Banana republic

I love the Guardian's food content, especially Felicity Cloake's "How to cook the perfect ... " series. I have cribbed from her writing before in this blog. Once again, Ms Cloake has revived a classic for me and inspired me to experiment.

I have cooked this a few times now and have applied my preferences:

First, I don't keep baking powder or SR flour in the house, but instead adapt recipes to use baking soda and an acid; usually cream of tartar unless the recipe already contains lemon juice or vinegar.

Second, I increased the quantity of batter somewhat because I had more bananas to use up and because my tin is bigger. There isn't really any need to increase the eggs for a small increment.

Third, I tried both butter and vegetable oil for the fat content. I prefer the vegetable oil, and, as a bonus, it saves on washing up because you don't need a pot to melt it in.

Fourth, I found the Guardian's recipe too sweet, so I have reduced the amount of sugar.

Finally, a small but significant alteration to sequence: Mix the banana and optional nuts in with the dry ingredients first. This will help to keep them suspended in the batter when they might otherwise sink to the bottom.

Ingredients

400-450g Over-ripe Bananas, peeled. About 4 medium-sized bananas.

50g Walnuts, roughly chopped

200g Plain Flour

1sp Bicarb Soda

1tsp Cream of Tartar

1tsp Salt

120g Brown Sugar (a bit less than the Guardian's perfect 160g)

2 eggs

120ml Rice Bran oil or similar neutral-flavoured vegetable oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C with fan

2. Sift the flour, soda, tartar and salt together.

3. Whisk eggs, sugar and oil together.

4. Mash the bananas roughly - leave some large pieces intact

5. Toss the banana and nuts in the flour

6. Fold the egg mixture into the flour and banana mixture

7. Line a loaf tin with parchment (or grease and flour). 

8. Pour the batter into the tin and bake at 170C for 50 mins to an hour. You can use a skewer to test done-ness or gently press the top of the cake and see if it springs back. Cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning it out to cool completely on a rack.

I like to slice the whole loaf as soon as its cool and put it in a container with baking paper between each layer. This will keep for a good few weeks in the fridge with a lid. 

Serve on its own with coffee. Toast a slice lightly and spread it with butter or serve with ice cream.

Yeast, Bacteria, Flour, Water and Technique

I've been watching a lot of bread-baking videos on YouTube and I have taken some key insights to improve my bread game:

1. Autolyse - Mix the dough without the leaven and let it sit for an hour or so. This develops the gluten somewhat without doing anything.

2. Hydration - Bread with hydration levels of 65 or 70 to 100 (i.e. 650g water to 1000g flour) are sticky and hard to handle but they produce a loaf that lasts longer and has a moist, chewy crumb.

3. Fold - Folding the dough during fermentation develops gluten networks and results in a more open crumb and chewy bread.

4. Fermentation time - I use the sourdough starter to produce a well-flavoured bread and I add yeast so that I get a result in a short time. Without the sourdough starter, using a long fermentation time should give a reasonable result. You can do this by starting with less yeast or fermenting at a low temperature.

My top recommendation for YouTube videos is the Chain Baker.

Yeast, bacteria, flour and water

It was at Romeo's restaurant under chef, Michel Reulan, that I learnt to bake bread. It was the only daily bread-making I have done professionally. I think the main reason why bread-making in commercial kitchens is not more widespread is lack of a decent mixer. Without a good mixer, making bread is just time-consuming drudge - it requires, in total, about 30 minutes of kneading and shaping for every 3 or 4 kg of dough. 

At Romeo's, we had a floor-stand Hobart mixer with a several horsepower, 3-phase motor. I have been lucky enough to have been given a magnificent bench-stand mixer to exercise my art. I calculate a payback period of about 2 years of bread baking rather than bread buying, and I think that's great value.

I have heard that sourdough bread-making has become quite a trendy thing to do during the pandemic. Like many fermentation arts, the sense of mystery, rather than being dispelled by this renewed popularity, seems to have ramped up. Let me start by saying that there is no mystery - yeast and lactic acid bacteria are everywhere. Leave a water and flour slurry out in the open for a couple of days and it will start to ferment. 

Such a wild ferment can be a bit touch and go. We are lucky enough to have other sources, be that a friend with a long-lived sourdough culture, or a commercially prepared culture. I have ordered a freeze-dried culture from https://www.greenlivingaustralia.com.au/sourdough-culture - but I haven't tried it yet. I started mine by saving some dough from my first batch and inoculating it with some sauerkraut juice for some lactic acid bacteria.   

Similarly, don't stress too much about keeping it alive. Of course, any microbial community has optimal conditions, but this is life, and life's goal is to survive. Once you make your first dough, just keep some aside, add a some extra liquid and keep it in the fridge. So long as you make another batch within a week or two, it should be fine. It will give off sour, yeasty, alcohol smells. It may even go slightly rank, but unless it is really stinky or there are obvious signs of mould, the culture should be fine.

We are also lucky enough to have access to freeze-dried yeast as a raising agent. This hasn't always been the case, in fact, the sourdough culture was the raising agent and the only method bakers in times gone by had for keeping their yeast fresh.

Ingredients

• 500g flour
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 350g strong plain flour - look for something >11% protein. If not available, use slightly less water
• 400g sourdough
• 300g water
• 10g salt
• 7g (about a teaspoon) freeze-dried yeast (yes, yeast - I want the sour culture for flavour, not for leavening. Besides, my culture is just too young)

Method

• If you have a sourdough already, take it out of the fridge 12-24 hours before making your bread. 
• Mix everything together
• Knead for 10 minutes
• Prove until doubled in size - about 30-45 minutes
• Knead for 10 minutes
• I often prove again for another 30-45 minutes, but this is optional
• Reserve 400g of dough for next sourdough

• Preheat oven to 200C
• Shape the bread gently - usually into a round. There is lots of advice on YouTube about this step, but you are aiming for a smoothly stretched top and a well-sealed bottom. 
• Put the dough in/on the vessel you plan to cook it in. Dust the top of the loaf with flour, then slash open the bread with a sharp knife to a depth of about 2cm. 
• Prove dough for 30-45 minutes - near, or on top of the oven is a good spot

• Now go back to your reserved dough - add 100 ml of water and mix in a bowl until it becomes a batter instead of a dough. Refrigerate this for next time.

• Turn the oven up to 250C. Add a small tray of water to the oven
• Use a spray bottle to mist the dough with water
• Bake the dough for 30 minutes - shorter if you are making baguettes or buns
• Cool quickly on a rack

Notes

Some people might call this a pre-ferment rather than a sourdough. I'm not going to engage in puritanical debate. I find this method a good compromise between flavour and effort.

Ozi's birthday

My dear friend, Ozi, asked me to prepare a meal for his birthday party; a dinner party for 12. I kept the cookery simple and focused on quality local ingredients. 

Smoked salmon torte

 Coopers Stout crepes layered with Paris Creek quark with foraged black dill and capers. Served with a pickled fennel slaw.

Moroccan spiced chicken

Braised slow-grow chicken crusted with Moroccan spice. Served with a saffron pilaf and buttered beans. Harissa on the side.

Lemon delicious 

Classic fluffy pudding with its own lemony custard sauce. Served with double cream.

The event went really well - everyone had a great time. I made a couple of errors with the menu, but no-one noticed. The worst was that I overdid the quantities - in some cases by double.

I had a few days to work with, so I did the shopping and as much preparation as I could the day before. I prepared the entree entirely the day before. On the day, I just had to dress the salad, slice the torte and serve.

On the day, I prepared the main. I made my spice mix by roasting a grinding spices. I cooked the chicken in the morning and reheated it just before serving. I cooked the pilaf just in time. The great thing about a pilaf is that once you have brought the rice to the boil, you can finish it in the oven. I timed this to go into the oven just as everyone sat down to their entree. 

Dessert was, of course, freshly made. I prepared all the ingredients before the main went to the table. I excused myself early from the table and got the pudding into the oven. That left about 45 mins between main and dessert.

The god of small things is a man called Katz

Sandor Katz is a master of all things fermented and cultured. My go-to reference for fermentation techniques is Sandor's YouTube channel or his encyclopaedic work on the subject, The Art of Fermentation.

I have taken to making yoghurt at home using Sandor's advice (Sandor's Yoghurt Workshop). This method produces a pretty good yoghurt using a supermarket yoghurt as a culture. However, as Sandor advises, results will degrade dramatically for subsequent generations due to the lack of biodiversity in commercial yoghurts. I am looking for a good yoghurt culture, but in the meantime, I follow a buy one, make one pattern.

Your guarantee of live cultures in a supermarket yoghurt are the words "pot set". This means the milk and culture have been poured into the container to set, rather than being batch-set and then put into packaging. Batch-set yoghurt often undergoes further processing or has additives which may compromise the biota.

Ingredients

• 2L Milk - I have had success with UHT milk and with powdered milk
• 1 Tbsp Yoghurt with live cultures

Equipment

• Pot for heating milk >4L
• Thermometer (all I have is a candy thermometer, which is not ideal, but still works)
• Hot box: An insulated box which will maintain heat for a few hours. I use our, otherwise underutilised, car fridge. An esky (chillibin) will do, or even a box lined with a 5cm layer of crumpled newspaper, rags or reclaimed styrofoam packaging.
• Jars or other containers for the yoghurt

Method

Short version: Bring the milk to 80C. Cool it to 50C. Keep it above 40 for 8 hours or more.

1. Set the milk over a low to medium heat. Our target temperature is 80C (180F), but go slowly and stir regularly. This will take about 20 minutes. While you are waiting, prepare the next steps.
2. Wash your containers and lids really well. I don't bother to sanitise for yoghurt as we are not aiming for long-term storage. A rinse with the hottest tap water should be sufficient to pasteurise.
3. Part-fill a sink with cold water - we will use this to rapidly cool the milk
4. Heat your hot box to 45-50C (110-120F). I pour about a litre of boiling water and half a litre of room temperature water into my car fridge.
5. Take the pot off the stove and submerge it in the cold water in the sink. Keep stirring until the temperature drops to around 50C (120F)
6. Put the culture into one of your jars and half-fill with milk. Shake well, then pour this mixture back into the pot to inoculate the milk.
7. Pour the inoculated milk into the containers
8. Put the containers into the hot box
9. Check the hot box temperature after about 4 hours. I always need to refresh it by removing and replacing some of the water to bring it back to temperature.
10. Refrigerate the finished yoghurt.