Recent food roundup!
I’ve been cooking like a crazy yet responsible person lately! Here’s what was on the menu this week: An Ethiopian inspired lentil and tomato stew. I made the berbere (traditional Ethiopian spice blend) using what I had available in my spice cabinet to start with, and it turned out just a hair shy of authentic. I also tossed in some turkey, since even the suggestion of meat content magically makes my husband enjoy things more. (I swear if I waved bacon over his ice cream, he might actively drool on it. How’s that for a kashrut violation?)
It was a hit! Not having time or energy or, you know, a time machine to go back a few days and start a sourdough starter of teff so that I could make my own injera (flat spongy Ethiopian ace-bandage rolly bread) we instead finished off the last of a loaf of crusty bread I’d baked over the weekend. It wasn’t half bad!
Another night I killed two bunches of leafy greens with one (again, Ethiopian!) recipe. I confess, I am kale-d an chard-ed out this season, and yet I believe that there is no end in sight. So I sauteed some onions in oil, coated them in the berbere mixture until our house smelled like some earthy culinary temple of incense, then tossed the kale in, added water and simmered. This was a true accomplishment – the result was just like the greens dish at our local Ethiopian restaurant except for that I oversalted just a tad. Served this with leftovers of the lentil stuff, which seem to just get better with more time in the fridge.
After the greens were finished, the loaf of whole wheat bread in my bread machine entered the last stages of its bake phase, and the combination of toasty incense herb smell and freshly baking bread was literally mouth-watering. However, the bread wasn’t done in time to feed my starving family by about an hour, so Ben picked up some run of the mill supermarket wheat bread which served our purposes adequately if not stellarly.
I sort of have a problem buying things in stores like bread (challah excepted, as I haven’t yet produced a challah with which I’ve been happy enough to rely on baking it once a week for Shabbat.) Especially when it comes to sandwich bread – the bread that my bread machine produces is so functional and SO GOOD, and furthermore SO CHEAP that it’s hard for me to sign on to pay $3 or $4 for a loaf of pre-sliced, preservative-full bread. I have a bread machine, may as well make it pay for itself, and it makes better sandwich bread than I can make by hand. The texture comes out much more even, and the loaf is generally more slice-able. Until I get better at hand-baking breads, the bread machine will be my go-to for staples.
Yesterday I put up a batch of graham cracker dough (recipe here) and rolled it out, laid it in a baking sheet and chilled it overnight. I baked them this morning, and they already have a Sami stamp of approval. They’re not as pretty as what you get in a supermarket box, but they do come packaged in 100% less cardboard and plastic, and they have the added side effect of making the entire house smell delicious.
Next up: homemeade marshmallows. I’m not going to make my own chocolate, but I do see s’mores in our future.
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can we have s’mores when I come visit???
And you can feed me all the chard and kale you want.
Esther’s theatre company has a play that sounds HIGHLY amusing, runs from the 6th of June to the 28th, at the Diversionary – need to go to that… what you think?
noelle´s last blog post..My Garden, first two weeks
Oh, btw, I’m drooling at the food you made… especially the giant leafy green stuff.
This is my very favorite challah recipe:
http://www.aish.com/shabbatrecipes/shabbatrecipesdefault/Bubbie_Irmas_Challah.asp
I make it with 50% whole wheat flour. It’s a great base dough if you want to make a raisin challah (and have leftovers for french toast!)
Two words of experience on the recipe: 1. If you don’t have a gigantic standing mixer, just knead it by hand, or you’ll be picking sticky dough out of the gears. 2. Watch to see if it’s browning too quickly and adjust the temperature down a few knocks if so.
Oooh- please post the Ethiopian spice mix recipe, and both veg recipes!
They sound delicious!
I’d be very proud of myself if I learned to cook at least some tasty facsimile of Ethiopian, though I think I don’t have a prayer of the bread.
E´s last blog post..Booking Through Thursday: Gluttony