Moka Pot Iced Coffee

Moka pots get their name from the Yemeni city Mocha (I always think of chocolate and coffee when I think Mocha but I guess that's the Westerner in me; maybe I should research the origin of THAT mocha.) It was designed by Luigi di Ponti in 1933 who was inspired by the washing machines of the time believe it or not. It was then mass produced by engineer Alfonso Bialetti (and this is the name generally attached to modern moka pots. They are typically made of aluminum but stainless steel varieties exist. Other varieties also stray from the traditional octagonal shape to rounder and sleeker versions.

Moka pots brew a different kind of coffee. The brew created is somewhere between coffee and espresso. The numbers I've found say it is 2-3 times as strong as coffee where espresso is 5-8 times as strong. Take that as you will as it’s clearly not an exact science. The brew is also, obviously, made in a different way, in fact it is quite the opposite to drip (or really any other brewing method) coffee. The water moves up through the grounds rather than allowing gravity to do the work. This means that there are no additional filters making it a low waste option and also a purer tasting coffee.

Moka pots and coffee are viewed as culturally significant in Italy (and elsewhere.) Coffee and coffeehouses were the beginning of this with coffee houses being the birthplace of many ideological and political movements in Europe including women’s coffee consumption being associated with the move to emancipation. The moka pot came along and facilitated the switch to espresso (or something similar) being a home drink rather than something you only go out for. This happened to coincide with an economic downturn in 1930’s Italy and so was kind of a big deal. Italians were able to keep coffee as an important part of their lives even though finances were taking a hit.

So now on to how to moka pot and one of my favourite ways to serve it.

Ingredients

Coffee grounds, medium to fine grind
Water
Ice

optional
To taste, Sugar
To taste, Milk, cream or dairy substitute of choice

Tools

Moka Pot
Kettle or pot
Spoon
Storage vessel: pitcher or jar
Drinking vessel (s)

Optional
Shaker

Directions

There are a few options here that I want to talk about quickly. If you want to be able to serve this at different sweetnesses I suggest a simple syrup and not sweetening the hot coffee. You can add as little or as much sugar or dairy product as you like to fit your tastes. You can pour hot coffee over ice but keep in mind this will weaken the coffee flavour, I like best to chill then pour over or shake with ice.

Okay, we’re going to start by brewing our coffee. To do this we want to boil water in a kettle (you can also use regular water in the bottom of your moka pot but it will take longer and you will be more likely to brew a very bitter coffee.)

Fill the bottom of your moka pot to the line, not under, not over, just to it. This is important for taste as well as safety! Fill the grounds cup to the top, smooth it and make sure the edges are clean. Reassemble your pot and place over medium heat on the stove.

The water will heat and start coming out of the spout. The user manual says to keep the lid closed but other tutorials say to keep it open so you know when it's done brewing. So my suggestion is do it with the lid closed and choose the other option at your own risk. If keeping it closed you will need to use your ears for when it is done.

At this point you have moka pot coffee. You can serve this as you would a strong cup of coffee/ a weak espresso OR you can make a delicious iced coffee with it. As I said before you can pour this over ice as is but it will water the coffee down with the melted ice. If you choose to do this I would go for an Americano style iced coffee. I prefer to chill my brew in the fridge and then shake with ice.

But first, are you sweetening with sugar or simple syrup? If using sugar it is necessary to do this while your coffee is still hot or the sugar will not dissolve! I go back and forth on this but today I will sweeten it while the coffee is hot by stirring in sugar before popping my jar in the fridge.

When the coffee has cooled to at least room temperature, the colder the better, I will begin building my drink. First I will add ice to my drinking vessel (a clear glass is best for the aesthetic.) I will then add ice to a cocktail shaker, pour coffee over it and shake until it's too cold to touch. Strain this cold coffee over the ice in my cup and top with my dairy product. If this works right you will get a nice layered affect for Instagram pictures!
 

 
 

Stir and consume!

Serving

You serve it as a cold drink. I generally don't serve this with anything beside the sunshine! A fun addition though could be flavoured syrups, honey or maple syrup instead of sugar! Make it mocha moka with chocolate. Try cinnamon, vanilla, chai or even get really wild with mint or fruit! If you're interested in making your own syrups let me know and I’ll do a mini post on simple syrups and how to flavour them!

Short and Gritty

1. Boil water
2. Fill grounds cup, level, do not tamp
3. Pour water to fill line, not below, not above
4. Reassemble moka pot and place on medium heat
5. Listen for a fizzing sounds, it means its done
6. Sweeten, chill, serve

Ingredient Spotlight: Coffee Beans

“Coffee - the favourite drink of the civilized world.”

About

Scientific Name: coffea arabica
Cultivation: cultivation of coffee began on the Arabian peninsula by the 15th century. By the 16th century it had spread to Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. We can follow the cultivation through the years but the coolest part is that most plants now can be traced back to a gifted seedling from the mayor of Amsterdam to King Louis XIV in 1714. The king planted this seedling in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. Later, in 1723, a seedling was obtained from this plant and sent to Martinique, an island in the east Caribbean Sea. A young naval officer by the name of Gabriel de Clieu was the one assigned to this project and he was successful despite the horrendous weather, a saboteur and a pirate attack. By the end of the century coffee had become one of the world’s most profitable exports and after crude oil it is the most sought after commodity worldwide. Brazil claims more than 10 billion coffee plants and takes home crown as the largest producer of coffee in the world today.

More
There are two origin stories for the first human consumption of coffee both shrouded in mystery as they are stories passed down by word of mouth. The first tells of a goat herder named Khaldi from the Ethiopian plateau. His goats, after eating some bright red berries, were full of energy bouncing around and playing with no end to their energy in sight. They wouldn't sleep that night. He took these berries to the abbot of the local monastery and the monks there created a beverage out of them that helped them stay awake to pray through the night.

The second story is about a man, Mahomet, who received a dark drink from the Arch Angel Gabriel and went on to take 40 nights off of their horses (in battle) and satisfy 40 women in the same day. Talk about a stimulant!

The first written evidence of coffee comes from the Persian physician Razi (or Rhazes) who classified it as medicine rather than purely food or drink.

Coffee caught on as a replacement to other drinks, specifically alcohol, and took on the name Wine of Arabia or khave. The modern coffee house stems from this as coffee houses began to spring up all over the place following the coffee plants and popularity itself. The first documented one shows up in 1554 in Constantinople (Istanbul.) Coffee houses spread starting with Venice in 1645, England in 1650, France in 1672 and Boston in 1676 (and we’ll come back to both Venice and Boston.) Although coffee was enjoyed at home it was seen very much as a social drink as well. Similarly to our modern coffee houses (and events we now call coffee houses whether held at one or not) these places had entertainment and intellectual conversation as main tenets. They became known as Schools of the Wise and Penny universities as they spread from the Middle East to Europe and across the ocean.

So, Venice. In 1615 a controversy began as some of the locals, most specifically some of the clergymen wanted to bitter drink condemned over fear and suspicion calling it the, “invention of Satan.” The Pope at the time, Pope Clement VIII, decided to taste the beverage before making any rash decisions. He found it satisfying and gave it approval stating, “This Satan’s drink is so delicious. It would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We should cheat the devil by baptizing it.” And so he did, and with his blessing any negative spirits attached to the drink vanished and so the people could safely drink it.

And now Boston. Though that coffee house opened in Boston and some others may have followed, tea stayed the drink of choice for many Americans. In 1773 however King George III imposed a heavy tax on tea and there was a revolt. We know it today as the Boston Tea Party and it forever changed the drinking preferences in America. The quote at the beginning of this page from Thomas Jefferson is in reference to this, “Coffee - the favourite drink of the civilized world.”

Magical

Correspondences: Mars. Masculine/Yang. Fire, Earth and Air (arguably water when made into a beverage.) Arch Angel Gabriel, Chango. Root and Sacral Chakras.

Energy boost, grounding, happiness, luck, lust, romance, curse removal, dispel ghosts, hex removal, divination, nightmare protection, chakra booster, blockage removal, boost and speed up spell

How to use: as an offering, in sachets, divination of grounds like tea leaves, aromatherapy, kitchen witchery, body scrub, spell jars, bathing, cleansing

Mundane
Health

Another grocery list incoming of all the possible health benefits of coffee. Some of these are backed up with a lot of research and others not as much as per usual so take everything with the idea that you should look into it yourself and just use this as a jumping off point. An interesting thing to note is that a lot of this research shows results specific to women and that is a rarity in research so that's certainly a point to rejoice!

In women (afab is what I assume they mean by this): 26% less likely to develop colorectal cancer (with caff or decaf;) protection against Alzheiemer's (with 2 cups per day;) lowered risk of stroke (with one cup per day;) and less than 200gm of caffeine (or about 12 ounces) of coffee seems to be safe for those that are pregnant. With 4 cups of coffee per day (keep in mind that a lot of coffee and in turn a lot of caffeine) the risk of depression drops by 20%.

On to the stuff for everyone: Dark roast coffee may decrease the naturally occurring breakage of DNA strands meaning that it may help in preventing the formation of tumors and cancer; coffee improves general brain function and can be linked to some specifics as well including memory, mood, vigilance, energy and reaction times; caffeine (the stimulant part of coffee) may boost your metabolic rate (by 3 - 11%) and increase fat burning (by 10% for obese people and 29% for lean people and varying degrees in between;) these contributing factors can obviously lead to improved physical performance (11 - 12% on average; )may help prevent coronary heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and Parkinson's Disease (as well as help them control their movement.) Both regular and decaf may have a protective effect on your liver. From that same study (just the one study which is an important piece of information) above, 4 cups of coffee were shown to decrease likeliness of suicide by 53%.

In the Kitchen

We think of coffee beans being used as a beverage more often than not but coffee is great for adding or accentuating flavours. The most common flavour we see paired with coffee for an added kick is chocolate but believe it or not coffee can also add a new layer to more savoury dishes as well; rubs and marinades, vinaigrettes and chili can all be given a new and exciting life with a little coffee.

More

Can be used as an exfoliant in body scrubs ( best not used on the face or sensitive skin.)
It smells nice. Try putting it in a bowl surrounding a candle for a gentle coffee scent.

Mashed Potatoes - the Potato Saving Recipe

Origin

We talked on Thursday about how the French in particular had a very bad view of potatoes to the point of bringing about a law banning them for human consumption in 1748 and were thought to be a cause of leprosy! Potatoes however were still cultivated and used for animal fodder.

This changed for France during the 7 years war (1756 and 1763) and ironically it was a French man, specifically Antoine-Augustin Parmentiervwho was a military pharmacist, that came to realize that the French people had been wrong all along. And how wrong they were, potatoes could easily be classified as my favourite food thanks to their versatility. He was captured and given the choice between eating potatoes or starving to death. While imprisoned he began experimenting with the potato and found that they could actually be quite delicious.

Later, when he made his way back to France, he continued this experimentation. One of the ways he taught the people to cook them was by mashing them and this is one possible beginning of mashed potatoes the way we know them today.

He began a campaign in order to force the government to lift the ban on potatoes and they gave in in 1772.

There were however other books from the 18th century including from two female authors Hanna Glasse of England and Mary Rudolph of America. In, “The Art of Cookery,” Glasse explains the mashed potatoes recipe as: boil potatoes, put them in a saucepan and mash them well with milk, butter, and salt. A similar recipe is found in, “The Virginia Housewife,” by Rudolph.

The Recipe

Ingredients
all link on ingredients are to the ingredient spotlight posts of this blog

6 medium potatoes
~1 cup of milk (or cream, butter optional with cream)
2 tbsp butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Tools

Pot big enough for potatoes to be covered with water and not boil over
A potato masher, a fork if not available
Wet and dry measures
Colander

Optional spoon for more thorough stirring

Directions

I generally suggest peeling your potatoes however if you are using new potatoes this isn't necessary and adds a certain rustic-ness to your mash. If you are using russet potatoes though I think you’d be better off peeling.

After deciding if you’re peeling or not cube your potatoes. This doesn't have to be pretty, just make sure they're all about the same size. The smaller they are, the faster they'll cook but I wouldn't go smaller than 1.5 inches or so. I usually opt for quartering.

Place in the pot and cover with water plus about an inch. Bring to a boil over high heat and reduce to medium high until they are very easily pierced with a fork. Remember you're going to be mashing them so soft is good.

Drain them in a colander and put them back in your pot, do not place back on the heat. Add in half your milk (or cream) and all your butter and mash and mix until combined. Add in more milk or cream until you have the consistency that you want. I like stiff mashed potatoes with a little bit of a chunk to them but you may want smoother looser mash potatoes and that's fine too! Add in some salt and pepper, taste and adjust.

Serve!



Serving

Most often served as a side to meat like a roast; y’know the standard meat and potatoes thing. I also enjoy it as a substitute to the rice in beans and rice or simply on its own for a smaller meal. There are some fun things we can do with a little extra work and ingredients like duchess potatoes but you’ll have to wait for those.

Short and Gritty

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes
~1 cup of milk (or cream, butter optional with cream)
2 tbsp butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Tools

Pot big enough for potatoes to be covered with water and not boil over
A potato masher, a fork if not available
Wet and dry measures
Colander

Optional spoon for more thorough stirring

Directions

1. Peel and cube potatoes
2. Add to pot of water and bring to a boil
3. Boil until potatoes are soft
4. Strain in colander
5. Put back in pot, add half of milk and all butter
6. Mash and stir adding more milk until you have the consistency you like
7. Add salt and pepper to taste
8. Serve

Ingredient Spotlight: Potato

About

Scientific name: Solanum tuberosum
Cultivation: They bear white, pink, red, blue, or purple flowers with yellow stamens. There are about 5,000 potato varieties worldwide. Every part of the plant is dangerous for consumption except the tubers! The part we eat is specifically a stem tuber (despite being called a root vegetable.) Potatoes are the 4th largest food crop in the world.
Potatoes are native to the Americas; most specifically modern day Peru. While they were originally thought to be domesticated separately in many places by Native Americans genetic testing shows that despite the variety of cultivars and native species they can be traced back to a single Peruvian origin, Solanum Brevicaule complex. From there, roughly 7000 to 10000 years ago they were domesticated.

We call potatoes by many names: taters, pederders, spuds etc. but first let’s talk about the origin of the word potato. Potato comes from the Spanish word patata which is a hybrid word of batata (Carribean origin) and papa (Peruvian origin.) Interestingly this word actually refers to both sweet potatoes and what we call potatoes despite them not being that closely related. For quite some time no distinction was made between the two tubers. In fact, what we call potatoes today were referred to as bastard potatoes next to the common potato (sweet potato) in the 16th century by John Gerard.

This is pretty telling of the original view of potatoes in Europe. Imported from the Americas in the 1500s potatoes didn't really take off. The French in particular has a very bad view of them bringing about a law banning them for human consumption in 1748 (not really sure what took them so long if they had such a distaste for them but…) and were thought to be cause of leprosy! Potatoes however were still cultivated and used for animal fodder.

This changed for France during the 7 years war (1756 and 1763), but we’ll talk about that on Sunday!

I would be remiss if i talked about potatoes and didn't mention the Irish Potato Famine (AKA the Great Hunger AKA An Gorta Mor.) The famine began with an infestation of a fungus-like organism, Phythphthora Infestans, in 1845. This blight ruined half of the crop that yeah and only got worse ruining about three quarters of the crop over the next seven years.

This may not sound like a big deal, there was other food right? Well, for the Irish tenant farmers there wasn't really. Currently under the rule of Great Britain these tenant farmers (as oppose to farmers that owned their own land) were required to pay taxes on crops and such and were left with the “poor man’s food,” of potatoes. They were especially important because of their high nutritional content. There is a lot of politics involved in why this was so devastating for the Irish population but needless to say it’s estimated over 1 million lost their lives from starvation and another 1 million fled as immigrants to the Americas and to Great Britain.

The craziest part of the Great Hunger to me is the fact that they were still exporting so much food from Ireland instead of feeding their poor and suffering. Some sources even think that the rate export increased during the famine.

Metaphysical

Correspondences: Feminine, Earth, Moon, Axomamma (Inca goddess)
Grounding, protection, stability, money, luck, healing, sympathetic magic

How to use: you can carve a potato into a poppet for sympathetic magic, kitchen witchery (obviously) potato skins are physically healing and so I would focus on the skins for healing magic, you can carry a potato to absorb negativity around you, green witchery (seed blessing, plant nurturing)

Potatoes are considered spiritually important in some sects of Buddhism. I did find it hard to find something that would corroborate this claim though.

Mundane

These super filling super versatile food comes with some possible added health benefits.

Health: They contain something called a resistant starch. While carbs and starches get a lot of flak this one is special. Resistant starch promotes good gut health! Instead of being completely broken down in the stomach this starch makes its way to the large intestine! Here it provides a great food source for healthy gut bacteria which in turn can not only help you get more from your food it may also help alleviate inflammation in general as well as inflammation caused by inflammatory bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease. This resistant starch has also been linked to improving blood sugar levels by reducing insulin resistance. Note many of these claims require more testing, especially human testing, but it's still fun to know the work that's being done around potatoes.

Some more founded uses include use in biodegradable plastic products, adhesives (in the textile industry)and the manufacturing of papers and boards.

Potato skins and honey are a folk remedy used in India for burns and even burn centres there have experimented with using potato skins to protect burns while they heal.

In the kitchen: So. Versatile.

“Boil ‘em. Mash ‘em. Stick ‘em in a stew,'' if you will. Deep fried, pan fried, baked, roasted. Hot or cold… the list goes on. Then there's all the different ways to cut them: cubes, shredded, sliced thick or thin, square cut (french fries,) lattice cut, and a new one for me, game fries, which apparently are like lattice cut but smaller cross cuts.

My personal favourites are as boiled (I know boring right?) lattice cut and hashbrowns.

Potato starch is also a great product. It can be used to add a stickiness to gluten free all purpose flour blends and as a thickener or binder in soups and sauces (again a great gluten free option.)

Frittata - The Other Omelette

Origin

The word frittata seems to have two possible origins. The first being the Italian word friggere meaning to fry and the other being the word for a mess, “Hai fatto una frittata,” which loosely translates to, “You've made quite a mess.”

The second origin makes sense being that in Italy frittata isn't a traditional or formal meal but rather something that is thrown together with scraps you've got lying around. You'd use the bits of veggies and meats that are about to spoil the same way you might for a soup or stock. For this reason there isn't a tried and true recipe nor is it likely you'll find it on a menu.

Outside of Italy it is common to see the term omelette and frittata used interchangeably but there are some things that make them different. In a frittata: the extra ingredients are added to the raw eggs and are incorporated rather than encompassed; generally more air is incorporated during the whisking process; they are cooked over a lower heat for longer and finished in an oven or salamander, basically something that heat from both sides; a frittata is not folded, which is why it is sometimes called an open-faced omelette.

There are other similar recipes such as the Spanish tortilla, the Iranian kuku, and the French quiche. A common ingredient that I wasn't aware of before is potato! So if you want to stick closer to the origins of this recipe I suggest using potato as part of your vegetable mix. If you want to do this, cook your potato first!

Ingredients
all link on ingredients are to the ingredient spotlight posts of this blog

Oil or butter for the pan
6 Eggs
¼ cup Milk
~1 cup Vegetables (I used mushrooms, bell pepper, and garlic)
~1/2 tsp each salt and pepper (to taste) and other spices if you wish (I added fresh parsley ~1/8 cup)

Optional
Use as part of above ~1 cup Protein like ham or bacon, if desired
Cheese, shredded, if desired

Tools

Knife and cutting board
Bowl
Whisk or fork
Oven safe frying pan, I prefer cast iron

Directions

Preheat you oven to 375 F.

Begin by preparing your vegetables (and protein if you so choose) by dicing them into ¼ - ½ inch pieces.

Start heating your pan over medium heat so it's good to go when your egg mixture is ready.

Crack your eggs into a bowl, add the milk and beat together. You want them to be completely incorporated and frothy.

Gently stir in your spices (at the very least you should be using salt and pepper) and diced ingredients. You just want to make sure they are coated in the egg mixture.

Carefully pour the egg concoction into your pan. It should begin to cook immediately. You don't need to cook it all the way through in this step as we're going to bake it but you do want to make sure the edges cook. (you can see i was impatient in my pictures and it took a little longer for my frittata to cook in the oven because of it.) I like to swirl the pan to get the egg walls just a little higher than they pour in naturally.

Once the egg begins to set you can toss the pan into the oven and finish it in there. This will take between 15 and 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it. You're looking for it to inflate! It can get pretty big, don't fret, that just means you incorporated a good amount of air into your mixture when you whipped it!

** If you are adding cheese I suggest adding it to the top of your frittata in the last five minutes of cooking however you could incorporate it into the egg mixture.

Pull it out and let in rest for a few minutes. Cut into pieces, I like triangles like a pizza but you can do squares for smaller pieces, and serve.


Serving

I usually serve my frittata hot, as is and usually at dinner. However, it is also a fantastic breakfast food. Often I serve it alone but personal favourite sides would be a spring green salad and/or home fries. Other similar recipes, namely the Spanish tortilla, are often served at room temperature as an appetizer so I'd say there's nothing stopping you from serving your frittata that way as well.

Short and Gritty

1. Preheat oven to 350 and heat pan on medium heat
2. 1/4 inch dice veggies
3. Mix eggs, add other ingredients, gentle stir to coat
4. Pour egg mixture into the pan and cook until edges are set
5. Finish for about 15 minutes in the oven
6. Serve

Ingredient Spotlight: Eggs

About


We’ve been eating eggs for 6 million years! They are packed full of protein and don’t fight back so it makes sense that they would be a part of the human diet from early on as protein and fat were huge for the development of our brains.

By 7000 BC we were farming chicken eggs. This specifically began in China and India. Chicken eggs didn't make it to Europe or East Asia until 800 BC but they were keeping turkeys and ducks for their eggs instead. This gets even cooler when we hit ___ when in China and Egypt they found they could incubate eggs in a warm clay structure or oven and so the hens could continue to lay eggs even when the farmer’s wanted chicks. This of course lowered the price of chicken eggs and opened them up as a food source for poorer people.

Unwashed eggs would only keep for about a month before beginning to rot so ways of preserving them became popular. Pickling, drying and fermenting were all ways to do this. In addition to that i found recently that you can keep eggs in a lye mixture to preserve them as well. Fermented eggs are specific to China and are regularly referred to as century eggs because of their appearance as being very old.

As well as various bird (chicken, quail, duck etc) eggs humans also eat fish eggs called roe or caviar. When it comes to the metaphysical i would be pressed to say they hold a slightly different correspondence as they lack a shell. I would associate these more with the growth ideas and less with the protective ideas. And in addition to that look into correspondences of the fish they come from.

Most know a bird egg to consist of two parts, the yolk and the white, but there are actually more parts to an egg than that. The obvious addition of egg shell, the yolk is scientifically called the vitellus, the white is called the albumen and then there is the membrane. We notice this membrane more when we hard boil the egg than when we crack it open raw. Now of course we don't generally consume the eggshell but it is an important part of the egg.

Magical

Correspondence: Moon. Earth. Feminine. Eostre (and many other fertility deities)
Fertility, spirituality, rejuvenation, mysteries, creation, protection, resurrection, healing, abundance, new beginnings, breaking the mould for a new start, “birthing” new ideas and goals.

How to use:
The shell: egg powder (protection,) as a natural plant pot, make into candles,
The whole thing: buried on your property, scan your body for a cleanse
The inside: divination, cook with it

Mundane

Health

Whole eggs are pretty neat as they contain a little bit of almost every nutrient you need. The coolest thing is they contain whole protein because they are created to eventually be a little animal. This is pretty rare among non meat products (if there is anything else that fits the bill at all.) This high protein attribute also means that eggs are super filling as protein takes longer to break down in your system and therefore provides energy for longer.

Myth: eggs are bad for cholesterol.
Truth: most people can handle eggs. About 30% of the population are hyper responders and there is also a genetic mutation that will warrant a limitation of cholesterol and therefore eggs.
Fun fact: your liver produces lots of cholesterol and a diet high in cholesterol simply means your liver doesn't need to produce as much and therefore most people are fine with a moderate amount of cholesterol in their diet.

Eggs provide choline which most of us don't get enough of. Most other courses are meat however broccoli (and other dark greens,) cauliflower and soy also provides choline. So vegetarians may want to keep an eye on egg intake (along with these other sources,) for cell and brain health.

They are also full of antioxidants, specifically lutein and zeaxanthin which accumulate in the retina. Some studies show that adequate amounts of these antioxidants reduce the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration.

In the Kitchen

An important health precaution in the kitchen to keep in mind is the existence of salmonella. Just like with chicken you want to be sure that you cook your eggs to an appropriate temperature ( 71 °C (160 °F)) before consuming them. Unless of course you buy pasteurized (57 °C (135 °F) for an hour and 15 minutes) eggs in which case the risk is next to zero.

Eggs are almost necessary for baking (there of course are substitutes but do they really work the same?) Cakes and pies and cookies often call for eggs as a binding ingredient. In addition to their impotence in baking they are a staple for breakfast and a key ingredient in more sauces than you might realize!

Eggs are super versatile and can be used with probably any flavour you want! Sweet or savoury, spicy or mild, alone or hidden among other ingredients.

More

Egg whites can be used in a face-mask to help clear pores and possible help tighten up loose skin (take that second part with a grain of salt.) While egg yolk can be used to moisturize the skin and hair. Of course use with caution and do a patch test before spreading it all over your face. Also most recipes call for more than just the egg so check out the link below for some extra information on these claims.

Links:
History of Eggs
Healthline
Beauty

Beltane: the Recipe - Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Origin

So there are two “origin” stories for vinaigrette when you look them up but the timing of them makes one an actual origin and the other a weird fact. I want to start with the weird fact because I don't feel the need to make it super in depth but it’s worth knowing. In the Victorian era there was a non food item called a vinaigrette. It was a small, ornate box that was carried by women that contained a sponge soaked in vinegar and herbs and its purpose was to create a safe haven for the nose when in olfactory distress. It may also be used to revive a fainted woman. Basically, the source i used for this explained that there were many foul smells in the Victorian era from body odours and death to fecal matter in the streets.

Of course the origin of the name for this is the same as for the vinaigrette we know today. Vinagre, the french word for vinegar. However, the origin goes even further back to when even the food stuff called vinaigrette was nowhere near what we think of today. Vinaigrette began as a meat sauce! It is perhaps less French than medieval, illustrated in the 14th century Taillevent’s Le Viandier, one of the earliest surviving French cookbooks. Instructions for making “une vinaigrette,” state you start with a pig’s spleen, brown it on a spit, chop it up, add it to a pot with blood, broth, ginger, a pepper-like spice, saffron, wine, and vinegar (finally), and then boil. “It should be brown.” There are versions using different meats: a sheep-based vinaigrette calls for the head, stomach, and feet while a cow vinaigrette insists on using all four stomachs.

There is a lack of information from the then to the 16th century known as “the dark tunnel in French cooking,” that begins with food that you can cook in your fireplace and ends with more subtle or light cooking. So the different uses for the word vinaigrette make sense based on the cuisines that were being eaten. But the educated guess is that the new recipe actually comes from Italy but nobody will ever admit to it because of the rivalry.

This “new” recipe was used for dressing cold roasted vegetables and leafy greens, much the same as we use it now. The original recipe was simply oil, vinegar salt and pepper sometimes with some other herbs added in for flare. Now, we add in all kinds of things like STRAWBERRIES!

In addition to new ingredients there are also so many variants on what you can use for the oil and vinegar themselves. Good quality light tasting oils are best like extra virgin olive oil or canola. And for vinegars there is white, balsamic, wine, rice and apple cider. The suggested and traditional ratio is 2 - 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar.

Ingredients

~½ cup (thawed) strawberries (I used frozen)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar (try it with apple cider or rice for a different flavour)
¾ cup canola oil
½ tbsp honey
½ tsp salt (or to taste)

Tools

Food processor or blender or *immersion blender*
Measures

Directions




In whatever blending tool or vessel you are using add your strawberries and balsamic vinegar. Blend these until they are smooth.

Slowly drizzle your oil while blending. This is a key part of creating a vinaigrette that looks nice, the emulsion. If you add your oil to quickly having it actually mix into your liquid ingredients is near impossible and much more difficult. By adding the oil slowly it allows the oil to incorporate the oil into the liquids in a homogenous mixture. Over time it will separate but not as quickly as it would without the emulsion.

Once your oil is entirely incorporated add your salt and honey to taste (start with my measurements but as always give things a taste and make sure they are to YOUR liking)

Serve or store in the fridge in a sealed container. 
 
 

Serving

I have only used this as a salad dressing as this isn't the most versatile recipe but I have an inkling it would be delicious on cold chicken, maybe even on a sandwich? Post writing this I might have to try that!

I recommend a salad with dark leafy greens like spinach and nuts like pecans. Fresh strawberries would be a no brainer but other fruit would add a more complex flavour profile: other berries, pear or apple would be good ones to try.

Short and Gritty

Ingredients

~½ cup (thawed) strawberries (I used frozen)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar (try it with apple cider or rice for a different flavour)
¾ cup canola oil
½ tbsp honey
½ tsp salt (or to taste)

Tools

Food processor or blender or *immersion blender*
Measures

Directions

1. Blend strawberries and vinegar
2. Slowly add oil while blending
3. Add salt and honey to taste
4. Serve

Sabbat Series: Beltane

 

That’s right, another holiday of the Wheel of the Year is upon us! Beltane is the third sabbat of the Julian calendar and marks the beginning of summer (pastoral summer season to be specific) Beltane is about union and fertility. Somewhat similar to Ostara but this holiday seems much more passionate where Ostara feels soft if that makes sense. We’ll touch on this later as to why we have two fertility sabbats. Of course, again, this fertility can be viewed as metaphorical rather than womb based.

At Ostara we were greasing our wheels now, for Beltane, we are out in full force grabbing our day by the horns and manifesting our projects. From an agricultural standpoint this is the point in the year when people were driving their livestock to the summer pastures to graze and crops were in full motion.

Of course we will get to a “seasonal” recipe but just like Ostara we're gonna stick to format and today’s post is gonna be all the witchy, metaphysical stuff and then you can find the recipe posted on sunday this week!

For my own practice I've been trying to put together what I’m calling, “Simplified Sabbats,” it’s still a work in progress but basically I want to focus on just a few correspondences rather than the whole slough that comes with each. This is what I want to share with you along with some traditional and historical stuff.

About Beltane

Some still celebrate May Day and this is where it originated. Usually celebrated on May 1st (or November 1st in the Southern Hemisphere) but some cultures historically had similar festivals throughout the month. It is also possible to celebrate it on the full moon afterwards or use the stars as a more correct date (when the sun is at 15 degrees in Taurus)

The word Beltane can be translated one of two ways: to “bright fire” or “fire day.” While I saw both in a few different sources the latter makes more sense to me because i found actual etymology for it.

The first part, Bel, also refers to some of the deities that are worshipped on or around this day. Including Belenus and Belisima from Greek and Celtic origins respectively. Interestingly, both of these deities are of the sun as well as a body of water (one being the sea the other rivers.) This lends to the importance of the balance between fire and water and Beltane is a time to work on balancing and acknowledging both your fire and water attributes. In other words your yin and yang, your emotion and drive, your passion and intuition. I have a fun thing planned this year to symbolize this but you’ll have to find me on instagram, facebook or tiktok in order to see it!

In addition to these deities there are a few other beings associated with Beltane. The Green Man, Cerrnunnos, the May Queen and Queen of Winter (who we’ll talk about in a second) the Fae or Aos Si, and lares (roman home spirits). As well as any fertility or lust deities such as Aphrodite.

So back to the Queens, Beltane is a day in which they battle one another for supremacy. The same way that the Oak King and the Holly King battle at the equinox every year the Queens must battle so winter can end and summer begin.

Though the festivals died out for a while, in Edinburgh, Scotland they are going trong once again. The main part of the festival both historically and today centers around fire. At all four fire festivals your hearth is extinguished and relit by the need fire. Today most don't rely on actual fire in their homes but those need fire are still being lit. Along with using these fires to light your hearth many would bless themselves and especially their livestock in the smoke or by jumping over the coals.

Other parts of festivities included, and for some still include: May poles and dancing; decorating, especially with yellow flowers; and, rituals and offerings to appease the Fae. Beltane, of course, is one of two times in the year where the veil is thinner. In autumn we celebrate the dead and in the spring we look to the living and the Fae. It is always a good idea to leave an offering for them; they especially love honey and milk.

I have a lot of other points I could make but I feel like this is more than enough to get you started on your way to understanding Beltane, especially since this is suppose to be a Kitchen Witchery blog. If you want to learn more I will be doing a live chat on Twitch on April 28 at 9:30 am EST.

Magical and Metaphysical

This is where my Simplified Sabbats comes in:

Colour(s): Red and yellow
Recipe: strawberry vinaigrette
Food/ingredients: strawberries, cherry, honey
Crystal: Emerald
Plant: Dandelion, mugwort
Animal: Bees, Unicorn
Focus: Fertility and Love/ Union
Deity: Belanus

Including your Muggle friends and family

Crafts with bright ribbons and flowers (Magic it up: write wishes or blessing on them or do some knot magic)
Create a fairy garden (Magic it up: leave offerings for the Fae where you place it)
Have a bonfire (or light a candle and pretend) (Magic it up: make a wish and jump the fire)
(for consenting adults) Get naughty ;) (Magic it up: sex and/or fertility magic)
Plant some seeds or a tree (Magic it up: so a seed blessing or use as an act of service offering)

Summer Favourites: Lemonade

When life gives you lemons...

Origin

Before lemonade, in the medieval time period, came kashkab which is a fermented barley drink from the Mediteranean coast of Egypt that also contains mint, rue, black pepper and citron leaf. There are written accounts from the 10th century describing a lemon juice and sugar drink from both Nasir-i-Khushraw and the books and documents of the Jewish Cairo Genizah. Nasir-i-Khushraw wrote of Egyptian life and this lemon drink was common. From kashkab came qatarmizat, which sounds like basically the exact same thing as lemonade, which was bottled and exported in the 13th century.

Jump forward to the 17th century and we see a rise of lemonade production in Paris. It made its debut on August 20th, 1630 as a lemon juice drink made with sparkling water and honey. This drink became so popular and was sold by vendors who walked around with a keg of the stuff on their back. It became such a large industry that a union was formed, called the Compagnie de Limonadiers, in 1676.

Spring forward and travel even further to the Americas, during the Victorian Era lemonade was promoted as a substitution for alcohol consumption through the Women’s Temperance Movement leading to the nickname Lemonade Lucy for the first lady of the time: Lucy Webb Hayes.

Modern lemonade comes in many forms and flavours and the word lemonade means something a little different depending on where you are. I learned this quite recently from a YouTube video about cocktails actually and then came across it during my research as well. In the UK lemonade is always sparkling and may refer to a soft drink like Sprite rather than the tart, cloudy lemonade we refer to in North America. *hot tip* In the UK you can ask for cloudy lemonade and you may get something closer to what you're used to from America and asking for a lemon lime soda/pop/soft drink you will get something closer to what you're used to in the UK.

LEMONADE
Ingredients
all link on ingredients are to the ingredient spotlight posts of this blog
I find parts to be the easiest recipe for this one

1-2 parts white sugar
2 parts fresh lemon juice (I used 4 lemon and got ~1 cup juice)
Zest from those lemons
2 parts water

2-4 parts cold water

Tools

Knife
Wet measures
Pot
Mesh sieve
Fine grater or Microplane
Jug/Pitcher/Vessel

Directions

Start by zesting your lemons straight into the pot (not on heat yet.)

Take those lemons, cut ‘em in half and juice the heck out of them. Of course you can do this by hand or with a device. I did it by hand because I find it's the best option with the device I do have. If I'm doing a large batch I'll break out the juicer to save my hands.

Measure the amount of lemon juice you have and add an equal part of water. Make sure you don't have any seeds in there as it will make your final product bitter (same reason why I prefer zest over the whole lemon to avoid the bitter pith.)

Toss the liquid into the pot with your zest and start it over heat. While it begins heating add in half as much sugar as you did water and start from there. You can taste it later and add more sugar OR if you know you like it sweet go ahead and add an equal part of sugar. Bring this concoction to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until your sugar is dissolved.

Once all your sugar is dissolved strain this through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of the zest. If it sits in there too long it will start getting too bitter. We’re going for tart not bitter here.

Put this into your final vessel with cool water starting with an equal part to the original lemon juice measurement. Taste and continue adding until you have a tartness you appreciate. If you know you don't want it to be too tart i suggest starting with 3 parts right away and adjusting from there. Keep in mind you will likely serve this over ice and the ice will melt and dilute your lemonade to a point so its better to adjust to a little too tart than have watered down lemonade later. But you know what you like!

Put your lemonade in the fridge to finish cooling and then serve as you like!

*If the parts in this section is confusing the short and gritty below is definitely easier to follow*

Serving

Best served over ice with a lemon wheel and/or a sprig of mint for a lovely garnish!

**pro tip** Can substitute sparkling water for the second amount of water.


Drink on a hot day while soaking up the sun or on a gloomy day when you want to add a little sunshine to your day.

Pairs well with a light lunch, snacks or BBQ meal!

Short and Gritty
Ingredients
I find parts to be the easiest recipe for this one

1-2 parts white sugar
2 parts fresh lemon juice (I used 4 lemon and got ~1 cup juice)
Zest from those lemons
2 parts water

2-4 parts cold water

Tools

Knife
Wet measures
Pot
Mesh sieve
Fine grater or Microplane
Jug/Pitcher/Vessel

Directions
1. Zest and juice lemons. Zest goes in the pot juice goes in a measuring glass.
2. Measure lemon juice. Half this measurement in 1 part.
3. Add 2 parts water and your lemon juice to the pot.
4. Add 1 part sugar. You can adjust this later just make sure you do it while it's still hot.
5. Bring to a boil, simmer until sugar is dissolved. State and adjust sugar. (remember we'll water this own so just do your best and experiment.
6. Strain.
7. Add 2 parts cool water. Taste and adjust with more water if its too tart.
8. Chill.
9. Serve.

Ingredient Spotlight: Lemon

About

Scientific Name: Citrus limon is what we commonly use and is a hybrid of bitter orange and citrus medica. Meyer lemons while seemingly similar are not actually part of the same family ( Rutaceae)
Origin: some form of citrus tree has been around for 7-8 million years but Citrus Limon appeared in Europe sometime during the 2nd century AD near Italy.
Cultivation: Cultivation as an ornamental plant in Islamic gardens was first found in literature from the 10th century. Lemons found their way to the America’s in the 13th century but remained mainly ornamental until the 19th century.

A little more in depth look at lemons origins come from National Geographic. Using DNA analysis the scientists were able to trace the current citrus fruits back to the Miocene Epoch (7 to 8 million years ago. The three original species of citrus were citrons, mandarins and pomelos.

Historically, while it was more commonly limes, lemons were used to help prevent scurvy aboard ships in the mid 18th century.

In China lemons are a symbol of happiness and this resonates with me personally, the scent is just so bright and fresh and the bright colour just adds to it.

Magic

Correspondence: Feminine/Yin, Water, Moon, Cancer and Pisces. Friendship, purification, love, spiritual openness, clarity, concentration, memorization, decision making, happiness, beauty, longevity, inspiration and on the other side of things can be used in curses.

How to use: Invisible ink sigils and petitions, in cooking/kitchen witchery, tea, as essential oils, in simmer pots, sachets, floor wash and added to a ritual bath.

Mundane

Health: The fiber and vitamin C may promote heart health and the compounds hesperidin and diosmin may help with cholesterol. The fiber also may contribute to healthy blood sugar levels.
There are a few theories that suggest lemon aiding in weight loss however the results leave me with a large dose of skepticism. One theory is about the pectin fibre (but few eat a whole lemon or even the lemon pulp at all) and the other concerning specifically lemon water and the water could easily be the reason for the results. There is one study that could prove fruitful but has only been tested on mice and that is a test done specifically on polyphenols from the peel.
The amount of citric acid found in a half a cup of lemon juice may be enough to help prevent kidney stones in those that have had them before however more studies are needed. The theory though is that raising the PH of your urine would make it more difficult for the crystalline deposits to form.
Works against anemia as it contains both Vitamin c and citric acid which help your body absorb iron from plant sources (our bodies are pretty good at getting iron from animal sources) so this is a good tip for those vegetarians and vegans out there.
As with anything that has antioxidants in it there's a possibility that lemons may help prevent cancer. Slightly more exciting research has been seen, in test tubes and rodents, cancer fighting properties. This of course comes with two caveats, the first being that it wasn't in a human body and the other being the fact that they used doses of the specific chemicals that you would not find in culinary uses of lemons.

In the kitchen: lemon is a super versatile flavour believe it or not. My favourites are lemonade, cocktails and marinades but it is also fantastic in salad dressings, roasted veggies, and, of course, baking.

Pro tip** lemon juice can help stop the oxidation of some cut fruits and veggies, I know from experience it works with apples but will also prevent the “rust” on potatoes and lettuce.

More: Cleaning because it has cleansing properties but it also just smells so fresh. It is one of the key ingredients in Sun-in for lightening of hair so just skip the extra dollars and grab a lemon. In this same vein be careful about having lemon on your skin and going in the sun since it does make you more photosensitive. And as I mentioned before in the magic section it's a really fun project for kids (or adults, who am I to age gatekeep) to make invisible ink messages. The lemon juice is reactivated by heat.

Links to check out for more info:

Healthline
Witchipedia
Wicca Now
White Witch Parlour

Falafel - Fritter or Wrap?

Origin

The word falāfil is of Arabic origin. There is a lot of from this borrowed from this but it all comes down to: filfal, from Aramaic pilpāl 'small round thing, peppercorn', derived from palpēl 'to be round, roll' which clearly describes the shape of the bean fritters called falafel. It became used in English in 1941.

The origin of falafel is a little controversial. It definitely comes from the middle east but the exact place is what causes the problems; Egypt, Israel, and Palestine all claim it was them that created falafel.

In Egypt a similar recipe for ta’amia may be the parent food leading me to believe that it is also the origin place of falafel. More specifically it’s thought that its origin is Alexandria and since that is a port city falafel quickly became a fast food. It would be wrapped in paper and sent on its way and this would have been an easy way to export the food, recipe and name form there.

I also found out that the way I make falafel is not technically correct! You’re actually not supposed to cook your beans! They are soaked and then ground up just like that. Unfortunately, I don't have the tools to do this properly right now so I'm sticking with the “modern way.” Perhaps in the future I will go for a more accurate recipe. Until then I'll continue working on perfecting and experimenting with this one!

Ingredients
all link on ingredients are to the ingredient spotlight posts of this blog

2 cups cooked Chickpeas
¾ cup Fresh parsley (as is, not chopped or pressed)
1/8 - 1/4 of a red onion
¼ cup* Flour (AP or Chickpea)
2-3 cloves Garlic
½ tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Cumin

Oil for cooking








Tools

Food processor
Bowl
Frying pan or heavy bottomed pot

Directions

Grab your food processor and toss in your chickpeas, onion, garlic and parsley. Process these ingredients until no large pieces are left. A little texture in your mixture is fine but large chunks will make it hard to get the mixture to stick together. Add in all the spices and pulse a few times to mix them in.

Move your mixture to a bowl and stir in the baking powder.

A little bit at a time mix in your flour. You want to add only as much as is needed to get the mixture to stick together. You will then want to move the mixture to your fridge and let sit for an hour.

** I think I made a mistake here and you would be better off making falls and then chilling those. So i will be trying that method and will update this if i decide that's a better option.

Heat, on medium heat, about a half inch of cooking oil in your pan while you begin the balling process. You want to use about two tablespoons of mixture for each falafel and roll it into a ball or disk (i did disks because i thought they'd cook nicer since I wasn't deep frying them.) Once you have a few for reference it's not necessary to keep measuring if you feel confident eyeballing it.

 
 
 

You will want to cook each falafel until both sides are golden brown. For me it took about 3 minutes each side. The less you touch them the faster and better that searing will be.

Remove to a paper towel or cooling rack (with something underneath it) to let the excess oil come away. You can serve them right away, hot; let them cool, or; store in an airtight container to eat later.

 
 
 

Serving

Historically falafel was eaten as an appetizer with dip. Not too long after it found a new way to be served with pita or other flat breads. Modernly we know it this way and the word has become synonymous with the sandwich or wrap itself. However, falafel is a fantastic vegetarian alternative in many ways. My favourites are still these two traditional ways but falafel can be used to top salads, as burger patties or meatballs! I could even see them being used on kebabs (you'd have to be careful though.) I haven't personally tried them all of these ways so if you choose to branch out please let me know in the comments below how your experimentation went!

Short and Gritty

Ingredients

2 cups cooked Chickpeas
¾ cup Fresh parsley (as is, not chopped or pressed)
1/8 - 1/4 of a red onion
¼ cup* Flour (AP or Chickpea)
2-3 cloves Garlic
½ tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Cumin

Oil for cooking

Tools

Food processor
Bowl
Frying pan or heavy bottomed pot

 

Directions

1. In food processor combine chickpeas, onion, garlic and parsley until fine.
2. Add spices and pulse
3. Remove to bowl and stir in baking powder

4. Slowly add flour until mixture can be moulded

5. Refrigerate for an hour

6. Make balls of about 2 tbsp mixture

7. Fry both sides until golden brown, about 3 minutes each side

8. Let drip, and/or cool, and serve or store.

Ingredient Spotlight - Parsley

About

Scientific Name:Petroselinum crispum, apiaceae family. AKA devils oatmeal
Origin: native to central and eastern Mediteranean (Sardinia, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, southern Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Malta, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia)
Cultivation: most commonly you will find the varieties that we use for their leaves (curly and flat leaf parsley) but in Europe it is also cultivated for its root. This makes sense as it is a relative of carrot

Parsley comes originally from the greek for rock celery or petroselinum. It came down through Latin to french ending at peresil. Which was then merged with the old English petersilie (which is the current German word for parsley.)

Curly leaf is used as a garnish, flat leaf is similar but stronger flavour and easier to cultivate, root parsley is common as a snack or vegetable in soups and casseroles in most parts of europe. I personally have never seen or worked with root parsley but I am certainly intrigued by it. In the 3rd century BC linnaeus says that its wild habitat was Sardinia. It then supposedly began cultivation in Europe in 1548.

Uprooting parsley is bad luck and also will kill the plant, it does not like being transplanted. In this vein medieval Europeans believed you could kill someone by plucking a parsley sprig while saying their name. Also, from European folklore parsley should be sown on good Friday and only by pregnant women or witches. Otherwise the harvest would not be good.

Persephone is often depicted holding a bundle of parsley. Ancient Greeks associated it with death. They decorated tombs with it and it was never eaten because of this they also wouldn't grow it indoors. They thought it would bring death into the house. They did use it as fodder for horses.

Romans used parsley as a garnish that would keep away contamination from their food. It was used to sweeten the breath (like a palette cleanser) after their meal. They also wore it for protection if worn on the head it would protect specifically from inebriation

Magical

Correspondence: Air. Mercury. Masc/Yang Libra. Persephone, Venus and Aphrodite.
Death, rebirth, purification, cleansing, strength, protection, lust, transformation, fertility, prosperity, luck, calms and protects home, restores sense of well being, strength and vitality after illness, protects food from contamination. The underworld - divination and dreamwork

How to use: Cook with it! Use dried in sachets. Burn it. Wear it on your body. Dress your candle in its dried leaves. Use essential oils (safely, in a carrier oil) in your ritual bath.

Mundane

As always, here are some broad claims that you can look further into with the studies provided in the healthline article. Contains a fair amount of vitamins A, K and C. The addition of parsley to the diet may aid in healthy blood sugar levels. It contains carotenoids which may improve heart health by lowering bad cholesterol and chronic inflammation. Parsley may promote kidney health however it also contains oxalates which may increase your risk for kidney stones. So I assume there is some sort of balance that needs to be kept there, not sure it's worth the risk and maybe just increase your water consumption!

In addition to those here are some other mundane uses i found: Parsley contains essential oils including apiol and myristicin which have antibacterial qualities. A parsley infusion used as a hair rinse can prevent or treat lice infestations. It can be used as a diuretic. It can be used to encourage a late menstruation (and therefore large doses should be avoided by pregnant women.) An ointment or compress can be used to soothe bug bites.

In the kitchen: very commonly used as a garnish (this of course comes from the Roman’s) but in addition to that fresh parsley is a great addition to salad (especially tabbouleh or bean salad!) Of course dried parsley is a great addition to many dishes the most notable being tomato sauce but also a fantastic addition to roasted veggies and vinaigrettes!

A few link I used:
Witchipedia
Healthline

Carrot Loaf - Quick Bread

Origin

Instead of doing the origin of carrot loaf specifically we’re going to talk about quick breads (although I think we could tie carrot quick bread to the history we talked about it the mundane section of our carrot spotlight!) A quick bread is any bread that uses chemical leavening instead or organic leavening. Leavening is the fermenting and/or rising of dough. This means quick breads require less skill and also use ingredients that don't spoil as quickly (before they are in the dough of course.) The popularity of quick breads in North America today probably comes from the discovery (or rediscovery) of chemical leavening agents at the end of the 18th century but really took hold in 1846 because of arm and hammer, baking soda, being commercially introduced in New York and was further rooted in 1856 by the commercial production of baking powder in Massachusetts. Being that these leavening agents aren't thrown by environmental changes they became popular especially during wartime as they were quicker and required less skill to make.

Ingredients
all link on ingredients are to the ingredient spotlight posts of this blog

1 cup shredded carrot (about 2 medium carrots)
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cardamom (optional, can also sub clove, allspice or nutmeg)
¼ cup milk
¾ cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

Optional nuts ( no more than ¾ cup)

Tools

Grater (or food processor)
Bowl x2
Wet and dry measures
A spoon
9x5 loaf pan

Directions
I missed some pictures this week; I'm sorry. When I make this again in the future I will update!


Start by grating your carrot if you haven't already. Preheat your oven to 350 so it is ready to go when your batter is and also give your pan a quick grease. You don’t want your batter to sit too long because of the reactions with the baking soda.

Mix your dry ingredients in one bowl (the smaller if there is a size discrepancy) and your wet ingredients in the other. Do not add your nuts in this step, keep reading.

Add your dry to wet and mix just until combined. If you are adding nuts you want to fold them in as you finish mixing here.

**pro tip** toss your nuts in a little bit of flour to keep them suspended in the batter

Put the batter in your greased pan and cook for 50 to 60 minutes. You’ll know it's ready when you can insert a wooden toothpick and it comes out clean.

Let the loaf sit for about 5 minutes and then place on a cool rack to cool.

Slice and serve.

Storage

If you don't plan on eating it all in one day, even if you really want too, it can be kept covered on the counter for a maximum of 3 days but will keep better and longer in an airtight container in the fridge. If you want to freeze it I suggest slicing it and putting wax paper between the slices so you can thaw as much or as little as you want.

Serving

You can go sweet or savoury or somewhere in between with this quick bread. I usually throw a little butter on a slice. You could make a honey butter to tow the line or go straight for a glaze to really sweeten the deal. I think this loaf is especially good with coffee or tea and therefore is great as a quick breakfast or an afternoon snack!

Short and Gritty
Ingredients

1 cup shredded carrot (about 2 medium carrots)
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cardamom (optional, can also sub clove, allspice or nutmeg)
¼ cup milk
¾ cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

Optional nuts ( no more than ¾ cup)

Tools

Grater (or food processor)
Bowl x2
Wet and dry measures
A spoon
9x5 loaf pan

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 F
Mix dry ingredients, excluding nuts, in one bowl
Mix wet ingredients, including carrots, in a second bowl
Mix the dry into the wet also folding in nuts if you are using them just until combined
Pour into lightly greased pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes
Done when a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean. Slice and serve.