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Wine on Wednesdays – House Wine

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Over the years, I have worked at a lot of restaurants. At various times, I have been the general manager, the executive chef, the sommelier, the bartender, the server, and many other positions.

Most restaurants have a house wine, which is the wine you receive if you just ask for a “red” or a “white”. It’s usually — although not always — the cheapest wine option. And it almost invariably tastes just terrible.

As a consumer, I don’t judge a restaurant by how awful its house wine tastes because if guests don’t care enough to look at a wine list or ask for a favorite brand, they deserve what they get.

Even if what they get comes out of a jug. Or even a box. Which it frequently does, even in the best fine dining restaurants.

(A quick aside: Never drink wine out of a box unless you enjoy having horrible headaches the next morning. Box wines are the Chicken McNugget of the winemaking world: You don’t ever want to see how they are made.)

That’s why when I found this brand called “House Wine”, I was intrigued. It turns out this wine is nothing like your typical “house wine” because while it is completely affordable, it tastes amazing.

House Wine is one of a handful of brands made by the Magnificent Wine Company, which is based in Walla Walla, Washington. While many people think of that as onion and potato country, it also is home to the Washington’s famed Columbia Valley wine growing region.

The company is a partnership between Charles Smith, of K Vintners, who is something of a living legend among syrah fans, and Andrew Browne, the wunderkind founder of the Precept Wine brands. It also makes a chardonnay, White House Wine; a sauvignon blanc, Fish House Wine; and a cabernet suavignon, Steak House Wine.

House Wine is mostly cabernet sauvignon, but also has merlot, malbec, syrah and petit verdot, all grown in Columbia Valley. It is a nicely balanced wine that is neither jammy nor meekly bland, but a nice place in between. Even though it is made mostly with cabeneret sauvignon grapes, it has qualities of the laid back merlot.

And it was definitely affordable at $7.99/bottle, which is, of course, my self imposed upper limit for budget wines. Any restaurant would do well by serving House Wine as their house wine.

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On a separate note, I found myself in a Trader Joe’s the other day and I couldn’t help but to pick up a bottle of their house brand, Charles Shaw, perhaps better known as “Two-Buck Chuck.” although it now costs a whopping $3/bottle.

I had this wine many years ago and remembered that I didn’t like it. But given the concept of this budget wine blog, I thought I would try it again to see if I was mistaken. After all, if “Two Buck Chuck” was at all drinkable, I could recommend it to those people seeking affordable wines.

Sadly, this is not the case. I now remember why I didn’t like this wine. It tastes like barrel dregs. It’s bitter and has a persistent unpleasant aftertaste. It is a waste of $3.

Trader Joe’s has plenty of other good, affordable wines, so do yourself a favor and walk past the enormous display of “Two Buck Chuck” and pick yourself up something drinkable. The only positive thing I can say about this wine is that at $36/case, you can afford to pick up a dozen bottles to fill the holes in your wine rack until you can replace them with better wines.

Just don’t get tempted to drink a bottle.

Meat Free Mondays — Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

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We love enchiladas. It’s one of our favorite meals to make and we have it at least twice per month.

The great thing about enchiladas is that you can fill them with anything you want. They are particularly great for using up leftovers or if you want to make a vegetarian dish.

So when I found this enchilada recipe — which I found on this blog by the2beths, one of my favorite blogs — I just knew I had to try it. It had some funky ingredients and even the way it was assembled was way different from my enchilada recipe.

The good news: It was delicious. The sweet potato did not overwhelm the complex flavors of the enchilada as I suspected it would. Instead, it kind of complemented the mushroom-pepper-onion-jalapeno-spinach filling. I also thought the sweet potato would make it too dense, but it didn’t at all. It was light and moist.

The bad news: With the enchilada sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish, instead of mixed in with the filling like I normally make it, the enchiladas stuck to the bottom and fell apart as I tried to plate them.

This may have been because I made them a few hours ahead of time and held them in the refrigerator until we were ready to have dinner. Or it may have been because I used generic store-brand whole wheat tortillas. But next time, I will assemble them the way I normally do.

But despite the plating disaster, I loved the flavor of these enchiladas. Plus, it gave me an excuse to make our guacamole, which I think is why we have enchiladas (and quesadillas, for that matter) so frequently: We can’t get enough of our guacamole.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1 TBS EVOO

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, small dice

8-10 button mushrooms, chopped fine

1 green bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, medium dice

1/2 red onion, medium dice

2 cups fresh spinach, stems removed and cleaned

1 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1 12-oz can enchilada sauce

6 8″ whole wheat tortillas

1 cup salsa, plus more on the side for service

1/3 cup shredded Mexican cheese

1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped (full disclosure: I bought this but forgot to put it in)

1. Bring a small pot of water to a boil then add the sweet potato and boil until soft, about 10 minutes. Drain and mash.

2. Preheat oven to 375F. Put cast iron pan on the fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, add onion, green pepper and jalapeno and cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms browned, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and spinach and cook until spinach is wilted, about 3 more minutes. Add black beans, cilantro, cumin and chili powder and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until heated through, about 2 minutes, and remove from heat.

3. In a casserole dish, spread 1/2 of the can of enchilada sauce around the bottom. One by one, fill the tortillas a schmeer of mashed sweet potato topped with a dollop of the filling, then a TBS of salsa. Roll up like a burrito and place seam side down in the casserole dish. When all tortillas are filled, pour remaining enchilada sauce over them and sprinkle with the cheese. Cover with foil, bake 35 minutes then remove foil and bake another 10 minutes to brown up the top.

I serve my enchiladas with homemade guacamole, salsa, fat free sour cream and baked tortilla chips. This is one of our favorite meals.

What dishes do you love so much you make them at least a couple of times per month? Tell us about them in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Tex-Mex Tuna Casserole

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Wow, it’s already February! Where has this year gone?!

Both my wife and I have been extremely busy since pretty much Thanksgiving, so I have been looking for meals that are fast and delicious, but will also hold well to accomodate our ever-changing schedules.

Tuna casserole is always a good fall back option, but it feels like we’ve done it to death. So I decided to spice it up a little with this recipe I adapted from one I found on The Cooking Blog. It takes only a few minutes to prepare, it can be held in the refrigerator until we were ready to eat, and it cooks fast. Plus, it was pretty rich and creamy — despite being low-fat — so I was able to hold it in a 200F oven until we were both ready to eat.

This spiced-up version of tuna casserole was delicious and – like traditional tuna casserole – it tastes even better the next day heated up.

So if you’re looking for a new take on an old favorite, you should give this recipe a try. Most of the ingredients are probably already lying around your kitchen, plus it’s super fast, super easy, and super tasty! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to work!

Tex-Mex Tuna Casserole

1 large can chunk tuna in water, drained

2 cups fat-free cottage cheese

3/4 cup fat-free sour cream

1/2 red onion, small dice

1 small can diced green chiles

2 TBS chipotle salsa (or just regular salsa)

1/2 bag egg noodles, cooked

Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup cashews, chopped fine

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Boil egg noodles according to package instructions, usually about 7 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.

2. In mixing bowl, combine the tuna, cottage cheese, sour cream, onion, chiles, salsa and noodles. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to casserole dish.

3. Combine bread crumbs and cashews in small bowl then sprinkle over casserole. Dish can be stored in refrigerator up to a day, or in freezer for up to a week, until you are read to serve it.

4. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until casserole is brown and bubbly. Allow more time if cooking from frozen, or better yet allow to defrost first.

I served mine with spicy Sriracha sauce. My wife normally puts ketchup on her tuna casserole (I know, right?) but she said this one was so good it didn’t need any! Yay!

What quick and easy meals do you like to prepare for those days when you’re too busy to spend a lot of time in the kitchen? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Wine on Wednesdays – The Lost Grape of Bordeaux

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Once upon a time, in the lush green wine growing regions of Bordeaux, there lived a grape named Carmenere. Many people said it was the grandfather of the mighty Cabernet Sauvignon grape, from which many future celebrated wines from Bordeaux would be made.

For centuries, the grape grew happily in the Medoc region of Bordeaux, and in Graves, another famous French wine region, and a few other places. In fact, Carmenere was growing in these famous wine growing regions of France even before there was a France, as evidenced by the praise it received from Pliny the Elder, chronicler of the Roman gladiators who conquered Gaul, now modern day France.

Carmenere was enjoyed and celebrated by wine lovers for hundreds and hundreds of years, and was considered on par with the cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc grapes as one of the finest wine making grapes in the world.

Then, in 1867, something terrible happened.

A plague of phylloxera, also known as the antarctic lotus fly, swarmed the Bordeaux region, as well of much of France itself, leaving a swath of destruction in every vineyard it touched. Nearly all of France’s successful wine industry was destroyed, but the carmenere grape was completely wiped out.

In the wake of the plague, carmenere was declared extinct, and never again would anyone be able to enjoy its distinctive flavor, which had been described as a milder, smoky, spicy, and berry-like cabernet sauvignon.

But flash forward to 1994, where Professor Jean-Michel Boursiquot, of the University of Montpelier’s department of oneology was conducting a study of Merlot Peumal, a grape grown in Chile’s Peumal valley that was believed to be a clone of the merlot grape.

Except it wasn’t.

Professor Borsiquot determined that Merlot Peumal was actually the long-lost carmenere grape. Apparently, in the 1850s – long before the phylloxera plague decimated her vineyards – French winemakers exported carmenere plants to Chile’s fledgling wine industry, believing them to be merlot vines. For more than 140 years, Chilean winemakers cultivated carmenere under the mistaken impression that it was merlot.

Four years after its re-discovery, in 1998 the Chilean Department of Agriculture officially declared carmenere to be its own distrinct varietal and the wine is now produced and exported worldwide by hundreds of Chilean vineyards. It is also being cultivated, on a much smaller scale, in wineries in California and Australia.

Meanwhile, back in France, Bordeaux has moved on and produces some of the most famous and expensive wines in the world. But in recent years, a few vineyards have begun plantng a few acres of camenere vines among their famed cabernet sauvignon vines, and there is talk of expanding these plantings and re-weaving the ancient grape into the region’s rich wine tapestry.

This carmenere — Found Object, from Chile — is one of dozens of delicious, affordable Chilean carmeneres widely available in the US. It cost $7.99/bottle, which is the exact limit of my self-imposed maximum cost per bottle.

This story of the lost grape of Bordeaux concludes with a happy ending, with this lush and fragrant carmenere swirling around in my glass, once again having been discovered and celebrated as one of the world’s finest varietals.

Hoppin’ John and Johnny Cakes

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I love it when a dish comes with a side plate of history.

Hoppin’ John is one of those dishes. In the Deep South, this stew made with black eyed peas is traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day because it is believed to bring good luck throughout the rest of the year.

There are all sorts of rituals that come with this practice, including leaving a coin under the bowl or even in the stew itself, or counting the number of peas to see how many lucky days you will have during the coming year, or leaving three peas in the bowl at the end of the meal — one for luck, one for money and one for love.

Whew! But that’s not all. Hoppin’ John is usually served with brasied collard, turnip or mustard greens because they are the color of money, and with corn bread because it is the color of gold.

Finally, leftover Hoppin’ John is eaten again the following day — only this time it is called Skippin’ Jenny — to show how frugal you are.

The name Hoppin’ John may refer to a legendary character, or it may simply come from the Creole French for black eye peas, “pois pigeons”. No one knows for sure.

Back in the northern states, our food rituals are not nearly as interesting. Johnny cakes are what people from New England used to call corn bread around the time of the Revolutionary War. Because they would stay edible even during a long day’s journey on horseback, with the flat, nasal Yankee accent “journey cakes” became ”johnny cakes.”

I may have been a couple of weeks late with this dish, but I hope it brings me luck for the rest of this year!

Hoppin’ John

4 TBS unsalted butter

1 white onion, medium dice

1 green pepper, ribs and seeds removed, medium dice

2 stalks of celery, ribs and leafs included, medium dice

3 cloves garlic, crushed

4 cups dried black eyed peas (soaked 6 hours)

32 oz chicken stock

1/2 lb sausage (any kind, your choice, I used chorizo)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 TBS red wine vinegar

Rice or bulgur, cooked

1. Soak black eyed peas in cool water for at least 6 hours to soften. Rinse before using.

2. In pot, melt butter then add onions, pepper, and celery and cook until onions translucent, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove sausage from casing, add to pot, break apart and cook until brown, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute or two.

3. Add black eyed peas, chicken stock and seasonings and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook until most of the liquid is absorbed, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over rice with braised greens and corn bread on the side. Good luck!

What recipes do you make that come dripping with history? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Wine on Wednesday – Best California Red Table Wine

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I’ve had a lot of people tell me that Menage a Trois is their favorite California red table wine and I can see why. Maybe it’s because it offers a full-bodied flavor that stands up to strong flavors such as garlic or tomatoes without blowing the back of your head off with its jammy fruitiness.

Menage a Trois (French for “household for three” but also a euphanism for a three-way sexual encounter) is made from three grapes — zinfandel, merlot and cabernet sauvignon — that are blended together to make a wine that has the familiar jam-like flavor typical of table wines, but without the flavor getting the way of your enjoying the wine, the way most bottom shelf California reds do.

The flavor of Menage a Trois is no accident. The zinfandel is there to give it its distinctive peppery, vegetal flavor, the merlot mellows it out, and the cabernet balances everything out by giving the blend its structure.

The blending of differnet grapes to get a particular flavor profile is a very American way to make wine, or at least very un-European.

In France, for example, wines from a particular region by law have to be made from the grapes grow best in that region. That’s why all wines from Burgundy are made from pinot noir grapes, all wines from Champagne are made from champagne grapes, etc. These laws are hundreds of years old and violating them would be unthinkable to any good Frenchman.

Here in the US – as well as in Australia, South Africa and South America — we aren’t as uptight about what kind of grape goes in the bottle as long as we like what it tastes like. While the US has celebrated wine regions – such as Napa and Sonoma in California and the Willamette Valley in Oregon – each of those regions produce many different varieties of wines and many of them are excellent.

Menage a Trois is the top selling red wine product in the US. The brand also offers other wines – including a white table win, a rose and even a Moscato – but I’ve never tried them.

Menage a Trois is produced by Folie a Deux (French for “a madness or delusion shared by two”), a vineyard opened by two wine-loving ex-psychiatrists near Helena, in Sonoma Valley in 1981. It was sold in 2004 to Trinchero Family Estates, a vast wine house that produces a very wide variety of wines from super exclusive cabernets and merlots to the Sutter Home brand of mass produced low-end wines.

While I wouldn’t categorize Menage a Trois as low end, it is certainly not expensive. I bought it at my local discount liquor store recently for $6.70/bottle, which falls well below my self-imposed cost limit of $7.99/bottle.

At that price, if you are looking for an affordable California red table wine, you can afford to pick up a bottle of Menage a Trois and give it a try yourself!

Texas Black Bean Chili

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Here in Chicago, we had been enjoying a mild winter up until this week. But the Arctic blast that has settled over the city is making us forget all about those warm temperatures and sunny days.

At least cold weather means it’s time for chili!

Our crock pot has been working overtime this month, with nearly four out of five meals being slow-cooked. It’s not only convenient — everything seems to be busier right now — but the enticing aroma wafting through the house all day makes the frigid weather easier to tolerate.

This time I decided to try something a little different. Texas black bean chili is similar to my standard chili recipe, but with a few twists. Besides using black beans instead of kidney beans, of course.

For this recipe, I substituted my barbeque dry rub for the standard chili powder/cumin flavoring. The barbeque dry rub contains a wide variety of different spices, but no cumin or chili powder. So the chili ends up tasting radically different, both sweeter and spicier.

If you have store-bought barbeque rub or dried barbeque seasoning, that works fine, too.

Texas black bean chili is also mas caliente than standard chili because of the addition of canned diced chile peppers. You can spice it up even more by including the seeds and ribs from the jalapeno, if you want. But be careful, once you add the heat, you can’t take it out. Another option would be to just let people add their own hot sauce if they prefer flaming hot chili.

Hope you’re staying warm where you are!

Texas Black Bean Chili

1 medium white onion, diced

1 green pepper, seeds and ribs removed, diced

2 jalapenos, seeds and ribs removed, diced

1 small can diced green chiles

2 cans black beans, drained

1 large can of whole peeled tomatoes

2 TBS EVOO

1 lb ground turkey (or ground beef)

2 TBS Barbeque Dry Rub

1/2 cup water

Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

1 12-ounce can spicy V-8

1. Put cast iron pan on fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, add half of the onions. Saute until soft, about five minutes, then add the turkey and cook until brown, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add barbeque dry rub and water and cook an additional minute.

2. In crock pot, combine beans, the other half of the diced onion, green pepper, jalapeno and chiles. Add the turkey and stir together. Add the juice from the whole peeled tomatoes, then hand crush the tomatoes into the pot. This is important to get the right texture for the tomatoes. Pour in spicy V-8 and stir.

3. Cook on low for 8 hours, stirring once or twice. When fully cooked, adjust the flavor by seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

I usually serve my chili with oyster crackers, shredded Mexican cheese, cooked macaroni noodles, diced onions and fat free sour cream, but you can just use whatever condiments you like best.

What sort of meals do you like to make when the temperatures start to fall? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog.

Jamaican Jerk Pork Sandwiches

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Jamaican jerk pork or chicken is sort of the island equivalent of barbeque. Traditionally, it is cooked over a wood fire on makeshift ovens made of steel drums cut lengthwise.

Nowadays, “jerk” refers to the combination of seasonings used to flavor the meat prior to cooking, mostly allspice, thyme, cinnamon and black pepper. Scotch bonnet peppers, among the hottest of all peppers, also are traditionally used, but many pre-mixed dry rubs available for purchase either skip or tone down this ingredient. The seasoning mix I used was not spicy hot at all.

While the origin of the term “jerk” is vague, it most likely came from the Spanish conquisatdors, who ate “charqui”, or dried smoked meats, during their long journey across the Atlantic. The term “jerky” also comes from this word.

Although jerk meats normally are cooked over an open wood flame like barbeque, most Americans wouldn’t associate jerk flavor with the barbeque you find on the continent. For one, Jamaican jerk seasoning isn’t sweet, it’s savory. Plus it lacks the vinegary tartness of traditional BBQ.

But it is still delicious and has been growing in popularity in recent years, perhaps because of travellers who tried it while vacationing in the Carribean were anxious to spread word of this interesting and delicious dish.

In this version, the meat isn’t even grilled. Instead, it’s cooked all day in the crock pot. But the flavor of the jerk seasoning is still at the forefront and I love the way slow-cooked meats fill the whole house with a tantalizing aroma, making me look forward to dinner all day.

Another thing I liked is that pork shoulder is one of the least expensive cuts you can buy. I bought a  7 lb bone-in shoulder and cleaned it myself and it was only $1.19/lb! Half went in the freezer for another time.

I served this with oven baked sweet potato fries, which are the easiest thing in the world to make. They are one of our favorites!

Jamaican Jerk Pork Sandwiches

2-3 lb boneless pork shoulder

1 medium white onion, julienned

3 TBS Jamaican jerk seasoning

1/2 cup chili sauce

1/2 cup water

1 can Mexican corn (corn with red pepper)

2 TBS salsa

1 cup shredded green leaf lettuce

Fat free sour cream (on the side)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro (one the side)

8 whole wheat pitas

1. Spray crock pot with cooking spray. Trim pork of excess fat and cut into 2 inch cubes. Place pork and onion in crock pot, sprinkle with jerk seasoning, cover with chili sauce and water and stir.

2. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

3. Use two forks to pull pork apart. It will shred easily. Meanwhile, drain corn and combine with salsa in a small bowl.

4. To assemble sandwich, place a good amount of the pork in a pita, add corn relish, top with lettuce and garnish with cilantro and sour cream.

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into sticks

2 TBS EVOO

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp granulated garlic

1/2 tsp onion powder

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss until sweet potatoes are evenly coated. Pour out onto a baking sheet and bake at 375F for 45 minutes. Super delicious!

Do you make any recipes with the flavors of the Carribean? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Thanksgiving

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Every year, on this day, families and friends gather to enjoy a traditional feast, and to be thankful for the people and things in their life that most other days they take for granted.

For me, personally, this has been a particularly difficult year. Since we all gathered together one year ago, Chicago experienced its worst blizzard in centuries, in the middle of which we lost power for three days.

Our Front Door after the Blizzard

Our Front Door after the Blizzard

As we huddled in the dark waiting for the heat to come back on, one of our dogs, Daisy, slipped from one of the six-foot snowdrifts in our driveway and fractured one of her rear legs. When doctors went to repair it, they discovered she had bone cancer. Although there was no guarantee Daisy would survive more than a couple of weeks or months, my wife and I decided to have the leg amputated.

Daisy's Recovery

Daisy's Recovery

Afterwards, Daisy, who my wife had rescued from a Wisconsin greyhound track, could barely stand, let alone run.

Daisy’s long recovery process was hard on everyone, but especially hard on our two other dogs, Isabel and Jay Z. Sadly, Jay, another greyhound rescue, became so distraught that he began eating tree branches and thorns in our backyard and developed bloat. In the midst of Daisy’s recuperation, Jay was rushed to the animal hospital, where doctors determined that even with surgery, it was unlikely that our beloved dog, weakened and in pain, would survive. I held him as the doctors put him to sleep.

Jay Z

Jay Z

Those were dark days indeed.

A few months later, I was unexpectedly layed off from my job at a downtown restaurant. I suddenly found myself trying to find work in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. For the first time in my life, I had to swallow my pride and file for unemployment insurance.

And yet, despite all this, I’m more thankful this Thanksgiving than I have been perhaps any other.

It’s true what they say: Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We’ve had a lot of hard times in the last year, but we’re still standing.

So this Thanksgiving, here’s some of the things I’m grateful for: Daisy’s recuperation brought our family together in a way that was unexpected and amazing. Cousins, sisters, grandmothers and nephews volunteered unasked to provide Daisy with the round-the-clock care she required. For weeks, Daisy lay on a dog bed in the middle of our living room as a houseful of people and voices and love revolved around her.

And now, nine months later, Daisy never fails to turn heads as she runs down our street on her three legs, as happy and full of life as she ever was.

While losing Jay Z was tough, we recently brought a new puppy, Bud, into our home. Less than a year old, Bud already weighs more than 70 pounds, only nobody told him he’s not still a little puppy. He richochets off the furniture and jumps up on guests in a way that would make Marmaduke blush. And although he’s often infuriating as he chews on every single thing in our house, we couldn’t love him more.

Daisy and Bud

Daisy and Bud

As far as work is concerned, losing my job forced me to follow through on my boasts that I would return to my writing career after 17 years in the restaurant business. I’ve tapped into my experience as a chef and manager to write this daily food blog for you fine people, and I’ve begun working on other writing projects as well.

When you love what you do, it is no longer work. I love writing about food as much if not more than I do cooking it, and I hope to keep doing it for the rest of my productive years.

So this Thanksgiving, I give thanks that the last year was so hard. Because we’ve come out of it stronger, happier and more appreciative of the things we formerly took for granted.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

 

Baking Your Own Garlic Bread

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There’s something special about making your own bread for your family, especially this delicious, amazing garlic bread. Not only does it fill your house with a wonderful aroma, but it warms the hearts and feeds the soul of the people you love most.

I love garlic bread, but I don’t love those greasy frozen loaves you buy at the grocery store. Garlic bread should taste like garlic, not fake butter and salt. So I set out to create my own recipe.

I started with a basic French bread recipe. Simple enough. Then I roasted an entire head of garlic, crushed up the nutty brown cloves and kneaded them into the dough. Finally, just before baking, I sprinkled the formed loaves with a generous amount of granulated garlic and coarse sea salt.

The result: Amazing garlic bread that actually tastes like garlic, but doesn’t overpower and goes perfect with any pasta dish.

I chose a pasta recipe I’ve been making for almost 30 years that combines whole wheat pasta with steamed broccoli, Italian sausage and carmelized onions, tossed in a simple combination of extra virgin olive oil and grated parmesan cheese.

Garlic Bread

1 TBS fast-acting yeast (or one envelope)

1 cup lukewarm water (baby bath temperature)

1 TBS sugar

1 tsp sea salt

1 head roasted garlic, cloves removed and crushed

3-1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 TBS vegetable oil

1/4 cup cornmeal

1 egg white

1 TBS cold water

1TBS granulated garlic

1 tsp coarse sea salt

1. Cut the top off an entire head of garlic, drizzle it with a little EVOO, wrap in foil and bake at 350F until soft and brown, about 45 minutes. This can be done up to a day or two ahead of time.

2. Place yeast and sugar in bowl of Kitchen Aid mixer (or mixing bowl) and whisk in water and wait for bubbles to form (about five minutes, it means the yeast is activating). Meanwhile, combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add garlic and oil to liquid and attach bowl to Kitchen Aid, then add about half the flour mix and mix on medium using the dough hook attachment for about two minutes. Slowly add the remaining flour until  the dough is formed, about five minutes.

3. Dust a work surface with flour, then turn the dough out onto the work surface and knead for a few minutes until dough is smooth. Grease a mixing bowl with EVOO, then place dough ball into bowl and roll around until all sides are covered with oil. Cover with a clean dishtowel and let sit in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about an hour.

4. Punch down dough, knead for another minute or two, then let rest five minutes under the dishtowel. Use pan spray to grease a baking sheet then sprinkle the cornmeal onto it. Cut the dough into two halves and use a rolling pin to form each half into a flat rectangle about 5″x18″. Roll up tightly, beginning with the 15 inch side. Pinch the edge of the dough into the roll to seal well and place on baking sheet.  Make 1/4-inch slashes across the top of each loaf about every 2 inches. Brush with cold water and let loaves sit uncovered in a warm, draft-free place until doubled, about an hour.

5. Preheat oven to 375F. Whisk together the egg white and 1 TBS water, then brush the loaves with the egg wash. Sprinkle each loaf with granulated garlic and coarse sea salt, then bake 35 minutes. Remove to cooling racks.

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