Category Archives: Bread and Pizza

The No-Knead Bread

If you haven’t heard about the no-knead bread by now, you clearly don’t read many food blogs (or newspapers, for that matter.) Last year, in The New York Times–actually, TWO years ago in The New York Times (the article was published November 8, 2006! Boy, I’m way behind on making this)–Mark Bittman coaxed a recipe from master bread baker Jim Lahey for perfect bakery-quality bread at home. Shockingly, the recipe required no work, no kneading of any kind. The food world was astonished. Food bloggers went ga-ga. I watched them go ga-ga. And, finally, last week I decided to go ga-ga myself.

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Homemade Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Rosemary & Gorgonzola

Sometimes the name of a dish sounds so intimidating your immediate reaction is: “Pish posh! I can’t make that! And why did I just say pish posh?”

Such might be the case with the pizza you see above. You hear “pizza” and that doesn’t sound so difficult, but you add “caramelized onions, rosemary and gorgonzola” and you feel like you’re on Planet Impossible. Well come back to Earth, Earthling, and let me assure you: that pizza you see above may SOUND difficult, but it’s really a cinch. Here, let me convince you.

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A Jew and His Pizza

Wolfgang Puck introduced the Jewish pizza at Spago in the 90s: it’s pizza dough with creme fraiche, smoked salmon and caviar. I didn’t have any caviar tonight, but after a quick jaunt to a high end grocery store in Chelsea (after a movie) I was able to throw together a Jewish pizza in less than 15 minutes. The secret was pre-made pizza dough. Ya, that’s sucky, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I baked the pizza dough in a 450 oven for 10 minutes, after brushing with olive oil and scattering with thinly sliced onions:

Meanwhile, I combined creme fraiche with dill, salt and pepper. Once the pizza cooled down a bit, out of the oven, I spread the creme fraiche mixture on top, laid on the smoked salmon, and sprinkled chopped onion, capers and more dill over the top. The result? Oy vey, was it good! My son the doctor, he kvelled. So don’t be a meshugana, make a Jewish pizza. Put some meat on your bones. And call me–you never call!

WARNING: Jewish pizza may or may not cause unwanted Jewish mother-like symptoms. These may include nosiness, a tendency to meddle, a love for Barbra Streisand, pushiness, red onion breath and/or shpilkes in the geneckteckessoink. Please consult your son the doctor before baking.

Pita Party

There’s nothing like hot pita. Part of my multi-cultural awakening here in New York has been a growing awareness of pita. I like dipping it into hummus at Hummus Place, eating it with falafel at Chickpea, and–most of all–using it to scoop up the multiple Greek dips you can get at New York’s many Greek restaurants. At Snack Taverna, the trio is called Pikilia and it comes with melitzanosalata (roasted eggplant, parsley, and garlic), taramosalata (carp roe and lemon), and tzatziki (sheep’s milk yogurt, cucumber and garlic.) The best part is the hot pita and the other night I decided to recreate the experience at home:

This won’t be a very long post because the pita recipe I found online wasn’t that great. It called for whole wheat flour and the pitas came out tasting too…healthy. I think the pitas at Snack Taverna are made from white flour only so they’re lighter and springier. These tasted like hippies.

The rest was really simple. I made a Greek salad:

I used the techniques I learned in Greece that you can read about here.

And then for the dips, I mostly cheated. I made hummus from scratch (used the Barefoot Contessa recipe and it came out thicker than I would have liked) and bought the tzatziki and taramosalata from Union Market. I figured making the pitas from scratch would be enough work–although, it turned out, it really wasn’t that much work. You should try it.

And so, in conclusion, we have learned in this post that when we crave restaurant food we very often can make it for ourselves at home. So if you don’t live in New York and you wish you could go on a Greek odyssey, don’t have a pity party. Have a pita party! It’s simple and well worth it.

Make Bread

Last week the NYT published a piece on how to make supremely excellent bread at home with minimal work and maximum reward. Luisa of Wednesday Chef attempted it and her results look marvelous. But the other day I wanted home-made bread and I wanted it then and there. The NYT technique requires 12 hours of resting and I was impatient, so what could I do?

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Pissaladière: A Play

Niçois Onion Tart Theater Proudly Presents the debut performance of

PISSALADIERE

(or, “Fear of a Jarred Anchovy”)

Starring:

Anchovy

Billy, The Anchovy Hater

Jacques, The Friendly Frenchman

PLUS: Special Guests!

Please take your seat. The performance will begin after the jump.

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This Bread Has Bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S

This post is dedicated to Gwen Stefani, whose “Hollaback Girl” did for bananas what “MacArthur Park” did for cake.

According to Gwen, “this shit is bananas,” and I couldn’t agree more. This is a fancy banana bread from a recipe in the Gourmet Cookbook available here at Epicurious.

The bread contains three very ripe bananas, toasted coconut, lemon zest and sour cream. It’s also supposed to contain macadamia nuts but I forgot to buy them. Are all these flourishes worth the effort or does this banana bread lack the simplicity of a more basic banana bread? And more importantly: am I your Hollaback Girl?

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Fall into Fall with an inFALLible Recipe: Pumpkin Apple Bread

The very first thing I can remember making on a regular basis–when I was right on the precipice of becoming an amateur gourmet—was pumpkin bread. It’s a great recipe to start with if you’re scared of the kitchen, if you don’t have fancy equipment, if you want all the pleasures of baking without the hassle. It requires two bowls and a whisk. And loaf pans. That’s all. And your apartment will smell like heaven.

I was looking for that recipe the other day, but then I opened my Gourmet cookbook and found this recipe for Pumpkin Apple Bread. If fall were bundled up and baked in a loaf, it would look (taste, and smell) like this:

I just tried to find the recipe on Epicurious because it’s in the Gourmet cookbook, but it’s not there. So I will do as I’ve been doing, lately, and type it out for your cooking pleasure. I am too good to you people.

I love all the spices in here though some people don’t. Like my mom, for example. She once tasted my chai tea and said: “Blech! There’s cloves in there! I hate cloves!”

So if you are anti-Autumnal, like my mom, you may want to stay away—but you fall lovers, step up. This is the bread for you.

For topping:

Whisk together pumpkin…

[Note on my pumpkin! This was the only pumpkin I could find in either Whole Foods or Gristede's. I'm not convinced it's solid packed. But the end result was still ok. END NOTE.]

…oil, sugar, and eggs in a large bowl. Add flour mixture, stirring until well combined. Fold in apples

Divide batter between buttered loaf pans. Sprinkle half of topping evenly over each loaf.

Cool loves in pans on a rack for 45 minutes, then turn out onto rack and cool completely, about 1 hour.

I stupidly made this very late at night (as I am wont to do) and couldn’t resist a piece at 2 am, when it cooled. This was a bad idea. There is so much sugar in here, I was up for hours.

But my my my, did my apartment smell great. And did this taste great. As a testament to how great it tastes, I dropped half the bread on the floor just now and I’m still going to eat it. Ya, you can judge me, but whatever. I like this bread. Deal with it.