Pickles7

1 kg of gherkins.
wash the well not leaving any flower ends on. Dissolve 1/2 cup on sea salt in 4 cups of water. Line a non-metallic bowl with grape leaves, put gherkins on top, cover those with more grape leaves. Leave for five days in a cool place to turn yellow. Drain. boil up 4 cups of white vinegar, 1 cup of sugar, 2 Tblsp of black peppercorns, 1 Tblsp each of, whole allspice, whole cloves, whole mustard seeds. 1 cm sliced root ginger. Add gherkins and simmer until they turn olive green again , pack into jars, cover with the vinegar, put lids on. enjoy.

Slow cooker,
Beef Pot Roast ,rolled , boneless cuts.

Turn the slow cooker on high, add 2 Tbsp oil.
Heat a fry pan with a little oil
Fry
1 cut up onion
1 chopped carrot,
any other little bits and bobs you have,
stalks of broccoli, cauli, celery etc. maybe 1 cup all up
Put that into the bottom of the slow cooker
Sear the meat all over
Put the meat on top of the veg's
Add 1 cup of water to the frying pan to clean off all the drippings, add to the slow cooker
Sprinkle over
1 packet of soup mix, I use any that need to be used up.
[ a soup mix, this helps with making the gravy ]
Add salt and pepper, remember it is easier to add more, than to take salt out of a dish.
Turn the cooker onto Auto, close the lid and don't open it again until you can smell a delicious smell. lol.
I cannot tell you how long, to cook it, It would depend on the size of the meat, the cut of your meat, your slow cooker, so many variables.
Write down your times etc for future reference.
Cook from 4 to 6 hours. Even more if required
I remove mine when the internal temp is 160deg F, 71deg C.
It will be medium, juicy, tender.

Pickled Cucumber,for the fridge

Two slicedtelegraph cucumbers
sprinkle 2 tsp of sea salt over, stir and leave to sweat. stir every now and then for 2 hours, drain, rinse and dry a little with a paper towel.
bring to the boil
1 cup of wine vinegar
1/2 a cup of sugar
1/2 tsp each;
mustard seeds
turmeric
whole black pepper corns
Pour over cucumber while hot.
Keep in the fridge, like you do, beetroot. I have mine in a container just like my beetroot.

Monkey bread...
I used my bread maker to make the dough for this recipe.
4 cups of high grade flour
4 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp milk powder
2Tbsp soft butter
3 tsp sure to rise yeast
1 tsp bread improver
350 mils warm water
2 Tbsp extra warm water
While this is mixing gather up
1/2 cup of raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Melt
3/4 cup of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
grease a 23 cm round tin make sure its 12 cm high
I left the dough in the machine for ten minutes to relax.
remove the dough and cut it into 40 pieces
scatter a few raisins and chopped nuts over the bottom of the tin
place half of the dough pieces over the bottom, loosely
sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar
Drizzle 1/3 of the butter/brown sugar mixture over
sprinkle with more raisins and chopped nuts
place the rest of the dough over
sprinkle with the rest of theraisins and chopped nuts
Drizzle over the rest of the butter/brown sugar mixture
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
bake 35-40 minutes.

chili sauce....hot


2 cups of white vinegar
2 teaspoons of sea salt
100 grams of halved Habanero, Red Savina, chili
I simmered them until the chili were soft, and the liquid reduced by half, there abouts
I poured all into a narrow necked glass jug and used the stick blender to break down all the seeds, etc
1 and 1/4 cups of sauce
I will mature it in the fridge for 3 months, then decide if it needs something else.

chili sauce.hot


2 cups of white vinegar
2 teaspoons of sea salt
100 grams of halved Habanero, Red Savina, chili
I simmered them until the chili were soft, and the liquid reduced by half, there abouts
I poured all into a narrow necked glass jug and used the stick blender to break down all the seeds, etc
1 and 1/4 cups of sauce
I will mature it in the fridge for 3 months, then decide if it needs something else.

Chocolate, Coconut Cake. Microwaved.

1 3/4 self-raising flour or plain flour with
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
125g butter,melted
1 cup coconut cream
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
2 tablespoon oil

Sift flour,cocoa and salt into a bowl.Stir in sugar.
Melt butter in microwave about 1 minute.
Warm coconut cream 1 minute in microwave and stir in soda.
Beat eggs to combine then add to the melted butter.
Add oil,and the cream and soda combination.
Mix well.Pour into dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour into a ring mould about 24X9cm,preferably a special microwave plastic pan.Place pan on an upturned saucer or microwave cake-rack and cook on high 10 minutes.
Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.
Ice with chocolate icing and sprinkle with coconut when cold..
I kept this to try, it was delicious and cannot remember who posted it. sorry.

vapour rub

368 grams of petroliom jelly,
melt slowly, then add
2 teaspoons of each, for near the proper vicks.
eucyliptus oil,
peppermint oil,
camphor oil,

Chicken piece's
mmm this is so yummy soak your chicken in this.1 liter of water 1 Tablespoon of salt 1/8Th cup of light brown sugar 1 clove of crushed garlic a little rosemary, I soaked mine from frozen for 6 hours, then roasted them in the oven. dry before putting in the oven use a little bit of oil in the pan.

Date loaves X 2

Soak 750 grams of dates ,3 tsp b soda, 2 cups of sugar, 50 grams of butter in 2 cups of boiling water. cool.
add 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 4 cups of flour.
Divide between two loaf tins.
bake 1-1&1/4 hours 160 deg.
a few ch walnuts may be added

Chicken piece's
mmm this is so yummy soak your chicken in this.1 liter of water 1 Tablespoon of salt 1/8Th cup of light brown sugar 1 clove of crushed garlic a little rosemary, I soaked mine from frozen for 6 hours, then roasted them in the oven. dry before putting in the oven use a little bit of oil in the pan.

Pumpkin Soup.
2 kg peeled pumpkin
2 medium chopped onions
2 tsp chicken stock
handful of parsley
2 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper
1 tsp of a good hot curry powder, [medium hot would be fine]
cover with water and bring to simmer
simmer untill cooked.
Use a stick blender to mush up.
Should be thick, hot and tasty.

Apple shortcake.... apricot shortcake
use the pastry from post #20
cook apples adding sugar to taste and thicken with cornflour, leave to go cold.
Paint a sponge roll tin, with tin-glide
put 5mm thick pastry into tin
cover with 15mm of cold apple
cover with 5mm of pastry. prick the top with a fork
brush with milk
bake 180 deg C, for approx 25 minutes
cool in the tin a little, before turning out...

Apricot shortbread
cook, soaked dried apricots, sweeten, thicken , cool.. Use the same way as the apples.

Madeira cake

prepare a 25 cm tin, I only ever paint my tins with tin glide, recipe for tin glide is on post #20.

sift together
250 grams of self raising flour
125 grams of plain flour

cream
250 grams each butter and caster sugar

add 5 eggs, 1 at a time adding a Tblsp of the flour after each egg

fold the rest of the flour in along with
grated lemon rind and juice of two lemons. [not Meyer lemons]

Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes @160 deg C

Leave this cake 24 hours before icing.

Thanks pickles.Please keep adding to your thread - your recipes are always interesting.I'm looking forward to making the hot plum sauce next summer.

Apple shortcake. apricot shortcake
use the pastry from post #20
cook apples adding sugar to taste and thicken with cornflour, leave to go cold.
Paint a sponge roll tin, with tin-glide
put 5mm thick pastry into tin
cover with 15mm of cold apple
cover with 5mm of pastry. prick the top with a fork
brush with milk
bake 180 deg C, for approx 25 minutes
cool in the tin a little, before turning out.

Apricot shortbread
cook, soaked dried apricots, sweeten, thicken , cool. Use the same way as the apples.

Thanks pickles.Please keep adding to your thread - your recipes are always interesting.I'm looking forward to making the hot plum sauce next summer.

Madeira cake

prepare a 25 cm tin, I only ever paint my tins with tin glide, recipe for tin glide is on post #20, this thread..

sift together
250 grams of self raising flour
125 grams of plain flour

cream
250 grams each butter and caster sugar

add 5 eggs, 1 at a time adding a Tblsp of the flour after each egg

fold the rest of the flour in along with
grated lemon rind and juice of two lemons. [not Meyer lemons]

Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes @160 deg C

Leave this cake 24 hours before icing.
enjoy.

Madeira cake

prepare a 25 cm tin, I only ever paint my tins with tin glide, recipe for tin glide is on post #20, this thread.

sift together
250 grams of self raising flour
125 grams of plain flour

cream
250 grams each butter and caster sugar

add 5 eggs, 1 at a time adding a Tblsp of the flour after each egg

fold the rest of the flour in along with
grated lemon rind and juice of two lemons. [not Meyer lemons]

Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes @160 deg C

Leave this cake 24 hours before icing.
enjoy.

Irish stew

Simple, Delicious, & Nourishing.

I am cooking this over night in a slow cooker.
16 neck chops
2 medium ch onions
6 peeled and chopped carrots
3 tsp salt
2 tsp gr. black pepper
2 cups of water
###1 chopped habanero chili ### A little hot for small children
4 good hand fulls, of chopped up silver beet stalks. [Optional, my family won't eat the whites in silverbeet ]
put cooker on high and turn down to , low.
Cooked 8 hours. The meat is falling off the bones.
I poured the liquid off into a narrow container, the fat was easier to skim off the top without setting it.
return to heat adding a can of drained peas [ mintless] reserve the liquid,
Add 3 Tblsp of cornflour to the liquid and thicken the stew, add more if you need to.
I served this with , mashed potato, boiled whole carrots, silverbeet greens.

Irish stew

Simple, Delicious, & Nourishing.

I am cooking this over night in a slow cooker.
16 neck chops
2 medium ch onions
6 peeled and chopped carrots
3 tsp salt
2 tsp gr. black pepper
2 cups of water
###1 chopped habanero chili ### A little hot for small children
4 good hand fulls, of chopped up silver beet stalks. [Optional, my family won't eat the whites in silverbeet ]
put cooker on high and turn down to , low.
Cooked 8 hours. The meat is falling off the bones.
I poured the liquid off into a narrow container, the fat was easier to skim off the top without setting it.
return to heat adding a can of drained peas [ mintless] reserve the liquid,
Add 3 Tblsp of cornflour to the liquid and thicken the stew, add more if you need to.
I served this with , mashed potato, boiled whole carrots, silverbeet greens.

Apple Pie

cream
250 grams of butter
3/4 cup of white sugar
add
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla
grated rind of 1 orange
fold in 2 1/2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
chill, until firm
remove 3/4 of the pastry knead it roll out and line a deep ring tin.
Fill with pre cooked and sweetened apples, thickened and at room temp.
Take the remaining pastry, kneed it and roll to fit on top.
Pinch the edge, use a pr. of scissors to cut a few holes on top.
Milk the top. sprinkle with sugar.
Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour at 175 deg. C

worth the bump:)

#############Malt vinegar, 1st stage.
Vinegar is made by two distinct biological processes, both the result of the action of harmless microorganisms (yeast and “Acetobacter”) that turn sugars (carbohydrates) into acetic acid. Many foods involve some type of bacteria in their production i.e. cheese, yogurt, wine, pickles and chocolate.
Though one might suspect that malt vinegar is a simple process, no harder than wine making, it is however an involved and complicated process. Though it is thought that vinegar was a chance discovery and is 1000,s of years old there are references to vinegar and its use in food and medicine that are over 5000 years old. Simply it is wine that had gone off what the French aptly call VIN aigre - meaning sour wine and one can make vinegar from any material that one can make wine from. Malt vinegar is made from malted barley. However the modern day product is a lot more complicated than simply letting a barrel of wine go off (though that would work). It is a two-fold fermentation of barley malt or other cereals where starch has been converted to maltose
The first process is the alcoholic fermentation and occurs when yeasts change natural sugars to alcohol (beer wine making etc)
In the second process, a group of bacteria (called “Acetobacter”) converts the alcohol to acid. This is the acetic or acid fermentation that forms vinegar. Getting a bacteria culture to grow is important; timing is important; and fermentation needs to be carefully controlled.
##############Brew
Ingredients
Malt Extract. one 40oz can dark or stout malt (obtainable from most home brew shops and some health shops
Yeast 2 tsp brewers yeast (or stout yeast if you can obtain it)
Sugar 8 cups of unrefined white sugar,
Method
• Pour 10 litres of fresh, cold water into a 10 gallon plastic bucket that has a lid (If the bucket is new, wash it out with baking soda and rinse well to remove the plastic smell)
• In a large pot, bring 7 litres of water to a boil.
Add the malt extract. Stir and cook uncovered for 20 minutes.
• Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.
• As soon as the sugar is dissolved, pour contents into the bucket. Pour, or 'splash', the contents quickly, which adds air to the mixture the air allows the yeast to grow quickly
• Top up with bottled drinking water, distilled water or boiled tap water until so that your bucket is half full. Let it cool to blood temperature
• Sprinkle in the yeast, and stir well, loosely Cover with lid if too tight your malt could explode from the carbon dioxide gas that is produced.)
Keep covered and avoid unnecessary opening. The malt will be ready in 6- 10 days, depending on ambient temperature of the room Ideally the room temperature should be 20-24 Celsius at the highest; you could getaway with a slightly lower temperature of no less than16 Celsius but it will take the malt a day or two longer to ferment.
Test for readiness with a hydrometer. Set hydrometer into the malt and spin it once to release bubbles which cling to it and give a false reading. The ready reading should be about 1.008. If you don't have a hydrometer, you can judge readiness by tasting a sample - it should not be sweet tasting. There should be little or no bubbling action in the malt. At this point the malt is ready for the next stage

##########Malt vinegar, 2nd stage
Aceto conversion
Take about half a litre of your finished malt and place it in a large open jar it need to be left uncovered to allow the musty mould to develop (this is called the vinegar mother) Place the jar in a cool (but not cold) dark room A garage or shed or cellar would be ideal, in about a week the liquid will have a mould on or a misty residue in the body of the malt. This is your finished mother and all you have to do now is to strain the mother through some very fine muslin to remove the mould, mist and any bugs that happened to fall into the mother. Then you add the strained mother to the rest of your malt, leave it covered with some muslin held tightly over your bucket (knicker elastic works really well for this) for a minimum of 2months though 3 or 4 would be better. You should now have really healthy and fantastic malt vinegar
Part 3 pasteurization
Now you could just use the vinegar as it is, but it will go misty and cloudy quickly because the Acetobacter is still alive and trying to make your whole batch of vinegar into a mother. To prevent this you have to heat your vinegar to 170F and hold it at this temperature for 20 minutes. This will kill all the bacteria and give you really good delicious and stable malt vinegar. Chill and bottle your vinegar will keep for years if kept in a cool dark place
You can make smaller amounts (adjust the quantities of malt and sugar accordingly) but this is such an involved process that a larger amount means less work.