One of many possible ways of making chili
There are a lot of ways to make chili. Many of them are valid. Here is the way I make mine.
Pizza potluck
Every now and then I decide to have a party where I invite people over to have fun and chat while I feed them a bunch of homemade pizza. The format which seems to work best is a “pizza potluck,” where I provide the basics and everyone else brings interesting things to try as toppings. It’s a great party for someone who has a lot of friends but doesn’t have a lot of social energy and likes to make their friends happy and have people meet each other but would rather be a wall flower at their own party. Like me.
I’ve done this a few times now. Here’s some notes for things to do and things to avoid.
Roasted Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts
A tasty vegan dish I’ve been making a lot lately. Works both as an entree and a side.
Sausage and lentil soup
An easy-to-prepare soup that’s filling and hearty.
Ingredients:
- 7-14 ounces of smoked sausage (kielbasa or similar), diced or sliced
- 1-2 carrots, diced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1-2 ribs celery, diced
- 1-2 tsp crushed red pepper or ¼ cup chopped green chile (optional)
- 4-6 cups stock or broth
- 1 ½ cups lentils
- 1 can crushed or diced tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 1-2 tbsp crushed or minced garlic
- 1-2 tsp dried oregano
In a soup pot on medium high, brown the sausage. Add the carrots, and cook until carmelized; add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the celery and cook until translucent, along with the chile if so desired. Deglaze with stock or broth, before adding the rest, along with the lentils, tomatoes, bay leaves, garlic, and oregano. Bring to a gentle boil then reduce to low and cook, covered, for 1 hour or until lentils are tender. Salt and pepper to taste.
Optionally, garnish with sour cream.
Margarita Iconoclasta
I don’t drink booze often but when I do I like it to be nice. Your definition of “nice” may vary.
Ingredients:
- 1 jigger (1.5 oz) of good tequila (I use Herradura Reposado)
- 1 jigger of lime juice
- 1 jigger of agave nectar
- 1 pony (0.75 oz) of triple sec
- 2-3 dashes of habanero sauce (optional)
Place into cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake until the ice gets somewhat crushed. Pour into a glass. Salt rim optional.
Sous vide black garlic
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.
Citrus soda syrup
- 20mL agave nectar
- 20mL of lemon or lime juice (or a combination of them, totaling 20mL)
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.
Home-made vegan waffle mix
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:
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp sugar (vanilla sugar if you have it!)
- ¼ tsp salt
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.
Ice cream experiments
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.
All-purpose bread dough
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.
Ingredients
- 3 cups warm water
- 1.5 tbsp active dry yeast
- 1.5 tbsp coarse salt (sea salt, kosher salt, etc.)
- 4 cups bread flour
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup rye flour
Directions
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.