Saturday, April 29, 2006
I made an Italian feast for eight people today--a feast that required two different loaves of bread; I'll give each of them its own entry because they were both so good that they deserve their own.
The first course was mussels with saffron and mustard broth, served with an Erbaluce. (I've never made mussels before--the whole chore of debearding them and checking their open/closed status always seemed too onerous to me, but these were beardless mussels and almost all of them were closed and open when they were supposed to be). The bread--a flavorful, open-textured, peasanty sort of loaf--was fantastic and perfect to sop up the sauce.
Only one piece of bread was left when I carried away the bowls of shells. And that was left only because of the Minnesota tradition of never taking the last piece of anything.
2 comments:
Ha ha! I love the comment about Minnesota. I'm in San Francisco now, but I grew up in Duluth and your comment is so correct! (Also the comment about lefse -- I found it boring but strangely addictive, too -- or was that the heavy coating of butter and sugar that's addictive!)
I've really enjoyed your blog. Thanks so much for doing this. I've had the Bread Bible for a year now and I've made maybe 10 of the breads, and love them all (except her muffins, I prefer my muffins more cupcake-like, as have indicated that you don't). I may undertake your goal, also, now that I've read about the breads I would have skipped over if not for your description.
I agree about the equipment -- I buy more and more the more I bake! I'm really turned on to the Gold Standard All-Clad bakeware. A loaf pan costs a mere 100$. But boy are they worth it.
Hayesbook,
I had never heard of Gold Standard All-Clad bakeware until now, but now that I've looked it up, I really feel I must have the $100 loaf pan! In fact, I feel that my life will not be complete without it. I'm not sure how to explain this sudden yearning to Jim.
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