Jon Savage

So how goes? I too have been following this thread.

That's a great experiment to try. I'm assuming you are avoiding animal rennet re: kashrut concerns @ JP's school?

Franchi this all looks great so far thank you for blogging.

These notes are for a friend with whom I'll be baking this weekend. Bitch is a ref to my starter, comments/concerns? --thx Jon Basic naturally Leaveneåd bread workflow (sourdough? maybe.) --notes for bitch session; assumes you have a starter in hand-- The thing about naturally leavened bread is that it requires time and forethought. Attended work? not so much but this is not a bread you can make from start to finish in an hour or so. Day one (my days count from evenings, you could of course use am, noon whatever)- Make a Poolish or Biga from your starter; think a fistfull of dough or so. This will be used in a day or two to levain your bread. -Poolish is a 50/50 mixture of starter and flour +water by weight or SWAG- think loose slimeball -Biga is starter+enough flour or water to make a fairly stiff dough - add no salt in either case as it retards yeast and lactobacilli reproduction which is the point of this exercise. (I prefer a poolish) The Biga has a more sour result. France tends to prefer poolish while Italy tends towards Biga. Let that sit in a covered bowl at room temperature overnight or so, it will get spongy and can now be held in the fridge for another day or two without ill effect. At the same time put ¼ to ½ cup flour in the jar you removed the starter from (unwashed, still has remnants of starter in it) and enough water to make a creamy slurry. This should be left on the counter overnight or until quite bubbly and can then be stored in the reefer until you decide to make bread again. If you leave this in the fridge for an extended period of time it may separate, hootch on top- that’s OK just mix it all up, discard half add flour and water and leave it out loosely covered until it bubbles and wakes up. I’ve revived neglected starter after a year in the fridge this way and it revived just fine. elapsed time 24+ hours, actual work 5-10 minutes at most. Day 2 (or 3 or 4 if you have been busy): Make a 60% hydration dough (flour = 100% weight, water 60%) e.g. we usually take a kilogram of flour and add 600 ml H2O + the poolish which adds a few % water to the mix. Knead by hand or in your stand mixer until it just becomes cohesive and let it rest for ½ hour (this allows some enzymes to work their magic to create sugars and also fully hydrates the dough). Once that time elapses add 2% salt by weight or SWAG and knead for 5-7 minutes if using a mixer or if by hand a full 10-12 minutes. Depending on ambient humidity, the phase of the moon etc. you may have to add a little flour or water to achieve a good consistency. The resulting dough ball gets a little olive oil or PAM sprayed on it, goes back into its bowl covered with shrink wrap and rests in the fridge at least overnight but up to a week (the batch above lasts us about a week for baguette, boule, pizza whatever...). You don’t want to make more than ⅓ to ½ of the capacity of your storage containers capacity of dough as otherwise it will try to escape. Actually it might try to anyway. The bitch is nothing if not vigorous. elapsed time 48 hours to a week, actual work 30 minutes or so Days 3-7 (Baking bread or the like): A couple of hours before you want to make bread grab as much dough as you need from the fridge as you need, I’m assuming 2 Baguettes since that’s what we’ll do in the session so about 2 fist sized chunks of dough. Knead these (separately) into 2 tight balls seam down using bench flour as needed let warm up covered @ room temp for an hour or two. Start oven preheat as hot as it goes after that, also begin to form the baguette; keeping seams down. If the dough resists have a martini and let the gluten relax. Once the baguette are sufficiently formed cover and let rest while the oven continues its pre heat. Gently place the baguette into the form (or on a peel if using a baking stone)- grab the sharpest knife you have and slash lengthwise across the top just prior to putting them into the preheated oven. Also have ½ cup of water or so available to throw onto the floor of the oven just a few seconds after you have put the bread in- this will help oven spring. Leave the temp on max; door closed. After 10 minutes you should check and maybe rotate the loaves 180 degrees to even browning. Check internal temp after 18ish minutes, once the interior of the loaves reaches 200F they can be set aside to cool. Do let them cool, they actually taste better after a rest. elapsed time 72 hours to a week, actual work 40 minutes or so Rinse and repeat with the rest of the dough if you have any left. We do pizza, focaccia (make the dough 70-75% hydration if you want foccacia), rolls, boule, pita, english muffins and such.

mozzarella, cubed pancetta, schmear of tomato sauce over naturally leavened dough.

This morning's effort (60%ish hydration, naturally leavened):

Ready prepped Mirepoix @$4 /lb. That is just silly.

Pre prepped mirepoix sold @ trader Joe's, Vons and the like. Circa $3/lb (454 gm). As if it is too much work to do one's own prep... I also wonder if people making their own stocks/soups/sauces are really the target market for this? 'Nuf said I prep my own stuff.

Bumping this topic back up because it is also relevant to the heat gun discussion.

I've owned and used both screens and a pizza stone. I prefer the results from the screen and sticking has not been an issue as long as I don't let the topped pizza sit around on the screen prior to getting it into the oven. This translates into stretching the dough into pizza shape on my counter, *gently* getting it onto the screen, topping it and *immediately* putting it into the (preheated) oven. In our 1950's craptastic electric oven the pizza's get done in 5-7 minutes.

It has been fairly uninteresting so far but I hope the last few episodes will make up for it.

For me (western style) Japanese knives were a huge game changer.

I was wondering about the strudel (dough). Having lived in Austria for over a decade in the '80s when Puck was up and coming I know that pulling srudel dough is non trivial. But hey Blais (who I root for) has strudelteig hey presto... I call foul. --edit also it looked pre made... really the gulash et al seemed easy but the strudel I thought would become interesting

Enjoying this blog immensely Rhonda.

I could not say it better so I won't! Great job - enjoy a celebratory cocktail Roberta!

I'm really enjoying the step by step cooking photographs with instructions. You have a real talent for that.

That looks great; I just happen to have some Maseca and the exact same tortilla press on hand; Steak tacos for dinner tonight I think. I will have to procure some peppers first. You know it is funny- I prefer the taste & texture of tortillas made using maseca over the fresh stuff (purchased not from scratch). I also meant to mention that the Top Valu market at 10th X Cherry also has a real live old school butcher department (that may or may not be more convenient for you than 99 Ranch depending on where in LB you live). I love that market their produce selection is also outstanding and *very* fairly priced. --edit fish tacos mmmmmmmm... I may have to grab some @ Holé Molé when I go out to buy peppers.

Thanks so very much Roberta it has been fun! Great blog! I've enjoyed reading it and would have even if I were not also living in Long Beach.

Sounds like you had a most excellent shopping and cooking adventure Roberta. I like the concept of the CSA you are using. I'm bushed, the Tsunami alert woke me at midnight last night and the dogs conspired to not allow me to get back to sleep. I qave up at 0500 and went into work. The Tsunami was fortunately a non event here in Long Beach.

Acres of books closed a couple of years ago. It is sorely missed.

Loving this blog Roberta thanks! Shucks, thanks Jon. Good to know another local thinks I'm doin' right by our town. I'm happy that you represent our town.

Loving this blog Roberta thanks!

just a pic to tease Shelby- 80 degrees and had to stop at a bar 4 of 5 miles home on my bike . (have I mentioned that LB is pretty darned bike friendly?) Behold my commute! Long Beach is a nifty place to live.

Bonito is in and of itself both kosher & pareve- I *think* the issue is that the processeing of the fish into dried blocks/flakes whatever is not under kosher supervision making the end product not kosher. --more info from Chabad.org as to why a fish chowder containing Dairy may not be kosher at all:

Oh little india! I found a great hole in the wall there than had a goat curry that was to die for. On the West side of Pioneer is all that I remember Oh! Google street view to the rescue; it is Ambala Dhaba 17631 Pioneer Bl, Look forward to hearing about your trip to little India!