Jun 16

Starter Naan (or Naan Starter)

Yeast Mode is the gift that keeps on giving. I’ve never had such a frisky sourdough starter. Tonight I made sourdough naan to go along with red lentil dal for dinner. The recipe came out of Sourdough on the Rise, by Cynthia Lair. Lair is a local cookbook author and teacher who has the YouTube channel Cookus Interruptus. There is a blog of the same name, but it’s not the same author. (I can’t see Lair reheating a Whopper, given her long tenure on the faculty at Bastyr University.)

The recipe required making a sponge with starter, water, and flour. That burbles away for several hours. I mixed it up at breakfast and started step 2 after I finished work for the day. A little bit of yeast is added with olive oil, more flour, salt, turmeric, cardamom, and yogurt. I didn’t have any yogurt in the house, so I substituted sour cream. Knead the dough and let it rise until doubled. Punch it down, roll out into 6 ovals, then bake on a baking stone in a 500° oven for 3-4 minutes, flipping about halfway through. The trickiest part of the process is flopping the ovals of dough onto a very hot baking stone. The first oval was a bit misshapen, but the others came out less mutilated.

Julian was impressed by the results. The naan was softer than what we get in Indian restaurants. Most home ovens can’t get as hot as a real tandoor can, which probably explains the difference in texture. The leftover naan and dal will make a good lunch or midnight snack.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/06/16/starter-naan-or-naan-starter/

Jun 09

Yeast Mode

I know, everyone and their monkey are into sourdough these days. I had resisted because flour was hard to come by in the early days of the pandemic and our friend Bruce had beaten into my brain that starters need to be fed every day to remain viable and uncontaminated by unfriendly flora.

Two weeks ago Julian got an envelope from a company called zourdough.com. It contained a packet of freeze-dried starter and directions. He passed the envelope to me with these words: “Here you go. Have fun.” I dutifully followed the instructions on rehydrating and feeding the starter, which was named Wharf by the company. This starter lives up to Zourdough’s hype: It’s extremely frisky. Julian commented that the yeast must be breeding like bunnies. I reminded him that yeast reproduce asexually. (There are some situations where yeast cells do reproduce sexually, but we’re not talking mating rituals. Alcohol is involved, however, as yeast fermentation produces alcohol as an end-product.)

My first sourdough product was pancakes, which were well received. Last night I made an adaptation of sourdough onion caraway bread, from the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook. I didn’t use the caraway seed. The recipe called for a tablespoon of dry yeast along with the starter. I reduced that to a teaspoon because of the friskiness of the starter. In addition, rather than just scattering the onions atop the loaves, I mixed most of the onion into the dough before I shaped it into two large boules. The crust and crumb were quite tender for a sourdough loaf. Julian was pleased.

I normally don’t name cultures of unicellular organisms, but this one deserves its own name: Yeast Mode, as a nod to Seattle Seahawks past (and current?) running back Marshawn Lynch, aka Beast Mode. May Yeast Mode be as relentless as its namesake.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/06/09/yeast-mode/

May 31

Confluence of Chaos

It was bound to happen. A pandemic disease leads to economic meltdown in the shadow of societal polarization. Politicians in charge choose not to rise to the occasion and aid those they represent who are unemployed. It would only take a spark to lead to violence. That occurred with the killing of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

I do not condone looting or violence. However, this is a time that eerily mirrors the years 1968-70. Instead of a pandemic, there was the war in Vietnam that polarized society. The economy was on relatively shaky ground in 1970. One could argue that there were repeated sparks during that era, including the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy and the shootings at Kent State and Jackson State. Both times we’ve had presidents prone to overstepping their Constitutional boundaries – or just plain ignoring them.

How do we pull back from chaos? Prosecute those who have perpetrated crimes against individuals and property equally, regardless of status. Expand aid to those who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic. Demand our elected officials pay attention to the facts in the country. If you haven’t registered to vote, do so now. Encourage your friends to register as well. Then vote in November.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/05/31/confluence-of-chaos/

May 25

My Little Farm

It took a while, but this year’s upper deck farm is coming into shape. Two weeks ago I bought a hanging pot of mini tomatoes. Miracle of miracles, I have 3 tiny green tomatoes on the plant. As I’ve mentioned before, growing tomatoes is a faith-based venture here. My next door neighbor planted some tomatoes in a raised bed behind her unit. Julian noticed that the perimeter of the bed resembled a coffin. (Gardening in the time of COVID-19…)

I also have some padron peppers on the upper deck. These I started from seed and they look rather spindly. At the same time, I started some tomatillo and Columbian golden berry plants. I volunteered for a citizen scientist project through the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell. These also look pretty spindly. I’m hoping some warm weather will perk them up.

Today I hit Fred Meyer and got three types of basil, red shiso, and a fuchsia. All of them were seriously pot-bound, so I spent the afternoon repotting them. I bought a tomatillo plant, to cheer on the spindly seedlings. I also started some more parsley and garlic chives from seed. The parsley I planted last year is rapidly going to seed. The garlic chives from last year are still fine.

Later this week I may venture to Molbak’s or Sky Nursery to get some more plants for our shady planters in front. One heuchera from last year wintered over well; the others were toast. I may get some bleeding hearts and a few impatiens. The impatiens did very well last year.

Stay tuned for progress reports.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/05/25/my-little-farm/

May 16

Time Travel

I have a loose-leaf notebook of recipes that had belonged to my maternal grandmother 100 years ago. Grandma was a home economics teacher before she married Grandpa. (Those were the days when women had to quit jobs once they got married.) The collection is an interesting time capsule of foodways in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Examples:

No oven temperatures, only low, moderate, or hot. Probably these recipes were designed for ovens without precise heat settings, such as wood-burning stoves.

No seasonings other than salt and pepper in main dishes. Spices do make appearances in baked goods.

Some recipes didn’t have methods, just a list of ingredients. One had to be a home economics teacher to figure things out.

Lots of white sauces. The most bizarre use of white sauce was a recipe for deep-fried peanut butter croquettes. The most egregious error I saw was in a recipe for baked eggs, where one was to make a medium thick white sauce with 1 1/2 cups milk and 4 1/2 cups flour. That’s more like muffin batter than a sauce.

The only two recipes I found for fish involved canned salmon and salt cod. This is probably related to supply. Fresh fish was not readily available unless a family member caught one. There was a recipe for scalloped oysters, which was one of my mother’s favorite dishes.

Some of the most interesting items in the notebook are the newspaper clippings. I found a recipe for mock chicken loaf that won a $1 prize for Mrs. J.B. Fish, who resided at 134 College Avenue in Ithaca. (Chicken was more expensive than pork or beef back in the day; hence the campaign slogan, “A chicken in every pot.”) I checked out this address on a map app. It still exists, although it’s been chopped up into several student apartments.

I wonder what someone 100 years hence would think of my collection of recipes. The person might find my obsession with Asian cuisine and spices quaint, or wonder why I needed so many cookbooks. Or s/he might wonder what these foods are, since our descendants may be consuming the 22nd century equivalent of Space Food Sticks.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/05/16/time-travel/

May 02

Recipe Rummaging Strategies

As with most things, Julian and I have different strategies to answer the eternal question: What’s for dinner? He goes to the internet first and downloads recipes. Some of them are from reliable websites, such as The New York Times and Washington Post. Other sources can be less trustworthy. Then he’ll go to the cookbook library and look at selected volumes. I tend to be just the opposite: I go to the cookbooks first. I’ll download interesting recipes from the aforementioned reliable sources if I’m just surfing and something catches my eye. If I see something interesting in one of my food porn magazines, I’ll mark it for future experimentation.

The stay home, stay healthy edict has expanded the opportunities I have to search for recipes. (I don’t search the web and drive at the same time.) I can spend a few minutes more perusing cookbooks and magazines at breakfast. If something pops up during my morning news read before I log into work, I print it for future reference.

In the last week or so, we’ve reversed roles. Julian actually went to cookbooks first to find a recipe or two this week, while I used some of the recipes he downloaded. However, I’m back to surfing the library for something to do with the lamb shanks we bought yesterday.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/05/02/recipe-rummaging-strategies/

Apr 17

Be Still, My Heart!

We ventured out to Central Market for the first time in a month to get groceries. We’ve eaten down much of the stockpile in the freezer and ordered some necessities on line; therefore, it was time to replenish necessities and a few luxuries. The market had sacks of mini sweet red peppers on sale. I nearly cried with joy when I saw the label on the sack.

WEGMANS!!!

For those of you who’ve never traveled east of Oklahoma, Wegmans is the 800-pound gorilla of grocery stores on the East Coast. Perhaps Danny Wegman has taken my repeated pleas to heart. If so, watch out, Safeway!

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/17/be-still-my-heart/

Apr 16

The Swimming Eagle

I’m always amazed at the wildlife behaviors we see at Casa Sammamish. This morning I saw one of our neighborhood eagles fishing on the other side of the river from our home. Suddenly it jumped into the water and started swimming. Yes, friends, eagles swim. Badly. They stroke with their wings, a cross between flailing and freestyle. The eagle persisted and got to our side of the river. In its talons was a good-sized salmon or trout. It then proceeded to gut the fish. The crows took over once the eagle had its fill. No trace of the fish an hour later.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/16/the-swimming-eagle/

Apr 14

Social Distancing Demonstration

I was on virtual happy hour with my Cornell classmates yesterday when Julian took this picture of Luka practicing social distancing:

Appropriate social distancing.

In contrast, here’s a photo I took last week of Neli doing quite the opposite:

Neli, practicing inappropriate social distancing.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/14/social-distancing-demonstration/

Apr 12

Not Canceled

This spring has been a series of cancellations. March Madness. In-person religious services. The annual Mixed-Marriage Passover Seder. However, there is one thing that I refused to cancel: The annual hot cross bun bake.

Hot cross buns are a British tradition on Good Friday. I wind up making them on Easter weekend. I’ve used several recipes over the years. This year’s recipe came from the same cookbook where the hamburger buns I made two weeks ago originated. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins; otherwise, I followed the recipe. The amount of dried fruit seemed a bit excessive. The dough was also extremely sticky. I added a little more flour, but not much. After a 2-hour rise, the stickiness had abated a little.

In this recipe, rather than making the cross with a confectioners’ sugar icing after baking, the cross is made with a flour and water mixture piped onto the buns just before baking. I cut too large a hole in the plastic bag I used to squirt out the mixture, so the crosses were pretty crude. No matter – Julian declared the buns excellent.

A handy little cookbook.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/12/not-canceled/

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