Another Bread Experiment. A Salad Dressing Unlike Any I’ve Made and it is SO Simple.
Oh good, I’m glad this arrived today. It’s pretty self explanatory. I like starting my day with a bump of oxygen. Goodbye morning grogginess. This little can is good for about 100 one second pumps. A good cure for the doldrums and energy to keep motivated.
It’s about 10 bucks and can last a few months unless you run marathons or something like that. No, they are not a sponsor. I just like the product.
I’ve been watching old Alton Brown “Good Eats” episodes. Last night I learned something I’ve never done in any restaurant I’ve worked in my life and it’s so stupidly simple I feel like an idiot for not knowing this.
Dark balsamic vinegar in Tupperware. Stick it in the freezer for 3 hours. Forget about it for now. But it’s pretty awesome.
You may remember from yesterday the poolish I made for breadmaking. The recipe I’m using calls for another 1/2 teaspoon of bloomed yeast so that’s what’s happening here.
I’ll write out my full recipe tomorrow.
But I did have to give you guys an action shot with the mixer.
My pursuit is this, a universal dough.
I want something for sandwiches, pizza, rolls, you name it. So it seemed to me that a semolina flour dough might fit that bill.
It starts out sticky, almost like a fry bread.
And now it rested for 2 hours. Let’s get started on dinner.
Dinner. I made a lazy version of a Po’ boy. Shrimp dipped in milk and dredged in self rising corn meal with a little corn starch added for maximum crispiness.
Same went for some oysters. I know some folks are freaked out by canned oysters but may I suggest that in the coming years you learn to embrace it a bit more.
I chose dredge instead of breading because I wanted to do a less messy shallow fry. I still had friggin’ bread to bake for chrissakes.
OK, so I put the oysters and shrimp in a pita (more laziness) and leaned that against a light salad. So far the only dressing on the salad is avocado oil. More on that in a second.
Po’ boy got topped with sliced lettuce mix and remoulade I made a couple of days ago. Salad topped with Kalamata olives and bleu cheese.
OK, that looks pretty good and all but now for the coup de gras.
The frozen balsamic. You starting to get it now aren’t you?
It’s a really interesting crystalization of the vinegar. The ice is flaky. Breaks up easily with a fork.
AND THAT’S YOUR SALAD DRESSING!
And it actually keeps the salad cold. It takes a few minutes to melt so it’s not a precarious as you might think.
Thanks, Alton.
Hang on the timer just went off.
.
.
.
.
OK, thanks.
Bread’s done.
So damn close. REALLY REALLY CLOSE! Almost exactly what I was looking for.
The interior texture is a little off and the bread doesn’t have enough sourness. Those are my only notes. So scratch what I said earlier about posting this tomorrow. If I’m not getting the texture or sourness I think I can safely assume that was the poolish’s fault. Which means that my timing on that was probably wrong.
The semolina was the right call, though.
That’s OK! I know where to concentrate my efforts now.
All said that’s still some damn good looking bread.
