Sourdough Pancakes

I was over at a friend's house a few weeks ago and scored some sourdough starter. Now, of course any good sourdough starter originated with a Sourdough. Matt informed me that this sourdough was started by a Sourdough in Juneau in 1949. Now to those of you who don't believe everything you hear you might not buy it, but it sounded fun and perfectly reasonable to me.

Anyway, Matt made some very yummy blueberry sourdough pancakes for breakfast. Yes, again with the blueberries. He did this while teaching me how to can salmon (i.e. not blow myself up with a pressure cooker). He then sent me home with some sourdough starter and his pancake recipe so that I could attempt to make such tasty pancakes on my own.

For information on how to start your own sourdough starter, and/or keep your sourdough starter going once you get it, go to Sourdough Baking. A couple nots: Be sure to keep your starter in a plastic or glass container and mix it with a plastic or wooden spoon. Do not use metal. Also, Matt mixes in a tbsp of sugar, along with the flour and water, when feeding the sourdough.

Lastly, for some helpful tips on making the perfect pancake check out Smitten Kitchen's Pancake 101.

Matt's Sourdough Pancakes

2 cups sourdough starter*, room temperature
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp warm water

Preheat oven to 175. In a large bowl, add sourdough starter, sugar, egg, olive oil, and salt; mix well. In a small bowl, dilute 1 tsp baking soda in 1 tbsp of warm water. Fold the baking soda/water mixture gently into the prepared pancake batter (do not beat). This will cause a gentle foaming and rising action. Let mixture stand a minute or two.

Heat a lightly-greased griddle on low-medium heat. For each pancake, pour 1/4 to 1/2 cup batter onto griddle. Wait until batter begins to cook and add blueberries or other additions*. Cook about 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove from heat and place on a baking sheet in the oven until all pancakes are ready to serve. (Do not leave pancakes in oven for more than 30 minutes.) Serve with maple syrup and other toppings*.

*For a lighter, sweeter pancake with less of a tangy sourdough taste substitute 2 cups of sourdough starter with 1 cup sourdough starter and 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour.

*Optional additions: Blueberries (frozen or fresh), chopped walnuts, chocolate chips.

*Toppings: Sliced banana or other fresh/frozen fruit, jelly/jam, yogurt, confectioner sugar.

Winter Spice Blueberry Jam

This recipie comes via Margaret and is a hybrid of recipies found at Blueberry-Recipe.com. It has a distinct spiced flavor to it. When I tasted it I found myself craving winter so I can snuggle up on the couch with a book, this jam on toast, and a cup of tea while snow falls softly outside. (If you are looking for a more simple blueberry recipe Stacy made this recipe and it was yummy. More light and summery in taste.)

Spiced Blueberry Jam
4 cups blueberries
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 cups sugar
1 package fruit pectin
scant 1/4 tsp each of cinnamon, cloves and allspice

Prepare jars* by boiling them for 10 minutes. Crush blueberries and poor into a large pan on the stove. Stir sugar, lemon, and spices into fruit. Mix well and bring to full boil for 5 minutes over high heat; stir constantly.

Pour fruit pectin (I used Certo) into fruit and cointue to boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off foam. Ladle into jars, wipe rims of jam. Turn jars upside down for 5 minutes and then turn upright. Let set for 1 hour.

*I made 12 4 oz jars of jam with this recipe. I did not fill the jars completly and probably could have gotten the mixture into 9 or 10 jars if I had filled them more fully.

Collards or Kale with Tahini

I've never been a big fan of kale unless it was hidden in a soup, but this is a simple recipe that I tried recently for book club, and everyone seemed to love it! A great way to eat a vegetable that is really good for you, and which we have tons of locally grown in Alaska. I got this from the cookbook "How to Cook Everything", by Mark Bittman (which, incidentally, is a GREAT resource for everyday cooking).

2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs chopped garlic
1 lb collards or kale, well washed and roughly chopped
1/4 cup chicken stock or water
3 tbs tahini
salt or freeshly ground black pepper
2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice (I think I may have forgotten this when I made it)

Put the oil in a large, deep skillet or pot with a lid over medium heat. When hot, add the garlic and cook until golden but not brown, about 3 minutes. Add the collards or kale, stock, tahini, and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Cover and cook until the greens are wilted and tender, about 5 minutes.

Uncover and continue to cook at a low bubble, stirring frequently, until the collards/kale are very tender, at least 5 minutes more. Add more stock if the pot looks dry; you want some sauce, but not soup. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Taste, adjust the seasoning, and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature, garnished with tomato if you like.

Variation 1: Substitute peanut butter for the tahini. Add 1 tbs minced fresh ginger with the greens if you like and substitute lime juice for the lemon.

Variation 2: Add or substitute 1/2 cup yogurt for the tahini, but add it with the lemon juice. Garnish with fresh dill or mint.

I'm interested to try the peanut butter variation!

A Little Nudge Never Hurt

I've been making my own yogurt for a couple of months now. Margaret was right. It gets easier and tastes better with every try. A little nudge was what I needed and now I make it about once a week. I've been having it for breakfast with fresh blueberries and a little sugar mixed in. Or with the granola I posted, or with some jam mixed in. You get the picture.

I've also been using it to make these blueberry muffins (thank you Allen) and this banana bread. (If you're not a huge fan of ginger substitute with 1 tsp cinnamon and 3/4 cup chopped walnuts for more traditional banana bread.)

Blueberry Press

Over the years I've come to accept that I can’t do hard alcohol. I think I put forth a valiant effort but whether it’s shots, or fruity mixed drinks that taste like sweet tarts, I just can’t do it. The only hard alcohol I can handle is whatever is in Stacy’s family Recipe Bucket and, unless you are a Schmitz, you are not getting your hands on that recipe. Period. Anyway, no hard alcohol for me.

Enter the Blueberry Press Stacy made after blueberry picking this weekend. As with most yummy mixed drinks, my taste buds said, “Yes!” and then my stomach immediately screamed, “No Way! No Freek’n Way!”

So this post is for those of you who enjoy a yummy mixed drink. Perfect to be savored while you pick through then freeze, can, or bake with the blueberries you picked that day. Me, I think I’ll stick with a cool beer while I do the above.

Enjoy.

Blueberry Press
1.5 oz Blueberry Vodka
1 part club soda
1 part sprite (optional)
Fill a glass with ice. Add vodka, soda, and sprite (if using). Garnish with fresh blueberries.

Homemade Granola

Thank you, Margaret, for being the first to post on what, I hope, becomes a group blog.

I'm posting a granola recipe that I've been making for about a year now. It's a modified version of the Joy of Cooking recipe. I have it with yogurt several times a week. (Hopefully soon I will be able to say, "I have it with homemade yogurt several times a week.") It's easy to make and lasts quite awhile. Please don't be intimidated by the number of ingredients, as I easily am. A lot of the ingredients can be found in the bulk section at Fred's so you don't have to get more than you need for one batch. I put a (b) next to them to further prove my point :)

Granola

About 9 cups

Preheat the oven to 300F. Scatter over a large rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven about 15 minutes, stirring frequently:

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (b)

Mix in a large bowl:

1½ cups wheat germ
¼ cup dry milk powder (optional)
1 cup coarsely chopped almonds (b)
1 cup chopped walnuts
½ - 1 cup shredded or flaked sweetened coconut (b)
½ cup sesame seeds (b)
1 cup hulled sunflower seeds (b)

Heat in a small saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes:

½ cup canola oil
½ cup honey
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Stir the honey mixture into the wheat germ mixture. Combine with the toasted oats. Spread in a thin layer on the baking sheet (use 2 pans if necessary) and toast, stirring frequently, 45 minutes, or until all the ingredients are toasted. Let cool, then stir in dried cranberries, or other dried fruit, if desired. Store in a tightly sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

Yogurt making

Jillian asked me to write about how I make my own yogurt. I've been doing this for a little over a year now, after being inspired by my friend Sophie. She'd noticed that these nifty little yogurt "incubators" were on sale for about $20 at Fred Meyer. I eat yogurt every day as my morning snack at my desk at work, so I thought it might be a good idea to try it out, mostly to save money. Here's what the incubator looks like.

It came with 6 of these little 6 oz. glass jars, all with plastic lids. (FYI - the jars are fragile! I broke one the first time I made yogurt and have been using a little glass jar that artichokes came in to fill the spot ever since...) It was a lot of trial and error at first. The directions that came with the yogurt maker (brand is called Deni) were pretty basic.

1. Pour 1 qt. milk (whole, 2%, 1%, or powdered) into a saucepan. Heat milk until it boils, stirring occasionally.

2. Remove saucepan from heat and allow milk to cool to room temperature. Pour into pitcher.

3. Add 1/2 cup natural yogurt into the milk. Stir until well blended. Do not add any flavorings or sweeteners before completing the yogurt making process.

4. Pour the mixed liquid equally into the glass jars and place into the yogurt maker.

5. Cover, plug in, turn the control knob to the desired cooking time.

6. For the first batch, try setting the cooking time to 10 hours. For future batches, set the timer longer for a thicker consistency or shorter for a thinner consistency.

Well, I tried that, and the first time I slightly burned the milk, but decided to try it anyway to see if the yogurt would still come out. It did not. There was a small layer of thick ooze at the bottom of the jars and above that was yellowy water. Plus it smelled like burnt milk. Yuck. So my first lesson was to constantly stir the milk while boiling. Also, I try to take it off the stove just before it gets to boiling, and that still seems to work. Here's a photo of another yogurt disaster:

I think the problem that time was that I left it in the incubator for too long. But the result was kind of fascinating!

In any case, here's what I do, and what has worked for me over dozens of batches.

Use powdered milk, but be generous on the amount of powder to make 1 quart - I usually put in about 1 3/4 cups of the powder for 3 3/4 cups water.

Stir constantly while boiling the milk.

Let the milk stand for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours. Some yogurt recipes say to get it to room tempterature, others say to use a thermometer. I just use my finger and try to make sure it's not still hot. Warm seems to be okay.

Wisk in the starter yogurt really well.

Pour into the incubator and let it sit in there for 12-14 hours. Lately 12 seems to be working pretty well. 10 was definitely too short. I think probably because I use skim milk.

Voila, that's it! I mix in jam or jelly before eating.