Bread of the Week: Salt and Pepper Bread Sticks.

This recipe comes from 'Gino's Veg Italia!' by Gino D'Acampo. Page 58.

At home we tend to have a very organised Sunday afternoon. After a relaxing morning, we receive our food delivery for the week which I am in charge of. I love doing it for then I know what is missing or has been swapped or is simply below standards (I have seen mouldy mushrooms, Spinach which was as wet as dead and more). It allows me to know what is going on in my cupboard and fridges and to sort out small glitches. Having worked in the food industry for 6 years to finance my university fees gave me a FIFO (First In First Out) organisation down to a habit. From planning meals to cutting the cost to getting the best products during the right seasons, passing by emergency plan to find or replace any missing ingredient are just skills I acquired then which are so useful now in my household.

Home Made Chilli Jam

But after all the tedious tidying, after putting everything in the right places, I just love to sit down for a treat, proper brunch or a snack. Sometimes it is unusual, sometimes it could be bog standard potatoes skins filled with cheddar, cream and chive.  This time, I fancied very much finishing Gino's week with his Salt and Pepper Bread Sticks to dip in chutneys and chilli jam. 

Pic from Ethical Bread.

I love making bread. I find it so rewarding. But also the diversity of breads around, from culture to culture, generation to generation, worldwide is mesmerising. As I write this, going back into my cooking diaries, it is January 2016 and the start of a new year. I have only started making bread in the past two years, not many: the amount could be counted on the fingers of a single hand. Yet each time I did, there was a contentment which is hard to describe. From the kneading to tucking into a slice of bread you made, passing by taking your bread out of the oven, you get a peaceful sense of pleasure and achievement in its simplest terms. 

So in this first post of 2016, I made a resolution which will fill me all year round with plenty of satisfaction. No, it is not running miles and losing the dear old beer belly panting and sweating. No, it doesn't involve climbing Mount Everest to work my bingo wings, it just involves to make at least one or two breads a week. By the way, the proof will be in the kneading, and I bet on the bingos to be muscled up by the end of the year. I will let you know about the hard and fleshy result even if it is flabby enough to make me fly away in shame. 

Gino's Bread Sticks were such a treat that it convinced me back in October that I should do more 'bready' things. I expected them to turn out a bit like cheese twists. Yet they were more consistently delicious: the perfect dipping bread.  The book's pic looks scrumptious enough to give those breadsticks a good go.  I must say I enjoyed very much making that recipe. 

Yeast and Salt on opposite sides.

It is easy to follow. First you make the dough with the strong white flour (400 g) in a large bowl, 7 g fast action dried yeast on one side and 2 tsps of salt in the other. In a well in the middle you pour 3 tbsps of extra virgin olive oil. Then you pour 250 ml of warm water. Gino's tip to use the handle of the wooden spoon to mix the dough is an excellent one. I was amazed by the result. 

The Kneading.

Then you pour another 100 ml of warm water, gradually while you keep stirring. I would say that this first stage is the easiest of them all. The second is more demanding for it involves a little bit of elbow grease: it's a good kneading of the dough for 8 minutes. I must confess that I kept an eager eye on the clock. We don't want to over-knead the dough nor do too much exercise: smile, I don't think there was any risk for this to happen here anyhow...

The Puffed up ball of Dough.

After the energetic kneading comes the resting of the dough and of my arms for a good hour. You put your dough ball in an oiled bowl and cover the bowl with cling film. I left my bowl on my kitchen counter to keep it at room temperature like Gino D'Acampo advised.  Then the magic of  the yeast powder does its job silently, slowly but surely: from your nice ball of dough, you get a super ball of dough. It is a bit like Cinderella's fairy tale: one minute, she wears rags and the next a ball gown, one minute you have a pumpkin, the next a magnificent carriage. So the wonder of yeast doubled my dough in size.

We do buy dry fast yeast for convenience. It is usually a little

Sourdough Yeast Starter.

packet of 7 g of magical wonder powder. However as it is the month of resolutions as I write this article, I must say that I have been petting with the idea of having my own live yeast at home and to cultivate it religiously.  It ties in perfectly with my resolution to bake much more during the coming year too. It would also be a very educational project which carries with it many bread dreams in perspective.  

Now for the third step, it is all about preparing for the baking of the dough. The oven is preheated at gas mark 7 (220 C).  I needed two large baking trays, which I prepared according to Gino's instruction: lined with baking parchment.  The dough ball was turned onto a surface dusted with flour and semolina. It is important to handle the dough gently at this stage for you do want to keep air within it. 

Something went pear-shape... 

I stretched the dough into a rectangle and cut it into twenty strips. It sounded easy enough yet I found that part the hardest. The reason is you do not know how large and how flatten your dough needs to be at that stage. The following task was to roll the strips into 20 cm long sausages... My strips were already 20 cm long and when I rolled them up well they grew even longer sometimes so much so that I folded them and started again. 

Breadsticks Formation...

It is fair to say that I must have cocked up that dividing and rolling part somewhere, yet my not heaven batch went onto the lined baking trays. You do need two of those. I brushed the breadsticks with the egg white mix ( 1 egg white + 1 tbsp of water). Then comes the seasoning with the sea salt and the crushed black pepper. Simple yet wonderful to the taste-buds.

The Dips

It took about 15 minutes to bake. Then I let them cool on a grid for five to ten minutes. During that time , I prepared dipping bowls. One was the traditional yet effective olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar simply seasoned, great bread dipper. In another bowl,  I put dollops of my Chilli Jam which goes so well with bread and cheese. Then spooned two of my home made chutney a spiced apple one, which works really well with cheese too. The other is a red peppers, tomatoes and chilli chutney. For that type of bread the last chutney was a marriage made in heaven. 

Home made Chutney.

The breadsticks had a Ciabatta like texture. They were Fantastico to take one of the trademark words of Gino D'Acampo. I will definitely do those little babies again. They are awesome as a snack or as part of a party food buffet.

Saturday. 10/10/2015. 'Courgette & Roasted Pepper Risotto.'

This recipe comes from 'Gino's Veg Italia!' by Gino D'Acampo. Page 164.

The  Risotto.

Risotto is already one of our classics at home. I have been doing Risottos since a while being so fond of them and their versatility. You can make them as seasonal as you want or as complicated or as simple as you like. Like Pizza or Pasta, Risotto is a good base which you make sing with ingredients of choice which compliment one another. 

Now a creamy bowl of Risotto may not look the most restaurant'esque' and 'cheffy' yet it is one that can be nonetheless so tasty and comforting. It is home food at its best. The book picture of the dish is nonetheless inviting. 

The Prep.

Our orange mini sweet peppers.

For the ingredients, it features a 300g jar of roasted peppers. Now, I had a glut of peppers this year from my garden, the first year I grew sweet peppers of many shapes, the long and pointy Romanesco and the sweet mini ones. Unfortunately the variety Californian sweet bell peppers didn't do well at all. Although abundant, left all summer outside, the peppers turned red, orange and yellow inside only around the end of October so too late for that recipe unfortunately.  However it gave me the very idea of how to preserve my harvest of peppers to enjoy them for a longer period. 

Our red Peppers. Romanesco and sweet mini.

Home made jar of dried red peppers.

If doing my own roasted peppers jar was fun, it had a bit of a big mishap. Among the harvested peppers, we had one of the last chilli peppers which had not been picked out nor recognised to my crying eyes dilemma. I was in tears for the mistake. However I can only recommend that way of preserving a glut of peppers for those little jars of roasted peppers are handy to jazz up Pasta, Pizza and in this recipe Risotto. The other benefit, from a gardening point of view, is picking up the seeds of successful plants at that stage, in order to grow more next year. The Romanesco plants were a delight of strength and the sweet mini peppers were so bountiful, that they have to be resurrected somehow.

Peppers ready to oven roast.

To do the Risotto, you start by putting 50g of butter in a large wok like pan but with a heavy base along with 4 tbsps of olive oil. Then comes the onions, 2 red onions, to be softened however I did not put the parsley (4tbsps) at that time, because for me it was far too early to do so like in the recipe. Then I put the Arborio rice, but less than 400g, I usually measure it with my hand: Three handfuls are enough for two people and give leftovers. I let the rice to be coated by the butter in the pan before putting 80g of Cubetti di Pancetta. 

Risotto building up.

After the Pancetta another small addition to the recipe is a tbsp of white wine vinegar. I always use a spoon or a couple of spoons of vinegar in my Risottos to be absorb by the grain of rice. It gives it a sweet welcoming sharpness to begin with before I build up the flavour with ladle after ladle of stock.  The choice of vinegar needs to be bespoke or suiting the other ingredients in the Risotto.  Depending on which alcohol you use for the Risotto or/and which stock are usually good cues: white wine vinegar/white wine,  sherry vinegar/sherry etc.

Phantom River Wine.

Once the vinegar is absorbed, I poured the 150ml of dry white wine (Phantom River, Sauvignon Blanc) and let it simmer until it is reduced right down. Afterwards come the vegetable stock, not all of the 1,3 litre of it, just two ladle spoonfuls of it to start of. 

Home made Vegetable Stock.

Then the essence of the operation is pretty much, adding the ingredients little by little, building the flavours doing so, and make them simmer and absorb the stock little by little just as well. You start with a couple of cubed courgettes, after 12 minutes you add the roasted peppers. 

With Risottos, it is important to keep the focus on the pan and whatever it needs, either stirring, adding more stock or more ingredients. I love keeping an eye on them with a nice glass of wine, watching them build up slowly, with the TV in the background. 

Sweet mini peppers and Cayenne chillies.

At this moment in time, to my sheer pleasure, 'Masterchef' is back on with the professionals this time around. I can't help but loving Monica Galetti's facial expressions.  If I was disappointed with the BBC dropping Michel Roux Jr out of that programme or him leaving them for their staunch attitude because of him endorsing a product or an advert ( the all matter, I don't remember well so I could be wrong, therefore don't quote me on it, but it seemed to be a lot of non sense for nothing.) I must admit that taking Marcus Wareing as his replacement worked. Beside I have a book of him somewhere in my culinary crowded bookshelves which I want to try out for a week in the near future. 

Provolone Piccante.

Now, there is an ingredient we could not find which was the Provolone Piccante Cheese, Gino D'Acampo made it sound very nice and we were disappointed not to find the 80 g we needed for the recipe. If you do not know about that particular cheese, I recommend this page to learn all about it:


http://www.cheesemonthclub.com/provolone-piccante.htm

We went for a Gruyére in place of the Provolone this time around, but we are determined to try that Italian cheese in the future.

Le Gruyére.

Parsley.

Once the rice is just about cooked then I did add the 4 Tbsps of Parsley and gave a good stir. Parsley is full of goodness which you do not want to lose by overcooking it. When it is ready I inserted the last of the butter 50g to give that extra creaminess and the cheese.

The Creamy Result. 

The recipe was easy to follow. Like any good Risottos give it plenty of time, attention and patience and the result will be a bowl of comforting loveliness.  This one was absolutely Fantastico.  It did have the high five from both of us and finished the trial week of Gino D'Acampo's recipes beautifully.