#21

Member
Central Maine
Yippee! Our new oven was delivered and installed today! We're doing a burn off even as I write. I'll be back in bread nirvana soon! We've been without an oven for over a month.

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Brian. Lover of SE razors.
#22

Super Moderator
San Diego, Cal., USA
(12-10-2015, 07:43 PM)ShadowsDad Wrote: Yippee! Our new oven was delivered and installed today! We're doing a burn off even as I write. I'll be back in bread nirvana soon! We've been without an oven for over a month.

Enjoy, Brian.  No one deserves it more, not least because of all the help and guidance you've given here. Happy2
#23

Member
Austin, TX
(12-08-2015, 04:19 PM)ShadowsDad Wrote: The knockwurst variation is one I've never had. I've had it with the Russian dressing, or have had it sub'ed with mustard. I've also had it with pastrami rather than corned beef. It's all good. I bet kielbasa would be good as well.

Andrew, they're worth trying if you ever see it on a menu.
Congrats on the arrival Bryan.

There is a place close to our house called Pieous. They house smoke/cure their own pastrami, make coarse ground mustard and their own bread. They serve with, again, house made pickles and pickled onions on a cutting board and you self serve.

So good.

Their pizza is extraordinary too!

I don't know how I could be hungry again but this thread does it to me every time.
Kevin
#24

Super Moderator
San Diego, Cal., USA
(12-10-2015, 08:24 PM)kwsher Wrote:
(12-08-2015, 04:19 PM)ShadowsDad Wrote: The knockwurst variation is one I've never had. I've had it with the Russian dressing, or have had it sub'ed with mustard. I've also had it with pastrami rather than corned beef. It's all good. I bet kielbasa would be good as well.

Andrew, they're worth trying if you ever see it on a menu.
Congrats on the arrival Bryan.

There is a place close to our house called Pieous. They house smoke/cure their own pastrami, make coarse ground mustard and their own bread. They serve with, again, house made pickles and pickled onions on a cutting board and you self serve.

So good.
Their pizza is extraordinary too!

I don't know how I could be hungry again but this thread does it to me every time.

Kevin, you think you're the only one? I just went to the fridge to get a piece of cheese to nosh on.  By the way, your description of the pastrami isn't helping my waistline either. Tongue

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#25

Member
Central Maine
(This post was last modified: 12-10-2015, 11:00 PM by ShadowsDad.)
This thread is fiendishly designed to make sure if I ever meet anyone from the forum that they have the same waistline that I do.

That sounds delicious Kevin!

The new oven is all burned off and the insulation fibers that I can get to from it's assembly are all washed off of the surfaces and grates so I'm ready to go. Maybe Saturday will see it's first loaf of no knead bread for it's inaugural run. What a nice oven. I should have bought it 7 years ago instead of the POS Frigidaire that it replaced. I plead ignorance. The gents who installed the oven were super, but we know them by now. Nothing against them, but I hope we never see them again (no problems means we don't see them). I can't see this oven having any. As one of the installers mentioned, It's a basic oven with little to go wrong; exactly what I wanted after the Frigidaire. One thing I did notice is the much better insulation in it, not from sight but in operation, as the oven is entirely encapsulated. It's simply a better unit all around IMO. I ran it at 450°F for an hour to burn it off then 500° for 1/2 hour and the enclosure was much cooler than with any of our previous 2 ovens running at lower temp's. I'm so happy I could bust. :-) Really. Just in time for holiday breads and such. For the past week or so I've been counting on the oven coming in and I've been trying to decide exactly what to make. Neither the wife or I need the calories, but I have an idea that I'll overcompensate for not having an oven for a month by baking way too much. Let's see, there's potica, stollen, and panettone. Potica is a must and nonnegotiable.

But I'm rambling. Sorry.

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Brian. Lover of SE razors.
#26

Member
Austin, TX
Hey Brian, I have a crazy thought. Double the recipe, pull the baking time, freeze and ship to Austin, TX. Smile I am still hungry by the way.

P.S. Freddy I worked for a company that moved its HQ to Del Mar. Every time I would head to the area our CEO would insist that we go to Milton's. May not be the absolute best Reuben but they are solid and definitely one of the BIGGEST I have ever had!
Kevin
#27

Member
Central Maine
:-) Yes, that's a thought Kevin.

FWIW, a previous years potica.
[Image: DSC04048_zpsc2973542.jpg]
It's a rich yeast dough with a sweet walnut filling. It's easy to makeas pictured above but not easy to make if done right. It's supposed to have many more "layers" in the swirl, but I can't roll it out that paper thin. That's the trick to an excellent potica and I simply have never been able to do it.
Brian. Lover of SE razors.
#28

Super Moderator
San Diego, Cal., USA
(12-11-2015, 12:11 AM)ShadowsDad Wrote: :-) Yes, that's a thought Kevin.

FWIW, a previous years potica.
[Image: DSC04048_zpsc2973542.jpg]
It's a rich yeast dough with a sweet walnut filling. It's easy to makeas pictured above but not easy to make if done right. It's supposed to have many more "layers" in the swirl, but I can't roll it out that paper thin. That's the trick to an excellent potica and I simply have never been able to do it.

Brian, if that's you're idea of second best then I cannot even imagine your idea of the champ. Wink

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#29

Member
VB VA
This is a great thread I love all the recipes I'm going have to make some bread soon thanks ! And the swirl Brad looks like a Polish poppy seed cake roll, my grandmother made it all the time and it was delicious

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

kwsher likes this post
#30

Member
Central Maine
(This post was last modified: 12-12-2015, 06:49 AM by ShadowsDad.)
Poppy seed is one variation. Yes, my mom made that also. But in my old age I just make what I prefer and I was always partial to the walnut. I do plan to make a variation that was never made in the old country... pecan and maybe hazelnut. I expect prune was another old world variation. *

The potica is the most difficult but I haven't posted a recipe for it. There are plenty on the 'net. Anyone can make the no-knead bread and I do mean anyone. But the results are far better than what you can imagine. I'm a fairly accomplished baker and it has become my go to loaf.

The dinner rolls are extremely easy, but are a hair more involved than basic white bread. But neither of which is difficult.

If anyone wants sandwich rolls/hamburger buns just say the word. It's another recipe that's a hair more difficult than white bread, but if one can make dinner rolls the sandwich rolls use the same basic techniques. Once one learns the basics many recipes use them or variations of the same techniques. Bread is easy. Potica is bread, it's just a sweet bread.

* Why do I write that? OK, we need to understand todays really good food. It's all variations and derivatives of peasant food **. The "nobles" had meat and such and really horrible dietary problems. The peasants had a much better healthful diet when they had food, and their recipes have survived over the hundreds of years. Sure there are a few recipes that were made for rulers but they are fairly new and not at all many in comparison. But if one traces back the origins of most really good wholesome recipes that we make today, it goes back to food that the peasants ate. Peasants had dried fruits such as prunes and apricots. I would also expect an apricot variation of potica, but I've never seen it. That also explains the nut potica. When the wind was howling and nothing could be done outside, the gathered nuts could be shelled for the holiday potica bread. It was something special in the darkest time of the year and quite special. That time would also include the use of dried fruits; things made from storage foods. Could I make potica at any time of the year? Of course. But I prefer to follow what the peasants did hundreds of years ago to keep the bread special for the holidays and the darkest time of the year. It's a sort of spirit lifter or at least I like to think of it that way.

** of course there are modern dishes that have no connection to peasantry. I'm discussing traditional dishes and not those.
Brian. Lover of SE razors.


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