KitchenAid Mixer up for Grabs!

Celebrate the sixth anniversary of Ed Charles's "Tomato M" blog, and win a lovely KitchenAid KSM150 in a colour of your choice! Head across there now for full details! Don't forget to follow @tomatom for updates. By the way, this blog turns 6 as well, so it's a double celebration!

Yellow is a great colour for the kitchen: just look at how well the KitchenAid mixers match the kitchen tiles. From left to right, colours from KitchenAid: Yellow Pepper, Buttercup, Majestic Yellow, Almond Cream.

Pick me, I'm a lemon WINNER!

Right now, life's a lemon....

- the wall tiles belong to a "lemon" of a 60's kitchen, with matching sink and upright stove.

- the lemon tree looks straggly, in a distressed mess, and produces juiceless, half-sized fruit.

- the neighbour's majestic lemon scented gum suffered severe lopping for the sake of views, never mind everybody else's privacy.

- the lemon myrtle struggles under the hot summer sun and receives burns to 30% of the leaves.

... can do with a bit of yellow from a beautiful KitchenAid to brighten the day.

But, then things can be worse, just ask Ed Charles. For instance....

- you have no kitchen to use your favourite classic red KitchenAid when a gas explosion kicks you out of your home into temporary accommodation.

- hot meals mean eating at local eateries, with dishes plated up like cow pats.

- the insurance company leaves you cold while you fume red hot, like the tomato in your blog banner.

- your backpacker neighbour, unlike the gum and myrtle, suffered more than superficial burns and cuts.

... can do with a bit of yellow from a beautiful KitchenAid to brighten the day.

And things usually get worse before they get better....

- in the almost bare 60's style pantry that houses this year's grape jam, the last jar of jam looks half empty. It's shock and disbelief that the entire bumper grape crop, from 2 vines grown over 50 year old leached drains, has vaporized. Darn, it's John the villain again, handing out jam to everyone after tweeting chirping boostingboasting of grape bunches that need two large birds crows to steal carry.

- meanwhile Ed Charles is really in a jam with his insurer not paying. He's giving away apricot and blackberry jam to his 5000 Twitter and Facebook followers to effect a solution.

... can do with a bit of yellow from a beautiful KitchenAid to brighten the day.

Then things start to look a bit different...

- the pantry isn't bare anymore since it has SPACE for a new KitchenAid mixer now that the jars of jam are gone.

- the last jam jar is really half FULL, till next year's grapes.

So, pick me, I'm a lemon already a winner!

... of the self-nominated Best Food Blog Award for the least readership.

So as to not end on a sour note over the jam war, as to who has more pantry space for a KitchenAid mixer, here's something sweet for Ed Charles. It's lemon in a tart! Yes, there is even a RECIPE with PICTURES of REAL food, sans food styling glue, real food that makes your saliva runs, to entice a RETURN visit. The food at this restaurant is 100% free! Just leave a comment as a "tip", will you?

Lemon Tart

homemade pastry for 1 x 20 cm tart shell

2 eggs (50 g each)

1/2 c lemon juice

2 t lemon zest

1 lemon myrtle leaf, finely chopped

1/4 c thick yoghurt

1/4 c + 2 T sugar

icing for dusting

1. Blind baked pastry shell for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius

2. Mix the rest of the ingredients.

3. Strain the mixture into the pastry shell.

4. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes until just set.

5. Cool completely.

6. Refrigerate until serving.

7. Dust with icing.

Olive Oil Pastry

Adapted from recipe by Stefano de Pieri

100 mL cold water

125 mL olive oil

300 g plain flour

1/2 t salt

1. Mix everything together to form a dough. Do not overwork.

2. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

3. Roll out and press into tart shell.

4. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To blind bake, pierce all over with a fork. Weigh down with a flat bottom saucer. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes, removing the saucer after 10 minutes.

The tart can do with a meringue topping, with the help of a KitchenAid mixer.

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Laminex

It's too good to resist a free apron AND a chance to win a $20 000 kitchen by Laminex! There's plenty of kitchen inspirations at the website, and free samples available by mail.

Of particular interest is the squareform benchtop range which comes in many beautiful stone designs. Abyssinian Stone looks wonderful in a French provincial kitchen, like where the 2-minute Noodle Cook brews up endless kitchen drama. Unlike the tiled bench top with grout which needs a lot of work to clean, Laminex surfaces are easy care and just perfect for rolling pastry and dim sums. With a tiled benchtop, it's a bit like cleaning bathroom grout after each meal.

Everyone dreams of a new kitchen ...

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Gluten Free Instant Bread

The difficulty of finding gluten free ingredients for baking over the Easter long weekend calls for a shortcut. After baking 2 loaves of bread which compared less favourably than commercial ones available from Country Life Bakery, Noodle Cook dashed into the local supermarket just before closing to grabbed a box of gluten free bread mix which costs AUD$0.55 per 100g. That means a standard 750g loaf made using 500 g mix costs AUD$2.75, which is very much in line with standard breads.



Product: Gluten Free "Easy Bakers Instant Oven Bread" by Laucke Flour Mills
Usage: Bread, rolls, pancakes, pizza, tortillas, cakes, lunch wraps
Version: "Meals and Grains"
Ingredients: Potato flour, tapioca flour, rice flour, grains 13% (linseed, kibbled corn, sunflower seed, soy grits), soy flour, raising agent (575, 500), canola oil, salt, sugar, vegetable gum (464, 412, 415).
Availability in Western Australia: Coles and Woolworths supermarkets
Method suggested for bread: Add 380 mL water to 500 g bread mix. Beat for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Pour better into 1.8 L baking tin. Let rise at 30 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes until almost double. Bake at 215 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes until golden brown.
Bread Shelf Life: 2-3 days
Recipes: Not available at website for Gluten Free. Recipes found on the box include pancakes, basic cake, lamingtons, pizza, rolls, bread, wraps and tortillas



Notes: Beautiful, even texture with pleasing moistness. Light, well risen, spongy and flexible. Salty. Smells of beans from the soy flour. Hard to remove from baking tin due to tough crust. Very pale crust when baked to instructions. Crust cracked during baking. Can be used for sandwiches. Toasts can be quite hard.

To produce a better bread with more acceptable aroma, better keeping qualities and crisper crust, try the following. The yeast used here is to produce a more pleasing, bakery-like aroma.

Recipe

250 g Gluten Free Easy Bakers Meals and Grains mix
50 g lentil flour
1 teaspoon dried yeast (1/2 of 8 g packet)
200 mL water
2 teaspoon sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon lecithin granules, optional
1 tablespoon flavoured oil (eg. garlic infused)

Dissolve the yeast in water. Make and bake to instructions given above.

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Baking with Ovalett Sponge Cakes Emulsifier

Hosting a tea party is a joy for some. Just check out the spread at Grab Your Fork, where hostess Helen puts on the works with dainty tea cups and antique cake stands. Look for those spectacular red velvet cakes. It could have been high tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada.

What if there is only one chef cooking instead of 12 at Helen's tea party? This calls for some shortcuts. There's this product called Ovalett which is used in all-in-one cake method to stabilize egg foam. According to internet research, a sponge only needs 4-5 minutes beating, and the resultant batter bakes to perfection. Most French trained chef would scorn at the idea of stablizing egg foam using some strange coloured gel even if it saves time. Does this product work? Will it save time? Will it make a beginner pastry cook into an instant masterchef? Only one way to be sure...




Product: Ovalett
Other name: SP
Usage: Sponge cake emulsifier for all-in-one sponge mixes
Version: Dragon and Phoenix brand. Product of Malaysia.
Ingredients: propylene glycol, emulsifier, water, sunset yellow colour E110
Please check your regional Bakel website for variation in ingredients.
Appearance: Sticky orange gel. Ordourless.
Availability in Western Australia: Oriental grocers which stock Indonesian products
Recipes: Check out Bakel Singapore




Sponge

Scaled recipe from Bakel Singapore
2 x 55 g eggs (100 g without shell)
90 g sugar
60 g plain flour
20 g corn flour
1.5 teaspoons Ovalett (7.5 g)
1 teaspoon baking powder (2.5 g)
35 g water
25 g butter, melted

Whisk 5 minutes. Fold in melted butter. Baked at 175 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes in 15 cm ramekin.

Notes: Dense, like butter cake. Domed and cracked during cooking. Deflated towards the end of cooking. Sunken centre. 30 % rise. 6 cm high.
Fault: Too much dry ingredients. Too much baking powder. Pan too small; suit ring or tube pan. Insufficient beating time to aerate foam.




Sponge Roll

Scaled recipe from Bakel Singapore
3 x 55 g eggs (150 g without shell)
90 g sugar
60 g plain flour
20 g corn flour (or 10 g cocoa powder, 10 g cornflour)
2 teaspoons Ovalett (10 g)
1 teaspoon baking powder (2.5 g)
35 g water
40 g butter, melted

Whisk 5 minutes. fold in melted butter. Baked at 215 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes in 30 cm pie dish.

Notes: Very dense, but acceptable for sponge rolls. Domed during cooking. Deflated towards the end of cooking. Sunken centre. 30% rise. 4 cm high, 3 cm at centre.
Fault: Too much liquid. Too much raising agent. Pan too deep; suit shallow Swiss roll tray. Insufficient beating time to aerate foam.





Genoise Sponge

Scaled recipe from Taste.com.au
2 x 55 g eggs
60 g sugar
50 g plain flour
10 g corn flour
1.5 teaspoons Ovalett (7.5 g)
5 shakes cream of tartar
25 g melted butter
Colouring: 1 teaspoon red fermented rice, milled (ang kak)
Flavouring: 1 teaspoon osmanthus flowers, milled

Whisk 10 minutes. Fold in melted butter. Baked at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes in 15 cm ramekin.

Notes: Chiffon like texture, perfect for genoise, but slightly crumbly. Well formed with 30% rise. 5 cm high.
Fault: Insufficient structure due to too much cornflour or more egg perhaps. Could improve with 1/2 teaspoon lecithin for moisture.

... and the conclusion is an experience baker can achieve better results without baking powder or added emulsifier/stablizer. If sponge making is too hard and takes too long for you, then perhaps Ovalett may be the answer. Making a genoise sponge (butter sponge) is just about foolproof according to the results shown here. Just one more note: the commercial recipes did not scale down well. You'll need to adjust accordingly.

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Gluten Free Food that Tastes Real

A gluten free mecca is the best description for this year's Coles Gluten Free Food & Allergy Expo at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre. It's not often that a lifestyle expo offers some much FREE food, the sort that coeliac sufferers crave, such as the scrumptious biscuits, cakes and breads.



When the good folks at the Country Life Bakery stand handed over 3 FREE loaves of frozen Gluten Free breads from their range, Noodle Cook accepted greedily.

Well, it's greedy if you didn't share. So here are the leftovers, from the Low GI and White varieties. There's also a Multigrain version.



The white bread looks slightly yellow. The texture resembles that of quick bread, tea bread or soda bread, namely firm, dense and somewhat heavy. In some way, the bread reminds of home made sour bread without the tangy taste. Unlike soda bread, there is no unpleasant mouth feel.



The bread toasted well with a lovely golden colour and an aroma that rivalled any top cafe. On toasting, the bread softens on the inside while the outside remains firm and crisp. The crispness is not delicate like wheat bread. This texture is excellent for pain perdu and croutons for topping French onion soup. The low GI bread is truly filling: one slice can ruin dinner!






The packaging is clearly labelled for people who need to avoid gluten. The ingredients are listed together with food codes. Both loaves contain sulphites preservative (220).

You can find out more about the gluten free breads from the Country Life Bakery website or writing to 21 Hydrive Close, Dandenong, Victoria 3175.

If you need gluten free ideas, head over to Gluten Free Girl, the top food blog for coeliacs.

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