Black Gold- Truffles

 

Black Gold- Truffles

At this time of year in Australia, truffle harvesting and festivals devoted to this aromatic fungus occur in our cooler regions. This fruiting body of a fungi grows around the roots of certain trees, including Oak and Hazelnut. A fine balance of alchemy is needed to grow truffles, volcanic soil, appropriate climate and the presences of spores. Western France and the Alba region of northern Italy grow the prized black Perigord (Tuber magnatum) and white Piedmont (Tuber melanosporum) truffles respectively.  Australia’s truffle production is increasing in the Southern Highlands of NSW, the Yarra Valley of Victoria and Tasmania. The largest Truffle in Australia was harvested around Canberra at 1.7kg and it sold for $2,500. As part of Truffle festivals there are truffle hunts, using dogs to identify where the truffle is growing. Once a truffle is located, it will be left for around 10 days to two weeks to fully mature during which time its heady aroma will develop a complexity which merits its price. Hunting for Truffles is about luck- the spores germinating to form the fruit, wet weather to grow and dry spells to locate the treasure. To locate the hidden treasure in Aus, dogs are used and their task is made all the more difficult if there has been rain as moisture will mask the aroma. In Europe traditionally pigs are used to locate truffles which results in a battle between Swine and man: the heady aroma intoxicates the pig so much that it is willing to bite off human fingers to devour the fungi. Proceed at your piggy peril, M. Perigord!

I spent $40 on a truffle just slightly smaller than a walnut, grown around Canberra. My thoughtful friends, delivered my truffle, presented in a jar with two eggs. Over a week, the eggs sealed in the jar absorbed the heady aroma. The eggs were scrambled with cream and finely micro planed truffle. The scrambled eggs had a delicious earthy tone and black flecks through them. Using the flavour of truffles in food is a fine balance of allowing the earthy tones to shine without overpowering them with other ingredients. The flavour of the finished dish must not be strong and pungent. So how can we use the flavour to maximise it. Slivers of truffle can be stored in a jar with Arborio rice to produce a heady Risotto. I make truffle butter. Leave a 250g block of cultured unsalted butter to soften at room temperature. Beat till pliable and then I added 2/3 of my truffle which I had shaved finely using a micro plane. You can either store it in a sealed container or roll it on baking paper (the quality silicon coated one, not greaseproof) to form a log which you can then cut discs to top a grilled steak or seafood. The heady aroma and flavour will be released upon melting and absorb into the protein. Finger linking good.

Enjoy the flavour of your truffle while it is fresh. It is a seasonal treat to be looked forward to such as fragrant Queensland Mangoes. The flavour will dissipate. Infusing truffle in olive oil is risky as the flavour will easily be lost and tainted by exposure to sunlight and high cooking temperature respectively.

Here is a recipe for Risotto a la Milanese aux Truffes. The core recipe is by the Grande Dame of English cookery Elizabeth David from her book Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen ( first published 1970), which besides having many great recipes provides a historic snapshot of an English culinary landscape bereft of European influence. Miss David spent WWII sailing around the Mediterranean and when she returned to England the only place she could buy Olive oil was in the Chemist where it was sold for medicinal uses ( to her bemusement) but was unrationed unlike the staples of butter or cheese ( to her luck!). I have replaced saffron with truffle. Traditionally the mellow flavour of Risotto Milanese would be paired with a flavoursome dish such as Osso Bucco. This truffled risotto dish can be also or is simply good solo.

Risotto a la Milanese aux Truffes (for two people)

1 cup/ 5-6oz Arborio rice ( never wash rice for risotto, you want the starch)
1 oz. unsalted butter
1 large shallot or very small white onion
1/4 pints of hot mild chicken stock (not salty stock made from a cube), into which you have micro planed truffle to infuse
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan Cheese and more at the table to serve
1oz truffle butter

Technique

1.       Peel and finely chop the shallot.

2.       In a heavy based pan, melt the unsalted butter and sweat the onion till it is translucent (it must not brown).

3.       Stir in the rice and coat it with the butter (allow the rice to turn chalky).

4.       Pour in 3/4pint of simmering stock and leave it to cook uncovered over medium heat till the stock is absorbed (around 15minutes). Stir occasionally

5.       When the rice begins to look dry, add another ¼ pint of stock and the salt.

6.       Add sufficient remaining stock and stir constantly till the rice is tender but retains a slight resistance as you bite it. The risotto must be liquid.

7.       Off the heat, stir in the cheese and truffle butter, cover and leave it to sit for 5 minutes.

Bon Appetite!

Cling wrap - friend or foe ?

Cling Wrap- friend or foe?

In the latter half of last century, a product was launched that promised to keep foods fresh and secure. Cling wrap. As a kid I remember TV ads for Cling wrap for which the main selling point appeared to be it was so clingy that you could hold a bowl of food upside down over your head and not get a mess in your hair. A revolutionary leap forward! We now have so much cling wrap or plastic covering our foods that we seem to think plastic coverage is a necessary food fetish.

The impermeable barrier of Cling Wrap is designed to seal in the freshness in response to the drying atmosphere of our fridges. Many foods if placed unsealed will dry and appear old and cracked in a very short time. Dips, spreads, creams will harden and look unattractive. Similar with sandwiches- bread will harden and curl on the edges.

In the freezer, foods if not sealed by a protective plastic layer will develop freezer burn caused by the extraction of moisture.

Cling wrap and plastic is durable. It forms a seal that withstands being knocked about in a school or shopping bag making transportation easy. It doesn’t tear with the first hint of moisture like paper. Its benefit to food processors and packers is that a soft food product like a cucumber can be given a protective coat of armour as it negotiates its way along the food chain from farm to home fridge without damage.

However these moisture retention properties can be a problem.  Baked goods such as breads, pastries will lose their crust and delicious eating properties. Any high moisture baked pastry or cake will develop mould if stored in too warm an atmosphere. A bread bin, tin or paper bag is a protective alternative that will keep away pests but help to retain moisture.

Mould will develop from condensation on plastic wrapped cheese that has been at room temperature and then is placed in the cold fridge. This can be a health issue causing the growth of Listeria (a pathogenic bacteria active within a ‘safe’ fridge temperature range and introduced into food through poor personal hygiene).To prevent condensation on food items new to the fridge, simply store the item uncovered in the fridge for 30 mins and wrap later when the temperature has equalised to the fridge temp. Cheese processors understand their product is best enjoyed at room temperature and they have developed a semi permeable wrap which gives the durability of cling wrap but allows the cheese to breath. Before the advent of plastic waxed paper was used as an effective wrapping.

Not all fruits and vegetables benefit from being stored in plastic. Leafy vegetables, herbs, lettuce and celery will not go limp in the fridge if stored in plastic. Other fruits and vegetables will sweat from the Ethylene gas they produce, which naturally assists their ripening. Ethylene producing apples and tomatoes will soften and rot if stored in plastic in the fridge. I prefer to store tomatoes at room temperature to allow their flavour to develop and I only transfer tomatoes to the fridge when they are on the point of becoming over ripe and soft.

The amount of plastic that we use is over the top. Plastic is floating in our oceans. Marine life gets caught up in plastic, chokes to death or gets injured. Although plastic and cling wrap is cheap and readily available, plastic bags can be re-used after we have used them to safely bring groceries home. There is a growth in Bio degradable plastic which is less polluting or harmful if it finds its way into the ocean.

Cling wrap and plastic is useful, but its overuse is generating garbage and rotten food if used in appropriately. When in the grocers, stop before you automatically reach for a plastic bag to hold two onions.

Is there health issues for us over PVC or plasticisers being in contact with our food and causing cancer? The amount is negligible and not harmful.

Picture source: http://doblelol.com/2/crllopan-funny.htm, accessed 29.06.2014

Keeping a clean & hygienic kitchen with Shannon Lush

 

When cleaning a copper sugar pan as an apprentice, I remember the alchemy of using a salt and lemon juice paste to remove the discolouration and corrosion from washing in hot water. I have cleaned silver ware and jewellery in an aluminium pan using Bicarbonate of soda and hot water to remove tarnishing.

Having wondered on and off about more natural cleaning options, I read a fascinating article in SMH Good Living, by Shannon Lush using natural products (18^th March 2013) so I thought I would give it a go and become an Eco- Warrior and avoid commercial cleaners. Why do I want to do this?  One reason is many commercial cleaning agents contain phosphates, which are great for breaking down grease but once in waterways they encourage allege bloom. Plus we have a selection of commercial cleaning products cluttering up the laundry room and also a range of everyday food items in the pantry that could substitute some of these products. So armed with armed with a big dose of curiosity and Shannon Lush’s article I have been trying her alternative methods. Here’s her recommendations and my experiences.

Dishcloths, tea towels, scrubbers: change your dishcloth and tea towel daily. After washing, dry them in the sun to kill bacteria. Scourers; plastic or metal; can be frozen overnight to kill bacteria. Have a separate handtowel to dry your hands on.

Worktops: Prepare a spray by mixing one teaspoon of lavender oil in 1 Lt of water. Lavender oil is effective against many antibiotic resistant pathogens (Golden Staph and E-coli).Add a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid to cut through grease. Old tights or stockings made of Nylon are cheap and durable scrubbers that cut through grease and can be washed many times. I found that this works a treat and leaves a pleasant scent that commercial spray & wipe products lack.

Chopping boards: Shannon recommends wooden boards over plastic or glass. Her reasons include: plastic boards of various colours are good to reduce the risk of cross contamination (red for raw meat, blue for fish etc.) and can be put through the dishwasher, however the cutting action creates grooves which harbor pathogens. Glass boards blunt the edge of a knife but they don’t get grooves like plastic. Traditional wood is the best option as wood contains anti-bacterial properties. Shannon recommends using salt to clean. As a kid I remember watching Butchers, at the end of the day, scrubbing a wooden chopping block with hot soapy water and then sprinkling it with a layer of salt. Salt attracts moisture therefore drying the wooden surface. You rub the salt off the board after it has extracted residual moisture. A big tick- very effective.

Fridges:  An antibacterial weekly wipe down of white vinegar can be used on interior shelves and seals. If there is an odour in your fridge, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) will absorb the odour and freshen, Lemon juice can also be used to freshen. As well as deodourising our fridge, it now gleams when we open the door. 

Sinks: Use white vinegar to wipe down stainless steel. To clean your sinks plumbing and remove blockages, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of baking soda into the plug hole. After 30 mins, 2 tbsps of vinegar and 30 minutes later flush the pipe with boiling water. I treated every piece of plumbing using this technique (sink, hand basin, bath and shower plus the bathroom drains). They are now draining faster and this treatment exterminated a small colony of flies in the bathroom drain. I have repeated the treatment after a fortnight and when you peer down the plug hole, the plumbing looks clean. I do sound like I need to get a life….!

Cupboard cleanliness: We live in urban Sydney in a one hundred year old terrace and after an extended dry period a colony of ants were matching around our pantry as if they were participating in the Trooping of the Colour for HRH Queen Elizabeth’s birthday. We attacked the ants with Antrid and then Shannon’s recommendation: A wipe of lavender oil deters creepy crawlies such as ants, cockroaches and flies. Use bay leaves and gloves positioned every 60 cm on shelves to deter silverfish and moths. Bay leaves inserted into canisters of dry goods deter stores product pests such as weevils or moths. Lauric acid is the oil in bay leaves, of the laurel family. Lavender oil can be used to keep doors clean and control bacterial growth. We have not had a repeat infestation in this short period.

Stove tops: Shannon recommends sprinkling baking soda on a cold stove top and then an equal amount of vinegar which is then rubbed while it is fizzing to remove grease. Use your old tights as a scrubber. This has been extremely effective to remove residual grease from gas burner and stove trivets.

Being an all male household we haven’t followed the recommendation of using tights or suspenders as scourers, which is something to look forward to! These alternative cleaning methods using everyday items were probably used by our Grandparents before the advent of commercial cleaning products so Shannon Lush is helping us to turn back the clock and is making us gleam like our solar panels in the midday sun. Thank you Shannon.

Easy Jam Making

Jam making is an excellent way to preserve the flavour of seasonal fruit. As form of preservation, the sugar in jam is dissolved in the water rendering it useless to food spoilage bacteria and therefore preserving the colour and flavour of fruit to be enjoyed as a breakfast spread or filling for a sponge, donut or topping for a rice pudding or ice cream.

Ingredients

Three ingredients make a tasty jam: firstly, white sugar- this must be a coarse grade such as Granulated (in the UK) or the product labelled as white sugar in Australia. Finer castor sugar is unsuitable as it creates scum and a cloudy poor tasting jam. Secondly the fruit. It should be high in Pectin to enable a firm set. Fruits with a high pectin content include stone fruits (plum, apricot, peach, greengage, grape), hard fruits (apple, pear, quince) and citrus (Seville oranges make thick and firm set Marmalade). Pectin is a protein found in fruit skins, fibre, pips and the kernels in stone fruit. Fruits low in pectin include all the yummy colourful berries. To compensate for this our third ingredient is lemon. The juice and fine zest will give a balance in flavour. The pith and fibrous insides of your spent lemons (I call these the lemon skeletons!) can be stewed during the initial softening of your fruit, prior to the addition of sugar. This will extract pectin from the lemon to assist a firm set. Remove the skeletons prior to adding your sugar. Other sources of Pectin include commercial Jamsetter or grated apple will assist a berry based jam to set firmly. If you want to be really organised and plan to make a ton of berry jam, strained whole apple puree will provide a shot of Pectin.

Equipment

The basic equipment of your kitchen will be sufficient to make a batch of jam: a wide thick bottomed pan. A thick bottom will prevent burning/ caramelising of your fruit- cast iron, aluminium, stainless steel all give even heat distribution. A wide pan to aid the cooking/ evaporation process- if making a small batch I use a thick based wok which allows steam to easy escape. Jars with either screw tops that are odour free or if re using jars, discs of waxed paper, cellophane to seal with rubber bands. A ladle and a long handled wooden spoon for stirring are a must. To ensure that your jam sets when cool, you need to test samples which will indicate when the jam is sufficiently cooked and can be removed from the fire. Onto a plate chilled in the freezer, you can drop a teaspoon of your boiling mix and after waiting a couple of minutes, if you can push the jam and it wrinkles up on the plate then it will set. If the jam when tested doesn’t wrinkle continue cooking and testing. If you want to get serious at jam making some optional equipment is: a sugar thermometer (which will save you time wasted on plate testing by indicating when the boiling jam has reached Jam setting point of 104 ^oC), a preserving funnel (a wide mouthed funnel will protect the neck of your jars from messy splashes which can cause poor sealing and spoilage).

Recipe

A simple formula for jam making is equal parts fruit and sugar with one lemon to every 500g of sugar. When choosing your fruit, remember you are preserving food therefore do not use over ripe or mouldy fruit. If fruit is a little under ripe the higher the pectin and a firmer set in the finished jam- Apricots and plums are best when firm early in the season. Remember seasonal fruit is best but if you have a burning desire to make jam with frozen fruit, it will work but increase the fruit content by 10% to compensate for damaging effect of freezing on the fruit. Do not wash berries only wipe them to remove any dust or dirt. Berries will absorb water leading to weight gain and lower levels of Pectin and flavour. If you wash stone fruit try it well using a clean tea towel.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam

500g whole strawberries

I bunch Rhubarb (approx. 400- 500g).

White sugar equal to the weight of the prepared fruit.

2 whole lemons- fine zest, and juiced.

1.       Set your oven to 100 ^oC.

2.       Prepare your fruit: remove the green from the strawberries, wash and dry well the rhubarb shards. Top and tail to remove any dry ends and cut into short lengths (approx. 1cm). Confirm the weigh your fruit and measure an equal weight of sugar. Place this in the oven to warm (this will aid the dissolving of the sugar and reduce scum and cooking time).

3.       Let’s cook: place in pan with lemon zest, juice and skeletons. Over a low heat, cook gently to soften the fruit, stir frequently to ensure even softening.

4.       Once your fruit is lightly cooked and soft, remove the skeletons and press them between two bowls to extract juice and pectin. Pour this into your fruit mixture. Add your sugar on a low heat and stir to dissolve.

5.       Once the sugar is dissolved, increase heat to medium and stir no longer. Your jam should have a rolling boil.

6.       Sterilise your jars:  rinse your clean jars in warm water in the sink, and place them upside down in the oven to sterilise. Repeat with your lids. If you are new to jam making or get interrupted often, it is wise to complete this before you start the cooking.

7.       Check the status of your jam using a thermometer (the boiling mixture should achieve Jamming point of 104 ^oC) and the chilled plate check. If the mix doesn’t wrinkle continue cooking till a further check does wrinkle.

8.       Let’s bottle: remove the jam from the heat and once the mixture has settled, using a metal spoon remove any scum. Place your sterilised jars on a wooden board or tea towel (this will prevent any cracking from sudden heat loss). Fill the jars to about 1 cm below the lip. Seal whilst hot with lid or disc of waxed paper and cellophane.

9.       Label with the date and store in a dark cupboard. Jam does not need to be stored in the fridge.

A note for safe thermometer use: during the cooking process your thermometer will achieve hot temperatures. Therefore after use place your thermometer in a jug of hot water, to prevent sudden cooling which can cause a thermometer to crack.

Further information on jam covers can be found at:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/3830/1lb-Jam-Pot-Covers