Current State of Stuff

I haven't written anything substantive in awhile (and I am not exactly promising that now), instead leaning on fun and interesting videos in order to entertain or expand your mind. I hope you were entertained and/or expanded. A great deal of stuff has gone on in this world (the general world and that more internal one which takes place inside the boundaries of this country's wet Northwest and my own mind) and I can say things about that stuff. Let's go through some things.

Muammar al-Gaddafi

Libya is a goddamned mess and so are we. Gaddafi (or Qaddafi) is still alive and NATO's concerted efforts to cease his heartbeat have resulted in many other stopped pulses. I think they should go after him, personally, but for a coalition of futuristic military forces the attempt seems rather sloppy and dangerous (like all those special secret wars of the Clinton era). Now, don't get me wrong, I'd rather we all, worldwide, dumped our collective weapons caches into some well-contained blackhole to be effectively dismantled, molecule by molecule, but we don't live in such a world where this could be the case. We are a rather unevolved species for all of our loud celebration of technological supremacy. Give up your cell phone and be a bonobo. Yet, to live in the world we do, we must think about the world we live in and work at things from what's there. This isn't to say that we can't aid our own evolution by fostering progressive ideas and tossing those which obviously lead to dead ends. We can. Certainly. I won't get into what those dead ends are as I hope they are obvious.

We are a mess, as was said before. Here the "we" I unfortunately automatically use is to mean the United States of America. This is a large country with wildly divergent and polarized political beliefs (which I think are a result of a mostly worthless though otherwise motivated news media and an incredibly dumbed-down electorate). Political wins from these polarized points are more prized than the enactment of legislation which will help the people as a whole. This is a country where a politician's sex life is more damaging to them than the awful things they do in the name of their constituents. I know that the temptation of writing a Weiner headline is tremendous, but we are adults here. Can we not get over the fact that men have penises and women have vaginas? A good politician was brought down by some silly personal thing which the public shouldn't know or care about. Shame on us all.

Debt ceiling? Yeah, really stupid. China is even telling us to raise it. How ignorant can the GOP be on this front (let alone all the other fronts)? I will leave it there.

At least we saw American progression recently in New York. Men are welcome to join in matrimony with men, and women with women, in that state's legal eye. This is wonderful. Another stepping stone towards real equality in a world somehow mystified into thinking they are already free and equal. I am sure Pat Robertson will soon be shaking violently in prayer for some natural disaster to befall that small state. What a small and ridiculous old man. Anyway, congratulations to the many gay of New York.

More personally, I have been recently enthralled with Neil deGrasse Tyson, poetic astrophysicist. This is to say that recently I have been becoming a science nerd, and as a result, there was Tyson.



I volunteer at the Space Travel Supply Store in Seattle and we carry many science books which are fairly digestible by the not-so-astrophysicist. We carry two of Tyson's books, the last of which is called Death by Black Hole, and I am super excited to read them both. I am now reading Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality, which deals with the field of quantum physics and the insane implications of these theories. It is thoroughly blowing my mind. That is all I can say semi-intelligently about the subject. In keeping with my earlier hope that people would take responsibility for our species' evolution (and that said evolution must first take place in the realm of ideas), I am doing my damnedest to flood my gray matter with the particulars of our physical universe, domestic, extra-terrestrial and intra-cellular. This education of self must also take into account all that came before us and thus I am itching to better inform myself on the science of evolution. I am tasking myself with reading On the Origin of Species in the next year if all goes well and accompanying that with a side of Richard Dawkins. OK, enough science nerd stuff.

Notice the fancy new wheels

Bike nerd stuff. In the past few months I have been riding my bike to work and going on occasional "big" rides just outside of the city (the quotes around big meaning that twenty to forty miles isn't anywhere near a big ride for some particular readers). My bike is thoroughly vintage, and though this has an allure for a certain type of rider, it means to me that my bike is old. In fact, the whole thing looks to be from the mid-seventies, perhaps 1976 if you are to believe the internet. I have begun to augment my ride, starting with new wheels. All that should remain of the seventies by the end of this will be the old steel frame, a beautiful maroon ordeal that calls itself "Shogun". It is exciting for me. I can understand if it isn't for you.

One week in, spicy and delicious

Food nerd stuff. Not too much on this front, though I am now an entirely free man in my vege-/pescatarian world, roaming the naked streets of Seattle in search of yeast-risen buns and cloudy dry-hopped grain fermentations. I will soon be biking to wine country in order to further indulge. Things are good, for the most part, in that way. My culinary pursuits, however interesting, have mostly been toward the simple function of pleasantly sating the hunger of me and mine. I have, though, started the lacto-fermentation of some jalapeno peppers to start the fermentation season in a real spicy way. This was easy and anyone with a mason jar can play. A pound of peppers, half an onion or less, 1-6 garlic cloves, a tablespoon of sea salt and a few tablespoons of whey (or the juice from some previously fermented concoction) will do the job. I added some carrot and sugar to the mix for a little sweetness. All things go into the jar, sprinkling salt as you go, and then some spring water (no tap water!) until about an inch from the top. I left it out with the lid screwed down just a little so that gas could escape. Then you just watch it over some days. Sniff it. Be a tactile creature. This is an ancient practice. Soon you will have pickled jalapenos, but not sooner than me.

That's the state of some stuff as I know it right now. Hope it was worth reading.

Yeast

These eukaryotic micro-organisms make our beer, our wine; they leaven our bread and make our pitas pocketed. Yeast, a significant member of the Fungi kingdom, has been in use for thousands of years, much of that time without our understanding of the why or the what. You let juiced grapes sit out for awhile, and ta-da! we're incredibly ebullient and talkative (or possibly asleep). Live yeast, bought in paper packets from the grocery, bubbles and foams when reinvigorated in warm water, and inflates balls of dough triplefold. Don't forget vinegar either, which itself is only possible through the tireless efforts of these singular creatures. These little unicellular beings sustain themselves on sugars, and depending on the venue (i.e. drowning in a sweet grain or grape soup or enveloped in wetted flour) defecate alcohol or carbon dioxide or both. It lives in our guts, on our skin and in the barely visible particulates of the air.

Imagine France without yeast. Or say, any other place wherein good things are had. The wines, the breads, the dipping vinegars. The flavor imparted upon baked goods is palpable, it is the identity of the thing. To take it away from that bread or roll or bun is to be left with not only an uninspired and airless slag of grain, but also one without that thick and succulent je ne sais quoi flavor. To leave it out of wine or beer is to leave them out entirely, to be left with grape juice and soda. Vinegar, pivotal in most common condiments, is the most unavoidable though, seconded only by soy sauce. Try to go to a restaurant and order around these obvious obstacles. Forget Chinese. No more casual sushi (not only the problem of soy sauce here but also the vinegared rice). You'll have difficulty eating Italian too and most salads are out of the question. You might even go home and attempt to hobble together a ketchup or mayo analogue, in hopes that you could carry it along in a to-go bottle and again enjoy slathering fries in dip. It won't be the same though. You'll notice the unfettered joy on the faces of your devil-may-care companions as they swallow down goblets of wine or pints of beer, getting it on their upper lips or spilling it down their faces, and smiling as they lick it or wipe it away and go after another handful of sweet potato fries in curry ketchup or pesto mayo. You'll know. And you'll cordone yourself off at the bakery, investigating only the scones and the cookies, the muffins and cupcakes (all the while you wanted something savory). You'll take to the internet on fruitless searches for those yeasty borderlands (does rindy cheese have yeast? which restaurants use liquid aminos?) and come out less informed, more confused and in want of all those things you can't have and all the stuff you aren't sure of. Then you'll pull the vodka from the freezer (as it is distilled and filtered) and make a drink. These are the facts and my impressions upon denying it past my lips the last weeks.

Just over a month ago, after completing three fruitless months of a gluten-free life, I got my food-panel blood test back. Yeast (brewer's and baker's) among other less dramatic items showed up as an allergy for me, which I hadn't ever considered previously. A daily fact of my life, from nutritional yeast to wine and beer to vinegars and kombucha, had to be eliminated for an indeterminate period of time. It is still indeterminate, but there has been marked improvement in the state of my digestive system, in the state of that overraw length of piping from throat to gut. And that is where I stand, or sit, or lay. I've friended distilled alcohol and lemon juice. I sigh less when my friends eat things I can't. I am attempting creativity in the kitchen in the face of this adversity, and when all is said and done, it is a hell of a lot easier than divorcing gluten. We've become great friends again. Absence makes the heart grow fond, and the stomach grow wanton.

Beet Kvass and Other Fermented Goodness

 About two weeks ago, I started something called beet kvass (it is the jar in the picture which looks like it has beets in it). The beets came into the kvass picture later in the game, as kvass was a fermented drink birthed out of Eastern Europe and Russia using mainly rye bread and water, with various other spices and fruits used as well. The point of the bread was that it had live cultures in it, like say, sourdough does. When soaked and left to ferment, those cultures are awakened and thrive. It was something often drank by the peasants after long days of work, as it was extremely nutritious and had a small amount of incidental alcohol. Lucky for them. Beet kvass uses a similar idea. It can include bread but many now prefer to use whey (as in the liquid stuff which pools in your container of yogurt). I myself, already steeped in a great deal of fermentation projects, have used just a couple tablespoons of the juice from one of my other pickles as starter. It needs a starter to begin its wonderful process.

Now to start this process I had to chop up the beets coarsely (after the strenuous act of peeling them), as you can see in the picture, and put them in my clean jar. This is three good sized beets, like softballs. It is ill-advised to shred the beets, as every site has warned me, since the beets then let off too much juice at once, sugar as well, and it turns into something more alcoholic. Not to say that it wouldn't be good, I just don't know. If anyone tries that method, let me know how it goes. So the beets are cut and in the jar, good. Now I add one tablespoon of salt and one or two tablespoons of starter (this can be your pooled liquid from yogurt or raw milk, or like me, some sauerkraut or pickle juice lounging around the fridge). You want to have spring water, void of that anti-bacterial chlorine which will destroy our wonderful bodily allies, and fill it up to about one inch from the top. My jar is two quarts. This space between the water and the top is where the excess CO2 created from fermentation will go. If you are using a mason jar, you might keep the lid just a little shy of tight, so as to allow for the escape of the CO2. With my clamp jar I haven't had any issues but do open it each day to release any pressure it builds. Wouldn't want a hole in my jar.

Beets are an extremely healthy vegetable, with implications for use in prevention and healing of cancers, the lowering of blood pressure, the increase of blood flow to brain, alkalization of blood, etc etc etc. It has many vitamins and minerals as well as antioxidants and other compounds of great benefit. Go here to see all the numerous benefits of this gorgeous vegetable. The fermentation of this concoction further increases the nutritional benefit, with the addition of probiotics which not only benefit digestion but help process the nutrients within for greater absorption. The tonic becomes red with time. It needs only three or so days outside of the fridge to be considered ready. The taste is salty and earthy sweet, like you are sucking down the very soul of the beet. If the taste is too salty, then the next batch should be prepared with that in mind, decreasing the salt to your taste. When the first batch is downed, the beets within can be given one more go, a little bit diluted from the first but still extremely beneficial and thirst-quenching.

The picture above includes the second chapter of my beet kvass (on the left, with golden beets this time), my newly fermented sauerkraut (middle, with the addition of organic Gala apples this time for sweetness) and a compendium of various vegetables set to ferment in a mason jar (right, the scraps of the moment are carrots, turnips, celery, brussel sprouts, red pepper and ginger). The last one is an ongoing experiment, which I pull from randomly and drop extra vegetables into. Fermentation is ridiculously easy, one just has to try it out. And let me know about it. Here are a few links to help you along:

• http://thenourishingcook.com/2010/02/how-to-make-fermented-beet-kvass/
• http://scdkatfood.blogspot.com/2010/04/ferments.html
• http://www.sustainableeats.com/2009/05/26/homemade-rhubarb-soda/
• http://www.healthygreenkitchen.com/making-sauerkraut.html
• http://www.healthy-green-lifestyle.com/cultured-foods.html
• http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=sauerkraut

I hope that this starts some on a fermentation frenzy. I can vouch for its enjoyment.

Finished Pickles, More to Come

I have, so far, finished two batches of pickles. They are beautiful. And they taste really good while canoeing around Lake Union. Three men, one boat, seven hours, four pickles, seven hard-boiled eggs, at least four sunburned thighs, etc. Anyway, the following picture indicates my work in the realm of pickling. I have two further gallons fermenting atop my fridge.

And here is another gallon making its way towards deliciousness (this time with half the salt and fresh jalapenos):

Externally (meaning separate from pickling and concerning the out of doors), this is a picture of our bikes (Anne's and my own) hanging out in Gas Works Park, dwarfed by Kite Hill and the Aurora bridge (second most common bridge for suiciding oneself):

Hope that was enjoyable! Off to a sherry tasting!

Turning a Cucumber

The season for pickling cucumbers is upon us! Although odd and crazed, this exclamation did erupt in me, albeit mostly internally or not around many people. Since my excursion into the fine art of fermentation, I have wanted to make my greatest foodstuff addiction. Pickles. Real and sour pickles. Too long has man settled for vinegared cucumbers in America. We've only to look back at our ancestral history to see the true and truly delicious ways, back to Germany or Poland or Hungary among others. To make the distinction, they can also be called Brined Pickles. As this fermentation takes place because of the natural lactobacillus from the skin, it is filled, like sauerkraut, yogurt and kimchi, with probiotics (gut flora if you like). An acquaintance from the Ukraine told me years back that the resulting brine (pickle juice) was used for a hangover cure in Russia and Eastern Europe. Prior to this, I myself had often craved this special drink the morning after a night of too much. It seemed to work for me.

So now I have started my very own pickles. It excites me just to think about it, to see the jar of them processing above my fridge. I started one batch on July 31st, in the same jar I used to make sauerkraut. On Thursday I got some more cucumbers and so had to find another receptacle to make into a fermenter. I went to the home brew store just down the hill from my apartment to get some airlock and grommets. The airlock lets carbon dioxide, a natural byproduct, escape while keeping oxygen from getting in and creating yeasty scum on top. At the brew store I picked up a one-gallon bucket and the proprietor drilled a hole in the lid and fitted a grommet in there for me. It was perfect.

Making pickles is easy. I have linked to this site previously, because it is good and the book is better. Wild Fermentation. This has a recipe specifically for sour pickles, simply spiced. It also explains brine strength, which dictates the sourness and saltiness of the resulting pickle. I used the salinity of the linked recipe, 5.4% precisely, making for fairly salty and sour pickles. Yum. Some have used a salinity of up to 10%, where the pickle has to be rinsed off to be bearably eaten. I began my pickling by washing out my fermenter jar/bucket and adding the herbs and spices (flowering dill, two peeled bulbs of garlic, some peppercorns, mustard seed, caraway seed, chili flakes). Next comes the cukes. I put them in their in such a way as to fit them as tightly as possible. Finally the brine. Use spring water or some filtered water free of chlorine. Chlorine could kill all the bacteria you want to bolster. No tap water. I used six tablespoons, or 3/8ths cup, of kosher salt per liter of water. (OOPS! The previous sentence, although true to what I did, does not actually represent the 5.4% salinity I wanted. Rather it is closer to that 10% salinity in which eggs can float. I read wrongly and doubled the salt. Three tablespoons per liter is a 5.4% salinity. Take notice.) Kosher salt is a great salt to use as it has no iodine added and won't stain or darken the end result. When the brine covers the cucumbers and nears the top, I cap it and fill the airlock with a little water. Then wait. The airlock will bubble and brim. This is fermentation. I leave it be, let it bubble and dribble over. I know that no air connection is possible inside this way. I want to hear about it if anyone tries this. It is easy and fun. Like a science experiment you will get to eat later.

The following are pictures of their humble beginnings. I will report in a couple weeks as the fermentation becomes evident, or nears finish.

DOSA!

Indian food can be delineated by the region from which it is born. Northern Indian, I think, is what is usually seen. Cream is used more often in this Punjabi or Kashmiri cuisine. Very good cream dishes. A lot more meat is used as well. I love Northern Indian but have an especially fond place in my heart for Southern. The cuisine of this region, also called Dravidian, is known as the spiciest of India. Overall it is a much more Vegetarian-friendly India. One of the items made and used most exclusively is the dosa, a spiced crepe made from lentils and rice. Incredibly nutritious and fabulously tasty, the dosa is eaten with a variety of different foods at all times of the day. It is usually stuffed with a sort of curry or masala (the one I get at the place around the corner is a potato masala), but can also be used to dip in chutneys or lentil soups. The possibilities are nearly endless. While I still had the Wild Fermentation book on loan from the library, I noticed a recipe for dosa. This is how I did it.

First, your ingredients:
- Two Cups Rice (brown works nicely)
- One Cup Lentils (any kind you want, I used red)
- One Cup Yogurt, Kefir or Water (I used yogurt)
- Some Cilantro and Fresh Ginger (for later)

The first step is easy. You put the rice and lentils into a big bowl with water to soak. You will want to put a bit more water in than rice and lentils because they will expand. Let this soak for eight hours or overnight. It will sour a little. This is good and natural.

After this soaking, grind or process into a batter with the yogurt, kefir or water. It should be smooth, not chunky, and barely pourable. Put this into a big bowl, if it isn't already, with room to expand. The fermentation begins. This can be left to ferment on your counter or out of the way somewhere for one to two days or more (if you like it more sour). Forget about it. Set an alarm on your phone. Whatever. It will smell more and more sour as it goes. That is wonderful.

This is what my batter looks like after two days of fermenting. At this point, after the waiting, you can add spices. The recipe called for cilantro, grated ginger and salt (teaspoon or so). You could also add fenugreek, cumin, curry leaves, curry powder, asofoetida (hing), cayenne powder, fresh peppers, turmeric, etc. It is your dosa, do what you want. But, ginger and cilantro are definitely good. I added a small bunch of chopped cilantro and about an inch of grated fresh ginger. You want FRESH ginger. Also, add enough water to thin out the batter. We are making crepes, not pancakes. Mix this through and find a good ladle. You got it? Great.

Heat the skillet or pan (cast iron works great, or a good non-stick pan) and add some oil or butter. I used butter because it is good. On the topic of butter, buy Irish butter. Kerrygold is good. It has a better stronger flavor and it is squeezed from grass-fed cows, which is healthier. Here is a site I found talking about the benefits of eating from pastured animals: http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm. Anyway, heat the pan with butter or vegetable oil and let it get hot. Keep it around medium heat. Then ladle your beautiful batter right in there, spreading it out with the bottom of the ladle until it is nice and thin. It will act like a pancake, bubbling up through the top and giving you some idea as to when to flip it. Flip it. Cook it until it is golden brown and make some more.

You may want to test it before you flip it to make sure it is holding up and cooked enough. If you are successful, it will look like this.

Yum. After you have cooked them all and turned off that hot burner, what will you do? Enjoy it with yogurt? Stuff it with some savory Indian fare that you either made yourself or obtained through a local Indian restaurant? Dip in chutneys? Fill it with eggs and potatoes and have a breakfast burrito? For my meal, I enlisted my friend, Lucas Cain, White-Boy-Indian-Food-Extraordinaire, to help with a decent accompaniment. This is the result.

I made the whitish potato dish (Potato and Spinach Coconut Curry) and Lucas made the reddish Paneer dish (Mutter Paneer in Tomato Curry Sauce). The dosa is located under the fork. Try this recipe if you dare. The hardest part is the wait. Really. Do it.

And now, some food poetry.

Ode To The Onion
by Pablo Neruda

Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.

Make Bread

OK, this will be quick. The post and the bread you are about to make. Your effort will be minimal and the bread will be amazing. The most straining thing you might have to do is wait. Which I am doing now. This is a no-knead bread. When done it is airy and beautiful. The bread I am now making (and by now making, I mean waiting for it to bubble and rise) is going to be entirely made of whole wheat. I am letting it sit for two days so it can ferment a bit and maybe impart a sourness that will subsequently please me and make me smile. I will just post the link for this super easy bread.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/kitchen-hack-one-minute-ciabatta-bread.html

When I get some more time, I will blog the cheese I recently made. It is also easy, but not nearly as easy as this bread. Enjoy.