Hector May Take the Cake
Nov 03, 2008 | From the kitchen of Rose
But it's his partner Luca who "takes the bread"! Here's proof:
great success for the Basic Sourdough Bread at the Joint Astronomy
Centre in Hilo, HI.
I had Americans wondering why the bread tastes good even without
toppings and telling me that with that bread they could eat it every
day, and Europeans in tears of homesickness... thinking back to the
wonderful breads coming out of the bakeries across the continent.
Really, it was more successful than I could have ever expected. And
topped with fresh pesto, olive oil, and the oven-dried grape tomatoes...
Now everybody wants the recipe, for which I directed them to the
Bread Bible, just warning them that it's 6 pages long, not counting the
time needed to have a sourdough starter and the lack of sleep!
Aloha
Luca
Brravo Luca!!! And start giving everyone your leftover starter so they can make their own.
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Hector
02/17/2009 08:53 PM
Luca continues to make bread, and here is how he shared his valentine's/president's day weekend with friends:
http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/BasicSourdoughBreadZoWet-BasicHeartBreadWithSourdough-NoKneadWithRosemary.html
* * * * *
Oh, we didn't go to sergios, too much spending this weekend =)
Luca made a wonderful 3" thick filet mignon dinner at home for valentines, just Kathy came over. Luca brought a nice red wine from Grapes wine store in Hilo (where Elaine bought hers for her wedding). It was a 2004 wine, so great that it was the first time I saw Luca drink more than one glass. Dinner started with a first course of Rana brand mushroom tortelloni/ravioli; this is the only brand his Mom buys in Italy! As really awesome, just a sprinkle of olive oil and aged grana cheese (a cousin of parmiggiano regiano). Dessert was Hagen Dass mango sorbet with Wilemina rise local mango! The only sad news is that I did not make my own dessert. Oh, we had 3 breads to munch on: Luca's Basic Heart Bread, a no knead rosemary bread someone at my office made, and a experimental Zojirushi bread.
Sunday morning we went to the dog park and had lunch at Manoa square, with Kathy! They allow dogs at the outdoor court tables =) Then we went to Williams Sonoma to replace Luca's Valentine gift because it was defective. I gave him the Mukka Electric, it is really awesome for 1 person use. You won't believe how many cappuccinos we had this weekend! We came back home to take have coffee and nap, only to hear Luca wanting to go to Craig's place to prepare dinner! Kathy went too! By 5 pm we rushed to Costco for asparragus, mozarella, and garofalo brand spagueti #9 (I keep saying this is the best brand!). Then we met Kathy at Whole Foods, scared of the prices! We bought one egg plant, a small piece of feta salate cheese, a small piece of piave cheese, 1 garlic, and 1 onion..... Whew $20 bucks. Kathy likes the salami from Whole Foods, $26 a lb, we asked how many slices is half lb and screamed the butcher to stop slicing at the 25th or so slice!
Luca made a grilled asparragus with prosciutto and mozarella appetizer. We had the same breads from the day before. The main dish was a summer spagueti dish with eggplant, really fantastic.
Monday we had spaguetti with lepre ragu (wild rabbit), he brought from Florence.
Ok, I am getting hungry!
REPLY
Rozanne
11/10/2008 12:13 PM
Luca, that is one perfect looking loaf. Wish I could taste it.
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Patrincia
11/09/2008 10:27 PM
Excellent Luca! So nice to "meet" you after hearing Hector mention you so many times.
:)
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Hector
11/07/2008 05:31 PM
http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/Zo3.html
All right... it isn't as pretty as Luca's, but the taste is almost the same.
Here is my bread made on my mini-Zo bread machine. Right now, I am testing my No-Knead Sourdough Bread recipe. This is trial #3 and effortless.
Luca takes the bread, still yet!
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Julie
11/05/2008 11:34 AM
Nice Job, Luca! Your bread is lovely, and I loved looking at the pizza you did for Elaine's wedding. Now, if I only could smell the aroma...
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hector
11/04/2008 09:22 PM
brother: most of the best breads in the world do that "becoming hard and unbiteable" as soon as cooling off. Just remember our old days in Peru where the only way to buy bread was to stand in line at the neighborhood bakery at 5 am or 5 pm daily!
moreover, most homemade breads can't be eaten hot off the oven. about 1 to 2 hours after, the bread is still developing structure and setting moisture off, otherwise would smash into mush when sliced!
additives, chemicals, and heavy artillery prevents the above in industry! but I promise you, homemade bread made the pure way tastes infinitely better than industry bread, even after toasting (the homemade bread).
luca is blushing beyond words, and I am so proud of him!
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Miguel
11/04/2008 01:17 PM
I went to the grocery store Saturday for a Baguette, found only a Sourdough Baguette and hesitantly bought it.
Well,, as tradition mandates, once in my car I tore the ending pice for a bite. What the heck,, it was so hard I almost couldn't break a piece, I put it in my mouth and it almost broke a tooth,, I drove a couple of blocks away and said, damm it,,I m gona return it and get my money back ( $1.99). ( I bet you cant or wont do that in Italy), but well got home anyways. It turns out that once I reheat/retoast it on top of the toaster it softened enough to make myself a fantastic roast pork sandwich.
But I still think they sold me a very old Sourdough Baguette and I got rip off. Nevertheless, it went in,, smoothly
M
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GadgetGuys.com
11/04/2008 12:03 AM
Rose,
Love your blog. I have quite a few books that give recipes for baking using cup measures. I got tired of doing the calculations in my head so I created this little spreadsheet (at the above URL). The PDF prints nicely. I thought your readers might find it useful. Let me know if I made any calculation errors and I'll fix it asap.
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