One of my goals in retirement is to shop more at the farm markets, in order to support local farmers and eat more seasonally. It’s something I could never find the time to do when I was working. (Though I have friends who managed to do so even with full time jobs, so really, what was my excuse?…)
Although I adore the Union Square Green Market, it’s a bit of a schlep to visit on a regular basis. Thankfully, we have a wonderful farmer’s market every Sunday here on the Upper West Side, on Columbus Avenue just behind the Museum of Natural History. That’s where some lovely-looking oyster mushrooms caught my eye last weekend. Actually, they were the only variety the mushroom guy had left by the time we reached the market late afternoon. I brought them home in a brown paper bag. Then they sat in the fridge for a day or so while I wondered what to do with them.
I decided not to make this mushroom-broth infused farro, or this mushroom risotto with those oyster babies. Rising food prices have led us to commit to cutting out food waste and working first from the fridge, freezer and pantry when planning dinner. So instead, I reached for the leftover farro I discovered in the fridge, and concocted a little mushroom-onion delight. We served it alongside some sausages we found in the freezer and a salad made with greens and leftover homemade lemon dressing from the fridge. It was a delicious and satisfying dinner.
I’m really enjoying shopping the farm markets and looking for meal inspiration in my own fridge and pantry. Not to mention the upside of seeing our overcrowded, impossible-to-find-anything shelves take on a Marie Konda-like serenity as we begin to work our way through their contents. And the gratitude of realizing that these are the first-world problems of a life lived in abundance.
In that vein, I’ve committed us to use our food dollar savings towards a monthly donation to City Harvest, whose goal is to rescue NYC’s excess food so it doesn’t go to waste, distributing it to food pantries and soup kitchens across the five boroughs. They also run free neighborhood mobile markets, teach healthy cooking, and work with corner markets and groceries to encourage and support them in selling fresh produce and other healthy foods in their neighborhoods. Check out their App and online map that folks can use to find free food across NYC. A cause worth your contribution!
A great use for leftover cooked farro or rice. To make using uncooked farro, you can add the uncooked farro to the mushroom and onions just after they've sauteed, along with the recommended amount of water (or better yet, mushroom broth), and cook them all together till the farro is done. Serve as described.
Ingredients
2large clumpsFresh Oyster Mushrooms
2tbspbutter
2 tbspolive oil
1Onion, large, large mince
2cloves garlic, minced
1sprigFresh thyme, minced
salt and pepper to taste
sun dried tomatoes packed in oil for garnish
Grated Parmesan cheesefor the table
2cupsLeftover Cooked Farro or Rice
Instructions
Clean oyster mushrooms with a dry brush or paper towel. (Do not wash, as they will suck up all the water.) Chop the mushrooms into largish bite size pieces. They will be all sorts of shapes. Use all of the mushroom, even the stems.
Heat butter and oil in a large skillet or cast iron pan. When hot, add onions and saute over medium high heat till translucent. Add garlic and thyme and stir for a minute or so.
Add mushrooms and saute, letting them sit for spells so they brown, but being careful not to let them get too dry. (Oyster mushrooms don't have much water to give off, unlike other mushrooms you may be used to using. Although mine stayed nice and moist, if yours seem dry, at this point you can add a little mushroom, chicken or beef broth – but be careful the mushrooms will absorb it all if you let it cook too long.) Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add farro and cook till heated through.
Plate and garnish with thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes. Pass the Parmesan.
As the weather turns towards winter, the basil plant on my windowsill begins to worry me. Sure, it has sun in that spot, but less and less with each day, and eventually not enough to keep it alive when cold winds pummel the adjacent glass. Time to harvest what basil remains before it’s lost. I had just enough basil for a batch of pesto, but no pine nuts. What I did have was a tiny jar of walnuts in my freezer – exactly the amount I needed! So I made a batch of pesto using my recipe for basil pesto, substituting walnuts for pine nuts.
I also had about 2 cups of homemade chicken broth in the freezer. So I scouted around for a good way to use both the broth and the pesto and discovered this recipe from NYT Cooking. I substituted the basil-walnut pesto for the broccoli-rabe pesto in that recipe and Viola! A new recipe. It was delicious!
I love it when ingredient availability drives cooking invention.
1generous cupbasil-walnut pestoRecipe link in instructions
4 tbspolive oil
1cupfinely chopped fennel bulb
1 cupfinely chopped onion
1poundsweet Italian sausage, casing removed
2cupschicken stock
500gramsorecchiette about 1 1/4 pounds dried, or fresh (made with 4 cups flour)
Sun dried tomatoes, thinly sliced, for garnish(optional)
Instructions
Make a batch of Basil pesto, substituting walnuts for pine nuts, using this recipe.
Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on low. Add fennel and onion, and cook until soft but not brown. Add sausage and cook, mashing it to a fine crumble, until it is no longer pink. Add chicken stock and cook until the stock has mostly evaporated and just glazes the sausage. Transfer sausage mixture to a food processor and pulse until finely ground (But Not too much! ). Return sausage mixture to the pan. Fold in a generous cup of the pesto.(Can be made ahead and held here.)
Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orecchiette and cook until al dente. Reheat sausage mixture and add 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain pasta and add to pan with the sausage mixture. Toss until pasta is evenly coated. Fold in remaining ½ cup cheese, check seasoning, add more pasta water if needed, and serve topped with grated Parmesan and thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes.
Combine the basil, garlic, and salt in the bowl of food processor and grind till the mixture forms a paste. While running the food processor, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Fold in grated Parmesan. (If freezing, hold the Parmesan till just before using the thawed pesto.)
They don’t offer this granola on the menu at Eleven Madison Park, New York’s award-winning, 3-star restaurant serving only plant-based food, with a tasting menu that will run you $365 a pop. Instead, all diners get a jar of the granola as a parting gift at the end of their meal, to serve at tomorrow morning’s breakfast. It’s actually a nice touch…
The restaurant wasn’t always vegan, and not everyone was happy when chef Daniel Humm decided to eschew all but plant-based foods when he re-opened the place in 2021 after a Covid hiatus. Although Eleven Madison was once purported to have a waiting list 50,000 people long, I found plenty of available seating for dinner in December in their online system when I checked today. But the restaurant has kept its 3 Michelin stars and its granola remains a star of the show.
The granola is rumored to be both delicious and addictive, with an unusual saltiness. If you want to try it, you can buy a trio of 10 ounce jars online for just $69.
Or you can make it yourself, using the recipe published in Humm’s pre-vegan Eleven Madison cookbook and on the New York Times website. It’s delicious.
I’ve modified Humm’s recipe to make just 3 cups of granola, because we just won’t go through more than that before it starts to go stale. I’ve also reduced the salt as Sam Sifton of the Times suggests. I love how salt enhances almost anything, but Humm seems to have overdone it a bit in my opinion. (And that’s even after using Diamond kosher salt, which is the least salty per weight of the two Kosher salts) I also over-browned this batch a tad – still getting used to the countertop oven we are using while our gas is shut off. Humm states he cooks it at 350 degrees, but the Times recipe says 300, and when I tried a first batch at 350 it burnt. So stick with 300 degrees, and watch the granola closely while cooking.
1/2 cupunsweetened coconut chips, chopped into bite size pieces
1/4cupraw pumpkin seeds
1/2 tspDiamond Kosher saltMore or less to taste, but do add some salt.
1/4cupbrown sugar
1/4 cupmaple syrup
3tbspolive oil
1/2cupdried sour cherries
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, pistachios, coconut, pumpkin seeds and salt.
In a small saucepan set over low heat, warm the sugar, syrup and olive oil until the sugar has just dissolved, then remove from heat. Fold liquids into the mixture of oats, making sure to coat the dry ingredients well.
Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and spread granola over it. Bake until dry and lightly golden, watching closely and stirring granola every 10 minutes, for somewhere between 20 and 35 minutes, depending on your oven and desired browning. Granola will still be soft when it's finished, and will crisp up as it cools.
Remove granola from oven, and mix into it the dried sour cherries. Allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to a storage container. Makes about 3 cups.
Warning – The story behind this soup is a long one. A melodrama in three acts as it were.
Act I
It all started with a chicken that I purchased some weeks ago, in order to get a single chicken liver to use in a Bolognese ragu. After removing the liver from the little packet stuffed inside the chicken, I put the neck back in the cavity, put the chicken in the freezer and made the Bolognese.
Act II
Two weeks later, I took the chicken out of the freezer, put it in a pot with some veggies and water and cooked it, giving me a meat to make soft tacos for the a couple of dinners and lunches. And also a gorgeous chicken broth, which I froze to use later.
Wash chicken. Place it in a big soup pot along with chicken neck; an onion studded with 2 cloves and cut in half; a large leek, a large carrot and stalk of celery each cut into thirds; a turnip and parsnip cut into halves; a few sprigs of fresh thyme, and a handful of fresh parsley. Cover it all with cold water and for good luck add a small box of chicken bone broth (optional). Add a sprinkling of salt and pepper, simmer over low heat for a couple of hours till chicken is falling off the bone. Strain the broth, saving the chicken for later use, and refrigerate the broth overnight. De-fat and freeze in 3 cup batches.
All week I wondered what I should make with that broth. Motza ball or chicken noodle soup? Not in the mood for that. Risotto? Too heavy. White bean soup? Nah, not cold enough yet.
Act III
This morning, I sat down to get my costume ready for my friend’s birthday/Halloween bash tonight (sit down dinner, music and dancing). Its a big birthday for him, and I was excited to go. I was also kind of excited about our costume. We were going as a couple of idioms. I planned to tie apples, oranges and bananas from the bottom of my dress (low hanging fruit). Mr TBTAM would be a Catch 22 (No 22 pasted into a baseball glove, go Phils! ). Cute, right?
But first, as requested by our host of his guests, I did a rapid Covid test. And then I did another.
The results? Lets call them equivocal. (Here, see what you think, but know that the line in the pic is fainter than it looked in real life…)
I sent a pic of the results to my daughter, who works as a Covid liaison for the Department of Health, and her friends. It was unanimous – I was “positive”. I then uploaded the pic to the enormous text stream I have with my brothers and sisters and their spouses. They were unanimous. I was “negative”.
I had woken up feeling fine, but now, I was sure that I was starting to feel a little feverish, so I took my temp – normal. I did a third test, a different brand. An unequivocal negative.
What to do?
I think I’m probably negative. But, if I went to the party tonight and I’m an early positive, I’ve exposed a lot of folks to Covid, many of whom are in high risk groups. If I stayed home and I’m truly negative, the only evening that gets ruined is mine. I’d never forgive myself if someone got sick because of me, so I emailed our hosts my deep regrets. And immediately started to feel sorry for myself.
By this time, it was getting close to lunchtime. Mr TBTAM suggested grilled cheese – true comfort food for the woe begotten.
And then I knew what I had to make with the chicken broth. Cream of tomato soup.
But not rich, over buttery, cream-laden tomato soup. Something lighter, but with just a touch of creaminess. I didn’t have time to roast the tomatoes the way Cooks Illustrated and Ina Garten do, and as I will try next time I make this soup, but figured the home made broth more than made up for that. And I was right. The soup was wonderfully light but immensely flavorful.
The cheese sandwiches Mr TBTAM made us were also enlightened, using just and ounce or so of cheese for each, layered with tomatoes, red onion and a little mustard. He did toast them a little too dark, but I’m not complaining.
As we ate our delicious lunch, the warmth of the soup bathed my innards and I began to feel a little less morose. I sent some soup downstairs with Mr TBTAM to give to my daughter, who stopped briefly by on her way to Brooklyn with friends. She had it for her lunch, declared it a success and requested the recipe. That was all I needed to turn it into a great afternoon.
And tonight? Well, after all, it’s game 2 of the World Series, and the Phils won last night.
I think I’ll be fine.
ADDENDUM
Here’s my test from the next day. Unambiguously negative.
In a large stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Saute onions, garlic and celery till soft. Add flour and cook a minute. Add tomatoes, both and spices. Simmer uncovered for 40 mins.
Remove from heat and puree with immersion blender till smooth. Stir in milk and half and half and return to heat. Heat and serve.
We’ve owned our house in the Fairmount section of Philly for almost three years now, in anticipation of the day when we are ready to trade money for time, give up the daily grind that is the price for life in New York City, and move back home.
Well, I’m here to tell you that day has come.
A little sooner than anticipated.
You see, our landlord has decided to sell our Upper West Side apartment, and is not renewing our lease. Though I adore the apartment (small, but airy and sunny and the nicest kitchen I’ve ever had), we’re not going to try to buy it. Now is not the time to sink any part of our life’s savings into a building whose infrastructure seems to be crumbling around us.
Since we moved in, the hot water supply in the apartment has been anemic and erratic – it takes almost a half hour to heat up the water in the shower in our apartment line. (Old pipes…) Thankfully, our upstairs neighbor gets up earlier than we do, and runs her shower while she’s working out so that by the time we wake up, we can all take a hot morning shower. (I love New Yorkers…)
Four weeks ago, the building failed a Con-Ed inspection and our gas was shut off. (Old gas lines…) That means we have no working stove or oven. And probably will not have for the duration of our lease, which ends in four months.
Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s not the end of the world. We have heat and hot water (as it is). I’m making do for now with a cheap hot plate, but our landlord is getting us a larger countertop burner and oven. (I’m praying it will accommodate a Dutch oven for bread making…)
We’ve taken all this – the hot water, the gas, the unexpected lease non-renewal – as a sign that it’s time to leave. Not just this apartment, but New York City. We’ve been dragging out this goodbye for almost three years, and now it’s time.
Truth be told, I think we needed the push. ‘Cause you know, I do so love New York.
But I also love Philly.
I love the fact that we won’t need to keep working to afford to live there.
I love that I’ll be so close to family. (My sis and I share an alley and my daughter lives a few blocks away and did I tell you she’s engaged???!!!).
I love that I have a little brick row house with a backyard and it’s all my own, on the VERY BEST BLOCK in Philly. It’s a few blocks away from where we lived when we first were married, just around the corner from an amazing coffee shop, a bodega and local grocery, the best Bahn Mi sandwiches sandwiches and burgers I’ve ever eaten, and the great Irish bar with music on Friday nights. A stone’s throw from the Schuykill River and the excellent biking on the river drives. (Although I’m still puzzling out where to store the bikes…)
This past Friday, my daughter, sis and her hubby joined us and our dear out-of-town friends for drinks at our house, which is still sparsely furnished and awaiting our move here early next year. After drinks, we walked a few short blocks for a delicious Italian dinner on an outdoor table bathed by a warm heater. We closed the place after 11 pm, stopping on our walk home to watch the last play of the Phillies-Padres game on the outdoor big screen at the Irish bar. To top off the evening, the Phils won.
Then on Saturday, as If I needed any more convincing to move to Philly, our block had a party. (Didn’t I tell you I live on THE VERY BEST BLOCK in Philly?). The weather was perfect.
They blocked the ends of the street off to cars and set up chairs and tables, a moon jump for the kids and a big screen TV for the game.
There was even a band!
And lots of food.
We contributed our wooden folding table and benches. And I made lemon bars. In my WORKING GAS OVEN.
We met the most interesting, lovely people. Everyone was warm and welcoming. I can’t wait to get to know them all!
At the end of the night, we gathered around the TV to watch the Phils win the game that put them into the World Series. A perfect Philly way to end the day. Or as my sis put it “…watching the Phils’ at a block party? You gotch’er bona fides!”
This recipe is from Ina Garten. Be sure to use the correct sized pan (9x13x2in). My pan was small, so the bars were a little too high, though they tasted delicious!
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
8ouncesButter At room temperature
2cupsFlour
1/2cupsugar
1/8tspsalt
Filling
6Extra large eggsAt room temperature
3cupsSugar
2tbspgrated lemon zest (4-6 lemons)
1cupfresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cupflour
Confectioner's sugar, for dusting
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
Cream the butter and sugar until light. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed and gather into a ball. Press it into a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill for 30 mins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.
Whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
Cut into triangles and dust with confectioners’ sugar. Serve.
Thanks to my daughter for turning us on to Blistered Shishito Peppers – a simple, fast, delicious and fun appetizer.
The Shishito is mild pepper brought to the US from Japan and now widely available here in the United States. We got ours from Trader Joes, but you can easily grow them in your home garden.
The Shishito pepper likely came to Japan from Spain, where it is called a Padron pepper and is much hotter. It is believed to have mellowed after generations of selective breeding in Japanese soil.
The fastest and most fun way to get to know Shishito is to toss them in a little olive oil,
blister them in a cast iron skillet on the stove top
toss with lime and salt and eat ’em while they’re hot !
Despite its mild Scoville score of 50-200, it’s said that every batch of Shishitos will have at least one really hot pepper. Ours had more than a few hotties. Not that we complained. We like it hot!
Once you’ve mastered the blistered Shishito, don’t stop there. There are many ways to serve these bites of delight beyond just scarfing them down as they come out of the skillet. You can make a Shishito Salsa and serve it with steak. Or serve the blistered peppers atop a Corn and Japanese Curry or with charred cauliflower in a picada sauce. Or simply serve them with a dipping sauce.
As for me, next time I make blistered Shishito peppers I plan to double down on the Japanese – I’ll cook them in sesame oil and toss them with furikake and lime.
Rinse peppers then dry them well. Toss with just enough olive oil to coat, without any excess.
Heat cast iron skillet on med high heat till hot enough that a drop of water tossed into the pan bounces, sizzles and evaporates. Add peppers, distributing them evenly on the pan. Allow them to sit a few minutes to start to char, then begin turning them one by one so they char evenly on all sides. As they heat up, the peppers will expand and pop. This can be a little scary and cause burns, so avoid the popping by piercing the peppers with a tooth pick or tip of a sharp paring knife as they expand. As they become charred, they will loosen and shrivel down a bit, but should still retain their bright green color in non-charred spots. Remove them one by one as they become perfectly charred and place in serving bowl. The smaller peppers will cook and blister faster than the larger ones.
Toss with salt to taste. Serve warm with lime wedges.
Before there was Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy, there was Regional Italian Cuisine, a cookbook tour of Italy’s regions through its foods and recipes. While Stanley’s show is a light aperitivo, this book is the ten course meal, with recipes for dishes that will make you feel like you’re one of the Famiglia.
Each chapter of Regional Italian Cuisine focuses on a different region of Italy, summarizing in sequential, gorgeous two-page spreads of perfectly balanced text and photos its climate, crops, food specialties, regional events and sights to see. It then follows with short, well-written recipes of dishes native to the region. Every single recipe has an accompanying photograph, and some have photos of the recipe in progress. The recipes presume some knowledge of cooking, but I’ve never found them lacking in needed detail.
I don’t know where or when I bought this gorgeous tome, or when I annotated its regional map of Italy with notes to summarize the foods made there (I’m always prepping for an exam…). I do know that for years, it’s been my go to for all dishes Italian. The book (and it’s update in 2008) is out of print, but available used at a reasonable price.
Craving Ragu Bolognese
Recently, I found myself craving a ragù bolognese and remembering the light bolognese lasagna my friend Fabrizio had served us some years back. Unfortunately, Fabrizio was in Rome and not immediately available to give me his recipe. So I turned to my mainstay Italian reference, where I found a recipe for Maccheroni alla bolognese.
The first thing I noticed was that this Bolognese has no milk or cream, an ingredient that seems to be ubiquitous in most ragù bolognese, including the one officially notarized in 1982 by the Bologna Chamber of Commerce. Nor does it have tomatoes, though tomatoes are offered as a variation for those who just cannot imagine a ragù without them. (I used a small amount of tomato paste). And it has a single chicken liver!
For this dish the people of Bologna used a medium-sized pasta called denti di cavallo (horse’s teeth), and I agree that this kind of pasta is best for cooking in this style. … The following proportions are approximate for seasoning 500 grams (a pound) or more of pasta. 150 grams lean veal (better if in fillets.) 50 grams pancetta. 40 grams butter. One quarter of a regular onion. Half a carrot. Two palm-length ribs of white celery or the herb portion of a green celery. Just a little pinch of flour. A little pot of broth. A small amount of salt, depending on the saltiness of the pancetta and broth. Pepper and nutmeg to taste.
Cut the meat into small cubes, chop the pancetta, onion and herbs with a mezzaluna, and put them under the heat with the butter. When the meat has browned add the pinch of flour and broth and continue cooking until it is done.
Drain the pasta thoroughly and toss it with Parmesan cheese and this sauce, which you can make even better by adding some dried mushrooms, or sliced truffle, or a bit of chopped cooked chicken liver. Finally, you can add a half cup of cream to the sauce at the end of the cooking to make it more delicate. In each case, it is best that the macaroni arrive at the table not dry, but bathed in a bit of sauce..
Note that Artusi does suggest adding a half glass of cream at the end of his recipe, but this is only a suggestion and is entirely optional, according to Thomas Gwinner, who published an impressive history of the ragù bolognese.
Let us remember for comparison with later recipes that Artusi uses twelve ingredients and offers three optional ingredients for his ragù bolognese recipe. The twelve ingredients are veal, pancetta, butter, onion, carrot, celery,flour, broth, salt, pepper, nutmeg and Parmesan cheese. The three optional ingredients are dried mushrooms or sliced truffles, chopped cooked chicken liver, and cream.
Gwinner goes on to cite an even earlier related recipe from Alberto Alvisi in the 18th century. that uses chicken gizzard and cinammon, but never mentions milk or cream.
Ragù per li maccheroni appasiciati (Sloppy Macaroni) Put well-rendered lard, an ounce of butter, a finely chopped onion, and veal, pork loin or even some finely-minced chicken gizzard in a pot, and cook the mixture over high heat until nicely browned. Add the broth little by little along with an ounce of flour to give body to the sauce as it reduces. Be aware that this ragù must be neither too watery nor too thick, but perfectly cooked, and sufficiently flavored with salt, pepper, cinnamon or other spices. The pasta must then be perfectly cooked in meat broth or well-salted water before serving with the above mentioned ragù.
Drain the pasta thoroughly and put it into a large bowl. Add the ragù and give it a stir. It will suffice at least for a first course at lunch. It is essential that the dish be hot and well mixed before bringing it to the table. Please note that in order to give the above mentioned ragù more substance it may be necessary to unify the savory flavors by adding some finely chopped mushrooms or truffles.
Eataly and Lydia Bastianich have published ragù bolognese recipes without milk, so I think I’m in good company with this recipe. And check out Massimo Bottura’s ragù bolognese – not only does he omit the milk, he chops the meat himself ! (Well, his assistant chops it …)
While my recipe uses tubular pasta, these days it is considered traditional to serve ragù bolognese on tagliatelle (preferably homemade). Like Artusi, Bottura cooks his tagliatelle in the same broth he uses in his ragù, and then finishes the pasta off in a pan with the ragù. I think that will be my next iteration of this incredible dish.
Ragù bolognese is not your mama’s spaghetti sauce
It’s a whole different dish, a true meat sauce. Unlike your mama’s tomato sauce, it does not take hours to make and is light yet rich in flavor. You must try it.
Don’t be put off by the clove in this recipe – it’s there, but it’s not. Or the chicken liver – you cannot taste it individually, but it really enriches the flavor. Not to mention that you now you have something to do with the some of the giblets inside that chicken you just bought!
Macaroni with meat sauce, Bologna style (Emilia-Romagna)
Ingredients
1/2poundground beef
1chicken liver(1 ounce)
2thick slices bacon, minced(3 ounces)
1carrot, minced
1celery stalk, minced
2/3cupParmesan cheese, freshly grated
1lbPasta I used pasta al ceppo
1/2 cupbeef stockWarmed, plus more to thin the sauce later if need be
2 tbspbutter
1tspflour
1onion
1 whole clove
1bay leaf
Freshly ground nutmeg to tasteI used about 1/2 tsp
1pinchcayenne pepper
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
3tbsptomato paste
Instructions
Melt butter in a large frying pan. Add carrot, celery and bacon and stir-fry lightly
Add ground meat and brown. Dust the meat with flour and add beef stock and tomato paste. Season w salt, pepper and freshly ground nutmeg. Add the clove and bay leaf. Simmer, covered, about 20 mins.
In a large pot bring 8 cups of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook al dente.
Mince the chicken liver and add to the ground beef. Cook 3-4 mins. Season again with salt and pepper and a pinch of the cayenne. Remove the bay leaf (and the clove if you can find it).
Drain the cooked pasta. Plate and top with the meat sauce. Serve with Parmesan cheese.
Notes
Variation – Peel and seed 11 ounces tomatoes, chop and cook together with the sauce. Note – If you mistime the pasta and ragu, and the sauce thickens while you’re waiting for the pasta, just add some warmed beef stock or pasta water to thin the sauce out.
In the largest study of its kind to date, the Mediterranean Diet has trumped a low fat diet in secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. The study was conducted in Spain, where participants assigned to the Mediterranean diet received free olive oil. They were also instructed to use sofrito – “a homemade sauce with garlic, onion, aromatic herbs, and tomato slow cooked in olive oil” – in their cooking two or more times a week.
Free Spanish olive oil and Sofrito as a required food group? I’d have moved to Spain to be in that study! But since that never happened, I figured I’d make some Sofrito and find out why it’s front and center in the Mediterranean diet.
What is Sofritoand Why is it So Healthy?
Sofrito is an aromatic mix of herbs and vegetables, a sort of Mirepoix, used as a flavor base and enhancer in Spanish and Caribbean cultures. It’s more a cooking technique than a recipe in and of itself, and it’s where many recipes start. If you’ve made Paella, you’ve made a sofrito.
There are many versions of Sofrito, depending on where it’s being made. A Puerto Rican patient of mine once gave me a jar of her homemade Sofrito, which was a rich, oily cilantro-based delight. (Here’s a recipe for Puerto Rican Sofrito) Dominican Sofrito uses vinegar, and Cuban Sofrito has ham. The Spanish or Mediterranean Sofrito is primarily tomato based, and includes onions, garlic, herbs, peppers and lots of olive oil.
Spanish researchers have analyzed Mediterranean Sofrito, and determined that its heart healthy attributes are derived from an abundance of antioxidants – polyphenols and carotenoids – as well as Vitamin C. Slow cooking the veggies in olive oil allows these bioactive compounds to move into the olive oil, which in turn enhances their bio-availability. The beneficial effect is almost immediate – inflammatory markers decline in the bloodstream after just a single portion of sofrito!
How I’m Using Sofrito
Tuna on Farro with Sofrito and Parsley
It took no more to convince me to start including Sofrito in my diet. I made a simple recipe for Spanish Sofrito, which I served atop some leftover farro and Italian Flott Tuna (My fave canned tuna). It was a delicious, umami-rich lunch! A few days later, we topped a flatbread recipe from Ottolenghi with the rest of the sofrito, and served it alongside his Gigli, Chickpea and Za’atar.
I’ll be making Sofrito again soon and hope to find ways to incorporate it into my diet at least three times a week. Thinking of cooking an egg atop some sofrito, like a shakshukah, or using it to atop broiled fish. If you have ideas or suggestions for using Sofrito in everyday cooking, feel free to comment below.
This classic sauce is a staple of a heart-healthy Mediterranean Diet. There are lots of different Sofrito recipes out there – all have varying portions of tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, and herbs. This recipe is modified from one I found on the Spruce Eats.
Place a large heavy-bottom skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Once the oil is warm, add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until only slightly brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the onion and peppers, lower the heat and begin to cook them down VERY slowly, stirring occasionally, until the onions are caramelized. This will take about 30 minutes. About halfway through, stir in salt, pepper, pimenton and oregano.
Once onions are caramelized, add tomatoes and bay leaf (If using). Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until all the liquid evaporates and the color turns deep red, 25 to 35 minutes more. When everything is caramelized, the oil will begin to separate from the vegetables a bit. Remove the bay leaf.
Sofrito can be used immediately, or stored in fridge for a week and up to a year in the freezer.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and yeast. Add 1 tbsp of oil to the water, pour into the flour mixture and combine w a rubber or dough spatula. Transfer to a lightly oiled work surface and, with lightly oiled hands, knead the dough for five minutes, until soft and elastic (add more oil if it starts to stick to the surface). Transfer to a large bowl, cover with a slightly damp, clean tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise for about 40 minutes, until nearly doubled in size, then cut into four equal pieces.
Warm the sofrito in a small saucepan on the stove. Heat a large baking tray on the middle shelf in a 450 degrees Fahrenheit oven. When it has doubled in size, transfer the four pieces of dough to a lightly oiled work surface and use your hands to stretch each one into a rough circle about 18cm wide and 5mm thin.
Remove the hot tray from the oven and quickly put two flatbreads on it, spacing them well apart. Quickly return the tray to the oven and bake for eight minutes, until the dough is golden brown and crisp. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Top the flatbreads wtih the warmed sofrito and grate a little Parmesan atop. Serve immediately
I first encountered wild sumac in 2015 in Pennsylvania’s Loyalsock Forest. I’ve foraged for it most summers since, both there
and along the Pine Creek Rail Trail.
This year’s sumac crop was a little disappointing. Despite how much I picked, most of the fruits had worm infestations that limited the amount of usable berries. (Note to self – pick sooner in the season next year…) Still, I got about a cup and a half of dried sumac for my efforts, more than enough for my needs. (If you want to know how to harvest and dry sumac to make the spice, read here.)
I used the fruits of my harvest to to make Za’tar, a Middle Eastern spice mix of sumac, thyme, oregano, salt and sesame seeds.This year, my friend Paula gifted me some dried oregano just around the time I finished drying my sumac, so I used that and discovered that home-grown dried herbs make a superior spice blend! (Duh…)
If you’re looking to use za’atar in cooking, look to the cookbooks of Yotam Ottolenghi, the Israeli-born Brit who has introduced many a home cook to the flavors and spices of the Middle East. (He sells Sumac and a Palestinian Za’atar on his site.)
From Ottolenghi’s cookbook Simple comes this recipe for Gigli Pasta with Chickpeas and Za’atar. Here he uses za’atar as a garnish, which I find is a wonderful way to showcase the individual spices in the mix.
Even if you don’t forage your own sumac, za’atar is not too hard to find in most good grocery stores or online. I urge you to give it a try!
Gigli with Chickpeas and Za’atar
As much as I love this dish as published by Ottolenghi, I’ve made a couple of changes. First, I increased the garlic from 2 to 3 cloves (and may go to 4 cloves next time) and doubled the spinach. I’ve saved some pasta water to thin out the sauce at the end, as it really thickens if you let it sit. And I feel like the dish needs tomatoes to complete it. There are two ways to accomplish this. One is to add tomatoes to the sauce itself or to leftovers the following day. An even better option is to serve the pasta with flatbreads topped with tomato sofrito and garlic, as I’ve done up there. The combo is perfection.
Place large saute pan over high heat, All olive oil, then onion, garlic, cumin, thyme, anchovies and lemon peel, 1/2 tsp salt and a good grind of pepper. Fry, stirring often till soft and golden. Decrease heat to med-high, add chickpeas and sugar and fry , stirring occasionally, till chickpeas begin to brown and crisp up. Add chicken stock and lemon juice and simmer 6 mins, till sauce slightly reduced. Remove from heat and hold. (Can make ahead) If you are going to add tomatoes, I would do so along with chicken stock and lemon juice.
Boil large pot salted water. Cook pasta for 8 mins till al dente, Drain and set aside. (Save some pasta water if the sauce has gotten too thick, you can thin it a bit.)
Stir spinach and parsley into chickpeas, warming it to wilt the spinach if needed. Add pasta to the chickpeas and stir to combine. Divide among 4 plates and srpinkle za'atar atop. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and serve.
I found the recipe for this delicious Apple Cake on Food52, which features an adorable and informative video of Samantha Seneviratne and her little boy making a modified version of the original recipe, which Dorie Greenspan originally shared on Epicurious. Dorie credits her friend Marie-Hélène Brunet-Lhoste for the recipe, but truth be told, Dorie created this recipe herself, having been given only a few vague instructions from Marie-Hélène.
This cake is mostly apples with a little sweet batter (and a little rum…) holding them together. It’s easy to make, bakes up beautifully, and, reports Dorie, tastes “more comforting with each passing day”, making it a wonderful make-ahead dessert for a dinner party or pot luck.
Dorie’s recipe calls for an 8-inch springform pan, so if you have an 8-inch springform pan, work from her recipe and not mine. Since I only had a 9 inch springform, I adjusted Dorie’s recipe, increasing it 25%, which I learned is the increase in surface area when you move from an 8 to a 9 inch cake pan, and increased the baking time by about 10 minutes. (Thank you, Epicurious! ) I made my cake using gala apples, which tend to hold their shape while baking. Next time, I’ll take Dorie’s advice and mix up apple types, so that some melt into the cake while others hold their form
I used about 1/4 home milled whole wheat flour in this iteration, and plan to try it again with 50% whole wheat, which I read can be done without making any other adjustments to a recipe. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
120 g all purpose flour (I used 100 g all purpose and 20g home milled red spring wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Large pinch salt (Somewhere between 1/16 and 1/8 tsp)
5 large apples (if you can, choose different kinds)
2 1/2 large eggs (62.5 g beaten eggs)
187 grams sugar
4 tablespoons dark rum
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9-inch springform pan and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl.
Peel the apples, cut them off the cores and into 1- to 2-inch chunks.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk till foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the rum and vanilla. Whisk in half the flour and when it is incorporated, add half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter. Fold in the apples so they are evenly coated with batter. Scrape the mix into the pan and make sure it’s even.
Bake on the parchment lined baking sheet in the center of the oven for 60-65 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.
Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the pan. If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the spring-form pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then carefully run a spatula under and either slide it onto your serving plate, or invert onto parchment paper lined plate and then invert again onto the serving plate. (Mine just slid easily without needing to invert it twice.)
The cake can be served warm or at room temperature, with or without a little softly whipped, barely sweetened heavy cream or a spoonful of ice cream. (We served ice cream)
The cake will keep for about 2 days at room temperature. Dorie advises not to wrap the cake, as it it too moist. Just leave the cake on its plate and press a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper against the cut surfaces. I store mine in a vintage covered cake saver.
Sometimes a recipe is just so damned good it becomes a family standard. This is one of those recipes. We made it (and I posted it) for the first time over 10 years ago for Christmas Eve dinner, and about once a year since then. My mother-in-law Irene adopted the recipe to replace turkey at Thanksgiving, though I’m sure she’s tweaked it someway, as she always does.
Last night I tweaked it by adding two large carrots, diced, at the same time as the onion and garlic. Should have done that years ago, it’s the perfect addition. Next time I’m changing from chicken to beef broth. I never understood why the recipe uses chicken broth anyway.
So go yourself a favor and make these short ribs. Serve over unadulterated mashed potatoes with a side of roasted green beans (Blanch green beans in boiling water, then drain well, toss w olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 400 degrees F for 10-15 mins).
You’re welcome.
COFFEE-BRAISED SHORT RIBS
This recipe is modified from a bison-rib recipe on Epicurious. Serves 4-6.
Marinade
4 cups water
3 cups strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup coarse kosher salt
3 tbsp + 2 tsp packed brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons + 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups ice cubes
4 lbs short ribs
Short Ribs
1 cup boiling water
1 tbsp instant espresso
4 strips bacon, chopped (Optional, and just as delicious without the bacon)
2 cups chopped onions
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into large dice
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup low salt chicken broth
1/4 cup Mr TBTAM’s barbecue sauce (you can use tomato paste or chili sauce)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Marinade Stir water, coffee, salt and sugar in large bowl until salt and sugar dissolve. Add syrup and remaining marinade ingredients. Stir until ice melts. Add ribs. Place plate atop ribs to keep submerged. Cover and chill 4 to 6 hours. Drain ribs; discard marinade.
Short ribs Preheat oven to 325°F. In a pyrex measuring cup, stir instant espresso into boiling water and set aside to cool.(Alternatively, use another cup of strong brewed coffee.)
Sauté bacon in heavy heavy ovenproof pot over medium heat until fat starts to render and it begins to brown (be careful – don’t burn it!) Remove bacon to a plate. Increase heat to medium-high.
Working in batches, cook ribs until browned on all sides and transfer to a plate. Add onions, garlic, carrots and red pepper flakes to the pot and cook over medium heat till veggies are soft, about 10 minutes. Add coffee and broth; stir, scraping up browned bits. Add remaining ingredients; bring to boil. Add bacon and ribs, cover, and transfer to oven. Braise until meat is tender, about 2 – 2 1/2 hours.
Transfer ribs to plate; tent with foil to keep warm. Remove fat from surface of sauce. Boil sauce until thickened and reduced to your satisfaction (about 2 cups). Pour sauce over ribs.
Long time readers of this blog know I’ve been on a many years’ long journey to find and make the perfect chocolate cake. This cake came close, but it took me three tries to get its right, and still it wasn’t quite the best. My friend Susan and I have been trying to get the Black and White Cake recipe from Amy’s Bread, hands down the best cake I’d ever tasted, to perform in our hands, but with disappointing results. (We are convinced she, like many cooks, has left out something in the recipe to make sure that none of us could ever match that amazing cake.)
Well, dear reader, I’m here to announce that I’ve finally found a cake that matches up to Amy’s. Its from Ina Garten, called “Beatty’s Chocolate Cake.
It’s hands down THE BEST chocolate cake I’ve ever made. Moist, rich, but not too dense, dark, and delicious.
I attribute my success with this cake to several factors:
A great recipe.
Using good cocoa. I spent some time researching cocoa, and eventually settled on Valrhona Poudre de Cacao. Then I discovered that in her most recent version of this recipe, Ina actually recommends Valrhona, a departure from her usual recommendation of Pernigotti cocoa. Both these cocoa’s are Dutch process, which is an important distinction. Dutch processing alkalinizes the cocoa, raising the pH, which in turn can affect how well the baking soda works. In this recipe there is both baking powder and baking soda. I suspect the baking soda is because of the acidic buttermilk, and that the baking powder is there to augment the rise. I also suspect for this recipe, it probably doesn’t mater if you use Dutch process or regular cocoa in this recipe. But get a good quality cocoa.
These cake pans. An unusual size – 8 by 2 inches. They make for a very high yet compact and stable cake, easy to remove from the pan without breaking. I was tempted to split the layers and make a 4 tiered cake, but in the end left it as is and was not disappointed.
Using instant espresso powder to make the cup of coffee called for in the recipe. Espresso powder is an open secret ingredient in the baking community for enhancing chocolate flavor without adding too much in the way of coffee notes. I use Cafe Bustelo or Medaglia D’Oro brand, but if you know of one better let me know.
Ina uses an icing made with a raw egg yolk, and I’m just not willing to go there. So I modified my own tried and true coffee icing, adding a little cocoa powder to make it mocha. Next time I’m going to using Amy’s buttercream and see how close I can come to her black and white cake. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
Note: The batter for this cake is quite thin, but don’t worry. It cooks up perfectly in the 8 by 2 inch pan. I used 2 tsp instant espresso in 1 cup hot water for the cup of coffee. Eggs should be at room temp, and coffee not too hot.
Ingredients
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
¾ cups good cocoa powder, such as Valrhona
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
½ cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter will be quite thin. (Don’t worry). Pour batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack. When completely cool, ice with mocha frosting. Keeps well in fridge overnight to serve the next day.
MOCHA FROSTING
¾ cup butter
1 tbsp instant espresso or coffee granules
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp hot water
1 tsp vanilla
3 ½ cups powdered sugar
4 tbsps heavy cream
Dissolve coffee granules and cocoa in hot water. Set aside until cool. Place butter in bowl. Turn to Speed 6 and cream for 1 minute. Do not overbeat or it will melt. Stop and scrape bowl. Add cooled espresso/cocoa and vanilla to butter. Cream 30 seconds. Stop and scrape bowl
Add powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition. Stop and scrape bowl. Add cream and beat on Speed 4 for 2 minutes, until fluffy. If frosting is too soft, refrigerate for a while before frosting cake.
Place 1st layer on cake plate upside down and frost. Place 2nd layer on top and frost top and sides.
The thing about sourdough bread is that it takes TIME. Time for the starter to wake up, time for the leaven to develop, time for the gluten to form and time overnight for the flavor to develop – the tart, rich aromatic flavor that tells you “this is bread, the way bread was meant to be made”.
But what do you do when you have everything you need to make bread except for time – the one ingredient you can’t pluck out of your larder, or run to the store to pick up at the last minute ?
If you’re like me, you search for a fast bread recipe. And guess what? I found a great fast bread from Faith Durand and her team at Kitchn. The recipe takes advantage of your Kitchen Aid and a microwave to move things along, and adds a touch of sugar for encouragement and a bit of vinegar to modulate gluten development, resulting in a surprisingly lovely rise. From start to finish in under 2 hours!
Let me admit right up front – this is NOT going to be the most flavorful bread you’ve ever made. You are not going to wow your fellow bread-making friends with this bread, or become famous at your farmers market selling this bread.
What you will do is create a perfectly lovely, surprisingly light and well-risen loaf of plain white bread, with a lovely crunchy thin crust. If you make it in a loaf pan and slice it thin for sandwiches, I suspect you’ll find yourself thinking of Wonder Bread, or the Italian bread served before your meal at your local Trattatoria. It’s not the main show or the centerpiece of your table, but a strong supporting actor, more than fine enough to dip into good olive oil or to stand alongside an amazing bowl of homemade soup or pasta. Toasted and spread with butter and jelly, this bread is a delight. Use it to sandwich your husband’s amazing chicken salad and you’re in heaven.
But the best thing about this bread? You can think about making it at 4 pm and have it with dinner at 6.
NO TIME BREAD RECIPE
I can’t improve upon the great pics and video accompanying this recipe at the Kitchn website, so I’m just gonna send you there. Stay tuned, though, I’m experimenting with making a fast bread using whole wheat, and when I get it right, I’ll post that recipe.
Tartine Basic Country Sourdough made with Red Fife Whole Wheat
If you noticed an absence of bread on my Instagram feeds of late, it’s because I’ve been experimenting with heritage grains in my sourdough bread. And let’s just say the results, until now, have not been not exactly picture worthy. Low rise, dense crumb, and a rock-hard crust. Reminds me of my days working in a summer camp kitchen, where I frequently overcooked the dinner rolls. My kitchen mates took to calling them hockey pucks and treated them accordingly by shoving them with push brooms across the bakery floor. Bigger than hockey pucks, my heritage grain breads were more like a discus, and while I was tempted to toss them across the room accordingly, I dumped them in the trash instead.
The problem with my heritage bread was, I believe, three fold. First, the whole wheat flour I was using was like a water sponge, and I wasn’t adjusting my hydration accordingly. Second, it’s a whole grain flour, meaning it has parts of the wheat berry, that while healthy, have sharp edges that cut through the forming gluten network. A good sourdough rise needs both high hydration and great gluten formation, and I was failing on both counts. Third, I was using a new recipe I’d never tried before, and now I was adjusting that recipe by using whole grain flour. Too many variables to introduce at once.
I decided to take a step back to the recipe that never fails me – Tartine’s Basic Country Bread – and ease my way a little more slowly into heritage whole grains. The Tartine loaf has 50% whole wheat in the levain and 10% in the final flour mix. I decided to really take it slowly and use the heritage flour only in the final mix.
For the levain, I used a whole wheat mix that I made one day while consolidating my pantry – equal parts Hechkner’s, King Arthur sprouted and One Degree sprouted whole wheat. For the final dough I used Red Fife Heritage Whole Grain Wheat Flour from Gianoforte Farms in upstate New York. I purchased the flour at GrowGrains NYC in the Union Square Farmers Market, a fabulous source for locally-grown grains and flour.
What is Red Fife Wheat?
Red Fife wheat, named for the farmer Dave Fife who first grew it on his farm in Peterboro Ontario in 1842, was once the dominant wheat used in Canadian baking. Legend has it that Fife first obtained the wheat from a friend who had accidentally dropped his hat into a load of the wheat sitting on a ship from Ukraine in the Glasgow Harbor. Finding the kernels in his hatband, he shipped them off to Fife, who planted them with success.
Red fife was the dominant wheat in Canada until the early 1900’s, when it was supplanted by new species cross-bred for disease resistance. It disappeared into plant breeders seed collections until 1988, when it resurfaced as part of a “Living Museum of Wheat” at a historic Grist Mill in Keremeos, BC. Since that time, production has grown, and Red Fife is now one of the darlings of the heritage grain and artisan bread movement not just in Canada and the US, but around the world.
To make my bread, I needed to sift my whole grain Red Fife Flour to remove the larger sharper parts of the grain that threatened my gluten network. (Not quite what bread makers call High Extraction Flour, but a step in that direction.) I know – this defeats the whole purpose of using whole grain wheat, which is to get the health benefits of the entire kernel. But rest assured – the kitchen strainer I used didn’t strain out all the good parts – just the larger, sharper parts, which I can use later as a coating on my breads or as a topping for my oatmeal.
Other than that one step, I followed Tartine’s recipe and method, adjusting my timing based on the temperature, making both a boule and a batard. (See this previous post to learn how I do it.) The result was a delicious bread with a fabulous rise, an aerie crumb and a chewy crust.
I’ve ordered a set of mesh flour sieves from Breadtopia, and plan next to try my hand next using Red Fife in a 50% whole wheat loaf. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Tartine Basic Country Bread with Red Fife Wheat
Don’t even think of making sourdough bread for the first time using just this blog post, as this is an extremely abbreviated version of the technique. If you really want to learn how to make this sourdough, you are best off working directly from Chad Robertsons’ book Tartine Bread. If you don’t want that kind of initial investment, the NY Times Tartine Bread recipe is a nice way to start. (That’s how I got hooked.).
Leaven (7 am Saturday)
25 grams active starter (My starter is fed with sprouted rye)
200 grams warm (78 degree) water
200 grams of a 50/50 blend whole wheat (mixture described above) and bread flour (King Arthur Artisan Bread Flour)
Disperse the starter in the water, then stir in the flour till there are no dry parts. Cover and let rise till ready. I kept my leaven at about 80 degrees in a home-made proof box – an unplugged microwave with a pyrex cup filled with boiling water and a thermometer sitting next to the leaven, refreshing the water every hour or so – and it was ready in less than 6 hours. if you keep your leaven at cooler temps, you can prepare the leaven before bed and let it develop overnight.
Note that you’ll only be using about half the leaven in the final dough. The rest can serve as your starter in the future. Alternatively, halve the amounts of flour and water in the recipe above and use it all. Just remember to save your unused starter.
Mix and first rise (1 pm Saturday)
Before measuring it, sift the red fife wheat to remove the larger bran particles. Save these for dusting your bannetons.
200 grams leaven
900 grams white bread flour (I used King Arthur Artisan Bread Flour)
100 grams sifted Red Fife whole wheat
700 grams warm water (80 degrees) + 50 grams more (added with the salt)
20 grams sea salt
In a large bowl, disperse 200 grams leaven in 700 grams of warm water with your fingers. Whisk the flours together and add to the water/leaven till there are no dry bits of flour.
Let dough autolyse (rest) 45 mins. After the rest, lightly stir the salt into the remaining 50 grams of water (it does not need to dissolve) and add to the dough using your fingers. The dough will come apart, then come together again.
Let rise for 3-4 hours, turning every 30 minutes. (Here’s a video I made of the amazing Sarah Owens teaching us how to turn our dough during the rise.)
Pre-shape, Rest and Final Shaping (4:30 pm)
Pull dough out of bowl onto a very lightly floured surface. Pre-shape, rest for 30 mins, preparing bannetons while the bread rests. Perform final shaping. (Here’s another video of Sara Owens making bread that shows her shaping technique, which is what I use.) Place bread into bannetons, cover and proof overnight in the fridge.
Score and bake (Sunday 7:30 am)
Preheat a bread cloche or covered dutch oven in an oven set to 500 degrees. When the oven temp reaches 500 degrees, take the bread out of the fridge, lightly dust the surface of the dough with rice flour and turn out gently onto a sheet of parchment paper.Score as desired.
Uncover the dutch oven or cloche. Holding the parchment paper, gently lower the bread onto the cloche or hot dutch oven. Cover and bake for 20 mins. Remove the cover and bake another 20-30 mins.
Lift the bread out of the pot onto a rack to cool. Let the bread sit and sing for at least an hour, and ideally for 2-4 hours before cutting into it.
