Tomato Bread, 5 minutes to the table

Serves 4

Preparation time: 5min

 

To compensate for yesterday’s ordeal. I had a friend of mine call me in the middle of the night as she was still struggling with the tsoureki, although the word “struggling” is rather an overstatement as she was waiting for the dough to rise.

Few simple ingredients for today’s bread:

6-8 slices of French bread or other crusty loaf

3-4 tomatoes, halved

1-2 garlic cloves, halved

olive oil for drizzling

 

To prepare this at its simplest, rub the bread slices with the cut sides of garlic first. Then do the same with the cut sides of the tomato halves, letting the juice and seeds soak into the bread. If the bread is too soft, you can lightly toast it beforehand although I prefer to do it anyway. Finish by drizzling olive oil over the top of the tomatoes.

To make a more substantial snack, serve the bread with a plate of cold cuts, meats and cheeses and let the guests assemble open sandwiches for themselves.

Bon Appetit!

Tsoureki Bread and a response to Rogoff and Reinhart

Tags

mahlab, mastic, Reinhart, response, Rogoff, tsoureki, Warren Mosler

Preparation Time 2h15m

Baking Time 30-40m

 

Tsoureki is a sweet, brioche-like bread served at Easter in Greece to break the Lenten fast. It is usually braided with a red dyed hard-boiled egg inserted in the middle. It takes only a few minutes to prepare though you have to wait patiently for the dough to rise.

Having experimented with various ingredients over the years I have come to the conclusion that yellow flour made from durum wheat and fresh yeast are the secret to the tsoureki’s success. But then not every yellow flour would do the trick. The inside of the tsoureki must look stringy and fibrous and that can be achieved by using the correct flour as well as kneading it in a particular way.

This is why I have included the exact ingredients I use in the recipe (and posted links about them) just in case you can get hold of them as well as detailed kneading description (though it’s nothing complicated really).

4 eggs + 1 for smearing

1 ½ cup of lukewarm milk

1 cup of sugar

¾ cup melted butter or Fitini vegetable oil

60gr/2,2 oz fresh yeast Hirondelle (blue pack)

1kg/2,2 pounds of yellow flour Robin Hood 

½ tbsp of ground mastic  

½ tbsp. of ground mahlab  

sliced almond garnish (see photo below)

 

 

 

 

 

Warm the milk, place it in a bowl and add the yeast. Melt the yeast using your hand. Beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until mixture has thickened and turned a pale yellow.

Add the milk-yeast mixture and then the mastic and the mahlab and mix gently in a rotary motion. Start adding the flour (900gr of it) and the oil little by little alternately and knead using your fingers pulling the dough upwards to create that fibrous feel and allow it to take some air.

When the dough is soft and glutinous, cover the bowl with a blanket and keep it in a warm room for about 90m until the dough has risen and has become double in size.

Knead again for another 5 minutes.

Dust a work surface with a little of the remaining flour. Remove a ball of dough (you may have to use scissors to cut it!!) and roll into a strand. Make three of them side by side, pinch together at one end to hold the load intact and braid.

  

There is plenty of dough left, so you can either repeat the procedure and create more braided breads or use the strands to make smaller round loaves like in the picture below. Now you have to let them rise for another 30 minutes. 

Place them gently on a baking pan covered with baking paper and top smear with a beaten egg very gently and carefully so that the dough does not break. (If it does, all the air will be knocked out and we don’t want that.)

Garnish with sliced almonds and bake in a preheated oven at 180^oC/350^oF for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. The bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Enjoy!

Food for thought

Back on my favourite topic, which is macro-economics. This week we’ve seen the austerity movement become the laughing stock everywhere, even on national network (read and watch the videos for a bit of fun) due to the omissions and miscalculations on the Rogoff and Reinhart report. Remember, this paper has had a major influence on public policy around the world. And it turns out to be wrong not in a subtle way that only geniuses can notice but in a rather obvious one as most of the information it contained was used in a rather fraudulent manner.

Way too many articles have been written about the whole thing, but my favourite one, the most concise and to the point comes from Warren Mosler, whose blog is one of the best around. He’s asked to spread the word so here I am:

Rogoff and Reinhart NYT response

Posted by WARREN MOSLER on April 26th, 2013

The intellectual dishonesty continues.
As before, it’s the lie of omission.

R and R are familiar with my book ‘The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy’ and, when pressed, agree with the dynamics.

They know there is a more than material difference between floating and fixed exchange rate regimes that they continue to exclude from their analysis.

They know that one agents ‘deficit’ is another’s ‘surplus’ to the penny, a critical understanding they continue to exclude.

They know that ‘demand leakages’ mean some other agent must spend more than its income to sustain output and employment.

They know federal spending is via the Fed crediting a member bank reserve account, a process that is not operationally constrained by revenues. That is, there is no dollar solvency issue for the US government.

They know that ‘debt management’, operationally, is a matter of the Fed simply debiting and crediting securities accounts and reserve accounts, both at the Fed.

They know that if there is no problem of excess demand, there is no ‘deficit problem’ regardless of the magnitudes, short term or long term.

They know unemployment is the evidence deficit spending is too low and a tax cut and/or spending increase is in order, and that a fiscal adjustment will restore output and employment, regardless of the magnitude of deficits or debt.

Carmen’s husband Vince was the head of monetary affairs at the Fed for many years, serving both Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. He knows implicitly how the accounts clear and how the accounting works, to the penny. He knows the currency itself is a case of monopoly. He knows the Fed, not ‘the market’ necessarily sets rates. He knows that, operationally, US Treasury securities function as interest rate support, and not to fund expenditures. He knows it all!

Carmen, Vince, please come home! I hereby offer my personal amnesty- come clean NOW and all is forgiven! As you well know, coming clean NOW will profoundly change the world. As you well know, coming clean NOW will profoundly alter the course of our civilization!

Carmen, Vince, either you believe in an informed electorate or you don’t!?

A AAA dish beyond any doubt: Lamb Meatballs with Mint Yogurt Sauce

Tags

AAA, credit rating, George Osborn, lamb, meatballs, mint, Moody's, uk, yogurt

(Photo and recipe via here)

Serves 4

Preparation: 45min

This is a children’s all-time favourite (including those who still take credit rating agencies’ predictions seriously). Serve with French fries or, if you decide to skip the sauce, with potato puree.

For the Mint Sauce

1 cup fat Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp minced fresh mint
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp kosher salt, divided

To make the yogurt sauce mix yogurt, garlic, mint, lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

For the Lamb Meatballs

1 pound ground lamb
¼ cup plain bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
2 tblsp chopped fresh coriander
½ cup minced onions
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp allspice
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 pieces whole wheat pita bread

 

Preheat oven to 180^oC / 350^oF / Gas Mark 4.

In a bowl combine lamb, bread crumbs, egg, coriander, onions, cumin, allspice and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Mix well. Roll into 12 meatballs (Helpful hint: Shape your meatballs using an ice cream scoop for consistent size). Place meatballs in a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
Spoon yogurt sauce on down the middle of the pita, top with three lamb meatballs. Serve.
These would also make a great appetizer. Simply put toothpicks in the meatballs and serve the yogurt mint sauce alongside for dipping.

Enjoy!

Food for thought

Moody’s downgrades UK – Osborne ploughs on regardless

Posted on February 22, 2013 by alittleecon

Here’s Osborne in April 2012, following S&P’s decision to affirm the UK’s AAA credit rating:

“This is a reminder that Britain is weathering the international debt storms because of the policies we have adopted and stuck to in tough times…The budget showed we are ready to go on making the difficult decisions that are keeping our country safe. Once again we are reminded that those who want to spend and borrow even more would lead our country into an economic catastrophe.”

So the AAA rating proved austerity was the right thing to do and changing course would risk losing it which would lead to “economic catastrophe”. But hang on a minute. Today, horror of horrors, another ratings agency – Moody’s,does downgrade the UK. Economic catastrophe? What does Osborne think now?

“Tonight we have a stark reminder of the debt problems facing our country – and the clearest possible warning to anyone who thinks we can run away from dealing with those problems…Far from weakening our resolve to deliver our economic recovery plan, this decision redoubles it…

…[Moody’s] make it absolutely clear that they could downgrade the UK’s credit rating further in the event of ‘reduced political commitment to fiscal consolidation’…We are not going to run away from our problems, we are going to overcome them.”

It’s a little confusing because it seems that a AAA rating means austerity is the right thing to do, because losing that AAA would be a disaster, but in the event of actually losing the AAA rating, that also means austerity is the correct path, because the alternative would be much worse. If I didn’t know better, I’d say George Osborne doesn’t know what he’s doing.

* While now is the time to mock George Osborne, it should also be said that while the economic impact of the downgrade is uncertain, in reality it’s unlikely to amount to anything significant. Moody’s are actually making themselves look a little foolish by downgrading another country with its own sovereign currency, who’s risk of default is near enough zero.

Pizza dough and how it relates to sex

Tags

dough, pizza, sex

The secret to the perfect pizza lies in the dough. And the secret to good dough lies in the yeast. Freshness is the key in cooking, and it’s especially true with yeast.

Refrigerated yeast needs to come to room temperature before use. Water used in dough generally should be about 120-130^o F/ 50^oC.

Kneading and rising are equally important. If you are trying to make a thin crust pizza, for example, you will find that you just can’t stretch the dough thin enough without putting in the time to knead the dough, and punching down during the rising to release the gas from the yeast reaction.

When the dough is rising, leave it at room temperature. Don’t check or handle it, just let it be for the time required. Experts suggest letting it rise overnight. That’s because they don’t account for the fact that pizza is a last minute solution most of the time. 3:)

Other expert suggestions include using a baking stone instead of a metal pizza pan, patting it with your fingers until it flattens evenly instead of using a roller, brushing olive oil on the crust but garlic oil on the crust edges and finally using a thick brush to evenly spread the sauce across the dough.

Whichever advice you intend to follow or dismiss,

there’s nothing like a home smelling of pizza baking. ❤

350gr (12 oz) flour

15gr (½ oz) fresh yeast

180ml (6,5 oz) lukewarm water

½ tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

Sift the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Use a measuring cup to mix the yeast, olive oil and sugar into the water, leave it for a few minutes and then pour it into the well. Knead until the dough feels smooth and your hands clean and flour-dusted. You may need to add some more flour in the process to achieve that.

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let it rise for at least one hour by the end of which, it should have doubled in size.

Place the dough in a flour-dusted surface and punch it down to push the air out. Use your fingers to flatten it evenly onto an oiled pan and let it rest for another 30 minutes before adding the ingredients for your pizza.

Food for thought

Good sex and fast food are two things we all take pleasure in but giving up on the latter has proven to make the former a more pleasurable experience. 😉

All the more reason to have homemade pizza.