Breads

As we start September and begin to anticipate autumn weather and its cooler temps and rain and wind, I often start thinking a lot more about breads.

I think breads are one of the most amazing things.  A bit of flour, liquid (water, milk, shortening), some yeast, some nice flavorings --- it's wonderful how so many good breads come from such few ingredients, such ordinary ingredients.  To be sure, it takes some practice to develop good technique in making breads.  But overall, a bread is a very simple thing.  Yet at the same time enormously complex.  One small change in rising temperature or time, or cooking temperature, or changing out one liquid for another in the ingredients list, each of these things can make the outcome change significantly.

I think of myself as quite adept at breads, but I know that those who specialize in breads, who make them every day in quantity, these people are real experts who have honed their technique and judgement over time and through errors as well.  And they reach a point where they can simply feel the dough, look at the dough, poke at the dough, and they know exactly how much longer it needs to rise, whether or not too much moisture was input, whether or not salt was under-included or over-included.  They know how much steam the oven needs just by a developed sense.

As the fall starts, I think of all the breads I want to make, of the aromas wafting from the oven, of cinnamon rolls, and thick ryes, and soft white sandwich breads, and of pullas and other special loaves that many know by sight but not by name.  I think of all the time I could spend making breads and being happy -- except for the fact that then I couldn't also make cookies, and smoothies, and slow-roasted chicken and egg salads and so on. 

There's only so much time.  But it's all time put to good use if one is making wonderful food.

Food fight

I love tomatoes.  I love them sliced with a sprinkling of sugar, in salads, roasted long and slow.  And they are good for much more than eating.  What do I mean?  Read on.

On the last Wednesday of every August (which is today), in a small town in Spain, thousands of people gather to throw tons and tons of tomatoes.  I mean that literally -- tons, not pounds, tons of tomatoes. 

It is considered the world's largest food fight.

Here's the link:  https://www.latomatinatours.com/

Read all about it and enjoy.  Perhaps one day I or one of this blog's readers will attend this food fight festival and we'll see a first-hand report on it.

In the meantime, maybe you can start a small version of this on your own neighborhood street.

OK, OK, maybe not.  I don't think people will appreciate here.  But they do in Spain.

Carrot bisque recipe

It's summer still but my gut tells me it's not far from over and soon autumn will be making it's presence felt.  Maybe that's because the sky has clouded up here and it's threatening to rain.  Whether we have an early autumn start or not, it's always a good time for a good soup that makes one think of fall harvests.

Here's my recipe for carrot bisque.

  

I love to make this.  It's creamy and smooth, and the carrot and spices are perfect together, in my opinion.  Sometimes I've made this in double batches, but I find it's always easier and more consistent to make it in smaller batches.  

Give it a try and see how you like it!

Haleem

In my home, there is always lots of food being prepared.  We enjoy going out as well, trying new restaurants, etc.  But when we make things here at home, it is always the most satisfying and the most enjoyable.

This dish is a wonderful dish to make at home.  Haleem is a lentil stew with lots of spices and onions, and in this case chicken as well.  The chicken is in there twice.  First, it is cooked in the lentil stew, having been put in as shredded pieces.  And then we take an immersion blender and do a rough blend to grind up the chicken and thicken up the stew.  Usually that's where it ends and it's all done.  However in this case, we have added more chunks of wonderfully slow-cooked chicken with more spices.  This is all simmered slowly for a time.  Then to add one more element, it has been spooned over fresh biscuits.

What you get is a warm, spicy, high-protein, healthy dish that is an excellent comfort food, perfect in the winter when you need to be warmed up with spices, but also great in the summer for filling up after after a day of activity that has left you hungry.

Lentils are often overlooked here in the US.  However, in many parts of the world they are one of the most common ingredients to use.  Give them a try sometime.

And look up a few haleem recipes.  There are many of them out there.  Everyone has their on take on spices to add, how long to cook, whether to use chicken or goat or something else.  Let it cook long and slow and then grind it up with an immersion blender or a food processor.  You'll be happy you gave it a try.

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Today, August 4, is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.

For more on the story as to how chocolate chips wound up in cookies in the first place, follow this link:  https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-chocolate-chip-day-august-4

As most of my readers know, I have multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes on my menu.  Each one is different in significant ways.  Some have a different blend of chunks vs. chips.  Some have a different blend of semisweet vs. dark chocolate.  Some are made with different flours.

The bottom line is that each one is unique in some way.  And they are all delicious.  I think that even a bad chocolate chip cookie (relatively speaking) is still pretty darn good.

My favorite thing to do is to use a variety of types of chocolate in cookies.  I love the complexity of flavor that comes out.  It's a deeper flavor, more interesting, and more chocolaty, I think.  But whether you use one type or many, they are still awesome.  Agreed?

The most important thing is to use the best chocolate you can find.  Get a good cookie recipe and an excellent chocolate, and you will have an excellent cookie.

I could commemorate the day by baking some.  But I'm not planning on baking any chocolate chip cookies today because I really don't feel like running my oven on this excessively hot afternoon.  

That's all for today.  Go out and get yourself a good cookie.

A delicious pasta salad

I read one source today that said we are at the beginning of National Salad Week.  However, another source says it began on June 1.  A third source says it started in late May.  And a fourth source says National Salad Month is the month of May.

Hmmm...  Well, regardless of what the precise dates are for salad celebrations, salads are always a welcome and refreshing choice for a meal in the heavy heat of summer.  So here's the recipe I use when I make my favorite pasta salad.  Enjoy!

The fun of birthday snacks

 

Today happens to be my birthday.  The night before last, my wife and I were talking about what she would like to get me as part of the celebration this week, something in addition to other things that were already planned.  I suggested getting a snack food.  She asked for a list of some of my favorite fun snack foods, things I don't usually get or that I at least regulate so that I don't eat too much junk food.  So we started making a list, first a couple items, then added a few more, and so on, so that she could choose something for me.

She texted me from work yesterday saying that she had something for me.  I assumed it was going to be a single item from the list.  Well, she got 14 items.  You can see them all in the picture above, except for the chocolate milk which was in the fridge and I forgot to pull it out to include in the picture.

Now, her taking the time to get all these items and to surprise me with the number of different fun snack foods is worth a blog post all by itself.  But there's also this to think about:  fun snack foods, whether made fresh or bought at the store as preprocessed items, or even ultra-processed, well, these items are certainly not the most healthy for us, but they are definitely very very fun.

Food is something we need to eat in order to survive.  And why not have a little fun with it at the same time.  There is certainly something to be said for eating extremely healthy, but I'm for moderation in all things.  Eating healthy is important.  But sometimes the joy that comes from eating "fun" is just as important.

Thanks to my wife for her wonderful and unexpected massive contribution to my birthday celebration.  And I hope all of you have someone who will spoil you in the same way once in a while. 

Eat for fun when you can.  It's worth it.

National Ice Cream Day

 

Today is National Ice Cream Day!  Now, for me, it's not one of the greatest food days of the year because in actuality I celebrate it all year long, not just a single day.  As many of my readers, friends and family know, ice cream is far and away the most favorite food of all for me. 

I enjoy especially making mint chocolate ice cream, French vanilla, triple chocolate, roasted strawberry, and even something a bit more unusual like lavender with blueberry swirl.

All my ice creams are made beginning with a custard base.  This means I heat up cream and sugar and eggs until just the right temperature.   Then other flavor components go in.  And the whole batch is chilled overnight before it's frozen in my trusty Cuisinart ice cream freezer.  This freezer uses canisters that must be frozen before use.  I keep 5 canisters ready in my freezer at all times.  This is because sometimes I like to make lots and lots all at once.  After each batch of ice cream is completed and packed in containers, the canisters must be cleaned and then refrozen.  So 5 is a good number to have in my freezer.  They take up a lot of space, but it's worth it.

I'm always thinking of new flavors I want to try.  A couple times in the past, I have made banana with caramelized white chocolate.  It's very very good.  But the busy-ness of my schedule has kept me from doing the final tweaks I customarily do with new foods to be added to my menu.  And so it hasn't happened yet for this flavor.  But it will eventually.  And in addition, there are many other flavors I want to experiment with.

I've seen some pretty unusual flavors, such as beet ice cream....hmmm.  I've never tried some of these offbeat flavors, and I'm not sure it's worth it to satisfy my curiosity to buy a whole cone or sundae made of this kind of flavor which I would probably have to do at a high price since this kind of flavor is usually only made by trendy high-priced small ice cream shops.  Perhaps sometime I will, but it's hard to see me doing it for such an unusual flavor for which I have an instinctive doubt.

In any event, enjoy the day, eat some ice cream, and keep doing it regularly.  I have to exercise considerable restraint to not eat it every day.  If it were healthy to do so, I'd definitely do it.  

Mac and Cheese Day

 

Today, July 14, is National Mac and Cheese Day!  Yesterday my wife and I tried a quaint country café in a small town outside of the Kansas City metropolitan area.  The meal included a side of mac and cheese.  It was OK, to be blunt, that's all it was.  But it was still a nice comfort food to eat.  Most of the time in restaurants, at least in my opinion, the mac and cheese is only OK.  It's often too liquidy, or the cheese flavor is too bland, or the pasta is not tender enough.

I'm a big fan of multiple cheeses in mac and cheese to give it lots of flavor, and a little pepper and dried mustard as well as a few other things; the pasta should be very tender; and too liquidy just isn't fun.  There should be a minimum level of viscosity to the cheese sauce.

The really hard thing about making good mac and cheese is whether or not it can be reheated and still be more than satisfactory.  I'm have three different mac and cheese recipes in my repertoire.  However, I only use one for orders on the website.  That's because the other two recipes, while excellent in all ways, only work when they are fresh.  Sometimes when sitting and chilling overnight, especially if the sauce is too liquidy, the pasta absorbs a lot of the moisture.  Sometimes the sauce simply can't take being reheated in a way that leaves the dish tasting at least close to the same level of excellence as when it's fresh.  Sometimes, especially with sub-par sauces, the sauce and cheese break down, separate, become yuchchchh!

So even though I have three recipes which I love and which have different flavors due to the types of cheeses in combination, two of them are only made for occasions when they will be eaten immediately.  The third one, after much testing when I was developing it, has proven itself to be very very good even after reheating.  It's even better when fresh, as almost all foods are.  But it's the one that can take reheating and still prompt an enthusiastic response from kids and adults and which can also satisfy my obsessive desire to make high quality, highly delicious food.

Never underestimate the significance of reheatability in foods.  Test them for it. Tweak them.  Do everything you can do in order to prove that they are reheatable on a consistent basis.  Then you never need to worry about the quality when eating them on Day 2 or 3 or 4.

Shaping chocolate chip cookies

I have multiple types of chocolate chip cookies in my repertoire.   One of the most popular ones is a cookie that uses 3 different types of chocolate and is made with cake flour and bread flour.   In the process of experimenting with this cookie over time, I discovered something interesting about the timing of shaping the dough.

When I finish mixing the dough, I immediately place it in a plastic wrap-lined bowl.  It will sit in the fridge and chill for at least 24 hours.  And when it comes out, it looks like this:

It is one massive chilled ball of dough which must then be cut.  I put on knife-resistant gloves to ensure that trying to cut a very dense block of dough with a very sharp knife doesn't result in some very bad cuts.  

Once this gigantic dough ball is cut, then it is finally shaped into cookie dough balls that are ready for the oven.

Many cookie doughs are shaped before going into a fridge for chilling, but they don't show much of a difference if they are shaped afterwards instead.  But when I tested out shaping before and after chilling for this dough (I do these kinds of process variation experiments all the time with the foods I make as I refine them), I noticed that the cookies that were shaped after chilling had a difference in appearance and texture.  The ones shaped after chilling were much nicer.

I find this fascinating.  I still haven't figured exactly why this is, although I have a suspicion it is due to how the cake and bread flours are affected by the compaction that occurs during shaping.  Most cookie doughs are made with all-purpose flour, so this is a significant difference.  And for this cookie, there are lots of jagged chunks of chocolate in the dough, and so the shaping of each dough ball is vigorous, more so than with other doughs only made with chips. 

Someday perhaps I will delve more deeply into the science of this.  For now, I simply know that the shaping must come after chilling.  And that results in an excellent cookie that is one of the most asked-for cookies on my menu.