Sunday Pot Roast
These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
--Thomas Paine, 1776
An odd way to start a food blog, perhaps. But then, perhaps not.
44 years ago, yesterday, I was standing on the flight deck of the USS Ranger CVA-61, grilling steaks in the middle of the Gulf of Tonkin. I was a cookin' fool even back then.
The Viet Nam Peace Accords had been signed and we were - technically - no longer at war. There were 5000 really happy guys on that ship - no more war meant being able to go home. No more fighting. No more killing.
If you've never been in a war zone it's kinda hard to understand the stress and the strife. I was lucky. I didn't have to go traipsing through the jungle with a gun. But supporting the war effort is still no picnic. I worked 12 hours on, 12 hours off, seven days a week. It was disgustingly hot - both in the bakeshop where I was assigned - and in our berthing area where we slept stacked three high.
We had it easy. We weren't being bombed. Our homes weren't being destroyed. Our babies weren't being killed.
It would be a couple more years before the fall of Saigon and our evacuation of Vietnamese refugees.
We flew thousands of people from rooftops to Navy ships in the Tonkin Gulf. Navy ships picked up thousands more in the waters off the coast. They came to the United States under The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act signed by President Gerald Ford. Under this act, approximately 130,000 refugees from South Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia were allowed to enter the United States under a special status, and the act allotted for special relocation aid and financial assistance.
130,000 refugees. 1975. And in 2017, people are screaming about how we can't handle 10,000 refugees from Syria. We gave 130,000 people relocation aid and financial assistance, but somehow, our vast country can't handle 10,000 people from the most war-ravaged place on the planet. The hypocrisy is mind boggling.
A side note from that grilling day on the Ranger... I got 2nd degree sunburn over every exposed part of my body and was hospitalized overnight and then limited duty until we pulled into Hong Kong for Chinese New Year.
One thing that will always stick with me is how well I was treated in every country I was in. There was no animosity from anyone being a white kid in a brown land. People were friendly, the languages were music, the food was exotic and fascinating. I was the outsider who was always made to feel at home. I watched, I listened, I learned.
And what I learned most is that we are the same. We all have the same basic needs. We need to breathe, we need to eat, we need to laugh, we need to love.
This is why I stand in defiance of the Trump administration and their banning of refugees and citizens of select Muslim countries - while simultaneously NOT blocking people from countries where he has financial interests.
I did not go to war 45 years ago to watch this country turn her back on people in need. I did not go to war to see Mexico scapegoated. I did not go to war to see walls built where we should be tearing them down.
It's hard to leave the house to go out and protest when there's a 91 year old living with you. It's frustrating, because the 16 year old who got tear-gassed at SF State in 1968, who burned his draft card (and paid for that move in boot camp) wants to be in the middle of the fray.
Instead, I cook. I bake. I send money to the ACLU and am calling my representatives daily. Yes, daily. I don't always get through and often the voicemail boxes are full - but I'm calling them. Every day.
And thinking of all of those fabulous meals I ate overseas. Because the more you expand your culinary horizons, the more you expand your mind. The more you understand that we really are the same. We take the same foods and put them together differently - and it's all good.
Tonight was a pot roast of indeterminable origin.
Fuck you, Trump.
Knotted Dinner Rolls
I have a pot roast in the oven and pot roast requires bread or rolls to sop up all that luscious gravy. With a million and one options, I decided on knotted dinner rolls - something I haven't made in a while.
The recipe is a tiny bit convoluted - the shaping, rising, topping, and baking times are a bit different - but the final rolls are worth the weirdness.
The one constant I have in baking is my flour. I have used every flour imaginable, from national grocery store brands to local organic, big name, small name, store brands to you name it. The one flour that constantly and continually gives me perfect results is Antimo Caputo Tipo "00" from Italy.
Yes, among other things, I'm a flour snob. But I really can't argue with success.
The recipe comes from Fine Cooking magazine.
Knotted Dinner Rolls
For the dough
- 1-1/2 cups whole milk; more as needed
- 1 packet (1/4 oz. or 2-1/4 tsp.) instant or active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil; more as needed
- 1 oz. (2 Tbs.) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 lb. 7 oz. (5-1/4 cups) unbleached bread flour; more as needed
- 1-1/4 tsp. table salt or 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 large egg
For shaping and baking
- Vegetable oil spray
- 1 large egg
- Poppy or sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
Make the dough
In a small saucepan, heat the milk until lukewarm (about 95°F). Remove from the heat and whisk in the yeast until it dissolves. Add the oil and butter—the butter may begin to melt, but it’s OK if it doesn’t melt completely—and then whisk in the sugar. Let rest until the yeast just begins to float to the surface, about 5 minutes.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl), combine the flour, salt, and egg. Add the yeast mixture and mix on low speed (or with a large spoon) until a coarse ball of dough forms, about 1 minute. Let rest for 5 minutes.
Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed (or knead by hand on a lightly oiled work surface) until the dough feels soft, supple, and pliable, about 3 minutes; it should feel tacky to the touch, but not sticky, and pull away from your finger when poked instead of sticking to it. If the dough is too sticky, add 1 Tbs. flour at a time, kneading to incorporate. If it’s stiff, knead in 1 Tbs. of milk at a time.
Rub a little vegetable oil on a work surface to create an 8-inch circle and put the dough on this spot. Stretch and fold the dough over itself from all four sides to the center, crimping it where the folded ends meet, to form it into a tight, round ball.
Put the dough seam side down in a lightly oiled bowl that’s twice the size of the dough. Tightly cover with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.
Shape the rolls
Line two 13×18-inch rimmed baking sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners and lightly mist them with vegetable oil spray.
Using a bench knife, divide the dough into eighteen pieces (about 2-1/4 oz. each).
With your hands, roll one piece into a 12-inch-long rope. If the dough starts to stick, mist your work surface lightly with vegetable oil spray or wipe it with a damp towel. Don’t use flour.
Wrap the dough around your fingers into a loose knot; there should be about 2 inches of dough free at each end. Wrap the left end of the dough up and over the loop. Wrap the right end down and under the loop. Lightly squeeze the two ends of dough together in the center to secure them. (I left them as open knots, this time around.)
Gently squeeze the whole piece of dough into a nice rounded shape. Put the roll, pretty side up, on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. Mist the top of the rolls with vegetable oil spray and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Let the rolls sit at room temperature or refrigerated until they just begin to swell, 30 minutes to 1 hour for room-temperature dough, 1 to 1-1/2 hours for refrigerated dough.
Bake the rolls
Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. If using a convection oven, heat it to 375°F; if using a conventional oven, heat it to 400°F.
Thoroughly whisk the egg with 1 Tbs. water and brush all over each roll. Sprinkle poppy or sesame seeds (if using) on the rolls.
While the oven heats, let the rolls continue to rise at room temperature, 20 to 40 minutes. They should be 1-1/2 to 2 times their original size before they go in the oven. (Once in the oven, they will rise about 20 percent more.)
Put the baking sheets in the oven and bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the sheets 180 degrees and swap their placement on the racks. Continue baking until the rolls turn rich golden-brown on top and develop some browning underneath, another 6 to 8 minutes. Let the rolls cool on the sheets or on a cooling rack for 15 minutes before serving.
I can't wait for the pot roast to be ready!
Banana Cake
I had brought home some great bananas a while back but with everything else in the house to eat, they just sat there, getting riper by the minute. Being my mother's son, I wasn't about to throw them out - so into the freezer they went. We used a couple of them for a banana bread but a couple more were still taking up room in our ever-crowded freezer. It's amazing how fast it can fill up - even as we use something from it almost daily.
Victor is practicing for retirement, so while I was at work, he pulled the last of them out for a banana cake!
He's an old pro at changing recipes around, so he took his favorite BH&G Yellow Cake and tweaked it for bananas. He then made a simple banana cream cheese frosting that is out of this world.
I do love cake. I love dessert, period. I'll pass up the buffet and head right over to the dessert table. They're all my favorite - but cake is up there with the most-favorite. And a homemade cake made by someone else sitting in the kitchen when you get home?!? Perfection.
Banana Cake
- 3/4 cup butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup pureed banana
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease and flour cake pans.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter until light. Slowly add sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Add vanilla. Add flour and milk in three additions - starting and ending with flour.
Stir in bananas.
Spread into pans and bake about 20-30 minutes, depending upon pan size. Check with toothpick.
Cool and frost with Banana Cream Cheese Frosting
Banana Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 8oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup banana puree
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Mix butter and cream cheese together until light and well-mixed. Add banana puree and vanilla and mix well.
Slowly add powdered sugar and mix until you have a spreadable frosting, adding more powdered sugar, if necessary.
I think I'm really going to enjoy Victor's retirement.
Wild Boar Risotto
I've had about a half-pound of wild boar sausage in the freezer for a while, now, and decided it was time to bring it out.
We have a rule that I constantly break about using up things in the freezer. The main reason we don't have an extra freezer downstairs is because I would fill it up - and still shop for more stuff. It's just what I do. I see something that looks good or is on sale and a recipe starts formulating in my mind. Into the cart it goes. Having one freezer does keep me in line - a bit - but I really do need to be better at clearing it out before bringing home more goodies.
I had planned on making risotto with the Moliterno al Tartufo I picked up at Downtown Cheese last week but the kitchen gods conspired against me. I made it tonight.
Risotto really is one of the easiest dishes on the planet to make. It has a reputation for being difficult, but I think that's just so Italian restaurants can charge a lot of money for rice.
It's easy.
Risotto is also a wing-it dish at our house. We don't use a recipe - we just make it.
Because it's easy.
This is tonight's version.
Wild Boar Risotto
- 1 cup arborio, carnaroli, vialone nano, or other risotto rice
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 18 oz wild boar sausage
- 2 cups cauliflower, finely chopped (riced)
- 1 cup white wine
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup grated Moliterno al Tartufo cheese
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- S&P, to taste
Chop onion and saute in a combination of butter and olive oil until wilted and starting to caramelize a bit. Add sausage, broken up and out of the casing. Add minced garlic. Saute until sausage is almost done.
Add 1 cup of rice and saute until the rice is translucent. Add 1 cup white wine and stir until most of it has been absorbed.
Heat the broth and add by half-cupfuls, stirring and waiting until it has been absorbed before adding the next. About halfway through, add the cauliflower.
Continue cooking and stirring, adding broth by half-cupfulls, until rice is fully cooked.
Stir in the cheese and the parsley. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Nonna cleaned her plate - that's my barometer about how good a meal is.
Simplicity. Really.
And later on we have banana cake with a banana cream cheese frosting that Victor made while I was at work.
It looks really awesome!
More on that, later!!
Sausage and Lentils
Here's a bit of a spin on a recipe I really like - Lentils and Fennel. It's pretty much a go-to when I want something quick and easy - but also with some flavor. It's a great side dish and can handle anything as a main course - from sausage to chicken, pork to steaks.
The original recipe came from Bon Appetit years ago but I just kinda play with it, switching out the lentils to whatever is on-hand at the moment, adding or subtracting as my mood allows.
This is the basic. I used Plalouse Spanish Pardina Lentils today - I still have a couple pounds of them from my last shopping spree - but have used many different kinds with success.
Lentils and Fennel
- 1 cup dried lentils
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 carrots, cut into small dice
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- Chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or other good-quality vinegar)
- S&P
Cook lentils in broth, uncovered, until lentils are just tender.
While lentils simmer, cut fennel bulb into 1/4-inch dice and chop about 2 tbsp fennel fronds for the finish.
Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet and add onion, carrot, fennel, and fennel seeds. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
When vegetables and lentils are cooked, stir lentils into vegetables and cook until heated through. Stir in parsley, vinegar, and fennel fronds. Add S&P, as desired.
Serve as a side dish or top with anything you desire!.
Tonight I grilled some red pepper sausages from Martin's in Reading Terminal Market. They were awesome - as were the lentils.
And speaking of Reading Terminal Market... I have a hunk of Moliterno al Tartufo from Downtown Cheese that is just waiting to be turned into risotto... I think Friday.
Stay tuned.
Colds, Crackers, and Chicken Soup
It's official. We all have colds.
I'm not sure where it started - it could have been me bringing it home from work or Nonna could have been Typhoid Mary picking it up from her great-grandchildren the other day. But assessing blame for a cold is rather pointless. It's a cold. It sucks. Life generally goes on.
Yes, there are times when you lay there and pray for death as you become a living snot factory and there's a jack-hammer going off in your head, but that's only setting the stage for when the coughing starts and your lungs turn inside out. It all makes you wish for a simple sneeze that merely makes your head explode while seeing stars.
The common cold is a multi-billion dollar spending frenzy on mostly-worthless OTC medications, so don't plan on seeing a cure any time soon.
But while there may not be a cure and most OTC medications don't do much better than placebos, there are a couple of things you can do to lessen the pain - flushing the nasal passages with a simple saline solution, a hot, steamy bath or shower, and chicken soup.
Yes, the old adage about chicken soup - Jewish Penicillin - is really true.
It seems that besides the obvious nutrition in all of the vegetables and helping to keep us hydrated, research is showing chicken soup can slow the movement of common white blood cells called neutrophils - which then minimizes inflammation. Medical magic that tastes good!
I have a pot simmering on the stove right now.
I usually think of a crusty loaf of bread to go with soup, but today I thought I might try something different - crackers. Crackers are not something I have made very often but I figured I had the time, so what the hell.
The photo-storage cloud that is my mind pictured the Nabisco tin my grandmother kept her Premium Saltine Crackers in.
I had that tin for years - no idea what ever happened to it.
But I digress... Saltines were what I wanted.
I did a quick Google search and found a recipe that looked promising at Restless Chipotle. As I was reading the recipe I flashed on the fact that my grandparents always called saltines "soda crackers" and the recipe was calling for baking powder. But the pictures looked promising, so I went for it.
Besides... I had all the ingredients.
First thing to note is it is a very dry dough. I made it by hand and probably should have used the mixer.
I kneaded the hell out of it but it never really formed that cohesive ball I was looking for.
I started rolling them out right away but the dough was really tough and hard to work. I decided to let it rest for about 30 minutes.
It rolled out easier after resting, but it still was a workout.
I cut them into little squares, brushed them with egg yolk and water, placed them on a pan, and sprinkled them with salt.
I used Maldon Sea Salt for some and San Francisco Bay salt for others, because... well... I have 15 different salts in the cupboard. But I'm not pretentious or anything. Really.
Into the oven they went and in a mere 20 minutes they were done!
They came out really good for being so basic! Nice crunch with just the right amount of salt.
I think I would probably like them just a tad thinner, but I'm not complaining. Next batch will be made in the mixer to see if I can get things blended better. And I may switch to simple baking soda. We shall see.
In the meantime, we have crackers for our soup - and that's the important part.
Saltine Crackers
adapted from Restless Chipotle
- 4 cups flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/3 cup whole milk
- salt for sprinkling
- 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water for egg wash.
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Mix together the flour and baking powder.
Cut butter into flour mixture until it forms coarse crumbs. Add the milk and knead to form a ball.
Divide into 4 parts and roll out paper thin on a floured surface. The thinner they are the crisper they will be.
Cut the dough into squares, place on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick all over with a fork.
Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with salt - use a coarse salt, if possible - not table salt.
Bake about 15-20 minutes or until nicely browned. Thinner cookies take less time.
Chicken Soup For What Ails Ya...
Feed a cold, feed a fever, I always say... And on Day Three of the Cold From Hell, chicken soup is really what the Doctor ordered.
I am not sure where this one came from. I felt fine all day Monday, went to bed, and woke up about midnight with a sinus headache and the runny nose from hell. Not wishing to be too graphic, but in the dark when I woke up, I thought I had a bloody nose, it was pouring out so fast. And it went down hill from there. The runny nose turned into the cough and sore throat. And the headache continued. It may have been my body just going into shock knowing who's being inaugurated tomorrow. If I catch a cold at all, it's usually in late fall... Delayed reaction from November 8th...
Miraculously on the eve of day three, I'm actually feeling better. Gallons of liquids, and gallons of chicken soup have been doing their magic - along with copious amounts of Robitussin Extreme. And Tabasco sauce. Lots and lots of Tabasco in my soup, along with a growing Resistance. Whatever it takes, right?!?
Victor had made a huge batch of Italian Wedding Soup on Sunday, so we started off with lots of Italian Jewish Penicillin and today he made a new batch to keep me going. So far, it seems to be working - I'm not nearly as congested, sneezy, snotty, or barking like a seal.
The soup is pretty basic - chicken, broth, celery, onion, garlic, carrots, and orzo. Great stuff.
So, trivia... Do you know where the adage feed a cold starve a fever came from?
It seems that once upon a time, people thought of the body like a furnace - adding food was like adding heat, so if you had a cold you stoked the fire and added heat - and if you had a fever, you were already hot so you took the heat source away to cool down.
This was before we knew about stem cells and stuff. Back in the Flat-Earth Society Days we're heading back into.
Cheese, Sausage, and Reading Terminal Market
I told myself I was going to go to Reading Terminal Market once a month - and actually was doing it. And then I wasn't. Today I did.
Got that?!?
Victor had the day off and we were able to get our Nonna-Sitter to stay for a few hours [I had to buy her two cannoli from Termini Bros.] so off to the train station we went. Victor got off at 30th Street Station to take pictures with his new camera and I continued on to the market. Picture-taking and food-shopping are pretty much solitary endeavors in our house. Both have their singular plan and vision. It works.
The market was bustling and first thing I did was head over to Old City Coffee for a cuppa and a couple pounds of Viennese Roast Sumatra and a pound of the San Francisco Blend. I really enjoy a good Viennese Roast coffee - it's not quite taken to the French Roast stage - and Old City does a great job with their Sumatra. They do a great job with all their coffees...
Fortified, I headed over to Downtown Cheese to see Rachel and get some really good cheese. I love being able to pick her brain on what's good and what's worth getting. Since we've known each other for years, she is always right on the money with her suggestions. Today was a Raclette - that I used for tonight's dinner - and two Italian cheeses - Moliterno al Tartufo and Piave. The Moliterno has black truffles running through it - it's going to become a risotto on Sunday - and the Piave will be a grating cheese, most likely. It's similar to a parmesan from northern Italy.
Yum.
My other big stop was Martin's Sausage. They are my number one purveyor of sausages. They have so many varieties - and they're all excellent. And the price is right, too. I picked up 21 sausages - 3-each of 7 varieties - for $32.00. It's a steal. I bought: Fresh Peppers and Onions, White Wine, Garlic, Parsley, and Lemon, Fresh Mozzarella Cheese and Fresh Basil, Fresh Apple, Fresh Garlic, Fresh Chorizo, and Luganega made with Romano Cheese and Fresh Parsley. We're going to have some fun meals!
A total spur-of-the-moment-impulse-buy was a couple of porterhouse steaks at Giuntas Prime Shop. I was actually buying a reasonably-priced hangar steak when I said "and two of those." What the hell.
A loaf of bread at Metropolitan Bakery, some Easter-y cake decorating sprinkles at The Head Nut and I was done. Years ago I would have grabbed so much more, but I really have gotten selective over the years.
I headed over to Termini Bros. for Donna's cannoli and noticed Victor had called. In a couple of minutes we were sitting down at DiNics for sandwiches. We really should have ordered one to split. Really. It was way too much food. But damn! They are good! They are definitely one of the best sandwiches in the city.
And the cooks were fun, as well. They spied Victor taking pictures and had to say hello!
Fortified, we headed home where Nonna greeted me with "what are you making delicious for dinner?"
The sausage was definitely going to be center stage on this one, and since we had plenty of potatoes, onions, and peppers already in the house, a simple skillet dinner was born.
Roasted potatoes with onions, peppers, sausage, and raclette cheese melted over everything.
First were the potatoes...
Just cubed and doused with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some herbes d' Provence.
And then the onions and peppers - along with some roasted garlic I had in the 'fridge. Standard fare.
Next was the sausage. I used the fresh garlic for this one...
It is just sooooo good.
Then the raclette... It's such a great melting cheese It brings back a lot of memories from my years in the mountains at Tahoe.
And it all came together under the broiler.
Really really simple food, but really good quality. It took me 30 minutes start-to-finish, and there's plenty left over for lunch, tomorrow. This is how I really love to eat - a few great flavors and textures blended together. No muss and no fuss. Crusty bread on the side.
I'm already planning my next trip - and I haven't even made the risotto, yet!
Chicken and Lentils
Years ago my grandmother stayed with us for a while after she had had a heart attack. One of the things her Doctor told her to regularly eat was lentils, so my mom had a small serving of them for her every night with her dinner. It makes sense, as lentils are really high in folate and magnesium, and also really high in fiber - all natural contributors to a healthy heart.
While mom was preparing them, one of my sibs asked her what they were and she answered "Grandma's lentils." Someone else heard it as "Grandma's mental" and from that point on, lentils were mental - with a hilarity that only sweet adolescents could muster. I have no idea how my mother survived us...
Fast-forward 50-something years and we're having Grandma's mental for dinner.
A few months back I ordered a couple of bags of lentils, split peas, and some other things from Palouse Brand in Washington. I'm a great fan of good food and as long as I can afford it, I'm buying from direct from the growers.
Tonight it was time to open the second bag - a three-pounder. They're Spanish Pardina lentils and have a great flavor and hold their shape when cooked, making them perfect for hot or cold dishes. Tonight was hot.
I have a recipe for a spicy salmon paired with lentils and while I was fresh out of salmon, I had plenty of chicken and plenty of spices, so off I went to play.
First was making the spice blend...
Spice Blend
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
Mix well. Store in an airtight container.
I oiled the chicken breasts with olive oil, lightly salted them, and then liberally doused them with the spice mixture before grilling.
Neither Nonna nor Blanche got the spiced version.
While they were sitting, I made the lentils...
Lentils
- 1 cup lentils
- 1 onion
- 1/3 cup dried apricots
- 1/3 cup golden raisins
- 1/3 cup dried unsweetened cranberries
- 2/3 cup pistachios
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1 tbsp capers
Cook lentils in 3 cups unsalted water about 20 minutes or until done.
Saute diced onion in olive oil until translucent. Stir in lentils, apricots, raisins, cranberries, pistachios, parsley, and capers, mixing well.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Grill chicken, plate the lentils, slice the cooked chicken and lay out on top.
The lentils were the perfect foil for the spicy chicken; the dried fruit played off the heat and the pistachios gave a nice crunchy contrast. A restaurant-worthy dinner in no-time!
Wisconsin Spicy Cheese Bread
We were watching PBS a few weeks ago - we're Liberal Elites, you know - and on came Cooks Country - a spin-off of America's Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated. It can be an informative show at times, but my one complaint is they often take a basic recipe and over-complicate it to make it better, or they change it so much that their new and improved version doesn't even resemble the original.
But, as can also often happen, a recipe came up that caught my eye. It was a Wisconsin Spicy Cheese Bread - and you know me... bread is my friend. I am always ready to try another loaf or twelve. My mom had a recipe for a Fondue Bread that is similar, but this one called for adding crushed red pepper into the dough and sprinkling on top. After bread, spicy is probably my next most favorite thing. Put the two together and I'm in gastronomic heaven. And we were going over to Victor's family for a New Year Nosh - a perfect excuse to make it.
I followed the recipe pretty much as written and was just a little bit concerned about the texture - there's not a lot of actual water in the dough and it felt a little dense as I was rolling it into a ball. It looked more supple on the TV show but one thing I have learned with the Cooks Illustrated family, is the recipes generally work as written.
I did a couple of things different, of course... I used conventional active dry yeast and not rapid-rise. I proofed the yeast in half of the water and then added the rest of the liquid ingredients before adding the flour/sugar/salt and in place of the provolone, I used a fondue cheese left over from Christmas.
It all came together great but I think I could have used up to a quarter-cup more water in the dough. I'll play with it a bit more next time...
I had planned on taking pictures throughout the making, forming, and baking process, but... I forgot. I did get a picture of the formed loaf in the oven, though.
It was a pretty loaf going in - and even prettier coming out!
And it was really tasty, too!
It was just a little bit dry, but not horribly so and the fondue cheese was a bit of a mistake - it was a bit too runny for the bread and more leaked out in the pan than probably would have had I used the right cheese - but it was a hit nonetheless.
I can see another loaf of this happening, but we'll definitely need a crowd. It's not something you make for two...