Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Lately I've been hearing and reading about how good the bread recipes are from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get into the habit of baking my own bread so I borrowed the book from my local library rather than spend money on yet another cookbook that just sits on the shelves.

I've never had any interest in baking my own bread because I didn't think I'd have the patience. Five minutes seems reasonable to me and reading this book has inspired me to finally try it.

In quickly reading through the recipes I noticed that they look straightforward and manageable so I am excited to try one soon. Page 5 is what really encouraged me because it lists what we DON'T have to do - steps from traditional bread baking that they omitted.

1. Mix a new batch of dough every time we want to make bread

2. Proof yeast

3. Knead dough

4. Cover formed loaves

5. Rest and rise the loaves in a draft-free location

6. Fuss over doubling or tripling the dough volume

7. Punch down and re-rise

8. Poke rising loaves to be sure they've "proofed" by leaving indentations

Huh? So glad that those steps are "don't". I don't even know what most of those steps mean - they sound complicated which is exactly what has prevented me from attempting bread baking. I'll report back as soon as I've tried a recipe or two. If you've tried any of these recipes, please share your experience or recommendations.

The secret to the "five minutes" is to make a big batch of dough and refrigerate it so you can bake a fresh batch daily. It is a great idea for the winter when I don't mind turning on my oven. The recipes really do look much easier than the normal bread making process and the reviews of the book are very positive.

By the way, when I was searching Amazon I noticed that the authors have another book called Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients - I like the "healthy" part of the title and it got great reviews. If I have good luck with the recipes from the first book, I'll most likely end up buying the "healthy" book.

Cucumbers with cherries?

I just received the July issue of Food and Wine magazine which features their annual list of Best New Chefs. Congratulations to all ten of them!

I read the recipes provided by each of the Chefs and one stood out... the Cucumber-Cherry Salad by Mike Sheerin (Blackbird restaurant, Chicago).

I'm not a picky eater (as long as it's fairly healthy) and I'm pretty adventurous in trying new foods and trying unique combinations of ingredients. However, this particular combination of cucumbers and cherries was not one that was intuitive for me, nor was it too appealing, but it did intrigue me. Once I noticed that it's meant to be pared with his Twice-Glazed Asian Barbecued Chicken I'll admit it did sound a lot better. Perhaps it's because I don't prefer to have fruit in my salads, but it also seems that the deep strong flavor of the cherry would overwhelm the lightness of the cucumber. But I guess the guy didn't become a Best Chef if he didn't know what he was talking about it.

I haven't had a chance to try the recipe but I will have to try it soon while cherries are still available and at their peak season. I like how easy the recipe is - the most work is pitting the cherries.

Because the new issue is hot off the press, I wanted to make sure you check out the Best New Chefs - they all look like they're well-deserving of the honor. Being in California, I'm especially excited about James Syhabout (I've eaten at 2 restaurants where worked, Betelnut and Manresa) and Roy Choi (of the famous Kogi taco trucks in LA). My only disappointment is that only one woman made it to the group of ten, but that's a topic for another blog post.

Cucumber-Cherry Salad
TOTAL TIME: 15 MIN SERVINGS: 4

2 cucumbers (1 1/4 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound sweet cherries, pitted and halved
1/2 cup cilantro leaves

Directions
1.In a medium bowl, toss the diced cucumbers with the white wine vinegar and olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
2. Add the halved cherries and cilantro leaves, toss lightly and serve.

Make Ahead
The salad can be refrigerated for up to 4 hours.

Images in this blog post downloaded from foodandwine.com.

Nasturtium Risotto - David Kinch on The Martha Stewart Show

Good thing I remembered to record Martha Stewart's show today because my fave chef was her guest, David Kinch of Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos, also winner of the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chefs in America - Pacific (congratulations).

Cynthia Sandberg of Love Apple Farm (where Chef Kinch gets all of his fruits, vegetables and herbs) was also there to educate about biodynamic farming. 


On the show Chef Kinch showed Martha how to cook a NASTURTIUM RISOTTO - how cool is that? I've used the edible nasturtium flowers from my garden to beautify my summer salads, but I had no idea that the leaves can be delicious enough to eat. He used to leaves to make a "pesto" which was the finishing touch for the nasturtium risotto. It looked amazing and I can't wait to try it.

If you can find a repeat episode of today's The Martha Stewart Show (click to see a video preview), check it out. If you've got plenty of nasturtiums growing already, here's the recipe.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 leek, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced, white and light-green parts only
• 1 teaspoon garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Coarse salt
• 3 cups Nasturtium Bouillon, heated
• 3/4 cup Nasturtium Butter
• 3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• Nasturtium Pesto, for garnish
• Fresh chervil sprigs, for garnish
• Nasturtium flowers, petals, or buds, for garnish

Directions

1. In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring, until soft and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add rice and cook, stirring constantly, until grains are opaque, start to sizzle, and stick together, about 2 minutes. Add wine and cook, stirring, until liquid is completely absorbed, about 30 seconds. Season with salt.
    
2. Reduce heat to low and add enough bouillon to cover rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until almost all the liquid has been absorbed. Add another 1/2 cup bouillon and continue cooking and stirring, until liquid has been absorbed. Continue cooking and adding bouillon, 1/2 cup at a time, until rice is al dente, about 20 minutes.
   
   
3. Stir in butter and remove from heat. Fold in cheese and season with salt. Serve garnished with nasturtium pesto, chervil, and flowers.

Photo and Recipe from the web site of The Martha Stewart Show, May 2010

Chocolate and zucchini cake

The organic zucchini I purchased the other day stared at me every time I opened the fridge. My intention was to grill it with some fish but because of the cold and rainy weather, I was craving something that would comfort me... like one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes. Yeah!

As you can imagine, zucchini doesn't really have that much flavor (unless it's enhanced with salt, olive oil & perhaps a little garlic), so in a way, the zucchini in this cake recipe only serves to add a little texture and moist carb (in lieu of more flour). Plus it's healthier - it has greens/vitamins and fiber. The chocolate (and coffee in the recipe) pretty much overwhelms the true zucchini flavor. So what's the point? It makes feel like I'm eating a healthier cake... that's enough to justify baking it. Yeah!

I've baked this cake many times before and I've modified the recipe to make it a little more "healthy", but the original recipe is based on this recipe by one of my favorite food bloggers, Clotilde Desoulier.

The modifications I've made are:
- I use all whole wheat flour
- I add 1 cup more zucchini than the recipe calls for to make it more moist (compensate for the dry whole wheat flour)
- I decrease the sugar by almost half
- I use 60% chocolate chips (Ghirardelli)
- I add raw walnuts

In this last batch:
- I substituted half of the butter for greek yogurt (+ 1 TB)
- I added 2 TBS brewed espresso (+ the instant coffee granules) for a little more flavor intensity

I appreciate that the recipe allows me to use up zucchini when I have a big harvest in the garden. Also that it's easy and doesn't have too many ingredients.

The only thing I wonder is how many slices of cake equals one serving of vegetables?  :-)