Some of Bernalillo’s best tomatoes.
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Archives for posts with tag: food
Reuben
Pulled-pork bar-b-que
Ham on baguette
The crust is starting to get there. I added about half a cup of Red Mills Gluten Flour to the recipe. I had been trying that in bagels, and I think it makes the crust chewier.
Even when an experiment ends with an imperfect loaf of bread, it is still rewarding. It almost always tastes wonderful.
I miss working on “real world” projects; my days are spent writing, talking, thinking, answering the phone, and generally putting out fires involving email. Lots of email. Baking is a chance to break out of the routine, enjoy the process, and simply do something different.
Over the last few years I have been making bread using a slow-rise method I read about in the March/April 1994 issue of Eating Well magazine. The ingredients are simple enough – water, flour, salt, a little yeast, a little sugar. The result is a large loaf of French bread that tastes good, keeps well, is easy to make.
I have learned a few things about getting the most out of the recipe, in terms of texture and flavor.
- Don’t let the dough rise quickly. You really do want 10-12 hours of fermentation.
- Don’t under bake the loaf. Frankly, I have never baked the loaf so long that I wished I had removed it from the oven sooner.
- Remember the salt.
- Feel free to form it into whatever shape you like.
Since we live close to the public library, it is easy for me to pop in and find a movie or two, some cds, and a few books several times each week. Tonight, on the way home, I made my third visit in 4 days.
One of the books I brought home tonight is a coffee table book for foodies – BOUCHON by Thomas Keller. It is unlikely that I will ever get around to trying any of the recipes, but if I can stand to hold open the 7 or 8 pounds of book, I am sure I will learn a thing or two that will help my next quiche or pommes frites.
I may very well return the book after a day or two of mooning over the gorgeous images. The zinc bar with an ornate facia, the red raspberries. Then I will move on to the remaining stack – Laikoff’s book about Freedom, the graphic novel about an Israeli cab driver, Fred Tuner’s book about Stewart Brand. I am pretty free about picking and bringing home all kinds of books. Some of them I even finish reading. Most, however, I do not finish. Some I don’t even start.