Fermented Yogurt?

Yeah, that's what I thought too when one of my flatmates handed me a container of yogurt that had been in our fridge for a while and asked, "Is this still good?" I sniffed and thought perhaps that somehow the yogurt had magically been replaced with an odd form of alcoholic beverage. I am not quite sure what might cause yogurt to ferment, but I decided to salvage some and try to make a sourdough starter with it. So far it has worked tremendously well, growing and bubbling like crazy. Today I made my first batch of dough with it. It's the sort of dough that sits around extra long before baking, so it'll be another day or two before I have results, but I'll let you know how it works.

Cinnamon Rolls

This morning (or rather, last night) I made cinnamon rolls. That is, I assembled them yesterday and cooked them today. I had made challah for Shabbat last night, but saved about half the dough to use for the cinnamon rolls. I rolled out the dough into a rectangle, probably about twice as long as wide. The dough was probably a couple millimeters thick. I melted a couple tablespoons of butter, added a little olive oil and vanilla and spread it over the dough. Then I sprinkled the dough with brown sugar, cinnamon, and a little nutmeg and ginger. I rolled it up, cut it in 12 pieces, and put them in the disposable baking dish. :) I think they were a hit.

Adria's Pad Thai

The other night I was able to observe, first hand, Adria's method of making pad thai. I am recording in here, in hopes that I will remember how it was done and be able to make some myself.

1. Rice noodles. Pour boiling water over them to soften. Drain.

2. Cut up tofu into bite-sized chunks. Marinate a little in soy sauce (and salt). Cook in the wok with a little oil until starting to get crispy on the edges.

3. Once the tofu is cooked, crack and scramble a couple eggs and pour them into the wok to cook.

4. Meanwhile, pour the "pad thai sauce" (which can be purchased at the Mega) over the noodles and mix to coat.

5. Add the noodles to the tofu and egg, along with chopped green onions or chives and bean sprouts. Toss to mix and cook.

6. Serve with lime juice, cilantro, and peanuts. And chopsticks.

Morning Surprise Pancakes

Disclaimer, right here: the pancake recipe to follow is really quite ordinary. The only surprise was that I ended up making pancakes this morning.

Last night the group was discussing plans, and I overheard some talk of making breakfast or something. They didn't really tell me anything, so I said to myself, "Alana, it's ok, they can manage breakfast on their own. You've been cooking enough. You don't have to plan anything." And I replied to myself, "Ok, I'll just eat a regular breakfast on my own and let them worry about it."

So, this morning I got up, ate some freshly made granola (I figured if they couldn't come up with anything else, at least there was lots of granola) and read my Bible. Eventually everyone got up/arrived here and they started talking about breakfast. They decided to make pancakes and I said to myself, "It's okay, Alana, relax. I'm sure they can make pancakes. You don't have to feel the need to always be in control of kitchen activities. Let them work it out for themselves." It was at that point that my flat-mate came out of the kitchen and said, "Alana, what proportion do you use on the pancake mix?" And I responded with a blank stare. See, I may have mentioned, this propensity of mine to not use recipes? Well that goes especially for pancakes. I haven't used a pancake recipe for years...and to try to explain what I do from afar without being able to see and say, "Yeah, that looks like the right amount," is virtually impossible. So yet again I was drawn into the kitchen. These are roughly the proportions I told them as we went.

3 c. flour

1/3 c. sugar (more or less depending on desired sweetness)

1/4 tsp salt?

1 Tbsp baking powder

2-3 Tbsp oil

Mix together and then add

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

milk (enough to make the desired batter consistency. We probably used 2-3 cups, and it was still probably a bit thick.)

Mix batter. May be a bit lumpy.

Cook on a hot griddle. You know, like a pancake.

If you happen to have a sugar shortage, syrup is fairly simple to make. It won't taste like really maple syrup, but if you have maple flavoring, it could taste like fake maple syrup!

1 c. white sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. water

Put in sauce pan and bring to boil. Boil for a couple minutes. Remove from heat and add whatever flavors are desired. I like to add vanilla and maple, but this morning I only had vanilla.

There's another type of syrup I had in Bolivia. It was amazing. I think it was also pretty simple, but I'm not sure if I remember correctly how to make it. It's been a long time. I think it was...

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cube (1/2 c?) butter

Boil together in a sauce pan.

Someday I'll have to experiment.

Morning Coffee Cake

Last night one of my flat-mates roasted coffee beans, a process which I had never observed before. It was quite interesting. So, this morning, what better to go with freshly roasted coffee than coffee cake?

I've kind of given up on using recipes all together, just throwing in this and that and occasionally checking a recipe to make sure I haven't forgotten something vital.

I thought the cake this morning turned out quite well, so I'm recording for posterity approximately what I did.

1 c. oil

1 c. white sugar

Beat together then add

2 eggs

1/3 c. plain yogurt

Beat some more and then add

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder.

To this add, alternating in small amounts,

2 1/2-3 c. flour

3/4 c. buttermilk (we happened to have a powdered buttermilk that could be reconstituted in water that I used.)

Pour into greased pan (8x12?).

Topping:

2 1/2 Tbsp butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/3 c. oats

3/4 c. flour

2 tsp cinnamon

Mix together. Should be crumbly. If not, add more flour and sugar. Crumble over the top of the batter.

Bake at 160 for about 30 minutes.

Serve with snobbish coffee. :)

Visitors with Vegetarian Chili and Cornbread

Over the weekend several people have arrived to visit various flat-mates of mine. We had some random beans in the cupboard (they looked a little like pinto beans, but I'm not convinced that they are) that I've been meaning to cook up, so I took advantage of a "slow" morning to get those going. With cooked beans, the obvious dinner meal was chili. With the vegetarian leanings of our flat, it ended up being a meatless chili.

Roughly, here's the recipe I followed (keeping in mind Israeli ingredients):

Veggie Chili

6 c. cooked beans

1 large can tomato something (mushed tomatoes is what it looked like)

1 small plastic container of tomato sauce

1 c. sliced green olives

4 tomatoes, blanched, pealed, and chopped.

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp chili powder (if you have it)

1 tsp hot paprika (in retrospect, maybe I'll add less of this. It seems to be quite a bit warmer than I expect)

1/2 tsp coriander

1 tsp salt

1 tsp oregano

...whatever spices you feel like adding...bay leaves are good...

water (enough to make it your preferred chili consistency)

Chop up:

2 medium onions

6 cloves garlic

2 bell peppers

1 hot pepper

Saute the onions and garlic until getting browned. Add the peppers and cook a little longer. Add to bean mixture.

Fry 3 eggs, chop up, and add to bean mixture. Cook over low heat for a few hours. Test for flavor and add spices accordingly.

And then, what better to serve with chili than cornbread? Fortunately, we had cornmeal in the house. I roughly followed the same recipe that I follow at camp, but had to adjust amounts somewhat. I think this is roughly what I did:

Cornbread

2 1/2 c. flour

1 1/2 c. cornmeal (maybe a little more?)

1 tsp salt

1? tsp baking soda

1 cube butter, melted

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. buttermilk (or milk with vinegar...)

Mix. It made one 8x12 pan and 9 muffins for me. Bake at about 160C for, oh, 20-30 minutes. Tasty. :)

Apparently I made enough for 9 people to eat...and to have left-overs for the rest of the week. (Or at least a good portion of the week.) I still struggle with estimating amounts sometimes. *sigh*

Weekend Cooking 4: Banana Muffins

This morning we were low on breakfast type food. And by that I mean that we were low on almost any type of food, because here almost anything can be breakfast. Cameron, for example, ate left over enchilada fixings with pita. Anyway, there were some bananas in the freezer that I've been meaning to use, so I grabbed those and whipped up some banana muffins. Here's the rough recipe for that:

4 smallish bananas, mashed (none of the bananas we get here seem to be especially large)

1 cube butter, melted

1 egg

3/4 c. sugar

Beat everything together.

In a separate bowl mix:

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Mix everything together. Put in greased muffin tins (or in my case, muffin silicone pan). Bake at about 190C for about 15 minutes.

Weekend Cooking 3: Chicken Enchiladas

This weekend, as most folks are off campus traveling around, Cameron decided that our house should have over the 3 guys remaining on campus for dinner. And since we had previous success with chicken enchiladas, he decided that we should make those again. And by "we" I mean that I was button-holed into assisting. :) In reality, I almost always enjoy experimenting with food, so I was glad to help.

The whole meal was a rather long and involved process, which began with him making salsa and marinating the chicken in the morning, and with me starting to cook some black beans.

Around 4 we began cooking in earnest. I started making the tortillas:

6 c. flour

1 Tbsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 c. oil

about 2 c. hot water

Mix everything together, adding more flour or water as needed to make a fairly stiff dough.

Divide the dough into 20 small balls. Roll each ball out, flat, about 1-2mm in thickness. Put a large frying pan on a burner on high (or medium) and cook the tortillas for about 10 seconds on each side. Ideally, some brown dots should appear on each side.

This may seem like a rather long and involved process, but there are at least two good reasons to make your own tortillas:

1. They taste far better than the store-bought variety

2. They are terribly difficult to find in Israel, and quiet expensive when found.

As I worked on the tortillas, Cameron started cooking and then shredding the chicken. I'm not exactly sure of his marinade, but I think he had:

8 chicken breast, sliced up a little

1 onion, chopped into large pieces

Taco seasoning (which is also impossible to find here, but we happen to have some from the states in the house)

Olive oil

Maybe some lemon or lime juice?

Water?

Let sit for a few hours. Cook until chicken is tender, and then shred it using a fork.

Once I finished the tortillas, I began working on the sauce. Green chillis are also unknown here, as far as I can tell, so we simply substituted fresh peppers, which Cameron chopped up. We sauted the peppers in some olive oil, along with another onion and a couple cloves of garlic. Once everything was tender, I put some aside to use in the rice. With the rest I started making the sauce.

Peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil - saute together.

1/2 block of butter

1 tsp chili powder (or hot paprika, since chili powder is also unknown here)

1/4 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp powdered coriander

1 tsp salt

black pepper

Saute everything together for a while and then add

1/2 c. flour (mix in thoroughly before adding next ingredient)

2 c. milk (or so)

1/2 c. cream

1.5 containers of sour cream (they're pretty small containers here - about 6 oz each)

The remainder of the liquid the chicken had been cooked in (about 2 cups)

Cheese

Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sauce begins to thicken.

At that point I set some of the sauce aside to pour over top of the enchiladas.

To the remaining sauce I added about 2.5 cups of cooked black beans.

Some of this sauce I also set aside for our almost vegetarian flat-mate (and added a few more beans)

To the now remaining sauce I added the shredded chicken.

With the sauces done, Cameron started assembling the enchiladas, taking a tortialla, filling it with chicken sauce (or bean sauce), sprinkling various types of cheese on top (emek, parmesan, and something like feta, I think), and then rolling them up and placing them in a pan. We had enough for 3 pans of enchiladas, and then we poured the remaining sauce on top and sprinkled them with the remaining cheese. We put 2 in the oven at about 190C to cook for about 45 minutes.

While Cameron assembled the enchiladas, I worked in a sort of spanish rice dish.

I took some of the sauted peppers, olives, and garlic from the start of the sauce and added quite a bit of the salsa to them. I added a few spices (garlic, I think, salt, pepper, and some sort of hot pepper spice) and cooked it a while on the stove top. I then added about 2 cups of rice and sauted that with the veggies for a couple minutes before adding 4 cups of water and cooking the rice. Once the rice was cooked I chopped up some cilantro and stirred that in.

Our guests arrived at 7 and we ate shortly thereafter. I think the food was greatly enjoyed by all, probably especially so because of the rarity of Mexican style food in this country. :)

Weekend Cooking 2: French Toast

This Saturday morning, with lots of left-over challah, I was able to make some French toast. I hadn't tried making French toast with challah until a couple weeks ago, and I highly recommend it. I daresay that you could use pretty much any French toast recipe that you have, but here's approximately how I make it.

10 slices of challah

2 eggs, beaten

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c. milk

Beat everything together (except the bread, obviously).

Put a skillet on medium heat and pour a little olive oil all over it.

Dip the bread in the egg mixture so each side is covered and then cook on the skilled until golden brown.

Serve with syrup, peanut butter, and/or butter and powdered sugar. :)

Weekend Cooking 1: Shabbat Challah

Here at HaShum we often have people over for a shabbat meal. We aren't exactly Jewish, but we have come to enjoy some of the traditions associated with the Friday evening meal. One special part of the shabbat meal is the challah, which I usually get to make.

My recipe, which I think is a very good one, came from this website, but I usually cut it in half, not needing 6 challahs. Here are the proportions I usually use, and a copy of the (slightly modified) directions from the website.

7 c. white flour (2 kg)

1 Tbsp. salt

2 Tbsp. dry yeast

1 c. sugar (which can be reduced if you like it less sweet)

2 c. warm water

1 egg

1/3 c. oil

Place the flour in a large bowl and combine with salt.

Add yeast, sugar, and water and then the eggs and oil. Knead the mixture well for about 5 minutes. If the dough is sticky, add a bit more flour and knead with greased hands. The dough should be smooth and very soft, but workable.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm place for approximately 1 hour, until the dough doubles in volume.

Knead the dough for a few minutes on a floured surface and form the challahs. Separate the dough into 6 balls and roll out into "snakes" and braid into two loaves.

Place challahs on a sheet pan. Cover and let them rise again in a warm place for approximately 1 hour, until the dough doubles in volume. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C).

When they are risen, beat one egg and brush over the tops of the challahs and then sprinkle with Sesame (or poppy) seeds.

Bake until challahs turn dark brown. (About 20-30 minutes, probably.)

When the challahs appear to be almost done, prepare the glaze: Dissolve 1/2c. sugar in 3/4c. boiling water. Remove the challahs from the oven and immediately spoon the boiling glaze over them. Remove the challahs from the pan so that the bottom of the challahs doesn’t get wet from the glaze, and cool on a wire rack.

This makes 2 very large loaves or 3-4 smaller ones.

Israeli Ginger Snaps

Today my flatmates requested that I make cookies. So I did. And I decided, due in part to the available ingredients, that I would make something like Ginger Snaps. However, there was no molasses in the house. I'm not sure if its lacking in Israel, or just in this house, but either way, I had to fudge a little on the recipe. Here's roughly what I came up with. I like them.

1 cube of butter, softened (no idea of its measurements, but it seems to be standard here)

about 1 c. brown sugar, maybe a little more

1 egg

1/4 c. honey (Druze honey is what I used...yum yum!)

Beat these together and then add

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

2 or 3 cups of flour.

Mix all together. The dough should form a ball and all stick together (not to the sides of your mixing bowl) but still be soft.

Roll small pieces of dough into spheres and roll in white granulated sugar. Bake at about 160C for 9-10 minutes.