Seeking out the rare and expensive is always a thrill. Sometimes the hunt outweighs the actually find. Not so with saffron. We add a bit of intrigue to the pursuit in our shop. With a little sign in the window “Saffron for Sale Here” people will often browse the shop for along time before asking, “where’s the saffron?” Sometimes it’s mere curiosity and sometimes a purchase of several 1-gram packages. We don’t display it along with
In my real life my husband and I have a tea shop.Since we celebrated the 30 year anniversary of the shop very silently (even we can’t remember the exact date!…middle of May sometime), we decided it was time to do a little cookbook of afternoon tea. Actually I think it was JIm’s idea of how to get me to test all those scone recipes, so he would have a ready breakfast every morning for days on end.
In my never ending quest for flatbreads around the world I have found scallion pancakes. The perfect quick bread to round out any meal, even some good old American Bean Soup…just the thing for our blizzard of 2011! I’m always intrigued with the various methods of creating flaky pastries in different cultures. The puff pastry of France
Is it Christmas already?
I did some shopping yesterday with Christmas songs in the background…it’s cold, but no snow…sent off a package this morning…and here’s a box at my doorstep. Wow…oh yeah, no turkey and pumpkin pie yet…what could it be?
The Winter Pantry Box!!!
Tortillas from the ground up! I’ve always been intrigued by how things are made. I figure if someone can do it, so can I…with limitations, of course. So starting from the source this summer I followed the pathway to learn how to make fresh corn tortillas. I found Oaxacan Green corn in Johnny’s Seed Catalog. With the
Is it pizza… is it flatbread…does it matter? Lots of names abound for thin bread either baked on a stone or a grill. It all started when I ran across the name “torta salata” for a dish for my upcoming Italian cooking class. I guess I fell in love with the name. When I actually started investigating, it seemed like more of a quiche,
I’m back to the flat breads again. I’m actually making two today, starting with an Italian flatbread that needs to age a bit. It’s rising at room temperature right now, but will soon go into the refrigerator for a couple days, if not more, developing flavor with each passing hour. The Indian bread I just completed and hastily
What would the world be without garlic? I use it in almost every dish. Well, maybe not the strawberry tarts we are making tonight, but I have made garlic ice cream and roasted garlic chocolate chip cookies. All this excitement is due to my garlic garden that is growing by leaps and bounds. I planted it last fall. Covered by snow all
I found this simple flatbread in The River Cottage Family Cookbook by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall. You just never know when you are going to find a secret technique. I’ve made tortillas many times, always with the hope of them puffing up. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. I know it’s all about the heat and timing. This author suggested holding the bread over a high flame, for the spectacle of it all, to impress
Making flatbreads may be my next obsession. There are hundreds of varieties…many more to ponder in the near future. I love bread so much, I really try not to make it. With a hot crusty loaf coming out of my oven, I’m driven to eating it non-stop until it’s gone. As that doesn’t do my waistline any good, I just don’t make bread. It’s as simple as that. But now…flatbread….
