Celery? Really?

 

Brunch, Sunday April 5, 2020: smoked sausage; french toast (whole wheat bread, milk, cream, egg, vanilla, almond extract, sliced almond, whipped cream);

banana; celery hearts.

I suppose there is nothing wrong with the celery on the plate. I do admit that it is a bit odd, perhaps not the go to accompaniment for most people. She really likes those little tiny celeries. That's all that really matters. 

I suppose also that we eat a lot of french toast. I really like it. That's all that really matters. 

She Likes Mushrooms That Much

 

Breakfast, Sunday October 13, 2019: Sausagey fungus eggs (breakfast sausage, flour, milk, shiitake, pepper, scramble, cheddar); grilled pineapple;

thick cut bacon; bananana.

I have always thought that the word "banana" sounded kinda silly. It is a sound that a toddler might make. I tried to look up the etymology, but I could not get a consistent answer. I must admit that I didn't work too hard at it. . . One source said is was from Spanish or Portuguese "mande." I'm not too sure about that. Another professed that it was from the Arabic word for finger "banan." Now that is believable 'ceptin I tried Google translate and It could not make heads nor tails of banan. 

It will just remain a mystery

Some trivia though: over 70 million people in Africa get more than 25% of their calories from bananas (the cooking type mostly). It is a major staple food in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. 

Why does the sausage gravy have shiitake in it you ask? I had soaked some shiitakes for something I did not end up making. I saw them and thought "hmm. . . more umami maybe?" (Say it with me now: "Alliteration.") Turned out it was a good idea. Then while we are eating she says, "I'd never really thought about it but we eat a lot of mushrooms. I guess I really like mushrooms."

I kinda knew that.

Patience. . .

Supper, Saturday August 19 2019: pizza (dough (bread flour; water; salt; yeast); sauce (crushed tomato; tomato paste; oregano; thyme; granulated garlic; granulated onion; pepper; red pepper); italian sausage; smoked oysters; onion; jalapeno; mushroom; black olive; parmesan; mozzarella.

Almost no one does this at home. It's a pain in the ass. It requires some skill (but it isn't brain surgery). It also requires some specialized equipment, or in lieu of that some special techniques. Although I have not mentioned this before we actually have this fairly often. I will talk about this more in the future. For now let's look at the dough. Just the make up, not the shaping. 

The ingredients are pretty simple. There's just four. I used to weigh. It really is more accurate, but for crust we can be a little less rigorous than if we were trying to make a good baguette. (Some might argue that point. Don't care.)

Measure 4 cups of bread flour into your favorite bowl, assuming your favorite bowl is at least 4 quarts. Add a scant 2 cups of hot water. Again, I used to measure the temp, but now I just use the hot tap water. At the same time get a small bowl, an ingredient bowl, whatever you want to call it, and place a little hot water in it. Basically the "scant" you left out of the big bowl. Also add a dollop of honey or half of a teaspoon of sugar. (OK, that means it really is five ingredients. I just put it in there to boost the yeast. It is not needed.) 

Mix the flour and water until the flour is mostly wetted. Sprinkle the salt on top, 2 tsp. Do not mix it in. Set the dough aside. This BTW is the "autolysing" step. This allows time for the enzymes in the flour to convert some of the starch into food for the yeast. 

Now go back to the water and honey. Add a packet of yeast, or if you have a bulk jar then add a teaspoon. Mix and leave it. Now this step is not really necessary, but it doesn't hurt, it can speed things along if you are in a hurry, and it allows you a natural timer for the autolysing step. You could just put all the water in the flour, mix, then sprinkle the salt and the yeast on top. Wait 20 minutes then start mixing.

When the yeast is really working, it is time to get mixing. Add the foamy mess, and fold the nascent dough in on itself a few times to incorporate the yeast water. The real mixing now starts. 

Starting on one side start pinching the dough with your forefinger and thumb. Use your middle finger if for whatever reason you have trouble with the forefinger. Keep pinching along the dough until it looks like a fat caterpillar. 

The dough will be sticky. You want the end result to be just a little sticky so add flour as you mix. Don't be afraid to add a small handful at the beginning if the dough is super sticky. 

Fold the head and the tail of the caterpillar over the middle. Mush it down. Rotate a quarter turn. Make another caterpillar. Lather. rinse, repeat.

How long? You will start to feel the dough getting more homogenous. You might encounter lumps that are much harder or dryer than the rest of the dough. I pinch at these with my fingertips to break them up. I should mention here that there is a temptation when hand working sticky dough to get the dough stuck on your hands by rubbing them together. Don't do this over the dough. It makes lumps. Those rolled up balls of dough end up hard balls of dough. After two to five minutes (more like five for the beginner), finish with the mush step. You should have an ever so slightly sticky homogeneous lump. Cover the dough with a towel and let it rest 15 minutes or so. Again, I'm not a stickler. (I gotta remember that "sticky homogeneous lump." That is a great phrase.) 

Now for the kneading. Without this step the dough will not stretch. You will not be able to make a crust. The goal is to gently pull the dough in a way that allows the gluten to align and thus give the dough strength and elasticity. 

Imagine a pile of loose wool. Not very strong. You can tear it apart easily. Align the fibers and twist to keep them aligned. The resultant yarn can be very strong. This is what we want to achieve.

We are going to do something like that. First we need to prepare hands and dough. If the dough still seems a little sticky, flour your hands and the dough LIGHTLY before starting and keep your hands floured to prevent too much sticking. If the dough is just right or maybe dry, then wet your hands LIGHTLY and keep them wet. Wetting is preferred for this part but do what you gotta. 

To do the knead grab a big pinch along the edge of the dough blob. Stretch it a little less than the width of the blob then twist it 1/2 turn then fold it over to the middle and press it in. Rotate a bit to a new spot that was not affected by the stretch and start again. Repeat this 4 to 6 times to make it around the blob. When you are all the way around you should have something that looks like a weird twisty ball or a giant Kaiser roll. 

The first time will look a little rough.

Now we are not finished but we are finished for now. We want to let the dough rest then repeat the pulley-twisty thing. Cover the dough with a towel and do something else for a few minutes. 5 minutes or so later the dough should have sagged some back towards a blob rather than a ball. Now repeat the knead and let rest. Do this 4 - 6 times. You are done when the ball mostly stays a ball and it is smooth and a little velvety on the surface. The dough will resist pulling quite a bit at this point.

It will start looking better as you repeat.

Dust with a little flour, underneath too.

Cover with the towel again and leave it to rise.

This seems like a good place to stop.

We'll get to this stage next time.

Yes, black olives. There's smoked oysters on there too. Yum.

I'll Make You French Toast Again

Breakfast, Thursday November 02: french toast (home baked multigrain, egg, milk, vanilla, almond extract, slivered almonds); sausage; plantain.

I think that is a line from a song. Oh yeah, interwebs. It's actually "serve you French toast again." 

What the hell did we do before interwebs? Probably spent a lot less time worrying about inane trivia.

It's Cranberry Time!!!

Breakfast, Wednesday November 01: toast and sausage gravy; cranberry salad; banana, pickled okra.

I really like that cranberry salad. There is a recipe here. I won't belabor the point.

We both enjoy sausage gravy. Here I stumbled on some bulk store sausage that was deeply discounted, It is a little bland to I added dome of my sausage spices and some crushed red pepper for some kick, I usually make it in a pound batch. We will get a couple of meals out of that much. This is an item that reheats very well

A Slightly Healthier Version

Breakfast, Thursday March 30: Eggs Reddnekkt variation (whole wheat biscuit, homemade sausage gravy, eggs, egg substitute, mild chili, scallion, arugula, cheddar).

I've started to use whole wheat, 50%, in my biscuits. Honestly I would pick the white flour version, all things being equal, but the preference is small. I have a medical condition that forces me to get a lot of fiber. This is just another small change that when added to the others makes a big difference. I also added vegetables to the egg. Another small change that means the meal is not just carbs and protein. 

I Don't Know Why It's Green

Breakfast, Friday March 24: veggie and cheese scramble; english muffin bread, sausage. 

The white balance must have been off. I swear the sausage really did not have a green pall. I made the sausage from scraps off of a couple of boston butts I got on sale. The majority of the meat went into jars and is now in the basement. It's great for adding to gumbos, or just heating up with a little sauce and a couple of drops of liquid smoke for a quick kitchen "barbeque." Don't judge until you've tried it.

The bread is another one of those local flavor finds. It is called English Muffin Toasting Loaf. It tastes like an english muffin. It is great with a little butter and it make an awesome grilled cheese.

My Bologna Has A First Name. . .

Breakfast, Tuesday March 21: PigCowChicken (english muffin bread, egg, trail bologna, swiss cheese).

So there is this bologna that is a staple in north central Ohio where Alexis is from. She calls it trail bologna (pronounced baloney, of course). Growing up in the south I had never seen the like. It looks like a very long polish sausage bent in on itself to form a ring (more on that in a minute). The texture on the other hand is definitely not that of the typical smoked sausage. It is fine textured like the large diameter bologna I grew up on. It has a different spice palette, but it is bolgna just the same. It is great with cheese and crackers or as a breakfast meat like in the photo above.

I made alexis a sammich with the above ingredients and some ohio swiss. I also made one to share with a co-worker. It is a small thing. It costs almost nothing and the time spent to make two is not much more than the time spent to make one. There will always be someone who skipped breakfast, and will be very appreciative.

Now for the amusing part. Alexis and her family and as far as I can tell everyone she knows have always called it trail bologna. When I inquired I was told that's just what it is called. So for years I assumed that it was the meat equivalent of trail mix. (It very well could be but that is not germaine to my story.) I've been calling it trail bologna for quite some time. On a recent trip to the region, we procured some of the product. This time i did something I had never before. I read the label. Turns out that the style of this smoked meat is "ring bologna" and, wait for it, the stuff is made in Trail OH. Since I have been inculcated I will probably continue to call it trail bologna. Whatever you call it, it's tasty.

Arrrrrg, There Be Sliders There

Supper, Monday March 13: pig sliders (sausage patty, pumpkin whole wheat biscuit, cheddar, onion, lettuce, mustard); fried squash; sauteed collards.

There is nothing particularly piratical about this plate except that I needed to use a pick on the sandwiches so. . .

Eggs Again?

Breakfast, Sunday March 5: eggs reddnekt lite, garlic and parm polenta, fruit.

Leftovers Can Be Fun

Breakfast, Friday March 3: homemade sausage; sweet potato home fries; pumpkin bread; 9-grain bread; avocado.

Most of this is cobbled together from stuff for other meals. Even the sausage is a leftover of sorts. I bought two boston butts on sale. I trimmed out the meat from the bones and much of the fat. Most of the meat went to pint jars. I canned 8 pints. The rest went to some pork fried rice. The fatty meat and meaty fat went to the grinder and became sausage. The toast is from a couple of days ago, a 9--grain baguette. The sweet potato is re-tasked roasted sweet potato. The avocado is the other half of yesterday's and the pumpkin bread has been around a bit. 

Sometimes Weird is good

Breakfast, Thursday March 2: sausage gravy; 9-grain bread; dippy egg, avocado and peaches. 

Yeah the peach and avocado thing sounds weird, but consider chutneys. The sweet-savory fad of late is not a new thing. Here I did not make a chutney but I just mixed a little sweet fruit with another fruit that is more traditionally used in savory dishes. (I might have put in a few drops of hot sauce?) Take this a little further, add some scallions, cilantro, and lime juice, then you have peach salsa. 

Cilantro Is Fra-Gee-Lay, Must Be Italian

Breakfast, Sunday February 12: veggie scramble; sausage; 9-grain bread; apple.

I once put cilantro in the eggs or the veggies, but eventually I found out that the aromatic components of this herb are quite fragile. Heating cilantro destroys the aromatics. So if you want that bright, fresh cilantro nose, then sprinkle it on top. Don't cook it in. 

Soup Is For Using Up Stuff.

Supper, Sunday January 29: french onion soup, tossed salad with avocado.

I am an almost pathological "user" of leftover food. We throw almost nothing away and what we do throw away goes in the compost. It comes from a combination of experiences during my childhood and the time that I spent in the restaurant business. I do mean almost. I know what a hoarder is and I am not that. 

The leftover in this case was bratwurst "stock." At least once, sometimes more often, I do a tailgate at my alma mater, a small liberal arts college. I like to bring a lot of brats and share them. Now, put eighty or so brats in a pot with caramelized onions, beer, and water, simmer for several hours, then what you've got is a lot of yummy brats to crisp up on the grill, AND a pot full of bratwurst stock. Add more onions, reduce a bit, a little black pepper, a little bit of thyme. Voila! Soup! 

I pressure can it in quarts for later. 

At The Beach Shrimp Goes With Everything.

Breakfast, Saturday January 21: roasted garlic toast; dippy egg; sausage; hashed browns; fruit; wild Georgia shrimp.

We have a modest beach condo. We try to get there as often as we can. In winter the beach itself is not so appealing but we got the property not just for the surf and sand. The food was an important consideration. We can purchase shrimp, for instance, that were caught that day, even within the hour. Heaven.

Pizza! Pizza!

Supper, Saturday January 7: Pizza (homemade crust,* Italian sausage, basil, onion, pepper, olives, mushroom, feta, parm).

*Crust. Everybody has a favorite. I'm not particularly picky, so I am not afraid to experiment. In this case I have a recipe for what I call 9-grain loaf. The recipe makes 2 loaves which is more than we need at once so either I freeze 1 or I use the dough for something else: focaccia; rolls; pizza crust. I may go throught the bread making process next time I make a couple of boules which may be in the next few days. 

Lunch: Saturday October 8, 2016

Miscellaneous nibbles or poke around in the fridge and see what needs to be used: fried plantain; andouille; nacho bites (seasoned black beans and corn, cheddar, yogurt, salsa, pickled banana pepper); pickles.