LBB status

So far so good. At 230pm this morning I out the boules in the fridge, which means they should be ready as early as 1030pm tonight for final rise. Downside is that it will still take 4 hours after the final rise to bake the bread, it will be too late tonight.

On the other hand, if I get up at 4am tomorrow morning, I will have fresh bread by 8am! :)

LBB sourdough recipe

Here's the "Country White" recipe I've been using. If you like it, buy the book!

2lb 2oz unbleached white flour
1/2c wheat germ
12oz LBB starter
1lb 2oz cool water (70 deg)
4.5 tsp sea salt

Add flour + wheat germ to mixing bowl. Then add starter and water. Knead on lowest setting on mixer using dough hook for 5 minutes. It will be a bit sticky, but pliable.

Cover with plastic wrap + towel and let rest for 20 mintues.

NOW ADD THE SALT. Knead on lowest setting on mixer for 5 more minutes. You may need to clear the dough hook every 30 seconds or so, if it gets clogged up over the top; however, dough will clear the sides of the mixing bowl.

Knead using pinch opposite/flip/slap technique described in the book. Form into ball and place in lightly oiled ceramic bowl. Cover with plastic wrap + towel, and let rise 3.5-4 hours. You'll know when it's ready when you place your hand on surface, "should feel cool and slightly flabby on the surface, center core should still feel firm." Press your fingertip into the dough, slight indentation should linger.

Turn dough out, cut it in two (should be about 1lb14oz each). Slap to deflate. Tuck all edges under, rough-shaping into a ball. Let rest for 15 min.

Shape into ball into floured basket. Let rise for 1 hr.

Cover boules with plastic wrap, and put in fridge for about 8-12 hours, no more than 24 hours.

Remove from fridge, cover with floured towel, and let rise for ~3 hours. Dough should be doubled in size and at ~62F.

Heat oven to 500.

Slash the loaf with a backwards C shape, shallow, like a flap.

Put loaf in, add water to broiling pan (or spritz oven), and bake for 5 minutes at 500, then turn down to 450 and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate boule after 20 min (total of 45 min). Should hit 210F when fully baked, and sound a bit hollow.

Let bread cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting in!

La Brea sourdough

It's almost 3.5 hours into the 1st rise of the La Brea sourdough, i.e., the "Country White" with wheat germ. So far so good! Started it this morning. It's an interesting comparison between the two (KAF and LBB, i.e., La Brea Bakery).

LBB:
after 5 minutes of kneading in the mixer, was sticky but less wet then KAF
after autolyse + 5 more min kneading, a lot tighter and smoother than KAF
hand-kneading with pinch/flip/slap LBB teachnique, was a lot smoother/less sticky.

Maybe this means that the KAF is slightly too slack. The big difference is that I followed LBB's instructions to weigh out all the ingredients, and it turned out balanced. KAF uses volume measures, and despite my attempts to convert to weight measurements, seems to work better using volume measure.

I shared a bunch of the leftover La Brea starter with work colleagues on Friday, with the KAF recipe (i.e., sourdough #5, listed earlier in this blog). Hope it turns out good for them!

sourdough update

Late on the evening of Sept 7, I started Nancy Silverton's sourdough.

Within the 1st 2-3 days, it was very bubbly and active. After that, the liquids and solids separated, thick layer of pinkish/brownish liquid, and the whole mass began to acquire a "cheesy" smell, much like Parmiggiano-Reggiano.

The ferment period went fine; at one point last week I had seen what I thought was translucent specks of white mold floating on the liquid (these could've actually been mother, i.e., acetic acid bacteria + cellulose). I scooped it off along with some offending liquid using a ladle, then added 1 cup of flour and 1 cup water as suggested in the book, and stirred. That was the only maintenance I did.

Today is day 14, and is the 1st day of feeding. When I got back from the long weekend birthday celebration, I popped the top. Today the smell was similar but less cheesy and more vinegary. The top layer of alcohol had begun to turn to vinegar, as there was that sheet of clear cellulose (the mother!) floating on top. Poured off most of the vinegar liquid, discarded the cheescloth bag which contained the organic red grapes, stirred the rest together, measured out the portion I needed, then fed it with flour and water.

Even when pouring off the liquid, I could see it sparkling/bubbling. This to me suggests it's pretty healthy.

The refreshed mixture smells a little "cheesy"; I think this is probably OK, and will actually add some nice character to the bread.

So far so good. I wonder if it went too long without feeding (supposed to start feeding on Day 10). Should've fermented pretty well by now though, and the feedings should keep it nice and healthy.

The feeding schedule I plan is: 7am, 12pm, 5pm. Will keep you posted on how it goes!

eggplant + zucchini

Two veggies that I reviled as a child, but now enjoy them. I didn't like my mom's zucchini because it was steamed, limp/soggy and flavorless. Likewise eggplant had a weird texture. I think in my early 20's I tried eggplant again when ate Indian food for the 1st time (I think it was Bombay Palace in L.A.).

Made another tomato/zucchini/eggplant salad last night, and had most of it for lunch today. The poblano, even without seeds, adds quite a bit of heat.

Zucchini and Eggplant Salad

2 zucchini, cut lengthwise
2 Japanese eggplant*
1/2 medium red onion, cut into rings
1 poblano pepper
Handful cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
1 tb. Worcheshire sauce
1 tb. Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin


Cut eggplant lengthwise at the last minute (will brown otherwise). Season zucchini, eggplant, red onion and pepper with olive oil, salt and pepper and throw on grill over high heat. Cook eggplant, zucchini, onion for 3 minutes on cut side. Flip and grill for about 1 minute. Remove eggplant + zucchini. Leave onion on for 2 more minutes, then remove. Flip poblano to get a good char, then remove.

When cool enough to handle, cut zucchini halves lengthwise and into chunks. Cut eggplants lengthwise again and into chunks. Chop onion. Cut poblano in half and remove seeds, and chop finely. Combine all veggies in bowl. Add Worcheshire, vinegar and spices, and mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.

enchilada sauce

Made chicken enchiladas earlier this week with sauce I had previously made and frozen...it was totally delish! Unfortunately, I don't remember where I got the recipe...ATK cookbook? Gourmet cookbook? Elsewhere? Maybe I have it stored on the home office computer. With leftover roast chicken, which was perfumed with garlic, butter, rosemary, thyme and lemon, they were outstanding.

Made some KAF "Pain au Levain" yesterday; Beckey got to try it hot for the 1st time, to rave reviews last night. Set up some dough for sourdough waffles tomorrow morning; I had to use the old buttermilk, which was about to expire. Decided to start another buttermilk-based "starter", as follows:

2 cups buttermilk
1 cup AP unbleached flour
1 cup rye flour
1/2 cup sourdough starter

I'll use it to make some bread tomorrow, perhaps grandma's recipe, or some close "clone"

Gotta get up early for mountain biking tomorrow with Dale. Bye for now.

(2008-09-04 Ed Note: the sourdough waffles were light, fluffy and delicious! A lot lighter/crisper than the same KAF recipe I made with milk substitution. Although they don't freeze as well as the ones with milk, which were somehow more tender.)

Cocktails and Apple Pie

Had some great drinks this weekend:

• 7&7: a classic, at a classic place in Petaluma (Volpi's)
• Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned: with Amarena cherries and orange bitters, classy take on a classic, at Cyrus in Healdsburg
• White Peach Sangria: there was riesling, vodka, white peaches, and other stuff in there...and it drank like juice! At Willi's Seafood in Healdsburg
• Apple Pie: someone made this for Roland, Trenton's grandpa; he didn't have the recipe (or if he did, he wasn't sharing!) Roland was nice enough to give me a bottle of 190 proof Everclear too (a rarity here, he buys a case in North Dakota every year)
  

So I tracked down a few Apple Pie recipes. It goes down smooth, but watch out, it's so smooth it's really dangerous.

----------------
Apple Pie #1

1 gallon apple cider
1/2 gallon apple juice
2 cups sugar
5 cinnamon sticks
2 cups Everclear alcohol

Makes 2 1/2 Gal.

Directions

1.Heat first three ingredients to dissolve sugar.
2.Once it has cooled, add 2 C. Everclear.
3.Add 1-2 cinnamon sticks per glass bottle.
4.Pour into glass bottles.


---------------

Apple Pie #2

1 gallon apple juice
1 gallon apple cider
3 cups white sugar
8 cinnamon sticks
1 (750 milliliter) bottle 190 proof grain alcohol

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot, combine apple juice, apple cider, sugar and cinnamon sticks. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and let cool completely.
2. When juice mixture is cool, Stir in the grain alcohol.

2nd Litho Rye

The next Litho Rye I made turned out pretty damn good. I added some honey, which helped.

Pros:

• All natural starter (sourdough!)
  
• Great flavor (nice rye, not too sour)
  
• Great texture (good size holes; nice chewy, spongy crumb; not damp)
• Crust wasn't too thick
• Beckey liked it!
  

Cons:

• Crust didn't brown on top too well (I took it out of the baking pan after 20 minutes, and just set it on the stone, so at least the bottom picked up some color)
• Crust wasn't very smooth on top

This one is pretty close; if I can get the crust issues worked out, it will be a good loaf

Litho rye revisited

Well, the 1st Litho rye turned out pretty bad. Very dense, crust didn't brown, rose very little in the final rise, flavor was VERY sour. Not good at all.

Making an updated version. I have been reading more about rye: has very little gluten, so is pretty fragile. When used in a starter, if not fed every 4 hours it becomes very sour. And it always acts extremely wet. I found that when working with wet doughs, damp hands can help out a lot!

The latest one starts out with the rye starter; starter is added to AP flour + water to form a sponge. The bread itself is ~2.5/1 rye-to-AP flour. I added a tbsp of honey to help sweeten the deal. Lastly, I'm starting this one out in a cold oven set to 450 degrees, then baking for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, reducing the heat to 375, and baking for 20 more minutes before checking for doneness. We'll see how this one turns out.

the sour life

Well, yesterday's bread turned out really well. Still holding up well today. Beckey said "it's the best bread you've ever made." Her seal of approval means a lot to me, and is very motivating.

I stayed up til 3am last night reading about Lithuanian black rye bread, including about bakeries in the US that produce it and historical and technical recipe information. So I'm going to try it again, albeit with a slightly different tack. My grandma's bread recipe is decent now, I just want to improve it to get closer to what I remember, and I think I can.

The recipe in the Lithuanian Foods book I have uses an active yeast starter. I'm going to try to do the same with the sourdough starter I have now, but modified. I'm also going to try to use their recipe, at least in generalities (2kg of starter and 6kg of rye flour is simply too much for the kind of baking that I do! That's over 17.6 lbs of flour!); that said, it's interesting that they are using a 3:1 flour-to-starter recipe by weight, whereas my version of KAF sourdough is ~3:1.75 flour-to-starter by weight. And unlike my grandma's bread, the recipe that I have uses no scalded buttermilk.

Here's the beginning:

1/2 cup KAF starter
1 cup rye flour (Hodgson Mill)
1 cup water

Let ferment for 24 hours.

So I had some leftover starter, what to do? Starting one more project: Sourdough waffles! Should be ready to rock and roll tomorrow morning...mmm! This is also from the KAF baking book, we'll see how it turns out. We had some pretty good sourdough pancakes that John A. made up at June Lake, we'll see how these compare. Should be interesting; using regular milk instead of buttermilk called for in the recipe. Hope it's close enough!

sourdough #5

Success! Almost ompletely happy with this loaf.

 

Crust is dark mahogany, full of flavor. When biting in about 15 minutes after cooling, end piece crust "flaked" into big 1" uneven shards, wow, so delicious.

Interior was perfectly moist, soft crumb. No gumminess in sight, at least on the end piece. Good flavor; not a lot of sour tang. Color is nearly like white bread, no grayness as in the previous loaf. Great structure; larger holes, not super uneven (not La Brea Bakery style), but not dense in any way, rather: light, airy, much drier than before but not dry-tasting at all. Much like good hard rolls found in restaurants.

Bottom crust was brown, with some nearly black spots in places, but evenly browned.

Additional baking info:

• Shaped round loaf; slashed with 4 scallop slices.
  
• 3/4 cup of warm water for steam in broiler pan
  
• Baked at 455F for 20 minutes. Removed broiler pan at 20 minutes. Baked at 450 for remaining 11 minutes
• Instant-read thermometer read ~204F when inserted into the bottom, right out of the oven.
• The total process took about 5.5 hours: from the moment when I mixed the flour, starter and water until 15 minutes after resting from finishing baking when I cut into it.
  

For next time:

• Try some retardation tactics to increase possible sour tang. Make 3 loaves one evening. Let all rise for 1 hr. Cover 2 and place in fridge. Let remaining one rise and bake that night. Bake one from the fridge in the morning. Bake one from the fridge in the evening. Compare flavors.
  
• Try adding more rye to the starter; maybe add some the morning before baking that evening?
  

This is a keeper! Really, no need to change, this is really an excellent loaf.

Now next up: grandma's rye bread! Some new things to try:

• Use table salt (not kosher salt)
  
• Check flour-to-starter ratio (3:2 by weight looks like a good start)
• Use same basic process as Pain au Levain, or Levain de Pate (sourdough + instant yeast)
  

Other things I learned:

• Cold dough can go right into the oven...as long as it comes out of the fridge looking like it's supposed to! Just preheat to 500 instead of 455, and once bread goes in the oven, turn the temp down to normal baking temp (450-455).
  

more sourdough

Have made at least 2 more sourdough loaves in the meanwhile.

Loaf #3: made with whole wheat flour, per recipe. Was not as flavorful, although folding helped with the bubble texture and volume. Crust didn't brown much, and dough was very wet to handle.

Loaf #4: switched back to the rye again. This one got retarded a few times in the fridge, and dough was extremely wet to handle. I think it sat too long; didn't rise too well, and baked up pretty flat. Decent texture, but too wet to handle and bake, and again, crust didn't brown.

I've had issues with the crust browning. Probably need to bake it longer.

Loaf #5. This time (started at 5pm, doing last 2 hr rise pre-oven right now), followed the King Arthur Flour (KAF) Pain Au Levain recipe volumes (not weights) to see if it made a difference. Funny thing is, dough was still extremely wet.

Here's the initial volumes I used. I weighed the volumes on my scale, to give a more accurate measurement of what went in:

5 cups all-purpose flour (weighed 1lb 10.75oz / 760g)
2.5 cups starter (weighed 1lb 0.5oz / 468g)
2/3 cup rye flour (weighed 3.25oz / 94g)
1-3/4 cup water (weighed 14.25oz, as expected for water)

So the weights given in KAF for starter, rye and water are right, but the AP flour was way off. Even with that, though, the dough was way too sticky, unkneadable without additional flour. I added 3/4 cup additional flour for it to just pull into a ball. It was still sticky, but able to be handled/kneaded in the mixer. Was almost too much flour for the mixer, though.

Here's tonight's recipe

5.75 cups all-purpose flour
2.5 cups starter
2/3 cup rye flour
1.75 cup warm water (~90 degrees)
2.5 tsp table salt

Mix flours, starter and water in a mixing bowl, stir until just combined. Let rest for 20 minutes. Knead on 1 notch above lowest setting for 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and let rest for 1 hour in warm place, in my case, garage on high shelf.

Dust flour in bowl. Using scraper and spatula, turn out onto dusted board. Dust with a bit more flour, then do letter-fold. Put seam-side down into oiled bowl, cover, and let rise again for 30 minutes. Dust, remove from bowl, letter fold, then return to bowl to rise another 30 minutes.

Dust peel with cornmeal. Remove dough from bowl onto dusted board, and shape into boule. Cover and let rise for 2 hours in warm place. 30 minutes before baking preheat oven and broiler pan to 475F. Shelf is 2nd from bottom with pizza stone, broiler pan on top shelf.

Heat 3/4 cup water in Pyrex (microwave for 1 minute). Slash loaf with serrated knife or razor blade (I think scallop slash looks and works best).

Working quickly, slide dough into oven, pour water into broiler pan (watch out for steam!), reduce heat to 455 and bake for 20 minutes (don't open the oven door!). Turn down temp to 450 and bake another 10-11 minutes. Crust will be beautifully brown. Check for doneness with oven thermometer thru bottom of loaf.

Let cool on rack for 15 minutes. I'll let you know how it turns out!

sourdough catch-up

In the last week or two made 2 more loaves, both using the Pain au Levain sourdough recipe from my King Arthur Flour baking book.

Loaf #1: I didn't have whole wheat flour yet, so I substituted the same amount of rye flour. I only folder it twice, and let rise between foldings. Slightly smaller quantity (only had 1lb white flour, not 1lb15oz)

Pros & cons of #1:

• Good crust: not as shiny or blistery as last loaf, but still nice. Didn't really stretch it enough.
  
• Nice texture: chewy, moist, tender crumb; bigger holes, more like I expect out of grandmas' bread, but not big uneven holes.
• Great flavor: the rye worked really well; a bit of sour tang without tasting like sourdough
  
• Long shelf life. Was good uncovered in the kitchen all week, didn't dry out.
  

Loaf #2: finished last night. I followed the recipe exactly this time: white flour, whole wheat flour, sourdough starter, water. Measured by weight, using exact quantities provided in recipe. Was very very wet, too wet in fact. Had to add a bunch of flour to make it manageable. This one spent a bunch of time in the fridge. I let it rise covered in the garage, which is super warm due to a recent heat spell. I folded 1st time, rise, then 2nd folding I actually folded it twice, then let rise 20 min before baking. Forgot to add salt, so added it after 1st rise and re-kneaded for 5 minutes in mixer. Forgot to slash, so it got big and broke at the top in places.

Pros and cons of #2:

• Decent crust: didn't brown as well, wasn't as smooth and blistery, but had the same nice crackle of loaf 1.
  
• Flavor: more sour, but not as flavorful, probably because of lack of rye. I missed the tang.
  
• Great uneven holes. Whatever rise and folding was done worked well for a nice texture.

For next time:

• More folding.
  
• Use rye flour
• Don't forget salt
• Don't forget to slash!
  

sourdough IV

One thing I realized after reading sourdough instructions is that you have to:

1. discard half before feeding
2. add 1:1 flour/water (usually between 1/2 and 1 cup each) every 8 hours or so
   
3. repeat for 5 days or so

Then "Seymour" starter will be at full strength, and really be beer-smelling and active! As sourdough goes thru its lifecycle, the starter will almost double in volume on its own. Last feeding should be about 8 hours before you make the bread below. So here we go again!

TRICK: let bread rise in warm oven. Preheat the oven for 1 minute at 350 degrees, then shut off. It will get to a nice 85-90 degree temp that is perfect for dough to rise.

16oz (1lb) bread flour
10.5oz starter (nice, bubbly and stringy, like wet dough)
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup WARM water (no more than 100 degrees, though; microwave 1 cup for 15-20 sec on HIGH)

1. Combine all in mixer bowl with dough hook. Knead for 5 minutes on low. Dough should come together and be pretty soft, if a little sticky.
   
2. Turn in oiled bowl, wrap in plastic wrap and leave in warm place to rise for 2-4 hours, until doubled.
   
3. Fold into 3rds, like a letter, then again into 3rds the other way. Put fold sides down back in bowl, and let rise 1 more hour.
   
4. Shape into boule, and let rest on pizza peel dusted with cornmeal for 2 hours
5. At 1hr40min into last rise, preheat oven to 450F
6. Dust with flour, slash loaf with serrated knife (scallops worked nicely!)
   
7. When putting in oven, pour 1/2 cup hot water broiler pan on top rack
   
8. Bake at 450 for 25 minutes on pizza stone (it was on bottom rack).
9. Remove from oven, check temp at bottom of bread with instant read thermometer. Should read 200 degrees to be done.
   
10. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes.
    

Pros:

• Absolutely beautiful! Rose and doubled perfectly, scallops looked gorgeous
  
• Airy "crackle" of bread when removed
• Excellent top crust: 1st time the crust blistered! Thin, brown, and crisp
• Good spongy texture; even more open/fluffy than last time, soft and chewy
  
• Slightly more pronounced sourdough tang, almost like a french bread
  

Cons:

• Texture still too fine for my tastes; would like to get more big bubble, uneven texture
  

For next time:

• Reduce amount of water for steam slightly...I may have used 1 cup during this recipe. Keep it at 1/2 cup maximum.
  
• Try one of these two:
• increasing water to 3/4 cup; it will be a wetter dough, which is useful for more uneven, big hole crumb
  
• folding during 1st rise; every hour, do a tri-fold, letter style.
  

sourdough again

Here we go again, sourdough is currently on its 1st rise:

1 lb. bread flour
5oz starter (nice, bubbly and stringy, like wet dough)
0.25oz kosher salt (about 3/4 tbsp.)
1 tbsp. sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp salt

1. Combine all in mixer bowl with dough hook. Knead for 2 minutes on low.
2. Turn in oiled bowl, wrap in plastic wrap and leave in warm place to rise for 4 hours.
3. Refrigerate overnight.
   
4. Shape into boule, and let rest on pizza peel dusted with cornmeal for 1 hour
5. 20 minutes into 2nd rise, preheat oven to 450F
6. Dust with flour, slash loaf with serrated knife
7. When putting in oven, pour 1/2 cup hot water broiler pan on top rack
   
8. Bake at 450 for 25-30 minutes on pizza stone (it was on bottom rack)
   
9. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes.
   

Pros:

• Excellent top crust: thin, brown, and crisp
• Good spongy texture; more open/fluffy than last time, soft and chewy
  
• Extremely light sourdough tang, almost like white bread
  
• Airy "crackle" of bread when removed
• Would probably work pretty well with grandma's bread
  

Cons:

• Top crust didn't look tightly stretched, a little "gappy", but this is fairly minor
  
• Bottom crust burned a little
• Still not enough airy texture; looking for bigger, uneven bubbles
• Could be a little more tangy; probably using more starter would do
  

For next time:

• Slightly higher on rack (1 from bottom, instead of bottom rack) on pizza stone
• 25 minutes cooking time
• Use more starter (10.5oz, based on King Arthur Pain Levain recipe, which is 3:2 flour-to-starter ratio)
  
• Use more salt: 1 tbsp
  

quick artisan bread

There's a neat book and YouTube video on making artisan breads in 5 minutes a day. Sounds interesting. The idea is mix flour, yeast, water, and salt, mix to combine (but don't knead), rise, then bake. Buy the book, it's got lots of great recipes. Here's the basic recipe for making a round "boule", or french loaf.

Homemade Artisan Bread

Makes four 1lb. loaves. Can be doubled or halved

3 cups lukewarm water
1.5 tbsp. dry yeast
1.5 tbsp. kosher salt
6.5 cups unsifted unbleached all purpose flour

1. Warm water to about 100 degrees.
2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5 quart bowl or resealable lidded food-grade bucket.
3. Mix in the flour, kneading is unnecessary. Add all the flour, imx with wooden spoon, stand mixer, until it's uniform. You can use your hands to mix if they are very wet. Everything will be uniformly moist, without dry patches. Dough will be wet and loose.
4. Allow it to rise for about 2 hours, until it begins to collape. Longer rise times, up to 5 hours, won't harm the result.
5. Refridgerate dough overnight (or at least 3 hours) before shaping the loaf.
6. Sprinkle the surface of refridgerated dough with flour. Cut off grapefruit sized piece (1 lb). Add some flour so it doesn't stick to your hands, but don't knead it. Shape into a ball; this part should only take 30-60 seconds.
7. Dust a pizza peel with cornmeal, and place the shaped loaf on the peel.
8. Let it rest on the peel for about 40 minutes uncovered.
9. 20 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450F, with baking stone on lowest rack, with empty broiler tray on any other shelf
10. Dust the loaf liberally with flour, and slash 1/4" deep scallop (seashell ribs), tic-tac-toe, or cross in the top with a serrated bread knife
11. Slide into oven off of peel onto stone, and pour 1 cup hot water into broiler tray to generate steam
12. Bake for 30 minutes or until crust is nicely browned. Wet dough will lead to soft interior.
13. Cool on wire rack.
14. Use remaining dough within 14 days.
15. When refreshing dough, don't clean the bucket; this will help build a sourdough over time.

sourdough revisited

Was going thru the fridge at the beginning of this week, cleaning out old stuff, and in the back I found my sourdough starter.

Opened it up, and there was a thick layer of alcohol on there, as well as a thin, dryish grey/brown layer that looked a bit like beef caul. And kinda stinky, on top of it all. I got in there with a spoon, cleaned off the crud off the top, took a tablespoon and dumped the rest. Mixed it with 1 cup flour + 1 cup water, put it in a jar, covered and let sit at room temp for the day. Opened it up, and it was bubbly but still was kinda stinky. Saved a scant 1 tsp of the new mix, remixed with 3/4 c flour, 1/4 c rye flour, and water. Just fed it again today, there was already a layer of alcohol, and it smells great! Rich, bubbly, doughy, nice!

A new sourdough loaf is in my near future. I wonder how old this starter is now? Will have to check the blog again....ok, so it looks like I started it in Dec 2006 when I made grandma's bread for the holidays. It's neat to see that it's still alive and kicking.

Revisited another good site with tips: http://www.schoolofbaking.com/sourdough_tips.htm

Savory Stewed Pork

The whole house smells amazing right now. Needed to make something with chicken stock I made this week, plus something that would last me with leftovers through the end of the weekend. Not to mention the freezer's overflowing and I need to reduce the frozen larder.

Here's what I came up with. The lovely green pepper flavor is really ethereal through the pork shoulder. You'll need a CrockPot for this one; or, you can use a Dutch oven or other dish for long, slow cooking. Haven't busted out my CrockPot since our family trip to Mammoth in January, so I'm happy to be putting it to good use.

Savory Stewed Pork

Serves 4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 11 hours

2 lb pork shoulder piece (if frozen, defrost it!)
2 large carrots, small dice
1 green pepper, small dice
2 large celery stalks, small dice
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp dried oregano
3 c. chicken stock, preferably homemade
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup V8 or tomato juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp worcheshire sauce
Few dashes hickory smoke powder (substitute a dash of liquid smoke)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp Wolfgang Puck rub

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, small dice
2 tbsp. fresh oregano
1 tbsp fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Season pork shoulder with olive oil and Wolfgang Puck rub. In a CrockPot, add carrots, pepper, celery, all dried spices, chicken stock, OJ, soy sauce, worcheshire, and smoke powder. Set CrockPot to High heat, cover and cook for 10 hours.

Remove meat, cover and set aside. Put sauce into wide, shallow bowl or dish and de-fat (you can put bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes until the fat hardens on top). Skim off fat.

In saucepan, heat sauce over medium heat to simmer. Add stock or water to adjust consistency of sauce if necessary. Add garlic, onion and cook for 10 minutes. Add fresh herbs, simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. If desired, puree sauce in blender and strain. Season with salt + pepper to taste.

Shred meat, toss in sauce, and serve over pasta, polenta or rice.

Next time:

• Also add some beer, possibly mexican?
• Use more salt
• Try omit V8, add more OJ
  

orange bitters

I've been playing around with making liquers recently. Earlier this week got two "presents": one I bought for myself (my new SF Chronicle II cookbook) and one Beckey got for me: a bottle of orange bitters. These are non-alcoholic blood orange bitters (from Stirrings, a Fall River, MA company). Contents: water, sugar, gentian extract, citric acid, blood orange extract, flavors and caramel color.

I can do better than that! Plus you have to refrigerate after opening, which I don't like. So I started doing research...that's why I love the interweb. Really it's amazing to me that you can go out and find recipes.

Some things I learned so far:

• you can make herb and bark infusions separately in jars, then blend them to taste
• a Buchner funnel + flask and vacuum pump can help a lot to speed filtering
• don't fear pith! a bit of pith can add flavor
  

Orange Bitters

* 1/2 pound dried (Seville) orange peel, chopped finely
* Pinch of cardamom
* Pinch of caraway
* Pinch of coriander seeds
* 2 cups grain alcohol
* 4 tablespoons burnt sugar

1. Mix the orange peel, herb seeds, and the alcohol
2. Let stand in a sealed jar for 15 days, agitating every day.
3. Pour off spirits through a cloth, and seal again.
4. Take the strained off seeds and peel, put them in a saucepan, crushing with a wooden muddler.
5. Cover them with boiling water, simmer 5 minutes;
6. Put in a covered jar for 2 days, then strain this off and add to the spirits.
7. Put in burnt sugar for color.
8. Filter again, let stand until it settles perfectly clear, then bottle for use.

Be careful not to agitate the slight precipitation or sediment during the final operation.

Some links I found:

http://www.bostoncocktails.com/2006-06-13-make-your-own-bitters.html
http://www.onlinesciencemall.com for science gear
http://www.drinkboy.com/liquorcabinet/flavorings/orangebitters.html for above recipe and other orange bitters resources.

Here are some bitters flavors to consider:

• Lemon juice, peel, pith
  
• Blood orange juice, peel, pith
  
• Sour orange peel (naranja agria), juice, pith
  
• navel orange juice, peel, pith
  
• grapefruit juice, peel, pith
  
• grapefruit juice, peel, pith
  
• lime juice, peel, pith
  
• cardamom
• caraway
• coriander
• ginger
• cloves
  
• star anise
• fresh ginger
• burnt sugar
• molasses
• juniper berries
• gentian
• lemongrass
• nutmeg
• fennel seed
• vanilla
• black pepper
• white pepper
• almond (raw, roasted or toasted)
• apricot kernel
• sloe berry
• birch bark
• caramelized sugar (sugar turned to caramel, then into simple syrup)
• rose petals
• orris root
  
• angelica root
  
• lavender
  

Which reminds me, I'll have to post a krupnikas recipe soon...

Pasta dough

So yesterday I made pasta dough, which I haven't made long time. I was watching the eggs episode of Jamie Oliver's relatively new show "Jamie at Home" and he made an egg tagliatelli using a simple pasta recipe, so I decided to try it out.

I had read somewhere (some blogs, etc.) that mentioned that you can use cake flour for pasta dough, and that it simulates Italian "00" grind wheat flour more closely. Cake flour has fairly low gluten, and is made of soft wheat, while "regular" all-purpose flour is made of hard wheat. Hard wheat flours (such as semolina or durum wheat) result in pasta that has more "tooth", whereas soft wheat flours (such as cake flour and Italian 00) result in softer pastas.

I had a box of Swan's Down cake flour, supposedly expiring 2007, so I figured I would try it, what the heck. Turned out really well; finished product was really tender and delicious. No real tooth to speak of, but certainly nicer than the wontons I used last time for the butternut squash ravioli.

The thing that made this great was the food processor. The key is: check/add flour/pulse/repeat. The "check" is checking for stickiness and checking for texture (should be breadcrumbs). So here it is:

Pasta Dough 1.0

4 eggs
2.5-3 cups cake flour, unsifted
(possibly more; I think it will end up at least 3 cups flour, perhaps even more)
Cake flour for kneading/dusting

Add eggs to food processor, and 2.5 cups flour. Pulse/mix until it comes together into a ball. Touch the dough and see if it's sticky (probably will be). Add more flour (about 1/3 cup at a time), pulse some more. Dough should start to turn into pea sized pieces; add more flour and pulse, and check. Repeat; You want to end up with breadcrumb style pieces (like panko, not dust crumbs, bigger crumbs).

Dump it out onto the board, knead it for a couple of minutes until the dust comes together, and the texture is smooth. Dust with flour as necessary to prevent sticking. It may still be a bit tacky, but that's OK.

Press dough into disc, wrap with plastic wrap, and let it sit for 15-30 minutes on counter or in fridge.

Set up pasta machine on biggest setting (mine has #1 - #7, #1 is thickest). Remove dough from plastic, mash into approximate thick square, and run it thru #1. Rub flour into both sides, fold in half, put the folded dough into machine at #1 setting. Repeat 4 times.

Then start running it through each setting, 1 to 7, in order. After each run, rub some flour on both sides. If the piece gets too long, just cut it before continuing feeding it through. Dust leftover piece with flour, fold it and cover with a cloth.

Rub flour the finished product liberally on both sides. Use immediately, or fold it over and cover with a towel until you're ready to use.