Stereotypical American food, conference edition

So Americans have some kind of gross eating habits.  When I was at my conference in early May, I went to a restaurant that I shall not name in Columbus with a bunch of Europeans.  They immediately noticed the most disgusting (and stereotypically American) item on the menu: deep fried hamburger.  Several of them ordered it.  I took a picture.  I think the worst part was most of them ate the whole thing.

Baguettes

So for those of you who don't know the reason why this is the first time I'm posting in all of May, it's because I was traveling for the first 17 days.  First I was in Columbus, OH for a conference (and I am leaving tomorrow for a related conference).  Then I went to Europe.  I stayed with a friend in southern Germany and visited several German and French cities as well as Luxembourg.  We finished off the trip with a Paris visit.  The whole trip was a lot of fun, but unfortunately, I don't have a camera so the only pictures are those she took in Paris.  The unfortunate part about returning to the States is that the bread there was so amazing, I don't think I'll ever be able to eat store bought bread in the U.S. again, even from the bakery.  This isn't a huge problem since I bake about 80% of the bread that I eat, it's just cutting out that remaining 20%.  It does mean that I need to expand my repertoire, however.  Since I've been working from home, and will continue to at least 4 days a week (this is of course, including weekends), I have the opportunity to do things like attempt baguettes, which require longer proofing time than other breads.  I started with a fairly simple recipe and liked the outcome except the crust did not brown as much as in their pictures.  I left it in the oven for about 45-50 minutes, which was definitely too much, the crust was thicker and the inside drier than the baguette should have been, but I was waiting for it to turn "dark golden brown."  In retrospect, I should have baked them at a higher temperature.  My oven claims to go up to 500F.  That being said, I made the baguettes on Thursday morning and they were gone by Saturday afternoon... and I didn't share with anyone.

Baba Ganoush

Hey all, sorry for not posting for several months.  Boy do I have a backlog of stuff I've made.  I'll start with the most recent since I remember it.  I'm certain I'll forget a few things, but prepare for a barrage of posts!

As of lately I've had more hummus cravings that I ever remember.  And I've figured out what it is that I've been craving about hummus: the tahini.  Tahini is basically sesame seed butter and I am a pretty big fan of sesame seeds to begin with.  But hummus is old news (I've been making it almost weekly and I am sorry for not posting, it never turns out exactly how I want it to).  The other similar dip that I know with large quantities of tahini: baba ganoush.  Instead of pureeing chickpeas, one roasts and purees eggplant.  It sounds scary, but honestly, you probably can't tell that it's eggplant.  Even before I liked eggplant, I liked baba ganoush because it basically tastes like tahini and garlic, just like hummus (or at least my hummus).  Plus, I busted out the liquid smoke flavor, since I don't have a smoker or even a gas burner.  And this made my baba ganoush delicious.  What's even better is that it purees much better than chickpeas in my magic bullet.  I think i may not add enough olive oil to hummus, but baba ganoush needs a lot less.  I served it with both carrots and, when I ran out of those, toasted pita.

Baba Ganoush
1 eggplant
2 Tbsp tahini
2 small cloves garlic
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
dash of chili powder (to taste)
dash of liquid smoke (optional)

Broil eggplant until soft, turning every 10 minutes or so.  This took about 30-40 minutes.  Allow to cool, until you can handle it.  You can speed this along by peeling the skin off.  Once it's cool enough, scoop out the pulp and put it in a Magic Bullet (or food processor or blender) with all the other ingredients and blend until smooth.  Serve with pita or veggies.

Apricot Walnut Bread

Hello all,

Whoops, I didn't get a picture before some of it disappeared

I didn't post in March!  I haven't really been making much food due to the fact that I have free food Tuesday and Wednesday (and sometimes more) nights and I've been out of town or finding more free food, so I've just kind of been throwing together things I've already made.  Even for Pi Day, I made Caramelized Pear Tart.  I've neglected Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks (I haven't been around on weekends).

But one thing I've still been trying to make is bread.  And I made a few different kinds, none worth mentioning.  But this one was quite good.  I found the recipe on Serious Eats.  It's not sweet (it's the first bread I've ever made without adding sugar or honey), but it's soft and tasty.  The crumb is much nicer than other kinds of bread I've made.

Walnut-Apricot Bread

Ingredients

1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/2 teaspoons (1 package) yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour, divided
1 cup raw walnuts
14 dried pitted apricots (I used Turkish)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Procedure

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, yeast, and one cup of the bread flour.
2. Put the walnuts, apricots and olive oil into your food processor, blender, or other capable device, and process it until it is a mostly smooth homogeneous mixture. This should make about a cup, but a little more or less is fine.
3. By the time the walnut mixture is smooth, the flour mixture should be bubbly. Add the rest of the bread flour and the salt to the flour mixture, and knead with the dough hook until it begins to come together.
4. Add the walnut mixture to the dough, including all the liquid that may be separating from the walnuts. Knead until the mixture has incorporated fully into the dough and it starts becoming smooth.
5. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes before continuing.
6. After the rest, continue kneading with the dough hook until the dough is smooth, shiny and elastic.
7. Remove the bowl from the mixer, form the dough into a ball. It shouldn't be sticky at all at this point. Put the dough ball back into he mixer bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rest until doubled in size, about an hour and a half.
8. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
9. Take the dough out of the bowl, knead it briefly, and form into a tight ball. Place it, seam-side down, on the baking sheet. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and set it aside to rise until doubled, about 30 to 45 minutes.
10. When the dough has doubled, slash the top. Be decorative if you want, or just slash an "X" in the top or make parallel lines or a square - whatever you prefer. To recreate the slashes I made, first make the large X in the top of the bread going almost to the base of the dough, then make short slashes in-between the long ones. Use small, sharp scissors to make tiny snips around the short slashes.
11. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. If it seems to be browning too fast, turn the oven temperature down to 325°F.

Broccoli Crunch Salad/Tasty Veggie Sauce

I made this for the Superbowl, that weekend that I cooked like 5 different things (and I've barely made anything since), along with the chickpea cupcakes.  The salad was typical, but the dressing... the dressing is amazing.  I just whipped up a little more and bought broccoli slaw at the grocery store (it was a buck for 4 servings, what beats that?) and covered the broccoli slaw with the dressing and it makes a tasty snack or side dish.  And I could practically drink the dressing, and quite honestly, it wouldn't be the worst thing for me.

I found the recipe at 101 Cookbooks.  I'll save you a post about the salad, but I'll include the dressing recipe.  I'm sure a similar dressing would be good with cashews.

Lemon Almond Veggie Sauce
1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/4 cup almond butter (I just blended 1/2 cup blanched almonds until they formed a nut butter consistency because I am not about to spend $8 for a jar of almond butter when I can get a pound of almonds for half that)
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey (I used a tasty orange blossom honey, which I am in love with)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (I just used a splash)
2 tablespoons hot water


Make the dressing by sprinkling the salt over the clove of garlic. Smash the clove and chop, smash and chop - turning it into a paste. In a small bowl whisk the salty garlic paste with the almond butter, lemon juice, honey and olive oil. Add the hot water and whisk until light and creamy. Taste, make any adjustments and set aside.