[Food]

[magid]

Some other recent experiments:

Yogurt cake
For queue's birthday I made the requested Turkish yogurt cake with the rosewater syrup (and grapefruit juice instead of lemon, since that's what I had). It's the first cake I've ever tessellated with octagons and squares, which for some reason felt easier than hexagons. It was pleasant, but other than the sweet stickiness of syrup drenching, not very exciting. I think it may be worth trying again sometime, if I flavor the syrup a lot more aggressively and consider flavoring the cake as well, perhaps with a complementary flavor.

Not-chili
Tuesday I had to use up the ground turkey I'd bought the week before, which had been languishing in the fridge. I knew I still had some spinach, but that made me want to add preserved lemons, and the new batch isn't ready yet. Perhaps hot sauce instead? The tricky part was that I didn't have a lot of veggies around, and the farmer's market had been deficient in anything that wasn't greens (not surprising, but I'd still hoped). Then the hot sauce and turkey combination suddenly leapt into chili focus, and I made something that might be a first cousin to some chili variant somewhere.

I sauteed onions and garlic (big chunks of lightly crushed cloves) with cumin and cayenne, then added the turkey. That browned for a bit, then I added hot sauce and a bunch of spinach chopped up. I went looking for black beans, realized I didn't have any, so put in the pink beans I found instead, but decided against any corn. I didn't feel like opening a new can of tomato stuff, so I substituted some eggplant and garlic spread (yay, Trader Joe's) instead. I ate way too much of this for dinner.

Chai bread
I've made two batches this week; I have one loaf left (of five).

I made a regular white bread dough, except that (a) all the water was replaced with chai tea (not the stuff that comes in boxes, just brewed tea), and (b) I put ground ginger and cinnamon in with the flour (plus sugar, which I often leave out of regular bread). After the first rise, I rolled out biggish pieces of dough, then put on the toppings: more ginger powder, more cinnamon, cocoa powder, sugar, and a bit of canola oil. I rolled that in, gave it a short second rise, then baked it for half an hour at about 350 F. Adding the extra spices to the dough bring the chai-ness out much better (though I'm still debating adding white pepper next time (black pepper would mean unsightly flecks)), though I didn't always do a good job of mixing the sugar in with the rest of the filling (I should've done that in advance, rather than on the dough).


Also, I couldn't resist trying a goat yogurt when I found kosher ones the other day at Bread and Wa Whole Foods. For the record, it was Redwood Hill Farm's blueberry, which was nice, except that there's a tang to it that my brain keeps saying "goat cheese" about (not surprisingly), so having a sweet flavor didn't work with that. It was pretty pricey; I'm unlikely to get it again unless there's a need to avoid cow milk. (I keep hoping the water buffalo yogurt will be certified kosher, but no luck so far.)

Comments

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. The yogurt cake looks to be very similar to a Greek recipe I've used before, except in Greek it's called revani. I made it with farina, so it has something of a coarse texture. It was good but not in-your-face-wow good.

And the mention of chai bread makes me think I should experiment with my next batch of dough ...

[magid.livejournal.com]

Huh. Cornmeal sounds like it would be good to try (and this from someone who doesn't much care for cornmeal much).

The only caveat I'd have for the bread is that I wouldn't use it for challah; it's pat ha'baah b'kisnin, with all the nonstandard flavors.

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

Couscous would work, as would cream of wheat.

As for the bread, *nod*. I was thinking of it more as a dessert item than anything else.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I'd've never thought to bake with either couscous or cream of wheat. New horizons...

Yeah, I think mine is going to supplement dessert for Shabbat lunch (and/or be part of breakfast on Sunday. Hrm. Or tomorrow...).

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

I was intensely curious about your Chai bread, until I realized I'd misunderstood...

, not .

[magid.livejournal.com]

I knew there was a particular shape I should've tried! D'oh!