Crunchy Tilapia with Basil Oil

Enjoyed some more tilapia tonight, or shall I say "revisited". Was totally delicious, and very simple to make. Beckey really liked the result. 4 of 5 stars on Beckey's scale.

2 tilapia filets
Salt and pepper

3 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp ground fresh basil (leftover from making basil oil)
1 tsp dried dill or 1 tbsp fresh dill
Salt and pepper

1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp EVOO
Basil Oil (see previous blog entries)

1. Combine mayo, mustard, lemon juice, basil, and dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
2. Dry both sides of tilapia with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper, and let rest 10 minutes.
3. Pour breadcrumbs in a layer on a dish or a plate.
   
4. Apply a thin coat of mayo mixture to one side of fish. Place mayo side into breadcrumbs. Repeat mayo on other side. Add more breadcrumbs on top, and gently press in, flip as necessary and repeat to get a good coating.
   
5. Heat butter + oil in nonstick skillet over high heat, til butter browns. Place "hilly" side of face down, and cook undisturbed over high heat for 3 minutes. Carefully flip onto other side, cook for 2 more minutes.
6. Remove onto plate immediately. Sprinkle with Basil oil. Serve with steamed rice and a simple salad.

Orange chicken

Made orange chicken tonight, best crust ever so far. This recipe calls for 75:25 ratio cornstarch-to-flour. This worked really well, I think it maybe was just a tad too thin. However, I have to say that parts of it fried up exactly like restaurant-style chinese fried chicken: that kind of crispy, almost glassy transparent yet toasty thickness with a good crunch. More than the batter, the key I think is the double-fry technique: blanch at low temp, cool, then re-fry at high temp.

Next time I recommend:

1. Try cornstarch only; cornstarch lends crunch, flour lends chew.
   
2. Try using a bottle of Blue Moon Amber Ale for the batter: should make it more crispy, and Blue Moon naturally pairs well with orange, as any respectable bartender will tell you. Or, seltzer water should help enhance crispness.
   
3. Make sure the liquid that's added to the batter is cold! May even consider refrigerating the batter.
   
4. Slightly thicker batter. The recipe below has been adjusted to reflect this already.
   

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs, de-boned, skin off and cleaned of excess fat, cut into 1" chunks
Marinade
Batter
Sauce
3 thick scallions, cut into 1" rings
At least 4 c. vegetable oil, for frying

1. In a plastic bowl, combine chicken pieces and marinade. Stir to combine, and let sit 1-2 hours.
   
2. Drain chicken in colander, reserving 1/3 cup of marinade. Pat chicken dry with towels.
   
3. Make sauce (without slurry) and set aside.
4. Combine batter ingredients and set aside.
5. In a large pot, heat oil to 350 degrees (use a fry thermometer!).
   
6. Working in 4 batches, dip 1/4 of chicken in batter, shake off excess, and add pieces quickly but one at a time (so they don't stick together), fry for 1 min, turn, fry for 1 more minute (2 min total). Use spider or slotted spoon to remove to paper-towel-lined plate or sheet pan to drain and cool.
7. Repeat for remaining 3 batches. Make sure oil temp stays around 350 degrees. Don't stack cooked chicken on top of each other, it needs to be spread out to cool.
   
8. Reheat oil to 375-380F.
   
9. Starting with coolest pieces (1st batch that has cooled), work in batches to refry the chicken for 1.5-2 minutes. Return the oil to temperature before adding next batch. Drain on separate paper-towel-lined sheet pan.
   
10. When last batch is finished, heat sauce to boiling, whisk in slurry, bring to boil.
    
11. Pour over chicken, toss chicken (like you would for chicken wings), then serve immediately.
    

Marinade

1/4 c mirin
2-3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 c vegetable oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1 pinch chili flakes

Batter

(3/4 c cornstarch + 1/4 cup all purpose flour) OR (1 c cornstarch)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup COLD liquid (cold water, cold beer (see intro note), or cold seltzer water...)
1-2 tbsp water (extra)

Whisk dry ingredients together. Whisk in 1/2 cup liquid ingredients except extra water together. When combined, batter should coat a piece a chicken so you can't see the raw meat when you dip and shake off the excess batter. I think perfect crust would be at just the moment when it ceases being transparent; too thick and then it's not good either. Whisk in extra water only if the batter is too thick (it may be).

Sauce

1 c chicken stock
1/4 c ketchup
1/4 c white sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 c chicken marinade, reserved
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 pinch chile flakes
Juice of 1 orange
4-5" x 1" strip of orange peel, chopped into 1/2" pieces
Corn starch slurry: 1 tbsp corn starch, dissolved in 2 tbsp water

Combine all ingredients except slurry, bring to a boil in a sauce pan, reduce heat to low. When chicken is ready, bring back up to a boil, whisk in slurry all at once, return to a boil and boil for 1 minute till you get sugary, foamy bubbles. Pour immediately over chicken, toss and serve.

dijon vinaigrette

When our friends R + P came over this weekend, R. really enjoyed the dijon vinaigrette I made for the salad. Speaking of Dijon, did you know that "Dijon" refers to the mustard recipe, not its origin? And even further, did you know that over 90% of mustard seeds used to make Dijon-style mustard in France come from Canada? It's apparently easier for the French to process the Canadian seeds than the native Burgundian mustard seeds.

Regardless of the mustard, this vinaigrette is as simple as it is delicious; nice with peppery veg! It's also nice to marinate onions or shallots in this dressing ahead of time.

Dijon Vinaigrette a la 'Rillo'

1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 tbsp capers
1/2 tbsp anchovy paste
3 pickled garlic cloves, minced then smashed to a paste with side of knife
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil

Whisk all ingredients but oil. When thoroughly combined, whisk in oil in steady stream to form emulsion. Dip a salad leaf into the dressing, taste to test. Adjust seasonings: salt, pepper, oil and acid as necessary.

Now go enjoy a big healthy salad for dinner! Maybe throw some fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, sliced red onion, roasted red peppers, green olives, artichoke hearts, and grilled chicken (or even canned albacore tuna!), maybe a few leaves of basil! Hearty and satisfying.

fish tacos and french fries

Made fish tacos and homemade fries tonight, in part based on this fish taco recipe.

Some notes:

• If you're gonna do fries as well, you really should have 2 separate fryers going. I blanched and fried the fries first, then did the fish, and the fries were a little cold.
• Blanched the fries for 2 minutes at 325 degrees, then about 2-3 minutes at 375 degrees. They puff up this way, and have a perfect texture (used yellow potatoes).
• For fish sauce, yogurt would be good...I thinned it out with a little milk. Really needs crema or something for a more sour tang. Maybe buttermilk? It needs to be thinned out enough to be kinda runny.
• Batter in the original flour-to-beer ratio was pretty runny, perhaps too runny. You get more of a gossamer-thin layer of crust this way; you could see the fish texture thru the batter. Adding about 1/4 cup of flour made it thicker like a fish n chips thing, a non-translucent coating. Thinner, original consistency would be a more crispy, wispy layer, and I like something a little more substantial.
• Sauce: good flavors, but I think maybe too much spices, it needed something to kick up the freshness. Less dill next time! Next time, use yogurt like original recipe, mexican crema, or buttermilk. Also consider adding some garlic, like in aioli.
• Fresh tilapia works well: it's semi-firm, very clean and very mild tasting, totally delish.
  

Fish Tacos My Way
Serves 2-3

Batter
Sauce
Corn tortillas
2 tilapia filets, cut into 1" wide strips, 2.5-3.5" lenghts
1/2 head of cabbage (green preferred, or red), sliced very thin
At least 4 cups vegetable oil

Mix the sauce ingredients, and set aside.
Heat oil to 350-375.
Mix batter ingredients with whisk.
Dip fish in batter, shake off excess, and put into fryer (about 7-9 pieces at a time, depending on the pot)
Fry for 1 minute, flip sides, fry for 1-2 minutes.
Remove onto paper towels.
Season with salt, and serve immediately.
Make a taco with some cabbage, corn tortilla, some fish and some sauce.


Sauce

1/2 cup mayo
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 tsp dried dill (was originally 1/2 tsp, was too much)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
Salt + pepper to taste
1 habanero or jalapeno, minced* (I left this out)

Batter
1c flour (+ extra 1/4c)
1 tsp baking powder
1 can/bottle (12oz) cold beer (preferably a golden Mexican lager, like Corona, Pacifico, Tecate, etc. I used Olympia, which worked fine)
2 tsp table salt

Whisk together all but 1/4 c. flour all ingredients just before battering fish. Whisk together; add as much reserved flour (up to 1/4 cup) to make it "thick enough", so that it's not transparent when it's on the fish. The batter should be thick enough so that it's just beyond watery, runny, and transparent, so you don't see the fish through the batter. Not quite as thick as pancake batter, maybe a little thinner. This photo of how the batter drips off in the original recipe is a good example. If it's too thick, thin out with a little more beer (or water, or seltzer water), if necessary. Too thin, add some more flour.

kick ass tri tip rub

Made tri tip this evening for our friend Ray and Patrick. Ray is a nurse who works in helicopter trauma transport, Patrick works for a singing group. They spent the afternoon with us today, drinking wine, marinating in the jacuzzi, enjoying dinner, port and multiple games of Catchphrase. They really enjoyed the tri-tip...and I even surprised myself at how good it was!

Tri tip turned out kick ass. About 15-17 minutes on medium heat setting on the Weber, 10 minutes on 1st side, 7 minutes on 2nd side, with 10-15 minutes rest was pretty perfect medium rare. But best part was crust: the rub was beautiful this time! I think the sugar is what made this really come together, compared to my previous rubs. I'd like to share the recipe with you.

Magickal Tri Tip Rub

3 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper (use spice/coffee grinder!)
2 tbsp cane sugar (or other white sugar)
1 tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp mesquite smoke flavor (dry malt base)

Combine all spices in a small jar with lid. Rub tri tip with olive oil. Coat thoroughly and rub with spice blend. Let sit for at least 6 hours.

Cook tritip over medium indirect heat (about 350-425 degrees) for 15-17 minutes for medium rare.

oh man eggplant parmigiana

I made this recipe based on what I had seen on Bobby Flay's Throwdown episode with Mike's Deli for Eggplant Parmesan. Bought some beautiful eggplants at the Ojai farmer's market, and decided to try this recipe earlier this week. It was totally amazing! If there was ever a meal that a vegetarian would enjoy, this is it!

Oh Man Eggplant Parmigiana

Serves 4

• Vegetable Oil
• 2 medium eggplants
• 1-2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs, beaten
  
• Homemade Bread Crumbs
  
• 1 jar Classico Roasted Garlic tomato sauce (or marinara sauce)
  
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced or crumbled.
  

Homemade Crumbs

• 4 cups stale white bread, cubed about 3/4-1" pieces (such as homemade sourdough)
  
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp table salt

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Process to desired consistency (a sandy consistency works well for the eggplant parmigiana).

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and heat oil in a large pan, Dutch oven or deep-fryer.
2. Wash the eggplant, and slice into 1/4-inch thick slices the long way using a mandoline (or a commercial bread/meat slicer). You don't have to peel it! Sprinkle with flour as you place it in a bowl.
   
3. In a separate bowl beat eggs with 1 tbsp water. Dip the eggplant into the egg to coat both sides. Then dip in bread crumbs, pressing breadcrumbs in place on each side. Shake off excess, and place on a large tray.
4. Once the oil is hot, put the eggplant in the hot oil a few pieces at a time (in batches, don't crowd!) and fry until golden brown on both sides, about 60-90 seconds on each side. Remove with skimmer and drain on paper towels, salting immediately after.
   
5. Once all of the eggplant has been fried, get a rectangular baking pan and start the layering as follows:

• tomato sauce to the bottom of the pan,
• then the eggplant, more sauce, fresh mozzarella, Romano cheese,
• eggplant-sauce-cheese
• repeat until you have reached the top of the pan. Top off with sauce, mozzarella, and grated Romano

Place the eggplant into the oven and cook for 20 to 25 minutes.

Here are some photos of my recent results:

gazpacho and fresh bread

It's a hot summer day today, so gazpacho seems to be a perfect fit. Great heirloom tomatoes from the Farmers market. Decided to try Mark Bittman's recipe from "Best Recipes In the World". I didn't have any "good quality stale bread", I decided to bake some of my own from the same book ("European White Bread"), with a little twist of my own.

Gazpacho

Makes a giant bowl, serves 4-6

2 lbs tomatoes (1 giant heirloom and 1 large tomato)
1/3 English cucumber, peeled
1 red pepper, cored and seeded
1 garlic clove, peeled
4 slices stale bread (or toasted Fresh Bread*) + water for soaking
1 or more tbsp. good quality spanish Sherry vinegar
1 tsp kosher salt
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, preferably Spanish
1 cup water (plus more, see notes)


Take a slice of tomato, a thin slice of red pepper, and some cucumber. Mince each and set aside as garnish.

Soak bread in water for 5 minutes, then drain, and squeeze out remaining water.

Rough chop tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, and garlic. In two batches, add to food processor or blender, with about 1/2 cup water in each batch, puree until smooth.

Recombine in big soup bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Soak bread for 5 minutes in water, and squeeze out. In batches, add to blender, and puree for 3 minutes, add olive oil while running, puree for 1 more minute.

Strain thru chinois if a ultra-silky texture is required.

Garnish bowls with minced veggies.

Notes: Bittman calls for 6 cups of water! That's crazy! Jose Andres doesn't add any in one recipe I read, and adds only 2 cups in another. What is Bittman thinking? It appears cold water is added at the end to achieve a certain consistency. I think at most, 1 or maybe 2 cups water TOTAL is all that's necessary. Add more to improve a thin texture. I used 3 cups, and it was plenty, any more and it would be too watery.

Results:

• Adding the bread and oil makes a very smooth, paler, creamy texture. The EVOO adds a pepperiness, depending on the style.
• Very very delicious! Beckey and I really liked it.
• Nice texture, very silky when thru chinois.
  
• Vey refreshing! Great light dinner with a bottle of wine and some bread.
  

European White Bread

(Based on Bittman's recipe in "Best Recipes in the World"; I added sourdough starter for extra flavor, as well as a bit of olive oil for richness).

3 cups bread flour + 1 tbsp
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp kosher salt

Combine flour, yeast, starter and water in mixer bowl. Knead on lowest setting with dough hook for 2 minutes. Cover and let rest for 20 min. Knead with dough hook for 20 minutes. Turn out onto a floured board, shape into round ball, and put in floured cloth proofing basket. Cover with inflated plastic bag (a fruit/veggie bag works well) and let rise for about 1 hour, until a little less than doubled.

At 1 hour, preheat the oven to 500 deg F. (Preheating will take about 30 min!)

Now watch your dough for the next 30 minutes or so. It was hot in the house today (probably about 78 degrees), and at 1.5 hours it was doubled but at 2 hours started to collapse. If it starts to collapse, probably overproofed, so it won't turn out as well, but still edible. Don't go more than 2 hours!

As soon as it's doubled, turn out gently onto well floured peel, slide onto baking stone, add 1 cup hot water to broiler pan at bottom, and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove and let cool on wire rack for 15-30 minutes before slicing.

Results:

• Mine started to collapse, a bit overproofed. Didn't get a good oven spring, a fairly flat, biscotti height disk.
• Pretty good crust browning & crunch and flavor, considering short rise time.
  
• Try using milk instead of water!
• I think possibly a little too wet. Cut down water (or milk) to 2/3 cup.
  
• For next time, add 2 tbsp wheat germ or whole wheat flour; should give extra nuttiness

back from France

Had some great food, especially at Le Montrachet for lunch, incredible (but expensive - 190Euro) meal: 3 course lunch menu, with several amuse bouche & palate cleansers. Yum.

And the wine, ooohhhh...I love Puligny-Montrachet. We had either one of these (I don't know which one, I do know it was a 2007 Puligny-Montrachet):

Premier cru - François Carillon PULIGNY MONTRACHET « Les Folatières » 2007
Villages - Pascal PULIGNY MONTRACHET 2007
Villages - François Carillon PULIGNY MONTRACHET 2007

We also had
Marc Morey CHASSAGNE MONTRACHET « Morgeot » 2005, which was a nice red

Their current wine list is available online


On my last night in France, had andouillette, a grilled tripe sausage, at a bouchon called "Les Lyonnais" in Lyon. Despite others complaints about andouilette being stinky, I thought it was totally delicious and not stinky at all, in fact, very herby. I didn't know the interior of the sausage was tripe, but it was herby, garlicky and delicious.

pizza sauce and garlic dipping sauce

Oh yeah, here is a copy of the PJ's Pizza sauce recipe:

Papa John's Pizza Sauce
1 10 3/4-ounce can of tomato puree
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Combine ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
Makes 1 cup.

Special Garlic Sauce
1/2 cup margarine spread
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Combine ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Microwave on 1/2 power for 20 seconds. Stir.

sourdough pizza #3

Was reading the Pizzamaking.com web site when I came across this recipe for Papa John's Pizza Sauce . More than the sauce, I was intrigued by another author's recipe for pizza dough:

3 C KA bread flour
1 1/3 C water
1/2 t ADY
1/2 t salt
1/2 t sugar

Then he did this:

"Proofed the ADY in 1/3 C of water and all the sugar. Then added the yeast mixture to 1 cup flour and mixed for 3-4 minutes (Kitchen Aid dough hook setting #1). Rest for 20 minutes. Added salt, and remainder of flour. Mixed for 13-15 minutes. Rest for 20 minutes. Placed into tupperware with a few drops of oil. Then into the refrigerator for 2 days...bench rise for 3-4 hours. Made 2 12" skins, topped, then into preheated stone at 500. Cooked in 7-8 minutes. Light and airy, and yet crisp. "

Made me rethink my hydrations, and using active dry yeast altogether. So here's another variation; bumping up water, wheat germ & sugar, and increasing ferment time.

Makes 1 large size pizza, perhaps 14-16".

3 c bread flour
1 c water
1/2 c active sourdough starter (I use my LBB starter)
2 tbsp wheat germ
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp table salt

1. Add all ingredients except salt to mixing bowl.
2. Mix using dough hook for 2 min. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 min.
3. NOW ADD SALT. Mix with dough hook on speed 2 for 8 minutes. Dough will be soft and sticky.
   
4. Place dough in oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap. Let rest for 2 hour at room temp.
   
5. Refrigerate dough in bowl for 24-48 hours.
6. Remove dough 3 hours before baking.
   
7. 30 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 550 degrees; make sure your pizza stone is in there.
   
8. Dip dough in flour & shake off excess. On a very well floured board, stretch dough into shape.
9. Transfer dough to parchment paper on rimless baking sheet (or parchment on pizza peel)
10. Slide pizza into oven, on stone, located 2nd shelf from top.
    
11. Add 1 cup hot water to broiler pan at bottom of oven.
    
12. Add toppings and bake for 10 minutes, or until crust is browned as desired.

Results:

• Crust thickness (1=thin CPK, 3=normal PJ Dominos, 5=thick Chicago style): 3
  
• Crust rise (1=no bubbles/some bubbling/5=big bubbles everywhere): 3
  
• Crust crunch (1=eiscafe soft, 5=cracker hard): 2
  
• Crust blistering (1=no blistering, 5=clear, perfect blistering): 2
  
• Crust chew (1=not chewy,5=very chewy): 3
  
• Crust doneness (1=dough still raw, 5=browned and cooked through): 2
  
• Crust texture hole size (1=small, 3=med, 5=large): 3
  
• Crust texture hole regularity (1=even, 3=a little irregular, 5=very irregular): 3.5
  
• Crust browning: (1=pale/white, 3=browning, 5=chocolate brown): 1
  
• Crust sourness (1=not sour, 5=very sour):1
  

Notes:

• Dough by comparison to #1 was pretty dry; didn't stick to mixer bottom.
• After 10 minutes, bottom was still pale, as though it didn't cook through, but it appeared cooked through.
  
• When stretching the dough, it stretched nice and thin, and bubbles were visible throughout, just didn't bake out correctly.
  
• Barely hints of sourness.
  
• Wheat germ added nice nuttiness, but subtle
• Crust was nice and tender
  
• Would need to re-do this recipe, as was too pale

For Next Time

• Rotate pizza 180 degrees after 1st 5 minutes.
• Perhaps add more water?
  
• Perhaps add less sugar, oil and salt?
  

Sourdough pizza #2

Trying out some sourdough pizza dough again. This time doubling the recipe, should make one thick pizza. Based on CPK recipe but adding LBB starter.

I was watching Guy Fieri at a pizza place in Glendale, AZ. The guy made a wood fired pizza, oven temp was 800 deg F, and cooked pizza for 4 minutes. Cheese was bubbling like molten lava on top! My oven doesn't go that high :( But I'll make do. Decided to kick up oven temp to 550F this time, and it seemed to help. I also used bread flour this time instead of AP flour.

Makes 1 large size pizza, perhaps 14-16".

3 c bread flour
1/2 c + 1 tbsp water
1/2 c active sourdough starter (I use my LBB starter)
1 tbsp wheat germ
1.5 tsp active yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp table salt

1. Add all ingredients except salt to mixing bowl.
2. Mix using dough hook for 2 min. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 min.
3. NOW ADD SALT. Mix with dough hook for 8 minutes. Dough will be very soft and sticky.
   
4. Place dough in oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap. Let rest for 2 hours at room temp. Dough will still be very soft and sticky.
   
5. Refrigerate dough in bowl for 12 hours. (Went into fridge about 10:00pm or so).
6. Remove dough 2 hours before baking. (came out at 10am from fridge, sat until 12 noon).
   
7. 30 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 550 degrees; make sure your pizza stone is in there.
   
8. Dip dough in flour & shake off excess. On a very well floured board, stretch dough into shape.
9. Transfer dough to parchment paper on rimless baking sheet (or parchment on pizza peel)
10. Slide pizza into oven, on stone, located 2nd shelf from top.
    
11. Add 1 cup hot water to broiler pan at bottom of oven.
    
12. Add toppings and bake for 10 minutes, or until crust is browned as desired.

Results:

• Crust thickness (1=thin CPK, 3=normal PJ Dominos, 5=thick Chicago style): 3.5
  
• Crust rise (1=no bubbles/some bubbling/5=big bubbles everywhere): 2.5
  
• Crust crunch (1=eiscafe soft, 5=cracker hard): 3
  
• Crust blistering (1=no blistering, 5=clear, perfect blistering): 3.5
  
• Crust chew (1=not chewy,5=very chewy): 4
• Crust doneness (1=dough still raw, 5=browned and cooked through): 5
  
• Crust texture hole size (1=small, 3=med, 5=large): 2.5
  
• Crust texture hole regularity (1=even, 3=a little irregular, 5=very irregular): 2.5
  
• Crust browning: (1=pale/white, 3=browning, 5=chocolate brown): 4.3
• Crust sourness (1=not sour, 5=very sour): 1
  

Notes:

• Dough by comparison to #1 was pretty dry; didn't stick to mixer bottom.
• Went a little hotter on the oven. Cooking time was exactly 10 minutes, which was perfect for this size pie and dough wetness.
• Crust bottom was 85% perfect: wood-fired brown, more on one side than the other. Brown part was thin and cracker-like, while rest of interior was soft.

For Next Time

• Try white sugar instead of honey, and possibly increase a little (2-3 tbsp)
• Rotate pizza 180 degrees after 1st 5 minutes.
• Try slightly more hydration (+3 tbsp water instead of +1)
  
• Try 2 tbsp wheat germ instead of 1; couldn't really taste 1, didn't add significant nuttiness.
  

Mushroom Bacon soup

2 weeks ago, the local supermarket had a special: button mushrooms for $0.50 per package! Unheard of! The reason was the "sell by" date was the following day. So I brought them home that day and cooked them up. I like them as a spread on grandma's bread, in omelettes, etc. They had been sitting in the fridge for a few days, so I thought I would try something new. Well, it turned out pretty well. I made it without the cream, but it would be nice for some added richness.

Mushroom Bacon Soup

Serves 2

1 medium onion, diced
2-3 strips bacon
1 container button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 shot (1.5 oz) brandy
2 tbsp butter
2 sprigs fresh thyme, stems removed
1 + 1 cup (2 c. total) homemade chicken stock (or good-quality boxed chicken stock)
1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat chicken stock in a small pot to a boil; reduce heat to low.
2. In a skillet, cook bacon, draining on towels. Pour off all bacon fat from pan. Over high heat, add 2 tbsp butter. Add onions, and cook til translucent, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add a shot (1.5 oz) of brandy. Flame off (if desired) or cook til evaporates, about 2 minutes. Reemove from heat.
4. Reserve about 2 tbsp mushroom/bacon mixture for garnish.
5. Add remaining mixture to blender. Add about 1 cup stock, puree mushrooms. Adjust mixture with remaining (or more) stock if needed, so it's more like soup (a bit runny) and NOT like baby food (or applesauce).
6. Return to pot over medium heat to keep warm. Add cream if desired, and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve in bowls, garnished with reserved mushroom/bacon mixture and a sprinkle of thyme.

Southwestern Chicken Crepes with Summer Corn and Red Peppers

Serves 2-4

Filling

Garlic Cream Sauce (recipe follows)
Basil Oil (recipe follows)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow or white onion, small dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red pepper, cored, seeded and cut into small dice
1 fresh cob of corn, kernels trimmed off with knife
dash of chili powder (1/8 tsp)
dash of smoked sweet paprika (1/8 tsp)
2 sprigs fresh thyme, stems removed
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 chicken breast, cooked, and cut into 1/2" cubes
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. First make the Garlic Cream sauce, and set it to reduce.
   
   
2. Next make the Basil oil, and set aside.
   
   
3. In a skillet over medium high heat, heat olive oil and add onion. Cook for 5 minutes until soft and translucent, stirring occasionally (you don't want it to brown though). Add garlic, red pepper, corn, chili powder, paprika and thyme. Cook over high heat for 2 minutes.
   
   
4. In a small bowl, combine butter and flour with fork into uniform paste. Whisk paste into cream sauce. Increase heat on cream sauce, whisk butter mixture into cream sauce, and bring to a boil; it should thicken.
   
   
5. Return skillet to high heat. Add cream sauce and diced chicken to skillet all at once, stirring to heat through, about 1-2 minutes. Sauce should be pretty thick; adjust with more milk if too thick.
   
   
6. Remove from heat and set aside.
   
   
7. Make crepes.
   
   
8. Reheat filling if necessary. Wrap filling in crepe. Serve crepe with a little extra filling on top, and drizzled with some Basil Oil.

Garlic Cream Sauce
Makes about 1 cup

1 cup half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 sprig fresh thyme, stem removed
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine 1st 4 ingredients in small saucepot over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and let cook until reduced to about 1/2. Salt and pepper to taste.

VARIATION: consider adding 1 tbsp pureed chipotle en adobo to garlic cream sauce.

Crepes (makes 6 crepes)
My recipe is from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp melted butter

Blend all in blender until smooth. Let stand for at least 30 minutes.

To cook crepes, brush a nonstick skillet with a little melted butter over medium high heat. Pour in a batter in center of pan about 1/2 the size of pan, and tilt/swirl immediately to coat whole pan. Keep swirling over heat until batter freezes. Cook over medium high heat for about 2 minutes. Carefully flip onto 2nd side, cook for about 1-2 minutes. Remove onto plate, and repeat with remaining. Use 1st cooked side as presentation side.

Leftover crepes can be wrapped in plastic wrap and will keep 3 days in fridge.

Basil Oil
Makes about 1/4 cup

20 leaves of fresh basil, washed
Olive oil

Heat a small pot with water to a boil. Add leaves, swish for 2-3 seconds and immediately remove into a bowl with ice water to cool. Once cool, remove leaves and squeeze out all water, pat dry with towel. Add to blender with olive oil to barely cover. Blend until smooth. Pass through strainer or chinois, scraping bits from outside of strainer.

Bottle in squeeze bottle and refrigerate; keeps for about 1 week.

Sourdough pizza dough #1

Trying out some sourdough pizza dough. Based on CPK recipe but adding LBB starter

Makes 1 small CPK size pizza, perhaps 12-14".

1.5 c AP flour
1/4 c + 3 tbsp water
1/4 c active sourdough starter (I use my LBB starter)
1 tsp active yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt

1. Add all ingredients except salt to mixing bowl.
2. Mix using dough hook for 2 min. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 min.
3. NOW ADD SALT. Mix with dough hook for 8 minutes. Dough will be very soft and sticky.
   
4. Place dough in oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap. Let rest for 2 hours at room temp. Dough will still be very soft and sticky.
   
5. Refrigerate dough in bowl for 7 to 24 hours. (Went into fridge about 8:00pm or so).
6. Remove dough 2 hours before baking.
   
7. 30 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 500 degrees; make sure your pizza stone is in there.
   
8. On a very well floured board, stretch dough into shape.
9. Transfer dough to parchment paper on rimless baking sheet (or parchment on pizza peel)
   
10. Add toppings and bake for 9-10 minutes, or until crust is browned as desired.

Results:

• Crust thickness (1=thin CPK, 3=normal PJ Dominos, 5=thick Chicago style): 1
  
• Crust rise (1=no bubbles/some bubbling/5=big bubbles everywhere) : 1
  
• Crust crunch (1=eiscafe soft, 5=cracker hard):2
• Crust chew (1=not chewy,5=very chewy): 3
  
• Crust texture hole size (1=small, 3=med, 5=large): 1
  
• Crust texture hole regularity (1=even, 3=a little irregular, 5=very irregular):1
  
• Crust browning: (1=pale/white, 3=browning, 5=chocolate brown): 2.5

Notes:

• Dough was very wet in the mixer, very sticky
  
• I let it rise for 48 hours in the fridge; perhaps too long; it was pretty wet/sticky.
  
• When I stretched it, used too much flour; on the parchment, the flour on bottom didn't cook and so there was raw flour on the underside of the pizza

Grandma's Bread #12

It's become a hot July. I was cleaning out the fridge, and started looking at my starter, which was looking a little brown, and so I started thinking about grandma's bread again. Haven't made any since April, and I bought some buttermilk over the weekend with the idea of making some more.

Grandma's Bread #12 - July 23, 2009

Makes 2 loaves

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. In mixing bowl, combine wheat flour + yeast. Transfer rye mixture to mixing bowl. Add honey. Using beater attachment, mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is uniform. It will look like a thick, uniform batter at this point. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using beater for 4 minutes, dough hook for 4 minutes, both set to "2" (low speed). You may need to clean the dough hook once in a while. Dough will be very thick and sticky; it will never clear the sides of the bowl, more like a thick wet batter...it will not stop sticking! This is why the stand mixer is so handy. Total kneading time is 8 minutes. You will see some gluten strands forming in the dough towards the end.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Using a wooden spoon or stiff bowl scraper, turn out the sticky dough onto a very well floured board. Form into a single round; dough will be very soft but with a well-floured board, won't be very sticky and will form a smooth surface. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel pretty soft, not quite baby's bottom but close) and place in bread pans. Press down on dough to get loaf to expand across the bottom of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 2.5 hours.

7. Cover tightly with oiled plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 7.5 hours.

8. Cover loaves with a towel, and let rise again at room temp (~74F) for 2 hours.

9. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center with a serrated knife or a sharp razor blade, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for exactly 40 minutes; they will look dark chocolate brown (almost black!) on top.

10. Take bread from oven, remove from pans. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

11. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

• Forgot to oil the plastic wrap, so it got stuck to crust when I pulled it off. Made it extra rustic :( Best bet would be an inflated bag in the fridge; or a large rectangular ClickClack or other see-thru small airtight plastic cannister. So when I recovered with a towel, I dusted with some extra flour. Had a nice looking "snow dust on mountains" effect.
  
• Nice dark brown top crust. Bottom crust is solid tan with a few chocolate-y spots in the corners.
  
• Interior is perfect, just like #11 that proofed in the fridge. Same flavor, same texture. Would've risen more if I had oiled the plastic wrap.
  
• Didn't brush tops with butter this time. Didn't seem to matter (today, at least).
  

Notes/Next time:

• We'll see
  

tomato pie

Haven't made this one yet, but borrowed it from someone else's web site. The recipe comes from the Martha Stewart Living cookbook. Looks really good! Evan Kleinman's "Good Food" blog on KCRW was been talking about "Pie-a-Day" and she referred to her liking of this recipe.

MAKES ONE 10-INCH PIE; SERVES 8

Gruyère cheese and cherry tomatoes provide a savory version of that summer classic, the double-crusted fruit pie. Resist the temptation to eat this pie straight from the oven. Wait until it has reached room temperature; the juice from the tomatoes will have had time to collect. Serve it as a light lunch or as a side dish.

Ingredients

• 2¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 2½ teaspoons sugar
• 1¼ cups grated Gruyère cheese
• 1 cup (2 sticks) plus 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 pounds assorted cherry tomatoes
• ½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large egg

Method

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine 2½ cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1 cup grated cheese. Add 1 cup butter pieces; process until mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds. With machine running, gradually pour ¼ cup of ice water through the feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without becoming wet or sticky; do not process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount of the mixture together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
2. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each into a disk; wrap in plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour.
3. Melt remaining tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent and softened, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool slightly.
4. Place tomatoes in a large bowl. Toss with remaining ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons flour, 1½ teaspoons salt, and 1½ teaspoons sugar, and the basil and pepper; when the onion mixture is cooled, add to tomato mixture; toss to combine. Transfer the mixture to a deep 9- or 10-inch pie plate. Set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll out half the dough into a circle 1 inch larger than the pie plate. (The remaining dough may be frozen up to 2 months for later use.) Transfer rolled dough to top of plate; tuck in edges to seal. Make 3 to 4 small slits in the top crust; form a decorative edge.
6. In a small bowl, mix the egg with 1 teaspoon water for an egg wash. Brush the egg wash over the crust; sprinkle the crust with the remaining ¼ cup of grated cheese. Place the pie plate on a baking sheet to catch drips; bake until the crust is golden and the insides are bubbling, about 50 minutes. Bring to room temperature, and serve.

Dinner party

Chris and Larisa are coming over for a visit; they just got back from Spain. We're looking forward to their stories and photos!

On tonight's menu:

Pastry bites (TraJo appetizer)
Spinach salad
Peppered New York Steak with Port-Cherry Reduction
Swiss "Rosti" Potato and Leek Cake
Roasted mixed vegetables (crookneck squash/zucchini/red peppers/onion)

Dessert: who knows?? Zouk is bringing it. I also made a zingy lemon sorbet for dessert (or perhaps a palate cleanser)

Should be a fun evening! I'm doing prep right now:

• Sliced the veg, EVOO + seasonings, waiting on sheet pan
• Set the port-cherry sauce on to reduce
  
• Made the steak rub and seasoned the steaks
• Sliced the leeks, washed them, peeled the potatoes

Rosti turned out well; I micro'd 1/2 of the potatoes before shredding; frankly, I probably didn't have to micro any of them. Worked well in 9" cast iron pan, had to do 3 flips, but it came out nice n crispy on 2nd side.

blue cheese dip II

Here's a revised version of the blue cheese for wings. This one adds a little dill (which I've seen in copycat ranch dressing recipes) and onion powder. Also going smaller qty on sour cream, and using mayo instead of yogurt (didn't have plain yogurt)

Blue Cheese Dip II

4oz of mild blue cheese, such as Danish Rosenborg, crumbled
1/4 cup mayo
8oz (1/2 tub) sour cream
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp. thyme, dried
1/2 tsp. oregano, dried
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. dried dill
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. white (or white wine) vinegar

Results: immediately, well balanced flavor, slight garlic in the finish, but can taste nearly all the seasonings. May need a touch more salt. We'll see tomorrow, after it is refrigerated overnight.

Chicken stir fry with Brown Sauce

Don't know how better to describe this one. I made chicken stir fry over the weekend, and was enjoying some leftovers this evening, and after tasting the leftover brown sauce I thought "boy that's good!" Too bad it was relatively improvised, so I'm not sure on the quantities; but I am sure on the ingredients.


Chicken Stir Fry with Green Beans

2 chicken breasts
1 cup Brown Sauce (recipe follows)
1 cup frozen green beans
1 small onion, halved and sliced thin
1 large or two small red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and sliced thin
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced into rounds
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp hot bean paste
Salt + pepper

1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp beef stock

Start the sauce first, and keep it simmering on a burner.

Over high heat, heat 1 tbsp oil in skillet until almost smoking. Add onion, season with salt, stir 3x and cook undisturbed for 2 minutes. Add bell peppers, stir 3x and cook undisturbed for 1 minute. Stir occassionally and cook for 1 more minute. Add 2 tbsp hot bean paste + garlic, cook for 30 seconds, then transfer pepper-onion mixture to a bowl/plate.

Blanch the green beans in Brown Sauce for about 2 minutes, and remove using wire skimmer. Add to pepper onion mixture. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and beef stock to form a slurry. Whisk into brown sauce, and reduce heat.

Season chicken liberally with salt + pepper. Heat remaining 1 tbsp oil in skillet over high heat until almost smoking. Add chicken all at once, and spread out quickly into single layer. Let cook undisturbed for 2 minutes. Stir and cook for 2 more minutes. Add hot bean paste, and stir. Add onion/pepper/bean mixture to chicken. Add in about 1/2 cup sauce, and cook for 1 minute, until sauce bubbles and thickens. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Serve immediately with white or brown rice.

Variations:

• Try marinating chicken in cornstarch/brandy/salt/pepper
• Add orange zest/orange peel to veggies at the beginning
  

Brown Sauce

2 cups beef stock
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp quality balsamic vinegar (or lower quality balsamic vinegar, cooked to reduce by 50%)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tbsp brandy
Salt + pepper to taste
1 tbsp fresh ginger (minced) or ginger juice (optional)

Combine all ingredients, bring to a boil, turn down and let simmer uncovered for 30 minutes until reduced. Adjust seasonings to taste. Ready to use, or refrigerate overnight for better flavor.

Pineapple sauce

Made a tasty sauce with some fresh leftover pineapple a few weeks ago. The acid here will help it keep well, like a ketchup.

2 cups fresh pineapple, cubed
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp. minced ginger, or 1 tbsp ginger juice.
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp. white wine or cider vinegar (unseasoned rice vinegar is optional)
1 tbsp lemon juice
Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt to taste

In small saucepot, heat pineapple, sugar and water, and ginger juice. Cook for 15-20 minutes until pineapple is soft. Remove from heat, add pineapple to blender and blend until smooth. Add back to saucepot, and whisk in, ketchup, vinegar, lemon juice, and optional chili flakes. Heat for 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste. Strain and serve.

Customize it: consider adding some lime juice, or some fruit zest.

Scallops with Limoncello Thyme Sauce

Made scallops from the ATK recipe on Wed. night. They were prev. frozen, but still pretty good. I think the key for searing is high heat, big pan (so as not to crowd them), just a LITTLE oil (maybe a 1-2 tbsp), and at least 3 minutes on the initial side undisturbed.

ATK suggested a lemon/thyme/wine sauce, I decided to switch it up and do it limoncello. It was a good call!

Limoncello Thyme Sauce

1 shallot, minced (or about 3 tbsp onion, minced)
4 cloves garlic, roasted in cast iron, then minced/mashed
1/2 cup limoncello
Zest of one lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh thyme
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
Salt + pepper to taste

Drain fat from scallop pan. Return to medium-high heat. Add 1 tbsp butter, and saute shallot for 3 minutes, until soft. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add limoncello, and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat, add zest, lemon juice, thyme, and whisk in remaining 2 tbsp butter. Adjust with salt & pepper. Add scallops, and heat for 1 minute or so.

Jose Andres' Aioli

This recipe is a neat exercise in technique.

From Mark Bittman: "When I joined Jose (Andres) for an early dinner with his friends on a hilltop in the Pyrenees, I expected a relaxing day. Yet as everyone set about the simple task of grilling big coils of butifarra (Catalonian sausages), pig's feet, lamb chops, peppers, and onions, he put me to work on this three-ingredient sauce that took 30 arduous minutes. I was ordered to make it without using a food processor, and, I must say, it was worth it to observe the old-fashioned alchemy of a sauce gradually emulsifying before my eyes. Fortunately, this pungent emulsion (essentially aioli made without egg) can be made in a food processor. Use it sparingly, as it packs a wallop of garlicky flavor."

Ali-i-oli (aioli)

Salt to taste 2 tablespoons minced garlic (roughly chopped if you're using a food processor) 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

To make my hand, add a pinch of salt and the garlic to a mortar and steadily pound the garlic with a pestle. Add a few drops of the oil, continue pounding, and repeat until the mixture begins to emulsify. When an emulsion starts to form, you can add the oil a little faster. Continue until the sauce is completely emulsified and at the thickness you like, about 30 minutes.

To make by machine, put the garlic in a blender or a food processor and turn the machine on. While it's running, add the oil in a slow, steady stream. When an emulsion starts to form, you can add it a little faster. It's done when it's full emulsified and at the thickness you like. Salt to taste and serve.

customized pulled pork

Bought a 5lb pork shoulder today, on sale, for $5, from Vons. Decided to cook it up, but it took nearly 8 hours (cooked to 175 deg internal, because I'm gonna slice/chop it).

Took 3 stages of prep:

1. Slather
2. Rub
3. Mop

Here are the related recipes:

Slather:
1/4 cup Tecate or other light-flavored beer
3 tbsp prepared yellow mustard
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp louisiana hot sauce (like Red Rooster)
1 tsp worceshire sauce
Fresh ground pepper
Salt to taste

Whisk to combine. Taste to adjust mustard, etc.

Rub:
this one is Wolfie Puck's. I like its sweeter flavor.
4 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp onion powder
4 tbsp garlic powder
4 tbsp thyme
4 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp mild paprika
2 tbsp hot paprika
4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tsp ground coriander
4 tsp ground black pepper (or 2+2 black + white pepper; that's the original recipe)
2 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp dry mustard (I don't see the mustard in his original recipe, but looks like I add this)
OPTIONAL: a few shakes of hickory smoke powder

Mop: made this one up myself, but inspired by some recipes in Paul Kirk's book; the jack + brown sugar, along with the "holiday spices" give it a (strangely) fruity, pleasant quality.

1/2 cup Jack Daniels
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp worceshire sauce
1 tsp louisiana hot sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
pinch allspice
pinch cloves
pinch cinammon

Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.

The whole process:

1. Pat shoulder dry
2. Slather with slather sauce.
3. Sprinkle with rub, and let sit for 15 minutes.
4. Bake at 250 degrees, unwrapped, for about 4 hours.
5. At 4 hours, FLIP the roast, and rotate it.
   
6. Then start the mop; mop about every 30 minutes; cook for about 4 more hours.
7. For slicing, 165-175 degrees is optimal; for pulling, it's 195-205 degrees. Use a thermometer to check.

Enjoy some delicious pork!

Secret Spice Rub

Well, not so secret. From Bruce Aidells, famous for poultry sausage, this one is on the back of the Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt box. Like I said, not so secret.

1/3 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
2 tbsp fresh ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp light brown sugar
3 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground sage
1 tsp dry thyme
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground fennel

2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dry basil
2 tbsp granulated garlic or garlic powder

Combine ingredients in jar. Seal and shake well. Store for up to 3 months.

Good for meats or poultry.

Grandma's Bread #11

#10 was the best so far (perfect texture, great flavor), so hopefully #11 will be at least as good. I'm doubling the recipe this time, because uncle Gus wants some for easter.

Grandma's Bread #11 - April 10, 2009

Makes 2 loaves

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. Into dough mixture, add white flour, yeast, honey. Mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is uniform. It will look like a thick, uniform batter at this point. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook (or beater attachment) set to "2" (low speed). You may need to clean the dough hook once in a while. Dough will be very thick and sticky; it will never clear the sides of the bowl, more like a thick wet batter...it will not stop sticking! This is why the stand mixer is so handy. Total kneading time is 7 minutes. You will see some gluten strands forming in the dough towards the end.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Using a wooden spoon or stiff bowl scraper, turn out the sticky dough onto a very well floured board. Form into a single round; dough will be very soft but with a well-floured board, won't be very sticky and will form a smooth surface. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel pretty soft, not quite baby's bottom but close) and place in bread pans. Press down on dough to get loaf to expand across the bottom of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 2.5 hours.

7. Cover tightly with oiled plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight, or 7-8 hours (maximum of 24 hours).

8. Cover loaves with a towel, and let rise again at room temp (~74F) for 2 hours.

9. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center with a serrated knife or a sharp razor blade, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped; they will look dark chocolate brown (almost black!) on top. Alternately, should be done somewhere around 190-210 degrees.

10. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

11. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

I baked 4 loaves using this recipe; however, 2 loaves skipped steps 7-8; the remaining two followed the recipe exactly.

The ones that skipped 7-8 (i.e., no refrigerated proofing) ended up with a result exactly like #10, but the bottom crust didn't brown as much. The rise, crumb, etc. were, for all intents and purposes, the same. Good oven spring, good flavor, good crumb, no sogginess.

The ones that I followed steps 7-8 were a whole different animal. I refrigerated for 24 hours, let rise again for 2 hours after coming out of the fridge. They didn't rise that much, but the texture and flavor was totally different: more mellow flavor; larger holes and better chew (more like my sourdough); not as much oven spring (seem to have barely risen); darker crust all around (top+bottom); crust was more thin and "crackery" like my best sourdough. I think I may like this one even better than the full #11, but it's not traditional.

Here's a photo, overnight #11 is LEFT, short rise is RIGHT:



Notes/Next time:

• Doubling the recipe doesn't work with a standard mixer; you have to do 2 separate batches. Split the buttermilk mixture into 2 separate containers; knead separately.

more qucik white bread

Mixed up a full batch of quick white bread last night, with some mods:

• Used unbleached bread flour instead of AP flour
  
• Made sure water was warm (microwave in Pyrex measuring cup for about 1 minute)
• Added about 1 tbsp of honey to the water
• Dissolved yeast in honey water for a minute or two
• Added about 2 tbsp vegetable oil to dough
• Added 6 tbsp gluten
• Added about 3 tbsp active sourdough starter
• Let rise for 15 minutes before going into fridge, where it has remained (almost 12 hours so far)

Packing it up and taking it to June Lake with me!

EDIT 2009-04-10: turned out pretty well. With steam, it had a decent crust. Flavor still isn't nearly as fully developed as sourdoughs or grandmas bread. Rise time post-fridge should probably be 2 hours.

no-knead whole wheat

I like the King Arthur Flour blog, lots of great recipes shared. This no-knead whole wheat caught my eye. Quick, no knead breads are appealing, and this one looks good. I like whole wheat too, so this appeals even more!

* 1 cup lukewarm water
* 1/4 cup orange juice
* 1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
* 3 tablespoons molasses, maple syrup, dark corn syrup, or brown sugar corn syrup
* 2 teaspoons instant yeast
* 1/4 cup Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
* 1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
* 3 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour, white whole wheat preferred


1) Heavily grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan. This loaf tends to stick, so be sure to grease the pan thoroughly with non-stick vegetable oil spray.

2) Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Beat the mixture vigorously for about 3 minutes; an electric mixer set on high speed works well here. You should have a very sticky dough. It won't be pourable, but neither will it be kneadable. (use wet hands if necessary to smooth out). Scoop it into the prepared pan.

3) Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes; it should just about rise to the rim of the pan, perhaps just barely cresting over the rim. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.

4) Uncover the bread, and bake it for about 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it with aluminum foil after 20 minutes. The bread is done when it's golden brown on top, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers between 190°F and 195°F. Remove it from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out onto a rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired; this will keep the crust soft. Cool the bread completely before cutting it.

Notes:

I'm trying my first go-round with a few mods:

1. Using veg oil instead of butter
2. Using molasses
3. Using 2 cups whole wheat + 1 cup white AP flour instead of 3 cups KAF white whole wheat
4. Used same steam baking method I do with all breads
5. I did brush top crust with melted butter once baked.

RESULTS:

• Tender crumb, with very few holes
• Very thin, soft, almost non-existant crust; I would like slightly more crust.
  
• Very soft, not very chewy
• Decent rise; longer rise time (perhaps retard) in fridge could've improved texture & flavor
  
• Definitely taste molasses in there; honey might have been better for sweetness, more gentle
• Could use a little more sweetness (sugar/honey/molasses)
• Beckey liked it a lot, would make it again as-is.
  

quick white bread

Here's a quick white bread recipe I thought I had posted a while back (ED NOTE: looks like I did, back in 5/2008). Can be halved easily for quick stuff.

This recipe makes 4 large loaves.

6.5 cups AP flour
3 cups warm water
1.5 tbsp active dry yeast
1.5 tbsp kosher salt

1. Stir until well combined in a big container (no need to knead!)
2. Rise for 1-2 hours, covered
3. Refrigerate overnight (or at least 3 hours)
4. Preheat oven to 450
5. Pinch off a piece (grapefruit size is good)
6. Shape and let rise for 40 minutes
7. Slash loaf
   
8. Bake with steam for 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown

Use remaining dough within 2 weeks. Follow steps #4-8 when ready to bake.

Pizza pie

I have a migraine this morning, fortunately took ibu quick and it's not that bad. But I feel like making pizza. My buddy Mike from Cleveland gave me his pizza recipe a few years back, and it was pretty good. When we had it at Rashied's house, Mike made some and it was very good: crust was chewy and crisp, nice mild flavor.

Decided to do some research and came across a pizza recipe of a guy trying to emulate Papa John's pizza. Looked interesting so I thought I'd give it a shot. Here goes:

3 cups flour (I used 2.5 cups unbleached AP and .5 cup Bob's red mill semolina; original calls for King Arthur bread flour, or another high(er) gluten flour)
1 cup + 2 tbsp water
1/8 teaspoon instant dry yeast
3 tsp kosher salt
3tbsp + 1 tsp vegetable oil
2tbsp + 1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup pizza sauce
2 cups mozzarella, frozen a tiny bit and diced in food processor into small dice/pellets
About 40 pepperonis

1. Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix with wooden spoon, then hands to combine, so there are no crumbs floating around at the bottom of the bowl.
2. Let rest for 20 minutes in a covered plastic tub on the counter.
3. Knead for 5 minutes on lowest setting with dough hook on stand mixer
4. Form into round, cover and refrigerate in plastic tub. It should stay there at least 3 days, (5 days is better) and can stay up to 8 days.
5. Remove from fridge, and let rest on the counter for 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500 degrees
   
6. Using a HEAVILY floured board (preferably a combo of semolina and unbleached AP), push down & stretch for form a 10" disc.
7. Dock whe whole thing using a dough docker (preferred), fork, or other homemade implement
   
8. Stretch to shape over a 14" pizza screen.
9. Sauce the pizza: start in the middle, and use a ladle to spiral outward.
   
10. Sprinkle the cheese: start around the outside edge, going in a circle. Continue to sprinkle in concentric rings, going inward.
    
11. Bake on the pizza disk in 500degree oven for about 8-9 minutes, watching carefully starting at 6 minutes.
    

Compare to Wolfgang Puck's pizza dough recipe from the Food NEtwork site:

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 cup warm water, 105 to 115 degrees F
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing

Less sugar (honey instead), less oil, different oil (olive vs. vegetable), and much more yeast. That makes sense, though, because his is meant to rise in 2 hours!

Compare that to Jamie Oliver's "Jamie At Home" pizza recipe (halved):

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1.5 teaspoon raw sugar
• 1.25 cup warm water, 105 to 115 degrees F
• 3.5 cups flour (2.5c high-gluten or 00 flour, 1.5c semolina)
  
• 1.5 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Jamie uses more oil, more sugar, more salt, and a tiny bit more flour. Same amount of yeast, similar rise times to the Wolfgang Puck recipe. Probably similar level of hydration. The PJ recipe has more hydration, which should lead to bigger holes. Lower yeast and longer ferment; I have found that it usually results in better flavor!

Incidentally, here's the breakdown of the PJ recipe by weight:

Flour (100%)
Water (56.5%)
Yeast, instant dry (0.14%)
Salt (1.75%)
Vegetable (Soybean) Oil (7.3%)
Sugar (4.8%)

We'll see how all this end up soon! :)

ED NOTE: After a rise time of about 5 days, it was barely risen, but it was soft. Did not brown very well; flavor was OK. Was not very chewy (need to add gluten and/or use high-gluten flour) and not much hole/porous structure. What I did learn is that adding a lot of sugar and oil to the dough really helps with the flavor of pizza crust.

Using a quick recipe (3 cups AP flour, 3 tbsp gluten, 1 cup + 1 tbsp water, 2 tsp instant yeast, 2 tsp kosher salt, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp honey) yielded much better results with a less than 2 hour rise time. I think the biggest trick is using a rimless cookie sheet, parchment paper, and sliding the parchment + pizza direct onto pizza stone on lowest rack.

Grandma's Bread #10

OK, I've decided to use a numbering scheme for Grandma's bread instead of the year. Although the best one so far has been the 1st of 2009, this may be better, and will make it easier to track.

Grandma's Bread #10 - February 1-2 2009

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. Into dough mixture, add white flour, yeast, honey. Mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is uniform. It will look like a thick, uniform batter at this point. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook set to "1" or "2" (low speed). You may need to clean the dough hook once ina while. Dough will be very thick and sticky; it will never clear the sides of the bowl; while mixing, maybe 50% will clear the sides while the other 50% adheres to the bottom. It will not stop sticking! This is why the stand mixer is so handy. Total kneading time is 6-7 minutes. You will see some gluten strands when you're done.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Using a wooden spoon or stiff bowl scraper, turn out the sticky dough onto a very well floured board. Form into a single round; dough will be very soft but with a well-floured board, won't be very sticky and will form a smooth surface. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel pretty soft, not quite baby's bottom but close) and place in bread pans. Press down on dough to get loaf to expand across the bottom of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate covered for 7-8 hours; you can leave it up to (but not more than) 24 hours.

7. Remove loaves from fridge, and REMOVE PLASTIC WRAP carefully; it may be sticky (if it sticks, try pulling gently from the opposite direction). The loaves will have just about doubled in size.

8. Cover loaves with a towel, and let rise again at room temp (~74F) for 1 hour (645-745). Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped; they will look dark chocolate brown (almost black, but not!) on top. Alternately, should be done somewhere around 190-210 degrees.

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

9. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

Pros:

• Crust color, evenness and flavor:
  
• Salt/honey amount:
  
• Texture/crumb:
  
• Rye flavor: good, but mild
  

Cons

• 
  

Notes/Next time:

• Dough is very sticky while mixing; maybe use beater instead of dough hook in mixer? Still use low settings 1-2. It doesn't clear the bowl, EVER. Using a spoon or a scraper to make sure flour at bottom is incorporated as well is important.
  
• Turning out onto WELL-FLOURED board is the key; then it comes together and shapes very easily and smoothly before forming into loaves.
  
• I ran out of honey, so I used a little less than 1/2 cup of honey and added about 1-2 tbsp brown sugar
• I ran out of table salt, so I did 1tsp table salt + 3 tsp kosher salt. I don't know if this will work out the same way, we'll see.
  

potato leek soup

Had some leeks in the fridge from the farmer's market, so decided to make some potato/leek soup last night. I roughly followed the ATK recipe.

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 leeks, white sections only, cut into 1/2" half-moons and well rinsed.
4 gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 box of low sodium chicken stock + 1 cup + more as necessay
Salt & pepper to taste

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat butter and olive oil. Sweat leeks over medium-low heat for 20 minutes until very soft, but not brown. Add potatoes, thyme, bayleaf and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are soft.

Remove bay leaf. Now, you can leave the soup chunky (totally delicious) or transfer it in 2 sections into a blender and puree until smooth. You can also do 1/2-and-1/2; puree some, and recombine it with the chunky, which is really good too. Add more hot chicken stock to the puree if you need to make a thinner soup.

Now season with salt & pepper to taste, and enjoy with some homemade bread. Very hearty, pretty damn healthy and totally delicious.

Bread notes

Baked off "grandma's 2009 bread", as well as 1st loaf of "5-minute artisan" bread.

5-Minute artisan:

• Crumb: very tender, not wet at all, nice holes, fluffy!
  
• Flavor: very clean, like fresh French bread
• Crust: closer to French bread: golden, a bit chewy, thin
• To change: add more salt! Seemed to not be salty enough

Grandma's 2009 bread

• 95%! Hit the jackpot with this one. Perfect crumb, perfect crust, cooked through/not gummy at all; but could use a bit more rye/sour flavor.
  

Grandma's Bread 2009 (#9?)

Trying a totally revised recipe. I spent a bunch of time building a spreadsheet based on what I learned from "The Baking Bible" by Rose Levy Berenbaum.

This new recipe is based on 18% rye flour ratio (i.e., 18% of flour weight). I read that 20% of more of rye makes bread gummy/sticky. This of course is contrary to the amount of rye flour my grandma suggested (closer to 23%)

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. Into dough mixture, add white flour, yeast, honey. Mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is somewhat uniform. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook set to "1" or "2" (low speed). You will need to clean the dough hook often (every 10 seconds or so), because the dough will bunch up a lot, over the top of the dough hook. After a couple of minutes, it MAY stop sticking. Total kneading time should be about 5-7 minutes.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel like ...) and place in bread pans. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate covered for 7-8 hours; you can leave it up to (but not more than) 24 hours.

7. Remove loaves from fridge, remove plastic wrap. They were still pretty wet & sticky but with good bubbles, and soft. Re-shaped loaves: remove, dust with flour, and use the letterfold (tri-fold) technique to reshape as a loaf. Cover with towel, and let rise again in warm place for 3.5 hours. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center; brush tops with butter, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Alternately, should be done somewhere around 190-210 degrees.

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with remaining butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

9. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

Pros:

JACKPOT! I think I hit it 95% on the money

• Crust color, evenness and flavor: perfectly dark brown and toasty!!
  
• Salt/honey amount: perfect
  
• Texture/crumb: perfectly tender, perfectly chewy, with perfect size crumb, cooked perfectly through, not gummy in the middle!
  
• Rye flavor: good, but mild
  

Cons

• Dough was formed by Beckey; it was pretty wet and unshapely after I removed it from the fridge. So I punched it down and reformed it, then let it rise for 1 hour. So it didn't rise as much as it might have, but is still awesome!!
• Could use a bit more rye flavor, but it's a toss up; it doesn't overwhelm with rye, but it's there. A bit more rye/sour would be better to balance the slight sweetness of this recpe.
• There were 2-3 small uneven "parts" in the texture at the bottom of the 2nd loaf, perhaps where a flour "blob" had not been kneaded/incorporated enough, where the texture was tight and did not have bubbles. This was very, very minor however.
  

Next time:

• Maybe no punch down/reform? That was accidental, because Beckey shaped 'em ugly. Might need a tiny bit more flour when shaping the loaf; should lead to larger holes.
  
• Maybe try slightly higher rye percentage (20%)?
  

sourdough starter - daily feeding

Feed your starter 3 times daily as follows:

1. Reserve 1/2 cup of your starter; pour the rest in the garbage
2. To the reserved starter, add 1 cup flour and 1 cup water. Mix to just combined (lumps are OK)
3. Cover tightly and store at room temperature.

Repeat steps 1-3 above 3 times a day: 8am, noon, and about 5pm.

3x per day is optimal, but if you can't manage that, then do 2x: once in the morning, and once in the evening.

After 3 days of feedings, starter will be ready to use in bread recipes. Best time to use starter (i.e., start your bread recipe) is in the morning, assuming you have been feeding it for at least 3 days, and fed it the night before. Starting in the evening will work fine too, just adjust your schedule as necessary.

If you can't feed it for a few days, put it in the fridge. You can keep it there, without feeding, for up to 2 weeks. When ready to bake again, take it out of the fridge, feed it for 3 days, and you're ready to bake again.

sourdough starter - how to begin

Here's a very quick and easy way to make your own sourdough starter. The idea of a starter is that it is an acidic environment in which natural yeasts from the air can thrive and multiply. It's a fun "science experiment" to watch it bubble and grow.

The process will take 4 days or so.

To begin:

1. In a large, non-metallic bowl or container, stir together:
   1.5 cups of white flour
   1/2 cup rye flour
   2 cups water
   
2. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it sit at room temp (70-72deg F) for 3 days. Take a quick look at it once a day, then re-cover tightly. It will start to smell funky, get bubbly, and might even separate liquid from solid. Don't worry, as long as you don't see any black/green/fuzzy mold on the surface, you're in good shape. If you see mold/fuzz, scoop it off immediately; as long as it doesn't keep coming back, you should be fine. If it does, throw your starter out and start again.
   
3. On day 4, pour off all but 1/2 cup of the "starter" into the garbage, or give it to a friend.
   

Now you are ready to start feeding your starter on a regular schedule (next blog post)

I've seen other recipes for using pineapple juice instead of water; also, the LBB sourdough starter recipe uses organic grapes. This should work just fine; the rye flour creates a nice sour environment for yeasts to live in at the beginning.

Next post: care & feeding of your starter.

sourdough waffles

Maybe we'll try this at Paul & Lyla's. I've made it at home with great results. Recipe from KAF Baker's Companion.

Sponge
1 c unbleached AP flouw
1 c whole wheat flour
2 tsbp sugar
2 c buttermilk
1 c sourdough starter

Batter
2 eggs
1/4 c (1/2 stick) melted butter
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

First mix dry sponge ingredients together. Then mix in wet sponge ingredients til barely blended. Let rest overnight, or a few hours.

In a separate bowl, mix all batter ingredients together. Then blend with sponge until well incorporated.

Heat waffle iron, brush with canola or veg oil. Pour in 1 ladle full. Cook according to waffle iron directions, or until steam stops (about 6.5 minutes per waffle). Serve immediately, or keep warm in 200 deg. Leftovers freeze very nicely!

spicy louisiana sausage

Bruce Aidells wrote a nice little book called Flying Sausages, which has a number of great recipes, and which helped me have a sausage-making revelation: sausage is nothing but spiced meat... casings are optional! I've made this one before with 100% lean ground turkey from the store (Jennie-O), was very good. You may need to add more spice to taste; I think I added more paprika and garlic to the original recipe (listed below).

Makes 7 to 8 half-pound packages

2 c. sliced onions (probably 1 large onion)
3 lbs. ground turkey OR 1.5/1.5 ground chicken/turkey (ground thighs are best), very cold or slightly frozen
1/2 lb bacon, cut into pieces, very cold or slightly frozen
1.5 tbsp garlic, chopped
1/4 cup paprika (smoked or regular)
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp yellow mustard seed
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp English-style dry mustard
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground allspice
4 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

Simmer onions in water to cover until translucent, 5-7 min. Cool under cold running water & drain (this can be done ahead of time). Cool completely. Coarsely grind onions, meat, and bacon in a food processor in batches (using knife blade).

Add remaining ingredients to a big bowl, and mix thoroughly with your hands. Test fry a small piece in some oil, and taste for salt, pepper and other seasonings.

Divide into 7-8 portions, wrap tightly twice in plastic wrap or aluminum, and refrigerate or freeze.

Grandma's Bread 2008 Again

OK, here's the usual end-of-year bread, taking it back east to PA.

Using different flour this type (Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye, instead of usual Hodgson's Rye or Arrowhead Mills Rye).

Makes 2 loaves

2 c. buttermilk
1.25 c. water
1lb 8oz rye flour, unsifted

2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1 packet)
1 tbsp. unbleached white flour
1/2 c. warm water (120 degrees)

1 lb 14oz unbleached white flour, unsifted
4 tbsp. gluten
1/2 c. honey
3 tsp salt

4 tbsp. melted butter

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in 1.5 lb. rye flour, cover tightly and leave in warm place. Or, refrigerate and bring back to room temperature before continuing

2. The next day, combine yeast, 1 tbsp. flour, and warm water, and stir to dissolve. Let sit for 5 minutes until yeast mixture gets bubbly.

3. Into dough mixture, add yeast mixture, honey, and gluten. Stir in 1.5 lb. of white flour and mix for about 2-3 minutes, until the dough is somewhat uniform. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

4. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook set to "1" or "2" (low speed). You will need to clean the dough hook often (every 10 seconds or so), because the dough will bunch up a lot, over the top of the dough hook. After a couple of minutes, it MAY stop sticking. Total kneading time should be about 5-7 minutes.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel like firm little logs) and place in bread pans. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate covered for 7-8 hours; you can leave it up to (but not more than) 24 hours.

7. Remove loaves from fridge, remove plastic wrap, cover with towel, and let rise again in warm place for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center; brush tops with butter, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped (this time, did 30).

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with remaining butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

9. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Notes:

• Ferment mixture: was more like thick dough/paste, not loose like the "sour cream" that grandma described at all
• Mixer kept getting clogged from the dough, had to clear the hook every 10 seconds, barely could turn; dough was pretty hard and sticky
  
• NEXT TIME: try increasing rise time after retarding (increase 3 hours).
  

Results

Pros:

• Nice dark crust on top, great rich toasty dark flavor
• Crust is nice and thin/crispy
  
• Excellent salt-to-dough ratio, perfect amount of salt
  
• When cooled for 2 hours, very soft & tender & somewhat chewy, but not wet AFAIK
  
• Nice rye flavor

Cons

• Crumb is very even, small holes, a bit too small; should be about 1/8" size, and more bagel-like chewy
• Was still a little moist in the middle of the loaf; needs to bake longer.
  

For next time:

• Try coarser rye flour
• Try kneading by hand
• Try less rye, more white flour
• Try less flour overall; more slack should yield bigger bubbles
• Try longer baking time: 40-50 minutes should be good.
  

Here's a photo, just from the oven:


And here's a texture/crumb shot (sorry, quality isn't great, but I don't have a decent digicam right now).

Mom's dressing

Giving away a family recipe here...this is how my grandma used to make it too. I watched my mom, and wrote down as best as I could. She never did stuffing, even though she calls it that; it's actually "dressing", i.e., basically a meatloaf outside of the bird.

Mom's "Stuffing"

2 onions, chopped
4 celery stalks, finely diced
1 loaf white bread, torn into 1" pieces (my mom says "buy the cheap stuff for this")
1 lb 80/20 ground beef (you can use the non-lean ground as well)
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 eggs
olive oil + butter
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
salt + pepper to taste

In a large saute pan, heat about 2 tbsp oil + 2 tbsp butter over medium heat. Saute celery + onion until translucent (we don't want any browning!), about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, add bread, beef, eggs, and chicken stock. Knead well until very uniform (note: you could probably pulse this in a food processor to do this as well, for an even more uniform texture)

Put mixture into a 13x9 rectangular baking pan, and pat out into a flat layer. Pour a little olive oil on top.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. Aiming for about 160F temperature for doneness.

Notes:

• You may need to add more stock; this was really eyeballed. More stock should make for moister stuffing.
• Cooking time + temp could be adjusted. This is suitable for end of turkey cooking, when lots of items are sharing the oven.
• Could probably try adding some sausage; this is what Beckey's mom does.
  

turkey day 2008

Was fun!

On the menu:

• 22lb roast turkey (with rosemary & butter under the skin, stuffed with lemon/garlic/onion/rosemary), turned out PERFECT, roasting to reach temp of 161F in thigh, and it didn't have the usual smelly/strong "turkey" flavor, which was fantastic. Mom & I managed this one; 500F for 30 min, 350 for remaining time, loosely tented top with foil.
  
• Homemade cranberry sauce (mom)
• Mom's stuffing
• Baby Spinach salad with persimmons & candied pecans and rice vinegar/sesame oil/orange marmelade vinaigrette (mom, from a Martha Stewart recipe, I believe)
  
• Mashed potatoes with onions (mom)
  
• Roasted acorn squash with rosemary & olive oil (mom); I'm not a big squash fan, but this was pretty damn good!
  
• Apple pie (Monica; her first one, and a pretty damn good one!)
• Chocolate pumpkin pie (Judy)
• Homemade sourdough bread (me, using LBB recipe)
• cornbread (me, using Albers Corn Meal box recipe & cast iron "corncob" baking pan, plus some added chili powder per Cast Iron Cookbook)
• brussels sprouts with pancetta (me, Bobby Flay recipe)

Brussels I did in 2 batches in cast iron pan, then put all on a roasting pan & roasted in oven. About 5 min to crisp pancetta, about 5 minutes saute in pan, about 10-15 minutes in 400F oven, with a little lemon juice on top at the end. Yum!

Not a whole lot of leftovers...some turkey, some mashers, a few brussels (even though I made a ton, they were almost all gone). I'm thinking "t-day remix":

--turkey enchiladas
--mashed potato cakes with mushroom sauce (need some criminis/portobellos/whites)

And I need to make some more cranberry sauce! I ate 1/2 a giant Costco bag this week; I like the traditional sugar syrup + cranberry style. One of my favorite cranberry remixes was Iron Chef style, with a splash of OJ, some bourbon (Gentleman Jack), and a few good glugs of real maple syrup. Added a smoky, sweet, spicy complexity that was outstanding.

bitters

Spent some time this week blending bitters, according to my own tastes/recipes; basically developing and testing recipes.

Before I started, I decided to taste all the bitters I have on hand, to get an idea of flavor profiles.

I tried to evaluate them like wine: the nose, the color, the mouthfeel, taste, and finish. Here are my results

I tasted the following bitters:

1. Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
2. Fee Brothers Peach Bitters
3. Fee Brothers Old Fashioned Bitters
4. Regan's No 6. Orange Bitters
5. Peychaud's Bitters
6. Angostura Bitters

Fee Brothers Orange:

• Contains some alcohol
• Light in color
  
• Orange in nose
• Orange and sweetness on tongue; some viscosity from glycerin
  
• Slight gentian/orris bitterness on finish

Fee Brother Peach Bitters

• Contains no alcohol
• Light/pale in color
  
• Tiny peach on nose
• Very sweet and almond + light peach on tongue; some viscosity from glycerin
• Almond in finish

Fee Old Fashioned

• No alcohol
• Very dark looking, like cola
• Lots of cinnamon + clove on nose
• Very spicy cinnamon + clove on tongue instantly, followed by gentian bitterness on finish, pretty gentle; citrus + zest overtones; some viscosity from glycerin
• Longer, lingering finish
  

Regan's No 6 Bitters

• 45% alcohol
• Very clear, tan tint
  
• Strong alcohol and some bitter orange on nose
• No sweetness on tongue; very thin and extremely bitter
  
• Gentian and citrus zest on finish, along with floral and spicy rosemary notes
  

Peychaud's Bitters

• 35% alcohol
• Very red in color, like maraschino cherry
• Slight anise on nose
• No sweetness on tongue; light anise + herby flavor
• Minimal bitterness on finish, short finish
  

Angostura Bitters

• 45% alcohol
• Dark red color, with tinge of brown
• Strong molasses on nose, + light cinammon and "jagermeister" spices (clove, anise)
  
• Almost no sweetness
• Immediate gentian on tongue, with a bit of clove

bread updates

Made bread with Carl Griffiths starter a few weeks ago. Despite a nice, agressive feeding schedule (perhaps it needed another week!), it didn't get as much lift, and didn't have as complex of flavor as the LBB sourdough.

I made a loaf of LBB a few weeks ago that rose so high (because I forgot to slash the loaf); totally separated under the crust, but it was this cool, stringy texture.

Also made LBB bagels a few weeks ago, that turned out really well too, nice texture. They don't keep too well.

more bread

My buddy John A. asked about my Carl Griffiths starter. He believed his was dead, but after some aggressive feeding, came back to life. Frankly, it's hard to kill a well-established starter. All it takes is aggressive, 3x a day feeding:

Morning (7-9am)
pour off all but 1/3 cup starter
add 1/3 cup flour
add 1/3 cup water

Afternoon (12-1pm)
pour off all but 1/3 cup starter
add 1/3 cup flour
add 1/3 cup water

Evening (5-6pm)
pour off all but 1/3 cup starter
add 2/3 cup flour
add 2/3 cup water

After 3-5 days of this, your starter will be alive again! You can even start this feeding schedule with one tablespoon worth of starter.

Today, I'm making my LBB country white bread, but with the Carl Griffiths starter. So far so good; the starter is nice, healthy and active. I halved the recipe, but when you make bread by weight (and Silverton's LBB recipes are well-designed by weight), it scales pretty well. I'm interested to see what the differences in flavor will be.

bok choy

Last weekend bought Chinese broccoli, bok choy, and a bunch of other good stuff. Decided to make the bok choy tonight using this recipe. Delicious, delicate flavor

Baby Bok Choy with Cashews Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped green onions, including green ends
• 1/2 cup roasted cashews, whole
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 1 pound baby bok choy, rinsed, larger leaves separated from base, base trimmed but still present, holding the smaller leaves together, sliced in 1/2 down the center
• 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
  
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Method

1 Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. (use a large enough pan so that bok choy are not crowded). Add green onions, garlic and cashews, and cook for 10 seconds. Add bok choy, sliced side down. Sprinkle with sesame oil and salt. Cook down for approximately 3 minutes, stirring occasionally (Like spinach, when cooked, the bok choy will wilt a bit.)

2 Add soy sauce, cook for about 1 minute more. Season with additional soy, salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

drinks

Had some good drinks this weekend:

Gin-Gin Mule: Plymouth gin, ginger juice (or fresh ginger), simple syrup, muddled mint, fresh lemon juice, soda water. Damn good!

Brooklyn: Buffalo Trace bourbon, Averna (a Sicilian bitters) & Luxardo Maraschino (I think about equal parts), Noilly Prat dry vermouth, and a single Amarena cherry floating at the bottom.

Yum!

Started making LBB bread again this morning, so far so good.