Make Your Own Sweet and Sour Sauce

photo courtesy of Muy Yum

3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar or rice vinegar
2/3 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 TBS dry sherry or mirin (optional)
1 TBS ketchup
2 TBS corn starch

Preparation:
In a small bowl, mix the corn starch with a little of the water to create a 'slurry.' Set aside.

In a sauce pan, combine all ingredients except the corn starch slurry. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.

Add corn starch mixture, continuing to stir. Return mixture to a boil. Sauce should thicken quickly.

Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before serving.  Good as a dip or over fish, chicken, beef, rice, vegetables, or stirfry.

Store in an air tight container or glass jar in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Make Your Own Ginger Ale

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 - 2 TBS freshly grated ginger root
Juice of one lemon
1/8-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
7 1/2 cups filtered water

1 clean, empty 2 liter bottle (plastic, not glass)
a funnel
Cheese cloth or mesh strainer

Preparation:

*If you've made candied ginger, you can use the reserved liquid, skipping ahead to Making the Soda.
*Also, before you juice the lemon, go ahead and zest it, saving the lemon zest in plastic wrap and freezing it for future recipes. It will stay good 2-3 months in the freezer.

Making the Syrup:

1. Peel the ginger root and grate it on the finest setting. If you don't have a grater, then chop the peeled ginger root as finely as you can.
2. In a saucepan, combine sugar, ginger root, and 1/2 cup of the water over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Cover and remove from heat. Allow to steep for about an hour.
3. When cooled, strain the syrup through a fine mesh or cheese cloth to remove the ginger bits.

Making the Soda:

1. Using the funnel, add the syrup to the clean 2 litre bottle.
2. Add lemon juice, yeast, and remaining water.
3. Cap the bottle and shake it gently to mix the ingredients.
4. Allow the bottle to sit out at room temperature for 48 hours. 
5. At the two-day mark, check to make sure the Ginger ale has reached the desired carbonation, then refrigerate. Open the bottle each day to ensure excess carbonation is released. 
6. Store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Sourdough Bread Recipe

There are plenty of sourdough recipes out there. This one is from King Arthur brand flour:


1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp yeast
1 TBS sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 cups All-Purpose Flour

Preparation:

Combine all of the ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough.

Allow the dough to rise, in a covered bowl, until it's doubled in size, about 90 minutes.

Gently divide the dough in half; it'll deflate somewhat.

Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves; or, for longer loaves, two 10" to 11" logs. Place the loaves on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 1 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.

Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.

Make two fairly deep diagonal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.

Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's a very deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Plain Scones

2 cups flour
1 TBS butter
1 cup milk
1 TBS sugar
1/3 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk (to brush on the tops of the scones)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 425ºF. Grease a cookie sheet and set aside.

If you have a sifter or a fine mesh sieve, sift dry ingredients into a bowl.  Add butter, and with fingers, crumble and mix into dry ingredients. Make a little well in the flour mixture and pour in the milk.

With a fork, stir the flour mixture and milk together until dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Press the dough into a round or square shape with your fingers, flattening it until it is 1 to 2 inches thick.

Cut the dough into round, square, or triangular shapes. If there's leftover dough, fold it over on itself and press it with your fingers again, flattening to no less than 1 inch thick. Cut the dough into desired shape.

Place on a grease baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with a little extra milk. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 425ºF.

Serve warm with butter or jam.  If there are leftovers, store in the freezer - they should stay good for up to two months.

Homemade Pita Bread

1 1/8 cup warm water
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 TBS. vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

Preparation:
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside and allow to rise until dough is double in size.

Preheat oven to 500º F.

Turn dough out onto floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope.

Divide dough into eight pieces. Roll each into a small 6-7 inch circles.  Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. Cover dough with a towel and let it rise for 30 minutes, until slightly puffy.

Dampen two kitchen towels and set aside.

Place pita rounds on a wire wrack, pizza stone, or baking sheet and put in oven. Bake 4-5 minutes.  Remove from oven and immediately put pitas between two damp towels until soft.

Serve warm. Good with hummus or served with butter and cinnamon sugar.

Store in freezer for 1-2 months.

Lemon Ginger Scones

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces

1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped into small pieces

Zest of 1 large lemon

2/3 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in middle of oven. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.  Stir in the chopped crystallized ginger and lemon zest. Add the buttermilk to the flour mixture and stir just until the dough comes together. If you don't have buttermilk, use 2/3 cup milk with a Tablespoon vinegar. Do not over mix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches round and about 11/2 inches thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 4 pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with a little cream. 

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 8 scones.

Lemon Curd

Ingredients

3 large eggs

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons) (do not use the bottled lemon juice)

4 TBS unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 TBS lemon zest, chopped

Instructions:

Simmer water in a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler, simmer water in a sauce pan and place a metal or glass bowl on top of it. 

Whisk together the sugar and lemon juice until blended. 

Whisk in one egg at a time. 

Cook, stirring slowly and constantly for 10 minutes to prevent curdling. Mixture will become thick like pudding. 

Remove from heat and whisk butter into the mixture until the butter has melted. 

Add the lemon zest and let cool. The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately and refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Serve with scones, biscuits, or on pancakes.

Makes 1 1/2 cups.

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