postbear
daikon (and apple) bread
buying a daikon always ends in a minor problem for me - after eating or using all i need of it and not really wanting any more, there remains a good chunk of it in my fridge, slowly turning to rubber. i've pickled it and tossed it in with other roots to roast in the oven, but this time i decided it was going to stand in for the fruit in a banana bread (my usual recipe here).
after grating the uncooked daikon i saw i needed to add in a little filler, and though i had bananas ready to go, i thought apple would pair better with radish. not much was needed, maybe 3/4 of one apple, but it worked. i was going to use more of a carrot cake recipe base for it since they both use raw, shredded vegetables, but i need to modify that more to drop the fat again, and they're really not alien recipes. the alterations i made were small - not having time to drain the daikon after grating, i added a touch more flour and upped the heat five degrees to combat the wetness. i also thought the traditional spicing might be off, so i went with some anise, about 1/2 the usual cinnamon, and a cardamom-heavy garam masala (that was light on cinnamon, for obvious reasons). i'd meant to add shredded coconut as well, but left it to the side at the last minute - it can go in next time, since this result was positive.
the loaf definitely tastes of daikon, and is sweet despite my limiting the sugar. i held off slightly on the vanilla as well, but still kept about 2/3 of the usual. after 60 minutes in the oven the loaf was still uncooked on the inside, so it got another ten minutes in the oven, albeit back on 350° f, along with the usual rest in the hot but cooling oven after cutting the heat. that gave the cake some colour as well, it being a bit pale initially.
like the beet and banana bread and zucchini loaves, this would easily fool anyone who didn't want to know his or her cake was not all fruit and sugar, and that terror vegetables had insinuated their way aboard, much like vampires or libertarians.
in other cookery news, i've begun using 1/3 - 1/2 durum atta flour in my loaves, for no reason other than huge bags of it are stupidly cheap right now. since the quality of the flours varies, i experimented at first with a 1/3 substitution (where i was normally using 1/2 standard white all-purpose flour and 1/2 whole wheat). the atta pretty much mimics the whole wheat in gluten content, i've noticed, and i've not had any issue with it - i always sift the dry ingredients, of course, and in feel, when i pick up a handful, it is perhaps a bit more dense. at about 1/3 the price of all-purpose, i'm a convert (and now i get to make chapati). this week i also bought a pressure cooker and it's been used and cleaned a few times. the first round of chick peas went into hummous and a soup, and the second became more hummous, though this one more rustic. i had my food mill out to make applesauce and mashed potatoes, and instead of griming up the blender, i ran the chick peas through the mill. the hummous has a distinctly different quality, as it's airier, lighter than the blender mud. it takes more effort, of course, but using a food mill is a lot more entertaining and doesn't annoy neighbours and cats with a high-pitched buzz. blending the tahini in with the lemon juice, roasted garlic and oil before adding the milled peas and other ingredients was a good move, as there was no clumping or loss of lightness.
daikon (and apple) bread
buying a daikon always ends in a minor problem for me - after eating or using all i need of it and not really wanting any more, there remains a good chunk of it in my fridge, slowly turning to rubber. i've pickled it and tossed it in with other roots to roast in the oven, but this time i decided it was going to stand in for the fruit in a banana bread (my usual recipe here).
after grating the uncooked daikon i saw i needed to add in a little filler, and though i had bananas ready to go, i thought apple would pair better with radish. not much was needed, maybe 3/4 of one apple, but it worked. i was going to use more of a carrot cake recipe base for it since they both use raw, shredded vegetables, but i need to modify that more to drop the fat again, and they're really not alien recipes. the alterations i made were small - not having time to drain the daikon after grating, i added a touch more flour and upped the heat five degrees to combat the wetness. i also thought the traditional spicing might be off, so i went with some anise, about 1/2 the usual cinnamon, and a cardamom-heavy garam masala (that was light on cinnamon, for obvious reasons). i'd meant to add shredded coconut as well, but left it to the side at the last minute - it can go in next time, since this result was positive.
the loaf definitely tastes of daikon, and is sweet despite my limiting the sugar. i held off slightly on the vanilla as well, but still kept about 2/3 of the usual. after 60 minutes in the oven the loaf was still uncooked on the inside, so it got another ten minutes in the oven, albeit back on 350° f, along with the usual rest in the hot but cooling oven after cutting the heat. that gave the cake some colour as well, it being a bit pale initially.
like the beet and banana bread and zucchini loaves, this would easily fool anyone who didn't want to know his or her cake was not all fruit and sugar, and that terror vegetables had insinuated their way aboard, much like vampires or libertarians.
in other cookery news, i've begun using 1/3 - 1/2 durum atta flour in my loaves, for no reason other than huge bags of it are stupidly cheap right now. since the quality of the flours varies, i experimented at first with a 1/3 substitution (where i was normally using 1/2 standard white all-purpose flour and 1/2 whole wheat). the atta pretty much mimics the whole wheat in gluten content, i've noticed, and i've not had any issue with it - i always sift the dry ingredients, of course, and in feel, when i pick up a handful, it is perhaps a bit more dense. at about 1/3 the price of all-purpose, i'm a convert (and now i get to make chapati). this week i also bought a pressure cooker and it's been used and cleaned a few times. the first round of chick peas went into hummous and a soup, and the second became more hummous, though this one more rustic. i had my food mill out to make applesauce and mashed potatoes, and instead of griming up the blender, i ran the chick peas through the mill. the hummous has a distinctly different quality, as it's airier, lighter than the blender mud. it takes more effort, of course, but using a food mill is a lot more entertaining and doesn't annoy neighbours and cats with a high-pitched buzz. blending the tahini in with the lemon juice, roasted garlic and oil before adding the milled peas and other ingredients was a good move, as there was no clumping or loss of lightness.