IRISH BROWN BREAD
It’s that time of the year to celebrate the Irish. This bread is so easy to make, you can do it just before your meal.



Yield: 1 loaf (about 1 3/4 lb.)
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon honey or agave
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cold butter or margarine (I use canola oil, 1 ½ T)
2 cups whole-wheat flour (soft wheat or pastry flour)
1/4 cup steel cut oats (or oatmeal)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (You can also use plain yogurt)

Preparation
1. In a bowl, mix all-purpose flour, sweetener (honey, agave or sugar), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until mixture forms fine crumbs. (Using the oil you can avoid this step, and it’s a healthier option) Stir in remaining flour and oats.
2. Add buttermilk ; stir gently. If mixture is too dry to hold together, stir in milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, just until dough holds together; it should not be sticky.
3. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead gently 5 times to make a ball. Set on a lightly greased baking sheet (I used parchment paper). Pat into a 7-inch circle. With a floured knife, cut a large X on top of loaf.
4. Bake in a 375° oven until well browned, about 40 minutes. Cool on a rack. Serve warm or cool.

I adapted this recipe from Cristina Faulkner, La Mirada, California, Sunset, MARCH 1997 which I found at the following link:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=522965

This week we had a glimpse of spring. I took advantage of the mild temperatures to bring some beautiful brown compost to my garden and get it ready for planting. Having been at the NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers'Association) Winter Conference last weekend, I got the notion,"It's time to plant." My goal this year is to see how I can improve my yields.
The photo on the left: the greens I had in my salad tonight, picked from my cold frame. These lovely little babies have been slowly growing over the winter. I enjoyed Russian kale, red and golden beet greens, lettuce, arugula and spinach. They were a wonderful addition to the romaine, cherry tomatoes, avocado and gorganzola.
The photo on the right: my garlic is up about 4 inches. I simply love seeing those green shoots pop up from under the leaves. Just finished last years's crop, my goal this year is to make it at least to early summer. Of course if I had more space I could grow enough to last till the next crop came in.
A memory from growing up, my father always said that potatoes should be planted on St Patrick's Day. This year I am going to see if he was right.

Cooking What You Have In The House

One of my favorite ways to cook is to see what's on hand and cook up a surprise. Had heard someone talk about how they love to use the slow cooker (aka crock pot)recently. I have a cookbook 175 Essential Slow Cooker Classics by Judith Finlayson, so I pulled it off the shelf and looked up the Meatless Mains section. I really did not want to go out to shop, so it would have to be something we already had on hand.
Noticed a few recipes with potatoes as the basic starch, and decided on the Onion Braised Potatoes. What caught my eye about this one was the spices used: fresh ginger,cumin,black pepper, cardamom. I love this kind of flavor mix, with an Indian flair.
I admit I had to adapt, as I didn't have everything in the list. I sauteed 2 onions slowly and then added garlic,minced ginger,black pepper,cardamom along with 14 oz. canned tomatoes and about 1 cup of crushed tomatoes and 1 cup water. The recipe calls for vegetable stock, something I've been meaning to make, but haven't. To give more flavor I add about 2T Sweet Brown Miso as a base. All this is brought to a boil and then added to the crock pot. Meanwhile I quartered 1 pound russet potatoes and added it to the pot.
After this cooked on high for at least 4 hours, I diced 2 large carrots and a few handfuls of white mushrooms sliced. The last thing to go in was a can of chick peas.
The smell and flavor of this stew was delicious. It gets even better when it sits overnight. At serving time I like to add a few dollops of plain yogurt.
You may wish to add more liquid as it cooks,depending on how thick you like it.

Tasty Winter Dish: Stuffed Savoy Cabbage

With the exception of the October snow blast, we've been having very pleasant weather here in November and December. This means some of the fall crops are still producing.

Recently I visited the City Seed Farmers'Market in New Haven. What great finds- savoy cabbage like I have never seen before, grown in Shelton,CT by Stone Gardens Farm(www.stonegardensfarm.com). The first day I made a simple slaw with carrots,onion and garlic. The taste was so fresh, my friends were very impressed.
Still had quite a bit of the leaves left. They were tender and large, just perfect for stuffed cabbage.

First I steamed the leaves for about 1 minute and then plunged them in cold water to stop the cooking. I had cooked about 1cup of basmati rice mixed with 1/2cup of Lundberg's wild rice mixture. I sauteed a mix of onion, mushrooms, garlic, the rest of the cabbage head,chopped, and then added about 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese along with 1/2cup of chopped walnuts. After mixing the saute with the rice, I laid out the steamed cabbage leaves and stuffed them with it.
I pureed 1 1/2cups of Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes, to which I added 2 Tablespoons of arrowroot to thicken it. I also added the same amount of arrowroot to 1/2 cup yogurt from Trinity Dairy Farms (buyctgrown.com/smythstrinitydairyfarm).
These two sauces I drizzled over the stuffed cabbage after placing them in a large baking dish.
I cooked them about 30minutes at 375 degrees, then uncovered for about 10.

This was a bit of work but what a tasty dish! I just had the last portion today and had to write about it.

Feeling Snowed In? Make Homemade Applesauce

We've had around 50 inches of snow this month
and there's still a few days left! I've often told my complaining friends and acquaintances that I love snow!
But we are all starting to feel a bit hemmed in, not to mention the aching back and arms from shoveling.
So I decided to take some of the apples left in the frig since fall and make applesauce. It could not be easier, and the smell of the apples simmering along with the cinnamon and fresh nutmeg just lifted my spirits. Even my dog was enjoying the scent.
I peeled and cut up 8 small to medium apples. Put about 1 1/2 cups of water in my saute pan, so I could have a single layer. (The recipe I used suggested apple juice as the liquid, but I didn't have any).
Once the apples began to simmer, I cooked them gently for about 5 minutes, then added 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Removing them from the heat I grated some nutmeg over the pan, and they were done!
The flavor was delicious, no need for any sweetener. This morning I enjoyed them with a bowl of millet(oatmeal would be great too).
While I was reading I saw a recipe for apple cake, that may have to be my next project.
I hope this helps you to realize that you can make simple foods that are healthy and tasteful without sugar and other additives, while making the winter seem a little bit warmer.

Heavenly Bread

It's safe to say I am obsessed with bread-eating it and making it. Lately I've been using wild yeast only, and refreshing my starter weekly. Which is to say, I must bake bread weekly. I may have been affected by reading 52 Loaves (William Alexander), the story of another bread obsessed person who also baked bread weekly, and traveled around the world while doing so.

Recently I discovered a great resource: Tartine Bread by bread baker, Chad Robertson. Chad has his bakery in San Francisco, and my niece confirmed that a line forms around the block to buy his bread.

The technique that Chad uses which is different from many books on bread: he doesn't knead the bread. I have discussed this fact with other bread bakers who will insist, "You have to knead bread." But I have learned that another way of handling the bread is to fold it throughout its rising. The result- you get a bread with much larger holes, which for me was a quest. I am pleased to report that following Tartine methods I am now making "holey" bread.
The recipe I wish to tell you about is Tartine's olive bread. It is safe to say that olive bread is one of my favorites, but this one is superb. The secret ingredients are lemon zest and walnuts, which I had not seen before in olive bread. I made it for the recent Christmas holiday and got rave reviews, including one which described it as sweet! In addition I added green and black olives, because it's what I had in the house, and because I wanted to try the green ones in my bread.

I highly recommend you take a look at this book, it is a great reference and has wonderful pictures (Eric Wolfinger is a baker and photographer). Chad and Erik knew that they wanted to write this book and took many photos over the time it was coming together. The result is a very intimate and realistic description of their bread-making process. Full disclosure, the bread pictured above is taken from the Tartine web site-my bread didn't last long enough to photograph.
I also recommend you make this bread at your earliest opportunity, or get to San Francisco and buy some!

Caramelized Onion Tart

It's that time of year when we go to parties, eat more and maybe exercise less. I am taking a class called "Artisan Bread" taught by a local French baker, Denis Niez. We have been painstakingly learning the art of making croissant and puff pastry dough. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that puff pastry can be made from very simple ingredients: flour, water, butter and salt. While the process is time consuming, and somewhat energy intensive (the human kind of elblow grease) we can eat this treat without feeling like we have eaten something from the chemistry lab.
My point being, I had checked the ingredient list of puff pastry I found in the frozen food section of the grocery store and was offended by the things I saw:
Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1)Riboflavin) Vitamin B2)Folic Acid)Water, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening (Soybean and Cottonseed Oils Colored with Beta Carotene)2% or Less of: Gluten, Mono and Diglycerides (from Hydrogenated Soybean Oil)Soy Lecithin..
Where's anything recognizable?
With my pastry I made in class, I was able to make 4 good sized apple "strudel" and the onion tart. All of this from 4oz of butter, which should not make anyone feel guilty about having a taste. And no hydrogenated anything!
Here's the recipe for the tart, which I altered slightly. This came from MarthaStewart.com.
Carmelized Onion Tart with Olives
2 T olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
Fresh thyme
1 sheet puff pastry (flour, cake flour, water, butter, salt)
1/4 c cured olives, pitted and cut in half

Cook onions and thyme in oil, until golden and soft about 10 min. Roll out pastry on floured surface to about 8 by 15 inch rectangle. Place just the pastry on parchment lined baking sheet, in a 425degree oven which you have preheated, then immediately reduce temperature to 400. Bake about 12 min till pastry begins to rise.
Arrange onions around the prebaked pastry leaving a 1 inch border on all sides. Top with olives and bake at 375 about 15 min.