Category: Baking

August 19, 2007

Noah and Deanna stopped over on their way back to Brooklyn which gave me the perfect excuse to try the pizza dough recipe from Local Bread. Not only is it the new book from our local bakery founder, but the recipe comes from the very place in Campo dei Fiori in Rome where I used to go for bread and pizza rossa almost every day (though truth be told, often I wouldn’t get that far…

August 9, 2007

Christine recently bought me Hamelman’s Bread book, and I tried his recipe for pizza dough. It came out well; using a biga, or pre-ferment, for taste and texture is the secret. Next time I will probably add half whole wheat for health and flavor. I made two- the first was guanciale and shiitake, the second endive/basil pesto with cherry tomatoes. Given our oven’s upper limit of 500˚, another important key to success is to get…

July 12, 2007

Inspired jointly by many quality leftovers, the exploding garden, and a glorious cool day, I took best advantage of all three and made a salmon and smoked chicken pot pie. Unused salmon from the other night, plus frozen smoked chicken broth (and meat) plus fresh green beans and the last of the peas from the garden all combined with a roux I had made from the drippings last time we roasted a chicken to make…

June 8, 2007

I was in the city last night (where I ordered sushi and drank a delicious, citrusy 2004 Jadot Puligny-Montrachet to celebrate my return to wine-drinking) and returned late enough to need a quick dinner plan. Thus pizza, with spinach from the garden plus olives, fresh (local) tomatoes, garlic, and local mozzarella. With salad from the garden and a 2005 Château de Roquefort Corail, it did the trick on a hot, humid evening and made me…

June 4, 2007

A good lunch for a rainy day, and a great reason to have a mandoline in the cupboard. With rosemary from the herb garden, a drizzle of truffle oil, and fresh mesclun, it really hit the spot. As soon as my scale arrives, I’m going to start making pizza dough from scratch.

April 14, 2007

I got some shucked oysters from the market, rolled them in corn meal and spices and browned them in a pan. They weren’t quite the fried oysters we had at Uglesich’s in New Orleans a few years back, but they weren’t bad- and no doubt a tad healthier- especially with a horseradish mayonnaise I whipped up. I was sad to hear that they decided to close, but given what happened soon after it seemed like…

March 15, 2007

I got this recipe from Andrew’s blog, where he has a link to a no-knead bread recipe from Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery. I used half whole wheat and half white flour, but otherwise followed it exactly. The point is to make a wet dough and let it rise and ferment for 18 hours, so time does your work for you, then bake it inside a preheated Dutch oven in your oven so that…