STIR THE POTS

Panettone Gastronomico

I found a new way sandwich roll for the holidays. It's a mix that riffs off panettone, all-be-it a bread that's not studded with fruit or flavoring. Just eggs and butter and a long mix of about nine hours of proofing. The key is to refresh the lievito madre in three-hour intervals and you get a beautiful product.

Sweets for the Meeting

New challenges at work including sweetening the table for business meetings. I decided on baking "petit fours," classic's that I haven't made for many years inspires. I included a nod to Argentina with "alfajores with dulce de leche" and "Prousts Madelines" for France, ironic how the World Cup enters this story!

Baked Alaska

For years, I have served Baked Alaska at my workplace. And each year I say we'll try something different. Up till now, no luck. As the saying goes, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Well, how about old wolves? Call me what you want, but Caroline Schiff inspired me this year. Her simple preparation was transforming. Warning, get out your fire extinguishers! It includes some burn.

Slow down

As is my usual predicament with timing and levain, I find myself in an endless battle to slow the hell down! Why? With fermentation. Here's a tip that's easy to say but difficult (at least for me) to do. Avoiding wasting flour to refresh and feed your starter. It's a beginner mistake I have made repeatedly for years. But this year I put down my foot - and eyes. More specifically I started a panettone starter and fed it according to great directions from baker Quentin Berthonneau. The man reminded me to never rush. Or chance rushing straight toward imperfection. Slow down and follow directions (as well as your better instincts). Anyway, it works!

Country Bread

Pain de campagne (aka "country bread")is a flavorful and structured bread. A wheat bread generally includes rye at around 10 percent. Below is a recent version using rye sourdough. This adds a punchy ferment and beguiling flavor. It's great with pate, cheese or just to clean that last delicious sauce from your plate. I baked the loaf with an overnight retarding of the dough. It's important to keep your levain healthy. Also helpful is make small batches weekly refreshing. This can lead to better baking. 

 

Burgers In Casiss

From my trip to France this past summer.

Returning late to Cassis from a day trip in Aix-en Provence we couldn't get a bus or cab from the train station. That forced us to walk a few kilometers to our hotel. Passing a fork in the road, our eyes fixated on two restaurants. By this time we were as hungry as we were tired. One restaurant offered sushi, the other burgers. We opted for burgers, as I liked the specials offered on their chalkboard; especially the chimmichurri Argentinian burger with a side of fries and a Coke. We were delightedly amazed at the quality. Honestly, I forgot to take photographs of the food, but it was a fine burger. And the fries, damn they were excellent.

La Petite Girandole, it's so French and wonderful. Here's a shot from their website. If you get to Cassis, it's worth the walk.

 

Direct Bake

Work has been overtaking my usual lazy baking routine. All to say, that my job has forced me to baking without involving any retarding of dough. That means a five-hour window from mix to bake, not counting previous day's levain build.

 

Below are photos of two lovely loaves we served with a beautiful gem salad and paella dinner. The first was a dropbox formula from a apiece of bread in Tasmania, Ian the baker told me it was based on a Basile Kamir formula, which he jokingly called Campaign (Campagne). I've tried this formula many times but never had much success. This time I left it to prove for four hours, then shaped and left it alone probably an hour, and boom.

 

The second was a formula I'd seen on the Youtube channel produced by Ian Spampatti, an excellent young pizzaiolo and baker. This loaf was called "open sourdough" or many holes (molti buchi). I used the processing for leaving it in the refrigerator after initial proving and shaping it, then the next day baked the loaf in my Creuset pot. It resulted in an open but even crumb and fabulous taste.

 

 

 

Les Clos des Arômes - A Great Restaurant In Cassis

From this past summer's vacation in France.

Cassis offers a range of familial, starred and various tourist restaurants. Le Clos des Arômes is one of the city's Corsican inspired restaurants that me and my wife loved, specifically for two dishes; palourdes aux linguini and pêche granité.

 

On returning for a second time, the host recognized me.  When I decided to sit outside in their lovely garden, he offered me a straw hat to cover my bald spot from the the blazing sun. "J'ai le même problème, cachez-vous!" ("cover up, I have the same problem!).  We returned multiple times, loving the honest and simple preparations. Here's some of what we had.