mush·room soup

A bowl of grey-brown goodness.

I love mushroom soup, and this is a particularly good one, and interesting too. It is thickened with wholemeal bread instead of a roux or other thickening agent. Apparently, using breadcrumbs to thicken soup is a technique which has been used since the Middle Ages. I think it is a much easier and reliable method as well, no fussing about really, just pop the crustless slice in the soup.

A thick soup is a great comforting and warming meal, just right for these Autumn days. Over at Nihowera we are featuring soup this week - have a look!

Mushroom Soup
from Tamasin's Kitchen Bible by Tamasin Day-Lewis Serves 4

340g brown mushrooms, sliced
55g unsalted butter
2T chopped parsley
2-3 sprigs of thyme
a glove of garlic, minced
salt and pepper
nutmeg or mace
1 thick slice wholemeal bread, crusts removed
1L chicken stock
150mL cream

Stew the mushrooms in the butter, adding half the parsley, thyme, garlic and seasoning when the mushroom juices start to appear. Soak the bread in a little stock. Add the break and stock to the mushrooms. Simmer for 15 minuted. Puree, add the cream, then reheat and check the seasoning.

Serve with a trickle of cream and the rest of the parsley sprinkled on top.

I also added a dribble of truffle oil, because I love it!

Nihowera

A new website all about New Zealand food, products and news.

I have great pleasure in introducing Nihowera - a website dedicated to exploring New Zealand foods : produce, seasonality, products and news.

Nihowera is a collaboration between myself and Bron of Bron Marshall fame, fabulous chef and photographer extraordinaire.

Nihowera is a Maori word meaning :

1. [verb] be extravagant with food.
2. [noun] generous host.
   

Bron and I hope you enjoy Nihowera - go on, dive in!

bri·oche

Yellow eggs, yellow butter.

Brioche is a rich bread, rich with butter and eggs. All those eggs and butter make the resulting bread a sunny golden yellow ; as is appropriate for Barbara's a Taste of Yellow event.

LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation's (LAF) grassroots advocacy initiative to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about cancer survivorship issues on a national level and in local communities across the country. LIVESTRONG Day 2007 will occur on Wednesday, May 16.

Brioche can be made with varying proportions of butter. The iconic petites brioches à tête are made with the most butter, but the loaf you see above has a more modest amount of butter - only half as much butter as flour. I find that this amount of butter gives the most versatile loaf, and is fairly easy to handle.

Some things to do with brioche :

• slices lightly toasted and spread with marmalade for breakfast.
• make rolls for the best hamburger buns.
• baked with a vanilla scented custard to become bread and butter pudding.

Brioche
makes 1 loaf, or 6 buns

Sponge
1/4 cup unbleached bread flour
1/4 cup warm milk
2 teaspoon fresh yeast

Dissolve the yeast in the milk the mix in the flour. Leave in a warm place for an hour until it is frothy.

Dough
3 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g butter, soft, cut into 4 pieces

Beat almost all the egg into the sponge, reserving some for an egg wash before baking. I do this in my Kenwood Chef with the K beater. Then add the flour, sugar and salt beating until well mixed. Leave to rest for a few minutes. Beat in the butter, a piece at a time. Rest the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Shape into a loaf, or buns, and leave at room temperature to double in size.
Bake at 180°c for about 30 minutes for a loaf, 15 for buns, or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Leave to rest on a rack for at least an hour before eating.

roast·ed toad·stools

I have been asked why I called this blog The Laughing Gastronome.

In 1967 David Bowie wrote a song called The Laughing Gnome. Now, this song is a bit different than his usual work, but for some reason I find it hilarious! So what better way to pay tribute to something that has amused me than by naming my food blog as a pun on the title of a song that is full of puns itself. I mean, it isn't so strange, he does feed the [gastro]gnome roasted toadstools, dandelion wine, caviar and honey . . .

The Laughing Gnome
David Bowie
1967

I was walking down the high street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man (hello)
In scarlet and grey, shuffling away (laughter)
Well he trotted back to my house
And he sat beside the telly (oaah..)
With his tiny hands on his tummy
Chuckling away, laughing all day (laughter)

Oh, I ought to report you to the gnome office
(gnome office)
Yes
(hahahahaha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you cant catch me
Said the laughing gnome

Well I gave him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine (burp, pardon)
Then I put him on a train to eastbourne
Carried his bag and gave him a fag
(havent you got a light boy? )
Here, where do you come from?
(gnome-mans land, hahihihi)
Oh, really?

In the morning when I woke up
He was sitting on the edge of my bed
With his brother whose name was fred
Hed bought him along to sing me a song

Right, lets hear it
Here, whats that clicking noise?
(thats fred, hes a metrognome, haha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me

(own up, Im a gnome, aint I right, haha)
Havent you got an ome to go to?
(no, were gnomads)
Didnt they teach you to get your hair cut at school? you look like a rolling gnome.
(no, not at the london school of ecognomics)

Now theyre staying up the chimney
And were living on caviar and honey (hooray!)
Cause theyre earning me lots of money
Writing comedy prose for radio shows
Its the-er (what? )
Its the gnome service of course

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, oh, dear me

(ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me)

(one more time, yeah)

fresh yeast

It seems so alive.

I bought my first block of fresh yeast. It cost about $2 and is big enough to make all the bread I could eat if I was to only eat bread for a month. I have shared it among my friends and family, and it is still going. I had read somewhere that fresh yeast only lasts two weeks, but I have had this wonderful item for three weeks now and it is still going strong.

If you like to bake bread, I whole heartedly recommend fresh yeast over dried.

Update : use twice the amount of fresh to dried yeast - both volume and by weight work.

Am·a·zon cake

1/3 cup of cocoa powder - all it takes.

I stumbled upon this recipe, which I will reproduce below, and I can only reiterate Debbie's comments of just what a wonderfully easy, chocolatey, quick cake this is. Try it. It is brilliant.

I have made it many times now and have changed the recipe to suit what I always have to hand. Some modifications I have made :

• I have used peanut oil, which gives a nice faintly nutty flavour, but I usually use olive oil because it is always in the cupboard.
  
• I use white sugar or soft brown sugar, which gives a slight caramel flavour.
• I have used different types of vinegar : red wine, white wine, cider, but not malt yet!
• I have accidentally added more cocoa powder than required, to no ill effect.
• I have scaled the recipe up and down, which is very easy to do, with no eggs to divide in half.
• I have baked it in a loaf tin, a round tin and a square tin, all of which cooked perfectly.
  

Amazon Cake
via Words to Eat By, The New York Times, Cafe Beaujolais by Margaret Fox

5 tablespoons olive oil
1½ teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup cold water
1 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 180°c, grease a cake tin.
Whisk together the oil, vanilla and vinegar with 1 cup cold water, whisk in the dry ingredients, to make a smooth batter.
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes or until it tests cooked with a skewer.
Cool in the pan.

beer for Eas·ter

Beer for Easter - hooray!

My NZ Blogging by post parcel arrived on the door step on Thursday, the day before Good Friday - just in time!

So, I eagerly ripped open the box to find a wonderful 6 pack of Emerson's beer. There was London Porter, Dunkelweiss and Taieri George. Have a look at the Mary sent me an email, which I will quote here, describing her intentions for each :

"the Taieri George beer be eaten with some nicely sauced (but not highly spiced) sticky date pud, or as a dessert in itself. Let the dunkelweiss set for awhile to settle.. I would decant it, not carefully but I find less lees better for the dunkel. It may also accompany a light choc dessert but it's a nice way to end an evening solo. And the last, save for a chilly, wet and windy Wellington night in front of the fire.."

Thanks Mary - I think this is such a good idea for a blogging by mail parcel!

Unfortunately there had been a bit of a problem with the parcel, with it being sent back to Mary due to some of the contents being broken in transit. Sadly this also meant that the pud and biscuits that were included had to be thrown away in case they were contaminated with broken glass - what a shame . . .