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Hey good lookin', what's cookin'?
February 18, 2015 - 4:40pm
Don't mind the thread title; the homely are encouraged to participate too.
Anyone else ever try this cool recipe?
No-knead bread
I've made it a number of times, though not recently, and right now I've got a loaf in the oven -- we'll see how it turns out.
The recipe is true to the name, though. There's absolutely no kneading required. Just mix the ingredients until combined, leave it overnight, punch it down once, then bake in a lidded dutch oven or casserole dish at very high heat. Great, gnarly crust, chewy tender crumb with plenty of texture, and really rustic taste.
Quick warning, though: escaping steam and such will probably make a bit of a mess of the exterior of your dutch oven. If you have a fancy "Le Creuset" dutch oven or some similar, be warned that it could get uglied up a bit. And I'm also told that when this recipe was first published, a lot of Le Creuset owners discovered that the polycarbonate handle on their lid just wasn't up to the high heat, and melted. Good news for vendors of aftermarket replacements, I guess.
My dutch oven is an inexpensive one from Ikea. Not glazed on the interior, and the lid handle is just part of the lid itself.
When the bread's done, on to some bacon and lentil soup.
What's on your menu today?
ed'd to add: OK, here's that bread:
Mmm, that looks very nice. My stove died, and I just have a countertop convection oven, so not much room for a dutch oven...
Do you still have a burner? If so, try this:
Perfect Naan bread
I recently made it with all-purpose flour and no nigella seeds and it was glorious.
Didn't think to take photos though. :(
Yes, I have a kind of two-burner stovetop from France that runs on 220 and is heavy enamel on steel, like a stove, not a hotplate. I didn't buy a whole new range because I can't afford to buy a new one, and want to get at least one induction burner. Instead of my stove, I now have a steel kitchen cart (think it is from IKEA) with a work surface and shelves for my pots and pans (which also include an electric wok - useless as a wok, but great for braises).I'll be using the electric "wok" tomorrow to make a sort-of-Moroccan chicken stew.
I do have nigella seeds; lots of Maghrebi food businesses around here that sell them. I love those in bread, but I also love caraway.
My stew consists of organic chicken legs (PA Nature has organic, local and other good food at much better prices than the organic chains) and some very strong concentrated stock, and I have a celeriac, a little white turnip, two Chinese eggplant (the long, skinny ones with pale violet skin), a mild Spanish onion and some other things I forget. I want a small squash and will pick it up at Jean-Talon Market, from a guy who sells mostly eggs. And ginger, which I'll pick up at Marché Oriental (a Sino-Vietnamese small supermarket). I ground some cumin and some caraway in my spice grinder (a coffee grinder: I have two, both picked up at garage sales, one for coffee, one for spices). Have some cardamom as well. Don't want to make anything strong or too spicy; I get sick of particular strong spicing after a few meals. Of course I have garlic; goes without saying. Ideas?
I used to make my own bread from scratch, but with plenty of kneading. For holidays I'd make cinnamon raisin bread, leave a few slices out to dry, and use it in a stuffing. Nowadays, for three bucks or so I can get better than anything I used to make at a local bakery. I am craving homemade split pea soup these days. I like to do it NL style with diced salt beef instead of the ham that some other pea soup making regions use.
Obviously, where I live has very good bread too, not only the French and Italian kinds but also breads from the Arab world, and I'm not a long walk from sources of Eastern European Jewish breads. Other than Cheskie, there is now Hof Kelsten, as well as they typical light rye, they make an excellent challah and a very heavy dark pure rye pumpernickel. The latter two have to be reserved. http://hofkelsten.com/
I love making foccacia - there are so many varieties and it's incredibly easy to make. I make "sun-dried" tomatoes in my oven and add them to the dough, with parmesan or romano, and top the loaf with olive oil and rosemary. Jalapeno cheddar is another great combination.
I made fried chicken last weekend that was sooooooo good! Brined overnight in buttermilk, salt, oregano and thyme, drained and then dredged in flour, pepper and paprika and deep fried in my wok, temperature monitored with a candy thermometer. Garlic mashed spuds on the side, a little green salad. Heaven.
Pfft. That no-knead recipe is for yokels. For a more sophisticated beauty, try this: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016277-tartines-country-bread
Yes, woks are great for deep-frying. They use much less oil and there is far less risk of them boiling over. If I deep-fry it is usualy just some smelts or some imperial rolls.
Stew packed away in glaslock containers, cooling out on the back balcony. I'll bring the containers in before I head out for an errand, as I don't want the stew to freeze. Need some ginger and fresh coriander (no coriander-haters around right now).
I keep forgetting to look at Brain Pickings, a fascinating site, but then I read too much online anyway...
Everyone raves about my banana bread.
Banana Bread:
1 1/4 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mashed over ripe bananas (about 2 large bananas or 3 small)
1/4 cup (60 ml) canola or corn oil
2 eggs (or one egg and one egg white)
1/4 cup (120 ml) yogurt (can use low fat)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (175 grams) granulated sugar (equivalent of 30 teaspoons)
(Preheat oven to 350F)
In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder, set aside.
In a larger mixing bowl, blend sugar, egg, yogurt, oil and vanilla.
Blend in bananas.
Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for one hour or until a tester inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.
Tips:
The bananas should be brown and soft, not fresh. As the banana becomes over-ripe it becomes sweeter and softer. Don't over mash. It's good if it's a bit chunky. Freeze bananas that are going brown instead of throwing them out.
Banana bread recipes are easily altered.
I just made a GF carrot cake and threw in a bit of ginger because of this, and because YOLO.
Clean the FRIDGES soup. Fridges in the plural, as friend has taken off to Cuba for two months (she's retired) and left me some odds and ends, including leftover broccoli, an onion (and some choicer things such as cheeses, but they aren't in the soup). Last night I made a stock with bones and soup (sacrificial) vegetables; very early this morning I cooked the broccoli, added a large soft carrot from the soup that was still flavourful, some frozen green beans that had seen better days - I'd already added some to soup before, so I knew they didn't have any nasty freezer-burn taste once finely chopped, sautéed, stewed in some of the stock and the end of a bag of frozen edamame - not the pods, the seeds inside. I've put the containers away, but I'll add some fresh ginger and either celery or fresh coriander before serving, also to intensify the green.
I like to throw some shredded spinach in soup, too. Good and good for you!
Curried goat, Tobago-style, is on the menu tonight. With plantain on the side. The goat will simmer in the crock pot all day and the house will smell wonderful when I get home!
Yes, that really takes some kind of slow cooker. I first learned how to make that dish from someone from tiny Grenada. That tiny nation, once invaded by the US in a show of force, is smaller than the island of Montreal. We were organising a fundraising supper after Hurricane Ivan; I painted a poster, which we sold.
One of my recent food epiphanies -- something I'd seen mention of here or there but hadn't yet tried -- is adding some of the outer rind from a piece of Parmagiana to stock, particularly if the stock will be used for something like leek and potato soup. Just a piece about the size of one or two postage stamps is all it takes to really amp up the umami.
I imagine that any hard rind cheese could similarly work. And while I quietly giggle at people who don't eat the bloom on their brie (and typically offer to eat it for them) I doubt many people savor the rind on a hard cheese -- it's a bit like trying to eat a guitar pick.
I used to joke that once I'd eaten enough goat I would reassemble the saved bones into a goat skeleton, archaeologist-style.
Or just a dutch oven, low heat and about three hours.
I should have worded that better: I didn't necessarily mean slow-cooker as in crockpot.
I've most certainly done the hard-cheese rind in stock. PA (local Greek supermarket) often sell a bunch of parmesan rind pieces for a dollar. Umami tablets. Oddly, I've never seen those on sale at my even closer Italian supermarket, Milano. Guess they keep them for themselves. Three hours wouldn't have been enough for some of the goat meat I've bought. But it always came out good at the end.
Goat meat is among those most consumed in the world.
[dramatic whisper] Don't let Old Goat catch you saying things like that [/dramatic whisper]
Beware, old goat, beware! Nah, I like old goat and promise not to stew him. ;)
lagatta - that is the beauty of the crock pot - you can toss the ingredients in and it simmers away all day, making the meat tender as can be. I love it for pot roasts, too. Even the toughest cuts come out nice and moist.
My one-dollar crockpot, bought at a community yard sale well over 10 years ago, is definitely the best bargain ever (I know that is courting disaster, but even if it dies tomorrow, it still would be). It is the oldest model that has a soakable inner ceramic layer.
Of course it doesn't work for all kinds of braises, and there are dishes I cook overnight in the crockpot, then transfer to another where the liquid is reduced.
I have the very first model (also, I think, from a yard sale) -- it doesn't even have a removable crock. Also, my cat knocked the lid off the kitchen table for lulz and broke it, so I have to use a glass bowl as a makeshift lid.
But I'm told the older models have a much lower "low" setting, and I appreciate that about mine. I often slow cook things like brisket or rillons for 16 hours or more.
I have one with a removable ceramic crock, and was lucky enough to get one with a glass lid. The last one I had came with a plastic lid and it sucked. I like being able to pull out the crock and put it in the oven to brown the top of the dumplings when I do stew with dumplings.
oldgoats are tough and leathery tasting. Even after a day in a crockpot. There's a few annoying kids in my family you're welcome to. Also, if there's any kind of a smart chip in the kitchen near your crockpot I can hack it and delete your account from there.
Last night I made pasta with eggplant, yellow bell pepper, tomato, green olives and capers. Shredded parmesan for the top. Mmmmmm.
No goats were harmed in yesterday's dinner!
Some might have had sore udders from mine. Hope not.
I wish I ate so well.