Whole Wheat Biscuits

I accomplished three things with this recipe.
1. I got to use my fancy whole wheat.
2. I got to use whey for the first time.
3. I got to use my biscuit cutter that I didn't know I had.

I'm pretty sure this was one of the first times I ever used whole wheat flour. I know I've bought it before. I know I've let it sit in my pantry until it went rancid. But I don't recall ever actually using it. This was the stuff I bought at Harry's (Whole Foods) a few weeks before and diligently kept in the frigerator. I know, I'm pretty proud of me too. Cool bag, huh? I still have some carefully sealed in the cool darkness that is my sometimes scary fridge. However, I made a ton of whole wheat recipes after this so I could use as much as possible while it was still fresh. I can feel everyone rolling their eyes, but it's TRUE and I'll prove you all WRONG.



As you read, once I realized that I was going to be getting bonus whey from my cheesmaking expedition (be cheese! need whey!), I went in search of a way to use it. This is actually the recipe that came with the wheat, because I couldn't find anything better. I had my heart set on using whey instead of milk and by god no one was going to stop me. I might make another batch with milk just to test out how much of a difference there is.

Whey is healthy? It smells and tastes like a light buttermilk. It's actually sort of cool and I was excited to play around with it. But I didn't. This is me after all. But hey! I got to use it at least once and this was definitely the way to go. Just barely reheated in the microwave and covered with a little jam, they make a great breakfast. It was so simple and the dough was so easy to work with. Just lightly patted out. Got to use my biscuit cutter for the first time, if biscuit cutters can have rippled edges. Win-win situation, I feel.



It was way late but a quick mix and 10 minute bake after hours of cheesemaking seemed like cake. They didn't rise much, possibly because I didn't let them chill out and rise, though the recipe didn't call for it. Still, they came out moist and surprisingly light. I like to think the whey had something to do with this.

The next day, these biscuits led to an interesting discussion with my boss again (remember peanut guy?) about wheat. He suggested one of the reasons they didn't rise much was because most wheat in the South is a soft ... something seed which lacks the larger amount of gluten the northern hard cultivars do. See what you can learn with science? And see how fast I can forget?

Bottom line: damn good biscuits.

Whole Wheat Biscuits
from Logan Turnpike Mill

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached flour
1 T sugar
3/4 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup butter
1 cup milk (whey!)

1) Preheat oven to 350F.

2) Mix all dry ingredients in a med-large bowl.

3) Cut in butter until it has the texture of coarse crumbs. Add milk (whey!) to mixture and stir well.

4) Knead lightly on floured surface. Roll out to 3/4 inch thickness or pat if you're lazy. Cut with a biscuit cutter. Or cookie cutter. Or knife. Maybe one of those ruffly pastry cutters that look like medical instruments. Whatever.

5) Bake until light brown, about 12 minutes. Makes about 10-12 medium-sized biscuits.

Homemade Paneer

Like most recipes I've wanted to make, I've kept it in the back of my mind for years without really attempting to go beyond that. Homemade paneer was one of those things that I bookmarked the recipe for, but just didn't get around to. It'll be too hard, it'll be too messy, I'd rather eat canned soup, that sort of thing. However, I had a bunch of cilantro looking ill in my refrigerator that needed to be dealt with. After I found this recipe, I knew paneer was in my future.

Well, as with most "simple things", I manage to make them harder for myself. This was no exception. I followed this great blog post for instructions. What I thought would take maybe an hour to do plus 2-3 hours to refrigerate turned into a grueling 3 hour process of stirring, swearing, and shouting "Be CHEESE!" at my not-cheese.



Starting off, I did everything like I was supposed to. I was gentle and loving with my ingredients, babying them with quiet words of encouragement to just be themselves and do what comes naturally. Half an hour later, I had tiny curds starting to form. What relief! What success!

What a crock! A spoonful of minuscule curds does not cheese make. But that's okay, it's okay, shhh. Things like this happen all the time in my kitchen. It'll be cheese. Really. I'll just add a little bit more lime juice, raise the heat a notch, and all will be well. After saying this like a mantra for nearly an hour and a half, the yelling kicked in.



Make cheese, damn it! BE CHEESE!

To say I was miffed was a bit of an understatement. When I yell, things happen. But not today. My Not-Cheese was as stubborn as me and defiantly refusing to do what it was supposed to. I would make this work because that's what I do. I make things work whether they want to or not. I scoured the internet for troubleshooting tips, but seriously, wherever the cheesemakers are hiding they are ridiculously successful or have no internet connection because there ain't nothing. Just a few random bits here and there of things I was doing anyways. Add more rennet/lime juice/lemon juice/acid/ect, boil the crap out of it, keep going until it kills you. Done. Way ahead of you.

I've found you can't be gentle with this stuff. You have to bully the cheese out of it. I figured at some point I would either have lime-flavored cheese or lime-flavored milk powder. Either way, it would be something other than what it was at the time: a big pot of recalcitrant milk and enough citrus to curdle anything other than that particular milk. (Why can't you just BE CHEESE?)



And after a while, I didn't care about cheese anymore. I'd found a recipe using the whey that I was so excited about. But how can you have whey with no cheese? So back to the stove. But lo! There was a curd. A bigun. One single mondo curd in a sea of tiny asshole curds. Was it teasing me? Was it a sign of things to come? Could my tiny heart handle it if it was the former?



So I pressed on. Slowly, so damn slowly, more curds formed. More and more until finally I saw some CHEESE! and WHEY! Through sweat and tears, I carefully strained it and let it sit. After much strife I had paneer. Delicate, glistening white paneer. What did I do with it? Uh...



I threw it in a salad. I might have slathered some of biscuits. Oh, you mean did I make the recipe with it? Of course not. Why would I do that? I used about half of it before it grew mold and got thrown away. Obviously.

But I used some of the WHEY! I'll blog about that recipe soon. I did it for the experience. But since the experience kinda sucked, I might hold off on doing it again for another 4 years. Do not judge me. I am fully aware that I'm retarded.

Chocolate Cruncher-Nutter Bars and Stuff

I took an recipe for fluffer-nutter bars, added two ounces pre-melted unsweetened chocolate that's been sitting around since the dawn of my kitchen, and substituted crunchy peanut butter for the smooth. Of course, they would have tasted better if the cheerios I'd used hadn't been as old as the chocolate. Still. Not a bad use of sweet stuff.

However, I'm not sold on the fluffer-nutter deal. It sounds good. It should be good. I find the Fluffy Whip kind of tasteless. I guess I'm a little old fashioned and still believe that peanut butter and chocolate love will triumph over all.

To test this theory however, I started slathering peanut butter on all manner of things. One in particular I just had to snap a photo of.



Who thought of peanut butter and potato chips? Who had an overabundance of potatoes and peanuts and racked their brain for ideas? Personally, I think they could have come up with something better. But on my journey to really experiment with the stuff, I soldiered on and ate it. See?



The only one I've heard of and haven't tried yet is PB and mayo hot dogs. Yeah. And truly, it's only because I keep forgetting to buy hot dogs. One day...

What's your favorite pairing?

West African Peanut Stew (Vegan)

Yes, it's me again and I'm still as craptastic as ever with my updates. Still, there's been lots of cooking on this end which will eventually make its way to this blog. Now on to ugly food.

Remember when I said I was being buried under peanut butter? Yeah. It helps to look in your pantry before you make such claims. Apparently, I only had 4 jars, two of which were already mine and opened. Plus, only enough smooth peanut butter to make one recipe. So for this recipe, it called for smooth natural peanut butter, but I threw in the same amount of chunky chemical-packed PB and it turned out just fine. It's up to you. Also, natural peanut butter is evil. Just saying. Either way, this is a pretty tasty soup. It was a little bland for my taste, but most of it got eaten, so there's definitely nothing wrong here.



This is my first time working with fresh okra. Holy crap, it's pretty. It looked like a whole pile of delicate flowers after it was chopped. Plus, it allowed my best friend to throw "mucilaginous" into our conversation, which she so likes to say.



West African Peanut Stew
from the Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas

1 1/2 T olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups shredded white cabbage
2 medium-large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks
16 oz diced tomatoes with liquid
1 tsp grated ginger
2 cups trimmed and sliced fresh or 10 oz frozen sliced okra
1/2 c smooth peanut butter
1/4 tsp cayenne or 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

1. In a large pot, saute onion and garlic over medium heat until golden.

2. Add cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, ginger, and 3 cups of water. Cover and gently simmer until potatoes and cabbage are nearly tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Add okra. Stir in peanut butter a little at a time until it melts into stew. Stir in cayenne. Cover and simmer gently until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add more water if necessary. You want it moist but not too soupy.

4. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

The book said it was traditionally served with mashed root vegetables or mushy grains. It's good on its own though.

Dirty Hippy

In America, if you suddenly spout out something like, "I worry that I waste too much water", most people will look at you like you've grown an extra head.

Too much water? What are you talking about? This is the United States, not the Sahara! We'll import more if we need it.

Oh, the follies of my youth.

Regardless of the condescending or totally confused looks I get, I do worry about this stuff. I'm not Super Green Woman (dun du-na na!) but I try not to be completely wasteful and occasionally try to find more ways to cut down. Lately, it's water.

Have you checked your dishwasher lately? Apparently, at some point I set mine to pots and pans to wash something particularly funky and forgot to turn it back. This was probably a few months ago now. That made me cringe a bit. However, I felt even more stupid because I constantly forget that I have a light wash option RIGHT NEXT TO my normal wash option. Guess which one I automatically set it to.

In these old apartments, nothing's been replaced or upgraded for years, so I decided to look up my dishwasher. This took forever because there's no manual online! Even with Whirlpool. Sure, they give you a link, but does it work? No. So after a bit of searching, I found that most old dishwashers use about 12 gallons of water load, more for pots and pans settings I'm sure. I never use the drying option, so that's something at least. I just need to start paying more attention.

I've gotten used to rationing my water for the simple fact that I have to use a filter. I decided to go the cheap route of using a pitcher with a refillable filter, but the downside is that I can only have so much at one time. If I want to cook pasta, for example, I have to wait until I filtered enough. If it's clean, it's not wasted. After that, I don't use my tap (in the kitchen) for much more than rinsing vegetables or dishes. That's good at least.

If you've read articles on water waste, you'll find other kitchen tips like using the water you've boiled vegetables or pasta in to water plants, or not running a dishwasher unless it's full. There's plenty of articles that even dive into the dishwasher vs. handwashing debate (dishwashing is the winner, thank Bob). In case you were interested (I know you're not), I've also been experimenting with army showers and trying to find a brick to put in my toilet tank.

So what are you doing to cut down?

Tomato-Radish Salsa

You'll all be relieved to know that I came up with a rather brilliant way to use some of those pickled radishes I made. I've still got all those tortilla chips lounging about on the counter and some of the leftover fresh vegetables in the refrigerator. To round out my work lunches, I decided to try my hand at another salsa.



The base for this one was just a drained can of diced tomatoes. Add a little red pepper and green onion and you've got the bulk of it. If you're a garlic fiend, a little here goes a long, glorious way. Juice half a lime and add a little of the "pickle" juice from your radishes, plus a handful of them chopped and adjust. All mine needed after that was a little salt and pepper.

I like tomato based salsas, and the radishes added that tangy, spicy addition that it needed. I think I like this better than the last one. Salsa may be my new thing.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Brownies with Chocolate Frosting

This constitutes my first peanut butter recipe. I'm so excited. And not only that, they were pretty tasty. I ate all of them myself. I'm still not sold on the idea, but you can't argue with this much chocolate. Speaking of which...

If you were trying to describe this frosting, I think the word you would be looking for is "fuckawesome". It's the best chocolate frosting I've ever made, though it's best when fresh. (I'm seriously on a roll with this best ever stuff.)



I followed the advice of some of the reviewers and used a little less powdered sugar and a little more cocoa. I only have the dark chocolate on hand (woe is me) so it turned out really nice and concentrated. I even whipped it again after sitting for a while, but didn't notice any graininess to start with so eh. Also, I would spread this pretty soon after mixing, while it's still a little warm, because it hardens up and gets harder to spread. It wasn't the fluffy for days frosting that gets everywhere, rather it stayed hard enough at room temperature that it wouldn't rub off accidentally but was still soft to the tooth.



The brownies turned out springy and didn't try to commit suicide coming out of the pan, which is so lovely. Funny, I forgot it was supposed to be brownies instead of cake until I linked to it. As a note though, I would remove them from the pan immediately, because I let mine cool as is and the sides turned out a little brick-ish. For the batter, I chopped up half a Ghiradelli bar and threw it in. Just cuz.



So far, I'm 1 for 1 on the peanut butter recipes. Actually, I'm a bit more than that, but you'll have to wait for more. In the meantime, be jealous:

Roasted Carrot and Avacado Salad

I had a bag of baby carrots trying to petrify in my refrigerator after making the most awesome tomato soup ever. In defiance, and because it's me and I refuse to stop trying stuff I don't like, I decided not to just mask the flavor of carrots in other recipes. No, I was going to make it the star.

Unfortunately for me and the avocado that's now unused in my refrigerator, I don't like carrots! I just have to accept that fact for a little while. The flavor is just... wrong. Maybe one day I'll find that recipe that makes me believe or something, but it wasn't this day. *sigh* Maybe I'll just make guacamole or something...

Just in case you were really excited about the idea, I was going to steal the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It looks beautiful over there. Just, you know, full of carrots.