Food, recipes, and techniques
I don’t drink booze often but when I do I like it to be nice. Your definition of “nice” may vary.
Ingredients:
Place into cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake until the ice gets somewhat crushed. Pour into a glass. Salt rim optional.
Brad Leone recently did an episode on fermented garlic miso, and in it there was an aside of starting up a black garlic experiment. Recently he finished an episode on the black garlic itself, but the initial episode was enough to plant a seed in my mind of doing a bunch of black garlic myself.
His technique involves placing the garlic into a sealed bag and that into a dehydrator at around 130ºF/55ºC. However, my dehydrator tends to be both very loud and high on power consumption, so I decided to try using my sous vide circulator instead.
Combine the above, and then add to 1 liter of sparkling water.
For an extra kick, add some powdered ginger, or replace some (or all) of the agave nectar with ginger syrup. And maybe a pinch or three of cayenne pepper.
I ended up getting a tiny waffle iron (affiliate link), mostly for the purpose of waffling foods. But I figured, hey, now I can make waffles, too!
But making a tiny amount of waffle is really annoying, especially since it involves baking powder, which loses its leavening properties if it’s wet for too long.
For my first attempt at a single waffle I took ¼ cup pastry flour, a pinch of salt, ¼ cup of soymilk, and a teaspoon of vanilla sugar. The resulting waffle turned out rubbery and flat, but it was a good start.
Anyway, I did some reading and found that flax flour makes a good egg substitute. So here’s a recipe for some dry waffle mix that’s easy to make a bunch of in advance and make just the amount you need:
Combine all the ingredients, and then when ready to make a waffle, combine equal parts mix and your favorite dairy equivalent. Or actual milk if you’re so inclined. Two tablespoons of each is just about a perfect amount for the linked waffle maker.
Anyway this gives me a nice base for experimenting with other stuff. I’m planning on trying it with some added spelt or buckwheat flour, or with chocolate chips, or with dried cranberries.
Also the waffle maker comes with a bunch of other great-looking recipes, and I’m looking forward to giving a lot of them a try.
A while ago I tried making ice cream using the salad-spinner approach. This did not work well, so I ended up buying an ice cream maker (affiliate link). I’ve made plenty of experiments with it so far; here’s some of what I’ve done.
Here’s the bread dough recipe I’ve been using for a while. I mostly use it for pizza crusts but it’s also great for loaves and rolls and a bunch of other stuff. It’s adapted from the simplest recipes and techniques in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (affiliate link). There is also a newer edition (affiliate link) of the book although I haven’t seen what’s different in it.
In a large container (I use one of these food storage boxes (affiliate link) — don’t forget the lid! (affiliate link)) combine the water, yeast, and salt. Wisk until consistent.
Then add the flours and stir until of consistent hydration.
That’s it! Now you just let it rise for a while, and then tear off a hunk of the dough and use it for whatever you want. Keep it in the refrigerator; cover it tightly if you like it to get a beer-like aroma, otherwise leave it cracked open a bit and just make sure you keep on adding enough moisture every few days.
I just made some ginger ale syrup for making home-made ginger ale. It’s pretty easy! Just peel some ginger (use a spoon to remove the skin so you don’t waste the tasty flesh) and chop it up into thin-ish chunks, and put it into a saucepan with some water, some sugar, and other flavorings as you see fit (I used some pomegranate molasses, some coriander seed, and the peel and juice of a lemon). Then heat the water up and let the ginger steep for a while, then slowly bring it to a low boil.
Occasionally test the flavor, both to adjust the sugar level and to know when it’s gingery enough (don’t worry about extracting EVERY LAST BIT of ginger flavor, as that’s impossible and the point is to make something that tastes good, right?), and when it has a good flavor, use a wire strainer or the like to fish out as much solid stuff as you can. Then raise it to a moderate boil, and let it boil down until it’s 225-230F (don’t let it go any higher than that though, since at that point it starts to turn into candy).
Let it cool, and while it’s still warm and runny, strain it through a mesh strainer into a storage bottle of some sort.
To make the ginger ale, just mix some of the syrup with some soda water.
For bonus points, the chunks of ginger can be rolled in sugar and then put into an oven at 250F or so to dry them out a bit. And this is how you make candied ginger.
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil until clear. Add the cranberries and apricots and stir, reducing the heat to a low simmer. Zest and juice the orange into the saucepan. Add the cloves, anise, cinnamon sticks, and nutmeg and reduce until thick. Add the Cognac and LIGHT IT ON FIRE!!! (remember to keep your lid nearby in case it gets out of hand).
When it goes out, stir some more, and reduce to your desired consistency.
Serve warm, or allow to cool to room temperature before putting it in the fridge.
I accidentally discovered how to make something that tastes like bacon quiche without involving any bacon (or any other meat).
The smoked gruyère, tarragon, and balsamic mushrooms combine to taste amazingly like bacon, with no bacon involvement.
(Thanks to BunnyHugger for the name!)
In a cocktail glass:
