I have the will, a recipe but not the time right now!

Just a short notice to let you know that I think about you and this blog every day but I just don't have the time this week, I have a deadline tomorrow and I'm not there yet! I hope some photos will suffice

Three years of pure bread baking delight - Bread Baking Babes third anniversary

 

I'm not the kind of person who regrets, what is done is done if it was bad I better do something about it, if it is good well then I am just happy about it. One of those things that I have done that I feel happy about is joining the Bread Baking Babes three years ago when Tanna and Karen asked me and a handful of other bread baking bloggers if we were interested in starting a small group with the scope of baking a different bread each month. I didn't hesitate. We didn't have a name and the only thing that was clear that there were no rules and slowly, slowly no that is not true because we found the rhythm of the group almost immediately; the banter on our blog was deafening at times and I never thought one could discuss flour in the way that it was done. We started out with two really difficult breads, how I toiled and felt inadequate despite my many years as a bread baker, but then I had always been a free-hand baker and that is really not very good for improving your skills.



After a while I started to lust after bread baking books and more bread books and I started to try out a lot of new breads on my own or in the company of some other Babe, usually Karen and/or Tanna. Every month I have tried out new flours and forms and different fermentation processes, I have visited different countries and culinary traditions through the different breads we have made and above all, I have met in my opinion the most fantastic bread bakers there are! I have made many new friends and I have lost friends, I have become a much better bread baker but above all I have been a very happy Bread Baking Babe with all my heart and I hope to remain one as long as I can! Thank You and cin cin to you, Babes!
We are celebrating this event by baking one of our favourites among all those breads that we have made throughout the years. It was a very difficult choice so I thought about which bread had been a hit with the whole family and thought that Challah must be the one because even the dog liked it so much that he stole one of the loaves from the kitchen table.If that isn't a sign of success, you tell me what is! The recipe of the Challah is found over at Sara's blog i like to cook!

Explore the sweetness- Shallot and Bay Leaf Pie

I don't know if I dare to say that I feel better and hopefully the others in this family too (except one little poor one) but so it is and if I will be punished because I dare to say it aloud-so be it! When I was lying there in bed with fever I realized that I felt a bit like when I travel, suspended in time and space with the mind completely free to wander around like it wants. When I was in my early twenties I lived outside Stockholm in the countryside for a couple of years and I absolutely loved the long bus-rides in to the city or out to where I lived. The longer they took, the better because after a while I fell into some kind of meditative trance that was enhanced by the fact that the route of the bus was always the same. How I enjoyed tose bus rides. Later on I used to take the train to Italy or England and I loved to sit there hour after hour and look out of the window of the train while my thoughts rambled in that strange suspended space that travelling creates. Being in bed ill is a bit like that but unfortunately with an ill body too. But your fantastic response to my post of last week really cheered me up infinitely and so did all the good vibes! How could I ever stop blogging here after reading your comments? And as I write this, I can see the sun shining in through the window, it is such a long time since it made itself seen so I take it as a good sign-it's time to move forwards!

Shallots are beautiful little things, both to photograph and to eat. I have a soft spot for shallots or small onions cooked in butter with a little sugar and salt so I thought that a little onion filled portion pie could be a good idea. And to enhance the sweetness of the onions I added bay leaves.

Shallot and Bay Leaf Pie
4 portion pies or 1 big pie

1 kg/2,2 lb shallots
4-5 bay leaves, very preferably fresh ones
4-5 heaped tblsp or more of butter
sugar
salt

pie crust:
5 medium sized potatoes
100-150 g / 3,5-5.3 oz butter or olive oil
500-600 ml / 2.1-2.5 cups flour
1,5 tsp baking powder
salt
OR
a pie crust of your choice, home made or bought

 Start with peeling the onions. Melt the butter in a not too wide pan, and add the onions and the bay leaves. Add a little sugar and a little salt. Cook slowly on low temperature and taste to get the sugar and salt balance right.

 When the onions are soft and transparent, put the pan aside and make the pie crust: Boil the potatoes and when they are ready, press them through a potato ricer. Do it while they are still warm because when they are cold it is really hard to press them through the little holes. Let it cool down a bit before adding butter, flour and the baking powder. Check if it is salt enough. You might have to add more flour if the potatoes are very humid, the dough has to be elastic and not too ‘hard’. Line the individual pie forms or a pie tin with the dough, use the leftover dough to decorate with if you want.

Fill the pies/pie with the onions and bake in a pre-heated oven (175°C / 347°F) for about 20-30 minutes depending on which pie size you have chosen.

spring flowers

I'm down with the dreaded flu, third day with high fever and I feel a strong need to commiserate myself and try to get back to normal in some way. So I complain here about being sick and at the same time I post some photos of flowers I have seen recently, two pigeons with one broad bean as they say here in Italy. I have to confess that I am reposting the almond blossom photos below because that tree is now so tall that I can't do any close-ups anymore. Send positive vibes in my direction if you have the time please

Almost like my mother's - Simple Swedish Pancakes

I know that I go on and on about how my blogging mojo somehow has vanished and how that, paired with a lot of work, is slowly killing Lucullian. On the one hand I would be OK with that but at the same time there is a voice in me screaming "Are you insane?? After all you have got from Lucullian, not to speak from your readers??" And I agree with the voice, quitting would make me feel ungrateful somehow. And I would miss it a lot.  And you. More than I can imagine now. But I have been doing some thinking and I know that one of the reasons I have problems with the food blogging thing is that I just don't feel like inventing recipes any more. I want to cook without feeling that I have to do write about it and photograph the food but above all I just want to try out other people's recipes and enjoy their creativity. I used to love thinking about what to create for Lucullian and for you but that joy is for the moment gone to other pastures so I decided yesterday evening when I was laying in my bed that I will post about any kind of food without considerations about whether my recipes are particularly creative or not, I will blog about what comes to mind which even could be off topic sometimes so bear with me while I ride through this blogging crisis, please.

The first food I really remember  seeing my mother make are pancakes. She made wonderful pancakes and she was always ready to drag out her iron skillet to make pancakes for us or our children. I felt a certain irritation when I came to see her with the children and she asked if I had given them any food, as if I wouldn't feed my own children? Especially being my mother's daughter? Unlikely! I think it really dawned on me that she was ill when she stopped asking her standard question when we opened the door: "Did you eat?" I wish I remembered the last time she asked me, before she slipped into that impenetrable fog that is Alzheimer's disease and before her being lost that essential energy that was she. She did remain very much like herself but that particular person that was Kia wasn't there any more. I am sure there are many of you out there who know what I mean. But back to the pancakes, when I used to make them I realized that I would never manage to get that signature flavour she managed to add by just whisking the ingredients together, sometimes I came close but often not. That was until I realized that one thing that I could do to make the pancakes taste more like hers was to burn the melted butter a little, that really gives a nice flavour to them!

SIMPLE SWEDISH PANCAKES
4-5 pancakes

200 ml/ 0,85 cup milk
100 ml/ 0,42 cup flour
2-3 tblsp sugar
barely1/2 tsp salt
1-2 eggs, my mother always took 2
50 g/ 1,75 oz (or more) butter
butter for the frying

 Put half of the milk together with the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and whisk until smooth, then add the rest of the milk. By doing it this way, it is less likely that you get lumps in the batter.

 Add the eggs and whisk. Melt the butter in a skillet, iron skillets make the best pancakes in my view, until it has browned a bit, not too much obviously but don't be scared.

Pour the melted butter into the batter and stir and then fry the pancakes and serve with a little of salted butter and sugar like we used to eat them or with whatever you enjoy on your pancakes!

A taste of what has been and what is to come

This month we, the Baking Babes, celebrate three years of bread and we are preparing for the celebration on the 16th by going through all these fantastic breads we have baked throughout the years, trying to decide on which one to bake. I confess that I had forgotten quite a few of them and was therefore duly impressed by the diversity of the breads, aren't you? There are ethnic bread, sweet bread, savoury bread, 'snack' bread, filled bread, flat bread, easy bread and difficult bread-you name it. Now all you have to do is to guess which bread is going to be baked for the 16th. And why don't you try and bake some of these (or all of them!) wonderful breads just because it is fun and good for you mind/soul to bake bread!

2008 (from left to right)
February: Karen Royal Crown Tortano (in Dutch) and in English:
March: Lien Coccodrillo 
April: Tanna Sullivan Street Pizza
May:  Sher  - Poilane-Style Miche
June: Mary Breadchick's Dark Onion Rye
July: - in memory of Sher who passed away July 20 2008; this month we made something from her blog, something that reminded us of the warm and witty personality Sher was. The news of her passing shocked us. She is our Angel Babe.
August: Ilva Whole Wheat Pita
September : Monique Sûkerbôlle
October : Sara Challah
November: Görel The Rosendal Crisp Bread
December: Lynn Yule Wreath

2009 (from left to right):
January Katie Croissants
February Tanna Pane ai Cinque Cereali con Nod (Five-Grain Bread with Walnuts)
March Sara Pane Francese
April Mary Ethiopian Injera
May Ilva Pane di Pasta Tenera Condita (Italian Knot Bread)
June Lien Asparagus Bread (in English and Dutch)
July Natashya Sukkar bi Tahin (Beirut Tahini Swirls)
August Görel Russian Black Bread
September Karen Chinese Flower Steam Buns
October Gretchen Tanta Wawa (Peruvian Bread Babies)
November Monique Brioche Mousseline
December Katie Viennese Striesel

2010 (from left to right)
January Lynn Curried Naan
February Karen Ensaimada
March Mary Gluten Free No Knead Hearty Seeded Sandwich Bread
April Sara Potato Bread with Chives
May Natashya Tunisian Spicy Breads
June Lien Korni (in English and Dutch)
July Lynn Yeasted Sprouted Wheat Bread 
August Tanna Sweet Portuguese Bread
September Görel Brunkans Långa
October Elizabeth Broa: Portuguese Corn Bread
November Susan Cornucopia
December Ilva Taralli Pugliesi