Some foods, like homemade bread, are more than just “cooking” and can be more like therapy.

Pasta is like this.

I was raised in a family where pasta was considered junk food, needless carbohydrates (obviously, we are not Italian or Asian!).

In Colombia, the starch of choice is rice and various tropical starch crops like the ever delicious yuca (cassava root to Americans).

To shake things up and also to get some of that food therapy, I make homemade pasta on occasion.

If you are interested in truly wholesome and healthy pasta, consider the sprouted whole wheat pasta I made in this post – Homemade Sprouted Whole Wheat Pasta.

That recipes takes days so its for the organized cook!

Sometimes you just want some delicious fresh pasta with little hassle and thats not hard.

You can choose to do it all by hand or you can use a food processor. I show the use of a processor here.

You can add additional nutrition (quickly) by using spinach puree, carrot puree, or other amendments to change the color and flavor.

Homemade Egg Pasta

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 4 large eggs (we used eggs from our chickens)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 – 4 tablespoons water (depends on dryness of your flour and size of your eggs)

Directions

Put all ingredients (except water) into your food processor.

Turn it on and let it go until you get smallish pea like dough.

You want it to have some body and for it to stick together when you pinch it.

I didnt add water until after I had dumped this mix out. I didnt want the water to overly activate the gluten formation in the dough (that leads to toughness!).

Bring the dough together and add 3 to 4 tablespoons of water. Knead dough for some 10 minutes to get it as smooth as you can. Mine was still a bit on the rough side but I went ahead to the next step.

Put this dough into a baggie or wrap in plastic and let sit at room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes.

Once the dough has rested, cut into 4 pieces and roll out each piece while the rest is still under wraps. Roll it out as thin as you possibly can. You can also use a pasta machine!

I cant use mine because it has polymer clay stuck in it .

Once rolled out, cut it as you like. I cut ours into a fettuccine sort of noodle. I am sure an Italian grandma would beat me about the head and shoulders and throw me out of the kitchen if she saw this but, hey, she never met my grandma nor made arepas either.

I use a pizza cutter to make my pasta strips. My 6 yo and my 3 yo helped me cut it all up. They loved helping out.

Hang up these dough strips while you roll out and cut the other balls.

Next its into salted boiling water.

Boil it until it has the texture YOU like.

Have your sauce and meat (we chose sausages) warming and ready to serve.

Serve and add some Parmesan if you like.

Enjoy!

Wow, our ISP (to remain unnamed for the moment) REALLLLLY screwed us over, on galactic proportions. I feel shaky having come out the other end of this nightmare.

My blogs are back and I am hoping our new ISP has more ethics than the last.

Today I am going to show you how to make an acid precipitated cheese called Queso Blanco. This is similar to paneer (Indian Cuisine) and is quite popular in latino cooking. We also have Queso Fresco which is different. I actually prefer queso fresco but I didnt have the cultures needed to make that cheese on hand.

I made 3 gallons worth of queso blanco because I had an over abundance of milk from our 7 milking LaMancha goats who are giving us between 2 to 2.5 gallons a day now.

You can learn more about our real local backyard food at my homestead blog Humble Garden.

I mentioned that this is an acid precipitated cheese. What that means is that the casein protein in the milk is rendered solid (and no longer able to float about in the fluid of milk) by changes made to the protein molecules by the acid. In this case, that acid is added (lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid, etc). Other cheese rely on lactobacillus bacteria to grow in the fluid milk. Over time, their metabolic byproducts include lactic acid which then, once the fluid reaches the correct pH, causes the change in the protein to form the curd. This second method yields more depth and allows for the creation of a cheese that stores long in some cases (versus queso blanco which must be eaten fresh).

Ok, without further discussion, lets get into the how-2.

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon milk (I use raw goat milk but it wont stay raw)
• 1/4 C lemon juice or white vinegar (though you have to go slowly, you may need more or less)

Directions:

Heat the milk in a non-aluminum pot to 185 F, do not burn!

Use a thermometer and stir to keep the temperature evened out in the pot.

Once it hits 185 F, kill the heat and add the vinegar and stir gently and then let it sit for 5 minutes.

If you do not see the curd separating from the whey (white clumps in yellowish greenish liquid) then carefully add more vinegar until you get the curd.

Stir for 5 minutes to keep it from clumping up.

Pour the whole mixture (its hot!) into a cheese cloth lined colander over a large bowl in the sink.

Mix this slightly in the colander to encourage release of more whey.

Now comes a 2 part pressing process. I do not have a proper cheese press yet and my scale died so I had to guess on actual weights.

What you want is:

• 20 minutes pressed at 10 pounds
• 2.5 hours pressed at 25 pounds

What follows is how I jury rigged it all!

Put your well drained cheese in it’s cheese cloth, made into a tidy little ball, on a plate, and then add what is called a follower (in my case the base to a spring release pan form).

Add 10 pounds of weight.

After 20 minutes, add enough weight to make it 25 pounds and leave for 2.5 hours.

When done you will have a well pressed cake of cheese! Refrigerate and eat within the week.

I love serving it with freshly made hot Colombian arepas.

A couple of posts ago, I showed you how easy it is to make sprouted whole wheat flour. In that post, Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour, I talked at length on the reasons for sprouting your grains so I wont delve into that today.

Instead, I am going to share one way I have used this flour for lasagna pasta. I will be posting on how this pasta came out a bit later when I review Tassajara Dinners & Desserts.

This recipe is pretty basic, you can piece it together online. As with anything made with flour, the recipe is a guideline because each batch of flour, the world over, will have its own unique level of hydration thus the amount of liquid needed to make it come together will be unique. For this reason, it takes some practice, a willingness to experiment and to fail, even with precious ingredients like this sprouted whole wheat flour that you have spent all this time with. If you lock up with anxiety, then its not fun and then you gotta wonder why you are doing it at all!

Thus, when you give this recipe a try, have a sense of play and don’t stress out if you need to add more liquid, you may very well. I did. I didn’t list the full amount in the recipe because I didn’t want you to start out using that amount but to rather use as needed.

In this case, the extra liquid I used was a freshly juiced spinach and carrot juice that I made on my new Champion Juicer that I got to review and share with you. I will be writing a review on this blog and also at my raw food blog Raw+Simple.

Homemade Sprouted Whole Wheat Pasta

Ingredients:

• 3 cups freshly ground sprouted whole wheat flour
• 1 c whole wheat pastry flour
• 5 eggs
• 2 tablespoons high quality cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
• Spinach/Carrot juice (freshly juiced)

Pinch sea salt

Directions:

On a clean surface, make a mound of the 3 cups of sprouted whole wheat flour and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour. Make an indentation in the mound and start adding eggs. You will have to get your hands messy for this!

Add all eggs, oil and 1 tablespoon juice (if using) and then use a fork to carefully break the eggs and do an initial mix of the eggs. Now, with your fingers, start mixing in the flour without knocking down the walls. Just take your time.

Once the dough is together enough to knead, knead it like bread dough for 5 minutes to incorporate. This is the time when you will likely need to add more liquid. I added the spinach carrot juice until the ball came together and was not hard or overtly dry. It took about 4 ounces.

Once the dough has come together, put in a plastic baggie, seal, and allow to rest for 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on what your day is like.

After resting, portion out some balls that equal about the amount that you think you want for your lasagna sheets. You can make any sort of pasta you wish.

Roll out sheets on a lightly floured board.

Hang up sheets and allow to dry until a bit stiff. Store in the refrigerator until use. I suggest using it as soon as possible as this flour has all of it’s oils and germ, not meant for super long term storage.

When ready to use, do not boil for long and do it right before you assemble your lasagna.

Let me know if you give this a try!

The slideshow above will take you through the process of making homemade Buttermilk Saltines.

You might ask WHY one would want to make saltines when they are so cheap at the store. I guess I am the sort that can not leave well enough alone. I also can’t help being a scientist, even though I am not at the bench. I tend to want to dig into a food and deconstruct it, make it myself, know it from the beginning.

I also ran out of them and didn’t have a way to get to the store!

Making proper old fashioned saltines is not hard, per se, but it requires one to use a bit of planning.

Why? Well, this is because it takes TWO DAYS to make! Its nothing near as tedious as making puff pastry. No, its just that yeast needs time to do it’s magic.

I searched the web for a recipe and decided on the following recipe, which I sourced at this link.

These came out very flavorful and the major advantage to making your own saltines is that you can use your favorite salt (Celtic, black Hawaiian, fluorescent Martian, iridescent jade salt from Atlantis, your choice).

It also means you can put other things on like black pepper, white pepper, cayenne, rosemary, sage, just about anything.

If you try this, let me know!

Cayenne dusted Buttermilk Saltines

Traditional Buttermilk Saltines

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons Dry active yeast (1 package contains 2-1/4 teaspoons)
• 1 1/2 C warm water
• 4 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon water for dissolving the baking soda
• 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 C butter (softened)

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the yeast with the sugar and warm water. Set aside until the yeast is fully dissolved, 5 to 10 minutes.

Measure 3-1/2 cups of the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast mixture and mix well.

Place plastic wrap over the bowl and let the dough rest in a warm place for 20 to 30 hours.

The plastic wrap keeps the dough from drying out during this long period.

In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the tablespoon water. Place the baking soda mixture, buttermilk, salt, and shortening in the bowl with the dough and mix well.

Mix in as much of the remaining 1/2 to 1 cup flour as necessary to form a stiff, nonsticky dough.

Knead for a minute or two and then let the dough rest, covered with the plastic wrap, for 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for another few minutes, until it is smooth and springy to the touch.

Place it in a large, clean, lightly oiled bowl and let it rest for another 3 or 4 hours, covered with plastic wrap.

At last you are ready to roll.

Preheat the oven to 450~ F.

Punch the dough down and knead a few strokes. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions for rolling.

Rolling may be difficult at first due to the elasticity of the dough. Give yourself a head start on the rolling by flattening the dough with your hands.

Place your rolling pin in the center of the dough and begin. Soon the dough will relax and begin to roll easily.

On a floured surface or pastry cloth, roll out to a rectangle approximately 1/4 inch thick and position so the long edge runs horizontally in front of you.

Fold the left third of the dough over the center third. Likewise, fold the right third over the center.

The dough is now in 3 layers with the seam running vertically.

Give the dough a quarter turn so the seam now runs horizontally.

Roll out again to a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.

Fold and turn the dough again as in the first step.

You are now ready for the final rolling.

Roll the dough out thinner this time, about 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick. If desired, sprinkle the top lightly and evenly with salt and roll over it lightly with the rolling pin.

With a sharp knife (we used a pizza cutter!), cut into 2-inch squares and place each one on an ungreased baking sheet.

Prick each square 2 or 3 times with the tines of a fork.

Bake for 8 minutes.

Turn and bake an additional 1 to 3 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Cool on a rack.

Yield: 95-100.

One of my most enduring memories from Colombian Christmases would have to be eating tamales at midnight on Christmas Eve. Even though I now live way the h*ll north of the beautiful equatorial paradise that is Colombia and far from my mom, I set out to make my own tamales this year (first time for me). I have put together a few pictures of the assembly process to help you with the how-to. Since I was shooting in the kitchen with low crappy lighting and also taking care of three kids and dealing with a delivery man, all at once, my shots are not the best here and not in great focus. I apologize for that ahead of time!

This is best done surrounded by all of your favorite relatives (preferably mamas, abuelitas, and tias who know how to do this and who have all sorts of stories to tell) so that you have help and make it all go by quickly. I had just myself!

• 20 chicken thighs, skinned and defatted (save this. Can be rendered to crisps and schmaltz for other recipes).
• 20 pork ribs about the length of your finger with a good amount of meat on them. You’ll probably have to buy them as a rack and chop them up yourself. (If you don’t want pork ribs, use 20 chicken legs)

Marinade:

• 3 bunches of green onions, finely chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 heaping tsps of ground cominos
• 1 tsp of salt
• Pinch of ground annatto seeds

Hogao:

• 5 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 bunches of green onions, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of ground cominos
• Pinch of ground annatto seeds
• 1/2 cup of packed, chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• salt to taste

4 C “La Venezolana” or “ArepaHarina” precocida (extremely fine precooked corn meal – you simply can not use any substitutes here, find this ingredient)

Tamales:

• 5 large carrots, peeled and 1/4″ sliced
• 2 cups of frozen green peas
• 5 large red potatoes, scrubbed, 1/4″ sliced (put in water to prevent discoloration)
• 8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and 1/4″ sliced

Package of thawed/frozen banana “platano” leaves (latino food store), cut into 12 inch square pieces and rinsed in VERY hot tap water.

Clean string or cord used for tying meat roasts.

Aluminum foil

A very large crab or lobster steamer with a bottom rack and lid. Fill with salted water about 3 ” above the bottom rack.

Pique Sauce:

• 6 cleaned green onions
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of minced cilantro
• 1 tsp of ground comino
• 1/8 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of white vinegar
• salt to taste

Directions:

Two or three days before:
Put the chicken and ribs in separate containers. (Or if you are substituting more chicken, you can put all the meat in one container). Prepare the marinade from the ingredients listed above, divide and put 1/2 on the chicken and the other 1/2 on the ribs. With your hands, work the marinade into the meats. Cover and refrigerate until the next day.

Saute the listed “hogao” ingredients in the olive oil until wilted, set aside.

Preparation of the “Masa”:
Corn dough or “masa”. Put 4 cups of “La Venezolana” or “ArepaHarina” in a large bowl or container. Slowly add 5 cups of lukewarm (not hot) water or chicken broth. You’ll probably have to use your hands to mix well. Most likely, you will need to add more water to get the “masa” to the consistency of cooked oatmeal or grits. This dough does not have the stiff consistency of “empanada” dough.

Assembly and cooking of the Tamales:
Place about a cup of the dough in the center of the banana leaf. Place one rib and one chicken thigh on top. Place about 3 slices each of the carrots, potatoes and egg on the meat. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of “hogao” on top of the vegetables and egg. Then spoon about a 1/2 cup of “masa” on top of all of this and gently spread as much out as you can. Now, fold the edges of the banana leaf over the filling so as to make a package. Do not let any of the filling show. If the leaf splits, just take another smaller piece of leaf and fold it around the package.

Tie up the package/tamale with the string or cord. Believe me, this tying up of the tamales in banana leaves takes practice!! After you have tied up the tamale/package, tear off a 12″ sheet of aluminum foil and wrap it tightly around the tamale. Continue with the other tamales according to the above directions. Stack the tamales all the way to the top in the steamer pot and turn up the heat to high. If your pot does not hold all of them, just refrigerate the rest until you can steam them later, or, borrow another steamer pot. When you hear the water boiling furiously, turn the heat down to medium. Always make sure that the pot is steaming and that there is enough water in it. Cover tightly and steam for at least 3 hours. After that time, remove the top tamale and open it up to make sure that the meat is thoroughly cooked. It should be falling off the bone.

Serve the tamales on a section of banana leaf. (Warn guests not to eat the leaf! A favorite Colombian story is that a Gringo was served a tamale. When he finished it he said,”Boy, was this delicious!! However, the lettuce was kind of tough!!” (har,har).

Some Colombians like to put “pique” on their tamales.

To make pique sauce:
This sauce/relish is similar to “pico de gallo” except it does not include the minced jalapeno. If you want to use jalapeno, you can, but it’s not legitimate Colombian. This relish is spooned into a bitten-off empanada or onto arepas, into tamales, etc. Yummmm! Its like a taste of sunshine!

Finely mince the green onions and the garlic. Add the other ingredients and let marinate for at least 2 hours. There should be enough liquid to almost reach the top of the relish. You may have to adjust by adding a little more vinegar.

I made enough to freeze (raw) and will see how they cook up out of the freezer at a later date!

Related Posts:

• How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones)
• Yucas Fritas (Fried Yucas or Cassava Root) Recipe and How 2 photos
• Empanadas – The Recipe
• Flash Flickr Movie of How to make Colombian Empanadas
• Chicharron – Deep fried pork belly – How To
• How to make Colombian Empanadas – directions
• Latest full recipe for Colombian Bunuelos (2006 post)
• Last year’s Christmas Bunuelo Decadence
• A Colombian breakfast How-2 guide
• Colombian Frescos
• Lechona preparation

Technorati taggage:
food, Colombia, Colombian, tamal, christmas, navidad, latin, latino, hispanic, tamales.

If you would like to learn more about the winter solstice and traditions around it (ancient and new) try these links:

Winter Solstice wiki entry
Stonehenge wiki entry
Maps and layouts
Amazing Stonehenge photo gallery
Stonehenge clones and morphisims
Party at the henge
Modern Stonehenge Solstice Ritual
Modern Druids and the Stonehenge
Information on Druids and the Stonehenge
List of Solstice websites that may interest you

To mark the occasion, we made our own stonehenge cake! We printed out some layouts and photos.

We gathered the various materials we would need to build our stonehenge and sat down to the hard work of nibbling on ladyfingers and sneaking bites of frosting.

Colombian Bunuelos

Ingredients:

• 2 C white fresh farmers cheese, finely ground or crumbled with fork
• 2 C Colombian “Bunuelina” mix
• 2 eggs
• milk to moisten
• canola oil for deep frying

Directions:
Mix all ingredients (except oil) in a bowl.

Heat the oil to very warm (you can stick your finger in it but not very long). Gently drop the balls into the oil and then turn up the heat. The balls will linger at the bottom of the pot until the oil heats up. They will turn themselves as they come up “for air.” Fry until light brown. Remove to a drained surface to cool.

Related Posts:

• How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones)
• Yucas Fritas (Fried Yucas or Cassava Root) Recipe and How 2 photos
• Empanadas – The Recipe
• Flash Flickr Movie of How to make Colombian Empanadas
• Chicharron – Deep fried pork belly – How To
• How to make Colombian Empanadas – directions
• Latest full recipe for Colombian Bunuelos (2006 post)
• Last year’s Christmas Bunuelo Decadence
• A Colombian breakfast How-2 guide
• Colombian Frescos
• Lechona preparation

Technorati taggage:
food, Colombia, Colombian, bunuelo, christmas, navidad, latin, latino, hispanic, dessert, sweet, sugar, cheese, fried.

A Colombian breakfast is not just one thing, sort of like you might think a proper English fry up would be. I think that a Colombian breakfast can actually have many different possibilities limited only by the appetite, types of leftovers, and guided by the region of Colombia you are in/from.

This post discusses a breakfast that includes changua, arepas, pan de bono, and patacones. (I will talk about how to make each of those items below.) What you dont see is what you might have to drink with this meal. That could include aqua de panela, strong Colombian coffee, or even steaming hot chocolate. It could easily have been beans, rice, chicharrones, and fried eggs with a side of hogao. This breakfast is an amalgam of breakfasts I had as a kid at home and while on vacation in Bogota, Colombia.

This set of food may LOOK simple but it can take a while and lots of energy.

I would suggest starting with the Pan De Bono and I will cover that first.

Pan De Bono

Note: The translated ingredients and directions on the mix I show below are incorrect! I will give you the correct directions here in English.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Pan De Bono mix
• 3 cups grated fresh queso blanco (farmer’s cheese – do not try to substitute this. Go to a latino market and get it fresh)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cup milk

Directions:

Grate the queso blanco with a fine grater. It is fragile and will crumble/grate easily. Do enough to equal 3 cups. Try to buy enough so that you can eat some slices of it later.

Pour the mix, grated cheese, milk, and butter and knead until it comes together into a smooth dough.

Pinch off small balls and then knead a bit more and then roll out into little snakes about 3.5 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. Gently pinch the snake into a little circle and bake at 450 F on parchment for about 15 minutes.

While baking these circles will puff up and then brown. Remove and cool. Enjoy!

Next you might want to fry up your patacones. I have covered that in a previous post called How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones).

Next you might want to make you arepas.

Colombian Arepas

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Masa Harina (very finely ground corn meal. Do NOT use regular corn meal. I talk more about what to use below)
• 3 cups BOILING water (MUST be boiling)
• 2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

I suggest this brand of Masa Harina.

In a large bowl pour in 2 cups of harina, 2 teaspoons of salt and mix well. Add the 3 cups of boiling water and mix with a spoon. Before it cools much knead it with your hands. My grandmother starts kneading almost right away with her heat-tolerant asbestos hands! I cant do that so I let it cool a bit.Knead into a rubber not overly sticky ball. If its very sticky add more harina. I had to do that and feel that I need to work more on my technique!

Form the dough into little patties and then either grill or cook in a well seasoned cast iron pan. Its ok if the interior is a bit moist. These can burn easily and dry out easily. I like them toasty, adds nice flavor.

You can serve them with butter, slices of queso blanco, or even guava paste.

Here is a shot of a package of Guava Paste (super sweet).

Ok, now you have all the sides to the main part of the breakfast, Changua! This is a very rich concoction of milk and eggs that is quite filling and very welcome in the morning. My father ADORED changua and this dish reminds me so much of him that I actually feel sad when I think of it, make it, and eat it. I can still see him bending over a fresh bowl of changua, beaming with joy, inhaling the scent and blissing out on the flavor and the memories from Colombia. We lost my father in 1999 to brutal early onset Alzheimers Disease.

Colombian Changua

Ingredients:

• 4 cups milk
• 4 or 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup diced onions (I used vidalias)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Dash of cominos
• diced green onions, to taste
• diced cilantro, to taste

Directions:

Melt butter in a large milk-boiling-friendly pot, add onions and cominos. Saute on low heat until golden brown.

Add 4 cups of milk and bring to a rolling simmer (do not boil so hard that it boils over, that only puts you in a bad mood).

Once up to the boiling simmer add eggs Allow to simmer for between 5 and 10 minutes (some people like the egg well cooked, others like it barely cooked at all).

Add diced green onions and cilantro to serving bowls and then ladle out servings that include eggs and plenty of broth.

Enjoy with all the sides you made all morning long and then collapse on the couch for a leisurely nap.

Related Posts:

• How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones)
• Yucas Fritas (Fried Yucas or Cassava Root) Recipe and How 2 photos
• Empanadas – The Recipe
• Flash Flickr Movie of How to make Colombian Empanadas
• Chicharron – Deep fried pork belly – How To
• How to make Colombian Empanadas – directions
• Latest full recipe for Colombian Bunuelos (2006 post)
• Last year’s Christmas Bunuelo Decadence
• A Colombian breakfast How-2 guide
• Colombian Frescos
• Lechona preparation

Recently I have been hankering to make bread. I usually make White Bread plus from The Joy of Cooking but this hankering was specific to a bread I had not made before – Challah.

Part of this comes from knowing a bit about the rich Jewish family traditions that surround this bread. Sure, its made well enough in bakeries around the world. It is also much more appreciated if it is made within the home, as part of the love that goes into the Friday evening meal. There is considerable religious context that surrounds the bread but it would be disingenuous for me to speak to that as I am not an observant Jew!

What I resonate most with is the conjuring of love, home, and hearth that comes from the making of this bread. Instead of buying a cooked loaf in a store somewhere made by strangers intent on profit, the bread baking in your own oven made by your own hands infuses it’s beautiful aroma throughout the home, embracing everyone within with its promise of fellowship and simple joy of fresh homemade bread.

When I set out to make this bread I envisioned the happiness of sharing it with my family. What actually happened was that my daughters and I had a glorious engrossing afternoon of making dough, kneading it, braiding it, allowing it to rise, and then enjoying it’s smells as it baked. What a wonderful magical afternoon! We will be eating challah for at least a week.

We used Joan Nathan’s recipe for Challah bread. It can be found in her cookbook “The Jewish Holiday Baker”. It is easy and quite forgiving! I used 5 eggs instead of the 4 called for by accident because this was the first time through this recipe (the 5th should be used as an egg wash). Do be watchful of the color of your bread as it bakes, mine was too dark before the recommended baking time, vagaries of the oven!

Now in Joan Nathan’s voice with our photos and occasional notes (Note that my 9 year old daughter did all of the steps with her own two hands. The 2.5 year old also made her own little loaf, with a bit of help from her older sister.):

Challah Bread

This recipe calls for two kinds of flour. Bread flour includes more gluten, helpful in the braiding. However, if you can find only all-purpose flour, use that. It also calls for 1/2 – 3/4 cup of sugar, because I like my challah less sweet than many challah eaters, even in my family! If you are going to use just one loaf, perform another mitzvah — give away the second. If you are making a month of challahs, as I sometimes do, double the recipe and freeze several just after braiding them. Take them out of the freezer 5 hours before glazing and baking.

Ingredients:

1 scant tablespoon (1 package) active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
5 large eggs
5 cups bread flour
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, approximately
1 tablespoon salt
Poppy or sesame seeds for sprinkling

Directions:

Note: Technically, the separation of challah with a blessing, according to the Talmud, refers only to dough using flour that weighs at least 3 pounds 11 ounces. If the flour weighs less than 2 pounds 11 ounces, you do not have to separate the challah at all, and if it weighs more than 2 pounds 11 ounces and less than 3 pounds 11 ounces, you can separate it without a blessing. The challah is usually blessed after the flour, yeast, water, and other ingredients are mixed.

The dough:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the sugar and the oil and mix well with a whisk or a wooden spoon. Beat in 4 of the eggs, 1 at a time; then gradually stir in the bread flour, 2 cups of the all-purpose flour, and the salt. When you have a dough that holds together, it is ready for kneading.

2. To knead by hand, place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead well, using the heels of your hands to press the dough away and your fingers to bring it back. Continue, turning the dough, for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding the remaining 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour or as needed.

To knead by machine in an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, knead for 5 minutes on medium speed, or until smooth. You can also process half the dough at a time in a food processor fitted with the steel blade; process for about 1 minute.

3. After kneading, place all the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size. You can also put the dough in an oven that has been warmed to 150 degrees for a few minutes and then turned off.

4. When the dough is almost doubled in size, remove it from the bowl and punch it down — the rougher you are, the more the dough likes it. Return it to the bowl, cover it again and let it rise in a warm place for 30 minutes more. Or, if you have to go out, let the dough rise slowly in the refrigerator several hours or overnight and bring it to room temperature when ready to continue.

Braiding and baking the challah:

5. To make a 6-braided challah, take half the dough and form into 6 balls. Roll each ball with your hands into a strand about 14 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Pinch the strands together at one end and then gently spread them into 2 groups of 3.
Next, take the outside right strand over 2 to the middle empty space. Then, take the second strand from the left to the far right. Regroup to 3 on each side. Take the outside left strand over 2 to the middle and the second strand from the right over to the far left.

Continue this method until all the strands are braided. The key is to always have 3 strands on each side so that you can keep your braid balanced. Make a second loaf the same way. Place the braided loaves in greased 10- by 4-inch loaf pans or on a greased cookie sheet with at least 2 inches in between.

To make loaves symbolizing the 12 shewbread, the consecrated loaves placed on the altar in the Temple of Jerusalem, shape one half of the dough into 12 tight balls and press them together in the bottom of a greased 10- by 4- inch loaf pan. Repeat with the second half of the dough in another pan.

We chose the simpler method of just three stranded loaves:

6. Let the challah loaves rise another hour, uncovered. Fifteen minutes before putting the loaves in the oven, beat the remaining egg and brush it gently over them. Five minutes later, lightly brush them again. Then sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds and let dry a few minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the loaves on the middle rack of the oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 30 minutes more. Turn off the oven and leave the loaves in 5 minutes longer to get a dark-golden crust. Remove and cool on a rack.

Yield: 2 loaves

I say make this bread with your family as soon as you can get it together.

Books of Note:

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baking, bake, challah, bread, jewish, nathan, joan, children, kids, recipe, DIY, yeast, cooking.

People in countries outside of Colombia call them tostones and I am not sure what else! They are nothing like what you buy in bags at the store in the “Goya” section. Those hard plantain chips are scary, I almost broke a tooth on one!Real homemade platanos are a bit crispy on the outside and moist on the inside and should be eaten hot out of the oil, well salted. I suggest also poking a few holes with a fork and slathering it with butter (yum). Go to the bottom of this post to learn about a neat tool, the E-Z Peeler, that will make you a plantain-peeling pro.I am producing this series into a How-2 guide for purchase as well, stay tuned! (Update: Ok, its been a year or so since this post and I STILL have to get it together to make this publication. I will, I promise, am just in the process of obtaining the needed software, should be soon.)

PATACONES

Ingredients:

• Platanos
• Cooking Oil
• Heavy pot, for frying.
• Heavy pan or board covered with foil or plastic and well-oiled.

Directions:

As many large platanos as you desire (these are green plantains that are starting to show a faint yellowing, but not much, along the ridges). If in doubt, use large all-green platanos.

Heat oil in the heavy pan.

With a sharp knife, cut off the two ends of the platano. Then score down vertically along one of the ridges, start peeling aside by flicking the knife edge under the peel along the cut edge.

Note: This works really well if the platano has NOT been refrigerated.

After you have peeled the platano, cut it into 2 inch pieces.

Place the pieces in the medium/hot oil and continuously turn until they have turned a golden color.

Remove the pieces from the oil to drain on a paper towel. Let these pieces “rest” for at least 15 minutes.

Using a sturdy well oiled plate, smash the pieces flat.

Return the flattened patacones to the hot oil for another 5 minutes until lightly browned, then remove to a paper towel.

Salt to taste.

Serve immediately, or they will get tough.

How-2 Photographs:

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