How to Make Pasta

Like many people, I was long intimidated by the idea of making my own pasta. I had visions of challenging, time consuming work with mixed results, which is strange since I’m not one to shy away from a food challenge. I think perhaps at the heart of my uncertainty was the feeling that shop bought pasta was perfectly fine and delicious and what good could come from making your own anyway?

I was wrong. So very wrong. My sister won an Italian cooking course at Flavours of the Valley in the Kangaroo Valley, which she wrote about here. She became quite the pasta enthusiast and I, in turn, became fascinated and envious. An idea was born. She would come to Canberra and teach Sean and I.

This is how naive I was. In preparation for our afternoon of pasta making, I bought a FIVE KILO bag of flour. Now, I do usually buy quite large bags of flour, sometimes 3kg bags, but I had visions of pasta using way more flour than I had in the house, so I bought up big.

Do you know how much flour you need to make enough for four people in one meal? One and a half cups. That’s all. Not kilos. I truly knew nothing! What I learned was that making pasta is fun. And not that messy. And once you know what you’re doing, not that time consuming. A couple of hours is all it takes and much of that time you’re just waiting for stuff to happen so you can put your feet up until the next stage.

Here is Adele looking every bit the teacher.

And here, laid out with photos is a rough guide to making pasta at home. Start with 1.5 cups of plain flour (00 if you can get it, or good strong bakers flour; Adele’s teacher recommended White Wings).

Sift it onto a wooden board and make a well in the centre. Add two room temperature eggs. I have chickens so was able to make it with lovely, homegrown eggs.

Next take a fork and whisk the eggs, gradually working in more and more flour. You need to keep going until it’s less eggy and more of a custard consistency.

Combine the egg and flour fully after that, using a stainless steel pastry cutter, or a butter knife or similar, cutting the flour and egg together.

When it’s combined, knead (rather as if you’re making bread, pressing down and folding the dough over on itself), for around 6 minutes.

When it’s got a nice, smooth texture, fold it into a ball and place under a bowl for half an hour or more.

Next comes the really fun part! Making the pasta. Using your pasta maker (I was given a second hand one a while ago) take smaller pieces of the dough (I cut it into quarters) and roll each out with a little flour, feeding through the pasta maker according to its instructions, gradually working it more and more thinly.

I thought this bit was magical. I couldn’t believe how long and thin each sheet became! It was really that simple! I found myself wondering what had taken me so long to learn this.

We hung it to dry over my clothes horse for half an hour or so – waiting until each piece lost that ‘tacky’ feeling it had.

Then it was time to make fettucinne.

We made plenty for five-six people that night and it was so much more wonderful than I imagined. Homemade pasta is light and silky. It cooks in under 3mins and was utterly delicious. Since then we’ve made it twice – we are complete converts and can’t wait to make flavoured pasta.

That night I served it with a roasted capsicum and chorizo sauce. It was wonderful.

This weekend I served it with a rich tomato, meatball and basil sauce. Delicious.

Thanks so much Delly for teaching us – what a wonderful thing it is!

Bells

Malta: Puddina

I was flicking through my Food Safari cookbook the other day looking for inspiration.  I’ve mentioned before I get itchy to bake, and this day was no exception.  I turned to the pages on Maltese food.  My son’s best mate is Maltese, so I thought it only fitting I try my hand at Maltese cooking (doesn’t everyone do this?)  I found a great recipe for using up stale bread.  Puddina!

 

The recipe calls for day old bread or bread rolls etc.  Also mixed fruit, sugar, eggs etc.  My husband and I are not at all keen on candied peel.  In fact, I think it should be banned.  It ruins perfectly good food.  Yuk!  So instead of buying chopped mixed fruit I bought various dried fruits and chopped them up myself to ensure no candied peel crept into my Puddina.  I also added sultana’s into the mix.

 

This pudding is not really what you would define as a pudding.  Although, I imagine heating it and eating it with a bowl of warmed custard would be divine (note to self: do this tonight).  It’s a really moist cake that can be eaten anytime.  Morning tea, afternoon tea, midnight snack … anytime.  With all that dried fruit and almonds I like to think it’s a healthy option for a snack…maybe.

 

 

Because you use a whole loaf of bread it yields a massive cake.  But I don’t think you will find this is a problem.

 

 

 

 

You might be able to see from the above picture a little bit of bread.  I think it should probably be all mixed in and the actual bread should be unidentifiable.  But this was my first attempt and it didn’t make any difference to the overall taste in my opinion.

 

So I bravely decided to give a large portion to my Maltese friends.  Of course I doubt it was like Grandma used to make but I handed it over anyway.  Thankfully they were really pleased to receive it and they loved it!  Success!

 

Delly

 

Donna Hay: Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cake – A Review

Those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning would know that I have a little aversion to packet cake mixes.  I don’t “hate” them.  In fact, I made one the other day with my 3year old niece who has the attention of a goldfish (I figured she didn’t have the patience to sit through all the sifting, adding etc.).  So I am not so much “anti” cake mixes.  But given the choice, I would bake from scratch for sure.

 

Having said all that, Donna Hay’s PR department sent Bells and I a packet of us a Chocolate Truffle cake each to bake and review.  It’s nice that our little blog was one of the many (I imagine) to be chosen to review this product.

 

I’m not a huge rich chocolate fan.  I had a bad experience with a Max Brennar restaurant once, which I won’t bore you with the details.  Suffice to say, I ate too much chocolate one evening and was reminded of the fact throughout the rest of the (very long) night.

 

So when I baked this cake I made sure I had friends and family to share it with.

 

 

The packet mix was dead simple.  You did need to melt some chocolate and some butter together, but that is about as tricky as it got.  The instructions were clear and easy to understand.  The strange bit just before popping the mixture in the oven was covering the uncooked cake mixture with a foil dome.  You had to fold the foil over in one corner so you ended up with a small pleat which enabled the foil to cover the tin and also point upwards. (There is a picture on the back of the box – so no need to freak out).

 

The cake comes out a little wobbly in the middle. I know this goes against all we know about cake baking, but trust me, this is normal.  You need to pop it in the fridge straight away and allow it to completely cool – 4 hours at least.  I did it overnight as I was cooking ahead.

 

And the final result??  Really, really good.  You need to think of it differently from your average fluffy cake.  It’s made with almond meal, which straight away will give you a completely different texture to your cake made with flour.  I actually liked the texture.  It was a little gritty (probably not the best word to use for cake).  The cake was firm and very, very chocolately.  Too much chocolate for me.  But that’s just personal taste.  If you are a chocolate lover, then this is the chocolate treat for you.

 

I served it up with whipped cream and raspberries.  The cake had such a special feel about it, it is definitely the kind of cake you want to bring out when you hope to impress someone.  Restaurant quality, I believe.

 

So would I make it again?  If I was pushed for time and I had someone coming for dinner who adored chocolate on a scary scale then… yes I would.  It doesn’t have that “packet cake’ flavour which is a big bonus for me.

 

Back to delicious home-made goodies next time.

 

Delly

Roasted Capsicum, Chorizo and Zucchini Linguine

On the weekend when we found capsicums on sale (in the dead of winter, go figure) my husband bought a bag of them for roasting. He loves when I make roasted capsicum pasta sauce.

So do I.

Tonight I made it in the following way.

After roasting and peeling six red capsicums on the weekend, I skinned four fresh chorizo (the raw ones, not the cured ones although they’d be fine too – they’d just need to be sliced and fried).

I diced a zucchini finely and added it to the chorizo meat which had been cooking in the pot.

Once it was all cooked through, I added a tablespoon of tomato paste and a tin of diced tomatoes.

Once that was all warned through I let it all simmer for 20 mins or so.

While the pasta was cooking, I shredded a bunch of basil and added it to the sauce just before serving.

Seasoned with salt, pepper and a splash of sweet balsamic vinegar, it needed only some Parmesan to finish it off.

It was delicious.

Bells (who has not blogged here for months!)

Flavours Of The Valley – Cooking School

So last year a very new thing happened to me – I actually won a competition.  I don’t think I have ever won anything of significance (seeing that I can’t actually remember being that lucky).  When I registered for the Good Food and Wine Show last year I also entered a competition to win 2 tickets to a cooking school.  I had forgotten all about it (as you do when you never win anything) and then a phone call came along saying that I was the lucky winner.  WooHoo!  I didn’t really believe it until the tickets arrived.  Yay me!

 

The cooking school is in the Kangaroo Valley, which is just 2 hours south of Sydney.  Flavours of the Valley is run by Toni and Rob Moran and is set in bushland just outside the small town.  I was fortunate enough to have two tickets so I decided my husband should join me and we would celebrate 18yrs of marriage and learn a few new skills at the same time.

 

So we started off making pasta.  The flour was already measured out and the tools of the trade (a fork, a pasta machine and a pasta scraper) were all we needed.  I must admit, I have never made my own pasta before but figured it couldn’t be that hard.

 

 

I found the kneading a little tricky (not the action itself) but just getting it to a workable state.  But both Paul and I got there in the end.  We then had to let the pasta rest for a while whilst we moved onto the business of cooking the rest of our three course meal.

 

Because there were ten students in total, each couple had particular tasks to perform which would, in the end, bring a whole meal together.  Paul and I worked on the warm Caponata Salad which formed part of the Antipasti.

Caponata Warm  Salad

Figs with Blue cheese and Procuitto

Cannellini Brushetta with rocket and mozzarella

Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

 

 

 

 

In terms of skills level, both Paul and I found the salad quite easy and so we happily checked out what other people were doing and asked questions of not only our instructors but also other students.  Everybody seemed willing to learn and willing to share what they were doing with those watching on.

 

We eventually returned to our resting pasta and started rolling out the pasta sheets (with the aid of a pasta machine).  This took a lot of coordination, although I am sure we would get better at turning the wheel, feeding the pasta sheet and catching the thinning pasta as it is feeds through the machine.   It was certainly a two person job – thankfully Paul and I were learning together and should make for many a fun afternoon when we make our pasta machine purchase for the home.

 

Making the ravioli was a  little tricky as we learnt the “traditional” way and the “cheats” way.  Both ways are valid and worth practising both.  The results were spectacular.

 

 

And now the Cannoli – oh my!!

 

 

Also we didn’t get to make too much of this, although both Paul and I had a chance to deep fry the cannoli.  I was pleased to have a go at this as I normally have an aversion to any deep-frying (too much hot oil).  But I am happy to say that it wasn’t such a big deal and I am slowly getting over my misgivings.

 

Paul and I really enjoyed our time at Flavours of the Valley.  Having never attended a cooking school before it was certainly something I really found helpful.  Probably the best part was having a try at the pasta (it was also the most frustrating…but I will get better).

 

It was also lovely going with my wonderful husband of 18yrs.  It was a different way of celebrating and something we could bring home and do together.  I can see pasta creation afternoons happening…

 

So thanks Toni and Rob!!  It was fun and I hope we’ll be back!

 

Delly

Breakfast Cinnamon Rolls

It was my birthday a few days ago and I decided this year I was not going to bake my own birthday cake.  I’ve done this before and enjoyed the experience, but this year it was not going to happen.

However, there has been a recipe that has been teasing me for quite a while and it’s been wooing me to make it.  So I thought what better time than my birthday to bake something purely for me.  So I hit the kitchen to make my Birthday Cinnamon Rolls – to be enjoyed at breakfast with my husband and son.

The recipe suggests using a mixer with a dough hook or a large mixing bowl to do by hand.  I decided it was a good opportunity to use my bread maker and use the “dough” setting.  This required me to throw all the ingredients, set it to “dough” and walk away.  However, the recipe below will instruct you with the slightly longer way to do it.

Cinnamon Rolls

Dough

1 cup lukewarm milk

2 large eggs, room temp

1/3 cup butter, cut into cubes (I made sure it was slighty softened)

4 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

7g packet rapid rise yeast

Filling

1/3cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Icing

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon maple syrup or flavouring

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

2 Tablespoons (or more) milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the dough: mix all the ingredients in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer until mixture comes together.

Either knead the dough by hand for 5-8 minutes or until smooth; or using the dough hook in a stand mixer knead for 4-7 minutes at medium speed.

Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place somewhere warm for about 60 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the filling ingredients together.  (I found popping the mixture in the microwave for 30 seconds helped the mixture be a more spreadable consistency).

Take the dough out of the bowl and punch it down.  Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 40cm x 50cm rectangle.  Leaving a 2.5cm border at one end of the short ends, spread the dough evenly with the filling.

Starting at the opposite end from the border with no filling, roll the dough into a log shape and pinch the seam to seal.  Cut into 12 equal size rolls and place cut side up ina rectangluar greased baking pan.

Cover and refridgerate overnight.

The next morning, remove the cinnamon rolls from the fridge and let sit on the counter for about 60 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 190c.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until browned.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together with icing.  If it’s too stiff add more milk until runnier.

When rolls are golden, remove form oven, allow to cool for 10-15minutes.  Pour glaze over the cinnamon rolls.  Serve warm.

 

 

These rolls were not too sweet to be enjoyed in the morning.  It was fabulous knowing they were sitting in my fridige overnight all ready to go when I arose.  Most of the work had already been done.  All I needed to do was pop out to the kitchen an hour or so before I wanted to put them in the oven and it would be not be too long before they were ready to enjoy.

 

We all enjoyed them the next day as well.  Thirty seconds in the microwave on high and they were soft and warm again – ready to eat.

 

These rolls were a lovely way to celebrate my birthday with my boys.

Delly

 

Pastry: Brunch Turnovers

Everytime I start to write a blog post I feel I need to apologize for my absence.  But I post when I can and you can be assured that I am continuing in on my baking/eating/thinking about baking/thinking about eating etc… You get the idea.

So I have been thinking about pastry lately and borrowed a book from our local library (yay libraries!!  How good are they??)  The book was a very basic pies and pastries cookbook with quite a lot of instruction on making your own pastry.

My husband, son and I were thinking of going to the Rugby last Saturday night, and rather than buying over-priced garbage from the stadium, I thought I would make some pastries which could be easily eaten without cutlery and also be eaten cool.

So I made these little treasures:

 

 

To make the pastry in a fast and efficient way – you can do the following:

Place a steel blade into your food processor work bowl.  Add 155g plain flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 90g of cold cubed butter.  Process briefly with short bursts of power until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (a few larger pieces may remain).  With machine running, quickly add 3 T cold water.  Stop the processor very soon after the water is added and the dough comes together.  Remove form the machine and wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap.  Pop it in the fridge for 1 hour minimum – or overnight.

 

To make the filling, do the following:

Ingredients:

2 T finely chopped spring onion

1 T marg or butter

1 beaten egg

125g shredded cheese

155g finely chopped ham

2 tsp chopped fresh dill

1 tsp minced garlic

Milk

 

Method

Prepare pastry as directed.  When you are ready, remove the dough from the fridge and roll the dough into 37.5 x 25cm rectangle.  Cut into 13cm squares.  Cover dough with plastic wrap and set aside while preparing filling.

In a small bowl combine all ingredients.  Divide evenly between each square being careful to put the filling on only one half of the square (you will need to fold the top over and pinch the pastry).

Moisten the edges of the pastry with a little water.  Fold each square of pastry in half, sealing edges well by pressing with a fork.  Place on a baking tray with baking paper.  Prick the tops and lightly brush with milk.

Bake in preheated oven (190degrees) for about 30 minutes or until golden.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

 

 

 

I have to say my new favourite herb is Dill.  The subtle flavour mix with the cheese and ham is just amazing.  My family and I just loved these.  The pastry was tasty and flaky, the mixture inside the turnover was moist and flavoursome.

 

Alas, I did forget to add the milk wash on top of the pastry before baking, so I felt this made the pastry a little dry.  So I would try not to forget that step next time.  But otherwise, these little flavour-packed pillows are worth a try.  The pastry was not at all daunting to make.  I had it whipped up in the food processor in about 8 minutes.  I also made the pastry ahead of time, which made me feel terribly organised and sucessfully domestic!

I hope you will give them a try.

Delly

Nigella Lawson: Chocolate Mint Cookies

I think I went on a bit of a baking frenzy recently.  You know those moments (or perhaps you don’t), when you start looking at cookbooks and next thing you know you have highlighted several recipes that you absolutely MUST create!  This happens to me from time to time and forces me to glue myself to the kitchen until the moment passes.

 

Usually when this happens I have to look at the calendar to see what events are coming up so that I can share some of my baked goods (this helps me justify excess baking).  Thankfully, my family and I head off to church every Sunday, so I always have somehwere to take my treats – morning tea often features something I have baked.  This is satisfying for all concerned.

 

Recently I baked Nigella’s Chocolate Mint Cookies. These are funny little rock cake like cookies that seem to check all the boxes for a great biscuit.

 

The thing I liked about these biscuits (apart form the fact that they disappeared in seconds) are that they are so easy to make.  They are a no fuss biscuit, packed with chocolatey flavour and a hint of mint.  They come together so quickly and they sit on the biscuit tray in little piles of dough.  They are so unassuming in their yumminess.  The texture also works as there are little choc chips throughout the dough which adds to the little surprise when you take the first bite.

 

Another lovely aspect of these biscuits is the peppermint glaze drizzled over the top of the cooling biscuit.  It’s unexpected.  I loved watching people’s faces as they took the first bite.  The hint of mint is a surprise and very welcome.

 

If you are looking to whip up some biscuits for friends or just needing options for kid’s recess boxes, then these biscuits really work.  I imagine they would freeze well too (although mine never made it that far).  I love baking ahead and having biscuits ready in the freezer for my son.  It makes me feel like such an accomplished parent (I take whatever I can to achieve that).

 

Delly

 

Tempura Zucchini Flowers

Every summer, without fail, I grow more zucchini plants than I need. I think it happens because I buy a punnet of seedlings and there are always at least six tiny zuchini plants in it. Some years I losea few seedlings to snails or mistreatment. Some years, all of them survive. Those are the years when dealing with excess zucchinis becomes almost a full time occupation.

This year four out of the six survived and all four of them are producing fruit. You can see here how big and lush they’re looking – forming a backdrop to this photo of my niece.

The plants are so big they’re even providing shade for my chickens.

Every year I try to come up with more and better ways of eating them. I’ll aim to explore some of those ideas here. One thing I’ve meant to do for years and never have is eat some of the flowers themselves. It strikes me as an elegant way of managing the zucchini population. Eat some of the flowers before they become enormous green zucchinis! If you’ve never heard of doing such a thing, trust me, it’s worth trying. I recall eating them, stuffed and battered, at a lunch once. I was transfixed. They were sublime. I don’t know why I waited so long to try my hand at it when it was so simple.

All over the net you’ll find recipes for stuffed zucchini flowers. I decided not to stuff them, for my first attempt, mainly because most recipes stuff them with cheese and I’m currently dairy free (that’s a whole other series of post topics!). Also, stuffing them seemed more fiddly than I wanted to be on my first go. So I decided in the end to simply coat them in a light tempura batter using a recipe I found here.

At dawn yesterday (because I happened to be up and because it seemed wise to pick them before the heat of the day kicked in) I picked eight zucchini flowers. Both male and female. The male flowers are on a stalk. The female flowers have small zucchinis attached.

I kept them on a plate in the fridge until later in the day when I needed them. I was worried they were fragile and wouldn’t be as good by the end of the day but they were fine.

I washed them gently – they weren’t very dirty but my chickens scratch around them a lot so there was some soil to remove. I carefully cut out the stamen and other bits in the centre of the flowers (not easy when the female flowers were still closed!). Then I mixed up the tempura batter (see recipe here) and we cooked them in olive oil in the wok, outside on the BBQ’s wok burner. The whole process took about ten minutes. After letting them drain on paper towel for a few minutes, we poured a glass of Rose wine and ate our delicate flowers happily.

I left the small zucchinis attached and was really pleased I did so. They fried quickly and were so tasty at the end of the flowers!

I would like my tempura batter to be a little thinner next time (more water, I suppose) but that’s about the only thing I’d change. There was possibly more batter on them than I’d like but it’s a minor quibble. And I think they should be eaten quickly, before the crunch goes from the batter. My husband described the flavour as zucchini flavoured air. Quite apt really.

Now I can’t wait for more flowers to bloom. I’m already thinking about how I’ll stuff the next lot.

In case you’ve wondered where our blog went for the last six months, thank you for coming back and reading. We let it slide and are starting 2012 feeling renewed and ready to see where our culinary adventures will take us. We hope you keep reading!

Bells

A Decadent Birthday Cake

Earlier this month, it was my birthday. I knew some weeks ahead that I’d be having a lunch with my parents and other family members in attendance.

It was the perfect opportunity to create a birthday lunch of my choosing. I roasted a 3kg leg of lamb, served it with polenta crusted potatoes (which were, I have to say, nowhere near as good as Delly’s potatoes she’d served me just two weeks earlier. C’est la vie!) and a couple of lovingly selected bottles of red wine.

It was all lovely. But the cake. Oh the cake. That was something I was very excited about.

I put the call out on Twitter one night for people to suggest their favourite birthday cake ideas and a friend from Ireland said I could do worse than check out what Smitten Kitchen had to offer. I knew of Smitten Kitchen by reputation but hadn’t ever really checked out her stuff. As of that moment, I became a new, instant fan. Beautiful food with a philosophy I took to right away. On her About page, she describes how her blog is about “comfort foods stepped up a bit” – it’s not all fancy schmancy – which is of course a matter of opinion. It doesn’t seem fancy to me but maybe if your idea of fancy cooking is to throw in a tin a champignons in your bolognaise (yes I once knew someone who thought that was fancy) then her food is going to seem intimidating. But to me it’s just good, every day ingredients cooked lovingly and creatively. I’m gobsmackingly hooked and there aren’t a huge number of food blogs that do that to me.

I found her Best Birthday Cake seconds after landing on her page and it was all a done deal.

She calls it a yellow cake. I’m reliably informed this is what Americans call a butter cake. Once I understood that, it was all good. Have a look at her cake – the photo she has of the inside of her cake is far better than any I took. Beautifully double-deckered with a generous layer of chocolate icing in the middle. Sublime. Sometimes chocolate on chocolate is too much for me. Chocolate on a buttery vanilla laced cake struck just the right note for me.

Here’s mine. A light, but not too light yellow buttery delicious cake. I think the eggs from my chickens contributed to the colour and taste of this gorgeous cake.

It felt like a monumental cake, for someone who doesn’t often do monumental. It felt fun, exciting and oh so celebratory. And my lovely niece Alice loved it as much as I did. From the moment I’d iced it and set it on the cake stand on the table, she was hovering with her little spoon, waiting to dig in. That girl is so related to me and Delly. One of her earliest words was ‘cake’ and it’s still a great way to get her attention.

This is a cake that I know I’ll return to again and again. For a first taste of Smitten Kitchen’s work, it was a great introduction. I’m going back for more.

A note on the icing – it was a first for me. Sour cream, dark chocolate and corn syrup. I’ve never used corn syrup. I was surprised to see it in the recipe but understood her desire had been to create a glossy, rich icing without using icing sugar. So not using icing sugar meant using corn syrup. Makes sense. It was such a gorgeous icing. Rich and glossy and quite grown up. The sour cream tang was delightful.

I need another birthday as an excuse to make this again!

Bells