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Tag Archives: so delicious

Popcorn: The dinner of champions

I recently found out, via the internet so it must be totally true because the internet never lies, that chefs who are too tired to cook at the end of the day will often just eat popcorn for dinner.  I would link you to the article I read, but I didn’t save it and I don’t feel like rooting around for it.

Anyway, I thought that was rather interesting.  If I’m too tired/lazy to cook for myself at the end of the day AND I can’t be bothered to go out to eat/pick up food, I generally just have cereal or a sandwich.  These are things I normally have on hand.  These are things I normally eat through the summer when it’s too hot to cook and I don’t have much of an appetite anyway.  Or sometimes I will just eat half a watermelon and be done with it.  But you’ll notice that all of these are cold foods.  What if I want a hot meal?  I guess it’s popcorn to the rescue!

The article took pains to point out that this wasn’t just normal microwave popcorn.  No, no.  This was stove-popped or air-popped popcorn that was tossed with things like fresh herbs and seasonings.  It was fancypants popcorn.  As you would expect.

I decided to give it a try.  Popcorn is relatively healthy, after all.  I mean, if you don’t drown it in butter or something.  And I’ve been wanting to give stove-top popping another go.  I tried it once with a mixing bowl and a foil lid, but didn’t really like the results.  This time I tried a chef’s pan since mine has a nice, tight-fitting lid.

It worked rather well.  I think I might like doing it this way over my microwave popcorn method when I want to toss in some seasoning or grated parm or something.  It’s easier to toss since it’s already in a pan.

In case you were wondering, I heat about a teaspoon of oil (grapeseed this time) and throw in a couple of kernels and wait for them to pop before dumping about a quarter cup of kernels into the pan and covering.  Then I shake it around and revel in the popping sounds.  This last time I tossed in some freshly grated parm, sea salt, and rosemary.

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I make! Pane bianco

King Arthur Flour (KAF) announced a bakealong recently.  I decided to participate.  I think I might just like xalongs.  I mean, I participated in the paintalong not long ago.

Anyway, KAF’s bakealong is a monthly challenge.  August’s challenge was a pane bianco.  The name of which is kind of confusing to me.  I mean, that’s just “white bread” in Italian.  And yes…it is a white bread.  But it’s stuffed?  I mean, if I saw “white bread” in English, I think of…Wonder Bread or something.  At least, I think of a white, sliced loaf bread.  I definitely don’t think about a stuffed bread.

BUT ANYHOW, it was an interesting recipe to try, it smelled and tasted delicious, and it’s pretty.  That last part isn’t a huge seller.  I mean, I don’t mind eating ugly food if it tastes good.  It’s more of a bonus.

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I made my pane bianco with AP flour.  I think I’m out of bread flour.  Pretty sure.  I didn’t actually check.  But I do have that 25lb bag of AP flour handy.  So that’s what I tend to reach for first.  KAF recommends that you reduce the water to 1/4c if you use AP flour and I followed their recommendation.

I also subbed the instant yeast for active dry, also because I have a jar of that handy.  I generally use a 1:1.8 (active dry:instant) ratio when subbing active dry for instant.  And of course, I highly recommend that you proof your active dry yeast first.  To do that, I made sure that my water and milk were at about 110-115degF before dumping in the yeast.  I generally heat my liquid to the upper range for dry active yeast because I store my active dry yeast either in the fridge or freezer, also I threw in maybe half a teaspoon of sugar to help the yeast along.   All of that tends to lower the temperature of the liquid a bit.

As for the stuffing, I probably ended up doubling the garlic (I really like garlic) and I used a mix of shredded mozz and freshly grated parm along with the sun-dried tomatoes and basil.

I think next time, I might do a mix of tomatoes and choke hearts.  I think that might be really good.  I think I’d also like to try it with bread flour some time as well.  With AP flour, my bread ended up being very light and tender.  It’s good.  But I’d like to see if I get a noticeable texture difference using a flour with higher gluten content.