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.