30 Minute Stock

Yep, you read it right!
I've been experimenting with my Pressure Cooker after rescuing it from the top of a cupboard in my kitchen. It's been there since I bought it, remembering the complete disaster  I had with a find at an op-shop when I was first married. This attempt involved complete bowing of the bottom of the pot. No instructions, no internet...........It's taken me 20 years to give them another go.

But this time I would be prepared...boasting to hubby on the phone that I would be using it that night; I'd let him know the outcome the following morning when we talked again. Turns out I wasn't that prepared after all...........The meal would need to be cooked the following evening because......
When you first buy a Pressure Cooker, you need to season the pot before you cook in it.
Don't forget to take time to read all the instructions that came with the cooker.

To season your new Pressure Cooker....
Season the rim of the pot with a little cooking oil. This lubricates the lid and the pot making it easier to remove the lid.
Fill the Pressure Cooker to half way with cold water.
Place the lid on according to the instructions
Heat until steam releases, then turn the heat down and allow to 'season' for another 20 minutes.
Then turn the heat off and leave to stand until cold. Do not remove the lid until the whole unit is cold.

Meal number one....Beef Stew

*Huge success with minimal fuss.

*25 minutes under pressure

*You can see how the meat just falls apart.

*Brilliant!

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Now onto some much needed STOCK.
I was pleased to discover that our local Meat Market had re-opened...so I went to check it out.
I bought home two big bags of Beef Bones $4 each....and two big bags of Chicken Carcasses $2 each.
Baking all the bones in the oven, gives you a deeper, richer flavour....

Beef Bones
$8.00
Ready for the oven

Using half the baked beef bones, I went on to add other usual ingredients that I put in a stock....
The other half of the baked beef bones are labelled and in the freezer for another stock day.

Add 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery, fresh herbs and mixed spices
Cover with 3 litres of water. Make sure your pot is never more than two-thirds full for stock.

Put the lid on following the instructions....then once the steam starts to come out of the relief valve....turn the heat down low and allow to cook for a further 30 minutes. Allow to cool or release the steam as per instructions and reveal a lovely stock, ready to strain.

Beef Stock in a Pressure Cooker

While the oven was on I also baked the Chicken Carcasses....
I'll be making Chicken Stock using half of these baked chicken bones today....and the other half will go in the freezer for when I want to make some more.

Baked Chicken Bones
$4.00

 Do you make stock? 
Do you use a pressure cooker? 
What do you cook in your pressure cooker?

Milling wheat & making pasta

Yesterday; Celia over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial posted about her Simple pasta in 15 minute's ......and that got me thinking of another way to thicken up the rest of the weekend soup to make into one more meal.....

Many people mill their own grains at home; and I've been giving it a go too. It's far healthier for you, no additives, no thickeners, no bleaching chemicals....just plain good wholesome wheat! If you have your own grain mill you can mill down a whole number of grains, seeds, nuts and even legumes. You even have full control over how fine you make your flour, depending on what you are planning to do with it.

Since sourcing some good bulk grain I've been experimenting more with my electric grain mill. Here are some photos to show you the different stages of milled grain I've been playing with.........

Stage 1: Wheat berries....Whole clean, husked wheat ready for use.

Stage 2: Cracked wheat....I think cracked wheat is prepared by first boiling it...so this is really just crushed wheat. I've been adding some of this to a mix of whole grains when making 'multi-grain bread' and also sprinkling it on the top of bread rolls.

Stage 3: Wheat Bran....This is what you get when you sift the milled flour from its finest setting. Bran is really a by-product of making flour and is made up of the hard shell of the wheat berry. We're sprinkling this on our breakfast and also adding it to other recipes for added fibre.

If I'm making bread, I don't always sift the flour to separate the bran, but when I don't; it makes a very heavy bread....A better or lighter bread is made from 50:50 of whole milled flour and plain white flour. If you don't want to use such refined and bleached flour....just sift your freshly milled flour.

Stage 4: Wholemeal flour.... Here is your flour at it's purest.....
No refining, no bleaching, no additives.
Just Wheat!

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Now I'm ready to make some WHOLEMEAL PASTA......
To every 100g of flour add 1 whole egg.

To 400g of wholemeal flour add 4 whole eggs....and mix well until combined.............

Then divide into four even blocks before putting it in the fridge to rest. I prefer to rest pasta dough for an hour before running it in the pasta machine.

Flatten the divided dough before placing in a plastic bag and pop into the fridge to rest. This shape helps to start preparing the dough for the dough machine.

Only remove one piece of dough from the fridge at a time. This ensures that the other dough pieces don't  dry out while you are working. I used half the dough for dinner ....the other half will keep in the fridge for one or two more days.

Then I heated up the soup that was made earlier..and also put on a pot of water to boil for the pasta....
Due to the cold weekend weather....another pot of soup was on the stove.....
The soup was made up of the following....

• a smoked ham hock - boiled for an hour, meat removed and added
• a few roasted chicken carcasses, with meat removed and added
• chopped meats left to rest in the stock overnight....then fat skimmed off the top before adding other ingredients
• grated vegetables of carrot, Swedish turnip, parsnip, onion, zucchini
• mixed legumes and grains (another filler and thickener)
• thickened with milled rice flour

When all the rolled pasta is cut into strips, lightly dust it with flour to stop it from sticking to itself.....

Once the water is boiling, add half of the pasta and let cook for 1 minute...remove the pasta with tongs and toss into the boiling soup....Repeat with the other half of the raw pasta. It's very quick!

then serve.........this soup was very filling, delicious...and quite rewarding; even for DS20 who took great joy in helping make the pasta.....Thanks mate...a job well done.

Do you have a grain mill? What other grains do you like to mill? I'd love to hear your ideas. 

Have you ever made your own pasta? Do you prefer wholemeal pasta or white pasta? How do you make your pasta? What do you add it to?