Crusty Boule

Get ready. The recipe in this week's (ok... month's) blog entry will change your life. It has changed mine.

Matt and I love bread. When I say love I mean we truly LOVE it- we buy fresh, artisan bread multiple times a week and eat entire baguettes for dinner... 

Ok. The truth is out.

The problem is that making bread is such a huge undertaking and bread machine bread usually isn't the same (I'm not saying I don't like it! No! I love bread machine in it's own way!). But, in last month's issue of the Cooking Club magazine there was a recipe for extremely simple bread and I have been making it for weeks now. I think it is time to share the recipe. You're going to be amazed.

Crusty Boule (makes 4 boules)

3 1/2 C. lukewarm water
4 tsp. active dry yeast
4 tsp. coarse salt
7 1/4 C. all purpose flour

1. Combine water, yeast and salt in large bowl. Stir in flour with spoon or mixer with paddle attachment.
2. Loosely cover and let rise at room temperature for 2 hours.
3. Refrigerate over night (and up to 14 days). Dough will have more of a "sourdough" taste the longer it refrigerates. 
4. Seperate dough into 4 grapefruit sized sections.
5. Dust top of dough with flour. Quickly shape into ball by stretching dough from top of ball around to bottom, turning the ball a quarter turn as you go.
6. Sprinkle counter with cornmeal. Place dough onto cornmeal. Cover ball with lightly floured plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.
7. Thirty minutes into rising place baking stone on center rack in oven and broiler pan on bottom rack. Preheat over to 450 degrees.
8. Dust loaf with flour and make 2-3 1/4 inch slashes into top of loaf. Slide loaf onto baking stone and pour 1 C. hot water into broiler pan. Quickly shut oven door to trap steam.
9. Cook for 25-30 minutes. Until loaf is a deep golden brown. Cool completely on wire rack.

The magazine I found this recipe in also includes some other bread recipes you can use the dough to make, which I am excited to try out- so look forward to the Nutella ring in a later post!

Roasted Potatos, Carrots, and Parsnips

Thanksgiving is fast approaching so here is a Thanksgiving-esque recipe I tried this week when we had dinner at Matt's parents house with my parents, also.

I was trying to decide what to make that I would be able to bring to their house and also something that would compliment the meal Matt's mom was preparing: Cream of Celery Soup and Chicken Pot Pie. I decided on a potato dish, since we had so many left over from our CSA. I looked up a bunch of recipes online and let Matt have the final decision. He picked a simple roasted potato dish, so I decided to add carrots and parsnips, since we also had these left over from the CSA. We eat roasties pretty often, usually in salads in lieu of croutons. Often, when I am putting my lunch together in the morning I will chop a couple of small potatoes, toss them with olive oil and garlic salt, and then bake on a cookie sheet while we eat breakfast. I looked online at suggestions for how to travel and serve roasted potatoes and then adapted the recipe as seen here:

 Roasted Potatoes, Carrots, and Parsnips

2 lb. Potatoes (I used yellow, white, red, and blue) 

6 Parsnips

6 Carrots

1 head garlic

6 Sprigs Thyme

salt and pepper

olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare Vegetables: Cut all of the vegetables so that they are a similar size. Since most of the potatoes I used were small I left some whole, halved some, and quartered the larger ones. I cut the carrots and parsnips into thirds then left the skinny end whole, halved the middle part, and quartered the large end. Separate the garlic cloves from the head but leave them in their paper. 

Boil water in a large pot. When it is boiling add potatoes and carrots and parboil for 5 minutes. Add the parsnips and boil for 4 more minutes. Drain in a colander and allow to steam dry. 

Meanwhile, place a fair amount of oil in baking sheet, add the garlic, thyme and some salt and place in a hot spot, like where the heat vents from the oven through the back burner on your stove, to infuse the oil with the taste of garlic and thyme.

 Remove the carrots and parsnips and "fluff" the potatoes. Really bang them around in the colander.

Mix all vegetables, garlic, and thyme in baking sheet (in a single layer so it doesn't steam) and season with salt and pepper (I had to use two baking sheets).

Cook about 40 minutes, stirring once in the middle, or until potatoes are tender.

Like I said earlier, roasties are one of our favorite things! Parboiling the potatoes and other veggies allowed the outside to crisp while the insides stayed tender and fluffy. I cooked the veggies on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes at home and then moved them to a deep dish to travel with and then once at Matt's parents house I returned them to a baking sheet and planned to baked them for about 10-20 minutes. Our timing got a little messed up with the multiple course dinner and the veggies ended up baking for much longer so they ended up a little over cooked and dry-- the garlic was way overcooked. However, the veggies had amazing flavor! Allowing the oil to become infused with the garlic and thyme really allowed the veggies to soak up the flavor.

Spicy Ginger Garlic Green Beans

The Official Recipe
Spicy Ginger Garlic Green Beans
1 lb thin green beans
1 tbs. vegetable oil
1 tbs. minced garlic
1 tbs. chopped ginger
Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

sauce:
2 tbs. black vinegar or rice vinegar
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. crushed red chile
1/2 tsp. black sesame oil
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper

Now that I have given you the actual recipe I will tell you what I really used. I used green beans off of the climbing plant I have growing up our trellis (not thin), I used olive oil and just turned the temperature down a bit so it wouldn't burn, I did not use sesame seeds, I used rice vinegar, I used crushed red pepper and chile powder, I did not use black sesame oil, I added some lemon zest and juice and I used black pepper. Oh, and I didn't measure anything... and the surprising news! Matt and I both loved this recipe (even if it was a little hot for Matt).

This was one of those times when I knew I had the green beans and wanted to use them before they went bad so I looked to my cookbook shelf. I don't know why I choose to look into "The Spicy Food Lover's Bible" by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach but I did and this was one of two green bean recipes (the other being a canning recipe). I noticed we had all of the right ingredients (well, within reason) so I decided to try it. The blurb before the recipe says that it can be made without the black sesame oil but that it adds a nice complexity to the flavors-- I am  not one for buying expensive ingredients that I don't think I will use again soon for a single recipe- so I just left it out. As for the other substitutions I made, well, it was either what I had available (or in the case of the oil- what I had within arms reach vs. in the pantry 5 steps away).

The Official Process:
1. Combine all sauce ingredients in small dish and set aside.
2. Steam green beans until almost done. Remove and drain. If finishing later run under cold water.
3. Heat oil in wok (I used the same sauce pan I steamed the beans in) add garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 2 minutes, add green beans and stir-fry until nearly done.
4. Add sauce to wok and stir fry until the sauce has thickened and coats the beans.
5. Place beans on serving plate ad garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
SERVES 4

I estimated on the sauce ingredients and left them in a small bowl on the counter.
Then I steamed the beans, took our the steamer basket, dumped the water and set the beans in steamer basket aside.
I added the (olive) oil to the sauce pan and when it was hot I dumped in the garlic and ginger (which I used a grater to prepare). When it was super fragrant I added the green beans (oh and I added some hot pepper flakes because my favorite quick tomato sauce recipe does that).
In just a couple of minutes (because the beans were already steamed) I added the sauce and as soon as it thickened a little I took the beans off the heat and served it directly in the sauce pan! How tacky I know, but when you live with no dishwasher...

I really enjoyed this recipe and we will be having it again. It was an interesting mix of sweet because of the sugar (and I always think ginger has a sweet "during" taste and a spicy "after" taste) and spicy. The rice vinegar in the sauce provided a nice tartness without being overly bitter or acidic tasting.

Next time I will definitely steam the beans for less time- just a minute or two- so that I can stir-fry them for longer to let the sauce thicken more. The beans were not overcooked this time but the sauce also wasn't overly thick...

Overall, a quite successful side dish that took about 10 minutes!

In case you were wondering, with this green bean dish we had store bought lemon pepper rotisserie chicken with a homemade piccata style lemon-white wine sauce, fresh bread and homemade spicy garlic-herb butter. A truly "semi-homemade" meal!