STIR THE POTS

Dolmas To Be Stuffed

Dolmas, or dolmades, is literally a stuffed grape leaf. The most well known variety in the United States are Greek in origin, grape leaves stuffed with rice. But in Turkish cuisine there are different vegetables that are also stuffed; eggplant , tomatoes, zucchini.

Then there are seafood varieties, like squid or mussels and mackeral, which are also delicious. Quite often the grape-leaf type offered here are mass produced, the results being oily, or something sticky with white mushy rice. Often you see them served on a Greek salad. When well-made, I prefer them on their own, or part of a mezze plat of appetizers.

It's something to do with their mix of currants, pine nuts, and spices. Warm or cold..they're just delicious. Since I had a jar of grape leaves, I decided to buy some Turkish rice, currants and pine nuts. I wonder if  leaves of my fig tree would work?

Moroccan Bread For Najat

Recently on Facebook I saw a post from Najat Kaanache, "the pilgrim chef", who posted a shout-out for someone to make some Moroccan bread. I said, "you're on," not quite sure of what would happen but happy to give it a try.

While you might think it's easy to Google, well, there's not much out there. No worries, I picked up a  book, and one by Mourad Lahlou, adapted it to levain and poof. Now to find Najat and share her. 

This is an all wheat bread; I may try to push the envelope using some durum, more taste and with a certain authenticity. So if you see this, Najat, give me a ring. Meanwhile, I will look for more formulas.  

Anzac, The Gift From Oz

Being a veteran of the military, I can appreciate the idea of care packages. In particular, I can greatly appreciate an Australian (or New Zealand) biscuit or cookie called an "Anzac." It was sent to soldiers, far from home around the turn of the century. It's made with oats, coconut and golden syrup.

Recently, I was fortunate to meet up with Brett Noy of Sourdough.com.au, the Australian bread forum a few years back, and we recently touched bases about Anzacs. He kindly shipped out a bundle to me. A bit crisp and sinfully delicious with a hint of coconut, and buttery, they go perfectly with a tall glass of milk. I'll be setting up a return package, maybe Fig Newtons. 

Cheers Mate!

Semola Pizza

I'm at it again, exploring the different styles of taglio pizza, from Roman to Sicilian. This latest was made with durum, otherwise known as semola rimacinata, which I substituted  for the white wheat in my first test of Bonci.

For some reason, my durum isn't as easy to make into a natural leavened dough. So in this batch, I used commercial yeast. The dough is really wobbly, and harder to handle than the white wheat dough. But as I had  left it two days in the fridge, I wanted to make it, especially as it looked like it was trying to escape the confines of the bowl in which I'd left it for its rise and cooling.

While waiting for the newly released Bonci book, I am following what I've already learned and tried. This is what I got, which was not bad for a first go with a wetter dough and different flour.

What's in a bread?

A friend the other day tasting a bread I made was asking if I put different ingredients or surprises in a loaf. Evidently she thought bread needed something more then depth of character of my levain. I wondered if she considered the time consumed in preparing the levain. The harnessing of wild yeasts to lift and flavor a loaf. Most recently a pain au levain I recently baked,with some difficulty. Not that I didn't know how to make a pain au levain, just my levain was telling me something else. Some how I decided to neglect my levain, chucking it in the fridge, not feeding it adequately and thinking that it would respond to whatever I felt like using it for. Not happening. So, if you want good bread, learn the fundamentals, stick by the rules and what the bread, levain and atmosphere tells you. Respect and follow the rules you learn in the craft of baking. Bakers harness  and maintain the different elements in baking, fermentation, shaping, baking. You can elevate your bread literally, with simple ingredients create amazing flavors, and of course throw in some special surprises and twists for those difficult friends who want a treat.

Puff Pastry

When graduating from culinary school, our test was to make two recipes picked randomly from the course repertoire. Luck gave us a hot June day, and I was tasked with making puff pastry. I still remember the heat of the air and the cool marble kitchen table tops starting to sweat. Or maybe that was me.

This past weekend I had a craving for chausson, commonly referred to in this country as turnovers. All to say, back to puff pastry. I thought of going 100 percent whole wheat, but winged a formula by splitting half white and whole wheat for pastry. Fillings were inspired by baker  Craig Ponsford, who always has mouth watering descriptions of his turnovers. For filling I used kiwi, pineapple, mango with Chinese 5 Spice, along with traditional, rhubarb, apple and strawberry. My technique is a bit rusty on the puff pastry, but this first revisit was a success.

Chestnut Pasta

Seeking new flavors leads me to old ones. Pasta is a perfect foil for alternative flours. Since I've made bread with Italian chestnut flour, why not some chestnut pasta?  For dinner I wanted to marry the earthy flavor of chestnut with king oyster mushrooms. Chestnut flour is challenging to work in a pasta machine, but with good resting time, it worked well. Should I try rye my next try?

Grind Your Own

Since I had a grain mill attachment for my Kitchen Aid, I decided to mill my own flour. I had milled some grains before, primarily rye, when I wasn't able to get access to certain types of grinds that aren't readily available in stores.

On a recent visit to a farmer's market, I had purchased farro and rye, intending to use rye in German style breads and farro for salads. Milling farro to make my own flour didn't come into my mind. In truth, I wasn't so sure what farro was, whether it was emmer, spelt or einkorn? William Rubel, bread historian and author, had originally introduced me to farro, writing about this Italian based "ethnobotanic." According to him, it "encompasses three hulled wheats: einkorn, emmer, and spelt," each very "different from each other, especially einkorn." But often, farro is mislabled for spelt. To clarify what type of farro I had, I got in touch with Gregory Mol,from Trumansburg Flour, who works for the mill which produces Cayuga's grain.  It checked out that my farro was indeed emmer. 

My grain milled, I decided to try making both pretzels and an adaption of an Italian bread "pane di farro". Like freshly milled whole grain flours that I had purchased before, emmer had similar characteristics to spelt. It was a very active dough. I decided using a higher level levain in the final dough, thinking that without added commercial yeast, it might give it a boost, since it was whole grain. The difference in the flour is also evident in comparing it to store bought flours, which always have a conditioned feel and flavor. My foray into home milling will continue with grains I have purchased, including, freekeh( a green spelt that is roasted), rye, and whatever local grains I can find.

Photos below are the result's