Radish, Smoked Butter and Flaky Sea Salt

 

 

Cookbook Review: Flour Water Salt Yeast: the Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza

it's taken me awhile to write this post. mainly because of all the research and baking i've done with while reading this book! im well on my way to my fourth bread recipe, and i can't wait for the next baking day at home.

i bought Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast: the fundamentals of artisan bread and pizza, after searching for new baking books to read. the name instantly jumped out at me, for obvious reasons! it seems we (the authour and I) were on the same wavelength, as far as titling our projects go! after a a little detective work,  i realized i've actually been to the bakery this book hails from and indulged in their lovely breads. it was serendipty. i bought the book immediately, with baking and a book review in mind. i'm so glad i did.

the concept: 'flour water salt yeast' is highly apt for the art of bread baking, taking a few simple good ingredents with the help of invisible microrganisms and fermentation creates- bread! the alchemy of bread never ceases to amaze. in this book, the recipes rarely stray from the above 4 ingredients, except for the 'Pan au Bacon,' but who can leave out bacon?

Sweet Potato and Pear Pizza

Ken's Artisan Bakery is run by Ken Forkish, who studied at the San Francisco Baking Institute, he also apprenticed with renowned bread baker, Chad Robertson, of Tartine Bakery (san francisco).  Ken opened his doors in 2001, in Portland, Oregon. the bakery specializes in long fermented breads with high hydration content and well rounded flavour. these breads have been adored since they were first baked in the bakery 11 years ago. since then, Ken has opened a pizza spot, there are 4 different pizza base recipes in the book to choose from, and are equally as delicious as the bread recipes.

bread recipes in ths book are wetter than most and require folding, rather than kneading

since getting the book i've read it front to cover and baked three bread recipes - two with commercial yeast  and the other sourdough. being a long time baker myself, i went for a sourdough recipe (Country Brown), and since then, i've been short on time, tried out the simpler recipes (the Saturday White Bread and White Bread with Poolish). every recipe has been memorable and highly addictive.

i love Ken's in-depth writing style and way his book is meant to bring newcomers to the joys of bread baking. by starting small (with one day recipies) and working up to intermediate, then advanced recipes - some taking days to prepare, this book is for everyone wanting to bake bread. the chapters and recipes are written in a timeline from easy to advanced, so you can work your way through the book, like a bread cookery course. after which you should be a bread baking master, there's 19 recipes in all! most of the bread recipes provide handy timelines for the working person to go by, so you don't have to be home the whole day waiting for your bread to rise, like the 'saturday white bread', (which im getting ready to take out the oven as we speak), this bread was developed for days when you need bread fresh bread in a few hours, begining at 9:30 am and finishing the bread at 5:00pm in the evening.

shaping the wet doughs into loaves

the book itself is broken down into four parts. Part 1 being an introduction to bread baking and the tools needed. Part 2 is a collection of 'Basic Bread' recipes, like straight doughs, and breads made with pre-ferments. following onto the more the advanced Part 3: levain bread recipes, with understanding the levain (sourdough) method in hybrid and pure levain breads, as well as making your own sourdough from scratch. Part 4, contains 3 chapters dedicated to the art of pizza and focaccia making, favouring homebaked pizzas baked with a super high heat and pizza stones.

baking with a cast iron dutch oven

when attempting the bread recipes in this book do try and seek out a cast iron dutch oven to bake in. this is a much celebrated method of home bread baking, and is essential to creating a crust with crispy caramel colouring. breads such as these rely on steam captured in ovens to allow the loaf to rise thouroughly in the oven, and gelatinize starches in the crust. it may sound complicated, but in practice the bread does all the work for you! this method has been adopted by many professional bakers and written about in books like, The Bread Builders, and Tartine Bread. everyone should do it! look at the bread you could end up with! it's amazing.

Saturday White Bread

 

the final conclusion is: i'm totally inspired by this book. f you're interested n everything there is to know about bread or want to learn how to make better bread, this is the book for you. the recipes may take some time to finish, but really only involve minutes of actual active time, wth stunning results!

Stuffed Dumpling Squash with Chorizo and Rocket Salad

 

on one of my seed buying frenzies i grabbed a packet of Sweet Dumpling Squash seeds. not knowing really what they would turn out like, i figured they were a winter squash, all the packet said was "unsual light and dark striped skin with flesh of creamy orange. perfect for stuffing or cooking whole." so i guessed i couldn't go too wrong. once they were in the poly tunnel - happily growing away, i did some research. i read they were actually summer squash, but then i read they were winter squash. so i was confused, once harvested they seemed to be a bit of both. they have stored really well since i harvested them in september, and that puts them more in the winter squash genre, in my mind. i was worried i'd end up with too many squash going off all at once, like some of my courgettes (summer squash). this wasn't the case, as im staring at three plump firm specimens as i write this. after cooking their flesh turns soft and creamy, i look forward to growing more of these next year!

 

 

 

after eyeing up recipes for stuffed squash i decided to stuff my lil' dumplings with my new favourite ingredient from the bakery/deli. its a fresh chorizo iberico, which means the black iberian pigs were fed on acorns from oak trees for a period and also that it requires cooking before eating, unlike cured chorizos. its pretty rich and requires no oil for sauteing, the internal oils do all the work, yum! i also grabbed some st. tola organic goats cheese, creme fraiche. the rocket (or arugula) i got from my weekly C.S.A box from Kinsale Green Growers. the flavours melded together wonderfully, and one sweet dumpling squash happily fed two people, it would be perfect for 6-8 as a side dish too.

 

 

Perfect Poached Eggs with Homemade Ketchup

i've been waiting awhile before dropping the 'chicken bomb'. for those of you that don't know me, i have to tell you - im an obsessed chicken person, i admit it. im currently caring for 12 chickens (3 cockrels and 9 hens + 2 baby chicks!)! its becoming a bit O.T.T. but im getting a handle on my chicken collecting. i just love having hens around and then buying new ones! i don't want to be going on and on about my hens and how lovely they are or all of their names or what breeds they are, but i have to warn you now, i probably will! so if this kinda thing bores you, skip ahead to the recipe!

a Faverolles breed

this is my first year caring for chickens.  and since im the sort of person that has to do everything from scratch, chickens came naturally. (as well as, growing vegetables and baking!) so, why not have my own free-range organic chickens to lay eggs? we'll im finding there's alot more to it, and i've gone the whole learning curve since bringing home my first few hens in march. researching breeds, hatching chicks, caring for sick hens, buying new hens, meeting new chicken people, travelling to markets, raising chicks ...... all of it.

surprisingly im finding after all that stuff that its totally worth the effort. at the moment egg numbers have dropped due to decreasing day length, this is also where chickens begin to molt old feathers and grow new ones.  it's a gradual process and one that most people don't tell you when buying chickens. so im telling you now: molting = fewer to no eggs for 4 to several weeks! because their bodies can't make eggs and feathers at the same time. i guess that makes sense.... so count on a 'hungry gap' of no eggs!

'Lucielle' the brown layer hybrid hen

No-Knead Focaccia Loaf- and a garden tour

 

i started this blog as a way to share my garden, the food i cook from the garden, with more people. i feel like now is a good time, the end of summer, to show-off this years veg plot at the height of its glory. i started this plot in march of this year, creating the raised beds with recycled scaffolding boards. a friend of mine found a great source for them at a .50 cent a foot for damaged or unusable boards. these were cut to shape, with a jig saw and screwed together with a bit of galvi-band. the finish on the boards is with an outdoor mahgony coloured furniture stain, which i've used on everything stainable, veg crates, doors, garden furniture, you name it. after that we (me, my other half and 4 friends) filled the beds with a third topsoil, then another third with really old sheep manure (a thoughtful gift from friends of mine!), then the top third with compost from the local recycling center, in bandon. it worked out at 40 euro for all the compost. all in all the beds cost around 80 euro to fill and build. not bad.



clockwise , beetroot and rainbow chard, red russian kale plants

old spud patch (they grew 6foot long)

 

i was inspired by joy larcom's book, Creative Vegetable Gardening (see side bar), for my garden design and all of my planting scheme. i wanted to create a small space within the garden to be able to use for entertaining, eating and enjoying the garden. i went for a square 'C' shape, with a willow arch over the entrance. its my favourite garden i've had in the dozen or so i've created in the past. from joy's book i tried to add intrest by interplanting different textures and colours of plants and planting crops on the diagonal instead of straight lines.



purple sprouting, and red russian kale

leeks, seeding radishes, and squash, lots of nasturtiums

 

i didn't actually want  or need this garden to meet my eating needs throughout the year, i dont have time to grow all that veg! but rather to just be able to grow the interesting veg i want, enjoy the process of growing them and create an outdoor space to be in. and to my surprise i've had loads of veg, almost more than i need! since the begining of the lettuce season the beds have been giving me loads of choice: from beetroot, to romanesco, spuds, mangetout, onions, courgette, beans, chard, celery, lettuce, herbs, and loads of sweet peas - and theres even more to come!

celery, courgette(front corner), celeriac, beetroot and chard

more purple sprouting, asparagus, purple beans, celery