Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Bread and Soup

Soup! I wanted to use up the baby fennel we got from Ironwood Farms, so I made this soup- it was pretty good, but D. is not a fennel fan, so I placated him with focaccia.
Oregano and thyme, fresh from the backyard, and garlic pressed into the top...
It was really good! I'm guessing that with rosemary it would be even more astounding, but the herbs was from our herb garden, so that was fun. Oh, and of course if I slathered the top more with olive oil... oh, and if I used those kalamata olives I got from the store...

Bean and Fennel Soup

2 cans cannellini beans (7)
2 T vegetable broth powder
2 T olive oil (8)
4 baby fennel, sliced thin
1 T fennel seeds
1 t coriander seeds
6 C water
1/2 t salt

Throw it all into the slow cooker and cook on high 4 hours. Remove as much as you can to the blender and blend. Soup!

Three points a cup.

Focaccia (from Veganomicon)

1 scant T yeast
1 1/4 C warm water
3 T olive oil (12)
3 T chopped fresh oregano
3 C flour (or half white and half whole wheat)
1 t salt
coarse salt and rosemary to top

Combine yeast and water in mixer bowl. Then oil, herbs, flour and salt. Will form a soft dough. If it's too sticky, mix flour in 1 T at a time.
Knead 5 - 6m, toss in oil in bowl and rise 1 hr or refrigerate overnight.
Punch down, knead a little and roll out to 1 1/2" thick.
Transfer to greased baking sheet or onto cornmeal strewn peel (if using a baking stone).
Rise 20m.
Poke holes with fingers, brush with oil and top with toppings and coarse salt.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (don't forget that baking stone if you're using it) and bake 30 - 35m. Cool 10m.
Makes 12 slices at 3 points a slice.

Notes;
use baking stone
use rosemary- figure out how much dried rosemary to sub
try with kalamata olives and sauteed onions/shallots

Still reading Stirling, getting rather loooong.
No knitting, v. hot yesterday.