Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread

My girl friend sent me a marvelous picture of a round crust-cracked loaf of bread and said she was experimenting with different ingredients. She told me to google 'bread that a four year old can make'. So I googled and found a web site by Steamy Kitchen and she had pictures of her four year old making the bread. It was true; a four year can make the bread. Harold McGee, quoted on E Curry blog site explained that it works because the bread is allowed to rise over many hours which is the same as kneading it for minutes. He states, "the gluten molecules [go] into side-by-side alignment to maximize their opportunity to bind to each other and produce a strong, elastic network. The wetness of the dough is an important piece of this because the gluten molecules are more mobile in a high proportion of water, and so can move into alignment easier and faster than if the dough were stiff.” Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York invented the recipe and Mark Bittman published the recipe in 2006. Here is the recipe for my first experiment. Sift 1 and 1/2 cups white flour with 1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour. Add 2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp instant yeast, 1 tbsp honey and 1 and 1/2 cups of warm water. Cover. Let rise in a warm place for 12 to 20 hours. I let my bread rise for 15 hours. Put on floured tea towel and cover and let rise for 2 hours. Heat a covered ungreased pot in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes. Drop dough into the pot. Cover. Bake at at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The result? The loaf looked great. The top was nicely browned and slightly cracked. The insides were chewy but a little too dense for my liking. As I was slicing the bread I thought it would be a killer sandwich because the bread was so firm. The picture shows a side view and you can see a few air bubbles. However, I am going to try to make this bread again because the other posts commented on the wetness of the bread dough and my dough was not wet and according to McGee I should have had wet dough to let the molecules slide around. My dough was not sticky and extremely easy to manage. In fact I questioned if I had put in sufficient water. For my next experiment, I am going to make the loaf entirely with white flour. Can't wait.

Pasta Alfredo

Sometimes it is just good to have comfort food and a main course you can trust and whip up with ease. I got the idea for this recipe from my son who made it when we were camped at Yoho one year. It is calorie dense - so great when you are hiking up mountains but also great when the weather is -25ish, which it has been for the past few days. Start by making a cream sauce. Melt one tablespoon butter and add one table spoon flour. Stir until a paste forms and add 2 cups of milk (I have added 10 per cent cream but it really does not need the cream). Stir in 1/4 cup home made pesto, 4 oz of cream cheese, 8 oz of creamy goat cheese, 1/4 cup dried tomatoes and freshly ground pepper and salt to suit your taste. That is it! Easy peasy. I serve the sauce over penne because I love the way the sauce finds its way into the tubes and when you bite down on the penne, the sauce squishes out all over your mouth. Yum. Serve with a plain green tossed salad because you do not want competition for flavours and No Knead hot bread. Dessert - something laced with chocolate - of course.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A husband and wife team are at my home laying a new floor. It will take them three to four days. I decided that I would bake them chocolate chip cookies and serve them coffee or tea. When I was growing up, any one who worked for us would have a hearty noon meal including pie and cake for dessert. Now workers bring their own lunch and eat it while sitting in their truck. In fact, one worker told me that some home owners wouldn't even let him use the toilet. I believe that the workers in your home should be made to feel welcome and if not nourished with a meal at least treated well. Every one has a chocolate chip cookie recipe. When I scan the recipes I see the same ingredients: butter, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and of course chocolate chips. However the secret of a great cookie that holds together and yet melts in your mouth is under baking the cookie but just by a minute. You have to put together a number of variables: quality of your cookie sheets, the real heat in your oven, the size of the cookies and the baking time. For this recipe bake the cookies from 8 to 10 minutes. On my dark cookie sheet I bake the cookies for 8 minutes and on the light one, nine minutes. Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe 2/3 cup butter 3/4 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 3/4 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 2 cups large chocolate chips or chunks Beat the butter and slowly add the sugars. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg mixture with a wooden spoon. Stir in the chocolate chips. Using two teaspoons, drop small amounts of batter onto the cookie sheets. My drops are the size of two halves of a walnut and I get 12 cookies per sheet. Bake at 350 degree from 8 to 10 minutes. You will know the cookies are baked because there will be a light brown ring around the outer edges. They will be slightly puffed but will collapse when you remove them from the oven. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes to give the cookies a chance to harden and then place on a rack to cool completely. Now try restraining yourself to just two cookies as you eat melted chocolate mixed with buttery cookie. Not so for the husband and wife team, they could eat as many as they wanted as they burnt through calories laying floor.

Crispy Pork Fingers

I saw this food idea on television and know it will be great. I can imagine crunching through the crispy exterior and then meeting the warm smooth interior. I can not wait to try it. For the coating, if you do not like the idea of eating potatoe chips, skip them and use panko or bread crumbs. Take 1 tenderloin and cut into fingers. Dip them in flour, then beaten eggs and finally crushed potatoe chips. Bake at 500 for 6 min and turn and bake another 6 min. Use your judgement - if the fingers are thin decrease your baking time. Serve with a dipping sauce. Here is a simple one: combine 1 cup yogurt with 2 tbsp honey and 1/4 cup grainy mustard. The Crispy Pork Fingers could be served on top of a spring green salad or part of an appetizer tray. They would be ideal when serving drinks at your house after work for a Thank Goodness it is Friday celebration.

Roasted Grape and Goat Cheese

Summer is always the time for salads. My sister-in-love clipped this recipe from a newspaper in Victoria and sent it to me as a birthday present. She also sent two t towels coloured with fruit and vegetable themes on bright green backgrounds.Fabulous gift! I made this recipe as the salad course for two friends so three of us shared a salad for four. It was more substantial than I imagined and next time I would serve it as a main course and just add grilled fish, chicken or pork. The flavours worked together: sweet, salty, nutty. I like baking the seedless red grapes in oil and vinegar. The sweet juices of the grapes mingled with the acid of the vinegar and the baking caramelized the entire mixture. The recipe is definitely a keeper. 2 cups red seedless grapes, halved 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp black pepper pinch of salt Combine the above ingredients and bake in a 400 F for 30 minutes until the juices are released and the grapes shrivel. If the grapes are very large, bake longer. Cool. On four plates, divide 8 cups of Mesclun, 4 kiwi fruit peeled and cut into circles, 4 oz good quality crumbled goat cheese and 1/4 cup coarsley chopped toasted walnuts. Spoon grapes and juice mixture on top. The presenation is impressive. The grape mixture would be idea on a soft ripe cheese and served with dipping crackers.

Thick Spicey Tomatoe Ham Vegetable Soup

How many words can be used to describe x country skiing at the Black Foot? I am tired of high praise words like heaven, paradise, nirvana, amazing etc. With deep snow, groomed tracks, boreal forest studded with balls of snow and even the occasional moose, friends to x county ski with, I keep thinking 'life does not get better than this'. Why would I vacation in Arizona or Hawaii or Vitoria BC when I have this paradise (chose a word) 45 minutes from my home?

Recently I had the opportunity to spend 4 hours x country skiing and when I came home, I had this soup/stew. Basically I began the soup with 1 tbsp of oil and slowly sauteed 1 chopped large onion in the oil, added 4 stalks of celery, 5 minced cloves of garlic and then 8 cups of chopped vegetables and water to cover. The ones I had in the fridge that day, included: carrots, squash, turnip, one half shredded cabbage, green and red peppers, 3 potatoes and one minced jalapeno pepper with just a few seeds. For protein I added 2 cups of preboiled chick peas (prepare in advance using the over night soaking method or bring to a boil and then cover and let sit for an hour then freeze in 1 or 2 cups packages) and two cups of cubed baked ham. For flavour, everything was tied together with a can of spaghetti sauce, Hunt's Thick and Rich, spicy red peppers and chilies. The pot of soup was brought to a boil, and then simmered about 30 minutes. After tasting the soup, I did not add any other seasoning. To serve the soup, I cushioned a tablespoon of pesto (see my November, 2010 post) in a dollop of yogurt. Soul satisfying soup, thick crusty peasant bread, sore muscles - heaven. One more thing, be sure to share and give some away. That too is heaven.

Cherpumple

If you have over twenty-five people for a pot luck you need big food items like a turkey or full ham, lots of sour cream baked hash browns or cabbage slaw. When I saw the recipe for Cherpumple credited to Charles Phoenix the American authour and pop-cultural humorist, I knew I just had to make it for our annual Christmas party. You take prebaked pies, cherry and apple in my case, and enclose them in cake batter and that's it. It was simply delicious. When I explained how to make the recipe, listeners would say, "you mean you put a baked pie into the batter?" Foreign thought.Charles Phoenix coined the word Cherpumple because he used a CHERry pie, in PUMpkin cake batter and an apPLE pie. You could use a blueberry pie, raisin pie or any other filled pie. I choose to go with the original. I had two concerns: first I did not have a 9 inch layer baking pan and secondly, I hoped I would be able to find the 8 inch pies at SuperStore. I never buy these pies and did not know if they would be available. My neighbour and friend had the 9 inch pans (believe me you have to have the pan this size) and SuperStore had the pies.

First make the cake batter.

21/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 8 inch baked apple pie
1 8 inch baked cherry pie

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the 9 inch cake pans. Sift together the dry ingredients. Set aside. Beat the butter, slowly add the sugar (his recipe called for 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar but I decreased it to 1 cup). Add the eggs one at a time. In another bowl, mix the milk, pumpkin and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients. Spread one quarter of the batter into a cake pan. Invert one of the pies onto the batter. Remove the foil pie plate. Spread another quarter of the batter on top of the pie. Cover the pie completely. Repeat this with the second cake pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Cool.

Frost with Truffle Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup butter
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
3 cups of icing sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla.
1 cup white chocolate melted in 1/2 cup whipping cream, chilled

Beat the butter, vanilla and cream cheese together till fluffy. Slowly add the icing sugar and drips of cream. Just to add flavour and because I already had melted white chocolate (about 1 cup)in 1/2 cup of whipping cream left over from a batch of truffles I had made, I added this mixture to the icing. Now we are talking about being out-of-this-world. I do not know what I liked best - the cake or the icing.
Everyone had a piece of the cake and thought it was terrific. It is terrific because it is an 'out-side-of-the-box' type thinking cake. Innovative and over the top.