Whole Foods Friday: Wheat Bread

For information about Whole Foods Friday, take a peek at the tab at the top.

There's not much better than a loaf of freshly-make bread to to along with that pot of buffalo stew. This recipe doesn't require as much kneading as some recipes since it has an overnight rest in the refrigerator that activates the gluten in the flour.

There's still a little bit of kneading - but you can do it in a bread machine, with a stand mixer, or by hand.

White whole wheat flour has all the advantages of regular whole wheat, but the flavor isn't quite as strong and the texture of the bread will be softer.

It makes a great loaf for people who aren't quire ready to give up white bread.

Wheat Bread

2 cups (8 ounces) bread flour
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water) - optional
Sesame seeds - optional

Combine all of the ingredients and knead until the dough begins to become elastic. This is easiest to do with a stand mixer, or bread machine - the dough is very soft and wet.

If you're kneading by hand, it might be easiest to knead in a bowl using a couple of plastic bench scrapers to pull and fold the dough rather than doing a more traditional knead. You don't need to get the dough completely elastic - just starting to get elastic.

Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into a zip-top plastic bag and transfer the dough to the bag, making sure it's lightly coated with oil on all sides. Seal the bag and place it in the refrigerator overnight, or up to a day.

After the rest, remove the bag from the refrigerator and place it on the kitchen counter. Open the bag to release the air in the bag. Massage the dough a bit in the the bag. then let it warm up to room temperature - at least an hour, or up to two hours.

Like a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Knead it briefly, adding only as much flour as required to keep it from sticking. Form it into a log about 10 inches long and place it on the prepared baking sheet, seam-side down.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set aside until the dough doubles in size - the time will depend on how long you let it warm up, and how chilled it was to begin with - anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour. The time is less important than that the dough had doubled in size.

Remove te plastic wrap. If desired, brush the dough with plastic wrap, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Slash the loaf as desired, then bake at 350 degrees until nicely browned, about 35 minutes.

Let the loaf cool completely on a rack before cutting.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

Whole Foods Friday: Buffalo Stew

For information about Whole Foods Friday, check out the tab at the top.

Okay, it's time for a crazy confession. I love beef stew, but I like the vegetables in the stew better than I like the actual beef. I mean, I don't hate the beef. But I LOVE the way the beef flavor infuses the vegetables, and I love the beefy gravy.

You need the beef to get the beefy flavor, but if you want to use a little less meat with a lot more vegetables, you can up the flavor quotient by using buffalo instead if beef. To me, buffalo tastes just like beef, but with more flavor.

Stew can be cooked a number of different ways - in a slow cooker, in a Dutch oven (or other heavy pot) on the stovetop, or in that same Dutch oven in your oven. There are advantages and disadvantages for each method. For example, when you're cooking on the stovetop, you need to do a little more stirring because the heat is just from the bottom.

A crockpot is convenient since it doesn't need any attention. It also retains more moisture. That can be a good thing or a bad thing - you'll end up with more gravy, but it will be thinner. Cooking in the oven or on the stovetop will result in a thicker, richer gravy, but less of it. And you might need to add just a bit of liquid at the end of cooking, if it cooks down too much.

Cooking the stew in the Dutch oven in the oven means you don't need to do much stirring at all, so it's nearly as convenient as the crockpot.

The great thing about stew is that you can vary the ingredients to suit your taste - and what you have on hand. If you like more carrots, add more. If you don't have celery, leave it out. I used a large onion cut in wedges, but you could use smaller onions cut in half, or even smaller ones left whole.

Buffalo Stew

1/2 pound buffalo stew meat
Flour, for dusting
1 tablespoon olive oil
4-6 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 ribs celery, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 hands full fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion, cut into wedges through the root end so it hold together
1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes
1/2 can (from the tomatoes) red wine
1/2 can water
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Dust the meat with flour. Heat a Dutch oven on medium heat. Add the oil. Add the meat and cook until browned on all sides.

Add the carrots, celery, potatoes, and green beans and cook, stirring as needed for another minute or two. Add the onion, tomatoes, wine, water, thyme, and pepper flakes, if using. Add a few grinds of pepper and a teaspoon of salt. Stir gently to combine.

Cover the dutch oven and place it in the preheated oven. Cook until the meat and vegetables are very tender, 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Check it towards the end of cooking to make sure there is enough liquid, and add water, as needed. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper, if desired, then continue cooking until it is completely cooked.

Serve hot, Or, if you prefer, let the stew cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. The texture of stewed meat improves after chilling and reheating.

Knock-knock. Who's there? Mr. Beer ...

One of the cool things about being a food blogger is that once in a while people offer to send you things for free. Food-related things.

And let's be honest, there probably isn't a food-related gadget or ingredient that I'm not curious about. I don't love all of them, but I could happily spend all day testing and tasting and cooking and baking, and then spend all evening writing about what I did all day.

Sometimes the offers surprise me.

Such was the case when Mr. Beer showed up in my inbox and asked for my address. Would this be a wonderful new exciting relationship? Should I say "yes" to this unexpected offer of friendship, or politely decline?

Less than a week later, Mr. Beer was on my doorstep, looking cold and lonely. He looked innocent enough, so I let him in.

Mr. Beer came in a large box that included everything I needed to make 2 gallons of my own home-brewed beer, including a barrel-shaped brown plastic fermenting keg-thing, some plastic bottles, ingredients, sanitizer, and instructions.

It also came with an enticing booklet that offered even more options for different beers and (be still my beating heart!) ... hard cider!

I read through the instructions, and it seemed simple enough. Sanitize everything with the included cleaner, and then do some mixing and heating, and pour stuff into the keg-thing, do some stirring, and then wait a week or two ... and then into bottles along with some sugar and wait for carbonation ... and then some more waiting at cooler temps for improved flavor.

Or drink it right away, if you don't want to wait for that final colder process.

So I gave it a go, and it really was a simple process to get it all into the keg. Now there's nothing to do but wait until Mr. Beer is ready to go into some bottles.

With a process that easy, I have some concerns that Mr. Beer might abandon me to spend more time with my husband. They could become very good buddies, hanging around together, fermenting...

And then what? Could this turn into a whole new relationship with hops and malt and yeast and more complicated recipes requiring the installation of giant stainless steel tanks in our garage? What could this innocent delivery turn into?

Well, folks, I don't have that answer for you yet. Mr. Beer and I will need to spend some time together before I can tell you whether this is a one-time fling, a long and happy relationship, or the gateway to more complicated brewing adventures.

Meanwhile, he looks quite happy and I think he will be quite festive around Christmas when we have our first bottles ready to drink.

But I didn't want to wait quite that long before I posted this, because Mr. Beer also offered a little incentive for my readers (and I love passing along bargains.)

Use the coupon code cookistry at checkout on Mr. Beer's website, and you can get free shipping all during the month of December, 2011.

When the beer's ready, I'll give you an update. Meanwhile, I think I need to order a hard cider kit. That sounds quite tasty.