Lemon Pepper Hot Sauce

Ingredients:

12 Lemon Drop peppers, seeds removed, coarsely chopped
2 Mad Hatter peppers, seeds removed, coarsely chopped
1 small red bell pepper (or ½ standard size), coarsely chopped
½ cup carrots, sliced small
5 small cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
¼ medium white onion, coarsely chopped
1 TBSP olive oil
½ cup rice wine
¾ cup (more or less) water
1 TBSP honey
1 tsp coriander seed, roasted & crushed

Comment: could use some salt.


Instructions:

• Wear rubber gloves and a face mask.
• Seed all the peppers. Coarsely chop them.
• Peel and crush the garlic.
• Chop the onion coarsely.
• Chop the peppers, ⅛” thick.
• Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan.
• Saute all of the above until the onions begin to think of transparency. Stir constantly.
• Add some of the water and simmer until everything is beginning to soften.
• Meanwhile, toast coriander seed. Crush it.
• Add the rice vinegar, honey & toasted & crushed coriander seed until carrots are soft.
• Cool the mixture some.
• Blend the mixture real fine.
• Cool completely.
• Fill bottle or jar and refrigerate.


Next time:
• ½ tsp or so of salt.
• ¼ cup or so lemon or lime juice.
• a tsp or a TBSP of peeled, ground ginger root.
• a little tarragon, fresh is better, ground is acceptable.
• Some cilantro or even parsley. Maybe some chives.
• a little batch of fresh basil.
(Courtesy Ed Currie of Puckerbutt.)

Lemon Chicken with Brocolli

Ingredients:
2 TBSP all purpose flour
½ tsp salt, divided
¼ tsp fresh black pepper
12 oz uncooked skinless boneless chicken breast, thinly sliced
2 TBSP olive oil
1½ cup chicken broth, divided
2 tsp minced garlic
2½ cups broccoli florets, roughly chopped
2 tsp lemon zest, or more to taste
2 TBSP fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions:
• On a plate, combine 1½ TBSP flour, ¼ tsp salt & pepper. Add chicken & turn to coat.
• In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high flame.
• Add chicken & cook, turning, until lightly browned & cooked through: ±5 minutes. Set aside on a plate.
• Add 1 cup broth and the garlic to skillet to deglaze. Bring to boil, scraping up goodies from bottom of pan.
• Add broccoli. Cover & cook for no more than a minute.
• Mix remaining ½ cup broth, ½ TBSP flour & ¼ tsp salt. Add to skillet & simmer, covered over low heat.
• Cook until broccoli is al dente, crisp-tender & sauce starts to thicken: ±1½ minutes.
• Stir in chicken & lemon zest & heat through.
• Add lemon juice & chopped parsley & toss to coat.
• Serve with couscous, angel hair pasta or rice.

Mexican Skillet with Eggs

Ingredients:

1 medium poblano chili pepper, seeded & finely chopped
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
½ cup chopped onion
1 cup [canned] black beans, drained
1 cup zucchini, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 pinch salt (kosher?)
½ cup green salsa verde (plus more for serving)
4 large eggs
2 TBSP cilantro, chopped
Cooking spray



Instructions:
• Coat 12” skillet with cooking spray & heat over medium high flame.
• Add chili, corn & onion. Cook stirring often until onion is soft: 5-7 minutes.
• Add beans, zucchini, cumin & salt. Cook, stirring often, until zucchini starts to brown: 2-3 minutes.
• Stir in salsa.
• Make 4 wells in vegetables with back of a spoon. Crack one egg into each.
• Reduce heat to medium. Cook, covered, until eggs are cooked to desired doneness: 5-7 minutes for medium.
• Garnish with cilantro.
• Serve with more salsa if desired.

Peanut Butter & Rhubarb Cookies

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana, about ½ cup mashed
¾ cup old fashioned oats
¼ cup creamy peanut butter
¼ cup rhubarb, fresh, diced
3 TBSP mini chocolate chips

 
Double Batch:
2 ripe bananas, about1 cup mashed
1½ cup old fashioned oats
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup rhubarb, fresh, diced
⅓ cup mini chocolate chips

 
Instructions:
• In a large bowl, mash the banana and add oats. Combine with spatula, and stir in peanut butter. Mix everything until all ingredients combined.
 

• Fold in chips and rhubarb pieces. Alternative: use a stand mixer or electric mixer on medium speed, but be careful not to over-mix.
 

• Scoop about a tablespoon of cookie dough on to baking sheet lined with silicon or parchment. The batter will be fairly wet. Once you arrange the cookie dough on a baking sheet, gently shape each cookie into more uniform and rounded shapes with your fingers.
 

• Bake for 12-14 minutes at 350 F. WARNING: These over-bake quickly.
 

• Let the cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them onto wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.

Blackberry Pie

We were given some fresh blackberries. And I like pie. So I made pie. We really enjoyed it. 

Ingredients:

3½ cups (to maybe 4 cups) fresh blackberries

½ cup white sugar, more or less, to taste, divided

½ cup (maybe a little less) all-purpose flour

1 (9 inch) double crust ready-to-use pie crust

2 tablespoons milk

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 425F (220C)

• Load one pie crust onto pie plate. 

• Save out a TBSP of sugar. Combine the rest of the sugar with the flour and the berries. 

• Put the second pie crust on top. Find a fancy way (or at least an efficient way) to seal the edges. 

• Brush the top of the pie with the milk and sprinkle the reserved TBSP of sugar on top. (This would be a good place for fancy large-crystal sugar, wouldn't it?). 

• Cut 3 or 4 modest size vent holes. Be creative with them if you feel like it. 

• Bake 20 minutes at 425F. Reduce to 375F (190C)  until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown, an additional 25 to 30 minutes. 

• Bring it out and let it cool on a wire rack or such for at least half an hour. 

• Serving suggestion: serve with vanilla ice cream of some sort. 

• In a day or two, it should look like this:

Comment: We really loved this pie. This recipe is absolutely a keeper.

 

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

For the Levain

100 grams sourdough starter
15 grams bread flour
15 grams whole wheat flour
5 grams rye flour
35 grams water

For the Autolyse

135 grams whole wheat flour
365 grams bread flour
425 grams water

For the Dough

70 grams of the levain
11 grams kosher salt, sea salt or other pure salt
2 tablespoon rice flour, or as needed for dusting banneton
2 ice cubes

Instructions

Make the levain: Weigh out the levain ingredients in a small bowl or jar (100g sourdough starter, 15g bread flour, 15g whole wheat flour, 5g rye flour, 35g water). Stir together, and leave at room temperature until very bubbly and doubled in size, about 5 hours.

Meanwhile, about 2 hours before the levain will be ready, perform the autolyse: Stir the 135g whole wheat flour, 365g bread flour, and 425g water together in a bowl. Let sit for about 2 hours. If levain is ready to use before the autolyse has gone a full 2 hours, proceed with mixing dough anyway.


Mix the dough: Weigh out 70g levain, and add to the top of the autolyse mixture of flour and water. Sprinkle salt around the edges. With damp hands, pull up and fold dough from edges to the middle, turning the bowl as you fold, until completely mixed. Cover; let rest for 15 minutes. Cover and return the excess levain to the refrigerator to use for a future batch of bread.

Perform first set of folds: Lift dough with wet hands at the edge and flop to the middle; turn the bowl a few inches and continue to flop and turn until dough begins to resist being pulled to the center. Repeat folds twice more, 15 minutes apart, covering dough in between.

Set a timer for 30 minutes. Now turn dough out onto counter, and perform the first stretch and fold. Stretch the dough into a rough 12-inch square. Pull 2 corners and fold the dough into thirds; then fold the top half to the bottom. Roll the dough forward, then form into a ball with a flat bench scraper; return dough to the bowl and cover.

Repeat the stretch and fold process 2 more times, 30 minutes apart. Cover; let dough bulk ferment until very bubbly and doubled in size, 4 to 5 hours.

Turn dough out onto counter, and pre-shape dough into a ball. Dust with flour, and let rest on the counter 30 minutes.

Perform the final shaping: Dust the counter with flour, and gently flop the dough over into the flour with the bench scraper. Again, perform a stretch and fold, but gently, to not deflate the dough. Shape into as high and round a ball as possible using the bench scraper. Dust the top with flour.

Generously dust a banneton with rice flour, Carefully slide the bench scraper under the dough, and turn it over into the banneton. Now, and this is optional, "stitch" the dough by bringing opposite pieces of the dough up, sticking them together in the center. Dust with a little flour.

Cover; proof dough in the refrigerator for 14 hours.

One hour before baking, place the pan you will bake the bread in, or a pizza stone, in the oven. and heat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). (I cook it in the barbecue for a full loaf, or in a toaster oven for tiny loaf cooked in the smallest cast iron frying pan.)

After 1 hour of preheating, turn dough out of banneton onto parchment, and score 1/4-inch deep with a razor or sharp thin knife. Place in bread pan, add 2 ice cubes to the pan; cover.

Bake for 20 minutes at 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Remove cover, lower the heat to 450 degrees F (240 degrees C), and bake an additional 35 minutes, or until desired doneness.

Let cool 1 hour before slicing. 

(Adapted from https://cutt.ly/Tek207wB)

Natur Sauerteig Recipe for Bread Machine

Natur Sauerteig Recipe for Bread Machine

This is a Half Recipe (my machine is too small for the full recipe).

10.5 oz water
1/2 package Sauertieg sourdough
250 g (2 cups, plus a little) bread flour
10g (2.125 [2⅛] tsp) dry yeast  
10g (1.667 [1⅔] tsp) salt

COMMENT: Just use the bread machine for the mixing. Raise and bake it separately (it will probably take longer to raise).

Better:

10½  oz warm water
½ package Sauertieg
1½ cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp dry yeast
1½ tsp  salt
No sugar.

 Or this (🙂) version:

10½  oz warm water
½ package Sauertieg
½ cup bread flour
1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp dry yeast
1½ tsp  salt
No sugar.