Dried Beans: Does freshness matter?

garbanzo hydrated, originally uploaded by Seligman's Dog.

I've heard many anecdotes regarding dry beans, e.g., if they're too old, they'll cook up tough, chalky, wrinkly, etc....

Although the complexity of carbohydrates, proteins and residual moisture that comprise a legume is overwhelming on a molecular level, the macroscopic physical properties appear simple. A dried bean simply means it's a fresh bean that's been dehydrated to very low moisture levels (for preservation). It's tough for me to fathom anything can really happen to this system over time ("fresh" dried bean vs "old" dried bean). I read a lot of patent literature in food science (FreePatentsOnline.com) and haven't found any information (yet) regarding the implications on the resulting cooked bean if it's dried recently or long ago.

If you're not already asleep, I figured I'd take a break from hunting through the literature and try an experiment.

I had these OLD garbanzo beans in my cupboard. We love our beans in this house and I did not want to loose these. Buoyed by an NPR story on the dried bean, in which the take home lesson is simmer them slowly for a tender bean. Taking that message seriously, I dumped about a pound of dried ceci beans in a 3.5 L sauce pan, filled it with tap water, brought it to a boil and turned them down to the lowest barely sub-simmer heat for 8 hours (overnight). The water was salted. The next morning, after they cooled I tasted a few. Lovely. Perfect bit of resistance to the bite, not chalky, plump, yummy garbanzos.

I'll keep looking for data to support the claim that dried legumes vary in any way depending on how long ago they were dehydrated. I don't expect to find any. But, I'll keep looking (maybe submit this to Mythbusters or something).

The Best - So Far

RePost: Last night I used a type "00" Italian (very finely milled, from KingArthurFlour.com) flour in my baguette recipe and it wasn't as good. I will be trying it a few more times before returning to Montana Sapphire as well as using it for a couple pizzas, but the early results favor Montana Sapphire. The original post follows.

Faithful readers of the weber_cam know I am absolutely obsessed about flour. I buy a bag and immediately put it through a "use" test. A use test is a euphemism. It means you don't know enough about the specifications of the material to adequately know if it will work in your application - so you use it and see if it's ok. Too many cookbooks blindly preach more is better when it comes to protein content in flour. Ultimately, it depends on your application. Flour's complicated and there are many more significant specs (ash, ascorbic acid additive, bromate or not, etc., ) that are crucial to the final product. Also, it's good to find a flour that will be constant over time. That's why I prefer large manufacturer flours. Small mills have greater variability.

Montana Sapphire unbleached white flour is my current favorite. It's all-purpose with a protein content of 10% w/w and it performs extremely well in my use test. My test recipe is a straight dough baguette:
water, 200g
flour, 300 g
rapid rise yeast, 2.25 t
salt, 5 grams
butter (currently olive oil), 4 grams

3 rises, baked at 425 for 30 minutes. It's been a stellar performer. And, it's available at Giant-Eagle in 5, 10 and 25 lb bags.

Spiced Chickpeas

spiced chickpeas, originally uploaded by Seligman's Dog.

My sister (Frankie's Auntie Denise) sent me a recipe for spiced chickpeas, a healthy snackfood. I changed the recipe based on what was in my cupboard and tastes and let it rip. So, a drained 19 oz. can of chickpeas is added to a large bowl. To this is added 1/2 T olive oil, 1T garam masala (a mixture I made a long time ago), 1T ground cumin, 1t salt, and some paprika. I swirled all the ingredients and dumped it in a short rimmed baking pan. I baked these at 300 (convection, 350 conventional) for periods of 15 minutes, a total of 1 hour.

I think they got slightly over done. At 30 minutes, they were still too moist. I suspect 45 minutes would've been the trick. They're still tasty, but I'll try again for a shorter baking time.

Mmmm, snackfood for today. Thanks Denise!

Pizza Friday

Pizza Friday, originally uploaded by Seligman's Dog.

A food tradition seems to be developing in our house for Friday night pizzas. I think it's because by Friday, we're exhausted from the week and Pizza's the easiest thing we can get to the table.

Frankie's been pushing out dough since she was about 18 months and she would pound out the focaccia. Although a true Pizzaioli would never use a rolling pin, but Frankie prefers one for now. Eventually, I hope she'll lose this crutch and start pushing and tossing the dough to a nice round.

Soon, when I can track some down, we'll be investigating tipo 00 flour for this effort. Details to come.

Panettone

panettone, originally uploaded by Seligman's Dog.

A decadent time of the year for foodies. Pannetone are all around, even in Giant Eagle. A favorite thing for us to do is lightly toast it in cast iron for a morning treat before work.

baguettes

baguettes, originally uploaded by Seligman's Dog.

Some bread to bring to a splendid New Year's lunch. Soon, I'll be immersed in Italian tipo 00 flour. Carfagna's market has it. I'm hoping to score some before the weekend.

Keep you posted on comparative results of this flour compared to my regular Montana Sapphire.

{Some notes for myself on these loaves:
10 g olive oil/1000 g dough, post baking weight, 850 g (this run)
20 g olive oil/1000 g dough; post baking weight, 900 g;
5 g olive oil/1000 g dough; post baking weight 800 g}

Food Art

art plate, originally uploaded by Seligman's Dog.

The 12 days of xmas to us is the gap between xmas and new year's in which daycare is closed. It is a fun, yet challenging period of the year. Mom's taking the brunt of the childcare while I work. This afternoon's activity (among many) was paper plate painting.

Not especially environmentally friendly, but fun. And, I was desperate.

Today, a twist. I use a ton of grains, herbs and spices while cooking and this activity took place in the kitchen (near lots of running water and cleaning supplies). Combining the painting with the many ingredients at our disposal, we created this multi-textured piece of art.

First we applied glitter glue and then coated each section with a different material.
Hair: dried parsley. Eyebrows: steel cut oats. Eyes: blackeyed peas. Nose: arborio rice. Mouth: orange lentils. Pretty cool result.

This is a sheet of dough!

this is a sheet of dough!, originally uploaded by Seligman's Dog.

This is a sheet of thinly rolled out dough for ravioli. It started out last night looking like this. With this dough and about 20 sheets like it, Trish, Frankie and I made some of the BEST ravioli of our lives together. They were filled with spinach, ricotta and parmesan (and some nutmeg). I've never quite rolled the dough out so thin. It was quite tough too. I feared the dough might be too tough. Apparently, if it's thin enough, it just can't taste tough. Pretty good pasta experience.

For the ravioli, we used this device. Nice shape and they stay together during boiling.

xmas biscuits

xmas biscuits, originally uploaded by Seligman's Dog.

Finished product of Sunday morning biscuits. Compliments of Frankie.

Biscuits are an intriguing part of my repertoire. Everyone who bakes, makes biscuits. But, they are deceptively simple. Flour, baking powder, salt, some fat and milk, more or less.

These particular biscuits started out like most others I do. I usually make a slack batter and from that drop biscuits. Today, because we wanted to do something a bit more fun, I wanted to make a slightly drier dough, knead it a tad and cut out the biscuits.

So, I took 2 cups of self rise flour (flour, leavening and salt together), cut in about 4T butter and poured in about 3/4 C milk while a cast iron skillet warmed up in a 450-deg-F oven. I fold in the milk until a shaggy mass formed. I flopped the mass onto the counter top and began folding it in half, not quite kneading.

Then, Frankie pushed it out into a squat 6-8" disc. From that, she cut out her shapes. Christmas trees and a gingerbread boy. I separated the dough shapes and placed them in the blazing hot skillet (NOT greased) and baked it for about 15 minutes.

Mrs. DavesBeer told me cutting them with a sharp cutter, like a cookie cutter makes for a good oven spring. She was right. These were high and the texture was flaky and layered. They were amazing. I think these will be our preferred biscuit instead of the drop version.

'twas the night before the night before the night before xmas

Tomorrow's the day before the night before xmas and we're gearing up for xmas eve dinner: ravioli, smelts, veggies and salad. So tomorrow, Trisha, Frankie and I hit the kitchen for ravioli making. Tonight, I was in the zone making dough.

Traditionally, pasta dough is a cup of flour, an egg, a pinch of salt and a ca. t of olive oil. Eggs, however, have changed in size in the past decade or so. I had to use about 9 eggs to 6 cups of flour.

I piled all the flour (6 C unbleached white and 3t salt, mixed) on the counter and made a well in the middle. I then added a few eggs, some olive oil and began incorporating as much flour as the moisture of the eggs would accept. Then I folded the resulting dough a few times and put it to the side. I kept reiterated this procedure until all the flour was used up. The dough was then cut into 6 or so chunks, kneaded and wrapped in plastic until tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Trish will make a spinach and ricotta mixture, we'll all roll some dough out, make the ravs and put them in the freezer until xmas eve. Yum!

I'm enjoying making fresh pasta these days more than ever. I made several pounds of pasta dough tonight in about 30 minutes. I'm going to continue making pasta and eventually get into some nice grainy versions.

Final dough rolled out here.

My dough tip? I use a (dedicated equipment) 8" putty knife to help me fold and knead dough. Beats a pastry blade. Bigger, easier to handle and lots cheaper.

Kneadless baguette with a trace of olive oil

Kneadless process, olive oil, 2% w/w (20 g/kg dough).

Couple big changes to the baguette thing lately making the bread approximately the same crustiness, equivalent flavor and much less difficult. My time-tested baguette process is being rapidly replaced.

My aspiration is to make a quick video of it. But, for now, words.
The recipe for two one pounders:

1. Add to mixing bowl in this order:
water (room temp), 1 2/3 C (400 mL)
rapid rise packet of yeast
olive oil, 1T (ca. 15 grams)
salt, 2 t (10 grams)
swirl bowl
unbleached white flour, 4 1/4 C, not packed, loose, level

2. Mix with wooden spoon until it balls up.
3. Cover bowl containing shaggy mess with towel (don't let it touch sticky dough) and let rise for about 1-1.5 hours. If you use warm water, the mass will puff up rapidly.
4. Preheat the oven to 450-deg-F.
5. Flour the puffy mass generously with flour.
6. Punch down and gather the dough ball, divide in two pieces and "round it" as previously described.
7. Let rest in a ball for 10 minutes (no need to cover for this short a period).
8. Form into a baguette shape, again, as described in the original procedure.
9. Allow the baguettes to proof on the counter top dusted with flour and covered with a dish towel. No problem if the towel touches the surface, let proof for about 12-15 minutes.
10. Take the risen loaf and gently put it on the baguette pan. I use an 8" spackle knife in the kitchen and use this to gently lift the loaf with another spatula so I don't deflate it en route.
11. Dust top of loaves with flour again and slash vents in the top. Use a razor sharp knife (serrated or smooth) and cut FAST so you don't tear the loaf (this takes practice and is critical).
12. Place the pan in the lower third of the oven and close the door.
13. Open the door and toss a ca. 1/2 C of water on the floor of the oven to create a lasting plume of steam.
14. Cook until loaves are amber colored. Color is a perfect endpoint. Approximately 20 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes or so and cut in.
Enjoy.

biscotti

Miles of cantuccini. Not sure if a couple hundred are enough.

Baguette

Every few months I take my starter out of the fridge, scrape off the mold, refresh it a few times and start a sourdough loaf. I usually never make a soudough baguette because of the logistical problem of how to do the final proof.

The final proof of a sourdough loaf needs a lot of time (usually retarded in a fridge overnight). If I use the baguette pan for the final proof, the dough embeds itself into the perforations and won't release when it cooks.

This time I let the final proof go in the fridge on top of a piece of parchment on a sheet pan, loosely covered with plastic for 24 hours. Then, without warming to ambient temp., I floured the loaf and flipped it into my baguette pan and cooked it @ 425-deg-F (convection) with a steam shot. Awesome.

The recipe I used was starter (thick, 150 grams), water (150 grams), flour (unbleached and some fresh milled from wheat berries (using a coffee mill, ca 75 grams wheat berries, 150 grams regular unbleached white). I let it rise for 2 days in the fridge. Punched down/20 minute rest. Final proof as mentioned above.

Can't wait to cut in!

Merguez, Chickpeas and Swiss Chard

A while back, I found my best food find in Columbus. Mediterranean Food Imports carries merguez, a spicy (but, not too hot) Tunisian sausage. It's deep red and when sauteed, it renders some deep red colored fat. It tastes wonderful.

I started with about 1/3 to 1/2 pound of merguez sliced thin and sauteed in a high sided 6 qt pan. Once the sausage was cooked (about 7 minutes on medium), cleaned swiss chard leaves (a bunch, sliced in ribbons), a drained 15 oz can of chickpeas, a pinch of salt and ca. 1/4 C of water was added. The pan was covered and allowed to simmer on low for 10 minutes. In the meantime the couscous was prepared. After 10 minutes on low, the chard was cooked perfectly, wilted but not soggy. The mixture was served on top of a pile of couscous. It was absolute heaven!

Why no picture? None left. A welcome part of our dinner repertoire from now on.