How I made sourdough bread in a hotel room, sort of

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
The Finished Product

Hotel Room Sourdough?

Staying this week in a hotel room with a kitchenette, I decided to build on my experience with hotel room kale salad. Was it possible to come up with an edible loaf using only flour, water, store-bought yeast and salt? This hotel room sourdough experiment aims to find out.

It starts with a pinch of yeast

It starts with a pinch of yeast

The first night I mixed a pinch (maybe 1/8 t) Fleishmann’s Rapid-Rise Yeast from a packet into ½ c warm water then added 1 c Trader Joe’s White Flour. 24 hours later, I was gratified to see a frothy surface like a well tended sourdough starter.

Sponge after 24 hours

Sponge after 24 hours

I then added another 1/8 t yeast, 2 c flour, 2/3 c water to make a dough that my calculations was about 68% hydration. I autolysed it, mixed in 1 ½ t salt (the ingredients actually had little taste at this point so lots of salt was important) then did 4 stretch-and-folds over an hour, left it to bulk ferment for another hour and then covered with plastic wrap and stuck into my mini-fridge for 3 days.

Dough after 3 days

After 3 days

When I pulled it out I was pleased to see some nice bubbles accompanied by a faintly sour aroma. I brought it up to room temperature, divided it into a boule and two mini-batards, and let those rise for a couple of hours.

Loaves after rising

Loaves after rising

Baking was a challenge because the heat source was a confusing combo convection/microwave oven. After some experimentation I settled on 450 degrees (as hot as it would go) with the convection setting. I put the bread on a plate and a large stewpot upside down on top to capture some humidity. 20 minutes with that setup, then another 20 minutes with the stewpot removed so the bread could brown.

Oven seup with upside down stewpot

Oven setup with upside down stewpot

The result was what you see here and while not really sourdough, was pleasant and entirely edible, sort of like a Pepperidge Farm white sandwich bread. My tasters happily tried it with butter and with cheese and half a loaf was quickly consumed.

Crumb shot

Crumb shot of finished loaf

I’ll try this again, but will probably experiment with milk and some added nuts and fruit from the breakfast bar. (And maybe a packet of instant oatmeal?) Still got lots of that flour to use up.

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David Murdock, the pineapple king

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Last Can of Dole

What if this was the last can of Dole pineapple in the world?

While writing my recipe for Carrot Pineapple Jello I experienced the following unusual economic behavior:

  • Unlike almost other canned fruits and vegetables, there was no store-brand alternative available in my local supermarket. Only Dole.
  • Unlike other products which offer a substantial discount when you buy scraps rather than perfect pieces, Dole Pineapple costs the same whether you are buying rings, chunks or bits.
  • Unlike other products which which charge a modest penalty if you don’t buy the bigger size, Dole nearly doubles the price per ounce for a slightly smaller can.
  • I later found a store brand pineapple in another store and it was truly terrible, as if somebody had cut off supply of all the good pineapples.

Clearly a not-so-invisible hand is at work here, and I did some research. It turns out Dole pineapple is owned by ONE GUY, David H. Murdock. (Not to be confused with Rupert Murdoch, who has less money.) Murdock bought the legendary but nearly defunct Castle and Cook in 1985, which included the Dole pineapple plantations. The stock traded publicly at one time but he took it private with a leveraged buyout in 2013.

I realize you can’t say David Murdock owns all the pineapples in the world because he deals with some independent growers. But how successful would they be at getting to market without him? Also, when billionaire Larry Ellison bought an entire Hawaiian island (Lanai) to turn into a private resort somebody had to sell to him. Yep, it was this guy.

So what happens if David Murdock decides to stop selling pineapples, dye them pink, or double the price? We really don’t have anything to say about that, do we? David Murdock seems to be a benevolent dictator but I was certainly surprised to see one of my favorite foods under such monopolistic control.

And one more thing: Murdock was born in 1923, which makes him 92 years old as of this writing. Let’s hope he stays alert and healthy. Wikipedia tells us he’s funded health and longevity research, which is encouraging.

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Recipe: Aji Verde (Mild Green Chile Sauce Peruvian-Style)

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Aji Verde

Aji Verde (Mild Green Chili Sauce Peruvian-Style)

One of the two mild chile sauces I served with my anticuchos. This is a base recipe Aji Verde that can be adjusted to your liking: increase the amount of chile or reduce (or eliminate) mayonnaise for a more pungent sauce. Makes about 1 cup.

Ingredients:
1 bunch cilantro, leaves only, or some combination of parsley and cilantro leaves
1 garlic clove
1 green onion, including green part, coarsely chopped
1 jalapeno
½ t salt
¼ c water
½ c olive oil
2 T lime juice
¼ c mayonnaise

Method: puree all ingredients except oil and mayonnaise in a blender or food processor. Allow to macerate an hour for flavors to develop. Slowly add olive oil with blender running to emulsify. Serve as is, or add mayonnaise for a milder and creamier mixture. Will keep a couple of weeks in refrigerator.

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Recipe: Aji Roja (Mild Red Chile Sauce Peruvian-Style)

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Aji Roja

Aji Roja (Peruvian-style red chile sauce)

This is one of two sauces I served with my anticuchos. Aji Roja has a mild chili/smoke flavor and invites generous squirting onto tacos or alongside grilled meats. A Peruvian classic, it’s possibly the inspiration for the “Tacolicious” sauce which is popular at Bay Area taco stands. Makes about 1 ½ cups.

Ingredients:
3 Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Half a medium onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves
¾ c plus 2 T vegetable oil
½ c dried chile de árbol, stemmed (or another medium-hot dried red chile)
½ c water
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1 t Kosher salt*

Method: broil onion and tomato under low heat (in the middle of the oven, or in a toaster oven), turning occasionally, until nicely charred with most of the liquid evaporated. This will take about 20 minutes. First the tomatoes will put out a lot of liquid, but it will gradually cook away. Meanwhile, sauté garlic in 2 T oil until brown but not burned; add the chiles and cook till darkened a bit, about 10 minutes. Transfer roasted vegetables, garlic and peppers to a blender; add vinegar and water and allow to macerate half an hour or so, then add salt, grind to a paste and macerate some more. Now blend in oil pouring slowly so it completely emulsifies with the vegetables. Serve immediately; leftovers will keep a couple of weeks in refrigerator.

*A gremlin initially made me write 1 T, now corrected.

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Recipe: Grilled Beef Heart Peruvian-Style (Anticuchos)

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Antichuchos

Anticuchos (grilled beef heart) with traditional accompaniments of red and green aji sauces and chunks of corn and potato

Anticuchos is the classic Peruvian street food, made with a taste-alike marinade created from ketchup and chili powder to replace the native Aji Panca. The sauce has a nice balance of sweet/tangy/spicy and would be good with other beef cuts or chicken as well. Serves 4-6.

Ingredients
1 beef heart, 2-3 pounds
2 T ketchup
2 T chili powder (I used 2/3 Tone brand, a mild version, and 1/3 chipotle)
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t ground cumin
6 T red wine vinegar
1/4 c olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Method: Cut the heart into bite-size pieces, discarding fat and connective tissue. Mix marinade ingredients and add the heart chunks, then marinate at least 4 hours and preferably overnight. Thread the chunk onto skewers (in Peru these are traditionally wood skewers, which need to be soaked in water first so they don’t catch fire). Grill until lightly charred, turning once. This should take less than 10 minutes on a medium flame; don’t overcook. Traditionally anticuchos are served with some mild dipping sauces (recipes here and here) and a chunk of corn and some boiled potatoes.

Note: With the skyrocketing cost of brisket, I’ve been looking for other meats to throw on the grill. Beef heart is a good solution. I had to special order it from my butcher, but it was just $4/pound and about 75% edible lean meat. Once it’s cooked, your guests will likely not recognize it as heart unless you tell them; it tastes like a tender steak though it’s red all the way through.

If you want to try the authentic recipe (or see how close my taste-alike version is), Aji Panca paste is available in jars from Amazon. It has a pleasant tangy/sweet flavor base which is how I came up with the ketchup substitution. To make the authentic version, substitute 6 T Aji Panca paste for the ketchup and chili powder and reduce vinegar to 4 T.

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Food for Thought: Chef Jacques La Merde

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
A typical Chef Merde creation

Dunkin Munchkins, Snickers haché, birthday Oreo soil on Shamrock Shake creme created by Chef Jacques La Merde

Hah! On this Instagram feed, a wise guy who calls himself Jacques La Merde creates food porn by disasembling junk food and reconstructing it with tweezers, then shooting it with a big lens. See if you can recognize the Pop-Tarts®, gummmies, Hungry Man™ dinners and “Doritos© dirt” masquerading as real food.

There’s absolutely nothing redeeming about any of this, unless it disabuses you of the idea that composed food that looks beautiful is automatically good to eat. Check it out.

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Recipe: Carrot Pineapple Jello

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Carrot Pineapple Jello

Carrot Pineapple Jello with a squirt of Kewpie mayo

I was going to share my family’s Southern recipe for carrot pineapple jello, until I found this version which really is superior. I’ve only made minor tweaks for better management of proportions. Serves 8.

Ingredients:
1 3-oz package jello, lemon or orange flavor (we traditionally used orange, but I think lemon is better)
1 c boiling water
1/2 c ice water
1/2 c pineapple juice
1/4 c crushed pineapple from can (do not use fresh pineapple)
1/2 t lemon juice
pinch salt
1 c grated* carrots

Method: Pour boiling water over jello in a glass or metal bowl and stir until jello is completely dissolved, about 2 minutes. Add salt, lemon juice, ice water and pineapple juice and stir to mix. Refrigerate 45 minutes until jello is just beginning to set up. Transfer to a mold or flat-bottom glass tray and stir in carrots and pineapple. Refrigerate until firm, about 4 hours. Cut into serving pieces (if it sticks to the pan, place it briefly in a tray of hot water) and top with a bit of mayo (ideally Kewpie brand) before serving as salad course or dessert.

  • Grate the carrots with the stems facing into your box grater or other device. If you do it the long way you’ll end up with beautiful long strands which are impractical to cut and serve.
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Recipe: Mamo’s Carrot Raisin Slaw

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Carrot Raisin Slaw

Carrot Raisin Slaw

Carrot raisin slaw is a very good and very simple recipe that often made its appearance at holiday buffets when I was growing up in Dallas. Serves 8-12.

Ingredients:
4 c grated carrots
1 c raisins/currants/golden raisins in any combination
¼ c mayonnaise
2 T sugar
2 T lemon juice

Method: combine all ingredients and refrigerate 2 hours or more to allow flavors to develop.

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How to get big(ger) holes in your baguettes

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Holes cross section

Slice on the right has bigger holes/more open crumb

[New to Burnt My Fingers? See UPDATE at the end of this post.] Big, lacy holes are a right of passage in baguette making. Big holes in baguettes mean an airy, well-made loaf with a chewy, tasty crumb. Contributing factors to big holes may include very high hydration dough, extremely careful dough handling, years of experience or all of the above. Like oven steam, big holes are a goal that can elude the home baker.

Today I discovered a short cut which, while not producing the biggest holes in baguettes I’ve ever seen, definitely is a step in the right direction. I found this while watching a video on baguette making which had recently been posted to to Breadtopia. While I didn’t agree with some of the other techniques, and the loaf this baker produced actually didn’t have big holes, it gave me an idea for preshaping the dough, the step before it’s actually rolled out into baguettes.

Typically I preshape my dough into a ball… I use Jeffrey Hamelman’s “gingerbread man” technique to flatten a disk, fold in the arms and legs, then flip it over and shape into a ball tucking the open surfaces tight inside. The purpose of this is simply to provide a sealed surface so air has less chance of getting out as the dough expands. But the Breadtopia demo does something different. The baker pulls the unshaped dough piece out into a rectangle, then folds in the sides to meet in the middle, then folds from top and bottom like a business letter and finally shapes into a log. This adds a number of layers of lamination, each of which can trap some air. It’s the way I’ll be shaping my baguettes from now on.

300 g lump of dough

Unshaped dough at 300 g. The scrap on the top is to bring it up to weight.

Stretch dough sideways

Pull it out into a rectangle…

First side fld

Now fold in from one side so the fold meets in the center

Second fold

Fold in from the right, so it looks like this

Business letter fold

Now fold 1/3 down from the top and 1/3 up from the bottom like a business letter

Shaped log

Flip it over, seam side down, and shape gently into a log

Compare log to ball

Three logs compared to one traditional ball at upper right

Holes cross sectoin

Cross section with the open crumb on the bottom

UPDATE: the desire for bigger holes generally goes hand-in-hand with the wish for a crisp, blistered crust as produced in a commercial oven with steam. If this is something you are interested in, check this post.

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How to steam bread in a home oven

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Steamed baguette closeup

Variegated color, nice “ears” and blisters are benefits of oven steam

Every home baker tries to get more steam into his/her home oven, and most always we fall short. I’ve tried spraying water on the oven walls, pouring water into a cookie sheet in the bottom of the oven, dousing the loaves themselves with water as they go in among other strategies and never been satisfied. This is especially frustrating because any of us can produce perfectly steamed boules simply by cooking them in a cast iron dutch oven and leaving the lid on for the first 20-25 minutes of the bake.

Steam and no steam

Baguette at top baked without steam, on bottom with steam

Today I had the inspiration to try recreating the dutch oven environment with my baguettes by using a caterer’s aluminum tray as the lid over my half-sheet baking surface. The tray was the right width but a little long so I folded some aluminum foil over the ends. The tray was preheated along with the baking sheet and I sprayed my loaves and the inside of the tray with water as it went in, then again at 10 minutes for good measure, and removed the tray at 20 minutes to finish the bake.

Home made steam setup

My home made steam baking setup

The results were pretty, pretty good, definitely as good a crust as I’ve achieved on an open pan in my home oven. I’m going to continue to tinker with the fit of the tray and the baking sheet, maybe using some heat proof tape or just finding a pan that’s a better fit. But I’m very encouraged with this first effort.

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