Recipe: Acme Olive Bread I

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Acme Olive Bread I

Acme Olive Bread I.

Acme Olive Bread is an interesting creature. It combines the astringent bite of salt cured olives with a tender, almost fluffy crumb. We have posted several olive bread recipes and they’re all good, but a close rendition of Acme Olive Bread is a worthy goal. After several attempts this captures the flavor balance but still has the crusty authority of a classic sourdough batard. Ideas for what we’ll try next are at the bottom of the recipe; contribute your own and we’ll work on this together. In the meanwhile you’ll enjoy Acme Olive Bread I, no question. Makes one approximately 1 ½  lb batard.

Ingredients:
125g whole wheat starter at 60%
300g water
500g all purpose flour
2 T good olive oil
¾ to 1 c mediterranean olives in brine, coarsely chopped
A little brine from the olives
2 t Kosher salt
1 T diastatic malt powder (optional)**
1 T vital wheat gluten (optional)**

Method: combine starter, water, flour and olive oil and autolyze for awhile. (We did about 90 minutes.) Add salt and olives with a bit of their brine and knead for 7 or so minutes or else put through several rounds of stretch-and-fold till the dough is uniform and elastic with good gluten development. Rest at least 4 hours, then form into a ball and transfer to a banneton dusted with rice flour. Place in a plastic bag and cure overnight or longer in refrigerator. When it’s ready to bake, the proofed dough should slowly recover when you poke it with a finger; a rapid return means it needs more time while a lasting impression means it’s over proofed.

Olive Bread Olives

These olives, from Walmart, worked well in our Acme Olive Bread I. Be sure you use olives in brine, not flavored oil.

Preheat your cast iron dutch oven to 460 degrees. Dust the bottom with polenta then carefully add the proofed dough, with a slash down the center if you like. Cover and bake for 20 minutes, then remove cover and bake for 20 or so minutes longer at 440 degrees till the loaf is nicely browned but not burnt and has reached an internal temp of 206 degrees or more. Cool completely before serving.

What we might try next:
*Less whole wheat starter. Acme’s ingredient list says “whole wheat starter” but that might be just a small amount combined with all purpose or bread flour. Our dough is definitely darker than Acme’s.
*Lower baking temps. Our loaf is a nice crusty sourdough but Acme’s is more soft and tender.
*Flour variations. Maybe the secret to that tender Acme crumb is 00 flour, with a lower gluten content and finer grind?

Let us know how it works for you. In the meantime, this recipe is delicious!

**We’ve been fiddling with these dough enhancers recently. They may help, and probably won’t hurt.

Posted in Baking and Baked Goods, Eating, Recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Recipe: Puffy Italian Sub Rolls

Posted on March 8, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Puffy Italian Sub Rolls

Puffy Italian sub rolls!

At last! The puffy, yielding, open-crumb Italian sub rolls of my dreams. This has been a journey. We have published recipes for hoagie rolls, sub rolls and po’ boy rolls but none were truly the open crumb puffy submarine rolls you find in almost any Italian deli in the northeast. I know they are using dough enhancers and we finally gave in to a couple of them. Success. This recipe began with this King Arthur recipe but we have gone very far beyond that. Makes six puffy Italian sub rolls approximately 10″ each. (You could also divide the dough and make more, smaller rolls of course.)

Ingredients:

For overnight starter:
180g all purpose flour
225g spring water (non chlorinated)
¼ t active dry yeast

For the dough:
660g all purpose flour
1 T active dry yeast
1 T vital wheat gluten*
1 T diastatic malt powder
4 t Kosher salt
300g spring water (non chlorinated)

Method: mix ingredients of overnight starter and let it rest overnight; in the morning it should be lively and bubbly. Combine dry ingredients in an orbital mixer and process a bit with the dough hook until well combined. Add overnight starter and water and mix at first speed for a couple of minutes; the dough should clear the bowl. Increase to second speed and knead 7 minutes. Transfer to a large oiled (maybe 1 T olive oil) bowl; cover and proof 45 minutes until doubled.

Submarine Rolls Crumb

Submarine Rolls Crumb.

Punch down dough then form into 6 balls of roughly equal size (around 220 g). Rest a few minutes then form into rolls: stretch the dough into a rectangle and fold the top down, then bottom up (letter fold). Pinch the edges and using your palms roll into a shape that meets your preferences. (This is the procedure for forming a baguette but with much more forgiving dough.) Transfer to a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone pad; cover and proof until doubled, maybe 45 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees.

Add toppings if you like; we tried an egg white wash and sesame seeds and didn’t particularly care for either. Bake for 40 minutes, possibly rotating the position of trays in the oven, until lightly browned. Cool and serve.

Posted in Baking and Baked Goods, Eating, Recipes | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Making Maagchi’s japchae

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Maagchi Chapjae

Chapjae following Maagchi recipe.

After our toasted sesame oil taste test, of course we had to make some japchae, the iconic Korean dish with glass noodles and various vegetables and meat. Making japchae is a simple process but it has many steps, which is why it’s a favorite social event for Korean aunties or the moms in my kids’ Korean immersion program back in San Francisco.

Japchae Video

Yes , there’s a video. But you don’t really need it because Maagchi’s written instructions for making japchae are so clear.

We used some leftover denvers from our chuck roast experience and of course the Ottogi Korean sesame oil. Recipes are similar but flexible; we really liked the approach of Maagchi’s blog because she manages the many steps with just two cooking utensils (though you will amass a lot of bowls or plates as you stage the ingredients). Rather than copying her recipe, I’m going to ask you to read it on her blog.

The ingredients in recipes can’t be copyrighted, but descriptions of technique can be. We are happy to honor that because her technique is really clever and good in this case. Check it out.

Posted in Cooking, Mains, Recipes | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Toasted sesame oil: taste test

Posted on March 2, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Toasted Sesame Oils

These are the toasted sesame oils in our taste test.

There’s no mistaking the taste of toasted sesame oil: sweet, nutty, caramelized like the aroma of a slice of bread just out of the toaster (some say the smell is the most important aspect, vs how it feels on your tongue) with just a hint of bitterness. Toasted sesame oil is a key ingredient in many Asian dishes, especially Korean. With so many brands available at your local Asian market, it was time for a toasted sesame oil taste test.

Sesame Oil Cucumber

The cucumber taste test. Clockwise from lower left: Kadoya, Lee Kim Lee, Ottogi, Trader Joe. We found the oils very similar in color and viscosity.

Our bottle of Lee Kum Kee was nearing the bottom which is what prompted this test. We tried four brands with a two part test: a/a spoonful straight out of the bottle, on a slice of cucumber; 2/on a cube of tofu sauteed in oil till very lightly toasted.

  1. Lee Kum Kee Toasted Sesame Oil. Lee Kum Kee is the Amazon of Asian sauces, with a rendition of every imaginable product. When we did a doubanjiang test a while back they ranked close to the bottom; in general their products are workmanlike but not exceptional. A 15-oz bottle is $9.98 at our local Walmart.

Results: a solid, smooth taste with a satisfying finish, even though we were using a bottle that has been stored at room temperature for months.

  1. Trader Joe Organic Toasted Sesame Oil. The only house brand we could find in stock, it was well priced at $3.79 for 5 oz.

Results: milder than the others, in both the cucumber and tofu test.

  1. Kadoya Toasted Sesame Oil. This is the brand preferred by Woks of Life and also recommended by Bon Appetit and Serious Eats, among others. For such a high rated product it was surprisingly hard to find; we got a 5.5 oz bottle for $5.99 at our upscale supermarket which was probably an inflated price.

Results: beautifully balanced in both the cucumber and tofu tests.

  1. Ottogi Sesame Oil. Koreans will, of course, say you absolutely must have Korean sesame oil to make Korean dishes like japjae. We got lucky and stumbled on a sale: $8.99 for a jumbo 10.8 oz. bottle in Jae Tung, our nearest Korean market.

Results: somewhat more bitter than the others. On our first taste we actually thought it was rancid, but this did not happen again when we re-tasted. Possibly something in the neck of the just-opened bottle?

Sesame Tofu Taste test

Tofu cube taste test. Same order as above.

The winner, Kadoya, by a wide margin. Lee Kum Kee was a surprise runner up—good news because this is the sesame oil you’re most likely to find in a non-Asian market. We’re on the fence about the Ottogi. If you’re Korean you might enjoy the stronger taste. We’ll definitely continue to experiment with it because we’re not about to throw away that big bottle. Trader Joe: a disappointment. Would not buy this again.

One thing we didn’t try: un-toasted sesame oil of the type sold in health food markets. This is a neutral-tasting food which is fine for what it does but lacks the special taste of toasted sesame oil. When you hear people saying “I bought some expensive sesame oil and it had no taste” this is what they’re talking about.

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Breaking down a duck

Posted on February 24, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Crescent Duck Parts

Crescent Duck Parts, clockwise from upper left: breasts, legs/thighs for comfit, duck fat, backbone for stock, packaged bits including liver for breakfast omelet (mmm..).

Crescent Duck Frozen

My Crescent Long Island Duck as it came home from the market.

For a brief moment, my local upscale market had frozen Pekin ducks for 6.99 a pound. My previous experience with frozen ducks was not satisfactory; the Maple Leaf Farms product at Hannaford was “just” $4.99/lb but included a pound of orange sauce whose primary purpose is to get discarded, bringing the net cost to $6.99ish with an extra smattering of aggravation. This time, I carefully scrutinized the package and also looked up the supplier to confirm it was a legit product containing only actual duck.

Breaking down a duck is not unlike breaking down a chicken except that you want to be careful to snag the “oyster” at the top of the leg joint and to debone the breasts while losing as little as possible of the precious flesh. This video describes the process better than I could. Pekin duck is long-breasted with rather puny legs so you’re going to end up with smaller portions of duck comfit and breast filets that weigh well over 8 oz each and will probably be cut in half for service.

I rendered the fat in a very low oven and ended up with a full pint… putting me ahead of the game since duck fat in that same market is $13/pt or so. The carcass went into a stock, the legs were salt-cured overnight then went into the rendered fat where they slow cooked with just a bit of Herbes de Provence to toothsome perfection, and the breasts into the freezer for a future project.

There’s some debate about the best way to cook duck breast. You’re starting with a near perfect piece of meat that deserves as little modification as possible, though it can’t hurt to salt-cure it overnight (which we did, along with the legs) to draw out excess liquid and tighten the flesh. Then wipe off the salt and dry with a paper towel before proceeding. We like this cooking technique from Serious Eats: score the skin with several crosswise cuts to draw out the fat (cut just through the skin and fat, not into the meat) and start skin side down in a COLD nonstick pan at very low heat. The heat will draw out the fat and when you have rendered a good amount you can crank up the heat to crisp the skin, then flip to the flesh side to finish (our preference is medium rare).

How to serve? I have some wood parched wild rice and am thinking of making a sour cherry sauce, then serving with the duck over rice for a sort of midwestern huntsman’s dinner.

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

What to do with a jar of oysters?

Posted on February 20, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Oyster Shooter

Oyster Shooter.

My local Walmart (and probably yours) has a pint of shucked oysters in its small seafood area for a little over $13. This is a bargain in an era when the price of a happy hour oyster has climbed from $1 to $2 and $3 bivalves are not at all uncommon. The oysters are pasteurized with a sell-by date a couple of weeks in the future, so let’s bring a jar home and decide what to do with them.

My first project will be a booze-less oyster shooter… I don’t mind the vodka, just don’t want it diluting my oyster experience. I start with the ingredients of a home made cocktail sauce: ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, Tabasco, Worchestershire sauce to taste. Then in goes about 1/3 of the oyster jar and maybe some of the juice. The label says these are “X-Small” but that’s a disclaimer to indicate there is no guarantee of a full size oyster as you’d expect on the half shell. In fact you are likely to get close to a dozen decent sized oysters including a couple of big ones.

You’ll down this beauty in a bite or two, taking the time to roll the oyster around in your mouth and finally chomp into the meat. Intensely satisfying and not particularly bad for you. Are jarred oysters as good as freshly shucked oysters? Anyone who uses cocktail sauce vs mignonette or a grind of black pepper should not ask that question; the sauce overpowers any oyster taste and the oyster adds mainly texture and lubrication.

The rest of the jar is going to become oyster po’ boys, or maybe a component in a fried seafood combo. Oysters are drained in a colander then dipped in beaten egg followed by a roll in an APF/cornmeal mix that has been flavored with celery salt, smoked paprika, salt and a bit of baking powder (or maybe just salt and Old Bay). They go into 375 degree oil and will fry until golden brown, maybe 3 minutes or longer depending on the oyster, till they’re crunchy outside but still moist and tender within. I’ll serve these on a hot dog roll with kewpie mayo and cross-cut pickle slices and add a dash of hot sauce.

Oyster Salad

We were out of buns so we served our fried oysters atop a green salad. Croutons from the sea!

What else to do with jarred oysters? Koreans add them to kimchi, something I’ve never tried for food safety reasons yet the Koreans I saw do this are still with us. Hangtown fry. Oyster stuffing for your turkey. (The jars used to appear at holiday time in my supermarket for this purpose, but not any longer.) Oysters Rockefeller or Casino, if you’ve been clever enough to save some shells from shucking to heat them in. Oyster stew, of course. Here is a chef’s thread on Reddit with more ideas. (“Amuse bouche fry it with Panko or some freaking shit and make it fancy and March it out to regulars it will make them feel really appreciated and will help out your front of the house.”)

*A side note on oyster sizing: a huge pet peeve is oyster specials where they send out oysters that are too small to be served. This happens in a popular tavern on the same street as my library and is the reason I won’t order oysters there. When we watched world champion Shucker Paddy demonstrate his craft, the teeny-weenies—and you can’t avoid finding some as you open the shells—went into a bucket to be used for chowder or maybe a jar like this one, rather than going out to a customer.

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Recipe: Asian Slaw

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Asian Slaw

Asian Slaw.

Asian Slaw is a crunchy accompaniment to any main involving sesame oil… like our Trader Joe poke. Of course we could grate a head of cabbage, but because this is all about quick and easy we like to grab a bag of coleslaw mix (which includes red cabbage and shredded carrots) from the produce bin. Makes about 4 side servings.

Ingredients:
Half a medium head of cabbage, shredded, or 12-16 oz (half a package) cole slaw mix
1 T toasted sesame oil
1 T olive oil or neutral oil such as peanut
1 T seasoned rice vinegar or 1 T rice vinegar plus 1 t honey
½ t Kosher salt or to taste
Couple grinds black or white pepper
1 t grated ginger (from the Trader Joe frozen cubes or fresh)
1 t finely chopped garlic (from the Trader Joe frozen cubes or fresh)
¼ c finely chopped cilantro leaves or substitute basil or shiso leaves
Splash of fish sauce (optional)
Shake of cracked red pepper (optional, if you like it spicy)

Cole Slaw Mix

We use this coleslaw mix, found at our local big box store.

Method: combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix. You can add a bit more neutral oil or rice vinegar to balance the flavor and lubrication if needed, but be careful with extra sesame oil which has a very strong taste. You can serve immediately, but flavor will improve after a couple hours in the refrigerator.

Posted in Recipes, Sides | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Food for Thought: Acme Bread

Posted on February 12, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Acme Olive Bread

Acme Olive Bread.

I don’t know how long Acme Bread has had a website, but here it is and it’s quite a robust reference for home bakers who want to emulate their products. We learn, for example, that Acme’s preferred flour is from Keith Giusto Bakery Products in Petaluma CA, which distributes flours milled at Central Milling in Utah. I’ve been there when I still lived in CA and they will happily sell you flours in small retail quantities. (Confusingly, there’s still a Giusto Vita-Grain in South San Francisco, and as I recall they are the source of the bulk flours sold at Rainbow Grocery.)

Cheese Wheels

Acme Cheese Wheels (our version).

I also found out that the cheeses on the Sourdough Cheese Wheel are Asiago and Gruyere… something we’ll keep in mind next time we follow our own recipe. (Which we will soon, because the cost of a single wheel had risen to $4.45 when I was in SF last week.)

And, it turns out that the olives in their Olive Bread are Greek Halkidikis… a green variety which I’m sure is packed in brine vs the heavily flavored oil preferred at your supermarket olive bar. I’ve done well with olive bread yet have not come close to replicating the Acme product. Halkidikis (also called Mt. Athos) are big and often stuffed with cheese or peppers; it’s hard to find an unstuffed, pitted version but now I have to try.

Similar discoveries await the experimental home baker on each page of the Acme Bread website… check it out.

Posted in Cooking | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Pizza dough with sourdough discard

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Parchment Pizza

Hawaiian Pizza with sourdough discard prepped on parchment paper.

I have been craving a Hawaiian pizza and, since no one is going to serve me one, I knew I would have to make it myself.  I was inspired somewhat by this King Arthur recipe though my dough was closer to the Jon in Albany version I’m most familiar with.

I’m baking less frequently at the moment which means I need to refresh my sourdough starter a couple of times before it is ready for use. I mix up a 150g batch and discard most of it the next day before adding a new tranche of flour and water. It hurts to throw away that much product and this is a way to make use of it.

Parchment Pizza Prep

Pizza is prepped on parchment paper then transferred to pizza stone by picking up the corners of paper.

Jon’s dough is at 62% hydration and I make it with 500g APF and 310g water to keep things simple. I had 250g of discard after 2 batches and, since I keep my starter at 60%, I knew it contained 150g APF and 100g water. So I needed 350g more flour and 210g water and I also added 1 ½ t salt (should have been 2 t which Jon’s recipe calls for), ¼ t active dry yeast and 2 T olive oil. If I did it again I would add 1 T sugar to set off the sweet topping.

The dough got a 30 minute autolyze followed by a stretch-and-fold and was then covered and left on the counter overnight. It was a good 36 hours before it saw significant rise, thanks to the small amount of yeast. I then transferred the dough to a plastic zip bag and refrigerated for a couple of days, then brought out 2 hours before baking. It was easy to handle but could have used some kneading for more gluten development. I’ll do that next time.

Pizza was cooked on a stone at 525 F, the max of my oven, for about 10 minutes. My peel had gome missing so I tried a trick I had picked up on another King Arthur article: prepping the pie on a square of parchment paper. The recipe makes 2 rounds each of which is expanded to around 13 inch diameter with fingers and a rolling pin, then dressed. This size can be picked up by the corners of the parchment without tipping over and transferred to the stone. After baking, the paper is brittle so you need to carefully transfer it to a plate.

5/5, would do again with mods as noted.

Posted in Cooking | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Morsels from the Winter 2024 Fancy Food Show

Posted on February 2, 2024 by Burnt My Fingers
Vegan Shrimp

Plant-based shrimp, in the Japan Pavilion at the 2024 Winter Fancy Food Show.

The 2024 Winter Fancy Food Show was held in Las Vegas January 21-23. It’s smaller than the summer show in NYC, which makes it easier to take a deep dive into a category or spend more time with exhibitors. When we weren’t tasting cheese or exploring Japanese aquaculture, here are a few tidbits that caught our eye and teased our palate.

Plant Based Nugget

Looks (and tastes) like chicken, but it’s soy with a realistically muscly texture.

Plant based “meats” were everywhere, and getting more sophisticated. We tasted an imitation chicken nugget that would be quite acceptable to a carnivore. The developer stressed the research they had done (it’s made out of soy) to achieve a “muscle-like” texture.

Pickled everything was another strong trend. Pickled vegetables, of course, but also pickle-flavored popcorn, nuts and even cotton candy.  Pickle-flavored potato chips are not new, but boosted by the overall popularity of the salty snacks category which has now, by the Specialty Foods Association’s definition, overtaken sweets as the most popular category.

Pickle Cotton Candy

Pickle Cotton Candy, from Chocolate Storybook. (The product is not yet on their website so ask.)

Our favorite discovery: Cold Case Ice Cream. These guys were offering tastings in an outer aisle, and the product was superb. Imaginative flavors, great textures, creative mix-ins. Where can we buy this stuff? It turns out Cold Case ships direct to your home, presumably in a dry ice pack, with six assorted pints, appropriate mix-ins, and a “game” for around $110 with shipping included. That’s not cheap but it’s not outrageous for a decadent luxury at a party or maybe a sleepover. It wasn’t until we went on the website that we realized “Cold Case” refers to detective work which is also the subject of the game. Fun, but hardly necessary to enjoy the product. There’s also a “luxury” selection for $150. Check it out.

Posted in Eating, Events | Tagged , | 6 Comments