FREE BIGA BREAD STARTER

Reblogging this because it’s a freebie offer of a bread starter but also because this a wonderful blog by another Kiwi – their latest post Carrot Top Pesto!!

Back Yard Farmer

FOLLOW OUR BLOG http://backyardfarmer.co.nz/ AND GET YOUR  FREE BIGA

If you follow our Blog and Email us that you want a FREE BIGA, you can either collect it or we shall mail it to you for the cost of postage only, which is $4.80 for New Zealand.

Here is the recipe for the Biga if you want to make it yourself.

La Biga  or Natural Wild Yeast Starter or Bread Mother Plant

Bidga is a natural yeast starter that adds so much character to the bread. When used, the crust will be crunchier, the crumb moister and the bread will be more flavourful with a longer shelf live. Above all, you save on the cost of buying yeast all the time. The idea is to introduce natural wild yeast spores and natural bacteria to ferment the simple, introduced sugars and encourage bubbling. The lactic acid from the bacteria strengthens the gluten…

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Chargrilled Chicken, Bacon, Asparagus and Avocado Salad with a Sticky Citrus Dressing

Reblogging for summer, this looks delish 🙂

Homemade With Mess

Who would believe that we are actually having a glorious week of sunshine and high temperatures; it’s ‘Gurt Lush’ as they here in Bristol. The only down side to this is that I have to work and gaze out the window at it from my boring desk, and then drive home in a car that has been sat in the sunshine all day, with no air conditioning! To say I have been getting home very sticky, hot and bothered is an understatement. There is only one thing that these sorts of days call for and that is a really great salad; and trust me, this one is the bees knees! Chicken, bacon and avocado is such a great classic combination, which is only made better by the addition of some fantastic seasonal asparagus. The dressing on this is perfect and really marries together the flavour combinations. I promise that…

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Fruit Crostata with Sweet Cheese

Have to reblog this and try it one day when our berries are back in season, it looks very yummy.

Mastering The Art Of Pigging Out - My Life In Food - John C. Picardi

I was going to a friend’s house for dinner tonight and I wanted to make something traditional for dessert, but with a twist…something slightly different… I’ve been craving Cheese Cake lately, but thought it too heavy since the weather has been hot & muggy and plus cheese cake can be rather filling after a meal. What to do?

I contemplated for a second– –I had some fresh cherries, blueberries and peaches, but I really wanted that cheesecakes taste…so this is what I came up with and it definitely fulfilled my cheesecake cravings and it gave this Fruit Crostata a whole new dimension.

Sweet Cheese Filling
½ cup cream cheese
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
Beat everything together until well blended and put it to the side.

Clean, cut, and peel your fruit. I used cherries, blueberries and peaches slices. I had four cups of fruit. I mixed…

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Chilli Jam

This looks good!!

Live for the Kitchen, Die for the Dining Room

This is a really great recipe for using up my abundance of chillies (Ta v muchly Craig!!) and can be eaten with ANYTHING! I like it with a strong cheddar on crostini with a glass of wine as a tasty supper.
It is a runny jam which I prefer but if you like yours thicker just omit some of the vinegar and sugar.

Ingredients
20 Large Red Chillies
100ml White Wine Vinegar
500g Caster Sugar
1 Garlic Clove
4 Teaspoons Salt

Method
Chop chillies into 1/2cm rings.
Add all ingredients to pan and bring to he boil.
Simmer for 1 hour watching Isley to ensure it doesn’t bubble over or burn.
Take off the heat and allow to cool for a minute of two..molten sugar is like skin remover do not touch!!
Store in a sterilised jar in the refrigerator for up to a month..good luck in making it last…

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Simple Feijoa Cake – Recipe

 Made this this morning – home alone and with the munchies for something sweet. Delicious with cream. Feijoas are also known as pineapple guava for those not used to the fruit “feijoa”.

Because life is for the living..

Tis the season! So I’m a big fan of this highly perfumed fruit, everyone knows this. But apart from gorging oneself on them raw, it can be hard to know how use them up. Muffins, cakes and chutneys are my preference.

I’ve got a really good chutney recipe on my blog if you’re keen to give it a go, I highly recommend it as do a lot of others ..

If you’re into sweet things, this is a goodun and simple too.

125g soft butter
1 c white sugar
2 large free range eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 c milk
1 & ¼ c white high grade flour
2 t baking powder
1t Mixed spice
2 c peeled & halved Feijoa (Cut in half and scoop out the innards)

2T brown sugar mixed with 2T pecans and 1t cinnamon

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and…

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Eat Like a Bee: Dandelion Jelly

Looks like something I would like to try one day. Thanks 🙂

Rock Farmer

Bees Know a Good Thing – Dandelions are Sweet
This is the time of year when I harness my in-home child labor to make dandelion jelly. I pay my girls 1 cent for each fully opened yellow dandelion blossom they pick from our yard – They might be the one remaining thing worth a single penny today. If you’ve never made dandelion jelly, you’re in for a surprise. I like Langdon Cook’s recipe at Fat of the Land – It’s just the right size for us since I can’t can anything on our glass range (apparently the glass can’t take the heat of canning). I split a batch into two jars; one goes into our fridge, the other goes to a friend. If you have a stove that’s canning-friendly, by all means make a larger batch and save some for future toast – Directions and recipes abound online.

Boiling the…

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I made this and it’s delicious! It only lasted a week, there was no way this was going to be stored in the pantry wrapped in paper.

These look scrummy!

Love this idea – to try!!

Rock Farmer

I love fruit scrap vinegar. Since discovering that I can turn peels, cores, and squishy bits of overripe fruit into delicious vinegar, I’ve been giving in to my desire for more, more, more. It makes great salad dressing, it’s delicious over steamed vegetables, truly it works well in any recipe that calls for vinegar. The flavor and fragrance of the fruit comes through in each batch, so much so that I don’t need to label the jars; one sniff tells me which batch is blackberry and which is plum.

All fruit scrap vinegar roads seem to lead back to Sandor Ellix Katz and his book Wild Fermentation. I use the method outlined by No Impact Man Colin Beavan, and he credits Sandor Katz. I owe them both a big thank you – I love everything about fruit scrap vinegar. Well, everything except for the smell of pineapple vinegar…

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Looks good!!

I am NOT an urban hippie

“This is where you need smell a vision internet” said my wife as I striped the leaves off the basil.

We picked a full shopping bag of basil along with the haul of veggies and other items from mum and dads place yesterday. It would have been better to process it last night but getting back and getting ready for the week ahead and only one car precluded that.

Again tonight in the heat it would have been easy to leave it untill it cooled down tomorrow as I have now done with the quinces I need to bottle and the plums to sauce, but the closer to the picking the better the pesto. And while it unseasonably hot, it is autumn and time to start to lay down food for the winter and pesto is such a great item you can really never have too much of it.

I…

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