STIR THE POTS

JT's 85x3 au nature, sans levure chimique

The breads above were found on a formula via MC. It's an 85x3 bread, some high extraction flour, and three pre-ferments, biga, poolish and levain. All to say it took lots of math. Well I crunched numbers and avoided any commercial yeast and....

Truth be told, I massacred the process and didn't do the second addition of water thing. No doppio impasto or basinage,whatever... no, that's not me. I just autolyse'ed and went full throttle making my loaf. Hell, it's August, which means I am on vacation! Using the last bit of Golden Buffalo flour, my pre-ferments were far from kosher, using whole wheat with a percentage of white flour. Like I said, it's August, and hate to rub it in, but this chef is taking some time off!

Anyway this formula kicked ass. This loaf wasn't gonna go for a long cold retarding, no it went from bulk proofing, with some folds, pre-shape, final proof and smack into my oven... So, thanks to it's innovative creator, JT and for MC who always inspires....

And now, well, have a great month. I'm off to South America. See you when I get back from my next adventure.....I will be away checking out the Pacific whales of this planet's southern hemisphere.

 
 

Olé!

My recent bakes, Sicilian semolina (at left), and a Pane di segale with pancetta (on the right) are a shout out (or hola) to those baking in Spain. They aren't Spanish breads, but I've yet to  consider or try some Spanish bread formulas, and hope I do them justice, if some Spanish bakers could point me in the right direction.

Recently I was featured in a Spanish periodical El Pais amongst other fine bread bloggers, by some really inspired bloggers themselves, Javier Marca and Augustin Oliet of Madrid Tiene Miga...

 Ole! Y Gracias....

A loaf

After making this loaf today,I thought about writing a haiku about baking bread or something? But hell, you need a PHD for that! So instead I settled on a few snap shots of my bake today.

This loaf is my take on the 1994 BBGA Bread Teams Pain au levain. I have been using the bread calculator from the site of a pretty smart fellow who makes not only bread, but beer, and has a lent this bread tool  for us lazy bakers or just those who are too busy  to crunch the numbers...

 

I gave the other boule to my neighbor, who was pleased because she didn't have to buy any of that store bought stuff!

Small world

Yes I am endeavoring to cut back on social networking. Facebook. Twitter. The latest, Posterous. But it's fun when you see old friends, army buddies, and meet new food oriented people like, well, a lot of your readers.

Recently, such networking reconnected me with Bob del Grosso. Talk about "blast from the past. I met Bob not long after getting out of the Army. It was my second professional kitchen job, a place no longer in existence called Le Coq Hardi. Yet, the memories are fresh as ever; its copper bar, the oysters (which I shucked), the chores of making granite to cleanse the diners palates. This was back at the end of the 80's, when food was really blooming in America.

Bob was an erudite, well read man. I recall his copy of Escoffier, along with his quiet, serious demeanor as he worked, always precise in his movements on the line. A man of few words, save for explaining method and techniques, lots of thinking and no wasted movements. So when we touched base through a mutual friend, and I found he writes just as eloquently as he spoke back then (a bit of humor and of course seriousness, focus on food and a bit on politics), well, it's a joy.

So let me share the joy. Even if we only worked three months together, the shifts we enjoyed together induced so many memories and lessons, remembered to this day, etched from the heat and blur of a busy kitchen. Click here and enjoy him like I did. And do.

10 Downing street

No, I haven't been to London in years. But I was asked to make a reservation for a young  friend of ours to celebrate his eighth year on our planet. And so relying on my inner food guide, I thought of my food blogging friend Shuna Fish Lydon, who is also the pastry chef at 10 Downing street in NYC.

Shuna and I met up online, both mutual fans of each other's blog. And when she returned home to the United States (her native home) from London where she had been baking professionally, we moved from the virtual to the real world, specifically New York City! While we're planning to do an interview here for Stir the Pots, for now we're waiting for the time in between both of our work schedules.

Anyway, for the birthday party, Shuna told me to get in early. "The place gets loud," she said. With people or piped in soundtracks, I wondered. Personally, I still don't know why music is needed in restaurants these days. The sound of forks knives and conversation should be the choral background to eating. But... I digress. It's the food we are talking about, and what wonderful tasting food it was... Starting with Shuna's basket of seeded and plain soda breads,and a light,crisp  foccacia. Not the wild yeast formula that I gave her, mind you, but excellent. 

Chef Jonnatan Leiva, who hails from the Bay Area, serves up a farm friendly market oriented menu. He kindly sent us some delicious tasting samplers; a demi-tasse of potato leek soup, and my favorite a simple but flavor filled beet salad with Castelvetrano olives, and burrata. Honestly, I almost ate the whole thing myself!

I could of had the foie gras or some other meat, but I wanted fish. So I ordered a delectable scallop ceviche and some local albacore tuna with sepia in a light ginger broth, it was light and lovely and allowed for some desserts later...

With two eight year old kids, you wonder if they can or will eat what they've ordered. But our young friends had good ideas on food, going for the roasted Bobo chicken and the Painted Hill Farms beef burger with truffled fries.The tuber on tuber frites were such a hit, the uneaten portion went home with our guest who was adamant when instructing the waitstaff to package them. "Truffles are expensive you know", she said!

Our server, sporting a a pierced tongue and a commanding knowledge of the food and wine selection, had me a bit hypnotized. Whether it was her striking looks or the wonderful wine, I found it hard to remember what I had ordered when Shuna came out to say hello and started quizzing me on the menu.

Shuna then let me sneak back into the kitchen to squeeze off a few candid photographs... including her and the restaurant's Sous chef Matthew Wilbur making gnocchi for a wonderful Striped Bass my wife had for dinner.

I would be remiss also if I didn't mention her wonderful desserts that our table literally devoured, leaving us all with a dessert high, I couldn't remember a thing and I didn't get a focused photo, just too busy enjoying it all!

Thanks Shuna!

My inglorious batard!

My friend MC is probably the luckiest baker, investigating and expanding not only her own baking skill, but other baker's knowledge and sharing it with her many followers of her blog. Recently she has been visiting a certified baker in Vermont, Gérard Rubaud, who is sharing his method of building a levain to make his celebrated Rustic breads. So where do I come into this picture?

The haphazard obsessive home baker, my moniker Mr. Lazy Baker takes over. You could call it a Jekyll and Hyde bread personality - he means well but is too damned lazy! As in this moment, the main problem being I don't have all of the tools or all of the ingredients to make or follow some great lessons shared by a remarkable lady and wonderful baker, Ms. MC.. But what is this  lazy bugger baker like me supposed to do?

Well I built a levain at about the same hydration, minus the builds with fresh grains and the 24 hour window,etc.. I took no notes and just finished the dough according to MC's instruction and list of ingredients, staying true to that. Basically I bulls*%ted my way into making a bastardized version of what is most likely a wonderful work of artisan baking. I admit, it doesn't make me proud. But in-spite of this, the dough looks responsive and it feels nice. Maybe I feel a little proud. Honestly, I kind of feel like one of those knock off guys making a Chanel bag, that looks better then the original. Is that proud or foolish?

Proof will be in the pudding, as MC said. Well, something went awry and its seems like I may have let the cat out of the bag too soon!

This is what you would call a blow out, or that loaf has a big grin - not grigne - on it.

When and if I can get my paws on the ingredients and equipment, as MC so plainly shows in her own wonderful post, I might give the original formula a try with some real effort. But in the  mean time I may try this Lazy Baker method a second chance with some adjustments, perhaps a thermometer, a note pad and pencil.

 

Hmmmmmm

 
First, I'm busy. Busy off the charts and that brought me off my blog.

Second, I love meeting bloggers. Excuse me while I shout out to one right now - helloooo, Shuna. Where was I? Oh, yeah, about bloggers. Especially cooking and baking bloggers. Those I have met are always completely different then me. Thank goodness! Yet they all have that love of movement;  levain-tation, yeasty things, measuring, in metric or oz's. Now where am I going? I'm not sure. Oh, yeah, here. It's almost the holidays and I'm sooo soooo busy at work. Maxing out, yet I still want to blog. So what makes writers write and chefs want to be writers????

Third, I want to raise a toast to blogs, blogging and bloggers. This weekend I met another blogger. She's this amazing lady who conjures loaves, dissects methods of bread fabrication, meets and greets all bakers,and she knows so much. It's our first meeting and yet she already met my mom! It's a Francophonic bread meeting, so exciting. We ended up meeting at a resto (aka restaurant, when I'm more patient) who's chef/manager first indoctrinated me with lessons to be learned over the years in kitchens and also lessons of life. What a great thing. Go meet a blogger, yourself. Celebrate.

Fourth, not only is a good time to meet bloggers but it's a great time of year. Maybe this is where I was going at my first point.  My favorite holiday is around the corner. Namely Thanksgiving, a late harvest and a family holiday before the winters freeze and the ho-ho merry whatever you want to celebrate, happens!

Yeah, this is a long toast masquerading as something between a rant and a post. But here goes. As I toil in my workplace galley, and dream of my future place, my nook somewhere, I hope for all the best for all my fellow bloggers and blog readers. I also send out a big hug to my fellow veterans, soldiers, sailors and airmen doing god knows what and where and hope they all return home soon. I am going to be busy and infrequent this next month, but if your interested, stay tuned, and please leave comments and suggestions.

And as Jacques Pepin say's "Happy cooking"

Nina's blog

I just came from looking at my friend Nina's blog. She is a Bethesdabakin alum who showed us a thing or two about this craft. Her site is in Danish, but I am hoping she will have some translation in English soon. Still, I just noticed it's up and running  and  wanted to give a shout out to her. Nina is trying to spread the word in Denmark about good bread, something she described as a lost tradition. Therefore she bakes at home in pursuit of an honest hand made loaf. She has some unforgettable rye breads that would just go great with almost anything or plain. As we say in New York, "it's to die for."

Way to go Nina, just don't forget the  English version! (Send us a recipe to post!)

Pain de Campagne, my first bake for a month!

For a while now I have been directing my eyes toward a great French site for home bakers. It belongs to Jane, a French woman with a quintessential American name. Whatever, she definitely has the baker's touch! So yesterday I left a comment about a bread she mutually developed with a fellow baker named David. First seeing it on The Fresh Loaf, I decided it would be one of the breads to make in my new oven, a treat having lacked such basic appliances for almost a month. Call it a New York apartment thing! 

Pain de Campagne crumb and 100% whole grain bread.

Oz meets west

I can't keep saying enough good things about my friends down under at the ABA, often they are recognized only for silly things like "shrimp on the barbie", Crocodile Dundee, Outback Steak house...but if you look down and deep you can really find some interesting and insightful bakers talking up a storm and even provoking conversation beyond bread baking. What is bread in our life? as a staple,an artisan craft and how we choose to make it, by hand or by machine.

Recently my mate, Graham sent members a newsletter and he mentioned this site as well as my posting over a 1000 post, quietly. Now that is a surprise as I use way too many expletives or even exclamation points to get my nutty points across. Luckily there are plenty of good people to keep me in check around the net, and I will start featuring some of my friends I have met online and if by good fortune in real life, which I hope to do!

Happy Baking