Homemade Organic Butter

Making butter is… like moving a hot knife through butter: simple, smooth, and very, very easy. If you haven’t done this yet, go out today and buy a pint of heavy cream, and then spend 10 minutes to make your own butter. It’s incredibly simple to do, and it tastes wonderful! 

Number of Servings: 48

Ingredients:

• Organic Heavy Cream -- 2 Quarts
• Himalayan Pink Salt  (Optional)

Directions:

• Leave the cream out for a bit so that it warms to 50F or so.

• Pour the cream into the mixer with a whisk attachment. Put a cover over the mixer, so you don’t splatter cream all over your kitchen. Alternatively, you can pour the cream into a jar you can shake. (This will take longer, but your arms will get a good workout, and you can make it a family project.)

• Mix on medium-high for 5-7 minutes. For once in your life, you get to over-whip cream! When the butter has separated from the liquid, you’re done mixing.

• Strain the butter into a bowl, making sure all the liquid runs out. Then set aside the liquid. (That liquid is homemade, fresh buttermilk!)

• Rinse the butter with water to remove any excess liquid.

• Knead the butter with a spatula to bring together the curds. This doesn’t take long – a minute or two. If you want to salt your butter, now is a good time. (We prefer to have unsalted butter, which gives us more salt control when cooking.)

Note:
Save the butter in a sealed glass container in the fridge, and use the fresh buttermilk for pancakes or homemade biscuits!

Gouda Cheese Fondue with Herbed Crostini

Ingredients

Fondue:
• 1 lb. Gouda, cubed
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup white wine
• ¼ cup cornstarch, enough to coat the cheese
• ½ cup fresh tomatoes, diced
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil, julienned
• Kosher or sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
• Grated nutmeg to taste
• Shot of Tabasco
• 2 tablespoons Kirsch or Sherry

Crostini:
• ½ sourdough baguette
• ¼ stick butter
• ½ teaspoon granulated garlic
• Fresh herbs of choice (basil, oregano, sage, rosemary)

Preparation

Fondue:
Smash the garlic cloves and rub inside of heavy saucepan; then discard the garlic.
Put saucepan on the stovetop over medium heat and add the white wine, scraping with a wooden spoon to dissolve the garlic residue. Toss the Gouda cubes in a small bowl with cornstarch, add the cheese to the saucepan and melt; stir to prevent scorching. When melted, add the tomato, basil, Kirsch or Sherry, nutmeg and Tabasco. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve with crostini.

Crostini:
Slice sourdough baguette into ¼-inch slices. Melt butter, granulated garlic and herbs, then brush or drizzle on the bread slices. Bake at 350°F for approximately 15-20 minutes, turning over once, until golden brown.

 

Veggie Roll - Fresh Bread

Serves: 4-6
Ingredients Used: 
breadcrumbs, Butter, feta, filo pastry, Flat-Leaf Parsley, Free-range eggs, Garlic, nutmeg, Olive Oil, Pine Nuts, poppy seeds, ricotta, Scallions, Spinach, Spring Onions

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 6 spring onions (scallions), trimmed and sliced
• 1 bunch spinach washed and roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup (50g) pine nuts
• 1 cup (200g) crumbled feta
• 1 cup (200g) fresh ricotta
• 1/4 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
• Handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1.5 cups (105g) fresh breadcrumbs
• 375g filo pastry
• 150g butter, melted
• 1 free-range egg yolk mixed with a little milk
• Handful poppy seeds
• Good quality Tzatziki or tomato relish

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C fan-forced.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, add the garlic and spring onion and cook gently for 5 minutes. Add the spinach, then cover and cook for 2-3 minutes until wilted. Drain and set aside to cool, then squeeze out any excess liquid.
3. Place the pine nuts in a dry frying-pan and toast over low-medium heat for 5 minutes or until lightly golden ~ don’t take your eyes off them as they can burn very quickly.
4. Combine the cheeses, nutmeg and egg in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the spinach, parsley, pine nuts and breadcrumbs.
5. Place one sheet of filo pastry on a clean worktop and brush with a little melted butter. Place another sheet on top and brush with butter to give you a stack of three sheets.
6. Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling evenly along the long edge of pastry closest to you, leaving a 4-5 cm gap at each end. Roll up the pastry and filling to from a sausage shape, tucking the sides in as you go. Brush the sausage liberally with the egg wash. Repeat with the remaining filling and pastry.
7. Place one filo sausage in the middle of a greased round baking tray and form it gently into a spiral. Take the next filo sausage and join it end-to-end with the first, coiling it around. Continue with the remaining pieces to form a large spiral brushing with egg wash as you go to seal it all together. Sprinkle with poppy seeds, then bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown all over.
8. Serve with Tzatziki or tomato relish.

Butternut squash soup with chickpeas, collard greens sprouts and cumin

Ingredients:
1,5 kg butternut squash, seeded, peeled and diced
200 g onion, peeled and cut into pieces
350 g turnips, peeled and cut into pieces
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp cumin + to sprinkle
100 g dried chickpeas
A few collard greens sprouts (the tips)
1 gralic clove chopped
Olive oil
Salt to taste

Preparation:
*The night before put the chickpeas inside a bowl with cold water to soak.
*Cook the chickpeas for 30 m to 1 hour until tender (it depends on the quality of the chickpeas). Season with salt only at the last minute of cooking.
*Cook the sprouts, they only need about 10 minutes, you can cook them in the same pan with the cickpeas when they are almost tender. Drain but keep the water to add to the soup later.
*In a heavy bottomed pan put the olive oil and take to the heat, add the onion and cook until translucent, sprinkle with the cumin, give it a stir and add the remaining vegetables. Pour some  water, just enough to cover the veggies.
*Cook until tender, season with salt and blitz the soup. Add the  chickpeas/sprouts water until the soup becomes smooth and velvety. You can add a bit of simple water if you think it needs it.
*Heat a bit of olive oil in a saucepan and sautée the garlic for a few seconds, add the chickpeas and sprouts and stir just to blend the flavors. Remove from the heat.

*Serve the soup with the chickpea/sprout mixture on top and sprinkle with cumin.

 

Blessings to: pratos&travessas