What inspires you in the kitchen? I am influenced by a myriad of factors. Seasonal and local ingredients play a huge role in what I cook. My tagine has also become a source of inspiration. I have found guidance and inspiration from food blogs and cookbook authors like Paula Wolfert and Mourad Lahlou. Through their books, I have been introduced to the diversity of Moroccan cuisine. Paula suggests that you read through her new book, pick a few recipes you think you’ll enjoy, and give them a try. I followed her recommendation, and intend to share my efforts over the next month. I implore you to share your favorite recipes as well. I understand a little enticement motivates some to submit their favorite creations. Last year, to introduce the tagine Clay Coyote had a recipe contest.  We are gearing up for another contest this year. It will coincide with the reveal of our new addition to the Flameware family. This new piece will be the muse of our contest. It will also be awarded as first prize. Curious? Subscribe to our blog for upcoming contest details, the adventures of our globe trekking travel mug, and recipe ideas for your own pottery pieces. I’ll also throw out a few hints, starting with this “piece” of the new Flameware… Any guesses?

Paula explains in her new book that, “Moroccans put much store in what they call baraka, which means good fortune.” So I wish you baraka in all your future culinary ventures!

October 16th and 17th will mark the dates of the First Annual Couscous

Chef Farid Zadi

Festival in Pasadena, CA. http://couscousfestival.com/ If you’re anywhere near Pasadena, this will be an event not to miss.  Chef Farid Zadi and Susan Park are putting this festival together.  Besides Chef Farid’s demonstrations and workshops, Paula Wolfert will discuss and demonstrate making couscous in the traditional manner (steamed), Clifford Wright and Charles Perry will talk and demonstrate, and much more.

Clay Coyote Tagine at Chef Zadi's

We’ve been working with Chef Farid and Susan to make a signature Chef Farid Tagine which will be available only through their hanout (store).

If you’re on Facebook, Chef Zadi is posting truly interesting posts on his page.

We’ll have more soon about what’s coming in cooking.  Be prepared, you’re in for a “flavor explosion”!

The Clay Coyote Homemade Vinegar Crock

We’ve been making Vinegar Crocks for several years now, and with true summer but a couple of months off, NOW is the time to start your homemade vinegar.

Homemade vinegar has a flavor you won’t believe.  You use wine (red or white) or hard cider, a mother or starter which can be gotten from most beer or wine brewing shops or Mark Larrow at http://bit.ly/vinegar-mother.  It takes a different mother for each, but once you get one going it’s easy to keep it going even when you’re not brewing vinegar.

We send instructions with the crock and we’ve got them posted on the blog under Clay Pot Cooking. We also send the bit of cheesecloth you’ll need to cover the top.

It takes about 10 weeks for your first batch so now is the time to get started for summer cooking!

So what do you use it in? First, of course, are salad dressings, as you might expect.  But then there are marinades, deviled eggs, BBQ sauces, a bit in baked beans, any stew, soup and basting sauces for grilling.  A bit of vinegar, olive oil and some herbs on grilled veggies.  Grilling steaks marinate them in a 50-50 mix of teriyaki and worcestershire with some garlic, brown sugar and 2 TBSP of vinegar.

The vinegar isn’t necessarily a flavor in itself, but kicks up other flavors immensely.  Commercial stuff just won’t cut it anymore.  And you can steep herbs in the finished vinegar and make your own herb vinegars for use and gifts!

We’d sure love to have you post recipes in which you use vinegar on the “Submit Recipes” tab above.

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Originally published Nov. 8^th, 2006 New York Times

This one is really easy, and the bread is as close to artisan you can get without going to all the trouble. A sourdough version follows.

There are 3 books we recommend, Lahey’s“My Bread”,  Zoe Francois’ “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day” , and Nancy Baggett’s “Kneadlessly SImple”.

No-Knead Bread
Yields one 1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt (may take a hair more)
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.  We, of course, recommend the Clay Coyote No-Knead Bread Bowl (shown in the pictures here) for mixing and baking.   But, if you have to, any bowl will do.  Interesting, a tagine makes a perfect baker also.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. If your thermostat cuts back at night, place on stovetop, set obven to minimal temp (probably 150-170) and place a dish towel over the covered bowl.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.
Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.
Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal.
Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
(Note, in the photos, I used a bread board, covered with the bowl in which the initial raising took place, and put the bowl over the dough upside down. Saves messing up a towel. If the bowl is warm, it will speed the raising).
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put your Clay Coyote No-Knead Bread bowl (or other bowl if you have to) with lid in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, use hot pads to carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into the pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

SOURDOUGH OPTION
If you’ve got a starter, instead of yeast, put a 1/2 cup of starter in initial batter. Then follow the rest of the directions. Be sure to give it the full 18 hours or more. You’ll get a tangy sourdough loaf.

What About Lead in Pottery?
On a Barnes and Noble discussion today with Paula Wolfert about her new book “Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking“, Judith asked: Question: I understand that lead in ceramic pots is cause for concern, but why was/is lead used in the first place? I’ve seen some references that it occurs more in bright colors, but why?
My answer was:
Lead is one of the fluxes that help clays and glazes melt into a glass-like substance. Historically lead compounds were used when the potters had no other fluxes available. They’ve never been added to the clays, but used to be frequently used in glazes. Today, for pottery made in, or imported into, the US, it is almost never present. Today we use other minerals such as calcium, soda and phosphorus as components with other minerals.
By the way, the greatest problem is when these pots are used with acid foods, like citrus, tomatoes or foods with high vinegar content, and then over a period of time.
From a consumer standpoint, Paula covers this topic very well in Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking on page xvii-xviii.
Glazes are essentially ground rocks…ground silica, calcium carbonate (limestone), clay and other minerals. In simplest terms, there are 3 key components in any glaze, the glass former-usually silica, the stiffener – usually alumina from clay which gives the melted glass stiffness to keep it from running off the pot; and, a flux which causes the mixture to melt at a temperature to which we’re going to fire the pot. Fluxes today are usually minerals which contain sodium, calcium, potash, Lithium, talc or strontium.
These core components are combined with other minerals that affect the gloss, the opacity, the firing temperature and how the materials and colorants work together.
Coloration usually comes from the addition of various metal oxides such as iron, copper, cobalt and others. Traces of materials such as tin oxide will vary the colors as will the method of firing, thickness of the glaze application and clay body on which the glaze is applied.
Lead used to be used because it melted at low temperatures and would smooth low fire glazes out more quickly and had the effect of brightening the glaze colors. It was mostly used on low fire (1800 degF) clays in bright colored glazes.
In high-fired pottery, (2387 degF) lead has little or no effect so there is no real reason to use it. Indeed, it’s fluidity at high temperature could cause glaze defects and running off the pot.
Today, even in low-fired pottery lead is almost never used in glazes. It’s actually hard to find the materials.
If you have old pots which you’d like to use, but aren’t sure of, lead testing kits from the hardware store are quite accurate. Another way of testing glazes is to leave them overnight with a slice of lemon covering part of the color. If the glaze isn’t stable, you’ll see a lighter patch where the lemon was in the morning where it leached out the colorant. In general, the only foods that could cause this leaching are acidic…citrus juice, high vinegar foods, tomatoes, etc. And, unless these foods are in the pot for a long time, there is little leaching possible.
This discussion is necessarily limited in scope. If you want to dig much more deeply this paper by John Hesselberth and Ron Roy is a good start http://bit.ly/30cV64. They literally ‘wrote the book’ on glaze stability.
If you have any additionsl questions, please post them as a comment to this blog, or contact us at our email: claypot(at)hutchtel.net .