Okay, it is Monday and I have the day off from my regular job. My boss says I put in too many hours and he is trying to be tight fisted with the owners money. Commendable but not good for my pocket book. So, it is good the I am looking for alternative ways to supplement my income.
I talked to my mother yesterday and we discussed sourdough bread cultures. I was sure that she had made one when I was a child but she said I was mistaken but did say that she had a wonderful recipe for a starter from my Grandmother and that she would be forwarding to me. I can't wait. I'm tempted to try several different recipes to find one that I prefer. One of the blogs I follow, Wild Yeast, has a sourdough starter recipe that uses either pineapple or orange juice as the liquid base. I thought that would produce a very distinct flavor. In a hour I am leaving to go pay rent and go shopping and will pick up some orange juice and some pineapple juice as well as some King Arthur bread flour to do a few trials on the starter. It will take a few days to see if I can culture some wild yeast so maybe by Saturday I will be baking! I am very excited and hope to report that at least one of my sourdough starters started!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New Year's Resolutions
A new year and new promises, well that's what they are, aren't they? Promises to do better, promises to achieve greater things or status, promises to quit, loose or even find something. I made a mental list while driving to work on New Year's Eve, of course I forgot most of it the moment I shut off the truck's engine. My mind was flooded with concerns of the moment, my cooking to do list and if I was going to be employed in the coming year. My resolutions flew right out of my mind, good intentions all of them. My mother once said that the road to Hell was paved with good intentions. If that is the case I am well on my way to Hell and back again! My life is full of good intentions. Every day my list of good intentions is longer than my list of accomplishments. Is this normal?
My desire to build and use a wood-fired oven is growing in intensity, but I don't want it to become another item on my good intentions list, another New Year's resolution to be given and just as quickly forgotten. An ambitious smart phone app designing company is hip to this resolution problem, they have developed and are promoting an application for your phone that is supposed to keep you on track. The local newscasters are likening it to a wife, a nag. Ha! I don't need a wife to keep me on track, what I need is just a little bit of encouragement, a pat on the back once in a while, even just someone to point out a new recipe. My current has jumped on and off the band wagon already. Any project where I will do most of the work is number one on his list. In fact he is ever eager to find new work for me to do and heap it on me with a huge smile. Such as he will get this idea to purchase a food truck and quickly make that mouse sound, you know it, "we can do this" or "we can do that." The "we, we, we" noise. It always means a ton of work for me and a ton of glory for him. Oops, I just broke a resolution, that of being less critical of others. Oh well, the year is only one day old. I have 364 more to go!
Which brings me to what I really want to accomplish: baking wood-fired oven bread. One of the many decisions to make has been what kind to start with. I do know that I want to bake with wild yeasts, i.e. sourdough. I love sourdough bread. While in Sparks I was lucky enough to be given a jar of sourdough starter that was purported to be over 100 years old. Unfortunately I lost it while moving two years ago. It dropped on my new kitchen floor and the jar broke and thus had to be disposed of. I guess I could start my own tradition with a new starter. There are any number of recipes out there, including one using wine leavings. Not living in wine making country anymore kinda rules that recipe out. But that is just one of the items I will need to procure. Having narrowed down the list of types of bread to bake has made my recipe search easier. The types I will start with are the Batard and the Baguette. Simple enough and related.
The most difficult task on my list is building my oven. I have yet to decide on the location for my future oven so deciding on the look and the construction of my oven will come after that, but that doesn't prevent me from looking around and getting ideas. Wow, I never realized how many different designs for such a simple thing as a wood-fired oven there was. I Googled wood-fired oven images and got at least 40 pages of pictures. They range from simple little half domes on spindly legs to huge room filling behemoths! One of the many blogs I follow contained a photo of a neat oven (all covered in snow at this time of year!) with "YUM" in huge letters over the oven's opening. It was beautiful. I hope one day that mine will look as appealing. Oh, and the photo of the bread that he had baked in that oven was just as yummy looking!
Well, it is already 2:30 in the afternoon and the sun is starting to make its way to the horizon and I have been just a lazy slug, accomplishing absolutely nothing. What a great way to spend New Year's Day, don't you think?
My desire to build and use a wood-fired oven is growing in intensity, but I don't want it to become another item on my good intentions list, another New Year's resolution to be given and just as quickly forgotten. An ambitious smart phone app designing company is hip to this resolution problem, they have developed and are promoting an application for your phone that is supposed to keep you on track. The local newscasters are likening it to a wife, a nag. Ha! I don't need a wife to keep me on track, what I need is just a little bit of encouragement, a pat on the back once in a while, even just someone to point out a new recipe. My current has jumped on and off the band wagon already. Any project where I will do most of the work is number one on his list. In fact he is ever eager to find new work for me to do and heap it on me with a huge smile. Such as he will get this idea to purchase a food truck and quickly make that mouse sound, you know it, "we can do this" or "we can do that." The "we, we, we" noise. It always means a ton of work for me and a ton of glory for him. Oops, I just broke a resolution, that of being less critical of others. Oh well, the year is only one day old. I have 364 more to go!
Which brings me to what I really want to accomplish: baking wood-fired oven bread. One of the many decisions to make has been what kind to start with. I do know that I want to bake with wild yeasts, i.e. sourdough. I love sourdough bread. While in Sparks I was lucky enough to be given a jar of sourdough starter that was purported to be over 100 years old. Unfortunately I lost it while moving two years ago. It dropped on my new kitchen floor and the jar broke and thus had to be disposed of. I guess I could start my own tradition with a new starter. There are any number of recipes out there, including one using wine leavings. Not living in wine making country anymore kinda rules that recipe out. But that is just one of the items I will need to procure. Having narrowed down the list of types of bread to bake has made my recipe search easier. The types I will start with are the Batard and the Baguette. Simple enough and related.
The most difficult task on my list is building my oven. I have yet to decide on the location for my future oven so deciding on the look and the construction of my oven will come after that, but that doesn't prevent me from looking around and getting ideas. Wow, I never realized how many different designs for such a simple thing as a wood-fired oven there was. I Googled wood-fired oven images and got at least 40 pages of pictures. They range from simple little half domes on spindly legs to huge room filling behemoths! One of the many blogs I follow contained a photo of a neat oven (all covered in snow at this time of year!) with "YUM" in huge letters over the oven's opening. It was beautiful. I hope one day that mine will look as appealing. Oh, and the photo of the bread that he had baked in that oven was just as yummy looking!
Well, it is already 2:30 in the afternoon and the sun is starting to make its way to the horizon and I have been just a lazy slug, accomplishing absolutely nothing. What a great way to spend New Year's Day, don't you think?
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Location, Location, Location
While browsing Craigslist this past evening I came across an ad for a piece of property for rent; two and a half acres, an RV pad, electric, sewer and water. The price was right, just $250 a month. But, I have this hesitancy in building a permanent structure such as my Wood-Fired Oven on a rental property. The property is devoid of any place for me to live in and even at $250 a month, without the most basic creature comforts (read air conditioning) I scratched it off my list.
There is a new strip mallish shopping center not too far from where I live. Empty due to the economy. If I choose a store front location I'm afraid that I would be forced to do too many improvements to meet the Health Department's and the Fire Marshall's rules and regulations. Read mega bucks. That cheap two and a half acres is sounding better.
So my search for a good location continues. And until I find the perfect place I have time to work on recipes and oven designs, all the fun stuff.
There is a new strip mallish shopping center not too far from where I live. Empty due to the economy. If I choose a store front location I'm afraid that I would be forced to do too many improvements to meet the Health Department's and the Fire Marshall's rules and regulations. Read mega bucks. That cheap two and a half acres is sounding better.
So my search for a good location continues. And until I find the perfect place I have time to work on recipes and oven designs, all the fun stuff.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
The Start of the Journey
My desire to bake bread, good bread, started when I was in my early 20s and quickly died due to the lack of good teachers and an old fashioned gas stove, complete with pilot light, just like my grandmother used. Now that I am in my 50s and a professional chef I have renewed my desire to bake good bread. But now I want to raise the bar. Good bread abounds. Just walk into any Whole Foods or local chain supermarket and you will see good bread. Exceptional bread, it is not. That you must seek out the small artisan baker but even those you can find in most major cities.
What I want to bake is bread in a Wood-Fired Oven! I want to have wood smoke curling through the air around me. I want to watch the sun rise waiting for the coals to die so I can slip the risen unbaked loaves into the hot center of my own brick oven. Sixteen consecutive bakes from a single firing is the current national record held by Tim Decker of Bennet Valley Bread and Pastry in Santa Rosa California. Wow, sixteen bakes. I would be happy with just one.
So the journey starts here. My first step will be to write a business proposal and write up a catchy come on for Kickstarter to lure dollars into my empty coffer. It takes a few bucks to build an oven and I have pockets that are collecting nothing but lint. So join me on my journey. Stick around long enough and you will be rewarded with delicious bread from my very own Wood-Fired Oven!
What I want to bake is bread in a Wood-Fired Oven! I want to have wood smoke curling through the air around me. I want to watch the sun rise waiting for the coals to die so I can slip the risen unbaked loaves into the hot center of my own brick oven. Sixteen consecutive bakes from a single firing is the current national record held by Tim Decker of Bennet Valley Bread and Pastry in Santa Rosa California. Wow, sixteen bakes. I would be happy with just one.
So the journey starts here. My first step will be to write a business proposal and write up a catchy come on for Kickstarter to lure dollars into my empty coffer. It takes a few bucks to build an oven and I have pockets that are collecting nothing but lint. So join me on my journey. Stick around long enough and you will be rewarded with delicious bread from my very own Wood-Fired Oven!
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