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Bolognese Bonanza

I had been craving a rich, hearty bolognese sauce for some time, and with snow and frigid temperatures setting in, I knew Sunday would be a good day for it. I'd read in the New York Times about a couple of bolognese recipes almost a year ago that changed my view of the stuff -- elevated it in some way. Ever since, I've been trying to perfect my recipe. This Sunday's attempt was no different...except that I was working with Cotton and I was terribly under the weather. I guess now is a good time to point out that I'm not necessarily going for a traditional bolognese -- just a tasty variant on classic bolognese.

Cotton minced up some onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and herbs and spices (probably oregano, basil, red pepper) and sauteed it in a bit of olive oil. I would have used butter, but whatever. Next, she added the meat. We had just under 3 lbs of 'meatloaf mix', which, at my grocery, is equal parts beef, pork, and veal. I don't think you can brown the meat properly if there are onions and whatnot in the pan, and I think browning of the meat is absolutely essential to a great bolognese. Nevertheless, we cooked down the meat and I added milk -- maybe 2 cups. I cooked that until the liquid was gone and then added white wine -- maybe 1 cup -- and the liquid and juice from 2 large cans of plum tomatoes. We reduced that down until nearly gone, then added tomato paste and fried it up a bit until it got dark and rusty. I should mention that this took about 2 hours just to get to this point. Then we added the diced tomatoes that produced the juice mentioned earlier, as well as two cans of crushed tomatoes. Yes, we were going for leftovers.

If I was cooking on my own, I would have browned the meat and removed it, sweat the vegetables, added the paste and fried it, then put the meat back in, then the wine to deglaze, then the milk. I'd reduce that, add my plum tomatoes (diced and crushed) with their juices and reduce the whole mess. This time, it didn't matter because I CAN'T TASTE ANYTHING due to my Cold.

Tragically, the sourdough Cotton and I made did not rise. Luckily I had some whole wheat bread from yesterday on hand, but I was hoping for lots of extra bread for stuffing. (This coming weekend is family Thanksgiving because Cotton and I missed real Thanksgiving.) I'm trying to rehabilitate my starter in hopes that I can make more bread soon.

Photo credits: avlxyz

Braised Breast of Veal

I picked Cotton up at the airport Friday night. She's home from college for winter break. We fought our way home from La Guardia, made small talk with the family, and then fulfilled Cotton's urgent need for chicken parm at Piccolo. Fed and watered, we made our way across the parking lot to the grocery store, searching for inspiration for Saturday dinner and gathering supplies for Sunday's bolognese.

We started in the meat department, since all great meals start with meat. Okay, not really...but I kinda wanted to braise something. Or else roast something. Or something. I perused the usual suspects and considered them carefully when...what is this wedged between chicken thighs and pork chops!? Why, it's none other than the elusive Breast of Veal! I've never seen that in our grocery before, so I bought the biggest piece they had: nearly 4 lbs for a mere $6.

While some people were dreaming of dancing sugar plum fairies Friday night, I was dreaming of the baby goat I had recently at Scarpetta. How tender and unctuous it was! Its perfectly rich jus bathing small dice of fingerling potatoes! This is what I wanted from my breast of veal. I awoke and drafted some braising plans.

Cotton and I started a biga Friday night for Saturday's dinner. I got her up at about 9:30, which I consider a massive triumph. We got the bread going and commenced work on the veal, but...the phone rang. It was Mom, letting us know we were +2 for dinner. By this point, I had actually looked at the meat I bought and realized it was virtually all bone and other...stuff. Good tasting, probably, but not much meat. So back to the grocery store we went, hoping and praying there was still some breast of veal left. Success! There was, and we picked a pretty piece, a little smaller than the original.

Back at the ranch, I rubbed the veal with a little vegetable oil, kosher salt, and black pepper. I carefully browned ALL surfaces in my favorite Le Creuset dutch oven. Retrospectively, I could have browned the meat a bit more, but I was battling the clock. I took the meat out and added some sliced onions. I had great dreams of browning half of them a la French onion soup and then adding the rest, but remember the clock? I did, so I just cooked the onions down a little in some bacon fat. I added some tomato paste and cooked it until it got beautifully rusty, then added garlic, carrot, celery, herbs, and beef stock. I brought it to a boil, covered it, and then put it in a 350F oven. I had to finish it on the stove because we had to bake the bread.

Once the veal was fall-off-the-bone tender, I took it out and let it cool down. I figured slicing it was out of the option, so I pulled it off the bone and chunked it. I strained the liquid and did my best to reduce it, but I was concerned about it getting too salty from reducing the stock. I put the meat back into the gravy and served it over egg noodles along with some sauteed root vegetables (beet, turnip, parsnip, potato, carrot).

The verdict? The veal was good, but not amazing. It just tasted like pot roast, which I guess isn't a bad thing. The flavors were very rich though, and I'll bet that leftover gravy is all gelled up. I wouldn't bother with that piece of meat again unless I know it had more...meat. It was a lot of work pulling all the little bits of meat off the bones, fat, and other junk. Plus, it kind of grossed me out just a little. It would probably make a great veal stock though, or could be used to flavor a tomato sauce or something.

Breakfast: 2 fried eggs & hash browns
Lunch: leftover Chinese
Dinner: braised veal, egg noodles, sauteed root vegetables, whole wheat bread & butter
Snacks: buttered popcorn, tea with honey

Head Cold '08

All week long, it's been building up strength, growing, replicating, incubating until...WHAM! Head Cold '08: 7:13 PM EST 2008-12-5.

I've been lucky enough to avoid a serious, debilitating Cold for a couple of years. Not this time. This is an old-school Cold. It's extra-strong and resilient, resistant to modern Cold therapies like steamy showers, Tylenol Cold, and Vick's. Nope, all that can help you out of this mess is time...and maybe sleep and vitamins.

My father, who never gets sick, introduced this Cold into our home and so far, it has claimed three victims: Dad, Mom, and me. Sore throat, stuffy AND runny nose, mild coughing, aches, fatigue...CLASSIC. So far, Sunday has been my worst day. My nose was running like a faucet, rubbed raw from standard Kleenex. Thankfully, Mom's worst day was Saturday, so she got some Puffs Plus with lotion Sunday afternoon, but tragically, the damage was already done.

Life will go on.

Photo credits: nicora

Caramelized Onion Pasta

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a meat-free meal as it was a Friday during Lent. I recalled a recipe I had read about by Martha Stewart -- Caramelized Garlic and Shallot Pasta. It was rainy and I didn't have the arse-load of shallots the recipe called for, so I used onions instead -- a combo of white and red onions.

As you can see from the photos, I used a ton of onions and a lot of garlic. Also, I got the onions beautifully caramelized. However, I HATED this dish. It was terrible. Now, when my mother saw what I had made, she was confused because I don't ordinarily like onions. But these were beautifully caramelized onions and they'd be perfect on a steak. But on pasta -- no way. This is one of the few dishes I've made that I really, really didn't like at all. It just didn't have much flavor, and what flavor it did have was disgusting.

Do you think shallots would have made all the difference?

First Sourdough Bread...Blah

Note: I'm having trouble with images. I'll get them up ASAP.

I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth (quite literally) since I baked my first sourdough boules, and that’s why Ihaven’t blogged in a while. I followed the basic country white recipe from Nancy Silverton’s book. I was unimpressed with the first rise, but the bread seemed to proof well enough in the basket.

Nevertheless, I put the boule in a 500F oven, then turned it down to 400F after 5 minutes. I misted the oven during the first five minutes as well.

I guess my cuts in the top were not sufficient, because the loaf split in a couple of places. Also, it smelled like burning – because it was. Check out the bottom. I baked it for 35 minutes.

I did let it rest for quite a while (maybe a couple of hours). The interior didn’t have irregular holes and had a sort of dense texture. I actually made two boules and the second was worse than the first. Sad. Also, the crust was very thick and did taste a little burnt. Finally, the bread was actually kind of dry. It just wasn’t something I really wanted to eat.

But I think I know what one major problem was:

This weekend, I made a non-sourdough white bread. It turned out great! It was really tasty and had a great texture. Not too crusty, but that was okay. Now, I think this was useful for my sourdough because although my oven was at the right temperatures (500F, then 400F just like the sourdough), the bread cooked in 15 minutes less time than the recipe said (30 mins instead of 45 mins). I measured it with my new thermapen – the recipe recommended a temperature of 210F. I actually took the bread out at 205F, and was not disappointed. It did continue to cook.

So I think this weekend I’m going to try to bake the sourdough again. I need to make sure my starter is really going strong and this time, I’m going to take the temperature of my sourdough after half the cooking time. If not, I’m going to make my other bread again and hope to have photos either way.

Friday Night Dinner: Homemade Pizzas!

This Friday was the first Friday of Lent. For us good Roman Catholics (What? Why are you laughing?), that means no meat on Fridays from now until Easter on March 22nd. Incidentally, my family gives up meat on Wednesdays also -- but this isn't a rule of Lent -- it's just kinda something we do. But I digress...

We end up eating a couple of standby dishes during Lent including Tuna Noodle Casserole (oh-so-good), pizza, and grilled cheese with tomato soup. So in honor of this first Friday (and inspired by my bread baking desires), I decided to make my own pizza crust.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an episode of Julia Child: Lessons With Master Chefs featuring Roberto Donna. This is what actually inspired all this bread baking nonsense to being with. He was making pizza, among other things. I'd have really liked to have made his dough, but I had to work on Friday and he was doing stuff every two hours for several hours, which would have meant pizza at around midnight. Then I found a Cook's Illustrated recipe for a 75 minute pizza dough. I was a bit wary of this recipe though, because I didn't think it'd have much flavor, so instead, I made a biga Thursday night with regular old Fleischman's yeast (not rapid rise), water, and flour. This idea was actually inspired by yet another Cook's Illustrated recipe I almost followed for an Italian bread. Basically, I added half the flour and water to a bowl with the yeast. I set it out overnight, covered lightly. In the morning, it was bubbly and stuff and I put it in the frigo. When I came home from work at about 6:30PM, I pulled it out and added the rest of the flour and water. I kneaded AND mixed completely by hand (I think I'm giving up on my mixer -- I thought it would burst into flames when I made those rolls) and then allowed the dough to rise in a warmed-but-not-on oven (this is why I didn't worry about my biga being cold).

In the mean time, I went to the grocery store and picked up some Muir Glen organic whole peeled tomatoes, some fresh basil, processed mozzarella (actually this was recommended by Donna!), and I could swear I bought something else. The total was about $12, but I bought two cans of tomatoes, not knowing how much I'd need. Anyway, again I digress.

I seeded the tomatoes and put them in a bowl. I tore in about 5-6 large basil leaves and added one minced garlic clove. I added a drop of olive oil (maybe 1 tbsp) and some salt and pepper. I threw in a pinch of red pepper flakes, though I think maybe I should have left them out or added a bit more -- I didn't even taste 'em. I crushed the tomatoes by hand and let this raw sauce marinate.


As you can see, there's still a lot of liquid left in the sauce. Next time, I might set the tomatoes over a strainer. But don't worry -- I'm saving the juice. I'll probably use it for a cooked tomato sauce.

Next, I turned out the dough (which had risen BEAUTIFULLY) and beat it down a little. I then cut it into four pieces with my bench scraper and rolled each into a ball. By this time, I had the oven going as hot as it could with my stone in there. It's winter and between the dry air and the oven, I was afraid my dough balls would skin over. So I covered them with a dish towel and misted it with water every so often. I really got it pretty damp, with no adverse effects whatsoever.

I stretched my dough the way Donna did on Julia's show. I was alone, so I don't have pictures, but I'll try to explain (but also, I think you can watch the video on the website linked above). First, I flattened the dough a bit with my whole hand. Then, with all of my fingertips, I gently jabbed into the dough disc down its center towards my body, then came up around the outside of the circle back to the "top" or furthest point from my body. I repeated this and then flipped and rotated the dough. I did this a couple of times until I thought it wasn't doing anything anymore, and started gently stretching the dough. I held the center down with one hand and lightly tugged on the perimeter. Once the dough had stretched a bit, I picked it up and stretched it gently over my fists. I had a problem where the center got too thin (I could literally see through it, but it never broke), so I tried to really just work the edges and let the center catch up on its own. This is a skill I need to practice. I was so happy because my dough didn't shrink when I put it down. This alone was a huge success.

I topped the pizzas with very little sauce, although there was still too much moisture in general. Here's my first pizza -- just sauce and cheese.

My pizza peel hasn't come in from King Arthur yet, so I worked on parchment on an upside down half sheet pan. It worked great, and the parchment can go right on the stone in the oven. (However, this might have prevented the stone from doing its best work -- I'm not sure if the parchment formed a moisture barrier. My crusts got soggy really quickly after coming out of the oven.) It's also super easy to pull the pizza out -- just grab a corner of parchment and slide onto the sheet pan. I thought this pizza was beautiful. It's a little pale, but I'm okay with that. In fact, I kind of prefer a more medium-rare pizza to a well done one. But I did want to taste the differences and get a truly magnificent pie, so I tried a couple of ways to brown it up more.

Here's a cross section of a slice from my first pie. I like the thicker crust a lot. Notice the nice holes. It was a really flavorful crust -- I think because of my overnight fermentation.

This is just that first pie cut up.

Here's what the bottom of the first slice looked like. Not bad, but not crackery-crisp.

Here's my second pie -- unbaked, obviously. This one is just tomato, basil, olive oil, mozzarella, and salt and pepper. It was my favorite, even with the sub-par tomatoes one finds at the market in February on Long Island.

I let this one cook a little longer and was happy about the results. It was still a bit pale though.

At my brother's request, I made a white pie. This one has olive oil, salt, pepper, a pinch of oregano, mozzarella, peccorino, and ricotta. It was divine. My brother's favorite.

I decided my oven was not hot enough. But it was already at the max. I had been letting the oven have about 10 minutes to reheat after each pizza. Maybe this isn't enough, I don't know. But in an effort to make everything a bit hotter (and browner), I put the pizza in the oven on "bake", then closed the door and turned on the broiler. This moves the flame from the bottom of the oven to the top and also keeps the flame on constantly, rather than cycling on and off (which I think it was doing, despite being at max temp). The stone and pizza were in the bottom third of the oven, so I wasn't too worried that the pizza would burn from the broiler. I think the was a good move, although I might just turn the broiler on for the second half of baking. By the way, the cook time for these was about 8 minutes.

Here's my last pizza. This one has mozzarella, sauce, peccorino, and a tiny bit of ricotta. This was the prettiest pie, and pretty damn tasty too.

I think I'm going to work on these pizzas again this Friday. They were really delicious -- I don't have any complaints. But I think I can make them better. Not too shabby for my first attempts though.