djyee100

A professor of religion and myths pointed out to me that the Native American swastika symbol turns clockwise, but the Nazi swastika turns counterclockwise.

When I was overloaded with potatoes and celery root from my CSA, in desperation I cut the veggies up in chunks, seasoned them generously with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them in a hot oven until tender. They were delicious. The two veggies complement each other so well.

I did a search on Google for "stirring in one direction," and I came up with some examples of why you would want to stir in one direction. - To form a thin thread, as when making soap http://waltonfeed.com/old/soap/soapchem.html, adding wax to cosmetics, or cooking egg drop soup. - To avoid clumps, as when making polenta. - To develop gluten in a recipe for medieval army bread. http://dialup.pcisys.net/~mem/bread.html See "campaign bread." A science page for kids illustrates how cream soup is an elastic substance. If you stir it in one direction and stop, the soup moves in the opposite direction. This implies that stirring these kinds of liquids in one direction minimizes sloshing (as various people on this thread have intuited). I'm guessing the fat in these liquids causes the elasticity and bounce. http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/a_stirring_sight_.html Another possibility: The flour in the 1920s may not have been milled or sifted as finely as our flour, so you would stir in one direction to break up lumps against the side of the bowl. The Google search also came up with some scientific papers on stirring and fluid dynamics, but those were way beyond me. No references about multidirectional stirring and offending Those Who Must Not Be Named, but I only scanned the first 3 pages of results from the Search...

I make a loaf that is 50-50 unbleached bread flour and whole wheat flour. The whole wheat loaf has a slightly thicker crust and a slightly denser structure than a loaf made with all white flour, but those are the only differences. I can only suggest: (1) perhaps change your brand of whole wheat flour, and (2) make sure the dough is moist enough. The higher gluten content of whole wheat flour will absorb more water than white flour. My whole wheat dough requires about 2 cups of water, compared to about 1 1/2 cups for a white flour dough. If you've successfully made this bread with all white flour, then you know what the texture of the dough should be like. Just make the same texture of dough with whole wheat flour.

Here's a book about cooking and baking with essential oils. Aroma: The Magic of Essential Oils in Foods and Fragrance (Hardcover) by Mandy Aftel, Daniel Patterson and the listing on Amazon. I read it awhile back (borrowed from my public library). As I recall, one has to be careful since not all essential oils are edible. The books lists sources for edible oils. I cook occasionally with the Boyajian Pure Lemon Oil that's for sale at Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma. It adds a nice zip to lemon poundcake and lemon cookies. You can also mix it with fine-quality extra virgin olive oil and drizzle it on fish and veggies. A little of this oil goes a long way.

Try this link. http://bp0.blogger.com/_T7klE2Uc4ew/RZheBa...read+Recipe.JPG

The amount of 1 g of dried yeast is correct. How fresh is your yeast? (Just check the expiration date.) To make a higher loaf, you can simply use a smaller pot so the dough spreads less over the bottom of the pot as it's baking. People have successfully baked this bread in 3-qt pots. Ovenspring is another question. People have reported different levels of ovenspring when baking this bread. I don't know what factors contribute to more or less ovenspring. (Anybody else know?) My advice is to make sure that the dough is not too wet. The dough should form a moist, sticky ball, and not be like a batter. The dough should double in size regardless of what the video looks like. I suggest using the poke test to determine that the dough is ready. When you poke the dough with your finger, the indentation remains for a few seconds without filling up. BTW, when baking this bread some people have discovered that the 500 degree temp mentioned in the video is too hot. The article recommends 450 degrees. good luck!

How about BAVAROIS, otherwise known as Bavarian Cream? Julia Child has a master recipe on page 596 and a strawberry/raspberry variation recipe on page 600 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volume 1. She also has recipes for orange, chocolate, or almond bavarois. The strawberry/raspberry recipe is made with fresh or frozen berries. All the other ingredients should be readily available at the supermarket. The "gelee" in the recipe you have is nothing more than gelatin. Or so I surmise. Julia has you make your own fruit-flavored gelatin in her recipe.

In his followup article to the original No-Knead Bread article, Mark Bittman said he liked to keep rye flour to 20% of the total flour. Here's the link. It may work, it may not, it may cost you to access the archives. http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricte...DAB0994DE404482 good luck!

I've been experimenting with embellished breads. I've made a Blue Cheese & Walnut Bread, and a Gruyere Cheese & Thyme Bread. For the Blue Cheese & Walnut Bread, these were the ingredients of my basic dough: 1 1/2 cups King Arthur bread flour 1 1/2 cups stoneground whole wheat flour 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 2 cups water I mixed up the dough and let it rise. After the first rise, I deflated the dough and folded in: 3 oz blue cheese, crumbled 3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped After letting the dough rise for a second time, I baked the bread in a preheated pot in a 450 degree oven, 30 mins with lid on, 27 mins with lid off. For the Gruyere Cheese & Thyme Bread, I mixed up my basic white bread dough: 430g King Arthur bread flour 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 5/8 cups water (or thereabouts; I kept adding water until the texture was right) After the first rise I deflated the dough and folded in: 3 oz gruyere cheese, coarsely shredded 1 TB freshly chopped thyme, mixed with 1 TB olive oil and a pinch of salt I set the dough to rise for a second time, then baked it in a preheated pot in a 450 degree oven, 30 mins with lid on, 25 mins with lid off. Both these breads were amazing, as good as anything I've baked with conventional methods. Someone upthread asked about folding in extra ingredients, like roasted garlic, etc. After deflating the dough, I sprinkled a portion of the cheese and nuts over the surface of the dough. Then with a wet rubber spatula I pulled up dough from the side of the bowl and folded it over towards the middle. I kept doing this around the bowl, like a pinwheel. When one batch of cheese and nuts was incorporated, I sprinkled on some more. I continued to fold around the bowl until the extra ingredients were well-incorporated.

Gastro, unless you're a very fit hiker, pls take Carolyn's advice. If you look at a map of the SF MUNI (Municipal Railway), you'll see that all the cable cars are located in this part of the city because of the steep hills. http://transit.511.org/providers/maps/SF_928200510805.pdf However, this can be an opportunity for you to ride a cable car to IAO Burgers. The ride will be slow but scenic. Just ask for cable car directions when you arrive.

The SF Chronicle Food staff did some testing of pasteurized eggs when they first arrived on the scene. The Chron was generally critical of the product. Of course this is an old article, and perhaps the processing is better now. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&sn=001&sc=1000

lovebenton, Thanks for the good tips. This morning I was thinking that I would like to try making this bread with my sourdough starter, but I wasn't sure how much starter to use. Then I logged onto this thread, and there was your post with the information.

At this time of year I like to make this dessert from Judy Rodgers' Zuni Cafe cookbook (page 457). It's easy to make and spectacularly beautiful. Stuff some dates with mascarpone and lay them on a bed of peeled and sliced blood oranges. Sprinkle them with toasted, coarsely chopped pistachios (I also like pinenuts or almonds as a substitute), some pomegranate seeds and a little orange flower water. Serve immediately. Sometimes I don't have the pomegranate, and I'm not that fond of orange flower water. Without these last 2 ingredients the dessert is still great.

The local crab season is winding down, but crab should be readily available next week. The Slanted Door has roast crab as an appetizer for dinner, but not for lunch. http://slanteddoor.com/dinner.html If you are really fixed on eating roast crab, Chinatown is not that far away from the Moscone Center.

Wholemeal Crank, Did you just put the dough into the heated stainless steel stockpot, without any insulation (such as flour or parchment paper)? Was there any sticking to the pot at all? How hot was your oven temperature? What's the problem with an aluminum-layered pot over 500 degrees? thanks, DJY

I like Chow (both locations), but the restaurants are not that close to the Moscone Center. It would require a taxi or streetcar ride. http://www.bestofsanfrancisco.net/chow.htm and http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults...perty_id=294201 It's true that Chow is reasonably priced. I'm not sure how much of the menu is organic. Also, I wouldn't say that the food is distinctively or uniquely San Franciscan. If you want to do organic vegetables, and you're willing to go farther from the Moscone Center, you may as well go to Greens Restaurant, which is a landmark restaurant in SF. http://www.greensrestaurant.com/ The view overlooking the Marina is wonderful, too.

Re: Keeping sourdough bread fresh The bread should be fine for a couple days at least, as long as you don't cut into it. The thick crust should prevent the interior from drying out too much. I keep my bread at room temperature in the paper bag it's sold in. A day or two after the bread has been cut open, I put it in the refrigerator because of concerns about mold. I suggest that you avoid putting the bread in a plastic bag--that makes the crust soft rather than crispy. When you return home you can heat the bread in the oven slightly to soften the interior and recrisp the crust. Does anybody else have ideas for keeping this bread fresh? I admit I'm not an expert about this.

I have three shelves of cookbooks, and like everybody else I have my heavy favorites, my occasionals, my old buddies I can't throw away, my disappointments with one redeeming recipe, and my disappointments, period. Heavy favorites: Something just clicks when I cook out of these books. I understand what the author is getting at and the recipes turn out wonderful. Also, many of the recipes are for meals: I can sit down and eat dinner! I've cooked 30 recipes or more out of these books: Judy Rodgers' Zuni Cafe cookbook, Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, Annie Somerville's Everyday Greens, and Beverly Gannon's Hali'imaile General Store Cookbook. Occasionals: Joanne Weir's cookbooks fall into this category, although her From Tapas to Meze may make it to the Favorites someday. Weir's recipes are good, but somehow the recipes are never just right for me. They always require some serious tweaking. My old buddies: Once I cooked a lot out of these books, but now I almost never do. The Vegetarian Epicure books by Anna Thomas, during my vegetarian fling days. Ditto the Tassajara cookbooks. I loved Darra Goldstein's A La Russe (still do) but I moved from the wintry East Coast to balmy California, and I no longer eat that kind of food. I don't discard these cookbooks, though. It would be like throwing away part of my history. My disappointments with one redeeming recipe: For example, Homebaking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. I tried 14 recipes from this book, with too many mediocre results and a few crashing failures. Yet the ciabatta recipe is just great. So the book stays on my shelf. Besides, the pictures are wonderful. Disappointments, period: Chez Panisse Vegetables and Chez Panisse Fruit. I bought Chez Panisse Vegetables in a fit of ambition. Now I wonder, Why did I buy a vegetables (you know, green) recipe book with a black cover? That black cover should have told me to stay away from the get-go! Both books stay unused because the recipes can be a tad complicated, with ingredients I don't have, and with more steps than I want to deal with sometimes. I hate to admit this, but I would be more inspired to cook out of these books if there were a few nice pictures. Also, I want recipes to cook a meal, and these books include mostly side dishes, or in the case of the Fruit cookbook, desserts. But I don't throw them away because I sometimes use them for reference. Last month, in my pre-holiday end-of-the-year cleaning, I went through my cookbooks again. I found two cookbooks from which I have never cooked anything. One was The International Cookie Jar Cookbook by Anita Borghese. I bought it in 1975. The cookbook was intended for children no less, but it is fearsomely complicated with hard-to-find ingredients. I reread the cookbook, and after 30 years of dedicated cooking, I can now probably handle the recipes. So I put the cookbook back on the shelf. The other never-used cookbook is Marc Cramer's Imperial Mongolian Cooking. When I perused the book at the store, I came across a recipe that requires mare's milk (you can substitute goat's milk). How could I resist? And it was on sale! 75% off! Imperial Mongolian Cooking is still on my shelf. I have high hopes for it.

I'll cast my vote with the others and suggest that you go to the Ferry Building. It showcases some of the best foods in the SF Bay Area. My recommendations: * Acme Bread for sourdough bread or (Acme's name) "pain au levain." It's the bread brought to your table at Chez Panisse and Zuni Cafe. * Cowgirl Creamery for local cheeses (made in West Marin county). I love Red Hawk cheese, my neighbor adores Pierce Point. Their cottage cheese will spoil you for the supermarket kind forever. * Peet's Coffee. Major Dickason's Blend is one of their signature blends and a big favorite around here. * Hog Island Oysters. * Frog Hollow Farm. No fresh peaches now, but I would expect some of their excellent jams on sale. * Scharffenberger Chocolate and Recchiuti Chocolates. And while you're at the Ferry Building, you can go to lunch at The Slanted Door, as someone upthread recommended. have fun!

Dried shittakes can be substituted for dried porcini mushrooms in recipes. The flavor is not the same, but similar. That should open up your recipe horizons. good luck!

I've never tried to do a comparative salt tasting like this, and I'm intrigued. I'd keep it simple. Maybe bake some focaccia or soda crackers (like saltines), brush them with olive oil and sprinkle on the different salts when they come out of the oven. I'd even consider cutting up celery sticks, sprinkling them with the salts, and serving them with your other finger foods. If I felt inspired (and not under time pressure) I'd make gravlax with each of the different salts, and do a comparative tasting that way. Whatever you decide to do, I'm sure your guests will like trying these salts.

I've made sourdough English muffins, both plain and cheesy, from The Cheese Board: Collective Works cookbook. I had trouble getting them to cook thoroughly on the griddle without burning. The flavor was good, but I never felt inspired to try the recipes again. Suzanne Dunaway's No Need to Knead cookbook contains an English muffin recipe. The dough is mixed up with a biga, and after rising, rolled out and cut. I've never tried this recipe myself, so I can't report on it. Your comment about the chemicals in the muffins may have been tongue-in-cheek, but it's possible that the chemicals may be the reason the coworker likes the muffins so much. For instance, the additives in cake mixes give those cakes a tenderness and texture that homemade cakes from scratch cannot duplicate. (Though I would say that the homemade cakes beat cake mixes in the flavor department.) You could tell the co-worker that the muffins are made from an industrial formula that can't be replicated by home cooks, and console her with some nice sausage.

Sounds to me like a Weck canning jar. Excellent glassware. Go to Weck website.

I'll cast my vote with ChefJB. I don't like to use either butter or starch (including potato) to thicken my braising sauces. The sauce is fat enough already, and starches dull the flavor. Butter and starch do make the sauce silky on the tongue, however. I reserve the Rich Sauce treatment for company. Usually I push some braised vegetables through a strainer and add it to the sauce. This is quick and easy to do. These are the veggies that are overcooked, like the carrots, celery or onion. I don't like to serve them with the braised meat, but they are still very tasty in the sauce. Also, k43 makes a good point. Maybe you are using too much liquid in your braise to begin with. good luck!