Rubbing it in, just a little

Oh right, I forgot to mention why the renewed interest in flogging. To be honest I have been meaning to get back to this flog for some time. I no longer have any excuses.

That's right. That's me right there. I love birthdays.
So, as a result, lots of bread baking has been goin' down.
A very basic sandwich bread recipe follows:
2 cups flour (AP is fine, BF is cool too)
into which is mixed about a Tablespoon of salt (maybe a bit less, I never measure such things)
1/2 cup warm water
into which goes about 1 1/2 teaspoons of Yeast
1/2 cup milk, warmed (and yes I mean whole milk, what kind of a site do you think this is?)
into which is melted 1 Tablespoon of butter (unsalted always!)
Let yeast bloom in warm water for about 10 minutes,
mix with flour until a shaggy dough forms, wait 5 to 35 minutes (could let it rest like this for hours, but it is unnecessary.)
Mix in the milk let it rest again for 20 - 30 minutes. Then knead until it is done.
No, I am not going to tell you how long to knead it, just do it until it is done.

Let is rise until doubled then split into two loaves. Press down and fold, I usually do all four corners in, then those four corners and pull it tight. I know this is not very discriptive but I am feeling lazy right now. Maybe I will edit it later but at least I am posting something, right? You're just wasting time at work reading food blogs!

Anyway, let these loaves rise again then shape, proof and bake.
400 degrees (on your baking stone of course!) for 12 minutes or so, then turn the oven down to 350 and bake until done, probably around 35 minutes more.

Here is it served with some of the beans left over from a cassoulet made yesterday. Breakfast of champions.

A really weird day in Seattle

No joke. Today was really weird. Sunny all day and almost 80 degrees. Why is that so weird? Well, it is Seattle and it is April. Two weeks ago it snowed. Today it was beautiful so we decided to go hiking up Tiger mountain. It was fun but we spent the entire time planning for our feast tomorrow.

Needless to say by the time we got done we were starving. As the weather was nice, we decided on burgers, something we haven’t done in a long while. So we stopped and got some beef and charcoal and headed home to fire up the Q.

After a lengthy search through the basement and storage I found the old smokey joe and set about preparations. These are beef burgers, noted only because we quite often do lamb. Seasoned with a bit of worcestershire sauce and soy, garlic, shallots and S&P.

On top; grilled onions, bacon, avocado, gruyere (on mine) and basil. BBQ sauce of course doesn’t really need mentioning.

Paired with an unfiltered amber wheat beer from the Trader Joe’s this was a perfect late lunch on such a beautiful day. Damn, why don’t we do burgers more often?

Oh, right. Seattle.

Damn, three posts in as many days. I had better slow down.

Grand Re-opening

OK, so there has been a rather obvious lack of activity on this flog for the past several months. I wish I could claim a great abduction story or something reasonable to explain my absence. A daring escape from the clutches of evil fast food purveyors and thugs employed by the mayonnaise industry.
Alas there is no such tale.
No matter. The flog is back.
The format will be tweaked slightly. Over the next several months WhyMayo? will explore and experiment with all of the food items that most home chefs are too intimidated or lazy to attempt. It seems to me more and more that people know about food, they can't stop talking about the latest episode of Top Chef, but still no one cooks at home. (And none of the floggers in Seattle curse. It is fucking creepy.)

I will try whenever reasonable to include some of the science going on in the foods prepared. Mostly because it is of great interest to me. Who doesn't love AB, right? Mostly though it is my belief that once one understands the basics and all of the things that are happening behinds the scenes, food preparation becomes that much easier. Then, experimentation and elaboration becomes much more fun and feasible. Besides, a basic grasp of chemistry seems almost a prerequisite for cooking these days.

One of the first items to be attempted will be bread. Completely complex in its utter simplicity, just four basic ingredients and endless variations. Great bread is one of those things that typically baffles many home chefs. So much so that it seems rarely attempted anymore.

Perhaps it is a matter of convenience and practicality. Bread is available in most places at reasonable quality and price. Home baked bread certainly must come out of some passion. Perhaps though this is more on point with what this flog will be all about. The seemingly endless march toward convenience. Pre-sliced apples, for fuck's sake!

What should I really expect though from a culture that has a prescription for everything. Why take the time, put forth effort to create something, why search for something about which you are passionate when there is a pill that can make you feel that way about a sofa cushion. I still make happiness from scratch, the old fashioned way (read, liquor).
OK, this post is becoming rather rant like. I should probably stop before I scare off anyone who might actually read this thing in the future. Google ad-sense, Ka-ching!

Told you so!

Ha! I knew I could do it. I have broken the silence. I think the problem has been trying to create some sort of great, re-opening post to reintroduce WhyMayo? to the blogosphere. But I have given up on that, mostly because I have discovered something that upsets me greatly. The US has banned imports of curry leaves! Motherfuckers!

I found this out after looking for them yesterday at the local Asian food store first and then at the Indian food store, nothin'!

Only half jokingly I googled the shortage of curry leaves in the Seattle area to discover that the USDA had actually banned imports of curry leaves from Hawaii due to a bacteria that affects citrus crops, as the plant on which curry leaves grow is a relative of these crops.
I have been unable to find any updates as to when the ban may be lifted.
WTF And I just bought a bunch of chana dal.
(Cheaper at the Whole Foods than at the Indian food store, Nice!)

I guess since this is a food blog I should at least include some shots of the food which was supposed to contain these delicious, deep green little leaves.
This is a very simple dish. Just chana dal cooked in chicken stock, although I am sure that water would work just as well. Half a medium, yellow onion and several cloves of garlic sauteed in butter and olive oil with the typical seasonings. Cumin seed, red chili flakes, coriander and turmeric. Finish with some cilantro and some rice. Breakfast of champions.

Sure would be better with some mutha fuckin' CURRY LEAVES!!! though!!

OK, seriously this time

Wow, almost a year since I posted the coming soon notice. Ha! OK, seriously though, within a week.

Posts to look forward to:
Some great, authentic Chinese food
Bread posts (I just got a Kitchen Aid. What!)
Pizza Root Beer Fridays!
XLBs, you know what I'm talkin' about Dylan!

Many more.

Stay tuned....

I promise

Coming Soon!

Scary, yes? Don't worry, no Starbucks taking this spot just yet. I know it has been empty for a long while. Just retooling though. We will be back very soon.

A new experiment: XLBs

Well, just dumplings for now. Apparently, pork skin is needed to create a stock that is gelatinous enough for those delicious, juicy pork dumplings. If you can believe it, we don’t actually stock pork skin all the time. Go figure. So, since I have the urge right now, and lack the skin, I guess I will just have to experiment.
We have a bunch of frozen scrimps. I am sure that they use shrimp in dumplings somewhere, so let’s give it a shot. I know they make shrimp and pork dumlings, and shao mai have shrimps right? Good enough for me.
The plan of attack at the moment: I still have a few dumpling wrappers left over from yesterday (and of course I forgot to take pictures of the process, or the product.) I guess I will need to make some more wrappers anyway, because I have only a few, and it is so easy. The day old wrappers work just fine however. Just dust with flour and store in the fridge. Always let dough come to room temp before working with it again.
The filing: (Remember that this is not the XLB filing. That one will probably be worked on this weekend. Unless, of course we go to Vegas.)
Trying to keep it very simple, this one is just some raw shrimp, diced finely, green onions and ginger. Mixed with a bit of Soy sauce and sugar, that was it. Into the wrappers and over the steam. Nothing to it.

Unfortunately, this one turned out a bit salty and, well just not so great. Of course, I sent a couple of pics of these to the wife and she made me make more when she got home. These turned out much better.

Into the second batch went; carrots, celery, ginger and yellow onions (we had by now run out of green.) all of these shredded. Shrimps of course, finely diced, and soy, sugar, sesame oil and pepper. That is it, all mixed up and into the wrappers.

I have seen the dumplings being made at DTF and there is quite a bit of technical and even artistic skill that seems to go into it. (Of course at DTF it is more technical as that place is more like an assembly line) Anyway, I possess neither of these skills, so I had to cheat a bit. I just laid a wrapper over my hand. Touching pointer to thumb, lay the wrapper over the circle made and place filing into the indentation made. Once the filing is in the center, push it through and just twist the excess wrapper on top together. I tore off and discarded the extra wrapper. That was it. Steam and eat. Enjoy.

Such a tease, I know. Here is a shot of them in the steamer. Looks like Vegas tomorrow, so no XLBs until probably next weekend. Hope this one will keep you going until then. Even though it isn't juicy pork just yet, I bet even these will make you all consider the offer below a bit more seriously.

FBPPL!

Huh? FBPPL!

What? OK, so here is the situation. The wife and I have become over the past few weeks (mostly her) a little bit obsessed with poker. We watch on the idiot box, play online and even drive out to Vegas at 11:30 on a Friday night just to get our fill. The thing is, we would really like to find some other interested parties to get together on a regular basis and play.

Two major obstacles.

1. We just moved here not too long ago and neither of us are really all that socially outgoing. In other words, we don't know too many people here. Not that we are socially inept or akward (though the Tourret's does make a few uncomfortable) just that we don't really get out much.

2. We live in a tiny little studio. This would make it difficult, even if we did have friends, to have anyone over. So here is what we offer, the reason for the post, and an explanation of the title:

Food Blogger Poker Pot Luck!

We have the chips, cards, everything necessary for the game. Well, except for the people and the space. So this is where all of you come in. We are hoping that at least a few of you food bloggers out there also have an interest in poker (we already know you like food.) So if someone is willing to host, and everyone would bring a dish to share, or some wine or whatever, there you go. Just like a normal pot luck but with a friendly (or not so much) card game.

I know this is not quite a food related post. I better add some porn pics just to be safe. Cheers!