Memorial Mojitos: San Franciso by Stomach and by Foot

So I'm a little late in posting my entry this week, and a little later posting these photos at all. Memorial day weekend my mom came up for a little visit. Saturday morning after I picked her up from the airport, we went on a little culinary/cultural walking tour of San Francisco. Good times and a couple of large mojitos were had.

We started out at the Ferry Building to peruse the Saturday Farmer's Market and pick up a light picnic lunch. We went with local faves Cowgirl Creamery, Boccalone, and Acme Bread. I highly recommend Cowgirl's St. Pat cheese wrapped in nettle leaves - yum!

After the Ferry Building, we walked along the piers until we got to Fisherman's Wharf. We tried chocolate at Tcho and enjoyed all the tourist attractions Pier 39. Those sea lions really never get old, and the street performers were fun, too. I particularly enjoyed this family of circus students and this giant skeleton.

















After the Wharf we headed over to North Beach for a little pre-dinner cocktail and appetizer. Calzone's makes a great mojito, and the large open air bar and cafe seating make for great people watching. Then a quick walk through Chinatown and it was on to dinner at the Stinking Rose, a perennial favorite.













Later on it was back home to the East Bay, but not without a walk past one last city landmark. It was a very good day.

Read More......

Pan de Muerto: Frida's Dead Bread and Blatant Bribery with Baked Goods

When in doubt, bake.

Actually when in doubt, cook, but for today we bake.

At the end of this semester one of my classes required a public presentation on a piece of art we created. I normally don't balk at speaking in public, but sharing anything creative I've made does tend to make me nervous. I was going to be showing a linoleum cut print I had been working on in my printmaking class, a piece that quite literally had my blood sweat and tears in it.

By some reports a bit gory, this piece to me is about the way I connect and express myself, through art and food, and also a bit about my family and a cultural heritage I claim more often than not through cooking (when you don't speak the language, food is universal). I have a fondness for my mother's stories and this reminds me of her telling me about my great-grandfather beheading chickens in their backyard.



Needing something to distract myself and hopefully distract and impress my audience if my art wasn't up to snuff, I decided a feat of baking was in order. It's a bit out of season, but Pan de Meurto, a traditional bread made for Day of the Dead, went perfectly with the theme of my art and I knew just the recipe. Guadalupe Rivera, Diego's daughter, put together a collection of Frida Kahlo's recipes. Being a great inspiration to me personally and artistically, I knew I had to use her recipe.

Now that it's done, I can't remember how the presentation went, or if the audience liked my piece, but I personally love seeing it everyday in its place honor in my kitchen, and I didn't have a single piece of bread left.

Frida's Pan de Muerte
Bread of the Dead
updated/expanded/adapted from Frida's fiestas: recipes and reminiscences of life with Frida Kahlo by Guadalupe Rivera and Marie-Pierre Colle

5 cups of flour, sifted
1 1/3 cups sugar, plus additional for dusting
2/3 cup plus 2 1/3 Tbs Butter
1 1/2 packages (3 tsp) yeast dissolved in 3 1/2 Tbs warm milk
6 large eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk

1) Melt butter and 1/3 cup milk on stove over medium low-heat. Allow to cool.

2) Mound the flour in the center of a large bowl and make a well. Add sugar, butter/milk mixture, yeast mixture, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla to the well.

3) Gently work into a dough and knead until it pulls away from the side of the bowl. If it is too soft, add in more flour.

4) Shape into a ball, grease and flour lightly, and place in a greased bowl. Let stand in a warm place until doubled, about 2 1/2 hours. Cover with a towel and refrigerate overnight (at least 6-8 hours).

5) Divide the dough in half, divide each half into thirds, and each third into sixths. You should have 36 golf ball sized balls of dough. Take breaks while handling the dough and allow to rest in the fridge, it shouldn't get too warm.

6) Take one out of every 6 balls of dough (6 balls total) and reserve for decorations. For the remaining 30 balls, roll into a sphere and decorate with two small, thin, snakes of dough made to look like bones. Each of your balls of dough reserved for decoration should make 10 snakes and decorate 5 balls.

7) Place the decorated balls on a sheet of parchment, greased, on a baking sheet and let rise for a second time. Place in a warm location for about 1 1/2 hours or until the balls have doubled in bulk.

8) Sprinkle with sugar and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees. Each tray should take 12-15 minutes, but check as early as 10 minutes and leave in as long as 20 (checking often) in order to attain a golden color. Rotate as necessary in order to prevent over-baking. Ovens will vary. Bottoms should sound hollow when tapped.

Excellent when slightly warm and enjoyed with a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea.

Read More......

Not Naan

Much like my recipe from Tuesday was not Dal Masala, this grilled flat bread was not naan. It may not have been what I was expecting, but OH BOY was it tasty. I would say that it tasted a bit like soft pretzels - chewy, salty, and a hint of sweetness. I would have been perfectly happy to eat the whole batch with just some butter and salt, but I did end up using it as a foil for my spicy lentils when I had leftovers the next day. Indian Spiced Lentils and Not Naan, it was meant to be.

Not Naan
Based off of this recipe, adjusted for ingredients on hand, or not on hand
1/2 Package of Yeast (I used RapidRise, but I think you are supposed to use regular)
1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbs Sugar
1 egg
2 1/4 cups Flour
1 tsp salt

Optional:
Butter
Kosher Salt
Garlic Clove

1) Mix yeast and water, let stand 10 minutes. It should be frothy (though mine wasn't).
2) Add sugar, egg, salt, and flour. Mix to form a soft dough.
3) Knead on a floured surface until smooth, form into a ball, place in a well-oiled bowl, cover with a damp towel and let rise for an hour.
4) After dough has risen for an hour, it should have doubled in size, punch down and knead a few times. Break off into golf-ball sized pieces, roll, and place on a tray. Cover and let rise 30 minutes.
5) After 30 minutes sough should have again doubled in size. It is at this point where you may freeze the dough if you wish (or have gotten lazy and don't want to make your not naan anymore). If you are making your naan, preheat a griddle over high heat. Oil the surface, roll out your naan, and grill until brown on both sides. Flip frequently.
6) When finished rub with butter and sprinkle with kosher salt. Rub half a garlic clove on it if you wish.

Read More......

Bread.

Fresh. Baked. Bread.



Smell it. Taste it. Say it with me now...
Fresh Baked Bread.
Its like a little prayer. Well, it is for anyone who isn't avoiding carbs anyways.



I don't know what too me so long. This recipe has been floating around the internet for almost FOUR years. Where was I? Drooling over the thought, and lamenting my lack of appropriate cookware.




No knead bread was introduced to the the world by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery via Mark Bittman of the New York Times, though its based off of recipes that have been around for ages. Its got 4 ingredients, 5 if you are me and you like to mess with things, and is so easy a 4 year old can do it.



There were two problems with this recipe that do put it out of the reach of some (including me for so long). One, this recipe takes time. By trading out the physical effort, one must put in almost a whole day of waiting. So hard!



Secondly, one needs a large pot that can be put in a very, VERY, hot oven. My new baby came in handy in this capacity, but, as this is a fairly recent acquisition, I was ill-equipped before now.



If you have the hardware, and you have the patience, please make this bread. Its so good. Fresh baked bread is pretty much always good, but THIS bread is really good. It's chewy, full of big holes for filling with butter, and has a crispy crunchy golden crust. Do it. Do it now. What are you waiting for?


No Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

(I made mine with a bit of whole wheat flour from my farm, but if you don't have any or don't want to use any, just use all all-purpose flour)

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast (like Fleischmann's RapidRise)
3/4 tsp kosher salt (or 1 tsp table salt)
1 1/2 cups warm water

Special Equipment: a large (6-8 quart) heavy pot with a well-fitted lid.

1) Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2) Slowly pour in the warm water.
3) Stir into a gooey, sticky mess of dough, cover, set aside. It will look wet. It's supposed to.
4) Ignore the dough for 8-10 hours.
5) Uncover, and with wet hands, lift the dough out of the bowl and fold over on itself several times. Just flop it around, this is not kneading, this is just poking it. This helps, I promise. This will help get more of those delightful big bubbles.
6) Put the dough back in the bowl, cover, ignore for another 8-10 hours.
7) Sprinkle some cornmeal or flour on a board, and with wet hands, lift the dough out of your bowl and drop on the board.
8) Fold it over and flop it on itself a couple more times and shape as best you can into a ball-like shape.
9) Place the ball of dough onto a floured towel (NOT terry cloth) or piece of parchment paper. Place back in the bowl and let it rise another 1-2 hours.
10) 30 minutes before the dough is finished with its final rise, place the pot in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
11) When your dough has finished its final rise (it should be about double the size), quickly open the oven, lift off the lid of the pot, drop your dough in the pot, bake for 30 minutes.
12) Remove the lid of the pot and bake an additional 15-30 minutes. The bread should look brown, shiny, and thump when you tap it.

Let cool, slather with butter, enjoy!

Read More......