Too Hot for Bread

Waffles

It has been too hot for bread over the last two weeks. The heat is ridiculous and I never want to turn on my oven. However, I have a bunch of sourdough starter languishing in the refridgerator. So I decided to make waffles.

Recently I've been on a big waffle kick. I started over the last 4 months or so making waffles on the weekends with my sourdough starter using a slightly modified version of this recipe from Wild Yeast. I usually half the recipe when I'm just making waffles for two people, but this time I doubled the recipe and made enough waffles to store in the freezer and toast whenever I wanted a nice crispy waffle. They are delicious!

Waffles on the Cooling Rack

Recipe for Sourdough Toaster Waffles:

1. Make sure your sourdough starter is viable but also that it is young and sweet smelling like overripe fruit. If it smells wine-y or vinigar-y, your waffles will taste like vinegar. If it is not young smelling, refresh it and leave it out on the counter for a few hours until it's ready.
2. Heat a waffle iron and grease it (I use a small amount of spray canola oil)
3. Follow the Wild Yeast pancake batter recipe (I put in 2 tbsp of honey instead of maple syrup and I made the waffles half with whole wheat starter). The batter should be slightly thinner than muffin batter but thicker than crepe batter. I usually have to add a couple of splashes of nonfat milk to achieve my desired consistency. If you want a large stash, double the recipe.
4. Ladle in enough batter for one waffle.
5. Cook until it is cooked through, but not until it is crispy.
6. Take out and let the waffle cool completely. Repeat this process until all of the batter is used up.
7. Place the cooled waffles in freezer bags (air tight) and remove all excess air from the bag.
8. Throw them in the freezer and stick them into your toaster as needed!

Bag of cooled waffles for the freezer

I have been really enjoying them. I'm planning on trying sourdough crumpets before the heat dies down.

I Have Good News and Interesting News

So I have good news and interesting news.

Good news first.

Two of the seven kittens I'm fostering have been adopted! A fellow alumna from my high school feel in love with these adorable kittens and she's coming to pick them up sometime next week!

Calico and Smokey Adopted!

Check out the rest of the kittens here. They are incredibly adorable. My friend rescued them from almost certain death


Interesting news second.

I happened upon this story this morning in the New York Times. I found it, well, fascinating for lack of a better term. Read it, it's interesting.

Wine Snob: Chilean Red Wine Review

I have been warmly invited by Sulpicia III to review Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 and Santa Helena Shiraz Reserve 2008. I have never written a wine review before and.I hope it is informative and interesting.

Wines and Chicken Piccata

The name "Casillero del Diablo" means "the Devil's Cellar". Concha y Toro, an enormous wine manufacturer based, makes this brand in the Central Valley region of Chile. Once upon a time, so the marketing campaign goes, the owner of Concha y Toro suspected his workers of thievery. He fostered a legend that the devil lurked in the dark depths of the cellar. The Casillero del Diablo brand is very popular and commonly sold in my neck of the woods, yet I never tried it before. Is the wine horribly bad or hella good? (I apologize for the atrocious puns.) I was quite happy with it. It has a medium body and a ruby red color. It smells of fruit, specifically blackberry. The taste is likewise berry fruit, but more cassis than blackberry. The tannins are very strong. It has a medium length finish. The tannins leftmy mouth very dry after swallowing.

I also bought the Santa Helena shiraz (syrah). This winery prides itself on the fact that it is constantly experimenting, trying new (and old) techniques, alternating between modern and traditional methods. I suspect this might result in larger than normal differences between vintages from this vineyard, though I may be wrong. I'll have to (reluctantly of course) try the 2009 and 2010 to check. It is also entirely sustainable. Itwas heavy and dark red. It had less tannins (making it medium-dry) than the first wine but it had a (typically syrah) short finish. It smelled and tasted strongly of berries.
The slightly lower amount of tannins, heavier body and richer flavor of the Syrah made me prefer it. However, if you like longer finishes, lighter bodies and less berry flavor, choose this Cabernet Sauvignon. I let both decant for an hour. They cost more or less the same price here (around €9) but if you're lucky they are slightly cheaper in CA.

I later tried both of them with Sulpicia's famous Chicken Piccata and they went together wonderfully. If Sulpicia is good enough to allow me to have some writing space again, I will return with some more Chilean reds or perhaps some notes on Chateauneuf-du-Pape (another current interest of mine).

Star Trek and the Olympics: Topicality and Imaginary Universes

Egnatius told me that if J.J. Abrams did not make Kahn the next villain in his Star Trek movie, he's kicking himself. Immediately, I realized this was true.

Why?

Well, it should be obvious to the viewers of the Olympics. A few days ago, a 16 year old swimmer beat the time that Ryan Lochte swam in the 400m individual medly for the last 50m. This seems highly unprecedented and she's been dubbed a "supergirl." Immediately, commentaters said "doping," but my reaction was "genetic enhancement." And then I realized I'd probably just been watching too much Deep Space Nine.

However, today I read that I'm not the only one who jumped to this conclusion. The Daily Mail argued that some scientists are taking the genetic enhancement claim seriously. According to the same article, scientists have successfully tested genetic procedures using genetically modified viruses to improve the athletic endurance, muscle tone, and ability to gain weight in rats. I can imagine that an unscrupulous group of coaches, scientists, or both might be tempted to experiment on some athletes. I mean, athletes are already storing up liters of their won blood in order to put back into their bodies right before a match for increased endurance. Why not use a virus to genetically modify themselves?

What happens when one country can modify its athletes? Imagine, for a moment, that Ye Shi Wen is genetically enhanced rather than just incredibly well-trained. If China were to be successful with one athlete, they would probably try to modify as many as possible. As the technology is so recent-- the human genome was only sequenced in 2003-- the success rate would start off pretty low. In my same imaginary universe, they might start sweeping the games in around 2020 with athletic Frankensteins. At this point, things could start to turn ugly. Perhaps the rest of the world would band together in order to discover a means of genetic testing. Politics immediately become embroiled (as they already have in real life-- China claims that the world is biased against them). There might even be a low-level cold war type scenario-- the genetics wars...

Obviously this is a bit unrealistic, but it might just be real enough to help a box office smash. While I maybe a little unusual, this idea about genetic modification must be pretty widespread and will probably be discussed extensively in the press. While the Bourne Legacy, coming out this month, is about genetic modification and supersoldiers, it is a theme that has run through American cinema for a while and probably will not get a substantial topicality boost. However, the idea of a big blockbuster coming out about eugenics wars might make people think. There has been a rumor going around that Benedict Cumberbatch is set to play Kahn, the genetically enhanced supervillain from the 1967 episode "Space Seed" and the movie Wrath of Kahn was a tyrant from the Eugenics Wars on Earth, after which genetic modification was banned in the Federation (this is revisited in Deep Space Nine). While, in reality, we didn't sequence the human genome until 13 years after the Eugenics Wars were supposed to have began, at some point, genetic re-sequencing will become a massive political and ethical issue. And, if the seemingly absurd supposition that one of the Olympic athletes was enhanced turns out to be correct, the day might be coming sooner that we think. If Abrams did create a new Kahn movie, then he's right on the money (in more ways than one).

Things Remain a Little Hectic

Calico, the kitten, 3 weeks old

Things are still crazy. I somehow thought that when the kittens got a little bit bigger everything would sort itself out, but it's just been a madhouse around here. If you want to see what I mean, the kittens have just learned how to get out of the box and explore. Here is a short clip of the first kitten who managed it. I honestly didn't expect it to be so much work, I just wanted to make sure the kittens were fostered and didn't have to go to a shelter. You can read the story here.

I had originally planned to try out doing my work in 90-minute blocks which is supposed to be quite productive (I've gotten very little done this summer). I read about the strategy here. I have PhD applications to attend to as well as keeping up my Latin, Greek, German, and French.I am crossing my fingers that I begin to manage some of my time a little better. I hardly have looked at any of these languages except Greek, and only at that for an hour or two once a week and I can feel it deteriorating.

Things Have Been a Little Hectic...

Things have been a little hectic around here over the past two weeks. Egnatius left to go back to Ireland and I helped him move out and pack. My family and I agreed also to host my friend's cat while she went to visit her parents on the other side of the country. This cat is fun and adorable, but quite particular so i will call her Princessa.

Cats love windows

While Princessa was here, she managed to become absolutely terrified of my room. She hung out up there most of the time for the first three days, but on day four it became the zone of horror.

Cute Kitty Pose

After that, late the night of 4th of July, she managed to jump off of something and twist her leg. Catullus II and I  took her to the vet. The vet said that she had only some soft tissue damage and gave us an anti-inflammatory, but not before dear usually-sweet Princessa attempted to rip the vet's face off.

However, in the mean time between agreeing to host Princessa and actually hosting her, my friend took in a pregnant stray whom she called Gimli. Gimli was a thin and lithe little ginger cat who sought out my friend at the beginning of the school year and my friend and her roommates had been feeding her. Gimli disappeared for a while in the spring and returned with a little ginger kitten, whom my friend named Eowyn. Sadly, one day shortly after arriving for the first time, Eowyn disappeared.

When Gimli became pregnant again, my friend took her in so that she and her kittens might be able to survive. Gimli, while bulging with pregnancy, was still as thin as she had ever been. About five days later, she had a litter of seven kittens.

I met the kittens on the first day after they were born. They were so cute and helpless. They looked almost like tiny hamsters.We gave them all nicknames based on look and personality attributes.

Calico, 1 day old

By the second day, we were arranging to take Princessa (my friend had to fly to the other side of the country to see her mother). However, my friend had not found foster care for Gimli and the kittens so she was going to have to take them to a shelter.

Kinky tail, 2 days old

Kittens, however, are much more likely to die in a shelter than in foster care, so my family agreed to take them until we could find homes for all of them.

Gimli and kittens

Gimli is an wonderfully sweet cat. She takes incredible care of her kittens. We have been looking for homes for all of them. I put up a website so that people can watch the growth of the kittens.

At one week old, they looked like this:

Superman, meowing. Photo by Steph Joyal

At ten days old, they looked like this:

Kinky-Tail, Photo by Steph Joyal.

They look much more like this now:

Calico, 16 days old

Smokey, 16 days old, asleep

So, this is the reason I am not posting quite a often as I had planned...

Sourdough Imitation Prophet Bread Recipe

sourdough, crust and crumb

Here is the sourdough version. I came up with it myself, for which I am pretty proud of myself. While I am verging on being a good bread maker, I still have certain problems with consistency, especially when it comes to chaning recipes from baker's yeast into sourdough so it was nice that this came out perfect the first time.

Ingredients

• 170g white starter
• 42g whole wheat starter
• 231g bread flour
• 8.5g salt
• 170g milk
• 14g sesame seeds
• 14g hulled millet
• 14g poppy seeds
• 14g flax seeds (I forgot to toast these, but they're probably better toasted)
• 14g sunflower seeds (toasted)
• Egg white for brushing the top
• Extra millet, poppy seeds and sunflower seeds for sprinkling over the top.

Method

Day 1

• Measure all the ingredients into a the bowl of a stand mixer.
• Mix with the paddle attachment until the dough comes together. It should be slightly sticky.
• Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
• Use the bread hook and mix for 4 minutes.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and fold a few times for good measure
• Let the dough rest for two hours covered by plastic wrap or similar.
• After, the two hours, place it in the refrigerator overnight.

Day 2

• Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Just over four hours before baking.
• Let it warm up for two hours.
• Turn it on to a floured surface
• Shape it:
• Separate the dough into three equal pieces
• Roll these pieces between the hands into ropes about 15 inches long (approximately).
• Braid the loaf from the middle to the exterior.
• Turn the braid onto its side and bring the two ends together. Pinch them together.
• Fold the braided ring such that the pinched-together portion is on the bottom. Place it in an oiled loaf pan (mine was oiled and then floured, but i don't think the flouring was necessary).

• Let it rise for 2 hours at room temperature (about 75 degrees F) or until the dough feels light and puffy to the touch (covered with plastic wrap or similar)
• Brush the top with egg white and sprinkle extra seeds on top right before baking.
• Bake at 350 degrees F (325 degrees F convection) for 50 minutes. I baked mine at 300 degrees F convection per the instructions, but I had to extend the baking time immensely and so I think baking them at a higher temperature is better. Bake under steam the first 25 minutes for maximum oven spring, according to the lovely people on the Fresh Loaf. Bake until the internal temperature is between 180-200 degrees F.

Sourdough, crumb, close up

You can see here, the crumb is more open and creamier than the baker's yeast counterpart

Crumb Comparision: Baker's Yeast (left), Sourdough (right and top)

The bread was delicious. I liked it better than the baker's yeast one because it had a creamier taste and texture and it had just the slightest hint of acidity. However, they were both delicious.

Lunch the other day: Sourdough toast with egg whites

I highly suggest everyone tries one of these two versions. You can make the seed mixture depending upon your own personal taste. And, even for those who do not appreciate multigrain bread, the base is almost entirely white flour, so it shouldn't be too hard on the palate. Enjoy!

Follow-up: Imitation Prophet Bread

Sourdough, crumb

I mentioned the other day that I tried to make a bread from one of my favorite coffee shops. In order to do this, I tried two different tactics. In one, I stayed close to the recipe from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day that seemed most similar to the bread I had. In the other, I made a sourdough version with a couple of key modifications. First, when I at the bread at the coffee shop, I thought that it was only sweetened by milk and not by honey, sugar, or some other sweetness. Although the version from the coffee shop was clearly not sourdough, it tasted much more like the sourdough version because it did not have a sweetener and had more milk (yielding a creamier taste and texture). I will post the sourdough recipe soon.

Ingredients for the Baker's Yeast Bread (makes 1 loaf)

• 316 g bread flour
• 42.5 g whole wheat flour
• 14 g sesame seeds
• 14 g poppy (the recipe omits this but rather doubles the sesame seeds)
• 14 g flax seeds (I lightly toasted these, even though the recipe does not)
• 14 g sunflower seeds (lightly toasted)
• 14 g hulled millet (this is not in the recipe, I added it)
• 14 g toasted pumpkin seeds
• 8.5 g salt
• 7 g dry active yeast
• 170 g water, warm (approximately 95 degrees F)
• 85 g nonfat milk, warm (approximately 95 degrees F)
• 28.5 g honey (1.5 tablespoons)
• Extra millet, poppy seeds and sunflower seeds for sprinkling over the top. 

Method

Day 1

• Measure all the ingredients into a the bowl of a stand mixer.
• Mix with the paddle attachment until the dough comes together. It should be slightly sticky.
• Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
• Use the bread hook and mix for 4 minutes.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and fold a few times for good measure. Then put in the refrigerator.

Day 2

• Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Just over two hours before baking.
• Turn it on to a floured surface
• Shape it:
• Separate the dough into three equal pieces
• Roll these pieces between the hands into ropes about 15 inches long.
• Braid the loaf from the middle to the exterior.
• Turn the braid onto its side and bring the two ends together. Pinch them together.
• Fold the braided ring such that the pinched-together portion is on the bottom. Place it in an oiled loaf pan (mine was oiled and then floured, but i don't think the flouring was necessary).

Sourdough, just placed in the baking pan

• Let is rest for 1.5 to 2 hours at room temperature (about 75 degrees F) or until the dough feels light and puffy to the touch.

Baker's Yeast, during the second rise

Baker's yeast at the end of the second rise

• Bake at 350 degrees F (325 degrees F convection) for 50 minutes. I baked mine at 300 degrees F convection per the instructions, but I had to extend the baking time immensely and so I think baking them at a higher temperature is better.

Baker's Yeast out of the oven

Baker's Yeast, side view

Baker's Yeast, on cooling rack

Baker's yeast, crumb

Sourdough directions and ingredients coming tomorrow. Sorry...too much to do. I will write and explanatory post soon.