Culinary Adventures with Camilla

#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess and run with the help of Heather of girlichef , which runs smoothly with the help of our bakers.  Our host this month is Renee from Kudos Kitchen by Renee , and our theme is Pumpkin. For more bread recipes, visit the #TwelveLoaves Pinterest board , or check out last month's tempting selection of #TwelveLoaves Apple Breads! This was my first time making and using a biga, also called a poolish. It takes a little bit longer, but made for a softer crumb. Delicious...and worth the effort! Ingredients makes 2 loaves Biga (a pre-ferment) 3 1/2 C bread flour 2 C water, room temperature 1/2 t instant dry yeast Whisk all the ingredients together and allow it to stand for at room temperature for between 6 and 36 hours; mine fermented for over 24 hours. The biga will begin to ferment, getting gassy and bubbly. You'll use 1-1/2 C biga for this bread recipe. The remaining big...

Thanks to a trio of sponsor deliciousness, I am bringing these Smoky Karma Stovetop Beans to our #10DaysofTailgate party. You can heap these onto to hot dogs or spoon them over nachos. We just ate them straight from a bowl. Thanks to event sponsors:  Bob's Red Mill ,  Intensity Academy , and Not Ketchup *   for the great ingredients to make this dish extra special. Ingredients 1 lb 13 oz dried beans (I used  Bob's Red Mill  13- Bean Soup Mix) water 4 oz pancetta 1 onion, peeled and diced 4 C vegetable broth 4 C beef broth 1/4 C Not Ketchup 's Smoky Date 1/4 C raw agave nectar 2 T apple cider vinegar 1 T Carrot Karma Hot Sauce by  Intensity Academy freshly ground salt, to taste freshly ground pepper, to taste Procedure Place your dried beans in a pot and cover with, at least, 2" of water. Let soak overnight. Drain the beans and rinse them. Slice your pancetta as thinly as you can. In a large souppot, saute ...

I once read that cooking with a new ingredient or making something you've never made before is a good exercise for your brain. Makes sense. I've taken that to heart! So, when I saw the gorgeous tomatoes in my CSA box this afternoon, I had a flash of inspiration: I've never made homemade ketchup. It'd be a perfect way to challenge my brain and make an unprocessed condiment. Though I buy organic ketchup made without high fructose corn syrup, and I know that I could make ketchup, I never have. Tonight I changed that. There seem to be a myriad of homemade ketchup recipes. Joy the Baker's Curry Ketchup , Date Ketchup from MarocMama, and a Blackberry Ketchup from a chef in North Carolina all caught my eye. The formulae seemed very similar: tomatoes + sweetener + seasoning. So I decided to forge ahead on my own with combination of herbs and spices. And, being that I'm a little starstruck with vanilla at the moment, I added some of that! 15-20 medium sized tom...

Tonight we headed to Eritrea for dinner in our Cooking Around the World Adventure. Eri - where? Eritrea. Eritrea, roughly the size of Indiana, was formerly the northernmost province of Ethiopia and was once an Italian Colony. The Italians named the colony after the Roman name for the Red Sea, Mare Erythraeum , controlling the area until World War II. Eritrea is bordered by the Sudan on the north and west, the Red Sea on the north and east, and Ethiopia and Djibouti on the south.    This was probably one of the easier international meals I've made. And, surprisingly, Jake declared it in his top 5. When I asked what were the meals above it, he shrugged.  "I don't remember, but this is defnitely 'top 5'." I served a traditional Eritrean recipe for a classic leavened flatbread flavored with garlic, cumin, and cardamom: Hembesha . 1 1/2 C warm water 1 T active, dry yeast 1 T organic granulated sugar 4 C white whole wheat flour (I have no idea w...

This is another dinner that we cooked while out of town last week: tabletop travel to Canada, our neighbor to the north. When doing some research online, I picked two recipes that seemed simple but flavorful. I picked right. Now I am not sure how authentic these are, but they were hits. Beef Stroganoff The recipe that I found, unlike beef stroganoffs I've made before, was served over rice and not over egg noodles. A perfect modification since one of the kids is gluten-free.   1 onion, peeled and sliced 1 pound brown mushrooms, sliced 1 pound top sirloin, 2" wide, sliced thin 2 T brown rice flour 2 C organic chicken broth 1 C organic whole milk European-style yogurt 1/4 C beer Cut sirloin and dredge in rice flour. Melt butter in a heavy frying pan and add floured meat and saute until browned on all sides. Stir in onions and cook until just tender. Add mushroom and cook until they begin to soften. A dd chicken bouillon, beer, sti...

More excuses...last week we were out of town for Spring Break and we had two friends along for the adventure. While I had planned the dinner, printed the menus, and purchased - and lugged - the ingredients with us, I did not fully understand what adding two more people to the table would mean in terms of time management and getting things from the kitchen to the table. So, I did not get many photos of the food before the hungry little kids dug in and began devouring everything on their plates. I guess that's a good thing...but not for my blogging. Soupe à la Noix de Coco Camerounaise (Cameroonian Coconut Soup) This is a traditional Cameroonian recipe for a soup of potatoes, onions and leek in a coconut base. I skipped the leeks but added carrots and celery; also, I left it chunky and skipped the blender. It was a hit. Everyone polished off their bowls and everyone asked for seconds. 3 diced carrots 3 sliced celery stalks 1 diced onion 6 cubed red potatoes ...

It's Spring Break this week, so I thought I would still do some tabletop traveling, but let someone else do the cooking. At least that was my intent. And while it worked for the meal, the flavors were so amazing that I decided that I will actually have to dig up some recipes and give this country a go when we get home. With a trip to the Museum of California in Oakland planned, I did some research and found a Cambodian restaurant - Phnom Penh House - nearby for this tabletop adventure. Authentic food + convenient location = perfect Spring Break "cooking" solution as far as I was concerned! Jake ordered the KARY KHMER, boneless chicken breast meat, potatoes & bamboo shoot cooked in red curry I opted for the MERM CHHOUK SALAD, lotus root salad with peanuts and prawns We also had NOUM KREAP JEAN (ground pork, shredded carrot, cabbage, bean thread, & black pepper, rolled in a thin rice paper then deep fried),   MOARN ANG KREUN (chicken charbroiled with lemong...

Before tonight I definitely couldn't locate Burundi on a map. So, it's not just the little Manns who are getting a lesson in geography through this cooking adventure! We wrapped up the 'B' countries with some tabletop travel to the the east African nation of Burundi. Burundi is sandwiched between Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda in Africa; it occupies a high plateau just about equal in size to Maryland. While we put five dishes on the table for our Burmese feast, as Burundi is one of the five poorest nations on our globe, I decided to only make one thing: Soupe aux Lentilles et Legumes (a traditional Burundian Lentil and Bean Soup). Interesting combination...I have never put lentils and beans together in a dish. 1 fennel, diced (the traditional recipe uses onion) 2 carrots, diced 1 sweet potato, peeled and diced 2 celery stalks, diced 1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced 1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and sliced into 1/2" pieces ...

Jake is home and we are back on track with a tabletop travel adventure to Burma tonight. I actually debated on whether or not this menu should be cooked and blogged with the letter 'b' as Burma is now Myanmar and has been since 1989. But, going with Sasha of Global Table Adventure's list...'b' it is! Apparently the United Nations recognizes the name change as do a few other countries, but it is not recognized by the United States or the United Kingdom. Interesting to note, when the boys tried to look up the country in their atlases, 'Burma' did not exist. It was listed, in the index, as 'Myanmar. However, when they went to the correct page, the country was labeled 'Myanmar (Burma)' on the map. Burmese cuisine is an amalgam of Indian, Chinese, and Thai cuisines. But what they do that really intrigued me: salads. So I came up with a trio of Burmese salads that take a vegetable - or fruit - and really make it pop with flavor. I should say ...