Category: Food

The place for puttin’ the things we eat.

Making basic bread from scratch for the first time bread baker

I decided to make this story in the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic when it became obvious that there were going to be people who did not have the ability to go to the store to get bread. The video is a walk through of making the most basic of breads, but one that is still tasty and better than what you would have bought at the store anyway.

I chose to make it completely from scratch, and provide some tips on ways you might change it to work with the circumstances you are having in your own home.

Recipe:

  • 5 to 6 cups of all purpose flour, this could be any kind of flour but you will need to adjust your water to flour ratio with other flours.
  • 2 Cups of warm water, about 105 degrees F or the temperature you would use to warm up a baby’s bottle for feeding. Just over body temperature and under 110 degrees.
  • 1 Tablespoon of rapid rise yeast, or any yeast you have on hand
  • 1 Teaspoon (or up to 1 Tablespoon) of table salt
  • 1 Teaspoon of sugar, to get the yeast growing
  • 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil (optional)

The video shows how to get the yeast growing so you know it is working before you mix it into the flour. I also mixed the flour completely by hand in the video to show how easy it is to do this with almost no equipment other than a stove.

The video is long, but very informative about the Why of making bread from scratch. This is aimed at the first time bread maker.

Making Bread from Scratch for the first time bread baker

Categories: Baking Food Stove Uncategorized

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Spicy Pork Salad and Artichoke

I bet you thought I had disappeared from the Internet. Nope, just let myself get too busy and the fun stuff like this channel took the back seat. I’m getting over that now, and so here I am with a video showing how I prepared a Spicy Pork Salad. This is not a hot spicy, it is a flavorful spicy. It uses a number of interesting ingredients and of course Doc T’s unique approach to whatever he does.

The video below also shows how to prepare and cook a fresh Artichoke.

Spicy Pork Salad

Categories: Food Uncategorized

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Making Swedish Glögg – Mulled Spice Wine to keep you warm in the winter

Glogg Ingredients

Today we are puttin’ up Swedish Glögg, a wine based drink that will take the chill off of even the coldest night of the coldest winter.  It will warm you, and you will sleep well afterwards.  This is a drink that should be shared with friends, family, or people who you just want to warm up with.

This is approximately the recipe that my wife’s grandfather used to make, and this post is in honor of Poppy.  I make it every year and it has in the process become part of my winter tradition.  One of the things about making something like Glögg is that each person ends up making the recipe their own, adding those little touches of their own that make it your recipe.  In that spirit, I will list the ingredients needed to make a basic batch, but not the measurements because frankly I don’t measure the ingredients myself.

The video below demonstrates what you need to get it started and how to heat it the first day.  It is a multiple day process because the ingredients need to sit in the wine for a while after it has been brought up to temperature to let them a chance to really share and merge their flavors.   The ingredients are listed below the video.

Swedish Glögg Recipe (Glogg)

Ingredients by Volume

  • Dark Red Wine – 1 gallon.  I prefer a Burgundy
  • Port – 1 bottle
  • Citric fruit – oranges, lemons cut in wedges
  • Sugar
  • Prunes
  • Raisens
  • Almonds, crushed
  • Cinnamon sticks
  • Cloves
  • Cardamom
  • Your Secret ingredients or spices

Directions Day 1

  • Pour wine into a large pot
  • Add Sugar, fruit, spices
  • Bring up to hot, but not boiling (About 170 – 180 degrees F – The video shows how to tell when it is the right temperature)
  • Let sit at least one day
  • Watch this video to see how to do the rest of the recipe

Directions Day 2

  • Add Port, bring back up to temperature and let it sit.
  • Remove Fruit
  • Strain to remove spice material and clarify the Glögg
  • (optional) Add fortifying alcohol such as rum, vodka, spiced rum, moonshine, or whatever you like
  • You can serve it cold or hot, but I am not sure why anyone would drink it anything but hot.  Same temperature as preparing it, do not boil and about 170 degrees is ideal.

 

“Hot stuff when drunken hot.” Poppy

Categories: Beverage DIY Food

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Insects for dinner

Mayfly

Let me start with this thought, eating a bug, the right bug, is no big deal.

If you haven’t looked yet, take a look, there are many articles that talk about insects being one of the foods of the future.  Humans have been eating bugs intentionally and unintentionally for as long as there have been humans.  But we have developed an irrational aversion to intentionally eating them.  But taking a lesson from Timon and Pumba, bugs can be a nutritious, and yes tasty component of our diets.

Go to YouTube and look for people eating mayflies, and you will get a couple of videos with people screaming about the act of eating a simple mayfly.  We have all heard of chocolate covered this or that insect.  But we cannot depend upon chocolate to be served covering all of our protein.  So I just wanted to set the record straight, mayflies are tasty little creatures that are packed full of protein, and they are easy to eat.

Go ahead, give it a try.  You may find you like it, you may find you don’t.  But I believe that you will find that it is not a big deal.

Categories: Food

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Time to make the Pizza

Yummy looking pizza

Making pizza is a process.  In previous posts, I have covered preparing the yeast, and making the dough.  In this post we complete the process.

This is the easy part, just roll out your dough, put it in the pans, add the sauce and the toppings and cook it.

I generally set my oven between 450 and 500, but if you are going to do a deep dish you will need a lower temperature.  The top shelf is going to be hotter on the top and cooler on the bottom, the bottom shelf is going to be hotter on the bottom and cooler on the top.  Ideally you would only cook one pie at a time in a standard oven, but who has time for that.  You just need to learn to work with your oven.

 

Categories: Baking Food Pizza

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Making Pizza Dough

Yummy looking pizza

There are many ways and types of pizza dough.  This is the one that my mom taught me, and that I have adapted to use whole wheat flour.  Pizza dough isn’t hard, it just needs time and attention to the temperatures.

In my post on starting your yeast culture, I go into the details about how to get your yeast right so that your dough has the best opportunity to turn out right.  That is the first step.  The second step is the dough, I cover that in the video below.

Ingredients are simple:

Yeast Mixture:

  • Yeast – about 1/2 TBS
  • Sugar – Just a pinch to get the yeast growing
  • Water – 2 cups at between 105 and 115 degrees
  • Olive Oil – about 1/3 cup more or less

Preheat your oven for 1 minute to make it warm, then turn off the heat.  You do not want the oven hot, but you want it warm so the dough can rise.

After you have the yeast growing, then you put it in a Mixer Bowl and add:

  • 2 Cups whole Wheat Flour and mix with the dough hook until mixed well
  • About 4 cups of unbleached all purpose or bread flour – the actual amount will depend upon the way the dough mixes.

Warm a large bowl with hot water, then dry and coat with olive oil or spray.

Place the dough in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth (not wet, just damp), and place it in the warm oven.  Let it sit for an hour or hour and a half until the dough has risen to twice the original size.

Take dough out and divide.  This can be used for two large pizzas with a thicker dough, two deep crust pizzas, or three thin crust pizzas.

Roll the dough out so that it will fit your pans.  Then, if you want thin crust, add toppings.  If you want thicker crust pan pizza, put it in the oven and let it rise again.  You will need to watch it to see when it has risen to the level you want.

Preheat oven to 450

Add Pizza Sauce and toppings.

Put pizza(s) in oven for 20 minutes (start checking after 15 min. just in case).  Watch the cheese, and the color of the crust to tell when it is done.  The crust will start turning brown when it is getting done.  You can put a fork under the crust to get an idea of how crispy it is.  Everyone has different preferences, so the amount of time you spend is a trial and error approach.

Categories: Baking Food Pizza

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Starting a Yeast Culture for your Dough

Growing Yeast

Growing Yeast
Yeast actively growing

The key to getting good yeast dough is getting the yeast growing.  It isn’t hard, it just requires attention to temperatures to get it right.  In this video Doc T shows you how to get that yeast started so that you have the ever crucial foundation for any of your yeast doughs.

Ingredients:

  • Active Dry Yeast – about 1/2 TBSP.
  • Water at between 105 and 115 F. – Depends upon dough recipe, in demo we use 2 cups
  • Sugar – a good pinch
  • Olive Oil – Optional, depends upon recipe that yeast will be used in.

Categories: Baking Food

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Irish Soda Bread

Sliced loaf of Irish Soda Bread

Around St. Patrick’s Day every year, my wife Tina, being the fine Irish Lady that she is, gets a hankering for some good old fashioned Irish Soda Bread.  I have made this a number of times over the year with good results, but this year I put some additional research into it.

My desire was for a soda bread with dried fruit (raisins) and caraway seeds.  I trolled the Internet and found a lot of recipes, and they varied a lot.  I combined the best of what I thought were good ideas and made the soda bread you see in the video below.  Tips and ingredients are included below the video.

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Categories: Baking Food

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