I'm back today!

The nice thing about a blog you don't depend on for income is that you can leave it for awhile. I left. Went to San Fran. Did the wedding. Got lost in the Presidio! Suddenly, it's late August. There've been a few deaths. A lot of visitors, some trips. I've been looking at food blogs trying to figure out how to cook more and eat out less. Even with cooking, food is a challenge. I have a recipe for you though that is so easy and yields so much good stuff, it almost boggles the mind. This comes from two sources, but it uses an ingredient I was not that familiar with: instant yeast. For some reason, this dough, which is a non-knead dough, just sits there in the fridge, comfy, for weeks. Whatever you make with it, in whatever form, usually turns out fantastic. In these economically tough times, it helps to have a go-to starch recipe if, like me, you are the one responsible for all of the cooking in your household. Enjoy! And, I will try to be more present here. I've missed you, dear Reader(s), and I've missed blogging too. Oh and I've enclosed a picture of the view from our hotel room in Cambria. We were there for a few days to celebrate Dean's 'significant' birthday. To say the least, it was wonderful. But it is part of the reason why I'm cooking at home so much! :)

Master Bread Dough Recipe

Use your largest bowl. Wrap with saran, but make sure some air gets in the corners, or the whole thing will explode!

3 cups water
1 and 1/2 TBS of salt
1 and 1/2 TBS of instant (must be instant) yeast
6 cups flour

Mix first three - whisk till blended. Add flour all at once. Stir will you have what looks like a big goopy mess. Cover loosely with saran. Let sit three hours.

It will rise - punch it down and stick in fridge. Use as needed - it's good for about 2 weeks.

Three things I make with this dough:

Naan:

Take a golf ball sized piece and roll it in some flour. Flatten out with your hands. You can use a rolling pin, but this is a sticky dough, so be sure and flour up.

You can use butter, ghee or olive oil. I've been using olive oil lately. Get a pan on the stove hot and add whatever grease you are using. (I've even switched to using a non-stick pan instead of the old reliable Le Creuset). When grease is hot, plop the flattened dough piece in. Don't splash yourself. Immediately cover. After about 3 minutes, turn over with a pair of tongs. Cover again. Cook for about 3 more minutes.

Remove to plate and sprinkle with salt (I also sprinkle with dried garlic too)

Repeat. You may have to re-grease the pan as the cooking process goes along.

I'm still tweaking my methods with this naan recipe. But here's another one I've had much more consistent results with.

Garlic Bread Balls

Get out a large lasagna pan, either glass or otherwise (again, I use a Le Creuset).
Preheat oven to 450. Make sure it's super hot.

The original recipe calls for a melted cup of butter to start, but again, I switched to olive oil and was very happy with the results. Pour about 1.5 cups of olive oil in a bowl. Add 1 tsp. of italian seasoning, 1 tsp. parsley, 1 tsp. dried garlic, 1 tsp. dried onion, 1/2 tsp. of coarse black pepper and 1/2 tsp. of kosher salt. Mix together.

Take your master bread dough and break off larger pieces this time. You can sprinkle flour right on the dough in the bowl to make it easier. Roll a piece of dough in your hands about the size of a plum, maybe a bit smaller. Dunk in oil mixture and put in pan. Repeat till you have 5 rows of three. Sprinkle the top with more italian seasoning. Bake for 25 minutes. Break the bread pieces apart if you have to and cool on a rack. Fantastic!

Boule Bread

Finally, just good old basic bread. You can do all sorts of stuff here too. Break off a large chunk, maybe the size of a small pumpkin. Keep it plain, or have fun. Black pepper, white pepper, red pepper, dried jalapenos, dried garlic, onions, sesame seeds, poppy. You can do whatever you like. The original recipe says to score it, but I find the dough is too wet to even do that.

The trick here is in the execution. Again, oven at 450. Put a pizza pan in the oven when you turn it on. Also put a rimmed cookie sheet in the rack just below it. Wait till oven is super hot. Then, caarrrreeefullyyyy take your dough pumpkin and plop it on the pizza pan. It will ssssizzle. Then, even more carefully, add a cup of cold water to the cookie sheet. It will steam up, so be very careful here. Shut the oven door so the steam says in. Bake 40 minutes. Crust should be nice and brown and bread should be nice and chewy! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!