What Becky and I baked this weekend
As many of you know, one of the high points of my week is baking with my Down syndrome daughter, Becky. She's absolutely taken to baking like a fish to water and is my indispensable right hand gal.
So here's what we made.
Yesterday (8/20/11), we baked her sandwich loaves -- 30% buckwheat in an enriched sandwich bread matrix. We love the flavor of buckwheat and try to use it whenever we can in breads, pancakes, waffles, etc.
Later on, for dinner, we had two pizzas, the first a routine pepperoni, and the second one was this beauty -- caramelized onions, mozzarella, fresh black mission figs from our tree, and this amazingly tangy Bulgarian feta cheese we got from our local Middle Eastern market. The flour was the imported Pivetti 00 pizzeria flour, of course.
And then this morning, to go with the cream cheese, smoked salmon and whitefish salad, we made these New York Egg Bagels (recipe from Inside the Jewish Bakery):
All in all, a nice productive weekend.
Stan Ginsberg
www.nybakers.com
you and your daughter bake together. My son who is on autistic spectrum is a little too anxious to bake with me. But he graciously allowed me to walk him through a banana bread the other day as long as I didn't get into his space. This was a little hair raising at times (he's only 11 and pretty rough in the kitchen) but the banana bread came out amazingly well.
and functions at a very high level. She can shape loaves, rolls and bagels, knead dough, load and unload the oven, measure ingredients (with LOTS of help), and even put the raw bagels into the boiling water. I wish one day that your son will calm down enough to let you share this wonderful gift with him. The glow of accomplishment and pleasure I get from her whenever we bake more than compensates for the frustrations.
I certainly hope that I'll be able to teach my son more about baking and cooking but only time will tell. It is much easier for him to learn when he teaches himself. It sounds like you are a great teacher and from the looks of what you and Becky are making together she has mastered so much already. Thanks for sharing this. -Varda
That relationship obviously rocks!
FF
Stanley,
A question on the whitefish salad. Here in Milwaukee, I don't think we have a deli for such things. Do you happen to know how it is made? We have great whitefish from Lake Superior and a great fish monger but the Jewish deli's and bakeries have fallen off the map I'm afraid.
Thanks,
Eric
Not sure if the Milwaukee Costco locations carry it, but the Blue Hill Bay Whitefish Salad (kosher and made in Brooklyn) they sell is really quite good. It usually found near the cheese.
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2009/02/costco_moment_blue_hill_bay_wh.php
Also interested in learning to make it myself, so hope Stanley has a recipe.
not very complicated, but you need to start with smoked whitefish, skin and bone it (LOTS of bones), then mix it with any/all of the following: mayonnaise, sour cream, chopped celery, chopped hard-boiled egg. use the mayo/sourcream until you get the consistency you like, but be sure to break up the fish completely.
that's it.
what fun you must have with Becky. My daughter liked to cook but seems to have fallen out of the habit, and she is not handicapped in any form, just lazy I think! But she has expressed some interest in learning a bit about gardening (the next step is cooking all that produce!) so I have hopes that she will regain her desire to cook and bake.
Eva, I think that what we do becomes much more meaningful when we have others around us who appreciate our labor of love. Perhaps one day when your daughter has someone whose pleasure becomes her own (not that you're not important; it's just that, at least in my experience, children take us for granted as they get older) she'll rediscover the joys of baking and cooking again.
Stan
Thanks Stan. Ultimately I will have to make my own but in researching I see some refer to anything past fish and Mayo as fillers. Do you have a preference in what goes in it for flavor? The eggs sound good.
Bennykrik: Thanks. The Kosher Meat Klub is still kicking strong. They said they were expecting an order in Wednesday so they don't make it them selves. Probably Chicago source. Jake's is also alive and well. I've been eating their corn beef for 25 years. Other than mine, best in town:>)
Eric
with mayonnaise and a dollop of sour cream to smooth it out and get rid of some of the saltiness of the mayo. Finely chopped celery is also nice, if you want a little crunch, but I have to say that a fresh-baked bagel, slathered with whitefish salad and a thick slice of homegrown beefsteak tomato is as close to heaven as this nice Jewish boy is likely to get on a Sunday morning.
Stan
That sounds like a killer bagel combo. I can almost taste it and lemme tell ya, it's got my salivary glands squirting like a water pistol. Way too much info, yes, but what can ya do? Goodness gracious moi.
I've got to try it. A couple of questions, pls. When you say 'whitefish', I take it you are referring to a particular type of fish that goes by that name in the States - or are you referring to white-fleshed fish generally? If the former, could you please briefly describe the quality of the flesh so I can figure out a good local substitute? (eg: I was initially imagining oily strong tasting flesh like the heringsalat in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, but then I reasoned that 'whitefish' is probably mild tasting if it has white flesh, especially if freshwater...so can you put me straight here pls?)
Also, do you pre-cook the fish in any way, or does it 'cook' itself in the marinade?
Cheers
Ross
Generally, smoked whitefish in the US is made from the species Coregonus Clupeaformis or Lake Whitefish also sometimes called whiting (not to be confused with the salt water fish called whiting), a member of the trout/salmon family Salmonidae. It is hot smoked.
Here's a link to a description of the Whitefish: http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_18958-45680--,00.html
When a recipe generally refers to using a white fish, it means a fish with white flesh as opposed to salmon. In New England, the term "scrod" is used to refer to whatever white fish is available to put on the menu as the "fish of the day," originally cod or haddock although it can be a bucket term for fillets almost any strong-tasting, white-fleshed, salt-water fish. So a "fried scrod sandwich" might be haddock, ocean perch, turbot, cod, etc., depending on what's available. It is not unheard of for an old New Englander to ask the waitress, "What is the scrod today?"
TMI?
Not TMI at all! All interesting. You've not only illuminated me on whitefish in America, but added two lexical items to my repository - TMI and scrod! Not that I forsee any use for the latter in the near future, but still...
So, I can assume that Stan's whitefish is smoked? Err, duh - just re-read and Stan states he uses "smoked whitefish". OK then... :/D
Cheers!
Ross
Another enticing post to draw me to buckwheat flour......:p
And the really wonderful story, too, about you and your daughter. She's definitely got the best dad in the world and she must be a joy to be with.
Thanks for sharing your breads and the story, Stan. :)
Very best wishes,
lumos
Thank you, Stan, for sharing this baking day with us. It's such a good reminder of how precious time spent with loved ones is. It goes by so fast. Becky is one lucky daughter and you, one lucky dad. How wonderful for you to have cultivated baking with her to bring such pleasure to you both--and such yummy goodies, too!
Joy