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

My favourite cuisines are Mexican and Indian. Italian can be nice, as can some Asian foods. I hate French cuisine, not fond of Greek and MEastern stuff, never had Thai. The enormous change in Iceland in my lifetime has not necessarily been good. Although there's more variety there's also more junk.

It makes sense that you should be inspired by your surroundings in your cooking choices, I am too.

If I were vegetarian it would be more because of the texture of things than ideology or health concerns.



Sorry if this makes no sense- am tapping this out one fingered on phone.

You did fab for one finger, sheesh!

I'm sorry you've never had Thai. It's good stuff. I love Mexican. Personally, aside from pasta, I've never been a huge Italian fan. Haven't had much French, really, and Greek and MidE are OK with me. Never been a huge fan of junk, either, though I have my weaknesses.

Texturewise, the only ones I'm not big on are rubbery-chewy and really crunchy.

Actually, speaking of Indian cuisine - a friend of mine in Indianapolis makes his own Indian cheese to rave reviews... I don't think it's too hard, actually.

This is him - although he's not posted in AAAAges. The recipe might be on there...
http://www.omni-vegan.blogspot.com/

Even if it isn't, there's some good stuff there. I'll definitely check on the cheese.

Making dill bread and cream of broccoli soup today. The last batch of broccoli we bought was almost all stalks, so I saved them for soup! Unfortunately, I found out that I don't think the food processor I "inherited" works. Plugged it in, pushed the "on" button, and nothing happened. Or do they maybe not operate if they're not put together properly?

There's usually a safety lock so if it isn't all stuck together 100% it won't allow it to work.

Incredibly, for the first time EVER, I made some potato salad as a side. First time!

I have bullied P into giving his rye bread recipe; he says the main ingredient is "patience"; here he is:

**Basically, I make it from flour, water, salt and yeast. Live yeast is great if you can get it, but dried yeast is fine if revived with lukewarm water and a pinch of sugar before starting. If using wholemeal rye flour, I use at least 30% of fine flour with it for stickyness (best for that is actually corn flour, but any fine ground flour works). The main skill is getting the right consistency of the dough. It should be as dry as possible, but not so dry that it cracks. I start with just flour, then add bit-by-bit the dissolved yeast and lukewarm water until all flour is 'damp'. Then knead until you have a homogenous 'ball'. If too wet, add flour; if too dry, add water...
A little olive oil or butter improves the lot. And of course you can add sunflower seeds or oat flakes or whatever you like.
It should be baked at fairly low temperature; e.g. 150 Celsius (I guess around 300 F?); if in doubt rather lower than higher. At high temps it may get a hard crust without being done inside. For that reason, it works best in my range (solid fuel) oven; not so good in the gas one. Electric ovens usually work as well.
For yeast quantities, see instructions on same.
Another good method is using sourdough, but I have never done it, as I don't like the sour taste... but it seems to be less sensitive to wrong dough consistency. If you like sourdough and can get a first bit somewhere, it may be worth trying. (You can 'breed' the stuff once you have done the first one, as with yoghurt).
Have fun!
Peter**

That's not too different from my recipe (except that I don't, and won't, knead by hand... I don't like getting sticky stuff on my hands!). I've had sourdough, might try making some using soymilk and vinegar as opposed to buttermilk or soured dairy milk. for posting, my Wooh, and thanks to P! His advice is much appreciated.

I'll pass your thanks onto him PC wooh!

Kneading bread, in my opinion, is great therapy; pretend it's an enemy & bash them, roll them around & over etc...P is like you though, he doesn't need much kneading & tends to let it rise all on its own.

zdt

It's because of the kneading that I've never made bread prior to getting the bread machine.

Cooking is reasonably good "therapy" after a stressful day, especially if there's lots of chopping. I think it's because it requires just enough attention to distract you from other things.

I've whipped up a couple more yummy things recently- though I admit we've had more takeout at the weekends because K's been working so much overtime lately (33 hours last week!).

One night I made a Thai-inspired soup of sliced onion, carrot, and daikon, coarsely chopped bok choy, yellow soybean paste, mirin, sliced crimini and shiitake mushrooms, a couple of finely chopped kaffir lime leaves, a lemongrass stalk, two whole green Thai chilies and a couple slices of dried galangal. I also baked some tofu till it was crispy, tossed it with a Thai-ish spice blend, and threw that in, too.

Tonight I made farro in the rice cooker, and in the skillet sauteed garlic and red pepper flake, added water and broccoli rabe, then stirred in toasted pine nuts and some oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes. Salt, pepper and oregano. Yum!

I forgot to add that the soup was served with wide rice noodles (like you get with lad na). In fact, I made some lad na recently, with baby broccoli and mushrooms. That was tasty, too.

Sounds yummy!!!

I've had half a slice of wholemeal bread with cheese slice & home-made coleslaw today 'cos there ain't no gas (it's frozen) or electric (P has the adaptor plug in Germany) & range managed to burn the soup (you have to leave the pan on top for ages; it's unpredictable)

*The Patented Zendevil Diet*....lose two stone in two weeks or your money back.

zdt

I don't thin I've ever heard of anyone burning soup before. I'd always had difficulty with burning rice on the stove, till I bought my rice cooker.

Maybe you haven't lived with an Aga!

Once you manage to get the thing going; it's totally unpredictable, can not get hot at all if wood is damp; or can go into Nuclear Fusion Zone; meanwhile, i have gone back to bed 'cos i am cold & hungry!

zdt

Yeah, around here wood stoves are for heat or for luxury. I don't know anyone who cooks with one, unless you count a cast iron kettle for tea/cocoa.

One of my cousins built in taboun (sort of a wood oven made of bricks and mud) in his yard. It can't really be used in winter, due to being outside, but in summer it's pretty nice.

As for bread recipes, I know that my favourite cooking blog, http://www.smittenkitchen.com , has a bunch of those - but I'm not exactly sure how they could be done on a bread machine. I guess once you figured out the machine, it might be easier to adapt recipes to it.


Personally, one of my favourite breads to make is pumpkin bread rolls, which I sometimes make when we have some extra pumpkin waiting in the fridge. But it has butter in it, so I guess not so good for you? Maybe you can change to margerine or something?

Hiya Lady P!

No, I don't use butter (or margarine), but I not only have perfectly good vegan buttery spread, but vegan shortening as well, and regular vegetable oil usually works, too.

I don't always bake the bread in the machine, it's most important function is to spare me the awful kneading. So I am sure recipes from the blog would work fine!

And speaking of outdoor ovens... I always say if I get a house with a backyard, I want to put a tandoor out there.

I'm feeling happy today, because I may have found alcohol-removed wines which are also suitable for vegetarians! It amazes me how many vegetarian and vegan blog posts I read where people serve a vegan meal with a non-vegan wine.

I made a version of this for dinner...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/vegetariansheperdspi_2477.shtml

Tasty, but some of veg needs to grated, otherwise it's just too lumpy.

Let me know if you try something from that book - how it comes out..

I sometimes make something similar. I sautee diced onion, garlic, red bell pepper, celery and carrot. Sliced mushrooms, cooked adzuki beans. Dried thyme, some liquid aminos (or soy sauce would work), a little black pepper, and a squirt of sriracha sauce. Top with potatoes mashed with olive oil, sprinkle with smoked paprika, and bake. I'll try the version you've posted here sometime, without the cheese.

And I do mean to try something from that book soon, yes! I've been in a sort of soup kick recently. I'll find something in there before I go shopping Friday night.