Radicchio

Frankie's mobility coupled with her attention span (that of a gnat) place certain limitations on our food preparation. This dish satisfies our love of greens, adds a vegetable side to our much needed repertoire of veggies and can be prepared faster than Frankie can climb a couple stairs. I found it in the paper the other day and altered it a bit. I was surprised at radicchio's rich flavor when it was sauteed and the texture was pleasant, not too soft.

Sauteed Radicchio - serves 2
red onion, small one, finely shredded
1 head radicchio, coarsely shredded
olive oil, 2 T
balsamic vinegar, 2 T
sugar, 2 t
cran raisins, 1/4 C
walnuts, 1/4 C
salt, pepper

Saute onion in olive oil till translucent in wide frying pan. Add everything else and lower heat, stirring occasionally as all the radicchio wilts (steam comes from the rinsed radicchio and the balsamic vinegar). I heated the entire mixture about 15 minutes on low heat toggling between stirring and chasing Frankie. I served it with a couple fried pork chops and couscous. About 25 minutes total prep. Take that Rachel Ray.

Inspired

The Weber_cam's been slow lately. Jobs, daycare, commuting, utilitarian meals - not been easy and not much extra time for fun cooking. Last night though, I watched Alton Brown do one of the most skillful preparations I have ever seen and just wanted to have a link here for it so I'll have the details when I get around to it. And I will. It's a galette. A free form fruit tart. The fat incorporated into the flour was a combination of room temperature butter and very cold butter (one for tenderness and one for flakiness). And the way he incorporated water, a small bit at a time followed by the bread-making equivalent of an autolyse, a rest in the fridge in which hydration of the flour would take place to minimize the water needed. It was masterful. The filling was decadent too, pears and blueberries, cooked a bit with some sweetener, allowed to cool and baked in this tart. Alton is a god.

Focaccia

I usually make my focaccia according to Dan Leader's recipe. It's a straight dough that sits in the fridge for about a day. It's alright, but I could be swayed to another prep. I've been recently hooked on this new site The Artisan. They have a fantastic treatment of yeast (fresh, dry, instant dry); how it's manufactured and how active dry differs from instant active. I've recently used instant active in my baguettes and have had no regrets (honest, someday that'll be posted here).

I tried their Focaccia recipe the other night (the one using the starter, half way down the page. I loved it. Trish did too. Because the week was hectic, it was unfortunately finished after dinner, but it still made for a nice after dinner nosh. It was even great the next day. I think I should've cooked it a tad longer but I was pretty thrilled with it. It was nice and thick too, a personal preference of mine. Give it a shot, really easy. I did use a bread machine for the initial knead (I used a 10 minute machine knead) and topped mine with fresh rosemary sprigs and very coarse crystalline sea salt. Yum.

Peeps

When Frankie turned 1 year old, Julian's Mom came over to sadly tell us he was sick and couldn't come to her cupcake party. She did not come empty handed. She brought us a lovely card and Peeps. Many of them. Trish and I vary in opinion on many things. But we both know the proper way to eat Peeps is stale. The cellophane wrapper was carefully sliced and now, almost two weeks later, they are waiting to be harvested. But no rush, they have an 18 month shelf life.

NPR has the best coverage of Peeps I've seen. A video clip of them being manufactured, links, etc. I'm even going to try their recommendation of warming one up in the microwave. Did you know the eyes are made of wax and applied with a pneumatic device?

Thanks Elizabeth!

The North End

This past weekend the family and I trekked to Boston to Frankie's Nona and Grandpa's house to attempt to fatten up the little tyke. Whenever we go to Boston, we undoubtedly take a walk through the North End of Boston, weaving in and out of the streets off Hanover and usually make a quick stop at Modern Pastry for Torrone. I once got an urge to make this, but when I have theirs, I savor it so much, I'd rather not ruin the experience by making it too common. Then we stroll around the corner to J. Pace & Sons market; a collection of food finds in the North End. Unfortunately, it was Good Friday and closed. We finished our walk with a leisurely stroll through Faneuil Hall, just in case we didn't nibble enough, and finally back on the T. We never get tired of that area of Boston and I think Frankie likes it too.

Seder

Last night, Trish, Frankie and I participated in our first Seder. We were fortunate enough to be invited to a Friend's for the ceremonial feast. Seder is the food ritual performed on the first two nights of Pesach (Passover). A great explanation of the ritual is described here. I kind of wish I had time to have read it before the meal. At least I'll be ready for next year. Although lengthy food rituals aren't quite suited for the three little ones under the age of 2 at the table, we had a great time. Thanks Sharon and Dan.

Dave's Wine? [Lot No. 1024]

Having a visitor for the weekend was great. I could escape (for a bit) to the basement to engage in some hobbying. I've heard a lot of good things about wine kits* and decided to give it a shot. This kit is a Chianti and makes about 30 bottles. I mixed it up yesterday, added "oak", aerated it with my turbo mixer, did a final dilution and just let it ferment. It's going as we speak. It should be done in about 4-6 weeks. I figured I'd tell folks when it was going to be finished in case anyone wanted to "make plans to go away for the weekend". This entry will plot it's progress. I'll keep reposting it when something new happens.

03/14/04: Mixed kit, sp. gr. 1.085.
03/15/04: Sp. gr. 1.085, "krausen" apparent, getting ready for the big exothermic kick.
03/16/04: Sp. gr. 1.080, massive CO2 rush in the headspace.
03/17/04: Sp. gr. 1.074
04/04/04: Sp. gr. 0.994 (!), It's working well. Slow because it's cold in the basement. Racked it for the first time today. I'll be degassing it over the next few days-2 wks. Residual CO2 is leaving the solution of the fermented juice. I racked it to a glass carboy fitted with a rubber stopper and airlock and about 1/2" headspace. Next step is addn of isinglass, let settle overnight, bottle, wait a bit and have party. Stay tuned.

*If Mario and Amy (who have excellent taste in wine) are reading, don't worry, I'll only ask you to taste this stuff once.

Just Two Boules for Frankie

No big entry. Just a repeat of my recent poolish entry. Made these for Frankie's little party the other day. One is a white (left) and the other a walnut/rye/wheat. They were pretty good.

Yogurt for the Kid

The San Francisco Chronicle had an article in their food section recently on the comeback of whole milk yogurt (no registration required!). I never knew such stuff existed until Francesca Rose decided whole milk yogurt was the only food she would eat. It's unbelievable stuff; the kid has good taste. But it's a tad pricey. Included in the article is a preparation. Much cheaper too. I have my first batch on. I took a quart of whole milk, heated it to 190F, cooled it to 110F, innoculated it with 1/4 C of yogurt (forget the brand) and also added a couple tablespoons of dry milk. It's supposed to give the final yogurt good thickness. I immersed the innoculated milk in a water bath (100-110F) and let it sit overnight. We'll probably flavor it a bit with maple syrup and vanilla. Keep you posted on the results.

Recuperation - My Poolish Never Fails

Sunday, I demonstrated the baking skill of a lemur. My wild starter was used prematurely which (maybe) resulted in a miserable failure of a boule. I then threw together a straight dough American style wheat for the week for sandwiches. Would've been great if I took it out of the oven before it fossilized. I've contacted the Smithsonian, they may want to shellac it and use it in their Julia Child installation. Still waiting for the call. Sunday night, I had the nerve to start a poolish starter; the way Dan Leader does. I then propagated it for a couple days and got an awesome starter with only 1/8 teaspoon of dry yeast. I know it's cheating and it's not Mother Earth and all that, go to hell, it's my blog.

So, last night, I took some of my poolish (300 grams), tossed it in the bread machine and added water (300 g), unbleached white flour (450 g), salt (12 g, kosher, lent you know - and hey go confess) and another 1/8 teaspoon of dry yeast. The machine kneaded for 30 minutes and let rise for an hour to give a nice sloppy dough (slack). I plopped it out of the machine, degassed (the dough silly) and let it rest for 15 minutes. I then took my cloth lined basket (pic 1 of 4) and dusted it liberally with flour, rounded the dough blob into a boule and plopped it in the basket and covered it with a moistened muslin towel and let it rise for an hour while the oven preheated (450F). I turned the dough out onto the peel (pic 2) and slashed it. I then slid it into the clay tile-lined oven, gave it a steam shot (60 mLs from a squirt bottle) and closed the door and let it bake about 50 minutes. Didn't turn it once. America's Next Top Model was on, couldn't be bothered. Took it out probably a tad early. I like my breads dark on the exterior but it still had a pretty good crust, even this morning.

Yeah, I know the yeast thing is sad crutch but I really like the results. I'll keep cultivating the wild yeast thing to see if I can bring it to same level of behavior as the poolish. If you get Leader's Book and want to try it, I have some serious modifications that I think make his methods better. Contact me if you're interested.

A Miserable Failure

03/20/04 Sat Morning
1. starter, 150 g; water 225 g; unbleached white flour, 400g; mixed and let rest 20 minutes (autolyse).
2. added salt, 10 g and machine (KitchenAid) kneaded for 10 minutes.
3. let ferment 3 hours @ ca. 70F.
4. pre-shape, 15 minutes (deflate)
5. shape into boule, let rest one hour covered in muslin-lined basket.
6. into fridge 10 hours
7. removed from fridge, removed wrapping and covered with moist muslin towel, ca. 65F, 8 hours
8.dumped loaf onto peel, slashed
9. popped into 500F preheated (1 hour) oven, changed thermostat to450F and baked 45 min.

Results
Let's just say there's no pic here because the memory of this horrid experience will last a long time without the aid of a digital image. It took every bit of integrity I had to not scrap the entire entry.

The loaf had an awesome crust, it was about 661 g post-cooking weight and about 8" in diameter. But the taste was horrible. I think the last rise was too long. However, it was dead way before the last rise. The dough wasn't slack enough and the kneading was too short. I really like the way my bread machine kneads. I know this sounds like a cop out but I've had the best loaves when the machine kneaded it for a long time. Oh well. I'll continue to use my starter in the same way I was using a poolish.

Warning: Wicked Boring Entry: Starter [Lot No. 1025]

What's with this lot no., what am I, a quality control freak?
This blog is more than just exhibitionist cooking. Given how cheap hosting and disk space are these days, I've decided to keep my little cooking notes here. To bore you all. Blog entries satisfy my scientific habits of documentation. I can pull the entry back whenever I want and continue adding data.

The lot numbers? The only problem with a spot on the blog archives is it gets labeled with this ridiculously long url. I noticed the other day, I can create a symbolic link to a blog entry to look it up fast. For instance, davesbeer.com/1024 is the link for the fermenting batch of wine (currently gurgling away in my basement). So, when I give a bottle away, I plan to label the bottle with a lot number (the url). This way, when the recipient ends up in the emergency room, the doc can quickly go to his laptop, plug in the easy-to-remember url and find the details of the poison in his patient - directly from my site! Cool huh?

Today's entry is another fermentation project. Inspired by Deb's amazing artisan loaves a la Silverton's La Brea book, I'm going to begin a starter. And, since I have a lifelong problem with authority, I've decided to create the starter the way I believe it should be done. Here's the beginning of my effort. I'll pull this out again as I update it. This entry will have a link corresponding to davesbeer.com/1025.

03/15/04: Unbleached white flour, 400 g; Rye/Wheat (1:1, w/w), 100g; water, 250 g; 9 red globe grapes (I ate the 10th), mushed in the mixture. It was left to sit at room temperature (rt).
03/17/04: The mush was a seething, smelly, disgusting slop that was full of tiny gaseous pores. Excellent. Something was happening. I removed the grapes (and seeds) and discarded most of the mixture. I then added about 100 g unbleached white flour to the remaining batter and mixed it with a spoon to a slightly more stiff batter and let it sit overnight. It looked to be quite active by the morning. Tonight I'll dump out most of it and start a daily regimen of feeding with 100 g flour and 100 g water.
03/18/04: A smelly seething porridge indeed. It's very active. I discarded all but ca. 50 g and mixed in 120 g unbleached white flour (ubw) and 120 grams water. The next morning it had fermented nicely. Volume increase and very porous. I'll be repeating the procedure of discarding all but 50-100 grams and charging approximately 100 g flour and water nightly until my first use. I'll probably maintain it by feeding it every other night. I don't like refrigeration of starters. Too much time to do temp adjustments. I'm considering doing the first loaf on Sunday.

Naan?

I tried Alberto's recipe for Naan the other day. I measured stuff a bit more specifically (so I'd be in a better position to make changes if need be, no offense Alberto). The specifics:

Ingredients
water, 100 g
plain (lowfat) yogurt, 100 g
active dry yeast, 1 t
butter, 1 T (didn't have ghee)
unbleached white flour, 300 g
salt, 5 g

Prep
-preheated oven to 500F with clay tiles in lower third of oven.
-straight dough method, 30 minute knead
-1st rise, 60 minutes
-2nd rise, 60 minutes
-divided into 4 portions and pressed out into ca. 8" disc
-covered the dough discs with a moist muslin towel and let rest 20 minutes
-docked each piece (poked it with my fingers) and put sesame seeds on 2 of 4 them
-baked about 5 minutes each.

Results
They came out pretty rigid, not like floppy Naan should be. I don't blame anything in Alberto's recipe for this. I suspect it could be one of two things. The flour I used may have been too strong (high in protein) OR the dough may have been not "slack" (wet) enough resulting in a pizza shell-like result. They tasted awesome though, just not like Naan. It was a tasty accompaniment (sp?) to an Indian dish of seasoned chickpeas/tomatoes and chicken. Yum.

Lentil Soup

The other night we were too busy to cook (childcare, etc.) and went to a favorite take out place for dinner, Cedar's Bakery, a Turkish place. They have interesting delicacies to take-away: a killer vegetable omelet, kibbe, these middle eastern-type calzones and a small selection of groceries. I happened to see these delicate little orange lentils and bought a 5 pound bag of them. Tonight I made a pretty nice soup of them. At the last minute (at the suggestion of my love) I put in a mixture of greens (turnip, collard, kale, etc.) and the soup turned out to be good and healthy. Since the Frankster has started eating what we eat, we've been trying to incorporate more veggies in our meals. This soup was healthy and balanced. We had it with crusty bread.

Lentil Soup with Extra Veggies
bacon fat (alright, so it's not vegetarian, lay off, gotta get the flavor somewhere), 2 T
olive oil, 1 T
red onion, 1 finely diced
carrots, 2 finely diced
garlic, 1 clove, sliced thin
lentils, little orange ones, 1 C
water, 3 C
mixed finely chopped greens (anything), ca. 1 C packed
salt, pepper, rosemary

Pretty simple prep. Saute veggies in bacon fat and a little olive oil until softened, add lentils and quickly saute them. Add water, spices and barely simmer for about an hour. About 15 minutes before serving, add greens and continue simmering. Serve up with crusty bread. We have crusty bread with everything. Atkins, go to hell. Oops - he's already there.