In Search Of

If you're old enough to remember the show that was hosted by Leonard Nimoy,  you're old enough to understand the importance of searching for the unknown, the unexplained, the mysterious.  But what am I in search of?  No, not extraterrestrials, not what happened to Amelia Earhart, not the truth about the Bermuda Triangle.  More pragmatic, more practical, but still mysterious.  It's pizza.  More accurately, perfect homemade pizza dough.  Okay, maybe not perfect.  Maybe pretty damn close?  Can someone lead me in that direction?  It seems like it would be so simple.  A mix of water, salt, flour, oil, yeast.

I try recipe after recipe, not tied down to one formula.  I skimmed Jim Lahey's My Pizza (having made his no-knead bread, I'm behind this man).  I think about the tools I use, the ingredients I have on hand, what I can tweak, what I should tweak, what I accidentally discovered (hello overnight cold rise!), and why I always forget I own a pizza stone.

I haven't tried Jim Lahey's yet.  That's next on the list.  The latest recipe I used was Alice Waters' recipe from The Art of Simple Food.  It's good.  Very good.  Alice's recipe got the overnight cold rise and since the recipe makes enough for two pizzas, the first was traditionally baked in the oven, the second was actually 'baked' in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop.  More like fried, with a touch of olive oil, then after adding some caramelized onion, cheese, and porchetta (Oh, porchetta!), I threw it under a broiler until the cheese melted and the crust charred.

The other recipe is from a book I bought awhile ago called,  The Cook's Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking by Carla Capalbo.  I bought it at the used bookstore around the corner and it's turned out to be a great little find.  Lots of practical, not over the top recipes and in the year or so that I've had it, I refer to it more times than I thought I would.  This version also got the cold rise treatment and was made solely by the cast iron/stovetop/broiler method.  Thanks to a pizza craving when Los Angeles had one of its ugly heatwaves last month, I couldn't wait for the temps to drop to satisy the craving, and that's when I tried the stovetop method.

I loved using my cast iron skillet so much, that I'm throwing cast iron pizza into the regular rotation.  For some reason, it just seems like it takes less effort.  Which, in looking at it objectively, doesn't.  Two steps compared to throwing it on a sheet and slipping it into the oven.  I don't know.  They're both good.

Porchetta and Caramelized Onion Pizza
Dough recipe makes enough for 2 10-inch pizza

Alice Waters' Pizza Dough Recipe

2 tsp dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup rye flour
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup olive oil

Stir together the yeast and 1/2 cup lukewarm water.  Add the rye flour and 1/4 cup of the ap flour.  Let this sit in a bowl until bubbly, about 1/2 hour.  In another bowl, mix the remaining ap flour with the salt.  After the yeast mixture is foamy, add the flour and salt mix, along with the olive oil and cold water.  Mix dough and turn out onto a floured board, kneading for about 5 minutes until dough is soft and elastic.  If your dough is wet, add a little more flour, tablespoon by tablespoon until the right consistency is met.

Here you can either put the dough in a bowl, covered and let it rise for 2 hours in a warm spot or put the dough in the refrigerator for an overnight rise.  Just remember to take it out a couple of hours before you want to use it.  

Toppings:

6 oz porchetta, sliced paper thin
1/2 cup onion, caramelized
1/2 cup Grana Padano, grated
1/2 cup Asiago, grated
2 tbsp basil, chiffonaded
red pepper oil, for drizzling (optional)


Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees (if baking in the oven).  Stretch dough to roughly 10-12 inches. Sprinkle dough with cheeses and basil.  Spread caramelized onion and porchetta over dough.  On a pan, with a thin layer of coarse cornmeal, place pizza and put in oven.  Bake for 8-12 minutes.  When removed from the oven, sprinkle with the remaining basil and drizzle the oil.  

If you opt for the cast iron skillet method, make the dough big enough to fit into your pan.  Put pan over high heat and add a little oil (about 1 tsp or so).  Add dough and allow to cook, flipping over every few minutes.  Turn on your stove's broiler to its highest setting.  Top dough with porchetta et al and put pan under broiler.  Keeping an eye on the pizza, remove when you see a little char on the crust and porchetta edges look crispy.  

Basic Pizza Dough
From 'The Cook's Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking'
Makes roughly 2 10-inch pizzas

2 1/2 tbsp fresh cake yeast or 1 pkg dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
pinch of sugar
1 tsp salt
3-3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

In a bowl, mix the water and yeast.  Stir in the sugar and let stand until yeast dissolves and begins to foam, 5-10 minutes.  Mix in the salt and about a third of the flour, stirring and gradually adding the flour until dough easily pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth, about 8-10 minutes.  In a lightly oiled bowl, place the dough inside and cover with a moistened and wrung out dish towel.  Allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 45-50 minutes.  Punch down the dough and knead for a minute or two.  Dough is ready for toppings.  Bake using either method above. 

Notes:  both recipes actually call for unbleached flour.  Obviously, all purpose will work the same.  I tend to have either or on hand, so use what you've got.  As for the rye flour, if you don't have any, swap regular flour for the 1/4 cup called.  I had it on hand and think it adds a subtle touch that you can't quite place your finger on.  Feel free to use whole wheat if you don't have rye.  The second recipe calls for cake yeast.  If you can find it, I highly recommend using it.  It's a hit or miss find for me, so I use the dry yeast.

A Shot of Rye

You might think from this post and my post at the beginning of this month, that I eat a lot of muffins.  Or, at least, I did for the month of April.  I do love me a good muffin, don't get me wrong...but I normally don't eat them all that much.  I guess I felt that April was the month of muffin experimentation.  At least twice.  [My apologies also to those who saw the title and thought it might lead to libations.]

I was sorting and organizing my pantry and found my rye flour.  There was also an overripe banana or three.  You know as well as I do, that overripe bananas invariably lead to some sort of baked goods with bananas as the key ingredient.  One of the work study students told me her mom had made banana bread the day before I brought these into work because she had past-prime fruit sitting on the counter.  The natural progression in the life of a banana.  There is the desperate need to make something quickly, because I am not a fan of refrigerated or frozen bananas.

I really like what the rye flour did to these little guys.  They turned out a little dense, with an almost savory quality, but it's 'under the radar', 'can't quite put your finger on it', kind of flavor.  These muffins are also less sweet than you'd probably expect.  The original recipe called for a whole cup of sugar.  Way too much in my opinion.  Drop the sugar, up the cinnamon, you've got enough sweetness from the fruit.  I was also able to finally use up my Easter muffin/cupcake liners!  And yes...I made these on Easter Sunday.  Baking alignment!

On another note...once again, the month of April was my annual mid-life crisis month.  Someday I'll get tired of doing this to myself.  But, hey...consistency, right?  This also means that there will be cake.  Yes, I have decided on my birthday cake.  No, I am not spilling the beans.  You'll just have to come back in a couple of days and see for yourself.  Or find me on Instagram.  No doubt there will be a photo posted.  In the meantime, enjoy a muffin (again).

Banana Walnut Rye Muffins
Makes 10-12 muffins

1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3 overripe bananas
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup rye flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12-muffin tin with paper liners or lightly grease and flour.  In a bowl, sift flours, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  In a small bowl, mash the bananas, cinnamon, and vanilla together until all big lumps are gone.  In another bowl, vigorously whisk the oil, sugar, and egg until well-mixed and smooth.  Add the bananas and mix.  Add the dry ingredients and mix well.  You can use a hand mixer if you like, but I like doing it all by hand.  Spoon the batter into the cups so each is about 2/3 full.  

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean.  Let cool in pan.  

A World Away

In what seems a world away, a century ago, I remember the first tentative forays into foods that were unusual, foreign, and exotic to me.  Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there were a lot of weekends after I graduated from high school when I would take the train into New York City with a friend or two to see bands play at the Ritz or visit penpals (turned friends) who lived on Long Island.  I loved walking through Greenwich Village, down Canal Street, record shopping, vintage shopping, just hanging out and taking everything in.  

The first time I had Indian food was in New York City.  My girlfriend at the time, our friend from Long Island, and myself found ourselves hungry after a serious day of shopping and walking around.  Somehow we decided on Indian and thanks to Sue's love of roses we picked The Rose of India.  Yes...for the name and maybe an agreeable cursory glance at the menu posted near the door.  This place was truly awesome once we walked inside and let our eyes adjust to the serious change of lighting from outside to in.  It was a long and narrow space with a center aisle and tables that hugged the walls on either side.  Strands of Christmas lights (there must have been a few dozen) reached from the entryway to the kitchen, criss-crossing across the ceiling and winding their way up and down the wall.  Even more amazing was the fact that it seemed as though every square inch of exposed wall was covered in artificial flowers.  Silk, plastic, single blooms, garlands, bouquets, leaves, petals...all somehow attached or glued, making the dining room feel like a very dimly lit, strange 'garden' space.  Sue could not have chosen a better place.  We had a feast that evening, dish after dish after dish...curries, fritters, rice, fruits, vegetables, meats.  To this day, I think fondly of the banana fritters we had for dessert and the fact that our whole bill was just $22!  Even in the late 80's  that was a serious score. 

Of course, I had friends that lived in Philadelphia around this time too.  There was lot of time spent on the campus of Temple University, on South Street, and in Old City...hanging out in dorm rooms,  searching through the bins of Thrid St. Jazz, or dancing nights away at Revival.  But there was also a little spot, if my memory serves me right, on Fourth Street, just off of South, called Tuly's Middle Eastern restaurant.  Another restaurant in a small space, but bright and white.  Maybe 8 or 10 wooden tables and chairs populated the space as you walked in the entrance, past the small take-out counter.  More times than not, I wound up here with my friend, Amy, and we regularly took the table against the back wall.  It was a great vantage spot to watch the goings on or to lean up against the wall as we ate, smoked, and talked for hours.  We'd start every visit here with a plate of feta and Kalamata olives, drizzled with olive oil, and generously sprinkled with oregano.  My choices were usually lamb or falafel.  Falafel...who knew that chick peas could be that good.  Up until then, they were something that I would pick out of any salad I found them in, thinking their large, bumpy appearance was truly unappetizing.  I loved the crunch of each deep fried falafel ball, giving way to a chewy interior, mixing with the tang of the yogurt sauce.  

Over twenty plus years later, I finally took it upon myself to even try making Indian food.  But I did.  And it was really good.  Coming close to a year and a half later, I made falafel.  Now this isn't the first time I made it...but it is the first time where it didn't come from a boxed mix.  I know.  For some reason, I thought it would be one of those things that would be difficult.  Silly me.  I also don't do a lot of deep frying at home.  You know how the scent of frying oil just tends to linger in the air for a day or two?  Yeah...that.  It was worth it though.

Falafel

From a recipe on Epicurious

1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup onions, chopped

2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

1 tbsp parsley, chopped

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp baking powder

6 tbsp flour

oil for frying

Yogurt Sauce with Celery

1 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup celery, finely minced

1 tbsp olive oil

Sumac

Add all the falafel ingredients, except the baking powder and flour, to the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse until ingredients come together, but are not pureed.  Add baking powder and flour, again pulsing to bring ingredients together.  The mix should still feel a little chunky, but not too sticky.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours to overnight.

For the yogurt sauce, mix the yogurt with the celery and olive oil until well blended.  Sprinkle generously with sumac and refrigerate to let flavours mingle.  

To fry the falafel, form into small walnut size balls or patties.  Bring oil to 375 degrees in a large saucepan.  Only fry 3 or 4 at a time to keep oil temperature from dropping.  Fry until golden brown (about 2 minutes each side), flipping to fry evenly.  Remove from oil with slotted spoon and allow to drain on paper towel lined plate.  

You can serve the falafel in a pita topped with the yogurt sauce or do what I did and top a bed of romaine with falafel and yogurt sauce.   

A Little Celebration

We celebrate birthdays, getting an A on a final, graduations, new jobs, and new relationships.  We will seek out reasons to celebrate because it makes us feel good.  A little acknowledgement, a little validation, a little joy.

There are a couple of accomplishments to celebrate here.  No, I can't tell you that I have a new job yet.  Hopefully soon.  But what I can tell you is that this post is Number 100.  That's right.  The big One-Oh-Oh.  I know, I know...I could have reached the marker a little sooner if I posted more often, but you know what they say...good things come to those who wait.  And I've got a lot of patience.

Another accomplishment from the past two weeks was writing the recipes for the weekly newsletter of FarmBoxLA.  FarmBoxLA has built relationships with a couple dozen farms in the area and will source seasonal fruits and vegetables from them on a weekly basis, which will then be delivered to you at the beginning of each week.  I heard from them about three weeks after I responded to an ad they placed looking for food writers.  A few emails and a couple of phone calls later, I met Reisha at the Santa Monica Farmers Market and we did a little shopping.  I came home with a bag of goodies and a five recipes goal.  Those recipes were featured in the September 30 Newsletter or via the 'Our Kitchen' link on their site.  I had a lot of fun writing for them and hope I will again.

So, I waited to write post one hundred because I was busy for a couple of days with the FarmBoxLA assignment, but also because I wanted to make something special.  Sure...I could have baked another cake.   But why bake a cake when you can make struffoli?  Don't know what struffoli are?  Let me tell you.  Other than being my favourite dessert ever, this Italian treat is little bits of dough that are fried and then coated in a honey syrup.  Struffoli is usually made around Christmas and my strongest memory of them is my Aunt Placida bringing over a huge platter of struffoli a couple of days after Christmas in 1979 after I had come home from the hospital after an overnight stay.

Proust had his madeleine, I had my struffoli.  Despite having struffoli once or twice since that day in 1979, the first bite I took after making them transported me back to my parents' kitchen, sitting at the table and biting into a crunchy bit of dough and candy sprinkles, my fingers sticky with honey.

It was the perfect way to celebrate being home from the hospital, hanging out with my family, and now...celebrating one hundred.

Struffoli
(From The Italian Cookbook by the Culinary Arts Institute)

2 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup honey
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp candy sprinkles
oil for frying (I used sunflower)

In a skillet over low heat, mix the honey, sugar, and cinnamon.  Stir and let the sugar dissolve.  Once warm and all ingredients are combined, turn off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, add the flour and salt.  Making a well in the center of the flour, add eggs, one at a time, loosely mixing with a fork after each addition.  Add the vanilla with the last egg.  

After mixing well to form a soft dough, turn onto a floured board, knead for 5 minutes and divide dough in half.  Roll each half until about 1/4 inch thick.  Slice into narrow strips, then cut strips into little pieces about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long.  You can also roll the strips before cutting them to get little tubes or spheres.  

In a saucepan, add the oil and heat.  When the oil is hot enough, add only enough dough pieces so you're not crowding the pan.  Let fry until lightly golden brown.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place onto a papertowel-lined plate to drain any excess oil.  

Once you've fried all the dough, add to the honey mixture and mix thoroughly so each piece is coated with the honey syrup.  Spoon onto platter and add sprinkles.

Midnight Baking Session No. 746

Truthfully, it was closer to 10:00 p.m. and baking was probably the last thing I should have been doing since I've no one to really share baked goods with these days and I certainly don't need to be eating a whole batch  of anything myself.  Thankfully, I have a neighbor upstairs that has stepped up and has very happily been playing the role of taste tester, so all is not lost.

It was nothing fancy that came out of the oven last night.  Just a pan of brownies.  Though these brownies did  have a few ingredients tweaked, because if I don't tweak every now and again, I wouldn't be me.  I opened the Italian Pantry the other day and almost had the bag of chestnut flour fall on my head.  Yes, the Italian Pantry is living up to its name, still well-stocked.  I took the falling bag of flour as a sign that I should do something with it.  While I think about making Castagnaccio, last night I wanted to make something not too far out of the ordinary.  I'm warming up to brownies.  They're kind of comforting in their chewy, chocolatey richness.

I really really like chestnut flour.  There's a smokey sweetness to it that I can't compare to anything else I've tasted.  It lends itself fabulously to the dark chocolate I used here.  I didn't use baking chocolate.  You know those huge 1lb+ bars they sell at Trader Joe's?  No?  Well, that's what went in these brownies.  It's a total bargain if you have a massive sweet tooth, are a chocoholic, or just want to make sure you've got chocolate around when it's late at night and you want to bake brownies.   I'm also thinking of the Chestnut Cherry cookies I made last Christmas and bet that cherries in those brownies would take it just that right step beyond.  Next time.

Chocolate Chestnut Brownies
(Adapted from a recipe in Martha Stewart's Cookies)
Makes 16 brownies

6 tbsp unsalted butter
6 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup chestnut flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp coarse sea salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8x8 inch baking dish with parchment and grease parchment with a small amount of butter.  In a small bowl, add the butter, chopped chocolate, and cocoa powder.  Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Stir frequently to melt the chocolate and butter.  When everything has melted, remove from heat and let it cool slightly.  In a another bowl, add the sugar, vanilla, and eggs.  Whisk until light and fluffy either by hand or with an electric mixer.  Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a third bowl.  Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs and sugar, mixing well until combined.  Slowly add the flour, making sure to mix all the ingredients well.  

Pour batter into baking pan, spreading out to corners.  Bake until  cake tester inserted in center comes out fairly clean, about 30-35 minutes.  Let cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing from pan and letting brownies finish cooling on rack.  

Twelve Pounds of Flour Later...

...and the oven is getting a wee bit of a break...well, not so much, I'm roasting peppers in it at the moment.  Since the month started, it's been a pretty non-stop whirlwind of sugar, flour, butter and baking powder in the kitchen.  This year I've also been a little obsessed with baking savouries....we're talking crackers.    I'll be honest...I've been pretty selfish with those.  Oh sure...wine biscuits have found there way into goodie baskets for the family and my Girls...but the crackers don't get much further than me.  They're so easy to make and you can add pretty much anything to the basic dough.

I originally made Olive and Rosemary crackers from The Purple Foodie last year and loved them.  I made more yesterday.  But it was a couple of weeks ago when I was looking through my King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion book and found the recipe for Sesame Thins.  It doesn't get much easier than flour, water, oil, salt and sesame seeds.  I'll tell you one reason I love this recipe.  It's yeast-less.  I'm still working on the yeast-baking skills and it's going all right.  I made grissini the other day and they turned out wonderfully.  Though I'm the only one that knows it.  (Selfish again...I'm not afraid to admit it!)

I played with that Sesame Thins recipe.  I have a jar of blue cheese stuffed olives in the fridge and after a Friday night dirty martini I thought how cool would that be in a cracker?   Whether the people at Ketel One vodka thought that's where their product would wind up, I don't know...but it's a winner with me.  Of course, you can make them without the alcohol as it only gives it a slight punch in taste to the cracker, but if you're so inclined to make a little something fun for your holiday cocktail party...try it.  Or be totally selfish, buy a nice wedge of aged provolone from the neighbourhood Italian deli and make a dinner out of cheese and crackers.

Dirty Martini Crackers
(Adapted from King Arthur Flour's Sesame Thins)

1/2 cup chopped green olives (stuffed or not)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4 tablespoons vodka (optional)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup water

Add 2 tablespoons of vodka to the chopped olives and let marinate for about an hour.  Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix flour, salt, and oil in a bowl and combine with fingers until you have a crumbly dough.  Add olives, garlic and the last 2 tablespoons of vodka.  Work with fingers to combine.  Start with a half cup of water to bring all the ingredients together to make a more cohesive dough.  If still dry, add more water slowly.  Knead for a couple of minutes, then turn dough onto a flour-covered board.  

Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness or less.  Cut into whatever shapes you like.  I used a small  (1.5 inch) biscuit cutter with the fluted edges.  You can also just lay the rolled dough onto a baking sheet and cut with a pizza cutter.  

Bake for 25-30 minutes until bottoms are golden brown.  Definitely begin to check on them at the 25-minute mark depending upon how hot your oven runs.  

Dirty Martini Crackers

Sesame Thins and Olive Rosemary Crackers

Chocolate Crackles

Earl Grey Cookies

Grissini with Smoked Salt

Cherry Chestnut Drops

Cinnamon Shortbread