Feeding

This feeding schedule minimizes discard and maximizes sour/funky flavors.

• Keep your starter in the fridge. This lets you feed at a slower pace and build up more slow fermentation flavors.

• Feed weekly approximately 2:1 by weight. A 2:1 feed keeps the starter hungry and producing funky flavors. If your starter seems unhappy feed it 1:1 or even higher to reset the balance.

  Measuring by weight is the only way to be consistent in baking. Baker's percentages always refer to the the total flour weight being 100%. So, a 100% hydration dough means equal weights of flour and water.

  • Other ways to express the 2:1 feeding ratio:
    • Add half the weight of your starter in 100% hydration feeding paste.
    • 2 parts existing starter to 1 part 100% hydration feeding paste.
    • 4 parts existing starter, 1 part flour (I typically do a mix of AP and whole wheat), 1 part filtered/spring/distilled water.

• Keep the starter in a vessel big enough to allow 1.5-3x expansion. I use a swing top jar with a rubber band to hold the lid but also let gas escape.

• Discard some starter if you are running out of room. See Other Recipes below for ways to use your discard. Or, just gift some to your friends!
• A clear/grey liquid on top of your starter is normal. It is a mix of alcohol and acids that is a natural byproduct of lacto-fermentaion, sometimes called "hooch". You can either pour it off and discard it or mix it back in when feeding.

  Too much acid/alcohol buildup can harm your colony. It shouldn't be a problem if you are regularly feeding though.

Baking

The night before you want to bake, make a levain:

1. Take out some starter, feed it 1:1, and leave it out at room temperature (make a bit more than your recipe requires).
2. Use it as "ripe starter" in your recipe the next day.
3. Any leftover levain can be discarded or fed to the main starter.

Further Reading

Basics

• The Science of Sourdough Starters | Serious Eats
• Sourdough Starter Recipe | Serious Eats
  • The feeding schedule in this one is crazy, and should only be used when starting from scratch.
• How to Make a Sourdough Bread Loaf Recipe | Serious Eats
  • This recipe takes all day, but the results are pretty amazing. And there is no kneading.
  • I use a parchment lined mixing bowl rather than a banneton.
• Claire Saffitz Makes Pancakes + Sourdough Starter 101 | Dessert Person
• Claire Saffitz Makes Sourdough Bread | Dessert Person
• Make Beautiful Sourdough With Claire Saffitz | Try This at Home | NYT Cooking

Other Recipes

• Sourdough Crackers | King Arthur Baking
  • These are truly amazing. They taste like cheez-its, but better.
• Classic Sourdough Pancakes or Waffles | King Arthur Baking
• Sourdough Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting | King Arthur Baking
• Sourdough Zucchini Bread | King Arthur Baking
• Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies | King Arthur Baking
• Sourdough English Muffins Recipe | Bread Baking | Serious Eats
• Boiled Cider Rye Bread | King Arthur Baking
  • This is decent, but the flavors don't come together to make something more. They just exist next to each other.

In my quest for colder weather foods, I decided to make roasted broccoli soup. Broccoli soup is one of my favorite dishes since I was a kid. This is a pretty straightforward recipe: roast/sweat vegetables, simmer in stock and buttermilk, and blend. I wish I had roasted my broccoli longer as the flavor wasn't that pronounced, but I was getting impatient.

The toasted pepitas were very good. I really like the combination of crunchy seeds with parsley and lemon zest.

Overall, I think this recipe is good, but can be improved. I think next time I will include some rosted cauliflower to round out the the flavor. And I'll add cheese because it makes everything better.

I was searching for general fall recipes when I came across apple sujeonggwa. Sujeonggwa is a cinnamon and ginger punch which is typically flavored with dried persimmon. The recipe I followed suggested apple chips as an easier to find substitute. The drink was extremely good both hot and cold (the traditional way). The best way I can describe the flavor is a spicy (from the ginger) brown sugar cinnamon pop-tart. The pine nuts were my favorite part as they added texture and complemented the spices' flavor perfectly.

It was also perfect timing because my friend hosted a dumpling making party the day after I made the punch. I brought it and some apple jack to make a simple fall cocktail. The party was a ton of fun! I got to practice my dumpling making skills, share some drinks and even bring some dumplings home.

My sister recently planned a trip to visit my family. She requested that we have a fish fry which is something we used to do a lot growing up. It would be a big potluck for the small river town that we spent a lot of time at. The fishermen would catch a bunch of catfish, carp, and walleye and then spend all day frying them. There would also be a ton of side dishes and lawn games. It was a formative memory for all of us kids.

She also said she was bringing sweet corn and I had recently seen Kenji's video on sweet corn elotes.

I brought homemade mayo, cotija cheese, and my popcorn spice blend. The popcorn spice blend came from a New York Times article a long time ago, which is no longer available sadly. I've forgotten the exact ratios, but it consists of paprika, cayenne, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. It's basically a grilling spice blend such as Lawry's.

I made the elotes just like in the video and it was amazing! I think it's way better than just buttered corn.

I still had a pound of frozen ground deer meet from my hunter friend. I decided to challenge myself a little and make empanadas. I used the dough from this recipe which incorporates some masa and chicken fat (other rarely used pantry ingredients). This made the dough a little harder to work with as it was prone to tearing.

For the filling, I winged it. I minced a red bell pepper, sauteed that with the meat, and added some chipotle in adobo sauce to form a sloppy joe like filling. I was able to practice forming and crimping the empanadas. After frying, I saved the prettiest ones for my friend in the freezer.

The empanadas were good on their own, but the green sauce from the above empanada recipe really completed the experience. The acid from the limes cut through the gamey flavors. The one thing I didn't like was how much oil the dough absorbed. You could really tell when reheating them from frozen, because it would come bubbling out.

My roommate's girlfriend is pescetarian, so whenever we all cook together we try to make the best dishes without meat. I had some lentils in the pantry, so we made roasted eggplant with tahini, pine nuts, and lentils. I made the vegan stock early for the base of this dish. It really elevated the lentils. My roommate made his favorite tahini sauce, as always. However, my favorite part was the roasted eggplant with rosemary. The silky texture with the fresh, astringent rosemary was really perfect. Overall, I didn't think the tahini fit well with the dish. It was overloading the earthy flavors. We needed to add a lot of lemon and hot sauce to balance everything again.

It's nice to have a couple killer vegan/vegetarian recipes for when you want to share a meal with those friends. This recipe for Vegan Stock is a great base on which to build more dishes. The secret to making a vegetable stock taste richer, is to use natural sources of glutamates (rich, meaty flavors). Both dried mushrooms and kombu (dried kelp) are an excellent source of glutamates that are natural fits for stock. As I'm making other dishes, I will save certain scraps in the freezer for stock. For this stock, I saved up some mushroom, celery, and leek scraps. Throw everything together and boil for a short while (bones in normal stock takes forever to extract).

The vegan stock tastes very rich and yet still aromatic due to it only being vegetables. The only thing that it lacks is the mouth feel you get from gelatin. However, it's a small price to pay for sticking to your morals, especially when the flavor is so good.

I had panna cotta for the first time in Spain. I enjoyed the texture the most, creamy and firm at the same time. I randomly got a craving for it. I found a great blank slate recipe upon which to build. However, I wanted some stronger flavors. So, I steeped some crushed ginger and lemon peels in the warm milk for a couple hours. The combination of sharp flavors and smooth texture was really delightful. The acidic blackberries enhanced the effect too.

However, I did make one mistake. I didn't let the mixture cool long enough and the cream separated from the gelatin a bit. It was only a visual defect though. The dish is really delightful and simple.

Update:

I made this recipe again steeping overnight, properly cooling before pouring, and served with blueberries. The longer steeping created more flavor and also produced a yellow oil on the top (most likely oils from the lemon peels). The blueberries I had were not strong enough to compete with the lemon and ginger. I'd like to try macerated fruits next time.

My friend also brought up that she had made "ginger milk pudding" before. Apparently, there is a compound in ginger that can curdle milk at the right temperature.

My roommate always wants to make fried chicken sandwiches. This time I wanted to switch it up and make something a little different, Peruvian-Style Grilled-Chicken Sandwiches With Spicy Green Sauce and grilled vegetables.

I went to a hardware store and bought the tiniest charcoal grill since my patio is also tiny. I tried to grill the vegetables quickly over the chimney charcoal starter, but it was not going well. I ended up switching to the grill to finish them off which went well. The first batch of chicken breasts grilled nicely, though they didn't get grill marks or carmelize the sauce much. By the time we got the final batch of chicken on the grill, it had been too long and wasn't hot enough to even cook the chicken at all. We quickly pivoted to the oven to finish everything.

The end results were very tasty despite all the stress. I liked the green sauce in particular. I really want to try this again on a functioning grill.

I saw a video from the YouTube channel About To Eat for various ways to cook with peanut butter. The braised pork interested me and I had some pork belly leftover from the pasta carbonara.

In the spirit of the video, I also just threw some things together into a braise. The spices I used were gochugaru (Korean chili powder), Szechuan peppercorns, and Chinese five spice powder. The sauce was extremely flavorful, almost too much. I served it with white rice, sliced scallions, and an egg fried in the pork fat.

It was very good and made me happy to use some leftovers.