herbed bread

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Homemade bread, easy to make and even easier to eat. 

Having this bread straight out of the oven, it's warm, soft with a perfectly crunchy crust and packed full of flavor because of all the fresh herbs you stuff in it. 

After long searching for no knead bread recipe that didn't require the 12-16 hours resting period that most do, I came upon this recipe. It is from the Pioneer Woman's site and looked amazing in her photos. So I decided to give it a go. While mine did not come out looking exactly like hers, she had much more of a pretty 'bloom' to hers when it was slashed on top. I still love this recipe nonetheless. Paired with some herb butter and a few veggies, the bread is magic.

One thing you do need for this recipe is a dutch oven. I have long dreamed over the Le Creuset ones, coveting the one in a cream shade. Many times going into Sur La Table, staring at them thinking 'Today is the day' but never end up walking out with a very heavy bag. They last forever and are a thing of beauty but the 200 or so price tag always makes my practical side run in fear. I will shell out the cash for one, one of these days. But for now my 3 dollar thrift store dutch oven works just fine.

It has been a long weekend. Motorcycle classes, which did not go well unfortunately, but it's not the first thing I have been kicked out of in my life! One memorable time of being kicked out of my high school senior portrait session. Agh, more on that later. 
So off to edit some more photos so it won't be so few and far between on my posting like lately!














































recipe from Pioneer Woman

S'mores Hand Pies

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S'mores are kind of magical thing for me. They are full of memories in every bite and they make me love what I would normally never eat. 






Like most, s'mores were the epic camping food that somehow would make the whole trip worth while to me. Sitting next to the campfire as a kid, trying to burn my marshmallows till they were about to fall off the stick. All of my crazy family around me, Grampa smoking cigars and playing backgammon with my aunts and uncles. My mom always taking care of everyone and my grandma probably taking care of me and my sister to give my mom a break. Camping used to be a once a year tradition for my family. Go up to lake tahoe, to the same campsite every year, swim in the freezing lake, if only for a second. While those days are very far behind me, from people moving away. And from the last time we went getting snowed on and our tents collapsing on us in the early hours of the morning. I remember my sister getting the bulk of the tent falling on her, so there were tears streaming everyone. My Grampa, standing outside the tent taking photos and laughing. We ended up having to pack up our frozen things, after trying to defrost the shoes filled with snow that were left out, and staying at a hotel. Somehow a next trip never happened... My family is crazy, 100%, but they are mine and as much as I have refused to go to family functions, tell them all they are mental, it was always a good time camping and I love those crazy people.







So back to the food. Chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows. Two out of three I would generally eat. Marshmallows are something I would normally never eat. Too chalky, squishy, the after taste, everything just always seemed wrong with them to me. Admittedly the only marshmallows I have tried come in big clear packages from the grocery store, I should give those handmade ones a go.

But when you mix just those three ingredients together, add a bit of fire, it's heavenly.
 
So given that I have gone camping once in the past probably 15 years or so, I get massive cravings for s'mores. I've had them a few times outside of camping, probably in someone's back yard or over the stove in high school when we all got bored. So I new I had to do some type of s'mores-ish post for here. Now there will be more variations to come in the future. This one isn't perfect, you dont get that crunchy char from the open flame but it's the gooey marshmallow and melty chocolate that this recipe will tide me over on. 







I used mini marshmallows to stuff in the pies but I'm thinking that mixing the graham cracker crumbs and chocolate together with marshmallow fluff to create more of a batter you would scoop on to the pie would work better. Give it a go, give both a go if you are extra hungry, change it up a bit, these pies are meant to be fun. Don't take them too seriously, how could you, its marshmallow chocolate and graham crackers stuffed into a flaky shortcrust. Sugar overload loveliness

butter

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So I have been meaning to post this for a while. Since Easter exactly. But everything just seems to always be happening all at once. Work got extremely busy, the commute is starting to wear me out and I keep having trouble focusing, on anything. But now thats all about to change. Everything is going to change. This past week has been eventful. So last Saturday morning, while I was staying up at my Grandma's to help her out while my Grandpa was in the hospital, I got a phone call. Fairly early in the morning. It was about a job that I applied for two week ago. After a bit of a chat, a date and time was set and up to St. Helena I would go. About an hours drive from where I live.
So I went up, interviewed with the Chef and by the end of the meeting, a date and time was set for me to come back and bake them a fair number of things.

The next day and a half was spent frantically practicing all that I would need to bake for them that day. Many variations of the same thing, trying to find what was the most delicious.
So the day came, the drive up there was spent me furiously yelling at every other car in the massive pile up of traffic, thinking that would help to not make me late. Luckily I made it on time. And away I went, baking for them for the next 6 hours.
'Well at least I got the experience' I thought (the thing you say to yourself when you really want the job but immediately rethink everything you did once you left)

But a phone call the next day put my heart at ease, I got the job!! Good bye San Francisco, hello St Helena! I couldn't be happier. This new job will be a lot of hard work but I couldn't be more excited to start. A challenge is always good.
So one more week of cupcakes and then on to something new!

So hopefully I'll be able to find a little studio apt in the St Helena/Napa area so I don't have to commute. Recommendations always welcome ;)








Homemade butter. I never realized how simple it was and how amazing the results can be. The deep yellow color, the creamy smooth taste, my normal butter will never taste as good. I used a cultured butter recipe, letting the cream sit with a bit of yogurt for a few hours to ferment. The flavor is intensified, especially when you knead in a bit of fleur de sel at the end of the process. Smeared on a piece of homemade herbed bread, it was possibly the best thing.











I loved the color of how the butter turned out. So yellow, deep and rich, not the anemic white butter that I buy in bulk from certain warehouse store. While that butter is all well and good for baking, it need brings much flavor to a piece of bread. After making a few batch of butter, the most obvious is true to getting an amazing color and flavor in it. Use really high quality cream! Well of course, it's the only things its really made of. But I just kind of thought, whatever cream is cream and cheaped out on my first batch. I used he grocery store brand cheap cream. The butter was good but looked kinda like the butter I buy.


But them I remember seeing Strauss cream in those amazing little glass bottles at whole foods. Everything Strauss has always served me well, so I thought ill make on expensive batch of butter. Completely and totally different from using the other cream. This butter came out so yellow and so flavorful, you have to go get he good stuff if your going to make butter. It's a world of difference. 






Cultured Butterfrom Not Without Salt1 pint high quality heavy cream2 tbsp plain whole milk yogurt1/4 tsp fleur de sel
Pour cream into bowl of a stand mixer. Add in yogurt then stir gently until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm spot for a few hours. (I let mine sit for 4 hours)
Remove plastic, place in stand mixer and beat with whisk attachment until the buttermilk separates from the fat. Continually pour of the liquid (save it for other baking needs, its buttermilk) and keep beating, getting out as much liquid as you can. 
When you think you have gotten all that you can out, pour in 1/2 cup cold water and mix on low. Pour off liquid and repeat until it's nearly clear.
Take out of stand mixer, but leave butter in the bowl. Preferably with gloves, knead butter by hand as you would dough. Pour off any liquid that comes out. Knead in the salt. Add more salt if you are like me. 
You now should have amazing butter. 






I also chopped up some thyme and just mashed it in with the butter!










Do you remember the Dutch Oven Bread recipe I posted a bit ago?I had wrote about how I longed for a Le Creuset big dutch oven but never seemed to be able to pull together the funds to buy one. Or at least be able to justify all that gas/bridge toll money on a dutch oven. 
So the next day after I post, I got a phone call. I didn't recognize the number, and I normally don't answer if I don't, but this time I did for some reason. And I am sure glad I did. It was a gentleman from Marketing at Sur La Table, telling me how they saw the post and wanted to send me a Le Creuset, so could they have my address? My mind went blank. 'Umm are you serious?!? Of course you can have my address' I was totally shocked. I always just have those 'Blah no one really reads my blog' thoughts. But I guess all us bloggers get that way sometime. Anyways, it was seriously the best phone call that I had gotten in a long time. A few days later, a big box showed up at my doorstep and this wonderful thing of beauty was in it and a lovely handwritten note from the kind people of Sur La Table. 
I am forever grateful they sent this to me, I completely love it and can't wait to use it once my life gets a bit less hectic. I want my first recipe for it to be epic.

forgotten photos

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These are forgotten photos. Photos that I took probably months ago. They made it onto my computer, but the process of editing was taking too long one day, nothing would save, so I gave up and left it for another day. But that day never came. I took new photos, these were in an ambiguously labeled file and weren't to be seen again. Until now!
The first photos are of a quick tomato tart I made one day. It was just something quick to snack on with some wonderful tomatoes I had gotten from the market. It's puff pastry, filled with layers of tomatoes, salt & pepper and generous amounts of thyme. It is simple, quick and tasted wonderful. Fresh, light and the puff came out nice and crispy.

The second set:


































































Photos from the SF Market when I went one Saturday. I was wondering around all day, just taking photos and buying little bits to snack on. 





Now off to bed, because I now have to wake up at 1:40am! to get to work at 3. What is even the point of going to bed right? Thinking I should just change my sleep schedule to sleep right after work, when I am actually tired. Rather than forcing myself to stay awake then not being able to sleep so early at night. 

Kale Omelet-Stuffed Tomatoes

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Did you take part in Food Revolution Day? It was on Saturday May 19, created by the Jamie Oliver Foundation, and it was a day devoted to educating everyone about cooking fresh, healthy food. Slow Food Austin organized a brunch event where we shared food that matched the theme of the day. I wanted to make something simple with mostly local ingredients. The first ripe tomatoes of the year had just started appearing at farm stands and markets, and I couldn’t wait to use them. I brought home a few different varieties of tomatoes and a bunch of kale from Springdale Farm, and then I stole an omelet idea from Virginia Willis’s Basic to Brilliant, Y'all. In the book, a kale omelet is baked in a hollowed out, big, round loaf of bread, and it makes a beautiful presentation. But, for a potluck brunch party, I thought individual omelets would be handy, and I was also thinking back to a stuffed tomato recipe I used to make for summer breakfasts. The dish I used to make involved cutting the tops off tomatoes, removing the seeds, and cracking an egg into each tomato, and then the tomatoes were baked. They’re cute with an intact yolk in the middle, but the problem with the whole egg in a tomato thing is that each tomato needs to be just the right size to fit each egg. By whisking eggs with some sauteed kale, an omelet mixture could be poured to fill tomatoes of any size, and the fitting problem was solved. That’s how the dish you see here was born.

I’ll include the amounts I used in the recipe below, but to make this again, the quantities might have to be changed depending on the size of the tomatoes. First, I sauteed chopped kale with a little minced garlic and red chile flakes in olive oil. Next, tomato tops were cut off and seeds were removed. I sprinkled salt and pepper into each tomato, drizzled in some olive oil, and added a pinch of shredded parmesan. The tomatoes were placed in a baking dish. Eggs were whisked, and the cooled, sauteed kale was added. I used a small ladle to pour the omelet mixture into the tomatoes and filled them almost to the top. More parmesan was strewn about on top before the tomatoes were baked for about 45 minutes.

I’m thinking back to cracking eggs and watching them overflow smaller tomatoes or only filliing bigger ones halfway, and I’m wondering why it never occurred to me before to whisk the eggs into an omelet to use in a stuffed tomato. It’s really a better idea. And, it's easy. It makes a homemade, healthy, and vegetable-forward dish full of fresh, local ingredients for a food revolution or just for a good, summer meal.

Kale Omelet-Stuffed Tomatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil 
1/2 bunch kale, washed, stems removed, and leaves chopped
1 teaspoon red chile flakes or to taste
1 garlic clove, minced
12 medium tomatoes
4 oz. parmigiano reggiano, shredded
7 large eggs

-Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.

-In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, heat two tablespoons of the olive oil and add the red chile flakes. Add the chopped kale and cook until wilted and tender about five minutes. Set aside to cool.

-Cut the tops off each tomato, and using a paring knife or small spoon, remove the seeds to hollow the tomatoes. Choose a baking dish that will hold the tomatoes snuggly so they don’t roll around when the dish is moved, and drizzle a few drops of the remaining olive oil in the bottom of the dish. With the last bit of olive oil, drizzle it in the tomatoes. Season the tomatoes with salt and black pepper, and sprinkle some of the parmigiano reggiano in each tomato.

-In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and season them with salt and black pepper. Add the cooled kale and whisk to combine. Using a small ladle, pour the egg mixture into the tomatoes and fill each almost to the top. Sprinkle the tops of the tomatoes with the remaining parmigiano reggiano, and place baking dish in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the omelets in each tomato are set and the cheese on top is golden.

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Flax-Coconut Pancakes

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I used to make pancakes almost every weekend. Stacks of simple buttermilk cakes dripping with maple syrup was a Sunday morning thing. Then, I think I developed pancake-guilt. I decided even weekend breakfasts should be a little healthier at least most of the time. If a pancake has some fruit in it or whole wheat flour or nuts, I feel better about serving it. So, of course I had to try the Flax-Coconut Pancakes from the March issue of Food and Wine. The recipe is from Elisabeth Prueitt of San Francisco’s Tartine. She too likes the idea of a healthier pancake, and she’s recently been using grains other than white flour since developing gluten-intolerance. For myself, I’m not concerned about the gluten content in baked goods, but I was happy to pull out my bin of various flours and starches and use some ingredients other than white flour. And mostly, these pancakes sounded like they’d be delicious with the coconut flour in the batter and the coconut oil on the griddle. I pushed the coconut flavor even further by adding some unsweetened, grated coconut. For serving, I couldn’t resist the usual drizzle of pure maple syrup, but I topped that with some chunks of fresh mango as well.

The recipe follows the typical pancake-making procedure but uses a few more ingredients. Brown rice flour, white rice flour, sugar, potato starch, tapioca starch, coconut flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, and salt were combined in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, eggs, milk, and melted coconut oil were whisked before being poured into the dry ingredients. I added a half cup or so of grated coconut and a little more milk to prevent the batter from being too thick. I spread melted coconut oil on a hot griddle with a silicone brush, and then the pancakes were cooked for a few minutes per side. Just like any other kind of pancake, when the surface bubbles, it’s time to turn the cake.

The pancakes had a subtle, warm, tropical flavor from coconut in three forms which was fitting with the mango chunks on top. The coconut and flax make these heartier than plain buttermilk pancakes, but most important, I was pancake-guilt-free serving these for a weekend breakfast treat covered in maple syrup.

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