I was all excited and did the prep-work for the soup the night before; cutting all the stuff and putting it in the crockpot so I could just take it from the fridge and set it up to cook the next morning.
On a mostly related side note, I've recently decided that I DO NOT love onions.. seriously. It's not that I hate the taste or anything, I actually like the added flavor, it's just that every time I chop one up my eyes burn like crazy and I end up crying huge, rolling tears the whole time. I've tried everything to stop it; cutting them under running water, chewing gum, putting them in the fridge first, cutting the root last... nothing helps. Ah well.. they are neccessary for making tasty potato soup, so I suffered through it, sniffles, rolling tears and all ... with only slight snickerings from the other room.
Since the soup was bubbling away when I got home from work, filling the house with a delicious aroma, I set to work right away on the dinner rolls. I'm reasonably sure that my yeast was ok, but I think that the dough got too hot when I left them sit and rise for the hour.....
here they are as they're starting to rise..Meanwhile, the soup had cooked its 8 hours and so I added the rest of the ingredients.. however, I misread the recipe and put in (sweetened) condensed milk instead of evaporated milk... Whoops. Potato soup that is sweet is just plain strange.
And the rolls, well, they never did get much bigger than when I started them to rise and, in the end, we had sorta little, very dense dinner rolls...
I wouldn't say it was a complete flop... the rolls are pretty tasty, even if a little heavy and the sweet soup tasted better the second day.. hehe.
So, perhaps I haven't quite reached the level of "Gourmet Chef", but that doesn't stop me from experimenting with new and exciting things, and when all else fails, my Snickerdoodles are always amazing.
Up on this week's menu: Chicken Tikka Masala.
Wish me luck.
4 comments:
I'm with you on the onions bit. I can't seem to chop them without having the same thing happen to me. So in my wanderings of various cooking spices I happened upon dried onion flakes, which I have used multiple times and they work great! They add the flavor that has been missing from the lack of onions without overpowering the house, the food, and...well, me! They are in the spice section at any local grocery store. Try those and see if they work the same for you. :) I've been using about a tablespoon of dried onion flakes in place of a small onion in my recipes and then I'll also throw in a dash or two of onion powder to help round it out. :) I love cooking!!
Oooh.. now that's not a half bad idea!! Thanks :)
I think that you can get dried onion flakes from the cannery too, so they'd not be too expensive.
To test your yeast, put a bit in some warm water with a bit of sugar & see what happens in 10 minutes. If it gets foamy, you're good to go. It actually sounds like there was either not enough yeast or it was not cold enough. Or, if your water was a bit too hot when you put the yeast in it could have killed the yeast. If you have a thermometer, you need it right around 100F. But that's pretty fussy. Get the water to about skin temp. Lukewarm is good. If it's warm enough to feel hot to your skin, then it's too warm. And if it's too cold the yeast won't rise well either. Good luck!
whew.. bread is complicated!! I suppose I should play with it more often.... but it's just so time consuming! :)
Thanks for the tips though.. next time I'll have to be more attentive :)
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