February 2010 Archives

I was willing to play along with the grain soaking even though I feel the hard science behind the evils of phytic acid is lacking, I do know that soaking whole grain flours does get the enzymes that release sugars from the starch molecules working.  This helps improve the flavor of whole grain breads and help improve the doughs extensibility.

When it comes to rice, oats and later this week beans and nuts, I'm just not so willing to play along as you will see.

Challlenge #15 - Getting a SCOBY.  A SCOBY is a Symboitic Colony of Bacteria and Yeasts.

I already have a sourdough starter which is a common example of a SCOBY.   We were being challenged to try another such as keifer or kombucha.  Now, I confess that every time I read on a blog about drinking kombucha I was totally confused.  To me, a kombucha is a type of hard squash.  I knew they were talking about something else, and they were.  They were referring to a mother (think vinegar) that grows on black tea.  Well, I actually don't drink tea so scratch kombucha for me.  Keifer was another term I'd been reading about on other blogs.  There are two types:  water and milk.  A water keifer makes a fermented or fizzy drink that when flavored with juices makes a soda type substitute.  Guess who rarely drinks soda?  Yeah, well the idea of nurturing something that I will rarely use just doesn't appeal.  If it made a tonic substitute then perhaps my husband would be interested, but I'm still even doubtful with that.  On to milk keifer which ferments milk into a thin fermented drink I am told is similar to yogurt.  Knowing my love of drinking milk you can, I am sure, imagine my response to this.  I have read up on making my own vinegar which I would love to do someday when I have actual kitchen counter space, until then I think my SCOBY future is limited to sourdough.

Challenge #16 - Culturing some veggies.  OK, I cheated.  I had all those lemons you might recall and I decided to try making some preserved lemons with a few of them.  A lemon isn't exactly a vegetable but work with me here.  Preserving a lemon is actually really simple.  Sterilize a jar and quarter the lemons vertically but do not cut them all the way through.  Pack the cut sides with kosher salt and pack the salted lemons tightly in the jar.  Add fresh squeezed lemon juice to cover the fruit and then cover the jar with the lid. Every day turn the jar a few times to mix things up and in a few days put the jar in the fridge.  We had a lovely chicken dish with the lemons and olives and another day we had baked salmon with a really flavorful sauce made from preserved lemons and herbs.

Challenge #17 - Making your own Yogurt or other Cultured Dairy.  This one I'm very excited about.  I've always wanted to make my own yogurt.  However, I'm leaving town in a couple of days and being the main yogurt eater felt it would be unwise to try this only to have it sit in the fridge for a week or so slowing going bad.  Better to wait to do this until I get home.  I have been poking around looking for recipes and I have this one for yogurt in a slow cooker bookmarked to try first. 

Challenge #18 - Cheese making.  One suggestion was mozzarella.  Insert bad dreams here.  Last summer (I think) my husband and I took a mozzarella making class.  The class was wonderful, but.  The day of the class I had hurt my back and could not sit nor stand nor basically exist without a whole lot of pain.  I am sure this colors my memory of mozzarella making.  The class was hot and steamy and it took a long time to make up that huge package of cheese curds.  Then, after all that cheese making we were set to making things with the cheese so a great deal of time in the hot kitchen was spent making pizza and pasta and salads.  It was all delicious but darn it was a lot of hard work.  Also, even the store where the took the class does not stock the curds to make the cheese.  The idea of making my own curds first?  Well, that isn't going to happen.  Yogurt cheese is fast and easy and tasty but I've done that and didn't have any plain yogurt on hand.  Remember, I'd skipped the yogurt making the day before?  See what I get for skipping the challenge?  However, not long before this challenge I'd seen buttermilk cheese being made on the Martha Stewart show.  Yes, mock me for watching Martha if you will.  But, it saved me on cheese making day.  

It took about half an hour to make the cheese which was quite tasty with some homemade seeded crackers from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book.  Next time I think I'll either increase the salt in the cheese a bit or add additional flavorings like herbs as it was a little bit bland.  

Challenge #19 - Nuts and Seeds.  And here we are back on the soaking bandwagon.  So, my doctor tells me raw nuts like almonds are better for getting more of those heart healthy nutrients and the challenge wants me to soak or skin the nuts and then roast them.  Actually, I don't eat that many nuts and I couldn't find any compelling evidence that soaking seeds and nuts is necessary so I decided to pass and spend my time on other things.  Yes, I'm a party pooper :-)

Challenge #20 - Soaking Beans - Again with the soaking.  Although when I do make beans I already soak them overnight before cooking.  An optional step when cooking, I find that the beans cook more evenly when I do this then when I do the quick soak method or skip it entirely.  The only change here to my normal routine is that an acid like vinegar is added to the soak to help with decreasing the phytic acid.  Well, that again.  At any rate, adding a little vinegar to the water won't hurt and certainly doesn't add any challenge to the standard routine.  I haven't tried it yet, but minestrone is on the menu for this upcoming week.

Some hits and misses this week.  

-- marcella

Isn't it pretty?

I'm so happy that the starter decided to cooperate and work!  After the pancakes turned out so well I really wanted to give some bread a try.  Normally I prefer to bake sourdough without additional yeast, but because this was such a new starter I did add some commercial yeast to the dough.  If your starter is well established you can omit the yeast and just use the starter for the leavening.

For this loaf I mixed all the ingredients together and then put the shaped loaf into the fridge overnight.  I think this should meet the grain soaking challenge we have to soak or sprout all our grains.  

The shaped loaf was placed in a proofing basket or brotform (or banneton or probably some other name I have yet to hear) which I had lightly dusted with rice flour to prevent sticking.  I find that rice flour releases better for me then wheat flour which gets kind of gluey after a long rise.  If you don't have a proofing basket, a plain old glass bowl will work just fine.

The bread had a nice texture and a mild sour flavor.  It was awesome with butter for dinner two nights in a row and for breakfast toast in the mornings.  Sadly, it's all gone and all I have to show for it is my pretty picture.  Definitely time to bake some more of this bread!

Sourdough Wheat Hearth Bread

a Short Attention Span Girl original

makes 1 loaf

14 ounces whole wheat starter (at 75% hydration)

1 3/4 C (8 ounces) whole wheat flour

1 t salt

2 t instant yeast

2 t honey 

1 T butter, melted

3/4 C (6 ounces) water

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix all the ingredients on low speed for one minute until combined.

Let sit for 10 minutes.

Switch to the dough hook and kneed the dough for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and soft and just a bit sticky.  Adjustments may need to be made to the flour or water to get the right texture.  The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but still stick to the bottom of the bowl.

Transfer the dough to the counter and roll into a ball.  Place in a brotform or bowl and cover lightly with plastic wrap.  Place in the refrigerator overnight.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let warm up for an hour or so.  Meanwhile place a baking stone in the oven with a heavy skillet or pan underneath and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Turn the bread dough out onto parchment or directly onto a peel and slit the top with a lame or serrated knife.  Heat 1 C of water.  Place the loaf in the oven and pour the hot water into the pan below for steam.  Reduce the oven temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 20 minutes.

Rotate the loaf for even baking and continue to bake for another 15 - 20 minutes or until the crust is a deep brown and the internal temperature is 200 degrees.

Place the baked loaf onto a rack to cool.

printable version - sourdough_wheat.pdf

-- marcella

First up I decided to make some pancakes using the starter, the flour I had ground from the sprouted wheat and the leftover buttermilk from the biscuits.  It's always great when I can think up something that uses up several odds and ends left in the kitchen.  Even better, what I thought up works for the real food challenge.

Speaking of using up, Tuesday is Pancake day (otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras) and so perhaps this recipe will inspire you to make a few pancakes too.

These pancakes went together quickly and cooked up light and airy.  I expected them to be hearty given that they are whole grain, but they weren't heavy at all.  

The starter I made is at 75% hydration.  Many of the starter recipes I had seen online called for 100% hydration (using equal parts by weight of flour and water to feed your starter).  If your starter is more liquid then mine, you may want to cut back on the buttermilk at first so that you get the best pancake batter texture.  You can always stir in more later.

Also, because I had them, I tossed a few frozen blueberries onto each pancake after pouring the batter onto the pan.  It was really tasty.  Finally, feel free to play with the sweetener you use, or skip it altogether if you are going to be adding fruit or syrup to your pancakes.  The best thing about recipes is playing with them to get them to taste exactly how you like it.

Sourdough Buttermilk Pancakes

a Short Attention Span Girl original

makes about 20 four inch pancakes

1 C sourdough starter

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

3/4 C sprouted wheat flour

1 egg

2 T brown sugar

2 T melted butter 

3/4 C buttermilk

Put the starter into a mixing bowl.  Stir in the baking soda, salt and flour.

In another bowl beat together the egg and sugar.  Mix in the butter and buttermilk.

Stir the liquids into the starter mixture and stir until well combined.

Let the batter rest.  Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium heat.

Lightly butter or oil the pan and cook the pancakes using about 1/4 C batter for each pancake.  Cook unil the batter is bubbly and the edges look a little dry.  Turn and cook the second side.

printable version - sourdough_pancakes.pdf

-- marcella

Challenge day 6 - Milling Sprouted Flour. I was a bit behind on this one as my wheat took a bit longer to sprout.  It did sprout finally and I put it into my dehydrator at 95 degrees to dry and then the following day it was ground in the grain mill.  The flour is beautiful.  Some was used in delicious pancakes that you'll read about later, and the rest is in a container waiting for the next baking adventure.

Challenge day 7 - Was to evaluate that first week which I did here on the blog.

Challenge day 8 -  Choosing Good Fats for High Heat Cooking.  This is a tough one for me.  I'm the usual grocery shopper who buys a bottle of canola oil (on the bad list) and olive oil and then I do love butter.  I rarely saute things in fat, generally using some liquid like water or stock and a non-stick skillet.  If a fat is used it's one of the above three and in a much smaller quantity then those Food Network chefs use.  I did put coconut oil on the grocery list and will try that out next week.  Getting into this new habit will truly be a stretch for me.

Challenge day 9 - Getting Rid of GMO's.  Another tough one and not because I'm not concerned about them.  Mostly it's because I'm a somewhat lazy shopper.  I shop at a couple local stores for the bulk of our foods and it's just so easy to toss a package of frozen soy beans or a bottle of canola oil into the cart and not think about the source.  Instead I'm thinking I'm buying a good veggie for us and a heart healthy oil.  Now I need to think of both things and consider my choices a little more carefully.  A good list was included in the challenge, so that will be a help with shopping.  

Challenge day 10 - Fats to Eat Raw.  We do mix up our own salad dressing most of the time with good olive oil and I am a big believer in butter so at least we already have that going for us. Flaxseed oil was also mentioned but I've not tried it.  Still debating on adding that to the next grocery list.

Challenge day 11 - Bake Some Sourdough.  I started a whole wheat starter from scratch last week.  Because I'm starting from scratch and not a purchased starter it takes a bit longer so I'm behind here.  At first things weren't looking too good.  The starter wasn't bubbling or growing much at all.  Finally on Friday, the starter took off which made me very happy.  I don't know if it was just a slow starter (sorry, pun alert) or if it was because I threatened to throw it out and use a dried starter from the grocery store.  Either way, it got moving and doubled in size overnight.  We used it for pancakes this morning and I'll mix up a loaf of bread tomorrow for Monday baking. I'll let you know how that goes.

Challenge day 12 - Find Real Milk.  This means raw milk which does freak some people out.  I'm lucky that one of the stores I frequent carries it in pretty glass bottles.  While I have no qualms about consuming it, I wonder if I would think differently if I had small children.  I honestly don't know.  At any rate, I actually hate milk and nothing makes me cringe more than watching someone drink a glass.  Seriously, it gags me.  Ok, the thing that makes me cringe more is when people drink the dregs of milk laden with soggy cereal crumbs out of the bowl.  Eeek!  I do use milk in cooking and barely a bit in my cereal to just dampen the edges.  As a result or our small consumption my milk purchases lean towards the organic variety far more often then the raw kind.  Though I must admit that the raw milk does taste better in cereal where you can actually taste it.  I try to avoid tasting it though.  What I do need to do when shopping this coming week is to see if they have buttermilk or butter or other dairy from raw milk.  I confess I've never noticed nor actively looked for it.

Challenge day 13 - Enjoy a Food with Beneficial Bacteria.  Yogurt is my go to food for this.  Yes, I hate milk but butter, cheese and yogurt I do love.  Weird but true.  We don't buy antibacterial soaps for our home and it is a challenge at times to find them at mainstream stores.  Keifer was also mentioned.  I have no idea what this is.  I've even looked it up and read descriptions but still, I don't have much of a clue.  I think I need to see this to get it.  It's not something I'm dying to try.  I will look for naturally fermented pickles at the store though.  I wonder if olives work too?

This was a fun week with some new foods for us that we enjoyed.  It was also really challenging though because the whole what fats to eat really are taking me out of my cooking comfort zone.  I wonder what next week will bring.

-- marcella

For breakfast one morning I made soaked oatmeal.  The challenge had said that soaking was the way to go for better nutrient absorption, so I got some steel cut oats and tried it.  The oats were soaked overnight in water with a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (yes, we still have lemons!)  Then they were cooked with milk, dried cranberries and finished with a sprinkle of toasted pecans.  It was yummy and we both liked it.  However, we also both decided that we really prefer the texture of rolled oats. 

So what to do with all the rest of the steel cut oats?

Over on the Nourished Kitchen site there was a recipe for Buttermilk Oat Biscuits.  Since I have a grain grinder I decided to grind the steel cut oats into the flour called for in the recipe.  I set it to soak and pondered the rest of the instructions.  The comments were pretty universal in stating that the batter was much too liquid to actually roll out biscuits.  The author not only lives at high elevation (needing more liquid is common in high altitude baking recipes) but also said she really added a lot of flour when patting out the dough. Also, I just was leery of the little cubes of butter idea.  Since they weren't being cut into the flour as usual, I was worried the cubes would form little butter puddles during baking.  Finally, there were comments like "hockey pucks" and "flat" so I knew the leavening needed to be played with.

In the end, I used 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead of just baking soda.  I also used about a cup of additional flour when patting out the dough.  Then, I grated cold butter with my cheese grater using the largest holes.  I patted out the dough, sprinkled it with half the grated butter and folded the dough over in thirds like a letter.  Then I patted the dough out again and repeated the process.  Finally, I patted the dough out about 1/2 in thick and cut out the biscuits.  It was still a soft dough, but it was quite workable and I was able to cut the biscuits out fairly well with a round cutter.  They were baked at 400 degrees since all the recipes I've ever tried for biscuits use a higher temperature.

The result was a really tasty biscuit.  We ate quite a few with dinner one night with butter and honey.  The rest were eaten by me at breakfast.

They still weren't the towering flaky biscuits we're used to,but they were light and had a really good flavor.  Since we don't need to be gluten free, I'm going to play with them using part wheat flour and see if that gives them some more structure and I'll let you know.

The wheat berries finally sprouted!  My wheat has been sitting sealed in cans for many years so it did not sprout in two days like the directions I've found said they would.  I think you need fresh wheat for that.  It did, however, finally sprout so I dried it out in the dehydrator and will grind it up.  I saw this sourdough pancake recipe that is calling to me to try very soon.  Like tomorrow!

Happily my sourdough did bubble up and become happy and lively.  It wasn't looking too promising there for the first four days.  I'm going to try it in the pancakes and give it another feeding before I try making bread.

marcella

Thursday's challenge was to start a sourdough.  This actually got put off until Friday.  On Thursday I finally got around to shopping and that healthy shopping list made on Tuesday.  My husband went shopping with me and we did pretty well at sticking to the list and avoiding the cookie and chips aisle.  The new to us item was quinoa.  Our son was home last weekend and told us about trying that and really enjoying it.  Since it's the super-grain of the moment, we decided to give it a try.  I'll let you know how that goes.

The challenge for Friday was to try sprouting grains.  I pulled out a can of wheat berries and my old sprouting jars and set the grains to soak.  I think it will be fun.  A few friends and I are getting together to start baking bread.  The first meeting plan is to make french bread.  However, the children of one participant don't do well with regular flour but can eat sprouted grain bread.  I had been meaning to try this for a while so we can make bread her kids can eat too.  This challenge got me moving. 

Friday I also got a starter going.  The challenge direction suggested buying a starter and feeding it so it would be ready for baking next week.  I've been wanting to try the whole wheat starter in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book.  Since I'm starting from scratch it likely won't be ready in time for the challenge.  His directions call for wheat or rye flour, pineapple juice rather than water and some malt.  Allegedly I live where sourdough is king, but I've never used a starter regularly enough to have great success.  I've also never started one from scratch before but always either been given one in a baking class or purchased one. I'll let you know how it goes.

-- marcella

Not long ago on the QuiltSoup blog the designer showed her new line of fabrics.  We were invited to comment to get in a drawing to win some.  Then I promptly forgot all about it.  The next week I was browsing the blog and found out that  I won!  Amazing.  I never win.  I guess now though I cannot say that anymore.

Today a squishie arrived in the mail.  A squishie is the quilters name for a package of fabric.  The envelope goes "squish" and you know some soft fabric is inside.  This is what was inside.

Aren't they pretty?  Now I need to decide what to make with them.

-- marcella

Today's challenge was to shop for healthy foods for our kitchen.  It actually wasn't a good day for me to grocery shop so I just started putting together a list of things I need.  So far, none of those forbidden foods have made the list.  I'm still not sure about the full fat milk thing.  After years of hearing the evils of 4% milk, I'm not sure I can resist buying the low fat for cereal and general cooking.  I may wait on that full fat thing until I hear what her reasoning is.

However, after getting my haircut I needed to exchange a pot I had purchased.  My two options were Union Square or the Ferry Plaza.  Would I really be able to resist the shoe shopping wonderland if I went to the Union Square location?  Probably not so I drove over to the Ferry building.  

Turns out the farmers market that is so wonderful on Saturday also has a small Tuesday version.  There were only booths out front on the street side, none in the back but there were still some lovely things to choose from.  I picked up some gorgeous lettuces as well as a perfectly soft ball sized cabbage and a smallish bunch of kale.  Nice amounts for the two of us.

-- marcella

In surfing around the internet I often stumble upon challenges and I love to see if I can do them.  Goodreads had the read 26 books, each whose title starts with a different letter of the alphabet all in a year.  Flylady wants me to get my house clean in 15 minute increments (can I do it faster?).  The no excuses man wants me to exercise every day for at least 10 minutes; can I do more?  Can I cook every recipe in a cookbook?  Can I cook the cover dish of every cooking magazine I recieve?  It goes on and on.  The things that amuse me.  It never bothers me if I don't complete the challenge, I'm not competing against anyone else.  I just like to see what I can do.

Last week I stumbled up the "Real Food Challenge"

True, there weren't a lot of details about what we'd be asked to do for the month of February, but I'm always up for eating healthier.  So I signed up.

This morning the first challenge greeted me in my mailbox.

Clean Your Cupboards it boldly demanded.

The challenge is to start with a clean slate and a kitchen full of healthy ingredients.  I think my kitchen is pretty good other than perhaps those two last boxes of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies from last year still hanging around.  But, are they not better in the cupboard than in me?

After reading the list it is very clear that my list of healthy is much more lenient that the challengers.  I knew this, her tag line is "where real food gets political"  but still.

No refined oils, white flour, sugar, dairy (though interesting it's the low and skim products she specifies - could that heavy cream really be ok?), essentially nothing that comes in a box or package.

She suggests donating to a food bank - what, the poor don't deserve to "eat clean"?  There are also suggestions for using up items in non-edible ways like turning that salt (yes, salt is forbidden!) and oil into a nice scrub.

I'm resisting already.

While I'm happy to toss those old cookies and the ancient package of Rice Krispies, I'm really not willing to toss the whole grain pastas, the dairy nor the whole grain, fat free crackers which sometimes just really cure the "crunch" crave.

Forget tossing the white flour, salt or the sugar.  That just isn't to be considered.

True, we nearly always have 100% whole grain breads around here; there are just times when only white will do.  Same with rice.  It's nearly always brown in this house, but occasionally white rice is just what a dish needs.  I just don't have a problem with the less then stellar foods being a "sometime" event.

I think sort of clean is good enough for me.

Those of you who are really inspired to be clean can even do the bonus rounds of removing all foods that contain more than one ingredient or removing all sweeteners, natural or not.

I'm not that dedicated.

So, how clean are you willing to eat?

-- marcella