Winter - Southern California Style

We had a serious case of dock fever, so with beautiful weather forecasted we headed out to the islands for the weekend. It was absolutely gorgeous - 75 degrees, no swell, no wind - perfect!

John had picked up some beautiful tomatoes at the vegetable stand. They made me think of the tomato toast on the cover of Jose Andres cookbook, Made in Spain so as soon as we were anchored I started some rustic bread for tonight's dinner. While the bread was rising we went for a dinghy ride and visited with our friends Susie & Harvey aboard Mary Frances. Harvey built this boat and it is amazing:

John barbecued slices of the bread along with a skirt steak that had been marinating in olive oil, garlic and salt & pepper. When the bread was toasted I rubbed the slices with the cut surface of a tomato half until all the flesh was grated. Drizzled the toast with a little olive oil, topped with shaved asiago cheese, another little drizzle of olive oil and topped with a slice of tomato. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!

We served the tomato toasts with the grilled skirt steak and chive-mashed potatoes:

For lunch the next day I used the leftover skirt steak to make corn quesadillas stuffed with Monterey Jack cheese, caramelized red onions and the meat. Served with guacamole made with red onions, tomatoes and cilantro.

Portuguese Sweet Bread (aka Hawaiian Sweet Bread)

My neighbor Bonnie had told me a story about a restaurant she & Curtis had gone to in Hawaii about 20 years ago. She said they had the best bread they had ever tasted. Yesterday was Bonnie's birthday so I decided to try to make her a loaf of the sweet bread. My first attempt was with my starter, it was okay but not exactly what I was looking for. I don't think my starter was active enough and the sour didn't work with the sweet. So I decided to give it another try using the recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

I started by making a sponge with flour, sugar and yeast and let it ferment for 90 minutes. Next I creamed together sugar, salt, DMS powdered milk, butter and shortening. Then I added an egg, orange extract, lemon extract and vanilla and mixed until smooth. Added the sponge and unbleached flour and kneaded in the mixer with dough hook for 12 minutes. I put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl covered with plastic and let ferment at room temperature for 2 hours. Then I formed the dough into a ball, put it in a lightly oiled pie plate with the seam side down, covered with plastic: Here it is after fermenting for 3 hours: Into the oven it went for 45 minutes at 350 degrees:

Success!!In Hawaii they use this bread to make French Toast. Oh boy, does that sound good.

As I was typing this post I looked up and saw this beautiful shot of Bonnie & Curtis' boat:

Happy Birthday Bonnie. I hope the bread brings you beautiful memories of your trip to Hawaii.

Cannellini Beans w/ Swiss Chard & Italian Sausage

Our neighbors, Bill & Nancy, went on a road trip over the holidays. One of their stops was The Franciscan Crab Restaurant in San Francisco. The menu at the restaurant is a "Menu Cookbook" - there is a picture and description of each menu item and you can buy a copy to take home. My pals bought one and gave it to us. John was flipping through the book and saw this soup recipe - Cannellini Beans with Swiss Chard and Italian Sausage:

Well, I just happened to have all the ingredients. We had picked up some Swiss chard at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, had the Italian sausage Jeff & I made in the freezer, and some canned cannellini beans in the pantry.

Here is the recipe from the book - In a large pot, saute diced Italian sausage, diced onion and celery in extra virgin olive oil over medium low heat until the sausage is cooked through and the onions are golden brown. Add enough chicken broth to cover (I added a little more) and simmer until vegetables are soft. Add a can of cannellini beans and season with black pepper and chile flakes (I didn't add chile flakes because our sausage was already pretty spicy). Add Swiss chard and simmer until tender. I topped with grated Parmesan - really, really good!

Focaccia

One of my "bread buddies", Joe, brought his focaccia to Bocce practice last night. His focaccia was great and it inspired me to give it a try. So I did, and while my bread was rising John & I went on a dinghy harbor cruise to see a reproduction of Columbus' Nina that was visiting our harbor:

The weather was so beautiful we took a ride out to the mile buoy:

We can't all be in Hawaii this week (and you know who I'm talking about!), but Ventura isn't too bad in January:

My focaccia (recipe below):

I know I'm always bragging about how wonderful Ventura is but I have to admit we do have our special characters. I'm sure that those of you who have seen our neighbor "The Captain" (and probably returned his wave) join us in wishing him a fond farewell:

Focaccia: Mix together starter, bread flour, salt yeast and olive in mixer for 5 minutes. Transfer dough to counter coated with flour and let rest for 5 minutes. Stretch the dough, fold envelope style and rest for 30 minutes. Repeat one more time. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, place dough on pan, cover with plastic and let rise for 2 to 3 hours. Drizzle with olive oil infused with herbs and let rise another 30 minutes. Bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Split Pea Soup

The secret to my pea soup is to start by making a ham stock:Put leftover ham bone or ham hocks in a large pot with chopped carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, thyme and cloves and cover with water or chicken stock. Simmer for about 4 hours. Strain & degrease. I usually make the stock the night before I make the soup. After the broth is refrigerated it's easy to skim off the excess fat.

To make the soup: Saute diced celery, carrot, onion and turnips in butter for about 5 minutes. Blend in a little flour and cook for another 3 minutes. Stir in the ham stock and the split peas. Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 to 60 minutes, until the peas are tender. Season with salt and pepper. I made half the soup with yellow peas and the other half with green:

I sauteed some leftover ham and used as a garnish for the soup:


It's hard to see the difference between the yellow and green in the picture, but in real life it looked really cool.



I was just getting ready to serve the soup when our neighbor Dave stopped by with some pumpernickel bread he had just made. It was the perfect accompaniment to our soup - thanks Dave - your bread was great!