No Knead Bread, Revisited
December 6th, 2007
As one of the billions of people now enjoying New York Times’ (in)famous No Knead Bread on a semi-regular basis, Cook’s Illustrated’s recent revisions piqued my interest. If you don’t have a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated, you can get a rundown of the changes here.
No Knead Bread, photo licensed under CC courtesy of Taryn Domingos.
Essentially, Cook’s Illustrated addresses the major issues people were having — namely, the dough falling during transfer to the pan, and lack of flavor. Additional salt seems to help address the latter, but the article suggests substituting small amounts of vinegar and beer into your liquid to give the bread some additional complexity.
They also suggest several small procedural changes, including 15 seconds of kneading. Heresy, I know.
Quick Programming Note
December 4th, 2007
We’ve just made the switch to FeedBurner for our syndication (e.g. RSS/Atom) needs. Please update your readers to http://www.impoverishedgourmet.com/feed.
We’re still happy to offer full-article feeds, ad-free. You shouldn’t notice any difference — but we’ll be able to keep track of things a bit better.
Pantry Essentials: Tubed Tomato Paste
November 30th, 2007
The easiest way to get great tomato flavor into your dishes in the winter when good, fresh tomatoes aren’t available is tomato paste. I never ended up using the canned stuff on a regular basis because it tends to be overly acidic, and because I never could use an entire can. Luckily, tomato paste is available in smaller quantity and (much) better quality in tubes — similar to travel-sized toothpaste tubes. While you end up paying more per ounce than canned paste, it’s a lot tastier, a lot more useful, and always on hand when you need it. While the tubes will probably run you $4-5 dollars at your grocery store, you can get a supply (12 tubes) at Amazon for under $25, which works out to under $2 a pop.
For a unique, flavorful, fast pizza sauce, combine tomato paste, our roasted shallot vinaigrette, and olive oil.
Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette
November 27th, 2007
Home-made vinaigrettes are a great way to add a lot of flavor to a dish without a lot of cost or a lot of fat. Here, roasted shallots give the vinaigrette a great balance of sweetness and earthiness, and provide body. Although a white wine or even sherry vinegar would be a more classic choice here, the rice vinegar allows the complexity of the shallot to shine.
I paired the vinaigrette with mizuna and pear, but it would go well with a variety of salads (spinach and apple, endive and walnuts, etc) or any number of entrees (pork medallions, roasted new potatoes).
Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette with a mizuna and D’anjou pear salad
Find recipes for leftovers at LeftoverChef
Looking for a use for those 12 pounds of turkey you didn’t eat yesterday? Leftover Chef lets you search for recipes based on what you’ve got hanging around in your fridge waiting to be used. Remember kids, there’s no better way to save money than using all of your leftovers.
Rouxbe - Video Cooking Demonstrations
For the audio-visual learners among you, Rouxbe (pronounced ruby) offers up a variety of step-by-step videos for different recipes and techniques. While the narrator quickly lulled me into a deep slumber, the videos are beautifully shot and edited, and the recipes all look to be good quality, if not the most adventurous.
Persimmon Jerk Chicken
November 16th, 2007
One of the fun and challenging things about belonging to a CSA or produce delivery service is finding ways to use ingredients you might not have picked out on your own. Having received Fuyu persimmons for a fourth straight week and growing tired of eating them out of hand, I resolved to find a savory application for the persimmon’s unique taste.
Cursory research online revealed little besides persimmon pudding in terms of cooking applications. Undaunted, I pushed ahead.
I suspected the tropical flavors of persimmon would pair well with a traditional Jamaican jerk sauce, so I set out to do some testing. Halving and broiling the persimmons revealed complex flavors of mango, apple, roasted squash, and spice.
Roasted Persimmons
Cheap Source for Molecular Gastronomic Compounds
November 14th, 2007
Although I’ve long derided, snickered at, and generally disparaged the trend towards foams, airs, and wholly unnatural emulsions in fine cooking, the mad scientist in me has finally won out (with a little prodding), and I’ve set out to begin experimentation.
Unfortunately, the specialized emulsifiers, thickeners, and gelifiers employed in this style of cooking are often prohibitively expensive. Texturas (Buy), one of the most popular product lines, starts at $30 for the cheaper compounds on up to $100+.
Now the good news. In the bulk spices section of my local organic co-op, I was able to buy enough lecithin, agar agar, and xanthan gum to keep my experimenting for months — for about $8. These and related products are sold as nutritional supplements or as alternatives for people with food allergies. While the co-op would be the last place most folks might expect to find these additives, it’s an affordable way to get your feet wet.
Fast Food Ads vs Reality
Fast Foods: Ads vs Reality should give you pause next time you’re thinking about fast food, especially with so many delicious, fast, cheap, and healthy home-made alternatives.