Par-baking Focaccia Bread

Big group came over tonight. We had our quarterly planning meeting at my house and I wanted to serve fresh hot Focaccia bread with my Red Pepper and Sausage Pasta. But I couldn't get 2 fresh loaves out at the same time.  So I attempted some par baking.  That's where you partially bake the bread, freeze it, and then finish the baking at the appropriate time.  There wasn't a lot of info on the web for doing it so I had to experiment, something we do a lot of around here.

So I made the normal focaccia in the bread maker but you can make it by hand.  Here's the recipe.

1 cup + 2 T water

3 cups bread flour

3 T butter (unsalted if possible)

1 t salt

2 T sugar

1 1/4 t yeast. (sorry no way around that measuring)

Put it in your bread maker on the dough cycle and hit start, or mix the water, butter (melted) and the yeast together, the flour, salt, and sugar together, then combine and knead for 10 minutes. Set aside in a covered bowl and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Either way you do it, take out the dough and place on parchment paper and make into a round about 1 inch high.  Coat the dough with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic salt, parmesan cheese, and some rosemary. (If you want at this point you can put some thinly sliced tomatoes, garlic or chopped onions on the bread) Set aside and let it rise for 20 more minutes.

For a finished loaf  cook it for 20 minutes at 350.  

To par bake it I cooked the first one for 15 minutes and then took it out.  It looked basically done so I made another loaf and cooked it for only 12 minutes.  I thought that looked about right.

I let them cool, then wrapped them in plastic wrap (I didn't have any plastic bags) and put them in the freezer.

(second loaf)

When it came time for the dinner, I let the loaves warm up to room temp by placing them on the granite countertops for about and hour, preheated the oven to 350 again and put the loaves back in the oven.  I thought they would only need to bake for the time that was left from the original 20 minutes.  How wrong I was.  The loaf that I had cooked for 15 minutes took another 15 minutes and the loaf that I took out after 12 minutes took almost the full 20 minutes.  

The loaf that I pulled out after 15 minutes was perfect. The loaf that I pulled out after 12 minutes sank as the middle wasn't cooked enough to set.  It still tasted OK but wasn't as light as the other loaf.

(par-baked loaves thawing, 12 minute one is closest, notice the sunken middle)

In conclusion, I recommend par baking the loaves for 75% of the recommended time and then baking them again for that same 75%, or until done.

Cook well, it's worth it.

Rob Barrett, Jr.

Cooking for Dads

Satay, Saturdays, and The Weekend's Looking Up

It's friday night, and I'm getting gas at Costco.

That's the start of an exciting weekend, I tell you. I can foresee a trip to Home Depot and maybe a nap on Sunday afternoon. Living the dream.

So I call my wife, tell her I'm at Costco, and ask if she needs me to pick up something for dinner.  She says she has no plans so I offer to make something.  Luckily Costco has packet of only 2 flank steaks so i get those (normally they come in packs of like 20.).  Of course, I have no plan, but now I have steaks.

On the way home I'm reminded of a Peanut Satay recipe I made about a year ago.  These flank steaks would be perfect. 

We end up having everything I need.  1/2 can coconut milk, 2 spoonfuls curry powder, 1 sp salt, 1 sp sugar, a little pepper and 1/2 sp coriander seeds, ground in a mortar and pestle. 

The freshly ground coriander smells so amazing.  It makes the dish.

I cut the steak in strips and throw them in the marinade.  It is at that time I realize we have way, way too much food.  So I tell my wife (who is a saint, a saint I tell you.) to hit the phones and see who wants to come over. It's 6:30 already.

I make some sticky rice, a quick homegrown tomato salad, and then an easy Thai Peanut Sauce (click here for the recipe). I fire up the grill, put the steak satay on skewers and await our guests.

What a fun night.  Everyone likes eating satay off the skewers and the tomato salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar goes over well. Everyone spreads the peanut sauce over their sticky rice because it makes such a great combination. 

Later, we ended up making some more sticky rice, Jan ran and got a mango so we could have Sticky Rice with Mango, one of our favorites. Recipe below.

Maybe the weekend won't be so bad after all.(See video and all recipes here)

Cook well,

Rob Barrett

www.cookingfordads.net

Sticky Rice with Mango.

In a rice cooker or bamboo steamer make 3 cups sticky rice.

In a small pan heat 1 can of coconut milk, 1/3 cup sugar and a t of salt.  Bring to a boil and stir until combined.  Turn off heat.

Cut up a mango into small pieces.  

Add coconut mixture to rice and stir to coat.

Scoop rice mixture into small bowl add mango pieces and enjoy.

Finally A Chore We All Benefit From, or Rob's Coconut Pecan Apple Crisp Recipe

"Girls, get pickin' some apples."

And so started our saturday.  We only have one apple tree, planted in memory of our second daughter Ashley, but it brings forth a lot of great tasting apples, especially this year. We don't spray our apples, so they're kinda gnarly, but they taste good, once you cut around the wormy parts.

We were having some guests over that night and I decided to try a new way of making apple crisp.  The last couple ones we made were from church cookbooks, normally a good source, but they all left me wanting. 

First, we get out our trusty apple peeler which is such fun.  

Then after cutting around the bad parts, we accumulate the equivalent to 4 apples of small pieces. We added 3 spoonfuls of fresh lemon juice, 1 spoonful vanilla, 2 sp sugar, 2 sp vinegar (apple cider or white wine) and a pinch of salt.  We stirred them around until they were evenly coated.  Then into an 8 x 8 pan they went.  (we fired up the oven to 375)

In another bowl we combined 1 cup brown sugar, 1 handful chopped pecans, 1 handful sweetened coconut flakes, a pinch of salt, stirred it around and then cut one stick or softened butter in to it.  Basically you smush the butter and chop it with a fork until you have just little bits of butter covered with the brown sugar mixture. (they make a great utensil for doing this)

We then poured that mixture over the apples and baked for 45 minutes at 375.  

I don't want to spoil it for you if you're going to make it yourself, but WOW.

Try it and let me know what you think.

cook well,

Rob Barrett

www.cookingfordads.net

Rob's Coconut Pecan Apple Crisp.

4 apples

3 spoonfuls fresh lemon juice

1 sp vanilla

pinch of salt

2 sp sugar

2 sp white wine vinegar

1 stick of butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 handful choped pecans

1 small handful cocnut

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375.  

Peel, core and cut up 4 apples in to small pieces, place in bowl.  Add 3 spoonfuls of lemon juice, 1 sp vanilla, 2 sp sugar, 2 sp apple cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar) and a pinch of salt.  Stir to coat and place in 8 x 8 pan.

In another bowl add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 handful chopped pecans, 1 handful sweetened coconut flakes, and a pinch of salt.  Stir to combine then add 1 stick of butter, softened. Cut butter with the mixture (break apart with a for or butter cutter) until just coarse. Pour over apples, don't pat down. 

375 for 45 minutes.

Let it sit for 10 minutes then serve with vanilla ice cream. Yum.

© 2009 Cooking For Dads

Louie and Me, or Learning to Be Gracious

I'm on my way to do a cooking segment on one of my favorite shows, Twin Cities Live, and I get the call that I'll be cooking with Louie Anderson instead of the normal host.  My first thought is that I could have made something with onions (John, the normal host, doesn't like onions) but my second thought was, "How fun."  Little did I know I was about to learn so much.

Louie would be the third celebrity I would cook with in 3 months.  Cooking with Kathie Lee and Steve Schrippa had it's moments (here's my experience on the Today Show) so I didn't know what to expect from Louie.  He's won Emmy's, performed all over the world, had numerous shows, and been doing this a long, long time.

First thing I notice about Louie is that he hangs around back stage while we're setting up and he's friendly.  I like that.  While we cook, he's funny but doesn't insult my food the way previous celebs have.  He adds a lot to the segment while still letting me show my recipe. He's also the same off camera as he was on.  I like that a lot.

But the lessons came afterwards.  Once we were done he came up to me and told me I did a good job and that he enjoyed the segment.  I, at best, was only OK so he was nice to approach me and say that. He certainly didn't need to, he could have just headed back to his dressing room and left. But he made the effort to find me and compliment me.

Back stage there were some of the crew that were taking pictures with him, something I was hoping I could do.  I was hanging around like a 3rd grader who wants to get in to the kick ball game but is too shy to ask. Rather than wait for me, HE calls me over and says he'd like a picture with ME.  This was just a way to save me the embarrassment of asking him.  What a total class act thing to do.  I was so impressed.

For someone who's had such success in the industry and to still be so nice to a guy from Eden Prairie, I'm just sayin'. Wow.

Here's the link to our segment.

http://twincitieslive.com/article/stories/S1145918.shtml?cat=10741

Rob Barrett

Cooking for Dads

Cooking for Dads 2 Year Anniversary

2 years ago today I posted my very first Cooking for Dads episode. 

I had this little idea for a video recipe for visual learners but never thought it would go any where. Finally I called my friend Jonathan, he came over and we shot 2 episodes, thisone and the red pepper pasta. I edited this together, and let Jan see it. When it ended she turned around, gave me a high 5, and said go ahead and post it, let's see what happens.

It funny to watch it now. I made so many mistakes I turned it into a game. I even said cream is our friend. It isn't. I had only made this recipe one time before and at the end I wasn't even sure it tasted good, you can see it on my face.

Who would have thought this would go all the way to the Today Show, USA Today, a Barbara Walters' Special, and many TV cooking appearances.  What a ride.

Thanks for all the support and help over these past 2 years and 82 episodes. It means a lot to me.

Here's that fateful first episode.   Cheesy Chicken, Peas and Potatoes.

Cook well, it's worth it. Rob

Listening to my body, the first quarter

So I'm reading this new book about eating raw and listening to your body. It sounds really interesting and has lots of nice, pretty pictures. There was a lot of stuff like, "your body knows what it needs, just listen to it, it will crave what nutrients are appropriate and necessary."

I've been trying to incorporate a few of the eating raw tips over the last couple of days.  Just some little things here and there, a carrot here, an apple there.

On Saturday, I'm in the middle of a tough 26 mile bike ride and it hits me around mile 20 I haven't eaten anything in since breakfast.  So I stop at Byerly's, one of our great grocery stores in MN, and decide I'm going to walk around and "listen" to my body, let my body tell me what it wants. 

As I walk by the deli aisle, my body already knows what it wants.  Fried Chicken! 

I decide to keep going and walk by the sushi section. Nothing

How about some fruit or veggies? Mmm, apples.  My body is silent.

Even in the salty snack aisle my body only says one thing and now it's shouting. Fried chicken or maybe some Wings!. Rats, this isn't working. 

So I head over to the deli window full of hot, juicy, crispy pieces of wonderful.

I pull out my wallet.

I take a deep breath.

I grit my teeth, close my eyes and say, "I'll have the sushi with the brown rice."  :-(

Soggy, tasteless, mush. Maybe my body was right.

Mind over matter, Mind - 1, Body - 0. End of the first quarter.

Rob Barrett

Cooking for Dads

How To Say Thank You, Or A Great Win, Win, Win.

So, we have a new puppy. Her name is Stella, mainly so when she is lost we can go down the street yelling ,"Stellllaaaaa, Steeeeellllllaaaaa." Now only 1 1/2 weeks into it, and still not potty trained completely, we need to have our niece take her for the weekend. Yikes, that's a great niece.

How to say thank you. Hmmm.

In an unrelated story, I stop at Rainbow Foods in MN and am buying a little steak for my dinner when the butcher tells me it's the last day of their Snow Crab sale - one bunch for $3.99. I get that instead. While he's wrapping it up, he throws in a smaller extra bunch and then asks me if I'd like some broken ones. I say sure and picks up a huge heap of assorted legs and craws and throws them in. Wow, what am I going to do with all this crab?

Well, what I'm going to do is heat the grill to 400 degrees and put the legs on for 2 minutes a side, melt some butter, cook up some rice and invite my niece and her roommates over for a thank you dinner. (add some chicken, that original steak, slice up some tomatoes drizzled in Sesame Ginger dressing and some clams.)

Here's the score, Rainbow Foods wins because they get to get rid of some crab that they would've had to throw and makes a great impression on me, I win because I get a great way to thank my niece and her roommates, and my niece and friends win because the crab was really, really good.

Win, win, win.

Cook well, it's worth it.
Rob Barrett
www.cookingfordads.net