Jin Deui Again

I made a  second attempt at jin deui on Monday.  Here's a quickie post; scroll to bottom for text.

Below:  Dough balls rolled in white sesame, uncooked.

Below:  Cooked jin deui!  The first few turned out over-cooked, a little burnt almost.  Only a few exploded.

Notes:

• Used same recipe, but instead of making 12 dough balls, only made 8; this meant more thicker dough walls, and hopefully, less exploding.
• My thermometer read somewhere around 250F, but the oil was actually much hotter--over 300F!!  As soon as I put the balls in, the temperature reading rose quickly.  I can only assume this is because the oil wasn't moving very much, and the thermometer was only reading a cooler area.  Next time, I will stir the oil before reading the temp.  
• A good temperature is around 260F (last time I said 275F, which is still in the neighbourhood).  
• Spritzing the balls with water before rolling in sesame seeds keeps the dough from drying out, helps the seeds stick better, and makes a crispier crust, I think.  
• I need to keep the balls moving.  If the balls stay still, the dough expands unevenly; so there may be some places where it stretches very thin, and areas where it's thick.  
• White sesame tastes better than in this application.  
• I didn't get any photos, but the thickness of the dough for this batch turned out more like store-bought jin deui (thicker than last time).  I like it!  
• I used about 1/3 tsp salt for the dough, and I liked it!  
• I didn't accurately measure the sugar, but I used 3 slightly rounded tea spoons (as opposed to soup spoons) of cane sugar, because we're running low on demerara sugar.  

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Violas

I bought some flowers on Monday.

Photos from 14 May:

 

Above:  Ever since I found that volunteer viola in my yard, I've developed a soft spot for these tiny beauties.  I think they're ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!

 

Above:  I got some lobelia for my mom's hanging basket.  Here you can see the variety names, too.

 Above:  I also got a present for Myro.  Ginger mint!  It smells more lemony than gingery.  Huh.

Above:  My two square feet of radishes.

While at a florist with Myro on Sunday, I saw some vegetable seeds by Burpee, a company I didn't know much about.  But when I saw their salad blends, I was intrigued.  So I bought some seeds on Monday.  I've sown some into these rectangular planters.  Unfortunately, I forgot to augment the soil with perlite to improve drainage, so let's just hope for the best!!  (Also, viola flowers are edible, which is why I've put them with the salads!)

More later...

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Seedlings: week 4.5

It's hard to maintain weekly updates!

12 and 14 May:

Started hardening off plants on the deck.  Since I usually come home around 3pm, they get about an hour of sunlight before the house shadow catches up to them.  The past few days have been windy, too.  One day, it was so windy I didn't dare put them outside.  Those winds tore branches off trees.

 

Above: this zucchini plant started getting disgusting white fuzz around the edges.  (The white stuff on the top is baking soda.)  I ended up cutting the edges off and chucking them out.  Eww.

Above:  It's been weeks since I've sown any zucchini seeds and I'm still getting a few seedlings spring up for the first time!  Strange!

Above: my zucchinis :)

 

Above Left:  Basil seedling doing well
Above Right:  Purple coneflower seedling with true leaf.  Yes, yes, it almost looks like something else.   

 

Above Left:  I planted some peas, these are snow peas, but I've also planted Sugar Snap.  They haven't come up yet.
Above Right:  Broccoli seedling, just beginning to develop true leaf.

Above:  The broccoli have suffered the worst from what I can only assume is damping off (fungus).  I've been watering them with garlic-water to fight it off.  I hope it works!  The white fuzzies are seeds carried on the wind.

Above:  At least the tomatoes don't seem bothered.  This is a "sweet cherry hybrid" cherry tomato.  I love how compactly it's growing!  (However its friend nextdoor is extremely lanky!)

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