Wild Yeast

Notes from my kitchen, in which I bake bread and raise a few other matters

Rosca de Reyes

In the western Christian tradition, Epiphany is celebrated on January 6. Although this is not a day that I personally observe, on our recent trip to Mexico I was interested to learn about the Mexican Epiphany, Día de Los Tres Reyes Magos (Three Wise Kings Day), when the Kings are said to have arrived bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. This day is the traditional day of gift exchanging, and it’s not Santa but the Three Kings who leave presents for the children in the night.

Rosca de Reyes is the sweet ring bread that is enjoyed during this time. According to custom, a small porcelain baby Jesus is baked into the bread, and whoever gets the doll in his or her piece must host a party on February 2, Candelaria Day.

[Read more…]

Mezcal — More Wild Yeast at Work

Hola y Feliz Año Nuevo from Oaxaca, Mexico, where we’re enjoying a few days of warm winter sun and New Year’s festivity. There is so much wonderful food and drink here!

A specialty of the state of Oaxaca is mezcal, a spirit made from the native agave plant and a cousin to tequila.  In Santiago Matatlán, a few miles east of Oaxaca City, artisanal family mezcal distilleries are everywhere, and we enjoyed the opportunity to see how mezcal is made.

The spiky leaves of the agave plant are chopped off, leaving the heart, or piña (“pineapple”):

[Read more…]

Cranberry Semolina Crown With Pine Nuts and Fennel

I served this semolina crown with cranberries, pine nuts, and fennel for Christmas dinner. It’s a variation on a favorite of mine, Semolina Bread With Fennel, Currants, and Pine Nuts. The crown shape and substitution of dried cranberries for the currants make it a little more festive for a holiday dinner. (OK, so I’m a little late posting this in time for Christmas. But it would be lovely for New Year’s dinner, too.)

With a cross-section similar to that of a baguette, a crown is a delight for crust lovers. To maximize crustiness, make sure you bake the loaf until it is good and dark. Any leftover bread can be sliced thinly and baked in a low oven until crisp for some toasts that are wonderful with your morning coffee or after dinner with a smear of goat cheese.

[Read more…]

Menu for Hope, and Hoping for a Menu

I just wanted to remind all you procrastinators that time’s running out to get your Menu for Hope donations and raffle bids in. If you haven’t put a ticket in for my King Arthur Flour $100 gift certificate (prize code UW04), now would be a good time. How about a couple of brotforms, Hamelman’s Bread (my favorite bread book), or a digital scale?

Now I have a little hope of my own: that some of you kind people will steer me in the direction of a foolproof recipe for boneless leg of lamb, which I have never cooked before but somehow thought that Christmas dinner would be the ideal time to learn. At least it seemed like a good idea last month when I put the lamb order in to my meat CSA. Because, you know, the holiday shopping and decorating and baking and partying don’t occupy nearly enough of my bandwidth, and cooking the second most important meal of the year for three times as many people as I usually cook for is always the best time to try new things, and waiting until the last minute to figure this sort of thing out is just… well, it’s just me.

So here’s a deal for you: the first ten commenters to give me a recipe link or constructive advice for “lamb for people who don’t know how to cook” by noon (PST) tomorrow will get one extra virtual Menu for Hope raffle ticket, on me. Just indicate the 4-character code of the prize you’d like it to be for (prize codes are here), and I’ll buy a ticket for it, and if I win it, it’s yours. (But please make it something other than my prize, because I don’t think I should bid on my own.) Check out the list of prizes if you don’t have all the codes committed to memory by now.

So how about it? Will you help make Menu for Hope, and my Christmas dinner, a success?

Menu for Hope V

Menu for Hope 5 logoOnce again, I am proud and excited to join the international food blogging community in Menu for Hope. Organized by Chez Pim, this fundraising event to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme is a wonderful opportunity to donate to a most worthy cause, and have a chance at scores of fantastic food-related prizes while you’re at it.

Last year’s Menu for Hope raised over $91,000 (!) and this year’s effort can surpass that extraordinary success, with your participation. Proceeds from this campaign will go to the WFP’s school lunch program in Lesotho, in southern Africa.

Each $10 you donate to Menu for Hope between now and December 24 gets you one chance on your choice of item(s) from a dazzling array of prizes offered by food bloggers around the world. The more you donate, the more virtual raffle tickets you earn and the greater your chances of winning.

You may bid on any prize(s) you like, but I hope you’ll consider mine:

Item #UW04: A $100 King Arthur Flour gift card

(calling all cooks: it’s not just for flour!)

Read more to see how you can win this and other fantastic prizes…

Send this to a friend