The food and drink forum blog thread.

[RAGER]

Small batch of Kkakdugi today.

Daikon radish, scallions, ginger, garlic,salt, sugar, salted shrimp, fish sauce, gochugaru.
Probably let it ferment 4 days at room temp then refrigerate and enjoy.

[RAGER]

Ferment of cabbage, carrots, garlic, onion, dried Szechuan chili. 2% brine to wet everything plus a couple punches of kosher salt.

[RAGER]

Kind of a pastitsio with ditalini. The aforementioned pasta shape, spinach, nutmegy bechamel, ricotta egg pecorino mix, meat sauce, Asiago.

Side order of kimchi and Kkakdugi just cuz.

[Muffin Man]

Last year I thought I was fermenting garlic but I was actually just kinda pickling it or something. Not a lot of action then but now! we got something happening with batch #2. I looked after 24hrs and wow, some serious action. Just raw peeled cloves in salt brine - 1Tbsp sea salt per 2 cups distilled water. Massive foam! I wonder what that's all about. Apparently I'm letting it work for 30 days. Nice plume of garlic air too. 2 lbs approx of garlic in 4 cups brine.

I just read, if this was beer fermenting, the foam would be called krausen. Last time I drank the nectar and it was divine but subtle. This time I wonder how darn powerful it will be. Will report back!

[RAGER]

Did some Pizza experiment last night.


New York style cooked sauce, mix of *cheeses: whole milk mozzarella, smoked provolone, cheddar, and pepper Jack. House made spicy Italian sausage, housemade giardinera, chopped mushrooms

*Inspired by Provel cheese famously used in St. Louis Style pizza



Same dough and sauce, whole milk mozzarella, pecorino, middle of the road Boarshead pepp, red onion.

Crumb shots

[mortlock]

toppings look good, great in fact . im not sure on the crust. looks slightly bready to me. 

[Muffin Man]

shucks, dang. not bad. absolutely murdered-out boars head. I'd could roll with it. Not sure about bready bread, he might be right, takes a certain eye to comprehend the nuance.

My garlic is seriously going bananas I mean that the fermentation crock is sounding off "pop" "pop" like tiny bubble wrap pops every 1/2 hour to 1 hour. As intended with that style of water moat lid crock. Super active though, its like on broil, and garlic air has filled the house. I'm very surprised at the activity.

[RAGER]

I like hearing my pao cai jars burping. Things are alive.

Bready crusty. A 3 day ferment will get some aeration for sure. A little more so on the pepperoni because if less mass than the other. I purposefully ran the toppings out to the edges because I split the batch into two small pies. If I do the same amount again it would end up feint 15-16" which I don't have the stone or pan big enough. At least not that I'd want to use for pizza.

It's evolving.

[Muffin Man]

they are looking extra excellent. I'm amazed at the meat-eaters looking ones -ie. the first one post #2429. I don't know how you top those or what's on there. Doesn't matter, its a feast for the eyes.

[RAGER]

I listed the ingredients. I'll post a video about Provel cheese. I tried to copy it kinda but I added pepper Jack.

[Muffin Man]

whut in sam henry is happening at 2:55. Reported.

[RAGER]

Cutting into squares?  Right? 

[RAGER]

Hot mix. Kinda like a giardiniera.

[mortlock]

is that what goes on a chicago beef sandwich?

[RAGER]

Similar but it has different peppers and mine doesn't contain oil.

[Pissy]

My grandma had a few fancy glass containers with artfully placed vegetables in vinegar (maybe oil) in them on top of her china cabinet.  That jar reminded me of that.  

[RAGER]

I'll take that as a compliment.

[Pissy]

As intended. 

[RAGER]

Jarred up a batch of piccalilli I started yesterday.



Got a proper bolognese going for tonight with bucatini.

[RAGER]

Bucatini bolognese ragu.



I do the milk and white wine type. So damn good.


This after the milk is added before it's cooked down but before the tomato purée.
 


Made pizza dough this morning for Monday. Also saved some bolognese aside for the pizza. Probably my favorite topping with white sauce and fresh mozzarella. Búfala if I can find it.

[James1214]

Made maple glazed old fashioned donuts for the hungover wife. Pulled a card from grandmas hand written recipe box that I got when she passed. The issues I had were that given the last minute nature of the request. I I didn't have buttermilk, but did the tablespoon of vinegar in half and half trick, also didn't have enough oil so they weren't fully submerged and didn't get the signature cracked top. That said she said they were the best donuts she's ever had. The oil was way too hot on the first one, and it got too dark. Dialed it back and rocked 365, 2 minutes per side with 1 flip.

[Muffin Man]

sweet biscuits

[Muffin Man]

my garlic ferment is at 28days. Going to let it keep going since reading that it should read at a pH level under 4.8 or something to be sure no botulism. My ph paper only goes down to 5.5 and it's reading there but I need to pickup some new strips that read lower.

my point is is that the stuff is as close to having an open can of gasoline or a can of paint thinner open in the kitchen. It fills the whole house with a super-obvious industrial grade solvent. Fun stuff.

[RAGER]

I've been playing around with Burmese mixed "salads" this past week. Kind of like a Thai khao tom but without the khao (rice).

They're called "a thoke" or just thoke/ thote depending on transliteration.

This one is a cross between shauk thi thoke and kyettha a thoke. Chicken as a protein and lemon segments as the fruit.
 
All the components


Mixed and plated



This other one is the second most common thoke to see on a Burmese menu. Second to fermented tea leaf thoke. It's let thoke sohn or rainbow salad. I added chicken to it.

[Muffin Man]

those look like super good eatin'