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My first venture into making artisanal (ha!) style whole-wheat bread has been…interesting.

Here’s the deal: I have a favorite 100 percent whole-wheat bread, from Farm to Market Bread Co., that I like to use for sandwiches. It’s tasty, has a nice texture and is local, more or less. (It’s from Kansas City, about 40 miles down the road.) It’s also $5.50 per one-pound loaf and is cruelly proportioned such that two slices seem like too much bread and one slice doesn’t seem like quite enough. Hence, I’d be pleased if I could make a satisfactory loaf.

My all-whole-grain loaf

Making it myself

I’ve been thinking for a while it would nice to be able to make a good, all-whole-grain bread myself, but I hadn’t seen any appealing recipes until I read Mark Bittman’s column on whole-grain bread. The column talks primarily about a quicker loaf in a previous column but provides instruction for a no-knead version more like baker Jim Lahey’s. Those are the instructions I followed. At least I think that’s what I did, as Bittman’s slow-fermentation instructions are given as sort of an aside.

In any case, here is what I did, in words and pictures. If anyone out there has made this recipe, I hope you’ll let me know if I did it right. Lacking experience with this kind of loaf, I’m not totally clear on whether I got the expected results.

Not-so-fast no-knead whole wheat bread

• 2 cups whole wheat flour (local!)
• 1/2 cup whole rye flour
• 1/2 cup coarse cornmeal (mine was regular old cornmeal)
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• Oil as needed

1. Combine flours, cornmeal, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. That’s what Bittman said, “shaggy.” What the heck does that mean? Beats me. I can tell you, however, the mixture comes together in a snap and has a rough texture, as perhaps you can see in the photos.

dry ingredients

“shaggy” mixture

dough up close

2. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 24 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. Finding a spot that warm in my house was the biggest challenge, but I discovered one spot near the middle of the house that kind of traps warm air behind a door. Yea! Remarkably enough, this curious mixture did rise.

smoothed over before “rest”

risen…more than is obvious

3. Oil an 8- by 4-inch loaf pan. Turn dough into pan and press to the edges. (The original instructions have you shape it into a rectangle before placing it in pan. My dough was far too soft to do so. You’re also supposed to oil the top; I forgot.) Cover with plastic wrap, and let rest 2 hours or more.

ready to bake

4. Bake bread at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes, or until loaf reaches an internal temperature of 210 degrees. I used a thermometer, as the bread didn’t look promising after the originally specified 45 minutes’ baking time. Mine came out of the oven at 53 minutes, although it may still have been a little shy of 210 degrees.

5. Remove bread from pan and cool on a rack. Bittman said a nonstick pan works well. Might be a good idea. I don’t have a nonstick pan of the specified size, and it took a little work—knife around the edge and several good whacks—to dislodge the bread. Makes 1 loaf.

holey bottom

The final result

The bread is quite different from any yeast bread I can recall eating. The texture is fairly coarse and the middle is oddly moist—not gummy, but not far from it. It slices well.

a slice

Bittman says this bread can sit “for days” at room temp wrapped in a kitchen towel. Mine did, but before it developed the moisture content, as well as the density and appearance, of a brick I cut what was left into a couple of hunks and put them in the freezer. It also freezes and thaws well.

Again?

I’ll probably try it again, just to see if I get different results. I might add a tablespoon of honey or something to boost the flavor a bit. I gather that the loaf photographed at the link above is the quick version of this bread, which includes more yeast and shorter rising times. I don’t know if that explains the apparent finer crumb he got, based on the NYT photo.

In any case, I’d love to hear from anybody who tries this recipe. It truly could not be simpler, but I’m not sure that I might not be happier with a loaf that requires more effort and yields a finer texture. That may be the ticket with the recipe he provides for All Whole Wheat Sandwich bread, whose ingredients include added gluten, sweetener and milk.

Sorry to be so last-minute on black-eyed peas for New Year’s and New Year’s Eve! I have to admit eating black-eyed peas has never been my family’s tradition, despite my dad’s Southern roots. Nevertheless, I like black-eyed peas, especially Edna Lewis’s Black-Eyed Peas with Onions, Garlic and Tomato. Much tastier than most Hoppin’ John I’ve had.

So, with the minutes counting, here’s a black-eyed peas recipe based on Lewis’s to celebrate the new year.

Black-eyed peas with onions, garlic and tomato

• 1 cup dried black-eyed peas
• 4 cups water
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh minced parsley

1. Rinse peas and put in pot with water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer till tender, 30-45 minutes. Drain.
2. Heat oil in skillet. Add onion and garlic; saute 1 minute. Add tomatoes. Cook till onion and garlic are soft.
3. Stir in peas, salt and pepper; simmer 10 minutes longer to blend flavors. Adjust seasoning.
4. Stir in parsley and serve. Good hot or at room temperature.

On the off chance you’ve been dying to know what I’ve been up to, besides holiday-related stuff, I think I’m ready to show you now. As I think I previously mentioned, I have been working to develop a new site from which I’m hoping to make a little money. It’s called Homecooking Revival, and I hope you’ll take a look.

As you know, I love food and enjoy cooking, but, scintillating though my writing here may be, I’m not expecting to get huge amounts of traffic, which can lead to income, which I wouldn’t mind getting. Plus, as much as I love an audience, I’m not sure how helpful Foodperson.com is, and I like being helpful.

The idea

Hence, Homecooking Revival. My hope is to develop, in time, one location where a novice home cook can go to get information on how to cook good, real food, mostly everyday food. Lord knows the Web is brimming with food sites. I figure, though, cooking newbies aren’t going to be as interested in recipe sites and I-love-to-cook sites, which seem to be the mainstay of online cooking sites.

Anyway, take a look, please, and let me know what you think about the look, the feel, the content. You can let me know by commenting on the site, commenting here or sending me a private message via the contact form on this site or on Homecooking Revival.

About Foodperson.com

I have every expectation to continue to post here. I like the personal aspect of it and being able to bring my questions and experiments to readers. Maybe I’ll post a little less often. I don’t know; we’ll see. I do have a couple of posts (with photos) in my back pocket, though, just waiting for me to get around to writing them. Stand by, and we’ll see where this new venture leads.

I’ve drawn the vegetable card again this year, but, unlike last year, I’m not worrying about it as much. I’m going to roast Brussels sprouts with olive oil and lemon rind. I’ll also do a green-bean dish for the I-hate-cruciferous-vegetables fools.

“Another Diane” raised the make-ahead-vegetable question in the comments from last year’s entry, pointing specifically to the fact that was on my mind but unexpressed last year: that most make-ahead vegetable recipes rely on some kind of heavy cream sauce or cheese. I think the sauces and cheese are favored because they mask overcooked or otherwise tasteless vegetables. That matter has underlain my make-ahead vegetable dilemma.

I’ve come to this conclusion: Although roasted vegetables taste marvelous hot from the oven, they’re quite good at room temperature. I think roasting somehow amps up the flavor enough that they don’t require the sauces to give them flavor when not fresh from the oven. Try Ina Garten’s super-simple Brussels sprouts recipe if you’re interested. You can dress up the results if you like with toasted nuts or lemon zest or a sprinkling of grated Parmesan.

One alternative

Another Diane, however, implies that she doesn’t want to roast her green vegetables for one reason or another. I therefore offer this green bean recipe for her consideration. It’s quick and easy, and you can do it ahead and get satisfactory results. Me, I’m not crazy about it; the honey doesn’t work for me. My family loves it, however, so maybe yours will, too:

Cashew green beans

• 1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped salted cashews
• 2 tablespoons honey

1. Drop beans into a pot of boiling, salted water. Boil 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Add cashews and cook 3-5 minutes, stirring, to flavor the butter. Add honey and cook 1 minute to blend flavors.
3. Pour nut mixture over beans and toss until coated, then serve immediately. Makes 6-8 servings.

Do-ahead notes: To prepare this dish in advance, complete step 1 and step 2. Refrigerate beans and sauce in separate dishes. When almost time to serve, place sauce (which will have solidified) in skillet large enough to accommodate the beans, and set heat to medium. Stir until sauce is thoroughly melted, then add the beans, and toss to coat. Reduce heat to low, cover and heat a few minutes more, checking often until beans are heated through. Serve immediately.

Photo credits: Top, from Eric Hunt at Wikimedia; beans from Sam, aka Kahanaboy, at morguefile.com.

Yes, there’s snow on the ground and winter officially begins Sunday, but you don’t need to give up on local foods. I was reminded of this today when I got an email from the National Resources Defense Council that linked to its nifty local-food-in-season tool. You enter your state and choose the half-month “season” you’re interested in, and it produces a list of locally available crops.

Mushrooms, anyone?

The shortcoming

Don’t be discouraged, though, if you enter “late December” as your season, and the tool tells you nothing is available. That’s what happened with me. Turns out the tool, while very handy, is only as good as its sources. In the case of Kansas, the source was a Kansas City-area gardening site and its table from the K-State Vegetable Garden Planting Guide (PDF). It shows planting and harvest times, which aren’t the same as availability. The New York listing, on the other hand, references the state’s harvest calendar, which shows harvest and availability (rather than planting) dates.

Availability, however, is tied to storage and marketing, so it’s true that highly storable potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, onions, garlic and some apple varieties are probably available somewhere in Kansas, but they aren’t necessarily easily gotten. The local farmers market is closed for the season, and markets like the Community Mercantile and the Casbah Market aren’t set up to store produce. So, unless the local farmers have a means to store such produce, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to find much local produce of that variety.

There’s more

There’s much more to local food than fresh fruits and vegetables, though.

• Local meat, poultry and dairy are plentiful on the farms and at the Merc (and the Casbah, I think). Check out Local Harvest and Eat Wild for sources where you live.
• Honey, being infinitely storable, is generally available year round, and often even in supermarkets. Find sources also at Local Harvest. Larger producers can be found at Honey Locator. A favorite Lawrence supplier is Anthony’s Beehive.
• Here in Lawrence, we can usually get mesclun and mushrooms yearround from Wakarusa Valley Farm by way of the Merc.
• Prepared foods also are plentiful. You can find, often in supermarkets and certainly (around here) at natural foods stores, prepared local foods such as jams, jellies, salsas, tofu. Again, Local Harvest can help you find sources.

So keep eating local food as best you can. It will serve you, your community and the environment well.

Holiday baking has me thinking of my dad. As I previously noted, Dad liked pecans (understandable for a Southern boy), and for the past few years he has treated his daughters at Christmastime to 2 pounds of shelled pecans from Sunnyland Farms in Albany, Georgia.

I thought those pecans were nice and tasted good, but extravagant, as they cost more than $30 for 2 pounds of the “extra fancy ‘Junior’ pecan halves” that he always sent. On the other hand, I never had trouble working my way through those 2 pounds.

When this holiday season came round, however, no pecans were in sight. I got a flier from Sunnyland but decided the nuts were indeed extravagant. When I first needed pecans this fall—for the topping on Thanksgiving sweet potatoes—I bought a pound of California pecans at the grocery store. I hesitated before I bought them. The pecan halves were a fairly dark brown, a sign they weren’t very fresh, according to Dad’s folk wisdom. So I bought the pieces instead, because they were paler. The first bite of the sweet potatoes immediately revealed that these nuts just weren’t of the same caliber as the Georgia pecans. I sighed at the memory.

Now that it’s holiday baking time at my house, I’m in a quandary. My usual cookies are usually pecan-laden. Although the nuts I have aren’t rancid, they just aren’t good. When I stirred up Chocolate Crinkle Cookies yesterday, I put in only 1/4 cup of those nuts rather than the usual 1/2 cup. And I decided it wasn’t worth it to make the Russian Tea Cakes with substandard pecans, since nuts are a major reason for those cookies. And toffee? Haven’t decided whether to make it yet or not. Again, a nut-driven issue.

I suppose I can get used to the grocery-store nuts’ flavor, but I’m not sure I want to give them as gifts. Sadly, toasting doesn’t turn them into the wonderfulness that was the Georgia pecans. Next year, I’m going to check out the pecans from my neighbors’ trees, although I gather that they don’t have much meat in their shells. And then, assuming those nuts are inadequate in number or flavor, I’m going to have to be extravagant and bake with nuts that are worth their price. Thanks, Dad. I think.

Photo credit: University of Florida Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences

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