I am rather partial to Russian potato salad. It is a nice summer salad. I'm always worried that I'll overcook the potatoes so the video shows a nice way to do it.
I don't like all the other stuff, just potatoes, carrot and gherkins as well as mayonnaise. So I skipped the other ingredients and just boiled the potato and carrots as shown and chopped up some gherkins.
Somewhere I'd noted about only buying olives with seeds as the brine only penetrates from the outside and so there is more of an olive taste, rather than just salt. I think this applies to gherkins too. I bought some slced ones and they did not taste anywhere near as nice, nor were they crunchy.
So I boiled carrots for 2 minutes and potatoes for 3 minutes after dicing both up.
I love the Boris the Slav videos and here is his take on Potato Salad:
Mayonnaise
I find mayonnaise expensive in the shops, I've tried buying salad dressing but that is yuk!. So I thought I'd try the recipe below, it looked pretty simple: But it didn't thicken at all, so I put in another egg and still no joy, I tried the whisk and then the blender again. The whisk just aerated the mixture, but the blender got all the air back out but it still didn't thicken, so I put it in the fridge. I used an icecube of lemon and sunflower oil. Very disappointing. I'll need to ry a different recipe. I decided to use the Heinz mayonnaise in the potatoe salad instead.
Mayonnaise - some comments Gordon Ramsey says seasoning at end as it destroys the egg yolks. Also you don't want it splitting so you add oil slowly. Jamie Oliver did the same (egg yolks only & adding oil slowly)- both added a teaspoon of mustard at the beginning.
I'll need to give it another go sometime.
Sweet Chilli Sauce Whilst looking for mayonnaise recipes I came across this, it looks as if it is not difficult to make:
I quite like the egg mcMuffins so want to make some breakfast patties. I'm getting a bit bored with bacon and eggs for breakfast so would like to try something different. The patties should cook in the air fryer quite easily. I need to get them out the night before to defrost in the fridge. With 500g of pork and using this recipe from Spruce Eats
After mixing there were 14 patties, I made them about 12mm thk and about 75mm dia. I'm freeze drying them so that I can pull them out when needed. I may have to get some processed cheese (so it melts) and make or buy some English muffins.
7th March 2020.
They were a bit dry, I used the air fryer to cook them after defrosting them from the freezer.
I was using the breakfast muffins in the freezer, they were a bit small. I decided to make some more using a different recipe from this one below that I did, they were not very airy inside, in fact they were quite dense: So this is the recipe that I followed this time:
English Muffin Recipe in cups: - 2 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup of warm Water (make sure you are NOT using hot water) - 1/2 cup of Warm Milk (make sure you are NOT using hot milk) - 1 3/4 tsp Dry Yeast - 1 tsp Sugar - 1 tsp Salt
English Muffin Recipe in grams: - 350 grams of All Purpose Flour - 115 grams of warm Water (make sure you are NOT using hot water) - 115 grams of warm Milk(make sure you are NOT using hot milk) - 12 gr Fresh Yeast ( or 5 grams dry Yeast) - 5 grams of Sugar - 5 grams of Salt
The recipes dont quite match, and I used 2 tsp of yeast. Also used the stand mixer as well. I got 8 decent sized ones out of the mix. Also I tried using a skillet and no butter with corn flour (that burned - that is why you need corn maize as its bigger particles).
I also tried using the air fryer first, those lost their flat shape and when put in the skillet split a bit, but they all definitely looked better than the first batch I did. I'm looking forward to trying these ones out.
19th March
I liked the patties, the McMuffin breakfast, especially with the cheese. I was a bit disappointed with the previous paattie so I'm trying another mixture. This time I'm mixing and keeping overnight before I make the pattie so the flavours can get through. I had some pork shoulder and minced it, I got 430 grams to make patties.
Ingredients
430g ground pork
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
I'll also flatten the patties out so they are as wide as the bun this time. They make a nice change from bacon.
After being up North I'm ready to brew the next bach of beers. While up in the Pukekohe there is a place called BinnInn that has some beer extracts so I got some Strawberry Cider and a NZ Pilsner by Mangrove Jack. Both a bit more expensive, but I thought I'd give them a try.
As I havent tried Cider yet I need to extend my efforts.
As I got the 2nd fermenting vessel it seemed handy to do them both at the same time.
priming I'm using 1/2 teaspoon normal sugar to .33l bottle., or 1 teaspoon per .75 l bottle.
Brewed Real Ale and used finings and now Saturday 9th May bottled and 2 weeks before drinkable
Dark ale prepped 1042 OG with 1 dextrose and 300g of normal sugar.
I've been doing these for a while, and just looking back at my posts I can't finfd the recipe that I use. I sometimes forget bits (eg Vermicelli) so its good to have the info somewhere: The video above has this recipe: Ingredients
Spring roll wrappers - 30 pack
1 egg (I dont use this as the freezing keeps the spring rolls closed)
150 gm vermicelli
500 gm pork mince
500 gm raw prawns
2 small carrots
1 small brown onion (or spring onions)
4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp fish sauce
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper
Also mung beans too.
I have been using spring roll wraps and rice paper too (for Zoe-Gluten free). After making them I usually freeze them and then pull out ones that I need and microwave for 6 min and then heat in the air fryer. Either Sweet chilli sauce or Soy & Hot Chilli to complement the rolls.
I've been watching a few videos on this topic. Most use a piece of pork belly for curing. This is handy as I've come across the Countdown frozen pork belly. There are 2 methods for final taste, one with salting only and one with cold smoking. I want to try them both side by side to compare. Karl says that you can get smoking chips (Manuka) from the Warehouse, and you can use your BBQ to do some smoking, but that is hot smoking, mabe I'll give that a try with some other things. The salt cure can be done without nitrates so that its less processed. I'm keen to try the taste difference, Also I'm thinking of getting a meat slicer so that I can cut thin slices for cured meat and bacon.
Salting
There seems to be 2 ways to salt meat, one is to just bury the meat in salt and let it draw out the moisture from the meat, but it could end up very salty. The other method is the equilibrium method where you put a percentage of salt, based on the weight of the meat, that way you can ensure the saltiness of the cure. The 2nd method seems to be the more controlled methodvand I'll be trying that first.
Skin on/skin off?
In most videos they remove the skin, either before or after salting and smoking. I quite like the bacon rind so I'll also try keeping the skin on on one of the tests.
Smoking for flavour
I'm interested in trying this. The homemade smoker in metal bin looks interesting. I'm on the hunt for some manuka for sawdust. 15$ /kg at the Warehouse, I'll head down town belt and see if I can find an old branch somewhere. Although this is another method that is even more bare bones. This seems to be a good solution to use with an existing BBQ. This also is a good idea on how to start the smoking, with a gas burner, I've got the small one in the kitchen to use. Here is a kitchen smoking, hot technique This is a comparison between cold smoking and hot smoking.
Process-28th Feb 2020
I got a fresh 1kg of Pork Belly from Pak'n'Save and I'm curing that. I'm using the equilibrium method.
I used 2 1/2 % salt and 1% brown sugar and some thyme, as per this video, but no pink curing salt, the measures are in 2nd video at the top as well as tasting, first is prep:
So far, I've got the mesures and put into the bag in the fridge. I'll turn every day .
I also bought a frozen 1.25kg from Countdown and put that in the freezer. I'll think about doing that one later, after I've the results from the first attempt.
Cost
I've seen the 1kg of bacon (sliced) in the shops for about 15-19$. The cut of pork belly I'm using was 1kg for 15$. So about par with what you are buying, but it doesn't have the othewr preservatives in it.
With the Countdown 1.25kg for 13$ it should be better value for the slightly larger size. I just noticed today (7/3/20) that Countdown now charges 18$ for the pork belly.
There is all the effort you have to put into it, but I'm looking to see what the taste is like.
7th March-
Ive taken the bacon out and washed it, so it now has to dry. I've put it in my Biltong Box with the fan on, it still looks very soft. So hopefully it will dry and harden a bit. I still have the skin on, I tried peeling it off but it was taking off a lot of the fat. I may try it again when its dried a bit more.
I was planning to smoke it but the BBQ wont run. I think regulator bust and I've tried to get it off with no success.
So, I'd have to get a chamber to smoke it in. For another time.
For present I'm hanging it to dry cure it and I'll leave it there.
I need to setup the Biltong box for the 2 pork copa's I'm doing, they are currently salted in the fridge and I'll need to hang them tomorrow. I'm wondering if I can use the air flow process to dry the copa more quickly and get weight down. It will be an interesting test as I have 2 of them, I can try one each way.
9th March.
Took bacon down, it deformed slightly from hanging. I then took the skin off it, as I couldn't cut through it.
I saved the skin in a bag for soups (its ben salted and will add some flavour) in the freezer.
I then started to cut the bacon, but it was too warm so only thick slices, so I've put it in the fridge to firm up, then I'll slice it up again, bag it and put in the freezer.
11th March
I took the bacon out of the fridge & sliced it up, it was easier to cut when cold, but my knife isn't that sharp (even after sharpening it) and the slices are quite thick. They are now in the air fryer getting ready for the newly baked baguettes I've just made.
Overall OK. Not outstanding, just thick bacon, it looks a bit gray as it doesn't have the curing mixture to retain its colour. The taste is not too salty, which is good, some bacon, thats all you taste. But I wouldn't rush out to do it again.
It ended up looking like quite a small piece of meat, and there seems to be lots of fat in it.
End comment
A bit dissapointing not being able to smoke the bacon with the BBQ busting.
Quite a bit of faffing around, 7 days salting, skin off and then drying for a few days and then cutting.
I saw that for the 1.25kg of frozen pork belly Countdown are now charging $18. With all the messing around its easier to buy 1kg of bacon for around $18.
My feeling is that although it is a cleaner cure and bacon, it's a lot of effort to go for a bit of bacon. I'd rather use the pork belly to create panacetta instead, a bit longer but a much more interesting cured meat.
I may give this another go, but I think i'd like a meat slicer so that I can get thin cuts of bacon slices.
