Rosemary pine nut focaccia

Posted by Rachel on May 11, 2012. 4 comments.

It’s taken a while but this week I finally feel like I have a balance for my new work-life schedule. Spending three days a week at a desk and two evenings a week sailing makes me feel like all the time in between is taken up by meal prep and dishes. Oh, and working out goes in there somewhere almost every day too. Never mind that Lee works about three times as much as I do, takes a class that the community college, and has a gazillian side projects going at home.

Partly due to our busy schedules, Lee and I haven’t done anything too ambitious on the weekends recently. We’ve worked on projects around the house, visited family in Napa, and ventured North for a hike with Doc.

Doc likes the view.

This week my days off seemed much more productive than normal. Today I feel like an absolute superwoman. Do you know why? I baked bread. True, bread baking used to be a weekly occurrence in my household. I’ve hardly opened my oven (except to roast vegetables) since we got back from Curacao, though, so I’ve been lagging in the bread department.

This totally makes up for it. The Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day technique was made for busy schedules like mine. The timetable for this focaccia looked something like this.

Yesterday, mid-day: mix dough and leave on counter to rise; go to the store and to pick up the CSA box
Afternoon: put dough in the fridge along with more vegetables than I can count
This morning: think about bread and look at cookbook; take Doc for a walk
Later this morning: take dough out of fridge and pull off a hunk; flatten it out, top with toppings, and let it sit while the oven preheats
Just before lunch: put bread in the oven; talk to Mom on Skype while it bakes
Noon today: bread comes out of the oven; inhale deeply

There you have it. Technically this focaccia was about 24 hours in the making. I only put a few minutes a day of work into it, though, and I got a lot done in the intervening hours. The best part is that there’s still a bucket of dough in the fridge!

This recipe has been brewing in my mind for a while now. I saw this post from Cake Duchess the other day and immediately wanted to join in on the Bread Baking Society‘s fun. I don’t think I’ve ever set out to make focaccia before, although I’ve certainly made many-a-flat bread that resembled this traditional Italian loaf.

I love the toppings I chose and I love to think about where the inspiration for them came from. The giant rosemary sprig happily living in a jar of water in my fridge came from last week’s Mariquita Farm box. I’ve had pine nuts on the brain ever since reading a book on Native California Indian cooking I bought at work (it’s dangerous to work at a museum with such an awesome gift store!).

The rosemary, pine nuts, and honey are delicious but so are many other things you could sprinkle on top of your focaccia. Let you mind wander and see what you come up with. I made a whole wheat crust because that’s what I’m into but here’s a more traditional crust from this month’s #BreakingBread hostess.

Rosemary pine nut focaccia (whole wheat)

Ingredients

For the dough (makes enough for at least four 1 pound loaves)

7 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
3 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup olive oil

For the Focaccia

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
Olive oil
Honey

Instructions

Mix dry dough ingredients in a large bowl or coverable container.
Add oil+water and stir until all flour is incorporated.
Cover dough (not airtight) and leave at room temperature until it rises and collapses (2-3 hours)
At this point, you can pull off some dough and proceed with your focaccia or place all the dough in the fridge and bake the following day. I like to do the latter because the dough is easier to work with when it's cold.
Pull off a grapefuit-sized portion of dough using floured hands. Quickly shape it into a ball and place it on a lightly floured board.
Using your hands or a rolliong pin, roll out the dough into a 1/2-3/4 inch thick oval.
Coat a cookie sheet with oil, parchment, or a silicon mat and place the dough oval on it.
Depending on how quickly your oven preheats and whether you're using a baking stone (not necessary when using a cookie sheet but requires half an hour of preheating time) you might want to turn your oven on to 425 degrees F. and place a roasting pan in the bottom now.
Using the tip of your finger, make indentations all over the top of the focaccia. These will hold oil, honey, and pine nuts!
Scatter rosemary and pine nuts over the dough. I pressed most of my pine nuts into the top a little.
Sprinkle on honey and olive oil to taste, using more olive oil than honey.
If you haven't already, turn on your oven to 425 F. after putting a roasting pan in thet bottom.
Let the focaccia rest for 20 minutes, then place in the preheated oven, pour boiling water into the roasting pan, and quickly close the oven door. I boil water in the teakettle for this.
Bake for 18-25 minutes depending on how thick your focaccia is. It's ready when the top is brown from the honey and the oil.
Cool on a wire rack, slice, and savor.

Notes

Dough recipe for 100% Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day

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French toast with strawberries and goat cheese

Posted by Rachel on April 26, 2012. 5 comments.

This post covers a lot of things, all of which revolve around what I ate for lunch today.

First, why I love weekdays off:

I get to take Doc (the dog) for walks up and around Potrero hill and see how happy he is to trot down the sidewalk beside me.
Relaxed oatmeal breakfasts with coffee and the Chronicle on my Kindle
Multitasking laundry with baking, blog-reading, house cleaning and daydreaming.
It doesn’t matter when I forget to brush my teeth until half way through the day.
I can eat French toast for lunch.

That last one is the kicker. There are several things that I can only make for lunch when I’m at home. Smoothies have been my specialty of late but there was a time when I made French toast for lunch all the time. Why did I ever stop? True, French toast is something normal people eat for breakfast on weekends and may seem too fancy, complicated, or rich for an every-day lunch. My counterargument goes something like this: bread+egg+milk=French toast.

I know, I know. I’m glossing over all kinds of key components like (for some) sugar, butter and rivers of syrup. There is a time and place for that breakfast. For me, a simpler version is a perfect vehicle for fresh fruit at lunch time.

This is where the strawberries come in. I’m kind of a strawberry snob. I don’t think I could have turned out any other way after growing up in Southern California where dreamily fresh, delicious strawberries grew right down the road. I remember early summer as a time for gorging on half flats of strawberries from roadside stands. My mom knew the best places to buy them. We would pick some up on the way home from somewhere, rush to the kitchen and plunge berries into cold water before devouring as many as it took to decide whether or not they were the best strawberries we’d ever tasted. Sometimes they weren’t that great. Often enough, they were spectacularly sweet and luscious: not too soft but never crunchy and always tasting like summer.

I don’t know how we ate as many berries as we did. I know they went on cereal, ice cream, waffles, and salads. I think my brother and I mostly ate them whole and unaccompanied off of moist paper towels by the sink. My dad dipped strawberries in sour cream and brown sugar for dessert.

Yesterday I brought home this week’s CSA box and immediately dug the little container of strawberries out from underneath the greens. I ran cold water over one, bit into it and closed my eyes. I must have done the same with two or three more. Yum. This is what a strawberry is supposed to taste like.

This morning I had strawberries on my oatmeal. They melted into the hot bowl while I read the paper and drank my coffee – my day-off morning ritual. Afterwards, while walking Doc up and around the hill, I thought of French toast and knew I had to have it for lunch. There was goat cheese in the fridge…and strawberries.

French toast with strawberries and goat cheese

Ingredients

2 slices whole grain bread
1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
Splash of vanilla extract
Pinch of nutmeg
4 medium-sized strawberries, more or less
1-2 oz. fresh chevre

Instructions

Beat the egg and milk in a bowl.
Add the nutmeg and vanilla, blending completely
Pour the egg mixture into a flat pan or dish.
Place both slices of bread in the dish, allowing one side of each slice absorb the liquid.
Carefully flip bread slices after a few minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a skillet or griddle over medium heat. Spread a little oil or butter in the skillet.
When the bread has absorbed most or all of the egg mixture, place it on the skillet and cook until browned to your liking, then flip and cook the other side. (I like to cover my toast while the first side is cooking. This helps the middle cook more fully.)
While the toast cooks, wash your strawberries in cool water (Simply placing them in a bowl full of water is the gentlest way). Cut out the green tops and slice the berries.
When the toast is done, place one slice on a plate, cover with sliced strawberries and a couple dabs of chevre. Layer the second slice of bread on top of the first (trust me, this helps melt the cheese and warm up the berries). Top this slice with the rest of the berries and a few more smears of chevre.
Sit down with your meal and relax.

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Sun Dried Tomato and Thyme Humus

Posted by Rachel on April 18, 2012. 15 comments.

Ah blog, how I’ve missed you. Between sailing 500 miles , starting a new job here, and gorging myself on veggies from my new Mariquita Farm CSA box this has been a very, very busy month. So busy, in fact, that it’s already time for another Vintage Recipe Swap! I know Christianna has been busy too. How she manages to keep all us swappers supplied with recipe inspiration while balancing the rest of her life I will never know.

My first CSA box: gorgeous lettuce, frisee, green garlic, French radishes and much, much more.

As crazy has things are these days, this swap was an easy one for me. Tomato pudding, you say? A condiment for meat? What a waste of a good pudding! The recipe Christianna supplied this month is tempting enough to try unaltered. Since it isn’t exactly tomato season, though, I’m stashing this dish away for a summer day when tomatoes make an appearance in my CSA box.

As odd as it seemed to use this dish as a condiment, I found myself taking the condiment route for my interpretation of “Tomato Pudding”. Ketchup, hot sauce, various vinegars, mustard, salsa…all those saucy spicy things we slather on our food are some of my favorite things to eat. I learned from my father to generously pepper and Tabasco my eggs. Lately, though, humus is undoubtedly my favorite topping, sauce, dressing, and spread. It’s multipurpose, healthy, and comes in enough variations to keep me entertained.

Spread Peace and serenity for lunch time.

I don’t know why it took me so long to start making my own humus, or to take the next step of cooking dried beans for that purpose. It’s not difficult and really doesn’t requite that much more time. Humus as become a staple of my busy work week lunches. I couldn’t dish out nearly as many sandwiches, salads, or dipping veggies as I do without it.

It isn't pretty but I pomise it's good.

I’ve made several humus and bean dip variations in the past couple months, playing with ingredients to get the optimum consistency and flavor. I encourage anyone who hasn’t tried it to make their own humus. Get creative with what you add and with how you use the finished product. I am completely addicted to humus + a splash of vinegar on a fresh green salad. My dad eats his humus on warm corn tortillas. My husband gobbles it with chips. I even stuffed wonton wrappers with one batch of homemade humus for some interesting ravioli.

I stuck with the tomato theme from the swapped pudding recipe. Sun dried tomatoes are so perfect with chickpeas. The thyme came from last weeks CSA box. My oh my to I love my CSA box. This is my first experience with community support agriculture and I am in love. Give me a box full of fantastic green stuff every week and I will eat it, no matter how much there is!

Sun Dried Tomato and Thyme Humus

Ingredients

1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes (from a jar, not dried)
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (or about 2.5 cups cooked)
2 tbsp tahini
splash of water

Instructions

Cook chickpeas - I use a pressure cooker: cover the chickpeas with water in the cooker, add a tablespoon of olive oil to keep the froth down, cook for 7-8 minutes, remove from heat and allow pressure to come down naturally.
Drain cooked or canned chickpeas.
Place all ingredients in a large bowl (if using a hand blender), a food processor, or a blender.
Blend until the humus reaches desired consistency, adding more water if you'd like it thinner or less for thicker humus.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freeze for later use.

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Don’t forget, there are many other fantastic swappers out there!

Roasted Citrus Parfait

Posted by Rachel on March 14, 2012. 11 comments.

By now, I’m on the island of St. Kitt’s, trying to adjust to Caribbean heat and humidity. Today, my little brother turns 24. Today is also the first Wednesday Recipe Swap for Burwell General Store. Wow, there’s a lot going on!

While it may sometimes come along during busy periods in my life, I have loved every single recipe swap since joining the group. I always learn something about a dish or two, about my own cooking, and about the astounding abilities of my co-swappers. This little activity has become so popular (yeah, we’re pretty cool) that Christianna, the swap’s founder, proposed that we split into two groups. There is now a Monday Swap and Wednesday Swap every month. Each group starts with a different recipe, making for even more delicious madness.

As you can see, I fell in with the Wednesday swap crowd. I drooled over the Monday group’s pizza recipes earlier this month. At the time, I already had my own dish in the works, as I knew I’d be in the tropical wilds on the swap date.

I smiled when I saw this months recipe. Ah, jello salad. My mom makes a jello salad, just one but it’s a good one. It incorporates all the wonderful things about jello salads: fruity jello, crunchy things, cottage cheese…I could go on. I actually kind of love it, although I’ve never made it myself.

Anyway, back from that tangent. I didn’t make that salad, or any jello salad. After briefly considering an experiment with agar agar or unflavored gelatin I veered towards simplicity. A simple parfait is much more my style. I carried the citrus and cottage cheese over from the original recipe but needed little else.

I made this for lunch one day last week while I was trying to clean out the fridge and frantically ready myself for three weeks in the Caribbean. Breakfast might be a more appropriate meal for a parfait and it could certainly be a dessert or even dinner with some minor tweaks. The possibilities of varying the grain layer, sweetening the fruit, or maybe adding a layer of wilted kale and some savory spices make this an extremely versatile dish.

My main inspiration was Joy the Baker’s Roasted Winter Citrus. I bookmarked this post last month because I love roasting everything and will try that technique on anything at least once. I’d never tried it with citrus fruit but the idea immediately had me thinking of hot sweet-sour juices paired with something cold and cheesy. I ended up roasted a sliced grapefruit, partly because I’m always looking for different ways to eat that somewhat challenging fruit. Layered with chilly cottage cheese and cooked millet, roasted grapefruit was truly delicious and different.

Look at that soupy cottage cheese running down the inside of the glass. I wished I had my favorite cottage cheese on hand when I made my parfait. Nancy’s cottage cheese is cultured, like yogurt, so it’s tangy and richer tasting, even in a reduced fat version. I love it.

The pineapple in the original Orange Snowflake Salad seemed a little tropical to me. Maybe I just had the tropics on my mind, because knew I had to top my parfait with coconut butter. Coconut butter (like all nut butter) makes everything better, obviously. A more indulgent cook would have put gobs of this incredible spread/topping/syrup between every parfait layer. Next time.

I’m not the only one taking jello salad in a totally different direction!