See that face? He’s maybe 6 or 7, and not happy that he has to sit with the “baby”. That being me, two years younger, and happy as a clam to be with my “big” brother.

I am happy to say that over the years, he softened that look and became my defender, my confident, my teacher, my friend. Oh, believe me: we had the struggles of the teen years and the estrangement of the 20’s, but that is a story for another time.

My brother is one smart guy. There is nothing he cannot do, and if he wants to learn something, he does it from the ground up. Interested in pottery, he decided to build a kiln so he could really understand the process. He machined all the parts for it too.

When our parents aged, and as the sibling living closest to them, their care became a big part of his life. We talked often, and as events and illnesses progressed, we became closer as the tough decisions had to be made. I could go on for pages about Jim: his kindness, his commitment, his never give up attitude, but this is about us & bread.

He gently prodded me for years to quit working and when I finally did, he was delighted. Perhaps even more than me. Pundits say that the bond between siblings can be stronger than that of parent to child. I don’t know about that, but I know that there are few people I would rather spend time with than Jim.

One of the first things I did when I quit working was to start a sourdough starter. In another life, one from a million years ago I had one on my sink for years. I baked bread every day, for a lot of people, and although I didn’t always use sourdough as a leaven, I used it often. A twitter-found friend sent me some starter. It sat in the fridge while I was in Italy saving, er rewarding myself.

When I returned I fed it. I dusted off a copy of Bread Alone, and started looking at the internet and some some sites devoted to sourdough. I started to bake. And take notes. And bake. So much bread! My neighbors and friends benefited from this obsession.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Jim came down to visit. We talked about how basic this bread was, how elemental: just flour & water, and some patience and a fine loaf can be had. He left with a portion of my starter, and the need to know if he could make an eatable loaf from the 700 lbs of hard red winter wheat he has stored. Of course he could. Now he bakes a loaf very few days, using his own stone ground whole wheat flour, and makes a great loaf using a sourdough starter. You can see his bread pages here. Jim’s Bread. Make sure you scroll all the way down to see the lovely whole wheat loaves.

I have thought a lot about bread and why it held such significance for me. My dad baked bread every few days until right before he died. My mother collected bread crumbs. I wrote about baking bread & my Dad and Mom here.

I have been following a number of the #baketogether group on twitter for some time. This months’ peasant boule challenge from Abby Dodge’s bake together seemed a perfect way to refresh the starter after the holidays and bake a loaf. I decided that I would do a breadcrumb loaf using sourdough as my main leavening agent.  This loaf uses left over breadcrumbs for texture & color.

I baked the loaf three times. Two are shown in the picture below. The one on the top was baked using a ring to hold the slightly wetter dough. The one on the bottom was a dryer dough from a long ferment time in the fridge, and was free form.

Bread Crumb Bread

Make a sponge using:

1 ¾ cups starter on the up-(approximately 3-4 hours after feeding)
1 ¾ cups unbleached white flour
¾ cup water

Mix sponge well, and let ferment 5-6 hours

When the sponge is ready, stir it to remove air and put it in a stand mixer bowl with

½ c coarse bread crumbs
2 3/4 c unbleached white flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder

*2 tsp salt

Mix for a minute, then let rest in the bowl for 5 min. Add *2 teas salt and knead on low for 6 minutes. Put in an oiled container-I use a plastic shoe box, or the proofing bowl. Let rise for 3 hours with folds at 60 min & 2 hours.

Punch down, and roll into ball. Rest for 5 minutes. Shape the dough into a boule, and use a spring form pan ring to hold it, if the dough is on the wet side, on a silpat covered sheet. ( You can retard at this point, and ferment over night in the fridge.)

Let rise for an hour.

Preheat oven to 450, and prepare it for steam.( use a shallow pan on oven floor) When the oven is hot, make quick slices in the top of the bread, and then slide the sheet with the boule into the oven.

Put a small amount of cold water in the shallow pan. Watch out for the steam. Quickly close the oven door and turn the oven down to 400. Bake for 25 minutes, or until 200 degrees inside (use insta read). Let cool for at least an hour before slicing, if you can.

Bay Leaf Liqueur

I sat alone in the almost empty restaurant in Orvieto. Trattoria Del Orso- Kristina had recommended it so highly, and wrote about it here, (scroll down to read about Orvieto.) The tourist office didn’t have it listed, and when asked about it said they were out of business. Never deterred, Mr Google Maps showed me the way. It was a bit hard to find, and looked like it was closed, but I cautiously opened the door anyway to a bright, but mostly empty room. Not a good sign, but there were some people there. People sitting at a table in the center of the room looked me over, and then waved me in.

I sat, back to a corner, head in my Kindle. There was one other table, 2 couples: one American and the other British, obviously long time customers, along with a few single men, who hustled between kitchen and table.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that the owner/cook was the expressive talker sitting at the other table, and the server was his long time companion. He took my order, complimenting my choices: guinea fowl in truffle sauce, mixed grilled vegetables and wine.

I listened, bemused by the boisterous mixed of Italian and English being spoken across the room. There is a bright green liquor being served out of an unlabeled bottle…hmmm. I wondered why the restaurant was empty. The food was insanely good, but each table had a reserved sign on it. Perhaps it was just late for the lunch crowd. I stretched my meal, lingering over the wine, borrowing from the camaraderie across the room.

When the “server” comes to clear the table and bring me coffee I told him that the restaurant had been recommended by my daughter, and that she , her husband and two friends had eaten there in March of 2008. He paused, thought a minute and asked where I was from. I told him and he thought about it, then started a perfect description: “Yes Yes! I remember them, your daughter, she’s a chef and her husband, the friends they were 2 women… her husband and one of the women, orders extra pastas—lots of wine. We took pictures outside. My name is Ciro-I am in the picture with her husband.  I remember! Very nice—she has a restaurant in Santa Monica—We go to Santa Monica because Gabriele has a sister there. I remember your daughter—very nice, takes pictures of the food. She invited us to come to the restaurant the next time we come to the US.

Of course, understand that while he is going on about this, in English, he is also speaking rapid fire Italian to explain this lovely coincidence of memory and time to the people at the other table and his partner. Soon we are all speaking English and laughing about the intersections of life. I tell them I am traveling alone for a few weeks, then meeting K in Naples.  We talk of books and travel and how small the world is.

That’s when they bring the bright green liquor back out, and offer me some. Bay Leaf . Heavenly scent. Kick like a mule.

The Brits & the Americans both have houses outside the town, and spend months on end here. Gabriele was in the fashion biz in the US for years, until he retired to open this restaurant in Orvieto 15 or so years ago. The reasons why the tourist office tells people they are closed is a funny story in itself, and goes right along with why there are reserved signs on every table. These stories are for another time, though. More bay leaf shots are poured. Politics, fashion find their way into the discussion.

I am amazed that I made it back to the B&B. A long nap followed. I will say that after several more meals there, and extended pleading I got the recipe for the Bay Leaf liqueur. I share  how it was told to me:

1. Get a big jar. Take 100 leaves—they must be very fresh.

2. Pour a liter of WGA over the bay leaves. ( I use 190 proof cut 40%- You can use a decent vodka too)

3. Cover and set aside in a dark place for 3-4 days. Check daily and swirl around. Do not leave them too long as the leaves will brown and discolor the liqueur.

4. Make a simple syrup of 600 grams sugar and a liter of spring water.

5. Strain the leaves, add the cooled syrup and blend. If necessary for consistency, you can add a ¼ cup of glycerin.

6. Store in a tightly closed bottle, in a cool dark place.  I do keep a small bottle in the freezer because I like it very cold.

My daughter, a “former chef”, started her cooking career making pastry for an Italian restaurant in Santa Cruz. She quickly moved up the ladder, and then moved to Spain. After spending some time there she came back to LA and started working a new restaurant in Los Angeles as a prep cook. The story of how she was hired at this now prominent restaurant is hers’ to tell (I hope she does some day).

Like her first restaurant job, she moved up quickly, but one of the positions she held was “soup queen”. It was her job to make the daily soup special as well as the standard clam chowder.   I remember buying her a small paperback cookbook on making different kinds of soup. I wonder if she still has that book?

It doesn’t matter-she didn’t need it then, and doesn’t need it now. She inherited the same gene I did from my mother of being able to make soup from almost anything, and I can’t wait to sample what she made for #SouperBowl. I know it will be delicious.

My ability to make soup may be inherited but I remember my fascination with started with a children’s book. I was 8. Does anyone else remember The Boxcar Children? Orphaned, they found themselves in the forest, living in an abandoned boxcar & foraging for food. ( They were ahead of their time! ) They made soup from what they found. Wild onion, carrots and a potato I believe. I was intrigued with their resourcefulness. My Mom, who never saw a left-over she couldn’t “repurpose”, encouraged this, and I still think “soup” when I see a fridge of leftovers.

I didn’t eat much soup during my recent trip to Italy. But I spent 2 days in Tarquinia, when I did eat a bowl that inspired me. Tarquinia was an unplanned stop. It  is a small coastal town, an hour north of Rome. Seldom visited by non-Italian tourists, it is eerily empty at night. I didn’t have a hotel nor did I have any restaurant recommendations. On my first night I ate at a restaurant called Abaradam where I had a ceci & squash soup that was subtly seasoned and very flavorful. I asked what was in it, and they told me that it was flavored with some salami ends and pancetta, a little rosemary & garlic. Whatever the cook found that morning. This was a soup after my own heart, and I knew that I had to make it.

I have made the soup twice. The second time was for this SouperBowl, and I just knew that it would adapt perfectly to meet this SouperBowl challenge of an Italian soup using beans, eggplant and orange rind. I only had some homeande sausage so that’s what I used this time. The first time I did use salami & other charcuterie ends–delicious.

You can find the recipe for eggplant caviar here. This soup can easily be made vegetarian by eliminating the sausage & chicken stock.

Ceci & Squash Soup with Eggplant Caviar

1 lb garbanzo beans,
1 onion peeled and chopped
1 lb sausage
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 lb butternut squash peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 quarts chicken stock
1 tbs garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbs orange rind grated
rosemary

1. Clean the dried garbanzo bean under cool water. Bring 2 quarts UNSALTED water to a boil, shut off heat and put the beans in to soak.

2. Leave for 2 hours.

3. After the beans have soaked ( 2-3 hours or over night in cool water) drain them and put in a 4 quart pot with one quart or so of the chicken stock. Cook over low heat for an hour.*

4. In the mean time, sauté the sausage until brown and crumbly, add the onion and garlic and quick cook until just tender. Add the meat and vegies to the pot and check for the stock level. Make sure the stock is about 1/2 in above the beans.

5. Deglaze the sauté pan with about 1/2 cup white wine, and add to pot.

6. Cook beans until tender, then add the squash. Cook for another 30-40 min until squash is just barely cooked.

7. Remove from heat and let cool 10-20 min. Take about 1.5 cups of the squash, beans and broth and puree, add back to soup.

8. Add a sprig or two of rosemary, and the orange rind and cook very gently for another 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove rosemary before serving and discard.

9. Serve with a scoop of eggplant caviar in the middle, garnish with rosemary sprig & a thin slice of orange.

Servings: 16
Serving size: 1/16 of a recipe (7.5 ounces).
Calories 239.13

~Leslie Newman

I am sure that there are things better than a bowl of homemade soup, but at this time I am hard pressed to figure out what they are.

I love soup. They speak to me of comfort & caring. You cannot really “throw together” any of them. You have to think about how each of the flavors will marry to the other, what dance will they do in the pot, how will they smell in the bowl.

The combinations, and results are endless. You can make a soup out of anything. Really, I know. Soup is the friend of anyone on a budget, or anyone that hates waste. I learned from my Mother that soup could deify a badly cooked chicken, and not everything needed to be told about how the meal evolved. Sometimes mistakes make the best meals.

So, we begin: #Souperbowl. What began as funny conversation on twitter has evolved into what will surely be a fun everybody wins challenge for as many cooks that want to join. For those that don’t know, there is a National Soup Swap day every year, you can read about the one the darling daughter (AKA Former Chef)  hosted  last year here. We will be doing another this year.

~Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

#SouperBowl 2011-2012 will work something like this : starting with this post, and then every other Wednesday someone will post the cultural pick and the 3 special ingredients to be used, and 1 week later (the following Wednesday) you can post ( if you want) & compare recipes and notes. The rules are simple–and few:

1. The soup has to be based in the ethno-cultural background picked
2. You must use the 3 extra ingredients that were chosen for that week in the soup.

I have made a list of ingredients, but please feel free to email me and I will add anything you like.

almonds, anchovies, apples, apricots, asparagus, balsamic vinegar, basil, beans, beer, beetroot, beef,berries, bloodoranges, brandy, bread, broccolini, brown sugar, butter milk, cabbage, candied orange peel,capers, carrots, cashew nuts, cheese, cherries, chicken, chickpeas, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves,corn, cornmeal, couscous, cranberries, cream, currants,dark chocolate, dried dates, tomatoes, duck, eggplant, eggs, fennel, figs, fish, fresh chillies, garlic, ginger, gooseberries, grapes, bell pepper, green tea, green tomatoes, honey, horseradish, leeks, lemon, lentils, lettuce, lime, mangoes, milk, mint, mushrooms, nectarines, olives, oysters, parmesan cheese, passionfruit, pasta, peaches, pine nuts, pineapple, plums, pork, prawns, pumpkin, quail, queso fresco, raisins, Ricotta, rocket, rosemary, Rutabaga, saffron, salami, salsicce, shrimp, spring onions, squash, strawberries, sweet potato, tofu, tuna, wasabi, yogurt,vanilla

So the first #SouperBowl Challenge : You can see how I chose the ingredients below.  My method was studiously low tech.  Printed out the list, cut it up and throw it into a box. I let the cat choose, ( he kicked them all around for a while as cats do). The results are the ones that flew out of the box. The soup is a bowl of turkey, mashed potato dumpling soup I made for dinner.

Your mission is simple:

Culture: Italian, of course!

Special Ingredients: Beans, eggplant,  orange peel

Post & share your results on December 7, 2011.

Next challenge will be out on December 14, 2011   Links to everyone’s elses recipes will be posted.

Bring a bowl & a spoon!

The Table

I have distinct memories of being very little and be told it was time for dinner. The table was skinny and long–green formica just off the kitchen, my two older brothers and I would sit there to eat.  We were little, and I remember that table more than the actual meals eaten at it.

Ready for dinner

Mom would feed us before Daddy came home from work, and then she and dad would sit at the blond oak dining room table to eat their meal.  This routine only lasted until we were all of an age to eat together, and my father’s work hours were defined by his needs and not someone else’s.

I remember setting that blond oak table for some dinners and eating in the kitchen for others. I remember fighting with my brothers over who would be cleaning up. I remember the food. I remember that we were together. My mother cooked, what she cooked, we ate. That was all, and it was all good.

The weekends brought BBQs and church on Sunday, pasta, and sometimes Grampa for Sunday dinner. While we were never close to my Father’s family, we were to my Mother’s-at least while her father was alive. Sometime’s we went to his house for Sunday dinner, and that was an event.  He cooked, or the aunts and Mom cooked, and everyone (it seemed to me) family, friends, neighbors,  came, sat down and ate. And argued and ate. And played cards, and ate.

There was always enough food for everyone, no matter how many showed up. It was the same at my Mother’s house as long as I can remember. It may not have been fancy food (although now someone would be sure to attach the tag line “artisan” to it) but there was plenty and there was always enough to share. My mother never minded when we brought friends who would just come over around dinner…she always had enough to share.

When I married and moved away, I brought that tradition of  feeding anyone with me.  I cooked and everyone ate, and ate well.  If there was only a  pound of meat, I added more vegetables to the stew, or baked another loaf of bread. Food was love, and it was the 60′s.
There was only one criteria for eating at my table. You had to sit at the table & eat. It didn’t matter ( and still doesn’t) was your politics were or sexual choices.  If you made through the first 5 minutes at my table, chances are you probably would get invited back.

The People

I carried those sentiments with me through divorces and  moves from city to city. Good times and Bad times.  Money & Food stamps. Sometimes there were lot’s of people, and sometimes just a few.

When I moved to Berkeley, the kid and I lived with 5 guys, and a moving cast of many. There were few rules in that house, one was that they did not cook, and I did. We were all family then…some still are to this day.
There has been enough written about the subject of how why eating together as a family is important, that whatever I would add would be gilding the lily. Family meals bond and imprint in ways that I cannot even explain. My definitoon of family might be different than yours. It’s allowed. Family is how you define it.
Family dinners at my house, perhaps anyone’s house, are famous for arguments and jokes, breakdowns and break-ups. They have all happened at my house at one time or another. You eat, cry, yell, move on.

My birth family is small now. And no one can replace those ties ever. But my other family grows and shifts with time & circumstance. There hasn’t been much attrition in the last 2 decades, but some. Comings & goings, marriages and death, dance of it is told in who sits at my dinner table.

I try to do family meals a few times a month. Sometimes it’s just the Daughter, her husband and me. sometimes it’s C&M, and us, sometimes it’s 6, sometimes 12, sometimes more. It’s not always on Sunday, but when we can gather and eat and catch up.

This week C toasted his “weird family” at my table as  we welcomed a new member.  It was the highest possible compliment. We ate pork stew and laughed and talked loud and were full.

Fall Pork Stew

This recipe for pork stew is a favorite for chilly fall nights. Rich and earthy, it may not be the prettiest dish, but it is a favorite of all. I adapted this from a Marcella Hazen recipe to my taste. The original can be found in Essentials of Italian Cooking, 1992.  Last week, we ate it with soft polenta, garlic roasted fall vegies and a gingerbread pear upside down cake.

Ingredients

4 lbs Pork shoulder or butt,
2 tbs olive oil
2 small onions, peeled
2 oz dried mushrooms
1 1/2 cup hot water (120° to 130°F)
1/2 tbs marjoram leaves
1 tbs oregano leaves
2 tbs rosemary
20 juniper berries
8 garlic clove, crushed
2 bay leaf, broken
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup white wine
2 tbs anchovy paste or 4-6 fresh anchovies, crushed
8 oz fresh mushrooms, porcinis or criminis
2 cups chunked pumpkin, carrots or orange squash

1. Cut the roast into “2 bite” chunks.

2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottom pot that you can cook all the pork in. Start browning the pork -don’t crowd it, or it won’t brown right.

3. Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl and pour the hot water over them to soak.

4. After the pork is brown remove to another pan, and hold. Repeat until all pork is browned lightly

5. Take all the spices, including garlic except the bay leaves, and coarsely grind in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.

6. Cut the onions into quarters and then slice.

7. When the pork is brown and set aside, put the onion in the pot and cook until translucent. About 5 min. Add all the spices to the onion in the pot. Stir and saute for a few minutes to cook the garlic.

8. Add the vinegar, wines and the mushrooms (including their soaking water) bring to a simmer and add the anchovy paste. Add the meat back in and any juices from it.

9. Cover the pot and put into a 300 degree oven for 2 hours or until fork tender. Add some salt & pepper, taste and adjust seasonings. You can remove the meat and put on a platter, and keep warm. Reduce the sauce if necessary. See tips for what I do.

Tips

Let the meat air dry after cutting for 20 min to make sure it’s dry before browning.

Serve this with a soft polenta.

I cook this the day before serving to help meld the flavors. Refrigerate overnight, and then gently reheat before serving. I add the fresh mushrooms, carrots, or cut up pumpkin, sweet potato etc while re-heating. Adds color. I sometimes add a squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavor.  Add a little chopped Italian parsley to the top of each dish before serving.

Feel free to comment, and if you would like, leave your email I will will send a PDF of the recipe, which includes nutritional information.

Let’s see: what else can I take on?

Thinking. Thinking. That’s it, let me investigate sustainability. Or not, as the case turned out to be.

So much has been written, and will be written about this extremely important subject that it makes my head ache just thinking about them. All 95,400,000 items in .18 seconds according Mr. Google.

How can any of us keep track of the latest information or danger? The short answer to that is that we cannot.

The dictionary defines to sustain as a verb:

verb (used with object)

1. to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.

2. to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).

3. to undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.); endure without giving way or yielding

And defines sustainability as the capacity to endure. Huh.

I wanted to put this into the context of food, and how we all can have some affect on that, but the subject is just too big, and quite frankly others have already done a fine job of chewing on this subject.

Don’t get me wrong: sustainability in our food system is a good cause to hook on to, I am just saying that for me I need to bring these BIG subjects closer to the ground. There are a million, well actually 95,400,000 pieces of information, that can guide you to more info on sustainability. Here’s one I like a lot: www.sustainability.org Wait, don’t go yet. Read on and then visit!

This all started when Jackie Church at  asked me again to participate in BBQ Bonanza. A resounding yes was on its way before I could read on to see that our theme would be sustainability at the grill, and I would be in the company of such experts as Becky Selengut, Chef and author of Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes of the Pacific Northwest, and Mark Scarborough, author of many cookbooks, and general all around bon vivant. Plus a host of other great cooks and writers.

Again, my hesitancy is not because I don’t stand behind all of these sustainability principals 100%, I do, but is rooted in “what do I know about them”? Well, I finally decided on my point of view for this particular piece, and am quite happy with it.

I turned in my recipe for pulled pork tacos for BBQ Bonanza piece last night,  but have been thinking about what I could put on my blog all day, but always come back to the same question: what do I know about these sustainibility issues?

The real answer is: probably a lot. I think that for most of us, all the really big issues: The debt crisis, global warming, human rights, global foods issues, come down to common sense. I didn’t say dumb it down, I said make it simple, because in a very real sense, it IS simple.

Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are,

and doing things as they ought to be done.

Josh Billings (1815-1885) American humorist

Debt Crisis: You can’t spend more money than you have. Anyone who balances a check book knows this. And you cannot let certain groups not pay their fair share. That’s just common sense.

Global Warming: Don’t get me started. Common sense says that if you keep screwing around with that carburetor, eventually you are going to lose a part and it will not work.

Human Rights: Really? If my brother got to do it, so did I. I got treated the way I treated my brothers. That was the rule in my Mom’s house, and it’s just common sense to extend that to EVERYONE, no matter what their income, color or inclinations. Doesn’t anyone work off the golden rule?

Global Food Issues: Come on. If I eat all of it tonight, there will be nothing left over for tomorrow. If I don’t use the resources that I have with thought for next week, I may not have enough left to feed my family, my neighborhood, my world.

Common sense.

But then again common sense isn’t very common anymore… but that is another blog post