Beef Jerky & Air Fryer

Beef jerky

My son in law Karl makes beef jerky. I'd never really bothered with it before, it looks lika a bit of shoe leather and seeing people eat it, it looks like they are eating shoe leather.
He created a few different batches and has very kindly given them to me, and they dissapear very quickly, they are very morish.  The saltiness makes you drink more beer, so that is good. And a good protien snack.
If I was in a shop I wouldn't buy them as they are small packetsand expensive and I'd rather have a packet of chips or even pork crackling instead.
I was looking at some snacks I could make with an air fryer and on one video they made beef jerky. So I thought i'd give it a try.
I like this chaps videos and in this one he makes Beef Jerky as he test drives an air fryer. 

His results wern't that great so I looked at a few more.
It seemed to me that getting the beef cut and slicing were important. Obvious really, better ingredients usually give you better results.
The slicing into regular widths was a concern as my cutting can be a bit eratic.
Then I thought, Beef Snitzel!!! I had some in the freezer and it is already sliced very thinly, so all I had to do was cut a bit of the fat off it. The fat does taste different than the meat.
So I thawed the meat and have just sliced it up.
Of the spices I do like the hot spicy ones so I thought, as this is my first try, I'd bung in a lot of the basic ingredients and see how it turns out. If it works then I'll start to do a bit more research and be a bit more scientific about it. Also maybe get some tips from Karl.
So, I've chucked a bit of Soy Sauce, brown sugar, Sarachi, Smoked paprica, Garlic salt, Lee Perin, pepper, chilli flakes and apple vinegar into a container and have put the strips into the mix to soak overnight in the fridge.

So phase 1 done.
I like the beef snitzel cut as they are quick to cook and make good Beef Stroganoff, a lovely hearty winter meal. In my budget concious state, it is expensive, so I only buty it when its on special and freeze a few batches.
Karl says dry out at 70 dec C but Air fryer only goes down to 80 deg C, so I'll do on that setting. The other video says 30 minutes, I'll start with that too.

Drying

I used an 80 deg C setting and  hung the meat on a ring I had, I wasa able to get all the pieces in. I set it for 30 minutes and after 20 min they were still pretty moit, so I've added another 30 minutes to the timer.

 

The drying process, I ramped it up to 100 Deg C after 60 min and ran that for about another 30 mins. Some parts were quite descicated, others still moist.

 After picking a couple of bits out I ended up with about 175 g of Jerky, sop put into 3 servings of 50g and one of 25g. Not such a lot for such a process. 

Very salty and a bit sweet, and not that hot or peppery but tasty, but I think thats the salt. I've got the 25g pack to have with the beer tonight. 

I kept the left over juices for another marinade but I may toss it as the blood in the meat may not be too good. 

 I think I'd try again, but I need a better recipe for the mix as its a bit too salty and sweet, whereas I like the pepper and chilli flavour. 

Curing & Storing both Jerky & Biltong

Apparently mould can start growing after about day 5-6, epending on humidity. So that is why dry time about 4 days for Biltong, so that it doesn't start growing mould.
I put the beref jerky into bags, it was a bit moist, but I used a straw to suck out the air and left it in a cupboard. I'd done the drying on the 23rd, today the 26th and there was a bit of while on the outside of one of the bags. I think air had slowly got into the packet.
So, lesson, meat, moist, mould.
I think I should put some tissue paper in to absorb some of the moisture ( some have the salt crystal bags) and also put into the fridge.
They say the flavour changes if you put into the freezer, so I'll need to test some of the pieces doing that, to test flavour change, bith the Jerky and the Biltong.

Mince jerky? Worth a crack Nigel

This looks a bit wierd but may be worth a test, using mince and then rolling and drying:

Biscotti.

I'm thinking of a couple of home-made things I can give as presents for Xmas.
The Candied orange Peels are good, and I saw a couple of YT videos on Biscotti's. I thought that was a nice idea, I need to get some brown sugar and almonds, and see if that is a goer.

The first video has fruit in it, and it looks pretty good, the 2nd has just almonds. 

  BISCOTTI with NUTS & DRIED FRUIT

 4 extra large Eggs 

1 cup Sugar (white) 

1 cup Brown Sugar 

6 oz Butter (1½ sticks) 

1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract 

1 Lemon (Juice & Zest) 

1 Tbsp Baking Powder 

1 tsp Baking Soda 

4½ - 5 cups All Purpose Flour 

1 cup Sliced Almonds

 1 cup chopped Mixed Dried Fruit (Figs, Dates, Raisins)

I've got to maybe look at some packaging for the gift wrapping too

This one has great presentation:

The results

So, after baking them and putting them in bags I bought some poly bags that are seal-able. I coated them in chocolate (milk and white) and dipped them in ground nuts, Then bagged them and used straw to suck air out of them.
 Next time, I think I'd make thinner than before as they are a bit big to bite into, it's a biscuit, so should be thinner. A sharp knife to slice.

 I also did the orange peel double dips (milk choc one end & white choc the other).

So all in air tight bags and ready for Christmas as gifts.

Candied Orange and Lemon Peel

I was thinking of doing something sweet for Christmas, and i've always liked candied orange, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I did take a photo of the 3 oranges and 2 lemons peeled that I will use in the smoothie maker, so they are sitting in the fridge.

I will let them dry out, they suggest overnight, then may consider dipping an end in chocolate, or just putting in bags.

There is this video:

Which looks pretty straight and simple, I particularly like the use of the syrup for enhancing other things. I can add some to the smoothie maker.
There was this video too, and I thought that double blanching to take the bitterness out was a good idea, especially with the pith:

Although he does recommend 3 blanchings. I actiually did a couple for about 10 minutes each.
 I do like his idea of the oils in the skin, so may consider doing an orange or lemon tincture later
This video shows a great way to get regular skins, I like the idea of it and will try peeling them this way next time.
I also like the idea of maybe being a bit light n the blanching to add a bit of bitterness to them.

These look absolutely cool, although there is a big process to go through for making them over a few days, the instructions are in the description below:

The orange slices dipped in chocolate in this vid is so cool. This is great presentation,

Results

I was  so pleased I went and bought some more oranges. I wanted to do some more.
The sugared ones I need to dry, initially I dried on the baking sheet with a towel over, then transferred to a couple of containers with paper towel under and translucent lid and put in the sun, leaving lid loose to let the moisture out, then finally into a big S/S bowl and left in the sun.

I cut all shapes and sizes so they were not consistant, so I ended up with a lot that were too small to dip in chocolate.

One thing that was really great was the syrup. I sued the orange flavoured syrup on pancakes and it was really, really nice. Definitely worth keeping for using as a condiment. 

 2nd batch

 After making the first batch I want to make a more even size so that I can give them as presents.

I also have 2 types of chocolate, milk and white. So I want to test both of those out, so instead of suger coating put white and milk chocolate either end and package them.
 the pot was a little small for 5 oranges worth of peel, and I boiled twice to take away the bitterness.
I'm also thinking I may try using the air fryer to dry out the peel quicker so can dip earlier.
The chocolate I'm melting in the microwave, that seems to do the trick, and I use a spoon to lift some out so I can dip the peel in it.

I used 2 cups of sugar & 2 of water to simmer the rind in. It broke up a bit but I think I was simmering it for way too long, but I wanted a good infusion.
I ended up with almost 500ml of orange infused syrup this time around. Maybe a present for Zoe, as its Gluten Free.

I'm using the air fryer as an air dryer for the peel. It definitely shrinks the peels. Initially I had it at 120 deg C for 10 mins, but it seems to work better at 140 deg C for 10 minutes (more shrinkage, so better drying). I'll put the peel back in again for another period of dehydration before I dip in choc sauce. I'm on my 4th of 5 batches , I'm only covering the bottom, not heaping the peel in. Maybe 2nd drying batches can be bigger.
The oranges I chose were big, so some had a thick pith to them, that I left. This gives a bit of astringent after taste, so the chocolate coating will help a bit. Maybe I should gift small packets?

End result

Little bags of them, some in freezer and others I think I'll store in fridge. 

3rd Batch 8 jan 20

I decided to have another go as people seem to enjoy them. This time I went with the Japanease video. I started with 8 oranges and peeled into quarters, and left as quarters and boiled for 10 minutes in water. Then plunged the peel into cold water. The inner pulp wasn't quite soft enough but I took a knife to them and filleted them, to remove as much pith as possible.

I then weighed the orange peel at about 550g so put as much sugar in with a little bit of water to cover the peel. That I boiled for about 10 minutes.
I'm trying to make sure I dont overcook them as they fall apart.
I then laid them out on trays and put in the oven to dry (and to keep fly's away as its summer).

Hamburgers, how to make juicy ones

I've been making burgers since i went to Ireland and we set up BBQ in Kilkenny. We had mixed mince with egg and breadcrumbs and onion to make the patties.
Overall I've started to become dissapointed with the patties. They are not too flavoursome, so I started looking on Mr YT to see what other say.
I did watch a few videos on avariety of burgers made around the US, and there were a lot of different variations. But what I wantedwas the basic burger & patty.
The video below is the one I've folowed, and although the people look a bit stiff and Dormant (they do not look at each other a lot and rather look as if they are in a line for inspection, what they say works well for me. 

Basically, up until recently, I've been doing it all wrong.

1.  Basic mince only, no extras such as breadcrumbs or onion.
2.  High fat content, alla cheap mince, fat content about 20%
3. Shape patty and leave, not a lot of fiddling to shape it. 
4.  Indent in centre with thumb on one side (the first side down to grill) so that it stays in shape.
5. Leave in fridge for 10-15 minutes to cool down after working it with your hands (which has warmed it up). 
6. No oil in the frying pan, its got enough fat in the burgers, and cranked on high, this can be reduced to medium high after a time.
7. Season it and put it on grill and leave it for 2-3 minutes, do not tough again until you turn once to cook 2nd side (after seasoning)
8.  See sides turning brown and this is indication that its about cooked on one side.
9.  Let it rest for a couple of minutes to re-absorb juice, stops buns being wet and sodden.
10. Toast buns lightly, so they don't burn.
11.  Chuck it in the buns with your condiments and wolf it down. Mayonaise and lettuce under, onion, tomato, mustard/ and/or tom sauce over

I have done this the last time I got some mince and the man is right, it is nice and Juicy. I really enjoyed it.
I did find my patties were a bit small in diameter but thick, I didn't want to over play with the patty so I left it in that configuration. I think i've just done it again, so I'll just have to practice lots to get the diameter and thickness correct.
I'm thinking 50g of mince should make 4 patties , so $7 for 500g, so 3.50$ for meat for meal, plus buns and condiments and lettuce etc.

A couple of hamburgers, some air fried chips  and coleslaw and I really struggle to finish the meal, I'm absolutely chock full. An extremely juicy burge.
I always think these are a bit of a laugh but it does show contrasts on cooking styles:

Hamburger buns

  These i haven't made. I havent bought them for a while, but have recently got into buying a bag of 6 or 8 and freezing all but 2 that I want to use for a meal.
This is food wishes take on making thebuns, it looks good so I may give it a try (although I'd add the salt after I added the flour)

Here is his ingredients list (https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2013/07/homemade-hamburger-buns-oh-my-god-becky.html):

Ingredients for 8 large hamburger buns:

1 package (2 1/2 tsp) dry active yeast (I used Fleischmann's “RapidRise” Yeast)

1 cup very warm water

1 large egg

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1 pound all-purpose flour (about 3 1/2 cups)
Note: add a 1/2 cup of the flour to the yeast and water, and then the remainder before kneading
 

for the tops:

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk

sesame seeds

*bake at 375 degrees F. for 15-17 minutes

Chips

I use frozen chiops and air fry them, the thicker seem to be better, the shoelace ones are a bit thin for me. Or else bandito wedges with a bit of zing, although I do like Sour Cream with them. 

Coleslaw. 

Cabbage, carrots and onion and some mayonnaise. That seems to do the trick.

Dinner Rolls

I've been keen to try doing rolls, but have been put off by the quatity, but I'll give it a go and freeze some for another time.
I'm followingJohn Kirkwoods video:

for 12 Dinner Rolls, Ingredients:

560g z Strong white bread flour
320g Lukewarm milk around 40°C
1 large beaten Egg: at room temperature 20g
11/2 tbls Vegetable or Olive oil
30g Sugar
1ltsp Table salt
21/2tsp instant or active dried yeast, Fresh yeast is 20g
25g  of melted butter for glazing



As there is so much yeast they sure rise a lot.
I did have difficulty rounding the dough balls after weighing, I had too much flour on the bench, so I ended up using both hands and rolling between them, they still had creases in them , unlike John's in the video.
A first time, so I'll accept I'm still a novice.
Bread rising, I didn't have the extra 10 minutes while the oven was warming as I preheated the oven. Mine had not risen as much as in the video, also I didn't oil the clingfilm, so maybe next time the top of the buns should be oiled.

 Just out of the oven

 When buttered

 Out of the tray, cooled and on the rack. Opened and buttered. Slightly sweet but good.

 I'll keep 6 out and freeze the rest. I've had 2 so far, one with butter and a ham sandwich. Very nice and fresh.
It will be interesting to see how they taste after coming out of the freezer.

They are definitely worth a 2nd attempt, so hopefully next time I can shape them better.

I used them for toast in the morning, I had to be careful not to over toast them as they have a bit of sugar in them. I also used them for hamburgers. Handy in the Freezer. 
 

Attempt 2

I thought I'd try another recipe. This one looks interesting , I dont think I got the shape right the first time , so the rolling technique on this one looks interesting and worth a try. I substituted milk for milk powder.

 Recipe:
Water 120 ml
Yeast 1 tsp
Sugar 3 tsp
Sal 3/4 tsp (i put this in later with the flour)
milk  4 tblspn
1 large egg
Flour  2 cups (I used Strong white flour)

I put in mixer with dough hook and ran for about 10 minutes.
 Then in a bowl to rest for an hour. Double in size
Take out, knock back and roll into baguette shape and cut into 9 pieces
Roll each one out, then roll up and put in baking tray to rise- to double in size.
Egg wash, sesame seeds
In oven at 175 dec C for 15-20 min

Pita, Tabbouleh & Manakesh (zaatar pizza)

   Pita bread

I've tried doing this with varying results. I'm going to try the 3rd recipe below and flip over more frequently as per 2nd video.

I'm interested in that as I've just made another batch of hummus and need some bread to go with it.

Along with that there is this video that uses a single elment like my crepe maker, so I'll be giving this a try too:

Comments
I found the frying pan method not successful, the bubbles were very thin and burned when turned over, so it didn't puff.
I think my breads were too thin, the diameter was bigger than the 6" suggested.
The air fryer worked fine, when, at 200 deg C for 4-5 minutes, I'd sliced the rings into 3 seperate bits and fitted them in. If I left them too long it didn't work.
The ones from the frying pan did not puff up after getting the holes in the air fryer.
the air fryer ones wern't hat brown but are fine.
I'm freezing the good stuff and keeping the unsuccessful ones out to use up.
I'd definitely do again. Not too much prep to do.
Thoughts
I'll give this another crack, the ones in the air dryer worked well.
i'm getting a laser thermometer from ali Express so will give that a try out for skillet temperature (as per John Kirkwoods method).
Also, in this chaps videos he flips the bread over every 15-30 seconds so makes it brown more evenly. In one of his vids he even put it in the oven.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
 2 cups of all purpose flour
 1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water 

Mix wet and dry separate, then in mixer with dough hook. About 15 min to mix
Then rest for 1 hr
chop into portions- shape round/flat, cover , rest 10-15 min
Roll out into shape, let rest 15m in then heat in skillet and turn until they puff up

The crepe maker method 

The first was perfect, with a tablespoon of yeast the dough wanted to rise all the time, it had the hour, 15 min and a 3rd 15 min after the roll. Unfortunately the other 3 did not puff out as the first, nice to eat but not pita pockets at all. They were on the large size, maybe I should split into 6 instead of 4 and try again in air fryer. The ones I made barely fitted onto the griddle.
When warm, definitely chewy and a nice texture, but I still haven't got this right yet. I want some consistency like the ciabatta.

2nd attempt, 13th Dec 2019

 I tried cutting into 6 balls and making smaller sized pita breads, I also didn't roll out too thin either.
Also , for both rest periods I put on baking paper and covered to let rise, that seemed to work fine.
About 3 of 6 actually puffed up, although I think one mistake I made was to leave on first side for too long as this allows for thin bubble on top, so after putting on one side flip over after 15-30 secs so that other side outside has time to firm up, that means puffiness in the middle, not a thin outer element. All look good so I'll freeze 4 and keep 2 for a hummus pottle. Photos above.

3rd attempt 25th Dec

The video belows shows how to turn the bread so it puffs. I made much larger and thinner bread and did what this lady did which was rotate the bread and flip it a bit and all the 4 pieces puffed almost completely.  

  4th attempt 28th april 2020

 

This  one suggests 1/2 cup wholemeal flour and 2 cups all purpose flour, apparently wholemeal makes it roll better. Will try this one.
I'm really happy with this as the lady cuts up and stores some for later, so you make it fresh when you want it.
It is a bit wheaty but tastes fine and puffs beautifully. Works great with the pancake hotplate. 

Tabbouleh

This is something that I haven't had or made for quite a long time. Its a lovely salad and I used to dig into it as a kid in the lebanon.
A lot of the western versions have way too much Burgher wheat. The lebanease vrsion is light on it, and that is what I'm used to.
On my morning walk I picked some flat leave parsley from the Town Belt, and I'll go and get some mint leaves fronm the Garden.
At the market I'd bought some cheap tomatoes but they were a bit soft, so I need to use them up. I'd thought I'd make some Bruchetta for some pizza toppings and breakfasts. But I'll use some up on this as the recipe below needs 4 tomatoes.
Also, I've frozen the lemons into cubes, the recipe asks for 1/2 cup of lemon, so I'll use 2 cubes.

So purchased items are Olive oil, onion and tomatoes. The rest I'd got in stock, in the garden or gathered (lemons for Zoe).
 I am wondering if I can freeze some of this, like the hummus. I'm finding the hummus really handy to take out of the freezer, with a bit of lebanease bread the night before and have for lunch. It would be good to see if the Tabbouleh would do this too.

 test

A delicious and refreshing  snack. Easy to put together , although it does have a number of elements. The parsley from the Town Belt is good because you need quite a lot of it.
I'll have to look to see what it'll go with. I'm not a great fan of Kofta (beef spiced balls) so maybe I'll look at Chicken to go with it.
I've split it into 4 and put 2 portions in the freezer, so it'll be interesting to see how that thaws.

In freezer 13th Dec 2019

 A bit liquidy when thawing to have. I'll drain it first thenm eat it. Still very appetising but not as good as fresh. Whereas the Frozen/thawed hummus is fine, I wouldn't notice the difference between fresh and frozen.

Manakesh - Zaater on pizza

 When I was taking Manu down the vege market on sundays I saw that there was a cart that was selling zaater on pizza for $14, which I thought was a bit expensive.
After my success with the Tabbouleh I'll give this a crack.
The video below makes 5 portions , so I can freeze the doughballs for later.
There is a spice shop in Kilbirnie, I'll go and see if they have any za'arter there.

 

Ingredients:

 For the dough:

 2 cups all purpose flour
 150 ml warm water
 2 tbsp oil
 1 tsp dried yeast
 1 tsp salt
 1 tsp sugar

 300 grams akkawi or mozzarella cheese
 1 1/2 tbsp dried thyme with sesame seeds (middleeastern thyme mix)
eeastern thyme mix)
 3 tbsp oil

Another vid:

I made some small ones and put them in the air fryer, worked fine, and a tasty snack.
So I made small dough balls that can be rolled out for the air fryer. I have a little bit of zaater  so that was handy.
Of the mixture from 2 cups of flour I got 10 dough balls, so currently 8 in the freezer.

Capturing recipe

I took a screenshot of the video recipe 

 and then used the online OCR tool   https://www.onlineocr.net/

I was a bit concerned the background may have messed up the text but it came out great. I'll do that more frequently. A good workflow.

Knitting part 1

For some reason I thought i'd like to learn knitting. Uncle Bills sells wool, so I thought I'd get a roll and give it a crack.
So I decided to consult with Mr YouTube and found a guy explaining it in this video:

So, I think its worth a try for a couple of knitting needles and a skien of wool to give it a try.

I got some multi-coloured wool (acrylic) from Uncle Bill's and needles from the Warehouse. On the side of the wool is the needle size (diameter) that the wool needs to be used with.
The basic exercise is to do a scarf. I thought this video looked cool:

On trying to follow the video I found it hard being a left hander, so I found this video for lefties to follow:

I then followed  that and found it easier. I got the wool on the 1st needle but am struggling to