That, dear blog reader, is the sound of my frustration. You haven't seen a post from me in more than a month. The reason for this? Blogspot hates me. You see, I have done all sorts of delicious cooking so far this year. Spanakopita! Minestrone with five different kinds of vegetable! Oatmeal breakfast bars! The list goes on. But every time I try to upload photos, write a post, anything, the website goes wonky and nothing works right and I get reeeeally frustrated, hurl objects and expletives at my computer, and retreat in utter defeat.
So, that's why I've been a failure of a blogger for the past several weeks. I've been doing a hell of a job cooking awesome foods, and I've actually attempted to post every new recipe here. It's just that my efforts have been thwarted. I'll keep plugging away with this #&$@~^% site, but I cannot promise that anything good will come of it.
I have been delinquent in my blogging duties! Doing my taxes, trying to find a new pair of running shoes, and searching for a job were my priorities this week, so writing here took a backseat. Still, I've been in the kitchen a bit. Last weekend I made a foray into baking yeast bread, and while it feels like a step up from the quickbreads I've done in the past (banana, pumpkin, honey whole wheat) in terms of Kitchen Seriousness--and this is only because it required yeast, which I've never used before--it still doesn't feel like bona fide bread-baking because there was no kneading, punching, folding or proofing.
However, it did yield some amazing, carby deliciousness. Which is really all I needed. The original recipe called for all whole wheat flour; as this was my first time using whole wheat flour (rather than whole-wheat pastry flour, which I use in almost all my baked goods), I didn't know if it would be too intense, or bitter, or something. And because I love the textural variety that cornmeal adds, I thought I'd throw in some of that as well.
Whole wheat bread Adapted from ZestyCook Yield: one gargantuan loaf Time: About 1 hour
1 tsp. honey 2 2/3 c. lukewarm water, divided 4 tsp. dry active yeast 3 Tbsp. molasses 3 c. whole wheat flour 1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 c. medium-grind cornmeal 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 c. wheat germ 1 T. rolled oats
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly oil a not-too-small loaf pan. (I have two sizes, and I opted for the larger one, whose dimensions I don't know. This is probably the world's least helpful note.) 2. Stir honey into 2/3 c. water. Sprinkle yeast over mixture, and set aside for 10 minutes. All yeast should be dissolved into the liquid. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, sift together flours and cornmeal. 3. Stir molasses into 2/3 c. water, and combine with yeast mixture. 4. Stir yeast mixture into dry ingredients. Add salt, wheat germ and remaining 1 1/3 c. water, and stir until incorporated. Dough will be sticky. 5. Pour dough into prepared pan, smooth top with a spoon or spatula, and sprinkle rolled oats over dough. Allow dough to rise to top of pan.
(dough before rising)
(after about 15 minutes)
6. Bake 30-40 minutes. 7. Cool loaf while still in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Then turn loaf out of pan and allow to cool completely on the rack.
The large size of the loaf combined with my utter lack of knife skills meant that I could only hack off thick pieces from the loaf. So I used this to dunk into soups and to make open-faced peanut butter and banana sandwiches. And I loved it!
This was how I spent last Friday morning, and there was minimal cooking for the rest of the day. Saturday, I had dinner out with my parents and favorite aunt and uncle, and Sunday we cooked simple grilled chicken and broiled eggplant with a Middle Eastern recipe from How to Cook Everything for lentils with rice and caramelized onions. I'm not sure whether I made it properly--I was expecting discrete, defined lentils but instead got a mass of mush--so until I know I won't be posting it here.
Last night I decided to try out Mark Bittman's polenta pizza recipe from How to Cook Everything. I was reminded of my desire to try this recipe earlier in the week, when I spotted a variation to the HtCE recipe in the Wednesday dining section of the Times. Given that the variation included pancetta, which clearly breaks The Pork Rule, I chose to follow the original, although somewhat loosely, as I wanted to top it with spicy sauteed broccoli rabe and aged provolone—a match made in heaven, if you ask me.
So I was ambitious: I made red sauce from scratch, I prepared the broccoli rabe (sauteed with garlic and red pepper flakes, then braised with water until the stems were tender), and I made a batch of polenta. All of these were first-timers for me, and I'm proud of myself for doing each one. But the end product, the pizza itself, wasn't what I'd hoped. The crust wasn't firm enough to hold up to a spatula sliding underneath it as I tried to plate each piece. I suspect that one of these facts may have contributed to this disappointing result:
I might have flattened the polenta too thin in certain spots
I should have let the polenta rest and firm up a while longer before topping and baking it (this step was included in the published version of the recipe, but not in the HtCE version, though it should be noted that MB used different ingredients, such as milk, in the polenta in the published version, too)
I may have topped the polenta with too many wet ingredients
I'm not sure what is to blame, but I do know that I have more experimenting to do before posting my adaptation of the recipe here. Because while everything was exceptionally delicious, it looked a lot less like pizza and a lot more like a mess on a plate.
Tonight my dad and I are making: salmon baked with lemon and dill, potatoes Poupon (recipe to come tomorrow) and wilted arugula. I am also enjoying, as I type this in fact (!), a homemade margarita: lime juice, tequila, Cointreau, a splash of lemon juice. I'm still figuring out how the proportions, and until I do, you don't get the recipe. I think the best version was one I made over the summer and included some lemonade.
