Whole Wheat Bread (well, mostly)

This is adapted from my dad's recipe, and is an excellent thing to do on a cold winter weekend. The house smells terrific. The "well, mostly" part is because it does have some white flour as well as whole wheat.

for two loaves:
2 pkgs or about 3 T of dry yeast, which these days is sold as "Bread Machine Yeast"
1/4 cup warm water
2-1/2 cups hot water
1 Tablespoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup of some sort of fat: butter or oil or shortening, melted
4 cups whole wheat flour, approx.
4 cups white flour, preferably unbleached, approx.

• Dissolve the yeast in about 1/4 cup warm water.

• Measure the 2-1/2 cups of water into a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup or some other larger microwavable vessel. Add the butter/shortening/oil, salt and the brown sugar and heat until it's all dissolved. Yep, you could also do this in a pan on the stove. Let cool to lukewarm. (Baby's bath temp.) Put into a big bowl.
• Stir in the whole wheat flour, using a sturdy whisk if you have one. Add the yeast mixture. Start adding the white flour. When it starts getting too stiff to mix with a whisk or spoon, I'm sorry, but you will just have to use your hands. You did wash them, right?
  
• When the dough is moderately stiff, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and satiny. It really helps to have flour to keep dipping your hands into so the dough doesn't stick. This is a great stress reliever and I'm not telling you who I think about while I smack the heck out of that dough. (Knead = press/punch the center, then fold the back over, then press, etc. Hard to describe, fun to do.) Why would anyone let a bread machine do the fun part?
  
• Shape the dough into a ball. Rinse out your big bowl with hot water and dry it. Rub it with butter or a little oil. Put the dough in and turn to coat all sides with a little of the oil. Let it rise to double its original size at least once, and twice is better. Takes about an hour each, depending on the temperature. (If in a hurry, put it in a warmish place covered with a clean dish towel. Not too warm, but above the dishwasher (if it is running) is good or inside the oven with just the oven light on is good. Or on top of the dryer. But it is better to not be in a hurry, because the texture will be better.)
  
• Punch down and divide in half, pressing each half into a loaf pan. Let rise again until about double.
  
• Preheat the oven to 375 F
• Bake 45 minutes, but after about 20-25 minutes, brush the tops with some butter or oil and turn the oven down to 350. It will work if you don't do this, but this is better. Also, if the tops are getting brown long before the 45 minutes are up, cover with foil. I've never had to, but I think it depends on your oven.
  
• Take the pans out of the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes, then tip them over to remove the loaves and put the loaves on some kind of cooling rack, or at least a clean towel, so they don't get soggy (which they would do if left in the pans)
• Wait as long as you can stand, but by all means cut some slices while the loaf is still warm. All you really need is butter, or maybe some good soup.
  

This freezes well, especially if you don't slice the second loaf.
You can get away with using more whole wheat and less white flour, but the loaf will get denser and denser. You can make up for this by letting it rise more slowly for longer, maybe. It starts to get into science. It is fun to experiment, but I will tell you that if you are baking at home, trying to use all whole-wheat flour with no white (or unbleached white) flour will yield a VERY dense bread. The commercial bakers have other tricks up their sleeve.

Oyster Stew, again

Oyster stew is such a great supper on a cold night. Especially with these cornbread crackers. And it is so easy. And fast. Once you have the celery and shallot diced, you're just about done!

• 8 oz. (that's a half-pint) of standard oysters and their "liquor." You don't need the extra fancy, more expensive ones.
  
• 2-3T butter
  
• about a cup of milk. I used skim, because that's what I keep on hand, but of course whole milk would taste even better. (Although, because I am using skim, I don't feel at all bad about going with 3T butter!)
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 plump shallot (maybe two if they are little), diced fine
  
• salt
• white pepper if you have it, otherwise fresh-ground black pepper
  
• 1/2 teaspoon or more of sweet paprika. I don't used the smoked paprika for this because it might mask the delicate flavor of oysters. Can't think of anything else I wouldn't use smoked paprika in.
• optional but very good: One leftover baked potato, large dice (When I am using the oven for something else, like the pork chops with cranberries in the previous recipe, I often throw a few potatoes in to bake. They can be used in so many things, and they taste way better than spuds "baked" in a microwave.
• also optional, but I wanted to try it: a few "threads" of saffron, if you happen to have some kicking around.
  

Sweat the celery and shallot in the butter. Add the potatoes if you are using them. This is a good time to add salt and pepper, and of course you'll taste it at the end to see if it needs more. Start with 6 good dashes of salt and a couple of pepper.

Add the liquor from the oysters, but don't hurt yourself straining it. The rest can come along later when it is time to add the oysters, which go in last.

Add the paprika -- you don't put it in earlier because you don't want it to burn. I use a lot, close to a full teaspoon for this much stew.

Add the milk. If you need to "stretch" things, add more milk. Heck, even more potato, celery and shallot.

When the liquid is hot and just starting to simmer but before the milk really boils (scalded milk, yuck), dump in the oysters and any remaining liquid. Keep heating until the oysters curl, which really only takes a minute or so, then turn off the heat right away. It's done.

Grab some crackers -- I like cornbread, some people like traditional oyster crackers -- and a spoon. If you are hungry or if you are selfish about shellfish, this serves one as a full supper. You could easily make it serve two, maybe more if it's just a first course and you add more milk, etc.

If you are lucky enough to be sharing with someone who doesn't like oysters, you may find that they like the rest of this "stew" just fine if you call it potato soup, and then you get to eat all the oysters.

Last January I posted a recipe for Oyster Stew made with leeks. That was good, too, and you can look it up. This is more traditional.

Cranberry Pork Chops with Morels

OK, full disclosure: This is slightly adapted from a recipe my Mom sent me. The original didn't have morel mushrooms and was slightly different in process. It's really good, and it's easy -- especially if you skip the part about stuffing the chops first!

• 3 pork chops (I used thick, boneless ones, about 1/2 pound each)
• 1 half-ounce package of dried morel mushrooms (you could use another kind of mushroom or another kind of stuffing, or skip the stuffing. I can't help myself when I have thick pork chops and morels on hand.
• One cup chicken broth, heated in the microwave
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup sugar (a little less if you like your cranberries on the tart side!)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. of Penzey's Cake Spice, or a pinch each of ground cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon
• 1 cup cranberries (washed an picked over, as always)
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• cooking oil, about 1T-2T

Preheat oven to 350.

Soak the dried mushrooms in the hot chicken stock for at least 15 minutes. Longer doesn't hurt.
Then cut each chop open, fill the "pocket" with mushrooms, tie loosely with kitchen twine (or use toothpicks to hold them together. Grind pepper over both sides of the chops. Add a teaspoon of salt to the flour in a shallow bowl or pie pan or whatever and dredge the chops to coat lightly. Using an ovenproof pan (my cast-iron standby, of course), brown the chops in the oil on both sides, a couple of minutes each.

Mix the water, honey, sugar and spices. Heating the water and honey in the microwave helps the honey dissolve.

When the chops have had a chance to brown on each side, pour the cranberries over them, add the sugar/spice mixture, and put in the oven, covered, for 20-30 minutes. Remove cover and continue baking, but not too long. Doneness depends on how big the chops are. The good thing is that the cranberry sauce keeps the chops moist.

Taste the cranberries and add more sugar if you really have to, but don't make it dessert-sweet -- should be on the tart side to complement the meat.

Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes before cutting and serving. The photo shows one chop, sliced, with less than a third of the sauce. I am looking forward to the leftovers!

Happy ThanksWeen

It's spooky turkey. Same turkey you make on T-day, just earlier. The black spots are paprika. Paprika does burn -- but in a good way, I think, unlike garlic, which gets nasty when it burns. Ok, because it is ThanksWeen, I also added a little cayenne pepper, to make it more devilish.

Oh, yeah, I do roast it upside down, after brining it overnight. The goal is to keep it from drying out. And then I carve it and make a big batch of turkey stock from the carcass.

Bread --also, the proof is in the .... proof

Wish you could smell this, and taste it. Nothing smells as good as fresh-baked bread. And it's so easy, really.

First, this is my basic recipe for French bread: Water, flour, yeast, salt, and a little oil and a little butter. It's also about checking your facts, or having the courage to try and possibly fail.

I wanted to check that my flour was still fresh and good, ahead of making pies and such for Thanksgiving. So my plan was, make bread. Then I reached into my fridge for the jar of freeze-dried yeast, and saw -- expiration date, 2003. Uh-oh. I'm pretty sure it worked a couple of years ago, but, uh-oh. Also, I can't believe it has been that long since I baked bread. Duh.

Now, most things, you would toss, with an expiration date like that. I would. But I know that the yeast is in hibernation, so the thing to do is proof it. I poured the yeast (normally I would use about 2T, in this case slightly more) into 2 cups of very warm water (think baby's bath, the wrist test) and threw in about a cup of flour and a teaspoon of sugar. Bubbles occurred. That meant, whoo, baby, that yeast was wakin' up. Six years past expiration date. I left it overnight. It bubbled further, and proved it was still good. It was ... ALIVE! (And, yes, I do have to go to the store to buy a new jar of yeast, but only because I used it up.)

Then I added more flour* and about a tablespoon of salt, until I had to turn it onto the counter and add even more flour* kneaded it, put it in a bowl that was lightly oiled, covered with a clean dish towel and let it rise. And it did. Twice. (That is not expired yeast.) Then rolled it into a loaf (remember your Play-Doh skills), let it rise again, then baked it. 400 degrees, about an hour, watched it, brushed it with butter at the very last minute. Broke off chunks to consume with cheese, grapes and wine.

I have all kinds of bread recipes, mostly using whole wheat and healthy stuff, but this really is my fave. Yeast, water, flour and a little salt. And a little oil, but only that teensy bit in the bowl. And butter, that teensy bit on the top at the very end.

*Footnote: I once asked my dad, who taught me how to bake bread, "How much flour do you add? " He said, "Enough." OK, really, I had put about 1 cup in with two cups of water. So I added somewhere between 3 and 5 cups more of flour. Enough. You just have to know. You add it in the bowl until it is too stiff to whisk, then turn it out on a floured board, flour your hands, and knead until it becomes, well, satiny. Once you know, you know what "enough" means.

What about the time involved? Well, most of the time is waiting. Most important about bread is waiting. You work for 5 minutes, and wait -- even overnight -- then work for maybe 10 minutes, then wait. At least an hour, maybe two or more. Oh, and then work for a minute and wait. Repeat. Now put in the oven at 400 and -- wait.

You can leave the house while waiting, except for the hour of baking. Making bread lends itself to multitasking. You do have to be there to take it out of the oven. I even saw a recipe once timed to a football game. Get the dough mixed up, watch the game. At halftime, punch it down. Etc. I'd actually rather watch dough rise, but maybe that's just me.

Bean Soup and Mixed Greens

Well, I normally wouldn't serve these together, (Editor's note: Not so fast -- see addendum below) as there is too much in common with the whole ham broth/smoked turkey broth flavor, but they sure are easy to make together. Or, either one is a good way to use up a ham bone and leftovers or a couple of smoked turkey legs. I happened to have both.

The smoked turkey legs were new to me, and I made the mistake of baking them, you know, like turkey. Or ham, for that matter. I was thinking sandwiches or salad. It may have just been this particular brand, but they came out way too salty and too dry. It tasted like very salty ham with just a little bit of a turkey "finish." Next time, if there is a next time, I'll try a very wet braise, with plenty of liquid to try to leech the salt out. Maybe even the slow cooker.

I also had a ham bone with some scraps still attached.

The two most obvious things to make are bean soup and a mess o' greens.

After removing most of the meat from the bones, I boiled the turkey bones and the ham bones together for a couple of hours. Not a riotous boil, just above simmer. Now I had a nice broth, and some meat set aside. (The meat still on the bones gives up its flavor to the broth and doesn't have much left to offer! But that's kind of the point.) For either the beans or greens, you could throw the bones in while cooking the rest, but then you have to fish them out, and the turkey legs, especially, have those dangerous sharp little splinters. I wanted to have that all taken care of. In fact, I refrigerated the stock overnight.

Bean Soup
Turkey/Ham stock
1 pound white beans -- I used Great Northern
1/2 an onion, chopped
ham and/or turkey meat, a cup or two, chopped into bite-size pieces
water

Rinse and pick through the beans -- the package always warns that there could be little rocks or other debris, and my dentist already makes enough money from me.

Put the beans in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and boil for a minute or two or five. Remove from heat and let stand an hour. (Alternatively, you can soak the beans overnight in cold water.) Drain and rinse with cold water.

In a large pot -- I used my cast iron Dutch oven -- heat the stock if it has been refrigerated. Add the beans, onion and meat. Add water if needed to cover the beans. Cook for at least an hour, or until the beans are tender. There's only one way to tell! As you taste for doneness, check the seasoning; in my case, there was no need to add salt. I stopped short of cooking them until they were mushy, because this is a big batch and will be reheated. The beans definitely soften further during refrigeration in the liquid. One of those cases when "it is even better the second day."

For serving, I added a dollop of Greek yogurt, and it was a good call. Balances the saltiness. When I was growing up, we added ketchup to bean soup at the table, and that was good, too. I think it's the touch of acidity. If I had good, ripe, fresh tomatoes, I'd garnish with them, in fact.

Now for the greens. This makes a huge batch, but not as huge as you will think when you start, because all the leafy greens cook down.

Greens
You can use any combination, but this is what I was taught: Use at least two, and preferably three, kinds of greens. I used about half a pound of each, and yes, at the beginning, my big stock pot was full.

Collard greens
Mustard greens
Kale
ham/smoked turkey stock
1 or 2 cups of ham and/or turkey, bite-size pieces, as much as you have left over, really
1/2 an onion, chopped
secret ingredient: sugar -- at least a spoonful, probably up to 3 for this amount of greens. Less, or maybe none, if you are using honey-roasted ham and it still has some of the sweet "sauce" attached.

Rinse the greens REALLY well, preferably in a sink full of cold water. Chop or tear, removing any big, tough stems. They can go in the compost as far as I'm concerned; it's not as though there's a shortage of greens here.

Put everything in your biggest stock pot, add water to cover, and cook for about an hour. Taste once in a while. Again, you probably won't need to add salt, but you never know. And if you are using mustard greens, pepper probably isn't necessary either.

But you might decide to add another spoon of sugar. It definitely cuts the bitterness of the greens as well as complementing the saltiness of the ham. Isn't that why we all like honey-glazed ham? I learned about adding sugar several years ago when I was buying kale and a ham hock at the store, and the cashier, obviously a Southerner, and obviously a woman who knew what I had in mind, told me that I needed collards, mustard greens and at least a spoonful of sugar. Bless her heart for helping an obvious Northerner.

Oh, I wish I had made corn bread, too. It would go well with either the soup or the greens.

I've packaged up and labeled some of the soup to go in the freezer. I don't think the greens will freeze well, but I may try. And I saved all the liquid from the greens, so I'll at least freeze any of it that I don't slurp down. It IS a beverage, right?

Addendum: I took some soup and some greens, in separate containers, to work for my dinner, to reheat in the extremely low-end microwave. There was only one clean bowl (I don't like to microwave things in plastic), so I put some of the greens and "pot liquor" (greens juice) in with the bean soup to heat. They were very, very good mixed together. I would still cook them separately, for the flexibility, and because I don't have a pot big enough to cook both at once, but ... beans and greens do go together nicely. Still wish I had made cornbread.

New York, New York

Oh, dear, NY Strip Steak at $4.99 a pound. OK, that's not 49-cent-a-pound chicken, but it's down from $9 a pound. And, this is about $2 worth. Cheaper than fast food, better, and, well, nearly as fast.

Easy. Salt, pepper, under the broiler (aka the upside-down gas grill). 5 minutes one side, 2 minutes (or 3) the other. Obviously, longer if you want to cook it until it is gray, and you know who you are. Shudder.

Toast and some tomatoes and basil.