I’ve been craving fish for a while, so I decided to pick up some grouper. We had some zucchini and roma tomatoes that were getting a little ripe, so I wanted to incorporate them into the dish as well. As part of our attempt to eat healthier, I decided to bake everything. I ran across a recipe from Steamy Kitchen that included a helpful YouTube tutorial on how to steam fish and vegetables in parchment paper, so I thought I’d give it a try. It was a huge success.
I know what you’re thinking; you’re finally making pretty good no-knead bread but it’s getting a little boring. You’re wondering if there’s a way you can add flavors to your bread without changing the cooking method. I wondered the same thing. I’ve had much success incorporating various liquids and solids into my bread while maintaining a crisp crust and a light, airy center. As you might expect, there was a pretty steep learning curve. I’ve listed some of my hard-learned lessons below. If you’re using a method similar to mine, then these tips and tricks will work for you too. Check out this asiago cheese loaf:
As regular readers know, I’ve been experimenting with homemade bread for months now. In retrospect, I handicapped my learning process by adopting and abandoning several different methods and recipes before perfecting one. After initial success with a no-knead bread technique, I decided to stick with it. Over time, I incorporated techniques and suggestions from several sources and ended up with a pretty foolproof recipe.
Like I’ve said before, I’m trying to get better at baking bread. Last week I tried a no-knead ciabatta recipe and was only somewhat pleased with the results. I decided I’d try again, so I made another batch of dough on Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, the dough was ready for the oven. I know what you’re thinking; what kind of man spends all day in the kitchen when there are football games on? Well, I addressed that dilemma when we remodeled the kitchen:
Thanks to my new TV and my island on wheels, I can watch football and cook at the same time.
As I recently mentioned, I’ve been trying to get better at making bread. I haven’t been having much luck. I think the kneading is the problem, so I decided to remove that step from the equation. I found this “no-knead ciabatta bread” video/recipe at the Food Wishes blog and decided it was right for me:
It seemed simple enough, so I gave it a try.
To conclude our Labor Day staycation, my wife decided to try out some recipes form the latest issue of Gourmet:
We made a chili-crusted pork tenderloin with roasted tomatillo salsa, a side dish of bulgur with herbs, and some provolone popovers.
