Peruvian Amaranth Loaf... I Wouldn't Wanna Live By This Bread Alone

Today's Bread recipe was the peruvian amaranth loaf. I ordered amaranth flour online and waited a week for it to get here then I spent days reading blogs about how best to bake, knead and shape loaves so that when I got around to using my specialty flour it would be worth it. So today i laid out my ingredients, waited patiently as my yeast bloomed and foamed and slowly added in my flour until the dough was just firm enough to handle and even tried a new method of kneading thats kind of a lift and slap method that worked really well. See link below...

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/video/2008/03/bertinet_sweetdough

I was hoping the wetter dough would ensure that the crumb of this loaf would have larger holes in than the other loafs that I made and it did... slightly. It turned out to be the best looking dough i have made yet as a matter of fact. I also bought a fancy french bread loaf pan so that my loaves would hold a better shape because I have had problems with my loaves just kind of spreading out when proofed on a peel and then slid onto the baking stone in my oven. The peruvian amaranth loaf was scored, proofed and waiting to be baked. About the time that I slid the bread into the oven I realized that sitting on the counter was a little bowl with about a teaspoon and half of salt in it, salt that was supposed to be in bread that was now shut in the oven. I sat down at my computer and searched for exactly was purpose salt played in bread making and luckily the only other reason, besides taste, that salt is added to bread is to tighten the crumb and I didn't want that anyway 

The oven was full of steam and that was good, I expected my bread to experience a lot of oven spring in the first few minutes of baking I was wrong. The nice full shape the bread had when proofing all but deflated when I came back to turn the bread midbake... I just don't know what I am doing wrong (and I still don't, I haven't gotten around to reading about it yet) I suppose that there isn't anything wrong with slightly flattened bread but its just not pretty. So, I waited and waited on it to bake which is the hardest part for me, I think. I always take the bread out a few minutes too soon, as soon as I see the crust start to darken I get antsy but I waited. I took it out of the oven and waited some more as it cooled. Finally it was time to sample the peruvian amaranth loaf. 

Disappointment. 

Its not bad by any means and I think it is really missing that salt but it still needed something else. It might be good with some cheese melted on it or toasted and smeared with peanut butter, the amaranth flour already gave the bread a nutty flavor. I might try the recipe again just to see if the salt makes a huge difference. I'll also be searching the internet for more amaranth flour recipes to see if I can find one that isn't as bland maybe with some other grains in it. For now the peruvian amaranth loaf will be photographed, blogged about and picked at until I'm tired of trying to find uses for it. Tomorrow I start fooling around with sourdough. My starter is finally fermented enough and begging to be let out of its little covered bowl in the corner. Lets hope this experiment goes a little better and is a little tastier. 

The word amaranth translated from greek means unfading flower. And it really is a pretty little thing. And here are some pretty word that talk about amaranth flowers or at least unfading flowers that will make this post not seem as meaningless...


a song I sand in the choir at church:


I am dwelling on the mountain,
Where the golden sunlight gleams
O’er a land whose wondrous beauty
Far exceeds my fondest dreams;
Where the air is pure, ethereal,
Laden with the breath of flow’rs,
They are blooming by the fountain,
’Neath the amaranthine bow’rs.
Is not this the land of Beulah?
Blessed, blessed land of light,
Where the flowers bloom forever,
And the sun is always bright!


and a fable:

A Rose and an Amaranth blossomed side by side in a garden,

and the Amaranth said to her neighbour,

"How I envy you your beauty and your sweet scent!

No wonder you are such a universal favourite."

But the Rose replied with a shade of sadness in her voice,

"Ah, my dear friend, I bloom but for a time:

my petals soon wither and fall, and then I die.

But your flowers never fade, even if they are cut;

for they are everlasting.

The Wrong Hobby For Someone With No Patience

I'm about a month or so into obsession with my newest hobby, bread making. This is a favorite of my many hobbies, mostly because I get to eat the results and because I have always had a place in my heart for bread. It wasn't until I started making my own, however, that that place in my heart started taking over and now there are stacks of books in every corner, left over bread crusts in every cabinet that I cant bear to throw away and dried dough permanently lodged under my finger nails. Bread is such a happy comforting thing.

My mama used to take my sisters and I to the library after school when we were young. We'd spend all afternoon pouring over the shelves and picking out only the best books to take home. Mama would load them all up in a sack she made designated for toting books back and forth to the library. After we had made our selections and piled back into the car, mama would stop by the grocery store for whatever few things that she needed for dinner and bag of cheese bread from the bakery. By the time we got home, all us girls would be sick from reading in the car and stuffed with cheese bread. Bread is such simple plain thing but I have more colorful memories than just that one wrapped around homemade challah, thanksgiving dinner rolls, baking cinnamon rolls and dense banana bread.

There is so much to learn and so much you cant learn from books when making bread. Half of what I need to know about kneading and baking has to learned by experience and gauged touch and feel. This isn't my preferred method of learning. I like a set of plain rules, steps and do's and dont's. If I didn't like to eat as much as I do I would've given up on this baking thing already. There haven't been any major disasters yet, almost every thing that has come out of my oven has been edible so that means I will probably continue baking, at least a few loaves a week, until my pants don't fit. Then I will know I am doing things right.

Versatile Potatoes

Tonight while waiting on dough to rise, for what is destine to turn out as the best cinnamon swirl bread i have ever had, I got a little creative with the potatoes that didnt get used for last weeks potage parmentier (potato leek soup). I am starting a window sill herb garden and my little terracotta pots needed some character so they were painted white and stamped with carved potato stamps. I'm not sure where I have ever heard of potatoes being used to to make stamps but it really worked out quite well. Now all I have to do is wait for my little sprouts to show their shining faces and usher in a long awaited spring. Besides a small amount of window sill herbs, this spring I plan on having a small patio garden too. Since I moved into my apartment in the dead of winter, the patio has yet to be utilized but I think it will be perfect for a few potted tomato plants and maybe a sprawling vine of squash. I want to make a dwarf lemon tree a permanent resident of the home, spending the warm weather days on the patio and the not so nice days inside by one of the huge windows that are scattered about the place. We will see what happens though, my green thumb has yet to prove itself. So far in my little exploits into the world of do-it-yourselfdom have turned out mildly successful but wildly self satisfactory and both of my thumbs will work hard to keep up with my high expectations. 

From Italy to France All in One Night

I am completely in love with my nook color (that was so lovingly given to me by, none other than, my favorite person in the universe, Brian) It allows me to carry around my entire e-library in my purse which includes mountains of books and also stacks of magazines. I have subscriptions to several magazines that are immediately downloaded onto my nook as soon as the newest issue is available, its like a dream come true. No matter where I am I can get Martha's newest advice on how to make good things, better things or Food Networks advice on which wine to serve with which cheese, as soon as the information is available.
This month Food Networks magazine was devoted to Italian cooking and I was only mildly interested. Brian's eye, however, was caught, as he was reading over my shoulder, which irritates me to no end, by a short, simple recipe that I knew I would have to make that same day, for Brian's sake. The recipe was for a tart, a nutella tart.
Brian has always forbade me from keeping nutella in my cupboard for the sole reason that, as soon as my back was turned, he knew that his will power would be lost and i would find him in the in kitchen, unconscious, in a hazelnut and chocolate induced coma. We stopped by the grocery store on our way to my apartment and picked 26oz of the stuff, almost 3 times the amount i knew that i would need to complete the recipe but i was sure that we would both find a use for the excess.
I cheated a little on the recipe, for time's sake. I skipped making my own crust which really was a shame after reading through the recipe which included ground hazelnuts I knew that I should have taken the time but there is always next time. Needless to say, even though I cheated, the finished product was heaven. I'm not one who really yearns for pie or desserts in any way, shape or form and i usually will usually pass if offered a slice of even the best, homemade, secret recipe, passed down from generation to generation pie or cake or cookie or tart, for that matter. As it turns out, even I cant resist nutella in dessert form.

its current resting place is the bottom shelf of the fridge...
its so droopy because we couldn't wait for it to set
we dug in halfway through the chilling time 

I, later, sat contemplating other uses for this little jar of divinity. My inspiration for my second, uncharacteristic of me, treat of the night came from the simple picture on the front of the jar, a slice of bread liberally slathered in hazelnutty goodness. I needed to make bread, sweet bread, fried bread, beignets. My newest hobby is bread making so i grabbed "the everything bread cookbook" and  found a simple beignet recipe

3/4cup warm milk
2tbsp honey
1 package (1 3/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2tbsp melted butter
2-3cups bread flour
1tsp kosher salt
oil for frying, powered sugar for dusting and nutella for smearing on every inch of the warm pastry.

Brain had left, as it was late and passed his bedtime, with a gentle reminder to be careful, since he wouldn't be there to save me from another house fire. I was left alone with a small pile of puffy, french doughnuts and more nutella than I could handle and now it is me who will soon be passing out, over indulged and a little sticky with visions of hazelnuts dancing in my head. I don't think I regret any of tonights gluttony but i might later if this becomes a habit, which seems entirely probable considering the reputation of this Italian siren called nutella.
    

Good Food is Worth a Few Small Kitchen Fires

Its been a ridiculously long week... well, really its been a really long month, there has been a lot going on and not a lot going on all at the same time. I was recently moved into a new department at work (which definitely came with a pay raise) which meant new training, a new schedule and consequently working 10 days straight without a day off and when you work a job like i do, that can be quite taxing on ones mental health. After work, on the other hand, has been slow and dull. Brian has been out of town for a month now on a job and that has been extended by a week or so. He comes home on the weekends and this particular weekend we decided to stay in and enjoy each others company rather then inflict our presence on the general public. Thanks to Martha and Food Network we cooked up a pretty tasty little dinner. 

For an appetizer we had steamed leeks with a creamy dijon sauce.  Dinner was a surf and turf kind combination that consisted of crab and ricotta stuffed ravioli with a butter and lemon sauce and parmesan crusted steak.

Spending time in the kitchen together often brings out the major moron in both me and brian and therefore reminds us how there couldn't possibly be two people who fit together better than he and I. He is always coming to my rescue when things go wrong and thank God he was there tonight or else, well, the hillside apartments may have ceased to exist, like, it would by now have been nothing but a smoldering pile of ashes

Tonight i made the mistake of noticing to late that i had placed an empty pan on a blazing hot burner and then i nonchalantly poured a few tablespoons of oil into it. As it turns out it does not take much to set oil ablaze! I pulled the pan off the burner and franticly looked at Brian and shrieked "What do i do!? What do i do!?" my gaze kept flickering over toward the sink but previous experience with hot oil and water taught me not even to consider taking that pan near the sink... by this time smoke was filling the kitchen and my hands were starting to burn but i didn't know what to do with the flaming pan, Brian's immediate response to the crisis was calm and collected. He said "Hang on, lemme Google it..." What more would you expect from a someone with job title like "network engineer with a specialization in datacenter technology"? However, when i screeched at him "We don't really have time to Google this Brian!" he sprang into action grabbed, baking soda and Poof! it was over just like that, besides of course, for the apartment full of smoke and hot pan full of bubbling tar. I asked him how he knew that would work and he smartly answered "TV... 'Gone in 60 Seconds' actually..." With that being said don't ever let anyone tell you that TV rots your brain, I think it and a boy who cant remember the color of my eyes but can quote every movie he has ever seen saved my life tonight.

Midnight Snack

The Best Dip for Granny Smith Apples in the World 

Ingredients

8oz Cream Cheese 

7oz Marshmallow Creme

Directions:

mash it all together and dip away

Friday Night's New Recipe

Dear Martha thanks so much for the recipe! Apparently Brian has got a little weary of the 15 or so old standbys in the recipe box and now that i have a kitchen to cook in, i guess its time to get to it! I don't cook a lot with pork... its just not my favorite thing in the world... wait, unless its drowned in bbq sauce, smoked, made into sausage or hotdogs... do pork rinds count? ok so well i do like pork but chops are hard for me... what do you do with those? mine are always tough and bland :( dearest Martha spiced these chops right up! and Brian gave them 2 thumbs up and with his mouth full gave me permission to cook them anytime i want ;) i was a little overwhelmed by the coriander, myself... i was surprised to find that cilantro and coriander come from the same plant, i don't like cilantro either- ha! coriander is too sweet maybe? or floral? its edible but just not my cup of tea (unless its in masala chai and then i definitely don't mind the coriander)

Pork Chops with Herb Stuffing

     

Prep: 15 minutes
Total: 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Serves 4

• 1 cup cubed (3/8 inch) rustic bread, without crusts
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, and 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion, and 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup plus one tablespoon mixed chopped parsley and thyme
• 2 1/4 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons chicken stock
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 bone-in pork chops (9 ounces each), cut horizontally to the bone
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup dry sherry

          Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast bread cubes on a baking sheet until golden, about 7 minutes. Heat butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Cook onion, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add celery; cook 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl. Reserve skillet. Toss bread, herbs, 1/4 teaspoon coriander, and 3 tablespoons stock with onion mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Stuff chops. Using a fork, mix and mash garlic, 2 teaspoons coriander, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon oil; rub onto pork. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes; flip, and transfer skillet to oven. Cook until pork registers 155 degrees, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a plate; cover.
3. Add sherry and 1/2 cup stock to skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until reduced by half. Serve with pork