A decadant lunch

I love bread making … it doesn't really matter if it's in the machine or the oven or a combination of both; there is nothing like the satisfaction of getting the dough to rise and the smell of freshly baked bread….and I'm still only a beginner. I made bagels on the weekend (I've made a couple of batches before) but for the first time I began to understand how the dough should feel when you've kneaded it enough.

I don't know why, but I always though bagels would be difficult to make but they're actually not…a little bit fiddly maybe but not hard at all.

Ingredients:
6 cups of white flour
2 tablespoons of dry yeast
2.5 cups of warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 egg
Sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds

I usually mix the yeast and the water together for about 10 minutes to let the yeast activate…I have also read that this is an unnecessary step but I have found in my very limited experience that I get less failures if I do this step first.

While the yeast is activating, combine 5 cups of the flour, the salt and sugar in a bowl. Pour the yeast and water in and mix until a shaggy lump of dough forms. Put on a floured board and knead, adding the remaining cup of flour as required. When I first made these, the mistake I made was thinking that I had to add the whole cup…but I've since discovered that isn't always the case. What you want is dough that is smooth and elastic. (I actually only used half a cup of flour this time.)

Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until it's doubled in size (about an hour).





Remove the dough from the bowl and divide into 12 even pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, flatten slightly and put a hole in the middle. Cover and leave to rise for another 20 minutes.

And now comes the fiddly bit…get a pan of lighlty salted water to a rolling boil. You need to boil each bagel for about 2 minutes, turning every 30 seconds. I used a fry pan and could fit three to four bagels at a time. When you boil them, they puff up slightly and hold their shape better…but don't boil them for too long or they'll deflate and then they're no good.

Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the water, brush the tops with the beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds. Put them in a 200 degree celcius oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.



We have been having the most decadent lunches with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers on the bagels, or breakfast with toasted bagels with cream cheese and vegemite (and this is another of Sim's combinations I highly recommend).

A cheap night out ...

Tonight we had a great night out for the grand total of $5.50 at the Melbourne Aquarium and we learnt something in the process.

Sim and I are mad keen scuba divers and have a particular interest in helping preserve our oceans and the animals and plants that inhabit that world.

We went to a seminar run by Reef Watch Victoria on an overview of Opisthobranchs of Southern Waters. Now, don't run away screaming at the scientific latin vocab ... it was actually a low key fascinating talk by an expert on marine slugs...okay that probably isn't really helping either is it...I can see everyone picturing those grey slugs from the garden that eat all the good stuff and foil every attempt to remove them.

This is what the talk was actually about:

That is what is commonly called a nudibranch and they come in the most amazing colours and shapes and sizes. Here are a few more:

Most of these photos I took in the Philippines but the one above in the middle is actually a local - Williamstown Beach right here in Melbourne.

The bits that look like feather boas are actually their gills. They're not very big...about the same size as land slugs if not a bit smaller but you have to admit they are much prettier; they are also referred to as the butterflies of the sea. The amazing thing is that not that much is known about them. It is estimated there are approximately 3000 different species worldwide but probably more. A lot have been identified but not formally described or named.

Bob Burns was the presenter and he has been studying these animals for more than 50 years. What is even more amazing is that he isn't a scientist or a marine biologist or even a scuba diver for that matter, he's a builder, a tradie so passionate about a particular subject that he has become, and is considered, an expert in his field. Scientists send him papers they've published for him to read...he even has one species named after him.

An added, and unexpected bonus, was the tour of the aquarium afterwards. We got to spend some time in the main oceanarium watching the sharks and the bull rays and the turtles and the snapper to name a few. It was a fascinating night...a glimpse into a world that is often forgotten and exploited but a necessary part of the system that maintains life on this planet.

Reef Watch is planning more seminars throughout the year...there may even be one about penguins (with a potential visit to the penguin exhibit at the Melbourne Aquarium). Check out the Reef Watch website if you're interested.

Pepper Pasta with capers and rocket

We are on the lookout for a cheap pasta making machine as we have fallen in love with the fresh pasta that I buy from the markets near my work. It’s a pepper fettucine and it's peppery and spicy and absolutely delicious. We use really simple sauces with this pasta because you don't want to hide the flavour of the pasta unlike the pasta that you buy from the supermarket.

Ingredients:
Capers
Zest from two lemons
Lemon juice (from one lemon - save juice from the other to taste)
Fresh basil
Rocket
Olive oil
Parmasan
500g Pepper pasta

The proportions of each are really as to your own taste; we are both massive fans of capers so we add heaps (I have even marked in my diary when caper bushes are available from Diggers this year: Wednesday 2 September – for all you caper lovers out there).

Add the pasta to a large pot of boiling water:



Heat a frypan and in some olive oil, gently heat the capers, adding the lemon zest and the basil:



When the pasta is almost done, add the rocket so that it wilts slightly. When the pasta is cooked to taste, drain but keep two tablespoons of the water and return it to the pot. Add half the pasta, then the sauce mixture to the pot, placing the remaining pasta on top, pour on the lemon juice and toss through. Have some parmasan ready and that's it:



This is our current favourite. I made a version of it once and Sim has since taken it on and made it her own…she is much better at putting flavours together then me…I'm a recipe follower and the slightest variation can throw me a curve ball but Sim just pulls meals out of nowhere and is really good at finding a substitute that works if we don't have the right ingredient.

One of the great things about this recipe is it is such an easy meal to cook when you need to whip something up quickly as it only takes as long as the pasta takes to cook (which takes about 8 – 10 minutes) and 500 grams of pasta will easily do us for lunches the next day as well. I know the process will become much, much longer when we attempt to make our own pasta but once we get our own caper bush and sow some rocket, we will be able to contribute most of the ingredients ourselves and we're really looking forward to that.