Cream of celery soup

All it takes is that one recipe to change the perception of a food ingredient - that ingredient with with a strong flavor. I think celery presents one such vegetable which somedays requires some liking. However, its perfect to usher a persona to the soups.

Lets talk about the cream of celery soup now. The recipe below is one for thin soup and it shall serve primary as an appetiser.

Ingredients - 

Unsalted butter - 4 tablespoons
extra-virgin olive oil - 3 tablespoons
medium onion - 1 sliced
Sea salt - to taste
Celery - 1 bunch, chopped
Celery root, chopped - 300 grams
Bay leaf - 1
Chicken broth - 4 cups (substitute may be vegetable broth)
Heavy cream - 1 cup (use Amul cream as a substitute)
Parsley - 1/2 cup
Dill (for topping) - 2 tbsp

Additional -
Celery salt - 1 tsp for topping

Instructions - 

1. Melt the butter and add the onion. Once softened and browned (about 3-4 minutes), add the chopped celery, celery root and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat till everything is tender.

2. Add the bay leaf and cook it for another 1 minute. Now, add the chicken stock and add another 2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat. Cook for another 15 minutes. Let it rest for a bit for it to cool.

3. Add the parsley. Blitz it in a blender and top it with a drizzle of dill, and a bit of celery salt.

Enjoy!

Experiments in the kitchen

My Experiments in the kitchen.

First things - Flours expire because the protein in the flour degrade over time.
http://ask.metafilter.com/52221/What-to-do-with-evil-white-flour

November 17, 2015

CELERY-ONION-SMOKED BACON-CREAM CHEESE BREAD

Today I'm making a celery, onion, smoked bacon and bit of cream cheese bread. Lets see how the experiment goes.

One of the factors I have improved is bring the protein content of expired bread flour+maida+whole wheat flour to ~10% by adding gluten flour.

Rest is mainly going to be experimentation. Also, the yeast is a different one. The Blue Bird yeast is slow to act with large granules and not rising quick enough. However, it did double up in less than 15 minutes. The date is well within expiration of May'16. I am not using the one ordered from amazon which is super reactive.

This put to rest at 1245 hrs. Rest for 45 minutes until doubled.


1330 hrs - it has doubled up indeed and quite soft.

So what's happening right now is at 1545 hrs, I didn't use the rising basket (bread basket)
[ref: http://www.virtuousbread.com/how-to-make-bread/recipies/celery-and-onion-bread/].

Due to that, the bread has expanded flat though rising a bit too. I believe it shall raise only when the dough has reached the edges of the baking tray. I should have put it in some bowl or a basket where it shall have expanded vertically. Now, its just expanding in the easiest direction of gravity - sideways!

I hope it doesn't change the texture of the baked bread. Next time I shall let it rest in an oval bowl, that might help.

Verdict -

The bread tastes very different than what I had in mind. Maybe I wasn't thinking a lot, however, when I had sampled the combination of bacon+onions+chopped celery, it tasted quite delicious. In the bread, it just tasted confusing and lacking any texture from them! The crust though, is a different story. It is the crust you'd like to see in the bread every time it rises, crunchy! I haven't seen such crust ever since I have moved to India. This is quite the crust I was used to seeing in Europe.

Update -

After 2 days now on November 19, I feel my palate has gotten used to the taste of the bread. I'm going to keep trying new recipes and perhaps experiments. What would you be doing? One thing I'm certain of is, I won't be going for bread purchases to the market. My palate would just not accept the baking soda flavours from those commercial dough lumps which are much softer to my liking now. Also this bread tastes deliciously complex with hard cheese and olives. It should be an excellent addition to a hot or even cold lunch with fresh salads and tzatziki.




Thoughts to ponder over -

Does the taste have anything to do with the kind of yeast used? I think the taste has been mixed with so many flavours in it - this led to a confusion. What about the texture? It seems I've forgotten the texture - am I leaving it too long to ferment outside? Next time, I'm going to use lesser yeast. I used about 13.4 grams of yeast. I think I might settle for an even 8 grams for 600 grams of flour.

WHITE BREAD

I put to rest at 1255 hrs. It was expected to rest for 2-3 hours.

1605 hrs
It rose beautifully this time with maida+5% added gluten powder. I have also folded about 30g goat cheese. Lets see how that tastes. Its resting at 1605 in the bread pan.

1834 hrs

The bread looks incredible, but tastes very yeasty! Maybe I've forgotten how breads are supposed to taste after these years of eating commercial baking soda treated breads in India. But we'll see.

Update -

The bread has a crispy crust. The inside of bread is not very soft, but alright to chew on. Once in mouth, it feels like the mouth is doing some effort. I must tweak to ensure the interior remains soft. Does it have anything to do with the oven and the temperatures used?

Keep experimenting.

Sesame Seed Bread

November 9, 2015
Monday

I could stand on the shoulders of giants and write majuscule. Eventually, it shall still be stereotyped as bread here!

Or is it? How friends in Belgium and Germany treasure their breads, the quality of the local produce I experienced on the streets of European towns was the depiction of how civilisation was bred over centuries. The only competitor to the eating shall be the ability of citizens to commute using public transport.

I haven't tasted bread since when, my year (2010-11) of stay and exploring the streets in Europe, Hasselt. The smell of fresh bread in front of bakeries and the varieties of cheese was just a very deep-rooted experience. Its only today after what four years, that I have finally baked a bread which has the texture and the heaviness of the European bread. I still experience the same essence - I ate it like I was eating the white bread or the English bread rolls which are comparatively much lighter. Consequently, my stomach is filled to the brim. Well, at least I can write about the good memories I carry now in retrospect. Now, that I have baked it, I wonder what was holding me back. I think it was the perception of us as a nation still developing by and large. Somehow, I couldn't muster up enough motivation and drive to understand that it was much more political game. We as family and perhaps as individuals in North India driven by materialism, have been exposed to some very good quality equipments to explore culinary paths. In the case of baking especially, where if the recipe is followed precisely, the intuitiveness of it is quite simple and straightforward - all that remains is how we can express in presentation. I think savoury is much more elaborate, and requires much varied ingredients.

What I have found out is understanding of technique in baking as in other forms of cooking, helps relieve the tension of the basic failures like the dough not rising or the bread not becoming chewy enough. For that, the attention must be paid on the quality of the ingredients and of course the cooking time.

Okay, down to the business end of it.

To understand better about the action of yeast, follow the links below:

Yeast's crucial roles in bread making

Functions of yeast in baking

Yeast

Sesame Seed Bread

Ingredients

Yeast - 2 tsps

Luke warm water - 300 ml

Plain flour - 200g

Whole wheat flour - 200g

Salt - 2 tsps

Sugar - 1/2 tsps

Toasted Sesame seeds - 70g

Untoasted (fresh) sesame seeds - 5g


Procedure

1. To the sugar, add 125 ml water and stir it. When dissolved, add the yeast. This is to activate the yeast. Leave it for 10 minutes on the side.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the two flours with salt. Make a well into the middle.

3. Add the yeast mixture and the water into the well. Stir in the water and finally knead the dough using some flour.

4. Cover it with a plastic bag, and leave it to rise. In about 1.5-2 hours, it should have doubled.

5. Once doubled, remove it and punch it. Knead the sesame seeds into it, folding the dough multiple times.

6. Grease a round 9 inch baking tin. Divide the dough into 16 parts and arrange in the round pan. Cover it with plastic again, and let it rest till it rises to the rim height (approximately 1.5 hours).

7. Remove the plastic sheet. Brush it with some milk and sprinkle the fresh sesame seeds. Put it in oven at 220 deg. C for 15 minutes, and then reduce it to 180-190 deg. C for 30 minutes.

8. Remove the bread from tin, and place on a rack. Let it cool for 30 minutes.

Comments

1. For me, the texture is a bit heavier. I love the taste of the bread, absolutely smashing. For lighter texture, I shall try putting slightly more yeast (I think 2.5 tsp), and let it sit in warm temperature (approximately 40 deg. C) for about 1.5-2 hours. This should change the texture.

2. For the lining the tin, I used unsalted butter which gave it a crispy crust. For a softer crust, the lining of the tin could be done with milk or salted pasteurised butter. In addition, adding a bit of milk to the dough also makes the final product much more chewy. However, this is supposed to be a very solid bread.

Enjoy baking!

[Success] Everything carries an expiration date (recipes - Pizza dough, short bread)

November 2, 2015
Monday

There are days when we fail. Due to the undying will, we pick ourselves. Sometimes, the failure persists and then eventually, we find a solution. We as humans, have been trained to be problem solvers.

Culturally, as Indians we grow on spicy food. Baking is something which does not come to us as an intuitive notion - we learn though. We adapt, we persist and with enough passion, I think we can develop and preserve the skill in the kitchen.

The last time I tried doing, I was deflated not just metaphorically but the pizza dough actually deflated... if it ever left the baking surface. Today, Monday a new day, a new week and I have managed to rekindle the successful habit. I guess its also with the mindset. The days when it just doesn't work out, I questioned whether I actually belonged here. Eventually, after reading through the possible problems, I did manage to figure out a problem with my dough - Expired Yeast!

Believe or not, but everything in kitchen carry an expiration date. Make sure to check for ingredients whenever cooking with baking ingredients. I'd also recommend from now on to ensure the quality of ingredients for spicy-blended foods. Needless to say, experimenting in the kitchen is the best habit, just not for direct servings please. Try experimenting with the skill set and from my personal experience, you'd start developing an intuition for the local ingredients and flavours.

Trip through the experimenting lane - pizza dough

Even before I begin, the pizza did manage to melt in my mouth. However, the dough could further rise if yeast is cured properly. Yeast generally takes effect in tepid/lukewarm water in about 15 minutes. At this time, its ready to be mixed with in the dough.

In my second attempt, after the failure on the first on October 26-2015, today I let the yeast sit in warm water for about 8 minutes. The stickiness which imparts the chewiness to the dough returned. However, the dough did not double in size. The reason I figured out was again as suggested, the yeast needs to get activated in warm water for about 15 mins. Because of the lesser time, the yeast wasn't fully activated. Due to this, the dough could not fully rise.





In my third attempt, I corrected the error and let the yeast sit and get activated for about 12-14 minutes. The result was the doubling up of the yeast-water mixture, which hopefully shall give it the increased size. Lets hope for tomorrow. I'd update it then.

The pizza dough recipe I'm following is this -
White flour - 200 g
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Yeast (Active dry yeast) - 1 tsp
Lukewarm water - 120 ml
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Olive oil - 1 tsp

In the water, mix the sugar and stir until mixed. Stir in the yeast and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes. You'd see the yeast getting activated and a foamy mixture rising. After 15 minutes, stir in the white flour and start folding sideways from one end with your hands. Once mixed thoroughly, transfer to a flat base where you can knead it using some flour. Take a bowl, line it with olive oil, let the dough sit there at room temperature for about 45 minutes - 1 hour, till the dough has doubled up. Sometimes depending on the low temperature, it may take a while. Take the doubled up dough out, give it another knead and follow the usual pizza flattening and layering with the toppings as per your taste.

There's another form of yeast which is quick action. That doesn't need to get activated and can be used just like the baking powder which does not need any activation as well.

To check whether the yeast is functional, follow this link -
http://redstaryeast.com/yeast-baking-lessons/yeast-shelf-life-storage/yeast-freshness-test/


Short bread



Ingredients

Unsalted butter - 150 g
Caster sugar - 100 g
Plain flour - 180 g
Rice flour - 55 g
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/8 tsp




Instructions -

1. Grease an 8 inch cake tin.
2. With electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until smooth and very light. Mix all the flours along with salt and baking powder.
3. Give a gentle knead through hands to the entire mixture, so the dough binds together and not fragmented.
4. Spread it in the tin with the hands. I later pricked with a fork just for some decoration and of course the baking to take place evenly inside.
5. Bake in the over for about 50 minutes at 160 C.
6. Follow it up with 5 minutes at 200 C. This shall give it a golden crust.

Voila, enjoy!


Additional

I also managed to make crispy garlic Hakka noodles spiced up with green/red chilli sauce, condiments and a Lot of Vegetables.

[Failure] Pizzas - failed dough

October 26, 2015
Monday

Thomas Edison failed about 3000 times before inventing the light bulb. When asked about the failure, he remarked “I did not fail a 3000 times, I learnt 3000 ways of not making a bulb!”

The good thing about failure is, it makes the successful days of cooking so much better. The pizzas through the microwave oven is such a difficult recipe to master. Frankly, we must remember the successful days exactly, so in times of distress and going haywire, I can return back to a successful recipe. It just reassures me about what good times have I actually created as well (or been a part thereof).

 More importantly, it has given me a chance to discuss about the beautifully prepared ingredients. Even with the expired dough failing to rise through yeast, which in itself was possibly expired. So, lesson for today - use fresh ingredients even while baking. Yeast is a living organism which becomes less active over time, much like yogurt cultures.




Toppings used - 


Caramelised onions
Caramelised mushrooms
Diced tomatoes
Diced Zuccini
Julienned Red pepper





The ingredients

For the toppings, I had tried baking the toppings yesterday. However, as the water evaporated from the high water content items like onions and mushrooms, they shrunk to a really small size. Part of it also got burnt, which left back the burnt flavour. However, the overall taste of the toppings was quite intense. Mushrooms do leave a strong smell in the air which getting roasted sometimes, which was all good.

The dough disaster today 

There are a number of issues which popped up today. I must check the effectiveness of the yeast next time through the yeast test described here - http://www.eatbydate.com/other/baking/yeast/.

According to this website, Cake Yeast (also called Compressed) is even more perishable than dry, requiring constant refrigeration below 45 deg. F to maintain its freshness and activity. Generally, the eat by date is usually reliable on the packet.

 The yeast needs to become activated in 10 minutes when added in warm water (not greater than 110-115 deg.



Yeast or baking powder?

The failure has also urged me to delve a bit more into the entire technique. Why don't we use baking powder instead of yeast? Well, yeast is the traditional leavening agent, which makes the dough very soft. Hence, the pizza dough becomes quite chewy. In the more modern case, yes, baking soda or baking powder can be used as the leavening agent. However, from experiences previously, the yeasted version tastes much better.

Italian Almond Biscotti - experiences that balance

2015, October 24

 The days when I do something quite awe-inspiring, and then back-it-up by those silly, little but awful mistakes generally emanating from possible exhaustion. The story of experimenting with home-made Italian Almond Biscotti, and then, backing it up with experimental failure story of burnt pizza-ingredients.



Italian Almond Biscotti 



The kind of day - After the horrific in-the-face kind of customer service at one of the cellphone service providers in Chandigarh called BSNL, I decided to make it up by trying something new and experimenting with my techniques. The interesting thing is, generally the value chain of big companies is such big that even if the product is reliable, because of the direct bitter experience with front-desk sometimes, the take-away is a bad impression of the company itself. Anyways, Biscotti has been a favourite in my repertoire ever since shopping for them at Kroger's or be it as birthday presents from Chef Lynn at the Co-ops (The North Campus Co-operatives) in Ann Arbor.





Italian biscotti recipe

Makes about 25 pieces

 Ingredients -
 200g non-blanched almonds
 215g plain flour
 100g sugar
 1/8 teaspoon salt
 1/8 teaspoon saffron powder
 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate)
 2 eggs
 1 egg while, slightly whipped for glaze

 For the complete instruction, please refer to Martha Day - Complete baking.

 The overall setup is as follows - I roasted the almonds, and then about 1/4th I pulverised. The remaining chopped into 2-3 parts for each almond. This fine part was mixed with all the dry ingredients, mixed well. Then, I added the two eggs, and mixed. The mixture was still dry and so I improvised with 50g melted salted butter. Once the mixture was thoroughly mixed, I transferred to a sheet for kneading whereupon I rolled the rest of chopped almonds into the mixture... divided the entire dough into three parts, rolled into long cylinders, applied the whipped egg white and put in the oven for 21 mins at 180C. After 21m, took out made slanted cuts, and put 'em back for 25 mins at 140C. Voila!

 In hindsight, I feel I could have chopped the almonds a bit finer as well, lets say 5-6 parts each. The roasted almonds leave an amazing aftertaste.

Experiment of the recipe - Baking is generally an exact method. Follow the recipe exactly, and generally things go as described in recipe, which means the steps when followed exactly yield a similar looking product. However, sometimes events just can not as planned, and the ability to improvise comes with a certain feeling of the gut, an intuitiveness of what ingredients might go together just fine. What I have experimented with was this. The 2 eggs weren't able to bind the ingredients into a dough. So, I decided to add 50g salted butter melted through pre-heat. In hindsight, the butter should have been unsalted, but it was still alright. The salted butter tends to leave a different aftertaste which is more towards sweet-salty. However, after cooling in refrigerator, the taste is suppressed a bit, and the flavour of almonds has been elevated.




Technique(s) learnt -

The glaze applied by the egg white and allowing to bake was ground breaking in my cooking skills. It gave the biscotti a thin brittle shining crust. I had always wondered about it in the past.





Mushroom, zucchini, tomato, onion, red-pepper pizza

I baked the vegetable except tomato before spreading on the pizza base. The base was readymade, but I intend to make the dough and try my own pizza base very soon. However, the vegetables got burnt, well at least some. But, they did give off some genuine flavour to the pizza as the water got dried up, and only taste from the ingredients was left behind. As usual, I applied two base sauces on the two-halves - pesto and pizza base sauce, which has been quite overpowering spicy in the past.

The fragrance of baked bananas in the bread

Wholewheat banana nut loaf

Reference recipe - Complete baking, Martha Day

And then the knife simply glides through! 

Credits 

The credit for my baking inspiration, exposure and learning completely goes to Chef Lynn in Ann Arbor. She gave me the opportunity to work with her, assist her and learn from her in a commercial kitchen which fed 150 people every evening for 300 days in a year at least. Besides that, she had also given me the correct tips of what not to do while baking, which in my opinion, are quite the lifesavers in the kitchen.

Presentation

Food presentation is something which I had to work upon myself. Its a continuously evolving process and requires understanding of audience, photography skills and the kind of food being served. Look for the Full course description here which defines the various aspects and timings of food to be covered. I think it serves as a good starting point to theme your food if/when required. Obviously, there exists a choice like service à la française, where you might serve everything in one go giving the choice to the person of defining their menu.

Thoughts to bake with 

You can't have too much butter, there's butter as a key ingredient in every baking expedition I can imagine. I am targeting at putting one recipe per week on average. The beauty of cooking by myself is I get to pick the ingredients, perhaps tweak some to the reference recipe (if there's one). The most important fact about cooking in my case is, it becomes my stress buster. My daytime job demands me to dig in about developments in human space exploration. 

The tweak

Instead of using butter (unsalted) and then adding extra salt to balance the baking flavours, quite a few times I use salted butter and not add additional salt. This adds the flavour from the Amul butter, which I think is exceptional in this country. During my travels across India and abroad, the most important article I missed across was the flavour of Amul butter. Now I am really out of excuses yeah!