Seattle SD Popovers, SD bread, Mabel Mabel Set the Table
We finally got some time off to visit our SIL and daughter In their new Seattle home over the Memorial Day weekend and meet Mabel for the first time too. We had a really nice time over the 5 days and got to see the city up close. Mabel is cute as a button….. and smart as a whip unlike other baking apprentices who are bred to be stupid.
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Our SIL was only there one day since the USS Nimitz, CVN-68 just got out of dry dock after a years’ worth of refit and has started its first of many weeks of sea trials. We got to see it leave port from the roof of their apartment that is a block away from the Space Needle and has one of the best 360 degree views of the city from the 41st floor.
There is the Nimitz leaving port for the first time in a year on a typica cloudy day in Seattle.
Here is what it looks like on a non cloudy day
The only thing not wildly overpriced at Pike’s Market are the flowers, We got a beautiful, huge bouquet for $20 but it is still fun to see them throwing the fish you just bought for a fortune being thrown around all over the place! Three Girls Bakery is there and we got 2 bagels with a schmear and lox or $24 – yikes! But, they were 3 guys there for some reason.
They had some nice looking bread in the window but, by the time we got the bagels eaten, the huge pile of people were there for the holiday weekend and I couldn’t get close enough to get a picture of the display window, It was wall to wall peeps for the rest of the morning. We did buy some fresh prawns, diver scallops and hot links for gumbo my daughter said I had to make while there so she could get a refresher course on how to make it just so and get a batch of creole seasoning.
Mt Rainier is the white covered peak in he middle - 60 miles away from where the picture was taken.
The one night My SIL was there, he smoked the sausages and chicken thighs for the gumbo and some Spanish, not Mexican, Chorizo that was already smoked for a breakfast omelet the next morning. It is always better to smoke sausages again if they come smoked because they do such a horrible job of smoking them in the first place.
The Chorizo came from Metropolitan Market along with several aged cheddar and gouda cheeses. This is a great grocery store that is not nearly as good as Central Market in or even HEB in Texas but as good as AJ’s in Scottsdale or Whole Foods - but more expensive than all of them. Everything in Seattle is expensive.
We went to Molly’s to get 4 ice cream cones and a jar of
Still, it is a lovely place so different from Phoenix and a great place to visit for sure. The COSCO in Kirkland had great prices on Washington red wines, highly rated 4.4 to 4.5 on Vinino’s label photo app, for $17 to $24. Now you know where their private label ‘Kirkland’ comes from. They had good prices in salmon too, compared to Pike’s Market so we got some
Shrimp Pasta with cherry tomatoes and smoked susage.
We took Mabel to Discovery Park for a walk and found the Indian Cultural Canter there too. Weed is legal there but this takes stoned Indians to a new level? We went to the locks to see the boats going up and down after going to 8 OZ for great bacon, cheese burgers, truffle fries, beer and wine for happy hour one night – the only other time we went out to eat while there. Didn’t get to any winery’s or breweries this trip but, the local beer our SIL had in the beer fridge was nice too.
Mabel is worth the trip on her own. She is the sweetest thing, never barks or growls and loves to play with toys, other dogs or humans. I posted 3 videos of her, playing soccer with a ball in her mouth, playing with herself in a mirror and with other doggies at puppy school.
3 of the movies would not upload and I couldn't figure out how to do it.
I made a SD bread for the folks that take care of my teeth. I had an appointment yesterday but couldn’t get the bread done soon enough to get it too them during my appointment so I ran it up for lunch today. They are so nice and really love my bread. This is my wife’s favorite white Sourdough but made into a squat batard slashed twice.
It is 20% whole grain, red and white wheat with rye and 10% sprouted spelt and Khorasan. The rest was half AP and bread flour at 78% hydration overall and 2% Pink Himalayan sea salt. The bran levain was made with 15g of NMNF Rye starter stored for weeks in the fridge at 100% hydration using all the whole flour to get it to 20% pre-fermented flour. This is larger than normal but we only planned a 15 hour shaped retard.One it doubled it went I nto the fridge overnight.
Since all the bran is in the levain, I stopped doing an autolyse and just mix all the dough flour, water and levain together with a few slap and folds and sprinkle the salt on top and just let it sit for 40 minutes. It is so much easier to mix the levain into the eater and then into the dough flour to get everything evenly incorporated. The whole grain flour is still sitting at 100% hydration and acid for 24 hours so it will be plenty soft enough – at least Lucy says so and she is First Class now after being a 2nd and 3rd class loser for 15 years.
150, 75 and 25 slap and fold sessions followed and then 3 sets of stretch and folds from the compass points finished out the dough manipulations – all on the 30 minute intervals. Then we let the dough sit for 2 hours to bulk up before shaping and retarding for 15 hours. The kitchen was 84 F. IF wee were going for a longer cold proof we would have cut the 2 hour bulk on the counter for an hour or less for sure if a 40 hour retard was planned. We baked it in a CC our usual way – no spritzing this time.
This came out perfectly sour, medium open, moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside and plain delicious. We got it to the dental office just in time for lunch and also took them some of the cherry tomatoes we picked this morning. They wanted the whole thing sliced up fairly and we all got a taste right away – just delicious. The bread was great but the star of this post besides Mabel was my SIL’s sourdough popovers using the NMNF starter Lucy gave him the last time he was in Phoenix.
Killer Spanish Chorizo Omelet to go with the SD popover.
He made a counter overnight levain of 50 g each of flour and milk with 15 g of NNF starter. Then the next morning he added 120 g of AP flour, 225 g of milk, 3 eggs and 2% salt. He mixed it up and let it sit as the oven came up to 450 F. The muffin tins were sprayed with Pam. You want to make sue the levain is very active for sure. I’m not sure where the recipe came from but it is similar to KA Flour one. It turned out terrific and made for a fantastic breakfast.
My wife kept saying Mable Mable set the table and my daughter and SIL just couldn’t put 2 and 2 together on their dog setting the table. They are young and didn’t know the history if Mabel in the my wife’s family when she was growing up in St Louis….. 55 years ago. Mable was the family, maid, house keeper and nanny and my MIL used to say – Mabel Mabel set the table every night? Now everyone says it to our new Mabel!
Since Lucy got promoted she spends most of her time like this. She be tired and sleeping soundly. Sweet Dreams!