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| Red Papaya and Kimchi Salad |
Per serving:
1 c fresh, unripe papaya, peeled and grated
handful of ripe red plum or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c homemade kimchi
1-2 tbsp papaya salad dressing
Toss it all together in a bowl and eat.
Red Papaya and Kimchi Salad
Today, my salad has taken on a red theme. With the papaya salad dressing, it is slightly sweet and mildly spicy. I didn't even have to beat up green beans for this salad. That coupled with the inability to find fresh bean sprouts at the grocery store also prompted a different spin on papaya salad. I used a food processor's cheese grating disc (larger holes) to grate the entire papaya. This took about two minutes. Much better than grating it by hand.
Per serving:
1 c fresh, unripe papaya, peeled and grated
handful of ripe red plum or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c homemade kimchi
1-2 tbsp papaya salad dressing
Toss it all together in a bowl and eat.
Per serving:
1 c fresh, unripe papaya, peeled and grated
handful of ripe red plum or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c homemade kimchi
1-2 tbsp papaya salad dressing
Toss it all together in a bowl and eat.
Papaya Salad Dressing
I picked up an unripe red papaya from Trader Joe's the other day ($3.29 each large). It's typically used ripened, either as an eating fruit, in fruit cocktail, or sweetened and dried in a tropical trail mix. I thought it might be a good option for a papaya salad. I'm sure it's done. Most papaya salads call for shredded green papaya; I'm assuming that the flesh stays green through the ripening phase. The partially ripened red papaya looks like an evening sunset, mostly yellow on the outer part and that characteristic salmon red color towards the center. The papaya yielded about 4 tablespoons of seeds.
Ingredients
1 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c rice vinegar
2 tbsp fresh papaya seeds
1 tbsp raw honey
2 scallions, white part only, minced
1 tsp dry mustard -or- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
pinch of sea salt
Directions
In the bowl of a food processor, add all ingredients except for the oil. Turn the food prep on and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the dressing emulsifies.
Ingredients
1 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c rice vinegar
2 tbsp fresh papaya seeds
1 tbsp raw honey
2 scallions, white part only, minced
1 tsp dry mustard -or- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
pinch of sea salt
Directions
In the bowl of a food processor, add all ingredients except for the oil. Turn the food prep on and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the dressing emulsifies.
Kitchen Notes: Cost to Make One Quart Almond Milk
People buy commercially available alternative milks because they believe it is healthier and as a convenience food. Here's the cost breakdown for the previous almond milk post:
1 c almond meal = $1.27
1 tsp vanilla extract = $0.06
2 Medjool dates = $0.35
Total base cost: $1.33 per quart, unsweetened -or- $1.68 per quart, sweetened
About the same price as Trader Joe's private label unsweetened almond milk but without the fillers and vegetable-based thickeners.
- One 16 oz bottle of vanilla extract (from Costco, $6/bottle) = 96 teaspoons = $0.06/tsp
- 1 lb almond meal (from Trader Joe's, $6/lb) = 4.72 cups = $1.27/cup
- 2 Medjool dates (from Trader Joe's, $4.49/lb) = 1.25 oz = $0.35
- Assume cost of water is negligible
1 c almond meal = $1.27
1 tsp vanilla extract = $0.06
2 Medjool dates = $0.35
Total base cost: $1.33 per quart, unsweetened -or- $1.68 per quart, sweetened
About the same price as Trader Joe's private label unsweetened almond milk but without the fillers and vegetable-based thickeners.
Almond Milk Chia Beverage
I got tired of buying cans of 60% coconut cream. There are a few still in the pantry, but I thought I should try to make my afternoon chia beverage out of something other than coconut milk. This is what I did with the quart of almond milk I just made.
Per half-pint mason jar:
1 tbsp organic chia seeds
1 tsp raw honey
1 c fresh almond milk
Stir it together, then lid and band the jar. Put in fridge until later. Give it another stir or shake the jar before drinking.
If you want to make "pudding" out of this, simply double the amount of chia seeds.
Per half-pint mason jar:
1 tbsp organic chia seeds
1 tsp raw honey
1 c fresh almond milk
Stir it together, then lid and band the jar. Put in fridge until later. Give it another stir or shake the jar before drinking.
If you want to make "pudding" out of this, simply double the amount of chia seeds.
How to Make Vanilla Almond Milk from Scratch
My biggest gripe about the rising trend in alternative "milk" beverages are all the fillers that are in an 8 oz glass of it. Take a look at the fillers in these almond milk brands:
Silk: Natural Flavor, Locust Bean Gum, Sunflower Lecithin, Gellan Gum. Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin E Acetate, Zinc Gluconate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D2
What the hell is "natural flavor" as its own ingredient??
Blue Diamond: Evaporated Cane Juice, Calcium Carbonate, Sea Salt, Potassium Citrate, Carrageenan, Sunflower Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, D-Alpha-Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E)
So Delicious: Dried Cane Syrup, Pea Protein, Rice Protein, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Phosphate, Carrageenan, Natural Flavor, Locust Bean Gum, Kosher Sea Salt, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D-2, L-Selenomethionine (Selenium), Zinc Oxide, Folic Acid, Vitamin B-12
Protein powder?? WTF!
Pacific Almond: Dried Cane Syrup, Potassium Citrate, Sea Salt, Carrageenan, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2
Trader Joe's: Tricalcium Phosphate, Sea Salt, Gellan Gum, Dipotassium Phosphate, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavors, Sunflower Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, Dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E)
Hands down, if you can handle cow's milk, it is the only way to go for ice cream, milk shakes, pudding, cheese, etc. When you look at the packing for organic milk, it has one ingredient: organic milk. No fillers, nada. Just juice squeezed out of cow udders. Anyhow, I think I'm going to post a homemade almond milk recipe now.
Silk: Natural Flavor, Locust Bean Gum, Sunflower Lecithin, Gellan Gum. Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin E Acetate, Zinc Gluconate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D2
What the hell is "natural flavor" as its own ingredient??
Blue Diamond: Evaporated Cane Juice, Calcium Carbonate, Sea Salt, Potassium Citrate, Carrageenan, Sunflower Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, D-Alpha-Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E)
So Delicious: Dried Cane Syrup, Pea Protein, Rice Protein, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Phosphate, Carrageenan, Natural Flavor, Locust Bean Gum, Kosher Sea Salt, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D-2, L-Selenomethionine (Selenium), Zinc Oxide, Folic Acid, Vitamin B-12
Protein powder?? WTF!
Pacific Almond: Dried Cane Syrup, Potassium Citrate, Sea Salt, Carrageenan, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2
Trader Joe's: Tricalcium Phosphate, Sea Salt, Gellan Gum, Dipotassium Phosphate, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavors, Sunflower Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, Dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E)
Hands down, if you can handle cow's milk, it is the only way to go for ice cream, milk shakes, pudding, cheese, etc. When you look at the packing for organic milk, it has one ingredient: organic milk. No fillers, nada. Just juice squeezed out of cow udders. Anyhow, I think I'm going to post a homemade almond milk recipe now.
Vinegar Pie
Happy Pi Day!
This recipe hit my radar when I was reading up on pies that people make for Pi Day (March 14). I really didn't know what I wanted to make; but I did know I wanted to make something I hadn't made before. This recipe originates from the mid-19th century and counts as a pioneer style of baking (think Little House on the Prairie). The recipe ratio comes from Michigan's MLive article on the same topic.
Ingredients
1 pre-baked coconut flour pie crust
2 large eggs
1 c organic granulated sugar, divided
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 c cold filtered water
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
ground cinnamon, for dusting
organic whipped cream, optional
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
1. Whisk together eggs and 1/4 c sugar in a bowl.
2. Attach a candy thermometer to the pot. In a heavy pot, sift together tapioca starch and 3/4 c sugar. Add cold water and vinegar. Whisk together and bring boil until the sugar dissolves. While whisking, add egg mixture in a slow stream. Cook over medium heat until the custard registers 175 degrees F on the cooking thermometer.
3. Remove from heat and pour into pie shell. Cover rim with a pie shield or aluminum foil. The hot pie plate was too much for me and I just let the crust get really dark without either method in play. Bake until the pie filling is set, 15-20 minutes.
4. Let cool completely on a rack. Dust evenly with ground cinnamon.
In this case, mine was still wobbly after cooling on a rack; so I let it chill in the refrigerator and then dusted it with ground cinnamon.
[Update: This one of the worst recipes I have ever made. It's too sweet. The filling is like a runny not-quite-soury meringue that sat out for too long on a hot day. This pie ranks up there with tuna casserole. Don't make it. Well, if you do, don't overbake the coconut crust because that thing gets rock hard!]
This recipe hit my radar when I was reading up on pies that people make for Pi Day (March 14). I really didn't know what I wanted to make; but I did know I wanted to make something I hadn't made before. This recipe originates from the mid-19th century and counts as a pioneer style of baking (think Little House on the Prairie). The recipe ratio comes from Michigan's MLive article on the same topic.
 |
| Unbaked pie crust, filled pie crust, baked pie, finished pie with cinnamon dusting |
Ingredients
1 pre-baked coconut flour pie crust
2 large eggs
1 c organic granulated sugar, divided
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 c cold filtered water
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
ground cinnamon, for dusting
organic whipped cream, optional
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
1. Whisk together eggs and 1/4 c sugar in a bowl.
2. Attach a candy thermometer to the pot. In a heavy pot, sift together tapioca starch and 3/4 c sugar. Add cold water and vinegar. Whisk together and bring boil until the sugar dissolves. While whisking, add egg mixture in a slow stream. Cook over medium heat until the custard registers 175 degrees F on the cooking thermometer.
3. Remove from heat and pour into pie shell. Cover rim with a pie shield or aluminum foil. The hot pie plate was too much for me and I just let the crust get really dark without either method in play. Bake until the pie filling is set, 15-20 minutes.
4. Let cool completely on a rack. Dust evenly with ground cinnamon.
In this case, mine was still wobbly after cooling on a rack; so I let it chill in the refrigerator and then dusted it with ground cinnamon.
[Update: This one of the worst recipes I have ever made. It's too sweet. The filling is like a runny not-quite-soury meringue that sat out for too long on a hot day. This pie ranks up there with tuna casserole. Don't make it. Well, if you do, don't overbake the coconut crust because that thing gets rock hard!]
Coconut Flour Pie Crust
Coconut oil is solid at room temperature and makes it challenging to work with when a recipe calls for more than a tablespoon. I have 16 oz glass jars of organic coconut oil. I suppose that if I ever buy that humongous container from Costco, I would have to move it all into glass containers. I put the jar in a pot of water over medium heat. After a few minutes, enough of the coconut oil liquefied and to pour out what is needed instead of having to guesstimate the solid to liquid ratio. I have gotten many ideas about raw coconuts (like how to make coconut
products from scratch with whole coconuts) from the Coconut Mamma blog. This recipe ratio is hers and I like its simplicity.
Like an almond flour pie crust, this one is hard to gauge how thick it is when you pat it down into a 9" pie plate. Given how it bakes, this pastry is only good for the bottom of the pie.
Ingredients
1/2 c organic coconut oil, melted
2 eggs
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 c organic coconut flour
2 tbsp raw honey
Directions
In a large bowl (or food prep), beat together eggs, coconut oil, honey, and salt. Add coconut flour and stir until the dough holds together. Gather into a ball and pat into a 9" pie plate.
Prick the dough with a fork. (Sadly, this does not stop the pastry from rising from steam.)
Bake 10 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Let cool before using.
 |
| Unbaked Coconut Flour Pie Crust |
Like an almond flour pie crust, this one is hard to gauge how thick it is when you pat it down into a 9" pie plate. Given how it bakes, this pastry is only good for the bottom of the pie.
Ingredients
1/2 c organic coconut oil, melted
2 eggs
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 c organic coconut flour
2 tbsp raw honey
Directions
In a large bowl (or food prep), beat together eggs, coconut oil, honey, and salt. Add coconut flour and stir until the dough holds together. Gather into a ball and pat into a 9" pie plate.
Prick the dough with a fork. (Sadly, this does not stop the pastry from rising from steam.)
Bake 10 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Let cool before using.
Homemade Soft Pretzels, batch #2
I planned to make these yesterday but didn't get around to it. The 1-hour proof for the dough turned into a 24-hour proof on the kitchen counter. This hasn't affected the taste or the rise at all. It made 2 lb 7 oz of dough. I converted the weight to ounces then divided by the number of portions I wanted to make. In this recipe I am making 12 pretzels, so each weighed out to be 3 1/8 to 3 1/4 oz on the digital scale. The biggest difference between batch #1 and batch #2 is the exclusion of milk in the dough recipe and the use of baked baking soda in the boiling stage instead of baking soda.
This NY Times article suggests how baked baking soda affects bread-based recipes like noodles and pretzels. However, the sodium carbonate is not the same as potassium carbonate used in Chinese cooking for ramen noodles and mooncake dough. I store my baked baking soda in a lidded mason jar.
Also, the warm water for the yeast was only 75 degrees F instead of the usual 110-115 degrees F. This also doesn't seem to have any effect on the rise of the dough. The weather has been unusually warm for this time of the year. Yesterday we hit a high of 70 degrees, with humidity; though, today we are back in the mid-50s with rain.
Dough Ingredients
1 1/2 c warm water (115 degrees F)
1 tbsp organic granulated sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 package)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (I think by mistake I put in 4 oz melted butter)
4 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
Baking Soda Water Ingredients
2/3 c baked baking soda
10 c filtered water
Egg Wash for Pretzels
1 tbsp filtered water
1 egg yolk
Directions
For the dough ingredients, combine sugar, 1 tsp kosher salt and warm water in a 2-cup measuring cup. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Add yeast, stir. Let sit for 5 mins, until the yeast foams up.
In a 7-cup food processor, add flour, butter and 1 tsp kosher salt. Pulse together. Next, add the water/yeast slurry and blend until the dough comes together. Pulse or run the processor for 1-2 minutes. It'll be sticky (vs smooth and satiny in a stand mixer) and this is okay. You don't want to burn out the motor mixing a heavy dough like this.
Prepare a 5-quart mixing bowl with 1 tsp olive oil. Just swirl it around on the bottom. Dump the blob of dough into the bowl. You could rotate the blob so that it gets coated with the oil, but this is really not necessary. Cover the bowl with a dinner plate and set in a warm place in the kitchen. Let dough rise for at least an hour.
Bring a pot of water (10 cups) plus the baked baking soda to a boil. This will take some time, so better to start this step before portioning the dough.
Weigh your dough. Then divide it by the number of portions you want to make. This batch made 12 pretzels when rolled out to 18-20 inches. Alton's method makes 8 portions at 24 inches.
Place your dough on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Given the day's humidity, I did not spritz the kitchen towels with water.
Roll each piece into a 18" to 20" log. If you have trouble figuring out how long this really is, either have a 24" cutting board and measure out 4" from the edge and mark it with a post-it note or tape one of those IKEA paper tape measures to your kitchen counter.
I did a variety of shapes to play with the dough. A double twist looked the most fashionable. Place each shaped pretzel back onto the parchment paper and cover with a kitchen towel until you have rolled out and shaped all the portions of dough. At this point, you could let the dough rise again. Mine did not and that is probably because I didn't knead the dough until it was smooth, or because I let it proof so long the yeast was entirely spent from farting all night.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. (This should take about 10 minutes)
By now, the pot of water should have come to a boil. Drop in two pretzels at a time and boil for 30 seconds. I used a slotted metal spatula to get the pretzels. Remove pretzels from the water and place back onto the parchment-lined trays. Repeat until all the pretzels have bathed in the baking soda solution.
Next, make the egg wash by whisking together water and egg yolk with a fork in a small bowl. Lightly brush this on top of each pretzel before baking. You can sprinkle coarse kosher salt on top or herbs or grated cheese or leave it plain. For this batch, I used a sparse amount of kosher salt.
Bake for 14 minutes total. At the 7-minute mark, rotate all the trays.
Let pretzels cool on a rack. Enjoy with or without mustard.
The ingredient ratio and methodology is adapted from Alton Brown.
This NY Times article suggests how baked baking soda affects bread-based recipes like noodles and pretzels. However, the sodium carbonate is not the same as potassium carbonate used in Chinese cooking for ramen noodles and mooncake dough. I store my baked baking soda in a lidded mason jar.
Also, the warm water for the yeast was only 75 degrees F instead of the usual 110-115 degrees F. This also doesn't seem to have any effect on the rise of the dough. The weather has been unusually warm for this time of the year. Yesterday we hit a high of 70 degrees, with humidity; though, today we are back in the mid-50s with rain.
Dough Ingredients
1 1/2 c warm water (115 degrees F)
1 tbsp organic granulated sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 package)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (I think by mistake I put in 4 oz melted butter)
4 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
Baking Soda Water Ingredients
2/3 c baked baking soda
10 c filtered water
Egg Wash for Pretzels
1 tbsp filtered water
1 egg yolk
Directions
For the dough ingredients, combine sugar, 1 tsp kosher salt and warm water in a 2-cup measuring cup. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Add yeast, stir. Let sit for 5 mins, until the yeast foams up.
In a 7-cup food processor, add flour, butter and 1 tsp kosher salt. Pulse together. Next, add the water/yeast slurry and blend until the dough comes together. Pulse or run the processor for 1-2 minutes. It'll be sticky (vs smooth and satiny in a stand mixer) and this is okay. You don't want to burn out the motor mixing a heavy dough like this.
Prepare a 5-quart mixing bowl with 1 tsp olive oil. Just swirl it around on the bottom. Dump the blob of dough into the bowl. You could rotate the blob so that it gets coated with the oil, but this is really not necessary. Cover the bowl with a dinner plate and set in a warm place in the kitchen. Let dough rise for at least an hour.
Bring a pot of water (10 cups) plus the baked baking soda to a boil. This will take some time, so better to start this step before portioning the dough.
Weigh your dough. Then divide it by the number of portions you want to make. This batch made 12 pretzels when rolled out to 18-20 inches. Alton's method makes 8 portions at 24 inches.
Place your dough on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Given the day's humidity, I did not spritz the kitchen towels with water.
Roll each piece into a 18" to 20" log. If you have trouble figuring out how long this really is, either have a 24" cutting board and measure out 4" from the edge and mark it with a post-it note or tape one of those IKEA paper tape measures to your kitchen counter.
I did a variety of shapes to play with the dough. A double twist looked the most fashionable. Place each shaped pretzel back onto the parchment paper and cover with a kitchen towel until you have rolled out and shaped all the portions of dough. At this point, you could let the dough rise again. Mine did not and that is probably because I didn't knead the dough until it was smooth, or because I let it proof so long the yeast was entirely spent from farting all night.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. (This should take about 10 minutes)
By now, the pot of water should have come to a boil. Drop in two pretzels at a time and boil for 30 seconds. I used a slotted metal spatula to get the pretzels. Remove pretzels from the water and place back onto the parchment-lined trays. Repeat until all the pretzels have bathed in the baking soda solution.
Next, make the egg wash by whisking together water and egg yolk with a fork in a small bowl. Lightly brush this on top of each pretzel before baking. You can sprinkle coarse kosher salt on top or herbs or grated cheese or leave it plain. For this batch, I used a sparse amount of kosher salt.
Bake for 14 minutes total. At the 7-minute mark, rotate all the trays.
Let pretzels cool on a rack. Enjoy with or without mustard.
The ingredient ratio and methodology is adapted from Alton Brown.
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