What's Cooking (Take Three!)

1. My original red-grape starter,
2. 1847 Oregon Trail
3. San Francisco
4. 200-yr old Mormon
5. one from Nebraska
6. one from Tennessee

When the bread is baked, can you tell which one you started with?

When the bread is baked, can you tell which one you started with?

Each starter has its own characteristics, but it's subtle. My red grape starter is vigorous and has a winey fragrance. The Mormon starter yields a mild-flavored bread. My San Francisco starter yields a more sour bread. So, the answer for final flavor is it depends, but for sure, rise times are different.

The bummer is I'm on a low-carb diet, and I could eat a whole loaf myself. But I'll let myself have a heel to test the results. My latest sourdough bread is wonderful: crisp crust and tender crumb. It's torture for me but I enjoy the art and the process. And I particularly like giving away half my output so other people can enjoy it. If any FLDG member wants some starter, email me.

Tonight, I made braised leeks with a butter and beef stock glaze. Yum. I haven't had leeks for a long time, but there was a recent sale I couldn't resist.

Sounds nice, Barb. I hope you bought more than one piece, after such a long drive!

I bought some fresh prawns as well! And there is a wonderful produce shop in the same village which I can never go past.

I'm a City Mouse so I think that's a long drive. If it were me, I'd also have gotten a few fillets for bouillabaisse and something frozen, too.

I just picked up 4# of frozen octopus this morning. Running the warm water now....

For we country folk, a mere snap, but also easy because there’s little traffic and no traffic lights and 100kph. And it was a sunny day so it was pleasant to drive through the rolling green hillls.
My local shop has excellent frozen fish, fillets, scallop, prawns, but it was nice to have fresh, and to be able to buy one fillet, 6 prawns instead of prepackaged by weight or in pairs.
Octopus is something I can’t get down this way but I love it, enjoy yours how are you going to cook them?

My local shop has excellent frozen fish, fillets, scallop, prawns, but it was nice to have fresh, and to be able to buy one fillet, 6 prawns instead of prepackaged by weight or in pairs.

Brava.

Octopus is something I can’t get down this way but I love it, enjoy yours how are you going to cook them?

Defrost. Cut off the body, make sure it's clean. Cut off the eyes, discard. Yank the beak, discard.

Boil until tender in a 50-50 mix of red wine and water, plus some peppercorns, bay leaves, and thyme. Cool and cut apart.

Marinate in olive oil, red wine, fresh oregano, a squeeze of lime juice.

Sear in a cast iron pan to your liking.

Jeff, it would be tempting to
eat it before you got to the pan searing OR
Char grill it
Any way sounds good though.

I have a bone in rib eye steak about 480g so I’m thinking Sunday roast.
Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, roast veg and green peas. Gravy of course.

Ants climbing a tree used only 1/4 pound of the 1.25 pounds of defrosted ground pork, so tonight the remaining pound is going to become Beijing meat sauce noodles.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I defrosted a large chicken breast yesterday, big enough for two, and Ziplocked it with salt and a dash of vermouth. Tonight I'll roast it and probably finish it with a tarragon pan sauce and serve sliced on a sourdough crouton.

Chicken Cacciatore, as I happen to have some convenient leftover ingredients - half a package of bacon (to sizzle the chicken in), 1/4 can of tomato paste, 1/4 bottle of red wine, half a box of mushrooms. Bought some chicken pieces, crushed tomatoes, and fresh tarragon.

[Jenise]

No mushrooms, Jeff?

Yes, in the original list. Big ones, so I cut into chunky slices.

Sauce is quite dark and umami. I would have added juniper berries, too, but Pumpkin is not so adventurous.

Jeff, it would be tempting to
eat it before you got to the pan searing OR
Char grill it
Any way sounds good though.

Char-grill would be great but it's a total PITA for me to fire up charcoals.

I just took a bunch of pix off my phone so here they are (well, half of them):

tentacles.jpg

The Case of the Fallen Gingerbread

I recently remade this recipe for gingerbread. Came out great the first time. Made it again but this time added a little allspice and a shot of cinnamon liqueur. It failed to rise properly:

fallen gingerbread.jpg

Anybody got any ideas why a little hooch would change the outcome like this? Or does this look like something else went astray?

The cake was edible though texture was not right.

What leavening agent did you use? Were the hooch and spices mixed uniformly into the dough or spread/sprinkled down the middle?

-Paul W.

What leavening agent did you use? Were the hooch and spices mixed uniformly into the dough or spread/sprinkled down the middle?

-Paul W.

Baking powder.

Hooch went in with the rest of the 'wets'.

Well, there goes my theory that maybe the hooch killed off or inhibited the yeast. Was the baking powder fresh?

-Paul W.

Well, there goes my theory that maybe the hooch killed off or inhibited the yeast. Was the baking powder fresh?

-Paul W.

No. But it isn't that much older than the last time.

Maybe the alcohol did something to the pH ? It's not a big cake so it wouldn't take much to alter it.

pH interference sounds to me like a possibility. Ethanol itself is mildly basic, and acidity is required for the action of baking powder. This was a liqueur, so the pH of the other components has to be taken into account, too.

-Paul W.

Chicken Cacciatore

Ages, decades even, since I last made that. I was given a recipe by a work friend - she had written on the recipe that it must be made with fresh tomatoes...

I have a bone in rib eye steak about 480g so I’m thinking Sunday roast.
Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, roast veg and green peas. Gravy of course.

Sounds like my sort of favourite dinner. All it needs in addition is a decent claret or Cabernet Sauvignon and Horseradish sauce!

[Jenise]

Peter, doesnt matter what your friend wrote, doesnt make her an expert. Cacciatore has as many faces as meatloaf.

I think every country in Europe has some sort of "hunter's stew". The common thread seems to be mushrooms--an ingredient readily available to forest hunters. But even that's not strictly the case. It's like cassoulet or barbecue or clam chowder--endless argument about what's correct and what's an abomination.

-Paul W.

If I try to imagine hunters cooking in their campsite, one thing they don't have is a lot of time for stewing. So, I think "original" hunter dishes would be fast hot sautes. That supports mushrooms, herbs, and handy root vegetables as they all can cook quickly when properly cut up. Fresh tomatoes fall in that category, too. A splish of wine from somebody's personal canteen seems reasonable, too. Cans of stuff, maybe not.

I recall, many years ago now, some dear family friends used to go to one particular Italian restaurant (Sal Anthony's) for their cacciatore. It consisted of chicken cut into little pieces, bone in, sauteed in hot oil with a ton of garlic and herbs. No vegetables of any kind.

Peter, doesnt matter what your friend wrote, doesnt make her an expert. Cacciatore has as many faces as meatloaf.

Jenise, of course there are many ways to make cacciatore. I have several recipes in cook books.

When I made my friends recipe I always used fresh - not tinned - and it was a faff but lovely.