The Duese, Part Deux

Bakkich has been on hiatus.  Long hiatus.  We've been doing fun things like studying, muster drilling & chainsaw operating, oooh yes.

Bakk in the Day 2

The Bakkich’s are of no more exotic descent than Scandinavian and Eastern European, but Mom Bakkich had a flair for out-of-the-ordinary meals.  We grew up on dinners of keema (an Indian spiced ground meat/tofu & veggie dish), Asian glass-noodle & fish soup, home-made hot & sour soup, and things of the sort.  (Dad Bakkich stuck with the classics when it was his turn to cook; eggplant parmesan, American chop-suey, smothered pork chops and New England style fish chowder.)  Mom also experimented often with vegetarian substitutes, the most memorable being textured vegetable protein sneakily substituted into my favorite meatball dish.  I’m still scarred from the shock of biting into what I thought was ground beef and am wary of any meatball Mom serves to this day.  I’m not bitter, I swear. 

My favorite dish, bakk in the day and to THIS day, is Mom’s Tabouli.  I have loved it my entire life.  This is my comfort food.  Can you imagine a kid in the mid-80’s craving bulgur wheat?  It's a cookout staple.  People request, nay, demand it. 

Mac & Cheese and Green Tea Lemon Olive Oil Cake

In addition to sammiches, us Bakkiches LOVE macaroni & cheese.  Ben Bakkich probably ate it every day from ages 4-14.  (Just kidding, Ben, but close.)

Our favorite recipe comes from one of my dear friends, who makes it for her husband all the time.  It's basic, it's perfect.  I start any variation of the dish with a slightly tweaked Craig's Mac & Cheese.
 

Craig's Mac & Cheese

• 2 cups elbow macaroni, cooked to package directions
• 3 TBS margarine
• 3 TBS flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp powdered mustard (my tweak)
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• dash cayenne (my tweak)
• 1/2 lb American cheese
• 4 slices buttered toast, diced OR bread crumbs mixed w/melted butter/margarine

Oh Sammich

I had a Friday evening outing to Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia, MD with my husband and a couple co-workers plus significant other.  I thought about their lobster grilled cheese and duck fat fries all week!  The dinnertime lighting was dim, and I was using my cell phone camera, so I didn't get a great picture of the yummy sammich.  Here it is anyway, and I'm sorry.

Buttery bread, tender Maine lobster & a brie fondue.  So decadent, so good.  Absolutely worthy of the sammich title.  Before I even ordered my sammich I sampled buttermilk fried chicken pick-up sticks, duck fat fries, and goat cheese & herb stuffed fried squash blossoms.  Not exactly a light meal, but so stinkin' good.  I enjoyed a flight of Spanish wines plus a glass of Tempranillo, the wine in the flight I liked best. 

Oh Yes, I Did

My Favorite Brownie Recipe

• 5 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place the rack in thecenter of the oven. Butter (or spray with a nonstick cooking spray) an 8 inch square pan.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or large bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water). Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder and sugar . Next, whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time,beating well after each addition. Finally, stir in the flour,  and salt.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a little batter and a few moist clumps clinging to it. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Market Fresh

My 2nd weekly East Columbia Library farmers' market visit yielded some good stuff.

This week:

• cucumbers
• peaches
• sweet cherries
• kale
• Cosmic Bean coffee

I think kale chips will be on the menu tonight!

Also, I may or may not be currently baking a batch of from-scratch brownies.

Loaf Win!

I turned out a much better loaf of artisan bread today than I did over the weekend.  It will take some refining, but I think I have the basics down.  Not bad, huh?

Here's the recipe I used, for a no-knead artisan bread, from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes:

Makes 4 loaves.

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 TBS granulated yeast
1 1/2 TBS Kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

Mix water, yeast & salt in a large mixing bowl or re-sealable plastic container.  Mix in the flour until uniform.

Cover container (not airtight, so with a towel or a lid with a hole) and let the dough rise at room temp for about 2 hours until it collapses.  You can use some of the dough to make bread at this point.  Refrigerate any unused dough; it will keep in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks.

To bake, allow the portion of dough to rise 40 minutes.  Heat the oven to 450, with a baking stone or something made of cast iron in it to preheat.  Dust the dough with flour & make slashes in the top.  On a rack below the stone/cast iron put a dish of water, this will make the right amount of steamto bake a perfect loaf.  Put the dough on the stone or cast iron and bake 30 minutes until the crust is brown & firm to the touch.

Cool loaf completely on a wire rack before slicing.