Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Osmosis Jones]

So the other week, I tried to make a 100% rye loaf of bread. It didn't work, and basically I ended up with a crisp and crackly outer shell half filled with a solid fudge-like material under a huge airgap.

While this was a tragedy (though salvageable by incorporating into a soup), it did inspire some cooking experiments.

Basically, it seems that it's possible to make a passable dessert from a carefully cooked rye-flour mixture. I'm still tweaking it, but a sweetened mix of rye-flour, sugar, and water with ground cloves, cinnamon and allspice seems to work very well. I topped it with a layer of water, ginger, brown sugar and lemon juice+zest so that as it cooked down, it formed a thick, treacly, toffee-like glaze over the top, then baked it in a ramekin/bowl in a shallow water bath in the oven at 200 C for around 2 hours (high temp for evaporating and then caramelising surface, water bath stops the dough overcooking at the edges).

End result is a substance about halfway between fudge and cake with a gooey caramelly top, so good.

Some changes I'm gonna make for the next round though;
* I skimped a little on the sugar in the batter itself, so it wasn't dessert-sweet unless I also got some of the topping. Need to up it.
* It really needs to be served with some whipped cream, and maybe some fresh fruit (plums would go well, methinks).
* I'd like to try mixing the rye flour with hot water from a kettle and leaving for a few hours before mixing and sweetening; the result wasn't quite as fudgey as the (overnight-fermented) breadtastrophe had been, and this might give it more time to soften and merge.
* While the rye actually adds hints of almost a chocolate character, a touch of cacao would definitely boost it.
* Similarly, some raisins/craisins/prunes would be good incorporated into the mix.
* Possibly try with some butter or vegetable shortening as well.

Either way, it looks like it could well be a delicious, simple, and surprisingly vegan equivalent to those thick n' lovely fudge brownies.

Defintely a winter sort of dish though...

[Helgoland]

Could you post amounts? I'd like to try that sometime.

[Sheb]

Yeah, I'm interested too!

[Osmosis Jones]

Alright... so caveat emptor, these amounts are pretty speculative; I don't normally record amounts, I just go by consistency and flavour, and eyeball everything. That said

Spoiler: Batter (click to show/hide)

1+1/2 cups whole/dark rye flour
1/2 cup brown sugar (may need to up scale, however, or cut with larger amounts of white sugar)
1/2 tsp each of powdered cinnamon, allspice
1/4 tsp powdered cloves
+ enough water to make it a thick paste

Mix it all up, and put it in a small, deep bowl or ramekin. I buttered the sides when I did it, but it didn't really stop it sticking, so I'd say it didn't make much difference. I smoothed the top flat as well.

Spoiler: Glaze (click to show/hide)

Lemon Juice (1 small lemon's worth)
Lemon zest ("" "")
1 cup Brown sugar
~2-3 cubic cm of Ginger, grated
Cinnamon/allspice to taste (I honestly just threw in a pinch here)

Add it all together in a saucepan, and while heating gently, add enough water to dissolve it all. The aim is to have enough to cover the mix in the bowl to about 1 cm deep in water, so dilute if necessary.

Preheat the oven to 200 C, and then put the bowl in a water bath of boiling water from the kettle, and pour the glaze mix over the top in the bowl, and let it bake. Took about 2 hours all up, but I was going more by the surface glaze; once that's reduced down and starting to caramelise, you're probably good to go.

So anyway, there it is. It's still a work in progress, so I strongly recommend people tinker with the flavourings and ingredients (especially the changes I suggest above), and let me know what changes you made, and how it turned out.

Now, on to my next experiment... duck prosciutto!

[Helgoland]

Is there no leavening agent? No yeast, or baking powder?

[Osmosis Jones]

Nope; it's not a bread, it's more like Rye fudge.

Doing further research, it seems I basically stumbled onto a variation of Mämmi.

[Felius]

I'm about to eat the flesh of an a particularly smart creature while putting chemical weaponry in it while drinking poison.

Or, to put it another way, I'm going to have some octopus which I'll put malagueta pepper on it (well, drops of a sauce made from them, either way, the chemical weapon, that is, capsaicin) while having a beer (aka, the poison, alcohol).

[penguinofhonor]

My roommate and I want to cook something with beets so we're making vegetarian borscht. Does anyone have any borscht tips? Neither of us have actually eaten it before.

[Bauglir]

My roommate and I want to cook something with beets so we're making vegetarian borscht. Does anyone have any borscht tips? Neither of us have actually eaten it before.

I have only cook-off photos.

Dunno what recipe I used but perhaps there will be enough instructions there.

[Jopax]

I made birthday chilli today. I was lacking a bunch of stuff, mostly spices but it turned out suprisingly good in the end. Used two medium/large onions, some ground pork (beef is expensive, fuck that) and two regional spicy sausages for the extra kick. Used a bunch of tomato sauce and some red kidney beans. As far as spices go I only had chilli and salt, but I threw in a bit of spicy mustard and ajvar to give it some extra flavour, turned out really nicely in the end.
And then I added some dark chocolate (cooking chocolate in this case, so it might've had a bit less cocoa and a bit more sugar than needed) and it all went from pretty nice to holy shit this is soo awesome
Seriously, I ran out of bread and rice and I had a half a plate of it just like that, and then I licked the damn thing clean because I didn't want any of it going to waste XD

Can't wait to get my hands on some more spices, and next time I won't forget to add some bacon and perhaps a drizzle of some dark beer to add some flavour that way.

There's also some left for tommorrow, I have a feeling it'll get even better after it sits for a night

[Sappho]

How did you cook the chili? I know people generally use some kind of slow cooker but I don't have one. Any tips for making chili in a normal pot on the stove? I have an induction cooktop so I have a lot of control over the temperature.

[Jopax]

I had no idea you use a slow cooker :V

I just used a heavy iron pot, you know, the kind you usually make soups and stews in. Started off at high heat on a medium sized heater thingy (tho the stove is ancient so it probably isn't working at full capacity), then after most of the stuff was in I lowered it to half and covered the pot so it doesn't lose too much liquid. Then after the beans were added I left it to simmer down for a bit. All in all I don't think it took more than an hour to cook, tho I could be wrong I wasn't paying much attention to the time, prefer to eyeball it for the most part.

I think it also helped that I didn't use all that much stuff so it didn't take that long to cook, for the most part I think there was less than a kilo of stuff in the pot at any given time.

[Eldin00]

A slow cooker can make great chili, but certainly isn't required. Any appropriately sized pot suitable for making stews will work fine.

I make it on the stovetop pretty regularly, and while I don't have a recipe written down and pretty much use whatever meat and vegetables I have readily available and eyeball all the measurements, here are the basic steps I use:

If using dried beans, soak them overnight (or at least for a few hours) before beginning this. A lot of kinds of beans can be used, but kidney beans and black beans are the most common choices.

Get some ground beef, ground pork, or chop some meat of your choice up into small pieces. Brown the meat.

Chop up an onion, and saute it in a portion of the meat drippings (or oil if you don't have enough meat drippings) until it turns translucent.

Put the meat, about the same volume of beans as what you have for meat, and the onions in a large pot. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce. Add enough broth or water to completely cover the beans and meat (if necessary).

Bring the chili to a boil, then reduce to low heat. Stir in chili powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Add any hot sauce or other spices you're using. Add any aditional vegetables if you want (corn and chopped bell peppers or chili peppers are good).

Cover the pot and simmer until the beans are tender. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. It's great topped with shredded cheese or a dollop of sour cream.

[Bauglir]

Aye, a slow cooker isn't necessary for chili - only slow cooking is necessary, if you catch my meaning. If you're making a vegetarian chili, this is also less important, because the main reason is to tenderize the meat and let its flavor seep into the liquid. Vegetables don't need to go through that whole slow-moist-heat thing to gelatinize collagen in order to make that happen. I typically make chili in a large pot over simmering heat on the stovetop for 3ish hours. Where simmering heat has nothing to do with your stove's "Simmer" setting but more to do with the actual condition of the liquid.

Do you need a recipe, by the way? I have a pretty decent vegan chili, although some of the ingredients may be hard to find where you live (specifically, the vegan sausage substitute and possibly the textured vegetable protein).

[timferius]

I have a slow cooker but still always just use a pot for my chili. The best part is, the longer it simmers the better the flavours blend, so you can leave it going forever if you want. Probably best not to sleep with your stove on though ...