searchingforsustenance

[searchingforsustenance]

Pasta e fagioli-ish-ish

It started with wanting to make beans and pasta and ended with some beans and pasta in a giant pot. Vegetarian, cochon supplied via bowl.

Quantity filled up a full 6qt dutch oven

-- Ingredients --

Navy beans (soaked overnight) (1lb) Yellow onion Herbs (rosemary, oregano, pepper; bay leaves, didn’t have any thyme) Salt Baking soda(?)

Farfalle pasta noodlies Can of chopped? tomatoes (can’t remember the state of the tomatoes; medium sized, something like 20oz) Tomato paste (as needed; used half of one of those tiny cans) White mushrooms Carrots (not enough) Celery (always need more) Frozen spinach (final form looked like it needed some more veg so freezer scavenging required) -- Process --

tl;dr cook beans, cook pasta in bean water, add veg, mix everything together.

* Cook beans. Add all ingredients to dutch oven, cook until beans are soft to your liking. Pictured are slightly overcooked/too soft. Read somewhere that salt in the water makes the beans more plump while cooking (which was defeated by the power of overcooking, so might as well omit salt). Supposedly adding some baking soda reduces the gassiness power of the beanies, but who knows. A lot of foam appeared for skimming, and most of it was probably the baking soda. * Remove beans to bowl with slotted spoon. Don’t touch the cooking liquid!

* Partial (~2/3-3/4ths of the way) cook pasta in bean cooking liquid. Add more water as needed.

* Add canned tomato and paste, carrots, and any other longer-cooking vegetables

* When long-cooking veg are ~2/3-3/4ths cooked, add the quick-cooking vegetables and the beans.

* (Optional) Add some nice olive oil to pot, or only when serving. Maybe some cheese or nutritional yeast or anything else you like with your tomato-y pastas.

Final texture in pot was still a little soupy, but give it a tiny bit of time and it will thicken up into a nice stewy pasta dish (those pasta noodles have such high capacity for liquid absorption). Definitely not enough vegetables present. Add more when reheating/serving.

There was supposed to be some white wine added but the bottle was left forgotten in the fridge, and the dish was instead served with a fairly bland Chianti, purchased for the express purpose of pickling some beets.

[searchingforsustenance]

Chocolate mousse cake with vanilla sables, no eggs

An eggless cake.

chocolate mousse on the cake: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/12/eggless-chocolate-mousse.html original idea: https://www.kerenruben.com/cakes-and-desserts/espresso-caramel-entremet-multi-layer-mousse-cake/%20/ crunchy cookie: https://bakeschool.com/how-to-bake-with-vanilla/ fruit jam was just some frozen fruit, put on stovetop, boil with a little water, sugar, and acid (used apple cider vinegar, oftentimes people use lemon juice) chocolate ganache: slightly more chocolate than heavy cream by weight; heat cream until it is nice and hot, then pour over chocolate to melt. Mix well, let cool to desired pouring consistency.

Individual parts didn’t take too long to make and weren’t particularly difficult. The mousse did need some tending to, as it had a tendency to bubble up. You reduce the liquid by about half, and whilst pouring the ingredients into the pot, a bright idea appeared: use a knife or offset spatula or chopstick as a ruler.

The cookie layers may have been overworked or overbaked. They were rather hard.

The cake rested overnight in the freezer to set. Ganache doused it the following day. The ganache did begin to break because chocolate was added to the pot of hot cream instead of pouring the cream into a cold/room temp bowl of chocolate...wanted the pouring ability of the pot for dumping over the cake...

Day 1 and 2, the cake was hard enough to be eaten like an ice cream sandwich.

Day 3, the cookie and mousse were both quite a bit softer, with the mousse squeezing out the sides when being bitten.

If you freeze the mousse, you get ice cream. It tastes just like chocolate soft serve.

Slightly odd textures and visuals aside, the cake was really quite tasty.

[searchingforsustenance]

Slightly questionable sourdough deep dish vegetarian pizza

A sudden craving for buttery rich deep dish pizza hit over the weekend, and flour was finally replenished in the house, so no reason to hold back on baking gluten-filled goods.

It had been a long while since Sourdough Sam was last used, and unfortunately, a single refreshing was not enough to satiate the bloke.

Dough

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/a-simple-focaccia/ replaced ~10g water with honey; added ~1tsp instant yeast (not measured); added ~80g whole wheat flour, then the rest of the “bread” flour was all purpose + some random amount of vital wheat gluten (~1-2tbsp ??)

“Italian sausage seasoning”

Lots and lots of fennel seed (it’s what makes the “italian sausage” flavour)

Smoked paprika, red chili flakes, chipotle (wanted more smokey + spicey), black pepper

Italian seasoning (oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, etc.)

Garlic powder

“Italian” bean “sausage”

Great northern beans

Tiny bit of chickpeas for added texture (optional)

Onion flakes, red wine vinegar, homemade mayo (fat, optional, probably didn’t contribute anything but trying to use up this mayo container), “Italian sausage seasoning”

Quick tomato sauce

Tomato paste

Onion, garlic, italian seasoning

Bean liquid (from chickpeas, northern beans) or water or any broth

Fillings

eggplant and crimini mushroom tossed in “italian sausage seasoning” + olive oil

broccoli roasted with fennel-caraway-chili flake preserved lemons (~2 months old)

great northern bean “italian sausage”, baked in a flat layer together with the broccoli

tomato sauce

red onions (raw)

capers (soaked in water to rinse off some of the saltiness)

Instructions

To make the seasoning, mix all ingredients together loosely. Doesn’t have to be perfectly distributed since everything will continue to be tossed and mixed up at later stages.

To make the “sausage”, cook great northern beans until fairly mushy (this instance was a 8 minute quick soak in the instant pot with a change of water before a 35 minute regular high pressure cook + 45 minutes of sitting around after the timer is ended; most definitely could shorten the time by a lot if there is a time crunch). Mash beans into rough paste (used back of slotted spoon), add some chickpeas if the texture is too pastey, mix in seasoning. Bake in rough flat layer together with any roasted filling to dry it out and become a little crumbly (since Italian sausage is crumbled, not a strange paste/flat thick layer)

To make the roasted veg fillings, toss veg in seasonings, spread on tray, and roast at 425-450F for 20-50m.

To make the tomato sauce, gently sweat (or caramelize) onion, garlic, tomato paste, and seasonings, and then add liquid as needed to thin it out. Let cook a bit to meld flavours and then turn off heat so it isn’t too hot when added to the pizza.

Make the focaccia following whatever recipe. 1+hrs before the dough is ready for baking, roast up the fillings and make the sauce. Layer everything together and bake at 425-450 for ~30m.

---

Thoughts on the dish

Definitely not enough sauce. Instead of pouring solely on top, the sauce should be layered like a lasagna.

How to cook with preserved lemon? This first time ever, the salt on outside was brushed off, but the salt stuffed into the lemon was forgotten, and the entire lemon chopped up, tossed with the broccoli, and baked. A real salt fest. Maybe the lemon needs to be rinsed ... but does that make the lemon lose most of its flavour?

The onion on top could possibly be (quick) pickled to give some real tang and counter all the salt. Not that there was any salt added to anything except for a minimal amount in the dough and the lemon. A single small lemon.

Due to the sauce not percolating down the pie as desired, the “bean sausage” and all the fillings were slightly on the dry side. Will be making more sauce to douse leftovers when consuming throughout the week.

Focaccia != deep dish dough. Due to Sourdough Sam’s illness, the dough was probably 90% risen through instant yeast, and you couldn’t taste any sourdough tang. Why did the bottom crust become super thin crust though while the edges became nice and properly thick? The texture (of the outer edge) was something of a cross between a thin-crust pizza and a buttery rich deep dish, which was quite nice, though definitely more on the Crispy side of the scale from Crispy to Flakey/Buttery. The flatmate prefers very flakey/buttery/rich deep dish dough.

Following the grams measurements in the Perfect Loaf recipe, using 2/3rds the dough was still way too much for the cast iron pan (9 or 10in? will measure One of these days). An extra third of the cast iron dough was removed and placed into another container to make two separate containers of plain focaccia (which is wonderful standalone ...)

A nice drink to counter the salt festival. (Flat) Rose, limoncello, lime, gin, fresh rosemary.

The two containers of regular focaccia. Round tin has olive oil, fresh rosemary, sesame seeds, oregano, and sumac. The square container is just olive oil and fresh rosemary.

[searchingforsustenance]

Flourless banana chocolate chip mini muffins

Roughly following the attached EatingWell recipe. Coarsely ground rolled oats into a flour using a mortar and pestle, and used one chia and one flax seed egg instead of the eggs called for. No baking soda (none in the house), minimal addition of sugar, and two defrosted bananas (which looked like they sat in a large puddle of light brown liquid--a very different texture from normal bananas, even after mashing, and it was the first time using defrosted bananas).

The muffin tin was well oiled, and the muffins come out completely clean. They might still do so without oiling. Perhaps an experiment for next time. Would be nice to get more mileage out of this mini muffin tin, if it weren’t for being a real hassle to clean and constantly worrying about goods not popping out.

https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/269493/flourless-banana-chocolate-chip-mini-muffins/

Image: Close up of a mini muffin on a fork against a slightly blurred background of the filled and baked mini muffin tin. Visible oat chunks and three chocolate chips.

[searchingforsustenance]

Coconut sticky rice with mango

Thai sticky rice

Coconut milk

Mango

Steam 1c Thai long grain sticky rice with ~1.25c water in instant pot for ~13m, natural release for 15m, remove from pot. Warm up coconut milk while rice is cooking (if think is OK, just warm right before using, or try to gently reduce while rice is cooking--can optionally add in some sugar and any pandan etc. flavourings and cornstarch to thicken). Stir in coconut milk and let sit to absorb liquid. Serve warm or cold with mango, optional sesame seeds, and optional additional coconut milk or condensed milk.

https://whattocooktoday.com/instant-pot-thai-coconut-mango-sticky-rice-khao-niao-mamuang.html

Image of a ball of coconut sticky rice in a white bowl with mango squares surrounding it and placed on top, garnished with black and white sesame seeds.

[searchingforsustenance]

Roasted veg with lemon pepper

Yukon gold potato

Yellow squash. Never purchased and cooked before. Tasted quite a bit like a winter squash, particularly of the winter squash rind flavour, as compared to a courgette.

Onion

Carrot

Tomato

Butternut squash gnocchi straight from the freezer (bad idea, top just became a dry burn while the bottom was fine)

Just a simple sheet pan roast of items in the home. Tossed with olive oil and lemon pepper seasoning and roasted at 450F for half an hour. The questionable homemade mayo dripped upon it and parsley used to garnish. Can skip the mayo.

[searchingforsustenance]

Green split pea and courgette soup

A very green pureed soup that took much too long to make. Toasted snacking nuts garnish on a whim. Undercooked split green peas are very bitter. If you have a proper blender, you can blend everything together at once, otherwise take turns blending and adding things to blend with an immersion blender.

Recipe: Green veg + Citrus + Pepper/Spices + Green Herb + Liquid

1 pot. 1hr 15m. :(.

Courgette, celery (3-5m)

Onion, fenugreek, celery seeds, black pepper, olive oil (3-5m)

Dry split green peas (40m + 5m; some say they cook in 25m...); Used approx. 1c peas and 4c water (cooked in 2.5c water but needed extra during blending stage to thin soup out). Water easily swappable with broth.

Parsley, avocado; Avocado happened to be lying around, mostly just adds richness and more green colour (though this one was a bit brown), similar to adding cream or tangy dairy (Greek, Icelandic yaourt yogurt, kefir, sour cream, etc.)

Lemon, red wine vinegar (better to use all lemon/lime, but there was a sad lack of citrus; white balsamic vinegar would have been better than red wine vinegar)

Chopped toasted almonds and pecans

Quick saute courgette and celery to brighten their hue. Set aside. Saute onions briefly to sweeten (but don’t brown unless you do not care about the ending soup colour), add in any spices for a flash sweating, then add water (or broth etc.) and dry split peas. Cook until almost tender (about 5 minutes before fully cooked; try not to overcook or the soup will become a less-than-appetising brown colour; reserve the extra cooking time so that the soup will be hot by the time you are done blending everything), then swap between pureeing and adding in the set aside celery/courgette, parsley, avocado, and acids (lemon, vinegar, etc.). Blend until desired consistency (ideally silky smooth within 5 minutes, but 20 minutes with the immersion blender resulted in settling).

Fill bowl, top with chopped nuts, celery leaves, olive oil, black pepper...

There was some slight overcoooking of the soup/peas (mostly due to the blending taking much longer than expected), but luckily, the green did not become too grey/brown. Definitely needed a lot more pepper (red chili flakes?) and citrus.

[searchingforsustenance]

Masoor dal-inspired stewed lentils

3 pots, 2 for lentils dish and one for brown rice. Brown rice will take 5-10m longer to be ready than the lentils, so start it slightly earlier. Cut some of the veg in the mean time, then start the lentils and the sauteed veg. Red lentils are very forgiving of being overcooked.

Total time: 45m including all cleanup (minus the pots containing lentils and rice). Ready to sit down and eat without a mountain of dishes awaiting.

Red lentils

Group 1: ginger, onion, coconut oil

Group 2: garlic, thai chili pepper, turmeric, black mustard seed, yellow curry powder, cumin

Group 3: tomato, mushroom, celery, carrot

Cook red lentils in water (or broth) until soft and still holds their shape but just barely. Ensure there isn't much liquid remaining, else you will need to cook it away. The sauteed veg will contribute plenty of liquid.

Saute group 1 until soft and fragrant, add group 2 for half a minute to become fragrant, then group 3 to sweat the veg and stew down a bit of liquid. Mix into lentils, simmer for a few minutes, season additionally if needed, serve over rice (or with naan or nadatall).

[searchingforsustenance]

Potato zucchini mayo pizza

Pizza with the final frozen ball of that eater pizza dough recipe. Stretched until the dough is se through because it was a very small ball of dough. Held up remarkably well, only central area fell apart.

Mayo and dijon mustard as base

Yukon gold potato, zucchini, crimini mushroom, onion

Red pepper flakes, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, oregano, thyme

Mammoth basil

Baked at 475F for 15m.

Dinner 15 January 2021

[searchingforsustenance]

Egg (Celery?) salad

Our housemate donated this odd, miniature baguette-like bread that came with his steak take-out meal from Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. The bread is not particularly good, and it was sliced much too thickly, but it served a purpose.

There’s probably a lot more celery in this salad than anything else.

Eggs. Steamed in the Instant Pot for 5 minutes, removed immediately upon timer going off, and plunged into ice water. Came out like a perfect slightly gooey ramen egg but not the perfect hard-boiled egg. Next time will try 6 minutes.

Celery. Carrots. White onion (had half of one lying around and didn’t want to open up a new red onion). Sliced thinly.

Mayo. One raw egg blended up with dijon mustard, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar, using an immersion blender. Came out a little bitter, perhaps due to using the blender on too high a setting (got impatient after thirty seconds because of hunger). Not completely inedible though, just cover it up with more citrus and spice.

Caraway, smoked paprika, cayenne, chipotle and ancho powder, white and black pepper, dijon mustard.

Dinner 11 January 2021

[searchingforsustenance]

Mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, and some smoked oysters

First time trying smoked oysters of any sort, much less tinned. They were rather flavourless, mostly smokey, some faint amount of oyster flavour, and an odd slightly rubbery, quite sturdy texture. Tinning was simply olive oil, no extra salt.

Mashed sweet and yukon gold potatoes (instant pot steamed for 10 minutes). Paprika, cayenne, garlic powder

A fantastic gravy, following ingredients list from https://www.noracooks.com/easy-vegan-gravy/. Broth made from boiling water with dried shiitake mushrooms, then mixing in garlic powder, onion flakes, lots of coarse dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, and rice flour. Cooked until gravy consistency.

Vegetables (carrots, broccoli, onion) roasted @ 450 for maybe 20 minutes. Olive oil, cayenne, paprika, and cajun spice blend.

Dinner: 10 January 2021

[searchingforsustenance]

Chickpeas cooked in green salsa with corncakes

Despite looking like some Indian chickpea daal, this is in fact very Mexican/South American flavoured.

Chickpeas cooked in the last of the green salsa via Instant Pot for 35m + a few minutes to reduce the sauce. Sauce level was maybe 1.5cm above the chickpeas, and surprisingly the chickpeas were well cooked, not too dry from lack of liquid.

Shaved carrots and celery, undressed. Shaved using vegetable peeler, making quick work of the task. Could alternatively dress them up in some light vinaigrette or swap out for curtido  etc. Needed a veg.

Pickled red onions from Xmas

Enchilada sauce, last bit of the batch

Corn cakes. Mix masa harina with a wee bit of salt and oil, and enough water to form a dough that is flexible and won’t crack too badly when squished flat. Cook on hot pan. Like a thick tortilla.

Green onions as garnish

Made: 7 January 2021 for dinner.

[searchingforsustenance]

Chocolate dipped coconut macaroons

May 2, 2020.

Coconut macaroons are quite easy to make. Mix shredded coconut (unsweetened) with some binder and sugar (egg whites and sugar in the first link, condensed milk in the second), and bake. Dipping the bottom in chocolate is magical.

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/coconut-macaroons/

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/quick-and-easy-coconut-macaroons-recipe#easy-coconut-macaroon-recipe use regular condensed milk or make your own coconut condensed milk.

[searchingforsustenance]

Red bean pancakes

Like 葱油饼except red bean. 豆沙饼？

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/red-bean-paste-pancake/

Made: Nov 24, 2020

[searchingforsustenance]

Sourdough pizza, Eater recipe

Attempt 2 after two days in the fridge

Dough: https://www.eater.com/21400316/sourdough-pizza-dough-how-to-at-home

Would not recommend. It came out too soggy/weak compared to the Bon Appetit recipe (though it also took less time to make)

Made: May 24, 2020

[searchingforsustenance]

Miso braised eggplant and bok choy

Just a simple braise.

Sauce: miso, ginger, sake, mirin, hot water, chili garlic sauce

Finish: trader joe's yuzu hot sauce

Heat skillet. Place eggplant skin side down. Flip. Add bok choy and pour sauce. Cook off most of the sauce. Broil. Served with rice and some hot sauce.

Added bok choy a little too early and made a little too much sauce so it got a little overcooked. Maybe should thicken sauce a tiny bit.

Cooked: Nov 23, 2020

[searchingforsustenance]

Whole wheat persimmon and pear quick bread

A classical no measuring lazy quick bread. Came out a bit wet still, which makes it perfect for consuming straight from the freezer but less so from the counter.

Whole wheat flour, Rolled oats 3 Fuyu persimmons peeled and coarsely chopped/mashed (varying degrees of ripeness), 1 half-bruised Bartlett pear “Buttermilk” made by mixing whole milk with apple cider vinegar, except the milk did not curdle (?) Chia seeds Apple sauce, splash of sugar Ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, touch of chipotle, vanilla, molasses Baking powder

Baked at 350F for 1.5hr in a gold/bronze loaf pan.

It did not rise.