steve's posterous - Filed under 'homemade'

CA: Ciabatta! best bread so far... (in reverse)

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CA_Ciabatta_best_bread_so_far..zip (1064 KB)

pics @: http://www.flickr.com/stevejohman

This memorial day weekend, i made ciabatta for the first time. It was supposed to be for this meal with my parents, but they changed the time so i had to buy BUNS instead. ugh. anyways, this was a lot of fun- more work than other breads and the dough is SUPER wet, but its nice and light and fluffy- and the results were great! you can just eat this with a little oil (i used some truffle oil) - or- my favorite is a bit of goat cheese... which my wife hates. yum, more for me!

used the Cook's Illustrated version which was interesting- uses milk - not for flavor but to help manipulate the texture and size of air holes. this one uses a biga, which is a starter too, to get some nice sour flavor. good good stuff. highly recommend making this.

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Filed under // baking biga bread ciabatta cooking eating food photography homemade yeast

Posted May 28, 2009

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CULINARY ADVENTURES XIV: Homemade Oven Ribs w/ Homemade BBQ Sauce

Had a few friends over for dinner. This is a great oven spareribs recipe I have from America's Test Kitchen- the secret is letting it rest wrapped in foil and in a paper bag for an hour at the end. Also this time i think i got the BBQ sauce down. Added liquid smoke (which smells funny, but i think cooks in well), some of the spice rub, and brown sugar instead of molasses. Also this time let the spice rub sit on the ribs over night and all day. definitely added to the flavor! PORK PORK!

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CULINARY_ADVENTURES_XIII_Homem.zip (846 KB)

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Filed under // bbq cooking food food photography homemade oven pork ribs sauce spareribs

Posted November 13, 2008

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CULINARY ADVENTURES XIII: Stuffed Portobellos, No Knead Bread (also paella and salad)

For my dad's birthday, amy and i made stuffed portobellos, no knead bread, and salad. my brother and his fiance made paella, little panini's.

The stuffed portobellos were a surprising amount of work- however, this was compounded by the fact we were cooking in my parents kitchen. its a nicer kitchen than ours for sure, but its really hard to cook in a kitchen when you don't know where things are, don't have the same equipment!

but it was done, and very good! i did learn though, that with a broiler, you have to make sure your stuffed mushrooms aren't too high and don't ignite!
the bread was a show stopper as usual!

The paella was fantastic- my brother and his fiancee also added some korean chllli powder to give it a Korean twist for my folks!

pictures courtesy of my brother http://www.flickr.com/star5112