Fougasse - Herbed Bread

I've been enjoying The Great British Baking Show for a few years now.  It is such a lovely, calming competition show - basically the opposite of shows where contestants back-stab and sabotage each other. 

I have a decent baking vocabulary, but I'd never heard of Fougasse until I saw it on this season's botanical baking episode.  

Fougasse is a french flatbread, filled and topped with herbs, and shaped to look like a leaf.  

I really love baking bread and wish I did it more often. It can be a little warm to bake bread in the summertime, but this bread is so quick and easy, it's not going to make you sweat. There's no kneading, it can all be done in a mixer with a bread hook.

I used the recipe directly from the PBS Great British Baking Show website. 

I divided the dough in two and baked only one loaf to start.  

I tried to stretch and shape the dough by hand, like a pizza, but it ended up too thin in the middle and too thick on the outside, so it burned a bit in the oven.  The unburnt parts still tasted amazing though!

Since the dough is similar to pizza dough, I figured it would hold the same way in the fridge, so I refrigerated the second half of the dough for a few days until I was ready to try again.  

This time I used a rolling pin to roll out the dough evenly, and it worked perfectly.

We ate our fougasse with a simple soup and salad dinner, but it is amazing dipped in oil and balsamic vinegar as an appetizer.  It would also be a lovely gift to bring to a dinner party, to serve or for the hosts to enjoy on their own. 

Here's the recipe from the PBS website, with slight adaptations: 

Ingredients
500 g all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
10 g table salt
7 g package instant yeast
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing and drizzling
350 ml warm water
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp chopped fresh sage
½ tsp dried oregano
flaky sea salt

Directions

Place the flour, salt and yeast into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. 

Add the olive oil and three-quarters of the water. 

Begin mixing on low speed. As the dough starts to come together, add the remaining water very slowly. Mix for another 8 minutes on a medium speed. 

Add the rosemary, sage and thyme and mix for a minute until the herbs are evenly distributed in the dough. 

Place the dough in a large bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place until at least doubled in size – about an hour. 

Dust the work surface with flour. Pour the dough onto the floured surface and divide the dough in half.  You can shape and bake both loaves now, or refrigerate half the dough in a zip-top bag for up to five days. 

On parchment paper, roll each dough half into a flat oval. Using a pizza cutter make two cuts in a line down the middle of the ovals with a gap between them. Make 12 diagonal cuts in the dough, 6 either side of the central cuts, forming a leaf design, then stretch the dough out slightly to emphasize the holes.

Lift the dough on the parchment and place onto a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet inside a large plastic bag and leave to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 430F.

Spray or drizzle a little olive oil over the top of the loaf.  Sprinkle with oregano and bake for 15–20 minutes, or until the fougasse sounds hollow when tapped on the base. 

Remove from the oven and while still hot, brush with more olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

Putting Up With: Tomatoes Two Ways

My "Putting Up With" series is a play on the phrase 'putting up' as a colloquialism for canning.  But in this case, it's particularly apt, because the only way I can put up with (tolerate) tomatoes is when they're canned, cooked or preserved in some way.  

I was a very picky eater when I was younger, but I've learned to tolerate, and even enjoy, some of the things that horrified me as a child.  I now cook with all types of peppers and mushrooms and even occasionally use mayonnaise and beans, all things I couldn't stand a few years ago.  But I've never grown to love raw tomatoes. Both the texture and taste are repulsive to me.  These recipes have helped me use up all the tomatoes I get every week from our garden and my CSA box.  

Spring Pasta with Peas and Fresh Herbs

I love spring. I love the mild temperatures and green things popping up everywhere. 

If you need to spend extra time out in the garden this spring, this super-easy meal will save time in the kitchen.  It can be whipped up quickly with staples in the pantry, as long as you have some fresh herbs on hand.  

We love orrcchiette because the little ears fill up with all the ingredients making a perfect bite every time. Here, diced pancetta and peas nestle inside the pasta in a quick cheesy sauce.  This recipe comes from Food & Wine magazine.

Here's what you need for this tasty spring meal. 

Italian Chopped Salad

Sometimes you need a really hearty salad. Winter is an especially good time for this because all the ingredients are widely available all year long. 

This salad has everything: lettuce, cheese, meat, chickpeas, onions, peppers, and a dressing packed with oregano and garlic. It's a real treat. An excellent meal on its own or a great side dish with soup or a sandwich.  It will serve 4 as a meal or more as a side.

The recipe comes from Nancy's Chopped Salad in the Mozza cookbook, via Smitten Kitchen.

Here's what you need for this delicious salad.

Bean and Shrimp Salad with Curried Yogurt

Here's a tasty dish on the lighter side for a fresh start to the new year.  I still have holiday leftovers so I'm not quite ready to start eating clean, but soon you should see plenty of lighter dishes here.  

This recipe uses crisp beans, which I love.  I used a mix of purple and yellow beans.  They look great raw, but the purple ones turn dark green when cooked.

I really should get back to cooking with shrimp more often.  They are satisfying but very healthy, and it's easy to always have some waiting in the freezer to quickly defrost.  

This recipe comes from Cooking Light.  Here's what you need:

Spring Lobster Salad with Corn, Potatoes & Tarragon

It's finally starting to feel like spring around here.  So I decided to celebrate with a simple but luxurious dinner salad.  

Tarragon is easily found in most grocery stores. It's has a liquorice flavour that's a great match for lobster.  

This recipe is inspired by Epicurious but I made some small changes.  

Here's what you need to serve two as a main course or four as a starter:

Stripetti Squash with Sage and Rosemary

Matt brought home a squash surprise from the market.  The vendor said it was like a spaghetti squash combined with a sweet potato.  Sounds interesting, let's try it!

This squash is called Stripetti and it's a cross between spaghetti and Delicata squash. I did a little research and found this recipe on Epicurious that is for delicata squash and adapted it for the spaghetti-style squash.  

Here's what you'll need:

Besides the squash you'll need a couple of tablespoons of butter, a cup and a half of apple juice or cider, and some fresh sage and rosemary.  

Normally I bake spaghetti squash but I saw this microwave method online and thought I'd try it.  I wasn't thrilled with the results.  I'm not sure if it was the squash or the method, but it didn't cook as evenly and the strands didn't scrape out as nicely as the last time I baked it.  

Cut the squash in half.  This isn't easy.  The shell is very hard so you have to be careful.  With a large, sharp knife you should be able to slice it lengthwise.  

Then scoop out the seeds.  Place half the squash in a tight fitting dish that'll fit in the microwave.  

Then fill that half with water.

Then top with the other half of the squash.

Put it in the microwave on high for about 10 minutes then squeeze with an oven minute to see if it's softened.
Mine needed several more minutes to get soft and still the top half was not as soft as the bottom and I put it back in for a few more minutes. 

Meanwhile, grab a sprig of sage and one of rosemary and remove the leaves from the stems.

Coarsely chop the herbs.

Place about 2 tablespoons of butter in a large pan.

And melt over medium heat.

Add the herbs.  You don't want to brown them but just release their flavour.

Once the squash is softened, scrape out the strands with a fork.

Scrape the squash into the butter and herbs in the pan, and add the apple juice.

Let simmer until the apple juice is absorbed and the squash is mostly dry.  You can add a little more butter if you like. 

This tasted very nice but didn't really use the spaghetti squash texture to its advantage.  
Next time I'd try the same method with a delicata or butternut squash.  

I served this with a stuffed pork tenderloin I'll tell you about next time. It was a great combination   

Roast Turkey Breast with Mustard & Herbs

I've already showed you how I roast a whole turkey, but here's a roasted boneless turkey breast with vegetables and sauce that tastes delicious and also provides plenty of leftovers.  

The nice thing about this dish is you cook the beans in the pan sauce as the turkey rests so it's only a one- or two- pan meal.

Boneless turkey breast isn't cheap but it is a nice treat.  This was a 3 pound boneless breast with skin.  

Here's what else you need: Dijon mustard, honey, oil, sage, thyme, rosemary and dill.  

In a small food processor, chop the herbs and add 1 tbsp each mustard, honey and oil. 

Process into a loose paste.

Sprinkle the turkey breast with salt and pepper and then spread the mustard herb mixture over the breast.

Don't forget to rub the mixture under the skin as well.  Then roast in a 425 degree oven for about an hour.

Meanwhile, cut potatoes into chunks.  Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Once the turkey has roasted for an hour, add the potatoes to the oven on their separate tray.

After another half an hour, when the turkey is at 165 degrees internally, remove it from the oven and cover with foil to rest.  Flip the potatoes and put them back in the oven.

Add about a cup of chicken stock to the pan juices and add the yellow (or green) beans.  Place them in the oven to roast for about 15 minutes while the turkey rests.  

Once the turkey has rested, slice thinly.

Remove the beans and potatoes from the oven.

Place the sliced turkey, beans and potatoes on the plate.

Whisk a tablespoon of mustard into the pan juices.

And pour the sauce over the turkey.  The mustard and herbs are a great match for the turkey.

This is a delicious Sunday meal that gives you plenty of leftovers for sandwiches or salads for lunch during the week.  I'll have another use for leftover turkey coming soon.