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How To Thicken Gravy, Sauce, Stew And More With Cornflour
When you are making stews, casseroles, sauces and the like, it is sometimes hard to get the balance between flavour and thickness. Your dish might have the right taste but be too watery. Continue to cook it and you might ruin the flavours by over cooking it. So what do you do? Well you can…
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Home-made Tater Tots Or Potato Gems
I love making tater tots almost as much as I do eating them. They make for great party food along with your favourite home-made dipping sauces. 🙂 Make them at home (instead of frozen from the shops) with your choice of seasonings knowing they contain only the best of ingredients. This is one of those…
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Pancetta
Pancetta is a cured meat product made from the pork belly cut. It is produced in two forms, rolled or flat. Bacon can also be made from this cut so what is the difference between pancetta and bacon? Bacon is salt cured (by brining) and then smoked to preserve it. Pancetta is cured using salt,…
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Cotechino
Cotechino is a traditional Italian sausage found through the northern areas and the central mountain regions. It is made from pork meat, rind and fat with spice blends that feature fennel but differ from one region to the next. Cotechino is slowly simmered in broth infused with herbs and spices over several hours. It makes…
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Bish’s Sweet Potato Surprise
I have grown plenty of sweet potatoes in my gardens over the years, and they’re really easy to grow generally, although I’ve had hit and miss crops from them in terms of the potatoes themselves. But this year, when faced with a sprouting sweet potato in the cupboard, I decided to try something different, and…
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Bish Grows Spring Onions The Thrifty Way
I’ll readily admit I heard about this from PK directly, and have been super happy with how it’s gone – I’ve not bought spring onions for over a year as a result. The trick is to buy (your last!) bunch of spring onions from the supermarket, and make sure a few of the ends have…
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Garden Auger Veggie Bed Makeover
Gardening in Perth means you are going to get acquainted with a quartz sand that repels water and is low in the good stuff most plants love. You can add wetting agents and fertiliser as a short term fix for the water issue but without adding organic matter and some clay your vegetable beds won’t…
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Cheese: Havarti
I think everyone has heard of this famous Danish cheese. Havarti has world-wide fame as a light and easy table cheese and because it is easy to cook with. It is a relatively new cheese but has become a staple in Denmark Milk Cow Origin Denmark Aged Traditional methods see it aged for 3 months.…
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KT’s Potato Wedges
KT has a full proof method for making potato wedges and she is going to share it with us. Simply: Cut the potatoes into wedge shapes. Peel them or not 🙂 Preheat your oven to 240C. Drizzle some olive oil (be as sparing as you like) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook for 45…
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How To Easily Dice Celery
I love learning new ways to slice and dice. Here is a fun and quick way to both fine and rough dice celery stalks. Lay the stalk like this. Slice 3 slices along the stalk for rough chop and 5 for finely diced. Note how I stopped slicing before I hit the base of the…
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What Does The Cooking Term Maceration Mean?
Maceration is the technique of soaking fruit or vegetables in a liquid. This liquid is often their own juices that are drawn out using salt and or sugar. The goal of maceration is to enhance flavour, improve texture and aid in digestion. A good example is Friggione, an Italian slow cooked tomato and onion relish…
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Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is one of those plants that everyone recognises on sight. I grow it because I love the look of it. The thick fleshy leaves have little white barbs that look like teeth but this has to be one of the friendliest and useful plants. Aloe extract pops up in all sorts of beverages,…
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How To Make Chinese 5 Spice Mix
Chinese 5 spice is a must-have blend of sweet, sour and umami flavours. It imparts a red colouring when used as a dry rub, marinade and basting sauce. The perfect example of this is a roast duck or chicken basted with the 5 spice mix, soy and caramel cooking sauce. I couldn’t find it in…
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Josh Makes The Best Burger Buns Ever
I use this Joshua Weissman recipe, Japanese techniques and family bread making know how to make the tastiest, lightest burger buns on the planet. The secret to this recipe is the incorporation of ‘Tangzhong’ (we will making our own below) into the bread dough that gives the bread a fluffy texture. Helpful tips: Don’t use…
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Cheese: Sottocenere al Tartufo (truffle)
Sottocenere al Tartufo is a semi-firm, smooth vaccino (cow milk cheese) that hails from northern Italy. As you can see it is studded with black truffle shavings and is coated in an inedible ash rind infused with herbs so as to flavour the cheese pate. This cheese is full of flavour with a creamy umami…
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Basic Kitchen Skills: Broiling And Grilling
Broiling and grilling refer to very similar processes in the kitchen or outdoor cooking scenario. Both involve placing food near strong heat sources and turning the food to cook one side at a time. Both methods cook the food relatively quickly and are considered somewhat healthy as the fats and juices drain away. So what’s…
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Cheese: Rosso Di Pienza
Tuscany rosso (red) di Pienza is a firm sheep milk cheese that hails from central Italy. Famous for its red rind, the cheese has a short ageing process where the rind was traditionally rubbed with tomato paste. Milk Sheep Origin Italy Aged Yes, 30 days Aroma Pungent and slightly sweet. Taste Sharp yet slight sheep…
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Pasta: Mezzi Tubetti Lisci (short smooth tubes)
These smooth short pasta tubes are perfect for soups, salads and pasta bakes. I often use them in place of risoni (called orzo in the USA). It is primarily sold dried (pasta secca) and is available everywhere. Here I used it in my minestrone soup: It also makes for a great vegetarian one pot pasta…
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Kashmiri Chilli Powder
Kashmiri Chillies add a warm, earthy flavour and a deep red colouring to any dish. Known for their mild spiceyness they are a versatile ingredient like their cousin paprika. Enjoy, PK Check out some of the dishes I use them in and some more herbs and spices:
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