Saturday, August 29, 2009

To Home Grown, and Beyond!

Tonight we watched Buzz Lightyear buckle himself into the Pizza Planet delivery van with an annoying air of virtue. It is with something of the same air that a vegetable grower reports to others about the delight of eating their own crops, and with which food-lovers describe making something from scratch. Stand by; my day has been spent like that!

Earlier this week, I realised that at least one of our three-litre milk bottles was sour, as had been one of last week's. Coles Online has a policy of only refunding goods within 24 hours of delivery, but the helpline lady credited this week's milk anyway -- after all, nobody opens all their milk for the week to check it for freshness. Now a small amount of sour milk is an excuse to make pikelets, pancakes, scones and so forth, but 6 litres of sour milk is another matter.

Then you move to Option B: tvorog. It's pronounced tvaROG, and it is the Slavic word from which we and the Germans derive the word quark: fresh curd-cheese. Of course I asked my Dad for advice; he remembers his mother making both tvorog and ripened cheeses. My adventure in making tvorog I will leave for another time (I used 3 litres of the sour milk). At the end of the process, I ended up with lots of whey, which Dad told me was used in making bread (Rhonda Jean has also mentioned using whey in bread on her blog). I've frozen most of it in two-cup portions; the Geek tells me this means it is "whey cool".

I thought bread rolls with dinner might be nice. We were planning to have quiche while we watched the movie. And I had a brainwave about a salad while I was working in the garden today. So here is dinner:



Silverbeet, onion & mozzarella quiche: homegrown silverbeet and parsley, and homegrown eggs. Confession: frozen pastry. I don't do pastry, unless it's Ukrainian style.
Wholemeal bread rolls from scratch: leftover whey.
Salad: homegrown 'Forellenschuss' lettuce, dill, beetroot leaves, and baked baby beetroot (carrot from shop). Dressing of garlic, tangelo juice and zest, olive oil, salt, pepper.

I'm not sure whether it's increasing experience or the use of whey, but the bread rolls are the best I've ever made. The dough rose impressively to triple its original size!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

ROTFL ... we also had a 3L bottle of sour milk a few weeks ago. My hubby is a curd-cheese-makign expert (he grew up on a diary farm where they made their own cheese and butter (and obviously cream and milk but there's less process involved there).
Mind you, there was no way (whey) *I* was going to eat it (having seen the making process a little too closely) and we fed it to the chooks who gobbled it up.

Hubby's process was to warm the milk to blood temp, leave it to set a little then strain it through a nylon washing bag (the type you wash delicates in). I must say teh resulting curd *looked* really good and smelt OK.

Rock rose said...

That meal looks absolutely delicious. I like to cook too. What I wouldn't give for some home laid eggs. I have been commenting recently on how tasteless the eggs are and now I learn that todays eggs have no omega 3 because the chickens are not eating grubs and pill bugs but an artificial diet. Same for corn fed cattle and pigs. There is little of value in our food these days.

Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog said...

Your meal looks fantastic! But I must confess that I don't know what a silverbeet is. Is it a type of beet?

Anonymous said...

I really like the fact that you found a way to still use your soured milk! I have a hard time of throwing anything away and LOVE finding ways of using it up. I've read you can eat turnip greens, and even though our turnips are full grown (most people only eat the greens when young and tender) it seems some people still eat them. So I've blanched some up and tonight we're going to try some southern recipe from people that love to eat them like collard greens. I've had a bite and it's bland but good and a little more bitter than spinach and I think it'll work great with the turnips and some bacon and homemade corn bread! Hooray for finding ways to use things without throwing them away!!!!

Frances said...

Hi Chookie, this is very exotic to me, the milk being delivered and all. But the use of it to bake delicious rolls and such is pure genius! Your meal looks great and the movie sounds like one we will be watching with young grandson LTB. Love that Buzz, such a good role model. :-)
Frances

Wicked Gardener said...

Whey Cool! (LOL!!)

Chookie said...

Corymbia, it sounds like the only thing wrong with your hubby's tvorog was his not having washed his hands!

Lancashire rose, make room for chickens if you can. Yes, chooks are omnivores and need a surprising amount of animal protein and green pick -- but the eggs are stunning.

Jean, silverbeet is also called Swiss chard, and in Sydney is often miscalled spinach (it's much easier to grow here than 'English' spinach).

Sensiblevermonter, I suspect that the turnip greens will be delicious with the bacon. Admittedly, they'd be likely to go to the guinea pigs here!

Frances, my husband has downloaded Toy Story 2 for this evening. We love iTunes :-)

Yes, Wicked Gardener, I must admit I married him for his GSOH!

caramaena said...

What Wicked Gardener said... hehehe

Oh and yummmmm... silverbeet. Got a heap in the fridge courtesy of the MIL's garden. She grows a couple of different coloured varieties (red and yellow stalks) - whatever colour though - love it!

Chookie said...

I grow 'Five Colour Mixed' like your MIL because I like the variety I get, Caramaena. (Hmm, there's a fantasy series I haven't caught up with for a while!)