I say cut it hot and slather it with butter

St. Patrick’s Day sneaked up on me this year — I didn’t even cook corned beef and cabbage, which I usually enjoy doing. I did make an Irish Soda Bread for the Husband to take to his office, where he had a big corned beef fest with office mates. I had mine at the local pub, washed down with plenty of Murphy’s Red Ale.

I’ve had this recipe so long — it’s still on the dot-matrix page I printed it on. So here is the quickest, easiest bread you can make, and by the time it’s March 17, 2012, you’ll be ready. Sláinte!

Irish Soda Bread | 1 loaf

3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Combine the dry ingredients and sift them into a large bowl.

This is my sifter -- I've never gotten myself a proper one

Add the buttermilk, stirring to make a soft dough. Gather the dough together (your hands work best for this) and turn it out onto a floured board.

Stir as you go but not over-much

The dough will be somewhat loose and shaggy

Knead the dough just enough to get it slightly smooth and no longer sticky, about 2 or 3 minutes. Form a plump, round loaf about 6 inches in diameter.

Just enough kneading to make the dough a little smoother and not sticky -- too much will make a tough bread

Place the loaf on a floured baking sheet and make a deep 1/4-inch X all the way across the top of the loaf.

This X opens up as the bread cooks

Bake the loaf for 35 to 45 minutes, or until it is deeply browned and hollow-sounding when tapped.

When the bread is slightly cool, wrap it cloth to prevent the crust from becoming hard.

Or get out the butter and get after it.

The whole house smells good

Once again, sláinte!

Kelly McCune © 2011

©2012 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Straight out of the oven at full "puff"

There are certain recipes that catch your eye when have you have children in the house. That is how a certain “Huffy Puffy” entered our kitchen lexicon, with its ability to conjure little pigs and a wolf who might want a…bite. But it has remained a favorite, especially for breakfast, long since anyone around here was little enough to care about the name.

The Huffy Puffy is exactly like a Dutch Baby — a pancake that bears more resemblance to a popover or Yorkshire pudding than a griddlecake. It is thought that the Dutch baby is derived from the German pancake called an apfelpfannkuchen, and that a Seattle restaurant coined the name Dutch baby in the 1920s. It is a simple mixture of eggs, milk, flour and a dash of salt, cooked in a very hot oven. A heavy, ovenproof skillet is useful, especially a cast-iron one. It puffs up into a beautiful, golden cloud that stays puffed for a few minutes but begins to sink as it cools. Serve it immediately for the most crowd-pleasing effect.

Simple ingredients, likely to be on hand

I’ve added cooked bacon to the batter of this huffy puffy (don’t tell the little pigs), which makes it savory and something that can be served in wedges with dinner, even. There are all kinds of ways to vary it. Traditionally, the Dutch baby is served sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice just as it comes out of the oven. We’ve eaten it with syrup, jam, and honey. I’ve also sautéed apples first, and then poured in the batter. The center can be filled with a concoction of vegetables with or without meat, and served as a one-dish meal.

Huffy Puffy with Bacon | makes one

If your eggs are on the small side, cut back slightly on the amount of flour.

5 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup unbleached flour
2 slices bacon
1 1/2 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 475°F.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl with the salt. Whisk in the milk and then beat in the flour until the lumps are gone.

Whisk in the milk...

...and then whisk in the flour until smooth

Cook the bacon slices in heavy, ovenproof skillet. Remove, drain and chop.

Make the pieces any size -- I like them somewhat large

Add the bacon to the batter.

I considered adding a little chopped fresh rosemary here, too, right into the batter

Reheat the skillet over medium heat and add the butter to whatever bacon fat is in the pan. When the butter foams up, pour in the batter.

The butter should foam up but not burn

The butter and bacon fat help create a delicious crust on the outside of the huffy puffy

Place immediately into the hot oven and cook, without opening the oven door, for 18 to 20 minutes. The huffy puffy will be deep golden brown and puffy. Serve immediately.

Oh, and please don’t tell the wolf.

Hot from the oven is when it's best

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2012 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Very versatile, very fast focaccia

I’m celebrating a decade of baking this bread. Ten years ago almost to the day a profile of Suzanne Dunaway, the proprietress of a small bakery called Buona Forchetta, appeared in our local paper. The article included a recipe for this bread and I tried it that day. I’ve been making it ever since, with some changes, mostly unintentional. I still have that tattered newspaper — it stays folded up and jammed in with my cookbooks in the kitchen. I rarely pull it out, but I noticed that I’ve tweaked the amount of yeast. I like it, so I’m leaving it. I’ve also over the years made holes in the bread which aren’t exactly like hers, and are even less like a traditional focaccia. I’m unconcerned. It creates more “edges,” which we gleefully admit we love on this anniversary of one of my family’s regular staples.

Focaccia dough is very straightforward: flour, yeast, water, salt, the basis for most bread and pizza doughs. It isn’t kneaded, though, and is only allowed to rise for half an hour or so. It is more a cousin to a flat, unleavened bread than a loaf. The dough is wetter than kneaded bread doughs, which may be why it forms such a nice crust and has an airy texture. When the wet dough goes into the very hot oven it releases a lot of steam — important to forming a good crust.

“Focaccia” is thought to derive from the Latin word for fireplace or hearth. Not surprisingly its meaning is interchangeable with center, or focal point. This panis focacius may be fireplace bread, but I think of it as the dead center of all things good.

Focaccia | 1 large flat bread

Focaccia was likely the precursor to pizza, but it can be used as a pizza dough of sorts with this recipe. I make it simple, with just a little fresh rosemary and salt, or more elaborate, with tomatoes, garlic (raw or gently sautéed in olive oil), artichoke hearts, even pepperoni. Divide the dough into blobs for fantastic rolls or buns for sandwiches or hamburgers. It’s sticky and blobby, but just bomb ahead.

2 cups warm water, about 90°F
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
4 cups unbleached flour, preferably bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
Toppings, such as tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, garlic, pepperoni (optional)
Olive oil
Fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (for the top of the bread)

Measure the water into a large bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Stir well to dissolve.

The water should be warm enough to activate the yeast but not so hot that it kills it

This is really a stirred dough rather than a kneaded one

Add 2 cups of the flour and 2 1/2 teaspoons salt and stir until smooth, about 2 minutes.

A wooden spoon works best for this task

In two minutes it will be nice and smooth

Add the remaining two cups of flour and stir until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl, about another 2 minutes. If the dough seems too sticky and wet, add up to another 1/3 cup of flour.

The stirring action builds the gluten rather than kneading

The dough is tacky but it stills pulls away from the sides

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to rise for 30 to 40 minutes. The plastic wrap keeps in the moisture and warmth.

Meanwhile, prepare any toppings you may want to use on the focaccia.

Just a few of the different items I've thrown on the top of a focaccia...

Preheat the oven to 475°F. Oil a large, heavy baking sheet.

Pour a little olive oil on the pan and use your fingers to spread it evenly over the surface

Carefully scrape the dough onto the oiled pan. Pour a small amount of oil onto the dough and begin stretching and pulling the dough to cover the surface.

Pour just a little bit of oil -- maybe a teaspoon -- right onto the dough

Gently pull and coax it out to the edges of the pan

Poke through the dough to the pan, stretching holes into it

Sprinkle the dough with rosemary leaves and the additional 1 teaspoon salt.

Use the rosemary leaves whole or chop them smaller

Instead of rosemary, add toppings (optional).

I've made the other half of this focaccia with tomato sauce, fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, pine nuts, and small sweet peppers

I finished it off with a little fresh basil and grated Romano

Place the focaccia in the preheated 475°F oven and immediately reduce the heat to 450°F. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the bread is nicely browned on top.

Mangia, subito!

Let this be the start of a very happy decade of focaccia baking.

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2012 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Everything but the turkey, and you'll find out why

I set out the other day to recreate a delicious turkey I had made some years back, not on Thanksgiving, mind you, but 3 days after. It was my peevish response to a take-out turkey we’d had with relatives, and I just felt I had to flex my Thanksgiving dinner muscles or else lose ‘em. It was a de-boned turkey, restuffed into shape, roasted, basted, sliced, and enjoyed and it looked a little like this:

You can't judge a book by it's cover, that's for sure

This is the turkey I made the other day, and this is the turkey that was, well, inedible. Yes, I’ve gone to the front and I return with warnings about organic/natural/free-range turkeys. But I’ll get to that later.

I did make a flavorful stuffing for the bird with cornbread, dried sour cherries, fennel, almonds, sausage, and sage. That was not a horror story. But I’m still smarting over that turkey.

Cherry, Almond & Sausage Stuffing | 10 servings

This will make enough to fill a 12 to 14-pound turkey, plus extra for a casserole.

6 cups dried cornbread chunks, or one Cornbread recipe
4 cups good-quality white bread chunks, such as a ciabatta (about 1/2 loaf)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 pound sausage, or 2 Italian sausages
1 large onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried cherries
3/4 cup raw slivered almonds
Sprig of fresh sage, about 8 large leaves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups unfiltered apple juice or cider
1/2 cup chicken stock or turkey stock (for overflow stuffing)

Tear the bread into chunks.

I used half a ciabatta (left) and a recipe of cornbread (right)

Spread the bread evenly in one layer on baking sheets

Dry the bread in a 225°F oven, tossing occasionally to dry evenly. It will take no more than an hour to dry out.

While the bread is drying, prepare the other stuffing ingredients. Heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a pan over medium. Remove the sausage casing and break up the meat in the pan.

With the tip of a sharp knife, make a long slit in the sausage casing

Pull off the casing and discard

Break up the sausage into small bits - I used 1 spicy and 1 mild Italian sausage

Cook the sausage until browning. While the sausage is cooking, dice the onion, fennel and celery.

Trim the top and root off the fennel and cut out the tough core

Slice the fennel along the grain

Holding the slices together, turn the fennel and slice against the grain

With a slotted spoon, remove the cooked sausage and set aside.

Scoop the sausage onto a small plate or into a bowl until needed

Add the diced onion, fennel and celery to the sausage pan and cook until wilted, about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle in some salt and pepper at this point -- it's important not to underseason stuffing

Measure the breadcrumbs into a large mixing bowl.

Generous cups because everyone love stuffing

My beat-up old stainless bowl works well

Add the cherries and almonds.

It's very hard not to snack away at the ingredients

Add the cooked sausage, wilted onions, fennel and celery, and sage, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Stuffing is really deceptively simple

You could really throw any flavors in here that you like -- green chiles or chestnuts or bacon or proscuitto or feta (you get the idea...)

Just before stuffing the turkey, pour in the apple juice, mixing well. Taste again and adjust the seasonings. The idea is to dampen but not soak the bread crumbs, since the juices from the turkey will do that.

Stop short of 1 1/2 cups of juice if the bread becomes too wet, or add more if it seems too dry

Note: Lots of stuffing recipes call for melted butter instead of apple juice, but in the interest of health I always use juice. I also like the slightly sweet note it adds, which brings up the savory flavors nicely.

Any extra stuffing can be piled in a buttered casserole (using the extra tablespoon of butter). Add the chicken or turkey stock and baste occasionally with turkey drippings. Cook, covered with foil, along with the turkey for 45 minutes, taking the foil off for the final 10 minutes if you like crisper top.

Overflow stuffing cooks nicely in a casserole but will be a little drier than the stuffing cooked inside the turkey

At this point I’d love to show you how I re-stuffed my de-boned turkey but I’d only be misleading you. So here’s my little word of warning:

Turkeat Emptor (Turkey-Buyer Beware)

We spend a lot of Thanksgivings wringing our hands over the safety of the bird — undercooked, bad, too long at room temp, bad. These are concerns, but really, it’s just a big chicken. Follow the same care you’d take with a whole chicken and you’ll be fine.

Where it’s possible to go astray, though, is in the brand and type of bird you buy and how you cook that bird. Not all turkeys are created equal. That’s what I found out with my…yes, inedible…bird.

We are seeing more and more “organic,” “natural,” and “free-range” birds out there, as well as “kosher” and “heritage” and the old standbys, Butterballs® and grocery store brands, and it’s now become crucial to know how to deal with them.

My turkey was a “free-range” turkey, raised locally, though I can’t immediately distinguish between the free-range and organic or for that matter natural. The website says of free-range: “These turkeys are raised on healthful grains and allowed to roam in areas four times the size of the average commercial turkey ranch.  Their high protein diet provides the optimum amount of nutrients for the turkey to grow into a bigger and more flavorful turkey than one typically found in the supermarket.  You won’t find any antibiotics, animal by-products, preservatives or hormones in a Mary’s Free-Range Turkey.”

For the organic it says: “Mary’s Free-Range Organic Turkeys are fed a certified organic high protein diet complete with the finest grains and vegetable proteins and grow naturally with plenty of open space on a certified organic ranch in sunny California. Because of cleaner living quarters, a healthier and happier turkey is produced having a better taste.  You won’t find any antibiotics, animal by-products, preservatives or hormones in a Mary’s Free-Range Organic Turkey.” Sheesh — what’s the difference? I can’t really parse it out. Maybe the organics have less space?

My turkey was de-boned, which presents the first cooking challenge. Though it was re-stuffed, it needed to cook for less time. I knew that, and watched that bird like a hawk. In taking its temperature (which I did frequently) I noted that the breast meat never got tender, and there was little thigh to test. Free-range birds are longer, less “plump” than the Butterball-style turkeys of our childhood. All in all, this turkey yielded less than 1 tablespoon of fat, and I had generously rubbed it with butter, both inside and out. Lean. Really lean.

So free-range, natural and organic turkeys can have very little fat, which would translate into moisture. To get that moisture they would benefit from being brined. Whole Foods sells different varieties of these, depending on the location of the store and their regional source, so a conversation with the butcher would provide further information.

Heritage is most like a wild turkey, and even leaner than the organics or the free-range.

Kosher turkeys have been brined, thus they are more moist but can be salty.

Butterballs have been injected with “up to 8% of a solution of Water, Salt, Spices to Enhance Tenderness and Juiciness.” Does make the classic Norman Rockwell turkey, but it’s a little watery.

Grocery store brands usually come frozen or have been frozen. This can give the turkey an institutional flavor.

This is the beginning of my serious examination into this turkey equality problem, but I have some early conclusions to share. I would recommend brining any organic, natural, or free-range turkey. Ditto for the Heritage turkeys. Russ Parsons, in his series of articles for the Los Angeles Times, likes the flavored dry-brine method: Sprinkle the bird with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt for every 5 pounds of turkey — and the salt can be mixed with “aromatics” (like fresh or dried rosemary, sage, citrus zest, etc.) — place in a sealed plastic bag, and refrigerate for 2 1/2 to 3 days. After a day or so there may be accumulated liquid in the bag, but that will reabsorbed by the turkey, giving it the moisture it needs. In the future I will lean toward the dry-brine since my refrigerator will not accommodate the large pot filled with salty liquid needed for wet-brining.

Maybe I overcooked my turkey, maybe not. But next year I’m going to dig deeper into this problem, because this year I won’t be making another turkey  (we’re going over the meadow and through the woods for Thanksgiving). Little did I know how prophetic this funny card that came my way would be:

Until next year...

©2012 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Corn, molasses, sweet butter -- pass the hooch!

I do not like my cornbread too sweet. And I don’t like it too dainty or too tender. Give me some grain and texture, some crumble and salt, so I can sop it with molasses and have something to chew on. This cornbread is all that — you might need a broom straw to pick yer teeth after.

It’s got some crunch because I use a combination of regular and coarse cornmeal (often labeled as polenta). There is also a “medium-grind” organic cornmeal out there from Bob’s Red Mill, which works well as a substitute for the coarse meal.

On the left is fine-grind or regular cornmeal, medium-grind in the middle, and coarse-grind on the right

My sis-in-law called the other day for a cornbread recipe which got me thinking about mine, one I put together years ago for the Grill Book. I go in phases of making cornbread, but I nearly always make batches of it around Thanksgiving since I use it in stuffing (coming in the next post!). Cornbread seems to go best with cooler weather — and as long as you’re at it, a meaty chili and some warm spiked cider as well.

Cornbread | 4 to 6 servings

If you don’t like the crunchiness of coarse-grain cornmeal, just use all fine- or regular-grind instead. For blue cornbread substitute blue cornmeal for the yellow.

1/2 cup regular yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup coarse-grind yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup unbleached flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter, plus enough to butter the pan
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Butter an 8 x 8- or 9 x 7-inch baking pan or pyrex dish.

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well.

Don't worry if the brown sugar has a few lumps -- they'll melt in the cooking

Melt the 1 tablespoon butter, beat in the egg, and add the milk, mixing well.

Add the egg first to the melted butter and mix well

The protein in the egg binds with the butterfat, making this a smooth emulsion rather than the recongealed butter bits you'd get if you added cold milk first

The liquids stay smooth and distribute better into the dry ingredients

Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and mix gently until combined. Don’t overmix.

Mix just enough to dampen all the dry ingredients

This batter can't be set aside -- the baking powder begins reacting when it gets wet

Pour the batter into the buttered baking pan.

The batter will spread out on its own as it cooks

Bake the cornbread for 14 to 16 minutes, or until browned on top and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Eat it while it's warm

Allow the cornbread to sit for 5 minutes in the pan before cutting it into squares. Serve warm. Enjoy.

Kelly McCune © 2009

©2012 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Panzanella along with a grilled gourmet sausage and a couple of serenading piggies

I could call this “True Confessions of a Bread-aholic” because that’s what I am. This is a bread-lover’s dream salad — it’s like stealing everyone’s croutons, or like taking all the bread in the basket to soak up what is on your salad plate. It’s easy to make and only gets better from sitting around.

This is not la nonna’s panzanella, though, I’ll admit that right here. It does a little dance with another of my favorite bread + tomato + olive oil dishes, caprese. The husband and I had the remarkable good fortune to live in Italy for a year (some years ago) and since we were barely more than poor post-college students, we sought out the cheap eats in our home city, Rome. One of our standbys was a little place that specialized in caprese served with huge chunks of ciabatta and vino sfuso (wine right outta the keg). Munch down the little stacks of tomato, fresher than fresh mozzarella and basil and then (alleluiah!) tear off bread hunks to soak up the juices left on the plate — a swirl of green oil, tomato juice, salt, pepper and basil essence. All this while prospective diners loom over you, jealously watching you dab away while staking a claim for your table.

I start thinking about panzanella when the weather gets hot since it is really the perfect summer dish. It’s better to make it in advance, so get it out of the way early and enjoy hanging out by the grill and sipping, well, a Campari if you’re keeping in the Italian spirit(s). Even better if you have home-grown tomatoes.  They’ll shine in panzanella.

The bread co-stars, of course

I’ve seen the bread for panzanella treated three different ways. Some cooks soak the stale bread in water, then thoroughly squeeze out the excess. Others simply use stale bread or dry out a fresh loaf, and yet another approach is to toast or saute the bread. I like a bit of tooth so I prefer not to soak it, and I don’t want it too much like a real crouton so I object to outright toasting. The middle road is best for me.

It’s worth it to look for a source for fresh mozzarella, which my cooking/language teacher in Italy called “diet” food. Ha!

Panzanella Does a Caprese | 4 to 6 servings

3/4 of a loaf of rustic Italian bread or ciabatta, about 3/4 pound, preferably stale, 6 generous cups when in chunks
8 medium-sized tomatoes, about 3/4 pound, chopped and juices retained
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, diced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/3 cup of olives and their juice
2 tablespoons capers and their juice
6 large basil leaves, chopped
4 whole stems Italian parsley, leaves chopped and stems discarded
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the vinaigrette:
1 generous tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
Several grinds of black pepper
1 large garlic clove, minced to a paste
5 tablespoons olive oil

Tear the bread into 1-inch pieces. If your bread is very stale, you may need to cut it into chunks. Use a serrated knife for this task. If your bread is fresh, you can dry it out in a 200° oven: tear into pieces, put on a baking sheet, and leave it in the low oven for 40 minutes or so. It should feel dry but not browned.

Fresh bread tears easily into pieces

Put the bread chunks in a large bowl. You will end up with about 6 cups, and each cup will be generous, like this:

One cup is also like one big handful if you want to leave the measuring cup in the drawer

Add the chopped tomatoes and their juices, mozzarella, onion, olives, and capers.

Add all the juices from the chopped tomatoes

Mix all this together — with your hands, preferably — squeezing a little more juice out of the tomatoes as you go.

For the vinaigrette, combine the balsamic vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper, and garlic in a glass or cup.

The sugar and salt dissolve quickly in the vinegar

Drizzle in the olive oil, mixing with a fork or a whisk as you go to make an emulsion.

My mini whisk, which I love for this task, sprang a wire the other day, so I'm using a fork

Pour the vinaigrette over the bread mixture, mixing well as you go. Toss again with the chopped basil and parsley. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for at least half an hour or longer. Refrigerate the panzanella if it will sit for much longer than an hour, but it’s best at room temperature so take it out ahead of time. Buon appetito!

Use a big bowl to make it easy to toss

©2012 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.