Living with the Webers - Side Dish

Artisan Bread

si1ver2 — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:35:51 +0000

Delicious artisan bread with very minimal effort. (Just takes time!)
Eat it for breakfast, use it for sandwiches, fashion it into an appetizer, or serve it alongside a soup for dinner.

3 cups all purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 - 1 1/2 cups cold water

Must have a dutch oven!

1. Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl. The dough should be a bit sticky. No need to knead the dough; just enough to form a ball. The amount of water depends on the humidity and the type of flour you use.
2. Put a kitchen towel over the bowl to keep the dirt out and let it sit for 12-18 hours.*
3. Use the same towel or a bread towel if you have one and sprinkle flour on it. Take out the bread laying the top dry part face down. Push to sides together into a ball if it stretched a bit. Sprinkle the top of the dough with some more flour. Fold the towel over it and let it sit for 1 to 2 hours.
4. Preheat your oven to 475°F with the dutch oven inside. When it is at full temperature take out the dutch oven and lay the bread inside. Put the top on and throw it in the oven for 30 minutes.**
5. Take of the top of the dutch oven and bake it for another 15 minutes at the same temperature.***
6. Let it cool for about 30 minutes before eating.

*Letting the dough rise for such a long time allows the yeast to do its work resulting in long strands of gluten in the dough and a sweeter bread. It also means the dough requires less yeast than conventional methods and no sugar.
**Using the dutch oven allows us to bake it at a high temperature without burning the bread or letting too much water escape!
***The last 15 minutes of baking without the top is to allow the delicious crust to form.

Recommended With

Vegan/Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Lemon Curd

Pia's Garbanzo Bean Soup

Red Lentil Soup

Mixed Salad

Aubergines with Tomato and Yoghurt

Pia — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:46:20 +0000

This is a recipe from the cookbook "Favorite Indian Food" by Diane Seed. And boy it is sooooo good. I serve it with rice and salad and I always hope for leftovers. I spread the eggplants on a fresh baked roll for lunch the day after and after eating it I am a very happy person.
I love spices! And the tomatoes with the ginger and garlic make such a nice flavor on the eggplants.

Serves:

1 1/3lb aubergines (eggplant)
14 oz canned tomatoes, often I use fresh chopped tomtaoes
1 pint (21/2 cups) plain yoghurt
Salt
Oil
1 big onion, sliced
8 cloves garlic, minced
~ 1 inch fresh root ginger, grated
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), chopped

Slice the eggplants into 3/4 inch thick rounds, sprinkle with salt and leave to 'purge'.
Heat 11/2 tbsp oil and gently fry the onion. Add 3/4 of garlic and the ginger and the tomatoes to the onion and cook until the tomatoes are slightly reduced. Stir in the cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

Rinse the eggplant slices and pat dry, then fry them in oil until browned on both sides. Drain on kitchen paper and arrange in one layer in a large ovenproof dish. Purée tomato sauce in a blender (I do not do that) and spread over the eggplant slices. Cover the dish and bake for 10-15 minutes in 350F oven.

Stir the remaining garlic, lemon juice and cilantro into the yogurt. Spoon over the eggplant just before serving. Or let everybody do that themselves.

Samosas

Alicia — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:59:34 +0000

Recipe for 20-24 pieces.

Serves:

Dough:
100 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
40 g butter
4 tablespoons water

Stuffing:
3 potatoes, boiled (less if you use those big fat american ones ;) and as a variation, I love using sweet potatoes)
1 tsp freshly minced ginger (I prefer more)
1 garlic clove (I prefer more)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp black cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed chili
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 small, freshly minced green chillies

ghee or oil for deep-frying

Dough:
1) Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add butter and mix into a crumbling mass.
2) Add the water and using a fork mix together the ingredients into a dough. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth (about 5 minutes). If the dough starts to stick add a little more flour. Let it sit.

Stuffing:
1) Boil the potatoes/sweet potatoes until they are soft and then mix them in a food processor or just use a fork.
2) Add all the stuffing ingredients.

Filling
1) Separate the dough into several pieces. Roll it flat. Lay out flour underneath if it sticks. Cut the flattened dough into triangles.
2) Add a teaspoon to a tablespoon of filling to each triangle depending on how large they are. Wet the edges of the triangle with warm water and fold the triangle over into a smaller triangle and close the edges.
3) Deep fry the samosas in portions or for a healthier (easier/cleaner) approach, lay them out on a baking tray and brush some oil on top. Bake them on 350°F (180°C) for about 20 minutes. Turn it to broil for the last couple minutes to brown the outside.

Recommended With

Mixed Salad

rice
sweet chili sauce

Roasted Yams Summer Salad

Pia — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:58:33 +0000

This is a potato salad I love. I am not a potato salad person, but I had a big potato and yams I had to use up. Since it was a very nice and warm summer day I decided to try out a new recipe which I found in Barbara Kingsolver book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". Off course, because it is me, I can't let a recipe stand how it is, I had to change it. It is very yummy!

Serves:

2 pounds of yams, which also includes 1 big potato
2 tablespoons olive oil for the roasting
1 red bell pepper
1 corn on cob

dressing:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper

1. Wash the yams and potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes. Spread them on the with 2 tablespoons oiled baking sheet. Roast the yams and potato cubes for 30 minutes in 450 F oven.
2. Cut bell pepper into cubes and add to the yams. Oil the ear of the corn and place onto the yams. Bake for another 10 minutes.
3. Cut corn kernels of the cob.
4. Combine all ingredients for the dressing and the roasted veggies in a bowl. Serve still warm or cold.

Stir Fry Green Beans

Sarah — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:58:47 +0000

Upon returning to Berkeley after spending 3 months away, I was unable to buy everything I needed to fully restock my apartment, so what was originally intended to be Szechuan Green Beans turned into this. I was quite pleased with the outcome.

Serves:

1 lb. Green Beans
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes, or to taste

1. Sauté onions and garlic until slightly browned.
2. Add green beans and sauté for a few minutes.
3. Add soy sauce, broth, and chili flakes. Cook until beans are done, but still have some crunch.
4. Serve as a side dish or with rice for a light dinner.

Recommended With

Rice

Basic Bread

Christoph — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:48:43 +0000

The secret of this basic bread dough is that flour is added to the liquids, rather than the other way round, which is what most regular bread recipes call for. Adding flour into the liquid allows the gluten and fibers to absorb more water, and as a result you get a more pliable dough and a moister, less crumbly bread. In other words, your bread tastes better! We learned this technique through Patricia Wells' excellent book At Home in Provence. In our house we use freshly ground spelt flour, but any good quality bread flour will work. Be creative and try to add other grains than wheat or spelt. Just keep wheat or spelt to 50% or more to provide gluten which makes your bread springy.

Serves:

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water (yeast is like you, it loves water at your body temperature or slightly warmer, so make it happy and it will work great for you)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt (we use sea salt)
about 4 cups of bread flour

Combine yeast, sugar and 1 cup of warm water and mix lightly. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
Add the remaining water and stir in the oil and salt.
Add the flour, a little at a time, mixing slowly until most of the flour has been absorbed and the dough forms a ball.
Transfer the dough to a clean, slightly floured work surface.
Knead the dough by pushing away from you, lengthening it.
Fold the dough over, turn it a quarter turn, and push it out again. Visualize that you are forming an intricate, crosswise network of gluten fibers to provide structure for your bread.
Knead in this manner for at least 5 minutes. Add flour if necessary to keep the dough from becoming overly sticky, but keep it soft and satiny, even slightly sticky. (Kneading bread dough is very therapeutic, which is why we don't use a machine in our house.)
Transfer the dough to a plastic bag or bowl (cover the bowl), and let the dough rise until doubled or tripled in size. You can let the dough rise overnight in your refrigerator, or 2 to 3 hours at room temperature. The overnight method yields a slightly smoother bread.
Punch down the dough, shape into bread loaves or rolls, place onto floured baking pan and let rise until double in bulk. If you are in a hurry you can put the breads into the cold oven and use the warm up period to accelerate the rising process.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to even out temperature and humidity.
Place bread into the oven, spray oven bottom and walls with water (use a garden mister), and spray a couple more times during the next few minutes.
Bake the bread until the crust is golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 40 minutes from start for a medium size loaf.
Transfer to a rack and let cool. The bread continues to bake during the cooling period.