welsh rarebit mac and cheese

What to make when celebrating the end of a two-day migraine? Macaroni and cheese, of course! Here's the recipe for a mac-and-cheese dish I put together on the fly this evening in celebration of actually feeling hungry again.

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a medium pot, set about a quart of water to boil (for cooking pasta). When the water boils, add about 2 cups of dry pasta and cook until just tender.

3. In a medium saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and saute one large onion, minced as finely as you can make it.

4. When the onions are going translucent, add 2 tablespoons of your favorite mustard (we used Stonewall Kitchen's cheddar ale mustard; a strong Dijon would also be nice) and about 1/4 tsp of smoked paprika.

5. In a 2-cup pyrex measure, warm 1/2 cup milk in the microwave and stir in 2 teaspoons of cornstarch. Add to onion mixture and stir until mixture begins to thicken.

6. Add remaining cup of milk and about a cup of shredded cheese (we used sharp cheddar). Add salt and pepper to taste.

7. Turn off heat until milk mixture once everything has incorporated, and set aside until pasta is done.

8. Mix pasta and cheese sauce in one of the saucepans and pour into a loaf pan or equivalent oven-safe dish.

9. Sprinkle top with about 1/4 of paprika and bake in oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

two modified savory bread recipes

This weekend, Hanna and I made two of our standard bread recipes -- with slight variation. Mostly due to that thing where we didn't have what the recipe called for in the cupboards, so we had to improvise (that happens a lot!).

1. Goat Cheese Apricot Stilton Biscuits (Joy the Baker). We've long loved this particular drop biscuit recipe, which you make in a cast iron pan in the oven. We happened to be craving biscuits to go with tomato and vegetable soup on Saturday and thought to make these. Except we didn't have goat cheese. We


2. Cheddar, Beer and Mustard Pull-Apart Bread (Smitten Kitchen). So okay, we didn't so much improvise this one as let Smitten Kitchen improvise for us. With some pretty tasty results! In a slight variation, we used whole seed mustard and a cheddar made with caramelized onions. You won't be sorry.

stuff we've been making

As 2011 draws to a close, I thought I'd share a few of the recipes that kept us busy over the holidays. Both Hanna and I had this past week off from work (hooray for slightly anachronistic academic schedules!) so we were able to while away even more time than usual in coffee shops and in the kitchen. Over the past week we've made the following, all of which come highly recommended:

Joy the Baker | Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie Cake. I didn't actually chill the dough, as recommended, and it came out just fine.

The Way the Cookie Crumbles | Mushroom Farro Soup. Made with barley instead of farro 'cause that's what we had around. And a bit more tomato paste than the recipe calls for. Particularly good as left-overs.

smitten kitchen | cinnamon brown butter breakfast puffs. We just sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the tops of these muffins, rather than rolling them in butter, and thought they came out very tasty all the same.

smitten kitchen | nutmeg maple butter cookies. As it says on the tin. We found these worked best as tiny cookies, since they're basically maple shortbread ... a couple of bites go a long way!

via

And from Hanna's father, a recipe for lentil cakes that we modified into lentil casserole:

Lentil-Curry Casserole


Makes: 8 x 8 baking dish (four to six servings, depending on whether main- or side dish)


1 3/4 cups cooked lentils, any kind
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
olive oil, for frying
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup feta, crumbled
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees; lightly oil 8 x 8 glass baking dish and set aside.
2. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent, add curry powder, salt and pepper.
3. In a medium bowl, combine crumbled feta, lentils, eggs, milk, and 1 cup of breadcrumbs.
4. Add sauteed onion mixture to bowl, stir until well combined.
5. Spoon mixture into baking dish and spread evenly, sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs on top.
6. Bake for 35 minutes until edges are browning and casserole is firm to the touch.

The casserole is excellent hot or cold, and stores well for left-overs (we've made it twice now and it packed well for lunch at work.

Chai Rose Cookies

Last May when Hanna and I were in Holland (Mich.) I ordered a drink at lemonjello's that was a chai latte with a shot of rose flavoring. Heaven on earth. The problem is, rose flavoring is a rare offering at coffee shops and not the sort of thing that's easy to find at grocery stores, even a number of our favorite specialty shops here in Boston. But this morning Hanna and I were in Harvard Square for coffee and window shopping + actual shopping and I found rose water at the fabulous Cardullo's. So tonight we decided to make cookies using rose water, and found the following recipe on the Food Network website. We followed it with slight tweaks, so here is the altered version:

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon rosewater

Instructions


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

1) Combine flour and spices in a bowl and set aside.

2) Cream butter and oil and brown sugar, mix in rose water.

3) Add dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time until fully incorporated. Cookie dough will be crumbly, like a dry pie crust dough.

4) Use hands to form walnut-sized balls of dough and place on a cookie sheet roughly 2 inches apart.

5) Bake for 15 minutes and use spatula to transfer cookies to wire rack for cooling.

Serve with warm milk and/or chai tea.

Maple-Honey Martini

Hanna and I are kicking back and relaxing this evening to watch part one of Ken Burns' Prohibition. What better beverage to pair with dinner, therefore, than something alcoholic? We decided to go with a martini I invented on the fly last weekend:

• 1/3 whiskey
• 1/3 honey liquor
• 1/3 maple syrup
• ice

You know the drill: mix the liquids thoroughly, add an ice cube to chill. Enjoy ... slowly.

And the first half hour of the documentary is pretty promising.

Eggplant Almond Gouda Meatloaf

from back in August, but still more or less accurate

On Sunday our CSA allotment contained two eggplant with which we decided to make dinner. I started with this eggplant meatball recipe from our CSA farm blog, added a few elements from the Moosewood cookbook's eggplant almond enchiladas and improvised liberally with what we had in the kitchen. If I might be allowed to brag a bit, the result was edible and in fact may be replicated in the near future!

INGREDIENTS:

2 small-to-medium eggplant, roasted and mashed (see below)

1 small onion, minced

1 green chile, minced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 can tomato paste (4 oz.)

3/4 cup red wine of your choice

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

1/2 cup almond meal

1 cup grated smoked gouda cheese

3 Tbl olive oil

1 tsp basil

1 tsp fennel seed

1/2 tsp sage

1/2 tsp thyme

salt and pepper to taste

eggplant are essentially rude vegetables

DIRECTIONS:

1. Turn oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Stab eggplant with a knife (as you would a potato) and place on a baking tin. Set to bake for 30 minutes.

2. While the eggplant is roasting, mince the onion, garlic and chile and saute in olive oil. Once onions are translucent add spices, 1/4 cup red wine, and approximately 1/3 of the can of tomato paste. let simmer for about 5 minutes and then turn off the heat. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine bread crumbs, almond meal, and grated cheese. Toss with fingers until mixed.

4. Remove the eggplant from the oven, skin and chop (you may need to let them eggplant cool a bit so you don't burn your fingers!). Put through a blender or food processor with remaining 1/2 cup of red wine to turn the eggplant to mush.

5. Add eggplant mixture and onion mixture to the bread crumbs, almonds, and cheese. Mix with hands to thoroughly combine.

6. Press meatloaf into a buttered glass loaf pan. Use the remaining tomato paste to cover the top of the loaf.

7. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. 

8. Slice and enjoy! Also works well as leftovers.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

Via smitten kitchen.

Hanna requested dessert for this evening, and since I'd been salivating over this recipe all week I decided to go for it. Actually super easy.

butter + sugar + wine = deliciousness

INGREDIENTS:

6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup red wine, any kind (we used a merlot)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 generous cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 generous teaspoon cinnamon

eggs in afternoon sunlight

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325; grease 9-inch cake round or 8 x 8 glass baking dish.
1. Cream butter and sugars until smooth.
2. Add egg and beat until smooth.
3. Add wine and vanilla.
4. Combine dry ingredients and then add to liquid about 1/4 cup at a time.
5. Bake 25-30 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean), let cool at least 10 minutes before cutting.

smitten kitchen includes a recipe for marscapone topping which we didn't make but ... yeah. Sounds tasty!

Corn-Cucumber Tabouli

Here's a recipe I made up last week when we were having some friends over for a Doctor Who night and needed something to go with the crackers and cheese. It turned out so well that we made it again last night.

CORN-CUCUMBER TABOULI

4 ears of corn, steamed and cut from the cob
2 small cucumbers, diced
1 small red onion, diced
1 large tomato, diced
1/4 cup fresh mint, minced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbl sugar
1/2 tsp tabasco sauce
salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Basically, once you've cooked the corn and diced everything, the assembly of this salad involves throwing everything in a bowl and mixing well. If you want the flavors to meld a bit, assembling it earlier in the day helps, and also allows time for the corn to cool. Otherwise, it is also tasty at room temperature!

Maple-Mustard Dressing

Our friend Minerva recently suggested we check out The Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (2007). It bills itself as the "ultimate vegan cookbook," and although we aren't vegan (honey! cheese! ice cream!) we had such good luck with the vegan cookie book offered by this same pair that our brains just went "what the hell!" and we checked it out of the library. 

So far, one of the winner recipes has been this tasty maple-mustard dressing (p. 93):

3 Tbl maple syrup (maple-agave, agave or honey also works ... but maple syrup!!)

2 Tbl apple cider vinegar

2 Tbl mustard (Dijon is tasty, but choose your favorite)

3 Tbl olive oil (or oil of choice ... you getting the idea?)

salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together and combine well (we've had good luck putting them in a jam jar and shaking with the lid firmly sealed). Store in the fridge; this will keep well for several weeks.  

"Veg Mix": A Recipe from Kevin

Hanna and I just got back from Hanna's parents' home in Maine, where they preside over an abundant vegetable garden and three chickens who provide lovely, lovely eggs (especially, says Hanna, if you feed them comfrey from the plants in front of the house).

Future summer squash.

We eat well and plentifully when we are in Maine, thanks to Hanna's father Kevin who does most of the cooking. And we always come home with bags and boxes filled with vegetables picked straight from the garden and canned goods -- hot pepper jelly, strawberry jam, pickled beets, and more.

A happy hen
(a Buff Orpington, Hanna says).

We have more than one recipe on file from Kevin (the "file" being a blue folder stuffed with bits of paper -- something that deserves a post of its own one of these days!), but I thought I'd share this one with you because it's so good for using up summer veggies. We find that the amounts listed here are roughly good for a two-person meal, with some possibly left over for lunch the next day. Expand as necessary and improvise with the veggies you happen to have around. The scrap of yellow notepaper just describes this as "Veg Mix" though I think technically it did come from a recipe book at one point. We have also been known to call it "that tasty veggie squodge" around here.

Lunch at the Clutterbucks

VEG MIX (BY KEVIN)


2 large carrots, grated
1 large zucchini, grated
1 large onion, diced
2-3 oz feta cheese
1/4 cup white flour
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1 Tbl parsley
Salt and pepper as desired
1 large egg

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit and use olive oil to grease a 9" glass pie plate or equivalent baking dish.

2. Mix grated carrots, zucchini, onion, and feta in a medium bowl.

3. Mix flour and spices together, then toss with veggies until coated.

4. Whisk egg and then add to veggie mix using hands to thoroughly combine.

5. Press into baking pan and cook for 20-30 minutes until the top begins to look slightly golden and crusty.

6. Serve hot, cut into wedges, as a main or side dish. Reheats beautifully and is also tasty cold.

Curry Shakshuka

Last week, beginning on the 4th of July, we has a stretch of HOT, muggy days wherein no one really feels like cooking or eating until about 10pm at night when the sun has gone down. And when one does get hungry, turning on the oven is not advisable.

Because you don't feel like cooking, it's also hard to consider shopping. Especially when you're in the middle of walking the three miles from work home through the late-afternoon urban fug. So on Tuesday night, we improvised with what we had in the fridge and the cupboards ... and came out with this sauteed vegetable curry with poached eggs. I'm calling it "curry shakshuka."

INGREDIENTS:

2 medium zucchini (approx 5" each), chopped
1 large red onion, chopped
2 Tbl. olive oil
1 tsp. crushed garlic (or 1-2 cloves, minced)
1 cup frozen or fresh sweetcorn (I used Trader Joe's roasted for the flavor)
2 veggie burgers, crumbled (optional; for extra protein)
4 eggs
1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt
2 Tbl. curry powder

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a large frying pan, saute onions and garlic in olive oil until onions start to go translucent.

2. Add zucchini and saute until zucchini begins to soften

3. Add corn and protein (if desired), stir thoroughly and leave to heat through.

4. Mix yogurt and curry powder thoroughly, adding water as needed to thin the mixture until about the consistency of tomato sauce. Pour into veggies and stir until combined.

5. Add water as necessary to make sure the veggies have plenty of liquid. Crack eggs into the center of the veggies and cover to poach. 5-7 minutes? I'm bad at poached eggs, so go with whatever you usually do! (This is where having enough liquid will help make sure the bottom of the veggie mixture doesn't burn as the eggs cook!)

6. Serve hot ... you may wish for more yogurt (greek style is tasty!) to cut the curry.

It's also tasty as chilled left-overs!

Happy 4th of July

It's muggy today in Boston, with highs in the 80s ... the sort of weekend weather I always imagine they had in Jaws (or while filming Jaws). Folks with more money than Hanna and I are probably spending the holiday weekend out on the Cape. The city feels fairly deserted, in fact.

The neighborhood sparrows can be quite insistent that
what you thought was your brioche is actually theirs.

This morning we were able to walk down to one of our favorite coffee shops, Tatte, and enjoy our weekend ritual of brioche and lattes and the cafe's copy of The New York Times Book Review. 

The pear marmalade is to die for.

While this isn't particularly traditional holiday fair, it was nice to have the leisure time to sit and people watch (and small yappy-type dog watch) and feed the greedy sparrows. What food (traditional or non!) are y'all enjoying this holiday weekend? 

nuts + chocolate = need I say more?

every well-stocked kitchen
should have some...

Yesterday, my boss was out sick and Hanna suggested that we make her cookies as a get well treat. We adapted a thumbprint cookie recipe from our favorite vegan cookie book, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, by using Nutella instead of jam. When I took them in to work this afternoon, Elaine declared the experiment a success and suggested that perhaps she should call in sick more often if this would be the result! Since Hanna and I more or less agreed with her, I figured we should share our recipe with the rest of you good folks.

Chocolate-Almond-Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies
adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup almond butter*
1/3 cup chocolate almond milk*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup hazelnuts, ground or finely chopped*
About 1/3 cup Nutella (for filling)

*we've made these cookies with a variety of ground nuts, nut butters, and types of milk (dairy and non-dairy), so feel free to experiment! basically, this is a totally forgiving recipe. what I listed here is what we used last night.

1) Preheat oven to 350 fahrenheit

2) In a medium mixing bowl, mix oil, brown sugar, nut butter, milk and vanilla extract until smooth.

3) Add dry ingredients: flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and ground nuts. Mix until thoroughly incorporated. The dough will be pliable, kind of like homemade playdough.

4) Roll about a tablespoon of dough in your hands to form each cookie. Place on a cookie sheet roughly an inch and a half apart (the cookies won't spread, but you need room to press them down into rounds).

5) Press your thumb into each cookie to create the thumbprint dimple.

6) Bake 15-18 minutes and remove from cookie sheet to a cooling rack.

7) Once the cookies have cooled slightly from just-out-of-the-oven hot (but not cooled entirely), spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of Nutella into the center of each cookie. The Nutella should melt down just enough to fill each center.

8) Eat now or later. Do remember to share.

NOTE: If storing, cookies should not be stacked on top of one another since the Nutella will generally stay soft enough to glue the cookies together. We haven't tried putting them in the fridge, but this might make the centers hard enough for more compact storage.

summer is here: ergo, iced tea

Hanna and I just returned to Boston yesterday from our vacation in Michigan ... in time for the first hot spell. The weather is sunny and humid and still. The cat is irritable at the heat and at our being gone. We hauled out the fans and are scrambling to remember what food we feel like eating in the summer, and how exactly we stay cool.

One strategy is definitely lots of iced tea.

iced tea brewing

I just woke up from an afternoon nap to the sound of Hanna making iced tea. Here it is steeping on the kitchen counter.

one of our favorite teas for icing

Iced tea is really simple to make: boil water, add tea bags or loose tea, brew to taste and chill. Serve over ice.

This batch is made with Tazo's "Passion" tea, which is an herbal blend of hibiscus flower, orange peel, licorice, cinnamon, rose hips, lemongrass, and red poppy. It's been one of our favorite blends for icing in the past. Fruity teas can be really nice lightly sweetened with honey, or can stand on their own without sweetener at all.

When I'm buying ready-made iced tea, one of the best brands available here in New England is Sweet Leaf Tea, to which Hanna introduced me when I moved out here to Boston. I'm also partial to ordering (or making) Arnold Palmers, or half-iced-tea / half-lemonade coolers which cut the sweet of the lemonade and the bite of the stronger black teas.

What are your favorite teas for brewing to ice, and if you're buying iced drinks in the summer, what are your all-time favorites? Leave your picks in comments!

simple lentil & matzo ball soup

Photograph by Anna, May 2011

Last week, when Hanna was recovering from a nasty spring cold and Anna was in the final throes of her thesis presentation preparations, we were looking for bland comfort food that we could make without going to the grocery store. What we came up with was a surprisingly tasty variation of lentil soup spruced up with matzo balls. You could probably make your own, but we just put ours together from a mix picked up at the local kosher grocery.

Beyond Basic Lentil Soup: 


1 cup dried lentils

3 cups of vegetable broth (can substitute water + vegetarian bouillon)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 bay leaf

Salt & pepper to taste

You can obviously use this as a base to improvise upon. Like garlic? Onion? Fancy curry spice and some raisins? Have at it!

1. Heat broth in soup pan and add lentils and bay leaf. Cook until soft (usually 20-30 minutes). You can work on the matzo balls while the lentils cook.

2. While lentils are cooking, prepare matzo ball dough.

3. Set water to boil for matzo balls. This should be in a pan deep enough to boil the matzo balls and it should have a cover, preferably with some sort of vent for steam.

4. Add tomatoes and salt and pepper to the lentil mixture. Leave to simmer, stirring occasionally to make sure the lentils still have enough liquid.

5. When the water for the matzo balls boils, wet your hands and roll the matzo dough into walnut-sized balls. Drop them into the boiling water. They will sink to the bottom and then fairly quickly rise to the top in the boiling water. Turn the heat down to a gentle boil and leave for half an hour to cook.

6. Drain the matzo balls. Dish up the soup and spoon desired number of matzo balls into each bowl (I recommend more rather than less).

7. Top with cheese as desired (yum!). Serve hot.

This also makes excellent leftovers, reheating in the microwave beautifully in about 2 minutes. We recommend storing the cooked matzo balls separately from the soup, so that they don't just turn to mush.

Bread and Breakfast

The summer before I moved to Boston, I lived for several months at Lyn and Larry's house on 13th Street. I was working at the local Barnes & Noble at the time, so came and went at unpredictable retail hours. Sometimes, I would go days at a time without having a chance to touch base with my hosts. But usually at least once on the weekend we were able to sit down on the back porch (with Chance at our feet) and enjoy a leisurely breakfast with coffee, fresh bread, and the New York Times. It was a lovely occasion to catch up and converse.

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread
photo by Joy the Baker

So in honor of Lyn's birthday, my partner Hanna and I selected two of our favorite breakfast recipes. The first is a rich Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread that takes some time to prepare, but can rest overnight in the fridge for easy baking in the morning (just be sure to pull it out about an hour before baking, so that the dough can warm all the way through!). The second, Shakshuka, is actually an easy, hearty dish for any meal -- we often have it for dinner during the week -- but since it involves eggs and tomatoes, I figured it counted as a good brunch dish.

Happy Birthday Lyn! We're looking forward to having breakfast with you when we come to Michigan in a few weeks.

~Anna (and Hanna)

* * *
Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread
from Joy the Baker
adapted from HungryGirlPorVida

Makes: one 9x5x3-inch loaf

For the Dough:

2 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 ounces unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1/4 cup water

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Filling:

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

2 ounces unsalted butter, melted until browned

In a large mixing bowl (I used just the bowl of my stand mixer) whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together eggs and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted. Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract. Let mixture stand for a minute or two, or until the mixture registers 115 to 125 degrees F.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. Add the eggs and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter. The eggs will feel soupy and it'll seem like the dough and the eggs are never going to come together. Keep stirring. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes. The mixture will be sticky. That's just right.

Place the dough is a large, greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour. *The dough can be risen until doubled in size, then refrigerated overnight for use in the morning. If you're using this method, just let the dough rest on the counter for 30 minutes before following the roll-out directions below.

While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling. Set aside. Melt 2 ounces of butter until browned. Set aside. Grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Set that aside too.

Deflate the risen dough and knead about 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out. The dough should be 12-inches tall and about 20-inches long. If you can't get the dough to 20-inches long... that's okay. Just roll it as large as the dough will go. Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter across all of the dough. Sprinkle with all of the sugar and cinnamon mixture. It might seem like a lot of sugar. Seriously? Just go for it.

Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You'll have six stacks of six squares. Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book. Place a kitchen towel over the loaf pan and allow in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Place loaf in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is very golden brown. The top may be lightly browned, but the center may still be raw. A nice, dark, golden brown will ensure that the center is cooked as well.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto a clean board. Place a cake stand or cake plate on top of the upside down loaf, and carefully invert so it's right side up. Serve warm with coffee or tea.

I think this bread is best served the day it's made, but it can also we wrapped and kept at room temperature for up to 2 days.


* * *
Shakshuka [Eggs Poached in Spicy Tomato Sauce]
from smitten kitchen 
adapted from Saveur

Serves 4 to 6

1/4 cup olive oil
5 Anaheim chiles or 3 jalapeños, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped (I was nervous and only used 2 Anaheims; I would go for 3 or 4 next time for a more moderate but still gentle kick)
1 small yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
Kosher salt, to taste
6 eggs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Warm pitas, for serving

Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.

Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt.

Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve with pitas, for dipping.