Date night @ Bree's

The date night crew after fun bags, prawn toast & thai green curry (as well as a kids version for our palatley challanged)

Christmas Relish

Have you been nice this year? Its that time of year again...and I'm making my christmas treat...perfect with leftover ham! Our house today was filled with the sour and sweet notes of my tomato chilli relish. Let me know if you would like a jar!
Bree xx

Sat 23rd - Parmesan Crust Red Throat Emperor w Green olive salsa verde on a bed of watercress

I cooked a great fish dish last night. We got hands on some beautiful Red Throat Emperor and decided to have it with an green olive and caper Salsa Verde and a Parmesan breadcrumb crust. The Salsa Verde packed a punch but worked so well, especially with watercress and asparagus as sides. 

Crust - parmesan, breadcrumb, olive oil, pepper

Salsa Verde - green olives, capers, red onion, dill, parsley, lime juice, pepper!!!

We loved it...the flavors were so complimentary and moorish! 

Homemade Sourdough

About six months ago, I started to get into baking my own bread. I bought Bree the Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook and began making my sourdough starter, a month long process of combining flour and water, slowly fermenting to create an active yeast. Since the starter has been finished, I have made several batches, but the last batch was the best by far (David, Leisa-Ann & the McCoolas and Cozy's will vouch for this).

Our process - get our starter out of the fridge and feed flour and water three times, 6 hours apart to prepare it to use.

- Use approx 400g starter and combine with 765g bakers flour and 400ml water

- Mix to combine into dough for approx 10 min then cover and set aside to rest for 20min.

- Sprinkle dough with tbs sea salt and kneed for a further 20 min until you can stretch a small piece of dough so it transparent but doesn't break. 

- Cover 1hr to bulk prove

- Knock back the dough and prove for another hour

- Divide into three even pieces and shape into batard

- Cover and leave in fridge overnight (or 8hrs)

- Remove from fridge and rest in 25 degree room to rest for approx 2hrs. The loaves will expand and are ready to bake when they spring back like a sponge.

- Bake very hot oven 25-30min

It is a fairly long process but the finished product is so rewarding. Would love to hear if you have had success with bread and the method you've used.