Baking!

Yesterday was baking day, and I tried a new recipe and a new technique, which I got from This Book.  The recipe is for "artisan" bread, and I have no idea what that means, but it was darn good.  It was better than good, actually.  It was heavenly.  The bread came out chewy with a delicious chewy/crunchy crust that was divine.  Swoon.  I used the basic whole grain dough recipe from the book, and I made a few mistakes that will endeavor to correct next time, but overall it was very easy.

 

Essentially, it takes 4 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, two cups of whole wheat flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 tablespoons rapidrise yeast, and three cups of lukewarm water.  I subbed in a gluten flour for my mixture at about 1 tbsp per cup of regular flour. 

 

I made the dough in my mixer, and let it rise in my mixer bowl after I took the hook attachment out.  I don't think I let it rise quite long enough, or maybe I let it rise too long.  The recipe called for 2 hours of rising, but it doubled in size and took on a spongy appearance after only 45 minutes or so, so I waited another 20 minutes and then started shaping it.  Shaping was very difficult because this dough was quite wet and sticky.  (Another thing to think about for next time... a little less water?)  But, I got half the dough shaped into a sort of boule, admittedly a flattish one, and let it rise for another 40 minutes while the oven was heating up.  I think I didn't have enough rise because I couldn't get the dough to shape right. Here is where I made one of my mistakes.  I kept fiddling with the boule to try to get it more round, which involved tucking ends under to try to tighten it into a half dome shape.  But, since I had set the boule on sprinkled cornmeal to rise, every time I fiddled with it, I created pockets of cornmeal on the bottom of the loaf.  Whooops!

 

The key thing with this bread, though, seems to be the cooking method.  I don't have a baking stone, so I used my cast iron griddle.  I put it in the oven 40 minutes before baking while the oven was preheating, so it was hot when the shaped bread was ready to go in.  I also didn't have a "broiler pan" as described in the book, so a casserole dish full of water went on the bottom rack of the oven to create the steam effect.  Then, I had to slide the boule from the cornmeal-covered cookie sheet it was rising on onto the hot griddle without mishap, which was hard, but I managed.  It baked for about 30 minutes and came out... delicious!  Sooo good!

 

I highly recommend this. 

 

Next time, I will fiddle with the liquid proportions, the rising time, and the shaping to see if I can't make it even better.

 

 

College Food! Cabbage Salad

Last week's meal plan featured a recipe I made all the time in college, and it got me thinking about the other things I made then.  I did a lot more home cooking than most college students; in fact I cooked for 2-8 people a couple of times a week.  I didn't really know what I was doing, but that didn't stop me from making huge amounts of food for my friends all the time.  I made all kinds of crazy things, like huge batches of fry bread that I'd serve with honey and have people over to eat.  I am trying to find where I put all the recipes I loved in college, and I'll post them as I remember or find them.  In the mean times, here is one my favorite things that I made then:

College Cabbage Salad:
Nouns-
1 medium green cabbage or half green half red
1 bunch scallions
1 package of ramen noodles, either oriental or chicken flavor
3 tbsp white vinegar (use rice vinegar if you are fancy)
2 tbsp olive or sesame oil
1 tbsp honey or sugar
1 orange, zested and juiced
a few shakes of sesame seeds

Verbs-
Slaw the cabbage and put in a big bowl.  (Is slaw a verb?  I don't know.  Slice your cabbage into long skinny strips like you would for a good slaw) Chop the scallions and add them to the cabbage.  Remove the seasoning packet from the ramen and set aside.  Crush the dry noodles into small pieces and sprinkle over the cabbage.  In a separate dish, whisk the oil, vinegar, seasoning mix from the ramen, and honey together, with the zest and juice of the orange.  Pour the dressing over the cabbage and toss to thoroughly coat.  Top with sesame seeds.  This whole dish costs about $3 to make.  Yumm!

Meal Plan, the Sequel

Well, folks, last week we ended up not going through much of our meal plan, because the Chana Masala recipe made a LOT of food, and so we ate that for three days!  The Cabbage Salad recipe also made a lot.  Combine that with a dinner out last night, and we have three things left from last week that I still haven't made.  So, this week's plan will be pretty familiar!

The Plan-


Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Spicy Corn Pudding and side salad
Cumin Black Beans and Cilantro Lime Rice
Pasta Primavera
Homemade Pizza

Chana Masala in the Crockpot

Chickpea Masala

This is easy, lowfat, vegetarian and delicious.  I was worried that the chickpeas would be mushy, but they came out tender and firm.  So good!

Nouns:

3 cups dried chickpeas, picked over

1 can crushed tomatoes

3 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cardamom

1 tbsp curry powder

1-3 tsp chili garlic sauce

1 medium onion, diced

1 veggie boullion cube

1 tbsp honey

1 cup water

1 cup plain yogurt

2 cups rice, prepared

Verbs:

Soak the chickpeas overnight in in enough cold water to completely cover them.  Drain and add them to the crockpot.  Pour the tomatoes, spices, onion, water, honey, boullion and chili garlic sauce over them and stir to combine.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  Stir in the yogurt, if using. Serve over rice. 

Next Week's Meal Plan-- apologies

Sooooo.... I have been a bit lax about the meal pla posting, in part because we've been gone on the weekends and that messes things up, and in part because we have been going out and therefore saving meals from week to week, so there's nothing new to post.

Anywho, next week's plan is a bit heavy on the veggie side, in part because we are trying to save some cash, and in part because it is HOT and  can't think about standing over a stove to cook things right now, so all this is either stuff that doesn't need cooking, like salad, or stuff I can put in the crockpot to cook while I am not there.  (The crockpot may actually be living on the back porch for a while, because it still heats up the house to run it, even if I am not there.  So... back porch crockpot cooking!  Fun!

Here's the plan:

Beans and Rice (A reprise of last week's delicious cilantro lime rice and black beans.  They sooo good.)

Spicy Corn Pudding (recipe stolen from the crockpot lady)/ Side Salad

Chana Masala (in the crockpot)

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Cabbage Ramen Noodle Salad

I will also be making yogurt again this weekend and also making some bread if it cools down.  Or I could make crockpot bread on the back porch, because I am a crazy porch crockpot lady.