Danny Redlin's Foolproof Bread

Tim and Ruth are still flailing around and unable to post, but luckily our much-appreciated guest bloggers are stepping up! Ro Ann Redlin's son, Danny, appears to following in his mom's footsteps as a fine cook, and he offers this recipe for what he swears is foolproof bread. The recipe comes courtesy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

The Master Recipe: Boule  (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

Makes four one -pound loaves

3 c. lukewarm water
1 1⁄2 T granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
1 1⁄2 T coarse kosher or sea salt
6 1⁄2 c. unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for pizza peel

The artisan free-form loaf called the French boule is the basic model for all the no-knead recipes. The round shape (boule in French means “ball”) is the easiest to master. You’ll learn how wet the dough needs to be (wet, but not so wet that the finished loaf won’t retain its form) and how to shape a loaf without kneading. And you’ll discover a truly revolutionary approach to baking: Take some dough from the fridge, shape it, leave it to rest, then let it bake while you’re preparing the rest of the meal.

Keep your dough wet — wetter doughs favor the development of sourdough character during storage. 

1. Heat the water to just a little warmer than body temperature (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a five-quart bowl or, preferably, a resealable, lidded container (not airtight — use container with gasket or lift a corner). Don’t worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3. Mix in the flour by gently scooping it up, then leveling the top of the measuring cup with a knife; don’t pat down. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook, until uniformly moist. If hand-mixing becomes too difficult, use very wet hands to press it together. Don’t knead! This step is done in a matter of minutes, and yields a wet dough loose enough to conform to the container.

4. Cover loosely. Do not use screw-topped jars, which could explode from trapped gases. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on top), approximately two hours, depending on temperature. Longer rising times, up to about five hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with than room-temperature dough. We recommend refrigerating the dough at least three hours before shaping a loaf. And relax! You don’t need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as in traditional recipes.

5. Prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on four “sides,” rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched ends. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it doesn’t need to be incorporated. The bottom of the loaf will flatten out during resting and baking.

6. Place the ball on the pizza peel. Let it rest uncovered for about 40 minutes. Depending on the dough’s age, you may see little rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking.

7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on another shelf.

8. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing, serrated knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1⁄4-inch-deep cross, scallop or tick-tac-toe pattern into the top. (This helps the bread expand during baking.)

9. With a forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is browned and firm to the touch. With wet dough, there’s little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best flavor, texture and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

10. Refrigerate the remaining dough in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next two weeks: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the two-week period. Cut off and shape loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

Ro Ann notes: It takes a few minutes to stir. It rises and you 'cloak' it (get it in an acceptable round shape by pulling the edge over the whole round in a continuous motion.) Then shove it in the oven. Voila! I have watched him make it a lot and I continue to be amazed.  

Ruth and Tim note: We can't wait to try this. Will it displace Mark Bittman's No-Knead Bread in our affections? We'll find out. Thanks, Danny! 

Fry Sauce: It's Good with Everything

We're lucky to have very accomplished foodie friends—people who can not only eat but cook, and cook much better than we could ever dream of cooking. One is Susie Middleton, queen of all that is fast, fresh, and green. Another is Martha Holmberg. Martha, a former editor of Fine Cooking magazine, just published a book on crêpes that will make you want to eat crêpes for the next year.

Lately, we've been enjoying Martha's recipe for fry sauce. We'd never heard of this luscious, slightly spicy condiment until we read the article; now we slather it on everything from Martha's sweet potato fries to roasted asparagus to grilled zucchini. We figure it would make a wonderful substitute for Russian dressing in a Reuben sandwich (or, in Ruth's case, seitan sandwich). We figure it would be good with just about anything.

As grilling season fires up, we're looking forward to making a lot of fry sauce. Try it yourself—it will make your summer delicious!

Broccoli "Rice" Side Dish

Broccoli has its detractors, but we've always liked this year-round vegetable. The worst we could say — and we often did — was that it is BOH-ring.

Broccoli crowns were ridiculously cheap the other day at our local market, so we loaded up with a couple, and then checked our ever-growing shelf of cookbooks for a different way to love its green goodness. We ran across something called Broccoli "Rice," which wasn't rice at all.

The broccoli is minced into small pieces the size of a grain of rice, and the preparation gives broccoli a very fresh taste and creative presentation. It makes this winter vegetable into a summer surprise. And who would have ever thought of putting mint in a broccoli side dish? Brilliant.

The recipe is the brainchild of Eric Gower, author of "The Breakaway Cook." Serve this side next to any meat or protein, or under it as we did last night, as shown in the photo above.

Broccoli "Rice"

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, minced
Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper
1 medium head of broccoli, minced to rice size

Dressing
2 Tablespoons Greek or plain yogurt
1 Tablespoon citrus juice (we used lime)
2 Tablespoons minced fresh mint

Melt the butter and olive oil in a large pan or wok over medium heat.
Add the onion and salt and pepper liberally.
Cook, stirring once in a while, until softened but not browned.
Add the broccoli and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, until the vegetable is cooked through.
While it's cooking, blend the dressing ingredients, and add to the broccoli when it is done. Cook for another couple of minutes to blend flavors. Test for seasoning.

Serve under meat, fish or tofu and with a fresh, crisp white such as sauvignon blanc, viognier, or light chardonnay.

We served it with scallion-coated tofu and grilled spring onions from the CSA box.

Asparagus Risotto: Using the CSA Box Veggies

With the arrival of the weekend one day after our first CSA box of veggies, we decided to open a swell bottle of Zinfandel and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and make something delicious with our first bounty of the season.

We decided to alter one of our favorite risotto recipes to take advantage of what we had. Instead of the green beans the recipe called for, we subbed in our large bunch of asparagus, which we steamed lightly to soften it up and cook it just a bit. Then we cut it into 3/4-inch pieces, saving the cute tops for garnish.

People avoid risotto because it requires more or less constant attention for 20 minutes, but it's really pretty easy. And we've never made a risotto that we didn't love.

The Recipe is from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. It's actually pretty low-fat and healthy.

1 Tablespoon olive oil
5 cups broth
1.5 cups arborio rice
1 bunch asparagus, lightly steamed and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 small onion
1 tomato diced
1/3 cup grated parmesan
1/3 cup pesto (optional), either basil- or cilantro-based
salt

Start with a Tablespoon of Olive Oil in a large saucepan or dutch oven on medium high. Add a chopped small onion until it softens (not browned). Add a cup and a half of rinsed arborio rice and stir it to coat the rice with the oil.

While you're getting ready to cook, heat 5 cups of broth (chicken or veggie stock will do) to a simmer in another saucepan.

After the rice is coated, add a cup of the hot broth and stir until all of the liquid is pretty much gone. Add another cup and stir until almost gone. Add a third cup and stir. When the broth from the third cup is almost gone, add the asparagus, which has been steamed and cut.

Add the last two cups of stock, one at a time, or even half a cup at a time, stirring to absorb the liquid each time. This slow cooking will cook the rice. Test to see that the rice is tender but still a bit al dente. Add salt to taste.

Add the tomato, parmesan and optional pesto. For pesto we used our fave cilantro pesto because we had some on hand, and it added a marvelous tang. (The original recipe calls for 12 cup parmesan, but we lowered the amount to 1/3 cups and it was great.)

We served it with steamed swiss chard with a splash of fig-infused vinegar. The sharp chard was a nice balance to the almost sweet and tangy risotto. They tasted great with both the red Zinfandel and the white Sauvignon Blanc.

Favorite Cookbooks: Fast, Fresh & Green

We've been excitedly waiting for Susie Middleton's vegetable cookbook, Fast, Fresh & Green, ever since we heard that she was writing it. Susie, a former chief editor of Fine Cooking magazine, is a great cook not only because of her formidable grasp of technique but because of the sheer excitement she feels for cooking and the pleasure she takes from it. She appreciates simple ingredients and unfussy preparations. And she's a really good writer.

Whenever we see a Susie-Middleton-bylined article in Fine Cooking, we dive in, knowing we'll read something good.

Our copy of Fast, Fresh & Green arrived just after we'd bought a big bag of asparagus at Costco. Normally, when we have an asparagus windfall, we roast it for an easy side dish or stir-fry it as part of an Asian main course. But this time we were interested in what Susie would do.

So we split our big batch of asparagus between two of her recipes: Brown-Butter Asparagus with Pine Nuts and Speedy Stir-Fried Asparagus with Toasted Garlic. Each recipe featured just a few ingredients beyond its vegetable star—a little butter or oil, a little lemon juice or garlic—and took just a few minutes to make. The result: amazing flavor. We still don't understand the alchemy, but we'll keep making these for a long time.

A couple of days later, we tried Susie's Sweet Potato "Mini-Fries" with Limey Dipping Sauce. Once again, she used just a few ingredients—oven-baked sweet potatoes that tasted for all the world like their fried cousins, and mayonnaise spiked with lime zest and juice—and came up with something extraordinary. (Tim used the rest of the lime mayo on his fish, with fine results.)

Some people might hear "vegetable cookbook" and think "Huh? I already know how to cook vegetables." But Susie's recipes take basic produce to a much higher level.

You won't be sorry if you buy this book.

Favorite Cookbooks: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

We recently caught up with our friend Kathi and learned that she's become a vegetarian; furthermore, she's working toward becoming a vegan. Naturally, her family and friends wonder what this will mean for them—will they have to be vegans too?

This made us remember the early days of Ruth's vegetarianism, when people would ask her if she still ate chicken and fish. No? Well, what about shrimp, they would ask. But the most common questions she got had to do with tofu. Was that all she ate? Dinner parties became fraught with concern; people didn't know what to cook for her or what she would serve them.

Fortunately, vegetarian cooking has come a long way from the days of mushy zucchini, brown rice, and tofu. With the right ingredients and cookbook, you can make meals that taste so good, people don't even notice they aren't eating meat.

Our favorite vegetarian cookbook, hands down, is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.
Bittman, who writes the Minimalist column for the New York Times food section, is not himself a vegetarian, and maybe that's why this is such a good book. He cares only about maximum flavor and ease of preparation.

As its title states, this book covers everything: appetizers, soup, main courses, pasta, sauces, desserts. And everything we've tried has been good. This recipe, for a simple chickpea pancake, has become a staple appetizer.

Favorite Cookbooks: The Classic Italian Cookbook

We have an embarrassing number of cookbooks, on everything from Burmese to cowboy food, but there are only a few we couldn't live without, and they're easy to pick out from the crowd. Broken-spined, covered with stains and greasy fingerprints, they open automatically to our favorite recipes. Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook is one of these. 

Published in 1973, this book lovingly explains Italian food from antipasti through dessert. The Italian-born Hazan (whose American husband, Victor, is generally thought to have written the text) emphasizes fresh ingredients and simple preparation. Her forthright recipes are fuss-free and invariably delicious. 

Our favorites are her Minestrone and her Fettuccine with Gorgonzola Sauce, but she's equally wonderful on vegetables, meat dishes, and basic sauces, including this one, for the Simplest Tomato Sauce Ever. 

Note: We've gotten reports that the link to the fettuccine recipe link is broken. Here's the original post: 


Fettuccine with Blue Cheese Sauce


At Eat Well, Eat Cheap, we aim to offer recipes that combine deliciousness, frugality, and healthiness. This one, for fettucine bathed in creamy blue cheese sauce, is spectacularly delicious and pleasingly frugal, but—we'll admit it—it falls considerably short in the health department. But it's so delicious and easy, and makes such splendid use of leftovers, that we're willing to cut it some slack. We deal with the guilt of eating it by eating it only once or twice a year.

After the holidays, we found ourselves with dribs and drabs of several great cheeses, including a French blue and an American blue that were rapidly turning the corner from interesting pungency to hair-raising rancidity. We did not want them to go to waste, and remembered one of our favorite recipes from Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook, for Fettucine Gorgonzola.

Here's our adaptation:

Fettuccine with Blue Cheese Sauce

1 pound fettuccine

1/2 cup blue cheese (Gorgonzola, Stilton, Roquefort, Danish are all good, as are any combinations of them)

1/2 cup light cream

2 T. butter

1/2 t. salt

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1. Add fettuccine to a big pot of rapidly boiling water. Stir to separate the strands, which like to clot together.

2. While the pasta is cooking, heat the cheese, cream, butter, and salt in a wide saucepan that's big enough to hold the finished pasta. Mash the cheese into the hot butter and cream. Keep warm while the pasta finishes cooking.

3. Add the cooked pasta to the cheese sauce, quickly mix, and add a couple of tablespoons of the parmesan. Serve with the rest of the parmesan on the side.

Serves four as a guilt-inducing main course, or six to eight as a first course.

Favorite Cookbooks: How to Eat

Sometimes we wish we could dislike Nigella Lawson, simply for what she has wrought: all those TV cooking shows featuring women in tight sweaters who lick their spoons, toss their lustrous hair, moan about how A-MAZ-ING their food smells, and never give you any helpful information. But unlike these lame pretenders, Nigella is the real deal—an excellent, practical cook and a witty writer who is always fun to read.

Our favorite book of hers is How to Eat, because although it contains many great recipes, it's more than that. As the title says, it tells you how to eat. How to shop, how to stock a pantry, how to save time, how to plan menus for everything from a one-person meal to a full-scale dinner party.

This excerpt from How to Eat sums up the attitude we find so appealing:

. . . you don't have to go through the ridiculous pantomime of pretending everything is homespun. If you're still getting your shopping out and unwrapping your packages when everyone arrives, who cares? Your kitchen doesn't have to look like a set from a 1950s sitcom. It is curiously relaxing to be slowly creating the canvas—arranging the table, putting flowers in a vase, chopping up herbs, and putting water on for potatoes—while talking and drinking unhurriedly with friends.

Not sold yet? These two recipes will convert you.

A Lucky Mistake

When we first started putting the "fine" in our cooking, we relied on a few classic cookbooks.

We started off with the Irma Rombauer Joy of Cooking that Tim's mother gave him, and the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook that Ruth's college roommate gave her as a graduation present. Eventually, we added The New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne and The Master Cooking Course by Claiborne and Pierre Franey. 

But the most intimidating volume was our 1961 edition of the first volume of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Whenever we wanted to make a special meal, we pulled out our copy of Julia or Craig & Pierre and threw a dart at something that sounded delicious.

When Tim's dessert-loving mother came to visit in the early 1980s,  Tim made Julia's chocolate mousse ( p. 604). The recipe was a bit fussy, but the mousse tasted terrific—especially the crunchy bits of ground coffee, which added complexity and texture.

Only when we made the mousse a second time some months later did Tim realize that the recipe's "4T of strong coffee" called for brewed coffee rather than ground coffee. It was a novice mistake, made in the stress of preparing a grand meal in a small Washington apartment.

But it worked. To this day, we like the contrast of the tiny granules of coffee beans and the soft mousse, and the strong flavor they provide. Not all of our mistakes have ended so happily—sometime we'll share the story of Ruth's tofu apricot mousse—but this one was a keeper.