Potato-Spinach Curry

Around New Year I went to London - for the first time ever (as being in Heathrow for a few hours doesn't really count). On one rainy day we went to a busy Indian restaurant and had a lunch special which included three different dishes. This is an attempt to emulate one of those dishes - and the following makes for rather a lot of it.

Ingredients:
- 2.7 kg (6 lbs) small potatoes
- 5 onions, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 orange adjoema chili^[1], finely diced
- salt
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground allspice
- 3 tbsp mustard powder
- 500 g (1.1 lb) frozen chopped spinach
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) cream

The rinsed potatoes were boiled in lightly salted water.

Meanwhile, the chopped onions were sautéed in oil in a large pan. After a few minuted the onions were softened and all the spices were added, followed by the spinach. The pan was covered while the spinach thawed. At last the cream was stirred in and left on the heat for a minute or two before removing.

The boiled potatoes were mixed with the onion-spinach mixture in a large bowl (or in this case in two large bowls) and served immediately. Goes nicely with naan - but the later will have to wait for some other time.

Update: For the bread, see here.

^[1] I happened to have one of these Surinamese chilies - in case you can't find one, a habanero would most likely work as a good substitute.

Sweet chili glazed salmon

Mrs. Throat-Erator decided we should join in on the Bon Appetit Cover Challenge (BACC) hosted by White Fluffy Icing. Although we didn't start in January, this is not the first dish from that series that we made - but it is the first one to make it to this page (so far).

We scaled the dish down a bit and decided on sherry rather than rice wine - we didn't have either of the two so we had to get one or the other. As it turns out I expect to more readily find uses for the rest of a bottle of sherry and it was also easier to locate sherry in the specific Systembolaget store we ended up in that day. Finally we decided to add some grilled asparagus and serve the whole thing with wild rice.

Ingredients:
- 4 salmon fillets
- ¹/₂ dL (¹/₄ cup) sweet chili sauce
- 2 + 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 + 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely diced
- 1 large garlic clove, finely diced
- bunch of asparagus
- sesame oil
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) sugar snap peas- 100 g (3.5 oz) pea sprouts
- 2 tbsp dry sherry
- boiled wild rice

The salmon fillets were placed on a foil lined baking sheet and covered with a glaze made by mixing the sweet chili sauce with 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp ginger. The salmon fillets were allowed to stand at room temperature for half an hour.

While waiting, wild rice were boiled.
The rinsed asparagus were placed on a separate piece of foil in the same baking sheet. The salmon and the asparagus were broiled for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile a little sesame oil was heated in a wok. To this was added the garlic and the rest of the ginger. After stirring for 30 seconds to a minute the sugar snap peas were added and stir fried for a couple of minutes. The sherry was added together with the pea sprouts and the rest of the soy sauce and stirred for about a minute.


I quite liked the end result. A reminder that marinating salmon isn't such a bad idea - most of the time I just have it 'plain'. I also liked the stir fried pea sprouts - in the past I've used them only in salads.

Pear Pie

When I recently discovered I had never made this pie for my muse I was stunned: I didn't make this pie one single time in the past five years? Really? But I used to make it quite often..

Ingredients:
- 150 g (5.3 oz) margarine
- 240 g (8.5 oz) flour
- 125 g (4.4 oz) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- ¹/₂ tsp ground ginger
- 1 egg
- 1 can of halfed pears in syrup
optionally for serving:
- whipped cream

The margarine was cut in small pieces and worked into the flour by hand before adding sugar, vanilla sugar and ground ginger. The dough was then completed by working the egg into the mixture. The dough was left in the fridge for an hour before parting in two and rolling each piece.

One piece of dough was placed in a buttered and floured pie shell. Pear-halves were arranged on this pie bottom (in this case as many as could be fitted in - there were an excess of pear-halves in the can I used). The other piece of dough was used to form a lid over the pear-halves, and the pie was brushed with the syrup from the can of pears.


The pie was baked at 200 C (400 F) for 40 minutes - is delicious served warm with a dollop of whipped cream, but also works quite well cold.

Bean-Onion Salad

This is a quick attempt to copy a very nice bean-and-onion salad I tried at a vegetarian buffet not that long ago.

Ingredients:
- 4 cans of beans (mixed brown, white and red)
- 1 large red onion
- 1 large yellow onion
- a large bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- salt & pepper

The canned beans were rinsed with cold water and left to drip off a bit.

The onions were peeled and quartered along the axis, each quarter of an onion was further quartered to give onion wedges.

The parsley was chopped coarsely.

The oil, vinegar, salt & pepper was mixed in a large bowl and everything else was stirred in.

I like the raw onions in this salad - but they become overpowering if not balanced by a reasonable amount of beans. On this occasion I had this salad as a side to some baked potatoes and a piece of baked fish.

Red Seafood Curry

A good friend of mine concluded, after moving to Singapore, that all his previous attempts at making curries had been suboptimal at least in part due to the inferior curry pastes that has been available to him in the US. To back up his claims, he brought me over a selection of curry pastes from Singapore when we met up before Christmas - so thanks to him for providing the curry paste used here.

Generally, mini-eggplants are not available around here, so when I found some when I went to a new store, I immediately picked some up - thinking already of using one my packs of parallelly imported red curry paste.

Ingredients:
- sesame oil
- red curry paste^[1]
- 200 g (7 oz) crayfish
- 100 g (3.5 oz) shrimp
- 200 g (7 oz) squid rings
- 10 mini eggplants, quartered
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- coconut cream
- kaffir lime leaves
- salt
- large bunch scallion, chopped
for serving:
- boiled rice
- roasted peanuts
- fresh Thai basil

A little sesame oil was heated in a wok, then added a dollop of the curry paste, followed by the crayfish. After frying for 1-2 minutes, the shrimp were added and after an additional 1-2 minutes the squid rings. 1-2 minutes later, the quartered mini-eggplants were added, then the chopped bell pepper, dried kaffir lime leaves, the remaining curry paste and the coconut cream. The contents were brought to a boil before reducing the heat and letting it simmer for a few minutes. The dish was seasoned to taste with salt. At last the scallions were added and after a minute or so the wok was removed from the heat.

Served with boiled rice, roasted peanuts and fresh Thai basil.
Delicious. For my taste the spiciness of this dish was just right.
Now I just have to find out where I can buy more of similarly good curry paste - or if I can emulate it from more basic ingredients...

^[1] Curry paste brand: Dancing Chef.

Easter 'Hen'

It's funny how sometimes nostalgia creeps up on you and you end up doing things that your parents used to do. Take Easter as an example: admittedly, I don't have a whole lot by way of Easter traditions, but recently I found myself wanting to bake this hen-shaped bread that I remembered my mother making for Easter. As I recalled it, it was mostly the shape that set it apart and I suspected that my mother had simply used her standard bun recipe for the dough. Upon asking I was informed that there was a special recipe, which I would receive via e-mail later.

After receiving said recipe and reading it, I concluded that it was in fact pretty close to the aforementioned bun recipe if only half portion, less sugar, more salt.
Ingredients:
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) margarine
- 3.2 dL (1 ¹/₃ cups) milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) fresh yeast
- 1 + 2 + 1 eggs
- 700 g (ca. 25 oz) flour
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 walnut piece
- white and black sesame seeds
The margarine and milk was heated on medium until the margarine had melted, then the mixture was transferred to a large bowl and allowed to cool to about body temperature before adding the sugar and the fresh yeast. One egg was added and the first 500 g (ca. 1 lb) of flour was stirred into the dough. Then the salt was added and the rest of the flour was kneaded into the dough in portions. After kneading thoroughly the dough was left to rise for 40 minutes.


A baking sheet was lined with baking paper, and a hen was shaped - (NB: this was my first attempt and I'm sure there are other ways to do it) - a piece of dough was made into a flat, roundish piece to serve as the body of the hen, while two smaller pieces were cut to make them roughly resemble a tail and a head. For the nest, two rolled pieces of dough were braided. Still having more dough a piece was cut to roughly resemble a wing and with the odd bits of remaining dough some small 'stones' were added beneath the nest.

Two whole, raw eggs were washed and then placed so it looks like the hen is sitting on them in the nest. Finally the entire hen was brushed with a beaten egg, decorated with sesame seeds and a walnut piece (as the eye), and baked at 200 C (400 F) for 20 minutes.

Served while still warm. The baked eggs in the nest are very much like hard-boiled eggs and my mother would usually add one for each person taking part in the Easter brunch. As I made it just for two people, I only used two. If one wishes, one could easily get more creative with the decorations.

'Shish Shawarma'

In the past, I resorted to buying my shawarma spice mainly because I couldn't find out exactly what went into the mix. When I recently came across a good recipe it turned out the only ingredient I didn't already have was cloves.

Although perhaps not very authentic, I decided to try out broiling the pieces on bamboo skewers after marinating - making it some kind of 'shish shawarma'.

Ingredients:
- ¹/₄ tsp ground cloves
- 1 ¹/₂ tsp ground allspice
- ¹/₂ tsp ground coriander
- ¹/₄ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- ¹/₂ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- juice of ¹/₂ lime
- 350 g (12 oz) strips of beef
- 2 onions, cut in wedges
- 4 potatoes, sliced 6 mm (¹/₄ inch) thick
bulgur:
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) bulgur
- water
- salt
- juice of ¹/₂ lime
- 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
- fresh parsley, chopped

All the ground spices were mixed (this is what I'd consider the shawarma spice mix itself), then added salt, crushed garlic, olive oil and lime juice. The strips of beef and the onion wedges were marinated in this mixture for a little over an over.

Potatoes were peeled and sliced. The marinated beef and onion were put on bamboo skewers together with the raw potato slices and broiled for 12 minutes.


The bulgur was boiled in lightly salted water, then mixed with lime juice and chopped parsley and chopped cherry tomatoes.

The end result might not be conventional: 'shish' is normally as in 'shish kebab', and I don't think I've ever had shawarma or kebab with broiled potato before - but I thought it was quite good.

Cauliflower in Vinaigrette

After seeing this recipe in a newspaper I wanted to try it - it was suggested as a side for roasts, but I felt like something fast, so I just had it as a main with some creamy polenta on the side.

Ingredients:
- 2 heads cauliflower
- 2 red onions, finely chopped
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp mustard
- salt & pepper
- 2 tbsp capers
- large bunch fresh parsley, chopped
creamy polenta:
- 5 dL (2 cups) vegetable broth
- 1.25 dL (¹/₂ cup) cream
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) polenta
- pepper
- grated pecorino cheese

The cauliflowers were rinsed and cut into florets, which were boiled in lightly salted water for 5 minutes.

While boiling the cauliflower florets, the vinaigrette was mixed by stirring together oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.

The boiled cauliflower was mixed with the chopped onions, the capers, the chopped parsely and the vinaigrette in a large bowl.

The cooking time of polenta varies quite a bit, but the general guideline is to boil with stirring until a suitable thickness has been attained. To make creamy polenta, the vegetable broth and the cream was brought to a boil, the heat reduced and the polenta was stirred in. It turned out that the polenta I used was of a fairly quick-cooking type, so after a few minutes I had a polenta the texture of a thick porridge. The pot was removed from the heat, and pepper and freshly grated pecorino cheese was stirred into it.

Served immediately. Upon tasting, the first thing we noticed was that somewhat reminiscent
of this potato salad - which in hindsight isn't surprising.

Huevadillas

One Sunday morning I found myself with a few taco-sized flour tortillas that needed using and a couple of eggs. Thinking back to how I like melted cheese sandwiched between tortillas, I decided to have eggs in a similar fashion.

Ingredients:
- oil
- small flour tortillas
- eggs
A little oil was heated in a pan, and a flour tortilla was placed in the pan - on top of the tortilla, an egg was placed, the yolk was punctured and a second tortilla was placed on top. Cooking on medium-high heat the egg quickly solidified sufficiently to flip the thing over without getting bits of egg all over the place.


I call them 'huevadillas' - and ate the first batch with some ketchup, but I think I will revisit them later with some more elaborate fixings.

Stromboli

Stromboli - or 'pizza roll' as one might be tempted to call it - is nothing less than American addition to the palette of Italian food, supposedly named after a 1950 American-Italian film starring a Swedish actress as a Lithuanian on the volcanic island Stromboli (near Sicily). One month ago I hadn't heard of ANY of these, but that all changed when a colleague brought some stromboli to work for lunch one day.

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen pizza dough
- durum flour for rolling
- ca. 150 g (5.3 oz) tomato sauce
- 120 g (4.2 oz) thinly sliced smoked ham
- 200 g (7 oz) mushrooms, sliced
- 1 red onion, cut in boats
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- 1 jalapeño chilli, finely cut
- bunch of fresh marjoram
- egg for brushing

The dough was taken out of the freezer the night before and left in the fridge to thaw, then rolled with durum flour just as when making pizza.

The rolled dough was topped with everything - not getting to close to the edges is a good idea here. The dough was then carefully rolled and transferred to a baking sheet lined with baking paper, brushed with a beaten egg and baked at 200 C (400 F) for half an hour.

After baking served as slices with a little rocket (arugula) - looks quite pretty doesn't it..

Linguine with Feta and Pickled Beets

My muse introduced me to this idea in the purest form: simply pasta, feta cheese and pickled beets. Here it's given a little extra..

Ingredients:
- 200 g (7 oz) wholegrain linguine
- 100 g (3.5 oz) feta cheese
- 100 g (3.5 oz) pickled beets
- rocket (= arugula)
- 1/2 red onion
- 4-5 tbsp beet pickling juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- dried rosemary

The linguine was boiled in lightly salted water.

While boiling the linguine, the rest was prepared: the rocket was rinsed and left to drip off. Feta cheese, pickled beet and the onion were all chopped semi-finely.

When the linguine was cooked, the water was discarded and everything was stirred together in a large bowl - served immediately.

Italian Sausage Pizza

Long time ago - when I was still living in California - I made a pizza with Italian sausages. Recently, I started thinking about this one again, and I thought I'd give it a go when I found some salcissia at the supermarket - although I was somewhat doubtful that these would be exactly like American "sweet Italian sausage".

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen pizza dough
- durum flour for rolling
- 285 g (10 oz) salcissia fresca
- ca. 150 g (5 oz) tomato sauce
- 1 onion, cut in thin boats
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- bunch fresh basil
- salt and pepper

While frying the sausages in a pan, the pizza dough was rolled out using durum flour for dusting. The tomato sauce was spread evenly on the dough. The onion was cut in boats by dividing into 16 pieces along the axis. The onion boats were laid out on the pizza.

When the sausages were done, they were sliced and placed on the pizza, followed by slices of mozzarella and leaves of fresh basil. The pizza was baked at 225 C (450 F) for 15 minutes.

Sprinkled with salt and pepper and served hot!

Chickpea and Red Pepper Soup

Chickpeas and red peppers are some of my very favourite ingredients, so when I stumbled upon this soup, I knew I had to try it.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 5 large red peppers, de-seeded, coarsely chopped
- 3 onions, coarsely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 red chillies, de-seeded, finely chopped
- 2 tsp ground coriander seed
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 3 cans chickpeas, each 240 g (8 oz) drained
- 2 L (¹/₂ gallon) vegetable broth
to serve:
- fresh mint
- lime juice


In a large pot, using a little oil, the onions were sautéed till just soft before adding the bell peppers. After an additional 10 minutes the garlic, spices, chickpeas and vegetable broth were added. The pot was brought to a boil before reducing the heat and letting the soup simmer for 40 minutes. The soup was partially liquefied with an immersion blender and seasoned to taste with salt and black pepper.

Served immediately with a little freshly squeezed lime juice and a few leaves of fresh mint.

Juullip Immiaa

Someone close to me recently went on a business trip to Greenland and brought me back a bottle of Godthaab Julebryg (Nuuk Yule-brew).

Many elements of Greenlandic culture are in a sense also Danish - perhaps particularly the beers, as the brewing tradition was introduced to Greenland by the Vikings. Godthaab Bryghus (Nuuk Brewhouse) operated in close collaboration with a small chain of local breweries in Denmark, and true to Danish tradition they make this semi-dark Yule-brew. Fortunately for me bottles were still available when my friend was there in February.

Of course I'm interested in trying their other products, but it appears I may have to go to Nuuk and visit their bar to accomplish that...

Moose Meatballs with Pistachios

This is based on some pistachio containing 'game' meatballs I had the good fortune of tasting a while ago. This didn't turn out quite the way those meatballs were - but still quite nice.

Ingredients:
- 2 onions, finely diced
- 64 g (2 ¹/₄ oz) pistachio nuts, chopped
- 500 g (1.1 lb) minced moose
- pepper
- 2 eggs
- a little milk
served with:
- boiled potatoes
- cornichons
- sliced pickled beet
- lettuce
- tzatziki

Minced moose, diced onions, chopped pistachios, pepper and eggs were added just enough milk to be able to stir the mixture - shouldn't be too liquid. Meatballs were shaped using a tea spoon and fried on the pan in a little oil.

The meatballs were served with potatoes boiled in lightly salted water, lettuce, tzatziki, slices of pickled beet and cornichons.

Onion Pizza

For testing my first batch of my frozen pizza dough, I let myself be heavily inspired by this recipe.

The night before I wanted to make the pizza I took out one of the doughs I had put in the freezer.

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen pizza dough
- durum flour for rolling
- olive oil
- mustard
- 2 white onions, sliced
- balsamic vinegar
after baking:
- salt
- pepper
- parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated
- rocket salad

The dough rolled out nicely, no differences to the freshly made variety. The rolled out dough was brushed with a little olive oil and mustard.

The onion rings were caramelised in a large pan and added some balsamic vinegar towards the end. The caramelised onion rings were spread on the pizza dough and it was baked at 225 C (450 F) for 13 minutes - when out out the oven, sprinkled with salt, pepper, freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano and served with rocket.

Delicious. Now I have three more easy pizzas waiting for me in the freezer.

Chicken with Pearl Onions

Over the holidays I had occasion to do some shopping, and I happened to pick up a bag of nigella seeds. This is a spice I had been curious about for some time, and now I have a good amount to play with and try out some ideas. First, I tried it with chicken..

Ingredients:
- 900 g (2 lbs) chicken pieces
- salt
- pepper
- smoked paprika
- cayenne pepper
- ground coriander seeds
- nigella seeds
- 250 g (9 oz) red pearl onions
- 250 g (9 oz) white pearl onions
served with:
- quinoa, boiled
and:
- 360 g (13 oz) grilled red peppers
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon
- fresh coriander leaves

The chicken pieces were fried in a large, deep pan with all the spices, until well browned on all sides. The peeled pearl onions were added whole, the pan was covered and the heat was reduced to medium. Left while preparing the rest:

The quinoa was boiled in lightly salted water.

The grilled peppers and the coriander leaves were chopped coarsely and mixed with the lemon juice.

I was quite happy with the note the nigella seeds added to the chicken.

Shrovetide Buns (Egg-free)

While it is pointless to whip up an egg-free dough for a bun filled with an egg-based custard, it makes sense if you remember that Shrovetide buns can also be jam-filled. For these I used extra margarine as well as extra milk to make up for the missing egg in the dough.

This is a wee bit late for the season this year, but here goes anyway..

Ingredients:
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) margarine
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) whole-milk
- 50 g (ca. 2 oz) fresh yeast
- 5 tbsp sugar
- 400 g (14 oz) wheat flour
filling:
- ca. 200 g (7 oz) raspberry jam
glazing:
- powdered sugar
- optional powdered cocoa
- water

The margarine and milk was heated on low heat in a small pot until the margarine had melted, then transferred to a large bowl and allowed to cool until lukewarm. The fresh yeast was crumbled into the lukewarm milk-and-margarine, then the sugar was stirred in followed by the flour. The dough was kneaded for some minutes, then covered and left to rise for 1 hour.

After rising, the dough was rolled out to approximately 40 x 45 cm (ca. 15" x 18") and cut in 12 pieces. A largish tsp of raspberry jam was placed in the middle of each piece of dough and the dough was folded around the jam and the resulting buns were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. The buns were then covered and left to rise on the sheet for 45 minutes.

The buns were baked for 10 minutes at 225 C (450 F) - and it appears I need to improve my technique for closing the buns as some jam ran out onto the baking sheet during baking.

The buns were served with a freshly applied glazing made by stirring together water and powdered sugar - approximate amounts (for one bun): 1 tsp water + 6 tsp powdered sugar (for a nice chocolaty variation substitute 1 or 2 tsp of the powdered sugar with powdered cocoa).

Frozen Pizza Dough

The next logical step after establishing that pizza dough can be made the day before and kept in the fridge until use was to try to freeze it. This would also allow me to make such a large batch of dough that I could use an entire pack of fresh yeast..

Ingredients:
- 5 dL (2 cups) lukewarm water^[1]
- 50 g (ca. 2 oz) fresh yeast
- 1050 g (2.3 lbs) wheat flour
- 4 + 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp salt

The fresh yeast was crumbled into the lukewarm water and stirred, then added 4 tbsp olive oil and half of the flour. The salt was stirred in before adding the rest of the flour in portions while kneading the dough. The dough is perfect when so much flour has been added that the dough is neither sticky nor crumbly when pressing it between your thumb and your index finger - after kneading it for some extra minutes, the ball of dough was coated with 2 tbsp olive oil, the bowl covered and the dough allowed to rise for 2 hours before parting in four (each portion good for a pizza some 30 x 40 cm (12" x 15")). They were then immediately put in the freezer.

^[1] Conveniently made by mixing 3 dL cold tap water and 2 dL boiling water - needed only to stand for a short while to cool to lukewarm.

Banana cake (test)

Last time I was baking my banana cake, I realised halfway through that I didn't actually have any baking powder - the packet I thought I had turned out to be baking soda. Now, baking powder is (or at least can be) a mixture of baking soda and an acid, so in order to use baking soda in stead of the baking powder the rest of the ingredients have to be sufficiently acidic. This - as I've understood it - is not merely a question of leavening, but also one of taste. Baking soda in a batter with too little acid might result in a somewhat alkaline taste, which is not desirable in any cake I'm familiar with.

For these reasons it's not given that baking soda can be substituted for baking powder, but then a friend of mine pointed out that bananas are in fact somewhat acidic (as per this list) and therefore the banana cake might work out just fine with baking soda..

Naturally, such an idea had to be tested: are bananas sufficiently acidic to make banana cake using baking soda?

Ingredients:
- 100g (3.5 oz) margarine
- 140 g (5 oz) flour
- ²/₃ tsp baking soda
- 200 g (7 oz) sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 well-ripened bananas
frosting:
- 100 g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate

While the margarine was melted in a small pot, the other ingredients were prepared in 3 separate bowls: the bananas was mashed with a fork, the flour was mixed with the baking soda, and the sugar, vanilla and eggs were whipped to a pale foamy viscous mass. The flour-mix and the melted margarine (which should be too hot) was stirred into the egg-foam and finally the mashed bananas were stirred into the batter as well.

The batter was poured into a greased and floured bread pan and baked at 175 C (350 F) for 52 minutes. After cooling in the bread pan, the cake was moved to a large plate and covered with melted dark chocolate.

After standing for several hours to let the chocolate harden, the cake was tested: it tasted just fine - so, bananas are sufficiently acidic...