RoobiFood

We are experiencing unusually hot weather here in the midwest.  It’s unusual because we have been having a pretty cold summer in general. It’s only the last couple of weeks that have been sweltering! So, while nursing my air conditioner along, the expectation of the next season quickens my baking pulse.  I begin to dream of hot crusty loaves of fresh baked bread, fresh from the oven, the scent wafting through my house on the wings of cool fall breezes. (I hope they arrive soon!)

Quality of flour is extremely important when making bread, instinctual or not. I prefer King Arthur flours, specifically whole wheat and white. In my opinion, this brand offers consistent results and a fine taste.

Yeast is another important ingredient-avoid rapid rise, instead opting for the regular active dry yeast found in little foil packets in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. I think regular active dry yeast is more predictable.

Filtered water  is important to your creation, as is salt-I prefer sea salt ground in a mortar and pestle or food processor till it is of a fine grain.

A good olive oil is also an essential-buy the best you can afford, but keep in mind that some extra-virgin olive oils have a very pronounced taste that will come through in your finished product. I usually stick with the mild tasting variety which I use almost everyday in my kitchen.

After these basic ingredients, the possibilities are endless. You can add chopped garlic, herbs, or you could go sweet, adding molasses, honey, or cinnamon.

To make your basic dough, the easiest way is to employ the use of a good stand mixer-I have used my Kitchen-Aid mixer for years, (fondly dubbed the ‘mama mixer’ by my daughter) with the hook attachment. It is possible to mix, shape, rise, and bake this loaf entirely without fancy equipment, but I suggest using a mixer your first few times, then working up to using only your hands and a board.

The recipe then-

In your mixing bowl, add the following:

1 cup of warm to the touch (between 105-120 degrees Fahrenheit) water

-as you become more efficient at judging this kind of thing, you may find yourself being less concerned about the exact temperature, instead opting to feel your measuring cup with your hand to check the heat of the water.

1 packet of active dry yeast

Stir in bowl till combined, give it a few minutes to dissolve completely.

Then add the following:

About 4 cups of white flour, one cup at a time while the mixer is running on a very low speed.

1 scant cup of whole wheat flour.

Allow the mixer to continue to run at low speed while you add:

1 tsp. salt

a few dashes of olive oil

any extras you desire, like herbs

A word of caution-if you choose to add things that are heavy in water content, you will need to add more flour to your mix, or decrease the initial warm water in the first step.

Allow the mixer to finish kneading, until the bread clings to the hook, about 3 more minutes. During this time you can add a few dredges of extra flour if it looks too wet. Just a little at a time!

Turn your mixer off, turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and give it a little pinch or poke-when the dough springs back, then you are ready to let it rise. If it doesn’t, knead it a bit more with your hands.

In a greased bowl, place your lovely dough, turn it once to ensure all sides are greased, and cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Let it rise one hour in a draft-free place. On cold winter days, I like to preheat my oven to 400 degrees F and place the bowl on top of the range, with the burners off, of course. Even if it’s not cold out, go ahead and preheat your oven anyways-400 degrees F.

After the hour, expose the dough, gently punch it down, and turn it out onto a floured board. Roll it to about ½ inch thickness, in a kind of rectangular shape no longer than what you plan to bake it on. Roll it up, tuck the ends under, and place on a baking stone or cookie sheet that has been dusted with cornmeal. (This will prevent sticking.) Again cover with clean towel or plastic wrap, then let rise for one hour in a draft free spot.

After that hour, with an extremely sharp knife, slash or score the top of the loaf lightly in a diagonal pattern. Slice just enough to break the top ‘skin’ that’s formed-I omitted this important step once and my bread exploded out its side. Then pop it in the oven and let it bake for about fifteen minutes. Check the bread at this time by checking the color of the crust-should be turning brown, if it is, thump it lightly-should sound hollow. Gauge from this point how much time you’ll need to finish baking. If the crust is too light and it doesn’t sound hollow when thumped, give it another 5 minutes and check it again. Once you are satisfied with your loaf, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool. You can either keep it in the pan or put the loaf on a wire rack. Be careful! It will be very hot.

Voila! You have just created a beautiful, versatile, gorgeous loaf of bread, using a recipe as a guide, not a rule. Bread-making is a wonderful way to get acquainted with instinctual cooking. Flour is not too terribly expensive, so even if you end up with a fallen lumpy loaf, you can chuck the results and try again without too much loss of cash. Baking bread this way can instill a great amount of confidence in your cooking skills, you get a loaf of bread that is far superior to what you’d find at the grocery, and it can be great fun, too.

I sing the praise of tomato!

Oh, how I love thee, ripe red fruit of my garden! Your skin trembles at my touch, bursting with tantalizing juice…

Ahem. Sorry. I love tomatoes. I love cooking with tomatoes. I love growing tomatoes, slicing, picking, squeezing, and thinking about them. Something about the color, taste, texture and sight of them invokes an almost reverent response from my soul. Seeing them waiting for me on my windowsill causes my heart to jump with glee.

I even like tomato stories. When I was a small girl, my mom told me about Grandpa Rossi-an immigrant from Italy, working the Chisholm Trail as a young cowboy in the late 19th century. Apparently after a dusty ride along the cattle trail, the exhausted cowboys would enjoy a rare spa treatment when coming back to town. Their skin would get cracked and dry by the wind and sun, and the only remedy to this condition was to acquire a good sized jar of canned tomatoes from your nearest general store or kind lady friend, open the jar, and proceed to smear its contents all over your aching face. I don’t know if this is a true story or just the stuff of family legend and myth, but it sounds great!

Tomatoes are good for you, inside and out, and tomatoes are tasty. Instinctually, when I pick up a fresh, ripe tomato, I want to immediately crush it in my grip. My fist longs to wrap itself around the tomato and watch the juice flow down my wrist. Admittedly my heart always tells me to turn them into sauce.

Now, a word about sauce. I know that many foodies may eschew the red sauce in favor of something more sophisticated, but with practice, great ingredients and some time, red sauce can become palatable again. It is an essential in my kitchen-whenever a pack of hungry pre-teens run through my house asking what’s for dinner, (that happens a lot these days!) I always set them to work making pizza or we have some pasta with guess what-red sauce. My daughter and her friends have come to enjoy the ritual of making their own eats. The bottled ‘spaghetti sauce’ that is readily available in grocery stores nation-wide are loaded with sugar, salt, and things I can’t pronounce. (I’m convinced the poor quality of these pseudo-sauces have given red sauce a bad name.) What you can make at home with a few simple ingredients is so superior to pre-made sauce. Once you try it, you won’t want to go back!

Here’s how:

Find the ripest red Roma tomatoes you can buy. Or grow them. Imagine the size of your sauce-pot. When I make sauce, I use a medium sized stock-pot, so I purchase a compatible quantity. I always manage to use all the tomatoes I purchase-they either end up in the sauce, or on the off-chance that a few stragglers are left over, I slice them up and eat them with a nice mixture of sea-salt and basil on top. Or you could put them in salad. Or just do as my husband does, and eat them like apples. Whatever floats your boat! The point is, don’t worry about the exact quantity-we’re cooking like great-grandma here, and we are going to trust ourselves to buy just the amount we need!

Once you have acquired the tomatoes, wash them, cut off the stems/tops and slice them into fourths. If seeds are an issue for you, then by all means pick them out. Personally, I always leave them in. (The same goes for the skin-I know you can buy them peeled, but I’m fond of the skin. Peel away if you wish.) Throw the sliced tomatoes into your pot along with a few tablespoons of good olive oil, smashed garlic cloves and some chopped onion. I suppose if you have a dislike to onion texture, you could use onion extract or onion powder. The same with garlic-just don’t use onion or garlic salt-that will cause a salty overloaded taste. Cover the pot and let it simmer on a low flame for a good while-check it often, because you don’t want this to burn. When the skins are all droopy, and the whole affair looks rather limp, then it’s time to grind!!!

Using a food processor is easiest. A blender will work, too. Simply grind the tomato-onion-garlic mixture until liquefied. Pour it back into your pot. That is your base. Now it’s time to have fun.

At this point, while the sauce is simmering over a low heat, I begin my hunt. Rooting around in my crisper, pantry, and spice rack, I look for the perfect combination of flavors and ingredients to complement my beautiful base. Here are some possible combinations, and of course, with instinctual-type cooking, anything goes, so feel free to mix-and-match.

1. Base sauce plus fresh chopped basil, ground black pepper, bay leaf, dash of oregano, pinch of sea salt, chopped garlic, flat leaf parsley. This produces a nice, clean, classic sauce. Simmer on a low flame until thickened slightly. You want to keep it slightly uncovered so the steam will escape, reducing the high water content of the tomatoes, producing a richer flavor. Once it is thickened to your satisfaction, discard the bay leaf and enjoy this sauce over the lightest of pasta, or keep it in your freezer to add to soups and stews. This one works well in recipes calling for tomato juice.

2. Base sauce, plus herbs and spices plus one chopped green pepper, handful of sliced mushrooms, and any other vegetable you like. I find chopped zucchini to be an interesting addition, as well as a bit of sliced chopped eggplant. Veggies give an earthy quality to sauce. Add a few splashes of chicken stock to round out the flavor. We enjoy this sauce on just about anything, and it’s nice to make pizza and calzones out of it, too. You can spoon it on little slices of ciabatta bread, and make crostini. Add lots of cheese! Grill or bake them till cheese is melted.

3. Base sauce, plus herbs and spices, plus veggies, plus a cup or two of cooked meat. This can be anything from sliced Italian sausage, to finely ground pruscuitto, to chopped leftover glazed pork chops or just plain ol’ humble ground beef, if you must. Just keep in mind, you can grind a perfectly seasoned steak in that food processor, too. No need to go out and buy a Styrofoam-encased lump of ground chuck. Meat makes a sauce heavy, and adds fat content. (It makes me sleepy!) It is best served over thick pasta that can stand the weight of the meat. Fusili bucati with a nice heavy meat sauce sprinkled with pecorino and a glass of red wine and my feet up and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

When I wake up, I’ll tell you about bread.

My earliest memories of food are centered around my father.  He taught me to make lots of things from scratch, never offering a recipe, instead guiding me to navigate the ingredients and flavor combinations armed only with my senses and instinct. These lessons often created friction in my childhood home. I’ll never forget the time my mother walked in on a pasta lesson. Dad and I were up to our elbows in flour, ribbons of fresh fettuccine were everywhere, and her newly clean floor had a fine smattering of glutinous residue on it. I swear we experienced a father-daughter-foodie bond after that day because of the goop on the floor alone!

After I married my high school sweetheart in 1991, cooking became more utilitarian and perfunctory in nature-we both had full-time jobs, and wanted to eat as cheaply and efficiently as possible. I learned how to adhere to a recipe that offered the best value. Part of my new habit was to cut ingredient amounts way down to effectively shop for only two diners instead of making a huge batch of whatever was on my mind, regardless of cost, and eating it till it was all gone, like in my single days. I was on a mission, and my mission was to stretch our food dollar till it squealed!

Shortly after the birth of my daughter Olivia in 1997, we decided to homeschool her.  When she began to eat solids, she displayed a very discriminating palate, eschewing the usual baby fare of the strained and mushed up variety found in jars, opting instead for things like raw tomatoes and hummus. We took baby steps into the kitchen each day, always inviting Olivia to take part in the process of turning ingredients into meals.

Today I am happily back where I belong-I have found the happy medium between being frugal and lavish in my cooking. My experiences as a daughter, wife, and mom have shaped my perceptions of food, and how to prepare it. These days I’m much more likely to sense my way through our culinary desires as a family than to stick to a set recipe rotation. I try to offer things both healthy and delicious. Cooking, and food in general, has become fun and adventurous for me again, and I’m sure Dad would approve.