[Slow Ben]

Its fish taco friday bitches!

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Slow Ben, on 01 October 2016 - 01:29 AM, said:

Its fish taco friday bitches!

In honor of the local Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration, I slightly deviated from my LGL diet to have tacos



(tacos de ojos (cow eyes), in honor of indigenous visibility)

East Woodlands Three Sisters Soup ('called the "Three Sisters" because they were planted interdependently: the beans grew up the tall stalks of the maize, while the squash spread out at the base of the three plants and provided protection and support for the root systems'):




'According to Iroquois myth, the Corn, standing straight and tall, was righteous. The Bean in contrast clung to the Corn’s legs and was shy. The Squash, which spread about the ground, was the wild troublemaker.'
Mayan sikil pak:



http://flavorsofthes...n-seed-dip.html

and a glass of purple maize chicha:



(not my photos, but pretty accurate)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 02 October 2016 - 01:10 AM

[Lady Bliss]

Everyone else is in Texas for the holiday, so making cioppino for myself and a couple of friends!

1 onion diced
1 large fennel diced
3 large shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
5 cups fish stock
1 bay leaf
1 lb scallops
1 lb shrimp
1 lb salmon

This post has been edited by Lady Bliss: 25 December 2016 - 07:26 PM

[Abyss]

Lady Bliss, on 25 December 2016 - 07:25 PM, said:

Everyone else is in Texas for the holiday, so making cioppino for myself and a couple of friends!

1 onion diced
1 large fennel diced
3 large shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
5 cups fish stock
1 bay leaf
1 lb scallops
1 lb shrimp
1 lb salmon

WANT

[Slow Ben]

Everything

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Xmas breakfast: raw oysters, rosemary, Chinese hot mustard, dried goji berries, dried mulberries, almond butter, Ceylon cinnamon, nutmeg, cold brew coffee, guacamole with chopped hard boiled egg.

Lunch: Indo-Chinese cauliflower with "Manchurian" sauce (but not deep-fried). Chana masala with pomegranate seeds. Tandoori roti. Leg of tandoori chicken. Onions, carrots, cucumbers. Broke my LGI diet to have a piece of Peshwari naan. Masala tea.

Dinner: "Mandarin" restaurant packed at 4:15 PM, too busy to serve specials. Wanted to order the whole steamed fish so I could eat the eyes and lips (actually some of the best parts) in front of my relatives, but the only seafood they had for Jewish Xmas was shrimp and filets of salmon. However, their hot and sour soup---with day lily buds and wood ear fungus---was good. Spicy pickled cabbage, more hot mustard, steamed vegetables (mostly non-Chinese broccoli, also carrots, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, chives, button mushrooms, chopped celery, and a few decidedly non-premium snow pea pods (premium snow pea pods are a major delicacy, and not only surprisingly expensive, but shockingly interesting in terms of texture, mouth feel, and overall deliciousness), steamed shrimp, side of black bean sauce (the "black beans" are actually fermented soy beans) with chives, chilled lychee with little tooth picks, plum wine, black tea. Funniest line of the meal: "Come back tomorrow if you want specials...."

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 27 December 2016 - 05:19 AM

[Abyss]

Azath Vitr (D, on 27 December 2016 - 04:48 AM, said:

Xmas breakfast: raw oysters, rosemary, Chinese hot mustard, dried goji berries, dried mulberries, almond butter, Ceylon cinnamon, nutmeg, cold brew coffee, guacamole with chopped hard boiled egg.

Lunch: Indo-Chinese cauliflower with "Manchurian" sauce (but not deep-fried). Chana masala with pomegranate seeds. Tandoori roti. Leg of tandoori chicken. Onions, carrots, cucumbers. Broke my LGI diet to have a piece of Peshwari naan. Masala tea.

Dinner: "Mandarin" restaurant packed at 4:15 PM, too busy to serve specials. Wanted to order the whole steamed fish so I could eat the eyes and lips (actually some of the best parts) in front of my relatives, but the only seafood they had for Jewish Xmas was shrimp and filets of salmon. However, their hot and sour soup---with day lily buds and wood ear fungus---was good. Spicy pickled cabbage, more hot mustard, steamed vegetables (mostly non-Chinese broccoli, also carrots, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, chives, button mushrooms, chopped celery, and a few decidedly non-premium snow pea pods (premium snow pea pods are a major delicacy, and not only surprisingly expensive, but shockingly interesting in terms of texture, mouth feel, and overall deliciousness), steamed shrimp, side of black bean sauce (the "black beans" are actually fermented soy beans) with chives, chilled lychee with little tooth picks, plum wine, black tea. Funniest line of the meal: "Come back tomorrow if you want specials...."

We can be friends.

[Traveller]

Salt and pepper cashews. I love these, always get some in for christmas.

[Mezla PigDog]

Right. Who has a bread maker and actually uses it regularly? How much handson effort is it to wack out an average loaf?

[Tapper]

Mezla PigDog, on 04 January 2017 - 02:45 PM, said:

Right. Who has a bread maker and actually uses it regularly? How much handson effort is it to wack out an average loaf?

The GF bakes two sour dough loaves by hand in a dutch oven weekly. That's a bit of work but it is spread out over the weekend (not that I know anything about it, I just feed the starter).

[Macros]

you must eat a lot of spicy food to get a dutch oven hot enough to cook bread in

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Hot chocolate fast, 4 to 5 days:

Before 4 pm: 8 cups of cold brew coffee

After 4 pm: jasmine green tea (because it makes me nauseous, and nausea suppresses appetite)

Before 9 pm:

At most 20 tablespoons of pure undutched unsweetened cocoa powder in lukewarm water, no additives (some people who fast get impactions from not consuming fiber; since I usually have a high fiber diet, cocoa is ideal because it has a marvelous fiber:calorie ratio, allowing me to get 160% the "RDV" for fiber while staying =< 200 calories / day---impactions are really terrible and disgusting,

Spoiler

you have to dig it out with your fingers (or (if it's really bad) somebody else's)).

On day 3 now, no hunger pains most of the time (and I enjoy pain anyway, when I know it's for a good cause, like my health). Don't usually use nicotine, but might vape to help get through days 4 and 5.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 04 January 2017 - 08:45 PM

[Mezla PigDog]

Tapper, on 04 January 2017 - 08:17 PM, said:

Mezla PigDog, on 04 January 2017 - 02:45 PM, said:

Right. Who has a bread maker and actually uses it regularly? How much handson effort is it to wack out an average loaf?

The GF bakes two sour dough loaves by hand in a dutch oven weekly. That's a bit of work but it is spread out over the weekend (not that I know anything about it, I just feed the starter).

That ain't happening any time soon. I'm torn between taking evangelical steps to keep salt from my sons diet (and have lovely bread for myself) and the fact that I have no spare time for anything at the moment. I'll be back at work eventually so don't want to buy something I only use for a couple of months.

Ignore that I'm lying on the sofa watching tv/on the forum right now. I ain't got time to bake.

Eta - I'm doing the text version of pretending I didn't hear Macc dutch oven joke. You cretin

This post has been edited by Mezla PigDog: 04 January 2017 - 09:51 PM

[Traveller]

Someone bought me a breadmaker last year. Its no trouble at all to chuck ingredients in, turn it on and go back when it beeps.

I'd rather make it from scratch but when I've got no time its way better - and if you want to be really lazy you can buy small packs with all the stuff in, you just choose one you like, tip it in and add water.

I usually have a few packs of the whole grain brown, and the one with sun dried tomato and parmesan or whatever it is. I put it in the machine in the morning when we're low on shop bought bread, it takes about 3 hours or less on rapid setting. They're never going to be bigger loaves than the machine you get but they're good for making whatever bread you like without anything in that you don't put there.

You can obviously do it all by hand, but really, if you have no room, time, and don't want to faff about more than choosing a program and flipping a switch then they're worth getting. Or finding someone who has one but doesn't use it and borrowing it for a trial.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 04 January 2017 - 11:19 PM

[Lady Bliss]

I suppose I should give the bread machine a shot with gluten free bread.

[Abyss]

Lady Bliss, on 04 January 2017 - 11:20 PM, said:

I suppose I should give the bread machine a shot with gluten free bread.

Can I have all your spare gluten?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Abyss, on 05 January 2017 - 07:03 AM, said:

Lady Bliss, on 04 January 2017 - 11:20 PM, said:

I suppose I should give the bread machine a shot with gluten free bread.

Can I have all your spare gluten?

Gluten is great. I first encountered gluten---chunks of pure gluten---in a Xi'an restaurant at the height of the anti-gluten craze. (One of my friends actually has celiac disease, and while trend is nice for him, extensive research clearly indicates that gluten itself isn't unhealthy for anyone who doesn't have celiac disease or a rare gluten allergy. Any "health benefits" from a gluten-free diet come from the other things being given up or changed. For example, they might eat less white bread---gluten has a low glycemic index, so it's actually healthier for you than the most commonly consumed breads.) After seeing "gluten-free" advertised so frequently, it was startling (and wonderful) to see a menu description which literally read something like, "gluten with cold noodles".

"[East] Asians have been enjoying wheat gluten in various forms for centuries [at least]. Imagine the spongy interior of a loaf of ciabatta, only firmer and more dense. Taste-wise, the loaves are mildly fermented. There are amorphous clumps of wheat gluten, also known as seitan, which are even denser in texture. And the Chinese eat a lot of marinated wheat gluten: the clumps are soaked in fragrant oil and marinated with peanuts or shitake mushrooms so that each tiny bit of gluten sops up the flavors of the marinating liquid. [...] wheat gluten is prized in various Asian cuisines for its ability to absorb any flavor."


http://www.seriousea...less-asian.html




(I'm on the fourth day of my <200 calorie/day chocolate fast, and I haven't been feeling hungry at all most of the time---felt a little hungry looking for a good picture of Xi'an gluten just now, but I just hypnotized myself into vividly imagining eating and enjoying it and feeling full, and now all the hunger is gone. I'll have to force myself to drink enough chocolate to---"stay regular", as the saying goes....)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 05 January 2017 - 07:53 PM

[Lady Bliss]

Fried peanut butter (crunchy), banana and orange marmalade sandwich... om nom nom!

[Traveller]

I got a jar of 'real' peanut butter the other day to use in flapjack.

Never bought it before, it's smooth, but a bit gluey on its own - what are the best combos?

The flapjack was my first, using mashed banana and grated apple to bind the oats instead of syrup, with load of dried fruit, and a big spoon of peanut butter. Great quick breakfast/break bar.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 24 January 2017 - 11:21 AM

[Slow Ben]

Traveller, on 24 January 2017 - 11:20 AM, said:

I got a jar of 'real' peanut butter the other day to use in flapjack.

Never bought it before, it's smooth, but a bit gluey on its own - what are the best combos?

The flapjack was my first, using mashed banana and grated apple to bind the oats instead of syrup, with load of dried fruit, and a big spoon of peanut butter. Great quick breakfast/break bar.

Its boring, but just scoop that stuff in apple slices. Phenomenal.

Almond butter is amazing with apples as well.