Jean is a very naughty goat and has decided she is quite bored of her paddock, She has spent the morning eating my garden and pooping on the deck she is now on a teether. She can still reach plenty of grass and can reach her water and her new house, which I must get a photo of I am very impressed with Nev's building skills running talley Chicken house, Deck, Goat house. Hopefully she decides to stay in her feild of her own accord because i'd rather not have to have her on a teether. Her brother Billy has never escaped , have i mentioned he is my favourite, however he is destined to be a curry , not sure how i will cope with that. But I guess there isn't much point in keeping a male goat is there .
Chickens are well again !! Hurrah we lost two light sussex hens but the rest are very happy and healthy again.
I need to have a quick boast post apologies but I am very proud of myself. For christmas my lovely mother purchased me a bread maker. So since christmas that's a good month I have been making all of our bread in it. It's very quick and all you have to do is put the ingredients in the tub and three hours later you have tasty fresh bread. Other plans are yoghurt making and cheese making, goodness these products are expensive at the moment perhaps making my own butter would be good but i haven't looked into how much effort that would take . So I am the queen of the 'small appliances' at the moment with the bread maker and the popcorn maker getting a spin at least every two days . Hopefully all of these endevours should be good for our pocket and our health.Boys are boys Fin is pleased that playcentre is back in action and we are still pondering what to commit the rest of our week to. Nev has his root canal tomorrow. Charlie just keeps growing with out me noticing, apparently he took his first step on saturday night when Nev had him, and again two steps while Tom and Mike looked after him yesterday while I had a quick exciting trip to the supermarket with the girls. Perhaps i will get to witness one of these elusive steps today if i am lucky.
rip little chickies
making butter is super easy!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_foods/Making_Butter_at_Home.php
Let the cream reach room temperature, around 20 C (68 F) is ideal – this is critical. Don't heat it but leave the pots out of the fridge for a good few hours to warm up. If you have a cold kitchen, put them into the living room to warm up.
Now we are ready to make butter.
With a jar you need to half fill the jar, put the lid on and shake it for anything between half an hour and an hour.
With a food processor or an electric whisk, proceed as if you are making whipped cream. In the processor, use the plastic blades if you have them. I'm told the Kenwood 'K' beater is the best tool if you are lucky enough to have one.
It will go through the usual stage of starting to form firm peaks and then it becomes quite stiff. At this point you might like to reduce the speed of your whisk because when it goes it happens very fast.
All of a sudden the cream goes a bit yellow in colour and then little bits of butter appear and a thin liquid, the buttermilk. Just seconds later, the butter seems to clump and is separated from the buttermilk. If your whisk is on high speed you are now redecorating the kitchen.
Buttermilk
Drain the buttermilk off – you can use this in baking, cooking or make your cat very happy.
Washing the Butter
You need to get all the buttermilk out of the butter or the butter will quickly go rancid. Add clean cold water to the butter in the blender and operate on low speed for a minute. You need the water to be cold or you melt the butter, which will then run off with the water.
Repeat the washing process until the water is really clean, this can be seven or more times but I can't emphasise enough how you do need to make sure the water is clear.
Pressing the butter
You now need to get the water out of the butter. In the old days they had special wooden paddles to press and shape the butter but you can use your hands and the back of a spoon to do this. When you have the water out you are ready for the next stage.
Salting or Flavouring the Butter
Homemade butter can be stored for at least three months in a freezer. If you are going to freeze the butter, don't salt or flavour it. The freezing process enhances the saltiness or flavour and you may well find it tasted fine on the way in but is too salty after freezing.
To salt do not add more than a small half teaspoon for each half pound (250 gr) – half that amount suits me but I don't take a lot of salt. You can also add crushed garlic or dried herbs to make flavoured butter if you wish at this stage.
Shaping the Butter
If you have salted or flavoured the butter, you will need to mix it thoroughly and then you can shape it. I prefer a roll of butter rather than the traditional box shape. You can then wrap the butter to keep in the fridge or to freeze if you have a lot.
Thanks Shan btw whats cream ? sorry for the stupid question how do you make that or would you need to buy it ?
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