Manitoulin Unravelled

[Kerry Beal]

4 hours ago, JohnT said:

 

And talking about toffee, I assume you know where it originates from - not England, as I always thought!

I do not - enlighten me.

[JohnT]

22 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I do not - enlighten me.

 

From Larousse Gastronomique

 

TOFFEE: A Canadian sweet invented in the 16th century by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who had come from Troyes in France to open the first school in French Canada. To attract the "little savages", she made a syrup from molasses which she left to cool down with the first snow of winter. This happened on 25 November, and toffee is still a traditional delicacy on St Catherine's day. 

[Kerry Beal]

Ok - so now I want to make sticky toffee pudding!

[Kerry Beal]

 

The crumb

 

 

 

Rug rat's breakfast - cheese and seedless strawberry jam. 

[Kerry Beal]

 

These cookies would not be considered a success - bet they are still gone in an hour!

[Anna N]

Good morning!  Breakfast was Kerry's bread (toasted) with cretons and cocktail tomatoes.

Kerry unearthed some canning jars so today I will transfer my pickled pears into a couple of those. 

 i also want to do a quick pickled red onion to have on hand. 

Hope to experiment with the pizza dough which has been resting in the fridge overnight. 

Since Kerry is on call everything gets played by ear so not sure what else we might get up to. 

The new Instant Pot was initiated last night with just water and seems fine. 

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2016 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

 

so there we go. Pickled pears and pickled red onions to perk up sandwiches and such. I would like to branch out a bit now and make some of the outrageos condiments from A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches. 

 

[Anna N]

So when were in Espanola on Sunday I spotted some gai lan (Chinese. Broccoli) in the produce department. I know I have never cooked it before and am not even sure I have eaten it. So it was lunch today. I sizzled some chopped garlic in some oil, added the stems and a little water and cooked them, covered, for about 5 minutes. I then tossed in the chopped greens and continued cooking until I felt they were reasonably tender. I put them into one of our new bowls and drizzled a little sesame oil on top. I suspect younger, fresher gai lan might become a regular menu item.  

 

[JohnT]

6 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Ok - so now I want to make sticky toffee pudding!

Here is the recipe - I have scaled it down to make it as small as I could - the normal recipe is for 50 individual puddings. I have estimated a single dish size for you to bake it.

 

Best served warm.

 

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING
Makes 10 x 7cm ring moulds or 1 x rectangle 9" x 7" x 2" deep ceramic dish.

 

Ingredients:
125 g pitted dates, roughly chopped
250 ml  boiling water
5 ml bicarbonate of soda
15 g butter
200 g sugar
1 egg
190 g cake flour
5 ml baking powder
1 ml salt

Sauce:
400g (soft) brown sugar - I use normal brown granulated sugar.
250ml cream
200g butter
5ml vanilla extract - I use 2.5ml of my double strength homemade extract.

 

Method:

• Mix together the dates, boiling water and bicarbonate of soda and allow to soak until the dates are soft.
• Set the oven to 160°C convection (180°C standard oven).
• Mix in the butter, sugar and egg then sift in the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Mix all together thoroughly and pour into 10 x 7cm ring moulds.
• Bake for 12 minutes and remove from the oven - for a large dish check @ 20 min with toothpick to see if done.
• For the sauce: Melt the butter in a medium pot then add the sugar and cream. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until just browning / thickening. Take off heat and stir in the vanilla.
• Pour hot over the puddings.

Makes 10 x 70 g raw mix in each 7cm ring mould, 5cm height or 1 x 9" x 7" x 2" baking dish

 

Any left-over sauce goes well warmed on ice cream! (Ice cream with hot toffee sauce ).

[Anna N]

@JohnT,

 

I must add this to Kerry's to-do list. 

 

 

[Anna N]

g

 

So I put the new IP through its paces: chawanamushi (savoury Japanese egg custard). 

 

 

[rotuts]

I more or less see what you've done

 

I see a ' lip ' on the L , but that might be a reflections.

 

 I see a dark pond that three foil lined containers sit in.

 

so you made your custard, then used the IP to  steam ? IP low or high pressure  ?

 

in a water bath ?

 

do you see an advance in V.2 that's significant  ?

 

ie   Im never going to use mine as a slow cooker. and Ive yet to sauté  but I might ?

 

many thanks

 

BTW  as I think your are near a Lake, large or small , are their any fresh fish on the Island from the water

 

se see from your balcony ?

 

or do you have to catch it yourself  or else it comes from Far Distant Shores ?

[Kerry Beal]

 

First batch of black garlic caramel. Will wait for it to firm up and cut to see how it is - but just this second realized I haven't added any butter to it! DUH!

[Anna N]

g

 

So I put the new IP through its paces: chawanamushi (savoury Japanese egg custard). 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Brought with me some fish hook/fish line cutters.

 

 

Second ER shift in fishing country - got to test them out.

[Anna N]

 

 So we sort of have an informal agreement that we post our failures as well as our successes. This was my attempt at pizza dough following member Ann_T's adaptation of a recipe from Ken Forkish.  However being as I am math challenged I added 100 mL additional water to half the recipe althoug Ann_T only added it to the full recipe. The dough threatened to overtake the whole kitchen as it slid off the counter, down the cabinet fronts, across the floor until it almost reached the front porch before I could coral it with my bench scraper. But I soldiered on and this is the result. 

Edited July 5, 2016 by Anna N (log)

[Kerry Beal]

 

When life gives you pizza dough - make pizza.

[Martin Fisher]

10 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Second ER shift in fishing country - got to test them out.

 

Ouch! 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

I more or less see what you've done

 

I see a ' lip ' on the L , but that might be a reflections.

 

 I see a dark pond that three foil lined containers sit in.

 

so you made your custard, then used the IP to  steam ? IP low or high pressure  ?

 

in a water bath ?

 

do you see an advance in V.2 that's significant  ?

 

ie   Im never going to use mine as a slow cooker. and Ive yet to sauté  but I might ?

 

many thanks

 

BTW  as I think your are near a Lake, large or small , are their any fresh fish on the Island from the water

 

se see from your balcony ?

 

or do you have to catch it yourself  or else it comes from Far Distant Shores ?

 Yes I made the custards, covered them with foil and put them on the rack which comes with the IP, added a cup of water and cooked them on high pressure for five minutes, let them sit while the pressure went down naturally for about 5 mins, did a quick realease. Wonderfully silky custard. 

 

 Yes we may be sitting on one of the largest freshwater systems in the world but fresh is a relative term and many are reluctant to eat fish pulled from these lakes.

 

Nothing in version 2 to meet any particular requirement that I had but the fact that it remembers your  last setting can be quite useful.   I did the custards in two batches since I had to guess how long they would take so it was nice when I came to do the second batch that I just had to hit one switch.  

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

On July 4, 2016 at 10:31 AM, Anna N said:

This is an attempt at a crust that meets certain specifications  regarding thickness and texture so I may well attempt to bake it naked.

I refrained from comment on the above post.  

 

Can I assume that this (sans toppings) is what you meant by "bake it naked"?   

4 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

 

Not entirely sure what goes on up there !

[gfweb]

5 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

 

Brought with me some fish hook/fish line cutters.

 

 

Second ER shift in fishing country - got to test them out.

 

Looks like a youngish hand....Takes a little doing to get hooked like that.

 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

 

Looks like a youngish hand....Takes a little doing to get hooked like that.

 

T'was a youngish hand. You can't see but he's gripping the lure in that closed fist. Tough little bugger though - let me freeze it without complaint, cut each hook and push them through. I've had older 'boys' complain a whole lot more with a whole lot less hook in them.

[Anna N]

@blue_dolphin

 

 Indeed it was the pizza crust that was naked.  Any other meaning does not bear thinking about.

[Anna N]

Good morning.  We had a brief power outage this morning which left me slightly unhinged.   One never knows up here if it's going to be minutes or days.  Kerry has some business to conclude in the hospital and then we will take off and do a couple of errands and visit the famous "Flee" Market.

 

 

 Breakfast was toast with extra sharp cheddar and pickled red onions. 

[Anna N]

 

 I was a spend thrift at the market this morning. I dropped $2.85 on a set of measuring spoons and this gadget. Measuring spoons because I forgot to bring my own and positively hate the ones that Kerry uses. And the gadget is because I am always challenged when opening cans and can never seem to get a clean-cut all around the lid. I hope this gadget will prevent a nasty gash from a can lid that I am trying to wrestle off  with my bare hands   

 

Edited July 6, 2016 by Anna N (log)