Skip to: Site menu | Main content

Adi's Kitchen


Adi's Bright ideas;-

Onions
Peel a large batch of onions, the outer skins an be discarded immediately for compost, but make a stock from the inner skins before discarding by bringing very slowly to the boil over a low heat do not over boil or the stock will become bitter and too dark. The stock can be used in soups or stews.
Cook the chopped onions gently in a little olive oil and keep in a fridge box until needed.
The advantage is that the sad-story-bit of onion prep is over with in one sitting; it is the fiddly irritating bit of cooking and I do like to get it out of the way.
 
Garlic
Peel a load of garlic bulbs, maybe 6, as a meditation or while listening to a good radio play; blend with olive oil and store in small wider necked bottles in the freezer.
Make a stock from the skins by bringing very slowly to the boil over a low heat.
I have been told that the bottled will break in the freezer as the contents expand. This has never happened I expect it is because the medium is oil not water.
 
Ginger
Scrub about half a kilo of ginger root, peel as a meditation and make a stock from the peel or be really lazy and don’t bother…
Slice / grate the ginger very finely and pack in many little cling film packets, store in reused margarine tubs in the freezer until needed.
 
Make your own bread mix!
You can weigh out 7 or so batches with a 2 kg bag of coarse ground flour, pack them in recycled freezer bags and put them in the press. I keep mine clearly marked so as not to confuse them with the gluten free flours and keep them in a different press.
It takes very little time to add in the buttermilk and the loaf bakes while I walk the dogs. I do two at a time.
In John’s family the loaf is wrapped in a very damp tea towel after it comes out of the oven… the heat of the bread dries the towel and gives a loaf without a hard crust that stays fresh for a long time.
The batches can be varied with the use of different flours as you have them such as
Oat flour
Spelt flour
Rye flour
Buckwheat flour
Or some Okara (a by product from making Soya milk) can be used with, or instead of the buttermilk.
 
Roasted seeds
After making bread use the cooling oven to roast some seeds such as sesame, sunflower or pumpkin – just spread a thin layer of seeds on a baking tray and leave them in the oven as it cools.
Add roasted seeds to salads – sometimes a little Tamari mixed into the roasted seeds makes them even nicer.

Previous page: Part 6; Tri     Next page: Flourless Chocolate Cake