Carrot Raisin Bread

It seems like it's been forever since I last made a loaf of bread...but I'm happy to say I haven't forgotten the pattern!!



I had the day off today, and with a big ol' bag of carrots in the crisper, begging to be used for something, I came up with this recipe. The carrots and raisins add sweetness, and the quinoa taste comes out really nicely. I used bread flour AND all-purpose flour, to make the dough lighter, but also because I ran out of bread flour(oups..). If I make this again eventually I will use more ginger and maybe even a little cloves, to spice it up a bit.
I was also really pleased with the nice color of the finished loaf. And this time I got the braid pattern right!
So here's the formula:

2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2-3 carrots
2 TBSP light olive oil
1/2 cup raisins
1- 1 1/2 cup carrot's cooking water
1 TBSP honey

Directions:

-Peel and cut the carrots in small cubes and boil until tender. Let cool and RESERVE THE WATER!!
-In the carrot water, soak the raisins, add in the honey.
-Mix flour, quinoa, yeast, salt and ginger.
-Mash the carrots with olive oil and a pinch of salt.
-Pour the water in the flour mix while stirring with a fork, when it starts coming together add the raisins and the mashed carrots and mix until in comes together in a ball. You may need to add more water or flour, so have the bag of flour on hand. I keep some in a small bowl so that my flour remains plain and "virgin" so to speak...
(*On a side note, this part was really messy for me. Stickyness, lumps of dough and carrots and raisins stuck to my fingers, I kneaded in the bowl for about 5 minutes before transfering to the table. But it worked out fine in the end...That's the thing about bread, even if it seems like it's not happening, it most probably will, it just takes time. Patience is a virtue in this case...)
-Transfer to a working surface, floured lightly and knead until the dough is soft and no longer sticky(mine was still a BIT sticky, but it's better that than tough and dry!).
-Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a clean dish towel. Let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
-Punch the dough down and shape(braid, or whatever...)
-Put the loaf in an oiled pan and let it rise again until doubled, another 30-45 minutes.
-Brush with milk and bake in a 375F oven, on the middle rack, for 10 minutes, turn down the heat to 350F and bake 25 minutes. Then turn off the oven and leave the bread in for about 5 minutes.
-When it's done it'll sound hollow when tapped at the bottom, or an instant thermometer will read 170F.
-Cool on a rack and marvell......



I will submit this to yeastspotting, a nice site about bread and baking.

Banana-Carrot-Cranberry Muffins

Another day off today...so after a nice little outdoor swim I had to bake something. It was gonna be a "banana-something" because I had 2 very ripe bananas begging to be used.
But I also wanted to make something with carrots, for variety and because I've been making a lot of shakes lately, I want to keep my frozen fruit for smoothies!! So, I looked through some books, found a recipe for carrot muffins, but not using bananas. And then there's my favorite recipe of banana-oat muffins, not using carrots. So I took a shot and kinda combined the two. The carrot muffin recipe looked amazing as it was though, I will try it eventually!

These came out great, they are moist and light. The molasses taste comes out a little, but not over-powering. It gives it a nice darker color too.

Ok. Here's the recipe, adapted from Marg Ruttan's "Biscuits et Muffins":
(yields 9-10 big muffins)



Dry ingredients:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Wet ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled
1 cup mashed bananas

1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Grease up some muffin molds, and turn the oven at 375F. Set the rack in the middle.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl, set aside.
In another bowl, mix all the wet until lightly frothy.
Pour the wet mix in the dry mix, along with the carrots and cranberries, mix until just combined, without over-mixing.
Scoop in the muffin tins(ice cream scoop works best), and bake for 20-25 minutes.
When they're done they will spring back when you press on them, or do the knife test...
Cool for 10 minutes in the molds, then carefully unmold and cool on a wire rack.

Very nice and tender muffins.



With margarine and a glass of juice, it's a nice little pre-workout snack or afternoon sugar fix.

Jamie's Coleslaw

I LOOOOOVE Jamie Oliver. I love his food, his ideas, the simplicity of his recipes and his enthusiasm about cooking. And this Food Revolution he's got going right now in the States is amazing. I really hope people listen to him because he's right about everything. This obesity issue is getting out of control here in North America, something has to change.
In walks Jamie Oliver...
Anyway...
I finally got his book called "Cook with Jamie". It's a really nice one, with nice pictures, tips and of course amazing recipes!
I usually don't follow recipes to the T, I buy cook books for inspiration mostly. Like this one here. It's a simple coleslaw, but I got the inspiration from Jamie's book. And it's really nice. I usually don't go for creamy slaw, I love vinegary type dressings but I had to try!

Start by thinly chopping half a green cabbage. Then shred 2-3 carrots, 1 apple and finely slice a few green onions(the book called for red onions, but I only had green so...). Chop a big handfull of fresh parsley, add to the rest of the ingredients with salt and pepper.
Add 2-3 spoonfulls of light mayo, a squeeze on dijon and the juice of a lemon.
Mix it all up nicely and enjoy!
It went really well with my cranberry-orange bread!!



I bet raisins or dried cranberries would be really good in here too!

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Carrots are the one vegetable I always have in the fridge no matter what. I like them mostly raw but when they cook they get really sweet, almost like a different vegetable. I love making soups with carrots because of that! And currys. Well, actually this soup is a curry soup so there you go!! Carrots are best friends with ginger, and ginger is a main component of curry so...you get what I mean, right?
So at the moment the vegetable situation is not that hot in my fridge, I reeeeeally need to go to the market this week-end..so that's when that never-ending bag of carrots comes in handy! And those never ending bags of lentils also!!



For this soup, I used:

1 yellow onion, chopped
1 branch celeri, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 golf-ball size FRESH ginger, peeled and grated(or finely chopped)
4-5 carrots, peeld, chopped
1-2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup red lentils
3-4 cups chicken stock(start with 3, the lentils will thicken the soup..)
salt, pepper, curry powder, cumin, tumeric, red chili flakes

Throw all the veggies in a pot, with the broth and seasonnings. When it starts to boil add the lentils, and simmer util everything is cooked.
Puree in 2 batches, to make it all nice and smooth. I blend it twice, so that it's REALLY velvety and creamy-like(but no cream!!). I may have added a bit of milk because I put in a lot of chili flakes, it was a bit too spicy. But that's totally optional, go with your taste buds, they never lie!!



I sprinled a bit of parsley on top to be fancy, and to make nice pictures!!

More than just coleslaw...

Cabbage is one of the heathiest vegetable. Vitamin C, folic acid, cancer-fighting agents, etc. And the red is twice as high in vitamin as the green cabbage. The brighter the food the better. That's what the nutritionists always say, right? Red purple, bright red, dark green, orange, we should all eat food of bright colors! All from nature of course because red jelly beans don't count.. :)
I bought a red cabbage a few days ago, because I try to eat as colorful as possible, but also because it's great in salads. And the great thing about this type of salad is that it stays good for quite a while even with the dressing in it. It even gets better with time...Plus, the cabbage itself keeps for a while in the crisper. I don't know if it's the "proper" place to store it but it won't go bad for a few weeks, wrapped in plastic in the bottom drawer.
So at first I was gonna make just coleslaw with ONLY that cabbage and a red wine vinegar dressing, but I got carried away and added a bunch of other good stuff.



Ingredients(don't know the exact quantities, I didn't measure...):
Red cabbage, carrots, celeri, yellow pepper, flat-leaf parsley, golden raisins.
Sadly I was out of green onions, otherwise there would have been green onions in there.

Dressing:
1 TBSP dijon
1-2 TBSP maple syrup
2 TBSP red wine vinegar
2 TBSP orange juice
Extra virgin olive oil, however much you'll need...
For dressings I usually mix everything except the oil until it's homogenised, then add the oil while whisking and emulsify slowly until it looks good enough, and adjust it if need be.

This is so much better than just plain coleslaw, the raisins bring some sweetness to it, and the o.j. in the dressing brightens everything up.

Try it you won't be disapointed!