Dough: Richard Bertinet

ISBN-10: 1856267628 ISBN-13: 9781856267625 Format: Paperback Size: 255 x 225mm Pages: 160 RRP: £15.99 Publishers Website Link Author: Richard Bertinet

"Dough" has sold over 100,000 copies and has been translated into 7 languages. "Dough" won the Julia Child Award, the IACP Best Cookbook of the Year Award, a Guild of Food Writers' Award and a James Beard Foundation Award. It was shortlisted for an Andre Simon Award and a Glenfiddich Food & Drink award. The book comes with a free 30-minute DVD gives additional guidance on techniques as well as showing recipes step-by-step. Each of the five chapters begins with a slightly different dough - White, Olive, Brown, Rye and Sweet - and from this 'parent' dough you can bake a vast variety of breads really easily. Try making Fougasse for lunch, bake a Ciabatta to impress, create Tomato, Garlic & Basil Bread for a delicious canape or show off with home-made Doughnuts - the recipes are a delight. This book was lent to me by a friend and I have now added it to my Christmas wish list. As soon as I looked at this beautifully presented book I knew that I had to start trying some of the different recipes. First off were the doughnuts and then the puff balls, wow what fun! The step by step techniques and skills are shown with excellent photographs and supporting text. There is no need to try and puzzle out what the author is trying to describe you can see exactly what he means! Why can't more books be like this one? The copy I was leant also came with a DVD of the basic techniques which really does support and supplement the text. I highly recommend this book for the novice and the experienced home baker. It looks so good you can almost smell the yeast and fresh bread as soon as you open the cover. Mmmmmmmm.

Home Brew: Doug Rouxel and Sara Paston Willams

Product Details

Length: 208 pages

Illustration note: Includes colour photographs and illustrations

ISBN: 9-781-8620-5882-8 

Dimensions: 251 x 194mm

Weight: 990g

Binding: Printed Laminated Cover (no jacket)



This is the kind of book I have been looking for for a long time!  I have only had the book a few days and already I have tried  a few with really impressive results.
I have mainly concentrated on the cordials (excuse the pun) because these reap result almost instantly.  Having obtained a box of 32 lemons for £1 I was able to make a lovely lemon cordial which we have been drinking hot, cold and with fizz added. the lavender cordial has made of an interesting addition to our collection with its beautiful cottage garden flavour.
The recipes are clearly laid out and easy to follow. The supporting pictures temp you to try something new simply because it looks good, the quality of the photographs is outstanding. Unlike many other books this one does not look as if it is a rewrite of something from the 1970's and the Good Life!
The section on the equipment is lacking any pictures for the novice to identify what is required but this is a minor criticism.
This book will see a lot of use in our kitchen during all months of the year.
Well done Doug and Sara, most impressive.

Preserves

This autumn we have been busy making as many preserves and pickles as possible from locally sourced fruit and veg. Heres a range of colourful items: pickled red cabbage, cherry tomatoes, piccalilli, pasta sauce and pickled onions.

Pasta Making - have a go, it's easy

Pasta seems to be something that we all take for granted, it comes in packets (usually dried) and we drop it into boiling water ready for the meal. But have you ever wondered how its made or how easy it is to make? Well a couple of years back we saw that we could get an attachment for my Kitchenaid which would roll and cut pasta. It just had to be tried!
The first thing after admiring the wonderful design and quality workmanship was to source the pasta flour. Now initially this was a problem because only Tesco seemed to have it and when they did only in a limited number of packets. However Morrisons now stock good quality pasta flour grade 00. The first few batches were made using just pasta flour, eggs, salt, a little oil and water. It was fine but not as we had hoped, ie light and mach tastier than dried pasta.
Then we found that mixing in semolina and pasta flour 50/50 made for a much nicer product, far far better than anything from the shops.

So how do we make this lovely pasta?

• 300gm of pasta flour grade 00
• 300gm of semolina flour
• 6 eggs
• tsp salt
• tbsp olive oil
• water

Put all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix. Next add the eggs (always crack eggs into a separate container first before adding to the mix). Using the dough hook mix into a dough adding the oil and if required the water.
Note: the dough needs to look like pastry, evenly mixed and an even colour.
This next stage is something we learnt from experience: leave the dough to rest, coved in the fridge or a cool place for about an hour.
Take the the ball of dough and coat lightly in pasta flour, cut into four or six pieces, kneed into balls.
Setting the pasta rollers to the widest setting feed each ball of dough through several times. After each pass fold the resulting sheet in half and re-roll inserting the folded end FIRST.  This stops air pockets.
The process of rolling breaks down the gluten and makes the pasta light and
 very tasty.
Once the dough takes on an elastic feel then start to reduce the thickness by moving the roller settings.

We then leave the dough resting a little while on muslin, but some people hang it over a rail or bar.

Next swap the rollers for the cutters. Take each sheet and pass through the cutters and either hang to dry in a warm place, dust with flour, bag and freeze or use fresh, what-ever takes your fancy.

The pictures show our posh drying rack which will take a full 1kg batch of dough and will allow it to dry overnight in a warm room.

We always cover with muslin when leaving pasta to dry. Never put in a sealed container until totally dry otherwise the pasta will  grow a lovely grey or green bloom!

We don't buy pasta anymore, its quick and easy to make your own and its much much nicer to eat.

I highly recommend this book by  Katie Cladesi:

Is the autumn on its way?

This morning was the first time the car was covered in dew, does this mean that autumn is nearly here?
Locally the elderberries are starting to ripen, there appears to be a huge crop this year so we will be out collecting these beautiful fruit to make into wine, jelly, jam and cordials. Today I had to go across the county to Huddersfield. As I drove down the country lanes I also noticed the huge numbers of lovely rose hips. These too will juiced and made into cordial which is an excellent winter warmer.
The steam juicer will be working overtime again this year!