Elemental Stitches

No- Knead Bread Loaf

I know you have all tried the No-Knead Bread right?  I decided to try it as a loaf and it is awesome!  Use the same recipe, but change these things:

-the second rise needs to take place in a loaf pan sprayed lightly with oil.
-the proofing time for the second rise is a little shorter.  Maybe 60-90 minutes.  Wait until the dough rises slightly above the top of the loaf pan.
-bake at the regular temperature for a shorter amount of time.  There is no need to cover the loaf.  I believe mine bakes about 30 minutes or so.
-most importantly LEAVE THE LOAF TO COOL BEFORE CUTTING IT!  Then the moisture can absorb into the bread instead of escaping as steam.  Trust me on this one.  -Store on the counter in a bag

Enjoy your fresh loaf!

Another Lemony Recipe - Lemon Curd Thumbprint Cookies

After making Lemon Curd I needed to use some of it up.  As delicious as lemon curd is with an english muffin I needed something else to finish it off.

After a quick search through several cookbooks I came back to Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food.  Her Sweet Tart Dough makes great thumbprint cookies.  The recipe is very easy.  I could make hundreds of these cookies without breaking a sweat.

Lemon Curd Thumbprint Cookies
By Alice Waters

Beat together until creamy:
8 tablespoons of butter (1 stick)
1/3 cup of sugar

Add and mix until completely combined:
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 egg yolk

Add:
1 1/4 cups of all-purpose unbleached flour

Mix well, stirring and folding, until there are no more dry patches.  Form 1 inch dough balls.  Roll in sugar and place on a parchment lined baking sheet about 1 inch apart.  Press your thumb in the top of each cookie to make a depression.  Bake cookies in a preheated 350F oven for 12 minutes.  Remove from the oven and fill the depressions with lemon curd.  Bake for another 5 minutes, or until golden brown.  Let cook before serving. 

I want to try these cookies again using jam to fill them instead of curd.  I think they will be even more delicious!

The rest of the lemons went into lemonade. 

Lemonade
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup water
1/2 cup - 1 cup sugar (Start with 1/2 cup and add more to taste.  1 cup= sweet lemonade)

Double the recipe as needed.
Enjoy your summer!

Lemon Summer - Recipes for Extra Lemons

One of the things I love best about California is the amount of food that is planted along sidewalks and in backyards.  Citrus trees are found in back and front yards all across California.  A friend of mine gave me pounds of extra Meyer lemons from his tree.  I dont make many things with lemons other then lemonade so I was wondering what I was supposed to do with pounds of lemons?

I went straight to my cookbook collection and started pulling out recipes.  The first one I chose was a delicious lemon curd recipe from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.  I LOVE this cookbook.  The recipes are simple, fresh and their are no strange ingredients that will take up space in my pantry. 

Lemon Curd
by Alice Waters
Makes 2 cups

Wash and dry:
4 lemons

Grate the zest of one lemon on the small holes of a grater.  Juice the lemons.  There should be about 1/2 cup of juice.

In a separate bowl, beat until just mixed:
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Stir in lemon juice and zest.  Add
6 tablespoons of unsalted butter cut into pieces. 

Cook mixture in a non reactive heavy pot, stirring constantly over medium heat until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Do not boil or the eggs with curdle.  When thick pour into a bowl or glass jars to cool.  Cover and store in the refrigerator. 

Tomorrow I will post the recipe for Lemon Curd Thumbprint Cookies.

Cabrillo Farmers Market - Aptos, Ca

If you ever make it out to the Monterey Bay be sure to stop by the year round farmers market on Saturday mornings at Cabrillo College in Aptos, Ca.  I have lots of pictures so I will keep my words short today. 

 

Hungry Yet?

Spending Time at Home

Tom came home this week and we have spent the last several days catching up.  We found ourselves spending our time in the garden, baking in the kitchen and visiting friends.  I made more no knead bread.  My favorite kind to make so far.  It is such a basic recipe that I can alter it however I want.  I add a little olive oil here and rosemary there for something Italian or some flaxseed and oat flour for more bulk.  I am testing out this recipe in bread pans instead on the cast iron pot.  So far I have lowered the proofing and cooking time with decent results.  This loaf proofed for too long and spilled over the sides.  I piled it back in and stuck it in the oven.  It came out great anyway.

I harvested some beautiful Bright Lights Swiss Chard from the garden that is going into a quiche later this weekend.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Sushi For Fish Haters

Another quick, easy and healthy lunch for the summer.  I am not a fan of seafood or anything slimy in general so I cheat and use cooked chicken or eat vegetarian sushi.  Its really easy to make and tastes delicious.  Plus the Nori seaweed is really good for you and pretty mild tasting.  We had these with teriyaki sauce from Trader Joes.

I am pretty free-form with my sushi.  Today Tom ate canned crab in his and I had cooked chicken with avocado and carrots from our garden.  We usually pick three of any of these ingredients that we happen to have. 
Carrots, celery, avocado, cucumber, mushrooms, chicken, canned or fresh tuna, salmon or crab, sweet potato.  You can get pretty creative. 

Sushi Rice is yummy and easy to make.  Here is Alton Browns recipe, because Alton's recipes never let me down.

This is another great recipe site that I love which has great sushi ideas.

Have fun!

Baking Bagels

The cafe here on campus has the most delicious bagels I have ever tasted.  I think they have a bakery drop them off early in the morning because they are all stored in one of those pink sheet cake boxes that comes from a bakery.  I have never made anything close to bagels before but I decided to try them.  Maybe I could come close to these great bagels I pay $2 for every morning.  I followed the recipe in this great bread book by Peter Reinhart.

The dough is very tough to work.  My arms got a huge workout and the author is right.  You will get tired before you are done working this dough.  I took some of the stress off my wrists by using more of my forearm to knead instead of my hands.  I also slapped the dough against the counter a bunch of times to help the gluten along.

I promise that the kneading is the hardest part of making bagels.  Unless you count waiting.  Eventually you will end up with doughy bagels that go into the fridge to rest and develop flavor.

After a night or two of R&R (rest and relaxation).  They are ready to go into the pot.

Boil for a minute or two on each side.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper (or seeds, or dried onions, or cinnamon and sugar).  Put them in the oven for 10 minutes and then you have...

Bagel Beauty!!!  Aren't they scrumptious looking?
They tasted great, not even close however to the bagels at the cafe.  I am going to have to find out where they get there bagels from.  They must be delivered.  Perhaps the bakery would be willing to share their secret.  Or maybe I can get a dozen to go.

Week of Summer

I have been enjoying the beautiful Mediterranean weather we have here on Monterey Bay.  Its been in the 70s for weeks, the sun has been shining continuously.  Late afternoon walks are becoming a compulsion.  I know that the rainy season is only a couple months away so I am trying to enjoy its warmth now.

Everyone knows about California's fire season and our earthquakes (did you hear about the one in LA this week!)  This photo shows you why.  That dry brush is 2-3 feet tall and it covers most of the state during summer.

Another part of the sunny central coast.
Hello King Bambi!

Of course I have been busy crafting.  This pattern is the lap quilt from Doodle Stitching.  The embroidery is my pattern but I followed her directions for the quilt top.  I will have more pictures of it soon.  Cutting and sewing took about 2 hours.

And finally, our first tomatoes, right in time for dinner.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

"No Knead" Bread -Part 2

As I came back almost 20 hours later, the dough, which looked more like wet slop, was bubbly and quite large.  The instructions said to put the mixture on a lightly floured surface, turn twice, and let rest for 15 minutes, then form into a ball.  One look at my dough and I could tell that it would never form into a ball.  At that very moment it was like a lava flow heading for the edge of the counter.  My dough had way too much water in it.  I thought back to yesterday when I thought it was rather bizarre that a recipe called for 1 5/8 cup of water (never seen that on a measuring cup).  So, I gave it 1 1/2 plus a little more and called it good.  Maybe I didn't measure my flour correctly... 

Anyway, my hands were scary wet dough fingers so I called for Tom to help.  He thought this was rather funny as he poured cup after cup of flour into the dough I was now ferociously KNEADING!  Then he abandoned me to get the camera because he felt that you all should see this.  

Luckily for me, I got the dough going and was onto the next step before he got back.  This was his first shot. 

The dough is now being formed into a ball and is getting ready to rise on top of a floured piece of spare muslin.  It was supposed to rise for 2 hours and ended up rising for 4 hours.  Remember what I said about forgetting about it.  It finally got into the pot at about 10:30pm last night after a BBQ with some friends and a visit from a Medi-vac helicopter who landed in the field next to our apartment to airlift a car accident victim.  I have great pictures of that to come soon. 

After all the excitement I finally got back to the bread, popped it in the oven and hoped for the best.  I got what I wanted. 

The bread is brown, crusty and it made crispy crackly noises that I have never heard bread make before.  Like Snap, Crackle, Pop.  It smelled fabulous and the crust crunches so pleasantly when you press on it.

Perfect for Bruschetta or sliced with fresh jam.

And the taste was dreamy.  Almost like sourdough, but not quite.  It was the best basic bread I have made yet.

Here is the recipe for those folk who would like to try it.  I will definitely make this again.

No Knead Bread- Part 1

I cant believe it...  no mess, four ingredients, 10 minutes of scooping, measuring and mixing and thats it???

The 18 hour proof period is not a problem because that means if I forget that I should be watching the clock thats okay!  But seriously, this bread seems to good to be true.  The taste is the real test but an easy recipe makes me very happy.

We will see what happens tomorrow when I cook it in my favorite cast iron pot.  I always wanted to make bread in it!