Only_Oli (The O_Zone)

I am trying a different recipe for these small brioche buns. This is work in progress.

See my other recipes as well.

Ingredients:

• 450g of Strong Flour (13g to 14g of Proteins per 100g of flour)
• 10g kosher salt
• 50g white sugar
• 7g bread yeast (I use the DCL Saf Yeast)
• 100ml of warm milk
• 4 eggs (for the dough) + 1 egg for the wash
• 190g of salted, cubed, softened butter

How to make:

• Warm the milk and dissolve the yeast into it with a bit of sugar
• Place flour, salt and sugar in a mixer with a dough hook
• Add milk, yeast, and eggs and mix for 10 minutes.
• After the 10 minutes have passed, cut the butter into cubes
• Add butter to the dough over 8 minutes (a few cubes at a time).
• Let bread rise for 90 minutes
• Put into the fridge for 60 minutes
• Bring out of the fridge and separate into six portions
• Make small balls with each portion by rolling the dough on itself (similar to making other breadsticks)
• Place onto a silicone sheet and cover with a towel for 30-40 minutes. They will rise again.
• Use an egg wash to cover the buns.
• Place into a pre-heated fan oven at 160 degrees. For approximately 15-20 minutes or until nicely golden.

Enjoy!

Original post was 8th November 2020

I have made this recipe a few times and need to make a blog post for easy future access.

No Photos yet of mine but trust me it is delicious.

Ingredients :

• 4 Lamb Shanks
• 250ml to 500ml of Chicken Stock
• 2 or 3 onions to taste
• A bag of carrots
• 3 cloves of garlic crushed
• Olive oil for cooking
• Spices: Salt, Pepper, Ras el Anou, smoked paprika, nutmeg, maybe a bit of herb of Provence.
• Optional: a glass of red wine to deglaze the casserole with the vegetables.

How to make :

• It is prepared very similarly to an Osso Bucco
• Heat a “Le Creuset” casserole with olive oil and spices.
• The spices are the secret of the final taste. So this is the place to use your own twist.
• Brown the Shanks for at least 10 minutes in the casserole.
• As the lamb is browning, peel and cut the carrots in medium-sized slices.
• Chop the onions and crush the garlic.
• Set the Shanks in a separate bowl and cook the vegetables for a few minutes.
• This will lift all the stuck on meat juices and coat the vegetables with fat from the casserole.
• Once the vegetables have roasted a little, add the shanks back into the casserole with any juices that have come out.
• Add chicken stock until it covers the vegetables and up to half of the shanks. Probably between 250ml and 500ml of chicken stock.
• Put the casserole with a lid on in the oven at 180degres for 2 hours. (for fan assisted)

Serve with roasted potatoes and roasted sweet potatoes.

This is a great dish to uplift the spirit in Confinement or early winter…

I made some Duck rillettes!

Another recipe that is very easy to do but requires a little bit of time.

I am keen on learning recipes of the past, which have now become for most people something that you can only purchase from the supermarket when it is very easy to do at home and is a lot nicer…

Ingredients:

• A duck!
• some garlic and Ginger and an Orange
• Salt and Pepper and herbs as you like
• Some Cognac or a Brandy

How to make:

• Stuff the duck with  crushed garlic cloves and ginger and a peeled orange
• Season generously the outside of the duck with salt and pepper
• Put into an oven dish wrapped in 2 layers of aluminium foil. (To capture all the fat and juices that are going to render)
• Cook in the oven a 130-140 for 4 to 5 hours. Until the meat is coming off easily from the bones without it being “overcooked”.
• Capture all the fat and juices into a jar and pass it through a fine sieve or filter to remove the bits.
• Let the duck cool down before removing all the meat from the bones.
• Spend time to reserve only the meat parts of the duck. Discard all bones and skin.
• Put all the meat in a large bowl and add 3 tablespoons of Cognac or Brandy.
• Adjust the Salt and Pepper to taste. (this is important). Usually, it requires more salt.
• The Fat and Juice should have “separated in the jar” as they are cooling down.
• Mix a little of the fat and a little of the juice into the bowl and start mixing.
• Keep mixing with a spoon until the meat is moist and the texture is like Rillettes.
• Put into conserve jars of small size. Put into the fridge for at least 12 hours.

Et voila! Eat on toasted bread with some cornichons or pickled shallots.

A very simple apple tart which is always a success.

There are a few complicated ways of making a “tarte tatin”.

The following simple method makes a very decent tart…

It is possible to upgrade this one with homemade caramel if you have time to do that.

Ingredients:

• A bag of Apples, something like 800g. That’s probably 6 small apples or 4 large ones.
• Best Apples : Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Braeburn
• A lime juice
• 50g Cassonade  (Beetroot Sugar), but normal sugar will do as well
• 50g Butter
• A sheet of ready-made puff pastry, get the nice one with full fat

How to make:

• Peel the Apples and cut each apple into 6 pieces. (one-half and then in 3)
• Put the lime juice and cassonade and mix with apples
• Place in a circle into a tart oven dish (I prefer the glass ones as they are easy to clean)
• Place the butter on top
• Cook in the oven at 140 degrees for 20 minutes or until the apples are getting softer and the butter and sugar are turning into caramel.
• (Note: It is possible to make a separate caramel to pour on the finished product as well, this is reserved for even more special days…)
• Take the tart out of the oven and place the sheet of puff pastry on top of the apples.
• Put back into the oven 200 degrees and cook for another 35-45 minutes, or until the colour of the pastry “looks right”
• Take out of the oven and let the tart cool down for 20 minutes.
• Put a serving plate on top of the tart dish and turn it over.
• The pastry will now be at the bottom and the apples on top with the caramel and juices.

I then upgrade the whole lot by Blow torching the top of the tart to get these small burns and a taste of burned caramel.

Then I finally top it all off with a few crushed hazelnuts (praline)

I pan fry with a small amount of butter a few carrots, some garlic, a couple of celery stalks and a bit of pepper. (The fancy ones from the larder, like the Madagascar pepper – VOATSIPERIFERY PEPPER)

Add the mussels and let them steam, then add some cream.

Finally, finish it off with some freshly cut curly parsley.

You can significantly upgrade the Tesco mussels…

2X500g Tesco mussels is ideal for 3 to 4 people. (That’s £5.50 in 2023 money…)

A few French fries cooked in Peanut Oil

And a glass of white wine (obviously).

Decided to make some walnut oil with all the walnuts from my uncle in Belgium.

I toasted them in a pan and then put them in sunflower oil. I will leave it all to infuse for a few weeks.

I made a label to remember what is in the bottle…. haha…