Fruit salad

I am amazed at the cost of fruit salad at the grocery deli. I could buy a giant sack of apples or more navel oranges then I could eat in two months for the cost of 1 LB of deli fruit salad. <-- --="" 18="" 1="" a="" about="" accidentally="" also="" and="" because="" bit="" bunch="" buy="" can="" car="" chop="" circumstantially="" cost="" denver="" did.="" did="" does="" etc.="" even="" exaggeration.="" factor="" feel="" field="" find="" for="" from="" fruit="" getting="" guilt="" guilty="" have="" i="" in="" incidentally="" it="" lbs="" lift="" like="" little="" made="" maui="" might="" mostly="" much="" of="" on="" one="" perchance="" pineapple="" place="" possible="" random="" really="" rent="" s="" stay="" still="" that.="" that="" the="" then="" this="" to="" toss="" trunk="" unexpectedly="" unless="" up.="" up="" wantonly="" water.="" we="" weird="" yes="" you="" yourself="">·

Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail sourdough bread

This bread was not properly kneaded because here's the thing; long fermentation period is itself a form of kneading. Besides, the dough is sadistically, albeit kindly but insistently stretched in four directions which redistributes the yeast providing each little cellular yeastie with a new dancing partner, and by dancing partner I mean sexual procreation partner, which is only one of the two ways yeast has to procreate which is one of the reasons why they're such marvelous little survivors. I contrived a lovely animation that demonstrates these two methods yeast use to procreate, sexually and asexually. Quite nice it is, complete with music. The animation is on another blog here. The text I used was in Spanish which I liked so I left it that way, more interesting than English. It's actually nine little animations all shoved together and timed so one picks up where another leaves off while all the rest wait. It goes round and round and you can lose yourself in it.

Not shown:

* the revivification of the yeast culture from deep slumber -- two days.
* the mixing and building up of the dough by doubling each feeding of flour and water in twelve hour increments. -- two days.
* cool fermentation period covered in the refrigerator where the yeast activity arrests but the bacteria portion of the culture continues apace imparting its own special magic upon the dough -- three days.
* the transfer to covered Magnalite pots preheated to the vulcanized torridity of the surface of a red giant star of the first magnitude, say the one in the arm of Orion, Betelgeuse -- OK, fine! -- 500°F, and baking covered then uncovered -- forty-five minutes.

This produced two loaves. I wrapped and gave one to my neighbors who said, "Awesome!"

Bouillabaisse with mango and pineapple on brown rice

Bouillabaisse held over from yesterday, reheated with mango and pineapple served with steamed brown rice.

Brown rice is a little bit weird. It's chewier than white rice. Here's what I learned; steam a little longer, use less water, holds up well under pressure.

35 minutes steam under pressure, up to 45 minutes without. Leave covered throughout while cooling before releasing pressure, or for 10 minutes off heat without pressure

Bouillabaisse

Bouillabaisse, that's what I'm calling it, made from what I have on hand. It lacks seafood items ordinarily seen in traditional bouillabaisse like clams, lobster, mussels, partial corn on the cob sections and such and instead has only frozen shrimp, scallops and flounder. But I don't care. I added saffron and that fakes me out into believing it tastes just like Bouillabaisse -- and it does! Although I didn't bother with toasted French bread and aioli. Also my base is a little bit off, the canned tomatoes and homemade chicken broth, and I don't care about that either.

Catfish with broccoli and pecans

Catfish drenched and dredged, with steamed broccoli and pecans. Topped with a simple roux velouté sauce made with frozen chicken broth cubes and the drench milk used for the fish, along with more of the same seasoning added to the dredge. Wouldn't do to waste now, would it? Plus some kind of little piece of cheese, I have no idea what it was, the label is gone, whatever it was, it's good. The seasoning was some kind of brown powder in a circular tin from Spice Boys marked simply HOT. It's not.