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Jan 8

bread for today

It’s no secret: you can plunk down a lot of good money on a loaf of good bread. A loaf that actually tastes like bread, with honest texture and chew, with a browned crust that crackles when you tear or bite into it and little bits of it spill onto your lap. A loaf with a labyrinth of airy holes inside (to better hold the butter or olive oil), and an aroma that you want to bury your nose in. A loaf like that will set you back at least a several dollars.

Or – easy-as-pie (only easier) – you can make your own. In a recent post I listed bread from your oven as a remedy for the doldrums. It’s certainly that – but it’s not only the eating of it that lifts your spirits – it’s the feel of it, all squishy at first and then soft and powdery like a baby’s bottom. It’s the heavenly aroma that leaks from your oven and drifts through your house. And it’s the sheer miraculousness of motionless ingredients springing to life! Baking bread is simply one of life’s simple pleasures. Eating it is another.

In my previous post (on a grand scale) I laid out reasons why a digital kitchen scale belongs in your kitchen. For bread-making (as I’m about to describe) the process is made nearly fool-proof. You’ll get consistently wonderful results, loaf after steamy loaf. (The weight of “carefully” measured and leveled cups of flour can vary by as much as 2 ounces!)

The first of these two recipes will give you bread today. The second, using less yeast and undergoing a longer, taste-developing rise, can start today but will finish tomorrow. They’re both delicious, and I make each of them all the time. The second, if you can wait, is a-maz-ing! Both take very little hands-on time, the longer method even less hands-on time, so don’t be deterred by the waiting game. While the dough is doing its growing thing, you can be tending to whatever else calls you.

Almost always these days, I’ll bake bread using a Dutch oven. With its lid on, a moist mini-environment is created, one very similar to professional deck-ovens with steam-injection. The crust that results is phenomenal. I’ll give the instructions for with and without a Dutch oven.

Basic Bread Dough

20 ounces bread flour (4 cups)
12 ounces water (1½ cups)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon active or instant yeast (I prefer active)

Instructions using a digital scale:

Turn scale on. If using a stand mixer to knead your bread, place its bowl on the scale and then zero the scale out. (The weight of the bowl will no longer be counted.) Begin scooping flour into the bowl until it measures 20 ounces. Measure in 2 teaspoon salt. Again, zero out the scale. Add lukewarm water until scale registers 12 ounces. Spoon 1 teaspoon yeast over the top and allow to dissolve in the water.

No scale yet?

Measure the ingredients into your bowl by cup and spoon. (Never use a two-cup measuring cup to measure flour. The results are much more compact and will therefore weigh more than intended.)

Fit the bowl onto your mixer and using the paddle attachment, incorporate the ingredients fully. Remove paddle and replace with the dough hook. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. This will take about 10 minutes.

(When ready you should be able to remove a small piece of the dough and stretch between your fingers and it will stretch into a translucent sheet without breaking. If it quickly breaks, continue kneading. Another test is simply to use a couple knuckles to press the dough. If it springs back and completely fills the depression, it should be ready.)

Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover it with plastic and allow it to rise to about twice its size.

Now the test for readiness is to gently push a finger into the dough. The dough should offer some resistance. If it springs back rapidly, let it rest a bit longer. If you let it rise too long, the dough will turn a bit flabby and will be a bit more reluctant to give that extra rise once in the oven.)

Turn the dough out from its bowl onto a floured surface and knead it to expel excess gas and redistribute the yeast.

Forming the loaf: Cover with a dish towel and let rest for 15 minutes. To form a boule (ball-shaped) loaf, simply roll the dough back and forth on the cutting board or counter following a circular motion until smooth and round. Again, cover the dough with a dish towel and allow to rise for another hour. If using a Dutch oven, you can place the boule in the pot and allow it to rise there. (But please refer to the Dutch oven method below before proceeding.) If using a traditional (no Dutch oven method) place the formed ball onto a baking sheet.

Traditional method (no Dutch oven) After about 30 minutes of bread-rising – Preheat the oven to 450°F.

(Yes, it’s early but the oven gets better, with a more even heat, if allowed to preheat for a longer period.) If you want to create some steam to produce a better crust you can place a cast iron skillet in the oven on a lower rack when you begin to preheat. Then add a cup of water to the skillet (using mitts to avoid burning!) when you put your bread in to bake.

Just before sliding your bread into the oven, slice an X or a pound symbol # into the top to help it expand for its final (rather dramatic) rise. Coat with olive oil and a sprinkling of coarse salt. Place into oven on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 450°F then reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue baking until done, 45 to 50 minutes. (Internal temperature when done, 200°F to 210°F.) Cool on a rack completely before cutting (if at all possible.)

Dutch oven method: (5½- or 7½-quart Dutch ovens will work – best results with cast iron)

Don’t let this confuse you, but you have yet another option here. Either a pre-heated Dutch oven – the advantage will be a crunchier crust and a bit more rustic appearance, or a cold Dutch oven – the advantage being that you can allow your loaf to rise in the pan, preserving the pretty shape you’ve created. You might try them both and see which you like better. It’s slightly less “intimidating” if you start with the cold Dutch oven the first time. So I’ll begin there.

Cold Dutch Oven: After forming your boule (description above) place in the Dutch oven, the bottom of which has been oiled first. Allow to rise until doubled, then add a coating of olive oil and some coarse salt, and slash the top as directed above. Place the lid on the pot and bake for ½-hour. Remove the lid and continue baking until done. (The internal temperature will register 200°F to 210°F) another 15 to 30 minutes. Remove and cool on rack. The crust will make the most delicious-sounding crackle as it cools. (The loaf pictured here was prepared in a cold Dutch oven.)

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Jan 8

12 Comments

post on a grand scale

Did you come here expecting some monumental piece of writing? Something brilliant, witty? Illuminating, perhaps life-altering? I disappoint. This is a simple post whose design is to make one simple point. You should have a kitchen scale.

My argument is best made by illustration. Please notice how much one level cup of flour weighs.

Turns out a level cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 4 to 6 ounces. (113 to 141 grams.) (Most recipes written to include flour use 5 ounces as the standard.)

Turns out too (and this is no stretch) that a recipe can be a disappointing flop or a ravaging success based on which of those level cups you plopped into your bowl. That concludes argument #1.

Argument #2 may be even more compelling. You’ll have fewer bowls, measuring cups and spoons to wash. Having a kitchen scale simplifies your life!

Argument #3 – You may have noticed, more and more recipes are being written for weight measurements as opposed to volume. And some of those weights are actually METRIC. One day its bound to happen that we in the States will finally follow suit. A digital scale makes those conversions with the push of a little button. Life simplified!

Argument #4 – You will turn out loaf after loaf of gorgeous bread, each looking, feeling and tasting just as wonderful as the last one. (The next 2 posts will illustrate. Bread for Today, and then Bread for Tomorrow.)

But to give you a preview, it will go something like this –

You’ll get your scale out and set it on the counter.

You’ll turn it on, set a bowl on top, and zero the scale out. (This will result in the scale not accounting for the bowl’s weight, only the contents.) If you have a stand mixer with dough hook, use this bowl.

You’ll start scooping flour in until your scale indicates the correct weight needed – 5 ounces per cup.

You’ll zero the scale out again – now it will no longer account for the weight of the flour or the bowl.

You’ll begin pouring water into the bowl until the correct weight has registered.

Zero out the scale. Add yeast and salt in the same manner.

Knead with your machine, or by hand. Let rise. Form into ball (boule), let rise. Bake. Delight and eat! Delight some more!

This artisan-quality bread is INCREDIBLY simple, RIDICULOUSLY inexpensive, and POSITIVELY wonderful! You will be SO happy you did this!

(stay tuned for the first of the two breads…)

Jan 6

19 Comments

preserved lemons

When winter hits, full force, my foodie mind turns to sunny foods. Bowls and platters of brilliant fruits (and vegetables) plucked straight from a Gauguin painting. Perfume-y spices from Morocco and India. And flowers, bright boisterous flowers dropping sunny pollen on the table.

Because that’s what my mind turns to, you’ll be seeing quite a few sun-drenched recipes here for the next couple months. Foods from Morocco, Spain, India, Provence, Italy, and some island nations. I’m no authority on any of those cuisines – I simply know how I choose to cook, and how I love to eat, and I can’t resist the sharing when I stumble upon something wonderful.

A number of dishes will call for preserved lemon. For those of you unfamiliar, here’s what some chefs had to say about this well-loved and versatile condiment (also referred to as lemon confit):

“…salt-preserved lemons have a strange and delectable flavor that utterly mystifies.” [Nancy Harmon Jenkins, The Mediterranean Cookbook]

“…refreshing, tangy, essential to the cooking of tagines…well worth making your own….Be as liberal as you like, tossing them in salads and scattering them over your favorite tagines.” – [meat or vegetables stews] [that from Ghillie Basan, author of Tagine – Spicy stews from Morocco and Flavors of Morocco]

Laura Calder, author of French Taste and delightful host of her own show on the Cooking Channel says: “I don’t make tagines that often, so I have started flinging the lemons into other dishes… [Doesn’t that remind you a bit of Julia Child?] …Diced preserved lemon (and it’s actually the skin of the lemon you eat, not the flesh) is great with fish fried in butter or thrown in with nice fat chops to make a slightly exotic supper in a pan; it also perks up vegetable dishes.”

And here’s what Dorie Greenspan, author of the glorious cookbook, Around my French Table, has to say: “…soft…sharp…salty flavor…good with chicken and with meaty fish, like tuna and swordfish, they’re also wonderful with bitter greens and even beets.”

Chef Eric Ripert of New York City’s famed Le Bernardin restaurant – “I add lemon confit to so many dishes—from broiled fish to pork and beans.” He blends his lemon confit with butter to add a pleasantly pungent flavor to broiled fish. Before broiling, he’ll dot the fish with some of the lemon butter, then serve with more of it on the side.

~ ~ ~

You can of course find jarred preserved lemons already made – in some better-stocked grocery stores, gourmet shops or in Moroccan food markets. It’s very simple to make your own though, and inexpensive. Plus it kind of satisfies some pioneering itch inside, keeping your eye on that jar of lemons as they soften and mellow and transform themselves for your table. If you’re making your own, it does take about a month for them to fully “mature” – but they’ll last for perhaps a year in your refrigerator once done.

Preserved Lemons – or Lemon Confit

NOTE on the lemons: Because it’s only the rind you’ll be eating, it’s important (I think) to start with organic lemons.

10 organic, unwaxed lemons (I prefer the smaller, thin-skinned, juicy and sweet Meyer variety)
10 Tablespoons sea salt
the juice of 3 to 4 lemons, though possibly more (this juice doesn’t get used until day 3 or 4)

OPTIONAL: I like to add to each jar 1 or 2 bay leaves, several allspice berries, and 5 or six pink (or several black) peppercorns.

Wash (and then dry) your lemons and sterilize a quart-sized jar and lid.

(You have options on how to cut the lemons. Cutting in half cross-wise, or making longitudinal cuts from the top to about ¾ of the way to the bottom. I now prefer the latter way, so I’ll give instructions accordingly, though the photo below doesn’t agree.)

Cut the stem end and tips off of each lemon, top and bottom, avoid cutting into the lemon’s flesh. Standing the lemon on its bottom edge, slice from the top ¾ of the way down, as if you were going to cut into quarters, but leaving the base intact. Read more

Jan 6

29 Comments

doldrums and remedies

dól-dremz – 1: a spell of listlessness or despondency 2: a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slump 3: in the Northern Hemisphere, the months of January and February, excluding special birthdays and Valentines Day.

rem-i-deez – 1: something that cures or relieves a disease or bodily disorder 2: something that corrects or removes an evil of any kind. 3. any one or all of the following: