Live Now! icommunitykitchen.com

Friends,

The sister site to http://buttermilkskitchen.blogspot.com is now up and running. It represents a new opportunity for me to continue to hone my web site skills. So stick with me as we learn this medium together! Give it a spin and do use the poll and comments functions sprinkled throughout the site. I plan to utilize this medium to interact

You may be wondering what my plans are for Buttermilk's Kitchen and icommunitykitchen.com and how the two will grow and evolve, yet stay distinct. Trust me, this is forefront on my mind, and I am committed to creating complimentary communications.

My goal is to create functionality where you can communicate in writing your questions, thoughts, new recipes, meal needs, etc.. In other words, I would like to create functionality for you to BLOG within my blog or web site. Give me time and I will figure this all out!

I am particularly delighted to have found access to advertising that you will see on my web site www.ikitchencommunity.com I like the idea of reading about a book on a site, and then scrolling right down and clicking on to the sites where one can order that book. One simple step. So, I will try to position meaningful ad links to pages where they are relevant to content and make your access easy.

As we move forward I want to know more about what YOU want from a food related site as a resource. Are you cooking for one? Are you looking for economical meals and coupons? Are you looking for recipes that freeze well and reheat easily? Are you looking for something for a special occasion, with specific food restrictions or something you can prepare ahead? Your time is coming to speak!

Before I go, I mixed up the basic bread dough boule recipe last night and used pale ale as 2 cups of the 3 cups total liquid (1 cup is water). As the recipe dictates, I let the mixture sit at room temperature for 2 hours before putting it into the refrigerator. The aroma of the dough after those two hours was sweet and floral and portends an incredible loaf of baked bread. I can't wait!

Speak with you soon!

Steady Progress

Loyal Readers,

I have spent more hours than I should say learning my way around the code to set up the new sister web site. I will go ahead an tell you the site address is www.iCommunityKitchen.com

It is not quite live yet, because I am trying to get it as presentable as possible before hitting the 'publish this site' button.

I do believe that it is a good sign that even I (the web novice) can wade through a lot of trial an error and see the picture of the new site coming into focus.

Now, yesterday I mentioned another recipe I came across in Moreton Neal's book of her late husband Bill Neal's genious. I also told you there was a twist to the tale.
As I read the recipes in the book, page after page making mental notes and dog earing pages, I stopped dead in my tracks at Braised Pork with Bourbon and Prunes.

During his time in France, it turns out that Bill and Moreton spent time with Simone Beck. Does that name sound familiar? It should. She is the co-author of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" published with our mentor Julia Child.

I always smile at the fullness of the circle of life. So for Bill, Simone and Julia, I give you my adaptation of the dish. It is wonderful, succulent and as comforting as a roaring fire and a glass of port. Only, as we know, with Bill the wine has been exchanged for Bourbon! One final note--I served the braise over rice. I cooked 1 C long rain rice with 2 Cups beef broth (or bouillon), and 1 Tbsp olive oil. When it was done, I stirred in 1/2 C frozen green peas and grated one orange to get the zest into the pot. I then let the mixture steam with the lid closed, heat off, for about 10 minutes before serving. The orange zest perfumed the rice and really brought the braised pork alive.

Look for the pork recipe in The Recipe Box shortly.

Bon appetit!

P.S. Engrain www.icommunitykitchen.com in your mind. Coming soon!

Bill Neal's PMC

As promised Bill's recipe for PMC is now in The Recipe Box. Must say that little bit of Bourbon gives it a new twist and I like it. The only addition I made was about 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder. It was good 30 minutes after I made it, but I think even better today.

Though I mentioned various ways we Southerners usually serve PMC, I forgot one of my favorites--on a split open face biscuit or piece of bread, either broiled just until the cheese melts. Its a good and fast way to start the day. I admit to cheating this morning and baking 4 of the frozen biscuits to use as my foundation. Somehow once you have made Shirley Corriher's buttermilk biscuits, the frozen kind we all thought so great a year ago do not compare.

I've got another surprise coming for you from Moreton's book of Bill Neal's favorites. I made it last night and can attest it is very good. I can't wait to taste it today now that it has had a chance to mature overnight in the refrigerator. You'll have to come back for this special dish whose origins have a special twist!

In my 2008 commitment to squeezing more out of the shrinking dollar, I am going to look at a few of the online grocery coupon sites and check my now growing list of staples needed to replenish the kitchen for matches. I've been interested to find coupons for at least one national brand of milk on some of the sites and I think we all know how expensive milk has gotten. So give coupon sites a look. Now, it is off to the make the rounds at the grocery and pet food stores for me.

Speak with you soon!

Saturday and EveryDay-Pimento Cheese

The other day a colleague, who is originally from Chicago, recounted a tale to me of something served at a casual reception the other day here in Austin. She was mystified at what the 'orange mixture' served as a sandwich spread could have been. Well, if you are a Southerner too, you know I just smiled. After a few quick questions, I knew the answer. It was our beloved pimento cheese!

Growing up in SC, it was simply unheard of that pimento cheese wasn't served in some fashion at a proper soiree. Whether in finger sandwiches or lining celery we simply had to have it. And all of the 'good' local take out places offer a pimento cheese burger. I've been proud to see chef John Martin rename it "Palmetto Cheese" to signify his belief that it was born or perhaps perfected in South Carolina. My father makes a great pimento cheese or "PMC" as he calls it. Maybe he will write in an tell us his secret ingredient; I am not authorized to reveal it, though I know it (them).

If you have been reading along, you will know that in December I mentioned the late and sorely missed North Carolina chef Bill Neal, and the book written by his wife, Moreton Neal. I have since gotten the book and started reading about their life and feel as if I know him so much better now. I actually miss him, and I never knew him.
Bill was someone who had traveled the world, been professionally trained, and yet upon setting out to make his name in the Chapel Hill area, found a way to blend his native roots with the nuances of classical French cooking.

You can imagine my delight when I came across a recipe for Pimento Cheese, his version,still served at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill in his wife's book of his recipes. I have always been exceedingly proud of Southerners who can experience the world and never forget the special gifts of the South when at first they put a pan on the stove and begin to cook. I say summon everything you've learned to enhance what you know, but never forget what you love.

I promise to put his recipe for Pimento Cheese in The Recipe Box before this weekend is out. Right now, I must run and meet a nice Italian chef who is putting together a special case of wines for me. When the wine rack is empty save a 1996 Brunello which I refuse to open for a weeknight, one must go seek reinforcements!

One other little bit of news--I am working on a new, proper, real-live web site. Learning the ins and outs is a challenge, but as soon as it is live, I will let you know. Until then, I will be splitting my time between the blog here and the new site.

If you are going shopping, and you want to do so in advance of Bill Neal's "PMC" recipe, make sure you have white cheddar, pimentos (jarred), cumin, chili powder and (drum roll please) bourbon!

Stay tuned,

Buttermilk

Comfort and Economy in One Fantastic & Easy Roasted Chicken

Last night with a cold drizzle falling outside I had my heart set on something comforting from the kitchen. From the other room I heard Rachael Ray starting a recipe for individual chicken pot pies in coffee mugs. While that sounded good, a whole roasted chicken is my idea of the ultimate comfort food. With the prices of gas and groceries continuing to climb, I find myself looking for food alternatives that can provide comfort at an economical price (.99/lb), and leftovers! So it was going to be a roast chicken for me.

I have long used Julia's recipe, but had my head turned by a recipe I'd recently read in a new cookbook given to me as a Christmas gift by my best friend. (It is important to note that this is the same friend, who in 1996 while helping me pack and move my household from Ohio to Michigan announced with authority 'NO MORE COOKBOOKS FOR YOU!!')

Roast Chicken and Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson (with Lindsey Bareham) is a fun read and includes recipes for old friends like roast chicken, but also more off the beaten path dishes like brains. He swears we just need to get over their origin.




So as I reviewed Hopkinson's recipe, I thought it reminded me a lot of Julia's method, with a little bit of the Barefoot Contessa, and one final new twist from the author. Like Julia, giving the bird a good rub with butter started Hopkinson's recipe, and also like Julia the bird was started at a high temperature first then the oven turned down for the majority of cooking time. Like the Barefoot Contessa, the use of lemon juice squeezed onto the outer bird and the lemons then placed inside with herbs features in Hopkinson's recipe. The difference with Hopkinson's recipe really comes in cooking method, calling for the bird to stay in the oven (door cracked open), with heat turned off, for 15 minutes after cooking is done. As I am always want to do, I added an extra lemon, a head of garlic sliced in half, and two shallots halved to the ingredients stuffed inside the chicken.

So many times, I find a roasted chicken has a great, crispy, flavorful crust, but bland flavorless meat. I've often resorted to brining my chickens or giving them a 20 minute roll in the Reveo meat "flavorizer" machine to overcome this. Nope, not this time--just a mix of good ingredients inside the bird, butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper on the outside (OK--a little of the butter eased under the breast skin)and this bird was everything I could ask. The meat had an aromatic lemony herb flavor, and the skin brown, crunchy and tasty.

While I don't know if this is the 'perfect' roasted chicken recipe, I can say it is pretty darned close and a method I will use again and again. So check The Recipe Box for my collaborative adaptation.

For my friend who recently mentioned searching recipes for a special Valentine's Day night dinner, I say that you cannot go wrong with a roasted chicken as the center piece. Another friend recently mentioned great success with a flourless chocolate torte, and I have asked her to write in and share that recipe. This could be the crowning achievement to a special dinner.

Rachael, your pot pie looked good, but my roasted chicken was divine!

Show-N-Tell: Onion Soup and Eastern European Potato Rye Bread

So you see the results of Saturday's cooking. The only change I would make to the bread recipe relates to the cup of mashed potatoes, which I had only coursely mashed. Next time I will put the potatoes through a ricer to ensure they are blended evenly within the yeast dough. The caraway seed and ale used in the recipe give this bread a true old world, yeasty and robust flavor. If you get Jeff and Zoe's book, the recipe is on page 120! Again, it was easy, requiring no kneading and resulted in a wonderful, unique crusty, aromatic and chewy bread. The onion soup recipe is in The Recipe Box on the left hand side of the main page.

All in all the soup and bread combination was a perfect way to keep the chill away.

New Year: New Look and Feel to the Site

I decided it was a good time to update the look and feel of the site. Let me know what you think! (If you don't like it, do keep your thoughts to yourself- ;-))

I am still working my way through the 'code' to get the ads in the proper color scheme; all in good time.

Try this link and you'll understand what I am thinking:

Onion Soup Made Right

I heard through the blogvine that one of my loyal readers had recently tried an onion soup recipe and been disappointed. There's nothing worse than getting your mind and salivary glands all hyped for what you think is going to be exactly what you have been hoping to taste and come up short, very short. I think that sometimes we try recipes because the mix of ingredients that are our favorites strikes a chord with us, or perhaps we are trying to re-create a particular dish we've had in a restaurant or at a special meal, or simply because we remember a dish for comfort and 'just right' feeling we felt when we were in the mood for it. Comfort food tends to fall into that latter category.

So, should a velvety smooth, aromatic, sweet onion soup be so difficult? Having had onion soup in small bistros in France, there is a gustatory imprint (if you will) in my mind and in my taste memory bank that I expect a good onion soup to match. Onion soup always looks so easy when seen prepared on TV or youtube, but maybe there are secrets.

Ironically enough, the other night when I was looking through the small tin recipe box my mother gave me when I left for college, and to which I have continued to add new recipes in the intervening decades, I came across a folded piece of notebook paper. In my father's handwriting there I found a recipe with no title, date or attribution to a particular chef or cook--yet clearly it is an onion soup recipe. I suspect the recipe might have been prepared for him on a visit to long time friends who are German and the wife in the couple has always treated my father to fantastic fare. However, if my dad reads this blog, perhaps he will click on the 'Comments' link at the bottom of this post and unravel the mystery of the origins of this recipe.

I do not ever recall using this recipe, but last night with a cold rain falling in our usually warm Austin, I decided hot onion soup was just the thing. I also mixed a batch of yet another variation of one of Jeff and Zoe's bread recipes (Eastern European Potato-Rye Bread) , adding a twist from Cook's Illustrated and my cousin's advice, substituting part of the liquid with New Castle Brown Ale. Since I have decided that all of Jeff and Zoe's doughs make a bread I like like better when the dough has been refrigerated at least overnight, I will bake the first loaf of this new recipe today and let you know how it goes. I suspect it will be the perfect addition for the role of crouton in a bowl of onion soup, along with a bit of Emmenthaler cheese.

So back to the recipe for onion soup. Three ingredients stand out to me as unusual, but now having made this recipe and tasted the results, perhaps they are the secret to success-brown sugar, molasses and dry Vermouth (not white wine or cognac). I also used my previously made and frozen pressure cooker beef broth, good extra virgin olive oil, and a bit of my supply of Amish butter picked up on my travels.

(See a note about olive oil in "Lessons Learned" further down the page.)

First, the aroma from the soup wafted through the house and made the cold, wet dreary night feel cozy and comforting. The taste is rich on the tongue, with the onions still substantial though perfectly cooked, and caramelized to perfection by their own sugars and escalated with the help of the brown sugar and molasses. The Vermouth added that special something that you will know when you taste it but is so difficult to describe. This particular taste sensation is an example of what we have learned about the distribution of taste receptors in the mouth and on up into the nose--you will experience and traditional taste on the tongue and palate then something new as it develops into a "taste-aroma" if there is such a term. Since I have only made this recipe once, and did use my own homemade beef broth, I encourage you to try it this way. If you can't, use a good canned broth. If the results don't appeal to you...get out the stock pot or the pressure cooker!

OK, I'll stop writing and put this masterpiece into The Recipe Box and hope I've entreated you to at least think about it. Come back later when the new loaf of bread is made and I assemble a second tasting of the soup with its proper adornments of a crouton and cheese. It is hard for me to believe it could be any more satisfying than the soup alone, but somehow I bet it will be perfection!

For fun, and a completely different version, check out Alton Brown's tips on onion soup. Watch until the end and listen to the news about lemon juice and cheese-who knew? Here he is in this YouTube clip:

Something Sweet but Bitter

Last night I found myself with a taste for something sweet. After thinking for a few minutes I knew exactly what I would bake--my grandmother's Butter Pecan Turtle Cookies. Even though it isn't her birthday, the time of year she died, or any other date that should especially bring up memories of her, the sweet tooth and the desire to satisfy it came together in a memory of her special bar cookies. They are buttery and chocolaty and the perfect antidote for a sweet craving.

I remember when my grandmother added these bar cookies to her repertoire. They were 'all the go'. If I close my eyes I can see her carefully, but quickly icing the bar cookie layer with the melting chocolate layer using a long metal spatula. She has on navy blue slacks, a blue gingham shirt, a red sweater vest and navy blue grasshopper Keds with a small red stripe. Her hair is still a salt and pepper mix, up swept, short, perfectly neat and fashionable. Her cheeks are rosy. She is making that characteristic little sound of bliss she used to make, sort of an inward/outward whistling sound while she works. It is a sound I find myself making on occasion when puttering around my own house. When the chocolate layer has cooled, she slides on the tin lid made especially for that 13 x 9 pan, and into the refrigerator the cookies go. Everyone who stopped by her kitchen received a small sample.

And so last night I spent some time in a memory with my grandmother baking her bar cookies. She of course smiles when I suggest we double up on the chocolate chips, then pause, and I suggest half chocolate chips and half cinnamon chips--something new I happened to have in my pantry. The final results are like a hot buttered rum, without the rum, and chocolate and cinnamon instead. A small square is a luscious treat. Though they might not rank high in a healthy desserts column, they are meant to be eaten in a small square and enjoyed one chew, satisfying at a time!

So, Granny, your Butter Pecan Turtle Cookies are going in The Recipe Box. I know those who try the recipe will remember you as they enjoy this treat.

We miss you.

The Pressure is ON!

You know you are in trouble when one of your loyal readers (OK, my mother) writes to admonish you that it is taking too long to get a recipe you've mentioned posted onto the site. So here goes!

You will remember that in advance of the holiday season we spent some time learning the difference between stock and broth, and the recipes for chicken broth and stock are in the Recipe Box. Never being satisfied to end the journey, recently I decided to make beef broth. After looking around at various recipes, I settled on something different-a version made in the pressure cooker. I started with a recipe provided by Alton Brown from The Food Network and made my own adaptations. The results were wonderful--a rich, beefy stock that wasn't greasy or burned tasting. The latter sometimes happens,I think, when cooking red meat based dishes and even broth for a long period of time.

I used the new Reynolds Handi-Vac to portion and freeze quart servings for later use. I have to give the people at the Alcoa company points on nearly all aspects of using their vacuum sealer. First, the plastic shell it is sold in is NOT sealed in such a way that one must use a knife, scissors or chain saw to open the shell. There is one place to flip in a corner of the shell and it is open. Next, the device comes pre-loaded with a battery so there is no last minute rummaging through a drawer for batteries to insert. The directions for use are clear and the suction produces a quick vacuum seal. The storage bags come in quart and gallon sizes. My only complaint is that the directions instruct the user not to fill the bag over the 'fill line' on the bag, but the line is not really clearly demarcated. You do get a general idea from the graphic in the directions. I figured it out with trial and error. If there is too much liquid in the bag, once you start the vacuum device, you begin to extract the liquid back up into the hand held vacuum device--not what you intend. The only other concern is that the directions don't really state that the plastic bags can be dropped in boiling water for thawing, so I will have to try it and test the outcome. The directions do say the bag is microwavable, but suggest they NOT be used for storing liquids (you mean like broth?). Live and learn, I guess. The Handi-Vac comes as a starter kit with a supply of quart bags, for less than $20.00 in grocery stores or Amazon. Extra supplies of bags range in prices of 17 cents to 32 cents a piece for the quart and gallon bags respectively. All in all I think its is a nice tool to have in the kitchen if you want to freeze something you've spent time and money in preparing and want to ensure it not be subject to freezer burn.

So on to the beef broth. I have a medium-sized pressure cooker which holds 6 quarts. I wouldn't try this in anything smaller. Alton calls for using a 3 pound combination of fresh beef shanks and oxtails. In all honesty, I just picked up a 3 pound package of fresh beef pieces with plenty of bone called 'soup bones'. Also, I sauteed my aromatics before adding the liquid as you will understand when reading the recipe. Alton only had the beef being browned before adding the aromatics, herbs and liquid. Once it was done, I removed the bones, aromatics and herbs, then poured the broth into a bowl. I added a little more salt to taste at this point, and this is an important step. I chilled it overnight in the refrigerator, gently lifted off the hardened fat layer, then portioned quart servings in freezer bags. Again, the results were very good, rich and hearty. I look forward to using the broth in another recipe on another day.

So check out the Recipe Box and if you have a pressure cooker, go ahead, be brave!

No Knead Bread: Everybody is in the Game

As promised, I went to Barne's and Noble and picked up a copy of the February issue of Cook's Illustrated. (You wait, 6 months from now I will come across the copy from my mailed subscription!) After reading their work and recipe on improvements to Jim Lahey's version, I now understand my cousin's comment, discussing the use of beer.

I 'get' this, and Cook's discussion, and unknowingly made similarly directed changes from my first attempt with no knead recipes. I have three comments that are my personal changes, and remind you that that recipes are only meant to be guidelines. From the start, I used buttermilk as part of the liquid in the Lahey and Hertzberg/Francois recipes. So I have always been achieving the yeasty,sour/tart flavor to my bread. I understand what Cook's is trying to achieve and say, beer & vinegar or buttermilk, the news is all good. I am going to try the beer/vinegar method however, just using the Hetrzberg/Francois method which somehow seems easier to me in terms of timing and the flexibility in refrigeration, extended length of the uncooked dough and the longer shelf life of the baked product.

A second change I made from the beginning was to add a little bit of sugar to the yeast mixture. One teaspoonful has always been my standard, and sometimes I have used honey rather than granulated sugar. Yeast likes to eat.

The final change I made come from reading Shirley Corriher's bread making technique. In the beginning, when the yeast and wets are mixed, rather than immediately adding the flour, etc... I let the wet yeast mixture sit on the counter for 15 minutes to an hour. Everything that is in the air that could cause the yeast to develop complexity floats in and is locked into the flavor of the final bread product. So if you have the time, let that wet sponge mixture 'hang out' for a bit before you add the flour.

This week, I tried another of the master dough recipes in the Hertzberg/Francois book (Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day), the European Peasant Bread. This recipe includes a portion of rye flour and whole wheat flour in the total flour amount. I must say the results are tres bien. The outer surface of the bread is crusty and yet the inside is nice and soft, with a great billowy crumb and very rich, nutty flavor. I might just try it again (when I use up my 4 loaf dough in the refrigerator) and play around with a bit of beer in the wet ingredients. The 4 loaf output from the Hertzberg/Francois method is another advantage for me. I can create 4 loaves from one dough recipe (6 cups of flour) and the unbaked dough lasts up to two weeks, and in my opinion just gets better over that time. Plus, additions of herbs, fruits or cheeses are possible to make individual creations with each loaf.

Like my cousin I am so delighted to find bread recipes that produce a truly rustic, homemade and yet predictable loaf without the fear of failing in the kneading department. Everyone becomes a home baker with relative authority!

If we are baking bread, we could surely use some soup, and many good soups start with good broth. Come back soon to hear about the pressure cooker recipe for making homemade beef broth. So many of us have pressure cookers gathering dust in the closet. If you don't have one, this recipe just might make the purchase of one worthwhile. Would it be worth it to you if you could have a supply of homemade broth on hand (freezer) and cut the preparation time from 3 hours to 1? I have made the beef broth version and was pleasantly surprised at the taste. It was much richer, beefier and smoother than the traditional stove top method and definitely better than any canned variety I have tried. Onion soup, anyone?

One final note, all this talk of fresh bread entreats me to encourage you to look for European and artisanal butters available in your grocery store. The combination of spectacular and varied butters with fresh bread is not to be missed.

OK, whether using Jim Lahey's original recipe, the Cook's Illustrated version or any of the mast recipes in the Hertzberg/Francois book, none of us has an excuse not to be baking fresh bread any day of the week. I have long ago made the investments in a kitchen scale (1 pound portions of dough make a perfect any day loaf size in the Hertzberg/Francois method), a pizza stone and wooden pizza peel, and a sharp knife or baker's blade (razor blade). A Dutch oven, as used in Lahey's and Cook's recipe, is also one of those items one should purchase because it has a multitude of uses far beyond bread.

Comfort yourself and those around you!

Buttermilk

Back from a Journey: Childhood, Cephalosporins and Chili-cheeseburgers

Good Readers, you may have wondered about the silence and lack of new postings. Well, just like a chapter out of my childhood, I have been battling strep throat these past days and have just made it to the favorable side of that course.

Having strep throat seemed like a normal part of my childhood, something that came with each Spring and Fall. I kept my pediatrician father busy with throat cultures and penicillin prescriptions and my mother busy doling out the requisite doses with a ginger ale chaser. I hate ginger ale still to this day. It tastes like penicillin to me; go figure!?

Strep in we older folk is a different ballgame. We aren't cut out for that high of a fever, body aches, busy schedule of hourly hot bathes to ward off the chills, changing sweaty pajamas with no one to do the laundry, Mom and Dad far away (who you don't tell until you are well) and waiting patiently in 'comfortable seating' at the pharmacy while you mentally contemplate the repercussions of 'going postal' (without a gun) to expedite your prescriptions. But the illness was not without its high points. 'How could that be?', you ask. Simple-- friends as surrogate family who offered soup, good wishes and help, GE who made a hot water heater that at age 13 could keep up with those hourly hot bathes, five loyal kitties that never left the bedside except to move tubside and never eeked a word when their food bowl ran dry, the Lucky Litter Scoop-Free cat box company (for obvious reasons) and one Wally's double chili-cheeseburger.

On my way back from the doctor's office and pharmacy, I made one last full court press effort and carefully eased my car across the street from Walgreen's to the drive-thru at Wally's Hamburgers and ordered up one of the aforementioned beauties. I came home, took my first dose of the 'new' treatment (cephalosporin), poured another 12 ounces of fluids and gratefully ate a quarter of that burger. The rest was to be saved, cherished and eaten over the next next 48 hours, a quarter at a time. I tried to and did eat other things, but they just didn't taste good or taste at all. That burger was home, memories and healing all rolled into one.

Monday brought a final break in the fever and then, as it always does, the sun rose on time, the birds sang and life began again.

Growing up in SC, we had wonderful chili-cheeseburgers with slaw from several mom and pop places. Rush's stands out as my favorite. Wally's is a great runner-up and they only lose out because they don't recognize cole slaw as an art form here in Austin. My mission continues as I educate local chefs one by one.

So, I am back and I appreciate your patience during my convalescence. Next up is to look into the recipe that is in the Jan/Feb issue of Cook's Illustrated that takes yet another look at no-knead breads. For some strange reason, my copy has never arrived, and I have heard from several people that they have suggestions for a recipe as well. Read the COMMENTS to my last post and you will read what our friend "E" writes about using this recipe.

I'm off to Barnes & Noble this weekend to buy a copy of Cook's, take a look and try their version out. In the meantime, if any of you who have tried it want to write out their recipe, I will post it.

Stay well; I will! If you can't be well, remember that your emergency plan should always include water, batteries, and comfort foods. Chili-cheeseburgers with slaw work well, under refrigeration, of course. You will need a cooler.

Buttermilk

Happy New Year! Let's Get Baking!!

I hope that you had a wonderful time ringing in the new year.

I spent most of the New Year's period experimenting with recipes in my recently arrived Artisan Bread in Five Minute a Day .

While one version of a master (Boule) dough was provided in the NY Times article, the book includes several master recipes, all with slight variation. I had some of the basic (Boule) dough in the refrigerator and was drawn to the recipe for Fougasse Stuffed with Roasted Red Pepper. So I started there. I'm quite pleased with the texture, taste of this first attempt at something beyond the plain round loaves I have been making. I had jarred, roasted red peppers on hand so could completely bypass the roasting process for fresh peppers.

So here's the result:













Next I moved on to a new batch of dough, using the Olive Oil master recipe. The next day, I made individual loaves, learning a little something with each loaf about handling the dough. I substituted red peppers for other ingredients in each loaf--one with a spreading of pesto, diced salami and grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Another I filled with cured olives and diced feta cheese, and one with homemade 'oven dried' tomatoes, fresh rosemary and caramelized onions. I am sorry I didn't take pictures of these loaves; I just got carried away with my baking! My colleagues who were recipients of these loaves today have all given glowing reports.

I learned a few things. First, it is important to weigh the piece of dough you pull off of the main dough. A one pound piece (as the authors suggest) is plenty big. If you don't have a kitchen scale, you should. I also learned to roll/spread out the dough using my fingertips rather than the rolling pin. It just went easier for me. An instead of making a rectangle as pictured in the book, I progressed to a football shape, so that the ends of the loaves were narrow, and the overall loaf a bit thicker. I used my baker's blade to make the slits in the dough, and my fingers to open the them a bit wider.

Having started my baking with a batch of Boule dough that was about 4 days old, then progressing on to the Olive Oil dough that was 24 hours old, I do think the dough gains something by being older rather than younger. I found I had to add a good bit of extra flour when shaping the younger Olive Oil dough; it was still very wet at 24 hours. It's also good to think ahead when shaping your dough about how you will transfer it without disrupting the shape of the loaf. A dough scraper is a wonderful helper. I cooked all of my loaves on the pizza stone, though the authors advise baking on a pan on top of the stone is just fine too.

Friends this is a wonderful guide for those of us who aren't expert in baking or the kneading process. The flexibility in utilizing master dough recipes is great fun, because you can make a new type of loaf every time you want to pinch off a pound of dough and create something. Honestly, mixing up any of the master dough recipes takes no longer than five minutes (as advertised) and then you need only to pull off a pound portion of the refrigerated dough to bake a plain, rustic or filled loaf any night. Simply shape and let rise for about 25 minutes while the oven preheats to 450 degrees. So, no excuses!

To authors Jeff and Zoe, cheers! You have done something wonderful for us aspiring, albeit unsteady novice bakers. I am also pleased that the book now seems to be ready for shipment from Barnes & Noble, after an initial delay. It has been worth the wait.

Thanks to Mom for this wonderful Christmas gift!

Check back soon, because over the New Year respite I also tried a pressure cooker recipe for homemade beef broth inspired by Alton Brown and the Reynold's Handi-Vac Vacuum Sealer system to portion quarts of the broth for freezing. I'll give my report on this exercise in the next blog entry.

And if you are wondering, I did get in my pork, peas (beans) and greens...but with an Italian twist. That's fodder for another day.

Now, go bake something!