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Wiggles, I really wish you would write a book about your life. One that also has recipes in it. Doesn't have to be deeply intimate or anything, just all the cool stuff you seem to have done. Would buy that book for myself and for everyone I know.
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May 6, 2012 07:24
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therattle posted:Yeah, I used oil. Given the strict separation if meat and dairy by religious Jews most challah does not have butter. No, my problem was hydration which made shaping very hard with a loose dough. The texture and flavour were pretty good: better than many store-bought loaves, which was good, but not as good as I'd hoped. While the crumb was lovely and soft, and the crust thin, it wasn't as cakey as it could be. I used the smitten kitchen recipe and added some sourdough starter for flavour. My starter is pretty wet which probably didn't help. An overnight cold ferment would certainly help. The in-laws certainly liked it. I love Smitten Kitchen's recipe. Never had any problems with it, either. She just posted a challah recipe with figs, olive oil, and sea salt...not sure how I feel about that one. Man, I haven't made or eaten challah in ages...too much going on right now.
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Sep 17, 2012 13:46
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therattle posted:I've read that the flour I used (Shipton Mill) requires about 8% less hydration than others, so that might have been the issue, plus, as I said, the addition of some wet sourdough starter. I am o bread expert but I know enough to know that it was too wet. I did add a bit of extra flour during the knead, but not enough, evidently. I'm a poor postgrad, it's usually all own brand strong bread flour from the supermarket, to my great shame! I've never found the quality to suffer, and in fact I prefer this challah to the bland stuff I got from Chabad back in the day. I think the trick for me was to be really careful about adding in the eight cups of flour. I sifted it super slowly and in general just sort of babied the dough. It turned out really well, nice and fluffy and rich on the inside. It also made fantastic eggy bread.
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Sep 17, 2012 17:09
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Proper borsch (to me) needs hunks of beet, potato, onion, cabbage, and meat, maybe some carrots but not too many. You also need smetana and dill. Fantastic stuff, super filling. My Ukrainian friend describes her borsch as 'everything but the kitchen sink.' However, my mum, who grew up Jewish in America in the 1950's and 1960's, remembers 'borscht' as something that you ate cold out of a Manischevitz jar. I find it completely disgusting, but she thinks it's delicious.
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Nov 6, 2012 21:14
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Yeah, jarred borscht is part of the overwhelming bland horror that is Ashkenazi food. an observer, I've never heard of borsch like that cold one, but I'm a bit of a doofus anyhow. I know that when I was in Russia I often had okroshka, but that doesn't have beets. Yours sounds like something they have in the Baltics? edit: there is cold borsch in Russia but it wasn't ever served to me like that when I was in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but again, I may have just missed out because I was stuffing my face with plov.
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Nov 6, 2012 21:20
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I'm going to have to make some cold borsch soon to make up for my missing out on it in Russia, despite the weather. I'm tempted to make an effortpost/thread for borsch. Would be a nice way to spend my Sunday.
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Nov 6, 2012 21:26
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An observer posted:That's a pretty great idea. Maybe we should have an eastern european cuisine thread or something? I'd definitely be down for that. I'll probably only have time to do it (the borsch and the thread) on the Sunday, to be fair. It'd be nice to have a catch-all thread for stuff. 
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Nov 6, 2012 21:41
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An observer posted:Hahahaha, that's perfect. I can try to write up an effortpost for my country, but I've never made an effortpost before -- is there a good example of one on GWS someone could link me to? The 'Dreaming of India' thread that Yiggy did was great, but I think it's in the archives now. I'm not actually Russian--I've studied it for awhile--but there's also lots of other posters across the forums who are actually Russian and could also put in their two cents. I'd gladly do a borsch recipe and perhaps some Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish) cuisine since I am actually Ashkenazi. It's usually pretty similar to Russian/Ukrainian/Polish/etc. cuisine, but everyone could do with a good cholent recipe, I think. edit: You could call it 'Not Just Vodka and Potatoes: The Eastern European Food Thread' or some such.
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Nov 6, 2012 22:13
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dino. posted:Sure, catch-all thread is nice, but making a specific Borscht thread would be great, especially since winter is coming soon, and the heartier soups really help get through those horrible cold days. Sure! If I had more mouths to feed I'd also make solyanka but it's usually just me and my boyfriend. Borsch is always good (and vegan friendly if you want it to be that way). Also, well, at least it's not Romney.
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Nov 7, 2012 08:31
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I've never followed a recipe, to my great shame. I always just sort of chucked stuff into it. I like mine with extra beets. I usually get 3-4 beets, a large onion, a carrot, a couple of potatoes, small bit of garlic, and half a cabbage, sometimes some fatty meat, and work from there. I sometimes add dill in when I'm cooking the onions and other stuff. Top with smetana and fresh dill. I'm not actually Russian though, so I'm probably making some horrid bastardisation of the dish. I've seen a few recipes call for salo, which is like a block of rendered pork fat, but I've never tried it, and it only calls for a really tiny amount because it's so rich.
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Nov 7, 2012 18:33
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Sjurygg posted:I can safely say that any good pork fat, even rendered, will work as well as salo for this stuff. Raw salo is something else, up there with good Italian lardo. gently caress it's good. I've eaten both salo and lardo, I think both are absolutely delicious (especially the lardo). I've just never added salo to borsch. Plus the stuff I can find around here usually has some spice coating on it, which might throw off the borsch flavour.Beet gratin sounds pretty good, actually, though I've never made a gratin in my life.
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Nov 8, 2012 11:27
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