Lamb Bouillon

I have just made  Lamb Bouillon.  

Recipe

Lamb Shanks and bones (approx 2-3kilos)
2 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
filtered water
2 teaspoons of sea salt
2 tablespoons of gelatine

1.  Place the bones/shanks in an oven tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200^oC for 45 minutes.
2.  Place the roasted bones, peppercorns, bay leaves in a large stock pot.  Cover with the filtered water.
3. Bring to boil then reduce to a low simmer and simmer uncovered for 8-10 hours.
4. Strain the the stock through a fine sieve and refrigerate for 8-24 hrs.   Put the shanks/bones aside. Once cool, the meat can be removed from the bone to be used for another meal. Great on Lamb Pizza or as an addition to Paella.
5. The stock will gel in the fridge and the fat will rise to the surface.  Skim the fat off and store in the sealed container in the fridge.  The fat can be used in the future for frying.  
6.  Put the stock in a shallow-wide mouth pan and add 2 teaspoons of sea salt.  Simmer for about 45minutes unti liquid is reduced to about 1 cup.
7.  Whisk in the gelatine into the stock and then pour the stock into a small container.  
8. Place in the fridge for about 8 hours.
9. Cut into cubes about 2cm square.  Your bouillon cubes can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for approx 6 months
10.  Each cube will produce 1 cup of stock.  Place a bouillon cube in a cup of hot water, stir to dissolve. 

Not everyone can raise their own animals.  As well as it being important to buy the best quality meat you can afford, the animals should have had a good life - fed good quality (suitable!) food and are allowed to roam freely instead of being contained.

We buy meat from Spring Hill Beef - grass fed beef, lamb, free range pork and chickens.  Why is grass fed better? 

This recipe has been adapted from Nourished Kitchen's Homemade Bouillon

Just made Gavin's Caerphilly

Have now made Caerphilly using Gavin's recipe at Little Green Cheese.  Just can't wait to try it .  The cheese has been drying on the kitchen bench for a few days now and I think it will take a few more days to dry out as the weather is cold and wet.

The only change to the recipe is that I use Amena's Organic Herb Salt.  Absolutely love the taste the herbs give to food.  You can see the little flecks of sea salt and dried herbs throughout the cheese.

The cheese should be ready to eat in about 3-4 weeks.

Feta

There is something very basic about the need to make cheese and the end product is so satisfying.  Plus there is the added bonus that you know how the cheese was made and what ingredients were used.  So making your own cheese can be a very healthy alternative and a very satisfying hobby.

This week I made another batch of Feta cheese.

This time when it came to salting the Feta I used Amena's Organic Herb Salt.  This a mix of sea salt and dried herbs. 

The Amena's Organic Herb Salt has given the Feta a slight green tinge but I am sure the taste will be worth it.

Here is the recipe I used.  It is based on a recipe from www.countrybrewer.com.au.

1. If you are not using an instant starter,  the day before cheese making, prepare a Mesophilic starter as
per the instructions.
2. Heat the milk to 30°C.    Add the Calcium Chloride solution, then the prepared starter and the Lipase solution and mix thoroughly. Cover and let ripen for 60 minutes.
3. Gently stir in the diluted Rennet with an up and down motion for at least 1 minute.
Cover and allow to set for 60 minutes.
4. Cut the curds into 13mm cubes then allow to stand for 10 minutes.
5. Gently stir the curds every 5 minutes for 20 mins
6. Pour the curds into a colander lined with cheesecloth. Tie the corners of the cloth into a knot and hang the bag to drain for 4 hours.
7. Untie the bag and cut the curds into 25mm slices, then cut into 25mm cubes.
8. Sprinkle the cubes with Salt (Amena's Organic Herb Salt) to taste. Place in a covered bowl and allow to age for 4-5 days in the fridge.
FOR A STRONGER FLAVOUR:
9. Make a brine solution by combining 1/3 cup of Salt to 1.5 litres of water. Place the cheese in the brine and store in the fridge for 30 days.

After reading Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions I have decided to remove low fat products from our diet.  So in this recipe I used milk made from skim milk powder to use up the skim milk powder.   The recipe is suppose to yield 500g but with skim milk powder it yields 200g.

I have been reading Gavin's Little Green Cheese Blog and I can't wait to make the Caerphilly

Winter in Wangi

New Water Tanks

It's winter here in Wangi which means cold weather and rain.  It appears to rain most nights here during winter.  We have not lived here that long - this is our third winter.  Well the rain is great for the new water tanks we just installed.  We installed 2 x 3440 litre tanks.  They are situated under a back deck and are plumbed into the washing machine, 2 toilets and a garden tap.  Hopefully this will keep our water bills down in the future.  I have purchased some colloidal silver to put in the tanks to sanitize the water. 

So not much is happening in the garden at present.  Actually the garden has gone wild as we have not had the time to see to it.  However things will change over the next few months as we plan for our spring and summer harvest. 

I have been learning about Traditional Fermentation.  I have Sally Fallon's book "Nourishing Traditions" and have been dabbling into fermenting foods but now it's time to get serious.  I am presently doing an E-Course on fermentation and plans are underway to get back to brewing beer and herbal wines. 

Today I will start with something very easy.  A Coopers Mexican Cerveza Beer Kit which has no additives and preservatives.  Just malted barley, hops and yeast and tastes great.  I don't like the bitter beers.  We always make our home brews low alcohol so we use half the recommended sugar.  In future, we plan to go back to making things from scratch.  Not always successful so it's a good idea to have a good reliable alternative on hand.