summary: bacon is easy to make at home

Ever since our favourite Polish deli closed at the beginning of August, we have been in the doldrums. No more fabulously smoked ham and bacon just a short bike ride away.

And now, for a couple of weeks, T hasn’t been bringing home the bacon.

Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? But before you think it’s because of the economy and market crashes and that we are going to be destitute, let me reassure you. The reason he isn’t bringing home the bacon is because he’s making it himself.

I remember when Brilynn (Jumbo Empanadas) reported that she had made bacon. And she claimed that it was simple. But she didn’t spell it out (except to mention the book she had used: Charcuterie by Michael Rhulman). I kept meaning to get hold of the book to see and then, as is my wont, forgot about the pressing need to make our own bacon. I blame my forgetfulness on the wonderful Polish butcher who supplied us with such wonderful ham and bacon all these years.

When they abandoned us, we went searching through the remaining Polish delis on our high street, trying to find a reasonable replacement. Being disappointed time after time, even though we did manage to find ham as good as we had been getting (we think it is made by the man who abandoned us - the only difference we notice is that it is more expensive).

So the article “Urban Harvest” by Eugenia Bone in the recent SAVEUR magazine #113 came in the nick of time. Ms. Bone outlined how incredibly easy it is to make bacon at home. All it takes is some pork belly, salt, sugar and spices, 7 days and a barbecue (or oven if you don’t care if it’s smoked).

Ha!! Who needs a new deli? (read more…)

summary: my photoshoot with Deborah Baic for The Globe and Mail Life section article; mixing and kneading wild bread, serving multigrain bread made with seeds, corn, oatmeal, rye and wheat flours; the resulting wildbread; (click on images to see larger views and more photos)

I bragged earlier that I was famous. Here’s how it came about:

In August, I received an email from Hayley Mick asking if I would do a telephone interview about how “rising food prices (particularly when it comes to grains, flour etc) are affecting bakers” and whether “it put a damper on [my] productivity“.

Her email came just at the time that we had ridden our bikes all over Toronto trying to find rye flour and learning that “Five Roses” (now owned by Smucker Foods) has discontinued production of “dark rye” flour due to slow sales.

I was also miffed that the brand-name flour companies were charging pretty much the same for unbleached all-purpose flour as Loblaws/Weston was for their “no name” brand. For 10kg of wholewheat, or unbleached all-purpose, it is roughly the same price, no matter what company is chosen: around $13. Even the high-end US “King Arthur” mail-order flour that in the past was easily twice the price of other flour brands, costed the same amount as “no name”!

So I was happy to give the interview, excited at the idea that perhaps “no-name” would be outed as being just another brand-name. Perhaps they might be shamed into reducing their prices. (I’m pleased to report that for whatever reason, no-name unbleached all-purpose flour has recently lowered in price. The other day, we bought a 10kg bag for $9.99.)

Hayley’s first question (as I recall) was whether I had stopped or reduced the amount of bread baking because of the high prices. I said that it was exactly the opposite. It’s much more cost-effective to make one’s own bread. (read more…)

go directly to the recipe

summary: recipe for banana cinnamon buns; submission for “YeastSpotting” and “Bookmarked Recipes 24″; click on photos for larger views

Bookmarked Recipe for YeastSpotting

Initially, I was going to make these again (and NOT burn them) before publishing the recipe. But then I came to my senses. I’m so far behind that this may never get done if I don’t do it now. And the recipe for these banana cinnamon buns are too good to be left in a folder.

I believe I mentioned that I got the idea for the buns after reading the novel, Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks. There was no recipe for banana cinnamon swirl bread; just a note to add more bananas to the The Tassajara Bread Book recipe for Banana Sandwich bread and make it into a cinnamon swirl bread. The description of the banana bread was so wonderful that at the time, I really wanted to make it.

So ages ago, I got the Tassajara book out of the library. It’s so horribly laid out (for me anyway) that I didn’t want to buy it - even though some people swear that it’s a fabulous cookbook. After a lot of page flipping back and forth from basic formula to additions to… um, NOW which page am I supposed to turn to???, I finally scrawled down the recipe for the bread. And promptly forgot that I had done it.

Because, for some reason, we hardly ever buy bananas. No idea why. Maybe it’s because they have to travel so far. Maybe it’s because T has eaten bananas ripened on the tree and turns his nose up at the insanely green bananas available to us and will only eat them when they are at that perfect stage with just a few brown dots on the otherwise completely yellow skin.

A week or so ago, I saw bananas on sale. And bought them. Green green bananas that didn’t seem to want to ripen to that perfect stage. Until they did and in an instant, three of them went past to the other stage of being only good for baking.

At last!! The perfect opportunity to make the Tassajara bread! (read more…)

summary: banana cinnamon buns; reminder to bake sweet bread on the TOP shelf of the oven; click on images to see larger view and more photos

The other day, we had some over-ripe bananas festering on the counter. I was very excited to finally get a chance to try making a banana cinnamon swirl bread, based on a description in the rather lame novel, Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks. The novel wasn’t that great, but there are some good bread recipes scattered throughout the book. (The writing of Ryan Hendricks novel wasn’t terrible; it was the story itself that was so lame. The recipe for couronne in the book was really stellar.) The banana cinnamon swirl bread was not written out in the novel and just said to add more bananas to the The Tassajara Bread Book recipe for Banana Sandwich bread and make it a cinnamon swirl bread. And then I decided to shape the dough into buns instead of bread.

Don’t they look good?

On top, that is?

You’d think I’d have learned my lesson when I burned the bottoms of the Tuck Shop cinnamon Buns, wouldn’t you?

Remind me to bake sweet bread on the TOP shelf of the oven!

summary: more about blue grape pie; click on images to see larger views and more photos

In the recent post about grape pie, I said that we hadn’t taken any photos of of grape pie slices. When T saw that, he exclaimed that he HAD taken photos and distinctly remembered doing so. I searched and re-searched through my photo folder: nope, nothing. T’s response to that: “Really?? Are you sure? Maybe they’re in another folder.”

No. Not there. Nothing like it…

Errrmm… that is, nothing in my photo folder. When I went to fetch the photos of the grape basket, there were the photos of pie slices from the first pie in that same folder! I had forgotten to move them.

And in the comments area of that previous post, Sheryl (Taste T.O.) suggested that the grapes we were using were coronation grapes. But I wasn’t convinced; the grapes we bought are seedless and according to the information at Ontario Tender Fruit Producers (ontariotenderfruit.com), Coronation grapes are semi-seedless:

Ontario Coronation Table Grapes - available August 21 to September 15. […] The crisp, juicy flesh and mild sweet taste of the semi-seedless Coronation Table grape is ideal for eating fresh out-of-hand. They are also a favourite for garnish, a sweet addition to cheese and fruit platters and a superb ingredient for baking and preserving.

-Ontario Tender Fruit Producers: Coronation Table Grapes

We bought more grapes to make another grape pie (grape pie really is awfully good!). This time, handily printed on the basket handle was the name of the grape as well as where the grapes came from (Virgil, Ontario, which is very close to Niagara-on-the-lake, about an hour and a half drive from Toronto).

So, you’re right, Sheryl. Our pie grapes ARE “Coronation” grapes. I should never have doubted it. (read more…)

summary: I’m featured in the Globe & Mail: Life section!

Yes!! That is me in the photo!! Not the cool person with the dark glasses; I’m the other one, wearing the apron….

In her article for the Globe & Mail: Life section - Sept 18 2008 Hayley Mick quoted me as saying:

“Now, with the price of rye flour the way it is … I’m questioning whether we’re going to make rye bread any more,”

What she didn’t mention was the fact that I just discovered that not only has Five Roses (the brand of rye flour I was buying) discontinued production of rye flour, but that the two major brands of flour on our supermarket shelves, Five Roses AND Robin Hood, are both owned by the US based company Smuckers Foods.

She also left out that my main reason for doing the interview was to say that the rising price of flours has actually increased my desire to bake my own bread as well as increasing the kinds of bread I make.

I must say that I was also a bit surprised that

• a.) I wasn’t told when the article was published
  edit: I received email from Ms. Mick on Friday afternoon telling me that the article was in the paper.
• b.) I didn’t get credit for being the one who said that even if cost of ingredients has risen, I’m actually baking more rather than less. It’s still WAY cheaper. And better.

As far as I’m concerned, buying the ingredients and baking one’s own bread (and anyone can do it - it’s not rocket science and it doesn’t actually take all that much time) is far less expensive than buying it. It tastes better too than the run-of-the-mill stuff at the stores. Sure, there is good commercially-made bread to be found, but it costs. One of my friends just called to say that she had splurged and bought a HALF-loaf of an artisanal bread from a local bakery. She said it tasted fabulous but cost a whopping $4 - that’s half a loaf of bread! For about $13, one can buy 10kg of flour to make several dozen loaves of arguably equally good, if not better bread.

I’ll report more about the thrilling photo-shoot in a subsequent post.

go directly to the recipe

recipe: blue grape pie; includes pastry made with lard; click on images to see larger views and more photos

Don’t you love these small blue grapes? I don’t know what kind they are - I don’t think they’re concords - they are not as sweet as concords. (Might they be baco noirs?) Whatever they are, there are baskets and baskets of them at just about every vegetable and fruit stand right now. Baskets swarming with wasps. Which is always a good sign that the fruit is sweet and ready for eating - or baking into a pie.

Way back in 2004, during the infancy of this blog, before we had a digital camera, I raved about the wonders of grape pie.

Yes, grape pie. Don’t look so suspicious. You think it’s going to be a bit watery and too sweet, don’t you? You couldn’t be more incorrect.

Grape pie made from these little blue grapes that are so widely available this month (at least they abound here in Toronto) is like the best wild blueberry pie. But not nearly so expensive. We weren’t even tempted to buy blueberries this year; we really dislike the idea of feeling like we have to take out a loan so we can have blueberries. (read more…)