Restaurant Widow

Ladies & Gentlemen, I Have Made Bread. And It is Good.

And it was easy.  A little too easy.  This post all began when I became peripherally aware that the food blogging world was astir with the triumph of "No Knead Bread."  I scoffed at this idea - no knead bread - a reader suggested I try it after my New Year's Resolutions, and then a friend (a non food-blogging friend, and one whose food authority I trust implicitly) asked me recently if I had thought of making this miraculous bread about which Mark Bittman had written.  Wait, this stemmed from Bittman?  Hmm.  You see, I had originally thought this whole "No Knead" thing came from the back of Family Circle or some other busy mom-type publication (not that there is anything wrong with those).  But this was from a certified source.  A food writer for the Times, for the love of crumb cake.  I made a mental note to look up the article.

Then I was riding to work the other day, listening to my favorite podcast - KCRW's Good Food (click through to listen, and scroll down to read some advice on baking the bread), and lo and behold, here was Mark Bittman, praising the No Knead Dough and discussing his source - Jim Lahey, of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York.  Double Hmm.  I'm going to have to give this a try.  (Read Bittman's article here - you'll have to register for free - be sure to watch the video of him making the bread with Lahey, it helps).

I would try this bread and document it for you dear readers.  Fortunately, most of my readers are non food blog reading Columbusites, so you don't know I'm writing about something which has been written about over and over.  For those of you who are avid food blog readers and have already read everyone else's experiences, well, now you can point and laugh at me for being a Jane-come-lately.  I can take it.  But I have to spread this gospel of bread.  Can I get a witness?

I think I might have spoken about my lack of patience on previous occasions.  As much as I love baking, I also love intuitive, interactive cooking - the results are delightfully nearly instant.  Bread, however, is an entirely different story.  But, I have a few days off this week, and, since I told myself I'd clean closets, I thought I might as well bake a little bread in the meantime (it's not called procrastinating, it's called building urgency).  The trick with this bread is time.  It doesn't take a lot of active time, but there is a lot of waiting.  So, start about 28 hours before you are going to serve the bread and have something else to do to occupy yourself in the meantime.  The recommended initial rise time is 14-19 hours, but, as my kitchen is rarely over 65 degrees in the winter, I let it go a full 24, folded it over, rested for 15 minutes, and then the second rise was about 3 more hours.  And I immediately started a new batch of whole wheat with malt syrup.  I'll keep you posted on that one tomorrow.

This bread turned out beautifully.  It might be one of the most satisfying things I've made.  The crust is crackly-crisp and lightly browned - so crisp is this crust, in fact, it's no match for my sad bread knife - the crumb is fully of shiny tunnels indicating a long, satisfying rise with lots of yeast growth and death, it is savory and yeasty - I highly recommend that everyone try it.

Because Jim Lahey tells Bittman in the article to "get the word out, let everyone know," about this recipe, I am going to post the recipe in the extended post, along with lots of photographic documentation of the rising process.  Enjoy!

More Firsts - Skillet Bread & COTA

Well, I am not sure if unleavened skillet bread counts as baking bread or not (you might remember it was one of my New Year's Resolutions), but I tried it this week for the first time thanks to my new copy of Mangoes & Curry Leaves, a Christmas present from Husband (thanks, cookie!).  I have just decided that no, it does not count, but it was fun at any rate, and I am looking forward to trying it again.  I served it with some tasty but not particularly photogenic "Dal du Puy" with Coconut Milk (page 191 from the same book; the recipe calls for masur dal, a nice orangey lentil, but alas, we had only French green lentils in the house; they turn liquids a rather off-gray color when cooking, otherwise I might have photographed them).

This has been a week of firsts - eating Natto on Monday, making skillet bread on Tuesday, and yesterday, complete irrelavant to food, I rode a COTA bus for the first time.  People in big cities are probably laughing as they read this, but I am from farm country.  There was no such thing as public transportation.  Even when I was old enough to ride my bicycle on the road, it was a 3.5 mile jaunt to the nearest store of any sort.  I still have trouble looking both ways before I cross a street, even after years of urban living.  Like Americans who are hit by cars in Britain because they look the wrong way when crossing, I occasionally stroll into a busy street in mindless bliss.  Would you believe?  I've only been hit by a car once.  But!  I digress.

Because I like to assist newcomers and visitors to our fair city, and because Husband and I have only one car, and because I live and work on the bus line, I thought it was time I buck up and become the urbanite I've claimed to be.  People are always grousing about public transportation in Columbus, and, while it might not be the most efficient or far-reaching system in the country, the bus was on time, clean, and delivered me to my destination in about twice the time it would have taken me to drive.  During this time, I did not shout any epithets at passing drivers, nor give any salutes, nor yell at moronic talking head on the radio, nor get cut off/swerved into/shouted at, etc.  I just listened to my MP3 player and finally got around to reading The Soul of a Chef, which a friend loaned to me 2 years ago (thanks, Chef Mike!  I promise to give it back!) 

What other firsts lie in wait for the days, weeks, and months ahead?  That remains to be seen.  Let's get back to the flatbread, shall we? 

The recipe in the book is called "Cumin-flecked Skillet Breads," but we here at Chez Widow had, unfortunately, just run out of cumin, so I added a little smoked pimenton (the good stuff) and then a smattering of nigella seeds, because I had just purchased them at Patel Brothers.  I kind of hesitate to post the recipe, as I'm no flatbread expert, and it isn't really my recipe, but maybe you will make it, see how easy it is, and then go out and buy this fantastic book.  The flatbreads have a subtle heat, which you can adjust to your liking, and they are tasty fresh out of the pan with a little salt; I placed them in a warm (170 degree) oven once out of the pan, and they stayed nice and crisp whilst I got on with the curry.  The recipe is provided in the extended post . . .

Roasted Garlic Corn Bread

A great use for your roasted garlic!

Roasted Garlic Corn Bread

1 1/4 cups AP flour

3/4 cup coarse corn meal

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp roasted garlic (4-5 cloves)

2 tsp dried, or 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, very finely chopped and separated in half

1/2 cup honey

salt

lard (preferably) or canola oil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease an 8 or 9 inch cast iron skillet with the lard or canola oil, and place in the oven to preheat.  Combine the dry ingredients, and then stir in the wet ingredients and half the rosemary (but not the honey) until smooth.  Carefully place in the skillet and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

In the meantime, gently heat the honey and remaining rosemary on very low heat.  Brush on top of the cornbread when it comes out of the oven and sprinkle with kosher salt.  I used the intense chestnut honey from Husband's Italy trip, which was a great match for the rosemary and the sweetness of the cornbread.

The Last Day of Chez Dough

Alas, I finally used my final doughball.  I decided to branch out and give calzone a try.  I rolled the dough out rather thin, until I had about a 10" circle, and pile in cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, and Italian sausage.  Good thing I was sharing this one with Husband!  I warmed up some pizza sauce on the side and was in heaven.  I believe I might have baked it a minute or so too long because the dough became a little crisp, but that might also be due to the thinness.  I didn't cut the top to allow steam to escape because Wolfgang's recipe stated: trap as much air inside as possible, and so I did.  I thought I would be clever and make a little folded edge instead of his recommended fork-tine-sealing method, but as you can see from the picture, this did not a mozzarella-proof seal make.  Here's the view on the inside:

Yum.

Pizza III

Okay, this is probably getting old, but I feel a responsibility to report on all outcomes; don't worry, I only have one doughball left.  The dough has been in the fridge now for 16 hours and has developed even more.  I would definitely recommend letting it sit and ripen for a day or so - I think I was reading this on FoodNetwork.com, maybe it was Alton Brown's recipe, but I didn't have 15 hours to wait.  Anyway, by now the dough was more pliable and I really stretched it out (with a rolling pin, still no expert) pretty far and so had a rather thin crust pizza.  Toppings today were mozzarella, pepperoni, plain old button mushrooms, red onions and red bell peppers.  According to Puck's recipe, the dough can be wrapped in plastic after the second rise and refrigerated; it's funny because it continues to rise and so it kind of unwraps itself a little.  See, yeast is a miraculous thing.  Stay tuned to see what comes out tomorrow.

Pizza Dough - the Epic

Something wonderful happened.  I got a surprise night off work!  Having already completed my taxes, there was nothing left to do but clean out my closets.  Or sit at the computer.  And so, here is the Epic of Pizza Making.

Making bread, pizza dough, or really anything with yeast, is a minor miracle.  Even if whatever you're making doesn't turn out to be heart-stoppingly delicious, the simple act of kneading dough and watching it rise is worth the time.  I love to peak in on rising dough and pat its smooth, cool surface; it's amazing that it keeps growing and changing.  Unfortunately, in this day and age, we rarely take the time to experience it.

I have never really made pizza dough; I remember helping my mother make it when I was growing up, but as an adult the only thing I have made with yeast is dill bread (we'll do that soon).  A few coworkers and I have recently been talking about getting some pizza dough skill, and, although I had been waiting until I bought a pizza stone, I decided today was the day to start.  I perused a few recipes at FoodNetwork.com, and decided to settle on Wolfgang Puck's recipe; he's the godfather of the ubiquitous wood-fired pizza movement, isn't he?

I made two pizzas today, with varying results.  I learned a lot from the first pizza and I feel pretty hopeful that I will be able to continue to learn and make better and better pizzas.  Read on for the play-by-play. . .

Pizza Dough - Short Story

Today's project was pizza dough!  I used Wolfgang Puck's recipe, easily found at Food Network.  Unfortunately, between finishing my taxes and getting ready for work, I can't write about the whole process at this time.  Stay tuned for the saga.