The Mock Turtle

I want those cheese biscuits!

Dosa recipe is in a book downstairs, I'll take a photo shortly (and hope I can post it as having bother with another) as the same one doesn't seem to be online.

For paneer - heat whole milk to 90C, stirring with a wooden spoon, add white vinegar or lemon juice (about 20-25 ml per 1 litre). Stir it; it should split the milk and start to form curds. Take off the heat once the action has started, stir for a bit while it forms properly, and use a slotted spoon to place the curds in a sieve/colander lined with a muslin over a bowl to roughly drain. Add some salt. Then wrap the muslin around the curd, and press into the shape of your choosing, wedge a tin of something on top to press (or between plates, or whatever you have), and leave it (still draining) until it feels firm, about an hour or two.

A litre of milk makes just about enough for two people when it's in a dish with other things.

The paneer technique is basically cottage cheese, pressed. So you can use the same technique to make "ricotta" (purists will disagree) - for this try adding some cream to the milk as you heat it, and some rosemary/bay/salt/pepper to infuse into it (obv take out when you drain), and leave it crumbly. If you want a creamy cheese you can then add back in some whey or some cream and whip it in a food processor, for something more like a thick cream cheese texture.

Don't throw the whey out either. It's both mildly acidic and mildly sweet at the same time and can be used in all sorts of things, like the liquid in bread making, as a poaching liquid, as a basis for sauces (I quickly made a sauce out of homemade veg stock and whey, emulsified with a bit of butter, the other day and it was great). I'm still experimenting with the best things to do with it, though.

Thank you. I love paneer.

The homemade stuff is much nicer than the bought ones I've had (although I've never gone out of my way to buy nice stuff) so hope you like it.

I used my cultured buttermilk leftover from making butter to marinate some fish (other ingredients were in the marinade too) which was then deep fried, like southern fried chicken (from the Whole Fish cookbook). I was dubious about it as it left the marinade on so long I thought the fish might be cured and tough, but the texture was really lovely, as was the flavour (slightly too strong, actually, I will adjust in future). It transformed a piece of ling, which isn't my favourite, into something much nicer. We had it with my sourdough (toasted) and some sauces based on my own cultured sour cream (also some coleslaw) so I felt particularly smug and also a bit sisterwife.

I finally bit the bullet and tried baking in a Dutch oven. The result was - although I say so myself - pretty spectacular! I'm a convert.

In fact, the holes weren't quite as uniform as this photo makes them out to be. As I sliced further in, the holes seemed to become more concentrated towards the bottom of the loaf - the reverse of what had been happening without the Dutch oven, where huge holes tended to develop just under the crust, at the top. I also tried, for the first time, a slow prove, overnight, in the fridge, but I didn't have enough time before work to let the loaf come up to room temp before baking. The coldness of the loaf did help me to get a nice score pattern and deliver it into the hot Dutch oven without losing too much of the shape, but it may also have impacted on the distribution of air bubbles. What do you think?

That looks fabulous. I don't let my dough come to room temp before popping it in the Dutch oven and baking. I think it shocks it into rising really well.

It’s not sourdough as my starter (Bernard) is currently hibernating in the freezer, but I just made this Irish soda bread which smells amazing. I want to eat great chunks of it

That looks fabulous, Arrietty!

My starter is bubbling away nicely and five days old so I've started a leaven with some of it and put the bulk of the starter in the fridge.

Everything looks amazing on here except mine. It’s frothy and nicely sour smelling but overnight proving is still too cold (temp can be 10/11 on a cold night like last night) so I made this -tasty- discus.

The thing I love about sourdough is that even when it doesn't work, it still tastes good!

My loaf this week didn't have good holes and didn't rise as much but it was still tasty. I'm going to start another today to bake tomorrow as my parents are coming.

Really pleased with today's!

That looks so good, PD!

I’ve been off bread baking for a while because Alex got fixed braces and can’t eat crusty bread any more He loves it too so it seems really mean to make it. I’m going to try and master soft rolls instead.

It does look amazing especially when I consider my discus.

Good luck on your soft roll adventures, Edith.

I think soft bread is remarkably difficult to master so good luck Edith, please keep us posted on how it goes.

J wants us to make that Japanese milk bread that's super-soft but it looks like a fair bit of work.

That sourdough loaf is a triumph, pd.

I'm using a new shaping method, which I think helped. It's in this video at 15mins https://youtu.be/BJEHsvW2J6M

I also allowed more time for the flour, water and starter to just sit after mixing - it was an hour and fifteen minutes. Then I kneaded in the salt and started the stretch and rest process (3 stretches over 2 hours). Then shaped and then proved in the basket in the fridge over night. Baked straight from the fridge in the Dutch oven.

Ooh, that's very similar to the Tartine method but I have to work that one out from photos and descriptions and a video is much clearer.

Gorgeous bread on this page!

I had success with a soft/enriched bread a few months back but it's the only time I've done it so god only knows if I could repeat that.

I had a massive craving for a Japanese style egg sandwich after seeing something or other about them the other day (that sounds twatty, but I had a lifelong hatred of egg sandwiches until I had one from my bakery in Japan and it was amazing, and now I like all egg sandwiches, but I have a special place in my heart for the milk bread/whipped Kewpie egg filling type and I don't think I've had one for 20 years) so the milk bread idea is tempting.

I was out at the weekend and a lot this week so not sure when/if I'll get round to a loaf; maybe in time for the weekend.

Small note in case anyone else has this problem: my starter's got too acidic. The things I'm making from the discard taste too sour and the texture of the crumpets is wrong (this might not be connected, but it's the only obvious thing that's changed from last week when they were just right). And it's not looking like it did, it's bubbly but looks weaker and not as strong as it rises, and it's producing the brown liquid regularly. .

It seems like it's two things: one, it's been starved. I've not discarded enough starter recently so what I'm feeding it isn't enough - it's far from dead but it's producing acetic acid more than lactic acid so it tastes too sour for me. So I've dumped out all but a tablespoon or so and started feeding it twice its volume at least once a day (it's on the counter) until it recovers.

The other thing that apparently makes it favour acetic over lactic is that it's too cold - I'm not keeping it in the fridge but the kitchen is very cold, so I'm trying to find ways to keep it a bit warmer.

If anyone knows more about this than I've managed to glean this afternoon, I'm all ears.

Yeah mine was like that last week a bit. The smell was not so good. You definitely need to be feeding it at the right ratio. I do 100% hydration so if my starter is 100g, I feed with 50g flour and 50g water. If you do less than that it'll be hungry. It should get back on track pretty quickly though with a couple of decent feeds.