pandemic pantry - food, getting it, storing it, baking during lockdown

[pcake]

We finally got to place an order from the farm on the other side of the mountains. After a quick phone call, they milled our flour on Tuesday. It
just arrived.......



-Mike

yay!

let us know how it bakes and how it tastes when you have a chance to do some baking.

btw, my latest attempt with freshly milled flour was not a total success. the bread tasted good, smelled like heaven, but the loaf - which i've made with commercial flour many times - didn't fully rise. i have no idea why, although perhaps some of the yeast was no longer with us. the soda bread i made with the exact same batch of flour came out the same way it always does.

 

[MJ5150]

yay!

let us know how it bakes and how it tastes when you have a chance to do some baking.

btw, my latest attempt with freshly milled flour was not a total success. the bread tasted good, smelled like heaven, but the loaf - which i've made with commercial flour many times - didn't fully rise. i have no idea why, although perhaps some of the yeast was no longer with us. the soda bread i made with the exact same batch of flour came out the same way it always does.

Will do.
I want to also thank you to bringing up the idea of freshly milled flour. I remember just a couple months ago the struggle to find flour of any kind around our town or online and having some slight anxiety if we were to run out.
We don't have the ability to mill our own flour, but it got me to thinking, then I found this small family farm just a few hours from us that mills to order. It feels good to help support asmall family run farm doing good things. We win as well by getting fresh flour for our recipes.
I'm not sure what we're making next. Maybe some English muffins. Or maybe banana bread with cocoa nibs.

-Mike

 

[MJ5150]

We've been experimenting with the flour we are now buying from a family farm a few hours east of us. We've been buying the hard red and Einkorn flours.
It is quite different from flour you buy in the store, well different to me at least. This flour is milled and shipped the same day or next day after you order it online. Nothing is enriched. I'm not saying enriched flour is bad for you and to be avoided. This is just the wheat berries and nothing else.
Besides feeling good about supporting a small family farm, the other cool thing is the folks who own the farm are available to chat over the phone to answer questions about their farm, processes, grains, and flours. A couple of the folks who work in the mill are also avid bakers, so they have been really helpful for us as we transition to a new baking experience.
Pizza dough, we have that down and have been making some excellent pizzas with the hard red. Bread is a little more challenging for us so far. The flavors are much different than enriched flour, so that is taking some getting used to. As good as the pizza dough is, we like the double zero we get from Italy a little better.
Here are some pics of our creations in the last week. We've been busy in the kitchen.

-Mike

 

[pcake]

We've been experimenting with the flour we are now buying from a family farm a few hours east of us. We've been buying the hard red and Einkorn flours.
It is quite different from flour you buy in the store, well different to me at least. This flour is milled and shipped the same day or next day after you order it online. Nothing is enriched. I'm not saying enriched flour is bad for you and to be avoided. This is just the wheat berries and nothing else.
Besides feeling good about supporting a small family farm, the other cool thing is the folks who own the farm are available to chat over the phone to answer questions about their farm, processes, grains, and flours. A couple of the folks who work in the mill are also avid bakers, so they have been really helpful for us as we transition to a new baking experience.
Pizza dough, we have that down and have been making some excellent pizzas with the hard red. Bread is a little more challenging for us so far. The flavors are much different than enriched flour, so that is taking some getting used to. As good as the pizza dough is, we like the double zero we get from Italy a little better.
Here are some pics of our creations in the last week. We've been busy in the kitchen.

View attachment 4039677
View attachment 4039678
View attachment 4039679

-Mike

you HAVE been busy - nice job!

i found that fresh flour doesn't require the same amount of liquid, and i found it out the hard way. i also found it has a much more complex taste.

 

[MJ5150]

The week started off with making bagels:

Tonight we made pizza dough and thus pizza. The bowl on the left has dough resting for sourdough English muffins tomorrow.

-Mike

 

[MJ5150]

They don't look like much, but the homemade English muffins are excellent. Toasted with butter they are really good.

-Mike

 

[MJ5150]

This one's for you @Killed_by_Death.
Tonight we did a cooking class over Zoom with a woman from the Akha tribe in Thailand. After getting educated on her people and customs, as well as the history of Pad Thai, she taught us how to make Pad Thai. We made everything but the noodles, including a dipping sauce called sapi tong.
This was very good and so simple to make. She said once you have the ingredients prepped, it's no more than five minutes to make, and she was right.

-Mike

 

[Killed_by_Death]

The Akha have their own hilltribe language, Sapi Tong is a type of Nahm Prik (chili paste) that's specific to the hilltribes.
I have two mortar & pestle that I got mostly for making nahm-prik, here's one I made recently, which is also a Northern (Chiang Mai) thing:

In an effort to stay away from Taco-Belly, I've started making our own guacamole, as well:

since this is a thread about food storage, kimchi lasts a long-long time:

making kimchi (fermenting vegetables)

That latest batch has the proper daikon radishes & I might have actually put too much chili flakes in there, a whole cup for a gallon of kimchi.

 

[MJ5150]

Our latest batch of sourdough English muffins. We won't be buying them from the store anymore. They are so easy to make.

-Mike

 

[zontar]

I make stew every month or so.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Been crushing up garlic, chilies, ginger, & shallots on the regular now.
I finally figured out the best way to store the shallots & garlic was just in the open air, but unfortunately the ginger is starting to shrink & turn black inside.
Should have frozen it when it was still fresh.

 

[zontar]

Been trying different things to--different ingredients (Sometimes because I'm not going to run out to pick up one or two things) and different preparation & cooking methods.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Watching Rick Bayless on PBS:

Not sure why I never thought it of it, but today he was GRINDING stuff in his mortar & pestle. I've only ever BEAT it.
He explained that he was grinding it stone-on-stone to make the ingredients more fine. I do that tomorrow when we fry gyoza again.

he has one with the animal carved & painted on the side, I've seen these at the predominantly Hispanic International supermarket:

here's the gyoza dipping sauce I made this morning, before I learned that trick:

soy-sauce
apple vinegar
garlic
ginger
shallot
coriander
1 chili

 

[MJ5150]

Watching Rick Bayless on PBS:

View attachment 4123613

Not sure why I never thought it of it, but today he was GRINDING stuff in his mortar & pestle. I've only ever BEAT it.
He explained that he was grinding it stone-on-stone to make the ingredients more fine. I do that tomorrow when we fry gyoza again.

he has one with the animal carved & painted on the side, I've seen these at the predominantly Hispanic International supermarket:

here's the gyoza dipping sauce I made this morning, before I learned that trick:
View attachment 4123617

soy-sauce
apple vinegar
garlic
ginger
shallot
coriander
1 chili

How in the world are you beating things in one of those? That would be hard, and loud.
They are also great for getting the right grind for Turkish coffee, but you needs lots of patience.

-Mike

 

[Boogiepop]

These are quite good. Like ginger snaps with a little something extra.

Reddit's 'Murder Cookies' Have a Surprisingly Wholesome Backstory

B.

 

[zontar]

We made a huge pot of ground turkey soup the other day--quite yummy--I don't mind having it so often--but we should probably freeze some.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

basil

I wish I could find a better way to store it for longer. Freezing it just makes it bitter!
I've read about floating it in water, but I must have done something wrong, because it just turned to mush.

 

[StereoPlayer]

basil

I wish I could find a better way to store it for longer. Freezing it just makes it bitter!
I've read about floating it in water, but I must have done something wrong, because it just turned to mush.

Grow it as a plant in your kitchen.

 

[Playbyear]

basil

I wish I could find a better way to store it for longer. Freezing it just makes it bitter!
I've read about floating it in water, but I must have done something wrong, because it just turned to mush.

I make the basil into pesto and then freeze it in small (enough for one meal) portions.
I'm sure there are other basil pastes that could be frozen.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

hmm, I just like it in the leaf form, we make basil-fried pork often
and put it in curries

Those tiny portions sold in most supermarkets are just not enough.
30 miles North there's an Asian supermarket (Thai-owned) that sells Thai basil in a large portion for a good price.

I wish they were closer, or I wish I could figure out how to store a large amount.