Another heavy week. Another senseless mass shooting (the worst of the 10 or so that have occurred in the past week). Another round of gun debates.
Parents, loved ones, and communities are grieving. I am grieving. I’m guessing you all are grieving.
This has to stop. We need to cure this illness that plagues our country. We all have a role to play.
Educate yourself. Donate to the victims fund. Join a movement and act. Vote! No more pleases. No more ifs. Just. Do. It.
Do it for yourself. Do it for your family. Do it for your community. Do it for our country. Do it for the hundreds of people who have lost their lives to guns this year. Do it for whatever reasons motivate you.
There is no way to seamlessly transition to talking about food this week. It feels on the one hand, superficial and disrespectful to go on with business as usual. On the other hand, cooking and baking can be acts of self care, which we all deserve. And, as my daughter’s elementary school reminded me this week, maintaining a normal routine can be reassuring when you’re experiencing hard feelings.
So with that, let me tell you about this Spring Potato Salad with Ramps and Fresh Herbs I made this week. It was my last potato dish until the local ones start showing up again in early summer, and it did not disappoint. The recipe comes from GrowNYC and highlights both potatoes and ramps equally, bathing the two in a mildly sweet and acidic vinaigrette.
I omitted the thyme when boiling the potatoes and in preparing the ramps because I didn’t have it. I’m guessing the herb adds its own subtlety and complementary flourish, but the dish did not miss it in my opinion. Between the potatoes, ramps, vinaigrette, and fresh herb garnish there is plenty to keep your palate occupied and happy.
The recipe, too, is well written. The formatting is straight forward, clear, and clean; and the whole page can be printed out the same way (should you want to tuck it away for repeat access).
My daughter is a big bagel fan, and I have slacked a little recently on making them. I got back into the routine a couple of weeks ago with these Rye Bagels from Roxana Jullapat’s recent book, Mother Grains. And this week I’ve made them again.
What I enjoy most about these bagels (which may come as no surprise at this point) is that they have a really well balanced whole grain component to them. The dominant flour is a high-gluten bread flour, but the sponge1 is made using whole rye flour, and the final dough incorporates some whole wheat. Together the three flours make for a much more interesting bagel flavor-wise without compromising on the essential dense and chewy (in all the right ways) texture.
I also like Roxana’s variation on the classic everything bagel topping as well. In her version, she uses both caraway and nigella seeds, which complement the notes of rye in the bagel itself. Toppings are not my daughter’s favorite though (unless they’re sprinkles), and these bagels are just as delicious without a seed blanket. I will caution that if you do prefer to add the topping, making an egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon of water) is a good tip to ensure they stay stuck to the bagel once it’s baked.
One other tip I’ll mention is that the version of this recipe on Leite’s Culinaria has the bagels weighing a good 10 grams more (125g) than the book suggests. This is only helpful if you want to be extra precise when dividing your dough. The higher weight is more accurate and could even be bumped up to 130g.
If you like this recipe, Roxana’s book is full of truly phenomenal grain-forward recipes (she’s also working on a new book with a similar grain theme). Or if you feel like you need a bagel primer before tackling this recipe, King Arthur’s Recipe of the Year is Ultimate Sandwich Bagels. It has all the tips and tricks for making a great bagel at home and a delightful egg sandwich filling component.
Now we’ll move on from bagels to bread. I eat quite a bit of bread, and I’ve recently been enjoying a loaf a week from a local micro bakery called Strawbrook Bakery2. Sometimes the week gets away from me before I can make enough toast and sandwiches to finish a whole loaf though. This was one of those weeks, so instead I chose to make a panade3.
I first learned about panade at a conference I went to a few years ago. It is one of my favorite uses for leftover bread. In fact, I have certainly let bread stale simply so that I can make this dish. It transforms a hardened loaf into a part stuffing- part thick soup-like casserole that’s luxuriously soft and silky on the inside and crunchy on top.
A panade is also a great way to use up other leftovers that might be lurking in your refrigerator awaiting their second life. I tend to have a lot of odds and ends at the end of any given week, and this week that happened to include some sautéed turnips and radish greens, half a red onion, some chicken broth, and a bit of mozzarella and ricotta. So I layered all those in with some bread cubes then let the casserole sit for a day and half before baking and serving it for dinner one evening.
Admittedly, my kids were not big fans of the greens, but the bread and cheese portions were a hit. The combination of the thickened bread soup base and crouton top was reminiscent of French onion soup for me, which is maybe how Samin Nosrat (author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat) got her idea for this French Onion Panade (sorry for the pay wall).
So whether you choose to make a specific recipe for panade, or to forge your own way with the leftovers in your fridge and the guidelines from Emma Christiansen at Kitchn, I absolutely recommend you try the dish for yourself one day soon. It may feel more like a cold-weather meal, but in my book there’s never a wrong time to repurpose leftovers.
Finally, this week I made a batch of this Herb-Marinated Tofu Feta from Daniela Gelarza’s “Eat Voraciously” newsletter for The Washington Post. And you know what? It truly did remind me of feta! The recipe is actually from Joe Yonan’s Cool Beans cookbook, and is just another reason why I want to buy his book!
I normally am not that big into recipes or ingredients that are designed to replicate some animal-based product or dish, but I can definitely get behind this one. I used oregano and chives for the herbs because that’s what I had, and I just loved the way the lemon permeated the tofu. I was also really enamored with the method for “pressing” the tofu. I’ve always found that process relatively tedious, but this microwave and kitchen towel trick is pretty ingenious.
The key step to remember with this recipe is to let the tofu sit. I didn’t enjoy mine until a good 24 hours after I had started marinating it. I recommend waiting that long if you can. I have not tried the tip for whipping it yet, but that’ll be my next project. I have a trail race this weekend, and I’m thinking whipped marinated tofu on a toasted bagel or a thick slice of bread could make for delicious pre-race fueling. What would you do with it? I’m always curious to know!
Thanks for reading this week. Reaching out to this little community here is such a highlight of my week. I hope you look forward to the emails, and, as always, I’m happy to hear how I can improve the experience for you.
Best,
Charlotte
P.S. If you think someone you know would enjoy one of the recipes I’ve written about today, please share this email with them. The button below is an easy way to do that.
A sponge is a prefermented mixture of flour, water, and a little bit of yeast that is incorporated into bread dough to enhance a bread’s flavor and texture, extend its shelf life, and allow a baker a bit more flexibility.
You can read about Carina Gressitt and her bakery in my newsletter edition about the women-owned food businesses in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire.
The term panade has a lot of applications in cooking. It refers both to the dish I describe here — a bread soup of sorts — as well as the paste that’s created when combining bread or another starch, a liquid, and sometimes a fat like butter or egg yolk. The paste can be used to thicken sauces, hold ingredients together, or add bulk to a dish. If you’ve made meatballs, meatloaf, choux pastry, or quenelles (among other dishes), you’ve likely made a panade.
Charlotte. So wonderful! Great information. Thank you!