Sicilian Pizza Bread

This recipe is enough to make two 12” pizzas 

Ingredients: 

1/2 tsp. honey (2.5 ml)

1 1/4 cup warm water (300 ml)

1 tsp. active dry yeast (1/8 oz or 3.5g)

1/2 Tsp salt (8g)

3 cups whole wheat flour (450g)

1 Tsp. olive oil (15 ml)

Dissolve honey on 1 ¼ cups warm water and stir the yeast.

Stir the salt into the flour. Make a well in the center and pour the oil and the yeast mixture into the well. Stir it with the spoon or with your hand until the dough incorporates all the flour. Knead well about 10 minutes. 

Use ¼ cup of water instead of flour. The dough will be soft and sticky. Form the dough into a ball and place smooth side up into a bowl.

Let the dough rise for 1 hour. Divide dough into two balls. Let them rest for 2 minutes.

Stretch the dough on a pan using more water or oil. Pre-bake the crust for 7 minutes at 410F.

Put your favorite sauce and toppings. Finish baking it for additional 12-15 minutes at 400F.

You can also use this crust as a flat bread, just bake it a little bit more to make it crunchy.

Enjoy!

With Bread around the World - 2

The Simple French Onion Soup 

(4 servings)

200g (4 slices) of toasted or dried bread

2 qt. water or beef broth or chicken broth

2 medium onions (sliced thinly)

2 Tsp. butter

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups of your favorite cheese

Cut the bread into small pieces. In a large saucepan sauté the onions with butter until it golden brown. Add bread pieces and sauté some more. Add hot water or broth and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve you can either use individual oven-proof soup bowls or one large casserole dish. Ladle the soup into the bowls or casserole dish. Cover with the toast and sprinkle with your favorite cheese. Put into the broiler for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the cheese bubbles and is slightly browned. Serve immediately.

PS Some believe that this recipe was developed by Alexandre Dumas, the author of The Three Musketeers and many other good books. :) I used to make it (without the cheese) many years ago, when I was a poor student and had money only for bread, butter and onions. It was still very good!

Louisiana Style Corn Grits

Well, last Saturday in Covington, LA many of you asked for the recipe of our corn grits.

Here it is. Yields 6 servings.

1 Tsp oil

1/2 pound smoked sausage, diced

 1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 cup sun dried tomatoes or ½ cup fresh tomatoes, chopped

 1 teaspoon garlic powder

 4 cups water (or 2 cups water and 2 cups milk)

 1 teaspoon ground black pepper (or Chipotle)

 1 teaspoon salt

 1 tablespoon Louisiana hot pepper sauce (or Tabasco™)

 1 cup organic corn grits with chives and flax seeds

 1 cup shredded cheese

Directions

Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add oil, sausage and onions; cook and stir until browned. Add tomatoes and garlic powder. Cook and stir until onion is tender. Pour in the water (or water and milk) and season with pepper, salt and hot pepper sauce; bring to a boil.

Gradually stir in the grits, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thick, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in cheese. Heat through until cheese is melted.

Of course you can play around with it. Tweak this and that, add your favorite seasoning or exclude some ingredients. Anyway, you can always find Organic Corn Grits with chives and flax seeds at our stands at the Farmers Markets.

With Bread around the World -1

Bulgarian Banitsa

Today I want to share with you a simple recipe with bread from Bulgaria. Traditionally Bulgarians serve banitsa on Christmas eve or New Year. Sometimes they bake it with pieces of paper with predictions (just like in fortune cookies) wrapped in a foil. The banitsa is then cut in the way that every piece would contain a prediction. Most common fortunes are “love”, “journey”, ‘wealth”, “ marriage”, “new job”, “baby”. Just like everywhere in the world.

But originally word “banitsa” means “crumbled”. So I guess it was fun way to use crumbled or old bread. J

So to make your own banitsa you will need:

½ lb. of whole grain bread (it’s OK if it’s crumbled)

3 oz. of feta cheese (you also can use fresh goat cheese or fresh mozzarella)

2 Tbsp. of butter

2 eggs

1 cup of milk

Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 400.

Combine together feta cheese and 1Tbsp. of butter and crumble it. Put slices of bread on the bottom of non-sticking casserole dish or pie pan. Put the feta the top of the bread. Beat together eggs, 1 Tbsp. of butter, milk and salt. Pour it on the top of the bread and cheese. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes or until the egg mixture is set.

To make it more interesting you can also add spinach, parsley, dill or bell pepers.  

Enjoy with your family and friends.