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A Recipe for Community: No-Knead Bread

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Winter is on its way to Toronto.  The signs are here.  The last tomato flowers were brushed by frost last week.  The fair-weather runners have vanished from the streets.  Our cat has re-mastered her skill of sleeping under blankets.  And our farmers’ market has moved to winter hours, now only open every second week.  That means that the supply of amazing artisan breads from St. John’s Bakery has been cut in half.  And the rest of what our neighbourhood has to offer bread-wise is pretty dismal in comparison.  So rather than suffer with disappointing grocery store loaves, I’ve just started making bread again.

Making bread isn’t new to me.  As a grad student I made bread a lot, even keeping a sourdough starter for a while.  But my schedule was more flexible then, I often worked at home and could adapt my schedule to the rhythm of whatever bread I was making.  That isn’t the case now that I work a regular 8:30 – 4:30 job.  Add in a morning run, commute time, and making dinner and there isn’t much flexibility or time left over to accommodate most bread recipes.  Bread needs to fit my schedule, not the other way around.  And that is where this no-knead bread recipe fits in.  I can mix the ingredients before work, let it rise during the day, shape it for a second rise when I get home, cook dinner as it rises, and it bakes as I’m relaxing. Most of the work is doen by time.  The recipe has been around for a while and was introduced to me a few years ago by a friend in Kingston (who does a bread CSA).  And it wasn’t like it was from an obscure source; it was originally published in the New York Times.  So I am by no means that first who blogged about it (go ahead, Google “no knead bread” and be amazed by the reviews and variations), but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. 

So why is this bread a recipe for community?  First of all, it is accessible.  There isn’t any complicated skill involved in getting amazing bread with this recipe.  You need to know how to stir, fold, turn on an oven, and wait for intervals along the way.  Kneading, which is the hardest and messiest part of a lot of bread recipes, is cut out of the equation.  Second, it connects us with our past.  Not that long ago, a lot of bread was made at home or locally in smaller batches.  And that is how it has been for most of the 10,000 years or so that people have been making bread.  The process of turning the basic ingredients of flour, yeast, salt and water into bread and witnessing the steps of that transformation has inspired and astonished us for millennia (like in Christianity, where bread represents the body of Christ).  And thirdly, this bread is one that you can share with your community.  Sure, you won’t believe this when you’ve devoured the first few loaves before they’ve had a chance to fully cool off.  But, as it becomes part of your routine, you will begin to share the bread you’ve made and the recipe with your community.  Enjoy!

No-Knead Bread – New York Times

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

A recipe for community: Baked Beans

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As a vegetarian I love beans as a hearty source of protein and as a Nova Scotian I love baked beans as a part of who I am. There aren’t too many foods that I grew up with that I still eat but baked beans are one of them. They were made with the “winter beans” that my family has been growing since at least my great-grandfather that I have since renamed “Burns Beans” (because I haven’t been able to find beans like them anywhere else). Once I left Nova Scotia for school, I went years without ever trying to cook them and having them only on the occasional trip home. A few years ago I decided to make them. Jim wasn’t fully convinced that it was a good idea as I took hour to make them but that quickly changed as we ate them. Now baked beans are a regular meal in our winter diet and we’ve learned tricks to speed up the meal.

Baked beans don’t have the reputation as a community building food, unless your community thrives on toilet humour. But there are a few tricks while cooking with dried beans that helps make them more digestable. Even the skeptics at my office have been convinced when I brought them in to our holiday potluck.  Correctly cooking beans not only makes the beans a more community friendly food but also there are fewer GHGs emissions. Here are the three essential steps to cooking dried beans:

  1. Soaking – rinse the beans and cover with 3-4 times as much water as there are dried beans and either soak overnight or bring to a full boil, turn off the heat, and let soak for 1 hour
  2. Rinsing – it is essential that beans are well rinsed at this stage since it contains the sugars that cause indigestion.
  3. Cooking – cover the beans with fresh water and bring them to a boil. If you are cooking them in a pot bring them to a hard boil for the first 10 minutes and then simmer them until they are soft (which varies depending on the type of bean). Jim and I bought a pressure cooker a couple of years ago and it was an amazing investment. It takes the cooking time of beans down to 10 or 15 minutes from 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

The recipe I use is from the cookbook More with Less. The beans can soak overnight and cook in the morning as you get ready (especially if you have a pressure cooker), be assembled in a slow cooker before leaving and ready by the time you get home.

Basic Baked Beans

Soak overnight or by quick method:

1 lb beans (about two cups or so)
2 qts water

Drain the water and add fresh. The bring the beans to a boil and cook in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes or simmer in a pot until tender, about 1 1/2 hrs. Drain, reserving liquid

If using an oven preheat oven to 300 degrees and combine the following in a 2 qt. casserole dish.  Or assemble in a slowcooker.

cooked beans
1/2 c. molasses
1/4 c. ketchup
1 tsp mustard
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 onion, chopped
2tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp of chilli powder
bean liquid to cover

Bake 4-8 hours, adding liquid occasionally if necessary when using an oven.

Levi’s Pie – THE Perfect Dessert

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Like many Gumbooters I spent the long weekend cooking and eating with family and friends rather than slaving in front of a computer writing my blog post.  Luckily I was able to recruit a guest to write my post this week rather than make something up.  Here’s a post from my mum, Judy Burns, on why Levi’s Pie is THE perfect dessert.  Enjoy!

Well, I don’t actually know who Levi was – a lovely chap I’m sure.  I first encountered this recipe in “Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens” by Marie Nightingale and that was the title.  The rest of the world knows it as Apple Crisp.  It’s simple enough.  You slice up some apples and throw them into a dish and then mix together rolled oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon with butter and toss it on top.  You put it in the oven for half an hour or so and there you have it, the perfect dessert.

So why would anyone call such a plain ordinary dessert perfect?  Well it is plain and it is ordinary and that is its secret.  It’s the dessert anyone can make and that everybody loves.  With the apples and the oatmeal, you could even say it is good for you (it has a lot less fat than pie).  Now I’m not saying that this is the only dessert I like.  I have a killer squash pie recipe and anything made with chocolate is fine by me.

So what does any of this have to do with community?  This is where the word “perfect” comes into its own.  This is the dessert you choose when you are teaching   your child to cook.  What more important community is there than the one of parent and child?

This is also the dessert you choose when you are cooking for the people you love.  I remember a number of years ago my son, Ned, decided to cook dinner for me as a Mother’s Day gift.  And of course, he chose Levi’s Pie for dessert.  Apparently I had been preaching on the subject of the perfect dessert for years.  He told me later that he makes it often when he wants to impress.  After all, who expects a twenty something male to even know where the stove is.

So, there you have it, simple makes perfect.

Backcountry Mojitos Done Right

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It’s summer, and with August long weekend nearly upon us I thought it time to share a camping tip that’s near and dear to my heart.

Eating and drinking well is one of my primary concerns when attacking a wilderness adventure. Actually, it’s one of my primary concerns in life.

Whether I’m camping with a big group of friends in a nicely groomed federal or provincial park or trekking in the backcountry, good food and drink is right near the top of the list of priorities.

wide mojitoIn the city, sipping a mojito on a patio is a fantastic way to enjoy sunset, and it’s no different when you’re out camping.

Mint tastes cool, so regardless of whether there’s any rum or not you get a tasty treat even if you don’t have any ice left in your cooler, or a stream/lake/glacier to cool your bevies in.

Here’s a trimmed-down trekking version of this patio-classic. It makes 4 mojiots and only adds about 750g to your pack.

Set aside 20 minutes at home to the mint syrup get the lime juice ready.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups water
  • 1 Cup sugar
  • ½ cup torn-up mint leaves

What to do with them:

  1. Add sugar and water to a saucepan, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until reduced by about half. I really like ginger so at this point I chop up a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger and drop it in too, but be warned, it’ll make your drinks spicy, which may not be so good on a hot evening.
  2. Juice a couple of limes into a little container like this, or just pack the limes with the rest of your food – the lime juice comes in handy for cleaning greasy dishes too!
  3. Remove from heat and add the chopped mint. Let it steep for a few hours or overnight in the fridge, then strain with a sieve or coffee filter into a container you can pack for your adventure.
lucy in the wild

My daughter's first caping trip - just because.

Finally, get two cans or a bottle of sparkling water or soda water, and if you’re of-age and responsible, some good rum.

I use cans because one can make two nice drinks from each can, and then use the cans for candleholders to up the romance factor after the sun sets. Rawr!

Plus, they crush down so they’re easy to pack out.

That’s it – once you’re out there it’s as simple as splitting the sparkling water between two cups or glasses, adding the juice of half a lime each, and syrup (and optional rum) to taste.

Stir with a twig, and enjoy.

Potluck Politics

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Next week, I’ll be attending my very first work potluck at my new place of employment. This got me thinking about potlucks – across generations, space and time, they’ve been used as a means to build community, and in every way facilitate such building. Sharing food – especially food that you have made yourself – opens a door to your personal life, preferences, and personality. Discussing what you’ve brought can start an intimate converpotlucksation about your values, your family, and what it is you actually do outside of the 9-5 at the office.

With this in mind, I started thinking about what I would bring to the potluck. And what different items would say about me – given that this will be my first social event with my new colleagues, it is of critical importance that not only do I make the right dish choice, but also follow appropriate potluck etiquette.

Dearest gumboot readers, I need your help. What should I bring? What etiquette do I need to be aware of? What potluck-faux-pas do I need to avoid?

First, what to bring. Thinking of potlucks I’ve been to in the past, there are different categories of dishes that are typically brought to the potluck, and different ways to start up a conversation for each. Here’s a nutritionalysis of dish choice:

The ‘Health-Food-Nut’ Dish:
A dish made with all healthy, sometimes not-so-tasty ingredients. This can lead to a fruitful discussion (oh, the wit never ends …) about healthy living and nutrition. You could start a lively discussion about vitamin water (there’s a reason so many health professionals are so skeptical about it … check out this Globe and Mail Article for more on the new wave of ‘enhanced water’) or inquire about their perspective on the ’80/20 rule’.

The delicious-home-made-dish that clearly took a long time to make:
Wow. So much can be said about this. Clearly, cooking is a passion for this person, and they probably have great pride in the dishes they create. Complimenting will secure your spot on this new colleagues good side for a while. Asking for the recipe or inquiring how this delicious creation of culinary art was made will secure your spot for life.

The Locavore’s Delight:
A dish made with all local – and often organic – ingredients. This most likely indicates that this colleague is conscious of the impact his/her food choices have on the environment. Inquire about their take on the 100-mile diet (Is it really do-able?), the importance of canning, and their insights into the best farmer’s markets in the area. If you’d like to make the conversation a bit more lively and somewhat controversial, you could always bring up bananas (for some excellent ammo, check out fellow ‘Gumboot correspondent Stew Burgess’ article, ‘The Evil Banana’).

The *GASP* store-bought dish:
OK, I must confess. I myself am guilty of having brought a store-bought dish to a potluck before. But hey – I was busy!

Store-bought or Homemade? And - will the owner confess?

Store-bought or Homemade? And - will the owner confess?

The colleague who chooses to bring a store-bought dish is either 1.) far too busy to have the time to cook something, or 2.) a poor cook who would not even think of subjecting their colleagues to their culinary creations. Which can lead to some great discussion – what do they do that keeps them so busy? If their forte is not cooking – what is it? Did they purchase their meal at Whole Foods? If so – what’s their take on it? (For Gumboot correspondent Kurt Heinrich’s take, click here).

In addition to the dilemma of what to bring, I’ll also have to consider potluck-etiquette. What of those colleagues who indulge in delicious potluck fare but don’t bring an item? Will my opinion of them be changed forever? Who will make a ‘green’ contribution to the potluck (i.e., bringing their own utensils, plates, and serving containers), and are we now in an era where this goes as an unspoken social guideline? As a self-professed picky eater (yes, yes, I admit it!), how do I steer clear of all things pickled, garlicked, or onioned without offending?

Ah, the intricacies of the potluck. So I bring this back to you, readers. What should I bring to the upcoming potluck? And, what kind of potlucker are you?

Banner image courtesy of supafly

Recipe for an AKON Concert

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  • 1 undersold GM Place
  • 15 cued lines of angry AKON fans forced to exchange tickets for new seats to offset the undersold concert
  • 1000 really, really short skirts
  • a large handful of people from every ethnic community in Vancouver/Lower Mainland
  • 2 three ton giant banana shaped speakers capable of thumping so hard your clothes feel the breeze
  • a shitload of other smaller speakers
  • a large pinch of super drunk and tatted out “gangstars”
  • a sprinkle of the VPD’s finest
  • 20 cups of young men wearing funny baseball caps askew
  • 1 guy wearing a pink skirt and a mohawk
  • 1 AKON
  • 1 Karlwolf (never heard of him before, but you learn something new everyday)
  • 1 Danny Fernandez
  • 2 backup dancers from the “hood”
  • 1 random Surrey rapper who does a lot of pacing on the small stage
  • a generous mix of hummer and SUV limousines
  • a generous serving of concerned parents watching suspiciously as their teenage daughters scream they want to be a “private dancer” for AKON
  • 10 cups of boy-band-esque dance moves
  • 1000 bright lights
  • a bakers dozen angry after-concert fights
  • 1 code word that’s guaranteed to “take things to the next level with your woman”
Mix all ingredients and you have yourself an AKON concert.