I really want to like healthy bread. Especially the types that I refer to as “bird seed” bread: spelt, sprouted wheat, uber-whole grain packed with nuts and seeds and everything short of wood pulp. All the 60’s-organic-hippy-healthiness you’d ever want, just like my mom used to make. They all sound and look so good, each slice looking like it’ll supply you with about a week’s worth of fiber, but too often they are just dry and crumbly. “Care for a bit of cardboard?”

But I recently discovered one of the best “bird seed” breads I’ve ever had. Dave’s Killer Bread. My favorite is a mini-loaf called Peace Bomb. It’s made of whole sprouted wheat and packed with a “good seed” mix consisting of flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, unhulled sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and some other yummy stuff to hold it together. Now you know why I call it bird seed bread. It’s dense, moist and deliciously chewy. No sign of cardboard in this bread!

An interesting bit about Dave is that he’s an ex-con. When I first heard that I thought that was where the “killer” part came in, but no, killer in this case means really good. While in the clink for other unsavory practices he has taken no lives. Here’s a quote from the package of his Peace Bread:

“I was a four time loser before I realized I was in the wrong game. Fifteen years in prison is a pretty tough way to find oneself. It’s been said that adversity introduces a man to himself; a whole lot of suffering has transformed an ex-con into an honest man who is doing his best to make the world a better place…one loaf of bread at a time.”

Now that’s what I call redemption.

Check out this brief mini-documentary about Dave and his Portland, Oregon-area bakery on YouTube.

Is there a better gift that a food writer could give us food lovers than a year-long diary of what he (or she) cooks and eats? I think not. But that is precisely what British writer, Nigel Slater, has done. “The Kitchen Diaries” is just that, a diary of what he prepared and ate over the course of four seasons, and peppered it with recipes. If you’re adept at cooking without a structured recipe or just enjoy reading about mouth-watering food, then this is a book for you.

I opened it up to this week to see what Nigel is up to. Here’s a snippet of what he prepared for his dinner guests on August 24:

“An extravagant supper of rare beef, red salad and cheeses…I present it whole, with some majesty, on a long wooden board. Not being used to this sort of thing, I don’t have a board long enough, so some of the great piece of meat hangs off the end. I am slicing it thinly, spooning over a creamy dressing flecked with mint and mustard as I go. The accompanying salad is of red leaves - baby chard, red chicory and oak leaf - and I must admit the whole thing is quite sensational…The evening rounded off with a plate of cheeses that I laid out on leaves from the grapevine.”

You’re drooling, too, aren’t you? And it goes on, but I don’t want to spoil it. I want you to enjoy this beautifully written and photographed book yourself. He’ll inspire you with his culinary adventures and creations, and I’ll bet money that you’ll discover foods you’ve never heard of before this side of the pond (cobnuts, anyone?).

Mr. Slater, you’re my new hero.

Peaches, peaches, peaches! They’re everywhere right now, and that makes me feel downright peachy (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

We recently purchased a flat of beautiful yellow peaches, and every day we’ve had them on cereal, with ice cream, in salads, sliced, grilled… The other night Barnaby poached them in red wine and they were so fabulous I swooned in delight.

Red Wine Poached Peaches

2 peaches
1 cup of sugar
2 cups red wine

Combine the wine and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until the alcohol has burned off (3-5 minutes). Slightly score the skin of the peaches and place them in the wine. Depending on the shape of your pan the peaches may not be completely covered by the liquid. This is okay, simply cook on one side then turn over.

Cook peaches for approximately 7 minutes or until the skin peels away easily without a knife. Remove peaches from poaching liquid. Peel, cut in half, and remove the stone. Slice and serve in a bowl with the wine sauce poured over the top. For a thicker syrup continue to reduce the wine. It’s delicious both ways, and wonderful with vanilla ice cream.

May be served hot or cold.

Heirloom tomatoes are worth their often-expensive price. Deep red, orange, yellow, green, black (dark purple red), these tomatoes always make the most beautiful arrangement. The best thing about heirlooms is they’re more meaty with less seeds, and much sweeter.

We drizzled ours with white truffle oil, a balsamic vinegar reduction, salt and pepper, and a bit of chopped basil.

A gorgeous and delicious kaleidoscope of color! It’s like sunshine on plate.

Photo: Brandi Sims, CC License

There are certain snacks and treats that take me back to my childhood. One such treat are graham crackers. I loved to snap them on their perforated edges and dip the small quartered rectangles in milk. The goal was to hold them in the milk just long enough to soften them, but not long enough to snap off. Inevitably, the bottom of the glass was always full of mushy graham cracker that would tastily be glopped down.

Oh, the silly (and gross) things we do to food when we’re young.

I got a hankering for my old childhood favorite and, instead of going out and buying a box, I thought, “there’s gotta be a recipe out there somewhere.” Sure enough, I found a recipe on 101 Cookbooks. Apparently I’m not the only one who has waxed nostalgic about graham crackers.

Happy dunking…

Graham Crackers

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
7 tablespoons (3 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen
1/3 cup mild-flavored honey, such as clover
5 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

For the topping:

3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse or mix on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off on and off, or mix on low, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal.

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, milk, and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture and pulse on and off a few times or mix on low until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.

To prepare the topping: In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon, and set aside.

Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be sticky, so flour as necessary. Trim the edges of the rectangle to 4 inches wide. Working with the shorter side of the rectangle parallel to the work surface, cut the strip every 4 1/2 inches to make 4 crackers. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place the crackers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets and sprinkle with the topping. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.

Adjust the oven rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more flour and roll out the dough to get about two or three more crackers.

Mark a vertical line down the middle of each cracker, being careful not to cut through the dough. Using a toothpick or skewer, prick the dough to form two dotted rows about 1/2 inch for each side of the dividing line.

Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the tough, rotating the sheets halfway through to ensure even baking.

Yield: 10 large crackers

From Nancy Silverton’s Pastries from the La Brea Bakery (Villard, 2000)

Note: For a chocolate graham cracker recipe, as shown in the photo, try The Prepared Pantry’s recipe.

Do you ever have a craving for something, but you just can’t seem to put your taste bud on it? Not sure if you want something salty, sweet, sour or spicy? Maybe you want it all! If so, then I have just the thing to satiate your desires: mieng kum.

Whenever I go to a Thai restaurant I look for mieng kum on the menu, usually listed as an appetizer. To people who have never had this delicious dish I describe it as “a taste explosion in your mouth.” It has about every flavor, thus awakening any part of your tongue that has been neglected. If your tongue could grab pom-poms, do back flips and sing a cheer, this would be the dish it would root for.

You take a leaf and put a little of the following in it:

ginger (fragrant and sweet with a kick of spiciness),
shallots (aromatic and spicy),
Thai chilies (to give you that fire heat),
dried shrimp (adding the perfect amount of salty-fishiness, but in a good way!),
peanuts (a salty, earthy taste to balance with the sweetness),
lime (citrus adds the perfect amount of sour),
toasted coconut (giving it that sweet, tropical flavor),
top it with a sweet and savory sauce,
fold it up and pop it in your mouth…

POW!!!!

The perfect dish to satisfy all of your taste buds.

Mieng Kum

Any edible leaf can be used. Usually it is served in betel leaves, beautiful shiny dark green leaves, but they can be difficult to find. Check your local Asian market. When we can’t find betel leaves we use large spinach leaves.

Filling:

5 tablespoons grated coconut, toasted
3 tablespoons finely diced shallots
3 tablespoons diced lime, with the rind on
3 tablespoons diced ginger
3 tablespoons small dried shrimp
3 tablespoons unsalted roasted peanuts
2 tablespoons diced Thai chilies

Sauce:

1 tablespoon shrimp paste
1/2 tablespoon sliced galangal
1/2 tablespoon sliced shallots
2 tablespoons grated coconut
3 tablespoons chopped unsalted peanuts
2 tablespoons chopped dried shrimp
1 teaspoon sliced ginger
1 cup chopped palm sugar
2 1/2 cups water

Roast the shrimp paste, galangal and shallots in a small skillet until fragrant. Set aside and let cool. Once cooled toss into a food processor with the coconut, peanuts, shrimp and ginger, and blend. Transfer mixture to a saucepan and add the sugar and water. Mix well and bring to a boil. Simmer until it is reduced to about 1 cup, then let it cool.

Place all the ingredients in little individual bowls or in separate piles on a plate. Take a leaf and place a bit of each ingredient in the center, top with the sauce, fold it up and pop it in your mouth!

Recipe courtesy of The Food of Thailand: Authentic Recipes from the Golden Kingdom.

Note: if the sauce is too ambitious for you, or you are unable to find some of the ingredients, simply make a sweet/savory sauce with what you have in your pantry. We’ve made concoctions with Major Grey’s chutney mixed with a bit of fish sauce and a dash of Sriracha. Use your culinary creativity!

I love tea. Actually, I think I prefer it to coffee, but don’t tell my fellow Seattleites that or I’ll be hung from the nearest Starbuck’s. I used to be able to find my favorite teas from Murchie’s at The Crumpet Shop in Pike Place Market, but last time I checked they no longer carried it.

Murchie’s Tea & Coffee has been in operation in British Columbia since 1894. Their goal is “focused on procuring only the highest grades of Fairly Traded teas and coffees obtained from the finest tea gardens and coffee farms.” Their coffees are roasted on site at their plant in Richmond, BC, where their teas and spices are also blended and packaged. According to Murchie’s, their “philosophy is grounded in purchasing their products only from growers that contribute to requisite wages, schools and medical facilities for their workers.” To me, that alone makes the tea sweet.

Barnaby likes their fruit blended teas; my two favorites are Earl Grey and their famous Empress Afternoon Blend, their exclusive blend served at Afternoon Tea (until 2001) at the Empress Hotel, a stone’s throw from their Victoria store.

You can purchase their products online, but it’s much more fun to go to their store in Victoria where you can buy 12-bag sample boxes of tea for about $5 Canadian.

I love Mighty Leaf Tea, which is why I was excited to get a message earlier today that they are “following” us on Twitter! If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, it is a service that continues to grow and grow, despite the fact that so many people I know say “I don’t get it.” TechCrunch, recently had an interesting article on why they think Twitter has been so successful: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/10/why-twitter-hasnt-failed-the-power-of-audience/

It’s also been interesting to see how many people in the food world have taken to “tweeting” about what they are cooking, eating, drinking, etc. One inventive person is even writing recipes via Twitter, which limits posts to 140 characters: http://twitter.com/cookbook

Check us out there, http://twitter.com/foodista, who’s following us and who we are following, you will find some really interesting folks. Oh..and don’t be shy, go ahead and follow us!

You all have been enjoying the limoncello recipe so much I thought I’d stay on the Italian train and give you another tasty treat. Bomboloni are the Italian version of doughnuts - without the holes - and are usually filled with cream, raspberry jam (or some other yumminess), and dusted with sugar.

My girlfriends and I used to sit in the Piazza della Republica in Siena, sip caffè lattes, and nosh on bomboloni until we were nearly sick.

Those were the good old days.

Bomboloni

Scant 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh compressed yeast
Scant 1/4 cup cold water
3 1/2 cups bread flour
4 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for coating
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
Vegetable or canola oil
Raspberry jam (or pastry cream)

Dissolve the yeast in a small bowl with the cold water. Place the flour, eggs, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until the ingredients are dispersed, about 5 seconds. Add the dissolved yeast and beat for about 2 minutes on medium-high speed, until the dough is well combined and holds together. Add the cubed butter and mix for another 5 to 7 minutes, until the dough no longer sticks to the side of the mixing bowl. If the dough is overly sticky, you may need to add about 1 tablespoon of flour. It is usually necessary to scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula to encourage the dough to form a ball and come away from the side. Remove the paddle and pat the dough into a ball at the bottom of the bowl. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes. The dough will rise slightly.Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and punch it down to remove the air. Spread it onto a lightly floured baking sheet with your fingers and flatten the dough until it is about 3/4-inch thick. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight. It will slightly proof.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured work surface. Flatten it slightly with your hands. Cut the dough into circles with a 1 1/2-inch diameter cutter, keeping the cuts as close together as possible. Pat any leftover dough into a rectangle and cut more circles out of it. (At this stage, the Bombolini can be frozen for up to 1 week if well wrapped in plastic wrap. Allow the Bombolini to defrost in the refrigerator before proofing.)

Place the Bomboloni on a parchment covered baking sheet lightly sprayed with vegetable cooking spray. Space them 2 inches apart. Loosely cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap. Allow the Bomboloni to proof at room temperature for about 2 hours, until they have doubled in size and appear light and full of air.

Heat the oil about 15 minutes in an electric fryer or in a 4-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat to 320 degrees F. If using a saucepan, check the temperature with a candy thermometer. Fry 5 to 7 Bomboloni at one time, any more than that and the oil temperature will dip down too much and they will not fry evenly. Fry for a total of 3 to 5 minutes, until they are golden brown. Turn to evenly fry each side. As they fry, they will increase in size. Remove the Bomboloni with a large slotted spoon and set on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.

While the Bomboloni are still warm, roll them in a bowl filled with granulated sugar until evenly coated. If desired, fill the Bomboloni with a jam-filled pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip. Use a sharp paring knife to make a small hole on the bottom of each Bomboloni. Place the tip of the pastry bag in the hole and squeeze until the Bomboloni feels heavy. It is best to fill the Bomboloni while they are still warm and the dough soft and pliable. Serve immediately.

Recipe courtesy Jacques Torres, Dessert Circus At Home, 1999

When life throws you lemons make limoncello!

The first time I had limoncello (lee-mohn-CHEH-loh) was years ago in Sorrento, a charming sea town on the Amalfi Coast in Italy known for it’s narrow windy roads, beautiful citrus groves, and well, limoncello.

Limoncello is a digestif made from lemon rinds, alcohol, sugar and water. Although it’s made from lemons it’s sweet not sour, since it’s made from the rinds and not the juice. It’s sipped icy cold (but never with ice) after dinner from small glasses.

Not only is limoncello delicious, it’s easy and inexpensive to produce, containing only a few simple ingredients and requiring just a bit of time to mature. Perfect for holiday gifts!

Limoncello

15 lemons
2 (750 ml) bottles minimum 80 proof alcohol (good quality vodka or grappa)
4 cups sugar
5 cups water

Note: If you use Everclear or some more pure alcohol, dilute it to about 40%, the strength of vodka. Below that, it will not properly extract all the oils from the rinds.

Step 1
Wash the lemons with hot water to remove wax; pat dry. Zest the lemons with a zester or vegetable peeler so there is no white pith on the peel. You want to take great care while zesting to make sure you are only getting the outer part of the rind. The pith is too bitter and will spoil your limoncello!

Step 2
Put the peels in a large 1 gallon plus glass jar and add one bottle of alcohol and seal tightly. Leave the jar to steep in a cool, dark place until the peels lose their color, at least 2 weeks.

Step 3
After the initial 2 week resting period, combine the sugar and water in a large saucepan and cook until thickened and clear. Let the syrup cool. Add the syrup and the additional bottle of alcohol to the limoncello mixture from Step 2. Allow to rest for another 10 to 40 days.

Step Four
Strain out the lemon peels through a coffee filter or cheesecloth and pour the limoncello into another container. Press down to remove all the alcohol and oils that you can from the peels before tossing them. Stir the liquid with a clean plastic or wooden spoon. Put the liqueur in clean bottles (I prefer swing top bottles), seal tightly and leave the finished bottles for at least 1 week before using.

Store your limoncello in the freezer to enjoy icy cold – it won’t freeze.