Trotter gear

Fergus and chris getting down with trotters. Be sure and shave them first! Roast with veg herbs Madeira and water all day til falling apart. May need to be watered down later to avoid gluiness.

Btw I said hi to Neal Fraser who is sitting at the end of our row.






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Bicyclette

A 2005 Riesling cabinett with a shot of Campari. Yeah up my alley totally!




Neal Fraser is up front talking to Susan. Pretty rad.

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Fergus front row center

At Ciudad for the Fergus Henderson demo, front row




My view so far...



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Pg 8

Surprisingly tight crumb despite a ton of yeast by comparison






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PG #8

Much Lower hydration (used buttermilk, and brushed top with that as well). it came apart a little despite the log roll, prob not enough moisture.




Slash down the middle ended up deep! A lot of yeast in here so I'm interested to see flavor and texture.




Next time tweak with higher hydration and maybe some egg.

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Carnitas #2 photos

All the pieces, waiting, including 3.5lb pork shoulder...




Trimmed, chopped, spiced, ready to simmer




After 3 hours, you have to simmer at least 2.5 for it to be fork tender.




Shredded up!




Leftover pork "stock":





For next time 1 tbsp salt is prob enough. 2 tbsp is pretty aggressive for the quantity, although the pork came out pretty perfectly seasoned, stock is slightly salty for my taste. Prob too much if you sauce it though.

Pork is delish, very mild but deep flavors.

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Carnitas #2

Most traditional recipes require you to confit, that is, braise slowly in its own fat, in this case lard. In lieu of adding fat to an already fatty cut, I'm going to simmer in water instead. Minus the onion, you could convert this to lard with ease: use seeds instead of ground spices, cover in melted lard, simmer at about 275-300 degrees for about 3 hours.

Carnitas #2

1 whole pork shoulder, 3-4lb, preferably with bone, trimmed and cut into chunks.
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/2 onion, rough chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 large orange, sliced in rounds
8 whole garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
Cold water

1. To a big stock pot, add all ingredients. Add enough cold water to just cover the meat, bring to a boil (about 12-15 minutes at high heat), reduce heat to simmer.
   
2. Simmer over medium-low heat for 2.5-3 hours, until falling apart.

NOTES:
2 tbsp salt I originally used made the meat very well-seasoned, but perhaps slightly too well. Broth tasted a bit too salty. Revising the recipe down to 1 tbsp salt, then can add more as needed.

Flavors are very mellow; you just get more roundness in the meat; I can't really pick out orange, coriander, cumin or oregano, but they contribute good balance and roundness. I might consider doing more orange, and some more coriander/cumin for the future. A bit of chili powder probably wouldn't hurt anything either.

Roasted beetroot soup

I was at St. John's Bread and Wine a few weeks ago while on a trip to England and France, and B. and I had an amazing dinner. One of the specials that night was a beetroot soup, which arrived in a pretty little crock with pickled beets on top, as sweet/sour and interesting as pickled ginger! The beet soup was really a smooth, creamy, dark red puree, well-salted and well-buttered. I really liked the simplicity of flavors, so I tried to replicate it myself, and got pretty close.

So the version listed here is based on the lessons learned from the one I made tonight, which still had a slightly bitter edge (probably due to slight undercooking of beets). I also used a roasted veg puree that I had leftover from a roast chicken I made recently, so this version incorporates the roasting in with the beets. The whole idea here is to roast small beets (which are usually sweetish already) to further enhance their natural sweetness thru caramelization.

Roasted Beetroot soup

10 small beets, any color (but preferably with some red ones in there!), scrubbed, tips and tops cut off
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 large onion, rough chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
Kosher Salt
4-6 cups stock (or 4 cups stock + water)
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp honey (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Cut largish beets into even sized pieces
3. On a sheet pan, toss beets, carrots, celery, and onion in olive oil. Season with salt.
   
4. Roast at 450 for 40 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes.
   
5. Meanwhile, in a medium pot, heat stock to just boil and remove from heat.
   
6. Remove roasted veg from oven, and peel beets (they should peel easily and be nicely caramelized on a few sides)
   
7. To 4 cups of hot stock, add roasted veg, 2 bay leaves and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Beets should be nice and soft, easily pierced with fork, like a potato.
   
8. Remove bay leaves, and in batches, put beet soup in blender and blend until smooth (be careful! cover the top of the blender firmly with a towel to keep soup from exploding everywhere, and pulse the blender to get it going!!)
   
9. Strain hot soup thru a chinois to ensure smooth texture.
10. Add additional hot stock or water to achieve desired consistency (should not be as thick as baby food, leave it slightly more watery). Heat over low heat as necessary.
    
11. Remove from heat, and whisk in 3 tbsp butter.
12. Adjust salt to taste. If soup is a bit bitter, add optional honey to balance bitterness.
13. Serve hot with crusty buttered bread. You can also garnish with heavy cream or sour cream.
    

Buns texture

Not bad at all!




Really nice soft texture. Crust is nice n soft. I think could use a touch more sweetness.

Burger buns

Inspired by Sally's burger bun recipe from allrecipes, I developed my own, worked ou the bakers percentages and then compare with Reinharts soft white sandwich bread from ABE, very similar.

Dough was extremely sticky, probably needs more flour. I handled it with oil.

Here they are, formed and ready to rise. Not too pretty because they were too sticky.



After rise (a really quick 40 minutes) I brushe the tops with milk, butter and whole beaten egg successively:





Now into the oven at 400 for 5 minutes and 375 for 15 min (20 min total). Not as much browning as I'd like but nice to compare the effects:




The bottoms browned up nice




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Grilled Cheese Invitational 2010; Bread Pudding

The GCI 2010 turned out well. I did two sammiches, one traditional (the "Cheddargy Dome" with die-cut rounds of Peter Reinhart's sandwich bread & slab-cut Velveeta) and one sweet (the "Beautiful World", with mascarpone, brie, peanut butter cup, banana, and marshmallows). No trophies, but it was fun anyhow.

So I had lots of crusts & bits of nice white bread left over from the Cheddargy dome, so I made my first bread pudding tonight, using the ATK recipe. For next time:

1. Add raisins (Beckey likes raisins!)
2. Try the chocolate version the right way: melt chips in the milk + cream, and let it cool. Then whisk into eggs, etc.

Here's my version of the recipe; I reduced cream by 1.5 cups and increased milk by 1 cup.

Bread Pudding
(serves 8-10)

4 eggs
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
3.5 cups milk
3 tbsp brandy (or use bourbon)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp cinammon
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp sugar
8oz + 4oz (12oz/340g total) nice bread pieces & crusts, cut/torn into 1.5" pieces

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
   
2. Whisk eggs and sugar. Whisk in all ingredients except cinammon, butter, remaining sugar and bread.
3. In 9x13 pan, place 8oz of bread. Pour egg mixture over. Let sit for 10 minutes.
4. In separate bowl, add remaining 4oz of bread + sugar. Pour melted butter over and add cinnamon. Mix until combined.
5. Sprinkle butter/bread mixture over top of pan.
   
6. Bake 40-50 minutes, until well set but slightly jiggly; check at 40 min. It should be just a bit jiggly.
7. Serve warm with cream or whipped cream.
   

Reinhart sandwich #2

Used buttermilk
Followed exactly, this time 1 egg for 2 loaves
Rise time still about 3.5 hours, could prob go to 4hrs



Bake at 350 for 40 minutes



And brushed with butter




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No knead white #7

Got a bit stuck on oiled silpat prior to cast iron pot so more football shaped:




Due to stretch and fold and nice rise, had very nice big texture along with typical crisp thin crust. Of 20% other flours, about 14g whole wheat and the rest rye.



This slice looked more like a donut!

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Reinhart's French Bread follow up

Reinhart's French bread turned out well.

It's a 67% hydration bread, with slightly less yeast than the Lean Dough.

Tasty results; really good browning & crust flavor. The downside is that the oven spring was so-so (probably b/c I forgot to bump up the yeast, as I use ADY). That's probably a problem with many/most of the recipes I've done to date, in fact!

The interior texture wasn't as holey or fluffy as the Lean Dough.

I must say, being done with bag #2 of KAF Bread Flour, that it does really perform better than regular bread flour: more chew, higher rise, possibly cleaner flavor. It's pricey, but I think it's worth it.

Reinharts French Bread

One batard one boule!






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Reinhart Bread "Lean Dough"

Baked off Peter Reinhart's "Lean Dough" bread recipe last night. Had a 17 hour cold fermentation in the fridge. It's the softest textured bread I've ever made! Very good flavor and crust too. All courtesy of 75% hydration and the "stretch and fold" technique.

I really enjoyed his class in Westlake Village on Friday. I think I'll try his French bread recipe next.

Peter Reinhart

Went to a really great presentation by Peter Reinhart this evening at the Westlake Cooking School.

Peter was really great; tooko a lot of time afterwards to sign books and answer many questions. Every bread that I ate that evening was unquestionably delicious, from beautifully caramelized sticky buns with nuts and fruits...to creamy-textured, toasty flavored rustic loaves made with the 75% hydration "Lean Dough", to the wispy soft, almost cotton-candy, velvety texture of the challah!

A few key thoughts/things I learned!

• His doughs are extremely soft & supple, softer than a baby's bottom, perhaps!
• Oiling the kneading/forming surface to keep from sticking, and oiling wet doughs slightly for handling.
  
• Using wet fingers to handle dough (he had a little bowl at the side, dipping in his fingers as necessary).
  
• The "stretch and fold" technique: stretch towards you, fold in thirds, 90 degree turn, repeat, then rest! Repeat the whole process 4 times. It shapes shaggy soft dough into a tight manageable skin, and reduces stickiness.
• Kneading: more stretch and fold than kneading, and the doughs came out supple!
  
• Yeasty bread flavor: due to too much yeast OR over-fermentation (what you're actually tasting is the alcohol, not the yeast!); a problem (he notably mentioned) with the "Artisan 5 Min/Day" bread recipes, and I totally agree with him on that
• Blisters on crust: form the loaves, really shape them, and let them cold ferment overnight...you will get blisters! Great story about this question which he discussed with Raymond Calvel.

I got my "Artisan Breads Everyday" book signed (Beckey bought it for me as a present), and even bought his "Whole Grain Breads" book, with great info on soakers. I wasn't familiar with that technique, but it's exactly what my grandma used in her rye bread.

My first baking class, and absolutely worth every penny! If you can't make it to one of his workshops, the next best thing is to read this transcript of his Barnes & Noble interview.

Thanks Peter!

butternut squash soup 2010

One of my favorite squash soups to date. The roasting brings out a real delicious sweetness and toastiness from squash. I had some leftover ruby port, and that added a really nice depth of flavor. Be careful on the white pepper and cayenne, the flavors are so delicate and sweet that it's easy to make this way too spicy.

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
2 tbsp + 2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery and leaves, chopped
1/2 cup ruby port
1/4 cup apple pie liqueur
1 box chicken stock
pinch allspice
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
tiny pinch cayenne
Salt and white pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450F
2. On baking sheet, toss butternut cubes with olive oil, salt + white pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, flipping cubes at 20 minutes.
   
3. Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in a large cast iron pot.
4. Sweat onions + celery for about 5 minutes over medium heat (do not brown!). Add, shut off heat, stir in spices.
   
5. Add butternut squash pieces to pot, along with enough chicken stock to cover.
   
6. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, covered for 15 minutes.
   
7. Blend in batches in blender (don't fill blender more than 1/2 way full, and cover top with towel!).
   
8. Add back to pot. Add enough remaining chicken stock to make it quite liquid, and use some water if you need to (you don't want this thick, you want it to be pretty runny, just a little thicker than chicken soup!). Heat until warm over low heat.
   
9. Season with additional salt and white pepper to taste.
   
10. Stir in 1 tbsp. of butter if you're feeling like it should be more creamy.
    

Variations:

• Add 1 diced, peeled green apple to onions when sweating

No knead white #4

Pulled pork

Made some last week!

Slather: yellow mustard + honey (50/50)
Rub: the Magic Rub I developed
Liquid: 1/2 cup stew puree (carrots/celery/onion which had previously braised some chicken thighs) + 1/2 cup "apple pie" liqueur. Liquid went about 1/2 way up the roast.

In crock pot for ~9 hours

Results: tender, flavorful, falling apart easily, not dry. Not smokey at all; would've been nice in the smoker.

Vinegar sauce I made (recipe is top secret!) turned out well. Hints: multiple vinegars, honey, catsup.