Malek Musings
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Cooking is my creative  outlet and my writing is "food for thought"  

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Make Your Own Vegetable Stock with "A-Peel"

3/21/2015

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Food is so expensive.  Especially if you prefer to buy organic like we do.  I try very hard not to waste anything.  It's easy to just toss out food that is "tired looking" or throw out scraps and peels because that's "just garbage".  Think again!  It's not hard to be creative. With a little effort, you can get extra "meal miles" out of those discarded ingredients.  You can actually use them, provided they are not spoiled and are still safe to eat.

Here are some things I've already been doing that stretch my food dollars when making healthy and nutritious meals.  I happen to make homemade dog food using boiled chicken thighs.  I've been able to strain the broth obtained from the meat and freeze it for use later in soups and for making rice.  Win-win! 

I also make homemade chicken wings.  I buy the wings whole and cut them up myself.  I save the "waste" wing tips in the freezer, and when I have enough, I boil those for the broth.  Like many people, I use leftover ham bones in my pea and bean soups.  I've also boiled roasted chicken and turkey carcasses to make soup and broth. 

When my grape tomatoes get tired looking and a bit wrinkly, they go straight into the freezer to be used in tomato based sauces and in soups.  The green tops of leeks I freeze for use later in soups, stews and sauces.  I leave them in large pieces and simply remove them (like bay leaves) at the completion of cooking.  Overripe bananas, if they can't be used promptly for baking, go in the freezer for use at a later date.  Bruised or uncrisp apples are trimmed and cut up for baking. 

Left over rice and pastas freeze nicely to be used in soups.  I even add them in my dog's homemade food. 

Today's Musing is about making homemade vegetable stock using vegetable scraps and peels.  I saw a few articles that prompted me to give this a try.  It really hadn't occurred to me to make something edible with ingredients that, for so many years, I've simply tossed out as waste or composted!   I cook from scratch most of the time, and we eat a large amount of fresh vegetables. I have lots of scraps that I could easily collect.  I kept a Ziploc bag in my freezer and kept adding the vegetable scraps until the bag was full.  I saved carrot ends and peels, cucumber ends and peels, zucchini ends, onion ends and even the papery peels, ends cut from green onions, stem ends and trimmings from red and green peppers, bottom ends of romaine lettuce.  I even included turnip peels and some stems (not alot) from broccoli.

Once the bag was full, I dumped it into a stock pot, covered it with water, and brought it to a simmer for about 4 hours.  I kept the pot full as some liquid boiled off.  Next time I will cover the pot, but this time I liked to be able to keep watch and stir.   You can also make this in a crock pot if that is more convenient.  After 4 hours or so the vegetables were cooked down to a very soft state. I then strained the cooked scraps from the broth.  They were boiled and mushy but my broth was darker and clear.  Ultimately, I ended up with 3 large freezer containers of broth that I will freeze to use later in soups and for cooking rice.  It's a bit bland without salt, but I cook with low salt anyway.  I simply salt my sauces, soups etc.to our particular tastes during cooking or at serving.  The beauty of scratch cooking is being able to control the type and amount of ingredients!

Here are the links to articles that got me started. They give good tips for what to save (and not save) in your scraps.  I didn't save potato peels, but I have creative use for those described in a future Musing!  Stay tuned!

http://hellyeahitsvegan.com/make-your-own-vegetable-stock/

http://www.frugal-cafe.com/kitchen-pantry-food/articles/how-to-make-vegetable-stock.html

http://www.thekitchn.com/stockpiling-you-159193

http://ohmyveggies.com/how-to-make-vegetable-broth-with-kitchen-scraps/

Here are photos of my vegetable stock being made.
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A Hearty Multigrain and Seed Bread With Variations

3/19/2015

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I've been having great fun trying out new bread recipes.  Some recipes have been keepers and some have not.  I've been on the hunt for a hearty multigrain loaf to replace one of my favorite commercially baked breads.  (Whole Foods Ancient Grains Bread).  This loaf is not identical, but offers a similar loaf that I like very much.

Here is the link to the original recipe that I used for inspiration.  I did not have all the needed ingredients, but I'm comfortable with tweaking recipes, so I simply substituted some of the ingredients and I baked it artisan style, using a covered baking vessel.  This loaf can also be baked traditionally, in a loaf pan, as directed in the recipe.

http://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2015/03/multigrain-and-seed-bread.html

Here is my recipe as I adapted it.  I've also included alternate baking instructions, using a covered vessel (clay baker or dutch oven).  I've also added some preparation and baking tips as well as some recipe variations that I hope to try out when I bake this loaf again.  It's definitely a keeper recipe in this household!  I used organic ingredients, but it can certainly be prepared with conventional ingredients.
multigrain_and_seed_bread_extraordinaire.doc
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Nutty Prune Wheat Bread-Who Needs Raisins?

3/12/2015

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I've been baking again.  I made a new bread recipe that turned out quite well, so I thought I would share it here.

I am pretty much a creature of habit.  I like to have toast with my morning coffee.  I especially love a good raisin bread and variations of raisin breads.  This time, I decided to try a new recipe called Nutty Prune Wheat Bread.  It is actually a bread machine recipe, but it does not have to be mixed or baked in a bread machine.  I found this recipe in a great book I just bought called Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook.  The recipe is also available online, and I will provide the link at the end of this Musing.

I made the 1.5lb loaf version and made only a few revisions. I used organic flour, butter and milk powder.  I used chopped pecans instead of walnuts (because that's what I had on hand).  I also added 1 tsp of dried orange peel.  (I might increase that in the future, or try using fresh orange zest if I have it available).  I mixed the dough in my bread machine using the dough cycle, which also does the dough's first rise.  When the cycle completed, I removed the dough, shaped it and let it rise in an oval linen lined bread basket.  I dusted the linen with oat bran.  (you can also let this loaf rise in a loaf pan or on a baking sheet).  When roughly doubled in size, I flipped the dough onto parchment paper.  I scored the top with a sharp knife.  I placed the dough in my cold clay baker (soaked previously in water).  I put the lid on and placed it in a cold oven set to bake at 450 degrees.

You don't have to use a covered baking vessel. This can be baked conventionally, uncovered, in a preheated oven.  Your bake time will be different if you do this.  I like using covered baking vessels to steam the bread initially and then uncover to crisp the crust. Conventional baking would need about 35-45 minutes at 375 degrees.  If baking traditionally, I would keep an eye on it as ovens can have hot spots etc.  A 1.5 pound loaf may not need as much time to bake as a 2 lb. loaf.  Of course, you can also follow the bread machine directions given in the recipe.

While I made this recipe from my new book, Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook, I''m including an online link to the same recipe.

http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/breadmachine/Nutty_Prune_Wheat_Bread.php

If you are interested in buying a nice bread machine cookbook, the Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook is quite nice with an interesting variety of recipes.  You can make any of these recipes traditionally, either by hand or with a mixer.  Here is a link to the book, which is available in new and used condition.  I checked this out from the library first, before deciding to purchase it to my personal collection.

http://www.amazon.com/Crockers-Machine-Cookbook-Crocker-Cooking/dp/0028630238
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Olive Oil Decisions!  So Many Labels To Choose From!

3/2/2015

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Picture
Hi all!  Haven't been Musing much lately.  No new recipes to share of late.  I've just busy making my usual favorites!  And I've been enjoying managing and building my FB group, Michigan Bread Bakers.

I ran across some interesting Olive Oil articles that I thought would be worth sharing here.  I know that we use ALOT of olive oil in this kitchen.  It is my preferred oil to use.  When olive oil will not do, I will opt for organic canola oil.  Of course butter and coconut oil are also in my pantry and I often use those for my baking endeavors. 

I ran across an article recently, which evaluated different olive oils available on the market.  I found it very interesting and thought it would be helpful for making decisions on which olive oil to buy.

To my surprise, olive oils from Costco and Trader Joe's were near the top of the recommended list!  (Not all oils they carry were recommended, only certain labels).

I've included the link to the most recent article as well as some other recent articles.  I think they will help you with deciding which bottle to select from the many you see on the self. 


http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/12300-is-your-olive-oil-lying-about-its-virginity.html

http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/2012/09/toms-supermarket-picks-quality-oils-good-prices

http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/2013/08/trader-joes-extravirgins-and-floozies 



Looking for guidance in how to choose an olive oil?

http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/great-oil/how-to-buy-great-olive-oil
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