Potato Salad, Fourth of July and another trip to India

It's that time of the year. I just want to go to the refrigerator, find something cool and filling, and eat it with a fork right out of the container. I'm not in the mood for fussy food. I want the basics. I'd rather eat outside on the deck than in the house. I want to be surrounded by my plants, and not care if something drops on the ground.

I think it's called summer. And I've got a case of summer going on right now. I spend all my spare time clipping the dead flowers off the roses and daisys, and then sitting down and reading. I just finished Jeanie Cheathem's autobiography "Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On". An amazing life story of a woman with immense talent and determination, and what it took to create a life in music. She and her husband Jimmy have been giants in the world of jazz and blues, playing with giants such as Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Jimmy died last year, but Jeanie is still playing piano and singing with her Sweet Baby Blues Band.

Along with reading and gardening, summer means potato salad for me. The perfect, eat-it-out-of-the-fridge food. The perfect I'm-not-that-hungry-but-I-want-something food. Cool, filling, and a great dish to share, since it's not worth making if you're not going to make a bucket of it.

So when Mary called me and told me that our neighbor Dierdre was having a Fourth of July party at her house, I knew what I was bringing. I had made a bucket of potato salad and had enough left over for the Turkish army. This is the kind of potato salad that I learned to make from my husband. He called it German potato salad, and told me that what made it German style was the fact that you put vinegar on the potatoes while they were still warm. The main difference between this and the way he made it, was that he used to say that he didn't like "hippie style" potato salad. Translation: He didn't like the skins left on the potatoes. Well, I'm a little lazier than he was. I didn't intentionally remove the skins, but most of them did come off by themselves.
I used red potatoes, since they were on sale. I bought a red onion, and then began scouring the fridge for anything I could throw in there. A couple of scallions and some celery were left over in the drawer. Capers on the shelf. No peas. Oh well.......I had enough.

Quarter the potatoes and boil them in salted water.
Meanwhile, start chopping: scallions, celery and red onion in this case.
When the potatoes were done, I cut them into smaller pieces, threw them into a big pot, and periodically slosh on some white vinegar over the layer of potatoes. When I finished with all the potatoes, I mixed up some mayonnaise, mustard, a touch more vinegar, and a small blob of cream I had left over from something. (Who can remember?) The only reason the cream went in was because it was there. Otherwise, it's unnecessary. Mix everything together, chill and serve. It's better the next day, and probably even better the day after that.

I'm leaving on Tuesday. This trip has required more planning than I thought it would. I had to measure myself for a saree. The parents of my nephew's bride decided to make sarees for all the women who would be coming to India for this wedding. I chose peacock green for my color, and then had a neighbor help me with the measurements. So far I've packed, unpacked and re-packed twice. I'm trying to pare it down to the minimum, leaving room for something irresistible, which I'm sure I'll find in Kashmir, as well as my new saree!

Too Hot to Eat

Ah declay-ah, it is hot. Too hot to think about much of anything. I'm not interested in cooking. I'm barely interested in eating! (Now that's hot!!) It reminds me of when I was in Greece a number of years ago. We didn't stay anywhere that had air conditioning, and it was June. Imagine, if you can, being in Greece, surrounded by some of the world's best food, and not being interested in eating. Torture? I think so. The only thing I could eat was Greek salad, and for breakfast yogurt with honey. (The BEST!!) But other than that, it was just too hot.

Well, here in San Diego, I don't have air conditioning, either. I have 2 ceiling fans - one for the bedroom, one for my office. I just came back from buying a third one for the living room. Usually I don't need these fans until August, but then came global warming, and my cat and I pass out on the floor together almost every day. Salads. Cold shrimp. A glass of chilled white wine. It's all I've been able to manage.

Then I remembered that I hadn't posted about the 3rd bread I made, back when I could stand the idea of turning on the oven. I saved this bread for last, because this bread made me stop dead in my tracks. It is from Peter Reinhart's book "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", and it's his "Pain a l'Ancienne". In his first chapter "What Is It About Bread?", he tells of visiting a friend of his who lives in Paris. He informed his friend that he would bring the bread, and his friend replied "That's OK, we have a great boulangerie around the corner." But Reinhart insisted, telling him that his bread was from Poilaine, a master bread baker.

When Reinhart arrived, he noticed that there was already a baguette on the counter, next to the pot of boef bourguignon his friend had made. They all sat down and decided to compare the 2 breads. They started first with the loaf from the local boulangerie, which Reinhart described as "pleasant". Next, they tore into the bread Reinhart brought. The first thing Reinhart noticed was that the holes were larger than the typical baguette. It was also creamier, not as white. I'll let him describe the rest of the scene:

"Michael chewed off a bite, the crackle of crust slightly cracklier than the local bread's. I watched his face as he chewed, the realization that there was another level, never experienced even here in the baguette center of the universe, that was now entering his orbit. He visibly displayed a series of emotions on his face, swinging from smiling sublimity to furrowed anger, than back the other way. He was on a pendulum ride as the room grew silent and all attention focused gravitationally on him, getting weightier by the second. In my memory I see the lights getting dimmer, with a spotlight on Michael's face, but I know this is just a trick of my own mind. But what did happen was this: He slowly picked up his local baguette and looked at it, then looked a the a l'ancienne baguette on the table, then back to the one in his clenched hand. As if in slow motion, he threw the local loaf against the wall, where it smashed and fell to the floor. His wife said sharply, "Michael!"
Michael turned to me and said, 'You've ruined me. Are you happy?'
'Yes, actually. I am happy,' I said.
Then we all smiled and enjoyed dinner."

Until I made this bread, I thought that was a charming, if exaggerated story. Now I know better. I've used this dough to make pizza (sensational!) as well as to make this bread. I have no idea how Reinhart get's his loaves to form baguettes. The best I could do was to make ciabattas - best served with a really good olive oil.

Makes 6 baguettes, 6-8 pizzas, or one 17x12 inch focaccia

6C (27 oz) unbleached bread flour
2 1/4 tsp (.56 oz) salt
1 3/4 tsp (.19 oz) instant yeast
2 1/4C plus 2 TBS to 3 C (19-24 oz) water, ice cold

semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting.

1. Combine the flour, salt, yeast, and 19 oz of water in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mix for 2 minutes on low speed. Switch to the dough hook and mix for 5 to 6 minutes on medium speed. The dough should be sticky on the bottom of the bowl but it should release from the sides of the bowl. If not, sprinkle in a small amount of flour until this occurs (or dribble in water if the dough seems to stiff and clears the bottom as well as the sides of the bowl). Lightly oil a large bowl and immediately transfer the dough with a spatula or bowl scraper dipped in water into the bowl. Mist the dop of the dough with spray oil and cover bowl with plastic wrap.

2. Immediately place the bowl in the refrigerator and retard overnight.

3. the next day, check the dough to see if it has risen in the refrigerator. It will probably be partially risen but not doubled in size (the amount of rise will depend on how cold the refrigerator is and how often the door was opened). Leave the bowl of dough out at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours (or longer if necessary) to allow the dough to wake up, lose its chill and continue fermenting.

4. When the dough has doubled from its original prerefrigerated size, liberally sprinkle the counter with bread flour (about 1/2 cup). Gently transfer the dough to the floured countre with a plastic dough scraper that has been dipped in cold water, dipping your hands as well to keep the dough from sticking to you. Try to degas the dough as little as possible as you transfer it. If the dough is very wet, sprinkle more flour over the top as well as under it. Dry your hands thoroughly and then dip them in flour. Roll the dough gently in the sprinkled flour to coat it thoroughly, simultaneously stretching it into an oblong about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide. If it is too sticky to handle, continue sprinkling flour over it. Dip a metal pastry scraper into cool water to keep it from sticking to the dough and cut the dough in half width-wise with the pastry scraper by pressing it down through the dough until it severs it, then dipping it again in the water and repeating this action until you have cut down the full length of the dough. (Do not use the blade as a saw, use it as a pincer, pinching the dough cleanly with each cut). Let the dough relax for 5 minutes.

5. Prepare the oven for hearth baking, making sure to have an empty steam pan in place, and a pizza stone if you have one on a shelf. Preheat the oven to 500 degreesF (or 550 if your oven goes that high). Cover the back of two 17x12" sheet pans with baking parchment and dust with semolina flour or cornmeal.

6. Shape the dough by cutting each half into 3 strips. Flour your hands and carefully lift one of the dough strips and transfer it to the back of the pan, gently pulling it to the width of the pan (or to the length of your baking stone). Score the dough strips, slashing the tops with 3 diagonal cuts. Because the dough is sticky, you might have to dip the razor blade or serrated knife in water between each cut. You may also omit the cuts if the dough is not cooperating.

7. Take 1 pan to the preheated oven and carefully slide the dough, parchment and all, onto the baking stone. Or bake directly on the sheet pan. Make sure the pieces aren't touching. Pour 1 C of hot water into the steam pan and close the door. After 30 seconds, spray the oven walls with water and close the door. Repeat twice more at 30 second intervals. After the final spray, lower the oven setting to 475 degreesF and continue baking. Meanwhile, dust the other pan of strips with flour, mist with spray oil, and slip into a food-grade plastic bag or cover with a towel or plastic wrap. If you don't plan to bake these strips within 1 hour, refrigerate the pan and bake later or the next day. If you'd like to bake them as rustic, ciabatta-style breads, leave them at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours and then bake. As the loaves proof, they will resemble and perform like ciabatta.

8. The bread should begin to turn golden brown within 8 or 9 minutes. If the loaves are baking unevenly at this point, rotate them 180 degrees. Continue baking 10 to 15 minutes more, or until the bread is a rich golden brown and the internal temperature registers at least 205 degrees.

9. Transfer the hot breads to a cooling rack. They should feel very light, almost airy, and will cool in about 20 minutes. While these are cooling, you can bake the remaining loaves, remembering to remove the parchment from the oven and turn the oven up to 500 degrees F or higher before baking the second round.

Eat Dessert First

I keep having the mistaken idea that someday I'll "catch up". Like, catch up on my reading, or catch up on paying off the credit card bill, or catch up on the housework. Now, it doesn't bother me much when it's a pile of laundry that doesn't make it to the wash. After all, it's not going anywhere, and chances are I've got other clothes to wear. But when it comes to paying bills - now that bothers me. I grew up knowing that "debt" was a four letter word, and I can't stand it when I can't pay off the full amount of the credit card. But I'm also someone who was born with a travel gene. They might not have mapped it yet in the human genome, but believe me, it's there. So the credit card bills don't get paid off in full every month. But I AM going to India again this July.

India in July? Why would you do that you ask? Because my nephew has met a wonderful woman from the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, and they are getting married. That seems like a very legitimate reason, if you ask me. And so I work harder at paying off the credit card bills before I leave, so I will have a fresh slate, as it were.

The other side of me loves to be at home. Especially when it's nice out and I can work in my garden. People ask me, "What have you been doing recently?" The answer is in these photos.
The paths, the stones around the edge, as well as about half the garden space itself has been created in the last 6-7 months. Oh yes, and the plants too. Before I did this, there was an old deck out front. Termite heaven! I kept putting potted plants over the holes in the deck until one day I decided that it would probably be a better idea to get rid of the deck before someone went through it. With the help of a friend, we hauled the mostly rotted boards off to the dump, and when we returned, I was faced with an expanse of dirt with some pretty hefty tree roots snaking their way across the space.

My first task was to create a path from the front gate to the front door. Then from the front door to where I have my little table.Once the paths were created, I enlisted the help of another friend to haul stones off the beach. I had gone off and found about 8 large, somewhat flat-ish rocks which I hefted a couple of hundred yards and made a pile. Then my friend and I drove his truck as close as possible and spent time carrying the stones up the hill and into his truck. We dumped them in my front yard and then it was up to me to decide how to use them.

I'm a very visual person. I need to lay things out and see them, and then I know if I like the idea or not. That's not a bad thing - it just is what it is. But of course, when you're dealing with what essentially amounts to hundreds of pounds of stone....well, you get the idea. But on the bright side, I don't need a gym membership!!

So after the stones were in place, and bags and bags of dirt were thrown in to raise the beds, I got to have some FUN! COLOR, PLEASE!!! Do they have a 12 step program for plant addicts? Perhaps there should be one. As someone once said, "I can resist anything but temptation." So when I saw these lemon drop petunias at home depot, could I resist them?
Yellows, purples and blues began expanding into oranges and reds. The other side of the path is thick with pinks and salmons. And next to my front door, I clustered all my pots of herbs.
Like I said, with all of this lifting, hauling, digging and dragging, I don't need a gym membership. A manicure, perhaps, but not a gym membership. And the upside of it all is that I can eat more sweets. So when I looked in my fridge and noticed I had a bunch of apples in there, I knew I needed a recipe that called for lots of apples. It could have been applesauce, true. But then I saw a photo of an apple tart tatin on the Food Network, and as I mentioned, I'm a very visual person. And besides, apples are easy to lift compared to stones!
1 sheet store-bought puff pastry dough, thawed
6 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, halved, and sliced 1/8-inch thick
1/4 cup sugar
2 ounces (1/2 stick) cold butter, sliced thin
1/2 cup apricot jam, heated and strained
Vanilla ice creamPreheat oven to 375 degrees F.

On a lightly floured surface roll out dough into a 13-inch round and fit it into a 10-inch tart tin with a removable fluted rim, trimming the excess. Arrange the apples decoratively on the pastry shell, overlapping them. Sprinkle the sugar on top of the apples, top with butter slices and bake in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes or until the crust is cooked through and the apples are golden.

Brush with the heated apricot jam while the tart is still hot. Serve each portion with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Kitchen Notes:

I didn't use store bought puff pastry dough. I used the dough that I had used for my Spinach Ricotta Tart that I had made back in April. I've made tarts with puff pastry before and they've been good, but this particular recipe really did it for me.

Other Note:

I've been away for a while, and you, dear readers, have been busily creating sensational dishes. I took off for Memorial Day weekend and went to New Mexico. When I got back my practice was overflowing, with lots of paperwork to catch up on. (There's that catch-up thing again!) And then we had a power outage. In the middle of doing a post, the power went out for a day. I was so busy trying to eat all the food in my fridge, I didn't have time to photograph or write! I'm back for now.........That is, until I go to India...........

Noodle Kugel and Lawrence Ferlinghetti on a hot night

It's hot. It's bloody hot. Last week, it was cool, cloudy, and even kinda misting. Now my plants are fainting and my cat is passed out on the bed. In years past, we used to refer to "May gray" and "June gloom". These were not bipolar months. These were months that knew what they were about -- they were there to remind us that summer's sun was still just out of reach, and that the plants had one last shot at moisture before the summer dry season. So when I was planning the party I was going to throw for my neighbor, who turned 93 this past Wednesday, I was envisioning the whole thing taking place indoors. I saw the neighbors gathered around the island in my kitchen, happily eating and drinking and sharing stories, while Mary, at 93, sipped on her martini. (I think it's her secret to longevity!) And then the heat struck. It's a good thing I had been working on the stone path outside. At least people could walk around without having to avoid the gap between the path and the garden, which had a couple of bricks and stones strewn among the tree roots. At least I finished that part, and all I had to do was rake the dirt to a sorta- kinda level, and borrow some chairs from one of the neighbors. At the last minute I discovered that there would be 11 of us (instead of the original 8), and then a woman showed up at the gate who was the niece of a long-time friend of Mary's, making it 12.

The greatest joy of this party was two-fold: Mary's delight in being surrounded by friends, and my increasing sense of belonging to this wonderful community. I live on a short block which ends in a cul-de-sac, and everyone knows Mary. At 93 she has all her marbles and a wicked sense of humor. People brought salads and wine and stories to share. The woman who showed up late brought a book of Lawrence Ferlenghetti poetry and read one by flashlight for Mary. We all applauded when she was done.

The food was the kind which could be enjoyed hot or cool. The martinis were definitely cold, as was the white wine. Not knowing everyone's eating habits, I always have vegetarian food as well as something with chicken. This time I made a couple of pizzas with chicken marinated in an ancho chili and raspberry sauce (it was too dark to photograph by the time the pizzas came out!), as well as the Spinach Ricotta tart I had posted here back in April. And then there's this dish, which, if you're lucky and have any leftover, makes for a terrific Sunday breakfast!
Noodle Kugel

1/2 pound wide egg noodles
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 pound cottage cheese
2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup raisinsPreheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Boil the noodles in salted water for about 4 minutes. Strain noodles from water. In a large mixing bowl, combine noodles with remaining ingredients and pour into a greased, approximately 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

Bake until custard is set and top is golden brown, about 30 to 45 minutes.

And here is the poem which capped off our evening:

I Am Waiting

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting
for someone to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep through the state of Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped’ onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Great Divide to ‘be crossed
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am awaiting retribution
for what America did
to Tom Sawyer
and I am waiting
for the American Boy
to take off Beauty’s clothes
and get on top of her
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am waiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Sunflower Seed Rye

For our last meeting of the San Diego Bread Lovers, the theme was rye bread. Now for me, rye bread means New York Jewish deli rye. Not only the kind with caraway seeds, but the kind you can only really get in New York. Trust me on that one. Even if they call it New York deli rye elsewhere, it doesn't taste the same. But I had been given a gift certificate to Borders and I had used it to buy Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. In it are some of the most drool-inducing photos of breads I've ever seen. So when I saw the photo of his sunflower seed rye, I decided I would give that one a try. Aside from the substitution of sunflower seeds for caraway seeds, I loved the shape of this bread and thought it might be fun to bake something round, with a hole in it, that wasn't a bagel.

I have to share one quick fact with you before I get on to the recipe. I know that the common wisdom these days says that if you want to lose weight, cut out the carbs. Don't eat bread, potatoes, pasta, etc. First of all, since I started baking bread, I've lost 2 pounds. I'm not on a diet, and I think I would have lost more if I had had the time to exercise more, but nonetheless, the scale says I'm 2 pounds lighter. At first I was shocked by this. How could I be eating more bread and losing weight? Then I thought about it. Have you ever been to France? To Italy? Do you see those people counting carbs? Are they fat? How come?

I have been saying for years that the biggest reason why America is the fattest country on earth is because of petroleum. It's not carbs, it's petroleum. How's that, you might ask? Well, we tend to get into a $25,000 car, move it 4 blocks to buy a $5 chicken. In any situation where we might be using our own muscles, we use something that uses petroleum to do the job for us. Hell, we'd rather get on a treadmill at the gym than go for a walk! To put it another way, we'd rather use a machine that aids our legs in moving, than just use our legs. Or we'll take an elevator to go up to the 2nd floor instead of the stairs. The examples are legion, the results are the same: weight gain.

Now go back to the question I asked above: How come Europeans, who don't count carbs, aren't fat? One big reason is that gasoline has been at least $6 per gallon in Europe for a long time. I haven't been there in a while, so it might be much more than that now. But at that price, people don't casually jump into their cars and go 2 blocks to buy groceries. They walk. And in more rural areas, there's always the bicycle. And they don't tend to drink diet sodas (those make you hungrier, by the way, so that you'll wind up eating more), and they definitely don't eat sugar free or fat free foods! They eat real food, with carbs, they drink wine, and they're not fat.

OK - I'm off my soap box now. Time for the recipe!

Sunflower Seed Rye

Soaker:

1 1/3 C (5.65 oz) coarse, whole-rye flour or rye meal
3/4 C (6 oz) water, at room temperature

Dough:

1 C (5.5 oz) firm starter
2 C (9 oz) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
1 1/2 tsp (.38 oz) salt
1 1/4 tsp (.14 oz) instant yeast
1/2 to 3/4 C (4-6 oz) water, lukewarm (90-100 degrees)
1/2 C (2 oz) sunflower seeds

1. The day before making the bread, make the soaker by stirring together the coarse rye flour and water in a small bowl. The rye will soak up the water quickly, but it will all hydrate. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it out overnight at room temperature.

2. Also the day before baking (or up to 3 days before), make a firm starter. (If anyone wants the recipe for this, just email me and I'll send it to you!)

3. The next day, remove the starter from the refrigerator 1 hour before making the dough. Sprinkle a little flour n the counter and transfer the starter to the counter. Cut it into 8 to 10 pieces with a pastry scraper or serrated knife. Mist with spray oil, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and let sit for 1 hour to take off the chill.

4. To make the dough, stir together the flour, salt and yeast in a 4 qt. mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer). Add the soaker and the starter pieces and then slowly add the water, stirring with a large metal spoon as you do (or mixing on low speed with a paddle attachment), until the ingredients form a soft ball.

5. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter and knead the dough (or mix on medium speed with a dough hook). Sprinkle on bread flour (not rye) as needed until the dough feels soft and supple, tacky but not sticky. Try to accomplish this within 4 minutes by hand or machine, to avoid overmixing (rye flour gets gummy if mixed too long). Add the sunflower seeds by gradually working them into the dough within the next 2 minutes. Total mixing time should not exceed 6 minutes if possible. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it in the bowl to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

6. Ferment the dough at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until it doubles in size.

7. Sprinkle flour on the counter and gently transfer the dough to the counter, taking care to minimize degassing of the dough. divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and gently form them into boules. Let them rest on the counter for 5 minutes and then shape them into a couronne by poking a hole in the middle of the boule, and then gently stretching into a large, circular doughnut shape. Lay the dough on the counter, and use a small dowel to press a square shape around the central hole. Lightly sprinkle flour over the top to prevent the depressions from closing. Transfer the dough to a sheet pan that has been lined with baking parchment and misted with spray oil. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap or a towel.

8. Proof the dough at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it increases to about 1 1/2 times it's original size.

9. Place a pizza tile on a rack in the middle of your oven and an empty water pan on a rack below it. Preheat to 500 degrees.

10. Generously dust the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal and gently transfer the dough to the pan. Slide the dough onto the baking stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan). Pour 1 C of hot water into the steam pan and close the door. AFter 30 seconds, open the door, spray the walls with water, and close the door. Repeat twice more at 30 second intervals, then lower the oven setting to 450F and bake for 10 minutes. Check th breads, rotating them 180 degrees for even baking. Lower the oven setting to 425F and continue baking until the loaves are golden brown. This should take 15 to 25 minutes longer.

11. Remove the loves from the oven and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing or serving.

Kitchen Notes:

If I made this bread again, I'd skip the transference to the baking sheet with the parchment lining, and transfer them instead directly to the back of a sheet lined generously with cornmeal. Transferring twice just increases the chances of degassing, which means your bread will not rise as much as you would want it to.

For more health news, visit Mission Valley Acupuncture

Country Sourdough Boule

I never thought of myself as having an addictive personality. But I realize that the physical pleasure of the senses draws me like a moth to a flame. After all, isn't that why we love to cook? To inhale deeply the aromas coming out of the kitchen, followed by the play of the tastes in our mouths?

So when I saw this bread rising in my oven, and later when I withdrew it and put it on the rack to cool, I gasped in disbelief. Did I really just make this? Is that possible? But yes, there it was, on the rack, cooling. And the smells in my kitchen told me that yes, this was real. It took all my self control to wait until it had cooled - really cooled - before slicing it. And when I did, another jump of the heart. The crumb was perfect!
Now, I had made bread before. When I lived in New Mexico, I used to make a desem bread and I once posted the recipe here on this blog. But for all that, I never considered myself a bread baker. In fact, I never considered myself a baker at all.

New day, my dears.

It's beginning to dawn on me that my time, energy and money all seem to be going into the kitchen and the garden these days. If I'm not turning out another bread or scone or tart, I'm digging in a new coleus or verbena. It's all been about color, texture and form, whether in the garden or the kitchen. The only difference is that the kitchen has one overarching principle, and that would be flavor. Because after all, if it doesn't taste good, who cares?

This sourdough boule comes from Amy's Breads, by Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree, and it satisfies the senses in every way, from the smell of it baking, to the feel of it as you transfer it to the rack, to the hollow sound as you thump on the bottom to be sure it's done. And then, of course, there's the taste. That heavenly, slightly acid sourdough taste that fills your mouth as you crunch through the crust to the chewy interior. There's just enough rye flour in this to give it a wonderful color.

Makes two, 1 1/2 pound round loaves

3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 C (2 ounces) very warm water (105 - 115 degrees)
5 1/3 C (24 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 C (5 ounces) pumpernickel flour
Scant 2 TBS (3/4 oz.) kosher salt
1 C (7 1/2 oz. Levain Starter
2 1/4 C plus 2 TBS (19 oz) cool water (75 degrees)

Equipment: Two round baskets about 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 inches in diameter. (see Step 8)

1. Place yeast and warm water in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to dissolve the yeast. Allow to stand for about 3 minutes.

2. Whisk the unbleached flour, pumpernickel flour, and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Add the levain starter and cool water to the yeast mixture and mix with your fingers for 2 to 3 minutes, just long enough to soften the levain and break it up into small pieces. Add the flour mixture and stir with your fingers to incorporate the flour, scraping the sides of the bowl and folding the dough over itself until it gathers into a shaggy mass.

4. Move the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 6 to 8 minutes, until it becomes supple and somewhat elastic. The dough will be very sticky at first; keep your hands and the work surface lightly floured using a dough scraper if necessary to prevent the dough from sticking building up on the work surface. As you continue kneading, the dough will become more elastic and easier to handle. Shape the dough into a loose ball, return it to the bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap. Let it rest for 20 minutes.

5. Knead the dough again on the lightly floured surface for about 2 to 3 minutes, or until it becomes very smooth and springy. Shape the dough into a loose ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Turn the dough to coat with oil and cover the bowl tightly with oiled plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature (75 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit) for 1 hour, or until it looks slightly puffy but has not doubled.

6. Refrigerate the dough overnite to allow the flavors of th ingredients to combine and mellow.

7. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to rise for 2 hours.

8. Line 2 round baskets with well floured cloths. If you don't have baskets, use 2 round bottomed bowls or colanders. Gently remove dough from the bowl and place it on the lightly floured work surface. Divide it into 2 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a boule, being careful not to tear the outer surface of the loaf by exerting too much pressure during shaping. Place the boules seam side down in the prepared baskets. Cover them with oiled plasstic wrap and let rise for about 3 to 4 hours or until they have almost doubled in volume.

9. Thirty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450F. Place a baking stone in the oven to preheat and place an empty water pan directly below the stone.

10. Dust a peel or the back of a baking sheet generously with coarse cornmeal. Quickly but carefully tip the loaves out of the baskets onto the prepared peel or baking sheet. (If the floured cloths have stuck to the loaves, gently peel them away.) Shake the peel or pan gently to be sure the loaves aren't sticking and slide them onto the baking stone, leaving at least 2 inches between them to allow for oven spring. (If your stone isn't large enough to accommodate both loaves, cover one loaf with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until the first loaf has finished baking, the bake the second loaf.) Quickly pour 1 cup of very hot water into the water pan and immediately shut the door. After 1 minute, using a plant sprayer, quickly mist the top and sides of the oven 6 to 8 times, then immediately shut the oven door. (Avoid spraying bread when misting or the flour on top will look blotchy and unappetizing. Avoid spraying any light bulbs in the oven as they might crack.) Repeat the misting procedure 1 minute later.

11. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 400F and bake for 20 minutes longer, until the loaves are a deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Transfer them to a rack and allow to cool before serving.

Kitchen Notes: There's a lot of science that goes into bread baking, and my eyes glaze over with most of it. Perhaps in time it will sink in, but in the beginning, this is what I've learned:
Bread bakers always weigh their ingredients. You can measure in cups and tablespoons, but the amounts will actually differ if you do it this way. A cup can weigh more or less than the desired amount, but 5 oz. will always be 5 oz.

A peel? Oh, yes, that goes with my wood fired pizza oven in the back yard - right? NOT! I couldn't even use one if I had it. The space between my oven and the island in my kitchen is too small. I use the back of the baking sheet and it works just fine, thank you.

I don't have cloth lined baskets. I use one colander and one bowl. They work fine. The important thing is to not wash the floured cloths. You can rinse them all you want, but don't use soap on them in between bakings. You don't want that flavor or the chemistry of soap interfering with your bread!

If you seriously want to make this bread and can't find a recipe for a levain starter, email me. I'll send it along to you.

And lastly, the question is always raised "Is it worth it?" I mean, after all, this takes time! Well, I can only answer for myself. Yes. I live within walking distance of a wonderful bakery. But that doesn't fill my house with the aromas of baking bread. That doesn't satisfy the personal creativity of baking bread, such as - how about if I add something to this dough - like olives or sunflower seeds, for instance? And then, there the warm roundness of the loaf itself as it comes out of your own oven. You didn't need to put socks on to get it. You didn't even need to brush your hair. You just fell out of bed and started the process, and while it was busy rising and doing it's thing, you found the time to do other things. Like run to the nursery and find some kind of plant with reddish leaves that likes shade, to go with the New Zeland flax you bought the other day......

An Array of Breads

OK. I admit it. I'm hooked. I thought it would be a passing fancy, but it's proven to be more addictive than that. I honestly don't understand it, since it's not like I don't have anything else to do, and this particular "hobby" is time consuming. Not continuously, like playing golf or anything, but you only get a few hours in between the steps for getting your laundry done, watering the garden, running to the store because you forgot something.....that sort of thing.

But oh.........is there anything better than walking into your house and inhaling the smell of bread being baked? It's more subtle than a stew bubbling away on the stove top, or a roast simmering in the oven. But subtlety is something I appreciate more and more as I get older. Perhaps because I don't find it all that often, and so it becomes more like a rare gem.

So I'm going to be posting about the 3 breads I've baked recently: A "Pain a L'Ancienne" Ciabatta, a Country Sourdough Boule, and a Seeded Sourdough Rye. These recipes have been taken from 2 sources: Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" and Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree's "Amy's Breads".

So if you're a carbophobe, or have little interest in bread, you might want to check back around Memorial Day. Not that I'll be over my addiction by then, but I've got a number of other recipes to share. It's not that I haven't been cooking or photographing, folks. It's just that I haven't had the time to sit and write. Not when I can be outdoors, expanding my garden, planting new color combinations as well as a fresh herb garden.

Oh! Yes! And go to work!




The recipes for these will be coming soon to a theater near you.........I promise!

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