It’s becoming evident that trends are going to start appearing on this site - like everyone else in the world, there are the usual standbys we pull into service on a regular basis. Pizza is one of them, usually made with our standard whole wheat crust recipe. Which has always worked out just fine. But tonight, I got home from Edmonton at dinnertime with two batches of the no-knead bread dough bubbling away in their bowls, and thought, why not slap some onto a baking sheet and see how it works for pizza? I’m glad I did - the result was a chewy, bulbous crust like the ones you get at the Italian Supermarket on Saturday afternoons (minus the smoky charred bits they get from the wood-fired oven. When I win the lottery, I’m having one installed in my back yard. Seriously - the Canadian rep for Italian Magnaini wood-fired ovens is in Black Diamond!)
Fridge-cleaning pizzas always seem to end up better than any others, because you use up things you wouldn’t necessarily plan on combining: it appeared at first that we were out of luck in the sauce department, but then located half a jar of pesto (one of W’s favorites, despite the fact that it’s green - the kid will eat falafels and pesto but won’t touch apple juice or potatoes), which we spread over the crust. It took about a minute to cook a Spolumbo’s chicken sausage, adding the second half of a can of diced tomatoes and the last of a bag of baby spinach to the pan to let it wilt after the sausage cooked. On top, part-skim mozzarella.
Now, I’m assuming that anyone reading this has heard of the no-knead bread phenomenon - if not, you must. I’ll tell you right now that this is probably the most worthwhile recipe you’ll collect from this site. (If you go to only one movie this year, bake this bread recipe.) It was written about by Mark Bittman in the New York Times a year ago November, and it turned out to be the most emailed story in the history of the Times. Every food blogger in the known universe has tried it, and documented it. It’s absolutely fantastic. The original recipe says 12-18 hours, but I usually leave mine for 24, or however long it is between stirring it up and when I want to bake it.
If you want to turn this into pizza dough, you don’t need to flour it and let it rest on the countertop; it should be fine just scraped out of the bowl onto the pan. Either way.
No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey at the Sullivan Street Bakery in Manhattan
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for dusting (or whole wheat, or half and half)
¼ teaspoon instant yeast (I use about 1/3 teaspoon regular active dry yeast)
1 teaspoon salt
In a large bowl stir together the flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a plate and let it rest on the countertop for 18-24 hours at room temperature.
The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice, then roughly shape into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour. Fold it over the bread or cover with another cotton towel and let it sit for another hour or two.
While the bread is resting, preheat the oven to 450°. Put a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and flip the dough over into the pot; it may look like a mess, but that’s OK. Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake another 10-15 minutes, until it’s nice and golden. Eat up!
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January 22 2008 | bread and one dish | 8 Comments »
Mike saw my blog last night. He came into the bedroom and said, “people are going to think you’re so full of it. They aren’t going to believe we eat that kind of thing for dinner on a normal night!”
Is this true? Am I coming across as a food snob? Because really, any meal that you write out in overly descriptive terms comes across far more cheffy than it really is. I learned this a couple years ago, when they invited me to be a presenter at Epicurean at the Jasper Park Lodge. The lineup included Chef Michael Smith, Brad Horen (recently named the best chef in Canada), some other serious restaurant chefs, and me. I argued that they didn’t really want me there - I’m not a formally trained restaurant chef with my hard-earned whites and line experience. My expertise is more on the eating end of things. They seemed confident that I would fit in, so I set to work putting together some menus - we were each responsible for a course at every fancy meal. And it turns out if you use superfluous words when describing your food, anything can sound cheffy. Example:
roasted grain-fed tenderloin of pork in a maple-cider reduction
with fresh rosemary and caramelized pink lady apples
(I love because they were my Grandma’s favorite, and in homage to the Pink Ladies of Grease.)
smashed Poplar Bluff Farm potatoes with buttermilk and grainy Dijon
vanilla bean panna cotta with braised cherries
Translation: roast pork tenderloin in an easy marinade, with apples that have been sliced and sauteed in the same pan the pork was browned in, with the simmered marinade poured over top. The bag of potatoes we found under the sink, gouged the sprouting eyes out of and chopped in pieces without bothering to peel them, boiled and roughly mashed with a potato masher with a few glugs of buttermilk, a small knob of butter and a spoonful of grainy mustard. Cream Jell-O - literally, you make panna cotta in about 4 minutes by dissolving gelatin and sugar into half & half, spiking it perhaps with some vanilla and chilling it in little bowls - with dried cherries simmered on the stovetop in some sort of juice or booze until plump.
So tonight there were 31 people at my class, and it was fun. I was so excited about that goat cheese gratin the other night, I made it for all of them to try. Then I made the aforementioned pork tenderloin (although the idea to use mustard came afterward; I added a spoonful of the onions I caramelized for the stuffed chicken), those orange peanut shrimp (with spinach thrown in to wilt this time, and extra sauce), chicken breasts stuffed with brie, caramelized onions and garlic (read: onions and garlic cooked in a pan until brown), and an easy lasagna made with layers of fresh ravioli, which I think I’ll make tomorrow, it looked so good. And for dessert, chocolate sorbet.
Maple Roast Pork Tenderloin with Apples
This made it onto the Epicurean menu – for which we fancied it up with mashed potatoes and parsnips (correction: puree of potatoes and parsnips with crème fraiche) and roasted tomatoes on the vine. But I suggest serving it on the couch in a wide, shallow bowl, over a big glop of mashed potatoes to catch all the drips.
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 Tbsp. Dijon or grainy mustard
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 – 3/4 lb pork tenderloins
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 Tbsp. butter
2 of your favorite apples, cored and sliced
1 cup apple cider or juice, or more to taste
1 tsp. cornstarch
In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, mustard, rosemary, lemon juice, and soy sauce. Pour over the pork and marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
When you’re ready for dinner, preheat the oven to 400F. Heat the oil in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Remove the pork from the marinade, reserving the marinade, and brown the tenderloins on all sides, turning as necessary. This should take about 5 minutes.
Transfer the pork to a baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes. (If you have a meat thermometer, it should register 155°F/68°C). Transfer the pork to a cutting board, cover it with foil, and let it stand until you’re ready for it.
Meanwhile, add the butter to the skillet (don’t wash it out!) and sauté the apples for 5-7 minutes, until the apples are tender and golden. Transfer the apples to a plate. Add the marinade and apple cider to the pan and bring to a simmer, scraping up any flavourful browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Pour a small amount of the sauce (about 1/4 cup) into a small dish, whisk in the cornstarch until you get rid of all the lumps (this is called a slurry) and return the mixture to the pan. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is slightly thickened. Return the apples to the sauce along with any juices that have collected on the plate.
Slice the pork and serve it topped with the apples and sauce. Serves 4-6.
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January 22 2008 | pork | 3 Comments »
It’s becoming evident that trends are going to start appearing on this site - like everyone else in the world, there are the usual standbys we pull into service on a regular basis. Pizza is one of them, usually made with our standard whole wheat crust recipe. Which has always worked out just fine. But tonight, I got home from Edmonton at dinnertime with two batches of the no-knead bread dough bubbling away in their bowls, and thought, why not slap some onto a baking sheet and see how it works for pizza? I’m glad I did - the result was a chewy, bulbous crust like the ones you get at the Italian Supermarket on Saturday afternoons (minus the smoky charred bits they get from the wood-fired oven. When I win the lottery, I’m having one installed in my back yard. Seriously - the Canadian rep for Italian Magnaini wood-fired ovens is in Black Diamond!)
