Squash and Onions

It has been a while.  This one has been busy.  As with many new blogs, my postings have waned.  Lets see if we can remedy that.  This weekend has potential as I will be attending the Magnolia State BBQ Cookoff in Columbus, MS.  To kick it off, here is one of my favorite recipes I learned from my peach selling days at the Griffins in West Alabama/East Mississippi.

 

Recipe
1 small to 1 large onion  (yellow or white work best but red would do in a pinch)
4-8 crooks of yellow squash
half a stick of butter (unsalted if you got it)
course black pepper and kosher salt to taste

Wash the squash.  Slice it into half inch or less slices.  I half the bigger parts to make them more manageable in the skillet.  Cut the onion in half after taking off the skin.  Cut the onion into slices about halves.  Cut those into halves.  Separate the onions so you have individual pieces of onion about 2-3 inches long.  Don't worry too much about the onions.  I prefer them this way but if you would rather just dice them feel free.  Put everything in a skillet with about an inch of water.  Once the butter has all melted, salt and pepper.  I eyeball it but basically a spoonful of both salt and pepper should do it..  If you used salted butter watch out on your salt.  Cook everything down until the water evaporates.  Enjoy!

Homemade Bread

Sorry it has been a while.  There has been much going on in this one's life. 


Bread day!  The first thing I do when I start making bread is pitch my yeast.  This simply means putting the yeast warm water to get it to wake up.  It also ensure you have active live yeast.  If the yeast has gone bad, you do not want to waste all your time and ingredients because of inactive yeast.  To do this take a soup spoon worth of yeast and put in half a cup of warm water.  Stir it up.  In 5-10 minutes, the water should be foamy and smell, well, yeasty.  If it doesnt, you need new yeast.










The basic bread making process involves adding flour, yeast, and water together.  You knead the resulting dough to develop the gluten.  You let it rise to allow the yeast eat the sugars in the flour and release CO2 making air bubbles that are trapped by the gluten proteins.  You may punch it down and let it do it again to develop better flavor.  Then you shape the loaf and bake it. Pretty easy right?  It is.

White bread flour is really good as a base for bread because it is light a airy. Because it is basically sugar (compared to whole grain four) the yeast can eat it really well.  I use about half white bread flour and half something else.

Note: Sourdough requires the use of starter not yeast.  Separate post for that later.

Start with wheat flour and move on to rye or barley or any other that sounds interesting. 

This loaf was rye, wheat, honey, and whole flaxseed.

Basic Recipe

Ingredients:

1.5 Coffee Cup or cup white bread flour
1.5 cup of some other flour(s) - you can use white if you like but it is better for you in taste and actually with others
1 Soup spoonfuls of yeast
1/4 Cup warm water
1 Cup warm milk
2 Soup spoonfuls of kosher salt
2 Soup spoonfuls of honey
2 Soup spoonfuls butter or olive oil

Pitch yeast.  When yeast has been pitched add white bread flour, salt, honey, sugar, warm milk, butter or oil, other flour(s) and mix in bowl with yeast.  Add flour to dough until it is of a consistency that is moist but dry enough for you to work with.  I knead it in the bowl so it is less messy.  Just keep punching it down and reshaping it for 10 minutes.  This is the hard part.  It takes time and effort.  It is the key to delicious bread.  You should notice that the dough changes.  It will become elastic and springy.  If it a'int, than you are needing more kneading.  Cover bowl with wet towel.  Let rise for an hour and a half.





It should have risen to at least double its original size.  If it has not than you need to put it in a warmer place until this has happened.  (The oven on lowest setting for 10 minutes can work sometimes, just keep checking it.)  Punch it down. 






Shape the loaf to the desired shape.  Score it. (Cut down the center or in whatever way you like.)  Let it rise for an hour.  Bake in oven at 350 for 40 minutes or so. A nice trick for the crust is to add some water in a pan at the bottom of the oven for the first 7 or so minutes to get some steam in the oven.  You can also cook the bread on a pizza stone for a nice bottom crust. Let the bread rest for 5 minutes before you cut it.  Enjoy!

My favorite website for bread making tips is located here.

Bread the Prequel

Bread is one of man's most ancient of domesticated food.  Nobody needs me to tell them that it has been a staple of civilization for as long as there as been a civilization.  Somehow though, many have us have lost touch with the simplicity and beauty of making and eating freshly made bread.  I must be the first to admit, I have struggled in learning how to make bread.  I will also be the first to say, that most people I know that make their own bread do it better than I do.  But, I make great bread nonetheless.  It is cheaper, healthier, tastier, and just all around better than anything I can buy at that grocery store.  I typically make a large loaf of bread on Sunday and it lasts all week.  My recent favorite is a Rye, Wheat, Honey, Flaxseed loaf that is a little sweet and packed with flavor.


So what is bread?  Bread, like many great foods, is the result of tiny lifeforms doing their thing.  In this case bread yeast consumes the sugar or carbohydrates in flour and additives.  As it does this, it creates tiny air pockets from its digestion.  These air pockets become the holes in your bread or space between pieces of bread.  If bread is properly leavened (or risen) then when it bakes those holes become the size to which you are accustomed.  Bread may be chemically leavened with baking powder or cream of tartar, etc.  Who wants that?  Not me. Bread flour is a specific type of flour.  It has a higher protein or gluten content than regular or all-purpose flour. There are other proteins in flour besides gluten but it is the most important one.  This is because it gives elasticity to the dough.  Basically this allows the air pockets formed to stay intact when the bread is baked.  You will hear a lot about developing the gluten.  What this means is that you are stretching out the protein and allowing gluten to bond with gliadin.  This makes more air pockets possible and makes a better "crumb".  Think texture when you hear this term. Here is some good reading on the subject.

2 issues that will be separate posts later.
1st - Whole grains versus white flour. - For now, suffice it to say that if you are not eating bread that is made from whole grains, you are essentially eating sugar.  Flour is made from seeds.  The part of the seed that is retained in white flour is the endosperm which is basically the sugar that feeds the young plant.  The bran and germ are removed because that will go rancid after 6 months.  In order for flour to be a commodity, it needs to never go rancid which white flour doesn't for years.  More later but for now, do yourself a favor and eat whole grain bread products.

2nd - The yeast that most people use comes from 2 general places.  The most common is regular active yeast.  This is made by industrial processes that result in a dried powder that is waiting dormant to be activated by water.  It is what I use most of time because I am in a bit more hurry than I would prefer.  The other is what is referred to as "starter" This is basically yeast that is present in the air your are breathing.  You get this by letting water with a starch mixed in sit out and collect microorganisms from the air.  You keep pouring out half of it and adding water until the yeast as won out over the other organisms, which it will because it is better at eating and reproducing in starch water at room temperature.  The bread made from this is what you know as sourdough.

Green Beans and Tomatoes

I have pretty much already covered this in my vegetables made easy post but want to remind everyone how easy it is to make excellent vegetable side dishes.  It goes like this.  Take your green beans and cut of the ends.  I bunch them up and cut about 10 at a time so it doesn't take forever.  Wash the beans.  Put them in a skillet.  Cut up tomatoes.  I used grape tomatoes here because I had some about to go bad.  You could just as well use diced or cubed tomatoes or even some out of the can.  Put the tomatoes in the skillet.  Add about a 1/2 inch of water the skillet.  Add about half a cup of olive oil to the water.  Season with kosher slat and course pepper.  Cover and turn on high.  When the water is boiling remove the top and let the water reduce out until the vegetables are at the desired texture.

Baked Fish

I love fish.  I used to be really bad at cooking it though unless it was deep fried.  I have recently conquered my issues with healthier cooked fish.  This is important because I love to fish.  if you also love to fish or know someone that does, you can really save some money on your protein budget.  Be careful though.  Know where your fish comes from if it s wild.  Here is the link to the current fish consumption advisory in Alabama.  If you want to get angry about pollution read this document.  One thing to keep in mind is that most pollutants are stored in the fat of the fish.  If you are concerned about the fat being polluted, cut it off.  Also, you should broil with a drip pan or grill the fish as it allows the fat to drip off.  Cooking alone will not remove them.

Enough with that.  On to the fish!  These were farm raised tilapia so I am not concerned about pollutants.  If your fish are frozen a trick i learned from restaurant work is to put them in a bowl in the sink.  Fill with cold water.  turn the faucet on cold on the lowest setting you can get it just above drip.  Warm water will "cook" the fish so use cold to get it defrosted.

Baked Fish
Half a stick of unsalted butter
fish filets - 2-8
half a coffee mug of olive oil
a thimble full of garlic powder, onion powder,  and kosher salt each
1 small spoon of paprika and course pepper each
a small spoonful of an herb (basil, rosemary, oregano(my preferred) etc)


First, make the sauce.  To do this put everything but the fish in a small sauce pan.  Turn the heat to medium until the butter melts.  Whisk it good.  (Note - if you don't have a whisk use a spoon)

Line a metal dish with aluminum foil.  This will make it easier to clean.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Put half the sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Put the filets in the pan.  Pour the rest of the sauce on top.  cover with aluminum foil.  Bake for 10 mintues or until the fish flakes off with a fork.  Take off the top layer of aluminum foil.  Turn the oven on high broil.  Broil for 1 minute to brown the top.  I use a soft spatula to pick them up so they don't fall apart. Enjoy!

Early Spring Garden

Now is the time to get that spring garden in.  My compost from last year is lovely.  It is moist, rich, and looking like dirt.  This time we planted 3 lettuce varieties, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, onions, beets, and breakfast radishes.  If you live in Alabama and are wondering what you should plant - here is the gardening guide put out by the extension service.  Although, in my experience up to now I feel like you can make some adjustments.  Global warming is happening and gowning seasons are extended.  I had my last fresh squash of the year in late December!  My broccoli never succumbed to the frost and snow.  Also, if you are worried about too much shade in your summer garden, remember that it is going to be super hot.  Hotter than it has ever been.  That shade may be difference between an okay garden and a dead one.  The more sun typically the better but water is the key factor in that statement.  One trick a friend of mines dad uses involves PVC pipe.  He takes one end and drills holes in it.  He then buries it about 1-2 feet next to where he is going to put in his tomatoes.  Then he just waters the pipe.  This means more water retained longer at the root structure. When it is really hot, it is hard to keep that top layer of soil wet long enough to get the plant properly watered. 

Shrimp Etouffee - Mardi Gras Season!

So it is Mardi Gras time again.  This means creole and cajun cooking in the kitchen.  Last week a few friends and I had a creole cook off of sorts.  I made a shrimp etouffee.  I pretty much followed exactly the recipe from this amazing blog I want to share with all of you - Nola Cuisine.  I would recommend using his rice recipe.  It is how I will be cooking rice henceforth.  Here are some pics of my preparation of his recipe.  I didn't get any pics of the final dish as there hungry mouths waiting for me to finish.  Trust me this recipe is excellent.