Oh, look, it’s more bread! And not just any bread but some tasty, crunchy, chewy ciabatta.

This is very similar to the French loaf recipe, but there’s no sugar and you shape the dough into two, flat, rectangular loaves. There aren’t a lot of pictures here — mainly because I think I was just lazy. This, like the French round, is from the treasure trove of King Arthur Flour online recipes — specifically the yeast breads > French & Italian.

Rustic Italian Ciabatta
Adapted from the King Arthur Flour Website
1 1/2 cups cool water (12 ounces)
3 1/2 cups Bread Flour (or King Arthur European-Style Artisan Bread Flour (14 3/4 ounces)
2 tsp dry active yeast (the original recipe said instant yeast — is that something different? I used dry active)
1 1/2 tsp salt

Stir the water, 2 cups of the flour, and 1 teaspoon of the yeast together, cover and let rest at room temperature for several hours, or overnight. Here’s what I did — we were going out of town for the weekend, so I mixed the starter up and stored it in the refrigerator for about 2.5 days.

Add the remaining flour, yeast, and salt, mixing vigorously until the dough begins to hold together. This is a very sticky dough; add more flour only if it’s “soupy.”

Place the dough in a lightly floured bowl. Let it rise for 1 hour, then gently deflate it. Let it rise another hour, then turn it out onto a liberally floured work surface or silicone rolling mat, and sprinkle lots of flour on top.

Flatten the dough to an 8 x 10 inch rectangle, about 3/4-inch thick, and cut it into two pieces, each about 4 x 10 inches.

Transfer the loaves onto a piece of parchment, leaving about 6 inches between them. Cover with a proof cover or heavily oiled plastic wrap, and let rise till they’re very puffy, about 2 hours.

While the dough is rising, place a baking stone in the oven and set the temperature to 500 degrees F. Allow the oven to heat for 30 minutes. Spritz the dough with water, then transfer the bread to the stone, parchment and all, and lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees F.

Bake the ciabatta until it’s golden brown, approximately 22 to 25 minutes. Turn the oven off, crack the door open about 2 inches, and allow ciabatta to cool completely in the turned-off oven. Yeah, good luck with that…we lasted about an hour before the bread was taken out and snacked on.

Note: If you don’t have a baking stone, transfer parchment and ciabatta to a cookie sheet, and bake on the middle rack of your oven.

Ah, a new year. What better time to learn a new skill? And the new skill I have my heart set on is bread making…with yeast and everything. I have flirted a bit before with Parmesan Flatbread and Pizza Dough, but now I am talking full-on loaves of crusty, wonderful bread. I know, so scary!

Here is experiment number one. I’ll give myself about a C+.

I’ve started my bread learnin’ at the King Arthur Flour site because I happen have that brand of flour at home and they also have tons of free recipes online. I’m going to try and bake myself through some of their recipes, starting with French-Style Country Bread. I’ll intersperse the original recipe with my photos. Any notes that are mine will be in italics.

Full disclosure: I am kneading with the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid mixer.

Okay, let’s go!

French-Style Country Bread
From King Arthur Flour Online Recipes

Sponge Starter (Begin 2 to 16 hours ahead)
1 cup (8 ounces) cool to lukewarm water, preferably spring water (90 to 100°F)
1/2 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast
1 1/4 cups (5 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1/4 cup (1 ounce) King Arthur White Whole Wheat or Traditional Whole Wheat Flour

Dough
All of the sponge starter (above)
1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water, preferably spring water (l00 to 115°F)
3/4 teaspoon active dry or 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
3 3/4 to 4 cups (1 pound to 1 pound 1 ounce) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

To Make The Sponge: Stir all of the sponge ingredients together to make a thick, pudding-like mixture. I think mine was a little dry. Cover with plastic wrap and leave on a counter overnight or for at least 2 to 4 hours.

My sponge…she is not like pudding.

If you’re making this in a bread machine, place the sponge ingredients inside, and turn the machine on for just a few seconds to mix the ingredients together. Turn the machine off and close the cover.

Let the sponge rest for 4 hours or overnight (anywhere between 2 and 16 hours is fine, the longer the better). I let my sponge rest about 3.5 hours.

To Make The Dough: Stir down the sponge with a spoon and add the water, yeast, sugar, most of the flour (hold back about 1/2 cup to use if required) — I used 3 cups of flour here, but I think I also had extra dough in my sponge starter, and salt. Knead the dough, adding more flour as necessary, to make a soft dough, 10 to 12 minutes.

Ready to start rising!

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or plastic container, cover with lightly greased plastic wrap and a damp towel, and let it rise until almost doubled (depending on the weather, this could be l to 2 hours). If you’re going out, or if you prefer, let the dough rise slowly in the fridge. If your dough has been refrigerated, allow it to come to room temperature; it’ll warm up and rise at the same time.

It has risen!

After its first rise, deflate the dough gently, but don’t knock out all the air; this will create those “holes” so important to French bread. Form the dough into a round ball. Place two cookie sheets atop one another, and place a semolina- or cornmeal-dusted piece of parchment paper on top. I just used one cookie sheet and I was out of parchment, I had to use foil.

After 2nd rise on the cookie sheet.

Gently place the ball of dough on the cookie sheet, seam-side down. Cover it lightly with a tea towel, and let it rise the second time until it’s puffy and about 40% to 50% larger, anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes (depending on the weather, luck, and magic). Slash or cross-hatch the bread with a sharp knife or lame.

My slashing deflated mine a bit.

Dust it with a little flour. I forgot to dust with flour. Also, mine got a lot bigger in the 45 minutes it rested. It kind of got blob-like. Next time, I may take more care in shaping the original round.

Out of the oven.

For Oven Baking: Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. After slashing the bread, spritz water into the oven with a clean plant mister, and place the bread in the oven. Reduce the heat to 425 degrees F and spritz with water every few minutes for the first 15 minutes of baking. Bake the bread for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until it tests done. Yield: 1 large round bread or two medium breads.

Notes/Results:

1. I baked my bread on a pizza stone, I just slid the foil onto the stone. I will use parchment next time. I think I’ll continue to use the stone.
2. I had no spritzer, so I had a small baking dish of water in the oven while I baked the bread. Not sure if that helped but I did buy a spritzer. I will use that next time.
3. I measured my flour, next time I will weigh it as my starter was more dough-like than pudding-like. I probably had about 1/2 cup too much flour.
4. I used sea salt, next time I will use regular salt.
5. I will let the starter go as long as possible on the next batch, to try to develop more flavor.
6. Hmmmm, glad I am not doing this too seriously — it’s much more enjoyable when I am not putting that much pressure on myself. If the bread turns out — great! If not, hopefully the next loaf will work.

That said, this loaf (round?) was not bad at all. I didn’t think it had a lot of flavor (that might have been a salt issue, plus not letting the starter sponge go that long) and I wanted bigger holes. That said, I was super, super happy with my rising, though. It rose most excellently! I used Alton brown’s trick of filling a baking dish with boiling water, setting that in the oven (turned off) and putting the dough in there to rise in a nice, humid space.

We’ve eaten about 3/4 of the loaf so far, most recently, using the bread for grilled cheese sandwiches (sharp white cheddar, onion, dijon mustard, cherry tomatoes and some balsamic vinegar). Those were really tasty!

Oh and I used some to make croutons for a Caesar Salad. So good! I think this weekend, I’ll attempt another loaf of this French-Style Country Bread.

But next up: Hazelnut Pecan Golden Raisin Baguettes — the starter is going even as I type this!

This was really good. I used pizza dough from Pasta Works for this, but you could also make your own (this is a good, easy recipe) or use a store-bought crust. I grilled my squash first and caramelized the fennel. You don’t have to do this. If you don’t, use the 2 tablespoons of olive oil to drizzle over the pizza before you bake it.

I also made a balsamic reduction for another part of the meal but we discovered that it was delicious on the pizza also! The vinegar really helps cut some of the richness of this pizza (and with brie and olive oil, it is mighty rich!) Just pour a little balsamic vinegar in a pot and reduce it for a bit over medium heat. Then proceed to drizzle.

On the side we had some prosciutto-wrapped melon which was amazingly good. Pictures below.

If you are going to cook the squash and fennel first, you don;t have to slice that thinly. If you are using them on the pizza raw, slice them very thinly!

Tarragon Pizza Bianca
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit, April 2004
pizza dough for one pizza, store bought or home-made
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 cup (packed) grated whole-milk mozzarella cheese
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed, sliced
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 small yellow crookneck squash, sliced (I used three small yellow squashes)
1 minced shallot
3 ounces Brie, rind removed, cheese cut into 1/2-inch cubes
balsamic vinegar reduction for drizzling

Brush grill pan with 1 tbsp olive oil. Grill squash briefly to obtain tasty grill marks.

For the fennel, saute in a pan with another tablespoon olive oil, so that it gets a little golden and caramelized.

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425 degrees F. Oil baking sheet. Spread pizza dough out on prepared baking sheet.

Brush 1 tablespoon oil over pizza dough; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons tarragon. Top with brie slices and vegetables. Sprinkle with shallot, salt, and pepper. End with the mozzarella.

Pre-mozzarella.

Bake until cheese is bubbling, about 15 - 18 minutes. Cut each into wedges and drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar reduction. Serve and nom.

Oh and on the side we had these amazingly tasty slices of cantelope, with some basil, wrapped with prosciutto and then drizzled with a baslamic reduction.

Yes, that was as good as it sounds and looks). Here’s another picture of that just because it’s so pretty looking.

But not too pretty to eat, that’s for sure! Now I want more. Hmmm, must find melon and prosciutto immediately. Maintenant!

This was part of our new vegetarian Saturday night schedule! We’ve actually followed this for about 2 months — uh, except last Saturday when we went to Country Cat after a movie and I had duck legs. Oops. But other than that, it’s been vegetarian Saturdays! Woo!

This was good. It’s from one of my most beloved cookbook’s ever — The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. It’s pretty easy to make too. The only slightly intimidating part is the flip. And you really don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. But, you should live a little and give it a try.

Worst thing? You have vegetable upside-down cake on your floor and you order a pizza.

Vegetable Upside-Down Cake
adapted from Enchanted Broccoli Forest, by Mollie Katzen
Olive oil & non-stick spray
1 onion, chopped
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini , chopped
1 cup corn (frozen/defrosted)
5 cloves garlic, minced
Black Pepper + Cayenne pepper
bunch of scallions, chopped
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated (or other cheeses work well too, I used sliced, smoked Fontina)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray canola oil into an 8″-ish baking dish (mine was — I think — 7″ X 9″) and set aside. Now, rather than boiling some of the vegetables in water, I just heated them all in one pan.

Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion for 4-5 minutes. Add the broccoli, zucchini, carrot and cover. Cook for 7-8 minutes, until the vegetables are barely tender. Add the bell pepper, corn and garlic, stir and cook for a minute or two more. Season with salt, black pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. Stir in the scallions.

Spread the hot vegetables in the baking dish and allow them to rest while you make the quick bread.

For the Cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp fresh dill
1 egg
1 cup yogurt or buttermilk (I used low-fat yogurt)
2 tbsp melted butter

Stir the flours, baking powder & soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the sugar and herbs. Make an indentation in the center.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, beat the egg, buttermilk or yogurt and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the well made in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Be sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Spread the batter over the vegetables. You might have to piece it together, taking batter from one part and moving it to another so that the vegetables are covered. Also, I think that using sliced cheese helped me a little here as I had a nice, flat surface to spread the dough on.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then, invert your serving plate or tray over the cake pan and flip it, using well-fitting oven mitts. Do it quickly and confidently — it’ll smell your fear.

Remove the baking dish and serve! Voila!

So, squid. Yeah but wait, come back, this was really, really good! Seriously! And at about $4.50/pound (cleaned even at Whole Foods), this is a great entry in the Cheap Fish Project. As a person who loves deep-fried calamari (I have a standard calamari clause while dining out — if it’s on the menu, we’re splitting it to start, no discussion), I was very intrigued to try squid (aka: calamari) in other preparations.

This was very easy and the vinaigrette is fabulous! I found this interesting wine-soaked manchego cheese at the store while buying my squid, which is why that is on the side here. Plus, I have no problem mixing fish and cheese, so there.

I think we’ll be having this a lot this Spring and Summer. I am even making grilled calamari tacos next Friday! Squid: the other seafood that’s really good and surprisingly inexpensive, especially as you can buy it already cleaned. Hooray!

There are a lot of pictures — squid is very photogenic.

Squid Bread Salad with Smoked Chile Vinaigrette
Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay*, I halved this recipe for two, as written, it should work for 4
1-pound medium-sized squid, tentacles included, cleaned
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 loaf day-old Italian bread, cut into 1-inch thick slices
2 tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, torn
2 cups arugula leaves
1 orange, cut into wedges
Optional: A few slices of Manchego cheese

For Smoked Chile
1/3 cup red wine vinegar (I actually used balsamic as I had no red)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp (or so) pureed chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 tbsp honey
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup olive oil or canola oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves

Make the Vinaigrette first. In a food processor or blender, combine the vinegar, mustard, chipotle puree, honey, and garlic. Slowly incorporate the oil until emulsified. Stir in the mint and season with salt and pepper. Let sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before using.

Okay, the squid. Heat up a grill pan (you can also do this outside on the grill). Place the squid on a large platter or board, drizzle with a few tablespoons of oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Grill the squid bodies and tentacles for about 2 minutes per side.

Remove from the grill, let rest 5 minutes, then cut the bodies crosswise into 1/2-inch thick rings. You can either keep the tentacles whole or halve them — I halved mine. Toss the warm squid with the minced garlic. Set aside.

Brush the bread lightly with oil on both sides and season with salt and pepper. Grill for approximately 2-3 minutes per side on a gril pan or 1 minute per side outdoors, until lightly charred. Remove and cut each slice into 1/2-inch dice.

Toss the bread cubes, arugula and cilantro.

Add the squid and with some (or all) of the vinaigrette in a large bowl. Toss.

Let stand for 10 minutes. Lay your tomatoes slices down on the platter. Top with the squid and bread salad and surround with the orange slices.

Garnish with torn mint and drizzle with additional olive oil, if desired.

Serve with the cheese if that’s how you roll.

* Standard, amended Bobby Flay disclaimer applies.