Pho

About a month ago - Teegan and I were whisked away to Kim's Pho (A little Vietnamese restaurant in Toronto - I believe that's what it was called), by a few friends. Even though I didn't partake in Pho that night, I tried Teegan's and became quite smitten - seriously good. To quote my friend Shez "Dee-freakin-licious".

So that being said, I thought I would take a stab at it. The recipe I used came from Charles Phan on the Food &Wine website.

It turned out pretty good. The broth had a nice flavour, which I was happy about. Adding the roasted ginger was new to me - but it definitely paid off. This may make a regular appearance in the repertoire.

My Future Garden

I got my seeds in the mail today! I am super excited - though, my excitement is currently being harnessed or reigned in. At this point, I don't know when or where my garden will be planted. Even if my garden doesn't make it into the ground this year - seeds keep for a few years - and I am really happy with my seed choices.

I got my seeds from The Cottage Gardener. They are located about 30 minutes south of Peterborough.

Longfellow Cucumber - 12 inches long - with white ribs

Beet Mix - it's got red, gold, orange etc

Aurora Pepper - I was quite taken with this pepper - it's also endangered

Kale - a mix of the different varieties

Golden Zucchini

Winged Peas - not quite peas, not quite asparagus

Watermelon Radish - green outside, red inside

Albino Beet - white beets - who knew!

Swiss Chard - 5 colours

Basil Mix - sweet, thai, lemon, lime

Arugula 

Parsnips - my new found vegetable

Carrots - white, red, orange, yellow and purple

Knead - Not, Coconut Chocolate Bread

I borrowed Jim Lahey's book "My Bread" from the library, a few weeks ago. As far as I know, he created the no-knead bread method. After perusing the book, there were a few bread recipes that stood out - but none more then the coconut chocolate bread (Click here for the recipe) or see below.

I cut into the bread before I took some pics - I just couldn't wait. I should tell you that within 10 minutes of the first cut, Teegan and I polished off over half this bread! SO - GOOD!

Recipe:

2 C + 2 T Unbleached Bread Flour

1/4 tsp Yeast (I used 1/2 tsp)

1 C Unsweetened shredded coconut

1 C Semi-sweet chunk'ed chocolate (I just had chips but I would have used a dark chocolate).

1 tsp Salt

1 1/4 C water

Throw everything together and stir till there is no dry flour left in the bowl. Once everything seems good cover it and let it rest overnight.

The next morning, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface. Fold the dough over on itself a few times and then shape the dough into a ball. Put the dough onto a piece of parchment and put it into a bowl to keep the dough in a round shape. Cover and let it rest for 2 hours - or till doubled in size. Oh, sprinkle the top with a bit more coconut. I got a little carried away and some of mine burnt and I had to scrape it off.

Preheat the oven to 450. During this time also preheat your dutch oven. Once the oven is ready, place the dough (with paper) into the dutch oven (Be careful it's hot) and bake with the lid on for 30 to 40 minutes. Then take the lid off and bake for another 20 minutes or so.

I was initially going to make this bread on my stone but at the last minute decided against it. Though I still want to try it - so when I do, I'll let you know how it turns out.

100th Post

It seems just like yesterday I was writing my first post. How time fly's.

This blog was initially going to be a way of keeping myself creative. I would do something and blog about it. Slowly but surely it became focused on food, and now more recently bread. I do have dreams to blog about my big garden that I have been planning and growing in my head - but that may have to wait a year or 2 till my life gets more settled. So stay tuned (Darren, Jen, Mom and everyone else who's reading!)

Meanwhile.

This is the sourdough waiting for the oven.

The sourdough bread to the left was made with yeast, where as the bread on the right was not. There was quite a difference in size between the 2. The bread with the yeast turned out great - it looked so nice, it has a good crust and crumb (The inside of the bread) and tasted great. The natural sourdough however, didn't really rise, didn't taste good, didn't cook all the way through and found its way into the garbage. Perhaps the initial starter was flawed, or perhaps my approach was - perhaps another try in the future.

The inside of the good bread.

I picked up some more bread flour today (unbleached and multi-grain), so I could finish the rest of my pizza dough (One with unbleached bread flour and the other with - you guessed it! Multi-grain). I ended up breaking both doughs down into 10 individual pieces and froze them for another day.

Tonight for supper I was going to make 2 bigger pizza's, but after doing a little research - I found out that in a normal kitchen oven, smaller pizza's cook better then bigger ones. So I made 5 individual pizza's (about 10 inches round). It took longer, but I was in no way disappointed with the results. In fact, this was the best pizza I have ever made!

After 2 minutes in the oven.

The temperature in the oven was set to 550 - as high as my oven goes.

The Pizza's cooked in about 5 to 6 minutes.

1. Buffalo Chicken

I mixed some Franks buffalo hot sauce with a little ranch and topped with some shaved deli chicken and mozzarella cheese.

2. Salami

Just pizza sauce and salami

3. Buffalo Chicken

4. Salami

5. Buffalo Chicken

p.s I once again have room in my fridge.

I may have bitten off more then I can chew!

Top Left: Sourdough starter  - which is basically a bunch of bacteria which kind of acts like yeast and smells sour. The starter takes about a week to make, but if you ever decide to make one follow the instructions - instead of discarding some of the starter to create your finished product (which is normal), I double my recipe and made twice as much. I now realize that I will never in my wildest dreams use it all. This picture of my fridge is my attempts to do that, but I still have 3/4's of the starter left.

Top Right: Sourdough bread rising (with extra yeast added). This bread contains 1/4 c of the starter. It will be baked today. It will most likely make 2 good size loafs.

Middle Left: This is my massive ball of sour dough pizza starter (which will become pizza dough). I should clarify that this starter is made from the beginning starter. It would have become finished dough last night, but I ran out of flour so I could only make a portion of it, but that's OK because this can sit in my fridge for 3 days. When I started to make this starter I tripled the pizza dough recipe to make sure I had left over balls of dough to freeze. It would have made 15, 10 - 12 inch individual pizza's.

Middle Right: This is my completed pizza dough rising - which will be supper tonight. 5 individual pizza's, though more likely 2 big ones.

Bottom Right: More sourdough. This difference with this one is - it does not contain any yeast. I am going to bake both the sourdoughs today and see if I notice a difference it size, flavour and overall quality.

I should point out as well, that it was quite a feat to fit all these bowls in my tiny fridge.

My new clay oven/Stone

I bought a pizza/bread stone the other day. I do already have one, but I currently don't have access to it, seeing as it's in Saskatoon.

Don't worry, I can justify having 2!

After seasoning it (Baking it by itself at a high temp for a few hours), I had to try it out so I made a no-knead overnight bread yesterday. Typically I make this in my dutch oven, but I would say it turned out just as good, if not better.

I baked it for 35 minutes at 425 to 450.

Lost in the Shuffle

So, I managed to lose/misplace the pictures of the ciabatta bread I made on Saturday.

I FOUND A PICTURE!

I guess my description of it will have to do.

The dough was quite soft and moist when I took it out of the fridge. I shaped it using flour to keep it from sticking and then I proofed it for 2 hours, before baking. I was quite dissapointed with the rise (Or lack of rise). The dough seemed really flat (Perhaps an inch - more like a foccacia, which also can be made with this same dough). The crumb (the inside) was really dense, but the flavour was great.

Something else that has been lost in the shuffle of my life are parsnips!

I am sure I have had a parsnip in my life at some point or another (Perhaps it was mashed into something and I was unaware), but I don't remember willfully putting one it my mouth. So I decided to remedy this situation. I picked up a little bag at the store and I am GLAD I did! They are so good! It's like a carrot but with a different kind of sweetness and a slight peppery flavour.

Here is a pic of a supper I made a few nights ago.

I was also excited to use my new tool (a Christmas present) a melon-baller. I found a recipe a few months ago for Potato Bells. You basically ball some potato's boil them and then fry them in butter and garlic. I used sweet potato's instead of the russets sitting on my floor. On top is some left over Curried Meatloaf.

French Bread

3 Days ago - I decided to mix up some French bread dough from my new Peter Rienhart book.

I found a sample of his book online HERE, which will give you the recipe and the rest of process.

To make this loaf I used 2/3rds of the dough - the other 3rd became pizza last night.

In the red bowl in I have started the next bread in the book - Pain a l'Accienne Rustic Bread. I will post pics once it's been baked - probably in 2 or 3 days!

The Bread turned out good, minus the seam that kind of popped open during baking (Which through the magic of photography is not seen). I was shocked (for some odd reason) at how much the bread actually tasted like French bread. The flavour was awesome!

I should also point out that the dough sat in my fridge for 3 days.

Just when I thought I was done with Turkey... Noodle Soup

The other day I picked up a young (7 pound) turkey - for some reason or another it was cheaper then a 3 pound chicken - who knows why!? Once home I carved up the turkey so I was left with only a carcass.

I marinaded the turkey breasts in a satay sauce (Recipe here, but doubled). and roasted them in a 350 degree oven till they reached an internal temperature of 180. It took about an hour to an hour and half. I then sliced up the breasts and the meat has been going on sandwiches ever since!

The Legs I also roasted (in the same oven - different pan), with a bit of salt, pepper and oil. Once done I shredded the meat and put in the fridge for the next day.

The carcass - accompanied by some carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, S&P, and thyme went into a pot and made a pretty good stock.

The following day I took the stock, heated it up and added the shredded chicken, some celery, carrots and egg noodles. To finish I used salt, pepper, thyme and some fresh rosemary chopped up. It was so good - very reminiscent of my Dad's homemade chicken noodle soup.

New Years Resolution/Challenge!

McDonald's is my not so secret guilty pleasure in life. I don't know what it is - but I love that crap!

So last night as we picked up some drive through, Teegan and I made ourselves a little new years resolution/challenge. No McDonald's for 1 year (excluding coffee)!

We were tempted to make it all fast food - but we know ourselves too well.

My New Book!

I picked this book up in Saskatoon over the Christmas holidays and I am quite excited to start making the breads and doughs inside. It explores the (newish) technique, cold fermentation (which is basically a pretty way of saying - allowing bread to rise and ferment in the fridge).

My first attempt - the"Lean Bread"