Things that stop me in my tracks, even if it's just to drool.

So,  I was totally set to be all chill for the Fourth of July. Throw together some deviled eggs, grill some burgers and corn, and most of all relax! I proudly told my boyfriend how I was just going to simplify, enjoy the day, and buy brioche buns at Trader Joe's. But then I saw these on Smitten Kitchen, and I read the hundreds of rave reviews about this recipe online, and, well.... how can I possibly resist?  

No-knead Bread, Smoked Edition

(Adapted from Jim Lahey's No-Knead Recipe)

I have been fascinated by the idea of smoking flour since the New York Times article on Pearl and Ash’s smoked bread. Smoking and bread are two of my all time favorite things, so how could I pass up an opportunity to combine the two? I am madly in love with Jim Lahey’s no knead recipe, so I decided to try it out with smoked flour to shake things up a bit. Rest assured I tasted each item at every step of the process, including a bit of the raw smoked flour, and of course, the dough!


Makes: 1-1.5 pound loaf
Time:  smoking: ½ hour
          prep, folding, and shaping: 15 minutes
          rise time: 12-18 hours, plus 2 more hours
          cook time: 45 min - 1 hour

Ingredients:

3 cups bread or AP flour + extra for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
cornmeal as needed

Method:

To smoke the flour, you can either use an outside smoker, stove top smoker, or even a large stock pot with a tight fitting lid and steamer insert. I used my big cheif smoker and cherry wood chips for this session. Rig up your smoker, whatever that entails, and pour your flour into a cake pan. Mist the flour in order to let the smoke penetrate better. Once your chips are smoking, place the cake pan of flour inside your smoker, and let the magic happen for thirty minutes.

Next, remove the flour, cool, and sift into a large bowl to remove any clumps. Inhale that sweet smokey scent and take a little taste, I dare you! Add your yeast and salt, than mix in 1 5/8 cups of water until you have a wet, shaggy dough. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let rise in a 70°F area for 12-18 hours (preferably 18).

Once your dough is filled with tiny air bubbles and enough time has passed, scoop it onto a seriously floured surface. Submerge your hands in flour as well, before folding the dough once or twice. A pastry bench scraper can be useful with this. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Next, dust a 100% cotten towel with flour and cornmeal before quickly shaping the dough into a ball. In order to accomplish this you will need a lot of flour, and the acceptance of mess-making as well as covering yourself in wet sticky dough. Taste it again! Place the ball, (which will totally flatten out into more of a disk, don’t worry about it) seam side down on the towel. Then dust with more flour and cornmeal, and cover with a second cotton towel. Let rise for 2 hours.

Preheat your oven to 450°F a half hour before the dough is finished rising, and place a medium sized ceramic or cast iron dutch oven inside to heat. When the dough has doubled in size and readily springs back from a poke, lift up the towel encasing the dough, and slide the dough off of it into the pot. It will now be seam side up, and basically a mess, but don’t worry, it will come out beautifully! Shake the pan a couple times to evenly distribute the dough, cover, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, then bake for 15 or 30 more minutes until the bread is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack and listen closely as the crust crackles- one of my absolute favorite sounds. Now taste, taste, taste, then taste some more!

Things that stop me in my tracks, even if it's just to drool

The internet can be a very dark place, by now we all know that. But it can also be a place of wonder and beauty. Humankind is similar, with both dark and wonderful aspects to it, and it is because of the darkness that the wonder is so much brighter when we do find it. The story  Today you, tomorrow me is an exquisite example of this, it is about the unbelievable kindness of strangers and the lovely idea that sometimes, people are happy to help for no reason other than good will. This story fills me with hope, and it never fails to make me cry, whether it is the first or the fortieth time I've read it.

Food Philosophy #2- Never Turn Down a Taste

 
You know that trickle of ice that runs down your spine when someone asks you a question and you instantly realize you screwed up? You know the only answer you can give them is unquestionably the wrong one. Deceit is out of the option, and all you can do as you stand there horror-struck, is eventually reply with the exact words you know the questioner does not want to hear. That was me as I stood before my Baking and Pastry Chef-Instructor, a gorgeously browned baguette between us.
“Did you taste this baguette?” 

The question hung in the air between us as I wracked my brain to find some way of not responding with no. My Chef ignored my dismay, or rather matched it with his own.

“And yet, you expect me to taste it?” 
I had known this next sentence was coming, as it was always the follow up every Chef asked of the poor, dumb student that dared to bring an untasted dish up. “I wanted to present to you the whole loaf without a bite missing from it,” I offered up lamely.The Chef looked even more taken aback if possible. 

“Of course you wouldn’t present a baguette with a bite missing! You should have tasted the dough!” 
This answer was like a lightening bolt- a suggestion that had never occurred to me. “Cooks taste everything in a kitchen!” My Chef continued, “be it raw dough or raw chicken, nothing is more important than knowing the taste of your dish, inside and out.” (Not even salmonella, apparently).  

My entire view on tasting things (and on life!) had been completely rearranged. Being able to decipher what a recipe is missing, or has too much of, is imperative to becoming a good cook, and the only way to get there is by tasting. Taste your dish at every step in addition to the finished product. For example, try tasting the same recipe five different times, only changing it each time by adding a bit more salt. You will be amazed at the difference.
Don’t just taste your own dishes, taste everything and anything you can get your hands on. Every time I hear a cook refuse to taste something I want to scream! Tasting shouldn’t be about preference, or even enjoyment, it should be about learning. About expanding your horizons and teaching your palate the nuances of the thousands of ingredients out there, regardless of whether you personally like those nuances or not. To turn down a taste is to turn down an opportunity to develop as a cook, period. 
Similar to in the kitchen, turning down the tastes of life can stunt your development as a person. Sure, turn down a few opportunities, ones that could lead to jail time for instance, but in general never miss out on trying something new! As the saying goes, you often regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did. When my current boyfriend of five years asked me to go with him to Europe a few months into our relationship, I refused him for reasons that seem ridiculous now. But you better believe I will never again turn down a taste, be it a romantic trip with a great guy or a taste of raw chicken. Until the next bite, Jenn PS- If you were left wondering what was wrong with my baguette, the answer is nothing. He just knew. They always know.

Things that stop me in my tracks, even if it's just to drool

My only issue with this stunning photo from chasing delicious is that it's jaw-dropping beauty causes the drool to spill right over my chin.

Things that stop me in my tracks, even if it's just to drool.

Most of the time, life is such a whirlwind of activity that an entire day can pass by in just a few stirs of a spoon or clicks of a camera. As a result, I try to make it a point to really stop and savor the smaller moments, to truly appreciate capturing a beautiful image or inhaling an incredible scent. On top of that, some days my stress level can affect my mood so much that I completely lose sight of the wonder within my surroundings, but a quick reminder can make a huge difference. Thus, I keep a collection of anything and everything that strikes me with either awe, an urge to laugh, or an impulse to drool.

Gnocchi- Italian Grandmother Style

Gnocchi is one of those recipes that can take a few attempts to get right, mainly because it’s all by feel. There really isn’t a magical ratio of exact measurements for you to follow- instead, work with the dough, use your senses, and trust that everything will fall into place!

Ingredients 1-1.5 cups of flour (preferably 00) 4 potatoes or about 2 pounds 1 yolk, slightly beaten 2 Tbsp of fresh oregano, minced (or any other fresh herb you happen to have on hand) 1 tsp salt white pepper to taste Method Choose potatoes with a low moisture content, such as Idahoes or other russet varieties. Puncture potatoes with a fork repeatedly before roasting at 400°F for about an hour (depending on the size). 
As soon as you can manage to hold them, peel away the skin with a paring knife and push through a tamis onto a clean (preferably wooden) surface. Spread the potato out with a pastry bench scraper using chopping movements, and then begin sprinkling the other ingredients over it. The basic principle is to use as much potato as possible, and as little of everything else. Drizzle the egg yolk, then sprinkle the salt, pepper, and oregano across the potatoes.

 
Begin blanketing the mixture with flour, using a chopping motion once more with the bench scraper to incorporate everything into a coarse meal. Gather it with your hands and begin folding the dough as you slowly add more flour. You don’t want to work the dough too much as it will make the gnocchis gummy, so do not exceed 8-10 turns. Hopefully when complete the dough should feel similar to pizza dough.

Once finished folding, form the dough into a log and give it a good smack on all sides to get out any air bubbles and increase the density. Break the dough down into sections and roll each into a half-inch thick log. Rolling it this thin can be tricky, but any thicker and the outsides of the gnocchi will overcook before the center finishes. Work quickly because the longer the dough sits the softer it becomes, making the entire process more difficult (as if it weren’t difficult enough already!)

From here, cut each log into similar sized dumplings with the bench scraper and then either roll them down a gnocchi board or the underside of a fork, letting them fall onto a floured surface.
Once your gnocchi are formed you want to cook them in a large pot of heavily salted, slow-boiling water. When they float to the top they are finished cooking and must be transferred immediately to ice water in order to stop them from overcooking. 

When you are ready to eat, sauté them in some beautifully browned butter and pair them with whatever sauce and accoutrements you like. My favorite is with crispy prosciutto, english peas, and a lemon-mint pesto. Hope you enjoy, and of course, be sure to let me know if all your gnocchi fell into place!

Food Philosophy #1- Trust that everything will fall into place, even if it's not the place you planned.

     I'm not what you would call the most graceful of cooks. Even during my best nights on the line, I'm constantly searing the undersides of my arms on the oven door or tripping over uneven mats. And at home in my own kitchen? Basically all hell breaks loose. Curses fly effortlessly from my mouth, splatters manage to hit even the farthest of walls, and if there is an open container anywhere within my vicinity I will find a way to spill it. 
      Let me tell you, it takes serious focus to maintain the semi-grace that I do manage to achieve while at work. But even with five different pans blasting away, a myriad of sides to finish and plate, and my own clumsiness; somehow almost every dish seems to magically come to together in perfect harmony on the plate. Of course, there are the times when a dish does not come together, not even close. But so much more often they surprisingly do. From the beginning cooking has felt natural- almost ingrained within my bones. Everything in the kitchen makes sense to me and every new recipe I attempt, while perhaps chaotic during the process, seems to work itself out wonderfully by the time it is served. (For the most part!) 
      I truly believe that cooking can be like this for anyone, and my mind is always boggled by people who swear they can't make toast (although I admit, toast can be seriously challenging at times.) Cooking is such a fluid and natural thing; all you really need to do is relax and trust that everything will come together in the end. So many people (myself included) want to constantly fix and fiddle with their ingredients, but instead, should just step back and observe. Rather than add more roux to your sauce immediately because it's not looking quite thick enough, wait a minute, see what happens after it sits on the heat for a little while longer. Of course there are terrible recipes, and mistakes that can't be corrected- which is where the 'different place than you planned' part comes in. So you opened the oven because you just couldn't stand not checking on your cheesecake, and as a result it is now sporting a fissure the size of the grand canyon? Looks like it's going to be a chocolate ganache covered cheesecake now. Winning.
      The same can be true of life. Looking back to just six years ago, I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do with my looming adult-hood. I would never have dreamed I would end up working in the food industry! At that time I was a junior at Berkeley who had still not managed to pick a major, let alone begin completing all the required classes for one (despite my wide ranging collection of credits). When I decided to take a year off and really explore what I wanted to do for a career, it felt like everything was falling apart. I enrolled in even more diverse classes at a nearby community college, including photography, archaeology, and fiction writing.  I filled my extra time working part-time at a restaurant as a hostess, and regardless of all my schooling and array of classes, this was where I found my place. Ironically, it was in the lobby of a Cheesecake Factory that I realized my passion and my path in life. 
     During the past year my dabblings in the kitchen had morphed into something I constantly thought about and obsessed over. When it struck me that I could create a career out of doing something I had grown to absolutely love I was stunned, but somehow deep down inside, I knew it was right. I took that feeling and followed it through, trusting that everything would fall into place.  Even though it wasn’t what I planned, I now have a job I can’t wait to get to everyday, a passion I love spending every minute at work as well as at home doing, and an amazing community of colleagues and friends that never cease to inspire me. Sure, it is not the place I thought I would end up, but it’s certainly the right one after all. 

Until the next bite,

Jenn