food...

[thanate]

Having to pay attention to my diet (which, on the whole, is probably good for me-- not in the weight or overall nutrition sense so much as in remembering to plan meals before "crunch time" as it were) has kicked in the winter reading of cookbooks phase a month early. This year it begins with pulling Cookwise off the shelf, and the first few pages have already solved a couple mysteries about flour & liquid interactions. I might post things about pancakes (which I may have done once already) due to a new understanding of the chemistry involved.

Anyway, I have also got questions!

*Has anyone got a pumpernickel bread recipe to recommend? All the ones in my cookbooks seem to have weird things like coffee added, and I am skeptical. (also, not a fan of coffee.)

*ditto on a recipe for orange rolls-- I want something like cinnamon rolls, only with orange icing instead of cinnamon; fairly whole-grain friendly or at least dense, with a moist & buttery texture. When I was a kid these were the Christmas morning special treat; I got them for the first Christmas with grauwulf, and we both kind of felt like the first half-roll was really good and then they rapidly became slightly less substantial & food-like than marshmallows. There has got to exist a nice filling sweet roll recipe which could be used instead. (This year's fall-back choice is these pumpkin-cinnamon rolls which also have a coincidental link to a pumpernickel recipe that might be worth trying; thank you to mrissa for mentioning the site.)

*Does anyone have favorite things to do with mustard greens, besides basic baked greens or chop-up-put-in-soup? I got a couple bunches at the farmers' market on sunday because they looked so green and happy, but aside from the above and then slicing up the rest to freeze for future soups, I'm not sure I know what to do with them. I am new to this cooking greens thing, so I'm sure there's stuff I haven't thought of.

Comments

[notyourwendy]

I haven't made these myself, but I've had really good luck with some of her other recipes (really, how bad can something be with a stick of butter in it) and reading over this one, it looks reasonable.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/orange-marmalade-rolls/

[thanate]

Oh, I'd forgotten the pioneer woman-- good call.

Yeah, one stick of butter seems like a good idea. But I keep reading brioche recipes and finding that no matter how much I'd like to try the stuff I'm still constitutionally incapable of making bread with an entire pound of butter in.

[notyourwendy]

Right, adding brioche to my list of breads to try making really soon. :)

[thanate]

I thought that might be your sort of thing. ;)

Cookwise recommends only working with chilled dough so you don't kneed all the butter out.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Pretty much every pumpernickel recipe I have ever seen has coffee in it. I haven't made them, but I suspect that it's necessary for the darker and more bitter loaf. I have a recipe for light rye (http://www.marissalingen.com/limpa.html) that's really good, though.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Part of my skepticism is based on never having seen coffee in the listed ingredients of pre-made pumpernickel, only in recipes for it.

Rye is good, too, though. (must buy more exciting flour...)

[dancinglights.livejournal.com]

Mustard greens: half and half with spinach for saag paneer. Or saag tofu, depending.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Fascinating-- I've not attempted saag, besides enjoying other people's versions. Do you have a recipe you'd recommend?

[dancinglights.livejournal.com]

Not really, sadly. Generally I look up recipes via Google every time my garden has enough greens to make it, and they're all very slightly different in the spice mix but usually tasty. Good luck!

[ivy]

Mustard greens: stir-fry with large chunks of garlic. Delicious!

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Hm... the garlic might even convince grauwulf that it's food. Worth a try, anyway. :) Thanks!