It is not exactly bread-baking season (especially given that I live on a second floor apartment where it gets sweltering in the summer), but I had been fixated on the idea of eating an orange rye bread for a while, so on Saturday evening, when the temperature seemed deceptively cool (outside), I decided to whip out my Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book and give their orange-rye recipe a try.
I've had this wonderful cookbook for years, and as with many cookbooks, I have my stock favorites. I tend to make probably the same 10 recipes over and over again, while there are others that I have yet to make. In fact, I could probably plot a nicely skewed bell curve of the frequency with which I make the various breads in this cookbook.
I made the orange-rye a while back, precisely to break this habit/skewed bell curve pattern and ended up liking the bread and wondering why I hadn't made it all of these years.
Thus, here I was at a too-late-to-start-making-bread hour poring over my Laurel's Bread Book, debating whether to go through with it and bake this bread that I had been fixating over for the past two weeks.
However, while pondering over this and resolving to make the bread after all, another recipe for a honey-spiced rye on the opposite page caught my eye. I compared the ingredients and decided that the latter had more interesting stuff (honey, almonds, lots of interesting spices, orange rind, as opposed to just orange rind and honey for the orange-rye recipe), and made that instead. It calls for a 1/2 cup of almonds, but since I didn't have enough almonds, I also added toasted hazelnuts to the mix.
It called for a mere "pinch" of anise seed, but I added 1 tsp of caraway seed. (The next time I make it, I plan to increase this by another teaspoon.)
The other modification I made to the original recipe was to chop up slightly chunkier bits of orange peel (boil or soak in hot water to slightly soften) than the recipe called for.
Unfortunately, I didn't put it in the oven till 11-ish, so I didn't get to try it till the following morning, but I liked it so much, I think I must've devoured a third of the loaf in just a day.
For the time being, I've dubbed it my new favorite bread. Well, ok, favorite "quick" bread.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The quintessential summer salad I
I have a feeling I will be posting about many quintessential summer salads, and hence the need for the modifier, "I". . ..
About a year ago, a woman brought a wonderfully yummy savory watermelon salad to a potluck. The salad had watermelon chunks, some white thing that tasted like bland feta cheese, but had a good mouth feel and went really well with the other things in this salad, and toasted pine nuts. I found myself coming back for more and more.
I found my friend later that evening and asked her for the recipe. I also asked her what the mysterious white things were. Turns out the recipe is on epicurious, and the white thing is ricotta salata.
Here is the recipe. Note how few items the recipe calls for. Aside from the salad dressing (oil, lime, basil), it calls for just three items.
I have been making this recipe weekly for the past few weeks. I usually cut the watermelon into cubes and let it sit in a colander for a day or two in the fridge to sap out the moisture, as the salad tends to otherwise get soggy. I also add very little salad dressing and prefer to add it as I eat it, rather than pour it all at once. Actually, you could even eat this salad w/o the dressing.
The melange of the different flavors--the toasted nutty taste of the pine nuts, the succulent sweetness of the watermelon, and the firm texture of the cheese--and the slight tartness that the lime vinaigrette imparts complement each other so well. It is also colorful to boot.
Did I mention it also takes 5 minutes to make and requires no oven use (except to toast the pine nuts), and thus is the perfect summer dish? In fact, it is salad, main dish, and dessert in one!
Today, I made this very salad with yellow watermelon instead of the usual red. I enjoyed the colors (and of course, the taste) just as much. Next week, I might get both red and yellow watermelon and mix the colors.
About a year ago, a woman brought a wonderfully yummy savory watermelon salad to a potluck. The salad had watermelon chunks, some white thing that tasted like bland feta cheese, but had a good mouth feel and went really well with the other things in this salad, and toasted pine nuts. I found myself coming back for more and more.
I found my friend later that evening and asked her for the recipe. I also asked her what the mysterious white things were. Turns out the recipe is on epicurious, and the white thing is ricotta salata.
Here is the recipe. Note how few items the recipe calls for. Aside from the salad dressing (oil, lime, basil), it calls for just three items.
I have been making this recipe weekly for the past few weeks. I usually cut the watermelon into cubes and let it sit in a colander for a day or two in the fridge to sap out the moisture, as the salad tends to otherwise get soggy. I also add very little salad dressing and prefer to add it as I eat it, rather than pour it all at once. Actually, you could even eat this salad w/o the dressing.
The melange of the different flavors--the toasted nutty taste of the pine nuts, the succulent sweetness of the watermelon, and the firm texture of the cheese--and the slight tartness that the lime vinaigrette imparts complement each other so well. It is also colorful to boot.
Did I mention it also takes 5 minutes to make and requires no oven use (except to toast the pine nuts), and thus is the perfect summer dish? In fact, it is salad, main dish, and dessert in one!
Today, I made this very salad with yellow watermelon instead of the usual red. I enjoyed the colors (and of course, the taste) just as much. Next week, I might get both red and yellow watermelon and mix the colors.
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