Suzi’s Blog
Tartine Stale Bread Soup
I pride myself on my baking. It has only taken, what, about twenty years to get good at it. But I bake bread and it is very, very good bread. I bring it to every dinner party Brian and I go to, and each hostess is delighted to serve it, warmed with butter on the side.
I’m probably one of the few people to keep 100+ pounds of different flours in bins in my basement, but I do. On weekends, when I go upstate to relax, Brian often says to me, “Take it easy today.”
“I am,” I tell him. He smiles because by early afternoon it is too late. I’m pretty well dusted with flour and the countertops have a dozen loaves in various states of rising, falling, doubling, or cooling. Our house smells like a bakery. I love it.
Of course, I’m never content. I’m always looking for new flours, new recipes, new ideas. When I found the new Tartine Bread I realized I had struck gold. If you love baking bread, then this book is must for you. I travel with it back and forth, read it, study it, and I eat the results.
Day old bread? Here’s a very authentic, hearty recipe for you. When most of the population lived off the land and not in cities, a farming family’s big meal needed to be lunch. Workers needed sustenance, for recovery from that morning of labor and carrying forward until the sun set and cows came home. Literally.
The simplest forms of this recipe use onions fried in oil or goose fat and then poured over stale bread, topped with a fried egg seasoned with vinegar. This production is richer, using stock and more vegetables to craft a full meal.
You’ll love this soup. You need Tartine Bread. The beautiful bread picture below is one of the Tartine recipes I tried with their superb techniques. I’ll be writing about the recipes and the techniques in posts to come.
Le Tourin: A Sustenance Soup
Yield: 2 very large servings
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or rendered duck or chicken fat, plus ¼ cup
- 1 bunch young carrots, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
- 2 yellow onions, cut into quarters
- 1 bunch kale, stems removed
- 1 quart rich chicken stock
- 2 large eggs
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Red wine vinegar
- 3 slices day-old whole wheat or country bread torn into chunks
Preparation:
Place a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and warm the 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the carrots and onion quarters, cut-side down. Reduce the heat to medium and cook without stirring until slightly caramelized, 5 to 8 minutes.
Turn the vegetables, being sure to cook the second cut sides of the onion quarters. Cook until caramelized, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the kale and the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
Heat a small omelet pan over high heat. Add the ¼ cup olive oil. When the oil is shimmering but not yet smoking, crack the eggs into the pan without breaking the yolks. Fry for about ½ minutes, carefully spooning some of the hot oil over the eggs to help cook the tops. Carefully pour off the excess oil. Season the eggs with salt, pepper, and vinegar.
Set the torn bread and vegetables in heatproof bowls. Pour the hot stock over the bread and vegetables. Top with the fried eggs and serve.
Source: Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson
Florida Style Coconut Cream Patties
For some, Florida seems a weird place. For the rest of us, Florida is a weird place. Now the fourth largest state, Florida is a jumble of theme parks, trailer parks, strip malls, and highways.
But the “old” Florida, the Florida of 40 or 50 years ago was something else, mostly rural and quiet. Get off the interstate, and you can still find the old Florida. There are scenic byways that wind through modest hills and groves of all kinds of trees. The best place to stop? Any of those authentic old farm stands, clinging to the side of the road with a dirt parking lot and wooden walls that slope in all directions. There, you’ll be hit by the smell of citrus as soon as you leave your air-conditioned car. The smell, and the taste of any of the juice there, can be overpowering.
No matter how much you love your skis, your snowboard, your snow shoes, you can’t help standing in that parking lot and wondering, “What if?”
Next to the cash register in the farm stands, there is usually a shelf piled high with oblong cardboard boxes colored white or yellow. The boxes hold a tender goodie: coconut patties. You can buy them at the farm stand, at the airport on the way home [for $ more], or on Amazon [9 patties for $20 + shipping & handling].
I love the patties, I have not been to Florida in a while, and — I am not cheap — but I am being economical in these times. It’s funny, but these patties are exactly the sort of thing you always buy, but never make. It never crossed my mind to do-it-myself. A couple of nights ago, at 3AM I had a bad hour. I had monkey brains and I could almost taste a coconut patty in my mouth. Almost taste. Like some vision in a scene from Shakespeare, there I lay: wide awake, rehearsing a speech to tell off some jerk in my life, and watching that chocolate-covered patty dance before me.
What did I do? I got up. My doctor says don’t just lie there. I tried a glass of really good tequila [my doctor does not mention tequila but I do know how to improvise]. And, while sipping, I surfed the web. Since God likes coconut too, I found this recipe. Actually, I found several, all quite similar. One of them actually credits this recipe to Wolfgang Puck, so I don’t want to leave him out of my chain of thanks. The recipe below calls for a semi-sweet chocolate covering. If you wish, substitute milk chocolate [but then add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil or shortening and blend into the melted chocolate before dipping the patties].
These are easy to make. Really easy. They are easy to eat. Really easy. They are good for you. Kinda good.
Florida Style Coconut Cream Patties
Servings: 15+ patties depending on size
Ingredients:
- 1.25 cups powdered sugar
- ½ stick (4 tablespoons) butter, cubed
- 1 egg white
- 1.25 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
Preparation:
Fill a medium saucepan with an inch of water and set it over medium heat to simmer.
In the bowl of a double boiler (or a bowl that fits snugly on top of your saucepan), combine the powdered sugar, butter, and egg white, and whisk together. Place the bowl over the saucepan of simmering water, and continue to heat and stir until the mixture is well-combined and very runny, about 5-10 minutes. [Note: you don’t want to cook that egg white, so do stop if the mixture is quite warm but still viscous].
Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the coconut and vanilla extract. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it is firm enough to scoop, about 2 hours — overnight is fine.
Once the candy has firmed up, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave until melted, stirring after every minute.
Using a teaspoon, scoop small balls of the coconut mixture and flatten them into discs between your palms.
Using two forks or dipping tools, dip the discs in the chocolate and drag the bottom against the lip of the bowl to remove excess chocolate. Place the dipped patty on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with the remaining coconut candy and chocolate.
Place the dipped patties in the refrigerator to set the chocolate, about 20 minutes. Store coconut patties in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks [Note: I seriously doubt the lifetime of these things is beyond 1-2 days, not weeks, so just eat them!]
Source: About.com and Wolfgang Puck
