White Bread & Cinnamon Rolls

So I'm back in the states, finding the places where jetlag and 3:30am meet, and spending hours and hours looking things up on the internet, just because I can. I thought I might finally get around to posting a few things here. First and foremost, bread.

WHITE BREAD

3 cups flour

1 T sugar

1 cup warm water

2 1/4 tsp yeast*

2 T butter or oil

1 tsp salt

flavor/spices (such as rosemary, cinnamon & raisins, caramelized onions, garlic, etc.) optional

CINNAMON ROLLS (you also need:)

cinnamon (lots)

sugar (lots)

butter

powdered sugar (lots)

milk (just a spoonful)

vanilla

walnuts & raisins (optional)

DIRECTIONS FOR TRADITIONAL YEAST*

1)Melt sugar into the warm water and stir in the yeast.

2)Mix together flour, salt and spices in a separate bowl.

3)When the yeast has begun to foam and bubble, stir in the butter or oil, then slowly add the flour mixture

DIRECTIONS FOR INSTANT YEAST*

1)In one bowl, mix together the water and butter/oil. Don't try too hard, you know about oil & water.

2)In a second bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients (yeast, sugar, salt, flour).

3)Slowly stir the flour mixture into the water.

CONTINUING ON...

4) Mix well until ingredients are thoroughly combined.

5) Set dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 10-12 minutes. Seriously. It's a long time, but it matters.

6) Set the dough in a clean bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise for one hour in a warm location. Anywhere in Uganda should work. ;)

7) Divide the dough into two small loaves, divide it into a bunch of tiny dinner rolls, or just shape it into one big loaf, and set it into an oiled/greased pan, cover with a towel, and let rise another hour. You can also make cinnamon rolls at this point-

8)If you like your bread shiny, you can brush it with eggwhites at this point in time. And maybe even sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

9)Bake for 10-15 minutes at 190C/375F or until lightly browned.

CINNAMON ROLLS

After the first rise, roll the dough out into a roughly rectangularish shape. The thinner the dough, the more layers of cinnamony goodness. Spread a generous amount of butter onto the dough, then sprinkle with lots of cinnamon and sugar. Maybe even some walnuts and raisins. Roll it up, slice into 1 1/2 inch slices, and lay them out sideways in a pan. Let rise one hour, then bake at 190C/375F for 10-12 minutes or so.

Meanwhile... put a lot of powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in a few tablespoons of butter, then a few drops of vanilla, then a tiny bit of milk, until the mixture resembles frosting. Spread generously over freshly baked cinnamon rolls.

The end.

Thanksgiving Green Bean casserole

Ok, I'm breaking my soul food virginity and finally putting out for the rest of you.  You are welcome.  This recipe is posted due to a special request.  Love, DLW

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 (14.5 ounce) cans French style green beans, drained
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup crumbled buttery round crackers
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in flour until smooth, and cook for one minute. Stir in the salt, sugar, onion, and sour cream. Add green beans, and stir to coat.
3. Transfer the mixture to a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish. Spread shredded cheese over the top. In a small bowl, toss together cracker crumbs and remaining butter, and sprinkle over the cheese.
4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden and cheese is bubbly.

Holy Cow

What can you do with a gallon of milk?

Wendy and I jut completed a huge cooking feat. We made cheese. Cheese that can kick African Gouda ass. I will describe how we made 1 lbs mozzarella, ice cream, a cup of ricotta, butter and buttermilk all from 5 litters of milk. Before I start with this monster, dairy-inspired blog, I have a bit of a guilt trip I need to remedy. For the mozzarella and ice cream you need a few cheap, yet hard to find ingredients, Citric acid salt and rennet tablets. You will also need a thermometer, which also might be tricky. Let me know if you can find them in UG. I feel bad because this seems to defy the “local ingredients” assumption of the blog. Here is the deal. Anyone that is inspired to make cheese, email me or post in the comments and I can get the supplies by February from the states. The rennet and citric acid cost less then 10 bucks total and can probably make like 40 lbs of cheese.

Mozzarella

Supplies

• 3.75 liters of milk (whole, unpasteurized, the more direct from cow the better)

• 1-1/4 tsp. Citric Acid Salt

• ½ rennet tablet

• 1tsb Salt

• Thermometer that you are willing to put in food

• 1 linen dishtowel

1. Warm the milk very slightly to get to 88F

2. Dissolve 1-1/4 tsp. Citric Acid Salt in ½ cup cool water. Then stir into 88F milk

3. Dissolve ½ rennet tablet in ¼ cup cool water. Also, mix this into your warm milk

4. Leave pot undisturbed until a “clean break” achieved. This could be anywhere from 1-4 hours. This is the most important step! The clean break is tested when you put your finger in the pot at an angle and pull up. If the milk will cleanly fall to either side without leaving residue on you finger, you can move to the next step.

5. Cut the curd. Make ½ inch curds by sticking a knife to the bottom of the pot and cutting lines from the back of the pot towards you and then make another set of cuts perpendicular to the previous ones.

6. Stir and keep the curds separated as you warm the pot to 108F. Hold the pot at 108F for 35 minutes and stir every 5 minutes.

7. Collect the curds by poring into a linen cloth held in a colander. Collect the whey by putting something under the colander if you wish to make ricotta. Let the cheese drain for 15 min.

8. Break up the curd and mix in 1 tsb. salt.

9. Put cheese in a dry pot over very low flame to heat the glob. Knead the cheese. Fold it onto itself. The cheese will become soft and elastic, forming that deliciously familiar mozzarella ball.

To store, make saline water and store in the fridge. Eat within the week. This stuff goes bad fast. OR, bread mozzarella sticks and eat a pound of cheese in a sitting :)

Freezer Ice Cream

Not quite like Ben and Jerry’s, but still pretty good.

Supplies

• 1 rennet tablet

• ½ cup sugar

• 1-1/2 cup whole milk

1. Dissolve the rennet tablet in ½ cup of water.

2. Put milk and sugar in sauce pan (add vanilla or chocolate if desired). Heat and stir to 110F

3. Mix in dissolved rennet.

4. Quickly remove from heat. Put liquid in a pan and place in the freezer.

5. Freeze until firm. Then break into chunks with a fork, when whip with a mixer.

6. Mix in something exciting, bananas, mangos, go wild. Freeze again.

Whey Ricotta

1. Take the whey from the mozzarella and let it sit at room temperature over night. It still has active ingredients from the mozzarella.

2. In the morning raise temperature to boiling. Stir frequently, do not let it burn or boil over. This takes a while.

3. Remove from heat and let the pot sit until cool.

4. Strain into cloth-colander contraption. Tie up cloth; it could take a bit of time to strain completely. After you can lay the cloth open-face and flat to continue the drying process if you want.

5. Remove from cloth and enjoy.

Butter

Wendy and I purchased a 5L jerry can of milk so we had a bit of leftover milk. If the milk is raw whole milk, the cream will be forming at the top. Remove the cream and shake it vigorously for a while in something like tupperware. Boom, butter. Additionally, the remaining liquid in the Tupperware is buttermilk. Go ahead and craft some of John’s fantastic blister biscuits.

Suggested playlist while making milk product:

1. Milkman of human kindness-Billy Bragg

2. Milk Cow blues –Elvis Presley

3. Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk- Rufus Wainwright

4. Ernie-Benny Hill

5. Milk bottle symphony-Saint Etienne

6. Milkman-Aphex Twin

7. Milk-Garbage

8. No Milk today-Herman’s Hermits

9. Milkshake-Kelis

Justin's favorite vegetable soup

When I was just starting to experiment with cooking, I made this soup all the time. My family has a guy named Justin living with us, and this was his favorite thing I made.

It’s hard to write a recipe for it, because I change it every time I make it, and I never measure, but here is the general idea. Use what you have around, add and subtract as necessary.

Onions
Garlic
Carrots
Green peppers
Shredded cabbage
Can of diced tomatoes or tomato paste
Can of black beans, or a few handfuls of black beans that you pre soak
Vegetable or chicken stock
Cumin (lots)
Cayenne pepper
Black pepper
Olive oil
Lemon or lime juice (optional)
Cocoa (optional)

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil in a big pot. Add soup stock. If you have a blender, blend up the can of diced tomatoes and some of the beans. This will give the soup some extra thickness. Put in all the spices, the tomatoes and the beans. Add the vegetables in shifts so they don’t get mushy. Add the cabbage only a few minutes before the soup is done. Let the soup simmer for a while. Add more spices as necessary. Sprinkle a little cheese on top if you have it. Make some garlic bread, and enjoy!

Ramen Salad

This is a favorite that is at almost all of my family gatherings. We started making it here in Rwanda, and it brings me right back to family birthday parties!

Cabbage Ramen Noodle Salad

When we make it at home we use a bag of cole slaw, but here I use:
Shredded cabbage
A carrot or two grated
chopped green onion (optional)

Sugared G nuts or almonds, or toasted seaseme seeds (sim sim)
Crushed Ramen (pound on the bag of noodles until they are the size you want)

Dressing:
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

Shake it all together and eat!
Don't toss the ingredients together if you plan to have leftovers, the noodles get really mushy.

Blister Buttermilk Biscuits

alliteration aside, these biscuits are really easy, and a great taste of home (amanda and i like to pair them with bbq wandegeya chicken and coleslaw). the aftermath has been well documented, so use caution when removing these beauties from the oven.

3 cups flours

2 tbsp sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

.75 cup (1.5 sticks) chilled butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

1.5 cup buttermilk - if you don't have buttermilk, just mix 1.5 tbsp vinegar into the milk and let it stand for about 15 minutes. not quite the same but it does the trick.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Using fingertips, rub butter into dry ingredients until well mixed and no large butter chunks are left. Add buttermilk and stir. Use about .25 cup dough for each biscuit and drop them onto a baking sheet. Bake at around 200 C for about 15 minutes.

One Fine, Fall Day.

I think that we can all agree that FALL is one of the things most missed when in Uganda (or Rwanda). David, Ally, our new friend Lexi, and I decided to have a fall weekend... Filled with homemade pumpkin soup, caramel apple cider, and pumpkin pancakes :)

Pumpkin Soup Ingredients:

Pumpkin, of course

Olive Oil

Milk

Chilli Powder

Cumin

Sugar

Salt

Garlic

Vegetable or Chicken Stock

and Water

(The amounts are not exact, as we did not really follow a recipe. Just use your intuition and taste buds to make it delicious!!).

First, Cut and peel the pumpkin (we used a medium sized one... and it fed 6 people). Cut it into large cubes. Season with Chilli powder, drizzle with oil, and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and combine the pumpkin, approximately 2 cups of milk, 3 cups of water, a couple teaspoons of the vegetable powder stock, cumin, chilli powder, a couple teaspoons of sugar, salt, and chopped garlic in a large pot. Bring to a boil and let boil for a few minutes. Turn heat down and let simmer for 10-15 minutes while stirring/mashing frequently. While cooking, the pumpkin should begin to fall apart. Mash/Mix until the mixture reaches a soup consistency (you can blend if you want it completely smooth).