stevedover1965

Just a footnote to my recipe, the longer you cook this dish the better the flavour and HEAT, this is not for the faint-hearted, but I do like spicy food and something like this freezes well and will keep in the fridge for about 4 - 5 days if necessary. The amounts I quoted will feed heartily a family of four or five adults. Obviously adjust the ingredients for your own personal taste this is a very easy recipe and can be prepared by people of all abilities Heck I cook it and I can anyone can lol.

Dragon

mmm, I am sooo putting Leeks in my next batch of chilli. Never would have thought of ginger!

Lizzi

I tried Mcdrawn's Oatmeal-and-Raisin cookie recipe and they really do vanish ,far too quickly! "Gassy" foods (onions, garlic, legumes, cruciforms, etc.) can be made less offensive by adding ginger root to the cooking, and , of course, ginger is not just a pretty taste - it has health benefits.

mdawrcn

Yep Lizzy, I like to make the oatmeal cookies for the same reason you said. I think of them as being a little healthier than most cookies. I only allow myself to make them for other people, either at Christmas or other special occasions, but that can and has backfired on me, in that I can't get them packed and out of the house before they are gone. Takes a lot of willpower that I don't have lately.

mdawrcn

Ok, my new addiction for any greens lovers reading this. Baked kale is so simple. Cut out the stems and cut kale into chip size pieces, wash and dry, toss in olive oil, spread in one layer in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 30 minutes depending on your oven, salt and eat those healthy chips. Yummy.

indigo

OH I love kale.... I definitely will try this! And for those who like
cauliflower here is a recipe for Cauliflower Popcorn

1 head cauliflower
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp salt

Break or cut cauliflower into bite size pieces and toss thoroughly
with oil and salt. Spread out evenly on cookie sheet and bake in a
preheated 425F oven for 1 hour or more till pieces are golden brown.
Turn 3 or 4 times during baking.

mdawrcn

Sounds good Indigo. I will try it as popcorn is another addiction. Don't know if I can wait an hour though!

Dragon

I will happily try both these recipes, it's so hard to find healthy snacks and it's so good to be able to snack in the evening.

Dragon

I did try the kale chips but found them so incredibly bitter I couldn't eat them. I'm not sure if there are different kinds of kale, I may have used the wrong kind.

mdawrcn

So sorry Dragon. Mine have never tasted bitter to me at all. I do read that the more mature bigger leaves can be more bitter than the younger smaller ones, but I use them all. Don't know if it's an individual taste thing or not.

Baldur

I had to type this out for my son, so I thought I'd post it here too.

Basic bread with too much information

Start with about 1+3/4 cups of liquid
It can be water, milk, soymilk, water that you've cooked your vegetables or potatoes in etc
Up to 1/3 of it can be beer if you'd like
But most importantly it must be warm, aim for a comfortable bath water temperature

Place the warm liquid in a large bowl
Over the top of the liquid sprinkle the contents of 1 packet of yeast (a couple teaspoonfuls) (I sometimes use 2 packets because I like the yeasty taste, but 1 is really enough)
Over the yeast sprinkle or dribble about 2 tablespoons of a sugar. This can be white granualated sugar, brown sugar, molasses, honey, maple syrup, agave syrup etc etc..as long as it's a sugar.
This is needed to jumpstart the yeast
Whisk everything together, cover the bowl with a clean towel and place it somewhere warm.
A sunny spot on the counter is fine as long as you don't end up cooking the mixture with the greenhouse effect. In prehistoric days when gas ovens had a pilot in them that was lit all the time it was ideal to place the bowl in the unheated oven.
Let the yeast mixture sit for at least a half hour and check it to see if it is getting foamy. The foam is caused by carbon dioxide bubbles released from the respiration of the yeast critters. Maybe the word isn't respiration, but when they eat sugar and multiply they use oxygen and release CO2
If the mixture is indeed becoming foamy you can proceed, if not cover it up again and wait another half hour, then check again.
The main purpose of this is to see if the yeast is alive, If there is no sign of CO2 bubbles you will never get a useful loaf of bread, so you would need to go find better yeast..... anyway.....

At this point you can add an optional 1/4 cup of vegetable or olive oil or slightly cooled melted butter.
This will create a moister finished bread product and a softer crust. It is however not necessary

Also add maybe a half teaspoon of salt, unsalted bread dough just isn't as good, so do it.
Whisk it into the liquid.

Measure out 4 cups of flour. This can be white flour, or 50/50 mix of white and whole wheat.
Don't try making bread without at least some white flour until you've had some practice. Whole wheat will fight with you through the entire process.
You may not need all of this flour, and in fact you may need more. Everything effects the process of dough making from humidity, to the strength of the person kneading the dough, to the age of the flour and probably even the day of the week and the position of the moon. You have to always assume it will take a different amount each time.
With a very sturdy wooden spoon stir in about half of the flour until it makes a very gluey batter.

Here we have an optional segue which again you can choose to ignore. At this point in the process i like to add something for texture. This can be a handful of raw oatmeal, cornmeal, ground flaxseed, chopped sunflower seeds (I hate sunflower seeds so I really wouldn't add those) etc.

Now handful by handful stir in more flour (this will becoming increasingly more difficult to do) until you get a dough that is still quite sticky but is starting to pull away from the sides of the bowl as you stir it.
Do not add so much flour that it becomes a stiff mass. Stop before that point. You will be adding more flour later in the kneading process.

Stop now and find another large bowl while your hands are still clean and dry
Oil the inside of the bowl generously.
You will need this bowl for the dough to rise in, and you want it ready to go a couple steps down the line.

Take good handful of your flour and scatter it on your worksurface, it will probably be from that 4 cups you had measured, but if you've used it all up this is where you'll add more.
Scrape the sticky dough onto the floured surface.

Start working the dough by hand by pulling up the outer edges with cupped hands and folding it inward onto itself. As you do this it will be picking up more flour from the work surface.
When it gets to the point where it is no longer sticking to your hands you are good to go.

At the beginning of this part of the process it will be quite sticky and messy, your hands with be caked in stuff, but as it approaches doughness it will start adhering to itself. Soon you should have a smooth easily kneadable dough.

Now continue to knead the dough for maybe 10 minutes. This helps develop the gluten necessary for a good internal structure. A good kneading technique is to push the dough ball down with the palms of both hands to flatten it. Fold it in half, turn it 90 degrees and repeat. Just keep flattening, folding and turning, while endeavoring to keep a smooth exterior surface on the dough mass.
At this point try to minimalize adding more flour, just use enough on the worksurface to keep the dough from tearing as you knead it
Gently lift the dough and place it in the oiled bowl. Turn it over in the bowl so that you have an oiled surface facing upward.
Cover the bowl loosely with your towel and return it to the warm place.

Leave it there until the dough has doubled in size, which will take at least an hour.

Lightly flour your work surface again.
Turn the dough out onto the surface, punch it down to release the trapped gas bubbles and knead it again for a few minutes,

At this point you will shape the dough into a huge loaf or several smaller ones (or make pizza!).
You need to minimalize having cut surfaces, basically allowing the outer crust to form a balloonlike shell to trap the gases from the last rising and then the baking process.
SO .. taking the back side of your knife or even a spatula press down through the dough to divide it into portions. This also has the effect of sealing the incision.
With the palms of you hands gently knead and shape the dough into the desired round or lozenge shape.
Again you should be folding it in on itself in the shaping process always wary of the condition of the outer surface, But stretching and folding you should try to maintain one smooth unbroken outer crust which will become the attractive top of the loaf.
Have your baking sheets or loaf pans ready. they should be lightly greased.
Gently place the dough into the pans and place in a warm spot to rise until double again.

Preheat your oven to 350F
If you would like you can brush the loaves with milk, water, a beaten egg or melted butter, again these are not necessary
The milk would produce a light gloss and a nicely browned crust
The water would give the outer crust a more crusty brittle surface
The egg would give it a very glossy finish
The butter would taste great and will keep the crust a bit more tender

Bake until they are golden brown and sound hollow when you knock gently on the top crust
For two loaves this would take 50-minutes to an hour

indigo

Kale Chips. Just made a batch and VERY , VERY good! My chips only took 20 min. I will pass this on to all my veggie loving friends. My son will get a kick out of these! :]

Dragon

I'm guessing I just got bitter kale in the first place. Perhaps I'll see if I can find some at a different store and try again.

sandm

:) Ok, I am interested. Kale isnt my favourite vegetable, but now I`ll try these Kale Chips ... just to know, how they taste

sandm

And another entry "for kale":

"Die magische Kohlsuppe" There are lots of similar recipes - maybe only on the German internet sites - of this soup, which tastes very well (can use different vegetables in addition to kale) and is famous for reducing your weight.

Boochie

How to make homemade (ok, not really) tortilla chips:
You need 1 pack of those little corn tortillas.
*Using a pizza cutter, cut each tortilla into fourths.
Oil a pan and arrange the cut tortillas on them. Pour olive oil over tortillas until covered (a little less if you don't like too much crunch), and sprinkle with salt. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cook for 8-10 mins.
Take out of pan, serve, eat, and enjoy! ; )

marius

Quite a while ago Dragon was looking for waffle recipes. Here's a new one we tried this morning.

They were fun to make and partly because there was so little prep-time in the morning. Compared to other waffles, we found these to be quite crispy and both of us liked that. As for flavor, well the butter says it all. : )


Overnight Waffles

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon active dry yeast (about ½ packet)
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 large egg, slightly beaten
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the waffle iron
nonstick spray

Combine flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the milk until blended. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature. (If warmer than 70 degrees Fahrenheit (or 21.1 Celsius) in the house, refrigerate the batter.)

The next morning, heat the waffle iron. Beat the egg . Melt the 6 tablespoons butter and stir both egg and butter into the batter, which will be quite thin.

Spray the hot waffle iron with nonstick spray, and rub on a little butter with a paper towel or pastry brush. Add just enough batter to cover the cooking surface, about 1 and 1/3 cups for a Belgian waffle, 2/3 cups for a standard.

Cook the waffles until crisp and brown, about 2-3 minutes each. (Took 4 and ½ minutes for our waffle iron.)

Makes 6-8 waffles (Made 17 for me but I didn’t read the directions right and used salted butter. Also, spouse pointed out that what I consider a waffle is actually half of a waffle. Who knew.)

Freeze the left over waffles and re-heat in toaster.

Dragon

mmm, those do sound yummy. We'll have to try this recipe out.

Baldur

That is rather interesting, I would have questioned using yeast in an item that cooks so quickly, but obviously it must work.

You inspired Baldur to make waffles for breakfast this morning. My waffles however used baking powder as leavening.

marius

So far this is my favorite waffle recipe. These waffles also cook up very nicely in the toaster after having been frozen, much better than all the others I've tried.

Only objection ... the first couple of waffles we cooked had quite a yeasty aroma and taste. I wasn't sure I liked that in a waffle. However, as we cooked more waffles, the yeasty aroma/taste dissipated and I'd not have known there was yeast in them. Maybe if we added the butter and egg, then let the mixture sit a few minutes, that initial yeasty taste would not be there? I don't know.