AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

On Tue, 12 Jul 2016 23:44:38 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Mon, 11 Jul 2016 06:28:12 +0700, John B.
wrote:

I talked to my resident rice expert and she says that to do what you
are talking about you boil the rice, as you say, when it is done to
your satisfaction then you drain off the boiling water and wash the
cooked rice in cold water several times. She says at least 2 or 3
times and she emphasized it must be COLD water, she even mentioned ice
cubes in the water.

I did run a little cold water over the rice, but not a lot. Black
Japonica has a hull on it; I suspect that the ice-water suggestion is
for white rice.

Hull on it? I think that it is not polished and has a sort of brownish
or maybe blackish "bran layer and the germ". Ian't that is what may be
called "brown rice" in the U.S., and "red rice" here. It is supposed
to be more healthy than polished rice.

It was silly of me to experiment with Black Japonica, because I'll
probably never see another package of it -- but it did get rid of the
little dab that was left. Black Japonica makes great porcupine* loaf,
but I no longer put starch in my meatloaf. Minced vegetables work
great.

(*My personal term for meat loaf made with rice instead of bread,
because of a rice-meatball recipe teen-age cooks adored in the
fifties.)

The salad turned out well as far as the rice goes, but needs a little
more spice. I think that tomorrow, if I can stand to set foot outside
(It *will* be four Fahrenheit degrees cooler.), I'll pick the youngest
pods off the mustard plants and stir them in.

It was better when I tasted it just now than it was this morning; the
flavor of the feta has had a chance to spread.


On Sat, 09 Jul 2016 23:55:20 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:


9 July 2016

Grumble, gripe. I was reaching for the ginger root when I noticed
that it was USDA organic.

I couldn't find horseradish either, but when I stopped at Marsh on the
way back from today's impromptu trip to the dentist, I found both pure
horseradish and fresh ginger. And the bagged radishes I'd looked for
in vain on my last few trips to Owen's. It says "red radish" on the
receipt; I'll have to look around on my next trip to Marsh (in August,
please!) to see what other colors Marsh sells.

Here, "ginger" means ground dry ginger, mostly used in a sweet spice
cake we call "gingerbread"; fresh roots are intermittently available,
and it's only in this century that fresh ginger has been available at
all. There's usually a sign up saying that it's good in oriental
dishes.

I put two teaspoons of ground ginger in a quart of switchel. It
smelled like a lot when I put it in, but I can't taste it in the
finished product. I also added a squirt of honey, but all I can taste
is rice. I plan to add the lemon at the last minute, since we have a
stick blender, it won't have to marinate like the slices of lemon in
the water for today's trip. One bottle going, one coming, about two
and a half miles each way. I undressed into the washing machine and
took a shower.

Ginger beer was a bit of a fad here among those that brew their own
beer. The recipe was sugar, water, yeast, and a little bit of ginger
root. Put it in a pot and as soon as it stops bubbling drink it :-) I
tried a batch and thought it was a bit tasteless and the next batch I
doubles the amount of ginger. So spicy that you couldn't stand to
drink it.

( mentioned this to my wife who sort of looked down her nose and
muttered that "everyone knows that" :-)

(It turned out, by the way, that the chip was a piece of my temporary
bridge, not my tooth. Dr. slapped a patch on it and we hope it will
hold until September. I promised to cut my sandwiches into pieces in
the meantime.)

What happens in September?
--
cheers,

John B.

AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

On Mon, 11 Jul 2016 23:30:00 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

Speaking of rice and cycling:

http://www.bonappetit.com/entertaini...e-cyclist-food

That was cool. Would you like some carbs with your carbs?

But I don't see how the reporter thought that squares of cream cheese
and rice looked like burritos. He had me thinking that after the chef
made the stuffing, he would wrap it in cre^pes.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 14:48:46 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Tue, 12 Jul 2016 23:44:38 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

[snip]

. . . Black
Japonica has a hull on it; I suspect that the ice-water suggestion is
for white rice.

Hull on it? I think that it is not polished and has a sort of brownish
or maybe blackish "bran layer and the germ". Ian't that is what may be
called "brown rice" in the U.S., and "red rice" here. It is supposed
to be more healthy than polished rice.

We call polished rice "white rice" in my dialect -- except when we
mean "not fried rice". Properly, "not fried" should be "steamed".

Black Japonica is a brand name for "a field mix" of black rice and
mahogany rice, not polished.

I cook only brown rice -- I can't eat naked carbs at my age, and must
not overdo the whole grains. (I miss the days when I was on a
weight-gain diet.)

(It turned out, by the way, that the chip was a piece of my temporary
bridge, not my tooth. Dr. slapped a patch on it and we hope it will
hold until September. I promised to cut my sandwiches into pieces in
the meantime.)

What happens in September?

The extraction will be healed enough to install a permanent bridge.
The impromptu appointment was actually a good sign: I'm already
healed enough to forget to be careful of the temporary teeth. I have
to poke my lip to notice that the gum isn't healed yet, and it doesn't
hurt, it just feels not normal.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGESEW/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 21:15:11 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Wed, 13 Jul 2016 14:48:46 +0700, John B.
wrote:

On Tue, 12 Jul 2016 23:44:38 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

[snip]

. . . Black
Japonica has a hull on it; I suspect that the ice-water suggestion is
for white rice.

Hull on it? I think that it is not polished and has a sort of brownish
or maybe blackish "bran layer and the germ". Ian't that is what may be
called "brown rice" in the U.S., and "red rice" here. It is supposed
to be more healthy than polished rice.

We call polished rice "white rice" in my dialect -- except when we
mean "not fried rice". Properly, "not fried" should be "steamed".

In rice eating countries normal everyday rice is boiled and "modern
folks" all have an automatic Rice Cooker which in it's original guise
was just an electric pot with a thermostat on it and had marks inside
for the water level for 1 cup, 2 cups, etc., of rice. They make them
in a lot of sizes that the largest will cook probably a pound, or
more, of dry rice at one time. To say about a housewife, "Oh, she
can't boil rice" would be a deadly insult :-)

The only time I've seen rice steamed is when cooking "sticky rice" and
the original method was to put the dry rice in a woven cane basket
which was placed on top of a special metal pot. The basket seals the
mouth of the pot and the steam from the boiling water rises up through
the woven basket and cooks the rice.

Black Japonica is a brand name for "a field mix" of black rice and
mahogany rice, not polished.

I had to look it up on the Internet as I have never seen it here in
Asia, and I lived in Japan for nearly 10 years. I assume that it is
some form of rice that is only used in special dishes.


I cook only brown rice -- I can't eat naked carbs at my age, and must
not overdo the whole grains. (I miss the days when I was on a
weight-gain diet.)

(It turned out, by the way, that the chip was a piece of my temporary
bridge, not my tooth. Dr. slapped a patch on it and we hope it will
hold until September. I promised to cut my sandwiches into pieces in
the meantime.)

What happens in September?

The extraction will be healed enough to install a permanent bridge.
The impromptu appointment was actually a good sign: I'm already
healed enough to forget to be careful of the temporary teeth. I have
to poke my lip to notice that the gum isn't healed yet, and it doesn't
hurt, it just feels not normal.

I can only feel for you as I had teeth problems for years (and I did
religiously brush my teeth).
--
cheers,

John B.

AG: Rules that apply everywhere apply on the road
 

I was walking past a poster of "The Ten Commandments for Children" and
noticed that #8 was "Don't take anything that isn't yours." and #9 was
"Always tell the truth.".

These two commandments seem particularly applicable to cycling: don't
go through an intersection when it isn't your turn, don't ride in
space that belongs to somebody else -- in particular, don't ride in
space reserved for people going the other way.

"Always tell the truth" is more applicable than the usual "don't lie".
It isn't enough to refrain from signalling right when you mean to go
left; you must actively broadcast your intentions to other road users
at all times. Sometimes this can be strenuous, because signals are
often given by moving the whole bike-and-rider assembly to a different
place. Pierceton Road at four o'clock: car behind me, car
approaching, briefly turn head, hold out left hand with palm towards
car behind and fingers spread, shift to middle of lane, left lane
about to clear, glance, shift to right edge of road, car passes,
whoops here's the same situation again. (I came back by Van Ness,
which I had all to myself.)

I'll cut-and-paste the original plan for this post into a new one.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

18 July 2016

When chilled, the honey flavor came through the rice flavor, but it
still didn't taste like ginger. Forgetting that I'd scored some fresh
ginger root at Marsh, I added a teaspoon of dried ginger powder, which
promptly got wet and sank without further effort on my part.

Tomorrow, I'm finally going to drink it -- or one bottle of it; I have
a quart. So, after hunting all over for a lemon squeezer I haven't
used in ten years, I hand-squeezed four halves of lemons over a funnel
placed in a water bottle. I think that rather a high percentage of
the juice from such small lemons would have stuck to the squeezer
anyway, but it would have been easier to pick the seeds out of the
trough of the squeezer than out of the bottom of the bottle. (My
"lemon squeezer" is actually a citrus reamer: a fluted bullet-shape
rising from the middle of a dish with a handle on one side and a
pouring spout on the other.)

I didn't think that the juice would make enough ice, so I poured in a
little switchel before putting the bottle into the freezer.

I put the squashed peels into the switchel pitcher; the spout on the
Rubbermaid bottle will keep them from following the switchel into the
water bottle. I've been putting sliced lemons in my drinking water,
and it is good -- not to mention how nice it is to pull a slice out to
eat for dessert or provide a little seasoning for the pulled-pork
sandwich I bought at the fair -- but they take up a lot of space in
the bottle that could be occupied by ice or water.


20 July 2016

The juice of one lemon would have been quite enough. I think I
thought that I was lemoning the whole quart, not just one bottle.

Appointment was changed to three hours sooner, so I didn't have time
for a nap and took a bottle of tea too, and a bottle of ice water in
the cooler. I refilled the empty tea bottle at Owen's East and topped
off the switchel bottle; I didn't finish the ice water (which by then
contained no ice) until I got to Owen's West. Which was lucky,
because the water in the fountain at Pike Lake Park wasn't potable.
(I've drunk worse, when sufficiently desperate, but was delighted to
pour it on the grass when I got to Owen's East.) I probably drank
half a bottle of ice cubes from the bag of ice in the cooler. There
was still about half a cube of ice in the bag when I unpacked my
groceries at home. No water; the bag had leaked. Fortunately, the
bags my snacks were in didn't leak.

Today, afraid that the fresh ginger would spoil, I sliced it and
coated it with honey, which I hope will preserve it until I get around
to using it. I ground up the peels and trimmings with a stick blender
in a pint of water. This resulted in a rather zingy beverage.

Pity I chickened out of preparing to circumnavigate Center Lake
tomorrow.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

On Thu, 21 Jul 2016 00:12:12 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

I refilled the empty tea bottle at Owen's East and topped
off the switchel bottle; I didn't finish the ice water (which by then
contained no ice) until I got to Owen's West.

T'other way around: I stopped first at Owen's West, and stopped again
at Owen's East. I looped around Chinworth Bridge and a farm stand on
Fox Farm before going back through town on the boardwalk. Hit both
roundabouts, the Fox Farm roundabout twice. I trepidate more in the
car than on the bike when going through the roundabouts -- but I've
done it only once in the car.

Today (21 July 2016) I poured half the left-over switchel into my
Sheriff Goshert bottle and put it in the freezer, tilted so that the
expanding ice couldn't get a square push to break the bottle. Tomorrow
I'll pour in the other half and tilt it the other way, and Saturday
I'll make switchel in the remaining space, using *one* lemon, some
ginger water, and maybe a teaspoon of the honey that's diluted with
ginger juice.

Weather Underground says it's going to be in the nineties Saturday,
which is dangerously hot for Indiana. And precious little chance of
rain; the corn is already hurting.

I'd better take lots of ice even though it's a five-mile trip if I
don't get spectacularly indirect about coming home. I suppose I could
go to the Fox Farm farm stand again, so I could say I've been to three
farmers' markets. Uh, two farmers' markets and one farmer's market.

And this is starting to sound as though I wrote it just before nap
time, when the nap is overdue.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 16:36:47 +0700, John B.
wrote:

In rice eating countries normal everyday rice is boiled and "modern
folks" all have an automatic Rice Cooker which in it's original guise
was just an electric pot with a thermostat on it and had marks inside
for the water level for 1 cup, 2 cups, etc., of rice. They make them
in a lot of sizes that the largest will cook probably a pound, or
more, of dry rice at one time. To say about a housewife, "Oh, she
can't boil rice" would be a deadly insult :-)

The rice is actually boiled, but we say "steamed", meaning that all
the water is taken up by the rice. Same as we say "boiled eggs" when
they are actually cooked in hot water, and "boiled dressing" when it's
actually made in a double boiler.

I have a 1956 home-ec book that says "cooked salad dressing" is
essential and basic, but my home-ec class made white sauce (be'chamel)
instead. I think I tasted boiled dressing once. Some year I'm going
to make up the recipe in the book.

I have a rice cooker, but it doesn't work well on brown rice -- boils
too fast until the water is gone, then switches to "keep warm". But
it's indispensable for slow-cooking meat. Just drop the meat and
seasonings in before breakfast, set on "keep warm" and it cooks all
day without ever getting hot enough to turn the meat into tough
strings. And unlike a slow cooker (which tends to boil on "low";
something about a Federal "safety" law) I can cook just enough for two
because it's heated from the bottom instead of halfway up the sides.

I have recently discovered that the "spanish rice" my mother used to
make should be made in a skillet. Duh! I had tried to make it in the
rice cooker. (Hoosier spanish rice is rice cooked in Hoosier chili
soup. The Wikipedia article on "jambalaya" does a pretty good job of
describing the technique. I like to put the rice in before the tomato
juice, so that it gets coated with beef grease.)


I had to look it up on the Internet as I have never seen it here in
Asia, and I lived in Japan for nearly 10 years. I assume that it is
some form of rice that is only used in special dishes.

I've only seen "Black Japonica" once. It was in the "special"
(cutesy-poo) section of the supermarket.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

(I've no idea when I wrote this post.)

AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

On Thu, 21 Jul 2016 22:05:24 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 16:36:47 +0700, John B.
wrote:

In rice eating countries normal everyday rice is boiled and "modern
folks" all have an automatic Rice Cooker which in it's original guise
was just an electric pot with a thermostat on it and had marks inside
for the water level for 1 cup, 2 cups, etc., of rice. They make them
in a lot of sizes that the largest will cook probably a pound, or
more, of dry rice at one time. To say about a housewife, "Oh, she
can't boil rice" would be a deadly insult :-)

The rice is actually boiled, but we say "steamed", meaning that all
the water is taken up by the rice. Same as we say "boiled eggs" when
they are actually cooked in hot water, and "boiled dressing" when it's
actually made in a double boiler.

Yes :-) But there is "steamed rice" that is cooked using steam, at
least over here :-) See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyVWvJTmTdc
It is in Thai but I suspect that you will understand it. Or the
traditional method in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTE1eVKqh2A

AS an aside, rice was grown in the American Colonies as far back as
the 1600's and in 1770 some 42,000 tons were exported.


I have a 1956 home-ec book that says "cooked salad dressing" is
essential and basic, but my home-ec class made white sauce (be'chamel)
instead. I think I tasted boiled dressing once. Some year I'm going
to make up the recipe in the book.

I have a rice cooker, but it doesn't work well on brown rice -- boils
too fast until the water is gone, then switches to "keep warm". But
it's indispensable for slow-cooking meat. Just drop the meat and
seasonings in before breakfast, set on "keep warm" and it cooks all
day without ever getting hot enough to turn the meat into tough
strings. And unlike a slow cooker (which tends to boil on "low";
something about a Federal "safety" law) I can cook just enough for two
because it's heated from the bottom instead of halfway up the sides.

The rice cooker problem sounds strange as that is how a rice cooker
works. The early, simpler, ones had a single thermostat in them that
when the pot reached a certain temperature it switched over to
warming.

I have recently discovered that the "spanish rice" my mother used to
make should be made in a skillet. Duh! I had tried to make it in the
rice cooker. (Hoosier spanish rice is rice cooked in Hoosier chili
soup. The Wikipedia article on "jambalaya" does a pretty good job of
describing the technique. I like to put the rice in before the tomato
juice, so that it gets coated with beef grease.)


I had to look it up on the Internet as I have never seen it here in
Asia, and I lived in Japan for nearly 10 years. I assume that it is
some form of rice that is only used in special dishes.

I've only seen "Black Japonica" once. It was in the "special"
(cutesy-poo) section of the supermarket.
--
cheers,

John B.

AG: Twenty-first Century Switchel
 

On Thu, 21 Jul 2016 13:19:24 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Thu, 21 Jul 2016 00:12:12 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

I refilled the empty tea bottle at Owen's East and topped
off the switchel bottle; I didn't finish the ice water (which by then
contained no ice) until I got to Owen's West.

T'other way around: I stopped first at Owen's West, and stopped again
at Owen's East. I looped around Chinworth Bridge and a farm stand on
Fox Farm before going back through town on the boardwalk. Hit both
roundabouts, the Fox Farm roundabout twice. I trepidate more in the
car than on the bike when going through the roundabouts -- but I've
done it only once in the car.

Today (21 July 2016) I poured half the left-over switchel into my
Sheriff Goshert bottle and put it in the freezer, tilted so that the
expanding ice couldn't get a square push to break the bottle. Tomorrow
I'll pour in the other half and tilt it the other way, and Saturday
I'll make switchel in the remaining space, using *one* lemon, some
ginger water, and maybe a teaspoon of the honey that's diluted with
ginger juice.

Weather Underground says it's going to be in the nineties Saturday,
which is dangerously hot for Indiana. And precious little chance of
rain; the corn is already hurting.


This is the rainy season here, which is pretty much the coolest part
of the year and at 10:00 in the morning it is 87 degrees (F). I
usually try to start out just about day break, say 6 A.M. and if I can
get back by 10 A.M. it isn't too debilitating a ride. I have
occasionally gotten brave and gone too far and ended up 20 km from
home and it is 100 degrees (F) with the sun directly overhead. It is
not pleasant.


I'd better take lots of ice even though it's a five-mile trip if I
don't get spectacularly indirect about coming home. I suppose I could
go to the Fox Farm farm stand again, so I could say I've been to three
farmers' markets. Uh, two farmers' markets and one farmer's market.

And this is starting to sound as though I wrote it just before nap
time, when the nap is overdue.
--
cheers,

John B.