Mike Nolan
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I had two slices of bread with peanut butter and some steamed cauliflower for supper.
Boy, your picture didn't look anything like this site:
downy mildew in basilDo you have a local extension service you can ask?
Silicone muffin cups are going to be quite a bit bigger, but the basic idea would probably work. These tend to be a bit brittle, larger ones might be more likely to break while handling them.
I also liked using a microplane to even out the edges, the last time I made sablé breton tarts the uneven edges were a visual distraction.
We wound up having salads with tuna fish, plus some steamed broccoli/cauliflower. (The induction burner doesn't heat the kitchen up much, it is getting a lot of use this summer.)
My wife, a master gardener, says it is probably a nutrient deficiency in your basil, she just doesn't remember which one. (Google says phosphorus.) There are also some nutrients where an excess of them can cause purple splotches.
I think durum flour might have a higher ash content than semolina, because it often contains the middlings that are left over when semolina is made. Durum is generally used for softer forms of pasta, but for bread I don't know if it makes much difference. I've seen some products that used both durum flour and semolina, though.
Durum flour seems harder to find than semolina, that may be because semolina is used more.
I've had a form of gateau basque at a basque restaurant in Reno, but there are many versions of it, some more cake like and some more like a filled cookie.
I suspect the latter may use a dough similar to sablé breton dough.
I think the steamed rolls you're referring to are mantou, which I believe can be made in a savory or a sweet form.
Here's a site that talks about them:
steamed asian bunssupposed to be 98 here today, too hot to do much baking or cooking!
The presentation we had today at the Johnson & Wales International Bread Symposium was on sourdough and dealt with the process of making a starter, 14 days was the time frame they were studying.
When I was testing the recipes for Peter's 'Artisan Breads Every Day' book, I made a wheat starter and I also tried some recipes that you would keep in the fridge for several days, baking a little each day. My experience was that they started to behave and taste a bit like a sourdough by day 4.
Some of the preferements I've made recently start to behave a bit like a sourdough after 18 hours, so my guess is that if you make the preferment at least 24 hours before you want to mix the dough, you'll get reasonable results. No, it still isn't a true Type I sourdough, but it'll have some sour to it.
I've been maintaining a rye starter on and off for a couple of years now, when I want to make some sourdough wheat bread I make up a levain about 24 hours in advance using equal weights of wheat flour and water and 5% (by flour weight) rye starter.
When I look at my tomato plants, the vines and leaves don't look as dense as I've seen them in other years, but usually the peak of the season starts around Labor Day so the vines could grow a lot between now and then. What we need some time in August is a cool spell long enough for the plants to blossom and set a lot of fruit, any day it hits the 90's is pretty much a no joy day as far as setting fruit is concerned.
We got our first two tomatoes that weren't Fourth of July earlier this week, an Italian Heirloom plant.
On the other hand, the cherry tomato plants in the Aerogarden are so thick I can't see whether there's any fruit ripe yet, though I see quite a few mostly pea-sized green tomatoes around the edges.
I've tried some of the bargain brand hot dogs, they're awful, I'll willingly pay 3 times as much for a brand I can actually stand to eat. I've bought Nathan's, but they seem greasier than most other brands. We buy Fairbury all-beef hot dogs, a local brand. Vienna dogs are better, but unavailable here.
Good corned beef is also challenging to find, and we've learned the hard way that a lot of deli corned beef has garlic in it. If I had a good smoker I could try making Montreal Smoked Meat again, it is sort of like pastrami, though that's like saying a Cadillac is sort of like a Chevy. (Most MSM recipes have garlic in them, but I made some without garlic and it was pretty good.) I've been looking at the Big Green Egg, but the smaller size ones don't get good marks.
My wife doesn't like saffron, I think it bothers her stomach, so we don't have any in the house and I don't think I've ever made anything that used it. Garlic, curry powder, saffron, paprika, turmeric, and cardamom are herbs and spices we don't use much, if at all. (And to be honest, I don't miss them all that much, a number of foods that use garlic are IMHO actually better without the garlic in it, though I do like garlic bread. And I've never understood garlic in mac and cheese!)
I know many people like the combination of chocolate and coffee, but not being a coffee drinker it has never been that high on my list. I haven't had Mexican chocolate that I know of (though I have had Rick Bayless's mole sauce, so maybe I have), but I can see how cinnamon and even chili peppers would go well with it.
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