(Recipe) My Homemade French Baguette, and no kneading necessary...

......how about that???No kneading necassary??.....however, I still try to manually mix it, manually knead it and punch it down on a lihtly floured wooden board...it's fun, you'll see...the results compensate any labor you put to it...come on, a hot and crusty loaf of bread coming out of the oven, letting all its aroma cloud ghosting throughout the house??!!!... A nice loaf of bread like this adds a delicious compliment to any snack, lunch or dinner..great even with pasta,soup or any vinegraitte dressing salad. And then, if you have any leftover the next day, you can transform it into a toasted "bruchetta" topped with goat or Greek Feta cheese.



Another highlight during baking this baguette was the use of my latest purchase.. the baguette loaf baking tray (the picture is posted). I was so excited when I bumped into it in the supermarket here, in France. I strongly said to myself..."I must have this"!!



I used fresh (refrigerated) yeast. You can certainly use active dry yeast. This recipe calls for 1 package of active dry yeast. I did some research, and found out that 1 pkg. active dry yeast equals to 21 grams of the fresh yeast. Other than that, all the rest of ingredients and quantities remain the same. So, our INGREDIENTS ARE:

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water, not hot, just so if you test it on your inside forearm skin, you don't jump up and scream..." ouch!!!! "
1 Tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon shortening (I prefer butter, it can be margarine), melted

4 cups all-purpose flour (do not sift it)

4 Tablespoons cornmeal or just flour



-In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of the luke warm water

-Add sugar, salt, butter or margarine and the rest 1 cup of the warm water; stir until dissolved

-Add flour and with a wooden spoon stir until smooth. At this point, after everything mixes in, I knead it with my hands, folding it like you fold an envelope, only 10 times, until the dough reaches a nice and almost non sticky consistency.

-Cover with a clean dish cloth and let rise in a draft-free, warm place for 1 to 2 hours, or until doubled in size. if you use fresh yeast, allow a little bit more time than 1 hour.

-Turn dough onto floured surface. Divide in 4 equal parts. Let rest for 5 minutes.

- Roll each portion into 10" x 8" rectangle. Roll up from the long side; pinch along seam edges to seal.

-Place seam down on the oil-greased, flour or cornmeal dusted loaf pan(s). Sprinkle some flour or corn meal on the loaves, cover with the same cloth and let them rise again until doubled, for about 45 minutes.

-with a very sharp knife or razor blade, make five diagonal cuts across the top of each loaf.

-To achieve a super golden in color and crusty in texture bread, I used a sprayer bottle containing warm water, at 35 Celsius, and sprayed some before baking, you can spray it with more water during the baking process...just open the oven and very quickly spray.



-Bake at 400 F or 200 C., until you have 4 lightly browned loaves of Baguette.

-Cool on wire racks.

..wait....assuming that you can wait...for 5 minutes before you cut it

Enjoy!!!

Recipe : My Bouillabaisse

This is a recipe for French Bouillabaisse only with a twist. I added a few more ingredients that my mother used to throw in, such as carrots, celery (leaves and stalks), 1 potato, ...other than that, my Bouillabaisse is made exactly the classic and standard way, the one that identifies itself as the Marseilles way, that comes from the Provence region of France on the Mediterranean coast. This is the Region that has had the best of culinary influences from the Classic French Cuisine to the North, to Italian and now, to the Greek styles to east, and Spanish and Portuguese to the west.

EYMOLOGY:The name "Bouillabaisse" comes from the pair of words meaning "to boil" and "to reduce". In this recipe the long duration of its boiling and simmering is of a great importance, as it contributes to concentrating and intensifying the soup's flavor.

INGREDIENTS
For the SOUP BROTH:

2 smaller size whole fish, I used a snapper and an exotic looking Mediterranean pink fish, (all scaled and cleaned), 3 oyesters, completely rinsed
9 cups of water
2 carrots, cut up in large pieces
Celery leaves and some stalks
1 onion, whole
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
10 whole springs of fresh parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste

For the SOUP BASE:

2/3 cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped finely
6 cloves of garlic, chopped roughly (my mother used to crush the garlic)
2 medium carrots, sliced
2 stalks of celery, cliced
1 potato, cut in cubes
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and cut in chunks
1 fennel, chopped
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
3 springs of dried thyme (use fresh thyme if available)
3 bay leaves
3 springs of parsley, finely chopped
3 strips of orange rind (not including the white pith)
1 teaspoon of saffron powder
crushed pepper flakes or 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of rouille (a mix of spices exclusively for bouillabaisse)
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup dry white wine

Seafood and shellfish for the "body" of the soup:

1 pound of scallops
1 pound of clams, with the shells on
1 pound of whole Lagostinos
1 pound of large shrimp, whole
1 pound of crab legs

PREPARATION:

In a large soup pot, combine all the ingredients for the Broth. Bring to a very light boil, and allow to simmer for about half an hour.

Simultaneously, in another smaller pot, heat the oil and throw the garlic, onion, the sliced carrots, the chopped fennel, cubed potato and parsley, and sautee for about 8 minutes, or until veggies are soft, but not too soft.

Add tomatoes, thyme, orange peel, bay leaves, pepper, saffron, rouille. Simmer
for up to 30 minutes.

Run the broth through a strainer, and keep aside.
Return the fish broth to the Large Pot.
Transfer all sauteed ingredients from the small pot, and add them to the fish broth in the Large Pot.

Remove the orange peel and bay leaves, Add the scallops, shrimp, lagostinos, clams, the inside of the oysters, crab legs and some of the boiled fish meat after removing the bones (make sure there are no bones) in the soup. Pour the white wine, salt and pepper, and let simmer for 15 minutes.

There are two ways to serve this soup. One way is to pure everything, before you add the shellfish and seafood. The other way is to leave it as it is, without pureing it. And this is the way my husband and I prefer it.

So, our New Year's bouillabaisse dinner was accompanied by our home made french baguette and a refreshing glass of Alsatian riesling wine. That was a memorable experience...not only for the result we got, but also for the whole "ritual" throughout the preparation of this soup.

"Happy New Year"!!!!! Happy 2010!!!
More smiles, more cooking and more bouillabaisse!!!!!!!!!!!!!