Busy little leggies!
The colony got moved to a new enclosure recently, which has been developing an annoying mold bloom. Hopefully that'll back off once the springtails get more established and things have a chance to balance out more.
There was annoying background noise, so this got some music instead.
I put together some plain sourdough focaccia based on Aran Goyoaga's recipe yesterday, and baked it this evening. These pics aren't great, but the loaf turned out delicious!
Since the only suitable sized pan I had was glass, the pizza stone was right out. It baked fine anyway.
Also added my working notes of the actual flours/starches I ended up using, at the end of the pics. That dark millet flour really is impressive. The starter is with a different lighter variety, so 40g in the whole recipe was enough to tip it over into looking more wholegrain. I was fine with that.
Other major food crimes: presumably fortified rice, from context. (Also, that's the only rice and there are no Asian brands or shops in...Hawaii?) Plus whatever else OP is imagining Americans doing to the basic ingredients for something like a Loco Moco.
Not the most photogenic thing in the world, but it sure was satisfying.
Since I was in a comfort food mood, it had to be green beans on the side. Couldn't help but be a little sorry that we didn't also have sliced garden tomatoes and cucumbers.
I like to put any juicy vegetables in a side bowl. That soup mug was handy tonight, with plenty of room for pot liquor!
I wanted to see how these might compare to other cinnamon rolls I've made with Aran Goyoaga's brioche dough, and they did turn out at least as good! Quite a bit better than the last batch, since I accidentally overbaked those.
These were made with some of my sorghum-millet starter originally made with Riesling-yeast homemade sake lees, plus a little dry Kronjäst for sweet doughs as backup. I made the dough yesterday, and let it sit in the fridge to shape and bake today.
Really wasn't sure about the "drown in cream" approach, but decided to trust the process. I wasn't disappointed, and this won't be the last batch baked that way!
I made these the other day, based on Aran Goyoaga's recipe (with a few minor adjustments as usual).
Using a starter most recently fed with brown rice/sorghum, and subbing light buckwheat flour for the sorghum in the sponge. I also used some deglutenized wheat starch for 60g of the combined starches (with 40g tapioca/30g potato), and 3g potato fiber in place of the flaxseed meal. They got an egg wash before baking like the Loopy Whisk called for, mainly to help the toppings stick.
All of them got topped with flaky pink salt, then two each also got black pepper, Thai crispy fried garlic, and Bengali five spice. I was going to just do half plain, half sesame--but, I couldn't find the sesame seeds we have!
The verdict? Very good for a first try at GF bagels! I froze half of them for later, and ate the rest over two days. The texture may have turned out even better with finer oat flour than I had, but they were very satisfying and worth the effort. Definitely planning to make again! Especially since I have yet to see even subpar commercially made GF bagels where we live now.
Heading into the weekend, I was in the mood for fish. So, we got some skillet-fried pangasius/basa catfish. The filets were big, so I cut them in half before cooking. Came out about perfect on seasoning and doneness this time.
Instead of the usual hot water cornbread with chopped onion "hush puppies" to use up the rest of the seasoned cornmeal? This time I threw it into some fritters with a big zucchini that needed used up, plus an onion and part of a big grated carrot that didn't go into the slaw. These are basically just zucchini pakoras, but made with Creole seasoning and the little leftover cornmeal. Turned out delicious!
I may have to try mixing cornmeal in with straight onion bhajis next time I make some. That would about have to be good.
Thought about frying up some potatoes too, but I didn't feel like it today. The slaw I put together last night. This was PLENTY of food without the added taters!
The latest experiment here: another pretty basic batch of cyser flavored with ginger--but with some wild color this time!
I saw that bottled "ginger shot" that's half beet juice, and had to try hooching it for the color. More apple seemed like a good base with the ginger. This time, I decided to go a little higher budget with the good cloudy juice and honey (plus the remains of some local cider we had left). Hoping that'll help make up for any weird flavors from the beet juice. Just using some Browin cider yeast I had open in the freezer for this one.
Probably going to add in some more ginger for flavor toward the end of fermentation, if it needs it.