What should I bake?
Today I'm making homemade blackened chicken salad (ala Whole Foods). Chicken seared at high-heat with cajun blackening seasoning, and once cooled then mixed with mayo, apple cider vinegar, red onion and grated carrot.
I'm a bit low on light rye, but I do have dark rye flour, a little bit of light rye, stone ground whole wheat, spelt, and AP flour. For books to choose from I have Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads" and "The Bread Baker's Apprentice." I also have Hensperger's "Bread for All Seasons," and Nancy Silverton's "Breads from the La Brea Bakery." And of course there's any NUMBER of tasty-looking loafs both here and on <a href="wildyeastblog.com/">Wild Yeast.</a>
Ingredients-wise for possible additions I do have some blue cheese, cheddar cheese, walnuts, cranberries (though i can't imagine that'd be a good mix!) onions, fresh sage, basil, oregano and rosemary in small quantities, and almost any popular American dried spice you could imagine.
So, what to bake to go with this very powerful chicken salad? I'm a touch tired of rye - which would explain why I'm almost out!
I would bake a crusty french baguette with the AP flour.....with just a sprinkle of the whole wheat.....about as much whole wheat as salt.....this bread will be good, and have a neutral flavor so as to complement the spicy and sweet (onions, carrots, and mayo are sweet) salad. I wouldn't add anything to the bread....cheese is redundant with the mayo dressing. I wouldn't put any of the fresh herbs in the bread, but a bit of fresh herb could enhance the salad....rosemany roasted with the blackenend chicken would be good. Just a bit of fresh basil added to the salad would complement the other sweet flavors in the salad.
That would be my choice, but I might be a bit prejudiced by yesterday's experience. The recipe for Méteils au Bleu is posted on this web site and also here.
I think my final product came out a little nicer than what's posted on that Tammi's blogspot site, but I love those little colored pyrex pans she uses and her instructions are clearer than Leader's.
--Pamela
something crusty yest, but i'd do individual rolls or pain d' epi
A recipe for Cajun French Quarter Rolls in "Bread For All Seasons." Unfortunately it uses all white flour. I'm not sure how much stone-ground whole wheat I could substitute in, having not made this bread before. I don't really eat plain white bread for dietary reasons, though exceptions are made for a good sourdough as sourdough is naturally lower-glycemic.
I do still have some of the whole grain sourdough that I made using the recipe at breadtopia.com, and it's good with that. The bread is, alas, starting to loose it's oomph. The crumb is getting a bit dry and the crust is no longer so crusty. We sliced it very thin tonight, almost like cocktail rye, and toasted it up until it was close to melba toast. Quite tasty!