Bread Baking Babes Boat Bread

Georgia, Georgia... That's the place in Russia where this month's recipe comes from. Thanks to our Kitchen of the Month, Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen, we were treated to an easy to make, delicious boat-shaped bread, Acharuli Khachapuri, that is usually filled with cheese, topped with a soft-cooked egg and butter and eaten hot.

I made the dough in my stand mixer and used the optional egg, which meant I needed more flour. It made a very nice, supple dough which was easy to handle and shape like a boat. I made the dough without dairy since I wanted to be able to taste it and to use one of the two boat shaped breads for a filling I could eat.

I made the first one with the filling given, just making up half the amount. I skipped the egg topping and the butter at the end, but Sweetie still really enjoyed it and even asked for more for breakfast this morning. The second boat was filled with a thin layer of plain yogurt, sprinkled with a bit of sugar, then topped with small blobs of cherry jam. I enjoyed that, even though the dough is a bit salty. If I were to make it in a sweet version again, I would reduce the amount of salt in the dough by at least 1/2 teaspoon.

This is a fun bread to make and fairly quick since it doesn't require a second rise. I'll bet you could come up with quite a few topping ideas yourself! To become a Buddy, be sure to e-mail Aparna with a photo and brief description of your baking experience. Here is a link to her site.

Be sure to check out the breads made by the other Babes. Links will eventually be at the bottom of the post.

Acharuli/ Adjaruli Khachapuri (A Boat Shaped Georgian Egg & Cheese Bread)

Adapted from Saveur - http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Acharuli-Khachapuri-Cheese-and-Egg-Bread

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

1 tsp instant yeast

1/2 tsp sugar

2/3 cup milk (I used soy milk)

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 egg (optional)*

1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting

1 tsp salt

For the Filling:

1 1/2 cups grated/ shredded Mozzarella

1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese

2 eggs (or any other topping of choice  - I used  sliced tomatoes, pickled jalapenos and herbs)
Skipped the eggs or any topping except the cheese for one, used plain yogurt and cherry jam instead of any cheese or other topping for the second Acharuli.

For topping after baking:

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed

Method:

I usually make my bread dough using the processor but this is easily done by hand.  Put all the ingredients for the dough into the processor bowl and knead together until everything comes together into a smooth and somewhat loose elastic dough that’s just short of sticky. (I used my stand mixer and some additional flour since I used the egg in the dough.)

Transfer the ball of dough to a well-oiled bowl, turning it so it is coated all over. Loosely cover and let it rise till double in volume – about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Place a pizza stone, or a baking sheet on a rack in lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 250C (500F).

Combine the cheeses in a bowl and  set aside. Deflate the dough and divide it into two halves. Working with one piece at a time,  roll it out to a rectangle about 10” thick and 1/8” thick on a piece of lightly floured parchment.  This makes it easier to transfer the dough to your baking sheet.

Roll the long sides in a bit curving them inwards at the ends and seal well (with a little water) or the edges will open up during baking. Then bring the edges close and pinch together on both ends to form a “boat” like shape. Again, make sure the ends are sealed well. Transfer the “boats” to the baking sheet, but if you’re going to bake them directly on the pizza stone just omit this step.

Dock the centre “well” area and fill with half of the cheese mixture so it is a little higher than the edges of the dough “boat”. Repeat with the other half of dough and  bake them for about 12 to 15 minutes until the Khachapuri are golden brown.

Take the breads out of the oven and gently crack an egg on each bread without breaking the yolk (or add the sliced tomatoes, pickled jalapeños and herbs like I did) and return them to the oven. Bake for another 3 to 4 minutes till the egg is set. Take the Adjaruli Khachapuri out, and place a couple of cubes (2 tbsp) butter on each. (Skipped the eggs and the butter both.) Serve them hot. It helps to wait for about 10 minutes before eating them so you don’t burn your mouth! This recipe should serve 4 to 6 people.

Not By Bread Alone

Tomorrow is the natal day of NoHandle, my dear brother who sometimes, including today, is a guest blogger here. Happy Birthday a day early NoHandle. He and I were close as children (except for when he was taking delight in teasing me) and I was always interested in and a bit in awe of his passion for electronics, such as ham radio. I still remember that when he went away to college that I offered to be the one to help clean his room because I was willing to take each dustpan of stuff swept from the floor and extract the transistors, radio tubes and bits of coated wire and save them for him for his return. Now we live too far away from each other to visit very often, but through the ease of the Internet, another magical (to me) electronic device, we can share our passion for cooking. He is an excellent cook and this time has given us another imaginative use of the seasonal favorite, zucchini, this time giving that excellent if prolific vegetable a chance to play at being another vegetable. Read on!

Not by Bread Alone

My last post talked about Zucchini bread as a vehicle to deal with the bounty of the fruit that seem to engulf us every year. The season is declining, but I wanted to talk about another aspect of this abundance, overly large fruit, and how to deal with that.

A number of years ago my uncle Ray (I usually call him my obscure relative, because he is my mom's half-sister's husband. But practically speaking, he's my uncle.) brought me a zucchini from his garden that must have eluded his attention for quite a while. If you garden, you've had that happen too. It was so big that its seeds were well established, the squash bigger than my forearm. I hadn't cooked zucchini before, at least one that large, and I was somewhat at a loss as to how to proceed. My inspiration was eggplant, for which the Italians (he's one) have a politically incorrect nickname, and he explained that too. What I did was substitute zucchini for the eggplant in Eggplant Parmesan. First I extracted the seeds, then sliced the rest long-ways, and layered the strips with spaghetti sauce, topped with cheese, both mozzarella and Parmesan, and baked.

When another similar but somewhat smaller renegade appeared in my garden recently, I decided to replicate that earlier recipe. BTW, the one in the picture is smaller yet; you can use them too, it just may take more than one. 

The best recipe I found online (thanks Kraft) also included sliced mushrooms, and that sounded good to me, so I used that to re-inspire my efforts. In this case, the seeds weren't a problem so I simply sliced the zucchini using a mandolin, set to about a 1/4 inch thickness, not even peeling, and stacked them up to assemble the dish. 

I put a layer of them down in a 9 inch by 13 inch glass baking dish, covering the bottom, and topped them with sliced mushrooms, and sprinkled them lightly with jarred spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce works too, and is about the right amount; almost any sort will do.

 A word about mushrooms though. I chose the largest whole white mushrooms I could find and sliced them about as thick as the zucchini, but by hand. I could have used pre-sliced mushrooms, but they are smaller, thicker, and wouldn't cover as well. You could slice Portobellos too, they are nice, and are what you see in the photos here.

Continue alternately stacking zucchini strips, sliced mushrooms and sauce until you run out of zucchini (about three layers). Go gently with the sauce, it doesn't take as much as you might think. Bake until the veggies are tender. 

Finally, sprinkle liberally with  mozzarella, and top that with the Parmesan. I used more than the recipe called for because that is the signature of the dish, after all. Then back to the oven to melt and brown the topping. You can also just put the cheese on before baking, and get a nice browning.

 

Serving is a matter of cutting across the vegetable strips and moving carefully to a plate. You can serve four to six people with a single zucchini, depending on how much they like their veggies. If there aren't that many of you, the leftovers are great too.

Ingredients:

1 lb. large, (or if larger, seeded) zucchini, up to 1.5 lb., sliced about 1/4 inch thick

½ lb. large mushrooms sliced

1 cup of your favorite spaghetti or pizza sauce

1 cup of low-moisture, part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded (10-12 ounces)

½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded (not the ground stuff) better quality helps; I used a Reggiano.

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat 13 x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Layer the vegetables and sauce in the dish. Bake for 25 minutes. Top with the cheeses. Return to the oven and bake an additional 5 minutes or so, until the cheese melts and starts to brown. Cut into portions and serve immediately.

Harvest

When we first moved to our part of northern California, we tried out being exhibitors at the local county fair. Both kids won some ribbons for craft entries and I eventually won at the fall Harvest Fair for an over the top Victorian gingerbread house. Although the kids loved the summer fair with its fun carnival rides and contests and lots of animals and fair food, Sweetie and I have always been fond to the Harvest Fair which has more of a focus on local products and local wines. There are still lots of crafts and cute animals and fair food but the crowds are smaller and the pace is more relaxed.

This year I was lucky enough to do something I've wanted to do for a long time...work the Harvest Fair. Although the long days and challenging cash register set-up were tiring, I had a great time. The people I worked with were old hands at doing the wine sales (yes, that's where I ended up...ringing up wine sales! Isn't that a hoot?) and they were generous with their knowledge and welcoming as co-workers. I felt very fortunate to have such a positive work experience and to meet them. When there were slow times we were able to chat a bit. Each one was a stellar human being and interesting, too. I hope I see them again....maybe next year I'll work the fair again.

Speaking of harvest, we have been harvesting lots of tomatoes. Due to the cool and rainy spring and early summer everything is late, but there is something very special about being inside on a cool, rainy October evening and eating ripe heirloom tomatoes

that were only picked a day or two before. That wonderful fresh tomato fragrance is still strong, the slices are juicy and succulent, especially with a sprinkle of good olive oil, another sprinkle of aged balsamic vinegar, and a dash of garlic salt and fresh pepper.

It's hard to beat and makes the waiting worthwhile.

Some of the plum type tomatoes were cooked and the skins and seeds removed to make a fresh tomato sauce. Although I neglected to take a photo (thought I had, but the memory is not as reliable as it once was), I can assure you that the baked pasta dish I made using that sauce was excellent. I'll share the recipe at the end of the post.

The other harvest that is going on right now is of seeds. I have let some of the French thin green beans go to seed and the seed pod to dry out.

Before the rains came this week I was able to bring in the dry pods and remove the beans...I felt a little like Jack in the fairy tale

...those few beans will sit in the freezer until about March, then I'll plant them for the spring and summer harvest of fresh, delicious tender green beans. This kind of bean produces all at once (over about a week and a half), so I do succession plantings to keep the beans coming so having a lot of beans (seeds) is a good thing.

I also harvested some sweet pea and morning glory seeds to plant early next spring. I've tried planting them now but the snails usually munch them right up during the winter. Come spring I have no seed and no seedlings. If I can figure out how, I'll also collect tomato seeds and dry them, then freeze them for next years' seedlings.

Sorry about the lack of photos, but I'm sure you've baked a penne pasta casserole before...and that's what it looked like. The flavors went really well together. Besides, who can hate melty cheese?

Spinach Chicken Pasta Bake with Three Cheeses

1/2 lb (dry) penne, cooked according to package directions and drained. (I used whole grain penne but any kind will do...you could use another type of pasta, too, if no penne is in your pantry)
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
5 oz (half a box) frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 cups tomato sauce, fresh if possible
1/2 cup feta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon dry basil
salt and pepper to taste
three sticks string cheese (or about a cup grated mozzarella cheese)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Set aside.

In the pot that the penne was cooked in, mix together the cooked chicken, frozen spinach, tomato sauce, feta cheese, Parmesan cheese, oregano, basil and salt and pepper. Add the cooked and drained penne and stir to combine. Put this mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Cut the string cheese into coins and place evenly over the pasta mixture (or scatter the grated mozzarella evenly over the casserole.)

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 -50 minutes or until heated through and the cheese is melted on top.
Serve while hot. A salad and some crusty bread is a nice addition to this dish.

Serves 6 -8.