"Stuffing" Herb Bread

I came up with this recipe for the markets when I was preggers.  It is just my same old Challah bread recipe, but not braided (although you could for Thanksgivukah), and seasoned with herbs.  I also marketed it under Scarborough Fair Bread, if you remember the Simon and Garfunkel song, which reminded me which herbs to use, although I don't remember the exact amount.  Whatever didn't sell I would turn into stuffing.  Mind you none of this is gluten free.  It makes the most amazing sandwiches, or just plain buttered toast.  Making bread isn't as much work as it sounds, and you'll have 4 beautiful loaves.

7 cups of bread flour*
2 Tablespoons of instant rise (no proof) yeast
3 Tablespoons of sugar
2 cups of hot water (105 F)
1 Tablespoon of salt
1/4 cup Oil
3 Eggs

2 Tablespoons dried Parsley
4 teaspoons dried ground Sage
2 teaspoons dried Rosemary
1 teaspoon dried Thyme

Blend the flour, yeast and sugar.  Pour in the hot water and stir slightly.  Add the remaining ingredients, make sure to break the yolks.  Stir slightly till somewhat incorporated.  Using the dough hook, and a stand mixer, beat on medium-low for 5 minutes.  The dough should be slightly sticky, but not runny.  Pour a couple of Tablespoons of oil over all and flip and turn to grease under and all around.

Trick for a perfect rise:  Fill a tea kettle with water and bring to a boil.  Set it and the dough in the greased bowl inside your oven.  The heat and steam from the kettle create the perfect environment.  If it is particularly cold in your kitchen, do slightly warm the oven, 105 F.

Let rise for 45 minutes.  Turn out dough onto a floured surface and divide into 4 pieces.  Knead slightly and shape into loaves, place in greased (and floured if metal) loaf pans.  Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Let the loaves rise (not in the oven this time) for another 25 minutes.

Bake for 25 minutes in the middle of the oven.  Give an extra 5-10 if the bread doesn't seem done (sounds hollow when you thump it).

*If you don't have bread flour, you can add 1 T. of gluten for every cup to your all-purpose flour.  If you don't have gluten on hand don't go buy it, just buy some bread flour, or else wing it.

Red Bean Curry or Rajma

While looking for recipes of things to do with my already cooked small red kidney beans, that isn't red beans and rice for the umpteenth time this year, I found this recipe, I modified the recipe I tried from the Smitten Kitchen, for ease of use in my kitchen.  Being without fresh ginger or green chilies, I used the paste I had.  And I also ended up using tomato paste and extra water instead of tomato sauce.  It turned out really well, so thought we all, including my 22 month old who wiped up the sauce and slurped it off her fingers.

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
 1 medium onion, finely diced

1 Tablespoon Green Chili Paste (I used Thai Kitchen)
OR
1/4 cup chopped fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large green chili, minced

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 15 oz can of Tomato Sauce
3 cups cooked, and drained red kidney beans
1 cup water
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Heat oil in a 8 quart pot over medium heat for one minute. Add onion and cook for a few minutes until just getting brown.  Add ginger, garlic, and green chili or the paste and saute for one minute. Add the tomato sauce, water, salt, kidney beans, and remaining spices and cook for an additional five minutes, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat.  Stir in cilantro.  Serve over, or stir in, rice.  Top with plain yogurt or sour cream for extra deliciousness.

Smokey Black Bean Chili

4 cups Cooked Black Beans, drained
1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
2 T. Bacon Fat
1 large yellow onion
Green and Yellow Bell Peppers
1 T. cumin
1 T. oregano
2 chipotles in adobo sauce, blitzed
1 teaspoon Salt

Saute onions in bacon fat until translucent or browned, add tomatoes and remaining ingredients.  As it was I had to add a little water because my diced tomatoes weren't very juicy.  Bring to a simmer.  Let simmer about 30 minutes.  I thought the flavor was good.  It didn't taste too much like chipotles, it had a good heat, but it seemed thin.  I think this would be best served with sour cream to round out the flavor.

Slow Roasted Heritage Chicken Legs

Digging around in my deep freeze I found some of the precious few USDA packages of chicken legs from our days as small scale sustainable farmers.  But, they are Heritage breed.  This quite often means tough and stringy.  The best way to combat this is to cook them at a low heat for a long time.

In the name of food safety I found this snippet about slow cooking.  No need to worry about cooking at temperatures 170 and above.  You'll want your done chicken to register at 165.

So, I defrosted the legs in some water, drained, seasoned with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and started them in a cold oven, in a roasting pan with lid, and set the oven for 200 degrees.  I read that at this heat expect chicken to take 5-7 hours.  I chose 200 degrees because this is the standard "low" setting on a crock pot.  I chose the oven because heritage leg quarters won't fit in my crock pot, plus I wanted more of a roasted technique.

The house smelled great from the second hour on.  When I took the legs out of the oven 7 hours later, the internal temp was at least 175, so plenty safe.  And from what I could tell poking the meat thermometer in, the meat was tender and not dried out.  Since I roasted with the lid on, there were actually some drippings in the pan.  The skin surprisingly was not floppy and pale, but somewhat crisp and browned.  This matters not to me because I am not a skin eater.  I should have taken a picture.

The thigh meat was tender, juicy, and delicious.  The leg meat was still a bit chewy but not inedible, or as I call it-meat chewing gum.  That was fine, because I planned to use some of the meat in chicken soup.  I'd call this technique a success, and I plan to use it with other tough cuts in our freezer.