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Chris Hennes

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  1. Chris Hennes
    Matcha Green Tea Sourdough (p. 4•74) This is definitely one of the crazier-looking breads in the book. I'm also not quite sure what to do with it. It tastes quite intensely of green tea -- it's not a bad flavor, but I can't really figure out any way to eat it besides just plain or with butter. It doesn't lend itself to cheese, or any other ingredient I can think of. I am definitely open to suggestions here!
  2. Chris Hennes
    Sure. Their basic recipe for 1kg of dough is: 480g flour 315g water 195g liquid levain (e.g. 100% hydration) 10g wheat bran 1g diastatic malt powder Mix together and autolyse 30 minutes. Add 12g salt If using a machine: Mix to medium gluten development Bulk ferment one hour Perform four-edge fold Bulk ferment one hour Perform four-edge fold Bulk ferment 30 minutes If by hand: Mix until homogeneous Bulk ferment one hour Four-edge fold Bulk ferment 30 minutes Repeat 3 & 4 five more times After gluten is fully developed, shape, then proof. Lots of proofing options, but in general either 14 hours at 55°F/13°C, or ~24 hours in the refrigerator
  3. Chris Hennes
    Nepalese Black-Eyed Peas with Potatoes and Bamboo Shoots (p. 126) After yesterday's experience I tweaked this recipe a bit, starting with quite a bit less water than the recipe calls for, on the theory that I could always add more if needed. I'm glad I did, because I didn't end up adding any more water and still had to play the with flavor balance a bit at the end. That said, it did come together in the end, and the combination of textures was more interesting than most of the dal dishes.
  4. Chris Hennes
    That's the brand I use. Actually, I thought Atta was by definition durum wheat, but I have no evidence for this (the passage I thought said that in Jaffrey's book does not, in fact, say that!)
  5. Chris Hennes
    Mixed Dal, Marwari-Style (p. 154) This dish was disappointingly, and surprisingly, bland. It's got a lot going for it, but it just has too much water diluting the flavors of a really lovely-smelling tarka and a spiced dal cooking broth. She cooks one cup of dal in four cups of water. Maybe if they weren't pre-soaked that amount would be OK, though even then I'd guess that I personally would have liked it thicker.
  6. Chris Hennes
    Goan Black-Eyed Peas with Coconut (p. 124) This Goan curry is based on coconut and tomatoes, with no tarka. I fear her instructions for cooking the base were a bit unclear: my guess in retrospect is that the intent is to cook the coconut slurry until it breaks, as is often done with coconut milk. I wasn't thinking of it as coconut milk because you start with pureed coconut solids and fry that with the onions. When cooking I just followed the frying time in the book, at which point the emulsion still held. The next step is to add tomatoes and fry until "there is oil around the edges." I did that, but the coconut was still emulsified, there was just some extra vegetable oil in the dish that wasn't emulsified. So the dish tasted good, but I suspect the texture and appearance was not as intended.
  7. Chris Hennes
    Tomato Rasam Soup (p. 6) This is an interesting take on tomato soup, with a solid hit of sourness from the tamarind puree, plus a packaged Rasam spice powder (I used MTR brand as she suggests) and a straightforward tarka to finish it off. I served it with bread on the side one day, and "American-style" with grilled cheese sandwiches the next. Delicious both ways.
  8. Chris Hennes
    @Anna N -- did you serve it on rice, or by itself? I find that many (most, really) of the dishes in this book have a fairly loose sauce to them that benefits serving with rice or bread to soak it up.
  9. Chris Hennes
    48-Hour Rye Sourdough Bread (p. 4•374) I've been meaning to try this one for a while, but obviously timing becomes an issue -- this week the stars aligned (and we had a snow day on Thursday!) so I was finally able to give it a go. You make a relatively straightforward 60% wheat/40% dark rye sourdough with a tiny bit of added commercial yeast (plus a bit of ascorbic acid and diastatic malt powder given the long time involved), then put it in the refrigerator for two days. No kneading, no folding, nothing. Take it out of the fridge, shape, and proof overnight. Bake the following day. Truth be told I was expecting a more aggressively sour bread than I ended up with. This is a very nicely flavored rye bread, and it was certainly easy to make, but it wasn't as sour as I was hoping for given the writeup.
  10. Chris Hennes
    Ftira (p. 5•34) This light, fluffy, decidedly not flat bread is somehow placed in the "flatbreads" chapter, which appears to be where they decided to categorize their uncategorizables. It is sort of like an overgrown bagel in shape, with an interior leaning more towards the French Lean end of the spectrum. The writeup describes it as a Maltese bread often used for sandwiches, so that's what I am doing with mine. It crisps up beautifully in a hot oven with a thin, crispy exterior basically ideally for robust fillings. In my case I took a cue from the writeup and made a tuna, caper and olive salad.
  11. Chris Hennes
    I've never seen toasted wheat flour for sale, but it's easy to make on a small scale. So maybe before spending a lot of time sourcing it, or figuring out how to make it on a commercial scale, you could do a quick test and make the blend that Lebovitz suggests. My recollection is that toasted flour doesn't develop gluten, or doesn't develop it well, and the bran and germ also interfere with gluten development, so it seems like getting a dough as stretchy as you need is going to be the biggest challenge. And I'd second @Okanagancook's suggestion of trying Atta as your base flour, it's usually ground more finely that typical US whole wheat flours.
  12. Chris Hennes
    Spinach Bhajias (p. 17) I made two errors when making this recipe: first, I added the water too quickly when making the batter so wound up with too much of it. This meant I had to then add more chickpea flour, which made these a bit doughier than they were supposed to be. Second, I used a scoop to form them, which did not leave the edges ragged enough. They are supposed to be rough around the edges, which then get crispy when fried, but mine were too smooth and neat. That said, the taste overall was good, particularly dipped in the tamarind chutney she suggests.
  13. Chris Hennes
    Modernist Focaccia (p. 5•94) The master recipe for Focaccia in MB uses both a liquid levain and a commercial yeast: the Modernist twist also adds soy lecithin and an increased amount of fat to the dough. This results in what is basically a perfect combination of tender, flavorful crumb and crisp crust. Without a doubt the best focaccia I've ever made. I topped mine with green olives in a chile oil, and ate the whole thing well before it had cooled - mandatory, I think.
  14. Chris Hennes
    Chana Dal with Spinach and Tomato (p. 127) This is a simple dal with a few vegetables added at the end of cooking. I of course would have liked more spinach, but overall it was good.
  15. Chris Hennes
    I don't know what Ripert's technique was, or how much liquid you required, but the quantity really isn't that unreasonable in this particular case. I think the recipe calls for 2kg of tomatoes, and you can use the pulp for sauces, etc. once the tomato water is extracted. Of course, if you do grow your own tomatoes and so have a freezer full (my case), it's a handy thing to do with all the liquid they exude when thawing.
  16. Chris Hennes
    Carrot Raita (p. 333) I think I own three books all with this raita in them -- it must be one of her favorites. It's a bit sweeter than the others due to the carrots, but not objectionably so. It's not my favorite raita, but it's worth eating.
  17. Chris Hennes
    Black-Eyed Peas with Cilantro and Green Chiles (p. 122) This is a very cilantro-heavy dish, which for those of us who like cilantro is a great flavor. Obviously those who can't eat cilantro need not apply here, it's not like you can just leave it out. I made it pretty spicy, which I enjoyed.
  18. Chris Hennes
    Aish Merahrah (p. 62) This Egyptian flatbread is a mix of wheat and corn flours, heavily seasoned with fenugreek. It otherwise basically works like a pita.
  19. Chris Hennes
    The recipe contains a sidebar about the history of the English muffin: their current incarnation was invented by an English immigrant to the US, modelled after a similar griddled bread product called a muffin in England. I've never seen the US incarnation for sale in England, though I haven't exactly gone looking for them.
  20. Chris Hennes
    Ateco 1440 Plain Edge Round Cutters in Graduated Sizes, Stainless Steel, 4 Pc Set (full disclosure, I actually own this set, but it's more expensive, and kind of annoying to use).
  21. Chris Hennes
    Pain de Mie (p. 4•296) A basic white sandwich bread, baked in a Pullman pan. This recipe differs from the main White Sandwich Bread recipe in that it is not made with milk, has less sugar, but includes a small amount of butter. Mine didn't quite manage to fill out the pan so I don't have those nice crisp corners you're looking for in a Pullman loaf. I probably could have proofed it a bit longer, but it wasn't far under. I think they've also got a typo in their description of the standard pullman pan, which they list as 14"x4"x2.5" -- I've never seen a 4"x2.5" pan, and their photos certainly don't show one.
  22. Chris Hennes
    I had a couple pounds of tomatoes from the end of last season in the freezer. Once thawed the liquid that drained off was enough for the bread, and the remaining pulp became pasta sauce.
  23. Chris Hennes
    Shock, I made more Chocolate Cherry Sourdough this weekend! This time I replaced the espresso with the same quantity of Young's Double Chocolate Stout. The bread was still excellent, and the cook got a bonus since the recipe only calls for 15g.
  24. Chris Hennes
    Tomato Water Sourdough (p. 4•86) In this bread you replace all of the water with the clear liquid that drains off of tomatoes when they've been roughly pureed (or frozen). It's also got a fairly large amount of tomato paste in it, so it's got a pretty strong tomato flavor. It makes great-tasting grilled cheese, and is good dipped in soup.
  25. Chris Hennes
    @Anna N, is that the "100% High-Ryes"? I made the Modernist version of it with good success, baked in a loaf pan.
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