Mar 29

Classic Ciabatta Bread Recipe – Not as classic as you may think

Ciabatta literally means slipper translated from Italian, and though the shape of the bread vaguely resembles a slipper, it must belong to a clown. The loaf itself is elongated, broad, flat and irregularly shaped, usually with large air bubbles, a crisp crust and a soft, chewy texture. It is excellent for making into sandwiches, if cut along its length or for dipping into olive oil or soup.

Ciabatta is a fairly modern bread, and though similar breads, and methods for producing them have existing for centuries, what we know today as Ciabatta was developed by Arnaldo Cavallari in 1982. His recipe for Ciabatta ends up with a very wet dough, which can be a little tricky to handle and can be a bit intimidating for the novice bread maker, because it is unlike normal bread production.

To make Ciabatta you first have to create a ‘biga’ or pre-ferment, similar to the French pre-ferment ‘Poolish. To add complexity to the bread’s flavour and texture, a lot of modern Italian breads incorporate the use of a biga, since the advent of bakers yeast replaced sourdough.

Ingredients for the Biga

  • 1 cup (235ml) tepid water
  • 1.5 cups (355g) unbleached white bread flour
  • 0.5 tsp rapid rise active dry yeast

Method for the Biga

First add a little warm (not hot) water to the yeast in a small bowl to activate it and leave for a couple of minutes. Pour the rest of the water into a mixing bowl, the yeast mixture and then sprinkle on the flour. Mix the ingredients together for a couple of minutes to form a wet paste. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (cling film) and leave in a warm place to rise and develop for at least 12 hours.

Ciabatta biga

The biga after 12 hours

 

Ingredients of the Ciabatta dough (2 loaves)

  • The biga
  • 1 cup (235ml) of tepid water
  • 2 tbls milk
  • 2 tbls olive oil
  • 3 cups (710g) unbleached white bread flour
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 0.5 tsp sugar
  • 0.25 tsp rapid rise active dry yeast

Method for the Ciabatta

Like before add a little warm (not hot) water to the yeast in a small bowl to activate it and leave for a couple of minutes. To a large mixing bowl add the yeast mixture, water, sugar, salt, olive oil, milk and the biga. Use a wooden spoon to break up the biga a little. Add the flour and mix until it comes together. DO NOT be tempted to add more flour, it is meant to be very wet.

Knead the dough with your hands (don’t be scared of it) for about 10mins, cover with plastic wrap and then leave in a warm place for about an hour until it has tippled in size. You could use a dough-hook or a bread maker for kneading the dough if you have one.

Ciabatta dough risen

Ciabatta dough risen

Using a dough scraper or spatula pour half the dough onto a well floured baking sheet (repeat for the other half) and form into a rough rectangular shape using well floured hands. Pull and stretch the dough to approx 1cm (0.4″) in thickness, but be careful not to knock the air out of the dough. Sprinkle some flour over the dough and leave uncovered in a warm place for about 30mins to rise again.

Ciabatta shaped ready for the ovenPre-heat the oven to 425F (220C) and cook the loaves for about 25-30mins until well risen and light golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Ciabatta with olive oilOther options are to make Ciabatta rolls instead of loaves or you could also add add herbs, oil, or olives to the Ciabatta dough before baking it which turns out a bread that sort of resembles focaccia, another popular Italian bread.

Mar 29

Lightly Breaded Fried Fish Never Hurt Anyone

Fish Filets Dredged in Seasoned Flour and Corn Starch

Fish Filets Dredged in Seasoned Flour and Corn Starch

Fish Filets Frying In Skillet

Fish Filets Frying in a Skillet

Fried Filet of Cod

Fried Fish Filet

I will admit, I am a relative late comer to cooking fish, yet alone frying fish. Over the years, so to speak “I have dipped my toe in the water” when it comes to cooking fish, but I have had a significant amount of unfounded skepticism of my own capabilities. Sometimes I think watching Iron Chef America and Chopped on the Food Channel has increased my wariness. It is only in the last year have I begun to cook with fish with greater frequency. Despite this increasing use of fish, until this week, I have stayed far away from frying fish. I very rarely fry foods, not because of health reasons, but all too often fried food is too heavy with the breading / batter. This experimentation with frying fish was a compounded new experience. Therefore when in doubt and due to my inherent mistrust of instructions in recipes [ironic], I asked my friends Stuart and Regina how to fry fish.

Bottom line, I cannot believe it is this easy.

Selecting the fish filet is a personal choice. I have played it safe and used Tilapia and Cod, but depending on what is available, any light bodied fish (Tilapia, Cod, Swai, Red Snapper and Catfish to name a few) will serve your purpose. if you are going to use individually frozen fish filets, then make sure they are defrosted prior to making the dish.

Ingredients:

  • 4 x Fish Filets (make sure the in bone is completely removed – run your finger along the ridges of the filet)
  • 4 x Limes (cut in half)
  • 1 x Cup of All Purpose Flour
  • 1/2 x Cup of Corn Starch
  • 1 x TSP of Salt
  • 1 x Tsp of Ground Black Pepper
  • Vegetable Oil

 

Instructions:

  1. Thoroughly combine the Flour, Corn Starch, Salt and Ground Black Pepper in a pie dish / plate / casserole dish.
  2. Wash the Fish Filets and pat them dry.
  3. Squeeze a half of Lime on each side of the filet.
  4. Dredge each Fish Filet through the dry mixture. Basically this means to apply a light coating of the dry mixture to all surfaces of the Fish Filet.
  5. Heat a skillet on Medium to Medium High and pour enough vegetable oil in the skillet to cover the entire bottom of the skillet.
  6. When the oil is hot, place the breaded Fish Filets in the skillet. Cook for three minutes.
  7. Gently flip the Fish Filet and cook for another three minutes.
  8. Remove from the skillet and place on a paper towels to soak any excess vegetable oil.

Serve the lightly breaded and fried with your preferred sauce or topping and side of vegetables. It really is this simple to prepare a light yet very flavorful filet of fish.

 

Mar 28

Pea and Asparagus Soup

I subscribe to the old fashioned method of preparing asparagus, i.e. snapping. Snapping the asparagus stem between your fingers near the base ensures that you are left with a tender piece in one hand and a woodier piece in the other. However, there is more waste with this method, instead of just cutting off and peeling the bottom portion. To ensure that nothing goes to waste I chop up the normally discarded ends and use them for making fresh pea and asparagus soup. If I’m not going to make the soup for a while, or don’t have enough asparagus ends, I bag them up and put them in the freezer for later.

Snapping Asparagus

Snapping Asparagus

This soup is very easy to make, very tasty and thrifty, because as well as using the discarded asparagus ends, I also use re-grown green onions (spring onions) and home-made chicken stock. The recipe was developed from my wife’s recipe, but she uses tinned asparagus for convenience.

Recipe for Asparagus and Pea Soup

Total time: 30 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 pint of chicken stock
  • 9 green onions (spring onions)
  • 1lb (450g) of frozen peas
  • 5.5oz (150g) fresh asparagus
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Crispy bacon pieces, crème fraiche, cooked asparagus tips or croutons to garnish

You could substitute the fresh asparagus ends for canned (tinned) asparagus for a quicker soup and also you could use split peas instead of frozen peas for a cheaper soup.

Asparagus ends

Asparagus ends

Chopped green onions

Chopped green onions

Method
Sauté the green onions in a little vegetable, or olive oil, then add the asparagus, the chicken stock and the peas. Bring to a boil and then to a simmer. Cook the soup for about 20-25mins until the asparagus ends are tender. Use a hand blender and purée the soup until smooth and free from lumps. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with a choice of crispy bacon pieces, crème fraiche, croutons or some cooked asparagus tips.

Pea and Asparagus Soup

Pea and Asparagus Soup

To increase the thrift, I keep the fat after frying the bacon in a bowl in the fridge. It’s a really good way of adding flavour to any dish. Try to use uncured bacon to cut down on the nitrates.

Mar 28

Mushroom Marketing Mania

Portabella Mushrooms Loose in Box

Medium Sized Portabella Mushrooms

White Mushrooms Loose in Box

White Button Cap Mushrooms

Crimini Mushrooms

Crimini Mushrooms

Mature Agaricus bisporus (Common Mushroom)

Large Packaged Portabella Mushrooms

The phrase “a fool and their money are soon parted” is an appropriate for the marketing madness that surrounds the simple fungi Agaricus bisporus. There is a reason why advertising / marketing executives are known as Madmen and we are even crazier for getting sucked into their gimmicks.

For everyone that raves about the earthy, meaty complex flavor of large portabella mushrooms, say hello to the older sibling of the common white button mushroom. There are only two distinctions between the portabella mushroom and the white button cap. The first is the number of days in which it is harvested and the second is that the white button cap is nothing more then a genetic mutant with only the color being different.

Agaricus bisporus is sold under many different names dependent upon the color, size and location. Here are some of the more familiar names you will find in the grocery store, farmer’s market and menu’s of restaurants:

  • Common mushroom
  • Button mushroom
  • White mushroom
  • Table mushroom
  • Champignon mushroom
  • Crimini mushroom
  • Swiss brown mushroom
  • Roman brown mushroom
  • Italian brown
  • Italian mushroom
  • Cultivated mushroom
  • Portobello mushroom
  • Portabella mushroom
  • Portabello mushroom
  • Baby Bella mushroom

Regardless of the name in which is is marketed or sold, they are all the same. Native to both Europe and North America, the first record of Agaricus bisporus being commercially harvested was in France in the early 18th Century with the first pure cultured being isolated by the Pasteur Institute in the late 19th Century. The white button mushroom that is so familiar today was identified by a Pennsylvanian farmer in his mushroom bed. It was simply a genetic mutant of a brown colored Agaricus bisporus.

Having grown up just south of “mushroom country” in and around Kennet Square, Pennsylvania I always took the abundance of white button caps for granted and the smell of the mushroom soil as a fact of life. I never knew that an entire industry was based upon a genetic mutation of a brown colored Agaricus bisporus to a white mushroom. Likewise, after nearly 80 years of white mushrooms reigning supreme, the original colored and even maturer (later harvested) siblings command a higher price at the grocery stores. Simply amazing…

 

Mar 27

Asparagus Pee

Some people believe that their urine doesn’t smell after they eat asparagus, however it has been found that the majority of people produce odorous compounds after eating asparagus, but only a small number of people have the autosomal genes required to smell them.

Read more…