Category Archives: Recipes – All About – Tried and Tested

Cooking for Family and Friends

Ginger or Wheat Beer

2013-11-17 - Ginger and Wheat Beer

Ginger Beer

During summer months I always have a bottle of ginger and another of wheat beer brewing. There is nothing better than  relaxing under the apple tree with a glass of cold Home Made Ginger Beer, after a long day in the vegetable garden. 

Take 1 Kg of whole wheat and soak it in water for three days. Discard water and ad 250 g of raw sugar, 1500 ml water, 20 g dry yeast, 200 g crushed sultanas and 200 g finely cut whole fresh ginger to the wheat and put it in a glass container with a lid that can release the gas if the pressure becomes too much. Let it stand in a warm place in the kitchen. After two days, drain the water (ginger beer) through a cheesecloth  and ad 250 g raw sugar, 1500 ml water and a teaspoon of dry ginger powder to the remaining solids and replace lid – this last step can be repeated every two days for several months. Ginger Beer will not be nice for the first few times, and may have to be discarded, but become delicious soon after. When the temperature is warmer, the process can be sped up by changing water more frequently and vice versa. Beer should rest for 12 hours after draining, before drinking.

Wheat Beer

The same as above, but leave out the sultanas, fresh ginger and dried ginger powder

Bread of the Day

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All of these breads were made with one recipe using home made biga.

Cheese Buns for the Kids – add a cup of tasty cheddar to the dough

Artichoke hart Focaccia for Nonna,

Pane di Casa for Nonno

Fried quail eggs for breakfast

Fried quail eggs for breakfast

Cute, tasty eggs. Maximum yolk, minimum egg white, simply fried in a tiny bit of butter with a sage leaf tossed in. The bread is made using the biga recipe

EGGS FIORENTINA

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We had similar breakfasts yesterday and today. Everything out of the spring garden apart from the flour, olive oil and salt – with an extended back yard I could sow wheat, keep a cow etc! 😉 The picture on the left is a Fiorentina with Quail Eggs made with radish leaves. The challenge is to gather enough leaves and I find that the leaves keep well in a plastic bag in the fridge, until I have enough leaves saved.  The right hand picture is of the same dish but using chard. The chard has a sweeter taste especially when the onion is replaced by leek.

The small buns I bake to entice my grand kids to eat. I mix grated cheese in to my usual bread recipe and bake the buns in muffin pans for 14 minutes.

TODAY’S HARVEST – FIT FOR A KING!

2013-11-05 - Today's Harvest

The harvest of this morning will become : UOVA ALLA FIORENTINA (Eggs Fioretina)

Ad some butter and olive oil to a pan and fry some onion until soft and brown. Now ad Spinach / Chard or Silverbeet to the pan and saute until soft. Ad salt and pepper to your taste. Ad finely chopped Garlic and Chilli and fry for another two minutes. Turn the heat down and make as many indents in the Spinach as to the amount of eggs you want to cook. Break an egg into each indent and put a lid on the pan and cook the eggs to your liking. Sprinkle lightly with Parmigiano cheese if you so wish. Serve immediately with crusty home made bread and a glass of good wine.