Smithy

Yesterday was fairly cool, by desert standards. By evening time the cooking fire was also a necessary fire for warmth for anyone sitting outside. My darling wanted me to stress just how cold it was -- 49F with a light breeze -- but I told him I doubted we'd get much sympathy from anyone. We've been reading about snow at home and tornadoes in Illinois. We have it easy! I've been wanting to participate in the eG Curry Cook-Off, and I've been working to include more vegetables in our meals. I've also been wanting to play with a new kitchen toy I picked up just before we left home. At the same time, we want to take advantage of the campfire while we can. Toward that end, dinner was a hodgepodge of indoor and outdoor cooking, as it had been the night before. For the campfire it was supposed to be Cowgirl Chicken, based on a recipe in Cowgirl Cuisine, a fine cookbook-cum-memoir by Paula Disbrowe. I didn't pack that book with me, but thought I could get it more or less right from memory. It basically involves packing chicken thighs with a good spice rub - I think she includes honey, but I didn't last night - and then cooking it over the campfire in our basket. I also did a certain amount of bet-hedging by cooking potatoes over the fire in Papa's Pan. I'll explain why in a moment. Here was the scene outside: Inside the trailer I had made rice while the generator was going. I wasn't impressed with my first attempt at using a rice cooker. My best friends swear by theirs, and have had a certain amount of swearing in order to use their new Instant Pot to get the same results. My rice in the cooker was gummy. I wanted the rice for the curried cauliflower, but wasn't sure this would be worthwhile. I don't have pictures of the rice alone, but I'll cheerfully welcome tips on how to get the best use from a rice cooker. This was a $15 special from Walgreens. If I don't like it, I'll donate it. Last night's result wouldn't justify the storage space. The final dish, for which the rice had been made, was a cauliflower curry from The Complete Curry Cookbook, by Charmaine and Reuben Solomon. As documented over here, I had questions once I got going. Bless the eG crowd, I had answers almost as soon as I asked! Here's the finished dish: The potatoes and chicken finished cooking. We ate...inside. If you look at the background you'll see he was still wearing his down vest! It takes him time to get over a chill these days. The chicken was cooked a bit too quickly, I thought: too firm on the outside, and almost not done enough at the bone. He thought it wasn't firm enough on the outside! (Disbrowe's recipe relies on a smoker, but we've had good luck with the campfire in the past. I think the coals were simply too hot yet, and a bit more patience would have paid off.) We thought the potatoes, those bet-hedgers, were the real star of the show, but the cauliflower was worth doing again with some tweaks. I thought it too salty. Beside, it needed the ginger root - which I couldn't find. I'm sure I packed it. I'll be interested to see where it finally turns up.

His name is Finn MacCool. Over on the Sourdough Start front, I refreshed both starters yesterday before we went for a 2-3 hour sightseeing trip. The top photo in this collage is immediately after refreshing; the bottom photo is when we came back. I think they're both ready for prime time, but since I have no sourdough bread-baking plans for the next few days they went into the refrigerator after I took the second picture.

Tadka. My new word for the day. That article gives an excellent explanation, with a lot of inspiring recipes. I've bookmarked it. Many thanks!

I'm following up with results. My husband liked the cauliflower, although he admitted that he liked it more in a "we need to eat vegetables" way than in a "wow! let's have this often!" way. I thought it too salty, even though I'd cut back on the salt in the original recipe. I will certainly try it again, with adjustments. It would have helped if I had been able to find the ginger root that I know is lurking somewhere in my kitchen! I can't wait to see where it turns up. I'm not showing the whole dinner, because the rest wasn't curry-ish at all. Nonetheless, this was a nice first step into the idea of curries.

Sorry, that isn't true of most oranges. Navel oranges are very sour when still green, and gassing won't help. It is true, however, that Valencia oranges can regreen when really, truly ripe; if left on the tree after they're ripe the rind can begin producing chlorophyll again. Maybe you got some really ripe Valencias.

Some esteemed food writer - could it have been M.F.K. Fisher? - wrote that balanced meals could be seen as what you ate throughout the day, instead of what you ate at every meal. It made a lot of sense, and I felt liberated...until I realized we were trying to stretch the concept into what we ate that week...or fortnight....

Just to be clear: are you doing this in oil, or a dry pan, or does it matter? This recipe calls for popping them in the hot oil.

Masa in nixtamalized, isn't it? I wouldn't expect that to have the same flavor profile, but you could give her a taste and see what she thinks. Sorry I don't have more specific information, but I'll bet someone here does.

My cauliflower curry is cooking as I type. I'm using the recipe from The Complete Curry Cookbook, by Charmaine and Reuben Solomon. I have a question about cooking the mustard seeds. The instructions say to fry them in the oil until they pop. That seemed clear enough at first reading, but now I wonder: does that mean until they start to pop, or are all finished popping, or somewhere between when the popping has started to slow down but is still going? Waiting until all popping has stopped is a good way to burn popcorn. I didn't want to burn the mustard seeds the same way. I hope we won't end up chipping our teeth!

I suspect the scarcity is due to the recall and the packaging is due to the new requirements. The recall is being lifted, but FDA says growers need to have their romaine lettuce clearly labeled as to source and harvest date. For more information, see here. (and yes, I think it's an additional reason to go to the small local farmers whenever possible.)

I don't know how you define "inexpensive", but I'd take a look at Thermoworks for a start. Their stuff is good and reliable, and sometimes they have promo codes for sales if you sign up for their emails. Here's a link to their Temp/Humidity Data Loggers page.

No bread-baking yesterday, but I spent a lot of time reading about sourdough and how the starter's sourness breaks down the gluten. I have a couple of ideas to try, and I'll probably revive the Sourdough Bread Troubleshooting topics. I must say, it's a bit daunting when Part 1 is 24 pages and there's a Part 2! Dinner last night was a combination of skillet inside, so I could see what I was doing, and campfire outside, where it didn't matter. I think we learned something with the campfire cookery, and I managed yet again to do something different but delicious with brussels sprouts. We've been entirely too protein- and fat-heavy lately, with not enough vegetables. I'm working to change the balance. The brussels sprouts began as usual: start rendering some bacon; when it's partially cooked, add a bit of olive oil and the sprouts, cut side down. (I have @Franci to thank for that. I hope she's doing well in her new venture in Miami!) This time I added some chopped scallions when the sprouts were starting to brown and ready to turn. Here's Stage 1: Meanwhile, some frozen steaks were thawing. I'd been planning on chicken, and it was thawed, but we changed our minds. (There's a reason I'm telling you about the steak. You'll see!) Stage 2 of the sprouts: Add a small container of chicken jello -- I find I use these small amounts far more often than the pint- and quart-sizes I also have in the freezer - and some quartered Campari tomatoes. Plop a lid on, then let everyone get to know each other in the pan, stirring occasionally as the jello melts. Once the sprouts are soft the liquid can be cooked down a bit to concentrate. The finished dish keeps easily on the stove until it's time to eat. Meanwhile, I was prying the steaks apart. "Don't worry," my darling had said at 4 p.m, "they'll be thawed by the time we want to cook at 8." I'd suspected he was overly optimistic about it; the sun sets here before 5:00, and there isn't much heat after that. I got the steaks pried apart as they thawed, and seasoned them with a mix from Cooper's in Llano. I think it's mostly salt and pepper. I figured it would help dry the exterior of the steaks. When our campfire was right, the steaks went into our cooking basket and over the fire. I couldn't be arsed to find a thermometer for the steaks or pyrometer for the fire. We just went by look and feel. This is unusual for us, because my darling is strictly a rote cook when it comes to steaks: over a grill, 3 minutes on 1 side and 3 on the other. Mine is usually overcooked, so I usually insist on using a thermometer. Either way we've had trouble getting these particular ribeyes, which were sliced more thinly than we usually get, done to our satisfaction. Well let me tell you, the steaks were the brilliant star of the show, and the sprouts were a good supporting role. The steaks were seared on the outside and pink on the inside; the frozen interiors had warmed enough to start cooking but hadn't become overcooked. We have more ribeye steaks that we brought from home. I'll be trying the cook-from-not-fully-thawed method again, and hope it wasn't just dumb luck.

@gfweb, those are creative stuffings for the eggs. Are the yolks in there too, or did you use them for something else?

@Shelby, your boiled peanuts look good. I admit I've never appreciated them when I've gotten them in a convenience store, but maybe they weren't done nicely. Please tell more about the texture: how crunchy are they compared to roasted peanuts? Do they have a softer exterior? I hope your hunters don't get skunked! Is this the close of the season, or will Ronnie have a chance still after your friend goes home?

I'm finding some perhaps-useful information in the old eGCI course on Sourdough bread, and the associated Q&A. This post and some of its predecessors indicate that the long fermentation probably broke down the gluten that had developed. I'm going to try some different starter proportions and fermentation times. Before then, however, I plan to try some of that Sonoran White Wheat blend and the Red Fife bread blend using commercial yeast. It's remarkable how sweet a plain "flour, water, salt yeast" type bread can seem when sourdough is the norm.

That is very good packaging. Hooray!

I hope so too. When the peppers do arrive, take a picture or two and send it along as proof. I loved your comment about ghost peppers, btw. I wanted to laugh at that one, but the rest of the post was too dire.

I noted a few days ago that my Tucson sourdough starter seems to be coming along. I decided to make a first batch of bread with it a couple of days ago, mixed the bread, gave it a chance for the first rise, then set it (covered) in the refrigerator for a longer proof. Yesterday I pulled it out to finish rising, get shaped, and bake. No rise. No structure! I used exactly the test-loaf recipe I've used before. When it became clear that the dough wasn't going to rise, I opted to try flatbread instead. You see the progression below. There was so little gluten that I couldn't pick it up without tearing. It flopped onto the griddle any old way, sometimes getting wrinkles. I pressed it with a spatula to get it properly cooked, at least - that tamed the very sour taste and made the cooked product more palatable. The lower left photo showed the most browned of the bunch; the lower right shows the basket of finished flatbreads without that one. Absolutely no structure to it! I think even pancakes would have more cohesiveness. Maybe it's because pancakes have some elasticity whereas these didn't. The flavor wasn't bad, but as a wrap for our dogs it was a bust. What do you suppose went wrong? The only changes I made from previous loaves were a different starter and possibly a day longer in the refrigerator than before.

Meringue cookies were one of our standby cookies at Christmas, and when I used to do Christmas baking in Duluth I'd include them. Ours always included chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. Mind, these were the drop-type meringue cookies, not the flat-and-decorated type that zimtsterrnen seems to be..

Gloriosky, that all looks delicious! I can attest that the egg whites freeze well. I've had a jar with 11 of them in the freezer. Earlier this week I thawed and used roughly half for the batter for chiles rellenos, then put the rest back into the freezer. The thawed whites whipped beautifully. Still...if you were to make zimtsternen (new to me also!) I doubt anyone would complain.

That is very different than what I'd envisioned. What a lovely, delicate pancake/crepe confection she produced! Thank you very much!

Maxon's Green Chile Chowder looks wonderful. Thank you! I've bookmarked that one. It's supposed to be coolish here next week, so I may be making it also. Also, I see on the next page a recipe for Tortilla Soup. You should have seen me, a few years ago, trying to work out what to do with a jar of (dried) Tortilla Soup mix! This would have been a helpful guide back then.

I'll PM it to you. @Jacksoup, please let us know if you make it. I find myself more interested in the Cranberry Nut Bread on the next page. I may try making it, with the substitution of dried cherries for cranberries because that's what I have on hand. Time to get going on holiday baking!

...or pavlova! I bet that would wow the guys.

Do you ever use egg whites as part of the batter for frying? That's what I was up to with stuffed jalapeños recently.