10 Explorations
As I get older, I find myself getting more adventuresome in the kitchen. Thus, I am constantly trying new things out, some of which succeed and others which don’t. In this section, I’m going to include new recipes as I find them, and then add notes and possible modifications based on the results.
10.1 More Breads
10.1.1 Crumpets
When was a child, my mother would make a simple delicacy which she called “crumpets” - split English muffins, topped with a slice of American cheese and two small pieces of bacon, and broiled until the cheese melted and the bacon curled. I haven’t prepared them in decades and don’t intend to now. However, I recently ran across this recipe for the real thing on the Splendid Table web site. I’m going to give it a try - first as described and then using sourdough. First the original recipe:
Ingredients
100 gm bread flour
65 gm warm water
70 gm whole milk
1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cold water
vegetable oil for greasing.
- Combine all except the last three ingredients and whisk together to make a smooth batter. Let batter stand in a warm place until very bubbly, about 1 hour.
- When the batter is ready, combine the baking powder with the water and mix into the batter.
- Lightly grease a frying pan and some 4 inch crumpet rings (if you don’t have these, you can cook these like pancakes, making what the British call “pikelets”).
- Place the rings on the frying pan over medium heat. Divide the batter among them.
- Cook until surface bubbles hold their shape and the batter begins to dry out and lose its shine.
- Flip them over and cook for another minute or so, until browned.
- Serve with butter, honey or jam (or use them like my mother did).
10.1.1.1 Substituting sourdough
I’m thinking that the above recipe could be modified to use sourdough starter in place of dry yeast and letting the batter stand overnight in a warm place. I imagine the fresher the starter the better - perhaps use the leftover after another bread baking project. Perhaps try a 25:25 gm (flour to water) starter, and reducing the water and flour to 75 gm and 40 gm water).
10.2 Miscellany From the Web
10.2.1 Orecchiette with Shrimp, Pancetta, and Red Fresno Peppers
I found this one thanks to a facebook group devoted to Finger Lakes Wines. It was paired with 2021 Silver Thread Estate Vineyards Riesling, which sounds excellent.
Penzey’s suggests using just their cajun seasoning and a little oil for blackened fish - in the future I’ll try combining the two recipes, replacing all of the spices with the cajun seasoning but still using the butter and brown sugar.
10.3 Indoor “Grilling”
This year’s Christmas gift from Alice was a Tupperware Micropro device, on that allows a version of grilling in your microwave. It’s a container made of some kind of material that heats when microwaved, and it has a lid that can be either placed directly on the food to be grilled or in an open position for more liquid ingredients (the “casserole” position). To date, I have not tried the latter.
So how to use it? The device comes with a manual that includes suggested cooking times for all sorts of things. However, be prepared for a lot of trial and error. So far, I’ve come up with one basic rule: Cook whatever you are doing in 3 minute intervals. A lot of cooking will get done, and in many cases you will want to flip your food periodically. And go by eye - a sandwich browns nicely in 6 minutes (at least in our microwave) and chicken wings will be cooked to temperature (~175o F.) in 9-12 minutes.
10.3.1 Sandwiches (Paninis)
So the basic procedure is simple: Cut a couple of thin slices of bread, add a filling, close up into a sandwich, place in the Micropro and cook for a total of 6 minutes, flipping the sandwich after 3 minutes. The big question, of course is what to use for a filling. These are my results when using Honey Wheat Sourdough Bread:
- Pre-sliced supermarket “Cheddar” cheese. Forget it. What little flavor the cheese has is completely overwhelmed by the flavor of the bread.
- Pre-sliced Swiss cheese. This is better - the bite of the cheese helps.
- Manchego cheese and thin-sliced Spanish Jámon. This is the best so far - indeed it was totally delightful. The Jámon was a gift from my son; if you don’t have a local source, you can get it from La Tienda. Pricey but good.
10.3.2 Chicken Wings
So far, here is what I’ve done.
- Sprinkle 8-10 wings and drumettes with barbecue rub.
- Cook in Micropro with microwave on high fo 3 minutes
- Flip chicken pieces and cook for another 3 minutes.
- Repeat this process until the wings appear done, and their internal temperature has reached 175o F.
- Coat the wings with your favorite wing sauce and serve.
10.3.5 Quesadillas
I’ve always loved simple cheese quesadillas, and it struck me that the micropro might be excellent for preparing them. It was - simply pile up whatever filling you like on one side of a fajita-sized tortilla, fold the other side over it, and cook 3 minutes per side. For starters, I used the following filling:
Chicken thighs, prepared as described for fajitas
Finely diced colored pepper
Shredded mexican cheese (or whatever you like)
Mexican-style hot sauce (optional)
Fajita-sized tortillas
- Prepare the chicken as described.
- Wipe the micropro clean and add the diced pepper. Cook for about 6-8 minutes.
- Wipe the micropro again and lay a tortilla on it.
- Stack the chicken, pepper and cheese (however much you want) on one side of the fajita. Season to taste with hot sauce.
- Fold the other side of the fajita over the ingredients.
- Cook for 6-8 minutes, flipping midway through.
10.3.6 Shrimp Quesadillas
I tried this, using Penzey’s Fajita Seasoning and cooking the final product in the Micropro, and had pretty good results. I’ve changed a couple of steps below based on that experience.
Ingredients
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive olive oil, divided
1 tbsp fajita seasoning
small bunch cilantro leaves, chopped
two flour tortillas, fajita size
Shredded melting cheese (Mexican blend, for example)
Mexican hot sauce (La Vitoria, Cholulla or similar)
- Combine the shrimp with the fajita seasoning, cilantro, and 1 tbsp olive oil.
- Sauté the pepper and onion with the other tablespoon of olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add the shrimp to the pan and stir for 30 seconds to 1 minute*. Remove from heat.
- Place one tortilla flat in the Micropro. Stack half the shrimp on one side, followed by cheese and hot sauce to taste.
- Fold the other half of the tortilla over the filling, and drape the second tortilla over the vacant half of the Micropro and the first tortilla. Fill and fold as described for the first one.
- This is a place that I’m still refining. On my first try, I cooked for 3 minutes and then attempted to flip them. It made a mess. Next time I’m going to let them go four minutes, and if the top is browning well, cook them for an additional two minutes and serve.
* I’m still experimenting here. I initially tried two minutes, but that was too long. If this proves to be too long as well, then I’ll just put them in the fajitas raw and let them cook while it browns.
10.4 Fermentation
This will be a totally new exploration for me, arising from a piece in Epicurious on making fermented hot sauce. I did a little exploration and found a more detailed description of the process on seriouseats.com, which goes into the fermentation process in detail and includes links to the two recipes below. I strongly recommend reviewing this before you begin, but the key points are that for the process to proceed, we have to establish an anaerobic saline environment, allowing lactic acid-producing bacteria to flourish. I’m going to attempt to do so in one quart mason jars, with vapor locks and weights obtained from Amazon. The recipes that follow use the two preparations most commonly used for fermentation - a mash and a salt brine.
10.4.1 A Generic Fermented Hot Sauce Recipe
The idea here would be to experiment with different red or orange peppers and see what tastes good. Don’t worry about the occasional failure.
10.4.2 Habernero and Berry Hot Sauce
First, a mash preparation - looks pretty straight forward.
Ingredients
225 grams each (8 oz) of blackberries and blueberries
150 g. habernero peppers (about 25), stemmed
30 gm. salt
1/4 cup white vinegar
10 gm sugar
- Using a food processor, pulse the berries, peppers and salt into a coarse puree, about 12 pulses.
- Transfer to a 1 quart Mason canning jar. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and place a weight on top of it.
- Seal the jar with an air lock.
- Store the jar in a cool dark place for at least seven days, checking daily for gas formation. The mix should taste sour, having a pH of 4.2 or less.
- Transfer the mash to a blender, adding the sugar and vinegar.
- Blend on high speed until smooth. Check the pH - it should be about 3.4. Add more vinegar if needed.
- Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and discard the pulp (although you might want to save it as a flavoring for other foods).
- Store refrigerated in a glass bottle or plastic squeeze bottle. The original recipe says it will keep for up to a month; we’ll see if it goes longer.
10.4.3 Chipotle Fermented Hot Sauce with Garlic and Cumin
This recipe involves use of the salt brine method, and also uses dried rather than fresh peppers. In addition to adding flavor, the fresh garlic is the source of the naturally occurring lactobacilli necessary for fermentation.
Ingredients
3 cups bottled water*
30 gm salt
55 gm dried chipotle morita peppers (about 20 peppers)
6 cloves garlic, sliced
5 gm cumin seeds, lightly toasted
3/4 cup white vinegar
15 gm sugar
Kosher salt
- Mix water and salt until the salt is dissolved.
- Add peppers, garlic and cumin to a 1 quart Mason jar.
- Add brine, cover with plastic, add a weight and seal with air lock.
- Store in a dark cool place for at least 10 days, checking frequently for gas formation.
- After 10 days, taste daily, until it tastes sour like dill pickles - could take up to 28 days.
- Strain out brine with a fine sieve, retaining the saline for now.
- Transfer solids to a blender and add 1 cup of the brine along with the sugar and vinegar.
- Blend at high speed until smooth and emulsified. Season with salt.
- Measure the pH of the sauce. It should be at or below 3.4; add more vinegar if necessary.
- Strain the mixture again and bottle the sauce.
- Store refrigerated for up to 3 months.
* This is one case where use of tap water is not recommended, as it is likely contain traces of chlorine that will inhibit bacterial growth. Bottled spring water is the best bet.
10.4.4 Hot Sauce with Fresno Chiles, Garlic, and Tamari
This one is interesting - uses a mixture of broiled and fresh peppers.
Ingredients
For fermentation
700 gm stemmed Fresno peppers
60 ml distilled water
3 tbsp tamari soy sauce
10 gm kosher salt
For finishing
120 ml white vinegar
10 gm. sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
120 ml roasted garlic oil
- Broil 300 gm of the peppers until charred, about 5 minutes per side. Allow them to cool.
- Combine the charred peppers, the remaining (400 gm) fresh peppers, water, salt and tamari in a food processor. Pulse 16-20 times into a coarse mash.
- Transfer to a 1 quart canning jar and set up with weight and airlock for fermentation. there should be about an inch of head space
- Let fermentation proceed for 7-21 days, until mash has climbed up the side of the jar and the pH has dropped below 4.0
- Scrape the mash into a blender. Add vinegar, sugar and salt, and blend until smooth (~1 minute).
- With blender running stream in garlic oil and continue to blend until it is emulsified.
- Check the pH - if it is over 3.4, add more vinegar.
- Strain through a fine strainer, transfer to a clean bottle, and refrigerate.