STIR THE POTS

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While preparing a dinner with my newly purchased rice cooker and making an assortment of bread in between house chores, I was reminded plums were around. Not like any I picked in Lampenberg in my sisters orchard, just the usual you will find in the store around the block, Whole Foods hasn't made it to Sunnyside yet?
So in line with the dinner plans, arroz con pollo (cooked in one pot rice cooker,mind you!) and salad of julienned beets, carrots, lettuce and cukes I had those plums and they were well, not like in my sisters orchard! Not being a spoiler, I thought to make a yeasted kuchen,as I was feeling nostalgic for my sister's homey tarts and cakes! So I took out a copy of a new book I got in Paris by the reknowned boulanger Eric Kayser and found it a easy recipe all be it my mold was a tad short and some of the appareil oozed over the edges, it did make the plums a whole lot tastier with cinnamon, almonds and butter permeating through out!

Claudias Brot

My sister lives in a small village in Switzerland and one of her neighbors Claudia bakes and sells bread in a local market.She heard a crazy American wanted to see her method and try her bread, so she  invited me over one Saturday morning where we proceeded to talk about the way she grinds her grains and her interest in bread making and her dream to make cheese in the alps!  Claudia had worked on some farms and asked the older women to show her how to make bread, when she moved to my sisters village she made bread for some friends and neighbors and she started to get a following where people asked her to bake for  them. sell
so she decided to give it a try and has been selling to people in the local market.Here she is with my nieces ,nephew and her son on board as well!

Vielen Dank, Claudia!

David Lebovitz

David Lebovitz pastry chef of Chez Panisse and Monsoon is  food blogger extraordinaire! He shares insights of his home, Paris, talks chocolat, and gives us information that sometimes is whimsical, but alway's a foodies mind is fed.My wish came true  when he responded to my e-mail for an interview and we chatted about everything under the sun, visit his site and you'll be hooked and take a "Tour de  Chocolat"  with him around Paris, I will! So listen to what the man say's

Podcast

Listen to interview.

Noel Comess

Noel Comess is an icon in NYC and in American artisan baking,some may disagree saying he has become a factory slinging out so called "artisan" bread.Whatever opinion you might draw he started out small and well as he say's ,"the stuff just gets bigger!" Noel was kind enough to give me a tour of the bakery and let me see the otherside of baking that I haven't seen, on the way home  balancing freshly baked breads he put in a bag and I held on precariously too on my handle bars of my bike, I couldn't wait to bite off a piece of baguette and slather some butter on its crumb!

Listen to interview.

Podcast (via iPod or iTunes)

Visit the bakery 

 

Summer vacation

As promised to some of my bread forum friends I visited some spectacular  boulangeries and brot Huus in Europe!My sisters neighbor was  good enough to demonstrate her bread baking in her own stone oven and we sampled it with some sausages we toasted over a campfire in the woods!
I was absolutley unaware of address's but remembered names of most of the boulangers in Paris, my misfortune was finding many closed in August, the traditional vacance!Pics of some of the places I visited!

Michel Richard

Michel Richard was my Brothers Chef when he worked in LA at Broadway Deli, he told me of his creative talent and Gallic charm. While visiting my Brother for his wedding many moons ago I was fortunate enough to have lunch at his California/French eatery,I can't wait to try his food in DC as well get his new upcoming cookbook, hopefully an autographed copy!

Pod cast (via iPod or iTunes)

Listen to interview.

Visit the website