Kerner.net

Man Food Show Appliances

I think that last night's Good Eats was better than most of them have been in a while. I've got to say I've been somewhat disappointed lately, it seems like Brown may be running out of ideas. That said, The Man Food Show is a very good episode. It has

This brings me to my question: What brand of griddle/fryer is Alton Brown using? I'm not really in the market for a fryer, our Delonghi is outstanding (albeit a little small). I have however been considering getting a griddle lately and this one looks great. If you know what brand of griddle it is drop me a note.

Still alive

I'm still alive, I've just been swamped at work, church, and other duties. This afternoon I also got hit by a comment spammer. I've been going through everything and turning off comments and deleting the ads. I have also finally upgraded to MT 2.661. I'm going to leave comments on for a few posts just to see if the upgrade is effective.

I've also had a dearth of baking lately. My batch of starter went bad over the weekend. I had to help at a statewide event we took our church youth group too last weekend. It went very well even though it got cut short by icy weather. Of course I was supposed to have fed the starter on Friday, but didn't manage to look at it until Sunday afternoon and saw a nice development of mold on the top.

I'm going to try a few original recipes this weekend, but Sunday will be dedicated to getting ready for a UMYF Super Bowl Party Sarah and I are hosting for the kids at our house.

Baking, or not

I've slacked off in my baking. For some reason I'm finding it really hard to bake during the week. I never used to have trouble with it, but it's holding no interest for me lately.

I am continuing in the Cookwise project though. I'm starting both a yeast starter and a traditional starter today. The yeast starter will be used to bake something tomorrow or Wednesday. The traditional starter will be used hopefully next weekend (but not until Sunday afternoon). We've got a retreat with the youth group at church that will keep me busy from Friday night through Sunday noon. The bread from these starters will finish out the techniques I'm using in the book and I'll be ready to try some of my own experiments in the weeks ahead.

For an immediate baking fix check out Dave's baguette.

Morning Bread Notes

So the morning has gone fairly well. After starting the French style loaves I realized that I needed to get containers to hold all of the flour, wheat germ, etc. as the bags on shelves are not acceptable. During the first rise I made trips to both Wal-Mart (ugh) and Target (only slightly better) to find containers that will hold a 5lb bag of flour.

I got home and the dough had risen nicely. I punched it down, rounded it, and let it rest while I got all of the ingredients for the whole wheat loaf. The nice thing about the structure of the Cookwise bread recipes is that they make it very easy to bake sequentially. During the rise of one there is time to prepare the next to start in the mixer. As a loaf is shaped it's time to let the next one rise. It keeps all parts of the kitchen busy, kneading, resting, rising, baking.

So here's what I've learned so far:
1. If you're going to grind your own bean flour (I wasn't about to buy a bag of flour for 1 tbsp. and I have dried beans), don't do it at 5:30 AM while your spouse is sleeping. Grinding beans into flour is LOUD.

2. The brand of semolina flour I use weighs 12g a tbsp or 48g for 1/4 cup (at least today).

3. Adding 1/2 the amount of very cold water seems to be an acceptable substitute for the crushed ice -- in the wheat bread 1/8 cup water in place of 1/4 cup of ice.

4. An x-acto knife makes an excellent tool for scoring.

5. Three batches of bread is way more than two people can rationally eat before it goes bad. This means I'll be putting off the yeast starter for a midweek baking session.

Now it's on to making the rice bread, chosen because we have gobs of left-over rice from the Indian food the other night.

A day of baking

Today marks the first full fledged venture into Cookwise expirimentation. I've read through the entire bread chapter and will be baking 2-3 different bread recipes today. I'll also be starting a starter or two for sourdough purposes.

There was a time when I didn't buy bread, rather I baked a loaf of bread every day. Those days are gone for now, especially in the world of unfamiliar recipes. The baguettes I baked then could be made in my sleep, I still can make them without thinking, but that's not the point of this exercise.

Flour

I couldn't sleep and so I've gotten up for my first day of serious bread bakery. The first thing I'm struck by is the amount of flour in the kitchen. Not necessarily in quantity, but rather in variety. I give Sarah a lot of credit for not complaining too loudly about the bread ingredients on the grocery list (although she did comment that they cost more than $20).

On the counter right now:

Bread flour (although this is always on our counter)

Semolina flour

Whole wheat flour

Wheat germ

All-purpose flour (a national brand)

Unbleached AP flour (also a national brand)

I decided it was probably better not to have the all purpose flour is not all the same discussion with her right now. I'll save that for biscuit making making in the future.

Naan: Indian flatbread

It was Indian night at the Kerner household. We made chicken tikka masala and a cauliflower, garbanzo, potato curry. We cheated on the tikka masala using a prepared sauce, but the other curry was made from scratch.

This post is really about the naan though. Naan is an Indian flatbread that is fairly easy to make at home with a pizza stone.

This is a variation of a recipe I found online, using some of the techniques from Cookwise for breads. This recipe over does the yeast in order to give a faster rise. If you've got time I would certainly use 1/2 tsp less yeast and give a longer rise. The next time I make this I will substitute yogurt for some of the water to give it a bit of tanginess. I was also lazy and used regular butter rather than ghee (clarified butter), but it was still good.

Naan

1 tbsp active dry yeast

2/3 cup water (could be partially replaced with plain yogurt)

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp melted butter (+ additional for brushing)

500 g bread flour

Mix the yeast, water, sugar, and milk together in the bowl of a stand mixer and let sit for 5 minutes. Add the salt, melted butter and half of the flour. Mix together well to incorporate air, then add the remaining flour and knead for 4 minutes with the dough hook (I use a Kitchen Aid mixer on speed 4). Getting air into the dough will allow the yeast bubbles to expand - it also distributes the yeast more evenly to mix prior to adding all of the flour. Adding salt prior to the kneading will enhance the gluten development in the bread. The dough should easily form a ball after kneading. Preheat an oven with a baking stone at the bottom to 425°. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes (it didn't need oiling because of the butter). Divide the dough into pieces and roll thinly with a rolling pin. Toss the flat pices of dough onto the stone and bake for 2-3 minutes a side. Brush very lightly with melted butter and enjoy.

BBQ Pork Shoulder (Boston Butt)

For our New Year's party we had people over to watch MU in the Independence Bowl against Arkansas. The game was pitiful, but the food and company was good. The menu consisted of:

BBQ Pork Sandwiches

Horseradish Cole Slaw

Baked Beans

Snacks and dessert provided by our guests

For midnight we had a sparkling wine from Jepson in the Mendocino Valley that came very highly recommended, and I couldn't argue with the $12 price tag.

The smoking took about 13 hours in the Weber kettle. I didn't get it started early enough so it was a late night on Tuesday. It's worth it for the BBQ. Read on for recipes and techniques.