cooking
Beef Bourguignon
Certainly not the usual weather for making slow cooker Beef Bourguignon but we bought fillet steak which was tough! We buy whole pieces of meat and my husband butchers and packs them himself. We found we had a lot of tough, expensive fillet steak. Despite the heat, I knew I’d be turning it into one of our favourite slow cooker recipes, Beef Bourguignon (here)
While my husband turned the steaks into cubes, I cut up red and white potatoes and carrots and put them in the slow cooker. Collected the ingredients for the sauce.
Seared the steak in several batches.
Whisked the sauce ingredients, brought them to the boil then simmered for a few minutes before pouring over the ingredients in the slow cooker, putting on the lid and setting it to HIGH for four hours.
This unctuous, richly flavoured Beef Bourguignon was served the first night with steamed beans. The second night I just made toast to dip into the sauce. Just as good!
Tarte Tatin
Also made tarte tatin. I’ve never made this before but I couldn’t resist some new seasons apples at the grocer so had to use up the six apples I already had. These were pink ladies, not the recommended Granny Smiths. The recipe I used is here.
Made the caramel syrup by dissolving sugar in water over heat then adding butter and cooking until it was slightly caramel in colour. While this was happening I peeled, de-cored and quartered the apples. When the caramel was ready I added the apples and stirred them around in the thick liquid for 10 minutes.
I had already thawed a sheet of pastry. Cut it the size of the pie dish I was using, then adding the apple quarters in a concentric pattern. Poured the left over caramel over the apples and put it in the oven for 50 minutes.
Left it an hour to cool before serving. Absolutely delicious! We only had left over cassata to serve with our tarte tatin but it was wonderful.
EATING
The week after Chinese New Year seemed a good time for us to go to our favourite yum cha restaurant. We arrived before it opened and lined up. When the restaurant doors opened we all scanned our Safe WA Q codes ( so we can be quickly notified if we’ve come into contact with anyone diagnosed with CV-19) and were shown to tables. The restaurant was totally full within minutes and there were still people queued and waiting. The yum cha is very good!
We ate all our favourites, including the black egg pie. All washed down with a few pots of tea. Such a good way to start the day.
Baking
I made sourdough bread for some years and then began making rye sourdough. It is a dense, strongly flavoured bread which I really enjoy. Then I began buying some rye breads and enjoyed the lighter texture of loaves combining rye and white flour. The Germans call this blend of rye flour and white flour a mischbrot, a mixed bread and it makes a lovely loaf.
So I went looking for a recipe to try and settled on this recipe here. I already had a rye mother/starter so simply followed the steps to create an active ‘sponge’, which is not as runny as the usual starter but not as firm as bread dough. This took 20 hours to develop.
Kneaded the dough until it was elastic and smooth then left it to rise until it had increased in size. Then kneaded and folded it again, creating a boule or ball. Left it to rise while the oven heated. Added a bowl of water to the oven to make a crunchy crust. Baked the bread for 35 minutes. Smelt very good.
Cut into the loaf when it was cool. The texture was light and even and the flavour was great! This will be my new bread recipe. It makes a smaller loaf than my previous recipe but I will make two loaves next time as I slice and freeze the bread, removing a few slices every day for breakfast toast.
The Garden
Autumn has arrived with heavy rain and high humidity. The limes are already developing and will be very welcome. Lurking amongst the limes is the household gargoyle.
This alien looking plant is a haemanthus or blood lily. This is a plant originally from South Africa. When the orange bloom and spotty stems disappear thick, leathery leaves will appear.
The amaryllis belladonna lily or Easter lily is a tough but pretty bulb. Also originally from South Africa, this lily thrives in our harsh climate. Traveling in the country side you can often see where a house used to be by the clump of belladonna lilies growing in the middle of no where.
Did you know the first Thursday in March is World Book Day? We are a family of serious readers and happy to celebrate this event by settling down for a good, long read! Both sides of our family are committed readers and have been for several generations. How will you celebrate?