|
Anti-Scurvy Slurpy - Lemon or Limeade
A Taste of the High Seas:
At the time of Columbus, sailors on ships often
died of scurvy, a disease caused by lack of
Vitamin C. On trips from Portugal around Africa
to India, one out of every five sailors died from
scurvy. The Portuguese and English were among of
the earliest to discover that citrus fruit prevented
scurvy, but Columbus did not know this when he
sailed. The Portuguese planted orchards of oranges
and limes on St. Helena, an island on the way to
India, and the English ships were commanded to give
each sailor a ration of lime juice, for which
English ships were given the name ‘lime-juicers’.
20 oranges
15 limes
10 lemons
2 c. sugar
3 c. water
Heat the water to boiling. Add sugar, and stir till
dissolved. Chill. Squeeze the fruit into a pitcher
to make juice. Add the sugar/water mixture and
stir. Pour into ice cube molds, and freeze. When
frozen, take out of freezer, pour into a blender,
food processor or ice crusher, chop to the
consistency of snow, then pour into chilled mugs.
Garnish with fruit slices.
SALT COD FRITTERS
Servings depend on size of filets
Salt Cod filets
Flour for coating
Oil for frying
Obtain pre-soaked, pre-cleaned salt cod - soak
overnight in refrigerator. Remove remnant bones
and bits of skin. Cut cod into 2 inch pieces,
dry them with paper towels, dip them in flour
so that all sides are coated. Deep fry them in
very hot olive oil. Serve hot.
At the end of a long journey, the remaining staple food -
A Sailor's Hardtack Recipe
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats.
3 cups unbleached flour.
1 1/2 teaspoons salt.
1 1/2 cups water.
1/2 cup melted bacon drippings or shortening.
Combine the two sets of ingredients. When the dough is thoroughly mixed,
roll it out on a floured board to a thickness of about a quarter inch.
Cut out circles of dough with a large drinking glass dipped in flour
and put them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for
about 5 1/2 minutes at 450° F.
Mark's Lentil Stew
Ingredients:
2 cups of red lentils
5-6 avg. size red new potatoes
2 large cans of stewed diced tomatoes
1 large yellow cooking onion
2 bunches of scallions
1 bunch of Dill
2-3 tbl sp of black pepper
1 garlic (avg size)
Optional spices:
1 tbl sp of ginger
1 tbl sp of cumin
(these will give it a more Indian flavour)
Instructions:
Chop up the potatoes (after washing etc) into bits (1 cm x 1 cm x 2 cm pieces do nicely).
Thoroughly rise the red lentils in a strainer under the tap and remove black
rocks which may sometimes be found amongst the red lentils.
Boil these in a big pot for about 30-40 minutes in enough water so
that the lentils can expand to roughly 4 times their
original size (before exploding).
brown the chopped yellow onion and chopped garlic in a skillet Once the
potatoes are soft, add the drained tomoatoes with everything
else (scallions and dill are finely chopped). Let the
herbs and spices "stew" by allowing the mixture
to bubble on low-medium heat for 10-20 minutes (stir
frequently if your stew is thick by now).
RUSTIC ITALIAN BREAD
INGREDIENTS
Biga (starter):
11 ounces (about 2 cups, although I needed more) bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 cup water, room temperature
Dough:
16.5 ounces (about 3 cups) bread flour, plus extra for working
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1-1/3 cups water, room temperature
2 teaspoons salt
For the biga:
Combine flour, yeast and water in large bowl of mixer fitted with dough hook. Knead
on lowest speed until it forms a shaggy dough, 2 to 3
minutes. (I am not certain what they meant by "shaggy", but
my dough just looked normal, so don't worry about it.) Transfer
biga to a medium bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
Let stand at room temperature until beginning to bubble
and rise, about 3 hours. (At 3 hours, mine had risen more
than it bubbled, but apparently that works.) Refrigerate for
8 to 24 hours (I refrigerated mine for about 16 hours).
For the dough: Remove biga from the refrigerator and let set at
room temperature while making the dough. Combine the flour,
yeast and water in large bowl of mixer fitted with dough hook.
Knead on lowest speed until a rough dough is formed, about 3 minutes.
Turn mixer off and, without removing bowl or dough hook, cover bowl
loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.
Remove the plastic wrap; add the biga and salt to the bowl. (I accidentally
added the salt to the dough with the flour, yeast and water
above. It might have made a difference, but it was still
great. Next time I will do what they suggest and compare the results.)
Knead on lowest speed until ingredients are incorporated and the
dough forms and clears the sides of the bowl, about 4 minutes.
Increase mixer speed to the next setting and knead until the
dough forms a ball, about 1 minute. Transfer dough to a large bowl
and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a cool,
draft-free spot away from direct sunlight until slightly risen and
puffy, about 1 hour. (I wasn't certain what they meant by
"slightly risen", so I just did 1 hour.)
Remove plastic wrap and turn the dough by first sliding a curved
plastic bench scraper or flexible spatula underneath, then gently
lifting and folding one third of dough toward center. Do the
same with the opposite side of dough. Then fold the dough in half,
perpendicular to the first folds. Dough should be shaped into
a rough square if folded correctly. Replace plastic wrap and
let dough rise 1 more hour. Fold
again as described above. Replace plastic wrap and let rise 1 more hour.
To shape the dough: Dust work surface liberally with flour. Gently scrape
the dough out of the bowl and invert onto the work surface so
that the side which was on the top is now on the bottom. Dust
the dough and hands with flour. Using minimal pressure, push the
dough into a rough 8 to 10 inch square. Fold the top
left corner diagonally to the middle. Repeat with the top
right corner. Gently roll the dough from the top peak to the
bottom until it forms a rough log. Place the seam on the bottom
and transfer to parchment paper. Start tucking the bottom edges
underneath, working from the center to the ends, and gently stretch
the dough until it is about a 16-inch long football-type shape.
Dust top liberally with flour and cover loosely with plastic
wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, adjust
oven rack to lower-middle position. Place baking,br> stone on rack and preheat oven to 500° F.
To bake:
Using a lame or a very sharp knife, cut a slit 1/2-inch deep lengthwise
into the center top of the dough, starting and ending 1-1/2 inches
from the ends. Using a spray bottle, spray the loaf lightly
with water. Slide the parchment paper with the loaf onto a baker's peel
or other large, flat surface, then onto the hot baking stone in oven. Bake for
10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400° and, using the
edges of the parchment paper, quickly rotate the loaf 180°. Continue to bake
until a deep golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into
the center registers 210°, about 35 minutes longer. (It will look
like the bread will get too dark, but it won't.) Transfer to a
cooling rack and remove the parchment paper. Cool to room temperature before slicing.
Note:
Unless I am making bread for company, I can't use it all at one time.
So I cut the loaf in half and freeze one portion.
Like most breads, this freezes very well. Wrap tightly in aluminim
foil and place in a sealable freezer bag.
Dominique’s Italian Bread
Makes 2 or 3 (10 slices per loaf) loaves:
Prep time: 30 to 45 min.
Rising time: 2 hrs. 15 min.
Cooking time: 25 min.
Ingredients
2 - packages fast-rising yeast
1 - teaspoon sugar
2-1/2 - cups tepid water (110 degrees)
6-1/2 - cups good-quality unbleached bread flour
1 - teaspoon salt
1 - teaspoon water
1/2 - cup cornmeal
Directions
In a glass, dissolve sugar into 1 cup of tepid (105-degree) water.
Stir in yeast. Let stand five minutes to proof. At this
point, the yeast should be foaming.
In a mixing bowl, put in the yeast. Then add the four cups of
flour. Beat mixture 10 minutes. You want the dough to pull away from side of the mixing bowl.
Add your salt and remaining 1-1/2 cup water.
Then add the additional 2-1/2 cups of flour.
Knead mixture with the dough hook of an electric mixture for five
minutes. If kneading by hand, knead dough for 15 minutes. Add
more water if dough becomes dry.
Grease large bowl. Put in the dough to bowl and cover with a clean towel.
Let the dough raise 1-1/2 hours or until double in size.
In the middle of the dough, punch down and form the dough into 2 or
3 loaves. Clean a surface and spread some flour.
Place loaves on floured surface and cover with towel. Let loaves rise
to double in size this is about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450° F.
In the oven, you can add a pizza stone or bread bricks.
Also, place a pan of hot water on bottom oven shelf.
This gives it a great crust.
After loaves have doubled, spread cornmeal on pizza stone or bread bricks.
Or, you can use a greased cookie sheet.
Slide in loaves and bake 25 minutes or until golden brown.
The loaves sound hollow when you tap a loaf.
Cool the bread on metal rack.
|
