Michael B

Nobody ever picks anchovies if you use them the right way. One important thing with a lamb leg is to remove the large lymph node while carving. Many people serve this. I don't like it. My best recent technique with lamb legs is to warm ev olive oil with rosemary, and garlic to just under 100C then slowly brown the lamb in the pan before transferring to a 130C oven. The rosemary and garlic permeate the meat and the low temperatures give a very tender result.

Sounds like backstrap to me.(below) They are small so roasting presents a new set of challenges. Unlike almost every other cut of lamb they are very lean.

I cooked a similar size shoulder last night. I soaked it skin side down in about 2" of brine overnight then washed it before cooking. 4 hours at ~ 75 C (about 170F) in the house oven then into the BBQ oven on moderately hot (about 180-190C) for an hour. I added a small branch off a pecan tree to the burner for some hickory smoke. Exquisitely tender yet I could carve it quite thin. The crackling was great too. As good as I have ever eaten.

I use one of those cheap cut through your boot plastic knives that is part of a set of 10 for $20. This knife is probably the perfect bread knife. A shallow curve with very small serrations. I have plenty of good sharp knives but none work anywhere near as well on all types bread. A straight edge can work ok on crusty white bread but after a trip to Germany last year I have taken to baking multigrain bread and can't resist a piece while it is still warm. That is where the serrated knife wins hands down. I use the rest of the set around the farm for cutting poly pipe and rope.

I have my new kitchen sitting in the corner behind me ready to install. After as much research as I could get away with both online and on foot I spent 2 months on auction watch online and got the 90cm Smeg electric oven, 5 burner Blanco gas cooktop and range hood for $1200 AU which was about $1300 better than the best retail I could find. All unused in original packaging. I have seen freestanding units that retail at over $6000 go for $3500 new. I will have to cut out some granite to go from 60cm to 90cm but it will be well worth it.

I have found this myself. I have brewed high alcohol beers with flavours like phenolic antiseptics that taste like nectar after about 18 months. I have tasted true Czech pilsners straight out of the conditioning tank and they are perfect when fresh. Bottle conditioned beers in the 4-5% range are normally at their best when the yeast becomes dormant i.e. 4-6 weeks depending on beer type and temperature.

This dish has been a favourite of mine for many years. We have our own cattle so when a steer finds his way into the freezer there is always plenty of Osso Buco. I don't use veal for obvious reasons. This steer was 2 years old. In future I am going back to 9-12 months. This dish is obviously all about the sauce, which largely means it is all about the tomatoes. As it is the end of summer here there is a surplus of fresh ingredients to be found within 50 metres of the back door. I think there are about 9 different varieties of tomato in this, prepared a number of different ways. Firstly we have the leftovers from breakfast. Sliced in half and sprinkled with dried and fresh herbs, garlic and olive oil and heated in a slow oven for a few hours. Then I browned the meat in ghee in a frypan. I fried a finely chopped large onion and a leek and 3 large garlic cloves in olive oil in the pan I used to make the dish. After the meat was cooked I fried 2 finely chopped large carrots in the remaining ghee and ground cumin . Half a bottle of Coonawarra cabernet merlot and about a cup of beef stock, a teaspoon of powdered vegetable stock which I always use instead of salt as it is quite salty, another 6-8 finely chopped tomatoes, about 2 cups of cooked tomatoes (a thick sauce really) a large quantity of basil, a finely chopped uncooked large onion, 2 cloves of garlic and a sprig of rosemary. With some of the wine I blended 1 can of red kidney beans and 6 anchovies. Just before it left the stove to spend 2 1/2 hours in the oven at 120C it looked like this; Some comments. I like to have both browned and raw onion and garlic in the dish. They have distinctly different flavours when cooked in oil and water and I like both. I like to add legumes to my sauces. I find they not only add thickness but they improve the depth of flavour. This is the first time I have fried the carrots in cumin first. I like the result and will probably do it regularly from now on. I served the Osso Buco with roasted potatoes and shredded beetroot and broad beans steamed in the pressure cooker with garlic and butter.

I have had a bad run with dishwashers. We had a Miele that the electronics fused in just after it ran out of warranty. $500 to fix it so even though it was an expensive dishwasher I wasn't prepared to throw good money after bad. It never washed that well anyway. My wife followed the Choice (Australian Consumer Association) recommendation and bought a Westinghouse / Electrolux sight unseen. Terrible dishwasher. Stupid rack layout, didn't wash properly, made me swear a lot. Then to top it all off it caught fire. Luckily we had a fire extinguisher. The cleaning bill was $2400 which Electrolux paid + another $250 for damages and they refunded the purchase price. This time I chose the dishwasher, a Bosch. It is great. It washes well, the dishes come out dry, the racks are versatile and I am happy. For now.

I never pay more than $1 a kg (about 15c US a pound). It is good to be a farmer.

Well, it does seem that there may be some science behind some folk wisdom. It seems that phenolics that are present in certain herbs and such may suppress some of the bacterial action in the lower gut. (The situation is that the oligosaccharides in beans are not digested in the upper GI tract and arrive in the lower as ample fodder for the bacteria there to do their thing.) So, addition of epizote by the Mexicans may have some merit if epizote has a lot of phenolics. I don't know. There is a gathering opinion that if you eat a lot of beans, your bacterial population will adjust and all will be well. What has me intensely curious is the test protocol and equipment used to test those astronauts. Inquiring minds want to know. Australian scientists have discovered that kangaroos don't produce methane during the digestive process. The key difference is a completely different gut flora, i.e. different strains link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2023371.stm Kangaroos offer clue to global warming It may be that the trend of lactobacillus preparations may well be replaced by other species in years to come. These may end flatulance and bloating altogether. Back to the beans. Since I tried cooking beans in a pressure cooker I can't imagine doing it any other way. They rehydrate quickly and maintain texture and have that concentrated flavour that everything cooked in a pressure cooker seems to have. I cook them in whatever stock is appropriate for the dish and never add salt anywhere in the process. I leave that until the end of the dish. I don't like salty food and much of the time there is enough salt in ham or bacon to season the dish.

I bought one for my wife as she prefers this style of knife. Not great quality steel but I have no trouble keeping it sharp. Itis a knife that there is no reason to use if you have a decent chef's knife around.