Bread Recipe and Food Insight from Thoreau

In Walden Henry David Thoreau writes how he baked bread from a mixture of rye and “Indian meal” (I assume that this would be cornmeal), according to an old Latin recipe from Marcus Porcius Cato, without yeast or leavening:

"Panem depsticium sic facito. Manus mortariumque bene lavato. Farinam in mortarium indito, aquae paulatim addito, subigitoque pulchre. Ubi bene subegeris, defingito, coquitoque sub testu." Which I take to mean, -- "Make kneaded bread thus. Wash your hands and trough well. Put the meal into the trough, add water gradually, and knead it thoroughly. When you have kneaded it well, mould it, and bake it under a cover," that is, in a baking kettle.

Even back then, grains were fed to farm animals and farmers bought their grains:

Every New Englander might easily raise all his own breadstuffs in this land of rye and Indian corn, and not depend on distant and fluctuating markets for them. Yet so far are we from simplicity and independence that, in Concord, fresh and sweet meal is rarely sold in the shops, and hominy and corn in a still coarser form are hardly used by any. For the most part the farmer gives to his cattle and hogs the grain of his own producing, and buys flour, which is at least no more wholesome, at a greater cost, at the store.
Photo by pablo.sanchez

Vegan Pesto made with bärlauch, radish greens, and ancho chile

Last night I improvised a pesto. Improvisations are great ways to learn what works and what doesn’t.

Previously, I had made a vegan pesto inspired by delicious days’ radish green pesto. To radish greens, I added wild garlic or bear’s-paw garlic (what Germans call bärlauch), sunflower seeds, lemon juice and zest, salt, and olive oil. The radish greens give a peppery bite and a bright green to the pesto. Spring spreadable on bread!

Since I had some dried ancho chile peppers from my December trip to Mexico, I thought last night that they might be a good replacement for sun-dried tomatoes, so I added an entire rehydrated ancho chile to my pesto. Normally, smoky and sour and hot, the chile was perhaps not the best substitute for sun-dried tomatoes. In fact, it fairly overpowered the delicate spiciness of the radish greens and the delicate garlic flavor of the bear’s-paw garlic.

The pesto was still delicious last night on pumpkin seed bread under radish slices and tempeh, but restraint with the chile would work better next time.

Simple, Flexible Salad Recipe

Photo by LollyKnit

The photo above is for a gorgeous fruit salad of watermelon + mint + raspberry with honey + lime juice as the dressing. I can't wait for summer to indulge!

Almost every weekday, I eat a vegetable-based salad for lunch. I don't like leaf lettuces unless they are ultra-fresh, so I mainly use vegetables and fruits.

Here is my basic salad recipe:

Dressing (olive/flax/sesame oil + lemon juice/cider vinegar + mustard)
Aromatic (like ginger, scallion, shallots, garlic, onions)
Green (like spinach, kale, kohlrabi tops, cucumber, zucchini)
Colorful Vegetable (bell pepper, tomato, carrot)
Protein (like nuts/seeds, tofu, boiled egg, cheese, beans)
Herbs
Fruit, fresh or dried
salt + pepper


I usually start with the dressing at the bottom of the bowl, then I add the aromatic so it has time to infuse the salad dressing.

Next I try to add the green so that it has enough time to soak up the oil and become tender, especially zucchini. If zucchini doesn't soak up enough oil, it can be bitter.

I try to make my salads colorful and have a variety of flavors, like sweet and bitter with apples + daikon radishes together or fennel + orange.

If I want extra texture, I add mushrooms or avocados to contrast all the crunchy raw vegetables.

Vegan Cashew-based Truffles

Yesterday I made vegan truffles with chocolate and cashew 'milk' from this recipe. To make cashew milk, blend equal amounts cashew and water. To that I added 1.5x of melted chocolate.

After letting the ganache sit in the fridge for two hours, I started pushing them into little balls. I rolled most of them in cocoa, but some in chili + salt, fresh basil, and fresh rosemary. You can see in the photograph above a lone rosemary-covered truffle sitting in the middle.

After making about 50 truffles, I put them in the fridge to set.

Everyone loves chocolates, including my guests. My guests claimed eating the rosemary-covered truffles was like 'eating grass...but good-tasting grass'.



Above is a close-up on my basil-covered truffles. The basil didn't taste so much like basil, which makes me wonder if I should repeat it with dried basil or else infuse the chocolate with basil oil in the ganache itself.

As for the taste, it was delicious! I worried that the truffles would be a bit grainy because I didn't blend the cashews completely smoothly, but it was perfect. If anything, the truffles were a bit soft. I would love for them to have a bit more structure.