Food and Cooking

Because I've been eating rice more often I realized via my energy bill that cooking in a pot on an electric plate for 30 minutes consumes massive amounts of electricity. Therefore I'm currently browsing for rice cookers, but the info on energy efficiency leaves much to be desired.

What would be the most efficient method to cook brown rice? Which appliance would be recommendable and ideally be in line with the Buy It For Life philosophy?

So, I bought a lemon thyme plant at a shop the other day and want to learn to use it. I read some.cooking blogs and it sounds pretty easy but I'd like to know if anyone here has any idea.

Also for infused oil, does the jar used need to be full?

I'm one person and won't have a fridge for a few weeks as mine died. I can't stomach any more canned soup. Any ideas for small meals I can make with shelf stable ingredients?

I am craving something bready and sloppy for dinner, but I can't think of anything that fits the bill. I could make a giant vegetable pot pie (I've done that before and they are tasty), but for whatever reason, I'm wanting bread dough instead of pie dough and I don't think that would work as well. Focaccia by itself would be too much bread without enough 'stuff'. My better half is vegetarian, so I'd like to keep it meatless (cheese is fine). We have too much tofu right now, so I'm slightly tempted to make an S&B curry stew and then baking it inside bread dough, but would that work? It'd certainly have the sort of savory I desire, but it might be too gloppy. Really, I'm looking for something more like stromboli but I can't think of anyone but Italians that bake lots of filling inside a bread wrap.

Any ideas?

Crust, mix 200g flour (I used 50/50 spelt and ap,) and 1 tsp salt, smoosh in 75g cold butter, then add 1dl ice cold water and mix until just combined. Form into disk and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Roll out to pan size and dock with a fork. Back in fridge.

Guss, 2dl milk, 100g Greek yogurt (or quark if you can get it, cream works too), 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla sugar, beat until well combined.

Split and stone 1kg Zwatchke (aka prunes or Italian plums. Or really any stone fruit apricots are particularly good).

Cover the bottom of the crust with 2-3 tbsp ground nuts (I used hazelnuts,but almonds, walnuts or pecans all work,) arrange the fruit, and pour over the guss.

Cook in a preheated 425f oven for 45 - 60 minutes, until the center jiggles.

Let cool at least slightly, but it's good hot, warm, or cold.

En guete!

I'm currently wondering what to do if my favourite recipes go offline or if my mom's special traditional dish where i have the recipe in written form gets lost. Do you have a (preferably FOSS) app to store such recipes? I'm currently trying Cooky which is FOSS but is difficult to use for cooking: you can't really group cooking steps well and when cooking a recipe you can only view one step at a time unless you're editing the recipe. I like however that you can tag the dishes so it's easier to find specific stuff like vegan or spicy dishes.

This isn't a new idea, but if you haven't tried doing something like this, I do agree with the author that it is a lovely summer/fall treat -- and the local peaches I'm getting are perfect with a strong cheese. Personally, I add a large shot of tarragon to dressings like the one given.

Italicized items in the below are my comments and not from the article.

archive

So, the magic formula is this: Choose two seasonal fruits, a cheese (feta, blue or goat cheese) and a nut (walnuts, sliced almonds or pecans). These are the changeable elements. The other ingredients stay the same as does the dressing, which let me say is an exquisitely balanced vinaigrette made with apple cider vinegar, raw honey and extra-virgin olive oil - a veritable health-giving trifecta on its own. The dressing makes the salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches or 2 regular clamshells mixed greens (a partial head of red leaf lettuce and baby spinach also works fine)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or sliced almonds, toasted
• “2 fruits” sliced thinly (one type of fruit would also be fine)
• 1/4 red onion, peeled, sliced paper thin (I need more onion than that!)
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta, goat or blue cheese (this list can be widened to any strong cheese, like limburger. manchego, or even a sharp provolone either common or boutique -- but not a mild cheese like typical grocery store cheddar or brie ... though an Epoisses de Bourgogne would work)
• Salt & Pepper
• (I might add thin sliced radishes and/or julienned carrots for color/variety)

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I'm tired of cider vinegar and often use rice wine, champagne, or other vinegars)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 shallot, peeled
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• ( I add tarragon, but any one of several other herbs would also be nice)

archive

Hollywood is not wrong that moisture loss is bad for bread, it’s not the primary reason to avoid refrigerating bread. The science: Refrigeration speeds up the starches’ return to a more organized crystalline structure (also known as retrogradation), which means it hardens (i.e. stales) far faster.

Unrefrigerated bread does typically get moldy faster. The trade-off is longevity over texture, and many consumers are more concerned with stretching their bread (and their metaphorical bread) as far as possible, especially these days.

To which we say, fair. And also: freeze! Becky wrote a helpful guide to storing bread in that other section of your favorite appliance. She says the freezer “serves as a kind of pause button, meaning fresh bread you move into cold storage can come out almost as good as the day you put it in.”

Serious Eats also covered the issue to the same conclusion a while ago: https://www.seriouseats.com/does-refrigeration-really-ruin-bread

Eggs, Salmon, Chicken Breast and Edamame are some of my favorites on the list.

I recently went to Boston and had crab cakes at several different restaurants and they were delicious. Don't @ me, Maryland, but they were better than anything I've had in the Baltimore and DC area. For one, The "crab" was very forward rather than the "cake" part. Like good crab meat with enough "cake" to make it hold in a patty form, and some fresh greens.

Any recipes for more Boston-style crab cakes?

Rice crispies and marshmallows were on sale, but I want to fancy them up a bit.

https://boingboing.net/2024/06/12/instant-ramen-recalled-for-being-too-spicy.html

Another food based holiday is around the corner, what are your plans? Any interesting departures? Anybody got family traditional foods they eat?

I'll be doing an Artichoke Fondue Dip as a snack for earlier in the day. For the main meal, definitely this Mustrad Cucumber Salad by Amy Thielan that I adore as a side, but not totally certain what else. I may end up just doing hot dogs since they are so easy and always tasty. But I am also looking for inspiration.

Pretend you have a fully functioning kitchen and filtered water. There is no limit to how much food you can bring, but you have to carry it. What would you bring?

Checkout details in data slides

• slide 1: Geo price in USD (image attached)
• slide 2: Price list (in USD) & change in last 6 months
• slide 3: Working hours to afford a big mac, price / hourly minimum wage

• Least hour states Washington: 0.293 Maryland: 0.298 Connecticut: 0.303

• Most hour states Wyoming: 0.734 Oklahoma: 0.712 Idaho: 0.707

hour = avg latte price / minimum wage rate

https://x.com/data_graffiti/status/1782465480437137531

Hand-made Pappardelle in an Arrabbiata sauce with garlic bread.

A few years ago I got a Gorilla brand granite mortar and pestle. I seasoned it as directed and got quite a bit of use out of it, then I stopped cooking for a while and it got kind of...well, gross. It's possible that I spilled something on it, but portions of the bowl and exterior are a darker color now. I guess I'm afraid with the relatively porous granite that it's full of rancid garlic effluvium. Does anyone know how to clean this thing? Should I just pitch it?

Before: https://imgur.com/a/lWyQNGH

After: See Google album link (I tried again to use imgur and my phone crashed 😆)

Alt share because imgur is being a pain: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LzXZoxnhdEvmQHug7

Edit: Edited to include links to "before" images. Edit #2: Added a backup Google album Edit #3: Added after images to Google album

Am trying to make a dark rye loaf like you'd find on a stall or in a shop. Not the really dense 'pumpernickel' style but round or oblong tin shaped.

Have tried various percentages of strong dark rye, muscovado sugar and black treacle but the loaf is still not that dark. I did try some cocoa in one loaf but that just gave an odd colour.

Am using a Panasonic bread machine and in over 5 years it's only ever produced a couple of duff loaves - which were down to me (forgetting yeast, mixer blade or water) and often use it for the dough function and then finish in oven. Am not averse to resorting to full manual though if needed.

Any ideas?

TIA

Recipe: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/farinata-recipe . It cooks a bit like a Dutch baby, but you have to soak the flour longer and it doesn't puff up.

Left is with onions and herb de province, right is artichokes and dill, both were tasty.