Vermont Sourdough - A Southern Bread?

You know, the birthday celebration for Julia Child got me thinking. Julia wanted to let every American housewife know and understand that cooking flawlessly brilliant meals was at their fingertips; that everyone could do it. She was living proof. Clearly, more of her books and t.v. rubbed off on me than imagined, because that’s the basic premise for this blog. I want everyone to understand that good food, no, awesome food is easy. With a minimum investment of time and money, anyone can make incredible food; food that feeds the soul. The hardest step is to get over your fear of whatever you’re “askeered of” and do it quickly!

My greatest fear was fear of yeast and all things involving kneading and rising. I always assumed that yeasted items were fragile and depended so tightly on measures and rules and it frankly scared the bejeezes outta me. I avoided it like the plague. Our family was not a family who baked other than the basic biscuit, good old fashioned pie, occasional muffin or cake and maybe a quick bread or two at Christmas. But with the exception of one batter bread, aptly named “Dilly Bread”, because of the loads of dried dill in it, we never saw loaves rising on the counter.

But I knew I had to conquer my fear and de-mystify the process of baking if I was ever going to be able to do what I wanted most. Namely, I wanted to quit spending the outrageous sum of money per loaf for “artisan bread” from the market. I am a tightwad. Frugal doesn’t even come close to my relationship with money and yet, I never seem to have any extra – no matter how tightly I close my fist. I come by this honestly, unfortunately. Few people know, now thousands will know, that for most of my life growing up, we had very severe money issues and were even homeless for almost a two year period, save for the charity of friends and family who let us live with them and who lent our dad money when he lost his business.

It seems like life was divided for me – b.w.d. and a.w.d. or “before Wawa died” and “after WaWa died”. Wawa was Dad’s mom, our grandmother, who lived with us from before the time I was born until the day she died. She died handing me a glass of orange juice at the breakfast table, one Sunday after Church, in September. It felt like all the kids left in the house (my oldest sissy had married and moved away only months before) as well as mom and dad, had a mysterious shake-up and reversal of fortune from that moment onward – but that will be another post. Needless to say, I learned the value of a dollar as a very small girl and it was a large and painful lesson, especially for me and my sissy, A!

So back to bread…curmudgeonly begrudging $3.00/loaf for bread, I determined to make it myself or die trying. I believe fear is the worse part of baking. Bread dough and bread recipes are not shrinking Southern violets. They are fairly tolerant of great abuse and in fact are amazingly resilient: under kneading, over kneading, lack of moisture, over hydrated, cheap flours, chlorinated water, filtered water, over proofing, under proofing, under baking, over baking, you name it! The dough will rise and transform into bread through baking, given enough time and patience. Even the worst loaf of homemade bread on the worst day will taste better than the best store bought bread on any given day. I promise.



The real secret to baking is to have mentors, or people who have been there, done that. They will hold your hand, wipe your brow – metaphorically or even virtually and basically reassure you that God is in his heaven and all is right with the world. Thanks to the internet there are whole sites dedicated to nothing but bread baking and these sights are populated by fantastically talented amateur and professional bakers, alike.

I encourage you to find one of these sites. Face your fear. Then break out the flour, water, salt and yeast and have a bread orgy! That $3.00 loaf will cost you about $0.20 cents to make and take you about 15 active minutes of cooking once you learn the methodology or as Julia said, “Once you learn the techniques, you will free yourself from recipes.” Well, maybe not quite! Baking bread will always at minimum require that you apply a balance or ratio of ingredients, but master the techniques of baking and you will be free to experiment with a window of grace attached. Bon Appetit!



Oh the other secret I learned? You have two choices with dough/gluten development. You can either knead the heck outta it and challenge the gluten, building protein strands as you go or you can let time and hydration do the dirty work and develop it for you. Guess which one I choose? :D

Vermont Sourdough Bread
By Jeffrey Hamelman – Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes
As posted by Weavershouse on another site
Yield – 2 loaves (batards)

Ingredients:
LIQUID-LEVAIN BUILD:
150 grams Bread flour (5.269 oz)
188 grams Water (6.603 oz)
30 grams Mature culture (liquid) (1.054 oz)

FINAL DOUGH:
750 grams Bread flour (26.344 oz)
100 grams Whole-rye flour (3.512 oz)
462 grams Water (16.228 oz)
19 grams Salt (1 TBSP + 1 tsp)
338 Liquid levain (all less 30 g) (11.872 oz)

Method:
1. LIQUID LEVAIN:
Make the final build 12 to 16 hours before the final mix, and let stand in a covered container at about 21 °C/70°F

2. MIXING: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, including the levain, but not the salt. In a spiral mixer, mix on first speed just until the ingredients are incorporated into a shaggy mass. Correct the hydration as necessary Cover the bowl with plastic and let stand for an autolyse phase of 20 to 60 minutes. At the end of the autolyse, sprinkle the salt over the surface of the dough, and finish mixing on second speed for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. The dough should have a medium consistency. Desired dough temperature: 22 °C/ 76°F

3. BULK FERMENTATION: 2 1/2 hours.

4. FOLDING: Fold the dough either once (after 1 1/4) hours) or twice (at 50-minute intervals), depending on dough strength.

5. DIVIDING AND SHAPING: Divide the dough into 1.5-pound pieces shape round or oblong.

6. FINAL FERMENTATION: Approximately 2 to 2 1/2 hours at 22 °C/76° F (alternatively, retard for up to 8 hours at 10 °C/50 °F, or up to 18 hours about 5,5 °C/42 °F).

7. BAKING: With normal steam, 240 °C/460 °F for 40 to 45 minutes. More often than not, this bread is retarded before the bake. The result is a loaf with moderate tanginess and a sturdy crust that conveys a lot of bread flavor.

Blue Zebra NOTE:

I followed the directions without any tweaks and folded the bread twice after the autolyze period: at 1 hour and at 2 hours. It rose to double in about 3 hours. I divided, rested, shaped and did a final rise of about 2 hours and baked.

This bread was only slightly tangy because I did not retard (refrigerate) the dough following the bulk fermentation. Had I done so, I believe it would have had a much more sharp, sourdough flavor. The texture of the crumb, while not as open as I’d like, was lovely – tender and moist. The crust crunched with just the right thickness and sharp crackle. You could actually taste the color brown when you bit into it. What does brown taste like? Brown tastes like a good piece of toast. Brown tastes like oven-ny goodness. This truly was the best sourdough bread I’ve baked and the prettiest. Hope you will give it a try! Oh, and I used my hands to mix and produce this bread. It still only took 15 minutes of active time, so don't be discouraged if you do not own a Kitchen Aid or other stand mixer! Also sourdough starters can be purchased online from several sources or you can start your own. Mike Avery is an excellent teacher for this Also, a great tool to have at your fingertips is this nifty gram converter. It doesn't take into account specific gravity of an ingredient but here's where I draw the line in the sand. If I need to be talking and thinking in specific gravities, then the recipe is doomed to failure before it hits the mixing bowl. As you can see in the first piccy of the bread...we managed just fine with this little tool. :D However, if you need more precision, here is the gram converter for specific ingredients.

Here's a little toast and jam as requested by my friend browndog! The jam is storebought *wah* but it is good, B assures me. It's peach amaretto with pecans. Now I can say, the peach and pecans are definitely Southern and even Texan. Our peaches from Fredricksberg and Fairfield are equal to any Georgia peach you want to try.

Read more->

Dinner With Julia - Happy Birthday, Julia!

Chicken Provencal with Roasted Rosemary New Potatoes and Zucchini & Red Pepper Julienne


We had dinner with Julia tonight. I know this for certain. I’m pretty sure I channeled Julia and felt her with me as I made dinner! Tonight I made Chicken Provencal from Julia Child’s, “The Way To Cook,” in honor of her birthday.

My friend Lisa, at Champaign Taste, is throwing Julia’s second annual birthday party tomorrow and asked everyone to prepare a dish from one of her recipes. When I heard about the party, I immediately and unashamedly begged to be included.

The meal turned out gloriously. Oh my. Seldom do I make meals that leave me smacking for more. I’m usually so critical of my own cooking. Usually by the time I’m through in the kitchen and plates are served, the last thing I want to do is sit down and “dig in”. But this meal enthralled me from the prep on! From the first cut of the onion, I felt Julia’s presence in my humble kitchen.

I made a beautifully simple dinner based on “my need for speed” being a weeknight and all. It’s actually a combination of two of her recipes: Chicken Breasts Meuniere and Chicken Provencal. From start to finish it took 45 minutes to get food on the table and most of that time was cooking time, not active prep time. Even allowing for dropping everything I touched, the meal cooked quickly. My clumsiness was legend! And as B poured my glass of wine, I felt Julia smiling down and laughing with me!

I loved Julia Child. I adored her from the first moment I watched her on PBS as a young girl, and saw her masterful way of laughing at herself and finding joy in everything. I loved her command of food. I loved her knowledge and I loved that she was a clutz. I can’t remember her without remembering the old Saturday night spoof with Dan Ackroyd as Julia, clumsily chopping his/her hand off…macabre I know, but Julia adored that skit! I love that she loved it! She, as much as my family, influenced my desire to decode the mystique of cooking and entertaining. I wanted to be her when I grew up.


Lisa, thanks for allowing me to have the fun of celebrating Julia’s talent and life. We laughed and had a spectacular time this evening. And every bite was appreciated. In her honor, I prepared Chicken Provencal, served with oven-roasted rosemary new potatoes and a julienne of zucchini and red pepper. Served along side homemade French bread and a gorgeous cabernet (Yes, I know there’s a white wine in the picture…I had that too! *blush*, but the Provencal was cooked with the chardonnay), the meal hit every comfort note you could want.

So, without further adieu, I give you Julia Child’s Chicken Provencal. And actually, it’s two recipes as mentioned above; Chicken Breast Meuniere and Chicken Provencal.

Chicken Breast Meuniere
By Julia Child – The Way To Cook
Yield 4 Servings

Ingredients:
4 Boneless and skinless chicken breast halves
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp of thyme leaves, dried
1 cup Flour in a plate
2-3 Tbsp Clarified Butter

Optional Lemon-Butter Sauce (I omitted this sauce and substituted a Provencal Sauce)
2 Tbsp Butter
½ Lemon
2 Tbsp Minced Fresh Parsley

Special Equipment Suggestions:
A heavy 10-inch frying pan (no-stick recommended), hot plates or platter

Method:
Season the breasts lightly with salt, pepper and thyme. The moment before sautéing, dredge them in flour, and shake off the excess.

Set the frying pan over high heat, add the clarified butter, and, when very hot but not burning, lay in the chicken breasts.

Sauté one minute on one side and turn, and sauté on the opposite side. The meat is done when springy to the touch. Remove it to hot plates.

Optional Lemon Butter Sauce Method:
Swish the fresh butter in the pan, and heat for a moment until it turns a light brown. Squeeze drops of lemon juice over the chicken and pour on the hot butter.

Sprinkle with parsley and serve at once.

To Accompany Chicken Breasts Meuniere:
Try baking tomatoes and fresh buttered spinach or broccoli. Sautéed potatoes would also be welcomed as would a light red wine like a pino noir or Beaujolais.

Sautéed Chicken Provencal – With Tomatoes, Garlic and Herbs
By Julia Child – The Way To Cook

Provencal always means “with tomatoes, garlic and olive oil and often olives and other typical ingredients from that sunny clime.

Sauté the chicken in olive oil, as in the master recipe for Sautéed Chicken. Remove it to the side and spoon the fat but not the juices out of the pan. Stir in 2 cups of ripe red tomato pulp, a sprinkling of mixed Provencal herbs and a couple of pureed garlic cloves. Boil several minutes to thicken the sauce, correct seasoning, stir in several tablespoons of dry white French vermouth and return the chicken to the pan. Baste it with the sauce, cover and simmer several minutes to warm through, basting 2 or 3 times.

Sautéed Chicken Provencal – With Tomatoes, Garlic and Herbs
By Blue Zebra
Adapted from instructions by Julia Child – The Way To Cook
Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 tbsp olive oil
3 Roma tomatoes, skinned and seeded
½ Carton Grape Tomatoes, halved
4 Cloves of garlic (large), sliced
1 Onion, sliced in strips
3 Tbsp Capers
16 Nicoise or Kalamata Olives, pitted
1 Lemon, zested
1 tsp Fines Herbes
1/8 tsp Thyme Leaves
1/8 tsp Rosemary Leaves
½ tsp sugar
1 cup of White Wine or dry French vermouth
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method:
Sauté chicken breasts as described in Chicken Breasts Meuniere recipe above and remove from pan.

Add olive oil to remaining butter/juices in the sauté pan and add garlic and onion slices. Sauté until translucent.

Add capers, olives and tomatoes and stir to combine. Cook until you see the tomatoes starting to stick in the bottom of the pan. This means that the liquid of the tomatoes has reduced and the sauce can take the next addition of liquid, the wine.

Add the wine and all seasonings except salt and pepper. Add the lemon zest but do not add lemon juice and sugar. Stir to combine and let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the breasts back to the pan, placing them underneath the sauce. Cover and allow to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Do this slowly. The sauce will tighten up and become “melded” with all the flavors and those of the chicken. If it looks too thick when adding the chicken back in, add more white wine to make it thinner. The liquid will reduce while cooking the chicken and the wine alcohol will cook off.

When breasts are tender and sauce is thickened, remove from heat and serve.

Blue Zebra NOTES:
This is absolutely one of my new favorite recipes! The flavor of the fines herbes is fantastic! You can taste the tarragon and the camphor taste added by the rosemary just adds delicious taste notes when combined with the acidity of the tomatoes and the earthiness of the olives and sharp tang of capers. The sugar helps to balance the acidity. This sauce works great for both boneless skinless breasts and also more rustic presentations with bone in chicken pieces. Read more->

Pizza Club Part 2 - Getting Saucy

It was Friday in the Zebra Pen and that can only mean one thing, Pizza Club. What is Pizza Club? Pizza Club began with my niece, my sissy and brother-in-law back in Dallas. It was all about great friends and family, great pizza and welcoming the weekend! To other blue zebras out there, Pizza Club is all about discussing and making great homemade pizza.

In continuation of our Pizza Club series, I promised we would get saucy this week - talking about anything having to do with sauce. When you really think about it, pizza has three main components that define its quality level: the crust, the sauce, andthe cheese. Get these three things right and the toppings will almost take care of themselves - almost. It sometimes seems as if there are as many variations of each of these components as there are pizzaiolos or pizza makers in the world, so let’s explore the options.

Marinara sauce, sliced tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, olive oil and garlic, alfredo sauce, barbeque sauce, taco sauce, ketchup, hoisin sauce, tiger sauce, or no sauce. This just skims the surface of sauces! I kinda feel like Bubba Gump here but how do you know which sauce to use? Personal preference and trial and error wins every time. What are the conditions under which you are cooking? Meaning, are you making an authentic Neopolitan pizza? Do you need or want to adhere to “the rules” of Neopolitan pizza making? Do you have a high temperature brick or deck oven?

Purists follow strict guidelines depending on the regional specialty they are cooking. Still others will tell you it’s San Marzano tomatoes, canned or fresh and a pinch or two of spices, a grating of parmesan and badabing badaboom, fuhgeddaboudit…there’s your sauce!But once you decide which flavor profile you want: red, white, stylized, funkalicious, then there are other things to take into consideration.

Just as there are three main components to a great pizza, there are also three main variables to determining how to sauce. The most important is determining the heat of the oven along with the length of cooking time. The number and order of toppings also influences sauce integrity. If the sauce is going next to the crust, then the last variable affecting the sauce is the thickness of the cheese and coverage.

Many pizzerias use an uncooked sauce because commercial pizzas cook under high heat in brick ovens or pizza ovens. Temperatures can reach 750°F or more! Temperature this high has the potential to overcook or burn the tomato sauce, especially when cheese is placed in chunks or slices intermittently around the surface area as opposed to grated cheese covering the sauce 100 percent. Using raw sauce effectively combats the over cooking problem.

Most home ovens usually heat up to a maximum 550°F, unless you use the cleaning cycle and I won’t even begin to address that option in this installment! So I don’t really feel like the home pizza cook faces the same types of heat degradation presented by commercial ovens. It’s more important to pick a sauce that carries delicious flavor that won’t break down into water. Water + raw dough = soggy mess when cooked. If that happens, the dough underneath the sauce will never crisp. So choose your sauce, raw or cooked, fresh or canned, traditional or get-down-funky by flavor preference, just watch the water content of it!

As far as red sauces go, I have used cooked sauce, raw sauce and sliced fresh tomatoes. I actually prefer the taste of the raw sauce over cooked and thickened marinara sauces. It tastes “more authentic” whatever that means. For raw sauces I’ve been using canned tomatoes. Again, I feel the flavors are more intense using canned over fresh because of water content. I either use whole canned, seeded and drained or diced and drained. I tend to like the diced and drained better, because it seems like there is higher tomato volume per can. If you do decide to use raw sauce, be sure to allow ample time for the tomatoes to drain using a mesh strainer. At some point in the near future, I will try using roasted tomatoes as a base.

I also like white pizzas either made with an alfredo sauce or a simple olive oil and garlic sauce. In fact, this is my preference for pizzas with non-traditional toppings like artichokes, shrimp, clams or chicken. These simple sauces seem to allow the toppings to take more of a starring role in the pizza.

I have on occasion made specialty pizzas using crazy sauce bases like barbeque sauce and hoisin sauce. They produced good tasting pies but I don’t tend to feel they remind me of pizza from a pizza = comfort food standpoint.

Here is my technique for making fresh sauce. What’s your favorite sauce?

Chunky Pizza Sauce - Raw
Yield 3-10" Pizzas

Ingredients:
1-28 oz. Can Diced Italian Tomatoes
3 Cloves Garlic, minced finely
1 Tbsp Dried Italian Herbs (2:1:1 Mixture of dried basil, oregano, thyme)
1 tsp Kosher Sauce
1 Pinch Cracked Red Pepper
3 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese, grated
2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Method:
2 Hours before topping pizza, place diced tomatoes in strainer and apply 1 tsp of Kosher salt to allow them to give up much of their water. Try to remove as much liquid from the tomatoes because that will allow the crust to crisp.

After tomatoes have drained fully, combine all ingredients and set aside.

When pizza dough has proofed in the pan, quickly brush dough, lightly, with olive oil then top with raw, chunky sauce and remaining toppings and cheese. I place slightly less sauce in the middle of the pizza than I do around the outer area of the crust. Also, leave 1" around edges, unsauced in order to give a lip to the pizza.

For those who desire a smooth, raw pizza sauce, simply place tomatoes in bowl of food processor and pulse to puree or else, use a burr (stick) blender until smooth. Then add remaining ingredients.

Blue Zebra NOTE:
I made two different doughs this week, experimentation on the perfect crust continues. The thin crust grilled dough version from Cooks Illustrated using the traditional yeasted method was used to make the thin crust. I also used another recipe from a forum member at EpiCurious Forums to make the Chicago-Style deep dish pizza. B voted the Chicago Deep Dish as a 9 out of 10 and within the top 3 pan pizzas to date. I voted the thin crust at about 8 out of 10. I like the sourdough version of it better. I also think there is a preferable dough out there and I will experiment with it next week. Stay tuned, the next pizza club will talk about cheese! Read more->

Rustic Guacamole - A Purist Approach For a Special Treat

When we were kids, we got three special things for our birthday. Every year it was the same and we looked forward to it. In the early years, with five kids in the house and parents who both worked, we actually had chores. As the youngest, I managed to skate by a lot of them but still, inevitably, was caught and pressed into what I thought of as slave labor. So it was that our birthday treats held real meaning!

We were kings and queens for a day! No toil befell us. Not a finger did we lift nor tire with burdensome buckets and cloths. We had zero, zip, nada, N-O-spells-No - chores! No cleaning, no don’t-forget-to’s, no take so-n-so here or there! We had the day to loaf and tarry and do as we pleased and we got to watch the other kids in the house do what we didn’t have to do that day. It was glorious! Really, I highly recommend it! Take the day off! I will write you a note.

We got to choose our birthday dinner and choice of cake or dessert as another treat. We rarely had desserts so getting to have a homemade pie or cake or shortcake was incredible and Mom or WaWa (my dad’s mom who lived with us) sometimes lost their heads as with the case of my older brother and made a birthday dessert for him alone in addition to the one for the family. Long after the family coconut cream pie was gone, he ate his with relish and glee. He did not share. He in fact ate it bite by bite in front of us. The bastard! ;)

But the main treat on our special day was a treat so great that to this day, I still buy for myself and consume bite by bite, slowly savoring each delicious spoonful, melting in my mouth. We got to have our very own ½ of an avocado. Gasp! I hear you gasping! Yes, we got to have our very own HALF of an avocado!

The avocado. Precious. And limited during the ‘60’s and 70’s and so very expensive in Houston, Texas. Such a wicked indulgence. We all wanted that creamy green goodness. It was laced with true decadence. Even our dachshund, Heidi, was green with envy on our special day for she too was allowed to have avocado on her birthday; she too had learned to love the precious green orb.

I do not know from where our fixation with avocados stemmed. I suspect that Mom and Dad, living in Laguna Beach, California after they were first married may have something to do with it. Dad fought in WWII and also served during the Korean War as a gunnery instructor at Camp Pendleton. Avocados and olives, abalone and seafood were abundant in California and cheap. I think Mom fell in love with the avocado then and passed it down to her children, the sins of the mother coming full circle.

Looking back, I still remember those days with fondness. Nothing makes you want something more than being told you only have a limited opportunity for consuming it. I still carry on the tradition of King and Queen for the day: no chores, special birthday dinner of choice that includes dessert and of course a half of an avocado for your very own. Of course now days, avocados are relatively cheap and plentiful (at least in the land of TexMex) but that does not dim it’s allure one bit.

Avocados are such a good source of vitamins and so called “good fats”, the mono-unsaturated fats. I convince myself that it’s a good fat delivery system if you’re going to eat fat. I use them in many dishes, and salads are heavenly when spiked with a bit of their unctious richness. One of my favorite dishes of all times is guacamole and make no mistake. I make a great one! *blush*

I am purist in my approach. No tomatoes. Only a hint of fresh jalapeno and onion. A touch of tart lime to add mystique. A smidge of Worcestershire to add a smoky secret element of depth. A tad of olive oil to gild the lily. A hit of kosher salt and a pinch of fresh ground pepper. It’s a salute to the Carmen Miranda of the fruit world! The queen of sexy, sultry Hispanic culture saluted by supporting cast members but never upstaged! So here without further ado…I give you, Guacamole.

Anything tasting this good and Tex-Mexy should come with its own band of Mariachis playing Guantanamera in the background!

Guacamole – Rustic Style
By Blue Zebra
Serves 4-6, depending on portion size!

Ingredients:
2 Avocados, ripe but firm
3 Tbsp Onion, chopped
1 Jalapeno, Fresh, chopped with seeds
1 Clove Garlic, pressed or minced
½ Lime, fresh
2 Dashes Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Kosher Salt and Pepper, to taste
Fresh Cilantro, to taste (optional)
12 Grape Tomatoes, whole (optional)

Method:
Halve avocados lengthwise and remove the seed. Reserve seed. Using a large, thin-edged spoon, scoop pulp out of peel and place in non-reactive bowl.

Add chopped onion, chopped jalapeno, minced garlic, Worcestershire, and olive oil and gently mix to combine. You do not want to break the avocadoes up too much. You still want to retain big chunks of the fruit.

Squeeze the juice of ½ of a lime over the guacamole and fold to combine.

Season with kosher salt and pepper and add cilantro if desired.

Again, fold to combine and taste.

Adjust seasoning and lime juice as necessary.

Serve with a bowl of grape tomatoes on the side and crunchy tortilla chips.

If you are not serving immediately, you may add the seeds back to the guac and place a layer of plastic wrap directly on top of it, smoothing out as many air bubbles as possible. This helps keep the avocado from going black with oxidation. Serve as soon as possible but in a pinch, this method will hold it with only minor darkening for about 12 hours.

Blue Zebra NOTE:
I like to serve guacamole as a feature attraction of Tex-Mex Tapas. I hear you asking! What are Tex-Mex Tapas?? I serve accompanying bowls of Tex-Mex treats, just little nibbles like nachos, bowls of grape tomatoes with lime and sea salt, bowls of fresh jalapenos, red and green salsas, sour cream, marinated shrimp, bowls of refried beans, succulent bites of spicy albondigas (meatballs), spicy cayenne toasted pecans, marinated onions, marinated carrots, watermelon fire and ice salad cruda, hot bowls of crispy tortilla chips. It’s a great summer feast. Great with tangy margharitas or festive sangria served over mountains of ice. Equally decadent with a full bodied Zinfandel or one of the spicy Chilean cabs. Ole’!
Read more->

Phee, Phi, Pho, Phum-Mmmmm!

Spicy Faux Pho, The Cure For What Ails Ya

Our usual Friday Pizza Club was called this week due to illness. It’s been postponed until this coming Friday, so be prepared to show up and act saucy, cuz this week it’s all about the sauce!

I don’t know about you, but when I’m sick with chest or nose stuff the only thing that sounds good to me is spicy soup, as hot as I can stand. It can’t be just any type of soup, either. It must have a clear broth infused with gorgeous ginger and garlic overtones that merge with a hint of onion and maybe a little taste of anise. The broth must be bold, so I can taste it against all odds, and it needs to drink like a tea.

What do I mean by broth “drinking like tea?” Well, it means the broth must be a stand-alone. It must taste as wonderful by itself as it acts as a foil or perfect backdrop for crisp veggies cooked “to the tooth” or al dente, chewy noodles and moist bits of meat sprinkled here and there only support the satisfying warmth of the broth. I must feel confident that simple straining would produce a clear tea that tastes better and more comforting than any camellia leaves from any virgin tea plant in all the world.

As far as I’m concerned, there are only two soups that meet this criteria; matzoh ball soup, almost considered a Jewish institution and the Vietnamese equivalent to soupy goodness, just-like-Mom-made, pho. Most people want to pronounce it pho as in “foe”. But it’s actually more of a Fa, pronounced “fuh”, rhyming with “duh.” So maybe the title should read Fee, Fi, Fo, Fuh-Mmmmmm! Anyway, we’ll save matzoh balls for later this fall. Today we’re going to focus of Pho and however you decide to pronounce the name, it will still drink like a tea and eat like a nourishing bowl of comfort.

Houston has a burgeoning Vietnamese community, the second largest in the United States, according to the Houston Institute for Culture. There are noodle houses or Pho shops all over. The little mom and pop places seem to beckon and one thing is certain. You will not find a national chain, food mill among them, at least not yet.

Pho is a relative newcomer to the evolutionary soup world. Its origins are as mysterious and varied as its condiments. Some say it began in Hanoi around the turn of the century, late 1880’s, as a result of the French occupation of Vietnam. The French loved beef steak and beef began appearing in markets and shops. Prior to the French invasion, Vietnamese mostly ate pork, chicken and seafood by preference.

With the slaughter of beef for steak, there was also a need to use lesser cuts and bones left over from the prime cuts. The Vietnamese being a thrifty culture, believe in using every last bit of an animal and wasted nothing. So the French pot au feu, literally meaning pot on the fire became popular. Pot au feu is a traditional boiled dinner of beef, marrow or oxtail, veggies, broth and starch of some kind. Others, however, claim that Pho derived from the Chinese occupation because of the noodle and anise influences of the dish.

Either way, the Vietnamese put their stamp on the hearty soup and consumption of the dish spread from the North into the South, each area putting their own telling spin on it. From the North we get a simple dish of hearty noodles, warm, nourishing broth and beef, well-cooked or rare and sometimes both. From the South, we get a soup that has many more garnishes and vegetables, additions of hot sauces and bean pastes. There are even versions that include chicken and pork based broths and meats. In some houses money did not stretch to include the meats, only bones.

The soup took Vietnam without a single shot being fired and it’s no surprise the dish followed immigrants to the new world after the fall of Saigon. In only a few short years, Pho just as easily, captured the imagination and palates of Americans far and wide. Any doubts about this can be summed up in two words, Ramen Noodles, a staple of any American college student’s diet.

Although Ramen is NOT pho, it has the same concept of piping hot broth, chewy noodles and rich Asian spices, conveniently mass-produced, packaged and available 10 for the dollar at almost any super market. But Pho, with very little extra work, can be practically as simple to prepare with the added bonuses of less salt, better nutritional value, and veggies and let’s not forget the protein!

I call my soup Faux Pho because if I’m out of homemade broth in the freezer, I don't let that stop me! I make it quickly and easily using the popular broths-in-a-box as substitution. While not the preferred base for the soup, it will certainly do in a pinch. I also add more veggies and treat the ginger a bit differently. I will include two recipes for you. One is for my quick variation of Faux Pho On The Fly and uses my secret phlegm fighting ingredients! The other is an authentic Pho recipe originating from Mai Pham, chef/owner of Lemon Grass Restaurant and Café in Sacramento. She wrote the book, The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking. Email her at maiphamibm.net.

Whichever one you choose to make, don’t forget to park your face over the bowl and let the steamy goodness permeate your senses and relax you. The soothing warmth will surely convince you to move mountains or at least leap tall buildings in a single bound. Enjoy!



Faux Pho On The Fly

by Blue Zebra
Makes 4-6 servings

Aromatics and Ingredients for Broth:
2 Boxes (2 Qts) Natural Goodness Chicken Stock (or Organics Brand), Homemade preferred

Onion, seared and sliced thinly
4-6” Ginger, fresh, seared with the skin on (I use a lot!)
5 Cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2 Sprigs Thyme, fresh (1/4 tsp dried leaves)
4 Sprigs Parsley, fresh (1/4 tsp dried leaves)
½ tsp Sugar
1/8 tsp Coriander, ground
1/8 tsp Red Pepper Flakes (or 1-2 Dried Thai Chilis)
1 pinch Five Spice Powder, ground
1 pinch of Black Pepper
1/8 -1/4 c. Fish Sauce (Noc Mam) – optional
½ c. Baby Carrots or ½ Large Carrot, peeled, julienne
½ c. Water
Salt to taste

Veggies & Noodles for Broth:
½ Medium Zucchini, ribbons
1c Mushrooms, sliced thinly
4 Green Onions
½ c Snow Pea Pods, sliced on bias or Frozen Green Peas
½ lb Flat Rice Noodles – thin or 1/8” wide

Condiments for Broth (these are all optional, add to your taste a little at a time as you eat the pho):
½ c Meat Leftovers
Lime wedges
Mung Bean Sprouts, fresh
Mint, fresh
Thai Basil or Regular Basil, fresh
Cilantro, fresh
Green chilis (Serrano, Thai, Jalapeno), thinly sliced with the seeds
Srirachi Rooster Sauce
Sambal Oelek
Black Bean Sauce
Hoisin Sauce

Method:
Making Stock (This can be made ahead and kept in fridge!):
Heat broth in dutch oven or very 3qt saucepan over medium heat.

As the broth or stock is heating, brown the outer sides of an onion and a peel 4-5” finger of ginger over high heat in a heavy saute pan. (I use cast iron). Do not use any oil. You are trying to char it a little. You can also do this outside or over a gas flame on your stove but I only have electric and I’m usually feeling too bad to do this.

Remove the charred onion and ginger and when they are cool enough to touch, cut the onion in half lengthwise, then slice thinly to make “matchstick slices of onion.

For the ginger, slice in 1/8” thick pieces along the length to make flat discs. Take each disc and slice it very thinly into matchsticks as well, cutting along the length. You can cut the julienne of ginger to 2” lengths.

Repeat this technique for the carrots.

Peel and thinly slice the garlic cloves. If I have the fresh herbs available, remove the leaves and lightly chop the thyme and parsley. If not, simply use dried. No big deal at this point, remember we’re making a tea.

Add all other broth ingredients and let the broth steep or gently simmer for about an hour. Stock will reduce slightly. You don’t want it to come to a rolling boil. This is about infusing flavor and keeping as many nutrients alive as possible. I use low heat to do this.

At this point you have the Blue Zebra home remedy for the common cold or sinus problem! I will make this by the pot full and sip on it all day as hot as I can stand it, just like I would use tea. The ingredients are almost all mucalytics, which means they loosen congestion and allow you to get rid of the nasties.

Making the Soup:
But if I’m making this for a meal, I will continue on - if the body is willing!

Using a vegetable peeler, make thin slices down the length of the zucchini, stopping when you reach the seeds in the middle. Rotate the zucchini as you do this to keep the slices about ¼ to ½ wide. Add these to the broth and cook.

Thinly slice mushrooms of your preference. Add these to the broth and cook.

Clean and slice green onions on the diagonal into ½” pieces. Add these to the broth in the last 3-5 minutes of cooking.

Wash and string snow pea pods or frozen peas. Slice on the diagonal into ½” pieces.

Add these to the broth in the last 3-5 minutes of cooking.

Add any leftover meat into your broth and allow it to be brought to temperature. (Pulled pork or brisket is great here. Also, leftover rare steak or meat is yummy!)

In a separate pan, cook rice noodles until just starting to become flexible. Take out and partially cool with running water, then drain well. They will finish cooking
when they are placed into the hot broth. Do not add to broth until ready to eat or else the noodles will become soft and mushy.

Eating the Soup:
Assemble all of your condiments in small bowls.

Ladle the piping hot broth into a bowl, about 2 cups or more. I like to add some of the julienne aromatics from the main broth and eat them (ginger, garlic, carrots, etc.).
Add some of the noodles and bits and pieces of your favorite condiment(s) a little at a time, as you eat the soup. The idea is that you are only adding a bite here and there in order to keep the broth as hot as possible! Don’t feel as though you have to add all of them! Also, you can easily substitute or omit ingredients as you have or don’t have them. Sometimes I completely omit the extra veggies!

Use chopsticks or a fork and spoon. Chunky doesn’t have a monopoly on the soup that eats like a meal! Sip as much of the broth as you desire. Anything goes with this oh so filling pho!

References:
Houston Institute for Culture
San Francisco Chronicle
Viet World Kitchen

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Now for the authentic stuff! Enjoy!

VIETNAMESE BEEF NOODLE SOUP (PHO BO)
By Mai Pham (chef/owner of Lemon Grass Restaurant and Cafe in Sacramento)
Serves 6 to 8.

Note: You can prepare the beef broth in advance and assemble just before serving.

INGREDIENTS:

The Broth –
5 pounds beef marrow bones
3-pound chuck roast
2 (4-inch) pieces fresh ginger, unpeeled
1 large yellow onion, peeled
1/3 cup Asian fish sauce
5 tablespoons sugar
8 whole star anise
3 whole cloves
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste

Noodles & Assembly -
½ pound beef sirloin steak, slightly frozen, then sliced paper thin
1 ½ pounds fresh or dried flat rice stick noodles (about 1/8 inch wide)
1 yellow onion, sliced paper thin
4 green onions, chopped
½ cup chopped cilantro
1 pound bean sprouts
20 sprigs Asian basil
20 leaves saw-leaf herb (optional)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh Thai bird chiles, or thinly sliced serrano chiles
2 limes, cut into thin wedges
Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:
Bring 6 quarts water to a boil in a large stockpot.

Place the bones and chuck roast in a separate pot with water to cover; bring to a boil and boil vigorously for 5 minutes. Using tongs, remove the bones and meat and add to the first pot of boiling water. When the water returns to a boil, reduce to a simmer.

Using metal tongs, hold the ginger and onion over a gas burner until slightly blackened and aromatic. (If you have an electric stove, dry-roast the ginger and onion in a skillet.) Rinse the ginger and onion and add them to the pot with the meat and bones.

Add the fish sauce and sugar to the pot. Simmer, skimming off the foam, until the meat is tender, about 1 ½ hours.

Remove the chuck roast and submerge in a bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. This prevents the meat from darkening and drying out.

Place the star anise and cloves in a dampened spice bag and add to the broth. Add 2 cups water to the pot. Simmer for 1 hour, then remove and discard the spice bag and onion. (Cooking the spices too long makes the broth dark and pungent.)

Add the salt to the broth and keep at a low simmer while preparing the noodles.
The broth should be rich enough to serve after 2 ½ hours total cooking time. It will taste salty, but will balance once the noodles and accompaniments are added.

Noodles and Assembly:
Cut half of the roast into thin slices; reserve the remaining roast for another use.

Cut the partially frozen sirloin into thin slices. Place the sliced chuck and sirloin on separate plates and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place a handful of fresh noodles (enough for 1 serving) in a sieve and lower into the boiling water. Using a fork or chopsticks, stir for 15 seconds, then lift and shake off excess water. (If using dried noodles, soak them in warm water for 20 minutes. Cook them all at once until al dente, about 2 to 3 minutes. Rinse extremely well in warm water.) Divide the noodles among heated serving bowls.

Arrange a few slices of roast and sirloin on the noodles in each bowl.

Bring the beef broth to a rolling boil.

Season with salt (if necessary) and pepper.

Ladle 2 to 3 cups into each bowl.

Sprinkle each serving with 1 tablespoon sliced yellow onion, 1 tablespoon green onions, 1 tablespoon cilantro and pepper to taste.

Let diners garnish their bowls with bean sprouts, Asian basil, saw- leaf herb, chiles and squeeze of lime as desired.


PER SERVING: 390 calories, 28 g protein, 51 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat (2 g saturated), 66 mg cholesterol, 1592 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.

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