Cia Pet

I've been thinking lately that I should have more posts about bread. it is my livelihood, after all; and although, you can't live by it alone...you can come pretty darn close. I wanted to take a little bit of time today to talk about crust and crumb. Everyone is pretty familiar with "crust". it is the outside layer of the bread and can be baked to a spectrum of different hues and inundated with things such as seeds, grains, herbs, etc. One particular thing that I wanted to talk about is the importance of a crisp, darker, crust (at least in most european hearth-style breads.) notice the thickness of the crust in the middle picture above. this full sized ciabatta (available now at LeQuartier on weekends!), has a darker, thick crust, giving it a really nice nuttiness and a great crispy, crunchy mouth feel (baking it lighter would lead to a more chewy, american style texture, which i am not particularly a big fan of). not only is this good for taste and aesthetics, but it is also a way to extend the life of the finished product. Baking a loaf of bread darker like this adds to the overall shelf life.

Crumb is just another word for the inside texture of a loaf of bread. Many things affect the finished crumb, such as hydration, mixing time, the addition of pre-ferments, etc. while I'm not about to give our secrets to supreme baking awesomeness away, one thing I can tell you is this: hydration is key. I would say that most american bakeries under-hydrate. Which is kind of sad really. I can't imagine choosing a dense, compact crumb over an airy interior.

So, like I mentioned before, the above picture is of a full sized ciabatta loaf that we just started baking a couple of weeks ago. In italian, it means "ladies slipper", or "flat slipper", but I assure you, it tastes nothing like shoe leather. This is a great bread to slice horizontally for paninis or pressed sandwiches, or in vertical slices for bruschetta, crostini, or just to dip in some fruity olive oil or some nice, sticky balsamic. or...you could make the tomato sauce pictured above (ridiculously easy recipe to follow) and dip away.

other stuffs.

hosted a first b-day party for a good friend's son yesterday. Houseful of peeps, one dog, and what seemed like a billion little girls. all in all, was a pretty good time, but it does seem starkly quiet around here...the dog is still totally passed out from all the madness.

Also, would encourage people to pop into the bakery. we have been doing some cool stuff with the pain de campagne, sourdoughs, etc. Also, we have v-day treats perfect for your lady-friends or your man-beasts.

Three ingredient tomato sauce (click for link, this is a great, simple sauce with really good tomato flaves.)

DISH recommends:

Icelander. by Dustin Long. this is a great first novel by this guy. A quick read that is interesting from the get-go.

Because I couldn't live by bread alone.

one year ago: Sausage Party!

well friendlies, we made it through a year together! A year full of bad puns, a few new ideas, one lonely video (working on more, just wait...), and hopefully some tips that helped you in your own kitchen. I have really appreciated the positive responses from you guys and really enjoy the comments and questions you leave me. Thanks very much for following along and I hope that all of us continue to polish our skills.

When I realized that the one year post was coming up, I wanted to do something special or extravagant, but as I thought that over, I realized that's not really what we're about here. Our goal is to become super savvy with what we have and to make the most we can out of as little as possible. Totally not into wasting stuff.

ok, enough of that nonsense...to foodstuff:

Look at that beautiful banana bread. I wrote about it last week, thought I would share a pic and a recipe. hopefully McTuff's (the artist formerly known as wifeshow) mammy won't mind. Made some white beans (have become too frugal to buy canned, but realize don't care because dried have such better texture) with kale and tomatoes on monday. Had a few ham scraps that I threw in there also and some onions and peppers too. topped with some LeQrotons, olive oil, and fleur de sel. pretty ridiculously easy, pretty ridiculously tasty. Last pic is pizza crusts that I took home from the bakery and topped with cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, and goat cheese. It was a very good combo. I've realized that I prefer really simple pizzas, I think that sometimes the ingredients get lost in each other, and in the summer, when produce is rampant, it's especially nice to appreciate how well a few ingredients can compliment each other. Thanks for a great year peepsters, hopefully you've all tried some of the recipes/tips out. I look forward to all of us becoming better cooks in the next year.

DISH recommends:

LeQuartier pizza crusts. Made by the fearsome foursome (Marth, Dish, P-bear, and JQ). Don't even think about buying some crappy grocery store variety, or we'll come to your house and...well, we'd probably give you some so you would peacefully convert. Sorry we're pacifists, and generous. bread missionaries. pick some up at meridian park location or southridge.

super covert (not really), possible excommunicating, delicious banana bread recipe:

2.5 cups ap flour (they call it all purpose, but I only use it for food...)

1 cup sugar

3.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch grated nutmeg

1 egg (farm fresh fool!)

3/4 c milk (at least 2%. whole is better, but seriously, who drinks red-lid?)

1 cup chopped nuts (it's a free for all here, have used almonds, wals, and pecans, all tasty)

3 tbs. veg oil

1 c mashed super ripe bananas (about 3, maybe four tinys)

preheat your oven to 350F. Spray and flour loaf pan. Mix all of your dry and wet ingredients together in two separate bowls. add the wet ingredients to the dry stuff. mix until incorporated, scraping down the sides of bowl as necessary. pour into prepared pan and bake for about an hour (60-65 minutes, until skewer inserted into center comes out almost clean). Let cool for 10 minutes, then take out of loaf pan.

tip: make sure that when you insert your tester into the loaf that you don't confuse banana bits for crumbs, the banana stuff will look like batter. I did this once and ended up totally overbaking it. pieces.

oh yeah, makes great muffins too. Just shorten the time to around 18-20 minutes.

Went to a garden party...

I'm usually wicked tired on fridays and don't feel like cooking before I have to go back in to work, so I try and keep it simple. this friday, I made some noodles and just sauteed some garden veg to go in there with them. I steeped some aromatics in chicken stock, and then cooked the noodles in that broth before I combined everything. Brocolli, sugar snaps, snow peas, onions, and carrots (not garden). Pretty tasty...pretty easy.

The baguette picture is from the farmer's market bake. I lowered the temperature of the water that I used in the white-yeasted dough, and it made for an excellent end-product. The "ears" of the baguette really popped up and we had some amazing bread that day. Of course, I must credit Marth's baguette-shaping skills, those definitely helped. Anyway, just thought I would share a pic of what I do, hope you all are getting to the market and getting some great bread, if not, you really need to. Better yet, stop in at the bakery and pick some up. Super fresh, super tasty. If you stop in early, say hi to the dish (nerdy guy, dark glasses, covered in flour) There is no excuse to eat crappy bread.

other photo is of some banana nut muffins we made yesterday. It was wifeshow's mama's recipe. they are really, really good. Would love to share the recipe with you cats, but don't know if it's a family only thing, have to ask. Or you could marry the last reitz girl...but she has a boyfriend, so the odds aren't in your favor.

sausage party

last week I decided to make some sausages.  It is something that I enjoy, but it always seems like once I am done that I should have made more.  I started with about 13 pounds of pork butt and it was a pretty decent yield.  I decided to make linguica (a spicy portugese sausage), brats, and breakfast links.  I smoked all of the linked sausages and it just further confirmed my love for my little brinkman charcoal smoker.  For about the same price as making one for your self, you can pick one up (that is of course, if you, like myself, value instant gratification over self-satisfaction) jam some meat in there and be eating tasty treats in no time.  booyah!

Pickle production just rounded the corner into week number 3 (for those of you who don't know, aka, the entire universe, I am making old fashioned barrel pickles).  Upon suggesstion from my boss, john, I have tried a pickle every week since I started.  Week number one was suprisingly great.  nice and garlicky.  Week number two was a pretty big let-down.  I don't know if there is some sort of chemical transformation that takes place here or what?  I tried one yesterday and was altogether pretty pleased.  they seemed to have better flavor than week 2.  I did throw some more dill in the "barrel," so that probably helped out a bit.  

Also, yesterday as I was pulling the pain de campagne out of the oven at work, I caught sight of one that just may be one of the best breads I have baked.  After my shift I went out front to take some bread and it was still there so I snagged it.   thought some fellow bread lovers might enjoy: