That sounds incredible! The place I went was a little tiny place called "Danny's Mediterranean Cuisine", up on the North Side. It was on North Street I think... But me and my dad just decided to stop in on an impulse thinking maybe we could get a good gyro or something, and ended up getting Beef and Lamb Shish Tikka, which I had never had never even heard of before, but it was amazing. They gave us home made pickles too, and humus and babaganoush, best I'd ever had. And the people were really friendly. Then when we were walking out of this humble little familiy restaurant, I noticed a little plaque with a magazine award for best persian/mediterranean food for a couple of the past years. Ever since then I've loved Middle Eastern, and especially Persian food. I love Greek Town too, so many awesome places to go! Chicago has an awesome food scene...
I started a new sourdough starter a couple weeks ago, from a good live source. It's still a very young starter, but the sourdough loaves I made yesterday are already giving a hint of that fine sourdough savor. I had let a previous sourdough starter go bad through extreme neglect, to the point I no longer trust the old crock even after sterilizing it a few times. Before I made this bread batch, I dried some of the new starter and stored it in the back of the freezer as a backup. As it develops, I'll probably store another backup or two. A good sourdough starter is a treasure. It's a vigorous culture, and I'm looking forward to some fine loaves when it matures a bit more.
I make my own bread a lot, though I've never used sourdough. My favourite is 1:2 spelt:strong bread flour, with a leek chopped up fine mixed in with it. The taste of the first slice out of the oven makes it worth a #1 spot on any 'things to eat before you die' list.
Found an interesting recipe for Welsh bread, baked in clay pots. It's a milk and butter dough, spiced up with sage, chives and parsley. Sounds tasty.
That does sound good. Is it a flatbread, like Naan? Or does it fill the pot? Also, covered or open pot?
If anyone wants a really nice, healthy snack or supper try a bowl of Greek yogurt and good quality honey. It is a little part of heaven.
The dough is yeasted, so it will fill the pot during baking. The recipe says open pot. I'm going to try it out tomorrow, if I have time.
What no coffee and cigarette thread? I thought those were the basic needs for a writer Cooking is my other passion and actually worked sometime as a cook, but found i enjoy making salty pastries more than cooking, and quite proud of my pizza. Today's healthy tip: Fresh hot peppers red and green If you like hot fresh hot peppers with your meal its great for you as it has capsaicin, capsaicin has anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic, analgesic and anti-diabetic properties. It also found to reduce LDL cholesterol levels in obese individuals. Which means it will kill a lot of bad stuff in you, the important part is NOT to drink any fluids after it, as that what makes that hot chili really hot, and can be bad for you, get used to eat it everyday without any water or juice or any fluid you can think of and you wont feel it hot anymore (much depends on type) but quite tasty as it also release endorphin, also known as the pleasure hormone. Other benefits: - Fights migraine headaches and sinus headaches - Prevent sinusitis and relieve congestion - Help soothe intestinal diseases - Can help you burn fat and lose weight - Have loads of vitamin C (the green type has most) - Some say it helps with cancer, cold feet and lowers high blood pressure - Helps in cold weather as it warms your body Many avoid hot peppers as it can get ugly, but drinking water is what makes it worse and unhealthy and potentialy dangerous, if you feel its too hot for your taste try eating some bread or biscuit.
I like hot chilies, but my son is the Capsaicin King. I've seen him eat red savinas (but he draws the line at ghost peppers). I do prefer that the chilies have flavor, not just scads of Scovilles.
It turned out to be a great recipe, the aroma of butter, garlic and herbs coming from the oven was incredible. Crust lovers shold avoid cooking it in the clay pot, and stick to "traditional" baking methods. Too bad I didn't manage to upload a picture of the loaf.
Just made 8 huge pizzas, i make my own dough and pizza souse, the souse is nothing special really but the trick is to cook it and is always way better than ketchup, some tomato souse plus spices(salt,black pepper,sugar and hot red pepper if you like it with a kick) and let it boil on small fire for sometime than add oregano and remove from fire. For a good souse always better to cook it on a small fire for sometime and steer regularly. Make sure your oven is at highest possible temp it can be if you want to get some what close to restaurants pizza(their oven is at 450 degrees C), most house ovens are at max 250 :/
I love Italian food but I have to say that my true weakness is sweets. I Love to bake! I just made red velvet brownies the other day and the day before that I made jello fruit roll ups which requires no baking just chilling but they are sooooo good!
On a cold winter's day, with a storm approaching, I'm making a big pot of spaghetti sauce with mushrooms, Italian sausage, and meatballs. Not super fancy, but solid comfort food and damned good, if I do say so myself.
The hottest pepper I've eaten was a habanero - big mistake. However I bought a hot sauce called Red Ghost which contains the infamous ghost pepper. It is beyond intense and should only be used in extremely small amounts at one time. I'm a glutton for punishment.
I just spent nearly three hours putting together a chicken gumbo, made from leftover chicken I roasted two days ago and a homemade stock made from the bones. Most of the time was spent cooking the roux down to a good brick brown. I love the buttered-toast smell the roux gives off when it gets dark! It's simmering 'til dinnertime. Then I make some rice and my roomie and I get to pig out. The leftover gumbo will be my Oscar-night feast tomorrow.
I like a lot of Asian dishes. I may not be Asian, but I love cooking Asian dishes. If I could I'd eat Asian food all the time.
No okra, sorry. And this time, no file! I usually like to sprinkle file on the gumbo, but I have a hard time getting it around here - I live in the cultural wasteland of Southern California (I often have a hard time finding the andouille sausage, if you can believe it). I bought some file last time I was in Louisiana, but that was years ago and I've run out. So the roux is going to have to be enough, and a little extra cayenne for the spice. I have GOT to get back to New Orleans soon!
File is available via mail/Internet ordering. I'm shocked that andouille is unavailable in SoCo, but is in every grocery store I go to in New England, including ones that don't even carry rye flour (heathens!)
Andouille is often available here, but not always. It seems like if a store runs out, they don't reorder for months. There are high-end stores that I'm sure would have it all the time, but none are really near me and their prices are exorbitant. Thanks for suggesting ordering file on the net. I've never bought food online, but I guess I'm about to start. My sister has been pestering me to try a pesto sauce she found online that I can't get here ...
I order quite a few spices online. I can get better quality and fresher product than I can get locally.
I haven't put together a recipe in a long time. However, I do eat occasionally at a local diner. The funny thing about this place is that it's just an average looking diner, but the food they serve is sort of gourmet.
Prepared the sponge to bake a batch of Bagels. I will let it rest in the fridge overnight, and mix it with the rest of the ingredients tomorrow, to make the dough.
Mmm bagels! Quite a bit of work, with the two cooking steps in addition to the mixing and rising, but well worth the effort. Last weekend, I baked a couple loaves of sourdough bread, which turned out perfectly (my starter is now fully matured, YAY!) I only used half the dough, and refrigerated the rest, so I'll see if it will still rise. Worst case, I make a bunch of sourdough biscuits from it that can kill at twenty paces. But this being St Patrick's Day weekend, I'm also making Guinness-braised corned beef. The house smells wonderful!
