I Made Bread, So Can You!

Hello lovelies, how are you today? Cold? Sad it's Monday? I'm sorry... I wish I could invite you all into my kitchen for some warm fresh bread but the best I can do is convince you to make your own. I was so pleased by how this turned out and how easy it was I  just had to share. I found the recipe on Bleubird Blog and she totally convinced me to give it a go.

Here it is:
No Knead Bread by Jim Lahey (Different Jim Lahey ; ))
You will need:
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon instant or rapid rising yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt (I used sea salt)
1 1/2 cups water
Yield: one 1 1/2 pound loaf.

Note: You also need some sort of oven safe bowl with lid. The best is a french clay baker but I don't have one of those so I used a roasting pan.

In a large bowl mix together your flour, instant yeast and salt. Next add your water and mix until it forms your dough.  Don't go crazy, just until it's all combined.

 Cover it with plastic wrap or a tea towel and let it sit on your counter for 12 to 18 hours.

 Heavily flour your counter and your hands and take the dough out of the bowl and mold it into a round ball covering it in lots of flour. Cover it up with a tea towel and let it sit for another 30 minutes.  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Put your pot/baker with the lid in the oven to heat up as well.  Once the 30 minutes are up carefully take your baker out of the oven and plop your dough in the center.  I put it on parchment paper to prevent sticking.

Cook for 30 minutes and then remove the lid and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes to brown up the top.

 Voila! You have bread!

 Side note: I did find that when using stainless steel the bottom of my loaf burned a bit, but it was still awesome.

Dinner is served!

So easy, you must try it.

xo

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Good Eats: Sunny Shrimp and Mango Stir Fry over Cauliflower "Rice"

It's so bright outside and I have the perfect recipe to bring some of that sunshine to your insides... This stir fry is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy and it would be great on its own but I've paired it with my new favourite rice alternative...Cauliflower Rice! While looking for low carb/grain alternatives I discovered this "rice" and I will admit, my expectations were low.  Low carb grain alternative just sounds sad doesn't it? I swear to you though, this stuff is not. While googling the nutritional properties of cauliflower I found that it contains large amounts of "sulforaphane," a compound that has significant anticancer properties, it's low in calories and a single cup of the vegetable contains 3g of fiber, 50 mg of vitamin C, 176 mg of potassium and 55 mcg of folate! I'm only a self appointed internet trained doctor but that sounds pretty good to me! Not sad at all! Cauliflower has become a new staple in our household that's for sure and this stir fry has been on the weekly rotation for a few weeks now and I still love it.

Here's the recipe. It's from this blog.  I love her recipes...

What you'll need:
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined (I buy the cooked frozen stuff)
2 tablespoons dry white wine or lemon juice
1 large mango, peeled, seeded and cubed
Medium yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 large carrots, julienned (I suggest you get a julienne peeler…i am IN LOVE with mine)
2 cups broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon finely minced ginger
1 large jalapeno chili, stemmed, seeded and minced
1 large heirloom tomato, diced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste (optional)

For the "Rice":
1 Cauliflower
A couple glugs of olive oil
1 minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

What to do:
Melt the coconut oil in a large pan over high heat until almost smoking.
Reduce the heat to medium high; add the carrots, onion and broccoli to the pan and stir fry, until the broccoli is bright green and the vegetables are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes. Next add the garlic, ginger, jalapeno and red pepper flakes, and stir fry for another couple minutes.

Add the shrimp and wine or lemon juice to the pan and stir fry until it is pink and cooked all the way through or warmed up in my case, about 3 minutes. Next add the mango and continue to stir fry for another 30 seconds, then toss in the tomato and cilantro. Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt, pepper.

Cauliflower "Rice"
This is a great husband job while you're taking care of the stir fry but if you have no assistant I would get this ready to go first so you can have it cooking at the same time as your stir frying.

Wash your cauliflower, get rid of the leaves and stem and cut in half to make grating it easier.
Grate each half of the cauliflower on the large hole side in a medium sized pot.
Once it's all grated pour a couple glugs of olive oil into the mixture and turn up the heat to fry.
Mince your garlic and add to the mixture along with some salt and pepper.
Fry on medium heat stirring occasionally being careful not to burn it for about 5 minutes or until tender. 

You're done! This serves 4-5… I just had the left overs for lunch and it was just as good on the second day….

Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading…
Love Desiree
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Good Eats: Braised Lamb Shanks with Spiced Butternut Squash

The dinner I made last night was so good that I had to share it with you immediately! I'm still thinking about it and I so badly wish there were leftovers for lunch!  My Mom and Dad sent me the best care package ever a few weeks ago filled with locally raised organic meats from Niagara and with it came a couple shanks of lamb straight from the family farm.  Dad's lamb does have a reputation as being THE BEST so I wasn't too surprised to find the statement to be completely true once I had it... This recipe was delicious and pretty darn healthy had I not ate enough of it to feed a small family… : )

Here's the recipe.  Inspired by this one: http://www.janssushibar.com/braised-lamb-shanks-spiced-butternut-squash/

What you'll need:
7 shallots, peeled and very thinly sliced
A couple good glugs of olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 lamb shanks
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4″ dice
1 medium onion, diced
1 can tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
4 sprigs fresh thyme, tied together with kitchen twine
1 cup robust red wine (i used Organic Fusion)
2 cups beef stock
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 butternut squash on the large side
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

What to do:
-Preheat the oven to 375 F.
-Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Cook the shallots, stirring frequently, until they are soft and caramelized, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
-Heat another glug of olive oil over medium-high heat. Brown the lamb shanks for 2 to 3 minutes per side; Remove to a plate and set aside.
-Reduce the heat to medium and cook the carrot and onion, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, wine, beef stock, salt and pepper; add the rosemary and thyme and return the lamb shanks and shallots to the pot.
-Cover the pan with two layers of foil and put in the oven at 375 for 2 hours.
-While the lamb is braising cut the squash in half, scrape out the seeds and lay flat in a baking dish with a tiny bit of water and cook for 45 minutes.
-Once cooked, scrape the flesh of the squash into a pot,  add 1 tbsp butter and spices mash until smooth. Keep warm until the lamb is ready.
-Take out the lamb. Using a fork, shred the meat away from the bones and discard the bones. Remove the thyme sprigs from the liquid in the pan and ladle enough of the sauce over the lamb to moisten it.
-Divide the squash between plates and spoon the lamb, with any extra sauce if desired, over the top and serve.

I also served this with a Marinated Fig Salad which was also amazing… I was really on my game last night. 

All I can say is that a happy lamb must make for a tasty one! You can check out how well these lambs are cared for over at The Farmer's Blog.

Thanks for reading!

Love Desiree Pin It