Day 75: Back in the Kitchen

I’ve been itchin’ for the kitchen all week and finally got to spend the day in my “food lab”. I started out putting soy beans on to soak so I could make tofu before the end of the day. I meant to set them out the night before, but I forgot. In order to make them plump up faster, I covered them with hot water to give them a jump start, then set them aside while I went on to the next idea.

I bought blueberries on special a few days ago and I knew if I didn’t use them up somehow, I was going to lose them. So, I mixed up half a cup of water and a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice with half a cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, and a tablespoon of cornstarch. I stirred in three cups of fresh blueberries and brought them to a boil over medium heat and cooked them till they were thickened and glossy. Then I poured them into an airtight container and popped a beautiful container of Blueberry Sauce to be served over ice cream or cake or yogurt. Yummmm!

Once that was done, I fed three jars of sourdough starter that I have going. One is for a friend. One is my regular starter. The third is my experimental starter. I’m thinking of turning it into a sweet starter to use for a Southern Sourdough Bread recipe I found. Once the starters were fed and put away to incubate, I mixed up a big batch of Whole Wheat Sourdough Pancake batter and that’s what we had for brunch.

The thing about sourdough…it rarely tastes the same every time you use it. It grows and changes and picks up new wild yeasts. And it gives off more and more acids and that’s where sourdough gets its name….it’s very tangy. You can increase the tanginess artificially by adding citric acid, or you can let it rise overnight in the refrigerator. My pancakes are always tangy now because they use older, more acidic starter. Yesterday’s were delicious and I don’t think I can ever go back to pancakes from the box again. They’re much too….blah.

Once brunch was complete, I mixed up a dough for English Muffins and set it to rise. By this time, I was ready to get outside and get some sunshine. I took down all the bird feeders and filled them. I took down the old hummingbird feeder and threw it away. I don’t know what it is about that feeder, but the hummers just don’t love it. I filled and put up the one from the farm. Hopefully, the little velociraptors will return.

I sat down to watch “Grant” with Mr. FixIt. I tried…I really did…but I just couldn’t stick it out. I kept thinking of the million other things I could be doing instead and I begged my leave. I went back to the kitchen and cooked up a double batch of spaghetti sauce and sweet it in the crockpot to simmer and thicken.

I ran the soaked soybeans through the soy milk maker…two loads this time…and strained the solids from the soy milk. I saved the thick, damp solids (called okara) and put it in an airtight container and stored it in the fridge. There are things I can do with that. We’ll talk about that when we come to it.

Once the soy milk was heated then cooled to around 170, I gently mixed in a liquid nigari solution to start the curd process. Once the fluffy white curds began swimming in the lightly yellow whey, I scooped them out and placed them gently in a cloth lined tofu box. But this time, Mr. FixIt was tapping his foot…it was time to leave for therapy. I placed the lid on the tofu box and set a quart jar of dried beans on top to gently press the extra whey from the bloc of tofu and make it a nice firm texture. My preference for slicing and cubing for cooking.

A quick trip to town, Physical Therapy, post office, a takeout picnic from Olive Garden (because it was date night!) and a stop at the store finished of the town trip. As soon as I got home, I had to unbox the tofu, place it in the storage container, cover it with fresh water, and pop on the lid. Stored in the fridge, that block of tofu will feed us several meals and remain fresh all week as long as I change the water every day. I stored the three jars of starter in the fridge, then prepared the English Muffin dough for its final rise before cooking. While it was rising, I did the dishes and wrote this post. Tomorrow, I’ll show you the final step in cooking the English Muffins.

Another good solid day of “fun work”. Another good kind of tired at the end of the day. It’s supposed to be cool the next few days so I’m looking forward to some field camping this weekend!

❤️