September Saturday

Ciabatta--Poolish Version and some Pasta

The fall weather has really sparked a baking mood around here. Even John is into it.
Yesterday morning we woke up to very cold and foggy start of the day. We both felt like a pasta supper at home so we decided to make our first Bolognese Ragu of the season. "Which one should we make?" I asked. "Mario, Rao's, Marcella, Lidia or how about Biba?" We were lucky enough to go to Biba's Restaurant one summer when we found ourselves in Sacramento. The dinner was unforgetable, but what I remember most was the gnocchi. The BEST I have ever had. But today we were on a Tagliatelle with Bolognese mission. We had some carrots and onions still from that sorry garden, so we went and picked those and set off browning the celery, carrots and onion in butter and olive oil. Added in the pancetta and the ground pork then the chicken stock and tomato paste....and no the paste was not from tomatoes in the garden..I didn't even get enough to make a pizza sauce. Total waste of time and water this year. I promise ..this is the last rant I go on about that garden.....we let the sauce bubble away on the stove for the rest of the day and went onto pasta making and Ciabatta making.

I told you all that I was following the Bread Bakers Apprentice baking challenge from Nicole over at Pinch My Salt. We are sorta out of order...and are into making sourdough bread right now.

The day ended with the most delicious pasta. It was good. There really is nothing else like that homemade handcut tagliatelle. So soft and silky.And you know what? That pasta was really good this morning for breakfast.

Today I am making homemade pizza for John for Sunday Night football. More on that later.

Dilly Casserole Bread

When we were little kids we lived in Santa Barbara and we had a lady who came to the house to help my mom with my little brother. The lady's name was Bessie..and she looked exactly like Mrs. Doubtfire. Exactly. Every afternoon we would sit down and pick out something to make for supper. Bessie is the one who introduced me to Vincent Price's " A Treasury of Great Recipes". But she had lots of her own recipes a well. One of our very favorite was the Dilly Casserole Bread. I made it last night to go with my swiss steak and mashed potatoes. It smelled of days gone by. I love dill in summer, so as the late afternoon sun sank over Mission Mountain, I flipped on the kitchen light, turned on the stove and slid in the cast iron skillet filled with the promise of warm bread for supper.

Dilly Casserole Bread from Bessie

1 package yeast
1/4 warm water
1 cup large curd cottage cheese
2 T. sugar
1 T. minced dry onion
1 T. soft butter
2 t. dill seeds
1 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda
1 egg
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups flour.

Sprinkle yeast over warm water and dissolve.
Heat cottage cheese till warm.
Combine in a bowl with sugar,onion,butter,dill seeds,salt,baking soda, egg and yeast and water. Add flour to make a stiff dough. Knead into a ball. Cover and let rise 60 minutes till doubled.Stir down and put in a well greased 1 1/2 quart round 8" casserole. ( I use a cast iron skillet). Cover and let rise about 40 minutes.
Bake 350 degress for 35 minutes. Remove bread from oven and brush with butter and salt. Maldon or a fleur de sel is nice. Cover with foil, return to oven and bake 15 minutes more.

Success

Yesterday was my first day making bread out of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice". And it went better than expected. I followed the directions to the word. Timed everything just right...and TA-DA...bread ! John fell hard for it. He really loved it. The recipe made 2 loaves and before supper we had nailed the first one..just standing in the kitchen eating it with cheese...we were going to walk downtown to farmers market last night, but we were so in love with our bread, we decided we would rather spend the evening with it. So we hauled out the cast iron skillet and fried up some bacon, then sliced some of the jackpot tomatoes and had the best BLT's we had ever had. So last night it was just me and John and the bread. And we all had a good time. Wish you were here.

High Hopes

Today is the day that I hop on the wagon and join "The Bread Bakers Apprentice" challenge. It is a group of bakers that have joined Nicole at "Pinch My Salt" and are making a bread a week out of Peter Reinhart's award winning bread book.

A friend of mine told me recently (you know who you are) to keep your expectations low..that way, you're never dissapointed. I think that may be pretty good advice for me here. I tried this once before when the "Baking With Julia" book came out. It didn't go well. Those breads looked so beautiful in the pictures. Mine, however, were another story. And I consider myself a pretty good baker.But it was a challenge to be sure. So here I go again. Apron on, book in hand, got the King Arthur flour, got fresh yeast, am actually studying the book like a textbook...and this time... I hope I'm not dissapointed. To be honest, I'm keeping my expectations...low.

Oh, and that's Dande ..just hangin' out....