eG Foodblog: Jackal - Xmas week

[Mayhaw Man]

Ai, woe is me!

Walking round the garden (more of that later), I noticed that in the orchard the rabbits have seriously debarked many of the trees

And I thought that the Monty Python guys just made up those "killer rabbits"

"Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade!"

Your photos are great and add so much to the blog. I am really looking forward to each installment.

[Mabelline]

I am looking forward to reading this, for your photos are absolutely gorgeous! We get a lot of wildlife in our yard, and all around town. Deer,rabbits,marmots,antelope,cougars,pheasants,wild ducks and geese, and whooping cranes this summer. Do you expect snow for yule? All our snow has disappeared and it's 50 degrees.

The food is so inviting - how neat to have a weekly blog from England on the holiday most common between our countries! Happy Christmas,Hanukkah,Solstice!

[Cusina]

Beautiful pictures, very lovely scenery and the food looks wonderful. I am sorry about your trees though. I find it very sad to loose trees, they are such constant companions, somehow. You need a few nice young neighborhood felines to clear out the rabbit and squirrel population.

The Pannetone is particularily intriguing to me. What a beautiful rich looking dough. Your recipe, however, I think I'm losing alot in the translation. I'm sorry.

Am I understanding that you have converted to make 20% of the original recipe which would equal 500g, 2 servings? Did you double or triple that to make this Christmas version or is that the full recipe? How much egg yolk is 20g anyways?

Also, did you leave it to rise overnight? or was it a shorter time?

And finally, what are sultanas?

Sorry for so many questions. But you did want it to be an interactive blog, didn't you? Be careful what you ask for!

[Jensen]

I wonder if you could catch squirrels by the sticky paper cone method?

Jack, a whippet or two will take care of those squirrels *and* the rabbits...

I am so enjoying your foodblog. Thank you for being so inspiring.

[jackal10]

One of the problems of living in the country is that th net connection is not always reliable. I just lost my previous entry, so here goes again.

Mabelline: Thanks. Snow is forecast for tomorrow, but I doubt if it will lie around for long, if at all.

Here is a picture of our wood in snow last winter, that we are using for our Xmas card this year.

Even if it does snow here it usually doesn't last for long - Since it is not that severe, it always takes people by surprise and causes chaos on road and rail.

[torakris]

I never thought I would say this, but I think I actually miss squirrels!

In my part of Japan the only way to see squirrels is to go to a a squirrel park (risu kouen) sort of like a mini zoo but with just squirrels....

[jackal10]

Cusina: The farm cats make next door no impression on the rabbits. Neither do the foxes, who have become lazy and prefer to get their meals from trashcans, that don't run away. Whippets might work (a neighbor has one), but would also scare the pheasants. However Marge, a basset hound is coming with one of the vistors for Xmas.

The Pannetone is particularily intriguing to me. What a beautiful rich looking dough. Your recipe, however, I think I'm losing alot in the translation. I'm sorry.

Am I understanding that you have converted to make 20% of the original recipe which would equal 500g, 2 servings? Did you double or triple that to make this Christmas version or is that the full recipe? How much egg yolk is 20g anyways?

My apologies. I put a link to the wrong recipe - that is Cresci's Stollen, more about that later. The correct formula is here. I made 10% of the original to give two 1Kg loaves, dough weight

Panettone Cresci  Bakers%  10% grams
First Dough
Starter     1000   18.18%   100
Flour       4000   72.73%   400
Sugar       1250   22.73%   125
Butter      1450   26.36%   145
Water       1300   23.64%   130
Egg yolk    1400   25.45%   140

Prove overnight at 85F  	
Second Dough. First dough plus
Flour       1000   18.18%   100 (I used more +50 to get it to hold together)
Egg Yolk    1300   23.64%   130
Sugar       1000   18.18%   100
Honey        250    4.55%    25
Butter      1550   28.18%   155
Salt          80    1.45%     8
Water        700   12.73%    70
Sultanas    2000   36.36%   200
Candied orange   
             1500   27.27%   150
Candied lime 
              500    9.09%    50
    
Total      20280  368.73%  2028

Also, did you leave it to rise overnight? or was it a shorter time?

And finally, what are sultanas?

This dough moves very slowly, being so rich, so I proved it overnight, until it triples. Its important to let the first dough fully develop, The second has proved all day, and I guess I will retard it overnight.

Sultanas are dried grapes, like rasins, but golden in colour. I used mixed fruit for those and the peel, since that was what I had on hand. Also some vanilla.

[jackal10]

The HAM

After most of the day in a cool oven, reaching an internal temperature of 55C/130F

Peel the skin - it seperates from the fat

Score into diamonds with a sharp knife

Paint with warmed honey. Some add mustard or demarara sugar. I don't.

Much easier to do this before you put in the cloves. I often forget.

Stud with cloves. Some put the cloves at the intersections of the scores, but I prefer them in the centre of the diamonds, as they help anchor the fat layer

Hot oven for half an hour, or until it looks right. May need to turn it halfway if the oven heat is uneven.

Ham for supper with, at Jill's suggestion raisin sauce: the cider cooking juices, reduced, with raisins added, thickened a little with arrowroot.

We also had rice and a simple salad.

Happy Yule!

Tha ham will provide standby protein for the ravening hordes to come..

Edited December 21, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

In my part of Japan the only way to see squirrels is to go to a a squirrel park (risu kouen) sort of like a mini zoo but with just squirrels....

In my part of America the best way to see squirrels this time of year is to go to risu kouen (large suburban mall) sort of like a mini zoo but with just squirrels

[Mabelline]

Ah, Mayhaw Man, you've just single-handedly renamed Rimrock Mall. The risu kouen,indeed!

[torakris]

gorgeous pictures!!

I think something I miss more than squirrels (ok a lot more than squirrels!) is ham. I have never seen ham like this is Japan and am now am having very bad cravings......

[torakris]

Ah, Mayhaw Man, you've just single-handedly renamed Rimrock Mall. The risu kouen,indeed!

In a couple months risu kouen may become the "word of the moment"......

keep using it! this is how language evolves

[jackal10]

The Pannetone had risen nicely overnight, maybe even a little overproved. Its a very soft dough.

40 minutes in a 350F oven, with, in the Milanese fashion, a knob of butter on top. Alternatively you can glaze them and add almonds

Off to the office. We have a Jura Impressa X90 automatic expresso machine there, Lavazza beans, and that was one of our better acquisitions. Quite a decent cup of expresso ground and pressed at the touch of a button. Apparently you can even connect the next model to the internet so it can order its own supplies...

We are a high-tech start-up, which for those who have been involved in similar is a fairly high pressure environment. The office is in the middle of town, so there are many choices of quite decent pubs and sandwich shops. However, as is fairly common practice round here, the company maintains a small freezer of instant meals, mostly (by request) home made vegetarian curries and rice from the local Indian shop, and a microwave for those working long hours. The informal practice is the food is free if you are working before 8am or after 7pm

Edited December 22, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[SobaAddict70]

I'm on vacation until 12/31/03. Yay is me!!!

Nice blog, Jack. We really should do a best of blogs one of these days.

Someone please explain to me what the difference is between Yule and Christmas? Kind of dense. Oh, and what's the origin of Boxing Day? Is there a Boxing Day food tradition?

Soba

[jackal10]

Many, if not most cultures have some sort of winter festival. In Europe these also marked the start of the agricultural year.

Yule is the pagan, driudic or wiccan festival, and possibly the ancient pre-christian northern European winter festival. It is associated with the solstice - the shortest day.

Christmas is the Christian festival, and some of the ancient rituals, have been incorporated by inclusion, either by the early proselytising church, or by Victorian romantics.

In turn, some of the modern Druidic or Wiccan practices are Victorian fantasy.

Boxing day is the day after Christmas, 26th December. Traditionally it is the day one gave boxes, or tips to the tradespeople and servants who had given service during the year. This is no longer done, although we still give some before Christmas to the postman, the milkman (we still have daily milk deliveries in returnable glass bottles in the UK), and the person who delivers the papers. They give fantastic, cheeerful service in all weathers, and it seems a small way to say thankyou.

No particular Boxing day food traditions that I'm aware of, except eating up the leftovers, and a bracing walks to counteract the day before's over-indulgence. Traditionally there are foxhunts on Boxing day (with stirrup cups drunk in the saddle before setting off). Fox hunting is soon to be banned - as Wilde said, the unspeakable in persuit of the inedible.

Leftover Xmas pudding is great fried for breakfast with a full English breakfast:

Bacon, eggs, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding, fried bread, fried potatoes; toast, marmelade, tea or coffee.

Optional are porridge or cereals, devilled kidneys, kippers, kedgeree...

For supper we ended up with an omlette of wild mushroom, ham and cheese (aged Vintage farmhouse cheddar); salad; pannetone and tangerines

Ch. Mourgues du Gres (Costieres de Nimes) Galets Rouges 2000

Edited December 22, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[jackal10]

Ahh, the wonderful morning mug of coffee...

Anybody there, or am I talking to myself?

Today I will make doughs for the holiday breads: white and brown sourdough, and a new one for me, a "pompe a l'huile", a rich sweet fougasse with olive oil, flavoured with orange flower water and aniseed or caraway. Its part of the traditional "treize deserts", the thirteen deserts for Christmas eve., symbolic of the apsotles etc.

Also as prep for tomorrow I put the salt cod (aka stockfish, bacalao, saltfish) into soak. Stockfish starts thin, and as hard as a board, covered in a salt crust

Alas cod is now a threatened species from over-fishing. Mark Kurlansky's excellent book "Cod" (ISBN 0-09-926870-1) documents how important the cod trade was, and he claims it changed the world. Salt cod was an important source of protein, and features in many cuisines, French, Portuguese, and especially West Indian, where it was introduced as cheap food for the slaves, who of course transformed it to deliciousness.

Still undecided how to cook it. I was going to make fish cakes and Brandade, but I found a tin of Ackee yesterday, so it might first be saltfish and Ackee, and the remains turn into fishcakes.

At home most of today. I've got lots of stuff I need to catch up with. Top of the list is writing exam questions for next years final exams for the courses I teach at the Computer Lab in the University. Due in just after the holidays. Writing them used to be fun, but nowdays they make you write model answers to go with the questions, which is much harder. These then get checked by the examinations committee and by the external examiner for correctness, fairness, comprehension etc. As an examiner I have some flexibility - the tradition is I can ask anything that a student should be expected to be able to answer, that might be relevant to the course and at a suitable level of difficulty, regardless of whether or not it has been taught or is on the formal syllabus. Similarly lectures are optional (although advised) for the students. If they feel they can learn more by reading or (or anything else, like playing sport or drinking), that is up to them.

I must also make a start on my new book on Ultrawideband Wireless (UWB), to be published by Wiley back end next year, but I promised some sample chapters after the holidays.

Otherwise it's the company Xmas dinner this evening, and I guess I;ll do some chores like clarifying the stock and emptying the grate of the living room fireplace ready for the holiday fires.

According to the TV news it snowed about 24 miles to the east of here yesterdays, but here it was bright blue skies and sunchine - that really clear blue you get on cold winter days. Today its has warmed up (10C/40F) and raining.

Jill is making Sherry Trifle.

[Mabelline]

This will probably sound dense, but I'm going to call an ag.extension agent and have him look into the possibility of a latex (or similar) coating to try and save your less damaged trees...I may be wrong but I think there is something used by commercial growers; anyway, I'll give him something to do.

Your panettone looks stunning...

Today I took a detour to avoid a busily travelled street--went down a parallel road 1/4 of a mile from extreme traffic. In a pasture with four show horses(full samarai-looking winter rig) were at least 300 honkers(wild geese)! I was thrilled. Your story about the poacher's wife and the naked pheasant had me giggling everytime I thought about it- the true "rude awakening"!

[jackal10]

Many thanks, but all the advise I've got here is that if they have some bark left they will be OK, but somewhat stunted and possibly more suseptible to disease; the ones that have been completly ring-barked, that is the bark removed all the way round for perhaps a depth of 18 inches are beyond saving.

Apparently you can replant in the same place if you replace at least 20l of soil, and sterilise against nematodes.

Again advise you can get would be most welcome.

[Mabelline]

You bet-- that's what these guys are paid for, and they usually do the job for love more than money. I'm also going to see if you need to apply a tree-friendly antiseptic, so that any "bugs" are not provided with a cozy home.

[Mabelline]

Your bacalao picture reminded me of a man who worked for me. He was of Philadelphia Italian stock, and when he misbehaved as a kid, his mom used a hunk of that for her paddle

[jackal10]

Stollen for elevenses, and the third mug of coffee..Here also showing the Pannetone texture

The stollen was also from Cresci, but with the marzipan cente added. Mine is much more rustic and not as pretty as theirs.

Put up the Mistletoe, hanging from the end of the track light near the big sliding glass doors from the kitchen to outside. See if we get any kisses.

[helenjp]

Pannetone looks yummy! The Spanish shop which hosts my son's classical guitar teacher imports some every year (there's Japanese multiculturalism for you), and we usually end up succumbing...

What other treats (traditional or otherwise) do you cook for the Christmas season (not just for Christmas dinner)?

...and what are planning for Christmas Eve?

I have never seen such a close-up of mistletoe before...very intriguing!

I'm enjoying the blog, squirrels and other meats included, but wish you wouldn't mention exam setting when people are sitting at their computers trying to ignore unmarked papers, unset syllabi, uncalculated grades, etc.!

[hjshorter]

Your pannetone looks marvelous, and that ham....

I am curious as to how the salt cod turns out. I love it, but have never attempted to prepare it at home. I read Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World on it's initial release and thought it was very well done. As I recall it included recipes as well as history.

[jackal10]

Mistletoe is a fascinating plant. It is parasitic on apple and oak trees, and has long been held sacred. Mistletoe myths. I've never been able to establish it here, and I believe most of the mistletoe sold in the UK is imported.

Christmas Eve I plan in the southern French (Provencal) style.

Tradition dictates a "Gros Souper", maigre, that is without meat since it is before the midnight mass. After Mass there is the "Souper Gras", that is with meat. Since we aren't church goers, nor do I have the capacity or stamina, we will have the meat for an English Christmas lunch next day.

The Gros Souper has seven dishes, though we might combine some and leave out the snails.

The are:

Celery with anchoïade (Anchovy, garlic and olive oil dip)

l'aigo boulido, a garlic and herb soup,

Cauliflower,

Crouzet (small cross shaped pasta pieces),

snails, (not for us)

a fish dish of salt cod or shell fish,

The "Thirteen deserts"

The thirteen are:

"Les quatres mendiants" or four beggars, representing the four holy orders:

Almonds for the Carmelites

Figs for the Franciscans

Raisins for the Dominicans

Walnuts for the Augustines

Four plates of fruit:

Apples

Pears

Tangerines

Grapes or Melon

Black Nougat (evil)

White Nougat (good)

Pate des Coings (Membrillo - Quince cheese)

Pompe a l'huile (sweet olive oil bread)

Dates

I will also make Mince Pies, to the sound of carols from King College.

This service of nine lessons and carols is broadcast live around the world on the BBC and public radio, from just down the road, and I urge you to listen Its at 3pm GMT . It is a beautiful experience, and the sound of the solo boy chorister singing in procession "Once in Royal David's CIty" marks the start of Christmas for me. It is alos broadcat on the web. You can also listen to it on the Web from The BBC Radio 4 site. Most of the seating is reserved for the college, but the public is admitted on a first come-first served basis, and people are already queueing. King's College was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI, and the magnifigcent chapel has one of the finest fan-vaulted ceilings in Europe, if not the world. The college maintains its own choir school, and is always divided whether to be known for the excellence of its music, or by its academic reputation. It has a reputation as a somewhat liberal and even left wing college, for example it was one of the first to admit women on equal terms.

Pomp a l'huile - typical sweet dough recipe, with olive oil, aniseed and orange flower water

100g sourdough starter

500g flour

80g sugar

10g salt

100g melted unsalted butter

5 Tbs Olive Oil

1 Tsp Orange Flower water

1 Tsp Aniseed (I used caraway)

1/2 cup water

1 egg yolk

Mix, leave to prove in a puddle of olive oil. Fold sides to middle every hour or so for four hours. Make into fougasse shape, retard overnight.

Edited December 23, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[jackal10]

The pompe a l'huile dough

Before the chaos starts, here is a picture of the working end of the kitchen.

The sink is to the left, the door to the rest of the house to the right, the laundry room behind.

The sourdough starter is quetly fermenting in bowl on the left .

Looking the other way, Mistletoe is top centre

You can see the bread oven outside.

On the left which you can't see, is the fridge, aand a range of cupboards, pull-out larder units, and a small TV on the side table.

Edited December 23, 2003 by jackal10 (log)