I’ve been so in to the baking part of this whole sourdough extravaganza, that I haven’t wanted to take time to post about it! I just pulled my 4th? 5th? batch out of the oven. Therefore it is high time I caught up here. Though I’m really supposed to be doing work-work.

The original sourdough – batch one!

Classic Sourdough Bread (from King Arthur Flour)
9 ounces “fed” sourdough starter
12 ounces lukewarm water
5 to 6 cups unbleached AP flour
1 T salt
1 T sugar
cornmeal to sprinkle on pans

Pour the starter into a large mixing bowl. Add the water and 3 cups of flour. Beat vigorously. Cover this sponge with plastic wrap and put it aside to work. The period can be very flexible, but allow at least 2 hours and up to 8 hours. A longer period at a lower temperature will result in a more sour flavor. – This is very true. Longer sitting == much better flavor, if the sour bit is really what you’re after.

After the dough has bubbled and expanded, remove the plastic wrap. Blend in the salt, sugar, and remaining 2 cups of flour. Mix until the dough comes together, then knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add only enough extra flour to keep the dough from sticking. Place the dough in the bowl, cover, and let it rise until doubled, 1 to 2 hours.

Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into an oval loaf and place on a lightly greased, cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled. This can take up to 2 hours. Remove the cover, slash the tops, and bake in a preheated 450F oven for approx. 20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack. Yield: 2 loaves. Note 2: this bread is tasty. It won’t last long. Try to let it cool for at least a little bit before you dig in.

After such a good experience with my “white flour” starter, I wanted to try a batch with my whole wheat flour starter. For batch 2, I tried a different recipe: Sourdough Bread with Yeast. I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures while I was making it.

Sourdough Bread with Yeast – also from King Arthur Flour
9 ounces “fed” sourdough starter
12 ounces lukewarm water (you may need more with Whole Wheat flour)
1 T sugar
2 t instant yeast
5.5 to 6.5 cups AP flour (I used 5 cups of Whole Wheat)
1 T salt
cornmeal for sprinkling on baking pans

Combine all of the ingredients, using only 5 cups of the flour. Knead to form a smooth, soft dough, adding additional flour as needed. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Divide the dough in half and shape into two oval loaves. Place on a lightly greased, cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet. Cover, and let rise for an hour, until doubled. Slash the tops and bake in a preheaded 450F oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack. Yield: 2 loaves.

This made a tasty bread with a dense crumb and very few holes, and a very faint sourdough flavor. It’s good, but I don’t know that I would have recognized it as a sourdough bread. My educated guess is that the limited sourdough-ness of this recipe is due to the lack of the sponge phase and not because of the whole wheat flour. I need to try the first recipe with whole wheat flour to be sure.

I took some of these breads in to work so that my friends could try it and I took the rest of it to GR last weekend for the fam to enjoy.

This past Friday we had a good snowstorm, which meant a work from home day. Since I work on my laptop in the kitchen, I couldn’t resist throwing another batch of Classic Sourdough together. This time I didn’t let the sponge phase last very long, only about 3 hours, because I wanted to have the bread finished in time for dinner. The whole process took about 9 hours, from beginning the sponge to pulling it out of the oven. I also decided to make one big loaf rather than two smaller loaves. The end result was a bread with an excellent, light crumb, ample holes, and a mild sour flavor. The large size was definitely impressive looking and I would do it again, especially if we were having other people over for dinner.

Of course I forgot to take a picture.

Guess what I did this weekend? Got my sourdough starter going. I have two containers – one fed with King Arthur organic all purpose flour and one started with KA organic ap but fed with KA organic whole wheat.

Guess what I did this morning before I left for work? Started a batch of sourdough bread. This recipe has you create a “sponge” with a cup of starter, three cups of flour and 1.5 cups of water. It calls for a 2 to 8 hour rise or fermentation, though mine will be closer to the 8-9 hr mark. When I get home I’ll add more flour, knead it, rise it for a couple more hours and then bake it. I didn’t have time to take pictures this morning but I’ll take pictures tonight and I’ll post with more details about the process. Very exciting!

5.3 oz container.

In a word, yuck.

I like TJ’s plain Greek Style yogurt but the honey flavored cup is too sweet, too chalky, a little bitter and all around unpleasant. It really tastes twice as sweet as real honey and that’s not a good thing. I’ve gotten through about a third of it and I don’t think I can choke down any more. For 120 calories in the 5.3 oz cup, it’s definitely not worth it. This product would be much better if it was mostly plain yogurt with a drizzle of honey on top.

I hope I’ve helped to save you a dollar.

If you’ve been watching this space for awhile, you know that I made a lot of soup and other dishes over the course of the summer and fall. I have a 5 ft tall freezer in the basement and a standard top freezer in the kitchen, both absolutely full. My goal is to totally eat through both freezers before the next CSA season starts in June. I don’t think that I’ll have a problem doing it if I stick to my resolution: no new soup. I set this resolution at the end of the season. I made a batch of mushroom barley soup during Christmas time but we had friends over and that soup is long gone. I’m not counting chicken soup, which is necessary every couple of weeks or so. Ok, so I’m not totally following my resolution.

We have eaten three containers of soup from the freezer this week: roasted beet, butternut squash with tomatillo, and pumpkin soup. I think I’m going to make some soup later today with all the veggies that are left in my fridge; I know there’s a rutabaga, a head of red cabbage, some turnips, carrots, and beets. But then I’m done. No more new soup.

Oh, who am I kidding. Yeah, that would be me.

This year I had more than double the vacation days that I had last year, due to a company-wide policy change. This is a great thing. As a result of years of rationing and meticulously planning out my vacation days, I was still subconsciously rationing my time this year and I found myself at the beginning of December with a bunch of days to use or lose. I took off the previous two Fridays and I’m taking off all of next week and the following Monday.

The Friday before last I made a delightful selection of vegetarian dishes for Shabbat but I decided to kick it up a notch this Friday and make challah.

Here’s my recipe for whole wheat challah. This recipe makes a stickyish dough and does well as a pull-apart challah. You might want to add a bit more flour if you’re planning on making braids.

2 packages dry yeast (4 1/2 t)
2 cups warm water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 C honey
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp oil
2 1/2 C whole wheat flour
3 3/4 C all purpose flour
glaze : 1 egg, beaten

In a bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar and let stand for 2 minutes. Add oil, honey, eggs and mix well. Gradually add flour, 2 cups at a time mixing after each addition. When just combined, let mixture rest for 15 minutes. Knead for 8 minutes. Let rise in reased bowl until double in size, about 1 hour. Separate dough in to two parts, shape* and place on greased pan/baking sheet. Allow to rise again until doubled in size, about 1/2 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush loaves with glaze and sprinkle with seeds if desired. Bake 30-45 minutes until brown. Remove from pans and cool on racks.

*if you want to make a pull-apart challah, grease two round baking pans. I used 8 inch cake rounds. Make a bunch of balls out of the dough and place them in the greased pan. With an 8 inch round you’ll probably only get one layer of balls.

The brown rice pudding (recipe posted yesterday) reheats quite nicely.

Last week I thought I’d kick the posting back in to gear by setting a goal for myself to post something every day in December. I didn’t really realize that it *was* December until Sunday, which was already December 2. Sunday turned into Monday, which turned into Tuesday and then Wednesday and still I didn’t feel like sitting down at my computer after a whole day of sitting down at my other computer. So here I am on Thursday, which is better than never, right?

It’s Chanukah, so Happy Chanukah if that applies to you. I exercise at the Stamford JCC and they have a very nice Kosher bakery/restaurant inside. Every day this week I’ve been tempted by the smell of latkes and soufganiyot (jelly doughnuts). I thought about buying a latke but I’m too cheap. I’ll make latkes this weekend, either Saturday night or Sunday. Lately, I’ve been running more often. I’ve been mixing in the Ok Go Treadmill Workout (found on iTunes – get it free if you join the Apple Students Facebook group). The music is good and it prompts you to do intervals.

Last night I made an interesting rice pudding in the pressure cooker. No picture, but here’s the recipe that I adapted from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure

Brown Rice Pudding
1 C long grain brown or brown basmati rice
1/3 C old fashioned oatmeal
10 oz apple juice
2 1/2 C hot water
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 C raisins
Mix all ingredients in the pressure cooker and bring up to high pressure. Lower temperature to just keep high pressure and cook for 40 minutes. Let pressure come down with natural release. Enjoy!

I tasted a little last night after it was done and it was quite good. I think I’ll have some for breakfast tomorrow and I’ll see how well it reheats. I also made a batch of pressure cooker poached pears last night. Delicious, as always! I don’t think I’ve posted a recipe for that yet.

Pressure Cooker “poached” Pears
4-6 pears
1/2 C water
raisins (optional)
Wash pears, then halve and core. Fit into your pressure cooker in a single layer. Add water and raisins if you desire. On high heat bring to high pressure. Once high pressure is reached, turn the burner off and release pressure naturally.

Thanksgiving
These were my contributions to our Thanksgiving feast in Seattle:

Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard

original recipe : www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/dining/142arex.html

Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard – with Sheri’s adaptations
Time: 1 hour

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
4 to 5 cups vegetable broth as needed
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 4 cups) – (our sweet potatoes were white!)
1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 bay leaf
1 pound Swiss chard, center ribs removed, leaves thinly sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
on the side:
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
lime wedges
1/4 cup chopped scallions, for garnish.

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, garam masala and curry powder. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

2. Stir in 4 cups broth, sweet potatoes, lentils and bay leaf. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium, partially cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. (If lentils seem dry, add up to 1 cup stock, as needed.) Stir in chard and salt and pepper, and continue cooking until lentils are tender and chard is cooked, about 30 to 45 minutes total.

Yield: 8 to 10 side-dish servings; 6 main-course servings.

and, Pumpkin, White Bean and Kale Ragout

Original recipe: www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/dining/141arex.html

Pumpkin, White Bean and Kale Ragout – with Sheri’s adaptations
Time: 1 1/4 hours

1 3-pound sugar pumpkin or butternut squash
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 large leeks, cleaned and chopped, white and light green parts only – or 2 onions
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or use 3 cups cooked white beans)
2 cups vegetable broth
3/4 pound kale, center ribs removed, leaves thinly sliced (about 6 cups)
1/3 cup dried cherries, roughly chopped, plus whole berries for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Using a vegetable peeler or paring knife, peel pumpkin or squash. Trim stem, then halve pumpkin or squash and scoop out seeds (save for roasting if desired). Cut flesh into 1-inch cubes.

2. Spread cubes out on a large rimmed baking sheet. In small saucepan, combine butter or canola oil, syrup, 1 teaspoon vinegar, kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring, over medium-high heat until butter melts; pour mixture over squash and toss to coat evenly. Roast, tossing occasionally, until pumpkin or squash is very tender and caramelized at edges, about 30 minutes.

3. In a large skillet, warm olive oil over medium heat. Add leeks/onions, garlic, rosemary and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks/onions are very soft and not at all browned, about 15 minutes. Add beans and broth and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Stir in kale. Simmer until kale is cooked down and very tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in pumpkin or squash and chopped cranberries; season with remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Garnish with additional cranberries and serve.

Yield: 8 to 10 side-dish servings; 6 main-course servings.

The original recipe called for dried cranberries, but I couldn’t find dried cranberries that weren’t coated in oil and/or sugar so i used dried cherries instead. I’ve made this recipe twice. The second time I forgot to buy leeks and I found onions to be an acceptable substitute for the leeks.

I spent all day Sunday making soup. Partly because I was just in the mood to make soup and partly because, well, I do have a lot of vegetables around the house. I made celeriac potato soup, pumpkin soup, and roasted beet soup.

I started the day off with the celeriac potato soup. One book had suggested that celeriac should be peeled with a pairing knife, but I peeled the celeriac with my favorite vegetable peeler and that worked quite well for me. The potatoes I had were on the small side, which made for a lot of peeling. I lightly sauteed a diced onion for a few minutes, then added the celeriac and sauteed for a few minutes more. Then I added the potato chunks, about 6 cups of water and seasoned with salt and pepper. When the potatoes and celeriac were tender, I blended everything together with my trusty stick blender.

Since my large Le Creuset was busy with the celeriac potato soup, I decided to make the pumpkin soup in the pressure cooker. First step – peeling the pumpkins.

Once the pumpkins were peeled and gutted, I cut the pumpkin up into 3/4 inch cubes and roughly diced an onion. I sauteed the onion in the pressure cooker and added the pumpkin after a few minutes. I added water until the 2/3 mark in my cooker and closed the lid. I brought it up to high pressure and cooked for about 10 minutes, followed by a natural pressure release. Once the mix had cooled, I blended it up with the stick blender and seasoned with salt and pepper. This time I left out the dairy because I was planning to freeze the soup.

The last soup I made was the roasted beet soup, adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. While it was the last soup to hit the stove, it was actually started first because the first thing I did in the morning was peel the beets (messy, but fun) and roast them with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Once the beets were roasted, they hung out on the counter until I was ready to make the soup.

If memory serves me, the soup started with sauteed onions as most good soups do. In the meantime, I was busy as a bee chopping up the roasted beets in to small pieces. I added the chopped beets to the pan after cooking the onions for about 15 minutes and then followed with water. The directions had the soup cooking for a half an hour or so, but I found that it took much longer to get it to a consistency that I liked.

At the end of the day I packed all of the soup into plastic containers for the freezer. The freezer is full. It does not want me to put any more soup in it. I will probably keep trying my hand at freezer tetris. Courtney thinks I need to re-brand my freezer to give it a more enticing name, so I think I will call it ‘A Showcase of Seasonal Delights’.

It’s hard to believe that the season is almost over. This season I knew better what to expect and how to plan things out and manage the sheer quantity of fruit and vegetables coming in each week, and it feels like it went much quicker than last year. Maybe some of that is tied to the fact that it’s just getting cold now and I can’t quite believe that Thanksgiving is just two weeks away. I didn’t take a picture of the share last night because we had a Fancy Party to get to and I only had enough time to stash the greens in the fridge before I needed to get dolled up. Here’s the list:

Red Beets-2 pounds
Rutabaga-1
Potatoes-2 pounds
Butternut Winter Squash-1
Shallots-2
Red Russian Kale-1 bunch
Purple Top Turnips-2 pounds
Sage-1 bunch
Collards- 1 bunch
Carrots-1 pound
Fruit Share – Jonagold, Cameo and Mutsu Apples

I’m working from home so I did a bit of cooking over my lunch time. I made pressure cooker poached pears, which I put in the freezer, and then applesauce in the pressure cooker. The house smells delicious.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been on the go a lot lately. I got back from San Francisco last Wednesday in plenty of time to pick up the share, but I was way too exhausted to do anything other than take pictures and put the vegetables away. Plus, it was Halloween and I needed to hand out candy far more than I needed to cook. Thursday evening I made a delicious pumpkin soup out of the pie pumpkins I’ve had sitting around for a few weeks. It’s definitely a make again soup. For Friday night dinner I made my spinach vegetable kugel but used collards and kale instead of spinach, which worked out quite well. Tonight I’m planning to make a big “everything” vegetable soup to try and use up whatever is left in the fridge before the new stuff comes tomorrow. We still have a lot of fruit too, so I might need to make another batch of pressure cooker pears (they come out like poached pears but it’s super quick to do) and maybe some applesauce too. If only I actually had room in the freezer.

Week 20

Potatoes-2 pounds
Onions-4
Beets-2 pounds
Delicata-2
Turnips with Greens-1
Collards-1 bunch
Parsley-1 bunch
Black Radish-1
Romanesco-1

Mutsu-green apple, multi purpose
Bosc Pears-rusty brown pear, multi purpose
Empire Apples-small, red really crispy-good eating
Jona Gold Apples-large, red and gold tinge-good cooking

Week 21

Garlic-2
Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
Carrots-2 pounds
Green Winter Cabbage-1 head
Red Ace Beets-2 pounds
Carnival Winter Squash-1
Mint-1 bunch
Celariac-2 bulbs
Graffiti Cauliflower-1

APPLES: Jona Gold, Fuji, Golden Delicious; Bosc Pears