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Coconut Curried Fried Rice

Fried Rice

Fried rice

Wow. So this recipe happened a long time ago. I’ve recently started rehearsals for a show (my first professional show) in Portland – The Sound of Music! I’m a nun. I know, silly silly. But oh well. So between work, nannying, social media, and rehearsals, I have been a bit fried. Kind of like this rice. So it’s all very fitting.

This rice is easy and delicious. What else do I need to say? I found the recipe on A Cozy Kitchen, a blog I really enjoy. I’ve adjusted it a bit to include things I really like in my fried rice.

Coconut Curried Fried Rice

Ingredients

Turmeric Coconut Rice

1 1/4 cups water
1 cup basmati or jasmine rice
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 piece cinnamon stick

Curry Fried Rice

1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tablespoon green or red Thai curry paste
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 can pineapple chunks
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 firm or extra firm tofu, chicken, or other protein (optional)
soy sauce

Instructions

Turmeric Coconut Rice

Combine all ingredients in a rice cooker or a pot and cook. When rice is ready, remove the cinnamon stick and either use immediately or you can refrigerate for a few days until you’re ready to make the fried rice.

Curry Fried Rice

Have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go when you start as the process moves a little quickly. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet or wok. Add the eggs and cook on medium-high heat. When the edges of the eggs begin to set, gently flip them over or just scramble them, if that’s easier for you. Once the eggs are cooked, remove them from the pan and cut into pieces or strips (that step isn’t necessary if you scrambled them). Wipe the wok clean with a paper towel.

Heat the rest of the oil on medium heat. Add the carrot and cook for a minute, then add the garlic and curry paste and cook for a minute, stirring constantly. Add the rice, peas, and pineapple and cook until heated through. Stir in the egg strips, soy sauce and lime juice.

Meanwhile, slice up your tofu (or chicken or other protein) and cook it to your liking in some Asian influenced sauces. I like to do a little soy sauce and fish sauce or hoisin sauce… the possibilities are endless.

Serve the rice with the tofu, and season with soy sauce and sriracha if you like it hot!

Candy for Grown Ups (or Roasted Tomatoes)

roasted tomatoes

Every summer, I get excited about the produce that will soon be available and all the delicious things I can make with it. I’ve already started with the rhubarb. I am waiting impatiently to go to Sauvie Island and pick strawberries. Soon there will be peaches and nectarines aplenty for me to use for things like salsa, smoothies, pies, etc. The other thing I love? Tomatoes. My little sister worked at a tomato stand at various farmer’s markets in Seattle last summer, and is slowly teaching me the joys of all these different weirdly colored tomatoes. But my favorite thing to do with tomatoes is to season them a little and roast them in the oven forever. And last week I got antsy. I couldn’t wait for the perfectly ripe, soft tomatoes to arrive at the markets. So I went to New Seasons and bought a bag of not-the-ripest roma tomatoes. I left them in our fruit bowl for a few days to soften up, and then I made roasted tomatoes.

Simple Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients

Tomatoes (any kind will do – I usually go for just regular old vine tomatoes or romas or whatever is prettiest looking)
Olive Oil
Garlic
Salt
Dried basil and/or oregano

Instructions

All of the amounts of the ingredients above are based on your personal taste. If you like garlic, use a bunch. If you are trying to cut back on salt, don’t use it. They’re also great without the basil or oregano.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. If you have more time to cook, you can heat your oven to 250 degrees. Drizzle some olive oil into a large baking dish. Slice your tomatoes in half and, if you want, cut out the little stem bit. Rub the tomatoes sliced-side down in the olive oil, then flip them so the sliced-side faces up. Mince the garlic and sprinkle it over the tomatoes. Now sprinkle on some salt and whatever other seasoning you want (this is the time for the basil or oregano if you’re using it). Now here’s the fun part: set it and forget it. Throw the suckers in the oven and let them cook for 3-4 hours. I took these ones out at 4 hours because we were leaving the apartment, but they probably could have gone another 30 minutes. You’ll want to check on them after the 3.5-4 hour mark, as the way they cook will depend on the kind of tomatoes and the temperature of your oven. When they’re caramelized and cooked to your liking, remove them from the oven.

I suggest letting them cool enough to eat one before using them for anything else, just so you can taste heaven. After enjoying one all by itself, the rest is up to you: cut them up and put them on a pizza or in a salad, throw them in your food processor or blender for soup (I suggest looking up a recipe so you know what else to add) or pasta sauce. Also, the oil that is still at the bottom of the pan is delicious, so scrape this into whatever container you’re saving them in so you can use it too. These things are amazing. The kids I nanny for didn’t like tomatoes until I made these; I made a giant dish of roasted tomatoes, and they were almost gone by the time their mom got home from work. That’s how hard it is not to eat these all up.

Pasta Salad with Feta and Snow Peas

Pasta salad

Pasta salad

One of my resolutions this summer is to have more picnics. This shouldn’t be too hard, seeing as we have a lovely park a few blocks from our house. So a couple weeks ago, we had our first picnic! I texted a bunch of friends and asked everyone to bring some food and we all met at the park.

Jonah and I brought this miniature amp we have and hooked my phone up and played some music, we had chips, strawberries, veggies and ranch dip, and this delicious pasta salad that Jonah made. It was perfectly filling and refreshing. Great for a summer day! And it was a big hit.  We found the recipe on Martha Stewart’s website. We adapted a little bit (because I’m not a huge fan of bell peppers, which is beginning to change), so here’s our version.

Pasta Salad with Feta and Snow Peas

Ingredients

Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound fusilli
4 oz snow peas, strings removed, cut in half
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese (we did a bit more)
2 Tbl olive oil
2 Tbl rice vinegar
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Instructions

Cook your pasta according to the package. During the last minute of cooking, add in the snow peas so they’ll be a little cooked. Drain the pasta and peas and rinse with cold water to cool and stop from cooking. In a large bowl, combine the pasta and peas with scallions, cilantro, feta, oil, vinegars, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine, and serve chilled or at room temperature.

Roasted Corn with Serranos and Onion

Corn

Corn

This corn recipe makes a lovely summer side dish. My dad taught it to me years ago. And it’s one of those recipes that’s really hard to mess up. Want it spicier? Add more serrano (or add more seeds). Want it more caramelized? Roast longer. The only thing I don’t like is how much it cooks down. So it can often turn out to be less than you anticipate. So be aware of that.

Roasted Corn with Serranos and Onion

Serves 2

Ingredients

3 ears of corn
1 medium white onion
Olive oil
Salt

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Shuck the corn and cut the corn off the cob with a very sharp knife. This part can be a little tricky, so be careful not to cut off your fingers. Sharp knives make this step way easier. And cooking much easier in general. I got a really nice knife for my birthday, and let me tell you, it makes a world of difference.

Moving right along. Put the corn into a baking dish – I used a pie dish, but if you’re making lots, one of those big casserole pyrex dished is good. Chop up the onion, throw that into the dish too. Now, chop up the serrano. Careful not to touch your face. More seeds means more heat, so be aware of how much you’re adding. Mix that in with the corn. Toss with olive oil until just evenly coated (you don’t want it too oily) and salt.

Bake in the oven for anywhere from 30-45 minutes. The longer you cook it, the more roasty and caramelized the corn will get. But be sure to check on it; there’s a point when it crosses the line from roasty and delicious to dehydrated and a little tough. When it’s cooked to your liking, remove and enjoy!

Scallops with Mashed Potatoes and Haricots Verts

scallops

Scallops
scallops

Ok, so I know I’ve talked about how I’m not really crazy about ingredient-heavy recipes. And really, usually I’m not. But when I’m trying to cook a nice, fancy, romantic dinner for someone, I’ll usually put that aside and just go for it. Especially if the recipe is still really not very difficult and I’ve been eyeing it for a while. I found this recipe while surfing around on Food52, which is a great resource for recipes. Seriously, great. I’ve found so many things I want to make. And it’s a cool food community, I’m not sure what the requirements are for posting, but it seems there are a lot of food bloggers who also post there… Anyway, it’s really neat. You should check it out.

So I found this recipe for scallops and accoutrements and it had been sitting on my Pinterest, giving me longing looks whenever I visited, asking “why haven’t you made me yet?” The opportunity arose where I actually had time to go to the store and take my time, buy some wine, and make Jonah a nice dinner. And while he did end up helping (quite a bit) I think he appreciated the gesture. I’ll also say that I usually find it pretty pretentious when people call green beans “haricots verts.” It’s like, we don’t all speak French, why confuse people? They’re just green beans. But I dunno… sometimes it’s fun to throw in some French.

Scallops with Mashed Potatoes and Haricots Verts

Ingredients

4-6 sea scallops (dry pack is way way better than previously frozen, as always)
4 Tbl butter, room temperature
1 tsp shallot, minced
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tbl Italian parsley, minced
enough green beans for 2 (in our case), rinsed and trimmed
3 russet potatoes (medium-large), peeled and cut into chunks
1/2-1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbl butter
2 Tbl chives, minced
salt and pepper
2 Tbl canola oil

Instructions

First things first, some scallops have a little 1/2 inch strip of muscle that attaches it to the shell. It isn’t a nice texture in your mouth, so you’ll want to remove it. (I’ve never had a scallop with this little band, but it’s just good to check and make sure). Now either put them on paper towel on a plate or on a cooling rack over a tray to catch any juices and put them in the fridge.

Now the butter: combine the butter, shallot, garlic, and parsley until combined. Was that so hard? No. Moving right along.

Put the potatoes in a large pot of cold water, and season heavily with salt. Put the pot over high heat until it starts to boil. Then reduce the heat (just so it doesn’t boil over, but keep it at a rolling boil) and cook until the potatoes are tender. Drain them in a colander and let them dry for a few minutes. Now you can mash them with a fork, a ricer, BUT I’ve just discovered that an electric mixer makes for a great masher. Throw the potatoes in the bowl, add the butter, and blend (I used the paddle attachment). Once the butter is melted and incorporated, you can add the cream 1/4 cup at a a time until the potatoes are creamy to your liking. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in the chives. If you aren’t ready to serve yet, wait to add the chives until you are.

Take about a teaspoon of the butter you made, throw it in a pan, and add the green beans. Cook over medium heat until done – some like crunchy, some like a little softer, so just keep an eye on them and cook until they’re done to your liking. While those are cooking, bring out the scallops and season them with salt and pepper. Put a large fry pan over high heat and, once hot, add the oil. You want it to shimmer, but not to smoke. Carefully add the scallops (careful as the oil will probably spit a bit and can hurt) and saute until the first side is caramelized. Turn them and caramelize the other side, and remove them from the heat.

Now put a nice serving on a plate, put the scallops on top, and place a little dollop of the butter on top of each scallop. Add the haricots verts (ahem, green beans), and you’re done! That really wasn’t that hard for a fancy dinner with more than a few ingredients, was it? Enjoy with a nice cold glass of white wine (if you’re of age, that is).

Haroset!

HarosetHaroset

Continuing along the Passover theme here: When we returned from Tucson, I was craving some haroset. It’s one of my favorite passover foods, and a great snack to have throughout the week. So much better than chips and salsa (in my opinion). For those of you who don’t know, Haroset is simply a combination of the following: apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and wine. I’ve also seen it with raisins, pears, other spices, and sugar. But today we’ll just keep it simple. Here’s what you’ll need:

Haroset

Ingredients

4 granny smith apples
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup (more or less) sweet red wine (this is where Manischewitz comes in handy)
1 Tbl brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Peel, core, and finely dice the apples. I peeled them and cut them into chunks, then threw them in the food processor and pulsed them a few times. It worked really quite well and got the pieces smaller than I would have been willing to go if I had been chopping them by hand. Put the apples in a medium mixing bowl. Chop your walnuts too (I did these in the food processor too), and add them to the apples. Now pour in the wine, mixing so that the apples become a light pink. Feel free to add more wine if you want. Just don’t add too much; You don’t want a bunch of liquid sitting at the bottom of the bowl. Stir in the cinnamon and the sugar, and you’re done! Eat it on top of some matzoh with a bit of horseradish (not too much!) and enjoy!

Carrot Miso Soup

Carrot Soup

Carrot Soup

Last week Jonah and I were feeling like soup. I had seen a carrot soup with miso recipe on Smitten Kitchen and decided that we should make it because a) it’s healthy and b) I love miso. It’s always nice to find recipes where you either don’t have to go to the store at all because you have everything or you only need to buy one or two things to make it. That was the case, so I was happy.

I’m going to be honest with you guys. I didn’t really like this soup. I liked the taste and everything fine, but I had a lot of trouble with the texture. Kind of reminded me of baby food, which isn’t so great when you’re not a baby. But I’m going to give you the recipe anyway because I think with a little adjusting here and there, the texture problem could be fixed. Whether the solution is more broth or cooking the carrots longer or having a better blender, I’m not really sure, but next time I might even try all of the above.

Carrot Miso Soup

Ingredients

2 Tbl olive oil
2 lbs carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves (6 if they’re small), peeled and chopped
1 Tbl finely chopped ginger
4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup white miso paste
Toasted sesame oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the ginger and the broth, cover the pot, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender when poked with a fork, about 30 minutes.

Now, it’s time to puree the soup. You can either do this in batches in a blender or with an immersion blender. I used an immersion blender, which worked pretty well, but as I said above, maybe not well enough. In a small bowl , whisk the miso together with about a cup of the soup, and stir the mixture back into the pot of soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon into shallow bowls and top it all off with a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkle of the scallions. We also added a slice of bread. Enjoy!

Beet Tart with Goat Cheese and Greens

Beet Tart

Beet Tart
Beet Tart

Last week, I was in the mood for something light but nice for dinner. After a little hunting, I found a recipe on Desserts for Breakfast for a delicious looking beet tart with goat cheese. Sounds good, no? And, the other great thing? It was super easy. Really though, I’m not just saying that.

Beet Tart with Goat Cheese and Greens

Ingredients

6 large or 4 GIANT beets
olive oil
8 – 10 sprigs of fresh thyme
salt
pepper
1 sheet of puff pastry
1 small package goat cheese
1 small package blue cheese
frisee or mixed greens
freshly squeezed lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prepare two baking sheets: line one with foil and the other with parchment paper, a silpat, or just grease it with some olive oil. Peel your beets and slice them into slices about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Remove the thyme leaves from the sprigs, and toss with the beets, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper. Lay the beets on the foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

While the beets are roasting, roll out the puff pastry so it’s a little thinner (into a 10 by 10 inch square or comparably sized rectangle). Also, I didn’t really think about that whole thawing thing, so remember that, otherwise the time will come to use your puff pastry and it will still be a big hunk of ice. I mostly just stretched mine out because I was in someone else’s kitchen sans rolling pin. Anyway, once you’ve rolled or stretched it or whatever, transfer it to the other baking sheet (the one lined with parchment paper or greased). Arrange the beet slices on the puff pastry, leaving a nice edge around the beets, 1-2 inches. Roll the edges of the puff pastry up to create a little crust.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 350 and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and puffed up and the beets are tender. Remove from the oven and let cool for a little bit.

While the tart is cooling, mix together some of the goat cheese and blue cheese with a fork. I didn’t give exact measurements of how much cheese because you know what cheese you like and how much cheese you’ll want on your tart, so I’m not gonna tell you how to do it. You can figure it out. Toss the greens or frisee with lemon juice, olive oil, and pinch of salt to coat it evenly and serve it alongside or over the tart. Enjoy!

Another Easy Bread Recipe

Bread
Bread

Bread

It has been so long since I’ve posted. I’m so sorry. It’s been a little busy around here! Here’s what I’ve been up to: applying for a new job, getting a new job (doing social media for a local nutritionist), going to a big scary audition (and a big scary callback, with another one tomorrow night), and having Jonah’s mom and sister in town!

I know, excuses excuses! But hopefully this post is me getting back in the saddle. So this is another venture into the world of bread. I promised myself that I would finally make a starter, but of course, I didn’t because we’ve been so busy. Maybe next week? Or something?

Anyway, this bread is easy. Easier than all the other breads. No kneading, no let it rise, beat it down, let it rise again, do all this fancy stuff. Put everything in a bowl, let it rise, split it up, let it sit again for a bit, then bake. Can it get any easier? I’m gonna go with…not really.

No Knead Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Note: I didn’t want 3 loaves of bread, so I made 2/3 of the recipe. I’ll give you the full recipe though, and you can decide how much you want to make! I’ll put the amounts I did for 2/3 of the recipe in parentheses.

Ingredients

3 cups lukewarm water (2 cups)
1 1/2 Tbl granulated yeast (1 Tbl)
1 1/2 Tbl kosher or other course salt (1 Tbl)
6 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (4 1/3 cups)
a handful of cornmeal for the pan

Instructions

Ok, put the yeast, flour, and salt in a bowl (I used my electric mixer with the dough hook). Pour the water over the dry ingredients and mix until it’s combined, a few minutes. Now cover your mixing bowl with foil or oiled plastic wrap and let it rise for 2-5 hours (I went with 5 because I was out doing stuff all day).

Now, cover your counter with PLENTY of flour. The dough is crazy sticky and wet, so be prepared for that. Dump it out onto the counter and separate the dough into however many loaves you’re making (original recipe: 3, my recipe: 2). Spread your handful of cornmeal over you baking sheet. Using lots of flour, form the dough into balls and place them on the baking sheet. The easiest way to form the balls is to pull the edges of the dough and tuck them underneath. Hopefully that makes sense. Once they’re on the baking sheet, you can let them rest for 30 minutes.

About halfway through the resting process, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Once they’re done resting, slash your loaves with 3-4 lines. You can do whatever design you like, as long as you do something! The slashes allow the loaves to expand while they’re baking in a kind of designated way rather than just exploding however they want. When your oven is heated, put the loaves in! On a lower rack, put a pan filled with about 1 cup of water. This will create steam which will make the crust crispier. Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes.

After removing the bread from the oven, put it on a wire rack to cool. Try to let it cool all the way before cutting a slice, slather it in butter, and chowing down. Enjoy!

Asparagus Salad with Prosciutto and Poached Eggs

Asparagus salad with croutons, prosciutto, and poached eggs

Asparagus salad with croutons, prosciutto, and poached eggs
Asparagus salad with croutons, prosciutto, and poached eggs

In the Ad Hoc cookbook (by Thomas Keller), there’s this delicious looking asparagus salad with croutons, prosciutto, and poached eggs. Sounds good, right? I don’t know about you, but I love all of those things. Jonah and I were in the mood for a light dinner, so we decided to make it the other night. The only problem? Neither of us had ever poached an egg before. It’s one of those things, like baking with yeast, that scared me even though it’s probably not actually that hard.

But I did it! And you can do it! I did! My first attempt was much more successful than my second attempt. After having some little egg bits in the pot from the first egg and then swishing it all around to create my whirlpool, the visibility was not so good, so I had trouble telling where my egg was in it’s cooking process. And then it broke when I removed it. Don’t worry, I made Jonah eat that one. Hahaha.

Fall Salad with Poached Eggs, Asparagus, and Proscuitto

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 bunch asparagus
olive oil
salt
8 slices of prosciutto
Croutons (fresh! our grocery store has some really delicious ones made in house. please don’t buy those gross ones in the resealable bags. blech.)
balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper for finishing

Instructions

Poached eggs

Put a few inches of water in it plus a dash of vinegar (white distilled, because that was the only kind I had that seemed reasonable), and started heating it. The important thing (it would seem, from my research) is to have the water hot enough but not so hot that it’s boiling or even simmering. Got that? No bubbles breaking the surface. While your water is heating, break your egg into a small bowl or ramekin. It’s good to not break the egg directly into the water because it gives you a little more control.

When the water is hot enough, take a wooden spoon or spatula (I would advise a spatula… I liked it better for helping the egg along later) and stir it so that it creates a nice little whirlpool. Pour your egg gently into the middle of the whirlpool. It will look, for a moment, like you’ve done something horribly wrong and this will never work and you’ll be asking yourself why you even tried in the first place. But just wait! After the egg has been in the water for about 30 seconds or so, you can start to help it along by nudging it with your spatula, pushing the bits together. After a minute or so, you may notice that your egg has stuck to the bottom of your pan. Gently slide your spatula underneath it to get it unstuck. I also liked to roll my egg over because the bottom of the pot is hotter (duh) and it helped it to cook a little more evenly. Now, after about 3-5 minutes, you should be done! Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and put it in one of 3 places: 1) an ice bath, and then reheat it in the pot of water when you’re ready to serve (Thomas Keller). 2) on a paper towel to dry a little bit (Smitten Kitchen). 3) If you are out of paper towels and don’t feel like preparing an ice bath and then reheating your eggs, a lint-free dishtowel (me).

Fall Salad

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Trim your asparagus, put on a baking sheet, and toss with olive oil and salt. Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the asparagus is cooked to your liking (some people like it crunchy, some people like it soft). Note: Thomas Keller wanted us to grill our asparagus, but we don’t have a grill. Roasting it is a wonderful and winter-friendly alternative.

On a plate, arrange your asparagus, eggs, prosciutto, and croutons. Season to taste with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil and vinegar.

This meal was delicious and light. I can see it being lovely for a summer dinner party. It’s fairly easy too, once you get the whole egg poaching thing down (I’m still working on that part). Enjoy!

Cheese Straws with a Bite

Cheese Straws with a Bite

Cheese Straws with a Bite
Cheese Straws with a Bite

For some reason I’ve been in the mood to make some kind of cheesy snacking food lately, like crackers or something. So this weekend when I was up in Seattle, I took the opportunity to make these cheese straws from Smitten Kitchen. They are ridiculously easy and have quite a bite to them due to the red pepper flakes. If you don’t want to risk them being too spicy for you (or whoever else may be eating them), you can easily reduce the amount of red pepper flakes, but I thought it was quite delicious.

Cheese Straws

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons (1/2 a stick) unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into 4 pieces
3/4 cup flour, plus some for rolling out the dough
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon milk or half-and-half

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse the cheese, butter, flour, salt, and pepper flakes. Pulse it until the mixture is in coarse crumbs.

Now add the milk until the dough comes together and forms a ball. Lightly flour a cutting board or your kitchen counter, dump the dough out, and roll it into as rectangular of a shape as possible and about 1/8 of an inch thick. With a sharp knife slice the dough into 1/4 inch – 1/3 inch strips. I left some edges ragged and trimmed others, I don’t think it really matters.

Now you can gently put the strips onto a cookie sheet (no need to grease it because of the butter). You want to leave a little space between them, but they don’t need much (1/4-1/2 an inch is plenty). The dough is fragile, so they might break, but don’t worry about it. The cheese straws can be any length really.

Bake them in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes (I think I baked mine closer to 15, I like the ends nice and brown). Remove them from the oven, allow to cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Good luck keeping these around for long. They were gone pretty quickly. They’re perfectly crispy and cheesy with a bit of spice… Mm! I love them. Enjoy!

Bread, again, but different

Bread

Bread
Bread

Bread

Bread

Jonah and I keep a little white board in our apartment next to our refrigerator where we write all kinds of things: items to get at the grocery store, tasks to do (such as getting a watch so we can time our couch-to-5k runs which we’ve just started), occasionally notes to each other, and there are also little magnets so we can put checks to be deposited and notes from our bosses, etc. It’s really a handy little space near the door to remind us of all the little things we need to do.

Anyway, on Monday, Jonah wrote a little grocery list on the board before he went into work. Upon seeing that bread was on the list and I hadn’t baked anything in a couple days and hadn’t made bread in quite some time, I decided to make some instead of just buying some. I had found this incredibly easy looking recipe over at Joy the Baker and had been waiting to try it. I think it’s my last “super easy” recipe before I try making my own sourdough starter. So keep an eye out. The other great thing about the recipe was that it only called for bread flour, and I’m still trying to use up that giant bag, so it was perfect. You’ll only need 4 ingredients, one of which is water, so really, only 3.

This bread is delicious with just some butter, toasted with butter and jam. Jonah said it also made a delicious PB+J. And I’m about to go try using it for a grilled cheese. This bread was so supremely simple to make, I think everyone should try it. It’s great for a beginner recipe that still has some of that crispy crust. Enjoy!

Simple Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

4 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water

Instructions

Put 3 3/4 cups of the flour into a mixing bowl (electric mixer would be nice). Reserve the other 1/4 cup of the flour for kneading/incorporating later. On one side of the pile of flour in your mixing bowl, put the salt, and on the other side, put the yeast. Not sure why this is so important as everything is about to get mixed together, but whatever. Now pour the water over the flour and mix it until it just comes together (I started with the paddle attachment and then switched to the dough hook once the dough had come together).

Once the dough comes together and you switch to a dough hook, put your mixer on a medium speed and let it knead the dough for 2 minutes. The dough should easily clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom a little bit. If you feel the need, you can add a little flour or water depending on the status of your dough, but mine was pretty spot on, so I didn’t want to mess with it. After mixing it for 2 minutes, let it rest for 5 minutes. After the 5 minute rest, mix it again for 3 minutes. At this point you can flour your counter (with that 1/4 cup of bread flour you reserved) and dump the dough out.

Now you can hand-knead the dough, incorporating the 1/4 cup of the flour reserved. You may not need to incorporate the whole 1/4 cup. I’d say I got about 1/8 cup into the dough, and then stopped. This was the first time in my bread-making experience that I felt like I could tell by the feel of the dough when it was ready. Right when I dumped it onto the counter, it was not as dense as my other doughs have been; instead it was light and easy to work with. I didn’t want to push it, so when it stopped taking the extra flour in, I stopped adding. When the dough seems smooth enough, form it into a ball, lightly oil a bowl (I just used the same mixing bowl) and put the dough in, turning to coat the dough with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a dish towel, and let rest for 1 1/2 hours.

After the 1 1/2 hours, the dough should have about doubled in size. Remove the dough from the bowl, punch it down, and reform it into a ball, replace it in the bowl and cover it, letting it rise for another half hour.

After this second shorter rest, remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface (I just never cleaned my counter till the bread was in the oven) and cut it into two pieces. Form each lump into a smooth and round ball. The best way to do this is to just keep grabbing the edges of the dough and tucking them underneath. Eventually you’ll have a tight, smooth ball. Cover the two balls of dough with a damp cloth and let them rest on the lightly floured surface (aka counter) for 45 minutes to an hour.

Towards the end of this resting period, you can preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Make sure your rack is in the bottom half of your oven because the bread will rise. And put another rack below it. Put a baking sheet (or baking stone if that’s what you’re using) in the oven while it’s heating so it gets hot. Uncover your balls of dough, and slash the tops with 2-4 slashes to guide the expansion of the bread while it’s baking. When your oven is heated, take out the hot baking sheet and carefully put the dough on it, and put it in the oven.

Now it’s time for the steam. A couple minutes after you put the bread in the oven, you can dump 1/4 cup of water onto the oven floor (if you have an electric oven) and immediately close the door, then repeat in a couple minutes. I wasn’t all about dumping water in my oven for some reason, so I did what I’d read in a previous recipe and put half a cup (so I didn’t have to open the oven again and let the heat escape) of water on another baking sheet and put it on the rack beneath the bread. It also works just fine and creates steam. the steam is what helps make the crust nice and crispy, I think.

Anyway, you’ll want to bake the loaves for 20-25 minutes. They’ll be a beautiful golden brown. It’s smart to throw a thermometer in there too, just to make sure. They should register between 190-210 degrees. Now, transfer them to a wire rack to cool (mine were still making crackling/baking noises for a couple minutes, it was kind of cool). Make sure they are completely cool before taking a slice, spreading on some butter, and enjoying.