As days turn into weeks, little changes. I have bought only two “entrees” from my beloved restaurants: the mini hamburger salad at Olio and the blue wedge salad from 2Wives. Otherwise, I cook.
I am eating healthily most of the time although, periodically, I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a Subway sandwich, the BLT with American cheese and extra tomatoes.
For the latter, I still had coupons and I gave my neighbors one for three foot longs for $17.99. They dropped mine on my porch bench. It was delicious, but I would have loved to share our bounty together.
I am cooking a lot, much from my freezer and pantry. I have packets of mashed potatoes for the bread recipe below. And thick pork chops, into which I slice a pocket to add the stuffing in the bottom recipe.
I even have sour cream. If you don’t have some and have an envelope for gravy, that will do nicely.
Mashed Potato Bread
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
½ cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 ½ sticks butter, softened in the milk
1 ½ tablespoons salt
2 eggs
1 cup mashed potatoes
6 or so cups all-purpose flour
Dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in warm water and let proof for about 5 minutes until you see some bubbles. Then add warm milk, butter, ½ cup sugar, salt and eggs to yeast mixture and stir to blend thoroughly. Add mashed potatoes and stir well. Then add flour, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition to make the dough.
Turn out dough onto a floured board and knead for 12 to 15 minutes, until dough is very smooth and shows elasticity. Butter large mixing bowl, place dough in bowl and turn to coat on all sides with butter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let double in volume on the counter. (This could take up to 2 hours if the kitchen is a bit cold. I keep the temperature in the condo at 60 to 65 degrees.)
Spray two 8-inch loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside. Remove the dough from the bowl, punch it down and knead for about 2 minutes. Cut into two equal oval loaves and place each in the greased pan. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel and allow to almost double in volume, about another 2 hours.
When almost ready, heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the wrapping or towel and place the loaves in the oven. Bake 40 to 50 minutes.
The best way to know the loaves are ready is to use a digital thermometer with a “needle” and place the needle into the middle of the bread; it is done at about 200 to 205 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer, rap the loaves on the bottom with your knuckle; they should sound hollow. The top crust should be medium dark on top. Remove the bread from the loaf pans and return to the oven rack to crisp the bottom and sides, about 5 minutes.
Cool thoroughly before slicing, if you can wait that long.
Cook’s Tip: I used my large KitchenAid mixer for from the first sentence in the first paragraph until the fourth. After I take the dough out of the mixer, I turn in onto a floured board. I knead it with my hands for about 1 minute, then pour it into the buttered bowl.
Pork Chops with Rye Bread Stuffing and Sour Cream Gravy
adapted from two recipes in “The New York Times Cookbook” by Craig Claiborne (Harper and Row, New York, 1961)
Serves 2 or 4
2 two-inch loin pork chops; have the butcher cut pockets in the chops
2 tablespoons of butter or bacon fat
I medium onion, chopped
1 or 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1½ cups soft rye bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste
½ teaspoon caraway seeds
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 egg, beaten
water to moisten
1 cup stock or water
2 tablespoons flour
¼ cup sour cream
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet, heat butter or fat and saute onions and garlic, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and combine with bread crumbs, salt, pepper, caraway seeds, parsley, egg and water and mix well. Stuff chops with mixture, closing the openings with toothpicks.
Place chop in a baking pan that can then be heated on a heating element on the cooktop and season to taste with a little more salt and pepper. Cover closely and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking until brown and tender, about 30 minutes longer. Remove chops to a heated platter.
Pour off fat from the pan. Add stock or water and bring to a boil. Thicken with flour mixed with a little more water. Add sour cream and mix. Serve chops with sauce.
On the Side
A few weeks ago, my friend Barbara Tarbox photographed a few pastries she'd bought at Sift. For some reason, during this coronavirus quarantine, I had lost my taste for sweets. I kept making desserts, but I just wasn't interested.
But the next day I drove to Sift and found a parking place right in front of the pretty shop next to Bank Square Books. As I walked to the outside table, a lovely woman asked what I'd like. I ordered two peanut butter sandwich cookies and a sticky bun.
During the next four days I ate them all. I cannot figure how to make that sandwich cookie — two crunch-topped, delicate cookies filled with a peanut butter frosting — but as long as Sift keeps making that cookie, I will be there for another.
Sift
5 Water St., Mystic
(860) 245-0541
Lee White lives in Groton. She can be reached at leeawhite@aol.com.
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