Rachel's Homemade Dukkah

Baking at Brasserie Bread

Mum, Dad and I did a bread making class at the Brasserie Bread Artisan Baking School located in Mascot, Sydney. They also have a blog here.

It was a great place to learn and I highly reccomend it!

Before we started we went on a tour of the bakery wearing these little shower caps.

We saw an antique miller

Amazingly large dough mixer

Fresh croissants - made with 60% Belgian Butter!

Various seeds (toppings) were available for us to use: sesame, mixed quinoa, poppyseeds, soaked linseed, soaked sunflower seed.

Above is a dough mixture that I used to make a soy bean and linseed multigrain loaf. The theme of this class was 'Grains' and was a special session put on for the Sydney Food and Wine Festival.

Here we are making baguettes

The trick is to fold the length of dough over onto itself, like rolling a poster up off your wall - but fold it. This allows air to be pressed into the baguette.

They are then rolled out with the hands - starting in the middle of the cylinder and working your way outwards to lengthen the baguette.

They are then dipped in water, rolled in seeds and plaited to make a decorative loaf.

Volia!

Some baguettes were used to make these cute dinner rolls - we cut the baguette on one side of the cylinder (see below where mum is doing it) and then every second slice is folded over the other side. See?

We then baked them till they were almost ready so we could take them home and the ones we didnt eat straight away were frozen and cooked a second time when we wanted to eat them - that way they were fresh and crusty out of the oven.

Then we did some wine and cheese tasting with a selection of all their breads - Sourdough and Caramel garlic bread were my favourite. They caramelize whole garlic cloves and swirl them into a batter then braid it up in quite a messy way - it comes out deliciously ugly - yum!

Berry Lemon Almondy Cupcakes

Sagey Chicken and Proscuitto Parcels

Sagey Chicken and Proscuitto Parcels

Ingredients :
2 chicken breasts
1 ripe tomato
Parmegano reggiano
Sage (easy to grow in your garden or kitchen window potplant)
4 slices of prosciutto
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method:
1. Slice breast thinly in half lengthways, reserving the tenderloins for the soup to accompany this dish (see next recipe).
2. Place sage leaves, salt and pepper, parmesan and 1 slice of tomato on wide end and roll up with prosciutto.

3. Place some olive oil in a roasting pan (with a dash of white wine if available!) and place chicken parcels on top.
4. Roast in 180-200C oven for 25-35 minutes until the chicken is tender and the prosciutto is crispy.

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Chicken, Leek and Proscuitto soup with Cabbage

Ingredients:
6 cups savoy cabbage
3 slices prosciutto
2 leeks
2 tomatoes
½ cup long grain rice or brown rice
rosemary
2 chicken tenderloins
Parsely
Parmesan

Method:
1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in pan with ½ cup water and cook leeks, prosciutto and rosemary over low heat for 10 minutes until leeks soften.
2. Add tomatoes and salt and pepper, cook further 10 mintues.
3. Add cabbage and 4 cups of water, cook further 15 minutes.
4. Bring to boil, add rice, stir and cook further 18 minutes or until rice is tender.

Lemon Yoghurt Pie

Rachels Lemon Yoghurt Pie (Nana's Favourite)

I learnt to cook this recipe in my year 10 food tech class, and I made a few adjustments to the recipe, including more lemon zest and juice because my family loves lemons. I used to cook this yoghurt pie for my Nanas birthday every year, and since everyone liked it so much, and that it was one of the first specialties I had to claim, I started making it for other occasions. I have not made this pie in a long time! So mum's birthday was an inpsiration to do so - the delicious smooth and tangy lemon flavour brought back many memories.

Ingredients

Dough for Crust:

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

125g margarine

5tbsp water

Filling:

150ml lemon juice

4tbsp lemon rind

400g sweetened condensed skim milk

200g plain traditional yoghurt
2 free range eggs

Method:
Crust
1. Rub margarine into flour then add the water until the dough comes together. Knead lightly then wrap and refridgerate until ready to bake.
2. Roll out the pastry and press into a pie dish, pinching the sides for decoration.


Bake in 200C oven for 10 mins weighed down with old rice or pasta.

3. Bake for further 5 mins uncovered. Remove from oven to pour in the filling.

Filling:
1. Mix the condensed milk and eggs together. Add the rind, lemon juice and yoghurt and combine. (I sometimes add orange rind as well because I love citrus!)
2. Pour mixture into pie dish.
3. Bake for 20 mins at 200C

Serve hot (yummy - its perfect straight away!) or cold with some sweet fruits (I used in season mangoes, peaches and strawberries) and vanilla icecream.


We love this pie!

Gudrati Mugh

Gudrati Mugh

Jiyoti, Mum, Dad and I had a wonderful Indian Feast last week, featuring exquisite delicate traditional Gudrati dishes of Mugh, dry potato curry and Raita, accompanied by my own spin on Lamb madras; Tamarind Lamb Madras, puppodums and Roti.


Mugh

Ingredients:
750g dry green mung beans
1 large tomato, diced
1 red onion finely diced

1 sprig fresh curry leaves
1 big green fresh chilli finely diced
1 bunch fresh coriander
2 tbsp grated garlic
2 tbsp grated ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 lime
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:
1. Boil mung beans until soft.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in hot pan then add mustard and cumin seeds. Do not burn them. Wait till they start to pop (approx 3mins).

3. Reduce heat to medium and then add the onion – sauté approx 5 mins
4. Add the turmeric, chilli powder, green chilli, curry leaves, coriander and cumin powder, and salt (or vegetable stock powder) to taste. Cook spices approx 5 mins
5. Add tomato, reduce heat to low, cook with lid on approx 5 mins.
6. Add the mung beans to the mixture once they are soft and chopped coriander stalks, and simmer 5 mins.
Taste.
8. Add any ingredients from above to taste.
9. Add extra hot water to make it soupy enough.
10. Add lime and chopped coriander leaves and serve!


Dry Potato Curry
Ingredients:
4 big potatoes peeled and cut into 5cm chip pieces
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp grated garlic
1 fresh green (or red) chilli finely diced

Method:
1. Heat oil in hot pan then add mustard and cumin seeds. Do not burn them. Wait till they start to pop (approx 3mins).
2. Reduce heat to medium and then add the potato, green chilli, garlic, ginger and spices: turmeric, chilli powder, coriander and cumin powder, and salt to taste. Stir to cover the potato in spices.
3. Cover and stir occasionally to make sure spices are not burning. Do this until the potato is cooked and slightly crunchy.

This part takes patience and we enjoyed it with some Shiraz as we appreciated the aromas of this particular dish while cooking.


4. Serve with Raita and Basmati Rice.

I also served my Tamarind Lamb Madras: