Mar 13

Rugbrød – Danish Sourdough Rye Bread

Following on from the Ikea Brödmix Flerkorn post, I was inspired to create my own version of rugbrød (Danish rye bread). Since this is a naturally risen bread, I had to first create a sourdough starter since I had let my last one die a while ago. Bad owner.

Making kibbled rye

Trying to make kibbled rye

As well as a sourdough starter I needed rye flour, rye berries (i.e. the whole grain) and kibbled rye (or sometimes called cut rye). The rye flour was easy enough, as most supermarkets carry it, but I went all over town looking for the rye berries and could only get them at Central Market. Kibbled rye was impossible to find, so I would had to produce it myself from the whole rye berries. I first tried to smash the rye grains with a motar and pestle without success. I tried cutting them in the food processor, but they quickly turned to flour. In the end I put them on a shallow metal tray and cut them using an Ulu. I think if I make rugbrød again I will invest in a small hand cranked grain mill.

 

Stage one of making rugbrød

Stage one of making rugbrød

Stage 1 – Ingredients

  • 500g rye flour
  • 100g whole rye berries
  • 200g sourdough starter. see previous post on Sourdough pet
  • 150g kibbled rye
  • 750ml water
  • 1 tsp salt

Mix all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, cover and leave to rise for approx. 12 hours. The mixture should be smelling sour and have risen by half. If you didn’t keep some of your sourdough starter, you can keep some of this mixture.

Stage 2 – Ingredients

  • 150g kibbled rye
  • 200g rye flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 150ml water

Mix the second batch of ingredients into the mixture. At this stage the mixture should be as hard to stir as concrete, but you can adjust with more water and flour if it is too loose or too tight. Transfer the mixture to 2, well greased bread tins approx 125mm x 230mm x 65mm (9″ x 5″ x 2.5″) leaving approx 3cm (1″) gap at the top of the tin for expansion. Place the tins in a switched off oven with a tray of boiling water in the bottom and leave for approx. 4 hours for the second rising. Remove the tray of water, set the oven to 160C (320F) and leave the bread to cook for approx 3 hours.

Enjoy slices with lashings of butter or use it to make Smørrebrød (Danish open sandwiches).I believe the Danes have an expression for the amount of butter you should spread on your bread called ‘tand smør’, which literately translates as ‘tooth butter’. This should be enough butter, so you can see teeth marks in it when you take a bite.

Rugbrød with butter

 

Mar 13

Herbs de Provence Rub

Herbs de Provence, Kosher Salt and Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

Herbs de Provence with Kosher Salt and Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

There is this glass jar of Herbs de Provence that was mentioned in the post What is in your spice rack? that exists in the kitchen. Honestly, I have been skeptical of using it in my cooking. My skepticism is founded simply because I am not sure how to use this mixture.

Herb de Provence sounds French and many, but not all of the herbs included in the mixture are used in the region of Provence, France. There appears to be little consensus on what herbs should be included in the melange of herbs. Review of different sources have eleven herbs included and others only use seven with another utilizing only six. Some include Lavender where other omit this ingredient completely. There are those that include Oregano, but exclude Basil. You can see why there is some trepidation on my part for using this mixture in my cooking. The uses of Herbs de Provence appear to be endless if you believe all that you read on the internet. It can be used on poultry, fish, added to stews, included in cooking oil then used with roast vegetables and potatoes.

The other week I was going to roast a whole chicken and knew I wanted something more then just salt and black pepper to be applied to this skin of the bird. I wanted to impart some flavor. Likewise, I also knew that herbs by themselves can be a little too subtle without the inclusion of salt. Not to mention I wanted to use the drippings from the roasting in a gravy. So I took a chance and decided to make a modified rub.

Ingredients:

  • 1 TSP of Herbs de Provence
  • 1 TSP of Salt (I used Kosker)
  • 1 TSP of Fresh Cracked Black Pepper (Ground would be fine, but I think you would short yourself on flavor)

I mixed all of the ingredients together in a small bowl and then applied them to the skin of the chicken. The result was better then I had expected., This does not mean that I will become a user of Herbs de Provence in my every day cooking, but I am willing to consider the mixture for other uses. What I will probably do after the jar of herbs has been finished is to create my own Herbs de Provence mix and tweak the ingredients to suit my own personal tastes.

 

Mar 12

The easiest bread you will ever make – Brodmix Flerkorn

Last week we were given a box of Brödmix Flerkorn (Swedish for multi-grain bread mix) by some Danish friends. The bread mix is sold in Ikea and makes a type of rye bread popular in Scandinavia, and in Denmark would be called rugbrød, which is the basis of Smørrebrød (Danish open sandwiches). The is quite a following on the Internet for Ikea’s Brödmix Flerkorn as ex-pat Scandinavians clamber to get their fix of the tasty rye bread to remind them of home. There is even a Facebook fan-page for it. It was originally available in the Finax’s, the manufacturer, own packaging, but now it comes in Ikea’s own labelling.

The bread mix is the height of convenience, as all you do to make it, is open the milk style carton, pour in a quantity of water, give it a good shake, rest, pour into a bread tin, rest and then cook. No kneading. The only slightly off putting thing is powering the mixture from the carton isn’t the most appetising sight, but the bread it wonderfully rustic, chewy and a little tang from the sourdough like flavour.

Unlike wheat breads there is very little gluten in rye, so therefore the bread doesn’t rise much, which means the bread is quite dense and a little heavy. You don’t need a lot to make you feel full. It is great just on its own with butter, or cheese, meats, etc. It is even great with Marmite, though that might get you into trouble with the Danish Food and Veterinary Administration 🙂

Mar 11

Crazy for Crawfish – Twist, Suck, Peel

Boiled Crawfish

Boiled Crawfish with Corn and Potatoes

Discarded Crawfish

Crawfish after they have been twisted, sucked and peeled

From March to June all along the Gulf Coast in the United States there is a food craze that transcends ethnicity and where someone was raised. Crawfish Season has arrived and whether it is done at home, eaten at a Cajun restaurant, Louisiana eatery, fundraiser, catered, a social event or even a Vietnamese restaurant the smell, sounds and visions of mounds of boiled seasoned crawfish being devoured by the hungry masses is a common sight.

There are experts and those dedicated to the Crawfish Boil whose knowledge, passion and zeal is so great that I will not even attempt to explain how to prepare and cook Crawfish for a meal. There is plenty of information available on the internet to keep the curious busy for days on perfecting their own Crawfish Boil.

I really do not remember when I ate my first Crawfish when I moved to Houston in 1996. It must have been either that year or in 1997. What I do remember is that the process of twisting off the tail, sucking the head and pinching the meat from the tail seemed so natural as if I had been born in Louisiana. If you have ever sat down to each Maryland Blue Claw Crabs, the skill required to enjoy Crawfish is kids play. This is part of what makes eating Crawfish so much fun, it is easy to do.

Crawfish are located around the world and are enjoyed by many cultures with their own unique preparation and cooking styles. In the United States, Louisiana reigns supreme with the Crawfish Boil being an ingrained element of their culture. Thankfully, Houston, TX is a short drive ensuring that tons of live Crawfish are delivered in damp burlap bags to be enjoyed. Louisiana produces 90% of the Crawfish harvested in the United States with a annual harvest ranging between 75 million to 105 millions pounds depending upon environmental variables. The cool winter experienced in 2010-2011 decreased production, but with the warm winter of 2011-2010 a large harvest should be expected. Crawfish are harvested both through aquaculture and by catching them in the wild.

For me, a large pile of seasoned boiled (poached) Crawfish in front of me with a cold beer close at hand with friends sitting around the table is a great experience. I do look forward to the coming of Spring and the delivery of the Crawfish from Louisiana. This year’s first Crawfish Boil was made possible by my good friend Nancy.

Mar 09

Keeping a sourdough pet

There are two main ways of naturally leavening or making a dough rise. The most common one used today is Saccharomyces, a cultivated form of yeast and the other, older method is using a Lactobacillus culture, usually in symbiotic combination with natural yeasts to create sourdough. Since the rise in popularity of wheat based breads which can easily be leavened with yeast alone, sourdoughs have fallen out of favour since they take a bit more work, and care is needed to look after the starter. However with a little effort, sourdough makes bread with a wonderful flavour, a longer shelf life and it has even been suggested that the bacteria can help balance your intestinal flora, ease digestion and could help with gluten intolerance.

Sourdough starter bubbling

Sourdough starter bubbling away happily

Before you can make sourdough bread, you first have to create a sourdough starter, also called a levain. Technically all you need to create a sourdough starter is a flour, water, a jar and time, though it can be a bit tricky sometime to capture the wild yeasts and bacteria, and encourage them to create a culture where they live in complete symbiosis. You can buy starters over the Internet, which I have used, but the easiest method I have found is as follows;

Take a clean wide mouthed jar or plastic container, add 2tbsp of rye flour, about 4tbsp of clean water, mix together into a loose paste , loosely cover the container and leave. After anything between a day and 3 days you should start to smell lactic acid, which smells a bit like vinegar and see small bubbles appearing. If so then you have a sourdough starter, if not then wait a bit longer or start again. If you don’t have rye flour, try organic whole-meal, or even organic plain flour to see if that helps, but I find that rye works pretty much every time.

Keeping a sourdough pet

Keeping a sourdough pet

Once you have your starter, you now have to treat it like a pet, feeding it, pampering it and you could even give it a name if you want to. If you are not making a lot of bread you can keep it in a sealed container in the fridge. Every 3 or 4 days, take it out, remove half of it (use or discard it), add 1 tbsp of rye flour, 2tbsp of water, mix and return it to the fridge.

If you need to use some of your starter to make bread, repeat the previous procedure, but with the half you have removed, add it to a bowl with a cup (150g) of flour (this can be any type depending on the type of bread you wish to make), a cup (150ml) of water, mix, cover and leave for a day to double in size. Now you can start making your bread, remembering to take into account the weight of the starter when adding it to your recipe.

You may find that after a while you starter loses vitality and there are methods and tricks to give it a kick-start again, but since it is pretty easy to get going you can start afresh. However some sourdough starters have been passed down through the generations and some in San Francisco are over 150 years old. Sourdough makes great white breads, pizza bases, rye breads, pancakes, etc. that have far more flavour than normal breads. They are also great for making toast and have a unique texture, that is both crunchy and chewy. The Sourdough Companion has hundreds of recipes if you are interested in making any.

 

For anyone who doesn’t know about the sock puppets, watch this Alton Brown episode of Good Eats.