Mark Bittman’s Bruschetta and Crostini

by Coltrane

The recipe is basically Mark Bittman’s, from How To Cook Everything, 10th Anniversary Edition. I used french bread that I’d made the day before. The bread hadn’t risen like I would have liked — it wound up relatively too dense to use as “bread”, so I repurposed it into these crostini.

This crostini recipe didn’t quite use up all of the bread I’d made — the remaining bread became Bittman’s French Toast. The French toast was also quite good. That book has yet to let me down.

The crostini ingredients:

8” of	Baugette, cut into 1/2” rounds
15 oz can or	Whole Tomatoes, seeded and diced
6 large	Roma Tomatoes, seeded and diced
10 large	Basil Leaves, chiffonade
4 TBP	Blue Cheese, in small pieces
2 TBP	Pecorino Romano, in small pieces
1 clove	Garlic, minced
	Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
	Extra Virgin Olive Oil for brushing
	Garlic clove cut in half

I used canned tomatoes in this recipe and it went over well. Roma tomatoes would be good too. My advice would be to go with whatever you have on hand.

Directions:

Place the tomatoes in a colander and drain for a few minutes. Heat broiler and adjust the rack to 4″ from the heat. Place the bread onto a cookie sheet or equivalent. Lightly brush the bread slices on both sides with olive oil. Place the cookie sheet under the broiler to lightly brown the first side of the bread. (This will take 2-4 minutes.) Turn and brown the other side. Don’t walk away from the bread while it’s under the broiler, as the bread will go from “toasty” to “setting off the fire alarm” in about 30 seconds. Rub the crostini with the halved garlic clove.

Combine the tomato, basil, cheeses, minced garlic, and the two tablespoons of olive oil. Mix to combine and salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp). Distribute the tomato mixture on the crostini rounds. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil.

As for what happens when you get wrapped up in taking pictures and forget about the bread under the broiler…

Chard with Cannellini

by Coltrane

Chard arrived in the CSA box this week. The chard, along with some leftover cheese, canned beans, and basil from the planter box become a very nice topping for crostini or crackers:

2 TBP	Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 cup	Shallots, minced
1 clove	Garlic, minced
1 lb	Chard, stems removed, cut into 1” pieces
1/2 15 oz can	Cannellini Beans rinsed and drained
1/4 cup	Chicken Broth
Pinch	Red Pepper Flakes
3 TBP	Pecorino Romano, chopped fine
6 large	Basil Leaves, chopped or chiffonade
1 TBP	Lemon Juice

Heat skillet over medium high heat. Add Olive Oil, Shallots, and Garlic. Saute until soft. Add Chard, Beans, Chicken Broth, and Red Pepper. Cook until the Chard is wilted and reduced. Add cheese, basil, and lemon juice, heat through. Salt to taste (the chicken broth and cheese both contain some salt.)

Serve over crostini, bruschetta, or crackers.

This recipe would work well with spinach instead of chard. A lesser amount of onion may be substituted for the shallot.

Things to do with your CSA box

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I don’t actually get a CSA basket (although I probably should), but I know plenty of people who do and I frequently get asked if I want the stuff they aren’t going to use or what can they do with the leftovers. I say, make a stir-fry. I am pretty sure that stir-fry is ancient Chinese for “take a whole bunch of shit and throw it in a pot to make something tasty.”

I love summer in the Northwest since we have access to some great quality and amazingly fresh ingredients. Here is my CSA inspired stir-fry from a farmer’s market shopping spree. There is really no recipe. I just cut up a bunch of stuff, cooked it and ate it. It really is that simple.

The Software
Zucchini
Bok Choy
Green Bell Peppers
Walla Walla Onions
Broccoli
Garlic – minced or sliced
Oil (any kind will do, I use olive)
Lime
Soy Sauce
Rice Wine Vinegar
Chicken Stock
Sesame Seeds

The Stir-Fry
Chop the zucchini, bok choy, peppers and onions to whatever size you want them to be. I personally like large pieces of veggies, so I chopped them very roughly. You are going to cook all of the veggies separately, so you will need a large sauté pan and a large bowl. Heat the pan over medium-high heat with about 1.5 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is hot, add the onions. Cook for about 1 minute until they begin to soften. Add a little soy sauce and toss the onions around in it. Continue cooking until less cooked than you would want to eat (they will continue cooking in the bowl). Add in garlic and cook for 15 -30 seconds more. Empty contents of pot into bowl. Return pot to heat, add oil until it is hot and add whichever veggie you would like to cook next (it really does not matter), just remember not to overcook them and add a dash or 2 of soy sauce for the last minute or so of cooking. Repeat the process until all of the veggies are done. Once all of the veggies are done, take a small amount of chicken stock and deglaze the pan (or you can use veggie stock, water, wine, beer – pretty much any liquid will work). Add it to the bowl of cooked veggies. Takes some rice wine vinegar, the juice of the lime and a handful of sesame seeds and add them to the bowl. Give everything a good stir and taste. Adjust the seasonings as needed. Eat. That is it; the whole thing takes less than 10 minutes.

Notes
You can add any veggies you want to this, the recipe is based on what I picked up and looked good. I like to serve this over some pan-fried yakisoba noodles, but you can serve it over rice, cous cous, pasta or just on its own. If you want some protein in it, this does work well with tofu or poultry. If you like heat, a nice chile sauce or some diced chile peppers are wonderful. Ginger is also nice with this too – just mince it and add it at the same time as the onions. Just remember – don’t overcook the veggies or you will end up with mush.

Sambal Oelek

by Coltrane

Sambal Oelek is a spicy asian chili paste. I like to use it instead of cayenne or tabasco — anywhere heat is needed. Here are three quick recipes; one “Asian”, one “Mexican”, and one “Mediterranian”. Sambal Oelek works great in all three.

“Asian” Sauteed Spinach

2 TBP	Peanut or Canola Oil
1 lb	Baby Spinach
2 cloves	Garlic, minced
2 TBP	Soy Sauce
½ tsp	Sambal Oelek

Heat a skillet and oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and saute until it colors a bit. Add soy, spinach, and Sambal Oelek, cover for 1 minute. Remove cover and stir until the spinach is cooked to your liking, about 2-5 minutes more.

Psuedo Pico de Gallo

About 6	Roma tomatoes
½ – 1	Red or Sweet Onion
½ cup	Chopped Cilantro
Juice of 1-2	Lime
pinch	Salt
½ – 1 tsp	Sambal Oelek

Seed and dice tomatoes. (They’re easiest to seed if you cut them through the equator and clean out with your finger.) Mince the onion. Add all ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine. Serve immediately.

White Bean Hummus Send-Up

I use peanut butter instead of tahini in this recipe. Don’t tell them and they won’t notice. (Of course, if they did call me on it I’d say “Well yeah, I didn’t tell you it was Hummus”.)

1 can	White (Cannellini) Beans
Juice of 1	Lemon
2 cloves	Garlic
pinch	Salt
1 TBP	Peanut Butter
1 TBP	Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ tsp	Sambal Oelek

Drain beans. Roughly chop the garlic. Add garlic to food processor and process briefly. Add all other ingredients and process until smooth. It may require a bit more oil to get the texture you want.

When Life Hands You Chicken Breast…

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I promised a recipe for the leftover chicken breast from the Chicken Soup recipe, so here it is – my take on my grandmother’s chicken salad, which, as much as I try, will always be better in my heart. The original recipe involved grating all of the veggies, using the chicken breast from making soup and never included bacon salt (wasn’t invented yet), balsamic vinegar or garlic powder (she used minced garlic, which, is too overpowering for this dish). She would have thought it weird that I would be writing a recipe for this, so I am sorry grandma. When I learned to make this from her, she never measured anything and neither have I until this point. It is all about tasting everything until it tastes right (or good, there is no right or wrong on this meal). Nothing that she made came with a recipe, if you wanted to learn to make something she made, it was by being in the kitchen with her and tasting and feeling as you went. Sadly, she passed a few years ago, but fortunately, just about all of her cooking wisdom was passed down to her children and grandchildren. This is also one of Mrs. Iron Chef’s favorites.

The Software
1 chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
1 large carrot finely minced
1 large stalk celery, finely minced
2 tablespoon finely minced yellow onion
1 tablespoon bacon salt
1 tablespoons mustard powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
3 tablespoons mayo (see note)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (see note)

• Note – when I say tablespoon for the mayo and teaspoon for the mustard, I am not talking about the measurements, I am talking about the spoons you would find in your silverware drawer. I just take 3 big scoops of mayo and 1 big teaspoon of mustard. If I had to guess measurements, 1/2 cup of mayo, 1 1/2 tablespoons (the measurement) of mustard.

The Salad
In a large bowl, combine the chicken, carrot, celery and onion.

The Dressing
This is a salad, so you are making a salad dressing essentially. In a bowl, combine the mayo, mustard, mustard powder, bacon salt, garlic powder and balsamic vinegar. Mix until well incorporated. Taste it. Add any additional seasoning as needed.

The Final Product
Add the dressing and fold using a spatula. Taste it. There should be a subtle hint of heat from the onions and mustard. I usually will add a few grinds of black pepper and, if needed, some salt and fold that in. That is it, you are done. If for some reason you like more dressing, just make some more and add it in. This is pretty potent stuff and you are really looking more to coat everything rather than drown it.

To Serve
Serve it however you want – on a sandwich, salad, or my favorite, just out of the bowl with a spoon.

Final Notes
It took me longer to type this up than it did to make. This dish really shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to put together. You can not add the bacon salt (if you don’t put it in there, you might need to add salt later) if you choose. Of course if you don’t add the bacon salt, you could always add some real crumbled bacon to it, because, frankly, everything is better with bacon. The mustard powder is really essential for the right flavor, but if you don’t have any, and aren’t able to stop what you are doing and run out to get some, double the amount of Dijon. It won’t be the same, but it will still be edible. If you find yellow onions too strong, try substituting sweet or Walla Walla onions or even scallions. At various times, I have added in hot sauce, horse radish, worcestershire sauce, paprika and a bunch of other stuff I am probably forgetting. Feel free to play with your seasonings. Make it taste the way you want – grandma would just be happy that you are eating it.

Onion-Potato Focaccia

by Coltrane

Or Potato-Onion Focaccia, or Potato Focaccia with Onion. It’s a focaccia bread with yukon gold potato inside and onions on top. An oniony olive oil is both inside of and on top of the bread.

The recipe below probably started life in a slightly different form at The Wednesday Chef. Her recipe features tomatoes.

The Ingredients

1 Medium Yukon Gold Potato

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon Instant Yeast (or 1.25 tsp “active” yeast)

Pinch of Sugar (or a few drops of honey)

1/2 Tablespoon Kosher Salt

2/3 Cup Warm Water (not “hot”)

1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 Medium Onion (The quantity is very flexible. Do what you like. If you cook up more than the focaccia needs there’s always the refrigerator for the extra.) I usually use a sweet onion, but red onion and spring onions work too.

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the potato until tender, about 20 minutes. Slightly undercooked is ok. When the potato is cool enough to handle, peel and break it up into marble-sized pieces.

2. While the potato is boiling: Slice the onion into pieces about 1/2″ long. Heat a pan over medium-low heat, add the olive oil, and saute the onion until it softens. Remove pan from the heat and let cool. (More olive oil than necessary is used here. This step infuses the olive oil with the onion flavor.)

3. In a mixing bowl combine the yeast, sugar or honey, and water. Let stand 5 minutes.

4. Add to the bowl the flour, salt, potato, and about half of the oil from the pan of onions. Knead until the dough comes together, about 5-7 minutes. The dough should be tacky but not sticky. (I knead the dough right in the bowl, it’s one fewer thing to clean.) Add a light coating of oil to the dough and the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest one hour.

5. Line a baking pan with parchment paper (mine’s about 12 x 8 x 2). Place the dough into the middle of the parchment and pull the dough to fit the pan. If the dough resists the stretching, wait 5 minutes and stretch again. It’s not critical that the dough goes all the way to the edges, it will expand during the 2nd rise. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest one hour.

6. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap from the focaccia. Dimple the focaccia with your fingers. Spread the remaining olive oil over the top of the dough.

7. Bake for 20 minutes. At the 20 minute mark add as many onions as you like. Rotate the pan and bake another 20 minutes. (This will be 40 minutes of baking total.)

8. Let cool 20 minutes in the pan.

Enjoy.

Chicken Soup for the Impatient Soul

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A couple of friends of mine were feeling under the weather and I made them some chicken soup to assist in the healing process. I have fond memories from my youth of my dad making the soup from scratch in the winter – but it was an all day process. These days, there are plenty of times where Mrs. Iron Chef feels like soup for dinner and tells me later in the afternoon. I really am not a fan of canned soups – the veggies tend to be completely mush and they have entirely too much sodium in them, so fortunately, I devised a way to make it in roughly 20 – 30 minutes, depending on how soft you want your veggies. The soup is a heck of a lot better than the canned stuff, but not quite at the Jewish grandmother level, but it is much easier to make. The recipe below is really just a base, feel free to add in whatever veggies you want, or if you want to make veggie soup, just leave out the chicken and substitute veggie broth for chicken.

The Software
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 medium carrots diced into 1/4 inch pieces
2 ribs of celery (including the leaves) diced into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 parsnip diced into 1/4 inch pieces
1 small head bok choy roughly chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 cloves of garlic (smashed but not diced)
2 bay leaves
1 supermarket rotisserie chicken
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 oz cognac (optional)
1 cup beef broth (optional)
The rind of a piece of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (optional – see final notes below)
Salt
Pepper

The Bird
Yes, just buy a supermarket rotisserie chicken. They are perfect for this soup and already cooked. Taking the bird apart is a hands-on experience (literally), so make sure the meat is cool enough to handle. It is an easy thing to do and doesn’t actually require a knife to do it, but you will get your hands messy. You are also only going to need the dark meat. It doesn’t matter if you only like white meat – get over it. The dark meat has infinitely more flavor and it won’t dry out. Save the breasts for chicken salad (my take on my grandmother’s recipe coming soon) or some other application where all of the flavor is being delivered by the sauce/dressing/seasonings. First, remove the skin from the entire bird. Please don’t throw it out – it is delicious and good for you (lots of vitamins and contrary to what you may think, fat does not make you fat). If you don’t want it, bring it over to my place, I will be happy to take it from you. Next, remove the wings, legs and thighs from the body and remove the meat from the bones (you can discard the bones) and set aside. Then remove the breast meat from the carcass. Set that off somewhere so you are not tempted to use it. Now the fun part – pick all of the remaining meat off the carcass. There is probably some fat left on there, which you can just get rid of, but work at getting everything else off. It doesn’t have to be completely stripped, just get all of the major chunks of meat off (especially off the back). There is a surprising amount of meat that people tend to leave on the carcass with roast birds – most of it very tasty. This exercise will show you just how much you are wasting. Take all of the dark meat, roughly chop it and set it aside. Save the body cavity – we need it for the soup.

The Soup
In a large stock pot or Dutch oven heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat until shimmering. Add the carrots, celery, parsnip and onions and cook until slightly softened but not browned, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the broth, garlic, bay leaves and chicken body cavity to the pot and bring to a boil. When a boil is reached, reduce heat to medium low and add soy, cognac, Parmigiano rind and bok choy. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the veggies reach your desired state of doneness. Remove from heat and remove the chicken carcass, garlic, rind and bay leaves. Add the chicken meat to the soup (it is already cooked, so you are just warming it up with the residual heat from the soup). Check the seasoning – add salt and pepper to taste.

Final Notes
This is wonderful served by itself or over some rice or small pasta like orzo. If you want a thinner broth, add water to the soup as necessary (just remember to recheck the seasoning if you do this). Cool any leftovers and portion them out. This recipe makes 6 – 8 meal sized servings of soup and you can easily extend it past that if you want to add more veggies/broth/water to it. You ask, why would I have the rind of Parmigiano Reggiano and add it to the soup? Simple – flavor. If you have Parmigiano at home, keep the rind in a zip top bag and put it in the freezer. If you don’t have it, go to the cheese counter of any store that carries it and ask them if you can have some of the rind. They will usually just give it to you. It makes a huge difference in the flavor of the soup.

Pizza Dough

by Coltrane

I originally took an interest in pizza dough when my mom got me an Oster bread machine. (Thanks mom.) I began by using the recipe that came with the bread machine. My initial attempts all tasted like cardboard. I started messing with the ratios of water, flour, yeast, oil, and salt. I tried adding and removing varying amounts of sugar or honey.

One of the difficulties with this learning process is that almost every recipe calls for differing amounts each ingredient, and there’s no standardized order of ingredients. It makes it a lot harder to visualize the way that the recipes compare and contrast.

The two charts below are an attempt to give some order, so that it’s easier to see how the recipes differ. All of the recipes have been scaled to ~3 cups of flour. This will make one large, thin-crust pizza or two smaller pizzas. All of the Peter Reinhart recipes are somewhat approximated — his recipes call for 5 cups of flour. I divided those all in half, making for some very odd looking measurements.


.		Bread Machine	Smitten Kitchen	Joy	Smitten (updated)	Batali (FN)
.	Flour	3 cups AP	3 cups AP	3.5-4 c AP	3 cups AP	3.5 cups AP
.	Water	7/8 to 1 cup	1 cup	1-1/3 cups	3/4 cup	3/4 cup
.	Other Liquid				1/4c white wine	1/4c light wine
.	Yeast	1.5 tsp active	1.5 tsp active	2.25 tsp active	1.5 tsp active	2 TBP active
.	Salt	.5 tsp	2 tsp	1 TBP	2 tsp	1 tsp
.	Oil	2 TBP	1 TBP	2 TBP	2 TBP	1 TBP + 1 tsp
.	Sugar			1 TBP (optional)	1 tsp	1 TBP Honey
.
.
.	Mix 1	20 min	2 min	10 min		6-8 min
.	Rise 1	20 min	60-120 (double)	60-90 (double)		45 min
.	Mix 2	.5 min	punch down	punch down
.	Rise 2	50 min	10-15 min	10-15 min
.	Refrigerate

Peter Reinhart recipes:


.		Neopolitan	Neo-Neopolitan	NY Style	Americana
.	Flour	2.5 cups AP	2.5 cups Bread	2.5 c Bread	2.5 c Bread
.	Water	1 cup minus 1 TBP	1c minus 1.5 TBP	7/8 cup	3/8 cup
.	Other Liquid				1/2 cup milk
.	Yeast	.5 tsp instant	.5 tsp instant	3/4 tsp instant	1 tsp instant
.	Salt	1.5 tsp	1.5 tsp	1.75 tsp	1.75 tsp
.	Oil		1 TBP	1.5 TBP	2 TBP
.	Sugar			3/4 TBP	1.5 TBP
.
.
.	Mix 1	4 min	4 min	4 min	4 min
.	Rise 1	5 min	5 min	5 min	5 min
.	Mix 2	shape	shape	shape	shape
.	Rise 2	30 min	15 min	15 min	15 min
.	Refrigerate	Overnight	Overnight	Overnight	Overnight
.		OR	OR	OR	OR
.		Rise 1.5 Hours	Rise 1 Hour	Rise 1 Hour	Rise 1 Hour
.		Fridge 2 Hour	Fridge 2 Hour	Fridge 2 Hour	Fridge 2 Hour

The Links:

Smitten Kitchen “Really Simple”

Smitten Kitchen “Pizza, Updated”

The Joy of Cooking

Batali’s Food Network recipe. Note that it calls for 1.5 ounces of fresh yeast. The quantity in the recipe is an approximation of the amount of active yeast required instead.

Peter Reinhart’s American Pie

A yeast conversion chart.

One TBP of table salt = Two TBP of Kosher salt. The recipes above use Kosher salt. Adjust accordingly.

Use unbleached flour. Feel free to try substituting bread flour for all-purpose flour and vice-versa.

What I think I’ve learned:

1. The Oster recipe tasted like cardboard for two main reasons: There’ s very little salt in the recipe and the rise in the machine is fast and warm.

2. The longer the rise, the better the taste. I never let any dough rise at any temperature above about 75-78 degrees. A longer rise lets enzymes work and create more complex flavors.

3. Dough can live in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Ideally it will be removed from the refrigerator for 1-2 hours to take the chill off before use.

4. Read the actual recipes in the links. Every approach is a different and they all can be considered valid.

5. The Mario recipe calls for a lot of yeast and a short rise. There are lots of other flavors happening in that one, masking the short rise.

6. Fats and sugars promote browning and crispness. This applies if they’re in the dough or on the outside of the dough. Try brushing olive oil on the edge of the pizza before or during cooking.

7. One unit of instant yeast = 1.25 units of active yeast. Going the other way, 1 unit of active yeast = .8 units of instant yeast. (Instant yeast is 25% “stronger”.) I prefer instant yeast, as it doesn’t need to be “bloomed” (pre-soaked with water and sugar.) Active yeast should be “bloomed”.

Method:

I’m currently using the “Simple” Smitten Kitchen recipe. I’m not using a pizza stone or anything like that. Here’s my method:

A: Turn oven up to 11. Let the oven preheat at least 10 minutes so that the oven becomes hot, not just the air inside the oven. Longer is better.

B: Lightly oil a sheet pan (or broiler pan). Stretch dough out on the oiled pan. (Optional, brush the dough with a light coating of oil on top.) The oil sort of fries the bottom, helping to give a crisp crust.

C: Add all toppings except cheese. I will often partially saute the toppings in advance as I’m not a fan of raw veggies on a pizza. This is a good way to add more flavor too.

D: Insert the sheet pan on the bottom rack, cook 10 minutes.

E: Open the oven and quickly add the cheese, cook about another 6 minutes. Adding the cheese at the half-way point prevents burning. Turn the pizza at this point if it looks like it’s not browning evenly.

F: Remove and let cool for a couple of minutes to let the pizza set up.

G: Eat!