Sourdough Bread

  If you started your sourdough, and have it bubbling and brewing on your kitchen countertop, then you're ready to make sourdough bread.
This recipe is from the King Arthur Flour website, and makes perfect sourdough bread every time.

Sourdough Bread
Makes 2 Loaves

Ingredients:

1 cup fed sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp. instant yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. salt
5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour


Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough.
2. Allow the dough to rise in a covered bowl, until it's doubled in size, about 90 minutes.
3. Gently divide the dough in half, it will deflate somewhat.
4. Shape dough into two oval loaves.  Place the loaves on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.  Cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise until very puffy, about 1 hour.  Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
5. Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.
6. Make two fairly deep diagonal slashes in each loaf with a serrated knife.
7. Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes, until the loaves are a deep golden brown.  Remove from oven, and cool on a rack.

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Kitchen Note: This is not an essential tool for making bread, but I mix and knead my sourdough bread in my KitchenAid Classic Stand Mixer - it makes breadmaking a little easier and quicker.  But use the ceramic attachment, instead of metal, for sourdough recipes.
 The plastic cover on the mixing bowl is also handy to have for covering yeast-rising dough - and for keeping a recipe covered in the fridge for later use, or for covering and storing mixer attachments.

Flax Eggs

Flax eggs are a simple and healthy egg replacement, and binding agent for cookie, bread, or cake recipes.

 It's so simple.  Just mix together:

1 tbsp. flaxseed meal

and

3 tbsp. water

Let rest for 5 minutes, and it's ready to use.

 This recipe is equivalent to 1 egg.

Smoked Salmon and Broccoli Bake

 This is a simple casserole recipe that requires only a few basic ingredients, one cooking pot, and one baking dish.  And if you don't have canned smoked salmon on hand, I think tuna would work well instead - although I've never tried it.

Smoked Salmon and Broccoli Bake
Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cups (1 pint) canned smoked salmon, drained
12 oz. pkg. frozen chopped broccoli
1 1/2 cups vegetable pasta shells (bowtie pasta would work well too)
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Sprinkling of black pepper

Instructions:

1. Cook pasta, drain, and place in separate bowl.
2. Cook broccoli, drain.
3. Add smoked salmon, cooked pasta, Cheddar cheese, and cream of mushroom soup to pot with drained cooked broccoli, mix together well.
4. Place mixture in 8" x 8" glass baking dish, and season top with pepper.
5. Cook in 350 degree oven for 30 - 40 minutes.

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms are a new recipe for me, but became a family favorite this summer whenever we fired up the grill.  These beautiful large mushrooms are the steak of the mushroom family, and when barbecued, taste similar to beef steak.

On this night, we enjoyed them with barbecued king salmon, a garden salad, corn on the cob . . .

homemade bread . . .

and a few good cribbage games after dinner.

Enjoy!

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Ingredients:

4 Portobello Mushrooms

1/4 cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic, chopped

Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

1. Clean mushrooms, and remove stems.
2. Place mushrooms in a gallon-size Ziploc bag and add olive oil, chopped garlic, and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.
3. Cover mushrooms with olive oil marinade by shaking bag gently.
4. Refrigerate mushrooms in bag for 2 - 3 hours.
5. Grill mushrooms for 5 minutes on one side, then turn over and grill on other side for another 5 minutes.

Sourdough Starter

Sourdough starter is a staple in many Alaskan kitchens for making delicious sourdough breads, pancakes, waffles, pizza crust, and even chocolate cake.
 I started making my own sourdough starter only about a year ago, after I found this simple recipe from Alaska from Scratch.

 I keep my sourdough starter in this old cheese crock from Wisconsin, but any 1-quart glass jar

or ceramic bowl would work.

In an upcoming post, I'll share a simple recipe for making two loaves of delicious sourdough bread using one cup of sourdough starter.

Sourdough Starter

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. dry yeast
2 cups All-Purpose Flour

Instructions:

1. Pour warm water into  1-quart glass jar or ceramic jar or bowl.
2. Add and dissolve the sugar and yeast in that order.
3. Stir (always with a wooden or plastic spoon) in the flour gradually.
4. Cover the jar or bowl with a clean dishcloth and place somewhere warm.  Keep an eye on your starter, because it will grow exponentially the first day and may overflow your container (mine did!), so watch it closely.
5. Let it work anywhere from 2 to 5 days, stirring it about once a day as it will separate.
6. When the bubbling has subsided and a yeasty, sour aroma has developed, stir your starter once more and put it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.  The starter should have the consistency of pancake batter.
7. Feeding Your Starter - Refrigerated starter is fairly dormant once chilled, and only has to be fed once every 2 weeks.  Add 1 cup of flour, and 1/2 cup warm water and stir to combine.  Cover and allow to sit in a warm place for 24 hours.  Stir again and refrigerate.
8. Using Your Starter - If in the fridge, take out of fridge and put on kitchen counter the night before.  The next day, follow recipe directions for the amount of starter to use.  Then replace the amount of starter you took out with an equal amount.  Example: If you used one cup of starter, add to your starter one cup flour, and 1/2 cup warm water.  Stir with a wooden or plastic spoon.  Cover and allow to sit in a warm place for 24 hours.  Stir again and use, or refrigerate for later use.

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And finally, if you have any questions or problems with your sourdough starter at all, please leave a comment.  I'd be happy to help!

Food for the Soul

We've been enjoying another beautiful Alaskan summer,

my 29th, and my husband's 40th!

Monkshood and Bellflowers in my garden.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,

a place to play in and pray in,

where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

~ John Muir

***

Mexican Lasagne

Mexican Lasagne is a family-favorite vegetarian dish. It's delicious served with guacamole.

Mexican Lasagna

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

2 tsp. olive oil

1 1/2 cups yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 large zucchini, diced (about 2 - 3 cups)

2 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes

1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed

1 cup frozen or canned corn

1 can (10 oz) mild red enchilada sauce

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

4 flour tortillas

1 - 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Coat a 9"x13" baking dish with nonstick spray.
2. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, saute 5 minutes.  Add zucchini and cumin, saute 5 minutes, or until zucchini is crisp-tender.  Stir in tomatoes, beans, corn and enchilada sauce; bring to simmer.  Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.
3. Put 2 tortillas in baking dish side by side so that bottom of dish is covered.  Top with one half of the zucchini mixture, then sprinkle one half the grated cheese.  Repeat another layer with two more tortillas, zucchini mixture, and cheese.
4. Cover with foil and bake 20 - 25 minutes, until bubbly and cheese is melted.  Cool 5 minutes.