I’m a bit ‘on the fence’ when it comes to pizza dough. I quite like this dough, but I also like a higher hydration dough that gives a base with larger air holes. This one is easier to handle, though.
In fact, I really don’t know why I’m writing about making pizza dough; Paul is so much better at it than I am. Hopefully, he will post about some of his pizzas in due course.
Snack sticks can be flavored with commercially available sauces. Sauces are often high in salt and acid (which act as preservatives), so this must be considered.
This is the first snack stick I’ve made with beef; I used ground beef from the store with some added pork back fat.
A Spanish tapas dish that’s also great for a meal or in smaller balls on skewers as part of a buffet.
A fresh chorizo that’s great used in Albondigas – Spanish meatballs. It’s loosely based on a recipe from Jeffrey Weiss’s fantastic book Charcuteria, The Soul of Spain.
Ingredients:
666 gm Pork shoulder (after removing skin) (approx. 20% fat)
334 gm Pork belly meat (after removing skin) (approx. 50% fat)
30 gm White wine – preferably Spanish – in truth, I use what I have to hand.
30 gm Water
12 gm Garlic cloves
5 gm Smoked sweet paprika – I use Pimentón de la Vera dulce
5 gm Smoked hot paprika – I use Pimentón de la Vera picante
10 gm Murcian paprika
2 gm Oregano – dried
20 gm Salt
Incorporating cheese into full sized salami can be difficult but is much easier in snack sticks. Cheese and salami in one snack is a great combo. I would recommend using the cheese in place of some of the fat (which it mimics).
Over on the (now defunct) sausage-making forum, someone asked for suggestions for a cheese-related activity to do with a group of school kids that wouldn’t break the bank. I immediately thought of paneer, an Indian vegetarian cheese, also known in Mexico as queso blanco. It’s like the cheese my granny made out of soured milk!
I’d only ever made it from non-homogenised milk, but nothing ventured, nothing gained: the investment of a whole £1 got me 2 litres of the local supermarket’s best full-fat homogenised milk.
Continue reading Making Cheese – Queso blanco, or Paneer (Panir)Teriyaki chicken sausage makes a fine breakfast sausage. This recipe adds a citrus note with the addition of orange zest. Brown sugar is used to balance the harshness of the soy sauce.
I like this pie best as a cold-cutting pie. It’s a great addition to a buffet table. The recipe comes from my grandma, who lived in the North West of England – Lancashire and Westmorland – for many years.
You’ll see from the photo that the bottom’s a little bit soggy – hey, sometimes that happens; it could’ve done with a few more minutes in the oven, but so what, it tastes great.
The recipe’s really simple; I’ve tried it in the past with additions like egg in the filling, but this one’s the best, just cheese and onion like grandma used to make.
Continue reading Cheese and Onion Pie
