OmNomNom!

Call for comfort food?

Sat, 15 Feb 2014 15:18:45 GMT

Posted by: killing_rose

I am having the sort of day where it's my night to cook dinner, and so far, my brain hasn't offered anything more helpful than, "Comfort food!"

Ye gods, brain, our people are Southern and Midwestern. I'm Alaskan to the core. Comfort food does not narrow this down.

(Due to me-and-frying-things being a bad idea and thus I am banned from doing so and the fact that I'm not in the mood to ask my roommate to, I do at least have an entire category of comfort foods off the list for tonight. Fried chicken, fried vegetables, chicken fried steak. Et cetera.

I also live in a landlocked state, so anything seafood is out, and we don't have moose around here. Game meat's not totally out--we have venison in the freezer, but I don't think that's what I'm hungry for.)

While I dig through Asian-inspired cookbooks and poke at a variety of Southern dishes, what's your go-to comfort food?

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Peanut Butter - Cracked Wheat Bread

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:28:03 GMT

Posted by: acelightning

This is a bit time-consuming, but most of it is just waiting for the dough to rise (more than once). If you have a heavy-duty mixer, like the classic KitchenAid, it helps a lot. Makes 1 loaf.

SPONGE:
1/2 cup bread flour (see Note 1)
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 teaspoons yeast (the rest of the packet will be used later)
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk
1 cup + 2 tablespoons water at "room temperature" (between 70° and 90° F.)

Whisk this all together in your mixer bowl, or a large bowl, until it's smooth and well-combined.

DOUGH:
1 cup bread flour (see Note 1)
1 cup whole-wheat flour
The rest of the yeast

Mix thoroughly, and sprinkle it evenly over the sponge in the bowl, covering the sponge completely. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to ferment for 1 to 4 hours at room temperature. (Or allow to rise for 1 hour at room temperature, then refrigerate overnight. Let it warm up a bit before proceeding.)

FINISHING THE MIXTURE:

1/2 cup cracked wheat (coarse bulgur)

Place in a dry frying pan over medium heat; shake or stir continuously until lightly toasted. Remove from pan immediately so it doesn't burn. If you want it less crunchy in your bread, pour 1/2 cup boiling water over the cracked wheat and let it stand until the water is absorbed.

When the sponge is ready, add the cracked wheat, along with
1/4 cup peanut butter (see Note 2)
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon salt

Mix thoroughly, then cover and let stand for 20 minutes. Knead by hand or machine for approximately 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic - poke in any bits of cracked wheat that keep trying to escape. Cover and let rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (Optional: Punch down, knead briefly, and let rise again.)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 9"x5" loaf pan. Punch the dough down and shape it into a loaf to fit in the pan. Let rise until almost doubled - top of dough should be just a bit higher than the top edge of the pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes - an instant-read thermometer plunged into the center will read 210° F. Turn out onto a rack immediately, turn the loaf right-side-up, and allow to cool.

A slice of this will take you clear to Rivendell! :-)

Note 1: Instead of bread flour, you can use unbleached all-purpose flour, and add 1 1/2 tablespoons "vital wheat gluten" powder to the "Dough" mixture.

Note 2: Creamy peanut butter works better, because the chunks will get lost among the bits of cracked wheat.

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Ideas for lentils?

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:18:43 GMT

Posted by: pennyplainknits

I bought a bag of lentils- just the ordinary red split lentils, not puy lentils- a few months ago thinking I might need to make a veggie Shepard's pie for a house guest. I didn't, and now I have a bag of lentils sitting in my pantry I have no idea what to do with.

I've only ever had them as part of a stew before now. Any ideas? I can't eat tomato or cheese

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Bread maker recipes

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:42:36 GMT

Posted by: msmcknittington

Every fall, I remember that I have a bread maker for a couple weeks, and I bake up a storm. So far I have made the dough for pizza, cinnamon rolls and calzones, which were all very good. For the calzones, I just used the dough recipe, and I added a teaspoon of sugar to the water to get the yeast started and left out the oregano, since there are members of my family who are suspicious of green things in their bread. I also baked them at 450 F for about half an hour, since 500 seemed too much.

Anyway, I am looking for bread recipes I can actually bake in the machine. My bread maker can handle up to 5 cups of flour, so I should be good for most recipes. I have both a sweet bread and a quick bread setting, so the recipes don't have to be limited to plain, traditional yeast breads. What I'd like most is recipes for sweet cinnamon bread and apple bread, preferably with both milk and eggs in them for a really tender crumb.

If I'm going to be entirely honest, I am also open to recipes for things like pretzels or breads with fillings that need to be baked in the oven, as long as the dough can be prepared in the machine.

I'm also allergic to shellfish, but if anyone has a bread maker recipe that absolutely hinges on the inclusion of shellfish, I will be rather surprised.

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Looking for squash recipes.

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:58:19 GMT

Posted by: ex_citrinitas659

Apparently my boss has an ongoing giant yellow summer squash explosion in her garden, and there's only so much squash one person can eat, so she's given some to me. The problem is that I don't know any squash recipes.

Anybody have any suggestions on what to do with them? I'm a little lost and...I admit it...intimidated by these giant yellow things. As for other ingredients, if I don't have them I'm willing to get them so that won't be a problem. I just suspect I'll be getting more squash and I need ideas.

EDIT: I started with the first suggestions on the list tonight and I'll be working my way down. Thanks! Dinner was tasty and I've got a ton of great ideas on how to cook squash thanks to you guys. Knowing me, if I was left to my own devices I would've figured out one recipe and not have worked outside of my squash comfort zone.

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Blueberry Muffins

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 02:59:25 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

I have some wild blueberries (frozen) and I want to make muffins. However, the last time I made the recipe that I have, I was less than impressed with it. It was fine. I want something better than fine. I want fabulous! So, since my last request for mac 'n cheese recipes was all kinds of successful, I come to you on my knees asking for blueberry muffin recipes.

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Looking for a recipe

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:39:44 GMT

Posted by: quackaquacka

When I was out yesterday, I had this really amazing salad with tarragon dressing. It was gorgeous, and I'd really like to be able to re-create the dressing at home. Does anyone have a recipe/any ideas?

Thanks!

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Mac 'n Cheese

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:21:59 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

I've been craving good, homemade mac 'n cheese. Does anybody have a recipe that they like? Use of goat cheese a plus but not a necessity.

Thanks!

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Meat pie request

Tue, 18 May 2010 12:09:51 GMT

Posted by: shadowvalkyrie

I'm looking for a British-style meat pie recipe (type of meat doesn't matter, but pork, beef, or chicken would be best for easy availability and keeping costs low), but nothing I've found round the net is what I'm looking for. Either they're too complicated (I'm more of a beginner in cooking matters), or contain ingredients I'm unfamiliar with/can't get my hands on around here (Germany).

I'd be grateful for any suggestions, the easier to do and more basic the ingredients, the better. Thank you!

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