h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At the end of November (Thanksgiving, to be precise), my uncle did a bit more purging and house cleaning. My grandmother had at least two of just about everything- back in the day, banks used to give premiums to customers for opening new accounts, and my Gram used to chase interest rates all over the place, so she accumulated lots of cookware, dishes and small appliances over the years.

So, my uncle's made me a standing offer that if I think of something I need along those lines, before I buy myself anything, I should ask first if he has one to spare. And he usually does. I've recently acquired a second (but larger) cast iron Dutch Oven, a set of cast iron skillets including a large one with a glass lid, a food processor, a slow cooker, another hand mixer, some glass vases, a Springform cake pan with an insert for making a hole in the middle, and a bread machine.

I have been using the heck out of the bread machine, including making homemade limpa rye for Christmas instead of buying. At last I can have good whole wheat, rye, etc, without any egg or honey. All but the first loaf have tasted fantastic, especially fresh from the oven alongside a pot of hot soup. About half the time, I remove the dough after the second kneading, put it in the hall closet on top of the furnace to rise, and bake in the convection oven,

Does anyone have a favorite bread recipe?

My favorite so far was a "dilly" rye with bread (whole wheat white) and rye flours, egg replacer, salt, sugar, yeast, vegetable oil, dry dill, caraway seeds, and some pickle brine added to the water. It was delicious! K ate half a loaf with dinner that night.

Hi PC! My sister in law bakes a delicious gluten free bread, but I don't have the recipe. I think it includes millet, but can't swear to that.

Millet's good, and I have no problem at all with gluten free bread as long as it doesn't taste like coasters. I'll probably experiment with that at some point, so when I've used up some rye flour and have more room in the pantry, I'll grab a small bag of millet flour. Thanks!

I've never made bread-bread.

However, I did get a spiffy new food processor / mixer for christmas and yesterday I attempted some oatmeal / raising cookies. They taste nice enough but the consistency is more cake than cookie. I've found a different recipe I'll try after buying some more supplies once we've been dug out.

My parents used to make a lot of their own bread, but I think they had like one recipe and that was it - and I have no idea what it was.

Helpful, ain't I?

Always!

So far I've made limpa, rye, dilly rye, whole wheat and whole wheat white breads. Oh, and I used the machine to knead dough for stollen. I'm looking forward to trying baguettes or dinner rolls.

One nice thing is that I can add a bit of ground flaxseed to the flour. I try to use a couple tablespoons per day, and add it to anything I can get away with. Even chili.

Did you ever see a book called 'The Great American Detox Diet' by Alex Jamieson?

She's Morgan Spurlock's other half and is a vegan chef. I am curious as to whether it's a good vegan book...

No, I haven't, but I can check the library (it's right around the corner from home) and see. If I find it there I can check it out, and let you know my overall impression.

I do have some really good vegan cookbooks. I like collecting cookbooks, they give me ideas, frames of reference, and sometimes I need to know roughly what temperature to set the oven to and for how long.

P makes his own rye bread, i'll ask him for the recipe if you like. He's got a grinder thing to do it directly from seeds; but i assume it's sorta pumpernickel German style 'black bread', don't know if you're into that?

zdt

K absolutely loves pumpernickel and dark ryes, so I am more than interested- I am eagerly anticipating P's recipe!!

I actually have a copy of it from somewhere, but as I'm not entirely sold on what I think are odd combinations and substitutes, I haven't used it. Yet.

She makes a lovely point about the Standard American Diet, a.k.a. SAD. It is.

I looked it up on Amazon and did the "look inside" thing. I can't really read recipes, but from the table of contents it sounds like a good cookbook. Maybe I'll just order it.

Any particular combinations/ substitutions she suggests that you had in mind as being odd? Just curious.

To be honest, my ideas about veganism mostly come from you...and although I know you make your own choices and some stuff sounds amazing, some stuff doesn't apeeal, mostly because i'm not very adventurous and come from a very much meat and potatoes kind of family. I remain in awe of your culinary skills and just sheer knowledge though.

I know, I'm awful, right?


I'll send you my copy of the book if you want?

Ah, I see. And what a compliment! Some things are easily done- just omit meat, use veg stock, etc. Some things can be adapted close enough- like leaving fish sauce out of Thai recipes. There are some things that don't really appeal to me, either. I've never been a big mushroom fan. Shiitake, crimini, button mushrooms have grown on me (no pun intended), but I'm not sold on portobello. I've used them a few times and have yet to like the result.

Some vegan recipes call for as much processed food as regular ones. I admit to using vegan sour cream, because we love it. Also mayo, though not terribly often. Once in a while we'll have some veggie sausages or something- maybe a couple times a month. But I try not to use recipes which call for a lot of that.

Some substitutions sound a bit iffy to me, but a most of the ones I've tried have worked out all right.

How kind of you to offer to send me your copy! If it's not too much trouble or expense I will take you up on it, otherwise I can try the library first to see if I want to buy it or not. I can send yours back when I'm done? (I have another book on my desk to return to another hootooer, just waiting to add something to another package so I can send both at once)

No problem - once the UK is back to 'normal' - I'll pop by the post office and send it to your usual address.

Portobello mushrooms are nice grilled with some sort of filling, kind of like stuffed peppers. I'd put lots of cheese in, but your veggie sour creme might work too. For cooking with I tend not to get too fancy (especially as DT doesn't like them) and mostly just use standard button ones. I buy them frozen and only use a handful at a time - hence the frozen. I also get little sachets of diced shallots, cubes of spinach and chopped butternut squash ready frozen and buy bell peppers by the kilo to chop and freeze myself.

Portobello mushrooms are also nice in burgers with sweet potatoes, peppers and a bunch of other stuff. (from the menu 'mushroom, aubergine, red pepper, sweet potato, camembert, mayonnaise, rocket & onion jam')
And last time we went to our local-ish burger joint we were served a dip which was sour creme topped with lots and lots of thai sweet chilli sauce which was DELISH! It wasn't mixed up, just layered. We ate it with breaded bits and I reckon if you can sort of southern fry chunks of tofu that might work nicely together.

Breaded tofu, or even breaded vegetable chips, kind of tempura-ish, might go nicely with that dip, which sounds fab!

Last time I made portobellos, I marinated them in white wine, tamari, balsamic vinegar and garlic and then cooked them on the grill pan. We had them on rolls. It's not the flavor I dislike- I'm not keen on the texture.

I also chop and freeze bell peppers. I get Thai chilis, galangal and lemongrass in bulk and freeze those, too. Also any veggies I get during farmer's market season that I don't use up quickly enough.

One thing I've only just tried recently, and not terribly often because it's a lot of work, is making vegan "cheese". A local place does a decent version of mozzarella, so I just buy that, but most cheese substitutes are really expensive (almost as much as good, imported cheeses!) so I bought a cookbook with recipes to make my own. I've had decent luck with a gouda (flavored with roasted red pepper for the smokiness) and a few sauces.

Another thing I'd like to do is find more interesting ways to use greens. They're excellent this time of year, and I love green kale, bok choy, collards and watercress. Not so keen on arugula. Obviously stir fries, sautees and steamed are nice, but I don't always want to make "side dish" for my main meal, if you know what I mean? I toss greens into stews and soups and chili sometimes, but I'd like to have them more often than once a week or less.

Another thing I keep in the freezer to have it handy: veggie stock. Basically, when I'm chopping veggies for meals, I set aside the parings and put them in a freezer bag, then when it's full, I stick them all in the stock pot and make a batch of stock. Then I pour it into ice cube trays and make lots of cubes- that's handy, because one cube is roughly a couple tablespoons of stock. I'll add the ribs from any greens we've had, bell pepper cores, tops and any bits trimmed from carrots, parsnips, turnips, etc, celery core and leaves, mushroom stems, wilty bits from green onions, tomato cores. Also the outer peel from onions- it gives the stock a nice brownish hue. Otherwise the stock can be a bit green. I usually avoid adding bits from cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli or cauliflower, as it makes the flavor a bit too strong.

I get organic vegetarian veggie stock cubes - I think we've discussed those - by Kallo. They now even do a low sodium version of those, so that's even better.

I don't usually cook much with greens, I must admit. Stir fry is about my limit, and usually I buy the ready stuff. For someone that likes to cook, this feels like a cardinal sin, but I've never really had a lot of Asian foods and I've certainly never been around anyone that knew what they were doing in terms of cooking it, which is how I tend to learn and be inspired.

Now, I believe I must go change clothes to hike to the store. It's not that cold out there - I just need some jogging bottoms for a more comfortable walk.

DT can't believe his eyes when it's time for Sam's last wee of the evening - traditionally I take him out and stand there with him - and I usually do this just wearing my usual clothes, no added jackets. It's been a little cold here in the evenings recently.... Coats, no stinkin' coats!
Hence DT's disbelief.

I have some low sodium stock cubes, too, for when I'm out of my homemade stuff.

Meanwhile at least half of the meals I prepare are Asian or at least "inspired by", if you know what I mean.

We need to go grocery shopping, too, but most likely will go tomorrow morning. I think K's band is practicing this evening.

There's a cookbook called "Greens, Glorious Greens" I'm contemplating. It's not expensive, so I should probably just go for it...

Enjoy your walk- and be careful if there's still snow on the ground.

It was a proper trudge. Hiking shoes, gaiters, comfy socks and jogging bottoms, big big coat and gloves. No hat though so I'm 'ard. Also, ended up taking coat off cause I was too hot.

It was not a nice walk - and town was surprisingly busy. At least it's done now and I'm settling down to enjoy some well-deserved Wallander.

Maybe that's more the issue for me - the idea of veganism.... you're my role model in that respect and your diet is very foreign to me - but maybe that's more because of your Asian style than the vegan aspect?

I'm not entirely sure where the Asian style comes from other than the neighborhood I'm in. We have a lot of Thai, Korean, Indian and Middle Easterners around and so that's a lot of what I eat. I'd never tried any of them until I left home, though. My mother is extremely picky and never wanted anything exotic or spicy. Also, she was a rather bad cook.

Part of the reason I lean toward a lot of Asian type stuff is also that I don't need to rely on mock meats, if you know what I mean? I do make my own seitan, and I like it, but I don't want to eat it every day. And while I also like veggie burgers, the vegan chorizo we found, and also the dreamy vegan corn dogs... I try not to rely on a lot of processed foods, either. So I guess Asian inspired stuff has always been sort of the easy way out.

On the other hand, over the last few years I've been trying really hard to stick with local, seasonal produce as much as I can, and that's not all Asian stuff. I don't necessarily post about everything I make. I did roasted Brussels sprouts, baked beans, rye bread, and cranberry sauce for Xmas. And a vegan rice pudding!

It's good you have me thinking about this, though. Maybe I'm stuck in a rut?

What kinds of things do you like a lot? Maybe I have something I like that's similar and just never mentioned it yet?