news.

Well, to be honest, I have not been that busy. At least not so busy that I could not perhaps write a new post on things I have been making. In fact, I have made a couple of good soups recently that I have just been too lazy to type up. I think I will write one tomorrow, but as of right now I will just talk about the things that have been happening recently.

This weekend I went to some party. It was pretty decent, fairly reminiscent of home. A lot of kids who ride bikes. It was semi-nice to feel like I was in Richmond again. At the same time, I left Richmond to see new things.

This weekend I went to brunch at the Green Zebra. I fairly nice vegetarian restaurant. I had the Monte Cristo with camembert, apples, and leeks. It was really good, but fairly heavy. The person with whom I went got the eggs benedict. I did not try any in the attempts to slowly cut out animal products from my diet (if not entirely, primarily). I know, the Monte Cristo of course had eggs on it, but for now I am just trying to cut out eggs in its straight cooked form. I think I would have done the Monte Cristo a little differently in terms of the amount of egg used, at the very least. Also, before the meal, we were served Madeleines, which are delicious little cake/cookie things in the shape of shells. They are very sweet. It came with a sort of maple syrup sort of frosting in a cup? It was delicious. The wait staff was fairly pleasant, and very attentive to our meal. I really liked the ambience; it was fairly modern with a nice clean setting. We also ordered some fries to share between us. We were using a Groupon. A Groupon is a coupon you buy for a certain price that pledges another price toward the bought object or service. For instance, the price paid was 20 dollars, but it pledged 40 dollars to the meal. If you can, I would look these up for your area.

Over all, the Green Zebra was pretty good. I really liked the atmosphere and the food. I just wish there were more vegan options. I don't think a single dish, for the brunch at least, as vegan. Actually, I just read the menu again, everything has either cheese or eggs. Anyway, if you aren't vegan and have money, I suggest this for a nice brunch.

Hopefully soon I will write a new entry on an actual dish I have made. There are a couple I have made on which I would like to write, and a couple dish I would like to make on which I could write.

Pane Siciliano

So, here's another baking recipe. It is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Great book, get it if you enjoy baking.

I made this bread yesterday. It is pretty decent; I am not a huge fan of the crumb, I think that is primarily due to the fact that its not quite as chewy as I like it and the holes are kind of small. Then again this can be fixed by kneading longer. At least I'm pretty sure that's how. I read that the holes should be more irregular in size. Otherwise pretty good, and different than what I am used to.

This bread is not vegan in a strict sense. It has a tablespoon of honey in it, but if you're okay with that, then cool.

Instruction:

First is first, start with a pâte fermentée. I outlined this in my entry on Pain de Campagne. So check that out for the starter, pâte fermentée.

The next day when that's ready take it out of the fridge, cut it into about 10 pieces and let it sit out, covered, for an hour. This takes the chill off. Mix 8 oz. Semolina Flour, 8 oz. Bread Flour, 1 and 1/4 of Instant Yeast, 1 and 1/4 tsp of Salt. Once the pâte fermentée is ready go ahead and throw that in the bowl of the dry stuff, and then pour in 2 tbps of Olive Oil, 1 tbps of Honey, and about a 1 and 1/4 cup or so of lukewarm water. Stir this all together until it forms a ball. Okay, if it looks too dry add about a tablespoon at a time of water, until it seems sticky enough. If you haven't ever baked bread, it will be until the bread is kind of tacky, but not necessarily sticky. Don't be afraid about messing up, you can always add a little flour, plus, more will be going into this when you make a bed of flour for kneading.

Okay get ready to knead for about 10 minutes, maybe a little longer. The dough ball should be smooth and tacky, not sticky. Put it in a bowl coated with a little bit of oil (only to ease getting it out later, the recipe doesn't call for it, but if you're not used to trying not to deflate bread, then this might be a good idea). Let it hang out at room temperature for 2 hours, it should about double in size. Take it out of the bowl and cut it into 3 equal pieces. Stretch a piece out to about 2 feet or so and working at each end, roll the ends toward the middle on opposite sides of the stretched out piece. It should work together into a little S shape. Once you have made three, put them on baking sheets that have semolina flour on them, to prevent sticking, and either put them in a big food grade back, or just cover them with saran wrap. I just covered them and they came out fine. The saran wrap kind of smooshed the S look, but oh well. You're supposed to put them in the fridge, but since I have roommates, I have no fridge space for huge pans of bread. I put it in our sun room, and it being winter in Chicago in a room with no insulation, that worked just fine as a fridge.

Okay, it says to proof over night, but it also says you don't have to. If you want a more developed flavor, let them proof over night. If you don't care, don't have fridge space, or for whatever reason, I would let it proof for a couple hours at room temperature, until it about doubles in size.

Then you hearth bake the bread, which is also outlined in the Pain de Campagne post.

It should be nice and brown with a crispy crust.

As said earlier, it's a little different since the content is about half Semolina. I don't know if I have ever had a Semolina bread. It is pretty good though. I would probably make it again.

Chickpea & Quinoa Pilaf

I have made this two times in the past week. It was very good and rather easy.

So first is first, sautee a small yellow onion in a bit of olive oil (2 tbps) for about 6-7 minutes on medium area heat, not too hot though. After this add 2 cloves of minced garlic. Sautee for another 2 minutes. Some people actually do mise en place, which is nice if you're worried about something burning or maybe you're a ridiculously slow chopper/mincer, etc. Mise en place meaning having everything you need for the meal already prepared and in a place that is easily accessible. I like multi-tasking so I just mince garlic during, do whatever is easiest for you. Anyway, while that is sauteeing get ready to throw in 1 tbps of tomato paste (I just use ketchup ha, they're similar enough for me), 1 tbps coriander (the recipe says crushed, but who actually buys whole coriander seeds? I just used ground), 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp of salt, and about 1/8 of a tsp of black pepper. Throw those in when the garlic has sauteed. Mix it up a bit, it should only be in for a minute or so, then throw in the cup of quinoa. Okay, I didn't only use quinoa because first time I made it I ran out so I cut it with bulghur (bulghur is a whole grain generally made from durum wheat). This time I did the same thing because I liked it so much. I used about 1/4 cup of bulghur and 3/4 cup of quinoa. Once again do whatever you think is best. Sautee this for about 2 minutes. Heating grains brings out starch making them able to form better starchy bonds. At least that's how it works in rice, I imagine it works similarly in quinoa and bulghur. After you sautee that and mix it up a bit, add a can of drained chickpeas and about 2 cups of vegetable broth. Bring this to a boil. Once at a boil lower the heat down pretty low. I put it at a low simmer. And cook for 18-20 minutes, or whenever all the broth is gone.

This takes a little over 30 minutes so its a quick meal. It is also rather easy. The only thing really to worry about is if the heat is too high and the onions or the garlic get burnt. Otherwise it's very straightforward, quick, and good. A good pairing that I used was Lemon Garlic Broccoli. I really like a bit of lemon in a side dish paired with the quinoa.

Well, I think tomorrow I will be posting about the Pane Siciliano I have been working on. I planned to make it today but I misread and found out it has to proof again overnight....sigh.

lulz

It took awhile to do a new post despite the fact that I made the Gumbo was made like a week ago, probably longer. I have been busy doing some stuff. I finally got a job sort of? I have been meeting some new people and going out and doing stuff occasionally.

JOB
I called some Craigslist ad number and it turned out to be canvassing for Grassroots Campaigns. I am canvassing for the ASPCA, which is pretty cool. I pretty much go out and do fund raising for Grassroots Campaigns on behalf of the ASPCA. It's some small office in the Loop with a bunch of people my age. I really enjoy the work, but it is kind of hard. I have one to two more days to make 100 dollars in one day to make staff. If I don't do this, then I get let go. It is pretty difficult to get people to donate money to animals when there is a recession. At the very least I made some money, got out of the house, and met some really cool people.

STUFF
I have, in the mean time, been trying to find other jobs. I have had some interviews with places. I had a call back from a restaurant that turned out to be almost a fast food place. That was a huge let down. Hopefully I will have better luck soon. The weather here has not been as brutal as I expected. It only got less than 20 for like 2 weeks. Then again, in that 2 weeks there was a day where it was -9 degrees with wind chill. That was pretty terrible. For the most part it has stayed above 20, which is fine by me.

That is a basic catch up of what has been going on. Boring - I know.

I need to get some money and go to restaurants and talk about them in posts. Right now I have only really gone to Chicago Diner, Earwax, Sultan's, Handlebar, and a few others. Honestly, I have not been very impressed other than Sultan's. I think my next post will be about why Chicago Diner was not everything I thought it would be. Well, except for the cupcakes and milkshakes. Good Lord those were amazing.

Vegan Gumbo

So, I have been wanting to make a gumbo for awhile so a week ago I did. It was fairly decent. I had a couple of issues with the end result (not due to the recipe but rather with problems in work). Unfortunately, I started late and had something to do later in the evening, so I was rushed. A huge thing for gumbo is time. A whole lot of time. I really enjoy a more involved recipe, and this is it.

First of all, you need to make a Roux. This is a heated mix of Oil and Flour. I do not suggest using olive oil because it has a low smoking point, but if you're careful you can use it. I used regular vegetable oil, but I have read Canola or Peanut Oil are really good for this. Of course you can use butter, but it generally calls for Ghee (clarified butter), which I did not feel like making or buying. There are ways to make Ghee at home, but I won't get into that here. Anyway, you mix about 1 part Oil and 1 part Flour. For the purposes of this recipe, it's a 1/4 cup of each. I actually put a little more Flour in, I would put closer to a 1/3 of a cup. You slowly mix in a little flour at a time over low/medium heat. After it is all mixed, you heat it anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour (this estimate is based on more than one Roux recipe I have read, since it is so variable I would suggest keeping a good eye on it and stopping when you feel it is a dark brown). It needs to be a nice dark brown. Make sure the Oil isn't smoking before you mix and you need to watch this pretty carefully to make sure it does not burn. Stir a bit every couple minutes or so. I did this in the same pot in which I was going to make the soup to facilitate the process.

Once you've made your roux sauté 1 chopped Onion, 1 chopped Bell Pepper, and 1 chopped Celery rib in the Roux and 2 cloves of Garlic. Coat all the chopped ingredients in the roux and sauté until the vegetables are soft. Obviously this varies depending on the stove. Mine takes about 6-8 minutes on medium low heat. Remember, be careful not to burn this stuff, since it's a long process it's annoying to start over. Once you've done this, add a quart (4 cups) of Vegetable Stock. If you aren't vegetarian or vegan just add any stock you prefer. Also add 2 Bay Leaves, 1 tsp Thyme. 1 tsp Black Pepper, a dash of Cayenne for flavor, 1/2 pound of Okra, and half of a 15 oz. can of chopped Tomatoes. I got frozen chopped Okra, but if you can find the actual produce, by all means get it. It needs to be chopped in about 1/2 inch long pieces. Unless you like your gumbo super chunky. I also added seitan, but you can add tempeh or tofu. But you do this later in the cooking process.

Okay, let this all simmer for about 30 minutes. Then throw in the cubed Tempeh, cubed Tofu, or chopped Seitan. Simmer this for another 10-15 minutes. Serve this over some rice, and you're good to go.

When I did it, as mentioned before, I was rushed, so I only let it simmer for about 20, if that. Also, I was rushed on the Roux. So, that wasn't as dark and thick as I wanted it. The end result was still really delicious. If I did this again, I would take more time on the Roux, and I would let the soup simmer for longer. Also, I find that soup is always better the next day, or at least a couple hours later. I am not really sure why. Overall I enjoyed it. I have read that traditional Gumbo does not have Tomatoes in it though, but whatever.

Tomaticán

Tomaticán is a Chilean stew. If you like stews, or any food, that is heavily tomato, this is something you should look into. I really liked it, but the original recipe is pretty simple so I spruced it up. It is 1 whole medium onion, 28 oz. of diced or chopped tomatoes, 1 can of lima beans (drained), and 2 cups of corn. For spices: it's a 1/4 tsp. cayenne and 2 tsp. cumin. I thought two full cups of corn was a little over doing it. So, since it turned out I only had 1 cup of corn anyway, I added 1 cup of peas too. I also thought a carrot would keep with the color and flavor of the stew overall, so I added one chopped carrot too. It is really easy to make.

You sauté the onions, carrots, and cayenne in a pot. Do this until the veggies soften a bit. Add the cumin and lima beans; sauté for a couple more minutes, and stir a couple times. Add the juice from the tomatoes, and let simmer, covered, for about 5 minutes. Stir in the chopped, or diced tomatoes, the corn, and the peas. In the recipe there is cilantro, but I personally hate cilantro, so I left it out. It tastes like soap. But if you like it, add it when you add the tomatoes and it's about a 1/4 cup chopped. Cover the pot, simmer for about 10 minutes, and you're set to go.

The prep time is about 5 minutes, depending on how fast you chop, or if you have fresh tomatoes. And the cooking time I would say is about 20 minutes, so this is a pretty quick meal. I really enjoy it; it's nice and spicy. The recipe I used left out garlic? I looked online for information on the stew and other recipes had garlic and used different beans, so feel free to experiment. Since it's a stew it's pretty versatile in terms of changing up veggies. I know next time I will be using garlic in it, since I love garlic and would use it in everything if I could.

More stews will be coming as winter progresses. What can I say? It's hot and delicious. Come spring I will try and use more seasonal veggies.

Pain de Campagne

So I made a sort of easy rustic bread yesterday called pain de campagne, finishing up a two day process. I have recently found out I really enjoy baking bread, so I am going to try and do it at least once a week. Many of the breads I would make take 2-3 days.

INSTRUCTION:

On day one you make a pâte fermentée. This is a pre-ferment to give the bread more flavor. Other pre-ferments are a biga or a poolish. Poolish is more of a slack dough whereas pâte fermentée and biga are more stiff. The pâte fermentée requires equal parts bread flour and unbleached white flour (8 oz.), 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp yeast, and 3/4 cups of room temperature water. If you haven't worked with bread before, make sure the water is actually about room temperature or near it. If it is cold water it will make the dough really stiff, and you do not want that. After you sift together the dry ingredients pour in the water and hydrate all the flour, you might need a little more water, that's fine. The recipe says to knead for 6-8 minutes. Kneading works the gluten to form bonds, if you under-knead the bread can crack and if you over-knead the bread can get too chewy. Thanks to youtube I found a pretty good instructional video on how to properly knead bread dough (How to Knead) since I imagine most people don't have a KitchenAid stand up mixer. Not to mention, I prefer to knead by hand.

After you've done this, you put it in a big bowl roll it around in a little oil, put saran wrap over the top and let it sit at room temperature for about an hour. It just need to swell to about 1 1/2 times its original size. Once you've done that, put it in the fridge until you're ready the next day.

I took mine out roughly 24 hours later, but I don't think that really matters. Cold fermenting is really slow anyway. It can stay in the fridge like that for up to 3 days. I think in the future I might do that and see if it tastes any different. Anyway, you take out the pâte fermentée and cut it into 10 pieces and let it sit, covered, for an hour, to take off the chill.

After an hour, pour into a bowl, 8 oz. bread flour, 1.5 oz. whole wheat flour, 3/4 tsp yeast, 3/4 cup of lukewarm water, and the pâte fermentée. Mix these into a course ball, sprinkle the counter with some flour, put the dough on the flour, put a little flour on your hands to prevent it sticking to you, then start kneading 8-10 minutes. It should not be very sticky, but kind of tacky. It should be soft as well. I usually do 10 minutes to be thorough, and I like a chewier bread. Once you've completed this, put it in a bowl, roll it in a little oil, and cover it for about two hours or until it doubles in size.

Once this step is complete (yea, I know it's a lot of steps) you take out the dough, and being very careful not to degas the dough cut it into 3 equal pieces. Bread Baker's Apprentice said to use a dough scraper or a serrated knife, but I used a regular santoku dipped in cold water so it wouldn't stick to the dough. Then you shape the dough, the easiest is a boule (here is another nice video illustrating how to shape a boule courtesy of youtube). Once you've done this, put the boules on some flour or parchment paper, mist them with oil (I just rubbed them with oil by hand, lightly) and cover them with saran wrap. Let them hang out like this for about an hour.

Once they have proofed for about an hour, heat the oven to 500 degrees. We will be preparing the oven for hearth baking. Put a pan in there while it heats up. Once the oven is preheated put a cup of water in the hot pan. Steam is essential for the hearth baking. I use a baking stone, but if you don't have one you can use a baking sheet. Sprinkle the baking sheet with semolina or regular flour and transfer the dough to the sheet. Stick the boules in the oven, close the door, and count to thirty, then mist the inside of the oven with some water. I have a gas oven, I don't know if this makes a difference to where you can mist. Count to thirty and do it again. After the misting, lower the temperature to 450, bake for 10 minutes, turn the sheet 180 degrees, then bake for 10-15 more minutes. The crust should be nice and golden. I would let this cool off for about an hour or so. Bread right out of the oven is such a nice smell.

Thoughts:

I really enjoy this bread. I know the task seems a little daunting at first. I mean, when I first started baking I was slightly annoyed by the idea that it took 2-3 days to bake a couple loaves of bread, but it is worth the wait. The flavor is a lot more developed and complex when you use a pre-ferment, and there is something really satisfying about the idea that you just made something that delicious. It also doesn't seem as long when you find out making a sourdough culture takes about 4 days. I have made a culture, but I sort of forgot about it...let's just say my fridge smelled like bad beer for a couple days.

I personally really enjoy the pain de campagne because I like a hard outer crust. And it is a pretty versatile bread in terms of aesthetics because it is really easy to shape. I made a fendu, and a coronne. A fendu is sort of like a short baguette, or a hoagie roll in a way. A coronne sort of looks like a big donut. There are some more shapes and patterns you can put in the bread, some are easier, some more difficult. I would really enjoy a brotform bowl for shaping and proofing my bread. It adds little lines in the bread and makes it look attractive.

This bread doesn't have big air pockets like ciabatta, it's more like a french bread sort of crumb. You can really taste the wheat come out in the flavor which is a nice change from french bread or ciabatta, or anything like that. I really enjoy this bread particularly because of that. I love wheat bread. A few pictures were taken, hopefully they will be posted soon. I am sorry in advance for looking like a bum in the pictures.

Well, hopefully this post inspired someone to go bake some bread.