New Year, New Wine and Sourdough Bread

Finally got out yesterday to Duncan McBarley's (our local wine making shop) and got another orange muscat kit. The one we made two years ago turned out extraordinarily well. As dessert wine it is thick, sweet and tastes like a white port. Since we never use the chemicals in the kits, this wine took two years to get to bottling. We had to make sure that it was fully fermented. At one point, we thought we may have lost it when the temperatures in the cool room rose during our particularly hot summer, but we lucked out!

Process is everything.

Cleaned up the primary today and got it going. Interesting process with this one. You cut out 250ml of juice add the two packages of Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast top with 250ml of warm water and let yeast begin its work. Then after 20 minutes for the yeast to soften, you add this mix to the muscat juice in the primary. No added water.

This mix will sit in the primary for a week, then transfer to a 5 US gal carboy for its initial 6 month ferment in the cool room. About that time we will check it to see how it going and probably rack it into another 5 US gal carboy to get it off the majority of its lees. Lees are the dying yeasts and can flavour your wine. Some like this, others not. The wine we made last year was so good we aren't going to experiment with process this time. It will sit in this second carboy for at least another six months when we will add 250ml of orange muscat grape concentrate to the carboy. This will reinvigorate the fermentation process and we will now let the complete mixture sit for another year. It is WELL worth the time and effort. Ultimately, we will get 24 small bottles of this elixir to share with family and friends.

Update on the Sourdough Starter

For now the primary sits bubbling away at the end of the counter. Kitchen is warm with the smells of bread baking and a roast in the slow cooker. I have cut out a couple of sourdough sponges today for bagel making this week and the sponges I started last night, Gerry has transformed into a half an half loaf (whole wheat starter and white flour) and a full white (white starter and white flour). These sit rising happily on the counter beside the oven where it is warmest.

The one in the oven is a full white, no sourdough, with potato flakes to make it extraordinarily light. Mom can't eat the whole wheat ones so this airy creation is for her. Might not be optimal in terms of health benefits (at least not as much as the whole grain flour which we grind ourselves) but the B vitamins alone will be worth it.

Chris

Gateau de Foie de Volailles a la Bressane

Ok ok, so Gateau de Foie loses a lot in the english translation to liver cake....but really think of it as a light and airy pate made with chicken livers, now almost the cheapest meat in the store. When I met Gerry, I knew by the sight of a huge tube of liverwurst in his fridge that we were meant to be (I eat it almost every morning on my toast).

So it just seemed reasonable that we would eventually head down the diy path on all things liver. I am fond of pate and love an herbed liverwurst. The other day G-man arrived at home with a package of chicken livers as some free beef fat from the grocery store. Fat was tucked quickly away into the freezer for some Mennonite sausage I want to try and the chicken livers have become a gateau. The recipe came from a book called French Provincial Cooking, given to me by my long-ago friend Maureen who was downsizing. After a quick google, I realize that it is a pretty basic recipe and can be spiced up by the addition of some cognac and more or less herbs/spices.

Recipe:

300g chicken livers
75g flour (2.5 ounces)
4 whole eggs
4 egg yolks (nice cause the remaining whites became some chocolate chip merangues for my work potluck this week)
3 TBS cream
3 c milk
salt and freshly ground pepper
pinch of nutmeg (which I left out as Gerry hates the stuff)
1/2 TBS parsley, very finely chopped (I used fresh out of the garden and the winter cold hasn't yet killed it all)
1/2 clove of garlic

Grind livers into a paste, sift flour and then basically add it all together. Put into terrine (I only had a pyrex loaf pan and two small ramikins) then into a bain marie on the stove. Bring to simmer then transfer to oven at 325 F. Recipe said bake for 40-45 minutes but I found it took about 1 1/2 hours to have it done right the way through. Ger has already eaten most of one of the small ones.

For me, I would add some herbes de provence and extra garlic next time as I am not completely fond of the chicken liver taste. All in all, however, a great experiement. I think I will slice the loaf pan gateau into thick slices, seal in shrink bags and give as Christmas presents along with a nice Port from the cellar.

Chris