Panko chicken thighs baked, fire roasted veggies, mushroom risotto. Ingredients from Aldi/TraderJoes. Oink.
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Bread is for dinner - or any meal. We can't get decent bread around here. Even the Amish bakery thinks bread should be the consistency of cotton candy. My son gave me his method of making crusty, hearty bread and it is dirt simple. I've been making two loaves a week since Christmas. Good stuff.

^^
I's REALLY easy - only 5 ingredients. A loaf costs about 75 cents. Takes 2-3 hours total, with 10-15 minutes hands-on time. You need a dutch oven like this one:

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Well, that and a recipe.

Hint, hint.

and a gym membership! :)

I love bread like that but I'm gaining weight just looking at this thread.

This thread is about a love affair with food, there are always givers and takers in such romances, but the focus remains, and that's what is important.

Needlefish...YUM!http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1547497761.jpg

OK crusty bread:

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500 grams bread flour (12 percent protein minimum)
385 grams 105 to 110 degree water
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast (one standard packet will do)
1 teaspoon sugar

Mix the flour and salt together. It is important to WEIGH the flour, because its density can vary significantly depending on how it has been handled.
Mix the sugar and yeast in an approximately 1 cup container
Add a small amount (1/4 cup) of the warm water to the yeast/sugar
Let the yeast mixture proof until it is about 1/2 foam and 1/2 liquid - it should take 5-10 minutes depending on its temperature
Make a well in the flour and pour in the yeast mixture
Use the rest of the water to rinse the dregs of the yeast container and dump it into the flour. Stir just enough to mix it all together thoroughly. It should be spongy, wet dough.
Throw a towel over it and set it aside. Let it double in volume. It should take an hour at 70 degrees ambient, but the time varies with the ambient temperature
When it has doubled, DON't PUNCH IT DOWN - slip the fingers of your hands between the dough ball and the side of the bowl and gently lift the surface of the dough ball up and fold it to the center of the top of the ball. Spin the bowl a few degrees and repeat. Keep doing this for about 6 revolutions. You are trying to develop the gluten ONLY in the surface of the dough ball, so don't manipulate or do anything to mess with the dough in the center of the ball.
Cover it again and set it aside to double again. When it has doubled, repeat the above.
Turn the oven on to 450 degrees. Spray some PAM on the skillet side of the dutch oven and put the whole thing in the oven.
When the oven is warm, take the dough and give the surface one last stretch as above. Turn the bowl over and dump the dough onto the skillet side of the dutch oven. The side of the dough ball that was against the bowl should be up and what was on the top should be down. Score it with one shallow cut or an X. Cover with the dome side and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. Take a look at it, it should be pretty brown. If not, re-cover it and bake it another 5 minutes. Take the cover off and bake for 5 minutes or until nice and brown. Turn it out on a cooling rack and let it cool.
I'll be making another loaf in a couple of days, I'll take some pictures of how I do it.

Had rabbit a few weeks ago in a German restaurant that my GF picked.... was reall good...

So I decided to do a Tuscan sort of rustic rabbit and pasta dish... Rabbit Sugo

Poor Peter Cottontail

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Browned, then stewed with onion/carrot/fennel/garlic/allspice/bay/white wine/ San Marzanos/tomato paste/salt pepper... let it braise for a few hours... pick the meat off the bones.. add back to the braising liquid... reduce to where you like it..


serve over some good fresh pasta...


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I made some fresh papardelle


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It was really good.... no pics of posed dishes because my GF and I were to busy eating..

Another recent winner was a dessert I made for our Christmas Eve dinner..

I always get tasked with a dessert... No problem....

Banoffee:

So good, so easy...

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DineLA is this week so we went out to Industriel for dinner.

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Taiwanese braised brisket

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Lamb shoulder

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Mexican chocolate cake and roasted plantain bread pudding

Day off so it's lobster bisque day. Letting it simmer for a few hours

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I used to simmer shellfish shells for a while, maybe 45 minutes, when making a stock. Then I figured out that shrimp shells do best when simmered for only 5 minutes, after you cook them dry in the pot for a few minutes. Any idea if lobster or crab shells are similar?

I learned to make this bisque from a top classically trained French chef. In his preparation, the stock was simmered for a few hours and then the shells were beaten/pulverized with a heavy metal spoon in a china cap with the stock poured over regularly and then the stock was passed through a very fine chinois several times and then it was reduced before adding the heavy cream. Other than the technique, the secret is adding a bottle of sauternes to the stock.

While I have a china cap and chinois just for this bisque, I'll probably just pull the shells out and sieve a few times.

My sense is shrimp shells have so little substance, a stock would take next to no time. There's a lot of meat in these lobster shells making this closer to veal stock in time and preparation.

It is, by far, the best lobster bisque I've ever had.

Starting to reduce it a little now, will strain and sieve and let it sit overnight and finish for tomorrow night's dinner with a small lobster.

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Started making jerky recently. So far I've made several batches of Beef and Pork jerky. Of the charts. I've mainly been using the Cabelas original mix, but today I'm trying their Pepper mix.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1548172764.jpg

This turned out to be one of the best batches of lobster bisque I've ever made. I ended up only running it through a china cap, no chinois. It would have been velvety smooth if I had but decided to use less heavy cream, reduced half of it before combining, for the ultimate robust bisque. Lobster flavor was through the roof but the complexity the sauternes offers was still there. Note that this is only reduced, no roux or rice or anything to thicken and rob flavor. Have 3+ servings left over, I may play with one. Would like to try a saffron/white balsamic/heavy cream reduction to dot a bowl with.

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Skimming is important

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