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Daily Archives: October 9, 2013

Fougasse

09 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Zoli in bread, comfort food, fougasse, french, the basics, vegan, Vegetarian

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

fougasse, French bread, homemade bread, Kitchen Aid, rosemary

fougasse fougasse, french bread
I. Was. So. Excited. To pull these babies out of the oven. I haven’t eaten this in YEARS. It’s a yummy flatbread, originating from the south of France. I’ve never made it before, but was thinking about it the other day and well, the memory calls to the heart which commands the fingers which get out the flour and the yeast and etc. When I ate this in a French restaurant it was with caramelized onion and gruyere. I’ve since seen loads of olive and sun-dried tomato versions. This is my humble fresh rosemary and garlic offering. Was it sad that the only people around to share my excitement were little people? I interrupted my son’s playdate and said something like, “Oh my god, do you guys want some of my bread?!”
My son said, “Their grandma said they can’t eat anything, but I can eat it instead.”
A composed six-year old said, “I think just a little bit is ok.”
“Great!” I said, tearing off pieces of fougasse, slathering it in butter for their little hands.
“Come on, hurry up,” said a four-year old with enormous blue eyes.
My son said, “Don’t tell your grandma,” through his mouthful of bread.
They disappeared around the corner.
“Wait!” I called, “What do you guys think? Is it good?!”
By dinner time, I wasn’t too hungry, as I’d kind of gorged on amazing bread and a glass of Côtes du Rhône. Who cares? This would be perfect as a ‘grazing’ supper with wine, some fruit, nice cheese and olives. Something simple to enjoy one of the great simple pleasures in life: fresh-baked bread. Especially bread that looks as beautiful as this. I told my daughter it looked like a leaf. She said it looked like a fossil.

Fougasse
makes two flatbreads
500g or 2 and 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp dried active yeast or 1 tsp instant yeast
12 fl oz hot water
olive oil
1 tsp salt
fresh rosemary, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
extra virgin olive oil and sea salt for garnish
kitchen aid*

*I used my Kitchen Aid to mimic something I saw the French Pastry School do. Many recipes for fougasse involve it rising in the fridge overnight, but the French Pastry School has a recipe for kneading the dough on a fast speed of the Kitchen Aid and they only have it rising for a few hours. If you don’t have one, hand-knead and put in a covered and oiled bowl in the fridge overnight before starting step 4.

1) If using fresh yeast (you lucky dog), rub it into the flour in a large bowl. Otherwise, add the flour, dried yeast and salt together in a bowl and mix.
2) Add hot water (hand-hot, not boiling) and use a wooden spoon to mix to a wet sticky dough. Add a little bit more water if the dough is dry. Let rest for a couple minutes while you get the rosemary and garlic ready.
3) Scrape into a kitchen aid and using a dough hook, knead the dough on the first setting for one minute. Then turn up to number 3 and knead for a few minutes.
4) Add in the chopped rosemary and garlic and knead on the first setting for another minute or two. (Or knead the rosemary and garlic in by hand)
5) Scrape into an oiled bowl and cover tightly with a cloth and something heavy resting on it. Let rise for at least an hour. 2 hours is better.
6) Cut the risen dough (still sticky) in half with a hand scraper or a thin wooden utensil. Set one half of it aside for now. Starting with the first half, gently fold it over itself to form a nice round shape. With a rolling pin, roll it out on a floured surface gently to form a rectangle shape. Take a pizza cutter or sharp edged scraper and slice down the middle of the bread. Gently pull it apart. Then make three diagonal slits on each side of that cut and gently pull apart. The dough will rise again so the holes need to be fairly big. Place on a tray covered with baking parchment. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
fougasse bread dough
fougasse bread dough
7) I’m not sure if my idea for ‘proofing’ in my oven helped much, but this is what I did and it worked: Warm the oven, then turn off the heat and set a small pan of boiling water in the oven for steaming. Put the two trays of formed dough in the oven to ‘proof’ for 30 minutes. They should come out a bit puffy with a slight skin, like this:
fougasse bread dough
8) Take out of the oven and preheat the oven to the highest setting.
9) Gently brush the formed dough with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
10) When the oven is hot, put them in to bake for about 10 minutes, or till golden brown. If they are on different racks, switch them halfway through.
Enjoy!!
fougasse, french bread

fougasse, french bread

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Spanish tortilla

09 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Zoli in breakfast, comfort food, drinks, eggs, gluten free, omelettes, party bites, Sauces, snacks, spanish, tapas, Vegetarian

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

potato omelette, romesco, spanish recipes, Spanish tortilla, tapas, tortilla, tortilla de patatas, tortilla espanola

Tortilla 1 Tortilla 2 Tortilla espagnola

The first time I went to Spain, I noticed these potato omelettes everywhere–on every menu, in every cafe and bar, stuffed inside of bread flutes and sold as sandwiches and sometimes cut into wedges and served to us free with a drink. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that what I thought would be a cold, dry, brick of potato and egg turned out to be soft, moist and delicious. The humble tortilla is not your run-of-the-mill omelette. For one thing it is delicious cold. For another it is delicious warm, hot, on its own, stuffed in bread, or served with homemade romesco and a green salad. It doesn’t feel like a heavy meal either–unless you eat the whole thing yourself.
I recently had the good fortune to visit my sister-in-law who lives just outside of Madrid. She was a wonderful hostess and tour guide and joy of joys, we stopped several times to sit in the shade with a cerveza or tinto de verano and pan and tortilla. It’s been so long since I’ve had really good tortilla that I had forgotten that Tortilla Espanola should be so soft and moist that you can barely tell the potato from the egg. Time to update this recipe!
Oh and, as a bonus, if you can find a last warm sunny day (such as today) before Autumn sets in, tinto de verano on your deck or patio will make it even more special.

Tortilla ingredients
will make about 6 mid-size wedges
3 large potatoes or 4-5 small potatoes, peeled
1 onion, sliced thinly
5-6 eggs, beaten and seasoned
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
about 2 cups Spanish olive oil
9-inch frying pan with curving edges
plates for flipping

1. Cut the potatoes into small pieces, almost like flakes, by holding each potato in one hand and using a pairing knife to cut off little pieces. They do not have to be uniform, just thinnish bits of potato, roughly the same size.
2. Do the same with an onion–small, thin pieces.
3. Mix the potato and onion in a large bowl with salt.
4. Heat up a generous amount of olive oil in the frying pan—enough oil to almost cover the potatoes. This might make some people uncomfortable, but the magic to this dish is that the potatoes and onions are simmered in the olive oil and become super moist and flavorful. Simmer on a low or medium-low heat until tender and easily breakable with a wooden spoon. Stir the mixture to cook evenly.
5. When the potatoes are soft and tender, pour into a strainer over a bowl to catch the excess oil.
4. Break the eggs into a large bowl and beat. Add a little salt. Then add the cooked potato onion mixture.
6. Heat up a little oil in the frying pan on medium heat and then add in the egg/potato/onion mixture. Hold the handle of the frying pan and shake it so that the egg doesn’t stick to the bottom. Use a spatula to run around the sides and make sure nothing sticks.
7. Let the omelette cook until the bottom is browned.
8. Take a large plate and fit it over the omelette in the frying pan. In one swift motion, flip the frying pan over so that the omelette falls smoothly onto the plate.
9. Add a little bit more oil to the frying pan.
10. Hold the plate with the omelette over the frying pan and scoot the tortilla carefully off the plate so that it gently eases into the frying pan (runny egg side down, cooked side up). Cook on medium for another few minutes–about 3-5 minutes on medium heat. Loosen the sides with a spatula to make sure it doesn’t stick.
11. Turn off the heat and cover the omelette with a lid for a couple minutes to gently steam cook. Then hold a plate over the frying pan and flip again to serve the finished tortilla.

This may take some practice and experience to judge when the tortilla is ready. Some people may prefer the egg more undercooked than others. You can’t really go wrong with potatoes, eggs and salt though!

Tinto de verano
For this lovely summery low alcohol cocktail:
1/4 to 1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup lemon soda such as Fanta or Trader Joes Lemon soda
squeeze of lemon, plus lemon slice
plenty of ice

1. Mix all together. I prefer mine on the light side—too much red wine isn’t as nice to me.
It seems so simple, but is quite delicious.

ingredients

peeled potatoes
diced potatoes
potatoes and onions

simmering in oildrain the oil
tinto de verano

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