Blueberry muffins - Testing

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/blueberry-sourdough-muffins-recipe

1 - I used some of the leftover from trying to start a sourdough starter and unlike the pancakes, this was not a success. The cornmeal, also, may have been too coarse. Anyway, the muffins are heavy and gritty. Is there anything else to do with this? Maybe buckwheat instead of cornmeal? Maybe let the dough stand as I do for the pancakes? Maybe just adapt it to a regular baking powder recipe?

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsps cinnamon
1 cup sourdough starter, ripe (fed) or discard
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
4 Tbsps melted butter or 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup, maple syrup, molasses or honey
2 cups blueberries
OPTIONAL : Coarse sugar, for sprinkling tops

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Grease enough cups for 12 muffins.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
3. In a second bowl, beat together the starter, milk, egg, melted butter, and sweetener. 
4. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry until the batter is uniform. 
5. Gently stir in the blueberries just until well distributed.
6. Fill the oiled cups 2/3 full; sprinkle optional coarse sugar on top.
7. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from their cups. 

NOTE: Don't let them cool in their cups, or they'll steam and the outside will become tough.

Sourdough Crackers - Untested

https://zerowastechef.com/2015/11/18/sourdough-crackers-2-0/

2/3 cup unfed starter from the refrigerator
3 heaping Tbsps olive oil
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (or just plain white?)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
extra coarse salt for topping

1. Combine starter and oil in a non-metallic bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking soda.
3. Add dry to wet ingredients and combine. If necessary, knead the dough a few times to incorporate the last bit of flour.
4. Cover the bowl and let rest for six hours at room temperature. (see NOTE)
5. When you’re ready to bake, divide the dough into two halves on a generously floured surface.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
7. Roll the dough out to about two millimeters thick. If necessary, sprinkle with flour between rollings to prevent the dough from sticking to your work surface.
8. Transfer the dough to an ungreased cookie sheets.
9. Cut into rectangles with a pizza cutter or a knife. Sprinkle with salt.
10. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, turn the tray to help even browning and bake 6 to 8 minutes more.
11. The crackers are done when they're crispy and slightly browned.
12. Transfer the crackers to a cooling rack. Store in a glass jar once completely cooled.

NOTE: You can save the dough the fridge for about a week and bake only as much as you want at-a-time. Let it warm at room temperature for 15 minutes to half an hour to making rolling easier.

Savory egg and cheese Buckwheat pancakes - Untested

1 recipe Buckwheat pancakes (Galettes de sarrazin)

Gruyère cheese

1 - 2 hardboiled eggs per person

Minced fresh chives

1. Pour in 1/3 cup of batter, swirling the pan to get an even distribution. When bubbles pop on the surface, sprinkle some of the cheese and continue to cook until the cheese has mostly melted and the bottom of the pancake is a nice dark brown.
2. Cook the rest of the pancakes in this way.
3. When ready to eat, garnish with sliced hardboiled eggs and minced fresh chives.

Queue de porc rotie dans son jus - FAIL

http://lartisteetsesarts.over-blog.com/article-queue-de-porc-rotie-a-la-casserolle-et-dans-son-jus-65756123.html

1 - Well, fail. Not because I don't think I could eventually figure out how to make pig tail delicious, but because Ben wouldn't even try it. He just pushed it to the side of his plate and left it there. Wouldn't even eat the onion slurry that came with it, which I set aside on his plate and was quite delicious. So much for snout-to-tail eating in this house, razzen fracken!
Otherwise, the tail was difficult to eat and admittedly unattractive. I suspect it is delicious to some, such as those who like chicken feet. Edible, smells amazing when cooking, but starvation food in my opinion.

4 pig tails (or 1 per person)
2 onions, minced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
un morceau de gingembre (ou en poudre)
A pinch each of rosemary; Herbes de provences; black pepper; salt
7 cloves
2 cups of water

1. Clean and rinse that tails. Brine in salt water for 24hours.
2. Cut the tails into 2 or 3 pieces, depending on the size.
3. Along with the onion, spices, salt and water, simmer the tail pieces for 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Remove the lid, reduce the heat to a slow simmer, and let the meat reduce, slowly slowly, in its own juices, turning often, until the liquid reduces and the meat takes on a golden colour. Most of the fats should render and slowly disappear; it probably gets reabsorbed so don't think it's a calorie reducer!

Queue de porc aux lentilles avec dombré - FAIL

https://www.750g.com/queue-de-porc-r39981.htm
http://www.tutocuisine.com/2014/09/atelier-preparation-de-dombre/

1 - I will not try this recipe. I tried another recipe using pig tails and Ben wouldn't even touch it. I don't need that kind of negativity! However, I do want to try the dombré at some point... but with what?

2 pig tails 4 queues de porc
1 cup lentils 300 g de lentilles
2 cups broth 1 oignon haché
2 tranches de poitrine fumée
1 bouquet garni
huile
1 piment entier
clous de girofles
Sel
Poivre

1. Après les avoir coupés en morceaux, faire cuire les queues de porcs dans de l'eau pendant 20 min.
2. Pendant ce temps, faire revenir le bouquet garni, l'oignon haché, la poitrine fumée et le piment dans une poêle huilée.
3. Ajouter les lentilles et couvrir d'eau.
4. Incorporer les clous de girofle et laisser mijoter un quart d'heure.
5. Ajouter les queues de porcs et laisser cuire pendant 1h.
6. Meanwhile, make the dombré.
7. Assaisonner et incorporer des boulettes de dombrés. Laisser cuire encore un quart d'heure.

Dombré

3 1/2 cups of flour

1 cup water

1  tsp salt 

1 Tbsp of oil

1. With the flour in a large bowl, create a well in the middle.
2. Add the oil, salt and water.
3. Work with your hands to create a ball that isn't tacky; add water or flour to achieve the correct texture.
4. Roll into small balls and set aside until it's time to add them to the stew.

White bread - Untested

https://www.mafourchette.com/recettes/pain-sans-machine-inratable-pour-apprenti-boulanger?fbclid=IwAR2gIxGv-U_veuMfpgw73uWYcMb3YZ-94J4vgNE5ey5mQxW0cBpSbzG8Rc8

2¼ cuillères à thé (1 paquet) de levure sèche active
2¼ tasses d'eau tiède
¼ tasse de sucre
1 cuillère à soupe de sel
2 cuillères à soupe d'huile
5½ à 6½ tasses de farine

1. Dans un grand bol, dissoudre la levure dans l'eau chaude avec une pincée de sucre. Lorsque la levure est pétillante et mousseuse, ajouter le sucre, le sel, l'huile et 4 tasses de farine, puis mélanger jusqu'à homogénéité.
2. Ajouter la farine restante, ½ tasse à la fois, pour former une pâte lisse. La pâte devrait rester légèrement collante, mais sans trop non plus.
3. Pétrir la pâte de 5 à 7 minutes.
4. Former une boule et place la pâte dans un bol huilé, tourner la pâte pour l'enduire complètement d'huile, puis couvrir le bol d'une pellicule plastique. Laisser reposer pendant une heure, ou jusqu'à ce que la pâte ait doublé.
5. Divisez la pâte en deux. Rouler chaque moitié de la pâte dans un long rectangle d'environ 8 pouces de largeur. Faites rouler la pâte pour obtenir un cylindre d'environ 8 pouces de largeur. Répétez avec la pâte restante.
6. Placer la pâte dans un moule à pain légèrement graissé, couvrir et laisser gonfler la pâte pendant une heure.
7. Préchauffer le four à 375 degrés f et cuire au four de 30 à 35 minutes.

Bean and Leftover Ham Soup - Test 3

https://wonkywonderful.com/ham-and-bean-soup-recipe

1 - with just a little tweaking this made a very serviceable peasant soup that used up the rest of our baked ham. One could add condiments like cheese or hot sauce, but really just per personal preference. Otherwise, it's perfectly good as it is.

2 - This second time, both Ben and I found this soup to be better than just fine but quite good. It was very satisfying. I may be the I upped the flavour by giving a generous pinch of each herb and also using the fat skimmed from boiling a ham to fry the veg in.

3 - This is a very good recipe - being generous with the herbs is essential to carry it off.

4 - That went down really well! Very good. I want to switch up the beans since the Red beans stay pretty firm, how would this go with pinto or cannellini beans that start to fall apart? I'm also standardizing the dry herbs to 1 tsp, I think that's about how much I put in anyway. It was so good I'd really like to graduate this to La Mouffette Gourmande right now, but I'll keep it here to try these changes to see, first.

1 lb dry soup beans (used Mexican Red Beans) (try cannellini)
3 Tbsps oil (leftover fat from the skimming when boiling a ham is choice)
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
5 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6-8 cups chicken stock
OPTIONAL: ham bone
(14oz/398mL) diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 tsp Italian spice mix
1 tsp dry oregano

1 tsp dry basil

1 tsp dry thyme 

a generous pinch of hot pepper flakes
Black pepper, to taste
2 cups shredded cabbage or kale
2-3 cups (350-400gr) diced cooked ham
Salt, to taste

1. Soak beans overnight then rinse.
2. In a large soup pot sauté the onion and carrots in the oil for 4-5 minutes or until the onion starts to soften. Add the garlic and sauté one more minute.
3. Add the beans, the chicken stock, the ham bone, the tomatoes, bay leaf, herbs and pepper. NOTE: if using kale, add at this point.
4. Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer, covered lightly, for 90 minutes or until the beans are soft.
5. Add the ham and cabbage (if using) and cook for 15-20 minutes more. Adjust the seasoning. Discard the bay leaf and serve.

Bread Machine Bread - Testing

I've made this loaf before, but I want to document how I've changed it, and also record when to be around to remove the paddle to avoid that annoying gap in the bottom of the bread.

for a 1 1/2lb loaf

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsps butter
2 Tbsps oil
3 cups flour
2 Tbsps sugar
1 1/2 tsps salt
2 1/4 tsps dry active yeast

1. Warm the water and milk to 110 degrees F (max! Minimum 105F).
2. Put ingredients in the given order in the bread machine pan.
3. Change the settings to: 1 1/2lb; White bread; Medium crust.
4. Set a timer for (1hour 30 minutes?) for when the 3rd kneading finishes. When it does, remove the paddle and shape the dough for the final rise.

Bakewell Tart - Testing

https://www.thespruceeats.com/traditional-bakewell-tart-recipe-435041
https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/bakewell-tart.html
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/british-almond-jam-tart-bakewell-tart-recipe

1 - I made some significant changes to the instructions. I removed a whole section of partially baking the pastry before brushing it with egg white, and I whipped the sh*t out of the filling instead of gently folding in the almond flour, and instead of having a two-step baking method of baking, then adding the sliced almond on top, then baking again, I just put the almonds on top before doing any baking. There was some question of the temperature, and it seems like 325 works fine. 

1 recipe Sweet Pie Dough
For the Filling
1/4 to 1/3 cup raspberry jam (traditional but other jams work too)
6 oz butter
1/2 cup  (110g) white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups (135g) almond flour
Zest of 1 medium lemon
2 Tbsps. (30 to 35g) flaked almonds

1. Bake the cookie pie crust in an 8-inch deep tart tin or spring-form pan. 
2. Leave to cool completely. 
3. Preheat the oven to 325F.
4. Spread the raspberry jam evenly onto the base of the crust.
5. For the filling, start by creaming the butter and sugar and salt together until pale in colour. 
6. One at a time, add the eggs and egg yolk, and beat on high. 
7. Add the ground almonds and lemon zest and beat until pale and fluffy. 
8. Pour the mixture into the pastry case and gently spread evenly with a spatula.
9. Sprinkle the almonds over the top, then bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the frangipane filling is firm and golden brown on top. 
10. Allow to cool slightly and serve while just warm or cool completely in the tin. 
11. Carefully remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar just before serving, perhaps with cream or custard, if you like.

Gravy - Untested

I'm often left with extra liquid after making roast, especially pot roasts and slow-cooker meals. But sometimes, a gravy would be nice to have with a meal where the dish is a bit dry and could do with some moisture.

For every 1 cup of pan drippings or liquid

1 Tbsp butter or lard

1 Tbsp flour

Salt and pepper, to taste

OPTIONAL:

1/2 onion, minced

1 tsp fresh herbs of your choice

1. OPTIONAL: if you want more intense flavour, boil down the roasting liquid to 1 cup. Obviously for this to work, you have to have more than 1 cup of liquid to start with!
2. OPTIONAL: dry-sauté the onion over medium-low temperatures until it is perfectly soft and caramelizes to a nice brown before starting the roux. Add the herbs and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. For the roux, melt the butter or lard in a saucepan, then whisk in the flour. Cook until it browns and the raw flour taste is gone.
4. Whisk in the liquid and stir until it thickens.
5. Serve immediately over whatever you like.

Split pea and greens bharta - PUBLISHED

https://rouxbe.com/recipes/5441-split-pea-spinach-bharta

It's challenging finding other recipes using split peas - I just get hits for pea soup (which is delicious but come on). So I looked to the far East for inspiration. Will be trying this with Staffordshire Oatcakes, just for kicks! :)

1 - Ok, this was a smashing success! Both the oatcakes and the bharta, and the oatcakes-and-bharta combination. We used the oat cakes like injera bread. There was pea cooking water left over, and the greens (which was arugula) were impossible to blenderize because the mix was too dry, so next time I will reserve some of the pea cooking water to moisten the veg mix.
2 - I find that there is very little cooking liquid left when simmering the peas, and more often than not I have to add water when I put them through the blender. The original instructions are to keep 1 cup of cooking water and drain away any excess. I think the opposite is more accurate - keep all the liquid and add 1/4 cup of water at-a-time to make it run through the blender more easily, as it tends to be too thick to blend properly... although I wonder if it would be different in a food processor? I really should add a note about pressing it through a fine sieve by hand, as well.
3 - I discovered that making the cooked peas wet enough for the blender to make a stiff vortex means that when the veg is cooked it can just be added. The finer chop of the veg actually seems like an improvement, and the peas, which I feared would be too wet to eat with the oatcakes, were just the right texture (previously I felt it was too stiff).
4 - Almost there! I used kale, and it didn't seem to be as tasty but then, upon re-heating it, I added salt, just in case that was the problem, and presto! It was! I need to pay attention next time to see how much more salt would be good to add, and definitely 'taste to adjust the seasoning' should be part of this instructions.

For the Split Peas

1 1/2 cup yellow split peas
3 1/2 cup water (or more, if needed)

1. Soak the peas for 2 hours if you can.
2. Bring them to a boil then simmer for 30-50 minutes, until the peas are fully cooked and tender (don't rush this step, the longer and softer the better).
3. Save 1 cup of the cooking water and drain away any excess.
4. Season with salt and allow to cool while preparing the veg.

For the Veg Mixture

1 onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, finely diced (or a pinch of red pepper flakes)
1 tsp salt, to taste
2 bunches fresh greens (spinach, chard, kale, turnip greens, nettles, etc) (approx. 1 lb), finely chopped.

1. Dry-sauté the onion until translucent and golden, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds, then the hot pepper, greens and salt. Stir to combine and cook until the greens wilt. 

Final Steps

2 tsps dried mint
Water
1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp ground sumac OR

• zest of 1 lime or lemon
• 2 tsps black pepper
• a generous pinch of salt

1. As Once the greens a perfectly cooked, purée the split peas until smooth or, if you'd rather do it by hand, press through a fine sieve with a wooden spoon. It will be quite thick, so if running through the blender add water to help it move in the machine. Ideally it should be able to just make a vortex in the blender - it will look too wet but will stiffen in no time.
2. Very To the just-blended peas briefly purée the greens, just to get a rough chop, or do it by hand. If using a machine, do it just so that the veg has passed through once - a little chunky is fine. use some of the pea cooking water to get things moving - the veg mix is quite dry.
3. Combine the peas and greens and then the lime or lemon zest, pepper and mint (or just the sumac if you have some) and mix into the paste.
4. Adjust the seasoning to your taste. Both peas and adding water absorb the effect of salt on flavor, so it's important to taste and adjust the salt until the flavors pop.
5. Reheat and serve.