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applestar
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Re: Let's talk recipes -- are you as random as I am?

...found it... there was a discussion recently about millet vs. sorghum:

Subject: Do you think this is sorghum?
PaulF wrote:My first thought being a mid-westerner is milo. After looking it up it is called grain sorghum. Milo or grain sorghum is used in bird seed so I think that is what you have.

Milo (Sorghum bicolor) is called grain sorghum because there are other types (cultivars) of sorghum that are the same species. Forage sorghum can grow over 10 feet tall and is chopped and used as cattle feed. It is selected and bred for its ability to grow a lot of stalks and foliage versus grain. Sweet sorghum is grown in tropical areas to be made into mollasses and rum.

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Thank you, Dave! We don't have an Indian grocery around, that I know of. There is a Thai lady with a grocery store and I know that there are some things on her shelves from that part of the world. I can look there.

Thank you, HoneyBerry! I hadn't thought of a health food store. We make a periodic stop for DW's vitamins and a root beer for me :) . I know that there are several varieties of millet. I grew foxtail millet for an ornamental, several years. Even had the purple variety, once. It's very pretty but you have to harvest it a little early or the finches move in on it very hungrily! Miss the millet harvest by about a week and the birds will make a mess of it :? .

Thank you, AppleStar! I hadn't thought of milo ... mostly because I don't know what it is :wink: . Missed that thread by Taiji and PaulF's reponse - shoot, all of about 6 weeks ago.

Steve

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Japanese-style Smokey Chicken Currie Don

(I apologize in advance @pepperhead212, this was a from-box assembly, not on same level with the advanced culinary masterpieces like yours :oops: )

Image

- leftover yesterday’s Japanese stew-style curry sauce — made with store-bought roux, but started by warming up/toasting fennel seeds, ground cumin and coriander, slices of fresh turmeric and ginger roots, and dried curry leaves in saved beef fat and virgin coconut oil. Removed the curry leaves and covered with sesame oil to steep, then sweated minced onion, diced apple, dehydrated garlic, carrot chunks and peeled chunks of cauliflower stems. Added leftover Smokey “pulled chicken” from a local bbq place.
- separately defrosted and simmered about a quart of summer-frozen cherry tomatoes, then added the toasted curry leaf-steeped sesame oil and hand-blendered, then strained and added to the main pot to deglaze.
- When bubbling, added chunks of fingering potatoes and cauliflower florets, and chicken broth.
- separately cooked 3:1 short grain brown rice and basmati brown rice with a bit of sea salt
- when rice was almost ready, added chopped up blocks of store bought curry roux (S&B medium hot), and also floated S&B curry powder and Indian grocery-bought gala masala mix in the pooled grease. Simmered to warm the spice powders then gently stirred until thickened and bubbly.

>> Served yesterday’s over rice with my own kefir and blackberry sauce. That was quite lovely, too.
>> Today’s after the stew/sauce was kept warm all night — stew flavors meld together and become mellower next day ...some people say “better” (rice is kept warm in the neurofuzzy rice cooker — it was still fragrant with basmati rice aroma) — I embellished and garnished with shaved coconut flakes, fenugreek seeds that have just sprouted to harvest-size, my kefir + store-bought mango kefir, and my hot pepper relish sauce -photo above-

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Oh no, Applestar - a box??? How could you? :eek:

From the looks of that, you have nothing to apologize for. I'm sure it was delicious!

Steve, Here are my jars of millet (L) and sorghum (R), side by side:
ImageIMG_20190120_182743527 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The sorghum flour is sort of gray-brown, and the millet a much lighter, yellowish color.

I don't think that you have to worry about getting a goiter from millet. It is probably something eaten in excess, simply because there are few other grains in that area, and the diet of the area is probably lacking in iodine in general, not because something in the diet is absorbing it. Sort of like pellagra occurring in areas where corn is consumed as the main part of their diet, resulting in niacin deficiency.

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The writing that I read about millet and goiter did say that the millet was eaten in excess, as much as 70% of their diet was millet. They ate pearl millet. So the doctor who wrote what I read suggests avoiding pearl millet altogether to be on the safe side.

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Probably that region does not have iodized salt!

Seriously, though, I don't think that you have to worry about eating millet, or anything like that, when you are eating it as part of a healthy diet. Areas of the world, where malnutrition of many types exists, it is often because a high % of their calories is from the only grain grown in the region. Iodine is just one of the many deficiencies found in these areas.

Sometimes I use millet in combination with jasmine rice, since it has much more nutrients than white rice (and brown jasmine just doesn't have the flavor), and having a sort of neutral flavor, the jasmine rice flavor is still there. I've tried this with several other grains, but their flavors masked the jasmine.

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Millet mixed with jasmine rice sounds wonderful. That's my favorite kind of rice anyway. I will try that combo sometime. I want to sometime try quinoa with jasmine rice too.

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I have a hard time with the idea that pearl millet may cause goiter. Iodine deficiency makes more sense.
A very young coworker of mine has an enlarged thyroid. She's seen several doctors about it and they don't know what the cause is. She said she has tried everything. She is also Type 1 diabetic. She seems fine, healthy. She said that she has to live with it.
I just had some yummy millet tots. No longer concerned about 'millet goiter' thanks to Pepperhead.

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I did a definitely unusual recipe today - instead of Thai fried rice, I used some cooked whole oats I had in the fridge! Nothing is as good as jasmine rice, but it was still delicious, and definitely more nutritious.

I had to make some guac, since it is national corn chip day, but that was more my lunch.

For dinner I had that Thai grilled chicken, which I took out of the freezer a couple of days ago, and put in the marinade yesterday. I made a batch of that spicy sweet and sour dip sauce - a favorite of mine for grilled foods and fried foods in the summer. And as a side dish some fried oats! I had some whole oats left in the fridge, so I used those, mushrooms, and some chopped bok choy leaves. Worked out great!

ImageThai chicken, marinated, ready to roast. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageThai chicken, finished roasting. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageFinished Nam Jeem Gratiem. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageIngredients for fried oats. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Garlic and ginger, added to the superhot oil and producing that incredible aroma!
ImageGarlic and ginger, hitting the hot oil. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageJust after adding the scallions and sugar. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageFinished fried oats, with basils torn on top. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageMeal served. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I still smell those dishes up in my computer room as I sit here! Makes me hungry for a midnight snack. :o

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I made some Spareribs in Black Bean sauce tonight (plus a little SF bok choy on the side). I made it a day early, but I have more than half left for Chinese New Year, which starts Tuesday.

This dish is one of my favorites, though I hadn't made it for quite a while. It was the second recipe in the meat chapter in my looseleaf "black book", which I wrote my favorite oriental recipes in, before I had a software for recipes! These salted, fermented black beans are one of those ingredients that smell totally disgusting, at first, but the smell cooks off, and about halfway through, the sparerib aroma takes over, and by the end, you can't wait to taste them! Still, I don't recommend them to anyone that does not have a powerful, externally vented exhaust hood! This is the recipe I was cooking in my parent's house, before I left home, and Dad threatened to throw me out if I ever cooked "whatever that was again". I've been making it for that long!
ImageIngredients for Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageStir-frying minced ingredients. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageStir-frying ribs, with minced ingredients. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageLiquid added, and brought to boil. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageAfter 45 minutes cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageMost of the liquid cooked off. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageFinished dish. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

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This morning wife said, I have 1/2 package of stew meat what can I make? It took me 1/2 second to yell out, VEGETABLE SOUP. Wife cooked the stew meat in the skillet with a large onion and several garlic. She dumped the skillet into a rather small crock pot, I told her that crock pot is too small, she said no its not. She had a container in refrigerator with left overs, peas, carrots & onion. She threw in a freezer bag of Blue Lake bush beans & a bag of Roma flat pod beans. We cut kernels from 5 ears of garden corn. The was a bag of white shelled beans from green beans that were too large to be green beans. LOOK at the crock pot it is about to over flow, wife said, I told you it was large enough, LOL. This is about 10% meat and 90% vegetables, wow it looks good. Wife said, it has no salt & no pepper you might want to add some to your bowl so I did. Wow very good vegetable soup for such little work, it cooked all day that is what makes it so good, there is barely enough left for lunch tomorrow.
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Subject: BREAD, post Photos and Recipes here.
applestar wrote:These are rye hard-rolls I made based on this rice cooker recipe (it’s in Japanese, but it has step by step photos and maybe your browser can run a translation) :arrow: https://cookpad.com/recipe/255469
[...]
Image
— I divided the dough into 8 so the rolls are smaller and mushed into odd shapes. You can see one of the quick rolls I made before among the 200g rye/100g white bread flour hard rolls.
...to be honest, the rye hard rolls were OK, but could be improved. The delicious thing was the slow-cooked pork and cabbage that I made them to eat with. I used fresh pork shoulder cut into chunks and seared in sunflower oil, garlic, onions, apples from the garden (stored in fridge since fall and starting to wrinkle but still good) balsamic vinegar, EVOO, and then tocompensate for lack of other typical stew veg, added some tomato and basil pasta sauce, then deglazed with apple cider vinegar and rum. 3 or 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary. Added enough rice milk to braise, then topped with half of a huge cabbage, roughly chopped. Then just slowly simmered.

Look at this photo — there used to be 3.75 Lbs of pork in there, but the family loved it and by the time I remembered to take a picture, this was all that was left LOL
Image
(That’s a 2nd inner lid borrowed from a smaller pot to self-baste and concentrate the flavor.)

...that was yesterday. After keeping the leftover warm on the stove overnight, this morning, I tossed about 8 good sized fresh shiitake caps cut into strips into the pot, another 1/4 of the cabbage, this time shredded, then let it all simmer down, and those of us that were still hungry for it had this over spinach spirals (pasta). I think it might actually be all gone... or nearly. I can’t believe it. (Let me just reassure, that we don’t normally eat this much meat all at once. :roll: )

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applestar that pulled pork looks good. Next time we go to the store we need a pork shoulder & mesquite BBQ sauce.

Today wife put the last chicken breast in a crock pot few hours later we had pulled chicken in broth. We have left over chicken broth and rice from making Mexican a few days ago so it went into the crock pot to become chicken and rice soup. We both said, it needs something. In goes, green beans, carrots, peas, corn, white beans, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, onion, garlic. 5pm we ate it with homemade bread. We have 2 bowls left for lunch tomorrow.
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Haha, you can tell it’s wintertime. We’re all making soup every which way we can :lol: We had our version of chicken-rice soup here.

This was something I threw together for lunch, but it tasted good so I’m writing it down —

Easy and Quick Chicken-Rice soup
Image

1/2 of a leftover herbed spit-roasted whole chicken
Water
About 1 cup tomato-basil pasta sauce
About 1 cup diced daikon
About 2 cups cooked brown/white rice
1 qt chicken broth (Swanson Organic Free Range)
About 1 cup chopped greens — kale and spinach


- Heat the half-frozen chicken in a 3 L pot until it starts to sizzle, separate off the leg and wing joints, then add water to cover. Boil covered on high until chicken is heated through and meat pulls off easily with a pair of tongs.

- Reduce heat and save as much of both dark and white meat as possible just by pulling off — keep covered in a Pyrex bowl.

- Increase heat until boiling again and then cook until the bones fall apart.

- remove all of the bones and skin with slotted spoon to a colander (cool, pick bones apart for the kitties and discard). Stir in the tomato sauce and chicken broth and bring back to boil.

- Add the rice and daikon to the hot broth, and when heated through, dice the reserved chicken meat and add with any broth pooled in the bottom of the bowl.

(If you tasted the broth before adding the chicken and was feeling disappointed, you will be pleasantly pleased by the chicken-y oomph in the flavor after stirring in the chicken meat.)

- Chop and add greens — I used freshly harvested spinach and dazzling blue kale (very dark green) from the V8 Winter Indoor Garden this time, but I often use frozen greens harvested earlier — probably would have been about 1/2 cup of frozen by this proportion.

I didn’t need to adjust seasoning at all, but by all means adjust to taste. I drizzled some EVOO when serving, but I thought a small part of butter would be good too, as would cream, sour cream, or shredded cheese submerged in the hot soup.

This could have used any number of additional vegs, but I didn’t have any — using tomato sauce is a good way to obtain some of the common background flavors like onions, garlic, carrots, celery, etc. Chicken broth has those background veg flavors, too.


...I mixed the bits and pieces of meat, connective tissues, soft joints, skin, etc. I picked off the bones with a small amount of the cooked rice I saved for them before putting into the soup, mixed with some of the broth that pooled in the bowl under the colander, and voilà! Kitties got their own servings of the chicken/rice for dinner :wink: Don’t worry they get their own kitty vitamin complex for their morning treat... and — at lunch time while I was waiting for the broth to boil — they went crazy for the bit of organ meat that’s always under the back/hip bone, for which I had them sit AND stay — yeah I train them to do tricks :()

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Today’s dinner will be beef chuck short ribs. I started by searing in a blend of coconut oil and toasted sesame oil and then rummaged in the pantry for some red wine that I could sacrifice for this recipe. I had been considering using the gift bottle of blueberry wine that we have not been tempted to open, but It turned out to be a “sweet wine”... but I found something better. :D

This is a local winery-bottled CHERRY wine. I remember buying it because I had heard from somewhere that it is very good, but I had forgotten about it and it has been ‘resting’ in the back wall wine rack of the pantry since —as it turns out— who-knows-when. ...Look, it doesn’t even have the year on the label. :|

I imagined that the cherry wine would go well with the beef regardless of quality, but as it turned out, this is actually a rather good dessert or aperitif wine. Not cloyingly sweet, but sort of back of the tongue sweet, with oaky fullness. I had poured DH a 1/2 glass to try, and he poured himself a full glass for 2nd serving. :>

Extra bay laurel leaves in here will go well with the cherry wine, I think.
Image
...looking forward to tasting the result :wink:

~•~•~•~•~

Image

...I think “decadent” is the only way to describe this. It was so rich and intensely flavorful. :-() A little bit on the sweet side, but DH and I agreed that it was not TOO sweet and could stand as is, though I suggested possibly mustard or hot sauce for individual adjustment.

I cut up a big bowl of finely sliced raw cabbage — the last 1/4 of the big head of cabbage — to help tone down the intensity, and DH grabbed half of the bowl on return round, after initially reluctantly taking a small fingertip pinch the first time :roll: :lol: DD2 who I thought will need convincing wolfed down most of the rest — only reason I got to have some cabbage at all was because the other DD obstinately refused to eat any despite evident enjoyment demonstrated by the rest of us. (Note to self — need more cabbage). I’m thinking I might have gotten away with not bothering to cook in the tougher base/central leaf portions and just finely chopped them to serve raw, but they did add to the rich flavor of the main entree.

I also made a quick pull-apart dinner “rolls” in the rice cooker.

...I think if I can’t find this lovely aged cherry wine in the future, we would have to make-do with either good sherry or maybe port.

...I will have to remember that I also added a small jar of pickled daikon with pickle juice, a jar of aka shiso jelly, and a bunch of dried shiitake stems.

...oh yes, and I did use the inner lid technique —
Image

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This was my Chinese dinner night, though 2 days too late for Chinese new year.

That smoked chicken was fantastic, as always, though I remember now why I don't make it too often! lol I posted the rest of the photos on another thread.
ImageFinished tea smoked chicken. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ants Climb a Tree has always been a favorite of mine - Szechwan dish, with ground pork, as a rule, though I used beef, because I have so much of it! It is tossed with soaked bean thread noodles - the trees, in this dish, and the ground meat is the ants.
ImageFinished ants climb a tree. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I had some stir fried baby bok choy, with the stems cooked about 4 minutes, then the greens just tossed until wilted, then a seasoning sauce added, to glaze it. This is the one dish we finished off!
ImageStir fried bok choy by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I usually don't have desserts with Chinese, but yesterday I made some purple rice pudding in my slow cooker.
ImagePurple rice pudding, before adding coconut milk and pandanus leaf. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

It's a SE Asian dish, but I figured that if anyone was still hungry, I'd have it. Both of my friends were saying that they didn't really want anything, but had to try it, after seeing it. She said to just give them one small bowl, and both would try it out of that, but once they tried it, they wanted more! They were trying to figure out what was in it, but most people haven't tried black sticky rice or pandanus leaves before! lol
ImagePurple rice pudding. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

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I was about to go to sleep... now I’m HUNGRY :lol:

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Here's one of those totally random dishes I came up with, based on a favorite eggplant dish of mine in the summer, with all those fresh veggies.

Tonight was a soup night, and I made a batch of soup based on Caponata, since I was trying to think of something to make with some of that dehydrated eggplant, and that is a favorite eggplant dish of mine. The eggplant is sort of ugly, when rehydrated, but the flavor turned out good, and in something like this, you can't really see the eggplant very much.

First I made the tomato base in the IP. I cooked a couple of diced onions in some olive oil, then added the garlic, and cooked a minute, then added the can of crushed tomatoes, some thyme, and about a can of water, plus about 1/3 c of black and green olives, coarsely chopped, and 1/3 c salted capers, soaked, dried, and coarsely chopped, and 1/3 c soaked raisins (all classic caponata ingredients). I also added some cooked black chick peas, since I had some left in the fridge to use up, and added a half cup of black quinoa, to thicken the liquid some, and some fresh bay leaves. I let that simmer about 35 min., while cooking the remaining veggies.

The eggplant was rehydrated overnight, and I dried it out some, then sautéed it in some olive oil for about 10 min, and removed to a plate. Then I sautéed the cut up red bell peppers for about 6 or 7 min, and added these to the plate. Then I sautéed the celery chunks for about 5 min., and added this to the plate.

When the tomato base was ready, and the quinoa was thickening it, I added the veggies to the tomato base. I let that simmer for about 7 or 8 more minutes, then added some red wine vinegar - stirring and tasting, until I had just enough to give it that caponata flavor. Turned out great!
ImageCaponata based soup by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dish:
ImageCaponata soup by pepperhead212, on Flickr

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applestar
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That looks really good!

— those black ingredients are a surprise — but I like the visual punch and contrast they add to the dish.

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Your Caponata Soup looks sooooooo good, Pepperhead. I am going to have to try making that sometime. Minestrone is my favorite kind of soup. But your Caponata Soup looks like it could be better than Minestrone.

I am too busy to cook much lately, so I was thinking about making apple pie using white bread for the crust. I looked for recipes online and found that there really is such a thing. I think it would be fun to make apple pie that way sometime.

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Crushed Cornflakes and Panko encrusted Pork Tenderloin

- Pork tenderloins lightly salted, then rubbed with ketchup, dried chervil, and chopped fresh rosemary leaves, then rolled in beaten egg and liberally coated with mixture of crushed corn flakes and panko. Baked/roasted in 350°F oven and flipped halfway until done (160°F instant read meat thermometer, then rested to 165-170°F before slicing)
- Mashed potatoes made with golden thin skinned potatoes - peeled, cubed, boiled with enoughwater to cover and sea salt... then pour off 1/2 of liquid and hand mashed with butter (1 Tbs per potato), season to taste.

Image

- Plated with finely sliced cabbage and carrot and sliced polish dills
- malt vinegar, mayonnaise, hot pepper jelly

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It's National Chili Day, so I had to make some...not that I need an excuse! I took 3 lbs of beef cubes from the freezer, but I ended up adding some black beans to them, instead of making a true Texas chili. I half cooked 2 cups of black beans - about 12 min. in the IP, plus 15 minutes pressure release time, and they were still al dente, which was just right for adding to the chili half way through.

Here are the 5 different capsicums I used - one of them sweet paprika.
ImageAll of the capsicums used in the chili. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageSecond half of the beef browning. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageChile caribe, added to the uncooked chili. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageChili, after about an hour of simmering. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageHeating up the tortillas. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I texted a friend this photo, and added that I might have some left, if he stops by tomorrow!
ImageChili, after thickening with masa harina. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageFinished Chili by pepperhead212, on Flickr

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GRILLED STUFFED PEPPERS WITH ITALIAN SAUSAGE.

We decided to make this recipe for dinner using baked potatoes instead of peppers. We did not follow recipe exactly we improvised a bit. Put potatoes in oven first, then cooked 1 lb Italian sausage with, 1 medium onion diced, several garlic chopped in a hot skillet. Next add 1 pint jar of garden tomatoes fire roasted & 1 can 10 oz RO*TEL tomatoes with green chilies & Cilantro. Stir a few seconds then add, red & green garden bell peppers from the freezer. Added 2 tablespoons each, Balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Soy sauce, Red wine.

Remove baked potatoes from the oven cut open the center then push both ends so potato opens up like a bowl or cut potato in 1/2 cover it with your topping. Throw in a spoon butter & some black pepper. Fill the potato with the stuffing mix then top with sour cream & cheddar cheese. This is so GOOD one of our favorites. Sometimes we make BBQ pulled port stiffed baked potatoes, chicken salad baked potatoes, taco salad baked potatoes, BBQ bean stuff baked potatoes, chicken pot pie filling stuffed baked potato, Chili stuffed baked potato, get creative you can put anything in a potato like you would in a bread bowl. Ours is not as beautiful at the picture but it sure is good.
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SOUTHERN style SAUSAGE GRAVY

Cook 2 Jimmy Dean sausage patties in 2 Tablespoons of oil on low heat 300 degrees in electric skillet. Break up sausage in small pieces stir often until meat is cooked golden brown for best flavor. Stir in enough flour to soak up 95% of the oil but oil still needs to be liquid so it can be stirred. Keep stirring white flour until it turns golden brown this gives flour a good roasted flour flavor. Stir in 1/4 cup black coffee optional and some milk about 1/2 cup. Stir well add more milk as needed. Add 1/4 tsp salt. Use pepper grinder to add black pepper, the more you add the more spicy hot and more pepper flavor gravy has. Turn skillet off continue to stir gravy and add more milk to keep it liquid. Gravy becomes thicker as flour soaked up the liquid and gravy cools. When gravy has cooled to about 200 degrees F and the consistency you like pour it over biscuits for breakfast. Also good on, country fried steak, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes and other things.
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This morning’s breakfast, although this works for almost any time - breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, midnight snack....

ochazuke (bowl of rice with ingredients, pour over with tea or broth)

Image

You can’t really see the hunk of smoked salmon in the bottom of the bowl except for what I dug out for the photo, brown rice with dried crust (ideally this would be “okoge” — parched and slightly toasted rice stuck to the bottom and sides of heavy rice pot when cooked on the stove, but in this case, it’s just dried up surface crust from overnight rice in the rice-cooker... heh)... topped with “yuukari” which is crumbled/powdered dried akashiso (red or purple shiso/perilla) leaves and immature seedpods mixed with other herbs and spices — I can’t remember everything I put in this version... commercial ‘shichimi/nanami’ mixed spice blend... freshly toasted and lightly mortar/pestil ground white sesame seeds... a bit of roasted sesame oil... and freshly harvested sweet Spanish or Vidalia (can’t remember which) onion greens from my garage winter indoor garden.

...Did you know sweet onion greens have sweetness to them not found in regular scallions? Indoor grown and growing up against and over the t12 tubes which do not get too hot to burn them, these green onions are tender and sweet even though they are intensely green and appear tough-looking.

For pouring over, I used hot Bancha (fall harvested tea) blended with matcha powder steeped at double strength. Yummy!

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I made a crustless quiche for dinner tonight - something that I haven't made for a long time, but a mention of quiche somewhere made me think of it. I put some chunks of poached salmon in it, some sautéed mushrooms, along with some shallots, to which I added some dill butter, which, it turns out, I should have added more of. I used 6 eggs, a half cup each of milk and crema. Turned out delicious, but after the first small piece only had a small amount of dill flavor, I smeared some of that dill butter all over the remaining quiche, and the flavor was just right.
ImageCrustless quiche w/salmon, mushrooms, and dill. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

This dill butter is very concentrated, which is why I didn't all too much, at first - I didn't want to overpower the dish with dill. I made it with just one stick of butter, and a LARGE amount of dill that I trimmed from my hydro - made over a cup of the dill butter.
ImageConcentrated dill butter by pepperhead212, on Flickr

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I made something today, which was National Coffee Cake Day (not that I need an excuse to bake something!). And I doubt that many people, if any, have seen recipes for it, or made it before. It is a pumpkin bread, which I made with butternut squash flour! I dehydrated a bunch of extra butternuts that I had, and ground them up into a fine flour in the VM. I had only used the flour before in some butternut soups, as a thickener, and it worked well, but I had been thinking about this use since I made the flour.

Here are the photos, and the recipe. The original recipe had dates, rather than prunes, and pumpkin. I used 2 oz oz butternut flour, and 14 oz water, but next time I'll use 13 oz water, as it was a bit thin this time, compared to using canned pumpkin. However, 1 lb of butternut dehydrates to 1 oz, so this was the equivalent of 2 lbs of butternut.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 cups oil
2 large eggs
1 lb canned pumpkin, or 2 oz butternut flour plus 13 oz water
2 cups light brown sugar
8 oz prunes,; cut into quarters
4 oz walnuts; cut into large pieces

A. Butter a 10 c loaf pan, or two 6 c pans, or any combo of smaller ones. Sift together the dry ingredients (I usually do this in the FP), and set aside.

B. In mixer bowl beat the eggs and sugar briefly, then add the oil, followed by the pumpkin. Add the dry ingredients on low, and beat just until flour is mixed in. Fold in the prunes and nuts, and turn into the pan(s). Set aside 15 min. while preheating the oven to 350º (or set in a cold convection oven, and set to 300º).

C. Bake large loaf about 90 min., medium loaves about 70 min., and small loaves about 50 min., or until toothpick comes out clean. let cool in pan 15 min., then turn out onto rack to cool. Flavor improves with a couple days of storage, like all spice breads.

ImageDry ingredients for butternut bread. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageButternut bread, just removed from the oven. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageButternut loaves, cooling. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageSliced butternut bread by pepperhead212, on Flickr

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applestar
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They look amazing! Looks yummy :D

...I never thought of turning extra squash into flour — but wow 1 Lb = 1 Oz?

pepperhead212
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Hard to believe, I know! I always weighed things before and after, when I started dehydrating, just to see what they were reducing to, and what to use, when re-hydrating. Eggplants reduced to 1.35 to 1.45 oz, tomatoes 1 oz, bottle gourds 1 oz. and tomatillos 1.45 oz. I was surprised to see that the butternuts had so much water in them!

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This was one of those dishes I sort of made up as I went along - definitely a random dish!
I harvested some of my bok choy today, and made sort of a Thai style fried rice type dish using some of them, except that I used whole oats, rather than rice, because a friend stopped over that's diabetic, and he's allowed to eat oats (within reason). Turned out great, and, like he said, many people would have just thought that the grains in there were brown rice.

I cooked the oats in the IP, on manual for 5 min, then let the pressure release for about 15 min., while preparing the rest of the ing., then released it the rest of the way. They were done just right, and I poured them into a colander, and rinsed with cold water (would have been better refrigerated, as with leftover rice, but this was sort of a spontaneous dish), and let them drain.

I had 12 oz of thawed ground beef, to which I added 2 thinly sliced scallions (more like 4 or 5, as these were large, and right out of the ground, with no waste!), and 2 tb fish sauce. And I had two green peppers I had to use, so I cut them into about 1/2"x1" pieces. Then I had about 1 1/2 tb each minced garlic and ginger, 4 or 5 c of 1" pieces of bok choy, and a large handful of basil leaves. Then I beat 3 eggs up, to scramble in it later (I really should have done this first - I always forget!). Had all of this together, and once I started, it only took about 4 or 5 min. in the wok.

Here's the photos:
ImageGarlic, ginger, and chili paste cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageGround beef cooked, with peppers added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageBok choy added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageCooked oats added, after bok choy wilted. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageCooking eggs in the center of the wok. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageBasil added, off heat. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageFinished dish - Thai fried oats. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

My friend, whom normally I tone down the heat for in these dishes, asked me if I had any of that "hot fish sauce" (something I always keep on hand, with Thai peppers soaking in fish sauce, in a bottle), which he used to add more heat! Go figure.

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applestar
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Looks delicious — I love that you add so much greens. I do that sometimes too, and it’s amazing how they just shrink and disappear into the rice (or noodles).

Didn’t you mention using whole oat groats in something before? I HAVE to get some and try them!

pepperhead212
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applestar wrote: Didn’t you mention using whole oat groats in something before? I HAVE to get some and try them!
I may have, given all of those grains in my pantry! In the summer I am always adding grains and legumes to pasta salads, to add some fiber and other nutrition, and I always add some sort of grain to those lentil salads that I always seem to have on hand in the summer. A couple of nights ago I made a rissoto type dish, with mushrooms and barley - a great flavor combo, and barley makes a good replacement for rice in that dish, giving more nutrition and flavor.

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Here's another of those oddball grains - freekeh - that most people haven't tried, but it is delicious, with a roasted, smoky flavor, and I use them a lot in these summer salads. I keep them in the freezer in 3 c batches in Foodsaver bags, and in the summer, fill up a jar with them, as I use them up. They are a cracked wheat, so they go rancid, unless frozen, which is why I open just 3 c at a time.

I'm sure I've posted this before, but I made this this batch with the usual chana dal (my favorite lentils for cold dishes), and some French puy lentils, only because I had just enough of those to make 24 oz total, so I emptied out two of the containers on my pantry shelf! I also added my usual freekeh - my favorite whole grain in this, as it has a roasted, smoky flavor. Besides the large amount of tomatoes, it has well over a cup of chives and garlic chives, and at least as much cilantro, plus some feta and slivered almonds. Oh yeah, some habaneros...
ImageChana dal, puy lentils, and freekeh, slow cooked for salad. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageAji Dulce and Chocolate Habanero, for salad by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageHabaneros, minced for salad by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageFeta, to be diced up for salad. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageOverflowing quart of cherry tomatoes, for salad. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageLentil salad, completely mixed. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

ImageFinished lentil salad by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The Aji dulce have almost no heat, so I used those for half, as you can see above, because a friend of mine, who has gotten a little reluctant to eat some of my hot things in recent years, still loves them, so I've made some milder.

imafan26
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I need to cut even more salt from my diet.

I need a recipe for a salt free herb blend?

Have you got a raita or salt free salsa type recipe that I can use as a condiment instead of shoyu or ketchup, which I really love but has too much salt.

I'm thinking maybe some peppers, onions, mushrooms, garlic, carrots? What kind of herbs would go with that?

Something fruit based might work citrus, raisins, blueberries, or peaches?

I can use sugar as a substitute for salt but I do not like vinegar, lemon(as the main flavoring), mustard, or very spicy foods.

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The responses should be interesting, Imafan :) . Aaannd, you should be able to have some a good deal more helpful than mine :wink: .

However, I had to make some changes because of a chronic illness in my family, several years ago. This year, my 101 year old father stayed with us for 3 months. It was not all that difficult for me to switch back to a low sodium diet during that time. (Altho, I was sneaking some crackers every now and then ... got by on cream cheese, however. It's much lower in sodium than the aged types.)

First off, lots of people use Mrs. Dash for seasoning food ... salt-free.

What do you think about making your own "barbecue" sauce? I suggested a recipe to Taiji in his 2019 HG thread. If you don't have rhubarb, realize that peaches make a super tasty bbq sauce. Leaving out the salt and a reduction of Worchestersire sauce might be considered.
digitS' wrote:...
Here's one that I liked real well. Smoked paprika instead of liquid smoke and dried chipotle pepper seemed a reasonable substitute (LINK).
Steve

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Za'atar and herbes de provence are two herb mixes that come to mind, but, as with any seasoning mix bought, they can add salt, so beware!

If you are looking for a sour component, if you are making up your own mix, sumac and dried tamarind are two sour additions you can use, or dried mango powder, a.k.a. amchur, in Indian groceries.

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Do you use sea salt already? Just like white sugar vs. less~unprocessed raw sugar, white table salt with anti-caking agents vs. more complex flavors of natural sea salt makes a difference. I haven’t tried this yet, but smoked sea salt sounds like a way to add even more intense flavor from less salt?

I think part of it is also training to / learning to appreciate subtle flavors of individual ingredients in the meal, but I imagine you are doing that already. And agree sour is definitely a flavor that enriches. Selection of vinegars plus freshly squeezed or frozen, or not from concentrate bottled various citrus juices. Pepperhead brought up some ideas I have not had chance to fully explore yet.

...then I guess it’s a question of adding more umami — have you tried dehydrated mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers/paprika? Various seaweeds/vegetables.... caramelizing or roasting vegetables before using in a dish....? Using different oils according to taste or whim — my regular selection are EVOO, Sunflower and/or Safflower, roasted sesame, extra virgin coconut, and unsalted butter. I get other oils sometimes, too.

imafan26
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I have tried Mrs Dash and Nu Salt before and I did not like it. I tried it again, this time, I used a lot more Mrs. Dash and a little of the NuSalt. It was not bad together. NuSalt by itself has an aftertaste I don't like and before I did not use enough of the dried herb blend to notice any of the flavor. It is less salt than I normally have, because I left the ketchup off, but it did have a flavor.

I have used Herbs de Provence in cooking along with bouquet garni and fines herbs, but I never thought of using them as condiments. So that is something to try. I do not know of zataar but I can look it up and see what is in it. I do like Trader Joe's salt free seasoning mix, but I can only get that when someone comes back from the mainland and brings me some. I might try to see what other salt free mixes are available, but I may have to go to amazon to get them.

Lemon pepper is ok, it has a little more lemon tang than I like.

I also make flavored butters. Garlic honey butter and herb butters may be other options. I wonder if I can add tomatoes, peppers, or mushrooms to an herb butter? I never attempted that.

I do like roasted vegetables and I probably could make that more. It just does not keep very well. I add wine and fresh herbs to my roasted meats and vegetables and that does improve the flavor so I don't need to add so much salt. I like the dried shitake mushrooms and I have added the mushroom water sometimes instead of broth. I have dried tomatoes but I only have used them for one pasta recipe. I need to find more ways to use it.

I do like to have onions, carrots, peppers sauteed in unsalted butter and a little bit of wine and worcestershire sauce as a side dish.

I do have Himalayan, Kosher, Sea Salt, and Hawaiian salt. I don't use any of them very much since I leave any salt ingredient out of most of the recipes. I do substitute honey a lot for salt or sugar since it has a different flavor and honey is much sweeter than sugar.

I don't cook in oils much and for the most part. I use either bacon fat or unsalted butter. Rarely do I use canola oil. I do have coconut and EVOO and I rarely use those either. My cholesterol actually went down using saturated fat instead. I don't use a lot since I don't cook things that need a lot of oil to begin with.

The barbeque sauce recipe sounds good, rhubarb is not easy to get here, what else could I substitute? Actually, I usually use Apricot pineapple jam on roasts and cook using mandarin oranges, peaches, apples, applesauce, and their juices on roasted or baked proteins.

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Apricots should be a very good substitute in a BBQ sauce, Imafan. That is a fruit that I am especially fond of. The trees do well here.

We often have a very simple garnish using cherry tomatoes, cilantro, green onions and powdered garlic. Tabasco sauce added at last. First the tomatoes go in the toaster oven with the setting on broil. Turned and skins removed. Green onions go in until nicely wilted. Cilantro only needs a moment or 2.

Everything, including the garlic powder and Tabasco - into the blender for a quick spin then served as a garnish on the plate.

Steve

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I like fruit based sauces. I think I might substitute if for the rhubarb. Thanks.



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