dragon's palate

lemon bars

2011-11-16T09:46:00.000-06:00

I made these lemon bars a while ago, but am only just getting around to posting them now. I know this blog has been a little neglected lately (understatement), but there's just been no time for either of us to focus on it. So to try and get back in the swing of things, slowly slowly, here's my version of an already delicious recipe from smitten kitchen.

What you'll need for the crust:
225 grams (or 1/2lb.) of softened butter
1/2 cup sugar (I used raw cane sugar, the blonde stuff in the US)
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour (I used whole wheat, in a vain attempt to pretend that this is a healthy recipe. Ha!)

Preheat the oven to 177˚C (or 350˚F). In a large bowl cream the sugar and butter.

Add flour and salt and mix well. It'll end up sort of like a clumpy crumble.

Form into a ball, and press it into a greased and floured baking sheet or casserole dish.

Pause by a sun-filled window to admire your handiwork.

Bake 15-20 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned.

Now get started on the filling, which is, in my mind, the best part.

What you'll need:
6 large eggs
2 cups sugar (less than the original recipe, I like my lemon bars very tart. Again, I used raw cane sugar)
2 tablespoons lemon zest (I used about 4 lemons)
2/3 cup lemon juice (I used 6 lemons. Again, I like them tart.)
2/3 cup flour (yes, whole wheat. Laugh all you want, it's usually all I have on hand)

Grate and juice all your lemons. Doesn't that smell good? Here's to hoping you don't grate your finger and then squeeze lemon juice into it. Yeah, I'm speaking from experience here.

Whisk eggs, sugar, and lemon juice, and then add the flour and lemon zest.

By now your crust is done and slightly cooled, go ahead and pour the filling over the top of it.

Back in the oven it goes, 30-35 minutes this time. (It looks the same! Only the bubbles have popped...)

Let it cool to room temperature. I know. It's hard. It smells so good. But seriously, this is one recipe that really does need to cool. Don't touch it. Do something else to distract yourself. Ok, now, go ahead, cut it into squares or triangles or bunny rabbits, and dust with powdered sugar.

Dig in! Granted, these don't look like your average lemon bars, all sunshine yellow on top and pale ivory on the bottom, but it's because of the darker sugar and flour that I used. I promise they taste just as good, and while I can't say that they're actually good for you, I would venture to say that they're a little bit less bad for you.

blueberry pancakes

2011-07-08T11:49:00.000-05:00

Brunch last sunday consisted of extra fluffy scrambled eggs (always with Penzey's Chicago Steak Seasoning, it's my weird little secret for delicious eggs) and delicious blueberry pancakes. The blueberries were beyond perfect: slightly tart, slightly sweet and not so ripe that they fell apart and melted into the batter.

I used my go-to pancake recipe which you can find here, and just tossed in the berries, easy peasy. I like to throw some berries in the ladle, but then I always strategically place a few more once the batter's on the griddle; can't leave berry placement completely up to chance!

Delicious!

stir fry

2011-07-05T09:12:00.000-05:00

Decided to go pseudo-asian the other night. Asian because it's a stir fry and I used soy sauce. Pseudo because, as you can see, I'm totally making this up as I go. None of that makes this any less yummy though. What you'll need:

pork fillets
green beans
leaks
bean sprouts
green pepper
soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce
spices (I used Chinese Five Spices mix by Penzeys and cumin)
crushed almonds
and of course, olive oil, salt, pepper and turkish red pepper

Slice the pork fillets into thin strips.

Toss in a bowl with liberal amounts of soy sauce, a dash of fish sauce and a few drops of sesame oil. Let it marinate while you do the rest.

Cut up the beans leaks and peppers into similarly sized strips. Yes, I'm making fajitas here, but chinese ones. The sprouts are already conveniently shaped perfectly.

Brown the meat and set it aside. Sautee all the veggies minus the sprouts with another dash of all those aforementioned sauces and spices. Not too long, we want everything to stay crunchy! Add the meat back in and let everything blend.

At the last minute toss in your sprouts. Serve in your favorite bowl or plate over brown rice, and add some crushed almonds on top.

kabak kalye

2011-05-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

You're craving greens but a cold salad just won't cut it. Your body wants spinach but your soul wants comfort food. Something hearty and filling, but healthy at the same time. Sound familiar? I've got the answer for you. This dish combines basically zucchini and ground beef, and I throw in a huge amount of spinach too for good measure. My in-laws were in town, so I made enough to feed four hungry people, or four not-so-hungry people twice. Adjust the measurements as needed for your own hungry or not-so-hungry people.

1 onion (I used red - smells so good when you sautee it), diced and sauteed
3 zucchinis, cut into substantial chunks
500 g spinach (I just buy a huge bag of the prewashed leaves)
700 g ground beef
salt, black pepper, dill, and turkish red pepper to taste
2 maggi cubes (or whatever veggie bullion you like best)

I usually brown the meat first, chopping the veggies while the beef does its thing. That way too I can get rid of the excess fat once it's rendered. In a big pot, sautee onions, then add zucchini and seasoning.

Add the spinach. I never cease to be amazed at how much spinach shrinks.

Add the beef to the veggies. And then put a bit of boiling water in there with the boullion, so there's a bit of juicy broth in the pot too. Not quite a soup or a stew, but generous amounts of liquid nonetheless.

Let it simmer til the zucchini's tender. And for best results, serve over brown rice, top with plain yogurt and an extra sprinkling of turkish red pepper.

quickie lunch

2011-05-23T13:55:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you want to spend hours in the kitchen, experimenting and creating delicious new dishes, and sometimes, you just want to eat. But I'm trying, in the spirit of finding balance in my life, to make something beautiful and fresh and healthy even on those 'just feed me now' days.

Quick but insanely delicious and satisfying lunch between rehearsals last week: fresh whole wheat bun from the local market, avocado spread on both halves, a bed of fresh spinach, sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, a few basil leaves, and two eggs over easy on top. It was messy to eat, but wow was it worth it.

Accompanied by a strawberry-banana smoothie made with milk and mandarin juice.

quickie breakfast

2011-04-23T14:12:00.000-05:00

Nothing earth-shattering to post, but for lack of time and energy (and health) we've been neglecting this blog for so long, I thought I'd just pop in and at least say hello. Here's a quickie photo of my quickie breakfast this morning. Sometimes just taking 5 minutes to whip up some whole wheat french toast with strawberries and make an iced latte can bring enough joy to last an entire day.

serious chocolate cookies

2011-03-26T15:05:00.000-05:00

yes folks, these chocolate cookies are serious in their chocolosity. Chocoliciousness. Chocolaciousness. You know. The recipe is adapted from the joy of baking website. Theirs look good, but I can't actually judge how they taste because of course I'm not capable of following someone else's recipe without tweaking it. So, like I said, theirs look pretty good, but mine? Mine are insane.

What you'll need:
450 grams semisweet chocolate
1/4 c. butter
4 eggs
1 1/3 c. sugar (I use raw sugar, just because it's what I have on hand)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (if you're lucky enough to be able to find it where you live. The cookies work without it too)
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Step 1: Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Lick spatula. Grin.

Step 2: Beat eggs and sugar until pale yellow and thick enough to fall from the whisk in ribbons. If you're doing this by hand, get tired and stop before you get that far. Worry for a second, but then relax because you know these cookies are going to turn out stupendous anyway.

Step 3: Add the melted chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract to the egg mixture. Stir. Drool. Grin.

Step 4: Add the dry ingredients and mix gently until completely combined.

Change tools frequently so you have an excuse to lick the whisk, the spatula, and the spoon. Grin.

Step 5: Here comes the hard part. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for minimum half an hour, ideally an hour or more so that it firms up. That means no sticking your finger in for extra licking. Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C) and try and distract yourself.

When it the dough comes out the texture will be much thicker, more mousse-like, and easy to scoop.

Step 6: Scoop it out with a small spoon onto a cookie tray with a silicone liner. You could make them big, but they pack a pretty intense chocolately punch, so I like to make them really small. That way also you can eat 10 and really it's only like you had 3. If the dough is sticking too much, use a little warm water to moisten your fingers/the spoon.

Baking time varies a lot, so keep your eye on these guys. I set the timer for 10 minutes and then watch like a hawk. It'll depend a lot on how big you make them. The tops will begin to crack and wrinkle, but they should still look very soft and doughy in the center. We want these to come out chewy, not crispy like in the original recipe.

Step 7: Let them cool a little, otherwise they'll fall apart as you try to lift them. Who are we kidding? Just dig in! And grin.

Note: even though you might not think it, with only 1/2 c of flour in them, this recipe will make a ton of little cookies. Share them, give them away, eat them all yourself, I'm not judging. Just saying. One thing I do is only bake half the batch, and save the dough for a day or two in the fridge. It keeps pretty well, it hardens a lot more, but I don't think it has much effect on the final baked cookie.

roasted red and golden beets with hazelnuts

2011-03-12T12:35:00.000-06:00

One often reads that roasting brings out the sweetness in beets. I don't get it. Beets are sweet, period. Also, their flavour is very strong, which is why I find it hard to combine with other stuff. But I gave it another try. I don't discern a difference in taste between red and golden beets, but it's prettier if you mix the two.

Roast red beets and golden beets at 400 F until soft.
Roast hazelnuts and chop them roughly. (Well, no, I didn't chop them. More on that later.)
Make a vinaigrette with orange juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Combine everything.

Pretty good. But then I think anything with hazelnuts is pretty good.

For chopped hazelnuts, I used one of my favourite kitchen tools, the meat pounder.

I grew up watching our big burly neighbourhood butcher pound slices of beef or lamb, using one that's 2-3 times bigger than mine, raising his arm high and coming down with a loud slap. OK, I don't really remember whether he was big and burly. But my memory of it is a loud, violent gesture resulting in a beautifully shaped, delicate piece of meat. So when I saw this meat pounder for sale on an online Turkish groceries site, I grabbed it. I don't pound meat much, but when I do, I have a tool that's so much better than those small cube-shaped mallet-like things they sell here. And for crushing nuts, it's perfect.

chicken spinach crepes

2011-03-10T11:13:00.000-06:00

Why oh why oh why did I learn how to make bechamel? Now I can't stop... And so I'm not alone in this, here's how to make delicious and not-so-good-for-you crepes.

First the crepes:
3 eggs
1 c. flour
a pinch of salt
enough milk to make the batter the right consistency

That may not seem like an accurate measurement, but it's the one my mama gave me, and I'm prety sure the one her mama used before her. The right consistency is much more liquid than pancake batter, and a little bit more liquid than you think it should be. How's that for precise. This batch yielded 6 crepes.

Then the filling:
4 chicken breast filets sauteed and sliced

and separately:
4 strips of bacon, browned and crumbled
1 red onion diced and sauteed
a handful of mushrooms, diced and sauteed
and a ridiculous amount of fresh spinach, sauteed with everything else until it magically shrinks before your eyes to just barely enough.

And of course, the bechamel, to which I added a healthy does of smoked spanish paprika and a handful of grated emmental:
4 Tbs flour
4 Tbs melted butter
3 c. hot milk
salt to taste

Now you just load each crepe up with the chicken, the spinach mixture, and the bechamel, roll them up and top the whole thing off with some more grated cheese, and into the oven they go!

the ultimate winter comfort food

2011-03-06T11:28:00.004-06:00

This was my favorite, back in the day. Whenever my dad asked what I wanted for dinner, this was my request. Coming home from college for a visit, this was what I wanted. Got a cold and feeling pathetic, this was what I wanted. Basically any night he asked, this was what I wanted. People thought I was crazy because he could make some crazy intricate gourmet feasts, but this dish is just so creamy and gooey and cheesy and filling and comforting... I could never get enough. This is his recipe, not mine, but this is the first time I've ever tried to make it, and it had been about 10 years since I'd last eaten it. Curious to see if it lived up to my memories? So was I...

Start off with the pasta. I used whole wheat pasta, as if that could possibly make this a healthier dish. I know, I'm not fooling anyone, but it made me feel less guilty somehow. Then sautee chicken breast filets and portobello mushrooms, and chop it all up into little pieces. My dad used to make it with duck. Go figure.

Then start in on the bechamel. I'd never made bechamel before! Add 4 Tbs flour to 4Tbs melted butter, make a paste, and then add 3 cups of hot 2% milk (I'm guessing that's what I used. Here they call it "semi-nonfat". Ha!), stirring like a madwoman. I'd made this once with my dad, but in my memory it all sort of instantly thickened and turned into this gooey creamy goodness. Well, the reality was non-instantaneous enough to make me worry for a good 4-5 minutes that I'd screwed it up. But then the magic happens, and it thickens. I'm sure you all know this, but it was a pretty big moment for me. After the relief and joy of success of thickening, add 1 cup of grated cheese, I used a mixture of mozzarella and emmental. Even gooier.

Now it all gets tossed together. The sauce, the chicken, the mushrooms and the pasta. And dumped into a casserole dish. And yes, topped with yet more grated cheese.

Into the oven it all goes. 375 for about 40 minutes, but you'll know it's done because it goes golden brown and bubbly and you get so excited you can't stop salivating.

And was it as good as I remembered? Absolutely. Husband says it was the best dish I've ever made. Ever. Huge casserole dish devoured by the pair of us in just 2 days. Don't make this often, because even with whole wheat pasta and semi-non-fat milk, it's gotta be not great for you. But do make it. Cause it's damn good for the soul. Thanks dad.

stuffed tomatoes

2011-03-02T07:13:00.006-06:00

Made these a while back, along with tons of other stuff that I've photographed but not had the chance to actually sit down and write up. Suppose this is the bright side of being so sick for so long. Today I was able to take a shower and make myself some whole wheat pancakes, which definitely cheered me up. But still, no energy for venturing into the great outdoors, so here I am, catching up on the blogs.*
These were inspired by my pal Lucia who always surprises me with her good cooking. Is it horrible of me that I would never have expected it of her? In any case, she made these once with ground beef and I flipped, so here's my version, with ground turkey instead, just cause.
It really is so simple it's almost embarrassing to write up, but it was just so damn good. I started off by sauteing onions and the ground turkey, along with the requisite salt and pepper and to be honest I can't even remember what else. Whatever you feel like throwing in at the moment. In the meantime I cut the tops off the tomatoes and scooped out the innards. Then I loaded them up with the meat
Then I topped them all off with a thick slab of goat cheese. Yum.

Into the oven it all went, and came out once the cheese had all melted and oozed down inside the tomatoes. Delicious. I think maybe next time I'd peel the tomatoes and maybe put a bit of goat cheese in the bottom before the meat as well as on top. But even so, for a first run, I was happy.

*updated march 14, 2011. Found more photos on husband's camera, and they were so nice I had to include them. Please excuse the mix of quality, I'm working on getting better and more consistent with my photographs.

feels like walking in a garden

2011-01-31T20:47:00.000-06:00

I've been negligent. Health issues. Slowly getting back to normal (yeay!), and back to cooking and blogging.

Every culture probably has some vegetables that children traditionally hate. My kid told me when she was little that for American kids, the most yuck-ew-disgusting vegetable was spinach. Obviously, she said with great contempt (she was 6), that was because they didn't know how to cook spinach - they cooked it the American way. I didn't know what that was. She explained,"you boil the spinach and plop it onto a plate. It sits swimming in hot water." Hmm. Turkish children don't generally consider spinach disgusting. That honour goes to okra (slimy) and celeriac (just plain gross). I got over the okra thing pretty early in life, but I've been a bit slow on the uptake with celeriac. Maybe because it's such an unashamedly ugly-looking object. Last winter, I started experimenting with root vegetables I had never eaten before. I resisted celeriac. I mean, there are so many different kinds of ugly-looking root vegetables to try, do I really have to give celeriac a second chance? When I was back in Istanbul, visiting my family, my little sister made celeriac with oranges. It was sooo good! I knew I had to start cooking with it.

My favourite so far is the celeriac soup I made last night. It's cold out, it's snowing (10-20 inches they say), and a vegetable soup is my ultimate comfort food in winter. I always try to have 4-5 vegetables in it, for nutrition's sake, but this also results in great flavours. Started like this:

1 large onion
1 celeriac (celery root), peeled and cut into 2" chunks
1 smallish sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2" chunks
2 small carrots, cut into chunks
2" piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 navel orange, grated zest and juice
4 c of beef stock
olive oil
salt, black pepper, Aleppo pepper
toasted chopped hazelnut, optional

Slice the onion and cook in olive oil until caramelized. Add the celeriac, the sweet potato, the carrots, the ginger, the grated orange zest, the juice of the orange, and the stock. Season with salt and black pepper. Cook gently until the vegetables are very soft. Zap it with the hand blender. Correct the seasoning and add the Aleppo pepper to taste. If you like, sprinkle with chopped toasted hazelnuts. That's it.

I love the combination of the sweetness of the sweet potato and the carrots, the acidity of the orange, and the heat of the Aleppo pepper, with the depth of flavour from the onions, celeriac, and the beef stock. A slice of home-made whole-wheat sourdough bread was the perfect accompaniment.

My sister's celeriac dish inspired the addition of the orange zest and orange juice. Brilliant. I've also made this with chicken stock and lemon juice/zest. Also excellent. I do like the orange version better. Maybe because it reminds me of my sister.

Tonight, I had it chilled, in a glass. Unbelievably refreshing and aromatic. It really felt like a walk in the garden. And the snow be damned.

cornmeal pancakes save

2011-01-23T11:19:00.006-06:00

Coming home this year after the holidays was hard, the monster known as Jet Lag pretty much tried to do us in. But we fooled him! Instead of tossing and turning in bed, or getting up in the middle of the night and watching stupid tv or wasting hours and hours online, I would get up in the middle of the night and make pancakes. Which, it turns out, is a great strategy, because then you go back to bed, and when you get up again and have to run around to make it to class on time, you've got the batter ready to go and all you have to do is drop a spoonful in the pan and the next time you pass through the kitchen your exquisite breakfast is ready.

The first batch was my usual whole wheat batter with agave syrup. But then I decided to be a little more adventurous and creative with my 3 a.m. energy. So I tried out this recipe from the NY Times. Now, this is the NY Times, people. You'd think they'd have their act together. But I knew something was wrong when I looked at the recipe. I thought, how odd! Maybe it's the jet lag, maybe I'm reading it wrong. But I read it over and over and yes, indeed, they are basically suggesting that if you mix cornmeal, water, milk and oil (with a few extra flavoring things thrown in), you will get pancakes. Well, if your intuition tells you, like mine tried at 3 in the morning, that all you will get is mush, pay more attention to it than I did. Seriously folks. Liquid and cornmeal, that's all you're using here. How could it possibly turn into a pancake? Well, let me tell you. It won't.

Of course, I didn't listen to my instincts. I did it like it says, minus the pine nuts because I didn't have any (but I hardly see how that could affect things). And then I heated the pan and put a little oil in it, and then when it was nice and hot, ladled out some of the 'batter'. Oh, the horror. If only I had a video or pictures to show you what happens. You'll just have to trust me. It is a splattering hot blob of crap; I'm sorry but there is no more refined way to say it. And the mush just sits there and bubbles and splatters everywhere, and, well, stays mush. So I scooped it up out of the pan and threw it in the garbage.

But now I had a huge bowl of cornmeal mush, and no breakfast to show for it. So I had to make something up. Here's what the recipe ended up being:

1 1/2 c. cornmeal, soaked in 1 1/2 c. boiling water until all the liquid is absorbed and the cornmeal softens
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. baking powder
2/3 c. whole wheat flour (approx.)
agave syrup to sweeten to your taste

The measurements are pretty much guesstimates, because like I said, I was just trying to save a disaster. But the results were pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.

I'd never had cornmeal pancakes before, but now I wonder, why the hell not? I love cornbread and I love pancakes, and I definitely love having a hearty breakfast to keep me going through the morning. These were perfect. Heavier (and more filling) than a regular pancake definitely, but still moist and fluffy.

Two small cornmeal pancakes, half a sliced banana, and a cup of greek yogurt = a little piece of heaven in the morning.

bread matters

2010-11-20T18:50:00.000-06:00

My newly-developed totally immature habit. Shaving my bread.

Oh OK, from the beginning. I'm thinking about not baking bread anymore, because I'm not good at controlling how much of it I eat when I have a beautiful sourdough loaf in front of me. But I thought another solution would be to bake bread that I'm not crazy about, even if it's pretty good. That would be rye bread. Besides, I had all this rye flour at home, and white whole wheat flour (which I still don't understand). I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, so I thought I'd bake with them and see what happens.

I used these two flours with some bread flour (lost my notes, don't remember proportions - but you wouldn't really want to duplicate this bread anyway), sourdough starter, and a soaker consisting of steel-cut oats and flax seeds. Of course, topped with sesame seeds before baking.

Looks pretty good, eh? The taste is nothing extraordinary, which I expected, and the mouthfeel is not great. But the crust is beautiful.

Here comes the really immature part. I found myself nibbling at the crust, 'cause toasted sesame seeds are always awesome. And I couldn't stop. But I didn't want to eat the bread, 'cause that wasn't as great. So I kept picking at the crust. It was not an efficient method. I took my bread knife and sliced off the crust very thinly all around. Now I had nothing but goodness. The loaf ended up looking like this:

It's completely acceptable if you toast it. Plus this way, I don't eat a lot of bread. I think it's a great solution, but I don't know if I can continue to bake bread which at best is OK. We'll see.

lacinato kale with turnips and yogurt

2010-11-20T18:25:00.001-06:00

I stare at the vegetables, trying to decide how to satisfy my leafy green vegetables addiction, and I always go home with lacinato kale. This time I grabbed a bunch of greens I'd never seen before. They looked like gigantic dandelion greens, big but tender, their colour a light green. I had no idea what they were. Then this woman came up to me and said that she had asked and found out that they were a variation of kale. Didn't look like it, but what do I know. And she said she cooked them, and they were not good at all. She had the demeanor (and looks) of an old hippie from a commune from the sixties, and I figured I had to trust her on matters of green vegetables. So I dropped it and went home once again with lacinato kale.

I wanted to try something a bit different. I decided to continue my experiments with root vegetables from last winter and combine the kale with turnips. I also wanted to make a yogurt sauce, because I miss the Turkish spinach with yogurt. (I miss it because they don't sell washed, clean, mature spinach here, and I get a severe reaction if I wash the spinach by hand. I swear. So I never make spinach.)

Slice one onion thinly and saute in oil.
Add to it seeded and sliced Fresno peppers (1 or 2, depending on how hot you like it).
Add the washed lacinato kale, sliced into one inch strips.
Add the peeled turnips, cut into one inch chunks.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add a bit of stock or water, and braise until almost done.

Combine about one cup of plain yogurt with one tablespoon of flour.
Add two teaspoons of tomato paste.
Mix well with a whisk so there are no lumps.
Add a quarter cup of the liquid from the kale to the yogurt mixture, to temper it.
Add this mixture to the kale slowly, in a steady stream, stirring continuously.
Bring back to simmer and cook for another 15 minutes.
Adjust the consistency of the liquid in the pan by reducing it if too thin or adding more liquid if too thick.
Enjoy.

You need to make sure that the flour gets cooked. Otherwise it'll be blecchy. Yup, that's a technical term.

So what do I think about the turnips in this dish? Meh. They had very little taste and no interesting texture. I think I'm through with my attempts to come up with something glorious with turnips. I don't mind eating them, but I haven't found a reason to choose them over something else when I'm cooking. I wouldn't crave them unless I was stranded on a turnip farm in the middle of a famine.

cauliflower with dried cherries

2010-11-20T17:44:00.001-06:00

Trying to catch up here, so it'll be short and quick.

My favourite variation so far on roasted cauliflower, with dried cherries, walnuts and chipotle.

You can guess how it goes.

Separate the cauliflower into fleurettes on the smallish side.
Add salt and enough olive oil to coat.
Mix with your hands so the fleurettes are evenly coated.
Roast in a hot oven (about 400 F) until browned (20-30 minutes).
Add
     roasted chopped walnuts
     a fair amount of chipotle
     dried, pitted tart cherries.
Drizzle a bit with fresh olive oil and lemon juice.
Enjoy.

If you have the timing right, instead of roasting the walnuts separately you can add them to the cauliflower after about 20 minutes and they can finish roasting together. But be careful. If it takes longer than you thought for the cauliflower to brown, the walnuts may get burned.

If you're wondering why I'm adding walnuts to roasted cauliflower all the time, it's because of the texture. I feel like I need the crunch.

I used Trader Joe's Dried Pitted Tart Montmorency Cherries. The best ever dried cherries. I love them so much I use them on everything from salads to meats. And frequently, for a snack, I mix them with chocolate chips and nuts.

bass with prosecco and roasted fennel

2010-11-11T23:14:00.001-06:00

Good to be back cooking. I'm still trying to figure out how to juggle work, cooking, and blogging. Sure was nice when I was on leave.

Anyway, back to sea bass. (Sometimes I think this blog should be called 'the bass and me' - I can't get enough of this fish.) Some prosecco turned up in my kitchen. Who, what, when, how, I have no idea. But decided to use it for the bass with roasted fennel.

I cut off the fennel stalks and sliced the bulbs lengthwise into two. Added salt, pepper and olive oil. Roasted at 375 degrees until done. Timing will vary according to how fat your bulbs are, anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. I find it best to roast them with the cut side up.

I layed the seasoned bass on a bed of the fennel stalks, drizzled it with olive oil, and added the prosecco. Steamed until done.

Removed the bass from the pan. Removed and discarded the fennel stalks. Reduced the prosecco until thickish and brownish, and sauced the bass with it. Absolutely delicious. I must cook with prosecco more.

baked figs

2010-09-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

I always thought cooking figs in any way was sacrilegous. Eating a really ripe fresh fig, skin and all, is one of the most sensuous and pleasurable things you can do. I could never understand how people could bring themselves to cook a beautifully ripe fig. But finally yesterday, I baked figs for the first time.

I now live in a fig-deprived region, which brings tears to my eyes during fig season. Every now and then, California figs hit the market here. Full of hope, like a child who refuses to learn unpleasantness exists, I buy some. There's usually about two or three in the basket that I would consider ripe, the rest is trash. Figs don't really ripen after they are picked, and if picked ripe they would not travel well at all. So I understand. Still, it makes me sad.

When I saw them at Whole Foods this week, it suddenly occurred to me go with the flow, to acknowledge that the figs wouldn't be all ripe, and to deal with it. I bought two large containers. When I got home, I dumped them on the kitchen counter and divided the figs into two piles - the edible and the inedible. I could get enough edible figs out of the two baskets to make me happy. The others, I decided to bake, just to see why everybody thought this was a good idea.

I kept it simple. Split the figs down the middle, sprinkled them with a little bit (very little bit) of sugar, and put them in my trusted toaster oven for 15 minutes. I took them out when the sugar was caramelized. Then I drizzled them with a balsamic reduction.

Verdict? Meh. Definitely good enough to eat, but there's no way I can get excited about this when I know how fresh figs taste. I may make it again, because this gets rid of the guilt of throwing unripe figs in the trash. And that would allow me to buy figs more frequently for those few ripe ones.

developing good breakfast habits

2010-09-05T23:19:00.001-05:00

I kicked the cereal/granola habit some years ago. I realized that I do not like sweet stuff in the morning. Lately, the routine has been toast with cream cheese. But regular cream cheese has too much fat, and low-fat cream cheese is too salty for me. Besides, I prefer something less processed.

Now that I make yogurt routinely, I decided to go for strained yogurt, which is marketed in the US as Greek yogurt, and is known in the eastern Mediterranean by its Arabic name labne. It's the easiest thing to make. I have a strainer with a very fine mesh, so I don't even use anything extra like cheesecloth or paper filters. Dump the yogurt in the strainer, place it over a bowl, and let it sit. I end up with this creamy and wonderfully thick yogurt, which accompanies my toast in the mornings. Hope I can keep it up.

If I add tomatoes with a bit of olive oil to this breakfast, it would be close to perfect for me. But it's probably not going to happen because 1) it's not safe to put a sharp knife in my hand when I first wake up, and 2) it's hard to get really good tomatoes and if I get one of those usual sour, tasteless, woody ones, I'd get really pissed off and that would not be a good way to start my day.

I have to say that breakfasts have become extra special because of home-made breads. I've stopped blogging about them because they have been turning out consistently good. The big turning point was starting to use a large stainless steel bowl to cover the loaf during the first ten minutes of baking (I wrote about it here).

Pretty, eh?

raw corn salad

2010-09-03T18:38:00.000-05:00

Never made a salad with raw corn before, so I thought I'd give it a try, since we're at the height of the corn season.

2 ears of corn
2 medium heirloom tomatoes
3 small sweet red peppers
2 green onions
1 bunch of cilantro
salt and black pepper
lots of Aleppo pepper
2 tablespoons of yogurt
a lot of olive oil

It was good, especially since there was gorgeous home-made bread to accompany it. But did the corn shine? I dunno. I must admit I don't get this American thing about fresh sweet corn. Must be a cultural difference. It's sweet alright, too sweet as far as I'm concerned, and nothing more to it than the sweetness, really.

roasted cauliflower salad

2010-08-28T21:25:00.000-05:00

Cauliflower and asparagus roasted with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Combined with seasoned slices of heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella, and walnuts. Sprinkled with Aleppo pepper, topped with lemon juice and olive oil. Yum.

braised kale

2010-08-28T16:38:00.000-05:00

I crave green leafy vegetables, and the dinosaur kale (lacinato kale) is one of my favourites. It's super healthy, and becomes surprisingly chewy when you braise it. You know how fixated I am about texture and chewiness.

image from examiner.com san francisco

I've always braised it, though with different stuff as the mood strikes me. Last night's was a winner. You can substitute any leafy vegetable for it, but some greens (e.g. collard greens) I find too tough, and some (the tasteless spinach you get in the US) too insipid, although chard turns out delicious too.

I know it looks like another mud fest, but trust me, it's good.

1 red onion, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
1 jalapeño, chopped
2 bunches of kale, sliced into 1" strips
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup of water (or stock)
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons pomegranate syrup

It's easiest to slice the kale while it is still in a bunch, and then wash it. I don't strip the stems, but I do discard about 3-4" from the end.

Something about my body chemistry must be changing because I held down the jalapeño with my left hand while chopping it, and my hand burned for almost 24 hours. This is the second time it happened. Didn't used to. So from now on, I wear my kitchen/surgical gloves when chopping hot peppers.

Saute the onion, carrots, and the jalapeño in the olive oil.
Add the kale.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the water and cook on low heat until the kale has the texture you like. For me, that's about 40 minutes.
Make sure there's a bit of braising liquid left, so you can dunk home-made bread into it.
Add the pomegranate syrup a little at a time, according to taste. I like mine quite acidic.

Remember that when any dish is eaten chilled, it needs more oomph. So if you thought that the saltiness and the tanginess was just right when you took it off the heat, you might want to recheck it after chilling it.

You can serve the kale warm, but I had mine cold today and it was a great lunch for a hot summer's day. Love the combination of the deep flavours of the kale with the heat of the jalapeño and the tartness from pomegranates. By the way, it's the pomegranate syrup that turns the dish a muddy brownish colour. Learn to love it.

chana dal, again

2010-08-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

Some days I think there's nothing to cook at home, and I realize I can still come up with a nutritious and decent meal. A few days ago, I had weird left overs. The butt end of a bunch of parsley, with some leaves still attached, the green stalks and fronds of the fennel, the last few slices of bacon. And my kitchen is almost never without green peppers, carrots and onions. Plus all kinds of legumes for protein. OK, another chana dal dish, I decided.

I cut up the bacon, cooked it well to render the fat, and discarded most of the fat. Then added to the pan chopped green peppers, chopped fennel parts, chopped parsley stalks and leaves, sliced red onions, sliced carrots. Now that's heavy duty aromatics. Looked pretty.

Then I added the chana dal without pre-cooking it. It works, but it takes quite a long time to cook. Not like lentils.

I added a bit of water, and simmered until the chana dal was done.

It tasted very nice, but it was one of those days when I needed something sharp and strong. I remembered that I had some chimichurri which had been sitting in the fridge. Dumped it all in there. Now we had more herbs, lots of garlic, and some acid. That was what it needed.

What starch to accompany it? I don't know how this happened, but I was out of bulgur. But I had farro. I had used some of it when I was baking bread, and now it was time to see how it cooked into a pilav. I kept it simple. Added some tomato paste and a bouillon cube to the olive oil in the pan, added 2 cups of water and brought it to a boil, then put in 1 cup of farro. Turned it down and let it simmer until done. Verdict? Unexciting but very pleasant. Nice toothiness - texture not as chewy as wheat berries but more 'alive' than bulgur. The more I ate it, the more I liked it as an accompaniment to something else with rich flavours. Just right for the chana dal.

So I had a delicious dinner. Patted myself on the back for cooking something so healthy (and frugal, though I must admit that's not a major concern when it comes to food) with whatever was lying around.

And then it hit me. True, a dish made out of staples and left overs. True, it tasted excellent. But it was way too complex. Somehow I yearned for something naked and pure and simple. And then my daughter posted about simple pleasures. Yup, we're like that, my baby and I.

simple pleasures

2010-08-24T12:46:00.004-05:00

Sometimes in life you just crave the simple things, the basics. Sometimes you want to make experiment, branch out, expand your horizons, and sometimes you just want a grilled cheese sandwich. Or vanilla ice cream. Or spaghetti bolognese.

Simple enough, I'm sure you all do this too, but I just enjoyed the meal so much I had to post it.

Onions and red peppers, diced and sauteed.

Ground beef, browned, along with (gasp) canned tomatoes, which I actually just squish between my fingers rather than chop up, and a nice stream of red wine. Salt, pepper, oregano, and Turkish red pepper.

And that's it. Made some whole wheat spaghetti, and then topped it all off with grated pecorino romano.

life is good

2010-08-22T12:59:00.000-05:00

There was a recipe for simit on ev cini's blog, and today was the day. Thank you ev cini!

However, I made the simit with some of the dough that was destined for sourdough bread, and I think sourdough was not a good idea. Next time, either I'll make it with commercial yeast or with my bread dough before it has a chance to sour. Still, brought tears to my eyes.

sunshine in the morning

2010-08-22T10:03:00.004-05:00

Ever get tired of the same breakfast over and over? Sometimes just the slightest change and it feels brand new. And it doesn't have to be anything fancy or time-consuming, just breakfast reformatted. This was breakfast a few days ago and it really just made my day, and I'm sure it took no more than 5 minutes to make.

A few slices of that dense brick-like rye bread (is it German? Swiss? You know the kind I'm talking about.), spread with Laughing Cow cheese (or cream cheese if you like), with a bed of fresh spinach and over easy eggs on top. Add an iced latte on the side, and you've got energy for hours.

close, but not quite there

2010-08-18T20:24:00.000-05:00

Latest attempt at the seeded whole wheat. Made a big batch, baked one loaf on that day, let the rest retard in the fridge for three days. Not because that's a good length of time for retardation, but because I wanted to postpone baking until the first loaf was almost gone.

soaker (241 g dry):

hulled barley
steel cut oats
flax seeds

dough:

sourdough starter (300 g)
whole wheat flour (625 g)
bread flour (475 g)
water (693 g)
soaker (487 g wet)
sunflower seeds (52 g)

Now unless I'm brain-dead, this dough ends up with 87% hydration!

water: 693 g water added to the dough, plus half the weight of the starter (at 100% hydration) which is 150 g, and the water that came with the soaker (487 g wet weight-241 g dry weight), for a total of 1089 g.

flour: Whole wheat plus bread flour for a total of 1100 g, plus half of the starter weight, for a total of 1250 g.

That's 87% hydration. Which is very very high. True, it was a soft dough, but by no means an unusually liquidy dough. I'm thinking that's because the whole wheat flour absorbs more water than all purpose flour. Gotta go ask on the Fresh Loaf.

The first loaf turned out very respectable.

The crumb was open and moist. The crust was densely covered with sesame seeds, which warms my heart because it reminds me of simit from the streets of Istanbul. But I really miss the chewiness of wheat berries and I still haven't replenished my stock. The barley, like the farro, became a bit too soft after baking. Not toothy enough for my taste.

Yesterday, I baked the rest of the dough into two boules. The dough had risen a lot over the three days, of course, but had not collapsed. I took it out of the bowl, divided it into two balls, folded them a few times. It was interesting to see that after a set of folds in each direction, the gluten was so developed that it was hard to press the dough down anymore. I let it rest 10 minutes, then gave a couple more folds. After about an hour and a quarter, I scored one and put it in the oven.

And here's the exciting bit. I had just gotten myself a large, 8 quart stainless steel bowl to cover the loafs with in the oven, following the tips from the Fresh Loaf. No sesame seeds on top this time, because I wanted to see how the dough would behave under the dome. The bowl lies flat on the baking stone, and traps the moisture from the dough so the loaf doesn't dry out immediately. Which is supposed to give you a great oven spring. Did I believe it? Not quite. For so many years, I had tried to take care of this by spraying the oven walls, spraying the dough, putting ice cubes on the lava rocks in the cast iron pan under the dough, etc. None of them had worked. None. So I had become a bit of a skeptic. But ladies and gents, the dome works! Beautifully! I got almost 3 times the oven spring I usually do.

I removed the bowl after 12 minutes so the crust would brown. It turns out this procedure also takes care of one of my pet peeves in bread baking. If I bake the loaf enough to cook it through, the crust gets thicker than I'd like (though that seems to be OK with many people), with no crunch, no pleasant chewiness, no redeeming factors. But if you bake the loaf under a dome, you end up with a thin and crisp, beautiful crust. I was soooo excited about this unexpected result.

If you look closely, you can see the blisters, which I thought was impossible in this kind of a loaf.

The crumb was very open and light and wonderful.

I'm very close to baking my ideal daily bread. I think.

halibut success

2010-08-18T11:16:00.004-05:00

In my last post I said my husband doesn't get too excited about food. Either I was wrong, or I'm becoming a much better cook. Two nights ago I decided to make some fish, which we never do here just because we never do. Inertia. I bought some halibut at the supermarket, chosen because in Spanish apparently it's called "halibut", so it made sense to me. And then I decided to make a whole meal out of it. Started off with Turkish green beans, and I'm not going to tell you how to make them because my guess is you all know. The whole meal really was so simple, but it was so damn tasty I couldn't resist posting it.

Usually when I wear my glasses to cut onions, I cry a little, but with my contacts in it's like I have built-in eyeball shields, so I never even shed one tear. Grated onions though? I thought I was going to die. Literally, I thought someone had bombed the apartment with tear gas. My eyes, my nose, my throat, my lungs... is that normal? Does that happen to you?

Onions, green beans, diced tomatoes all tossed in a pot with olive oil, salt, white pepper, red turkish pepper, and, cause I felt like it, a dash of lemon juice.

Also made a pot of brown rice, and then, just like I saw on the Whole Foods website, rinsed my fish in cold water, patted it dry, sprinkled it with salt and black pepper, and tossed in in the pan. Just like that. I knew it was done when it started falling apart literally before my eyes. Is there another way to test if your fish is done other than seeing if it disintegrates? Honestly though, I think my method worked pretty well, because it was pretty damn amazing.

And my husband loved it. Loved it, with a capital L.

bircher müesli

2010-08-16T13:08:00.006-05:00

I have a husband who doesn't tend to get too excited about food. There are a few things however that get him all worked up, like cheeseburgers from Alt n' Bachs in Madison, tacos from La Taqueria in San Francisco, my very own pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, turkish green beans (served warm if possible), and Swiss bircher müesli. Oh yes, of course, he loves tons of other foods, but he doesn't really tend to rave about things. Again, except bircher muesli. So on my recent trip to Switzerland, aside from procuring him 2-3 bowls of the stuff a day, I got a real live Swiss person to explain to me how to do it. This week for our sunday brunch, we made our first attempt. Result? Success!

The first step was to find a decent mix of muesli to start with. I didn't want to go through the trouble of making my own, but all the ones I found that said Authentic Swiss on them had raisins. Sorry, there were no raisins in any of the 50 bowls of muesli we had there. So I went to my trusty organic fair trade health food store and picked up this mix of wheat flakes, barley flakes, oat flakes, rye flakes and rice flakes.

Perfect. Toss half the bag (about 250 g) in a bowl and drown it in whole milk, then dump 250 g of greek yogurt on top and drizzle the whole thing with honey.

In addition you'll need one apple, grated roughly,

tossed into the mix.

And two bananas, sliced to bits,

At this point the milk was all soaked up so I tossed a bit more in, maybe too much, will try less next time. Meanwhile husband was meticulously washing the berries (he's the meticulousest). We used raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and red currants to start.

Chop the berries, some super finely so they are almost a puree, and some in bigger toothier chunks.

Stir.

Then wait. And wait and wait and wait. And when you can't stand it anymore, serve in two beautiful bowls, and devour.

The result that morning was pretty good. Which we were happy with for our first attempt. But we both deemed it too milky and not flavorful enough. So later that day we bought another box of raspberries, a box of blackberries, and some raw sunflower seeds. I chopped the berries really fine again into a mushy mess and stirred them in and we got a lovely deep purpley pink color, (the blackberries I think are key), and a much richer flavor. Once I tossed in a few handfuls of sunflower seeds, it added a nice earthy dimension to it, and that, combined with the extra berries and the 10 more hours it sat in the fridge, resulted in damn good muesli. This morning the last of it disappeared, and yes, I think it was even better. We have no pictures of the new and improved version, because it vanished so quickly, but it was gorgeous. So, lessons learned: use less milk, be prepared to spend over 20 euros on berries, and make it the night before. You can bet we'll having bircher müesli pretty often now.

sea bass with balsamic glaze 2

2010-08-16T12:38:00.000-05:00

I made this again, and again it was spectacular. This time I took pictures. I could have made an attempt to make it look pretty, but I was too hungry. Details of the recipe is in the post on the previous version.

The pluots were a bit too sour, but it balanced out in the end. Here they are, sitting on the glaze before mixing.

Instead of Fresno peppers in the vegetable bed, I used Aleppo pepper in the balsamic glaze. Easier. And here it is, in all its muddy glory.

breads of the last ten days

2010-08-15T13:40:00.001-05:00

I'm catching up on the breads I baked in the last ten days. First, I baked a couple of quick whole wheat breads - half whole wheat flour, half bread flour. I'd been wondering whether I was overproofing my loaves, so I wanted to experiment with shorter fermentations. I divided the dough in half, and baked the first loaf after about 1.5 hours of proofing. As you can see, I had a blow-out, indicating it had not proofed long enough. I will continue to go with my instincts, instead of the usual proofing time suggested in most formulas.

This loaf was inedible. Unbelievably dense crumb. Couldn't bring myself to take a picture.

The second loaf of the same batch of dough was retarded overnight after shaping. The result:

Much better. Not a whole lot of oven spring. Taste still boring. The sesame seeds on the crust were the best thing. I miss the complexity of seeded breads.

A few days later, I experimented with long retardation.

the soaker (200 g dry):

farro (first time I'm using farro in anything)
steelcut oats
flax seeds (using much smaller amount than before)

Soaked in boiling water overnight, with a pinch of salt.

the dough:

sourdough starter (200 g)
whole wheat flour (400 g)
bread flour (200 g)
water (400 g +)
soaker, drained
roasted pumpkin seeds
salt (15 g)

Mixed very briefly, without the salt and the pumpkin seeds.
Autolyse for 30 minutes.
Added the salt and the pumpkin seeds, and mixed for 4 minutes in the mixer.
Gave it 3 s&f's at 20 minute intervals.
Covered and put in the fridge for retardation overnight.

Next morning, divided the dough into two, shaped the loaves, put one back into the fridge. The other one proofed at room temperature and baked as usual. That loaf had a very disappointing texture, mealy like the rye loaf that turned out terrible, though perhaps not quite as bad. This puzzled me to no end, so I checked my formulas and saw that both this seeded whole wheat and the seeded rye had a relatively low proportion of bread flour. I'm thinking that the amount of seeds and grains require the strength that the bread flour provides. The slices were better when toasted, but still not good enough.

The second loaf sat in the fridge for 3 days, then baked after an hour at room temperature. Significantly better. This long retardation seems to have helped the mealiness quite a bit. Wish I knew enough to understand why.

At first, this loaf seemed too sour, expected because of the long proofing. But the next day, the acidity seemed perfect. Generally, very happy with this loaf, though I think increasing the ratio of bread flour will make it much better.

The farro didn't give the same chewiness as wheat berries. I'll switch to wheat berries as soon as I get some more.

today's variation on chimichurri

2010-08-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

Refreshing, but sharp.

green sauce:

one bunch Italian parsley
one bunch cilantro
two large cloves of garlic
grated peel of one lemon
one Fresno pepper or jalapeño (or dried hot pepper flakes)
juice of half a lemon
salt
olive oil

In a food processor, chop everything together. Start with a small amount of olive oil, and after everything is chopped, continue to pour the olive oil in a small steady stream until the green sauce is the consistency you like.

I had some for lunch. Spread toasted home-made bread with ricotta, then the sauce, then topped it with a tomato slice. Woke me up. Like a gentle slap on the face.

sea bass with balsamic glaze

2010-08-10T14:32:00.000-05:00

Sorry, no pictures. I made it late last night, and thought I'd photograph the leftovers today, but there were no leftovers. Yup, that good.

This recipe by Brita at food52 for mozzarella with plums in balsamic glaze had been on my mind for quite a while. Actually, it was the plums-in-balsamic-glaze part. I didn't want to use it on mozzarella, because I eat enough mozzarella as it is. Last night, it dawned on me that it would be great with sea bass. Oh my. I don't think I've eaten anything this good for a long, long time. So here it goes.

ingredients:

onion (1 medium)
fennel (2 small stalks, or one large)
fresno pepper (or other hot pepper, like jalapeño)
fresh ginger
sea bass fillet (I had two fillets, half a pound each)
salt
pepper
lemon juice
olive oil
balsamic vinegar (1 1/2 c)
pluot (1 large)

the bed:
Cut the onion into thin slices, and saute in olive oil for a few minutes.
Cut the fennel into thin slices.
Finely mince the fresno pepper after taking the seeds and membranes out.
Grate the fresh ginger.
Add the fennel, the pepper, and the ginger to the onions, and continue to saute.
Season with salt.

the fish:
Season the fillets with salt and pepper.
Lay them on the bed of vegetables.
Drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil.
Add a few tablespoons of water to the pan.
Cover and steam until done.

the balsamic glazed pluot:
Pour one and a half cups of balsamic vinegar into a small pot.
Boil it down gently until until it is very thick.
Cut a large pluot into sections.
Put them in the glaze, and make sure they are well-coated.
Cook another couple of minutes.
Add a pinch of salt.

the assembly:
Plate the fish skin side down on its bed.
Place the glazed pluots around it.
Pour the rest of the glaze on the fish.

NOTES:
I had bought two small fillets of sea bass from the tail end. I prefer this, because the fillet is even in thickness, and I foolishly thought one fillet would be enough for one person. Well, it is enough, but that doesn't mean one person will eat one fillet.

My main method of cooking fish has been pan searing for as long as I remember. But recently, I have become a fan of steaming. I've had perfect results every time.

The balsamic glaze is strong and assertive. You need enough fennel and ginger to stand up to it.

I thought the glaze needed that pinch of salt to balance the acidity and the sweetness.

I think the glaze would be great as a sauce for the fish, even without the plums. But I do like fruits in main dishes.

Why pluots? Because at WF, the plums looked pathetic and the pluots looked good. They tasted good too, unlike other pluots I've tried. The pluot also retained its texture very well. No mush.

Finally, a note on unventing. 'Unventing' is a knitting term made up by Elizabeth Zimmerman. You unvent something when you come up with it on your own, but you can't call it 'inventing', because surely, somebody else must have done it before you, somewhere, sometime. When you think of the number of hours spent in the kitchen by millions of people every day, chances are even higher than in knitting that you're not the first one who had this brilliant thought. Unless you just made cockscomb foam or something. So this morning I googled 'fish with balsamic glaze', and got many hits. Still, the joy was in the eating, not in the pride of inventing.

on the sixth day

2010-08-02T09:28:00.001-05:00

I remembered the strawberries. I took them out of the ziploc bag in the fridge and saw that there were four (only FOUR) strawberries that were moldy. In fact, barely beginning to mold on an area the size of a pencil tip. Amazing. Unbelievable. A few others had started to go soft in tiny spots, but no mold, and tasted fine. I cut up most of it, froze the pieces on a cookie sheet, and put them into the washed ziploc bag. Gonna be strawberry-rich for quite a while.

seeded rye not a success

2010-07-31T15:06:00.004-05:00

Sounds better than saying it's a huge failure. Which it was, as far as I'm concerned. Don't be taken in by the fact that it looks kind of OK.

I'd never made rye anything, so I decided to try it. I used a formula relatively close to my whole wheat formula. The dough looked doomed all the way, and I had no idea how to correct it. Here's the breakdown:

the soaker (total 125 g before soaking):

wheat berries (very small amount - all I had left)
flax seeds
steel cut oats

Forgot to add salt, but it doesn't seem to have mattered. I think. Covered with boiling water and let sit overnight.

the dough:

rye flour (325 g)
all purpose flour (75 g - don't ask me why)
bread flour (150 g)
sourdough starter (220 g)
the soaker
water (300 g, plus whatever came with the strained soaker)
salt (11 g)

As usual, mixed ingredients without the salt, autolysed for 30 minutes, added the salt and mixed about 5 minutes in the stand mixer hoping to develop gluten. It looked like it wasn't happening. I did the Bertinet stretch/slap/fold. It cleared the table nicely, but not much elasticity developing at all.

I let the dough ferment for 45 minutes. It looked like nothing had happened. I did a few strech-and-folds, and half the time, the dough broke off instead of stretching. Not good news. I let it ferment another 45 minutes. Same thing. It just didn't look like it was developing any gluten at all. I let it ferment yet another 45 minutes, and then gave up. The dough was extremely sticky though it's a stiffer dough than my usual. And it didn't seem to have any strength, and it did not stretch. Bleh.

I floured the table and formed it into a ball and let it rest for 10 minutes. Time to shape. I was careful to go for surface tension this time, and I think I got it right, and finally the dough is starting to look like a loaf. Let it proof close to an hour, scored it, and baked it.

One good thing: The scoring was easy and worked beaurifully. I think it's because the dough was stiffer than usual.

I got oven spring. Yeay! I'm pretty sure it was the surface tension. Got a beautiful grigne too, and started to feel hopeful. I let the loaf cool overnight and cut into it this morning.

Calling it moist would be a euphemism. Moist to the point of goopy glompiness. You can't tell from the way it looks. It almost looks decent. True, the crumb is not open, but I didn't expect big holes with rye.

But if you press it even gently between your fingers, it turns into doughy mush. What's worse is the mouthfeel. For reasons I can't fathom, as soon as you put it in your mouth, it feels mealy, like you're eating porridge or something. I confess that a couple of times (stop reading here if you're easily disgusted) I took it out of my mouth to stare at it to figure it out, but I couldn't.

So what went wrong? Fermentation and/or proofing too short? Too long? Too much soaker interfering with gluten development, which is already not very active in rye? Didn't bake long enough? I have no idea.

On top of it all, the taste is nothing special. I'm not going to try and improve my rye bread, because frankly, it doesn't seem worth it to me. So who wants the rest of my rye flour?

rough sauces

2010-07-30T15:14:00.000-05:00

I'm talking about stuff that's in between a sauce and a dip. Not silky smooth, but retaining some texture from the ingredients. Something you can use cold, say by spreading it on good bread, using it as salad dressing, or accompanying a main dish. Or you can use hot, maybe smothering a chicken, chickpeas, or scallops, and gently simmering it all together.

I started thinking about this when I realized that I was making a lot of them, especially in the summer. Some of them are traditional: Pesto and gremolata from Italy, persillade from France, chimichurri from Argentina, muhammara and humus from all over the Middle East, and mint chutney from India (along with a million other delicious chutneys). There must be a name for that kind of thing. And if there's no name for it, maybe it's because it's not seen as a unified category across cultures. Some of these are named according to their functions, e.g. dip, chutney, relish, etc. But I think what's fun is to use them in different ways and not to pin them down to one function. So please, send me suggestions for a name. In the meantime, I'll use 'rough sauce', though I'm not happy with it.

My first rough sauce that I blogged about was muhammara. A couple of days ago I made another one to cook chicken in, because I'm not crazy about the taste of chicken and I need to mask it. Didn't write about it because I couldn't take any pictures. It'll definitely be repeated, and I'll show you then. And last night, I made this:


cucumber, feta, mango rough sauce

I wanted to try out this cold cucumber soup with feta recipe from epicurious, originally from Bon Appétit. But once I started, I realized that 1) I didn't have any fresh herbs at home, 2) felt like something more solid than cold soup, 3) had a mango ready to be eaten, and as usual
4) wanted to have fun.

ingredients:

one cucumber (long and relatively seedless)
a very small chunk of red onion
feta cheese (lots - I don't know how much)
a quarter of a mango (didn't want it too sweet)
salt
red pepper

Put it all in the food processor, and whirled it until it was a consistency I liked. Very quick and very refreshing. It was my lunch today, on a toasted whole wheat tortilla, with tomatoes:

seedy whole wheat redux

2010-07-27T17:53:00.001-05:00

A miserably dark, rainy day. A perfect day to bake bread. The last time I baked this, the two loaves were smallish and were gone too quickly. Today, I'm making a bigger batch.

the soaker (total 250 g before soaking):

wheat berries - beautiful sensuous chewiness
flax seeds - can't taste them, can't see them, but healthy
buckwheat groats - adds no taste or texture that I can detect, finishing up my stock
small pinch of salt

This time, I poured boiling water on the mixture and let it sit overnight. I wanted to see whether it would turn out significantly different from soaking in cold water. It did. It was much better.

the sourdough starter:
I maintain my starter with all purpose flour, because I figure it's the most neutral. For this whole wheat loaf, I built it up two days ago with whole wheat flour. When I tasted, it was a bit on the sour side and I wondered if I should have fed it closer to baking time. However, the sourness turned out just right, a remote whiff.

the dough:

sourdough starter (400 g)
whole wheat flour (625 g)
bread flour (475 g)
water (555 g, but I added more later)
sunflower seeds (99 g)
the soaker
salt (20 g)

If these amounts read as though there was careful, precise calculation of ingredients, there wasn't. Either that's how much I had at hand (e.g. the sunflower seeds, the whole wheat flour), or my hand slipped (the water). I'm not getting obsessive with precise baker's percentages because (1) it's stressful, and (2) it doesn't let you respond to what's actually in front of you. And I don't have to replicate breads precisely, which is a major advantage of being an amateur baker.

I mixed everything except the salt on the lowest speed of the mixer. The dough was clearly much stiffer than what I usually shoot for, so I added more water. Don't know how much. Just added until it seemed right.

I covered the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes (autolyse).

I added the salt and mixed the dough for 5 minutes on the second from lowest speed.

I covered it to start the bulk fermentation. One stretch-and-fold after 45 minutes, a second one after another 45 minutes. Then 30 more minutes of fermentation.

I pinched off a bit to bake into a flat bread. Just experimenting. I divided the rest of the dough into two, pre-shaped them into balls, and let them rest for 15 minutes. Then I put one in a round basket, and the other one onto the couche, and let them proof for 1 hour.

I filled an iron skillet with lava rocks and put it on the lower shelf of the oven, and preheated the oven to 500 F. I was determined to get more steam this time. Didn't help.

While I was waiting for the loaves to rise, I made my flat bread. I stretched it with my hands and ~~cooked it in a skillet on top of the stove~~ baked it on the baking stone (brain-fingers not coordinated). Puffed up and cooked very quickly. A success!

That makes me very happy. Will repeat it often.

At the end of an hour, the loaves hadn't risen a whole lot, but once again, I was afraid of over-proofing. I first baked the loaf that had proofed on the couche. I transferred it onto the peel, sprayed the top with water, covered it with sesame seeds, and slipped it onto the baking stone. Put some ice cubes in the iron skillet. When I closed the oven door, I saw the steam coming out in sheets. I'm not sure any steam stayed in the oven. Arrgh.

Turned the oven down to 450 F and baked for 15 minutes. Turned it down to 425 F, and baked another 15 minutes. This was a bigger loaf than my usual, so I decided to give it another 5 minutes and then I let it stay in the oven w/ the door ajar for 10 minutes. Next, onto the cooling rack.

In the meantime, I had placed the second loaf into a plastic bag and transferred it to the fridge, because it would have to wait while the first was baking and then while the oven heated up to 500 F again. I think I'm going to adjust my baking so that I can bake two smaller loaves at the same time. This is too much juggling.

I inverted the second loaf from the basket onto the peel, sprayed it with water, and covered with sesame seeds. Continued to bake in the usual manner.

Results: Very little oven spring. Crumb on the dense side. The breads were very moist, maybe too moist. Both loaves spread sideways when I put them on the peel. I think I may not have developed enough surface tension, so I'll focus on that next time. But I don't even know if a whole grain loaf that's so packed with seeds can rise very high.

This picture shows very uneven rising, but parts of the loaf were better:

I thought that the denseness might have been a result of overproofing. But the second loaf proofed longer, and the crumb turned out better and more even:

So maybe the first loaf was underproofed. Sometimes this feels like a crapshoot.

People might find the moistness of the crumb objectionable, but I actually found it very pleasant eating. So yes, the crumb was way too moist, but that felt like an advantage after toasting. And the ratio of the soaker to the dough was absolutely perfect. This made for a chewiness that was orgasmic. And I don't use that word lightly. Not only was the texture great, but the taste was wonderfully rich and earthy. I couldn't stop eating it. This turned out to be my most favourite bread so far.

losing control with strawberries

2010-07-27T16:59:00.000-05:00

Strawberry season is here. That's not really reason to celebrate too much, because they have ruined strawberries with genetic manipulations - one of my pet peeves. What we get are pink-to-pale-red chunks, sour and largely tasteless, with a thick white woody center, an almost crunchy texture, and a faint aroma of what used to be strawberries. And that includes the organically grown ones. I buy them because every time I see them, I think to myself maybe this time... Hope springs eternal. But yesterday, I lost my mind. Whole Foods was selling huge 4 lb boxes in addition to the normal sized boxes, and I bought one. Crazy lunatic woman.

The truth is, I had come across Harold McGee's article on berries and thermotherapy, and as someone who regularly loses most of the berries to mold, I was anxious to try his method. No, that doesn't justify buying four pounds, I'm aware of that. So shut up.

As soon as I got home, I got my pasta pot going. Heated the water to 125 F (52 C), put a single layer of strawberries into the pasta insert, lowered it into the hot water, and kept it there for 30 seconds. Then I placed them on paper towels without crowding them. Repeated this until all four pounds had been "bathed." I waited until the strawberries were dry, separated some to use right away, and put the rest into a ziploc bag, sucked the air out through a straw from one corner of the bag, and closed it tightly. OK, now what. We'll figure it tomorrow, I thought. I can freeze most of it for making smoothies, and use others to top cereal with yogurt. All healthy and responsible eating.

I started today by pureeing some in the food processor. I had no idea what I was going to do with it when I started, but then everything came to me quickly. Because evil temptation was whispering in my ear nonstop. I had some Crave Brothers mascarpone at home. Added it to the strawberries. Then grated the peel of half a lemon into it - it smelled heavenly. Nope, I'm not going to add sugar. So far it's still pretty healthy. Now how do I eat this goop? Ideally, you'd make a tart with it. Or cheesecake. Or muffins. Or crepes. That's it, crepes.

I made crepe batter with only half a cup of flour, so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat a mountain of them. Half a cup will usually make 3-4 crepes. I added a bit of agave syrup. (Oh yeah, I'm so so health conscious) and made my crepes. I filled them with a tiny bit of melted chocolate (60%, so that's good, right?) and poured the strawberry mascarpone concoction on. Heaven. So good that I refuse to feel guilty. I promise the rest of the strawberries will go into very very healthy things.

gorgeous

2010-07-27T12:30:00.000-05:00

I have no idea what it tastes like, but it's stunningly gorgeous. The photo is by Ruhlman, from his blog.

richard bertinet's stretch and fold

2010-07-24T18:59:00.001-05:00

comfort food in summer

2010-07-20T15:10:00.001-05:00

A lot of my comfort foods are heavy on umami and feel like winter foods. Which is as it should be, because winter demands comforting. But I had a yearning for some favourites from childhood, and the veggies sitting in my fridge encouraged it.

I wanted bulgur. I also wanted the traditional rice with fried eggplant, which is eaten cold in the summer. So I combined them, and tweaked it some more to stuff it with more nutrients, because I refuse to make more than one dish a day in this heat. Last night I had it warm for dinner, and today I had it cold for lunch. Both were delicious.

ingredients:

bulgur (2c)
eggplant (1 large)
green bell pepper (1 large)
chickpeas (1 can)
beef stock (2 c)
olive oil
salt & pepper
red pepper flakes
walnuts

Cut up the eggplant and the green pepper. Put them on a large oven tray - don't crowd them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and some olive oil. Put them into a pre-heated 425 F oven and roast until done.

Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pot. Add the beef broth. When it comes to a boil, add the rinsed bulgur. Cover and cook at medium heat until there is no liquid showing above the bulgur. At this point, it's done or almost done. Note that unlike rice, the bulgur generally likes a 1:1 water ratio.

Add to the bulgur the roasted vegetables and a can of chickpeas which have been rinsed. Feel free to substitute some other legume as the protein source. Season with salt and pepper. Let it cook about 20 minutes on the lowest possible heat, so everything has a chance to meld.

Before serving, sprinkle the top with red pepper flakes (Aleppo, of course) and add walnut pieces. Enjoy. And as usual, it's very low GI, so no guilt at all.

the burnt loaf

2010-07-19T18:12:00.001-05:00

I finished the first loaf quickly, and had to start on the loaf that I had burned.

I was also curious about the crumb, given that it had proofed much longer than the first loaf and I had screwed up the baking temeprature. It looked quite good, except for the fact that it was, well, burnt. I cut off the top crust before I tasted it. It was more sour than the first one, obviously because it had proofed longer, but it was not an overwhelming sourness. It was pleasant, actually. The crumb was better too - more and bigger holes. But the difference was not dramatic.

I think next time, both the bulk fermentation and the proofing will be longer. We'll see how it goes.

halibut cheeks escabeche

2010-07-18T16:51:00.003-05:00

When it's this hot and humid, I feel like something cold, refreshing, citrusy. Decided on escabeche. I was about to get some halibut at my local fish shop, when I saw that they had a bowlful of what looked like bits and pieces, labeled halibut cheeks. OK, obviously I have to try this.

I prepared the vegetables using my mandoline, and they looked almost too beautiful to cook.

Slice thinly and saute lightly in olive oil until barely transparent

red onion
red bell pepper
green bell pepper
garlic
carrots

Then add

juice of one lemon
juice of one orange
salt and pepper

Quickly saute in olive oil the halibut cheeks, or whatever seafood is going to be the main ingredient in your escabeche.

Put the cooked fish in a bowl, pour the 'pickled' vegetables onto it, cover and refrigerate overnight. Have it for lunch the next day.

Absolutely delicious. Did I taste the specialness of halibut cheeks? Nope. But hey, it had to be tried.

EDIT: The halibut cheeks led to massive unintentional cleansing. I should have trusted my nose. Sigh.

whole wheat with grains and seeds

2010-07-17T14:54:00.002-05:00

I want my daily bread to be a healthy whole grain, and I like seeds and grains in it for texture. What's available here commercially is disappointing. First, almost all of them have sugar/honey/syrup added. I'm fiercely opposed to this, not just on principled grounds (which I am), but also because I can taste it immediately. I've been able to find a relatively satisfactory bread but you have to hunt around town for it, and it ain't cheap. So I decided to bake my own basic bread, which is what got me started baking bread again.

Now that I've baked a number of good all purpose flour sourdough breads to get my feet wet, it was time to get down to business.

ingredients:

sourdough starter (220 g)
bread flour (300 g)
whole wheat flour (300 g)
water (300 g)
roasted sunflower seeds (70 g)
soaker (total 170 g before soaking)

flax seed ('cause they're good for you)
buckwheat groats ('cause I hadn't even seen them before and I was curious)
wheat berries ('cause I love their texture)

salt (10 g)

the night before:
I feed my sourdough starter as usual, with all purpose flour.
I add a small pinch of salt to the soakers, cover it with water, and let it sit for about 14 hours.

mixing:
I strain the soaker, in all its gel-like gloopiness from the flax seeds.
I combine in the bowl of my stand mixer everything except the salt, and mix at lowest speed for about 2-3 minutes. That soaker doesn't want to incorporate.
I let it rest for 30 minutes.
I add the salt and mix for about 4 minutes on the second-from-lowest speed.

This dough may seem to be 50% hydration, but it isn't when you take into account the water that comes with the soaker. I debated whether I should add a bit more water, but it looked OK to me after the mixing:

bulk fermentation:
I let the dough rise for 45 minutes, and then do that magical stretch-and-fold thing. (I still have trouble grasping the fact that this is better than kneading.)
I let it rise for another 45 minutes.
After 90 minutes, I'm not sure that it has risen enough so I give it another fold and let it rise for 30 minutes more.

proofing:
I pre-shape the dough into two balls and let them rest for 15 minutes.
I still haven't gotten myself a new set of bannetons, so I decide to proof them on the couche.
I shape one ball into a boule and the other roughly into a batard shape, and place them on the well-floured couche.
I give it an hour. They rise minimally, so I give it another 40 minutes.
At that point, the fear of too much sourness strikes and I decide to bake them.

baking:
OK, now this is why I need to get me some bannetons. I'm not the world's most coordinated person anyway, but the feat of getting the loafs from the couche to the peel is daunting. When there is more than one loaf on the couche, I usually have trouble rolling the loaf straight from the couche onto the peel. So I wonder about what I can use as a flipping board, get lazy, and decide to roll it onto my arm, and from there to the peel. Arrgh. It's amazing how laziness can trump good sense. I wanted to apologize to my loaf, which now was a bit deflated and a bit warped.

I slash the top of the loaf (in vain, it turns out), and spray the top with water.
I slip the loaf onto the baker's stone in the oven preheated to 500 F, turn it down to 450 F, bake for 15 minutes, turn it down once more to 425 F, and bake another 15 minutes.

There was very little oven spring and no grigne. This loaf didn't look sexy. I put it on the cooling rack and turned to the second loaf.

I decided to bake the two loaves separately, because I knew getting the second loaf on the peel would take additional juggling while the first loaf was in the oven, and I didn't want to disturb the first loaf while it was trying to rise (ha!).

I reheat the oven to 500 F. This means that the second loaf proofed almost 40 minutes longer. Curious to see what that will do.

I slip the second loaf into the oven. When I'm back in the kitchen to turn the oven down to 425 F after the first 15 minutes, I realize that I forgot to turn it down to 450 F when I first put it in. So it had 15 minutes at 500 F. Jeeeez, how could I?!! Well, of course I can, because I've burnt even soup.

I turn the oven down to 425 F. Then I think maybe it should go lower still, and I turn it down to 400. I give it 10 minutes, then I turn off the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes.

I'm heartbroken, because the top crust looks really burnt. I know some people think you can't overbake bread (Clavel, Silverton), but that's not my taste.

However, this loaf has much better oven spring than the first one. I mean, it actually has oven spring. Was it the extra proofing? Or the crazy baking temperature. I dunno.

the morning after:
Ooooh, anticipation. I decide to try the unburnt loaf, and it tastes really really good. I toast one slice for breakfast, it's magical. I'm so so happy.

I compare it side-by-side to my commercially baked multigrain, and no contest, mine wins hands down. But look at the crumb.

How come it looks so good even though there was no oven spring? It's moist, chewy, with a rich earthy taste, and barely sour. So the loaf that doesn't look promising on the outside turns out to be super on the inside.

One flaw in the concept. Although the wheat berries are beautifully chewy inside the crumb, the ones that ended up on the surface of the loaf are hard and sharp. Unpleasant. I have to figure out a way to avoid that. In the meantime, I'm focusing on finding a good way to shave the burnt top crust of the second loaf to feed to my dogs.

buckwheat sourdough

2010-07-12T14:49:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd follow a formula this time and see how it goes. I went with Susan's sourdough from her inspiring blog, since people on Fresh Loaf have such high praise for it. Susan notes that it's an adaptation of Jeffrey Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough, in his book Bread: A Baker's Techniques and Recipes. The bread turned out interesting and surprising. And good.

Try as I might, though, I didn't/couldn't follow her directions exactly. First, I halved the ingredients:

450 g KAF all purpose flour

60 g buckwheat flour

300 g water

180 g sourdough starter

11 g salt

Susan's formula calls for rye flour, but I didn't have any. I'd gone to the store to get it, but once there, I was completely distracted by cherries, sea bass, etc. I had buckwheat flour at home, which I was planning on experimenting with, so that's what I substituted.

I mixed it all in the stand mixer for about a minute, maybe less. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.

Added the salt and mixed for about 3 minutes. It didn't look like it needed more mixing; it was beautifully smooth and stretchy.

Then I was supposed to fold it after 50 minutes. I don't have a good sense of time (meaning I usually disregard it), and the timer doesn't always help (because I disregard that too, to the dogs' distress). I have a feeling it was more like 70 minutes before the first fold.

Now the folding schedule was off, so I did the second fold a bit earlier, in another 30 minutes.

Yet another 30 minutes, and the fermentation seemed to be enough. I didn't want to let it go for the suggested 2.5 hours, because I'm trying to correct a recurrent mistake, over-fermentation.

At that point the dough looked different from any dough I worked with before. Incredibly stretchy, but not many holes and no big holes. It had definitely risen some, and you could also tell by how it felt when you touched it, but I started worrying about how subdued the holes were. Maybe my starter wasn't vigourous enough? I had been sure that it was - was I wrong? Or maybe the culprit was the buckwheat. Buckwheat has no gluten. I hadn't added any high-gluten flour to compensate. Was it going to work?

On the other hand, there were reasons to think everything was going fine. The stretchiness of the dough meant that there wasn't a gluten problem. And when you gently placed your palm on the dough, it felt right - good resistance, beautifully smooth, etc.

Not like I had options at this point. There was nothing to do except to go on.

I had thrown out my bannetons some years back and haven't replaced them. What do I use for proofing? The dough was very soft so I knew it was going to spread a lot. Bite the bullet, I thought, make it a big ciabatta. I gave it a couple of gentle folds and let it proof right on the peel. I really don't know how long it proofed, but I think it was about an hour, at most an hour and a half.

In the meantime, the oven had been preheated to 500 F, with the baking stone in it. I slid the loaf onto the stone, with a sigh of relief when it actually did slide off the peel. Turned the oven down to 450 F and baked for 15 minutes. Dying of curiousity, I opened the oven door and peeked in. Hey! It had risen beautifully! I turned the oven to 425 F, and baked another 15 minutes. Then turned the oven off and was going to let the bread sit there for 5 minutes, when my time handicap struck again and I left it there for half an hour. Way too long. The crust got too thick and too brown for my taste.

I let it cool completely, and cut off a slice before I went to bed. Ugh. The buckwheat was overwhelmingly strong. Disappointed, I went to bed debating how to choose between love of experimentation and enjoying a predictably good result.

Next morning (yesterday), I gave it another try. Surprise! It had mellowed beautifully and tasted great. The buckwheat taste was there, of course, but it was not overwhelming and it was not too 'strong' to have for breakfast before your mind and your body readjusted to life. And this morning, it was even better.

So it's true, bread develops better taste after a day or two. I guess I didn't want to believe it because it would mean that I couldn't tear off a piece right out of the oven. But really, isn't that one of the main reasons we bake bread? To get to it while it's warm? I refuse to give that up. The solution is to bake at least two loaves, one to attack right away and one to let rest for a day. Then we can have our bread and eat it too. (Groan! I know, but I couldn't resist it.)

I loved the consistency of this dough when I was working with it, and the end result, so this formula will be repeated. The sourness was just right, the crumb had great texture, and it was moist and chewy.

I prefer a bit less salt, so I'll reduce the amount next time. Also next time, I won't screw up the crust by overbaking.

sea bass with pistachios

2010-07-10T22:00:00.003-05:00

I got some fresh sea bass (levrek) yesterday, and I immediately knew what I was going to do with it.

Sea bass and pistachios. Simplicity itself. It turned out to be an absolutely perfect marriage.

Season the sea bass with salt and pepper.
Saute in olive oil, about 3-4 minutes on each side.
Chop pistachios roughly. (I did it with a knife, didn't want it to get mushy.)
Press the pistachios onto the sea bass.
Cook for 3 minutes more in oven pre-heated to 425 F.
Drizzle with fresh lemon juice and olive oil.

I have to say that sticking to a low GI diet has dramatically changed the way I go about cooking. When you do a major overhaul of how you eat, you let go of a lot of automatic stuff in the kitchen and become more in tune with your own palate. Very liberating.

And yes, the sea bass was 'responsible sourced,' whatever that means. I decided to trust Whole Foods and not go on a quest to personally ensure that it was all ethical.

who's the boss of this chicken?

2010-07-10T11:54:00.007-05:00

Ruhlman has posted this cool video of Brian Polcyn trussing a chicken. One benefit of trussing that is not mentioned is that it prevents the silly bird from looking like an obscene slut.

chana dal

2010-07-06T15:37:00.001-05:00

I found out about chana dal from the blog of David Mendosa, who writes about diabetes. I stumbled onto his blog after I realized that the way I have been eating has a lot to do with a good diabetes diet. David has quite a bit of information about chana dal, along with many chana dal recipes. Apparently, this relative of chickpeas has one of the lowest glycemic indices, with almost no effect on blood sugar. It's also high in protein and very high in fiber. Sounded perfect. So I ordered some from Bob's Red Mill.

Most sources say to soak it overnight or to cook it in a pressure cooker, but on the package from Bob's Red Mill it said to cook it for about 20 minutes. So I decided to treat it like lentils.

Cut up and cook bacon slices until almost crisp.
Saute thinly sliced onions and small chunks of carrots in the bacon fat.
Add one Ancient Sweet pepper (I first mentioned them here), sliced into small bits.
Add one chopped jalapeño.
Add to taste chipotle, ground coriander, garam masala, and black pepper.
Add stock or water, and cook until done.

I served it (to myself) on bulgur, with a small dollop of yogurt for twang. Lovely. I think this legume is going to become a staple in my kitchen.

olive oil

2010-07-05T16:23:00.001-05:00

I love olive oil. I want to be olive oil. I want olive oil in and on everything.

I like my olive oil strong and fruity. I want to smell the olives. Most olive oils on the market are way too bland for my taste. I see them advertised as subtle, refined, etc., and I think: For foreigners. Foreigners, meaning people who didn't grow up in an olive oil culture.

In US, I usually get my olive oil at Best Turkish Food, an online retailer in Chicago. They are quick and helpful, and no, I'm not a shareholder.

My go-to olive oil is Tariş Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It's basic, it's inexpensive and it tastes like my childhood. I buy it in large 3 litre cans, but it's also available in 750 ml bottles.

Tariş is moving along with the times, though, and is producing olive oils with different acidities and methods of processing, along with organic olive oils, and terroir olive oils (they don't call it that, but these are specific to small geographic regions, like terroir wines). Very fancy. Very boutique. And priced accordingly.

I was curious about these different kinds and decided to try some, in spite of the prices. So I got a bottle of İlk El (literally, 'first hand'). Pretty bottle, pretty colour, expensive ($34 for a 500 ml bottle - ouch.)

I wanted to make sure I tasted it without interferences, so I made a simple lunch for myself with Crave Brothers ciliegine (very small mozzarella balls), tomatoes, and roasted walnuts. Drizzled it with İlk El, and dug into it accompanied by homemade sourdough whole wheat bread.

Bland, no character, for foreigners. I don't begrudge Tariş aiming some of its production for export. Look at all those best-selling Italian olive oils, most of which are blander than bland. (I have actually heard Americans complaining about olive oil that's 'too strong.' Wha?!!) So good for them. But not for me. I should've known better, of course. İlk El's acidity is less than 0.5%. Really fruity olive oil tends to have a higher acid content. My usual Tariş Extra Virgin is 0.8%.

One might generally want to be a bit stingy with such expensive stuff, but I'm pouring it all over everything, trying to use it up as fast as I can. And I'm trying not to feel guilty about sauteing salmon in $34 olive oil.

I also bought a bottle of Erkence, another boutique olive oil, and I'll report on it when I start using it. But I have a feeling I'll soon stop these experiments and go back to the old, iconic labels without fancy packaging. If they survive, of course.

so it's good for something

2010-07-04T13:29:00.002-05:00

Catherine McEver's work is super interesting, including her embroideries on Wonder Bread.

where are they?

2010-07-03T11:40:00.002-05:00

Sourdough whole wheat bread I baked two days ago. Still not following a recipe, but I'm getting wiser.

I used almost all whole wheat flour, and the starter had been fed with whole wheat for the last couple of feedings. Added roasted sunflower seeds, roasted sesame seeds, and flax seeds. I thought I'd put in a ton, but they're not very present, are they? Can't taste them much either. Next time I'll put in twice as much.

Lessons learned:

remember to soak whole grains the night before, so you can add them too
less starter - it's OK to waste, as long as you don't tell my mom
vastly increase seed ratio
buy your seeds elsewhere so they're fresher

link of the day

2010-06-27T13:09:00.000-05:00

Ruhlman on labels.

peanut butter cookies (repost)

2010-06-25T11:03:00.001-05:00

I made these when I was home this winter, lots of time on my hands. The original recipe is from Kalyn's Kitchen, which, by the way, is an amazing source for south beach friendly recipes. I didn't plan on changing the recipe but alas, we were out of baking powder! So I used a wacky substitution I found on line, but they turned out so moist and delectable that I'm going to make them that way every time now. What's so amazing is not just that they're good, but that they have zero flour and zero sugar. They do, however, have agave syrup, but feel free to substitute your sugar substitute of choice.

Flourless, Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
(Makes about 25-30 small cookies, recipe adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen.)

1 large egg
slightly less than 1/4 cup agave syrup
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup creamy natural peanut butter (no sugar added)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat the egg, mix everything in, adding the peanut butter last. It ends up looking sort of like cake batter. Spoon it onto a silicone cookie sheet for easy removal later, and then into the oven for about 12-15 minutes. They end up sort of a cupcake-cookie hybrid in my opinion, and they are highly addictive, so beware. I think Kalyn's original recipe yields crunchy cookies, but I don't know if I can ever stop making them this way long enough to find out.

Our sweet boyz decided to help with the photo shoot:

Boyz: Oh look at us, we are so good, we love you so much, we will do whatever you tell us, pleaseohpleaseohplease can we have some cookies?

Milo: What was that?! Did they move?!

Nikki: I'm ... just ... going to ... slowly ... look away. It's ... a sign of ... respect. She'll understand ... and give me ..... cookies.

Milo: Screw this, she's never giving in. I'm gonna go lick my bear.

Nikki: Right, so just stay like this. It's working. Keep that foot up, don't look at her or the cookies, it'll totally work. You've got this. Don't let the foot drop, don't waver in your intentions. The little one's gone, they're all gonna be yours. Stay focused, but act casual.

(originally posted on Nomadic D.)

asparagus time

2010-06-23T17:51:00.002-05:00

I want to eat as much asparagus as I can while they're in season, and I love them with mushrooms. And I'm still trying to use up the Pixies.

Saute chopped onions in olive oil and remove from pan.

Saute mushrooms in the oil until they smell rich and earthy.

Add the onions back.

Add asparagus, cut into 2" chunks, and sliced red bell peppers.

Season with salt and black pepper.

Cook until the asparagus is the consistency you like. I like a bit of crunch.

Drizzle with pomegranate molasses.

Top with slices of peeled Pixie tangerines.

looks pretty, tastes not so good

2010-06-21T09:38:00.002-05:00

A while back, I bought a big box of pixie tangerines out of curiosity. They're quite good but definitely not mind-boggling. I think perhaps their major claim to fame is their size. They kept very well so far, except that in the last week or so they started to look dry and shriveled up. When you cut into them, they still taste good. But if shriveled I must unshrivel.

I parboiled them in plain water, cut them in half, stuffed the centres with a walnut piece and cream cheese. Layed them cut side down on silpat and poured caramel over them. Pretty.

Too bitter, though. The pith was super thin and I thought parboiling it would take care of whatever bitterness there was. Didn't work out. I had just made three to test, and ate them anyway because I had missed caramel so much. I know, I know. White sugar. But really, give me a break. I made the caramel with less than two tablespoons of sugar and it was so worth it.

ruth bourdain

2010-06-21T09:14:00.000-05:00

This cracks me up every time. And the RuBo picture is genius.

it shouldn't have worked, but...

2010-06-18T09:34:00.004-05:00

I was going to feed the pet but I'd run out of AP flour and went out to get some. Back at home, I saw that I'd bought the white whole wheat flour (KAF) by mistake. Didn't even know such a thing existed. Read up on it at the King Arthur web site, and they recommend using it for cookies, muffins, etc., but there's no mention of breads. Not good. I looked into it a bit more, and it's a low protein flour, which is why it wouldn't be good for bread. But I was curious, so I separated some of my sourdough starter and fed it with this flour. Fermenting seemed OK, but it didn't rise much. Not a surprise. I fed it a few times more, decided it was time to try to bake it into bread. I incorporated some bread flour into it and let it rest about 40 minutes. After the autolyse, it looked very wet. So I added some more bread flour, until it was a respectable soft dough consistency. Folded it twice at 45 min intervals, then put it in the fridge to develop overnight. Next day I divided it into two, formed smallish boules, and let them proof in baskets lined with kitchen towels. After a couple of hours they were pouffy, but hadn't risen much. It looked like further proofing was not going to help. (How do I know this? I have no idea.) My oven was already preheated to 500 F with the baking stone in place. I didn't want to risk placing the loaves directly on the peel, because they still seemed not sturdy enough. So I lined the peel with parchment paper before I up-ended them. Sure enough, in 5 seconds, they looked like ciabatta. Not very hopeful, I stuck them into the oven. There was almost no oven spring, but again, it's not surprising given the qualities of the flour. I let the loaves cool overnight and cut into them the next morning. Surprise! They were not bricks. In fact, they were quite light and hole-y. And they weren't too sour. They looked and tasted better than most store bought 'artisanal whole wheat'. Definitely edible. Not nearly good enough, but definitely edible.

I'm confused. Low gluten flour, therefore not much rising, but still pretty good crumb. Shouldn't it have been dense and heavy? What do I know.

real lamb

2010-06-16T13:34:00.001-05:00

What passes as lamb in the US is mutton. Big, ripe-smelling, heavy. I'd never found a local source for real lamb, meaning baby lamb, until a few days ago. I was shopping at Trader Joe's and found a package of frenched, trimmed rack of lamb from New Zealand. I wasn't very optimistic but of course I couldn't resist trying it. I cooked it last night, and I think my food life in the US changed forever. THANK YOU TRADER JOE'S! I don't care if I sound like a commercial, I'm really grateful.

No pictures, because it was night and I don't have an adequate light source for photographs, so I'll just describe it.

I seasoned the rack with salt and black pepper and seared it in a pan. Then I covered it with a mixture of minced garlic, coarse grain mustard, a bit of balsamic vinegar, a bit of pomegranate molasses, and some smoked paprika. Stuck it in the preheated very hot oven until poking it with my fingers told me it was medium. Let it rest for 15 minutes, which was hard, because it smelled like heaven. Then I cut into it with guarded anticipation and lo and behold, it was unbelievably tender and tasty. Yeay! I think the taste was a bit more neutral than the lamb we get in Turkey, but I'm not complaining. I started off my dinner with half the rack, and then couldn't resist and finished the whole thing. I know I'll make more trips to Trader Joe's now.

And I forgave Trader Joe's for selling some crappy stuff (like the inedible Manchego), and the less then stellar fresh fruits and vegetables. Now my list of TJ favourites includes the lamb in addition to the dried pitted sour Montmorency cherries which I can't find anywhere else.

Another positive note: I remembered not to grab the handle of the saute pan with my bare hand when I was taking the lamb out of the oven. I don't always remember.

today's lunch

2010-06-13T17:55:00.006-05:00

For some reason, it no longer seems like a hassle to make lunch for myself. So today, roasted asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, and walnuts. Topped off with fried eggs for protein, and shaved slices of Manchego.

The little convection toaster oven makes it fast and easy. I roasted the salted asparagus and shiitake with a drizzle of olive oil, and added walnuts for the last couple of minutes.

I've been cooking a lot with nuts these days, because it makes me feel like I've eaten a full meal when I'm staying off carbs.

sunday joy

2010-06-10T13:36:00.003-05:00

About a month ago, my husband and I started Sunday Brunch. We're calling it a family tradition, even though it's just been a few times and it's just the two of us, but we figure, that's how things get started, right? I try not to make the same thing every time, which in reality means adding different things to my pancakes. I can't not make them, because they are never not amazing. What can I say. I'm kind of a pancake genius. But I have to give credit where credit is due, and point you to this recipe, which I use almost exactly, except for the vanilla (and only because I can't find any in this city), and I find I have to add a wee bit more agave syrup. But otherwise, this is my holy base. Here's how I do it:

1 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
a few generous squirts of agave syrup
1 Tbs olive oil
1/2 c skim milk
1/2 c non fat plain yogurt (or sweetened if your husband buys it by accident)
2 eggs

Mix the wet stuff. Add the dry stuff. Ta-daaa! So simple. I also find that the batter keeps nicely in the fridge for a few days, which is pretty awesome when you get up at 8 monday morning too sleepy to think about breakfast and find you can just drop some of this in a pan and you have a delicious wholesome pancake breakfast before class. The batter sort of changes color, turns blueish, but I think I read somewhere that that's some kind of chemical reaction having something to do with baking soda. I do my research, but that does mean I retain the results. In any case, I still use it even if it's darker, just give it a stir and don't show it to anyone who might be paranoid about things going bad (ahem, husband).

I've made them with blueberries, fresh from the Mercado de San Miguel which is thoughtfully open on sundays. I've made them plain for people to throw nutella and whipped cream on top. I've also made them plain accompanied by a banana/strawberry/walnut salad/sauce which I will have to post about another day. But this past week, I made Cinnamon Banana Walnut Pancakes. And yes, they were damn good.

You would like to try? Make the batter as usual, and then in a separate bowl, combine sliced up bananas, crumbled walnuts, and cinnamon. I like to keep the extras separate so that when I use the leftover batter in the following days I can make whatever kind I want and am not tied to Sunday's Flavors.

When you scoop a bunch of batter with your ladle, drop a large spoonful of the nutty mix in it and give it a swirl to better disperse the cinnamon. Drop it in the pan (a little oil for the first one, which always turns out a little sad anyway) and cook it like you cook all pancakes. You know, wait for the bubbles, wait for some of the bubbles to pop and leave holes, wait for the edges to dry up a little, flip it and then let the second side sit much less. The whole wheat does seem to take longer than regular hotcakes, but it's worth it.

More Sunday Brunch posts to come, I promise. And a special thanks to my sweet hubby who took these awesome photos.

my afternoon snack

2010-06-07T18:39:00.002-05:00

I love roasting vegetables simply, and I do it frequently, with many different kinds of vegetables. This is one of my favourites. Sometimes it's my veggie to accompany my dinner, sometimes (like today) it's a quick fix when I'm hungry in the middle of the afternoon.

Roasted cauliflowers with walnuts

Separate the cauliflower into fleurettes. Place on a baking sheet, sprinkle it with salt and red pepper (always assume I use Aleppo pepper, the red kebab pepper of Turkey, unless I say otherwise), drizzle with olive oil. Roast until almost done. Add walnuts to the baking sheet and continue to cook for two more minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with lemon juice. Easy, tastes great, and is super healthy.

Roasted vegetables lend themselves to variations. Try it with different spices, different nuts, combined vegetables, etc. I make mine in my counter-top convection oven, and it's ready in about 10 minutes.

i have a plan

2010-06-05T11:54:00.003-05:00

And my plan is to leave the house for a couple of days. Go somewhere, anywhere. When I return, I expect my kitchen to be spotless and all signs of disaster gone. You know, the kitchen elves.

Here's my couche with most of the goo already scraped off. I'm hoping the rest will come off when drier.

Everything in the shape of a bowl, including stainless steel bowls, plastic containers, baskets, the plastic colander (used as a banneton, 'cause I'd thrown out all my bannetons some years ago), was put to use in desperation. Not that it helped. What you don't see is the floor, the pile of stuff in the sink, dough stuck to every surface.

Let's start at the beginning. I'd been distracted from making bread for a week. A week ago, when trying to snap out of my bread paralysis, I winged a sourdough loaf again. Basically, I was experimenting with techniques that I'd never used or heard of in my previous bread-baking life eons ago. One was making a stiffer dough than I used to, another was the 'stretch and fold' method instead of kneading, and yet another was proofing the bread in the refrigerator and taking it straight from the refrigerator to the hot oven. This is what resulted.

Not bad, but not terribly good either. Nice 'grigne'. Too sour for my taste, and not enough oven spring. But I love the non-violent stretch-and-fold method.

Then I took a week off and didn't even think about bread. Two days ago, it was time to go back. I took out my neglected starter and started to feed about half a cup of it as starter.

The rest, I thought I'd experiment with. Hubris. I started building up about a cup of it.

Then I wondered what would happen if I did something to the rest without fussing too much. Added whole wheat flour to get it going, then divided that into two. By the evening, everything seemed to be bubbling up nicely. Put it all in the refrigerator and went to bed.

Yesterday morning I took everything out. I'm now looking at four containers with stuff in it and trying to remember what's what. The starter-to-be-revitalized was easy, it was the smallest amount. I fed it, and put it away.

The batch I was building up looked good. Decided to attempt a loaf with it. To keep things straight, let's call that one 'pathetic hope.' It was very wet, so I fed it with more bread flour than water or starter. Did I measure anything? Hell no. That would be so unadventurous. Then I started to stretch and fold it in the bowl it was in. Here's how it looked before the folds.

Here's how it looked after the second stretch-and-fold. Looks promising. See how much smoother?

Then I added salt, and folded it two more times with 45 minute intervals. Looks good, is rising well. It's beautifully stretchy, better than anything I achieved when kneading by hand.

OK, so now it's time for proofing. Clearly, the dough is too wet to shape into anything. I have two choices. Add flour and start again, or proof it in a container. The second seemed easier. I put my well-floured couche into a bowl, put the dough into it and waited. 'Cause bread pans are for sissies, right? I waited for it to rise.

It rose some, but not a whole lot. First sign that the future might not hold success. But it was springy, and I thought I'd continue. In my previous life, my doughs were always on the soft side, and I proofed them on a flat surface, transferred to a peel, and put them in the oven. So this time, I thought I'd up-end the bowl onto the floured peel, remove the couche, stick the 'bread' into the oven.

Here's the start of the hilarious part. I turn the whole thing upside down on the peel, take off the bowl, and ooops! The dough starts to flow on the peel. Really, it can only be called 'flowing', not 'spreading.' I start to panic and try to be quick. I try to lift off the couche. I know I'm in trouble because the part of the couche that touched the bottom of the bowl looks very wet. Sure enough, half of the dough is stuck to it. I try to scrape it off. What am I thinking? No way. Now I'm panicking to the max. I look at the goop that's on the peel, and decide to scoop it into a bread tin. Why am I not giving up? 'Cause I'm stubborn and I'm thinking 'who knows..?' The oven is already preheated to 500F. I stick in the bread pan and wait.

After about 40 mins, I remove it. Looks like crap. For some reason, the center of the pan does rise a bit. The rest not much. I was too proud to take a picture, but I'll describe it for you. A brick. (I'm thinking the function of bread pans is to form bread into shape of bricks.) I peel off the crust. The crumb is wet and compact, with few holes. I dunno if this can be called crumb. It still looks and feels like dough, frozen in time. I taste the crust - unbelievably sour. I throw it all out. End of 'pathetic hope'.

But there's more hope. I still had the batch of starter that should have been thrown out. With half of it, I quickly tried sourdough pancakes. Way too sour. Inedible. That gets thrown out.

The second half, which shall be called 'stupid hope,' I decide to go for a loaf. I build it up some, then give it a number of folds, and it's not looking bad at all. You might ask at this point, dear reader, if the pancakes were inedibly sour why would I think this bread might end up tasting good? Well, it's called 'stupid hope,' isn't it? The truth is I didn't care. I was just curious.

And there's an important lesson here. What makes a good scientist does not a good baker make. A baker needs to be an applied scientist, not a research scientist.

When it comes to final proofing, I remember that I forgot to add salt. Ah jeez. Add salt and fold, it all gets deflated, and I continue with giving it extra folds. Eventually, it rises some. I turn it out on the table, and add a lot of flour when shaping it, because this dough is also very wet and I don't want to repeat the disaster with 'pathetic hope.' Going for a different kind of disaster.

It holds its shape. I want to proof it directly on the peel. One side of the peel is stuck with the mess from before, so I turn it over, put down parchment paper, put the dough on it, cover it, and wait. Not much happens. By now it's getting late, and I'm starting to lose patience. Reality takes over. I know nothing good's gonna come out of it. So I transfer it to the oven. When it comes out of the oven, I don't care too much any more. I wait for it to cool, and this is what it looks like.

It has the semblance of bread, but it's clear that it hasn't risen enough. And it's way too sour. Into the trash it goes. I go to bed wondering why I spent the whole day doing this.

There, is however, a plus. You can use the dough as a fly catcher. Potentially useful discovery.

I wake up this morning and I know that my mission today is to understand everything that went wrong. Actually, let me start with what went right. The stretch and fold. The gluten develops beautifully.

Now to the bad stuff.

Dough too wet: This happened because I didn't fold it on the table with my hands. If I had, I'd have realized immediately that it was too wet. So that's how I'm going to do it until I'm comfortable with the feel of it, and then go back to doing it in a bowl.

Too sour: When feeding the starter, keep a smaller amount of of the old starter. Keep starter strong. Start baking when the starter is at its peak, or almost at its peak. When building it up for baking, use ratio 1:4:4. Keep bulk fermentation much shorter than I've been doing.

Not enough oven spring: Don't overproof.

Finally, even if you're not going to follow recipes, it really pays to listen to other bakers. There are so many great bread sites and personal blogs that it shouldn't be a problem. Here's a baker's blog that was very informative for me, where Susan gives us two excellent quotes:

For reckless adventuring: People who work in family planning have an aphorism: Hope is not a method.

In defense of adventuring: “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” –Thomas Edison

I'm taking today off. I'm not even going to clean.

carnivale season 1 marathon(ish) snacks

2010-05-30T12:29:00.003-05:00

My first post here is a cheat, cause I already posted it over at my other (hugely neglected) blog, but I just couldn't wait to get something on here. Oh the joy of the mother daughter food blog!

Our Carnivale Season 1 marathon started super late because we decided to be responsible and do all sorts of grocery shopping and cleaning and organizing of the house beforehand, so in reality, I don't know if it counts as a marathon. I think we got through 4 episodes. We'll try and hit it again tonight. But what really matters is not how good that show is, even the second time around (really really good, in my opinion), but the munchies I made.

The humus was ridiculously easy, just like my mama said it would be. I took some precooked chick peas and added some tahini and a bit of lemon juice. That's about as exact as I can be as far as the measurements go. And then I drizzled olive oil on top with a dash of paprika. On the side for dipping I took whole wheat tortillas, cut them into bits, brushed them with olive oil and baked them in a too-hot oven for 5 minutes. Again, that's about as precise as I can be. I recommend not having the oven too hot, probably better if you heat it just right. Regardless, it was delicious. We had some mammoth green grapes with it, which were delicious, in spite of their prehistoric size.

And then, when we got hungry again (it happened so soon, we are eating champions lately), I pulled out the whole wheat pizza dough I'd prepared and used my brand new rolling pin (little water glasses get the job done, but not very well) and made this baby:

The crust is adapted from here, but I usually use milk instead of water. Last night, however, feeling bold, I substituted white wine ("What? Why?" asked my husband, "They're not even the same color!"). I also always throw in some herbes de provence for good measure. Thought it was going to be salty, but I think it was just the tang of the wine, because when it cooked up, it was perfect. I topped it with sliced tomatoes, sliced red peppers, grated mozzarella and some mozzarella di buffalo, and then some fresh basil on top. When it came out of the oven we threw some turkish red pepper on it, and ate it so fast there re no pictures. But trust me, it was good.

hey hey hey!

2010-05-30T11:38:00.000-05:00

Lions and ducks and dragons are super together, so my baby is going to post on this blog too. We have much in common when it comes to cooking: We don't read recipes, experiment like crazy, cook with no fear, and learn from the inedible goop we sometimes produce as much as from the beautiful stuff we end up with.

Gotta change the name of the blog.

red pepper and walnut gem

2010-05-27T15:07:00.002-05:00

I've been craving muhammara. I think it started when my sister introduced me to the new (to me) species of fresh red peppers in Istanbul - fat, long, pointy, sweet and tangy, crisp, super refreshing. I did find some fresh red peppers here that were quite similar. They're called 'Ancient Sweets', imported from Mexico and described on the package as 'mysteriously sweet long peppers.'

Muhammara can be on the heavy side, and I wanted to make a refreshing summery version. Here it is.

2 fresh red peppers
3/4 c walnuts
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp pomegranate syrup
11/2 c canned canellini beans
salt
black pepper
Aleppo peppers
2 tbsp olive oil

Cut the red peppers into 1" chunks and chop them up in the food processor. Add about half a cup of the walnuts and the rest of the ingredients, chop fine. Add the remaining walnuts and pulse only a couple of times, to give it some texture. Cover and chill. That's it.

Play around with the ingredient amounts to make it suit your palate. Never ever assume my measurements give the best results. Remember, my kitchen motto is 'Wing It!'

Aleppo peppers are mildly hot red pepper flakes, called 'kebab peppers' in Turkey. You can get it at Penzey's. (Better yet, go to Penzey's if you can and lose track of time.)

Traditional muhammara generally has chopped garlic, but my head of garlic turned out to be a hideous empty brown shell. I think it actually turned out more refreshing without the garlic, but if we were sitting down to an evening-long rakı (or arak or ouzo) table, I'd definitely include the garlic.

What I'm happiest with is the beans. Normally, you'd add bread to give the muhammara body. But I'm trying to stay away from white bread, and the multi-grain seeded bread just didn't seem right. So what to do? Beans, I thought. Turned out to be an excellent addition, if I do say so myself.

I warmed up a whole wheat tortilla, spread the muhammara on it, and devoured it with much happiness. It would be a good substitute for mayonnaise in chicken salad, or as a sauce for hamburgers or grilled anything.

This is a super nutritious and healthy dish with a very low glycemic index, and the addition of beans also makes it a good protein source. And it tastes very very good.

because my memory always fails me

2010-05-26T13:19:00.000-05:00

First post on my food blog. It'll basically be my notebook about what goes on in my kitchen.

These days, I'm obsessed with baking bread again. After decades of not baking. Let's start with a video of one of the masters. (Sorry about the Katie Couric ad in the beginning.)

Watch CBS News Videos Online

And here's an entry from Ann Mah's blog on the Poilâne bakery:
http://annmah.net/2009/04/23/behind-the-scenes-at-poilane-bakery/

My initial motivation was to bake a multigrain bread with lots of seeds, etc. That's the kind of bread I eat these days, for health reasons. But seriously, we knew it was an excuse, right?

In March 2010, before I went on a longish trip, I improvised a bread with acceptable results, though not great. It was a yeast bread with a rich mix of seeds and grains soaked overnight. Here is the result.

I'll return to seeded multigrains later, but at the moment, I'm focusing on getting sourdough right. I got my live starter from Breadtopia and it turned out to be very vigorous, even though I was too sick to get to it for a while. So, feed and dump and feed and dump and feed and dump. Yesterday, I declared my starter strong enough to start baking.

Bake? I went into my usual paralysis when I'm tackling something new. OK, so I'm not really new to bread baking, but it's been a while, and I used to wing it a lot back then, which meant uneven results. And I could never get a good loaf without boosting my sourdough with a bit of yeast. Did I say I was winging it? My excuse is that I'm sure no bread maker of my childhood in Istanbul ever measured anything. There's that little matter of experience, though, which I thought I could compensate for with an abundance of guts and experimentation. Yeah, I know, arrogance.

My paralysis was fed by endless combing through all my bread books, checking out all the bread blogs, reading about a thousand different approaches, and of course not knowing where to start. Until yesterday.