My Catch of the Day

I love to fish. I vaguely remember, as a young child, fishing for trout in a little pool for kids at a campground vacation in Minnesota with my family. The bulk of the memory is me holding a little fishing rod and being angry that I didn't catch anything because there were prizes for the ones who caught the most fish. I guess even then I had a competitive spirit. Fast forward about 20 years to being invited to go fishing on a pier in Jersey City by my, then new, boyfriend. I was wearing boots and a leather jacket, not quite understanding all I was getting into. He showed me how to cast a treble hook to try and snag a live baitfish and I was surprised to actually hook into one. As I reeled it in, under his instruction, the rod suddenly felt very heavy and it was increasingly difficult to turn the reel. I was encouraged to keep going (my sweetie thought I was being weak and a little strange) and much to both of our shock there was a beautiful striped bass on the end of the line! The bass had gone after my bait fish as I was reeling it in. Not to be too cliche, but I guess you could say I was hooked.


I told you I was in a leather jacket. Manhattan skyline behind me.


Since that day I have had the opportunity to fish from piers, rock jetties, boats and riverbanks for trout, striped bass, bluefish, steelhead, dolphinfish and tuna, although I have not been lucky enough to catch the last two kinds. We fish in the winter and the summer and I find there is something peaceful and beautiful about being on the water at daybreak or sunset and something exciting about literally seeing a fish jump out of the water for your bait.


Peace


Beyond that, of course, is the opportunity to eat the freshest fish you can get. It is a special day that begins with a fishing rod and ends with gorgeous sides of fish so fresh that as you fillet you can have a little sashimi as well. Even though I am a chef, I cannot afford or choose to buy and live all organically and free range, but I take pride in doing what I can to eat cleanly and well.

Striped bass is wonderful because it is so mild that it adapts well to a variety of cooking techniques and flavors. I like to keep it simple so you don't just taste the spices or sauces you have added to it.

For this dinner I rubbed the fillets with some minced garlic and pepper, added a squeeze of lime juice and let them stand for about 30 minutes and then rubbed them with a mixture of salt and chili powder. I seared them in a nonstick skillet until golden brown on each side and gave them a light brush of barbecue sauce in the last few minutes of cooking. Served with a corn and tomatillo salad and some cold lightly dressed soba noodles, it was a perfect summer meal.

A Sour Start

As a recipe developer I have come to expect that the first pass on something unknown will turn out....questionable. The stubborn perfectionist in me always holds out hope that from the start it will be amazing and perfect and delicious and that I am, unquestionably, a genius! Not quite. I must remind myself when looking at the actual finished dish as opposed to the image in my head that the process of creating a recipe is the most valuable part of the process. I remind myself often.

My current project, despite the 90 degree heat in my old house without air conditioning, is no knead sourdough bread made from a wonderful sourdough starter that was gifted to me. I love making bread and have a solid track record with both sweet and savory loaves. I have, however, never made bread from a sourdough starter instead of yeast and I have never made no knead bread. This kind of challenge is right up my alley.

The beauty of the no knead process is two fold. The first is that it cuts several steps from the traditional process and since I do have other things to do with my days (yes, days plural - bread takes time!) than fold, proof, shape and proof various stages of dough, this is perfect. The second is that all the equipment you need is a bowl, a wooden spoon, plastic wrap, parchment and an enamel coated cast iron pot. This is ideal for me since my old house also lacks in counter space and storage in the kitchen.

I started by researching no knead sourdough bread recipes online. I found a range of techniques and ingredients and settled on one based on tips from Nancy Silverton since the starter was from one of her cookbooks. I really wanted to use all starter instead of starter plus yeast so first I had to tend to my starter. I had been keeping it in the fridge so the first thing I did was to let it sit at room temperature for a while and get it all active and bubbling again. It was so warm yesterday this took only a few hours. I then mixed in a bowl some bread flour, kosher salt, honey and the starter. It looked sort of shaggy and dry, which didn't quite seem right so I mixed in a few tablespoons of water. I let it double at room temperature for 5 hours and then let it sit in the fridge overnight, as the research suggested in order to let the sourdough flavor really develop but not allow the bread to over proof and become excessively sticky.



The next morning


My dough the next morning was not quite as expected. It didn't really change at all overnight and still seemed too dry and tight. At this point there was really nothing to do to try and fix it. I knew perfection was out the window on this loaf so it was time to just wait and see what was going to happen. I let the dough stand at room temperature while I preheated my oven with the Dutch oven in it at 475 degrees F for 45 minutes. I then put a piece of parchment at the bottom of the Dutch oven and turned the dough right into the hot pot. I baked, covered, until puffed and firm and then lowered the oven temperature to 400 degrees F and finished baking, uncovered, until it was golden brown and firm when tapped.



The cooling loaf







Checking out the crumb



The bread turned out to not be a total disaster. Although it had a very crunchy crust and a wonderful sour flavor from the starter, there was too much salt and the crumb was too dense. The denseness was really no surprise since I felt the dough was itself was too dry.

Further reading leads to me believe that it all comes back to my starter. Perhaps I need to let it sit out of the fridge and feed it for a few days so that it is more aggressive? Perhaps I need to add a bit more water to my recipe as my starter may be firmer than the ones I was referencing? Is the problem as simple as the fact that I tried to make a half batch and the proportions just don't translate?

As I chew this over for a few days and read some more, at least I can be comforted by having some fresh bread to chew on as well.