I decided to try baking some sourdough bread in my PK Cooker. This is a whole wheat sourdough ready to go. I decided to try baking in a cake pan---one that I was willing to sacrifice, of course. The fire was charcoal with some aromatic wood chunks thrown in. I should have let the cooker temperature rise more before I loaded the bread. Temp rose from 350 degrees to 450 over the course of baking.
It took a little work to get the bread out of the pan once it was done but the pan did escape from the fire unscathed.
A long rise gave me great texture. The loaf came out very, very smoky. Tasty, indeed. I'm not entirely sure, however, that baking on this type of fire gives enough benefit to be worthwhile.
Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...
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