Author: PK
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Black Morels (Morchella elata)
A good friend of mine recently found these edible black morel mushrooms (a species of Morchella) foraging in inner Perth, Western Australia.
Urban foraging is not as big in Australia as it should be and I hope it grows and grows. It is a great way to spend time with your friends and get a feed at the same time.
They keep so well. My foraging friends reckons you can eat them fresh with olive oil and a pinch of rock salt, or boil and dehydrate them to preserve them for later.
Please let me know if you have any recipes/tips you want to share with the world.
Enjoy,
PK
Related Links:
- see more mushroom posts here
- see more mushroom types here
- See more preserving posts here
- go to all meal ingredients here
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Ben’s Windfall Lime Pickle
This windfall lime pickle is a prime example of preserving your harvests. I encourage you to eat fresh produce during their particular growing season and then their (hopefully made by you) preserved cousins off season. The mass produced commercial versions just don’t compare.
It’s important to use very ripe limes. I use the ones that have fallen from the tree, or are about to, that have a yellowing skin and lots of juice :).
These are the sweetest, using under ripe limes will give you a pickle that is very tart. I wash the limes in a weak vinegar:water solution prior to using, to make sure they are clean and not going to contaminate the pickle (because they have come from the floor and I have dogs).
To sterilise the jars, I put them through the dishwasher and then boil them in a pot of water. If the pickle isn’t ready when the jars are, pop them in the oven (no plastic lids) on very low to keep them hot. You should put hot pickle into hot jars for two reasons. One, because you won’t thermally shock and crack the jars and two because as the jar and mixture cool they will form a vacuum, meaning the pickle lasts longer.
The recipe:
You will need
- 30 limes, washed and diced into ~1cm blocks (skin on)
- 10-20 small chilis, sliced (add to taste)
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tbsp salt (sea salt preferred always)
- 4 tbsp oil (olive or sunflower work best)
- 2 tsp fenugreek
- 2 tsp aniseed or fennel (I use fennel seed)
- 2 tsp garlic seed
- 2 tsp chilli flakes
- ~10 cm ginger grated
- 4 tbsp raw brown sugar
- 2 tbsp vinegar (i use apple cider or brown malt, but also you can use white wine)
Method
- Combine limes, chilli, salt, turmeric into a glass or ceramic bowl, mix and leave at room temperature overnight.
- Heat oil in large pot, add fenugreek, fennel seed, chilli flakes, ginger, garlic powder and cook off to release flavour (2-3 minutes).
- Add lime and chilli mixture, mix well and let it simmer and then turn the heat down for about 20 minutes, or until the lime softens and the mixture thickens.
- Add in the vinegar and sugar, mix well and cook for about 5 minutes. The vinegar acts as a preservative.
- Let the mixture cool slightly, then add to hot, sterilised jars. Seal jars, and place into a cool, dark spot for ~1 month to let the flavour develop.
Cleaning the limes:
Leave the mix overnight:
The finished product (we cracked into it early):
Hope you have more patience than me,
Ben 🙂
Here are some additional preserving food ideas and more from Ben:
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KT’s Bush Walker Cookies
My wife has been using this cookie recipe for as long as she can remember. She calls it one of her no fuss recipes. Now we are parents my wife uses less sugar, allegedly but they still come out tasting amazing. My picky toddler never says no to them and he calls them “mummy bi’cuts:” :).
STEPS:
- Combine the cookie ingredients
- Bake and store
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- 0.5 cup butter or margarine
- 1 cup raw sugar
- 1 egg
- 0.5 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 Tbsp water
- 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 cup of dried fruit (my wife uses raisins and currants)
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup of breakfast cereal e.g. Kellogs Cornflakes or Wheaties
- 0.5 cup of desiccated coconut
- Equipment
- a large mixing bowl for the cookie mix
- a small bowl to beat the 1 egg
- a fork or a small whisk
- a non-stick baking tray
- baking paper (optional)
- a fan forced oven
Combine the cookie ingredients
Steps:
- Take the 0.5 cup of margarine (or butter) out of the fridge and let soften for a while.
- Add the margarine to the large mixing bowl and mix in the 1 cup raw sugar.
- Beat the 1 egg, 0.5 tsp vanilla essence, 1 Tbsp water and 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda, in the small bowl, with a fork or small whisk.
- Add to the large mixing bowl.
- Mix in the:
- 1 cup of dried fruit
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup of breakfast cereal eg Kellogs Cornflakes
- 0.5 cup of desiccated coconut
- Roll the cookie mix into balls, flatten with your hand and place on the oven tray, with or without a sheet of baking paper under them.
Bake and store
Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes in a fan forced oven set to 160°C. When done, place them on a cooling rack.
You will find that the whole family loves them fresh and that they freeze exceptionally well. We use a large snap lock bag in the freezer and pull a few out at a time for the kids’ lunch boxes.
Hope you like them,
PK
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Beef – Rib Section
The Rib Section:
To go back to the main post please click here.
Scotch Fillet
The area where the Scotch Fillet comes from doesn’t do a lot of work so it is quite tender. It is one of my favourite cuts because although tender it still has a lot of flavour. In Australia it is one of the more expensive cuts with $39AUD/kg not uncommon at time of writing.
I like cooking with it in the kitchen on a very hot pan quickly on each side, aiming for rare to medium rare. I find that it doesn’t suit the way I cook on a BBQ because I get distracted and over cook it when I am cooking for several people that like their meat cooked to different degrees. I find porterhouse is more forgiving on a BBQ in this respect.
If I am slicing it for stir fries I tend to remove the strip of fat that runs through the length of the rib roast that the Scotch Fillet is cut from. If cooking as a steak I leave it in.
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PK Makes Apple Cider Vinegar
So I took one of my reader’s suggestions last week when I was making my hard cider that I make some apple cider vinegar at the same time.
Here you go Grant :).
I found this wonderful method on Tales of a Kitchen and gave it a go with the idea of making my own starter ‘mother‘ for next time and also getting some yummy vinegar for cooking.
Don’t forget careful hygiene with this method. I sterilised everything with boiling water before I started and if the mix starts to smell or look funky I will throw it out and start again.
Steps:
I took some of the left over apples from the cider pressing and popped them into a large glass beer stein. You can use any part of the apple, even the cores and seeds!
I added 4 tsp of raw sugar and enough filtered water to cover the apples. I had a problem keeping the apple chunks down and below the water line. I tried an orange in a bag but it got mouldy :(.
Some more Googling and I came across phickle.com. They suggested using a hessian bag and some ceramic pie weights. I can’t spruik this idea enough. The bag pushes the fruit down and stops them going off and mouldy.
I then put a tea towel over the top of the stein and placed it at the back of a cupboard. Bubbles started almost immediately showing that the fermentation had begun. A few days later and I had a nice creamy layer of ‘mother’ and a nice sweet smell.
Update (1 month in):
I checked several times over the last month that the ‘mother’ was still white and there was no mould or nasty smells. Everything looked good so I moved on to the next stage.
I strained the liquid in a metal sieve and discarded the apples. They looked nice though.
Then I added the strained liquid and the dregs from the beer stein to a clean jar. I will leave this mix for another 4 to 6 weeks, stirring it every now and again.
See you in another 6 weeks, I hope :D.
Wishing you fun in the kitchen,
PK
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Reuse, Recover: PK’s Bone Meal
I want to reuse and recover as much as I can in my kitchen and gardening activities. So it is only natural that I wondered what I could do with the bones left over after cooking. Some of them go into my worm farms but as my young family is eating more and more meat every day that is only a part solution :).
Some happy Googling later I came across lots of websites showing you how to make home made blood and bone meal. Using blood and bone meal to improve soil is as old as time due to its slow release of nitrogen and phosphorous. For those nutrients to be available to plants though requires slightly acidic soil and I find (even here in Perth) that my “improved” garden beds always meet that requirement.
One of my favourite television shows and websites (Gardening Australia) also informed me that blood and bone meal has a complete lack of potassium. So I added a small amount of potash as they suggested. See http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1503292.htm.
Most of the bones I am using have already been cooked once and then recovered to make stock (see my chicken stock post here) and are hence nice and clean. I then bake them on low for a few hours and I do this in my Weber after cooking a roast. I don’t waste any fossil fuels.
This makes them hygienic and brittle enough to break apart in your hands. When I have enough of a collection I feed them through a corn grinder and store the meal until I need it.
This is the clean bones being baked and stored:
The grinding:
The result:
- has variable sized particles (great for varying the release of the nitrogen, phosphorous and calcium)
- has almost no aroma bar a mild earthy smell
- stores well in a sealed dry container.
As I mentioned above, I also add a small amount of potash granules to the meal to counter the lack of potassium. We now have everything we need for healthy plant roots, bodies, fruits and metabolism.
Of course, be careful when dealing with any soil improvement medium. We have a strict hand washing policy after gardening and also carefully rinse all produce. I wouldn’t put anything in my garden that I was the least bit worried about and neither should you.
Cheers,
PK
See more of the ‘Recover, Reuse’ series here.
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Bish Is Rocketing Along
Bish writes:
I am a persistent casual gardener, in that I keep trying but due to work and life I don’t spend as much time as I should on maintenance and the like. My garden’s nothing like Ben’s! Anyway, now that the team are testing out some of the Mr Fothergill’s planters, I thought I’d chip in with my own story about using their products.
I had a burst of energy the other day and decided that I would clean up the little herb beds that we have out the back. These are really productive little raised beds, and I think because we have good drainage and they get the morning sun, they are especially so in winter. Anyway, I removed a bunch of mint, an old sage plant that was starting to struggle (after three years of providing us with plenty of leaves for burnt sage butter, yum), an old thyme plant and some old oregano stragglers. I ended up still having a bunch of space left in one of them.
I had started to organise my seed collection (I usually let one of my crop go to seed so that I have some seeds to play with next time) I found a five year old packet of Mr Fothergill’s seeds, this one containing Rocket. I figured after that long these were probably not too viable, so I just scattered the seeds across the empty space in my herb bed and raked it through just to cover the seeds, and thought no more about it.
As you can see in the picture, here we are a few weeks later and pretty much all of them have germinated and I am going to be faced with a massive oversupply of Rocket in the near future, so looks like we’ll be making pesto or something with it all! It certainly says something about the viability of seeds and how they are able to persist in many situations – and the way they’re treated by Mr. Fothergill’s!I’ll keep an eye out for some good pesto recipes but if anyone else knows some please send them in!
Bish
Related Links:
- see more of Bish’s posts here
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PK Makes Sausages The Italian Way
Today I was invited to join an Italian family’s yearly sausage making day. Making sausages the old fashion way means lots of hard work, lots of family banter and lots of laughter. I felt like part of the family and I promised to come back next year, if only for the great lunch they fed us.
The pork mince had been seasoned the night before. Even if I did know the full list of ingredients I couldn’t tell you but I did notice a healthy amount of chili seeds. That and a carefully measured amount of salt as one would expect.
We balled the seasoned mince up and then fed those through hand cranked meat mincers and into natural sausage casings. The end result will hang for several weeks and if they are as good as last year’s we are in for a treat :).
Balling the seasoned mince:
Into the mincer they went:
Then they are hung to dry:
Some are cooked fresh as payment for the workers. 🙂
Dried they last for ages:
Thanks for the invite and a great memory,
PK
PS I have been invited back ever since (PK 2018)
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PK’s Making Sausages The Italian Way
Today I was invited to join an Italian family’s yearly sausage making day. Making sausages the old fashion way means lots of hard work, lots of family banter and lots of laughter. I felt like part of the family and I promised to come back next year, if only for the great lunch they fed us.
The pork mince had been seasoned the night before. Even if I did know the full list of ingredients I couldn’t tell you but I did notice a healthy amount of chili seeds. That and a carefully measured amount of salt as one would expect.
We balled the seasoned mince up and then fed those through hand cranked meat mincers and into natural sausage casings. The end result will hang for several weeks and if they are as good as last year’s we are in for a treat :).
Thanks for the invite and a great memory,
PK
Balling the seasoned mince:
Into the mincer they went:
Then they are hung to dry:
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PK’s Adults Only Hard Cider
There is a long tradition of making hard cider in European culture. Farms would have a few apple trees of varietals just right for making cider. Go back far enough and you hear stories of agricultural workers either being paid in cider or being allowed to take windfall apples for free to make their own. In England it was more often consumed than wine and aged cider with its vinegary goodness would have packed quite a punch.
I love knowing that what I am drinking is preservative free, gave older or fallen apples a second chance, supported Aussie farmers and reduced food processing and transport costs. However I just learnt that cider isn’t just for drinking.
One of my favourite chefs, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, writes “Cider is fabulous in stews – I adore rabbit cooked with cider and cream, pork in cider is a classic, and lamb works well, too. Once mellowed by long cooking, that fruity flavour mingles beautifully with the richness of the meat – a glassful added to the dish in which you roast a leg of lamb or a chicken will help produce a gorgeous gravy. It’s also fabulous as part of the brining liquid for a home-cured ham.”
I use Granny Smith apples in this recipe (the colour of the fresh juice will blow you away) and although not a popular choice there are commercial breweries that use them. I don’t use any added sugar during the primary fermentation cycle. I also don’t bottle my cider (secondary fermentation cycle) and hence it is non-carbonated when I drink it.
After the yeast has consumed all of the apple sugars they will die and gas will cease to escape the airlock. They will however leave a blanket of carbon dioxide, over the cider, that doesn’t have enough pressure to escape. This gas blanket (plus the alcohol) will stop the cider spoiling while you wait for the flavours to mature. I have heard of people waiting months but the longest I have resisted the temptation to get stuck in is about 4 weeks :).
When I do start drinking it I put the demijohn in the fridge to make sure fermentation has stopped, give it a nice chill and keep it fresh. The airlock and bung get replaced with some plastic wrap.
Note: Please only follow this recipe if you are of a legal age to drink in your country.
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- ~8-10kg Granny Smith apples
- ~6 raisins (to add some wild yeasts to the mix)
- 1 teabag (to add some extra tannins to the mix)
- a sachet of yeast (I use whatever is available, in this case bakers yeast)
- raw sugar to taste (optional and I don’t use any)
- boiling water (to sanitise everything)
- Equipment
- a small bowl
- a fork
- a chopping board
- a long sharp knife
- a teacup
- a juicer (I borrowed a Kuvings cold press juicer from a friend)
- a demijohn (a 4.5 litre glass brewing vessel) with a matching airlock and bung
- a funnel
Steps:
- Pour boiling water into the demijohn and let it stand. Pay particular attention to hygiene here. Make sure everything is clean and including the demijohn’s mouth and outside surfaces.
- Run boiling water through the airlock and soak the bung in boiling water too.
- Add the contents of one sachet of yeast to a small amount of warm water and give it a quick stir. We do this first so that it has time to start multiplying. A few bubbles here and there let you know it is working and it only took the juicing time to be alive and kicking :).
- Make a cup of very weak tea and let it cool while you bust out your juicer.
- Juice the apples and pour the liquid into the demijohn in batches.
- When the demijohn is about two thirds full pour in the yeast mix and add the 6 raisins.
- Swirl the demijohn gently to mix everything.
- Add more apple juice until you are happy with the level.
- Pop on the bung and the airlock.
- Fill the airlock with recently boiled water that you have let cool.
That is it. It should only take a few hours for the airlock to start making a slow but steady bubbling noise. One of my favourite sounds :).
I leave it inside for its first night and then it goes out to the shed. During winter I put it inside an old fleecy jumper to protect against the cold Perth winter nights. I find this is enough to keep the yeast warm and happy.
Hope you enjoy the process and result as much as I do,
PK
Yeast and tea ready:
Juice your apples:
Add the raisins and the cold tea, add the bung and airlock and then add some clean water to the airlock:
Out to the shed:
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- Ingredients: