Fresh Bread on a Saturday Morning

Over the summer at the Farmer’s Market there was a booth, Katic Breads, that sold the best bread you could imagine. Everything was delivered warm, fresh and perfect. It also didn’t hurt that the women running the stand were so cheerful week in and week out. As the market wound down for the winter, customers were asking what to do for the winter months?? We had become used to our focaccia, ciabatta, french breads, harvest breads and, of course, the delicious fresh croissants. To satisfy their loyal customers, they set up a way to have a standing order delivered to a fabulous local coffee shop, Cafe la Fortuna every other Saturday. Dusan Katic, the baker, assured us that all their items could be frozen with no problems. Well, they were right. Even the croissants that came out of the freezer and reheated just a little, were perfect.

I just picked up my second order this morning. Once home, I wrapped everything for freezing, and then enjoyed a fresh croissant with Mammoth Cave Black Cherry Preserves, a specialty of the Mammoth Cave National Park Lodge, and a steaming hot cup of Cafe la Fortuna coffee. That’s a great way to start a Saturday morning.

Here’s Dusan Katic’s instructions for storing their fresh breads:

FREEZING

If you bought a loaf and are planning on freezing it for later use, place it in a closed plastic bag, in the freezer, as soon as you can. The fresher you freeze it, the fresher it thaws. When you are ready to serve your bread, let it sit out to thaw while the oven is warming up to 350F. To get a crispy crust, wet the surface of the bread with a spray or with your hand. Then, place the thawed/sprayed loaf in the oven for 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of the loaf). If you don’t care to crisp the crust, then wrap the loaf in aluminum foil and place it in the oven (especially for rolls).

STORAGE

Never store bread in the fridge. This actually accelerates staling. Remember that the loaves you receive are pulled out of the oven at 7AM. If you cannot finish the loaf near this peak time, then freezing portions is a much better plan compared to storing in the fridge. Avoid leaving the bread in sunlight. Store bread in a paper bag or wrapped in a kitchen towel in between use.

If you have a chance to find them at a farmer’s market or specialty store in the Chicago and Northern IL area, pick some up. You won’t be sorry.

35 Pounds of Tomatoes

No, I didn’t grow that many in my garden. I got a decent harvest this year to keep us in fresh tomatoes for the summer and early fall, but for stocking up for winter, I went to the local Farmers Market. I bought the large, 10 lb box last week and processed those for the freezer, then decided I needed more. Being the savvy consumer that I am, I realized I could get 2.5x as many tomatoes in the half bushel as in the large box for only 25% more. That’s a screaming deal in my book, and they were beautiful red, perfectly ripe roma tomatoes. My first hint of how much work was ahead of me was when I picked up the bag they were in to carry them to the car. A half bushel of tomatoes is really heavy-apparently about 25 lbs.

Over two nights, I made 2 double batches of pasta sauce using America’s Test Kitchen’s (recipe here). Instead of the canned crushed tomatoes, I used 3 cups of lightly pureed, peeled tomatoes. I also found that the texture of the tomatoes was better when pureed in my food processor than in my blender. As I’ve described before, peeling tomatoes is pretty easy, and I think necessary to have a more pleasing sauce texture. (Just personal preference, but I’m not a fan of tough skins floating in my sauce, soups or stews.)

While the tomatoes looked beautiful, my kitchen was a mess!

Once I had the tomatoes peeled, I was ready to make the sauce and chop up the rest for a variety of uses. I left most only roughly chopped to allow for more versatility. I can further chop or puree the frozen tomatoes depending on what I need them for.

I’m pleased with the final number of bags, it didn’t seem like a lot at first, but I think this will last me quite a while. The large bag of while tomatoes was turned into 4 more bags of pasta sauce the next evening. I ran out of garlic so had to have time to run to the store.

And what are tomatoes without some basil?

So in the end, did it save me money over buying canned diced tomatoes and jarred pasta sauce? Maybe, maybe not, but my tomatoes and sauce will definitely have a better, fresher taste, with only those ingredients in them I want. I’m actually looking forward to winter cooking (but maybe not the weather).

What’s Going in My Freezer?

I have been very busy freezing whatever I can fresh from the Farmer’s Market for the winter. I seem to have a lot more freezer space than cupboard space, so I decided to forego the canning of the things I can freeze. Here’s just some of what I have so far:

Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries

Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries should be fresh, unwashed and checked over for damaged or generally yucky ones. Then they are spread in a single layer on a pan, placed in the freezer until frozen and then put into freezer bags. They can be used frozen or thawed, but need to be rinsed since you didn’t wash them before freezing. I like to keep a bag of blueberries in the freezer, take out a few in the evening, rinse them, put them in my cereal bowl and put the bowl in the fridge overnight. Fresh blueberries are all ready for my cereal in the morning. Or you can thaw them quickly by putting what you want into one of those handy little berry colanders and rinsing with running lukewarm water. Washed and thawed all in one!

ZUCCHINI

In a previous post I talked about how to freeze zucchini, either shredded or in chunks. I’ve got a whole winters worth of zucchini stored away!

Tomatoes

I’ve used what I grew in the garden, then bought lots more (about 30 lbs worth–I got a great deal!) at the Farmer’s Market. I now have many bags of whole cherry tomatoes (not blanched, treated like the berries), chopped and diced tomatoes, tomatoes crushed for sauce, and ready to go sauce. It was like a little factory in my kitchen! I’ll talk more about all that in a later post, but you can see how to generally prepare tomatoes for freezing here.

Green and Red Peppers

I didn’t have much luck with green peppers this year, but they looked great at the Farmer’s Market. I’ve been buying a few at a time for freezing. Like most other vegetables, you need to wash them, look and remove any blemished areas, blanch in boiling water for 2-3 minutes then plunge into ice water to stop any further cooking. I left mine in pretty big chunks so I can use them as needed for a recipe, but in the past I’ve frozen them diced or sliced. I freeze them in a layer on a pan in the freezer and then put into a freezer bag so they don’t freeze as one giant clump together in the bag.

And more…

I also have a few bags of diced and sliced spring onions. I’m thinking about freezing some corn if I can get some really fresh, otherwise it’s no better than the store bags. I bought a head of cabbage today to make some “freezer slaw” from a family recipe from a friend. Can’t wait to try that! So, what’s in your freezer this year?

Category: Cooking