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pandemic pantry - food, getting it, storing it, baking during lockdown
- Thread starter pcake
- Start date
Somehow I missed your reply, I'm sorry.
This is the recipe we used:
Sourdough English Muffins - Easy Overnight Recipe! | Little Spoon Farm
Thanks @Tom Bomb for the info about, and your experience with, cacao nibs. I've been wanting to experiment with those. The wife and I are fans of dark, dark chocolate.
-Mike
If you ever wanted to know the complex path to biscuit nirvana, here's a true southern granny giving up the mystery on a vid in this article.
This Alabama grandma wants to help you fix supper
This Alabama grandma wants to help you fix supper
Hey folks, check out my science project. I'm about to find out if bucket gardening is real or not. I'm going with potatoes, some squash, maybe try some cabbage, whatever i can get to grow in a bucket or tub. I'm definitely going to have a few peppers as well if i can find some starts or a germination kit. My little hole in the wall grocery gets these killer jalapeños so i'm gonna save some seeds out of the next one and try my luck with them as well.
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you can get three buckets of spuds? from that sucker by dividing it with a sharp knife, at risk of fungal infection wiping out the lot.
Some people grow them in old tyres. As the plant grows first mound it then another tyre and more compost, ad infinitum, I have seen photos of 5ft tyre towers of one plant, all full of potatoes at harvest.
I'm going smaller, prep my bucket then enough soil to get above the reservoir Then bury the spud til just the clumps on top are showing. As they put on shoots then leaves, add soil until only the top leaves are exposed. Keep doing it and it should grow a bucket brimming with potatoes.
My mom made biscuits, when I was growing up. And just like the southern granny, my mom didn't measure; she just knew how to make them. But, my mom had to practice a lot to get it right. Once she got it right, the biscuits were flaky and airy...I used eat them without any butter or jam!
I still haven't seen anyone make flapjacks. That was another item my mom made but she didn't make it too often, though.
So, we took our first stab at Dutch oven baking.
First, I eBayed a reeeeallly big Dutch oven (12" interior dia).
Then we made a loaf (sourdough!)
Unfortunately, as the research scientists say, "The specimen was a inadvertently strained" during removal.
It got burned on the bottom. Too much contact with the cast iron trivet we used as a spacer. Good bread though.
Live and learn!
B.
First, I eBayed a reeeeallly big Dutch oven (12" interior dia).
Then we made a loaf (sourdough!)
Unfortunately, as the research scientists say, "The specimen was a inadvertently strained" during removal.
It got burned on the bottom. Too much contact with the cast iron trivet we used as a spacer. Good bread though.
Live and learn!
B.
Attachments
Nicely done @Boogiepop with the sourdough. That's how we make ours too.
We're still eating through the English muffins. The wife has decided this is too much bread for her and left the rest for me. I'm cool with that.
We polished off the mole sauce the other day, and made a batch of quinoa for the week.
Today is planting the garden day. We built some 6'x4' beds raised up on blocks so we don't have to bend that far over. We agreed on a few items for the garden, but it's mostly the junk my life likes to eat. I'm picky regarding produce.
-Mike
We're still eating through the English muffins. The wife has decided this is too much bread for her and left the rest for me. I'm cool with that.
We polished off the mole sauce the other day, and made a batch of quinoa for the week.
Today is planting the garden day. We built some 6'x4' beds raised up on blocks so we don't have to bend that far over. We agreed on a few items for the garden, but it's mostly the junk my life likes to eat. I'm picky regarding produce.
-Mike
We're going to have purple tomatoes and tiger tomatoes. Those were a couple of my choices.
-Mike
Started to comment this in the CV thread & figured it would be better here:
We're becoming virtual connoisseurs of food-truck merchandise now.
After visiting most of them we now have to stop at two different ones, cheesesteaks at one, catfish nuggets at the other.
I like the air-fryer at home for wings & many things, but deep-fried onion-rings are a once/week treat!
TBH I wonder how some of them are in business at all, with horrible food.
One we stopped at a couple of weekends ago had Asian-inspired dishes that were nothing like the good Asian versions I've had.
It seems like no one remembers how to season chicken when they're barbecuing it!
We're becoming virtual connoisseurs of food-truck merchandise now.
After visiting most of them we now have to stop at two different ones, cheesesteaks at one, catfish nuggets at the other.
I like the air-fryer at home for wings & many things, but deep-fried onion-rings are a once/week treat!
TBH I wonder how some of them are in business at all, with horrible food.
One we stopped at a couple of weekends ago had Asian-inspired dishes that were nothing like the good Asian versions I've had.
It seems like no one remembers how to season chicken when they're barbecuing it!
That bread looks good. I have a Dutch oven that size and I'm tempted to try something like this, but on the other hand I'm trying to limit my carb intake now that our housemate has moved out. He was a great cook but always made carby meals, and I gained 10 lbs I didn't need while he was here.
i bet that's tasty!
do you have baking parchment? i always use it on the bottom of my loaf tins after oiling them up. keeps the bread from sticking to the bottom.
not good for thinner sandwich bread, but i find it's easier to just create a boule and put parchment paper on the bottom of the dutch oven so the bread doesn't stick. that's what i usually do and why i do it ;-)
I've wondered the same thing.
The conclusion I came to is some of those food trucks are not all that concerned with quality to get repeat customers.
If they can be flashy, have something popular, they can draw in people over and over who want to try it out. It ends up being not so good, but there are some folks who will try it again thinking maybe that was just a one time deal. They try again, and realize it's just bad and stop going.
That approach won't work everywhere, but in areas with high traffic and turnover of people, the business from repeat customers is probably not that big a deal.
-Mike
I went for a job out in Petchburi province, we knew nothing about the place, except that there were a LOT of monkeys.
We started out of the hotel to find something to eat & our one criteria was that there needed to a lot of Thai customers, no tourists!
We started out of the hotel to find something to eat & our one criteria was that there needed to a lot of Thai customers, no tourists!
A Mexican friend of mine told me once that when we walk into a Mexican restaurant, if it's full of non-Mexican people eating there, turn around and walk out. That was 20 some years ago, and we still abide by that. It's spilled over into Asian food as well.
We are rather fortunate here in the Puget Sound to have a large population of folks from Asia, so it is not hard to find top quality Asian food.
Several of the Mexican joints around here seem to have 'Americanized' many dishes so more white folks will buy it. We learned that a few years ago when we spent some time in 'The Valley', deep south Texas right by Mexico. I learned all about the origins of many 'Mexican dishes' from the time we spent there with friends.
-Mike
The best Thai restaurants here have tamed down their food, it makes me so so sad!
Once great food has turned bland & it's all because of the complaining, wimpy locals Instead of enjoying real Thai food they've forced the restaurant to conform.
Even regulations here have fouled up authentic dishes, like Lahp (meat salad). It's traditionally done with some lung & other entrails, but apparently it's against some regulation.
The one new bright shining star is a Lao restaurant that unfortunately just opened up last month. Great food that's NOT tame, but I'm afraid they will not survive, & it's 30 miles away.
If you want to see REAL Thai food, watch Anthony Bourdain's trip to the Land of Smiles.
He ate stuff I won't even eat, LOL!
Once great food has turned bland & it's all because of the complaining, wimpy locals Instead of enjoying real Thai food they've forced the restaurant to conform.
Even regulations here have fouled up authentic dishes, like Lahp (meat salad). It's traditionally done with some lung & other entrails, but apparently it's against some regulation.
The one new bright shining star is a Lao restaurant that unfortunately just opened up last month. Great food that's NOT tame, but I'm afraid they will not survive, & it's 30 miles away.
If you want to see REAL Thai food, watch Anthony Bourdain's trip to the Land of Smiles.
He ate stuff I won't even eat, LOL!
I'm going to check that episode out @Killed_by_Death. Thanks for the heads up.
I really, really like Phad Thai, but I wouldn't say that makes me a fan of Thai food. I stick with what I know when we go to a Thai restaurant since I'm picky. I feel like I need to explore Thai dishes more, but I'm afraid.
I'll also love pho and banh mi, so I suppose you could say I like Vietnamese food too.
Our favorite Vietnamese restaurant is a joint called Tamarind Tree in Seattle. I was introduced there to Chả quế cớm xanh, cinnamon pork rice balls. Oh my word, those are awesome. So awesome, we learned to make them at home and they're just as good when we make them. The young green rice is hard to find, but we have a connection at the Asian market in town that keeps us supplied.
-Mike
I really, really like Phad Thai, but I wouldn't say that makes me a fan of Thai food. I stick with what I know when we go to a Thai restaurant since I'm picky. I feel like I need to explore Thai dishes more, but I'm afraid.
I'll also love pho and banh mi, so I suppose you could say I like Vietnamese food too.
Our favorite Vietnamese restaurant is a joint called Tamarind Tree in Seattle. I was introduced there to Chả quế cớm xanh, cinnamon pork rice balls. Oh my word, those are awesome. So awesome, we learned to make them at home and they're just as good when we make them. The young green rice is hard to find, but we have a connection at the Asian market in town that keeps us supplied.
-Mike
Dangit!
our deep-fried days are OVER, which on one hand it's good for my cholesterol & weight
Deep-Fried stuff is only as good as the last time the oil was changed, & judging from the taste of the onion-rings & catfish-nuggets this evening, they haven't changed the oil in a while.
Won't stop me from getting cheesesteaks from the other truck later this week, but deep-fried is off the menu. Recuperating by making some air-fried wings!
Another thing we've been making in the air-fryer is pork satay, but w/o the sticks:
our deep-fried days are OVER, which on one hand it's good for my cholesterol & weight
Deep-Fried stuff is only as good as the last time the oil was changed, & judging from the taste of the onion-rings & catfish-nuggets this evening, they haven't changed the oil in a while.
Won't stop me from getting cheesesteaks from the other truck later this week, but deep-fried is off the menu. Recuperating by making some air-fried wings!
Another thing we've been making in the air-fryer is pork satay, but w/o the sticks:
