Levain Bread

Levain Bread

Levain means wild yeast in French, but is also covers the use of sourdough. A bread kan be called a Levain if the amount of compressed yeast (live yeast) doesn't exceeds 0.2%

This Levain is more sour than the breads I normally bake, but I really like the sourness with the rye flour. This bread is a good bread for artisan cheeses or as a side for dinner.

This bread came about by mistake. I was making the leaven for the basic country bread a la Tartine, but I used rye flour instead of whole wheat flour by mistake. So instead of discarding the leaven, I came up with this bread.

Makes 2 breads

Ingredients:

Leaven:

• about 2 tablespoons sourdough (the starter you keep in the refrigerator and feed every other week) 
• 200 g water (78℉)
• 70 g all-purpose flour
• 65 g rye flour

Bread:

• 600 g water
• 10 g live yeast (¾ teaspoon dry yeast)
• 3½ dl (275 g) leaven 
• 3 dl (200 g) rye flour 
• 12 dl (840 g )all-purpose flour
• 1½ tablespoons salt

Directions:

Leaven:

Make the leaven the night before you want to bake the bread. If you like a more sour note to your bread, make the leaven in the morning, and after about 8 hours fermentation, put the leaven in the refrigerator until next morning.

Mix all the ingredients well in a bowl, and let the leaven rest covered on the counter for 8-10 hours. To test leaven's readiness, drop a spoonful into a bowl of room-temperature water. If it sinks, it is not ready and needs more time to ferment and ripen. If it floats, it's ready to use. As it develops, the smell will change from ripe and sour to sweet and pleasantly fermented.

This time I just used 275 g of the sourdough 8 hours after the feeding instead of making the leaven.

Bread:

Next morning:

In a large bowl, pour in the water, yeast, sourdough, and rye flour, mix it well. Add salt and  the all-purpose flour a little at a time, until you have a firm but slightly sticky dough. You might not need all the flour.

I always knead my doughs in my stand mixer, and I knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes until the dough is a bit shiny and elastic. 

Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise for about 4 hours.

Pour the dough out on a non-floured kitchen table, divide the dough in 2 and shape them into rounds.

Line 2 baskets with clean kitchen towels, generously dusted with flour. Transfer each round to a basket, smooth side down and let to rest, covered, at room temperature, about 3 hours before baking.

Baking the Bread:

Twenty minutes before you are ready to bake the bread, preheat oven and dutch/french oven to 500 degrees, with rack in lowest position.

Gently flip one bread into heated dutch/french oven. Score top twice using a razor blade matfer lame. Cover with lid. Return to oven, and reduce oven temperature to 450℉. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove lid and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes more.

Transfer loaf to a wire rack, and let it cool completely.

To bake the second loaf, raise oven temperature to 500 degrees, wipe out dutch/french oven with a dry kitchen towel, and reheat with lid for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

This post has been submitted to the Yeast Spotting Site.

Penne all'Amatriciana

Penne all'Amatriciana

A friend of mine told me about this dish. I had never heard about it, or seen it on a menu before. But she raved about it, so I decided to give it a try. And Ohhh My - This dish is going on the menu again soon in my house!

I love the tomato sauce with the spiciness and the well rounded flavors from the wine and pancetta. This dish is perfect for at weekday dinner. The sauce can easily be made a day or two in advance.  

This recipe is adapted from a recipe on "Bonappetit.com, here is my version.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 1 28-oz can (794 g) whole peeled tomatoes

• 1 (280 g) red onion

• 165 g pancetta

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 60 ml water

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 120 ml white wine

• balsamic to taste (use balsamic instead of sugar to balance the acidity)

• salt & pepper to taste

• 225 g uncooked penne (pasta) - cooked al dente

Sprinkles:

• parmesan cheese

Directions:

Purée the tomatoes with juices  until smooth in a blender, set aside. 

Cook onion, pancetta, oil, red pepper flakes, and water in a large pot over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until water is evaporated and fat begins to render, about 8–10 minutes. 

Add tomato paste and cook until beginning to brown, while stirring, about 2 minutes. Add wine and cook, until reduced by half, it only take a few minutes. 

Add the puréed tomato and bring it to a boil. Cover pan with a lid, reduce heat, and let it simmer for about 40–45 minutes. Season with balsamic, salt and pepper.

When sauce is almost done, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente, drain pasta. 

Add pasta to sauce and toss to coat. Serve topped with parmesan cheese. 

Tuna Steak with Avocado-Wasabi Purée

Tuna Steak with Avocado-Wasabi Purée

The first time I ever had tuna steak was on a vacation to the western Jutland in Denmark. We bought the fish at Hvide Sande Røgeri, not knowing how to cook it. We pan-fried it to well done. As you may already know, that is NOT the way to cook tuna, and of course it turned out to be a dry boring piece of fish. We didn't understand what the hype was all about.

Fast forward to now, we love tuna steak. This recipe was adapted from the Danish magazine "Alt for Damerne" - I had to try the wasabi-avocado purée with tuna. Here is my version:

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

• 2 tuna steaks
• salt & pepper

Marinade:

• soya sauce
• ½ jalapeño 

Purée:

• 2 avocados
• 2 teaspoons wasabi paste
• ½ red onion  
• 1 lime, the juice of
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions: 

Mix up the marinade and pour it into a ziplock bag, add the fish, and let tit marinate for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.  

Purée: 

Mix the purée by mashing the avocados with a fork. I like the puree kinda chunky. Mix in wasabi paste, onion, lime juice and season with salt and pepper.

Heat the grill or grill-pan on high. Take the steaks out of the marinade and brush them with oil. Sear the steaks for about 1 minute on each side, and season them with salt and pepper.

Serve the tuna steak over rice with the avocado-wasabi purée.

Blackberry Jam

Blackberry Jam

Blackberry jam is my favorite. It reminds me of my mom. She made the best blackberry jam. My parents had a few blackberry plants in their yard. During summer we picked the berries as they ripened, and were frozen until there was enough to make a batch of jam. 

At least one jar was saved for christmas, to be served with the ebelskiver. I intend to do the same.

My blackberry jam is, like my moms jam, a thin jam. If you don't like your jam to be runny, you can add pectin to the jam according to the instructions on the package.

Ingredients:

• 500 g blackberries
• 325 g sugar
• ½ lemon, the juice of

Directions:

Rinse the berries and discard the bad or unripe berries.

Preheat the oven to about 390℉ (200℃), and heat the sugar in a ovenproof bowl. (This will prevent the jam from cooling too much, and will make the sugar dissolve more quickly).  

In a small saucepan heat the berries and lemon juice over medium low heat, until it comes to a simmer. Let the berries simmer for about 5 minutes, remove from heat.

Add the sugar, stir carefully so you don’t break the berries up too much.

Scald the jars and lids with boiling water. Be careful not to touch the inside. Use tongs to handle jars and lids. Fill jars while still hot. 

Pour the hot jam into hot, scalded jars and seal with scalded lids. See National Center for Home Food Preservation for additional information on safe food preservation.

Enjoy!