Pandemic Cooking: Ric Ric's Signature Crispy Fried Rice

Ric Ric made his specialty fried rice for us, where he made the rice crispy.

It was awesome! So delicious, we ate the whole thing and there was no leftover.

Pandemic Baking: First Time Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread #1 and #2

Kristen of FullProofBaking has been posting some amazing Instagram photos of her sourdough bread, so it was time to try out her recipe using her techniques.

Her recipe uses 20% whole wheat and 80% bread flour, making a small loaf about 650g (2/3 the size of what we have been making.)

FullProofBaking whole wheat recipe
Bread flour (78.5%)	255g
Whole wheat flour (21.5%)	70g
Water (77.8%)	253g
Leaven (20%) Fed, at its peak	65g
Salt (2.4%)	8g
LOAF SIZE	651g
Baking instructions	Preheat Dutch oven to 500 deg F (min one hour) My oven reaches ~460 deg F during the bake Bake with lid on for 20 minutes Bake with lid off for 20 minutes (longer if needed) Optional: convection oven for a couple minutes to reach the color you like

Her techniques included an autolyse, a lamination step, and coil-and-fold instead of stretch-and-fold.

We decided to follow her techniques and her timeline in an attempt to achieve the same open airy crumb from her pictures.

Our timeline for Whole Wheat Sourdough #1 and #2:

8AM:        Fed the starter 1:2:2 based on Kristin's notes

10AM:      Autolyse flour + water

2PM:         Add Levain

2:30PM:    Add salt

3PM:         Divide dough and light fold

3:45PM:    Lamination

4:30PM:    Coil fold #1

5:15PM:    Coil fold #2

6PM:         Coil fold #3

7:45PM:    Shaping then retard overnight

Next morning bake:
Whole wheat Sourdough #1

1. 8:15AM: Preheat the Dutch oven at 500 deg F

2. 9:35AM: Bake with lid on for 20 minutes

3. 9:55AM: Bake with lid off for 20 minutes

4. 10:15AM: Convection on bare racks for 1 minute

Whole wheat sourdough #1

Cross section of Whole wheat sourdough #1

Whole wheat Sourdough #2

1. 10: 30AM: Preheat the Dutch oven at 500 deg F

2. 11:07AM: Bake with lid on for 20 minutes

3: 11:27AM: Bake with lid off for 20 minutes

4. 11:47AM: Leave in oven (OFF: reading 420 deg F) for 5 minutes

Whole wheat sourdough #2

Cross section of whole wheat sourdough #2

Both loaves rose really well, had nice open crumb, and tasted really good.

The crumb is not as evenly open as FullProofBaking's bread, so we need to continue to work on our techniques.

But we really liked using her techniques, and the size of her loaf.

Pandemic Cooking: Ric's Okonomiyaki

Ric made lunch for us, a fancy Japanese-style pancake made with flour, eggs, cabbage, topped with shrimps and bacon.

The spicy mayo gave it a nice kick.

It was really delicious.

Okonomiyaki topped with shrimps and bacon

Pandemic Cooking: Ric's Smashed Burgers

 Ric the Head Chef and Amy the Sous-Chef teamed up to make dinner.

The menu was Smashed Burgers and fries.

The Smashed Burgers were made with two hamburger patties, smashed down flat on the skillet (or in this case, the indoor grill.)

The fries were made using the Air Fryer.

It was an amazing burger! But it requires a hefty appetite to finish.

Of course, Dad and Ric finished without a problem.

Pandemic Cooking: Ric's Signature Dish (Lamb chops and asparagus)

 Ric the Head Chef and Amy the Sous Chef teamed up to make a delicious dinner of lamb chops and asparagus, served with the sourdough bread they made.

The lamb chops were first sous-vide, then seared. The asparagus was roasted in the oven, with olive oil, garlic, and grated parmesan cheese.

Dinner was delicious!

As it was Mom's birthday, we also celebrated with Grace's cake and Jeni's ice cream, a perfect combination! No blowing of the candles though, due to COVID concerns.

Mom's birthday dinner made by Ric

Mom's birthday cake and ice cream

Pandemic Baking: Ric and Amy teamed up to make a sourdough bread

With the head sourdough chef unavailable, Ric and Amy teamed up to work the dough and score.

The head sourdough chef fed the leaven in the morning, and Ric began the stretch-and-fold techniques on the dough starting at 2PM.

The head sourdough chef came back in time to teach Ric how to shape the dough.

The next morning, Amy tried her hands at scoring the dough.

Amy's first time scoring

The resulting loaf was beautiful and tasted excellent.

Beautiful design

Nice cross section showing open airy crumb

Road Trip to Maine during Pandemic

 We picked a weekend during the short two or three weeks of harvest season of the wild Maine blueberries to drive to Maine.

We were not sure how we felt about traveling during the pandemic, and so close to Ric and Amy's wedding date.

At the last minute, we decided to go for it. Thank goodness for Amazon two-day delivery, so we could purchase what we needed for the road trip.

We bought a super fancy refrigerator/freezer that could run plugged into the car lighter plug or into the house AC plug, so we could keep the wild blueberries cold on the ride home. It was also convenient to carry our breakfast food and lunch snacks for the long drive.

Fancy new cooler

We worked half a day Friday and left the house at 1:30PM. We drove and stayed overnight in Portsmouth, NH, with a quick stop in Hartford, CT to pick up a pizza at the Blind Pig and eat in the car.

We left early the next morning and made it to Alexander Wild Blueberry Farm by 10:30AM to pick up our four 10-lbs boxes of blueberries (one fresh and three frozen.) Their regular hours were 1PM-6PM but they extended their pick up hours to 10AM-6PM during the pandemic. This was very helpful so that we could get home at a decent time.

Beautiful farm

Fresh wild Maine blueberries with banana bread

We immediately helped ourselves to a serving of the fresh wild blueberries as soon as we got settled back into the car. The wild blueberries popped in our mouth and burst with sweet and tart flavors, and tasted as amazing as we remembered them from last summer.

We started our drive home, a 12-hour drive from Alexander farm. We did our research and decided to stop at the Pine Tree seafood market in South Portland, ME, for Maine lobster.

Tiny seafood market in Portland ME

Inside of the Pine Tree seafood market

Extra long lobster roll for $17.99

One pound of lobster meat (4 tails plus claw meat) for $40

It was a great decision to stop at the Pine Tree seafood market in South Portland, ME. It only added 5 minutes to our time, and we picked up two lobster rolls and five containers of one-pound lobster meat. 

We discovered that one container of the lobster meat contains four lobster tails and claw meat, more than enough to keep us super happy!

We ate the lobster rolls and one pound of the lobster meat in the car, finding room in the coolers for the remaining four pounds of lobster meat.

The lobster meat tasted very sweet and fresh. The rolls were no where as good as Red Eat's, so maybe next time we just buy the lobster meat and feast on it and skip the roll.

Overall, it was a very efficient trip. We arrived home on Saturday night at 10:30PM, a decent time that allowed us to unpack and go to bed before midnight. Having left the previous day at 1:30PM, we have taken a trip to Maine and back in a day and a half, bringing home 40-pounds of Maine's wild blueberries and 4-pound of lobster meat to enjoy the next month or two.

Pandemic Baking: Best of Sourdoughs

Pandemic Baking: How to Revive Dehydrated Starter Flakes

Tools required:

(1) Second clean jar is needed on Day 3

(2) Small spatula

(3) Food scale

Helpful Tips:

(1) Decide when to start based on Day 3, which requires 3 feedings

(2) Weigh your empty jars without lid and write it down on the jar

(3) Measure water in a separate container before adding to the starter

(4) Make sure jars are big enough for the starter to grow double or triple its size

Revive Schedule	Day 1 AM e.g. 8AM	Day 1 AM+30min e.g. 8:30AM	Day 2 AM e.g. 8AM	Day 3 AM e.g. 8AM	Day 3 MID-DAY e.g. 3PM	Day 3 EVENING e.g. 10PM	Day 4 AM e.g. 8AM
Feeding Ratio	1:2:1 ratio		2:1:1 ratio	1:2:2 ratio	1:2:2 ratio	1:5:5 ratio	No feeding
Begin Starter Start Weight	5g of dehydrated flakes	15g paste, with small bubbles	20g more relaxed paste, still thick	Note large bubbles Move 5g into new jar (discard 35g)	Note small bubbles Move 5g into new jar (discard 20g)	Note small bubbles Move 5g into new jar (discard 20g)	Note that it has doubled in size 55g of paste
Water	+10g Mix well		+10g Mix well before adding flour	+10g Mix well before adding flour	+10g Mix well before adding flour	+25g Mix well before adding flour	N/A
Unbleached all-purpose flour		+5g Mix well	+10g Mix well	+10g Mix well	+10g Mix well	+25g Mix well	N/A
End Starter Final weight	15g of paste Cover jar loosely	20g of very thick paste Cover jar loosely	40g of paste Cover jar loosely	25g of paste Cover jar loosely	25g of paste Cover jar loosely	55g of paste Cover jar loosely	It is now fully revived Cover jar, refrigerate and follow the maintenance schedule the following week

Once the starter is fully revived, follow the maintenance schedule below.

Note that there will not be enough discard to bake on week 1, but there will be plenty of discard to bake up to 3 loaves on subsequent weeks (following thePerfectLoaf recipe using all-purpose flour.

Maintenance Schedule	Week 1: Build starter Feed without discard	Week 2 to n: Maintain starter Feed and discard
Feed Ratio	1:1:1 ratio	1:1:1 ratio
Starter	55g of starter (no discard available) Bring to room temp (about 2 hrs)	55g of starter into new jar (110g of discard available for baking) Bring to room temp (about 2 hrs)
Water	+55g	+55g to maintenance starter (as needed: +110g to discard for baking)
Unbleached all-purpose flour	+55g	+55g to maintenance starter (as needed: +110g to discard for baking)
Final Weight and Descriptions	165g of maintenance starter Cover jar loosely Wait until doubled/tripled in size (about 5-6 hrs) then cover jar and refrigerate	165g of maintenance starter Cover jar loosely Wait until doubled/tripled in size (about 5-6 hrs) then cover jar and refrigerate (as needed: 330g of fed discard-wait until doubled/tripled in size then mix dough)
Notes	There will not be enough discard on week 1 to bake bread	330g is enough discard to bake 3 loaves Suggest to only feed what is required to bake (since the rest will be thrown away)

The revived starter is doing very well and has shown to triple in size after week 1 feed.

Revived starter from dehydrated flakes on the left; regularly maintained starter on the right

Note: Always reserve 55g of starter to maintain, and use the rest for baking.

Pandemic Baking: Sourdough #36, #37, #38

Ric Ric is coming into town. He will be tasting our sourdough breads for the first time.

All three loaves followed thePerfectLoaf all-purpose flour recipe.

The day of Ric Ric's arrival, we started the mix at 6:45AM. Five folds happened at 7AM, 7:15AM, 7:45AM, 8:15AM, and 8:45AM. Pre-shaped was at 10:30AM, final shaping at 10:50AM, and the dough went into the bannetons for proofing at 11:00AM.

Of note, Sourdough #37 was built using the revived starter from dehydrated starter flakes, as a test.

The revived started was fed and tripled in size the night before, so it came back stronger than before.

Revived starter from dehydrated flakes on the left; regularly maintained starter on the right

 

Sourdough #36 was baked on the same day, while Sourdough #37 and #38 were retarded overnight and baked the next day.

Sourdough #36 baking time:

1. 12:30PM: preheat Dutch oven to 500 deg F (reading 460 deg F)

2. 1:30PM: score and bake

3. Lid on for 20 minutes (rotate at 10 min)

4. Lid off for 30 minutes (rotate at 15 min)

5. Convection at 475 deg F and on bare racks for 3 minutes (rotate at 1.5 min)

Final post-bake weight of Sourdough #36: 728g

Sourdough #36: same day baking

Sourdough #36 cross section

Sourdough #36 first slice

Very nice airy crumb; crust was not crunchy, rather a little chewy; not hard to the bite.

Ric Ric was very impressed.

Sourdough #37 baking time:

1. 8:53AM: preheat Dutch oven to 500 deg F and take banneton out of fridge

2. 10:00AM: score and bake

3. Lid on for 20 minutes (rotate at 20)

4. Lid off for 30 minutes

Final post-bake weight of Sourdough #37 (using revived starter): 729g

Sourdough #37 using revived starter, proofed overnight before baking

Sourdough #37 cross section

Sourdough #37 slice

Special bread for Ric Ric came out very beautiful and tasty.

Note that this bread was made using the revived starter from dehydrated flakes, so our reviving method worked well.

Sourdough #38 baking time:

1. 2:06PM: preheat Dutch oven to 500 deg F and take banneton out of fridge

2. 3:00PM: score and bake

3. Lid on for 20 minutes (rotate at 20)

4. Lid off for 30 minutes

Final post-bake weight of Sourdough #38: 728g

Sourdough #38 using regularly maintained starter, proofed overnight before baking

Sourdough #38 cross section

Sourdough #38 slice

New scoring design for this loaf: it came out beautifully.

Same airy crumb, and very nice crust; could be a little crunchier, it was a bit more chewy than crunchy.

All three loaves came out pretty much the same, using thePerfectLoaf recipe to the T.

Very good, that is.