STIR THE POTS

Tourte Auvergnate

Tourte Auvergnat is a classic French rye that resembles the landscape of its namesake region, an area of dormant volcanoes and mountains The distinctive look of its darkened  crust and moist rye crumb are welcome geography for butter.

This loaf has many different methods of approach to fermentation, including a hundred percent rye or a wheat pâte fermentée. Or even a levain or  combination of the two. This recent bake was made with a mix of firm levain and a "old" dough from a previous batch. It lacked yeast but it had starter. And it was exceptionally good, with a rustic and toothsome texture and taste.

 

Ditch Plastic

While shopping at Whole Foods, I noticed a strange display that looked like ladies handbags. It turns out to be a display of multicolored silicon bags called stasher. It's an alternative to plastic that is sustainable and can be used instead of using cryovac, whether making smokerless ribs (which cooked in 4 hours at 162-degrees, pork belly porchetta (24 hours at 154-degrees) and a basic chicken breast (1 hour at 149-degrees). Best, it left no strange after-tastes or fear of BPA and other chemical residues.  

 

Pastrami

Pastrami and delicatessens seem to be fading. Though we found this one recipe helpful, as pastrami is a lost art, the memories of places like Bernstein's lingering as nostalgia of a lost era. So I made some of my own. 

 

Läderach Chocolatier Suisse

On our last visit to Switzerland, I remembered enjoying the endless blocks of chocolate stores found in any urban center. All share a common window display, namely slabs of chocolate. Upon returning home to New York, I noticed  a new Swiss chocolatier opening here. Läderach, from the Swiss region known as Kanton Glarus, features a similar display. As it's near the subway stop for work, it has me hooked. It's not inexpensive but it is delicious.  

 

Long Island Restaurant Visit (Indoor Dining)

A few weeks back, I went to a restaurant in Long Island.The state government has pronounced this as Covid's Phase 3 where there is indoor dining with social distancing. The service was good but most surprising was a Long Island restaurant with first class food. Honestly, I had been picking up my wife and we were hungry. My jaded thoughts of restaurants outside New York City was proved wrong.

La Brea Bakery

Nancy Silverton's book Bread at the La Brea Bakery was one of my first bread books. It has been on my shelf for many years. It's also been off my shelves while being used, leading to binder separation and a need to glue it back together. While mending the pages recently,  I found myself rethinking my first attempts at baking with this book. It lacks bakers' percents or even metric measurement. But it still leads to some great baking, even if the computing to metrics is required. I decided to make her classic country sourdough, which was the first thing I had learned. It turned out well. 

Edison Wheat

Recently my friend Chef Bob Perry  sent me a sample of Kentucky-grown Edison wheat from Walnut Grove Farms. Suddenly I had three bags of grains spilling out of a newly arrived box that had been manhandled in postage. To understand how to use it, I sought advice from Mel Darbyshire, head baker at Seattle's Grand Central Bakery. I found one of her recipes on The WSU library, which I followed creating something known as a "double refreshment of liquid levain. Basically it's a twice-fed starter. It turned out beautifully.   

 

Fish tacos

Who doesn't like tacos ?  Especially fish tacos. But it's rare to find a good restaurant fish taco. They're usually sweaty from their over-wrapped tortillas and made from lesser quality tilapia or catfish. What's key is cooking method. Who wants a  batter fried  filet steaming between tortillas and condiments. You're left with a soggy mess which has been lost in translation.  Recently I got the book, Truly Mexican, a book from author/chef  Roberto Santibañez  of Brooklyn's Fonda. His book and cooking reflect contemporary Mexican  food. I used one of the recipes to make some fish tacos at home. The book was inspiring. I bought some exquisitely fresh  bonito, and used  the books  amazingly simple and delicious adobo recipe. Excellent  results, olé!