I am on a quest to make the perfect breadstick. Growing up in SA, we had these wonderful crisp sesame breadsticks that I just loved. My first effort was miserable, so I refined the recipe and it’s a little closer. It will get better. More work to do!

Ingredients

• 500 g bread flour (or all-purpose)
• 275 g water (55% hydration)
• 8 g salt
• 5 g instant yeast
• 35-40 g olive oil
• 80–100 g sesame seeds

The secret is to not overwork the dough. The process is:

The Mix

• Combine everything except the sesame seeds.
• Knead until smooth (about 6–8 minutes).
• You want a tight dough, not super elastic like pizza dough.

First rise

• Cover and rise 60–75 minutes until slightly puffy.
• Not doubled — just relaxed.

Roll the sheet

Roll dough into a rectangle about:

• ½ inch thick
• lightly dusted with flour

Sesame coating trick (important)

• Brush the surface lightly with water or egg white.
• Then press sesame seeds firmly into the dough.
• This ensures they stick and toast beautifully instead of falling off.

Cut breadsticks

• Cut strips about:
• thinner than thumb thickness
• 10–12 inches long
• Place them on parchment.
• One more important trick (almost nobody mentions):
• After cutting the sticks, roll them lightly on the counter once with your palm.
• This:
• compresses large air pockets
• evens thickness
• gives a more delicate snap
• Without that, you get dense cores that feel hard.

Short rest

• Rest 10–15 minutes only.
• You want very little rise.

Bake

Stage 1 — structure

• 425°F
• Bake 12–14 minutes
• They should be lightly golden

Stage 2 — drying (the crunch step)

• Lower oven to 275°F
• Bake another 15–20 minutes.
• This removes moisture and creates the magic crunch.

Final drying trick

• Turn the oven off, crack the door slightly, and leave them inside 10–15 minutes.
• This step is what gives the bakery snap.

I have had this urge to make a rye loaf. Having never made one before, I was a little surprised at how different the dough is. The dough is pretty wet and sticky compared to regular sourdough, so, it was a little unsettling to work with it blind to what to expect. My experience with sourdough had me proof it for a very long time which seemed to have been the correct decision given how it turned out. Update: It is absolutely perfection! Next on the menu, corned beef on rye and hot pastrami sandwiches!

Japanese comfort food is amazingly moreish. Soboro Donburi, Gingery Ground Beef with Peas over Rice, is not just delicious, it’s super easy and quick. You just have to have the ingredients. Sake and Dashi are the two main things you need to find along with soy, sugar and pickled ginger. You also need fresh ginger and I like to add garlic and even a shallot to make it a rounded dish. You start by getting the aromatics fragrant, (I like to add a good bit of red pepper flakes here too,) then brown the beef. You add the sauce and let it braise in the sauce for about 10 minutes. Before the sauce is all evaporated, add the thawed peas and take it off the heat. The residual heat will warm the peas. Serve over jasmine rice and top with a tablespoon of pickled ginger. It’s one of those dishes that is on our regular rotation for a very good reason. It’s delicious and moreish!

We were feeling like a pastry meal…so Heather requested a Steak and Mushroom pie. I found a great recipe calling for the beef to be braised in Stout. I also made the choice to make the rough puff pastry from scratch. That was perhaps not a great choice, but it still tasted great. The pie itself was put together after the beef and carrots and mushrooms along with celery, thyme, and chicken stock and a bottle of Guiness braised in a simmer for about 4 hours. To enhance the flavor, I had added Marmite, fish sauce, malt vinegar, worcester sauce and soy sauce. It smelled wonderful and before I put it in the pie plate I adjusted the salt and pepper levels for flavor. I used frozen butter for the crust and with a few 2 hour rests in the fridge, it came together nicely. In the end, I allowed the crust to cook in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes till broiling it for a minute to get the golden brown I was looking for. WE both enjoyed it accompanied by an ice cold Guinness Stout and a small green salad. (If you look carefully, in the middle, to the left, you can see the Pi symbol we tried to create and there are also 3 mushrooms at the top right that are well disguised!)

Normally, I find French cooking a little intimidating. Maybe that is because I don’t do too much of it. On the other hand, this dish is one of my very favorite dishes. It’s also super easy and has therefore become a standard in our house. It’s basically a few ingredients that you can put together in a few minutes and 30 minutes later be licking your plate. You core and slice tomatoes, I use 4 or 5. We love garlic, so I use a whole head. Separate the cloves, but leave the skin on. chop a cup or so of flat leaf parsley, and clarify a3 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Liberally salt and pepper your chicken (we use thighs), then begin to brown the chicken in the butter on a medium hot stove once the butter stops sizzling. Add all the garlic, Brown on both sides, then add the tomatoes and the parsley, and a quarter cup of rice wine vinegar.. Cover and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Then remove the chicken and keep them warm in a 200 degree oven while you finish the sauce. To finish the sauce, remove the garlic from their peels and mash them with a fork before putting them back in the pan. Add 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter and get the sauce nice and creamy. Pour it over the chicken and enjoy! You will quickly add this dish to your regular rotation.

For my taste, I make the best burgers. There are occasions to go out for a burger, esp if you are craving a Wibleys Century Burger (Blue cheese bacon burger with sprouts), but, when we crave real burger, then I make them. I usually make quarter pounders, and I mix the beef with gochujang, bread crumbs, an egg, and a little grated cheddar. I form the patties and let them rest in the fridge for a day. For mushroom burgers, I saute the mushrooms till they are nicely caramelized. I season the burger with salt, pepper and peri peri. I saute them on the stovetop. While they are sautéing, I make my special sauce. Ketchup, mayo and Tabasco. When the burgers are just about cooked through, I put them in the hot oven with the swiss cheese on top. We sauce the toasted ciabatta buns, add lettuce, tomato, pickles, crisp bacon and red onion. The burger goes next with the melted cheese and its topped with a healthy helping of mushrooms. It really is food porn.

This was another instance of “Lets use up the ingredients we have in the fridge” pizza. I honestly did not know what this pizza was going to be till I went into the cheese drawer and pulled out all the leftovers. There was some fontina, Feta and also a little fresh motz. On the protein side, there was a half pack of spicy Korean sausages and about a third of a pack of pepperoni. Heather suggested that we use picked jalapeno and red onion as well. So that is how this came together. I chopped pepperoni, the Korean sausage, and the pickled jalapeno. I shredded the cheese (other than the fresh Motz, and sliced the onion. Stretched the dough out, spread the tomato sauce, layered the cheese, and covered it with the chopped jalapeno. I added the pepperoni and the sausage and finally, spread the sliced red onion. 11 minutes later this delicious tasty beauty emerged.The rough edges are the cheese that bled over the edge.

When we executed our World Tour of Chicken a few years ago, we found one or two surprises. I would say that this dish is the most surprising of them all. Mussakhan is a classic Palestinian dish traditionally laid out on a giant piece of bread, where the flavorful roasting juices laced with allspice, sumac, and cumin can be poured over the top. It is meant to be placed on the table so that everyone can pull off sections of bread and chicken, but we serve it on individual plates. It’s basically 2 ingredients. Chicken and red onions, but when you add sumak, lemon juice, cumin and allspice, garlic, pine nuts, parsley and naan, you have the most amazing set of flavors. After making several times, I have found that the secret is to marinate the chicken and onions overnight for the best flavors to emerge, and this time, I also made the naan from scratch.

To make the naan, naturally, I used our sourdough starter. Surprisingly the bread includes both milk and yogurt in the recipe. It’s also cooked on the stove top. Like the chicken, the dough needed to be rested overnight in the fridge. Once the naan is made, you save it for serving. To make the chicken, you roast it in the oven with the onions, the present it on top of the naan with oil fried pine nuts, chopped parsley and olive oil. You serve it with a little more sumac, and a squeeze of lemon juice with more garlic naan on the side.

When you have ridiculously delicious leftover mango sauce, and wonderful Toum in the fridge, you naturally make coconut rice and mango chicken. Fusion of African, Lebanese and Thai flavors on a plate. Flavor bomb! I seasoned the chicken, salt, pepper and peri peri, then seared it before finishing it in the oven under the grill. Served with mango sauce and toum on a bed of coconut rice!