Yogurt, Cleaning Bottles, Mortar and Pestle, Sourdough Pasta

Chilled the yogurt made yesterday in the spare refrigerator and then started the draining process just before lunch. This batch looks a bit watery but we'll see what the yield will be. The liquid will go to soaking the chooks grain and the thicker yogurt texture is much nicer. I like mine a little softer than Jean. she prefers it almost like Labna.

The first batch draining

Removed labels of a batch of bottles and put them into the dishwasher for a final sterilisation. Soaking them for 24 hours before hand makes the label removal reasonably easy when scraping with a sharp knife. We don't use that knife for anything else and don't recommend you use your best best kitchen knife as the constant friction with glass is not the best thing for the blade.

Last bottle soaking

This works well

Normally we make our own pasta using freshly ground wholemeal flour. Our favourite recipe involves using eggs. Just out of curiosity it would be interesting to see what a sourdough pasta would be like. Using two cups of Jean's sourdough starter and the basic pasta recipe which doesn't involve eggs a batch was mixed. Will leave it until tomorrow night before attempting to roll it out. Looks a little soft and may need a little more flour to take away the stickiness. We'll see.

Sourdough pasta mix

Mentioned in an earlier blog was a Broad Bean Bruschetta made simply with Broad Beans, Garlic, Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper. The Mortar and Pestle we use is the biggest one we could find in a Sydney Asian food store. It was dirt cheap and is very heavy but has become indispensable for mashing up big batches. We keep it on a special (very sturdy) shelf under the marble pastry stand.

You can judge the size by the space it takes up on the kitchen sink

Bottling Wine

Bottled most of the whites today, Muscat, Semillon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The first dozen of each was made into sparkling by adding fermenting yeast and sugar. 15 ml of 25 Beaume water and sugar with yeast added while it was 40 degrees C. Then 12 grams sugar then filling the bottle. Using recycled champagne bottles to make sure they handle the pressure.

A nearby resident celebrates Friday night with a bottle of French champagne. Rummaging through their recycling bin once a week has resulted in a good collection of top quality bottles.

The rest of each batch of wine went into Stelvin sealed bottles also collected from recycling. The screw caps can be reused several times just need to check the wadding inside has stayed intact.

Not a bad days effort six dozen whites and four dozen sparkling. Should get us through the year. When opening the sparkling it just needs to treated like a home brew i.e. decant gently into glasses or another bottle and leave the sediment behind. Getting crown seals for the champagne bottles is not all that difficult as a lot of home brew places carry them.

Prettied up with a nice label

The underground wine cellar filling up and getting some order with neck labels

Freshly bottled still wine alongside a nicely shaped sparkling wine.