Rosemary rye bread

Bread dough and tropical tortoises love heat and humidity. So, today, as temperatures soar toward 100 degrees farenheit, I will make rosemary rye bread.

Here is the link for the first time I tried to make French country bread:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/french-country-bread.html

Today, I did a typical me. Started the recipe without reading all the directions and double-checking my ingredients. I ran out of white flour.

My sponge:
- 2 cups warm water
- about 1 teaspoon local raw honey
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 2 cups unbleached white flour
- about 1.75 cups stoneground rye flour

Stir. Cover. Let rise at least two hours. Preferably six. Possibly overnight.

Now, I measured out my flour and had
- two cups unbleached white
To which I added
- four cups rye
- about three teaspoons chopped rosemary from my garden


From here I pretty much followed the original recipe although I added extra herbs leftover from my chicken salad. This recipe combines the sponge with a dough (more yeast, salt, sugar, etc) and then rises again. [See the link listed above.] Shape and let rise again.

Because I ran out of white flour, my final rise didn't have as much ooomph as I would have liked, despite leaving the dough on the steamy sunporch. It was dense but yummy.

French Herbs with Cheryl Karcher

Today, thanks to the prodding and support of a very sweet friend, I attended a French herb workshop at Grouse Studios in Frenchtown. The "teacher" for this informal seminar was Cheryl A. Karcher of Hilltop Herbals.

Fun, fun afternoon.

The blend of experience levels at the workshop made it really interesting. I wanted to learn more about some of the French herbs you commonly see in recipes but I've been hesitant to buy them fresh because they're expensive and I wasn't sure what to do with them.

Really~ I have no clue what to do with sorrel, tarragon, and I would love to make more use of my lavender and lemon thyme. I also need to grow my own rosemary. It's pathetic that I don't.

I'm not going to share any of Cheryl's recipes although I can't guarantee I won't be playing with them in the future. Cheryl has to make a living like everyone else, so these recipes are not mine to share. But we dined on toasted bread with Cheryl's herbed butter and of course white wine. We had a lovely sautéed chicken with mustard and rosemary sauce, an orange/spinach salad with tarragon dressing, and a crisp string bean salad with a lemon/garlic/lemon thyme dressing. And she shared some of her lavender cookies and rose raspberry tea with us.

Also exciting for me was to get up close and personal with fleur de sel. I've wanted some but didn't feel justified in making the investment.

So, what did I learn?

That I need to expand my herbs, and that sorrel is high in iron.

My current herbs: lemon thyme, basil, parsley, spearmint, catmint, oregano (a bush these days), chives, lavender, pink lavender...

My wish list: rosemary

Cheryl's workshop gave me some real food (or herb) for thought... and I'm just too excited to contemplate it now. But look for her inspiration in coming days.

Angel vs. the drumsticks

I have 14 drumsticks. Not my favorite thing to deal with. But my family eats anything... So... A gift is a gift.

I divided the drumsticks into two pyrex dishes. Seven in each.

Oven preheating to 300 degrees.

Marinade 1 "fruity":
A total of about 3/4 cups liquid...
- about half of that dijon apple vinaigrette left from the Dole Harvest salad kit
- about 1/4 of that chianti vinaigrette left from the Dole Italian salad kit
- about 3 tablespoons canola oil
- the remainder is apple juice

Add about 2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary.

Marinade 2 "savory":
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- seven leaves fresh rosemary chopped and dropped into the hot butter

Meanwhile, sprinkle chicken in the savory dish with four color organic pepper and garlic powder.

Pour on the sage butter. It didn't look wet enough so I went ahead and brush more butter directly onto each drumstick, probably bringing the butter total to 1/2 cup. Then, I added a lemon slice to each. I used a whole lemon in this endeavor, making sure I got all the lemon juice into the pan.

I covered them with foil and slipped them into the oven, intending to marinate every 30 minutes and uncover toward the end... whenever I determine that will be.

I believe I cooked them for about 90 minutes on 300 and then 40 minutes on 375 with the aluminum foil off.

My family ate them skin and all and the "fruity" ones were more moist.

Pork Loin with apples?

This is a variation of my pork with apples recipe:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/pork-with-apples.html

I have a two pound pork loin that I'm going to make using the glaze from pork with apples as a sauce and slow cooking it in the oven. And basting often.

Which involves sticking my head in the oven on a 100 degree day.

But I am determined to cook.

So, my first step is to prepare everything from the sauce in the Le Creuset skillet. While that's simmering, I'll start baking the loin a bit... and then combine it all...

More as the experiment gets underway...

Okay... So... This turned out to be one of my simplest, best meat-based meals ever. Served with a harvest salad from Dole.

Ingredients:
- 2 lb pork loin, still frozen
- 2 cups good quality apple juice
- about 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped (I could have easily used three times as much)
- 1 red delicious apple chopped.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
On the stove top, in the skillet, pour 1 cup apple juice, the brown sugar and the rosemary. Simmer and stir gently until the sugar melts. Add the apple. Then add the loin. Leave the heat of the skillet on medium. Cook the loin for five minutes on each side.

Lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the top of the skillet. I did not cover completely. Put the skillet in the oven and baste ever half hour, turning every hour.

After two hours, add another cup of apple juice. Continue basting.

I served after three hours. Around the 2.5 hour mark, the color changed from porky gray to a rich orange brown. The apples more or less melted.

Chicken with cornflake sludge

This is one of those meals that did not do what I intended.

Ah, well. Win some, lose some.

I started with a hint of butter and an equal amount of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and a teaspoon of fresh rosemary snipped into tiny pieces.

I took some chicken, sliced into tenders, and had my daughter grind some four-color peppercorns and some McCormick garlic salt (packed in France, go figure). Added the chicken and some chicken broth. I cooked the chicken about four minutes on each side, then I coated with eggs, and "breaded" with crushed cornflakes, made more 50/50 lemon butter sauce and added some olive oil for a "frying" effect and returned everything to the Le Creuset skillet.

The cornflakes fell off.

I added a whole bunch of steamed baby carrots from the freezer, thawed in the microwave, added a few dollops of butter and some more chicken broth and placed the entire skillet in the oven.

Meanwhile, my husband is making cheapo mac and cheese from a box for a second side.

keep your fingers crossed. I'm going to need it.

The result: FABULOUS!!!

Kitchen Alchemy: Beef Stew

I am making something that resembles beouf bourgogne... I chopped the stew meet and dusted with flour, four color organic peppercorns, and sea salt. I'm browning them with a touch of olive oil, a touch of the petit sirah (on sale for $5 at the liquor store) and a touch of French brandy.

The vegetable stock has been reduced by half, and lots of herbs added. In the absence of a true bouquet garni, I have added a variety of fresh herbs from the freezer and dried herbs. Dill, sage, rosemary, oregano, garlic pepper.

My husband has chopped a mound of potatoes and carrots, which one the beef had browned, I put in the beef juice in the skillet and moved the beef into the vegetable stock. I added some olive oil, some wine. I poured the rest of the wine bottle in with the beef, and then filled it half way with water and poured that over the vegetables in the skillet.

I let them cook for five or ten minutes in this mix before I incorporate them into the stew. Then I mix everything up, put it on medium and wait. My husband has chopped some fresh broccoli and cauliflower, which makes it more beef vegetable stew than beef burgundy, but it need to be used...

These vegetables will be added much later, closer to eating time.

Previous versions:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/beef-burgundy.html

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/01/boeuf-bourgogne.html

Pineapple Pork with Apples

So, tonight I decided to make pork with apples because I needed to make something in my Le Creuset skillet and this is a good winter dish.

Here are all my pork recipes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/pork

Here is my original post on pork with apples:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/pork-with-apples.html
(It doesn't look good because that was early in my food styling career)

Tonight I started with two one-inch boneless pork chops and had my husband slice them into stir-fry stips. I browned them in butter and added about 3/4 teaspoon rosemary from my freezer. I added about 1/2 cup sweetened pineapple sauce I had in the freezer after my last poire tartin. Then I added about 1/2 teaspoon organic four color pepper and one cup white grape juice and a handful of brown sugar and 1/2 cup mustard-- in my case about 1/3 cup plain yellow mustard and the rest brown horseradish mustard. Boil then return to a simmer. Finally, add one large green apple sliced. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until sauce thickens.

Tonight I'm serving over chow mein noodles.

When I tasted the sauce in the pan, I wasn't very keen on the lingering flavor of the juice. But with the meat, the apples and the chow mein noodles it was yummy. The chow mein noodles are definitely the perfect texture to serve with this meal.

Foccaccia

To use the ripe tomatoes my mother brought us from her garden, I opted to make a homemade herb foccaccia. As usual, there's the 'real' recipe and my modified version.

We're serving this for dinner with farm-fresh corn-on-the-cob and hopefully the last of the greenbeans from my garden.

I've had the original recipe for more than a decade. My notes say it originated with the VegList, a veg*n email recipe exchange list I belonged to when I first decided to learn to cook. I seem to remember a similar recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I guess I'll have to trust my memory.

Rosemary Foccaccia
from VegList
For the dough

• 1/4 ounce active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water, lukewarm
• 3 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 to 4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves, minced

Topping

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds onions, sliced thin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• fresh rosemary sprigs
  

Garden Foccaccia
Angel's version

For the dough:

• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (maybe a little less)
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground pasta and pizza seasoning

For the topping:
combine in food processor:

• close to 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons fresh chives

1 to 2 tomatoes, sliced
parmesan cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Combine water and yeast in bowl. Stir with non-metal spoon and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. If you're making Angel's version, prepare the pesto topping and refrigerate to give flavors time to meld.

3. Once the yeast is activated, add the salt and 2 teaspoons olive oil to the yeast and stir with the non-metal spoon. Add 2 cups of flour (if using wheat or rye, use one cup of wheat/rye and one cup white) and the herbs-- fresh rosemary for the rosemary foccaccia and the pasta seasoning for the garden foccaccia. Stir with a heavy wooden spoon.

4. Add another cup flour and stir as dough begins to form a ball. Turn onto floured surface and knead until soft and elastic. Add more flour as dough becomes sticky and difficult to work with. Knead for about ten minutes.

5. Oil a large bowl (with olive oil, cooking spray or butter). Place dough in bowl and flip to coat. Cover bowl with clean, damp cloth and place somewhere warm and free of drafts to allow to rise. It needs to double in volume. Should take about 90 minutes.

6. When it's done, punch down. Oil a 12 x 18 baking pan, including the edges. Place dough in center of pan and spread across the surface evenly. Cover with damp cloth again and let rise for 45 minutes.

7. While dough is rising, if making the rosemary version, heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onions in the oil, turning to coat as they begin cooking. Cook about 15 minutes until soft but not burned. The oil should be absorbed. (I hate onions so I have never done this.)

8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. When dough is done rising, make indentations with your fingers in the surface of the dough. Lightly brush olive oil (for the rosemary version) or pesto (for Angel's version) across the bread. Sprinkle with salt if desired. (I don't)

9. If using the onions, spread them evenly across the dough now. I use fresh tomato instead, sliced thin. Raw. I brush the remaining oil/sauce over them as I place them. I also sprinkle parmesan cheese.

10. Bake for 30 minutes until dough is lightly browned. If using fresh rosemary as part of the topping, add in the last five minutes of cooking.