Stroganoff is always a hit and this version is almost a one-pot meal and comes together pretty easily.

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Cook's Country December/January 2018, by Ashley Moore (p. 13)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil
• 225g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 450g lean ground beef
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1L chicken or vegetable broth
• 60mL (¼ C) white wine
• 240mL (1 C) frozen green peas
• 450g dry egg noodles
• 120mL (½ C) sour cream
• 2 tbsp minced chives

Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a deep-walled skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Add mushrooms and cook until they release their liquid and begun to brown, 5-7 minutes.
3. Remove mushrooms and buffer.
4. Add remaining oil and return to medium-high heat.
5. Add onion, garlic, ½ tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion softens.
6. Add beef and another ½ tsp pepper and continue cooking until no longer pink.
7. Add flour and stir until well-coated.
8. Add broth and wine and bring to a simmer, deglazing. Cook until slightly thickened, ~3 minutes.
9. Once simmering, stir in peas and noodles.
10. Cook until noodles reach desired tenderness. Depending on their packing fraction you may need to cover the pot for a time and/or stir often to make sure they all get a turn in the broth.
11. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream, mushrooms, and chives.

Got this recipe from an old friend on IRC. I had some trouble with lumpy miso but in the end it came together nicely and symbol and I both liked it, although Alex wasn't a fan

Miso-Glazed Eggplant with Cheese

Mahal

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant, cut into 1.5cm slices
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp miso paste
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• a generous amount of grated melty cheese, like mozzarella

Directions

1. Brush eggplant slices on one side with oil and arrange oil side down on a baking sheet.
2. Score exposed face and brush that with oil, too.
3. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.
4. While baking, whisk together miso, wine, mirin, and sugar.
5. Remove eggplant from oven, brush generously with miso glaze, and return to oven for another 15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven again, top with cheese, and return to oven for another 15-20 minutes, until cheese is melty and browned.
7. Serve.

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately. I guess stress'll do that. When I woke up after three fitfull hours of sleep the other day and couldn't seem to drift off again, I decided to get up and make pancakes instead. I'd been eyeing this recipe in Cook's Country for a while and, conveniently, it also used up the last of our malted milk powder. The Kidlet was, of course, delighted to wake up to fresh pancakes.

Malted Milk Pancakes with Nutella Maple Syrup

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2021

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 210g all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. malted milk powder
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 3/8 c. buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Nutella Maple Syrup

• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 1/4 c. Nutella

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, malted milk powder, and salt.
2. Sift in baking powder and baking soda.
3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, and butter.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined. Mixture should be a bit lumpy.
5. Let rest, undisturbed for 10 minutes. Do not stir again!
6. Heat tawa or griddle over medium-low heat.
7. Grease as needed and cook your pancakes using ~1/4 c. of batter for each one and cooking for 2-3 minutes per side.
8. Meanwhile, whisk the Nutella into the maple syrup and set aside.
9. Serve pancakes topped with syrup. Add butter and/or jam if desired.

I had planned to make some skillet-roasted green beans to go with dinner the other day. But that was before I'd realized that we were all out of beans. And corn. And bell peppers. And lettuce. And carrots. And cucumber. And cabbage. Basically, we were not particularly well-endowed in the vegetable department. So, after casting about for a bit, I settled on this creamed spinach. Not the healthiest of vegetable sides, but at least it'd give us something green. And it was incredibly tasty! So, it has that going for it.

Creamed Spinach

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2021

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 450g spinach (fresh baby or frozen chopped)
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• ~1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Soften half the butter (1 1/2 Tbsp.) and use a fork to mash the flour into it. Set aside.
2. Melt the remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp. of butter over medium heat.
3. Add the oinon and garlic and cook until softened (~4 minutes).
4. Add the spinach and salt and stir to coat. Cook until wilted (or thawed, as the case may be).
5. Add the cream and bring to a simmer.
6. Stir in the burre manié (that's the butter-flour paste made in step 1).
7. Cook until thickened (2-3 minutes).
8. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan, pepper, and nutmeg.

I grabbed a bunch of rosemary in the last produce basket we got so that I could make the rosemary-cream cheese sourdough. But, of course, there was quite a bit of rosemary left over, so I've been making other rosemary things in the meantime. This was the latest and, despite cutting the proofing slightly short, the bread is still lovely. Really phenomenal flavour! Would definitely recommend.

I tried one loaf with whole olives and one loaf with sliced olives. The whole olive loaf was much easier to handle and seemed to come out better overall. Neither one got super great oven spring, but I think that's more to do with the proofing and (lack of) lamination than anything to do with the olives. I got a bit lazy with this dough and didn't end up doing any kneading or stretch-and-folds beyond what was needed to work in the olives and rosemary. Honestly, the internal structure is surprisingly good considering that fact. But I'm sure doing some proper lamination of the dough would've helped it out even more.

The original recipe calls for liquid starter at 166% hydration, but then has you mixing a preferment at 102% hydration. Rather than trying to mix up a cup of the 166% starter and then adjusting the hydration again when mixing the preferment, I opted to just use my regular starter and adjust the amounts of flour and water called for to keep it at roughly 100% hydration. This felt simpler to me and seems to have yielded good results.

Rosemary-Olive Sourdough

Slightly adapted from Northwest Sourdough

Ingredients

Preferment

• 255g ripe/fed sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 205g water
• 195g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour

Dough

• 623g hard (strong/high grade/bread) white flour
• 17g coarse sea salt
• preferment
• 283g water
• 28g unsalted butter, softened
• 2-4 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary
• ~200g pitted kalamata olives

Directions

1. Mix the starter, water, and flour for the preferment, cover, and let it rest and ferment overnight.
2. The next day, combine the flour and salt, then pour in the preferment, water, and butter and mix well.
3. Knead for a few minutes to work all the flour in. The dough will be a bit stiff, but should come together.
4. Cover and allow to ferment at room temperature for 6-10 hours, stretching and folding every hour or to if possible.
5. Once the dough is nicely risen, divide it into two equal portions.
6. Press the dough portions flat and sprinkle each with 1-2 Tbsp. of rosemary and ~100g of olives.
7. Knead the dough to work in and distribute the olives and rosemary. If the dough becomes difficult to handle, cover and let rest for 10 minutes, then continue working.
8. Round the dough, cover and rest for 10 minutes.
9. Shape into loaves (preferably with a book fold for batards and similar shapes).
10. Place in bannetons, cover, and place in fridge overnight.
11. In the morning, remove from fridge and allow to proof at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
12. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
13. Grease a baking sheet and dust it with cornmeal.
14. Pour some boiling water into a pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
15. Turn loaves out onto prepared pan and slash as desired.
16. Bake loaves on middle rack oven over pan of boiling water for 20 minutes.
17. After 20 minutes, remove water pan and reduce oven temperature to 220°C (425°F) and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
18. Turn oven off and leave loaves in hot oven for 10 minutes.
19. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

Sweet Potato Fritters

The stated goal here was to create "a delicious mash-up of mashed sweet potatoes and sweet potato fries" and I think they did a really nice job of that. The outside was crispy, the inside was creamy and cheesey. Very nice overall. Not super healthy, but nice as an occasional treat.

Swee Potato Fritters with Cheddar and Chipotle

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2021

Ingredients

• 680g sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 5-6mm thick
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 3/4 c. grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 4 green onions, minced
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbsp. minced chipotles in adobo
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. oil, for frying
• sour cream, to serve
• lime wedges, to serve

Directions

1. Combine potatoes, water, and salt.
2. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until tender (~20 minutes).
3. Remove from heat and mash. Set aside to cool for at least 30 minutes or hold in fridge for up to 2 days.
4. Stir in cheese, flour, eggs, green onions, cilantro, chipotle, cumin, and pepper.
5. Heat oil over medium heat (aim for 180°C/350°F).
6. Scoop ~1/4 c. portions of potato mixture into the pan and press into flat patties with the back of a spoon.
7. Cook fritters 2-3 minutes per side. Be very careful when flipping; they are delicate!
8. Transfer to a wire rack to drain.
9. Repeat with remaining potato mixture.
10. Serve with sour cream and lime wedges.

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Variations

Sweet Potato Fritters with Feta and Dill

Ingredients

• 680g sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 5-6mm thick
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 4 green onions, minced
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh dill
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. oil, for frying
• sour cream, to serve
• lemon wedges, to serve

I've been wanting to try this recipe for ages. But I don't often have the wherewithal to make waffles in the morning. And between that and the fact that I kept forgetting the recipe existed, it's just been languishing in my bookmarks for ages. But I actually took some time to flip through bookmarked pages that weren't sourdough recipes last night -- shocking, I know! -- and rediscovered this recipe and figured maybe it was time.

Sadly, we were low on molasses, so the flavour wasn't quite as intense as it was meant to be. They were still quite tasty though. The Kidlet packed away three before she finally deicded she was full, so that seems like it was a success. I might try to put even more ginger into them next time (this change is reflected in the recipe below), but other than that, they were pretty great. Although I'm not sure how much the orange really came through, so I've listed that as optional. I think they'd still be great even without the orange.

Gingerbread Waffles

Slightly adapted from Vurrata and Bubbles

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 c. butter, melted
• 1/2 c. molasses
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• zest of 1 orange (optional)
• 4 large egg whites

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt and mix well, breaking up and lumps of sugar.
2. Sift in baking powder and baking soda and mix them in.
3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, egg yolks, butter, molasses, vanilla extract, and orange zest (if using).
4. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks.
5. Stir dry ingredients into wet.¹
6. Get your waffle iron preheating.
7. Add ~1/3 of the egg whites to the batter and stir them in. (Don't worry about deflating them at this point, we're just loosening the batter.)
8. Add half the remaining egg whites and gently fold them in.
9. Add the last portion of egg whites and fold them in.
10. Scoop portions of batter into your waffle maker and cook as directed.
11. Serve waffles with custard and/or maple syrup and/or ginger syrup and/or whipped cream.

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¹ I actually did this backwards and stirred wet ingredients into dry. Not sure how much of a difference it makes. ^Back