Set up
I set out to test the results of making bread at home, with a bread machine and by hand. These are the rules of engagement. I start with the 鈥渂aker鈥檚 percentage鈥 as my recipe for making bread by hand and using a bread machine: 100% flour, 60% water, 2% salt, 2% yeast (in this case: 1 x 7g sachet dried yeast for 500g flour). No milk powder, no fat, no wholemeal. Just good quality organic strong white bread flour.
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Bread machine v handmade: Pamela Anderson v Pam Ayres
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Round 1
I place all the ingredients, in the right order, in the bread machine. Make my option selections: basic bread, large size, regular bake. The machine is silent and shows me the four hour countdown. Unnervingly it sits there. Silent. I decide to get on with making the other dough.
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The hot dog, beloved by American baseball fans, is probably not your idea of high-end gastronomy. But now a brave band of British charcutiers are taking the hot dog by the ears and shaking it about to unleash an artisan frankfurter that鈥檚 delicious, ethical and even healthy.
One charcutier poshing up the dog is Graham Waddington who works from his Gloucestershire workshop. He combines meat, herbs and spices into a machine known as a bowl cutter which produces the frankfurter鈥檚 characteristic silky smooth texture. 鈥淯sing a bowl cutter you don鈥檛 need to add stabilisers and emulsifiers,鈥 he says.
Is the dog about to have its gourmet day? Image: Bubbledogs
Unlike industrially made hot dogs which often contain as little as 30% meat, Graham鈥檚 are around 90% meat. To make his classic smoked 鈥榃einer鈥 (Viennese sausage) he mixes rose veal with native breed pork and beef and smokes it all over beech and apple wood. Other items in his posh dog repertoire are a Strasbourg 鈥淜nack鈥 and a truffle and porcini frankfurter. Incidentally, he prefers to call his products British frankfurters rather than hot dogs. 鈥淗ot dog denotes all manner of atrocious things,鈥 he laughs.
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On my way to in Cornwall last weekend, I had one thing on my mind. Seafood. The annual literary festival, which takes place on the historic site of Port Eliot in St Germans, is best known as a celebration of words but food is becoming an increasingly popular part of the event.
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Raymond Blanc's fresh grilled mackerel with soy and lime dressing
鈥淵ou won鈥檛 find any greasy burger vans here,鈥 explained chef and local resident Chris Sherville who was running the festival鈥檚 hugely popular seafood caf茅. 鈥淛ust use your nose for navigation and you鈥檒l find your way around.鈥
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If you鈥檝e managed to bag tickets for the forthcoming games but don鈥檛 want to pay the high prices for food and drinks when you arrive, what are your options? With prices as high as 拢1.60 for a small bottle of water and 拢5.90 for a tuna salad, taking a packed lunch seems an appealing alternative. And then there鈥檚 the inevitable queues to consider鈥
To be fair, despite the headlines about junk food鈥檚 dominance at the games, there will be a wide variety of food available at most venues, so, even if it is pricey, you鈥檙e unlikely to be cornered into eating junk food. The organisers have taken pains to ensure special diets are also catered for, meaning gluten-free, vegetarian, halal and kosher food will all be on sale.
Gold medal millionaire shortbreads: a guaranteed winner.
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You can鈥檛 have ice cream without one specific machine: a freezer.听 But in our continuing series of cooking without gadgets, if you don鈥檛 want to invest in another piece of single-purpose kit to clog up your kitchen, namely an ice cream maker, can you still make ice cream?
The machine
I have a powerful ice cream machine in my basement. Nothing like the electric churn atop a bucket of ice and salt my grandmother had - slow, noisy and smelling of burning engine oil.听 My machine cools down in five minutes and churns ice cream in about twenty. The prep time can vary - upwards of half an hour to make a custard, then hours of chilling it in the fridge until it鈥檚 ready to churn, making it a two-day process. But at its quickest, you can upend a tub of Greek yoghurt into the machine and have soft, scoopable ice cream in minutes. This is going to be a hard machine to beat.
The freeze and stir method
The first trial was a mocha ice cream, using the freeze and stir method. The recipe combined ready-made custard, whipped cream and coffee. Fold the ingredients together, pour into a plastic box with a lid, and freeze. Every hour or so, break up the crystals of ice that are forming around the edges of the box, stir them through the mixture and return to the freezer until the mixture is ice creamy.
I could almost hear laughter emanating from the basement as I tried to break up increasingly large shards of ice with a fork. Once formed, large ice crystals won鈥檛 break up without serious power. In the end I resorted to the handheld electric mixer. But it was no good 鈥 I鈥檇 let it set too firm before stirring. The problem with this method is that once it鈥檚 out of sight in the freezer, it鈥檚 easy to forget.
Whisk early, whisk often to avoid big ice crystals forming.
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Many recipes for making fresh pasta assume you need a pasta machine,听and in 'Food Factory' on 大象传媒1听they even tried to make听spaghetti with a meat mincer. Hmmm. In Italy you just need a long听wooden rolling pin. This makes me wonder, can a novice get close to the delicious taste of fresh pasta at home with just a rolling pin and a little effort?听
So, I experimented by making pasta with and without a machine, and I was pleasantly surprised at the results.
Haven't got one of these? No problem.
Rolling, rolling, rolling
Perhaps the most surprising discovery was that using the machine didn鈥檛 save me any time.听
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On this week鈥檚 Saturday Kitchen James Martin treated himself to a luxury, Michelin-starred 40th birthday feast. And finishing off the meal was one of his favourites 鈥 a buttermilk panna cotta with doughnuts and jelly.听 I听understood the appeal of a freshly fried doughnut as a birthday treat, but panna cotta seemed a surprisingly elegant and restrained听choice.
Frankly, I don鈥檛 understand why they aren鈥檛 more popular.听 Forget the faff and fat of cheesecake, never mind not having an ice cream machine, panna cotta knows all their best tricks and can still be made in five minutes before work.听 Warm some cream and milk, stir in听some soaked gelatine leaves or powder, a spoon of flavouring and pop it in ramekins or small bowls to set in the fridge.
Pale and quivering, panna cotta is the dessert equivalent of a supermodel 鈥 always beautiful, whatever dress she's wearing. Perhaps we deem them a little too perfect: falling instead for the femme-fatale brownie or girl-next-door crumble.
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| 10:01 UK time, Tuesday, 31 July 2012
