Sifta Salt is best

Egg-cellent!

Well, inspired by Jitterbug and her poached eggs for breakfast, I decided to follow suit and see if Mrs Beeton could improve my poaching as I always end up with inordinate amounts of swirly egg white coming off the sides of my eggs and muddying up the water. I think it was a success, except it may have been far more successful if I hadn't accidentally turned off the gas halfway through. Whoops!

POACHED EGGS.

INGREDIENTS - Eggs, buttered toast, salt, vinegar or lemon-juice

METHOD - Eggs for poaching should be fresh, but not new-laid; for if poached before they have been laid 36 hours, the white is so milky that it is almost impossible to coagulate it. To prepare, boil some water in a shallow stewpan or deep frying-pan, add salt to taste, and allow to each pint of water 1 tablespoon of vinegar, or 1 teaspoon of lemon-juice. Break the egg into a cup, taking care to keep the yolk whole, and when the water boils, remove the pan to the side of the fire, and gently slip the egg into it. Tilt the pan, with a teaspoon gently fold the white of the egg over the yolk, so as to produce a plump appearance, and simmer gently until the white is set. Take it up carefully with a slice, trim the edges if necessary, and serve either on buttered toast, slices of ham or bacon, or spinach.

TIME - About 5 minutes to cook. SUFFICIENT, allow 1 or 2 eggs for each person

And visually

In case you aren't a words person.

Have yourself a mince-y little Christmas

Oh Christmas Tarts! Carols playing from the stereo, a pre-heating over, freshly copha-ed pie pans, and you're up to your elbows in dough. Well, maybe not elbows but definitely spreading flour all over the kitchen.

I made some Fruit Mince pies on Sunday. A little tradition I do every year, using the recipe from my mother, who got the recipe from her great-aunt who used to get up at 4 am to make mince pies so that her hands would be cold enough to handle the dough.

I was quite gratified to see that my recipe for short crust pastry is almost identical to Mrs Beeton's with only a few minor adjustments. In the place of lard I use butter, and instead of all plain flour and baking powder I use half and half of Self Raising Flour and plain flour.

However, my method differs vastly from Mrs Beeton's, considering I use an electric food processor to mix the dough.

SHORT-CRUST. (For Pies, Tarts, etc.)

INGREDIENTS - 8 oz of flour

2 oz of butter

2 oz of lard

1 yolk of egg

1 teaspoonful of baking powder

A good pinch of salt

About 1/8 of a pint of water

METHOD - Rub the butter and lard lightly into the flour, add the baking powder, salt, yolk of egg, and sufficient water to form a stiff paste. Roll out to the required thickness and use at once.

TIME - About 1/4 of an hour. SUFFICIENT for about 1 medium-sized tart

Mrs Beeton's recipe for rich short-crust has 1 level dessertspoonful of sugar - but 6 oz of butter, hence I compared my recipe with the normal short-crust)

My recipe

Ingredients:

4 oz (125g) of plain flour

4 oz (125g) of SR flour

4 oz (125g) of butter

2 oz (60g) of castor sugar

1 pinch of salt

About 3 tablespoons of water

Method: Put butter, flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Turn on and process until it resembles bread crumbs, add egg yolk, and process, add water a little at a time until the mixture forms a ball of dough whirling round the mixer. Remove and roll out on a floured board/benchtop. The use or refridgerate until required (no more that 1 day)

Roll out, cut into tops (5cm circle cutter) and bottoms (round egg ring), put into a tart pan which has been brushed with melted copha (it makes the pastry crispier that using butter) and fill with fruit mince.

Bake for about 25 to 30 mins in a moderate oven (180 oC)

ABSOLUTELY can only be made if Christmas carols are blaring from the stereo, music box, or piano...

Why don't you just stock me?

well, post my roast chicken fantastico, I had a chicken carcass that just begged to be stocked...

So I did.

Two and a half hours later I have 3 litres of chicken stock suitable for making white soups with.

And yes, my kitchen setup looked exactly like this as well.

BONE STOCK.

Any kind of bones, cooked or uncooked, may be used to make bone stock. Put them in a small stewpan or small stock-pot, add enough water to well cover, and bring to the boil. Skim, add a peeled onion, a carrot and a bay leaf (I also added 1 stick of celery and some peppercorns), simmer for about2 or 3 hours. Season to taste with salt. This stock may be used in place of water for making gravy, soups and sauces.

All frozen into handy 500ml containers for whenever I need 2 cups of chicken stock

No other range has so many advantages

Murder most fowl.

Last night I roasted a fowl. Welll, a chicken anyway. However I did so in a most un-Beetonly manner - in my Schlemmertopf pot. It's actually the only way I know how to roast a chicken. Pop the chicken, stuffed with an onion, into the pot (which has been soaked in cold water for 10 minutes) , chuck in some potatoes and carrots and pop in to a cold oven, turn the heat up to 250oC and cook for 90 minutes. Easy as pie (although some people do find pie quite hard). The chicken comes out very succulent and moist. But definitely not Beeton-esque.

Here's how she suggests you roast a fowl.

ROAST FOWLS.
INGREDIENTS - A pair of fowls; a little flour.

METHOD-Fowls to be tender should be killed a couple of days before they are dressed; when the feathers come out easily, then let them be picked and cooked. In drawing them, be careful not to break the gall-bag, as, wherever it touches, it would impart a very bitter taste; the liver and gizzard should also be preserved. Truss them in the following manner:—After having carefully picked them, cut off the head, and skewer the skin of the neck down over the back. Cut off the claws; dip the legs in boiling water, and scrape them; turn the pinions under, run a skewer through them and the middle of the legs, which should be passed through the body to the pinion and leg on the other side, one skewer securing the limbs on both sides. The liver and gizzard should be placed in the wings, the liver on one side and the gizzard on the other. Tie the legs together by passing a trussing-needle, threaded with twine, through the backbone, and secure it on the other side. If trussed like a capon, the legs are placed more apart. When firmly trussed, singe them all over; put them down to a bright clear fire, paper the breasts with a sheet of buttered paper, and keep the fowls well basted. Roast them for 3/4 hour, more or less, according to the size, and 10 minutes before serving, remove the paper, dredge the fowls with a little fine flour, put a piece of butter into the basting-ladle, and as it melts, baste the fowls with it; when nicely frothed and of a rich colour, serve with good brown gravy, a little of which should be poured over the fowls, and a tureen of well-made bread sauce. Mushroom, oyster, or egg sauce are very suitable accompaniments to roast fowl.—Chicken is roasted in the same manner.

TIME - A very large fowl, quite 1 hour, medium-sized one 3/4 hour, chicken 1/2 hour, or rather longer.

SUFFICIENT for 6 or 7 persons.