English Muffin Bread

For the last post of this year, I will end with bread. This time an English Muffin Bread with a recipe from my Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. This bread comes to us from a small bakery in Oregon. It has the addition of baking soda after the first rising which I presume account for its name, since that gives it a texture close to English Muffins. Very light and soft batter. The top is a bit wrinkly since the wax paper stuck to the top during the second rising and I had to tear it off. Great toasted and fine on its own with both savory and sweet toppings. The addition of baking soda is what is supposed to give it a bit of a marbled look.

Buckwheat Bread

Always up for trying something new to me, I've been up for trying to make a Buckwheat Bread. Pretty strait forward recipe, but not too much rise, especially the second rise.

As to taste, well then, what can I use to describe it? Bitter, and not pleasant to my taste buds. I'm not sure if its just the buckwheat or the combination with molasses in the recipe that I don't like.

Buckwheat is not a grain at all, but is a plant related to rhubarb. Its the seeds that are used in a variety of cuisines to make porridge, blinis, pancakes and the like. Its often used in breads too for those with gluten allergies. It is one of the healthiest grain substitutes out there. That being said, I do not like the taste of this bread!

Brioche

It was time to try one of the classics: brioche. What self respecting bread baker can call herself that without attempting this all time favorite. Funny thing is that I've only ever had brioche before when I was travelling in France many, many years ago.

Very rich dough requiring the use of up to 6 eggs, plus one for the wash prior to baking and one half pound of butter. I searched through my cookbooks and found a number of recipes for brioche, including American and French versions. They were all a bit different in terms of relative quantities of ingredients. The French versions all included a fermentation stage in the fridge overnight. I ended up using Craig Claiborne's version from the New York Times Cookbook. It also had an initial step requiring using 1 cup of flour, added to the yeast softened in lukewarm water. This is mixed until smooth and than placed in a bowl and covered with lukewarm water and left to sit till the ball floats. This ball is then added to the rest of the flour and other ingredients. I've since discovered that this is a very old fashioned way of slowing down the fermentation time and help develop the gluten strands. Quite neat.

Once I kneaded the bread and let it rise the first time, it was punched down and put in a bowl and left in the refrigerator over night for the fermentation stage. The following morning I found the dough to have doubled in size and very easy to cut up and form each of the individual brioche. Another rise and bake  I do not have proper fluted brioche pans so I used muffin tins. I am quite pleased with the results!! And they are quite yummy to boot.

Chinese Pork with Jicama

According to my old 365 Ways to Cook Chinese, they love jicama once it was introduced to them, because of its crunchiness. Who knew? I've been looking for new recipes to be able to use this vegetable, now that I've been introduced. So here we have a dish using fast fry pork, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, with a dash of sesame oil at the end. Pork and jicama cut into strips. I decided it needed some colour, so I added pepper to the mix. Lovely texture and nice zing to the taste.

Persimmon Jam

Being high on trying new ( to me) fruits and vegetables, I spotted persimmon in the grocery store just before Christmas. Now I may have had them before but not that I remember. Not sure why. Decided to try some and make them into jam. A little research showed that they were often used in jam and in cookies and puddings in the past, so I'm guessing that they were more readily grown and available in the past. More checking showed that persimmons have a lot of anti-oxidants. low in calories and high in fiber. What's not to like. Jam is nice, a bit tart, taste of the fruit a bit delicate. I must get some more and let them ripen more to have uncooked. I did try some before I cooked it for jam, and I found it bland.

Carrot and Date Pudding with Cardamom Sticky Sauce

What is Christmas dinner without a pudding! I found a recipe for this Halwa style Carrot and Date Pudding with a variation of a Sticky Cardamom Sauce in the most recent LCBO Winter magazine. Seemed interesting and appropriate. Easy recipe made in muffin pans. Heat in microwave and serve with just made sauce. Quite light and lovely.

Lobster Bisque

New tradition? Maybe, maybe not. For many years now, its been our tradition to have a light supper on Christmas Eve. For many years that has been Clam Chowder. This year I decided I needed to make a different soup, with more of a pureed  or creme base. Mostly because my 100 year old mom has a hard time  with "bits" in her soup!

So this year I decided to try Lobster Bisque. After looking at a number of recipes I settled on the one in the New York Times Cookbook, with a couple of variations. I added some celery and horse radish, as well as a bit of my spice mixture with its cayenne base. Had a kick, pleasant flavour, but not too special. Maybe next year I'll try something different again.

Tulband

What with Christmas baking, I have become somewhat nostalgic about growing up in a bakery. Well not literally, but close enough. We had an apartment above the bakery and by the time I was 10 or 11, it was help out after school. By the age of 14 I was helping with the baking itself.

This venture in baking and more adventurous cooking, has also led me to recollect about traditional pastries and cakes that my father made every year for special events like Christmas. One of these was a very light type of fruitcake, baked in a bundt pan. I could not for the life of me remember what it was called. I seemed to remember " moskovisch" being part of the name. Doing some research I came to realize that Tulband is what I remembered. I did find a recipe, but not among my dad's old recipe books, but on line from someone who found the recipe in a very old cookbook from the 1950s. That would fit in that our bakery was opened in 1954. It was often referred to as Moskovisch Tulband that  being a reference to what may have been a Russian source for the original.

I followed the recipe and while good, its not quite the texture or flavour I remember. It asked for 3 eggs separated, with the whites beaten to stiff peaks. The yolks were just to be mixed with sugar. Then a little bit of flour with some butter mixed in, and raisins and peel, all folded in together. I baked it in my dad's old tulband pans and even used to little one to form the top.

The result is tasty but not quite as I remember. Less airy and not quite as much of a zing in taste.  While going through the recipe, it seemed to me that the yolks should have been beaten till light and airy as well, and that it needed some grated lemon or orange rind for flavour. Will do that next time when I experiment with my own version of the recipe. maybe I will even find my dad's.

Rapini Soup with Lime

I love rapini, or broccoli rabe as it is sometimes called, because it has such a strong flavour . Jolts our jaded palate. The bonus is its reported cancer fighting properties, keeps bones strong and helps fight heart disease, as well as acting as a detox agent, according to a variety of sources. And who can't use a little detoxing help around Christmas!!

I usually serve the small heads that look like broccoli, as a vegetable but what to do with the stems and the leaves? Well, soup of course. Add onions, garlic and potato. Little bit of chili pepper and lime juice and here we have it.

Bay Scallops with Lemon, Chili and Coriander Sauce

I have been looking for scallops and finally found some. Not sure why they have been in short supply. Tried a new recipe using a variation of a Piri Piri Sauce. Served with lemongrass rice and spinach. A hit. Sauce had a bit of bite with the tartness of the lemon.

Dutch Butter Cookies

I've made fewer "new" cookies than I had planned. The old favourites must be available! But then lately I've been trying to remember a number of cookies and baking that my dad made for our bakery. Mom only eats pale coloured cookies these days. She leaves darker varieties behind for some reason. I think the paler ones stand out more. And they can't be hard. So I remembered  Boter Biesjes and tried to find a recipe I can use. My dad's recipes are ingredients only and for large quantities. I found  a number of likely recipes on line, but this one is the closest. The only credit is that they are called Dan's Dutch Butter Cookies. Turned out to be crisp and buttery and good!

Five Spice Pork with Aubergine and Zucchini

I've been feeling less than inspired to try new recipes lately. The season must have something to do with that, plus mom is becoming more of a challenge. However, today I did try this recipe for pork with Chinese Five Spice powder, which I have. The recipe, from my 365 Ways to Cook Chinese, called for asparagus but I used the thin and narrow oriental eggplant or aubergine, plus a zucchini I had in the bottom of my vegie drawer. Decided to make the sauce a bit hotter by adding fresh ginger and Chinese chili sauce. The result tasted great with rice and  aside dish of steamed bok choy.