STIR THE POTS

Sweet potato tortillas

Being summer and we are winding down towards our august vacation and it is  sort of slow around work, I decided to make some pork carnitas with refried beans for staff meal. But I had no tortillas. Not to to be dissuaded from my menu plan I decided on some flour tortillas, not really my favorite. So to mix it up I recalled a recipe for sweet potato tortillas from Reed Hearons book Bocaditos. Too bad I was at work and the book was back at home. So without the book I just fiddled around with a general idea of roasted sweet potato, and just omitted water because of the hydration in the sweet potatoes. We chowed our tasty tortillas, with some pico de gallo, sorry no pictures. But I did fold up and wrap one of the tortillas and it made it in the back of my bike jersey in one piece.

Tortilla de camote

1 roasted sweet potato

3.5 cups flour

3tblsp. lard or vegetable shortening

pinch of salt

water if needed.

You will need a large cast Iron pan, flat top stove, (like I used). I mixed all the ingredients with a paddle of my kitchen aid, lazy yes but I wanted the tortillas to eat. Don't over mix, maybe two minutes till you get a dough that holds together, give it a final short knead on a table with a bit of dusting flour. Cover and rest for 15-20 minutes. Divide into 12  pieces and roll out into round circles and cook on one side over a medium high heat until bubbles appear, turn over and you will notice air bubbles, remove and cool. Re-heat as need, you probably won't have any left, they're so good!

Clafoutis

When it's cherry-harvest season it makes me mad I am not eating the lovely red fruit from my sister's Swiss orchard. I hope she has a moment to give this classic of the Limousin region in France a try. One of my first cooking books was Paul Bocuse In your kitchen, a real classic. It has the sort of dishes your mother would make if you were one of those lucky kids in France whose mom cooked. Americans, well... a few still can't figure out why this particular French treat retains the pits; it seems illogical with the custard-cake filling en robing the bursting steaming hot fruit, but the taste gets even more pronounced with notes of almonds.

It would  seem you would choke, no? Not unless you wolf down without chewing, think of eating a fish with bones. But it's the pleasure of dissecting and tasting with your mouth. Maybe a measure of the French way of eating and enjoying food, take human bites and mind the pits. Then just spit em out into your mit and discard with discretion!

After making my first clafoutis for what seems like years,we made one during the July 4th féte at my mother's. Today I made it again at work for the staff. To my surprise, the bartender, who hates fruits, exclaimed how delicious it was! So good that only a few of the crew got any as it was quickly picked clean from the pan. So if you want a taste of the real France, the one I barely remember from my short time living there but with a certainty of a taste for good eats, this is a  winner.

Clafoutis

6oog Cherries stemmed not pitted

3 whole eggs

125g powdered sugar

pinch of salt

80g flour

200ml milk

40g melted butter

20g whole butter softened for mold

Pre-heated 385 degree oven

9-10 inch flan mold or cake pan with sides

Butter the mold and set aside. Stem the cherries and wash well, then put them into pre-buttered pan.

sift sugar and flour into bowl, beat eggs and add in small circular motions into the flour sugar mix, start from the center and gradually incoporate the flour from the outside of the bowl. Pour in the milk until your mixture is homogeneous, finally adding the melted butter.

Bake in pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes till nicely browned and risen, cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve warm or cold.

A Bridge too far!

Bridge Kitchenware supply is no more, at least in NYC. On July 3rd they closed their 45th street location, which was where they had re-located it seemed like just like last year from their original store on 52nd Street. Steve, Mr. Bridges son, was busily packing up two weeks ago. Walking in, I couldn't believe the bargains he had, many priced below cost, more with the 10 percent reductions for chefs. Sure, he says it's a quality-of-life move, but what about us chefs and our quality-of-knives? But not to worry! According to Steve, the store is going online. The Bridge family is moving their stock to Hanover, New Jersey.

Wherever. Whatever! It does make me a bit sorry, as it seems just the same typical end to a certain kind of store. Bridge Kitchenware was an institution for most chefs, until the higher end stores like JB Prince, as well as high rent and the internet made it impossible for the Bridge family to stay in New York City. That's too bad. On my last visit I picked up a few items, two French  Pullman loaves with lids and a menacing chefs knife made of carbon steel, real old school.I was so tempted to buy some of the brot forms with sun motifs, a huge pasta machine for a hundred greenbacks, even a cold smoking cabinet! I can't think where I will find such a tool shop again, one that had a family feel as well the Mr. Bridge's personality, his bellowing cantankerous voice booming from behind the cash register or from his back office. It's going to be hard going to the cold impersonal buying from the internet.

Today, even going to some of the last professional culintary stores left in New York, like in the Bowery, they won't let a customer physically touch the knife. A chef wants to handle the merchandise. That's important when you hold these tools in your hands all day long. So long Bridge, a Bridge too far...

 

Welcome to Bridge Kitchenware

On July 3, 2008 after 62 years in New York City we are moving our store to:

Bridge Kitchenware Corp.

49 Eagle Rock Avenue

East Hanover, NJ 07936

212-688-4220 (Until 12/08) or 973-240-7364

Orders placed from July 3rd - July 15th will be shipped starting July 21st in the order they were received.

Thank you,

Kathy & Steven Bridge

To continue to our online store please CLICK BELOW

https://www.bridgekitchenware.com/index.htm

 

Basket case, the case for flouring your banneton with rye...and other baking tips to consider.

It's been some time since I have followed good baking advice, my own or someone else's. Being a lazy baker makes me the last authority on deciding with caution or precision on good baking habits and tips. I suppose making mistakes can eventually change bad habits, with the price of flour, fuel being another reason to  not make bread headed for the garbage bin instead of your table, so observe and learn.

First, flouring the cane basket with rye flour instead of wheat, why you ask? The case for using rye to flour a proofing basket could be described as just plain common sense. But who am I kiddng? Why just the other day  while trying extract a a full 2 lb Miche into a hot creuset pan  I found a sort of hanger on of sticky dough clinging to my German cane brot form,(Actually it happened on my last pot bread, but the finished product did not show as pronounced a flaw to make it look as if  the loaf was misshapen or defective.) This  can be sort of challenging to say the least. Not just the fact of plopping the dough in unceremoniously defies wisdom or just plain sanity. So after yanking the long strand of dough and laying it over the spherical boule like a bald man covering a spot with a long hanging wisp of hair, I plopped back the cast iron cloche into my oven and covered it with it's lid. Bloody hell!

The second bit of advice, is not to pre-heat your creuset to high, why? Unless you like your loaf sort of on the scorched side  and a piece of dough stuck to the bottom of the pan, which would explain why there is a small hole on the bottom of the loaf. Lets just say it happened to me. Of course you could tell your friends that your French instructor from baking class back at school told you to bake the loaves darker for a croustillant quality, to give it that terroir taste or perhaps your researching ash content? Huh!
Since I have just succumbed to the idea that maybe Jim Lahey does have a good idea with his no knead  baking in a pot method, however unorthodox; I still find myself  combining several different baking techniques and methods. I flirt with the Dan Lepards hand mix, I use my mixer, or sometimes to relieve aggression I've used Richard Bertinets slapping and folding technique.

My friend Susan, rightly says to bake you must follow your own senses and not get hung up on rules, so mix and match for me has been useful.

\The Miche is a bread I truly love, it's the quintessential loaf of true French familial origins. It's rustique, its nourishing, just great to slice and slather, with it's deep nutty profile and long shelf life, well it's a bakers bread. This specimen even with my minor flaws is my favorite formula from Amy Scherber of Amy's Bread. It was featured in an article from an issue back in April/May 2002 of  Pastry arts and design. I disregard the yeast and even retarded the dough due to my scheduling, generally I won't schedule a bake, bread to me seems so spontaneous,(actually I have a regular job that manages to screw up my baking time, so I am lying about spontaneity.).

In the past I haven't really liked retarding my dough, up until now. Through observation I found, (can you believe it, I observed, maybe I'm not so lazy after all?), that if you let the dough come back up to temperature, it doesn't blow out or have a grey looking finish. From my recent efforts, I've concluded  that it's not the same to retard the bread in a home refrigerator as it is in a chilled retarding room found in bakeries. The temperature I think in a fridge at home registers say about 35 to 40  degrees. Though I can't say for sure I am assuming retarders are in the low 50 degree range, that could be the difference? When I was taking a class with Jeffrey Hamelman, he told us that you can plop the dough in cold, hasn't worked for me but Jeffrey probably could explain why and tell me a thing or two! I shy away from that only for the simple reason, it hasn't worked for me, so go with instinct or trial and error, but remember every loaf is different. At least I hope they are or it's wonder bread!

 

Julio quattro

Today my mother and I spent a July the fourth cooking what most would consider a Bastille day meal, hell it's only a tend day difference that separates the two revolutions. So wishing you the best at 1:14 am on the 5th of July, keep on cooking!

A fig grows in Queens

A few weeks ago one of the employees was walking out with a branch that was protruding from a clear plastic gallon milk container with water and the plants roots, curious I asked what it was. A fig branch I was told, so I unabashedly asked if I could get one too, intending to plant it surreptitiously in my mothers garden. Last time I tried that,it was a strawberry bush that  I planted. My mother later  uprooted it  and translplanted into the front yard under some trees. My mother is very territorial about her jardin! Needless to say those strawberries flourished like weeds. When I mentioned my new garden project mother quickly forbade my idea, so without any other solution I dug a hole in the front of my building, where some of the neighbors had recently started a garden, bringing the country life to our city digs. Voila, a few weeks later I find some huge leaves growing, and the sweet little branch getting bigger and bigger, taking on a certain tree quality. A fig tree grows in Sunnyside! I can't wait for the fruit next year!

Dieter Buschmann

Below are transcripts with Dieter Buschmann, the excellent German Master baker from Hamburg with whom I was very excited to talk. We don't have an audio version of this interview, but we hope you enjoy this one in writing.


Jeremy: How did you become a baker?

Dieter: When I was finishing school, I was deciding which profession I could learn.

A girlfriend of my mother worked as as a salesperson in a bakery, so I decided to become a baker

Jeremy: What defines German bread baking

Dieter: Several thousand  recipes, various different flours, and having experience and know how to do it.
Jeremy: Is rye the predominant flour in German baking

Dieter: No, I wouldn't say that it is exactly, but we do use it a lot.

In both Russia and the USA wheat by far is the most common grain.Whereas Germany is (maybe?) the only country in the world, where rye is always grown and harvested regularily, along with other flours,ie. spelt, wheat.

Jeremy: Since you were a baker how has baking changed in Germany?

Dieter: The change occurred over the last 50 years ago, but more or less occurred more recently with the time given to baking properly has been shortened, a financial bottom line approach to baking has taken over the business.

Our predecessors, colleagues, who learned this profession during the 50's, are gone now. Most of them are collecting pensions or are in failing health! My own generation have been doing this job for the past 20 or 25 years, and it it's now our time to pass the torch or lay down the towel for the next generation of bakers. One reason, the techniqal aspect of baking has changed a second reason, the generation today is 20 to 25 cm taller, but the benches haven't grown any higher.So the bakers are working in an even more bent and crouched position, and its very painful for your back!

Jeremy: Could you describe the differences with the way German bakers bake their bread to say the French bakers?

Dieter: First is the flour type is different. It is different flour, than the German wheat or rye flour in processing the grain. The process of making the dough in the evening with longer fermentation times

with less kneading and introduction of the salt to the dough and slower process,autolyse,etc...

Jeremy: Tell us about how your website and the members change the way bread is baked today in Germany?

Dieter: I've created my page, because a lot of people now want bake their own bread at home.

It is not the same, as when buying it commercially. If you are you look at the pictures of the bread and rolls, even some professional bakers can learn a thing or two about bread baking from home bakers.

There are a lot of web pages, that are doing this home baking theme, but I think (I'm not exactly sure though?) if I am the only professional baker, who is giving home bakers a place to share what they do.

In the other forums, home bakers, without professional background, who lack real baking skills may lack the guidance to overcome problems and won't have direction or advice like I share with my members on my own site. Breadbaking is an individualistic art as well.

Jeremy: What are some hints for baking good bread?

Dieter: A long rest for the dough, not too much yeast, a warm dough, and a hot oven in the beginning, with lower temperatures at the end of the bake. Oh yes, and......  a real good sourdough!

Jeremy: Is baking in Germany going through a renaissance? Or are your homebakers taking the lead in changing what people see as real bread?

Dieter: Some people would hope for a renaissance, but they don't want to make the effort or can't pay the price, and the baker has, (at most) the same breads with the same taste coming from most bakeries.

(30 years ago a roll cost 25 pfennig today its 25 Euro-Cent, its 50 pfennig. That is double. But the your payment for your work has not the doubled from what it was 30 years ago up until today.) I often find most bakeries are just making the same kinds of breads that lack flavor that distinguish them from the other. Most  consumers need and want a change, they want bread and rolls from their grandma's time.

Jeremy: What is your favorite bread?

Dieter: favorite bread is a mix from rye (60 - 70 %) and wheat, or blackbread (with soakers and quell)

Jeremy: How often do you bake at home?

Dieter:  Not enough, according to my wife!

Jeremy: what did you love the most,
during your career as a baker?

Dieter: I think observing, how a mixture of different ingredients
(In this case, flour, salt, sugar, water)to become a staple food; but also, from an unattractive mass, this mealy dough turns golden brown from the baking, a loaf that nourishes not only the body but also the soul.

THE END