STIR THE POTS

Lievito Madre

The holidays led to spending a lot of time with lievito madre, the wonderful sourdough foundation of baking panettone. Refreshed and bathed to cleanse residual acidity, it demands three-hour feeds that are cycled in-between for double mixes. It comes with the need to make choices on its maintenance and refreshment. For instance, do you keep in a jar or tie it up in cloth? Whatever you decide, it's useful for more than panettone, as I found in incorporating it to make a batch of baguettes. 

Norwich Bread Made In Queens

A few years ago I left New York City and my Sunnyside apartment for a bread class in Norwich Vermont, home of King Arthur baking and flour. It also was home to King Arthur's Master baker, Jeffrey Hamelman. Recently I fished out my notes from the class to make his signature loaf, a Norwich sourdough. With its long autolyse and refreshed levain, I did my best to methodically recall the movements and steps to get "just the right specimen" from my oven. Pandemic lifestyle makes you focus on things that matter. Like bread!  

Vegemite

 

When an old friend from Australia sends you a jar of vegemite, you chuckle and then dig into this traditional Aussie favorite (a tucker), best enjoyed on your toast, Pure umami! It's made using an autolysis extract, separating yeast from beer waste gathered in local breweries.  Full of Vitamin B, it's a fairly high salt food, so be careful. It's easy to indulge. 

 

 

 

 

 

Army Recipes

At work, I'm not just the chef. I am also the staff meal coordinator and resident baker. Recently I started using my old U.S. Army recipe cards from back when I was answered as Private Shapiro, Sir! Back in the days when getting creative with ingredients could lead to the rolling eyes of our Warrant officer inspector, who would inevitably note that we weren't quite following the specifications of each recipe. I remember an often repeated refrain to such gents, basically, "um, yeah, I think it was a tablespoon sir?"

Anyway, cutting to my current battles as a middle-aged chef at a small private New York City club, the old recipes need to be calculated to grams, reduced from portions serving 100 soldiers to a motley kitchen crew of ten. My best Army recipes seem to have been breads, more specifically basic white loafs. These days I fancy the ingredients by adding  whole wheat for a T80 rendition. Then there's the buns, which actually hold up with the best of your basic "smash burgers" or hot dogs, absorbing juices without breaking down. I also use the Army recipes for chop suey, chili, and fried chicken. Thinking about all these dishes reminds me that a fighting force really does live on its belly! And so does a modern kitchen crew. 

Riso Vialone

Pressed for time one evening, I was recruited by my wife to make some risotto with mushrooms picked up recently at a local farmers' market. Luckily I'd also recently acquired a can of Vialone nano rice. It led to a fabulous meal, the rice toothy and satisfying, far from the mushy arborio variety more commonly used  riso. I read some interesting information here. Check it out. It's a thirsty and absorbent rice that is somehow dainty yet keeps its shape. And it's also just delicious.  

Tamale Light

My wife incorporated her diet with bone broth, stock she makes from turkey necks and wings along with a split pigs trotter, and chicken feet for collagen oomph!  Anyway, this past Thanksgiving we used the left-over turkey for tamales with red mole. The meat was perfect; moist and redolent of flavor. Realizing I had no lard for the masa, I decided to go with oil and ghee. This meant a third less fat as lard is semi-solid while oil and ghee are liquid. But I got a fantastic result. This included a delicious flavor, a thoroughly lighter texture and turkey meat that fully absorbed the fiery red mole flavors. Yeeee-ha!

Sara's Banana Bread

Sara Owens of BK17 has a fabulous brown butter banana bread recipe made with sourdough. I have tried it twice at work. The kitchen staff loved it, as did customers, even people who didn't like bananas. Rye-based sourdough was key. This is a keeper...try it!

Kolache

Kolache are a fruit-filled yeasted pastry round whose origins are Eastern European. They were introduced to the United states primarily by Czech immigrant communities in the midwest and Texas. I never actually tried to make them until our accountant at my job asked for a lunch sweet. Having some leftover brioche dough, and recalling the shape and using some cranberry filling along with almond cream, I decided to give it a go. A swath of egg wash and some sliced almonds followed and a sprinkle of powdered sugar to finish. Here's what emerged. 

Cotechino

Pigs trotter can be the making of a great meal. Braised tender or roasted to crisping its skin, it is terrific for the German specialty schweinshaxe which I made recently. That dish led me to try using it for a batch of cotechino (or zampone), a trotter stuffed with its seasoned  deboned meat. It's an Italian winter delicacy which is tied to the Modena area. Anyway, it's something I wanted to try for its simple charcuterie characteristics that made the work involved interesting. It also made for a surgical maneuver to taste it. It went down great topped with a classic garnish of lentils.

 

Stollen

Every year I try to sneak a stollen in my Christmas-time baking. I view it as my "naughty dough," a nod to a Kurt Vonnegut story. It also serves as a narrow window to my birth country, Germany. To me, it's a baby Jesus bread, whose fruit and nuts give it a slightly pagan feel. Beyond my own personal take on stollen, it's just a great bread that incorporates the flavors of fruits, nuts, and umami sugar rum goodness. This year's effort included more time for fermentation and a roaring lievito madre that I had used for making panettone.