Udder Delight
Milk is getting some old-school treatment up in the Hunter Valley. Family operated Udder Farm Dairy at Luskintyre is packaging up non-homogenised cow’s milk in glass bottles and by-passing Coles-worths to sell direct to local corner stores.
When cows are milked, a layer of cream settles at the top. Back in the day, it was this layer of milk that indicated the quality of the milk – the thicker the layer, the better the milk. All was needed was a good shake to disperse the creamy layer throughout the milk before pouring yourself a glass. Homogenisation is when milk is forced through tiny tubes to break down the size of fat molecules in milk so they disperse throughout the milk and stay dispersed, removing any chance of a cream layer forming in bottles of stored milk. In a hark back to the old days, Glenn took a punt on people’s penchant for reminiscing and decided to bottle up his milk un-homogenised and in glass bottles.
Mango Sorbet
Ever since Sienna started on solids at six months of age she’s had a thing for mango. When she was that little I would let her go to town on the cubes of mango cut from the cheeks. More would slip out of her chubby little fingers and onto the floor than would land in her mouth. Watching the level of concentration required to get just one of those cubes eaten was fascinating and funny to watch. Before long she was asking for more so I’d let her suck on the seed until it either slipped from her clutches or it was denuded of all its orange flesh.
Lamingtons
Every national dish is surrounded by contentious debate about what ingredients form the official recipe. I’ve already had the inclusion of carrot in meat pie questioned and now on making lamingtons I was asked by more than one person why there wasn’t any cream and/or jam in the middle. Opinion is divided, but I believe the truer version of the lamington, as served by then Governor of Queensland Lord Lamington’s French chef, was free of jam and cream.
Favourite Cookbooks of 2011
You might remember last year I asked some of my favourite blogging peeps for their two favourite cookbooks OF ALL TIME (part 1 & part 2). This year I wanted to update you on the cookbooks I got the most use out of in 2011.
Do The Hokey Pokey
Hello and Happy New Year to you! How was your Christmas break? Did you eat too much?
Despite the bizarre whether of late (18C and miserable rain for days in summer?) there have been several breakthrough days of real summer that have provided the perfect excuse to pull out the ice-cream maker.
I’ve made ice-cream a few times before without a machine – it’s not really that much extra bother. Though, I did once forget to keep mixing a batch as it was freezing and it ended up icy and rough….but we still ate it anyway. This was my first time using a machine and I am so glad I finally have one. Not only is the ice-cream smooth and creamy, but churning is done in about an hour.
