July 1st, 2009
Okay, I’m on a quest to make Ezekiel bread, much like Trader Joe’s sesame version. It is delicious and has a taste of its own. Many of the grains and beans are sprouted which give the bread much more nutrition than unsprouted version.
The Bible gave a generic recipe in Ezekiel 4:9 (the name of the bread in stores):
“Then take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and winter wheat. Put them in a container, and use them to make bread for yourself. Eat it during the 390 days that you are lying on your side.”
Unfortunately, there are no measurements. ..and the versions I have seen call for yeast, salt, and a few other ingredients.
The ingredients are:
- Sprouted wheat
- Water
- Sprouted barley
- Sprouted millet
- Malted barley
- Sprouted lentils
- Sprouted soybeans
- Sprouted spelt
- Fresh yeast
- Wheat gluten
- Sea salt
- Sesame seeds
We started sprouting the soybeans as they will take 5 days or so. Lentils 4 days and the rest 3 days. I’ll detail the sprouting and baking soon.
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June 27th, 2009
I have been collecting chili recipes for years. It is time to share them. Of course I have not made them all – way too many.
Chili Recipes at dougthecook
Also included are various tips on making better chili.
Be patient; there are a *lot* of them.
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June 9th, 2009
Though dougthecook has posted an excellent pizza dough, it has a lot of ingredients. In a pursuit to make a simpler dough for those busy nights, aka Trader Joe’s dough (which is 5 ingredients), here is the first try at it:
2 3/4 cups white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3 TBL vegetable oil
1 cup warm water (115 degrees)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp active dry yeast
I made it 2 nights ago. It is a little sticky. Surprising, it rose quite a bit but no sugar was added for the yeast to feast upon. The taste results will be posted soon.
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May 15th, 2009
I made some pancakes, AJ whole wheat ones, and found a nice way to get them done in the middle and fluffy.
Normally pancakes are cooked on a griddle. Since my kitchen is sans griddle, I used a saucepan. The first pancake came out gooey in the middle.
My wife suggested covering the pan with a lid. Did that make a difference! Not only was the pancake cooked through, it came out nice and fluffy. A see-through lid is the best because you can see the bubbles forming on the pancake which means time to flip it.
Doug
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April 30th, 2009
I installed a new printing method that uses strictly CSS rather than the old way: a page parsing program. This new method will save me a lot of time and maintenance.
If you have any feedback, let me know.
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February 21st, 2009
My wife and I were talking to one of the cooks at Trader Joes about making tea. She made it in the usual way: boil water, steep the teabag, and drink it. Our way is a little different: fill the coffeemaker with water, run the coffeemaker to get hot water, then steep a bag or two in the coffeepot. Makes plenty of hot tea.
FWIW, I measured the temperature of the hot water of the coffeepot and it hovered around 160 degrees F. I believe ideal coffee is brewed at 180 to 190 degrees, according to a friend who used to design coffee percolators. I’m not sure the ideal temperature for brewing tea.
Tags: beverage, tea
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February 14th, 2009
Having the past few crusts a little gooey inside, I decided to precook the crust. The past two crusts I precooked 10 minutes in an iron skillet while the oven warmed up. The result was excellent; a crisp crust cooked through. Another hint is to bring the dough to room temperature before forming it.
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December 27th, 2008
The other day I made dougthecook pizza dough with an added 1 tsp of cream of tartar. Big difference, though I’ll have to make the dough a few times just to make sure. The dough was very elastic and easy to work with; easier than not having cream of tartar. The dough seemed smoother; empirical evidence only. Also, the dough rose much better than previously. All in all, I’ll have to add cream of tartar to the ingredient list.
Tags: cream of tartar, pizza dough
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December 25th, 2008
I made a batch of dougthecook pizza dough tonight with a new addition: 1 tsp cream of tartar. In reading the ingredients of Lou Malnati’s frozen pizza, cream of tartar, a dough conditioner, is used. According to the research I did the role of cream of tartar is to keep the dough elastic. No scientific explanation was found but empirical evidence from people that make their own play dough. They say adding cream of tartar improves elasticity and dough smoothness. Thanks kids!
dtc
Tags: cream of tartar, pizza dough
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December 17th, 2008
Not everything we make turns out wonderful. Trying new recipes is a gamble though we try and reduce failure by looking at the ingredients and thinking how it will taste. I was wrong on the following pork and red wine recipe:
Pork and Red Wine Sauce
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tsp honey
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 TBS onion, finely chopped
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
4 pork chops
1 TBS Olive oil, lite
Combine all ingredients except olive oil and onion in a nonreactive bowl.
Marinate pork for 10 minutes.
Cook pork in a skillet, about 5 minutes per side, on med heat. Remove and keep warm.
Add olive oil and onion on med-low heat. Cook until limp.
Add marinade, scrape fond off bottom, and let boil for a minute or so.
Remove bay leaf. Pour over chops and serve.
The red wine sauce and pork just didn’t have that great flavor combination. Certainly others may like it; it sure sounded good. I’d rate it a 2/5 and probably not make it again.
Update: 12/21/2008
I had plenty of leftover pork with red wine sauce. The next day I reheated the pork with some sauce on it…and it was delicious!
Doug
Tags: pork, red wine sauce
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