Pain d'Épi

Pain d'Épi translates from French as Wheat Head/Spike Bread.  Its shape is supposed to look like the head of a piece of wheat.

It looks fancy.  It's fun.  And it makes nice, individual loafs/rolls connected as one piece.  I haven't tried this with kids, but I suspect children would enjoy tearing off their own individual 'grain' from the loaf.




Use the Basic Bread Recipe.  When you shape your dough for the final 20 minute rise, roll the original ball with your hands into a longer cylinder.  Then using a pair of clean kitchen scissors, cut into the roll at about a 45 degree angle.  Cut down into the roll until you are leaving only a 1/4" piece of dough under the tip of your scissors.  You will now have a flap of dough.  Gently push it to one side of the roll.

Repeat the cutting with the scissors.  On the next cut though, push the flap of dough to the opposite side from the first.  Repeat this until you have cut the entire roll into flaps -or 'grains'- of dough on your 'wheat stalk'.

Let the bread rise for 20 minutes on a surface coated with a generous portion of whole wheat flour.

Preheat your oven to 450 F.

When ready to bake, put one cookie sheet of hot water on the lowest rack in your oven.  Then slide the risen dough to another cookie sheet.  Place the bread and sheet on a higher rack.

Bake for 20 minutes.  Cool for at least 5 minutes.  Then tear each delicious 'grain' from your Pain d'Épi to eat with your favorite butter, preserves, molasses, or honey!

DIETS:
Diabetic:  no
Gluten Free:  no
Mediterranean:  yes
Nightshade Family Free:  yes
Paleo:  no
SugarBusters:  yes* (if you use 100% whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour)
Sugar Free:  yes
Vegan:  yes* (unless you do not consume yeast)
Vegetarian:  yes
Wheat Free:  no
200 Calories or Under:  no

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.  

Bread-a-rama

Bread has taken some hard knocks in the last decade or so as Americans' burgeoning waistlines have led to a move away from carbs.  Yet, most people love breads in all their varieties.  They are cultural statements. Imagine Indian food without naan, English tea with no crumpets, or French cheese without the baguette.  You're probably going to have some carbs with your breakfast or dinner.  Why not take a lesson from the French and make small, delicious additions to your meals count.  One slice of a really good homemade bread versus eating a bag of noxious baked potato chips:  which would you choose?

Plus, you can bake your own higher quality breads at home for a fraction of the cost of bread bought from a store.

When I was younger, I always associated a happy home with making your own bread.  So these recipes have a special emotional resonance with me.

Bread also does not have to be that complicated.  Each one is something of an experiment.  I've undercooked bread.  I've overcooked bread.  I've used old yeast that didn't rise.  I've used small bowls and had rising, raw dough spill over into my oven.  Experiment.  Learn.  Return to the flour to fight another day.

Here though is a basic recipe you'll find on a number of sites.  I forget exactly where I first found it.  I've since played and adapted it to my own kitchen.  I now share it with you:

Basic Crusty Bread

3 cups all purpose flour (Use bread flour or a mix depending on how chewy you want your bread.  The more bread flour with its higher protein content will result in a chewier bread.)

1.5 cups warm water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

Take a large bowl.  Mix these four ingredients together.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit overnight. While you sleep, the yeast will be working their magic.  No need to proof your yeast or to add sugar.  The key is time.

If you want to make larger batches, you can refrigerate or freeze the dough after the initial overnight rise.  Then just pull off enough for a future loaf.

Preparing the Dough:

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450 F.

Coat your hands in flour.  Either use the entire dough or tear/cut off a grapefruit-sized piece of dough to make smaller loaves.  Pulling from the top of the ball of dough, pull the top down to the bottom of the ball. Rotate the ball a quarter of a turn.  Pull the top of the ball down to the bottom.  Do this a total of four times.

Place the ball of dough in a clean dish towel, piece of cheesecloth, rising basket, cookie sheet, or pizza peel (the flat wooden thing you see at pizzerias) after generously putting down corn meal, whole wheat flour, or regular flour to create a cushion to prevent sticking.  Also, this is the time when you shape your dough, cut the top into patterns, or top with seeds.  If you wish to cut your dough into decorate patterns, generously top the dough with flour to prevent the blade from sticking in the dough.  Alternatively, you can wet the dough and knife to keep them from sticking.

Allow to rise from 20 minutes to 2 hours depending on your schedule and preference.

Cooking Methods:

Professional bakeries use steam-injected ovens that produce a crisp crust.  There are at least two ways to get a similar outcome at home:

A. If you have a Le Creuset or Lodge Dutch oven made of enameled cast iron, you can place the bread in the Dutch oven.  (Be careful:  the Lodge brand's top knob has been known to melt at 450 F in the past.)  The bread's own moisture content will steam the bread.  Bake for 30 minutes covered.  Then bake another 15 minutes uncovered.

B. If you don't have a cast iron Dutch oven, no worries.  Put a cookie sheet on the lowest rack in your oven.  Fill with hot water.  Then on the higher rack put another cookie sheet with your dough.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Cooling:
Most recipes also need to be properly cooled for the inside of the bread to finish cooking.

DIETS:
Diabetic:  no
Gluten Free:  no
Mediterranean:  yes
Nightshade Family Free:  yes
Paleo:  no
SugarBusters:  yes* (if you use 100% whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour)
Sugar Free:  yes
Vegan:  yes* (unless you do not consume yeast)
Vegetarian:  yes
Wheat Free:  no
200 Calories or Under:  no

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.  

Yummy Cruise Ship Cream Soup

Photo Credit: digiyesica via Compfight cc

The other day I posted my recipe for making delicious homemade chicken stock.  It's an easy way to make something delicious with what would otherwise be food waste.  Today I'll share another trick to extending the feast from that rotisserie chicken and leftover roasted vegetables.


So your week is drawing to a close and in the fridge you have kept a quart of the yummy chicken stock you made.  Hopefully you've frozen the rest for later recipes.  You also have some leftover roasted vegetables such as carrots, butternut squash, etc.  Here is a trick they appear to use on cruise ships:  turn yesterday's roasted vegetables into today's cream soup!  When I have gone on cruises, I have noticed that the first course often consists of a cream soup.  And today's soup -perhaps cream of asparagus- interestingly follows last night's entree with...that's right...roasted asparagus!  Restaurants and cruise ships have found a way to make leftovers today's hot, delicious soup!

• 1 quart of chicken stock, preferably homemade
• Leftover roasted vegetables
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (half and half will work)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• OPTION:  top with croutons, thin grilled onions or roasted seeds (pumpkin, pepitas)

Heat the stock and vegetables in a pot.

Remove from heat and blend the stock and vegetables into a puree.  I use my favorite kitchen gadget, my immersion blender.  If you don't have one, you can also use your blender but blend the vegetables and stock in small batches instead of all at once.  This will help the vegetables to puree properly.

Taste the soup.  You might like it just as the tasty roasted vegetables pureed into the warm, salty stock.  

I usually go one step farther by mixing in a cup of heavy whipping cream and returning briefly to the heat.  Stir and heat until the puree and cream are a nice, warm temperature.  Serve immediately.  Can be saved for lunches later.  Salt and pepper to taste.

NOTE:  Different vegetables will produce different tastes.  Carrots, parsnips, pumpkin, and butternut squash tend to lend a sweet taste to the soup.  Roasted asparagus and celery have great but different flavors.  Even leftover green peas make a tasty soup.  You may wish to experiment with adding different spices.  For example:

• The sweeter vegetables such as carrots and butternut squash pair well with ginger, curries, a bit of brown sugar, and even a dollop of maple syrup.
• Green peas (even the mushy ones from a can) can make a great warm or chilled soup.  I tend to hate tarragon, but even this vile herb has its uses.  It goes surprisingly well with peas.  
• That half can of leftover diced tomatoes or the roasted tomatoes from last night's dinner can become a quick gazpacho with some stock, minced onion, celery, and garlic.  Leave out the cream.

DIETS:
Diabetic:  yes
Gluten Free:  yes
Mediterranean:  yes
Nightshade Family Free:  yes* (leave out Nightshade family vegetables)
Paleo:  yes
SugarBusters:  yes
Sugar Free:  yes
Vegan:  no
Vegetarian:  no
Wheat Free:  yes
200 Calories or Under:  yes

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.  

Green Chile Enchiladas

Green Chile Enchiladas, Medanales, NM, 2011

I love New Mexico.  I enjoy the pace of life there, the warm people, the spirituality, amazing landscapes...and the freakingly delicious chile!  Now, this word, chile, gets to be confusing in its spelling.  I grew up eating chili, a spicy meat stew.  And various dishes have chili peppers or chilies in them.  All of these spellings work, but in New Mexico it is more common to find chile as the spelling.  Even in New Mexico I've seen chile used as the singular and plural.  Sometimes though the plural form is chiles.

New Mexico's famous green chile peppers are basically Anaheim peppers which have taken on a slightly hotter spiciness from being grown in the Land of Enchantment's desert climate.  I will post sometime how to roast your own chiles, but for this post I'll urge you to use a canned green chile sauce.

• corn tortillas
• olive oil
• boneless chicken meat (cooked)
• 1 large onion (minced)
• 1 small can chopped green chiles
• 1 can of green chili sauce
• OPTIONAL:  1 cup fresh spinach
• OPTIONAL:  1 cup fresh mushrooms
• OPTIONAL:  2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 350 F.

Put a thin layer of olive oil in a baking sheet.  Coat each tortilla with oil and place on the baking sheet.  Bake for about 4 minutes until the tortillas are warm and pliable but not baked hard into big tortilla chips!

Mix chopped, cooked chicken meat with minced onion and chopped green chiles. If you wish to add mushrooms, cheese, or fresh spinach, mix those with the chicken, onion, and chiles.

Put a tablespoon of the green chili sauce on a warmed tortilla.  Then put several spoonfuls of the chicken mixture.  Tuck one side of the tortilla under the other to hold the filling and place the side with the seam down into a baking dish.

Continue until you have filled each tortilla and placed in your baking dish.

Top with the remaining green chili sauce, grated cheese (optional), diced tomatoes (optional) or diced red/orange/yellow/green bell pepper (optional).

Cook for 20-30 minutes until heated throughout.

DIETS:
Diabetic:  no
Gluten Free:  no
Mediterranean:  ?
Nightshade Family Free:  no
Paleo:  no
SugarBusters:  no
Sugar Free:  no
Vegan:  no
Vegetarian:  no
Wheat Free:  no
200 Calories or Under:  no

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.  

Homemade Chicken Stock ...and Soup

Photo Credit: I Believe I Can Fry via Compfight cc

What can be better on a cold winter day than some yummy hot chicken soup?  It's even better when you are saving some money and not wasting food.

So, you've eaten well from that tasty rotisserie chicken.  Having had chicken the first day, you've now pulled the remaining meat from the bone to use with other dishes.  Yes, there are some bits of meat still stuck to the bones as well as the roasted skin, etc.  Time to toss the remains into the rubbish bin?  NO!  Now it's time to make chicken stock!

• Leftover rotisserie chicken
• 1 onion
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots

Put the remaining bits of your rotisserie chicken in a large stock pot.  Cover the chicken with water and place on the stove.

Add an onion cut into quarters, some black pepper, salt, celery, and carrots.

Bring to a boil and then allow to simmer on low for an hour or two.  The simmering will cook the fat and flavor of the chicken into the water.

Place a colander in a pot.  Pour the chicken stock into the pot.  You may need to stop several times and transfer the stock to large containers for freezing.  Once you've strained the chicken and vegetables from the stock, discard them.  Some people also allow the stock to cool and remove any chicken fat that congeals on the top of the stock.  I find the fat adds a lot of the flavor and keep it.  Now you should have 3-4 quart containers of homemade chicken stock for later recipes....including:

Homemade Chicken Soup

Often I find the best part of my rotisserie chicken meals is the chicken soup.  You can experiment to find what you like best.

• Homemade chicken stock

I often just use the stock as a simple soup.  You can experiment and dress it up with a variety of ingredients:

• Cooked noodles
• Finger carrots and cabbage boiled in the stock (or leftovers added to the soup)
• Thinly sliced mushrooms and green onion

DIETS:
Diabetic:  yes
Gluten Free:  yes
Mediterranean:  yes
Nightshade Family Free:  yes* (leave the red pepper out of the Gorgonzola Cream Sauce)
Paleo:  yes
SugarBusters:  yes
Sugar Free:  yes
Vegan:  no
Vegetarian:  no
Wheat Free:  yes
200 Calories or Under:  yes

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.    

Chicken Manicotti

Jeff Jones, 2014, Manicotti before going into the oven

OMG!  This dish is a recent experiment, and we are hooked.  It is sooooo yummy!  I suspect this dish would reheat well, but we have never had any leftovers to reheat.

• 1 package manicotti shells
• Salt
• 2 cups cooked chicken
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1 large onion
• 2 cups fresh mushrooms
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• Gorgonzola Cream Sauce

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Salt and bring to boil a pot or saucepan of water.  Once boiling, add the manicotti shells.  Cook until done.

While the manicotti shells are cooking, chop your chicken and put in a large mixing bowl.

Also, chop and saute the onion and mushrooms in the olive oil until nicely caramelized.  When done, add to the chicken.

Chop but do not cook the fresh spinach.  Add the spinach and garlic to the chicken/onion/mushroom mixture.  Mix thoroughly.

When tender and done, drain the manicotti and rinse with cold water so that you can easily handle them.  

Sit at your table.  Put on some cheery Italian music and get busy stuffing those manicotti tubes with the yummy chicken mixture.  Place each filled tube in a baking dish.  When you've filled all the tubes, pour some of the rich Gorgonzola Cream Sauce over the manicotti.  Top with some diced tomato, diced grape tomato, or diced red/yellow/orange pepper.  Cover with aluminum foil loosely to keep moisture in but not stick to the sauce.

The dish's ingredients are already done.  So you will only heat 20-30 minutes to warm the dish until a hot, richly flavored deliciousness.  Serve hot.

NOTE:  This is a great dish to make with leftover chicken (dark meat and/or white) from a rotisserie chicken.  You may also add mozzarella cheese to the chicken mixture.  I've also made this dish where I only topped it with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, but the flavor didn't have quite the punch.  Also, if you bake without a cover, the tubes' ends tend to dry out.

DIETS:
Diabetic:  no
Gluten Free:  no
Mediterranean:  yes
Nightshade Family Free:  yes* (leave the red pepper out of the Gorgonzola Cream Sauce)
Paleo:  no
SugarBusters:  no
Sugar Free:  no
Vegan:  no
Vegetarian:  no
Wheat Free:  no
200 Calories or Under:  no

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.    

Jeff's Chicken Salad

Photo Credit: findingthenow via Compfight cc

I love a good chicken salad, but this can be hard to find.  I lump potato salad, cole slaw, and chicken salad into the same category of the Great Mysteries.  Whenever you are in a restaurant or a friend offers you some of their homemade version of these dishes, you vaguely know what some of the ingredients will be, but you have no idea what the finished product will be.  For example, I hate raw onions in most dishes.  One of my favorite restaurants serves a seasonal chicken salad.  Yay! But it is chock full of raw onions.  Nay!

Cole slaw can be a yummy, vinegary delight -or a hellish experience of cabbage bits suspended in Miracle Whip.  And in my family's potato salad there is the decision to agree to disagree on the delicate matter of including chopped, boiled egg or not.

Every so often I find I have to add new foods to the Great Mysteries.  For example, nowadays I have to ask if my beloved sweet tea is brewed with actual tea at a restaurant.  Sadly, several local restaurants that used to brew some great sweet tea now serve this disgusting Gold Peak ...'beverage'...out of a soda dispenser.  I tried it once and found the taste and smell to be more similar to a household cleaner than tea.  Yech!

Anyhow, the solution to solving the Great Mysteries is simple:  make your own versions of these foods that meet your own tastes.  Here is my own recipe for chicken salad that mixes together yummy chicken with the crunch and flavor of delicious celery.  Yum!

Jeff's Chicken Salad

• 1 cup of white chicken meat
• 1-2 Tablespoons of a good mayonnaise
• 2/3 cup celery diced thinly
• 2 teaspoons celery seeds
• 2 Tablespoons of slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (golden looks nicer but regular, darker raisins taste just as good)

Mix together.  Eat on toasted bread, a fresh tomato, or rolled into a wrap.

NOTE:  Grapes also make a nice addition to this recipe instead of raisins.  In fact, this recipe does best when the grapes are starting to dry out and are kind of half way between a table grape and a raisin.  While these are no longer great for grape-eating, they make INCREDIBLE chicken salad.

NOTE 2:  In my experience, using fresh chicken from a rotisserie chicken to make chicken salad works ok.  Rotisserie chicken often is seasoned and may give your chicken salad some unintended flavors of garlic, etc.  Try a batch out using your favorite leftover rotisserie chicken meat.  I have found I prefer the canned white chicken meat for my chicken salad.  Experiment with both and find your favorite.

DIETS:
Diabetic:  yes
Gluten Free:  yes* (make sure ingredients used are gluten-free)
Mediterranean:  no
Nightshade Family Free:  yes
Paleo:  yes* (must use sugar-free brand of mayonnaise)
SugarBusters:  yes* (must use sugar-free brand of mayonnaise)
Sugar Free:  yes* (must use sugar-free brand of mayonnaise)
Vegan:  no
Vegetarian:  no
Wheat Free:  yes* (make sure ingredients used are wheat-free)
200 Calories or Under:  no

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.    

Rotisserie Chicken: Getting the Most from That Bird!

Source:  Joe Schneid, Wikipedia Commons

I love roasted chicken.  Sometimes I make my own, but lately I find I cannot beat Costco's $4.99 rotisserie chicken.  I'm not sure how they season their birds, but they are incredibly yummy.

This next series of posts are for chicken recipes. These are some of my favorite dishes, AND these recipes are great ways to stretch your food dollar in inventive and delicious ways.  And it all starts with that yummy rotisserie chicken.



Dinner 1:  Rotisserie Chicken
OK.  You've bought your yummy rotisserie chicken.  Serve it warm with some yummy green vegetables like Choux de Bruxelles aux Lardons et Radis or a nice salad.

When dinner is over, pull the remaining meat off the chicken.  Be sure to keep the richer, dark meat separated from the white meat.  We are going to make different dishes with each.

DIETS:
Diabetic:  yes
Gluten Free:  yes
Mediterranean:  yes
Nightshade Family Free:  yes* (must leave out the red pepper)
Paleo:  yes
SugarBusters:  yes
Sugar Free:  yes
Vegan:  no
Vegetarian:  no
Wheat Free:  yes
200 Calories or Under:  yes

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.    

Gorgonzola Cream Sauce

Source:   Jon Sullivan, Wikipedia Commons

Winter's cold days are perfect for rich, creamy sauces!  This versatile sauce adds a tongue-pleasing fatty punch to many otherwise bland pasta and gnocchi dishes.  Enjoy!

Factoid:  Gorgonzola is an Italian bleu cheese named after where it was first made: the village of Gorgonzola.  Gorgonzola has since been enveloped by the suburbs of Milan.  If the name of the village -and later the cheese- has any relation to the mythic Gorgons, I have not been able to find.

• 1 pint of heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup Gorgonzola cheese crumbles
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper
• Dash of black pepper

Put the heavy whipping cream in a sauce pan and bring to a rolling simmer for 20-30 minutes.  Stir regularly to make sure the cream does not scald.  You may need to adjust the heat.

Once the cream has reduced by 1/3 to 1/2, turn off the heat.  Stir in the red and black peppers.  Stir in the Gorgonzola cheese and stir until the cheese has melded into the cream.

This simple and flavorful sauce is now ready to be added to pasta or gnocchi and served immediately.  Or, you can also use this sauce on pasta dishes which you will then bake.

DIETS:
Diabetic:  yes
Gluten Free:  yes
Mediterranean:  yes
Nightshade Family Free:  yes* (must leave out the red pepper)
Paleo:  no
SugarBusters:  yes
Sugar Free:  yes
Vegan:  no
Vegetarian:  yes
Wheat Free:  yes
200 Calories or Under:  no

Notice:  Be sure to check with your doctor and nutritionist about the safety of any eating plan for you.  Also, check ingredients as different brands and products may have different ingredients or have changed them since this post.  Some calories are estimates based on packaging.