No Knead Bread

After buying a dutch oven, I finally had the cookware I needed to make no knead bread. It was so easy and came out great - golden brown and crispy on the outside, delightfully dense and chewy on the inside like real artisan bread that we had been carving and trying in vain to make. having now made this a few times, I have found that my favorite recipe so far is one I adapted from a couple of different recipes I found online. Here it is:

Ingredients:

0.5 cups warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon yeast
1.5 teaspoons salt
4 Cups (20 oz.) bread flour (mix of white and whole wheat)
1.5 cups water

Directions:

1. Dissolve sugar in 0.5 cup warm water. Sprinkle with yeast to proof (let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes).
2. Mix 2 cups flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir in yeast mixture.
3. Add 2 cups flour and 1.5 cups water. Mix until well blended - making a stiff dough (I usually do the final mixing with hands).
4. Brush or spray dough with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
5. Refrigerate 3-10 hours.
6. Take out of fridge and let rise at cool room temperature 18-24 hours.
7. Using an oiled spatula, lift and fold dough toward center until mostly deflated. Do not stir. Brush or spray with oil. Cover with plastic wrap. 
8. Let rise in fridge 4-24 hours (or 1.5-2.5 hours at warm room temp) until doubled in size.
9. Put rack in lower third of oven. Preheat to 450 degrees F. Place heat dutch oven in preheated oven for about 5 minutes.
10. Loosen dough gently and invert it into pot. Spritz with water. Cover immediately. Give the pot a shake to center dough if necessary.
11. Bake for about 50 minutes. Remove lid.
12. Reduce heat to 425 F and bake another 15-20 minutes until browned and center is done. (Sometimes the bread is done for me at the end of the first 50 minutes).
13. Cool in pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Bay Cioppino

Tonight, I made Bay Cioppino from my favorite soup cookbook - Cuisine at Home: Splendid Soups & Spectaular Sides in my 8-quart dutch oven. Both the recipe and the cookware exceeded my expectations.

Being somewhat landlocked, fresh seafood is hard to come by. I found some small clams and wild caught prawns at Yoke's and used frozen Wild Alaskan Pacific Cod from Costco. Using roasted cherry tomatoes from last summer's garden and fresh herbs (thyme, basil, parsley) from my Aerogarden helped make this recipe a success.

The basic recipe follows:

1. Sweat the following veggies in 2 Tbs. olive oil: 1 C onion, 1/2 C each of carrot, celery, red bell pepper, fennel bulb, 1 Tbs. garlic.
2. Stir in: 2 Tbs. tomato paste, chopped fresh thyme, oregoano, basil, basil, and 1 tsp. red pepper flakes, salt, bay leaf. Deglaze with 1 C white wine. Simmer down 5 minutes or so.
3. Add: 1 qt. tomatoes, 2 C chicken broth, 1 Tbs. lemon juice, 1 tsp. sugar. Simmer 10 minutes.
4. Stir in 1 lb. clams or mussels, 3/4 lb. cubed cod. Simmer 5 minutes. Add 1/2 lb. shrimp. Simmer 5 more minutes.
5. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Bay Cioppino

Homemade No Knead Bread, Salad, and White Wine rounds out the meal.

Homemade Chocolate Mousse make a rich and delicious end to the meal.

Dutch Oven Chicken in Milk

The second recipe I made using my new enameled cast iron 8-quart dutch oven is Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk recipe via the Food Network. 

Here it is fresh from the oven.

I served it, as suggested in the recipe, with mashed potatoes and spinach. For the potatoes, I first baked two large russets for an hour, then mashed them with about 1.5 cups skim milk, 1/3 cup greek yogurt, 1 tsp garlic salt, 1/2 tsp white pepper, and a little of the leftover butter from frying the chicken. I put the mashed potatoes in a baking dish, topped with a couple of pats of butter and sprinkled with paprika. I put it in the oven with the chicken for the last 45-50 minutes. I simply steamed the spinach for a minute in water and a little fresh lemon juice (from the lemons I zested for the chicken).

The whole dinner was declared delicious by everyone in the family! And the dutch oven has served me well so far.