French Bread

Happy Natal Day fellow Nova Scotians! After a nice long sleep, I was up early today and felt like baking. I decided to make some bread to have on hand for the week. This recipe is fairly straightforward and requires only a few basic ingredients. The loaf of bread came out really good, but please note that this recipe makes more of a baguette height bread, rather than a sandwich height bread.

Here's what you'll need (makes one loaf):

2 1/2 cup AP flour
2 3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 egg white


In a large bowl, combine 1 cup of flour, yeast, and salt, and give them a little stir to combine. Add the warm water (make sure the water is warm, not too hot because it will kill the yeast and your dough will not rise) and stir until combine. Then, add the remaining flour, stir for a couple of minutes, then use your hands (or a mixer with a dough hook, if you have it) to mix until combined into a rough ball.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Again, if you have a mixer with a dough hook attachment, you can use it instead of your hands. Unfortunately, my kitchen aid mixer is broken :(, so I used my hands. On the plus side, it's a good forearm workout haha

Anyways, continuing on with the directions, once you have finished kneading the dough, form a ball and place it in a greased bowl, turning a couple of times to cover the dough in oil. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (~45 minutes). Quick tip: Boil a medium size pot of water, and place it in the bottom of the oven along with your bowl containing the dough on a rack above (oven is turned off). Close the oven door. The steam from the boiling pot of water really helps the dough rise. Seriously, it's a wonderful trick, especially if you have trouble getting your dough to rise.

Once your dough has doubled in size, punch it down, place it on a lightly floured surface, cover with a damp tea towel, and let rise for 10 minutes.

Now, roll the dough into a large rectangle, and roll it up from a long side. Taper the ends, and moisten the edge and ends with water to help seal. For further instructions, see this helpful website: How to make the perfect french loaf

Grease a baking sheet, and place the loaf with the seam side facing down. Beat the egg white and brush it onto the loaf. Cover with a damp tea towel, and let rise until doubled (~45 minutes). Again, here you can use the boiling pot of water trick to help with rising.

Once the bread has doubled, use a sharp knife to make 4 diagonal cuts (~1/4 inch deep) on the top of the loaf. In a preheated oven (375 degrees F), bake the loaf for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the loaf from the oven and brush again with egg white. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes. If you find the top of your loaf is browning, you can place a piece of tin foil on top to prevent further browning.

Once your bread is done, let cool on a wire rack. Slice and enjoy with butter and cheese :)

We also enjoyed some iced coffee after our morning workout —lots of ice, coffee, almond milk, and cinnamon = delish!

Greek Quinoa Salad

We're off to our friends cottage in Arisaig for the night. We plan to have a yummy BBQ, some drinks, play cards, and relax. We're really looking forward to get out of the city for a night. 

My contribution to the BBQ is a greek quinoa salad. I didn't copy down the exact measurements when I was making the salad, so you can make adjustments to the recipe below to suit your taste.

Here's what you'll need for the salad:

1 cup cooked quinoa
4-5 cups arugula
1 cucumber, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes, chopped
1 cup feta cheese, chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted

Here's what you'll need for the dressing:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp garlic power (or 2 minced garlic cloves)
salt and pepper to taste

Place the arugula, quinoa (make sure it's cooled or it will wilt the arugula), and chopped veggies in a large bowl. Add the feta cheese and kalamata olives on top.

To make the dressing, place all of the ingredients in a mason jar, put the lid on top, and shake until combined. If you don't have a mason jar on hand, simply used a bowl and whisk the ingredients together until combined.

               

A few minutes before you're ready to serve the salad, give the dressing another shake, and add on top of the salad. Stir until combined.

Enjoy :)

Baked Onion Rings

Today, my parents came to visit and they brought some little red potatoes and onions from their garden.

While they were visiting, we got talking about the onion ring appetizer at the Works, so after they left I decided to try to make onion rings using the onions from my parent's garden.

Here's what you'll need (the measurements don't really matter because it will be based on how many onion rings you want to make):

white or yellow onions
AP flour
egg, beaten
seasoned or plain panko bread crumbs
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet or alternatively, line it with tin foil.

Peel the onions and slice off the two ends. Now, slice them into rings —they can be as narrow or thick as you want.

Place the AP flour, egg (beaten), and panko breadcrumbs into three separate bowls.

One at a time, take each onion ring, and dip into the AP flour, followed by the egg, then the panko breadcrumbs (in that particular order —flour, egg, breadcrumbs), and place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining onion rings.

Once all of the onion rings are on the prepared baking sheet, drizzle a little bit of olive oil over them.

Bake for 10 minutes, flip onion rings, and bake for another 10 minutes, or until they are crispy.

YUM!