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recipe: Indian-style Same-Day Pickled Carrots and Onions

(click on images for larger views and more photos)

palak paneerI have been ferreting through our photos, absolutely certain that we have already taken pictures of T making palak paneer. Can I find any? Not one.

Goodness how sad, I guess we’ll have to have palak paneer again. :-)

I did, however, find a few photos I took when I made simple carrot and onion pickle to go with one of our rogan josh feasts.

pickled carrots This pickle really couldn’t be easier to make. And its refreshing crunch is the perfect accompaniment to counteract the richness of palak paneer or rogan josh or butter chicken. And it’s perfect with channa masala. (Remind me to badger T about making channa masala again. I neeeeeed channa masala.)

These pickles are best made in the morning to be eaten that evening.

Here’s how to make them:

Indian-style Same-Day Pickled Carrots and Onions

* carrots
* onions
* whole green chilies (optional)
* cumin seeds
* brown mustard seeds
* salt
* white vinegar

1. On the morning of the day the pickles will be served, julienne carrots and thinly slice onions (add a couple of whole green chilies too, if desired) and put them into a plastic bag.
2. Toast cumin seeds in a dry pan - just til they are fragrant. Allow them to cool and then add the cumin seeds along with brown mustard seeds, salt and white vinegar to the carrots and onions. Close the bag tightly and refrigerate til dinner time.

Serve cold or at room temperature with Indian food.

* Indian vegetable recipes
* Flatbread recipes (including naan)
* Indian curry recipes
* Indian dessert recipe
* recipes from OUR kitchen - index

http://radicalhealth.com/recipes/

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David’s Mocha Bliss

2 Cups Chocolate Bliss Powder
1 Cup Vanilla Agave Nectar
2 Tbl Ultra Tocos
1 tsp Pristine Guarana

Add 3 Cups Water to VitaMix.
Blend till smooth.
Add liquid to 1 Gallon Container.
Fill container with chilled water.
Drink with wild abandon!

This is an awesome all purpose recipe for upscaling coffee habits. This recipe combines Cacao & a small amount of Guarana to approximate a rich coffee flavor. The Tocos add a smooth, heavy cream, taste and texture.

This is also a great recipes for serving at events, as there’s just enough guarana to expand mental clarity to increase memory retention.

Many times when I attend events, this is brew I take with me.

Yemiah’s Creamy Spinach Dip

Step #1 Almond Cheese
2 Cups Unpasteurized, Activated Almonds or
alternatively dry or soaked Almonds
1 1/2 Cups Water, less for soaked/wet Almonds
1/2 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice
2 tsp. SunFire Salt
1/4-1/2 Hot Pepper - Habenaro or Jalapeno
4 Tbl. Olive Oil, Flax or 1/2 & 1/2 mixture
Blend till smooth
Step #2 Chopped Spinach
16oz. Fresh Baby Spinach
1/2-1 Sweet Onion
Pulse Spinach & Onion together in a
food processor or hand chop coarsely

Spinach dip is ready to eat as soon as your finished. Mix together the Almond Cheese and coarsely chopped Spinach & Onions for desired tasted and creaminess.

Pack tightly in a glass jar and refrigerate to intensify flavors and enjoy all week!

Use as a entree, dip, spread or addition to soups. Adding different amounts to soups can create an unusual flavor component and texture which is amazingly delicious, subtle and will have people trying to guess what you’ve added.

Great in Nori rolls with greens, avocado, sprouts, tomatoes and a sprinkle of Fiesta Mole.

Great mixed with shelled Edamame Beans for a richly robust flavor appealing to most anyone.

Great added to baked potatoe with a sprinkle of Fiesta Mole for an upscale transitional dish.

David’s Rain Forest Bliss Gallon

1 1/2 Cups Chocolate Bliss Drink Mix
1 1/4 Cup Vanilla Agave Nectar
2 Tbl Rain Forest Rush
2 Tbl Ultra Tocos
3 Cups Pure Water
Blend till smooth. Pour in
container and fill with water.
10 Drops Essential Orange Oil
Shake Well. Refrigerate.
Drink with wild abandon!

This recipe is my primary daily food. I make it by the gallon to optimize my kitchen time.

Goji Berries as all Raw Super Foods are great and each Super Food can dramatically change the flavor of basic Chocolate Bliss recipe.

You’ll be served to prepare one batch of Chocolate Bliss using only Vanilla Agave and pure water. Once you have a base reference point for tastes, add one additional Raw Super Food at a time to maintain a taste you love.

David’s Fiesta Mole Soup

1/4+ Cups Fiesta Mole Mix
1 Cup Mixed Frozen Veges like
Shelled Edamame & Corn
5 Cups Warm Water
1-4 Tbl Optional Pristine Golden Flax,
Hemp and Chia Seeds
2 Tbl Bariani Olive Oil or EFA Blend
Blend till smooth

In addition to Rain Forest Bliss, Mole Soup is my other staple. Here’s how I make mine by the quart.

Reduce water to intensify flavors.

Add additional spices for more complex flavors.

Eat with Dulse, Avocado, Flax/Chia Crackers and Activated Nuts.

Yemiah’s Chia Pudding

1 Cup Pristine Black Chia
6 Cups Pure Water
Soak Chia in water overnight
3 Cups Nut Milk
1/2+ Cup Vanilla Agave Nectar
Whisk together soaked Chia,
Vanilla Agave & Nut Milk

Let your imagination fly free on what to add - Chocolate Bliss, fruit, berry medleys, nut butters, bananas, etc.

Also try swirling in different liquid smoothies, fruit juices and fruit sauces.

David’s Blueberry Chia Freeze

2+ Tbl Pristine Black Chia
1+ Tbl Pristine Bee Pollen
1+ Tbl Pristine Ultra Tocos
1+ Tbl Chocolate Bliss
1+ Tbl Cacao Butter
1/8+ tsp Pristine Cinnamon Powder
1/8+ tsp Sun Fire Salt
1/4+ Cup Vanilla Agave Nectar
1+ Cup Frozen Berries
1+ Frozen Banana
2-4 Cup Pure Water

This combo is ideal for an evening snack. This combo dramatically enhances Tryptophan metabolism and oxygen metabolism, supporting deep, continuous sleep.

Start with 2 Cups water, then experiment upwards to create the thickness you desire while keeping all your rich flavors.

You’ll get even more mileage from this recipe if you soak all the ingredients in your VitaMix Blender for 1-4 hours before blending. Dump all the ingredient is the VitaMix Container, swish around a few times till all the ingredients mix, then set in your fridge till you’re ready to blend.

This is also a great way to make a breakfast drink. Swish all the ingredients around and leave in the fridge overnight, then blend in the morning. Add some additional Chocolate Bliss & Rain Forest Rush for your morning energy requirements.

Yemiah’s Mock Tuna Salad

1 Bunch Celery
2 Large Red Bell Peppers
1 Large Sweet Onion
4 Tbls Dulse Powder
4 Tbls Sauerkraut Kraut
4 Capsules Seaweed Energy
1 tsp Sun Fire Salt

From Yemiah’s Raw Food Delights DVD Set, DVD #2 Quick Meals.

The recipe listed here is the lite version. The DVD version adds 2 Cups Activated Walnuts, which make this a more substantial meal.

Toss all ingredients into a food processor and hit pulse till mixed. Using pulse keeps all the material chunky, with greater texture.

Great to eat as-is, in Nori rolls or kale wraps with Raw Sour Cream below, also as a base for nut loaves, pate’s and dehydrated veggie patties.

Activated Nuts

5-10lbs. Cold Stored, Raw Nuts
Pure Water
Sun Fire Salt

From Yemiah’s Raw Food Delights DVD Set, DVD #1 Breads & Crackers.

Divide your nuts equally in large bowls and cover with water. Soak them until soft.

Hard nuts like almonds may require soaking overnight. Soft nuts like pistachios or walnuts only require 3-4 hours.

After soft, rinse with pure water until rinse water becomes clear. Place your soaked nuts on open mesh, dehydrator sheets in your dehydrator at 110 degrees until your nuts are the dryness you desire. They are usually crisp after 24 hours, depending on humidity during drying.

Optionally, before you dehydrate your nuts you may do a second soaking 4-5 Tbls Sun Fire Salt per quart of water for 3-4 hours. Then dehydrate for 24 hours.

For flavored nuts sprinkle with spices and oils for last 1-4 hours of dehydration.

Yemiah’s Raw Sour Cream

2 Cups Soaked & Rinsed Cashews
3/4 Cup Lemon Juice
1 Cup Pure Water
4 Tbl Onion Powder
2 Tsp Sun Fire Salt
Optionally add finely chopped
fresh chives, pill, parsley to taste

From Yemiah’s Raw Food Delights DVD Set, DVD #2 Quick Meals.

This is a key recipe for people choosing upgrade of eating cheeses. This recipe is fast since cashews are extremely hydroscopic/hygroscopic (water absorbing) and require only a few hours soaking to soften. Also, as the cashews are soaked they work well for people with nut/cashew allergies.

You’ll be amazed with it’s perfect sour cream flavor and consistency.

You can use this as a topping or add in a few herbs and a bit more water to create a decadent creamy salad dressing. Add a sprinkle of Fiesta Mole and Pure Radiance C to add an exotic Chiapas-Polynesian-Berry flavor.

Nori rolls with avocado, tomato, arugula, greens and sour cream are fantastic!

Yemiah’s Bell Pepper Pesto

2 Cups Activated Walnuts
3 Each Large Red Bell Peppers
2 Each Juiced Small Lemons
1 Tbl Sun Fire Salt
2 Cups Cilantro

Blend till smooth
Using Food Processor

From Yemiah’s Raw Food Delights DVD Set, DVD #3 Italian Delights.

This is house staple everyone loves. Yemiah’s Italian Delights covers a variety of Pestos made from a handful of ingredients.

Most Raw Food dairy replacements are to heavy for us. Yemiah designed each of her Pesto and other dairy replacement recipes to emulate a different variety of cheese - texture and spicing - using upscale, lite ingredients. You’ll love the rich creamy flavors and tastes during eating, then you’ll love all the energy you feel after eating.

To make a stronger flavored version of this recipe, half the amount of walnuts.

For a Mediterranean twist, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pitted, sun dried olives and replace the cilantro with arugula.

For a South American twist, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Fiesta Mole.

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=193#recipe

click on image to see slightly blurry photos of making cheese cookies

cheese cookies These cheese cookies are the best …and they’re not just for holidays!

I first made them the Christmas before last when I was giving little boxes of cookies as presents to work colleagues, two of whom cannot eat sugar of any kind.

We could hardly breathe because they were so wonderful. In fact, we liked them better than cookies made with sugar. (Hehheh, I should have posted about these for Sugar (not) High Friday #15 although with the amount of butter in them, they wouldn’t exactly be taking a “little break from the excesses of the holiday period just past”.)

They are terrific as pre-dinner snacks. We like to warm them up just a tiny bit in the toaster oven before serving but it isn’t really necessary.

They are dead easy to make, especially if the butter is soft. (I have to put the butter into the oven with the light turned on to get it to soften in our otherwise chilly kitchen.)

Cheese Cookies

* 1½ c grated cheddar (about 170gm/6oz)
* ½ c butter, softened
* 1 Tbsp canola oil (or safflower, sunflower,…)
* 1 c all-purpose flour
* ½ tsp salt (more or less depending on whether you use salted or unsalted butter)
* 1/4 tsp crushed chili pepper

Preparation

1. Put salt and chili pepper into a mortar. Use the pestle to crush the chili pepper very finely.
2. In a small bowl, cream cheese, oil and butter together.
3. Add flour and spices and mix til smooth. Let your hands be your friends.
4. Shape into a log about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap in waxed paper. Chill til firm.
5. Preheat oven to 350F. Slice dough into very thin coin shapes. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet (allow some space between each cookie) for about 10 minutes or til lightly golden and bubbly.

When we finished the last of our Christmas cheese cookie stash in early January, T begged me to make more. And so I did and I will again soon. Because he’s worth it.
A note about silpat: Whatever has been baked before on the silpat will impart some flavour to these cookies. The cookies that I baked on the silpat tasted vaguely of cinnamon buns… does anyone know how to clean silpat so it won’t retain odors?

8 Comments »

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=209#recipe

click on image to see larger view
sweet potato cornbread The other day as I was leafing through various blogs, I was really intrigued by Sher’s (What did you Eat?) sweet potato cornbread and decided I had to make it.

And I’m really glad I did. It’s everything she said it was. It’s light, fluffy, a little on the sweet side but not cloyingly so. The only thing I’d change for next time is to use only 4 green chilies and omit the cinnamon and allspice. The spices were very nice but I found them to be a little too reminiscent of pumpkin pie.

Being incapable of following a recipe exactly (among other things, I decided to add some green chilies) here is what I did:

Sweet Potato Cornbread
based on Sher’s recipe for Sweet Potato Cornbread

* 1 sweet potato (approx 450 g)
* 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
* 6 green chilies (Thai)
* 1 c boiling water
* 3 Tbsp melted unsalted butter
* ¼ c plain yoghurt
* 2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
* 1 Tbsp + 2 tsp buttermilk powder
* pinch cinnamon
* pinch allspice
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 Tbsp baking powder
* ½ tsp baking soda
* ¾ c unbleached all-purpose flour
* ¼ c wholewheat flour
* 1 c yellow corn meal

Preparation

1. Scrub sweet potato. Cut ends off or slash in a couple of places. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes til tender. Let cool.
2. While the sweet potato is baking, coarsely chop green chilies and put them into a small bowl. Add sugar and stir to blend. Cover and set aside on the counter.
3. When the sweet potato is cooled, peel the skin off. Discard skin into the compost bin. Using a hand blender, whip the sweet potato until it is smooth.
4. Pour boiling water into a bowl. Add butter and stir til the butter is melted.
5. Turn oven to 400F and line a 9×9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
6. Stir yoghurt, sweet potatoes, chillies and eggs into the butter mixture.
7. Sift and mix dry ingredients into another bowl.
8. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir just enough to combine.
9. Pour batter into parchment covered pan.
10. Bake at 400F until the bread pulls away from the sides of the pan and a cake tester poked into the center of the bread comes out cleanly: about 30 minutes. Cool bread on a rack. Remove from paper and cut into squares.

Please note that if you do not have buttermilk powder, substitute 1 c buttermilk for the boiling water and buttermilk powder. And melt the butter in a conventional manner….

We served the cornbread with roasted chicken (rubbed with old bay seasoning) and dilled green beans. Delicious!! Thank you, Sher! (Here is Sher’s recipe for sweet potato cornbread and here is our usual more grainy cornbread recipe.)

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=254#recipe

summary: recipe for pasta with sage and oven-roasted sweet potato; information on sage for Weekend Herb Blogging

WHB#36: sage (Salvia officinalis)

basil This time of year is so wonderful. The garden sage is leafing like crazy beside the fading tulip leaves. Everything is leafing like crazy!

At the beginning of June, the nights were finally warm enough to bring the overwintering basement plants outside. And happily, there was a potted sage plant that thrived there too.

spaghettini with sage and sweet potato So at last we had enough sage to try Haalo’s recipe for Linguine with a sage burnt butter sauce and sautéed Sweet Potato that she posted way back in January for “IMBB#22: Use your noodle”.

I had a feeling we were going to love the dish and I was right! It is great - I’m so glad we bookmarked Haalo’s recipe and remembered to try it - even though we didn’t follow it exactly.

(click on images for larger views and more photos)

Here is our take on Haalo’s recipe:

Spaghettini with Sage and Oven-Roasted Sweet Potato

* 1 sweet potato, cubed
* olive oil
* 1 medium onion, chopped finely
* butter
* 3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
* dried bread crumbs
* good shot of sage leaves
* spaghettini
* salted water
* salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Cube sweet potato, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and oven-roast at about 350F til golden and a bit caramelized. Set aside.
2. Chop onion finely and sauté in olive oil til lightly golden.
3. Add butter to onions and sauté garlic.
4. Add bread crumbs and cook til toasty.
5. Add sage and cook til sage releases aroma.
6. Put spaghettini in plenty of salted boiling water and cook til al dente.
7. Drain pasta; add pasta and sweet potato to onion/sage mixture and toss til spaghettini is glistening. Grind pepper overtop.

Serve immediately.

spaghettini with sage and sweet potato We served it with a grilled pork chop and steamed broccoli and green beans. Another delicious dinner!!

Next time, we’ll toss the spaghettini with sage/onion/garlic butter mixture and reserve the sweet potato cubes as garnish. That way, the sweet potato cubes will retain their chewiness.

Thank you, Haalo, for a brilliant idea! We’ll definitely have this again!

Weekend Herb Blogging#36: sage (Salvia officinalis)

weekend herb blogging - © kalyns kitchen

Sage is a hardy perennial that likes full sun (will tolerate light partial shade) and well-drained neutral soil (not acidic). Cut plant back in early spring for new foliage. Water when soil has just dried. Be careful that the soil doesn’t get waterlogged.

Sage flowers and leaves are edible. They are quite strong tasting and a little goes a long way. However, when whole leaves are deep fried til golden and crisp, not only are they wonderful but the strong taste of the sage is diminished dramatically.

Sage is very good with pork or chicken and I think it is an essential ingredient for stuffing a chicken. The leaves can be dried at the end of the season to be used in poultry dressing over the winter.

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http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=272#recipe

recipe: strawberry (or any berry) pie with cream; includes pastry recipe

click on images for larger views
strawberry pie

…fruit pie, that is. Strawberry pie….

I think I mentioned that my father-in-law made a fabulous strawberry pie for us when we were visiting them recently. When we got home from that trip, we were very happy that local strawberries were still available so we could make some more strawberry pie. Ontario strawberries

And it tasted SO good that as soon as it was finished, we simply had to make another strawberry pie again. By then, there were no more of the beautiful Ontario berries anywhere.

Only California strawberries were available. But we HAD to have another strawberry pie!! Hoping the local food police wouldn’t come after us, we disguised ourselves and bought California strawberries (which, amazingly, smelled like strawberries) and we made a second pie. And yup, it was pretty much as good as the first.

In fact it is so good that it may just replace strawberry shortcake!

Now we can’t wait for local blueberries to be widely available. And we think this might be a great way to do peach pie as well…

click on image for photos of making strawberry pie
strawberry pie Here is our take on my father-in-law’s strawberry pie:

G’s Strawberry (or any other Berry) Pie
(based on a recipe for loganberry pie adapted from Mme Benoit, published in the “Loganberry News” Victoria, B.C.)

Pastry

* 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
* 1 tsp salt
1/3 c unsalted butter and vegetable shortening
* ICE-COLD water (anywhere from 2 Tbsp to ½ c)

Berry filling

* 4 c berries
* 3 Tbsp cornstarch
* ½ c white sugar (give or take, depending on the sweetness of the berries)
* 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Preparation

Pastry

1. Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cut the butter and shortening (about 3Tbsp butter and 2Tbsp shortening, or you can use all butter or all vegetable shortening….) into the flour mixture until it is pea sized. Add ICE-COLD water a little at a time and mix quickly but lightly with a fork (or your hands, if they are cold like mine usually are) until it is pastry consistency. Please note that the amount of water changes drastically, depending on the humidity.
2. Handling the pastry as little as possible, roll it out into a disc on a lightly floured board. Put the disc into the pie plate. Liberally prick it all over with a fork. REFRIGERATE AT LEAST ONE HOUR.
3. Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes at 350F until golden. Set aside to cool.

Berry filling

1. Sort through the berries and set aside 2 cups of the nicest ones.
2. Wash (and hull if using strawberries) the remaining 2 cups of berries and put them into a saucepan. Mix with sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Cook over low heat stirring constantly til creamy and smooth. Set aside to cool.

Assembly

1. Pour some of the cooled cooked berry mixture into the bottom of the cooled pie shell. Then fill the shell with the “nicest berries” (uncooked ones) - pointy side up if using strawberries. Top with the remaining cooked berries.

When serving, garnish with sweetened whipped cream 1 or creme fraiche and a few mint or lemon balm leaves. It’s also fantastic with plain yoghurt if you’re having it for breakfast.

G’s recipe says to line the bottom of the crust with uncooked berries and pour ALL of the cooked berry mixture over top. We did that for the first pie and we both agreed that it didn’t look that great without being slathered with cream (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing…)) So for the second pie - and subsequent pies - we have decided to sandwich the uncooked berries in between two layers of cooked berries.

1 It has come to my attention that there might be some poor mistaken soul out there who thinks that “cool whip” (or any similar travesty) would be a viable alternative as a topping. All I can say is what I said to the last convert: “Bite your tongue!! Get heavy cream, whip it til there are soft peaks and add a little sugar so it holds its shape.”

recipe: Corn and Potato Chowder made with barbecued corn on the cob

click on image for larger view
corn chowder I believe that I promised to post about corn chowder…

As I mentioned earlier, we had some left over barbecued corn and chicken. Now, you might be wondering who in their right minds would ever HAVE left over barbecued corn and chicken! I have to admit that we were a little surprised but knew that we would be able to make good use of it all.

We weren’t at all concerned about the chicken. That would make a perfect dinner for these hot evenings. But the corn. What to do with the corn?

Initially, we were going to cut the niblets off and freeze them to add to black bean soup sometime this winter. And then we thought… what about corn chowder?! Yes!! Corn chowder would be perfect to have with cold chicken.

It turns out that corn chowder made with barbecued corn is so fantastic that we are always going to arrange to have left over corn!

Corn and Potato Chowder
adapted from a recipe in Bon Appetit October 1993

* 4 ears corn, barbecued
* 2 Tbsp olive oil, give or take
* smoky ham, chopped coarsely
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 Yukon Gold Potato, cubed
* 1 red bell pepper, chopped
* 2 c milk
* 1 tsp chicken stock powder (or salt)
* thyme leaves
* freshly ground pepper & salt, to taste

Preparation

1. Shuck and barbecue the corn. Set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add ham, onion and potatoes and cook over medium heat, stirring from time to time til onion is soft and almost caramelized.
3. As the onions are cooking, cut the niblets from the corncobs.
4. When onions are soft, add corn to pot and stir in.
5. Add red pepper and continue to cook, stirring until pepper is completely covered in oil.
6. Add milk, chicken stock powder and half of the thyme leaves. Bring almost to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally until potatoes are al dente. (They will continue to cook in the serving bowl.)

This can be made ahead; it is great heated up the next day.

recipe: crackers made with sesame, poppy and flax seeds and left-over wild yeast after feeding

I began writing this post yesterday morning…

capturing wild yeast: part 5

(click on images for larger views and more photos)
natural starter Rats. Was that really me who said that capturing wild yeast was easy? (capturing wild yeast: part 2) Clearly I was deluded. I’m not sure but I think that I may be killing my starter.

I’m SO disappointed! But McKenna Grant did say that it may take longer in cooler weather so I’m going to give this one more shot. I have pushed everything back to the feeding stages. I used the left over sludge from the false buildup to make more crackers.

crackers At least these crackers were much more successful than the previous batch… I reduced the oven temperature from 450F to 350F and this time, the 20 minutes that McKenna Grant had recommended was about right. Here’s what I did:

Crackers
based on a recipe in Piano Piano Pieno by Susan McKenna Grant
measurements are approximate

* ½ c leftover sludge from capturing wild yeast*
* ½ c whole wheat flour
* ½ c unbleached all purpose flour
* ½ tsp salt
* ½ tsp coarsely ground pepper
* ¼ tsp red chili pepper flakes
* ¼ c sesame seeds
* ¼ c poppy seeds
* ½ c flax seeds
* water
* ¼ c extra virgin olive oil
* more olive oil for brushing and coarse seasalt

procedure

1. Mix all the ingredients (except the seasalt and olive oil for brushing) into a stiff ball. Let your hands be your friends. Add water if the dough seems too powdery. Cover and place in fridge for about an hour.
2. Place the ball between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll the dough as thinly as possible.
3. Peel off the top layer of paper and transfer the dough sheet and bottom piece of parchment to a cookie sheet.
4. Turn oven to 350F.
5. Pierce the dough all over with a fork. Use a ravioli cutter to mark out squares or rectangles. Brush with extra virgin olive oil. Let rest for a few minutes. Brush again. Sprinkle with coarse seasalt.
6. Bake on the top shelf of the oven at 350F for 20-25 minutes. Watch for burning in the last few minutes of baking!
7. Allow to cool. Break apart and store in a cookie tin. Eat the crackers sooner rather than later as flaxseeds will spoil.

* This sludge is largely made up of water and unbleached all-purpose flour. There is also a tiny bit of rye flour and the slightest trace of honey. I’m sure that more flour and water could be substituted and virtually the same crackers would result. I bet that oatmeal or cornmeal would also be good additions.

Sunday: A couple of hours after feeding it, I looked at the starter and there are definitely bubbles. Perhaps it isn’t dying! Hope on, hope ever, I may be making bread from it soon after all. While we wait, I guess I had better resort to using commercial yeast to make some sandwich bread. There’s only one loaf left in the freezer.

capturing wild yeast: abort

natural non-starter Monday morning: I give up. I feel certain that the starter is not supposed to look like whipping cream. And there is no yeasty smell either. It smells like nothing at all. I’m going to try this again when it’s hot. I’ve had it with trying to keep up to the Jones’s.

I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll throw the whole thing out in a rage or if I’ll try making flatbread or biscuits out of it.
Next time I make the crackers (if there is a next time), I will add more salt to the dough and brush on more olive oil. The crackers are just a little too healthy tasting….

* capturing wild yeast: part 1
* capturing wild yeast: part 2
* capturing wild yeast: part 3
* capturing wild yeast: part 4
* baking powder pucks
* capturing wild yeast: parts 5 & 6

10 Comments »

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=377#recipe

recipe: Banana Strawberry Muffins garnished with salted roasted peanuts

(click on image for larger view and more photos)
banana muffins Yesterday, as I was walking into the kitchen to check on my latest experiment, I heard T’s ecstatic words from the office above:

Something smells good!!

Man oh man, he’s right!! Something did smell good! I think I hit the jackpot when I made these particular banana muffins!

It’s all Brilynn’s doing. I had been most impressed with her success when she made Banana Peanut Cupcakes from her own recipe. I really liked the idea of peanuts with bananas.

We had some overripe bananas on the counter that were threatening to go from brown with hints of yellow to black with hints of white fur. It happens every time we buy bananas. They are always too green when we buy them. Then they’re perfect for one day. I do love peanut butter and banana sandwiches (the reason I buy bananas in the first place!) but one can only eat so many of them at a time….

Instead of making Brilynn’s cupcakes, I thought I’d rather do a major alteration of our banana muffins by adding peanuts and strawberries instead of the pecans and dates I usually add. We only had a few strawberries left from a recent strawberry pie that T made. But there was a reasonable amount of strawberry filling leftover that was just crying out to be added to the muffins. (If we’d had cream cheese in the fridge, I would have continued even further with the variation on our banana cream cheese muffins.)

Here is what I did:

Banana Strawberry Muffins

batter

* 1½ c ripe bananas, mashed (approx 3 bananas)
* 2 large strawberries, hulled
* ¼ c sugar
* 6 Tbsp safflower oil
* splash cranberry cocktail
* ¼ tsp vanilla
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1 c unbleached allpurpose flour
* ½ c whole wheat flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp baking powder
* ½ tsp salt
* ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
* ¼ tsp ground ginger
* ¼ c salted roasted peanuts, chopped

filling and garnish

* strawberry compote (make a little extra filling for strawberry pie)
* salted roasted peanuts, chopped

preparation

1. Turn oven on to 350F and grease 12 muffin tins.
2. Mash the bananas and whole strawberries in a medium sized bowl. Beat in oil, sugar, cranberry cocktail, vanilla and egg.
3. In another bowl, whisk dry ingredients together.
4. Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon: just enough to mix it all together.
5. Spoon muffin mixture evenly into the greased muffin tins (they should be about 2/3 full. Dip a finger into some cold water and then poke an indentation into the center of each muffin to make a well. Spoon the strawberry filling evenly into the wells. Sprinkle each muffin with a few chopped peanuts.
6. Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly.

The intoxicating aroma wafting throughout the house fulfilled its promise. These muffins are absolutely delicious!! I think I may need to buy some more bananas to leave on the counter and forget about until they are too ripe for peanut butter and banana sandwiches. More muffins please.

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=385#recipe

The miracle cake (or the perfect cake recipe)

- Followed the recipe (see below) and placed everything into two buttered cake pans.

- Placed cake pans into a pre-heated 350F degree oven. Set timer for 35 minutes.

- Left the room feeling happy.

- Came down 10 minutes later and realized I’d forgotten to add the flour to the recipe.

* #$%x$/#@

- Took the cake pans out of oven.

- Emptied their contents into my just washed and dried mixing bowl.

- Added 2 cups of flour and using our new Mixall hand blender and combined the flour into the already begining to cook mixture.

- Hastily washed, rebuttered and refloured the cake tins.

- Added the mix (with flour) to the cake pans (again) and placed in the oven.

- Left the room feeling somewhat happy.

- Came down 20 minutes later and realized that in the previous flurry of activity and the missing flour I had turned the oven off.

* #$%x$/#@

- Took cake pans out of the cold oven and re-heated oven.

- Re-introduced cake to the pre-heated oven.

- Cooked for 25 minutes.

* Perfect cake

***** **** **** **** **** **** *****

Under the circumstances this recipe seems fool proof.

Miracle Cake
based on “The Best Chocolate Cake“

* 9 Tbsp cocoa powder¹
* ¾ c unsalted butter²
* 2 cups sugar
* 3 eggs
* 1½ tsp vanilla
* 2 c allpurpose unbleached flour
* 2 tsp baking soda
* ½ teaspoon seasalt
* 1 c plain yogurt (3.2% butterfat)
* ½ c boiling water

preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
2. Put butter, sugar and eggs into a mixing bowl, and beat with electric hand mixer until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes.
3. Add vanilla and cocoa powder and beat to combine.
4. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt together and mix into to batter.
5. Add yogurt and hot water and mix well.
6. Pour the batter into the two 9 inch round cake pans.
7. Bake for 35 minutes, until cake centers spring back when touched. Cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.

Spread some orange marmelade on top of the bottom layer. Ice both layers with lots of cream cheese chocolate icing.

¹,² The original recipe called for 3 squares unsweetened chocolate and ½ c butter.

*** 1 square chocolate = 3 tablespoons cocoa plus 1 tablespoon butter (1 ounce) ***

-TPH
Please read my addendum - ejm

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=443#recipe

Bonus for managing to dredge through right to the end

Plagued with fruit flies? Use this wonderful recipe my parents-in-law told us about:

Fruit Fly Trap

* 3 Tbsp vinegar
* 1 tsp sugar
* dregs from red wine bottle
* liquid dish detergent

preparation

1. Pour vinegar into a small shallow dish. Stir in sugar until it is dissolved. Add dregs from red wine (for colouring so you’ll notice the dish…)
2. Squeeze a tiny bit of dish detergent on top.

Leave on counter near the fruit basket that is teaming with fruit flies. You’ll be amazed at how many fruit flies you DON’T have the next day.

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=459#recipe

featured vegetable: pepper squash (aka acorn) - winter squash
featured herb: sage

(click on images for larger views and more photos)

squash and sage THIS time I am featuring at least one vegetable and one herb in the recipe. And THIS time, I am featuring the vegetable that I thought was going to be everyone’s favourite: winter squash. As it happens, (here comes that “happening in two’s” again!) my favourite vegetable, the onion, is also featured.

Onions are a staple in our house. I can’t think of any time that we haven’t had onions on hand. Just about every dinner has onions in at least one dish. Yes indeed, onions are the best. In retrospect, I’m wondering if I should have predicted onions as WHB’s favourite vegetable.

But when Kalyn first announced the second anniversary theme for WHB, I really thought the favourite vegetable would be winter squash. Maybe because here in Toronto, this is the time of year for winter squashes. There are baskets and shelves filled with winter squashes at every vegetable store. The great thing about winter squash is that as long as the shell is not broken, it keeps for quite a while if it is stored in a cool dry place.

It may come as a surprise to my parents who struggled to get me to eat just a teaspoon of squash whenever it was served that I absolutely adore winter squash!

My favourite way to eat squash is baked. Just cut it in half, remove the seeds and bake it til it’s tender. It doesn’t require any adornment except perhaps a bit of salt and pepper. And maybe a bit of butter or olive oil in the cavity. If the squash is not quite sweet enough, then adding a bit of brown sugar and nutmeg rescues it back to being almost (but not quite) as fabulous as a perfect squash.

I also love squash filled ravioli. And one day in September, just as the squashes were starting to appear in the vegetable stores, I read Tara’s (Should You Eat That?) post about Pumpkin, Sage & Ricotta Lasagne. What a great idea to use squash in lasagne!! Much easier that stuffing ravioli!

squash and sage lasagne Being the kind of people we are, we consulted several lasagne recipes calling for squash. We decided we would use walnuts rather than pinenuts (Tara replaced the walnuts with pinenuts in the recipe she used), and bechamel and “Ilha Branca” (a Portuguese cheese we have in the fridge) instead of ricotta.

And sage. Of course we’d use sage. We have a fair amount of sage in the garden this year (whoohoo!) and knew it would be perfect in lasagne with squash and walnuts. And of course, onions. And to stay on Kalyn’s everything “happening in two’s” theme, we’d garnish the lasagne with parsley.

Here is what T did:

Pepper Squash and Sage Lasagne
with walnuts, cheese, onions and garnished with parsley

corrected 5 Nov 2007 (corrections marked with **)

* fresh pasta, cut in sheets for lasagne
* 1 pepper squash (or any winter squash)
* salt and pepper, to taste
* nutmeg
* olive oil
* ham, optional
* onion
* chilli flakes, optional **
* walnuts
* bechamel sauce
* splash of chicken stock **
* parmesan cheese, shaved
* Ilha Branca cheese, coarsely grated (hard relatively sharp cow’s milk cheese)
* fresh sage leaves
* parsley, to garnish

preparation

1. Mix fresh pasta, dough. Roll into a tight ball and set aside. When you are about to put the squash in the oven (or just after), roll out the pasta and cut it into sheets. Set aside. (Of course, you can also use ready-made fresh noodles.)
2. Cut the squash in half. Remove the seeds. Sprinkle nutmeg, salt and pepper (and a little butter or olive oil if you want) into the cavity and bake skin side down in a 375F oven til fork tender (about 30 minutes). Scoop the insides into a bowl and discard the skin. Set aside.
3. While the squash is baking, saute ham, onions, (chilli flakes, if using **) and walnuts in olive oil until the onions are soft. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Prepare the bechamel sauce. (about ¼ c olive oil, 3 Tbsp flour, 1 cup milk, salt and pepper)
5. Coarsely chop the sage leaves. Mash the squash and add half the sage leaves ** and the onion/walnut mixture.
6. Put a thin layer of bechamel chicken stock ** in the bottom of a rectangular casserole and place the first layer of lasagne on top.
7. Spread some of the squash mixture over the lasagne. Sprinkle with a little parmesan and put another layer of lasagne over top.
8. Cover the layer with bechamel and the onion mixture. Sprinkle Ilha Branca (or another hard cheese) and place a layer of lasagne on top. Keep repeating the layers until you’ve used up all the onion mixture and almost all the bechamel and cheese. Make sure you have some bechamel and cheese left!!
9. Put bechamel on the top layer of lasagne. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese and scatter the rest of the sage leaves over top. If the top seems dry, add a little cream.
10. Bake the lasagne at 350 for about 40 minutes til bubbly and golden brown.
11. Remove from oven and allow to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
12. Garnish each serving with fresh parsley.

A word of caution: if you are in the habit of adding sugar to an inferior squash, guard against adding too much. The onions will add a fair amount of sweetness.
edit 15 October 2007:
N.B. We do NOT preboil the noodles first. The fresh pasta is quite delicate and will just end up being mushy if it is parboiled and baked as well. To ensure that the pasta gets cooked, we just make sure that there is a thin layer of liquid below the first layer of noodles and a thin layer of liquid on top of the final layer of noodles.

edit 5 November 2007: We’ve now made the lasagne using both butternut squash. The dish was equally good, if not better. I suspect that any winter squash would work. **

* recipes from OUR kitchen - egg noodles/fresh pasta
* recipes from OUR kitchen - eggplant lasagne
* recipes from OUR kitchen - stuffed manicotti
* recipes from OUR kitchen - index

I loved the lasagne!

Next time, we will leave out the ham. It’s just not necessary. And instead of putting a thin layer of bechamel under the first lasagna layer, we’ll use a bit of stock. We will also put some sage in the inside layers as well as toasting some walnuts and garnishing each slice with some toasted walnuts.

This is definitely a keeper! Thank you, Tara, for giving us the idea.

About Pepper Squash (Cucurbita pepo var. pepo)

Pepper, aka acorn squash (I just googled to double-check the name. Ha! I always thought it was always called a “pepper squash” and had a devil of a time finding it… it appears that “acorn” is the standard name) is the type of winter squash we usually choose. Even though I have no idea how to tell if the squash is going to be the best one. Do I choose the heavier one?? Do I choose the one with a bit of orange on the shell? One with no orange? A smaller one? A larger one?? Luckily for me, even when a squash isn’t absolutely perfect, it’s great. But when it is perfect and has ripened properly, it’s wonderful! The inside is dark gold and firm (but not too firm), tasting nutty and sweet (but not too sweet).

When checking the name of the squash on The Cook’s Thesaurus, I saw the following handy note that I MUST remember:

Select acorn squash with as much green on the rind as possible

Ah, isn’t the internet wonderful? Here is what Pete’s Frootique produce guide says about squash:

When buying winter squash, choose one that is hard and feels heavy for its size. […] Acorn squash are […] also known as pepper squash, their smooth thin skin varies in colour from deep green to white to orange, and sometimes a combination of all three.

About Sage (Salvia officinalis)

I used to use sage only in dressing for chicken. I thought it too strong for most other things. But relatively recently, we discovered the wonders of fresh sage fried in olive oil and tossed into pasta. The wild strong flavour is completely tamed by cooking and becomes sweet and just a little spicy. Add some oven roasted sweet potato and the dish becomes (if it’s possible) even more sublime.

Sage is also fantastic as a topping for focaccia. Place several whole sage leaves and thinly sliced onions on top of focaccia dough. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and bake til golden. The onions get caramelized and if there isn’t enough sage, it almost, but not quite, gets lost.

I now like sage so much that I was hard-pressed to choose basil over sage when Kalyn asked us our favourites this year. (And yes, yes, I know. Last year, I said that tarragon was my favourite herb. And it still is. But so is basil. Really. I can’t be expected to actually choose. :stomp: )

Sage thrives on neglect. It is a hardy perennial that loves sun and lean soil. No wonder it grows wild in many parts of the world. It will grow in semi-shade as well but prefers full sun. The only thing it doesn’t seem to like is too much water and freeze/thaw/freeze in the winter. It will grow indoors in a pot but the flavour is markedly faded. Like most plants, sage needs require actual sun to develop completely.

Please read more about sage and winter squash:

* WHB#36: sage
* herbs from OUR garden - sage
* wikipedia - acorn squash
wikipedia - sage
* Plants For a Future - Winter Squash
Plants For a Future - Sage
* The Cook’s Thesaurus - acorn squash
* Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages - sage

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=417#recipe

While we had custody of The Ice Cream Maker (read more here), we tried several different wonderful flavours: strawberry, caramel, vanilla, butter pecan, ginger, lime…. What GREAT ICE CREAM. I loved that ice cream!!

And from me this is saying a lot. Because I’m not the biggest fan of ice cream. It’s so cold. And often overly sweet. And cold.

I think the key to the brilliance of all the ice cream we made is that there was no eggy taste. We can’t stand that taste of dead eggs!! So we use cornstarch as the thickener. That’s right, cornstarch. There are zero eggs in our icecream.

For my taste, the lime was my favourite. I loved the others, of course, but the lime was killer. (T’s favourite was the caramel - until he made butter pecan and then the butter pecan took precedence. Interestingly, in our ice cream tasting survey, most of the men preferred the the caramel over the lime and most of the women preferred the lime. Hmmm, what does this mean?) I loved the lime icecream.

lime ice cream The lime!! OH the lime. I’m a bit at a loss for the correct words to describe how sublime (oooh sorry, no pun intended there) it was. It was so amazingly limey. And just the right amount of sweet. And refreshing. Sublimely so… (okay, you’ve got me; that one was intensional.) We never tried the lime ice cream as a palate cleanser between courses, but I’m sure it would have been brilliant as one. And it was The Best Dessert.

Here is what T did to make the lime ice cream:

T’s Lime Ice Cream

“I made a new one. And this one is amazing!!!! Real ice cream texture and so intensely flavoured a little goes a long way.” - TPH

Syrup mixture:

* Juice and zest of 7 or 8 limes
* ½ c sugar

Cream mixture:

* 4 Tbsp cornstarch
* 1 liter half and half cream (10% butterfat)
* 1 c sugar

Preparation

1. Mix juice and zest of the limes with ½ cup sugar and boil lightly for about 5 minutes to make a syrup.
2. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
3. Mix cornstarch with a little of the cream and set aside.
4. Bring the remaining cream and sugar to a boil.
5. Whisk in the cornstarch and cream mixture into the hot cream and remove just as it comes back to the boil. Let it cool completely.
6. Mix the the cooled syrup and the cooled cream together and separate into two equal portions for two batches of ice cream.
7. Put one batch in the fridge. Add the other batch to the ice cream maker, it should fill the ice cream maker container to just under half full. Churn for 30 to 40 minutes until the mixture is the consistency of stiff soft ice cream. Pour contents into a container and freeze. Continue in the same manner with the second batch.

This yields enough ice cream to almost fill two 750 ml yogurt containers. It also works with lemons (substitute 4 or 5 lemons for the limes) or a mixture of lemons and limes.

ice cream Stay tuned to hear about the other flavours of ice cream. Hmmm, which shall I describe next? Strawberry?? Caramel??? Vanilla???? Butter pecan?????

In the photo are just three of the many different kinds of ice cream that T made while we had custody of The Ice Cream Maker. Clockwise from top: lime, caramel, ginger - click on photo to see larger view)

3 Comments »

1.
2. Comment by brilynn — 12 August 2007 @ 22:57 EDT

I made some lime and white chocolate ice cream last week that I really enjoyed. Apparently everyone else did too because it was gone before I had time to take any pictures.

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=423#recipe

recipe: strawberry ice cream made with fresh strawberries, 10% cream and cornstarch (no eggs)

(click on image for larger view and more photos of making strawberry ice cream)

lime ice cream When we first got custody of The Ice Cream Maker, Ontario strawberries were in season and wonderful. Strawberry ice cream has always been a favourite of mine and so, naturally, one of the first flavours of ice cream we made was strawberry.

The first batch looked great. And it was pretty good… but it didn’t really taste like strawberry ice cream. T didn’t crush the strawberries, thinking that finding big pieces of strawberry would be a wonderful flavour burst. I thought that was a brilliant idea.

Unfortunately, all that happened was the strawberry chunks froze solid, rendering them virtually flavourless and the final result was strawberry coloured vanilla(ish) ice cream that had a vague hint of strawberry flavour.

(click on image for more photos of making strawberry ice cream)

lime ice cream For the second batch, T really crushed the strawberries. That ice cream was quite intensely flavoured with strawberry. It was much more satisfying. But it still had a tendency to be on the shardy side. By the time we had gone through the second batch of strawberry ice cream, Ontario strawberries were no longer available so we moved on to trying different flavours. When we get our own ice cream maker, we’ll have to try making strawberry again!

Here is what T did to make strawberry ice cream:

T’s Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberry mixture:

* 1 basket (about 3-4 c) ripe strawberries
* Juice of ½ lemon
* ½ c sugar

Cream mixture:

* 4 Tbsp cornstarch
* 1 liter half and half cream (10% butterfat)
* 1 c sugar

Preparation

1. Clean strawberries, add ½ c sugar and place in a sauce pan. Cook until juice is rendered. (There will be a lot of juice.)
2. **This is important** Separate the juice from the fruit and set the fruit aside in a bowl.
3. Reduce the juice to a thick syrup. Stir the reserved strawberries into the reduced juice. Mash well. The consistency should be like loose strawberry jam.
4. Remove from heat and set aside. Allow to cool completely. (Let the refrigerator be your friend.)
5. Directly after putting the strawberries aside to cool, mix cornstarch with a little of the cream and set aside.
6. Bring the remaining cream and sugar to a boil.
7. Whisk in the cornstarch and cream mixture into the hot cream and remove just as it comes back to the boil. Let it cool completely before proceeding.
8. Mix the cooled strawberry mixture and the cooled cream together and separate into two equal portions for two batches of ice cream.
9. Put one batch in the fridge. Add the other batch to the ice cream maker, it should fill the ice cream maker container to just under half full. Churn for 30 to 40 minutes until the mixture is the consistency of stiff soft ice cream. Pour contents into a container and freeze. Continue in the same manner with the second batch.

This yields enough ice cream to almost fill two 750 ml yogurt containers.

* recipes from OUR kitchen - vanilla ice cream
* recipes from OUR kitchen - index

I suspect that using commercially frozen strawberries would work pretty well for this. When we get our own ice cream maker, we’ll have to do a test to see if my theory is correct…
Stay tuned for the next installment, caramel!! Here are the previous installments of the summer of ice cream:

* blog from OUR kitchen - adventures in ice cream making: lime
* No!! don’t open the door!!

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=233#recipe

One of my sisters is in town on business. Happily, she was able to set aside business yesterday evening and came to our house to dine. Another sister and brother-in-law joined the party. We sat outside while T grilled minted meat patties on the barbecue. Then we came indoors to have the patties with perfect basmati rice with butter, dahl and steamed green and wax beans. This was followed by a brand new dessert idea (well, brand new, for us anyway).

click on image for more photos of red chili syrup
red chili syrup We first got the idea for making red chili syrup after watching an episode of Nigella Lawson’s “Forever Summer”. No recipe was given but it didn’t seem like it would be too difficult to duplicate. We have no idea if the following is even close to Nigella’s. But we don’t care because what we made is really good.

Red Chili syrup

* 1 c water
* 1½ c sugar
* 6 or 7 red cayenne peppers

Preparation

1. Pour water into a small pot. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Bring to a boil.
2. Meanwhile (heehee, my other sister hates it when there is a “meanwhile” in the recipe), wash chillies. Seed them and chop coarsely.
3. When the sugar water has come to a boil, add the chillies and boil gently for about 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Pour the syrup into a clean glass jar. Let cool, cover and refrigerate

Serve over top of vanilla ice cream. Garnish with sprigs of mint if you have them.

click on image for more photos of red chili syrup
red chili syrup The syrup is beautiful, don’t you think? The cayenne peppers that we used were particularly hot - hotter than we expected. And the resulting syrup was unbelievably hot.

Consequently, when we served it, even though none of us are strangers to spicy food, we only put a little on each bowl of ice cream. And it was remarkable! The icecream completely dissipated the fire of the chillies. One sister at the table exclaimed that this was the first time she had actually able to taste the flavour of the chillies - and she has eaten plenty of spicy food.

And she was right. The slightly citrus flavour of the chillies sprang out. I also loved the chewy raisiny quality that the chillies took on.

Everyone raved. We fetched the syrup jar from the kitchen so people could add as much of the syrup as they wanted. This dessert is definitely a keeper. Thank you, Nigella!!

(Ha! We thought we had made too much syrup… but we’ll need to make more syrup for the next time!)
At first I thought maybe this was going to be my post for Barbara’s (Tigers and Strawberries) event, The Spice is Right #2 - Sweet Or Savory?. (The deadline for posts to be added to Barbara’s “The Spice is Right #2 - Sweet Or Savory?” roundup is 15 May, 2006 at midnight EDT.)

cayenne peppers While it’s unlikely that anyone would argue about the spiciness of fresh cayennes, they aren’t strictly spices, especially if the seeds have been removed.

http://etherwork.net/blog/?p=409#recipe

I’m starting to leaf through my bread making cookbooks to see how one converts recipes made with commercial yeast into recipes made with a wild yeast starter.

wild olive bread As I am reading, it has also occurred to me that people might want to try making the wild bread with olives but don’t want to have to go through the sometimes heart-rending but thoroughly rewarding process of capturing their own yeast. Not to mention that they might want to have olive bread TOMORROW rather than in 6 to 18 days….

There are two ways that this can be achieved:

* Simply scatter olives over any plain bread dough at the time of shaping and form the dough into a ball.
* Make a yeasted starter and add it to the dough instead of the wild yeast starter

In the sourdough section of Artisan Baking Across America, Maggie Glezer wrote the following:

Any sourdough-based recipe can be converted into a yeast-based recipe. The bread will not have the complex flavor […] of a true sourdough, but it will still be a very fine loaf.

To convert a recipe from sourdough to commercial yeast, you will just use a small amount of yeast in the levain and omit the sourdough starter. […] Dissolve ¼ teaspoon yeast in ¼ cup warm water and use 2 tablespoons of the yeasted water per cup (150 grams, 5.3 ounces) flour. […] Be sure to reduce the water measure in the levain by the same amount as the added yeasted water.

Let the levain, which is now technically a pre-ferment, ferment for 2 to 3 hours, or until it has risen to about half again its original volume, then refrigerate it overnight until ready to use. Let it come to room temperature before adding it to the final dough. Continue with the recipe as directed - there is no need to add more yeast.

So, to translate this to be specifically for the olive bread, (note that I haven’t actually tried this but it SHOULD work…) here’s the method:

Pre-Ferment for Olive Bread
based on instructions in Artisan Baking Across America by Maggie Glezer

wild yeast starter . yeasted starter . bread

yeasted starter
yeasted water

* ¼ tsp active dry yeast
* ¼ c warm water*

starter

* 2 Tbsp yeasted water (from above)
* 2 Tbsp water
* 2/3 c unbleached all-purpose flour

preparation

1. On the evening before baking: In a small bowl, stir yeast into water until the mixture looks like very thin cream.
2. Put the flour and plain water into a medium sized bowl. Addonly 2Tbsp yeasted water. Stir with a wooden spoon until most of the lumps are gone and the flour looks to be encorporated. Cover and leave on the counter at cool room temperature overnight. (Put it in the fridge if your kitchen is above 25C overnight.)
3. Baking Day Morning Proceed to the bread section of the Wild Bread with Olives bread recipe. If the starter has been refrigerated, take it out and allow it to return to room temperature before proceeding.

*Tap water is fine to use - just make sure that it has stood for at least 12 hours so that the chlorine has dissipated. However, one should never use water from the hot water tap. Heat some cold water (use a kettle or microwave) and add hot water to cold and use the baby bottle on your wrist method to check that it is not too hot to kill yeast. Yeast starts to die at 120F (48.9C) The yeast will still work if the water is cooler - it just takes a little longer.

* recipes from OUR kitchen - breadmaking notes
* recipes from OUR kitchen - index

Okay, now that going from wild yeast to yeast is solved, does anyone know how I go about converting a recipe that calls for yeast to one that incorporates wild yeast?

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=1745

Listen to the Police and Fire link....

A 10 year old girl disappeared off the street in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas in 10 minutes, had pulled all it had into a search and they still cannot find her.

Dogs, helicopters, undercover and off duty.

San Diego is another town that takes its missing children serious.

They are trying to find the child, today that does not mean that they will be able to do so.

They were on the job ten minutes after she disappeared.

Maybe Freeper prayers are needed here.

They instant ago, got a report to check out an older car, will she be in it?

It is about 110 degrees in Vegas today.

Las Vegas found the child and are looking for a man.

She was taken from a school or the street in front of it.

Dispatcher said “we have found the child and now have a 445”

445 is a bomb threat.

There have not been any details given.

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=1745

They must have found the wrong child, for they are still searching for her.

The poor mother, to have hope and then loose it.

It does appear that a man took her.

Congressman Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduces the Community Gardens Act of 2009

Today, Congressman Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduced the Community Gardens Act of
2009 with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)

The bill creates a grant
program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture to compensate community groups
for up to eighty percent of the costs associated with starting and maintaining a
community garden.

“Locally, the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods maintains almost two
thousand community garden plots on 23 acres of land, which serve almost four thousand
urban gardeners in the area,” said Inslee. “With this legislation, we can help programs
like the ones in Seattle and at 21 Acres in Woodinville, and we can expand opportunities
to all American households to share in the numerous benefits of local gardening.”

Maria Through the Teleidoscope

Maria takes us on an “Alice Through the Looking Glass” type journey around our demonstration
garden using her tiny HD digital camera and her equally tiny teleidoscope.

MediaGlobal - Urban agriculture key to alleviating world hunger

The urban poor have been hit the hardest by the global hunger epidemic, which has
been fueled by the ongoing food, economic, financial, and environmental crises.

Getting healthy food into cities in sufficient quantities is an extremely difficult
task. For the first time in the history of mankind, over half the world’s population
lives in cities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All these stories are here.
City Farmer News [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102667192211&s=1304&e=001Q0mX012qaX98YEzSr1J2_CDKBOoeFEIjWv8qwbx_iacGm2S7Ogssbt8i42bEfJEwmHudYYBZUmsoVU_R5Stj46862OTYyrOwf_jCs-7Ezws2Hd-8psa5JA==]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Levenston
City Farmer - Canada’s Office of Urban Agriculture

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/08/frequently-asked-year-of-slow-cooking.html

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Frequently Asked “A Year of Slow Cooking” Questions, Part II

I’ve gotten a slew of related questions the past few months, and while I absolutely LOVE answering questions (I really do, don’t read this with sarcasm. The idea of actually helping real, breathing people in any way I can is exhilarating-—please don’t ever feel like you’re bugging me with any of your questions. I promise if you’re asking, somebody else already has. :-) ) I figured it might be helpful to round up some of the recent most frequently asked.

Part I of Frequently Asked A Year of Slow Cooking Questions is located here.

1) How do you keep your slow cookers clean? I use Adam. HA! No, really, Adam is pretty much the slow cooker washer guy. He’s an expert you know, one of his first jobs was washing dishes in the kitchen at the local hospital.

For the most part, I’d suggest emptying the stoneware as soon as you can. If you have leftover food, scrape it into a tupperware or some other sort of storage container. This isn’t mandatory, you can certainly store the food safely in the fridge in the stoneware, but it is NOT recommended to reheat in the stoneware in the crock for leftovers, so you might as well clean it out on day 1.

If you have baked on gook, the absolute best way to get it off without ruining your manicure (HA! on the manicure. Although you can get a pretty nice pedicure...) is to fill the stoneware insert with hot water and add a tablespoon of dishwasher powder. Then float a fabric (dryer) softener sheet in the water and let it soak overnight. Then wash in the dishwasher, or by hand in the morning as usual. If you do not have the dryer sheets, a gollop of liquid fabric softener will do the trick, too.

DO NOT ever put a hot stoneware into your sink and fill it with cold water. It will crack. And then you’ll be super sad.

As for the slow cooker base with the heating element, do NOT fill it with water, ever. Make sure to read the pamphlet that comes with your particular slow cooker for the manufacturer’s suggested cleaning technique, but what I do is use a very slightly damp paper towel to wipe out any dribbles or a clorox wipe (I puffy heart love clorox wipes).

2) What’s the difference between a Crock-Pot and a Slow Cooker? Nothing. Crock-Pot is a brand name of the first type of slow cooker, formally under the Rival label. There actually isn’t such thing as a “crockpot”——although many people do call their slow cooker a “crockpot.” There are many manufacturers of slow cookers on the market, and while I happen to use Crock-Pot slow cookers, I have heard from countless people how in love they are with their Hamilton Beach, Cuisinart, All Clad, etc. If you are in the market for a new slow cooker, I’d recommend reading the reviews on Amazon; I have not tested out the different makes and models personally.

3) What size slow cooker should I buy? It depends on what you are interested in cooking, and your family size. Slow cookers work the best when they are 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full. The recipe times are for this amount of food-—if your pot isn’t full enough, the food will cook faster and might burn. If it’s a bit too full, your food will take longer to cook than the suggested cooking times.

Before my year-long challenge, I had 2 slow cookers that I used for everything: a 5.5-quart Smart Pot and a 1.5 quart mini crock I got at a Black Friday sale at Walmart for $4.95 (score!) These pots served my family of 4 quite well until I started this challenge.

For a family of 2-3, buy a 2-4-quart

For a family of 3-5, a 5-6-quart

For a large family, or for entertaining groups of people, opt for a 7-8 quart slow cooker

I adore my Little Dipper, and use it quite often for dips, fondues, and even as an air freshener!

4) What if I only have a huge slow cooker? Can I still make recipes that call for a smaller size? Yes. It’s super easy. Simply insert an oven-safe dish (Pyrex, Corningware, etc.) into your large stoneware, and load the ingredients into the dish. This will create a smaller cooking vessel inside of your slow cooker. Then cover and cook like normal. It will take a bit longer for the dish inside to get up to temperature, but your food will cook just fine.

If you are cooking a dish (chicken, for instance, which has the tendency to dry out) and the recipes calls for a 4 quart, but you only have a 6 quart (this is an example...) put the ingredients into your slow cooker, then put a layer of foil or parchment paper down near the food to help trap in the steam and moisture near the food. Then cover and cook like normal. This is also a big help if your slow cooker has one of those super helpful (now this is sarcasm..) “vent” holes in the lid or in the side of the stoneware insert. PLEASE BE CAREFUL when removing the foil or parchment paper at the end of the cooking time. The steam will be quite hot and will shoot out. Keep small children far away.

5) Are all of your recipes gluten free? What about the ones in the book? Yes. We happen to be a gluten free family, because my 4 year old has been diagnosed with Celiac, which is an intolerance to gluten (found in wheat, barley, and rye). The book is completely gluten-free, and all the recipes on this site have been made gluten-free. PLEASE! read all labels carefully on your own, because manufacturers are known to sometimes change ingredients with little-to-no warning.

If you are not gluten-free, simply ignore my notes and use the ingredients you normally would use when cooking for your family.

Want more info on going gluten free? I wrote about our journey a bit, here, and there are links at the bottom that will be helpful.

6) How come you aren’t posting every day anymore? Because my year-long challenge is over! I’m currently slow-cooking baby number three, and am working on some other freelancing commitments, along with trying my hardest to give my children more of me than they got last year. I am still completely infatuated with my slow cookers and use them VERY regularly. I’d be absolutely lost without them.

7) Have you seen Julie & Julia? Not yet! It looks like a group of my friends will go together next week. I can’t wait.

I hope this helps, some! If you have other questions, let me have ‘em in the comment section. xoxo steph