• 270g ripe starter
• 345ml warm water (250-350ml)
• 500g flour (e.g 125g spelt + 375g hard white, or whatever, use more water if using whole wheat, e.g. 100g ww, 100g spelt, 300g white)
• 13g salt (2.5 tsp)

The recipe is very flexible and fool proof as long as you adjust the time to work for your starter, which needs to have been fed and expanded when used. I use 90g starter, 90g water, 90g flour. I usually feed it in the morning so that I can make the bread dough in the evening/late afternoon (and cook the following morning).

Combine ingredients loosely with a spoon. Start with dissolving the water and salt into the starter. Let the dough rest for 20min covered, do a “stretch a fold” , rest 20min more minutes covered, then rest and fold again, then rest 20min and one final stretch and fold.

Leave the dough proof somewhere warm. It should at least double in size, but if it’s warm, it can grow much more. It usually takes about 4-5 hours depending on the starter and the temperature. It’s important to put the dough in fridge after, say overnight, but at least a couple of hours, otherwise it’s too soft to make a loaf that holds form.

Punch the dough down, flatten on a table and get any bubbles out. Fold and make a ball with tension in the surface, shape into a loaf and close off the seam. Poke gently with a finger, it should spring back almost immediately. Let proof for ~45min (poke with a finger, and it should spring back, but not nearly as fast; it can take up to 2 hours).

Heat oven to 425F not convection. Heat a cast iron skillet (or some other vessel with good heat capacity) in the oven, as well as the surface on which the bread will cook.

Make slashes on the bread to let it expand (2-3cm deep). Add 1 cup of boiling water to the skillet. Place bread in (hurry to trap the steam) and cook for 15min. Then remove the skillet and let the steam out and cook another 28min. The bread should be edible, with a thin crust. For a thicker crust, lower temp to 275F convection, and cook another 45min.

Let it cool down before slicing, ideally more than an hour!

To make baguettes instead, make 2 baguettes (make a normal loaf, with a seam on the bottom, and keep making the loaf longer, about 40cm). Heat oven to 450F with pan for water. Make 2-5 diagonal cuts on top, and place in oven with 1 cup of boiling water into the pan. After 10min of steam, lower to 425F, remove steam pan, cook another 15min (total of 25min), then lower to 275F convection for 20 min. Cool before eating. Best baguette ever.

Recipe is almost completely based on this one by Anna Olson.

For schedule (say you want to eat them for Sunday breakfast), the easiest is to make the détrempe batter on the evening of day 1 (Friday), mix in the butter and do the 3 folds on day 2 (Saturday), and get up early on day 3 (Sunday) to shape the croissants and proof them. You can make the détrempe Saturday morning, and in principle, you could even do the croissant Saturday evening.

Détrempe:

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup milk (mix with water so that the combination is room temperature)
• 5 Tbsp sugar
• 2 1/4 instant dry yeast
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 30g butter (2 tbsp)

Mix flour, yeast, sugar in the stand mixer, then mix in the salt. Add liquid, while stand mixer is on slow. Add butter. Knead on slow for about 4 min (not enough to make a lot of gluten).

Roll the dough into a rectangle, and cover with a tea towel and loose sheet of plastic. Let sit a room temperature for 90min, then refrigerate over night (or for at least 1 hour).

Beurrage:

• 285g butter (room temperature)

Line a 8″ square pan with plastic, and use plastic to flatten out room temperature butter into a square. Refrigerate until it has the same consistency as the détrempe dough. If making ahead and refrigerating, then take out of the fridge about 45min before the détrempe.

Mixing butter and the three folds:

Roll the dough out into a square with a side about 1.5 times the side of the butter square. Rotate the butter square 90 degrees relative to the dough, and place it on the dough. Fold the 3 corners of the dough over the butter (see the video!).

Roll out the dough into an elongated rectangle, being careful to push outwards from the middle to squeeze the butter layer out uniformly. The fold the layer over itself (envelope fold), cover with towel and plastic and refrigerate. Wait at least one hour before the next fold

Do the second fold perpendicular to the first one, cover with towel and plastic and refrigerate. Wait at least one hour.

Do the third and final fold perpendicular to the second one, cover with towel and plastic and refrigerate. Wait at least one hour. Ideally, this last fold is done in the evening, so that the dough stays in the fridge over night.

Shape the croissants , proof and bake!

The above quantity will make 24 croissants. Divide the dough into 2, and replace half in the fridge.

Roll the dough out into rectangle so that it is about 5mm thick. This should make a rectangle about 16″x12″. Divide the rectangle into 2 lengthwise and make croissants (see video! do make the notch!). Brush egg wash on the croissants (1 egg + 2 Tbsp water), and reserve egg wash in fridge.

When you trim the edges to make the croissants, use the trimmings! For example, brush them with melted butter and then with brown sugar + cinnamon and roll them up! Or brush them with jam and roll them up!

Let the croissants proof, with some distance between them, in a warm environment for 2 hours.

Brush egg wash on again and bake at 375F for 15min (when they are a nice dark golden rod). There might be puddles of melted butter around the croissants…

If croissants are to be frozen instead, then freeze them after shaping (before first egg wash). Freeze them on a tray, then place them in a bag. Thaw + proof by leaving them at room temperature over night.

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Fry meatballs in butter. Sprinkle ~ 1/4cup of flour while frying. Once it’s all nice and brown, pour about 2 cups of broth, reduce until the right thickness, adjust seasoning.

Enough for 2 people…

• 2 shallots (or 1 onion), cut finely
• 2 cloves of garlic pressed
• 1 can of bean (red kidney, pinto, …), rinsed
• some lard (e.g. from making carnitas!), or melted butter (1/4 cup?)
• cumin
• smoked paprika
• regular paprika
• salt and pepper

Fry the shallots for ~5min in some oil on medium. Then add the garlic for 30s, and then the beans. Stir in the spices. Fry for another 5-10min on medium. Taste to make sure seasoning is good.

Can add a little bit of broth if desired (to make it a little more liquid when mashing).

Remove from heat and mash. Mix in melted lard (or butter) to get good consistency.

• 1/2 red cabbage, shredded
• 2/3 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 apples, diced
• 1 cup water
• 3 tbsp red currant jelly

Cover cabbage with sugar, salt, vinegar and let rest for ~10 min.

Heat up some butter and fry apples and onions until apples start to brown, 5-10min, on medium.

Add the cabbage, 1 cup of water, bring to a boil, then turn heat to very low and let it cook with the lid on for at least 2 hours.

After ~ 2hours, check how much liquid there is, remove lid if necessary, there should be no liquid at the end and everything should be very soft. About 3 hours total cooking.

• 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut in two
• chorizo sausage, cut into chunks
• 12 big shrimps (tail on but easy to peel)
• 1 kg of mussels
• 4 calamari, sliced into rings

• 1 red pepper finely chopped
• 3 tomatoes, small diced (ideally, not canned, not huge tomatoes)
• 1 red onion, finely diced
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed (separate into 2 and 3 cloves)
• 3 tomatoes
• 1.5 cups (? enough..) frozen peas
• 1 Lemon, sliced into wedges.

• 1.5L of chicken broth with 2 pinches of saffron
• 2 cups of arborio (or bomba) rice
• 2 generous tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp paprika

Step 0:

Prep all the ingredients (e.g. finely chopping, cutting meat, seafood…), if they are all ready to go, then it’s actually straightforward (although plan 1:30 – 2 hours, prep included)

Step 1:

Combine some olive oil, 2 tsp smoked paprika, 2 crushed
garlic cloves, and marinate the chicken for 10min in that mixture

Step 2:Make broth with saffron (1.5L of chicken broth with 2 pinches saffron), keep warm, just below boiling.

Step 3:

Once the chicken is marinated, heat small amount of olive oil in the paella pan, cook the chicken on medium high, about 15min. Once cooked (165F), reserve chicken on a dish.

Step 4:

Fry the chorizo for about 4min total on medium hight (flip after 2-3min) in the paella pan, then remove and keep with the chicken. By now, there is some grease in the pan…

Step 5:

Place the 3 diced tomatoes (small dice), 1 finely diced red onion, 1 finely diced pepper, 3 crushed garlic cloves in the paella pan and fry for about 3-4min on medium high.

Step 6:

Add rice and fry for 1-2 min

Step 7:

Add all of the broth (1.5l) into the pan, 1 pinch of saffron, 2tsp paprika. Bring to boil, and simmer just below boiling for 15min.

Step 8:

Add frozen peas and calamari first, and stir them in uniformly. Add the mussels (stick them into the rice, about 1/2 or more of the 1kg of mussels), add the shrimp (push them into the rice uniformly). Cook for an additional 15min.

Step 9:

Steam the rest of the mussels (about 5min on steam)

Step 10:

Remove the steamed mussels from shells. Sprinkle over the rice. Add the chicken and chorizo back onto the rice. Cook 5 min.

Serve with the lemon wedges laid on top.