Archive for the 'bread' Category
I don’t dislike broccoli. But still, I buy it because I feel like I should, and every time it sits in my fridge until it starts to turn yellow. Then I end up making broccoli soup or classy chicken (an old Best of Bridge casserole Mike and my Dad love composed of broccoli, chicken, mushroom soup, curry powder and grated cheese) in an attempt to not waste it. Tonight was one of those nights, so with this soup we kicked off “Clean-Out-the-Fridge-Before-Leaving-Town-Week”. I’m sure you celebrate this or a similar occasion at least once per summer.
I can’t hardly believe it’s already almost time to head to Tofino. (While our Hells Angels friends house-sit with their Rotweillers, of course.) Tomorrow is the CBC’s annual Stampede pancake breakfast; Friday is parade day. Where did July come from? So it’s time to stop grocery shopping and use up what we have, which always results in interesting/creative dinners.
Broccoli soup is easy: hack up the broccoli and simmer it (with a chopped onion, if you have the gumption) with some chicken or veg stock. The ratios don’t really matter - I used enough broth to come halfway up the pot of broccoli. Simmer/steam until the broccoli is very tender, then puree it with a hand-held immersion blender right in the pot, or transfer to a blender to puree. Add a handful of grated old cheddar and stir until it melts, and a splash of half and half, if you like - it’s amazing what even a quarter cup to finish (and this was a big head of broccoli and 1L stock) will do to the resulting texture. And that’s it.
This pan bread is like a giant biscuit, except that the dough is easily stirred together using canola oil instead of cutting in any butter. I bake mine in my ever-present cast iron skillet; after caramelizing the onions, you can just scrape the batter over and bake it in the oven. If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet, you could do it almost as easily in a cake pan or pie plate. This caramelized onion version is fantastic with chili. It does the same duty as a focaccia in far less time, and no kneading.
Like any biscuit the dough takes additions well; fresh herbs would be good, or grated cheese, or chilies. To make a sweet (but not too sweet) version, caramelize sliced apples or pears in the pan, with or without a squirt of honey or maple syrup, and add a shake of cinnamon to the batter.
Upside-down Caramelized Onion Pan Bread
a drizzle of oil and perhaps a bit of butter
2 large onions, cut in half and thinly sliced
2 cups all-purpose flour, or half all-purpose, half whole wheat
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large ovenproof skillet set over medium heat, melt the butter with the oil. Sauté the onions for about 15 minutes, until they are soft and golden. Spread the onions over the bottom of the pan and take it off the heat, or spread them into an 8″ or 9″ round cake pan or pie plate that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, stir together the milk, oil, and egg. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just blended.
Spread the batter over the onions and bake for 35-40 minutes, until pale golden around the edges, cracked on top, and springy to the touch.
Cut into wedges or squares and serve warm.
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July 02 2008 | bread and soup | 2 Comments »
And we didn’t even order in! I was mighty proud of myself for pulling off the daal and naan, although later on not so proud anymore, having eaten the better part of four fresh naan breads warm from the skillet. Not a good idea. My only consolation was that the rest of the meal consisted entirely of vegetables.
This whole Indian theme came about because I’ve been buying far more tomatoes than is absolutely necessary, and as a result have a few going wrinkly on top of my breadbox. Once, when we lived in Vancouver about 5 years ago, I made a potato curry from my friend Tahera Rawji’s cookbook Simply Indian, and because I didn’t have any crushed tomatoes I whizzed a couple of tomatoes in the food processor that were at the time going wrinkly on my minescule Vancouver countertop. It was one of those minor events that lodged itself firmly in my brainpan, and now whenever I see an aging tomato, I want curried potatoes.
Tomato Curried Potatoes
a variation of “Potato Curry” in Simply Indian
4-5 Yukon gold or baby new potatoes, cut into large chunks (I don’t bother to peel them - a bonus when you use thin-skinned potatoes like YG)
canola oil, for cooking
1 cup crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, or 2 tomatoes pureed in the food processor
2 tsp. paprika
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder or paste
1 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
Boil the potatoes until tender. In a large skillet, heat a drizzle of oil and add the potatoes; toss them around a bit. Add the tomatoes, paprika, curry powder, chili powder, sugar and salt and cook for 5-10 minutes, until the potatoes are well coated and the extra moisture has cooked off.
Serves 4.
Also, I had the most enormous cauliflower you ever saw left over from Ramsay Rocks, where it was supposed to go onto the veggies and dip tray in the volunteer’s tent. I hardly ever buy cauliflower. I’m not a huge fan. Or I wasn’t; I am now. My favorite way to cook any kind of veg is to roast it, so why not cauliflower? I gave it a try, and even W liked it. To roast cauliflower, separate it into florets and toss with canola or olive oil and salt; spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast at 450°F for about half an hour, until it’s all golden and charred.
The daal was something I flipped past en route to the curried potato recipe; it had me at the first line: “in a large saucepan with plenty of water, bring to a boil and cook lentils until overdone and mushy.” Hey, I can do that. Beyond that, the recipe pointed me in the right direction and I went on my way. This is definitely a keeper. Funny that I’ve never made this before, but looking at the recipe it seems so completely obvious.
Daal Curry
1 1/2 cups dried orange lentils
canola oil, for cooking
1 large onion, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp. curry paste or powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2-1 cup half & half or evaporated milk or coconut milk (optional)
1/2 tsp. garam masala (optional)
a handful of cilantro, chopped (optional)
Put the lentils in a pot and boil for 15-20 minutes, until very well done and mushy. Drain. Meanwhile, heat a good drizzle of oil and sauté the onions until dark golden. Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the curry paste, sugar, chili powder, and salt, then the lentils and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the half & half and cook until it has the consistency you want - they can be runny, or thicken up if you cook it for a few more minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the garam masala, then sprinkle with cilantro, if you like. Serves 4-6.
The tangy, pillowy naan is from Tahera’s book. It seemed at first to be a little over the top to make naan from scratch, but then again it isn’t any different than making pizza dough. Next time, I’ll brush the outside of the rolled dough with melted butter spiked with garlic before cooking it, and I am so using this as a base for Indian-influenced pizzas on the barbecue. Tandoori chicken, perhaps?
Naan
a variation from Simply Indian
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg, beaten
5 Tbsp. powdered milk (optional - I didn’t use any)
5 Tbsp. plain yogurt
melted butter or oil, for frying
In a large bowl, stir together the water, yeast and sugar and let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy. If it doesn’t foam, the yeast is inactive; toss it out!
Stir in the flour, salt, canola oil, egg and powdered milk, and stir until almost combined. Add the yogurt and work into a soft, pliable dough.
Cover with a tea towel and let rise until doubled in size; about an hour or two.
Divide the dough into 6-8 pieces and on a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece into an oval. Brush both sides with melted butter or oil. (Tahera instructs to brush one side with butter, the other with milk.)
Cook each naan in a very hot skillet until blistered and cooked, flipping as necessary.
Makes 6-8 naan.
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June 24 2008 | beans and bread and veg and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
I’m sick (literally). I got whammed with some sort of flu last night as I went to bed, and was up all night with a fever. Isn’t it supposed to be the kids who are up all night with fevers?
So today, I’m not cooking. I’m actually lying on the couch, trying to chip away at some work on my laptop, but my eyes are all hot and they hurt if I glance anywhere but straight ahead. Luckily the last of the sausage, black bean and sweet potato soup is still in the fridge, and when E came over yesterday we made bagels.
Making bagels is not hard to do - honest. The dough is quick to stir together and doesn’t need anywhere near as long to rise as traditional bread doughs. The trick to giving them their chewy texture - what makes bagels bagels instead of big buns with holes in the middle of them - is to boil them for a couple minutes first. This is not difficult - you just boil a big pot of water and plop them in a few at a time, then lift them out with a slotted spoon, put them on the cookie sheet and sprinkle them with seeds (if you want - or coarse salt, if you’d rather shape them into pretzels) so that they will stick to the tacky dough before you bake them.
Bagels
The problem with store-bought bagels is their size – the ones that are close to the size of your head can weigh in at 500 calories apiece, even though they are low in fat. Flavour these any way you like by stirring in some grated cheese, caramelized onions, fresh garlic, cinnamon and raisins, toasted nuts or seeds.
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
4-5 cups all-purpose flour, or half all-purpose and half whole wheat
2 tsp. salt
Sesame, poppy or caraway seed to sprinkle on top (optional)
In a large bowl, stir yeast and brown sugar into 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water until it dissolves; let it stand for 5 minutes until it gets foamy. If it doesn’t, the yeast is probably expired – toss it and get some fresh yeast!
Stir the oil and a cup of flour into the yeast mixture, then add the salt and enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough – I usually use about 2 1/2 cups. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, gently incorporating more flour, until the dough is smooth and elastic. It should take about 10 minutes. Cover with a tea towel and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
Divide the dough into 10 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and then shape it into a circle, pinching the ends together to form bagels. Let them rise for about 20 minutes while you boil a big pot (about 6L) of salted water and preheat the oven to 425 F.
When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and gently place a few bagels at a time into the water. Simmer for 1 minute, then flip them over and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove them with a slotted spoon and place on a wire rack to drain. Once they have all been boiled, place them on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray, and sprinkle with sesame seeds or whatever toppings you like.
Bake for 20 minutes, until golden.
Makes 10 bagels.
Per bagel: 222 calories, 1.9 g total fat (0.2 g saturated fat, 0.9 g monounsaturated fat, 0.6 g polyunsaturated fat), 5.8 g protein, 44.3 g carbohydrate, 0 mg cholesterol, 1.7 g fiber. 8% calories from fat.
Cinnamon Raisin Bagels: add 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1/2-1 cup raisins along with the second batch of flour. Mix and bake as directed.
Onion & Garlic Bagels: sauté 1 minced onion and a few cloves of crushed garlic in 1 tsp. oil until tender and golden. Cool and stir into the dough along with the second batch of flour. Mix and bake as directed.
Cheese Bagels: add 1 tsp. garlic powder and 1 cup grated old cheddar or 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese along with the second batch of flour. Sprinkle the tops with a little extra grated cheese if you like.
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June 10 2008 | bread | 7 Comments »
Normally I would stir up some biscuits to accompany soup, but today it was the other way around. I made a batch of pesto-filled cheese slab scones for CBC this morning, thinking they might be appropriate for our chat about kids and picnicking, but later on, when there was a slab scone to spare, I really couldn’t imagine anything better to accompany a bowl of soup. Since it has been about to rain all day long (like the pause before a sneeze), soup is fitting. Since the scones are filled with pesto, roasted tomato soup made sense. All the stars fell into alignment when I noticed a bunch of tomatoes going wrinkly on top of the breadbox.
But, the scones. Inspired by the mega scones on Heidi’s blog, these are great slabs of cheesy biscuit dough, folded over pesto to enclose it like a letter. Heidi’s version was lemony, slathered with raspberry jam and drizzled with a glaze. I turned mine into cheese biscuits, divided the dough in half and filled one package with sundried tomato pesto (this one was the best - it came to the studio with me this morning) and one with plain basil pesto, as per W’s love for the stuff.
There is so much potential for these scones. I love that you can fill them, easily, with anything; jam, preserves, cinnamon-sugar, ham and cheese, pie filling, even. Most scones take on additions well, but these you can flavor and then fill. The best part is you can slice off pieces as thin or thick as you like; it even made a great base for eggs on toast at lunch.
Pesto & Cheese Slab Scones
If you want a sweet version, omit the cheese and use jam or preserves in place of the pesto. If you like, add grated orange or lemon zest to the dough, brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar before baking.
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar (or more if you make a sweet version)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
1 cup grated old cheddar cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, half & half or 2% milk
1/2-2/3 cup sun dried tomato pesto or basil pesto (from a jar)
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a food processor, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend using a pastry cutter or fork, or pulse the food processor until the mixture is combined but there are still bits of butter no bigger than a pea.
If you’re using a food processor, dump the mixture out into a bowl. Add the cheeses and toss to combine. Add the buttermilk, cream or milk, and stir just until the dough comes together. Divide it in half, and on a floured surface roll each piece into a 10″-12″ square. Spread the pesto in a strip down the middle third, and fold each half over it, overlapping like a letter. If you like, brush the tops with a little extra milk.
Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes, until golden. Cut into whatever sized pieces you like.
Makes two slab scones.
And the tomato soup. Another easy thing to make, and a great use of tomatoes that have passed their prime. I don’t really bother measuring, although I’ve provided some measurements below for those who crave them; I’ll use about 4 big tomatoes, 6 or so Romas, or a pint of cherry or grape tomatoes. Spread them on a cookie sheet and roast them with as many cloves of garlic as you like, then add stock and a bit of milk or cream, until you have soup with the consistency you like. Puree it until it’s chunky or smooth.
Roasted Tomato Soup
It’s important to use ripe, flavorful tomatoes for this soup, since their flavor is paramount. If you have overripe, wrinkled, or squishy tomatoes around, use them up, so long as they don’t have any bad spots. Roasting them transforms their flavor, making them sweet and smoky. It’s a great way to make tomato sauce for pasta, too - just blend it without adding the stock.
about 3 lb. ripe tomatoes
a good drizzle of canola or olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 head garlic, cloves peeled (or 2 cloves, if you don’t want it too garlicky)
2 cups (500 mL) chicken or vegetable stock
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup milk, half and half or whipping cream (optional)
Chopped fresh basil or pesto (optional)
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Cut the tomatoes in chunks (or in half, widthwise, if you’re using Roma tomatoes) and place them on a large rimmed baking sheet or in a roasting pan with the cloves of garlic. Drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about an hour, until the tomatoes are juicy with dark edges and the garlic is very soft. Set it aside to cool for a bit.
If you have a hand-held immersion blender (I highly recommend one), transfer the tomatoes, garlic and all the juices that have collected in the pan into a
medium saucepan and set it over medium heat. If not, transfer it to a blender or food processor, puree it (add a little stock if you need to get it moving) and then transfer it to a pot. Add the chicken stock and sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. If you are going to add cream, turn the heat down to low and add it at the last minute, stirring just until the soup is heated through. If you like, stir in a small handful of chopped fresh basil or a spoonful of pesto just before serving.
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May 20 2008 | bread and freezable and soup | 5 Comments »
Confession: I ate breakfast at Diner Deluxe today (as always the best eggs Benny ever), and lunch at Buffalo Cafe - a fantastic made from scratch bison burger that I meant to save half of for Mike, but didn’t. I did opt for the side salad rather than fries though - theirs are made with real greens, sprouts, chick peas, and some of the best grainy mustard and balsamic vinaigrette I’ve ever had. I was a bit let down by the plastic bowl it arrived in though, considering we were eating in. (Look at me playing restaurant reviewer.)
My point is, I wasn’t much up for dinner. But Mike is driving to Tofino tomorrow morning and I felt obliged to nourish him with something that will carry him through a few days of road food. I had a leftover sausage in the freezer from our pocket dogs, and a bunch of celery, a tin of lentils and some garlic, and really that’s all you need to make Sausage & Lentil Soup - our original Day 1 dinner!
But a big bowl of soup needs bread to go with it. I’m always amazed that people don’t bake Irish soda bread more often - it’s the only way I can think of to produce a loaf of bread with less than 5 minutes of actual effort, and you don’t need to wait for it to rise. It’s like a giant biscuit, really, only less finicky. And like biscuits, soda bread (which ironically contains more baking powder than soda, but whatever) takes on other ingredients well; dried fruit, berries, raisins, nuts, herbs, cheese… whatever you can think of to throw in. I really really wanted to make cheddar cheese and raisin bread, but I didn’t think it would go as well with the lentils and sausage. Next time.
All you do is toss together the dry ingredients and cheese, stir in the egg and buttermilk (this is a low fat version; feel free to add 1/4 cup of canola or flax oil or melted butter, if you like), shape it into a ball, slash the top with a knife and bake it. At Christmastime I like to bake loaves with cinnamon and allspice in the dry ingredients, raisins, cranberries and chopped dried apricots tossed in, and grated orange zest stirred into the egg and buttermilk. Who needs to fuss with fancy stolen and holiday braids with a toddler hanging off your leg? Irish soda bread gets the job done quick. And leftovers make excellent Irish French toast.
Irish Soda Bread
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 large egg, slightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk or thin yogurt
1 cup grated old cheddar (or any other cheese), raisins, currants or chopped dried fruit, or both
Flour or oatmeal for rolling
Preheat oven to 375 F.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients – flour through salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk, and add all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir until you have a soft ball of dough. While you’re mixing, feel free to add any additions you think would be nice – a handful of dried fruit, nuts, grated cheese or fresh herbs.
Sprinkle your countertop with a little flour or oats and knead the dough about 10 times, forming it into a ball. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray and cut an ‘X’ lightly on the top.
Bake for 45-55 minutes, until it’s golden and sounds hollow when you tap it on the bottom.
Makes 1 loaf, or 16 wedges.
Per wedge: 132 calories, 1 g total fat (0.3 g saturated fat, 0.2 g monounsaturated fat, 0.2 g polyunsaturated fat), 5.1 g protein, 26.1 g carbohydrate, 14.5 mg cholesterol, 2.4 g fiber. 7% calories from fat.
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May 01 2008 | bread and soup | 2 Comments »
Tnik and I are in Red Deer teaching a series of three tea party classes at The Cooking Room and the Women’s Conference at Red Deer College tonight and tomorrow (after which we head to Banff to the Girlfriend’s Getaway at the Banff Park Lodge. We’ve just arrived in our hotel room and are watching Cyndi Lauper on TV and munching from a ziplock baggie of the crusts we trimmed off of all those cucumber sandwiches (we are extremely high class).
Our first tea party ran from 4:30-7pm, so technically I suppose dinner was tea - bites here and there of currant scones with strawberry preserves and real clotted cream, balsamic mushroom crostini, curried coconut mango chicken in wonton cups, lemon curd tartlets and Earl Grey shortbread. Oh, and some of the chocolate that exploded all over me as I tried to dip a too-taught balloon in too-hot melted chocolate to make fancy chocolate tulip bowls. (Nicole neglected to let me know it was still all over my forehead and neck when we stopped at the wine store - where I asked the clerk where I could find the Moscato - and when I checked into the hotel.)
The shortbread was a successful experiment - I whizzed a spoonful of Nicole’s cream Earl Grey loose tea in the food processor with the flour, sugar and butter, dumped it out and gathered it into a ball, pressed it into the bottom of a 9″ round pan, pressed around the edges and poked the surface with the tines of a fork the way you do with shortbread, and baked it until it was pale golden around the egdes, then cut it into wedges. You could do this with any sort of tea in any shortbread recipe, really. Grinding it a bit first releases more flavour and makes it look peppery.
Currant Scones
3 cups all-purpose flour, or 1 ½ cups all-purpose and 1 ½ cups whole wheat
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda (if using buttermilk)
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup currants
1 cup buttermilk, milk or half & half
extra buttermilk or milk for brushing on top (optional)
coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Preheat oven to 425°F. In a bowl or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the butter and pulse to combine or blend with a fork or pastry cutter until the mixture is crumbly, with bits of butter no bigger than a pea. Stir in the currants.
Stir in the buttermilk and mix just until combined. Gather dough into a ball, then pat it into a circle that is about 1” thick. Brush with a little milk or buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar. Cut into 8 wedges and pull them apart so that they will bake on the sides as well.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden. Makes 8 (or more if you cut them into rounds or smaller triangles.)
Curried Coconut Mango Chicken in Wonton Cups
24 wonton wrappers
a drizzle of canola oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
2 cups chopped cooked chicken (I like using leftover roast chicken - a great way to use roasted deli chickens)
1 tsp. - 1 Tbsp. curry paste
1/2 cup light or regular coconut milk
1/3 cup mango or peach chutney
Juice of 1/2 a lime (about a tablespoon)
Salt to taste
Chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
To make the wonton cups, press fresh wonton wrappers into mini muffin tins, pressing any folds firmly to the sides, and bake at 350 F for 5-10 minutes, until pale golden. Set aside to cool.
To make the filling, heat oil in a medium nonstick saucepan and cook the onion, garlic and ginger for about 2 minutes. Add the chicken, curry paste, coconut milk, chutney, lime juice and salt. Cook, stirring often, until bubbly and thickened. Cool slightly or chill before spooning into wonton cups. Sprinkle with cilantro.
Makes 2 dozen cups.
Per cup: 69 calories, 1 g total fat (0.3 g saturated fat, 0.3 g monounsaturated fat, 0.3 g polyunsaturated fat), 7.1 g protein, 7.3 g carbohydrate, 16.8 mg cholesterol, 0.1 g fiber. 13% calories from fat.
Earl Grey Shortbread
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. - 1 Tbsp. loose Earl Grey tea
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, stir together butter, sugar, tea and vanilla until creamy. Add the flour and salt and stir until you have a soft dough.
Press the dough into an ungreased 9” round pan or place it on an ungreased cookie sheet and pat it into a rectangle. If you like, press down around the edges with the tines of a fork, and poke all over the top.
Bake about 15 minutes, until golden. Cool for 10 minutes, then slice while still warm.
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April 25 2008 | appetizers and bread and breakfast and cookies & squares and sweet stuff | 3 Comments »
Don’t hate me for making butter from scratch.
Wait, hear me out. I knew if the title read: Day 104: homemade crusty bread and freshly churned butter, the collective groan would be ‘oh come on!’, and everyone would abandon me for getting all Martha.
But seriously, I was desperate. I had mixed up a batch of no-knead bread yesterday and forgotten about it until this morning, and so baked it. (That’s the great thing about no-knead bread; people think it’s inconvenient that it has to sit for 12-24 hours, but it’s the most convenient that way: you have a 12 hour window in which to find time to pop it into the oven, rather than spend hours in its service; kneading, resting, punching and rising.)
I taught an hors d’ouevres class at The Cookbook Company this afternoon, and ate my share of spanikopita and bacon wrapped Medjool dates stuffed with Parmesano-Reggiano (I’m sure those will come up again this year - they have to) at about 5, and got home to find myself locked out. So I sat on the patio for an hour and a half, and by the time I got in didn’t have the gumption to feed myself properly, not that I really needed to after cooking all afternoon. (M & W ate at his mum’s.)
Right, the butter. I didn’t have any, and the bread was all warm and crusty. It was tragic. As I rummaged through the fridge I found about about a cup of whipping cream left over from the strawberry shortcakes, and remembered making butter in elementary school by turning the little pint of cream over and over all day long. The seed, I suppose, had been planted by a video of Daniel Patterson making butter on the current Epicurious home page. Was I really that desperate? Yes. (If you smelled this bread you’d understand.) Besides, what’s the difference between spending 10 minutes (2 minutes actual effort) making the stuff and spending 10 minutes running to the store to buy some?
I quickly referred to the Daniel Patterson recipe, lest I had forgotton some essential detail since 5th grade. I hadn’t. All you do is beat cream for a long time, and it turns into butter. I poured it into my stand mixer, took his advice to splatter-guard the top with plastic wrap, and turned it on high for about 10 minutes while I went about my stuff. (It does tend to spatter once the butter separates from the buttermilk, so the plastic wrap is a good idea.)
In about 10 minutes, I had lovely, soft, pale yellow butter. You can then salt it, although I don’t understand why this is kneaded in at the end, rather than as you beat the cream. I like mine sweet; it reminds me of eating out at a fancy restaurant, so I had some plain and then mashed in a little salt. So I suppose that was technically dinner. (I finished half a banana and a carrot, too.)
Next time, once the butter is done, I’m going to try beating in some Highwood Crossing cold-pressed canola oil, then spread it in a crock and chill it. My theory is that it will stay soft and spreadable in the fridge. I’ll keep you posted.
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 (I usually use half whole wheat and half all-purpose, sometimes with a shake of ground flaxseed added)
¼ teaspoon instant yeast (sometimes 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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April 13 2008 | bread | 5 Comments »
Did you ever have one of those days when you looked at the clock and it was 6 pm and you had no idea what was for dinner and were completely sick of making dinner but you have a responsibility to feed your two year old and besides that there were several hundred people waiting to hear and see what you’re going to have?
Yeah, me too.
W and I had a late nap, an unusual event but I have been subbing in as traffic reporter on CBC radio all week, which gets me up at 4:30 am, so since I haven’t yet figured out how to adjust my bedtime accordingly, my schedule is a little out of whack. When we woke up, W and I peered in the fridge, poking around at the usual suspects: the rotini noodles in tomato sauce always on standby, eggs waiting to be poached and put on toast, a tub of mixed greens, some leftover cold rice and barley, still far too much Easter chocolate.
He asked for oatmeal. Why not? He loves it for breakfast. Someone somewhere at some point decided what was appropriate breakfast food and what was only suitable at dinnertime; why do pancakes, oatmeal and eggs on toast constitute breakfast, and pizza and roast chicken classify only as lunch or dinner? Ease of preparation? Digestibility? Even more of a mystery to me: who labelled Pop Tarts, donuts and danish breakfast, when other pastries are classified as dessert? I love fruit pie or crumble for breakfast with vanilla yogurt (not that it’s something I have often), and people think it’s weird. But chocolate Pop Tarts or Crispy Cremes are perfectly appropriate? Not to mention the Tim Horton’s muffins that are higher in fat and sugar than either of the two?
So I cooked some oatmeal, adding a bit of the leftover whey from our cheesemaking into the water, and grating the remains of one of the apples he ate a third of and left on the couch into it as it cooked. A handful of raisins and a sprinkle of ground flax (the best plant source of omega 3s), and it was done. We both ate some, and then I popped a slice of banana bread that I froze a few weeks ago into the toaster and smeared it with peanut butter. (If you slice it before you freeze it this is easy to do, but slicing frozen quick breads is much like slicing frozen cake - much easier than slicing frozen bread or bagels.)
Banana Bread
Everyone needs a good banana bread recipe in their repertoire. If you like, add a drizzle of flax oil to the wet ingredients. To make muffins, divide the batter among 12 muffin tins that have been sprayed with nonstick spray or lined with paper liners, and bake them at 400 F for 20-25 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch.
1/4 cup butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar (brown, white or both)
3 mashed very ripe bananas
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plain yogurt, low fat sour cream or buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour, or half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or raisins, or 1 cup fresh or frozen (unthawed) blueberries
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until well combined – the mixture will have the consistency of wet sand. Add banana, eggs, yogurt and vanilla and beat until well blended. Don’t worry about getting all the lumps of banana out.
Add flour, baking soda and salt and stir by hand just until combined. If you are adding nuts or other additions, throw them in before the batter is blended.
Pour batter into an 8″x4″ loaf pan that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for an hour and 10 minutes, until the top is springy to the touch. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.
Makes 1 loaf, with about 16 slices.
Per slice: 152 calories, 3.8 g total fat (2.1 g saturated fat, 1.1 g monounsaturated fat, 0.3 g polyunsaturated fat), 2.9 g protein, 26.8 g carbohydrate, 35 mg cholesterol, 0.8 g fiber. 22% calories from fat.
To make Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread: remove 1 cup of batter and gently stir 2 tbsp. cocoa and 1/4 cup chocolate chips into it. Alternate big spoonfuls of plain and chocolate batter in the pan and gently run a knife through to create a marbled effect. Bake as directed.
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April 01 2008 | bread | 7 Comments »
OK, so I didn’t actually make anything for dinner tonight. But I cranked out a helluva lot of waffles over the course of the day to fuel our Easter egg hunt (I think we unplugged the waffle iron at around 2:30) and munched on leftovers and peanut butter Easter eggs enough that we didn’t particularly want dinner. I think W ate the first third of about three apples, and Mike made a berry smoothie in an attempt to offset the effects of our poor grazing.
But the waffles weren’t really that unhealthy, made with whole wheat flour, an egg and canola oil. This is my favorite recipe, and one you should have if you own a waffle iron. (In fact, having this recipe easily justifies the purchase of a waffle iron.) It’s made with yeast, and stirred up the night before (the eggs are stirred in at the last minute) so it’s ready to go when you are. The resulting waffles are light and crispy, and make the house smell phenomenal on account of the yeast in the batter. I’m glad to have the opportunity to share it; being a dinner-themed blog, I sometimes wish I could report on our morning meals instead. More than once it has crossed my mind to launch Breakfast with Julie (or Breakfast at Julie’s? Like Tiffany’s?), but then I’d be documenting everything I ate every day and driving everyone crazy. Plus there are only so many ways to make a toasted bagel & peanut butter or a bowl of oatmeal interesting.
To top the waffles, I simmered some frozen wild blueberries in maple syrup until they popped, turning the syrup indigo. And sliced up strawberries to go in between the waffles and whipped cream, of course. If there’s bacon on the table, my Mom and I both like to wrap crispy slices in a wedge of soft waffle and eat it with our fingers.
Yeast-Raised Waffles
Usually I dump some ground flaxseed in these too - for some reason it’s undetectable - but I thought better of it since there were so many toddlers present (in diapers or in training)…
1/2 cup warm water
2 tsp. (or 1 pkg.) active dry yeast
2 cups warmed milk (regular or soy)
1/4 cup melted butter, non-hydrogenated margarine or canola oil
2 cups all-purpose flour (or a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat - I usually use half and half, then add some ground flax seed too)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. baking soda
In a large bowl, stir together the water and yeast - let it sit for a few minutes to make sure it’s active. If it doesn’t get foamy, toss it out. Stir in the milk, butter, flour, sugar and salt and whisk to get rid of any lumps. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter overnight (at room temp).
Just before you make your waffles, stir in the eggs and baking soda. The batter will be quite thin. Heat up your waffle iron (spray it first) and cook your waffles the way you normally do, using as much batter as the manufacturer suggests or you deem appropriate. (I use about a ladleful per waffle.)
Makes 6-8 big Belgian-style waffles (I have a machine that makes deep, round waffles).
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March 23 2008 | bread | No Comments »
“It’s like a small salad, only bigger… with lots of stuff in it.”
- Elaine Bennes
Today was a bit sad and stressful, and at 7pm we realized we had no dinner and no time to make the chicken, white bean and pesto stew I thawed a package of chicken thighs for. No matter. We tore open the tub of organic spring greens ($5 for a giant plastic tub at the Superstore - and like foam stuffing, it seems to expand as you pull it out) and started tossing things in: the last of the deli ham, grape tomatoes, a few shriveling mushrooms, toasted pecans, and the last third of a jar of spiced pickled beets I bought at the market.
The best part was, I used the sweet, spiced brine as a base for a salad dressing, with balsamic vinegar, a squirt of grainy mustard, some canola oil and a drizzle of flax oil (1 tsp. has more omega 3s than a 3 oz. filet of salmon!) - shaking it all up in one of my IKEA oil & vinegar bottles.
After dinner I made hot crossed buns for CBC tomorrow morning - this time I revamped them a bit from the traditional version using those candied fruit bits by adding orange (in the form of grated zest and candied peel) and chocolate chunks. When they come out of the oven, I’ll cross them with chocolate - place a small handful of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips in a ziplock baggie, seal and put in a bowl of warm water until it melts. Snip a small piece off the corner and squeeze the chocolate out onto the buns.
Hot Crossed Buns
1 pkg. (or 2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, milk or a combination of both
4- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
pinch allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, melted
1 large egg
1 cup golden raisins, currants or a combination
1/3 cup mixed peel (extremely optional)
Paste for crosses:
3 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. water
Glaze:
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. water
Place the yeast, a bit of the sugar and the milk in a bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes to make sure the yeast is active.Sift the flour with the spices and salt, and add almost all of it to the yeast mixture along with the butter, remaining sugar, egg and dried fruit. Mix until you have a sticky dough.
Take the dough out and place it on a floured surface. Knead for about 5 minutes, adding more flour as you need to if it gets sticky, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Knead for another minute for good measure and an upper-body workout.
Place back in the bowl, cover with a towel and let rise for an hour, or until it’s doubled in size. If you want to bake them fresh in the morning, put the bowl in the fridge overnight to slow the rising.
Divide the dough into 12 balls and place in a 9”x13” baking dish or on a cookie sheet – space them close together if you want them to rise and touch and be soft, pull-apart buns, or space them further away if you want them to have a baked crust all the way around. Cover with a towel or loosely with plastic wrap and put them in a warm place for another half hour to an hour. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Mix the flour and water for the crosses, put the mixture in a zip-lock bag and snip a tiny piece off the corner. Pipe a cross onto the top of each bun and bake them for 25-30 minutes, until golden and well risen. If you want to glaze them, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves (alternatively you can do this in the microwave). Brush this hot syrup generously over the tops of the buns while they’re still warm.
To make the Orange Chocolate Chunk version: ease up on the cinnamon a bit and omit the allspice; add the grated zest of an orange along with the melted butter and egg; add 1/2 cup chopped candied orange peel and 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks to the dough instead of the raisins and citron. Omit the paste for the crosses and instead bake them, cool them and cross them with chocolate - place a small handful of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips in a ziplock baggie, seal and put in a bowl of warm water until it melts. Snip a small piece off the corner and squeeze the chocolate out onto the buns.
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March 17 2008 | bread | 4 Comments »
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