Soupcon

Here is my second attempt at baking sourdough from my starter. I increased the hydration to over 70%. Not as good surface tension but much better crumb (I think) and certainly better flavour this time.

Actually I love left overs, so I always cook too many red skinned or yellow fleshed (boiling) potatoes and even baking potatoes. I use them in pot pies, potato salads, many composed salads where potatoes are just one of the ingredients, for home fries where they are fried in chicken, duck or bacon fat as a component of a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner). I also use the flesh from leftover baking potatoes as thickener is soups. I am just scratching the surface of how I use them.

I actually cook more Italian style sausages than I need for a meal and then later cut up the remainder into coins, and add them to a basic homemade tomato sauce for pasta as the meat component. I also have been known to cut any type of leftover sausages lengthwise, fry them gently to heat them and put them between 2 pieces of toast with ketchup to eat as a sandwich (childhood comfort food).

It worked!!! Happy days. Here is my first ever bake with a sourdough starter I made from scratch. I also have never used a banneton before nor shaped freestanding loaves of bread. So many firsts today.

No raisins in my butter tarts either and the filling must be runny. None of this set filling stuff. Runny enough that when you take a bite you need a plate underneath (or your hand to lick afterwards) to catch the drips.

I know this topic is about sous vide garlic but have you tried garlic a la modernist cuisine at home. It is nice and mild and caramelised and quite yummy. Give it a whirl.

Thanks Anna. I do have freezer space and know that I will have to freeze the flour as it will take me quite a while to use all of it. It is much cheaper for me to buy Red Fife in bulk than in small quantity so the benefits in the long run outweigh the loss of freezer space.

Day 4 of my 4th attempt to make a whole wheat sourdough starter. This is just 5 hours after a feed. Finally, I have succeeded. My first four attempts were dismal failures. The goal, once I figure out how to make a starter and bake with it, is to buy 20 Kg. red fife stone ground organic whole wheat flour. I love sourdough whole wheat bread.

Forget my post about a task specific bread knife. I personally use an axe. Place the sandwich on a stump and swing the axe. Otherwise, I use a hack saw.

Knives made specifically for slicing bread (not necessarily the same as a serrated knife) need to be replaced often as sharpening them is very difficult if not impossible. I use a knife (which I do replace every 2 or 3 years) made specifically for slicing bread for cutting sandwiches and have no problem no matter what the filling.

This topic reminds me of the liver dumplings I made which I floated in chicken stock in order to introduce my children to eating liver. They loved them. It was only in later years they found out that these dumplings were a vehicle for delivering liver to their stomachs. I had forgotten all about them. Think I will revive the method (will have to make up a recipe as I can't remember the original one but it was not complicated at all) and introduce my grandchild to liver the same way.

I use Tilda or better still Elephant brand if I can find it. Wash the rice until the water runs clear. Water quantity for cooking will depend on how old/aged the rice is... the longer it is aged, the dryer it is, the more water it requires. Rule of thumb is that the water reaches the first knuckle of your index finger above the level of the rice in the pan.

Let me revise that suggestion a bit. Recipes need to have rice flour as an ingredient....not cornstarch. Search English websites for these. US website recipes have cornstarch as an ingredient. Texture of the shortbread is different depending on whether you use rice flour or cornstarch.

I was in the Midlands myself in the 50s for a couple of years and don't remember canned Danish bacon. In fact I don't remember bacon at all as rationing was still an issue. So I guess along with @lizhou I was also culturally deprived. But I do remember the game we ate (my father shot them)... pigeon, pheasant, duck, rabbit, hare, etc which cost an arm and a leg to day but we ate regularly as you did not need a ration book to acquire them.

Look for recipes that contain cornstarch as that is the secret to crisp shortbread. I would stay away from margarine also but that is a personal preference and I don't know if it would change the crispness of the cookie but certainly would be reflected in the taste.

I dry brine all my poultry and roasts for 4 hours at least and 24 hours if I remember that far in advance. I used to use the "Judy Bird" rule but now just sprinkle diamond crystal salt liberally and have never had a problem with over salting. Pork chops I also dry brine but don't leave uncovered in the fridge to develop a pellicule as I do with poultry (chicken, turkey, duck and goose but not game) but cover them or bag them. Over salting here has not been a problem either. Timing never seems to be the issue. I used to in the past wet brine poultry especially but found there a problem with over salting, with texture over time, and you can't make lakes of gravy with the poultry drippings damn it..... TOOOO damn salty.

Why not dry brine them? No worry then about the timing.

Jennifer McLagan in her book "Odd Bits" has a few pages on kinds of, prep and cooking of testicles.

Yogurt is cooking as I write. I have used 1/2 & 1/2 ie 10% cream as I like high fat yogurt and it is becoming more difficult to find in the grocery store. Love it any time mixed with fruit or fruit curd as a treat or dessert.

My head is spinning from the math segment of this course. I can't remember a damn thing about logs etc. Oh well........ sigh....

My chicken salads depend on the season and what I happen to have on hand at the time. I always include onions of some kind (shallot, scallion, red), toasted nuts, chopped celery, and any other suitable vegetable diced or some kind of fresh or dried fruit. The dressing is usually home made mayonnaise cut with sour cream or creme fraiche and mixed with what ever curry paste I have on hand. I dice my chicken and use poached chicken breasts or left over roast chicken.

I have always bought cloud ears dried and re-hydrate them myself. I think they are the same fungus but known by different names in different countries. My original source for the name of cloud ears was a mandarin speaking mainland Chinese friend.

Clouds ear mushrooms as I learned looking at their hydrated form in your photos.

I personally don't keep notebooks but my sister does have my mother's recipe/note book (small loose leaf book) with her recipes and notes which we use to cook comfort dishes from our childhood. My extended family also has a hand written recipe book from the 1700s written by my gggggrandfather to record his mother's recipes.

Staph aureus is everywhere... up to 50% of the population carries it on their skin and in their hair and yet they are not ill or hospitalized with a staph aureus infection. The only people that I would be concerned about eating a soup made from this carcass is someone who is immuno-suppressed such as a person with a transplant of some kind (organ, skin, bone marrow, etc) or ill with an illness such as AIDS, a newborn with an immature immune system or a toddler or an elderly person who is frail and not well. No, certainly a restaurant should not be using this carcass but at home you are fully aware of the conditions of handling and storage of the carcass and in control of who will eat the soup made from it.