oatnut soda bread

a more proteinful take on the james beard soda bread. it seems inevitable that we are making so much bread now.

soak for 1 hour ahead of time:

• 2 c. rolled oats
• 1 3/4 c. buttermilk

mix well in a large bowl:

• 3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. raw diced walnuts
• 1 tbsp. kosher salt (or 2 tsp. regular salt)
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder

knead together until it feels like a good, solid dough. form into a ball on a baking sheet or silpat. cut a big X in the top.

for style, brush some extra buttermilk over the loaf and press some more rolled oats all over.

bake at 375°F for about 80 minutes; the outside should be nice and golden. apply the standard bread thump test, if you're so inclined.

Permalink
17 May 2020 18:20

muesli #1: "basically maamoul"

somehow, it only occurs to me that i can experience different ways of getting nutrients into my body when i visit a new place and eat how they eat.

in a bowl, combine:

• 200g rolled oats
• 100g chopped/sliced almonds (i only got whole almonds, so i hand-chopped them), roasted recommended
• 100g minced dates (pitted/dried)
• a pinch of ground clove
• a pinch of ground mahlab
• a pinch of cinnamon

mix it well; the date bits like to stick to each other. stick in a jar for later. eat it by the handful, or in a bowl with your favorite milk or milk-like product (try: turkish yogurt, soy milk), or cook a little in a saucepan with powdered milk and water like it's oatmeal. add jam, or honey, or brown sugar, if you have a sweet tooth.

Permalink
24 August 2018 08:17

what the hell ever apple crumble

friends who travel will sometimes text me while they are packing, realizing that they've left more perishables in their fridge than they can reasonably eat before they leave. 'do you want these?' they ask. even if i can't eat them myself, i accept them; the remains get chopped up and fed to the compost, which will become dirt for next year's garden.

there are dozens of apples piling up on top of my fridge. the most desperate, a quad of golden delicious, are soft to the touch. every morning since we adopted them, i smell apples whenever i open the freezer to get to the ice cubes.

'apple crumble,' i tell myself. 'i can make apple crumble.'

i looked up recipes from the internet and wrote down proportions. i appreciate when measurements are given by weight, instead of volume. dutifully, i tared the mixing bowl over the kitchen scale and started measuring out flour. by the third scoop, i was bored of reading numbers, and i knew i didn't have enough butter, and that i'd want to put in more oatmeal, and that i've never agreed with anyone else's spice mixes. so, i winged it.

the full recipe

filling (mixed in a pyrex dish):

• 4 golden delicious apples, peeled/cored and rough-diced into half-inch cubes
• a little water with a splash of rice vinegar
• a spoon of brown sugar
• a little ginger, thinly mixed, sprinkled on top

topping:

• ~100g white flour
• ~30g brown sugar
• ~30g oatmeal
• ~35g butter, cut into small cubes
• cinnamon, nutmeg, clove to taste
• a splash of canola oil where it looks too dry

bake at 350F for like ~60m, or until it looks done

Permalink
10 May 2018 20:30

bachelor night cookies

steps to success:

1. flip open the joy of cooking and confirm that you have enough butter to make oatmeal cookies
2. realize that your butter is all in the freezer, so you have to set up an extremely slow double-boiler to soften them
3. play with the dogsittee until you remember that your butter is probably melting in the wrappers
4. put together the dry mix, but deviate from the spices based on what you want to finish from the ancient box of spices
5. (grate. nutmeg. forever.)
6. agonize over trying to pound the sugar, egg, and half-frozen/half-melted butter into something that you are ashamed to call 'blended' like the book asks for
7. stand over the stove for a little more heat to melt the butter, damn it
8. dump in the dry mix. remember, after getting a nice whiff of your overpowering spice mix, that you forgot the 'vanilla extract'
9. (you haven't stocked vanilla extract in years when you realized whiskey is a fine substitute)
10. the only whiskey left in the cabinet is a wee dram of 15 year macallan so you slosh in a wee wee dram
11. mix, realizing you can keep working on breaking up butter chunks as you go
12. dump in the last bit of oatmeal from the jar and go looking for the new bag of oatmeal
13. fail to locate a new bag of oatmeal
14. realize you're out of oatmeal
15. add a cup of sunflower seeds instead
16. bake two cookies to test
17. decide that this is fine, but it's now almost midnight and you're tired, so you'll only make one more batch and stick the rest in the fridge
18. as usual, get greedy with pan space and put them too close together
19. watch in horror as half the cookies on this pan collapse and melt into each other
20. when they're done baking, scrape them onto a plate in a big pile, because, let's be real, you're just going to eat this mess with a spoon for breakfast. in your oatmeal bowl. because you're out of oatmeal and have nothing else to eat for breakfast.

this, surprisingly, worked. i am not really a baker, though.

the full recipe

heat oven to 350F; prepare for 45ish cookies

flour mixture:

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground anise

blend well in a large bowl:

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted, softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• a splash of your favorite whiskey/bourbon

stir in the flour mixture, then add:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds

on a greased cookie sheet, drop smallish spoonfuls about 2 inches apart. flatten, or not, at your whim. bake for about 9 minutes, or until golden brown all over. let stand for a few minutes to set, then remove to a plate for cooling.

Permalink
27 May 2017 23:01

Hummus

My inability to describe my hummus process with any amount of precision led to a spate of data collection, weights taken at every step in an attempt to build enough of a model of the proportions such that the process can be reproduced without my supervision. We never got that to work.

Soak dry chickpeas overnight. Boil until split and soft. Mash. Add some amount of squeezed lemons. Add some mixture of seasonings. Add a little of the cooking water to help mix. Add some tahini. Pass around for flavor check. Adjust seasonings as necessary. Add olive oil.

Valid spice mixes:

1. salt, garlic powder, cumin, hot chili flakes

2. salt, garlic powder, hot hatch, cajun spice mix, cumin

3. salt, garlic powder, turmeric, hot chili flakes

No matter how tempted you might be, do not try szechuan peppercorns and sesame oil.

For the adventurous, add dry instant yeast and leave it on the counter until it gets fluffy.

Permalink
22 March 2014 18:48