Italian white bread

 

Baking bread: I looked at this recipe,   https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/italian-white-bread/ the way it was mixed adding the yeast/starter after the bulk of the dough was formed. Of course I had to try it. It may not be spot on with the flours recommended, but I like the results, none the less.

 

(comment: about 2 cups water is what I used for the main flour to water mix and a small amount to proof the yeast about .2 of a pint)

The flours I had available for use (without looking up what durum wheat flour is) were all purpose flour and soft Italian flour, the Tipo 000.

Also used the food processor for mixing versus the stand mixer.

Blending the flours…

The completed dough, nice consistency no additional flour or water needed going by the recipe weight measurements.

After a rise for about 1.5 hours, the last 20 minutes or so in the oven (warmed by just a pilot light).

The dough was formed into loaves, I thought it looked a bit too soft at this stage for the final rise while the oven heated up to about 480 degrees Fahrenheit.

The dough ballooned up more than I expected !

After turning down the heat as recommended, 30 minutes seemed too long for the finish, baked the bread by eye and temperature probe to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit internal temperature of the loaf. the bevel cut could be deeper the next time.

Airy crumb, not as light as store bought Italian bread but a bit more chew to it.

Overall, I like this recipe and the method.

Focaccia with Rosemary and Onion

Not exactly, but just a slight change from this recipe,

https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/focaccia-with-rosemary-and-onion-focaccia-med-rosmarin-og-lk/

Other focaccia type bread made in the past.

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/rosemary-and-garlic-fococcia/

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/bread-dough-focaccia/

 

White flour, sea salt, semolina flour, and the water/honey proofed yeast.

Flour by weight.

A  recent gift  I am learning to use, a new food processor, mixing the dough in this versus a mixer.

process the dry ingredients together

add the proofed yeast,

Just a couple of pulses and the dough comes together.

hand kneaded for about 5 minutes…

let rise in a bowl for about an hour

Pan roast some garlic

added some parsley (or whatever sprung from my parsley plant outside)

and some slightly ground rosemary

After an hour, the dough is very soft and flexible, stretch  and form into pan with depressions made with your  fingers.

Top with the garlic, rosemary, a bit of parsley, drizzle with olive oil.

Even though is was hot weather , just baked the dough in the oven, 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Though I baked it covered as the recipe indicates, I uncovered it for about the last 5 minutes of cooking.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a thick crust pizza. This focaccia was excellent The semolina gave it  a very soft crumb and crusty base. I would have preferred to have this run under the broiler for a bit of extra crunch.

Beer marinated smoke roasted chicken half

Back to the grille,   Tandoor oven

 1/2 of a chicken

Beer marinated smoked chicken….

 1 , 12 oz can beer, light American ale

Measured by eye

Rice wine,

rice vinegar

Parsley

Red peppercorns

Black peppercorns

Ginger garlic paste

Chopped onions

Water to top off

Place chicken in 1 gallon bag or suitable container.

Let rest several hours refrigerated.

Mesquite smoke pellets added periodically as necessary to charcoal embers some pellets soaked with water depending on smoker temperature. About 350-400 Fahrenheit 55 minutes.

The next day leg and thigh served with rice, shredded broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

with BBQ sauce.

Vietnamese lemongrass chicken

Here is another kit meal , you add chicken (or other type of meat), vegetables and serve over rice.

$2.50 USD

Placed the chicken in a plastic bag to distribute the paste.

Fresh peppers were not available so frozen peppers were used.

After flash frying the spices add the chicken, sear and add the veggies stir for about 5 minutes.

add the lemongrass sauce, cover and simmer

Ready to serve…

Lemony flavor with layers of spice and some heat.

Meatballs

 

Adapted from recipereminiscing.com via cookite2bn.org

 

https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/pumpes-meat-balls/

http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/866-pumpes-meat-balls.html

Having some beef chuck, some meatballs would be good to have available for future recipes.

Grind  the beef if not already done, prep the ingredients ….

Ground beef, cinnamon, ground cloves, cardamom, parsley and ginger.  (The parsley was missed ! I have fresh parsley outside that was not included.)

I let the mixer do the work…

I drew a 2 inch guide on parchment when forming the meatballs.

Fried instead of boiled as the recipe suggest.

Beefy taste with a slight background of spice.

One of the uses of the meatballs is in a soup, just some stock, boiled fresh noodles frozen from a previous batch, mushrooms and green onions, possibly a dash of soy sauce, herbs and seasonings. I would usually make the meatballs smaller , but followed the recipe. In this application, the meatballs were quartered.

 

shopping

green peppers stuffed with broccoli and rice.

Usually stuffed peppers contain some sort of meat, this time a cheesy rice with broccoli filling was used.

Other stuffed pepper recipes:

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/stuffed-peppers/

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/stuffed-peppers-2/

Prep the broccoli (and garlic ! of course)

I chose to steam instead of saute.

I usually zap the peppers in the microwave a bit to soften them up.

cut off the top and remove the seeds and ribs (but you knew that!)

as you would prepare some rice, use stock instead water for a kick of flavor.

Prepare a bechamel sauce (butter and flour with milk or for a rich sauce evaporated milk), seasoned as you would prefer.

add the broccoli mixture to the sauce.

mix in the rice

Add some grated cheese, in this case Parmesan to complete the stuffing.

in a baking dish big enough for the peppers, fill the peppers carefully and put them in the dish.

need some bread crumbs ? I chopped up some pretzels for the topping

Into the oven they go ….

run up the broiler after the peppers are hot and bubbly to get the brown crunchy top.