The Journal of his Delights

I went to a brunch on Saturday and brought along my Brioche with Streusel to the affair. I’d forgotten the egg wash, so the three loaves didn’t look like much. Fortunately, the taste was just fine and they were decimated.

While I was there, I happened to remark to LiAnna that I thought this particular loaf would work well with Nutella. She said, “Yes, please. Bring one to work on Monday and the Campaigners will bow before you in gratitude.” Well, she didn’t say that exactly, but you get the idea.

I thought why not, and so I present a photo of tonight’s endeavor, Brioche with Chocolate Hazelnut:

It is simply the brioche dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day rolled flat and smeared with the chocolate hazelnut spread of your choice. Roll it up and let it sit for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Make an wash of one egg beaten together with some brown sugar. Coat the loaf with the egg wash before sticking it into the oven for 15 minutes. It’s that easy.

A snippet from IM at work today:

Robyn: hi. do you want the sauces?
Me: no, I’m already done eating.
Robyn: oh my!
Me: eats fast + is hungry = eats faster
Robyn: i’m going to call you Eats Faster from now on!
Me: hehe
Me: Eats Fast and Furious?
Robyn: lol
Me: a film about drag-racing lunch wagons…
Robyn: i’d watch it!

If you’re looking for delicious bread in Portland, Oregon, take a look at Kim’s Guilty Pleasure. It warms the heart of those who love good bread.

A chocolate chip cookie still warm from the oven — a little piece of heaven.

Before:

After:

The above is what was left of two brioche pastry loaves baked yesterday morning and taken to work. It was the basic brioche dough in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day with a mixture of butter, flour, brown sugar, and oats rolled inside. The beautiful color comes from washing the surface with a mixture of egg and brown sugar. The loaves turned out extremely well, and by the end of the day, there was nothing left but crumbs.

There is something beautiful and uncomplicated about a bowl of cold cereal for dinner.

Look at what just came out of the oven:

The recipe is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and I can’t tell you how much of a delight it’s been to have fresh-baked bread available on a moment’s notice.

The secret is mixing up a big batch of wet-dough and storing it in the fridge till you need it. The dough doesn’t dry out because of the amount of moisture, and it keeps for about 10 days.

You can have pita bread ready in as much time as it takes to heat the oven. Larger breads take longer — a boule in 70 minutes, baguettes in 40 minutes — but that’s a combination of sitting and cooking times. There’s hardly any prep at all.

On several occasions now, I’ve gotten up in the morning, started the bread, cleaned up for work, and the bread was ready before leaving the house. *happy sigh*

The book itself has a lot of filler text — the foundational recipes are repeated a lot — but it’s worth buying the book for no other reason than rewarding the authors for their contribution to home baking.

If you love bread, then I recommend checking it out.

As I mentioned in Tag — I’m It, I’ve taken to arranging lunch outings for my co-workers, so that we’re not always eating at our desks. I use it as an opportunity to try out restaurants in the area, and today it was Pilita Grill, a Turkish/Mediterranean place in San Carlos, CA. It’s located on Laurel Street, which is clearly turning out to be the city’s restaurant row.

We started out with their Mezze Plater (a misspelling perhaps?), which was the highlight of the meal. The Plater comes with seven of items, one of which is chef’s choice. The humus was a little bland, but everything else was flavorful. I especially liked the Kisir, a Turkish version of tabouli heavy on the cous cous, and the Mucver, shredded zucchini fritters. Our chef’s choice was Yarma, a strained yogurt with wheat berries added. Quite nice.

The entrees came quickly enough. One of the day’s special’s was Lamb Moussaka, ground lamb layered with eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and chopped parsley. The parsley made it taste a bit like Kefta, since that’s a common ingredient in that kabob. I liked the plate, although I felt like it was missing something.

My co-workers ordered wraps: one Fish Wrap (tilapia) and three Falafel Wraps. The wraps came with a choice of salad or fries. The fries were big, thick, cross-cut style, and were much approved of. The salads were tasty, although over-dressed. If you don’t like your salad drenched, you might ask them to go easy. The Wraps themselves were good, although not amazing. My co-workers felt they were also missing something. Salt was added to the tilapia, and one person mentioned that she thought the falafel at Mediterranean Delite was better.

Overall, it was a thumbs-up experience. Nothing extraordinary, but definitely a place to add to one’s repertoire. If you do go, be sure to try the Mezze.

In another post, I mention Third Thursday, a once-a-month potluck that I organize at work. And well, March 19 was the Third Thursday of the month, and I decided to make the Apple and Yogurt Maple Cake from one of my favorite food blogs, Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier.

This is the same blog where I cribbed a fabulous chocolate cake and many other mouth watering items, so I had faith that the Apple and Maple would turn out well too. And it did. Firstly, it’s a beautiful, simple little cake as you can see here:

Secondly, while it’s a little understated to start with, it has a very nice finish. The proof is in the eating, and there was none left over.

I had also intended on making a couronne, a ring shaped loaf that’s supposed to be a specialty of Lyon, but when I pulled it out of the oven this morning, it didn’t look right. I decided not to bring it to Third Thursday since I had the cake already. Instead I thought to have a piece of my not-quite-couronne with some butter, and the next thing I knew, half the loaf was gone. I realized that the taste was good, even though it looked more like a giant pretzel then a loaf of bread. But looking down at the devastated remains, I also realized that I couldn’t quite bring what was left with me to work!

It’ll have to wait for another day.

If you’ve ever been to San Francisco, you know that the people here really love food. I was reminded of that fact this past week when I attended a Cheeses of Italy class at the Cheese School of San Francisco.

Yes, San Fransisco has a school whose sole existence to teach the understanding and appreciation of fine cheeses. Is this a great city or what?!

This particular class was taught by Judy Creighton, a woman who clearly knows her cheese, but then again when you spend twenty-five plus years as a cheese monger, that’s to be expected.

Judy talked about the people, history, and geography of Italy and their impact on cheese. She explained the culinary divisions in Italy and differences between cow, sheep, and goat cheeses. It was all very interesting.

And then there was the tasting: we tried ten cheeses in all, along with two wines and a variety of nibbles to cleanse the palate. Of them all, two were two stars of the evening.

One was the Fiore Sardo, a raw sheep’s milk cheese from Sardinia that has been made since the bronze age. It had a beautiful smell and strong (but somehow delicate) flavor. And since the sheep in Sardinia are geographically isolated, there is literally no where else in the world that can make this cheese.

The other was the Cacio di Bosco al Tartufo. When I first picked it up, it smelled of truffles, and I was ready to dismiss it as a gimmick cheese. But once I tried it, it won me over right away. I practically melted in its grip. The cheese is a Tuscan-style pecorino, a little salty, but it’s the truffles that make it magic. If you’ve had truffles, then you know what they can do to food. I would love to see what this cheese could do to a risotto.

All-in-all, it was an amazing evening for food, and I would definitely do it again. Maybe not right away — that was a lot of cheese for one sitting — but I’m definitely curious to try some of their other classes. I bet the class on Cheese & Beer of the Pacific Northwest would be fun.

What would a food outing be without pictures, so here you go: