Sourdough English Muffins and Eggs Florentine

After perusing the various websites dedicated to the delights of Sourdough baking I stumbled across a recipe for English muffins.  Taken with how easy it seemed I decided to give them a try.  And, I am pleased to announce, they are very easy - And YUMMY.  I made them on saturday and then for sunday breakfast we had organic eggs florentine on organic sourdough muffins (minus the Hollandaise sauce due to Charmaine's state).  They were great, although would have scored higher with the addition of some freshly made Hollandaise!

After breakfast we lazed around the house for a bit before heading to Nippes, our old stomping ground, for the dual treats of flea market and Street Festival.  'Twas a great day,  capped of by a 30 min set by a very 'eurovision' singer with his two back up dancers, made all the better by the dancer who was every so slightly un-co and not all that sure of all the moves!  GOLD!

Anyway... as always, the RECIPE

courtesy of Susan at her great sourdough blog Wild Yeast.

It requires you to make a "sponge" which is a pre-ferment which gets everything going.

Ingredients for the sponge:

110g Ripe 100% hydration starter
160g Strong Flour
100g Wholemeal flour
276g Milk

Ingredients for the rest of the dough
75g Strong Flour
8g Salt
1 tsp Baking soda
1.5 tsp Honey
All of the sponge.

Method:

• Mix together all of the sponge ingredients until combined.
• Leave for 8 hours or overnight.
• Add remaining dough mixture and mix roughly to combine.
• Turn out onto bench and knead the dough for 7-10 minutes or until the gluten is well developed. The dough will be very sticky at first and will get slightly less so with kneading.  Please resist the urge to add more flour though.

• Flour your bench surface and hands really well and pat the dough out to a thickness of 1.5cm
• using a round cookie cutter with a diameter of 8cm cut out the muffins and transfer to baking paper sprinkled liberally with semolina flour.  Alternatively you could just use a knife or dough cutter and have them square.
• Cover with cling-wrap and leave to proof for an hour.

• With a pastry brush, lightly oil a heavy based fry-pan.  In batches, cook the muffins over medium heat for around 15 minutes, turning several times, until golden brown and the sides are firm.
• Cool on a wire rack.
• When splitting them for toasting, it is best to use a fork rather than a knife.  This creates lots of great nooks and crannys which will crisp up beautifully.

These muffins are great as they are, toasted with a bit of butter, or your favorite spread.  But are also fantastic as part of your favorite english muffin based breakfast!

Anniversary dinner - slow roasted lamb shoulder

On Sunday night Charmaine and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary!  We decided to cook dinner at home before heading out for a stroll and perhaps a drink.  Remembering with fondness some slow roasted lamb shoulder that our friend James Payne cooked for us in Melbourne, I decided that if I could find Lamb shoulder in Cologne, I would give it a crack.  I happened to find some New Zealand lamb shoulder in the gourmet food section of the department store nearby,  unfortunately it was frozen but beggars can't be choosers!  It ended up roasting at 130 degrees for about 8 hrs and it was beautiful!  The meat fell off the bone with just a little help from a fork.  The skin and meat on the outside was really dark and crispy and inside was beautiful and moist with a really rich flavour.  I served it with roasted potatoes(Of course) along with roasted carrots, onions, and garlic.  Unfortunately I didn't take any photos so you'll have to take my word for it.  See below for Recipe...

After dinner we went for a stroll into the the center and hung a Liebesschloss (Love padlock) on the Hohenzollernbrücke (Hohenzollern Bridge).  We had a padlock engraved with our initials and the date we were married and locked it onto the bridge, along with the estimated 2 tonnes of other locks.  

After affixing the lock, we threw the keys into the river below....and then went and ate some ice-cream before wandering home full and happy.

RECIPE - SLOW ROASTED LAMB SHOULDER

For two People to be eating at 8pm.

1kg Lamb shoulder

3 Bulbs garlic

2 Carrots (Peeled and quartered)

as many potatoes as you want to eat

2 small onions

Red wine

4 sprigs rosemary

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

11.30 Preheat oven to 130 degrees

rub the Lamb with salt, pepper, one of the rosemary sprigs, and olive oil and set aside

prepare a bed of 1 bulb of garlic cloves (unpeeled) and the remaining rosemary.

lie the lamb on its little bed of tastiness and pour a cup of red wine into the pan.

12.00 put the Lamb in the oven

17.45 cut the very top off the remaining garlic bulbs and pour some olive oil in the little holes.  put in a separate roasting dish along with the unpeeled onions, and the carrots.  Add Olive oil to lightly coat.

Par boil the potatoes in salted water until cooked through, drain and stand until they stop steaming.

19.15 Add to the roasting tin with the other vegetables

19.30 Remove the lamb, cover with foil and leave to rest in a warm place.  If the garlic looks soft and a golden colour, remove it too.  Turn oven up to 220 Degrees and place the Vegetables on the top tray.

19.45 Toss the Vegetables.

20.00.  Remove meat from the bones with fork.  Place on warmed platter.  Add the vegetables to the platter.  Serve.  Enjoy.

Long time no Blog - Getting my Mojo back

Well - It has certainly been a long time between posts!  Last post - 28th Dec........2009!!!!

wow - So, what have i been up to you might be wondering.  Lots of stuff, living, singing, playing board games, auditioning, making a baby, watching movies, visiting Australia, talking on skype, and lately.......baking bread, is the answer!

About a month ago I was inspired to turn my hand to Sourdough bread making after being inspired by my  friend Abe Singer's photos posted on facebook.  

I had tried a few years back to make a Sourdough starter but with zero success but after Abe's effort I thought it would be worth giving it another crack.

Abe gave me instructions for how to go about cultivating a sourdough starter and I also did a lot research on the net, especially at sourdough.com, a great portal for all things sourdough. 

So, on a mild spring morning in Köln, Deutchland I mixed together 50g of Water and 50g of organic whole-meal flour in a glass jar, in the hope of encouraging some wild yeasts to grow.  I patiently fed my starter following these fantastically easy steps, and after a week I had a colony of yeast that I could bake with.

I have decided to use Organic ingredients and as much as possible to use whole-meal flour (the only problem being is that loaves with a high proportion of whole-meal flour have a tendency to be a bit on the dense side)

My very first loaf was a 20% Rye loaf. (see under for Recipe)

mmmm - Avocado and Tomato on fresh sourdough....Nom nom nom

It has been less than a month since I embarked on this Sourdough journey but it has become somewhat of an addiction.  In the past 29 days I have made around 10 Rye/Whole-meal loves, a few Spelt loaves, Baguettes, Pizza bases, and today.....Croissants.  All using my sourdough starter culture.

It is still fascinating to me that something so tasty can be created with so few ingredients.  My bread is only flour, water, salt and my starter (which is flour, water and wild, naturally occurring, yeast!  It stays fresh for a couple of days and when it is stale it makes the most amazing Cheese toasties!!!!!

I'm looking forward to reviving this blog and sharing with you some of the things I am cooking/baking as well as other things that are going on in my life.

Cheers,

Charliek

RECIPE

• 140g Starter - 100% Hydration
• 420g Flour - 84g Rye, 336g of White Flour type 1150 (strong)
• 280g Filtered water
• 10g Sea salt
• 
  

1. Roughly mix together everything except the salt and allow to rest for 20 mins 
2. Add the salt and knead the dough for 10 sec (YES REALLY!) every 10 mins for the next half hour. 
3. From now, give the dough a stretch and fold  every 45 mins for the next 3 hours (4 times)
4. Shape your loaf and putting in a Banneton covered with a teatowel and plastic bag and into the fridge overnight.

The next morning, take out your loaf from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 1.5 hrs.

Put your stone in the oven (I use a piece of granite from a hardware supplies shop)Preheat Oven to 250 Celsius and put a tray in the bottom of the oven to heat up.

Working quickly but gently, turn your loaf onto a well floured "Peel" (I use a piece of firm cardboard), slash the top with a sharp knife or razor and slide it onto your stone in the oven.  Pour 2 cups of cold water into the tray at bottom of oven, and using a spray bottle, spray some water into the cavity of the oven to create steam.

After 20 minutes, remove the tray and reduce temperature to 220 degrees and bake for a further 20 minutes.  The loaf is cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Allow to cook completely before cutting.