Whole Wheat Sourdough Focaccia

And here's a recipe I am adapting from Marcus at The Fresh Loaf (in turn based upon the Focaccia recipe in Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads).
Day 1 - make the dough
350g 400g 450g WW Flour
200g WW starter (mine is 75% 100% hydration)
300g   275g water
20 30g wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp 60g Olive Oil
-Mix everything in KitchenAid, Knead 10 min. (I left this one wet since it is a focaccia)
-Put in an oiled container, cover and refrigerate.
Day 2 - make the Focaccia
About ¼ cup olive oil
Corn meal (optional)
Remove from fridge and let rise until ready to turn out into pans.


I turned half out in an oiled large cast iron skillet, and the other half into my oiled cast iron Dutch oven.
-With oiled fingertips slowly press the dough out to fill the pan if making pizza. Let it rest 15 minutes, then finish stretching to edge of pan.(it will be slack so this is usually pretty easy).


-Pour remaining oil over dough, or don't if you're not as big a fan of olive oil as I am.
-Let rise 45 min. if pressed for time, or longer if you can (90 min. is the most time I've ever had).

I let the dough in the Dutch oven rise an hour or two.


For focaccia in Dutch oven, I preheated oven to 425 and baked with lid on for 30 minutes, reduced heat to 350 and baked another 10 or 15 minutes until internal temperature is 190 or better (I use a meat thermometer!).


For the pizza crust, I just baked partially at 400 for 20 minutes then cooled it to finish baking as pizza later.


-Remove from oven, let cool on rack for a few minutes.  I like to throw a little extra mozzarella on to melt as it cools.


I’ll update this as I try it more…
1. Focaccia in Dutch oven may have been best thing I ever baked. Great crumb, great taste (I sprinkled a little thyme, rosemary, kosher sea salt, and olive oil on it before baking.)

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread – a work in progress…

Many thanks to “Sourdough Home”, where I found the following table and many tips that have started me on my way to learning to make sourdough
Here are the ingredients for a loaf of the bread:

Weight	Ingredient	Volumetric Measurement	High starter mix
180 grams	Water	3/4 cup	30cc
210 grams	Active Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter	3/4 cup	510
30 grams	Light Olive Oil	2 1/3 TBSP	30
30 grams	Honey	1 1/2 TBSP	30
20 grams	Vital wheat gluten (optional)	2 2/3 TBSP	20
320 350 g	Whole wheat flour	2 2/3 cup	200
8.2 grams	Salt	1 1/4 tsp	8

Pour starter into a mixing bowl. Add the water, salt, honey, and oil. Whisk together.
If you are measuring by weight, add all the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix it all together. If you are measuring by volume, add the flour a cup at a time and stir. After the first cup, add the rest of the dry ingredients. Make sure the dough is well mixed, feeling it to see if the water has been incorporated through the dough. Yes, this means you should use your fingers to feel the dough, massage it, and look and feel for dry spots where flour has not been moistened. If you find such, mix the flour into the dough and get it moistened.

If you want to follow the rest of the directions from Sourdough Home, follow the link above. I have found them to be a bit problematic, so here is what I am doing at present:
I have found a couple things:

• Drier dough makes better bread. The gloppy doughs that I see advocated on many websites do not work for me. I can’t make them taste good, anyway.
• I have tried kneading with my KitchenAid for long periods as suggested, as long as 20 minutes. I don’t think this adds anything after the first few minutes, as I think the 8 hour to 2 day resting/rising/refrigeration periods I have used tend to obviate the need.
• Making this a 2 day project with over nights in the fridge increase the sourness, which I like.
• I love the Le Creuset baking method, but so far have found 450 too hot, but that may be my crappy oven! BTW, I cut parchment paper with a plate as my template to fit in the bottom of the pot – the bed just comes right out!
• Now that I have an oven with bread proofing setting, I can do THREE rises in a day and my last loaf was the best ever! 

I will continue to edit this as I discover stuff. In the meantime, my favorite sites for reference are

• The Fresh Loaf
• Sourdough Home
• Sourdoughs International
• Breadtopia
• King Arthur Flour’s Sourdough Section

Roasted Balsamic-Glazed Mushrooms Recipe - Cook's Country

 

Ingredients

• 4 pounds white mushrooms, trimmed and halved
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon packed brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

Instructions

1. 1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine mushrooms and salt in large bowl. Cover with large plate and microwave until mushrooms release 1¾ to 2 cups liquid, 14 to 16 minutes, stirring halfway through microwaving. Strain mushrooms in colander and let sit for 5 minutes to drain completely. Return mushrooms to now-empty bowl, add oil, and stir to coat.

   2. Transfer mushrooms to preheated sheet and roast until browned and liquid has evaporated, 22 to 25 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking. Whisk vinegar, garlic, sugar, and pepper together in 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Remove mushrooms from oven, pour vinegar mixture over mushrooms, and stir to coat. Return mushrooms to oven and roast until vinegar is reduced to glaze, 9 to 12 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking. Place mushrooms in serving bowl and stir in butter and thyme. Serve.

Roasted Balsamic-Glazed Mushrooms Recipe - Cook's Country

Cranberry Pecan Bread

Delicious sweet and tart flavor, great for breakfast, brunch, tea.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

Combine the dry ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1&1/2 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt

Combine wet ingredients
3/4 cup orange juice
1 T of orange zest
2 T of melted (somewhat cooled) butter
1 beaten egg

Combine wet into dry mix well and add:
1&1/2 cups of cranberries
1& 1/2 cups of pecans
Pour into loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing loaf.

It's also good toasted by the slice with cream cheese on it.

 

Barbecue Dry Rub

Don't remember where I found this but I like it:

12 parts sweet paprika
12 parts light brown sugar
6 parts table salt
4 parts chili powder
3 parts ground black pepper
3 parts garlic powder
3 parts onion powder
3 parts cayenne pepper
1 part dried thyme

OR

2 TBL sweet paprika
2 TBL light brown sugar
1 TBL table salt
2 tsps.. chili powder
1.5 tsps. ground black pepper
1.5 tsps. garlic powder
1.5 tsps. onion powder
1.5 tsps. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsps. dried thyme


Apply generously. Slow and low, 250 oven for 4 hours or so.

Chicken Etouffee Saag (!)

So, I made my Streamlined Chicken Etouffe this weekend, quite a large batch, and as I was getting ready to reheat the leftovers, it occurred to me that what it needed was even more veg!

So I took inspiration from the Chicken Saag we had out the other day, and decided to make Chicken Etouffee Saag!

I added a bag of frozen spinach to my leftovers and after simmering for about 5 minutes, I had an excellent dish!

Serve over plain rice or jamabalaya, and you'll need some hot sauce, as the spinach eats up the heat from the original Etouffee recipe.

By the way, I Googled this, and didn't find anyone else who has discovered this lovely combination, so score one for me!

Calabrese Fried Eggplant

Calabrese Fried Eggplant

Saw this today and it looked like a great appetizer recipe...

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis from Giada at Home show

Ingredients

Eggplant:

• Vegetable oil cooking spray
• One 1-pound eggplant, ends trimmed, halved lengthwise
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Filling:

• 1 cup grated pecorino cheese
• 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs, plus extra, as needed
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Sauce:

• 2 cups jarred marinara or tomato-basil sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• 1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese

Directions

For the eggplant: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a small baking sheet or a 9-by-13-inch glass or ceramic baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray. Place the eggplant, cut-side up, on the prepared baking sheet. Make 1/2-inch-deep slits over the surface of the eggplant halves using a paring knife. Drizzle with the olive oil and bake until golden and tender, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.

For the filling: Scoop out 1 cup of flesh from the eggplant, using a spoon, and place in a food processor. Blend until the eggplant is smooth. Add the cheese, breadcrumbs, basil, egg, garlic and parsley. Pulse until the mixture is thick enough to form into balls, adding extra breadcrumbs as needed. Scoop 25 balls of the mixture, each about 2 tablespoons, onto a baking sheet using a small cookie scoop.
For the sauce: Bring the marinara and red pepper flakes to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep warm over low heat until ready to serve.
For assembly: Pour enough oil into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan to fill the pan about a third of the way. Heat the oil over medium heat until a deep-frying thermometer inserted into the oil reaches 350 degrees F. (If you don't have a thermometer, a cube of bread will brown in about 4 minutes.) In batches, fry the eggplant balls until golden, about 1 minute.
I would bake on convection at 400 until browned...
Drain on paper towels.
Serve the fried eggplant warm or cold with marinara sauce and the grated pecorino cheese.