STIR THE POTS

Annual Vacation

I’ll be back, annual August vacation!

 

 

Avocado Soup

This soup isn’t a recipe per say, but simply  a few basic ingredients  and flavors whirred in my blender and garnished simply. A guest requested the recipe and I jotted it down.

 

Chilled avocado And cucumber soup

 

1. 1 cucumber, peeled and deseeded.
2. 1 avocado peeled and pitted
3. ¼ Jalapeno chili, seeded and chopped
4. 1 white part of scallion
5. Chicken stock, water, orange juice or yogurt (thins out soup)
6. Tequila, less than an ounce…flavor and well….it’s Tequila
7. Lime juice about a tablespoon

Combine these ingredients in a good blender (e.g. a Vitamixer), and thin out with liquids together or separately, depending on your taste. I used a bit of orange juice and cold chicken stock but water is fine. Don’t forget to season finally with salt and pepper.

 

Basic Pancakes

Marion Rombauer Becker's The Joy of Cooking is a staple of many smart chefs. One of the guys in my kitchen recently brought in some of her recipes, including one for Ceasar's Salad as well as a Maine Grains recipe page. We decided to half the flour with milled oats, and use Øland wheat.  

 

 

Pesto

No mortar and pestle available, but I had a huge bunch of basil. Better use it before the bunch went south. Which of course demands pesto. Recalling Samin Nosrat's Genoan-based epside of Salt,Fat,Acid,Heat, I tried the recipe. Wow, taking her tip of one single garlic clove really made a difference. Delicious!

Sonora Flour

Recently  I mistakenly ordered white Sonora flour instead of high extraction. That said, its also heritage grain from the southwestern border region with a long interesting history. My first thought was  sourdough wheat tortillas, but I  found a formula using it for a bread and the challenge was on. Considering it's only at 7% protein, what about mixing it in pizza dough too? Testing will tell.

 

 

Foccacine

With our final menu for the summer, I decided to make a Italian panino with a soft foccacine. Foccacine are individual sized foccacia, uniform in shape and great for sandwiches. We went 100-percent sourdough, using half-milled mixture of farro and wheat and an eight-hour, overnight refreshment. With milk and olive oil in the mix, these soft crumb and yet texturally crisp little buns are perfect.

 

Sorbet

Maybe it's my lousy Italian, but I've had it with modernist gelato and sorbetto formulas. Quite often their gummy results remind of  thick, over-reduced meat reductions. They leave my mouth feeling a residue of something between margarine and glue. Blech!

I'm returning to the French formulas I first learned at hotels; simpler ratios and classic results. My latest churn was black berries and pineapple, with a pinch of rum and port. Delicious. Vive la France!

The Mix

For bakers, flour is a bit like a painter's colors. Sometimes the choices lead to loaves that are great. Even masterpieces. Other times the choice ends up leaden or bird feed. Spontaneous choices are often determined by what's left in my myriad of left-over flour. Sometimes a thought or plan develops. This loaf, made with a flour of ancient grains, surpassed my expectations in taste. With an even crumb, it didn't stale as some modern wheat varieties quite often do.

 

The mix:

Tumminia

Rye

Spelt

Kamut

Einkorn

Whole wheat