of tinned loaves.

I took the plunge and bought some handmade bannetons on a recent trip to Manu Factum. I was pretty impressed that I only left with one large round and two small rectangular baskets.

There was now a task ahead of me: to find a recipe that wasn't as wet as the ones I have been using. Images of watery dough oozing out through the gaps in these beautiful cane works of art made me shudder.

I settled on this recipe for the quantities but played around with the timing a little.

I am thrilled with the result as it looked great and tasted pretty good too. It is always a holding-my-breath moment when I cut these open waiting to see if the air bubbles are in all the right places. This loaf had a lovely even amount of bubbles, just right for butter to melt into.

I would love some banneton advice from anyone else who uses proofing baskets.

Take care

School Lunches are On My Mind

I really enjoy playing along with Rhonda's On My Mind.

Making school lunches is always a bit of a dhallenge.

There are so many products out there that are targeted at this away-from-home meal: brightly coloured, creamy textured snacks in plastic and foil individual packets. These over-packaged, over-priced, nutritionless 'foods' make their way into trolleys and then into lunch boxes.

I find it a challenge to get the balance just right between nutritious, appealing food and something that doesn't make the other kids say, "What it that!" There is nothing worse than a child being too embarrassed to open their lunchbox for fear of peer comments.

Making food from scratch is the way I manage to get that balance. Homemade ANZACs or cakes, where I know exactly what has gone into, are options that work for me.

I have always found the tubs of fruit in juice a strange addition to school lunches. Pieces of fruit, swimming in juice (apparently) served in a plastic and foil container. Have you watched many children open these successfully? Make sure you don't forget the spoon. What's wrong with a piece of fruit. Bananas and apples seem to fit perfectly well into lunch boxes and rather then adding to landfill, the scraps are great for compost.

There are so many other products (cheese, yoghurt...) that I could rant about but I'll stop there and head to where I was going with this.

I found a great little recipe for making the most devine lunchbox sized bread rolls. We are now onto the third 16-roll batch.

These do contain yeast as the kiddies are taking a little while to acquire the taste for sourdough.

As there are no preservatives, I have been freezing these and they freeze beautifully.

I know that a roll or a sandwich is nothing original or exciting for a lunch-time snack, but I feel better knowing exactly what is being eaten, and how and when each of the things were made.

I'm sure these rolls would go wonderfully well with a hearty warming soup.

Take care

Simple Sprouts

Liz got me thinking after the last post about the wonders of sprouting. This is something that I have done before but had forgotten (do we see a pattern here?) about it.

I found a great guide to help me get back on the sprouting bandwagon.

There are some great sprouting containers out there and I thought about spending 12 euros but then decided against it. I had great success last time with a jar and a fabric cover, so why purchase more 'stuff'.

The only thing I need was some muslin to put over the top. Everything else was already here. As I didn't want to buy a great length of fabric, I figured that some hankies would do the trick just as well. I particularly like the Nanna-esque style of these.

 

These little jars are now on the kitchen bench waiting to be emptied and rinsed later this evening. In a few days we should have lovely fresh sprouts to add to our sourdough sandwiches.

Do you sprout? What do you sprout? What method do you use?

Take care

Container Gardening is On My Mind

Rhonda's seed post got me thinking.

My Mum has been an avid and skilled gardener for as long as I can remember. It is a carry over from growing up on a farm I'm sure. It has only been the last few years that I have started to feel the desire to get my hands dirty and become a little more focussed with growing anything.

I started with herbs on pots and then graduated to a few tomato plants in a small plot out the back.

With my Dad's handyman skills a new vege patch was created and a second soon followed. These aren't in the best position but they get enough sun that I can extend my growing knowledge bit by bit.

I am already thinking about where I can build some more beds when I am back in my garden. (Shhh, don't tell Dad)

While I am away I have my kitchen garden with a few little plants for me to tend. I had envisaged myself germinating seeds and getting some leafy greens growing but that doesn't seem to be going to happen. The need for soil, space and sunlight have made me think that Bio-Mart and the farmers market at Wittenbergplatz will be a more practical solution.

For now I will look after these little beauties that provide yummy flavours at dinner as well as delicious pots of warming tea.

I am pretty sure that there will be a few more added to this little group in the next few days. I have a hankering for something with some oregano.

What window sill herbs do you grow?

Take care


PS I just walked in from the market with a little oregano plant. Whoops.

The Humble Crumble

Over the past few weeks we had been developing a bit of a collection in the bottom of the fridge. It seemed that we had been buying apples a little faster than we had been able to eat them so as a result, the fruit were losing that appley crunch. The apples from the fruit bowl that had been deemed 'No Longer Edible' had been banished to the crisper drawer to be dealt with when there were enough to do something worthwhile. To the eye, much of the fruit seemed fine but as soon as it was picked up, the wrinkly skin and squishy texture were evident.

As far as I am concerned, a soft apple is a cooking apple. (Pears, according to 2 people this household, are best eaten soft, but that is a whole other story.)

Years ago I collected a little recipe book that had been published by the Health Department with fabulous suggestions for getting more fruit and veg into the diets of kiddoes. My favourite from this booklet was the Apple and Rhubard Crumble. The crumble mix on top is fabulous and suitable to any type of fruit.

I remembered that the recipe included rolled oats and honey along with other typical crumble recipes but the quantities had all been forgotten (Oh my. Is there a pattern emerging?)

If you have ever Googled 'apple crumble recipe' you will know that if someone gave you a dollar for every result, you would just about be a millionaire.

Reading through, it was easy to disregard many of the options. With the amount of sugar and butter some of these required, I could make an 'Old Boot Crumble' taste fabulous.

I decided on this recipe (p. 15) as it included simple ingredients in decent amounts. The sultanas were omitted as I didn't have any.

The smell of cooking apples is one of those aromas that just takes me back to being a kid again. Mum would make her own pasty for an apple pie and it would be decorated with pastry leaves on top.

It cooked maybe a little too long and was not one of my küche success stories, but everyone attacked the backing dish vigorously within minutes of it emerging from the oven. By the time dinner was over and we were ready for our fruity dessert there had been some serious dents made.

I know that leaving the skins on for an apple crumble is probably a big no-no, but I can't see that wonderful part of the fruit be discarded.

Within a day or two, after additions of the apple to breakfast and afternoon snacks, the dish was empty.

So my question (plea) to you is how do you make your crumble topping?

Take care

Remembering, oh wait a minute... I forgot

Each weekend I sit and write a bit of a menu for the following week. The meals aren't extravagant but it is just so that I am a little more focussed at meal times. Although the menu is planned once a week, the shopping is done every few days. I find this to be a great way to eat as the veg is always fresh. But the main reason behind shopping so regularly is that we don't have a car, and children will only carry so much.

Three times this week I have gone to do the shopping and three times this week I have left the supermarket without one of the main ingredients for the evening meal. Firstly it was corn chips that were needed for the nachos. The second time it was the mince that is generally a pretty important ingredient for hamburgers. Luckily on these two occasions I remembered before we were more than a few metres from the shop. With cash in hand, a child was sent back in the make the necessary purchase.

I realise you are probably thinking that some sort of list is called for but I did write a list! I just happened to leave it on the lounge chair at home.

Today my memory didn't do it's thing until I was already home. My selection of root vegetables had been unpacked and were out by the chopping board ready to be sliced and diced up for the evenings curry. Did someone say 'curry'? Whoops. As I know we are here for a limited time I have been buying a few convenience foods as I don't want to end up with a cupboard full of different herbs and spices. Curry sauce in a jar (tastes so much better than it sounds) was the one vital ingredient that would transform this veg into a spicy feast, and it was still on the shelf at the supermarket.

There was no way I was heading back out the door so a change on plan was needed. I had a sourdough loaf cooling on a rack so the decision was a bit of a no-brainer: soup.

Amanda Blake Soule's new book had just arrived in the post and one of the first entries is regarding soup. I figured that this was reinforcing my alternate menu plan.

All of the curry ingredients went into the pan with some sautéed onions. Water, some stock and a handful of red lentils (shhhh, don't tell the kiddies) covered the veg and it was all left to simmer.

Give it a blend. Add some grated cheddar. Cut off some sourdough, and there you have dinner. The grownups even added some a kick of chilli as we were feeling a little daring.

Not quite the curry I had planned. I console myself in the knowledge that it is always best to let something spicy sit for a day or two anyway. It just wasn't meant to be, today.

Take care

Hello Etsy

I am very excited about an Etsy event that is happening this weekend here in Berlin. Although I have never created anything to sell on Etsy, I have bought a gift once because I was after something handmade and something local. It was so local that the creator dropped it in my letterbox rather than posting it. I love the idea of supporting local businesses, especially those who are trying to break into the market.

It wasn't actually the idea of conference run by Etsy that sparked my interest, it was really the theme that got me excited: A Summit on Small Businesses and Sustainablitiy.

After reading that one of the speakers is Marco Clausen from Prinzesinnengarten, I knew I had to go. I also think that running into one of the organizers of the Hello Etsy event at a screen-printing exhibition was a sign that I needed to get organised and buy a ticket.

I now have my ticket printed (after a trip to the internet cafe) and a bit of a list of speakers I would like to listen to.

I am planning on being a little sneaky and doing some Sow. Give. Grow. trans-plants while I am there. I am experimenting with a new envelope design but need to get these reprinted, which is always tricky when you don't have a printer.

Take care