The Quest Continues ...

In my culinary-themed quest for … uh, well I don’t know what exactly I’m questing for, but I’m building a culinary repertoire that is increasingly appreciative of the [natural] origins of and the creation of [really] good food … I am reading another book, “The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals”. The author, Michael Pollan, contemplates the human condition of ‘food choice’ as follows, "Though much has been done to obscure this simple fact, how and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world - and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction." I’m only like 20 pages into the book, but I’m looking forward to another [less-witty ] life changing literary experience. Bring on the long plane rides!!

So, I’ve spent some time learning how to making cheese (I’ll graduate to gouda, eventually) and now I’m on to bread – cinnamon buttermilk, wheat and sourdough, more descriptively. I used to reject the idea of baking – it seemed too precise for my messy-chef panache; while delicate pies still aren’t on my horizon, free-form artisan boules are in the oven. This is mostly thanks to a book I picked up a few weeks ago: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day. It teaches you pretty simple recipes for bowlfuls of dough that you can refrigerate and use over the course of 2 weeks. My initial inspiration came from an EatingWell recipe for Honey Oat Quick Bread. The lack of yeast (and the intimidation the ingredient) successfully convinced me to try it out – oh, horrid fear of the unknown! I thought my first loaf was a success, a dense, chewy, slightly-sweet ‘crumb’ and I really liked how the oats seemed to melt into the dough when baked. My co-workers thought it tasted like wheat-flavored sponge – the dish-washing kind.

My appetite was whetted. With a special birthday coming up, I wanted to recreate one of the birthdayee’s favorite baked treats: Once upon a time, when I worked at Starbucks, we served a pastry called a “Cinnamon Mini Loaf”. J was particularly fond of this loaflette, so I used to bring extras to the computer lab for her enjoyment. Unfortunately, good things don’t always last and the product was discontinued (Lord knows why!). I found an attractive recipe online for Cinnamon Buttermilk Bread and gave it (another non-yeast bread) a try. The flavor was much more of a success than the Honey Oat; coworkers, family and landlords enthusiastically agreed. By the time my next trip to Oregon came, I was a Cinnamon [Buttermilk] Mini Loaf pro! The bread isn’t overly sweet and has a great “sour” flavor (like cream cheese) and cakey crumb. While I think the raw batter is the best part, the crunchy crust it has straight out of the oven is pretty great!

This trip to Oregon was a chance to celebrate J’s birthday (and a belated Anniversary) with some really great food and wine. I arrived feeling a bit like Babbette, with a suitcase full of special ingredients and nostalgic treats. Alongside the imported dulce de leche alfajores from Argentina (reminiscent of our post-graduation trip) were the makings of a Port and Porcini Beef Stew. Dried porcinis reconstituted by the Ruby Port would be added to chuck roast braised in one of the two bottles of a special Monstrell/Petit Verdot blend J and I had found at a restaurant in DC last year. The recipe was probably one of the most technical that I had ever followed, requiring the reconstituted porcinis to be made into a paste and for multiple rounds of browning. While I had to shorten the marinating time to 3-4 hours, the beef was still amazingly rich and tender (also likely due to the fact that we picked up the boneless roast from a local meat market early that morning) and with all the time I had waiting for things to rest, I was able to mix a batch of dough for a fresh boule!

In proper birthday celebration (and like a good 50’s housewife) I dolled myself up, donned a makeshift apron and welcomed our guests with wine – how I love to settle into a classic stereotype every once-and-a-while, it’s so romantic! The recipe was enough for 5 HEAPING bowls of stew and the bread was dense and perfect for soaking up the super-rich gravy. The heavy wine paired well, but I almost thought it was a little too fruit-forward at times. No one complained, however. Unfortunately, in writing this, I’m realizing that I forgot the fresh parsley at the end … ugh! Lame.

We finished the meal with a dessert wine that we had bought from Harris Bridge Winery a few months earlier. A call to the winery’s owners that afternoon had given me some dessert-pairing ideas, but after finding my way around Corvallis and Philomath, 4 bakeries and 3 Safeways had left me sans pear-tart and without any imaginative ideas (dessert and breakfast are not really bragging points of my culinary prowess.) As luck would have it, while browsing the unappealing frozen pie section of the last Safeway, I found frozen crème brulee! Stuck under the broiler, the individual ramekins of custard would complement the sweet caramel and apricot notes of the 2002 Pinot Gris. The sweet, weighty wine could have more-than stood on its own, but dessert was had – even if the candles wouldn’t stand up well in the punched-through caramelized sugar topping. Our guests left well-stuffed.

J received a fantastic present that night – a waffle maker!! We had an important football game/pre-game festivities to attend late the next morning, but we made time to run to the supermarket for bananas, raspberries, syrup and Bisquick. Soooo delicious … even if the first round didn’t come out so pretty. Happy Birthday!!