Clay Pot Boule Bread

I used a lead-free and cadmium-free clay pot, which was a very thoughtful gift from a kind soul of Christmas past, and made the basic boule dough recipe from Hertzberg and Francois:

1.5 T kosher salt

1.5 T yeast

3 cups lukewarm water

6.5 cups unbleached all purpose flour, scooped and swept

About one third of the dough was placed in the pot to rise to the top, and baked at 350 degrees F for one hour. We ate it for lunch. Another third was tried similarly, but baked for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees F. The results were similar, pictured below, for our hosts this evening.

Happy New Year!

Microwave Popcorn, Without the Perfluoroalkyls

Gender-bending perfluoroalkyls are in the news, here, stating how the chemical is showing up in human blood and warning about the possible health problems it may cause.

These compounds are found in non-stick cookware, microwave popcorn bags, and fast food packaging, among other things. The story has a link to a list. Evidently the compounds show up in your blood because they leach into the food under heat.

So, popcorn lovers, here's a technique we've been using to save money, but may also be healthier because it uses a simple paper bag.

"Home Made" Microwave Popcorn

.25 cup popcorn kernels

1 paper lunch bag (roughly 5X3X10)

Fully unfold the bag and add the kernels to the bag. Fold the open end over tightly about a half inch and crease. Repeat one or two times. 

Set the bag on its side in a microwave with a turntable and shake it to distribute the kernels evenly over the bottom. The rolled up end should be facing down.

Cook using the popcorn "sense" setting and open immediately when it's done and empty into a bowl to stop the cooking at once.

You may have to experiment depending on the features of your microwave so as not to start the bag on fire! It's never happened to me, and I never re-use the bag, but be forewarned and watch what you're doing.

Add melted butter and salt as desired.  

Lazy Peasant Bread

Usually when I make the European Peasant Bread recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, I make all the loaves right away, one in a greased non-stick loaf pan and two in greased Pyrex loaf pans, and freeze them after slicing. Why? Because I'm a lazy bum and those are the only pans I own, and I need bread to make lunches in a hurry most mornings.

I like their version baked on a stone with water steaming beneath in a broiler pan, but I'm also adapting the recipes to satisfy the sandwich tastes of a ten year old, not the artisanal desires of his dad. But even at that, the high moisture dough method is still hard to handle without the refrigeration step, and dividing the mass into two, let alone three, is not easy.

So I got to thinking. Why not use a different type of pan, a big one, and bake a giant loaf? Since the lady of the house makes the pizza every Saturday in four cast-iron skillets of varying size, I asked myself why not bake the bread in my greased 4 quart cast iron dutch oven by Lodge?

Another stroke of genius, I dare say. The bread popped out of the thing after the requisite 35 minutes at 450 degrees F looking like a cake! And the really cool thing is you have wonderful crust, but less of it, just perfect for sandwiches for a youngster.

The recipe requires 1.5 T yeast and 1.5 T salt, dissolved in 3 cups lukewarm water in the bowl of the KitchenAid Mixer, to which you add .5 cup whole wheat flour, .5 cup dark rye flour, and 5.5 cups unbleached all purpose flour, using the scoop and scrape method to measure. Once it's all in, I let the mixer work at it for five minutes on setting two, after which you can plop the whole thing into a well-greased camp oven or dutch oven and let rise for an hour or so, covered with a thin flour sack dish towel, and bake.

The result is pictured below. Enjoy!

On Barbecue

"A term used in the West Indies for dressing a hog whole."

     -- Samuel Johnson's Dictionary 

Oldfield, with more than harpy throat endued,

Cries, Send me, gods, a whole hog barbecued.

     -- Alexander Pope

3-ALARM BBQ SAUCE

Why pay for store-bought when you can make your own? This recipe, adapted from Lonnie Gandara's 365 Great Barbeque & Grilling Recipes (HarperPerennial, 1990), has been a "go-to" for me for years because it is simple, good and easy, with just four ingredients: ketchup, maple syrup or honey, garlic and cayenne pepper. And it is adjustable for heat: you start with 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper for the basic recipe, and ratchet it up by up to three more 1/4 teaspoons to a full teaspoon for a blazing three alarm fire, as you like it. The garlic and the sweetness can also be adjusted to taste.

You can use the sauce to baste in the traditional manner in the last fifteen minutes of grilling. The more the "sweet" in the sauce, the more the caramelization which will occur.  Or serve it alongside your grilled pork, beef or chicken to add that extra special zing, for example, on a hamburger. It works great too mixed in with the grilled and slow cooked pulled pork for sandwiches, which is on this year's 4th of July menu.

3-Alarm BBQ Sauce

1 cup ketchup (Heinz organic is our ketchup of choice)

3 T pure maple syrup (or honey)

1 T minced garlic (three large cloves is our preference)

1/4 to 1 t cayenne pepper (we like 3/4 t total--red pepper flakes can easily be substituted by grinding a quantity in the coffee grinder and spooning out the desired amount)

Add the garlic, cayenne and maple syrup to the food processor or blender, and puree. Add the ketchup and combine. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator covered for up to a week.

Buckwheat Yogurt Oatcakes

For about two months, I've been avoiding wheat on most days. Saturday night pizza has been the only exception. Otherwise I'm relying on less grain in the diet overall, using oat bran and oats as before but in smaller quantities, substituting brown rice pasta and corn tostadas for wheat pastas and wheat flour tortillas.

There's reason to believe that wheat is a major contributor to small LDL, which in its turn is suspected as a prime culprit in cardiovascular disease. The usual cholesterol panel you get at your annual physical tells you absolutely nothing about particle size, and doesn't even really measure LDL. It's a calculation, not a measurement.

So when I got the results of a special blood panel back in 2008 and found out my supposedly pretty good cholesterol numbers revealed many small LDL, I started to look into the subject more deeply. Most interesting has been the clinical work of a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, cardiologist named William Davis. His book, Track Your Plaque, has interesting dietary recommendations which frequently dovetail with the super foods menu. And his blog keeps us up to date on all the latest developments. I'm looking forward to my next blood test when we'll see if my small LDL particle count has gone down.

Eliminating wheat isn't easy, especially if toast, sandwiches and wraps, tortillas and pasta play a large role in your diet. And Saturday morning pancakes! So here's a recipe I love, in moderation, which the lady of the house adapted from "Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes" by Marcia Beachy in the More-With-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre.

Buckwheat Yogurt Oatcakes

.5 cup plain fat-free yogurt

.5 cup 2% milk

2 T canola oil

1 egg

.5 cup buckwheat flour

.5 cup oat flour

1 t baking powder

.5 t baking soda

.5 t salt

1 T ground flaxseed

1. Combine the yogurt, milk, oil and egg in a bowl and whisk together.

2. Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl and whisk in the wet ingredients for about a minute.

3. Fry on a lightly oiled griddle.

Makes about eight pancakes.

New Year's Eve Broiled Curried Shrimp

This recipe is adapted from "Florence Fabricant's Grilled Cumin Shrimp" in The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. That recipe uses, among other things, 1 t. ground turmeric, 3/4 t. ground cumin, and 1/2 t. ground coriander per pound of shrimp. I didn't have enough turmeric to use that combination, so I substituted a sweet curry powder from Penzeys Spices for all three to good effect. For hot curry lovers, that works splendidly, too.

Broiled Curried Shrimp

4 T unsalted butter

2.25 t sweet curry powder

.75 t salt

juice of half a lemon

1 lb large shrimp, shelled and deveined

1. Place an oven rack in the top position and preheat the broiler on high.

2. Melt the butter gently in a saucepan. Stir in the curry powder, salt and lemon juice and mix thoroughly.

3. In a shallow broiler pan arrange the shrimp in a single layer and pour the butter mixture over the shrimp. Toss to coat.

4. Broil about eight minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees after four minutes.

Serve the shrimp with the sauce next to some rice with some steamed broccoli spears for a very easy, very colorful, very fast and very good meal worthy of a holiday, or any day.