Tag: Cooking — Appetizers

I've had my eye on the Hot Bread Kitchen Nan-e Barbari recipe for some time, but interestingly not because of my frequent visits to the Hot Bread Kitchen stand at one of our local farmers markets.  Instead, it was a delightfully pictured Nan-e Barbari email that King Arthur Flour sent out that initially attracted me to this bread.  

While my pictures won't do justice to the KAF images, it was a solid bread to construct on a recent weekend day.  The bread requires only two relatively short rises, and is out of the oven in 15 minutes.  It also is a good way to use up the jar of nigella seeds in my cupboard that I otherwise don't really know what to do with.

The flavor and texture are also great out of the oven, with the crusty exterior and baked seasonings making up for the lack of flavor in the bread itself.  As the bread aged over the week, it got harder and harder to eat – just mushy, dense, and bland.  

I'd recommend this bread as a subtle complement to a spicy soup or Middle Eastern meal – but just out of the oven, consumed day of, or the pizza form that KAF recommends.  Otherwise, I think a longer rise bread with more yeast flavor would be a better accompaniment to main courses.

To the recipe itself – combine the ingredients and knead into a smooth ball.

Cover and let rise for an hour or until almost doubled in size.

If you followed the recipe proportions, you divide this ball into two and shape the balls into logs.  I halved the recipe, so just had to shape one log to then rest and rise for approx. 30 minutes.

As the log(s) is rising, you prepared a simple sugar glaze to brush on the final dough.

Then shape the logs, spread on the glaze, and add the sesame and nigella seeds.  Bake for approx. 15 minutes (my pizza stone wasn't clean, so I used a baking sheet), and serve as soon as the bread slightly cools!

Several years ago, I conducted my first and last effort to make scallion pancakes at home.  While my recipe write-up was pretty enthusiastic, the key flaw I identified – lack of flavor – dissuaded me from attempting this snack again.  

Then, several weeks ago, after successfully attempting many of Serious Eats Chinese recipes, I decided to give their scallion pancake recipe a go.  The Serious Eats recipe was definitely leaps and bounds better than the original recipe I tried years ago, but I will need to more properly follow the recipe frying oil and salt directions to get the result to restaurant-unhealthy perfection.

The Serious Eats dough starts much as the Ming Tsai recipe I tried years ago does – creating a hot water dough with all-purpose flour and boiling water.  After combining the dough into a cohesive ball, leave for 30 minutes to rest.

Then comes the rolling of the dough segments – this recipe creates 4 relatively large pancakes.

Unlike the Ming Tsai recipe, you coat this dough with just pure sesame oil before adding the scallions.  A sesame oil v. a sesame / canola mixture definitely adds more flavor to the final result, so it's a great improvement on my original attempt.

Unlike the Ming Tsai recipe, this recipe also calls for rolling two layers of scallions / sesame oil for each pancake, which allows for more flaky layers in the final pancakes, more even distribution of the scallions, and the addition of far more scallions.  The Serious Eats recipe calls for 2 cups of thinly sliced scallions v. the Ming Tsai recipe of just 1/2 cup for the same amount of dough.

And when the pancakes are ready, throw into a hot skillet with 1/4 cup hot oil to cook for a few minutes on each side.  We definitely skimped on the oil, which reduced the final flavor of the pancakes.  As a result, this maxim – do not skimp on the cooking oil!

And time for the final maxim – season well with kosher salt!  We initially did not do this, which also resulted in a less flavorful pancake.

So basically, just follow the Serious Eats recipe as is and you'll have a great, flaky and flavorful result!

I recently attempted a Michigan favorite – the restaurant mini-chain Kruse & Muer's popular herbed bread.  This bread was a staple of my high school years and subsequent return trips to Michigan, where a Kruse & Muer location used to be close to my parents' house.  Unfortunately, that location closed down a number of years ago, but my love of those long herbed bread loaves has continued.  

Thankfully, it seems like a number of people share my love for those crusty exterior loaves and a number of versions of the recipe exist online, based on Chuck Muer's 1993 cookbook.  I followed those online recipes, which were largely (if not exactly) the same.  

In doing so though, unfortunately I made one critical error – misreading the amount and type of salt needed to coat the bread before baking.  

Instead of using kosher salt, I used regular salt AND misread the teaspoon direction to mean tablespoons!  As such, I ended up with a super salty, albeit still tasty bread that I will definitely remake (correctly).

I also made two other intended modifications.  First, I reduced the recipe by half to get two loaves instead of four.  Second, I used white poppy seeds instead of black, because I didn't have any black ones and commentators on the internet said it wouldn't make a difference?  I did buy black poppy seeds since that initial attempt though, and will report back if there are any noticeable changes in flavor or texture.

The recipe itself is quite simple to make, and requires just two 30-minute rise sessions, which is pretty easy for a weekend lunch or dinner.

First, you proof the yeast in warm water and then add sugar, oil and salt.

Then knead the dough, ideally by machine or by hand if you are like me and lack a dough hook attachment.  

I think I under-kneaded the bread though, leading to a less than ideal rise.

Then shape the dough into logs, then leave for a second rise.  You can also then prepare the mixture to roll and season the logs.

Finally, brush the tops with the herb mixture before baking the bread.

This is a great bread to serve on its own as an appetizer or to combine with soup or salad for a filling meal.