Harris Bistro

 Do you Sourdough? If you DO sourdough you know there is discard.  If you were raised like I was, my Mother NEVER threw any food away. Both her and my Dad lived through the Depression, both here in the US and in Europe. It was NOT good times. Whenever I think how hard this pandemic has been, I remember their stories and think.....this is not that bad. Hang in there....We can do this. To that, I have a VERY hard time throwing any food away. Got some old-ish fruit? Dehydrate it and make fruitcake! Got some juice that's long in the fridge? Concentrate it and add it to your fruitcake! Got some sourdough starter discard? USE it for SOMETHING! Google sourdough discard! Others have similar issues. I ran across this from King Arthur Flour. I tweaked it a bit, but use it to make CRUMPETS! Which are like English Muffins , but MUCH better. INGREDIENTS: 1 cup (227g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard - THE TWEAK: Feed it and let it grow for 3-4 hours. This makes it so much fluffier 1 teaspo...

 Bread for Food Banks -  2 times a month I bake bread that's donated to local food banks. I am not alone, in fact I just started! I joined NW Bread Bakers. We bake using local wheat, locally milled then donate to local food banks. Interested? Here's a link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfcLAimwN1reNIY2MFmC6hLx1XZ7M6qPySTAeYOr1ZhcAJXUw/viewform?gxids=7757 You can find them on Facebook too! Just google them! I heard about them during a "Food For Thought" podcast. IMMEDIATELY I KNEW I had to join! I JUST finished delivering my second donation. Holy Cow this bread is good! Join us!

Earlier this month we decided to order a steam/combi oven. We actually bake - a lot! And often I could use 2 ovens. Plus, the best bread is baked with steam at the start of the bake. This allows the best "oven spring" which is the last expansion of the yeast prior to it's last gasp. I've been baking bread in my cast iron pots which acts like a steam oven. Here's a quick pic of the boule from the cast iron (#1) and one done in the steam oven (#2). Both are good! My scoring was better on #1. The little hearts were made with scissors. Little cuts made on about a 45deg angle. More to come on the oven. Right now, I've got a pork shoulder roast in it for pulled port. 

  Harris Bistro - Biscotti I love biscotti and so does my husband. They are great dipped in coffee in the morning or dipped in whisky at night. Here's the recipe! 150g Sugar 113g Unsalted Butter 2 Eggs  1 Tablespoon  Vanilla Extract (if no beans)  275g AP Flour  1.5 teaspoons Baking Powder   0.5 teaspoon  Salt 145g  Slivered Almonds any dried fruit you'd like to add - just a few suggestions dried  cranberries candied ginger dried cherries etc? use your imagination PREPARATION Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Position rack in center of oven. With a small knife, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and place in a small bowl. Add the sugar and use your fingers to mix the vanilla evenly into the sugar. Set aside. With an electric mixer, cream the butter until light. Add the vanilla sugar and mix until fluffy. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and almonds and stir into the butter...

WHAT is this?? This is cod, cut into bite-sized pieces, chilled, dried, dusted with flour. Then dipped in batter and coated with panko. Then shallow fried in peanut oil. All for the love of fish tacos! Batter recipe: This is scaleable. Make what you need. This batter makes the lightest, crunchiest batter for anything fried. Add water if you want a thinner batter. rice flour (50%) cornstarch (50%) salt pepper other seasoning as desired (paprika? garlic powder?) whipped egg white mix all the dry ingredients Whip the egg white - I actually used meringue powder (Wilton - used for baking. any baking supply store will have it or order online). 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp powder. Mix well then whip it up! So easy and no waste wondering what to do with the yolks. (Actually, make pasta with them) water as needed FOLD the whipped egg into the dry ingredients (don't mix the snot out of it!) Dust the fish with flour then dip in the batter - last step: roll in panko crumbs. These can be pan fried, deep fri...

 This is the first post for the official Blog of Harris Bistro. No, we don't have an official eatery, we DO cook, a lot! Even before the pandemic hit.  I make almost everything from scratch and enjoy investigating new things to do. This will be a site where I post recipes and answer questions. (Hang in there while I learn how to do this blog thingy. :-)) Just what IS a BISTRO?  A  bistro  or  bistrot  /ˈbiːstroʊ/, is, in its original Parisian incarnation, a small restaurant, serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting with alcohol.  Bistros  are defined mostly by the foods they serve. French home-style cooking, and slow-cooked foods like cassoulet, a bean stew, are typical. Bistros  differ from  restaurants  as they are more casual and outside the box of  restaurant  because they often have a café style atmosphere, more relaxed, and sometimes even counter or serve yourself style. Neither of us are Frenc...