There have been a few failures in House Pistachio regarding bread and it boils down to this: patience.

Four epís that could be used as sai weapons, several baguettes that could be used to stop drafts under the door later; I discovered that Pate Fermentée was not the best place for me to start the Breadbaker’s Apprentice challenge.

So I moved on to Poolish. A ferment that is, shall we say, much more forgiving.

Let me back up here and explain that Reinhart’s book is a gem. I have been a great bread baker in the past. I started to learn how through Laurel’s Kitchen when I was a teenager. Now some thirty years later, I am relearning how to bake bread with Reinhart as my teacher, teaching me to become an artisan.

All of the breads begin with a fermented dough. Depending upon how much flavor you want, is how long you ferment the dough. Poolish is NOT a sourdough. This fermentation takes place in the fridge. The refrigerator acts as a dough retarder controlling the fermentation of yeast when proofing. Lowering the temperature of the dough produces a slower, longer rise with more varied fermentation which results in more complex flavors. It also creates the crumb which should develop holes and be light and airy making bread rather than bricks. When you are ready to use the ferment, you take it out, and measure it just like any other ingredient.

Measuring can be a challenge with the sticky Poolish ferment. It resembles The Blob. No really. It’s the best way to describe it. Moving psuedopodally (Is that a word? Let’s say it is…) out of the fermenting bowl and into the mixing bowl it is nearly impossible to measure unless you have a kitchen scale. Which I do and recommend owning one very highly if you are a serious cooking type person. The ferment’s not slimy, though, just sticky. Really, really sticky!

The second part of this journey is the shaping process. I made ciabatta which has several stages of shaping/rising. There is only one kneading in this process which I use my Kitchen Aid mixer for slave labor. This is because it’s a sticky mess (which I mentioned before–if you skipped around). Most of the kneading is actually mixing. The recipe says to mix for 5-7 minutes, then to switch to 2 minutes with the kneading hook.

To avoid burning out your mixer, do not mix/knead/whip for longer than five minutes at a time giving your mixer time to cool down.

Disregard the warning if you have a Kitchenaid Pro. I wish I had gotten one of those but it took me twenty years and three husbands to get the KitchenAid mixer I have, so I’ll shut up.

You stretch the dough for ciabatta and use a “couche” to allow it to rise. I did not spend the money on a fancy couche. I have a mother-in-law that weaves. She volunteers at the Graue Mill to demonstrate spinning and weaving. She wove me some lovely linen kitchen towels which are just as useful, thick as a traditional couche. I just flour the heck out of it. It works.

The last step is the oven process and prepare the home oven for hearth baking. I’m going to let Peter Reinhart explain that.

And then it comes out… and goes on your table.

Links:

http://www.tmbbaking.com/

http://www.thefreshloaf.com

http://peterreinhart.typepad.com/

Don’t limit yourself this winter, to just a pumpkin pie and a half an acorn squashed baked with brown sugar and butter, explore the texture and taste of squash.

Winter is the time of creative squash cookery among the many other joys: long cooking stews, baking, plotting the spring garden, tending the winter garden, etc. There’s also a little bit of hibernation, true. But I look forward to the rich flavors of winter squash because they present the most challenging and most colorful of winter meals.

You’ve seen it before, the wrinkled nose at the mention of the word squash. The word itself isn’t very appetizing, no wonder it’s so maligned. When you look at a typical winter meal, it’s potatoes and meat with some frozen veggie. Ignore the wrinkled noses, get a squash, learn to work with and “cater” to… literally the bias. Fill the table with surprises.

Acorn squash comes to mind first when people think of winter squash. We see the pile of squash at the grocery store and go immediately to the most likely and easily identifiable “thing” which appears black and foreboding but at least somewhat familiar. That Acorn, when cracked open is a delightful rich amber coloured yellow inside, much like the quality of light in the late day of our Northwest autumnal evening sun.

Yes, we have sun. Shush.

What the acorn squash reveals is only the start of a journey into the richness of the winter table. I found a great recipe for corn soup on 101 Cookbooks and made a comment there about the varieties of squashes that you can substitute for acorn squash:

I can think of some other great squashes to use that aren’t so tippy as Acorn squashes. Small pumpkins hollowed out are great soup bowls. Any “cup” type squash is perfect for this: ambercup, sweet dumpling, hokkaido, red kuri, buttercup, gold nugget, and carnival, to name a few of my faves, would work great with this recipe. One could use a small kabocha like a red kuri. Any of these are gorgeous for presentation sake, and much prettier than an acorn squash (though no more delicious).

Winter squash are my absolute favorite kind of squash! You can use them in every course from appetizer to dessert.

Here’s a handy reference for how much squash, the varieties, and pictures to refer to when you go tackle the scary mound of squash at the grocery store.

One in particular seems to be the most difficult for the American palate to get their tongue around. The humble Kabocha (which means squash in Japanese) is not just difficult to figure out but hard to crack. I use a hammer and wedge. No, really. It’s hard. I’ve seen some people describe opening it by throwing it against a wall. I’d rather not put a hole in my wall, thankyouverymuch. I also prefer not to haul out the sledge hammer, but these are hefty suckers and require a little work to get into. When I was working at Whistling Train Farm in Kent, a CSA that runs year round, I was first introduced to the squash varieties and had no idea what to do with a Kabocha. Customers asked so it was my responsibility to get some answers.

One Japanese customer came to my rescue. A pastry chef, specifically catering to the Northwest’s rich Asian culture, she described for me how to crack a kabocha to start. Which, ten years ago, was not readily available information on the net and invaluable information. The customer also told me how she makes the inside squash flesh into sweets. Sweets? Well, remember the traditionally American palate is different culturally in its expectation of sweet. Kabocha can be used similarly to pumpkin. You can make pie, soup, and candy the seeds.

Wait! Candied squash seeds?

The candied pumpkin/squash seeds are nummy. First, the seeds are lightly toasted in butter. Then take them out and coat with sugar, paprika, toasted cumin, cayenne, kosher salt and a touch of honey (warmed). They have a great balance of sugar, salt and spice.

The kabocha, in its entirety, is edible. It’s close to a butternut in texture and color. As long as you give it a good scrub, slice off any “barnacles”, and remove the stem, the entire squash is edible. In fact, the skin is delicious when you cook it in a ginger water with a little brown sugar.

The winter garden yields me many a squash, kept under cloches, they continue to grow once their fruits are set. Slowly, yes but still, they grow. They also are amazing keepers in the root cellar. Buy a bunch, keep them cool, ventilated, covered and away from pests and they’ll keep for some time to draw from all winter long.

This simple video has inspired me to take up the challenge and be part of the “Pinch My Salt” Cooking Club aka the BBA Challenge (Bread Baker’s Apprentice). I hope to post my first challenges in a few days as soon as the book arrives!

This video is not only scientifically fascinating but to me it is a spiritual journey as Peter Reinhart, who is a also known as Brother Peter Reinhart, draws parallels on the transformation of wheat to bread in a way that touched me spiritually as well as intellectually. He’s a tricky guy that Peter Reinhart!

Not the game, not the act… just the multitude.

It’s the time of year when I think to myself — What the heck were you thinking with the squash? This year I planted only two plants of different varieties. We liked the round ones last year (Baby Round Zucchini) and I tried these cocozelle (Italian Zucchini – Romanesco from Renee’s Garden)which are stripey and very very difficult to get off the plant without ripping off a great hunk of the vine.

But I now have five squash on my back deck.

So, last night it was veggie minestrone/stew! Yeah, I know 100 degrees and I’m makin’ stew, right? But I think it brought the cool weather faeries cause it cooled down that night enough to welcome a little warm comfort food. At the last minute I was going to throw in the kale but I forgot. My brain had melted. This is my basic recipe and you can add what you like in the way of leafy greens at the end with the squash.

Simple stuff really. Easily adaptable to Vegetarian by leaving out the meat and using veg broth.

Nummy “Minestrone”
1 cup lima beans
1 cup red beans

1-3 tbsp olive oil
1 large shallot
2 – 3 cloves of fresh garlic
Handful of chopped basil & parsley
1 bell pepper, roughly chopped
3 small carrots (or one very large) diced
2 14 1/2 oz cans chopped tomatoes (preferably the italian with spices and onion)

Chicken broth 3-5 cups (depending on how much cooking water is left and how chunky or soupy you prefer the stew)
Chicken thighs, deboned and skinless
1 large zucchini, diced
Salt (I like Redmond salt)

In a separate pot, cover beans with water and bring to boil, then let lower to simmer and cook till tender. You can use the cooking broth in your soup/stew.

In a large heavy stock pan warm oil. Prep all veggies up to the carrots (I like the shallots sliced and the garlic chopped roughly). Put all five veggies into oil to “stew” a bit and become soft over medium heat for about 5-10 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for another 20 minutes on med-low, lower if it starts to stick or get too hot. Then let it all sit (covered) until about 30 minutes or so before you want to eat. You can refrigerate it at this point.

Ready to finish?

Add the beans and broth and determine how much chicken (or vegetable) stock you want thickness wise for the stew. I like a chunkier heartier “stew). Remember it will chunk up more so reserve liquid to add later to bring the consistency to your preference.

Debone the thighs and skin them. I use the meaty bones for stock so I don’t buy boneless and skinless. Chop as you like, I tend to leave them in larger pieces so they won’t dry out. Saute in oil in a large skillet. Drop the chicken into the veg pot and add the broth, turn up the heat to warm up the tomato mixture. Let it all simmer for about 10 minutes or so while you dice the zucchini. I end up with about two-three cups of zucchini, don’t be alarmed. Pop the zucchini/squash in the soup pot, stir cover and let simmer for another 10 minutes taking care to keep the squash in tact and not overly mushy.

I know… that’s only one recipe. But here’s a list of ideas for other things to do with your squash/zucchini and other abundance in the garden.

Bread
Croquettes
Stuffed with other veggies & grains
Zucchini and Tomato Fettucine
Patties

Still too much? Cut them into cubes, steam for about three minutes and freeze in freezerbags. Don’t forget to label with name and date.

I have never really liked lima beans. I think it is the same issue that my husband, Thom, has with brussel sprouts. They were cooked badly when he was a child. It wasn’t his mother but his grandmother that spoiled it for Thom and the sprouts (and eventually me because I can’t get him to eat them!). But back to lima beans, as I was saying, I was never very fond of them. The texture was all off for me. This week, after reading an article on lima beans lasagne I decided to tackle lima beans once again. Apparently lima beans can be used in place of ricotta. By gosh! Vegans like it so why not?

I’m an adventurous yet frugal cook. Beans and grains are becoming more and more of a household staple for those tightening their budgets. They’re packed with protein, low in fat (almost fat free) with zero saturated fats and have the added benefit of easily broken down carbs so they’re less likely to hang around your body and turn into fat. In an obese society, beans are good to begin adding into the diet again.

With all that in mind, I thought I’d tackle limas to prove to myself that they really are a worthwhile bean. I wasn’t quite ready to take the leap into a familiar dish and change it around yet, though. So, I decided to look through some of my older vintage cookbooks to find lima beans in recipes (as the newer cookbooks seem to avoid them as I do — even some of the veggie books). Lo and behold! In a Farmhouse Cookbook I found…Spanish Lima Beans.

There was really nothing Spanish about the recipe I found. In fact, I think it’s technically a cassoulet. I tweaked it a little for more nutritional value, served it with homemade French bread (which is easy peasy if you follow Mel’s Basic Recipe) and renamed the dish to Ole! Lima Bean Cassoulet.

The trick, I think, with lima beans is that you shouldn’t overcook or they become mush and you can’t undercook or they’re all crunchy which isn’t really very yummy to most people. So yes, it’s a little daunting, to say the least.

I started out the day (at 5:30 a.m.) by putting a 2 cups dried limas in a pot covered in water and brought it to a boil while I made my husband’s lunch and coffee. When it came to a boil, I turned it off and let it soak. At around 4:00 pm I drained the beans, put in new water and let it simmer for about an hour and a half. Other stuff got done of course, like me and the rabbit hung out. I wrote, he gamboled about. Then, around 5:30 I started to assemble the cassoulet. I had to disregard a few things in the recipe as I thought they were wrong for being “Spanish”, like Worcestershire sauce and red pepper flakes. Instead I substituted port wine and cayenne. I also added some more veggies and substituted yellow onion with shallot and red onion to make it a perfect one dish dinner.

I was a little scared, actually, that it would turn out bland as all lima bean dishes I’ve ever eaten in my LIFE have been. Not even… It was YUM. Thom and I were delighted. The experiment was a success!

So even though there’s a lot of prep for the beans you can use canned (though I think that’s my problem with limas — the canned ones are blech). Without the bean prep, this takes all of about 15 minutes to prep including dicing time. So technically, not a 30 minute meal but 45 minutes ain’t bad. With the bean prep, the time I took to actually pay attention to the beans was perhaps another fifteen minutes as it really did it all on its own. Conceivably, someone could start this recipe in the morning and put the beans and water in a slowcooker on low for the day (after the initial boil–transfer to slow cooker) then drain them and use them in the recipe. Alternatively, you can prep beans and grains on the weekend and freeze them for use during the week. I used limas but I am thinking navy beans would work as well, maybe even black beans. Not sure about red beans though…

Overall flavor I’d have to say is umami.

Ole! Lima Bean Cassoulet
by Francine Mastini

2 cups cooked lima beans
2 cups tomatoes (the kind with onion & Italian spices if you’re using a can)
1 red bell pepper diced
1 stalk celery diced
1 small carrot diced
1 med shallot diced
(or alternatively 1 small red onion or a combo of the two)
2 tbs butter
1-2 tbsp port wine
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne (to your own taste)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (use a kind that melts, I had cheddar on hand but jack is good too)

Soak beans to prep and cook till al dente. Preheat oven to 375F. Sautee the onion, carrots, and celery in butter in a small casserole or wide saucepan (I used my All Clad to go from stovetop to oven). Add tomatoes and stew all together for about 10 minutes. Stir in the beans and the spices together. Layer bean mixture and cheese in clean, greased, casserole. Bake for 30 minutes.

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