Counter Culture
- At March 11, 2019
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Baking, Life, Roxanne Writes On
- 2
Counter culture… aka, the “thing” living in your kitchen….
As you may know, it’s been the Winter of Bread here in Chez Snopek. About a month ago, I watched a NetFlix documentary series called Cooked, based on the book by Michael Pollan. In the episode called “Air” he talked about bread. Well. If you know me AT ALL, you know I have a deep and abiding love of bread. Baking it, eating it, taking pictures of it, writing about it…
Talk about counter-culture.
With everyone so carb-conscious right now, bread is taking a real beating, so this episode was particularly interesting because it was talking specifically about fermented bread, ie: sourdough.
Which is a whole ‘nother story. Fermented breads, it turns out, are very different nutrition-wise. (Keep in mind, I’m talking about fully-fermented, mostly or all whole-grain breads.) The nutrients in the grain are more bio-available, the long fermentation process autolyzes the bran, making it more gut-friendly, and people with diabetes report that sourdough bread doesn’t cause the spike in blood sugar that regular bread does.
My spidey-senses were way up.
I’ve experimented with sourdough before. I’ve done the “friendship bread” thing, but those are loaded with ingredients like instant pudding and sugar, not what I’m interested in.
This, as Michael Pollan describes it, is the real thing. Whole grain flour and water, left out at room temperature to colonize with natural yeasts and bacteria from the air, until it ferments into a culture that can transform a sticky mass of flour, water and salt into those crisp, tangy, crusty, chewy loaves we all love.
A culture. That sits on the counter.
Until it becomes this: sourdough fruit and nut bread. Yeah, baby. Now that’s worth getting up in the morning for.
Then I read more. Oh, there’s lots to read about sourdough. It’s an Internet rabbit hole that a baker like me could get lost in for day after delicious day, and I have. Stick with me and I’ll tell you about it. Or you could give one of these books a try.
I made my starter according to directions from The Il Fornaio Baking Book: Sweet and Savory Recipes from the Italian Kitchen. The fruit bread recipe came from Artisan Sourdough Made Simple: A Beginner’s Guide to Delicious Handcrafted Bread with Minimal Kneading.
Best Ever Minestrone Soup!
- At March 29, 2013
- By Roxanne Snopek
- In Life, Roxanne Writes On
- 0
My husband and I are lowering our intake of starch and simple carbohydrates. Well, bread, mostly. This is a true hardship for me as I dearly love bread. I adore it. Sourdough, focaccia, whole-grain, oatmeal…I love to bake it, smell it, look at it. I love it for breakfast, toasted with peanut butter. I love a slice before bed, with honey. I love to pull the hot crusts off a fresh homemade French loaf and slather it with butter and… you get the drift.
My aim in this wretched soul-sucking endeavour is to get my cholesterol levels down into, well, survivable levels. That means get rid of the belly fat and <huge sigh> for me at least, that means no bread. And without giving anything else up, I’m down a few pounds, so I guess it’s working.
However there are many, many foods that I love that are not bread, and this is what I’m focusing on. I enjoy vegetables and I love soup (though soup is best with – you guessed it – bread!) but vegetable-only soup usually leaves me feeling like something’s missing. Like sausage or chicken or a whole whack of pasta. Recently, my husband had a craving for Olive Garden’s minestrone soup, so I looked up the recipe and figured I’d give it a try, not expecting much.
Holy macaroni, was I ever wrong! Chock-full of vegetables and beans (good carbs!) with only a wee handful of pasta, this fulfills my veggie count for the day, satisfies my appetite completely and is totally delicious. And it’s completely vegetarian, broth and all! I followed the recipe almost exactly. (Hm. Note to self: I might be onto something here.)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small minced white onion
- ½ cup chopped zucchini
- ½ cup Italian green beans
- ½ stalk minced celery
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cans (15 oz) red kidney beans, drained
- 2 cans (15 oz) great northern or small white beans, drained
- 1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
- ½ cup shredded carrot
- 2 tablespoons minced parsley
- 1½ teaspoons dried oregano
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 cups hot water
- 4 cups fresh baby spinach
- ½ cup small shell pasta
- Measure olive oil into a large stock pot and heat on medium.
- Put the onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini into the pot and saute for about 5 minutes or until the onions become translucent.
- Add the vegetable broth, drained tomatoes, beans, carrots, hot water and spices to the pot.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the spinach leaves and the pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes.
Bliss-ful Carrot Cake
I love food. I love baking. Ergo, I love recipes.
Also, ergo, I need to exercise a lot more. Soon.
But before then, I’d like to share one of my favorite recipes with you, on this inaugural Favorite Recipes Friday post. My latest book, His Reluctant Rancher, continues the story of Three River Ranch. Two of the characters that populate this world are twins Bliss and Blythe, older women who wander around looking after people, scolding and feeding them as they see fit.
They also nurse a mysterious grudge between them, which will be revealed in time!
In His Reluctant Rancher, Bliss brings the Gamble family a carrot cake that she says is far better than the one Blythe serves at her bed & breakfast. Now, I don’t know Blythe’s recipe, but I do know this one, and it truly rocks. It’s the cake I made for birthdays when my girls were small. Because it’s so chock full of nutrition, I could relax in the knowledge that even if it’s all they ate all day, it would be okay.
“I Wish I Knew How to Quit You, Wheat!”
NOTE: since I first wrote this, I’ve read Wheat Belly, the premise of which is that wheat is responsible for most – if not all – of modern humanity’s pain and suffering. You know, diabetes, high cholesterol, painful joints, fuzzy brain, bad hair, bad moods, slow drains, slugs and possibly that irritating syndrome in which whatever line you’re in always moves slower than the ones beside you. Aaaaanyway. Wheat. I figure I’m carb sensitive but am not quite ready to part with it entirely. We’re working on a trial separation, a weaning situation. The recipe below has been modified to reflect this.
This is from the La Leche League Whole Foods Cookbook. Can you tell that my girls liked to work alongside me? I’ve modified it somewhat, as I almost always do, but here’s the gist:
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (I used 1 1/4 cups flour, and 1 cup coconut flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cups oil (I use canola or olive)
3/4 cup liquid honey
5 eggs
3 cups grated carrot (or zucchini, which I haven’t tried, but would probably be great, too.)
1 cup canned unsweetened crushed pineapple (save the juice for the frosting)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Stir it all together. Put into greased and floured pan of your choice. (This makes a fairly large cake.) Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Cool, then frost with cream cheese icing. (Cream cheese, pineapple juice and enough icing sugar to make it taste good.) Then I covered the top with coconut because the frosting seemed a little gooey.
Boom. Bliss-ful Carrot Cake.