1, 2, 3 simit!

OK so I've got one more post to make, inspired by my time in Turkey.  On nearly every street you could find a man selling simit, a sort of sesame bagel.  They were so good I had one almost every day!  When I got home, I did some searching and found a recipe to make them at home!  This is the recipe I used:
1 1/2 c water
1 1/4 t salt
4 c bread flour
3 t instant yeast
1 T molassas
1/4 c warm water
1 c toasted sesame seeds

I made the dough in my bread machine; otherwise knead the dough and let it rise for about an hour.  Afterward, punch down the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Divide dough into 24 pieces and roll them into 14-inch long snakes.  Twist two pieces together and press into a ring.

Here's the next step.  First preheat the oven to 280c (it needs a while to warm up).  Dissolve the molasses in the warm water.  I toasted the sesame seeds in a wok on medium-high heat - stir them constantly so they don't burn.  Next dip the rings in the molasses, then roll completely with seeds. 

Let the rings rise until they get puffy like this - 10 to 20 minutes depending on how warm the room is.  Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

They should look like this, but don't let them burn like I did!

an august harvest

Despite my enthusiasm for growing fruit and veg, my harvests are usually very small - a lemon here, a handful of lettuce leaves there. But today's dinner is a celebration of spring and called for one of my largest harvests.

I'm making lamb with prosciutto with a salad of peas, broad beans, rocket, snowpeas and radish with a mint dressing. The rocket is mine, those are my Oregon Spring snowpeas, and a slightly nibbled radish. Along with the mint I'm going back out for thyme and chives later.

It's so satisfying!

p.s. I almost forgot, my cherrytime capsicums have sprouted. Took two weeks, and they're going really slowly, but they're going! The tomatoes are coming along too.

Update: here's a snap of the salad I made from this harvest.

I made fresh bread to go with it.  My first free-form loaf was an Italian bread back in May that came out like this - it didn't rise properly so it was tasty but dense.  I tried the same recipe again and it was like night and day, I didn't realise just how light and wonderful it was meant to be!  It's my best bread yet, if I do say so myself.  It tasted as good or better than bread from a bakery, pillowy soft on the inside with a crunchy crust.  Still soft and delicious the next day, too!

sunshine bread

This is a whimsical flatbread with sun-dried tomato, Parmesan and pepper and shaped into a happy sun.  It's missing two rays which were eaten before I remembered to take a photo!

Sunshine, or maybe octopus?

italian bread

This is my first attempt at a "free-form loaf", recorded for posterity.  It's an Italian bread with olive oil.  The dough was so sticky that I couldn't shape it properly and I don't think it rose as much as it was meant to.  But like the baguettes, it's a learning process!  And it still tasted great.

baguettes

I made my first baguettes this weekend, using the bread machine to knead and shaping by hand.  It was a "rustic" recipe of white bread flour with a bit of rye.  I wanted to document how it went so I can look back on this and laugh.

As you can see I did something a bit wrong - both loaves split all the way down one side!  I think the main problem was that the loaves stuck to the pan when they were left to rise, so when they did their final "puff up" in the oven, the bottoms couldn't stretch and it tore.  Next time I won't just rely on cornmeal on the pan, they're getting a layer of nonstick spray!

Overall though, not a bad effort!  The crust was very thick with a good hearty tear to it and the flavour was lovely.  But next time I'm hoping the inside will be a bit lighter and fluffier.  And to be honest, I reckon this style of rustic thick crust is better for a batard (oval shape) than a baguette.  But this is part of the joy I get from making bread - I learn so much from every loaf!

focaccia and possum

Two very random things.  The first is that I made my second focaccia.  I promise not to take pictures of every single bread product I make but I was very happy with the improvement on this focaccia over the last one - more light and fluffy this time because its second rise went better.  Thick enough to slice and use for sandwiches if we wanted.  It didn't last enough for sandwiches this time!

The second is a random photo of our local possum.  I was taking out the compost last night and heard a rustle.  A quick peek revealed that the little poss-poss was caught out behind a shrub at the back fence.  She looked a lot smaller than the big fatty I snapped in the fig tree, so my guess is this is a female and the other was a male.  They are pretty freaking adorable even if they can be annoying.  I'd much rather share my garden with them than with rats (which I have also spotted on the fence before).

even more fun with the bread machine - updated!

I've been enjoying making bread in the bread machine about once a week - we eat toast on the weekends so Friday night I'm usually throwing a loaf into the machine. I decided I wanted to branch out and not just learn to make better bread, but to see what kind of breads I can make. I've made pizza crusts, bagels, and the richest most amazing brioche imaginable (which made the most amazing French toast I've ever had). Whilst trying to find resources on bread making the name of one book kept coming up - an out-of-print book called "Rustic European Breads from your Bread Machine". The Easter long weekend has given me time to have a real play.
My first try was focaccia with garlic and sage. It didn't rise properly (I messed up and put olive oil on it before it rose instead of after) but the taste was absolutely amazing - rich, salty and olive-oily. The sage is from the garden which is my excuse for this rather non-gardeny entry.

If by any chance you own and love your breadmaker, take the extra effort to find this book online and order it. I can't wait to bake from it again soon!

EDIT: Two more creations over the long weekend. First I made bagels again using the recipe from the book and quite a few learnings from the first batch. They definitely turned out better this time! Look how plump and golden they are.

And finally, I made a fougasse which is a French flatbread like focaccia with green olives in it. I've got to say, leave the focaccia to the Italians - the French fougasse was downright bland in comparison. It didn't have the rich flavour of the focaccia at all, even though the olives were nice. I'll stick with focaccia.

mmmm bagels

OK, again this isn't about gardening but we ended up eating the loaf of bread in a day and a half so I thought I'd try making bread machine bagels. Bagels are not easy to find in Australia, not like in America anyways, and the ones you find here aren't that great.

The complete recipe is on the link above but here's how it went for me. First step was to add the ingredients to the bread maker on the dough cycle, let it rise for 20 minutes, then shape the bagels.

After rising for another 30 minutes, you boil them for 30 seconds each side in batches. They get a coating of egg and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or whatever else you like. This part made me feel like I was making donuts except it was water, not oil.

Finally you bake them in and incredibly hot oven for only 4 minutes each side. I thought that surely 280C was too hot so I only had it about 220, but I was wrong. It really does need to be that hot! Still, they turned out looking pretty good for a first go.

The taste was incredibly delicious though the texture was a bit soft for my liking. I like bagels to have a bit of a crust and tear to them. After my first go at bagels I found this website that gives a really good overview of bagel making and has given me some good tips to consider next time around.

Edit: I've made a few delicious meals from the bagels so far that I wanted to share.  First, the breakfast bagel with scrambled eggs, ham, cheese and garden tomatoes.  Excellent way to start the day.

For lunch I had what I call blackened tomato bagel bruschetta, though it ended up more like pizza.  Sliced a tomato and a clove of garlic in half and put them under the grill for a few minutes until the garlic skin and surface of the tomato get some burned black bits.  Carefully rub the garlic on a toasted bagel (the garlic should be at least a bit soft), then scoop out the gooey warm insides of the tomatoes and spread them on the bagel.  Add some fresh basil and Parmesan cheese and put under the grill until bubbling.

a different kind of harvest

A month or two ago I bought a used breadmaker from eBay.  I've made a few loaves from boxed mixes and a few pizza crusts so far, but yesterday I made my first loaf from scratch.  I'm so proud of it!  It's a three seed loaf (poppy, sesame and flax) with a beautiful light and fluffy texture.  I found the trick is to check the dough 10 minutes into the kneading cycle.  It looked too sticky so I added a few tablespoons of flour and it came out perfectly.  It was pretty dang tasty.

This morning for breakfast I had cheese toast with another one of my RdMs. I reckon the flavour of the tomatoes is getting stronger, especially after they were under the grill for a bit.

Bread from my bread machine, tomatoes from my garden.  Couldn't get much more homey unless I made the cheese myself.  Speaking of which, perhaps a cheese-making course is in order...