Pattypan's Kitchen - What has been going on in the kitchen today Tuesday 2 February 2021 (Updated)

 

I have been pottering in the kitchen behind the scenes a little bit doing a little of this and that and getting back into my processing mode. 

Yesterday I ended up cooking the Gammon joint that I had and started planning and plotting other projects that I have had in mind for quite a considerable time.

Cooking the Gammon

I Cooked the Gammon joint in the pressure cooker, after soaking the Gammon in a couple of changes of clear water. This helps take away the salt from the Gammon and when you cook it, you get the bonus of stock. By soaking you make sure that the stock is not over-salty. I then add half an onion with a couple of cloves studded into it, a carrot cut into four pieces, a Bouquet Garni, white pepper and a small piece of celery or celery leaf and cook in the pressure cooker for approximately ten minutes after bringing up to pressure. 

When not doing a gammon with a glaze, I then pop the gammon joint into a deep dish and pour in the stock to store the gammon in after fishing out all the additions, let it cool and then pop into the fridge. The stock should then gel and keep the gammon in the fridge a lot better (with a foil lid). It keeps it nice and moist. You can then use the jellied stock for gravies etc straight from the fridge for a period of about 7 to 10 days.  However it must be fridged and sometimes the stock does not keep so well, so keep an eye on it. 

However on this occasion as I was using my Ninja Foodie, I then chose to use the Air crisper (after popping on Seville Orange Marmalade and ginger powder. You could also use syrup from stem ginger or Golden Syrup and brown sugar. I particularly like the gammon prepared in the Elizabethan manner with studding cloves into the fat and then brown sugar topping and then baking in the oven. Cloves are not to everyone's taste (OH does not like them) however I love it. 

Gammon joint soaking in plain water.  I gave it three fresh water changes and kept it somewhere cool in between.  As the Gammon soaks the water will go cloudy,  soaking the Gammon this way makes sure that you remove as much salt as possible so that it does not impact on the flavour of the meat.

The Gammon in the pressure cooker pot, with the addition of white pepper, water half way up the joint, a piece of celery leaf, half an onion studded with three cloves, a carrot cut into four, a Bouquet Garni, a Bay Leaf.

Bring up to pressure (on my machine there is a pre setting that automatically brings it up to boil, you then have to swing a lever and cook for 10 minutes.  This produces a lot of stock which is ideal for soups, gravies, sauces and which can be canned. frozen and kept in the fridge.

Here is the Gammon after cooking in the pressure cooker.

Once this is cooked, strip off the top layer of the fat and cut into diamonds.  There was not much fat on this small joint, but I did what I could with it.  I then Covered with marmalade and a little ginger powder. I made sure that the joint was well covered.  It is then cooked at Gas Mark 4 until the glaze caramelises and goes a golden brown.

The big bowl of stock after draining the Gammon.  This is going to be very useful.

Today

I have been pottering again after a late start.

Lots of Green Stuff

I had a variety of leaves and rather than waste them I have shoved them into the Dehydrator.

Dehydrating 

I have processed, Kale (the first batch is dry photo below), Mixed Lettuce Leaves and Rocket Leaves.  These three are easy to process and no prep is needed on them.  Sometimes you have to do what is known as "conditioning" the vegetable, blanching, steaming before you actually dry it.  The Rocket and salad leaves went in as they were. I had washed them earlier and then left them to dry.

The kale involved a little more work in that the stems (white bits) go really hard and so need handpicking out just leaving the leaves.  They are done when they are crispy.  Mine meet this criteria. The kale certainly tasted good dried too.  I had to sample it.  Will be an extremely useful asset to the pantry shelf and give extra flavour and goodness.  I have put on the next batch.

They are intended to be made into a green powder for adding to soups, smoothies, stocks and give a bit more flavour.  I have a jar waiting for this.  Run out only made a small amount last year. When I went round to the shop I managed to find two further bags of Kale to go into the Dehydrator at 17p per bag but that will be for tomorrow. I also have some celery that I want to process as well Am going to try and keep the Dehydrator working on a daily basis where possible and will be looking in the reduced counter to see if I can make use of any of the reductions.

Pickled Cucumber (Bread and Butter Pickles)

I have started off another batch of this.  I have cut up six cucumbers and they are currently salting to remove any excess liquid.  Will be finished off tomorrow when they will be rinsed and then the pickling process will take place.  

I used six cucumbers to start with

Slicing them not finely as otherwise you do not get the crunch with the cucumber so they sort of need to be at least medium thick.

I use a colander and then start layering the cucumber in the bottom of the colander and then give a sprinkling of salt. I continue this layering with the cucumber and the salt until the colander is full.

They will then be washed off in the morning to get rid of the salt (I keep in the fridge overnight).  The pickling will then happen tomorrow.

OH eats these like sweeties.  He is diabetic and there is hardly any sugar in them so I do not mind. This will be finished off tomorrow.

Here is a link to the previous post on this with the recipe for those who want to have a go at making this. 

Pickled Cucumber

Yogurt

A separate post is coming up about this.  Probably for tomorrow. However, I have started off a batch of natural yogurt from scratch and a Easy-yo powder sachet (Rhubarb).  There will be a litre of each for puddings, and breakfast and general cooking.

Seed Mustard

I have also put some mustard seeds into soak in some beer for a wholegrain mustard.  Yet again that will be concluded tomorrow.

See previous post here on making mustard (which I have updated). 

Mustard

| Jam Jar Shop

So it has been quite a productive day in the kitchen.  Loads more planned for the rest of the week as well.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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