Domestic work!

[seawasp]

For the last few weeks, we've been trying to cut down on money spent on groceries by making things we'd normally buy. For me, the breaking point was realizing a loaf of bread now cost $3.00+, when a *pound* of flour cost only $0.50, roughly.

So in the last two-three weeks I've baked quite a few loaves of bread and started to get back my knowledge of how to do that (I used to bake a fair amount some years ago). And I'm also doing some other similar work; for instance, rather than buy frozen fries, I am now deep-frying about 10 pounds of potatoes which will be frozen for later use. And instead of chips, I made the kids a big bunch of pappadam.


And I'm making cookies, using a recipe HANDED DOWN THROUGH THE SPOOR FAMILY LINE FOR GENERATIONS!!!   (thus the Armstrong icon).

Comments

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

I take it mixing these cookies makes your arms strong?

(Peanut butter cookies should be used as muscle-building exercises, I swear)

[xpioti.livejournal.com]

If he starts Heroic Domestic Guy posing and such, I'm gonna have such a giggle-attack. ;)

Love the icon! Bacon!

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Icon is free for the taking, just please use the credits in my profile :)

[seawasp]

No, I don't use crude physical force! I'm a 21st-century guy. Having a KitchenAid mixer, the hard physical part is transporting the ingredients to the mixing bowl.

No, the icon is because Major Armstrong commonly states that something he's doing, or knows how to do, uses "Techniques handed down through the Armstrong family line for GENERATIONS!!"

And then poses, and sparkles. This is very disturbing because only the Armstrong family sparkles.

[xpioti.livejournal.com]

Love the Armstrong icon!

If you have a mandoline, I've got an insanely easy recipe for fries:

Ingredients: 2.5# Yukon Gold (or similar; not Russet or Red) potatoes, 6c peanut oil, 1/4c bacon fat (optional)

Cut the potatoes into 1/4" batons. (I have instructions on how to do this with a knife, but the mandoline is easier.) Drop them into a Dutch oven. Pour in the peanut oil. Dump in the bacon fat if you're using it. Put on high heat -- yes, this starts from cold! -- until boiling (should take about 5 minutes), then cook without touching for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are limp but beginning to firm up. Use tongs to give 'em a good, gentle stir; continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes until they're golden and crispy. Skim them out, drain them off, season with salt (the recipe recommends Kosher salt, I use table salt), serve hot.


Speaking of bread, is it hard to make French bread? Not baguettes, the fatter loaf with a heavy crust. I got a loaf from the store and it was insanely popular with my horde.

What's pappadam?

When I was little, my parents made a lot of dried fruit and fruit leather using a large food dryer; nowadays there are more efficient options, and that's what we snacked on instead of chips.

[seawasp]

I don't have a mandoline yet; it's on my list of things to get.

The french fries I make are first boiled and then fried. This gives them, overall, the texture that seems most popular with everyone in my household.

The fatter loaf I think is actually Italian bread rather than French; it's not too hard to make but takes a good deal of time.

Pappadam is a very crispy fried wafer, which looks something like a tortilla, seen at Indian/Pakistani restaurants. It's got various spices in it so eating Pappadam straight will deliver a faint warming sensation.

I love dried fruit but it's too expensive -- and I can tell why, given the cost of fruit and how much it shrinks when dried.

[xpioti.livejournal.com]

Right, I remembered that about the mandoline after posting and felt silly. BTW, America's Test Kitchen liked the OXO Good Grips V-Blade Mandoline Slicer (best) and the Kyocera Adjustable Ceramic Mandoline Slicer (best buy). I got mine for a wedding present. :)

The last time I tried to deep fry something the usual way, I had an oil fire on the stove. Cooking is just not my thing. :)

My local grocery store sells both, the Italian bread is not as long.

Ah! I've heard of pappadam, probably from coworkers. :D

I was actually suggesting, slantwise, adding a food dehydrator to your wish list. :) It's not nearly as expensive when you get it from an orchard or farmer's market, and it's so yummy. :) (I am, of course, biased. :D)

[groblek.livejournal.com]

Nice. I don't know if you have a Costco membership (or one nearby, for that matter), but we get our yeast for bread making there - it's around $3 for a 2-lb loaf of yeast. The yeast seems to keep allright in the freezer for a couple of years at a time.

[ancientone.livejournal.com]

hey, good for you! I did about the same thing when "everybody" moved away and I was here alone. cookies and bread. I have learned how to use a slow cooker. yum. bread for S3.00 a loaf. must be on sale?

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

One of my friends makes homemade yogurt. She says it tastes much better than store bought and she'll never go back.

And I don't know if it would be worth it for you to check out Roger Ebert's cookbook of recipes for rice cookers.

[ath-winter-lord.livejournal.com]

Somewhere at the back of my mind I've still got the plan to get my own sourdough started (not gotten round to it yet). The idea is to bake gray (rye) bread, but white (wheat) would be ok.

It's not that urgent (a loaf costs around 50 euro-cent for 500g, any kind; black, gray, white, or toast/sandwich bread - might even be cheaper than baking it yourself if you count electricity), and I don't eat much bread (sometimes I like it for a week or three, then not for more weeks).

But if you've got a simple recipe, I'd be happy to finally get going with that.

Also, gifs! (Of your finished products, and optinally the process.)

How do you make these pappadam things? (I looked it up in a dictionary and google images, sounds interesting.)

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Pappadum or poppadom or pappadom are made with lentils. It can be made at home but is much simpler to buy at your local grocery store or Indian market and cook at home. Cooking in the microwave shows you were the hot spots are. Can be done in the deep fryer but is easier to manage by using a shallow pan of oil. They GROW when you cook. A 6" diameter one ends up at 12" in diameter after cooking. More or less. They start out flat but grow and crinkle.

[redrose999.livejournal.com]

Very productive and tasty too mylove! LOL I'm so happy we get to eat what you make! :)

[chuk-g.livejournal.com]

How about popcorn instead of chips? Popcorn's cheap and you can pop it a few different ways. (Or if you're going to be slicing and frying a bunch of potatoes anyway, you could just, you know, make chips.)

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Our girls actually like potato pakora instead of homemade chips. I use the recipe for the batter from Madhur Jaffery's vegetarian cookbook. Make up the dry mix with gram flour and spices then keep it in the cupboard in an airtight container.

I own a tortilla press and a bag of masa harina is cheap so I make our own tortilla chips.

(Hi. I'm bored and enjoyed your response to Celine (starcat_jewel) in JanetM's LJ.)

[seawasp]

Hi, welcome, the more the merrier!

I'm making my own tortillas now as well, except (as this past week) when I get sick and can't muster up the energy.

I'm wondering if anyone makes red or blue masa harina; I don't think I've seen any around here.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

This (http://www.purcellmountainfarms.com/Organic%20Blue%20Corn%20Meal.htm) seems to suggest that they do. And if you want to make it yourself then Good Eats (http://goodeatsfanpage.com/Season10/tortila/tortilla_tran.htm) will show you how.

[seawasp]

That's cornmeal, which while good stuff isn't masa; the process to make cornmeal is basically dry the corn and grind it up, while masa is dried corn, soaked in slaked lime, then ground up into a paste which is then dried into powder. Masa is much finer and is generally what makes the best tortillas.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

As I said, seems to suggest. But the Good Eats link does tell you how to process raw corn in to masa with the slaked lime. You're on your own to find a source for raw blue and red corn.