No-Knead Bread

By Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

This bread is so easy to make and delicious that anyone can succeed. This recipe was published in the New York Times in 2006. My friend Heather and many times partner in cooking crimes gave me this recipe and two other friends actually send me the same recipe. So there you go! It is a good one!

My tip (or discovery): Warmer weather is better to raise bread.

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Lentil Salad with Feta Cheese and Fried Onion

by Rita Lobo


Whenever I serve this salad people either ask for the recipe or are at least curious about the ingredients that make this salad so exquisite and delicious. It can be served warm, room temperature or cold. You can use pignoli nuts or any kind of nuts you like and toast just like the almonds. The cheese you can skip  if you don't have it handy BUT the onions really give that special touch.

Dressing

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 soupspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup chopped mint leaves

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside

Salad

1 cup lentil

2/3 cup raw almonds (slivered or sliced) 

1 large yellow onion

1 cup canola oil

100 g feta cheese

Toast the almonds in a small skillet over medium heat. Keep moving the skillet so they don’t burn. When the almonds are tan and releasing a perfumed smell they are ready. Transfer immediately to a bowl.

Peel and slice the onion very fine.

Add the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, fry the onions in batches until they look dark gold but not burned. Place the fried onions over a paper towel.

In the mean time place the lentils in a pan with enough water to boil for 15 minutes and not go dry. The lentils should be al dente when ready.

Strain the lentils very well and place them in a large bowl. While still hot, pour over the dressing. Gently stir in the almonds, 1/2 of the fried onions, the cheese cut in small squares.

Place the left over onion over the lentils and serve.