I have had excellent results with the No Knead Bread recipie.

I am going to modify the recipie the following ways..

1. Instead of cutting off a piece of the dough, I'm going to raise and rest the dough in tin baking pans. This way, come baking time, I don't have to form the dough. I'll let it rest for 40 minutes and then bake.

2. I'm going to include whole wheat flour in the mix. First 1 cup whole weat and 5 cups bread flower. If that turns out well, I'll try 2 and 4 cups respectivly.

No Knead Bread.

I got this from the Splendid Table. It turned out great.

It's an easy to make dough that you keep in your fridge for up to two week. The originators claim that the taste of the bread improves if you age the dough in the fridge for a few days before baking. I had great results almost right away.

Combine... 1.5 tbsp of kosher salt. 1.5 tbsp yeast. 3 cups. 100F water. 6.5 cups bread flour. I put it all in large container, sealed the lid and then shook until everything was combined. I removed the lid and covered with a wet cloth. Then I wrapped the container with a heating pad on low and let the dough sit for about two hours. By that point it had tripled in volume. Then I put the container in the fridge and let chill for 5 hours.

To bake, put a pizza stone and a broiler tray in the oven and preheat to 450F

Hack off a piece of the dough, about the size of a grape fruit. Gently form it into a ball, trying not to squeeze out too many bubbles. Let the dough rest for 45 minutes.

Pour a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and slide the dough onto the pizza stone. Bake for 30 minutes.

Bananas Brulee

I love Bananas Brulee with ice cream. I can make it in about five minutes. It looks like and tastes like an expensive fancy dessert.

Split a banana into two. Set them flat side up. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar on each banana. Whip out the blow torch and brulee just like a creme brule.

Add a scoop of ice cream.

Drizzle with a sauce, chocolate or caramel work well.

Stainelss Steel Pots and Pans

About a year ago, I switched away from non-stick pots to stainless steel. For the most part I like it. Stainless steel doesn't have to be handled carefully. You can poke with forks and flip and scrape with spoons without fear of scatching the non-stick coating.

Yes, sometimes the cleanup is more difficult. I was tought a trick by a friend. When food is stuck to the bottom of a pot, put a couple of teaspoons of dishwasher detergent into the pot, add some hot water and let it soak over night. By the next morning the food will be liberated.

We don't know why it works. It just does.

Creme Brule With a Blow Torch

For the first time I have made creme brule with a blow torche. I'm supprised how easy it is. Sugar easily turns to a nice caramel wafer when you add fire.

A word on blow torches-- while cheap is nice, make sure the blow torch you buy can handle being tilted. I bought a $10.00 torch. It makes the brule just fine, but it rapidly flames out if I tilt it more than fourty five degrees. This means I have to tilt the food instead which is difficult when the food is covered with sugar.

I am going to brule much more-- bananas and maybe even pizza by first baking the dough, then adding the toppings and applying fire.

Saar's Mart

I'm am very impressed with the Saar's grocery on Sunset. I'll admit that Saar's is a low-income now-frills chain and that from the outside, the Saar's store looks old and unkept. But, inside, it's all very clean, well stocked with good prices.

This particular Saar's makes it's own tortillas on premis. Yum!

The wine selection was excellet. The vegitables look great.

Now, a word on the meat. It was all very inexpensive. But, the beef appears to be unaged, sub choice cuts. Don't shop here if you are looking for a great steak. You will find a good roasts for slow cooking or hamburger. But, the pickings are slim if you want to eat rare.

Fortunatly Shawn & Ted's Quality Meat is not too far away.

Pizza Dough II

The Pizza dough is getting better. I swapped the table salt for kosher salt. That helped improve the rize.

It's still too dense more my tastes.

Lemon-grass coconut soup

Lemon-grass coconut soup is very tasty and not too hard to make. The ingredients are a bit specialized so I should make one large batch of broth and then use that several times.

For the broth-- simmer, but don't boil...
28oz coconut milk
64oz chicken broth.
3 stalks lemon grass
1 or 2 sliced hot peppers.
3 crushed cloves of garlic
1/4 cup shredded ginger.
1 tablesoon asian chille sauce.
rind of one lime.

There are lots of extra's you can add to the broth like fish sauce and lime leaves. I never have them on hand and the broth always turns out well.

After 30 minutes, strain the broth. You can save it or use it right away.

To use the broth, heat it up to a simmer (not a boil)
Add 3 chicken brests sliced half inch thick. Simer for five minutes until cooked.
add 1/2 cup slice basil.
add one cup sliced mushrooms.
2 tbsp lime juice.
season to taste.

Don't simmer too much longer or the chicken may get tough.

Pizza Dough

I have been struggling to make great pizzas. My pizza dough is still not stellar. But, I am perfecting the toppings.

I don't have a great recipie yet, just some notes. I am trying to achieve a thin crisy pizza, not deep dish.

A cheap pizza stone is much better than a pan.

Watch for water. It will cook out while you are baking the pizza leaving you with a soggy mess. Use sauces sparingly and perfer thick sauces. Don't put whole slices of tomato on the pizza. Tomato should be cored and seeded.


These were the ingrediants for my last pizza...
2 tablespoons sugar. 1 tablespoon salt. 1 tablespoon pure olive oil. 3/4 cup warm water. 2 cups bread flour (for bread machines) 1 teaspoon instant yeast

Kneed pizza doughs longer-- this develops the gluten which allows you to stretch the dough thin. 15 minutes worked well.

My dough still came out too tough and not crisy enough. In the future, I'm going to make the following changes....

1. cut back on the salt by one teaspon.
2. Swap in a quarter cup of whole wheat for for a quarter cup of bread flour.
3. Bake at 550F instead of 500F
4. Stretch the dough even thinner.

Rice Pudding.

It's easy to make and tasty.

Take about a cup of left over rice.
Add two cups of milk and a quarter cup of sugar.
Mix.
Simmer for 30 minutes. I started on medium heat then moved to low as the simmer took off.

Beat an egg with a quarter cup of sugar.
Temper the egg/sugar mixture with a cup of the rice-milk mixture.

Add half a teaspoon of vanilla to the rice.
Add the tempered egg mixture to the rice.
Mix
Keep on low heat for about five minutes.

Chill and then serve. I drizzled a little bit of honey, jam and cinnamon on mine.

Pizza Crusts

I've been experiementing with pizza crusts trying to make the perfect thin crust. So far I've only managed to make it work by using bread flower, resting the dough for 24 hours in a refridgerator and by baking on a pizza stone.

I like to include some whole wheat flour in the dough, but it stops being thin crust when I do so.

Also, a pizza stone is mandatory. Without one the crust is sloppy and wet.

I can make a decent tomato sauce from canned diced tomatoes. The secret is to separate the juice from the fruit. Add a little vinegar and wine to the juice and simmer it down. Roast the fruit with some onions till browned-- say 45 minutes at 450F. Then combine the two and blend with a stick blender. Add your herbs, spices and seasonsings.

101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less

From the New York Times. Many of them sound great.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/dining/18mini.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Grilling

I love grilling. I use our propane BBQ year around, but much more often in the summer.

Last night we had grilled shrimp and steak.

The steak was loin tri tip. I enjoy loin tip steaks. They are very tender and easy to grill. Plus they are very affordable. They are smaller and don't look as good as a regular steak so you aren't charged regular loin prices.

The shrimp was also tasty. Next time I'm going to brine them first-- half a cup of salt, half a cup of suger, two cups of water, soke the shrimp for 30 minutes.

Experiments in Whipped Cream

I've discovered that my stand mixer quickly and easily makes whipped cream. I'm trying to use this to my advantage to eat less store bought ice cream and more easily home mode desserts.

Waffles, berries and whipped cream are great. Cherries and strawberries are in season right now, so eat up!

It looks like whipped cream is not a tempermental ingredient. It can take many additions yet still whip up. This is very different from merengues which refuse to foam if they are too warm or touch fat or over beaten or...

Last night I made an easy chocolate mouse.

Melt 6 oz of bitter sweet chocolate with one quarter cup of milk, and honey to taste. I'm really not sure how much honey. Maybe 3 tbsp.

To melt, microwave for 30 seconds, stir, repeat 3 or 4 times.

Once melted add 1 cup heavy cream. stir. Microwave again. Stir again. Repeat until combined. Don't let the mixture get too hot though.

Once mixed chill in a freezer for 30 minutes.

Once chilled froth on hi in a stand mixer.

Spoon into dishes. Chill in a refrigerator. Mouse recipes tell you to chill for four hours or more. To be honest, I ate some right away and it was delicious.

Serve with berries or cream.

Bleach, Water and Vinegar

A combination of bleach, water and vinegar is a better sanitizer than bleach alone. Make sure you add the bleach to the water before you mix in the vinegar. If you don't you will release chlorine gas and send yourself to the hospital.

The ratio of bleach and vinegar to water can be adjusted depending on how much kick you need. For anthrax, the EPA recommends one part bleach, eight parts water and one part vinegar.

I don't need to kill anthrax. For day to day sanitizing try one oz bleach, five gallons of water and one oz of vinegar.

I have a spray bottle that contains one teaspoon of bleach, one pint of water and one teaspoon of vinegar. I spritz it in on cutting boards, in my sink and on my counters.

If you are wondering about the chemistry behind this-- bleach is more effective with a lower PH. But not too low. Something just below neutral. If you Google around, you can find efficacy graphs of bleach at a given PH.

Roast Potatoes with Chick Pea and Vegetables in a Tomato Curry Sauce.

This was easy. I'm just writing it down so that I remember to do it again...

Roast Potatoes for two.

Stir Fry some chick peas and vegis just so that they caramelize a touch.

For the sauce, mix 28oz of canned diced tomatoes with a small can of tomato past. Add a teaspoon of curry powder, teaspoon of coriander and some garlic.

Mix the sauce with the vegis. Serve over the potatoes.

Ice Cream

Last night I made ice cream using the Good Eats "9,8,3,2,1" recipe. The ice cream is very good. I may need to let it churn longer though.

Also, the recipe is not cheap and Mark ate most of it at one serving. I have to figure out what side desserts to serve with it, to help stretch it out.

Loves Landing.

Loves Landing is a neighborhood bar off Airport way in Renton. Mark says the crowd is like a high school crowd that forgot they had grown up.

Loves Landing has two claims to fame.

First claim are their burgers. They are excellent. Big, tasty and on a fine and fresh bun.

Second claim is that they have kareoke every night. Some of the singers are not that bad.I recommend it.

Grilled Chicken and Asparagus salad for two.

Wash and oil about 8 stocks of asparagus. Cut to get rid of the woody parts.

Wash and oil a shitaki mushroom. Cut into eights.

Wash and oil and season four chicken thighs.

Warm up the grill. Set it to indirect heat.Start grilling the chicken and asparagus. Close the cover.

Three minutes later flip the chicken and asparagus. Add the mushrooms to the grill.

Close the cover.Three minutes later flip the chicken, asparagus and mushrooms.

Close the cover.Three minutes later, check that the chicken has hit 160F.

Slice the chicken.

Arrange the chicken, mushrooms and asparagus on two plates of mixed greens. Add a few orange slices. Dress with a good dressing.

Everything turned out very well.

Next time I may try aging the yogurt for seven hours instead of six. Regardless, it is still tasty.

The creme brulie took two and a half hours to set, instead of the ninty minutes listed in the recipie. I glazed the brulie with one heaping teaspoon of sprinked brown sugar. I think one table spoon may be better.

Granola was good. 8 cups of oats may be too much, so next time try 6.

Busy today...

Today I started making Yogurt, Creame Brulie and Granola.

The Yogurt and Creame Brulie are all day recipies. I'm half way through them now. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Yogurt... 4 cups milk, 2 tbsp honey, half cup powdered milk. Heat to 120. Cut off heat. When it's cooled to 115 or below, add one container yogurt with active cultures. Wrap in a heating pad and wait six hours.

Creame Brulie. Joy of Cooking's recipie with the 3 whole egg option. In the oven it took two and a half hours to set. The recipie says ninty minutes. I have to be extra careful with water baths-- remember the water will rise as you add the creme containers to it.

Granola. 8 cups of oats, half a cup canola oil, 2/3 cup honey mized with random nuts and grains until it looked right. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes, stiring every 15 minutes. I never follow a strict recipie when I make granola.

Changes

I'm changing this blog a little. I used to eat out often. But, for the past six months or so, I've started cooking at home much more. I'm also putting more effort into it and making good meals.

I'm going to start blogging about my cooking. Just so that I can remember.

Last night I made Chicken breasts wrapped in bacon and grilled on the BBQ. I used indirect heat with the indirect burners turned to medium. The breast took about 20 minutes. They turned out very good.

The rest of the meal was spaghetti with a cream sauce that I froze a while back. I added some vegi's to the mix and served.

I wish I could remember the details of the cream sauce. I think it's trick was using chicken stock instead of water.

Dino's Pub II

Dino's has remodeled and got new furninture. It's gone from being a decent hole in the wall bar, to being a nice hole in the wall bar.

They have also expanded the menu.

The changes haven't scared off their customers. It looks like it's attracting more.