A customer recently popped in to get ingredients for making English muffins, and asked what they were traditionally dusted with. I admitted that I hadn't a clue, and advised, with not much conviction, to try semolina.
I realised that not only had I never made English muffins from scratch, I'd never even thought of doing so. Yet suddenly it was at the top of my to-do list. That evening I consulted the great Google and learnt that yes, English muffins are dusted with semolina. However, many recipes called for polenta, regular flour, corn meal or farina cereal. Just to confuse things further, all of these online sources were adamant that theirs was the only proper English way. As it so happened, I had both semolina and cornmeal in my pantry, so I decided to make a batch right away, dusting half with semolina and half with corn meal. The results were basically identical, although I do like the speckled golden edge of the corn meal ones best. Flavour-wise, there was nothing in it. So here it is, our English muffin recipe, cobbled together from the knowledge I gleaned online from two British bakers plus the results of my own tinkering about. I was delighted by both how easy they were to make, and how deliciously authentic they tasted. They're truly delicious with both savoury and sweet toppings. We enjoyed a freshly made one with jam, then froze the rest before toasting them two days later as the base for a delicious Eggs Benedict.
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While tabbouleh traditionally uses cracked wheat (called bourgal or bulgar), ours calls for millet. This not only makes it gluten free, it really shows off millet's capabilities of absorbing flavours beautifully whilst staying fluffy and light. This is an important factor, because so often Sydney summers mean that our salads don't maintain their vibrancy after half an hour spent on the picnic rug or BBQ buffet. Not so with millet tabbouleh; it maintains that freshly made quality for longer.
You'll also notice this Tabbouleh recipe asks for za'atar. It's by no means a traditional Tabbouleh ingredient, but I find it really lifts the whole thing and delivers depth and interest. So come on a little millet adventure with us. When cooking queries regarding millet were recently brought up by two separate customers on the same day, we thought it might be a sign to serve our customers up a millet recipe. Or maybe even two!
Millet porridge is a common breakfast in several countries. It's also used as a high protein, nutritious alternative to rice, pearl barley and couscous. One of the conversations we had with a customer was about how to properly cook millet porridge. Some people find that the end result is a little firm, even after cooking thoroughly. After some trial and error, I think I've cracked the code. Huddle up: There are two methods that give you a satisfyingly creamy porridge, albeit with differing textures. The first method involves leaving the millet grains whole, but soaking them overnight before then cooking them for about 20 to 30 mins. It's basically the same method I use for steel cut oats, and the result is similar- a robust bowl of goodness. The second method is quicker and gives you a smoother, silkier porridge. You simply put the raw millet grains in a food processor, blender or coffee grinder and whiz it until the grains are much finer - about halfway to being a flour. Then you cook it in milk and water for 15 minutes. This is my preferred method, and the one I use below, but you might find you prefer the whole grain version. We have my 14yo to thank for this recipe. Whilst "Mum, can we try making gazpacho this weekend" is not the usual thing to be uttered by a teenager, it's right on brand for Sam. He's a history and geography buff, and lately he's been delving into Spain and, specifically, the southern region of Andalusia. Gazpacho is a chilled tomato soup which is a popular staple in the southern parts of Spain. It's a thin soup made with tomatoes, capsicum and cucumber. Knowing my kid's passionate aversion to capsicum I suggested we make Salmorejo instead. Like its cousin, Gazpacho, Salmorejo is also Andalusian, tomato based, served chilled & just as refreshing on a hot day. While some Salmorejo recipes call for the use of fresh tomatoes, I was keen to put our new bottled passata to the test. The end result was wildly successful - a bright, vibrant meal that had us scraping our bowls. Try it on a hot day - I think Sydney has quite a few of those up its sleeve before giving way to Autumn. We assure you'll be delighted with the cooling, nourishing eating experience that Salmorejo delivers. Dear Villagers, I was inspired to make this recipe because of TikTok. Before you judge, let me explain, justify and defend my actions. We noticed recently quite an upswing in the number of customers coming in to stock up on medjool dates. Being nosy, we asked why, and learned that there was a recipe trending on TikTok for Snicker Dates. It was a simple recipe that involved stuffing a medjool date with peanut butter before dipping it in melted chocolate.
As a self-proclaimed queen of whole food snacks (I used to make sweet treats for cafes around the Inner West) I decided to make some. There's much to love about this kind of whole food treat, They usually involve a small number of ingredients, they're quick to make, and you don't have to worry too much about exact amounts - it's a more relaxing cooking experience when you can be a little loosey-goosey with weighing and measuring. Me being me, I made a couple of small changes to the recipe. The main one is the addition of cacao butter. While the TikTok recipes all called for dipping the dates in either straight melted chocolate, or adding a little coconut oil to the chocolate. The (small) issue with just melted chocolate on its own is that it sets hard, and you lose a bit of that decadent mouth feel that you get biting into a chocolate bar. And that is why some recipes include adding some coconut oil. The inclusion of coconut oil helps the chocolate melt better and set better, while also preventing it from going super hard and brittle. But coconut oil has a polarising taste, and I know a lot of kids in particular who aren't keen on it. Hence I decided that cacao butter would be a better option. It not only improves the meltability and the texture when set, but the subtle, rich flavour and aroma adds tenfold to the chocolate bar experience we are trying to create. I decided to add a touch of cacao butter to the peanut butter too, to give the peanut butter a creamier, more velvety mouthfeel. Being that there are 6 ingredients, and the recipe is done and dusted in 30 mins, I guess you are wondering why such a simple recipe is so long and wordy… Please don't be alarmed, I promise you that it is indeed very simple and we are not about to put you through a Masterchef Pressure Test! It's just that each simple step is harder to explain in words than video. Feel free to omit using toothpicks - your Snicker Date Bites will be a little wider and a little flatter, but just as delicious. One final thing before we jump in and get cooking: In my opinion, it's the salt and crushed peanuts that make these babies sing. Don't skip them! |
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