Cooking and Writing For a Living

For those of you who know me, you know I've been working with someone for whom I have great respect as a Chef. For those of you who don't know me, I can tell you this, I am working with a PBS Chef who is also a cookbook author. I am assisting in the creation of a new cook book. I gather information and recipes, I create and test new and existing recipes, and I even get to do some writing!!! Shopping for ingredients, being creative, doing kitchen math, staying calm when things get crazy, and generally having faith has comprised my days as of late. What a satisfying process though! I'll be posting more recipes post-deadline. This here picture depicts Day 1 of cocktail recipe testing. It was tougher than it looks , but fun nonetheless, I am quite a lucky girl!

Chia Rolls

These are rolls of a soft texture, flecked with yellow cornmeal and chia seeds, held together with a thin golden crust and accentuated with a egg-white sheen and a sprinkling of flake salt. They are made with a base of white bread flour. I haven't yet perfected an entirely whole grain bread that also uses Chia, but I am working on it! This recipe is born of a sudden early rising epidemic in my world. No longer beckoned to the restaurant by the diners of my town and my own driving ambition, I am cooking during daylight hours both privately and professionally, leaving me both tired and waking on the earlier spectrum of a 24 hour cycle. I remember my Grandma always was the only person who was ever able to wake me in the morning twilight hours (do I call it that, or did she...?) So I got to thinking - how did she do it?!?! And just what did we do so early? Trips to the Vegetable market was one of my favorite things, but that a whole 'nother blog.

I'm pretty sure that most of the time when I arose extra early, it was because of her cooking. Breads, savory and sweet, come to the forefront of my olfactory memory database. There was nothing she could not make, but what I remember most are breads: regular savory breads mixed in her big wooden bowl, fruit breads like an excellent banana nut bread, and of course my favorite: the only-for-Eastertime classic, kolachi! I make breads now too, early in the morning most times, mostly to entice my family from their sleep and to nourish us through the day with homemade foods.

This recipe is similar to traditional Amish no-salt bread in that the bread itself is salt-free, and similar to the Portugese in that it contains cornmeal, but it is both ancient and new with the addition of chia seeds!

Chia seeds add protein and fiber to this bread, satiating hunger.


Dorothy’s Almost No Salt Rolls
Pepper jelly on these is amazing!

Combine 1 cup unbleached bread flour with 2 T yeast, 2 cups water and 1 T honey. Let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine 4 cups unbleached bread flour with yeast mixture and mix with dough hook until no longer raggedy, about 4 minutes. In a stream, add ½ c yellow cornmeal until incorporated. Add ¼ cup dry chia seeds, stopping the machine periodically and adhering the seeds to the dough. You may also need to periodically move the dough down the hook with your hands, to make sure all chia is evenly distributed and the dough is being kneaded sufficiently. Continue to knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes), sprinkling very lightly with more cornmeal as needed if dough gets too sticky along the way.

Oil a large bowl with EVOO, coat dough and cover with damp towel. Place in warm area away from drafts and let proof until doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

Portion dough into 3 oz pieces, and roll into rounds. Divide rolls between two sheet pans coated with EVOO. Make three slashes across the top of each, and let double in size, about 15 minutes.

For shiny rolls, just before placing in oven, brush tops with an egg white that has been whipped with 1 T water, and sprinkle with some flake salt. Place sheet pans in cold oven on the middle rack. On the bottom rack fill a pie pan with boiling water. Set oven to 375 and bake for 10 minutes or until rolls are golden in color, and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from oven, let cool on sheet pans for 3 minutes and then remove with thin metal spatula, and continue to cool on wire rack for an hour or two.

These rolls are surprisingly hearty thanks to fiber and protein, and go well with sweet or savory items, even with the flake salt on them! They seem quite hard when they come out of the oven but soften upon cooling.

Me and "Jaques the Cooker"!

I was fortunate enough to meet Jaques Pepin this past year at an event hosted by my local organic veggie purveyor, and what a treat. He was interviewed by Doug Keane...and me. Yes, ME! Well, I jest - but I did ask 1 question at the end - in the general Q & Session, "How important is culinary training for success as a professional Chef?" A dream come true, seeing his eyes light with reflection, to hear his thoughts in his response. I am always intrigued to learn more of how our World of Food has changed, and continues to evolve. I can't put into words his response, but he's wise - that's for sure.

About the subject of this blog and using the term "The Cooker" versus "Chef" for Chef Pepin: it's my son who calls him "Jacques the Cooker".  Oh, and to my son, I'm not a Chef; I just "cook all the time"...fine by me!

Welcome

I will be posting food recipes/ideas, and generally saturating the internet with more info about food!