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Pain Français- DBC Feb 2008

I am not a baker. So I joined the Daring Baker’s Challenge.

If I am not a baker, why in the world would I join a group of called Daring Bakers??? To get out of my comfort zone precisely. To try recipes I would never dare to try. To learn things, techniques I may be avoiding… to indeed, become a baker after all.

I was inspired last month with January’s challenge – Lemon Meringues. All the recipes I saw looked sooooo beautiful that I felt compelled to join. Please remind yourselves… I AM NOT A BAKER!!! My dessert repertoire extends to cookies and flans – anything else besides that is just baked fruits, fruit sauces, and boiling cans of condensed milk… ahhh, and buying Haagen-Dazs mango sherbet at the supermarket. Yet, after knowing all of this, I dared and joined the group. No pun intended.

I have to admit, I was daunted and excited when I received my first recipe – Pain Français from a Julia Child recipe…. Oh my gravy!!!! I was excited, as you know I take French lessons at the Alliance Française. To say I was super excited was an understatement!! But, why daunted??? French bread only has really 4 ingredients – flour, water, yeast and salt. What can be simpler??? Anything in this world is simpler, if you ask me.

And, I am not a quitter. I was not going to pass this up , my first Daring Baker’s challenge, just because I had an 11-page recipe – yes, this is not a typo, 11 pages… I was sent a video to see the kneading technique, the forming technique, the baking technique… I read the recipe 3-4 times. I saw the video twice. Yet… I never achieved the perfect loaf of Pain Français. The only thing I did change in the recipe… was the flour. I only like to use whole wheat products when I bake, so I used whole wheat flour… here are the results:

This is the flour I used – I do not recommend it for this recipe. This was the dough, before kneading. How dry it was should have told me something then, but I continued with the process as dictated in the recipe.

This was the dough after “kneading” for about 500 times… I was so tired after that, I had to lay down to rest. Really.

And this was the frustrating moment when, after 3 hours of “rising time” my dough was exactly the same size as it started.

But, in my opinion, there are many ways to define success. Success is not only demonstrated by showing here my “perfect loaves of french bread from the first try”… To me, success is also achieved by all the learnings gathered from trying to execute this recipe. I actually have a list of learnings I would like to share with you and all my fellow Daring Bakers:

You need a really large kitchen with lots of counter space to bake bread. – my kitchen is TINY and trying to knead bread almost inside the kitchen sink is not the ideal of any bread baker.
A Kitchen-Aid mixer is a must if you’re a petite bread baker. – I am sorry, but kneading 800 times by hand is not my definition of a good arm workout. My arm was about to fall off – I guess because the flour/water proportions were off when using whole wheat… but that’s another learning.
Stone-ground whole wheat flour is NOT ideal when trying to make Julia Child’s french bread recipe. – Start with whole wheat pastry flour and then move gradually to coarser flours, especially when you do not have a stand mixer.
Bread baking is not for the impatient. – You need a good day to make this recipe… no plans to go out, no plans for someone to come over, just stay home and bake bread. Now I know why Rachael Ray is not a baker…
Bread-baking is not for the compulsive cleaner. – No matter how clean I tried to keep the kitchen floor, there was flour all over… all over!!! all over my dishes, all over the sink, all over the counters, all over the floor, all over me!!!!
11 page recipes need to be left to professionals. – I am sure that if I had spent a day learning this by actually watching someone do it, I would have grasped it a little better. I felt consumed by the pages in the recipe.
I will try this recipe again SOON.– I was not able to do it all over before the posting date, but I will not let this recipe get to me.

Let’s say I have a new-found appreciation for bread bakers. And as a consolation prize for my ego… the only thing left for me was to try… The No-Knead Bread recipe. YEAH!!!

Tags: bread, daring bakers challenge, whole wheat

Comments 8 Comments
Categories daring bakers challenge, MY EDITORIAL

Tamarind Balls – The best reason to visit St. Kitts

27 Feb

Sorry, I feel like I have been neglecting all of you… but I was away for the weekend celebrating my 20th high school reunion aboard the Empress of the Seas, a weekend cruise that took us to St. Kitts and St. Maarten. It was awesome to spend time with my school friends, some of whom I had not seen in over 10 years and have known for almost 32 years of my life. I practically grew up with these people!!!

We visited St. Kitts as one of the stops in our journey… and my good friend Marly told me about Tamarind Balls. This is a local sweet made with tamarind pulp, sugar, sometimes spices and even has the tamarind seed inside. They’re tart and sweet, all in the same bite. This is my kind of souvenir – not a t-shirt or a hat, a good sweet treat only made and found in this little Caribbean island. My friend Marly discovered them because a cousin for her husband went to school in St. Kitts and used to bring them to them as gifts from the Island. She tells me she has kept some for over a year in her fridge and they do not go bad.

I bought them in a pharmacy – they were sitting right there amongst the traditional commercially made candy. The lighter colored version is made with sugar and spices. The darker ones are made only with sugar. To my taste, they taste truer to a raw tamarind fruit. They’re both good in their won little way. They cost me about a $1 USD each. I brought in about 10 packages – some for me, some to give as gifts…

The beach was great – we went to Turtle Beach, with Nevis on the background. I will not go into the details on how we got to Turtle Beach, but to me, the best reason to visit St Kitts, is for their Tamarind Balls.

Tags: St. Kitts, tamarind

Comments 10 Comments
Categories MY EDITORIAL, treats

Green Banana Mash

21 Feb

In Puerto Rico, when one does not feel well, we usually immediately crave or get prescribed “viandas” – viandas are mostly tubers – potatoes, yuca, yautia, malangas, sweet potatoes, yams, and for some reason plantains and green bananas are jammed up in there. They are easy on the digestive system and seem to help you “get on your feet” again.

For some weird reason, I was craving viandas yesterday. I went to the supermarket and spent 19 cents on 3 green bananas. there is still something cheap at the supermarket. Yes, bananas can be eaten ripe and green too… but you need to cook them. We usually boil them. But I need to show you a trick for it.

Green bananas, just like green plantains, have what we call “mancha” – they release a sap when you cut them open. To avoid this, you just wipe some cooking oil in your hands and on the knife you’ll use to prevent the sap to stick to any of them. When you go and boil them, add some cooking oil to the boiling water to prevent the sap to get on the saucepan.

Be careful – this mancha or sap STAINS A LOT. If you get it on your clothes, more than likely you will not be able to get it off. There’s a local saying when you can’t deny being a Puerto Rican, people say that you have “la mancha de plátano” or “plantain sap stain” resembling the fact that the sap from a green plantain or banana can’t never be cleaned or taken away.

Here’s what you do…

GREEN BANANA MASH

3 green bananas

Salt – for the boiling water

Cooking oil – for the boiling water, your hands and the knife

Extra-virgin olive oil

Garlic Salt to taste

In a large pot, fill with water. Add salt and a squirt of cooking oil.
Cut off the ends of each banana and cut a slit all the way down the banana. Do not take the skin off the banana. We’ll boil them with the skins on.
Boil in the pot for about 20 minutes, until the bananas are fork tender. the water will turn a weird color – don’t dispair. This is the sap in the banana skin.
Drain the bananas. Take the skin off. It should come off very easily.
Mash with a fork while still warm… they’ll be harder to mash when they’re cool. Drizzle with olive oil until you get a smooth consistency and season with garlic salt.

With a few more steps… we can convert this into mangu, a delicious Dominican dish. That in an upcoming installment – OK?

I had this with my Avocado and Tomato Salad.

Tags: green banana, mash

Comments 11 Comments
Categories Puerto Rican delicacies, side dishes

Avocado and Tomato Salad

21 Feb

I have a pet peeve – why do TV chefs teach people to cut avocados using a knife and a spoon?? Cutting the whole avocado in half, taking the pit out using a knife, spooning the flesh away from the skin… why so much hassle???

For the single person… you would never be able to eat a whole avocado in one sitting… at least not the ones usually found here in Puerto Rico. I believe these are called Fuerte Avocados. It’s difficult to eat one in one sitting, unless you were making guacamole or cooking for a crowd.

First – it’s easier to cut avocados in wedges. And if the avocado is ripe, the skin will come right off. If you cut them in wedges, you just use/eat what you want at that moment and wrap the remainder with tight plastic wrap for the next time. No need to eat a whole avocado in one sitting.

So… avocado season is starting again… apparently, because they’re all over the supermarkets and markets. So I bought one and made myself a quick easy salad to accompany my Green Banana Mash.

AVOCADO AND TOMATO SALAD

2-3 wedges of avocado, cut in pieces

1 medium sized tomato, cubed

Extra-virgin olive oil

Garlic Salt

Mix everything in a small bowl and enjoy

Tags: avocados, tomato

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Categories Salad, side dishes

Quick Lettuce, Tomato and Corn Salad

19 Feb

I had some leftover Sauteed Corn and Onions but not enough to eat by itself, so I created this quick salad.

I grew up eating canned corn… I will out my mom and confess that when we were growing up, salad was many times opening up a can of corn or a can of string green beans. I loved them, but now I know better. One of my former secret indulgences were white rice with tuna, ketchup and corn. Mmmm!!! My grandpa used to call this – Arroz Pio Pio.

No need to heat up the corn, just take the chill off from the fridge and it’s good to go.