Sesame seed bread

Did a batch with sesame seeds.

Forgot to score the bread but no harm seems to have come from it.

The first days bread tastes ok.

I baked another the next day. This time I remembered to score it (I also baked it a little longer). It looks better now.

Bread in a Dutch oven

The basic dough treatment is my usual "no knead" one. But now I just drop the dough into a Dutch oven (pre heated along with my electric oven to 220C), cook it covered for 35 mins and then uncovered for 10 mins. The crust is pretty good though the interior is drier than I like (but that may be due to an error in my water proportion or perhaps I cooked it a bit too long).

Crumb (the interior holes) is acceptable.

The bread interior is yellowish due to the addition of tumeric powder.

Whistler trip 17

Last dinner before going home.

Whistler trip 16

Had a bunch of people over today (7). Did a roasted pork shoulder, a frittata, a beef bourguignon , a rice dish (tomatos, basil and corn) and a salad.

The pork shoulder I've done before, but today I wanted to try the capability of the apt's oven to go to 550F to do the pork crackling (instead of broiling it, which is my custom). Instead the intense heat started burning the fond below the pork shoulder. The resultant smoke caused the fire alarm to go off! Had to open doors and windows to clear the smoke. I think if I were to do this again, I would just insert the pork shoulder with a clean tray. Or else just use the broiler (which is only top heat).

Threw together a frittata from bell peppers, brocolli, onions and tomatoes. With flavoring from lemon juice and zest, and parmesean.

The beef stew was done fairly classic french style. Just this once, I took the meat out at the end and used a blender to liquefy the stewing vegs. Got a nice thick liquid to go with the beef.

D

Whistler trip 15

Simple meal this time.

Thai basil pork again plus stir fried Bok Choy with garlic. The blackish dish on one side is packet palak paneer from trader joes (not very nice).

Whistler trip 14

Steak meal this time. Accompanied by red cabbage coleslaw and rice.

The coleslaw was so so. I did it to get rid of some red cabbage leftover from the ribollita.  Was my first time with this cuisine variant. Will try again.

The steak was seared, then simmered in beef stock, thyme, and chopped onions until medium (for me) and well done (for Mw). The steak was taken out and the sauce was reduced (with red wine, a generous dash of pepper and a little butter) then thickened with flour.

Whistler trip 13

Did a duck ala orange with basil tomato basmati rice. Accompanied by canned corned kernels (the trader joe version is pretty good out of the can), and (for the last time) left over ribollita.

The rice was pretty good - garlic was fried in melted butter, then rice was added and coated in the fat. Add water and bring to boil. Then add cherry tomatoes and chiffonaded basil and leave the rice to finish covered in low heat. With salt and more veg it could have been a complete main dish in its own right.

The duck was cooked till slightly past medium. I started with this recipe for the sauce

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Duck-a-lOrange-102145

but added Thyme and even more orange juice and stock and a little sweet red wine, and reduced it even more.

Then I seared the duck breasts in a pan, added the sauce and finished cooking the breasts in a braise with pan covered, monitoring the internal temp till the doneness desired. Took the meat out and reduced the sauce a bit more then added butter and flour to thicken and enrichen it.