Sundried Tomato and Rosemary Bread.

I love making bread. It's a little time consuming but it's so rewarding! Lately though I've been worling a lot and since I can get bread from work I kinda stopped making homemade loaves. BUT. Last week I was watching (surprise surprise) the food channel and there was chef Smith making homemade bread, so simple and delicious, and versatile! I got the urge to make bread again. You can take this recipe, keep the 4 main ingredients of flour, yeast, salt and water, and go from there and never have the same bread from time to time! There's usually not much room for changing things in baking but you can play around with a bread recipe. I love that! I don't feel like I have to follow a recipe anymore, I actually make it up as I go along, writing it down so I can pass it along to you all. Kinda like freestyle cooking! And i'm proud to say I've come a long way since my first loaf...



For this "bread of the week" I went for a flavor I love and hadn't used yet in bread: sundried tomatoes!! And I decided to pair it with one of my favorite fresh herbs: rosemary!! (yes, again, rosemary. there's a big plant at work growing like crazy, so lucky me i can take some home!:))). And for even more taste I threw in some parm, because you can't really ever go wrong with the King of cheeses!
This is what you'll need:

3 1/2-4 cups BREAD flour
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP sugar
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2-2 cups warm water, at 120-130F
2 TBSP olive oil (or if you're using tomatoes in oil, use THAT oil, it's SO flavorful!)
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
4-5 slices sundried tomatoes, cut finely.

In a big bowl, mix 3 1/2 cups of the flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Mix and make a well in the centre. Keep the 1/2 cup flour on the side for the kneading process.
Heat 1 1/2 water up to 120F and add the oil to it. Keep 1/2 cup on the side just in case..
Pour in the middle of the flour mixture.
Mix with a fork, slowly incorporating the flour to the water, gradually stirring from the middle towards the outer edge.
When the dough comes into a ball, or almost, transfer to a clean, floured work surface and start kneading. This is where you add the parmesan, sundried tomatoes and rosemary, and extra flour if necessary. I ended up adding about 1/4 cup more. Keep kneading for about 8 minutes until the dough gets really soft and elastic and feels like an earlobe.
(I was actually pleasantly surprise how this dough came together like a charm! no sticky mess is always nice!)
When the dough is nice and soft, cover and let it rest for about 10 minutes, while you clean up(...).
Then shape into whatever you feel like; braid, buns, round or long log, or in a loaf pan...
Then just cover with saran-wrap and let it rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes, until it's doubled in size. Here in Montreal it's getting a little cold, so the appartment is cold. What I did was turn on the oven at 200F and put the baking sheet on the oven's cheminee. That's helps A LOT!
Also when it was done "rising" it was a little too round, so I re-shaped it into an oval log. Delicately of course! You don't wanna break the precious air bubbles!
Then turn up the oven to 375F and while this heats up, score the bread 4-5 times, brush with oil (i used the sundried tomato oil from the jar) and sprinkle some parmesan and a bit more chopped rosemary.



Bake it for 30 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave it in 5 minutes extra.
To make sure it's done tap on the bottom it will sound hollow, or check with a meat thermometer, the temperature should say 180F.



Let it cool on a rack, slice and Voila!



This one is going to Yeastspotting!!



I had toast this morning with apple jelly...insanely good with this flavor combo. Sounds weird I know but the salty sundried tomato with the sweet apple is cra-zy!

Beef Stew with Rosemary

It seems there's been a lot of desserts on here lately...so here's something salty and meaty to balance it all.
I made this stew almost a week ago, on a cold rainy day. I originaly wanted to use lamb but the lamb I found at the grocery store was a bit pricy, so I got beef. Always cheap good ol' canadian beef!
Now, when I make stews I never EVER follow a recipe. Kinda like soups. There are certain methods that need to be followed but the ingredients and amounts of them and the herbs used are totally interchangeable. I don't think I've even made 2 stews that tasted the same. I love that.

SO here's how it goes:

First and foremost, cut all your vegetables so it's all ready to go. What you use is up to you. In this one I used:

1 medium yellow onions,
2 carrots
2 branches celeri
2 parsnips,
handfull pearl onions
3-4 cloves garlic
7-8 new potatoes(I added them only later on, since they cook kinda fast...)

Sautee all veggies BUT the potatoes in a bit of canola oil on medium-high heat until semi-soft, with salt and pepper. When done set aside on a plate while you do the meat.(...)



Pat the meat dry and throw in a ziploc bag with a few tablespoons of flour, shake it to cover all sides of the cubes. This will help brown the meat and will thicken the stew. Plus because the flour will be cooked ON the meat you won't taste the flour at all. Thanx Food Network as always for that tidbit of info...What would I do without that channel I don't know...
Then take the meat out of the bag, shake off any excess flour and in a heavy bottom pot(some call it "dutch-oven"), brown in oil, in batches, on all sides.



When they're all done return them to the pot along with all the veggies and some of your favorite herbs. I used 1 sprig fresh rosemary (THE #1 herb for stews if you ask me! and the fresh stuff is much more mellow than the dry...), 2 sprigs of fresh thyme and a bay leaf. Toss it all together for a few minutes and pour in 1/2 a bottle of red wine and about 1-2 cups beef broth, just up to the surface, not completely covering everything but enough so that everything has some contact with liquid.



As soon as you see a few tiny bubbles appear on the surface, turn the heat down to low, cover tightly and let it go for 3-4-5 hours.
*About one hour after the stew has started simmering, add the new potatoes and check the seasonning. I added more rosemary and some black pepper...
The longer it simmers the better, acutally because stew meat is tougher and it takes time to break down the tissue. I had this one on the stove from 3:30pm to almost 8pm (I got sucked in a movie called "The lovely bones"...).
But what you get in the end is melt in your mouth tender meat:



The final product is pretty darn good, the night of, yes, especially after crying my eyes out from a sappy movie,...:



But it's even better the next day, on some fusili pasta for example: