Transportation Is a Big Responsibility

My first attempts at making injera (https://tiabr.com/injera-partial-success/) were not especially successful. They had the nice slightly sour fermented taste of all-teff injera, but instead of being light and fluffy, were dense, like a chapatti. So I made some changes, completely breaking the rules, and got closer.

To cook injera, you spread out the batter in the pan, cook it for several minutes until bubble holes appear on top, then cover it until the top is cooked. I had multiple problems, from the batter sticking, to never getting the top to cook properly.

So here’s what I did:

• Added some baking powder to the batter.
• Using a paper towel dipped in oil, made a thin layer of oil in the pan (even though it’s non-stick)
• Immediately after spreading out the batter in the pan, covered it

• After allowing it to cook for a minute or so, the bubbles appeared:

• Then flipped it, re-covered it, and allowed it to cook for another minute or so. Ett viola!

So they had lots of holes. Pretty light, not as fluffy as I’d like, but a definite improvement!

Cheers,

-R

A kind friend, knowing of my love for Pale Fire, sent me this as a Xmas present.

. . . which looks like just a hardcover edition of the book, but it’s not. It’s a meta-book for a meta-fictional book (not included).

From least to best: a booklet with commentary:

Shade’s poem:

. . . and facsimile editions of the original 3×5″ index cards on which Shade composed his Four Cantos, which only exist in Nabokov’s mind.

What can I say? This is just lovely.

-R

When I first made Welsh rarebit decades ago, I already knew it was pronounced “rabbit.” Or is it?

If you don’t know, Welsh rarebit is just fancy cheese sauce on toast. Only in the UK . . .

It has been decades since I made it, but I was inspired by NPR’s “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” news quiz show. Each week, they have a “Bluff the Listener” segment, in which the listener has to figure out which of three news stories is real. This week’s topic was “400 rabbits.”

From the show, and probably copyright: “Creating a cozy, communal feeling is a challenge for holiday parties all over the world this year, which is why the Association of Welsh Councils decided to do something special for its 400 members last week. They wanted every council member, selectperson and queen-appointed lord lieutenant in the country to enjoy a savory supper of Welsh rarebit together on a nationwide Zoom call. So they sent hundreds of orders of the traditional cheese toast to individual homes – or at least that’s what they thought.

What actually happened was 400 people each received a live rabbit the day before the holiday party. . . . Someone messed up the order for rarebit, and each rabbit arrived with a note that said, for our holiday party, please heat up in microwave or eat as is.”

Inspiring!

And a bit special to me, because I used some of my homegrown Cheddar:

It’s the usual sauce story, heat the fat, then stir in the flour constantly for a couple of minutes over medium heat until barely browned (2 Tbsp. fat: 2 Tbsp. flour: 1 C. liquid).

Then whisk in the liquid (a can of beer, forgotten in the ingredients pic), and whisk until smooth.

Add all the other ingredients and whisk until the cheese dissolves.

The sauce is very rich, so some pickled vegetables made the perfect foil. A light, delicious lunch.

Welsh Rarebit with Pickled Vegetables:

Yum!

-R

This started as an experiment of cheddared types. One Lancashire, one Cheshire (https://tiabr.com/cheshire-success/), one Cheddar, all to be aged for a year, which didn’t happen. The Lancashire was a disaster, and I couldn’t wait for the Cheshire, which I cracked open after 10 months. Here is the cheddar, just shy of its first anniversary.

All were clothbound using delicious Mexican pork skin fat:

But the paste is much dryer than I hoped/expected. I had some humidity control problems early in its life, so maybe that’s why. Hard to cut into:

Crumbly . . .

But, you ask, how did it taste?

This was actually very good. Not as sharp as I expected, probably because of the dryness of the paste, but with the depth and complexity of an aged cheddar. So, although it’s not something you’d put into a sandwich, this will be excellent either grated on pasta or in sauces.

-R

This was one of my first Parms. It developed cracks after about a month of cellaring. I may have overcooked the curds, plus I was having humidity control issues back then.

Still, little effort to keep it cellared for a year.

The reveal:

But, you ask, how did it taste?

I don’t know, it went immediately into the trash.

They can’t all be winners!

-R

In terms of fresh (or even frozen) vegetables, I’m down to stems ‘n’ seeds, but I tried.

Rigatoni, bean soup, scrapple, shallots, parmesan, wood ear and shiitake mushrooms, a bit of lemon.

Do you know scrapple, a Pennsylvanian treat?

And some sauce:

But, you ask, how did it taste?

Well, lots of umami, I guess, but sorely lacking in vegetables. The best I can say is that a few leaves of basil make everything look pretty.

Half-yum!

-R

Just got this today, and have only begun to dip into it, just to confirm that the remasters are very different (and better!) then the vinyl from back in the day. So just some pics:

More comments invariably to follow!

-R

Made from the recipe in Ms. Karlin’s book, and cellared for exactly one year and one day.

It had an attack of cheese mites, but ozone quickly took care of that!

Even with my best cleaver, hard to get through:

Oh dear. I didn’t expect so many holes. My only experience with commercial Romanos is that they are completely solid, but after some innertubes research, found out they sometimes have some holes. Not as many as mine, though!

Despite the holes, which make the cheese look somewhat soft, the paste was extremely dry, and difficult to grate:

But, you ask, how did it taste?

Pretty good. A bit more lactic than I would have hoped, but some of the sharpness and nuttiness one would associate with a Romano/Parmesan. Half will go back into the fridge for another year!

Beetroot and Carrot Salad with a Cider Vinaigrette, Romano and Toasted Nori:

Yum!

-R

All of them aged for between 10 and 14 months.

On the left plate, Shropshire Blue, Cheddar, Blue Cheese. On the right, the last of my oldest kimchee 🙁 , mustard pickled vegetables, pickled grapes, and sauerkraut.

One thing I’ve learned about sauerkraut is that if you can it, it doesn’t get sourer and just keeps its nice tang, so my guess is that the commercial varieties use some sort of acid. After 14 months, it isn’t too sour, and still has a lovely crunch.

-R

It started out like this: https://tiabr.com/jarlsberg-hole-disappointment/ so I left it in the fridge for another seven months.

Now it has lost some of its lactic (sour) taste and has a bit of the typical nutty flavour that I would associate with a Jarlsberg, but less than I hoped 🙁

Still, very nice.

Jarlsberg with Lettuce; Apricot, Carrot and Swede Chutney on Toasted Wheat Bread:

Yum!

-R