Caponata with garlic grilling bread Take a refreshing dip

A few minutes ago, while filling in the “bake vs. buy” information for this post, I discovered that eggplant caponata, purchased online, will cost you a cool $10.50 for a 19-ounce jar.

That’s just about $71/gallon.

WHOA. And you thought gas at the pump was expensive!

As tedious as it is to figure out a buy vs. bake comparison for most of these blog recipes, it’s a good self-reminder. Trying to save money? Don’t go out. Go in – to the kitchen. Open your cupboard. Peer into the fridge. What can you make out of what you’ve got?

Plenty, if you know how.

Take caponata. If you’ve never enjoyed it, caponata is a tasty Italian “relish” made of slowly sautéed eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and garlic, mixed with capers, oil-cured black olives, and sliced fresh tomatoes. Served at room temperature, it’s the perfect spread for crostini, or a dip for wedges of pita bread.

Are you likely to have all of those ingredients on hand? At this time of the year, I often do. Fresh local tomatoes and eggplant are just starting to appear at our farmstands. I keep onions and fresh garlic in the cupboard; capers are in the fridge. Oil-cured olives are a pricey treat. But a little go a long way, so a container of those is usually tucked away in the fridge, too.

Caponata? I’m there.

And the bread to go with it? I’ve been baking bread for so long, I don’t even think about it anymore. So please, those of you who are just learning (or want to)‚ ride along on my coattails. I’ve got a secret: yeast bread isn’t scary. If you use the right kind of yeast and flour, you’re 90% of the way there.

And reading this blog regularly will take you the rest of the way.

Buy vs. Bake – it’s not just about the money. It’s about creating, and sharing, and making the world around you a better (and tastier) place.

Let’s start by making caponata – at about 1/4 the price and 10 times the flavor of what you’d purchase. And then we’ll make the garlic grilling bread to go with it.

Seize the (summer) day: even vegetables that are available year-round seem fresher in the summer, don’t they? The base for our caponata is a medium eggplant (about 1 pound); a medium-large onion (12 to 13 ounces); a pound of fresh tomatoes; and 4 large garlic cloves (more or less, to taste).

Chop the eggplant into 3/4” cubes, sprinkle with salt, and place in a colander or strainer.

Cover with plastic wrap, weigh down (I usually use a half-gallon jug of olive oil, or something equally weighty), and let drain for 30 minutes. See the liquid it releases? Recipe books say this drains the eggplant’s “bitterness.” Though I’ve never found eggplants particularly bitter, I usually follow this step; I figure it can’t hurt.

Heat about 1/3 cup olive oil in a large skillet, and add the eggplant.

Cook, stirring frequently, till the eggplant browns.

Chop the tomatoes into 3/4” cubes, and the onions into 1/2” dice.

Add to the eggplant in the pan, stirring to combine.

Meanwhile, peel the garlic, which is easily accomplished by pressing down on each clove with the flat side of a knife; the peel will slip right off.

Mince the garlic, and add it to the mixture in the pan. Stir to distribute.

Cover the pan, and cook gently, over medium heat, for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The vegetables will give up their flavorful juice.

Remove the cover, and raise the heat so that the vegetables are bubbling quite vigorously. Cook for about 15 minutes, till the juice is just about all absorbed/evaporated. Remove from the heat, and stir in 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste), and 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper. Be aware that you’re going to be adding salty capers, and you’ve already salted the eggplant once; so you may not need to add any salt at all.

Can you leave out the black pepper? Of course. Can you leave out the sugar? It won’t taste as good, but of course.

When the caponata is lukewarm, stir in 3 tablespoons drained capers; 1/2 cup oil-cured pitted black olives; and 2 medium plum tomatoes, thinly sliced.

Stir to combine…

…and transfer to a bowl.

That’s it – you’ve made caponata. A delicious partner for bread. If you’re not going to use it within several hours, cover the bowl and refrigerate it.

Speaking of bread –

Let’s make some garlic grilling bread. I often start with dried minced garlic, since it’s less likely to affect yeast bread’s rise. (Did you know fresh garlic and ground cinnamon both slow down yeast? ’Tis true.) Here I’ve mixed 2 teaspoons of dried minced garlic with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. I’ll let this sit on the counter overnight. Using fresh garlic? You can skip this step. Also, you

I have an electric grill with a thermometer. Lucky me, huh?

Here’s one of the breads after about 45 minutes.

Pick up the bread, paper and all, and turn it onto the hot grill. Peel off the paper. If your grill has a cover, put it on.

Bake till the bottom is nicely browned. Don’t worry, the dough sets quickly, and won’t fall through the grill cracks.

Turn it over, and grill till the other side is brown. Adjust your grill’s temperature if it seems to be darkening too quickly. Or too slowly.

Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

If you’re using your oven, simply place the bread with its parchment onto a hot oven stone, or onto a baking sheet. Bake till it’s golden brown and puffy. Since I didn’t actually test this I don’t know the exact amount of time, but I’d guess about 15 to 20 minutes at 425°F.

Serve the bread warm, or at room temperature, with the caponata. Caponata is best served at room temperature, so if you’ve had it in the fridge, give it a chance to warm up.

KNOT for the faint of heart with garlic

I was sitting and staring at my computer screen yesterday, zoned out, and all of a sudden two words appeared in my head clear as day: garlic knots.

“Garlic knots!” I actually spoke the magic words aloud.

“Garlic knots? What’s that?” asked Halley.

Halley, our Web project manager, sits across from me. She keeps me on track when I start to wander towards the far boundaries of Baking World. I might be ruminating dreamily about what would happen if you rolled out dough and sprinkled it with diced onion and rolled it up and sliced it like a cinnamon bun… Wouldn’t that be an awesome hamburger roll?

All of a sudden, I’m snapped out of my reverie.

“PJ, where are you on that list of guaranteed recipes?” That’s Halley’s nice way of saying “Get a move on, girl!”

“Oh, uh, almost done. Really. They’ll be done tomorrow, I promise.” I fumble my answer like a butter-fingered fullback, and get back to work. Dream time will have to wait.

But garlic knots… well, for whatever reason, they got Halley’s attention.

Halley is a budding yeast bread baker. She’s worked her way through whole wheat bread, cinnamon bread, sticky buns, and is an expert at white dinner rolls. She asked if garlic knots used the same dough as dinner rolls. I said, yeah, almost…

“So maybe I could make them,” she ventured.

“You sure could. They’re easy, honest,” I reassured her. I explained that you usually find them at pizzerias, but they’re simple to make at home. And, like nearly all yeast breads, much, MUCH less expensive.

“Well, why don’t you do a blog on them, then?” That’s Halley: Woman of Action. And like so many of you, she likes the step-by-step photos.

Uh… yeah, why not?

So, several hours later, this blog post was born. I made the knots. They’re incredibly garlicky. I mean, over-the-top, DON’T-breathe-on-me garlicky. Halley took a bite.

“Wow. These are awesome. So… garlicky.”

And buttery. And soft. And just plain… awesome.

Why I thought of garlic knots yesterday, I have no clue. Perhaps they were an idea whose time had suddenly come. But without Halley, they would have remained just that: an idea. So, I guess that’s what project managers are for, huh? Making dreams come true… within budget, and right on schedule.

I usually grab my King Arthur Flour Unbleached (11.7% protein), but when I’m making soft rolls, I sometimes turn to Mellow Pastry Blend instead. At 10.3% protein, it’s drifting down towards the pastry flour/Italian flour level. These lower-protein flours are perfect for stuff that doesn’t have to rise quite as high as a loaf—e.g., pizza, breadsticks, rolls, etc. Mellow Pastry Blend makes a soft, rather than chewy bread.

This is what we call a straight dough: no overnight starter involved. Simply combine all of the ingredients…

…and mix till a rough dough forms. At this point, squeeze some in your fingers and see what it feels like. It should be cohesive, but not totally stick-to-the-bowl, gluey/sticky/wet.

Knead the dough till it’s smooth. I used my KitchenAid stand mixer; a bread machine will also do a fine job. If you love kneading by hand, go for it. Your goal is dough that looks like this.

Place it in your favorite dough-rising container…

…and let it rise till it’s doubled, or at least very puffy. This took a little over an hour for me, but then, there’s a lot of yeast floating around the test kitchen here. If you seldom bake yeast bread, your rising time may be longer.

While the dough is rising, prepare the garlic butter. First, separate some cloves. I love garlic, so I use a lot.

To peel the garlic easily, crush it with the flat side of a knife, the bottom of a measuring cup, or some other strong surface.

Voilà! Just grab the clove and pick it up; the skin will stay behind.

And there you have it: six peeled garlic cloves.

Next you need to chop the garlic. Easiest way: in a mini food processor, with the melted butter. Or with a garlic press or pair of scissors, if you don’t have a mini processor.

Ah, garlic butter!

Roll the dough into a 16” strip, about 8” wide.

Notch the long side of the dough in 1” intervals.

Use a knife, a bench knife, or a rolling pizza wheel to cut the dough into strips.

Like this. Isn’t this easier than dividing the dough into 16 balls, then having to roll them out?

A few gentle back-and-forths under your cupped fingers is all it takes to round off the strips and lengthen them a bit, to about 11”. Lower-protein flour doesn’t “fight back” like a higher-protein flour would.

Next, tie each strip of dough into a knot. Watch closely now, sports fans..

Take the end of the knot that’s lying on top (the end on the right in the previous picture), and tuck it underneath and into the center.

Then take the end that’s lying underneath, and bring it over the top, tucking it into the center and squeezing it to the other end.

You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to figure out this simple knot. I had to resort to asking Susan, my fellow blogger and real live CIA-trained chef, to come show me how to do it. Several times. And then I had to practice. The last few I did were actually pretty good; you can see them in the foreground here. The others are unsuccessfully trying to hide in the background. As I’ve said MANY times, I simply don’t have that Martha Stewart gene.

Cover the rolls, and let them rise till they’re very puffy, probably another hour or so.

Then bake for about 17 minutes in a 350°F oven. Just till they’re light golden brown, and feel set. You don’t want these to darken too much; they’re supposed to be soft.

Brush with the garlic butter (which you’ve reheated briefly in the microwave, if it’s solidified). Be sure to dredge the chopped garlic up from the bottom.

Sprinkle with a little pizza seasoning or Italian seasoning, and there you have it: 16 soft, garlic butter-drenched, luscious garlic knots. I gave half of these to Halley to bring home. She said they disappeared immediately. Hey, Halley—bet I know what YOU’RE baking this weekend!