Monday, March 23, 2015

Bread, Scallops and Sweet Black Rice

Food...I LOVE cooking and we love food...of all kinds, Asian, Middle Eastern, French, Italian, Cuban, Mexican etc. etc.  Thai is also a favorite.  It's all about Flavor, how it tastes.  The textures, the heat, the piquancy,  the manner of cooking, the flavor profiles of a culture of food.  We love grocery stores and open-air markets and incidental sales of spices and flavorings.  Proteins, the meats...the vegetables and legumes, potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, oh tomatoes!  Love it all, all!  To be able to access all of this is a dream come true.  Bread, the staff of Life, wheat, barley, the darkened crust carrying all those dark, caramelized flavors.  I've learned so very much and I dearly love the tasks that food bring to me. 

A long time ago we bought a bread machine, it was interesting but not used in the manner in which it was supposed to.  Only to do the effort required to turn the flour, salt, sugar and water...and, of course yeast, into the dough needed to make bread.  So, with those slight limitations I began the "baking experiment".  My first awful results were the production of hockey pucks, bricks and door stops.  This phase lasted for many, many sessions.  Flour in, rocks and bricks out.  Not enough knowledge and damned little experience.  There are whole encyclopedic discussions of the theory of baking, how an oven works, temperatures, flours, salts, sugars, water...all of it.  One could spend a lifetime READING about baking and never actually doing it.  I had those feelings in the early days of my baking knowledge.  Once I got something that worked to make something vaguely akin to real bread I was pleased somewhat.  The science took over.  You NEED science when baking, recipes are nearly exact.  They are tight to the needs of the flour, salt, sugar and water in various couplings.  Science! 

In these latter days my breads have become almost wonderful, damned good at least...and best of all eatable!   Oh the darkened crust, all that flavor in that thin, crispy wonderfulness.  Today and yesterday were high points in baking for me, 4 loaves yesterday, three to my neighbors and today 2 more that will be delivered to our renters and to our next door neighbors.  I wilkl find pictures for your enjoyment and disgust.  Yes, I'm a show off!





 

No comments: