STIR THE POTS

Tortillas to Empanadas

Visiting Ecuador, I have been craving a piece of decent bread. All I have found here are pillows of soft white dough, yeasted, slightly sweet, shaped into odd looking but familiar pseudo-crescent rolls. Other than that there's some yellowish colored bread, or even some neon pink glazed sweet breads carted on window paned boxes mounted on bicycles with parasols with the peddlers literally pedaling their goods.

 

Out of sheer bread withdrawal, I decided to attempt something that could be recognized as handmade, with some taste of wheat and perhaps some additional flavor profile. Say, wheat tortillas. I didn’t have sourdough in mind, and for that matter didn't even have any yeast. Instead I relied soley on flour, water, salt and the flavor enhancer (and really fantastic ingredient) manteca de cerdo. Otherwise known as lard! The other thing I lacked was a rolling pin, so relied on Dan Lepard's innovative method of a wine bottle.Yes, they do make wine here, but that is another story. I started the dough using the ratio technique. Without Michael Ruhlman’s ratio book in hand, I used only my sense and experience to guide me; as the only scale we have available is huge and is used to weigh fish and vegetables. Rudimentary skill was at its most primeval stages.I rubbed the lard into the dough, added salt and eyeballed the water to the feel of how the dough was coming along, as I hadn’t previously used flour here.

Even with the humidity, the dough was perfect. I made up some tortillas which puffed up and tasted great. Whether plain or with cheese, tomatoes and chilies for an ad hoc  quesadilla, it worked, to the amazement of the cooks who had never had this style of tortilla. One of the cooks asked me if I knew how to make empanadas and if this dough would work. Having never considered the idea of tortilla dough being multi-purpose, I supposed that it could, and why not try? So I made little golf ball sized dough, patted them out flat with my hand, and proceeded to fill them with shrimp. Then we made some cheese with herbs. Our medium of cooking was in lard, fried things are good, especially in lard.

 

 

Tortilla and Empanada Dough

 

2 Cups of flour

1 tsp of salt

4Tbsp of lard

Water, add till you get a malleable dough.

 

Rub in the lard with the flour and salt, add in water till you have a manageable dough, mix but don’t over knead dough. (Think short crust or pie dough.)

Rest at least 20 minutes covered with a towel. Divide into golf ball size or make larger empanada’s if so inclined.

Roll into a circle for Tortillas, about 8 inches round. To cook tortillas use a round cast iron skillet or a flat Teflon pan and cook over medium high heat on both sides till puffy and blistered, about 1 minute for each side.

For empanadas, roll out dough about a quarter inch thick or pat dough with flat of your hand to create a oval shaped piece of dough. Fill the center of the dough with whatever filling you choose, about a tablespoon of filling depending how big you made the piece of dough. Pinch sides of dough to seal. Crimp with a fork or pleat edges with fingers.

Fry in a high sided pot or fryer till golden brown  350 F.

Plantain, a story and recipe.

As my last post pointed out, I'm taking my summer break in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador, made famous by Anthony Bourdain, but also home to a new restaurant started by my own familia. Namely my wife and her brother. I'm here to help open it. From one kitchen into another, or out of the frying pan and into the fire.

 

 

Actually, it’s winter here now, a somewhat wet and overcast season where the temperature is a cool but comfortable 70 to sometimes humid 80 degrees. This sleepy fishing village is filled with people from all over the world, but particularly travelers from the interior of the Andean highlands. 

These folks come down with their family entourage during the  ferriado, (holiday season), their vacation on the coast.  They come to see the local ecological sites and the schools of humpback whales off shore, or just play and relax along stretches of sandy beach. Even if it is winter here you couldn’t tell with the revelry that overtakes the visitors. Not even a cloudy sky or an occasional downpour can upset them. They are here to enjoy themselves. And they do. One of the biggest enjoyments is eating local specialties of this region, (Manabi). From the the ocean comes grilled fish, (comatillo) langostine, pulpo, calamari; and from the earth of course the renowned bolon; all the while sulking and carrying on about the portions and prices, but all the same they enjoy themselves nonetheless.

Ecuador is like other nations, with distinct cultural and geographic rivalries, which can often cause some name-calling. People from the interior Andean region call the coastal inhabitants "costeños" or "monos" (monkeys), partly because of the local diet of plantains and bananas (guineos). Quite funny since the coastal people call the Andean visitors "serranos", highlanders who eat grains and potatoes. Ironically they all come to try 
dishes derived from plantains, most typical of these dishes being the glorious and filling bolon.  Sort of like our own favorites, they come with different additions, including cheese, peanut butter, or Chicharrón. Beyond that there are sub-variations. During this  latest visit a new condiment I was introduced to something known as "sal prieta," a mixture of roasted peanuts, salt and corn ground and mixed in with various spices.

This week I have had my fill of eating plantains, but still can’t seem to get enough of all the guises and flavorful ways to prepare them. Here are some of my favorite styles and my take on an old favorite, plantain and cheese empanada.

A trio of plantain, by Chef Bernardo Zambrano of the Sheraton Hotel in Guayaquil.

 

Bolon de verde con queso y Chicharrón, Toston de verde con sal prieta, maduro asado con queso.

(plaintain with cheese, pork crackling, flattened and fried with crushed,peanut, corn and salt spice mix. Ripe plantain grilled and stuffed with cheese.

How they make bolon in Manabí

 

 

 

Empanada de verde con queso (plantain empanada's filled with cheese.)

4 peeled and boiled empanadas

4 raw grated empanadas

salt to taste

 About 1 1/2 cups of cheese, queso fresco or any semi soft cheese grated.

4-5 cups oil (frying oil, canola or if your lucky lard, tastes better!)

Peel the eight plantains, boil four till soft and your able to crush them with a back of a spoon. Grate the other four plantains into a bowl. If your able to use a food processor and pulse both the raw and cooked plantain together till you have a dough, you may add some of the cooking water to loosen the dough if too stiff. Divide into walnut shaped pieces, and between a sheet of oiled plastic wrap press down to make a round circle. Place a tablespoon of grated cheese in the center. Take one side of the dough and cover the other half sealing the edge of the empanada.

Deep fry in a pan till golden brown, drain on paper towel and serve hot.

Mujadara, lentils and rice.

I first tried mujadara at one of my local eateries, which is a family run Lebanese food shop based in Sunnyside, Queens.  Lately, I have tended to make my own renditions, as the shop's quality has lagged recently. And initially I thought, how hard is it to make lentils with rice? Well, it's not that simple, really! But that shouldn't stop you from trying this awesome dish. 

Wanting to find a recipe, I consulted a book I found at Argosy books. My years of perusing their shelves have led me to finding some awesome books, including Egyptian Cooking: A Practical Guide. Don't ask me why this book caught my eye, but the cover talked to me right away! Though it's said to be from the levant, I guess with all the historical interchange, this is a good source as any. My local guy wasn't giving me any hints, as his recipe was a family secret.

Mujadara

I followed the book's basic recipe but adapted it to my taste and what I had on hand in my pantry.

Serves two hungry people and a few more, quite filling.

1 cup of brown lentils

1/2 cup of rice (Basmati, Egyptian if you can find it, or like me I used Jasmine.)

2 3/4 cup of water...a little bit more can be added if needed.

1 onion, red, white or yellow, I used shallots..nothing is sacred in cooking.

3 Tblsp. Olive oil

about a teaspoon of cumin, seed or ground.(toast and grind cumin)

1/4 tsp cinammon

1/2 tsp. of Turmeric (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Slice onion thinly, (shallots), in a pan add about 3 tblsp oil over medium heat, add sliced onions. Stirring every minute or two till you notice them getting a golden hue, continue stirring making sure to keep the onions coloring evenly. You want a toasty onion, remove from oil to a paper towel to absorb the oil, season with salt.

Clean lentils for stones, and wash. Cover with 2 cups of water and bring to boil. Cook until it starts to get tender...the book says till soft, I don't like it too mushy.

Add rice, spices and cover with remaining water, cook for about 10 to 15 minutes covered on low heat.Season with salt and pepper. With lid on allow it to rest for a good five minutes, toss with a fork and check to see that it is cooked. 

Cover mudjadara with fried onion, and stir into the rice and lentil.

شهية طيبة

Mangú

When I was a kid, bananas were always yellow and sweet. But in my 30 years working alongside Latin American cooks and traveling to my wife's homeland of Ecuador, I have learned lots about bananas, especially the versatility of the plantain, the starchier and less sweet variety. There are countless uses and techniques to find value in this fruit.

Take the green plantano verde (green plantain, not ripe at all) which is the same as the yellowish mottled or black maduro (mature or ripe). You can cook them, fry them, boil them, bake them or grill them. Some of my favorite preparations are bolon, chifles, empanada de verde, mofongo and of late Mangú.

Origins of Mangú range from it's resemblance to fufu from Africa which was brought along with the banana with the Portugese to South America. But my Sous Chef often likes to say the name comes from the U.S. occupation of his Island of Santo Domingo, which lasted from 1916 to 1924 by the United States Marines. The story says a Marine tasted the dish of plantains and said, "man that tastes good!" And the locals started to call it Mangú. Legend, maybe, but it always gets a chuckle in the kitchen when we are making it.

Mangú

2 Plantains, green

1 onion, (I used red, but yellow or white would work fine.)

Oil, neutral, lard or olive oil and even butter works..

Salt and pepper

Salami (Dominicans like salami Campesino)

water from the cooking liquid and or some milk....

Boil plantains in a pot of salted water till soft, meanwhile fry onions in oil till golden and tender.

Mash plantains with fork, add some of the cooking water to soften the mix, drizzle with some oil to taste, season with salt and pepper....

Toppings or add in's are optional,and range from cheese, Chicharrón, but I cooked up some Maya shrimp that were marinated with cumin, piment d'espelette, garlic and cilantro and cooked a' la plancha....

Pretzel logic

This weekend has been hot as an oven again, inside and outside. It's my perfect excuse for a baker's lost weekend, as the wife's away and I am furthering my perpetual education in baking. My latest trial has been going for that elusive pretzel, or should I say Laugenbrezel, more commonly known as a German lye pretzel.

For years I have wavered on whether I should try using lye, that caustic chemical that could burn your skin, blind you or, on a more hopeful note, unclog your clogged-up drain. Screw it, times a wasting! Last year I got the courage up and bought some lye online, but lacked courage  and time (or maybe it was just a sourdough recipe) to try and use it. Crank up the AC, crunch the percentages, and what else to do except make brezeln? I mean it's research, really!

My inspiration started last week while visiting my mom. We took a visit to that über supermarket and entertainment park known as Whole foods. As I passed the buffet line of salads and all sorts of healthy stuff, out of the corner of my eye, I saw these huge looking pretzels. I asked the lady behind the counter to cut it in half, dreaming of smearing it with butter and ham, like back in my days in Germany!

To my horror and amazement  she cut the pretzel in half on the vertical rather then horizontal. Horror. How was I gonna make a pretzel and speck sandwich? While trying to rectify the mistake with my wife's handy Swiss Army knife, it reminded me that Americans don't really understand how to enjoy a pretzel (or brezel). They eat these monster soft ones off push carts that are smeared with mustard. Or you find bagged in various guises and shapes of the  hard pretzel variety!

 

There is still a lot to be learned, in terms of what a real brezel is or how it should be eaten. Call it pretzel logic. My batch this weekend were based on the formula from FCI where I attended baking classes ages ago.I decided to turn them into sourdough with my new and improved stiff levain.

 

Laugabrezeln

Makes 6 85g pieces.

220g flour

65g water (you may have to add a little extra depending on your absorption)

187g levain (mine is @60% hydration)

5g    malt

10g oil (neutral, canola, sunflower, or lard if you feel piggish?)

5g salt

Salt for the top of pretzels.

Mix all the ingredients till you get a firm bagel like dough.

Bulk proof about 2 hours. Pre-shape into small logs and rest 25 minutes.

Roll from the middle of dough out to both sides leaving the middle thicker as you roll out edges. Cross your arms and lift the two strands and twist, pressing the ends into the dough as illustrated!

Chill 30 minutes.

Lye dip: 40 grams of lye + 1 liter  water whisked carefully with wire whip until diluted...caution it's caustic, use gloves, goggles and open the windows to vent!!!

Proceed to dip pretzels, one at a time. Using a spatula or skimmer, place on a rack to let excess drip. Salt, I used Sicilian sea salt, or go without?

Bake @440 F for 16 minutes, no steam!

Das ist lecker!

Quatre quart like at Poujauran

It seems like ages have passed since I first stumbled on to the Rue Nicot, walking into the small boulangerie of no other then Jean-Luc Poujauran. His shop was filled with flaky and crusty favorites. I remember how the baker peeked out of the back of the shop, spying as I gawked at his fine bread and pastry selection. Fast forward and sadly his shop is no longer in business. But I was able to find a recipe purportedly his for a quatre quarts aux chocolat, via the French magazine Marie Claire. While bread baking today, I decided to give this recipe a go. It's quite nice, even embellishing here and there with a bit of teff, similar to Aran's recent efforts. And concerned about fat, I substituted cream with a touch of kefir along with mix of yogurt, the two in equal measure. I finished it, gilding of the lily with a bit of piment of espelette, cinnamon and cocoa nibs for texture. And because they are good!

Quatre Quarts au chocolat d'aprés Jean-Luc Poujauran

Makes two small cakes 3.5x6 inch molds

4 Eggs

189g brown sugar

100g Flour( I substituted a quarter of the flour with teff)

40g Cocoa

1/2 sachet of baking powder*

120g Butter, soft

60g Heavy cream or yogurt (I used Fage and some Kefir)

I eye balled the spices to about a 1/2 teaspoon and about a tablespoon of cocoa nibs.

Beat the eggs and sugar to ribbon stage.

Sift the dry ingredients and fold gently into the egg sugar mix.

Finally delicately fold in butter and cream.

Fill molds and bake at 350 degrees between 40-50 minutes depending on your stove.

Torta de yuca

 

When it's as cold and windy as this weekend, it's time for some comfort food. Sure, eggs, bacon, and pancakes are fine. But why not indulge in a griddled starchy tropical tuber filled with mozzarella and scallions instead? Yuca, manioc, cassava... the funny waxed and woody thing found amongst the other odd tubers and fruits in the Latin section of your mega supermarket or local bodega.

It's white flesh is usually sweet, though at times it has a kind of bitter aftertaste, the latter less welcome. It's a indigenous to the Americas and is one of the foods carried by colonial trades across the oceans from Africa to Southeast Asia.

I first had this particular preparation from my wife. This morning she asked me to show her how to shape smaller tortas, as her's were mammoth, not a bad thing if you're hungry!

This is a no-recipe recipe. Basically, find a nice tuber, firm, check for black spots or mushy specimens. Peel the yuca of its waxed skin, then split and cut into two halves. Make smaller pieces about an inch or two, try removing the center vein, as you can't chew on that.

Place into a pot and cover with water, and add a couple pinches of salt. Cook till tender and mash with the back of a fork. Have some grated mozzarella and chopped scallions around. To make a flattened cake of mashed yuca, place a good bit of cheese and onions in the center, fold over the yuca on to itself and flatten to a round sort of pancake. I used a black skillet with about a tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Cook till golden brown and flip over and crisp the other side. Serve hot with some coffee, maybe some  chicharrón would be nice too.

Mecklenburger Landbrot

I recently bought a German book about rye bread, and perusing the pages of grain speckled breads, one particular dark loaf caught my eye. It's called Mecklenburg Landbrot. I was not familiar with its origins. What struck me was it's gorgeous brown hue and scattered schrot on it's crust. But later, finding out that Mecklenburg is a region, my interest was peaked.

Though I was born and lived in Germany, I never really traveled to those distant northern provinces. With their Teutonic heritage and mix of Slavic and German traditions, you would undoubtedly find some great breads, especially rye. Mecklenburg, it seems, is in the lowlands. Snug between Schelswig-Holstein and Pommerania, it's  always been a poor land, and the peasants always got the short end of the stick.

I won't try to give a history lesson here. But reading about its rye production, I knew that this loaf was from that place, even with its bit of wheat to give the poor rye some gluten! It was a bread from peasant stock, but rich enough to be a king or emperor?

This bread is wonderful with cheese. I had some apple cheddar from England with it, even hummus and just plain, worth eating however you like it!

 

Mecklenburger Landbrot(adapted from Roggen-Der Standardwerk, by Olaf Bauermann &Ines Gromes)

Sauerteig (DEF =Detmolder Einsufenführung, single build)

sourdough

8g Anstellgut or levain

198.5 g rye (I used whole grain throughout the formula, as I haven't received

shipment of my white rye!)

158.5g water

16 -24 hours @ 78-80 F 26-27 Celcius

Quellstück

Soaker

188g rye meal

188g water

68-77 F 20-25 C

15-20 hours

Teig

Final dough

357g sourdough

376g soaker

123.5g Rye (light or medium if you got it, though whole grain is just fine!)

127.25g Wheat flour (A.P.)

15g Barley malt

Yeast (optional, I didn't use it or need it!)

12.5g salt

.5g ground caraway

125g water

Mix 4 minutes on 1st speed/2 minutes on 2nd speed

DDT: 82-86 F

First rise: 20-25 minutes,(I let mine go a bit more since I didn't have yeast.)

divide: 1150g loaves

Shape: Blunt batard for a more rustic form or use bread pan mold for a more uniform looking loaf?

Second proof: 40-45 minutes, I would say an hour and a half for straight sourdough.

Bake: Start oven @480 F and gradually lower to 445 F with some steam to start

Bake time: 50 to 55 minutes for a dark loaf,due to malt.

Simit au levain

Simit is a bread that is  found usually sold in red carts on the streets of towns and cities throughout Turkey. It's simply delicious and the choice of most Turks who seem to enjoy it with some cheese and çay. 

While I had seen the simit carts  on my first trip to Istanbul, I didn't manage a taste. This trip, I made sure to try it. My first initiation was on a ferry ride to a market near Istanbul. Dilara, my host, had our driver purchase some as we waited for the boat. Finally boarding, Dilara inspected the simit, bit into it with a piece of cheese, and her face dropped. According to her it was stale. Later, we had a chance to try it again. Much better. How to describe it?  Well, it's a cross between several different well known and similarly crafted breads; bagels, pretzels, taralli. In otherwords, a hybrid of all these cousins.But with simit, they are plated, dipped in a solution of molasses (pekmez) and water, then coated with sesame seeds and baked.

I can't seem to find a baker back home in New York City who makes a decent simit. So I took a formula adapted from the book, Classic Turkish Cooking by Ghillie Başan. It's a great reference book, which everyone online seems to have interpreted or just copied. Anyway, I felt souring or fermenting this dough with levain would kick it up a bit! Depending on how fresh it is, simit can be airy, chewy, or stale, in which case it really sucks! The best I had was when my friend Gökhan Sökmen, Abracadabra's baker extraordinaire, made g me breakfast, preparing a simit with tomato and melted cheese - a delicious meal.

Anyway I feel it's time to start introducing some of these terrific breads so you can try and enjoy or even close your eyes while chewing on the sesame seed crusted simit and think of Turkey, like I often do.

Simit au levain 

237 g    Levain

781g       flour

164 g    water

10g       salt

Dip:

225 g molasses (I used carob pekmez)

225 water

680 sesame seeds

Mix flour, levain, salt and water. Knead  hand, or  mixer, until the dough is very smooth and resilient. Put the dough in a oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 2 hours.

Lightly degas the dough place on a lightly floured work surface,  divide into equal pieces,(mine were 50 grams each.) Roll each piece into a loose ball and let rest under a slightly damp towel about 30 minutes.

Roll each ball into a 14 inch/ 35 centimeter long rope. Hold down one end of the rope with one hand while twisting it with the other. Then form this twisted rope into ring, pressing and rolling the overlapping ends together on the work surface with one hand to seal. Place on a greased baking sheet and let rest 1 hour or check with the finger and poke your simit. If your indentation doesn't spring back your about there!

Dissolve the molasses in 225g water in a bowl. Put the sesame seeds on a flat plate or sheet pan and set it next to the molasses water dip. Dip each simit in molasses water solution first, then in the sesame seeds, making sure the ˇ˝simitˇ˝ is completely and thickly coated with the seeds on all sides. Put it back on the baking sheet and let rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 550 degrees Fahrenheit or 287 Celsius  30 minutes before baking. Put a few cups of water in an ovenproof pan and place it in the oven, or spray with a mister.

Take each ring and rotate it gently through your hands, enlarging it into a 7 inch/ 17 centimeter circle. Place the rings back on the baking sheet and let rest for 15 minutes or until well puffed.

Bake about 15-20 minutes until rich golden brown in color.

They are their best eaten fresh out of the oven.

Pide,Tunçilik=dinner

The weather got warm again in New York. Feels like summer and time to enjoy the last bits of it. I found some nice peppers and eggplant shopping at Fairway market in Redhook, all to say that I was ready to act on a porterhouse steak dinner. But I wasn't in the mood for a grand production. I quickly changed gears and  instead went for something easy; vegetarian in fact!  Tunçilik, a Thracian dish I often ate for meals at Abracadabra. The smokey flavors and unctuous oil rich dish is comforting, especially topped with some yogurt and some fiery Aleppo pepper flakes.  As with any Turkish meal, a bread was needed, and I was out of a loaf, so I whipped up some pide, a recipe sent by Dilara, modified it into a sourdough pide.This is a non-recipe recipe for tunçilik - basically you roast or grill an eggplant, a tomato, a couple of banana peppers,(aka "Carliston pepper") and chop some garlic, make a simple vinaigrette of vinegar and oil, a dash of salt and pepper, chopped parsley, voila!

Pide you asked?, well ok here it is:

Straight dough

Flour                250g 

 salt                      5g

 sugar                 15g

 yeast                   5g

 water               160g

Sourdough version:

levain                 82 gr

flour                   210gr

water                 110gr

 salt                     5gr

yeast                    2gr (optional if your in need of hybrid dough?)

make   a smooth dough soft as your ears lobes,(Dilara's directions), cut 50gr balls and let them rest a half an hour, than "flatten" them, brush with some yogurt on top and and dot them with your finger tips towards the edges,top with sesame, hashhash,(Turkish spice) zatar, almost anything you like on top.. oven 270 C or 520 F (if your oven gets that hot!)