Spring garden Oct 2012

When I named this blog bike-n-bake I obviously wasn't thinking about my other attention-seeking hobby - gardening.  So perhaps it should be renamed grow-cook-eat-ride.  Not quite as punchy though.

Anyway, here's what happened in Spring (Oct 2012) in my Melbourne backyard:


Welcome to galangal, the newest addition, recently potted. A work colleague heard how nuts I was about growing and eating my own produce and kindly dug up some of her homegrown galangal plant to give me. Eager to plant it, and commuting by bike that day, I strapped this little sapling onto my backpack and rode home hoping it wouldn't get destroyed in the wind. It's now kicking ass and four times as big (in 3 months)! Go nature!

"Sunburn garden" - named after suffering to establish this. Thankfully it's full of anti-oxidant rich tasty greens like purple sprouting broccoli, mammoth dill, parsley, tung hou (茼蒿), thyme, rainbow chard and red cabbage. Lots of these leafy greens were eaten in "snoods" - noodles in soup made by me and my hubby.

purple sprouting broccoli



red cabbage

more purple sprouting broccolli with dill as companions

PSB again, with red lettuce behind (Rouge d'Hiver)

red lettuce (Rouge d'Hiver)

blueberries to be! (Nelly Kellie)

the blueberry bush

Hokowase strawberries



other strawberries (whose name I forget!)

"Honeymoon garden" - named because this is what hubby and I did on a rainy Spring day a couple of years ago. There's nothing quite like shovelling 4 tonne of compost and topsoil after tying the knot! My faves in this include the red ranunculas, peony poppies (not in flower), rainbow chard, sage (purple flowers) and French lavendar (at the far end). The pumpkins got ripped out after they proved useless and greedy hogging all the space and not sharing sunlight with others!

blood orange tree and brown Turkish fig behind. The orange blossoms smelled wonderful and wafted around!

Japanese maple, still fighting fit after years of drought (including 46degC on Black Saturday), and providing a leafy home to a nest of noisy mynas. One little fluffy myna got bullied by its siblings, pushed out of the nest and didn't survive very long(nature sucks sometimes). We tried to save it in a shoe box but it didn't eat or drink. The little fella was buried under the maple tree, giving back to what initially supported it.

PET bottle plants according to my hubby. "No!" I say, they're little basils in mini hothouses 

More nursery plants - leaf amaranth in top left, basil at top/centre, bergamot in top right, capsicum in bottom right, yellow zucchini centre/bottom, chia in left/bottom

Lo Mai Fan 糯米饭 (savoury glutinous rice, my way)

Lo mai fan is one of my fave one-pot dishes. Although my blog is called bike-n-bake, I can't help sneaking in my other kitchen creations. I should rename it cook-eat-ride.

I had black glutinous rice in my cupboards, and wasn't keen on using it to make Thai black glutinous rice pudding. I wondered whether I could use it in Chinese lo mai fan, which is traditionally made with white glutinous rice.

This recipe is not traditional, but it's my version with everything yummy that I would like to eat in it! I dare say it's one of the fastest ways to make lo mai fan. My cooking time was only 30 min. With a pressure cooker and an induction stove I was able to get stuck into it sooner. Yum :)

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups black glutinous rice, rinsed
• 0.5 cup black eyed beans, rinsed
• 1.5 cups white basmati rice, rinsed
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled and chopped
• 20-30 dried shrimp, chopped then soaked before cooking
• 3 lup cheong (Chinese pork sausage), sliced
• ~100g lup yook (Chinese dried pork), sliced
• ~300g sliced lean pork medallion, seasoned in soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, Chinese rice wine
• ~10 fresh shitake mushrooms (these are a product of Australia. Your local greengrocer should have these, if not try an Asian grocer)
• handful of dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped
• pre-cooked pork shoulder in soy sauce and garlic (I happened to have this in my freezer from an earlier meal. You can just add more meat of your choice instead)
• white pepper and caramel dark soy sauce to taste

Getting prepped

Rinse black glutinous rice and black eyed beans. Soak in water to allow to soften before cooking. I think 4 hours is fine, but I ended up soaking them for 7 hours (got distracted doing other things).

If using dried shitake mushrooms, also soak these in some water. When rehydrated, roughly dice They need a minimum of 2 hours to rehydrate if whole, or 30 min if pre-sliced. Mine were pre-sliced, which is convenient, but they aren't as tasty as whole ones.

Chop dried shrimp and soak in some water (30 min - 1 hr).

If you go over these times, don't worry. It doesn't make a difference. The aim is just to get these dry ingredients rehydrated a little.

Time to cook!

1. Heat pressure cooker on induction stove in stir-fry mode. I didn't use any oil to start with as the lup cheong and lup yook are full of fatty goodness. Add these and garlic to the pot as it starts to get hot. They will sizzle as it gets hotter. Stir fry.

2. Add chopped shrimp and continue stir frying.

3. Add sliced pork and continue stir frying.

4. Add rice and beans. Stir to pick up fried ingredients from bottom of pot.

5. Add mushrooms and cooked pork, dark soy sauce and white pepper to taste. Cook for a few minutes on medium-high heat.

6. Secure pressure cooker lid to seal it. Cook for 20-30 min under pressure (once you get some slow steam releasing, turn the heat down to keep it at the low "hiss").  Wait for the pressure to drop before opening the lid and dishing up. This is what mine looked like:

 

7. Serve with chopped spring onions and optional crunchy deep-fried Malaysian onions (bawang goreng).

Christmas baking 2012 - Part 1

EOFYXCs (aka, End Of Financial Year Xmas Cakes)

You can buy cakes, but you can't buy time, making these cakes rather special!  This is the second time I have made Christmas cakes by my end-of-financial-year rule.  The idea is to make them before 30 June so they have time to mature into beautifully rich and moist cakes, ready for eating.  I gave one each to my parents and in-laws last year and they loved them.

These cakes fill your kitchen/house with beautiful aromas while baking.  It's a great thing to do in the middle of an Australian winter.  If you're making these as gifts, it'll also free up your November/December to enjoy the sunshine.

Here are the ones I made this year on 17 June 2012:



I adapted my recipe from the Rich Fruit Cake recipe in Country Women's Association: Cakes, 2009, page 26.

Here's what went into them (for 2 x 20 cm round cakes and 1 x 25 cm square cake):

• 1 kg sultanas
• 710 g currants (they were all I had left in the cupboard)
• 500 g raisins
• 500 g crystallised ginger, chopped
• 200 g mixed peel
• 300 g walnuts
• 540 g glace cherries (I like random measures!)
• ~4 tsp mixed spice
• ~1 tsp salt
• ~4 tsp ground cinnamon (I roasted 4 cassia sticks in the warming oven and enlisted help of hubby to grind with mortar and pestle)
• ~4 tsp grated nutmeg
• To soak fruit in: ~1 cup dry sherry (original recipe asks for sweet sherry but I only had dry McWilliam's Royal Reserve dry sherry) + "happy" glug of brandy (as much/little as you'd like. I used St Agnes 3 Star brandy)
• 600 g butter (original recipe would have required 1 kg but I found this was too much from last year's results)
• dollop of molasses (I have a knack for not measuring! There was plenty of sugar from the fruit in this so I decided to cut out the sugar altogether and instead at a touch of molasses for flavour/colour)
• 2 dozen eggs
• 1 kg plain flour
• 200 self raising flour

Method:

(given the large quantities in this recipe, you may have to do this in 2 mixing bowls and add each quantity of ingredients in halves)

1. On the day/night before baking, get the biggest mixing bowl you have (if not a clean bucket!) and soak the fruit in sherry/brandy.  I only managed to fit the currants, raisins, glace cherries and mixed peel into my bowl, so these got soaked in sherry and brandy.  Next time, I would get a bigger container so I could soak all my fruit.
2. On the day of baking, add walnuts to the mixed fruit.
3. In a separate bowl, melt the butter, and then add the spices, salt and molasses.  Mix.
4. Into a separate bowl, crack the eggs and whisk/beat to combine.  Tip eggs into butter mixture and mix until even.
5. Pour egg/butter mixture over fruit/nuts.
6. Weigh out flours.  Add to wet ingredients.  Mix until combined.  Add extra brandy/sherry/water if mixture looks too dry.
7. Spoon into baking tins.  Tap tins on benchtop/floor to ensure the cake batter settles.  You don't want gaps.
8. Bake at 140 degrees C (if you have a fan-forced oven) / 150 deg C (if not) for 2 hours.  Although I didn't do this, I would have covered my cakes with foil for at least the first hour of baking to prevent the cakes from drying.  After a post-baking chat with the master baker (aka my English mother in-law who's full of baking wisdom), I realised most recipes call for fruit cakes to be baked with foil to seal in the goodness.  Traps for young players!!

While the cakes look OK, I cut part of the square one to see the texture inside.  Unfortunately it was a bit dry.  I will be pouring brandy over these every now and again until Christmas, so I'm hoping that will add some much needed moisture.

I won't be using the loose-base tin again.  I found that the butter seeped out the bottom while baking.  That could have been a reason why my square cake (baked in the loose-base tin) was a little dry.  I can't check the round cakes - they're gifts!  Fingers crossed they're not as dry.

When the cakes cooled, I poured brandy over the top and wrapped them.  They're now sitting in a cupboard waiting for the next "drink".  They'll get a sip every now and again til they're wrapped up as gifts.

The fruit and nut mixture (not all of it is in this bowl):


The round cakes:


The square cake (you can see where the butter seeped out at the base - I won't be using a loose-base tin next time.  They're good for tarts, not so good for heavy fruit cakes):

My charming Cielo Sportif Racer SE

 

Waiting for this little beauty to take shape has been like waiting for a truffle to grow.  My hubby sowed the seed sometime in Oct 2011 by sending me this link: http://cielo.chrisking.com/bikes/sportif-racer-stainless/.  We had just come back from a trip to the US which included navigating our way by bike to the Chris King factory in Portland, Oregon.  Of course, we had to take a happy snap in front of their branded delivery truck.  A nearby taco truck driver chuckled at us - two tourists in an industrial zone.  I knew I had to bring a bit of Portland back to Melbourne. 

After 9 months of patiently waiting, my frame (the women's frame) and fork finally arrived.  And just as Cameron from Cielo promised, it was worth the wait.  From the outset, I was impressed with how it was packaged - it was super neat, secured at a number of places by form-fitting card inserts and taped with kraft tape so the entire thing was recyclable.  More businesses should care like Cielo/Chris King do!!  I also found my Chris King hub set in this box (R45 ceramic bearings).  Super smooth :)

I was torn between the original Cielo steel fork and the Enve 2.0 road fork which I bought as an alternative to keep the weight down.  The Enve fork has been installed, but I'm saving the steel Cielo fork for another special bike.

Here are some pics of the final build (thanks to my fabulous hubby who deserved a case of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in return).  You can see our young broccoli plants growing in the background too!

 

I believe part of this frame's long gestation (9 mths - just like a real baby!) came about from its side-trip to Colorado.  Cielo sent it to their former powder coater in CO "for the special treatment on the SS frame that provides the three dimensional abrasion that is the logo on the downtube," as I was informed.  While I'm far from learned about powder coating or metal finishing, I look at these logos and wonder how they get the different finishes despite it all being the same stainless steel.  I guess that's what makes Cielo/Chris King so cool!

Mmm, mango ceramic hubs...

DiPell bar tape - handmade in Melbourne :)

"I'm not worthy!!" - can't believe I have a bike that's built by Chris King.

I got my wheels made by Andy, proprietor and perfectionist at Kaos Custom Bikes.  You won't find a more pedantic, high quality wheel builder.  He introduced me to the Melbourne-made DiPell bar tape. 

Sadly, I haven't had a chance to try this sweet rig out yet (unless putting it on the indoor trainer at home on a rainy day to watch The Castle counts).  Dirt is not allowed to touch this bike yet and it's currently wet and wintry in Melb.  But I'm hoping to take it out to the Dandenongs for a long hill ride this weekend.  Praying for crisp winter sunshine!

While it's probably not going to help me win Strava QOMs (weighing in at 7.4 kg), that has never been part of the gameplan.  This is a bike made by people who care, which is why I got it.  It's a beautifully made work of artistic craftsmanship (happy to moot this with any copyright nerds) with a whole lot more charm and personality than the masses of crabon on Beach Rd.  (@Bike Snob NYC: come ride Beach Rd!).

Thanks to my do-it-all hubby for putting this beautiful bicycle together for me, Cielo for their beautiful frame work and attention to detail in EVERYTHING,  Chris King for their buttery smooth cermic hubs, and, not to forget, Mr Kaos for his super neat wheels :)

Happy riding y'all!


First ride update, 23 June 2012: 

Went for a quick spin with hubby up to Port Melbourne.  It's a lively bike.  Feels a whole lot more sprightly than my 2003 Giant TCR1 (now converted to the singlespeed commuter).  The steel frame is nice and stiff.

The Enve bars have nice drops in just the right place, and very comfy wide top bits to rest your palms on.  They will make for good climbing. 

The Chris King ceramic hubs roll buttery smooth.  Funnily enough, they got some attention on my maiden voyage.  While waiting at the Kerferd Rd traffic lights, a pedestrian was looking at me like I had something stuck on the back of my leg.  He then said, "Most people probably won't appreciate this, but those are some really nice hubs."  Thanks random stranger!  I smiled and replied, "Yep, thanks - they're fresh out of the Chris King factory."  And finally, I can't say it better than Mr Akiyoshi Takamura, who has said of Chris King hubs: "It rolls good with angry bee sound".  Ticks all round.

Sourdough ciabatta

I baked my first ciabatta today!  I followed Daniel Stevens' recipe in River Cottage Handbook No. 3: Bread.

In an ideal world, I would have made this completely with my own sourdough starter, but, being short on time and not being able to give my starter the full-time attention it needs, I make do  supplementing my starter with commercial yeast (Lowan's dried yeast).  Indeed, Stevens' recipes are all based on commercial yeast and, for best results, he recommends adding a good "glug" of your own starter (which I do).

I omitted the oil from his recipe as I read that oil makes it less chewy: http://sourdough.com/blog/sourdough-ciabatta.

The crust was certainly crunchy, chewy in the middle, nice big holes, great doughy texture.

Flours in my starter: started with wholemeal spelt, rye and then spelt.  Gave the ciabatta a pleasant sourness.

Flours in the ciabatta: 750g Laucke baker's flour (wheat) + 250g semolina