I seriously can’t believe that I’m now a month in to the course at the SFBI. Time really is flying by crazy fast.
Last week we moved on from more refined flours to the healthier, more wholesome, and some might say less fun, whole grains. But as we discovered, healthier bread doesn’t have to mean slicing into a loaf with the weight and consistency of a house brick. Over the week we used an array of new flours both in doughs and in preferments, including whole wheat, semolina, type 85 high extraction flour, rye, buckwheat and corn to name but a few.
Millet Bread
But before we got busy, we discussed the various challenges of baking with whole grains. In comparison to more refined flours, there are two main factors to consider when working with them (again I’m simplifying and truncating things here). The first is the lower protein percentage / quality due to the presence of more bran in the flour. This equals less gluten, and therefore flatter breads as whole wheat doughs trap fermentation gases less readily. The second thing to watch out for are fermentation times. These are again affected by the higher levels of bran (also known as ‘ash content‘) in the flours. The minerals and nutrients in bran fuel enzyme activity, and that means faster and more intense fermentation, which effects a number of stages of the production process from bulk fermentation to final proof. Interesting, right? If not, you might be in the wrong place.
As you may know, Hand To Mouth is a big fan of the avocado. Particularly for breakfast. And we couldn’t be be better placed right now to feed our addiction. California produces around 90% of the US’s crop, so San Francisco is awash with them, and seeing as we’re living in a Mexican area of the city, I thought I’d pay homage to the ‘alligator pear’ by throwing together a guacamole.
I’ve got a lot of love for guacamole. Eating a bunch of it with some corn chips and washing it down with a couple of cold beers is, in my opinion, time well spent. Whole Foods does a pretty good one, but at 6 or 7 dollars a tub, it’s not exactly cheap, so we’ve been making our own. We’re living on a budget after all.
Before we get cracking, a quick couple of pointers. Avocados will discolour pretty quickly once cut, so prep all the other ingredients first. I also like a few chunks in my guacamole, so keep back one quarter of chopped avocado to add to the bowl once you’ve mixed together all the other ingredients.
Despite the past two weeks at SFBI being fantastic, one of the things I’ve been most excited about getting stuck into is making sourdoughs and science behind the rise. I’ve done a fair few sourdough experiments at home in the past, but never really nailed it, so the past week really ticked some major boxes for me.
We started our foray into the world of sour by looking into it’s history and mythology, and of course touching on the famous San Francisco Sourdough. It’s interesting stuff (at least to me), and as a few readers have expressed an interest in knowing more, here’s a potted version.
Sourdough was discovered / invented by accident in ancient Egypt at around 1500 BC. The story goes that some women making loaves on the banks of the Nile left a couple out in the humid, sunny conditions. They discovered their omission, and added the dough that had started to leaven to the rest of their batch. They liked the resulting lighter bread and it’s flavour, and kick started a great bread making tradition.
So week two is over, and man did it go fast. After last week’s baguette-fest, we’ve started to mix things up both in terms of bread varieties and formulations, including the use of pre-ferments.
The pre-ferments we used last week are kind of like junior sourdough starters, and mostly come in three styles. Liquid or ‘poolish’ (first developed by Polish bakers), a stiffer sponge also known as ‘biga’ (used traditionally by the Italians) and the more solid Pre-Fermented Dough (PFD). Unlike sourdough starters, they contain a small quantity of commercial yeast to kick start fermentation, and are usually left to develop for between 12 and 24 hours before being added to a final mix. Not only do they add character and flavour, but they also help aid gluten development allowing for less intensive mixing.
Aside from the course at the SFBI, one of the things I’ve been really excited about food wise in San Fran is exploring the food truck scene. I still can’t really work out why this kind of thing hasn’t really caught on in the UK (aside from phenomena like The Meatwagon), because over here the scene is pretty big.
A couple of Friday’s ago, with empty bellies and a bit of a thirst on, we hit the Fort Mason Centre to check out one of the regular food truck events called Off The Grid. From what I can gather, Off The Grid kind of represents the food truck scene here in SF, and hosts a number of events every week for the trucks on their roster.
We turned up at around 8pm, and having opened at 5, the Fort Mason car park was already rammed. There were around 30 plus trucks, some other food and booze tents, live music and sound-systems. It was a bit like a mini food festival meets a street party, and it smelled good.
So my first week at the SFBI is over, and it’s been a blast. I’ve decided to do a post a week as opposed to boring everyone with continual stream of stuff as it happens. So this is post number one. I’ve also been given the green light by the college to post formulas (recipes), so I’ll probably share a few of them as we go. The majority of them thus far deal with pretty large quantities, but most should be able to be scaled down for home use.
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the college is a bit of a pain to get to. It’s based in South San Francisco, and I’m currently staying in Russian Hill. (more…)
I know that ‘haters gonna hate’, but I don’t think I’m alone in getting wound up by Gwyneth Paltrow. Not content with being an actress, lifestyle expert and singer (that performance at the Grammy’s with Cee Lo Green made me squirm), she’s now decided that she’s a cook too.
Her new cook book ‘My Father’s Daughter’ is everywhere over here, and I can’t help but get irritated by it. It all smacks of just another way to keep herself in the lime-light. Is she really THAT needy that she needs to infiltrate every facet of our lives?
So this video taking the piss out of some of the pretentious prose from the book really made me chuckle. Enjoy.
Hand To Mouth is a blog about food. Eating it. Cooking it. Reviewing it. Reading about it. And everything in between.
I’ll be regularly posting recipes, reviews of some of my favourite places and opinion about anything food related that grabs my eye. Hopefully there’ll be a few laughs along the way, and I promise not to cut the cheese.
If you like what you see please let me know, and equally don’t be afraid of throwing a few rotten tomatoes my way if you don’t.
BIG thanks to Tom Hardcore at Nation for the blog design.
