Long Over Due

Sorry for the month long hiatus for updating - I've got some goodies to post about though.

First - I'd like to voice my love for roasted corn on the cob. Perhaps it is one of summer's greatest treats, but there is really not much that is tastier or simpler than throwing a cob on the "barbie" and slathering it with lime butter once it's golden brown and munching on those sweet roasted kernels. LOVE IT.

Second - Love indian food, especially from Taste of India on Roosevelt and 55th. We went there a few weeks ago, and as usual, I got free desert :) It's been a long running thing, perhaps the past 10 times at least, I've gotten free desert from them! And their food is pretty darn tasty, too. We shared garlic naan, tikka masala, tandoori, the spinach curry, almond chicken curry, and butter curry. MMM. LOVE IT!

Third - Been baking lots of bread. I just made one tonight - rosemary No Knead Bread. I chopped up about 3 sprigs of rosemary and added it into the dry ingredients yesterday. I also added 3 T of sugar and extra yeast, which I think helped yield the lovely rise on the bread. :) It went beautifully with my soup - store bough "Pacific" brand of Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Tomato soup. MM MM MM! I'm planning on having more soup and bread for lunchies this week.

Fourth - For my birthday 2 weeks ago, we went to Quinn's pub on Capitol Hill. It was delicious. For appetizers, we shared spicy peanuts, a tomato salad, baguette & butter, and frites, fontina fonduta, demi-glace - which is fries with gravy and cheese.

Mouthwatering good. For the main course, we shared slow roasted ribs, fish and chips, and half a roasted chicken with chickpea puree. The chicken was my favorite - so tender and the puree was heavenly. The ribs were OK but not amazing. And I didn't try the fish but the chips were OK. I think next time I'll be more daring and try more risky things, like bone marrow... Really enjoyable dinner, though.

Fifth: For my bday, I decided to invite some friends over and cook for them. It was tough trying to plan the menu but I used my new gift of Giada de Laurentis' Everyday Italian as inspiration to create a mainly Italian focused menu:

Caprese Salad w/ toasted baguette slices (v)
White Bean Dip with toasted pita chips (v)
Chicken Satay skewers with peanut sauce

Greek Salad
Zucchini Al Forno (zucchini gratin) (v)
Homemade No-Knead Bread (v)
-Mashed potatoes, care of Alan/ Stacey/Jaden (v)

Pasta with three sauces:
Lemon Alfredo (v)
Spicy Tomato Sauce (all'arribbaita - the angry style)

Bolagnese
Tuna and Tomato

Dessert:
Brownies (of course :)) (v)

(v) = vegetarian friendly!

I started Friday night, purchasing all the groceries from Trader Joes and Freddies, and then starting on the Bolagnese sauce, and bread.

Then I started cooking up again Saturday at 2pm until 7, but had great help from some friends and my cousin Anna. Everything worked out great in the end and I ended up feeding 20 people for only about $5 per person, it was great w/ the pasta as the main course because everyone could choose what sauces they liked.

The zucchini gratin was my favorite - super easy to make! You just layer zucchini slices with cream, cheese - fontina, parm, mozzarella, and peccorino romano, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Bake until browned and bubbly and enjoy!

I think everyone's favorite was the Lemon Alfredo, which was a recipe I got from my coworker Amber - you just slowly boil lemon juice, cream, and muscat wine.

Lastly - been making some mac and cheese. So good, and so easy. Not too easy on the waistline, but I love baking pasta w/ bread crumbs on top - that crust is always the best part.

That is it for now!! I'll try to post more regularly!! Enjoy the pix and let me know if you want any certain recipes!

-Belinda

Battle #1: No Knead Bread vs. Sourdough Bread Bake Off!

I couldn't really think of what to write about an intro for this blog so I decided that I may as well just jump right in and start blogging.

I've just started a new experiment using two different sourdough recipes. One is Nancy Leson's "No Knead Bread" and the other is derived from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything".

The NKB is a mixture of bread flour, salt, white vinegar, yeast, lager beer, and water. I've used this recipe more than 8 times, and the results have been fantastic: a fluffy crispy bread that is super simple to make. I've even taken to mixing it up, adding whole cloves of garlic before the proofing phase, and rosemary also adds a nice touch. Using whole wheat flour makes the bread a little denser but at least you get that "healthy" feeling while eating the bread. This recipe is a bit demanding though, requiring a heavy investment of a dutch oven to give it that golden buttery crust, which in actuality makes the purchase worth it.

However, I had gotten bored of the NKB. It's a no brainer to make. I was itching to try something more authentic: real sourdough bread [ or as real as you can get in a home kitchen] . So I looked at the handy dandy cook bible that Dave got me for my birthday last year and found a pretty simple recipe for sourdough bread, starter and all. I mixed the starter for the first time about 2 weeks ago, and have made 3 or so loaves of bread since then. [Side note: I'm always reminded of Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" chapter about his bread man begging Anthony to "feeeeeed the starterrrr"; great book, you gotta read it.] Anyways, I've been feeding my starter, and experimenting on/off with whole wheat flours and bread flours. This recipe is pretty simple, just consisting of flour, water, yeast, and salt. And the result is a fluffy and chewy bread with a light touch of sour flavor that really satisfies the pallet.

Overall, I'll say that King Arthur's Bread Flour has produced the best results in both bread recipes. I'm doing a head to head competition right now. I've got 1 loaf of each rising in the oven for their 8+ hour beauty naps; I'll shape and proof them after I get home from work and bake them off. I have found that if you shape your bread, place it in an empty oven that has been on for 30 seconds, that slight bit of heat really helps the bread rise beautifully before baking off.

Well, I wrote more that I expected. I guess it's easy to when you're taking about delicious things. Hopefully this blog takes off. We'll see. I'll post later once the breads are done and give you the low-down on the bread smack down.