Home made bread II.

I got this recipe from my friend Iveta from Vancouver and I have to say it is the simplest and best European style of bread I got and tested.
Iveta’s recipe is based on Jim Laheye book “My Bread” and this bread taste evokes my memories of Brno – my favourite one was made in a bakery in Zabrdovice (Brno city borough) since 1922.
I would like to present you today my modified variation of this recipe and would be pleased – as usual - to hear your experience and comments.

Ingredients:

4.5 cup All Purpose flour
1.5 cup Light Rye flour
2.5 tsp salt 
1 tsp dry bakers yeast
2 2/3 cups of lukewarm water
1/2 tsp caraway seeds

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast in water and let rise for a while.
2. Mix all ingredients in a bigger bowl or in a KitchenAid.
 
3. Place dough into a big pot (approx. 7-10l) and cover. Place pot into the oven and turn the light on. Let rise for 12-24 hours (depends on your daily schedule).

4. Prepare deeper frying pan, bowl or wicker scuttle. Personally I’m using a special dish for baking fish – the loaf seems like to have a great “microclimate” and shape as well. Place the dough into the form, pot or scuttle and cover with cloth. Let rise for another 1.5-3 hours again in a oven with light turned on.

5. Heat oven approx. 30 minutes before baking for 250°C/490-500°F. If you are using cast-iron pot – pre-heat this one as well and then place the loaf on a parchment paper. Cover the pot and turn the temperature back to 200°C/425°F and bake for 30minutes, then uncover and bake for another 30 minutes.

6. Take out of the oven and smear with salt-water. Let cool down.

Lutika from Mikulov

Mikulov is beautiful small town in the south of Moravia (founded in 12.century – check this: http://www.mikulov.cz/photogallery/photo-album/?contentId=84387) on the border with Austria where live part of my family and which I always love to visit on my ways to Europe. Thanks to my relatives Jarka and Vasek taste Mikulov for me as well like “Lutika”.
To describe Lutika is quite easy – it taste like Mexican salsa with touch of Czech. Uncle Vasek always used to say: “… it is so good you can eat it by its own – because it taste so mild, or like a side-dish as mustard or on your fresh made toast – because the end is piquant”.
I would like to present you today the recipe for Lutika. It is very easy and the result is great! It is quite seasonal recipe of late summer or fall, but you can make couple of jars anytime during the year – as I did too on my birthday…

Ingredients:

2kg tomatoes
5 hot peppers
1kg red mild peppers (can be green or yellow too)
1/2kg onion
8 cloves garlic
120g sugar
300ml vegetable oil
200ml vinegar
2 tbsp salt

Directions:

1. Prepare all vegetables, clean, cut in pieces.

2. Ground everything on a meat grinder.
 
3. Put vegetable into deeper pan and cook for about 30 minutes. Then add sugar, oil, vinegar and salt and cook for another 90 minutes until the volume shrink on about half.

4. Let cool over night and serve or put into small jars. You can eat it immediately or sterile.

Quick home made pot-cheese (from North American ingredients)

As I promised in my previous articles – here is the recipe for very easy and quick home made pot-cheese. Sometimes it is a little bit rush in the kitchen and too far to the store to buy one or it is not enough time to make the real one from sour milk… This combination works just perfect because its neutral taste – great to use it as a sweet or salty version.

Ingredients:

1 cottage cheese
1 cream cheese

Directions:

1. First remove the liquid from the top of cottage cheese a then mix well with hand mixer.

2. In a bowl (best stand mixer) mix cream cheese and mixed cottage cheese.

3. Whip very well.







4. Pot-cheese can be store in a jar in fridge or use immediately as a filling (add egg yolk, vanilla and raisins) or as a base for spreads.

Czech traditional bread

I can’t and I will not speak for everyone and on general level, but I have to confess that the first what my Czech taste buds abroad was craving for was Czech traditional bread with caraway seeds… In some bakeries (esp. in big cities) you can buy Swiss, German or Austrian versions of traditional European bread. No doubt this kind of breads are quite tasty, but the flavour is not 100% compliant… I tried many recipes at home and it took me a while until I got the classical taste, shape and quality… I would like to present to you today this recipe for the classical rye bread made without yeast. The preparation is not complicated, but you have to count with some extra time for the first time (to prepare starter) – about 4 more days. After that everything is very easy. Try please with me this recipe and I’m always very thankful for you comments and recommendation and experience.
 

Ingredients (starter) I.:

1/2 cup and 2 tbsp rye flour (divided – see directions)
1/2 cup and 2 tbsp lukewarm water (divided – see directions)

Directions (starter) I.:

1. In a taller glass (jar) mix 1/2 cup lukewarm water with 1/2 cup of rye flour (thin dough).

2. Cover with cloth and leave for 24 hours on warmer spot in the kitchen (optimum 25°C-30°C). In summer it is with no problems, in winter time the best place is oven with the light on – it creates ambient temperature).
3. The second and third day check the starter, mix it and add 1 tbsp of flour and 1 tbsp of water each day. You can “help” to start fermentation by adding little bit of water from Sauer kraut (raw, not pasteurized) or kéfir.
4. The four day is starter ready to be use. It is recommended always to keep a portion of the starter (add more flour and water) in the fridge and use it always when needed for the next runs. Usually I’m baking once a week my fresh bread, the starter last in the fridge up to 3 weeks – after that period of time (when is not used or reactivated) has to be prepared from scratch.

Ingredients (bread dough) II.:

1/2 cup starter
3 cups rye flour (divided – see directions)
2 cups wheat flour
2 cups water (divided – see directions – it is necessary to correct the final amount according the required consistency of bread)
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp caraway seeds

Directions (bread dough) II.:

1. Always is the best time to start in the evening (approx. 7p.m.): in the bowl mix 1 cup of rye flour with 1/2 cup starter and 1 cup lukewarm water (thin dough). Cover with cloth and leave by the room temperature to rise over night.
2. Next day – in the morning (approx. 6:00a.m.): add to the mixture from step 1 other 2 cups of rye flour and 1 cup of warm water (approx. 35°C) and make thicker dough. Cover with cloth and leave by a little bit warmer temperature (best again oven with a light on) to rise until afternoon.
3. Same day – in the afternoon (approx 5p.m.) mix the dough from step 2 with 2 cups of wheat flour, 2 tbsp of salt and 2 tbsp of caraway seed and knead well.

4. Make a loaf and place it on the baking paper on the baking tin. Smear with water and place it to the oven (with light on) together with a stainless steel bowl with warm water and let rise for 3 more hours.
 


5. In about 8p.m. turn the oven on approx. 200°C (400°F) a bake for 60 minutes (the time is necessary to correct, because each oven is different) – until the bread get a nice brown-golden colour. Smear with water and cover with cloth and leave cool down over night.

6. Next morning is a great crunchy bread ready for healthy breakfast or for sandwiches to go.

Scrambled eggs, which changed my world

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1/4 cup butter
salt, pepper and chives

Directions:
1. Separate yolks from whites (THAT IS THE TRICK).
2. Melt piece of butter in the pan – when butter becomes foamy, slightly caramelized and start smell, add egg whites and let them totally coagulate (until all liquid is gone).
3. In this moment add egg yolks and serve (for those of you who like running egg yolk), otherwise cook them for one more minute.

4. Now add some salt, pepper and chives for taste and decor.

Home made plum butter

This recipe is very easy, but little bit time consuming (about 4 hours). On the other hand this technology doesn’t require such a work as the classical one (6 hours or the whole night plums stirring in a copper pot…) and the result is great!

Ingredients:

5kg ripe Italian or damson plums (but in the end it doesn’t matter, it is possible to make plum butter from any kind of plums… but classic is classic).
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
10 pieces clove
(and event. couple of star anise)

Directions :

1. Washed, halved and pitted plums put into a big roasting pan (best non-adhesive).
 
2. Add sugar and spices to taste and bake in oven 180°C (350°F) for 4 hours.

3. After 2 hours check the roasting process and mix everything with hand mixer till the mash is homogenous.

4. During the next 2 hours check regularly and stir with wooden spoon. Place hot plum butter into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Cover with hot sterilized lids and rings. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Remove to counter and allow to cool before storing in a cool, dry, dark place. If you don't process in a water bath, the butter can be kept refrigerated for up to 5 weeks or frozen for up to one year.
 

Home made pot cheese (classic curd)

This recipe I got from my friend Klara from Vancouver and I did some technological changes in it to achieve best yield and quality of pot cheese (I’m able to prepare from 4L of milk about 1kg of pot cheese). Its preparation is quite simple and easy. The base for pot cheese is sour milk, but what is very important – milk has to be fermented by ambient (room) temperature and not in a fridge, because it would become bitter taste.

Ingredients:

4L milk (3,25%)
2 tbsp vinegar
4 tbsp sour cream

Directions:

1. Pour milk from a jar into a big pot, add vinegar and sour cream and stir well. Cover with clean cloth (to protect milk from dust or small insect).
2. Process of milk fermentation is done in 2 days (you will see small loupes). In this moment heat the liquid to approx. 45°C (the best way how to measure the temperature is you forefinger – if the feeling is really hot, but you can still stir with the finger – that is the right temperature) and pour this thick liquid into a big strainer (lined with cheese cloth) over a pot (to catch whey – it is great source of vitamins - B1, B2, B5, B6, B9, B12, H, C, E and minerals – magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, natrium and zinc; can be stored in glass jars in the fridge and use internal or external).
 
3. Let the mixture drain away over night.
  
4. Pot cheese can be store in a glass dose in the fridge.