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I've not written much of cooking lately.
It isn't that I've not been cooking, that pretty much goes without saying. For example I made a mediocre chili out of leftover london broil (last week was the new roommate's birthday, and he wanted meat... a broil cooks quickly and if fewer than the 20+ people on the list showed up, I could've frozen the other one. We got about 15, which meant cooking both and having lots leftover). I think I burnt, instead of scorched the chili powder (NB, since capsaicin binds to water, cover the pot as soon as hot oil with scorched cayenne powder his the wet chili. Otherwise one's eyes get irritated).
The next night I boiled some potatoes, mashed them and used the leftvover chili (with some corn, peas, carrots and green beans added) to make a shepherds pie. All one needs is a little cream to bind the potatoes, cover the meat/veggie mix and put in a hot oven (375-425) until the sides are bubbling and the top is browned.
I am experimenting with a semi-sourdough. On Thursday I realised the bowl from the sponge for Tuesday's bread hadn't made it into the dishwasher.
Yeast fascinates me. A pinch of dry yeast will make all the bread you want. So I decided to see if I could revive the tougher yeasts from the dried dough on the side of the bowl. This is something like using a levain (which I keep meaning to do, but decide I won't have the enrgey tomorrow (or the need) to make more bread from a bit of old dough, much less the regular use it neets to develop the character for which it's famous).
Added some water, melted some of the scabs of dough and then added flour to make a sludge (and so be moist enough to melt more of the old dough). It worked. In a couple of hours I could see evidence of bubbles. I've kept it covered and it now smells (and has since Saturday) decidedly acidic. I've been feeding it, a bit (I started it with some honey, since I wanted the yeast to have easy food to get established).
Right now I've sponged it (the books all say let it run a week, if one is making a starter from scratch, which isn't what I intended) but if it shows real vigor, I might make some this afternoon.
The dogs, they love me. Not that they don't (love me already (having an attentive dog is sobering. I don't like being a god), but I've been making brown stock since Saturday (btw, it seems I am not going to Sacramento, the orders were canelled Friday afternoon).
Boiling 15 lbs of bones takes awhile. First they have to be browned. The grocery up the road has very nice marrow bones, at $2.50 a lb. If I didn't like having stock to base sauces on, then the couple of bones I can get from the campus would be enough, but I do like having stock on hand (and one can't fake it with boullion, it just isn't the same).
I don't like having a charred mess on the bottom of the pan. I think it gives the stock an off flavor. So I put the bones in a tinfoil boat, and that on top of a cooling rack, so the heat of the catchpan (a 9x13 jellyroll) isn't in direct contact. I got the best part of a pint of pure marrow from the first rack of bones. A clear fat, smooth and clear, with a yellow cast, as it poured from the tinfoil into a jar. It set up with the color of cream.
Fill the eight quart stock pot with bones, an onion, some peppercorns, two bay leaves and enough wather to cover. Set to simmer for eight hours (I just leave on the burner, set to low; with a cover and a heat diffuser, overnight).
Strain that into a 12" deep dutch oven and put it on the simmer burner. Set the scraps of meat and fat aside for the dogs.
The next set of bones didn't work so well. I seem to have built the boat wrong and the marrow ran into the pan. It was chestnut colored, and I thought the smell a trifle off.
Refill the stock pot. Skim, and skim, and skim, the stock. That too goes into a bowl.
When the dogs get fed, the off-colored marrow, the scraps and the skim all went into the food.
Repeat on Monday. Tonight they will get the last scraps; from the third set of bones, and tomorrow: or Thursday, I will decide any more skimming that gets done gets done when I'm making sauces, and I'll see how reduced I've made it (I'll stop before I hit demi-glace) and put it up in bags for the freezer.
When I get down to one bag, well, I'll do it again.
It isn't that I've not been cooking, that pretty much goes without saying. For example I made a mediocre chili out of leftover london broil (last week was the new roommate's birthday, and he wanted meat... a broil cooks quickly and if fewer than the 20+ people on the list showed up, I could've frozen the other one. We got about 15, which meant cooking both and having lots leftover). I think I burnt, instead of scorched the chili powder (NB, since capsaicin binds to water, cover the pot as soon as hot oil with scorched cayenne powder his the wet chili. Otherwise one's eyes get irritated).
The next night I boiled some potatoes, mashed them and used the leftvover chili (with some corn, peas, carrots and green beans added) to make a shepherds pie. All one needs is a little cream to bind the potatoes, cover the meat/veggie mix and put in a hot oven (375-425) until the sides are bubbling and the top is browned.
I am experimenting with a semi-sourdough. On Thursday I realised the bowl from the sponge for Tuesday's bread hadn't made it into the dishwasher.
Yeast fascinates me. A pinch of dry yeast will make all the bread you want. So I decided to see if I could revive the tougher yeasts from the dried dough on the side of the bowl. This is something like using a levain (which I keep meaning to do, but decide I won't have the enrgey tomorrow (or the need) to make more bread from a bit of old dough, much less the regular use it neets to develop the character for which it's famous).
Added some water, melted some of the scabs of dough and then added flour to make a sludge (and so be moist enough to melt more of the old dough). It worked. In a couple of hours I could see evidence of bubbles. I've kept it covered and it now smells (and has since Saturday) decidedly acidic. I've been feeding it, a bit (I started it with some honey, since I wanted the yeast to have easy food to get established).
Right now I've sponged it (the books all say let it run a week, if one is making a starter from scratch, which isn't what I intended) but if it shows real vigor, I might make some this afternoon.
The dogs, they love me. Not that they don't (love me already (having an attentive dog is sobering. I don't like being a god), but I've been making brown stock since Saturday (btw, it seems I am not going to Sacramento, the orders were canelled Friday afternoon).
Boiling 15 lbs of bones takes awhile. First they have to be browned. The grocery up the road has very nice marrow bones, at $2.50 a lb. If I didn't like having stock to base sauces on, then the couple of bones I can get from the campus would be enough, but I do like having stock on hand (and one can't fake it with boullion, it just isn't the same).
I don't like having a charred mess on the bottom of the pan. I think it gives the stock an off flavor. So I put the bones in a tinfoil boat, and that on top of a cooling rack, so the heat of the catchpan (a 9x13 jellyroll) isn't in direct contact. I got the best part of a pint of pure marrow from the first rack of bones. A clear fat, smooth and clear, with a yellow cast, as it poured from the tinfoil into a jar. It set up with the color of cream.
Fill the eight quart stock pot with bones, an onion, some peppercorns, two bay leaves and enough wather to cover. Set to simmer for eight hours (I just leave on the burner, set to low; with a cover and a heat diffuser, overnight).
Strain that into a 12" deep dutch oven and put it on the simmer burner. Set the scraps of meat and fat aside for the dogs.
The next set of bones didn't work so well. I seem to have built the boat wrong and the marrow ran into the pan. It was chestnut colored, and I thought the smell a trifle off.
Refill the stock pot. Skim, and skim, and skim, the stock. That too goes into a bowl.
When the dogs get fed, the off-colored marrow, the scraps and the skim all went into the food.
Repeat on Monday. Tonight they will get the last scraps; from the third set of bones, and tomorrow: or Thursday, I will decide any more skimming that gets done gets done when I'm making sauces, and I'll see how reduced I've made it (I'll stop before I hit demi-glace) and put it up in bags for the freezer.
When I get down to one bag, well, I'll do it again.
