No-Knead Bread

Here's probably the simples thng you will ever make in your kitchen apart from throwing a frozen supermarket meal into the microwave. No-knead bread. I know, many people have made it before and there's nothing new in this recipe. It's the same old recipe from NY-Times. Except I have now made it so many times that I will just try once more to convince you to make it yourself. It's so easy that anyone can make it. No tricks apart from the chemistry of nature. But hey, don't worry about that, just make this simplest of breads. The idea is that instead of adding a lot of yeast and kneading the hell out of the dough to create long, strong glutens, adding just a tiny bit and then leaving it to a slow overnight rise will have pretty much the same, if not better result.

Ingredients:
1 l. of flour. You can mix in some whole grain if you like.
1 1/4 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of yeast in any shape or form (I use dry yeast).
1/2 l. of luke warm water

Mix the flour with the yeast and salt.

Pour in the water. Make sure it's not too hot or it will kill the yeast.

Scrape it all together. It'll look like too wet at first, then it will get very dry. And then, voila! it'll be quite sticky and might seem a bit strange. But that's it. No-kneading! Normally the kneading is necesary to develope the gluten (stringy, elastic molecules that make the flour bind and is necesary for the formation of airbubbles when the bread rises). Here, time will develop the gluten for you.

Cover it with tinfoil. Leave it 16-18 hours! That's right. A long slow rise hence the small amount of yeast. Leave it at room temperature, not too hot though or it will rise too fast. If it's colder, leave to rise longer.

After 18 hours it's bubblely and slightly fermented. But just look at how stringy and glutonous it has become. Fold it with the spatula once or twice to deflate it a bit. This helps redistributing the airbubbles.

Here's a little trick I learnt from Chef John on foodwishes.com. Spray a bit of water on a kitchen table. Place a piece of cling film on top. The water stops the cling film from moving. Sprinkle plenty of flour on top and pour out you sticky dough. The flour will prevent the dough from clinging on to the cling film. Put some flour on your fingers and shape it as you like. I'm making a ciabatta. At other times I've used a heavy pot and cooked a round loaf in that.

Sprinkle more flour or corn flour on a baking tray. By lifting up the bread by the corners of the cling film, flip the bread over on the tray. Cover with a dry kitchen towel and leave to rise a further 2 hours and it'll look like this. It'll still be quite flat but fret not. Bake in 230º oven for 35-45 minutes.

Leave to cool off on a oven rack. Don't cut into it before it has cooled for at least 15 minutes. I know it's hard to wait, but trust me. Patience is the best ingredients.

Crunchy crust, perfect crumb. Go make a portion right now. You'll see how easy it is.

Cocido Montañés - Cantabrian Mountain Stew

I've just come back from an extended weekend trip to the North of Spain. More specific to Potes, a tiny mountain village in the province of Cantabria. And while there, we went out for a nice meal to try out some of the local dishes. In a small family-run-restaurant we were served the loveliest of stews - Cocido Montañes, mountain stew - in a pot on the table, so everyone could help themselves serving as much as they liked. So the next day we went out looking for local products so I could share this experience with you. While you might not be able to find all the ingredients, you can just add as many as you like and improvise for the rest. Hope you give it a try.

Ingredients (8 people):
500 g white beans (left in water the night before)
2-3 tbsp of olive oil
Handful of Berza (Collard Greens, can be substituted for any type of cabbage)
A pig's ear (This is optional)
50g tocino (pork belly fat)
1 hueso de jamon (bone of cured ham)
300 g Costilla adobada (pork ribs rubbed in paprika and oregano and left overnight)
1 l of chicken or beef stock
300 ml water
4 chorizos (Spanish spicy sausage)
3-4 potatoes
2 carrots
Sofrito:
1 large onion
1 large carrot
1 tbsp tomato pure
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp spicy paprika
1 tbsp mild paprika
1 tsp thyme
1 tbsp flour
1/2 glass white wine
1 glass of water
a good squirt of Port wine

Just to get you into the mood of this dish, here's a picture of Potes, the village we visited.

And my friend, Ben, and I buying some garlic at the farmer's market.

And my "harvest" of beans (L2R: pintas, lentejas, judiones de la granja. Top: alubia blanca)

And on to the dish itself: Leave the beans in water overnight.

On the day, start by cutting the stems off the berza. Reserve the leafs and chop up the stems finely. Fry the stems in the olive oil in a large pot or pressure cooker.

Add the pig's ear and tocino. Fry for a few minutes.

Add the hueso de jamon and ribs.

Get rid of the water from the beans and add them to the pot with the meat and pour over the stock and water until he beans are covered.

Pinch the skin of the chorizo saussages. Add them to the pot.

Bring to a boil and skim off the foam on top.

Cut the potatoes and carrots into smaller chunks. Add them to the stew.

Put the lid on the pot and let simmer for a couple of hours until the beans are cooked. If you have a pressure cooker, put the lid on and cook at mark 2 for 20 minutes, then turn off heat and let it de-pressurise slowly.

Meanwhile, make the sofrito by chopping the onion finely and shredding the carrot and sweat it slowly in a bit of olive oil with some salt.

When the onion and carrots are soft, add the tomato pure. Stir.

Add the crushed garlic. Fry for a few minutes.

Mix the spices (thyme, paprika, flour).

Pour it over the onion. Fry for a few minutes while stirring so it doesn't catch.

Then add the wine. Let it evaporate before adding the water.

Let it simmer slowly with the water. When it gets quite thick add the port wine.

Roll up the leafs of the berza into a "cigar" and cut them finely.

Cut up the chorizos in smaller chunks. Add the sofrito and the berza leafs to the stew. Heat it through for 5 minutes.

Serve while hot, or even better, leave it for next day. It only gets better as the days go by.

Profiteroles

Profiteroles, a simple dessert for your 70's themed parties. They are not hard at all to make and still tastes as good today as they (assumably) did back in the days. The base is a choux pastry, which was invented back in 1540 by a chef called Panterelli, and can also be used for making éclairs. Furthermore, you can choose to fill them with cheese for an hors d'euvre.

Ingredients:
Choux pastry
60 ml milk
100 ml water
75 g plain flour
1/2 tsp brown sugar
pinch of salt
50 g unsalted butter
2 medium eggs
Chocolate sauce
100 g good quality dark chocolate
1 tbsp butter
70 ml milk
Cream
200 ml whipping cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla (or seeds of one vanilla pod)

Heat the milk and water and melt the butter in it. Add the sugar and salt.

Add the flour and stir vigorously.

It will eventually stick together like a ball. Take it off the heat.

Beat the eggs lightly (I'm making a double portion, hence 4 eggs).

Add the eggs bit by bit while stirring. Make sure the pot is not too hot or the eggs will cook.

It should end up like a shiny dough like this. Let it cool off a bit further.

Put the dough in a plastic bag and cut off a small corner.

Squeeze out small balls on baking paper. You can also make paterns or long sticks for éclairs.

Dip your finger in water and tap the point down or it will brown and burn.

Bake them at 200º for 18-20 minutes until they have risen and look golden brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate sauce. Melt some dark chocolate, butter, milk and a pinch of salt in the microwave for 1 minute. Take it out, stir it, put it back in and give it a bit more. Take it out and stir it until all the chocolate is disolved.

Whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla. Put it in a piping bag.

Inject the cream into the profiteroles.

For presentations, place 4 profiteroles in a small pyramid, sprinkle some powder sugar over them and a spoon full of the chocolate sauce. Add a few fresh berries for decoration.